Posts in category: Uncategorized

New research from Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Psychiatry shows how suicide attempts among people with depression is associated with higher mortality and impaired functionality.

Wearable devices often pick up noisy electrocardiograms (ECGs), which can hinder artificial intelligence (AI)-based detection of cardiovascular disease.

Chronic skin wounds that never heal can be disfiguring and painful. In the journal Biomaterials, University of Connecticut bioengineers describe a special scaffold for new skin that also kills bacteria. Their invention has the potential to help many people heal, and to prevent new chronic wounds from developing in the first place.

WE are surprised that marketeers at Kitwe’s Chisokone Market are being advised to resist plans by the Kitwe City Council to demolish about 200 shops to pave way for new ones.Those agitating for the marketeers to object to what we believe are progressive plans are doing so for selfish reasons.

They would rather the confusion pertaining at the bustling market continue, with shops constructed haphazardly with without any safety concerns.The plans by the Kitwe City Council to demolish the 200 shops it has identified are meant to improve the market and create a conducive trading environment for the marketeers.

Mr Enock Chifuka, the former Zambia National Marketeers Association general secretary says traders at Chisokone market should resist and reject the council’s decision to demolish their shops because that would mean they would have to start renting to the local authority.“Chisokone market has been our working place and so, we should remain united and reject the council decision to demolish more than 200 shops so that they construct new ones because if we allow that, it will mean that we will start renting to the local authority and consequently, we will lose the shops,’’ Mr Chifuka said.

In the first place, the shops Mr Chifuka is referring to are illegal structures constructed by the traders over the years.They do not even have any legal documentation to show that the land on which they are built belongs to them. That is land owned by the council.The fire that broke out at Chisokone Market last month should impress upon the marketeers to have proper structures.

The fear that they would be compelled to rent the shops that would be constructed by the local authority should not be the main reason to stand in the way of progress.

The reality is that Chisokone Market in its present state is a death trap if a major fire was to break out. It is a health hazard as well.The hundreds of so-called shops do not even have running water. Electrical connections are not something to sing about either, having been done illegally.

If anything, market stalls are meant for small-scale traders such that even the rentals that are charged can be afforded by anyone.It is wrong for Mr Chifuka to say that marketeers should brace for battle with the authorities over the planned demolitions, that they should not be cowards.

There is nothing cowardly about accepting the council’s plans to demolish the unwanted structures to pave way for proper shops.He should be reminded that marketeers stand to gain in the long run for having proper shops will make it easy for them to insure their businesses against burglary and fire to mitigate against any disaster.

The marketeers should instead be united in supporting the council to build new shops that will enable them to trade in a safe environment not only for themselves but their customers as well.They should support positive changes.

Somatostatin, a signaling molecule produced by many inhibitory neurons in the brain, broadly dampens communication among a variety of cell types in the prefrontal cortex and promotes exploratory and risk-taking-like behavior in mice, according a Penn State-led research team.

Early screening methods offer a promising avenue to reduce mortality rates of cancer, notably through the analysis of biomarkers in liquid biopsies. Biologists have shown how the electrical detection of nucleic acids at the single molecule level can facilitate such applications.

Sticking an implantable sensor to the surface of a beating heart usually requires suturing around the periphery of the sensor or copious amounts of adhesive layered between the sensor and the heart. In both cases, such a sensor rarely has tight, uninterrupted contact with heart tissue, limiting the data that clinicians can collect on a patient’s heart function.

By NATION REPORTER 

THE Kenneth Kaunda International Airport gold scandal was a clear case of a scam by some Zambians working with foreign nationals with the intention of scamming the unsuspecting members of the public, the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) has clarified.

There have been frantic efforts from government reduce the gold and millions of dollars scandal to a mare scam by claiming that the gold was in fact copper, zinc and tin.

However, Jack Mwiimbu, the Home Affairs and Internal Security who is currently in Angola was forced to issue a statement advising politicians against scandalizing President Hakainde Hichilema and his State House staff because according to him, they were not involved.

But late afternoon yesterday, the DEC called for a presser that was to be held at the Zambia Police Force Headquarters at which its director general Nason Banda claimed the gold scandal was but a scam by some Zambians in conjunction with some foreigners.

“The case at hand has been thoroughly dissected and this has been a clear case of scamming. We have a case of Gold scammers and they are plying their trade in the country. People are lying through their teeth and are trying to scandalise the efforts by the investigative wings,” Mr Banda said.

Mr Banda however could not why the aircraft carrying the contraband was allowed to taxi to the VIP pavilion and who could have allowed such kind of a transaction to be conducted in a restricted area.

He appealed to Zambians to trust the investigative wings as they were conducting their investigations and that the reason they were withholding information was because they did not want to jeopardise investigations.

Mr Banda claimed there were individuals that were trying to mislead Zambians that the aircraft had been allowed to fly out when in fact not.

He said that all the people that had been apprehended were still in custody and that the number had now increased.

Mr Banda said that the number of locals had now increased to four as more people were arrested in the course of investigations but that the figures might increase.

He said that the team was not investigating one of their own officers as purported on social media.

Mr Banda challenged reporters to carry out a fact finding mission to prove that the planes were still at KKIA.

He also said that the money confiscated was safe in the vaults at the Bank of Zambia.

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A large-scale international collaborative study lead by Professor Jacques Simard from Université Laval and Professor Douglas Easton at the University of Cambridge, UK, has identified new genes associated with breast cancer that could eventually be included in tests to identify women at increased risk.

The largest ever study of the genetics of the brain—encompassing some 36,000 brain scans—has identified more than 4,000 genetic variants linked to brain structure. The results of the study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, are published in Nature Genetics.