Features

It is the end of the year and the holidays’ season. It implies buying gifts for your loved ones and your friends, which very often implies offering high-tech gadgets. The good news is that there is an incredible number of items to choose from out there. The bad news is that choosing one can prove to be a daunting task, when not a real nightmare  — precisely because of the very wide choice available.

If budget matters a little it certainly is not the most difficult hurdle you would have to overcome. Indeed, there are very attractive items that are guaranteed to please, in all budget ranges. And yet…

One of the most sought-after product on the market today is the Bluetooth speaker. Some are very small, the size of a smartphone, while other are quite large and heavy. Some will cost you as little as $20 and others as much as $700. Some work on batteries, others need to be connected to the line power. Some are splash-proof, others just do not want to get wet at all. Most work wirelessly and also feature a line-in cable connector for wired use.

Even you stick to the famous brands only, you will still be spoiled for choice. JBL, Bose, Creative, Anker, Bang & Olufsen, B&W, Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo Sony and the list goes on and on. And if you are fine with any unbranded speaker, the choice will obviously be even harder, if not impossible. On the positive side, and given the progress of the technology, virtually all models sound good. You may as well close your eyes and pick up one. 

It goes the same for Bluetooth headphones, though in this particular case, cheap ones do not really sound good. So beware, and listen well before you buy.

Home medical equipment, here again with Bluetooth wireless connectivity, which you use in conjunction with a smartphone application, is slowly, but surely gaining ground. Digital blood pressure monitors, for example, are more and more commonly used in homes, with the mobile phone app that goes with them. Ease of use, affordable prices and actually usefulness take this item well beyond mere gadgets. However, this is typically a product you would buy for yourself, not one you would offer as a present.

Extremely useful and popular but also available in a huge range of brands, sizes and prices is the portable battery bank that lets you recharge any mobile device while on the road. Even here, there is no easy choice, except if you set your mind on the leading brand Anker, and restrict yourself to a price range of say $30 to $50. Otherwise it is a headache and a time-consuming search.

No list of high-tech gadgets would be complete without the innovative digital assistants: Amazon’s Echo and Apple’s HomePod, to name these two only. The problem with this very item is that the specifications and the standards keep changing (“evolving” according to their makers) all the time, and some reviewers are sceptical about the real usefulness of these assistants — at this point in time at least. So if investing and experimenting with high-tech expensive toys will not be affecting your household budget, you may want to try and play with one of these goodies.

Last but not least is the smartwatch. Still not widely used, the concept will probably win the hearts of tech-lovers in the end. It may take another two to three years. With Samsung, Apple and Huawei in the lead, a good smartwatch represents a substantial investment for now. A newcomer in the industry is joining in the game almost every other month, and somewhat like hardware digital assistants, the standards and the functionality are not yet set in a final manner.

When it is my turn to make the best possible gift choice and given the magnitude of the above problem, I may simply give up the high-tech gadget quest and humbly opt for a sizeable box of Swiss or Belgian dark chocolate — a sure thing, an easier choice and a safer bet.

LONDON — Women must wait 202 years before they can earn the same as men and have equal job opportunities, according to a global report released on Tuesday, which said the rise in robots and the lack of childcare were keeping many women out of work.

Women earn about half as much as men, said the World Economic Forum (WEF), reporting a gender pay gap of 51 per cent in 2018. 

“It’s still a long way from parity, and it’s still a long way from reaching a point where women and men are being paid the same for the same job,” said report co-author Saadia Zahidi, head of WEF’s Centre for the New Economy and Society.

There were fewer women working this year than men, mostly due to the lack of childcare which kept women from jobs or from progressing to senior roles, according to the annual index ranking 149 countries on their progress to close the gender gap.

“Most economies still have not made much progress in providing better infrastructure for childcare,” said Zahidi in a phone interview.

“This continues to be a major source of why women don’t enter the labour market at all or aren’t able to progress as much as they should given the talent that they have,” she added.

