Features

People who sleep less than six hours a night may be more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those who sleep seven to eight hours, a Spanish study suggests. 

In the study, 3,974 bank workers wore activity trackers to measure sleep for one week and also had 3D heart ultrasounds and cardiac CT scans to look for heart disease. 

Researchers found that compared to people who got seven to eight hours of sleep, those who slept less than six hours a night were 27 per cent more likely to have “preclinical” atherosclerosis: structural changes and thickening in the artery walls that is not yet serious enough to cause complications. 

Previous research has linked lack of sleep to traditional risk factors for heart disease like high blood sugar, high blood pressure, inflammation and obesity. 

“Sleep, together with diet and physical activity, [is] one of the healthy habits that we need to adopt and maintain to keep our cardiovascular system healthy,” said senior study author Jose Ordovas, a researcher at the CNIC in Madrid and director of nutrition and genomics at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Centre on Aging at Tufts University, Boston. 

“Our results support the traditional belief that we should have about eight hours of good sleep per day,” Ordovas said by e-mail. “For those that for one reason or another cannot avoid poor sleep, the recommendation should be to be more proactive about controlling other lifestyle risk factors such as diet and exercise.” 

Hardening of the arteries can develop gradually over several decades before it causes problems. People can live for years with preclinical abnormalities before they develop full-blown atherosclerosis, marked by a buildup of plaque on artery walls that restricts blood flow and can lead to heart attacks and strokes. 

While very few participants — just 160 people — slept more than eight hours a night, the study also found that these long sleepers had increased heart risk. Women who slept more than eight hours were almost twice as likely to have preclinical plaque buildup in their arteries than women who got seven to eight hours of sleep a night. 

Men also had a slightly higher risk of plaque buildup with too much sleep, but the difference was too small to rule out the possibility that it was due to chance. 

“It is important to emphasise that more is not always better, as oversleeping can increase cardiovascular risk,” Ordovas said. 

Study participants were 46 years old on average and none had a history of heart disease. They tended to be slightly overweight but also to get about 45 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity. 

The people who got less sleep tended to be older, weigh more and have higher cholesterol levels and blood pressure than individuals who got more rest, researchers report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 

The study team assessed participants’ 10-year and 30-year risk of a serious cardiac event like a heart attack or stroke using the Framingham risk score calculator. 

Overall, participants had a 5.9 per cent risk of a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years and a 17.7 per cent 30-year risk. 

With less than six hours of sleep, however, the 10-year risk rose to 6.9 per cent and the 30-year risk increased to 20.9 per cent. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how the quality or quantity of sleep might directly influence hardening of the arteries or cause heart attacks or strokes. 

Still, the results highlight the importance of getting enough rest, said the co-author of an accompanying editorial, Dr Daniel Gottlieb, director of the sleep disorders centre at the VA Boston Healthcare System. 

“One key to getting adequate sleep is making sleep a priority — by turning off the TV, computer, tablet and phone at a reasonable hour, keeping a regular sleep schedule, making time to relax before bed, and avoiding caffeine late in the day,” Gottlieb said by e-mail. “Exercise and good diet can also help to improve sleep quality.” 

Children who are spanked, slapped, shoved or otherwise physically punished may be more prone to antisocial behaviour as adults, a US study suggests. 

Four in five children in the US have been spanked at least once by the time they reach kindergarten, researchers note in JAMA Network Open. While spanking and other forms of harsh physical punishment have long been linked to mental health problems in kids, less is known about how these childhood experiences influence adult behaviour.

For the current study, researchers examined survey data from 36,309 adults who were 47 years old, on average. Participants were asked about childhood punishments like pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping and hitting as well as any maltreatment like sexual violence and emotional or physical abuse or neglect.

Overall, 18 per cent of participants had experienced some type of harsh physical punishment growing up and 48 per cent endured some form of maltreatment. 

Spanking on its own, and abuse on its own, were both associated with a higher risk of antisocial behaviour in adulthood, the analysis found. And kids who experienced both harsh physical punishment and some form of abuse or neglect were even more likely to develop antisocial behaviours as adults than children who only encountered only one type of mistreatment. 

