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Thursday, 23 May 2013

Study: Women 40 Percent More Likely To Develop Mental Illness Than Men -

There is a gender gap for mental illness, with females being up to 40 percent more likely to develop some type of mental health condition than their male counterparts.

A new study to be published by Oxford University Press finds that women are nearly 75 percent more likely than men to have suffered from depression, and approximately 60 percent more likely to report an anxiety disorder.

The U.K. study was led by Dr. Daniel Freeman, who said his latest research set to appear in the book, “The Stressed Sex: Uncovering the Truth about Men, Women and Mental Health,” sets out to answer a simple but crucial question: are rates of psychological disorder different between men and women?

“This important issue has been largely ignored in all the debates raging about gender differences,” Dr. Freeman stated on his website.

Dr. Freeman said that because the conditions most affecting women were more common than those affecting men, overall mental health conditions were more common in women than in men, by a factor of 20 percent to 40 percent.

However, the study also found that men are more likely to report substance abuse disorders – around two and a half times more frequently than women. Conditions such as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and schizophrenia did not have statistically significant differences between adult males and females.

“There is a pattern within – women tend to suffer more from what we call ‘internal’ problems like depression or sleep problems,” Dr. Freeman told The Guardian. “They take out problems on themselves, as it were, where men have externalising problems, where they take things out on their environment, such as alcohol and anger problems.”

In the U.S., it appears that mental health diagnoses have spread across the gender gap, even for children. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that up to one in five American youngsters — about 7 million to 12 million, by one estimate — experience a mental health disorder each year.

Read more -

http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2013/05/23/study-women-40-percent-more-likely-to-develop-mental-illness-than-men/

Arctic bacteria discovered breeding at record –15 C - offer clues about possible life on Mars -

Bacteria that can live and multiply in High Arctic permafrost at temperatures well below the freezing point of water have been discovered by a Canadian-led team of researchers, offering clues about the types of organisms that might exist in similar extreme environments elsewhere in our solar system.

The OR1 strain of the microbe Planococcus halocryophilus is capable of reproducing at –15 C — a record among all known living organisms — and may possibly be able to multiply at temperatures even colder than that, says a study published Wednesday in the ISME Journal. The bacteria remain active at temperatures as low as –25 C.

"You look at permafrost, you think of this frozen dead world, but it's not," said Lyle Whyte, a McGill University microbiologist who co-led the study with post-doctoral researcher Nadia Mykytczuk.

Coming up: Nadia Mykytczuk talks to Quirks & Quarks Saturday, May 25 at noon on CBC Radio One
"The study that we show here indicates there are organisms that are … capable of surviving and reproducing in the conditions in which it came from, the permafrost."

The bacteria were among 200 or 300 strains collected in 2004 from a permafrost core drilled by NASA on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, as part of a project to develop robotic drilling techniques for use on Mars. The permafrost has been frozen for 5,000 to 6,000 years and the environment has an average temperature of about –16 C.

NASA collaboration
Whyte's team was asked to help NASA ensure the samples were not contaminated. Once the drilling was done, NASA had no further use for them and handed them over to Whyte, whose research group specializes in hunting for bacteria that can survive in extremely cold environments.

"For me, this stuff was gold," Whyte told CBCNews.ca in an interview, noting that drilling permafrost is very difficult to do.

Researchers in his lab spent years screening the many microbes in the samples and learning how to grow them at very cold temperatures — a challenge because the researchers have to keep the liquid environment they live in from freezing.

Once they succeeded, they found that the bacteria doubled in population about every 40 days at –15 C in a medium that contained 18 per cent salt, partly to keep it liquid. For comparison, seawater contains about 3.5 per cent salt.

Whyte, who holds a Canada Research Chair in environmental microbiology, estimates that the microbes would probably reproduce 100 to 1,000 times more slowly in their natural environment.

In the permafrost itself, the bacteria live in little veins of brine, he added. These tiny channels of extremely salty water form when water freezes and in the process expels impurities such as salt.

Whyte's team analyzed the genes of the bacteria and discovered that many of their enzymes and other proteins are highly adapted to working at cold temperatures. In addition, they are genetically programmed to produce high concentrations of osmolytes — small molecules that help retain water inside the cell so it can survive in very salty environments without getting the water sucked out of it via osmosis. The osmolytes also act as an antifreeze.

Similar environments on Mars, Europa
The team is interested in studying bacteria like these in order to understand how microbes live at subzero temperatures, Whyte said, and to use that knowledge to hunt for microbial life on places like Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa or Saturn's moon Enceladus.

