Category Archives: GENERAL

India to Ban 300 combination Drugs Including Some Cough Syrups of Abbott, Pfizer

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India has banned 94 drugs and their use in combination already while more than 300 will be banned this week, said K.L. Sharma of the Union Health Ministry after a committee reviewed more than 6,000 combination drugs in the market being sold without approval.

Image courtesty: www.anh-usa.org

The list of combination drugs include popular the codeine-based cough syrups Phensedyl and Corex made by Abbott and Pfizer. Phensedyl drug alone reportedly contributed $300 million to Abbott’s revenue from India, which has become a dumping ground where half the drugs sold in 2014 were clasfied “fixed dose combinations.”

Though combination drugs are not banned per se, failure to adhere to ratios in drug mix has led to mushrooming of combination drugs in the country, especially by some Chennai and Hyderabad-based medicines’ manufacturers.

The committee reviewed 6,000 combinations in the market based on state government authorities’ approval and asked the pharmaceutical companies to prove their safety and efficacy. After classifying the drugs into rational, irrational, and those require further study, the committee has recommended more than 300 drugs which will be prohibited, Sharma told Reuters.

While World Health Organization is warning against the increased use of antibiotic combinations due to increased resistence, India is facing an overwhelming market for combination drugs than generic drugs, not seen in other markets. Several reports in the past have highlighted how certain combination drugs are hitting the market without approval, while they are not allowed in the United States, Europe, Japan or Australia.

To see the list of 94 drugs and their combinations which have been banned already, click here:

http://www.cdsco.nic.in/writereaddata/drugs%20banned%20in%20the%20country2.pdf

 

 

 

India’s Real Estate Bill Passed

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The much awaited the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015 has been passed by the Rajya Sabha on March 10, 2016. The key points of the proposed bill which is going to benefit property buyers but impact consderably promoters, developers and real estate agents, are as follows:

Ø      The Bill requires setting up a new regulator for the real estate sector. As real estate comes under the purview of state governments, individual States are responsible for setting up the Regulatory Authority at the State level. State-level authorities, called Real Estate Regulatory Authorities (RERAs), will now regulate transactions related to both residential and commercial projects.

Ø    An authority will be created to help frame policies for the real estate sector. The regulator will also monitor compliance of rules on an ongoing basis as developers have to provide updates on progress and maintain a database on violators.

Ø    The specified residential real estate projects need to be registered with RERAs. Further, Promoters cannot book or offer these projects for sale without registering them. The regulator will maintain records of all projects and promoters.

Ø      It is mandatory for developers to register all projects larger than 500 sq mtr or, alternatively, more than 8 apartments, to be registered with the regulatory authority. Further, if the project is developed in phases, each phase must be registered separately.

Ø      The duly filed application should be submitted by the promoters/developers/real estate agents with the RERA for approval along with prescribed supporting documents like layout plan of the project; the carpet area of property for sale; the details of existing projects of the promoters; details of various approvals received by the promoters; details of land title on which the project is proposed and details about the payment dues on land title etc.,.

Ø     If the applicant does not hear back from the RERA within 15 days of the application for registration, the project will be considered as registered. However, RERA is empowered to revoke the approval by giving 30 days’ notice period.

Ø      Real estate agents dealing in these projects also need to register with RERAs. The registration is necessary to facilitate the sale or purchase of property in real estate projects that have been registered. Registered agents must not facilitate the sale of unregistered projects.

Ø     The regulation requires the buyers to pay consideration on purchase of house on carpet area basis (which clearly defines in the bill). Hitherto, it was payable on super built-up area basis.

Ø    In general the buyers faced the problem in the form of change in building plans including change in number of floors constructed after entering into an agreement with promoter. The Bill requires that builders take consent of 2/3rd of the home buyers in case of changes.

Ø     To mitigate developers from diverting funds to other projects, which will endup delaying completion of projects, the bill proposed that the 70% of the amount collected for the project by the buyers must deposit in a separate bank account.

Ø     In a cases where there are delays in completion, the developers/promoters will not pay any penalty or if pay it will be a low rate of interest as agreed between parties during execution of agreement. To avoid ambiguity/favour to one party, the bill is proposed that both parties have to pay the same rate of interest in case of delays in payment by buyer or hand-over by the developer.

Ø     The promoter shall :

  1. a) obtain a completion certificate from the relevant authority;
  2. b) form an association or society of buyers;
  3. c) provide essential services till the association of buyers take over the maintenance of the project.

If the promoter is unable to give possession of the property with agreed time, he shall be liable to return the amount received by him for the project along with interest.

Ø      In case the promoter fails to register the property, he may be penalized upto 10% of the estimated cost of the project. Failure to register despite orders issued by the RERA will lead to imprisonment for up to 3 years, and/or an additional fine of 10% of the estimated cost of the project. The promoter will have to pay upto 5% of the estimate cost of the project if he violates any other provisions of the Bill.

