The Malaysian Insider :: Features

Non-profit group seeks to ‘save brains’ as well as lives

Posted: 13 Sep 2012 01:39 AM PDT

A malnourished baby cries in his mother's lap inside Medecins Sans Frontieres intensive care unit near Sheshemene, southern Ethiopia in this file photo of June 8, 2008. About 200 million children across the world fail to reach their full potential because their early brain development is held back by poverty, disease and malnutrition. – Reuters pic

LONDON, Sept 13 – As many as 200 million children across the world fail to reach their full potential because their early brain development is held back by poverty, disease and malnutrition, global health experts said today.

Announcing backing for several projects aimed at "saving brains" as well as lives in poorer countries, they said global health and development efforts should focus not only on keeping children alive, but on improving their first 1,000 days.

The projects include plans to encourage so-called "kangaroo mother care", where low-weight newborns are held skin to skin rather than put into incubators, and ways of combating maternal depression to boost interaction between mothers and babies.

"There's a huge waste of brain power. It's like taking 200 million brains around the world and throwing them into 200 million waste bins," said Peter Singer, chief executive of Grand Challenges Canada (GCC), a non-profit group that funds health and development innovation in developing countries.

"Wasting brain power is a great way to make sure poor countries remain poor – that's why reversing it is so important."

Singer's group, funded by the Canadian government, is putting US$12 million () into 11 projects in developing countries from Thailand to Pakistan to Bangladesh to Colombia aimed at helping children flourish and pull themselves and their countries out of poverty.

"Imagine harnessing all that potential," Singer said in a telephone interview. "It's critical because brain development equals child development equals development of countries."

In Bangladesh, expectant mothers and babies who were given vitamin A supplements to reduce infant deaths will be tracked to see the impact on cognitive development in older children. Experts think vitamin A may be key to brain and central nervous system development and function.

A separate project in Colombia will assess whether skin-to-skin "kangaroo mother care", which provides nutrition, warmth and bonding for newborns, may be better than incubator care for babies' brain development.

With malaria infecting up to 300 million children in high-risk countries each year, another project will look at whether using a suppository form of the anti-malarial drug artesunate during the sometimes hours-long trip to get a child to hospital may minimise any brain injury caused when the disease attacks the brain and central nervous system.

"These ideas are proven in the short term, but now... it is important to understand how these innovations can impact children as they become adults, to see the real potential for improving lives," said Karlee Silver, GCC's expert on women's and children's health." – Reuters

Korean designer finds purrfect way for cats to share sofa

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 09:20 PM PDT

The "Cat Tunnel Sofa". — Reuters pic

SEOUL, Sept 13 — Living in a cramped urban apartment with a feline friend and wary of letting him or her sink their claws into your furnishings?

A Korean designer may have the answer with his "Cat Tunnel Sofa," an ingenious combination of human sofa and tubular tunnels for a cat to clamber through while its owner relaxes.

The sofa combines modern industrial type design with a bent tube running from the floor in one corner to the arm rest in the other for cats to play in. There is a slot cut in the tube at the rear of the sofa for cats to poke their head through.

"When the cats first saw the sofa, they instinctively went into the tunnel as if they knew it was for them," said Seungji Mun, the designer of the sofa and a dog owner himself.

With 19.2 million households in South Korea home to pets, according to government figures, and more than half the country's 50 million people crammed into conurbations around the capital Seoul, space is at a premium and apartments are cramped.

"It's a living room where people spend most of their time together with their pets, not their room. I thought the sofa could be a place for communication between pets and their owners," said the 22-year-old designer, who will market the product in 2013.

The "Cat Tunnel Sofa" was Mun's graduation project with two other designers Yongjeh Park and Kangkyoung Lee. But it is likely the dog-lover will put his "Dog House Sofa" on the market before moving into feline furnishings.

"I love animals so I put myself in their place, wondering what would intrigue them," said Mun. — Reuters

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Khamis, 13 September 2012

The Malaysian Insider :: Features

The Malaysian Insider :: Features

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