Features

If you are dreaming of operating a superfast computer, a really really fast one, your dream may come true in 10 to 15 years. Superfast here refers to machines that would be hundreds or even thousands times faster than what we have today. Actually it is impossible at this point in time to even estimate how much faster the computers will be, for they will be built on quantum computing, a technology that is much different from the one used today.

Quantum physics is that part of physics that deals with subatomic dimensions. At this level the “standard” laws of physics do not apply anymore. It is a world of its own, one that has been mostly theoretical so far but where actual implementations and applications are going to be very real, quite tangible.

In a recent documentary broadcast on German-French cultural TV channel Arte, the presenter tried to explain in layman’s terms the rather esoteric notion of quantum physics. He gave an example. In traditional computing, the memory bits can take the value of zero or one, the very basis of the binary system. In quantum computers the bits (called qubits here) can have the zero and the one value, at the same time, but in various statistical states, like for example 35 per cent zero and 65 per cent one.

He wittily added “if you have perfectly understood this, then there must be something wrong with you!” In other words he was acknowledging that few people really understood the theory, and it was normal to see it as something mysterious at this point. The fact remains that actual applications are coming, and because of the subatomic size of the components that will be used, among other considerations, the speed of the machines will be incredible.

Currently computers gain a little speed every three or four years. Compared to the laptops computers made twenty years ago, today’s models are like cars to bicycles. As great as it is, this speed of change, however, will be nothing compared to what quantum computers may bring us; it will be a mind-blowing high-tech revolution, something beyond imagination.

Reading about such drastic change brings the expected questions: do we really need such computing speed? Will they be making laptops based on quantum computing or will it be a design exclusive to server computers and networks? Will price be affordable for the home users?

Only the answer to the first question is easy. The others are impossible to answer at this point.

Yes, we definitely need and can use the fastest computers that the industry can make. No machine will be fast enough. Our needs to process, treat and exchange ever larger sizes of digital contents keep growing, and networks of all kinds, wired or wireless, are expanding beyond what we thought was conceivable a mere 10 years ago. All this needs fast machines.

Quantum computers will probably be seen only as server machines at the beginning – again, something estimated to materialise in 10 to 15 years from now. When will the technology move to small offices and homes, to mobile devices? It cannot be predicted in any way. The same is true about cost. It is impossible to have even a rough estimate; even those in the industry have no idea about it.

We only can observe that computer technology is becoming relatively cheaper, if we consider the performance of the machines and all they let us do, but that at the same time we are spending a lot on high-tech. Suffice it to see the price of high end models of smartphones for example, which is in the range of JD600 to JD800 in Jordan. Who would have thought that we would spending such amounts of money on portable telephones, however smart they may be?

The only thing we can do about quantum computers now is to watch the news and perhaps prepare — mentally at least — for the big change to come.

By Carolyn Crist

Rubber playground surface material may protect kids from some injuries but could be harboring a different source of harm, a study in Boston suggests. 

Researchers tested lead levels in the soil, sand, mulch or rubber surface materials in 28 playgrounds and found the rubber surfaces often averaged two or three times the lead levels of the other materials. Many of the highest lead levels were also found in soil surfaces, making sand and mulch the healthier surface choices for playgrounds, the study team writes in PLoS ONE. 

“Playgrounds use a variety of materials to protect children against injuries. However, we should always consider the full suite of health effects associated with materials that children come into contact with,” said study author Nick Arisco of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. 

Most research on lead exposures in children’s outdoor play areas has focused on soil contamination. Rubber surfaces have been used more in recent years for injury prevention and to recycle waste tyres, he said. 

“Understanding the benefits and risks of using different materials can help inform healthier playground design moving forward,” he told Reuters Health by email. 

Arisco and colleagues examined lead levels in poured-in-place rubber and compared them to levels in soil, sand and wood mulch materials from randomly selected playgrounds in neighbourhoods representing every socioeconomic category in the city. They chose Boston in part because from 2009 to 2013, the lower-income neighbourhoods of East Boston, North Dorchester, Roxbury and Mission Hill contributed a disproportionate number of the entire city’s cases of elevated blood lead levels in children. 

In the study, each playground tested had at least two types of surface material, so a total of 85 samples were included in the analysis. Overall, the testing found that average lead levels in soil surfaces were 66 microgrammes, or parts per million, per gram of soil. For rubber surfaces, the average was 22 microgrammes per gram, and mulch averaged 9 microgrammes per gram with sand averaging 8.5 microgrammes per gram. 

For rubber and soil, however, there were wide ranges of readings. One soil sample exceeded the 400-microgramme limit set by the Environmental Protection Agency for play areas, the study team notes. In addition, nine playgrounds had a soil sample greater than 80 microgrammes. 

