Health

Study suggests that humans use three expressions to convey fear, four to convey surprise and five to convey sadness and anger.
Washington: Happiness can be conveyed using 17 different facial configurations, according to scientists who found that out of over 16,000 expressions only 35 can be recognised across cultures around the world. While human beings can configure their faces in thousands and thousands of ways to convey emotion — from anger to sadness to riotous joy — the number of ways our faces can convey different emotions varies.
Disgust, for example, needs just one facial expression to get its point across throughout the world. Happiness, on the other hand, has 17 — a testament to the many varied forms of cheer, delight and contentedness, researchers said. “This was delightful to discover, because it speaks to the complex nature of happiness,” said Aleix Martinez, a professor at The Ohio State University in the US.
The differences in how our faces convey happiness can be as simple as the size of our smiles or the crinkles near our eyes, the study found. The study, published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, also found that humans use three expressions to convey fear, four to convey surprise, and five each to convey sadness and anger.
“Happiness acts as a social glue and needs the complexity of different facial expressions; disgust is just that: disgust,” Martinez said. The findings build on Martinez’s previous work on facial expressions, which found that people can correctly identify other people’s emotions about 75 per cent of the time based solely on subtle shifts in how blood flow colours a person’s nose, eyebrows, cheeks or chin.
Researchers hoped to identify the facial configurations that convey emotion across cultures. Based on computer algorithms, they found that the human face is capable of configuring itself in 16,384 unique ways, combining different muscles in different ways. They took the 7.2 million images their searches yielded and sorted them into categories, looking for those that expressed emotion across cultures.
Martinez figured they would find at least a few hundred. They found only 35. For the study, the team assembled a list of words that describe feelings — 821 English words, to be exact. It then used those words to mine the internet for images of people’s faces.
Professional translators translated those words into Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Farsi and Russian. To avoid bias, they used each word to download an equal number of images. They plugged the words into search engines popular in 31 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and ended up with approximately 7.2 million images of facial expressions across a variety of cultures.
The study did not include countries from the African continent or other remote parts of the world because of the limited number of candid images available from those areas.

During a recent study, the researchers assessed the relationship between waist circumference measured at follow-up and self-reported history of breastfeeding duration.
Turns out, breastfeeding for more than six months is independently associated with smaller waist circumference in the decade after delivery among women. Pregnancy contributes to an accumulation of abdominal adiposity, which is an indicator of cardiometabolic dysfunction in later life. The findings of the study are published in the Journal of Women’s Health.
During a recent study, the researchers assessed the relationship between waist circumference measured at follow-up and self-reported history of breastfeeding duration. Propensity score approaches were incorporated into the study to account for systematic differences between women who did and did not breastfeed.
The novel use of propensity score methods enabled the researchers to minimise the possibility of bias in the likelihood of breastfeeding due to overall healthier lifestyles. Additional analyses that consider the lifetime duration of breastfeeding is proposed in order to advance understanding of the cumulative effect of breastfeeding on maternal central adiposity.

