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José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, June 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 117
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$10 million
effort launched for citrus
Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The U. S. Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative has awarded a diverse group of researchers a $10 million grant to develop treatments for citrus greening disease. The disease disease, a bacterial infection, threatens the future of the U.S. citrus industry, “We have put together a strong team of researchers from eight institutions to combat this disease. We are taking a systems approach to bring new found knowledge from our laboratory studies to the orchard quickly and safely,” said group leader Susan Brown of Kansas State. Citrus greening disease is poised to decimate the U.S. citrus industry and it is present in Central America. The infection weakens and sometimes kills citrus trees and often causes small, unripe fruits. Though the disease has afflicted trees in Asia since the early 1900s, where it is called huanglongbing, the causative bacterium first surfaced in the U.S. in Florida in 2005. The plague has since permeated citrus groves throughout the state, where more than 70 percent of trees may be affected. Growers in Texas have already made isolated reports of infected trees. A bacterial species called Candidatus liberibacter asiaticus causes the infection and a sap-sucking insect called the Asian citrus psyllid spreads the bacterium as it feeds. Farmers have attempted to slow its advance through increased pesticide use, but this strategy has failed to stop it. In an effort to block the transmission of bacteria between trees, while curing existing infections, the researchers will use a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach that considers every gene, protein and metabolite within all three components of the problem: the bacterium, insect and citrus. Using proteomics, the study of every protein within an organism, genomics the study of all DNA in the genome, and metabolomics, the study of all metabolites, the researchers can find — and potentially block — interactions between specific molecules required to move the bacterium from tree to insect to tree. Michelle Cilia of the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University and a research molecular biologist at the U.S. Agricultural Research Service, along with Robert Shatters, of the research station in Fort Pierce, Florida, and John Lis of Cornell University are developing targeted therapies that will kill the Asian citrus psyllid when it feeds on the plant or will block the bacterium from colonizing the psyllid when it enters the gut. Ms. Cilia will use proteomics approaches to identify key protein interactions that occur during transmission and will test resulting therapeutic compounds in the greenhouse. “These protein or RNA molecules can be delivered from within the tree so that the psyllids get these blockers as they’re feeding,” said Ms. Cilia. To handle the masses of the data that the group will generate, bioinformaticists in the laboratory of Lukas Mueller at the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University are building a citrus greening portal (http://citrusgreening.org/) that will visualize connections among the proteomic, metabolomic and genomic data from the bacterium, psyllid and citrus. Mueller’s group has experience building databases for individual organisms, such as cassava, but this is the first database that will link all three organisms involved in citrus greening. The citrus greening portal will also make this data available to the public, and most importantly, to citrus growers. A vital component of the project will be reaching out to growers to give them a voice in deciding how the treatments are developed and applied, researchers said. The citrus industry is deeply involved in finding a solution and has contributed large amounts of funding to support citrus greening research. In the long-term, researchers hope to create citrus varieties that are resistant to the infection, using biotechnological approaches. Horticulturist and geneticist Ed Stover is already working on transgenic plants that will deliver a treatment to the psyllid through the phloem, the tubes that transport nutrients to all parts of the plant, where the psyllids feed.  Ministerio de Seguridad Pública
photo
In addition
to homemade firearms, the suspects had gloves, ski
masks and a knife. Do-it-yourself
weapons confiscated
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fuerza Pública officers said they nabbed two teens Monday while they were hiding in vegetation awaiting the arrival of a delivery truck. Apparently there have been enough crimes of this sort in Río Jiménez de Guácimo, Limón, to warrant special police attention. The two, a 17 and an 18 year old were armed with homemade weapons, a shotgun and a pistol, said police. The way to make cheap firearms appears to be a cottage industry in some parts of Costa Rica. Gun makers are assisted by extensive information on the Internet, including material on how to create weapon quickly posted by the U.S. Army. A simple search turns up vast amounts of information, mainly involving the use of pipes and other easily obtained material. In the case Monday, the homemade shotgun was a bit more elaborate than just two pieces of pipe. There appeared to be a hammer contraption and a trigger assembly. Web war against radicals studied in Paris By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The fight against the Islamic State group and other extremist organizations is not just taking place on the ground, but also in cyberspace. There is no silver bullet to winning the Web war, but this week experts, politicians and youth from around the world are in Paris to talk strategy. The forum is a two-day meeting taking place at the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The challenge: fighting radicalization and extremism on the Internet. The response? That