Young people with lower school grades than their peers run a higher risk of mental ill-health and attempted suicide. In a new study published in the journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden show that this risk persists into middle age. The study examined the records of over 26,000 women and men from their final year of compulsory education at the age of 16 to a maximum age of 46, cross-referencing their school grades with data on post-attempted suicide hospital treatment. “We found that the lower the school-leaving grade, the higher the risk of attempted suicide,” says Dr Alma Sörberg Wallin, postdoc researcher at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Public Health Science. “The risk was five times higher for pupils with the lowest grades than for those with the highest.” The correlation was equally strong for women as for men, and the results were unaffected by childhood socioeconomic position, parental mental illness and suicidal behaviour, or immigrant background.

In a Child Development (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-8624) study of 21,103 children aged 4-17 years, those with lesbian and gay parents did not differ from children of heterosexual parents in terms of emotional and mental health difficulties, as assessed on parental questionnaires. Children of bisexual parents appeared to have greater difficulties, but this difference disappeared after taking into account markers of greater minority stress among bisexual parents. “As lesbian, gay, and bisexual parented families become more visible, the findings bolster previous studies revealing that children raised in these families have comparable psychological well-being compared with children raised by heterosexual parents,” said lead author Dr. Jerel Calzo, of the San Diego State University Graduate School of Public Health. “In addition, the results indicate the need for continued investment in strategies to prevent sexual orientation–based discrimination and to support sexual minority parents who may experience minority stress.”

Access the Paper:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.12989/full

 Kulan foal.  John Linnell/NINA.

On 24th October 2017, a first group of nine animals was released into an acclimatisation enclosure on the edge of the Altyn Dala protected area in central Kazakhstan. The animals had been transported 1200 km by helicopter from Altyn Emel National Park in the southeast of the country. They will be released in early spring. This is the first step in a multi-year project that aims to restore the full range of large herbivores to this unique area of steppe habitat. Kulan once ranged across the Middle East and Central Asia – from the Mediterranean to the east of Mongolia. During the last two centuries, their range has been dramatically reduced to less than 3% of their former range. Although the species is doing relatively well in Mongolia, the Central Asian subspecies is classified as Endangered and only persists in small isolated populations in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Come possono le piante cambiare il nostro futuro? Produrre energia elettrica sfruttando l’interazione tra batteri e fotosintesi vegetale si può, ecco come.

La fonte che permette il sostentamento di tutti gli esseri viventi sulla Terra è il carbonio, più in specifico l’anidride carbonica (CO2) che si trova nella nostra atmosfera.  La produzione delle biomolecole ha inizio con i processi innescati dal Sole, il più grande generatore di energia rinnovabile del pianeta. La grande stella luminosa irradia con onde elettromagnetiche l’atmosfera e una piccola parte di questa energia raggiunge gli organismi fotoautotrofi, i quali attraverso la fotosintesi elaborano sostanze per il loro sostentamento e quello degli eterotrofi. 

Il processo fotosintetico, nella prima fase luminosa, permette alla pianta di intercettare attraverso l’ausilio del pigmento clorofilla, una certa lunghezza d’onda specifica dei raggi del sole, denominata PAR (radiazione attiva fotosintetica), che attiva la produzione di energia “eccitando” gli elettroni, che si muovono per poi ritornare al loro posto. Questo movimento dell’elettrone provoca un rilascio di energia che la pianta trasforma in energia chimica (molecole di ATP e NADHP) da impiegare nella seconda fase al buio. Durante la fase buia la CO2 entra nella pianta grazie ad aperture sulle foglie chiamati stomi ed è trasformata attraverso una serie di reazioni chimiche in ossigeno e zuccheri semplici, come il glucosio, utilizzando le molecole ad alto rendimento energetico create nel corso della prima fase. La seguente formula ne riassume il processo:

CO2 (Anidride carbonica) + 6 H2O (Acqua) + Luce → C6H12O6 (Glucosio) + 6 O2 (Ossigeno)