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Acupuncture, exercise may help women with polycystic ovary syndrome

August 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 21 (ANI): Acupuncture and exercise can bring relief to women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), according to a new study.

Nearly 10pct of women of reproductive age suffer from PCOS. The syndrome expresses itself as a large number of small immature cysts on the ovaries that cause a disturbance in the production of hormones and an increase in the secretion of the male sex hormone.

Many women with the condition do not ovulate normally, and the syndrome may lead to infertility.

“We do not know for certain what causes the condition, despite it being so common. We have seen that women with the syndrome often have high activity in that part of the nervous system that we cannot consciously control, known as the ‘sympathetic nervous system,’” said lead researcher Elisabet Stener-Victorin, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

“We believe that this may be an important underlying factor in the syndrome,” she added.

During the study, one group of women with polycystic ovary syndrome received a specific type of acupuncture called “electro-acupuncture” for four months.

In this type of acupuncture, the needles are stimulated with a weak low-frequency electric current, similar to that developed during muscular work.

A second group of women were provided with heart rate monitors and instructed to exercise at least three times a week.

The study showed that activity in the sympathetic nervous system was lower in the women who received acupuncture and in those who took regular exercise than it was in the control group.

The acupuncture treatment brought further benefits.

“Those who received acupuncture found that their menstruation became more normal,” she said.

“We could also see that their levels of testosterone became significantly lower, and this is an important observation, since elevated testosterone levels are closely connected with the increased activity in the sympathetic nervous system of women”, she added.

The study appears in American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. (ANI)

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Treelines not universally responding to climate warming as expected

August 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 13 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have found that treelines are not universally responding to climate warming by advancing as expected.

Treelines are the elevation or latitudinal limits where trees are capable of growth or survival and are considered to be early indicators of climate warming because they are constrained primarily by cold temperatures.

Summer temperature is widely considered to be the primary control of treeline formation and maintenance, whereas winter temperatures have previously been considered less critical because of the insulative effects of snow.

This study reveals how winter warming has overturned this prevailing view.

“Average temperatures have risen over the last century, with a more pronounced and rapid change at high altitudes and latitudes,” said Melanie Harsch from the Bio-Protection Research Centre in New Zealand.

“Within these zones, treelines are thought to be more temperature sensitive and so the rise in summer temperatures should result in an advance of treeline position,” she added.

Harsch and her co-authors conducted a multivariate meta-analysis, using a global dataset of 166 treeline sites with temperature data taken from the closest climate station to each site.

The team used this data to analyze treeline advance throughout the 20th century and consider the contributing factors to that advance.

The team found that only 87 of the 166 sites (52 percent) had advanced while simultaneously the mean annual local temperatures had increased at 111 of the 166 sites at an average rate of 0.013 degrees Celsius a year (or 1 degrees C in 77 years).

Of the remaining sites, 77 (47 percent) remained stable and only two (1 percent) had treelines that receded.

Both of the receding sites showed evidence of disturbance, indicating that regardless of form, location or degree of temperature change experienced over the last century, treeline positions have either advanced or remained static.

“Surprisingly these results reveal that treelines are not universally responding to climate warming by advancing, as expected,” said Harsch.

Another surprising result of this study was the association with winter, rather than summer, warming.

These results provide no evidence of the prevailing view that high altitude and latitude treelines are controlled only by summer temperatures.

Instead, they show that treelines are more likely to advance at sites that had warmed during the winter months.

It is known, at least in northern latitudes that climate-associated changes in winter conditions are on average more extreme than changes in summer conditions.

“These results show that treelines are responding to warming, but are not consistent in that only half of the sites showed signs of advance despite most sites experiencing warming,” said Harsch. (ANI)

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Locusts’ brains may provide clues to curing migraines, stroke

July 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 4 (ANI): Queen’s University biologists have revealed that insight into the locust’s brain may offer a novel way to manipulate human brain to stave off diseases like migraines, stroke, and epilepsy.

The researchers said that a similarity in brain disturbance between the insect and human sufferers of migraines, stroke, and epilepsy could open pathways for development of new drug therapies.

