NASA PREFERRED PARTNER (P3)

SpaceX wins another $1.4 billion from NASA to fly missions to Int'l Space Station


NASA gave SpaceX the green light for crew transportation in late 2020

 and the fourth SpaceX crew is currently in orbit around the International Space Station. 

File Photo by Joel Kowsky/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 1 (UPI) -- NASA has awarded five new missions to private exploration company SpaceX in a deal worth $1.4 billion that will transport astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station over the next eight years.

The contracts were awarded as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract (CCtCap), an initiative that opens the door for business with the private sector, the space agency said.

"The [deal] includes ground, launch, in-orbit, and return and recovery operations, cargo transportation for each mission and a lifeboat capability while docked to the International Space Station," NASA said in a statement. "The period of performance runs through 2030 and brings the total CCtCap contract value with SpaceX to [$4.9 billion]."

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft won the most recent contracts over Boeing's Starliner capsule, both of which have been competing for the NASA dollars. Both companies have earned a combined $5 billion in contracts from the agency to develop spaceships for 20 missions to the space station.

RELATED   NASA delays VIPER lunar rover's launch by one year

Among the 14 missions won so far by SpaceX, four have been used to test human spaceflight. None of the six missions awarded to Boeing have yet tested the capability for human flight.

NASA gave SpaceX the green light for crew transportation in late 2020 and the fourth SpaceX crew is currently in orbit around the space station.

Production delays and additional work on the Starliner capsule has also cost Boeing an additional $688 million. The ship, which traveled to the International Space Station in May without a crew, is scheduled to carry a crew for the first time in February.

SpaceX is also building the lander for NASA's Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2025, which will return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972.

American flags wave in the breeze after a second launch attempt was scrubbed for the Artemis 1 mission on Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on September 3, 2022. NASA plans to try again in the coming weeks. 

Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo

DARPA TOYS

Solar-powered cyborg cockroaches could rescue humans, study says


Cyborg cockroaches, equipped with solar-powered backpacks, 

can be steered remotely. Photo courtesy of Riken.

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Scientists in Japan are tapping into solar power to harness cockroaches and their ability to access hard-to-reach areas for environmental monitoring, as well as search-and-rescue in the event of a natural disaster, according to a new study.

The cyborg cockroach study, published Monday in the journal npc Flexible Electronics, outlines how researchers at Riken research institute were able to engineer small solar-powered backpacks to remotely steer the legs of cockroaches.

The backpacks tapped into the nervous systems of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, giving researchers the ability to move the robotic roach in certain directions with the press of a wireless button.

While this is not a new idea, it is the first time researchers have used solar power instead of a battery that would eventually run out. The backpacks also had a power output about 50 times higher than previous devices.

A better understanding of how exactly seals are using environmental resources could help alleviate concerns that local seal populations have grown too large, scientists say. 

Photo by Krista Ingram/Colgate University

RELATED New 'cyborg roach' controlled by smartphone app

A 2015 study at Texas A&M used a battery-powered backpack that allowed researchers to successfully steer cockroaches to the left and right about 60 percent of the time.

In the new study, researchers found attaching a backpack, with solar capability, to an insect without restricting its movement was the tricky part. Riken tested various thin electronic films to see how the roaches moved and landed on a module 17 times thinner than a human hair.

With the solar-powered backpack attached, researchers were able to charge the battery with artificial sunlight for 30 minutes and then steer the roach to the left and right using a wireless system.

By looking more closely at where individual seals move, 

scientists may be able to discern where sharks are likely to migrate. 

Photo by Krista Ingram/Colgate University

RELATED Remote-controlled search-and-rescue roaches are coming

"The current system only has a wireless locomotion control system, so it's not enough to prepare an application such as urban rescue," said Kenjiro Fukuda, an expert in flexible electronics at Riken.

"By integrating other required devices such as sensors and cameras, we can use our cyborg insects for such purposes."

While cockroaches are ideal for exploring nuclear and chemical disasters, since they are mostly immune to radiation, Fukuda says the ultra thin solar cell could be used on other insects, even flying ones, to allow humans to control their movements.

"Considering the deformation of the thorax and abdomen during basic locomotion, a hybrid electronic system of rigid and flexible elements in the thorax and ultrasoft devices in the abdomen appears to be an effective design for cyborg cockroaches," said Fukuda.

"Moreover, since abdominal deformation is not unique to cockroaches, our strategy can be adapted to other insects like beetles, or perhaps even flying insects like cicadas in the future."

