Features

Weight gain is not just a number on your bathroom scale.

A new Stanford study has found that the entire body undergoes changes for the worse when people pack on the pounds.

Even just a modest weight gain of about three kilogrammes causes bacterial populations to change, immune responses to shift and changes in the molecular pathways associated with heart disease, researchers found. 

“Your body is responding to a very stressful event,” said lead researcher Michael Snyder, a professor of genetics at Stanford.

But here’s the good news: When the weight is lost, the body’s systems return to their natural, healthier state.

A paper describing the study as published in the latest issue of the journal Cell Systems.

“The whole body is engaging,” Snyder said. Weight gain “is a systemic disease, not just affecting your fat, but affecting your whole body. And luckily, it reverses when you lose it”.

The team studied 23 people with body mass indexes of between 25 and 35 kilogrammes per square metre. A BMI of 25 is on the high-end of normal; a BMI of more than 40 roughly equates to morbid obesity.

About half of the people were insulin-resistant or at risk of diabetes. The other half were insulin-sensitive or able to process insulin normally.

From blood samples, they pooled millions of pieces of information from participants’ transcriptome, a collection of molecules that reveal patterns of DNA expression; the proteome, the complete set of proteins that are produced; the microbiome, the microbes that keep us alive; and the genome, or genetic blueprint.

Then participants received a high-calorie diet — about 1,000 extra calories per day for men, 750 for women — and after 30 days they had, on average, tacked on just under 3kg.

“It’s not unlike what a lot of us have just done over the Christmas holiday,” Snyder said. “This is not outside the realm of what normally goes on.”

And with weight gain — moderate though it was — the participant’s underlying biological profiles shifted, too.

“The goal was to characterise what happens during weight gain and loss at a level that no one has ever done before,” Snyder said.

The team also wanted to study the underlying molecular shifts in people at risk of diabetes.

“Most studies look at just one little part of something. It’s like making a jigsaw puzzle by just looking at the edge pieces,” he said. “We are trying to look at the entire puzzle, putting all the pieces together, which lets us see things much better.”

The 17-member Stanford research team included experts with Stanford Bio-X, the Stanford Child Health Research Institute, the Stanford Cancer Institute, the Stanford Neurosciences Institute and the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. Researchers at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Yale University, the Royal Institute of Technology, the Chalmers Institute of Technology, the University of Gothenburg and Uppsala University also contributed to the work.

Their analysis revealed a shift in the body’s microbiome, the vast army of microbes that protect us against germs, breaks down food to release energy, produce vitamins and perform other tasks.

Microbial species changed with weight gain, the researchers found. For instance, populations of a bacteria called Akkermansia muciniphila, which is known to protect against insulin resistance, shot up. This is a trend that could help understand the underlying dynamics that lead to diabetes.

Secondly, there was a change in the body’s immune responses. Inflammation flared more in normal people than in those with extra kilogrammes, they found.

With weight gain, “inflammation was a little impaired,” Snyder said. “The immune system is a bit crippled.”

Finally, the molecular pathways associated with heart disease were activated. There was a shift in gene expression associated with increased risk for a type of heart failure called dilated cardiomyopathy, in which the heart cannot pump blood efficiently to the rest of the body.

This might explain, indirectly, why the risk of heart attack climbs with added weight, said Snyder. While the activated pathway is not causing heart issues, “it is a signal of what’s going on”.

Snyder’s advice: “Don’t gain the weight. Exercise, and the food you eat, are absolutely critical.”

Exposure to trees and other greenery has been shown to stave off depression in adults, and a new US study finds the same may be true for teenagers. 

Researchers looked at more than 9,000 kids aged 12 to 18 and found those who lived in areas with lots of natural vegetation nearby were less likely to display high levels of depression symptoms. The effect was strongest among middle schoolers, the study team reports in Journal of Adolescent Health. 

“Prior research has shown that lower exposure to nature is associated with more negative emotional and behavioural outcomes,” lead author Carla Bezold of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston said in a telephone interview. 

To see if this is true during the teen years, the researchers analysed data on 9,385 adolescents who began participating in 1999 in a large study of health factors affecting US youth. Participants had mental health assessments and also provided information about substance abuse, environmental safety issues and race in an annual questionnaire. 

Bezold’s team used geo-coding to identify where the participants lived, and satellite data to examine the areas around their homes to assess building density and proximity to green spaces as well as blue spaces — bodies of water. In addition to how close by green and blue spaces were, researchers measured their amount and quality — large and lush or small and sparse. 

