Dr. Cyrus S Poonawalla wins “Excellence in Inter-American Public Health” award

Excellence in Inter-American Public Health Award in recognition for his efforts to eradicate Rubella and Congenital Rubella Syndrome in America

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Pan American Health and Education Foundation (PAHEF) presented Dr. Cyrus S Poonawalla, Chairman and Managing Director of Serum Institute of India Limited with the Award for “Excellence in Inter-American Public Health”,making him the first Indian to get this prestigious honour in Washington D.C. Dr. Poonawalla received this award at the hands of Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for his extraordinary contribution to eliminate Rubella and Congenital Rubella Syndrome in America. 

Serum Institute of India has demonstrated unparalleled focus in supplying several hundred millions of doses to curb the scourge of Rubella (German Measles) and Measles to 38 regions in America, for the past 16 years, for routine immunization as well as for mass campaigns.

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AIDS vaccine trial: prime-boost elicits modest immune response

AIDS vaccine trial: prime-boost elicits modest immune 
response


Preliminary results of Phase-I trial at TRC, Chennai and NARI, show the vaccine to be safe


 

Trial centre: A researcher working in the safety laboratory at the Tuberculosis Research Centre, Chennai where the Phase I prime-boost AIDS vaccine trial was conducted.


The preliminary results of the Phase I prime-boost AIDS vaccine trial started in February 2009 and conducted at the Tuberculosis Research Centre (TRC), Chennai and the National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune, has shown that the vaccine used is safe and its ability to elicit immune response is modest.


The results were presented yesterday (Sept 29) at the AIDS Vaccine 2010 conference in Atlanta, U.S. The results are based on preliminary, blinded data. Unblinding makes it possible to know who has received the vaccine and who has received the placebo.

Vaccine safety

The vaccine trial used ADVAX, a DNA-based vaccine, as the prime and Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) as the boost. ADVAX was earlier tested in the U.S. and found to be safe. Similarly, MVA vector, which was earlier tested at TRC in 2008, showed that the vaccine was safe.


As on date no serious adverse events were reported by any of the total of 32 volunteers recruited for the trial at both TRC and NARI. Based on this, it can be said that the vaccine is safe.


However, one more volunteer visit in December is pending at both trial centres. The trial is considered to be complete after this visit and some tests are done to know certain aspects of the immune response. The final results are expected by early next year.


Both centres have seen 100 per cent volunteer retention till date.

Immune response

The prime-boost vaccine has shown only a modest immune response. The safety and immune response seen are nearly similar at both trial centres.


The immune response produced by MVA in Group B (those who received only MVA) showed similar immune response compared with the earlier MVA trial conducted at TRC in 2008. In a way, the preliminary results of the current trail validate the earlier MVA trial.


Group B volunteers received three of MVA (MVA was used as a prime as well as a boost).


“Immune responses were better in Group A [who received ADVAX prime and MVA boost] volunteers compared with Group B,” said Dr. V. D. Ramanathan, Deputy Director at TRC and Principal Investigator of the trial at TRC. “At the sixth month the immune responses were better and more people responded to the vaccine and the immune responses were sustained for a longer time compared with Group B.”


However, on the whole, the magnitude of the immune response produced was only modest and did not sustain for very long. A vaccine can be called efficacious when the immune responses are seen in a large number of volunteers and are persistent.


Will the responses been better if a higher dose of MVA was used? “We feel that as we are using the prime-boost strategy, selecting the lower dose for boosting makes more sense. In combination strategies, using lower dose is likely to reduce harm, increase safety and optimise immunogenicity,” said Dr. Sanjay M. Mahendale, Deputy Director, and the Principle Investigator of the trial at NARI.

ADVAX priming

“We found the responses to be better when [volunteers] were primed by ADVAX followed by MVA,” said Dr. Ramanathan. “But how good the priming has been will be known only when the final, unblinded results come out,” he said.


However, ADVAX by itself produced very few immune responses. “We now know from various experiments (on animals and humans) that, in general, DNA vaccines by themselves are better at priming than being good ‘stand alone' immunogens,” explained Dr. Ramanathan.


The results mentioned here are however based on preliminary, blinded data. “We have one more volunteer visit and additional immunogenicity tests pending. We have to wait for these to be completed before drawing firm conclusions,” he cautioned.


But would the responses been different had the Group B volunteers received two doses, instead of one, of MVA prime? “It is very unlikely that the level of immune responses would go up once the immune response reaches a certain level when the same vaccine is used as both prime and boost,” said Dr. Ramesh Paranjape, Director of NARI.