is not so easy, says conference organizer Boyan Radoykov. “What we can say right now is that this will be a very long-term problem to deal with. We are facing a problem that we will have to tackle for the next 20 years,” he said. Many countries are witnessing this problem firsthand. Radical sites are mushrooming on the Web, along with places that offer young people easy pointers on how to tap them. “There are no simple solutions. These people are facing a huge propaganda and machinery campaign. We are at the heart of a system that is brainwashing young people,” Radoykov said. The conference will look at different responses to Internet radicalization around the world and also the downsides, like concerns over threats to free expression. The speakers include young people from Jordan, Syria, Libya and Tunisia, who will discuss their experiences. The battle against extremism is taking place inside and outside cyberspace. Some of the answers, are coming from young people returning from jihad. “By saying, 'Look, this is why I went to do the jihad and to meet these people and this is why I came back.' And this is sometimes even stronger than any Web site and any explanation, when you hear it from the heart of the people who lived it,” Radoykov stated.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, June 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 117 | |
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| Costa Rican ant species add complexity to climate predictions |
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By the Drexel University news staff
Army ants, the nomadic swarming predators underfoot in the jungle, can take down a colony of prey animals without breaking a sweat. But certain army ant species can't take the heat. According to a new study from Drexel University, underground species of army ants are much less tolerant of high temperatures than their above-ground relatives, and that difference in thermal tolerance could mean that many climate change models lack a key element of how animal physiology could affect responses to changing environments. At face value, this is not surprising, noted Sean O'Donnell, a professor in Drexel's College of Arts and Sciences and senior author of the study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. Ants that live above ground are exposed to higher temperatures than subterranean ants, so they should be expected to tolerate hotter conditions. But the relationship between microhabitat and heat tolerance simply hadn't been tested before. No one knew whether the subterranean ant species might have been capable of handling high temperatures, even if they prefer cooler ones. Current models of climate change are built on predictions that animal species may shift their geographic ranges to new latitudes or elevations when the temperature rises. But these models typically use temperature averages taken at a macro resolution, commonly measured one meter above ground, and encompassing areas of a square kilometer or more. They don't generally take into account that different species have varied levels of heat tolerance. "A few inches of soil can make a big difference in temperature," said Kaitlin Baudier, a doctoral student in O'Donnell's lab and lead author of the study. To look at whether factors like microhabitat preference, living above ground vs. below ground, affected an animal's thermal range, Ms. Baudier, O'Donnell and colleagues looked at nine closely related species of army ants that lived in the same general area in Costa Rica's tropical forests. They sampled ants from each of the species and |
 Drexel
University/Kaitlin Baudier
Army ants, the nomadic swarming
predators underfoot in the jungle, have a range of different
lifestyles, this study shows. experimentally tested their maximum heat tolerance in the lab. They found that the best predictor of heat tolerance was how active the ant species was in above-ground environments. Above-ground army ants were most tolerant of higher temperatures, while species that lived mostly below-ground had much lower tolerance to heat, and species that used a combination of above- and below-ground environments had intermediate levels of tolerance. Body size and habitat type also interacted, so that in comparisons of same-size individuals from different species, the species that are active above-ground were more heat tolerant, another indicator that habitat use signals the species' tolerance to heat. Within each species, smaller ants were more sensitive to rising temperatures than the larger ants of the same type. "The takeaway message is that an animal's adaptation to its microhabitat is relevant to its thermal physiology," said Ms. Baudier. "This shows us that the ways these species respond to a changing climate will be different depending on habitat type, and it's important to know that microhabitat could be an indicator of heat tolerance," O'Donnell said. |
| Five students from here will get a shot at Ivy League
education |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The joke goes that when Ezra Cornell proposed in 1868 the university that now bears his name he said he wanted to provide an institution where anyone could find instruction in any study. An associate said "But you will be flooded with students." Cornell replied, according to the joke: "Wait to you see where I am going to put it." Five Costa Ricans will find out. In addition to one of the best educations in the world, they also will learn about snow, perhaps skiing, long, demanding hills and the Ivy League tradition. Casa Presidencial said Monday that Vice President Ana Helena Chacón will travel to New York to finalize a deal whereby five Costa Ricans will get full scholarships to Cornell. Financing by the university for each student will be in excess of $100,000, said Casa Presidencial. The emphasis will be on the hard sciences and math. Also making the trip is the minister of Ciencia y Tecnología, Marcelo Jenkins. Not to be confused with another Ivy League institution, Columbia, the main Cornell campus is not in New York City amid museums, fancy restaurants and urban living. The campus is in the hills overlooking Ithaca, New York, some 250 miles (400 km) northwest of New York City, notes a university Web site. Despite the remote location, the American Institute of Economic Research several years ago named Ithaca as the best college town in America. The town is geared for a large student population, and the Upstate New York region is |
