Features

I’ve been mulling over a do, or not do choice, since morning today. You know, the, should I or should I not, types. I would describe it like a feeling I get when I’m at the crossroads, where one path is a-well travelled and weather beaten one, while the other is tantalisingly unknown. 

Let me tell you what I would have done a few years back. In my spirited youth I would have unhesitatingly trod the unfamiliar grounds, without even slowing my stride. “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread” idiom fitted me to a T. My inherent curiosity about everything and everybody coupled with an optimistic belief in the goodness of humanity held me in good stead. 

In innumerable instances, I had walked up to people in high offices and confronted them. In case a confrontation was necessary, that is. Similarly I spoke to common and ordinary people without a prepared script, and got startlingly candid responses from them. There were no fences that could deter me, nor any closed doors that punctured my enthusiasm. I pretty much did what my gut instinct guided me to do and was always rewarded with a myriad of rich experiences. 

But that was then. Motherhood and advancing maturity has brought on a certain uncertainty in me. Making snap decisions, which was a norm earlier, became increasingly difficult now. The moment I decided on one thing, especially for my child, the other option seemed better. I had begun to weigh the pros and cons, several times over. 

And so when the pain in my neck did not recede after swallowing several painkillers and applying layers upon layers of the infamous Tiger balm, I looked around for alternative treatment. The cervical collar seemed like a good option. It not only helped to keep the neck immobilised but also held the head up high. My stiff neck was destroying my posture and this could maybe improve it. Further, it could possibly add a few more inches to my diminutive frame which I was convinced, had reduced when I hung my head to one side. 

However, with the new indecisiveness that had kicked into me lately, I could not come to any sort of conclusion. I understood that it was silly to cling to vanity in such a situation but even with other things remaining the same, the mighty collar was just so aesthetically unpleasing. There was no way to hide it or even cleverly conceal it. All I needed was a leash attached to it and I would resemble a cranky and eccentric domesticated cat. At least I did not have whiskers, and that was the only saving grace. 

Maybe I should try it on, said the voice in my head. Before I could change my mind I jumped into the car and drove myself to the nearest pharmacy. For some reason the person behind the counter spoke to me in a clipped British accent. 

“Good weather, what?” he greeted me.

“Yes, fantastic,” I nodded.

“How can I help you dear lady?” he drawled.

“I have a stiff neck,” I complained.

“Better than a stiff upper-lip,” he said with deadpan expression. 

“Will the cervical collar give me relief?” I asked.

“Yes of course,” he nodded.

“But it will look like an eyesore,” I complained.

“You can always stitch pearls into it,” he suggested.

“Or diamonds?” I bluffed.

“Every woman’s best friend,” he twinkled.

“I wish,” I sighed, buying the collar.

PARIS – The lives of three million women and babies can be saved every year by 2025 for an annual investment of about a dollar per head in better maternity care, researchers said Tuesday.

About 8,000 newborn babies die and another 7,000 are stillborn every day –– 2.9 million and 2.6 million per year respectively, according to a review of data from 195 countries published in The Lancet medical journal.

Most of the deaths are avoidable.
“There is an urgent, unmet need to provide timely, high-quality care for both mother and baby around the time of birth,” said study co-author Joy Lawn of the Centre for Maternal Reproductive and Child Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“Each year, one million babies die on their birth day –– their only day. Without greater investments to improve birth outcomes, by 2035 there will be 116 million deaths” of mothers, newborns and unborn infants.

About a quarter of a million women worldwide die every year due to complications from carrying or delivering a baby. 

The annual cost of expanding prenatal and birth care to 90 per cent of women and babies in the world by 2025 would amount to some $5.65 billion (4.1 billion euros) by 2025, said the team –– about $1.15 per person living in the 75 countries of the world with the highest burden. 

They calculated such expansion could save the lives of 1.9 million newborns and 160,000 women, and prevent 820,000 stillbirths per year by 2025.

This would amount to just under $2,000 spent per life saved –– which the researchers said amounted to a triple to quadruple return on investment in terms of labour capital preserved and other benefits.