Combined, these childhood experiences might explain about 46 per cent of antisocial behaviour among men and about 47 per cent of antisocial behaviour among women, the study concludes. 

“Decades of data have indicated that spanking and harsh physical punishment increases the likelihood of many poor health, developmental and social outcomes for children and, importantly, no studies have ever shown that spanking is beneficial to the child,” said study leader Tracie Afifi of the University of Manitoba in Canada. 

 “We need to stop thinking of parenting in terms of punishments and move towards positive parenting approaches to guide children,” Afifi said by e-mail. “This doesn’t mean that there are no consequences for problematic, unsafe or dangerous child behaviour, but rather that we guide and teach children in safe and nurturing environments using non-physical discipline.” 

The study focused on a broad range of antisocial behaviours including breaking the law, lying, impulsivity, aggression, recklessness, an inability to hold down a job or pay bills, and a lack of remorse for having mistreated, hurt or stolen from another person. 

While spanking may not always lead to lasting mental health problems or antisocial behaviour in adulthood, there is no compelling reason for parents to use harsh physical punishment when there are less harmful and more effective ways to discipline kids, said Andrew Riley, a psychologist at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and Oregon Health & Science University in Portland who was not involved in the study. 

Children who experience physical punishment may have a harder time controlling violent impulses and may learn that violence is the only way to solve conflicts, Riley said by e-mail. 

“Children learn by example, and parents are their most important models,” Riley added. “Learning it’s okay to hurt the ones you love — or that they will hurt you — is not a lesson we want taught to our children.” 

Another problem is that parents do not always realise how hard they are striking children when they choose spanking or other forms of physical punishment, said Dr Frank Elgar, a psychiatry researcher at McGill University in Montreal, who was not involved in the study. 

“Parents have poor control over the amount of force used and tend to use more force than was intended,” Elgar said by email. “The slap usually comes out of frustration and anger, not the desire to teach, and because it’s ineffective in correcting a child’s behaviour, the violence tends to escalate and become used indiscriminately.” 

BEIJING — Roasted as a subversive symbol and chopped from a video streaming website in China, it seemed Peppa Pig, the loveable but imperious British cartoon character, faced a bleak future in the Communist-led country.

But her popularity has risen unabated, and now just months after state media slammed her as an emblem of the counterculture, she is playing a starring role as the country ushers in the Year of the Pig on Tuesday.

A new film titled “Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year” is being released on the first day of the holiday.

The movie shows Peppa celebrating Lunar New Year with two new friends — “Jiaozi” (dumpling) and “Tang yuan” (glutinous rice ball) — named after popular local delicacies.

The animation, which follows the daily adventures of a bright pink piglet, her brother George and her parents, is hugely popular with Chinese children.

Last year, five-year-old twins Mi Ai and Mi Ni made a video asking to meet Queen Elizabeth II after seeing their porcine heroine visit the monarch in an episode.

The clip garnered more than 9 million views and made such an impact that the pair were invited for tea by the British ambassador to Beijing, and promised a tour of Buckingham Palace.

“It is really fun and the language is easy to understand”, their mother, Bella Zhang, said of the girls’ obsession with the show.

She added that the series was popular with Chinese parents because it teaches “the importance of love and cooperation”.

The cartoon’s focus on family values has resonated with Chinese parents who strictly monitor their children’s TV time, agreed Li Xin as she bought a Peppa toy for her four-year-old at a Beijing store.

Billions of views

Peppa Pig first broadcast in China in 2015 but last May some 30,000 clips of the cartoon were removed from a popular video streaming site, following criticism from state media.

Papers affiliated to the Communist Party wrote harsh columns about Peppa Pig being hijacked by gangsters and subversives to create videos that reject mainstream values.

Memes featuring the beloved children’s character had also started to take on dark undertones at the time, occasionally veering into violent or pornographic territory.

“No matter how gangster Peppa Pig becomes, it cannot be allowed to destroy children’s youth [or] break rules,” The People’s Daily said in an editorial last April.

