Higher education loan no longer tied to savings account

Tuesday June 10, 2008 MYT 10:04:40 PM – StarOnline

PETALING JAYA: The Government will not enforce the minimum savings requirement that was previously compulsory for anyone wanting to obtain a loan from the National Higher Education Fund Corporation.

Previously, parents needed to open a National Education Savings Scheme (SSPN) account in order to qualify for the loan.

“To ease the burden on students wanting to obtain a study loan, the Government has decided that the ruling on compulsory savings would not be enforced this year.

“Those wanting to take a loan need only have a minimum of RM20 in their SSPN account to apply for the loan,” Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said in a statement Tuesday.

Under the minimum savings ruling enforced on Jan 1 this year, parents with a monthly household income of less than RM2,000 must have deposited at least RM500 in their SSPN account to qualify for a loan.

Parents who earn more than RM2,000 monthly must have saved up at least RM3,000.

The SSPN was established in 2004 and was aimed at encouraging parents to save for their children’s education.

The main advantage of the SSPN was that the Government provided a matching grant of up to RM10,000 for parents who earned less than RM2,000 monthly.

Other benefits of the SSPN, which is administered by the corporation, included yearly dividends that were tax-exempt.

Be patient

30-05-2008 10:56:15 AM

MY four-year-old daughter is an introvert. I notice she has problems making friends with other children.

She refuses to go to kindergarten. I have tried sending her to two different kindergartens and a social development class.

They were all futile attempts because she cried and was unco-operative, even though the teachers and kids were nice to her.

Two weeks ago, I sent her to a kindergarten which is within walking distance from our house. I thought she might feel more confident as home is just around the corner. But I was mistaken. After three days, she started crying and shouting. She refused to go to school.

I do not know how to encourage her to join a preschool and mix with other children. I would like her to be more sociable. When I take her to the playground, especially to the slide which she loves most, she will wait until all the other kids have left. Only then will she play on the slide. When other kids come over to join in, she would stop playing and stand by the corner quietly.

I am concerned about this negative behaviour that I see in her.

How do I encourage my daughter to socialise with other children? How do I influence her to love going to school? –

Concerned Mother

Parents worry when their children do not behave as expected. If the parents are extroverts, they may feel uneasy about their children's introvert behaviour. They do not understand why their children prefer to play alone and struggle to remain in groups.

Being shy is hardly a weakness in a child. Your daughter needs more time and patience to adjust in a group.

She may be more observant and cautious in a social setting. When a child is an introvert, she is turned off by large groups and prefers one-to-one contact. This does not mean that she will not learn to participate in group play. You can help her get used to being with other people by having her play with one child at a time.

Before sending her to kindergarten, survey the possibility of setting up play dates with children from her class.

Introverts tend to internalise their thoughts and intentions more than extroverts. They can be imaginative and have stimulating ideas. Unlike their extroverted peers, they don’t blurt out everything; they tend to share their ideas when the time is right for them. They are not anti-social.

To encourage your child to socialise, you must first respect and understand her need for time alone. She will not be the live wire of the group but her quiet nature can have a calming effect on others. Your good intentions can backfire if you constantly push her to play with others.

Accept her behaviour when she stands on the sideline and watch others play. She feels better when she knows you support her unconditionally.

Later when you are alone with her, ask her about her observations. The more she shares with you her findings, the more familiar she gets with the art of socialising.

She will know what are the expectations in a group and how she should behave to be accepted. This will help her to gain courage to join others at the next playground visit. Many four-year-olds find it difficult to transition from home to school. They worry about being away from home and having to deal with strangers.

They are afraid that they may never see their mum and dad again when they are away in school. They have to overcome this fear before they can be happy in school. Before enrolling in a school, take your daughter for a few visits. Let her indicate her readiness before you sign up. Do not be in a hurry to enrol her. Her perception is different from yours. Let her feel secure first before you send her off to school.

Courtesy : RUTH LIEW - mSTAR Online

Preventing Diabetes With Diet And Exercise

In a Diabetes Special Issue of The Lancet, researchers demonstrate that group-based lifestyle interventions of diet and exercise for a period of six years may prevent or delay diabetes for up to 14 years following the intervention. It is not clear, however, that lifestyle interventions also reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality.

There have been several major clinical trials in various countries that have demonstrated how people with impaired glucose tolerances can reduce their likelihood of diabetes due to lifestyle interventions. Researchers, though, still have questions regarding the length of time after intervention that the strategies remain effective. To investigate this issue, Professor Guangwei Li, (China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China), Dr Ping Zhang (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA), and colleagues conducted the China Da Qing Diabetes Prevention Outcome Study (CDQDPOS) - analyzing 20 years of patient follow-up data.

The patients who participated in the study all had impaired glucose tolerance and came from 33 clinics in China. In 1986, the researchers randomly assigned the patients to one of three lifestyle intervention groups (diet, exercise, or diet and exercise) or to the control group. Over a period of six years (until 1992), the patients experienced active intervention, and a 2006 follow-up provided data that would be used to assess the interventions' long-term effects on main outcomes such as diabetes incidence, CVD incidence and mortality, and all-cause mortality.

During the active intervention period, the combined lifestyle intervention group had a 51% reduction in incidence of diabetes compared to participants in the control group. Over the whole 20-year period, this effect was reduced to 43%. Intervention participants had an average annual incidence of new diabetes diagnoses of 7%, compared an 11% rate for control participants. After 20 years, 80% of those in the intervention group had diabetes and 93% of the control group did; intervention group participants suffered 3.6 fewer years with the disease than control group participants. The researchers, however, did not find a significant difference between the intervention and control groups when measuring the rates of first CVD events, CVD mortality and all-cause mortality.

