News
Digitizing self-defence: Three tech-based solutions that can improve women’s safety
From education to property visits to concerts, everything is digitizing around us. While all sorts of activities are safer in the online world, including shopping for gifts, clothes, and groceries, there’s one area that should be of more concern to people, and this is women’s safety when going out.
The public streets can sometimes be risky places to be. When it comes to driving or ride-sharing, accident-related risks are pretty standard. Add walking around with big-ticket purchases on you, and your surroundings can instantly become more threatening if any malicious trespasser lays eyes on your belongings and attempts to subtract them from you. To complicate matters, the ever-used digital realm doesn’t necessarily teach women how to care for themselves in unforeseeable and daunting instances like the enumerated ones. This is why light should be shed on how tech and virtual applications like tech training programs can improve women’s self-defence and safety from the comfort of their homes. Let’s delve deeper into these applications to find out which ones meet your needs the best.
Phone safety features
Smartphones usually have a few built-in safety-oriented features that function without asking you to buy or download anything else. Emergency calling and location sharing are two of the best examples for anyone with a smartphone.
The evident disadvantage of limiting yourself to your smartphone only is that if the internet is bad, the battery is dead, or the device is simply inaccessible, it becomes useless and can leave you prone to perils when you expect them the least. Fortunately, there are things you can do to reduce such daunting instances, like equipping your phone with a SIM card and external charging battery.
Both iPhones and Androids cut it
On iPhones, you can go to a contact card and choose to share your location or send your current location. These also come equipped with an emergency call button that you can activate through a combination of taps. Moreover, the iOS 17 launched a check-in feature that allows two peers to share ending locations and travel timeframes. These possibilities allow your loved one to always be in the know about your surroundings, enable you to always know where your daughter is, and so on.
Conversely, with Androids, things tend to get a little complicated due to the variety of brands and types of smartphones belonging to this category. Androids can present slightly distinct features, meaning that you might need to do your research and figure out the settings and features that work on your specific Android yourself. At the end of the day, it’s your safety in the game, so it’s worth taking advantage of some perks that already exist with your phone. It’s worth mentioning that you should have all these settings already established if you plan to rely on them while you’re driving your car. With the rising awareness concerning distracted driving, claim solicitor experts draw attention to the importance of always keeping your attention on the road.
A failure to protect yourself and others can easily put you in an unpleasant position legally and morally. Contrarily, if anyone risks and impacts your health and well-being while driving or partaking in road activities, you might be eligible to claim compensation for your suffering from the guilty party.
Online self-defence programs
Self-defence is often more about getting to know yourself in various situations than knowing how to make a devastating move. Martial arts or self-defence training helps you delve into your combative expression and understand contextual awareness. These elements can make the difference between a successful or failing self-defence undertaking.
A theory associated with virtual self-defence training is engraving a plan in your mind. To recreate the crisis moment, you’ll need to trigger a mental game blueprint that will have you familiar with such surroundings when the moment strikes and your reaction becomes vital.
Fortunately, there are numerous online self-defence programs, many of which emerged after the pandemic kicked in and changed the way people interact. A top-tier online software should present safety tips to make the most of your awareness, and teach you how to become a hard target. Moreover, these applications provide educational resources that can be understood and investigated. You can eventually appropriate essential lessons effectively and create a prototype for self-protection thanks to the visual training on means to spot perils.
The fundamental scope of many self-defence programs is to teach people how to identify threatening situations and deter attacks before they become victims. Instead of encouraging fights or violent contact, these programs teach people how to save their lives in the safest way possible.
Virtual reality
Wearable virtual reality (VR) technology can be of underestimated help in teaching women self-defence techniques and skill building, all in a safe and systematized environment. One shouldn’t wait for a real-life situation to occur to them and leave them frozen with fear and without knowing how to protect their safety.
By replicating real-life scenarios, virtual reality apps can help learn efficient strategies to offset potential perils, enhancing preparedness, confidence, and reaction when the contexts require so. VR offers convenient access to skill-building for women in the comfort of their homes, adding the sentiment of realism that’s needed to recreate part of the emotional pressure felt in real-life dangerous situations.
