Thursday, May 29, 2008

Make Paper Snap - wikiHow

aSiA & ObEsiTy

There are many ways to measure Asia's remarkable economic progress over the past half-century, but you can't get more basic than this: starvation, for most of the region, has become a thing of the past. In 1943, India's Bengal famine killed more than 4 million people, and as recently as the early 1960s, tens of millions of Chinese died in the man-made famines of the Great Leap Forward. Just 25 years ago, the United Nations estimated that up to 40% of Asians were chronically undernourished. That number now stands at 16%. While people in countries such as North Korea, Cambodia and Bangladesh still struggle with malnutrition, hundreds of millions of other Asians who grew up amid scarcity now live in relative abundance. Barring catastrophe, most of their children will never know the pinch of real hunger.
And that's leading to a whole new problem. Asia's economic transformation has left many of its inhabitants with more food on their plate than they can healthily handle. The explosive growth of urbanization has dramatically cut rates of physical activity and introduced fat-laden foods of convenience to a new generation of Asians once accustomed to lean diets. The result has been a sharp upswing in obesity, a condition virtually unheard of in Asia a quarter of a century ago. In India, home to half of all undernourished people in the world, 55% of women between 20 and 69 years old are overweight, according to a recent study. A survey released last month by China's Ministry of Health found that the number of obese Chinese had doubled to 60 million between 1992 and 2002, while some 200 million are at least overweight; among children, the obesity rate has reached 8.1%. Altogether, the International Obesity Task Force, a global NGO that studies the spread of the epidemic, estimates that 1.7 billion people—one out of every five worldwide—are overweight or obese. "It's gone very quickly from that period when famine was receding," says Professor Barry Popkin, a nutrition expert at the University of North Carolina. "All of a sudden, instead of having a normal-weight body for a decade or two or three, you move from undernutrition to overnutrition in years."
Unlike the corpulent United States, it can be difficult to tell the extent of Asia's weight problem just by visiting your local fast-food franchise. Relatively few Asians have cracked the ranks of the obese; even technically overweight Asians, with their naturally small frames, can look slim compared with the average Westerner. But those seemingly svelte appearances can be deceiving. Doctors define overweight and obesity by a rough-and-ready measurement called the body mass index (BMI). For Westerners, a BMI above 25 is considered overweight, while one above 30 is obese. Yet studies have shown that Asians can suffer the ill effects of obesity at a much lower BMI; a World Health Organization (WHO) study has suggested that the threshold for Asians could be a BMI of 23 for overweight, and 26 for obesity. "In all likelihood, this means we have probably underestimated the effects of excess weight in a country like China," says Dr. Catherine Le Galés-Camus, a noncommunicable-diseases expert at the WHO.
It's not clear why Asians seem to show such a marked vulnerability to the effects of gaining weight. Some scientists theorize that children who are undernourished in the womb, which was not uncommon throughout much of Asia until recently, might develop unusually high levels of abdominal fat in adulthood if they're exposed to above-normal calorie levels. This puts them at greater risk for obesity-related illnesses like heart disease, cancer, hypertension and diabetes. India and China already have 32.7 million and 22.6 million diabetes sufferers, respectively; by 2030, the WHO forecasts, Asia could have as many as 190 million cases, with India and China having over 100 million between them. Asia's overburdened health-care systems will be struggling to cope. China, where 160 million people suffer from hypertension, is already feeling the strain, says Popkin: "You wait another decade and it's going to be very scary what it does to their health system."

Saturday, May 24, 2008

CarE The WoRLd-Chinese leader says quake death toll may top 80,000

China warned Saturday that the death toll from its worst earthquake in a generation could climb past 80,000, as visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon pledged the world's support.

The UN secretary general travelled to Yingxiu, the epicentre of the 8.0-magnitude earthquake which turned this former town of 10,000 people in southwestern Sichuan prefecture into rubble.

"My heart was filled with sadness by all this devastation," Ban told journalists after the visit.

"At the same time I saw myself the leadership of the Chinese ministers who are working hard to overcome this tragedy with the strong spirit of self-help and cooperation, resilience and courage. I was very much moved," he said.

"If we work hard we can overcome this. The whole world stands behind you and supports you," Ban said.

Ban met with Premier Wen Jiabao as nearby workers in protective suits sprayed disinfectant to curb disease and the stench of corpses.

Wen said the death toll from the tragedy had crossed 60,000, a jump of more than 4,000 from a day earlier.

Fatalities "may further climb to a level of 70,000, 80,000 or more," said the premier, who held hands with Ban at their outdoor meeting.

Later, the national disaster headquarters, at a press conference in Beijing, put the exact number of earthquake dead at 60,560. Another 26,221 were missing, it said.

China has already said that over 5.47 million people have been made homeless by the quake and more than 11 million people are expected to be housed in camps as dangerous areas in the quake zone are evacuated.

Ban was on a brief stop in between trips to neighbouring Myanmar, where one day earlier he persuaded the ruling military leaders to accept an international relief effort for survivors of the cyclone which struck there three weeks ago.

While Myanmar's junta has come under fierce criticism for its response to the disaster, China accepted international rescue teams and doctors, although it waited until several days after the disaster.