The trial was essentially aimed at looking for three parameters — to see if the immune response is broad to the antigens used in the vaccine, to see how strong the response is, and finally to see if the response is sustained.


“The response is the same in both the groups, especially gap and env antigens that are critical. And the response has been moderate in both the groups,” said Dr. Paranjape. “But whether the response has sustained can be answered only on completion of the trial in December.”


According to Dr. Paranjape, the breath of the response and the level of response are unlikely to go up at the end of the trial. “Scientifically, it can only go down,” he said.


So what lessons can one learn from the current trial at TRC and NARI? “This trial re-establishes the safety of the MVA as a vector, and prime-boost regime is a viable strategy and this strategy should be continued to be evaluated,” said Dr. Rajat Goyal, Country Director, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), New Delhi. The trial was funded by IAVI.


He also emphasised that use of the MVA as a vector and prime-boost regime as a strategy should not be dropped.

Volunteer recruitment

YRG Care, Chennai recruited volunteers for the TRC arm of the trial. “Recruiting volunteers was easier this time,” said Dr. Suniti Solomon, Director of YRG Care. “There is more literacy in the community we are working with and the experience of the earlier trial [at TRC] made it easy.”

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Why don't men say 'I'm sorry'?

Why don't men say 'I'm sorry'?

• 
  
• Women apologize more than men, but it's not because they commit more wrongdoing. They just think they do.
• New research on apologies from Canadian psychologists finds that men have a "higher threshold" for bad behavior, meaning they just don't see "wrong" the same way women do, according to a study online in the journalPsychological Science.
• Psychologists at the University of Waterloo in Ontario conducted two studies of 186 people, divided by gender. They found that men were less likely to be offended than women and were less likely to think they committed wrongdoing.
• "The gender differences just sort of leapt out at us," says co-author Michael Ross, a psychology professor. "It was too big to ignore. It was just very clearly there."
• In the first study, 33 men and 33 women completed online diaries for 12 days, describing instances in which they apologized to someone or did something that might have warranted an apology. That study found women more readily offered up a mea culpa. But the study also found that contrary to the stereotype, men didn't avoid apologizing or refuse to admit they were in the wrong. They were just as likely to apologize if they believed they were actually in the wrong.
• Another study of 120 participants asked them to rate specific offenses, how much that action deserved an apology and how likely they were to say they were sorry for it.
• "Men rated the offenses as less severe than women did," the study found.
• "Part of the reason women apologize more is they have a lower threshold for what is offensive behavior," says Karina Schumann, lead author of the study to appear in print in November.
• "It's not that men are always being insensitive or that women are always seeing offenses that aren't."
• Schumann adds, "It's a different standard between men and women on how offensive behavior is, and sometimes results in men not apologizing for something that the female thinks they should."

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'Miracle' mineral drink contains bleach?

London, Sep 29  Health watchdogs have warned against a 'miracle' health drink that contains industrial strength bleach.


Hundreds of thousands of bottles of 'Miracle Mineral Solution' have been sold worldwide after makers claimed it cured illnesses, including cancer and malaria. But its desperate users have suffered agonising bouts of nausea and diarrhoea after taking just a few drops of the fluid.


Shockingly, the health drink contains 28 percent sodium chlorite solution - the equivalent to industrial strength bleach and six times the amount in a bottle of Domestos, reports the Daily Mail.


The Food Standards Agency has now warned people who have bought the drink, asking them to throw it away after Trading Standards received a deluge of complaints.


A spokesperson said: 'If you look at a bottle of Domestos, that's just 4.5 percent sodium chlorite. The simple fact is not how this solution is taken but that you just shouldn't be drinking bleach, full stop.


'We were alerted to the solution after a local authority received a complaint from somebody who drank it. Sodium chlorite is bleach. Bleach is not on the approved list of foods and it shouldn't be sold as a food supplement.'


Miracle Mineral Solution is sold over the internet by a man who gives his name as 'Jim Humble'. A bottle of the liquid costs 21.98 pounds in American dollars and users must mix it with citric acid.


Makers of the liquid claim the solution can cure a range of illnesses, including Hepatitis, cancer, herpes and TB.


But side effects include severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, dehydration and reduced blood pressure. If the solution is taken in large enough doses, the sodium chlorite could be fatal. It is the equivalent of drinking industrial strength bleach.


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Bum lift, the latest cosmetic craze!

Bum lift, the latest cosmetic craze!

Facelift and tummy tuck will soon become passé, for more and more women are opting for the trendier bum lift. 

