Sunday, November 1, 2009

Folic acid intake in late pregnancy leads to asthma in child

Children whose mothers have taken folic acid supplements in late pregnancy are at greater risk of developing allergic asthma, researchers said.

According to a recent study by University of Adelaide’s Robinson Institute, supplemental folic acid in late pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of asthma in children at the age of 3 to 5 years.

The timing of supplementation in pregnancy is important, one of the authors Michael Davies said, adding “folic acid supplements - recommended for pregnant women to prevent birth defects - appear to have “additional and unexpected” consequences in recent studies in mice and infants“.

“In our study, supplemental folic acid in late pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of asthma in children, but there was no evidence to suggest any adverse effects if supplements were taken in early pregnancy,” he said.

The study involved more than 500 women whose maternal diet and supplements were assessed twice during their pregnancy, with follow—up on their child’s asthma status at 3.5 years and 5.5 years, American Journal of Epidemiology reported.

Asthma was reported in 11.6 per cent of children at 3.5 years and 11.8 per cent of children at 5.5 years. Nearly a third of these children reported persistent asthma.

Current public health guidelines recommend that women consume a supplemental dose of 400 micrograms of folic acid per day in the month preceding and during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Coffee Mona Lisa

Artist assistants stand next to 3,604 cups of coffee which have been made into a giant Mona Lisa in Sydney,Australia.

The 3,604 cups of coffee were each filled with different amounts of milk to create the different shades!!





Friday, October 30, 2009

Check out this device!










Guess what you can do with a touch screen, camera, scanner, WiFi, and Google maps....

View a building through it, and it gives you all the information about that building....

Choose a building and touch a floor and it tells you more details of the building. You can use it when you want to know a car model, an insect name, what kind of food is served at a restaurant and how much, who built a bridge, etc. etc.

It’s got a scanner built in.So you can use it this way when you want to check the meaning of a word in the newspaper, book, magazine, etc. It would be much easier to read a real book. You can use the dictionary, wikipedia, thesaurus and anything else available on the web!

Indoor guide:Works in a building, airport, station, hospital, etc.

Automatic simultaneous translation: here Latin to English.

Search keyword: Helpful when you want to find out a word from a lot of text in newspaper/book.

Nutrition: This kind of function would be helpful for health freaks..

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Burj Dubai





The world's tallest building will be thrown open to the public on December 2, to coincide with UAE's National Day. The opening date of the building has been a closely guarded secret for years -- however, a senior architect working on the project has confirmed that December 2 has been set aside for the opening, the Arabian Business reported.

The Armani Hotel, which is part of the building, will welcome its first guests on the same day. Ceremonies to mark the launch are also being planned for December 2, the report said but it was not yet clear whether other parts of the tower will be fully
accessible.

"This will be a huge achievement and a big celebration for the UAE and for Emaar, particularly as it's UAE National Day. It will be the first time the public can enter the building," said the architect.

The final piece of glass cladding to complete the exterior of Burj Dubai, was now ready and would be installed within weeks, developer Emaar Properties said. Emaar,
however, has maintained it will not comment on the opening date. Spanning six metres in length, the panel is the last of the 24,348 pieces of cladding fitted to the super-structure.

Emaar has been tight-lipped over the final height of the tower, which is believed to have topped 818 metres earlier this year. More than 1,000 specially commissioned
pieces of art will adorn the interiors of Burj Dubai.

Pride of the place in the iconic structure's residential lobby will be held by an artwork featuring 196 bronze and brass alloy cymbals - representing the 196 countries of the world - suspended on titanium rods anchored at the bottom of two pools.

Visitors to the lobby will be able to hear a distinct musical sound as the cymbals, which are plated with 18-carat gold, are struck by dripping water intended to mimic the sound of water falling on leaves.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The H1N1 Mask


In case we run out of masks during the H1N1 flu season, here is a ‘homemade’ mask you can make yourself.

It is even compatible with the wearing of glasses!

One though thing.........Make sure your mask is clean!