Noteworthy, a PWC study revealed that the confidence in trainees using VR rose by 275% compared to those not using it, increasing their reactions’ promptness and success. Such traits can be game-changing in actual, risky contexts.
Closing thoughts
Many women experience sexual harassment, assaults, robberies, or even “near misses”. For others, coming home at night alone is one of the scariest thoughts possible. To complicate matters, the safety of our daughters is always at the top of our minds, so we are requesting a wise strategy to teach them how to protect themselves and act when faced with experiences like the already enumerated ones.
If any of these common concerns put pressure on you but you lack the resources to physically engage in courses and programs to improve self-defence mechanisms, exploring the opportunities brought by virtual reality, apps, and online self-defence programs might be life-savingly helpful. Break down your needs and choose the most suitable option for you, for there are boundless alternatives!
Ovarian cancer cells quickly activate survival responses after PARP inhibitor treatment, and a lung cancer drug could help block this, research suggests.
PARP inhibitors are a common treatment for ovarian cancer, particularly in tumours with faulty DNA repair. They stop cancer cells fixing DNA damage, which leads to cell death, but many tumours later stop responding.
Researchers identified a way cancer cells may survive PARP inhibitor treatment from the outset, pointing to a potential way to block that response. A Mayo Clinic team found ovarian cancer cells rapidly switch on a pro-survival programme after exposure to PARP inhibitors. A key driver is FRA1, a transcription factor (a protein that turns genes on and off) that helps cancer cells adapt and avoid death.
The team then tested whether brigatinib, a drug approved for certain lung cancers, could block this response and boost the effect of PARP inhibitors. Brigatinib was chosen because it inhibits multiple signalling pathways involved in cancer cell survival.
In laboratory studies, combining brigatinib with a PARP inhibitor was more effective than either treatment alone. Notably, the effect was seen in cancer cells but not normal cells, suggesting a more targeted approach.
Brigatinib also appeared to act in an unexpected way. Rather than working through the usual DNA repair routes, it shut down two signalling molecules, FAK and EPHA2, that aggressive ovarian cancer cells rely on. FAK and EPHA2 are proteins that relay survival signals inside cells. Blocking both at once weakened the cells’ ability to adapt and resist treatment, making them more vulnerable to PARP inhibitors.
Tumours with higher levels of FAK and EPHA2 responded better to the drug combination. Other data link high levels of these molecules to more aggressive disease, pointing to potential benefit in harder-to-treat cases.
Arun Kanakkanthara, an oncology investigator at Mayo Clinic and a senior author of the study, said: “This work shows that drug resistance does not always emerge slowly over time; cancer cells can activate survival programmes very early after treatment begins.”
John Weroha, a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic and a senior author of the study, said: “From a clinical perspective, resistance remains one of the biggest challenges in treating ovarian cancer. By combining mechanistic insights from Dr Kanakkanthara’s laboratory with my clinical experience, this preclinical work supports the strategy of targeting resistance early, before it has a chance to take hold. This strategy could improve patient outcomes.”
Nighttime temperatures during pregnancy may be linked to a higher chance of an autism diagnosis in children, a recent study suggests.
The research tracked nearly 295,000 mother-child pairs in Southern California from 2001 to 2014 and linked warmer overnight temperatures with higher risk in early and late pregnancy.
Children of mothers exposed to higher than typical nighttime temperatures during weeks one to 10 of pregnancy had a 15 per cent higher risk of an autism diagnosis.
Exposure during weeks 30 to 37 was linked to a 13 per cent higher risk.
Lead author David Luglio, a post-doctoral fellow at Tulane University, said: “A key takeaway is that we identified specific windows when a mother and her developing child can be most affected by exposures to higher nighttime temperatures.
“This is critical and hopefully can help mothers prepare accordingly.”
The study is described as the first to examine how temperature may affect fetal neurodevelopment, the process by which a baby’s brain and nervous system form during pregnancy.
Extreme temperatures linked to increased risk were classified as above the 90th percentile, meaning 3.6°F hotter than average, and the 99th percentile, 5.6°F above average.
The association held even after researchers accounted for factors such as neighbourhood conditions, vegetation and fine-particle air pollution.
