SA could build nuclear security academy

SA could build nuclear security academy - South Africa is line to build a US-sponsored nuclear security training academy for English speaking countries around world, MPs heard on Friday.

Dan Moagi, group human rights executive for the SA Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), told the portfolio committee on energy that an agreement on the academy was recently concluded with the US.

"We have just concluded an agreement with the US for nuclear security training," he said.

"They are prepared to donate US2 million in this regard. The idea here is to build a security training academy. We are doing this in collaboration with the US.

"The focus is not to train nuclear security personnel for SA, but for English-speaking countries globally."

Moagi said Necsa was taking the idea "seriously" and was "busy with feasibilities now".

"Everything is taking shape," he said.

The corporation is also working with South Korea on a nuclear skills project. A group of South Korean nuclear experts visited South Africa last week.

"They are prepared to train our people free of charge. The financial expectation on our side is to make sure we pay travel expenses and boarding, but training will be for free. They are also prepared to take our people to South Korea."

The United Arab Emirates had also invited South Africa to take part in its project to build four nuclear power stations.

"They offered to give South Africans exposure during their nuclear build programme.

"So that by the time we start with our nuclear programme our people will have managed to have acquired practical skills in this regard."

Don Robertson, acting chief executive officer of Necsa, said the corporation's spending on "upskilling" nuclear workers was one of the reasons why it had run into financial difficulties.

"It's exactly this that is causing a problem for us now. We have upskilled to an extent that we are running into financial difficulties," he said.

The committee's chairman Sisa Njikelana said he was concerned about the corporation's vague and unclear plans on its role in the nuclear build programme.

"We are talking about a massive investment," he said.

"I would have loved to have had a couple of slides from Necsa articulating that this is what they are doing... with regards to their role for the nuclear build programme. We have to understand the bigger picture."

The South African government would have to make a decision soon on whether or not to build the country's next nuclear power station.

In February, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters called for the government to make a decision on its nuclear programme, saying the country was behind schedule on the national resources plan to generate around 9600MW of electricity at nuclear power stations by 2030.

She told an energy summit in Johannesburg that the government was focusing particularly on obtaining sources of uranium, the development of a uranium converter plant, a uranium enrichment plant and a plant for manufacturing nuclear fuel.

The process should have started in 2011, but was delayed after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

It was important for the government to "take another look" at safety matters.

"The fact that we weren't able to reach a decision last year means that our programme is behind schedule," Peters said.

Peters said the country had a serious shortage of skills for a nuclear power industry.

"It's clear that we will have to develop a strategy to obtain the skills to support the entire nuclear power programme," she said. ( timeslive.co.za )

READ MORE - SA could build nuclear security academy

Why Is Hair Growing Out of There?

Why Is Hair Growing Out of There? - You’re in the barber’s chair, secure in the knowledge, at least if you are male, that another haircut is drawing to a close as you hear the familiar buzz of the electric clippers flipping on and then feel them gliding up and down on the back of your neck. But what’s this? Has your barber taken a wrong turn? What are those clippers doing so close to your ear? What?! They’re actually in your ear. That can mean only one thing: you are now officially old, and you have the ear hair to prove it. It cannot get any worse than this, you think. And then the clippers make another turn and head . . . for your nose.

Readers who have stumbled on articles in this space before, whether by hitting a wrong link or mistakenly thinking they could learn about sailboat parts, may have noticed a pattern. First a description of the various indignities baby boomers may experience, and then the explanation for what is going on.

But when it comes to the day hair starts poking out of your ears and nose (a problem mainly for men) there’s plenty of indignity, but not so much explanation.

“I wish there was a good answer,” said Dr. Jeffrey Benabio of Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, Calif., a member of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Oddly enough, more research seems to have been done on why men lose their hair (treatment: expensive scalp creams) than on why they get too much of it (treatment: dime-store trimmers).

What is known, Dr. Benabio said, is that there are two kinds of hair: vellus, which is short and fine in texture, and terminal. Terminal hair is heavier, a characteristic that intensifies at puberty in the pubic area, the underarms and, in men, on the face. It also grows in the nose and ears. As people reach late middle age, more terminal hairs appear. “It is normal and unclear why this occurs,” Dr. Benabio said in an e-mail.