Constantino Mendieta is the inventor of the Miami Thong Lift, the latest way to a shapelier rear view. 

According to Mendieta, a Harvard-educated surgeon, there's been a steady rise in numbers of women seeking a curvier bottom, like that of Miami's famous resident J-Lo. 

However, top-notch plastic surgeon Rajiv Grover explained that these operations could be risky. 

Previously, the standard way to create a rounder, higher bottom was with silicone implants, similar to those used for breast enlargement. 

"Implants have a tendency to move and, if they get infected, they have to be surgically removed," The Daily Mail quoted Grover as saying. 

So, Mendieta uses grafts of fat liposuctioned from the thighs or stomach, purified and then painstakingly injected — using a large needle — into the layers of muscle of the buttocks, changing their shape from flat to super-curvy and high. Because the fat belongs to the patient, there is no risk of rejection. 

The scars left by the incisions needed to inject the fat are hidden, said Mendieta, 'in the grand canyon where the thong goes', hence the name of the procedure. 

However, he warns that the procedure isn't entirely risk-free. 

"It needs to be done by a very experienced surgeon, in a hospital, in sterile conditions with good aftercare — if you get an infection it could cause a very large abscess," said Mendieta. 

Also, fat transfer is never 100 per cent predictable. If the fat dies and is re-absorbed by the body unevenly, you could end up with one buttock larger than the other. To say nothing of the bruising and swelling that can last for months. 

Added to the risk, the cost is quite high too - 8,850 pounds. 

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Slimmer Apple iPad with Mini USB, Camera in 2011

With the BlackBerry PlayBook officially announced, where will we direct our tablet hysteria next? For now, it seems like it's back to Apple's iPad.

Two Goldman Sachs analysts said this week that Apple is prepping the next version of the iPad for a June 2011 release. It will include a built-in camera, a mini USB port, and be thinner and lighter than its predecessors, Henry King and Kevin Lu wrote in a report provided to Bloomberg.

Electronics maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. will probably be the supplier, they wrote. King and Lu, however, said the updated iPad will retain its 9.7-inch screen. The rumored 7-inch version has not yet been finalized, they said.

Apple has not made any announcements, but the likelihood of an iPad refresh in 2011 is quite high. In fact, it would probably be odd if it did not release a new iPad. Apple has released a new iPhone, for example, every year since its 2007 release, and it usually revamps its iPod lineup every September, so it makes sense that the iPad would also follow a similar schedule.

How accurate King and Lu are regarding the new iPad's features remains to be seen. In recent months, most financial analysts have been speculating about the iPhone when it comes to Apple. Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros., for example, speculated that T-Mobile might get the iPhonebefore Verizon, while Barclays Capital James Ratcliffe predicated a Verizon iPhone in early 2011.

On that front, the iPhone 4 was recently released in China, where it sold 100,000 units in its first four days, according to provider China Unicom.

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in-vitro fertilization increases the chances of the baby being a boy

in-vitro fertilization  increases the chances of the baby being a boy

Opting for in-vitro fertilization to conceive increases the chances of the baby being a boy, a new survey published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology reveals.


Researchers from the University of New South Wales in Australia studied more than 14,000 live births in fertility clinics in Australia and New Zealand over a period of four years between 2002 and 2006 and found that while the natural chance of the baby being a boy was 51 percent, it shot up to 56 percent when conceived using IVF treatment.

However the chances of the baby being a girl increased when intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment was opted.

The editor-in-chief of the BJOG Professor Philip Steer said that prospective parents should be made aware of the possibility of a particular treatment influencing the sex of the baby, adding that an imbalance in the secondary sex ratio (SSR) should not be created unintentionally.

“t is important that we don't allow such imbalances to occur unintentionally, simply because we have neglected to study the factors that influence the secondary sex ratio in the increasing proportion of the population who use assisted reproductive technology”, he said. 

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Fizzy drinks light up pain sensors

Fizzy drinks light up pain sensors

A new study has revealed that the carbon dioxide in fizzy beverages sets off the same pain sensors in the nasal cavity as mustard and horseradish. 

"Carbonation evokes two distinct sensations. It makes things sour and it also makes them burn. We have all felt that noxious tingling sensation when soda goes down your throat too fast," said Emily Liman, an associate professor of neurobiology in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California. 

The burning sensation is caused by nerves that respond to pain, skin pressure and temperature in the nose and mouth. 

"The cells that responded to CO2 were the same cells that detect mustard," Liman said. 