Based on the mental health assessments, the researchers found that 11.5 per cent of kids had depression symptoms. They categorised the top 11.5 per cent of that group with the highest levels of depression symptoms as having “high depression”, and looked at how nearby green and blue space influenced whether kids fell into that category. 

“We saw that living in an area that was greener was associated with lower depression among this population,” Bezold said, “and that the association persisted using a number of statistical techniques, which gives us confidence that the association is there and so are the benefits”. 

Overall, after adjusting for family and economic factors, researchers found that young people living amid the highest-quality green space were 11 per cent less likely than peers with the poorest-quality green space to be in the high depression group. No significant association was found for blue spaces, however. 

The mechanisms linking nature and mental health are fascinating to say the least and, not surprisingly, an active area of theoretical study, said Kirsten Beyer, a health geographer at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, who was not involved in the study. 

“The attention restoration theory is just one theory. It argues that nature offers an opportunity to relax our directed attention, thus providing relief from mental fatigue,” Beyer told Reuters Health by e-mail. 

Another possibility is the so-called biophilia hypothesis, she said, which argues that humans have this inherent biological tendency to respond positively to natural environments. 

“There are a number of mechanisms connecting greenness and improved overall health,” Bezold said. “Prior evidence shows that living among higher density vegetation is linked to reduced stress, increased physical activity and improved incidental contact and social interaction between neighbours.” 

Urban planners and public health professionals are talking more and more, Bezold added. “Decisions are now being made… as to how best to structure communities in order to optimise health. Design teams have come to understand the importance of having nature in a residential environment because it promotes community health — in more ways than one. It’s about more than just aesthetics.” 

What about teenagers living in more urban areas where green space is harder to come by? 

“Interestingly, research has shown that even photographs of nature can have positive benefits,” Beyer said. “Greening indoor environments should not be discounted as a way to protect mental health. Even in the most urban environments, vacant lots, yards, and street trees offer opportunities for adding greenspace to the landscape.” 

Small, sporty and compact frame, the Audi Q2 is the Ingolstadt automaker’s thoroughly convincing and well thought out premium mini urban crossover SUV.

Built on the same and well-regarded Volkswagen/Audi MQB modular platform, the sprightly Q2 is sized just small than a compact family hatchback and handles with similar agility and finesse, yet, packs a broad range of convenience, infotainment and safety features.

Positioned as the brand’s entry-level crossover, the Q2 is a nimble and well-packaged runaround that makes many a compact crossover competitor seem big, bulky and ungainly by comparison.

Feisty charisma 

Smaller than even the Mini Countryman and Fiat 500X, who is unique selling propositions are their compact size, the Q2’s Audi design ethos is unmistakable, yet, somewhat less aggressive and more feisty in character. Featuring a large hexagonal grille as expected, and with defined rear shoulders and wheel-arches, the Q2, however, seems more playfully assertive rather than brimming with an outright aggressive disposition. Its lights are not quite as slim or heavily browed, while its low roofline, rear hatch angle and more compact high-set rear lights also lend it a sense of accessibility. 

Measuring just under 4.2-metres long, 1.8-metres wide and just above 1.5-metres high, the sporty looking and sporty to drive Q2 features sculpted flanks, blacked out rear pillar and a pert lower bumper section. Meanwhile, its big footprint and short overhangs provide good stability, agility and cabin space. An urban crossover without extensive off-road pretensions, the Q2’s light 1280kg weight, compact dimensions and generous 150mm ground clearance, however, allow easy drivability on gravel and dirt paths in standard front-wheel-drive guise, as driven, while the range-topping model’s Quattro four-wheel-drive allows for improved off-road and low-traction capability. 

Perky and frugal

Driven in Q2 35 TFSI guise, Audi’s baby crossover is powered by the intermediate of three turbocharged petrol engines available. Displacing 1.4-litres, the Q2 35 TFSI’s direct injection four-cylinder develops 147BHP at 5,000-6,000rpm and 184lb/ft torque throughout a wide 1,500-3,500rpm mid-range band. Driving the front wheels through a swift and smooth shifting 7-speed automated dual clutch gearbox, the Q2 can automatically and seamlessly deactivation two cylinders when coasting between 1,400-3,200rpm. And with a stop/start system too, it achieve frugal 5.5l/100km combined fuel consumption, even when fitted with the largest 19-inch alloy wheels available.