One explanation, Scientific American has reported, is that as men age, the hair follicles in the nose and ear become more sensitive to testosterone and also become bigger, producing larger hairs.

Women, too, experience changes in hair growth as a result of hormonal changes as they get older. After years of shaving, some are happy to find that they now have less hair on their legs and underarms. Others, though, have more hair, including on the face.

Even women who do not see changes in themselves may still have to contend with the issue. “Women ask me about the hair growing out of their husband’s ears, while the husband is sitting right there,” Dr. Benabio said. “He usually adds: ‘We’ve been married 40 years. What’s the difference?’ ” ( nytimes.com )

READ MORE - Why Is Hair Growing Out of There?

Japan fears nuclear plant sits atop active geological fault

Japan fears nuclear plant sits atop active geological fault - A nuclear plant in northwestern Japan may be sitting right on top of an active geological fault, the country's nuclear watchdog has said, raising the risk that the facility may never resume power generation for fear of an earthquake.

For the first time in more than 40 years, Japan faces the prospect of having no nuclear power within weeks, after last year's crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crushed public trust in nuclear power and prevented the restart of reactors shut for regular maintenance checks.

Japan Atomic Power Co.'s Tsuruga nuclear power plant is seen in Tsuruga, Fukui prefecture, July 2, 2011. JAPAN-NUCLEAR/ARCADE REUTERS/Issei Kato

The fault fracture zone under the No.1 and No.2 units of the 1,517-megawatt Tsuruga plant could be an active fault that could move jointly with a confirmed nearby active fault, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) found in a site survey on Tuesday, a spokesman for the plant's operator said.

The operator, unlisted Japan Atomic Power Co, denies the existence of an active fault right under the plant, citing its geological assessment, but the NISA has ordered an additional investigation following its findings, the spokesman said.

Nuclear power, long advertised as safe and cheap, provided almost 30 percent of Japan's electricity before the crisis, but now all but one of Japan's 54 reactors are off-line, mainly for maintenance. The last reactor will shut down on May 5.

Japan has rules against installing a nuclear plant on top of an active fault that has moved within the last 120,000 to 130,000 years, and the Tsuruga site could be declared unfit to host a nuclear plant.

The plant's 357-MW No.1 unit and the 1,160-MW No.2 unit have been shut since last year for planned maintenance.

Japan Atomic Power had previously aimed to add No.3 and No.4 units at the plant, with capacity of 1,538 MW each, by 2018, but the plan has stalled, reflecting public worries over nuclear power after the Fukushima plant was wrecked in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, triggering radiation leaks that caused mass evacuations and widespread contamination.

The restart of the No.1 unit, which began operation in 1970, has been uncertain in light of Japan's plans to limit the life of reactors to 40 years, and permit extensions only under stringent terms. The company had planned to scrap the Tsuruga No.1 unit in 2016. ( Reuters )

READ MORE - Japan fears nuclear plant sits atop active geological fault

Finger Length Linked to Penis Size

Finger Length Linked to Penis Size - Hold up your right hand. Are your index and ring fingers close to the same size? Congratulations, you're more likely than men with mismatched digits to have a long penis.

A smaller ratio between the second and fourth fingers is linked to a longer stretched penis size, researchers report today (July 4) in the Asian Journal of Andrology. The findings go beyond providing a new finger ratio-based pick-up line for men in bars, however; researchers say that a quick look at a man's fingers could reveal his exposure to male hormones in the womb, providing a hint about his risk for hormone-driven diseases like prostate cancer.

The idea that men's finger ratio and hormone exposure are linked is not a new one. Studies have found that the ratio between the second and fourth finger is related to sperm count, likelihood of heart attack, hand preference, facial masculinity and more. One small 2002 study published in the journal Urology found a correlation between the length of the index finger and genital size in healthy men under 40, suggesting that testosterone exposure in the womb affects the growth of both.

Stretched penis length

In the new study, researchers at Gachon University Gil Hospital in South Korea recruited 144 volunteers 20 years of age and older who were going to undergo urological surgery. While the men were under anesthesia, the researchers measured their finger lengths and both their flaccid and stretched penis lengths. Stretched penis length is statistically correlated to the size of the penis when fully erect.

