Water research institute in Kolkata soon

Kolkata: Researchers from Queen's University Belfast will travel to India to open the Eastern India Water Research Institute (EIWRI) here to provide world's first low-cost technology for arsenic-free water to people in India and surrounding countries.

EIWRI will be located at Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU) and include a second Indian partner, the Institute of Environmental Management and Studies.

A European Union-India consortium led by Queen's has led to the development of a technology which could provide safe drinking water for over 70 million people in South East Asia.

Work on the collaboration with the Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU), Kolkata has been ongoing for two years and it is hoped the technology will benefit other regions of the world with similar problems.

Recognising the work of Queen's University of Belfast in this area, the British Council will also announce the university's selection as a provider of training to improve groundwater management in regions of eastern India affected by arsenic.

The opening of the new Institute forms part of a 10-day visit to India by a Queen's delegation, led by its Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Gregson.

In Kolkata, Queen's delegation will announce an expansion of its India Welcome Scheme for Indian Postgraduate students.

Designed to develop science and technology leaders of the future, 30 scholarships will be offered to encourage leading Indian students to come to Queen's varsity.

Professor Gregson will also meet with India's industry confederations and the Indian Chamber of Commerce and focus on trade collaborations between companies in Northern Ireland and India.

One of the first beneficiaries of such partnerships will be Queen's Centre for Data Digitisation Analysis (CDDA) as a leading Kolkata-based IT company CMC will announce a £400,000 deal with CDDA to digitise Indian government records.

Speaking ahead of the visit, Professor Gregson said, "International cooperation in research and education is vital for the joint economic futures of Northern Ireland and India."

The opening of the EIWRI was a clear demonstration of the benefits of such cooperation and one that will benefit people around the globe, the Vice-chancellor added.

Courts decide to outsource management of documents

From http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/31/stories/2007013104611300.htm

Registrars-General conference wants States to meet the cost of digitisation

# Vigilance cell mooted in each district
# To consider accreditation of reporters of newspapers

New Delhi: Confronted by inadequate space to store voluminous records in the context of mounting arrears of cases, the High Courts and subordinate courts have decided to outsource the management of court documents.

A decision to this effect was taken recently at a conference of Registrars-General of High Courts and Law Secretaries of various State governments. It said: ``Since space is a constraint for keeping the old records in High Courts and subordinate courts, the High Court may consider preservation and maintenance of court records by digitisation and scanning, through outsourcing, which will not only save cost but also time. The State Governments should provide funds required for digitisation and scanning of court records.'' Another drastic decision empowered the High Courts to consider outsourcing various services relating to maintenance of court buildings so as to minimise the expenditure and bring efficiency.

The process of computerisation in High Courts and district courts with emphasis on interlinking status reports of each case should be continued by the High Court concerned independent of the National Informatics Centre and E-Committee with the help of funds provided by State governments.

On streamlining of issue of copies of judgments and various orders, it was decided that a computerised endorsement about the particulars of filing of the applications was sufficient for issue of copies.

At present judges to the High Court are appointed in the ratio of two-third (of the strength of judges) from among lawyers and one-third from among the district judges. The meeting requested that in future the ratio should be 50:50 from the bar and the subordinate judiciary.

It called for conferring limited financial autonomy on the High Courts and involvement of professionals in the financial management of the High Courts and district courts. The conference decided to have a vigilance cell in each district, to be headed by a senior judicial officer to keep effective control on the court staff and to regularly monitor their activities so that the image of the courts was not tarnished in the eyes of the public.

It was resolved that the High Courts might consider accreditation of reporters from various newspapers and electronic media on the pattern of the Supreme Court so that the reporting in the media was true and accurate.

Regular, Long-term Use of Aspirin Reduces Colorectal Cancer Risk

According to a new study, regular and long-term use of aspirin and Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) cuts down the risk linked with colorectal cancer.


However, use of aspirin for chemoprevention of colorectal cancer might require using the drug at doses that are higher than recommended over a long period of time.

This might cause serious side effects including gastrointestinal bleeding.

“While the results of our study show that aspirin should not currently be recommended for the chemoprevention of colorectal cancer in a healthy population, there is a need for further studies to help identify for which patients the potential benefits outweigh the risks,” said Andrew T. Chan, MD, MPH, Massachusetts General Hospital and lead author of the study.

“We also need to improve our understanding of how aspirin works to prevent and inhibit the formation of colorectal cancer,” added Chan.

In the study, the participants were enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, a large prospective cohort study, which has provided detailed and updated information on aspirin use.

The Health Professionals Follow-up Study has been conducted on 51,529 male dentists, optometrists, osteopaths, podiatrists, pharmacists and veterinarians, who returned a mailed health questionnaire in 1986.

The questionnaire consisted of questions based on diet, aspirin use and medical diagnoses, including cancer.

The biennial questionnaires ask for updated information including cancer diagnoses and aspirin use. The participants were between 40 and 75 years of age when the study began.


The research team found that men who used aspirin regularly experienced a significantly lower risk of colorectal cancer, including distal colon cancer, proximal colon cancer and rectal cancer, even after controlling for other risk factors.


The reduction in risk was seen in both early (stage I/II) and advanced (stage III/IV) colorectal cancers.

There were 975 documented cases of colorectal cancer over 761,757 person-years, among the 47,636 eligible men. Participants who reported regular aspirin use, equal to or more than twice a week, were older, more likely to have smoked, used multivitamins and folate, and consumed slightly more alcohol.