Two playgrounds had a rubber sample with greater than 80 microgrammes of lead per gram, which exceeds the 80-microgramme limit set as a residential soil guideline in California. Public health experts prefer to use the California limit, especially for play areas where children as young as 6 months old play. 

“One reason children are especially vulnerable to exposures to lead and other chemicals is because they spend a lot of time on the ground, touching things and then putting their hands to their mouth,” Arisco said. 

Parents can encourage children to wash their hands after playing on playgrounds and remove their shoes at the door to prevent contaminated soil from tracking inside. For outdoor play areas at home, parents can cover the soil with a top layer of clean sand or mulch, he added. 

In addition, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention created an online guide to preventing lead poisoning that also answers frequently asked questions. No safe blood lead level in children has been identified, and even low levels can affect attention and academic achievement, according to the CDC. 

“Unfortunately, urban soils are often invisibly and severely contaminated with lead dust generated from multiple sources,” said Howard Mielke, an environmental health researcher at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Mielke, who wasn’t involved with the research, noted that one option to reduce lead exposure used by some childcare centres he has studied was to import low-lead soil from outside of the city to put in play areas. 

“The public needs to be aware that urban soils became invisibly lead-contaminated [in past decades] as a result of industrial activities,” he said by email. “Fortunately, the amount of lead in soil is decreasing since lead was banned in gasoline.”

By Munsif Vengattil and Paresh Dave

HYDERABAD/SAN FRANCISCO — Over the past year, a team of as many as 260 contract workers in Hyderabad, India has ploughed through millions of Facebook Inc. photos, status updates and other content posted since 2014.

The workers categorise items according to five “dimensions”, as Facebook calls them.

These include the subject of the post — is it food, for example, or a selfie or an animal? What is the occasion — an everyday activity or major life event? And what is the author’s intention — to plan an event, to inspire, to make a joke?

The work is aimed at understanding how the types of things users post on its services are changing, Facebook said. That can help the company develop new features, potentially increasing usage and ad revenue. 

Details of the effort were provided by multiple employees at outsourcing firm Wipro Ltd. over several months. The workers spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation by the Indian firm. Facebook later confirmed many details of the project. Wipro declined to comment and referred all questions to Facebook.

The Wipro work is among about 200 content labelling projects that Facebook has at any time, employing thousands of people globally, company officials told Reuters. Many projects are aimed at “training” the software that determines what appears in users’ news feeds and powers the artificial intelligence underlying many other features.

The labelling efforts have not previously been reported.

“It’s a core part of what you need,” said Nipun Mathur, the director of product management for AI at Facebook. “I don’t see the need going away.”

The content labelling programme could raise new privacy issues for Facebook, according to legal experts consulted by Reuters. The company is facing regulatory investigations worldwide over an unrelated set of alleged privacy abuses involving the sharing of user data with business partners.

The Wipro workers said they gain a window into lives as they view a vacation photo or a post memorialising a deceased family member. Facebook acknowledged that some posts, including screenshots and those with comments, may include user names. 

The company said its legal and privacy teams must sign off on all labelling efforts, adding that it recently introduced an auditing system “to ensure that privacy expectations are being followed and parameters in place are working as expected”.

But one former Facebook privacy manager, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed unease about users’ posts being scrutinised without their explicit permission. The European Union’s year-old General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has strict rules about how companies gather and use personal data and in many cases requires specific consent.

“One of the key pieces of GDPR is purpose limitation,” said John Kennedy, a partner at law firm Wiggin and Dana who has worked on outsourcing, privacy and AI.

If the purpose is looking at posts to improve the precision of services, that should be stated explicitly, Kennedy said. Using an outside vendor for the work could also require consent, he said.

It remains unclear exactly how GDPR will be interpreted and whether regulators and consumers would see Facebook’s internal labeling practices as problematic. Europe’s top data privacy official declined to comment on possible concerns.

A Facebook spokeswoman said: “We make it clear in our data policy that we use the information people provide to Facebook to improve their experience and that we might work with service providers to help in this process.”

US Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat and leading critic of social media, told Reuters in a statement that large platforms increasingly are “taking more and more data from users, for wider and more far-reaching uses, without any corresponding compensation to the user”.

Warner said he is drafting legislation that would require Facebook to “disclose the value of users’ data, and tell users exactly how their data is being monetised”.

Project

Human-powered content labelling, also referred to as “data annotation”, is a growth industry as companies seek to harness data for AI training and other purposes.

Self-driving car companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo have labellers identify traffic lights and pedestrians in videos to fortify their AI. Voice assistant developers including Amazon.com Inc. have people annotate customer audio to improve AI’s ability to decipher speech.