Escaped chimp wheeled back to Ukrainian zoo on a bicycle


Sept. 6 (UPI) -- A chimpanzee that escaped from a Ukrainian zoo was returned to the facility on a zookeeper's bike.

Officials at the Kharkiv Zoo said the chimpanzee, named Chichi, escaped from the facility in the Kharkiv city center on Monday and wandered nearby streets to a local park.

Zookeepers followed the primate and Chichi approached one of the workers when it started to rain. The zookeeper put a yellow raincoat on the chimp and wheeled her back to the zoo on the seat of a bicycle.

The chimp's bike ride was caught on camera by witnesses.

The method of Chichi's escape was unclear.

Chichi was one of numerous animals evacuated earlier in the Russian invasion from Feldman Ecopark, an outdoor zoo in the Kharkiv region that was determined to be dangerously close to targets of Russian shelling. More than 100 animals and multiple employees and volunteers died as a result of Russian bombs before the zoo was evacuated.

THE ORIGINAL FAILED NATION STATE

Somalia: Malnutrition killing hundreds of children, UN says

The fifth drought in as many years has brought Somalia to the brink, raising fears of a deadly famine. Hundreds of children have already died from severe acute malnutrition.


Some 1.5 million children in Somalia are at risk of severe acute malnutrition

Some 730 children have died in nutrition centers around Somalia already this year, the United Nation's children's agency UNICEF said on Tuesday.

Nutrition centers help children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

The announcement comes a day after the UN warned of a coming famine in the Horn of Africa. The region is facing its fifth consecutive failed rainy season.

"Malnutrition has reached an unprecedented level," UNICEF's Somalia representative Wafaa Saeed said.
Children particularly vulnerable to famine

Saeed said that between January and July this year, "around 730 children are reported to have died in nutrition centers across the country."

She was speaking to reporters in Geneva via a video-link from Mogadishu.

"This is less than one percent of the children who were admitted, cured and discharged. But we also feel that this number could be more, as many deaths of children go unreported."

The prices aid groups pay for emergency water supplies have also increased by between 55% and 85% since the beginning of the year, UNICEF said. Officials said that violence enacted by the Islamist group al-Shabab is also partly to blame.

Drought, war put Somalia on the brink of extreme hunger

According to the UNICEF official, some 1.5 million children are at risk of acute malnutrition. Around half of those are younger than five-years-old.

She added that 385,000 children may need to be treated for severe acute malnutrition.
'We cannot wait to act' WFP tells DW

DW spoke with Petroc Wilton from the UN's World Food Program (WFP) following his trip to the country.

Wilton warned that the famine is "going to affect the most vulnerable first. And that is young children. It is the elderly. It is those living with disabilities. It is those who have been internally displaced by conflict."

"We cannot wait for a declaration of famine to act," the WFP official said, adding that "In 2011, the last major famine in Somalia that claimed more than a quarter of a million lives, half of the people who passed away had died before the official declaration."

"This is an unusually severe drought, but Somalia is very prone to droughts, to floods, to tropical storms, they keep happening," Wilton told DW.
Drought driving Somalia into a crisis

Somalia is on the brink of its second famine in just over a decade thanks to a drought a soaring global food prices.

Saeed explained on Tuesday that the drought had caused a water and sanitation crisis due to dried up water sources.

"Many of those have also dried out because of overuse, and we have around 4.5 million people who need emergency water supplies," she said.

"No matter how much food a malnourished child eats, if he or she doesn't get clean water then they won't be able to recover," said Saeed.

She also warned of the dangers of outbreaks of disease among children suffering from acute malnutrition.

The UN has called on world leaders to respond to the crisis before it is too late and to avoid a repeat of the deadly famine that hit the region in 2011.

UN agencies have warned that around half of Somalia's population is facing crisis hunger levels and that people living in Kenya and Ethiopia will also be affected.

ab/msh (Reuters, AFP)

More than 700 children have died in Somalia nutrition centres, UN says

Issued on: 07/09/2022 - 

Hundreds of children have already died in nutrition centres across Somalia, the UN children's agency (UNICEF) said on Tuesday, a day after the global body warned that parts of Somalia will be hit by famine in the coming months. The Horn of Africa region is on track for a fifth consecutive failed rainy season. A famine in 2011 in Somalia claimed more than a quarter of a million lives, most of them children.