In an average-risk population of men, results showed that the benefit of aspirin was not apparent until after more than five years of use.

The greatest reduction in risk was observed at cumulative doses of more than 14 standard tablets (325 mg) per week, which is higher than normally recommended.

The advantage of aspirin use appears to diminish less than four years after stopping use and is not evident after four to five years of discontinued use.

The study is published in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.

Source-ANI
KAR /J

Aspirin and Ibuprofen Effectively Offers Short-term Relief from Low-back Pain

Non steroidal painkillers such as aspirin and ibuprofen are effective for reducing low-back pain in the short-term, says a Cochrane Systematic Review.


Low back pain is a major health problem in western industrialised countries and Non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin are the most frequently prescribed medication.

In order to evaluate the efficacy of these drugs, Cochrane Researchers reviewed data from 65 trials that involved a total of 11,237 people.

They found that NSAIDs were more effective at reducing pain than placebos. However, the effects were only seen in the short-term and the drugs were associated with more adverse effects.

They also found that different types of NSAID appeared to be equally effective.

The researchers noted that the short-term use of selective COX-2 inhibitors had fewer (gastrointestinal) side effects than the other NSAIDs.

As a part of the review, the boffins also compared the effects of NSAIDs and paracetamol, another drug used by people with low back pain.

Based on their findings they concluded that both drugs were equally effective at relieving acute low back pain, but paracetamol had fewer side effects.

“Physicians and patients with acute low back pain therefore have a choice about whether to use a NSAID or paracetamol, and the decision should be driven by individual clinical circumstances,” says lead author Pepijn Roelofs who works in the Department of general Practice at Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

“Most of these results came from studies of people who did not have sciatica, so we now need studies that look at whether NSAIDs have a role in helping those people as well,” says Roelofs.

Source-ANI
KAR/M

Most Britons Say Okay for Sex Before Marriage

Britons are taking a more liberal attitude toward sex and marriage, but retain traditional views on how best to raise children, an annual report said Wednesday.


A majority now think there is nothing wrong with sex before marriage and society is increasingly comfortable with gay relationships, according to the 24th annual report by the National Centre for Social Research.

Entitled "New Families? Tradition and Change in Modern Relationships," the study found that men's views about marriage and parenting tend to be more traditional than women's.

The survey follows major changes in British family life, the study's authors say. The number of single-person households and cohabitation is on the rise, while marriage rates are at their lowest since 1986.

Meanwhile civil partnerships -- dubbed "gay marriages" -- which give homosexual couples similar rights to wedded heterosexual couples, have been legal in Britain since December 2005.

The random survey of 3,000 people found that 70 percent think sex before marriage is fine, compared with 48 percent in 1984.

Two-thirds of those polled (66 percent) think there is little difference socially between being married and living together, while 54 percent believe that couples do not need to live together to enjoy a strong relationship.

Sixty-nine percent believe it is not necessary to have a partner to live a happy and fulfilled life, and just 10 percent think that people who choose to live alone are not good at relationships.


Meanwhile, some 61 percent think single women should be allowed to use donor sperm to become pregnant.


"The heterosexual married couple is no longer central as a social norm. But views are more traditional when it comes to bringing up children," said Simon Duncan, professor of comparative social policy at the University of Bradford in northern England, who co-authored the report.

On another subject -- homosexuality -- 18 percent of those surveyed consider gay relationships are always wrong, while 32 percent see homosexual sex as always or mostly wrong.

Moreover, four in 10 people (42 percent) think gay male couples are not as capable of being good parents as heterosexual ones -- although three in 10 (31 percent) believe they are.

The survey revealed conflicting sentiments about single parents, with only four in 10 (42 percent) polled believing one parent can raise a child as well as two. But almost the same number, 41 percent, disagreed.

"Children seem to hold a particular position in people's attitudes to family life. When they are involved, alternative family arrangements are seen as less acceptable," Duncan said.

Source-AFP
SRM /J

One Fourth of Brits Blames Sex Addiction for Bankruptcy

One in four people in debt in the UK blame their financial woes on spending money on sex.


The finding is based on data from The UK Insolvency Helpline that stated that spending money on sex was the third most common reasons for people to go bankrupt.

The leading causes were alcohol, drugs, and a shopping addiction.

According to the helpline, out of all its clients, 10,251 - the equivalent of one in four people - who called in between January and September 2007, admitted they had paid through their pockets to watch porn, visit a lap dancing club or a brothel.

The clients were aged between 25 and 49, with the average age being 42.

UK Insolvency Helpline said that sex addiction can take a toll on their professional lives, with people losing their jobs or getting into debt as a result of having to pay legal bills relating to sexual harassment.

The problems can also lead to divorce or separation and their associated financial probles.

"We feel that as computer, satellite porn and prostitution becomes more widespread it will give more men unrealistic expectations of their love lives and threaten couples' relationships," the Sun quoted Richard Sorsky, social policy co-ordinator at The UK Insolvency Helpline, as saying.

"This has become apparent due to the number of men admitting to using prostitutes and our referrals to divorce or marriage counselling organisations."

According to the helpline, three-quarters of the people who called in were single men, with the rest either married men or women or single or separated women.

Source-ANI
KAR/M

Breast Infections Alarmingly High After Reconstruction Using Implants

According to recent research, more than one in 20 patients undergoing breast surgery later develop infections at incision sites. The study also found that breast cancer patients are twice as likely to suffer an infection at the surgery site if they receive an implant instead of their own tissue.