Ø      Real estate agents will have to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/- for violating any provision of the Bill, for each day the violation continues.

e-Tourist Visa Now Extended to 37 More Countries

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With the extension of e-Tourist Visa Facility for 37 more countries, India’s online eTV is available for nationals of following countries/territories:
Albania, Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Island, Chile, China, China- SAR Hongkong, China- SAR Macau, Colombia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d’lvoire, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niue Island, Norway, Oman, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Island, Tuvalu, UAE, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA, Vanuatu, Vatican City-Holy See, Venezuela, Vietnam., Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Eligibility

  • International Travellers whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation , sight seeing , casual visit to meet friends or relatives, short duration medical treatment or casual business visit.
  • Passport should have at least six months validity from the date of arrival in India. The passport should have at least two blank pages for stamping by the Immigration Officer.
  • International Travellers should have return ticket or onward journey ticket,with sufficient money to spend during his/her stay in India.
  • International Travellers having Pakistani Passport or Pakistani origin may please apply for regular Visa at Indian Mission.
  • Not available to Diplomatic/Official Passport Holders.
  • Not available to individuals endorsed on Parent’s/Spouse’s Passport i.e. each individual should have a separate passport.
  • Not available to International Travel Document Holders.

    E-TOURIST VISA APPLICATION: How it Works?

    Step 1

    Apply online

    Upload Photo and Passport Page

    Step 2

    Pay visa fee onlineUsing Credit / Debit card

    Step 3

    Receive eTV Online

    eTV Will be sent to your e-mail

    Step 4

    Fly To India

    Print eTV and carry at the time of travel.

IMF Conference: Modi Ponders India’s Future and Asia’s 21st Century

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Addressing the IMF conference in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Asian people save more traditionally compared to other parts of the world and the future of world economy belongs to them as they have surplus to invest in rejuvenating the global economy, though IMF quotas do not reflect the global economic realities.
Change in quotas is an issue of fairness and legitimacy and is essential for poor nations to respect the legitimacy of such institutions, he saaid welcoming IMF decision to finalize the next round of quota changes by October 2017.

Recalling India’s representative to the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, which gave birth to the IMF, he said India’s delegate Mr. R.K. Shanmukham Chetty, who later became independent India’s first Finance Minister, paved the way for India’s contribution to world institutions and India has kept its contribution high by becoming a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank.

The PM has also announced a new partnership with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and the IMF to set up the South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Centre to provide training to government and public sector employees as a part of capacity building process in the region.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi addressing at MOF-IMF Conference on “Advancing Asia: Investing for the Future”, in New Delhi on March 12, 2016.(PIB Photo)

“Many knowledgeable people have said that the twenty first century is, and will be, the Asian Century,” he said citing figures that three out of every five people in the world live in Asia and its share in global output and trade is now close to one-third. Its share in global foreign direct investment is about 40%, he noted.

Stressing the theme of the conference which is ‘Investing for the Future’, he said, “Asians tend to save to buy a house, rather than borrow to buy a house.”

Pointing out another unique feature of Asia which is its large number of women leaders, he said India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Myanmar, and Philippines have had women as national leaders. “Today, four large states of India – West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan – are headed by democratically elected women. The Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament in India is also a woman,” he said.

Despite a second successive year of weak rainfall, India has increased its growth rate to 7.6 per cent, the highest among major economies in the world, he said.

He pondered on some positive policies of India:

 We undertook a highly successful financial inclusion programme, bringing over two hundred million unbanked people into the banking system within a span of a few months.

* Thanks to our financial inclusion programme, we now have the world’s largest and most successful programme of direct benefit transfers, in cooking gas. We plan to extend it to other sectors such as food, kerosene, and fertilizers. This has improved targeting and the quality of public expenditure.

* We have opened up nearly all sectors of our economy to FDI.

* India achieved the highest ever rank in the World Bank Doing Business indicators in 2015.

* India reached an all-time high in many physical indicators in 2015, including

* The production of coal, electricity, urea, fertilizer and motor vehicles;

* Cargo handled at major ports and the fastest turnaround time in ports;

* Award of new highway kilometers;

* Software export;

* Entrepreneurship is booming.

“India is now fourth in the world in the number of technical start-ups, after USA, Britain and Israel. The Economist magazine has called India the new frontier for E-Commerce… We aim to double farmer incomes by:

• increasing irrigation,

• better water management,

• creating rural assets

• boosting productivity,

• improving marketing,

• reducing margins of middlemen and

• avoiding income shocks.”

“My dream is of a Transformed India. I lay this dream alongside our common dream of an Advanced Asia – an Asia where more than half of the global population can live with happiness and fulfillment. Our joint heritage and mutual respect, our common goals and similar policies, can and must create sustainable growth and shared prosperity,” he said.

Short Break from Shampoos, Lotions improve Body Health: Study

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A study led by researchers at UC Berkeley and Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas howed how even a short break from certain kinds of makeup, shampoos and lotions can lead to a significant drop in levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals in the body.

The results, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, came from a study of 100 Latina teenagers participating in the Health and Environmental Research on Makeup of Salinas Adolescents (HERMOSA) study.

HERMOSA is a community-university collaboration between UC Berkeley, Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas, and a team of youth researchers from the CHAMACOS Youth Council, a project to involve young people in public health and the environment.

Researchers provided teen study participants with personal care products labeled free of chemicals such as phthalates, parabens, triclosan and oxybenzone. Such chemicals are widely used in personal care products, including cosmetics, fragrance, hair products, soaps and sunscreens, and have been shown in animal studies to interfere with the body’s endocrine system.

