For the last few days, severe tensions have been generated in the India- China border, that led to the martyrdom of our Indian soldiers. Yesterday, the grievous attack by the China PLA (People’s Liberation Army) leading to the death of 20 Indian Army in Galwan Valley of Ladakh, left us shattered because this was perhaps one of the deadliest event in the history of India- China border issues.

According to the media reports, several Chinese troops have made their way forcibly into the Galwan valley in Ladakh, the disputed region in the Kashmir Valley.

The reports say that in the month of May, Chinese forces began putting up tents, dugging trenches and moving heavy equipments through some underground passages, that had been regarded as an area of Indian territory by India. This was a aftermath result when India built a several kilometres long road, connecting to a high-altitude forward air base. Apart from this, the Galwan River has become a hotspot as here,the LAC (Line of Actual Control) is closest to the new road built by India along the Shyok River to Daulet Beg Oldi (DBO),the most remote and vulnerable area along the LAC in Ladakh.

Considering a heinous act done by China PLA (where they killed our 20 soldiers), the citizens of India, as a reaction to it, took an initiative in boycotting Chinese products. The Indians have now started coming out of their homes and burning the Chinese products on the roads. In fact, a buzz have been created by people on the social media platforms,where they are using a very trending hashtag called #HindiCheeniByeBye in order to boycott the things made in China. This was done after the Zee News came up with the idea of #HindiCheeniByeBye initiative.

In addition to this, Taiwan has also come forth in support of India. In its national daily – The Taiwan Times, Taiwan media has shown Shri Ram with His dhanush (bow) aiming towards the dragon (a symbolism for China).

Historically speaking, this act is a resemblance of the event when people of British India boycotted the Britain products. In this main scenario, Mahatma Gandhi emerged as a leading protagonist and encouraged Indians to boycott British goods as well as to buy Indian goods instead.This helped to regain the local economies in India along with reducing the British economy. This was the Swadeshi Movement indeed.

In the current scenario, we can see that Swadeshi Movement 2.0 has begin again, boycotting all the products that are made in China. Shunning China from the mainstream economy will boost up our own economy, that will pave the way for economic development of India. This will be an act of paying gratitude and respect towards the Indian Army too, who have been killed by the Chinese militants. So, as an ending note, it’s purely accurate to say that #HindiCheeniByeBye has emerged as a new mode of revolution in the 21st century India, hence.

Cyber bullying has emerged to be one of the most significant problems teenagers seem to face online on a daily basis in some way or the other. It affects people mentally and may lead to long term psychological problems in the future. There are many forms in which bullying can take place. However, cyber bullying was not a prevalent issue until the end of 2000 around which internet services were widely spread across the globe and needless to mention it brought about a plethora of positive as well as negative repercussions in the society.

Cyber bullying basically covers bullying that occurs using digital advancements which include but are not limited to mobile phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. Social media plays a significant role in helping cyber bullying to be a growing issue amidst the other societal ones in this generation. Although anyone can become a victim of cyber bullying, teenagers seem to be the most affected ones among all age groups.
Cyber bullying covers a wide range when it comes to the form in which it takes place starting from hateful comments, abusive text messages, negative and false information, character assasination to doxing i.e puclicly posting private conversations/ information without a proper permission from their side. Creating fake profiles with a picture and information of someone else without their permission is also a form of doxing which at times can be really dangerous to deal with.

Triggering certain religious beliefs and values can also be considered as a form of cyber bullying which is mainly seen in countries like India and Bangladesh which have a drastic range of diversity and differences of religious believers residing within them. This issue can get really ugly sometimes and it may also lead to real life violent instances if not taken care of from the very beginning.

The graph of cyber bullying in India seems to have taken a sudden spike in the scenario due to its wide availability and access to various internet services that have been made available for almost everyone across the country. Statistics show 7 out of every 10 people face harassments online in the form of online insults and abuses and misusing of personal pictures.

Although anyone can become a victim of cyber bullying regardless of their gender and age, teenage girls happen to be the ones who are more likely to be harassed on a daily basis.
There have been many instances where these kinds of harassments have led to heinous crimes like murder, rape and suicide. According to a recent report(TOI), a 17 year old committed suicide after her friend morphed her picture and uploaded it on social media. In 2018 a boy from UK killed himself after being subjected to cyber bullying. In the same year a 25 year old woman killed herself after being subjected to constant bullying over WhatsApp by her acquaintances due to her friendship with a muslim man. Gurmehar Kaur, an Indian woman had been subjected to online harrassment in the form of abusive comments, text messages as well as murder and rape threats. Her fault was she dared to express her opinions on concepts like War, politics and Peace.There are hundreds of other similar incidents that are allegedly growing day by day.

