7th GARSHOM AWARDS GIVEN AWAY
The Hon. Home Minister, Govt. of Karnataka, Dr.V S Acharya inaugurated the 7th Garshom Award Nite programme at the NIMHANS Convention Centre, Hosur Road, Bangalore on 20th February 2010. The Hon. Minister for Law & Justice, Govt. of India, Sri Veerappa Moily given away the awards while Sri. Jayakar Reddy MLA and Sri. Sambaki MLA from Karnataka, Garshom Awards Jury chairman Sri. Ivan Nigli(Ex MLA), 2008 Garshom Yuva Pravasi award Winner Sri. Reji Kumar, Garshom Infomedia Ltd. Managing Editor Sri. Jins Paul and Executive Director Sri. Jaijo Joseph are felicitated the awardees.
The Award Nite musical programme led by renowned artists K P Udayabhanu, Thoppil Anto, Anoop Sankar, Kavitha Jayaram, Gana Kokila Sunitha Nedungadi and others.
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Cancer Cure Possible By Naked Mole Rats
Researchers at Rochester University believe that naked mole rats may help provide cure for cancer. The bald rats never get cancer, and if their trick can be copied it could help humans resist cancer too, claim Andrei Seluanov and Vera Gorbunova.
However, culturing the naked mole rat cells in the lab is almost impossible, which made researchers wonder if this might be linked to their ability to resist cancer.
The study researchers found that a dilute solution of naked mole rat skin cells did start to proliferate, but stopped once the cells reached a certain, relatively low density.
Such "contact inhibition" is also used by human cells to inhibit growth, but cancer bypasses this mechanism so cells keep growing, reports New Scientist.
The researchers also found that contact inhibition in naked mole rats is controlled by two genes, p16 and p27, while in humans it is primarily controlled by p27.
If this check could be stimulated in humans, it could halt the growth of cancerous tumors.
The findings were presented at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence meeting in Cambridge, UK, September 2nd week.
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The latest Parkinson's treatment: Wii-hab
Parkinson?s disease symptoms could be controlled by a game that can be bought on every high street, says a recent study
Could a real hope of improving the lives of people with Parkinson?s disease ? here, now, in their own homes ? lie in a computer game? With major drug breakthroughs still tantalisingly out of reach, many health professionals and people with Parkinson?s are suddenly excited by the dramatic improvements in function and wellbeing being brought by simply playing the Nintendo Wii ? a games system available on every high street that simulates sports and other activities by transferring your movements to the computer screen.
This summer, the Medical College of Georgia in the United States announced the striking results of its research into the effects of ?Wii-hab? on people with Parkinson?s disease. In an eight-week study, 18 people were asked to play Wii Sports, including virtual versions of boxing and ten-pin bowling, for an hour a day, three times a week for four weeks. By the end of that time all the participants showed significant improvements in rigidity, movement, fine motor skills and energy levels. Importantly, their depression levels also decreased; depression affects around half of people with Parkinson?s disease.
The Parkinson?s Disease Society in the UK, which funds research and supports patients, is very aware of the current buzz around Wii-habilitation. Though media publicity ? and sometimes doctors ? tend to focus attention on the potential of drug developments to control or slow the progression of Parkinson?s disease, the similar potential of exercise regimes is often overlooked, according to Dr Kieran Breen, Director of Research and Development at the Parkinson?s Disease Society. The Wii is interesting because of its ability to improve motor skills, not just fitness.
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India's first lunar mission has discovered water on the moon
Large quantities of water have been found on the Moon during India's first lunar mission, it has been disclosed. Data from the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft also suggests water is still being formed on its surface.
It is believed that the water is concentrated at the poles and possibly formed by the solar wind. The finding was made after researchers examined data from three separate missions to the moon.
The reports, to be published in the journal Science on Friday, show that the water may be moving around, forming and reforming as particles become mixed up in the dust on the surface of the moon.
The unmanned craft was equipped with Nasa?s Moon Mineralogy Mapper, designed specifically to search for water by picking up the electromagnetic radiation emitted by minerals.
The M3, an imaging spectrometer, was designed to search for water by detecting the electromagnetic radiation given off by different minerals on and just below the surface of the Moon.
M3 was one of two Nasa instruments among 11 pieces of equipment from around the world on Chandrayaan-1, which was launched into orbit around the Moon in October last year.
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CBI to trace child abducted from US by NRI
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to trace a US-born minor who was abducted by his Indian mother from New York and brought here after she divorced her estranged husband.
A bench of Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice R.M. Lodha ordered the CBI director to trace the child on a plea by his father V. Ravi Chandran, who moved the apex court for its help in September 2007 after his divorced wife brought the child to India violating a New York supreme court's order, granting him and his divorced wife joint custody of the child.
