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Electric shocks to brain help students solve maths problems, scientists say

By Tribune On May 16, 2013 · Add Comment

This article titled “Electric shocks to brain help students solve maths problems, scientists say” was written by Ian Sample, science correspondent, for The Guardian on Thursday 16th May 2013 17.06 UTC

People who struggle with maths problems might fare better after a course of gentle electric shocks to the brain, scientists have claimed.

Psychologists at Oxford University found that students scored higher on mental arithmetic tasks after a five-day course of brain stimulation.

If future studies prove that it works – and is safe – the cheap and non-invasive procedure might be used routinely to boost the cognitive power of those who fall behind in maths, the scientists said. Researchers led by Roi Cohen Kadosh zapped students’ brains with a technique called transcranial random noise stimulation (TRNS) while they performed simple calculations, or tried to remember mathematical facts by rote learning.

In the study published in Current Biology, 25 students had electrical pulses fired across their brains, while 26 others had a sham treatment, in which they thought they had brain stimulation, but the equipment was turned off.

In tests afterwards, the students who had their brains stimulated solved maths puzzles 27% faster than the control group, suggesting that their brains were working more efficiently.

“Our aim is to help those with poor numeracy, which is approximately 20% of the population,” Cohen Kadosh told the Guardian. “But we need to extend the results to the general population, and use more ecological settings, such as classrooms. There is of course more work to be done, but it is a promising direction.”

Cohen Kadosh said the improvement lasted for six months after the course of stimulation, but other scientists were dubious about the claim. The result was based on six students who received stimulation, and six controls, who returned to the lab six months later.

“The work is technically impressive and an elegant illustration of how brain stimulation can have immediate benefits for learning that are linked to changes in brain physiology,” said Chris Chambers, a psychologist at Cardiff University.

“At the same time, I’m sceptical about the conclusion that TRNS boosted maths ability even six months after it was applied. The claim is based on a very small sample and a one-tailed statistical analysis that would have been non-significant using a standard test.

“My worry is that the six-month effect, as intriguing as it appears, could be a false discovery. I would love to see this effect replicated in a sample that is larger and well-powered, because if true it could have important implications for basic neuroscience and the treatment of various clinical conditions. But until such data appears, the six-month claim remains weak in my view.”

Jon Simons, a neuroscientist at Cambridge University, had similar concerns, adding that only six students who had TRNS were assessed six months later. “The findings here seem weaker to me,” he said.

Amanda Ellison, who studies brain stimulation for rehabilitating patients at Durham University, said the procedure still looked promising.

“The next issue will be understanding the mechanism of this effect so that the technique can be applied to more functions. However, the impact for neuro-rehabilitation for example is hopeful,” she said.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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All sides in Syria have weapons ‘except the good guys’, says British official

By Tribune On May 15, 2013 · Add Comment

This article titled “All sides in Syria have weapons ‘except the good guys’, says British official” was written by Matthew Weaver, for The Guardian on Wednesday 15th May 2013 18.15 UTC

All sides in the Syrian conflict have access to weapons “except the good guys,” according to the official in charge of handling Britain’s response to the crisis in Syria.

Reza Afshar, head of the Syria team at the foreign office, publicly revealed for the first time how important weapons had become to Britain’s private bargaining with the Syrian opposition. Afshar suggested the opposition had insisted on getting access to arms before they agree to enter talks with the Assad regime.

Speaking at a meeting in the Commons, he said: “We are trying to get the opposition to get involved in a negotiation with people they really don’t want to negotiate with. The political reality is that in order to get them to the table we need to amend the arms embargo. It is that simple. They need an incentive.”

Afshar defended Britain’s attempts to lift an EU arms embargo against Syria by claiming that the current restrictions were pushing Syria towards extremism. On Tuesday a video showing a rebel commander apparently biting the heart or lung of a dead government soldier raised more doubts about western backing of the Syrian opposition.

Afshar suggested that arms could be delivered to groups vetted against extremism and such abuses. “Everyone is getting arms except the good guys … It means that people are becoming more and more radicalised,” he said.

“Those people who are on the extreme end of the spectrum are winning out. They are able to provide security and services in areas where there is a vacuum. And the good guys can’t. It is making the situation worse. I’m not saying that the answer to that is necessarily throwing a bunch of arms in there, but I am saying it is not as simple as saying, ‘You don’t want to add fuel to the fire.’”