"This study has shown that, in Chinese people with impaired glucose tolerance, group-based interventions targeting lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise produce a durable and long-lasting reduction in incidence of type 2 diabetes...Since around 3 million excess deaths a year are attributable to diabetes worldwide, lifestyle interventions seem to be a justifiable public-health action both in developed and developing nations," conclude the authors.

Dr Jaana Lindström (National Public Health Institute, Helsinki and University of Helsinki, Finland) and Professor Matti Uusitupa (University of Kuopio, Finland) write in an accompanying editorial that, "We propose that lifestyle intervention should start much earlier, when people are normoglycaemic, to achieve true primary prevention of type 2 diabetes and its main consequence, cardiovascular disease. In this regard, both population-based strategies and those targeted at high-risk groups should be applied."

Editor's Choice
Main Category: Diabetes
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet; Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 23 May 2008 - 0:00 PDT

81 recognized as suicide victims from overwork in 2007

TOKYO — A record of 81 people were recognized as suicide victims due to mental disorders from overwork. . more.

Counseling Gaza's traumatized children

As George Bush concludes his trip to the Middle East in another effort to revive talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Gaza, the small, overcrowded strip of land slides ever deeper into economic catastrophe. Another in The Guardian's film series about life in Gaza, multimedia reporter Clancy Chassay meets those counseling the area's traumatized children

India to America: Eat Less, Fatties

Fast food is on the rise in Bangalore, where the economy is booming

Uriel Sinai / Getty Images

Bush's wording was perhaps simplistic, a point U.S. diplomats have been at pains to rectify as they try to dampen the food fight between the two countries. But Bush was not completely wrong, either. There's no doubt that China and India's growing middle classes are consuming more and different types of food. As people get richer they tend to eat more meat and dairy products, for instance, and that's exactly what's happening in China and India. . read more

Report Says Basic Medical Care Could Save Lives of 6 Million Children a Year

By Douglas Bakshian Manila 06 May 2008

A new report says the lives of millions of young children could be saved each year if basic medical care and medicine are made available to the poor. Douglas Bakshian has more from Manila.

The report by the U.S. organization Save the Children says about 10 million children die every year from easily preventable and treatable diseases. About six million of those could be saved with basic services. . . . read more

Malaysia plans women travel curbs

Page last updated at 11:57 GMT, Sunday, 4 May 2008 12:57 UK

The proposal has been criticised as impractical and regress Women's groups in Malaysia have reacted angrily to proposed government restrictions on women travelling abroad on their own. State media say the plan would require women to obtain written consent from their families or employers. The Malaysian foreign minister said the move would prevent single women being used by gangs to smuggle drugs. The proposal follows a review of criminal cases where women had been jailed abroad. Outrage Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said 90% of cases where Malaysian women had been jailed by foreign courts involved drugs. He told the New Sunday Times newspaper that a compulsory letter of consent to travel alone would enable women's families to make sure they were not being tricked by drug smuggling gangs. "Many of these women (who travel alone) leave the country on the pretext of work or attending courses and seminars," he said. "With this declaration, we will know for sure where and for what she is travelling overseas," he said. Women's groups have expressed outrage at the plan. The National Council for Women's Organisations said it would infringe women's rights. Another group, Sisters in Islam, said the proposal was totally ridiculous and regressive, and assumed that women were less capable than men of making their own decisions. Campaigners have pointed out that letters of permission to travel would be very easy to forge. In recent years the influence of hardline Islamic groups has been increasing in Malaysia, but it is unclear whether this proposal has any religious motive.

A Blood Test To Predict Menopause

That's what scientists in the Netherlands have done. Reporting in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, they report that a simple blood test, for a hormone called anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), could help women predict when they will enter menopause, and therefore how to set their fertility timetable. "Predicting menopause itself might not be that interesting," admits Dr. Jeroen van Disseldorp, lead author of the study and a fertility specialist at University Medical Center Utrecht. "But menopause is associated with fertility. So, predicting menopause might become more and more important in the future as women continue to delay childbearing." . . . . . read more

Caffeine and Pregnancy: How Risky?

A pregnant woman sips coffee at the office.

Several studies suggest a link between caffeine consumption and risk of miscarriage. But the cause and effect has never been clear: does caffeine increase a woman's risk of miscarrying, or do women who are already at low risk for miscarriage tend not to drink caffeine? . . . . read more

1 in 4 U.S. Toddlers Improperly Vaccinated

"If children receive vaccines too close together or too early, they're not as likely to be protected, and if you have a lot of that, then you're more likely to have disease outbreaks," Luman said.

One reason for lack of strict adherence to the vaccine schedule may be a fading consciousness among today's parents of what these immunizations are protecting children against. Frenck said he remembers seeing a childhood friend in an iron lung, the result of polio.

"It scared me to death," he said. "Kids these days, and probably most adults, don't even known what an iron lung is -- and that's because of immunization." . . . . read more

Alternative medicine: Basil

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:04:07
By Patricia Khashayar, MD., Press TV, Tehran

Since ancient times, basil has been used to treat diabetes, asthma, heart problems, inflammatory diseases and respiratory ailments.

Botanical: Ocymum basilicum
Family: N.O. Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Synonym: Basilic, basilikum, basilienkraut, tulsi, albahaca, sweet basil

Habitat:

It is native to warm, tropical climates such as Central Africa and Southeast Asia.

Description:

Basil is a perennial low-growing herb with light green, silky leaves. Its big white-colored flowers are arranged in terminal spikes.

There are over 60 varieties of basil, each with a specific flavor.

Part Used Medicinally:

Leafy tops.

Constituents:

Basil is an excellent source of dietary fiber, manganese, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and vitamin A, C and K.

It contains high concentrations of carotenoids like beta carotene which are converted to vitamin A in the body. Beta carotene has more benefits than vitamin A alone, and is known to be a powerful antioxidant.