The average flaccid penis length, the researchers found, was 3.0 inches (7.7 centimeters), with a range of 1.6 to 4.7 in. (4 to 12 cm). Stretched lengths ranged from nearly 3.0 to 6.7 in. (7.5 to 17 cm), with an average of 4.6 in. (11.7 cm).

The average ratio between the two fingers was 0.38 in. (0.97 cm), with a range of 0.35 to 0.44 in. (0.88 to 1.12 cm), making the differences hard to make out with the unaided eye. But the lower the digit ratio, the study found, the longer the penis was likely to be.

Testosterone in the womb

The prenatal hormone exposures and genetic processes that link fingers to penises are still unknown, the researchers wrote, though testosterone in the womb seems to play a role. If the findings hold, wrote Skidmore College biologist Denise Brooks McQuade in an editorial accompanying the study, digit ratio could provide an at-a-glance measure for doctors to gauge how much testosterone their patients were exposed to in the womb.

That makes digit-ratio measurement far more than a fancy bar trick, wrote McQuade, who was not involved in the research.

"'Hotness' aside, the value of digit ratio research for the biomedical scientist or clinician may come from the predictive abilities and risk-assessment qualities of the measurement for clinical conditions," she wrote. ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Finger Length Linked to Penis Size

Blood work

Blood work - HE comes early in the morning, right on time, at 7am, with his little trolley filled with the tools of his trade. Then he proceeds to methodically extract blood from warm, living bodies, carefully making sure that he doesn’t inflict unnecessary pain on his ‘victims’.

This is real life, not reel life. Its’s not Bill Compton in True Blood supplementing his food source, but a young doctor doing the rounds, checking his patients.

The blood that is taken will be sent to the lab for analysis, and the patient’s condition assessed once the test results are out.

To some, it’s a daily ordeal, especially those with serious conditions. For others, it might be one test before admission, and one before discharge.

C-reactive protein is an indicator of inflammation in the body. Elevated levels may indicate inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or vasculitis

Blood tests are part and parcel of daily living for many patients who’re in hospital, especially those with serious conditions. But for those lucky ones on the other side of the fence, what part do blood tests play in our lives?

Safeguarding health

According to medical practitioner Dr C.S. Foo, blood tests have a role in safeguarding health, especially those living with chronic conditions.

“Take the example of a person with high cholesterol. I would do a blood test every three or six months to check his progress. Otherwise, it’s an annual check-up to make sure that everything is fine,” he observes.

Blood tests are but one of the many tools that doctors use to help them with their work. As Dr Foo observes, it’s but one small part of the process.

“The doctor needs to take a full history and carry out a thorough physical examination on the patient. Based on what he finds, then other tests could be indicated if he suspects something amiss,” he explains. “It could be just a blood test, or there may be a need for scans and other tests.”

Blood tests are very common aspects of a doctor’s work. They help doctors check for certain diseases, and they are useful to assess the progress of the disease, as well as treatment effectiveness.

Some of the common blood tests include a full blood count, blood chemistry tests, blood metabolic profile, and even cancer markers.

“A full blood count is useful to detect many conditions, such as thalassaemia and bone marrow problems. This is the haematological component of the test.

“Then there’s the lipid profile. I do tend to look at triglyceride levels, what with the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome these days. (This is generally defined as disturbed lipid levels, central obesity, high blood pressure, abnormal glucose levels. The definition differs, depending on which authority you’re referring to.)

“Liver function tests are useful, and in my case, I usually look for fatty liver disease when I order it for some of my patients,” explains Dr Foo.

“HbA1C is important, especially with the prevalence of diabetes these days. It’s an indicator of a person’s average glucose levels for the past two to three months, and can help identify those who have pre-diabetes,” he adds.

The blood reveals many secrets of the human body, and as such, blood tests have remained important tools of the medical trade. It says much that the basic form of the test hasn’t changed for the past 20 years or so, though new elements have been added in.

“These days, we can also look at homocysteine and C-reactive protein, indicators of inflammation in the body,” notes Dr Foo.