Afshar was addressing a Commons briefing on the humanitarian crisis in Syria hosted by Islamic Relief and the Council for Arab-British Understanding. Oxfam’s Richard Stanforth said the relief agency was concerned that providing more arms to Syriawould worsen the humanitarian crisis and lead to more human rights abuses.

Responding to those concerns, Afshar said: “Why is it that the opposition want us to amend the embargo? It is so they feel that there is another alternative out there. So that maybe they can sit at the table knowing that they have some more levers.

“You have to look at the context around you and use those levers and press those buttons. It doesn’t sound nice, and you may not like it, but that’s the reality.

British and French attempts to lift the embargo have prompted a fierce debate within the EU. said arming the Syrian opposition would violate international law.

Afshar, who was previously head of the UK mission to the UN in the run-up to military intervention in Libya, also revealed the frustration among diplomats with Russia over Syria.

He said it was disingenuous of Russia to cite events in Libya as an excuse for inaction in Syria.

Afshar said: “Our aim is to galvanise the international community into finding a solution to the Syria crisis. That has eluded us until now because the international system broke down after Libya completely.

“We did what we did in Libya and we acted very fast and decisively. Post Libya we tried to move very quickly with an international response to the Syria crisis and it broke down – and the Russians won’t hide from the way they feel about this – because they wanted to insist that we never do what we did again in Libya.

“They created this sense that they somehow had the wool pulled over their eyes. I was there just before we all voted on Libya and I can tell you for a fact that we all explained precisely what was involved when we passed that resolution and the military action that would come after that. Everyone involved, including the Russians, knew full well what they were getting into. But they have used that since as a kind of geopolitical tool.

“Unfortunately that has meant that Syria has suffered as a result. The question since then has been how do you still influence the crisis when the international tools that you would usually use are broken? That’s what we are all struggling with.”

However, Afshar suggested a US-Russian deal to host an international conference on Syria could represent a turning point.

“In the last two weeks we have made a mini breakthrough,” he said, “but I wouldn’t suggest it is going to be the answer. It is going to be a long difficult process that is going to take a lot of effort.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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Canadian mobsters killed in ‘old-fashioned’ Sicilian mafia hit

By Tribune On May 10, 2013 · Add Comment

This article titled “Canadian mobsters killed in ‘old-fashioned’ Sicilian mafia hit” was written by Tom Kington in Rome, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 10th May 2013 17.58 UTC

Two senior members of the Canadian mafia have been murdered in Sicily and their bodies incinerated, victims of what police suspect is a vicious turf war in Canada which has spilled over into the Cosa Nostra’s Italian heartland.

After an anonymous tip-off, the bodies of Juan Ramon Paz Fernandez and Fernando Pimentel were discovered near a rubbish dump in the countryside outside Palermo on Thursday. Police described the double killing as an “old-fashioned” gangland hit.

Spanish-born Fernandez, 57, a notoriously tough enforcer for Montreal’s Rizzuto clan, was expelled from Canada last year for the third time after serving a 10-year sentence for conspiracy to murder a fellow mobster. He resurfaced in Palermo, where he was suspected of teaming up with the Cosa Nostra to build drug-trafficking links between Sicily and Canada.

Pimentel arrived in Palermo a few weeks ago to join Fernandez, who was allegedly working as a martial arts instructor as cover for his mob activities.

Nicknamed Joey Bravo in Canada, Fernandez was a feared right-hand man of Sicily-born Vito Rizzuto, who allied with New York’s Bonanno family to build an unrivalled mafia empire in Canada in the 1980s, handling drugs, loan sharking, gambling and contract killing.

In the midst of a turf war allegedly pitting the clan with a breakaway faction, Rizzuto was jailed while rivals murdered his father and son, the latter buried in a gold coffin which was paraded through Montreal’s Little Italy.

Fernandez stayed loyal to Rizzuto while he served his own time in jail in Canada, and was suspected by police of continuing to run operations through criminal associates. He was also suspected of being behind the murder of drug dealer Constantin “Big Gus” Alevizos in 2008.

Fernandez bolstered his tough reputation in 2011 when he was refused parole after threatening to kill a prison guard and boasting of his underworld connections.

