Monthly Archives: May 2018

Health, Medical, Research, Science

Alzheimer’s genes advance

MEDICAL RESEARCH

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have discovered many new genes that are linked to thinking and cognitive skills. The breakthrough could help in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

SCIENTISTS have discovered nearly 150 genes linked to thinking skills in a breakthrough that could help combat Alzheimer’s disease.

A team lead by the University of Edinburgh found 148 genes that could have an impact on thinking skills – such as memory, reasoning, speed of mental processing and spatial awareness.

. See also New biological marker could detect Alzheimer’s disease ten years before symptoms appear…

Scientists said the results could help understanding of the declines in cognitive function that happen with illness as people age.

The study analysed data from 300,486 people aged between 16 and 102 who had taken part in 57 cohort studies in Australia, Europe and North America.

Dr Gall Davies, of the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, who led the analysis, said: ‘This study, the largest genetic study of cognitive function, has identified many genetic differences that contribute to the heritability of thinking skills.

‘The discovery of shared genetic effects on health outcomes and brain structure provides a foundation for exploring the mechanisms by which these differences influence thinking skills throughout a lifetime.’

As well as having better thinking skills, the genetic areas are associated with better cardiovascular and mental health, lower risk of lung cancer and longer life.

Those who participated in the study, first published in Nature Communications, had taken a variety of thinking and mental tests which were summarised as a general cognitive ability score.

All had genetic testing that examined their DNA, and none had dementia or a stroke.

Medicine Chest

Brazil Nuts

. Brazil Nuts – Selenium is found in Brazil nuts, which are actually one of the very few good sources of this mineral, needed in the body to make the antioxidant enzyme called glutathione peroxidase, which help prevent free-radical damage to your cells.

Studies continue to show that people who eat selenium-rich food greatly reduce their risk of developing cancer and heart disease. Research also indicates that selenium helps the kidneys to clean toxins from the body more efficiently. Other sources include whole-grain cereals, seafood and seaweed.

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Economic, European Union, Government, Italy, Politics, Society

A provocation and insult to democracy

ITALY

ITALY has had no fewer than 65 governments since the War – with an average survival rate of just over a year. The country is hardly renowned as a beacon of democratic stability.

Even by the standards of this volatile nation, however, the current political crisis is becoming more troubling and bizarre by the day. It proves yet again the disastrous folly of imposing the one-size-fits-all euro on countries for which it is so obviously unsuitable. Pertinently, it demonstrates that Brussels has no qualms about trampling on democracy to keep the dream of a European superstate alive.

Italy’s national finances are in a dire state. Marooned in a sea of debt, with a stagnant economy and crippling unemployment rate, citizens of that beleaguered land renounced their mainstream Europhile parties in a general election just three months ago. They rightly blamed membership of the single currency for their misery and elected a coalition of unashamedly populist, Eurosceptic parties – led by the maverick Five Star movement and Right-wing Northern League.

Yet, when radical economist Paolo Savona – a passionate opponent of the euro – was named finance minister he was vetoed by Italy’s slavishly pro-Brussels president Sergio Matarella, who then nominated his own man as prime minister and invited him to form a totally unelected government. It has no mandate of course and will soon fall. Mr Matarella could possibly be impeached for overreaching his powers. But what an affront to democracy.

Had this happened in some Third World state, it would have quickly been denounced as tyrannical and corrupt. Not in Europe. In both Paris and Berlin, Mr Matarella is being praised for his courage. There is no better example or illustration of how people across the European continent are being disenfranchised – and just why they are crying out for change.

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Afghanistan, Britain, Defence, Government, Military

The betrayal of Afghan interpreters

DEFENCE

British soldiers were aided by Afghan interpreters who were used to help provide intelligence on the activities of the Taliban. But despite the lives of many interpreters’ being at risk from continued reprisal attacks, the British Government has refused to help relocate many to Britain under the intimidation scheme. The defence select committee in Britain has concluded an inquiry into the treatment of Afghan interpreters saying they were dismally failed.

AN inquiry by the defence select committee says ministers have “dismally failed” to protect loyal Afghan interpreters who served alongside British troops from the Taliban. It concludes by stating that “dangerously exposed” interpreters should be given a new life in the UK.

MPs on the committee said the Ministry of Defence’s “intimidation scheme”, under which translators must prove a threat to their life before they are allowed into Britain, had failed to bring a single one to safety in this country.

The explosive report states that claims by the MoD that no interpreters have faced threats warranting their relocation to the UK are “totally implausible”.

It draws on evidence of the threats facing interpreters, and the report says: “We have a duty of care to those who risked everything to help our armed forces in Afghanistan.”

Dr Julian Lewis, chairman of the cross-party committee, said: “How we treat our former interpreters and local employees… will send a message to the people we would want to employ in future military campaigns about whether we can be trusted to protect them.”

The findings will pile further pressure on Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and Home Secretary Sajid Javid to overhaul current policy on Afghan interpreters. The MoD has said it would now review the report.

There are two schemes under which interpreters who served alongside British troops can be given sanctuary in the UK. The “relocation scheme” only allows interpreters into the UK if they were serving on an arbitrary date in December 2012 and served at least 12 months in Helmand province.

But the report says this scheme had been “generous” in allowing interpreters who lost their jobs when UK forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan into Britain.

This generosity had, however, contrasted starkly with the “total failure to offer similar sanctuary to interpreters” under the intimidation scheme, it says.

This failure comes despite Afghan interpreters and their families having been shot at, threatened and even executed after being branded “spies and infidels” by the Taliban.

The report says ministers must allow interpreters who face “serious and verifiable threats” to come to Britain.

Case-in-point:

AN Afghan translator credited with helping save the lives of dozens of British soldiers trapped for nearly two months by the Taliban has said that their fighters have been trying to hunt him down.

Fardin, 37, said that twice in the past ten days a suspected Taliban fighter had been in his home neighbourhood of the Afghan capital Kabul asking neighbours and shopkeepers where he lives with his family.

“I am terrified,” he said. “My wife is crying constantly. They know what I look like, they know what I did for the British and they want revenge.”

Fardin, who still works with British forces in Kabul, was one of three Afghan interpreters who were the “eyes and ears” of 88 soldiers surrounded by 500 Taliban at the outpost of Musa Qala in Helmand for 56 days.

Despite the fact he has worked with the British for more than a decade, he was told he does not qualify for sanctuary in the UK because he did not spend a full year on the front line.

 

THE excoriating report by the all-party defence select committee, which finds not a single Afghan interpreter has been given sanctuary in the UK – under a scheme to rescue those at risk from Taliban reprisals – is devastating in its conclusions. The inquiry found that ministers have “dismally failed” to protect loyal Afghan interpreters who served with our troops.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson must act with all speed to honour our debt to these brave men – before more pay for their service to Britain with their lives.

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