The shows have been watched around 60 billion times on the country’s largest video streaming sites, including Tencent Video and iQiyi, since it first launched in China, said Jamie MacEwan from British TV analysts Enders.

“This figure is up from 24.5 billion by May 2017, showing how China’s appetite for Peppa has only increased,” MacEwan told AFP.

Who is Peppa?

Now Entertainment One — the Canadian media company that currently produces the series — is banking on her popularity translating to the big screen. 

A trailer for the movie, directed by Chinese film-maker Zhang Dapeng, has gone viral with the hashtag “Who is Peppa” being viewed more than 1.6 billion times on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, a spokeswoman for Alibaba Pictures Group told AFP. 

The promotional clip shows a rural villager’s quest to find out what his city-dwelling grandson wants when he asks for “Pei Qi” — Mandarin for Peppa Pig — in a bid to create the perfect Chinese New Year gift in time for the boy’s annual visit.

The trailer struck a chord with Chinese audiences because it “showcases the same values highlighted in the movie — family, reunion, harmony and love”, Zhang wrote on Weibo.

The film has already earned 12 million yuan ($1.8 million) in presale tickets.

In a country where the pig is a symbol of wealth, Peppa merchandise is in high demand. There are even themed attractions — Peppa Pig World of Play opened in Shanghai in 2018 with another set to open in Beijing this year.

But the success of the Peppa brand has also brought headaches for the cartoon’s creators. Copycat merchandise — from cookies to pencil cases — can be easily found in corner stores in Chinese cities. 

A spokesman for Entertainment One told AFP that in the last year more than half a million fake Peppa Pig items were seized and tens of thousands of online sale posts taken down.

He added: “In China, Entertainment One has a dedicated team working on this ongoing issue and have already successfully dealt with many infringements.”

With emphasis on high-end materials, refined, comfort and new technology, the latest Lincoln Navigator is a crucial part of redoubled effort by Lincoln to recapture the luxury and glamour it enjoyed in its 1960s heyday. Launched for 2018 and sporting a new design language similar to the brand’s Continental flagship saloon and powered by Lincoln’s most powerful engine yet, the Navigator competes in the full-size premium SUV segment against its traditional Cadillac Escalade rival, and others including the Infiniti QX80, Lexus LX570 and Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class.

Imposing impression

As imposing as ever with its hulking size, height, prominent chrome detailing and big grille, the new Navigator is, however — and like its Ford Expedition sister — somewhat of a design departure from its predecessor. Ditching the previous model’s low waistline, airy big glasshouse and high roofline, the Navigator now adopts a more contemporarily hunkered down look with high waistline and slightly descending waistline for a smaller glasshouse and slightly reduced visibility. This, however, is well compensated for by parking sensors, cameras and blind spot warning system.

A new model rather than update, the Navigator now incorporates more prominently ridged side character lines and better integrated full length rear lights. In front, it features a high and long bonnet, and new fascia with wide deep-set mesh grille and LED headlights in place of the outgoing model’s split grille design. Sharing new aluminium body construction with the Expedition, the Navigator sheds 90kg over its predecessor, which yields fuel efficiency, performance and handling ability dividends. Meanwhile, steel remains in use for its rigid chassis frame.

Quick cruiser

Tuned to produce an additional 50BHP over its less luxurious Expedition sister, the Navigator’s twin turbocharged direct injection V6 engine may not carry the Ecoboost name as it does over at Ford, but nevertheless makes this the most powerful Lincoln ever. Developing 450BHP at 5,500rpm and an immensely capable well of torque peaking at 510lb/ft available at just 3,000rpm, the Navigator is undoubtedly swift, with quick-spooling turbos with short gas flow paths ensuring eager off the line responses and scant little by way of turbo lag.

Deceptively quick, the Navigator is estimated to propel its substantial 2,655kg heft through the 0-100km/h benchmark in under 6 seconds. With good low-end response, flexibly versatile mid-range and punchy top-end, the Navigator is confident at speed and when overtaking, while its seamlessly smooth 10-speed automatic gearbox offers a broad range of ratios for performance, versatility, efficiency and refinement. However, its high level of refinement and sound insulation dull the sensation of speed, and initially one can easily and unintentionally creep above a desired cruising speed.

