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How to stay fit in flu season

September 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 20 (ANI): As cold and flu season approaches, giving up junk food for more healthy options would help maintain a strong immune system.

Dr Ara DerMarderosian, professor of pharmacognosy for University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and an expert in nutraceuticals and natural foods, have provided guidance to change how you eat and break habits that pack on the pounds and compromise immunity.

? Don’t play “food police”

Be conscious of what and how much you eat, but don’t overdo self-monitoring to the point that a healthy lifestyle shifts from being a choice to becoming overwhelming, pushing other activities away and interfering with relationships.

? Pay attention to true hunger

Listen to your hunger signals and refrain from eating when you’re not hungry. Eating when your body doesn’t need food can cause you to overindulge.

? Eat slowly

Eat like a gourmet – enjoy each bite to have, chewing methodically, and truly enjoy the taste of your food. Eating slowly gives your body time to break down the food, which can prevent post-meal indigestion and feeling bloated.

? Focus on eating

Do not watch television, read or work while you eat. When you’re not focused on eating, it’s unlikely you’ll notice how much is going in your mouth.

? Avoid eating when stressed

Stress is a well-known cause of overeating and digestive issues, such as heartburn. A relaxing atmosphere, enjoyable company and conversation, and not feeling rushed for time makes for a healthy meal.

? Everything in moderation

Eating food is pleasurable, so enjoy a few morsels of candy, but limit the quantity. (ANI)

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Why diet drugs work

September 12, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

London, Sept 11 (ANI): Diet drugs work because they make people eat more healthily, claim psychologists.

In the study, presented at the British Psychological Society’s Division of Health Psychology conference in Birmingham, researchers found that dieters who lost the most weight on the drugs had also reduced the amount of fatty junk food they ate.

However, some people reacted differently to starting the drugs, taking them as a license to eat more unhealthy food such as crisps, reports The Telegraph.

To reach the conclusion, researchers analysed data of 572 people who had been prescribed the diet drug orlistat by their doctor.

The drug works by reducing the amount of fat absorbed by the body.However, this fat is them eliminated in bowel movements, which can cause disagreeable side effects.

Amelia Hollywood, a PHD student at the University of Surrey and one of the researchers who carried out the study, said: “Our findings support the idea that orlistat works not only on a physical level, but also psychologically – as it encourages people to see their diet as a cause of their weight problem.

“In addition, the side effects are so unpleasant that people avoid bad eating fatty foods and therefore lose weight.

“However, the way in which some people responded to orlistat was surprising.

“Some participants in this study reported that their eating behaviour became significantly unhealthier over the six month period.”

She added: “People also told us that they were not adhering to the medication as they should. It seemed that these people were taking orlistat as a lifestyle drug – choosing to take it when they were eating foods higher in fat to reduce any weight gain or not taking it when going on holiday or out for a meal as they didn’t want to experience the consequences of eating fatty foods.”

The preliminary findings found that on average those taking the diet pills lost almost 10lb over six months. (ANI)

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Fat-rich junk food may alter genes linked with type II diabetes

September 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 8 (ANI): A team of scientists in Sweden have warned that gorging too much on fat-rich junk food may cause drastic changes to a gene that helps muscle cells burn fat.

Juleen Zierath, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, says that her team’s findings may help improve the scientific understanding of how type II diabetes develops in adulthood.

“Somehow, the environment plays on the genes we have,” says the lead researcher, adding that her study provides new clues to how this happens.

She says that it may be possible that the altered cells become so engorged with unburnt fat that they become “diabetic”, and stop accepting signals from the hormone insulin, which normally triggers the absorption of glucose from the bloodstream.

However, proving that components in the diet can permanently alter genes is itself a breakthrough, as it provides the first evidence that the food people eat may change the function of their DNA, a process scientifically known as “epigenetics”.

During the study, the researchers observed that the DNA itself remained unchanged, except for a masking process called methylation that can permanently mothball a gene by capping individual chemical units or bases.

Before the researchers undertook this research, they had already found in a previous study that muscle cells from people with type II diabetes showed such telltale epigenetic alterations to their DNA, particularly in the PGC-1 gene, which orchestrates metabolic programmes critical to the burning of fat in mitochondria, the chambers in cells that generate energy.

