Features

By Gary Robbins 

SAN DIEGO — UC San Diego graduate Jessica Meir and fellow astronaut Christina Koch made history before most of California woke up on Friday, becoming the first all-female team of astronauts to perform a spacewalk.

Meir and Koch floated out of the International Space Station shortly before 5am Pacific Daylight Time for a roughly 5.5 hour mission to repair a power unit that recently broke.

Within minutes, they set to work, attached to the exterior of space station, which is streaking around earth at a speed of about eight kilometres per second.

The spacewalk was being broadcast live at NASA.gov.

Koch left the station first and was quickly followed by the 42 year-old Meir, who was carrying a tool bag. She was soon working from P6, a large part of the super structure that was built by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) in Huntington Beach. A ground controller warned her to be careful of “sharp edges”.

She is wearing an all white spacesuit. Koch is wearing a white spacesuit with a red stripe. She was working from a robotic arm controlled from inside space station.

Meir, who earned her doctorate at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is making her first spacewalk. Koch is making her fourth.

Meir flew to space station in late September to carry out a six month mission, most of which will be spent on scientific research. When asked by the Union-Tribune how she thought the mission would change her, the Maine native said, “I have given that a lot of thought. I think that [author] Frank White described it best as the ‘overview effect.’

“It affects you in two main ways. First of all, in appreciating how fragile and how special our home planet earth is. Seeing that very thin layer of the atmosphere, seeing the oceans, seeing all the land forms.

I’m quite an avid environmentalist. Of course, a lot of that goes back to my time at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and understanding the remarkable biodiversity we have here on our home planet.”

Friday’s mission represented a moment of good fortune for UCSD, which is celebrating homecoming this weekend. Meir was equipped with a GoPro camera developed by fellow UCSD alum Nick Woodman.

During today’s flight, NASA allowed the public to post questions about the mission on Twitter. The questions have ranged from “Does the @Astro—Jessica and @Astro—Christina believe in God? Does this help them in space mission?” to “Mrs McKnight’s 6th graders want to know how you protect your eyes from the sun? And what do sunrises look like in space?”.

NASA says that “Koch will be wearing the spacesuit with the red stripes, and views from her helmet camera will have the number 18, while Meir’s spacesuit does not have stripes, and her helmet camera view will be number 11”.

“The spacewalk will be the 221st in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades and the eighth outside the station this year. Meir will be the 15th woman to spacewalk, and the 14th US woman. NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space in October 1984.

“Both Koch and Meir, selected as astronaut candidates in 2013, are on their first spaceflight. Koch will remain in space for an extended duration mission of 11 months to provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman to prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars.”

PARIS — Increasingly popular raw meat meals for dogs and cats may be full of multi-drug resistant bacteria, posing a serious risk to animals and humans, scientists reported on Wednesday.

Three-quarters of samples purchased and tested in Switzerland exceeded recommended limits of bacteria known to cause gastro-intestinal infections, and more than half had bugs impervious to drugs designed to kill them, they reported in Royal Society Open Science. 

“It is really worrying that we found EBSL-producing bacteria in over 60 per cent of samples,” said first author Magdalena Nuesch-Inderbinen, a researcher at the University of Zurich, referring to an enzyme that renders some antibiotics ineffective.

“They include several types of E. coli which can cause infections in humans and animals.”

Sales of raw pet food — sometimes called “biologically appropriate raw food”, or BARF — have soared in recent years, especially for dogs. Paleo-like diets are said to boost canine vitality and immunity, even if there is scant research to back up such claims.

Indeed, veterinary medical associations in the United States and Canada have raised concerns about raw meat pet food, with reports showing it to be a source of Salmonella and infectious yersiniosis in dogs.

And that, Nuesch-Inderbinen told AFP, is a problem for humans.

“Raw meat-based diets may be contaminated with bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics, including those categorised by the World Health Organisation as critically important for human medicine,” she wrote by e-mail.

“There is growing evidence that these pathogens pose a risk of infectious disease to humans not only during handling of feed, but also through the contamination of household surfaces and through close contact to the dogs and their feces.”

