Pill 'lowers ovarian cancer risk' - Thuốc giảm ung thư buồng trứng

By Helen Briggs Health editor, BBC News website

The study looked at the combined oral contraceptive pill

Women who take the Pill for 10 years almost halve their risk of ovarian cancer, according to a study.

But experts say this must be balanced against the risk of breast cancer, which is higher in women on the Pill.

For every 100,000 women on the Pill for 10 years there are 50 extra breast cancers and 12 fewer ovarian cancers, data shows.

The study is published in the British Journal of Cancer.

It adds weight to previous research suggesting factors like the Pill and pregnancy can impact on cancer risk by changing the level of hormones in the body.

Dr Richard Edmondson of the Northern Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Newcastle, said: "Women may be reassured to know that the oral contraceptive is not only an effective contraceptive but can have the added benefit of reducing their risk of ovarian cancer.

"This is however balanced against a slightly increased risk of developing breast cancer.

"To put this in context, it is estimated that if 100,000 women use the Pill for 10 years or more, there will be 50 more breast cancers than would have otherwise occurred, but 12 fewer ovarian cancers.

"This may be particularly important for women with an increased risk of ovarian cancer in their family."

Large study

The study followed more than 300,000 women enrolled in a large European study known as EPIC (European Prospective Investigation of Cancer).

The women were taking the combined oral contraceptive pill, which contains two hormones, an oestrogen and a progestogen.

Researchers say they found evidence that taking the Pill for 10 years reduced the risk of ovarian cancer by almost half, compared with women who had used the contraceptive for a year or less.

The team also say it found evidence that having a baby reduced the risk of ovarian cancer; the more children a woman had, the bigger the protection.

However, they add that their research did not find evidence of a link between breastfeeding and protection against ovarian cancer, which has been found in some other studies.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer in women in the UK, with more than 6,500 cases diagnosed each year. Several factors are known to play a role including age, faults in certain genes, obesity and smoking.

Danger signs

Naomi Allen is an epidemiologist for Cancer Research UK at the University of Oxford who works on the EPIC study.

She said: "Ovarian cancer is difficult to detect and so prevention is key to saving women suffering from this disease.

"These results are important because most women don't know that taking the Pill or getting pregnant can help reduce their risk of ovarian cancer later on in life."

Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK, added: "Treatment for ovarian cancer is better if the disease is caught as early as possible.

"So all women should be aware of the signs of ovarian cancer like pain in the lower tummy, bloating, increased tummy size, difficulty eating or feeling full.

"If these symptoms are new and happen on most days then it's worth getting checked out by your doctor without delay."

Meanwhile a separate study, published in the British Medical Journal, appears to confirm earlier research that suggested that some newer types of contraceptive pill are more likely to cause blood clots.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, said women on pills containing drospirenone, desogestrel or gestodene had double the risk of clots compared with an older drug, levonorgestrel.

The data

• There were about 28 ovarian cancer cases per 100,000 women who used the Pill for a year or less
• There were about 15 ovarian cancer cases per 100,000 women who took the Pill for at least 10 years
• Among women who have never been pregnant, there were 34 ovarian cancer cases per 100,000 women
• Among women who have gone through pregnancy at least once there were 24 ovarian cancer cases per 100,000 women

Gene therapy used in a bid to save a man's sight - Liệu pháp gien chữa mắt

Jonathan Wyatt: Hoping doctors can save his sight so he can continue to work as a lawyer

Gene therapy used in a bid to save a man's sight
Pallab Ghosh By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News

Researchers in Oxford have treated a man with an advanced gene therapy technique to prevent him from losing his sight.

It is the first time that anyone has tried to correct a genetic defect in the light-sensing cells that line the back of the eye.

The president of the Academy of Medical Sciences said the widespread use of gene therapy of this treatment will be soon be possible.

The operation was carried out on 63-year-old Jonathan Wyatt, an arbitration lawyer based in Bristol.

Mr Wyatt was able to see normally until about the age of 19 when he began having problems seeing in the dark.

He was told by doctors that his vision would get progressively worse and he would eventually go blind.

The gradual deterioration in his vision didn't stop Mr Wyatt from qualifying as a barrister. But 10 years ago he found he was having difficulty reading statements in dimly-lit courts.

"The worst occasion was when I was reading out a statement to the court and I made a mistake. The judge turned to me and snapped 'Can't you read Mr Wyatt?!' I then decided it was time to put my wig down and leave advocacy."

Geneticist Dan Lipinski, from the University of Oxford, explains the gene therapy process

Mr Wyatt is able to see well enough to work from home and hopes that the operation will enable him to continue his profession.

Without treatment he would be blind within a few years and would be unable to work in the way that he is doing so now.

"I'd like things to get a little better," he says.

Devastating diagnosis

Mr Wyatt suffers from a rare genetic disorder known as Choroideraemia.