Perky and punchy for such a small unit, the Q2’s engine is responsive and eager after the briefest moment of turbo lag from idling speed, before it dispatches the benchmark 0-100km/h acceleration sprint in 8.5-seconds. Pulling confidently from low-end and with a versatile mid-range for easy drivability and on the move acceleration, the Q2 35 TFSI also benefits from low CD0.30 aerodynamics, which helps it achieve a 212km/h top speed, while reducing wind noise at motorway speeds. Small yet willing, the Q2’s 1.4-litre engine is happy to be revved hard to deliver its best performance.

Agile and alert

Noticeably picking up its pace when pushed high towards the redline, the Q2’s high rev performance well-complements its eager chassis and nimble handling characteristics. In essence a small and light hatchback that has been given the crossover SUV treatment with a high ride height, the Q2 is an agile and fun car at heart. Eager into corners with a flick of its quick and precise electric-assisted steering, it corners tidily. Agile through successive corners, the Q2 feels manoeuvrable, yet, committed in most circumstances, but nevertheless feels adjustable and playful when “chucked” through a corner.

Shifting its weight to the outside and rear when lifting off the throttle suddenly or dabbing the brakes mid-corner, the Q2’s MacPherson strut front and torsion beam rear suspension and chassis is eager to tighten its cornering line, and feels lively, and engaging. Steering is meanwhile tight, taut and well-weighted through corners, yet well damped and confident at speed. Stable and refined on motorway, the Q2’s ride is smooth and settled over imperfections and on rebound. Meanwhile body lean is minimal and well controlled through corners for its segment, and grip and road-holding are reassuring.

Well packaged

Riding on optional 235/40R19 tyres on Dubai roads, the Q2 felt comfortable and forgiving on all but the most jarring bumps. However, for rougher Jordanian roads, one would recommend one of the more supple 16-, 17- or 18-inch alloy wheel and tyre combinations available. With an up-right, high, ergonomic and well-adjustable driving position, one feels at the centre of the action in the Q2 and along with its compact dimensions, benefits from good road visibility and easy manoeuvrability, despite its high waistline and small glasshouse. Moreover, the Q2 can be optioned with lane assistance, blind spot monitoring, and stop/go adaptive cruise control.

In addition to the above, the Q2 receives Audi’s Presense safety system and optional parking and rear cross-path detections systems as part of its “big” car assistance safety features. Stylish, up-market and user-friendly inside, the Q2 is well packed to comfortably accommodate five occupants and 405-litre luggage capacity, which can expend to 1050-litres. It can also be available with head’s up display and the configurable and digital Audi Virtual Cockpit instruments panel, while convenience systems include Audi’s MMI infotainment system with 8.3-inch screen, touchpad control, natural voice recognition and optional Bang and Olufsen sound system.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.4-litre, turbocharged, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 74.5 x 80mm

Compression ratio: 10:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 7-speed dual clutch automated, front-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 3.765; 2nd 2.273; 3rd 1.531; 4th 1.133; 5th 1.176; 6th 0.956; 7th 0.795

Reverse: 4.168

Final drive, 1st-4th/5th-7th: 4.438/3.227

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 147 (150) [110] @5000-6000rpm

Specific power: 105.7BHP/litre 

Power-to-weight: 108.8BHP/tonne (kerb)

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 184.4 (250) @1500-3500rpm

Specific torque: 179.2Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 184.5Nm/tonne (kerb)

0-100km/h: 8.5-seconds

Top speed: 212km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined:

6.5-/4.9-/5.5-litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 125g/km

Fuel capacity: 50-litres

Length: 4,191mm

Width: 1,794mm

Height: 1,508mm

Wheelbase: 2601mm

Ground clearance: 150mm

Track, F/R: 1,547/1,541mm

Overhang, F/R: 828/768mm

Loading height: 740mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.30

Headroom, F/R: 1,029/966mm

Shoulder width, F/R: 1,390/1,347mm

Luggage volume, min/max: 405-/1,050-litres

Unladen/kerb weight: 1,280kg/1,355kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 11.1-metres

Suspension: MacPherson struts, anti-roll bars/torsion beam

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Tyres: 235/40R19 (optional)

NEW YORK — Depression and anxiety afflict Americans who are concerned with the fate of the environment, according to a study of the mental health effects of climate change.

Most hard-hit are women and people with low incomes who worry about the planet’s long-term health, said the study published this week in the journal Global Environmental Change.