“Because women are the primary consumers of many personal care products, they may be disproportionately exposed to these chemicals,” said study lead author Kim Harley, associate director of the UC Berkeley Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health. “Teen girls may be at particular risk since it’s a time of rapid reproductive development, and research has suggested that they use more personal care products per day than the average adult woman.”

Analysis of urine samples before and after a three-day trial in which the participants used the lower- chemical products found significant drops in levels of these chemicals in the body. Metabolites of diethyl phthalate, commonly used in fragrances, decreased 27 percent by the end of the trial period. Methyl and propyl parabens, used as preservatives in cosmetics, dropped 44 and 45 percent respectively. Both triclosan, found in antibacterial soaps and some brands of toothpaste, and benzophenone-3 (BP-3), found in some sunscreens under the name oxybenzone, fell 36 percent.

Surprisingly, there was a small increase in concentrations in two less common parabens. Those levels were small and could have been caused by accidental contamination or a substitution not listed on the labels, the study authors said.

Kimberly Parra, study co-director, said it was important to involve local youth in the design and implementation of the study.

“The results of the study are particularly interesting on a scientific level, but the fact that high school students led the study set a new path to engaging youth to learn about science and how it can be used to improve the health of their communities,” she said. “After learning of the results, the youth took it upon themselves to educate friends and community members, and presented their cause to legislatures in Sacramento.”

The CHAMACOS Youth Council included 12 local high school students who helped design and carry out the study. One teen researcher, Salinas native and study co-author Maritza Cárdenas, is now a UC Berkeley undergraduate majoring in molecular and cell biology.

“One of the goals of our study was to create awareness among the participants of the chemicals found in everyday products, to help make people more conscious about what they’re using,” said Cárdenas. “Seeing the drop in chemical levels after just three days shows that simple actions can be taken, such as choosing products with fewer chemicals, and make a difference.”

The researchers noted that cosmetics and personal care products are not well-regulated in this country, and that getting data about health effects from exposure, particularly long-term ones, is difficult. But they say there is growing evidence linking endocrine-disrupting chemicals to neurobehavioral problems, obesity and cancer cell growth.

“We know enough to be concerned about teen girls’ exposure to these chemicals. Sometimes it’s worth taking a precautionary approach, especially if there are easy changes people can make in the products they buy,” said Harley.

Cárdenas said the research findings have already influenced the products she buys for herself.

“Personally, since the study, I’ve tried to use more organic products,” she said. “It’s hard, especially as a college student who doesn’t have a lot of money. You tend to just get what’s on sale. But I’ve decided to splurge more on products with fewer chemicals because of the effect in the future. And if you can’t make the best choice when you’re buying because of cost, you can at least try to limit the use of the products you do buy.”

 

University of California at Berkeley Law School Dean Sujit Choudhry Quits

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Sujit Choudhary

Amid sexual harassment charges, University of California at Berkeley law school dean Sujit Choudhry has resigned, while the administration said it made a mistake overseeing similar allegations in July 2015. This is second in row that a famous faculty of the school resigned over sexual scandals.

Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and Provost Claude Steele said in a statement: “We must move in the direction of stronger sanctions, and in doing this we want and need the broad input of the campus community.”

Choudhry’s admin assistant, Tyann Sorrell, complained of daily kisses by Choudhry involving “rude and demeaning” conduct, hugging and other physical conduct — in a law suit she filed in Alameda County Superior Court. She said the sordid saga was going on since he took over as dean in July 2014.

She said she would keep her arms at her sides and make her body go limp until she thought he was done and in response to his kisses she would freeze and try to pretend it did not happen. She said she has repeatedly brought the issue up to superiors, but school officials failed to act on him.

While Choudhary resigned a day after her lawsuit, the administration said, “We believe the dean’s resignation is an outcome in the best interests of Berkeley Law and the university as a whole.”

“This incident highlights UC Berkeley’s history of insulating those who perpetuate sexual violence against members of our community and the culture that allows them to thrive,” student leader Sloan Patrice Whiteside said in an open letter. On his part, Choudhry said he agreed to step aside to prevent the lawsuit from becoming a distraction to the school.

“While I disagree with the plaintiff’s claims and allegations, and will defend against them, I am unfortunately unable to comment on the substance of the lawsuit,” he said in a statement. “However, I can say that I cooperated fully with, and take extremely seriously, the University’s confidential investigation into this matter and ensuing sanction. I will continue to cooperate fully with the University as matters unfold.”

Choudhry remains a member of the faculty though until the case is completed.In 2002, another dean John Dwyer was forced to resign from his post sexual harassment allegations by a former student. Another astronomy professor resigned following similar sexual harassment claims.

World Thinnest Micro Lens Discovered, to Revolutionize Nanotech Applications

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Australian researchers have created the world’s thinnest lens, thousand times thinner than a human hair, which will revolutionize the nanotechnology frontiners into new smartphones, medical devices and miniature cameras.

Led by Yuerui Larry Lu from ANU Research School of Engineering, they discovered the potential of the molybdenum disulphide crystal which fits in the requirement to produce future lenses for visual devices.

“This type of material is the perfect candidate for future flexible displays,” said Dr Lu, leader of Nano-Electro-Mechanical System (NEMS) Laboratory in the ANU Research School of Engineering.

“We will also be able to use arrays of micro lenses to mimic the compound eyes of insects.”