These cells express a gene known as TRPA1 and serve as general pain sensors. The gene, however, provides only one aspect of carbonation's sensory experience. Another study had shown earlier that carbonation trips cells in the tongue that convey sourness. 

The study is published online in the Journal of Neuroscience. 



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Mahindra's 300cc Mojo!

 Mahindra's 300cc Mojo!

Indian motorcyclists, do we have some really awesome news for you! We have the first proper pictures and details of the much-awaited Mahindra 300cc motorcycle. It’s called the ‘Mojo’ and even though we must admit that isn’t the coolest name in the universe, it is the motorcycle itself that excites us the most.

Ready?

Yes, the looks are European and the Engines Engineering hand in development does show. It very well could have been a Cagiva for the European market! The twin-headlamps remind us of the Triumph Speed Triple while the tubular chassis, the shorty stubby end pipes and the sharp fairing also have this very Speed Triple-esque look and form. Overall, the design language is pretty darn radical for our market. Oh, and twin exhaust pipes too! Cool, isn't it?

It’s a 292cc, single-cylinder, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected (more on that later) 4-valve engine that produces 26 bhp @ 8500 rpm, and some healthy 2.5 kgm of torque at around 7000 rpm. And you know where the electronic fuel injection unit comes from? Ducati Energia - the same company which was once part of the Ducati Meccanica motorcycle unit. 

A six-speed constant mesh gearbox is coupled with this engine.

The twin-tubed exposed frame nicely holds upside-down (USD) fork suspension at the front and a hydraulic/gas-charged horizontally-mounted mono-shock at the rear, a norm motorcycles worldwide stick to.

The tyres, from the photographs, appear to be Pirelli Sport Demons, both in adequate sizing - a 100/80-17 at the front and a 150/60-17 at the rear with light-weight alloys.

Braking is handled by a 320mm disc up-front and a 220mm disc at the back; radial calipers ready to grab them.

The good thing is that the kerb weight with 90% fuel, tools is about 160 kgs!

Now, the critical factor - the price. Mahindra two-wheelers will launch the motorcycle officially later today, and we’ll put up the prices as soon as they’re declared.

Overall, we’re impressed! We can’t wait to ride it. I’m sure you can’t too!

Overall length x width x height in mm                                  2100 x 830 x 1270

Seat Height  in                                                                      820

Wheelbase, in mm                                                               1450

Minimum ground clearance                                                150

Kerb Weight ( with 90 %  fuel, Tools etc)                          160

Engine Type                                                                         Single Cylinder, Liquid Cooled,  4 Valves - Direct Drive, SI

Displacement                                                                       292 cc

Bore x Stroke                                                                        78 mm x 61.2 mm

Compression Ratio                                                              11 : 1

Maximum Power                                                                   19.3 kW @ 8500 rpm

Maximum Torque                                                                   24 N.m @ 7000 rpm

Starting System                                                                     Self Start

Ignition System                                                                       ECU (Electronic Control Unit)

Fuel Tank Capacity in liters                                                  15.5

Transmission Type / Gear Box                                             Constant Mesh, 6 speed

Frame Type                                                                            Twin Tube Exposed frame in Steel;   Diamond Frame

Wheel Type                                                                            Alloy Wheel

Rim Size (Front / Rear)                                                         Front 2.75 x 17”;

                                                                                                 Rear 4.00 x 17”

Tire Size (Front / Rear) -                                                       Tubeless         100/80 – 17” (Front) 150/60 -17”  (Rear)- radial

Brake Type (Front / Rear)                                                     Disc 320 mm  (Front); Disc 220 mm  (Rear);

Suspension Type (Front / Rear)                                           Inverted fork Telescopic hydraulic-damped (Front);

                                                                                120 mm stroke Horizontally mounted Mono Shox; air + hydraulic damping.   

Battery                                                                                     12V, 9 AH; Maintenance Free

Head Lamp                                                                           Twin Beams; 35W / 35W  X 2; Halogen Bulb (Multi Reflector Type)

Marker / Pilot Lamps                                                             4 LED’s each side, above twin beam Head Lights

Tail Lamp                                                                               LED based (with 12 LED’s)

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India gets 1st glimpse of Nokia N8 

Bangalore: The excitement resonating from the crowd was really electric after having a chance to touch and play with the Nokia N8 which was showcased for the first time in India at the Siliconindia Mobile Application Conference. The event witnessed an enthusiastic crowd around 1000 developers and some of brightest minds in the mobile apps space enlightening the audience about the latest happening in the industry. 

