Environment and Health Group, Inc.

Environment & Health Group Inc. is a start-up company founded in 2000 with the express purpose of hastening the translation of the results of projects funded by the National Institutes of Health to commercial applications. Our core strength lays in the development of gero-technology - using the latest technology to translate scientific knowledge into innovative e-health tools for elderly populations and their health care providers. Through collaborations with public and private groups, we develop information services and e-technology products to provide education and training for health care professionals, and to meet the psychosocial needs of older adults and their families. Our current work is focused on geriatric behavioral health, minority health, and global aging.

Health through a better environment

Proper environmental management is the key to avoiding the quarter of all preventable illnesses which are directly caused by environmental factors. The environment influences our health in many ways — through exposures to physical, chemical and biological risk factors, and through related changes in our behaviour in response to those factors.
Thirteen million deaths annually are due to preventable environmental causes. Preventing environmental risk could save as many as four million lives a year, in children alone, mostly in developing countries.

Meditation... Towards a Stress Free Life

An ordinary person may consider meditation as a worship or prayer. But it is not so. Meditation means awareness. Whatever you do with awareness is meditation. "Watching your breath" is meditation; listening to the birds is meditation. As long as these activities are free from any other distraction to the mind, it is effective meditation.
Meditation is not a technique but a way of life. Meditation means 'a cessation of the thought process' . It describes a state of consciousness, when the mind is free of scattered thoughts and various patterns . The observer (one who is doing meditation) realizes that all the activity of the mind is reduced to one.
A Tibetan Lama was being monitored on a brain scan machine by a scientist wishing to test physiological functions during deep meditation. The scientist said - "Very good Sir. The machine shows that you are able to go very deep in brain relaxation, and that validates your meditation". "No", said the Lama, "This (pointing to his brain) validates the machine!".
These days it is commonly understood to mean some form of spiritual practice where one sits down with eyes closed and empties the mind to attain inner peace, relaxation or even an experience of God. Some people use the term as "my gardening is my meditation" or for jogging or art or music, hence creating confusion or misunderstanding.
The word meditation, is derived from two Latin words : meditari(to think, to dwell upon, to exercise the mind) and mederi (to heal). Its Sanskrit derivation 'medha' means wisdom.
Many years ago meditation was considered something just not meant for modern people, but now it has become very popular with all types of people. Published scientific and medical evidence has proved its benefits, but it still needs to be much understood.
Traditionally, the classical yoga texts, describe that to attain true states of meditation one must go through several stages. After the necessary preparation of personal and social code, physical position, breath control, and relaxation come the more advanced stages of concentration, contemplation, and then ultimately absorption. But that does not mean that one must perfect any one stage before moving onto the next. The Integral yoga approach is simultaneous application of a little of all stages together.
Commonly today, people can mean any one of these stages when they refer to the term meditation. Some schools only teach concentration techniques, some relaxation, and others teach free form contemplative activities like just sitting and awaiting absorption. Some call it meditation without giving credence to yoga for fear of being branded 'eastern'. But yoga is not something eastern or western as it is universal in its approach and application.
With regular practice of a balanced series of techniques, the energy of the body and mind can be liberated and the quality of consciousness can be expanded. This is not a subjective claim but is now being investigated by the scientists and being shown by an empirical fact

Yoga and Health

Yoga and Health are closely related. Yoga is a popular aid in improving both physical and mental health. This is basically the most common goal of people who practice Yoga - for health reasons. They want to ease their back pain, find a method to ease stress, or learn ways to deal with their health problems. This section takes a closer look on how your body functions and how Yoga practice can benefit your body.

Benefits of Yoga - Why Yoga Exercise is Good for YouFor years, Yoga is considered therapeutic. Researches were conducted to look at the effects of this practice in the body. Know the various health benefits brought about by practicing Yoga.

What Yoga can Do to Your HealthSome believe that Yoga is a science of health. When Yoga is practiced correctly, it helps reduce the negative effects of stress on the mind and body and can help the body cope with aging.

Yoga for MenThis section covers a basic Yoga routine designed for men. The exercises can go with weight training and can also help in obtaining a healthier body.

Yoga for WomenWomen should always be healthy so they can handle everything that they need to do. Know the different Yoga Exercises that can help women in coping with stress and hormonal changes.

Yoga for KidsKids today have to deal with outside pressures like after-school activities, peer pressure, and academic workloads. But with the help of Yoga, you don't have to worry anymore.