Police suspicions that Fernandez’s murder in Sicily was ordered by his enemies back in Canada were strengthened after they arrested Pietro and Salvatore Scadutoon suspicion of being part of the hit squad that fired 30 shots at Fernandez and Pimentel and incinerated their corpses.

The Scaduto brothers have strong ties with the Canadian underworld. Following the murder of their own father in a mafia turf war in Sicily, the brothers moved to Canada in 1989, where Pietro Scaduto allegedly worked for the Rizzuto clan before they both returned to Sicily.

The discovery of both victims followed a police round-up on Wednesday of 21 mobsters linked to the Bagheria clan, based on the outskirts of Palermo, that Fernandez was working with.

A warrant had also been issued for Fernandez, who had been believed to have fled the city before his corpse was found.

Assets worth €30m were seized in the raids, which police said showed that the Cosa Nostra was “returning in a significant way” to the South American drugs trade after losing ground to the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta mafia, which has overtaken Sicily’s Cosa Nostra to become Italy’s most feared mafia.

As part of their operation, police are also investigating the mayor of a small Sicilian town who had stood for election with the Italian Northern League party, which has long railed against the mafia influence in southern Italy, for alleged mob ties.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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Spanish doping doctor ready to reveal role in major sports

By Tribune On May 10, 2013 · Add Comment

This article titled “Spanish doping doctor ready to reveal role in major sports” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 10th May 2013 18.04 UTC

The convicted sports-doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes is threatening to reveal the dirty secrets of the world’s major sporting events as he offers to sell his story to newspapers after being convicted on public health charges in Spain for his role in helping top cyclists to cheat.

Fuentes, considered one of international sport’s leading dope doctors, has sent out a list of subjects that – for a price – he is now prepared to talk publicly about. It includes Spanish Champions League football teams, London marathon winners, Olympic medallists and a long list of cyclists he was involved with.

He has also offered to reveal how Tour de France officials failed to detect doping even when they tested those who had been taking performance-enhancing substances.

"How I prepared a team to play in the Champions League," is one category of revelations he is offering, according to an email sent by his lawyers on Friday.

That alone threatens to widen the scandal surrounding his doping activities to football, a sport in which Spain currently leads the world as European champions and World Cup holders.

One witness at his trial in Madrid, the former cyclist Jesus Manzano, said he had seen Spanish and Brazilian soccer players at Fuentes’ clinic.

Fuentes is also believed to have worked with Real Sociedad, a first division club who finished second in the Spanish league and played in the Champions League while he was involved with them.

The Spanish doctor, who is expected to appeal against his suspended one year sentence, has previously admitted that his clients included footballers, as well as cyclists, track athletes and boxers – though he has largely refused to name them.

Just how much more detail he is now prepared to reveal remains a mystery.

"He has received approaches from several media organisations, offering money," his lawyer Joseé Miguel Lledó explained. "This is a list of subjects he can talk about, but he won’t do that until appeals have been lodged later in May."

"My medical relationship with the winners of the Tour of France, the Giro of Italy and the Vuelta of Spain," is a further category of revelations he is offering.

Another is: "My medical relationship with winners of the London marathon… including pre-race treatments." It is not clear who he was talking about, though Spaniard Abel Anton won the race in 1998. Anton is now a senator for the ruling People’s party along with Marta Dominguez, a world champion middle distance runner who shook off doping allegations after being arrested in 2010.

Trial evidence showed that Fuentes’s dealings with cyclists routinely included blood auto-transfusions to increase red blood counts and the use of EPO and other substances that are now banned.

He also offers to reveal the keys to Spain’s eruption on to the Olympic medal table, with its record haul at the 1992 Barcelona Games, described as the result of a mysterious process that he calls going "from tolerance to success". His offer to talk about the Olympic team comes as Spain waits to hear whether Madrid will be chosen to host the 2020 Games.

Fuentes also appears to be preparing to take revenge on those cyclists who gave evidence against him by telling, among other things, how blood transplants were carried out secretly in hotel rooms during major races.

He names Olympic-medal winning US cyclist Tyler Hamilton – who has already admitted doping and gave evidence at Fuentes’ trial by video link – along with the Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich, two-times Italian Giro winner Ivan Basso, Spain’s triple Vuelta winner Roberto Heras, who has denied receiving blood transfusions from Fuentes, and German Jörg Jaksche.