Neonatal deaths take place within the first 28 days of life and account for 62% of all under-5 deaths in India.
India can avert 71% of an estimated 6 lakh neonatal deaths each year if all mothers deliver at a healthcare facility, have access to caesarean section services, safe blood and if special care for sick newborns are available, according to United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) ‘Survive and Thrive’ report released at the Partners’ Forum which concluded on Thursday.
Neonatal deaths take place within the first 28 days of life and account for 62% of all under-5 deaths in India. “It is estimated that about 5.3 million children under the age of 5 died worldwide in 2017, of which 2.5 million were newborns. This means, 45% of all the deaths in children were in zero to 28-day olds. In India, the proportion is higher at 62%,” said Omar Abdi, deputy executive director, Unicef.
This is a quarter of all the global neonatal deaths. Of all the deaths, 80% neonates had low-birth weight and two-thirds were born prematurely, the report revealed.
Between 1990 and 2015, there was a 66% fall in under-five mortality, which was faster than the global reduction of 55%. “During this period, the reduction of deaths in neonates was just 56% in India. This is because even though vaccination and other government programmes were steadily reducing under-five mortality, neonatal mortality remained stagnant between 2002 and 2007,” said Gagan Gupta, chief of health programmes, Unicef-India.
“It was possible after that government’s emphasis on institutional deliveries, providing transport to and from hospitals, provide facility for delivery at doorsteps at sub-centres, conditional transfer of cash and ensuring complementary feeding through visits by Asha (village health-workers),” said Gupta.
An estimated 5 million women still deliver at home each year without any skilled birth attendance, with half the births taking place in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar alone.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan launched in 2016, doctors in the private sector are donating one workday every month, which has led 16 million antenatal check-ups over the past two years. With a focus on providing good care to sick newborns, the government has also set up 794 special newborn care units which provided help to 25 million newborns. “These initiatives resulted in saving 840 additional lives of children each day as compared to four years ago,” said prime minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the session of the Partners’ Forum at Vigyan Bhavan on Wednesday.
The way forward is to ensure quality. “Now, we have the numbers, but we need to invest in the quality of care to ensure that the burden of mortality is just not shifted from home to hospital. An example would be that eight out of ten women deliver in hospitals, only four out of ten newborns get mother’s milk in the first hour of life,” said Gupta.
Globally, 2.9 million lives of mothers and children can be saved by 2030 by providing pre-conception care during pregnancy, labour and delivery, care of the healthy newborn and help for sick newborns.
“There are two aspects to reducing these deaths. Prevention by providing proper nutrition to mothers, providing ante-natal check-ups, not having babies before the girls are ready, delivering in a proper healthcare facility or with the help of skilled attendants, who should when to refer the women to a higher-facility. Then is also a need to have proper connectivity between primary, secondary and tertiary care facilities so that women and newborns are able to seek and receive appropriate care. The government’s initiative to reduce child marriage will also likely have an impact on the maternal and child health,” Abdi said. Around 8% of adolescent girls in India are already mothers, with rates as high as 18% in West Bengal and Tripura.

Pupil dilation – widening of the pupils of the eyes – could be used to indicate levels of stress of a person in a multitasking environment.
With demands of work productivity shooting up stress levels, researchers have discovered that a person’s eyes may offer a solution.
The study showed that the pupil dilation – widening of the pupils of the eyes – could be used to indicate levels of stress of a person in a multitasking environment.
“Many people multitask but currently there is no measurement for someone’s mental well-being. However, we found that the size of a pupil could be the key to measuring someone’s mental state while they multitask,” said Jung Hyup Kim, Assistant Professor from the University of Missouri in the US.
To understand how everyone experiences stress differently, the researchers used a simulated oil and gas refinery plant control room where they watched, through the motion-capture and eye-tracking technology, as the participants reacted to unexpected changes, such as alarms.
During the scenario’s simple tasks, the participants’ eye searching behaviours were more predictable. Yet, as the tasks became more complex and unexpected changes occurred, their eye behaviour became more erratic, the findings revealed.
The team hopes this finding, published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, can give a better insight into how systems should be designed to avoid mentally overloading workers and build a safer working environment.
“One day this finding could give employers and educators alike a tool to determine the maximum stress level a person can experience before they become fatigued, and their performance begins to negatively change,” the study said.
Further, the researchers plan to apply this finding to further research involving different age groups and certain biometric measures such as heartbeat, brain signals and muscle or nerve reactions.