Yoga for the ElderlyGrowing old is also the time when you are more susceptible to some ailments. For senior citizens, stay fit and healthy by doing some Yoga Exercises.

Yoga & PilatesYoga and Pilates are becoming more and more popular nowadays. Both practices are considered as mind-body exercises. Learn more about Yoga & Pilates in this section.

Yoga for the Musculoskeletal SystemYoga practice and proper diet can help improve the flexibility and strength of our Musculoskeletal System. Learn what Yoga can do to your muscles.

Yoga for the Respiratory SystemYoga provides a holistic approach in coping with respiratory ailments by improving one's physical, mental, and spiritual health. Learn Yoga exercises that can help you deal with respiratory problems.

Yoga for the Circulatory SystemA healthy circulatory system is important to a person's health. Practice Yoga to help reduce risks of some circulatory ailments that can be triggered by physical, emotional, and mental stress.

Yoga for the Endocrine SystemPracticing Yoga, having a proper diet, and following a complete Yogic Lifestyle can take good care of the endocrine system, tone abdominal organs, and reduce stress.

Yoga for the Nervous SystemYoga can help in coping with several ailments or health problems. In this section, know the different Yoga Exercises that can help you in dealing with migraine and tension-type headache.

Yoga for Mental HealthYoga helps you achieve deeper knowledge of yourself which leads to self-acceptance. Do not let anxiety and depression get you. Know how to deal with them through Yoga practice.

Yoga for the Digestive SystemYoga practice can also be beneficial to your digestive system. In this section, know what Asanas can do to your digestive system and learn how to deal with heartburn and IBS through Yoga.

Weight Loss with YogaAre you among those people who tried all kinds of diet and exercise but still failed to lose weight? If your answer is yes, maybe you should try Yoga! In this section, learn how to lose weight with Yoga.

Treatment of Illnesses with YogaYoga has been shown to help relieve diseases such as chronic back pain, diabetes, stress, and fatigue. In this section, know how Yoga practice helps in treating certain illnesses.

Yoga TherapyYoga Therapy was borne out of the combination of Yoga and Western Medical Science. Learn about its benefits and what you should expect in a Yoga Therapy session by reading this article.

Yoga FacialsYoga Facials relieve tension, improve circulation, relax facial muscles, and improve the overall condition of your skin in the long run.

Yoga & SportsYoga Exercises can help athletes in preventing injuries and improving their strength and flexibility. In this section, learn more about the benefits of Yoga to people who are into sports.

Learning Disabilities & YogaYoga can be a very helpful tool for people who have learning disabilities. By simply doing some Yoga Poses, they can feel calm and centered.

Yoga and Soccer: Teaming Up For A Better PerformanceTake a closer look at the benefits of practicing yoga and soccer, read on and discover more about these activities.

Thai Yoga MassageDelve deeper into the healing art of Thai yoga massage. Discover more about the practice through this article.

Yoga and SwimmingThe secret behind being a good swimmer lies not only on your gift, dedication, physical strength. It has an integral part that serves as its core, which coordinates everything, from your strength, flexibility and respiration.

Wii Yoga - A New Way To Be FitGet ready to bring out the health buff in you with the release of Nintendo’s Wii Yoga. Know more about Wii yoga through this article.

Yoga and ADHDLearn more about ADHD and the benefits Yoga can do to improve one's health.

Yoga and AnxietyAnxiety is a common health problem that affects about 40 million Americans each year. Learn more about yoga and anxiety through this article. Yoga practice is beneficial - whether physically, mentally, or emotionally. Just keep in mind that there are guidelines in doing Yoga Exercises. Make sure that you do not push yourself in doing poses which are beyond your limits. Moreover, Yoga is not the sole treatment to many health problems. If you are practicing Yoga for health reasons, it is still wise to consult your physician.

