People who multitask often bad at it, says varsity study

Washington: The people who multitask the most are the ones who are worst at it. That’s the surprising conclusion of researchers at Stanford University, who found multitaskers are more easily distracted and less able to ignore irrelevant information than people who do less multitasking.
“The huge finding is, the more media people use the worse they are at using any media. We were totally shocked,” Clifford Nass, a professor at Stanford’s communications department, said in a telephone interview.
The researchers studied 262 college undergraduates, dividing them into high and low multitasking groups and comparing such things as memory, ability to switch from one task to another and being able to focus on a task. Their findings are reported in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
When it came to such essential abilities, people who did a lot of multitasking didn’t score as well as others, Nass said. Still to be answered is why the folks who are worst at multitasking are the ones doing it the most.
It’s sort of a chicken-oregg question.
“Is multitasking causing them to be lousy at multitasking, or is their lousiness at multitasking causing them to be multitaskers?” Nass wondered. “Is it born or learned?” In a society that seems to encourage more and more multitasking, the findings have social implications, Nass observed. Multitasking is already blamed for car crashes as several states restrict the use of cell phones while driving.
Lawyers or advertisers can try to use irrelevant information to distract and refocus people to influence their decisions.
In the study, the researchers first had to figure out who are the heavy and light multitaskers. They gave the students a form listing a variety of media such as print, television, computer-based video, music, computer games, telephone voice or text, and so forth.
The students were asked, for each form of media, which other forms they used at the same time always, often, sometimes or never. AP

Diet for blood pressure patients

Avoid cereals, pulses and milk products for first three months of detection of BP problems. As the digestion improves and BP normalises, start taking cereals in moderation


HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE Hypertension is the result of unhygienic habits of living
Obesity is the cause associated with it Recommended foods: Apples: They have a rapid and considerable diuretic effect causing increased secretion of urine and thus bringing down blood pressure to normal. Lemon: It is a rich source of Vitamin C and strengthens the arteries if consumed in moderation. Garlic: One of the most effective remedies to lower the blood pressure. It benefits more when taken raw.
Slows the pulse
Modifies the heart rhythm
Relieves dizziness, shortness of breath and formation of gas
Has the effect of making the blood vessels wider, thereby reducing the pressure Brown rice: Calcium present in brown rice soothes and relaxes the nervous system leading to a very low rate of hypertension Beet root: Excellent solvent for calcium deposits. Helpful in treating hypertension. Can be taken in salads. LOW BLOOD PRESSURE
Happens due to anaemia
In woman due to excessive bleeding during menses
Due to depression Recommended foods: Banana stem: Its juice is very alkaline and clears the arteries dissolving any toxic substance in the blood vessels. Bilva: Also known as bel patta, is a good blood purifier and can be taken in juice form. Do’s and Dont’s
Amla and aloevera juice should be taken daily in the morning to flush body toxins
Avoid cereals, pulses, gram, milk and milk products for first three months of detection of BP problems. As the digestion improves and BP normalises, start taking cereals etc in moderation
Avoid fried, processed and refined foods
Fasting on coconut water along with fresh fruits for 2-3 days minimum in two weeks
Vegetables raw/boiled or soups are also recommended
Eat at least 3 hours before sleeping
Avoid tea, coffee, soft drinks etc. If the total approach is adopted towards restoration of good health, the blood pressure will become normal in about 3 months

Engg colleges charge govt quota students higher fees


Chennai: Making a mockery of merit-based admissions made under the government quota, some selffinancing engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu are demanding astronomical sums as fees from students allotted BE/ BTech seats through the single window counselling.
As per the fee fixed by a committee headed by retired Madras high court Judge N V Balasubramanian, constituted under directions from the Supreme Court, students admitted to BE/ BTech courses under the government quota have to pay only Rs 40,000 as tuition fees. If the course is not accredited by the National Board of Accreditation, then they have to pay just Rs 32,500 per annum.
However, several students who turn up at the admission offices of some self-financing engineering colleges in different parts of Tamil Nadu with the government quota allotment order are finding to their dismay that the managements are demanding much higher fees. In some cases, the amount demanded is over Rs 80,000.
The colleges are collecting the excess fee in black and refusing to reflect the entire amount collected in the receipts issued to students. As a result, students are unable to lodge complaints with proof of the monetary exploitation. Secondly, they are unable to raise education loans through banks for the entire sum because the excess money is not accounted for.
“When I went to a college in Namakkal district where my son was allotted a BE (Information Technology) seat, the college demanded Rs 95,000 from us. The staff told us that Rs 75,000 was the fees and Rs 20,000 must be paid for books. But they offered a receipt for only Rs 40,000,” complained Hamsavardhan (name changed), a resident of Chennai. “There was no use protesting, because when we raised questions, the staff said we were free to lodge a complaint anywhere,” he added.
Similarly, many colleges located in and around Chennai too are demanding up to Rs 80,000 as fees from government quota students.
When this correspondent called up a couple of colleges introducing himself as the guardian of a government quota student and sought to know the fee structure, the staff refused to disclose it. “You can come to our admission cell with the allotment card and we will tell you the fees,” said a lady staff at a college in Namakkal. When the correspondent contacted another staff of the same college and argued that knowing the fee structure will help in arranging cash when the student is admitted, he said “You don’t worry about that. If you run short of cash here, we will give you a week’s time to arrange it.”
Tamil Nadu higher education principal secretary K Ganesan said it was illegal for colleges to collect excess fees than what has been fixed by the Judge Balasubramanian committee. “It is normal for colleges to collect fees towards caution deposit, transportation, sports activities and so on. But they cannot collect excess tuition fee without justification. Students and parents can pass on information about monetary exploitation to me, the commissioner for technical education or the government constituted monitoring committee and we will certainly take action,” he assured.