The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts down the infection rate following breast removal surgery at 2 percent, though other studies show it to be anywhere between 1 percent and 28 percent.

A two-year study published in the Archives of Surgery, gives that 5.3 percent, or 50, of nearly 950 patients developed infections within a year of their procedures, either inside and outside of the hospital. The average time between surgery and infection was stated to be 47 days.

"The surgical site infection rates following breast surgery seem to be much greater than the nationally reported incidence of 2 percent and much higher than what is expected for clean surgical procedures,” reports lead author Margaret Olsen of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

It was also seen that these infections rose in a little more than 12 percent of mastectomies where breast reconstruction involved an implant, as against just over 6 percent of mastectomies where the reconstruction involved the patient's own abdominal tissue. "The bottom line is that implants are associated with an increased risk of infection in breast cancer patients. The question is what factors contribute to this increased risk and what can be done to prevent it?” ask Olsen.
According to Dr. Stephen R. Colen, chairman of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, any time a foreign body is introduced during surgery it provides a surface on which bacteria can grow. Yet, Colen also stresses that reconstruction using abdominal tissue has its own risks. These procedures take several hours longer than implant reconstructions and boost patients' odds for blood clots and lung embolisms. This is not all, in 2 percent of cases, the transplanted tissue dies, necessitating more surgeries.

Olsen has also urged hospitals take greater care by making sure preventive antibiotics are administered correctly before surgery, maintaining meticulous hand hygiene and ensuring timely removal of wound drains.

The cost of follow-up medical care was given as around $4,000 per patient, sealing the need for prevention of such infections. Infections have taken on fresh urgency as drug-resistant staph infections rise.


Source-Medindia
ANN/M

Gregarious People are Generally Obese: Study

A study has shown that sociable and outgoing people tend to be overweight while anxious and worried ones are usually thinner.


Masako Kakizaki of Tohoku University and colleagues questioned 30,000 people, aged between 40 and 64, in northeastern Japan about their height and weight. The participants were also given a personality test.

The researchers found that extroverts had a greater chance than other people to have a body mass index (BMI) of more than 25, a commonly used definition of overweight.

After controlling for other factors, such as smoking, men in the most outgoing group were 1.73 times more likely to be obese than their most introvert counterparts.

Meanwhile sociable women were 1.53 times as likely to be obese.

On the contrary, those who had the most anxious personalities were twice as likely as the least anxious to be underweight, or have a BMI of less than 18.5, the researchers said.

"These results may provide clues to devising more effective measures for preventing overweight, obesity or underweight," News.com.au quoted the researchers, as saying.

The study is published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research.

Source-ANI
KAR/M

Music Therapy Offers Hope for People to Get Rid Depression

Music therapy may help in combating depression and improve, restore and maintain patients’ health, says a new study.


It is often seen that people under depression have a disturbed appetite, sleep patterns and overall functioning as well as low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness and guilt. According to the statistics around 121 million people are globally suffering from depression.

Drugs and psychotherapy are common treatments for depression but a systematic review from the Cochrane Library found that music therapy might offer a hope for people to get out of depression.

The team examined international literature and identified five studies that met their criteria.

They found that four out of five studies accounted for greater decrease in symptoms of depression among people treated with music therapy.

Anna Maratos, lead author and an Arts Therapist in Central and Northwest London Foundation NHS Trust, London, UK said that the area was worth investigation and find out which forms have greatest effect.

“While the evidence came from a few small studies, it suggests that this is an area that is well worth further investigation and, if the use of music therapy is supported by future trials, we need to find out which forms have greatest effect,” said Maratos.

“The current studies indicate that music therapy may be able to improve mood and has low drop-out rates.

“It is important to note that at the moment there are only a small number of relatively low quality studies in this area, and we will only be confident about the effectiveness of music therapy once some high quality trials have been conducted,” she added.

Source-ANI
KAR/M

Men too Go in for Breast Implants

Breast implants don’t seem to be the territory of women any more in the US. Men too have begun to go for them more and more.


When weightlifting or dieting doesn’t help, people of course go for steroids and human growth hormone. But when such strategies fail, they seem to opt for plastic surgery. It is a culture that enshrines physical perfection after all.

'Location is everything,' says Bill Hayes, a lifelong bodybuilder and writer on health and medical issues ('The Anatomist'). 'And in the landscape of the body, the chest is prime territory. Think about it: It's at the top of the trunk; it protects and covers the heart and lungs. It's a great spot for a head to rest on.'

Pectoral implants, although still a niche product, are growing in popularity: 409 procedures were performed in 2006, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, a 99 percent increase over the year before.

There's a stigma attached to them - the feeling that men who go that route are lazy or excessively vain - but those who buy the implants contend that the psychological benefits are substantial, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

'It's such a confidence booster,' says one San Francisco massage therapist who got the implants two years ago as a 40th birthday gift to himself. 'I walk a little taller now. And of course you want to buy every tight white T-shirt. It's crazy!'


Anthony Durante, a San Francisco personal trainer for 25 years, says well-defined pecs project 'power, strength, health, virility.


'A guy with a great chest looks like a warrior, wearing armor for battle. Nothing can penetrate that hull.'

