Features

By Bradley J. Fikes

SAN DIEGO — A heart attack treatment from San Diego researchers has shown evidence of safety in a human study, along with early signs that it might be effective.

The treatment from the company Ventrix is a liquid that turns into a gel when injected into the heart. It provides a scaffold for new cells to take hold and repair the heart.

By encouraging growth of new muscle, the treatment, called VentriGel, is intended to reduce scar formation and increase cardiac muscle. Since scar tissue doesn’t contract, the burden of pumping is increased for the rest of the heart. Over time, the heart enlarges and begins to pump less efficiently, causing heart failure.

The University of California, San Diego spinoff reported the results last week in Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Basic to Translational Science. A 2013 study in pigs showed that VentriGel can improve performance of damaged hearts.

VentriGel contains a variety of large molecules, collectively known as the extracellular matrix, that support cells. It’s made from connective tissue take from pig hearts, which are treated to remove all cells. What’s left is the extracellular matrix, said study author Karen Christman, a UC San Diego professor of bioengineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering. She is also a co-founder of Ventrix.

VentriGel provides a porous and fibrous structure for new cells to latch onto, Christman said. The human immune system accepts VentriGel as is, meaning that immune-suppressing drugs aren’t needed.

The Phase 1 or early-stage trial treated 15 patients, 12 of them men, who had mild to moderate heart failure following a heart attack. Patients received the gel via injections with a cardiac catheter in a minimally invasive procedure similar to how a stent would be inserted.

“Patients in general were feeling better, they could walk further,” Christman said. And heart size decreased for those who had had a heart attack more than one year before treatment.

However, patients knew they were getting VentriGel, so the placebo effect can’t be ruled out. A larger controlled study will be needed to provide more reliable evidence of efficacy.

Ventrix is seeking about $20 million to do that midstage trial, Christman said.

“Ventrix has designed a Phase 2 clinical study and has completed preparations for starting the next phase in the beginning of next year,” she said.

Operating smartphones while on the move represents a significant part of using them. After all they are essentially mobile devices designed for that. But doing it while at the same working at our computer is not a negligible part either. Hence, in this last case, the need to have both connected. The advantages are many.

The most obvious application is viewing media contents like photos and videos. Although these would be stored on the phone, being able to watch and eventually post-process them from the comfort of a computer’s large screen is invaluable. Not to mention the full-size physical keyboard and of course the mouse.

The old, “dummy” way consisted of connecting the phone to the computer via a USB cable and then access the media and other files. This is cumbersome, limited, tedious, and — again — old. Slowly but surely, software applications that address this need in a smarter way are appearing in the IT market.

Integrated in the latest update of Microsoft Windows 10 is a built-in application called Your Phone that just lets you do that. It connects wirelessly to the smartphone, and once this is done you drive it from the computer. It works nicely and smoothly. Functionality, however, is somewhat limited, as it is restricted to accessing the files stored on the phone.

There is of course much more about the concept than merely accessing files. This is where Samsung Flow comes. The new application is available if your phone runs on Android, and there are two versions of it, one for Windows computers and another for Mac machines. Using Flow is pure pleasure. You actually “see” your smartphone’s screen(s) on the larger screen of your Windows or Mac computer — again wirelessly.

Once displayed, you can do virtually everything your phone does, but without touching it at all. You can make calls, answer calls, open files, search contacts, rearrange icons, compose SMS or WhatsApp messages, check email, and so forth. You can also share contents and synchronise notifications. I have been using Flow for just a few days and now cannot imagine working without it anymore, if I am at my desk. Samsung likes to call it a “magical experience of seamlessly connected devices”.

If yours is not an Android device but an iPhone, then you would go for iBrowse, which is a simple app that “lets your Mac or PC access an iOS device”.

Wireless networking, whether through Wifi or Bluetooth (over shorter ranges, admittedly), is making all devices talk to each other and communicate effortlessly. The concept is not new, and it helps the various devices complete each other in terms of practicality.

Part of the concept chain is the smartwatch that more and more people are going for these days. But the tiny screen of a smartwatch is even smaller than that of the phone itself! In the end nothing beats the convenience that comes with a computer’s keyboard, mouse and large screen. Hence the importance of applications like Samsung’s Flow or Apple’s iBrowse.