Women were missing at the top, the report found, with only a third of all managerial roles taken by women.

There were also just 17 female heads of state this year, with women occupying 18 per cent of ministerial positions and 24 per cent of parliamentary roles globally, it added.

Robot takeover

Zahidi warned that emerging technology like robots and artificial intelligence (AI) were also taking jobs traditionally occupied by women, including administration, customer service and telemarketing.

“While a lot of the narrative in the past tended to focus on men in blue collar work in factories, there are a lot of women in blue collar or service work that are also being displaced — and that trend is starting to become more marked,” she said.

The WEF report found that only 22 per cent of people working in AI worldwide were female.

According to a 2017 study by the Brookings Institution, a US think tank, the use of digital tools has increased in 517 of 545 occupations since 2002 in the United States alone, with a striking uptick in many lower-skilled occupations. 

As technology advances, experts say women and girls with poor digital skills will be the hardest hit and will struggle to find jobs.

Although the number of women in science, technology, engineering or mathematics has increased in recent years, they still only account for about 30 per cent of the world’s researchers, the UN cultural agency UNESCO says. 

“More than ever, societies cannot afford to lose out on the skills, ideas and perspectives of half of humanity,” said Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the WEF.

No country has closed the pay gap yet, WEF said, using data from institutions such as the International Labour Organisation, United Nations Development Programme and World Health Organisation.

Iceland, for the tenth year in a row, held the top spot across all indicators that measured gender equality including social, economics and health, according to the WEF report.

Nordic countries Norway, Sweden and Finland were among the top scoring countries, followed by Nicaragua, which ranked fifth.

Meanwhile Yemen, Pakistan, Iraq and Syria were the worst performing countries.

Last year, WEF said women would achieve economic equality in 217 years, the widest gap in almost a decade.

While the rest of the world is enjoying a white Christmas, with plenty of snowflakes covering their Christmas trees, my Christmas in Mauritius is occurring bang in the middle of the summer solstice. Well, almost! Technically, it is on Saturday, December 22, 2018, when the sun is predicted to rise at 05:27:52 in the morning and set at precisely 18:49:15 in the evening. The duration of the day is going to be for 13 hours 21 minutes and 23 seconds. 

Right! In other words, this Paradise Island, which is located south of the Equator, will be witnessing its longest and hottest day of the year, just three days before the birth of Christ. I know for sure that any candles or decorations that I try to arrange on the patio, to welcome the arrival of baby Jesus, will melt in the intense warmth. I also give up the idea of making any mulled wine because in any case, it would turn rancid, by the afternoon itself. 

Meanwhile, I notice that the Santa Clauses in Mauritius are quite thin because none of them can bear to put on the multi-layered, fake potbellied costumes, in the sweltering heat. However, these smiling, white bearded fellows, who traditionally give gifts to well-behaved children on Christmas day, are greatly influenced by the culture of the country they belong to. So, in India you find Santa Papa handing out laddoos (spherical shaped sweets), in Turkey, Noel Baba giving Baklava (sweet pastry filled with nuts) and in Mauritius, Pere Noel gifting ice cream cones to little kids — a custom that is perfectly attuned to their palate and weather preferences. 

Additionally, around Christmas, hoards of marigold garland wearing tourists emerge out of flights from freezing European countries, in the arrival area of our airport, which is situated in the southernmost part of Mauritius. They peel off their overcoats, sweaters, scarves and long trousers immediately and start soaking up the sun in their skimpy underclothes, even before getting into their taxis. Our golden brown tanned skin stands out in sharp contrast to their pale white one and there are many glances of envy that are directed our way.

These visitors have to get used to Sega music blasting in and around the sandy beaches, instead of the traditional Christmas carols. What is that, you ask? Sega is one of the major music genres of Mauritius and has its origin in the songs of the African slaves as well as their descendants on the island, and is usually sung in Creole. The essence of Sega comes from the combination of several core instruments, most notably the triangle, the maravane — a flat wooden rattle filled with small pebbles or dried nuts — and the ravane — a circular wooden drum frame covered with a taut piece of goat hide, often heated over a flame to tighten the membrane for a livelier sound.

