Warwick’s project on oral cancer
One of the deadliest and most prevalent cancers in the Indo-Pakistan region could be treated more effectively, thanks to a new research project being undertaken at the University of Warwick in collaboration with University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW) and the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre (SKM) in Pakistan. The project will involve digitally scanning slides of human tissue samples from oral cancer patients at the UHCW, and sophisticated computerised image analysis at Warwick, thereby generating a repository of important information about the different types of cancer cells which can be found in oral cancers in the subcontinent.
Professor Nasir Rajpoot at Warwick’s Tissue Image Analytics (TIA) Lab will lead the project. It is the country’s most prevalent cancer, with the second highest mortality rate. Almost 13,000 new cases of oral cancer are recorded each year in Pakistan, likely due to the widespread use of smokeless tobacco, betel quid chewing, and poor oral hygiene. The situation is similar in India, and with people around the world of South Asian heritage – including large populations in Britain.
Thirsty before bedtime?
In what could lead to newer ways to mitigate effects of jet lag and shift work, researchers have found the insight into how time could impact the body’s physiological function. The brain’s biological clock stimulates thirst in the hours before sleep, according to a study published in the journal Nature by McGill University researchers. The finding — along with the discovery of the molecular process behind it — provides the first insight into how the clock regulates a physiological function. And while the research was conducted in mice, “the findings could point the way toward drugs that target receptors implicated in problems that people experience from shift work or jet lag”, says the study’s senior author, Charles Bourque, a professor in McGill’s Department of Neurology and a scientist at the Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. Scientists knew that rodents show a surge in water intake during the last two hours before sleep.
Stress for mum, joy for dad
A new study from a Cornell University sociologist shows that while parents enjoy the time they spend with their children, parenting carries more strain for mothers. That is likely, the researchers found, because mothers spend more time with their children while doing more onerous chores like basic childcare, cooking and cleaning, whereas dads spend more time with children in enjoyable, low-stress activities like play and leisure. Mothers also do more solo parenting, experience more sleep disruptions and have less leisure time, which are all associated with lower levels of well-being. “It’s not that moms are so stressed out with their kids, but relative to fathers, they’re experiencing more strain,” says Kelly Musick, associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell and co-author of the study, “How Parents Fare: Mothers’ and Fathers’ Subjective Well-Being in Time with Children”. It appeared in the American Sociological Review .
‘The cat broke the vase’
Your favourite vase lies broken on the floor, and your 8-year-old blames the cat. Is he telling the truth? Chances are, you can’t tell, according to a new study. Data gathered from 45 experiments involving more than 10,000 children and adults suggest that although most adults think they know when a mumbling, fidgeting, shifty-eyed kid is deceiving them, they can only correctly identify lies 47 per cent of the time. That’s no better than if they just guessed, researchers report in Law and Human Behavior . The findings also strengthen a long-held hypothesis: Kids become better liars as they age. Professionals like social workers and teachers are also slightly better than laypeople at detecting lies, the team found.