The 6.3-nanometre lens outshines previous ultra-thin flat lenses, made from 50-nanometre thick gold nano-bar arrays, known as a metamaterial.

Molybdenum disulphide survives at high temperatures, is a lubricant, a good semiconductor and can emit photons too with capability of manipulating the flow of light in atomic scale opens an exciting avenue towards unprecedented miniaturisation of optical components and the integration of advanced optical functionalities, he explained.

Yuerui Lu, who received his Ph.D. degree from Cornell University, the school of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in 2012, joined the Australian National University as research fellow and lecturer under the Future Engineering Research Leadership Fellowship.

In October 2015, he was promoted to Senior Lecturer at the ANU. His research interests include MEMS/NEMS sensors and actuators, nano-manufacturing technologies, renewable energy harvesting, biomedical novel devices, nano-materials, nano-electronics, etc.

Molybdenum disulphide, known as chalcogenide glasses with flexible electronic characteristics can eb made from high-technology components. The team has created lens from a crystal 6.3-nanometres thick – 9 atomic layers – which they had peeled off a larger piece of molybdenum disulphide with sticky tape before creating a 10-micron radius lens, using a focussed ion beam to shave off the layers atom by atom, until they had the dome shape of the lens.

The team discovered that single layers of molybdenum disulphide, 0.7 nanometres thick, had remarkable optical properties, appearing to a light beam to be 50 times thicker, at 38 nanometres. This property, known as optical path length, determines the phase of the light and governs interference and diffraction of light as it propagates.

Then Assistant Professor Zongfu Yu at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, developed a simulation and showed that light was bouncing back and forth many times inside the high refractive index crystal layers before passing through. Molybdenum disulphide crystal’s refractive index, the property that quantifies the strength of a material’s effect on light, has a high value of 5.5.

Molybdenum disulphide crystal can be compared to a diamond, whose high refractive index causes its sparkle, is only 2.4, and water’s refractive index is 1.3.

This study is published in the Nature serial journal Light: Science and Applications.

Splinter Groups Target JNU’s Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Now

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With one arrested in threatening posters case, another appeared in Delhi sending relentless death threats to JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, pointing at a move to keep the emerging leader under constant pressure not to seek out any political career.

This time the poster not only threatened Kanhaiya Kumar but also Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who are facing charge of sedition. Earlier poster by a self-proclaimed Poorvanchal Sena had announced Rs 11 lakh on Kumar but he was arrested and jailed.

The new poster that appeared at Jantar Mantar said, “Shooting the traitors is a national duty. I shall shoot Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and Kanhaiya.” It bore the name of one Balbir Singh Bharatiya who claimed to have been a part of the Anna Hazare-led movement against corruption. The poster also contained a phone number and his photograph, posing a challenge to Delhi Police to chase him now.

The poster also threatened Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for extending support to the JNU students. It said, “I shall shoot all who celebrated the anniversary of Afzal Guru’s hanging.”

Delhi’s deputy commissioner of police Jatin Narwal acknowledged the poster’s appearance and said, “We have initiated an inquiry into the matter.” He said when policemen called the number a shop owner at Yamuna Bazar picket up the call but did not commit to have pasted the poster. He had admitted that he visited Jantar Mantar on Friday and that he will be questioned soon.

So, the question is threatening JNU student leaders some way or the other has become a national hobby now and it is increasingly taking an ugly turn of conservative rightists versus leftist forces and unless caution is shown by the authorities, it may spread like a contagious fire in the country, posing a bigger challenge to the nation than seen in the borders.

Researchers Reveal Mechanism that Impairs Blood Flow with Aging

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The Physiological Society’s Journal of Physiology recently published a study led by Erika Boerman, identifying an age-related cause of arterial dysfunction.

 

 

With the world’s elderly population expected to double by 2050, understanding cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 cause of death worldwide, is often highlighted and now University of Missouri researchers have identified an age-related cause of arterial dysfunction, a finding that could lead to future treatments.

“Aging affects everyone and causes changes throughout our bodies,” said Erika Boerman, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology at the MU School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “We found that older arteries had a significantly lower number of sensory nerves in the tissues surrounding them and they were less sensitive to an important neurotransmitter responsible for dilation.”

Boerman’s study focused on mesenteric arteries ― a type of artery that supplies blood to the small intestines ― of mice that were 4 months and 24 months old. These ages correspond to humans in their early 20s and mid-60s, respectively. Without stimulation, the diameter of the blood vessels of both younger and older mice was approximately the same. However, when stimulated to induce dilation, differences between the age groups became apparent.

“The younger arteries dilated as expected,” Boerman said. “However, when we performed the same stimulation to the arteries of older mice, the vessels did not dilate. When we examined the presence of sensory nerves, we noted a 30 percent decrease in the amount surrounding the older arteries compared to the younger arteries.”

Additionally, the researchers found that even when purposefully exposing older mesenteric arteries to defined amounts of the neurotransmitter calcitonin gene-related peptide, or CGRP, the arteries’ ability to dilate was greatly reduced.

“Poor neurotransmitter function and a reduced presence of sensory nerves surrounding older vessels lead to age-related dysfunction of mesenteric arteries,” Boerman said. “The importance of this discovery is that if we can identify why this happens to mesenteric arteries, it may be possible to prevent the same thing from happening to other blood vessels throughout the body.”