Considering the current scenario, it seems like more safety tools and apps need to be recommended to everyone in order to create a safe online environment for everyone. Privatization should be enhanced in every way possible so that it helps in making a difference which is highly needed in our society.

– Suvasree Bandyopadhyay

Sighs get their start in one group of neurons, but instructions from various areas of the brain depend on the reason, research with mice finds.

Humans and other mammals sigh automatically once every few moments to maintain proper lung function. This so-called basal sighing is part of the normal breathing process and happens automatically, without us having to think about it. But beyond serving an essential physiological purpose, sighs also occur as behavioral responses to emotions ranging from stress and annoyance to relief.

We want to understand how all of these diverse inputs, both emotional and physiological, lead to the same behavioral output,” says Peng Li, a physiologist and assistant professor at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute.

Understanding the brain’s control of emotions is a central goal of neurobiology and psychiatry, but it is difficult due to the challenges in teasing out emotional brain states and their complex outputs.

Because sighs offer a simple, measurable output from the brain, Li and his colleagues use them to learn more about how neural circuits communicate to regulate behavioral responses. They investigate how distinct neural circuits enable the brain to control sighing and breathing in different contexts, by studying the circuits in mice—which also exhibit both basal and emotional sighing and have brains that are architecturally similar to those of humans.

Previously, Li and colleagues identified the neurons and pathways that regulate basal sighing. In this newest study, the researchers traced up from these so-called NMB-neurons (short for neurons expressing Neuromedin B) to see what signals they were receiving when mice were under stress and found a dozen forebrain regions that send direct inputs to the sigh-control center.

When the mice were confined to a small space, inducing a claustrophobic-like state, their sighing rate increased by two to three times. Using genetic tools, the researchers identified another type of neurons in one of the forebrain regions, called hypocretin-expressing (HCRT) neurons, that were firing under stress and sending signals to the NMB-neurons. The researchers then artificially activated the HCRT-neurons, without confining the mice, and saw the same change in sighing rate.

When the researchers silenced the NMB-neurons, both basal sighing and stress-induced sighing drastically decreased in the mice. When they silenced only the HCRT-neurons, however, only the stress-induced sighing decreased while basal sighing was unaffected.

The researchers found that HCRT-neurons also were responsible for an increased breathing rate when the mice were under confinement stress. Since NMB-neurons only control sighing, and not regular breathing, this finding indicates that the HCRT-neurons are sending signals to other parts of the brain simultaneously to activate different stress-induced behaviors.

“So we’ve found the circuit that regulates all types of sighing, but activates sighs for different reasons using input signals from different parts of the brain. And we found another group of neurons that induces sighing in response to this claustrophobic stress, but also regulates other claustrophobia-related outputs,” says Li, who is also an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and Medical School.

These findings give us clues about how the brain is wired to control various behavioral and physiological responses to emotions.”

The findings will appear in Cell Reports.

Support for the research came from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the University of Michigan, the Walter V. and Idun Berry Foundation, and the Francis Family Foundation. Coauthors are from Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The work performed for this study was approved by the U-M Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee and the Stanford University Administrative Panel on Laboratory Animal Care.

Emotions are distinct patterns of behavioral and physiological responses triggered by stimuli that induce different brain states. Elucidating the circuits is difficult because of challenges in interrogating emotional brain states and their complex outputs. Here, we leverage the recent discovery in mice of a neural circuit for sighing, a simple, quantifiable output of various emotions. We show that mouse confinement triggers sighing, and this “claustrophobic” sighing, but not accompanying tachypnea, requires the same medullary neuromedin B (Nmb)-expressing neurons as physiological sighing. Retrograde tracing from the Nmb neurons identified 12 forebrain centers providing presynaptic input, including hypocretin (Hcrt)-expressing lateral hypothalamic neurons. Confinement activates Hcrt neurons, and optogenetic activation induces sighing and tachypnea whereas pharmacologic inhibition suppresses both responses. The effect on sighing is mediated by HCRT directly on Nmbneurons. We propose that this HCRT-NMB neuropeptide relay circuit mediates claustrophobic sighing and that activated Hcrt neurons are a claustrophobia brain state that directly controls claustrophobic outputs.