The study showed that the ability of the insect to resist entering the coma, and the speed of its recovery, can be manipulated using drugs that target one of the cellular signalling pathways in the brain.

“This suggests that similar treatments in humans might be able to modify the thresholds or severity of migraine and stroke,” said Gary Armstrong, who is completing his PhD research in Biology professor Mel Robertson’s laboratory.

“What particularly excites me is that in one of our locust models, inhibition of the targeted pathway completely suppresses the brain disturbance in 70 per cent of animals,” Dr. Robertson added.

The same researchers previously showed that locusts go into a coma as a way of shutting down and conserving energy, when conditions are dangerous.

The cellular responses in the locust are similar to the response of brain cells at the onset of a migraine. (ANI)

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Duckbilled dino had skin like birds and crocodiles

July 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 1 (ANI): A new study of a remarkably preserved fossil of a duckbilled dinosaur has revealed that the prehistoric reptile had skin like that of birds and crocodiles.

According to a report in National Geographic News, advanced imaging and chemical techniques revealed that the 66-million-year-old “mummified” duckbilled dinosaur had two layers of skin, as do modern vertebrates, including humans.

Such a discovery was possible because the dinosaur’s skin fossilized before bacteria had a chance to eat up the tissue.

It is “absolutely amazing to be able to identify organic molecules from soft tissue that belonged to a beast that died over 66 million years ago,” said excavation leader Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Britain’s University of Manchester. “It’s certainly in my top ten all-time (most significant) fossils,” he added.

Tyler Lyson, a teenager at the time, discovered Dakota, as the fossil was later dubbed, in 1999 on his family’s North Dakota property.

No one knows how the hippo-size animal died. But, scientists do know that the body was probably buried rapidly.

The resulting low-oxygen environment and the apparent lack of disturbance to the site made Dakota a “world-class dinosaur” fossil, according to the new study.

With electron microscopes and x-rays, Manning discovered that Dakota had cell-like structures indicative of two-ply skin: a thin surface layer plus an underlying layer of dense connective tissues.

That’s just like skin of modern birds and reptiles, which scientists believe are closely related to duckbilled dinosaurs.

Protein-recovery techniques used on the skin and a claw detected amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

Proteins themselves, complex molecules that degrade easily over time, were not found, however.

But, Manning did identify molecules that would have broken down proteins in Dakota’s body.

That’s like finding fragments of a broken vase instead of the intact vase, explained Tom Holtz, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland.

“What’s really nice about the new research is this protein-recovery strategy. It’s the first time the skin of such a big plant-eating dinosaur has been analyzed so deeply,” said Holtz.

“That Dakota’s skin resembles modern vertebrate skin is not surprising but nonetheless comforting,” he added.

Understanding the exact environments that froze Dakota in time may help paleontologists better target future fossil hunts, according to lead study author Manning. (ANI)

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Most polluted ecosystems recoverable within a lifetime

May 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 28 (ANI): An analysis of 240 independent studies by researchers at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies has revealed that most polluted or damaged ecosystems worldwide can recover within a lifetime if societies commit to their cleanup or restoration.

The Yale researchers found that forest ecosystems recovered in 42 years on average, while ocean bottoms recovered in less than 10 years.

When examined by disturbance type, ecosystems undergoing multiple, interacting disturbances recovered in 56 years, and those affected by either invasive species, mining, oil spills or trawling recovered in as little as five years.

Most ecosystems took longer to recover from human-induced disturbances than from natural events, such as hurricanes.

“The damages to these ecosystems are pretty serious,” said Oswald Schmitz, an ecology professor at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and co-author of the meta-analysis with Yale Ph.D. student Holly Jones.

“But, the message is that if societies choose to become sustainable, ecosystems will recover. It isn’t hopeless,” he added.

The Yale analysis focuses on seven ecosystem types, including marine, forest, terrestrial, freshwater and brackish, and addresses recovery from major anthropogenic disturbances: agriculture, deforestation, eutrophication, invasive species, logging, mining, oil spills, overfishing, power plants and trawling and from the interactions of those disturbances.