Proper care involves prenatal examinations, assistance at birth, adequate nutrition after delivery, promotion of breastfeeding, infection control, as well as access to medicine, skilled midwives and nurses, and timely specialist care.

Half of the world’s newborn deaths occurred in five countries: India (779,000), Nigeria (276,000), Pakistan (202,400), China (157,000) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (118,000), the study said.

“A preterm baby is at least 11 times more likely to die if born in Africa than in Europe or North America,” said the researchers.

On current trends, it would be more than 110 years before a baby born in Africa has the same chances of survival as one born in North America or Europe.

The researchers said stillbirths were an “invisible” problem –– as most never got a birth or death certificate and were not factored into targets for reducing infant deaths. 

Many newborns also were never documented.

“This fatalism, lack of attention, and lack of investment are the reasons behind lagging progress in reducing newborn deaths –– and even slower for progress in reducing stillbirths,” said Lawn.

“In reality, these deaths are nearly all preventable.”

The UN is targeting a two-thirds reduction of under-five mortality between 1990 and 2015.

LONDON – British researchers are launching the largest study in the world to investigate whether using mobile phones and other wireless gadgets might affect children’s brain development.

The Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones, or SCAMP, project will focus on cognitive functions such as memory and attention, which continue to develop into adolescence — just the age when teenagers start to own and use personal phones.

While there is no convincing evidence that radio waves from mobile phones affect health, to date most scientific research has focused on adults and the potential risk of brain cancers.

Because of that, scientists are uncertain as to whether children’s developing brains may be more vulnerable than adults’ brains — partly because their nervous systems are still developing, and partly because they are likely to have a higher cumulative exposure over their lifetimes.

“Scientific evidence available to date is reassuring and shows no association between exposure to radiofrequency waves from mobile phone use and brain cancer in adults in the short term — i.e. less than 10 years of use,” said Paul Elliott, director of the Centre for Environment and Health at Imperial College London, who will co-lead the research.

“But the evidence available regarding long term heavy use and children’s use is limited and less clear.”

Mobile phone use is ubiquitous, with the World Health Organisation estimating 4.6 billion subscriptions globally. In Britain, some 70 per cent of 11 to 12 year olds now own a mobile phone, and that figure rises to 90 per cent by age 14.

Elliott and the study’s principal investigator, Mireille Toledano, aim to recruit around 2,500 11 to 12 year old school children and follow their cognitive development over two years whilst collecting data on how often, for what, and for how long they use mobile or smart phones and other wireless devices.

Parents and pupils who agree to take part in the study will answer questions about the children’s use of mobile devices and wireless technologies, well-being and lifestyle. 

Pupils will also undertake classroom-based computerised tests of the cognitive abilities behind functions like memory and attention.

“Cognition is essentially how we think, how we make decisions, and how we process and recall information,” said Toledano, who is also at Imperial College’s centre for Environment and Health.

“It is linked to intelligence and educational achievement and forms the building blocks of the innovative and creative potential of every individual and therefore society as a whole.”

The World Health Organisation says a large number of studies have been performed over the past two decades to assess whether mobile phones pose a potential health risk, and to date, no adverse health effects have been established.

Still, the electromagnetic fields produced by mobile phones are classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”, and the global health agency has said more research into the issue is vital.

Current British health policy guidelines say children under 16 should be encouraged to use mobile phones for essential purposes only, and where possible use a hands-free kit or text.

But Toledano said this advice was “given in the absence of available evidence — and not because we have evidence of any harmful effects”.

“As mobile phones are a new and widespread technology central to our lives... the SCAMP study is important... to provide the evidence base... through which parents and their children can make informed life choices,” she said.

NEW YORK — “Selfie”, “tweep” and “turducken” were among more than 150 new words and definitions added to the 2014 updated Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, the publishing company said on Monday.

The additions to the US dictionary reflect the growing influence of technology and social networking, the company said.