There have been software applications to connect smartphones and computers for many years. Most were practically useless and would bring you more headache than convenience. WebDev, for example, is an old Android app that lets Windows “see” your smartphone as an external hard disk, through Wifi. It is only this year that really powerful apps like Flow and iBrowse have become available, easy, feature-rich, smooth and convenient.

SEATTLE — If you care what other people think of your social media posts, you may want to think twice before uploading selfies, according to new research from psychologists at Washington State University (WSU).

In a study that will publish this fall in the Journal of Research in Personality, individuals who posted a lot of selfies were almost uniformly viewed as less likable, less successful and more insecure than people who posted more “posies” — that is, traditionally posed photos that appear to be taken by someone else.

WSU psychology professor Chris Barry worked with WSU students, as well as collaborators from the University of Southern Mississippi, to design a project intended to measure judgments of pictures posted on Instagram.

The team asked 30 students at the Mississippi school to fill out personality questionnaires and allow researchers to use their 30 most recent Instagram posts.

Those 900 images — stripped of hashtags, captions and information about the user and their followers — were shown to 119 WSU students, who were asked to rate the individual profiles on 13 attributes such as self-absorption, self-esteem, dependability and likability.

Across the board, the study found that people who posted more selfies were viewed to have lower self-esteem and to be more lonely, less dependable and less successful than who those who posted more “posies”, Barry said in a phone interview on Thursday.

“Even when two feeds had similar content, such as depictions of achievement or travel, feelings about the person who posted selfies were negative and feelings about the person who posted ‘posies’ were positive,” he said.

Barry said he began researching possible links between Instagram activity and personality traits about five years ago, when the theory took hold in pop culture that people who took lots of selfies were likely more narcissistic and self-absorbed than average.

But several studies found no correlation between selfie posters and narcissistic personality traits (as measured by affirmative responses to statements like, “I like to look in the mirror,” “people like to hear my stories” and “the world would be better if I ran it”), Barry said.

People’s motivations for how, when and why they post what they post on social media can be complicated and nuanced, but the WSU study’s findings are worth keeping in mind, he said.

Those without a friend (or a so-called “Instagram husband”) available to snap a pic can try using a self-timer to take their own posed photos from farther away than arm’s length. The WSU researchers found that even if a photo that appears to be a “posie” was, in fact, taken by the subject, it was still perceived more positively than obvious selfies.

“It’s definitely in the eye of the beholder,” Barry said.

A better solution, though, might be to stop being concerned about social media at all.

“It can be very hard when we get focused on number of likes or how many followers we have or the number of interactions,” said Keely Kolmes, a San Francisco-based psychologist with expertise in social media matters.

Kolmes recommends people unplug once in a while and engage with the world around us instead.

“Walk in nature, connect with friends off of technology, practice mindfulness and remember that there is a lot of world off of your phone too,” Kolmes said. “It is about keeping things in balance.”

Lisa Levine, a Seattle-based life coach, said that while the dopamine high we get from receiving attention on social media is real, the legitimacy of the litmus test is not.

She admits even she sometimes gets sucked into the social media “compare and despair” syndrome.

“I have to remind myself, and not infrequently, that those likes don’t really mean anything,” she said. “It can take over in a way that’s not healthy, but the counterbalance is to not care, put down your phone and walk away.”

By Christine Clarridge

No one can say if it’s the walks or the unconditional love, but there’s something about owning a dog that goes hand in hand with better heart health, suggests a study in eastern Europe. 

Researchers examined more than 1,700 adults in the Czech Republic and found that dog owners tended to be younger, female and more likely to smoke than people with different pets or with no companion animals. Yet, the dog owners were also more active, had better levels of blood fat and blood sugar, and were less likely to be obese, giving them an overall better cardiovascular health profile than the rest. 

“If you’re thinking about getting a pet, getting a dog will likely help you with your cardiovascular health goals. This should be a point that will help you make that decision,” said coauthor Dr Jose Medina-Inojosa of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. 

Dog owners are known to engage in more physical activity and are more likely to have regular exercise habits than those without dogs, the study authors note in Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality and Outcomes. These benefits were recognised in a 2013 statement from the American Heart Association that linked owning a pet, especially a dog, with lower risk of heart disease. 

