Masculinity isn't about perverted violence against women: Satyarthi

Even as an FIR was registered over the molestation and sexual misconduct incidents in Gargi College in south Delhi, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi has asserted that "masculinity isn't about perverted violence against women" and demanded strict action against the culprits.

"#GargiCollege incidents shouldnt be taken lightly. Boys must strongly oppose it. Masculinity isnt in perverted violence against women but in building a safe & dignified society. Promptest & strictest action must be taken against those involved," Satyarthi tweeted.

Meanwhile, college Principal Dr Promila Kumar said that the management condemned the outrageous incidents on February 6 and had formed a high-level committee to probe the same.

"We are fully committed to the safety and security of the girl students. We have set up the fact-finding committee to meet with eyewitnesses and other persons with required information. The committee will prepare and submit a report in a time-bound manner," she said.

She said that Delhi Police had registered an FIR and its officers had assured of swift action.

Delhi Police Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Geetanjali Khandelwal will lead the probe.

The three-day annual college fest began on February 4. Over 100 outsiders had gatecrashed into the campus on February 6 evening and misbehaved with an unspecified number of girl students and molested them.

Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy ups ADHD risk

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London, Feb 11 (IANS) Prenatal factors such as vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy, can influence the development of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), say researchers.

The findings, published in the Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, demonstrated an association between low maternal vitamin D level in early to mid-pregnancy and an elevated risk for diagnosed ADHD in the offspring.

The researchers from University of Turku in Finland, included 1,067 children born between 1998 and 1999 diagnosed with ADHD in Finland and the same number of matched controls.

The data was collected before the current national recommendation in Finland for the intake of vitamin D during pregnancy, which is 10 micrograms per day throughout the year.

In the study, the researchers used the exceptionally comprehensive Finnish Maternity Cohort (FMC) consisting of approximately 2 million serum specimens collected during the first and early second trimester of pregnancy.

The research offers strong evidence that a low level of vitamin D during pregnancy is related to attention deficiency in offspring.

As ADHD is one of the most common chronic diseases in children, the research results have a great significance for public health, according to the researchers.

According to a study the risk of ADHD was 34 per cent higher in children whose mother had a vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy than in those children whose mother's vitamin D level was sufficient during the first and second trimesters.

The result was adjusted for maternal age, socioeconomic status and psychiatric history, the research said.

Higher testosterone levels ups diabetes risk in women

(14:47)

London, Feb 11 (IANS) Researchers have revealed that having genetically higher testosterone levels increases the risk of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes in women, while reducing the risk in men.

Higher testosterone levels also increase the risks of breast and endometrial cancers in women, and prostate cancer in men, according to the study published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Despite finding a strong genetic component to circulating testosterone levels in men and women, the authors found that the genetic factors involved were very different between the sexes.

"Our findings provide unique insights into the disease impacts of testosterone. In particular they emphasise the importance of considering men and women separately in studies, as we saw opposite effects for testosterone on diabetes," said study lead author Katherine Ruth from University of Exeter in UK.

For the findings, the research team used genome wide association studies (GWAS) in 4,25,097 UK Biobank participants to identify 2,571 genetic variations associated with differences in the levels of the sex hormone testosterone and its binding protein sex-hormone binding globulin (SHGB).

The researchers verified their genetic analyses in additional studies, including the EPIC-Norfolk study and Twins UK, and found a high level of agreement with their results in UK Biobank.

The team next used an approach called Mendelian randomisation, which uses naturally occurring genetic differences to understand whether known associations between testosterone levels and disease are causal rather than correlative.

They found that in women, genetically higher testosterone increases the risks of type 2 diabetes by 37 per cent, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) by 51 per cent.

However, they also found that having higher testosterone levels reduces T2D risk in men by 14 per cent.

Additionally, they found that genetically higher testosterone levels increased the risks of breast and endometrial cancers in women, and prostate cancer in men.

"Our findings that genetically higher testosterone levels increase the risk of PCOS in women is important in understanding the role of testosterone in the origin of this common disorder, rather than simply being a consequence of this condition," said study researcher John Perry from University of Cambridge.