The different scents of various basils are attributed to different essential oils.

Medicinal Uses:

Basil is a traditional treatment for headaches, coughs, diarrhea, constipation, warts, worms, and kidney malfunctions.

Basil has sedative, diuretic, antiseptic, anti-spasmodic and cough-relieving properties and is therefore used to treat coughs, colds, and pharyngeal inflammations.

It is also used as a remedy for chronic gastritis, stomachaches, bronchitis, fever and renal ailments.

Like other aromatic plants such as fennel and tarragon, basil contains estragole, a known carcinogen and teratogen.

Basil's flavonoids protect the cell structures as well as chromosomes against radiation, oxygen-based damage and unwanted bacterial growth.

Its essential oil is believed to be effective in treating special pathogenic bacterial species resistant to antibiotics.

Scientists suggest adding basil and thyme to foods particularly uncooked ones like salads, helps fight against Shigella and the diarrhea secondary to it.

The eugenol component of basil's volatile oils has cyclooxygenase inhibiting enzyme similar to anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and ibuprofen.

Basil is also a good source of magnesium, which promotes cardiovascular health. It relaxes muscles and blood vessels thereby improving blood flow. It also reduces the risk of irregular heart rhythms.

It can also help stress management.

Basil is a natural beta-carotene source and prevents blood vessel damage and cholesterol build-up. By slowing down the atherosclerosis process it prevents heart attacks and strokes.

Basil is a good remedy for inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel conditions.

By enhancing insulin secretion basil leaves help control blood sugar levels in diabetics.

Basil leaf tea is good for fatigue, insomnia, seizure, painful menstruation and helps treat ringworms.

Fresh basil leaf extract is used to threat insect bites.

Gargling basil leaf tea will help relieve sore gums.

Basil seed has antibacterial and laxative effects.

Caution:

Diabetics should consult a physician before using basil.

Sweet basil oil has possible carcinogenic effects and should not be used.

PKH/HGH

Want to take care of your family in India? Let us take care of them in India. We offer 60 services including medical, utility and relationship services. 24 hrs/day. Our ambassadors will do just about anything for your family.

FDA: Cold Medicines Too Risky for Tots

By LAURAN NEERGAARD

Updated 10 hours 21 minutes ago

(AP) - Parents may be left with only love and lots of liquid to give their sniffling babies and toddlers now that the government is declaring over-the-counter cough and cold medicines too risky for tots. The Food and Drug Administration was issuing that warning Thursday to parents of children under 2.

It's a move expected for months: Drug companies last October quit selling dozens of versions of nonprescription cold remedies targeted specifically to babies and toddlers. That month, the FDA's scientific advisers also voted that the drugs don't work in small children and shouldn't be used in preschoolers, either _ anyone under age 6.

The FDA still hasn't decided if OTC decongestants, antihistamines and cough suppressants are appropriate for older children, officials told The Associated Press. Expect a decision on that by spring, the deadline necessary to notify manufacturers before they begin production for next fall's cold season.

For now, FDA's first official ruling focuses on youngsters under 2, warning that "serious and potentially life-threatening side effects can occur."

FDA is worried that parents haven't gotten that message despite all the publicity last fall. They may still have infant-targeted drugs at home, or they may buy drugs meant for older children to give to tots instead, said Dr. Charles Ganley, FDA's nonprescription drugs chief.

"We still have a concern," Ganley said. "It falls out of people's consciousness. We're still in the middle of cold season right now."

Ganley was particularly struck by recent surveys that suggest many parents don't believe OTC remedies could pose a problem, especially if they've given them to an older child without harm.

Thursday's move is a good first step, said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Baltimore's health commissioner. He petitioned the FDA last year to end use of nonprescription cold remedies by children under 6, a move backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The reason: There's no evidence that these oral drugs actually ease cold symptoms in children so young _ some studies suggest they do no good at all. And while serious side effects are fairly rare, they do occur. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year reported that more than 1,500 babies and toddlers wound up in emergency rooms over a two-year period because of the drugs.

"It's one thing if you're curing cancer, but we're talking about a self-limiting illness," said Sharfstein. "If there's really no evidence of benefit, you don't want to risk the rare problem. Then you're left with tragedy that you can't justify."

Specialists are back to recommending old-fashioned steps, such as plenty of fluids and rest, saline drops to loosen stuffy noses, and humidifiers while sleeping.

Why is this an issue now? Child versions of cold remedies came on the market decades ago, when scientists thought that what worked in adults would automatically work in children. Scientists today know that is not always the case.

In fact, FDA never formally allowed infant-targeted cold remedies in the first place; Ganley said they evolved through a legal loophole.

But the FDA is investigating an even bigger question: Are OTC cold remedies safe and effective for children under 12? The agency's advisers last fall called for no use just by the under-6 crowd, but did recommend more research to determine the medicines' effects in children overall.

The drug industry says these medicines are used 3.8 billion times a year in treating children's cough and cold symptoms and are safe for those over 2.

Health groups acknowledge that while low doses of cold medicine don't usually endanger an individual child, the bigger risk is unintentional overdose. For example, the same ingredients are in multiple products, so using more than one for different symptoms can quickly add up. Also, children's medicines are supposed to be measured with the dropper or measuring cap that comes with each product, not an inaccurate kitchen teaspoon.

An internal FDA working group has a February deadline to recommend to agency leaders any action for 2- to 11-year-olds, Ganley said. The goal is a spring announcement.

Meanwhile, the FDA's advice for children over 2:

_If you try these drugs, carefully follow label directions.

_Avoid giving a child more than one product. If you do, make sure they don't contain some of the same or similar ingredients.