There are an estimated 140 million dogs and cats in the European Union, and at least as many in North America.

More generally, antibiotic resistance has became a major health crisis across the globe.

“The situation with multi-drug resistant bacteria has spiralled out of control in recent years,” said co-author Roger Stephan, a professor at the University of Zurich’s Institue for Food Safety and Hygiene.

The indiscriminate and sometimes inappropriate use of antibiotics have allowed surviving bugs to mutate into superbugs that outpace the development of new medicines.

Because of the overuse of antibiotics in the livestock production, animals raised for consumption have become a major reservoir for antimicrobial resistance.

“Like conventional pet food, most raw meat-based diets are based on the by-products of animals slaughtered for human consumption,” the study notes.

“We advise all dog and cat owners who want to feed their pets a ‘BARF’ diet to handle the food carefully and maintain strict hygiene standards,” said Nuesch-Inderbinen.

“Pet owners should be aware of the risk that their pet may be carrying multi-drug resistant bacteria and can spread them.”

By Marlowe Hood

NEW YORK/ SAN FRANCISCO — Google stepped up its smartphone ambitions on Tuesday with updated Pixel handsets, touting a move towards computing with a simple hand wave or spoken command.

Pixel 4 models boasting features including gesture and face recognition debuted at a “Made by Google” event showcasing new hardware infused with artificial intelligence (AI) to respond to motion and voice.

The Pixel 4 handset with a 5.7-inch display has a starting price of $799 in the United States and will be available globally starting October 24. A larger 6.3-inch Pixel XL will start at $899.

The new devices aim to ramp up Google’s challenge in the premium smartphone segment dominated by Samsung and Apple, which recently unveiled an iPhone 11 starting at $699.

Google also updated its Nest smart home cameras and speakers and announced its streaming game service Stadia would launch November 19.

While Pixel smartphones have struggled for traction in the smartphone market, they provide an opportunity to showcase the Android operating system’s capabilities and the Google Assistant digital aide.

Pixel 4 features improved camera capabilities, using AI to boost optical zoom and take better photos taken after dark, with a feature devoted to capturing images of the heavens at night.

Motion-sensing technology that Google has been working on for some time is built into Pixel 4 and will allow for some basic controls, such as silencing alarms or skipping to the next song, by holding up or waving hands. The handsets also include a “face unlock” feature similar to those on iPhones and other devices.

Amid antitrust reviews on both sides of the Atlantic over its online dominance, Google is seeking to diversify its business by adding more devices and services.

Stadia ready to go

The California-based internet titan will launch Stadia streaming game service on November 19, hoping to send console-quality play soaring into the cloud.

Stadia allows video game play on any internet-connected device, eliminating the need for game consoles.

Google updated products across its hardware line, from Nest smart home devices to Chromebook laptops and wireless ear buds.

A common theme was making it more natural to use Google to tap into the Internet and digital assistant capabilities naturally with voice or gestures at any time.

The notion of online services and machine smarts being all around and always ready to serve people instead of needing them to tap at smartphones or keyboards is referred to as “ambient computing”.

“Our vision for ambient computing is to create a single, consistent experience anywhere you go,” said Rick Osterloh, head of Google’s hardware division.

Google also built digital assistant capabilities into smart home products from its Nest unit in a move that shrewdly extends its reach, according to Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi.

“I really felt the bigger message today was about ambient computing and how the different products work together to highlight Google’s AI,” Milanesi said.

Google spotlighted product design and user privacy at the event, hitting on themes stressed by Apple as well as Microsoft, the analyst added.

Building in privacy

Google emphasised privacy enhancements in its line of products, which kept more personal data and computing functions on devices instead of sending it to datacentres in the cloud.

“Privacy is built in,” Google director of product management Sabrina Ellis said while introducing Pixel 4.

“New Google Assistant can respond to day-to-day requests on-device.”

Data processed on Pixel 4 handsets is “never saved or shared with other Google services,” she added.

The smartphones still need to reach into the cloud for requests such as checking whether flights are delayed or commute traffic troubled.