These patients start off life with normal vision and its not until their late childhood that they notice that they cannot see anything at night and usually the diagnosis is made during middle to late childhood.

From then it is a devastating diagnosis because these young people are told that they are gradually going to lose their sight completely, usually by the time they are in their 40s. There is no treatment for this condition.

The disease is caused by an inherited faulty gene, called REP1. Without a functioning copy of the gene, the light detecting cells in the eye die.

The idea behind the gene therapy is simple: stop the cells from dying by injecting working copies of the gene into them.

It is the first time that anyone has attempted to correct a gene defect in the light-sensing cells that line the back of the eye.

Mr Wyatt is the first of 12 patients undergoing this experimental technique over the next two years at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

His doctor, Prof Robert MacLaren, believes that he'll know for sure whether the degeneration in Mr Wyatt's eye has stopped within two years. If that's the case his vision will be saved indefinitely.

"If this works with then we would want to go in and treat patients at a much earlier stage in childhood, effectively where they still have normal vision and can do normal things to prevent them from losing sight.

Prof MacLaren believes that if this gene therapy works it could be used to treat a wide variety of eye disorders, including the most common form of blindness in the elderly, macular degeneration.

"That is a genetic disease and I have no personal doubt in future that there will be a genetic treatment for it," he says.

The Oxford research follows on from a gene therapy trial which began four years ago at Moorfields Hospital in London. The principle aim of these trials was to demonstrate that the technique was safe.

The treatment, which adopted a slightly different approach, was tested first in adult patients whose sight was almost gone, and then in children.

According to Prof Robin Ali, who led that research, the trials have shown not only that gene therapy is safe - but that there has been significant improvement in some patients.

"It is very exciting to see the start of another ocular gene therapy trial and the field moving so rapidly in recent years," he said.

"In the last 12 months, several new gene therapy trials for the treatment of various retinal disorders have been initiated and further trials are likely to start very soon. We are all looking forward to seeing the results."

Hype

The concept of using gene therapy for treating a whole host of conditions has been around for more than 20 years. But with, some notable exceptions, it's an idea that's failed to live up to its hype.

Now, however, it seems that the technique is beginning to deliver, at least in treating sight disorders.

According to Prof Sir John Bell, president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, these very early trails in Oxford, London and in the US suggest that a whole host of sight disorders could, be treatable "within the next 10 years".

"Of all the things that are available for this particular set of diseases this is by far the most exciting," he said.

"This is a set of diseases where molecular medicine has reached a point where we can now intervene in a very precise way to correct the defect that caused the blindness in the first place. There is the possibility that you could actually correct the gene defect."

The trial, led by Oxford University, has been jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and Department of Health. It is an example of a new approach to medical research which brings together scientists and clinicians to translate basic science into effective treatments more quickly

"This is exactly where the NHS ought to be putting its effort and it's a perfect example of the benefits that might from using the NHS for this kind of research activity," said Prof Bell.

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Stars concoct complex molecules - Các sao tạo ra các phân tử phức tạp

stars eject massive amounts of material into the surrounding "interstellar medium"

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Chemical factories around young stars may give rise to far more complex molecules than previously thought.

Relatively complex, carbon-containing molecules are found in comets and on nearby planets, thought to have been made elsewhere in our Solar System.

But a report in Nature suggests even larger molecules may be forged near young stars and flung outwards.

The find adds to a large body of often conflicting evidence about the origin of our Universe's complex molecules.

The team behind the work says that "stellar organics" may have been delivered to the early Earth, but that suggestion remains to be confirmed by future observations.

Much of the chemistry that happens elsewhere in the cosmos remains mysterious, leaving astronomers to guess how nature assembles molecules.

It has until recently been assumed that fairly simple molecules could be assembled in the areas around young stars, while more complex materials form in cooler conditions.

Adding to the mystery, though, have been "unidentified infrared emissions", or UIE, emanating from a range of sources in our galaxy and beyond.

This infrared light must come from molecular vibrations - the waggling of one atom relative to another within molecules that have absorbed light of higher frequencies from other sources. Light in the infrared is then emitted as the wagglings die out.

Like the strings of a piano, each molecular vibration has its own note, but the unidentified infrared emissions are a rich, dense "chord" of notes that makes the nature of the emitting molecules extremely difficult to unpick.

Star power

Since the late 1970s, astronomers have been making guesses about what the molecules may be; most recently, they have been assumed to be polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - linked rings of carbon dotted with hydrogen atoms that on Earth are known to be powerful and toxic pollutants.

While these molecules forged near new stars are relatively complex assemblages of atoms, they are not as intricate as molecules that have been spotted elsewhere in the cosmos.