In the current study, the researchers achieved the most significant result when they exposed the healthy muscle cells to the edible fatty acid, palmitic acid.

The team found that the PGC-1 gene became methylated, just as it is in people with diabetes.

“The palmitic acid essentially switches off the gene,” New Scientist magazine quoted Zierath as saying.

She says that the fact that fat produces such an effect is highly significant, as it means that over-consumption of junk food may cause the same response.

“It suggests that if you eat a fat-rich diet, something in that – either the fat itself or the build up of metabolites – triggers the methylation of genes. The net effect is that it switches off the gene,” says Zierath.

The team’s analyses also reveal that the shutdown of PGC-1 led to inactivation of other genes vital for burning or transporting fat.

Zierath says that her team’s next step will be to find out how different diets affect the methylation status of PGC-1 and other genes vital for burning energy, hoping that their efforts will lead to the discovery of a potential mechanism by which type II diabetes develops.

A research article on her study has been published in the journal Cell Metabolism. (ANI)

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US Fritzl’s secret garden of evil where he kept kidnapped girl as sex slave

August 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Aug 30 (ANI): A filthy, ramshackle secret garden, hidden inside ‘American Fritzl’ Phillip Garrido’s house in the small town of Antioch, east of San Francisco, has been revealed to be the place where he kept Jaycee Lee Dugard as sex slave for 18 years and fathered two children with her.

Jaycee – kidnapped from a bus stop by Garrido, 58, when she was just 11 -was just 14 when she had the first of his two daughters, now 11 and 15, reports News of the World.

The kidnapped victim had to raise her undercover family amid the makeshift home of sheds and tents, surrounded by rubbish – topped off with a sign bidding Welcome.

The shocking details emerged as Phillip and his wife Nancy were held for trial after denying 29 charges of abduction, imprisonment and rape – and 29-year-old Jaycee was reunited with her shocked family.

Jaycee and her daughters lived destitute in a maze of interlinked shacks and tents hidden from view by overgrown trees, 8ft fencing and tarpaulins.

The entire area is strewn with their sad array of worn and broken toys and possessions, vying for space with piles of the Garridos’ dumped household junk including discarded cans of chemicals.

A source who visited the Walnut Tree Avenue compound said: “Most frightening are the bloodstains which are everywhere on carpets, tent walls and in clothing.

“It’s extremely disturbing trying to fathom out what went on in that dreadful place and how human beings could do such things.”

“How the children didn’t die of diseases or suffer long-term medical problems is a miracle. Their home was a tip with no hygiene at all,” the source added. (ANI)

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Junk food cholesterol may pose the greatest heart disease risk

August 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 21 (ANI): Health freaks know that high levels of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol can increase the risk of heart attacks. Now, scientists have discovered a little-known type of cholesterol which may prove to be the most lethal of all.

Cholesterol called oxycholesterol is virtually unknown to the public and may be the most serious cardiovascular health threat of all.

Fried and processed food, particularly fast food, contains high amounts of oxycholesterol.

Scientists from China presented one of the first studies on the cholesterol-boosting effects of oxycholesterol at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

The researchers hope their findings raise public awareness about oxycholesterol, including foods with the highest levels of the substance and other foods that can combat oxycholesterol’s effects.

“Total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), and the heart-healthy high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) are still important health issues,” says study leader Zhen-Yu Chen, Ph.D., of Chinese University of Hong Kong.

“But the public should recognize that oxycholesterol is also important and cannot be ignored. Our work demonstrated that oxycholesterol boosts total cholesterol levels and promotes atherosclerosis ["hardening of the arteries"] more than non-oxidized cholesterol,” the expert added.

In the study, Chen’s group measured the effects of a diet high in oxycholesterol on hamsters, often used as surrogates for humans in such research. Blood cholesterol in hamsters fed oxycholesterol rose up to 22 percent more than hamsters eating non-oxidized cholesterol. The oxycholesterol group showed greater deposition of cholesterol in the lining of their arteries and a tendency to develop larger deposits of cholesterol. These fatty deposits, called atherosclerotic plaques, increase the risk for heart attack and stroke.

Most importantly, according to Chen, oxycholesterol had undesirable effects on “artery function.” Oxycholesterol reduced the elasticity of arteries, impairing their ability to expand and carry more blood. That expansion can allow more blood to flow through arteries that are partially blocked by plaques, potentially reducing the risk that a clot will form and cause a heart attack or stroke.