“So many of these new words show the impact of online connectivity to our lives and livelihoods,” Peter Sokolowski, an editor for Merriam-Webster said in a statement. “Tweep, selfie and hashtag refer to the ways we communicate and share as individuals. Words like crowdfunding, gamification, and big data show that the Internet has changed business in profound ways.”

One new entry is “steampunk”, defined as “science fiction dealing with 19th-century societies dominated by historical or imagined steam-powered technology”.

And the word catfish takes on an added definition, referring to a person who sets up a false social networking profile for deceptive purposes.

New culinary terms include pho, “a soup made of beef or chicken broth and rice noodles”, and turducken, “a boneless chicken stuffed into a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless turkey”.

Other notable additions include Yooper, a nickname used for a native or resident of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, a unit of Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., has approximately 165,000 entries and 225,000 definitions.

Among the new entries included this year:

* selfie - an image of oneself taken by oneself using a digital camera esp. for posting on social networks.

* tweep - a person who uses the Twitter online message service to send and receive tweets.

* gamification - the process of adding game or gamelike elements to something (as a task) so as to encourage participation.

* hashtag - a word or phrase preceded by the symbol # that clarifies or categorises the accompanying text, such as a tweet.

“These are words our editors have decided to put in based on usage in the English language,” said Merriam-Webster spokeswoman Meghan Lunghi. “They look for widespread, sustained usage and when they think the usage merits it, they include it.”

NEW YORK — So, a lady walks into a bar...Wait, scratch that. A lady takes out her phone. With a left swipe of her finger she dismisses Alex, 25 and Robert, 48. She swipes right when a photo of James, 24, pops up. It’s a match. James had swiped right too. They chat, and make plans to meet. They’re only three miles apart, after all.

Welcome to the new world of dating. As the near-constant use of smartphones proliferates and as people grow more comfortable with disclosing their location, a new class of mobile dating applications is emerging that spans a range as broad as human desire itself. Millennials, busy with school, jobs and social lives, say the apps save time and let users filter out the undesirables, based on a few photos, words and Facebook connections. Unlike the dating websites of yore, with endless profiles to browse and lengthy messages to compose, newer apps offer a sense of immediacy and simplicity that in many ways harkens back to the good old days of just walking up to a pretty stranger and making small talk.

In the US, online community ChristianMingle will “find God’s match for you”. Mobile application Hinge’s promise hinges on its ability to hook you up with friends of friends. Coffee Meets Bagel, meanwhile, will present you with just one potential mate at noon every day. Dattch, with a Pinterest-like interface, is for women seeking women. For men looking for men, there’s Grindr, Jack’d, Scruff, Boyahoy and many more. Revealer will let you hear a person’s voice and only show photos if you’re both interested.

The darling dating app du jour for Americans is Tinder, helped by its simple interface, a host of celebrity users and a popularity boost from Sochi Olympic athletes who used it to hook up during the Winter Games.

Tinder, like many dating apps, requires people to log in using their Facebook profiles, which users say adds a certain level of trust. Facebook, after all, is built on knowing people’s real identities. Your Tinder photos are your Facebook photos. Users can reject or accept potential mates with a left or right swipe of their finger. If both people swipe right on Tinder, the app flashes “It’s a match!” and the pair can exchange messages.

Because messages can only come from a person you’ve “right-swiped,” unwanted advances are filtered out. The system avoids one of the more vexing problems of older-generation dating websites, where users, especially women, can become inundated with messages from unwelcome suitors. They also offer a generation raised on Google and social media a chance to do background checks on potential mates.

“If you are in a bar and a guy comes to talk to you, you are immediately going to be freaked out and you don’t want to talk to them because they are drunk,” says Melissa Ellard, 23, who uses Hinge and says she wouldn’t have gone on a date in the past six months were it not for the app. “When you are using the app, you get to look at their picture and see background information. You get to decide whether you want to continue it or not. When I meet someone, I want to know everything about them before I go on a date with them.”