According to Dr Foo, some cancer markers may be useful, especially if the person is older and has a family history of certain cancers. “These may make us more careful, and we may check accordingly,” remarks Dr Foo.

In general, most blood tests do not require any special preparation, and the whole process should take only a few minutes. There are, however, some tests that may require advanced preparation. For example, fasting blood glucose requires fasting (about eight to 12 hours before the test).

And really, having your blood taken is not such a painful process, so long as the person taking it is experienced at it.

Test results can be obtained anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks, depending on what you’re being tested for.

When in doubt, ask

There have been many reports of unnecessary tests being carried out on patients. It’s important for patients to ask their doctors why such tests are being done.

After all, it’s your body that’s being poked and prodded, and you have the right to know why.

Dr Foo advises: “It’s no use having a blood test if you do not know what it’s being done for. And once you get the results, you should be seeking the advice of your doctor as to what you should do next.”

Yes, otherwise, it’s just a bunch of abbreviations and numbers attached to them, without any meaning at all to the average man or woman.

In general, Dr Foo recommends an annual blood test for adults, just to make sure that everything is fine.

At the end of the day, blood work may make many of us uncomfortable, but if it helps us keep healthy, it’s a discomfort that we should be able to put up with. After all, it’s only once a year ... we hope. ( thestar.com.my )

READ MORE - Blood work

Five Ways to Torpedo Your Retirement

Five Ways to Torpedo Your Retirement - Couples who work hard all their lives often eagerly look forward to retirement. But working for 30 or more years doesn't guarantee that you will be able to retire comfortably. Here are five common retirement planning errors that generally torpedo your ability to retire.

• Too much debt. Having debt is not the kiss of death for your retirement. But high interest debt such as credit card debt could be, especially if you can't figure out how to get out of debt and begin saving for the future. It's extremely difficult to invest for retirement when you are still paying off past purchases.

• Spend your retirement savings on college. Some couples make it a financial priority to pay for their children's college so that they will not begin their careers with debt. However, when you tap your home equity, stop saving for retirement, or even raid your retirement accounts to pay for your children's college, you may be sacrificing your own retirement security. On top of that, you will be missing a golden opportunity to teach your kids about money. There are a variety of ways to finance college, but you can't take out loans for retirement.

• No emergency plan. Most of us are completely dependent on the money we receive from a single job. Losing that job can easily exhaust your savings and jeopardize your entire financial plan. It's important to develop an emergency fund and plan before you hit those stormy waters. Consider taking on a second job or developing a side business to diversify your income streams in case a layoff should occur.

• No long-term investment strategy. Some people change their investment allocation based on the latest financial news. This can be a huge mistake. If you pulled money out of equities when the market tumbled in 2008, you also didn't take advantage of the market recovery that has since occurred. Retirement savers need to accept that there will be fluctuations in mutual fund performance and invest for the long term. The only way to combat this type of emotional investing is to have a well thought out investment plan for retirement income that balances financial needs with emotional demands. Then you need to stick with that investment plan throughout financial storms.

• No retirement plan. The most dangerous mistake individuals can make is having no retirement plan. Financial plans are not set in stone and you won't be able to foresee every contingency. But having an approximate roadmap you can follow is better than having no plan.

You can be smart, responsible, and hard-working and still end up without enough resources for a secure retirement. In order to make sure this doesn't happen to you, take the time to put together a plan, track your spending, and don't get into debt if you can help it. Think through your investment strategy and stick to it even when you feel tempted to change it. ( news.yahoo.com )

READ MORE - Five Ways to Torpedo Your Retirement

Corals Moving North to Escape Warming

Corals Moving North to Escape Warming - Corals may be dying in tropical areas, but now it appears they are expanding their range poleward, scientists find.

Corals are critical to ocean life, forming reefs that are home to a dazzling array of species. Despite occupying less than 1 percent of the ocean floor — an area about half the size of France — temperate and tropical reefs provide a home for as much as 25 percent of the world's marine species. Only tropical rain forests can compete with the sheer concentration of biodiversity found in coral reefs.

