呼市女性大便出血(结肠炎呼和浩特) (今日更新中)

BEIJING, Sept. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Scientists have been making great efforts to show how harmful coffee is to us, though no evidence yet. A latest study may be reassuring for coffee-lovers.Women who drink caffeinated coffee are less likely to be depressed than those don't. And the more they drink, the lower risk of developing depression, according to a study published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers of the study tracked the health of over 50,000 women aged between 30 and 55 in 1996 for a decade and recorded their mental health and coffee intake periodically.They find that women who drank two or three cups of coffee per day were 15 percent less likely than those who drank little or decaffeinated coffee to be depressed.And for those who drank four or more cups, the risk of developing depression reduced by 20 percent.The reason why coffee could protect depression is not clear. But the scientists from the Harvard University speculated that caffeine was the key player. More research is needed to show whether caffeine can ward off depression.It might be that not-depressed people tended to be more activated and the habit of coffee drinking just fit in their lifestyle.However, the depressed ones, who might suffer from sleeplessness, chose not to drink coffee because the caffeine might exacerbate it."There's no need to start drinking coffee," said Dr. Alberto Ascherio, the senior author of the study, "The message is that coffee is safe to drink, with no adverse effects. That's really all that can be said."

COPENHAGEN, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed E.coli cases has risen to 11 with at least another eight persons suspected of having the intestinal infection in Denmark, according to Denmark's National Serum Institute on Sunday.Five of the confirmed cases show symptoms of kidney failure which marks an advanced stage of the sickness, the institute said.Danish cucumbers are suspected of helping spread the E. coli bacteria believed to be causing a deadly outbreak of intestinal infection in Denmark and Germany, local media reported Sunday.The Danish cucumbers were mixed in Germany with cucumbers originating in the Netherlands, making it difficult to determine if Danish cucumbers are in fact contaminated.Denmark's Veterinary and Food Administration (DVFA) had earlier said the suspicion against Danish cucumber was "vague", but advised Danish consumers not to eat raw tomatoes, lettuces and cucumbers from Germany, and cucumber from Spain.It is now checking Danish cucumbers for traces of E. coli with results expected on Tuesday.Some Danish retailers have now removed these products from their supermarket shelves. And the Danish branch of fast-food chain McDonald's announced Saturday that it was dropping fresh cucumbers from its menu until further notice.The infection, which is food-borne, can be caused by eating raw or uncooked foods such as vegetables contaminated with the E. coli bacteria.Symptoms of infection include mild fever, bloody diarrhea and vomiting, and can last five to seven days. It can prove fatal in the very young, sick, or elderly.

CANBERRA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Australian scientist on Wednesday said his international research team has discovered the trick on how butterfly learn to change its wing pattern to avoid being eaten by birds.The Amazonian butterfly, Heliconius numata, has learnt to carry out a single genetic switch to alter its wing pattern so it appears to be another bad-tasting butterfly that birds will avoid.Dr. Siu Fai (Ronald) Lee from the Department of Genetics and Bio21 Institute at Australia's University of Melbourne was part of the international research team, which was led by scientists at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the University of Exeter in United Kingdom.Dr. Lee said the historical mystery had puzzled researchers for decades."Charles Darwin was puzzled by how butterflies evolved such similar patterns of warning coloration," Dr. Siu Fai (Ronald) Lee from the Department of Genetics and Bio21 Institute at the University of Melbourne told Western Australia Today."We have now solved this mystery, identifying the region of chromosome responsible for changing wing pattern."He said the research team identified a genetic switch known as a supergene, which allowed the butterfly to morph into several different forms, allowing one species to mimic another."It is amazing that by changing just one small region of the chromosomes, the butterfly is able to fool its predators by mimicking a range of different butterflies that taste bad," he said."The butterflies rearrange this supergene DNA like a small pack of cards, and the result is new wing patterns. It means that butterflies look completely different but have the same DNA."There are other butterflies doing similar tricks, but this is the most elegant one."I was just fascinated by how elegant they were."He said the discovery proves that small chromosomal changes can preserve successful gene combinations, and thus help a species to adapt.The findings of the study are published on August 14 in the international journal Nature.