But a healthy diet rich in antioxidants can counter these effects, Chen said, noting that these substances may block the oxidation process that forms oxycholesterol. (ANI)

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Key feature of immune system survived in humans for 60 million years

August 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 19 (ANI): A new study has concluded that one key part of the immune system survived in the humans and other primates for almost 60 million years.

Researchers at the Oregon State University (OSU) and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the US carried out the study.

They found out that one key part of the immune system, the ability of vitamin D to regulate anti-bactericidal proteins, is so important that is has been conserved through almost 60 million years of evolution and is shared only by primates, including humans – but no other known animal species.

The fact that this vitamin-D mediated immune response has been retained through millions of years of evolutionary selection, and is still found in species ranging from squirrel monkeys to baboons and humans, suggests that it must be critical to their survival, according to researchers.

Even though the “cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide” has several different biological activities in addition to killing pathogens, it’s not clear which one, or combination of them, makes vitamin D so essential to its regulation.

The research also provides further evidence of the biological importance of adequate levels of vitamin D in humans and other primates, even as some studies and experts suggest that more than 50 percent of the children and adults in the US are deficient in “the sunshine vitamin.”

“The existence and importance of this part of our immune response makes it clear that humans and other primates need to maintain sufficient levels of vitamin D,” said Adrian Gombart, an associate professor of biochemistry and a principal investigator with the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.

In the new study, researchers from OSU and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center describe the presence of a genetic element that’s specific to primates and involved in the innate immune response.

They found it not only in humans and their more recent primate ancestors, such as chimpanzees, but also primates that split off on the evolutionary tree tens of millions of years ago, such as old world and new world primates.

The genetic material – called an Alu short interspersed element – is part of what used to be thought of as “junk DNA” and makes up more than 90 percent of the human genome.

In this case, the genetic element is believed to play a major role in the proper function of the “innate” immune system in primates – an ancient, first line of defense against bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. (ANI)

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Indian-origin boffin offers potential new spinal muscular atrophy treatment

July 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 28 (ANI): A team of researchers led by Indian origin scientist has come up with a potential new treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, the second-leading cause of infant mortality in the world.

Ravindra Singh, associate professor in biomedical sciences at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine said that more than 95 percent of the sufferers have a mutated or deleted gene called Survival Motor Neuron 1 (SMN1) that doesn’t correctly do its job of creating functional SMN proteins.

He suggested that replacing poor-performing gene with another gene could help treat the disease.

Humans need a certain level of SMN protein to ward off Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

When SMN1 fails to create functioning proteins, Spinal Muscular Atrophy is the result.

There is a gene already in humans that looks very much like SMN1, so much so that it’s called SMN2. The SMN2 gene doesn’t seem to serve any function that researchers can identify.

Singh has discovered a way of using SMN2 to produce the working SMN protein. When SMN2 makes enough SMN, it compensates for the mutated or malfunctioning SMN1 gene.

However, SMN2 doesn’t produce normal protein because of the presence of a specific intronic sequence in the gene or DNA.

To make SMN2 behave as SMN1, Singh has introduced a small antisense oligonucleotide that blocks this specific intronic sequence.

When the intronic sequence is blocked, SMN2 produces normal proteins and acts, in effect, like SMN1.

“The significance of our work is that we have this stuff called junk DNA in SMN2,” said Singh.

“We found that we could get SNM2 to behave as SMN1 by introducing a small oligonucleotide. It is a very simple experiment if you think about it,” he added.

The resulting proteins are normal just like a regular cell – free from Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

“Our cells are healthy and survive. From that point of view, this is a major achievement,” he added.

The study appears online in Landes Bioscience.(ANI)

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Now, a simple computer game that can help stop smammers in their tracks

July 16, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 16 (ANI): Computer scientists at Newcastle University have come up with a simple game that can turn a tedious manual labelling task into a form of light entertainment, and simultaneously help companies improve their chances of tackling online spammers.

Dr. Jeff Yan and his PhD student Su-Yang Yu call their innovation ‘Magic Bullet’.

The researchers highlight the fact that commercial websites like Google and Yahoo use Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) to defend against malicious Internet bots, which spread junk emails or grab thousands of free email accounts.