The study could not account for other factors such as access to air conditioning. Researchers did not find the same association with daytime temperatures, potentially because people spend more time away from home during the day.
“Heat waves are becoming more frequent, and people may only think of the dangers of daytime heat exposure,” said Mostafijur Rahman, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Tulane University.
“These results indicate a strong association between high nighttime temperatures during pregnancy and autism risk in children and show that we need to think about exposure to heat around the clock.”
The study did not examine how higher temperatures at night might affect prenatal development, though Luglio said it is possible that warmer nights disrupt sleep for pregnant mothers.
Previous research has suggested insufficient sleep during pregnancy may be linked to a higher risk of neurocognitive delays in children.
“Extreme heat exposure during pregnancy has been linked to a range of adverse health outcomes, including prenatal neurodevelopment delays and complications with an embryo’s development of a central nervous system,” Luglio said.
“The goal of our study was to specifically explore the link between prenatal heat exposure and autism diagnoses for the first time.”
Kindbody has launched a fertility platform integrating AI with clinical care and patient support for employers and health plans.
The platform will enter a pilot with select Kindbody employer clients in 2026, covering over three million lives, ahead of wider availability in 2027.
Building on the company’s clinical model, the platform aims to improve outcomes and cost efficiency across family-building journeys. It connects Kindbody-owned clinics, partner clinics and an integrated clinical app.
The app offers virtual care across conception, pregnancy and reproductive health, extending through the menopause transition.
Launch features include updates in medication management, third-party reproduction, adoption, pregnancy, men’s health and global programme design.
David Stern, chief executive of Kindbody, said: “With our next-generation fertility platform, Kindbody is redefining what comprehensive, intelligent and affordable family-building care looks like for employers, health plans and patients.
“By unifying best-in-class clinical care, AI-driven intelligence and whole-person support, we are making it easier and more cost-effective for more people to build the families they envision.”
Kindbody has expanded access via its national network of IVF centres, including IVIRMA, Inception Fertility and Ivy Fertility.
A new Fertility Medication Portal is designed to streamline authorisations so medicines can be dispensed on time, giving patients visibility from prescription to coverage, pharmacy fulfilment and delivery tracking.
Through KindMan, men’s health education, digital resources and integrated clinical care are expanding, including hormone management programmes.
Services cover andropause (age-related testosterone decline), erectile dysfunction, low testosterone and other male reproductive conditions.
Specialist fertility care includes semen analysis, diagnostic testing, male hormone panels, genetic testing, surgical sperm extraction and sperm cryopreservation.
Launching in the second quarter, a pregnancy support app will act as a digital companion for expecting and new parents, with resources, interactive tools and clinical assessments to identify social drivers of health and mental health needs during pregnancy and beyond.
Kindbody’s physician-led menopause programme provides consultations with board-certified obstetricians and gynaecologists to diagnose, treat and manage menopausal symptoms, including hormone replacement therapy where appropriate, with support from nutritionists, mental health therapists and pelvic floor specialists.
AI and analytics will be embedded across the care journey. An AI care navigator will guide employees from benefit activation through intake, triage and scheduling.
Tools will track benefits and treatment plans, showing coverage and expected out-of-pocket costs at each step.
AI-supported scribing will assist clinicians with documentation, and a predictor tool will estimate a patient’s likelihood of having a baby across different treatment paths.
In 2027, Kindbody plans a savings model for eligible large employers that it says will guarantee lower total fertility spend while improving clinical efficiency and patient experience.
-
Insight4 weeks agoDesigner perfumes recalled over banned chemical posing fertility risk
-
Insight2 weeks agoParents sue IVF clinic after delivering someone else’s baby
-
Wellness3 weeks agoWomen’s health could unlock US$100bn by 2030
-
Insight4 weeks agoChina’s birth rate hits record low despite government fertility efforts
-
Menopause3 weeks agoHRT linked to greater weight loss on tirzepatide
-
Entrepreneur6 days agoUS startup builds wearable hormone tracker
-
Menopause2 weeks agoFlo Health and Mayo Clinic publish global perimenopause awareness study
-
News4 weeks agoVerdane invest in Clue to accelerate the future of women’s health