Cocooning comfort

Riding on a body-on-chassis platform mated with all-independent front double wishbone and rear multilink suspension like its Ford cousin, the Lincoln Navigator drives with a similarly settled and reassuring confidence. However, the Navigator is noticeably more refined in how it isolates one from sound, vibration and harshness, and rides with a cosseting and cocoon-like level of luxurious serenity. Available with adaptive suspension, the Navigator seemed to well-absorb and smooth out road imperfections, despite its vast optional 22-inch alloy wheels and somewhat low profile 285/45R22 tyres.

Only 105kg heavier than the equally large Expedition, the Navigator’s extensive insulation makes it feel bigger and heavier. An excellent long distance cruiser with light steering and comfortable suspension it may not be “sporty”, but pushed hard through corners it feels balanced, even with some body roll. More powerful, it is also easier to initiate a slight rear slide if feeding in too much power through a corner, but its four-wheel-drive and stability controls are quick to redistribute power and regain traction.

Practical and premium

Stepping in through big wide-swinging doors over automatically folding side running boards, one sits high and towering above most other vehicles with a commanding driving position. Designed with driver and passenger comfort utmost in mind, the Navigator is offered with three highly adjustable seat options, including 30-way adjustable Perfect Position front seats, which includes separate upper and lower back adjustability to allow a finely-tuned driving position. Cavernous inside with between 546- to 2,925-litre cargo capacity, the Navigator can be optioned as a seven- or eight-seater.

A practical premium vehicle that is extensively well-equipped with convenience, safety, driver assistance and infotainment systems including optional rear entertainment system, six USB ports, 10-device wifi, 20-speakers and more, the Navigator is luxurious in character and features quality leathers, woods and textures. Driven with the nautically-themed Yacht Club trim level and twin mid-row captain’s seats, the Navigator features light blue leather upholstery and whitewashed teak trim for an airy ambiance and distinctly retro character, while third row seats and access are designed to accommodate adults.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3.5-litre, all-aluminium, twin-turbocharged, in-line V6-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 92.5 x 86.7mm

Compression ratio: 10:1

Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing, direct injection

Gearbox: 10-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 4.696; 2nd 2.985; 3rd 2.146; 4th 1.769; 5th 1.52; 6th 1.275; 7th 1.0; 8th 0.854; 9th 0.689; 10th 0.636

Reverse/final drive: 4.87/3.73

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 450 (456) [335] @5,500rpm

Specific power: 128.7BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 169.5BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 510 (691) @3,000rpm

Specific torque: 197.6Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 260.2Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: under 6-seconds (estimate)

Length: 5,334mm

Width, including mirrors: 2,382mm

Height: 1,938mm

Wheelbase: 3,111.5mm

Track, F/R: 1,717/1,706mm 

Overhang, F/R; 970/1,252mm

Headroom, F/M/R: 1,061/1,016/947mm

Legroom, F/M/R: 1,115/1,044/1,074mm

Shoulder room, F/M/R: 1,656/1,653/1,630mm

Hip room, F/M/R: 1,572/1,564/1,305mm

Luggage volume, behind 1st/2nd/3rd row: 2,925-/
1,628-/546-litres

Seating: 7/8

Fuel capacity: 89-litres

Kerb weight: 2,655kg

Towing capacity: 3,764kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 12.43-metres

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones/multilink, anti-roll bars, optional adaptive dampers

Brakes: 350mm ventilated discs

Tyres: 285/45R22

Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo

Seth Anziska

Princeton/Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2018

Pp.435

In the spring of 1979, US President Jimmy Carter was concerned “that Israel’s concept of Palestinian autonomy provided a cover for burgeoning settlement expansion in the occupied territories”. (p. 131)

If this sounds familiar, it is only one of many parallels drawn in this book between past and present “peace processes”. 