They say that a common approach to testing its robustness is to try and attack or break the scheme.

According to them, this involves acquiring a set of labelled samples, but as computers find it difficult to recognise distorted test or images, this task usually falls to human researchers.

“Manually labelling samples is tedious and expensive. For the first time, this simple game turns it into a fun experience with a serious application as it also achieves a labelling accuracy of as high as 98 per cent,” says Dr. Yan.

Since spammers can misuse computer programs that can automatically bypass a heavily used CAPTCHA, it is important for researchers to understand and improve the robustness of the system in order to stay one step ahead.

To fully evaluate the robustness of a CAPTCHA scheme, at least 10,000 segments usually have to be labelled – a task that cannot be automated.

Dr. Yan and Yu say that their Magic Bullet is a dual-purpose online shooting game that can be played just for fun, but also contributes to solving a real problem.

Players are randomly pitched against each other, with two in each team. They cannot communicate with each other, and security techniques are used to ensure that they are geographically apart to reduce the likelihood of cheating.

Just in case there are not enough human players, one of two types of bots-a Data Relay Bot that replays data from old games or a Tailored Response Bot that acts according to an opposing team’s performance-will be introduced.

A randomly chosen segmented CAPTCHA character appears in each round, and shoots towards the target only when both players correctly identify it before their opponents.

Although the computer does not know which character each of the segments is, the answers given by the winning team can be accurate labels for the segments in the majority of cases.

The researchers have also included a high scoring table in the game in order to encourage players to return to improve on a previous score.

“An average game session produced 25 correct labels per minute, giving 1,500 per hour. Although this is not particularly fast, if touch typists were used it would be noticeably improved, and also players need time to get to know how the game works,” says Dr. Yan.

“As this game supports a large number of parallel sessions, which are limited only by the network bandwidth and game server’s CPU and memory, there is also a lot of scope to increase the labelling rate dramatically,” he adds.

A presentation on the research team’s findings were made at the ongoing IJCAI’09, a leading artificial intelligence conference in Pasadena, CA, USA. (ANI)

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Mischa Barton plumps up with ‘hard partying’

July 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New York, July 8 (ANI): Mischa Barton has raised eyebrows after packing on the pounds, with her friends laying the blame on the actress’ hard partying ways.

The O.C. star, who left onlookers gasping with her dramatic weight loss six months ago, was said to have replaced her previously thin frame with some serious expanding curves and a bloated face.

And sources alleged it’s the doing of the 23-year-old’s heavy partying and recent split from The Kooks singer Luke Pritchard.

“When her love life is out of sorts she just lets herself go and hits the party scene. Her friends try to tell her to stop but she doesn’t listen. Drinking bloats her terribly,” the New York Daily News quoted a source as telling Closer magazine.

The source added: “After clubbing she’ll usually tuck into greasy fast food. She’ll starve herself all day then binge on junk. It wreaks havoc with her system.”

But a story in the Daily Mail suggested that Barton’s puffy appearance stemmed from a bad reaction to antibiotics treating a recently pulled wisdom tooth. (ANI)

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Over a third Brit teens use caffeine to help them study

June 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

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London, June 22 (ANI): More than a third of British teenagers use caffeine tablets and energy drinks while studying for exams, finds a new survey.
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The study led by School Food Trust showed that students revising for exams skipped meals, did less exercise, and ate more junk food./pp
They often underestimated the importance of healthy living./pp
Of the 500 students questioned during the survey, 48 per cent thought that eating properly was important to help them revise/pp
And less than one in five felt that exercise was important in their study regime./pp
Almost 79 per cent agreed that they were likely to snack more and eat less healthily when studying or revising./pp
In addition, 42 per cent said that they had skipped meals to make time to revise, and nine in ten regularly felt tired because of their schoolwork./pp
Consequently, only half of teenagers could study only for 30 minutes before losing concentration./pp
Nearly 26 per cent admitted to using energy drinks, while 11 per cent admitted to using performance enhancers like caffeine tablets./pp
The study also showed that chocolate was the revision food of choice, chosen by more than 42 per cent of those questioned, followed by 33 per cent fizzy drinks and 31 per cent biscuits./pp
It’s often said you get out what you put in – our research shows that children are able to perform better in class when they have had a healthy school lunch rather than junk food, the Telegraph quoted Prue Leith, who is chair of the Trust as saying. /pp
Children aren’t stupid and they know that healthy food is better for them, and that a healthy breakfast and a balanced school lunch will give them more energy for their studies and help them concentrate more./pp
Making that choice, and sticking with it, especially come exam time, could be the difference between success and failure, she added. (ANI)/p

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‘UFO’ hits Queensland mountain

June 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, June 19 (ANI): In the latest UFO riddle to grip Australia, a flaming object has been spotted crashing into a mountain in central Queensland.