The doctors mentioned that enlargement of prostate is a normal physiological process and usually starts after 40 years. But at times it creates problems and becomes cancerous.
Kolkata: With the rapidly increasing incidence of prostate cancer in India, which is set to double by 2020, everyone needs to start talking about it for early detection, a panel of experts said here on Tuesday.
“Prostate cancer is a slow-going cancer, so if detected at an early stage, it can be cured. It is not only important to cure but also to spread awareness among the masses,” Abhay Kumar, Urology and Euro-Oncology Consultant at Narayana Super speciality Hospital, Howrah, said at a press meet on prostate cancer awareness commemorating “No-Shave November”.
Radiation Oncologist Sayan Das said according to the Indian Medical Council of Research (IMCR), prostate cancer is the second leading cancer among males in large Indian cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram, and third in cities like Bangalore and Mumbai.
Also, the incidence rates of prostrate cancer are constantly and rapidly increasing in all the population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) of India. The IMCR projection data shows that the number of cases will become double by 2020.
Talking about the reasons for it going undetected, Kumar said: “People usually neglect the symptoms of difficulty in passing urine, urinary frequency and burning sensation, thinking it to be a part of normal ageing process. Hence, one should get himself screened after crossing 40 years of age.”
The doctors mentioned that enlargement of prostate is a normal physiological process and usually starts after 40 years. But at times it creates problems and becomes cancerous.
Explaining about andropause, Kumar said: “Andropause is a condition that is associated with decrease in the male hormone testosterone. Hot flashes, anaemia, depression and cognitive decline are some of the side effects. It is very prominent in men undergoing hormonal ablation therapy for prostate cancer.”
Earlier, prostate cancer was common in western countries but now it is increasing in India. The reason is the detection of more cases, family history, genetic problem and a sedentary lifestyle.
“The (high) increase rate is mainly due to ignorance. So, we thought about spreading awareness by doing the ‘No-Shave November’ campaign which started the conversation,” Suman Mallik, chief of Radiotherapy said.
The idea of this campaign adapted from the West is to grow one’s beard and tell everyone about the logic behind it. Also, those who save money by not shaving can contribute it to the funds for cancer patients.

When tested in mice, the novel vaccine offered full protection against the polio virus, the researchers said.
New York: A novel polio vaccine that does not require refrigeration could someday be used all over the world to deliver the final blow to the contagious disease that mainly affects children under five years of age, say researchers.
The injectable vaccine, developed by researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) is freeze-dried into a powder and can be kept at room temperature for four weeks, which can then be rehydrated.
When tested in mice, the novel vaccine offered full protection against the polio virus, the researchers said.
“Stabilisation is not rocket science so most academics don’t pay much attention to this field,” said lead author Woo-Jin Shin, from the Keck School of Medicine at USC.
“However, no matter how wonderful a drug or vaccine is, if it isn’t stable enough to be transported, it doesn’t do anyone much good,” Shin added.
The study appears in the journal mBio.
By removing moisture through freeze-drying, researchers have created temperature-stable vaccines for measles, typhoid and meningococcal disease. But scientists have not been able to make a polio vaccine that retains potency through freeze-drying and rehydration.
Shin and his colleagues used two lab techniques – liquid chromatography and high-throughput screening – that allowed them to analyze a high volume of ingredients and formulations until they found one that worked.
They now hope that a foundation or company will take over the project to pay for human studies and bring the injectable vaccine onto the market.
Polio is on the brink of complete eradication, with just 22 reported cases worldwide in 2017. The highly infectious disease, which causes lifelong paralysis and disability mostly in young children, is a fading memory in many places. Yet in countries where vaccination rates are spotty, young children are at risk.
The biggest hitch to complete eradication has been creating a temperature-stable vaccine for use in developing countries where refrigeration may be unavailable. Recent polio cases have been reported in Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Syria and Pakistan.

