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Meth stroke risk in younger adults
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IN BRIEF Meth stroke risk in younger adults
Insubordinate female monkeys band together IF YOU’RE trying to overthrow the boss, you need a friend to back you up. The same is true for female macaques. Rhesus macaques live in strict hierarchies organised around female relationships. Low-ranked females are thought to have little social mobility and must silently bare their teeth to higher-ranked females. This means “I want you to know that I know that you outrank me”, says Darcy Hannibal at the University of California, Davis. But subordinate females can overturn the status quo. To do so, they form alliances with family, friends or both. These alliances help females maintain or
increase their social rank and compete for resources. To find out what factors affect insubordination rates, Hannibal’s team studied 357 captive adult females, who experienced almost 11,000 conflicts. Insubordination was more likely if the lower-ranked female was older, if she outweighed the dominant female by 7 kilograms and if the dominant animal had no family allies. The more allies the subordinate had, and the more days her mother was present in the group, the more often she would be insubordinate (American Journal of Physical Anthropology, doi.org/cb8z). But Dario Maestripieri at the University of Chicago, Illinois, says the definition of insubordination might be too broad. Events where entire families revolt against their superiors with the intent to kill are rare.
Robot suit helps children walk ROBOTIC exoskeletons could help children with cerebral palsy keep walking as adults. A new physical therapy device, developed at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, could be used at home to improve gait. It is equipped with sensors on the legs to monitor each step. At just the right moment, the exoskeleton gives a muscular boost, improving
posture and easing the strain. Many children with cerebral palsy can walk, but only 50 per cent are still able to do so when they grow up. The condition often causes crouch gait, or overbending of the knees. As children become heavier, their muscles cannot support this gait, sometimes leading to loss of all mobility. “If we can change crouch gait at a young age, we can maintain
mobility into adulthood,” says Thomas Bulea at the National Institutes of Health. Seven people with cerebral palsy, aged 5 to 19, used the device. After six training sessions, all but one saw results similar to the corrective surgery that is often required (Science Translational Medicine, doi.org/ccd4). “Using the exoskeleton will only be temporary,” says Bulea. “We want them to be able to walk without it.”
METHAMPHETAMINE makes young people almost five times as likely to have a stroke caused by a bleed in the brain. As well as tooth decay known as “meth mouth”, the drug causes increased heart rate and blood pressure, and can trigger heart attacks. To explore its link to strokes, Julia Lappin and colleagues at the Australian National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Sydney sifted through 77 studies that focused on people under the age of 45. Methamphetamine was to blame for up to 6 per cent of all strokes in under 45s caused by a blockage in the brain’s blood flow, and up to 13 per cent of strokes caused by a brain bleed (Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, doi.org/cb85). A third of those who had brain bleed strokes died, while around 40 per cent had lasting symptoms.
Medieval London was basically lethal YOU thought Game of Thrones was rough? Extreme violence was a feature of life for young men in medieval London, far more so than elsewhere in England. Kathryn Krakowka at the University of Oxford analysed 399 skulls from six London cemeteries dating from 1050 to 1550. She found signs of violencerelated trauma on 27 (6.8 per cent) of them, with men aged 26 to 35 worst affected. About 25 per cent of injuries looked “fresh”, so occurred near the time of death, hinting blows to the head were the cause (American Journal of Physical Anthropology, doi.org/cb5g). Krakowka speculates that poor people could not access the nascent legal system, so resorted to violence to settle disputes. 2 September 2017 | NewScientist | 17
IN BRIEF Meth stroke risk in younger adults
Insubordinate female monkeys band together IF YOU’RE trying to overthrow the boss, you need a friend to back you up. The same is true for female macaques. Rhesus macaques live in strict hierarchies organised around female relationships. Low-ranked females are thought to have little social mobility and must silently bare their teeth to higher-ranked females. This means “I want you to know that I know that you outrank me”, says Darcy Hannibal at the University of California, Davis. But subordinate females can overturn the status quo. To do so, they form alliances with family, friends or both. These alliances help females maintain or
increase their social rank and compete for resources. To find out what factors affect insubordination rates, Hannibal’s team studied 357 captive adult females, who experienced almost 11,000 conflicts. Insubordination was more likely if the lower-ranked female was older, if she outweighed the dominant female by 7 kilograms and if the dominant animal had no family allies. The more allies the subordinate had, and the more days her mother was present in the group, the more often she would be insubordinate (American Journal of Physical Anthropology, doi.org/cb8z). But Dario Maestripieri at the University of Chicago, Illinois, says the definition of insubordination might be too broad. Events where entire families revolt against their superiors with the intent to kill are rare.
Robot suit helps children walk ROBOTIC exoskeletons could help children with cerebral palsy keep walking as adults. A new physical therapy device, developed at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, could be used at home to improve gait. It is equipped with sensors on the legs to monitor each step. At just the right moment, the exoskeleton gives a muscular boost, improving
posture and easing the strain. Many children with cerebral palsy can walk, but only 50 per cent are still able to do so when they grow up. The condition often causes crouch gait, or overbending of the knees. As children become heavier, their muscles cannot support this gait, sometimes leading to loss of all mobility. “If we can change crouch gait at a young age, we can maintain
mobility into adulthood,” says Thomas Bulea at the National Institutes of Health. Seven people with cerebral palsy, aged 5 to 19, used the device. After six training sessions, all but one saw results similar to the corrective surgery that is often required (Science Translational Medicine, doi.org/ccd4). “Using the exoskeleton will only be temporary,” says Bulea. “We want them to be able to walk without it.”
METHAMPHETAMINE makes young people almost five times as likely to have a stroke caused by a bleed in the brain. As well as tooth decay known as “meth mouth”, the drug causes increased heart rate and blood pressure, and can trigger heart attacks. To explore its link to strokes, Julia Lappin and colleagues at the Australian National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Sydney sifted through 77 studies that focused on people under the age of 45. Methamphetamine was to blame for up to 6 per cent of all strokes in under 45s caused by a blockage in the brain’s blood flow, and up to 13 per cent of strokes caused by a brain bleed (Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, doi.org/cb85). A third of those who had brain bleed strokes died, while around 40 per cent had lasting symptoms.
Medieval London was basically lethal YOU thought Game of Thrones was rough? Extreme violence was a feature of life for young men in medieval London, far more so than elsewhere in England. Kathryn Krakowka at the University of Oxford analysed 399 skulls from six London cemeteries dating from 1050 to 1550. She found signs of violencerelated trauma on 27 (6.8 per cent) of them, with men aged 26 to 35 worst affected. About 25 per cent of injuries looked “fresh”, so occurred near the time of death, hinting blows to the head were the cause (American Journal of Physical Anthropology, doi.org/cb5g). Krakowka speculates that poor people could not access the nascent legal system, so resorted to violence to settle disputes. 2 September 2017 | NewScientist | 17