The spectacle was initially treated as a possible plane crash but is now believed to be a meteor or space junk falling to earth.

Police said the Australian Search and Rescue Authority received no mayday or distress calls from aircraft.

The AGL Action Rescue helicopter has been tasked to search the mountainous area at Takilberan Creek northwest of Gin Gin.

Property owner Hazel Marlin told ABC Radio the mountain was covered in smoke.

A spokesman for the AGL Action Rescue Helicopter said a crew had not been able to identify what caused the fire.

Police are also conducting a ground search of the thickly wooded area.

“They’ve conducted ground searches as well as an aerial search,” the Courier Mail quoted him as saying.

“There is a fire up there but it could have been caused by a space junk or meteor strike, or even a lightning strike,” he added.

A spokeswoman for UFO Research Queensland said that they had received no reports about the incident. (ANI)

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NASA examines long stretch of nicks on space shuttle Atlantis

May 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 13 (ANI): Astronauts aboard NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis have uncovered a long stretch of nicks on their space shuttle, which are the result of launch debris.

They were inspecting their ship for signs of launch damage when they came across the nicks.

Mission Control informed the crew that it’s a 21-inch stretch of nicks over four to five thermal tiles on the right side of Atlantis. The damage is where the right wing joins the fuselage.

Mission Control says it could be related to debris that came off the fuel tank almost two minutes after liftoff.

NASA said that the damage does not appear to be serious, but more analysis is needed.

Atlantis blasted off on May 11 on a risky repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Endeavour is on standby in case a rescue is needed.

This final trip to Hubble is especially dangerous because of all the space junk in the telescope’s 350-mile-high orbit.

Atlantis seems to have come through its launch fairly well, at least. But the analysis is continuing.

On this fifth and final repair mission, Atlantis’ crew will replace Hubble’s batteries and gyroscopes, install two new cameras and take a crack at fixing two broken science instruments, something never before attempted.

They also will remove the command and data-handling unit that failed in September and had to be revived, and put in a spare that was hustled into operation.

Fresh insulating covers will be added to the outside of the telescope, and a new fine guidance sensor for pointing will be hooked up.

Five spacewalks will be needed to accomplish everything. (ANI)

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“Sails” to guide satellites and used rockets back to Earth

May 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, May 4 (ANI): Soon, satellites and spent rocket stages could deploy “sails” to guide them back to Earth much faster than they would otherwise fall out of the sky.

With space becoming ever more crowded, there is a need to remove redundant objects that could pose a collision threat to operational missions.

According to a report by BBC News, extending a sail on an old spacecraft would increase drag and pull it into the Earth’s atmosphere to burn up.

Major European space firm EADS Astrium says the scheme has great potential.

“It is an interesting solution, especially for the satellite that has no propulsion system at the end of its life,” scientist Brice Santerre told BBC News.

Santerre and colleague Max Cerf have been working on what they call the Innovative DEorbiting Aerobrake System (IDEAS).

The concept involves extending booms and sheeting from spacecraft to increase the amount of drag they experience from the residual air molecules still present at altitudes up to even 750km (470 miles).

“The principle of aerobraking is to increase the surface over mass ratio of an orbital object, to accelerate the fall-out by increasing the drag on the system,” Santerre said.

“To do that, we need to deploy a very light structure. That’s why we chose to use ‘gossamer structures’. These are composed of booms and very thin membranes,” he added.

Santerre and Serf have been developing an aerobraking sail concept for the forthcoming French Microscope satellite.

Microscope is a science mission that will investigate the force of gravity and the behaviour of free-falling objects in a test of what has become known as the equivalence principle.

The satellite will take about a year to make its measurements and will then have no further purpose.

Ideally, such a spacecraft would be removed from orbit, especially since it will be circling at an altitude where many important Earth observation satellites also operate.