Global Warming 101: Solutions

Global warming may or may not be a problem. Man may or may not be driving it. Given the uncertainties, a significant amount of global regret may apply if we divert too much of our global wealth to solving what may be a non-existent or trivial problem, especially if that diversion mires billions in poverty. On the other hand, we may also regret not doing anything if man-made global warming does turn out to be a problem. It is therefore prudent to examine what steps we can take that would prove beneficial whether or not anthropogenic global warming turns out to be a problem. These steps can be termed “no regrets” policies.
What makes a No Regrets Global Warming Policy? A global warming policy can be termed “no regrets” as long as it:
Reduces the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, or
Mitigates, prevents or reduces a harm associated with global warming, or
Provides greater capacity for dealing with problems associated with global warming
Without imposing significant cost or diverting economic activity.
Top Five “No Regrets” Policies
1.) Eliminate all subsidies to fuel use.Subsidies to energy R&D cost taxpayers millions of dollars while producing minimal benefits. While these programs may be relatively small given the size of domestic energy markets, they serve little, if any, useful purpose while subsidizing large corporations at taxpayer expense. The potential threat of global warming, whether it is real or not, is simply one more reason to eliminate these subsidy programs. An international agreement aimed at ending energy subsidy with binding targets would be a significant victory for emissions reduction. Unlike Kyoto, which forces an energy starvation diet on its participants, such a treaty would be a move to combat energy obesity.
2.) Repeal the Federal Flood Insurance Program.Much of the concern over global warming’s potential for harm in the US relates to sea level rise and the flooding that will result. However, much of the investment in potentially vulnerable areas is a result of the Federal flood Insurance Program. This program encourages building in vulnerable areas by acting as a moral hazard: people take greater risks because the government has said it will help bear that risk. Reform would reduce the moral hazard connected with building on vulnerable land, transferring the risk from the taxpayer to the private sector, which is likely to take a more realistic view of the issue.
3.) Reform Air Traffic Control Systems.Greater demand for air travel means more flights, which means greater fuel use and increased emissions. Yet, the current government-operated system of air traffic control, based on a 1920s-era system of beacons, may hinder innovations that could reduce fuel use and emissions. As a general rule, the shorter the flight, the less fuel will be consumed. Yet neither airlines nor pilots have the freedom to choose the most direct and economical route. Giving pilots freedom to map their own course is an attractive and desirable change in the eyes of the industry, and the impact on the environment would be tremendous. As well as saving considerable amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, the policy will deliver significant benefits in terms of time and expense to the US economy. By obviating significant reductions in service levels associated with more routine applications of emissions reduction policy, it is to be preferred to that approach.
4.) Facilitate Electricity Competition.By rejecting the model of central regulation and allowing suppliers to meet their customers’ needs more exactly while relying on distributed generation, energy waste and the associated emissions will reduce considerably. This reduction in waste will prove economically beneficial even if emissions themselves do not cause problems.
5.) Reduce Regulatory Barriers to New Nuclear Build.There is no other technology than nuclear that is proven to be capable of providing emissions-free energy at the scale required to make significant reductions in carbon emissions. The problem is that thanks to anti-nuclear activism by environmentalists in the 1970s, it takes a very long time to build a nuclear plant. This pushes development and construction costs up to the level where it is not economically competitive with higher-emitting forms of electricity generation like coal and natural gas. According to the nuclear energy institute, it takes 10 years from concept to operation to build a nuclear plant, and only four of those are construction, the rest is permit application development (2 years) and decision-making by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (4 years).

Green movement puts memory on hot seat

Internet data centre power requirements are increasing as much as 20 per cent a year; already, according to estimates of experts, these facilities in total consume as much electricity as some countries, including Iran, Mexico, Sweden and Turkey. The industry hopes to reverse the trend by revisiting the design of cooling systems, power supplies and server architectures.
In servers, the notoriously voracious microprocessor is passing the power-hog mantle to the DRAM, which offers fast data access but requires a heat-generating refresh every few milliseconds. Thus the greening of the data centre includes a focus on lower-voltage DRAMs, nonvolatile alternatives and the emerging category of storage-class memories.
Whether the green-memory movement thrives or dies on the vine, the DRAM status quo could be uprooted.