More research is needed to understand why aging affects sensory nerve distribution and neurotransmitter performance. However, identifying this new mechanism of vascular dysfunction opens the door for future studies that could eventually lead to the treatment of health issues such as stroke and cardiovascular disease.

The study was published in The Physiological Society’s Journal of Physiology.

Blood Vessels Can Actually Get Better With Age

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Although the causes of many age-related diseases remain unknown, oxidative stress has been linked to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases including diabetes, hypertension and age-related cancers.

However, researchers at the University of Missouri recently found that aging actually offered significant protection against oxidative stress, suggesting that aging may trigger an adaptive response to counteract the effects of oxidative stress on blood vessels.

“Molecules known as reactive oxygen species, or ROS, play an important role in regulating cellular function,” said Steven Segal, at the MU School of Medicine and senior author of the study. “However, the overproduction of ROS can help create a condition referred to as oxidative stress, which can alter the function of cells and interfere with their growth and reproduction.”

To understand the effects of aging on the function of blood vessels when they are exposed to oxidative stress, Segal’s team studied the inner lining, or endothelium, of small resistance arteries. Resistance arteries are important to cardiovascular function because they regulate both the amount of blood flow into tissues and systemic blood pressure.

“We studied the endothelium from resistance arteries of male mice at 4 months and 24 months of age, which correspond to humans in their early 20s and mid-60s,” Segal said. “We first studied the endothelium under resting conditions and in the absence of oxidative stress. We then simulated oxidative stress by adding hydrogen peroxide.

When oxidative stress was induced for 20 minutes, the endothelial cells of the younger mice had abnormal increases in calcium when compared to the endothelial cells of the older mice. This finding is important because when calcium gets too high, cells can be severely damaged.”

When oxidative stress was extended to 60 minutes, Segal’s team found that the death of endothelial cells in the younger mice was seven times greater than those from the older mice. These findings indicated that with advancing age, the endothelium had adapted to preserve cellular integrity when confronted with oxidative stress.

“This finding contrasts with the generally held belief that the functional integrity of the endothelium is compromised as we age. Our study suggests that blood vessels adapt during the aging process to regulate ROS and minimize cell death when subjected to an abrupt increase in oxidative stress. This adaptation helps to ensure that the arteries of older individuals can still do their jobs.”

The study was published in the Physiological Society’s Journal of Physiology.

Selena Gomez Uploads Nude Photo on Facebook

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Selena Gomez has silently updated her Facebook page with a nude picture sending shock waves across the globe, especially for her fans.

 

Star of “Wizards of Waverly Place”, Selena has been a symbol of deceny for long and her break up with boyfriend Justin Biber has hurt more of their fans than the couple themselves who have carved out their own niche area of expertise and fame.

The nude picture uploaded on September 8 on Facebook has already received more than 1,956,794 likes and 15,160 have shared the page. However, some comments were outrageous, while others just applaud the beauty behind the photo.

Arif Munir was first to compare her to another Miley Cyrus on the cards while Gyzelle Rodriguez wanted to be more artistic in his appreciation when he said: “Girl! You are beautiful! There is a huge difference between miley naked and selena naked. Its called class. Selena brings the art out of the female form. Miley brings out vulgarity.”

Laser Breakthrough Could Speed up Self-Driving Cars on to Roads

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Google’s self-driving car relies on a roof-mounted LIDAR sensor to see the world around it.

 

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley say they’ve developed a new breed of laser technology that could significantly reduce the size, weight, cost, and power consumption of LIDARs, potentially leading to a much broader range of autonomous vehicles.

LIDAR is a portmanteau of “light” and “radar.” In essence, these sensors monitor their surroundings by shining a light on an object and measuring the time needed for it to bounce back. They work well enough, but they aren’t without their drawbacks. Today’s self-driving cars typically use LIDARs that are quite large and expensive. Google, for instance, used $80,000 LIDARs with its early designs. “Most vehicles in the DARPA urban challenge put half-a-million-dollars worth of sensors on the car,” says Daniela Rus, the director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, referring to the government-backed competition that helped spawn Google’s autonomous vehicles.

“This is important for unmanned vehicles on land and in the sky,” says Weijian Yang, one of the researchers behind the project.

Yang’s work is part of a wider effort to refine LIDARs and build a cheaper breed of autonomous cars and other vehicles. A German company called SICK already offers a LIDAR that sells for less than $10,000, and researchers from MIT and the National Research Foundation of Singapore, including Rus, recently built a self-driving golf cart using no more than four of these units (see video below).

As LIDAR technology improves—and as we improve the algorithms that process the data gathered from these sensors—we’ll bring autonomy not just to cars but smaller contraptions, including golf carts, robots, and flying drones.

Anatomy of a LIDAR

A LIDAR operates by repeatedly changing the wavelength of a laser, so that the sensor can properly identify the light as it bounces off an object and returns to the sensor, and such wavelength changes require the precise manipulation of a mirror—or sometimes multiple mirrors. Typically, a separate electrical device moves these mirrors to and fro. But at Berkeley, Yang and his team developed a new option. They can move the mirrors with the laser itself.