 

UN: At least $1 billion needed to avert famine in Somalia

By EDITH M. LEDERER

today

1 of 5

Fatuma Abdi Aliyow sits by the graves of her two sons who died of malnutrition-related diseases last week, at a camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. Millions of people in the Horn of Africa region are going hungry because of drought, and thousands have died, with Somalia especially hard hit because it sourced at least 90 percent of its grain from Ukraine and Russia before Russia invaded Ukraine. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. humanitarian chief predicted Tuesday that at least $1 billion will be needed urgently to avert famine in Somalia in the coming months and early next year when two more dry seasons are expected to compound the historic drought that has hit the Horn of Africa nation.

Martin Griffiths said in a video briefing from Somalia’s capital Mogadishu that a new report from an authoritative panel of independent experts says there will be a famine in Somalia between October and December “if we don’t manage to stave it off and avoid it as had been the case in 2016 and 2017.”

The undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs told U.N. correspondents that more than $1 billion in new funds is needed in addition to the U.N. appeal of about $1.4 billion. That appeal has been “very well-funded,” he said, thanks to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which announced a $476 million donation of humanitarian and development aid in July.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, created by USAID, said in a report Monday that famine is projected to emerge later this year in three areas in Somalia’s southeastern Bay region, including Baidoa without urgent humanitarian aid.

Up to 7.1 million people across Somalia need urgent assistance to treat and prevent acute malnutrition and reduce the number of ongoing hunger-related deaths, according to a recent analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification or IPC, used by the network to describe the severity of food insecurity.

The Horn of Africa region has seen four straight failed rainy seasons for the first time in over half a century, endangering an estimated 20 million people in one of the world’s most impoverished and turbulent regions.

Griffiths said meteorologists have predicted the likelihood of a fifth failed rainy season from October to December, and a sixth failed rainy season from January to March next year is also likely.

“This has never happened before in Somalia,” he said. “This is unprecedented.”

“We’ve been banging the drum and rattling the trees trying to get support internationally in terms of attention, prospects, and the possibilities and the horror of famine coming to the Horn of Africa -- here in Somalia maybe first, but Ethiopia and Kenya, probably they’re not far behind,” Griffiths said.

He said the U.N. World Food Program has recently been providing aid for up to 5.3 million Somalis, which is “a lot, but it’s going to get worse if famine comes.” He said 98% of the aid is given through cash distributions via telephones.

But many thousands are not getting help and hungry families in Somalia have been staggering for days or weeks through parched terrain in search of assistance.

Griffiths said a big challenge is to get aid to people before they move from their homes, to help avoid massive displacement.

Many Somalis raise livestock, which is key to their survival, but he said three million animals have died or been slaughtered because of the lack of rain.

“Continued drought, continued failure of rainy seasons, means that a generation’s way of life is under threat,” Griffiths said.

He said the international community needs to help Somalis find an alternative way of life and making a living, which will require development funding and funding to mitigate the impact of climate change.

Griffiths, a British diplomat, said the war in Ukraine has had an impact on humanitarian aid, with U.N. humanitarian appeals around the world receiving about 30% of the money needed on average.

“To those countries, which are traditionally very generous, my own included, and many others,” he said. “Please don’t forget Somalia. You didn’t in the past. You contributed wonderfully in the past. Please do so now.”

UN pleads for aid for Somalia, on the brink of famine

Issued on: 07/09/2022 - 

The United Nations on Tuesday begged the international community not to forget Somalia, with the humanitarian affairs chief pleading for more aid as drought puts 200,000 people on the brink of famine.

Pakistan flooding: Evacuations ordered as large lake reaches maximum capacity

Railroad workers repair a section of track that's been flooded in Sehwan province, Pakistan, on Tuesday. Photo by Rehan Khan/EPA-EFE

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Severe flooding in Pakistan pushed the country's largest lake to the edge of cresting on Tuesday, threatening a greater disaster in a region where more than 1,300 people have already died since the monsoon season began a few weeks ago.

Located in Sindh province, Lake Manchar is threatening to spill over amid historic flooding that has devastated the Middle Eastern nation for more than two months. The new threat comes after major monsoon rains put large portions of the country underwater.

The military is helping with evacuations and helicopter teams have airlifted hundreds to safety. The military has also been delivering food and critical supplies, but in many cases the aid has been slow to arrive.

