Soft drinks tied to increased aggression in kids: Study

Heavy soft drink consumption is associated with aggression, attention problems and withdrawal behaviour in young children, a new study has found.

The study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, University of Vermont, and Harvard School of Public Health assessed approximately 3,000 5-year-old children.

The kids were enrolled in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a prospective birth cohort that follows mother-child pairs from 20 large US cities.

Mothers reported their child's soft drink consumption and completed the Child Behaviour Checklist based on their child's behaviour during the previous two months.

The researchers found that 43 per cent of the children consumed at least 1 serving of soft drinks per day, and 4 per cent consumed 4 or more.

Aggression, withdrawal, and attention problems were associated with soda consumption. Even after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, maternal depression, intimate partner violence, and paternal incarceration, any soft drink consumption was linked to increased aggressive behaviour.

Children who drank 4 or more soft drinks per day were more than twice as likely to destroy things belonging to others, get into fights, and physically attack people.

They also had increased attention problems and withdrawal behaviour compared with those who did not consume soft drinks.

"We found that the child's aggressive behaviour score increased with every increase in soft drinks servings per day," said Shakira Suglia, Mailman School assistant professor of Epidemiology.

Although this study cannot identify the exact nature of the association between soft drink consumption and problem behaviours, limiting or eliminating a child's soft drink consumption may reduce behavioural problems, researchers said.

The study was published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

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India launched First Indigenous Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant

India will launch its first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant on Monday, making an entry into a select club of countries capable of designing and building a carrier of this size and capability.

Defence Minister A K Antony's wife Elizabeth will launch the 37,500 tonne carrier at Kochi shipyard close to four-and-a-half years after its keel was laid by the minister.

Other countries capable of designing and building an equivalent size ship are the US, the UK, Russia and France.

The launch will mark the end of the first phase of its construction and it will then be re-docked for outfitting and construction of superstructure.

It is set to go for extensive trials till 2016 before being inducted into the Navy by 2018 end, as per its schedule.

Mig29K, Light Combat Aircraft and Kamov 31 could fly from the carrier.

The launch would be the "crowning glory" of Indian Navy's indigenisation programme, said Vice-Admiral R K Dhowan, the Vice-Chief of Naval Staff.

Apart from domestic design and manufacturing work, it is the high grade warship steel made by the Steel Authority of India which has been used for building the ship.

The indigenous component in the warship would be approximately anywhere between 80 and 90 per cent in floating department, up to 60 per cent in movement and not more than 30 per cent in fighting component of the carrier.

The ship, which will be a length of 260 m and breadth of 60 m, has been designed by Directorate of Naval Design and is being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited.

Its production work had commenced in November 2006. Controller Warship Production and Acquisition Vice Admiral K R Nair told reporters on board the massive vessel, "We have built 6000-7000 tonnage capacity ships so far. This is 37,500 tonnes."

"The gas turbine ship will be operating MIGs and other aircraft," he said.

On the challenges faced during construction of the ship, he said there were quite a few problems. Availability of steel, problems with acquisition of machines were some of them. Most of the equipment has gone on board while the weapons have to be inducted.

"Its tonnage and complexity is very important. It has got ski jump from where aircraft will take off. It will operate 25-30 aircraft -- including Mig 29K and light combat aircraft," he said.

Cochin Shipyard Chairman and Managing Director, Commodore K Subramaniam, said the second phase construction has already started. The aircraft carrier was the most 'challenging' work the shipyard, which had so far constructed only commercial vessels, had undertaken, he said. With the launch of the ship, the first phase would be completed.

The second phase will see the detailed laying of electrical cables, ventilation systems and setting up of about 2,300 compartments. This phase will take four years to be completed, Commodore Subramaniam said.

"Initially we were not planning to have ski jump. That was not part of the original first phase. But the Navy wanted it. So it was included," he said.

The Super structure's first tier has been fitted. Another four tiers would be ready by 2014, he said.

Shipping Minister G K Vasan will preside over the function in which Naval chief D K Joshi would also be participating.

Eight diesel generators and four gas turbines, have already been installed which can generate about 24 MW power capable of lighting up the entire Kochi city, Suresh Kumar, General Manager (Planning) Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) said.

There are two take-off points -- one long take-off runway and one short besides a landing point, he said.

Heavy monsoon rains had affected completion of the works.

Fresh coat of paint and colourful lights have been put up for the grand launching ceremony tomorrow.

The workers of the shipyard are also excited. Govindankutty and Ravindran, both from the quality control department, said this was a great moment for them as they had been working tirelessly since the past four years.

On board the ship, 850-1000 workers had been on the job daily since February-March this year to complete the works on schedule.

The contract for the construction of the aircraft carrier was signed with the navy in 2007 and the keel laid in February 2009.

"This bears great significance to Indian Navy. It makes India only the fifth country after the US, Russia, Britain and France to have such capabilities," Senior Captain Zhang Junshe, Vice-President of China's Naval Research Institute, told the state-run CCTV on Monday.