For the current study, Medina-Inojosa and his team analysed data on men and women in the city of Brno who were participating in a larger, long-term study. None of them had heart disease when they were recruited in 2013-2014, at ages 25 to 64. 

Of the nearly 42 per cent of the participants with a pet, more than half owned a dog. 

After accounting for age, sex, and educational level, the team found that dog ownership was associated with a higher total cardiovascular health score when compared either to those with other types of pets or those without pets. 

Except for smoking, the researchers note, the dog owners were more likely to engage in heart-healthy behaviours, including exercising and eating a healthy diet, and were more likely to have ideal blood sugar levels. They also tended to have higher levels of healthy HDL cholesterol and lower prevalence of diabetes. 

The owners of other pets, such as cats or horses, also had higher cardiovascular health scores compared to those with no pets, but this difference disappeared after adjusting for age, sex and educational levels. 

The study was not designed to determine whether or how having a dog might directly affect markers of heart disease risk, or whether healthier people are more likely to have dogs. 

One limitation, the authors acknowledge, is that they looked at participants’ heart health at one point in time and did not have data on how long they had owned their pets. 

Even so, Medina-Inojosa said in a phone interview, it’s possible that “owning a pet is going to give you an overall sense of well-being. You start making better decisions about your food, maybe smoking less, maybe walking a little more, getting up from bed, and that makes your diet fall into place and then your lab values tend to just fall behind”. 

The fact that participants resided in central eastern Europe, where smoking rates are among the highest in the world, could explain the large number of smokers in the study, he noted. 

The daily exercise of providing for the dog and taking it out for walks is what promotes better health and not just owning one, Angela Curl of the Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, said in a phone interview. 

Curl, who wasn’t involved in the study, believes more research is required to see if owning a pet leads to improved cardiovascular health. 

“I think we can put more faith in the result if they are studying the change over time. It’s hard to know whether or not people were different before they own pets versus after they own pets, whether or not obtaining an animal made a difference for them,” she said. 

By Saumya Joseph

A virtual reality programme with cartoon characters may reduce children’s fear before imaging procedures, a South Korean study suggests. 

Compared to verbal instructions, a virtual reality experience that explained the process of chest X-rays in detail reduced kids’ anxiety and stress, researchers reported in JAMA Paediatrics. 

“Getting an X-ray can be scary for children but showing that VR education works helps pave the way for using it during more challenging medical procedures in the future,” Hunter Hoffman, director of the University of Washington’s Virtual Reality Research Centre in Seattle, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health by e-mail. 

Dr Sung-Hee Han and colleagues from Seoul National University’s Medical Virtual Reality Research Group, who were unavailable for comment, conducted the trial at Bundang Hospital in Seongnam in the summer of 2018. They randomly assigned 100 children, ages four to eight, either to a control group that heard simple verbal instructions or a group that experienced a three-minute virtual reality programme. 

The research team measured the children’s stress and anxiety during the X-ray process with the Observational Scale of Behavioural Distress, which was originally developed for children requiring bone marrow procedures, but has been expanded to other paediatric procedures that may be painful or distressing. It includes 11 behaviours that indicate distress, including crying, clinging, fear, restraint and screaming. 

The VR experience was provided through a head-mounted VR display, which creates a 360-degree, three-dimensional virtual environment. Chatan and Ace, famous animation characters from the Korean series “Hello Carbot”, explained the process of chest radiography in detail, encouraging the children to cooperate during the procedure. The VR process took them into a radiography room, explained how to pose in front of a chest radiography machine, and reassured them to take a deep breath and not have anxiety. 

The research team found that 78 per cent of children in the VR group had a “low distress” score of less than five, as compared with 52 per cent in the control group. Eight kids in the VR group requested parental presence, compared with 18 in the control group. Parental satisfaction scores were also slightly higher, with a 9.4 on a 10-point scale in the VR group and an 8.6 in the control group. The procedure time was slightly shorter in the VR group and required fewer repeats for children who moved around during the procedure. 

“Pre-experiencing the procedure in virtual reality can be very helpful for reducing the patients’ anticipatory fears about the unknown,” Hoffman said. “Also, getting to try VR helps medical procedures become more cool. I’ll bet that what the kids take away from the experience [and what they tell their friends afterwards] is the memory of the VR instead of a memory of a scary hospital experience.” 