 Photo by Bilawal Arbab/EPA-EFE

Officials recently made the decision to conduct three controlled water releases from Lake Manchar after flooding in two nearby towns. About 135,000 nearby villagers in rural Dadu and Jamshoro were evacuated.

In all, 33 million people have been impacted by the rains and floodwaters, including 1,300 who have died, according to Pakistan's National Disaster Management Agency. More than $10 million in damage has also been attributed to the severe weather.

Hundreds of tent communities have cropped up across the Pakistani landscape, leading to concerns about the risk for disease to spread in a third-world environment. 

Photo by Nadeem Khawar/EPA-EFE

RELATED Pakistan satellite images show huge inland lake created by record deadly floods

The weather disaster is coming at a bad time for Pakistan, which had already been facing an increasingly fragile economy amid surging inflation and energy costs.

Eyewitnesses throughout the country have described an apocalyptic-level disaster, with people wading through waist-deep water and the destruction of many crops. Hundreds of roads and bridges have been damaged or destroyed and rescuers are trying to remove stranded villagers from inundated homes.ADVERTISEMENT

The military is helping with evacuations and helicopter teams have airlifted hundreds to safety. The military has also been delivering food and critical supplies, but in many cases the aid has been slow to arrive.

Floodwaters are seen in Karachi, Pakistan, on July 11. The country's monsoon season began on July 15 and runs through September. 

File Photo by Shahzaib Akber/EPA-EFE

RELATED

U.N. chief launches $160M fundraiser to help flood-ravaged Pakistan

Hundreds of tent communities have cropped up across the landscape, leading to concerns about the risk for disease to spread in a third-world environment.

"There is nowhere to shower or go to the bathroom," evacuee Zebunnisa Bibi said according to the Hindustan Times.

More help from the United Nations is expected. Last week, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced efforts to raise $160 million in emergency aid for Pakistan.

The International Monetary Fund has said it would put up $1.17 billion from a 2019 bailout agreement to keep Pakistan from defaulting on its national debt.

Dutch city 1st in world to ban meat advertisements as climate change measure

The ban, which is believed to be a first for any city, was driven by studies that say meat production and consumption are a significant contributor to climate change. 

File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- A Dutch city has become the first in the world to ban advertisements for meat as part of a plan to reduce greenhouse gases and fight climate change.

The city, Haarlem, banned the advertisements in public spaces in an effort to drive down meat consumption, and thereby reduce carbon emissions.

The Amsterdam suburb, which has a population of 160,000 people, said the ban will start in 2024.

The move is a response to recent studies that suggest global food production and consumption, particularly meat, accounts for about one-third of climate-warming greenhouse gases.

"We are not about what people are baking and roasting in their own kitchen; if people wanted to continue eating meat, fine," Ziggy Klazes, a councilor of the Groen Links Party and author of the legislation, said according to The Guardian.

"We can't tell people there's a climate crisis and encourage them to buy products that are part of the cause. Of course, there are a lot of people who find the decision outrageous and patronizing, but there are also a lot of people who think it's fine."

Klazes said she would love to see similar bans across the Netherlands, including possibly a national prohibition on the advertisements.

The ban was supported by the Christian Democrats Party, despite party leader Wopke Hoekstra's siding with some farmers who are against the measure.

The legislation could face immediate legal challenges. Herman Broring, a Dutch law professor, said the ban could infringe on free speech laws.

COVID ORPHANS
10.5 million-plus kids worldwide lost parents, caregivers to COVID-19, study says

Globally, more than 7.5 million children have lost one or both parents from the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Biswarup Ganguly/Wikimedia Commons



Sept. 6 (UPI) -- More than 10.5 million children worldwide have lost parents or caregivers, and 7.5 million-plus have lost one or both parents from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to estimates from a new study.

The sobering statistics are far above previous estimates and still climbing.

And they could underscore potentially devastating, long-term consequences for children, including "institutionalization, abuse, traumatic grief, mental health problems, adolescent pregnancy, poor educational outcomes, and chronic and infectious diseases."

That's the gist of a research letter was published Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics.

RELATED

Hundreds of thousands of children orphaned by COVID-19 globally, study finds

"While billions of dollars are invested in preventing COVID-19-associated deaths, little is being done to care for children left behind," the researchers said. "However, billions of dollars invested in supporting AIDS-orphaned children showcase successful solutions ready for replication."

The investigators said only the United States and Peru have made national commitments to address the plight of children orphaned by COVID-19.