Major natural disturbances, including hurricanes and cyclones, are also accounted for in the analysis.

The researchers analyzed data derived from peer-reviewed studies conducted over the past century that examined the recovery of large ecosystems following the cessation of a disturbance.

The studies measured 94 variables that were grouped into three categories: ecosystem function, animal community and plant community.

The researchers quantified the recovery of each of the variables in terms of the time it took for them to return to their pre-disturbance state.

The Yale analysis found that 83 studies demonstrated recovery for all variables; 90 reported a mixture of recovered and non-recovered variables; and 67 reported no recovery for any variable.

According to Schmitz, 15 percent of all the ecosystems in the analysis are beyond recovery.

Also, 54 percent of the studies that reported no recovery likely did not run long enough to draw definitive conclusions.

In addition, the analysis suggests that an ecosystem’s recovery may be independent of its degraded condition.

The researchers said the analysis rebuts speculation that it will take centuries or millennia for degraded ecosystems to recover and justifies an increased effort to restore degraded areas for the benefit of future generations.

“Restoration could become a more important tool in the management portfolio of conservation organizations that are entrusted to protect habitats on landscapes,” said Schmitz. (ANI)

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A wild leopard rescued from a village well in Gujarat

May 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Moticher (Surat), Apr 29 (ANI): After a well-planned operation, officials of the forest department rescued a wild leopard on prowl from an open well at Moticher village in Surat district of Gujarat in the wee hours of Wednesday.

It is believed that the spotted feline beauty had strayed into the village in search of water and accidentally fell into the well.

While falling into the well, the leopard had hit a pipe of a motor pump.

No sooner than the residents of Moticher villages learnt about this mishap, they informed the forest officials who rushed to the spot to rescue the animal.

Since a crowd of onlookers had gathered at the spot, the forest rangers waited till midnight to start the rescue operation that was planned meticulously.

“We opted midnight time for rescue operations when people are asleep hence there is no disturbance. We tied a rope to a cot, after that we lowered a ladder into the well, through which the leopard came out slowly and ran towards the fields,” said D S Chaudhary, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Surat Range, Gujarat.

So as to save the leopard from drowning, the officials had lowered a wooden cot into the well on which the wild cat managed to perch.

As a precaution, the forest rangers had also loaded their service revolvers lest the rescue leopard attack them in panic.

Fortunately, after a ladder was lowered into the well and placed near the cot, the leopard managed to come out and ran towards the fields. (ANI)

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Gandhi family scion arrested for hate speech given parole

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi – India’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of the grandson of the late prime minister Indira Gandhi on parole for two weeks to enable him to file his candidacy for general elections.

Varun Gandhi was arrested in late March in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly making inflammatory anti-Muslim statements while campaigning for India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The 29-year-old was booked under the National Security Act and was lodged in jail in Etah.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan ordered Gandhi’s release, pending a final decision on his lawsuit challenging his arrest by the state government.

The bench dismissed stiff opposition by the Uttar Pradesh government when ordering Gandhi’s temporary release but imposed strict conditions on the politician during his parole, such as not making speeches “likely to cause communal disturbance and hatred among any caste and community.”

The order would allow Gandhi to register as a candidate from the Pilibhit constituency in the state and launch his campaign.

The Indian National Congress party, which leads India’s federal coalition government and is headed by Sonia Gandhi, accused Varun Gandhi and the BJP of playing communal politics.

Varun Gandhi’s mother, Maneka Gandhi, was married to Indira Gandhi’s second son, Sanjay Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi, who was married to Indira’s elder son, Rajiv, is his aunt. The two branches of the family are members of rival political parties.

The Congress party and the BJP lead the two main alliances fighting the five-phased, month-long general elections in India, which began Thursday. (dpa)

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UPDATE 1-World Bank guarantee agency expands risk coverage

April 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) – The World Bank’s guarantee agency said on Wednesday it will offer coverage for investors who are hesitant to commit to projects in developing countries because they fear lengthy legal battles if a government fails to honor its financial obligations.