Pixel 4 users will be able to tell their devices to delete anything said to it that day or week, according to Ellis. A chip in the handset is also designed as a secure digital vault for personal data.

“More and more of Google’s story today is about on-device AI capabilities... it opens lots of possibilities for faster performance and better privacy,” Technalysis Research chief analyst Bob O’Donnell said in a Tweet.

Google also said it is ramping up investments in renewable energy, aiming to offset all the power required to make its hardware with green power.

PARIS — A third of the world’s nearly 700 million children under five years old are undernourished or overweight and face lifelong health problems as a consequence, according to a grim UN assessment of childhood nutrition released on Tuesday.

“If children eat poorly, they live poorly,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, unveiling the Fund’s first State of the World’s Children report since 1999. 

“We are losing ground in the fight for healthy diets.”

Problems that once existed at opposite ends of the wealth spectrum have today converged in poor and middle-income countries, the report showed.

Despite a nearly 40 per cent drop from 1990 to 2015 of stunting in poor countries, 149 million children four or younger are today still too short for their age, a clinical condition that impairs both brain and body development. 

Another 50 million are afflicted by wasting, a chronic and debilitating thinness also born of poverty. 

At the same time, half of youngsters across the globe under five are not getting essential vitamins and minerals, a long-standing problem UNICEF has dubbed “hidden hunger”.

Over the last three decades, however, another form of child malnutrition has surged across the developing world: excess weight. 

“This triple burden — undernutrition, a lack of crucial micronutrients, obesity — is increasingly found in the same country, sometimes in the same neighbourhood, and often in the same household,” Victor Aguayo, head of UNICEF’s nutrition programme, told AFP.

“A mother who is overweight or obese can have children who are stunted or wasted.”

Across all age groups, more than 800 million people in the world are constantly hungry and another 2 billion are eating too much of the wrong foods, driving epidemics of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

‘Hidden hunger’

Among children under five, diet during first 1,000 days after conception is the foundation for physical health and mental development. 

And yet, only two-in-five infants under six months are exclusively breastfed, as recommended. Sales of milk-based formula have risen worldwide by 40 per cent, and in upper middle-income countries such as Brazil, China and Turkey by nearly three-quarters.

Missing vitamins and minerals, meanwhile, can lead to compromised immune systems, poor sight and hearing defects. A lack of iron can cause anaemia and reduced IQ.

“It’s ‘hidden’ because you don’t notice the impact until it is too late,” Brian Keeley, editor-in-chief of report, told AFP.

“You don’t notice that the child is running a little slower than everyone else, struggling a bit in school.”

The rise of obesity, however, is plain to see.

The problem was virtually non-existent in poor countries 30 years ago, but today at least 10 per cent of under five year olds are overweight or obese in three-quarters of low-income nations.

“There needs to be a focus on obesity before it is too late,” said Keeley. “Unless you deal with it in a preventative way, you’re going to struggle to fix it later on.”

Cheap, readily available junk food, often marketed directly to kids, has made the problem much worse.

“Children are eating too much of what they don’t need — salt, sugar and fat,” Keeley added.

Progress in fighting undernourishment will also be hampered by climate change, the report warned. 

Tax sugary drinks

A single celsius degree of warming since the late-19th century has amplified droughts responsible for more than 80 per cent of damage and losses in agriculture. 

Earth’s average surface temperature is set to rise another two or three degrees by 2100.

Research by scientists at Harvard University, meanwhile, have shown that the increased concentration of CO2 in the air is sapping staple food crops of those essential nutrients and vitamins, including zinc, iron and vitamin B. 

“The impacts of climate change are completely transforming the food that is available and that can be consumed,” Aguayo said.

Making sure every child has access to a healthy diet must become a “political priority” if widespread malnutrition is to be conquered, especially in developing countries, the report said.

Taxes on sugary foods and beverages; clear, front-of-package labelling; regulating the sale of breast milk substitutes; limiting the advertising and sale of ‘junk food’ near schools — these and other measures could make a difference, it concluded. 

