Poor Oral Health Hinders Athletic Performance

【Unlocking Word Meanings】

　今日の単語・フレーズ

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article. 

1. adverse [ad-VURS] (adj.) – causing unfavorable or bad effects

Example:  According to the doctors, having skin rashes is an adverse reaction to the new medicine.

2. spearhead [SPEER-hed] (v.)  – to act as the leader of a project

 Example: The team considers Dr. Smith as the leader because he spearheaded the planning of the research.

3. hypothesis [hahy-POTH-uh-sis] (n.) – an idea or a theory that remains unproven

Example: The findings of the experiment proved that his initial hypothesis was wrong.

4. trauma [TRAW-muh] (n.) – a physical wound caused by a sudden injury

Example:  Her sister went into a coma after suffering head trauma from the car accident.

5. get onto one’s radar [get ON-too wuhns REY-dahr] (idiom) – to become one of the things being considered by a person

Example:  The doctor’s impressive credentials got onto the radar of two big drug companies.

【Article】

　ニュース記事

Read the text below.

Poor oral health can adversely affect the performance of athletes, a new study has found. The research, spearheaded by Ian Needleman of University College London, surveyed the oral health of more than 300 athletes from the London Olympic Games. The study was based on the hypothesis that oral health may also affect athletic performance because it affects the quality of life. After thorough examinations, Needleman’s team found that more than 50% of the athletes had tooth decay. On top of this, many other oral issues were common, such as gum disease and many cases of trauma that were likely caused by contact sports. Needleman was especially surprised because most of the athletes were too young to be showing this level of oral damage. He added that while most of the athletes were extremely health-conscious, oral health unfortunately did not seem to have gotten onto their radar. One athlete, for example, confided that he had not been able to properly train for a year because of the pain caused by oral health problems. According to Needleman, all the evidence his team gathered indicate that poor oral health hinders performance. Furthermore, he believes that the results may represent the state of oral health in the athletes’ home countries. Needleman added that the issues raised in the research might not be equally distributed among populations because the results indicated that social and economic status affect oral health significantly. He also suggests that further research should be done to identify ways to help athletes maintain a healthy oral condition.

【Viewpoint Discussion】

　ディスカッションテーマ

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.  

Discussion A 

         Do you agree that it is crucially important for athletes to take care of their oral health? Why or why not?

         How can people take good care of their teeth and gums? Discuss with your tutor.

Discussion B

         Do you think athletes are generally healthier than people who are not athletes? Why or why not?

         In your opinion, should athletes be placed under special healthcare plans from the government? Explain.

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Touch May Alleviate Fear for People with Low Self-Esteem

Writing a believable story with believable characters is often in the details, and less in the broad strokes.

As human beings, we all know we are going to die one day.  Part of the mystery and the anxiety of life is that we don't know when.  Tomorrow?  Ten years?

We don't know.

Most deal with this knowledge by trying to live meaningful lives, but people with low self-esteem tend not to see their lives as particularly meaningful. Now, research suggests that physical touch helps people with low self-esteem confront their own mortality.

"Even fleeting and seemingly trivial instances of interpersonal touch may help people to deal more effectively with existential concern," explains psychological scientist and lead researcher Sander Koole of VU University Amsterdam.

"This is important because we all have to deal with existential concerns and we all have times at which we struggle to find meaning in life," says Koole. "Our findings show that people may still find existential security through interpersonal touch, even in the absence of symbolic meaning derived from religious beliefs or life values."

In a series of studies published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Koole and colleagues tested the hypothesis that people with low self-esteem deal with existential concerns by connecting with others.

In one study, an experimenter approached participants as they walked through a university campus. The experimenter handed the participants questionnaires to fill out; for some of the participants, she accompanied the questionnaire with a light, open-palmed touch on the participant's shoulder blade that lasted about 1 second.

Interestingly, participants with low self-esteem who received the brief touch reported less death anxiety on the questionnaire than those who had not been touched.

Touch also seems to act as a buffer against social alienation when participants are reminded of their mortality: Participants with low self-esteem showed no decreased in social connectedness after being reminded of death, but only if they had received a light touch.