_Understand that these drugs only treat symptoms. Colds are viruses, and the drugs will not make them go away any faster.

Twins separated at birth met and married

LONDON (Reuters) - A couple discovered after they had married that they were twins who had been split up at birth and adopted by separate families, according to a member of Britain's House of Lords.

British peer David Alton recounted the story to parliament last month to support his argument that artificially conceived children should be told who their biological parents are.

Alton said he had heard the story of the separated twins from a High Court judge who had dealt with the case.

"This did not involve in vitro fertilization: It involved the normal birth of twins who were separated at birth and adopted by separate parents," said Alton, an independent member of the Lords. "They were never told that they were twins."

"They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation," he said.

"I suspect that it will be a matter of litigation in the future if we do not make information of this kind available to children who have been donor-conceived," he said.

Alton could not immediately be reached for comment and no further information was available about the twins or where they were from.

"I think it's a very tragic story for the people involved," said Pam Hodgkins, head of a group that helps adults affected by adoption.

"It is a lesson that we need to learn and apply to the situation of donor-conceived children," she told Sky News.

"Whilst ... nowadays it would be most unusual for siblings to be separated ... the risk of secrecy affecting the lives of people born as a result of egg and sperm donation is exactly the same as the risks that have affected adopted people in the past," she said.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Stephen Addison)

© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.

ADHD: a childhood psychological disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a childhood psychological disorder characterized by persistent hyperactivity-impulsivity.

ADHD children are hyperactive; they have difficulty sitting still and controlling their physical activity. Their impulsiveness and lack of self-control creates annoyance and exhaustion which can cause many problems especially in school.

These children tend to encounter academic problems, because not only does their condition erode their ability to concentrate and focus on the tasks at hand, but it also wears down their capability to integrate in social and academic settings.

This may lead to inability to organize work and to pay attention to lessons. These children distract other children in class as well.

ADHD Children have a very low threshold for sensory stimuli such as noise, touch and visual cues. Over exposure to such cues can result in dramatic behavior changes including giddiness or aggressiveness.

About 4% of the general population is affected by ADHD; boys are six times more likely to be affected. ADHD reportedly continues into adulthood in approximately 40% to 60% of the cases.

ADHD and ADD (attention deficit disorder) are generally thought to be two different conditions, but in fact, they are interchangeably used to refer to the same condition.

Etiology

Although the exact cause of ADHD is still unclear, biological factors seem to constitute the root cause of the disorder. Brain chemical imbalances are responsible for the majority of the symptoms exhibited by an ADHD child.

Genetic predisposition is another risk factor for developing the disorder.

Close family members of ADHD children are at a four-fold higher risk of having this medical condition; the incidence of the disorder is also reportedly higher in identical twins compared with non-identical ones or siblings.

However, no scientific research has yet specified chromosomes contributing to the development of this condition has not yet been identified in any.

Antenatal or postnatal brain injuries altering cerebral function can also give rise to the ADHD symptoms. Furthermore, any exposure to drugs, alcohol or radiation during cerebral development phase of the fetus may cause ADHD.

Certain postnatal infectious diseases such as meningitis or encephalitis can affect the brain tissue and thereby changing the process by which the brain sends signals and, ultimately, result in the manifestation of these symptoms.

Food additives and refined sugar, lead poisoning and ineffective parenting are amongst other factors responsible for the development of ADHD symptoms.

Symptoms

Attention deficit disorder is the condition which surfaces before the age of seven and causes extensive disruption in school, social and family life.

ADHD symptoms are grouped into three major categories: hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention.

It may present itself as excessive fidgeting or squirming, difficulty in following instructions, shifting activities, uttering answers to questions, difficulty in maintaining attention, excessive talking, engaging in dangerous activities, inability to wait for ones turn, easily being distracted, and the inability to sit still.

There is a great likelihood that ADHD children experience a range of other nervous system disorders including learning disabilities, tic disorders (Tourrette's syndrome), motor control delays (reduced coordination), language difficulties, depression, autism, anxiety, conduct disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive disorder (OCD), and oppositional-defiant disorder.

Diagnosis

There are no specific blood tests, brain activity exams, or scans for diagnosing ADHD. Diagnosis is primarily made based on the patient's symptoms.

Questionnaires completed by a child's teachers or parents are used to help the specialist decide whether or not the problematic behavior needs treatment.

Treatment

The parents of ADHD children should be assured that their child's condition is not their fault; they should also be told that these children are as capable as their peers and after receiving appropriate help they can lead successful, happy, and productive lives.

Successful medical treatment must be accompanied by non-drug approaches including supportive counseling and psychiatric or psychological help. In other words, ADHD treatment is a combination of medical therapy along with familial, educational, and social changes.

Low doses of psychostimulants such as methylphenidate (Ritalin) or dextroamphetamine are prescribed to alleviate the symptoms and filter out unnecessary distractions.

The drugs have shown an 80%effectiveness in ADHD children; they enable children to pay more attention, concentrate, and to be less impulsive.

Several minor side effects have been reported for these drugs; all of which can be controlled through adjusting the administered doses.

The major concern for the parents of ADHD children is that their children will become dependent on the drug and will not be able to lead a successful life without medication.

Researchers have found no evidence supporting any physical or psychological dependency following the use of such drugs.

Children with comorbid conditions or disorders, such as autism or depression, may require an alternative drug.

A variety of parental training methods such as effective child behavior management methods, classroom behavior modification methods, and academic intervention schemes (special educational placement), have all yielded positive results.

Furthermore, employing behavioral techniques such as behavior modification and cognitive behavioral therapy can bring dramatic improvements even in the absence of medical therapy.

Some studies suggest changing the regular diet can treat ADHD individuals; however, there is no reliable and strong scientific evidence to support of such claims.