"On Mars, we know there are permafrost environments, and we're pretty sure now that there are very cold salty environments as well," Whyte said, "which make them ideal targets for looking for similar types of life."

Europa and Enceladus are also thought to have cold salty water below their icy surfaces.

Whyte and his team are currently hunting for bacteria like P. halocryophilus that can survive in very cold environments, but unlike P. halocryophilus, don't need to breathe oxygen or eat organic carbon.

Closer to home, scientists are interested in learning more about how bacteria in permafrost might affect the release of greenhouse gases as the Arctic climate warms and the permafrost melts, Whyte said. The bacteria are also a potential source of biotechnology, such as cold-active enzymes that could have applications in products such as laundry detergents.

The study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada CREATE Canadian Astrobiology Training Program, the Canadian Space Agency, the Polar Continental Shelf Program, Canada Research Chairs Program, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Read more -

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/05/22/science-permafrost-bacteria-white.html

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

FEMA uses 'Waffle House index' to take stock of Oklahoma tornado disaster -

When the main US federal emergency agency arrives at the scene of a disaster-hit area, one of the first places it turns to is the local Waffle House – and not just for its officials to grab a quick bite.

Craig Fugate, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, came up with the idea of the "Waffle House index" as an informal way of measuring the impact of a disaster. The chain, which has a large number of branches in tornado-prone areas, has a robust emergency management plan.

The index has three levels. If the local Waffle House is up and running, serving a full menu, a disaster is classed as green. If it is running with an emergency generator and serving only a limited menu, it is a yellow. If it is closed, badly damaged or totally destroyed, as during hurricane Katrina, it is a red.

There is only one Waffle House in Moore, the suburb worst hit by the tornadoes. The restaurant, located at 316 SW 19th Street and which normally offers a southern-tinged menu that includes grits, hash browns, and sausage and egg biscuits as well as hamburgers, was closed on Tuesday.

But the Moore tornado was classed as a yellow on the Waffle House index because managers were hoping to get it up and running soon. "It is a yellow because we are hoping to get a generator," said Kelly Thrasher, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based restaurant chain. "Once we have the generator, we will be able to serve a limited menu, maybe a full one."

She said the branch had survived the storm intact. "There is no damage to the building. Power is out and there is no gas or water but we do not have any physical damage. We are trying to get it open so we can serve first responders and the community," she said.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday issued a disaster declaration for Oklahoma and promised to provide the state with all the federal support it needs. Fugate has been despatched to the state.

Fema was heavily criticised for its slowness to respond to Katrina in 2005, a disaster that damaged the reputation of George W Bush as much as the 2003 Iraq invasion. But it received praise for the help it provided last year after hurricane Sandy. It has been the target of criticism by conservatives across the US as an example of an unnecessary federal agency, with calls for its abolition, though such carping is often dropped when the critics' home states are victims of catastrophe.

Read more -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/21/fema-waffle-house-index-oklahoma?guni=Network%20front:network-front%20main-5%20Eds%20picks%202:Network%20front%20-%20all-purpose%20editable%20trailblock:Position2

NASA to fund world’s first 3D food printer -

NASA has announced it is to fund construction of the world’s first ever 3D food printer.
The American space company has given a $125,000 grant to mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor, who has already designed the machine. And the space agency hopes it will eventually be able to provide food for astronauts on long-distance journeys through space.

Some commentators also say the design is just as exciting for Earth-dwellers, as the machines could eventually become a standard kitchen appliance. Families would then be able to simply print off their dinner, rather than spend time preparing it.
The food printer is fed on cartridges of powders and oils containing all the nutrients needed for a healthy diet — which work in much the same way as a standard printer’s ink cartridges.
The ingredients are sprayed on layer-by-layer by the 3D printer, eventually creating solid three-dimensional food.
It is also thought the printers might help cut food waste globally, as the cartridges wouldn’t go out of date for over 30 years and could only be refilled when they had completely run out.
“I think, and many economists think, that current food systems can’t supply 12 billion people sufficiently," Contractor told Quartz magazine. “So we eventually have to change our perception of what we see as food.”
Once it is up and running, Contractor will test the machine by trying to print a pizza, which was an obvious choice due to its flat shape.
The dough will be printed first, then the tomato base, then the "protein-layer" topping.

