Pupils line up to form an anti-Aids symbol during an HIV/AIDS awareness rally
Agartala,-With the identification of four
new HIV positive cases, the number of such cases rose to 573
in Tripura, official sources said here.
The first HIV positive case was reported in the state in
2001.
Four fresh cases were confirmed from Khowai sub-division
area in West Tripura district recently who are now under
the surveillance of Integrated Counselling Treatment Centre
(ICTC), Dr. Dipankar Prakash Bhowmick, In-charge of ICTC said.
Of the four new cases, two are women, Bhowmick said.
Thousands in Syria rally against Arab sanctions
Damascus,-Tens of thousands of Syrians
demonstrated in the capital against the Arab League
decision to impose crippling sanctions on President Bashar
al-Assad's regime, a report said.
Protesters waved Syrian flags and carried giant
portraits of the embattled leader as they belted nationalistic
songs in Damascus' central Sabaa Bahrat square, an AFP
correspondent reported.
"The people want Bashar al-Assad, We are your people
Bashar," chanted the protesters.
Syrian state television broadcast footage of the
pro-regime rallies and slammed the Arab League describing it
as an "instrument for implementing the Western and American
plan against Syria."
The sanctions, voted on Sunday as violence in Syria
claimed 23 new lives, will affect "all Syrians" not just
target the regime, it said.
"The Arab League is punishing the Syrian people for
their positions," added the ruling Baath Party's newspaper
Al-Baath.
Bone marrow cancer genes 'identified'
London,-In what's being hailed as a major
breakthrough, scientists claim to have identified genes that
can raise a person's risk of developing multiple myeloma, an
aggressive form of bone marrow cancer, by nearly 30 per cent.
It was already known that relatives of those suffering
from the incurable cancer were at increased risk, but until
now, no responsible gene had been identified.
Now, a team at the Institute of Cancer Research used a
technique called a genome wide association study to scan the
DNA of 1,675 patients with multiple myeloma. The same process
was also carried out on around 5,900 healthy people.
A network proxy to cut smart phones'
power consumption!
London,-Scientists claim to have designed a
network proxy which can cut the power consumption of 3G smart
phones up to 74 per cent.
A team at Aalto University in Finland says its device
enhances performance and significantly reduces power usage by
serving as a middleman for mobile devices to connect to the
Internet and handling the majority of the data transfer for
the smart phone.
Historically, the high energy requirements of mobile
phones have slowed the adoption of mobile Internet services in
developing countries.
This new solution is particularly valuable in developing
countries because it provides significantly more effective
Internet access to a much larger number of people, according
to the scientists.
"Mobile phone usage is increasing rapidly, however
the use of mobile Internet services is hindered by users not
having access to the power grid to recharge their phones,"
said Prof Jukka Manner, who led the team.
The scientists developed energy-saving solutions for
smart phones that could be easily deployed across a mobile
network and in particular in areas without reliable sources of
electricity.
In addition to the new, optimised proxy solution, they
found that the power consumption of smart phones could also
be significantly reduced by mobile optimised websites, HTTP
compression and more efficient use of data caching.
British-era Church destroyed in fire
Pune,-150-year-old Saint Andrews Hindustani
Church near Turf Club here was gutted in fire early morning
today.
Sunil Gilbile, Central Fire Station officer, said, "We
got a call around 8.05 am. The fire had started at dawn and
spread to the entire building. The cause could be a short
circuit."
The blaze was brought under control after an hour, with
the use of five fire engines and four water tankers.
Gilbile said that the Church, being a specimen of old
British-time architecture, had a lot of wood, which fuelled
the fire.
'40 per cent of youths attempt suicide before high school'
Washington,-Teens appear to develop suicidal
thoughts much earlier than thought, as a new study has found
that 40 per cent of youths trying to kill themselves make
their first attempt before entering high school.
The University of Washington study found that while about
one of nine youths attempt suicide by the time they graduate
from high school, nearly 40 per cent make their first attempt
in elementary or middle school.
The research, published in the Journal of Adolescent
Health, also found that suicide attempts during childhood and
adolescence were linked to higher scores of depression at the
time of the attempts, validating for the first time that young
adults can reliably recall when they first attempted suicide.
"Young adults who end up having chronic mental health
problems show their struggles early," said Dr James Mazza, a
professor of educational psychology who led the study.
"This study suggests that implementation of mental health
programmes may need to start in elementary and middle schools,
and that youth in these grades are fairly good reporters of
their mental health," he was quoted as saying by LiveScience.
As part of an ongoing survey, Mazza and his collaborators
asked 883 young adults aged 18 or 19 about their history of
suicide attempts. Seventy-eight respondents, nearly nine per
cent, said that they had tried suicide at some point.
Suicide attempt rates showed a sharp increase around
sixth grade, about age 12, with rates peaking around eighth or
ninth grade, the researchers found.
For the 39 of the participants who reported multiple
suicide attempts, their first attempt was significantly
earlier, as young as nine, than those making a single attempt.
According to the researchers, adolescence can often be a
struggle for some youth with ongoing pressures of drugs,
alcohol, sexual relationships and sexual orientation. At the
same time, they are becoming more autonomous.
"Adolescence is a time when kids are preparing to be more
independent from their parents or guardians, but lack the
experience of how to do this. And their support network, their
friends, doesn't have the experience either, especially in
crisis situations," said Mazza.
The researchers also compared the teenagers' recollection
of their suicide attempts with their past depression scores,
which were collected yearly as part of their participation in
the study.
Depression levels were higher at the time of the youths'
reported first suicide attempts compared with their peers who
had not attempted suicide. And Mazza found an increase in
depression scores at the time of the attempt compared with
depression scores the year before and after the attempt for
the same child.
"This suggests that kids are able to tell us, by their
depression scores, that things aren't going well for them,"
Mazza said.
"We are likely not giving kids enough credence in
assessing their own mental health, and this study shows that
we can rely on self-report measures to help identify youth who
may be at risk for current mental health concerns, including
possible suicidal behaviour."
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