The bench ordered the CBI to intervene after the police of various states failed to trace the minor child, with his mother Vijayashree Voora consistently on the move from one state to another, dodging the police for the last two years.
To facilitate the CBI's task, the apex court also gave special powers to the CBI director, extending the jurisdiction of the officer all over India and directed state police not to impede his work of searching for the minor boy.
The apex court's order came on the plea by New York-based medical practitioner, Ravi Chandran, who got married to Vijayashree Voora in Tirupathi in December 2000. The couple had a son on July 1, 2002 in the US.
But shortly thereafter, relations between the couple turned sour and Voora moved New York's apex court in July 2003 for divorce. While adjudicating the divorce plea, the court on April 18, 2005, granted the couple joint custody of the child, stipulating that both the parties would keep the other informed about the whereabouts of the child.
The court eventually also passed the divorce decree in September 2005, incorporating its order on the child's custody in the decree, and stipulated that both the parties will have alternative physical custody of the minor child on a weekly basis.
But as per Chandran's plea, Voora brought the minor child to India and informed him that she would be living with the child in Chennai. Chandran first approached a New York family court, pointing out the violation of the state's Supreme Court order by Voora.
The New York court granted exclusive custody of the child to Chandran, but for the enforcement of the New York court's order, Chandran moved the Indian Supreme Court September 2007.
During adjudication of Chandran's plea, the apex court found that despite efforts made by police officers and officials of different states, such as senior superintendent of police (SSP), Agra, SSP Chandigarh, director general of police (DGP), Tamil Nadu, DGP, Karnataka, and commissioner of police, Bangalore City, the minor child Adithya and his mother Voora could not be traced.
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France bulldozes migrant 'Jungle'
French authorities dismantled a makeshift camp dubbed "the Jungle," which housed illegal migrants fleeing dangerous homelands to seek a more prosperous life in Europe.
After being forced from their makeshift home, occupants of "the Jungle" were driven away in buses for processing.
French police broke up protests by refugee rights advocates and began clearing the squalid camp. The French government said it was targeting human smuggling and did not say where the migrants would be relocated.
Police arrested 276 migrants, 125 of whom were minors, said Calais prefecture official Catherine Mande.
A statement from the French immigration minister's office said the "illegal encampments" would be destroyed and then three bulldozers, a dozen trucks and a logging company would return the land to its natural state.
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Australia's biggest python on the loose
Capturing pythons 5.5 metres and 3.2 metres long was the easy part, Aaron Chapman reckons.
Mr Chapman and two colleagues removed the two male pythons from the ceiling of the Yorkeys Knob Boating Club near Cairns.
Now comes the hard part - capturing Mummy, as the locals call her. Mummy is 6.4 metres long - 21 feet on the old scale - and is thought to be one of the largest pythons in Australia.
Mr Chapman said the Australian Venom Zoo at Kuranda would send four men to attempt to capture Mummy after the 5.5 metre male snake lifted his colleague clean off the ground.
The men had to crawl through a one metre space between roof and ceiling to locate the snakes.
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SIXTH GARSHOM AWARDS GIVEN AWAY
Mr. Sam Kuruvilla- Doha, Mrs. Vimalah Nair- Malasia, Mrs. Lekha Sreenivasan- Trivandrum, Mr. Reji Kumar- Bangalore, Mr. Biji Eapen- Kochi were awarded Garshom Pravasi Ratna, Garshom Pravasi Vanitha, Garshom Special Award, Gashom Yuva Pravasi, Garshom Pravasi Returnee awards respectively. Friends of Kerala from Ghaziabad won the best Pravasi Organization of the year 2008.
The awards were presented by Dr. MM Rajendran, Former Governor of Orissa on 31 January 2009 at Hotel Courtyard by Marriott, Annasalai, Chennai.
Dr. Oscar Nigli MLA, Mr. M S Viswanathan - music director , Dr. T P Sreenivasan - Former Ambassador to Austria, Dr. Parateep Philip IPS - IG of Police, Chennai, Dr. Saji D'Zousa and others were present for the award function.
Garshom instituted the Garshom awards in 2003 and since then has been given to those malayalees who have brought honour and esteem to Kerala and the Malayalee community by their own success and service to the society.
The award committee constituting Mr. K.Sukumaran (Retd. Chief General Manager, S.B.T.), Mr. Ivan Nigli (Ex. Karnataka MLA), Dr. B. Ashok Kumar, Mr. Polly Mathew Somatheeram, Mr.S.K.Nair (Administrator, Garden City College, Bangalore), Mr. Jins Paul (Managing Editor, Garshom Infomedia Ltd) selected the winners from the names nominated by the readers of Garshom Vartha magazine.
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