Facebook launched the Wipro project in April last year. The Indian firm received a $4 million contract and formed a team of about 260 labellers, according to the workers. Last year, the work consisted of analysing posts from the prior five years.

After completing that, the team in December was cut to about 30 and shifted to labelling each month posts from the prior month. Work is expected to last through at least the end of 2019, they said.

Facebook confirmed the staffing changes but declined to comment on financial details.

The company said its analysis is ongoing so it could not provide any findings from the labelling or resulting product decisions. It has not told labellers the purpose or results of the project, and the workers said all they have inferred from their limited view is that selfies are increasingly popular.

The Wipro labellers and Facebook said the posts are a random sampling of text-based status updates, shared links, event posts, Stories feature uploads, videos and photos, including user-posted screenshots of chats on Facebook’s various messaging apps. The posts come from Facebook and Instagram users globally, in languages including English, Hindi and Arabic.

Each item goes to two labellers to check accuracy, and a third if they disagree, Facebook said. Workers said they see on average 700 items per day. Facebook said the target average is lower.

Facebook confirmed labellers in Timisoara, Romania and Manila, the Philippines are involved in the same project.

Among Facebook’s other labelling projects, one worker in Hyderabad for outsourcing vendor Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. said he and at least 500 colleagues look for sensitive topics or profane language in Facebook videos.

The aim is to train an automated Facebook tool that enables advertisers to avoid sponsoring videos that are, for example, adult or political, Facebook said. Cognizant did not respond to a request for comment.

Another application of labelling involved the social network’s Marketplace shopping feature, where it automated category recommendations for new listings by first having labellers and product experts categorise some existing listings, Facebook’s Mathur said.

Private posts

Facebook users are not offered the chance to opt out of their data being labelled.

At Wipro, the posts being examined include not only public posts but also those that are shared privately to a limited set of a user’s friends. That ensures the sample reflects the range of activity on Facebook and Instagram, said Karen Courington, director of product support operations at Facebook. 

Facebook’s data policy does not explicitly mention manual analysis.

“We provide information and content to vendors and service providers who support our business, such as by providing technical infrastructure services, analysing how our products are used, providing customer service, facilitating payments or conducting surveys,” the policy states.

Europe’s GDPR also requires companies delete user data upon request. Facebook said it has technology to routinely sync labelled posts with both deletion requests and changes to content privacy settings. 

Facebook and other companies are testing techniques to curtail the need for outsourced labelling, in part to analyse more data faster and cheaper. For instance, AI training data for news feed rankings and photo descriptions for the blind came from hashtags on Instagram posts, Facebook’s Mathur said.

“We try to minimise the amount of things we send out,” he said.

Smartphones might ironically be the answer to selfie-related deaths, two wilderness medicine specialists say. 

Hundreds of people have lost their lives in pursuit of daring selfies to impress their social media followers. But smartphone technology that uses global positioning system (GPS) location, or measures altitude, could potentially be harnessed to prevent these unfortunate incidents, the two experts suggest. 

In a letter published in the journal Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, Gerard Flaherty and Michael Smith, both from the National University of Ireland Galway, discuss how cell phones could be used to transmit verbal safety warnings to users who are about to take photographs in dangerous locations, such as the edge of a cliff. 

“Based on the GPS location or altitude of the tourist, we propose that there may be scope for providing verbal safety messages to individuals with their phone in camera mode, warning them that they are too close to a vertical drop. In such cases, the camera function may be disabled until the person moves away from the dangerous no selfie zone,” Flaherty and Smith write. 

Research has shown that India tops the list of countries that see the highest number of selfie deaths, followed by Russia and the US. Most victims are young men in their 20s. 

Technology is still new to much of India and with affordable Internet, people are posting more photographs online to be acknowledged by peers — one of the main reasons behind risky selfies, explained Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, an associate professor at India’s Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology in New Delhi. 

Kumaraguru and his team have worked on developing tech solutions to the problem, including Saftie, an app that crowdsources data from users who flag locations they consider dangerous. 

He believes interventions of this sort are most likely to be effective, particularly if the data gathered are put to use in popular apps like Google Maps. 

Flaherty and Smith also discuss other precautions that have been put in place to mitigate selfie deaths, including warning signs and the creation of no-selfie zones. Authority figures like park rangers and wilderness medicine providers have also been deployed to counsel tourists and ensure they respect safety notices. 

Safety interventions could also be targeted at the groups most affected. 

“There has been very little research done on gender differences in relation to travel health impairments. It would be intriguing to explore more deeply the gender-based differences in adventure tourist risk-taking and self-photography behaviour in future studies,” Flaherty told Reuters Health in an e-mail. 

