Halloween Costume ideas 2015
Articles by "Science"
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7:12 PM
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK 
The male Google engineer fired for circulating a memo decrying the company's diversity hiring program became the center of a heated debate on sexism, drawing scorn, cheers and even a job offer on Tuesday from WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.

James Damore, 28, confirmed his dismissal from Alphabet Inc's Google on Monday, after he wrote a 10-page memo that the company was hostile to conservative viewpoints shaped by a flawed left-wing ideology.

The manifesto was quickly embraced by some, particularly on the political right, branding him a brave truth-teller. Others found his views, which argued that men in general may be biologically more suited to coding jobs than women, offensive.

Assange, who is praised in some circles for exposing government secrets and castigated by others as an underminer of some nations' security, offered Damore a job.

"Censorship is for losers," Assange wrote on Twitter. "Women & men deserve respect. That includes not firing them for politely expressing ideas but rather arguing back."
Legal and employment experts noted, however, that companies have broad latitude to restrict the speech of employees. Some argued that Damore's views left Google little to no choice but to terminate his employment, since he had effectively created a hostile work environment for women.

Damore said in an email on Monday that he was exploring a possible legal challenge to his dismissal. His title at Google was software engineer and he had worked at the company since December 2013, according to a profile on LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn page also says Damore received a Ph.D. in systems biology from Harvard University in 2013. Harvard said on Tuesday he completed a master's degree in the subject, not a Ph.D. He could not immediately be reached on Tuesday.

The world's tech capital, Silicon Valley has long been criticized for not doing enough to encourage gender equality.

Most headlines have centered on powerful female executives hitting the glass ceiling or on sexual harassment lawsuits.

Many women in the industry say that less visible day-to-day bias often impedes their careers.

Industry experts note that in the early days of tech, it was mostly women who held the then-unglamorous jobs of coding. But as the value of top-notch programming became clear, it became a mostly male domain and the vast majority of programmers in the tech industry are now men.

Some argued that although they may not agree with Damore, the company had gone too far in firing him.

"Dear @Google, Stop teaching my girl that her path to financial freedom lies not in coding but in complaining to HR. Thx in advance, A dad," Eric Weinstein, managing director at California investment firm Thiel Capital, wrote on Twitter.

Bernice Ledbetter, who teaches leadership to business students at Pepperdine University, praised Google for taking decisive action. She said it would be a different matter if Damore were writing on a personal blog rather than in a memo.

"He's walking dangerously between who he is personally and who he is professionally," Ledbetter said in an interview.

Others raised concerns that Damore would discriminate against his female colleagues in peer review.

Damore wrote in an email to Reuters on Monday that he was fired for "perpetuating gender stereotypes." His memo had said that he sought the opposite.

"I'm also not saying that we should restrict people to certain gender roles," Damore wrote in his memo. "I'm advocating for quite the opposite: treat people as individuals, not as just another member of their group (tribalism)."

His arguments were praised by those who view so-called "political correctness" as a left-wing device to suppress conservative speech.

John Hawkins, the owner of the Right Wing News website, summed up his take in a Twitter post: "James Damore: Writes memo respectfully saying Google suppresses conservative views. Google: You're fired for having conservative views."

Others compared Damore with Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback who last year chose not to stand for the U.S. national anthem before games, in protest over police violence.

None of the NFL's 32 teams were willing to sign Kaepernick during the recent off-season.

"Kaepernick and Damore should've been aware that expressing controversial opinions at work has consequences," Twitter user Greg Lekich wrote from his account, @Xeynon.

Damore said he would fight the dismissal, noting that he had filed a complaint with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board before the firing.

Google, owner of the world's most used search engine, is based in Mountain View, California. The company said it could not talk about individual employee cases.
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2:19 PM
SYDNEY 
South Australia has picked Tesla to install the world’s largest grid-scale battery, which would be paired with a wind farm provided by France’s Neoen, in a major test of the reliability of large-scale renewable energy use.

South Australia, the fifth-biggest state with a population of 1.7 million, has raced ahead of the rest of the country in turning to wind power. Its shutdown of coal-fired plants has led to outages across the eastern part of the nation, driving up energy prices.

The drawback to South Australia’s heavy reliance on renewables has been an inability to adequately store that energy, leading to vulnerabilities when the wind doesn’t blow.

The project is designed to have a storage capacity of 129 megawatt-hours, which is enough to light up 30,000 homes, a Tesla spokesman told Reuters.

