Speed leads to crashes - Oman Daily Observer

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RAMADHAN OFFER 26 RAMADHAN SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012 ‘Kitty cam’ shows darker side of cats SCIENTISTS at a US university attached cameras to the collars of 60 outdoor cats and were surprised to find that 30 per cent among COINCIDING with the Month of Ramadhan, the Observer has come up again with an attractive contest for its esteemed readers. All that the participants need to do is to fill in the coupons which will be featured daily in the Observer throughout the Month. PARTICIPANTS SHOULD SEND ALL THE COUPONS IN ONE BUNCH to the Oman Daily Observer, Post Box 974, PC 100, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. Contestants can send in any number of entries but no photocopies are allowed. Many valuable prizes are on offer. Winners will be decided in a draw. Note: Employees of Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising and their close relatives are NOT eligible to take part in this contest. 22 them killed an average of two animals a week. Researchers at the University of Georgia looked at cats prowling around Athens city, the Daily Mail reported. The three-ounce cameras dubbed “kitty cams” were designed by National Geographic to be waterproof with LED night vision and radio trackers. The scientists found that 30 per cent of cats ate their catch while a majority 49 per cent left the carcasses to rot. Just 21 per cent brought the kill home to their owners’ place. Researcher Kerrie Anne Loyd said most cats “would capture their prey, may be play with it for a minute and then leave it close to the site of capture”. Cats killed the maximum lizards, snakes and frogs at 41 per cent while mammals such as chipmunks and voles made up 25 per cent. Insects and worms made up 20 per cent of the kills while 12 per cent were birds. The videos also revealed a “dare-devil” side to the cats. One cat's camera footage showed it going down a storm sewer’s tight and dark tunnels. Around 20 per cent of the cats were found to love storm drains, 45 per cent were seen crossing roads. Around 25 per cent ate and drank everything they found, 20 per cent entered spaces they could become trapped in. Male cats were found more likely to have a risky behaviour, while older cats were more careful than younger ones. One woman said her cat has two families. “They held open the door for him and he walked in and he just hung out in their house,” the woman said. Four of the 60 cats were recorded entering another household that was not their own with an aim to get food and affection. — IANS RAMADHAN TIMINGS — MUSCAT August Ramadhan Fajr Sunrise Dhuhr Asr Maghrib Isha 1433 AH (am) (am) (pm) (pm) Iftar (pm) (pm) Aug 11 22 04:20 05:41 12:17 03:43 06:49 08:05 Aug 12 23 04:20 05:41 12:17 03:43 06:48 08:04 Aug 13 24 04:21 05:41 12:17 03:43 06:47 08:03 Aug 14 25 04:22 05:42 12:17 03:43 06:47 08:02 Aug 15 26 04:22 05:42 12:17 03:43 06:46 08:01 Aug 16 27 04:23 05:43 12:16 03:42 06:45 08:00 Aug 17 28 04:23 05:43 12:16 03:42 06:44 07:59 Aug 18 29 04:24 05:43 12:16 03:42 06:44 07:58 Aug 19 (30) 04:25 05:44 12:16 03:42 06:43 07:57 TIMING IN OTHER REGIONS AS COMPARED TO MUSCAT Area Sunrise Sunset (min) (min) Ras Al Hadd –8 –4 Al Ashkhara –9 –2 Sur –7 –3 Wadi Bani Khalid –5 –2 Qurayyat –3 –2 Jaalan –7 –1 Al Kamil –6 –1 Bidiya –4 0 Ibra –3 0 Bid Bid +1 +1 Samayil +1 +1 Barka +2 +1 Nakhl +2 +1 Al Mudhaibi –1 +2 Al Musana +3 +2 Izki +1 +3 Saiq +2 +3 Al Rustaq +1 +2 Al Awabi +4 +5 Al Hamra +5 +3 Al Khaburah +6 +3 Musandam +14 +3 Masirah –8 +4 Nizwa/Manah +2 +4 Saham +7 +4 Sohar +8 +4 Shinas +10 +4 Adam +1 +5 Bahla +3 +5 Liwa +9 +5 Wadi Hibi +8 +6 Mahout –5 +7 Qarn Al Alam –2 +7 Ibri/Yanqul +7 +7 Mahdha +11 +11 Dhank +8 +8 Fahoud +5 +9 Al Buraimi +11 +9 Ras Madraka –7 +10 Al Duqm –5 +10 Al Khuwair +11 +12 Haima +1 +15 Al Jazir –2 +16 Al Halaniyat –2 +20 Maqshan +6 +21 Marmool +2 +22 Mirbat +2 +26 Taqa/Al Mamura +4 +28 Thamrait +6 +28 Salalah/Raysut +5 +29 Rakhyout +5 +30 Sarfait/Dalkout +8 +33 Habrout +11 +34
PEOPLE’S PLATFORM THIS year and particularly during the month of Ramadhan, Oman Charitable Organisation (OCO) distributed foodstuff to 10,000 Yemeni families. The Sultanate has been rendering considerable humanitarian and charitable services to the needy people in Yemen for quite some time and very quietly. We pray to Allah, the Exalted and Glorified, to enable the Sultanate to continue on this path of helping needy people in reconstructing their homes and rebuilding their lives after natural and socio-political disasters. This is a noble mission and a case that pleases Allah, the Exalted. Oman Charitable Organisation has over the years also built schools, hospitals, mosques and houses in Palestine, besides orphanages for thousands of children. Oman has also been active in sending humanitarian aid to Somalia, India and to Afghanistan to help needy people in their hours of troubles. The OCO also signed recently an MoU to build three schools in Gaza. Undoubtedly, giving charity, helping oppressed people in different parts of