In future studies, augmented reality using “see-through glasses” could allow children to see the cartoon characters while they go through the procedure, Hoffman said. Other studies have used virtual reality during dental procedures, blood draws, and burn wound cleaning to help children’s pain and anxiety. 

“Now researchers need to know what in particular is helping our patients, whether the distraction component or isolation from visually-stressful stimuli, as well as what type of content is most helpful such as a calming scene or an exciting game,” said Dr Samuel Rodriguez, director of Stanford University’s Chariot Programme, which uses virtual reality, augmented reality and smart projectors to capture patients’ imaginations to decrease pain and anxiety. 

“My hunch is that it’s not one-size-fits-all, and we need to have a variety of solutions based on the type of procedure or developmental level of the patient,” he told Reuters Health by phone. “We’re learning how to pair the best piece of content with each child based on experience.” 

By Carolyn Crist

Reinvented in 1996 as a compact saloon car aimed largely at developing markets rather than small hatchback model that would be succeeded by the Jazz, the Honda City in many respects caters to similar clients as the Honda Civic in past generations.

A sub-Civic car designed as a saloon for developing market preferences, the first City was even based on a previous generation Civic. Having itself grown, become more sophisticated and moving slightly more upmarket itself, the City, however,  still represents a good value gateway car to the Honda brand. 

Narrower, shorter in length, taller and no longer sharing a platform, the City’s design somewhat resembles a more compact and upright relation of the fancier, lower, wider, longer and sportier Civic. It features a prominently snouty grille and browed lights, while twin bonnet ridges and deeply creased side character lines lend its body an edgier look and greater presence than previous models’ less textured surfacing. 

Meanwhile at the rear, the City’s boot is set high and with a big distance between the C-pillar and its standard 15-inch or optional 16-inch wheels.

Rev-happy delivery

Powered by a naturally-aspirated SOHC, 16-valve, variable timing 1.5-litre 4-cylinder engine, the front-drive City features Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) in Jordan, with 5-speed manual versions available in other markets. Smaller than the Middle East entry-level Civic DX’s 1.6-litre engine, the City DX’s 1.5 engine, however,  doesn’t give away much in terms of out output, with 118BHP developed at a heady 6,600rpm and 107lb/ft torque peaking at a relatively high-revving 4,600rpm. Down just 5BHP and 4lb/ft, yet some 150kg lighter, the significantly more affordable City delivers similar performance as the Civic.

Seamlessly smooth and progressive in delivery from tick-over to rev limit, the City’s engine offers decent, if not prodigious, low-end and mid-range response, ability and versatility, but gives its best effort at top-end.

Eager and willing right to redline, the hard-revving City seemingly comes to life at top-end. Meanwhile the City’s CVT is, unlike most such systems, more willing to let it rev high, with a less elastic feel when driving in the more aggressive ‘sport’ setting. In regular driving mode, it is inclined to keep revs low for efficiency.

Agile and eager

Unencumbered by too many costly and heavy frills like a sunroof or electric seats and the like, the City is a compact four-door saloon, which at 1,095kg, is somewhat of a lightweight in this modern age of ever unnecessarily heavier cars.

Nearly as powerful as its more upmarket Civic sister, the City, however, has slight torque- and power-to-weight advantages, and can accelerate through 0-100km/h in about the same time or quicker at an estimated 11.5-seconds. Top speed is meanwhile marginally less owing to a marginal aerodynamic disadvantage, or gearing considerations, at 190km/h.

Designed to be a convenient, comfortable, refined, easy to drive and efficient small saloon for city driving and for commuting, the City’s lightweight and small size, however, also make it fun and agile when driven briskly through narrow and winding roads. 

If not quite as sophisticated, settled and buttoned down as the larger, independent rear suspension Civic, the City, however, feels more pointy and nimble and can seemingly turn on a dime with its shorter wheelbase and quick and direct steering, and also feels more edgy, engaging and alert at the limit.

Supple and smooth

Tidy and eager turning in, the City’s slim 175/65R15 tyres provide delicately precise feel and feedback for the road and the cars’ position and limits, but are also durable and supple as they well soak road imperfections. Turning with some slight lean, and with power shifting effectively to the outside wheel, the City, with its less sophisticated torsion beam rear suspension feels playful, adjustable and eagerly rewarding. 