The DRAM's power appetite is not its only problem. As the recession wears on, OEMs are keeping a nervous eye on struggling memory suppliers. "It's not pleasant to see our partners suffer so badly," said Tom Lattin, director of strategic commodities for industry-standard servers at Hewlett-Packard Co.
DRAM scaling, meanwhile, could hit a wall as it becomes increasingly difficult to shrink the capacitor within the device. That could fuel the need for such alternatives as ferroelectric, magnetoresistive, phase-change and resistive RAM.
Don't look for the DRAM to disappear, said Bob Merritt, an analyst with research firm Convergent Semiconductors who believes DRAMs will scale to 20 nanometers. "There will be DRAM applications for the next 10 years," Merritt said, but "you will also see applications" that will turn to nonvolatile alternatives (which don't require refresh to maintain the data) for server main memory.
Bill Tschudi, program manager at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said the drive to make data centres more power efficient will include better IT practices, new power distribution schemes, higher processor utilisation rates and "advancements on the memory side."
"Memory power is a significant portion of platform power," noted Dileep Bhandarkar, distinguished engineer with Microsoft Corp.'s Global Foundation Services unit. "As processor performance increases and virtualisation takes off, the memory footprint will increase. There is a need for lower-voltage DRAMs."
DRAM makers have responded with lower-voltage DDR3 synchronous DRAMs, which have found a home in servers from such vendors as HP, IBM, SGI and Sun.



Meanwhile, solid-state drives (SSDs) and I/O accelerators could shake up the memory and storage hierarchy. And server start-ups Schooner Information Technology Inc. and Virident Systems Inc. have released data centre servers that promise to cut hardware costs as well as power consumption. The potential of the technology has prompted IBM to form an alliance with Schooner.
In theory, green servers could replace traditional X86- or RISC-based systems, possibly displacing DRAM in the process. Schooner and Virident use lower-power, nonvolatile, "storage class" memory to handle the search index and other tasks usually relegated to DRAM.
Market watcher Frost & Sullivan estimates that a typical server farm of 5,000 systems with 32 GB of DRAM each could be reduced to 1,250 systems with 128 GB each of nonvolatile memory, resulting in a 75 per cent reduction in energy over four years, a 75 per cent reduction in the cost of physical space and a 45 per cent reduction in capital expenditures.
Troubling trendsSuch reductions would be welcome news for U.S. data centres, which spend Rs.14,696.08 crore ($3 billion) per year on electricity alone, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA sees U.S. data centre power consumption rising from 6100 crore kilowatt-hours today to 10000 crore kWh in 2011. Meanwhile, Frost & Sullivan projects that the total installed base of data centre servers will rise from 22 lakh units in 2007 to 68 lakh units next year.
The typical server consumed about 50 watts before 2000 but draws some 250 W today, according to "Energy Efficiency for Information Technology," a new book published by Intel Corp. And SGI, formerly Rackable Systems Inc., estimates that for every 100 W to power a server, a further 60 to 70 W are needed to cool it.



Processor power consumption ranges from 45 to 200 W, according to Intel. In a server with eight 1-GB dual in-line memory modules, the DIMMs can contribute 80 W to the power budget, according to Intel. In large servers with up to 64 DIMMs, the result could be "more power consumption by memory than processors," Intel notes.
Intel incorporates "automatic memory throttling" on its processors to reduce heat. DRAM vendors are also reducing heat generation in their latest 50-nm-class parts, exemplified by those from Hynix, Micron Technology and Samsung.
Meanwhile, server vendors have been migrating from DDR2 SDRAMs to 1.5-volt and, more recently, 1.35-V DDR3 SDRAMs. DDR3 doubles performance and provides a 60 per cent improvement in power consumption (for the 1.35-V version) over DDR2, said Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing for Samsung Semiconductor Inc.

By next year, DDR3 modules could migrate from conventional to load-reduced DIMMs, which could boost memory capacity fourfold. And by 2011, vendors could unveil DDR4 SDRAMs, reportedly a 1.2-V technology



But those developments won't take all the pressure off DRAMs. Data centre servers' use of virtualisation, which enables multiple operating systems to run on the same computer, reduces hardware costs but slices up the system workload; not all processors run the same tasks at the same time. Server utilisation ranges from 10 to 30 per cent in a data centre, according to the Uptime Institute.
The use of virtualisation, along with complex multi-core processors, heightens the need for more-efficient memory, said Michael Sporer, director of marketing for enterprise memory at Micron Technology Inc.
"Today, the bottleneck is in the disc and the disc sub-system," Sporer said. "The next bottleneck may be in memory performance, rather than capacity."
Server start-ups Schooner and Virident are pushing similar concepts to address the looming performance squeeze.
Virident's GreenCloudIn April, Virident rolled out its GreenCloud line of X86-based data centre servers, said to deliver up to 70 times the performance of traditional systems. The line uses storage-class memory, which bridges the performance gap between DRAM and mass storage. Virident said the architecture boosts processor utilisation and eliminates I/O overhead by providing random word-level access to large data sets.
Virident's systems still use DRAM for some functions, but storage-class memory is more efficient for search-index and related applications, said president and CEO Raj Parekh. Virident's initial systems use Spansion Inc.'s EcoRAM NOR devices, but the start-up also expects to use NAND and phase-change memory from Numonyx Inc.
Over time, Virident's systems will variously support a single memory technology or a mixture of device types, depending on the application. NAND reads small data chunks at high rates, for example, while NOR is ideal for random read searches and phase-change memory offers high write speeds, Parekh said.

