Japan new-borns
visit relatives as cuddly rice bags
TOKYO,
Jan 8: New-born babies in Japan who can't
make it round to visit all their relatives can
now send them proxies instead - cuddly bags of
rice.
A small rice shop
in Fukuoka, southern Japan, has been swamped with
orders for ''Dakigokochi'' rice-filled bags
shaped like a bundled baby and printed with the
new-born's face and name.
Each rice bag is
tailor-made to weigh as much as the new-born and
shaped so the rice fills the bag up. Holding the
round-edged bag would feel like holding a real
baby.
''Other rice shops
sell bags printed with baby photos, but they use
regular bags. People say they aren't good for
holding,'' said Naruo Ono, owner of the rice
shop, Yoshimiya.
''Rice for small
babies would be stuck at the bottom of the bag,
and the baby's photo would be scrunched at the
top.''
It is customary in
Japan to give people gifts or money on occasions
such as births, and the recipient then responds
with other gifts, often worth half the amount
they received.
The rice bags have
made perfect ''half-return'' gifts, Ono said,
although relatives face a dilemma once they are
done with the cuddling.
''People say they
have a hard time opening them up and eating the
rice,'' Ono said.
(AGENCES)
Action heroes
fight with real villains! .............
WASHINGTON,
Jan 8: Can you imagine real villains being
''controlled'' by reel heroes? Well, the US
researchers have come with an analysis which says
a genre of films--action movies can help prevent
crime.
Challenging the
''conventional wisdom'', two economists--Gordon
Dahl and Stefano DellaVigna at the the University
of California, found in their study that action
movies prevent crime by attracting and keeping
would-be assailants confined in dark theatres.
The on-screen
action and alcohol free environment keep these
''potential criminals'' busy, the study noted.
Iterating the short-run effect of violent movies,
Professor Dahl said, ''You're taking a lot of
violent people off the streets and putting them
inside movie theaters. In the short run, if you
take away violent movies, you're going to
increase violent crime.''
The economists say
over the last decade, the screening of violent
films had decreased assaults by an average of
about 1,000 a weekend, or 52,000 a year in the
United States. Not only during weekend, the trend
maintained on the weekdays as well.
However, the
critics have come down heavily on the analysis
that suggests that ''on days with a high audience
for violent movies, violent crime is lower''.
Expressing
concern, psychologist and director of the Center
for the Study of Violence at Iowa State
University Craig A Anderson said, ''There are
hundreds of studies done by numerous research
groups around the world that show that media
violence exposure increases aggressive
behaviour.''
''People learn
from every experience in life, and that learning
occurs at a very basic level of brain function,''
the New York Times quoted him, as saying.
The research used
over ten years' national crime reports, cinema
ratings and movie audience data to analyse the
rates of violent crime during and immediately
after showcasing action movies.
Most of the times,
young men are involved in violent crimes. In
opting to watch an action movie, they forgo
activities like drinking and drug use which have
a greater tendency to encourage mayhem, the
research added.
But, this does not
convey the message to parents that they should
send their kids to watch violent movies.
Extra-curricular activities are still important
to keep children busy and away from booze and
puff, emphasised one of the critics.
(UNI)
Hope for humans!
Blind cavefish 'can regain' sight.........
NEW
YORK, Jan 8: It's a research which brings a ray
of hope for hundreds of visually impaired people
across the globe -- scientists have been able to
restore the vision of blind cavefish who live in
dark pools.
In their study,
the researchers in the United States have found
that mutations in different genes are responsible
for eye loss in separate cavefish lineages and by
altering the genetic function, vision can be
regained in their offsprings.
According to lead
researcher Prof Richard Borowsky of New York
University, the findings could pave the way for
greater understanding of human eyes.
"These genes
that have their function altered by mutation are
the same genes that normally play important roles
in the development and maintenance of the eye in
humans as well as in fishes."
In fact, the
researchers examined four populations of blind
cavefish Astyanax mexicanus, which inhabit
different caves in northeast Mexico. Blind for
millennia, these fish evolved from eyed, surface
fish.
The genetic
analysis showed that the evolutionary impairment
of eye development, as well as the loss of
pigmentation and other cave-related changes,
resulted from mutations at multiple gene sites.
(PTI)
Delaying solid
foods may not prevent allergies..........