100 days or it’s free

Under the terms of the agreement, Tesla must deliver the 100-MW battery within 100 days of a contract being signed or it’s free, matching a commitment made by Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk in a Twitter post in March.

“There will be a lot of people that will look at this, ‘did they get it done within 100 days? Did it work?’” Musk told reporters in South Australia’s capital city of Adelaide. “We are going to make sure it does.”

The 100-day deadline will begin within a few weeks, a political source said, after a connectivity agreement is reached between South Australia, Telsa, Neoen and the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Musk and a spokesman for South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill declined to reveal the cost of the project.

Musk said a failure to deliver the project in time would cost his company “$50 million or more,” without elaborating.

Lithium ready

The battery, designed to provide emergency back-up power if a shortfall in energy is predicted, will be built on site in South Australia, a spokesman for the state government said.

Tesla said in a statement that upon completion by December 2017, the system would be the largest lithium-ion battery storage project in the world, overtaking an 80 megawatt-hour power station at Mira Loma in Ontario, Calif., also built using Tesla batteries.

The neighboring state of Victoria is also seeking 100 megawatt-hour battery capacity, to be installed by January.

Lithium-ion batteries have been in widespread use since about 1991, but mostly on a small scale, such as in laptops and cell phones.

A typical lithium-ion battery can store 150 watt-hours of electricity in 1 kilogram of battery, representing more than double the capacity of nickel batteries.

Its proponents have been pushing to use lithium batteries on a grander scale.

“For lithium technology to take off on a global scale, they clearly need the storage capacity to make sure renewables can deliver 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Adrian Griffin, a geologist who specializes in lithium extraction.

Dozens of companies from 10 countries, including privately owned Lyon Group, working with U.S. power company AES Corp, had expressed interest in the South Australian project.
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9:43 AM
Kinshasa

Democratic Republic of Congo declared its two-month Ebola outbreak officially over Saturday after 42 days without recording a new case of the disease.
The outbreak in Congo’s remote northeastern forests, a record eighth for the country where the disease was first discovered in 1976, killed four out of the eight people infected, Health Minister Oly Ilunga said in a statement.

“I declare on this day, at midnight, the end of the outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever of the Ebola virus in DRC,” Ilunga said.

Congolese health authorities approved the use of a new experimental vaccine but ultimately declined to deploy it because of the small scale of the outbreak and logistical challenges.

The latest outbreak came a year after the end of the virus’ deadliest episode in West Africa, which killed more than 11,300 people and infected some 28,600 as it swept through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and caused alarm around the world.

Health officials say northeastern Congo’s remote geography combined with the country’s experience fighting the disease allowed them to gain the upper hand quickly.

“The government of DRC has been very transparent in declaring that there is the outbreak and that really facilitated ... communication and information sharing and rapid action,” Ibrahima Soce Fall, a senior World Health Organization official in Africa, told Reuters last week.
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5:22 PM
Warming temperatures could result in extinction of sea turtles
Washington D.C. 
Warmer temperatures mean sea turtles could be driven to extinction, suggests a new study.

The study by Dr Jacques-Olivier Laloe of the University's College of Science argues that warmer temperatures associated with climate change could lead to higher numbers of female sea turtles and increased nest failure, and could impact negatively on the turtle population in some areas of the world.

The findings have been published in the Global Change Biology journal.
-The effects of rising temperatures

Rising temperatures were first identified as a concern for sea turtle populations in the early 1980s as the temperature at which sea turtle embryos incubate determines the sex of an individual, which is known as Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination (TSD).

The pivotal temperature for TSD is 29°C as both males and females are produced in equal proportions - above 29°C mainly females are produced while below 29°C more males are born. Within the context of climate change and warming temperatures, this means that, all else being equal, sea turtle populations are expected to be more female-biased in the future.

While it is known that males can mate with more than one female during the breeding season, if there are too few males in the population this could threaten population viability.

The new study also explored another important effect of rising temperatures: in-nest survival rates. Sea turtle eggs only develop successfully in a relatively narrow thermal range of approximately 25-35°C, so if incubation temperatures are too low the embryo does not develop but if they are too high then development fails. This means that if incubation temperatures increase in the future as part of climate warming, then more sea turtle nests will fail.