The research suggests that individuals with low self-esteem may desire, and even seek out, touch when they are confronted with their mortality. Participants with low self-esteem who were reminded of death estimated the value of a plush teddy bear at about €23 (about $31 USD), while those who had not been reminded of death estimated the value at about €13 euros, a full €10 less.

Being able to touch the teddy bear while estimating its value seemed to provide existential comfort to participants with low self-esteem, reducing their levels of ethnocentrism, a common defensive reaction to reminders of death.

"Our findings show that even touching an inanimate object -- such as a teddy bear -- can soothe existential fears," notes Koole.

"Interpersonal touch is such a powerful mechanism that even objects that simulate touch by another person may help to instill in people a sense of existential significance."

So.  You have an insecure character in your story.  One way to indicate this is through their attempts to connect; you provide them relief from their angst with touch, even touch with an inanimate object.  Such as my teddy bear.  That I've had since I was born.  Teddy is my friend.  Without him, I don't exist.

*  *  *  *  *

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression
by Angela Ackerman

Creating Character Emotions
by Ann Hood

Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint (Write Great Fiction Series)
by Nancy Kress

The Art of Character: Creating Memorable Characters for Fiction, Film, and TV
by David Corbett

Story Source:  S. L. Koole, M. Tjew A Sin, I. K. Schneider. Embodied Terror Management: Interpersonal Touch Alleviates Existential Concerns Among Individuals With Low Self-Esteem. Psychological Science, 2013

 

UK Education Minister Urges Schools to Cut Uniform Costs

【Unlocking Word Meanings】

　今日の単語・フレーズ

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article. 

1. hard pressed [hahrd-prest] (adj.) – facing or experiencing financial difficulty

Example: Hard pressed families often have difficulties paying for their children’s tuition.

2. tender [TEN-der] (n.) – a written offer to buy something at a specific price

Example: Several tenders were submitted before they closed the business deal.

3. ensure [en-SHOO R, -SHUR] (v.) – to secure something

Example: The new law will ensure that families won’t have to spend more on their children’s school expenses.

4. branded [BRAN-did] (adj.) – carrying a trademark

Example: Her clothes and bags are branded; therefore, all of them are expensive.

5. affordable [uh-FAWR-duh-buh l] (adj.) – low-cost or low in price

Example: Some people buy clothes on sale because they are more affordable.

【Article】

　ニュース記事

Read the text below.

UK Education Minister David Laws urged schools to avoid overpriced uniforms in order to cut the cost paid by parents. Laws said that although uniforms are vital to a school’s pride and identity, parents should not be forced to spend more than what’s necessary. He added that the cost of school uniforms in Europe nowadays is unnecessarily high, which especially affects hard pressed parents.  Having a single uniform supplier prevents parents from purchasing a uniform with a lower price. Hence, the ministry will issue new instructions to stop schools from using exclusive single-supplier contracts, unless tenders are processed regularly. Doing so may ensure that uniform suppliers would provide value for money. Although creating a new law about this matter is not needed, the ministry suggests that branding be minimized and frequent changes in the uniform’s specifications be avoided. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) also found that parents being forced to buy from branded suppliers spend a total of £52 million each year. However, UK Prime Minister David Cameron stressed that schools should be free to set their own uniform policies. The prime minister also said that this measure may weaken the country’s free school program. Similarly, the general secretary of the largest teachers’ union in the UK stated that the announcement on making school uniforms affordable may just be ignored, just like the announcement of OFT last year. Legal guidance should be provided to address this issue instead of giving just a weak advice, the general secretary added.

【Viewpoint Discussion】

　ディスカッションテーマ

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.  

Discussion A

         Why is it important to have guidelines on selling school uniforms? Please explain your answer.

         Do you think this kind of measure will be effective in cutting the cost of school uniforms? Why or why not?

Discussion B

         What do you think are the things that schools should spend its budget on? Please explain your answer.

         In your opinion, how else can schools cut expenses? Please explain briefly.

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Will a Child Grow Out of It? or Not?

Another piece of the Nature - Nurture debate is about whether people, especially men, are born bad or are grown bad. 

This is the plot of the classic 1938 film, Angels with Dirty Faces, in which James Cagney and Pat O'Brien play childhood friends who rob a railroad car as kids. Cagney's character, Rocky, saves Jerry's (O'Brien) life during the chase by pulling him out of the way of a steam train while running from the guards. Rocky is caught by the police, but Jerry - who is faster - escapes. Rocky, after being sent to reform school, grows up to become a notorious gangster, while Jerry has become a priest.

Here is the report of a study by researchers in the field of neurogenetics, which combines genetics, neuroscience and psychology, which looks into the question, "will they grow out of it?"


Using the high-tech tools of a new field called neurogenetics and a few simple questions for parents, a University of Michigan researcher is beginning to understand which boys are simply being boys and which may be headed for trouble.

"When young children lie or cheat or steal, parents naturally wonder if they'll grow out of it," said Luke Hyde, a U-M psychologist who is studying the development and treatment of antisocial behavior.

Hyde, a faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research and assistant professor of psychology, is an expert on how genes, experience and the brain work together to heighten or reduce the risk that normal childhood transgressions will develop into full-blown conduct disorders in adolescence and early adulthood.

"The lifetime prevalence of conduct disorder is around 10 percent, and even higher in males and low-income populations," Hyde said. "The total cost to society is enormous, since these behaviors are often chronic, lasting through adulthood."

Neurogenetics
With colleagues at U-M, Duke University, the University of Pittsburgh and other institutions, Hyde has been exploring the role of environment and biology as they interact over time to shape behavior. In particular, he is using the techniques of a new field called neurogenetics, which combines genetics, neuroscience and psychology, to learn how genes and neural processes interact with harsh environments, including dangerous neighborhoods and harsh parents, and with a child's own levels of empathy and personality traits, to increase the risk of antisocial behavior.

The Primitive Limbic System of the Brain
In one recent study, for example, Hyde and colleagues studied subjects with over-reactive amygdala responses. The amygdala is an almond-shaped part of the brain's primitive limbic system involved in processing fear and other visceral emotions. It has been associated with impulsive, aggressive behavior, as well as anxiety disorders and depression.

"Previous research suggests that the amygdala becomes over-reactive probably as a result of both genetics and experience," Hyde said. "And once the amygdala is over-reactive, people tend to behave in an anxious, over-reactive way to things they see as a potential threat.

"Our study found that this tendency is moderated by a person's environment, including the social support they get. If they're not getting support from family, friends, neighbors or professionals, then the link between the amygdala and anxious behavior is much stronger."

It Takes A Neighborhood
In another study, Hyde and colleagues showed that kids who are impulsive are only at higher risk of engaging in antisocial behavior if they live in dangerous neighborhoods.

Hyde also identified specific items within childhood behavior checklists that can be used as early as the age 3 to identify kids who will likely have worse trajectories for antisocial behavior compared to other children who have similar behavior problems, such as throwing tantrums.  These items assess observable behaviors that include ~

• whether the child is cruel to animals,
• doesn't seem to feel guilty after misbehaving,
• is sneaky,
• lies,
• is selfish or won't share, and
• won't change his or her behavior as a result of punishment.

"The results of this test aren't really meaningful until age 3," Hyde said. "Before that, many of these behaviors are fairly common and don't predict anything. But after age 3, if children are still behaving in these ways, their behavior is more likely to escalate in the following years rather than improve."

Parent Management Training
There is good news, though. Kids who scored high on this test benefitted just as much as other kids from interventions, according to Hyde. These interventions, often called parent management training, focus on giving parents better skills to manage child behavior problems, including training parents to spend more positive time with their kids, use time-outs instead of physical punishments, and reward good behavior by giving out stickers.

"Parents need to know that intervention works, especially if it's done early," Hyde said. "They need to go for help if they see signs of trouble. Clinical psychologists, among other professionals, have empirically supported treatments that are quite effective for children, especially in this age period."

*  *  *  *  *

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression
by Angela Ackerman

Creating Character Emotions
by Ann Hood

Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint (Write Great Fiction Series)
by Nancy Kress

The Art of Character: Creating Memorable Characters for Fiction, Film, and TV
by David Corbett

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Michigan (2013, November 5). Bad boys: Research predicts whether boys will grow out of it or not. ScienceDaily

Former NBA Player Brings Basketball Diplomacy in North Korea

【Unlocking Word Meanings】

　今日の単語・フレーズ

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article. 

1. interact [in-ter-AKT] (v.) – to act together or towards others

Example: The president interacts and mingles well with the foreign guests.

2. diplomacy [dih-PLOH-muh-see] (n.) – a negotiation between different nations

Example: Diplomacy between countries can maintain peace and prevent war.

3. delegation [del-i-GEY-shuh n] (n.) – a group of representatives chosen for a specific purpose

Example: The delegation of American athletes arrived just in time for the opening of the Olympics.

4. controversial [kon-truh-VUR-shuh l] (adj.) – causing controversy or disagreement

Example: Many fans came to hate the controversial athlete.

5. exhibition [ek-suh-BISH-uh n] (n.) – an act of showing one’s athletic skills

Example: The exhibition game of the NBA Players has thrilled so many basketball enthusiasts.

【Article】

　ニュース記事

Read the text below.

Former National Basketball Association (NBA) player Dennis Rodman revealed his close ties with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un at a press conference in New York last September.  At the conference, the NBA star talked about his controversial visit to Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, last February. He said that Kim even invited him to bring former NBA players to North Korea for an exhibition game with the country’s best players.  Kim also asked Rodman to train the North Korean Basketball delegation for the next Olympics. Along with his previous offers, Kim said that he would also give anything that Rodman needs for the game as thousands of North Korean kids are looking forward to watching the NBA stars play. Rodman said that he interacts with the North Korean leader as part of a ‘basketball diplomacy.’ With this, Rodman hopes to encourage peace by bridging the gap between North Korea and the United States.   Although many people see Kim as a dictator, the NBA star considers him as a very good person. He added that Kim is only doing his job as North Korea’s leader. With his close relationship with Kim Jong Un, Rodman acknowledges the fact that he may have an important role in improving the ties between the two conflicted countries in the future. One issue involving both countries is America's request to release Kenneth Bae, an American who has been imprisoned in North Korea since November last year. When asked about this issue, Rodman stressed that Bae’s release is not part of his job.

【Viewpoint Discussion】

　ディスカッションテーマ

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.  

Discussion A

         Do you think basketball is a good way to bring peace? Why do you think so?

         What other positive changes can sports bring to people? Please explain briefly.

Discussion B

         Aside from sports, what are the other ways to bridge the gap between two conflicting countries? Please explain.

         In your opinion, what kind of person can be a country’s good diplomat for peace? Why?

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The Brain Function Abnormalities of Gambling Addicts

You have a character addicted to gambling in your story.
 
In developing the character's backstory and character profile, you're faced with the old Nurture - Nature conundrum:

1. Is gambling a moral weakness,
2. a result of unresolved psychological issues from the character's past? 
3. Or a medical disorder with causes that all the talk therapy in the world won't address? 
4. Or is it a little of each?

Well, as you might expect, there's newly published research here to help clarify this issue for you, and help you develop a more believable story.  So here we go:

A University of Granada study reveals that gambling addicts present brain function abnormalities affecting their decision-making capacity.

University of Granada researchers have analyzed similarities and differences in psychological profile and brain function between cocaine addicts and gambling addicts. The study reveals that gambling addicts present brain function abnormalities affecting their decision-making capacity.

In the study, researchers confirm that cocaine has cumulative prejudicial effects on the functioning of areas of the brain necessary for correct control of impulses. This has been demonstrated through electroencephalography (EEG).

However, these negative effects on impulse control were not present in the gamblers, as their addiction does not involve the use of toxic substances. The research shows that individuals addicted to gambling do exhibit other brain function abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex related to the severity of their affliction and affect their capacity to take decisions.

Negative emotions
Principle authors lecturer José César Perales and researcher Ana Torres of the University of Granada Department of Experimental Psychology explain that "these bad decisions affect the individuals' ability to recognize and evaluate loss, even when this is not financial loss." Moreover, among the volunteers who took part in the research they also found that the tendency to make bad decisions increased significantly when they experienced negative emotions such as anxiety or sadness.

From the data gathered, they have derived "practical guidelines of direct use in the psychological treatment of both addictions."

First, we must bear it in mind that abnormalities provoked by chronic cocaine consumption can in turn impede treatment and, therefore, should be taken into account when establishing a prognosis.

Second, the researchers have identified key issues that treatment for pathological gambling should include:

• to directly treat the emotional problems that trigger the need to gamble, and
• to undergo specific training that enables the individual to adequately evaluate losses and their consequences.

*  *  *  *  *

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression
by Angela Ackerman

Creating Character Emotions
by Ann Hood

Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint (Write Great Fiction Series)
by Nancy Kress

The Art of Character: Creating Memorable Characters for Fiction, Film, and TV
by David Corbett

Story Source: Ana Torres, Andrés Catena, Antonio Cándido, Antonio Maldonado, Alberto Megías, José C. Perales. Cocaine Dependent Individuals and Gamblers Present Different Associative Learning Anomalies in Feedback-Driven Decision Making: A Behavioral and ERP Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 2013

 

Asimov was Right: One in Five Stars May Have Habitable Planets

I'm sure that any decent sci-fi writer already knows this and more. But for the rest of us, this is interesting news.  Remember that our cute little blue planet is way out in the boonies, in a barely occupied vacant area between the heavily starred arms of the Milky Way Galaxy.  We humans of Earth are, in fact, the Okies of the universe.  Hey,  somebody has to fill that role.

Here's the body of the release ~

NASA's Kepler space telescope, now crippled and its four-year mission at an end, nevertheless provided enough data to answer its main research question: How many of the 200 billion stars in our galaxy have potentially habitable planets?

Based on a statistical analysis of all the Kepler observations, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Hawaii, Manoa, astronomers now estimate that one in five stars like the sun have planets about the size of Earth and a surface temperature conducive to life.

Video:  The Habitable Zone

Given that about 20 percent of stars are sun-like, the researchers say, that amounts to several tens of billions of potentially habitable, Earth-size planets in the Milky Way Galaxy.

"When you look up at the thousands of stars in the night sky, the nearest sun-like star with an Earth-size planet in its habitable zone is probably only 12 light years away and can be seen with the naked eye. That is amazing," said UC Berkeley graduate student Erik Petigura, who led the analysis of the Kepler data.

"It's been nearly 20 years since the discovery of the first extra-solar planet around a normal star. Since then, we have learned that most stars have planets of some size orbiting them, and that Earth-size planets are relatively common in close-in orbits that are too hot for life," said Andrew Howard, a former UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow who is now on the faculty of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii. "With this result, we've come home, in a sense, by showing that planets like our Earth are relatively common throughout the Milky Way Galaxy."

Earth-size may not mean habitable
"For NASA, this discovery is really important, because future missions will try to take an actual picture of a planet, and the size of the telescope they have to build depends on how close the nearest Earth-size planets are," Howard said. "An abundance of planets orbiting nearby stars simplifies such follow-up missions."

The team cautioned that Earth-size planets in orbits about the size of Earth's are not necessarily hospitable to life, even if they reside in the habitable zone around a star where the temperature is not too hot and not too cold.

"Some may have thick atmospheres, making it so hot at the surface that DNA-like molecules would not survive. Others may have rocky surfaces that could harbor liquid water suitable for living organisms," Marcy said. "We don't know what range of planet types and their environments are suitable for life."

Last week, however, Howard, Marcy and their colleagues provided hope that many such planets actually are rocky and could support liquid water. They reported that one Earth-size planet discovered by Kepler -- albeit, a planet with a likely temperature of 2,000 Kelvin, which is far too hot for life as we know it -- is the same density as Earth and most likely composed of rock and iron, like Earth.

"This gives us some confidence that when we look out into the habitable zone, the planets Erik is describing may be Earth-size, rocky planets," Howard said.

Transiting planets
NASA launched the Kepler space telescope in 2009 to look for planets outside the solar system that cross in front of, or transit, their stars, which causes a slight diminution -- about one hundredth of 1 percent -- in the star's brightness. From among the 150,000 stars photographed every 30 minutes for four years, NASA's Kepler team reported more than 3,000 planet candidates. Many of these are much larger than Earth -- ranging from large planets with thick atmospheres, like Neptune, to gas giants like Jupiter -- or in orbits so close to their stars that they are roasted.

To sort them out, Petigura and his colleagues are using the Keck telescopes in Hawaii to obtain spectra of as many stars as possible. This will help them determine each star's true brightness and calculate the diameter of each transiting planet, with an emphasis on Earth-diameter planets.

Independently, Petigura, Howard and Marcy focused on the 42,000 stars that are like the sun or slightly cooler and smaller, and found 603 candidate planets orbiting them. Only 10 of these were Earth-size, that is, one to two times the diameter of Earth and orbiting their star at a distance where they are heated to lukewarm temperatures suitable for life. The team's definition of habitable is that a planet receives between four times and one-quarter the amount of light that Earth receives from the sun.

A census of extra-solar planets
What distinguishes the team's analysis from previous analyses of Kepler data is that they subjected Petigura's planet-finding algorithms to a battery of tests in order to measure how many habitable zone, Earth-size planets they missed. Petigura actually introduced fake planets into the Kepler data in order to determine which ones his software could detect and which it couldn't.

"What we're doing is taking a census of extrasolar planets, but we can't knock on every door. Only after injecting these fake planets and measuring how many we actually found could we really pin down the number of real planets that we missed," Petigura said.

Accounting for missed planets, as well as the fact that only a small fraction of planets are oriented so that they cross in front of their host star as seen from Earth, allowed them to estimate that 22 percent of all sun-like stars in the galaxy have Earth-size planets in their habitable zones.

"The primary goal of the Kepler mission was to answer the question, 'When you look up in the night sky, what fraction of the stars that you see have Earth-size planets at lukewarm temperatures so that water would not be frozen into ice or vaporized into steam, but remain a liquid, because liquid water is now understood to be the prerequisite for life?'" Marcy said. "Until now, no one knew exactly how common potentially habitable planets were around sun-like stars in the galaxy."

All of the potentially habitable planets found in the team's survey are around K stars, which are cooler and slightly smaller than the sun, Petigura said. But the researchers' analysis shows that the result for K stars can be extrapolated to G stars like the sun. Had Kepler survived for an extended mission, it would have obtained enough data to directly detect a handful of Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of G-type stars.

"If the stars in the Kepler field are representative of stars in the solar neighborhood, … then the nearest (Earth-size) planet is expected to orbit a star that is less than 12 light-years from Earth and can be seen by the unaided eye," the researchers wrote in their paper. "Future instrumentation to image and take spectra of these Earths need only observe a few dozen nearby stars to detect a sample of Earth-size planets residing in the habitable zones of their host stars."

In January, the team reported a similar analysis of Kepler data for scorched planets that orbit close to their stars. The new, more complete analysis shows that "nature makes about as many planets in hospitable orbits as in close-in orbits," Howard said.

Now, isn't this some cool news?  I read Asimov's Foundation Trilogy while in the service, and even back in the late 40's and early 50's, he felt this level of habitable planets was likely, and based his books on this assumption.  Another case of a sci-fi writer beating science to the punch.

*  *  *  *  *

Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics)
by Isaac Asimov

Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
by Gardner Dozois

Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction: How to Create Out-Of-This-World Novels and Short Stories
by Orson Scott Card

Story Source:  Erik A. Petigura, Andrew W. Howard, and Geoffrey W. Marcy. Prevalence of Earth-size planets orbiting Sun-like stars. PNAS, November 4, 2013