Depression in both expectant mothers and fathers increases the risk of premature birth, finds a study published in BJOG: an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG).
Depression in women during pregnancy is known to be associated with low birth weight and increased risk of premature birth. Maternal stress, such as the death of a loved one, lack of social support, or a difficult or abusive relationship, has also been shown to increase the risk of premature birth. However, little research has examined the impact of paternal depression on the health of the mother or the unborn child.
In this study, more than 350,000 births in Sweden between 2007 and 2012 were investigated for parental depression and incidence of either very preterm birth (between 22 and 31 weeks) or moderately preterm birth (32-36 weeks).
For both men and women, depression was defined as having had a prescription of antidepressant medication, or receiving outpatient/inpatient hospital care, from 12 months before conception to the end of the second trimester of pregnancy. People with depression were classed as ‘new’ cases if they had had […]
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Friday, January 22nd, 2016
Derek D. Cressman, - Truthout
Stephan: The realization that the United States has become a post-middle class neo-feudal oligarchy is becoming widespread. Here is one recent take on this issue.
The following is an excerpt from When Money Talks: The High Price of “Free” Speech and the Selling of Democracy.
Reducing Political Inequality
The wealthiest 0.1 percent of Americans now control a greater portion of our nation’s wealth than at any time since the Great Depression. This growing concentration of wealth in the hands of the few threatens both our economy and our democracy.
Nine times out of ten, the candidate for Congress who raises the most money wins the election. Knowing this, candidates spend their time talking to rich people and asking them for big chunks of money, leaving little time to talk to average people who might only be able to give $25 or $50. In the 2010 election cycle, 26,783 people donated over $10,000 – the total amount these individuals donated represented one-fourth of all the funds raised by candidates, parties, and political committees. Over half of these donors were tied to corporations, and 15 percent were either lobbyists or lawyers. These donors live primarily on the coasts or in such major cities as Chicago and Dallas, yet […]
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Friday, January 22nd, 2016
Stephan: We live embedded in a matrix of conscious life, and as research goes on most of our dominionist assumptions fall away. Plants can count. Who knew?
The paper discussed in this report was published in the journal Current Biology.
Close up of fly standing on venus flytrap
Credit: Adam Gault/OJO
Venus flytraps can count, according to scientists who tested the carnivorous plants and found they use their mathematical skill to conserve energy and avoid false alarms.
Researchers in Germany learned that the Venus flytrap adjusts its feeding behaviour according to the number of times the sensitive trigger hairs on its special leaves that resemble spring traps are stimulated.
“The carnivorous plant Dionaea muscipula, also known as Venus flytrap, can count how often it has been touched by an insect visiting its capture organ in order to trap and consume the animal prey,” said lead scientist Prof Rainer Hedrich, from the University of Wurzburg.
Hedrich’s team fooled the plants into thinking an insect had landed on it by applying increasing numbers of artificial “touches” to their trap hairs.
They showed that a single touch to a trigger hair was enough to prime a trap, setting it in “ready” mode but without snapping shut. A second touch caused the trap […]
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