Easy and intuitive to manoeuvre through narrow switchbacks and city streets, the City also offer decent visibility and is a doddle to park in small spaces.

Refined and smooth riding in its segment, the City felt settled at speed and on rebound, if with a slight bounce over large speed bumps. Inside, it is comfortable and reasonably well-insulated, with high, upright seating. Convenient and efficient, it delivers around 5km/l quoted fuel consumption, and terrific real world efficiency.

Comfortable inside, if slightly narrow, it offers good front headroom, especially without sunroof, better rear headroom than many larger, lower cars, adequate rear legroom and generous 510-litre luggage volume. Design is classy, if not pretentious, while equipment levels cover important things without being excessive.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.5-litre, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 73 x 89.4mm

Compression ratio: 10.3:1

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

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

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 118 (120) [88] @6,600rpm

Specific power: 78.8BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 107.7BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 107 (145) @4,600rpm

Specific torque: 96.8Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 132.4Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 11.5-seconds (estimate)

Top speed: 190km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 5-litres/100km (estimate)

Fuel capacity: 40-litres

Length: 4,455mm

Width: 1,695mm

Height: 1,475mm

Wheelbase: 2,600mm

Track, F/R: 1,490/1,480mm

Ground clearance: 150mm

Luggage volume: 510-litres (estimate)

Kerb weight: 1,095kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 10.52-metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion beam

Brakes, F/R: Ventilate discs, 355mm/drums

Tyres: 175/65R15

Price: JD17,500 (on-the-road, third party insurance)

Identifying my food triggers has finally made that scale move in the right direction. I am determined this month to start noticing my emotional hunger verses my real hunger and taking on a new approach.

I’m now feeding my physical hunger with the “Good for the Body” nutrition by avoiding processed food. And I’m feeding my emotional hunger with the “Good for the Soul” nutrition; avoiding processed junk that comes in the form of negativity and feasting instead on things that strengthen and encourage me. 

The more I feed my starving soul, the more discipline I have to control my physical hunger. Plus, I gain wisdom to know: 

• When to say “yes” and when to say “no” and actually stick to it!

• When to exercise and when to give my muscles the rest they need to recover

• When to change my workout routine to gain the benefits of variety and when to stick to what I know I can accomplish on the days when I’m lucky to fit in a workout at all

• When to hydrate and when to limit my caffeine to gain much needed sleep

The list of making all sorts of better choices is never ending and with each better choice I make, I feel more empowered to make the next best choice, keeping me on the right track.

I used to think that weight loss is my biggest reward. I thought that the loose jeans and the added energy level would be my greatest reward. I thought my increased self-confidence and higher self-esteem would be the greatest boost, but I was mistaken.

The biggest reward on this weight management journey has been the freedom gained by not being consumed with matters of the flesh and instead having the clarity of mind and ability to focus. I am no longer living in a state of foggy thinking, unable to make quick decisions and feeling zoned out as a result of making poor food choices. The clarity of mind that comes with minding what I feed my body and soul has indeed been the greatest reward.

Identifying what triggered my physical hunger was easy. If I see food, smell food or see people eating food my mind starts to crave eating it. But it turns out it’s not so difficult to interrupt this automatic reaction by making sure that I’m hydrated enough throughout the day and mindful of my mealtimes so it doesn’t turn into a free for all. Mealtimes have become something special I look forward to and this keeps me from falling into all the traps between meals.

Most of all, I have noticed that because I’m feeding my soul between meals, I’m not craving the junk in between. I am more aware that being underfed spiritually and being overfed physically is a challenge many face, but we can certainly do something about it. We can start tipping the scales in the desired direction. We can strengthen our spiritual muscles to help us make it through the challenges of life the proper way instead of eating our way through them. 

This month, let’s feed our souls and our bodies the right foods regardless of our moods. Bon appetit! 

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

The Thing around Your Neck

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

New York: Anchor Books/Random House, 2010

Pp. 218

The twelve stories in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Thing around Your Neck” are a virtual kaleidoscope reflecting the contemporary reality of Nigerians, with occasional reversions to the past. Half the stories are firmly grounded in Nigeria, while the other half unfold in the United States. It is telling that almost no story is without reference to the US, showing what an important immigration destination it has been, especially for educated, upwardly mobile Nigerians.