the world and supporting the orphans and widows are great and priceless deeds in the sight of Allah the Exalted and it invariably comes to Oman in terms of continued blessings like prosperity, peace and security and all round development. Oman has also completed its two-month public campaign to raise funds for helping refugees in Syria. Oman Charitable Organisation has already begun its activities in Syria’s refugee camps along with Syrian authorities. Oman’s policy of helping people in distress and disasters and also making peace between nations and warring factions is the very core of Islamic teachings. Realising and understanding one’s duty towards others who are under oppression is an important Blood test to detect Alzheimer's in offing ABLOOD test is in the offing to detect Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at Emory University say. “Reliability and failure to replicate initial results have been the biggest challenge in this field. We demonstrate here that it is possible to show consistent findings,” says William Hu, assistant professor of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine, who led the study. Hu and collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania and Washington University, St Louis, measured the levels of 190 proteins in the blood of 600 study participants at those institutions, the journal Neurology reports. They included healthy volunteers and those who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). MCI, which foreshadows Alzheimer’s, causes a slight but measurable decline in cognitive abilities, according to an Emory statement. Neurologists currently diagnose Alzheimer’s disease based mainly on clinical symptoms. Additional information can come from PET brain imaging, which tends to be expensive, or analysis of a spinal tap, which can be painful. “Though a blood test to identify underlying Alzheimer’s disease is not quite ready for prime time given today’s technology, we now have identified ways to make sure that a test will be reliable,” Hu said. “In the meantime, the combination of a clinical exam and cerebrospinal (brain) fluid analysis remains the best tool for diagnosis in someone with mild memory or cognitive troubles,” Hu added. Meanwhile, experts hope to develop brain scans to detect early symptoms of dementia that may surface 25 years before patients and their families notice any outward development. Scientists believe that sufferers’ brains and spines undergo miniscule changes when they are in their 30s and 40s. A US study involved 128 people whose parents had an inherited form of Alzheimer’s, meaning they were highly likely to get the disease themselves. Scientists carried out brain scans and tests on the fluid in their spine, the New England Journal of Medicine reports. They noticed that some people underwent changes in the spinal fluid 25 years before they were likely to notice the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s. They also spotted certain deposits in their brains — or ‘plaques’ — that showed up 15 years sooner than memory loss or confusion were expected to appear. The researchers based the 25-year figure on the assumption that each person would begin showing signs of the illness at roughly the same age as their parents, according to the Daily Mail. Experts point out that this inherited form of Alzheimer’s — which is responsible for less than one per cent of all cases — is different from the normal form of the disease. Randall Bateman from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis said: “A series of changes begins in the brain decades before the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are noticed by patients or families, and this cascade of events may provide a timeline for symptomatic onset.” — IANS 27 LETTERS/HEALTH SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012 Oman’s helping hand to the needy Domestic Product (GDP) rose ing training and higher education in the first quarter of 2012 by just as Oman has done well in the 18.9 per cent compared to the banking sector. Can Oman afford corresponding period in 2011 and to import almost everything from the value of the Sultanate’s GDP abroad including advisers for min- at the end of March 2012 stood istries and labour for factories? It at RO 7. 371 billion compared to is important to pursue export-led RO 6.198.6 billion at the end of growth which will automatically March 2011. put an end to imports. This is good news. It is time Al Batinah Expressway Oman built new industrial estates, particularly for small and medium in three years I enterprises with incubators after T is heartening to read in your identifying unfilled niches and newspaper that the government market gaps in the GCC region. gives the road sector close Once a list of those products and attention due to its importance in services which are not produced sustainable development and its in the GCC and are imported is key role in growth and prosperity ready, the same can be produced of different regions. in Oman for domestic and export The Ministry of Transport and purposes. Communications