Family meals check obesity
Increasing rates of adolescent obesity and the likelihood that it obesity will carry forward into adulthood, have led to various preventive initiatives. It has been suggested that family meals, which tend to include fruits, vegetables, calcium, and whole grains, could be protective against obesity. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers studied whether frequent family meals during adolescence were protective for overweight and obesity in adulthood. 51 per cent of the subjects were overweight and 22 per cent were obese. Among adolescents who reported that they never ate family meals together, 60 per cent were overweight and 29 per cent were obese at the 10-year follow-up.
Fish colon related to evolution
Skates have primitive colons. This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. The discovery could change scientific understanding of evolution, of how animals emerged from water to live on land. Nicole Theodosiou uses these skates, cartilaginous fish related to sharks and rays, to learn how we came to have colons. “I’m particularly interested in how land animals stay hydrated, even though we don't have a hard shell that prevents us drying up like raisins in the sun,” she said. The colon is an important organ that helps us retain and absorb water, but how exactly did we come to have this organIJ The skate has begun to provide an answer. As a marine creature that hasn't changed in 450 million years, the skate is a living fossil that provides a snapshot of what animals were like a very long time ago. It's also a fish that's isotonic with its environment, meaning concentrations of things like salt inside its body are in exact balance with concentrations outside its body (in the ocean it lives in).
How to kill resistant pathogensIJ
A study has questioned the accepted wisdom that aggressive treatment with high-drug dosages over long duration is the best way to stem the emergence and spread of resistant pathogens. The logic behind aggressive treatment is to kill off as many microbes as you can. The new study reveals the lack of evidence behind the practice of the treatment in many cases. Bacteria and parasites can evade powerful drugs by undergoing genetic mutations, which enable them to avoid being killed by the drug. “We found that while there are many studies that test for resistance emergence between different drug regimes, surprisingly few have looked at the topic of how varying drug dosage might affect the emergence and spread of resistance,” said Ruthie Birger, Princeton University, working with C Jessica Metcalf, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton.
New method to detect water on Mars
A Washington State University undergraduate has helped develop a new method for detecting water on Mars. Kellie Wall, 21, of Port Orchard, Washington, looked for evidence that water influenced crystal formation in basalt, the dark volcanic rock that covers most of eastern Washington and Oregon. She then compared this with volcanic rock observations made by the rover Curiosity on Mars' Gale Crater. “This is really cool because it could potentially be useful for not only the study of rocks on Earth but on Mars and other planets,” said Wall. Water is a key indicator for the potential of microbial life on the red planet. “I think this quantification of volcanic textures is a new facet of the water story that hasn't yet been explored,” Wall continued, “But being able to determine the environment through the texture of a volcanic rock is something pretty cool and different. I think it is going to be an interesting avenue for future research.”
Prevention is better than cure
Pragati Path Foundation’s chairperson Nishi Bhardwaj and lioness Club’s president lalita Rykian organised multiple health check up programmes. ROKO Cancer trust also supported the cause. The initiative is aimed at early detection of breast cancer, cervical oral cancer, eye check up, cornea operation etc. Free distribution of tri cycle for handicap beds medicine spectacles water tank et al were made. This camp was held at Indostar school Jal Vihar lajpat Nagar 1.