“You don’t need an external electrical source,” says Yang, the lead author on the paper describing the technology, which was published today in the journal Scientific Reports. “The laser can change the position of the mirror automatically. The light has some kind of force.”

The result: they don’t need that outside electrical device, the sensor is smaller and lighter, and it consumes less power. The laser can be integrated with the mirror. The whole device can squeeze into a few hundred square micrometers of space. And it can be powered with the equivalent AA battery.

A More Accurate Picture

According to Yang, this same technology could improve optical coherence tomography, or OCT, which is used in medical imaging equipment. But the most intriguing possibilities lie in the world of robotics. Among other things, Yang explains, Berkeley’s method allows lasers to change wavelengths more frequently—one microsecond versus 10 or so milliseconds—and that means a LIDAR could potentially take more readings, more quickly. In other words, it could provide a more accurate picture of its surroundings.

Emilio Frazzoli, an MIT researcher who worked alongside Rus on those self-driving golf carts, says that smaller, cheaper LIDARs aren’t essential to the near future of self-driving cars. “Right now, these sensors are still expensive, but they’re becoming better and cheaper, and I don’t see them as a bottleneck,” he says, pointing out that even with today’s sensors, the price of a self-driving car compares favorably to how much you’d speed for a standard car and a full-time driver.

But he says that better sensors are certainly welcome, particularly for other applications. Indeed, Yang believes that his work could help drive the creation of additional autonomous vehicles and robots, including contraptions the size of a smartphone. In the years to come, more machines will have eyes than you might expect.

Crocodiles Set to Face Extinction, Says Australian Researcher

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An estuarine crocodile, also known as a “saltie”.

Many of the world’s 27 species of crocodylians will soon be either totally or locally extinct due to human population expansion and intensive land-use for agriculture depleting the water bodies, which provide succour to crocs, said a University of Queensland researcher.

Emeritus Professor Gordon Grigg of UQ says the fact that these reptiles had survived millions of years was no good owing to current rate of human expansion and encroachment of natural resources. “The current human population level and its magnitude and rate of resource consumption are unprecedented,” Professor Grigg said.

Only those crocs living in remote wetland habitats in which humans see no benefit may survive into the future, he said. Some crocodylians might have already become extinct if not for active conservation management undertaken in the second half of the 20th Century.

“For some species, the incentive for conserving them has been the commercial value of their hides, but that is dependent upon its use in high fashion garments and accessories, and that is a somewhat fragile foundation,” he said.

On flip side, the rising temperatures and sea levels may turn a more positive note for crocodylians, as it may create more habitat that will be suitable for any species to survive the human onslaught, he said wryly.

The largest living crocodiles, the estuarine or saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), are found in Northern Australia and can grow to six metres and weigh more than 900 kilograms.

Professor Grigg said estuarine crocodiles, also known as Indo-Pacific crocodiles or “salties”, were one of the luckier species because human populations across Australia’s north were unlikely to increase significantly in the next few decades.  They might be among the survivors.

Professor Grigg and illustrator and biologist David Kirshner, in their recent book, Biology and Evolution of Crocodylians, reviewed the biology of the crocodiles, alligators, caimans and gharials, and also discusses the great diversity of their gigantic extinct ancestors, some of which were probably warm-blooded.

Gaza May Become ‘Uninhabitable’ in 5 Years: UNCTAD

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Palestinian families take shelter at an UNRWA school in Gaza City (13 July 2014). File Photo: UNRWA/Shareef Sarhan

Living conditions in Gaza are so bad that they’ve been described as “less than human” and potentially uninhabitable by 2020, the UN has said sending out warning signals, which have emanated from the UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD, in its report into the Palestinian economy.

In addition to severe crises linked to water and electricity shortages, the UN agency says that Gaza’s 1.8 million residents have yet to recover from the destruction of last year’s conflict with Israel.

Three wars in six years and eight years of economic blockade have been blamed for terrible living conditions in the Territories Occupied by Israel, the UN trade and development agency (UNCTAD) said Tuesday.

In its latest report into Gaza and the West Bank, UNCTAD experts warn that development is not merely hindered, but reversed. In fact, the figures show that for the first time since 2006, the Palestinian economy has gone into recession.

The conflict in 2014 was particularly damaging, with whole areas of Gaza still flattened by attacks. So says UNCTAD’s Mahmoud Elkhafif.

“The fact that electricity is not enough, that a number of hospitals have been destroyed, the fact that there is no drinking water enough, it’s just what any rational human would (not) doubt what’s going to happen. I mean, we had had a study before the destruction of 2014 indicating that Gaza won’t be liveable in 2020, it’s not that things stayed as they were in 2020 but they got much, much worse in 2014.”

Israel is criticised for withholding almost USD $700 million of import tax revenue from the Palestinian authorities in the first four months of the year.

According to the UN agency it’s the sixth time Israel has withheld the monies since 1997, which are far and away the main source of public revenue in the West Bank and Gaza.

In another sign of the deteriorating conditions on the ground, UNCTAD said that in the year 2000, 72,000 people depended on food aid, but now that number has risen to almost a million. And in Gaza, unemployment is as high as 80 per cent, the UN agency said.