Kumaraguru, however, believes that the very phones capable of causing selfie deaths are the most effective tools to prevent them. 

“You could do no-selfie zones, you could put banners all around, you could put fliers all around, but will that have an impact?” he asks. 

“Without phones, without technology, how would you create awareness among people on a large scale?” 

But Katrin Tiidenberg, an Associate Professor of Social Media and Visual Culture at Tallinn University, Estonia, told Reuters Health she believes “selfie-related deaths are likely highly over-sensationalised [and] overreported”.

Tiidenberg, who authored a book called “Selfies: Why We Love [and Hate] Them,” added, “Some people behave in risky ways. That was true before selfies. So I think people should be counselled to be mindful of the risks in potentially dangerous natural and tourist destinations, but I don’t think there is a reason to make the whole thing about selfies by creating ‘no selfie zones.’” 

Now in its tenth iteration since first launched as a somewhat frumpy yet efficient, reliable and affordable hatchback back in 1972, the modern Honda Civic is a mainstream compact car distinguished by its striking design, smooth driving and responsive handling.

Sold in Jordan as a saloon, but also available globally as a hatchback and coupe, and with a broad range of engines for different markets, the Civic proved impressive even in entry-level specification, as driven briefly on Jordanian roads in 1.6 DX guise.

Sporty style

Longer and heavier than its predecessors, the latest incarnation Honda Civic first arrived as a more refined and mature offering to compete with the larger end of the compact saloon segment, including the Volkswagen Jetta, Nissan Sentra and Toyota Corolla, to mention but a few.

A more complex design with a moodier, sportier and more overtly aggressive design and fashionably low-slung roofline, the latest Civic ditches its predecessors’ clean surfaces and neutral aesthetic character. Instead, it features more bulging bodywork with wavy, almost Coke-bottle wheel-arches and waistline.

With a snouty grille featuring a thick slat that extends across and atop its squinting, recessed and heavily browed headlights, the latest Civic has a distinctly sport demeanour that includes big lower side intakes, scalloped edge bonnet and a rakish roofline that trails off towards a ridged rear deck.

At the rear, the Civic features faux bumper vents and slim boomerang lights framing its fascia. Fastback-like in profile the Civic saloon’s conventional rear boot has a low load height and taller vertical measurement to compensate for its short horizontal length in terms of access.

Eager and willing

The smaller of two naturally-aspirated engines available, and offered alongside various turbocharged engines, the Civic DX’s 1.6-litre four-cylinder is a single overhead camshaft design, yet with 16-valves. Equipped with Honda’s variable valve timing and lift control i-VTEC system, it is a relatively high-revving engine with a 6,700rpm rev limit and its 123BHP output peaking at 6,500rpm, while maximum torque is delivered at 4,300rpm.

Progressive and smooth in delivery, the Civic 1.6 does, however, become somewhat more eager, athletic and responsive as the rev counter tilts ever nearer towards the red line.

Capable of motivating its restrained 1,255kg weight through the 0-100km/h sprint in an estimated 11.6-seconds and on to a 196km/h maximum the Civic 1.6 is reasonably quick given its power output, while fuel consumption is modest at 6.7l/100km, combined. 

Driving the front wheels through a continuously variable transmission (CVT), the Civic 1.6 is willing and eager to redline, unlike some CVT vehicles. Using a more robust and durable timing chain design instead of a belt, the Civic’s engine whines slightly when pushed hard to near its rev limit.

Nimble yet confident

Seamlessly smooth in delivery when driven in auto mode, the Civic’s CVT doesn’t seem to discourage high revs like some CVT systems, and can also shift through pre-set ratios through the gear lever, for a more involving drive that mimics a traditional gearbox.

Similarly smooth and settled in its ride quality, the Civic felt alert and light on its feet, yet reassuringly stable and refined at speed, while road imperfections were well dispatched with the base DX model’s un-exaggerated 215/55R16 tyres providing mostly good comfort and absorption, if being slightly firm over some more sudden ridged textures and bumps.

A tidy and fluent driving car with light, quick-turning steering that is direct and well-insulated, the Civic tucks eagerly into a corner, with reassuring front grip, good body roll control and confident adherence to a chosen cornering line, while modest width tyres allow for good steering feel for a modern electric-assisted system.

Responsively changing directions, it has a nimble and agile feel, but remains well planted on the road. Grippy through corners with its independent MacPherson strut front and multilink rear suspension, the new Civic’s longer wheelbase helps maintain stability, if at the cost of some mid-corner adjustability.

Refined ride

Well-refined inside from noise, harshness and vibrations, even if its engine sound rises slightly at high revs, the Civic feels sophisticated, sporty and smooth. A more-driver-oriented car than many compact saloon rivals, the Civic provides a supportive, comfortable and alert driving position with good front road and instrument visibility, and good semi-electric driving seat and steering wheel adjustability. 