 Cornell
University photo
The Library Tower is the dominant
campus landmark.heavily forested and sliced by deep gorges. The university sits, as the song goes, high above the waters of Lake Cayuga. Cornell seems to be anxious to have Costa Rican students. Casa Presidencial said that the air tickets and housing are being paid by the university. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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be
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, June 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 117 | |||||
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| Team from Los Angeles performs historic surgery in Haiti on
twins |
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By the Children's Hospital Los
Angeles news staff
An international collaboration separated a pair of 6-month-old conjoined Haitian twins, the first such operation ever performed on Haitian soil. An 18-member team of physicians and nurses from Children's Hospital Los Angeles and Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California were involved. Marian Dave-Nouche Bernard and Michelle Dave-Nouche Bernard were born as one Nov. 24, 2014. They were separated after a seven-hour surgery at University Hospital of Mirebalais, in Mirebalais, Haiti, a poor rural community in the country’s Central Plateau, about 36 miles northeast of the capital city of Port-au-Prince. "The girls are doing fantastic,” said surgical team leader Henri Ford, the Haitian-born surgeon-in-chief at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and vice dean for medical education. “It was an extremely exhilarating day. Not only did our preparations pay off and the surgery succeed in spectacular fashion, but this was also a time to put politics aside and celebrate our national pride.” Marian and Michelle were connected at the abdomen. They are actually triplets. Sister Tamar is healthy and normal. The two sisters had faced each other since birth, but recuperated in separate beds in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. They were ready to be discharged 12 days after surgery. “We anticipate Marian and Michelle will recover fully and go on to lead healthy and happy lives,” Ford said. Conjoined twins occur in roughly 1 in 200,000 births and those connected at the abdomen represent about 30 percent of all conjoined twin births. As triplets, these girls are considered even rarer, occurring 1 in an estimated 1 million births. Fused together by the breastbone in the lower portion of the sternum, Marian and Michelle also had attached livers that would be separated during the procedure. It took the international surgical team almost seven hours to separate the conjoined twins. The mother, Manoucheca Ketan, 35, gave birth to all three of her daughters at the same hospital after carrying them for 36 weeks. The complex surgical procedure got underway within 24 hours of the arrival of the 18-member surgical team of |
 Children's Hospital Los Angeles photo
Surgeon Henri Ford relaxes
in Haiti with Marian and Michelle three days after the separation.surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The Los Angeles team was joined by 12 local medical staffer. The family received free treatment from the hospital, which is supported by the Haitian Ministry of Health and Partners in Health, an international health organization. Keck Medicine and Children's Hospital covered the travel expenses of the medical team and donated supplies to ensure the success of the operation. During the seven-hour operation, the girls underwent 11 separate procedures, with only a few minor complications. Doctors also surgically inserted patch material in both girls to reconstruct their abdominal walls after separation. They also formed new belly buttons for the twins, whose midline vertical scars should nearly disappear over time, the team predicted. |
Here's reasonable medical care
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Colorado
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| Top Democrat in Senate says worker assistance is vital By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Senate's leading Democratic promoter of President Barack Obama's trade agenda is dismissing any suggestion that the chamber vote again on trade promotion authority that would be stripped of worker assistance provisions the House of Representatives rejected last week. "Both of these programs are important," said Sen. Ron Wyden of trade promotion authority and trade adjustment assistance. "We got a strong vote in the Senate for a sensible package." Wyden co-authored that package and helped shepherd it though the Senate. Now, with the House seemingly deadlocked on the full Senate bill, a tantalizing possibility is being floated by some free-trade backers: have the Senate vote on trade promotion authority as a stand-alone bill to match the one trade provision the House managed to approve. Were that to occur, President Obama could sign into law the long-sought ability to submit trade pacts for yes-or-no votes in Congress with no amendments allowed. Such an outcome would greatly boost prospects for concluding and approving blockbuster trade deals spanning the Atlantic and the Pacific. The ploy would appeal to many Republicans, a significant number of whom have been lukewarm on federally-funded worker retraining programs from the start. But the idea is a non-starter for Democrats who, although in the minority, can block legislation in the Senate. Sen. Patty Murray simply shook her head and frowned when asked if she would support trade promotion authority without trade adjustment assistance. Sen. Murray was one of a dozen Democrats who voted for the original