Ohio teenager wins US spelling bee crown

A 14-year-old girl from the US state of Ohio has won the country's coveted annual National Spelling Bee.

Anamika Veeramani, from North Royalton, claimed victory by correctly spelling the word stromuhr - a medical term.

She takes home $40,000 (£27,450) in cash and prizes, as well as the coveted championship title.

Anamika, who came joint fifth last year, was one of the favourites to win among the 273 spellers who took part in the three-day final in Washington.

It is the third year in a row that an Indian-American has won the championship.

Anamika's winning word, stromuhr, is the term for an instrument used to measure the velocity of blood flow.

The final was broadcast live on US television network ABC.

The popularity of the spelling bee - a peculiarly American tradition - has grown greatly over the past decade, partly as a result of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Spellbound

What women eat may affect kids, grandkids

High-fat diet during pregnancy could raise cancer risk for generations

While cancer victims usually blame themselves — I shouldn't have smoked, should have eaten better, should have exercised — or the cruelty of chance, they may now have a new scapegoat: Grandma.

Eating poorly during pregnancy can increase your children's and your grandchildren's risk of cancer, even if they themselves eat healthily, a new study on rats suggests.

The risk associated with high-fat diets, especially those high in omega-6 fatty acids, "can be passed from one generation to another without any further exposure," said lead researcher Sonia de Assis of Georgetown University.

 While done in rats, the diets used by the study mirrored some typical American eating habits, and so the researchers suspect the results could hold for humans as well.

The research was presented last week at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting in Washington D.C.

During the study, some pregnant rats were fed a diet high in omega-6 fat while others received standard fare. After the babies were delivered, all the mothers, their children and their eventual grandchildren ate healthy moderate-fat diets.

Granddaughters of the rats that gobbled excess fat during pregnancy had a 30-percent greater chance of developing breast cancer than those with grandparents who ate healthfully. When only one grandmother, on either the mother's or father's side, had indulged, the granddaughter's disease risk was 19-percent higher.

For the high-fat diet, the study used a chow that was 43-percent fat, predominantly from omega-6 rich vegetable oil. Most recommendations for a healthy diet include keeping fat intake at 25 to 30 percent, de Assis told LiveScience, "but with fast foods and everything, a lot of people eat more than that each day."

Fat gone rogueThis should not imply that fat causes cancer — many fats are quite good for you, after all. But it is more bad news for omega-6 fatty acids, found in corn oil and most non-grass-fed meats.

Omega 6s, while essential to a healthy diet, should be balanced with omega 3s. The optimum ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 is likely between 4:1 to 1:1, but in the typical American diet the ratio is more like between 20 and 16:1. This imbalance has previously been linked to a host of health problems, including depression, infertility, heart disease and, yes, cancer.

In the new study, the researchers theorize the increased cancer risk might be a result of the epigenetic effects of omega-6 fats. (Epigenetics refers to the idea that even if genes themselves aren't altered, how they function can change.) Omega 6s may indirectly turn off genes that slow cell apoptosis (normal cell death). Cells can then proliferate and lead to tumors, which are essentially a bundle of multiplying cells gone wild.

Somehow, the fat must also be affecting the "germ line," the pathways that lead to viable sperm and eggs, for the effect to be crossing multiple generations.

DNA is not in the driver's seat
Epigenome, which literally means "on top of the genome," refers to all the factors that control how a gene is expressed. The new study potentially adds to the growing body of research suggesting the epigenome may be at the root of many health problems.

"People think there is nothing you can do (about your disease risk)," said researcher Rod Dashwood of Oregon State University, who gave a lecture on epigenetics at the Experimental Biology 2010 conference in Anaheim, Calif. "But you are not just what your genes are." (Dashwood has conducted separate research from de Assis.)

Rather, you are your genes under the influence of your epigenome, which, during critical periods, is shaped by your environment, your lifestyle, your life experience — and those of your immediate ancestors.

"Genes only account for 5 to 10 percent of the familial risk of breast cancer," said de Assis, by way of illustration. Something inherited in the epigenome could account for the rest.