“The way we understand and respond to malnutrition needs to change,” said Fore. 

“It is not just about getting children enough to eat. It is above all about getting them to eat the right food.”

The recent rise of awareness about the danger of global warming is instructive, the authors said.

“Just as we have organised a movement around climate change, we need to mobilise civil society,” said Aguayo. “If our children are not fed healthy diets, we are putting a huge question mark on the future of our societies.”

A phenomenally powerful car with devastating good looks and on the mark dynamic abilities, the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera not only lives up brand enthusiasts’ expectations, but surpasses them and is the car to make a convert of the uninitiated.

Resurrecting the British brand’s iconic DBS nameplate the Superleggera’s layout, luxury and comfort are rooted in the “grand touring” segment, but it is honed and fettled to the level of a supercar. Based on the DB11 AMR grand tourer as a starting point, the DBS Superleggera is both reassuringly familiar, yet refreshingly different in its focused disposition and ferocious firepower.

Seductively predatory

Sharing the same roofline, waistline, Coke-bottle hips and proportions with the DB11 grand tourer, yet taking some styling cues and inspiration from the track-only limited production Aston Martin Vulcan’s predatory stance, the DBS Superleggera strikes a seductive note between elegance and aggression. Without resorting to overstated styling elements, the Superleggera oozes a sense of muscular urgency and sensual tension in it demeanour. Incorporating lower and sharper air dam and side sills, and adding a discrete rear spoiler, the Superleggera, however, even simplifies certain design elements to create a more viscerally-charged and less complex sense of appeal than the DB11.

Possibly the most beautiful modern-era Aston yet, the DBS Superleggera’s more visceral front design is dominated by a wide, full height grille with a honeycomb mesh replacing the DB-11’s horizontal slats. Snouty and hungry, the DBS’ grille is flanked by bigger, deeper side intakes and more rounded better looking headlights. 

It also features bigger bonnet extraction vents, restyled side vents and less jutting rear fascia, while slim, dramatically squinting and uncomplicated rear lights replace the DB11’s C-shaped design. The DBS also incorporates quad rear exhaust tips and a double rear air diffuser that generates 180kg downforce at its 340km/h top speed.

Epic ability

Top of the food chain among Aston’s regular model line-up, the DBS Superleggera is powered by more amply tuned version of the DB11’s 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine, which is mounted as low and far back under the bonnet to achieve a low centre of gravity and ideal within wheelbase weight distribution. Gaining as much as 85BHP and 147lb/ft over it DB11 relation the DBS cranks out an epic 715BHP at 6,500rom and 663lb/ft torque throughout an overarching 1,800-5,000rpm mid-range. And with a 72kg weight loss owing to its lightweight carbon-fibre body panels, the DBS’ performance is as devastating as its looks.

Demolishing the 0-100km/h benchmark in 3.4-seconds and the 0-161km/h dash in 6.4-seconds, the DBS also gains a shorter, more aggressive 2.93:1 final drive ratio for more explosive responsiveness. With warp speed-like on the move versatility, it can accelerate through 80-120km/h in just 2-seconds and onto 161km/h 2.2-seconds later, in fourth gear. Progressively urgent in unleashing it epic power potential and underwritten by an indefatigable reservoir of torque, the DBS is vicious in delivery yet silky smooth in operation, and even feel somewhat like a naturally-aspirated car in how swift its twin-turbos spool up and how seamlessly output builds to full boost.

Fast and focused

With a reworked exhaust system lending a more vocal and harmonic edge to its magnificent V12 engine, the DBS’s acoustics encompass a broad range from bass-heavy idle to a screaming, thundering and urgent climb to redline, and becomes more prominent in Sport+ driving mode. Meanwhile, its rear transaxle 8-speed automatic gearbox balances the engine for to achieve ideal weight distribution and shifts in a silky smooth and responsive manner. It too can be set to more immediate, succinct and aggressive shift patterns through the driving mode selector, whether driven automatically or through the fixed steering column-mounted manual mode paddle shifters.