Easy to accurately place on the road, the Civic’s sleek low roofline and rakishly slanted pillars does reduce rear and side visibility slightly, compared with a boxier and taller design.

With logical, clean and user-friendly layouts and controls inside combine with a good low driving position, the Civic has an air of effortless civility about it. Meanwhile material used is mostly decent — if not luxurious quality — but seems well built and pleasant.

Driven in entry-level DX trim, the Civic’s equipment level covers most of the important things, but for more sophisticated and advanced driver aids, like useful lane departure and blind spot monitoring systems, one would need to upgrade to a higher specification.

Standard fabric upholstery meanwhile has a nice feel but would be better in a darker tone than the driven demo car’s light beige. Spacious in front and with a generous 519-litre boot and good rear legroom owing to its longer wheelbase, the Civic low roofline does, however, reduce rear headroom for tall adults.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.6-litre, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 81 x 77.5mm

Compression ratio: 10.7:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, SOHC, variable valve timing and lift control

Gearbox: Continually variable transmission (CVT), 7-speed auto, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 123 (125) [92] @6,500rpm

Specific power: 94.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 98BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 111 (151) @4,300rpm

Specific torque: 207.3Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 120.3Nm/tonne

Rev limit: 6,700rpm

0-100km/h: 11.6-seconds

Top speed: 196km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 

9.2-/5.2-/6.7-litres/100km 

Fuel capacity: 47-litres

Length: 4,630mm

Width: 1,799mm

Height: 1,416mm

Wheelbase: 2,700mm

Track, F/R: 1,543/1,577mm

Ground clearance: 133mm

Luggage volume: 519-litres

Kerb weight: 1,255kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 11.5-metres

Lock-to-lock: 2.22-turns

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link

Brakes, F/R: Ventilate discs/discs

Tyres: 215/55R16

Ramadan can be a challenging time for many Muslims trying to achieve weight-loss goals. But with proper planning and the right guidance on diet, nutrition and exercise, it is still possible! 

Just because it is Ramadan does not mean you should suddenly change your diet drastically. It might be the case that you will not does not be able to fit the same amount of meals into your eating window between Iftar and Suhur than you would on a normal day outside Ramadan, but you can try and keep the amount and quality of food you consume in those meals the same. 

When you have been fasting for so many hours, you are understandably going to be very hungry. When Iftar comes around it can be very easy to eat everything you lay your hands on and binge on foods that are calorie dense and won’t help you achieve your health goals.

Instead of filling up on mountains of junk food at Iftar, I advise breaking your fast with foods that are filling and full of nutrients. While we have to watch for total calories, we also have to watch the quality of those calories. For example, 100 calories from beef will not have the same effect on your body as 100 calories from a chocolate bar.

Including  quality source of protein

This should be the cornerstone of your diet during Ramadan because fasting for so many hours means that you run the risk of muscle protein loss. Every meal should include a quality source of protein: fish, chicken, yoghurt, whey, eggs and tofu if you are vegetarian. If you want to finish the Holy Month with better body composition than when you started, then ensure your protein intake is sufficient. Protein is vital for growth and repair of tissue in your body, including skin and hair, but most important, muscle. If you are still training hard during Ramadan, which I encourage, then your body’s protein need will be high.

Getting fats from the right sources

No, fats are not all bad. Healthy fats are a great addition to your Ramadan diet that will aid your weight loss goals, provided you’re getting them from the right sources. Fats have a bad reputation as they are linked to obesity, heart disease and high cholesterol. But this is not true. Fat is vital to a healthy diet and an optimally functioning body. Fat can be a great source of energy during Ramadan since you will spend most of the day fasting. It is important to get the right fats in your diet though. Avoiding processed and fast foods is your best way to limit trans fats as they are associated with several health problems. Also, read the ingredients lists on labels for partially hydrogenated oil which is used to help increase shelf life and save costs. Hydrogenation is a process in which a liquid unsaturated fat is turned into a solid fat by adding hydrogen.

Choosing your carbohydrates wisely

If you like to include carbs in your diet, ensure they are from quality sources that will support your health goals. This means carb sources that make you feel satisfied and full, such as sweet potatoes, brown rice, quinoa and oats. One of the best times to consume carbs is after training. A small helping in your last meal of the day can boost the production of serotonin — the hormone that helps you to relax. 

