Childhood anxiety may up alcohol addiction later

London:

Children and teenagers who suffer from anxiety may be at an increased risk of developing alcohol use disorders in later life, a study has found. According to the research published in the journal Addiction, about 43%of associations were positive, meaning that anxiety was associated with a higher likelihood of later alcohol use disorders. However, 11% of associations were negative, with anxiety being associated with a lower likelihood of later alcohol use disorders.


Approximately 30% of associations were equivocal and 15% were unclassifiable based on the information reported. Researchers noted that it is important to establish which anxious individuals consume more alcohol and develop alcohol use disorders in order to develop targeted interventions. “The evidence from prospective cohort studies is suggestive but not conclusive of a positive association between anxiety during childhood and adolescence and subsequent alcohol use disorder,” said lead author Maddy Dyer, of the University of Bristol in the UK.

These bears mimic facial expressions to communicate

Sun bears, the smallest of the world’s eight bear species, are generally solitary animals, content to spend most of their time alone outside mating season, foraging for fruit, rodents, birds and insects in Southeast Asian tropical forests. But, scientists said on Thursday, they also possess an unexpected social skill that puts them in elite company alongside humans and some of our close evolutionary cousins: the ability to mimic another bear’s facial expressions in a subtle type of communication. Researchers studied 22 sun bears in spontaneous social play at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center in Malaysia in outdoor forest enclosures big enough to let the animals decide whether to interact or avoid each other all day. The bears exactly mimicked facial expressions they saw other bears produce during social play, copying with high precision not only the type of expression but also specific muscular movements such as raising their noses and wrinkling the bridge of their muzzles


Female birds live longer when they have help raising offspring: Female birds age more slowly and live longer when they have help raising their offspring, according to a research. Studying the relationship between aging and offspring rearing patterns in the Seychelles warbler, researchers at UK’s University of Sheffield found that females who had assistance from other female helpers benefitted from a longer, healthier lifespan. The findings help explain why social species, such as humans, which live in groups and cooperate to raise offspring, often have longer lifespans.

‘Baby Grady’ gives fertility hope to boys with cancer

Washington:

Scientists are closing in on a way to help young boys undergoing cancer treatment preserve their future fertility — and the proof is the first monkey born from the experimental technology. More and more people are surviving childhood cancer, but nearly 1 in 3 will be left infertile from the chemotherapy or radiation that helped save their life.


When young adults are diagnosed with cancer, they can freeze sperm, eggs or embryos ahead of treatment. But children diagnosed before puberty can’t do that because they’re not yet producing mature eggs or sperm.

“Fertility issues for kids with cancer were ignored” for years, said University of Pittsburgh reproductive scientist Kyle Orwig. “We hope our research will help these young patients.”

Orwig’s team reported a key advance on Thursday: First, they froze a bit of testicular tissue from a monkey that hadn’t yet reached puberty. Later, they used it to produce sperm that, through a monkey version of IVF, led to the birth of a healthy female monkey named Grady.

The technique worked well enough that human testing should begin in the next few years, Orwig said.

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a handful of other hospitals already freeze immature testicular tissue from young cancer patients, in hopes of knowing how to use it once they’re grown and ready to have their own children.

Boys are born with stem cells inside little tubes in the testes, cells that start producing sperm after puberty’s testosterone jolt. Orwig’s goal: Keep sperm-producing stem cells safe from cancer treatment by freezing small pieces of testicular tissue, and using them to restore fertility later in life. Orwig’s team froze tissue from young male monkeys, and then sterilised them. Once the monkeys approached puberty, the researchers thawed those tissue samples and gave them back to the original animal — implanting them just under the skin.

Boosted by hormones, the little pieces of tissue grew. Months later, the researchers removed them. Inside was sperm they could collect and freeze. Scientists injected some of that sperm into eggs from female monkeys and implanted the resulting embryos. Last April, Grady was born, and “she plays and behaves just like every other monkey that was grown the normal way,” Orwig said. 

Warming’s next casualty: Britain may run out of water by 2050

To the casual observer, Britain — an island nation that’s no stranger to rain — could not get much wetter.

But, as it turns out, that’s a fallacy. And if preventive steps are not taken, in less than three decades, Britain might run out of water, the chief executive of the Environment Agency, a public body responsible for conservation in England, said on Tuesday.


“On the present projections, many parts of our country will face water deficits by 2050, particularly in the southeast, where much of the UK population lives,” the agency chief, James Bevan, said at a conference on water use.

In about 20 to 25 years, demand could close in on supply in what Bevan called “the jaws of death — the point at which, unless we take action to change things, we will not have enough water to supply our needs.”

The reasons, he said, were climate change and population growth. And he called for a change of attitude toward water conservation to help tackle the problem. “We need water wastage to be as socially unacceptable as blowing smoke in the face of a baby,” Bevan said.

Climate change means that Britain “will have hotter and drier summers,” Bevan said. Last summer, the country was hit with weeks of unusual heat and unusually dry weather.

In future, the changed conditions could amount to a 10 to 15% decline in the available water, and rainfall will probably become less predictable, creating a higher risk of drought. At the same time, Britain’s population is expected to rise by 8 million in the next three decades, to 75 million in 2050, from about 67 million now.

To avoid severe water shortages, he added, demand would have to be reduced — by taking measures like cutting down on leakage, increasing metering, having sustainable drainage systems and cutting down personal use — and the supply would have to be expanded.

Michael Roberts, chief executive of Water UK, an organisation which represents British water companies, agreed that multiple steps needed to be taken. “A twintrack approach is the right way to go, reducing demand for water at the same time as increasing supply to deal with the challenges of growth on the one hand and climate change on the other,” he said.

Roberts said “water companies have committed to cut leakage by 50% by 2050” and underlined the need for the government, industry and regulators to work together. 

Why women are throwing heels away

Japanese Revolt Against Modern Version Of ‘Foot-Binding’ With #KuToo Movement
Tokyo:

Women in Japan have launched an online movement against workplace dress codes which have made wearing high heels mandatory for women.


While both men and women are supposed to wear suits when hunting for a job and to their workplace, heels are the de facto dress code for working women in Japan as flats are usually frowned upon, reports ‘Japan Today’.

The #KuToo on Twitter, which borrows its writing style from the #MeToo movement, has users calling for a change in formal dress codes for women in Japan.

The #MeToo movement started trending in October 2017 as a hashtag on social media to demonstrate the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace.

#KuToo is a combination of the Japanese words for shoe (kutsu) and pain (kutsuu).

Calling it the modern version of “foot-binding”, Twitter users have expressed rage at the socially ordained practise of wearing heels during work.

“I want them to get rid of pumps for job hunting. Pumps are the modern equivalent of foot-binding. It’s a mistake to force women to wear them. They say it’s proper manners to wear them? It’s a medical injury!” a Twitter user wrote.

Another woman tweeted in Japanese, saying: “Wearing uncomfortable and harmful shoes is not an obligation. Let’s break down misogyny together”.

Wearing heels, either while travelling to work or while at work, is a common cause of injury and cuts amongst women and can cause greater medical complications related to the spine, amongst other problems.

Doctors have warned that when heels are worn, the foot is in an unnatural position which may inhibit blood circulation to the feet.