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:53:52
By Said Pournaghash Ph.D.,
Press TV, Tehran -SP/PKH/HGH

Supplements 'raise death rate by 5%'

by Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor

Vitamin pills commonly taken by millions of people are doing them more harm than good, an analysis of the evidence has concluded.

Three supplements — vitamins A and E and beta carotene — appear to increase death rates among those taking them. Vitamin C and selenium have no effect.

The results, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest that money spent on vitamin supplements is wasted. In response, the British Heart Foundation said people should not take supplements but should concentrate instead on eating a healthy diet.

The new study is a meta-analysis; a procedure in which many earlier studies are collected together. It was carried out by a team led by Goran Bjelakovic, of Copenhagen University Hospital, and colleagues, using methods developed by the Cochrane Collaboration, the leading international group specialising in the analysis of what works in medicine.

Supporters of vitamin supplements, which are consumed regularly by up to ten million Britons, believe these can act as antioxidants, preventing highly active oxygen radicals in the body-damaging molecules such as cholesterol causing heart disease. The theory seemed plausible, and some initial trial results appeared to lend it support. But as better trials were done different results emerged. The Copenhagen team considered 68 randomised control trials, involving 232,606 people, and published by October 2005. Of these, they rate 47 trials as being of the best quality, with the rest more prone to bias of one sort or another.

Taking only the 47 low-bias trials, involving 180,938 people, they found that supplements as a whole increased the death rate by 5 per cent. When the supplements were taken separately, beta carotene increased death rates by 7 per cent, vitamin A by 16 per cent, and vitamin E by 4 per cent. Vitamin C gave contradictory results, but when given singly or in combination with other vitamins in good-quality trials, increased the death rate by 6 per cent.

Selenium was the only supplement to emerge with any credit. It appears to cut death rates by 10 per cent when given on its own or with other supplements in high-quality trials, but the result is not statistically significant. The team concludes: "Our findings contradict the findings of observational studies claiming that antioxidants improve health."

They say there are several possible explanations. One is that oxidative stress is not the cause of conditions such as heart disease for which it has been blamed, but may be a consequence of such conditions.

Alternatively, by eliminating free radicals we may interfere with essential defensive mechanisms. But the team adds that they examined only the use of synthetic vitamins, and their findings should not be translated to fruit and vegetables.

Ann Walker, of the Health Supplements Information Service, a body funded by the industry, said that the study combined the results of trials on two different classes of people: those with no known ill-health, and those already suffering from conditions such as heart disease. "The results of these mixed-sample metaanalyses are worthless," she said.

Ellen Mason, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "There are good scientific reasons for believing that antioxidant supplements might protect against heart disease but a number of clinical trials have failed to provide any robust evidence in favour of this"

Fleeing Somalia's fighting - 18 Dec 07

Prenatal X-ray, no risk for kids

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:30:17

Swedish scientists believe that prenatal exposure to diagnostic X-rays does not increase the overall risk of childhood brain tumors.

However, their study suggests abdominal radiography can raise the incidence of primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET).

According to the article published in the British Journal of Cancer, prenatal exposure does not raise any risk for high or low-grade astrocytoma, ependymoma, germ cell tumor, or other rare or incompletely specified tumors.

The study revealed PNET was the only malignancy associated with abdominal X-ray exposure; however, the association was not statistically significant. No effects were reported for non-abdominal X-rays.

Scientists concluded that neural stem cells are extra sensitive during their differentiation and that radiation-induced DNA damage could initiate malignant transformation, leading to the development of embryonic CNS tumors such as PNET.

PKH/HGH

Researchers challenge medical myths

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:04:34

Reading in dim light won't damage your eyes and you don't need eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy, a US study suggests.

A research was conducted by two American researchers Aaron Carroll and Rachel Vreeman on some common beliefs. They searched the archive for evidence to support the well-worn medical myths.

Despite frequent mentions of the need to drink eight glasses of water, they found no scientific basis for the claim, adding that a study published in the American Journal of Psychology has recorded the complete lack of evidence on the issue.

Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight

The majority of eye experts believe it is unlikely to do any permanent damage, but it may make you squint, blink more and have trouble focusing, the researchers said.

Shaving makes hair grow back faster or coarser

It has no effect on the thickness or rate of hair regrowth, studies say. But stubble lacks the finer taper of unshaven hair, giving the impression of coarseness.

Eating turkey makes you drowsy

It does contain an amino acid called tryptophan that is involved in sleep and mood control. But turkey has no more of the acid than chicken or beef. Eating lots of food and drink at Christmas are probably the real cause of sleepiness.

We use only 10 percent of our brains

This myth arose as early as 1907 but imaging shows no area of the brain is silent or completely inactive.

Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death

This idea may stem from ghoulish novels. The researchers said the skin dries out and retracts after death, giving the appearance of longer hair or nails.

CS/BGH

Women's rights in Islam and Iran

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:12:51
By Maryam Torabi, Press TV, Tehran

Following is an exclusive interview with the head of the Iranian Parliament's Committee for Women and Family Affairs, Mrs. Fatemeh Alia, who is also an active member of the Majlis Cultural Commission.

Q. Islam encourages women to be active members of the society while considering them important pillars of families. Islam also places the central responsibility for the upbringing of children upon women. How can women in today's world balance family matters against social responsibilities?

A. Women can have social responsibilities without necessarily being employed. The society can greatly benefit from women who voluntarily take part in social activities and influence the culture, politics and economics of their country. What is important is that the position of the family as the main building block of the society should always be cherished.

When employed, women can benefit from features such as flextime and maternity leaves. They can also use technologies like the Internet to continue to work at home while caring for their families.

The main issue here is that the family, which is an abode where love and friendship rule, should never be transformed to a mere dwelling deficient in the spirit of companionship.