 

 

UN Seeks Humanitarian Intervention to Help Syrian Refugees

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Razor wire surrounds Debrecen centre for asylum-seekers in eastern Hungary. Parts of the centre are “open” but the facility also contains a unit for detaining asylum-seekers considered at risk of absconding. Photo: IRIN

In the wake of the grim discovery of the bodies of more than 70 people inside a truck abandoned near Austria’s border with Hungary, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the world to come together to provide comprehensive responses to migration issues, including tackling smugglers and resolving ongoing conflicts, among other root causes.

“I am horrified and heartbroken at the latest loss of lives of refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean and Europe, declared the Secretary-General following the discovery of the bodies in the abandoned vehicle, and upon hearing reports that many of the victims were Syrian asylum seekers – including children.

Meanwhile in Geneva, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Melissa Fleming said, “this tragedy shows people smugglers have no regard for human life and are only after profit. It also underscores the desperation of people seeking protection or a new life in Europe.”

Austrian police say that they believe the truck came from Hungary and entered Austria on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, and that the victims might have been dead for one or two days. Their identity is still unknown but it is presumed that they were being transported by smugglers.

After establishing that there were no survivors, the police closed the truck and moved it to another location for further investigations.

UNHCR expressed its hope that this incident will result in strong cooperation among European police forces, intelligence agencies and international organisations to crack down on the smuggling trade while putting in place measures to protect and care for victims.

Ms. Fleming reiterated UNHCR’s call to European countries to approach the refugee crisis “in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation and to provide those seeking safety in Europe with safe legal alternatives – including resettlement or humanitarian admission programmes, flexible visa policies and family reunification – to dangerous irregular voyages.”

Every day last week, the Hungarian border police intercepted more than 2,000 people crossing the border from Serbia. On Wednesday, police reported 3,241 new arrivals, including 700 children – the highest number in a single day so far this year.

Syrian refugees constitute the majority of the asylum-seekers, many of whom are women and children. They travel in large groups of over 200 – walking along rail tracks or crawling under barbed wire – as work continues on a 175 kilometres long wall at the Hungarian-Serbian border.

 

With a maximum capacity of 5,000 people, Hungary’s four reception centres are overcrowded, causing long waits and further exacerbating asylum-seekers’ angst. The Hungarian police do not have social workers or enough interpreters in Arabic, Dari, Pashto and Urdu, which makes communication difficult.

According to the latest official statistics, so far this year more than 140,000 people have sought asylum in Hungary, compared to 42,000 people last year. Most of those lodging asylum applications are from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, and they include some 7,000 unaccompanied children.

 

 

Kurdi Image: UNICEF Seeks Urgent Succour to Syrian Refugees, Children

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On 26 August 2015, a distressed child rests over the shoulder of the man carrying him, in the town of Gevgelija, on the border with Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Photo: UNICEF/Tomislav Georgiev

As the “heart-breaking” image of a drowned refugee boy who washed up on a beach in Turkey ricocheted around the world on social media, along with equally painful images of children lying suffocated in the backs of trucks crossing borders and being passed over barbed wire fences by desperate parents, Anthony Lake, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today made a powerful plea for action to protect migrant and refugee children.

“It is not enough for the world to be shocked by these images. Shock must be matched by action,” declared the UNICEF chief.

In a statement issued by the agency, Mr. Lake advocated that all decisions regarding the child migrant and refugee crisis in Europe be guided by the best interests of the children involved, and that measures be taken to ensure they receive adequate health care, food, emotional support, education, shelter and protection.

UNICEF estimates that at least a quarter of the hundreds of thousands of people who have sought refuge in Europe are children, many of whom have fled the conflict in Syria.

Some 2,500 people have died or gone missing this year while attempting the crossing to Europe.

“Our hearts go out today to the families who have lost children – off the coasts, on the shores, and along the roadsides of Europe,” said Lake. “As the debates on policies proceed, we must never lose sight of the deeply human nature of this crisis. Nor of its scale,” he added.

“And we should never forget what lies behind so many of the stories of families seeking sanctuary in Europe: terrible conflicts such as that in Syria, which already has forced some 2 million children to flee their country. Only an end to these conflicts can bring an end to the misery of so many.”

Muhammad Yunus Opens Narayana Hridayalaya Hospital in Mysore

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Nobel laureate and microfinance pioneer Mohammad Yunus, who was in Mysore to open a 200-bed multi-specialty hospital for the working class on Friday, said the need for social entepreneurship is the new call of the day.

The 200-bed Narayana Hrudayalaya will have only general wards and taking cue from Yunus, NH founders have set up a hospital simple and pro-poor in ambience.

“I had heard about the revolution Yunus had created when I was working in Kolkata,” said Dr Devi Shetty, founder of Narayana Health. To make poor people who get scared when they go to corporate hospitals and instead squat on the floor, the new hospital will be friendly for all, insisted Dr Shetty.

Muhammad Yunus at a special summit hosted by the University of Salford.

Known for his innovative pro-poor model of empowering women in 1976, Dr Yunus, an economic professor, founded Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank and went on to win Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. The first microfinance lending bank has benefitted more than 8.5 million women.

When women in his country got into microfinancing, it changed women’s marriage equation too, he said. “When I started the bank, I was clear that 50% of our borrowers must be women. Now rural women have money and their husbands borrow from them,” he told TOI in an interview.