Mauritians dance effortlessly to its magical rhythm but all foreigners need to make a gigantic effort to get the steps correctly.

“Should we go for midnight mass on Christmas eve?” I ask my husband.

“The church is near the ocean,” I inform him.

 “There might also be Sega music on the beach,” I continue.

“Will I have to dance?” my spouse is horrified.

“You can sing. It’s nice to participate,” I encourage.

“Silent night, holy night,” he sings tunelessly.

“You know what?” I interrupt hurriedly.

“I think you should just clap to the beat,” I tell him.

Women who have surgery to remove their ovaries go through menopause abruptly, and a new study suggests this comes with an increased risk for the kinds of sleep troubles many women experience when they go through menopause gradually. 

Women typically go through menopause between ages 45 and 55. As the ovaries curb production of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, women can experience symptoms ranging from vaginal dryness to mood swings, joint pain and insomnia. 

Women who have their ovaries surgically removed, however, are thrust into menopause virtually overnight. This kind of procedure may be done to treat cancer or reduce the risk of tumours for women with a genetic risk for breast and ovarian malignancies. Surgery may also be done to remove cysts or treat endometriosis, or painful scarring in the reproductive tract. 

In the current study, women who underwent surgical menopause were more than twice as likely to experience insomnia and reported lower quality sleep compared with women who went through natural menopause. 

“Menopause is a difficult transition for many women, both psychologically and physically, and is often not well-discussed in psychiatric or medical settings,” said senior study author Sooyeon Suh of Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul. 

“Many women bear the burden of going through this phase feeling isolated and frustrated, without much information or education,” Suh said by e-mail. “The results of this study show that women who have surgery and experience menopause may be especially more vulnerable to sleep difficulties compared to women who transition naturally.” 

The study included 429 women who went through menopause naturally and another 97 women who had menopause induced by surgery. All were from Korea and were in their 50s and 60s. On average, those who had surgery were about seven years younger when they entered menopause than the women who had natural menopause. 

About 8 per cent of women with surgical menopause and 4 per cent of women with natural menopause used hormone therapy to ease symptoms. 

With surgical menopause, women reported more difficulty with falling asleep and staying asleep, and more nighttime awakenings, researchers report in Menopause. 

Women who had surgery were also more likely to have habits that can contribute to sleep troubles, such as drinking coffee, eating large meals at night or napping during the day. 

The study cannot prove whether or how surgical menopause has a different impact on sleep than natural menopause. 

Even so, it makes sense that a sudden loss of all hormone production with surgical removal of the ovaries would produce more pronounced symptoms than natural menopause, when the ovaries slow down but do not entirely stop hormone production, said Susan Davis, president of the International Menopause Society and chair of women’s health at Monash University Melbourne in Australia. 

“Disturbed sleep is a common, possibly the most common, menopausal symptom as it is experienced by women who do not have flushes or sweats,” Davis, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

One thing that may help women get more rest after menopause is to focus on sleep hygiene: habits designed to make it easier to fall asleep and remain asleep, Davis said. That can include reducing caffeine, eating right, exercising regularly and having a consistent bedtime routine. 

While hormones may not be safe for women who have their ovaries removed because of cancer, most women who have ovaries removed to lower their risk of cancer or to treat other conditions can take hormones, said Dr Mary Jane Minkin, a professor of obstetrics, gynaecology and reproductive sciences at Yale Medical School in New Haven, Connecticut, who was not involved in the study. 

“I am certain that the vast majority of women who had surgical menopause did not have it for cancer, but I’ll bet the majority of women just had their ovaries out as part of a hysterectomy for fibroids or some other benign disease,” Minkin said by e-mail. 