Symptoms include restless nights, feelings of loneliness and lethargy.

“Climate change is a persistent global stressor,” said Sabrina Helm, lead author of the paper and professor of family and consumer sciences at the University of Arizona.

Risks to mental health from climate change are a “creeping development”, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Due to climate change, scientists predict sea levels are on track to surge as temperatures rise, posing threats such as deadly heat, extreme weather and land swallowed by rising water.

World leaders mobilised to curb man-made greenhouse gas emissions to fight global warming in a 2015 agreement, although the United States has since said it would withdraw from the landmark deal.

Signs of depression do not appear in people concerned about climate change’s risks to humanity but do appear in people worried about its impact on other species, plants and nature overall, the research said.

The study pulled from 342 online surveys of respondents, whose views broadly reflect the wider US population, it said.

Experts have looked at ways extreme weather such as hurricanes and floods, whose intensity has increased due to climate change, can cause mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, it said.

But little research has looked into anxiety arising from climate change as an everyday concern, the study said.

The Commander: Fawzi Al-Qawuqji and the Fight for Arab Independence 1914-1948

Laila Parsons

London: Saqi Books, 2017

Pp. 295

Combining history with biography to trace the career of Fawzi Al Qawuqji, historian Laila Parsons provides a close-up view from a new angle of the seminal events of the first half of the 20th century that shaped the Middle East and whose echoes are still being felt today.

Born in Tripoli, in today’s Lebanon, in 1894, Qawuqji was trained as an officer in the War College of Istanbul. He fought with the Ottoman army in World War I until the very end, including against the British army’s advance in Palestine. Later, he participated in the major anti-colonial struggles that followed the colonial division of the area. “The Syrian Revolt of 1925-1927 [against the French] marked Qawuqji’s transition from pursuing a settled professional career as a cavalry officer in a state army to leading a peripatetic life of rebellion and exile.” (p. 40)

Qawuqji was instrumental in organising and commanding local forces in the 1936 revolt in Palestine, and the 1941 rebellion in Iraq, both directed against the British colonial army. “Before Qawuqji’s arrival, rebel attacks in Palestine had been single strikes, done quickly and at night. What Qawuqji brought to the revolt was his expertise in longer-term strategies that he had learned as an officer in the Ottoman Army.” (p. 128)

These exploits led to his being appointed field commander of the Arab Liberation Army in the 1948 Palestine War. 

Added to the drama of this tumultuous period, “The Commander” is particularly fascinating reading for two reasons. Firstly, Qawuqji is a controversial figure, and Parsons engages head-on with the various images of him that have persisted over the years. Secondly, Parsons makes the reader privy to her deliberations as a historian. One gets an idea both of how history is made and how it is written.

Qawuqji was indisputably a charismatic figure, able to inspire confidence and loyalty in diverse social groups, from tribes and peasants to urbanites. Many regarded him as a hero. “Unlike the many leading Arab nationalists, who came from elite landowning families, Qawuqji always possessed the ability to connect directly with common people, whom the elites claimed to speak in the name of but who in fact often represented a threat to their social and economic status.” (p. 190)

Serious accusations were leveled at him, such as collaborating with the British, many stemming from his conflict with Hajj Amin Al Husayni, mufti of Jerusalem. “Qawuqji’s relationship with the mufti, forged in the mid-1930s during the preparations for revolt in Palestine, came to dominate Qawuqji’s career.” (p. 112)

One source of their differences lay in their outlook: Qawuqji was representative of those who saw Palestine as a pan-Arab struggle where victory might result in a Greater Syria, whereas after the failure of Faysal’s state in Syria, the mufti had worked to develop a Palestinian national movement independent of Syria nationalism. 

In dealing with the accusations levelled by the mufti and others, Parsons gives the reader insight into a good historian’s craft. While Qawuqji’s memoirs and personal archive in Beirut were main sources for the book, she also consulted the memoirs of soldiers and politicians who lived the same events, and carried out extensive archival research in Damascus, Britain, France, Germany and Jerusalem. Sifting through the evidence, she gives multiple perspectives on disputed facts before advancing her own conclusions. Though listing Qawuqji’s mistakes, she characterises him as “a transnational fighter… genuinely committed to fighting for Palestine”. (p. 250)

Like other Arab nationalists in exile, Qawuqji spent part of World War II in Berlin. Some historians accuse them of collaboration with the Nazis, but Parsons sets the record straight, relying on German historian Gerhard Hopp whose study shows that Qawuqji’s “interest in German power in this period came from his desire to rid the Middle East of the British and the French, not from anti-Semitism or some commitment to Nazi ideology”. (p. 169)

Though focusing on a leader, Parson’s account has elements of “history from below”, reminding that the outcomes of rebellions and war are not only decided by bravery or fighting ability, but by the quality of equipment, viable supply lines and the ability to pay soldiers’ salaries.