Avocado oil isn’t the only product without enforceable standards. Honey, spices, and ground coffee are other common examples. Foods that fetch a higher price are especially ripe for manipulation, especially when adulterations can be too subtle to detect outside a lab.

The vast majority of avocado oil sold in the US is of poor quality, mislabeled, or adulterated with other oils, researchers report.

In the country’s first extensive study of commercial avocado oil quality and purity, researchers report that at least 82% of test samples were either stale before expiration date or mixed with other oils.

PEOPLE ARE SURPRISED SOME OF THE SAMPLES DIDN’T CONTAIN ANY AVOCADO OIL.

In three cases, bottles labeled as “pure” or “extra virgin” avocado oil contained near 100% soybean oil, an oil commonly used in processed foods that’s much less expensive to produce.

“I was surprised some of the samples didn’t contain any avocado oil,” says Selina Wang, Cooperative Extension specialist in the food science and technology department at the University of California, Davis.

“Most people who buy avocado oil are interested in the health benefits, as well as the mild, fresh flavor, and are willing to pay more for the product. But because there are no standards to determine if an avocado oil is of the quality and purity advertised, no one is regulating false or misleading labels. These findings highlight the urgent need for standards to protect consumers and establish a level playing field to support the continuing growth of the avocado oil industry.”

Wang and Hilary Green, a PhD candidate in Wang’s lab, analyzed various chemical parameters of 22 domestic and imported oil samples, which included all the brands they could find in local stores and online.

“In addition to testing commercial brands, we also bought avocados and extracted our own oil in the lab, so we would know, chemically, what pure avocado oil looks like,” Wang says.

Test samples included oils of various prices, some labeled extra virgin or refined. Virgin oil is supposed to be extracted from fresh fruit using only mechanical means, and refined oil is processed with heat or chemicals to remove any flaws.

Fifteen of the samples were oxidized before the expiration date. Oil loses its flavor and health benefits when it oxidizes, which happens over time and when exposed to too much light, heat, or air. Six samples were mixed with large amounts of other oils, including sunflower, safflower, and soybean oil.

Only two brands produced samples that were pure and nonoxidized. Those were Chosen Foods and Marianne’s Avocado Oil, both refined oils made in Mexico. Among the virgin grades, CalPure produced in California was pure and fresher than the other samples in the same grade.

NO STANDARDS FOR AVOCADO OIL
Ensuring quality is important for consumers, retailers, producers, and people throughout the industry. Retailers want to sell quality products, shoppers want to get their money’s worth and honest producers want to keep fraudulent and low-quality oil out of the marketplace.

But since avocado oil is relatively new on the scene, the Food and Drug Administration has not yet adopted “standards of identity,” which are basic food standards designed to protect consumers from being cheated by inferior products or confused by misleading labels

Over the last 80 years, the FDA has issued standards of identity for hundreds of products, like whiskey, chocolate, juices, and mayonnaise. Without standards, the FDA has no means to regulate avocado oil quality and authenticity.

Avocado oil isn’t the only product without enforceable standards. Honey, spices, and ground coffee are other common examples. Foods that fetch a higher price are especially ripe for manipulation, especially when adulterations can be too subtle to detect outside a lab.

Wang is working to develop faster, better, and cheaper chemical methods to detect adulteration so bulk buyers can test avocado oil before selling it. She is also evaluating more samples, performing shelf-life studies to see how time and storage affect quality, and encouraging FDA officials to establish reasonable standards for avocado oil.

Wang has experience collaborating with industry and the FDA. Ten years ago, she analyzed the quality and purity of extra virgin olive oil and discovered that most of what was for sale in the US was actually a much lower grade. Her research sparked a cascade of responses that led California to establish one of the world’s most stringent standards for different grades of olive oil. The FDA is working with importers and domestic producers to develop standards of identity for olive oil.

“Consumers seeking the health benefits of avocado oil deserve to get what they think they are buying,” Wang says.

Working together with the industry, we can establish standards and make sure customers are getting high-quality, authentic avocado oil and the companies are competing on a level playing field.”