Q. Does such balance exist in the world today?

A. In most parts of the world, in the West in particular, women are merely objects of collective materialistic values. The notion of complete equality between men and women with no consideration for their biological and emotional differences has distanced women from their inborn nature.

Many women have traded in family values to be able to work. In the West, people are changing the laws of nature such that family values have been forgotten and even same-sex relationships are emerging.

The modern world seems to be greatly concerned about women and makes favorable promises to them. It promises them freedom from slavery, male-domination, and even the established institution of marriage, but what does it actually have in store? Nothing but exploitation, injustice, oppression, aggression, harassment, neurosis and indignity.


Q. What measures have been taken in Iran for women to be able to have an active role in the society while fulfilling their duties at home?

A. The Iranian Parliament (Majlis) has approved a series of rules to allow women to fulfill both their social and familial responsibilities and facilitate their active participation in Iran's social arena. We have passed an act increasing maternity leave from 4 months to 6 months. We have also reduced compulsory working hours for women, and working mothers have been entitled to compensation for working environments which don't provide kindergartens.

However, meager laws are not enough and the main factor lies within the assistance and encouragement that a woman receives from her family.

Q. One of the indices of sustainable development is the rate of employed women. What is Iran's viewpoint in this regard?

A. The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the employment of women from the viewpoint of Islam, which puts great importance on the family, as the main building block of the society and the major institution that can pass on a county's culture and ideology to the next generation.

In addition to women who have opted to work outside the home, many have chosen to continue professions as writers, translators or artists who, besides managing the household, pursue their dreams and passions professionally. This sort of work is not considered in the data pertaining to employment.

Another issue which is also a major index in the economy and development of every society is the domestic work that every woman engages in. Unpaid productive work such as domestic work and child care ought to be included in satellite national accounts and economic statistics.

Q. Can you please give us your viewpoint on the notion of equality between men and women that is propagated in today's world?

A. One cannot assume that equality always results in justice. We believe in justice, but justice is not always the same as equality.

Although men and women have been created equal in the eyes of God, they are not created alike and their differences require a different approach to their roles and responsibilities within the society. Men and women in Islam are not antagonists but separate entities created to complement and complete one another. Islam considers each sex unique in its own sphere of activity and allots significant roles best suited to each according to its own nature and needs.

According to Iranian law, therefore, the two sexes enjoy equal rights and the Qur'an differentiates among human beings only based on the quality of their deeds in this world.

Q. In a meeting with Iranian women, leader of the Islamic revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said that Iran objects to the West's record on women's rights. In your opinion what does his comment mean?

A. The West has oppressed women and has not recognized their real rights according to their intrinsic nature and creation. We consider the manipulative treatment of women in the West as oppression against humanity and betrayal of women rights.

The West should be held accountable for degrading woman to mere means of promoting consumer goods and perpetual sexual slavery.

The Islamic culture challenges the West and demands that the status of women be restored to its rightful and dignified position.

Q. Can you please explain some of the shortcomings of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)?

A. Iran is concerned about various issues of the mentioned convention. CEDAW undermines the traditional family structure which is much respected in our society. The preamble states, "A change in the traditional role of men as well as the role of women in society and in the family is needed to achieve full equality between men and women." This requires states to "Modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices based on stereotyped roles for men and women."

This convention denies any distinctions between men and women. It defines discrimination in its own words as "any distinction on the basis of sex," in "any field". This is to say, it ignores differences between the roles, rights and obligations of men and women in the natural world.

The convention also states that governments should "ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning". This sort of rhetoric also includes open access to abortion services.

Abortion, of course, is only one of the contradictions between Islamic law and the Convention. Countries that have ratified CEDAW will also be obliged to welcome sexual relations out of wedlock, which Islam prohibits because of the harm it does to the society.

The Islamic tradition of hijab frees women from being perceived primarily as sexual instruments and helps cleanse the society of promiscuity. A healthy and vigorous society is considered essential in Islam for individuals to be able to nurture and develop their abilities.

Societies which promote women as sexual objects also have a horrendous rate of violence toward women. The wisdom behind this dress code is to minimize sexual enticement and degradation in society as much as possible for both men and women.

Regarding Islamic laws relating to inheritance, women have been granted the benefit of being completely entitled to their own property.

A woman receives a dowry at marriage and can choose to keep all of her inheritance for herself. She does receive less inheritance than her male sibling but this is due to the difference which derives from the obligation men have to support their wives financially, while the woman's share would be entirely at her own disposal.

Islam allows polygamy for men whereas there is no such law for women. Certain circumstances require such remedial laws to be introduced in the society. Due to conditions like war, the total number of women sometimes exceeds the number of men. At such times, the society must resolve the dilemma of caring for women who have the right of marriage, emotional support and welfare. In these circumstances polygamy is the only just solution.

MT/AA

POLITICS & LAPTOPS

Politics 'stifling $100 laptop'

By Jonathan Fildes Science and technology reporter, BBC News

The government of Nigeria is still assessing the scheme Laptop in Nigeria

A lack of "big thinking" by politicians has stifled a scheme to distribute laptops to children in the developing world, a spokesman has said.

Walter Bender of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) said politicians were unwilling to commit because "change equals risk".

But, he said, there needed to be a "dramatic change" because education in many countries was "failing" children.

In an interview with the BBC, Nigeria's education minister questioned the need for laptops in poorly equipped schools.

Dr Igwe Aja-Nwachuku said: "What is the essence of introducing One Laptop per Child when they don't have seats to sit down and learn; when they don't have uniforms to go to school in, where they don't have facilities?"

"We are more interested in laying a very solid foundation for quality education which will be efficient, effective, accessible and affordable."

The previous government of Nigeria had committed to buying one million laptops.