A passage on the 1936 revolt is revealing, especially as it is known that support promised from the outside was not always forthcoming: “More complicated by far was the impact that Qawuqji’s arrival had on those villagers he called upon to supply fighters, food, and water. For some of the young men of the villages it was an exciting opportunity to fight… Many families, however, felt the burden of having to give up precious food stocks…” (p. 125)

The humanitarian crisis for Palestinians was far worse in 1948, and post-defeat recriminations much harsher. Parsons estimates that the only way Qawuqji could have avoided criticism was not to accept command of the Arab Liberation Army in the first place. Yet, a quote from his memoirs may explain his acceptance of that impossible task: “I am a hostage to Arab events and interests, and when the struggle calls me to whichever area I am needed, I am ready to follow that call.” (p. 183)

TOKYO — Under pressure and gobbling pizza or chocolate? It may not be your fault, according to Japanese researchers who have isolated the neurons that drive a craving for carbs.

The team at Japan’s National Institute for Physiological Sciences found that activating neurons known to respond to social stress increased the appetite in mice for carbohydrates.

Rodents with the neurons activated ate high-carbohydrate food at a rate of three times the mice under normal conditions.

They also roughly halved their intake of high-fat food, the study found.

The research is the first to demonstrate the way that the brain plays a role in the preference for carbohydrates or fats, said Yasuhiko Minokoshi, a scientist at the institute, who led the study.

The teams said the study could help find a way to shift people away from gorging on sugary treats or unhealthy junk food.

Humans generally select what to eat based on taste, as well as the nutritional state of the body, but the exact mechanism involved in the selection has remained largely a mystery.

“Many people who eat sweets too much when stressed tend to blame themselves for being unable to control their impulses,” Minokoshi told AFP.

“But if they know it’s because of the neurons, they might not be so hard on themselves,” he said.

Minokoshi cautioned that it would be difficult to immediately apply the findings to improving human diets.

Simply suppressing the neurons could trigger side effects, as they have many other important roles, he said.

“However, if we could find a particular molecule in the neurons and target it specifically to suppress part of its activities, it could curb excessive eating of carbohydrate-heavy food,” he said.

On the other hand, a substance to activate it could be used to treat people who consume excessive fat.

The study is to be published in the online edition of the US journal Cell Reports soon.

Many researchers suspect a certain mechanism could be responsible for prompting some animals to choose high-protein food, but a definitive process has not yet been discovered.

First, it was chess. Then it was Go. Now it’s basic reading comprehension.

The robots are coming.

Two artificial intelligence (AI) programmes created by Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba and Microsoft beat humans on a Stanford University reading comprehension test.

Alibaba took the honour as the creator of the first programmes to ever beat a human in a reading comprehension test, scoring 82.44 per cent and narrowly edging past the human’s 82.304 per cent.

A different program built by Microsoft scored higher than Alibaba’s at 82.605 per cent. Microsoft’s took the same test as Alibaba’s but was finalized a day later, according to Bloomberg.

The test known as Stanford Question Answering Dataset, or SQuAD for short, asks the contestants — human and robot — to answer provide exact answers to more than 100,000 questions drawn from more than 500 Wikipedia articles. The test is designed to see if AI can process large amounts of information before fully comprehending it and offering precise answers.

Some of the Wikipedia articles where questions were drawn from covered a wide range, from Super Bowl 50 (“Where did Super Bowl 50 take place?” Answer: Santa Clara, California) to “Doctor Who” (“What planet is Doctor Who from?” Answer: Gallifrey.).

“These kinds of tests are certainly useful benchmarks for how far along the AI journey we may be,” Microsoft spokesman Andrew Pickup told CNN. “However, the real benefit of AI is when it is used in harmony with humans.”

Major technology companies in the United States and China have invested billions of dollars in AI to gain a foothold in what may be the next technological frontier. The Chinese government has outlined a plan to create a $150 billion AI industry by 2030 in partnership with private companies such as Alibaba and Tencent.

