Article 1 : Humans are losing healthy bacteria to modern lifestyles: study

A new study comparing bodily bacteria between a remote Amazonian tribe and other
groups reveals that our bodies are losing beneficial microbes.
Everyones body is brimming with bacteria, and these microbes do plenty of good things like
building the immune system and helping digestion. But modern diets, antibiotics and hygiene
seem to be reducing the range of microbes occupying our anatomy.
A study looking at the gut, mouth and skin microbes in people from a small, isolated tribe in
southern Venezuelas Amazonian jungles shows just how much modern life may be altering
humankinds bodily bacteria.
The Yanomami villagers, secluded from the outside world until 2009, possessed the most diverse
collection of bacteria ever found in people including some never before detected in humans, says
scientists whose research was published on April 17 in the journal Science Advances.
he researchers were surprised to learn the Yanomamis microbes harboured antibiotic-resistant
genes including those conferring resistance to man-made antibiotics, considering they had never
been exposed to commercial antibiotics.
Every person hosts trillions of microbes, collectively called the microbiota, that live in and on
virtually every part of the body. They contribute to functions essential to human health including
immune system development, processing food and confronting invading pathogens.
Our study suggests that the pre-modern human microbiota was composed of a greater diversity
of bacteria and a greater diversity of bacterial functions when compared to populations impacted
by modern practices, such as processed foods and antibiotics, says pathology and immunology
professor Gautam Dantas of Washington University in St. Louis.
A microbiota diversity decline may be linked to the increase in the past several decades of
immunological and metabolic diseases such as asthma, allergies, diabetes and obesity, says Maria
Dominguez-Bello, a professor of medicine at New York Universitys Langone Medical Center.
The researchers analysed microbial samples from 34 of the 54 Yanomami villagers. They were
compared to a US group, another Venezuelan Amazonian indigenous people, the Guahibo, and
residents of rural Malawi in southern Africa.

Yanomami were found to have twice the number of microbe varieties of the US subjects and
30% to 40% more diversity than the Malawians and Guahibo. Some of the bacteria found in the
Yanomami but not in the others offer beneficial effects like protecting against kidney stones.
The Yanomami are semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers in their remote mountainous region.
It really is a unique opportunity to contact communities with this ancient lifestyle, says Oscar
Noya, a researcher with the Amazonic Center for Research and Control of Tropical Diseases in
Venezuela who visited the villagers. Reuters
Published: Tuesday April 21, 2015 MYT 9:00:00 AM
Updated: Tuesday April 21, 2015 MYT 8:01:08 AM

http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Features/2015/04/21/Humans-are-losing-healthy-bacteriato-modern-lifestyles-study/

Article 2: Current health issues and progress in Malaysia

Malaysia is currently working towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. To
achieve the targets for the reduction of child mortality, which forms MDG 4, Malaysia should
reduce underfive deaths per 1,000 live births to six, and increase measles immunisation to 100
per cent by 2015. In 2012, under-five mortality stood at nine deaths per 1,000 live births, and
measles immunisation at 95 per cent. Given these results, Malaysia is close to achieving MDG 4
and with progress is likely to do so by 2015. The global MDG 5 target for maternal health is to
reduce the number of women who die in pregnancy and childbirth by threequarters between 1990
and 2015. When applying this target to Malaysia, maternal mortality should fall to 13 cases per
100,000 live births. In the period 2007-11 Malaysia had a reported maternal mortality ratio of 30
deaths per 100,000 live births (this figure was estimated at 29 deaths per 100,000 by UN
agencies/World Bank in 2010). Based on the data reported by the country, although the target has
not yet been achieved, it can be reached if efforts become more concentrated. Part of the goal
also stipulates that 100 per cent of births must be attended by a skilled health professional. In the
period 2007-12 this figure stood at 99 per cent, so it is likely that this target will be achieved.
MDG 6 aims for a reduction in the prevalence of HIV, malaria and other diseases. Malaysias
prevalence of HIV was 0.4 per cent in 2011 (in the 15-49 age group), having seen no decrease
since 1990. Estimated incidence and mortality indicators associated with tuberculosis (when
mortality data excludes cases co-morbid with HIV) are showing slight improvement; this is also
the case for malaria. Given the decline of prevalence in these areas and good future progress with
HIV/AIDS, Malaysia could achieve the targets set out by MDG 6.
The Tenth Malaysia Plan 2011-15 addresses several challenges and opportunities, including
increasing expectations for quality of health care; the growing pressure on the public health care
system; the increasing workload in public hospitals, stretching capacity; shifting lifestyles and
demography; and advances in technology. In response to these challenges, the Government of
Malaysia is reforming the health care delivery system by transforming delivery of health
care; increasing quality, capacity and coverage of the health care infrastructure; shifting towards
prevention rather than treatment; and increasing the quality of human resources for health.
http://www.commonwealthhealth.org/asia/malaysia/current_health_issues_and_progress_in_mal
aysia/