The researchers recorded sand temperatures at a globally important loggerhead sea turtle nesting site in Cape Verde over 6 years. They also recorded the survival rates of over 3,000 nests to study the relationship between incubation temperature and hatchling survival. Using local climate projections, the research team then modeled how turtle numbers are likely to change throughout the century at this nesting site.

-Research results

Dr Laloe said: "Our results show something very interesting. Up to a certain point, warmer incubation temperatures benefit sea turtles because they increase the natural growth rate of the population: more females are produced because of TSD, which leads to more eggs being laid on the beaches.

"However, beyond a critical temperature, the natural growth rate of the population decreases because of an increase of temperature-linked in-nest mortality. Temperatures are too high and the developing embryos do not survive. This threatens the long-term survival of this sea turtle population."

The researchers expect that the numbers of nests in Cape Verde will increase by approximately 30% by the year 2100 but, if temperatures keep rising, could start decreasing afterwards.

The new study identifies temperature-linked hatchling mortality as an important threat to sea turtles and highlights concerns for species with TSD in a warming world. It suggests that, in order to safeguard sea turtle populations around the world, it is critical to monitor how hatchling survival changes over the next decades.

Dr Laloe said: "In recent years, in places like Florida--another important sea turtle nesting site--more and more turtle nests are reported to have lower survival rates than in the past. This shows that we should really keep a close eye on incubation temperatures and the in-nest survival rates of sea turtles if we want to successfully protect them.

"If need be, conservation measures could be put in place around the world to protect the incubating turtle eggs. Such measures could involve artificially shading turtle nests or moving eggs to a protected and temperature-controlled hatchery."

Climate change and temperature-linked hatchling mortality at a globally important sea turtle nesting site was published by Global Change Biology. 
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7:51 PM
San Francisco 
They came for the music, the mind-bending drugs, to resist the Vietnam War and 1960s American orthodoxy, or simply to escape summer boredom. And they left an enduring legacy.

This season marks the 50th anniversary of that legendary “Summer of Love,” when throngs of American youth descended on San Francisco to join a cultural revolution.

Thinking back on 1967, Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead recalls a creative explosion that sprouted from fissures in American society. That summer marked a pivot point in rock-and-roll history, he says, but it was about much more than the music.

“There was a spirit in the air,” said Weir, who dropped out of high school and then helped form the Grateful Dead in 1965. “We figured that if enough of us got together and put our hearts and minds to it, we could make anything happen.”

San Francisco, now a hub of technology and unrecognizable from its grittier, more freewheeling former self, is taking the anniversary seriously. Hoping for another invasion of visitors - this time with tourist dollars - the city is celebrating with museum exhibits, music and film festivals, Summer of Love-inspired dance parties and lecture panels. Hotels are offering discount packages that include “psychedelic cocktails,” “Love Bus” tours, tie-dyed tote bags and bubble wands.

The city's travel bureau, which is coordinating the effort, calls it an “exhilarating celebration of the most iconic cultural event in San Francisco history.”

One thing the anniversary makes clear is that what happened here in the 1960s could never happen in San Francisco today, simply because struggling artists can't afford the city anymore. In the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, which was ground zero for the counterculture, two-bedroom apartments now rent for $5,000 a month. San Francisco remains a magnet for young people, but even those earning six-figure Silicon Valley salaries complain about the cost of living.

In the mid-1960s, rent in Haight-Ashbury was extremely cheap, Weir, now 69, told The Associated Press.

“That attracted artists and bohemians in general because the bohemian community tended to move in where they could afford it,” he said.

During those years, the Grateful Dead shared a spacious Victorian on Ashbury Street. Janis Joplin lived down the street. Across from her was Joe McDonald, of the psychedelic rock band Country Joe and the Fish.
Jefferson Airplane eventually bought a house a few blocks away on Fulton Street, where they hosted legendary, wild parties.

“The music is what everyone seems to remember, but it was a lot more than that,” said David Freiberg, 75, a singer and bassist for Quicksilver Messenger Service who later joined Jefferson Airplane. “It was artists, poets, musicians, all the beautiful shops of clothes and hippie food stores. It was a whole community.”

The bands dropped by each other's houses and played music nearby, often in free outdoor concerts at Golden Gate Park and its eastward extension known as the Panhandle. Their exciting new breed of folk, jazz and blues-inspired electrical music became known as the San Francisco Sound. Several of its most influential local acts - the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, which launched Joplin's career - shot to fame during the summer's three-day Monterey Pop Festival.