The Indian Navy will have lead over China as it will have two aircraft carriers by the end of this year with INS Vikramaditya, the refitted carrier from Russia joining INS Viraat, which is already in service even though Vikrant was expected to be operational by 2018, he said.

"Which means by the end of this year India will become the only country in Asia to have two aircraft carriers. This will enhance the overall capabilities especially the power projection capabilities of the Indian Navy," Zhang said.

Ruling out any race for more carriers in the region, Zhang defended India and China having more carriers since they have vast coasts and huge populations and the importance of defending the sea lanes far from home due to dependence on external trade.

In 2012, China had launched its first aircraft carrier, Lioning. Its hull was imported from Ukraine and refurbished in China.

China also subsequently launched J-15 aircraft to operate from its deck. The ship with over 50,000 tonnes displacement will have about 30 aircraft on its deck.

China is reportedly building two more aircraft carriers but their schedules are not known yet.

Zhang earlier told the state-run China Daily that with Vikrant, the Indian navy will be more capable of patrolling distant oceans.

"India's first self-made carrier, along with reinforced naval strength, will further disrupt the military balance in South Asia," he said.

India is very likely to quicken its pace to steer eastward to the Pacific, where the US and China are competing to dominate.

The launch of the Vikrant as well the first nuclear submarine Arihant also aroused the curiosity and concerns among analysts from different state-run think tanks in China.

"The new indigenous carrier will further strengthen India's naval power and also add some bargaining chips with the world's major military vendors such as Russia," Wang Daguang, a researcher of military equipment based in Beijing told the Daily.

Song Xiaojun, a military commentator in Beijing, said the Vikrant uses technology from the 1980s and thus serves as an experiment for the Indian Navy to set technical standards for future vessels.

sources : the indian express

Drinking hot chocolate keeps brain healthy: study

Drinking two cups of hot chocolate a day may help older people keep their brains healthy and their thinking skills sharp, according to a new study.

US researchers studied 60 people with an average age of 73 who did not have dementia. The participants drank two cups of hot cocoa per day for 30 days and did not consume any other chocolate during the study.

They were given tests of memory and thinking skills. They also had ultrasounds tests to measure the amount of blood flow to the brain during the tests.

"We're learning more about blood flow in the brain and its effect on thinking skills," said study author Farzaneh A Sorond, of Harvard Medical School in Boston and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

"As different areas of the brain need more energy to complete their tasks, they also need greater blood flow. This relationship, called neurovascular coupling, may play an important role in diseases such as Alzheimer's," Sorond said.

Of the 60 participants, 18 had impaired blood flow at the start of the study. Those people had an 8.3 per cent improvement in the blood flow to the working areas of the brain by the end of the study, while there was no improvement for those who started out with regular blood flow.

The people with impaired blood flow also improved their times on a test of working memory, with scores dropping from 167 seconds at the beginning of the study to 116 seconds at the end. There was no change in times for people with regular blood flow.

A total of 24 of the participants also had MRI scans of the brain to look for tiny areas of brain damage. The scans found that people with impaired blood flow were also more likely to have these areas of brain damage.

Half of the study participants received hot cocoa that was rich in the antioxidant flavanol, while the other half received flavanol-poor hot cocoa. There were no differences between the two groups in the results.

"More work is needed to prove a link between cocoa, blood flow problems and cognitive decline. But this is an important first step that could guide future studies," said Paul B Rosenberg, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

The study was published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

sources : the indian express

New malaria vaccine shows promise in clinical trials

A new malaria vaccine, which is being developed in the US, has shown promising results in early stage clinical trials, scientists say. Researchers found that high doses of the vaccine protected 12 out of 15 patients from the disease. The vaccine involves injecting live but weakened malaria-causing parasites directly into patients to trigger immunity.

"We were excited and thrilled by the result, but it is important that we repeat it, extend it and do it in larger numbers," said lead author Dr Robert Seder, from the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, in Maryland. Previous research has found that exposure to mosquitoes treated with radiation can protect against malaria. But studies have shown that it takes more than 1,000 bites from the insects over time to build up a high level of immunity.

A US biotech company called Sanaria took lab-grown mosquitoes, irradiated them and then extracted the malaria-causing parasite (Plasmodium falciparum), all under the sterile conditions. These living but weakened parasites are then counted and placed in vials, where they can then be injected directly into a patient's bloodstream. This vaccine candidate is called PfSPZ.

To carry out the Phase-1 clinical trial, the researchers looked at a group of 57 volunteers, none of whom had had malaria before. Of these, 40 received different doses of the vaccine, while 17 did not. They were then all exposed to the malaria-carrying mosquitoes, 'BBC News' reported. The researchers found that for the participants not given any vaccine, and those given low doses, almost all became infected with malaria.

However, for the small group given the highest dosage, only three of the 15 patients became infected after exposure to malaria. "Based on the history, we knew dose was important because you needed 1,000 mosquito bites to get protection – this validates that," Seder said. "It allows us in future studies to increase the dose and alter the schedule of the vaccine to further optimise it. The next critical questions will be whether the vaccine is durable over a long period of time and can the vaccine protect against other strains of malaria," he said. The results were published in the journal Science.