Sunil Rao, Head of Forum Nokia India presented the Nokia N8 smartphone and spoke on the topic ‘Enabling the Smart Lifestyle’. Experts in the smartphone industry see Nokia N8 as the company’s weapon to regain its lost glory in the smartphone market. The main features of the new device can be seen in the below sections.

Powered by Symbian^3
Nokia N8 is the first device powered by Symbian^3 operating system. The new visual task manager makes multitasking easy and one can switch between open apps with a single tap.

High definition & 12 megapixel camera
The smartphone is equipped with a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 640x360 pixels, a 12-megapixel camera, 16GB of built in storage, a microSD card slot that can accept up to 32GB cards. The powerful photo snapper is capable of recording high-definition video in 720p and comes with a Carl Zeiss lens and a Xenon flash.

Integrated social networking
The Nokia N8 is capable of brining updates from social networking sites Facebook and Twitter directly to the handset’s home screen.

Download apps from Ovi Store
It provides an option of downloading thousands of apps, games and videos from the Ovi Store.

Web TV services
On-demand Web TV channels like CNN and National Geographic are available on Nokia N8. Additional local Web TV content is also available from the Ovi Store.

Apart from the aforementioned, there are a handful of other new features such as HDMI connection, option for personalizing, multiple home screens, free voice-guided navigation and almost fifty hours of music playback.

“Its amazingly news. I’m really excited about the thousands of apps available on Nokia N8. I'm sure it will be more reliable than the iPhone with antenna problems,” said Siddharth, a mobile app developer attending the conference.

Nokia N8 will be launched in India in a couple of weeks from now. Sunil also indicated that Nokia is coming with a series of other Symbian devices as well. 


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UID: Government's most tech-savvy iniative

UID: Government's most tech-savvy iniative 

As you read this article, security personnel are swarming all over the tiny hamlet of Tembhali in northern Maharashtra, preparing for the flagging off of India’s great UID mission by the prime minister. The Unique ID Authority of India has officially dubbed the initiative “Aadhar” and UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani is all set to tackle possibly the largest IT project, ever undertaken. 

Image: Villagers get their finger prints scanned biometrically to get hooked to the UID project at Varuna on the outskirts of Mysore.

The UIDAI will partner with a number of agencies ranging from district collectors’ offices to banks as “enrollment partners” who will be tasked with collecting data.

While Aadhar may be collaborative in its approach to enrollment, it’s taking no chances with its central servers and whats being stored in them. The data centres themselves will be built and maintained by vendors, but access will be strictly controlled solely by the UIDAI at multiple levels. No data can leave the enrollment laptops unencrypted and any attempt to tamper or modify the data will raise an alarm when it is uploaded to the central server. Only once it is validated as being secure will it be accepted for further processing.

Then comes the tricky part called “de-duplication”, i.e., checking to see if the person has not already enrolled which means comparing his biometric data (iris and ten fingerprints) to that of all the existing IDs. This will require enormous computing power and although Aadhar will have a large “grid” of networked computers, built using open-source technologies to do these “compute jobs”, building this grid as the volume grows will be the challenge. Complex algorithms to quickly compare biometrics have also been procured from specialist vendors to be run on this grid. “It has never been tried before, so it’s the first time and Indians are attempting to do it with the next largest system only about 1/10th the size”, says Dr Pramod Varma, chief architect, Aadhar.

Image: A woman gets her iris scanned as part of the UID project at Varuna on the outskirts of Mysore.

These partners will receive a slick-looking pair of tough briefcases containing neatly packed hardware required for enrollment. A laptop with the Aadhar enrollment software installed along with a fingerprint reader and an iris scanner go into one briefcase while a webcam, a laser printer (for the receipt) and a small monitor fit into the other one. That last bit of hardware is an innovative touch because it’s meant purely for the person getting enrolled to verify that the data being entered into the laptop is accurate.
We at Technoholik got exclusive access to Aadhar’s technology centre in Bangalore to figure out what's happening under the hood. The tech can broadly be divided into three areas, i.e., enrollment, data centre and authentication. Here’s a quick explanation of each.

“Once the data comes into the CIDR it never leaves, its like a blackhole”, quips Dr Varma. What he means is that in order to protect citizens’ privacy, no data will actually leave the Aadhar servers.

Outsiders can only “query” the database for a yes/no answer to authenticate someone who is quoting an ID, but cannot extract any other information. The authentication API (application programming interface) is publicly available on the Aadhar website, which means any programmer can build this querying ability into a software application in the future.

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