Read more: -

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/22/nasa-to-fund-worlds-first-3d-food-printer/?intcmp=features

Monday, 20 May 2013

Russia Developing ‘Terrorist-Killer Robots’ -

Russia Developing ‘Terrorist-Killer Robots’ -

Robots at the Robofest-2013 youth festival in Moscow

Russian experts are developing robots designed to minimize casualties in terrorist attacks and neutralize terrorists, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday.
Robots could also help evacuate injured servicemen and civilians from the scene of a terrorist attack, said Rogozin, who oversees the defense industry.
Other antiterror equipment Russia is developing includes systems that can see terrorists through obstacles and effectively engage them in a standoff mode at a long distance without injuring their hostages, he said.
Rogozin did not say when the equipment might be deployed by Russia’s security and intelligence services.
Human Rights Watch has criticized fully autonomous weapons, known as "killer robots," which would be able to select and engage targets without human intervention and called for the preemptive prohibition on such weapons.
“Fully autonomous weapons do not exist yet, but they are being developed by several countries and precursors to fully autonomous weapons have already been deployed by high-tech militaries,” HRW said in a statement on its website. “Some experts predict that fully autonomous weapons could be operational in 20 to 30 years.”
“These weapons would be incapable of meeting international humanitarian law standards, including the rules of distinction, proportionality, and military necessity. The weapons would not be constrained by the capacity for compassion, which can provide a key check on the killing of civilians,” the human rights watchdog said. “Fully autonomous weapons also raise serious questions of accountability because it is unclear who should be held responsible for any unlawful actions they commit.”

Read more -

http://www.en.rian.ru/military_news/20130517/181208708.html

Robots deployed as home aides for elderly dwindle... -

In the opening scene of the movie “Robot & Frank,” which takes place in the near future, Frank, an elderly man who lives alone, is arguing with his son about going to a medical center for Alzheimer’s treatment when the son interrupts him. “I brought you something,” he says to Frank. Then the son pulls a large, white humanoid robot from the trunk of his car.

Frank watches in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me,” he says as a robot helper, called the VGC-60L, stands in front of him. “I’m not this pathetic!”

But as Frank soon learns, he doesn’t have much of a choice. His new robot helper is there to cook, clean, garden and keep him company. His son, mired in family and work life, is too busy to care for his ailing father.

Just like Frank, as the baby boomer generation grows old and if the number of elderly care workers fails to grow with it, many people might end up being cared for by robots. According to the Health and Human Services Department, there will be 72.1 million Americans over the age of 65 by 2030, which is nearly double the number today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country will need 70 percent more home aide jobs by 2020, long before that bubble of retirees. But filling those jobs is proving to be difficult because the salaries are low. In many states, in-home aides make an average of $20,820 annually.

“There are two trends that are going in opposite directions. One is the increasing number of elderly people, and the other is the decline in the number of people to take care of them,” said Jim Osborn, a roboticist and executive director of the Robotics Institute’s Quality of Life Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. “Part of the view we’ve already espoused is that robots will start to fill in those gaps.”

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed Cody, a robotic nurse the university says is “gentle enough to bathe elderly patients.” There is also HERB, which is short for Home Exploring Robot Butler. Made by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, it is designed to fetch household objects like cups and can even clean a kitchen. Hector, a robot that is being developed by the University of Reading in England, can remind patients to take their medicine, keep track of their eyeglasses and assist in the event of a fall.

The technology is nearly there. But some researchers worry that we are not asking a fundamental question: Should we entrust the care of people in their 70s and older to artificial assistants rather than doing it ourselves?

Sherry Turkle, a professor of science, technology and society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of the book “Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other,” did a series of studies with Paro, a therapeutic robot that looks like a baby harp seal and is meant to have a calming effect on patients with dementia, Alzheimer’s and in health care facilities. The professor said she was troubled when she saw a 76-year-old woman share stories about her life with the robot.

“I felt like this isn’t amazing; this is sad. We have been reduced to spectators of a conversation that has no meaning,” she said. “Giving old people robots to talk to is a dystopian view that is being classified as utopian.” Professor Turkle said robots did not have a capacity to listen or understand something personal, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical.

That’s the catch. Leaving the questions of ethics aside for a moment, building robots is not simply about creating smart machines; it is about making something that is not human still appear, somehow, trustworthy.

A recent Georgia Tech study found that older people were intrigued by the idea of robotic assistants in the home, but a robot’s appearance played a large role in what they will trust the machines to do. Older people want robots that look human for tasks that involve intelligence, like recommending which medicine they need to take. But they want a more sterile-looking machine for manual labor tasks, like cleaning and cooking, so they do not feel guilty bossing it about.