The team's "candidate" molecule is a rich mosaic of ringed(aromatic) and kinked (aliphatic) features

"Complex organics have previously been found in the Solar System - in meteorites, in comets, and on planetary surfaces [such as that of Saturn's moon] Titan," Prof Sun Kwok of Hong Kong University told BBC News.

"However, the traditional view is that these organics are made in situ in the Solar System."

Using the Spitzer space telescope, Prof Kwok and his colleague Yong Zhang looked at the light coming from nascent stars, along with light from two novas - explosions of white dwarf stars.

They then devised a theoretical molecule, changing its structure and parts until its molecular vibrational "notes" most closely matched what Spitzer had seen.

Instead of PAHs, the pair's candidate molecule was a rich mixture of the ring-like "aromatic" structures familiar from PAHs and kinked "aliphatic" chains of carbon atoms.

"The implication of our paper is that these Solar System organics bear resemblance with the organics that are made by stars, or planetary nebulae," Prof Kwok explained, "and it is possible that the Solar System contains remnants of stellar organics."

Rather than some rare and yet-to-be-understood chemistry driving the manufacture of such molecules, the process that sees organic material spewing out of stars may be far more ubiquitous.

Recent work in Astrophysical Journal Letters by Rhonda Stroud of the Naval Research Laboratory in the US and her team has shown how both aromatic and aliphatic molecules could be made in the interstellar medium by passing shock waves from supernovas - and that such shock waves could also destroy them.

Carey Lisse of Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory agreed, telling BBC News that "while young stars may fling complex organic molecules forged from simpler 'interstellar medium' precursors, it is also just as possible they destroy them, too".

"On the other hand, older, swollen red giant stars are certainly expelling thick winds rich in carbonaceous soot and organic molecules, and once they finally blow off their gaseous envelopes and expose their inner, naked nuclear furnaces as white dwarf stars, they irradiate the surrounding rich mix with strong ultraviolet light and process them even further," he told BBC News.

That further complicates the picture of how carbon and complex organic molecules may end up travelling into other solar systems such as our own.

"The question of whether [complex organics] are made in the Solar System or whether they survive from the interstellar medium is interesting, and it's not clear to me the authors have definitively proven the existence of their suggested species," Dr Lisse said, "but it is interesting that they have re-visited some old fading stars to derive this new interpretation," he told BBC News.

"Any evidence we can get of very young and very old stars actually seeding the interstellar medium with complex organics that can for example lead to life is exciting.

"The deeper we look, with better and better telescopes and instruments and ideas, the more we find out about our rich cosmos. I am sure this story is not settled yet."