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Panic-buying rumours fuel shortages, shutdowns and fights

By Tribune On March 29, 2012 · Add Comment

Holtville Tribune

This article titled “Panic-buying rumours fuel shortages, shutdowns and fights” was written by Peter Walker and Shiv Malik, for The Guardian on Thursday 29th March 2012 17.10 UTC

The effect managed to be both counter-intuitive and almost wearily predictable: the more ministers, police and motoring groups insisted that there was no need to panic, the longer and more fractious the fuel queues became.

After sales of petrol were more than 80% higher than usual on Wednesday, queues began forming at some filling stations by 8am on Thursday, just as the roads minister, Mike Penning, appeared on Radio 4 to reiterate the official advice ahead of a possible tanker drivers’ strike: if you’re driving past a garage then take the opportunity to fill up.

All very well, but as testified by an ever-growing stream of local news reports, tweets and texted photos of snaking lines of cars, not so useful if every driver apparently tries to do so at the same time.

Some of the earlier queues were spotted in Hartlepool, with long lines soon forming at the forecourts operated by Morrisons, Tesco and Asda. Similar scenes were repeated in other locations.

The scale of the problem became apparent at midday when Dorset police announced they had been forced to ask petrol stations to close for a period as queues were causing traffic disruption on adjoining roads.

“The actions of some motorists in queuing irresponsibly at petrol stations is causing danger to other road users,” said Chief Inspector Nick Maton. “There is no disruption to the fuel supply in the UK and members of the public should not panic buy.” Five petrol stations – four around Bournemouth and one in Weymouth – were shut down until congestion eased.

Soon afterwards another police force, Hampshire, felt obliged to issue a statement pointing out that the Unite union, representing tanker drivers, was still in talks with haulage firms and that a strike was by no means inevitable, let alone imminent.

“There is currently no problem with fuel supplies in Hampshire and therefore we would urge all motorists to continue as normal with their fuel purchases,” a spokeswoman said. “Spurious rumours that are being spread online and through other mediums clearly have the potential to engender panic-buying so it is in danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy when there really isn’t an issue at this current time.”

However, such was the self-fulfilling nature of events that what might have started out as “spurious rumours” on social media soon became well-documented facts, disseminated via the same means. Within a couple of hours a Twitter search for “garage closed” brought dozens of 140 character-long tales of woe from locations including South Wales, Milton Keynes, Taunton, Scarborough and London’s North Circular road. Some added notes of disbelief that such seemingly unnecessary panic could spread so quickly. “Nice work, Mr Cameron,” added one.

The effects were felt elsewhere in the economy. Even as ministers rescinded the advice of Francis Maude, the cabinet office minister, for motorists to keep “a bit of extra fuel in a jerrycan in the garage” after fire officers expressed alarm, the motor accessories chain Halfords reported a 225% increase in sales of fuel containers.

Official voices weighed in again to urge calm, some blaming the government for the chaos.

The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents around 5,500 garages, said: “This is exactly what we didn’t want – people panic-buying. Deliveries are still being made to garages and we are advising people to continue with their normal buying habits.”

The president of the AA, Edmund King, said: “We now have self-inflicted shortages due to poor advice about topping up the tank and hoarding in jerrycans. This in turn has led to localised shortages, queues and some profiteering at the pumps.

“Theoretically if 30 million cars with half-full tanks are advised to fill up over 24 hours, this means that 750 million litres of fuel would be sold, whereas average sales over 24 hours would be 90 million litres. Hence the top-up advice means that demand for fuel has increased more than seven-fold. So it is no surprise that the ‘top-up’ advice has led to shortages.”

Assistant Chief Constable Charlie Hall, in charge of industrial disputes for the Association of Chief Police Officers, warned: “We would encourage the owners of filling stations to ensure that their forecourts are orderly and safe. The police may take action where queues are hazardous and pose a danger to the safety of the public.”

Yet seemingly little changed, with one garage in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, running dry by 11.30am. Reports from South Wales recounted one village petrol station only selling fuel “to known customers” while some angry drivers reported sudden and mysterious price rises.

As the afternoon went on another, equally predictable phenomenon started to emerge. In mid-afternoon, one woman in Berkshire tweeted: “Seriously idiots stop panic buying petrol, I genuinely need petrol and there is none, just saw an actual fight on the forecourt!”

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