Instantly reminiscent of the DB11 in how it drives with which it shares its front double wishbone and rear multilink suspension configuration, it, however, soon becomes apparent that the DBS is so much more focused. Settled and reassuringly planted on the road at speed, the DBS is undoubtedly a continent-shrinking and comfortable grand tourer. Driven through corners the DBS’ steering feels direct, precise, quick and meaty, without being fidgety. Pouncing into corners with immediacy and superbly taut body control, the DBS is nimble, balanced, and delivers intuitively exacting reactions and movements, yet is surprisingly resilient to either under- or over-steer.

Confidence and comfort

Taut, focused and agile with precise reflexes, the DBS also draws upon huge reserves of grip to deliver a level of road-holding commitment and confidence above and beyond some similar cars. Inspiring, reassuring and connected to drive, the DBS’s stability and traction systems seem to work with an effective yet unobstructive manner, while brake-based torque vectoring and a limited-slip rear differential enhance its agility and ability to manage it enormous power. Meanwhile ride quality is settled and buttoned down but smooth and supple enough in default driving mode, but can be made stiffer and more focused in Sport and Sport+ modes if desired.

Refined inside and luxuriously finished with high-end quilted leathers, woods, metals and Alcantara, the DBS’ is sumptuously and extravagantly welcoming. Well accommodating, supportive and comfortable in front, it is very much a driver’s car but with occasional use rear seats and a boot that accommodates weekend luggage for two, it practical as supercar go. Shrinking around the driver and easy to place through corners, the DBS also offers good front visibility, and blind spot warning, rear and bird’s eye view cameras for additional visibility and confidence in confined spaces, and is well-equipped with standard driver assistance, safety, convenience and infotainment features.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 5.2-litre, twin-turbocharged V12-cylinders

Compression ratio: 9.3:1

Valve-train: 48-valve, DOHC

Gearbox: rear-mounted 8-speed automatic

Drive-line: Rear-wheel-drive, limited-slip differential

Final drive: 2.93:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 715 (725) [533] @6,500rpm

Specific power: 137.4BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 422.3BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 663 (900) @1,800-5,000rpm

Specific torque: 172.9Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 531.6Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 3.4-seconds

0-161km/h: 6.4-seconds

80-120km//h: 2-seconds (4th gear)

80-161km/h: 4.2-seconds (4th gear)

Top speed: 340km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 12.28-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 285g/km

Length: 4,712mm

Width: 1,968mm

Height: 1,280mm

Wheelbase: 2,805mm

Track, F/R: 1,665/1,645mm

Weight distribution, F/R: 51 per cent/49 per cent

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Steering ratio: 13.09:1

Lock-to-lock: 2.4-turns

Suspension: Double wishbones/multilink, adaptive dampers

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated ceramic discs 410mm/360mm

Brake callipers, F/R: 6-/4-piston callipers

Tyres, F/R: 265/35ZR21/305/30ZR21

By Mariam Hakim

Relationships  and Couples Therapist 

Prolonged and accumulated exposure to stress from work, family and social obligations can lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout. Recognising the signs of emotional burnout is the first step towards taking better care of yourself.

We all go through stressful episodes and times in our life from which we mostly bounce back and easily manage to restore our emotional agility. But when stress and emotional drainage are continuous and catch us during a rough period in our life, without proper caretaking, it can have a huge negative impact on both our mental and physical health. Also, emotional exhaustion differs from one person to another — what causes stress for one person does not necessarily have the same effect on another.

Signs of emotional burnout

• Feeling emotionally drained 

• A foggy mind

• An increased desire to sleep

• Feeling down or depressed

• Tiredness

• Desire to spend time alone

• Experiencing physical pain such as headaches and muscle pain

• Increased sensitivity to the world around you

• Feeling overwhelmed and not having enough time for yourself

• Getting easily agitated

• Feeling like you have no power over your life

• Feeling stuck or trapped

Common triggers

• High pressure and demanding jobs

• Having a baby

• Raising children

• Looking after a sick family member

• Financial problems

• Going through a difficult divorce

• Death of a loved one

• Living with a chronic injury or illness

• Experiencing relationship betrayal

• A demanding and stressful social life

What can be done?