“Every fantasy about the summer of '67 that was ever created - peace, joy, love, nonviolence, wear flowers in your hair and fantastic music - was real at Monterey. It was bliss,” said Dennis McNally, the Grateful Dead's longtime publicist and official biographer who has curated an exhibit at the California Historical Society that runs through Sept. 10.

The exhibit, “On the Road to the Summer of Love,” explains how that epic summer came about and why San Francisco was its inevitable home. McNally uncovered 100 photographs, some never seen publicly, that trace San Francisco's contrarian roots to the Beat poets of the 1950s, followed by civil rights demonstrations and the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1960s.

The national media paid little attention to San Francisco's psychedelic community until January 1967, when poets and bands joined forces for the “Human Be-In,” a Golden Gate Park gathering that unexpectedly drew about 50,000 people, McNally said. It was there that psychologist and LSD-advocate Timothy Leary stood on stage and delivered his famous mantra: “Turn on. Tune In. Drop out.”

“After the media got hold, it just exploded,” McNally said. “Suddenly, a flood descends on Haight Street. Every bored high school kid - and that's all of them - is saying, `How do I get to San Francisco?”'

An exhaustive exhibit at San Francisco's de Young museum, “The Summer of Love Experience,” offers a feel-good trip back in time. There's a psychedelic light show, a 1960s soundtrack and galleries with iconic concert posters, classic photographs and hippie chic fashions worn by Joplin, Jerry Garcia and others. It runs through Aug. 20.

But that summer's invasion carried a dark cloud. Tens of thousands of youths looking for free love and drugs flooded into San Francisco, living in the streets, begging for food. Parents journeyed to the city in search of their young runaways. An epidemic of toxic psychedelics and harder drugs hit the streets.

“Every loose nut and bolt in America rattled out here to San Francisco, and it got pretty messy,” Weir said.

The longtimers saw it as the end of an era, but one that shaped history.

“We created a mindset that became intrinsic to the fabric of America today,” said Country Joe McDonald, now 75. “Every single thing we did was adapted, folded into America - gender attitudes, ecological attitudes, the invention of rock and roll.”

Half a century later, McDonald, who lives in Berkeley, feels the rumblings of history repeating itself.

UC Berkeley is again at the center of a free speech debate, albeit of a different nature. Discontent with the U.S. government and President Donald Trump has stirred the largest protests he's seen since the Vietnam War. In the women's marches across America, he felt echoes of the Summer of Love.

“I think there's a similarity,” McDonald said, drawing a parallel to the massive anti-Trump turnout marked by nonviolence, playful pink protest hats, creative signs and a determination to change the country's political course. “Both were about saying goodbye to the past and hello to the future.”
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8:52 AM
LOS ANGELES 
Amal Clooney on Tuesday gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, the first children for the international human rights lawyer and her movie star spouse.

"This morning Amal and George welcomed Ella and Alexander Clooney into their lives. Ella, Alexander and Amal are all healthy, happy and doing fine," George Clooney's publicist Stan Rosenfield said in an email.

He added cheekily, "George is sedated and should recover in a few days."
Amal Clooney, 39, and the 56-year-old Oscar-winning star of films like "Ocean's Eleven" and "Three Kings" married in Italy in 2014, making them one of the world's biggest celebrity couples.

Rosenfield did not say where the twins were born but the couple appear to have been spending much of their time recently in England, where they have one of several homes.

The couple adopted a low profile during the pregnancy, keeping the news private for months before it was confirmed in February by the actor's close friend, Matt Damon.

Amal Clooney largely continued her work as a human rights lawyer, addressing the United Nations in March and urging the international community to investigate crimes committed by Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Nevertheless, celebrity news media speculated for months about the sex of the twins, where they would be born and in which country they will be raised.

On Tuesday, social media lit up with congratulatory messages and "Ella and Alexander" was among the top trending topics on Twitter in the United States.

Many contributors praised the choice of names as a refreshingly normal departure from a trend that has seen celebrity babies given names like Apple, Audio, Bronx, North West and Rocket.

"Good lord, the Clooneys have given their twins lovely ordinary names. Shocking. And they call themselves celebrities...," wrote British journalist Nicola Jane Swinney on Twitter.

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres posted a Twitter message saying, "Congratulations, George and Amal, or as I'm now calling you, Ocean's Four."

Congratulations also came from actress Mia Farrow and U.S. journalist Katie Couric.

People magazine reported on Tuesday that former U.S. President Barack Obama paid a long, private visit with the Clooneys at their home in the countryside west of London on May 27.

George Clooney canceled a visit to Armenia for a humanitarian event this past weekend, saying in a message to organizers that "if I came there and my wife had twins while I was there, I could never come home."
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9:37 PM
BRUSSELS 
Social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube have stepped up both the speed and number of removals of hate speech on their platforms in response to pressure from the European Union to do more to tackle the issue, according to the results of an EU evaluation.

Facebook won particular praise for reviewing most complaints within a 24-hour target timeframe set down in a code of conduct agreed in December by the European Commission,
Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube

Calling the results "encouraging" for the Commission's push for self-regulation, Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said the proportion of offending items taken down had doubled and action was being taken more quickly than when the EU checked six months ago.

"This ... shows that a self-regulatory approach can work, if all actors do their part. At the same time, companies ... need to make further progress to deliver on all the commitments," Jourova said in a statement, adding that firms should provide more feedback to people who brought abuses to their attention.

Facebook scored highly on this, Twitter and YouTube less so.

The voluntary code of conduct obliges firms to take action in Europe within 24 hours, following rising concerns about the proliferation of racist and xenophobic content on social media triggered by the refugee crisis and attacks in Western Europe.

This included removing or disabling access to the content if necessary, better cooperation with civil society organizations and the promotion of "counter-narratives" to hate speech.

Facebook assessed notifications of hateful content in less than 24 hours in 58 percent of cases, up from 50 percent in December, according to the report.

Twitter also sped up its dealing with notifications, reviewing 39 percent of them in less than 24 hours, as opposed to 23.5 percent in December, when the Commission first reviewed the companies’ progress and warned them they were being too slow.

YouTube, on the other hand, slowed down, reviewing 42.6 percent of notifications in less than 24 hours, down from 60.8 percent in December, the results showed.

"IT companies have all been improving time and response to notifications on manifest illegal hate speech," Jourova said at a meeting of the EU High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance on Wednesday.

"There are differences among the companies ... but we can objectively say that all have improved."

All the companies significantly increased the number of removals. Overall, content was removed in 59.2 percent of cases, more than double the rate in December which was 28.2 percent.

The proliferation of hate speech on social media has increased pressure on the companies to remove the content swiftly as they face the prospect of legislation at both EU and national level.

Last week EU ministers approved plans to force social networks to take measures to block videos with hateful content while the German government approved a plan in April to fine companies up to 50 million euros if they fail to remove hateful postings quickly.

The most common ground of hate speech the Commission identified was xenophobia, including expressions of hatred against migrants and refugees, together with anti-Muslim hatred, followed by ethnic origin.

The spread of fake news and racist content has taken on more urgency in Germany after the arrival of about a million migrants over the last two years.
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10:00 AM
Washington D.C. 
A recent study shows that higher than normal Body Mass Index (BMI) may cause worse cardiovascular health in those aged as young as 17.

The study was presented at the Conference of the European Society of Human Genetics.

Dr Kaitlin Wade, a Research Associate at the Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit (MRC-IEU) at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK, and colleagues used data from The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) to investigate the potential link between increased BMI and cardiovascular health.

She said, "ALSPAC is a world-leading birth cohort study, started in the early 1990s with the inclusion of more than 14,000 pregnant mothers and their partners and children, and provides an excellent opportunity to study environmental and genetic contributions to a person's health and development. It was therefore ideal for this purpose."
The scientists found that cardiovascular risk due to increased BMI was likely to emerge in earlier life. The design of existing observational studies (those just looking for associations in the population) have meant that they are unable to make a distinction between correlation and causation.

The team was able to use genomic data from ALSPAC to detect the likely causal relationship between higher BMI and higher blood pressure and left ventricular mass index (LVMI) in those aged 17 and 21.

A thickening of the left ventricle in the heart (hypertrophy) means that it has to work harder to pump blood and is a common marker for heart disease.

"Our results showed that the causal impact of higher BMI on cardiac output was solely driven by the volume of blood pumped by the left ventricle (stroke volume). This, at least in part, can explain the causal effect of higher BMI on cardiac hypertrophy and higher blood pressure that we observed in all our analyses," noted Dr Wade.