They urged every national pandemic response plan to include timely care for these children and try to prevent death of caregivers by accelerating vaccines, containment and treatment.

RELATED More than 140K U.S. children have lost a caregiver to COVID-19

The also urged preparing families to provide safe and nurturing alternative care and to protect orphaned children "through economic support, violence prevention, parenting support and ensuring school access."

The new study's primary authors are Joel-Pascal Ntwa-li N'konzi of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Kigali, Rwanda, and Susan Hillis of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England.

Researchers said the availability of new excess mortality data from the World Health Organization allowed them to update global minimum estimates of children who became orphans or lost caregivers due to the coronavirus.

The researchers found significant variation in their modeling, with greater numbers of children becoming orphaned by the loss of primary and/or secondary caregivers in Africa, at 24.3%, and Southeast Asia, 40.6%, compared with the Americas,14.0%, Eastern Mediterranean, 14.6%, European, 4.7% and Western Pacific, 1.8%, regions through May 1.

The research letter also cites similarly wide variations at the national level: India, where 3.49 million children became orphaned by COVID-19; Indonesia, 660,000; Egypt, 450 000; Nigeria, 430,000; and Pakistan, 410,000, were the countries in which children were worst affected through May 1.

Among the WHO regions most affected, nations with the highest numbers of bereaved children in Southeast Asia included Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Nepal, researchers said.

And in Africa, the countries with the highest numbers of bereaved children included Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

In their research letter, the investigators cited their "Orphanhood Calculator" at Imperial College London that provides constantly updated estimates for every country. It projects nearly 210,000 children in the United States had been orphaned by COVID-19 as of Sunday.

Previously, the researchers said, global totals and comparisons among nations were hampered by inconsistencies in COVID-19 testing and incomplete death reporting.

They said an important limitation of their work is that "modeling estimates cannot measure actual numbers of children affected by caregiver death." They said future pandemic surveillance should include such children.

Separately, a global study of pandemic deaths, released Wednesday and led by researchers at The Australian National University, found that fertility rates, poverty, vaccine coverage and the concentration of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease in certain age groups contributed to a larger risk of children becoming orphaned during the pandemic.

 You can unlearn chronic back pain

Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability worldwide. But new research shows that people can be taught to retrain their brains and reverse the pain.

Chronic pain affects millions of people worldwide

Daniel Waldrip was mowing the lawn in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, just like any other Saturday.

But the next day, Waldrip, then in his late 20s, was struck with back pain so severe he couldn't get out of bed. He blamed the mowing.

It was the start of 18 years of chronic pain and countless unsuccessful treatments, including physical therapy, chiropractors, acupuncture and massage.

The World Health Organization says that lower back pain is the single leading cause of disability in 160 countries. Most psychological treatments only reduce pain rather than eliminate it and pain medication only provides temporary relief.

"There were times when it felt like I was paralyzed, just so much pain, and there were other times when it was kind of manageable and it was okay — but it was always there, it was a constant part of my life," Waldrip told DW.

The 49-year-old lived with chronic pain until his mid 40s, when he heard about a clinical trial for a new treatment that was happening in his hometown. The treatment was called Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT).

PRT aims to rewire neural pathways in the brain to deactivate pain and train the brain to respond to signals from the body more appropriately, using what's called pain education.

Ultimately, the goal is to reduce a patient's fear of certain movements, so that when they do move in those ways, they are confident that it won't cause them any pain.

Each participant in the trial got one telehealth session with a physician and eight psychological treatment sessions over four weeks.

About one month after the study, Waldrip was 100% pain free.

"It's been three or four years now and I haven't had a single issue with my back since I completed the treatment — it completely changed my life," said Waldrip.

What is pain and how does it become chronic?

Pain is like an alarm system that alerts us when we may have hurt ourselves or become injured. 

But regardless of where a person hurts themselves physically, their sense of pain is formed in the brain.

Nerves send signals to the brain to let it know that something has happened in the body and the brain then decides whether to produce a pain sensation, and that depends on whether the brain thinks there is danger.

Pain draws a person's attention to potential harm and diminishes when that warning signal is no longer needed. This is called acute pain. It is a sudden sensation that occurs in response to something specific, like a burn, injury, surgery or dental work.

But pain that persists for more than three months despite treatment is considered chronic.

"It's really important that people are able to experience pain. It's critical for survival, and yet some people [continue to have] pain even though their bodies have recovered," said James McAuley, a psychologist and professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

While scientists have their theories, it is still unclear what causes chronic pain or how acute pain becomes chronic, said McAuley.