In its report on air pollution and child health, the WHO examines the heavy price that children have to pay due to pollution both inside and outside the homes.
Air pollution is one of the leading threats to child health, accounting for almost 1 in 10 deaths in children under five years of age. In 2016, approximately 6 lakh children died due to acute lower respiratory infections caused by polluted air, as per a report by the World Health Organisation. WHO in its report states that on a daily basis, around 93 per cent of the world’s children under the age of 15 years breathe air that is so polluted that it puts their health and development at serious risk.
In its report on air pollution and child health, the WHO examines the heavy price that children have to pay due to pollution both inside and outside the homes. The report reveals that when pregnant women are exposed to polluted air, they are more likely to give birth prematurely, and have small, low birth-weight children.
Air pollution also has a negative impact on the neurodevelopment and cognitive ability which can trigger asthma, and childhood cancer. Children who have been exposed to high levels of air pollution may be at greater risk for chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease later in life.
The researchers recruited 1285 women in the first trimester of pregnancy in primary health care centres and urban health posts and followed them until the birth of their child to collect data on maternal health, prenatal care, exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and the birthweight of the child.
It was found that a 10 μg/m3 increase in exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) levels during pregnancy was associated with a decrease in birth weight of 4g and a 2% increase in the prevalence of low birth weight.
In India, infants born to women who used biomass fuels such as wood and/or dung as the primary cooking fuel in the home during pregnancy were more likely to be small for gestational age
. Most of the research on household air pollution
has been on the effects of ambient air pollutants, although infants spend most of their time indoors. In a study in rural India, the risk of infant mortality was 21% higher in households with indoor burning of biomass fuels (wood or dung) than in those in which kerosene or biogas was used.
A population-based cohort study of exposure to indoor biomass fuel and tobacco smoke and the risks of various adverse health outcomes in newborn infants in south India found that infants exposed to household air pollution were at a 30% higher risk of being stunted at 6 months of age. The research suggests that switching from polluting to clean fuels could substantially reduce the risk of child stunting and other adverse health outcomes.
The association between exposure to household air pollution from solid fuel combustion and TB has also been evaluated in a few studies. Exposure to biomass fuel combustion exhaust was found to prevent macrophages in the lung from functioning correctly. As macrophages have a key role in the immune response to infection, these changes may increase the vulnerability of individuals to TB and other respiratory infections.
Several studies have also found that indoor cooking with polluting fuels leads to the development of asthma in children. Studies in India and Nepal found a statistically significant increase in the risk of asthma with indoor use of biomass fuel stoves, especially in the absence of appropriate ventilation. In contrast, a study in Malaysia found no association between exposure to household wood stoves and a first hospitalization for asthma of children aged 1 month to 5 years.
“Polluted air is poisoning millions of children and ruining their lives. This is inexcusable. Every child should be able to breathe clean air so they can grow and fulfil their full potential,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said.
One reason why children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution is that they breathe more rapidly than adults and so absorb more pollutants. They also live closer to the ground, where some pollutants reach peak concentrations – at a time when their brains and bodies are still developing.

The research examined: acetaminophen or paracetamol is a common pain reliever that itself is the culprit of liver damage.
Washington D.C: Turns out, acetaminophen, a common pain reliever, is the leading cause of acute liver failure. In the liver, acetaminophen is converted into a new compound that covalently binds to proteins at an amino acid called cysteine. These covalent binding events are known to contribute to the toxicity of acetaminophen, but they cannot fully account for its role in the liver failure.
The compound is known to impair the activity of mitochondria, the cell`s energy supplier, but does not bind directly to some of the enzymes in mitochondria whose activity it affects. Researchers at the National University of Singapore have found a new way that how the breakdown product affects proteins in the liver. They examined glutathionylation, a post-translational modification made to cysteine residues, in response to acetaminophen toxicity and reported a new proteomic approach to isolate and identify glutathionylated proteins and applied it in cells treated with acetaminophen.
Researchers also found that an acetaminophen breakdown product can cause glutathionylation, suggesting a new mechanism for the damage the drug causes. Usually, glutathione is added to cysteine residues to protect them from damage by oxygen under stressful conditions. The modification affects proteins involved in mitochondrial fuel uptake and energy production, leading to metabolic dysfunction and other effects linked to acetaminophen toxicity. This research helps explain the drug`s toxicity at high doses, especially among enzymes that are impaired by acetaminophen treatment without binding directly to the drug or its metabolites. The findings appeared in the Journal of Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.

For the study, the research team pooled information from 31,877 participants with an average age of 60 years from six cohort studies.
New York: Researchers have found that a commonly used biomarker of kidney disease may also indicate lung problems, particularly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, reported a link between albuminuria — a condition that indicates the presence of the protein albumin in urine — and COPD.
According to researchers, albuminuria indicates damage to the single layer of cells lining blood vessels, known as the endothelium, in the kidney.
The findings suggested that for each standard deviation increase in albuminuria, there was a 15 per cent increase in those who developed moderate-to-severe COPD. It also found 26 per cent increase in COPD hospitalisations and deaths.
“The pulmonary microvasculature is critical to gas exchange and known to be impaired in patients with COPD, especially those with emphysema,” said co-author Elizabeth C. Oelsner from the Columbia University, US.
“We wanted to test whether albuminuria, a non-invasive and commonly used clinical test, could serve as a marker for increased risk of developing chronic lower respiratory diseases, such as COPD and asthma,” Oelsner added.
For the study, the research team pooled information from 31,877 participants with an average age of 60 years from six cohort studies. They excluded participants who had been diagnosed with COPD or asthma upon enrolment in the studies.
The participants were followed for changes in lung function over a median of six years and for respiratory hospitalisations and mortality over a median of 15 years.
The team found a three per cent greater decline in FEV1 (the amount of air that can be forcibly exhaled in one second) and an 11 per cent greater decline in the ratio between FEV1 and FVC (the total amount of air that can be forcibly exhaled after taking the deepest breath possible).
Both FEV1 and FEV1/FVC are important measures of lung function, the researcher said.
The researchers noted that these associations remained significant even after taking into account smoking history, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