The so-called “non-honoring of sovereign financial obligations” is part of tweaks to some existing policies and broader changes endorsed by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) in response to turmoil in global financial markets.

The financial crisis and global downturn have increased competition for investment capital but also have unnerved investors about the potential for projects to fail given tighter financing conditions and falling demand.

Established in 1988, MIGA promotes foreign direct investment in developing countries by guaranteeing the safety of investments through political risk insurance.

Among the broader changes approved, MIGA has also extended its “breach of contract” coverage to creditworthy state-owned enterprises whose obligations the government may not be legally liable for but are still controlled by the state.

“MIGA’s breach of contract coverage will be enhanced by extending coverage to state-owned enterprises and to accommodate situations in which the investor does not have recourse to a dispute resolution forum, or legal proceedings are taking an unreasonably long time,” MIGA said in a statement.

In addition, the agency said it was also expanding its war and civil disturbance coverage by offering guarantees to private-sector clients for temporary business interruptions.

Izumi Kobayashi, MIGA’s executive vice president, said the changes will allow the agency to respond more flexibly in the wake of a global recession and credit crunch, which has affected access to financing and dampened growth and demand.

“The urgency for institutional renewal is heightened given the turmoil in the financial markets and it is incumbent on the World Bank Group to be especially adaptive and responsive at this time,” Kobayashi said.

“These modifications will also aid MIGA in achieving greater development effectiveness, particularly in our areas of focus, which include the world’s poorest countries, complex projects, promotion of south-south investments, and countries affected by conflict.”

Demand for MIGA’s product has grown rapidly as business opportunities and the search for profit took investors into untapped markets in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

But the financial market turmoil has increased the perception of risk among investors and driven up pricing of political risk insurance in the market. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Gary Hill)

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Statins cut stroke risk by a fifth

April 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Apr 15 (ANI): Cholesterol-lowering statins can decrease the risk of strokes by about a fifth, a new study has claimed.

The research reviewed some 24 studies, and found lower cholesterol levels were associated with a reduced risk of stroke. The risk fell 21 per cent for every reduction in a defined level of “bad” LDL cholesterol.
What’s more, the study found significant reductions in recurrent strokes and confirmed an effect on those caused by blood clots.

Statins reduce the amount of cholesterol produced and force the body to take up cholesterol from the blood stream, thereby reducing overall levels, reports The Telegraph.

Their side effects can include muscle aches, fatigue, liver problems, sleep disturbance, headaches, sexual dysfunction, amnesia and in rare cases lung disease.

The research, which was published in the Lancet Neurology, examined results involving more than 165,000 patients.

The review’s lead author Dr Pierre Amarenco, from Paris-Diderot University in France, said: “Lipid (blood fat) lowering with statins is effective in reducing both initial and recurrent stroke.

“Because this effect seems to be associated with the extent of LDL cholesterol reduction, the next step is to assess the effectiveness and safety of further reductions in LDL cholesterol after a stroke.”

Two of the studies included in the review looked at haemorrhagic stroke, which is caused by a bleeding blood vessel in the brain as opposed to a clot cutting off blood supply, as it had been thought statin treatment could increase this form of stroke.

However, the studies found no increase in the risk of haemorrhagic stroke except in those patients who had already suffered a brain bleed and the authors recommended caution when prescribing statins in this group. (ANI)

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NASA spacecraft provides scientists with 3D view of powerful solar explosions

April 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 15 (ANI): Twin NASA spacecraft have provided scientists with their first view of the speed, trajectory, and three-dimensional shape of powerful explosions from the sun known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.

This new capability will dramatically enhance scientists’ ability to predict if and how these solar tsunamis could affect Earth.

When directed toward our planet, these ejections can be breathtakingly beautiful and yet potentially cause damaging effects worldwide.

The brightly colored phenomena known as auroras – more commonly called Northern or Southern Lights – are examples of Earth’s upper atmosphere harmlessly being disturbed by a CME.

However, ejections can produce a form of solar cosmic rays that can be hazardous to spacecraft, astronauts and technology on Earth.

