Women have higher risk of injury than men post-drinking

New York, Nov 4 (IANS) Woman who find alcohol hard to resist even after three standard drinks are more likely to suffer from injury when compared with men, shows new research that includes patients from India.

While the risk of injury is similar for both men and women up to three standard drinks (containing 16 ml or 12.8 g of pure ethanol), the risk then increases more rapidly for women, becoming twice the risk to men around 15 drinks and three times the risk to men around 30 drinks.

“There is an increasing risk relationship between alcohol and injury, but risk is not uniform across gender, cause of injury, or country drinking pattern,” said lead author, Cheryl Cherpitel from the Alcohol Research Group (ARG) of the Public Health Institute in the US.

In this study the drinks were reportedly consumed six hours prior to injury.

The risk of violence-related injury is consistently larger than the risk of other types of injuries, the study showed.

The researchers also found that the risk of injury from violence increases more rapidly as the volume of alcohol consumed increases.

The study looked at over 13,000 injured patients from 18 countries – Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, India, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Sweden, and Switzerland.

The study appeared online in the scientific journal Addiction.

Women have higher risk of injury than men post-drinking

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Skip check-in with keyless smartphone entry

New York, Nov 4 (IANS) Joining the worldwide shift towards smart hotel technology, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc – that owns over 1,200 properties across the world – launched the smartphone-based keyless entry for its guests to access rooms and other services.

Starting Nov 5, the innovative technology will introduced at three Starwood brands: Aloft, Element and W.

All you need to do is to sign up through the hotel’s free SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) app.

As you enter the hotel, you will have the option to use SPG Keyless to access the room, MarketWatch reported.

Just hold the smartphone up to the Bluetooth panel on the door and wait for the green light.

Upon arrival at the hotel, the guest can completely bypass the front desk and go directly to his/her room.

The app also allows guests to view the details of their stay and receive push notifications on the status of their room, such as information on upgrades.

The app technology also has practical applications including access to elevators or the gym.

The keyless entry works on Bluetooth-enabled iPhones and Android smartphones.

Starwood will rapidly expand rollout in the first half of 2015 and, by the end of next year, SPG Keyless will be available in 150 hotels across the globe.

Skip check-in with keyless smartphone entry

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Myanmar to tighten security during ASEAN summit

Nay Pyi Taw, Nov 4 (IANS) Myanmar will deploy 20,000 police personnel to secure the upcoming 25th ASEAN Summit, officials said Tuesday.

The ASEAN Summit is scheduled to be held Nov 12-13 at the Myanmar International Convention Centre in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw, Xinhua reported.

Security for the participating foreign leaders is being heightened at all entries into the country including airports, seaports, highway terminals and city entry checkpoints.

The police authorities have notified people to keep their identity cards or effective travel documents with themselves while travelling during the period, saying that passengers on highway buses would be thoroughly checked.

Myanmar, the rotating chair of ASEAN this year for the first time after joining the group in July 1997, hosted the 24th ASEAN Summit in May.

Myanmar to tighten security during ASEAN summit

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Kick the butt to avoid chronic back pain

New York, Nov 4 (IANS) Smokers are three times more likely than non-smokers to develop chronic back pain, warns a research.

“Smoking affects the brain. We found that it affects the way the brain responds to back pain and seems to make individuals less resilient to an episode of pain,” said Bogdan Petre, technical scientist at the Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in the US.

The results came from an observational study of 160 adults, with new cases of back pain.

They were asked to rate the intensity of their back pain in a questionnaire that also asked about their smoking status.

Scientists analysed MRI activity between two brain areas, which are involved in addictive behaviour and motivated learning.

These two regions of the brain “talk” to one another and scientists discovered that the strength of that connection helps determine who will become a chronic pain patient.

This connection was very strong and active in the brain’s of smokers.

“But we saw a dramatic drop in this circuit’s activity in smokers who – of their own will – quit smoking during the study. When they stopped smoking, their vulnerably to chronic pain also decreased,” Petre added.

Medication such as anti-inflammatory drugs did help participants manage pain but it did not change the activity of the brain circuit.

Kicking the butt is the only solution if smokers want to get rid of back pain, the authors concluded.

The study was published online in the journal Human Brain Mapping.

Kick the butt to avoid chronic back pain

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Picasso auction in US nets $4.6 mn

New York, Nov 4 (IANS/EFE) A “Picasso through the eyes of a connoisseur” auction in New York brought in $4.6 million for close to 100 works by the Spanish painter.

The event took place Monday in Sotheby’s auction house.

Among the 97 works of art up for sale, two sold for more than $500,000 each, one of them being a portrait titled “Jeune fille, d’apres Cranach le Jeune, II”, created with pieces of different-coloured linoleum in 1958.

Four years later, Picasso – using the same technique created “Femme au chapeau a pompons et au corsage imprime”, which sold for $509,000 at the auction.

The collection also included “Femme aux Cheveux Verts” (1949), a series of eight lithographs Picasso created of his lover and muse Francoise Gilot in various poses. It sold for $437,000.

The ceramic work titled “Tipode (Alain Ramie 125)” was sold for $131,000.

According to the auction house, the collection “illustrates the artist’s wide ranging iconography”.

Sotheby’s Tuesday will focus on two other works by Picasso – “Homme Assis” valued at $12 million and “Les enfants”, which is estimated to be worth $7 million.

–IANS/EFE

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Picasso auction in US nets $4.6 mn

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Pleasant Tuesday morning in Delhi

New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) It was a pleasant Tuesday morning here with a minimum temperature of 16.8 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season’s average.

The Met Office has forecast the sky will be clear in the day.

“The sky Tuesday will be mainly clear and the maximum temperature is likely to hover around 31 degrees Celsius,” said an official of the India Meteorological Department.

Humidity at 8.30 a.m. was 66 percent.

Monday’s maximum temperature was 31.2 degrees Celsius, a degree above the season’s average, while the minimum was 15 degrees Celsius, normal for this time of the season.

Pleasant Tuesday morning in Delhi

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Pakistan observes Muharram amid high security

Islamabad, Nov 4 (IANS) Pakistan Tuesday observed Muharram to pay homage to Imam Husain and other martyrs of Karbala amid strict security, a media report said.

The local administrations placed hospitals and ambulance services on high alert, Dawn online reported.

A suicide attack at the Wagah border Sunday claimed 60 lives following which Punjab Police conducted raids in several cities and arrested a number of suspects.

Police personnel and Rangers and Frontier Corps officers have been deployed in many cities on the routes of Muharram processions, while the army is on standby in Quetta, Karachi, Sukkur, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Parachinar, Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan, the report said.

Pillion-riding has been banned in many cities, including Karachi, where several cases of cracker and grenade attacks have been witnessed since the advent of Muharram.

The law enforcement agencies and the army will use helicopters in many cities to monitor security, the report added.

Pakistan observes Muharram amid high security

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