“Microscope has no propulsion system so it cannot de-orbit by itself. If we were to do nothing, the fall-out duration would be between 50 and 100 years,” said Santerre.

By erecting their boom and membrane mechanism, Santerre and Serf believe Microscope could be brought out of the sky in less than 25 years, which meets international orbital junk mitigation guidelines. (ANI)

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Obesity on the rise amongst Dehradun students

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Dehradun, May 1 (ANI): Students in affluent schools in Dehradun are growing obese due to lack of exercise and unhealthy eating habits.

The students believe that the cause for their being obese is lack of sports activities. They believe that that they do not get enough exercise as most of their time is taken up by studies.

“There is a lot of pressure of studies. The school does not pay attention on sports. There is Chinese food and junk food available in the school. And children obviously like it more,” said Faizal Ahmed, a student, St. Joseph’s school.

The students get junk food in their school canteens so they are naturally gravitated towards it.

“I play very little sports as there is a lot of pressure because of studies. And because I eat junk food so fat increases because of that,” said Deepanshu, another student.

The doctors believe that obesity can lead to many diseases especially diabetes if it sets in an early age.

“Obesity is on the rise amongst children. It can cause diabetes. They only eat and that too junk food. There is a lack of exercise. And the high calorie food increases fat. If we see statistically, diabetes is rising amongst people less than 30 years of age. Diabetes will also be the main cause for blindness till 2020,” said Dr. A.K Khanna, a child specialist.

Sedentary lifestyle has become an issue of concern amongst children and youngsters all over the world leading to many health problems at an early age. By Ashish Goel (ANI)

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An Indian diabetic cure for Hollywood star Halle Berry

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, April 18 (ANI): With an Oscar statuette under her belt, Hollywood is at Halle Berry’s feet. However, life has never been a bed of roses for this brilliant actress, as she has had to battle one of the world’s most common illnesses – diabetes.

Now, a well known diabetologist, Dr. Vikas Alhuwalia, believes that he has a special program that may help Berry to bring her diabetic condition under control.

“I would be more than happy to help superstars like Berry who I am told have suffered from diabetes,” said Dr. Alhuwalia.

It was in 1989, during the taping of the short-lived television series ‘Living Dolls’, that Berry lapsed into a coma and was diagnosed with diabetes, a condition that now affects an estimated 24.1 million people in the United States and over 30 million in India.

As the prevalence of and progression to diabetes continues to increase, diabetes-related morbidity and mortality have emerged as major public health care issues.

People with diabetes are vulnerable to multiple and complex medical complications. These complications involve both cardiovascular disease (heart disease, stroke) and peripheral vascular disease) and microvascular disease.

Dr. Alhuwalia wants to tackle the illness head-on, and says that in India he has launched diabetes awareness camps.

He told ANI that these awareness camps are being held in cooperation with senior citizen associations on a monthly basis.

Dr. Alhuwalia said that the objective behind the drive is to come forward and interact with experts like himself to understand the dangers posed by diabetes to all age groups.

“Nowadays, people are picking up diabetes at an early stage. We need to identify who has the disease, especially in the case of youngsters. Earlier, we use to deal with diabetics who were in their 40s and 50s, now we get cases of people who are in their late 20s or early 30s. We need to treat it and prevent complications that arise with the disease at an early stage,” said Dr. Alhuwalia.

When asked what were the factors responsible for the onset of diabetes, Dr. Alhuwalia said lifestyle changes, obesity, physical inactivity and the wanton consumption of junk food were key factors contributing to diabetes.

He said that his Diabetes Care Foundation Of India is a registered charitable society, which aims to promote health awareness among the common masses in the field of diabetes.

At the awareness camps, patients would be offered free blood sugar check up, free consultation with diabetes specialist, free consultation with neurologist for diabetic neuropathy, including the use of bio-thesometer, free consultation with an eye specialist for diabetic retinopathy, medicines for diabetes and blood pressure at concessional rates, insulin vials and insulin pens at concessional rates, he revealed. (ANI)

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Plea to junk elevated expressway project

April 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

CHENNAI: Beach-goers, fisherfolk, environmentalists and residents of Foreshore Estate, Olcott Kuppam and Orur Kuppam in Besant Nagar on Friday
demanded that the state government abandon its proposed 7.5-km six-lane elevated expressway along the beach from Marina to East Coast Road.