Among his clients, Durante says, 'the chest is usually their first concern.' 'Every time a man looks in a mirror,' adds Hayes, 'whether shaving or at the gym, he sees his chest. So naturally it becomes a focus of his attention or even obsession - as opposed to back muscles, which generally go unseen and are often ignored entirely.'

For most of the 20th century, weightlifting and the '300' body ideal were marginalized, regarded as fetishy by mainstream standards. Consider 1940s movie stars like Humphrey Bogart or Cary Grant, or '60s icons Steve McQueen and Paul Newman: They had looks and charisma; they were trim. But none had the Vin Diesel superhero physique or overdeveloped chest of today's cultural ideal.

'It was sometime in the '80s when it sort of all began for men,' says Edisol W. Dotson, author 'Behold the Man: The Hype and Selling of Male Beauty in Media and Culture' (Haworth Press, 1999). 'You saw it in the 'Terminator' films and big action adventures. The early Batman films.'

Pec implant surgery starts at about $7,000. Beverly Hills surgeon Adrien Aiache, who performs about three dozen procedures per year, says he charges $9,000.

Pec implants were introduced 20 years ago, Dr. James J. Romano, a San Francisco plastic surgeon who performs 35 to 40 pec implant surgeries per year.

'It's a cult following, almost, although it's growing because of the media and the Internet.' For the most part it's cosmetic, but in some cases men seek implants because of congenital deformities: They're missing ribs or a pectoral muscle on one side, or there's a natural concavity they want to correct.

During the operation, Romano says, 'I make an incision high up in the armpit in the hair-bearing region. It's about three fingers wide. Then the space is made under the muscle in what we call a 'free area' in surgery: free of nerves, free of blood vessels.'

Romano folds the implant in half and positions it between the pectoral muscles, sews up the incision and then repeats the process on the other side of the chest. Recovery is 'mostly quite comfortable,' Romano says, 'and is mostly complete within two weeks.'

Romano says he screens patients carefully to make sure their expectations are realistic.

'Some men come in and ask for it, and either don't have the anatomy that will allow me to do it and look good, or they want something that is too big or out of proportion. I don't take all comers.'

The risks of the procedure include a possible migration. '(The implant) can move a little bit. I tell the patients, 'You're going to feel the edges sometimes when you're lifting or involved in the extreme ranges of motion or other activities. It's never going to be like your God-given chest.' But that's the art and science of putting in pectoral implants. You've got to match them to the body.'

Even today, men form a tiny minority of plastic surgery patients. In 2006, there were 11.5 million cosmetic procedures performed in the United States, 1 million of which were on men. Nose reshaping was the most popular procedure for men in 2006, followed by eyelid surgery, liposuction, hair transplant and gynecoplastia - the removal of breast tissue caused by an estrogen imbalance.

So why, given the obsession for the perfect chest, haven't pec implants been more popular? One reason is that pectoral muscles are large, and with diligent workouts they can usually be developed. Women, by contrast, don't have that option when larger breasts are the goal.

Aiache of Beverly Hills thinks homophobia is also a factor.

'A lot of people with pectoral implants are gay, and many physicians don't want to take care of the gay population in general,' he says. In his own practice, Aiache says, 80 percent of pectoral implant recipients are gay.

'Pec implants have much more shame attached to them than, say, breast implants,' says Durante. 'Breast implants are so widely known that even though they are 'spotted' or 'suspected,' they are part of the cultural landscape. There is also a vanity attached to pec implants: They may be considered a character flaw (in the man). He's seen as weak.'

San Francisco plastic surgeon James Anthony doesn't perform pec implants surgery, in part because of the risks. 'It's possible to have malpositioning of the implant, where it's in the wrong spot and one's a little higher than the other. It also has a chance of infection, but any foreign body has a chance of infection. And then the other thing you have to be careful of is not to damage the nerve that goes to the nipple. Because otherwise you get numbness, which is a consideration for some men.'

Opinions differ on the attractiveness of pec implants. Durante says the majority look obvious 'because they don't match their shoulder and arm development - not unlike a woman whose breast implants are too big.' Hayes said he finds implants 'rigid and plasticky.'

Maura Armstrong Morgan, an echocardiographer with Golden Gate Radiology in San Francisco, has her own problem with implants, pectoral or breast alike. 'You can't see through them with sonar. They block the sound waves, so you're unable to obtain useable images,'she said. 'Normally, you shoot between the ribs and get this wonderful image of a beating heart.'

With implants, 'you get this big, egg-shaped void. ... So I have to shoot obliquely. I had one patient doing everything but standing on their head to get a picture of their heart.'

Source-Medindia
GPL/M

Cranberry Juice may Prevent Recurrent Urinary Infections in Women

Cranberry juice not only makes a tasty drink, but as it turns out, it may also help reduce recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women, says a Cochrane Systematic Review.


UTIs are one of the most common reasons why people seek outpatient medical treatment.

Cranberries, and particularly cranberry juice, have been used for decades as a means of preventing or treating UTIs.

Although the mechanism of action is unsure, one theory states that molecules in the juice may make it harder for bacteria such as E. coli to stick to surfaces, and therefore make it difficult for an infection to build up.

As a part of the study a team of Cochrane Researchers reviewed 10 studies that included a total of 1,049 participants. The trials of these chosen researches compared various combinations of cranberry products, placebos and water.

The researchers noted that there was some proof that cranberry juice and capsules could prevent recurrent infections in women.

However, no such proof of benefit was seen in elderly men or elderly women as well as people using catheters.