Staying hydrated

Rehydrating during Ramadan is especially critical this month when the weather is getting warmer. Water is key to the optimal functioning of our body and mind. Dehydration is responsible for the down-regulation of almost every cellular process in the body. Event three per cent dehydration can dent our strength and power output in the gym. Without enough water, the liver will metabolise less fat because it has to take over some of the functions of the kidneys when you are dehydrated. It is very easy to become dehydrated during Ramadan as long days of fasting mount up. I recommend aiming for a steady intake of two litres of water between iftar (sunset meal) and suhur (pre-dawn meal). Try to avoid sugary drinks or foods high in salt which will make you more thirsty.

Getting enough sleep

The relationship between sleep and weight loss is one that is well researched and proven. Sleep is vital for ensuring optimum health, recovery and performance, and it ultimately helps us realise fat loss goals. But when we are fasting during the Holy Month, sleep becomes even more important to counter the stress it puts on our body. Getting enough quality sleep is important for healthy hormone balance. It is when your body produces the most testosterone and growth hormone (important for both men and women). But it also helps reduce the stress hormone, cortisol, which when you are sleep deprived, is increased to keep your body running but results in lower “real” energy, mental fog, fatigue and hunger cravings. I recommend getting between seven to eight hours of good quality sleep.

Being active

Being active plays a big role in overall calorie burning during the day and that is not just exercise; it can be walking upstairs, cleaning the house or running after your kids. Ramadan is a special time for Muslims in Jordan to worship and self-reflect. While the 30-day fasting period can be challenging in meeting our fitness and health goals, it is possible to complete the Holy Month fitter and healthier.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

While a healthy-plant based diet is tied to a lower risk of kidney disease, people who fill their plates with starchy, sugary vegetarian fare may actually increase their risk of kidney damage, a new study suggests. 

Researchers examined data on eating habits and kidney function for 14,686 middle-aged adults, following half of them for at least 24 years. Overall, 4,343 participants developed chronic kidney disease. 

People who most closely adhered to a diet of healthy plant-based foods were 14 per cent less likely to develop kidney disease than individuals who rarely ate these foods, the study found. 

At the same time, participants who consumed the greatest amount of unhealthy vegetarian foods were 11 per cent more likely to develop kidney disease than people who ate the smallest amounts of these foods. 

“Relatively higher intakes of healthful plant foods and relatively lower intakes of less healthful plant foods and animal foods are associated with favourable kidney outcomes,” said senior study author Casey Rebholz of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. 

“We believe that healthful plant foods played an important role because higher consumption of healthful plant foods were associated with a lower risk of kidney disease and slower decline in kidney function when the consumption of less healthful plant foods and animal foods were held constant,” Rebholz said by e-mail. 

A healthy plant-based diet includes whole grain foods; fruits like apples, pears, and oranges; veggies like dark, leafy greens, sweet potatoes and broccoli; nuts and natural peanut butter; and legumes like string beans and lentils. 

Study participants who had the healthiest plant-based diets consumed an average of nine to ten servings a day of these foods. These individuals were more likely to be women, white, older, high school graduates and physically active. 

An unhealthy plant-based diet may limit meat but load up on potatoes. This type of diet might also include juice instead of whole fruit, sodas and sugary drinks, and lots of candy, cake and chocolate. 

Participants who had the least healthy plant-based diets consumed an average of seven servings a day of these foods. They were more likely to be men, younger, sedentary and drink more alcohol. 

The association between plant-based diets and chronic kidney risk was especially pronounced for people with a normal weight at the start of the study, researchers report in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove that certain eating patterns directly contribute to kidney disease. 

One limitation of the study is that researchers relied on participants to accurately recall what they ate and drank, which can lead to measurement errors, the study authors note. Researchers also may not have had a complete picture of long-term eating habits. 

Still, it’s possible eating more fruits and vegetables may make it easier for the kidneys to rid the body of toxins, said Dr Michal Melamed of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Centre in Bronx, New York. Fruits and vegetables have less acid, putting less demand on the kidneys than meats which have a lot of acid. 

“It could also be that the people who eat more fruits and vegetables also do other things, such as exercise more, get more sleep, or in general have a healthier lifestyle and that is the reason why this association is seen,” Melamed, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail.

“In general, multiple studies have shown that eating a lot of processed meats and red meats is probably not good for people, not just for their kidney health but also for the heart.”

PARIS — The Chinese giant salamander, the largest amphibian in the world, is not cute. 

Weighing as much as an adult human, it has slimy brown skin, a giant mouth curled to a gormless grin, and puny, mistrustful eyes. 

It is also one of the world’s most endangered species. 

And yet, unlike its compatriot the giant panda, the giant salamander rarely makes the news. 

Why do some animals strike a chord with humans, prompting them to donate millions towards their conservation, while others draw little more than disgust? 

And is a sad-eyed panda really worth saving more than a slimy salamander? 