Daily aspirin 'blocks bowel cancer' - Aspirin ngăn chặn ung thư ruột

Does an aspirin a day keep the cancer surgeon away?	Một viên aspirin mỗi ngày giúp ngăn chặn ung thư?
By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News.	James Gallagher Health, BBC.
A daily dose of aspirin should be given to people at high risk of bowel cancer, say scientists. Two pills a day for two years reduced the incidence of bowel cancer by 63% in a group of 861 at-risk patients, a study reported in The Lancet said. Newcastle University's Prof Sir John Burn, who led the study, said the evidence "seems overwhelmingly strong". Other experts said the findings added to a growing body of proof that aspirin could be used in the fight with cancer. The study was conducted on 861 patients with Lynch syndrome, which affects one in every 1,000 people.	Theo các nhà khoa học, liều dùng aspirin mỗi ngày nên áp dụng cho những người có nguy cơ cao về ung thư ruột. Hai viên aspirin mỗi ngày trong 2 năm đã làm giảm tỉ lệ ung thư ruột đến 63% trong nhóm 861 bệnh nhân có nguy cơ, một cuộc khảo sát công bố trên tạp chí The Lancet cho biết Giáo sư Sir John Burn thuộc Đại học Newcastle, người chỉ đạo nghiên cứu, nói rằng bằng chứng này “có tính áp đảo mạnh mẽ”. Các nhà nghiên cứu khác thì cho rằng khám phá này thêm lần nữa chứng minh rằng aspirin có thể được dùng để chống lại bệnh ung thư. Nghiên cứu được tiến hành trên 861 bệnh nhân mắc hội chứng Lynch, ảnh hưởng 1/1000 người.
They struggle to detect and repair damaged DNA which means they are more likely to develop a range of cancers including those of the bowel, womb and stomach.	Họ nỗ lực tìm kiếm và sửa chữa DNA bị tổn thương mà có khả năng gây ra các loại ung thư bao gồm cả ung thư ruột, ung thư tử cung và ung thư dạ dày.
'Good deal' When looking at all patients in the trial, those in the group given 600 milligrams of aspirin every day developed 19 tumours compared to 34 tumours in the other "control" group, a reduction of 44%.	'Thế là tốt’ Theo dõi các bệnh nhân tham gia thí nghiệm cho thấy nhóm dùng 600mg aspirin mỗi ngày chỉ 19 trường hợp phát triển khối u so với con số 34 ở nhóm còn lại, giảm 44%.
When the researchers looked at just those patients who took the medication for at least two years the reduction was 63%.	Theo quan sát của các nhà nghiên cứu, những bệnh nhân dùng thuốc trong ít nhất hai năm thì giảm đến 63%.
There was also an effect on other cancers linked to Lynch syndrome, which fell by half in the treatment group.	Tác dụng này cũng được nhận thấy ở những bệnh ung thư khác có liên quan đến hội chứng Lynch, giảm một nửa trong nhóm điều trị.
Prof Sir John Burn, from Newcastle University, said there were 30,000 adults in the UK with Lynch syndrome.	Giáo sư Sir John Burn thuộc Đại học Newcastle, nói rằng có đến 30.000 người trưởng thành mắc hội chứng Lynch ở Anh.
If all were given the treatment he said it would prevent 10,000 cancers over 30 years and he speculated that this could possibly prevent 1,000 deaths from the disease.	Nếu tất cả họ đều được chữa trị bằng cách này, thì có thể ngăn ngừa 10.000 ca ung thư trong 30 năm, ông dự báo khả năng ngăn ngừa 1000 trường hợp tử vong do căn bệnh này.
However, there would also be side effects.	Tuy nhiên, thuốc cũng sẽ có tác dụng phụ.
"If we can prevent 10,000 cancers in return for 1,000 ulcers and 100 strokes, in most people's minds that's a good deal," he said. "People who've got a clear family history of, particularly, bowel cancer should seriously consider adding low dose aspirin to their routine and particularly those people who've got a genetic predisposition."	“Nếu ta ngăn được 10.000 ca ung thư bù lại cho 1000 trường hợp loét và 100 trường hợp đột quỵ, thì trong suy nghĩ của hầu hết mọi người, đó là chuyện tốt lành,” ông nói. “Những người có tiền sử gia đình mắc bệnh, đặc biệt đối với ung thư đường ruột nên nghiêm túc xem xét việc dùng lượng liều thấp aspirin thường quy, đặc biệt đối với những người mang gen bệnh.”
Aspirin is already well known to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in high risk patients. Other studies over the past two decades have suggested the pain killer reduced cancer risk, but this was the first randomised control trial, specifically for aspirin in cancer, to prove it.	Aspirin được biết đến với tác dụng làm giảm nguy cơ đau tim và đột quỵ ở những người có nguy cơ cao. Những cuộc nghiên cứu trong hai thập kỉ qua cho thấy thuốc giảm đau đã làm giảm nguy cơ ung thư, nhưng đây chỉ là lần đầu tiên thử nghiệm ngẫu nhiên, đặc biệt đối với aspirin trong điều trị ung thư, để chứng mình điều đó.
In 2010, a study suggested patients given aspirin had a 25% lower risk of death during that trial.	Năm 2010, một cuộc nghiên cứu chỉ ra những bệnh nhân dùng aspirin sẽ giảm 25% nguy cơ tử vong trong quá trình điều trị.
Prof Peter Rothwell, from Oxford University, who conducted that study said the latest research "certainly helps to build a consistent picture, all pointing in the same direction that there is a link with cancer".	Giáo sư Peter Rothwell, từ Đại học Oxford, người tiến hành cuộc nghiên cứu này nói rằng cuộc khảo sát cuối cùng “chắc chắn sẽ giúp xây dựng bước tranh nhất quán chỉ ra mối liên quan với bệnh ung thư.”
Cancer Research UK's Prof Chris Paraskeva said: "This adds to the growing body of evidence showing the importance of aspirin, and aspirin-like drugs, in the fight against cancer."	Giáo sư Chris Paraskeva, Trung tâm nghiên cứu Ung thư Anh Quốc, cho rằng “Điều này tạo ra thêm bằng chứng cho thấy vai trò quan trọng của aspirin, và những loại thuốc tương tự aspirin, trong phòng chống ung thư.”
'Balanced argument' "I think where we're headed for is people that are in their 50s and 60s would look very seriously at adding a low dose aspirin to their daily routine because it's giving protection against cancer, heart attack and stroke.	‘Lập luận cân bằng’ “Tôi nghĩ rằng đối tượng mà chúng ta hướng đến là những người ở độ tuổi 50 và 60, họ sẽ nhìn nhận nghiêm túc việc thêm lượng thấp aspirin mỗi ngày bởi nó sẽ bảo vệ họ khỏi ung thư, bệnh tim mạch và đột quỵ.
One of the questions asked by the research into aspirin was whether healthy people with no family risks should take the drug.	Một trong những câu hỏi đặt ra trong nghiên cứu aspirin là liệu những người không có tiền sử gia đình về nguy cơ mắc bệnh có nên dùng thuốc không.
The lower the risk of heart attack or cancer, the lower the benefit of taking aspirin, yet there are still potentially deadly side effects.	Nguy cơ mắc bệnh tim mạch và ung thư càng thấp thì lợi ích của việc dùng aspirin càng thấp, rõ ràng vẫn có tác dụng phụ có thể gây chết người.
Sir John said that it was a "finely balanced argument" and that he decided the risks were worth it for him.	Sir John cho rằng có một “luận cứ cân bằng tinh tế” cho phép ông khẳng định nguy cơ là có thật.
"But if they do that they've got to have their eyes wide open. They will increase their risk of ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeds and very rarely they will have a stroke caused by the aspirin."	“Tuy nhiên nếu họ muồn dùng, họ phải luôn cảnh giác. Bởi nguy cơ viêm loét và xuất huyết đường tiêu hóa sẽ tăng, và rất hiếm gặp một cơn đột quỵ gây ra bởi aspirin.”