There is nothing generic or predictable in Adichie’s animated prose which literally sparkles with significant details that pile up to point to big, overarching issues, from government corruption and police brutality, to false prejudice and pretentiousness. Every character is individually drawn, every scene is very specific, as the stories reveal what separates people and what unites them. Adichie’s adeptness at portraying the interaction between her characters is the key to the stories’ fascination and impact. Sometimes, a chance encounter opens a whole new horizon. Unlikely friendships provide succour to the hurt and confused. Each story has multiple themes—love, spirituality, child upbringing, cultural and class differences, colonial remnants and more, yet gender is ever present.

Two stories foreground a sister’s resentment of the preferential treatment her brother receives, but the families involved are totally different and the stories end in totally different ways — a consequence of Adichie’s expansive imagination and her apparent perception that every case is different. The “Big Men” phenomenon, as it plays out in Nigeria and the US, is the focus of three stories wherein women discover the fallacy of blindly following their husbands’ or partners’ every wish and struggle to reclaim their lives. These stories also cover the immigrant experience and different strategies for adjusting to life in the US. Navigating Americans’ assumptions about Nigeria can be tricky. As one immigrant concludes: “white people who liked Africa too much and those who liked Africa too little were the same — condescending”. (p. 120)

It is not only Nigerian men who can be overbearing. Another story portrays a writers’ workshop in South Africa run by a British “expert” who tries to tell the aspiring, young African writers what subject matter is genuinely African and what is not, all the while engaging in sexual harassment, which he claims is not a suitable topic. Adichie counters his insidious assumptions with several stories where sexual favours are demanded of women in order to get jobs or a place to stay. 

There are shocking outcomes to human frailty and greed, and heart-warming cases of empathy and kindness. A pivotal story shows an upper-class, Christian, Igbo woman and a poor, Muslim, Hausa woman who are trapped in a small space when seeking cover from a riot that pits these two population groups against each other. The understanding that springs up between them defies news reports on ethnic conflicts and convinces the Igbo woman of what her sister has been saying: “Religion and ethnicity are often politicised because the ruler is safe if the hungry ruled are killing one another.” (p. 48)

“Ghosts” is arguably one of the most subtle, intricately structured stories in the collection, dealing with memories, dashed dreams, the failures of the corrupt ruling system, the contradictions between education and feeling, and the fluid boundaries between the “real” world and the spirit world. A retired university professor encounters a man he had thought was dead, a man who had been an energetic political organiser for Biafran independence in the 1960s, a man, he realises, “who carries with him the weight of what could have been”. (p. 66)

Though the two exchange reminiscences, the professor doesn’t reveal that his only comfort now is “the visits” of his deceased wife, because, as he thinks, “We are the educated ones, taught to keep tightly rigid our boundaries of what is considered real.” (p. 66-67)

 “The American Embassy” features differences in African and Western perceptions. A Nigerian woman, whose baby was murdered by soldiers coming to arrest her journalist husband, finds no solace in the US asylum system. Still in shock, she is unable to document the crime and unwilling to barter her dead son for a visa to safety. 

The exception to the contemporary stories is “The Headstrong Historian” that reverts to the time when slave traders and missionaries invaded Africa. An interesting thing about this story is that it reveals well-developed self-governing structures among tribal Africans, but sometimes these bodies couldn’t stop particularly greedy tribesmen. This led a resilient woman to send her only son to the missionaries’ school to learn English, so he could stand up for his rights in the courts, but instead she lost him to Western culture. “Nwamgba knew that her son now inhabited a mental space that was foreign to her,” but she lived to see her granddaughter who will restore her African pride. 

Adichie has become an internationally acclaimed author for her vibrant prose and her ability to articulate complicated human relationships, whether cross-cultural, inter-African or man to woman (sexual politics). Her writing is a potent literary protest against cruelty, lost potential and the stifling of freedom, but more than that, it holds out hope that people can recover their humanity by compassion and courageous actions. These stories are rich enough to be read and reread.

WASHINGTON — The next time you come across a rat darting furtively for cover, consider this: It might just want to have a playful game of hide-and-seek.

A group of neuroscientists in Germany spent several weeks hanging out with rodents in a small room filled with boxes, finding the animals were surprisingly adept at the cross-cultural childhood game — even though they weren’t given food treats as a reward.

