New Delhi, (IANS): The Padma awards, namely Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, are among the highest civilian awards of the country.
Instituted in 1954, these awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.
The award is given for distinguished and exceptional achievements or service in all fields or disciplines such as Art, Literature and Education, Sports, Medicine, Social Work, Science and Engineering, Public Affairs, Civil Service, Trade and Industry etc.
All persons without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex are eligible for these awards. Government servants, including those working with PSUs, except doctors and scientists, are not eligible for the Padma awards.
Padma awards
Online nominations/recommendations for the Padma Awards 2023 to be announced on the occasion of Republic Day, 2023 have opened on 1st May, 2022. The last date for nominations for Padma Awards is 15th September, 2022. The nominations/recommendations for Padma Awards will be received online only on the Rashtriya Puruskar Portal (https://awards.gov.in).
Robotic surgeons from the US, India and Spain were named the top three winners in the KS International Robotic Surgery Innovation competition, as robotic surgery slowly becomes mainstream.
The winners were selected by an international jury form Oxford and Stanford Universities, and New-Delhi based AIIMS, from the fields of urology, gynaecology, general surgery, hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery, colorectal, head and neck, paediatric and joint replacement surgeries.
The winning entry of Dr Jihad Kaouk, department of urology, Cleveland Clinic in Ohio was titled Single Port Robot-Assisted Kidney Transplantation Extraperitoneal Approach’ in the unique competition organised by Michigan-based robotic surgery evangelist Vattikuti Foundation.
Dr Kaouk and his team modified the technique of robotic kidney transplant developed at the Vattikuti Urology Institute and Medanta Medicity.
Kaouk used a da Vinci single port robot for truly minimally invasive surgery.
Indian, US surgeons win global robotic surgery innovation award
“The early results of patients who had undergone robotic kidney transplant through this technique could go home in only 2 days,” the foundation said in a statement.
For Robotic Infraclavicular Approach for Minimally Invasive Neck Dissection,’ the second award went to Dr Sandeep Nayak, Director, Surgical Oncology, Fortis Cancer Institute, Bengaluru.
Dr Nayak innovated a robotic technique to perform very major cancer surgery of the head neck to clear the lymph nodes in the neck with quick patient recovery and minimal discomfort.
cancer cells/photo:en.wikipedia.org
The third award went to a team of Dr Alberto Piana, Dr Paolo Verri, and Dr Alberto Breda of Oncology Urology and Kidney Transplant Surgery, Fundacio Puigvert, Barcelona, Spain for their entry of 3D Augmented Reality Guided Robotic Assisted Kidney Transplantation’.
The KS National Robotic Surgery Video’ competition is being organised in India since 2015 by Vattikuti Foundation. This year, it went international for the first time.
“As surgeons continue to innovate newer procedures in robotic surgery, the Vattikuti Foundation will continue to invest and make it accessible to other surgeons,” said Raj Vattikuti, president of Vattikuti Foundation.
One of the most serious threats to wildlife biodiversity, in addition to the climate crisis, is the illegal killing and trafficking of animals and plants. Despite many laws against the black-market wildlife trade, it is considered to be one of the most lucrative illicit industries in the world.
Animals, especially endangered and threatened species, are often exploited and sold for their pelts or used as medicine, aphrodisiacs, curios, food and spiritual artifacts.
In a new study published in Global Change Biology, Arizona State University researchers estimate that more than 1.1 million sea turtles have been illegally killed and, in some cases, trafficked between 1990 and 2020. Even with existing laws prohibiting their capture and use, as many as 44,000 sea turtles were exploited each year over the past decade in 65 countries or territories and in 44 of the world’s 58 major sea turtle populations.
Hawksbills turtle/Photo:en.wikipedia.org
Despite the seemingly large number of poached turtles, the study shows that the reported illegal exploitation of sea turtles declined by approximately 28% over the last decade —something that surprised the researchers. They initially expected to see an overall increase in reported poaching.
“The decline over the past decade could be due to increased protective legislation and enhanced conservation efforts, coupled with an increase in awareness of the problem or changing local norms and traditions,” says Kayla Burgher, co-first author of the study and a doctoral student in ASU’s environmental life sciences program in the School of Life Sciences.
In addition to the slight decline, the researchers found that most of the reported illegal exploitation over the past decade occurred in large, stable and genetically diverse sea turtle populations.
Jesse Senko, co-first author of the study and an assistant research professor with the ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society says this discovery may be a silver lining to the high number of turtles illegally exploited. “What this means is that most of these sea turtles came from healthy, low-risk populations, which suggests that, with a few exceptions, current levels of illegal exploitation are likely not having a major detrimental impact on most major sea turtle populations throughout the world’s oceans.”
Sea turtle/Photo:en.wikipedia.org
Our assessment also did not include eggs or turtle products, such as bracelets or earrings made from sea turtle shells that could not be easily attributed to individual turtles,” says Senko.