Under a newly formed forum, Save Chennai Beaches, an awareness and protest rally was held on Eliots beach. Members of the forum alleged that the project would disrupt fishing activity, displace coastal residents, disturb nesting turtles and damage ecologically sensitive areas such as the Theosophical Society and Adyar estuary, besides changing the face of residential areas.

Arun from Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN), a voluntary group, said that the construction of the expressway would disrupt the nesting spots of the Olive Ridley turtles, an endangered species listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife Act. SSTCN has been working since 1980 along the coastline, spreading awareness about the species and the need to conserve it. “We have so far saved more than 8,000 turtle hatchlings and released them safely into the sea. The proposed expressway will make it hell here,” he said.

After consultant Willbur Smith Associates Pvt Ltd, appointed by the highways department, conducted a detailed feasibility study last year, the government planned to start work on the corridor construction, from the Lighthouse to Foreshore Estate, crossing Adyar estuary and beyond, up to Ururkuppam. The alignment joins Besant Nagar Fifth Avenue Road near Eliots Beach, before the second phase in Kottivakkam takes over.

According to Madras high court senior advocate Sriram Panchu, both phases violated environmental rules and the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) notification, 1991. He added: “The proposal is a subversion of the masterplan, as it finds no mention in the document. Given the magnitude of the legal issues, I only hope and trust the government should realise the legal implications and withdraw the project.”

Theosophical Society general manager S Harihara Raghavan said the expressway would badly affect the fragile ecology in the Society grounds. “There were more than 160 migratory and native birds in the society, but it has come down to 80 now. The population of birds will be further affected in case the elevated expressway takes shape. The government should also think about the broken bridge near Srinivasapuram, which was washed away 30 years ago due to soil condition.”

M G Devasahayam, managing trustee, SUSTAIN, an NGO, said that various plans proposed by government agencies to reduce traffic congestion – upgradation of roads near Foreshore Estate, linking Greenways Road to Durgabai Deshmukh Road, reclamation of the four-lane carriageway on L B Road by removing encroachments and construction of a grade separator-cum-subway at the Tiruvanmiyur junction – should be implemented soon.

Members of Save Chennai Beaches plan to make a representation to the state government soon

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US military to boost satellite monitoring programme to avoid space smash-up

April 1, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

London, April 1 (ANI): The US military is planning to boost the number of satellites it routinely monitors for the risk of a smash-up with orbiting debris, like the recent collision between a US communications satellite and a defunct Russian probe.

The US Air Force has catalogued more than 19,000 pieces of space debris larger than 10 centimetres across, General Robert Kehler, Commander of Air Force Space Command, told New Scientist.

But, despite the extensive catalogue, the military does not have the ability to calculate the risk this space junk poses to every operational satellite.

“We keep that catalogue up to date, but we do not watch everything for collision purposes all the time,” Kehler said.

“We’re limited by computing and we’re limited by analytical wherewithal, both of which we are now going to increase in the near-term so that we can expand the population of satellites that we can perform routine collision avoidance assessments on,” he added.

The exact number of satellites the Air Force will aim to routinely screen for the risk of collision is unclear.

“We want to stay away from numbers and specifics right now,” Andy Roake, a spokesperson for Air Force Space Command, told New Scientist.

But, another official has put the target at 800 maneuverable satellites by October 1.

There are no details yet on how the effort would be funded or how much it might cost, according to an Air Force official.

That would put the Air Force close to a complete survey of the risk to space probes.

Some 900 operational satellites currently orbit the Earth, according to data compiled by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“It’s absolutely a step in the right direction,” said Brian Weeden, a technical consultant for the Secure World Foundation and a former orbital analyst at the US Strategic Command’s Joint Space Operations Center.

“Boosting the number of satellites that are routinely watched may reduce the chance of collisions, but only if satellite operators are notified and given the information they need to determine whether to move the satellite,” he added. (ANI)

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Scientist suggests use of rocket-powered water gun to blow away space junk

March 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 12 (ANI): An aerospace engineer has suggested the use of rocket-powered water gun to blow away space junk, which includes about thousands of pieces of useless equipment circling Earth.

According to a report by Fox News, the aerospace engineer in question is Jim Hollopeter, who, in the 1980s, helped design rockets that shot into orbit.