Space weather produces disturbances in electromagnetic fields on Earth that can induce extreme currents in wires, disrupting power lines and causing wide-spread blackouts.

These sun storms can interfere with communications between ground controllers and satellites and with airplane pilots flying near Earth’s poles.

These ejections carry billions of tons of plasma into space at thousands of miles per hour.

This plasma, which carries with it some of the magnetic field from the corona, can create a large, moving disturbance in space that produces a shock wave.

NASA’s twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, spacecraft are providing the unique scientific tool to study these ejections as never before.

Launched in October 2006, STEREO’s nearly identical observatories can make simultaneous observations of these ejections of plasma and magnetic energy that originate from the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.

The spacecraft are stationed at different vantage points. One leads Earth in its orbit around the sun, while the other trails the planet.

Using three-dimensional observations, solar physicists can examine a CME’s structure, velocity, mass, and direction in the corona while tracking it through interplanetary space.

These measurements can help determine when a CME will reach Earth and predict how much energy it will deliver to our magnetosphere, which is Earth’s protective magnetic shield.

“Before this unique mission, measurements and the subsequent data of a CME observed near the sun had to wait until the ejections arrived at Earth three to seven days later,” said Angelos Vourlidas, a solar physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.

“Now, we can see a CME from the time it leaves the solar surface until it reaches Earth, and we can reconstruct the event in 3D directly from the images,” he added. (ANI)

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Prison clean-up begins after riot

April 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

A clean-up operation is under way after inmates tore a prison apart during a 21-hour riot. Skip related content

Specialist prison officers were called to HMP Ashwell, near Oakham, Rutland, Leicestershire at around 1am on Saturday after prisoners caused a disturbance.

The jail was cordoned off by police all day after fires were set inside and authorities mounted attempts to regain control of the low-category C prison.

On Saturday night the Prison Service announced the incident “had successfully concluded” at 10.45pm.

A statement said: “No staff were injured and there were minor injuries to three prisoners.

“Around 420 prisoners were moved to other prisons and around 180 prisoners have been located within the prison. Areas of the prison are currently being treated as a crime scene.”

Throughout the day prison vans took inmates out of the prison to other institutions. In many, loud banging could be heard coming from inside.

Police helicopters hovered above while fire engines, police riot vans and an ambulance were on hand outside the prison.

The clean-up operation is imperative after the Prison Officers Association reported around 75 per cent of the jail had been wrecked by the rioting inmates.

POA national executive Pete Chapple said: “Initial reports are there are hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage.

“Four accommodation wings have been wrecked, two workshops, reception, the healthcare centre has been wrecked, plus other administration buildings.”

Mr Chapple said it was believed the riot started after one prisoner was deprived of his privileges as a punishment for being out of his room out of hours.

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Canada’s caribou face growing risk

April 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s 36,000-strong population of woodland caribou will shrink over the next century and those animals that live in areas heavy in energy production and logging are at greatest risk, according to a major report released on Thursday.

The Conservative government — which received the report last June but has only made it public now — angered conservationists by saying the document was not detailed enough and called for more studies.

Ottawa denied it had sat on the report, saying it needed time to study a complex topic. Environmental critics regularly accuse the government of not caring about green issues and of being too close to the energy industry.

Unlike the other more common types of caribou, which migrate across Canada’s northern tundra and Arctic in huge herds numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the woodland caribou live further south in the boreal forests that stretch across the entire country. There are 57 herds in all.

The study, compiled by a group of 18 caribou experts, said 29 of the herds were not self-sustaining. Many of the herds most at risk were in the energy-producing western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

“The inherent risks associated with a small population size warrant a cautious approach when considering potential resilience to any additional disturbance,” it concluded.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, which has long campaigned to protect the woodland caribou, said the report showed the animals were in more trouble than anyone realized.

“We are calling for an immediate pause to logging and new development activity in critical caribou habitat,” said the society’s Aran O’Carroll.

The federal environment ministry said the report needed to look further into the effect of human activity on the caribou.