Unfortunately, corals are especially vulnerable to changes in temperature. As the oceans warm due to Earth's changing climate, corals are dying in tropical areas where the warm waters cause them to expel the symbiotic algae that provide them with nutrients — a process called bleaching.

However, this warming could give corals opportunities as well. Scientists find that as temperatures in higher latitudes rise, coral are expanding poleward.

Geographer Hiroya Yamano, at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Japan, and his colleagues investigated 80 years of national records from temperate areas around Japan. Wintertime sea surface temperatures rose by as much as 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit (2.4 degrees Celsius) in those sites during that period.

The scientists found that four of the nine coral species they studied in these areas in the Northern Hemisphere expanded their range northward since the 1930s as quickly as 8.7 miles (14 kilometers) per year. None of the coral species went south toward the tropics.

"I find the speed — 14 kilometers per year — is stunning," Yamano told OurAmazingPlanet.

These findings might be good news for corals, "but for corals only," Yamano said. Other research suggests that warming waters might spur exotic species to invade new areas, which could negatively impact native marine species.

"Further, even if range expansion of corals does occur, the amount of dying corals in tropical areas may be much greater than the new settlements in the temperate regions," Yamano added.

Yamano added this research only looked at occurrence of corals, not at their abundance. The team will launch a monitoring program to examine settlement and growth of corals at a number of sites to get a better picture of how corals are shifting, he said.

Yamano and his colleagues Kaoru Sugihara and Keiichi Nomura detailed their findings online Feb. 17 in the journal Geophysical Review Letters. ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Corals Moving North to Escape Warming

B.C.'s 1st pterosaur fossil identified

B.C.'s 1st pterosaur fossil identified - Pacific beach rocks reveal new species of prehistoric flying reptile - A new species of prehistoric flying reptile has been identified from a fossil found on B.C.'s Hornby Island.

The pterosaur Gwawinapterus beardi likely soared through tropical forests inhabited by dinosaurs — its evolutionary cousins — during the late Cretaceous period about 70 million years ago, reported University of Alberta paleontologist Victoria Arbour.

Her findings appear in the January issue of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.

The fossil was found inside a rock on a beach on Hornby Island. The scale bar represents 10 centimetres. (Victoria Arbour/University of Alberta)

During the late Cretaceous period, Hornby Island was located in the area where California is today and was lusher and steamier.

The new species is the first pterosaur ever found in B.C., the second species of pterosaur ever found in Canada and the first "uniquely Canadian" species, said Arbour, a Ph.D. student who is originally from Halifax, N.S.


The reptile was identified from a fossil jawbone discovered by Graham Beard, a well-known fossil collector who runs the Vancouver Island Paleontological Museum in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island. Arbour named the species after him.

Fossil hunting isn't as easy in B.C. as it is in the Alberta, where entire dinosaur fossils are dug up in the badlands of Dinosaur National Park, Arbour noted.

In B.C., fossil hunters comb the beaches along the Pacific coast.

"They basically pick up rocks, and they crack them open, and sometimes, they have fossils inside," Arbour said.

Beard found what he thought to be a dinosaur bone inside a rock on the beach of Hornby Island, one of the Gulf Islands off the east coast of Vancouver Island.

Victoria Arbour, shown here with the tail club of an armoured dinosaur, compared the teeth on a jawbone found on Hornby Island to those of dinosaurs, fish, marine reptiles, birds and other pterosaurs before figuring out what it was. (Courtesy of Victoria Arbour/University of Alberta)

He passed it on to Arbour's supervisor, Philip Currie, a dinosaur expert. He, in turn, gave Arbour the task of identifying it. Currie later co-authored the paper describing the pterosaur.

Arbour examined the fossil's distinctive, arrow-like teeth attached to the jawbone and compared them to the teeth of various dinosaurs, marine reptiles, lizards, fish and birds.

At first, she didn't consider pterosaurs because known pterosaurs during the late Cretaceous didn't have teeth but a friend encouraged her to explore the possibility.

Finally, Arbour found a paper showing teeth that looked very similar to the ones she had been examining. They belonged to a Chinese pterosaur from the early Cretaceous.