Hewlett-Packard, meanwhile, is putting a new twist on a conventional approach with its new ProLiant G6 servers. Based on Intel's Xeon 5500 processors, the G6 deploys thermal sensors and a technology that caps the power drawn by the server.
The servers also use DDR3 memory, which Jimmy Daley, marketing manager for industry-standard servers at HP, called a "major step forward" over DDR2.
HP stopped short of endorsing storage-class memory, but it offers an optional I/O accelerator from Fusion-io Inc. The sub-system, based on a redundant NAND architecture, does not replace the hard drive but sits between the memory and storage system to alleviate system I/O bottlenecks, said David Flynn, chief technology officer for Fusion-io. The accelerator is said to provide more than 10 lakh I/O operations per second in the HP servers.
SGI is keeping an eye on Spansion's EcoRAM and the Fusion-io accelerator, said Geoff Noer, vice president of product management at the server maker. EcoRAM could address "some opportunities," Noer said, but "I don't see it as a mainstream solution."
SGI's new CloudRack C2 is a cabinet design that can pack a number of dense, rack-mount servers in the same unit. C2 supports up to 1,280 processor cores per cabinet. To handle heat, the X86-based offering uses redundant fan arrays and dc power supplies.
The C2 supports DDR3 SDRAMs, and Noer said he is also bullish on solid-state storage. Between 2008 and 2013, according to iSuppli Corp., the use of SSDs could allow data centres to reduce power consumption by a combined 166,643 MWh—slightly more than the total megawatt-hours of electricity generated in the nation of Gambia in 2006.
That's good news. But even as the server supply chain finds ways to rein in power, more data centres will be built, turning up the heat.
That has industry jokesters quipping that perhaps Google should look to erect its next data centre on a rig off the coast of Iceland. Or why not the moon?

Pranab hopes to green economy, NGO unimpressed

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee cut customs duty on a key wind turbine component and on bio-diesel while presenting his 2009-10 budget proposals, hoping the move would please environmentalists.But an international NGO said he had done nothing to change the direction o India towards a greener economy

Mukherjee said he would finance the eight national missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change unveiled by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year, but did not specify a number. The missions are still being finalised, and minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh had said last week they would be ready by the end of 2009. The finance minister reduced customs duty on bio-diesel from 7.5% to 2.5%. He also said: "It is imperative that the contribution of new and renewable energy sources of power is enhanced if we have to successfully combat the phenomena of global warming and climate change. I am reducing the basic customs duty on permanent magnets - a critical component for Wind Operated Electricity Generators - from 7.5% to 5%." Responding to this, Raman Mehta of Climate Action Network South Asia - a coalition of green NGOs - said: "This budget could have taken the opportunity to attract green investments, but has not done that. There is no change in the trajectory of economic planning." Mukherjee pointed out that the government had recently set up the National Ganga River Basin Authority and said the "budgetary allocation under national river and lake conservation plans are being increased from Rs.335 crore ($67 million) in 2008-09 to Rs.562 crore ($112 million) in 2009-10". Mehta said the National Ganga River Basin Authority was the much-reviled 1985 Ganga Action Plan by another name, "which had been planned very badly, so there is nothing great about this". The finance minister also gave a special one-time grant of Rs.100 crore to the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dehradun, and Rs.15 crore each to Botanical Survey of India and Zoological Survey of India. An additional amount of Rs.15 crore was allocated for Geological Survey of India. Extending tax benefits to green NGOs, Mukherjee said: "Under the present provisions of section 2 (15) of the Income Tax Act, 'charitable purpose' includes relief of the poor, education, medical relief, and the 'advancement of any other object of general public utility'... "I propose to provide the same tax treatment to trusts engaged in preserving and improving our environment (including watersheds, forests and wildlife) and preserving our monuments or places or objects of artistic or historic interest, as is available to trusts engaged in providing relief of the poor, education and medical relief.