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Take hold of the steering wheel
For decades, studies have been associating diet with disease risk. Now, research on the epigenome may be revealing the mechanism at play.

For example, Dashwood's work indicates that many whole foods — including broccoli sprouts, onions, garlic, radishes, wasabi, daikon, horseradish and wheat bran — may help prevent epigenetic processes that lead to degenerative diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, stroke and even aging.

"The (epigenetic) effect may be contributing to the overall health benefits of these particular foods," Dashwood told LiveScience.

While the multi-generational impact of veggies has not been studied, Dashwood said, "some epigenetic marks can go through six, seven generations."

More research is needed but the lunchroom choice between a bacon-cheeseburger or stir-fry may not only affect your own health, but that of your children and grandchildren.

Robots and gaming on the timetable at hi-tech school

The moment you walk into San Diego's High Tech High you realise this is a school unlike most others.

Teenagers are writing video games, filming sketches, using heavy duty power tools to build a boat - and then there are the robots.

In pride of place is Daisy May, a waist-high machine that scuttles around, scooping balls off the ground and projecting them into a bin.

"The way she skids replicates the way she would move in the semi-weightless conditions on the moon," said one of her designers and senior year student, RJ Sheperd.

High Tech High video link to Plumstead Manor pupils for BBC School Report

The high level of motivation and professionalism among many of the students is striking. "Let me introduce you to our Public Relations Director", said RJ proudly, as though this was a major corporation's high-flying spin doctor.

Robot runner-up

In fact, she is also a senior year student, but with a similar air of authority.

They were among a group of pupils that entered Daisy May into the First Robotics Competition for students around the world. The robot reached the semi-finals.

Both students were working on their latest entry in the annual championship: a robot that played soccer around an obstacle course.

This was "intersession" week, when teachers set up specialist projects that reflect their own personal interests.

But even during more routine times, life at High Tech High is a break from the norm.

The school runs on a system of instructors and mentors, plucked from relevant industries.

Students investigated methods of projecting a football for a soccer robot

An example is Cris Fitch, who comes to High Tech High Media Arts campus twice a week to help students develop robotic engineering skills. In a former life he was the chief technical officer for web translation site Babel Fish.

Computerised chopper

He helped students design a helicopter flown entirely by computer. It has no remote control for humans to operate.

Instead, the teen-aged inventors wrote computer code to regulate its complex flight and balance mechanism.

One, Jake Neighbors, explained how its programming enabled it to train itself to balance over a series of flight trials.

"We use calculus to make the helicopter hover," he said. "We were not taught calculus in class... so we had to completely learn it by ourselves without the teacher."

Classmate Eric Harmatz said: "We were discovering the tools of calculus; having the goals of why we needed it. So that's why project-based learning works so well for us."

Air-RESCUE is a helicopter that 'teaches' itself how to balance

The commitment shown by students may give the appearance that only the smartest need apply. In fact, local education policy requires the school to take children of all abilities.

Funding comes from local government and benefactors, including the Bill Gates Foundation.

Alternative schooling

The aim is for project-based courses to foster a self-starting ethos among those who study there.

A question that immediately springs to mind is: what is missed off the curriculum to make way for inventing high speed drag cars or creating a surreal film noir love story?

Robotics and engineering instructor David Berggren scoffed at any suggestion that the courses leave students with an incomplete education.

"Certainly they learn a lot designing robots... it's using technology to really hook kids in."

Basketball robot Daisy May scoops up balls and projects them into a bucket

On soem cases this also extends to their proposed career choices.

RJ is positive that he wants to continue his electronic engineering work in one of California's many technology firms.

Others are more circumspect.

Allie Sandoval helped build the Betabot, a swimming "mechanoid" thatshows its emotions when prodded or shaken.

Despite learning programming skills, she sees this as an interesting project, but not something she will devote her life to.

"I enjoy it so I will probably just do it as a hobby," she said.

Video gaming

Some of the video game writing students share similar views.

