Colleen Morrison
5:00 AM - September 3, 2009
Takeru V. Maeda
with the second largest populated continent in the world --
it's preventing Africans from learning about HIV.
Harassment and isolation is a social norm for many countries
in Africa
According
to George Kanuma -- a gay rights activist in
The research in AIDS in Africa have been somewhat
minimal since not many homosexuals feel confident enough to come out of their
'hiding' in fear of facing personal turmoil with other members of their village
or town. Because of this hostility toward the gay community, which leads to
their sap in confidence, researchers fear that research will grow at a glacial
pace and there won’t be much of an adequate response should the number of
infections grow worse.
Many largely
populated areas in these African countries still strive to bring education for
those uneducated in the disease and how to prevent from contracting it and from
infecting others. These special groups aim to sensitize and train those with the
infection, providing the basic understanding of prevention as well as
replenishing their confidence in life.
As more traditional nations, like India, Thailand, and Vietnam, are accepting the homosexual population and granting them civil liberties, there still lies the concerning issue of homophobia
you
salvage your computer's hard drive, and unless you are in a high-risk group, you
can stay in bed and drink lots of clear liquids to treat your flu.
The virus that causes HIV disease
is not so easily managed, however. In fact, it presents a much more daunting
challenge.
A
wicked virus
Individuals infected with the HIV virus face a lifetime of
medical care and pharmaceutical treatment because the virus has a clever genetic
code that lets it lay low and remake itself over and over again in a new
form.
This trait helps it
resist long-term treatment and eradication, and it's not uncommon for a patient
to change drug combinations, or "cocktails" more than once. Recently, however,
researchers at the
The unique
morphing qualities of the HIV virus have defied the medical community for
decades, and it is too early to know the ultimate impact of the genome research.
The UNC team plans to use their new-found information to force mutations on the
virus in an attempt to disrupt its normal processes. HIV experts agree that any
addition to their understanding of the virus can only help with future attempts
to prevent infection and treat the disease.
HIV
virus and HIV disease
The
HIV virus is most commonly spread through unprotected sexual contact, drug
users' shared needles, and from mother to newborn during labor, delivery or
nursing. Once the initial symptoms of infection have passed, the virus may
remain dormant in a person's body for as long as a decade before presenting
symptoms of the disease. HIV disease, or AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome) damages the body’s immune system.
The United
Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS reported that in 2007, more than 33 million
people across the globe were living with the HIV virus, including over 2 million
children worldwide. In that year,
estimates suggest that 2 million people were newly infected, while 1.7 million
died from HIV disease, including 290,000 children.
A virus can be an insidious thing -- it will sneak up on you when you're not expecting it and make its way into small, hidden places where it proceeds to cause mayhem and sometimes death. It's as true of a computer virus or the H1N1 influenza virus as it is of the virus that causes HIV disease. Here's a difference, though: a technology wizard may be able to help
Colleen Morrison
Colleen Morrison
The untimely death of musician Michael Jackson provided yet one more demonstration of the ways in which misuse of prescription medications can go horribly wrong. New research
suggests that sometimes, even appropriate use of some
medications over a long period can have bad consequences. At issue are the
stimulants used to treat patients who suffer from attention
deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Taking the Bounce Out of Children
Not so very long ago, news outlets carried stories about
over-prescribing and misuse of the stimulant Ritalin - in this case, however,
many of the patients taking the drug were too young to know or care about any
negative impact. Often, parents elected to treat their lively young children on
the premise that they suffered from a medical condition (rather than youthful
enthusiasm). Well-meaning doctors were happy to oblige and began prescribing
Ritalin.
Like other medications used to treat ADHD, Ritalin acts to
stimulate the central nervous system by changing the brain's chemistry. Now,
however, a small group of new studies suggest that continued long-term use of
stimulants like Ritalin may cause serious problems for patients who take them.
In particular, it can lead to increased levels of anxiety, depressed mood, and
an impaired ability to learn. And those are just the findings from animal
studies; human studies indicate the drugs may actually hamper a child's ability
to grow physically.
Hooked on
Ritalin
And there is something else about
Ritalin that many parents may not know: the drug is a Schedule II controlled
substance, meaning users may become addicted. As doctors handed out
prescriptions for Ritalin to more and more patients, the drug has become fairly
easy to obtain, through both legal and illegal means. Used inappropriately,
self-medicaters can, and do, become hooked on it for the euphoric feeling it
delivers. In addition, the drug suppresses appetite, encouraging some
individuals to use it to control their weight, while still others claim it
improves their concentration during finals week.