The findings support efforts to tackle the obesity epidemic from an early age in order to prevent the development of cardiovascular changes known to be precursors of cardiovascular ill-health and disease.

Dr Wade shared, "It is the first time that the nature of this relationship has been shown in group of young adults where it has been possible to draw improved conclusions about its causation."

The researchers are now trying to untangle the relationship between higher BMI and disease mechanisms including metabolomics (the study of the chemical processes involved in the functioning of cells and the abundance and diversity of microbes living in the gut - the gut microbiome)

"We have also begun an analysis of the causal role of higher BMI on detailed measures of cardiac structure and function within the ALSPAC data. We hope to further explore these associations within an older population - the UK 1946 birth cohort," said Dr Wade.

He concluded by saying, "Whilst randomised controlled trials are important for disentangling cause and effect in disease, they are expensive, time-consuming and labour-intensive. Modern genomics allows us to detect causality more quickly and cheaply, and the availability of large quantities of genetic data means that we can overcome the limitations of observational epidemiological studies. We believe that there are clear messages for cardiovascular health in our findings and we hope that they may lead to increased efforts to tackle obesity from early life."

Professor Joris Veltman, Director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Newcastle University¸ Newcastle, United Kingdom, noted, "Distinguishing between correlation and causation is tremendously difficult in medical sciences, especially for complex interactions like those between obesity and cardiovascular disease. In this study, statistical genetics approaches were applied to longitudinal cohorts from the UK to improve this. The scientists could demonstrate that obesity also causes poorer cardiovascular health in young adults. In contrast, higher BMI did not seem affect heart rate in this group." 
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8:32 PM
“We are confident that India would be able to achieve the 9 targets under SDG 3 relating to health and well being for all at all ages.” This was stated by J P Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare during his addresses at the Plenary Meeting of the 70th World Health Assembly, at Geneva. The Union Health Minister spoke on the theme – ‘Advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: building better systems for health.’ 

 Nadda stressed on the importance of building a strong, resilient health system that mitigates any country’s vulnerability to health crises. He said that the achievement of health related goals and targets, in Indian context, is a daunting task, considering India’s geographical size, regional and socio-cultural diversity. “India remains committed to ensuring quality and affordable healthcare for all. We have made strategic investments under the National Health Mission and the national disease control programmes. We are committed to further strengthening the health systems,” Nadda added 

 Nadda informed the participants that the National Health Policy, 2017 lays down the roadmap for various milestones and targets. “To translate the Policy into affirmative action, we are working with the States, Union Territories, academicians and development partners. A National SDG-3 Task Force has been set up with representation of key ministries, agencies and experts,” he said. 

Reiterating the commitment of the government, the Health Minister said that India is committed to achieving universal health coverage (UHC). He further added that health systems strengthening and universal comprehensive primary health care through Health and Wellness Centres has been identified as non-negotiable strategies towards UHC. “We plan to achieve more than 90% immunization coverage by 2020. We are rolling out universal population-based screening for common NCDs. There is more stress on quality improvement in public health service delivery. We plan to provide essential Drugs & Diagnostics-free of cost in public health facilities,” Nadda stated. 
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9:12 PM




New Delhi
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated here today the 3-day Medical Conclave on Legal and Ethical Challenges in Healthcare Eco System. 

The Conclave, organized by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in collaboration with "Research Foundation of Hospital and healthcare Administration", will have separate sessions spread over three days, exclusively devoted to different themes including Legal and Ethical Challenges in Healthcare Eco System, negligence in medical practice, Consumer Protection Act, medico-legal issues in organ transplantation, crucial decisions like euthanasia, etc. 
In his inaugural address, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled that when the Consumer Protection Act was made applicable on medical fraternity about 20 years ago, there was a huge debate about it. But now, it has not only become an essential part of our lives, but has also gone one step further to get influenced by even more legalities. He said, a number of factors may be responsible for the present state of affairs, which include breakdown of rural-urban divide with a more awakened and informed rural population, mushrooming of private sector and last but not the least, change in the disease spectrum of India with shift from communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases, which involve life-long management with consequent life-long economic burden and life-long family support. All these factors, he said, are also liable to conflict situations involving ethics and legalities. 

In the final reckoning, however, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the ultimate remedy to all this is the evolution of a self-code to be observed not only by doctors but also by patients and in fact by the society as a whole. Until the time that level is achieved, he said, we will have to continue working out different checks and balances. 