While much of what is written today about the failure to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Palestinians’ continued statelessness traces the problem back to the Oslo accords, “Preventing Palestine” reverts to the 70s, specifically the Camp David accords. These resulted in the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty in 1979, but deferred the Palestinian issue to subsequent talks on autonomy. “These autonomy talks sidestepped the PLO and served to prevent a territorial resolution of Palestinian national aspirations, solidifying a condition of statelessness and deliberately undermining sovereignty claims.” (p. 12)

The “ingenuity [of Begin’s autonomy scheme] was to sustain the fiction of serious movement on the Palestinian front”. (p. 13)

“Though often ignored or dismissed as insignificant in accounts of this period, the autonomy discussions became the basis of limited self-rule and, eventually, the emergence of the Palestinian National Authority after the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.” (p. 3)

Most Palestinians and their supporters, plus the man on the street in the Arab world, would probably agree with Seth Anziska’s central thesis that regardless of intentions, Carter and Egyptian President Sadat caved in to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s autonomy scheme which was intended to apply to the people but not the land, and that this has coloured all subsequent negotiations. After all, the Palestinians were not even represented in these talks. 

Yet, the trajectory described in this book may contain some uncomfortable surprises for the Western, and specifically the American, public, especially for those who still regard US foreign policy as a force for good in the world. According to the author, “the US role in the autonomy talks — and the very substance of the negotiations themselves — actively undermined the prospects of a solution to the Palestinian question…”  (p. 13)

Anziska, a lecturer at University College London, does not think it had to be that way. “At multiple junctures, horizons had opened for possible Palestinian self-determination, and may very well still exist.” (p. 15)

But as stated in the subtitle, this is a history book, and Anziska does not engage in polemics but rather gives detailed accounts of discussions and negotiations and relevant events outside the halls of power, such as the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Besides tracing the positions and inclinations of shifting Israeli governments and the administrations of five US presidents, he places these events in the context of changing international realities, from decolonisation, the Cold War and its end, to the rise of the right in Israel and the neocons in the US.

It was Anziska’s background that headed him in the direction of writing this book. As he explains in the preface, he grew up in the Modern Orthodox American Jewish community in New York, with a strong attachment to Zionism. He visited Israel numerous times, culminating in a year of study at a yeshiva in 2001, at the height of the second Palestinian Intifada. “Something did not sit right with me on those frequent journeys. The growing knowledge that my ease of access to travel around the West Bank and Israel as an American Jew came at the expense of local Palestinian inhabitants made me uncomfortable… It was strange to inhabit space so close together and yet have no real interaction with these neighbours.” (p. xiv)

The questions raised in his mind later propelled him to visit Palestinian towns in the West Bank as well as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, and to do extensive research in Jerusalem, London and Washington. At the same time, Israel released previously classified documents considered pivotal for new, original research.

With a few notable exceptions, such as employing the term terrorism to describe Palestinian actions but not Israeli state or settler violence, Anziska maintains a historian’s objectivity. He is obviously very uncomfortable with the on going Israeli occupation, but he does not reveal whether his research has changed his attachment to Zionism. He does, however, quote a British Foreign Office official as saying that Begin “rejects the whole concept of a Palestinian people precisely because the existence of such people would, if acknowledged, call into question some of the moral ground for Zionism”. (p. 139)

What, then, about other Israeli leaders who acknowledge that the Palestinians exist but whose policies have also served to prevent Palestine.

By Mariam Hakim

Relationships and Couples Therapist

We are more familiar with the ‘overt narcissist’ who’s loud and demands attention and admiration openly and directly. ‘Covert narcissists’ have the same traits but are difficult to spot because they pretend to be loving, giving, altruistic and kind but are in fact deeply selfish and narcissistic. In other words, they are wolves in sheep clothing. 

Although they have all the negative qualities of the overt narcissist, they are smart enough to know that displaying them openly will get in the way of achieving the self-centred power, recognition and success that they so deeply want for themselves. By building a false persona that projects kindness and love, they are able to fool people around them by manipulating and controlling them to get what they want. The narcissist will always put themselves first even at the expense of others. 