is currently im- This can be a good investment plementing 65 road projects in in the future of Oman. If this does various governorates totalling not happen, the business scene of 2,065 km at a cost of RO 1.5 bil- Oman will continue to be domilion. There is no doubt that the nated by expatriates and multina- network of roads will make a tional giants and Oman will end quantum leap in many aspects — up as an importing country which in facilitating mobility and urban- is not a sustainable model of deisation and in extending the trade velopment. There is an urgent and economic activities in those need to draw a list of essential and areas”. feature of aware and awakened any disaster anywhere they are the so on. This is Islam in short. phone tariffs to pass on some ben- important items that Oman im- The Al Batinah Expressway people. The Sultanate’s aid to Yem- first to reach with aid. efits to the subscribers. Oman has ports in bulk and ask why should project is considered a quantum en, Somalia, Afghanistan and Syria — Haider Ali, Faiz, Iqbal and Reduce Internet and some of the highest Internet and Oman continue to import instead leap in the ministry’s strategy for in recent times is a case in point. Shazia mobile charges mobile tariffs in the Gulf region, of being self-sufficient and self- the construction of roads. The Even a cursory look at the Glo- Editor: Charity is the source of A reliant and then in a position to ex- eight-lane highway opens up CCORDING to your which is not good for the people rious Quran and traditions and say- long life, peace and blessings. By port? The same applies to higher broad prospects for the economic newspaper, Omantel has and the economy. ings of our beloved Prophet Mu- rebuilding the lives of others, one education. Should Oman continue and tourism sectors in the region. reported an increase in the net — Ali al Rashdi hammad (peace be upon him) make engages oneself in trade with Al- to depend on foreign countries to The Al Batinah Expressway is it clear that there is great emphasis lah, the source of all existence. In profit after tax by 11.8 per cent to Editor: People have expressed educate its people or Oman should a development project included in on working for reconciliation to re- His unlimited mercy and compas- RO 61.2 million. The company’s concern many times about the high build 30 more world-class univer- the Eighth Five-Year Plan (2011move rivalries between people and sion, Allah has asked people that first half revenue witnessed an rates of Internet and mobile telecom sities to invite people to come and 2015). The ministry has already nations and to help needy people af- those who are desirous of favour, increase of 5 per cent to RO 234.5 in Oman. Omantel, Nawras and the study in Oman just as Malaysia, started implementing the first four fected by natural and social upheav- mercy, wealth, honour and other million from RO 223.3 million for authorities need to think over this Iran, Turkey, UAE, and Lebanon stages of the project (181 km), als. Oman is one of those countries things should share the same with the corresponding period of 2011. issue. have done to a great extent. while tenders for the second stage that are doing just that. We hope others to get it from Allah. If you The profit of RO 61.2 million Editor: There are several have recently been floated. Self-reliance and Oman can work hard to consolidate want health, help the sick, if you is a huge figure. Nawras makes a countries in the region that are — Saleh al Azmi charitable works of GCC and other want best garments, clothe poor similar profit each year. The people export-led growth building cars, televisions, sophis- Editor: A good road network W members of the Organisation of Is- people, if you want kindness, show have long urged the telecom opera- E read with great interest ticated engineering and electron- is the heart of trade and devellamic Countries so that in case of love and compassion to people and tors to reduce Internet and mobile that the Sultanate’s Gross ics products and have reduced opment. Oman’s top priority for their dependence on imports. In building roads augurs well for the Do you have a word of appreciation for any services you received? Or suggestions for improvement? Observer is giving you an opportunity to rant or rave about anything and everything around you: Please write to: its time of prosperity before the nation. New airports, railways and oil and gas reserves finish, Oman ports are other important projects needs to build its industrial estates which will change the very look of Tel: 24649451, Fax: 24649469; e-mail: observerfeatures@gmail.com to achieve one key goal — Self-reliance in all essential and impor- Oman in a few years and Oman’s economy will get a great impetus tant products and services includ- for further continued growth. Red grapes good for you SLEEPING spills are “counter-productive” and offer no real benefit in treating insomnia, says a sleep expert. “Most people who take hypnotic (sleep inducing) drugs still have poor sleep. It re-mediates the problem in the short-term