Medical Superintendent AIIMS, Dr Shakti Gupta, who is also the Chairperson of the Conclave, in his welcome address, said that the 3-day conclave will deliberate in detail on various issues which have become a matter of concern and attention for both the medical fraternity as well as the society in the recent years. He hoped that the conclusions arrived at the three-day meet would pave the way for charting out a future course of action to meet the legal and ethical challenges while optimum healthcare. 

Dr Siddhartha Satpati, Prof. & Head of Department, Department of Hospital Administration and Dr D.K. Sharma, Medical Superintendent also spoke on the occasion. 
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8:51 PM
Washington D.C.
A recent study has found substantial increase in prescriptions for two drugs, pregabalin and gabapentin, used for treatment of neuropathic pain, anxiety, insomnia and other mental illnesses is closely correlated with a rise in the number of overdose deaths.

According to the University of Bristol researchers, alternatives to gabapentoids need to be recommended for clinicians managing opioid dependent patients with neuropathic pain or generalised anxiety, and greater attention given to restricting diversion of gabapentoid prescriptions.

These drugs have become drugs of abuse, according to new findings, which highlight that they are especially dangerous when used with heroin or other opioids.

Pregabalin and gabapentin were originally used to treat epilepsy but more recently also used to treat neuropathic pain, anxiety, insomnia and other mental illnesses.

Recent figures show that prescriptions for these drugs increased from 1 million in 2004 to 10.5 million in 2015 (i.e. a 24 per cent increase year on year) and concern has arisen about their diversion and misuse.

The number of deaths in England and Wales involving gabapentoids increased from less than one per year before 2009 and increase to 137 per year in 2015 of which 79 per cent also involved opioids such as heroin.

Interviews with heroin users reported that pregabalin and gabapentin were easy to access and that taking them was associated with a feeling of loss of control and an enhanced effect of heroin.

The laboratory experiments demonstrated that pregabalin enhanced heroin-induced respiratory depression by reversing heroin tolerance at low doses and then at higher doses directly depressing respiration itself so increasing the likelihood of heroin overdose.

The study highlights that important that doctors and people dependent on opioids are aware that the number of overdose deaths involving the combination of opioids with gabapentin or pregabalin has increased substantially and that there is evidence now that their concomitant use -- either through co-prescription or diversion of prescriptions -- increases the risk of acute overdose deaths.

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5:37 PM
DETROIT 
Electric carmaker Tesla has added another product to its lineup: Solar roof tiles.

As of Wednesday, customers worldwide could order a solar roof on Tesla’s website. Installations will begin next month in the U.S., starting with California. Installations outside the U.S. will begin next year, the company said.

The glass tiles were unveiled by Tesla last fall just before the company merged with solar panel maker SolarCity Corp. They’re designed to look like a traditional roof, with options that replicate slate or terracotta tiles. The solar tiles contain photovoltaic cells that are invisible from the street.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said one of the drawbacks to home solar installations has been the solar panels themselves: They’re often awkward, shiny and ugly. Buyers will want Tesla’s roof, he said, because it looks as good or better than a normal roof.

“When you have this installed on your house, you’ll have the best roof in the neighborhood. The aesthetics are that good,” Musk said in a conference call with media.

The roof is guaranteed for the life of the home, which is longer than the 20-year lifespan for a typical, nonsolar roof, Musk said. It has gone through the same hail, fire and wind testing that normal roofs endure.

Tesla’s website includes a calculator where potential buyers can estimate the cost of a solar roof based on the size of their home, the amount of sunlight their neighborhood receives and federal tax credits. They can also put down a refundable $1,000 deposit to reserve a place in line.

Tesla said the solar tiles cost $42 per square foot to install, making them far more costly than slate, which costs around $17 per square foot, or asphalt, which costs around $5. But homes would only need between 30 and 40 percent of their roof tiles to be solar; the rest would be Tesla’s cheaper nonsolar tiles, which would blend in with the solar ones.

It would cost $69,100 to install a solar roof with 40-percent solar tiles on a 2,600-square-foot roof in suburban Detroit, according to Tesla’s website. That includes a $7,000 Tesla Powerwall, a battery unit that stores the energy from the solar panels and powers the home. The roof would be eligible for a $15,500 federal tax credit and would generate an estimated $62,100 in electricity over 30 years. Over that time period, Tesla estimates, the homeowner would save $8,500.