Common tactics

• They listen and observe: They study you and try to know everything about you; your strengths, needs, and weaknesses to use later to manipulate and control you, They guard who whey are: They don’t show you their true selves because they are afraid you will see something you don’t like and then they will lose their grip on you and you will expose them. It is also difficult for them to show you who they are as they are not in touch with their true selves as a result of years of pretending to be someone else; pretending to be kind and loving

• They mirror who you are: They watch and observe who you are and what you need and like and then they start projecting back to you what they think you want to hear, what you’re interested in or what you want in life. They do so to woo you and for you to start to feel close to them. If, for example, you like sports, they will pretend to like it too. If you smoke, they might become an occasional smoker to fit in with you. With time, you will notice that they pretend to be and like many things depending on who they are trying to impress and manipulate; these likes tend to change according to their needs

• They will make you buy into the idea that you are soul mates: They will try and make you believe that you are soul mates by working hard to fulfil your needs and wants. They might shower you with gifts and favour, making you constantly feel like you owe them. This is one of their manipulative tactics which enables them to control you. Know that genuine gifts and favours do not come with any strings attached

• They push things fast in the relationship: A huge red flag is when someone is pushing to be with you in a relationship fast; for example, when a romantic partner pushes fast for commitment or marriage at the beginning of your relationship. A friend who bends over backwards to become your bestie. Genuine relationships need time and good boundaries to develop; you don’t just jump into them

• With time, they start pushing and testing your boundaries: This is when you start feeling uncomfortable around them and your misery begins; they will start by doing subtle things (putdowns, passive aggressive remarks, talk behind your back) to see what they can get away with or what you are willing to put up with. Although their actions will cause significant distress, you will tend to excuse them or give them the benefit of the doubt because they have worked so hard on convincing you that they are genuine and have your best interest at their heart. They will keep pushing your boundaries and using you to fulfil their own selfish needs until your distress becomes too much for you to handle and hopefully you will wake up and see them for who they really are

What can we do?

1. Do not beat yourself up for falling into their trap. Of course you will fall into their trap because they have spent so much effort and resources to make you believe that they are kind and loving and have your best interest at heart

2. Get out of the relationship quietly. Do not attempt to discuss this with them or blame them for what they have said or done as they will use every tactic they can think of to make you look like the perpetrator and them as the victim; you will never win as they are smart and manipulative [lying is normal for them]

3. Prepare yourself for some backslash As soon as you start setting some boundaries and retreating from the relationship, they will feel it, get angry and try to hurt you either directly or indirectly. Expect that and keep moving forwards with your plan.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

With or without existing kidney disease, kidney function is more likely to decline over time the more severely obese a person is, a large study suggests. 

Compared to adults who are merely overweight, people with the most severe obesity are twice as likely to develop impaired kidney function, the analysis found. People who are not quite as obese have an 18 to 69 per cent higher risk of developing reduced kidney function. 

“Excess weight, particularly around the belly, causes many adverse metabolic effects that impact the kidney,” said lead study author Dr Alex Chang of the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania. 

This extra weight can activate the body’s sympathetic nervous system, or “fight or flight” response, which releases hormones that can increase sodium retention and raise blood pressure, Chang said by e-mail. This also makes it harder for the body to remove extra sugars from the blood, leading to diabetes. 

All of these things are bad for the kidneys, and inflammation related to obesity and excessive belly fat can also impair kidney function, Chang said. 

“First, excess weight increases the sympathetic nervous system activity and hormones that result in increased sodium retention and higher blood pressure,” Chang said. “Second, excess weight impairs the body’s ability to move glucose from the blood into cells, and can lead to diabetes.” Abnormal levels of hormones and inflammation related to belly fat may also adversely affect the kidney, he said. 

“Although this study does not directly address the prevention, reversal or slowing of kidney disease, managing risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol are important,” Chang advised. “For individuals with obesity, weight loss can reverse these metabolic abnormalities and may help reduce future risk of kidney disease.” 

Globally, 1.9 billion adults are overweight or obese, according to the World Health Organization. Roughly four in 10 adults are overweight, and more than one in 10 are obese, a condition that, in addition to kidney problems, can also increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, joint disorders and certain cancers. 