While they are still new, dating apps — used for anything from one-night-stands to serious dating, and even finding new friends while travelling — are emerging as the use of older dating websites is moving into the mainstream. A recent Pew study found that some 9 per cent of US adults say they’ve used dating sites or mobile dating apps, up from 3 per cent in 2008. Of those who are “single and looking,” the number jumps to 38 per cent, according to the 2013 survey. The crowd trends slightly younger, with the largest group of users between 25 and 44. Clearly, many people have grown comfortable with online dating just as they have with shopping, banking and booking travel over the Internet.

Cue the cries of “the lost art of courtship” and the “rise of hookup culture” from older generations, who harbour selective memories of the more analog hookup culture of their youth.

“There is a general digital fear,” says Glenn Platt, professor of interactive media studies at Miami University. “People are happy to giggle and watch Barney in ‘How I Met Your Mother hook up with people based on looks. But somehow taking that same behaviour and placing it in a digital context has a stigma attached to it. Even though in that context you are more likely to get a better match, more information, a person’s real name.”

WASHINGTON — The devastating wildfires scorching Southern California offer a glimpse of a warmer and more fiery future, according to scientists and federal and international reports.

In the past three months, at least three different studies and reports have warned that wildfires are getting bigger, that man-made climate change is to blame, and it’s only going to get worse with more fires starting earlier in the year. While scientists are reluctant to blame global warming for any specific fire, they have been warning for years about how it will lead to more fires and earlier fire seasons.

“The fires in California and here in Arizona are a clear example of what happens as the Earth warms, particularly as the West warms, and the warming caused by humans is making fire season longer and longer with each decade,” said University of Arizona geoscientist Jonathan Overpeck. 

It’s certainly an example of what we’ll see more of in the future.”

Since 1984, the area burned by the West’s largest wildfires — those of more than 1,000 acres (400 hectares) — have increased by about 87,700 acres (35,500 hectares) a year, according to an April study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. And the areas where fire has been increasing the most are areas where drought has been worsening and “that certainly points to climate being a major contributor,” the study’s main author Philip Dennison of the University of Utah said Friday.

The top five years with the most acres burned have all happened in the last decade, according to federal records. 

From 2010-2013, about 6.4 million acres (2.6 million hectares) a year burned on average; in the 1980s it was 2.9 million acres (1.17 million hectares) a year.
“We are going to see increased fire activity all across the West as the climate warms,” Dennison said.

That was one of a dozen “key messages” in the 841-page National Climate Assessment released by the federal government earlier this month. It mentioned wildfires 200 times.

“Increased warming, drought and insect outbreaks, all caused by or linked to climate change have increased wildfires and impacts to people and ecosystems in the Southwest,” the federal report said. “Fire models project more wildfire and increased risks to communities across extensive areas.”

Likewise, the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change noted in March that wildfires are on the rise in the western US, have killed 103 Americans in 30 years, and will likely get worse.

The immediate cause of the fires can be anything from lightning to arson; the first of the San Diego area fires, which destroyed at least eight houses, an 18-unit condominium complex and two businesses, seemed to start from sparks from faulty construction equipment working on a graded field, said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff.

But the California fires are fuelled by three major ingredients: drought, heat and winds. California and Arizona have had their hottest first four months of the year on record, according to National Weather Service records. Parts of Southern California broke records Thursday, racing past 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). For the past two weeks the entire state of California has been in a severe or worse drought, up from 46 per cent a year ago, according to the US drought monitor.

“With the drought this year, we’re certainly going to see increased frequency of this type of event,” Dennison said. 

Because of the drought the fuels (dry plants and trees) are very susceptible to burning.

Another study last month in Geophysical Research Letters linked the ongoing drought to man-made climate change. Other scientists say that is not yet proven.

Scientists will have to do a lot of time-consuming computer simulations before they can officially link the drought to climate change. But Overpeck said what is clear is that it’s not just a drought, but “a hot drought”, which is more connected to man-made warming.

The other factor is the unusual early season Santa Ana winds, whose strength is a key factor in whipping the flames. So far, scientists haven’t connected early Santa Ana to climate change, Dennison said.

NEW YORK — No matter what age a man is, cardiovascular fitness may buy him more years of life, according to a new US study of men over 70 with high blood pressure.