People around you may not understand your need to slow down and implement small daily life changes. Thus, it will be up to you to take care of you! Here are some tips to help you along the way:

• Learning to say “no”: Say “no” to some invitations, social obligations, people who ask for favours, for example, and try to reduce them to a place where they do not feel like a burden anymore and instead feel light and enjoyable. The ability to say “no” is highly linked to our self-confidence and self-esteem; people with low self-esteem find it difficult to say no as they tend to put other people’s needs before their own and fear the judgment and the disappointment of others. They think when they disappoint others that they will lose their love and acceptance. However, people who are genuine and really care for you will fully understand your needs and will help you implement them.

• Taking a break: Either take a vacation or simply slow down and spend some down time with yourself while doing something enjoyable, such as reading, watching a movie, gardening, pursuing a hobby or anything else that calms you and makes you feel grounded and connected with yourself.

• Exercising: Try to exercise daily for 30 minutes even if it is just going for a walk. Exercise releases endorphins and serotonin — both contribute to a healthy emotional state. Exercise also helps take your mind off your problems.

• Engaging in mindfulness: Mindfulness is the ability to stay present in the moment instead of living in the past or worrying about the future. This helps reduce stress and anxiety while working towards achieving emotional balance and health. You can achieve mindfulness by engaging in one or more of the following:

1 Meditation or yoga

2  Breathing exercises

3 Journaling your tho ghts and feelings

4 Learning to stay in the present by being mindful of your surroundings and engaging your senses of sight, hearing, smell and touch

5 Spending time in nature

•Connecting with a trusted friend: Meet up with a genuine person with whom you share a good connection and who is willing to listen to you empathetically while refraining from automatically giving you advice and trying to quickly fix things. Feeling heard and validated can have a huge effect on alleviating some of the stress. 

• Seeing a professional: Therapists and life coaches can help you process your issues and give you the right tools and techniques to help you manage your stress or whatever issues you need to work on.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

A teenage boy who subsisted primarily on junk food went blind from his poor diet, according to a new study.

The 17-year-old, who lives in the United Kingdom, first went to the doctor at age 14 complaining of tiredness, the Annals of Internal Medicine wrote in the study abstract. By the time his doctors discovered that nutrition was the probable cause, his vision was irrevocably damaged.

Though he was a self-described fussy eater, the teen was healthy in all other respects and wasn’t on any medication, said researchers at the University of Bristol in England. Tests showed he had a form of anemia and low vitamin B12 levels. After B12 injections and dietary advice, the doctor sent him home.

However, it did not end there. A year later the boy, who was then 15, had hearing loss and vision symptoms, but doctors couldn’t find a cause, the researchers said in a statement.

Two years after that, he was 17 and legally blind. That’s when they discovered a severe vitamin B12 deficiency, low copper and selenium levels, high zinc levels and “markedly reduced” vitamin D and bone mineral density, the researchers said.

He revealed that his diet consisted mainly of Pringles, French fries, white bread and occasionally some processed meats like ham and sausage.

“Since starting secondary school, the patient had consumed a limited diet of chips, crisps, white bread, and some processed pork,” the researchers said. “By the time the patient’s condition was diagnosed, the patient had permanently impaired vision.”

Researchers determined that the youth had given himself a case of nutritional optic neuropathy with his near-exclusive consumption of junk food.

They said such cases could rise given the world’s reliance on processed foods, but they also pointed to veganism as a possible eroder of vitamin B12 levels, which could also lead to malnutrition.

Some 2 billion people around the world are subject to deficiencies in micronutrients, study co-author Denize Atan, an ophthalmologist at Bristol Medical School and Bristol Eye Hospital, told Newsweek, but health professionals tend to downplay or be unaware of the link between nutrition, diet and visual health.

“Nutritional optic neuropathy [aka deficiency optic neuropathy] is a dysfunction of the optic nerve resulting from improper dietary content of certain nutrients essential for normal functioning of the nerve fibres,” says the US National Institutes of Health. “Most commonly, it results from folic acid and vitamin B complex deficiency associated with malnutrition or poor dietary habits, incorrectly applied vegetarian diet, or chronic alcohol abuse.”