For the current analysis, researchers examined data collected from 1970 to 2017 on more than 5.4 million adults in 40 different countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. They also looked at data from more than 84,000 people at high risk for cardiovascular diseases and more than 19,000 adults with chronic kidney disease. On average, individuals were followed for about eight years, and researchers tracked which people had tests showing a reduction in their kidney function during that period. 

To understand the impact of obesity on kidney function, researchers focused on body mass index (BMI), a ratio of weight to height. 

A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered a healthy weight, while 25 to 29.9 is overweight, 30 or above is obese and 40 or higher is what’s known as severely or morbidly obese. 

The study compared the odds of kidney function decline in people with varying degrees of overweight and obesity. 

One limitation of the study is that researchers only looked at BMI at one point in time, the study authors note in The BMJ. It is also unclear if obesity directly caused kidney problems, or if other factors like inactivity or an unhealthy diet might have played a role. 

“Poor diet, eating a lot of processed foods and lack of exercise can definitely contribute to both obesity and kidney damage,” said Dr Michal Melamed of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Centre in New York City. 

“These may be the underlying cause of the association between obesity and kidney damage, that people who are obese have other lifestyle habits that can contribute to kidney damage,” Melamed, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “But, importantly, lifestyle factors can be changed.” 

By Linda Carroll

Numerous studies have shown that aerobic exercise can improve cognition in seniors, but a small new study finds that vigorous workouts boost thinking skills in younger adults as well. 

After a six-month aerobic regimen, adults aged 20 to 67 showed improvements in executive function — the cognitive processes important for reasoning, planning and problem solving — and expanded grey matter in the brain region central to those functions. 

A comparison group that did only stretching and toning during the same period did not see the same benefits, the study team reports in “Neurology”. 

People think of mental decline as something that occurs later in life, said lead author Yaakov Stern, a professor of neuropsychology at the Columbia University Medical Centre in New York City. “But even at age 30, you need some help,” he said. “Many studies show an almost linear decline in these functions from the 20s onward. So the take-home message from this study is that aerobic exercise is really very important.” 

Noting that there were no such studies in young and middle-aged adults, Stern and his colleagues recruited 132 volunteers aged 20 and older to participate in an experiment to look at the impact of aerobic exercise on cognition and brain structure. None of the volunteers were exercisers prior to the study. 

Volunteers were given tests at the outset to evaluate executive function, episodic memory, mental processing speed, language abilities and attention. The researchers randomly assigned them to one of two groups: Half were included in the aerobic group that did exercise to speed up the heart rate, while the other half were assigned to sessions of non-aerobic toning and stretching. 

The volunteers in each group attended four weekly exercise sessions for 24 weeks. They were again tested for cognitive abilities at 12 and 24 weeks. MRI scans of their brains were done at the beginning and end of the study. 

Ultimately, 44 volunteers in the aerobic exercise group and 50 in the stretching group stayed with the study. 

By the end of the study period, the stretching and toning group had not seen much of an increase in cognitive abilities, while all ages in the aerobic group saw significant increases in mental function — although the older participants showed bigger improvements than the youngest ones. 

MRI scans also showed an increased thickness in the brain’s frontal cortex in aerobic exercisers. 

The new study confirms that exercise is a “highly promising method for influencing cognitive function”, said Kirk Erickson, a professor in the department of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania. “This has led to the development of US health policies for using physical activity to influence cognitive function.” 

Until now, most of the research has been conducted in children or older adults “with a noticeable gap in our understanding of whether exercise has an enhancing effect throughout the lifespan”, Erickson, who was not involved in the new study, said in an e-mail.

Despite some complex issues, other elusive, not to say obscure questions such as the dark Internet, virtual currencies, the blockchain system and never ending very real hacking threats, there is still some good news on the information technology front.

It concerns the way users receive the much needed technical support for their machines and their software. This service has come a long way and now functions in a smooth, practical manner— and it is inexpensive, what is more. A combination of factors have made technical support as well-performing and convenient as it has become today.