The medical community does not
suggest that stimulants used to control ADHD and other medical conditions are
bad. On the contrary - many people find their lives greatly improved when they
use the medications as prescribed. Scientists are suggesting, however, that we
look more closely at the long-term effects of altering the way the brain works
so we don’t make patients worse off than they were before treatment.
Colleen Morrison
Standard for Who?
The problem with BMI, however, as with many such standard
measurements, is that each of us comes with unique packaging that frequently
defies strict categorization. When it comes to BMI and people of South Asian
descent, that seems to be the case. According to health officials in
Body mass index
calculations were developed using data from Caucasians, and according to those
calculations, BMI of 25 suggests a patient is overweight, over 30 suggests
obesity. Indian officials recently lowered those measures to 23 and 25,
respectively, for South Asians to reflect differences in the two groups' genetic
makeup.
Genes Make a
Difference
Studies suggest
that South Asians may carry a gene that makes their bodies store body fat around
their mid-sections, a situation that is associated with diabetes and heart
disease. This means that, even though a person may not appear to be
significantly overweight, just carrying a little excess around the tummy, he or
she may be at risk for developing cardiovascular disease.
Health care
professionals around the globe are turning to new measures to help identify
persons of South Asian descent whose weight may be a threat to their health. In
the
The American
Heart Association identifies obesity, especially body fat around the middle, as
a major factor for heart problems, including heart attacks. In addition,
patients who are obese may suffer from high blood pressure and diabetes, a
combination that can be deadly. Yet the cause of obesity is usually fairly
straightforward and preventable; an obese person takes in more calories than her
body needs. One solution, equally straightforward, is to manage diet and
exercise in consultation with a physician.
Fitness and
medical professionals consider Body Mass Index (BMI) to be something of a
standard in determining the state of a patient's overall health; based on our
height and weight, the calculation can suggest how much body fat each of us is
carrying, and as a result, what kind of load we're putting on our heart and
vascular system.
vehicle launched by the Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO) in October 2008. A mission
to know the moon Despite
previous visits, there are still many things about the moon that remain a
mystery; as with past moon missions, the spacecraft's primary purpose was
to collect data to add our knowledge about the moon. The Chandrayaan-1
project was conducted entirely under the auspices of the Indian space
agency, although a number of space organizations from around the globe
placed instruments and experiments on board to participate in this most
recent endeavor to study Earth's sole natural satellite.
Despite the
fact that ISRO lost communication with its moon probe on 29 August after
312 days in orbit, the vehicle's mission has enjoyed a number of
successes. One instrument on board, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), has
already demonstrated high levels of iron-bearing minerals on the moon. The
device's imaging spectrometer is designed to map the moon's surface and
return information that may help explain the origin of the moon and the
Earth itself. In addition, the spacecraft transmitted tens of thousands of
photographs of the moon for future analysis. The lessons
of Chandrayaan-1 The
agency's chairman, G. Madhavan Nair, is justifiably proud that his
organization put a vehicle into moon orbit at a very low cost:
Chandrayaan-1 cost approximately $100 million, compared to the billions
that are usually spent on American space launches. Officials at the ISRO
say the mission will provide a tremendous amount of information for the
amount spent on it, making it an incredibly cost-effective
project. The Indian
Space Research Organization was established in 1969; the agency has plans
for additional projects, research and missions to the moon and Mars that
should ultimately set it up to become a partner in the International Space
Station. The history of man's physical journey into space
began on 4 October 1957, when the former *"National
Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958," Public Law #85-568, 72 Stat., 426.
Signed by the President on July 29, 1958, Record Group 255, National
Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C; available in NASA
Historical Reference Collection, History Office, NASA Headquarters,
Washington, D.C. The novelty and daring of mankind's earliest efforts to hurl men and machines into space were guaranteed to grab the world's attention and hold on to it. Today, however, we have become so accustomed to lift-off, space walks, and other works of scientific magic that they receive very little notice. Such has been the fate of the Chandrayaan-1, the moon probe Colleen Morrison India
Greets the Moon with Chandrayaan-1
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Rock-a-bye
baby
Sleep research falls into the category of hard
science; organizations apply for grants to study issues associated with
sleep. And savvy entrepreneurs are always at hand to offer timely
solutions to the problems identified by those studies. So it will be
interesting to see what they do with new research coming out of the 5:00 AM - September 3, 2009 Takeru V.
Maeda 
Women's Equality in Japan For a
country that is second-highest in world's leading nations in the
economy -- runner-up to the While most of the leading nations
around the world have women taking on leading positions in offices,
military, and just about anywhere, Japanese woman still find themselves
separate in more ways than one, from the men.
Internet
Television
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