But they do know that some changes occur in the brain when pain goes from acute to chronic.

"The nerves are misfiring and advising the brain that the patient is having pain or is at a risk of damage," said Steven Faux, director of the Rehabilitation Unit at St Vincent's Public Hospital.

Studies correct communication between brain and body

That study in Boulder, Colorado, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in January 2022, involved 151 patients with chronic back pain.

It compared PRT to a placebo control group and a "usual care" group, where people continued what they normally did to manage their pain, such as physical therapy or medication. 

"What was particularly striking about the outcomes was that two thirds of people in the PRT group were pain free or nearly pain free at the end of treatment as compared to 20% of controls," said lead study author Yoni Ashar, a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Colorado.

Functional MRI scans of people's brains before and after the trial showed PRT changed how people's brains processed the pain.

"We saw reduced activity in a number of pain processing brain regions, showing that this treatment changes the brain and changes how the brain processes pain," Ashar told DW.

Another study published in JAMA in August 2022 also had success in treating patients' chronic back pain. The approach, developed by McAuley at UNSW in Australia, improved communication between the back and the brain.

The study divided 276 participants into two groups: One group did a 12-week course of sensorimotor retraining, and the other received a 12-week course of sham treatments.

20% of the participants fully recovered from their chronic pain, meaning they rated their pain as zero or one out of 10, for one year.

The words we use to describe pain can affect recovery

Central to both studies is giving people the confidence that they can move without thinking they will hurt themselves, or make their pain worse. Some of that involves the words we associate with chronic pain.

When high quality scanning machines were developed in the 1980s, health professionals were able to see the spines of people with back pain clearly for the first time. They saw ossifications, vertebrae that looked like they were disintegrating, and bulging or slipped discs. 

"We found all of that stuff and we thought: 'Well, we've found the reason why people get back pain,'" McAuley said.

It was only later that doctors realized that a patient could have a bulging spine and not get chronic pain.

But by then "the horse had bolted," as McAuley put it. It became common for some people to perceive they would get pain even when that wasn't necessarily the case — all because of the words we used.

Some studies have found that negative language, including the word pain itself, can cause people to rate their pain as higher on a so-called pain scale.

That was highlighted in a study from 2019 that found that people experienced more pain when pain-related and negative words were used before introducing a harmful stimulus compared to when neutral words were used.

So imagine a person indeed had chronic back pain, and they heard these words, and then saw their spine on an X-ray scan — that could keep them trapped in a pain loop, unless they get help to retrain their brain to think differently.

"It does feel like we're on the cusp of a completely new way of thinking about and treating chronic pain," McAuley said.

The latest pain science is showing that the communication between the brain and the body can be corrected and that patients who have spent years, sometimes decades, of their life in pain, can finally overcome it.

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany

THE BENEFITS OF PHYSICAL TOUCH
Setting the tone
Our skin is often the starting point for how we perceive situations and interact with one another. Researchers have found that people can detect certain emotions, like love, anger, gratitude and disgust, from touch. Regular positive touch has been shown to reduce aggression and increase pro-social behavior. It also helps us form and maintain emotional bonds in relationships.
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WWW LINKS

Shape shifting pain: chronification of back pain shifts brain representation from nociceptive to emotional circuits

GLOBALIZATION IS IMPERIALI$M

What's luring Danish companies to Vietnam?

Danish firms are increasing their presence in Vietnam as the country rapidly climbs the value-added ladder and becomes a key hub for tech manufacturing.

There are twice as many Danish companies in Vietnam as there are from 

other Nordic countries combined

Denmark has emerged as a major investor in Vietnam this year, thanks in large part to a $1 billion (€1.01 billion) commitment by Danish toy giant LEGO Group to build its first factory in the Southeast Asian nation — which is planned to be the company's first carbon-neutral plant.  

Since the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) came into effect in August 2020, trade and investment from Europe has boomed. EU trade with Vietnam surged by 14.8% in 2021 to $63.6 billion.

As well as fast becoming an important hub for high-end manufacturing — with the likes of tech giants Apple and Samsung recently announcing an expansion of their operations in the country — Vietnam is also investing considerably in renewable energies in its push for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Vietnam has the fastest growth of renewable energy production in Southeast Asia.