Instead, the rats appeared to genuinely enjoy both finding their sneaky human companions and being caught by them, as shown by their joyful leaps (what the Germans called “freudensprung”) and ultrasonic giggles that previous work has found is a sign of happiness.

The researchers’ paper was published in the influential journal Science on Thursday, and beyond the cuteness factor (or creepiness, depending on one’s perspective), it offers new insight into play behaviour, an important evolutionary trait among mammals.

“When you work a lot with rats over the years, you see how intelligent these animals are and how social,” co-author Konstantin Hartmann from the Humboldt University of Berlin, where the other members of the team are also based, told AFP.

“But it was still very surprising to us to see how well they did,” he said.

Working with adolescent male rats in a room of 30 square metres, a scientist would either find a cardboard box to crouch behind in a hiding role, or give the rat a headstart to find cover while the scientist searched. 

Over a period of one to two weeks, the rats were taught that starting the game inside a closed box that was opened remotely meant they were seeking, while starting the game with the box open meant they were hiding.

They quickly developed advanced strategies, including re-visiting spots humans had previously hidden when they were seeking, and choosing to take cover in opaque rather than transparent boxes when they were hiding.

To help train them, the authors rewarded the rats not with food or water, which would invalidate the experiment, but with positive social interaction in the form of physical contact, explained Hartmann.

“They chase our hand, we tickle them from the side, it’s like a back and forth a little bit like how you play with small kittens or puppies,” he said.

The scientists suspect though that the rats were motivated not just by this interaction but that they also liked to play for the sake of play itself. 

The animals would let out high-pitched giggles three times above the human audible range and would execute so-called “joy jumps” during the game — both associated with feelings of happiness.

Once they were discovered, the rats often jumped away and “playfully rehid” at a new location, sometimes repeating the process several times — indicating they wanted to prolong the play session and delay the reward.

Ethics questions

Play is an important part of cognitive development for adolescent mammals, and rats make for ideal models to study brain activity in humans because of their evolutionary proximity to us, which is also why they are often used in the study of disease. 

Scientists are therefore keen to learn what parts of the brain’s prefrontal cortex that is linked to social behaviours, are involved — but because play is a free-flowing activity, it had been difficult to study.

The team therefore attached microwires to the rats’ heads that recorded their brain activity, allowing them to identify which individual neurons were linked to specific game events.

This in turn could be used for future study: for example, to look at neural development when play activities are restricted during adolescence. 

But the more we learn about rat and mice social behaviour, the more human-like they seem, raising difficult ethical questions about their use in medical trials and other experiments.

“I think, being aware of the cognitive abilities of an animal is really important,” said Hartmann, adding it was always important to judge the value of the expected outcome against the use of animals. 

“This type of research will also help other scientists to see in rats more than what you usually see when you just get the rat and use it for standard experiments, when you’re not aware of what these animals can do.”

PARIS — Shorter people are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a study published on Tuesday. 

Each additional 10 centimetres in height translates into a 41 per cent smaller chance of contracting the disease in men and a 33 per cent smaller chance in women, according to the research in medical journal Diabetologia.

The greater health risk in shorter individuals is likely linked to higher liver fat content, and a larger number of risk factors for heart disease, stroke and diabetes, the authors speculated.

It has also been reported that insulin sensitivity and the functioning of special cells in the pancreas that secrete the hormone are better in taller people.

The study draws from a detailed medical survey of more than 16,600 women and nearly 11,000 men — aged 40 to 65 — in Potsdam, Germany from 1994 to 1998.

“These observations corroborate that height is a useful predictive marker for diabetes risk,” the authors concluded. 

People with diabetes have excessively high blood glucose, or blood sugar, which comes from food.

Some 420 million people around the world today suffer from diabetes, with the number expected to rise to 629 million by 2045, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

Currently, the disease is divided into two sub-types. 

With type-1 — generally diagnosed in childhood and accounting for about 10 per cent of cases — the body simply doesn’t make insulin, a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels. 

For type-2, the body makes some insulin but not enough, which means glucose stays in the blood. 

This form of the disease correlates highly with obesity and can, over time, lead to blindness, kidney damage, heart disease or stroke. Acute cases may also require limb amputations.