China has been eager since the quake to ease tensions with other countries. Protests targeting the upcoming Beijing Olympics flared earlier this year due to criticism of China's handling of demonstrations in Tibet.

"I would like to sincerely thank the international community, the leaders of the world, the governments and people of every nation for their concern and the materials and the help they have offered," Wen told journalists.

"In this disaster, we have maintained a policy of openness (because) this earthquake disaster is not only a disaster for the Chinese people, but it is a disaster for humanity."

Russia on Saturday sent eight planeloads of aid including tents, blankets and field hospitals, amid a visit to Beijing by Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev.

The US Army has flown in three cargo planes laden with tonnes of life-saving supplies to southwestern Chengdu in the past week, according to US officials.

A French team that can provide medical care was flying in Sunday to the quake zone, while the German Red Cross has set up a mobile hospital to treat the overflowing number of injured in the town of Dujiangyan.

"German aid is all the more precious because the hospital in Dujiangyan was partially destroyed in the quake and can't operate as normal," said the hospital's deputy director, Fu Tang.

In a boost for the relief effort, China announced Saturday the main railway connecting Sichuan province's capital Chengdu with the central city of Baoji had reopened after 12 days.

The government has said it would take up to three years to reconstruct Sichuan, where one in five people in quake-hit areas has been made homeless.

Aid was only just reaching worst-hit areas like the town Hanwang, where bodies were lying under the rubble.

"We waited three days for help and still there are people in there," said a man surnamed Guo, gesturing to a pile of bricks, concrete and glass that was one of 12 apartment blocks here.

"Why did we have to wait for so long in the first place? And still no one comes," he said.

An immediate danger is the risk of disease. Authorities say they urgently need more tents and more medication, particularly antibiotics, to prevent the outbreak of illnesses in the coming summer months.

For many Chinese, feelings of horror over the quake turned to anger after they saw that hundreds of schools had been destroyed, even though neighbouring structures remained standing.

The state-run Beijing News said some 9,000 teachers or schoolchildren were among the dead and missing from the quake, making up about 12 percent of the total.

DEFINING OVERWEIGHT & OBESITY

Defining Overweight and Obesity

Overweight and obesity are both labels for ranges of weight that are greater than what is generally considered healthy for a given height. The terms also identify ranges of weight that have been shown to increase the likelihood of certain diseases and other health problems.

Definitions for Adults

For adults, overweight and obesity ranges are determined by using weight and height to calculate a number called the “body mass index” (BMI). BMI is used because, for most people, it correlates with their amount of body fat.

An adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight.
An adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

See the following table for an example.

Height	Weight Range	BMI	Considered
5’ 9”	124 lbs or less	Below 18.5	Underweight
	125 lbs to 168 lbs	18.5 to 24.9	Healthy weight
	169 lbs to 202 lbs	25.0 to 29.9	Overweight
	203 lbs or more	30 or higher	Obese

It is important to remember that although BMI correlates with the amount of body fat, BMI does not directly measure body fat. As a result, some people, such as athletes, may have a BMI that identifies them as overweight even though they do not have excess body fat. For more information about BMI, visit Body Mass Index.

Other methods of estimating body fat and body fat distribution include measurements of skinfold thickness and waist circumference, calculation of waist-to-hip circumference ratios, and techniques such as ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

OBESITY

Since the mid-seventies, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased sharply for both adults and children. Data from two NHANES surveys show that among adults aged 20–74 years the prevalence of obesity increased from 15.0% (in the 1976–1980 survey) to 32.9% (in the 2003–2004 survey).

The two surveys also show increases in overweight among children and teens. For children aged 2–5 years, the prevalence of overweight increased from 5.0% to 13.9%; for those aged 6–11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5% to 18.8%; and for those aged 12–19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 17.4%.

These increasing rates raise concern because of their implications for Americans’ health. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of many diseases and health conditions, including the following:

Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Osteoarthritis (a degeneration of cartilage and its underlying bone within a joint)
Dyslipidemia (for example, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides)
Type 2 diabetes
Coronary heart disease
Stroke
Gallbladder disease
Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
Some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)

Although one of the national health objectives for the year 2010 is to reduce the prevalence of obesity among adults to less than 15%, current data indicate that the situation is worsening rather than improving. This site provides a variety of information designed to help people understand this serious health issue and the efforts being made to address it.

Friday, May 23, 2008

CELL

The CELL THEORY, or cell doctrine, states that all organisms are composed of similar units of organization, called cells. The concept was formally articulated in 1839 by Schleiden & Schwann and has remained as the foundation of modern biology. The idea predates other great paradigms of biology including Darwin's theory of evolution (1859), Mendel's laws of inheritance (1865), and the establishment of comparative biochemistry (1940).
Ultrastructural research and modern molecular biology have added many tenets to the cell theory, but it remains as the preeminent theory of biology. The Cell Theory is to Biology as Atomic Theory is to Physics
OUR BODY BEGIN WITH 2 CELLS,AND 2 CELLS BECOME TISSUE AND TISSUE BECOME ORGANS.YET,ORGAN BE OUR BODY SYSTEM,AND FINALLY BECOME HUMAN.OUR BODY 'S CELL MORE THAN 60 TRILLION.