Article 3 : Discipline and security

Expressions of violence have increased in the culture, and so has violence in the schools. In the
past, only urban or poor innercity schools worried about serious violence. With recent school
shootings in small towns from Kentucky to Oregon, all U.S. schools and districts, however
small, must now directly address the increased incidence of school violence. Teachers have
found children as young as kindergarten coming to school armed.
Schools have reacted decisively. To reduce the threat from strangers or unauthorized persons,
many have closed campuses. Others require all persons on campus to wear identification at all
times. When the students themselves come to school armed, however, the schools have been
forced to take more drastic measures. Many have installed metal detectors or conduct random
searches. Although some people question whether the searches constitute illegal search and
seizure, most parents, students, administrators, and teachers feel that, given the risk involved, the
infringement on civil liberties is slight.
Educators recognize that metal detectors alone will not solve the problem. Society must address
the underlying issues that make children carry weapons. Many schools include anger
management and conflict resolution as part of the regular curriculum. They also make counseling
more available, and hold open forums to air differences and resolve conflicts.
School uniforms constitute another strategy for reducing violence, and public schools across the
countrylarge and smallare beginning to require them. Many violent outbursts relate to
gangs. Gang members usually wear identifying clothing, such as a particular color, style, or
garment. By requiring uniforms and banning gang colors and markers, administrators can
prevent much of the violence in the schools. Advocates point out, too, that uniforms reduce
social class distinctions and cost less than buying designer wardrobes or standard school clothes.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/sociology/education/current-issues-in-education

Article 4: Fruit
In botany, a fruit is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the flower, one or
more ovaries, and in some cases accessory tissues. Fruits are the means by which these plants
disseminate seeds. Many of them that bear edible fruits, in particular, have propagated with the
movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship as a means for seed dispersal and nutrition,
respectively; in fact, humans and many animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of
food. Fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, and some (such as
the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings.
In common language usage, "fruit" normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of a plant that
are sweet or sour and edible in the raw state, such as apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, bananas,
and lemons. On the other hand, the botanical sense of "fruit" includes many structures that are not
commonly called "fruits", such as bean pods, corn kernels, wheat grains, and tomatoes.
The section of a fungus that produces spores is also called a fruiting body.
Botanic fruit and culinary fruit
In the culinary sense of these words, a fruit is usually any sweet-tasting plant product, especially those
associated with seeds; a vegetableis any savory or less sweet plant product; and a nut is any hard, oily,
and shelled plant product.
These

culinary

vegetables

that

are

botanically

fruit

include cucurbits (e.g., squash, pumpkin,

and cucumber), tomatoes, peas, beans, corn,eggplant, and sweet pepper. In addition, some spices, such
as allspice and chilies, are fruits, botanically speaking. In contrast, rhubarbis often referred to as a fruit,
because it is used to make sweet desserts such as pies, though only the petiole (leaf stalk) of the rhubarb
plant is edible. Edible gymnosperm seeds are often given fruit names, e.g., pine nuts, ginkgo nuts.
Botanically, a cereal grain, such as corn, wheat or rice, is also a kind of fruit, termed a caryopsis.
However, the fruit wall is very thin, and is fused to the seed coat, so almost all of the edible grain is
actually a seed.
Many common terms for seeds and fruit do not correspond to the botanical classifications. In botany,
seeds are ripened ovules; fruits are the ripened ovaries or carpels that contain the seeds and a nut is a type
of fruit and not a seed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit