New Genetically Modified Rice Could Feed Billions

 

 

HIDDEN HUNGER

Rice is the most important food crop in the world, that’s a given. It is the staple food for nearly half of the world’s population. More than 3 billion people depend on rice every day, especially in Asia where the majority of the world’s poorest people live. But beyond easing hunger pains and providing carbohydrates for energy, rice has little nutritional value. 
This means people who subsist mainly on rice are effectively missing out on essential micronutrients such as iron, zinc, and pro-vitamin A—a situation that nutritionists refer to as “hidden hunger.” 

Pixabay

Data from the World Health Organization showed that 2 billion people around the world are anaemic, in many cases due to iron deficiency. Considered as the most common and widespread nutritional disorder in the world, this condition poses a fatal health risk to pregnant women and their children.
But researchers at University of Melbourne may have found a way to alleviate iron deficiencies using—what else?—rice.

BIOFORTIFIED RICE

In a study published in Scientific Reports, plant geneticist Dr. Alex Johnson and his colleagues described how they were able to develop a genetically modified rice that produces high-yielding grain with significantly more iron and zinc through a process called biofortification. 
Rice grains typically contain 2-5 parts per million (ppm) of iron, and the team’s goal is to increase that to at least 13 ppm to effectively address iron-deficiencies in rice-based diets. The researchers also hoped to increase the amount of zinc from 16 ppm to 28 ppm. The best news? The team surpassed their goal, managing to get to 15 ppm of iron and 45 ppm of zinc.
“The results shows that this technology actually works in the field, not just in the glasshouse,” said Dr. Johnson, from the School of BioSciences. “We exceeded our biofortification targets and the rice was just as high yielding as existing rice varieties.”
Now, we know that genetically modified organisms are still a taboo subject. So of course, Johnson’s team tested if our bodies would readily absorb the increased quantities of iron and zinc by feeding the biofortified rice to Caco-2 cells, a human cell line that can be grown in the lab to resemble cells of the small intestine.
“There are no deal breakers in these results. We have proven our concept in a major variety of rice, and we are now ready to move this into a developing country,” said Johnson.

Source: Phys.org

Poverty Reduction

Poverty Crisis is one of the utmost critical subject of discussion in today’s economic world and severely impacting most of the African and several Asian nations. Being a national of one of the countries it has always been a grave concern for me to have a deep dive analytical and statistical analysis, find out the contributing factors (internal, external, direct, indirect), engaging the local and international authorities in all of the relevant fields to eradicate this evil through the implementation of right policies and governance of international standards as defined by respective authorities.

Based on my keen observation locally, I have learnt the following:

Defining Poverty:

A person or group of personnel having shortage of materials or money in comparison to a defined criteria. The poverty can be a temporary situation or chronic problem depending upon the situation and circumstances of the family. The personnel can be permanently falling below the poverty line and the situation may get deteriorated more and more if certain amount of attention is not given. This miserable situation may lead to several social, economic, biological problems and may result in high crime rates, high penetration of diseases, social imbalance. Hence it is extremely important for us to control this situation.  Another terrible angle to this situation is that due to unfair and unbalanced law and order, professional services, and other lose skeleton of a country’s overall system, the number of people under poverty line keep increasing gradually which means the cancer of poverty strengthens its roots more and more.

Factors influencing Poverty:

·         Lack of security
·         Inequality between different races and religions
·         Inequality of genders
·         Unavailability of equal opportunities
·         Unavailability of jobs and infrastructure

Impacted Domains

·         Health – Millions of deaths due to high cost of health services or unavailability of health services in poverty impacted areas.
·         Education – Millions of children unable to go to school due to unavailabity of schools or high cost of education.
·         Hunger – Millions of deaths due to hunger because of low income.
·         Crimes – steep rise in crime rates due to embarrassment of the poverty impacted people or considering short cuts to earning money by means of crimes.

Measures to for eradication:

If we consider Poverty Management as a Real Life Project then we can apply the Six Sigma DMAIC concept which says: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control

Having said that it would be extremely interesting to join this course to draw the baseline of the definition, defining criterian to measure the poverity in different domains of life, performing stasticial evaluation and trend analysis, and then taking corrective measures for each of the contributing factors and finally ensure the preventive methodologies not only to control its further penetration but also to reduce it. These measures include but not limited to installing more water wells, teaching farmers to produce more plants, teaching people new ways to be self-sufficient instead of becoming paracites, providing shelters, building schools and infrastructure, ensuring better health service and so on.

Final Note:

Its extremely stimulating for us to learn about it, equip ourselves with the advanced skills, engaging the relevant high chairs not only to draw the attention towards poverty but also taking necessary measures in all walks of life and adding value consistently by spreading the noble message and contribute not only at individual but encourage others for the same, again and again.

By Junaid Tahir

Food Crisis - Look Around and Help

 مارچ انیس سو ترانوے میں کیون کارٹر نے یہ تصویر کھینچی اس تصویر نے انعام بھی جیتا تھا۔یہ تصویر سوڈان میں لی گئی جب وہاں خوراک کا قحط تھا اور اقوام متحدہ کے تحت وہاں وہاں خوراک کے مراکز قائم کیے گئے تھے۔فوٹو گرافر کیون کارٹر کے مطابق وہ ان خوراک کے مراکز کی فوٹو گرافی کرنے جا رہا تھا جب راستے میں اس لڑکے کو دیکھا جو کہ انہی مراکز کی جانب جانے کی کوشش میں تھا لیکن بھوک کمزوری فاقوں کی وجہ سے اس کایہ حال تھا کہ اس سے ایک قدم اٹھانا دوبھر تھا۔آخر یہ لڑکا تھک ہار کر گر گیا اور زمین سے سر لگا دیا۔تصویر میں دیکھیں پیچھے ایک گدھ موجود ہے جو کہ اس انتظار میں ہے کب یہ لڑکا مرے کب میں اسے کھاوں۔بس اسی منظر نے اس تصویر کی تاریخ کو آنسووں سے بھر دیا۔کیون کارٹر نے یہ تصویر نیو یارک ٹائمز کو بیچی اور نیویارک ٹائمز کے مطابق جب انھوں نے یہ تصویر شائع کی تو ایک دن میں ان سے ہزاروں لوگوں نے رابطہ کیا اور اس لڑکے کا انجام جاننا چاہا کہ کیایہ بچ گیا تھا؟لیکن نیو یارک ٹائمز والے خود اس کے انجام سے بے خبر تھے۔بات یہیں ختم نہیں ہوتی۔فوٹوگرافر کیون کارٹر جس نے یہ سارا منظر کیمرے میں قید کیا وہ اس تصویر کے بعد اکثر اداس رہنے لگا اور ڈپریشن کا مریض بن گیا آخر اس میں موجود منظر نے اس فوٹو گرافر کو اپنی جان لینے پر مجبور کر دیا۔کیون نے تینتیس سال کی عمر میں خود کشی کر لی۔اس کی خود کشی کا طریقہ بھی بہت عجیب تھا۔وہ اپنے گھر کے پاس والے اس میدان میں گیا جہاں وہ بچپن میں کھیلتا تھا اس نے اپنے کار کے سائلنسرمیں ایک ٹیوب فکس کی اور اس ٹیوب کو ڈرائیورنگ سیٹ والی کھڑکی سے کار کے اندر لے آیا تمام کھڑکیاں تمام دروزے لاک کر دیے اور گاڑی اسٹارٹ کر دی۔۔گاڑی میں سائلنسر سے نکلتا ہوا دھواں بھرنا شروع ہوا دھویں میں کاربن مونو آکسائیڈ ہوتی ہے جو کہ جان لیوا ہوتی ہے اسی کاربن مونو آکسائیڈ نے کیون کی جان لے لی۔اس نے جو تحریر چھوڑی اس کا ایک حصہ یہ بھی تھا۔
" درد،بھوک ،اور فاقوں سے مرتے بچوں کی لاشوں کا مجھ پر سایہ ہے."

 

IMH: Advantages of blood donation

As per below artile blood donation improves your cholestrol level, blood pressure level, get rid of excess iron, saves someones life, reduce chances of suger, liver problems etc... so please donate blood every 3 months approximately.

Blood donation, the voluntary act of allowing one's blood to be drawn out of body has many advantages besides giving that wonderful feeling of saving someone's life. Most of the time it is an act of charity, though sometimes many people donate blood for money and other incentives. The blood donated is stored in blood banks, to be subsequently used for transfusion. 

No doubt the first and foremost advantage of donating blood is the exalted feeling of saving someone's life. If we donate the little excess blood in our body, it could save someone's life without creating any problem for us. Instead it would help to alleviate some major health problems like heart diseases. Blood donation is an excellent way to get rid of excess iron accumulated in our body due to its overconsumption. Excess iron in the body can stimulate the formation of free radicals, which are responsible for causing damage to body cells and tissues. Free radicals are also associated with many diseases like heart diseases and cancer. 

Iron overloading is also thought to increase the risk of heart diseases. Besides, iron oxidizes cholesterol, which is harmful for the arteries. Hemochromatosis is a genetic disease characterized by excess accumulation of iron in the tissues due to improper metabolism. The disease can cause damage to many organs like pancreas, adrenal glands, etc. It may also causediabetes, liver diseases and heart diseases. So, donating blood on a regular basis would help you to regulate the level of iron in your body. Studies have shown that donating blood regularly can be beneficial for the heart and circulatory system and can reduce the risk of heart diseases, especially among young people.

Besides, blood donation also burns the extra calories and reduces your cholesterol level. After donating blood, the count of blood cells decreases in our body, which stimulates the bone marrow to produce new red blood cells in order to replenish the loss. So, it stimulates the production of new blood cells and refreshes the system. 

Before donating blood, your hemoglobin level will be tested. If it is low, then you will not be allowed to donate blood. Besides hemoglobin, your blood pressure level and body weight will also be checked. In addition, your blood will also be examined for detecting the presence of five diseases, namely, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, Syphilis, HIV/AIDS and malaria. If you are not suffering from these diseases, only then you will be allowed to donate your blood.

There are no major disadvantages of donating blood, except that sometimes one may experience a drop in blood pressure due to hypovolemia (a state of reduced blood volume), which may necessitate cancellation of donation. Sometimes, one may also experience mild nausea or dizziness for a short while. But if you compare the health benefits and mental satisfaction that comes from saving a life, you will feel that benefits of this act of charity is not only restricted to the recipient, but also helps the donor immensely.


http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advantages-of-donating-blood.html

How often can one give blood?
Regulations in the United States allow people to donate whole blood once every 56 days. The waiting period between donations can be different for other blood components. For example, donating only platelets in a process called apheresis requires only a 3 day wait before a person can give again. Donating two units of red blood cells through a similar process doubles the waiting period to 112 days.

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http://www.givelife2.org/donor/faq.asp#3

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A Silent But Powerful Message

Sitting On The Grass Mat, Living An isolated Life….  

 

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All Day He Has To Pick Garbage For His Survival…..

 

 

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Care For Child Safety During Play!!! 

 

 

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No Home To Protect Them From The Winter…. 

 

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All That Belongs To Me is My Body.   
Can't Afford A Pair Of Shoes….  

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Nido Milk is Good For Children's Health,But….

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Study, Play And work All in One…..

 

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Time To Buy A New Bedroom Set ??? How Do The Orphans Sleep....

 

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How Do You see His Future…..

 

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Living On The Garbage Pile…. 

 

 

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Do You See Hope in These Eyes !!!!

 

  

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Looking For Food… 

 

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Not Happy With Your 2 Bedroom Apartment ??? 
This is My Home, My World, My Universe….  

  
 
 

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Where is My Lunch ?? 

 

 

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Don't Waste Water, Some People Desperately Need it… 

 

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So What Do You Think About Yourself ??????? 
Did You Ever Thank God For The Blessings And Abundance He Has Showered Upon You ???????

So what do you think about the life you are living? 
We could have been in one of these pictures isn't it. 
It is only due to the mercy of GOD AND NOT OUR OWN ABILITY that we are in air conditioned offices, with houses that stand empty all day, cupboards filled with food, closets filled with clothes, reading this e-mail. 
Why do we keep thinking of what we don't have or what we want to have? 
Do we ever count and appreciate the things that we do have? 
Do we have any idea of how much we actually have? 
Keep thanking GOD for the blessings and abundance He has showered upon us? 
Try to reach out to those who are in need today and everyday… 


BE THANKFUL FOR ALL THAT YOU HAVE.