The room was a hive of silent activity.

In hushed tones, instructor Neil McCurdy described how he locked the door at lunchtime and the end of the day to ensure pupils ate and drank, rather than stay glued to their seats.

Student Thaddeus Lewis developed a 3D version of Pac-Man

Some students used software that Mr McCurdy had adapted from the Java programming language.

Others wrote their own games with Star Logo TNG, a free game development tool.

One of his pupils, Thaddeus Lewis, adapted the 80's game Pac-Man into a 3D version.

Despite his obvious skills, he does not see this as a future career.

Gaming, he insists, is just something to fall back on. Instead, he aims to be a dentist.

Alarm at Mumbai's teenage suicide trend

A writer once said that more than one soul dies in a suicide.

It seems so in Neha Sawant's home. The atmosphere in the tiny flat in Mumbai has been lifeless since the 11-year-old was found hanging from her apartment window.

It has been weeks but her parents are still in deep shock. They look dazed and sleep-deprived.

Neha's distraught grandmother said in a broken voice: "Our brains are not working. We still cannot believe it."

Neha, at 11, must be one of the youngest in Mumbai to commit suicide. Figures suggest that more and more teenagers in India's financial hub are killing themselves.

Dizzying

Inexplicably, teenage suicides have become an almost daily occurrence in Maharashtra - one of India's most developed states - and its capital Mumbai (Bombay).

The toll of teenage suicides from the beginning of the year until 26 January 2010 stood at 32, which is more than one a day.

While there are no comparative figures for the same period in 2009, there is a consensus among the concerned authorities in Mumbai that teenage suicides are spiralling out of control.

There is also a general agreement between psychologists and teachers that the main reason for the high number of teenagers taking their own lives is the increasing pressure on children to perform well in exams.

The scale of this largely preventable problem is dizzying - both in India with its billion-plus people and particularly in the state of in Maharashtra.

More than 100,000 people commit suicide in India every year and three people a day take their own lives in Mumbai.

Suicide is one of the top three causes of death among those aged between 15 and 35 years and has a devastating psychological, social and financial impact on families and friends.

'Needless toll'

World Health Organisation Assistant Director-General Catherine Le Gals-Camus points out more people die from suicide around the world than from all homicides and wars combined.

"There is an urgent need for co-ordinated and intensified global action to prevent this needless toll. For every suicide death there are scores of family and friends whose lives are devastated emotionally, socially and economically," she says.

In Mumbai the authorities are so alarmed by the scale of the problem that they have began a campaign, Life is Beautiful, which aims to help students cope with academic pressure.

Psychologists visit government schools in Mumbai once a week to train teachers dealing with students' problems.

Sharadashram Vidyamandir school boasts illustrious alumni such as cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli. It has been holding parent-teacher assemblies where parents can receive tips on tackling the pressures children face.

And yet such sessions could not prevent 12-year-old Shushant Patil's death. He was found hanging in the school toilet on 5 January.

Mangala Kulkarni is the principal of the girls' section of the school. She says that ultimately families need to be more proactive when it comes to stopping students from feeling stressed.

"The children don't realise they have more avenues than academic successes. They need to be made to realise this by their families from childhood," she said.

Blockbuster

A helpline in Mumbai, called Aasra, has been operating for several years to tackle the problem.

The director of the helpline, Johnson Thomas, says the problems today's children face are manifold: "They have peer pressure, they have communication problems with their parents, broken relationships, academic pressure and fear of failure," he says.

Classes to help vulnerable teenagers are now being held

The home ministry estimates that for every teenage suicide in Mumbai there are 13 failed attempts.

One theory behind the recent rise is the influence of a recently released Bollywood blockbuster, Three Idiots, which has a scene where an engineering student is shown committing suicide after a mediocre exam result.

The film's impact has been debated and scrutinised in prime time television shows, with many directly blaming it for adding to the problem.

But Mumbai clinical psychologist Rhea Timbekar argues that it would be wrong to blame the film, which she says strives to explain that parents should not put too much pressure on their children.

