PFI pledges to uphold constitutional values, universal brotherhood

Bengaluru, Mar 7: Karnataka on Friday announced that there are no positive cases of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19 in the state till date.

"To date, 717 persons have been identified for observation, of them, 236 persons have completed 28 days of observation and 469 persons are continuing under home quarantine. 8 persons are admitted to selected isolation hospitals, " the state government said in a release today.

"Around 343 samples of symptomatic persons are sent for testing and 296 samples are reported as negative. No positive cases of Coronavirus in the state to date," it said.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa earlier in the week assured people in state about the preparedness to tackle coronavirus.

He said, "We have issued instructions to all hospitals. We have made all the arrangements. People in Karnataka should not worry."

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan earlier today held a review meeting with states over preparedness for coronavirus. State governments have been asked to keep the testing and quarantine facilities, isolation wards and labs in active readiness.

The country's total number of positive cases of coronavirus touched 31 today. COVID-19 has so far killed more than 3200 people globally.

Bengaluru, Jul 8: In yet another revenue generation measure, the Revenue department has issued an order permitting the sale of government land leased to various religious, industrial and other organisations.

Officials say that around Rs 2,250 crore will be generated in Bengaluru Urban district alone, if the order is implemented.

While rules for the process are yet to be formed, it has directed deputy commissioners of various districts to submit proposals for the sale of such lands leased by the government to various institutions under the Karnataka Land Grant Rules, 1969. The order came after a recent Cabinet decision. 

The order issued on July 6 says that government lands leased to private organisations, trusts, industries, educational, social welfare, religious and agricultural purposes can be regularised by paying the guidance value of the land, provided the organisation continued to use the land for the same purpose it was granted for.

If an organisation or trust wanted to convert the land for other purposes, it will be charged twice the guidance value. According to the order, land leased to organisations that are unwilling to purchase the land will be surveyed. “DCs should initiate measures to survey such lands and recover the unused land to the government,” it said.

Revenue Principal Secretary N Manjunath Prasad told DH that rules for the sale of such lands will be formulated shortly. “We have directed deputy commissioners to compile the extent of land leased to various organisations in their respective districts,” he said, noting that 921 acres were leased to private parties in Bengaluru Urban district.

From the 921 acres, the state government used to receive an annual rent of Rs 6.50 crore per year. Sale of leased land in Bengaluru Urban alone will generate around Rs 2,250 crore at current guidance values, Prasad said. 

The government is also pushing for regularisation of unauthorised buildings on Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) land and auction of corner sites to mobilise resources due to the severe economic difficulties in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the state’s reduced share in central taxes.

Washington D.C., May 8: The prime time for brain development in a child's life is the first year, where the infant spends most of the time asleep. It is the time when neural connections form and sensory memories are encoded.

However, when sleep is disrupted, as occurs more often among children with autism, brain development may be affected, too.

New research led by the University of Washington finds that sleep problems in a baby's first 12 months may not only precede an autism diagnosis but also may be associated with altered growth trajectory in a key part of the brain, the hippocampus.

The study, which was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, researchers report that in a sample of more than 400 taken of 6- to 12-month-old infants, those who were later diagnosed with autism were more likely to have had difficulty falling asleep.

It also states that this sleep difficulty was associated with altered growth trajectories in the hippocampus.

"The hippocampus is critical for learning and memory, and changes in the size of the hippocampus have been associated with poor sleep in adults and older children.

As many as 80 per cent of the children with autism spectrum disorder have sleep problems," said Annette Estes, director of the UW Autism Center and senior author of the study.

"In our clinical experience, parents have a lot of concerns about their children's sleep, and in our work on early autism intervention, we observed that sleep problems were holding children and families back," added Estes, who is also a UW professor of speech and hearing sciences.

"It could be that altered sleep is part-and-parcel of autism for some children. One clue is that behavioural interventions to improve sleep don't work for all children with autism, even when their parents are doing everything just right. This suggests that there may be a biological component to sleep problems for some children with autism," said Estes.

To consider links among sleep, brain development, and autism, researchers at the IBIS Network looked at MRI scans of 432 infants, surveyed parents about sleep patterns, and measured cognitive functioning using a standardized assessment.

At the outset of the study, infants were classified according to their risk for developing autism: Those who were at higher risk of developing autism -- about two-thirds of the study sample -- had an older sibling who had already been diagnosed.

Infant siblings of children with autism have a 20 per cent chance of developing autism spectrum disorder -- a much higher risk than children in the general population.

In the current study, 127 of the 432 infants were identified as "low risk" at the time the MRI scans were taken because they had no family history of autism.

They later evaluated all the participants at 24 months of age to determine whether they had developed autism. Of the roughly 300 children originally considered "high familial risk," 71 were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at that age.

Problems with sleep were more common among the infants later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, as were larger hippocampi. No other subcortical brain structures were affected, including the amygdala, which is responsible for certain emotions and aspects of memory, or the thalamus, a signal transmitter from the spinal cord to the cerebral cortex.

The authors note that while parents reported more sleep difficulties among infants who developed autism compared to those who did not, the differences were very subtle and only observed when looking at group averages across hundreds of infants.

Sleep patterns in the first years of life change rapidly as infants transition from sleeping around the clock to a more adult-like sleep/wake cycle. Until further research is completed, Estes said, it is not possible to interpret challenges with sleep as an early sign of increased risk for autism.