“It’s worth noting that many people in the trials stopped drinking the juice, suggesting that it may not suit everyone’s taste, or it may be too burdensome and costly to drink the two recommended glasses a day,” says lead researcher Ruth Jepson who works at the Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Stirling, UK.

“We now need to discover how much a person needs to drink, and how long it needs to be used before the juice starts to have an effect,” says Jepson.

Source-ANI
KAR/M

Breast Cancer in China on an Upward Swing

A growing number of Chinese women contract breast cancer as a result of a more Westernised diet and more stressful lifestyles, state media reported Tuesday.


Out of China's 630 million women, 200,000 get the disease every year, and 40,000 eventually lose their lives, the China Daily said, citing the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association and the Breast Cancer Prevention Fund.

The rising trend is particularly pronounced in China's largest city Shanghai, where 60 out of every 100,000 women now have the disease, up from 17 per 100,000 in 1972, the paper said.

Although nutrition for millions of Chinese has improved as incomes have risen, diet-related health problems also have spiked due to increasingly sedentary lifestyles and growing consumption of western-style fatty foods.

Source-AFP
SRM/M

Ovarian Cancer Risk Cut by Caffeine and Not Affected by Smoking and Alcohol

Researchers have shown that consumption of caffeine lowers the chances of developing ovarian cancer. The study has also shown that smoking and alcohol has no effect on the cancer’s risk.


The team at the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health found that the chance of getting the disease was 25 percent lower in women who consumed the most caffeine, compared with those who drank little or no caffeine.

The report comes after another study found pregnant women who consume the caffeine equivalent of two or more cups of coffee daily were twice as likely to miscarry as those who avoided the stimulant.

“Pending further research, there's a suggestion that higher caffeine intake may lower your risk of ovarian cancer, especially among women who aren't taking hormones,'' said lead author Shelley Tworoger.

“For women who are at high risk, it may be one possible way for them to avoid ovarian cancer,” she added.

Dr. Tworoger and her co-investigators prospectively examined associations between smoking and ovarian cancer risk among 110,454 women and between alcohol or caffeine and ovarian cancer risk among 80,253 women, all followed between June 1, 1976 and June 1, 2004.

For the smoking analyses, they identified 737 confirmed cases of epithelial ovarian cancer, and for the dietary analyses, they identified 507 cases.

They found no association between current or past smoking and ovarian cancer risk, however smoking status, duration, and pack-years were significantly associated with risk of mucinous tumors, a rare form of ovarian cancer.

The authors also found no link between alcohol consumption and ovarian cancer risk. However they observed an inverse trend of risk with total caffeine and caffeinated coffee intake, but no association with decaffeinated coffee.


The potential reduction in risk with higher caffeine intake appeared to be strongest for women who had never used oral contraceptives or postmenopausal hormones.

The authors concluded, “reducing alcohol intake and cessation of smoking is not likely to have a substantial impact on risk of ovarian cancer.”

They add that “the possibility that caffeine may reduce ovarian cancer risk, particularly for women who have not previously used exogenous hormones, is intriguing and warrants further study, including an evaluation of possible biological mechanisms.”

The study is published in the March 1, 2008 issue of Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

Source-ANI
KAR/M

Promoting Hand Washing Cuts Diarrhoea Episodes in Developing Countries

A new study has suggested that hand washing can significantly reduce episodes of diarrhoea.


The study, led by Dr Regina Ejemot from The Cochrane Library, assesses the strength of evidence for the benefits of hand washing in case of diarrhoea.

In the study, the researchers reviewed data in 14 randomised controlled trials, eight of which had been conducted in day-care centres and schools mainly in high-income countries; five had been community-based trials in low- and middle-income countries, and one looked at a specific high-risk group of HIV-infected adults living in the USA.

The data showed that interventions promoting hand washing could reduce diarrhoea episodes by 29 percent in day-care centres in high-income countries and by 31 percent in communities in low- or middle- income countries.

“This is a huge benefit. For people in low-income areas this effect is comparable to providing clean water,” said Ejemot.

“The challenge is to find ways of promoting hand washing, as well as to set up long term trials that test whether good practice has become part of a person’s way of life,” added Ejemot.

Source-ANI
KAR /J

Punjab Telemedicine Project Enters Grand Second Phase

The Punjab health minister, Lakshmi Kanta Chawla recently inaugurated a digital link between Mohali Civil Hospital, PGI Chandigarh, Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) and C-DAC


The telemedicine project in Mohali provides medical facilities and expert medical opinions of specialists in remote locations.

The second phase of the expansion of the telemedicine project in Punjab facilitates

medical professionals sitting at distant places to receive data from the civil hospital related with diagnostic test reports, X-rays and other information.

Sub-Divisional Hospital Ajnala, Amritsar, Government Mata Kaushalya Hospital Patiala, Sub-Divisional Hospital, Dasuya, Hoshiarpur are government hospitals which are connected to PGI Chandigarh with the help of V-SAT technology under Phase I.

Chawla said that it was for the first time that the telemedicine concept has been implemented in Punjab through Broad Band VPN technology.

The minister assured that the up gradation work of the Mohali hospital to a 200-bed hospital will be taken up at the earliest.

The minister further added that trials of video conferencing and transfer of patient data have been successful and data can be transferred using the software called E-Sanjeevani, which has been developed by C-DAC Mohali."