Microsoft in December announced its “AI on Earth” project to help the planet become more environmentally sustainable using its in-house AI infrastructure. The company will invest $50 million for the next five years, according to Microsoft CEO Brad Smith.

With AI’s comprehension skills now arguably better than a human being, Alibaba’s chief data scientist said, the breakthrough will be applied to helping human customers.

“The technology underneath can be gradually applied to numerous applications such as customer service, museum tutorials and online responses to medical inquiries from patients, decreasing the need for human input in an unprecedented way,” Luo Si, chief scientist for natural language processing at Alibaba’s Institute of Data Science of Technologies, told Bloomberg.

A high-salt diet may spell trouble for the brain — and for mental performance — even if it does not push blood pressure into dangerous territory, new research has found.

A new study has shown that in mice fed a very high-salt diet, blood flow to the brain declined, the integrity of blood vessels in the brain suffered, and performance on tests of cognitive function plummeted.

But researchers found that those effects were not, as has long been widely believed, a natural consequence of high blood pressure. Instead, they appeared to be the result of signals sent from the gut to the brain by the immune system.

The study, conducted by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, was published on Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The research sheds light on a subject of keen interest to scientists exploring the links between what we eat and how well we think, and the mediating role that the immune system plays in that communication. It suggests that even before a chronic high-salt diet nudges blood pressure up and compromises the health of tiny blood vessels in the brain, the oversalted gut is independently sending messages that lay the groundwork for corrosion throughout that vital network.

In the small intestines of mice, the authors of the new research found that a very high-salt diet prompted an immune response that boosted circulating levels of an inflammatory substance called interleukin-17. These high levels of IL-17 set off a cascade of chemical responses inside the delicate inner linings of the brain’s blood vessels.

The result, in mice fed the high-salt diet: blood supply to two regions crucial for learning and memory — the cortex and hippocampus — slowed markedly. And mental performance slid. Compared to mice fed a diet lower in salt, the maze-running skills of the mice who consumed high-salt levels faltered, and they failed to respond normally to whisker stimulation, or a new object in their cage.

In mice, that evidence of cognitive impairment was apparent even in the absence of high blood pressure.

The good news — for these mice at least: that when the high-salt diet was discontinued, or when the immune signals were tamped down by drugs, the cognitive performance of mice was restored.

The immune system’s role in sending signals between brain and gut is also seen in such diseases as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease — all disorders that are linked to poor functioning of the brain’s blood vessels. The researchers suggested that if a drug or therapy could disrupt the inflammatory signals that reach the brain, the heart and stroke risk that come with such diseases might be reduced.

Having a personal assistant is a great thing, even if it is only something to brag about it. Even if it is but a virtual assistant – understand a digital one. Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, they all want you to have such an assistant and each of these four high-tech giant players is proposing its own virtual “servant”.

Whereas Google’s is simply called Google Assistant, Apple’s is Siri, Microsoft’s is Cortana and Amazon’s is Alexa. For last couple of years or so the concept has been aggressively promoted, even pushed, by these companies. Available on the various platforms, from smartphones to computers, digital assistants are deigned to help you perform tasks and obtain information, without going through the pains of doing extensive typing or using search methods that often need a tech-minded person with a lot of patience.

Suppose you are using Windows and need to change the configuration of your sound card. Memorising all the menu functions and menu subdivisions (the infamous menu tree) to reach this part of Windows settings is just too much for you. Just ask Cortana by saying or typing “I want to change the sound card settings” and it will immediately take you there — nothing to remember.

In other words, and whereas computer operating systems only understand technical language, digital assistants are supposed to understand your plain, natural language, with its flaws and imperfections. Even if your thoughts, your wishes are not expressed very clearly, the assistant is made to understand what you mean and to oblige. Simply said it is made to assist you, with all that this entails. This includes intelligent reminders and organisational patterns.

Amazon has a smart speaker called Echo that works in conjunction with Alexa. It only takes voice commands. On the other hand, Cortana, for example, can take voice and typed commands. Echo is capable of “voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic and other real-time information”. (Wikipedia). Echo’s ability to understand human speech and to react and speak in a smooth, pleasant tone, human-like voice, is excellent.

There is little doubt that personal digital assistants are to evolve significantly and quickly. It is just another important step towards achieving well performing Artificial Intelligence (AI) in technology. The public started hearing about AI in the early 1980s. It was expected that spectacular results would be seen by the turn of the decade, but it was not the case. Progress has been very slow since.

