Why your three-day vacation glow fades within days

Why yur three-day vacation glow fades within daysWhy your three-day vacation glow fades within daysIf youre pinning all your relaxation goals onto the upcoming Labor Day weekend, recognize that one three-day vacation is not going to cut it. A new survey, conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of the American Psychological Association, found that for most of us, our vacation high is fleeting and will fade within a few days of returning to our office jobs.That vacation glow is temporaryGoing to the beach and hanging out with our families and friends puts us in a much better mood to handle long days at work. On vacation, participants said they relaxed (80%), slept well (73%), engaged in interesting non-work activities (71%), and avoided thinking about work (65%). Upon return, they said they were in a better mood (68%) and felt more motivated and less stressed (57%). But this high faded after reality set in. For nearly two-thirds of working adults, the wellbeing and job performance boost s they got from time off dissipated within a few days, the survey found.There are a few remedies to extend your vacation high. You can revisit your vacation memories and remember to bring that relaxed vacation mindset with you into your work day. Or you can buy yourself time to catch up on the work awaiting you, so that you are not bombarded with demands upon your return. But if your stress levels spike upon your return, the problem is not necessarily the vacation you went on, but the work you are doing. Ultimately, vacations cannot rectify stressful work environments, the American Psychological Association suggests.Employers shouldnt rely on the occasional vacation to offset a stressful work environment, the APAs David W. Ballard said in a statement. Unless they address the organizational factors causing stress and promote ongoing stress management efforts, the benefits of time off can be fleeting.

Study says too much sleep is bad for health

Study says too much sleep is bad for healthStudy says too much sleep is bad for healthIf you are stressed, sick or tired so often the advice is to just get more sleep. Sleep cures all. And it does do wonders for both your physical and mental health. A recent study found that sleeping in on weekends can actually add years to your life. But is it possible that too much sleep can also be bad for you? According to a new study, the answer is yes.Thestudy, which welches published in theJournal of the American Heart Association, used data from more than 3 million subjects of past studies and found that sleeping more than 7-8 hours was linked to a higher risk of death. Subjects who slept 9 hours per night had a 14% higher risk of death and if they slept 10 hours the percent went all the way up to 30Well+ Good also cited a studyfrom theMayo Clinic that sleeping too much or too little can increase the risk of developingmetabolic syndrome.Poor sleep quality can lead to heart diseaseThe research ers also found that poor-quality sleep was associated with a 44% higher risk ofcoronary heart disease. Our study, said lead author Dr. Chun Shing Kwok, a clinical lecturer incardiologyat Keele University, has an important public health impact in that it shows that excessive sleep is a marker of elevated cardiovascular risk.According to a recent report from Gallup, the average American gets about 6.8 hours of sleep each evening so pretty impressive that some people are getting 7 plus hours however there is clearly a sweet spot when it comes to how much to sleep.

Researchers 3D Print on Skin for Breakthrough Applications

Researchers 3D Print on Skin for Breakthrough Applications Researchers 3D Print on Skin for Breakthrough Applications Researchers 3D Print on Skin for Breakthrough ApplicationsSoldiers are commonly thrust into situations where the danger is the unknown Where is the enemy, how many are there, what weaponry is being used? The military already uses a mix of technology to help answer those questions quickly, and another may be on its way. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a low-cost 3D printer that prints sensors and electronics directly on skin. The development could allow soldiers to directly print temporary, disposable sensors on their hands to detect such things as chemical or biological agents in the field.The technology also could be used in medicine. The Minnesota researchers successfully used bioink with the device to print cells directly on the wounds of a mouse. Researchers believe it could eventually provide new methods of faster and more efficient trea tment, or direct printing of grafts for skin wounds or conditions. Researchers conduct a sensor test. Image McAlpine Research GroupThe concept was to go beyond smart materials, to integrate them directly on to skin, says Michael McAlpine, professor of mechanical engineering whose research group focuses on 3D printing functional materials and devices. It is a biological merger with electronics. We wanted to push the limits of what a 3D printer can do.McAlpine calls it a very simple idea, One of those ideas so simple, it turns out no one has done it.Others have used 3D printers to print electronics and biological cells. But printing on skin presented a few challenges. No matter how hard a rolle tries to remain still, there always will be some movement during the printing process. If you put a hand under the printer, it is going to move, he says.To adjust for that, the printer the Minnesota kollektiv developed uses a machine vision algorithm written by Ph.D. student Zhij ie Zhu to track the motion of the hand in real time while printing. Temporary markers are placed on the skin, which then is scanned. The printer tracks the hand using the markers and adjusts in real time to any movement. That allows the printed electronics to maintain a circuit shape. The printed device can be peeled off the skin when it is no longer needed.The team also needed to develop a special ink that could not only be conductive but print and cure at room temperature. Standard 3D printing inks cure at high temperatures of 212 F and would burn skin.In a paper recently published in Advanced Materals, the team identified three criteria for conductive inks The viscosity of the ink should be tunable while maintaining self-supporting structures the ink solvent should evaporate quickly so the device becomes functional on the same timescale as the printing process and the printed electrodes should become highly conductive under ambient conditions.The solution was an ink using silver flakes to provide conductivity rather than particles more commonly used in other applications. Fibers were found to be too large, and cure at high temperatures. The flakes are aligned by their shear forces during printing, and the addition of ethanol to the mix increases speed of evaporation, allowing the ink to cure quickly at room temperature.Printing electronics directly on skin would have been a breakthrough in itself, but when you add all of these other components, this is big, McAlpine says.For you 3D Printing Better Root Canals The advantage of our approach is that you dont have to start with electronic wafers made in a clean room. This is a completely new paradigm for printing electronics using 3D printing.Prof. Michael McAlpine, University of MinnesotaThe printer is portable, lightweight and cost less than $400. It consists of a delta robot, monitor cameras for long-distance observation of printing states and tracking cameras mounted for precise localization of the surface. The team added a syringe-type nozzle to squeeze and deliver the inkFurthering the printers versatility, McAlpines team worked with staff from the universitys medical school and hospital to print skin cells directly on a skin wound of a mouse. The mouse was anesthetized, but still moved slightly during the procedure, he says. The initial success makes the team optimistic that it could open up a new method of treating skin diseases.Think about what the applications could be, McAlpine says. A soldier in the field could take the printer out of a pack and print a solar panel. On the cellular side, you could bring a printer to the site of an accident and print cells directly on wounds, speeding the treatment. Eventually, you may be able to print biomedical devices within the body.In its paper, the team suggests that devices can be autonomously fabricated without the need for microfabrication facilities in freeform geometries that are actively adaptive to target surfaces in real time, dri ven by advances in multifunctional 3D printing technologies.Besides the ability to print directly on skin, McAlpine says the work may offer advantages over other skin electronic devices. For example, soft, thin, stretchable patches that stick to the skin have been fitted with off-the-shelf chip-based electronics for monitoring a patients health. They stick to skin like a temporary tattoo and send updates wirelessly to a computer.The advantage of our approach is that you dont have to start with electronic wafers made in a clean room, McAlpine says. This is a completely new paradigm for printing electronics using 3D printing.Read more3D Painting Structures in Space3D Printing Technologies Rise to New LevelsNew 3D Printer Extruder Takes Manufacturing to the Next Level For Further Discussion