Those who were able to push themselves the hardest during exercise had half the risk of dying of study participants who were the least fit, indicating the benefits of exercising are not limited to the young or middle aged, researchers said.

“The population is ageing dramatically, so it’s important that we ask questions about patients who are older,” said Charles Faselis, lead author of the study and an internist at the Washington, DC, Veterans Affairs Medical Centre. 

In the study, published in the journal Hypertension, Faselis and his team looked at exercise tests previously performed for 2,153 men who were patients at the Washington, DC and Palo Alto, California VA Medical Centres.

All participants were at least 70 years of age and underwent the test either as part of a checkup or to see if the vessels in their hearts were clogged.

The men were split into four groups based on the highest level at which they could exercise. The categories were based on a unit of fitness known as metabolic equivalents, or METs. 

The lowest category — “very-low fit” — comprised men who could achieve between two and four METs; “low-fit” were those who achieved 4.1 to six METs; and “moderate-fit” was between 6.1 and eight METs. The men in the best shape could achieve more than eight METs and were considered “high-fit”.

Faselis and his team took into account other factors that could affect the results, such as body mass index, heart disease and medications for heart disease. Researchers followed the men for an average of nine years to evaluate their risk of dying. During that time, about 1,000 of the participants passed away.

The study team found that compared to the men with the least ability to exercise (the very low-fit group), those in the next-highest category (low-fit) had an 18 per cent lower risk of dying. The men who were moderately fit had a 36 per cent lower risk of dying during follow-up, and the high-fit men had a 48 per cent lower risk of death. 

In other words, for every 100 people in the very low-fit category who would die, the high-fit group would have only 52 individuals die, said Peter Kokkinos, another author of the study and a researcher in cardiology at the Washington, DC, Veterans Affairs Medical Centre.

“As we go higher in fitness, we go lower in mortality risk and death rates,” Kokkinos told Reuters Health.

The researchers cannot say for certain that fitness prolonged some of the men’s lives, but after they adjusted for the possibility that sickness prevented some men from being able to exercise the link between METS and mortality still held.

Faselis and his team emphasised that being fit doesn’t mean running marathons or spending hours at the gym. In fact, people over age 70 with high blood pressure can lower their risk of dying by walking for about half an hour most days of the week, the researchers said.

“We aren’t asking people to do things that are out of this world” to get fitter, Faselis said. 

That amount of walking is “very doable even in this elderly population”, he said. 

Still, as with any new fitness regimen, it’s important to check with a healthcare provider before starting. As long as one’s doctor says it’s safe to start to exercise, it’s never too late to get going.

“It doesn’t matter what age you are — fitness works,” Kokkinos said. 

“People think, ‘I’m 60, I’m over the hill.’ But it doesn’t matter,” he said. In fact, the oldest study participant was 92 years old, he told Reuters Health.

“Keep moving” if you’re already active, and if you’re not, then “get off the couch,” he said.

A high-tech replacement for the Infiniti G Sedan, the new Q50 compact premium saloon is the luxury brand’s first new offering since recently relocating to Hong Kong and reasserting itself as a global and urbane sports luxury brand.

 The first all-new car bearing Infiniti’s new Q-based nomenclature, the Q50’s most significant “first” is however its innovative steer-by-wire technology. 

Launched in the Middle East in recent weeks with a choice of 3.7-litre V6 or a 3.5-litre V6 petrol/electric hybrid, the Q50 is set to make greater impact and appeal to a broader demographic than its predecessor, with a wider range of globally available drive-train options.

While one expects the recently launched two-litre turbo version to reach regional markets in the future, and a high performance version based on the Q50 eau rouge concept is anticipated, it is the current range-topping Q50S Hybrid which is most efficient, advanced and powerful, and best represents the Q50’s high-tech character. 

A car that confounds conventional expectations, the sport-tuned Q50S Hybrid’s digital steering is direct rather than synthetic-feeling and its hybrid drive-train is tuned to improve performance.

While additional hybrid weight is well-controlled by a sportier suspension set up, the Q50S Hybrid is also a connected and lively drive, despite a host of sophisticated semi-autonomous driver aids.