 

First malaria vaccine works in major trial

An experimental vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline halved the risk of African children getting malaria in a major clinical trial, making it likely to become the world's first shot against the disease.

Final-stage trial data released Tuesday showed it gave protection against clinical and severe malaria in 5- to 17-month-olds in Africa. "These data bring us to the cusp of having the world's first malaria vaccine," said Andrew Witty, chief executive of the British drugmaker that developed the vaccine along with the non-profit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI).

While hailing an unprecedented achievement, Witty, malaria scientists and global health experts stressed that the vaccine — known as RTS,S or Mosquirix — was no quick fix for eradicating malaria. The new shot is less effective than others against common infections like polio and measles.

"We would have wished that we could wipe it out, but I think this is going to contribute to the control of malaria rather than wiping it out," Tsiri Agbenyega, a principal investigator in the RTS,S trials in Ghana, told Reuters at a conference in Seattle about the disease.

Malaria is endemic in more than 100 countries worldwide and killed around 781,000 people in 2009, according to the World Health Organisation. Most deaths in India are of children under the age of five.

Dr Sanjay Singh, CEO of Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, which has been involved with MVI and hopes to launch an Indian malaria vaccine next year, described the news as "very encouraging", and a sign that a malaria vaccine was possible. — Reuters with ENS, Pune, Kate Kelland & Ben Hirschler

 

Malaria Vaccine Shows Strongest Protection Yet Against Parasite

Healthy adults immunized with an experimental malaria vaccine may be completely protected from infection, according to government researchers.

The vaccine, called PfSPZ, is being developed by an American biotech company Sanaria and contains weakened forms of the live parasite — Plasmodium falciparum — responsible for causing malaria.

The vaccine is made from sporozoites, or early-stage parasites extracted from infected mosquitoes, which are the most common carriers of P. falciparum. The sporozoites were incapacitated so they can’t develop into disease-causing maturity, and infused intravenously into vaccinees. Among 40 healthy volunteers, those who received the higher doses of the vaccine showed more antibodies against the malaria parasite’s proteins than those getting lower doses. When the immunized participants where tested with exposure to P. falciparum, none of the six who received six doses of the vaccine developed malaria, while five of the six who were not vaccinated became infected.

That’s encouraging news, say the scientists, led by Dr. Robert Seder of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, who were supported by the  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Naval Medical Research Center.

The trial was only the first phase of clinical testing for the vaccine, but, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID in a statement, it is an “important step forward” in controlling malaria, which infects about 219 million people worldwide annually and leads to 600,000 deaths. While drug treatments can protect against infection, they are most effective when used in combination with bed nets and insect repellent.

(MORE: Early Results: A First-Ever Malaria Vaccine Protects Children)

“It allows us in future studies to increase the dose and alter the schedule of the vaccine to further optimise it. The next critical questions will be whether the vaccine is durable over a long period of time and can the vaccine protect against other strains of malaria,” Seder told the BBC.

The results, which were published in the journal Science, are especially encouraging after initially promising findings from another malaria vaccine developed by Glaxo Smith Kline proved less robust than thought. In 2012, a trial involving infants in seven African counties, where malaria is endemic, showed that the vaccine, called RTS,S, was 30% effective in protecting babies aged five to 17 months from infection. At the time, public health officials debated whether that was sufficient to start vaccinating kids in countries where the disease is more rampant. TIME wrote:

At its current power, the candidate vaccine “potentially translates to tens of millions of malaria cases among children that can be averted annually,” Dr. Tsiri Agbenyega, head of the malaria research unit at the Komfo-Anokye Hospital in Ghana and chair of the RTS,S Clinical Trials Partnership Committee, told reporters during Tuesday’s briefing. “The study found that RTS,S also reduced risk of severe malaria by 47%. That’s remarkable when you consider that there has never been a successful vaccine against a human parasite, nor against malaria.”

(MORE: Drug-Resistant Malaria Is Spreading, and It Could Be a Public Health Disaster)

But an updated report in the New England Journal of Medicine this past March found that the protection from the vaccine didn’t last. Beginning eight months after vaccination, the shot’s effectiveness started to wane, and four years later, its efficacy dropped to about 17%. “It was a bit surprising to see the efficacy waned so significantly over time. In the fourth year, the vaccine did not show any protection,” follow-up study leader Ally Olotu of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya, told Reuters in March. Researchers continue to test RTS,S in final-stage trials with over 15,000 kids, and the results are expected by the end of next year, according to Reuters.

That vaccine, however, used snippets of the malaria parasite’s proteins that were fused with proteins from the hepatitis B virus in order to activate the immune system into producing antibodies against P. falciparum. Researchers hope that the weakened, live form of the the parasite contained in PfSPZ produces more lasting responses, but more research will need to be done to see if that’s the case. It’s also not clear how practical the IV delivery of this vaccine will be, since countries where malaria is common often have weak health systems and fewer medical resources.

Still, the findings hold promise that it may be possible to protect against malaria with a vaccine, and avoid hundreds of thousands of deaths.
sources : the indian express