Arbour drew this image of Gwawinapterus beardi in the style of the local First Nations of Hornby Island based on the characteristics of similar pterosaurs species. (Victoria Arbour/University of Alberta)

'Piranha teeth'

The distinctive features of the teeth ruled out possibilities other than pterosaurs.

"The teeth look a little bit like piranha teeth the way that they're packed really close together," Arbour said.

They sit at the end of a long snout, so Arbour thinks the pterosaur may have been good at "sticking its nose in [and] nibbling the food off" bones that had already been picked over by other animals. It may also have hunted prey such as small dinosaurs, lizards or fish.

Based on the jaw alone, she thinks the pterosaur may have had a wingspan of three metres. However, other bones would be needed for a better estimate.

Arbour hopes the discovery of other pterosaur bones in B.C. will be more likely now that fossil hunters are aware that pterosaurs lived in the area.

"If people keep their eyes open while they're out looking on those beaches, you never know what you might find," she said. ( cbc.ca )

READ MORE - B.C.'s 1st pterosaur fossil identified

NASA Releases First 360-Degree View of Entire Sun

NASA Releases First 360-Degree View of Entire Sun - NASA has released the first 360-degree view of the entire sun today, just in time for Super Bowl Sunday.

The photo comes courtesy of NASA's twin STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) spacecraft, which aligned exactly opposite each other on opposite sides of the sun to capture the image.

The ability to see the whole sun, front to back, will allow scientists to better understand complicated solar weather patterns and plan for future robotic or crewed spacecraft missions throughout the solar system, researchers said.

"The sun is a truly complex object which influences many aspects of our lives," Richard Harrison, principal investigator for the U.K. instruments on STEREO, said in a statement. "In the same way that you would not expect to understand the workings of the brain by studying just a small part of it, a global investigation into the nature of our star as a complete object is essential to understanding how it works."

Harrison is also co-investigator of NASA's SDO mission (Solar Dynamics Observatory), which contributed to the new 360-degree view with high-resolution sun photos taken from orbit.

Scientists particularly want to better predict space weather and the violent eruptions that can spout from the sun's surface. These eruptions can damage satellites, disrupt communications and disable power systems on Earth.

NASA's STEREo spacecraft artist's illustration.

"Solar missions such as STEREO and SDO not only give us more information about star formation and evolution throughout our universe, but are of vital importance in our quest to further understand the sun's processes and the effect they can have on our planet and way of life," said David Parker, director of space science and exploration for the U.K. Space Agency. "This spectacular 360-degree view is another triumph for the STEREO mission, which continues to obtain some of the best images yet of the sun."

The two identical spacecraft of the NASA STEREO mission were launched in October 2006. They are offset from one another, one flying ahead of the Earth and the other behind.

SDO is the first mission in NASA's Living with a Star program and was launched in February 2010. SDO's unique orbit allows high-resolution images of the sun to be recorded every three-quarters of a second. ( foxnews.com )

READ MORE - NASA Releases First 360-Degree View of Entire Sun

What Water Temperatures Are Warm Enough for Swimming?

What Water Temperatures Are Warm Enough for Swimming? - Swimming in the water can be refreshing and relaxing in warm temperatures. Whether you choose to swim laps at your local pool or at the lake, swimming allows for a beneficial cardiovascular workout. You should take into account the water temperature before diving in. Normally, water should be around 80 degrees to swim safely cites Boy Scouts of America.

What Water Temperatures Are Warm Enough for Swimming?

Water Temperature

Some locations such as a home pool allow you to have more control over the temperature. This allows your preference to play a role when choosing the temperature that you swim in. Other locations such as a public pool maintain a certain temperature year round. No matter what the swimming location, some individuals may prefer cooler water and some prefer warmer. The best temperature for swimming ranges between 78 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the American Red Cross.


Hot Water

When swimming in hot water, there can be water quality issues, cites the American Red Cross. Water that is too warm may lead to stagnate; green murky water cites Boy Scouts of America. This can lead to insect infestations or diseases that are easily spreadable in such warm temperatures. For instance, the West Nile Virus is prevalent in such conditions.