High-rev hybrid

Powered by Infiniti’s familiarly high-revving 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine developing 302BHP at a lofty 6,800rpm and 258lb/ft at 5,000rpm, the Q50S Hybrid’s driveline features an electric motor. 

Developing 67BHP at 1,650-2,000rpm and 214lb/ft torque at 1,650rpm, the Q50S Hybrid’s electric motor can provide short bursts of electric-only drive on light throttle and incline load up to 80km/h. 

Tuned for fuel efficiency in Eco mode, the Q50S Hybrid can return 7.8l100km combined cycle consumption, but in Sport mode, the electric motor acts as a sort of electric supercharger, as Infiniti would describe it, and in a similar vein as hybrid supercars like the McLaren P1 or LaFerrari. 

Sandwiched between the front-mid combustion engine and smooth and quick-shifting seven-speed gearbox, the electric motor complements the sporty high-revving petrol engine’s low end, with instantaneous and muscular low-rev response, and consistent urgency right up to the petrol engine’s 7,500rpm redline. 

In “normal” and Sport modes, the Q50S Hybrid’s driveline is smoother and more seamlessly integrated than most conventional hybrid cars in transitioning between and combining both motors, and is responsive to cut power on throttle lift-off, unlike some systems that continue surging momentarily. 

With combined 360BHP and 402lb/ft system output, the Q50S Hybrid cracks 0-100km/h rapidly in 5.1-seconds, and offers effortlessly muscular on-the-move flexibility for overtaking.

Digital purity

The first ever production car with steer-by-wire technology, the Infiniti Q50’s revolutionary direct adaptive steering system bypasses the need for a mechanically linked steering rack and instead sensors and computers relay and process steering wheel to two small electric motors that steer the front wheels. 

The Q50’s digital steering may help reduce fuel consumption, but its primary benefit is in achieving unprecedented levels of steering refinement and precision, with negative feedback, vibrations, inertia, friction and torsion greatly reduced for a purer and more direct connection. 

The Q50 does however feature a third electric motor to transmit filtered feel and feedback to the driver in sport mode.

In theory the Q50’s digital steering can be tuned to a virtually limitless combinations of speed and resistance, but Infiniti settled on a handful of distinct pre-set combinations to suit different situations, driving styles and preferences, from low and light for relaxed drivers to a sporty 2.1-turns lock-to-lock, with firmly chunky resistance, at its most hard-edged. 

Best in its quickest and heaviest setting, Infiniti have paid close attention to getting the Q50’s touted steering sport parameters correctly. 

During track and road driving the Q50S Hybrid turned in tidily and responsively, while weaving through brisk and tight slaloms with small measured inputs, its quick steering was precise and direct.

Cornering composure

Sitting slightly lower and riding on firmer suspension rates than the standard Q50, the Q50S Hybrid, however, gains 113kg over the petrol-powered Q50S, but hides its 1,869kg mass well. 

Though not as nimble as the non-hybrid, the Q50S Hybrid is nevertheless surprisingly agile. On track, its battery pack gave the impression of carrying a couple of bags in the boot, and through slaloms, it displayed excellent body control and poised stability. 

Tidy and composed through sudden and repetitive weight transfers, the Q50S Hybrid turns-in crisply, while through a fast sweeping 180° corner, it was settled and stable, with a vice-like grip and body roll well-checked.

Digging its heels into a fast sweeper, the Q50S Hybrid’s stability, grip and consistent power delivery and high-rev engine allow one to pile on the power generously by a corner’s apex to bolt out onto the straight. 

Stable, planted and refined at speed and on highways, the Q50S Hybrid feels settled and tight on rebound from sudden undulations, and benefits from low aerodynamic drag and zero lift. 

Well insulated for noise, vibration and harshness, the Q50S Hybrid rides on the firm side but is smooth and remains comfortable, while its digital steering felt uncannily refined from reverberations, even when driving on dirt roads, gravel and lawns.