Audrey Francis describes herself as "a bit of a walking time bomb".	Audrey Francis tự mô tả bản thân như “một quả bom hẹn giờ”.
There is a history of cancer in her family and she has been diagnosed with Lynch syndrome. Seventeen years ago she had a hysterectomy. That was when doctors discovered she had not one but two cancers - in the womb and the ovaries.	Gia đình bà có tiền sử mắc bệnh ung thư và bà được chẩn đoán đã mắc hội chứng Lynch. Mười bảy năm trước bà đã phải làm phẫu thuật cắt bỏ tử cung. Đó là khi bác sĩ phát hiện ra rằng bà không chỉ có một mà là hai khối u ác tính - ở tử cung và buồng trứng.
Tests showed she had a chunk of DNA missing which was causing the cancers: "I actually had the inability to stop the cancers developing," she said. She took part in the trial and has since decided to self medicate with aspirin: "I've got my fingers crossed and I'm hoping it'll do the trick for me."	Xét nghiệm cho thấy một đoạn DNA bị mất chính là nguyên nhân: “Tôi thực sự không còn hi vong ngăn chặn ung thư phát triển,” bà nói. Bà đã tham gia cuộc thử nghiệm và từ đó đưa ra quyết định tự chữa bệnh với thuốc aspirin: “Tôi cầu may và hi vọng thuốc sẽ chữa lành bệnh cho mình.”
	Translated by tran huyen tran y2E

Are People Who Speak More Than One Language Smarter? Có phải người nói nhiều thứ tiếng thông minh hơn không?