First is the wide availability of fast, omnipresent and often wireless Internet connectivity. It has made communication between machines a breeze. Then comes the drastically improved and very reliable hardware. This alone is giving us equipment that rarely fails. Besides, nowadays, when a physical component of a computer fails, like a hard disk or a monitor, replacing it is easy and, up to a certain point, inexpensive. Hardware failure is the least of the consumer’s worries.

Technical support is needed by the user mainly to troubleshoot and solve software issues, e-mail or operating system (e.g. Windows, Mac OS, Unix) problems. It is about finding out how to do this or that, how to better use one of the countless applications available out there, addressing Internet and security questions, and so forth. The common denominator here is the fact that all these matters do not require the physical presence of an IT technician and can be treated remotely, by accessing the user’s computer over the Internet.

Providing remote technical support has become the prime way to work, and it covers 70 to 80 per cent of the cases. It therefore constitutes a huge time and money saver, and reduces transportation time and pain. It also allows the technicians to work in a more relaxed, more focused manner, by working from their own desk, therefore doing better work. The benefits are many and invaluable. It is win-win situation on both sides.

Yet, some users are reluctant to give remote access to their computer to the techies. This, in no way, is justified. There is no more risk in accessing your computer remotely than working on it locally, physically. Besides, when techies “take control” of your computer remotely you can watch them working by looking at your screen and see what they are doing, this is in addition to the fact that allowing remote access is done on a case-by-case basis, and only if you allow it. When done properly it is really a zero-risk operation.

There are several applications that let you use remote access and allow technical people to work remotely on your machine. Ultra VNC, TeamViewer, Remote PC AnyDesk, Windows Remote Desktop, ShowMyPC, are some of these applications. Some are free and others work based on a paid subscription. However, in most cases, the party that has to pay is the one accessing your computer (i.e. the techie, the server) and providing you with the service, not you, the consumer. In IT terminology and jargon you are the “client” and the technical support people are the “server”, or the “host”.

Over the last five years remote access technical support has become the norm. With time nothing stays the same — especially in the IT world — and what maybe was a major concern yesterday is now a thing of the past. If the new way of working does not solve absolutely all issues, it does solve most of them, and more importantly, it ensures a faster, cheaper and more comfortable service.

BERLIN — Fears that robots will eliminate your job are unfounded with a growing number of employers planning to increase or maintain headcount as a result of automation, staffing company ManpowerGroup said in a survey published on Friday. 

The “Humans Wanted: Robots Need You” report surveyed 19,000 employers in 44 countries and found 69 per cent of firms were planning to maintain the size of their workforce while 18 per cent wanted to hire more people as a result of automation. That was the highest result in three years.

The report went on to say that 24 per cent of the firms that will invest in automation and digital technologies over the next two years plan to add jobs compared to 18 per cent of those who are not automating. 

Just 9 per cent of employers in the annual survey said automation would directly lead to job losses, while 4 per cent did not know what the impact would be.

“More and more robots are being added to the workforce, but humans are too,” said Jonas Prising, Chairman & CEO of ManpowerGroup.

“Tech is here to stay and it’s our responsibility as leaders to become Chief Learning Officers and work out how we integrate humans with machines.” 

More than 3 million industrial robots will be in use in factories around the world by 2020, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

The Manpower survey found that 84 per cent of firms planned to help their workers learn new skills by 2020, compared to just 21 per cent in 2011.

The global talent shortage is at a 12-year-high, with many companies struggling to fill jobs, according to Manpower.

In Germany, where unemployment is at a record low, a shortage of talent was the top concern of small-to-mid-sized companies heading into 2019, according to a survey by the BVMW Mittelstand association.

The Manpower survey found IT skills are particularly in demand with 16 per cent of companies expecting to hire staff in IT.

In manufacturing and production, where industrial robots are increasingly doing routine tasks, firms expect to hire more people in customer-facing roles that require skills such as communication, leadership, negotiation and adaptability.

Employers in Singapore, Costa Rica, Guatemala and South Africa expected to add the most staff, while firms in Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Norway, Slovakia and Romania predicted a decrease in headcount, the survey found.