Wendy A. Rogers, a professor at Georgia Tech and director of the university’s Human Factors and Aging Laboratory, said concerns about older people developing relationships with their in-home helper robots were no different than the bond we develop with other inanimate objects.

Dr. Rogers has been experimenting with a large robot called the PR2, made by Willow Garage, a robotics company in Palo Alto, Calif., which can fetch and administer medicine, a seemingly simple act that demands a great deal of trust between man and machine.

“We are social beings, and we do develop social types of relationships with lots of things,” she said. “Think about the GPS in your car, you talk to it and it talks to you.” Dr. Rogers noted that people developed connections with their Roomba, the vacuum robot, by giving the machines names and buying costumes for them. “This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just what we do,” she said.

In fact, Mr. Osborn’s laboratory at Carnegie Mellon has designed a robot to work with therapists and people with autism. The machine can develop a personality and blinks and giggles as people interact with it. “Those we tested it with love it and hugged it,” he said. “You begin to think of it as something that is more than a machine with a computer.”

In the movie “Robot & Frank,” technologists have raced ahead of society’s collective conscience with their robot caregivers. But the movie still leaves its audience with a question: Will it one day be morally acceptable to unload your parents’ care to a machine?

As the actor Frank Langella, who plays Frank in the movie, told NPR last year: “Every one of us is going to go through aging and all sorts of processes, many people suffering from dementia,” he said. “And if you put a machine in there to help, the notion of making it about love and buddy-ness and warmth is kind of scary in a way, because that’s what you should be doing with other human beings.”

Read more -

Mercedes S-Class wows with 3D cameras and night vision -

There was a time when luxury cars were defined by their sheer size and mass, their power, performance and, of course, exclusive details like leather seats and wood trim.

Those factors distinguish the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class, but there’s more to the redefined German flagship that fit the changing nature of the auto industry. From its LED lamps to the 3D cameras, radar and night vision systems that allow the new sedan to virtually drive itself, the new S-Class is a technical tour de force that will likely have competitors racing to catch up.

The long-awaited remake of the classic full-size luxury sedan was staged at an Airbus factory in Hamburg, Germany – no surprise because parent Mercedes-Benz also holds a stake in the French airline manufacturer. But the venue was clearly chosen to underscore the technical sophistication of the new S-Class.

Mercedes officials noted that it will be the first automobile to dispense with conventional light bulbs, opting instead for more advanced LED technology for everything from the head to taillights, and all those small indicators, reading lamps and mood lights in-between. All told, there are 300 LEDs in the interior alone, 56 in each headlamp and another 25 in each taillight. Oh, and you can choose from seven different colors for the interior lighting, with five dimmer levels and four distinct lighting zones.

The mammoth, 104-page press release covering all the details of the new car is overwhelming. The section on sensors runs longer than most new car announcements.

There’s the latest version of the Mercedes Distronic technology, using both cameras and radar to monitor the vehicle’s surroundings. It allows the new S-Class to keep pace with traffic, come to a complete stop in a tie-up and then start rolling again. It triggers the brakes if a collision seems likely and even turns on the flashers when one does occur.