Size, intelligence, behaviour, rarity, how closely an animal resembles the human form — all play a part in our reaction to various endangered creatures. 

“One of the biggest factors is ‘cuteness’: physical characteristics such as big eyes and soft features that elicit our parental instincts because they remind us of human infants,” Hal Herzog, emeritus professor at West Carolina University’s Department of Psychology, told AFP.

An expert in human-animal relationships, Herzog said the dark rings around pandas’ eyes triggered humans nurturing instincts. 

“Compare that to the Chinese giant salamander,” he said. “Google it. It looks like a 2 metre-long, 70kg bag of brown slime with beady little eyes.” 

The salamanders are a vital part of their ecosystem, just as worms are essential to soil health around the steams and lakes they live in — which is just about everywhere. 

Yet, like maggots, rats and snakes, the main instinct they inspire in humans is revulsion.

According to Graham Davey, a specialist in phobias from the University of Sussex’s School of Psychology, we learn to revile certain creatures at a young age. 

“Disgust is a learned emotion. Babies are not born with it... it’s probably transmitted socially, culturally and within families,” he said. 

Some animals are reviled due to their resemblance to “primary disgusting things” such as mucus or faeces, Davey said, while others are perceived — rightly or wrongly — to pose a direct danger to the beholder. 

“In terms of threat to humankind, disease and illness are bigger than being attacked by an animal,” he said. 

This might explain why most of us don’t find lions and bears repellent — they are covered with the same type of soft fur that coat cuddly toys for children, even if it might be better to avoid one in real life. 

As with most things, popular culture has a huge effect on how society perceives animals. 

Whereas the movie “Free Willy” prompted a wave of sympathy for the protection of endangered orcas, “Arachnophobia” hardly helped spiders’ cause. 

See also: “Jaws” for sharks. 

Even the depiction of fictional creatures can have a knock-on effect on public perception towards certain animals. 

Take the main being in “Alien”, for example.

“Seeing the one from the first film that had that mucus-y drawl dripping from the alien’s mouth... sensitises people to disgusting things,” Davey said. 

Nor is it just the public at large who are liable to “speciesism”, or discrimination against other species in favour of our own. 

A study in 2017 found a strong correlation between society’s preferred animals and those most studied in scientific research. 

“Maybe that’s because it’s easier to get money” to study well-known animals, said Frederic Legendre, a researcher at France’s National History Museum. 

And popular species make money in return, according to Christo Fabricius from WWF — a conservation group indelibly linked to its panda logo. 

“Reptiles, for example, are not very marketable,” he said. 

Not that favouring certain cute or charismatic species is necessarily a bad thing for conservation. 

“When we protect an iconic species, we protect their habitat and therefore all the organisms within it also benefit,” said Legendre. 

But such species can become a victim of their own popularity. 

One recent study suggested that a “virtual” presence of wild animals such as elephants and tigers — be that on computer screens, T-shirts or in children’s books — can fool people into thinking they are more common in the wild than they really are. 

The populations of most megafauna — from hippos to giraffes and gorillas — remain in peril. 

Then there’s the risk of poaching. 

The rarer the species “the more value they provide for traditional medicine, for trophy hunting, and therefore they are poached more often”, said Franck Courchamp, an ecologist at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research. 

So the next time you see a picture of a Giant Chinese Salamander, remember that there’s more to saving Earth’s wild species than looks. 

Skipping — an exercise many people may not have tried since their school days on the playground — may actually be a great grownup workout because it puts less stress on the knees than running while burning more calories, a recent study suggests. 

Despite the many health benefits of running, the number of running-related injuries is on the rise and as many as 79 per cent of runners report injuries in any given year, researchers note in Gait and Posture. Injuries to the knees and lower extremities are common because running mechanics produce large amounts of force on the body with every stride — and because runners often develop repetitive stress injuries by allowing insufficient recovery time. 

For the current study, researchers compared the contact force on the knee for 20 healthy, young adults when they ran and skipped at the same speed. 

Compared to skipping, running produced almost twice the average peak force on the patella or kneecap in the front of the knee joint, the study found. Running also produced almost 30 per cent greater average peak force on the tibiofemoral joint, or the knee hinge formed between three bones: the femur, tibia and patella. 

Skipping, however, used 30 per cent more calories than running. 

“Certainly, running is an integral component of many athletic activities and we are not unaware of the aversion some people may have toward performing skipping as a standard component to their physical regime, but skipping has nonetheless emerged from this study as an alternative form of locomotion with untapped potential,” said lead study author Jessica McDonnell of East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. 

Simply put, the gait mechanics of the two types of exercise are different, and may have different outcomes for the body, McDonnell said by e-mail. 