Denmark's largest energy firm, Orsted, has committed to investing as much as $13.6 billion for a vast 3.9-gigawatt (GW) wind farm zone in Vietnam's Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces. The first projects related to this investment should be online by 2030, a company representative told DW.

Last month, Orsted signed an agreement with a subsidiary of PetroVietnam, a Vietnamese state-owned conglomerate, to collaborate on a number of renewable energy projects.  

The pull of Vietnam

"Denmark and Vietnam have had very close ties and last year we celebrated our 50th year of diplomatic relations, so Vietnam has always been a major investment destination for Danish companies," said Troels Jakobsen, head of the trade department at the Danish embassy in Hanoi. 

"There are twice as many Danish companies in Vietnam as there are from other Nordic countries combined," he pointed out.

He added that more and more companies are aiming to diversify their supply chain "and here Vietnam is very high on the shortlist for Danish companies that wish to expand in Asia."

In early August, the Vietnamese embassy in Denmark published a Vietnamese-language handbook for businesses about the Scandinavian market. Days later, a Danish agri-food delegation visited Vietnam to boost sectoral ties.

The embassy also organized a forum on Vietnam's digital and green transformation this month, while the Vietnam-Denmark Business Forum took place in Copenhagen on September 5.

Vietnam's strong economic performance in recent years has drawn the

 attention of European firms

Building a carbon neutral site

Danish companies will accompany Crown Prince Frederik on a trade visit to Vietnam in early November.

One of Denmark's largest firms to recently expand into Vietnam is LEGO, whose $1 billion factory in the country will be its second in Asia.

A contract was signed last month with a local contractor to build the 160,000-square-meter site in the Binh Duong Province around 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Ho Chi Minh City. The groundbreaking ceremony is expected sometime in the final quarter of this year.

"We wanted a location that offered proximity to our major markets, enabling us to support customers and consumers with speed. We also needed a location where we can recruit a highly qualified workforce to produce the high-quality LEGO products we make," a company spokesperson told DW.

"And not least, it was very important to us to establish a factory where we really can deliver on our sustainability agenda," the spokesperson added, noting that the company will later this month plant 50,000 trees near the factory site.

Offshoring and near-shoring

Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist covering Emerging Asia at French corporate and investment bank Natixis, said that Vietnam's attractiveness as a manufacturing center has markedly improved in recent years.

The country has rapidly climbed the value-added ladder, and is fast becoming a key hub for tech manufacturing.

US tech giant Apple announced last month that it will begin to manufacture its Apple Watch and MacBook products in Vietnam. South Korean smartphone manufacturer Samsung has been Vietnam's biggest foreign investor and exporter for a number of years. 

The country also continues to attract inward investment as neighboring China persists with its "zero-COVID" policy and as international companies look to relocate away from China amid Beijing's geopolitical tensions with the West, said Nguyen.

On top of that, Vietnam has a favorable location, being close to China and also other markets, and is improving its infrastructure and connectivity, she added.

Vietnam is currently among the world's top ten producers of solar power, 

generating more than 11% of its electricity needs from solar

Energy is a key factor

Key for European investors is the EVFTA, which cuts almost all tariffs on exports from Vietnam into European markets.

Another attraction for Danish firms is Vietnam's drive towards renewable energy.

Lina Hansen, Denmark's state secretary for trade and global sustainability, noted that energy is a key determining factor for investment in Vietnam, according to her remarks at the recent Vietnam-Denmark Business Forum.

Vietnam is currently among the world's top ten producers of solar power, generating more than 11% of its electricity needs from solar. With a 3,260-kilometer coastline, it is also investing heavily in wind power.

Presently, Vietnam has solar and wind capacity of around 16.6 GW and 0.6 GW, respectively, but the government wants to increase their joint capacity to 20 GW by 2030.

"Vietnam has world-class natural advantages for offshore wind. With 3,000 kilometers of coastline, shallow water depths and high consistent wind speeds, Vietnam offers excellent conditions to develop reliable and cost competitive offshore wind projects," said Sebastian Hald Buhl, country manager of Orsted, which is investing billions of dollars to build wind power facilities in Vietnam.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

VIETNAM'S REMARKABLE ECONOMIC TURNAROUND
The city that never stops
Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon), which has a population of 13 million, is the economic center of the country. Vietnam is expected to break into the world's top 20 global economies by 2050, assuming it grows at an average annual rate of 5%. The southeast Asian country is currently ranked 32nd, with its GDP currently expanding by just under 7%.
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