but it almost always produces a long-term consequence, which is drug dependence,” said Leon Lack, professor of psychology at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. “Sleeping tablets provide short-term relief but when people stop taking them, they might have a few bad nights and think they can’t sleep without taking the drug,” he was quoted as saying in a Flinders’ statement. “Effectively you buy a bit of sleep on your credit card but then you have to pay it back later, sometimes with interest, so in the long-term you don’t gain anything. You just offset the insomnia.” Insomnia is defined as persistent difficulties falling asleep, maintaining sleep, or both, resulting in impaired daytime functioning. “What’s particularly frus- trating to people with insomnia is that very few things work for them. So they feel a loss of control, depression and their quality of life is diminished,” Lack said. “But it is important for people to realise that sleep isn’t just one long, homogenous period of unconsciousness — we go through different stages of ANY type of fruit can offer health benefits, and red grapes are no exception. They are tasty and full of antioxidants — compounds that contain disease-fighting properties. One cup of red seedless grapes, about 30 grapes, has approximately 100 calories, 27 g carbohydrates, 1.5 g fibre, 23 g natural sugar and no fat, sodium or cholesterol. Red grapes also contain a high percentage of water, which makes them a food with naturally low energy density. MayoClinic.com notes that low energy-dense foods have few calories in large quantities and are consequently well suited for weight loss and weight maintenance. Red grapes also contain some serious immune-boosting and health-enhancing properties. According to the US Department of Agriculture, fresh fruits such as grapes can cut risks of cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol, bone loss, kidney stones, stroke and heart disease. The relatively high fibre content of the grapes can also promote smooth operation in the digestive system. Sleeping pills harmful in long run sleep, from a deep sleep which lasts 80 to 90 minutes into a lighter, dreaming sleep, and over the course of a night we experience this pattern three or four times. “During the light sleep stage, you’re likely to awaken — which is perfectly normal and increases with age — but the media’s constant reports about the importance of a solid eight hours sleep create anxiety and anxiety in the middle of the night is not conducive to sleep. So then it becomes ingrained,” Lack said. “If you don’t fall asleep within 15 minutes of going to bed then get up. Don’t lie there awake because that associates the bedroom with frustration and anxiety.” Difficulty falling asleep can also be caused by a delayed body clock, he said. Effective antibodies against flu strains identified SCIENTISTS have identified three human antibodies effective against flu B virus strains. The same team had earlier reported finding antibodies against flu A strains. The isolation of these antibodies paves the way for the development of a universal antibody-based flu therapy for use in severe infections or to protect hospital staff during an outbreak. Importantly, these antibodies may provide key clues to the design of an active universal flu vaccine designed to protect long-term against flu viruses, not just against the current season’s strains, the journal Science reports. “To develop a truly universal flu vaccine or therapy, one needs to be able to provide protection against influenza A and influenza B viruses, and with this report we now have broadly neutralising antibodies against both,” said A Wilson, professor of structural biology at Scripps Institute. He served as the senior study investigator with Jaap Goudsmit and Robert Friesen, from the Crucell Vaccine Institute in the Netherlands, according to a Scripps statement. One of the newly discovered antibodies will be of special interest to flu researchers, because it appears to protect against essentially all influenza B and influenza A strains. “It’s the only one in the world that we know of that has been found to do this,” said Wilson. — IANS HAV shot effective for 10 years ANTI-HEPATITIS A virus (HAV) shots give infants immunity for at least 10 years, according to latest research. The study found that any transfer of the mother’s HAV antibodies does not lower the child’s immune response to the vaccine. The World Health Organisation estimates that 1.4 million cases of HAV occur worldwide every year. HAV affects the liver and typically occurs in areas with poor sanitation where ingestion of contaminated food or water can transmit the virus, the journal Hepatology reports. Early symptoms include fatigue, fever, abdominal pain, nausea, appetite loss, jaundice, a yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes, dark urine, through which bile is excreted from the blood stream. — IANS
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Speed leads to crashes - Oman Daily Observer

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