“It does not provide enough detail about the habitat disturbance that can be tolerated by caribou populations and still maintain long-term persistence,” said a spokeswoman.

She said the ministry would produce a strategy in mid-2011 to protect the animals.

“We completely disagree with that. We think it is the most scientifically conclusive report ever produced on the species,” O’Carroll told Reuters.

In early 2007, specialists said they were worried by the falling population of barren-ground caribou in Canada’s vast Northwest Territories. They blamed factors such varying climate, insect levels, the amount of food available, and the number of predators.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren)

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Over 33pct Brits troubled by noisy neighbours

April 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, April 9 (ANI): Noisy neighbours have made the lives of more than a third of Britons miserable, a new survey has found.

According to the survey by insulation manufacturer Rockwool, loud music and televisions are the biggest causes of disturbance while other irritants for neighbours include parties, children and wooden floors.

The survey revealed that for many people the problem is so severe in some areas that it risks sparking violence.

Householders revealed during the survey that they had already been involved in physical fights with neighbours following complaints about noise.

Rockwool is using the findings to support its calls for better building controls in new-build homes to help to curb the problem.

However, house builders said tough standards were already in place.

“Domestic noise pollution is not just an urban nuisance, the problem of noisy neighbours is rapidly becoming the scourge of suburbia,” the Telegraph quoted Hans Schreuder, the managing director of Rockwool, as saying.

“Living with persistent noise can be very debilitating, increasing stress levels and leaving people feeling like prisoners in their own homes.

“We are calling for greater enforcement by environmental health officers to address the problem of nuisance noise.

“It is important that new buildings are built in accordance with strict building regulations with regard to noise penetration and rigorous testing is conducted to ensure compliance,” Schreuder added. (ANI)

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40 percent of Italians at risk from quakes

April 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, April 7 (ANI): Scientists have said that Italy is prone to earthquakes because it sits at the junction of two tectonic plates, leaving 40 per cent of the population of the country at risk.

Seven years ago, 30 people died – including 27 schoolchildren and their teacher – during a quake centred on the southern town of San Giuliano di Puglia.

Central Umbria was shattered by a disturbance 12 years ago, which killed 13 people and destroyed hundreds of historic buildings.

In 1980, a terrifying quake near Naples killed more than 3,000, injured 9,000 and made more than 30,000 homeless.

Italy’s biggest killer came in 1908 in Messina, Sicily, and measured 7.2 on the Richter scale and killed more than 70,000 people.

“The whole region is riddled with faults,” Open University lecturer David Rothery told the Daily Express. (ANI)

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DoT planning to introduce 11 digits numbering system for CDMA and GSM mobile phones

April 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Your CDMA and GSM numbers are likely to be expanded to 11 digits by early next year! Yes, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which, onetime maintained that the ten-digit mobile number system will go on for the next 30 years in India, is now considering introducing 11 digits numbering system.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), in its National Numbering Plan (NNP) 2003, stated, “When subscriber base in an SDCA (short distance charging area, or a circle in common parlance) expands beyond 4 crore, changeover from 10-digit to 11-digit may be required. However, this scenario is not envisaged almost for another 30 years.”

According to DoT, it is compelled to considering 11 digits numbering system because of the current growth of mobile subscribers. The rough base limit for the 10 digit number system is about 450 million subscribers, which is likely to be crossed by the next year. With 15 million mobile subscribers increasing every month, the current number of mobile subscribers 376 million (at the end of February, 2009) is likely to cross the limit (450 million) in next 10-15 months. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) reported that there were 375.74 million wireless subscribers in India, at the end of February 2009.

An 11-digit numbering framework will cause minimum disturbance to existing mobile phone users, the DoT officials said. According to DoT officials, the switching over from 10 to 11 digits numbering system will require addition of a number before or at the end of current number system; possibly number 9 will be prefixed or suffixed to the current number system. The DoT officials said, According to international norms, mobile phone numbers in a country should have a uniform number of digits.