“When people run they are executing a cyclical gait composed of alternating periods of absorption [stance] and propulsion [flight],” McDonnell explained. “Throughout the gait there is either one foot on the ground, [the] single limb support phase, or none, the flight phase.” 

By contrast, “when people skip [step and hop on one leg followed by a step and a hop on the opposite leg] a support phase is added not seen in running,” McDonnell continued. 

“The skipping gait patterns has a single limb support phase, double support phase, and a flight phase,” McDonnell said. “Due to the composition and execution of the gait, skipping has reduced vertical ground reaction force, decreased step length, increased cadence contributing to the attenuation of knee compressive forces.” 

Beyond the different gait pattern, the greater height people typically achieve with their legs when skipping may account for additional calories burned with this activity as compared with running, McDonnell said. 

The study participants ranged in age from 18 to 30; half were female. They were a healthy weight, on average, and they all participated in a training programme to practice skipping for distances just over 1.5 kilometres on a laboratory treadmill before their gait assessments. 

Then, researchers assessed participants’ gait mechanics and calories expended while they ran and skipped on a treadmill at identical speeds. 

It’s possible that the results for people who got trained in skipping on a treadmill might not reflect what would happen in the real world if people tried both activities on their own, the study authors note. 

 “With both running and skipping, people generally use a longer distance between steps and quicker pace than when walking, which may lead to more force through the knee from the ground,” said Mackenzie Herzog of the Injury Prevention Research Centre at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

“As with any physical activity, people who run and skip should listen to their body and talk to their doctor before starting new vigorous activities or if they have questions about exercising.” Herzog, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. “Gradually increasing duration and distance, taking rest days and cross-training, and using proper equipment, especially shoes, are recommended.” 

Children who develop cavities and gum disease may be more likely to develop risk factors for heart attacks and strokes decades later than children who have good oral health, a recent study suggests. 

Researchers did dental exams for 755 children in 1980, when they were eight years old on average, then followed them through 2007 to see how many of them developed risk factors for heart attacks and strokes like high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, high blood sugar and hardening of the arteries. 

Overall, just 33 children, or 4.5 per cent, had no signs of bleeding, cavities, fillings or pockets around teeth that can signal gum disease. Almost 6 per cent of the children had one of these four signs of oral infections, while 17 per cent had two signs, 38 per cent had three signs and 34 per cent had all four signs. 

Children who had even one sign of oral infection were 87 per cent more likely to develop what is known as subclinical atherosclerosis: structural changes and thickening in the artery walls that is not yet serious enough to cause complications. 

Children with all four signs of poor oral health were 95 per cent more likely to develop this type of artery damage. 

Oral infections are among the most common causes of inflammation-induced diseases worldwide, and periodontal disease in adults have long been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, researchers note in JAMA Network Open. 

Most people get cavities and gum disease for the first time in childhood, and these conditions can develop into more serious infections and tooth loss if they are not properly treated, the study authors note. Treating these oral health problems in childhood can also reduce inflammation and other risk factors for hardening of the arteries. 

“This emphasises how important good oral hygiene and frequent check-ups with a dentist starting early in life are for general health,” said lead study author Pirkko Pussinen of the University of Helsinki in Finland. 

“The children with a healthy mouth had a better cardiovascular risk profile [lower blood pressure, body mass index, glucose and cholesterol] throughout the whole follow-up period,” Pussinen said by e-mail. 

More than four in five children had cavities and fillings, and 68 per cent of them also had bleeding during dental exams. Slight pocketing around the gums was observed in 54 per cent of the kids, although it was more often found in boys than in girls. 

Both cavities and pocketing that can signal gum disease were associated with thickening of walls of the carotid arteries, blood vessels in the neck that carry blood from the heart to the brain. This indicates the progression of atherosclerosis and an increased risk for heart attacks and strokes. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how cavities or other oral health problems might directly cause heart attacks or strokes. Not everyone with subclinical atherosclerosis or other risk factors will go on to have a heart attack or stroke. 

Poor oral health in childhood was also associated with an increase in blood pressure and body mass index in early adulthood, noted co-author of an accompanying editorial Salim Virani of Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Centre in Houston. 

 “These could themselves be associated with poor heart health in adulthood,” Virani said by e-mail. Systemic inflammation associated with poor oral health is also linked to heart disease and stroke, Virani added. 

“Either the relationship shown in this study is causal or there are yet unmeasured confounders [risk factors] that are associated with both poor oral health as well as future risk of cardiovascular disease,” Virani said. “For example, could poor oral health be a marker of poor nutrition which itself is associated with cardiovascular disease, or could poor oral health be a marker of lower socioeconomic status which itself may be associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease in the future?”