5 WAYS YOU CAN AVOID BAD OIL
The flavor of virgin avocado oil can differ by varieties and region. In general, authentic, fresh, virgin avocado oil tastes grassy, buttery, and a little bit like mushrooms.
Virgin avocado oil should be green in color, whereas refined oil is light yellow and almost clear due to pigments removed during refining.

Even good oil becomes rancid with time. It’s important to purchase a reasonable size that can be finished before the oil oxidizes. Store the oil away from light and heat. A cool, dark cabinet is a good choice, rather than next to the stove.
How do you know if the oil is rancid? It starts to smell stale, sort of like play dough.
When possible, choose an oil that’s closest to the harvest/production time to ensure maximum freshness. The “best before date” is not always a reliable indicator of quality.

‘The Half of It’ is one of the most astonishing and well made romantic comedies in the field of media and entertainment of all time. It is a Netflix original directed by Alice Wu who in a descriptive yet vaguely unique manner has portrayed her reflection towards apparently simple yet complex concepts like friendship, queer love and identity crisis which never fails to startle the audience in a thoughtful manner.

If you are someone who is absolutely fascinated by the concept of Love, then you should definitely consider giving it a watch since it covers this topic along with some other relevant yet rare topics in a very unique and unusual way that will blow your mind away with its story, craft and characterization.

The protagonist is an introverted and shy teenager named Ellie Chu who agrees to help her friend Paul to impress his crush Aster. It starts with Ellie sending letters and then messages to Aster on behalf of Paul without exposing her identity. Aster however finds these letters really impressive and both of them(Ellie and Aster) find a metaphysical and psychological connection between the two of them very soon.

Apparently this movie can be misinterpreted by anyone as a typical teen romance showing an archetypal love triangle. However, by the end of the movie it gets clear how it is so much more than just a typical romantic film and how it goes beyond the domain to show an unusual queer bonding between Aster and Ellie, along with a profound and pure friendship that Paul and Aster/Paul and Ellie share.

This film also puts forth a very essential subject of migration and the struggle that follows. Ellie and her father moved from China to U.S and since then they have had to face racial discrimination in several fields. It gets so ugly that her father, despite of having a PhD degree, fails to establish himself in the materialistic pseudo-intellectual society of U.S.

The way the complexities and layers of the societal as well as the psychological spheres have been portrayed through the film is exceptional and is very rare in the field of media. Unlike most of the contemporary romantic films, it does not follow a preconceived and archetypal style of events. The art of characterization has also been exemplified exclusively by the makers of the film. Some movie critics have also claimed that the story is partly autobiographical since the director seemed to have spoken about her own experiences from her college days while promoting the film in various places, which is another aspect that many people find absolutely different and interesting.

Among all the films that are being made lately, I found it to be one of the most relevant ones in terms of the issues it puts forth to the audience. The gradual development of the characters is elaborated beautifully. The duration is less than 2 hours which is perfect to draw attention of the audience and it never, at any point gets monotonous due to its rhythmic and gradual mode of cinematography. It might as well be considered to be a beautiful tribute to friendship and love which is very rare yet simple and beautiful at the same time. I am glad to have found it on Netflix and this Netflix original therefore would be highly recommended to each and every cinephile out there who tens to search for individualism and uniqueness in movies from time to time.

– Suvasree Bandyopadhyay

Child labour means childern under the age of 14 working or labouring at different places while childern between 14-18 are adolescents and they are allowed to work.
We see many reports asking to stop child labour, they punishes people who supports such activities. But still in this world, millions of children under tha age of 14 works in different fields. Due to working in such young age, children are deprived from studies, they donot goes to school, they spends their whole time working and earning money. Government just goes on asking to stop child labour but nothing helps, many companies are blamed for hiring childern to do work in their companies and on making a case against them, they fires all the childern working in their company, however this doesn’t affect the company performance much but the livelihood of that child affects.

No child wishes to work at such age, every one wants to go to school, play, have fun with their friends, siblings, but they can’t do it because they have some duty, responsibility to uphold their family. In case children don’t have father and their mother also earns but can’t earn enough to uphold family needs, then how can they even have money to send a child to school, and the child also needs to work to earn for his family. In some cases child don’t have any of the parent and sometimes father is drunkard or ill to uphold family’s responsibility. There can be many cases which can led a child to do work. For this government made no policy, no act.