Today with self-driving cars round the corner and digital assistants on every device, the industry must convince consumers that AI is finally at work, for good and in real life. There is simply no other choice.

Because personal digital assistants do not always understand you and have, yet, to be perfected, more than half of the users’ population are simply turning off or ignoring the ones they have on their device. At this stage more traditional search methods are still preferred in many cases and situations. I confess that I do use the Cortana that came with the Windows 10 on my laptop but only from time to time.

Online statistics that date back to the end of last year indicate the following usage shares: Apple’s Siri 34 per cent, Google Assistant 19 per cent, Amazon Alexa 6 per cent, and Microsoft Cortana 4 per cent.

PARIS — With a wave of films, television series and art shows championing “gender fluidity” — and catwalks awash with “gender neutral” models and clothes — the old dividing line between the sexes is being increasingly called into question.

But as the blurring of boundaries has gone from the margins to being a progressive cause, the political temperature of the debate has risen sharply.

Gender fluidity has become a hot-button issue in the culture wars between liberals and conservatives, often reduced to newspaper stories over “which bathroom somebody chooses”, said Johanna Burton, curator of the exhibition “Trigger: gender as a tool and a weapon” which opened at New York’s New Museum.

“It is very much an exciting moment, but also a scary moment politically... Gender is in the forefront of people’s thoughts right now,” she added.

“I think people have considered the limits of the binary construction of gender for a very long time, but only recently has it made the newspapers every day.”

No one has put gender issues out there more than Bruce Jenner, the former decathlete and erstwhile member of the Kardashian clan, whose transition to becoming Caitlyn in 2015 pushed the subject into the mainstream.

Time and National Geographic magazines have both devoted their covers to the transgender debate.

Hollywood too has played a part. 

First the Wachowski brothers, creators of “The Matrix” movie franchise, became the Wachowski sisters and then they cast transgender actress Jamie Clayton as a hacker in their hit Netflix series “Sense8”. 

One of the first places trans issues stepped out of the shadows was on stage. And next year’s Avignon festival in France, the world’s biggest theatre gathering, will be on the theme of “gender, trans identity and transsexuality”.

“Gender doesn’t exist anymore,” according to Guram Gvasalia, the business brain behind fashion’s ultra-hip label of the moment, Vetements, whose collections are all mixed.

“Man or woman, we can choose what we want to be,” insisted Gvasalia, whose brother Demna Gvasalia designs for both the label and Balenciaga, where he has carried on the relaxed attitude to gender.

On the catwalks of Paris, New York and Milan, brands now regularly show “mixed” collections and many market their clothes as “gender fluid”. 

Philosopher Thierry Hoquet calls this the “Conchita Wurst phenomenon”, after the bearded Austrian drag queen who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014.

“Today some people mix masculine and feminine characteristics, and they do not need to be coherent,” he said. 

While the author of the book “Sexus Nullus” claimed these “gender pirates” are very rare, he believes they are also very influential. 

‘Anti-gender’ backlash

But this new emerging reality is not to everyone’s taste.

“There is a political battle being waged right now on the territory of gender,” said the American historian Joan W. Scott, a specialist in women’s history and gender studies. 

“The ‘forces of order’ and ‘anti-gender’ groups — the Vatican, religious fundamentalists, populists, nationalists, even some in the centre and on the left — have organised to stop the spread of the idea that gender is fluid or flexible and always mutable,” she said. 

US President Donald Trump was quick to realise it was a hot-button issue which could shore up his conservative base.

He banned transgender people from serving in the US Army in August and insisted on calling trans whistleblower Chelsea Manning a “he”.

An uncrossable divide?

In France, large protests against the legalisation of gay marriage in 2013 included slogans like “Hands off our stereotypes!”

They also spawned a movement to protect “traditional family values” and roles which later helped fuel a furore over false claims that a “theory of gender” was being taught in schools.

French sociologist Marie Duru-Bellat said that while trans issues have been embraced in the arts world, in society at large “there has been a hardening of attitudes”, and a reinforcing of the idea of an uncrossable divide between men and women.

She said some Catholic groups are holding “masculinity support” workshops and pointed to how gender stereotypes are still very strong among children. 

“There are a lot of people for whom equality is about men and women complementing each other,” said the academic, who wrote “La Tyrannie du Genre” (The Tyranny of Gender).

“So for them, you cannot touch traditional gender models.”