Ms Timbekar says that she recently met a child who had not eaten for four days.

The child's parents said they were upset with him because he only got 89% in exams and stood third in the class, compared to coming first in previous years.

"Such parents need to be counselled," she asserts.

Ms Timbekar said that another explanation for the high teenage suicide rate was "copycat suicides" where children read about suicides in newspapers and decide to do the same thing themselves.

'Extreme steps'

Dilip Panicker, an eminent psychologist in Mumbai, says that pressure of exams is alone is too simplistic an explanation.

It's hoped that young people will have a brighter future

"At one level school pressures and expectations from parents are a valid reason," he says, "but that's always been there.

"In fact, parents used to beat up their kids in our time. What's changed is that today children are more aware, they have more exposure. They are more independent. So they blame themselves for failures and take extreme steps."

Psychologists also argue that the definition of a teenager needs to be revised in 2010.

"Today's 11-year-olds are the new teens. What we did at the ages of 14 and 15 children can do at 11 today," says Rhea Timbekar.

She demolishes the theory that children are more likely to be spontaneous in committing suicide, as opposed to adults who start with an idea, proceed with a plan and end with action.

"A child doesn't just wake up in the morning and says I will commit suicide today," she argues. "Something has gone amiss in their lives quite early on and suicides are a manifestation of that."

The breakdown of India's traditional family system is also being blamed for the problem. In a city like Mumbai - where it is common for both parents to work - children tend to become reclusive and watch too much television.

Dilip Panicker argues that there is a simple solution.

"If parents love their children unconditionally, with all their successes and failures, the problem would be greatly alleviated."

Late-night teens 'face greater depression risk'

Going to bed earlier protects teenagers against depression and suicidal thoughts, New York research suggests.

Of 15,500 12 to 18-year-olds studied, those who went to bed after midnight were 24% more likely to have depression than those who went before 2200.

And those who slept fewer than five hours a night had a 71% higher risk of depression than those who slept eight hours, the journal Sleep reports.

It is estimated 80,000 UK children and young people have depression.

The researchers from Columbia University Medical Center in New York looked at data from 15,500 teenagers collected in the 1990s.

One in 15 of those studied were found to have depression.

Enough sleep, good food and regular exercise and all essential to stay emotionally healthy Sarah Brennan, YoungMinds

As well as the higher risk of depression, those who were set a bedtime by their parents of after midnight were 20% more likely to think about suicide than those whose bedtime was 2200 or earlier.

Those who had less than five hours sleep a night were thought to have a 48% higher risk of suicidal thoughts compared with those who had eight hours of sleep.

Teenagers who reported they "usually get enough sleep" were 65% less likely to be depressed.

Depression and suicidal thoughts were also more likely in girls, older teenagers and in those who had a lower self-perception of how much parents care about them.

Most of the parents of the adolescents in the study set a bedtime of 2200 or earlier.

A quarter set a bedtime of midnight or later.

On average the teenagers were having seven hours and 53 minutes sleep a night - less than the nine hours recommended at that age.

Study leader Dr James Gangwisch said although it it was possible that youngsters with depression struggle to sleep, the fact that parental set bedtimes were linked with depression suggests that a lack of sleep is somehow underpinning the development of the condition.

He said a lack of sleep could affect emotional brain responses and lead to moodiness that hindered the ability to cope with daily stresses.

This moodiness could affect judgment, concentration and impulse control.

Regular exercise

"Adequate quality sleep could therefore be a preventative measure against depression and a treatment for depression," he added.

Sarah Brennan, chief executive at the mental health charity YoungMinds, said: "Enough sleep, good food and regular exercise are all essential to stay emotionally healthy.

"Nearly 80,000 children and young people suffer with depression, yet we are still failing to provide our young people with the help and support to cope with it and prevent it.

"Providing parents with information about how to look after your body, for example by getting enough sleep, and how to get help if they are worried about their teenager, will ensure problems are tackled early and prevent serious mental health conditions such as depression."