Today, some of those launchers are still cluttering up space, and Hollopeter wants to wash them away with a rocket-powered water gun.

Bits of spent rocket boosters, old exploded satellites and tools dropped by space-walking astronauts are just some of the trash racing along in the near-vacuum of space.

The volume of man-made space debris has grown so large that scientists say garbage now poses a bigger safety threat to the U.S. space shuttle than an accident on liftoff or landing.

The International Space Station (ISS) occasionally fires thrusters to dodge junk.

The problem hit home on February 10, when a defunct Russian military satellite smashed into an American one used for commercial communications, spewing shards across thousands of cubic miles.

The crash prompted Hollopeter to refine designs for a concept he had long toyed with: Using aging rockets loaded with water to spray orbiting junk.

His idea is that the extraterrestrial shower would gradually knock refuse down toward the atmosphere, where it would burn up, as would the launcher.

The water would turn to steam.

According to Heiner Klinkrad, who runs the European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany, “We need to treat space like a national park – carry out what you carry in.” (ANI)

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Obama’s Wikipedia Page distances him from both Wright and Ayers

March 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar.10 (ANI): President Barack Obama’s Wikipedia page has been edited to remove any mention of his links to former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers and Reverend Jeremiah Wright, though pages for Ayers and Wright are heavily peppered with references to the president, including subsections on both pages that detail their past affiliations with him.

The lone mention of Wright on Obama’s page appears in a section on his family and personal life; it says the president left Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ in May 2008 after “controversial statements made by Wright became public.”

The free online encyclopedia has also reportedly deleted attempts to add Ayers’ name to Obama’s main entry.

One such addition, according to WorldNetDaily, included details of Obama’s tenure alongside Ayers on the board of directors at several organizations in Chicago during the 1990s.

“Within two minutes that Wikipedia entry was deleted and the user banned from posting on the website for three days, purportedly for adding ‘Point of View junk edits,’ even though the addition was well-established fact,” WorldNetDaily reports.

Though Obama was baptized at the church in 1988 and remained an “active member” at Trinity United for two decades, Wright is not cited in a paragraph on Obama’s religion.

“Obama is a Christian whose religious views have evolved in his adult life,” the entry reads. “In The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes that he ‘was not raised in a religious household.’”

But according to an archived Wikipedia page for Obama from February 2008, a theme of Obama’s 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address and the title of his 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope,” was “inspired” by Wright.

The sixth chapter of Obama’s book – titled “Faith” – details how “Obama, in his twenties, while working with local churches as a community organizer, came to understand ‘the power of the African American religious tradition to spur social change,’” according to the archived entry.

Neither that archived page nor Obama’s current Wikipedia page contains any mention of Ayers – whose own page, like Wright’s, contains a separate section detailing his link to Obama. (ANI)

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Domino Pizza sponsorship of Simpsons violates anti-junk food guidelines

February 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Feb. 24 (ANI): Domino Pizza’s sponsorship of the cartoon series ‘The Simpsons’ has broken strict guidelines against junk food companies advertising on television for the first time since they were set up to combat childhood obesity, a ruling says.

The rules, which were introduced in April 2007, prohibit advertisement of food that is high in fat, sugar and salt during programmes, which are mainly watched by children.

The regulator body Ofcom ruled against Sky One channel after The National Heart Forum complained about the sponsorship deal, which saw the pizza company promote its delivery service at the start of each cartoon and the start of each advertising break, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Domino’s argued that it was advertising its delivery service, rather than its pizzas and pointed out that 47 per cent of its products would not fall foul of the junk food rules.

The National Heart Forum, an umbrella group of health charities and lobby groups, said the sponsorship broke the spirit as well as the letter of the rules.

Ofcom agreed and has given Sky One a yellow card, as no fine will be levied.

In October, while Ofcom was still investigating, Domino’s dropped its sponsorship. The Simpsons is now sponsored by the directories service 118 118.

According to the rules, pizza and burger companies cannot promote their products, but they can promote their brands.

During the introduction of the rules, they were highly opposed by the food campaigners for being full of loopholes, while those in the food industry pointed out that guidelines would make many mainstream foods ‘banned’, such as some cheese, Marmite and most breakfast cereals. (ANI)

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