Kandersteg is a high-altitude resort village in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. Trails, like the challenging Allmenalp, and a cable car head east to Lake Oeschinen. Set at the foot of the Blüemlisalp massif, the lake is also a popular ski area, as is Sunnbüel to the southwest. In the forested Blausee Nature Park to the north, Blausee is a small, trout-filled lake fed by subterranean springs.
Interlaken is a traditional resort town in the mountainous Bernese Oberland region of central Switzerland. Built on a narrow stretch of valley, between the emerald-colored waters of Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, it has old timber houses and parkland on either side of the Aare River. Its surrounding mountains, with dense forests, alpine meadows and glaciers, has numerous hiking and skiing trails.
The City of Brussels is the largest municipality and historical centre of the Brussels-Capital Region, and the capital of Belgium. Besides the strict centre, it also covers the immediate northern outskirts where it borders municipalities in Flanders.
New York Times columnist David Brooks and E.J. Dionne from The Washington Post join Judy Woodruff to discuss the bipartisan infrastructure deal, new information about the delta variant’s threat, and the Capitol Police testimony during the Jan. 6 hearings.
Becoming an Olympic swimmer is an aspiration for thousands of young athletes in the U.S. But it comes at a heavy cost. Club dues alone can set swimmers back thousands of dollars each year. Here’s a breakdown of what it can cost to become an Olympic swimmer.
Cara Manes, Associate Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture, discovers a haven from the chaos of the everyday amid the “silence” and imperfection of Vasudeo S. Gaitonde’s “Painting, 4.”
Vasudeo S. Gaitonde was regarded as one of India’s foremost abstract painters. He received the Padma Shri Award in 1971.
Depression is one of the most common and most debilitating mental health disorders, affecting some 17 million adults in the US. It also continues to be a misunderstood, often hard-to-treat illness. Researchers have worked for decades to better understand the neurobiology underpinning depression.
For patients with severe, treatment-resistant depression, spending months or even years searching for good treatments can be totally disabling. The prevailing hypothesis for years was that depression was regulated by the neurotransmitter’s serotonin and norepinephrine.
Eventually, data began to suggest that maybe something much larger and more global was involved in the brain to account for depression, which led researchers to begin working with glutamate and GABA, the most abundant neurotransmitters in the brain. These chemicals are involved in neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to adapt to change and protect itself against stressful events.
Neuroplasticity is a physical thing, too: it manifests itself “in terms of synapses, how these neurons are actually touching each other and communicating with each other,” explains Gerard Sanacora, PhD, MD, Director of the Yale Depression Research Program. “And we know that in depression, the number and strength of these interconnections decreases,” says Rachel Katz, MD, a professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Yale.
Ketamine – originally developed and still used as an anesthetic – works on those two neurotransmitters and was discovered to have rapid antidepressant effects. Some experience an improvement in symptoms in 24 hours or less. “We think that one of the things that Ketamine does, that helps to explain its antidepressant effects, is help the brain to regrow the synapses, the connections between nerve cells,” says John Krystal, MD, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale.
Pilsen is a city in the western Czech Republic. It’s known for the Pilsner Urquell Brewery, specializing in bottom-fermented beer since 1842, with brewing cellars and a bottling plant. Ringed by parks, the old center has the 19th-century Great Synagogue, which also hosts concerts. The Cathedral of St. Bartholomew, completed in the 16th century, has Renaissance paintings and a tall spire with a viewing gallery.
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