1

In the early nineteen fifties, researchers found that people scored lower on intelligence tests if they spoke more than one language. Research in the nineteen sixties found the opposite. So which is it? Researchers presented their newest studies in February at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.	Vào đầu những năm 50, các nhà nghiên cứu thấy rằng những người bị điểm thấp trong các bài kiểm tra trí thông minh nếu họ nói nhiều hơn một ngôn ngữ. Những nghiên cứu trong thập niên sáu mươi của thế kỷ hai mươi phát hiện điều ngược lại. Thế thì, điều gì đúng? Các nhà nghiên cứu đã trình bày các công trình mới nhất của họ hồi tháng Hai tại một cuộc họp của Hiệp hội Nghiên cứu Khoa học Tiên tiến Hoa Kỳ.
The latest evidence shows that being bilingual does not necessarily make people smarter. But researcher Ellen Bialystok says it probably does make you better at certain skills. She says:	Các bằng chứng mới nhất cho thấy là song ngữ không nhất thiết phải làm cho người ta thông minh hơn. Nhưng nhà nghiên cứu Ellen Bialystok nói biết nhiều ngôn ngũ có thể làm cho bạn giỏi hơn ở những kỹ năng nhất định. Bà nói:
"Imagine driving down the highway. There are many things that could capture your attention and you really need to be able to monitor all of them. Why would bilingualism make you any better at that?" And the answer, she says, is that bilingual people are often better at controlling their attention -- a function called the executive control system. She says it is possibly the most important cognitive system we have. It is where all of our decisions about what to attend to, what to ignore and what to process are made. Ms. Bialystok is a psychology professor at York University in Toronto, Canada.	"Hãy tưởng tượng bạn đang lái xe trên đường cao tốc. Có rất nhiều điều mà có thể khiến bạn chú ý và bạn thực sự cần có khả năng quan trắc tất cả chúng Tại sao song ngữ sẽ làm cho bạn có chút nào đó giỏi hơn trong việc này?" Và câu trả lời, bà nói, là những người song ngữ thường giỏi kiểm soát sự chú ý của họ hơn - một chức năng được gọi là hệ thống quản lý điều hành. Bà nói rằng nó có thể là hệ thống nhận thức quan trọng nhất mà chúng ta có. Đó là nơi mà đưa các quyết định về việc chúng ta định làm gì, bỏ qua cái gì nên tiến hành cái gì. Bà Bialystok là một giáo sư tâm lý học tại Đại học York ở Toronto, Canada.
She says the best method to measure the executive control system is called the Stroop Test. A person is shown words in different colors. The person has to ignore the word but say the color. The problem is that the words are all names of colors. She explains: "So you would have the word 'blue' written in red, but you have to say 'red.' But blue is just lighting up all these circuits in your brain, and you really want to say 'blue.' So you need a mechanism to override that so that you can say 'red.' That's the executive control system."	Bà nói rằng phương pháp tốt nhất để đo hệ thống kiểm soát điều hành được gọi là thử nghiệm Stroop. Một người được cho xem các từ được viết trong các màu sắc khác nhau. Người này phải bỏ qua từ nhưng phải nói màu sắc. Vấn đề là tất cả những từ này đều là tên của các màu sắc. Bà giải thích: "Vì vậy, bạn sẽ có từ 'xanh da trời' được viết bằng màu đỏ, nhưng bạn phải nói "đỏ." Nhưng màu xanh da trời đã làm sáng lên tất cả các mạch điện trong não bạn, và bạn thực sự muốn nói "xanh da trời. ' Vì vậy, bạn cần một cơ chế để ghi đè lên đó để bạn có thể nói "đỏ." Đó là hệ thống quản lý điều hành."
Her work shows that bilingual people continually practice this function. They have to, because both languages are active in their brain at the same time. They need to suppress one to be able to speak in the other. This mental exercise might help in other ways, too. Researchers say bilingual children are better able to separate a word from its meaning, and more likely to have friends from different cultures. Bilingual adults are often four to five years later than others in developing dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Foreign language study has increased in the United States. But linguist Alison Mackey at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. points out that English-speaking countries are still far behind the rest of the world.	Công trình nghiên của bà cho thấy rằng những người song ngữ liên tục thực hành chức năng này. Họ phải làm thế, bởi vì cả hai ngôn ngữ đang hoạt động đồng thời trong não họ. Họ cần phải trấn áp ngôn ngữ này để có thể nói ngôn ngữ kia. Bài tập thể dục tinh thần này có thể có tác dụng về nhiều phương diện khác nữa. Các nhà nghiên cứu cho rằng trẻ em song ngữ có thể dễ dàng tách biệt một từ ra khỏi ý nghĩa của nó, và dễ làm bạn bè với người từ các nền văn hóa khác nhau hơn. Người lớn song ngữ thường phát triển chứng mất trí hoặc bệnh Alzheimer chậm hơn 4-5 năm so với những người khác. Việc học ngoại ngữ đã tăng lên tại Hoa Kỳ. Nhưng nhà ngôn ngữ học Alison Mackey tại Đại học Georgetown ở Washington, DC chỉ ra rằng các nước nói tiếng Anh vẫn (học ngoại ngữ) thua xa phần còn lại của thế giới.
	Translated by hanh hien

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American football has replaced baseball as America's favorite sport. Football has traditionally been played by men -- big men who like to hit. However, in the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of women's football leagues. The women play by the same rules and with the same level of physical contact as the men's sport. Tarsha Fain is team captain of the Baltimore Nighthawks.TARSHA FAIN: "I feel women can do anything a man can do. The same way they get out there and hit, we get out there and hit too." Fain and team owner Tanya Bryan were part of the first ever women's World Championship last year. The American team -- with Fain playing and Bryan serving as team manager -- won the gold medal. TANYA BRYAN: "To be the first, the first time it was done, and be part of it, you know, no one else can ever say that. So it's just a wonderful feeling. I'm so proud of that." About ten women's professional football leagues have been formed in the United States in recent years. Many have either joined with other leagues or failed. But the sport continues to grow. Ghoncheh Mossanen is an offensive specialist for the Nighthawks. She has played football for 28 years. Mossanen says the sport is her therapy. It is what she looks forward to the most.GHONCHEH MOSSANEN: "I feel there's a transformation when I go from putting on my gear and stepping on this football field. It's a huge mental transformation." Mossanen moved to America from Iran as a child. She remembers the first time she ever played football -- at a game in her neighborhood. GHONCHEH MOSSANEN: "I remember getting the phone call from my cousin saying 'come on out, we need one more person to play.' I didn't know what it was. I had never played the game and I remember going out there and just fell in love with it." Most of the other players on the Nighthawks have also played since they were children. Most played unofficially or in non-contact leagues. But for team owner Tanya Bryan, women's football was a completely new experience. TANYA BRYAN: "It's funny, I didn't even realize the sport existed for women. And I got a phone call from a friend of mine and she said there was an opportunity to own a team in Baltimore. And I thought it sounded really exciting and I said yes, and four years later here I am." When Bryan bought the team she did not expect to make money right away. After four years, she is no longer losing money. But Bryan says what was most important to her was giving young women a chance to play ball.TANYA BRYAN: "Most of the time as women growing up we're told, you know - not to be aggressive, and you know not to be assertive. And it's nice to have an outlet where you can come somewhere and let all of that out. You know you can be loud. You can hit somebody. You can just let it all go. And you know I think it's really, it's really healthy, you know. Great athleticism is required for football and the team camaraderie is just fantastic." The teamwork was great in the team's recent game against the Philadelphia Firebirds. After a slow first half, the Nighthawks score ... and hang on for an 8-0 win.GHONCHEH MOSSANEN: "Its elation! I mean the team deserves it. We've been playing hard. It's amazing. Now it's our chance to make the championship." The Nighthawks did not win the championship. But, they say having a chance to play this traditionally men's sport against other women is itself a victory. I'm Faith Lapidus.