If treated early, nutritional optic neuropathy can be reversed. The research team recommended that dietary history should also be obtained during physical examinations, in the same way that it’s routine to ask about smoking and alcohol intake.

“This may avoid a diagnosis of nutritional optic neuropathy being missed or delayed, as some associated visual loss can fully recover if the nutritional deficiencies are treated early enough,” the researchers said.

The study drew some criticism from scientists who said it did not definitively prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

“Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause optic neuropathy but it is very unusual to find dietary deficiency when animal products are consumed e.g. ham and sausages which are significant sources of the vitamin B12,” he told the Science Media Centre in London, according to CNN.

Even the researchers noted it was an extreme example. But they said that at the very least, it shows that nutritional deficits can take many guises.

“This case highlights the impact of diet on visual and physical health, and the fact that calorie intake and BMI are not reliable indicators of nutritional status,” Atan said in the researchers’ statement.

“Nutrition does not just depend on how much you eat but what you eat, and this case illustrates that fact,” Atan told Newsweek. “Here was a boy who consumed enough calories — he had normal height and weight and no visible signs of malnutrition — but he restricted his food to crisps and chips [fries] and a bit of processed pork. In other words, energy-dense foods of little nutritional value. The case illustrates the fact that calorie intake and BMI are not reliable indicators of nutritional status.”

By Theresa Braine

By Edward C. Baig 

Google is trying to help you not be a password weakling.

After all, you have more than two dozen online accounts, yet use the same password across most — if not all — of them. And because it is so darn difficult to remember a complex sequence of letters, numbers and special characters, the passwords that you do drum up are too easy to guess.

You’re not alone. According to a recently released poll by Harris Poll and Google, 75 per cent of Americans are frustrated with trying to keep track of their passwords.

So, Google is adding a new “Password Checkup” feature to the Chrome browser and the existing Google Account Password Manager that with a single click can warn you if your passwords are too weak or too often used in multiple places. The tool can also let you know if Google discovers passwords that have been compromised through a third-party breach.

Google timed its announcement to coincide with Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Previously, you had to add the Password Checkup tool as an extension to Chrome.

The move comes as Google’s privacy practices have been under the scrutiny of lawmakers, along with other tech giants Amazon and Facebook. Google also added new privacy tools for YouTube, Google Maps and the Google Assistant.

If a potential password vulnerability is flagged, you can update or change any at risk passwords by going to the website or app and saving it to your password manager when Google prompts you to do so.

The problem Google is trying to address obvious: If a malicious hacker is able to crack your password at single site, the attacker may very likely be able to break into numerous accounts with that identical password.

People are too lax with passwords.

And those passwords are way too often far from secure.

In the Harris/Google poll, 24 per cent of Americans have used such common passwords or variations on, “abc123”, “Password”, “123456”, and “Iloveyou”, among others. And 59 per cent have incorporated a name or birthday into an online account password, and 33 per cent a pet’s name.

What’s more, 27 per cent have attempted to guess someone’s else’s password, and of those people 17 per cent guessed right. The poll also revealed that about 10 per cent of Californians still have access to a password used by an ex-partner or roommate.

Google plans to integrate its password checkup technology into Chrome later in the year. The company says that if one of your usernames and passwords has been compromised in a known data breach, Google will show an automatic warning and suggest that you change your password.

Google also announced a series of other privacy and security-related measures.

It is rolling an “Incognito mode” feature into Google Maps that promises to keep the searches within Maps private. Such searches won’t be saved to your Google Account and won’t be used to personalise your Maps experience. And yes, you can turn the mode off if you do want, say, tailored restaurant recommendations based on earlier searches or your commute. Incognito mode will start rolling out on Android this month, with iOS availability to follow later on.

Google is also expanding on an auto-delete feature by bringing it to YouTube. You can set the time frame in which to keep or discard your YouTube data — 3 months, 18 months, or until you choose to delete. It is similar to controls that were previously introduced for your web and app activity.