Their is another thing called bonded child labour where child parents took money from someone and when they are unable to repay those money then the child has to work as a labour to pay the debt. Government has made acts regarding this and this type of child labour has decreased a lot but not completely, now also many children works as a bonded labour.

Child labour can’t be stopped by any government acts or policies, we need to work at individual level to stop this, stop hiring children for works but this won’t make thier lives better because still they won’t have money to go to school, hence try to help at least one child to study, admit one child to school, and uphold his education expenditure. If each family do it for one child then it will surely make a difference.

If you are one of those people who cannot focus on the important tasks just because you are mindlessly scrolling through posts on social media, then this is for you!

Instead of being delighted for our lives, we are busy constantly comparing it with others on social media. No wonder why every other person is unhappy. Excess of anything is bad and when this obsession goes unchecked, you should really stop and ask yourself; is social media toxic?

It has seeped into our lives in such a way that it is almost impossible to consciously not being a part of it. Everything we do is related with it and we all have become slaves to it. Whenever we go to a new place or have something new to eat, we think of adding that on social media instead of enjoying that very moment without being slave to this virtual world. Although it comes in handy as it keeps you connected with your loved ones and keeps updated on everything. But at the same time we should be aware when it starts to dissolve toxicity in our lives.

Everyone is uploading there happy pictures, the next part of their lives online. No-one is sharing their failures or issues or setbacks. So it can happen “if someone is going through a tough phase in life and logs on, he/she will get further depressed as they might compare their life with the happy person on social media (you know how it goes when everyone is having a ball and you do not). Although it may seem like everyone’s life is so good and happening all the time but it is not. It is the biggest lie we all say proudly via social media. Everyone is facing their demons every day. Everyone has their own problems to deal with and even the ones you feel have no problems are facing their own setbacks.

All we do is scroll! Scroll! And scroll! It makes us feel like a Caesar. We need to realise it’s opportunity even if we know. Most of our mentors and admired icons are online. We might never meet them in real life but it doesn’t mean you cannot still have them positively influencing your lives. Don’t have money for future studies? There are a lot of free courses online to sharpen your skills and a lot more to surf.

If you feel that social media is toxic to you and is taking a lot of your time, just start noticing its effects on your mental health.

All you need to do is reach out to your potential and improve your life.

Stress is the response that your body gives to difficult or challenging situations. It gives you tension both physically as well as mentally.

Stress has many bad effects on your physical and mental health. It reduces your productivity at a personal and professional level. It makes you a weaker person from within who is prone to various kinds of diseases. It has a bad impact on your behaviour and confidence.

Today in this fast-moving world, while being in the process of building a stable career we focus on everything except ourself. We are hardly getting any time for us. As a result, we are failing to live a satisfactory and cheerful life and becoming more and more closer to a stressful life. Stress has become an uninvited guest in everyone’s life.

Stress is our biggest enemy. But, like every enemy, this one also can be conquered. So, I have just listed down a few points that could prove helpful to fight stress.

What can be done to deal with stress?

● To deal with stress, the best and the first thing that should be done is to take your own help. You should start talking to yourself and find out what is bothering you and what is the reason that is stressing you out?

● Talk to someone who is close to you about your stress issues. When you discuss your problems with your dear ones, you feel much better. Their suggestions prove to be useful as they help to bring positivity in your thoughts.

● Engage yourself in some or the other activity. Keep your mind busy doing some kind of work. When you are involved in an activity, you hardly get time to think about the things that stress you out.

● Spend time with your family, friends or the people you love. Create lovely memories with them. Try not to remain alone or don’t isolate yourself from others as this will make you feel lonely. Loneliness can increase your stress even more.

● Practice yoga or do exercise or any type of sport. Doing such physical activities daily for some time will absolutely prove useful to change your mood and relieve your tension. This is because during physical work, your body releases endorphins hormones which reduce stress and make you feel happy.

● Try to be happy and joyful in your life. Do not take unnecessary tension for small things and keep a positive approach while handling tough situations. Don’t lose hope easily.

● Do what you like the most. Read a book, plant a tree, listen to music or dance without any hesitation. When you do the thing which you like, you are able to restore back positivity and happiness in your ideas. Thus, you can stay away from stress.

Everybody has stress in their life. The reason behind it varies from person to person. It is very difficult to live a stress-free life. But, trust me this is not impossible. By adopting some methods and remaining calm and patient you can definitely win the battle over stress.