The study revealed additional patterns and trends that may assist in determining conservation management priorities. For example, Vietnam was the most common country of origin for illegal sea turtle trafficking, while China and Japan served as destinations for nearly all trafficked sea turtle products. Similarly, Vietnam to China was the most common trade route across all three decades.
Across the 30-year study period, 95% of poached sea turtles came from two species — green and hawksbill turtles — both of which are listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Also, Southeast Asia and Madagascar emerged as major hotspots for illegal sea turtle take and trade, particularly for critically endangered hawksbills, which are prized in the illicit wildlife trade for their beautiful shells.
“Our assessment is an important foundation for future research and outreach efforts regarding illegal sea turtle exploitation. We believe this study can help conservation practitioners and legislators prioritize conservation efforts and allocate their resources to best help protect sea turtle populations from harmful levels of exploitation worldwide,” says Burgher.
“Increased support for governments lacking the resources to protect sea turtles is needed, along with support for communities to sustain human well-being in the face of restrictions or bans on sea turtle exploitation. We must develop conservation strategies that benefit both people and turtles,” says Senko.
Fish oil supplements do not prevent heart attacks or strokes in patients with diabetes, according to late breaking results from the ASCEND trial presented on Friday in a Hot Line Session at ESC Congress 2018.
In observational studies, higher consumption of fish is associated with lower risks of coronary artery disease and stroke. However, previous randomised trials have not been able to show that taking fish oil supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids reduce the risk of having cardiovascular events.
The ASCEND trial (A Study of Cardiovascular Events iN Diabetes)2 examined whether fish oil supplements reduce the risk of a cardiovascular event in patients with diabetes. Between 2005 and 2011, 15,480 patients with diabetes but no history of cardiovascular disease were randomly assigned to fish oil supplementation (1 g daily) or matching placebo.
The primary efficacy outcome was first serious vascular event, which included non-fatal heart attacks, non-fatal strokes or transient ischaemic attacks (sometimes called “mini-strokes”), or deaths from a cardiovascular cause (but excluding any intracranial haemorrhage; i.e. bleeding in the head or brain3).
During an average of 7.4 years of follow-up, a first serious vascular event occurred in 689 (8.9%) participants allocated fish oil supplements and 712 (9.2%) participants allocated placebo. There was no significant difference between the two groups: rate ratio of 0.97 (95% confidence interval 0.87-1.08, p=0.55).
Dr Louise Bowman, principal investigator, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, UK, said: “Our large, long-term randomised trial shows that fish oil supplements do not reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with diabetes. This is a disappointing finding, but it is in line with previous randomised trials in other types of patient at increased risk of cardiovascular events which also showed no benefit of fish oil supplements. There is no justification for recommending fish oil supplements to protect against cardiovascular events.”
The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Despite its post-drink acidic effect on stomach, beer has always been under radar for many scientists and the latest finding is that it could be used in treating cancer as it contains hops, which taste bitter but give beer its unique taste.
Hops contain acid compunds known as humulones and lupulones (alpha and beta acids, respectively), which are found in the soft resin material of the female hop cone. Hops have been used in beer brewing for thousands of years. During wort boiling, in the beer brewing process, the alpha acids isomerize to isohumulones (cis and trans) which are the main bittering agents in beer, explains Kristopher Waynant of University of Idaho in US.
"Hop extracts (as well as isolated humulones and lupulones) have shown a wide variety of health benefits (I have attached a semi recent review). Many studies have shown that theyse compounds or extracts possess anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer activity (mostly in vitro), and COX-2 inhibition, in addition to their well-documented antibacterial properties," wrote Waynant in an exclusive email interview to India International Times.
"I am also aware of a company in Seattle (Kindex pharmaceuticals) that is using an isomerized humulone (isohumulone) in phase 2 murine models towards a diabetes drug," he said with a note of caution: "Just because a natural compound is biologically active, doesn’t mean it will be a great medicine."
Elaborating his findings, Waynant said, his research team is using known chemistries to start a library of humulones and lupulones to create a series of more biologically active compounds.
"We are interested in synthesizing the natural product (-)-humulone, but it has been made before (by Kindex) and is actually isolatable from the hop resins. We would like to extend these syntheses towards the other (smaller concentration) humulones, (-)-cohumulone and (-)-adhumulone as well as a variety of new humulone analogs. Adhumulone has a 2nd undetermined stereocenter that we hope to specify. In conjunction with the natural products, we are interested in developing our synthetic strategy as to see if we can efficiently develop a diverse (but small) library of humulone analogs that also lends towards understanding the scope of our synthetic strategy," he told India International Times.
However, Waynant was cautious when he said his project is still in its infancy and they are yet to produce a natual humulone or a new humulone derivative. "We hope to have humulones available for testing in the near future," he said and his final words are equally cautious: "We certainly do not suggest drinking beer as medicine."
His study was presentted at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.