To enhance the telemedicine concept in Punja a total outlay of Rs 414 lakh has been sanctioned for the project by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Department of IT (Medical Electronic and Telemedicine Division).

Three medical colleges and 20 hospitals are covered under the project and will be connected to PGI and other medical colleges in Punjab. This platform will provide discussions with the patients in district hospitals.

Medical institutions will also provide medical education to doctors through this project.

Source-Medindia
SPH/M

One million newborn die every year in India

India contributes to nearly a quarter of the four million newborn deaths across the world every year, according to the UNICEF report ‘The State of The World’s Children 2008’.

The report that was released on Tuesday in Geneva reveals that the country also has approximately 43 per cent underweight children under age five.

No wonder that the report suggests that, “The success of low cost solutions to under nutrition in the high-priority states of this country will have a global impact.”

The latest evidence is that four million babies die each year in their first month of life, and up to half of these die in their first 24 hours – a child is about 500 times more likely to die in the first day of life than at one month of age.

Neonatal mortality accounts for almost 40 per cent of all under-five deaths and for nearly 60 per cent of infant (under-one) deaths. “The largest absolute number of newborn deaths occurs in South Asia—India contributes a quarter of the world total—but the highest national rates of neonatal mortality occur in sub-Saharan Africa,” the report said.

A common factor in these deaths, according to UNICEF, is the health of the mother—each year more than 500,000 women die in childbirth or from complications during pregnancy. The babies whose mothers have died during childbirth have a much greater chance of dying in their first year than those whose mothers remain alive.

Even these figures understate the vast scale of the problems that affect child health during the neonatal period, with more than a million children who survive birth asphyxia each year go on to suffer such problems as cerebral palsy, learning difficulties and other disabilities.

For every newborn baby who dies, another 20 suffer birth injury, complications arising from preterm birth or other neonatal conditions, the report adds. According to UNICEF, significant improvements in the early neonatal period will depend on essential interventions for mothers and babies before, during and immediately after birth.

According to the latest estimates for 2000–2006, one quarter of pregnant women in the developing nations do not receive even a single visit from skilled health personnel –doctor, nurse or midwife.

Worse, only 59 per cent of births take place with the assistance of a skilled attendant; and just over half take place in a health facility.

However, data compiled by the Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation reveals that progress has been made in countries in every region of the world.

While China’s under-five mortality rate has declined from 45 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 1990 to 24 per 1,000, a reduction of 47 per cent, India’s under-five mortality rate has declined by 34 per cent.

The rates in six countries—Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Eritrea, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Nepal—were reduced by 50 per cent or more since 1990, although under-five mortality rates in these countries still remain considerably high.

Interestingly, Ethiopia has achieved a nearly 40 per cent reduction since 1990.

Of the 62 countries making no progress or insufficient progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on child survival, nearly 75 per cent are in Africa.

In some countries in southern Africa, the prevalence of HIV and AIDS has reversed previously recorded declines in child mortality.

The report also highlights the strategies that can help reduce the number of children who die before their fifth birthday.

“Community-level integration of essential services for mothers, newborns and young children, and sustainable improvements in national health systems can save the lives of many of the more than 26,000 children under five who die each day,” UNICEF Executive Director Ann M Veneman said.

The report describes the impact of simple, affordable life-saving measures, such as exclusive breastfeeding, immunization, insecticide-treated bed nets and vitamin A supplementation, all of which have helped to reduce child deaths in recent years.

The report’s analysis also reveals that far more needs to be done to increase access to treatments and means of prevention, so the devastating impact of pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, severe acute malnutrition and HIV can be better addressed.

“The challenge is to ensure children have access to a continuum of health care, backed by strong national health systems,” it said.

While suggesting that stepping up investment in health systems will be crucial to meet the child health targets set by the United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Margaret Chan said that progress can be made even when health systems are weak.

“Innovative programs in many countries show that an integrated approach where each child is reached with a package of interventions at one time can bring immediate benefits,” Chan said.

The approach to child survival that the report advocates would see the best disease-specific initiatives combined with investment in strong national health systems to create a continuum of care for mothers, newborns and young children that extends from the household, to the local clinic, to the district hospital and beyond.

The report emphasises the need to involve local communities. These communities generate necessary demand for quality health care and their engagement is vital if marginalized and remote populations are to be reached.

The report also says that while impressive progress has been made in improving the survival rates and health of children, even in some of the poorest countries, achieving the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4), which aims to reduce the global under-five mortality rate by two thirds between 1990 and 2015, will require additional effort.

“Attaining the goal is still possible, but the challenge is formidable,” the reports says adding that, reaching the target would mean reducing the number of child deaths from 9.7 million in 2006 to around four million by 2015.

Accomplishing this will require accelerated action on multiple fronts: reducing poverty and hunger (MDG 1), improving maternal health (MDG 5), combating HIV and AIDS, malaria and other major diseases (MDG 6), increasing the usage of improved water and sanitation (MDG 7) and providing affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis (MDG 8).

“It will also require a re-examination of strategies to reach the poorest, most marginalised communities,” the report argues.

Hungary plans email alerts for citizen document renewals

The Hungarian Central Office for Administration and Electronic Public Services has announced a new service to provide citizens with free e-mail alerts reminding them of deadlines for the renewal of official documents.

According to Epractice, by the end of January, clients of the government’s central portal or ‘Client Gate’ will start receiving free e-mail alerts about their expiring documents—from ID cards to driving licences and passports.