XIAMEN, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese mainland on Sunday announced a raft of measures on tourism, transportation, farmers and food safety to boost Taiwan's economic growth and cross-Strait relations.A pilot plan allowing mainlanders to visit Taiwan as individual tourists will start on June 28, which covers residents of Beijing, Shanghai and southeastern city of Xiamen at the first stage, said Wang Yi, head of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office.Wang told a conference at the weeklong Straits Forum being held in Xiamen of Fujian Province that the mainland and Taiwan also agreed to allow Fujian residents to visit the islands of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu in the Taiwan Strait as individual tourists.Observers predict that the influx of mainland tourists will bring vitality to Taiwan's export-oriented economy which had greatly suffered from the global economic downturn.Currently, mainlanders are only allowed to visit Taiwan on package tours after the authorities lifted a partial ban in July 2008.At Sunday's conference, the two sides also announced to increase the number of cross-Strait passenger flights by more than 50 percent to 558 flights per week, and add terminals for the direct flights in four mainland cities, including one in northwestern city of Lanzhou, which brought the total number of cross-Strait flight terminals to 50 on both sides of the Strait.The moves aim to cope with the increasing number of mainlanders who wish to visit Taiwan.The number of mainland tourists traveling to the island reached 2.34 million as of the end of May, China's top tourism official said at the conference. There are also an increasing number of mainland business travelers and government delegations visiting Taiwan.Meanwhile, both sides agreed to "regulate airfares" for flights from Beijing and Shanghai to Taipei.Currently, the cheapest one-way ticket between Beijing and Taipei on Air China, the mainland's flagship carrier, costs around 1,300 yuan (about 200 U.S. dollars) while a full price one-way ticket costs more than 3,000 yuan, according to the airline's website.Some members of the public on both sides have complained about the high price.For the past decades, travelers had to transfer at other airports, particularly the one in Hong Kong, in order to reach Taiwan by air.In 2003, the two sides agreed to operate charter flights during Spring Festival, China's biggest public holiday.Regular direct flights across the Strait have been available since July 2008 to mainly serve mainland package tourists visiting Taiwan.The mainland also decided to facilitate entry and exit procedures for Taiwan residents and lower charges for endorsing their passports by 50 percent starting from July 1.Meanwhile, four "enterprising parks" will be set up in four cities of Fujian, central Henan and southwestern Guangxi provinces for Taiwan farmers launching agricultural startups on the mainland, said Wang Yi.Both sides also agreed to encourage mainland enterprises to purchase farm produce and other products listed in the early harvest program of the cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) directly in Taiwan.A general manager surnamed Lin of a farm produce company in Taiwan's southern city of Tainan said he hoped to seize the opportunity to benefit from the development of the island's farm and fishing sector as the mainland has become Taiwan's largest export market.Further, both sides agreed to strengthen cooperation and exchanges concerning nuclear power security and food safety.The third Straits Forum, which opened Saturday in Xiamen, facing Taiwan across the Strait, will close in the island's city of Taichung on Friday.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered the first pair of supermassive black holes in a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way, NASA announced Wednesday.Approximately 160 million light years from Earth, the pair is the nearest known such phenomenon.The black holes are located near the center of the spiral galaxy NGC 3393. Separated by only 490 light years, the black holes are likely the remnant of a merger of two galaxies of unequal mass a billion or more years ago.Both of the supermassive black holes are heavily obscured by dust and gas, which makes them difficult to observe in optical light. Because X-rays are more energetic, they can penetrate this obscuring material. Chandra's X-ray spectra show clear signatures of a pair of supermassive black holes."If this galaxy weren't so close, we'd have no chance of separating the two black holes the way we have," said Pepi Fabbiano of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the study that appeared Wednesday in on-line issue of the journal Nature. "Since this galaxy was right under our noses by cosmic standards, it makes us wonder how many of these black hole pairs we've been missing."Previous observations in X-rays and at other wavelengths indicated that a single supermassive black hole existed in the center of NGC 3393. However, a long look by Chandra allowed the researchers to detect and separate the dual black holes. Both black holes are actively growing and emitting X-rays as gas falls towards them and becomes hotter.When two equal-sized spiral galaxies merge, astronomers think it should result in the formation of a black hole pair and a galaxy with a disrupted appearance and intense star formation. A well-known example is the pair of supermassive black holes in NGC 6240, which is located about 330 million light years from Earth.However, NGC 3393 is a well-organized spiral galaxy, and its central bulge is dominated by old stars. These are unusual properties for a galaxy containing a pair of black holes.

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