INVASION OF THE AEDES
Shift in mosquito population
Malaria-Causing Vectors Replaced By Those Causing Dengue & Chikungunya


Chennai: There might have been a 49% decrease in the cases of malaria since 2005, but the directorate of public health forecasts an increase in the cases of either dengue or chikungunya this monsoon. It has even devised strategies and plans for civic bodies to tackle the breeding of vectors to prevent their spread.
“The forecast is based on some scientific data we have at hand,” says director of public health Dr S Elango. “In the last few months, our entomologists have seen a drift in the mosquito population across the state. The malaria-causing anopheles, which formed nearly 80% of the diseasespreading vectors, have been replaced by another genre, aedes, which causes chikungunya or dengue,” he said. The cases of malaria in TN recorded an all-time low in 2009.
In 2005, the state recorded nearly 40,000 cases of malaria, which came down to about 28,000 in 2006. “That year
changed the monsoon-disease dynamics even in the city. It was a year that saw maximum number of chikungunya cases,” points out Chennai Corporation health officer Dr P Kuganandam. Chennai, which records about 80% of the state’s malaria cases, has also recorded a drastic decline.
In 2006, there were 64,802 cases of chikungunya in Tamil Nadu, while dengue cases fell from 1,150 to 477. In 2007, dengue rose to 700 while malaria was down to 22,000 cases. Last year, the number of dengue cases was 650 and malaria 21,000. In 2009, until June, 483 malaria cases were recorded as against 326 dengue and 440 chikungunya cases. In July alone, the state recorded 114 chikungunya cases and 37 dengue cases. The data for malaria is yet to be assessed. “But it is surely not higher than 50,” said an analyst at the directorate of public health.
Entomologists have noticed stephensi being increasingly replaced by aedes aegypti in the most common places they were earlier sighted. “We don’t know why this happened,” says state’s chief entomologist Dr S Sridharan. “It is possibly like how the American variety of the cockroach called periplaneta americana, the brown ones that we see commonly, replaced the native Indian striped grey variety we see no more.” The department, he said, will be studying the sudden population shift with the assistance of the Institute of Vector Control and Zoonoses in Hosur.
BEWARE of the BITE
There are approximately 3,500 species of mosquitoes, grouped into 41 genera. They are vectors causing several diseases, mostly after rains, that include malaria, dengue, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis and filariasis. The female mosquitoes draw blood, which has the protein required by them to lay their eggs AEDES: Commonly spotted species are Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. The flight range for this vector is 100 m from the breeding site and hence the disease it causes, be it dengue or chikungunya, is always seen in clusters
They are day biting mosquitoes, active in late morning and early evening
They are anthroprophilic, which means they feed only on human blood. But they change hosts frequently. One meal often comes from 4-5 persons
They breed in artificial containers like pots of water, holes in trees, coconut shells and all other places that have no soil content
In the case of dengue, the virus is even passed on to the progeny
ANOPHELES:
Commonly spotted species are Anopheles stephensi and Anopheles culicifacies. The flight range is up to half a kilometer from the breeding site — the reason why malarial outbreaks happen in a wider region
They are night biting mosquitos, active in early mornings and late evenings
While stephensi predominantly goes for the human blood, cuclifaces draws blood from humans as well as animals
The vector pierces into the skin with its stylus and sucks out the blood
Stephensi breeds in clear water, wells and irrigation tanks where there is no organic pollution, while culicifacies can survive in mildly saline water

Aedes aegypti


Anopheles


What is malaria?
It is caused by a parasite called plasmodium, which is transmitted through the bite of infected female anopheles.
Parasites multiply in the liver and infect red blood cells. Fever, headache and vomiting usually appear 10-15 days after the bite. Can become life-threatening


What is dengue?
It is transmitted by the bite of an aedes infected with one of the four dengue viruses. Symptoms range from mild to incapacitating high fever, with severe headache and pain in muscles and joints. Dengue haemorrhagic fever is potentially lethal, affecting mainly children


What is chikungunya?
It is a mosquito-borne viral disease characterised by abrupt onset of fever and debilitating joint pain. Recovery takes a few days or weeks, but joint pain may persist for several months or even years