Cuba's national assembly has named Miguel Diaz-Canel as the new president, marking the first time in nearly six decades that the country will not be led by a Castro. A study indicates that concussions may increase the risk of developing Parkinson's disease, while researchers are exploring eye movement as a potential diagnostic tool for concussions. Additionally, the history of ramen noodles is highlighted as a significant culinary achievement aimed at addressing food shortages in post-World War II Japan.

1. Cuba`s Government Names a New Leader; Scientists Follow Eye Movement to Diagnose Possible
Concussions; The History of Ramen Noodles
Aired April 20, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL
FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Fridays are awesome!
We`re starting out like that. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
First story we`re explaining today takes us to an island nation famously said to
be 90 miles away from Key West, Florida, but which has a very different
system of government than the U.S.
Cuba is a communist state. Its leadership has strict control over the media,
the Internet. The communist party is the only legal party on the island. And
Cuba`s new leader wasn`t elected by the people but rather Cuba`s legislative
branch, its national assembly, which almost always votes unanimously for
whatever the president proposes.
With that president, Raul Castro, planning to retire more or less, that national
assembly has just named Miguel Diaz-Canel its new president. This is the first
time in almost six decades that Cuba won`t be led by a man named Castro. In
fact, when former President Fidel Castro led Cuba`s communist revolution in
1959, Diaz-Canel hadn`t been born yet.
The 57-year-old first vice president is the unopposed candidate to replace
Cuba`s current leader. And Diaz-Canel is expected to keep the status quo in
Cuba, closely following the leadership of the Castro presidents, while Raul
Castro will keep a powerful leadership position and have the final say on
important decisions.
People expect things will stay the same under likely President Diaz-Canel. The
communist government`s supporters in the island say it will continue on its
course, even without the Castros. Opponents will likely have to wait longer to
see any significant change.

2. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
What is the fattiest organ in the human body?
Is it the skin, the brain, the liver, or the stomach?
The human brain is almost 60 percent fat, making it the fattiest organ we
have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: There`s a new study out that suggests concussions [conmoción
cerebral] and even more serious brain injuries might carry an increased risk of
developing Parkinson`s disease later in life. This disorder has symptoms like
shaking uncontrollably, trouble keeping balance and slow movements. And
there`s no cure for it.
The study looked at the medical records of more than 300,000 military
veterans. Now, its` important to point out that relatively few of these people,
less than 1 percent, ever developed Parkinson`s disease, even though half the
veterans in the study had had some form of brain injury.
But among the nearly 1,500 who did develop Parkinson`s, almost 950 had had a
traumatic brain injury, while just over 500 had not.
Researchers concluded that brain injuries carried a greater risk of developing
Parkinson`s later on, at least among those who actually got the disease.
It`s one example of how scientists are constantly exploring the brain for
symptoms of injuries that could lead to earlier diagnosis and maybe even a
cure for brain diseases.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REPORTER: In order to protect athletes, tech is studying one of our smallest

3. features.
DR. MICHAEL KELLY, SPORTS MEDICINE: When your eyes are working
normally and you`re following something across your field of vision, your eyes
would smoothly track [seguir, rastrear] that. When somebody has a
concussion, suddenly, the ability to track that becomes very erratic and your
eyes are having trouble focusing so they move in very -- like varied patterns
and varied speed. We can pick up a concussion using the eye guide focus.
REPORTER: Your ability to follow an object with your eyes is called tracking. A
concussion breaks down how your brain and eyes normally talk to one another.
So, smoothly tracking after a bad hit is difficult.
That`s what the eye guide focus records. Your results are taken before and
after an event.
KELLY: So, you can see in the blue was the base line, you did before the bout
[episodio, acceso, ataque]. The green was about five minutes after he had
what we call a flash knockout, a very quick knockout and this is a much heavier
fighter who won. But if you notice, again, the blue was the baseline where you
see a very smooth figure. The red is after the bout.
It`s a supplement to the physician evaluation and the normal criteria
[criterios] that we follow changes in speed, memory, concentration, reaction
time and eye movements.
REPORTER: Right now, there`s no single diagnostic tool to determine if
someone has a concussion. So, doctors use a combination of tests, like asking
you to repeat numbers or a phrase and checking your hearing and balance, to
figure out what`s happening inside your head.
DR. MARC DINKIN, NEURO-OPHTHALMOLOGIST, WEILL CORNELL
MEDICINE: The after concussions and other mild traumatic brain injuries,
often the MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] and the CAT [computerized
axial tomography] scans do not show any pathology. And so, we really are
dependent on our clinical exam to understand where the problem is, and a lot
of different ways to look at the neurological function of the patient. But eye
movements are something that we can look at and quantify.

4. (END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Even though we`re a couple of weeks past Ramen Noodle [fideo] Day --
yes, there`s a Ramen Noodle Day. It`s on April 4th. We`re still reporting on
the culinary creation, the holiday in its honor is observed in the U.S., but
that`s not where Ramen noodles were invented. To fill you up [provide] on
interesting info about the history of Ramen, we`re passing the mike to our
friends at "Great Big Story".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REPORTER: Some people associate instant noodles with broke college
students, but instant ramen wasn`t created for a bunch of hungry 20-year-
olds. The man who invented them was much more ambitious. He set out to solve
a hunger crisis in Japan.
SUBTITLE: Let Them Eat Ramen.
REPORTER: After World War II, food shortages plagued [bothered
peristently, acosaron] Japanese cities, so the U.S. supplied wheat flour and
encouraged the Japanese to make bread.
One man named Momofuku Ando didn`t understand why his people would make
bread instead of noodles, something that was already part of their culture.
Ando decided to take matters into his own hands and create a new ramen made
to last. He spent a year trying to figure out how to preserve the noodles.
He needed a nonperishable [no perecedera] tasty and easy recipe but it was a
challenge to maintain the robust flavors [sabores fuertes] and unique texture
that most people were accustomed to.
It wasn`t until his wife was making dinner one night and he threw some
noodles in a bowl of hot tempura oil that he realized flash frying the
noodles was the answer he had been looking for. This method not only
dehydrated them, it left small perforations that allowed the noodles to

5. recook quickly.
And there you have it. Instant ramen noodles became an instant success.
Ando`s products gained notoriety when he introduced the packaged ramen in
the 1950s and later cup noodles [fideos instantáneos en vasos de
poliestireno] in 1978. His company began selling upwards of billion units every
year and Momofuku Ando became a culinary icon in Japan.
So, the next time you heat up a cup of instant noodles, remember you`re
slurping down [sorbiendo] a little piece of history.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: If you or someone you know has struggled to assemble furniture, this
could be a welcome sight -- at least you bought a solid pine step-on chair
[silla-escalera] from IKEA. That`s what researchers in Singapore thought
this robot to build. It failed a few times along the way, but it eventually
learned to observe, plan and finally assemble the chair, taking a little over 19
minutes to do it, if you don`t count the three years researchers spent
programming the robot.
So, was it a good IKEA? You can at least see what the big IKEA was. It`s far
easier to have a seat than to build one. And if you`re the chair of a research
lab, you want to make sure a project stands on its own before you sit back and
chair the results.
Oh, yes, seat puns. They always have a leg to stand on.
I`m Carl Azuz and CNN 10 hopes you have a great weekend.
END