Tesla said the typical homeowner can expect to pay $21.85 per square foot for a Tesla solar roof. The cost can be rolled into the homeowner’s mortgage payments and paid for over time, the company said.

Musk wouldn’t say how many orders the company expects to get this year. He expects the initial ramp-up to be slow.

“It will be very difficult and it will take a long time, and there will be some stumbles along the way. But it’s the only sensible vision of the future,” Musk said.

Palo Alto, California-based Tesla Inc. is making the solar tiles at its Fremont, California, factory initially. But eventually all production will move to a joint Tesla and Panasonic Corp. factory in Buffalo, New York. Panasonic makes the photovoltaic cells used in the solar tiles.

Tesla said it would be installing equipment in the Buffalo factory over the next few months.
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9:25 PM


New Delhi
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh and senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav on Wednesday held talks about holding a national conclave of stakeholders in Kashmir, which is in ferment since the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani last July.
Amid the ongoing unrest in the valley, BJP veteran and former union minister Yashwant Sinha, who had gone there as part of a delegation twice, and met separatist leaders among others, also had talks with Yadav.

Yadav has also discussed the proposed conclave with CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury and D Raja of the CPI and both were learnt to have favoured such a move.

The Modi government had chosen to ignore the visit and report of the delegation which included Sinha, prompting the former external affairs minister to get in touch with opposition leaders to explore the possibility of holding a national conclave to discuss ways to restore peace in the troubled state.

Yadav too had gone to the valley as a member of an all-party delegation but the dominant view among opposition leaders is that the government has done nothing on its report.

"The government has not taken a single step to resolve the crisis. We too have responsibilities. If the government does not act, we must do our bit," an opposition leader said.

He said an initiative must be taken in Delhi to send out a positive message to the people in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sinha's group had recommended a "multi-dimensional dialogue" which should include the separatist conglomerate-- Hurriyat Conference.

It had, in its report, also asked the government to improve the human rights situation.

The delegation's visit was facilitated by Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation, a Delhi based group that has been working in Kashmir for over a decade.
The government had last month ruled out talks with separatist elements or those raising the issues of "accession or Azadi" in the Kashmir Valley, telling the Supreme Court that a dialogue to restore normalcy was possible only with legally recognised stakeholders.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had told the court that the government would come to the negotiation table only if legally recognised stakeholders participated in the dialogue and not the separatist elements who rake up the issue of accession or Azadi in Kashmir.

The top had court asked the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association to come up with suggestions to resolve the crisis, including the stone-pelting incidents and the violent street protests in the valley.

The opposition leaders are working to bring NGOs, civil society groups and political parties for the proposed conclave.

Members of Jammu and Kashmir's ruling BJP-PDP coalition are also likely to be invited, the opposition leader said.

Manmohan Singh heads a policy planning group of the Congress party on Jammu and Kashmir. The Congress has been strongly critical of the Modi government's handling of the situation in the restive state.
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9:36 PM
Washington D.C.
Do you see your children taking too much of stress? Blame their genes.

According to a recent study, genetic alterations that can be modulated by stress have been identified in children at high risk for bipolar disorder.

The study was published in journal Translational Psychiatry.

"By analyzing the blood of children of controls and comparing it to children of bipolar patients, we identified several genes or markers that can explain the increased risk. We've known that children of patients with bipolar disorder have a higher risk of developing the illness but the biological mechanisms are largely unknown," said Gabriel R. Fries, Ph.D., first author and a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Psychiatry.

The scientists analysed peripheral blood mononuclear cells from a total of 18 children and adolescents in three matched groups-bipolar patients, unaffected offspring of bipolar parents and children of parents with no history of psychiatric disorders.

The analysis revealed that compared to children in the control group, bipolar patients and unaffected offspring of bipolar parents had genetic alterations that can influence the response to stress.

"All combine to modulate the response to stress in these children. We know from clinical studies of behavior and the environment that when children are chronically exposed to stressors, they are at a higher risk of developing bipolar disorder. Bipolar parents may struggle because of their disease, leading to higher environmental stress. Their children, because of the genetic markers they have, could be more vulnerable to stress," shared Fries.

Fries noted that the genetic alterations that researchers discovered were validated in blood samples of unrelated adult bipolar patients.

New avenues of research could include the effects of reducing environmental stress, as well as whether pharmacological agents might be able to reverse the genetic alternations in vulnerable children before the disorder develops. 

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