Dr Aja-Nwachuku said he was now assessing OLPC alongside other schemes from Microsoft and Intel.

There is still a concerted misinformation campaign out there Walter Bender, OLPC

"We are asking whether this is the most critical thing to drive education."

But speaking separately to BBC News, Professor Bender said: "We think that change has to be dramatic."

"You've got to be big, you've got to be bold. And what has happened is that there has been an effort to say 'don't take any risks - just do something small, something incremental'."

"It feels safe but by definition what you are ensuring is that nothing happens."

Winds of change

OLPC was started in 2002 by Nicholas Negroponte, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The laptops have been designed to cope with harsh conditions

It aims to put thousands of low-cost laptops, known as the XO, in the hands of children around the world.

The machines are planned to cost $100 and have been especially designed for use in remote and harsh environments where there is little access to electricity or the internet.

But getting the project off the ground has proved difficult.

Professor Negroponte has had high profile run-ins with major technology firms.

He told an audience at a Linux event: "if I am annoying Microsoft and Intel then I figure I am doing something right."

Microsoft head Bill Gates had questioned the XOs design, particularly the lack of hard drive and its "tiny screen".

But recently, the firm announced that it was working on a version of Windows XP that would run on the pared down machines.

The price will come down as the numbers go up. It will take time but it will happen Walter Bender

"We are spending a non-trivial amount of money," Microsoft's Will Poole told Reuters.

Earlier this year, Professor Negroponte also accused Intel of selling its own cut-price laptop - the Classmate - below cost price to drive him out of markets. He said that Intel "should be ashamed of itself" and said its tactics had hurt his mission "enormously".

Within weeks it was announced that Intel had joined the board of OLPC amid speculation that the firm was unhappy about the XO using a processor from its main rival AMD.

'Small thinking'

Although these episodes now appear to be behind OLPC, Professor Bender said there was still an "aggressive" effort to undermine the charity.

"There is still a concerted misinformation campaign out there," he said.

Mr Bender said he would not speculate on who was behind the alleged campaign.

"Wherever it is coming from, it exists," he told BBC News.

But he said the main problem for OLPC was dealing with conservative politicians.

"Change equals risk especially for politicians. And we are certainly advocating change because the [education] system is failing these children," he said.

"It has not been that processor versus that processor or that operating system versus that operating system - it's been small thinking versus big thinking. That's really the issue," he said.

Sales target

Originally, the laptops were to be sold to governments in lots of one million for $100 apiece.

Over time, however, the project has dropped the minimum number of machines that can be ordered, leading some to speculate that governments were not buying into the scheme.

Factfile: XO laptop

The project also recently launched an initiative to allow citizens of North America to buy two machines at a time; one for themselves and one for a child in a developing country.

But Mr Bender said the shift was because of a better understanding of how to distribute smaller numbers cheaply and effectively, rather than a lack of orders.

"Part of it was our understanding of how the supply chain was going to work and having enough flexibility in the supply chain to make it work with a small number," he said.

"The big numbers were really about how you get this thing started not how you make it work in the long term.

"That was always going to be about supporting any good idea that comes along. And we've been able to get it started without the big top down numbers so we are off and running."

Developing tool

Since the scheme was first announced in 2002 there have been reports of several countries signing up to it.

Both Nigeria and Libya were reported to have ordered more than one million laptops.

Tests of the Xo are going on around the world

Other countries including Thailand and Pakistan had also placed orders, according to reports.

But recently, OLPC revealed it had just taken its first order for 100,000 of the machines, placed by the government of Uruguay.

"Uruguay is first then it will be Peru, Mexico, Ethiopia then we are going to be doing stuff in Haiti, Rwanda and Mongolia," said Mr Bender.

In addition, he said, OLPC had done a deal with Birmingham, Alabama, in the US, to provide the laptop for schools in the city.

"The numbers of countries where we have trials set up is also increasing," he said.

Tests were also going on in the Solomon Islands, Nepal and India, a country that had previously shunned the scheme.

The Indian Ministry of Education had previously dismissed the laptop as "pedagogically suspect", whilst the Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee said the country needed "classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools".

Tipping point

The first machines will cost almost double the $100 originally planned.

The high price has been blamed on the increasing cost of the raw materials for the components inside the XO. Each machine currently costs $188.

"The price will come down as the numbers go up. It will take time but it will happen," said Mr Bender.

The manufacturer of the laptop - Quanta - recently revealed it had started mass production of the machines, after a number of delays.

Previously, OLPC had said it needed three million orders to make production feasible.

Professor Negroponte said it was an important milestone that had been reached despite "all the naysayers".

"We're not turning back - we have passed the point of no return," said Mr Bender. "It is happening."

How the world's best performing schools systems come out on top. McKinsey & Co.

From The Economist print edition

Oct 18th 2007

What works in education: the lessons according to McKinsey - How to be top

THE British government, says Sir Michael Barber, once an adviser to the former prime minister, Tony Blair, has changed pretty much every aspect of education policy in England and Wales, often more than once. "The funding of schools, the governance of schools, curriculum standards, assessment and testing, the role of local government, the role of national government, the range and nature of national agencies, schools admissions"—you name it, it's been changed and sometimes changed back. The only thing that hasn't changed has been the outcome. According to the National Foundation for Education Research, there had been (until recently) no measurable improvement in the standards of literacy and numeracy in primary schools for 50 years.

England and Wales are not alone. Australia has almost tripled education spending per student since 1970. No improvement. American spending has almost doubled since 1980 and class sizes are the lowest ever. Again, nothing. No matter what you do, it seems, standards refuse to budge (see chart). To misquote Woody Allen, those who can't do, teach; those who can't teach, run the schools.

