BEIJING — The former chairwoman of the dairy company at the heart of China’s tainted milk scandal went on trial Wednesday on charges of selling fake or substandard products, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Tian Wenhua, former board chairwoman and general manager of Sanlu Group Co., and three other top executives who also went on trial Wednesday could face the death penalty if convicted.

The high-profile trials and the release of details in a 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) compensation plan signal that authorities hope to end what was widely seen as a national disgrace, highlighting widespread food safety problems and corporate and official malfeasance.

Infant formula contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine has been blamed for the deaths of at least six children and sickening nearly 300,000 others. Authorities say milk suppliers mixed the nitrogen-rich powder into raw milk in order to fool quality tests for protein. When ingested in larger amounts, melamine can cause kidney stones and kidney failure.

It was not known how long the trials at the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People’s Court in northern China would last or when the verdicts would be announced.

.Reference resource: Click Here.

Studies suggest optimists live longer and enjoy better health than pessimists. The real mystery is why.

Among the findings of various studies:

Highly optimistic people have significantly lower death rates. Optimistic coronary bypass patients are half as likely as pessimists to require re-hospitalization.

People with positive emotions have lower blood pressure. The most pessimistic men are more than twice as likely to develop heart disease compared with the most optimistic.

But is it optimism that makes people healthy, or do healthy people understandably have a brighter outlook?

To get a better handle on things, scientists have adjusted their analyses in recent years to account for pre-existing medical conditions. Studies that made these adjustments found that existing illnesses don’t negate the benefits of optimism, according to the May 2008 issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch.

In one example of how humans keep their spirits up no matter what, researchers found older people suffering various illnesses still said they thought they were aging well. Another study found that the sick and disabled don’t wallow in misery as is commonly believed.

.Reference resource: Click Here.