Currently, only two countries China (with 624.16 million mobile subscribers as in January) and United Kingdom use 11-digit number system. United Kingdoms number of wireless subscribers is much lower, but still its uses 11-digit numbers for technical reasons. As in January, there were 276.1 million wireless subscribers in United States, 181.5 million in Russia, 145 million in Brazil, 117 million in Indonesia, 106 million in Germany, 104.83 million in Japan, 92.8 million in Italy, and 90.52 million in Pakistan.

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Mumbaikars sweat it out on weekend

April 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

MUMBAI: Mumbaikars continue to sweat it out over the weekend, with humidity shooting up to 89% and 82% in Colaba and Santa Cruz on Saturday morning,
even as the mercury hovered around the 35 degrees-Celsius mark.

“I was soaked in sweat by the time I reached work,” complained an office-goer, capturing the sentiment of most citizens had to step out on Saturday.

Maximum daytime temperatures recorded by the weather bureau stood at 33.3 degrees Celsius and 35.1 degrees Celsius at Colaba and Santa Cruz. This was marginally lower than April 1 when the temperature had skyrocketed to 41 degrees Celsius but humidity levels on Saturday were much higher than that day’s 70% and 40% (Colaba and Sanata Cruz).

“The high humidity is because there are some western disturbance affecting Jammu and Kashmir, which have been moving southwards as a humid air mass,” said forecasting officer Ajay Kumar.

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It’s not uncommon, but under-reported

April 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

CHENNAI: Friday’s brutal murder of his wife by Subhash, a 30-year-old man, who later had sex with the body sent shock waves among the police and
the public but psychiatrists say necrophilia sexual attraction to a corpse is not uncommon.

“It’s a mental illness rather under-diagnosed and under-reported,” says Dr S Nambi, senior psychiatrist, Institute of Mental Health. “There are times when a suspect is caught for a brutal murder. During interrogation we find it’s due to sexual attraction towards the corpse. In some cases they even eat the genitals, a form called necrolagnia. Remember the Raman Raghav case in Mumbai in the 60s?” he says.

No such cases have been seen at the IMH in the last 20 years, he says. “Not because it did not exist. But because, unlike this case, it is not recognised,” he said.

Doctors say necrophilia, or thanatophilia, comes from the ancient Greek word nekros meaning corpse and philia meaning friendship.

“This kind of horror fascination hardly even comes to the notice of the psychiatrist. It is a deviant abnormal behaviour but it is under-reported,” says Dr Thara Srinivasan of SCARF.

Unfortunately, most doctors think Subash’s act is not the first sign of his disease. “When people live in poverty their survival is at stake. A deviation in normal behaviour during his day-to-day life gets unnoticed,” says psychiatrist Dr Vijay Nagaswami.

Social scientists say it is probably under-reported also because it’s not explicitly stated in the Indian Penal Code. The provision available is Section 297, trespassing on burial places, etc. It states that whosoever with the intention of wounding the feelings of any person, or of insulting religion of any person, or with the knowledge that the feelings of any person are likely to be wounded, or that the religion of any person is likely to be insulted thereby, commits any trespass in any place of worship or on any place of sculpture, or any place set apart for the performance of funeral rites or as a depository for the remains of the dead, or offers any indignity to any human corpse, or causes disturbance to any persons assembled for the performance of funeral ceremonies, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.

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Hot weekend but relief likely soon

April 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

NEW DELHI: If Friday was uncomfortably warm, brace yourself for some more heat over the weekend. According to the Met department, the next three
days are likely to have clear sky due to which the day temperature will probably increase. However, by the middle of next week, an approaching western disturbance could spell thundershowers and squalls in some areas over northwest India.

The minimum temperature in Delhi went up a degree higher since Thursday to record at 21.5 degrees Celsius, three degrees above normal. This has been the highest minimum on April 3 since 2004. In 2004, the minimum on April 3 was 21 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature went up from 35.1 degrees Celsius on Thursday to 36 degrees Celsius, two degrees above normal. The highest maximum on April 3 in the past five years was 38 degrees Celsius in 2004.