bill containing both. Wyden said he wants to expand U.S. trading opportunities, but not without a safety net for American workers displaced by foreign competition. “There are a billion middle-class consumers in the developing world in 2025, and they will want to buy the Oregon and the American brand," said Wyden, who represents the state of Oregon. "And TPA will give them the opportunity to better-access the export-related products we make that pay better. Wages are the top issue of our time, and that’s why I am for it. TAA is also extremely important, that set of opportunities for workers in an ever-changing global economy: skills and training and access to healthcare. I think it’s critical that the House find a path to move ahead.” House majority leader says passing fast-track to be hard By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the House needs to pass legislation giving President Barack Obama fast-track authority to negotiate foreign trade deals but acknowledged it will be difficult to do. McCarthy, a Republican, said Monday that House leaders are considering their options after both Democrats and Republicans defeated a key piece of the trade package last week. He said no decisions have been made about how to proceed but that the bill must pass by the end of the summer for it to have a chance to go forward. He said each week that passes without the bill being approved makes it a little more difficult. Obama is seeking authority to fast-track trade deals, including an ambitious Asia-Pacific free trade agreement. The fast-track authority would prevent Congress from making any changes to the administration's deals when they come up for approval or rejection. Past presidents have had this ability and Republicans generally support it. However, labor unions and many liberal Democrats oppose free-trade deals, saying they send more American jobs overseas and hurt the environment. Friday, Obama's fellow Democrats, as well as Republicans, voted against a part of the trade package that would have given aid to workers who lost their jobs as a result of U.S. trade deals. The workers' aid piece was initially included to appease Democrats to vote for the fast-track trade deal. Even though lawmakers went on to narrowly approve fast-track authority for Obama to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, the overall vote is far from a victory for the president. Both pieces of the legislation must be approved before the president can sign them. Obama said Saturday that the failure of the House of Representatives to pass a measure to help American workers affected by global trade pacts will directly hurt about 100,000 workers and their communities. Refusal to grant the president negotiating authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership would make it much more difficult for the administration to secure the deal, which is already years behind schedule. The countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership are the United States, Vietnam, Singapore, Peru, New Zealand, Mexico, Malaysia, Japan, Chile, Canada, Brunei, and Australia. The U.S.-led pact aims to cover nearly 40 percent of global economic output when completed. The White House has said the Trans-Pacific Partnership would help further break down global trade barriers, open untapped markets, and grow the economy, while providing an important counterbalance to the growing economic strength of China. Mrs. Clinton tells Obama to listen to trade pact foes By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Democratic Party presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has called on President Barack Obama to work with congressional Democrats to salvage trade promotion authority, seen as crucial to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement. A leading congressional Republican said he remains optimistic trade promotion authority will be approved because of the enormous consequences free trade agreements hold for American leadership. Former secretary of State Clinton, during a campaign appearance in Des Moines, Iowa Sunday, called on Obama to listen to those Democrats who Friday rejected a measure on job retraining funding tied to trade promotion authority. "In my time, eight years in the Senate, I voted for some trade agreements and I voted against others. I think I have a pretty good idea of what we can do to meet the tests that I believe any trade agreement, especially TPP must meet. It needs to, number one, protect American workers, number two, it needs to raise wages and create good jobs at home, number three, it needs to be in our national security interests. I’ve been saying that for months. "Now, here’s what I think should happen now. In order to get a deal that meets these high standards, the president should listen to, and work with, his allies in Congress, who have expressed their concerns about the impact that a weak agreement would have on our workers, to make sure we get the best, strongest deal possible and, if we don’t get it, there should be no deal," said Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Clinton, who has been criticized for not speaking out earlier on Trans-Pacific Partnership, has not explicitly endorsed it, preferring to wait until negotiations among its 12 Pacific Rim partners are complete. Opponents of Trans-Pacific Partnership, including organized labor, consumer, food safety and environmental groups, say such free-trade agreements result in job losses and reduced wages, while doing little to boost worker protections overseas. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is challenging Mrs. Clinton for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, said he understands the message congressional Democrats are sending. "Maybe we should have a trade policy which represents the working families of this country that rebuilds our manufacturing base rather than just representing the CEOs of large multi-national corporations," said Sanders. Faced with the possibility of another vote on Trade Adjustment Assistance this week, Sanders said he hopes Mrs. Clinton will side with those who view the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other free-trade agreements as a disaster that must be defeated. He said trade policy should demand that corporate America invest in the United States, rather than other countries. Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said congressional Democrats abandoned Obama in droves and that the president has a lot of work to do with his party to turn it around. "I’m optimistic. I think this can be salvaged because I think people are going to realize just how big the consequences are for American leadership," said Ryan. Ryan said this is about America’s role in the global economy, whether it will write the rules on trade-related standards and expand markets for more jobs, or just retreat. He added that members of Obama’s own party are making him a very lame duck president. Ryan argues such free-trade agreements have benefited small American businesses the most through lower or eliminated tariffs. He said one-in-five American jobs are tied to trade and such agreements often result in higher wages. "If we say to the world, ‘We’re retreating,’ and we’re not going to do these trade agreements, then we’re going to let other countries like China write the rules of the global economy. There have been 100 trade agreements put in place since 2007, when trade promotion authority last lapsed. America has been party to zero of those," said Ryan. Ryan said that means other countries are reaching agreements and keeping barriers up to American goods and services. He said the inability to knock down trade barriers or get other countries to play by U.S. trade rules would be a massive mistake and a failure of American leadership. Appearing separately on U.S. television Sunday, Labor Secretary Tom Perez expressed confidence the job training measure, trade assistance, will be approved one way or another. He said America needs to set the rules for the global economy. Charles Morrison, president of the Hawaii-based East-West Institute, warned that failure to pass fast-track trade authority, which limits presidential trade deals to an up-or-down congressional vote making them easier to reach with other countries, will push the Trans-Pacific Partnership off a couple of years. "The question really is whether the United States can be a credible negotiating partner ever unless it has trade authority well in advance before it begins a trade negotiation," said Morrison. Asia specialist Michael J. Green of the Centers for Strategic and International Studies warns congressional failure to grant trade promotion authority to the president would be a disaster for Obama’s Asia policy. Green says it could prompt some Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiating partners to reverse course on reforms and tariff concessions, and give new momentum to non-US economic institutions such as China’s newly-established Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Ramadan begins Thursday for the many Muslim faithful By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins Thursday in Los Angeles, and Muslims around the world are preparing the time of fasting, reflection and communal gatherings. The exact start of the lunar month varies by location, according to the sighting of the crescent moon. Mid-day prayers are under way at the Islamic Society of Orange County, a multi-cultural mosque in a multi-ethnic neighborhood of southern California. Preparations are also under way for the thousands expected for the first Saturday of Ramadan, a large celebration at this mosque. A huge canopy is being erected in the courtyard. The Islamic lunar month is a time of fasting during daylight hours, with a focus on the Islamic holy scripture, the Quran. Ramadan teaches self-discipline and helps Muslims count their blessings, says the director of education from a neighboring mosque who delivered a sermon, Shaykh Mustafa Umar. “When you go without food and drink for entire day, even for one day, you realize what you have given up, and you realize what you actually have that you had taken for granted," said Umar. Members of the mosque prepare for a busy schedule, including evening celebrations after the fast is broken. Duaa Alwan is president of the Islamic Society of Orange County. “Every day here at the mosque, we actually break our fast together at sunset, so that is around 8 p.m. There are free meals, free dinners here. A lot of the larger community are invited to that, a lot of our friends from different faiths, our neighbors." said Alwan. People share a meal, and the food, like the community, is diverse. “You have Pakistani food, you have Indian food, you have Middle Eastern, you have Italian food, you have Mexican food, and it really reflects the diversity that our community shares," said Alwan. After eating, there is more prayer. Mosque member Nawaz Ahmed says this is a time for resolutions to live a better life. “Kind of like a New Year's for us, where all the things that we are supposed to do, you start going strong and doing them, and the things that we are doing, we continue them and do it as a community and a group," said Ahmed. Old acquaintances are renewed and community bonds are strengthened. Shaykh Mustafa Umar says it is a pattern repeated throughout the Muslim world, with minor variations. “So it is kind of a mixture of worshiping God and also having fun and having a good time, and realizing and appreciating the blessings that you have in this life," said Umar. Members of this mosque say there is excitement in the air, as there is every year at the start of Ramadan. Slick sweet potato solution delivers vitamins in Africa By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Researchers have helped reduce a major health problem with a simple sweet potato. A program that helped small-scale farmers in Mozambique grow vitamin A-rich orange-fleshed sweet potatoes cut rates of children’s diarrhea by 40 to 50 percent, according to a new study. The authors say it is the first time a development program aimed at agricultural production has been shown to improve health as well. Diarrheal