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Falling prices are fueling growth in high-speed Internet services, especially in developing countries. Recently the International Telecommunication Union released its "Measuring the Information Society 2011" report. The ITU, part of the United Nations, compared access, use and skills in one hundred fifty-two countries.The report says South Korea has the world's most developed economy in information and communication technology, or ICT. Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland were also among the top five in the ICT Development Index. The index compares two thousand eight and two thousand ten scores. Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Vietnam and Russia had some of the biggest improvements between those years. Susan Teltscher is head of the ICT Data and Statistics Division at the International Telecommunication Union in Switzerland. She says most of the growth has come from one source. "Mobile broadband is now leading the growth race among the different ICT indicators -- much higher than the other key indicators that we look at, like regular mobile phone subscriptions, fixed telephone or fixed broadband. ... And the good news is that it's also starting to grow in developing countries." Mobile broadband subscriptions reached eight hundred seventy-two million by the end of last year. Three hundred million of those are in developing countries. Ms. Teltscher says "If we can bring Internet over the mobile phones, then we can really make a difference in terms of improving Internet access also in developing countries." Falling prices are adding to the growth, she says: "Especially in the broadband area, the prices dropped by over fifty percent between two thousand eight and two thousand ten -- which is a very encouraging finding because this was primarily drops in the developing countries." Even so, the report says people in many low-income countries are still paying too much for high-speed Internet connections. In Africa, broadband service for a home or office cost almost three times an average monthly income last year. That was down from six and a half times as much in two thousand eight. Also, there are big differences in broadband speed and quality from country to country. South Korea has Asia's fourth largest economy. Susan Teltscher says, "If you look at ... what they have been achieving in terms of ICT development, it's actually higher than what you would expect given their national income." For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.

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A few months ago, government researchers released the latest American Time Use Survey. It included the average time per day that Americans spent providing child care between two thousand six and two thousand ten. Among adults living with children under age six, women spent one hour and six minutes a day providing physical care like bathing or feeding. Men spent twenty-six minutes. Yet a new study suggests that men are biologically designed to care for their children. It confirmed that testosterone levels drop after men become fathers. Testosterone is the main sex hormone responsible for the changes when a boy develops into a man. Women also produce testosterone but in much lower amounts. Earlier studies showed that fathers have lower levels of testosterone than childless men. Christopher Kuzawa at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, says there are at least two possible explanations: "Is it that fatherhood reduces your testosterone? Or do men with low testosterone to begin with, are they more likely to become fathers? And so what we did is, we followed men through time and measured their hormones before and after they became fathers."The researchers used findings from a long-term study of men in the Philippines. Their testosterone levels were measured in two thousand five and two thousand nine. Some of the men were childless; others became fathers during that time. And those were the men where the researchers saw the largest decline in testosterone.The study found that levels dropped by about half immediately after the birth of a child, then rose some. Men who were active in child care produced less than those who were not active. Testosterone may drop in fathers to get them to pay more attention to parenting than to reproducing. But Professor Kuzawa says there are other good reasons as well: "Having high levels of testosterone can increase your risk for diseases like prostate cancer [and] testicular cancer." The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Studies have shown a similar drop in other mammals and in birds after mating periods to allow for care giving. Animal studies have also shown that the greater the involvement of males, the lower their testosterone levels.We asked Thomas McDade, another author of the study, if levels also drop in men who adopt children. That is an interesting question, he says, and the "next obvious thing to study." For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.