Read more -

Measles surges in UK years after vaccine scare -

More than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of a vaccine scare that raised the specter of autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease.
This year, the U.K. has had more than 1,200 cases of measles, after a record number of nearly 2,000 cases last year. The country once recorded only several dozen cases every year. It now ranks second in Europe, behind only Romania.
Last month, emergency vaccination clinics were held every weekend in Wales, the epicenter of the outbreak. Immunization drives have also started elsewhere in the country, with officials aiming to reach 1 million children aged 10 to 16.
"This is the legacy of the Wakefield scare," said Dr. David Elliman, spokesman for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, referring to a paper published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues.
That work suggested a link between autism and the combined childhood vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, called the MMR. Several large scientific studies failed to find any connection, the theory was rejected by at least a dozen major U.K. medical groups and the paper was eventually retracted by the journal that published it.
Still, MMR immunization rates plummeted across the U.K. as fearful parents abandoned the vaccine — from rates over 90 percent to 54 percent.
Nearly 15 years later, the rumors about MMR are still having an impact. Now there's "this group of older children who have never been immunized who are a large pool of infections," Elliman said.
The majority of those getting sick in the U.K. — including a significant number of older children and teens — had never been vaccinated. Almost 20 of the more than 100 seriously ill children have been hospitalized and 15 have suffered complications including pneumonia and meningitis. One adult with measles has died, though it's unclear if it was the disease that killed him.
The first measles vaccines were introduced in the 1960s, which dramatically cut cases of the rash-causing illness. Since 2001, measles deaths have dropped by about 70 percent worldwide; Cambodia recently marked more than a year without a single case.
Globally, though, measles is still one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 and kills more than 150,000 people every year, mostly in developing countries. Measles is highly contagious and is spread by coughing, sneezing and close personal contact with infected people; symptoms include a fever, cough, and a rash on the face.
Across the U.K., about 90 percent of children under 5 are vaccinated against measles and have received the necessary two doses of the vaccine. But among children now aged 10 to 16, the vaccination rate is slightly below 50 percent in some regions.
To stop measles outbreaks, more than 95 percent of children need to be fully immunized. In some parts of the U.K., the rate is still below 80 percent.
Unlike in the United States, where most states require children to be vaccinated against measles before starting school, no such regulations exist in Britain. Parents are advised to have their children immunized, but Britain's Department of Health said it had no plans to consider introducing mandatory vaccination.
Last year, there were 55 reported cases of measles in the United States, where the measles vaccination rate is above 90 percent. So far this year, there have been 22 cases, including three that were traced to Britain. In previous years, the U.K. has sometimes exported more cases of measles to the U.S. than some countries in Africa.
Portia Ncube, a health worker at an East London clinic, said the struggle to convince parents to get the MMR shot is being helped by the measles epidemic in Wales.
"They see what's happening in Wales, so some of them are now sensible enough to come in and get their children vaccinated," she said.
Clinic patient Ellen Christensen, mother of an infant son, acknowledged she had previously had some "irrational qualms" about the MMR vaccine.
"But after reading more about it, I know now that immunization is not only good for your own child, it's good for everyone," she said.

Read more -

http://news.yahoo.com/measles-surges-uk-years-vaccine-scare-100011003.html

NYC lawmakers furious over 'Ghetto Tour' by Bronx bus company -

Tourists are crowding onto a Bronx bus tour that promises “a ride through a real New York City ‘GHETTO’ ” — and local politicians are furious.
Three times a week, Real Bronx Tours takes riders — mainly white Europeans and Australians — on a trip that includes stops at food-pantry lines and a “pickpocket” park.
Last week, on the first stop of the $45 tour, guide Lynn Battaglia, from Pittsburgh, pointed out a housing project. She then mocked the Grand Concourse, modeled after a Parisian boulevard.
“Do you feel like we’re on the Champs-Elysées?” she teased a couple from Paris.
As the bus idled across from historic St. Ann’s Episcopalian Church, Battaglia launched into a description of the crime, poverty and violence that plagued the South Bronx during the 1970s recession.
As she spoke, a line of two dozen poor people — including one man visibly agitated by the onlookers — waited for handouts from the church pantry.

Read more: -

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/ghetto_gawking_ffMgfDAaCD76GXNYDrth7L

Sunday, 19 May 2013

Bright explosion on moon visible from Earth, NASA says -

A meteoroid struck the surface of the moon recently, causing an explosion that was visible on Earth without the aid of a telescope, NASA reported Friday. But don't be alarmed if you didn't see it; it only lasted about a second.
"It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before," said Bill Cooke, of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.
NASA astronomers have been monitoring the moon for the past eight years, looking for explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the lunar surface. It's part of a program to find new fields of space debris that could hit Earth. NASA says it sees hundreds of detectable lunar meteoroid impacts a year.
Meteor lights up East Coast and social media
None however can match the size of the explosion they say they saw March 17. NASA says the meteoroid was about 40 kilograms and less than a meter wide, and it hit the moon's surface at 56,000 mph. It glowed like a 4th magnitude star, NASA says, thanks to an explosion equivalent to 5 tons of TNT.
"It jumped right out at me, it was so bright," said Ron Suggs of the Marshall Space Flight Center.
Cooke says Earth was pelted by meteoroids at about the same time, but they hit the moon because it has no atmosphere to protect it.
Opinion: Meteor shows why it's crucial to keep an eye on the sky
"We'll be keeping an eye out for signs of a repeat performance next year when the Earth-moon system passes through the same region of space," Cooke said.
If you're wondering how there can be an explosion on the moon, without oxygen, NASA has the answer for you. It says the flash of light comes not from any type of combustion -- as we typically think of explosions -- but rather by the glowing molten rock at the impact site.