Why bother, you might wonder. Nothing seems to matter. Yet something must. There are big variations in educational standards between countries. These have been measured and re-measured by the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which has established, first, that the best performing countries do much better than the worst and, second, that the same countries head such league tables again and again: Canada, Finland, Japan, Singapore, South Korea.

Those findings raise what ought to be a fruitful question: what do the successful lot have in common? Yet the answer to that has proved surprisingly elusive. Not more money. Singapore spends less per student than most. Nor more study time. Finnish students begin school later, and study fewer hours, than in other rich countries.

Now, an organisation from outside the teaching fold—McKinsey, a consultancy that advises companies and governments—has boldly gone where educationalists have mostly never gone: into policy recommendations based on the PISA findings. Schools, it says you need to do three things: get the best teachers; get the best out of teachers; and step in when pupils start to lag behind. That may not sound exactly "first-of-its- kind" (which is how Andreas Schleicher, the OECD's head of education research, describes McKinsey's approach): schools surely do all this already? Actually, they don't. If these ideas were really taken seriously, they would change education radically.

Begin with hiring the best. There is no question that, as one South Korean official put it, "the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers." Studies in Tennessee and Dallas have shown that, if you take pupils of average ability and give them to teachers deemed in the top fifth of the profession, they end up in the top 10% of student performers; if you give them to teachers from the bottom fifth, they end up at the bottom.

The quality of teachers affects student performance more than anything else. Yet most school systems do not go all out to get the best. The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a non-profit organisation, says America typically recruits teachers from the bottom third of college graduates. Washington, DC recently hired as chancellor for its public schools an alumna of an organisation called Teach for America, which seeks out top graduates and hires them to teach for two years. Both her appointment and the organisation caused a storm.

A bias against the brightest happens partly because of lack of money (governments fear they cannot afford them), and partly because other aims get in the way. Almost every rich country has sought to reduce class size lately. Yet all other things being equal, smaller classes mean more teachers for the same pot of money, producing lower salaries and lower professional status. That may explain the paradox that, after primary school, there seems little or no relationship between class size and educational achievement.

Asian values or good policy?

McKinsey argues that the best performing education systems nevertheless manage to attract the best. In Finland all new teachers must have a master's degree. South Korea recruits primary-school teachers from the top 5% of graduates, Singapore and Hong Kong from the top 30%.

They do this in a surprising way. You might think that schools should offer as much money as possible, seek to attract a large pool of applicants into teacher training and then pick the best. Not so, says McKinsey. If money were so important, then countries with the highest teacher salaries—Germany, Spain and Switzerland—would presumably be among the best. They aren't. In practice, the top performers pay no more than average salaries.

Nor do they try to encourage a big pool of trainees and select the most successful. Almost the opposite. Singapore screens candidates with a fine mesh before teacher training and accepts only the number for which there are places. Once in, candidates are employed by the education ministry and more or less guaranteed a job. Finland also limits the supply of teacher-training places to demand. In both countries, teaching is a high-status profession (because it is fiercely competitive) and there are generous funds for each trainee teacher (because there are few of them).

South Korea shows how the two systems produce different results. Its primary-school teachers have to pass a four-year undergraduate degree from one of only a dozen universities. Getting in requires top grades; places are rationed to match vacancies. In contrast, secondary-school teachers can get a diploma from any one of 350 colleges, with laxer selection criteria. This has produced an enormous glut of newly qualified secondary-school teachers—11 for each job at last count. As a result, secondary-school teaching is the lower status job in South Korea; everyone wants to be a primary-school teacher. The lesson seems to be that teacher training needs to be hard to get into, not easy.

Teaching the teachers

Having got good people, there is a temptation to shove them into classrooms and let them get on with it. For understandable reasons, teachers rarely get much training in their own classrooms (in contrast, doctors do a lot of training in hospital wards). But successful countries can still do much to overcome the difficulty.

Singapore provides teachers with 100 hours of training a year and appoints senior teachers to oversee professional development in each school. In Japan and Finland, groups of teachers visit each others' classrooms and plan lessons together. In Finland, they get an afternoon off a week for this. In Boston, which has one of America's most improved public-school systems, schedules are arranged so that those who teach the same subject have free classes together for common planning. This helps spread good ideas around. As one educator remarked, "when a brilliant American teacher retires, almost all of the lesson plans and practices that she has developed also retire. When a Japanese teacher retires, she leaves a legacy."

Lastly, the most successful countries are distinctive not just in whom they employ so things go right but in what they do when things go wrong, as they always do. For the past few years, almost all countries have begun to focus more attention on testing, the commonest way to check if standards are falling. McKinsey's research is neutral on the usefulness of this, pointing out that while Boston tests every student every year, Finland has largely dispensed with national examinations. Similarly, schools in New Zealand and England and Wales are tested every three or four years and the results published, whereas top-of-the-class Finland has no formal review and keeps the results of informal audits confidential.

But there is a pattern in what countries do once pupils and schools start to fail. The top performers intervene early and often. Finland has more special-education teachers devoted to laggards than anyone else—as many as one teacher in seven in some schools. In any given year, a third of pupils get one-on-one remedial lessons. Singapore provides extra classes for the bottom 20% of students and teachers are expected to stay behind—often for hours—after school to help students.

None of this is rocket science. Yet it goes against some of the unspoken assumptions of education policy. Scratch a teacher or an administrator (or a parent), and you often hear that it is impossible to get the best teachers without paying big salaries; that teachers in, say, Singapore have high status because of Confucian values; or that Asian pupils are well behaved and attentive for cultural reasons. McKinsey's conclusions seem more optimistic: getting good teachers depends on how you select and train them; teaching can become a career choice for top graduates without paying a fortune; and that, with the right policies, schools and pupils are not doomed to lag behind.

Source the economist