Cold Water

Swimming in water that is colder than recommended may have negative side effects on your body. KidsHealth.org cites that cold water can cause your blood pressure and heart rate to rise. Furthermore, cold water may stiffen your muscles making it difficult to swim and maneuver your body, requiring you to be more careful in cold water. Last, if your body does receive a shock when entering cold water and you try scream, water may unexpectedly enter your mouth and cause you to choke cites KidsHealth.org.


Safety Precautions

You should practice safety precautions at all times, while swimming. One precaution you should take is test the depth of the water that you plan to swim in. If swimming in a pool, the depth is often labeled and can be referenced, cites KidsHealth.org. This precaution ensures that you do not dive in too shallow water. Furthermore, if you are playing in a pool, you should be careful around diving boards and edges to avoid cuts and scrapes. According to KidsHealth.org, it is always important to watch a child around water as drowning can happen within two minutes. ( livestrong.com )

READ MORE - What Water Temperatures Are Warm Enough for Swimming?

Sesame and nut allergies may often strike together

Sesame and nut allergies may often strike together – Compared to children without peanut or tree nut allergies, kids who have both these allergies may also be more likely to develop an allergy to sesame seeds, a small study suggests.

The researchers linked a history of dual allergic reactions to peanuts and tree nuts with a 10-fold higher risk of allergy to sesame seeds - the tiny seeds that are commonly found in hummus and on hamburger buns.

The researchers also looked for a link between nut allergies and coconut allergies, but they did not find one.

More than 3 million people in the U.S. have an allergy to peanuts, tree nuts or both -- the foods also most notorious for triggering severe allergic reactions in children.

Some recent evidence has hinted that children with these allergies may be more prone to developing allergies to previously less-recognized triggers, such as sesame.

"I certainly screen my patients with peanut and tree nut allergy for sesame seed allergy," Dr. David Fleischer of National Jewish Health in Denver told Reuters Health.

Coconut has also appeared on the radar of allergists, particularly since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new labeling laws that categorize it as a tree nut.

"In reality, it is a palm fruit," added Fleischer, who was not involved in the new study but has published widely on peanut and tree nut allergies. "The FDA has confused the public."

To help sort out these relationships, Dr. Wanda Phipatanakul, of Children's Hospital Boston, and her colleagues studied the medical records of 191 children who had skin prick tests for sesame allergy and 40 who had tests for coconut allergy.

About 37 percent and 20 percent of the kids had positive test results to sesame and coconut, respectively, suggesting that their immune systems produced antibodies in reaction to the food.

When the researchers looked only at the children who had already proved sensitive to peanuts or tree nuts, between 50 percent and 60 percent showed sensitivity to sesame. Overall, they had a 6- to 10-fold higher risk of sesame sensitivity compared to children who did not have peanut or tree nut sensitivity, the researchers report in the medical journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

But just because kids are "sensitized" doesn't mean they are truly allergic, Phipatanakul told Reuters Health in an e-mail.

Between 13 percent and 15 percent of peanut and tree nut allergic children were actually allergic to sesame, which turned out to be about the same proportion as among kids who didn't have the nut allergies.

The rate of sesame allergy jumped up to 50 percent for children allergic to both nuts, however.

Coconut sensitization or allergy, on the other hand, did not appear to be related to kids' reactions to peanut, tree nut or both.

"Most patients that are tree nut allergic don't really have to avoid coconut," noted Fleischer.

The findings are also consistent with earlier research connecting peanut and sesame allergies, he said.

However, both Fleischer and Phipatanakul pointed to limitations in the study, including its small size and lack of food challenges, the "gold standard" for diagnosing food allergies. They noted that more studies are needed to fully understand the relationships.

"We pretty much know that all food allergies are on the rise, particularly peanut. But this doesn't necessarily say that sesame seed allergy is an epidemic by itself," said Fleischer. "We just know it is associated with peanut, and we need to be aware that patients are at risk and should to be tested for it."

"If someone has a concern about any allergy they should always see an allergist," he added. "Any person can react to any food." ( Reuters )

READ MORE - Sesame and nut allergies may often strike together

Nodding on? Sleeping is the best way to absorb knowledge

Nodding on? Sleeping is the best way to absorb knowledge, scientists claim - It's surprising news bound to bring joy to students studying for exams everywhere.