The new facility will send three e-mails at different intervals before and on the expiry date. While all citizens registered with the ‘Client Gate’ account will receive the e-mail alerts automatically, the system provides facility for unsubscribing and re-subscribing the service at a later date.

Client Gate is a standard e-Government citizen portal and identification system that went online in April 2005.

According to the Hungarian Government sources, there were over 570,000 registered users with the Client Gate as of early January 2008, with around 5,000 to 7,000 accounts being added to the system every week.

The Client Gate also offers services like taxation, customs and excise, state pension and health funds, besides nearly 30 different services offered by municipalities.

Enrolment forms for higher education institutions can also be submitted electronically using the system.

The service will be provided by KEKKH, a new government agency set up in 2007. The KEKKH is presently streamlining the Client Gate website to make it more user-friendly and to enable it to introduce a whole new range of eForms and secure electronic payment facility by end 2008.

Microsoft announces new e-Government platform

Microsoft has announced a new strategy that will make it easier for governments to interact with citizens, streamline processes and, as a result, save time and taxpayer’s money.

The company unveiled its Citizen Service Platform (CSP), an approach to help governments of all sizes more responsively deliver services to citizens via the Internet, at the Government Leaders Forum in Berlin on Tuesday.

From London to Stockholm, from Porto, Portugal, to Aalter, Belgium, governments of all sizes are communicating with citizens in a variety of new and innovative ways.

Even with the diverse needs of these cities, many of their government agencies deliver a common set of services to citizens.

Initial offerings include a suite of online services that will be available for customisation and integration into existing government solutions for their citizens later this year.

“Governments need to respond to the growing needs of their constituencies and modernise the way they conduct business and engage with their stakeholders,” Microsoft International President Jean-Philippe Courtois said.

According to him, while technology can help local and regional governments increase efficiency levels and offer modernised services, many countries are ill-equipped to meet citizens’ needs due to a lack of funding, technical expertise or other resources.

“CSP arose from a series of projects among Microsoft, our partners, and local and regional governments. By incorporating past lessons and achievements, we will be able to provide these governments with technologies they can cost-effectively and easily deploy for the direct benefit of their citizens,” Courtois said.

CSP is Microsoft’s strategy to support governments as they develop sustainable, flexible and extendable IT infrastructures with citizen service in mind.

A recent report conducted by Capgemini, on behalf of Microsoft, found that although 80 per cent of services to the public happen at the local level, the governments responsible for delivering those services have found it difficult to keep up with effectively increasing the efficiency with which they respond to citizen needs.

The goal of the CSP is to close that gap through rapid solution development, customisable applications and the industry knowledge to keep pace with the sophisticated expectations of citizens in a technology-driven world.

Besides, the CSP will also provide tools that allow small and medium-sized governments to create and manage their own online services and content designed around Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.

The CSP will include templates built around Microsoft Dynamics CRM to ensure a consistent view of the citizen’s information, whether accessed over the Internet, by telephone or at the town hall.

Monkey Business

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for Rs10. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at Rs10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He further announced that he would now buy at Rs20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to Rs25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at Rs50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at Rs35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell it to him for Rs50."

The villagers squeezed up with all their savings and bought all the
monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!!!

Welcome to the "Stock" Market!!!!!

Book your rail ticket 90 days in advance

In its bid to improve customer service and enable people to make their travel plans in advance, the Indian Railways has decided to allow commuters to book tickets 90 days in advance.

According to the Railways, the Ministry of Railways has decided to increase the advance reservation period from 60 to 90 days—excluding the date of journey from February 2008.

However, there will be no change in the case of certain day time Express trains like Taj Express and Gomti Express, where lower time limits for advance reservations are at present in force.

The Ministry also informed that there will also be no change in the case of the limit of 360 days for foreign tourists.

Tamil Nadu in Primary Education

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 654 FOR 26.11.2007 BY DR. GYAN PRAKASH PILANIA REGARDING “NUEPA SURVEY ON PRIMARY EDUCATION”

Composite (Primary & Upper Primary Level) Index

State / UT	EDI	Rank
A & N Islands	0.566	20
Andhra Pradesh	0.654	8
Arunachal Pradesh	0.458	33
Assam	0.490	30
Bihar	0.327	35
Chandigarh	0.690	5
Chhattisgarh	0.559	22
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	0.538	24
Daman & Diu	0.592	17
Delhi	0.707	2
Goa	0.586	18
Gujarat	0.630	13
Haryana	0.556	23
Himachal Pradesh	0.668	7
Jammu & Kashmir	0.597	16
Jharkhand	0.435	34
Karnataka	0.674	6
Kerala	0.708	1
Lakshadweep	0.650	10
Madhya Pradesh	0.512	29
Maharashtra	0.635	12
Manipur	0.564	21
Meghalaya	0.534	26
Mizoram	0.650	9
Nagaland	0.533	27
Orissa	0.512	28
Pondicherry	0.700	4
Punjab	0.608	14
Rajasthan	0.583	19
Sikkim	0.635	11
Tamil Nadu	0.701	3
Tripura	0.535	25
Uttar Pradesh	0.482	31
Uttaranchal	0.605	15
West Bengal	0.467	32

*****

Source http://164.100.24.219/annex/212/AU654.htm

Question : http://164.100.24.219/rsq/quest.asp?qref=131608

Google announces $25 mn philanthropy initiatives

Google has announced grants and investment of more than US $25 million over the next five to ten years, including that to two Indian organisations—Pratham, an NGO and the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies, a Bangalore-based analysis group.