“For the next three days, there is no forecast of rain. The sky will remain clear which indicates high day temperatures over northwest India. However, the three days after that are likely to experience thundershowers and squalls. An approaching western disturbance around April 5 will see some rainfall activity around April 7-9,” said B P Yadav, director, Met.

“The weather had been so pleasant in the past several days and we were really hopeful that this pleasant spell would continue for some more time. However, when I stepped out in the afternoon I was caught by surprise by the sudden heat. I dread that this is the sign of peak summer finally setting in the city,” said Nitika Khandelwal, a resident of Dwarka.

Added R L Khanna from Green Park Extension: “After a long time I had to turn on the airconditioning in my car because it was suddenly so hot. I was driving from my Nehru Place office to Connaught Place for a meeting in the afternoon.”

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Sonia Gandhi launches Congress poll campaign in Orissa

April 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Bhubaneswar, Apr 2 (ANI): Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday launched her party’s poll campaign in the state.

The UPA chairperson, who is on a day-long visit to the state, criticized the Naveen Patnaik-led Orissa Government for taking credit for the schemes launched by the Central Government.

“The Central Government had started a scheme of selling rice at cheaper rate but the State government is trying to mislead people by claiming credit for it,” Gandhi said while addressing a rally at Jamunda village in Bargarh District.

She also blamed the State government for hampering development in the state.

“Development had been hampered in Orissa because of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Biju Janata Dal (BJD) coalition and now they are blaming each other after the alliance ended,” she added.

Gandhi also alerted people of Orissa against divisive forces.

“Some people were trying to create disturbance and that needs to be foiled. People of Orissa are peace loving, but seeds of hatred are being sown by some outfits. People must remain alert against divisive forces and maintain peace, brotherhood and unity,” she added.

The polls in Orissa are scheduled to be held in two phases- April 16 and April 23 – to elect 147 members to the State Assembly and 21 members to the Lok Sabha. (ANI)

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Sleep problems ‘up suicidal behaviour risk in adults’

April 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 1 (ANI): Adults who suffer chronic sleep problems are more likely to show suicidal tendencies than those without any insomnia complaints, a new study has found.

In the study, researchers found that the more types of sleep disturbances people had, the more likely they were to have thoughts of killing themselves, engage in planning a suicidal act or make a suicide attempt.

“People with two or more sleep symptoms were 2.6 times more likely to report a suicide attempt than those without any insomnia complaints,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Marcin Wojnar, a research fellow at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan in the United States and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry at the Medical University of Warsaw in Poland.

Scientists have consistently linked sleep disturbances to an increased risk of suicidal behaviour in people with psychiatric disorders and in adolescents, but it has been unclear whether the association also exists in the general adult population.

In the study, scientists examined the relationship over one year between three characteristics of insomnia (difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep and waking at least two hours earlier than desired) and three suicidal behaviours (suicidal thoughts, planning and attempts) in 5,692 Americans.

About 35 percent of those studied reported experiencing at least one type of sleep disturbance in the preceding 12 months.

The most consistent link was seen for early morning awakening, which was related to all suicidal behaviours.

People with this problem were twice as likely as those with no sleep problems to have had suicidal thoughts in the preceding 12 months, 2.1 times more likely to have planned suicide and 2.7 times more likely to have tried to kill themselves.

Difficulty falling asleep was a significant predictor of suicidal thoughts and planning.

Compared with people who reported no sleep problems, those who had trouble initiating sleep had 1.9 times the risk of suicidal ideas and 2.2 times the risk of planning suicide.

People who had trouble sleeping through the night – waking up nearly every night and taking an hour or more to get back to sleep – were twice as likely to have thought of suicide in the last year and were three times more likely to have attempted it than those who had no sleep problems.

The results were adjusted for several factors known to influence suicide, including substance abuse, depression, anxiety disorder and other mood disorders, as well as chronic medical conditions such as stroke, heart disease, lung disease and cancer.

They were also adjusted for the influence of sociodemographic factors such as age, gender, and marital and financial status.

The study is to be presented on April 1, 2009 at the World Psychiatric Association international congress ‘Treatments in Psychiatry.’ (ANI)

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