Predatory posture

Picking up where its Infiniti G Sedan predecessor left off and armed with more urgent design lines to go along with the brand’s newly adopted Q-based nomenclature, the Q50 integrates classically sporty front-mid engine and rear-drive proportions with tense, dynamic and razor-sharp styling. 

Best in sporty “S” guise, Infiniti’s new compact executive features a complex series of sharp creases, jutting ridges, gaping intakes and sporty side ports and dual exhausts that sit harmoniously with naturally flowing body lines. 

With squinting headlights, gaping honeycomb grille, low bumper-chin spoiler, integrated rear spoiler and aggressive alloy wheels pushed far out, the Q50S emits a predatory shark-like road presence.

Complementing its chiseled and swooping design, the Q50S Hybrid’s classy cabin is driver-focused but luxurious, with highly adjustable contoured steering wheel and supportive seats, alert driving position, clear instrumentation and lightweight magnesium paddle shifters. With high quality textures, leathers, metals, woods and plastics, the Q50S Hybrid’s cabin is ergonomic and user-friendly, and features two stacked infotainment screens for greater versatility. 

An optional high tech safety package with various driver-assistance and semi-automated features includes intelligent cruise control, distance control, lane departure and blind spot warning and prevention, predictive collision warning and automatic emergency braking, back-up collision intervention, adaptive front lights and bird’s eye view cameras.

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: petrol/electric hybrid, 3.5 litre, V6 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 95.5 x 81.4mm

Compression: 10.6:1

Valve-train: 24 valve, DOHC, variable timing

Gearbox: 7-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive

Top gear / final drive: 0.78:1 / 2.61:1

Power – petrol engine, BHP (PS) [kW]: 302 (306) [225] @ 6,800rpm

Power – electric motor, BHP (PS) [kW]: 67 (68) [50] @ 1,650-2,000rpm

Power – combined, BHP (PS) [kW]: 360 (365) [268]

Power-to-weight: 192.6BHP/ton

Torque – Petrol engine, lb/ft (Nm): 258 (350) @ 5,000rpm

Torque – electric motor, lb/ft (Nm): 214 (290) @ 1,650rpm

Torque – combined, lb/ft (Nm): 402 (546)

Maximum engine speed: 7,500rpm

0-100km/h: 5.1-seconds (est.)

Fuel consumption, urban / extra-urban / combined: 8.4 / 6.9 / 7.8 litres/100km

Fuel capacity: 70 litres

Height: 1,445mm

Width: 1,820mm

Length: 4,800mm

Wheelbase: 2,850mm

Track, F/R: 1,535 / 1,560mm

Ground clearance: 130mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.275

Curb weight: 1,869kg

Luggage volume: 400 litres

Steering: Direct Adaptive Steering

Lock-to-lock: 2.1-turns

Turning diameter: 11.2-metres

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones / multi-link, twin tube dampers, stabiliser bars

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 355mm / 350mm

Bake calipers, F/R: 4- / 2-piston

Tyres: 245/40R19

GENEVA – Average life expectancy has risen globally to 73 years for a girl born in 2012 and 68 for a boy following successes in fighting diseases and child mortality, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday.

Big advances in the battles against infectious diseases such as measles, malaria, tuberculosis and polio have continued to extend life expectancy although other factors, such as people’s lifestyles, are constraining longevity, WHO said in its annual statistics report.

The longest life expectancy at birth is for baby girls in Japan, at 87.0 years, and boys in Iceland, at 81.2 years. Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, Italy and Luxembourg rank in the top 10 for both sexes.

“There are major gains in life expectancy in recent decades and they continue,” said Ties Boerma, chief of statistics and information systems at WHO.

The lowest life expectancy is in sub-Saharan Africa, where nine countries have expectancy of less than 55 for babies of both sexes.

Lifestyle changes leading to heart problems and other diseases were curbing life expectancy in some cases.

“We’re seeing a health transition from success in infectious diseases to more people dying, including at younger ages, from non-communicable diseases,” said Boerma.

However, even in the rich countries where people live longest, there is no sign of life expectancy gains slowing down.