According to the company, it’s philanthropic arm Google.org is also planning to partner with institutions like Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters (InSTEDD), Global Health and Security Initiative (GHSI), Clark University, TechnoServe, and eSolar.

Besides, it is also looking at investing between US $500,000 to two million in selected for-profit companies whose innovative approach, team and technologies will enable widespread commercialization of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid solutions.

Google will also continue its philanthropic work through programs to leverage its products for non-profits, including Google Grants that donates free ads and Google Apps, which provides free, web-based services to non-profit organisations.

IT is also keen on contributions from departments including Google Earth to offer mapping solutions for monitoring events such as the crisis in Darfur.

The grant and investment has been focused on five core initiatives—predict and prevent, improve public services, SME, developing renewable energy, and adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the company said.

According to the company it has earmarked a grant of US $2 million to Pratham, a non-governmental organization in India, to create an independent institute that will conduct the Nationwide Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) as well as large scale assessments in the education sector.

Google will also grant US $765,000 to the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies for creating a budget information service for local governments to facilitate better district and municipal-level level planning in India.

According to Google, it is planning for a US $5 million grant to InSTEDD to improve early detection, preparedness, and response capabilities for global health threats and humanitarian crises.

Acting as an innovation laboratory, InSTEDD aims to support the humanitarian community in preparing for and responding to global public health emergencies, working together towards a safer world.

GHSI will get US $2.5 million to prevent, detect, and respond to biological threats. It will also help GHSI to strengthen national and sub-regional disease surveillance systems through workforce training and better laboratory capacity in the Mekong Basin area—Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Yunnan province and China.

Besides, it has sanctioned US $600,000 grant to Clark University, with equal funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, for Clark Labs to develop a system to improve monitoring, analysis and prediction of the impacts of climate variability and change on ecosystems, food and health in Africa and the Amazon.

The company further said that Google.org will also grant US $660,000 to the Center for Policy Research to increase the debate and discourse on issues of urban local governance and urban service delivery.

TechnoServe will get a grant of US $4.7 million to provide general support to expand the company’s efforts to support enterprises, spur job creation, and strengthen poverty alleviation programs globally, and to develop and implement a business plan competition to support entrepreneurs in Ghana and Tanzania.

San Francisco Zoo’s Killer Tiger Paid The Price For Being Itself

Tatiana , a 4-year-old Siberian tiger fatally attacked one zoo visitor and injured two others at the San Francisco Zoo last Christmas afternoon. She had to be killed by police officers . "She was everything that a tiger is supposed to be," says big-cat expert Ronald Tilson. "She was essentially shot and killed for being a tiger."

Yet , this was not a one-off incident. An year ago, Tatiana mauled her keeper, devouring the flesh from her arm. Should Tatiana have been put down at that time , is what is haunting zoo officials now.

"There was no reason whatsoever," says Tilson, director of conservation at the Minnesota Zoo. Since 1987 , he has been overseeing the tiger species survival plan of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Louis Dorfman, an animal behaviorist with the International Exotic Feline Sanctuary in Boyd, Texas, supports the idea that Tatiana posed no greater danger than she had before Dec. 22, 2006 . Then, she had reached under the bars of her cage and seized the arms of zoo employee Lori Komejan as dozens of people watched.

"We have 60 cats here," Dorfman says . "Any one of them would have done the same thing. But they would forget about it 15 minutes later. They don't dwell on things. The only thing they dwell on is if someone mistreated them."


Manuel Mollinedo, executive director of the San Francisco Zoo, says :"There was never any consideration for putting her down - the tiger was acting like a normal tiger."


Tatiana was born in the Denver Zoo on June 27, 2003, and donated to San Francisco in December 2005 .

Tilson, who is responsible for the 147 Siberians, or Amurs, that live in more than 60 AZA-accredited zoos in North America, says :"I'm the one who made the recommendation for her to be born in Denver. I'm the one who made a recommendation to send her to San Francisco. I feel personally involved with all of this. To me, it's very disconcerting and very upsetting."

Tilson says he cannot recall a tiger ever getting out of its enclosure and killing a zoo visitor. He adds that Tatiana's behavior, once she escaped, was very much in keeping with her species. "She was an alpha predator in her environment . She was killing mammals and eating meat."

Tilson says any loose zoo animal would want to return to its habitat and would become upset, disoriented, frightened - and potentially dangerous.

"Once the animal is out of its primary enclosure, it's pretty much shoot to kill . You don't have a discussion - you kill it. A tranquilizer gun would take too long and you might miss”, he says.

Dorfman described the Christmas carnage as extraordinarily rare.

"Anything they perceive as a danger they're going to strike at," he notes. "That's their instinct. If everyone would stand perfectly still and not make any movement, the cat wouldn't hurt anybody."

Tilson says the AZA's accreditation committee will now look at how the big cats are housed at the San Francisco Zoo.

It is recommended that a tiger moat should be a minimum of 7 meters (almost 23 feet) wide at the top and a minimum of 5 meters high (16.4 feet) on the visitors' side, with a fence at least 5 meters high.

Mollinedo, who took over in early 2004, says that he asked staff members after the Christmas attack whether any big cat had ever jumped the moat or escaped the grotto, and no one could recall anything like that happening.



Source-Medindia
ANN/S