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Claremont Lincoln University near Los Angeles is a new graduate school for religious education. It hopes to change the way religious leaders in the United States are educated. The school will train Muslim, Jewish and Christian clergy together. It offers master's degree programs in interreligious studies and Muslim leadership. Administrators think this is the first "interreligious university" of its kind. Three institutions founded Claremont Lincoln. One is the Claremont School of Theology, where the university is located. The other founders are the Academy for Jewish Religion, California, and the Islamic Center of Southern California. Students from one institution may take courses at the others. The Islamic school is just beginning its programs. The founders hope to begin training imams sometime next year. David Lincoln is chairman of the board of Claremont Lincoln. He and his wife, Joan, donated fifty million dollars to the university. He says "In a lot of places now, [religions] fight each other, and if the religions could encourage solutions to the problems, then the problems would be solved and we'd all be better off."Reverend Jerry Campbell, president of the Claremont School of Theology, says teaching religion this way will strengthen society. "If we can't love our neighbors who are not like us, if we can't love them being who they are, how can our country hang together?" Jihad Turk is director of religious affairs for the Islamic Center of Southern California. He says this way of educating religious leaders will show that in the United States, "there is great support from private institutions, from the public at large and by the government, as well, that recognizes that Islam and Muslims are on the side of peace."Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa's ambassador to the United States, spoke at the university. He says interfaith cooperation is a way to balance extremism. "Anyone can step into the breach and claim to be speaking for God, and unless the middle ground is able to establish what is God's purpose, we will cede more and more ground to the fundamentalists."Reverend Campbell says he hopes to bring more religions to Claremont Lincoln, including the Bahai faith. An International School of Jain Studies will offer short-term exchange programs and seminars on Jainism, a religion from India. Reverend Campbell says the goal is to unite people to promote religion as a source of healing, compassion and peace.For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.


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Businesses are structured in different ways to meet different needs. The simplest form of business is called an individual or sole proprietorship. The proprietor owns all of the property of the business and is responsible for everything. For legal purposes, with this kind of business, the owner and the company are the same. This means the proprietor gets to keep all of the profits of the business, but must also pay any debts. Another kind of business is the partnership. Two or more people go into business together. An agreement is usually needed to decide how much of the partnership each person controls. One kind of partnership is called a limited liability partnership. These have full partners and limited partners. Limited partners may not share as much in the profits, but they also have less responsibility for the business. Doctors, lawyers and accountants often form partnerships to share their risks and profits. A husband and wife can form a business partnership together. Partnerships exist only for as long as the owners remain alive. The same is true of individual proprietorships. But corporations are designed to have an unlimited lifetime. A corporation is the most complex kind of business organization. Corporations can sell stock as a way to raise money. Stock represents shares of ownership in a company. Investors who buy stock can trade their shares or keep them as long as the company is in business. A company might use some of its earnings to pay dividends as a reward to shareholders. Or the company might reinvest the money back into the business. If shares lose value, investors can lose all of the money they paid for their stock. But shareholders are not responsible for the debts of the corporation. A corporation is recognized as an entity -- its own legal being, separate from its owners. A board of directors controls corporate policies. The directors appoint top company officers. The directors might or might not hold shares in the corporation. Corporations can have a few major shareholders. Or ownership can be spread among the general public. But not all corporations are traditional businesses that sell stock. Some nonprofit groups are also organized as corporations. For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.You can learn more about business and economics and learn English at the same time at voaspecialenglish.com. We're also on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English.

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Ten years ago David Masika bought a cotton mill in Eastern province, Kenya. Makueni Ginneries was operating with technology from the nineteen sixties. It produced only two hundred kilos of cotton in its first year under new ownership. Last year it sold six hundred thousand kilos, or about one thousand bales, earning its first profit since Mr. Masika bought it. World prices for cotton are up. But he worried that he might not have enough cotton to process if he invested in new technology. "We got into this vicious circle where we then were wondering, do I completely modernize this thing when I do not know whether the cotton is coming?" About a year ago, as the cotton supply in Kenya started increasing, he started modernizing half the machinery. Makueni is one of only four modern ginneries in the country. Kenya's cotton industry used to be strong. But almost twenty years ago a government agency collapsed. That agency had provided growers with a guaranteed price for cotton. Without that support, prices fell and so did production. Today, Kenya is part of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. AGOA is an American law first signed in two thousand. It provides duty-free and quota-free treatment for certain clothing and other products from Africa. Kenya says its clothing exports tripled from two thousand one to two thousand six. But Kenya's cotton and textile industry is concerned about meeting future requirements of the law. AGOA countries have been operating under what is called a third-country fabric provision. This lets them use yarns and fabrics made in any country, not just AGOA countries. But starting next September those countries must be able to find the raw materials for their products regionally. Kenya's cotton industry wants the United States Congress to extend the third-country fabric provision. Micah Powon is chief executive of the Cotton Development Board. He says "If [we get] an extension period of two or three years by AGOA, I confidently say that we will be able to produce enough cotton to meet local demand to qualify for the AGOA market." African countries face not only a limited cotton supply and poor machinery. They also face problems with making cotton into fabric to produce clothing. Under AGOA, fabric is considered a raw resource that has to come from African countries instead of places like China. For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.

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