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Recent announcement made by actor Charlie Sheen of having HIV has helped unveil the level of stigma associated with the disease. A local HIV/AIDS activist finds the stigma to be worse than ever. The former star of ‘Two and a Half Men’ admitted on the ‘Today’ of knowing about the condition for past four years.

Sean Strub, the executive director of the Milford-based Sero Project, thinks that one of the main messages to take from Sheen’s revelation is throw light on the attention to the treatment science and how a person infected with HIV is taking medicines.

A study has suggested that even routine sleep changes like getting up early for work during week could increase the risk of developing metabolic problems, including diabetes and heart disease. It’s known for long that shift work can boost metabolic risk because of the frequent disruption to the circadian system.

Shift workers are more vulnerable to develop coronary heart disease, metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes as compared to employees having regular daytime shifts.

A study by researchers from University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), has linked a parasitic worm to high fertility rate in women in Bolivia. The species of parasitic worm found in study is Ascaris lumbricoides, which is a giant roundworm of humans.

The study published in journal Science examined more than 900 Tsimane women. Aaron Blackwell, a researcher in the study, and other researchers from UCSB examined those women who have been infected by Ascaris lumbricoides for most of their lives.

More individuals in the United States have been developing Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD), as per a report of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The federal agency said it has found that about 20% cases of gonorrhea were in young Americans between 15 and 19 years. It also noted a 33% increase in gonorrhea cases in individuals between 20 and 24 years, the CDC reported.

Southern California whale watchers have been searching for a humpback entangled in netting and what appears to be a buoy. On Saturday, an owner of a whale- and dolphin-watching company, Dave Anderson said that one of his boats carrying tourists has seen the troubled whale off Dana Point in Orange County on late Friday.

Whale watching boats from Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safari and Dana Wharf Sportfishing observed the whale but were already too late to try disentanglement. Anderson said that rescue team members think that it was the same humpback whale that was seen off Redondo Beach on October 27.

They said that it would’ve been right to use a tracking device for monitoring the route of the whale, which generally tends to be very unpredictable.

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists have been studying a type of sea mollusk, chitons, that have hundreds of sensor eyes fixed in their armor-like shells. According to the scientists, the small sea creatures could be useful in inspiring innovative new building materials.

A kind of chiton, Acanthopleura granulate have hard shells composed of overlapping plates. They are at times known as the pill bug of the ocean, and it is their armor that helps them in staying safe from predators.

Besides, A. granulate also has small dot-like sensor eyes in their shells, made of the same crystalline material known as aragonite, of which their armor is composed of.