“If human life expectancy was capped at population level at around 90 years of life we would expect to see a slowdown as we approach those limits. We’re not seeing that,” said Colin Mathers, coordinator of WHO’s statistics on mortality.

For the first time the annual statistics report, the most comprehensive statistical overview of the world’s health, measured “years of life lost”, a number that takes account of the age when people die as well as the number of deaths, to put more focus on the things that kill more people at a younger age. 

Years of life lost to diarrhoea and respiratory infections, the biggest causes of early deaths in 2000, had fallen by 40 per cent and 30 per cent respectively by 2012, when ischemic heart disease was the biggest factor in early deaths. 

Years of life lost to road injuries have also increased by 14 per cent between 2000 and 2012 as more people driving in developing countries outweighed gains in road safety elsewhere. 

Cardiovascular disease

Life expectancy at birth has increased in almost every country since 1990, and in almost all cases it was higher in 2012 than in 2011, with Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire and Syria among the exceptions. 

Another was Pakistan, where life expectancy averaged 65 years in 2012, down from 67 years in last year’s report. Mathers said that reduction reflected improved data, which revealed child mortality was 30 per cent higher than previously thought. 

The global average life expectancy for a 60-year-old has also increased, with hope of another 20 years in 2012 instead of 18 years in 1990. But not everywhere. 

In Russia and several other former Soviet states, life expectancy for a 60-year-old was lower in 2012 than in 1990. Mathers said death rates rose fast in the early 1990s, due to cardiovascular disease and injury, both influenced by high rates of binge drinking. Although the death rates have since improved, they have not yet dropped to pre-1990 levels.

Russia’s experience surprised epidemiologists who had expected chronic diseases would take a long time to take root. 

Many countries, especially those recovering from conflict, have also shown that it is possible to make big gains fast. 

“We’ve seen in many countries a catch-up, really fast progress,” said Boerma. “Examples — Liberia, which has been our fastest catch-up country, but also Rwanda, Cambodia. So if they come out of a crisis with good leadership, there’s enormous progress in health.” 

NEW YORK – People may think hookah is a safe alternative to cigarettes, but a new study shows hookah users are still exposed to cancer-causing compounds.

Laboratory tests have suggested risks from hookah, also known as water pipes. But the new study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention is the first to link real-life hookah use to exposure to nicotine and other harmful chemicals, researchers said.

“One of the main reasons for doing this study is water pipe smoking is becoming much more popular — especially among younger people and college students,” said Gideon St Helen, the study’s lead author from the University of California, San Francisco.

Water pipes consist of a long tube attached to a glass or plastic container that holds water. The tobacco, which is flavoured with fruits and sugar syrup, is burned using charcoal. The smoke passes through the water before being inhaled. 

Users often believe that the water filters out the toxins in the smoke, but Thomas Eissenberg, who was not involved with the new research, said that’s not the case.

“What the water does do is not filter the smoke, but cools the smoke so it’s very easy to inhale,” said Eissenberg, of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, who has studied water pipe smoking.

Hookah is often used in a group and a session usually lasts about an hour, according to past research. 

For the new study, the researchers recruited 55 people from the San Francisco area who almost exclusively smoked hookah. They were asked to abstain from smoking any nicotine products during the week before going to a hookah bar for the study.

The participants provided three urine samples: one before smoking hookah, one immediately after and another the next morning.

After analysing participants’ urine samples, the researchers found that nicotine levels increased 73-fold following the hookah session.

They also found significant increases in other compounds that have been tied to increased risks of heart and respiratory diseases, and to lung and pancreatic cancer. 

“It’s always been a question by water pipe users — blogs and online reviewers — whether the results we get from the lab generalise to a real-life setting,” Eissenberg told Reuters Health. “This puts that to rest.”

It’s difficult to translate the findings into risks for a given hookah smoker, St Helen said. But he did say users are “increasing (their) risk of cancer and other tobacco-related diseases”.

“If you’re not smoking cigarettes because you’re worried about tobacco-caused diseases, you should also not be smoking water pipes,” Eissenberg said.