You can also use your voice to control privacy when engaging with the Google Assistant. If you ask questions such as “Hey Google, how do you keep my data safe?” the Assistant will respond with information about how the company attempts to do just that.

In the coming weeks, you’ll be able to delete the last thing you said to Google merely by asking. Or you might say, “Hey Google, delete everything I said to you last week.”

If you ask to delete more than a week’s worth of data from your account, the Assistant will direct you to the page in your account settings to complete the deletion.

Google is rolling out this voice feature in English next week, and in all other languages next month.

By now most of those who are above say 45 or 50 have digitised the music and the photos they used to collect and keep in older, analogue formats such as audio cassettes, vinyl records and print photos from the days of film. Indeed, digital is the only way to go today. As for the younger generation, they know nothing else and need not worry about digitising anything — they were born with the technology.

If doing it for music is relatively fast and easy, digitising print photos is another story. The equipment required and the knowledge, the basic skills for doing it right are a little more demanding and trickier than what it takes to turn analogue music into handy MP3 files.

Not surprisingly, you find that many people have not yet taken the bold step to scan their photos, essentially for fear of not doing it right, of losing something along the way. And yet, it is certainly not rocket science. There are just a couple of pitfalls to be aware of and to avoid.

It all starts with a good scanner. As it is the case for printers, Hewlett-Packard and Epson are in the lead. Any scanner above the JD150 price mark, and made by these two manufacturers, will more than do. Less expensive models are mainly made to scan general purpose printed matter like text and office documents, and may not be able to extract all the details that are in photos. I found Epson Perfection Photo scanners series to be an excellent choice for demanding photo collectors.

The ability to scan details is called the density and is expressed with a number. It should ideally be 4.0 and possibly above that number. If your scanner has a lower density or if its manufacturer just has “omitted” mentioning this number in the device user manual or in specs sheet, your scanner may not qualify for good photo scanning.

Then there is the (in)famous question of the scanning resolution. Virtually all scanners made today can work at 600dpi (dots per inch) and even higher. Understandably resolution affects the size of the scanned picture and therefore the resulting file on your computer disk. In practice you rarely need to scan at higher than 300dpi, unless the photo is really small, like an ID mugshot for example.

Scanning at too high a resolution may produce a very large file on disk, often uselessly. Since the scanned picture will be mainly viewed on a computer monitor, a smartphone, a tablet or a TV screen, 300dpi will perfectly do the job.

With the resolution comes what is called technically the bit-depth. The possible choices 8-bit and 16-bit for black and white shots, 24-bit and 48-bit for colour prints. This figure is about the number of possible colours to get in the end. The recommendation is 16-bit for B&W and 24-bit for colour photos. This values combines with the dpi resolution, and it directly impacts on the final file size on disk.

If for example you choose to scan a 15x10cm photo print at 600 dpi, at 48-bit, and decide to save it in uncompressed “tif” format (as opposed to compressed jpg), you will end up with a file that is about 50 megabytes big! There is no law against doing it this way, of course, you just have to know that you are overdoing it a bit. Unless you happen to be a professional photographer and want your scan to be reused to be reprinted in large poster format.

In the overwhelming number of cases, jpg compressed format is fine for storing your scan, especially that scanners will usually let you select the quality of the jpg, from 1 (worst) up to 10 (best) with a simple slider.

Another point to keep in mind when shopping for a scanner: if you used to collect slides (positive transparencies, 24x36mm), make sure the scanner has the optional hardware adapter to scan these beautiful Kodachrome or Ektachrome photos from yesteryear. Most photo scanners come with this accessory included.

In the end, and just like all tasks that have to do with computers and digital technology: start by doing tests and by practising, before settling for the best approach. Memorise the resolution, the bit-depth and the file saving format that work best for you, and that generate good scanned photos on your screen while keeping files at reasonable size. Remember that files that are excessively large will not only fill up your hard disk too quickly, but will also take longer to open and to view, and will be harder to attach to e-mails.