The high altitude, exposure to excessive ultraviolet (UV) rays, lack of oxygen and the sedentary lifestyle of the locals are leading to a rise to cancer cases, particularly gastrointestinal (GI) and of the skin.
The rough terrain, the snow-capped peaks, the winding roads and monasteries – the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir is the abode of nature’s raw and untouched beauty. The region might be a haven for adventure travellers, but all is not well for the local residents.
The high altitude, exposure to excessive ultraviolet (UV) rays, lack of oxygen and the sedentary lifestyle of the locals are leading to a rise in cancer cases, particularly gastrointestinal (GI) and of the skin, according to medical experts from New Delhi’s premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
Twenty-four of the experts attended a five-day medical camp organised here by Ashoka Mission and SNM Hospital that focused on providing free medical aid to the people of the Leh and Kargil belt, especially those living in far off villages and belonging to financially poor backgrounds. The camp – now in its 25th year – saw more than 2,700 patients attending and getting examined.
“Out of 100 patients, 60-65 cases are of GI cancer. Unfortunately, in this belt there is no proper record or data of cases of cancer. The only numbers we get are from the hospital,” Dr Atul Sharma, Oncologist at the Dr. B.R.A Institute-Rotary Cancer Hospital (BIRCH) at AIIMS, told this visiting IANS correspondent.
Dr Sharma said the rise in GI cancer is mostly because of the unhealthy and sedentary lifestyle which includes consumption of stored meat and hot beverages.
“To keep their body warm, especially during the harsh winter, the people consume meat which has usually been stored for long periods. Also consumption of too many hot beverages, smoking and drinking further escalate the causes of GI cancer,” Dr Sharma added.
“Liver cancer from Hepatitis B is also a concern in this belt. There have been few cases which has come up and we are doing further research on the reasons behind it,” he added.
GI cancer, according to the doctor, is found to be more common in men aged above 40. Women who have undergone menopause have also been found to be prone, along with cervical and breast cancer.
“People are not aware of the early symptoms. There is a major lack of awareness in the region. 90% of the cases that came to me were in advanced stages. There is not much access to cancer treatment and even the proper drugs are not available,” Dr Sharma noted.
According to the oncologist, there are chances of the GI cancer rate going up in the coming years, but periodical endoscopy and early chemotherapy might help control the rise. Dr Kaushal K. Verma, a Dermatologist at AIIMS, stated that workers exposed to too much sunlight are also at higher risk of contracting skin cancer.
The ultraviolet rays are too strong here. Even if the locals are properly covered or use umbrellas, it wont work much here,” he commented.
Dr Verma noted that the early symptoms of skin cancer are small patches which are mostly ignored.
“People don’t take these marks seriously because they are usually small in size. Also, it often becomes difficult for an individual to distinguish between normal skin disease and the cancer mark,” he added.
Not just exposure to the environment, Dr Verma cited food habits, vitamin deficiency and even pollution in the belt as reasons for the rise in skin cancer cases.
“If skin cancer is not treated at an early stage, it can be life threatening. Women in the belt are more into outdoor activities than men, so they face the danger of getting diagnosed with skin cancer, especially after the age of 40,” he said.
Apart from skin cancer, Dr Verma said locals are also at high risk in terms of several other skin problems like eczema and facial pigmentation, which are often difficult to treat as well.
“Most of the year it is extremely cold and dry. And when it is sunny, the rays are very strong — enough to damage the skin. This escalates skin problems,” he noted.