diseases are the second most common cause of death for children under 5, according to the World Health Organization. Lack of vitamin A raises the risk of those diseases and other serious infections. Roughly 190 million preschool-age children worldwide don’t get enough vitamin A. For decades, health officials have been delivering vitamin supplements to prevent the consequences of vitamin A deficiency. Experts say it’s an effective but temporary solution to a more fundamental problem: those affected don’t have access to the nutritious foods they need to stay healthy. “If you can do something through agriculture to increase the amount of vitamin A in the diet, you’re in much better shape because that’s more sustainable,” said Alan de Brauw at the International Food Policy Research Institute, co-author of the new study in the journal World Development. So, de Brauw’s colleagues at the agriculture-research organization HarvestPlus launched a program in 2006 to introduce orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to 24 villages in Mozambique, where nearly 70 percent of children were vitamin A deficient. Farmers had been planting white or yellow varieties, which have very little of the nutrient. But one small orange sweet potato provides a full day’s supply of vitamin A. Over three years, villagers received orange sweet potato vines, plus some training and education on how to grow them and the importance of vitamin A. At the end of the study, researchers asked them questions about food consumption and health, including whether their children had diarrhea recently. Children had 40 percent fewer cases of diarrhea in the villages growing orange sweet potato, compared to 12 villages where they had not been introduced. Among children under 3 years old, the difference was 50 percent. “Nobody has shown in the past that an agricultural production intervention can have any health impacts,” de Brauw said. “So, this is big.” Experts are promoting the idea that teaching farmers how to grow more and better food is the best way to not just alleviate poverty and hunger, but also to fight disease. “This is an area of research that’s very hot right now,” said nutrition expert and consultant Anna Herforth, who was not involved with the research. She said the study is “a well-designed way to show that link concretely - to say, look, if you produce a food and it’s available to people to eat and they like it, and they consume it, then it does good things for health.” HarvestPlus is taking the same approach with other crops, including high vitamin A cassava in Nigeria, iron-rich millet in India, high-zinc rice in Bangladesh and more. |
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Study discounts
impact on youngsters
of legalizing medical marijuana By The Lancet news staff
A nationwide study analyzing data from 24 years,1991 to 2014, of more than one million American adolescents in the 48 contiguous states has found no evidence that legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes leads to increased use among teenagers. The study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal showed no significant difference in adolescent marijuana use in 21 states with medical marijuana laws before or after implementation of these laws. Since 1996, 23 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing the medical use of marijuana. State legalization of medical marijuana has raised concerns about increased accessibility and acceptability of marijuana to teenagers. In this study, Deborah Hasin, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, and colleagues examined the relationship between the legalization of medical marijuana and adolescent marijuana use by studying Monitoring the Future survey data [1] from over one million students in the 8th, 10th, and 12th grades. The findings showed that although marijuana use in the previous 30 days was more prevalent in states that enacted medical marijuana laws than those that did not, rates of adolescent marijuana use did not increase after these laws were introduced. These findings persisted even after taking into account individual, school, and state-level factors that can affect marijuana use, such as age, ethnicity, public versus private school andthe proportion of each state’s population who were male or white. According to Dr. Hasin, “Our findings provide the strongest evidence to date that marijuana use by teenagers does not increase after a state legalizes medical marijuana. Rather, up to now, in the states that passed medical marijuana laws, adolescent marijuana use was already higher than in other states. Because early adolescent use of marijuana can lead to many long-term harmful outcomes, identifying the factors that actually play a role in adolescent use should be a high research priority.” Writing in a linked Comment, Kevin Hill, a physician from the Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, says, “The growing body of research that includes this study suggests that medical marijuana laws do not increase adolescent use, and future decisions that states make about whether or not to enact medical marijuana laws should be at least partly guided by this evidence. The framework of using a scientific method to challenge what might be ideological beliefs must remain an important driver of future research on marijuana policy.” |
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| From Page 7: International food firm plans call center By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Mondelēz International said Monday that it would hire 100 employees here to staff a call center to handle human resources assistance for its North American employees. The company said it is negotiating for a location in the western part of San José and expects to begin operations here in October. The snack food company is listed on the NASDAQ and markets its products in 165 countries. They include such well-known brands as Oreo cookies, Tang and Cadbury. The firm will participate in various job fairs including Expoempleo 2015 that will be July 10 to 12 at the Antigua Aduana on Calle 23. |