“Money means power. It has given them confidence. And has helped them in their children’s education. Worldwide wherever I go, I see young doctors and engineers who tell me that they hail from the villages of Bangladesh and were assisted by Grameen Bank. That gives me immense satisfaction,” said Yunus.

His advice amid increasing criticism against misadventure of microfinance model in Andhra Pradesh was to be a social entrepreneur. Business does not mean money-making, he reiterated.

“Dissociate selfishness. I delinked business from money-making. Social entrepreneurs can touch the lives of many. It’s not rocket science to create a business model,” Yunus said.

Missing Mobile Phone? Don’t Let it Take Over as Phobia!

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Apple’s iPhone 6

Call it missing mobile phone phobia or nomophobia or just another day of anxiety when you miss your device at home or office.

Scientists from Iowa State University have identified four dimensions of the phobia after a survey conducted on participants, who responded on a scale of one (strongly disagree) to seven (strongly agree).

More to do with the fear of losing connectedness with friends and family or not being able to access information, the fear of remaining incommunicado even for few hours haunts majority of them.

Initially the researchers interviewed nine students and based on their responses, developed a questionnaire which was given to 301 students.

Research student Caglar Yildirim at the Iowa State University (ISU) and Ana-Paula Correia, an associate professor in ISU’s School of Education finally came out with a set of four dimensions to detect the most-prevalent modern-day phenomenon that is often taking the shape of phobia.

Based on the score, the researchers said the higher scores corresponded to greater nomophobia severity, and vice versa. The team findings have been published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

Here are the sample questions in the questionnaire:

— “I would feel uncomfortable without constant access to information through my smartphone”

— “I would be annoyed if I could not look information up on my smartphone when I wanted to do so”.

“Being unable to get the news on my smartphone would make me nervous” or
“I would be annoyed if I could not use my smartphone and/or its capabilities when I wanted to do so”.

— “Running out of battery in my smartphone would scare me”

— “If I were to run out of credits or hit my monthly data limit, I would panic” and
“If I did not have a data signal or could not connect to Wi-Fi, then I would constantly check to see if I had a signal or could find a Wi-Fi network”.

Here are some typical answers from the participants:

— “If I could not use my smartphone, I would be afraid of getting stranded somewhere”.

— “If I could not check my smartphone for a while, I would feel a desire to check it”.

To a question as to how they would react if they did not have their smartphone with them, they responded with statements like:

— “I would feel anxious because I could not instantly communicate with my family and/or friends”

— “I would feel nervous because I would not be able to receive text messages and calls.”

Karnataka Farmers’ Association Calls for Bandh Over Farmers’ Suicides

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The sugarcane farmers’ associations in Karnataka have called for a bandh on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015 which may see some key areas of northern and northwestern Karnataka closed, while Bangalore and southern Karnataka districts will remain unhit due to it.

While it is unlikely to hit normal life in Bangalore and across Karnataka, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) officials said there will be no disruption in bus services tomorrow.

Otherwise, autos and taxis will run as usual in Bangalore. Many schools remain closed on Saturday but those on six-day a week schedule may opt to remain open, except in those districts where bandh will be forced upon them by activists.

All hospitals, medical shops will remain open.

The bandh was called by Karnataka State Sugarcane Growers’ Association (KSSGA) in protest against Karnataka government’s apathy to the rising farmer suicides in the state.

KSSGA president Kurubur Shanthakumar said the state-wide bandh was the culmination of one-month old strike going on in the state by farmers. “In order to put pressure on the authorities, the association will observe a bandh and also be part of the agitation till the demand is met,” he told the New Indian Express.

The farmers’ demands include waiving off of crop loans from nationalised and cooperative banks as the drought situation in the state has adversely affected agricultural production. The farmers are also demanding a Vidarbha-like Package of Rs.10,000 crore for Karnataka.

Other demands include compensation of families of farmers who committed suicide to the extent to Rs. 10 lakh, raising issue price of sugarcane, implement the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project, that was stalled in 2002 due to objections raised by Goa. The project was to provide drinking water to Belgaum, Dharwad and Gadag districts.

Apart from Sept. 5 bandh, the KSSGA also plans to hold a rally in Bangalore on September 7 and also stage a dharna in front of the Chief Minister’s residence. While no political parties were allowed to attend their protest, Shanthakumar said, Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has extended its support to the protest.

India Internet Users Now More Than US Population Put Together

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India’s current Internet users have crossed 352 million with the liberal addition of 52 million in the first half of 2015 by IAMAI, whose report is apparently based on estimates and not on empirical data.

Otherwise, the number is overwhelming as it is more than the entire population of the US put together. As of 2014, the US population was 319 million.

The mobile and Internet research body said in its January release that its estimates show mobile users by June 2015 would reach 213 million and now that the first half of the year is over, the sequel release has put forward the exact figure of 213 million, without explaining the methodology.

In January, IAMAI said, “The number of mobile internet users in India is expected to reach 213 million by June 2015.” In August, IAMAI  report listed the same figure of 213 million, raising eye-brows as to how the exact figure was reached.

On the sideslines of the report, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said it took more than 10 years to move from 10 million to 100 million in India but now the time period has shrunk to just 3 years to jump from 100 to 200 million.

Afterwards, in just one year, the number rose to 300 million, thanks to mobile phone users increasig in number rapidly, said a release by IAMAI.