NEW
YORK, Jan 8: Contrary to conventional wisdom,
putting off solid foods for the first few months
of an infant's life may not lower the risk of
childhood allergies and asthma, a new study
suggests.
The World Health
Organisation (WHO), the American Academy of
Pediatrics (AAP) and other groups recommend that
parents delay introducing solid foods for 4 to 6
months to curb children's allergy risk.
However, the new
findings, published in the journal Pediatrics,
question the effectiveness of this strategy.
German researchers
found that among the 2,073 children with complete
records and 6-year follow-up, those who received
no solid foods before 4 to 6 months of age did
not have a lower risk of nasal allergies, asthma
or sensitisation to common food allergens.
''We found no
evidence to recommend a delayed introduction of
solids beyond 4 or 6 months for the prevention of
asthma, allergic rhinitis, and food or inhalant
sensitisation at the age of 6 years,'' write the
researchers, led by Dr Anne Zutavern of the
GSF-National Research Center for Environment and
Health in Neuherberg.
While the WHO, AAP
and other groups recommend delaying the
introduction of solid foods to prevent allergies,
there has been ''scarce'' scientific evidence to
back this up, according to Zutavern's team.
The one possible
exception was the skin condition eczema. When the
researchers looked only at children who'd had no
skin or allergy symptoms in the first 6 months of
life, those who'd had solid foods before 4 months
of age were more likely to develop eczema later
in life.
The researchers
suggest that could be because parents who noticed
skin or allergy symptoms early in their baby's
life may have been more careful to delay solid
foods.
The possibility
that delaying solid foods helps lower a child's
eczema risk ''cannot be excluded,'' the
researchers write.
The findings do
not mean, however, that parents should ignore
advice on delaying solid foods.
Parents can still
follow the recommendations of the WHO, AAP and
others, but without expecting ''any strong
benefit'' on allergy risk, Dr Joachim Heinrich,
the senior researcher on the study, told Reuters
Health. Heinrich is located at the
Ludwig-Maximillians Universitat in Munich.
There are other
reasons to avoid solid foods in a baby's early
months. Infants need to be developed enough to
chew and properly swallow solid foods, for
example, and many experts recommend that, for
overall health and development, babies should
ideally be breast-fed exclusively for the first 6
months. (AGENCIES)
9/11 stress
increased risk of heart problems.........
LOS
ANGELES, Jan 8: Stress brought on by the September
11 attacks in New York and Washington in 2001 led
to heart problems for some Americans, even if
they had no personal connection to the events, a
study found.
In the first study
to demonstrate the impact of the attacks on
cardiac health, researchers in California said
acute stress responses were linked to a 53 per
cent increased incidence in strokes, high blood
pressure and other cardiac ailments.
''Our study is the
first to show that even among people who had no
personal connection to the victims, those who
reported high levels of post-traumatic stress
symptoms in the days following the 9/11 attacks
were more than twice as likely to report being
diagnosed by their doctors with cardiovascular
ailments like high blood pressure, heart problems
and stroke up to three years later,'' said Alison
Holman, a professor in nursing science and lead
researcher for the study yesterday.
The study, carried
out by Holman and researchers at the University
of California, Irvine, is published in the
January edition of Archives of General
Psychiatry.
The study involved
a random sample of almost 2,000 adults from
across the country whose health status had been
recorded before September 11, 2001.
The majority had
watched the attacks on New York City's World
Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington on
live television but had no direct exposure to
them.
They were
interviewed immediately after September 11 and in
follow-up surveys until late 2004. Risk factors
such as cholesterol levels, diabetes, smoking and
weight were taken into account along with
stressful events like divorce.
Those taking part
answered questions about their concerns, such as,
''I worry that an act of terrorism will
personally affect me or someone in my family.''
People reporting
such concerns were three to four times more
likely to report a doctor-diagnosed heart problem
two to three years after the attacks.
Holman said she
was initially so surprised at the results that
she re-ran the analysis different ways to confirm
them before submitting the study for publication.
Holman said she
was not in the United States when hijacked
airplanes rammed into the Pentagon and the two
World Trade Center Towers but she knew
immediately she had to study the effects of the
attacks on stress and health.
''It was the most
major national collective trauma that the United
States had had in decades and (I knew) it would
represent very important questions for public
policy makers and researchers about how the
populace handles such stress,'' Holman said.
(AGENCIES)
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