The best way to memorise newly-acquired knowledge is to go to sleep, scientists believe.

Researchers in Germany found that the brain is better during sleep than during wakefulness at resisting attempts to scramble or corrupt a recent memory.

Their study, published in Nature Neuroscience, provides new insights into the hugely complex process by which we store and retrieve deliberately acquired information -- learning, in short.

Sweet dreams: The brain is better during sleep than during wakefulness at resisting attempts to scramble or corrupt a recent memory, scientists found

Fresh memories, stored temporarily in a region of the brain called the hippocampus, do not gel immediately, earlier research showed.

It was also known that reactivation of those memories soon after learning plays a crucial role in their transfer to more permanent storage in the brain's 'hard drive', the neocortex.

During wakefulness, however, this period of reactivation renders the memories more fragile.

Learning a second poem at this juncture, for example, will likely make it harder to commit the first one to deep memory.

Dr Bjorn Rasch, of the University of Lubeck in Germany, and three colleagues assumed that the same thing happens when we sleep, and designed an experiment to find out if they were right.

Twenty-four volunteers were asked to memorise 15 pairs of cards showing pictures of animals and everyday objects. While performing the exercise, they were exposed to a slightly unpleasant odour.

Forty minutes later, half the subjects who had stayed awake were asked to learn a second, slightly different pattern of cards.

Just before starting, they were again made to smell the same odour, designed to trigger their memory of the first exercise.

The 12 other subjects, meanwhile, did the second exercise after a brief snooze, during which they were exposed to the odour while in a state called slow-wave sleep.

Both groups were then tested on the original task.

Much to the surprise of the researchers, the sleep group performed significantly better, retaining on average 85 per cent of the patterns, compared to 60 per cent for those who had remained awake.

Lead author Dr Susanne Diekelmann said: 'Reactivation of memories had completely different effects on the state of wakefulness and sleep.

'Based on brain imaging data, we suggest the reason for this unexpected result is that already during the first few minutes of sleep, the transfer from hippocampus to neocortex has been initiated.'

After only 40 minutes of sleep, significant chunks of memory were already 'downloaded' and stored where they 'could no longer be disrupted by new information that is encoded in the hippocampus', she explained.

Dr Diekelmann said the positive impact of short periods of sleep on memory consolidation could have implications for memory-intensive activities such as language training.

The findings also point to a strategy for helping victims of post-traumatic stress syndrome, a debilitating condition caused by extreme experiences.

The reactivation techniques 'might prove useful in re-processing and un-learning unwanted memories,' she said.

'And reactivation of newly learned memories during ensuing sleep could then help consolidate the desired therapeutic effects for the long-term.' ( dalymail.co.uk )

'Reactivation of memories had completely different effects on the state of wakefulness and sleep'

READ MORE - Nodding on? Sleeping is the best way to absorb knowledge

Good vintage from 6000-year-old winery

Good vintage from 6000-year-old winery - The earliest known winery has been uncovered in a cave in the mountains of Armenia.

A vat to press the grapes, fermentation jars and even a cup and drinking bowl dating to about 6000 years ago were discovered in the cave complex by an international team of researchers.

While older evidence of wine drinking has been found, this is the earliest example of complete wine production, said Gregory Areshian of the University of California who was co-director of the excavation.

The winery had a vat to press the grapes and fermentation jars as well as the remains of vines. Photo / AP

The findings, announced this week by the National Geographic Society, are published in the online edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

"The evidence argues convincingly for a wine-making facility," said Patrick McGovern, scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, who was not part of the research team.

Such large-scale wine production implies the Eurasian grape had already been domesticated, said McGovern, author of Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages.

The Armenian area was also the site of the discovery of the oldest leather shoe, dated about 5500 years ago, which was reported last northern summer.

According to the archaeologists, inside the cave was a shallow basin about 1m across that was positioned to drain into a deep vat.

The basin could have served as a wine press where people stomped grapes with their feet.

The excavators also found grape seeds, remains of pressed grapes and dozens of dried vines.

The seeds were from the same type of grapes - Vitis vinifera vinifera - still used to make wine. ( nzherald.co.nz )

READ MORE - Good vintage from 6000-year-old winery