“Because they had their ovaries out for benign disease, there is no reason that they couldn’t have received hormone therapy,” Minkin added. 

Middle-aged men who eat lots of fruits and vegetables may be lowering their odds of cognitive problems as they get on in years, compared to peers who do not consume these foods very often, a US study suggests. 

Researchers followed almost 28,000 men for two decades starting when they were 51 years old, on average. Every four years, participants answered questionnaires about their consumption of fruits, vegetables and other foods. They also took tests of thinking and memory skills when they were 73 years old, on average. 

Based on those test results, researchers found that by the time they were in their later 70s, men who had regularly eaten the most vegetables over the previous decades were 17 per cent less likely to have moderate cognitive problems and 34 per cent less likely to have more extensive cognitive deficits than men whose diets contained the least produce. 

Fruit consumption, overall, did not appear to influence the risk of moderate cognitive problems, but men who drank more orange juice were 47 per cent less likely to have extensive cognitive deficits than men who drank the least, the researchers note in the journal Neurology. 

“Long-term intake of vegetables [e.g., green leafy, dark orange and red vegetables], fruit [e.g. berry fruits] and fruit juice (e.g. orange juice) may be beneficial for late-life subjective cognitive function among US men,” lead study author Changzheng Yuan of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston said in an e-mail. 

Men should still go easy on the orange juice, however. 

“The protective role of regular consumption of fruit juice was mainly observed among the oldest men,” Yuan said. 

“Since fruit juice is usually high in calories from concentrated fruit sugars, it’s generally best to consume no more than a small glass per day,” Yuan added. 

To assess the impact of eating habits in middle age on cognitive function later in life, researchers administered questionnaires designed to measure memory and reasoning skills. 

Among other things, they asked whether men had trouble remembering things like recent events or items on shopping lists; whether they had trouble following instructions or keeping track of plots on television shows; and whether they got lost on familiar streets. 

In these tests, 55 per cent of the participants had good thinking and memory skills, 38 per cent had moderate skills and 7 per cent had poor thinking and memory skills. 

Researchers sorted participants into five groups based on their fruit and vegetable consumption. The group with the highest vegetable consumption ate about six servings per day, compared to about two servings for the group with the lowest intake. For fruits, the top group ate about three servings per day, compared to half a serving in the bottom group. 

A serving of fruit is considered one cup of fruit or a half-cup of fruit juice. A serving of vegetables is considered one cup of raw vegetables or two cups of leafy greens. 

Overall, 6.6 per cent of men who ate the most vegetables developed poor cognitive function, compared with 7.9 per cent of men who ate the least. 

And 6.9 per cent of men who drank orange juice every day developed poor cognitive function, compared with 8.4 per cent of men who drank orange juice less than once a month. 

The study was not designed to prove whether or how fruit or vegetable consumption directly impacts memory loss. Researchers also lacked data on participants’ memory and thinking skills before the tests and could not assess how diet might have influenced changes over time. 

“Fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins and nutrients, including antioxidants, that can help protect the brain from oxidative stress and preserve healthy vascular function that is important for cognitive health,” said Hannah Gardener, a researcher with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. 

“Fruit and vegetable consumption may be a piece of the puzzle to maintaining cognitive health and should be viewed in conjunction with other behaviours believed to support cognitive health, such as overall adherence to a Mediterranean diet, physical activity, healthy sleep, medication adherence, non-smoking, mental stimulation and education,” Gardener, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail.

A three time front-wheel-drive Nürburgring Nordschleife record holder in its previous two generation, the latest incarnation of the Renault Megane R.S. high performance is a quicker and more agile car that is almost certainly set to reclaim records sometime soon.

Released in its third incarnation earlier this year, the new Megane R.S. is more than just a faster and more focused track weapon. The latest in a long line of attainable, comfortable and compact daily performance cars from the French manufacturer’s RenaultSport skunkworks division, the new Megane R.S. is a more practical, efficient and technologically advanced than ever.

Urgent yet practical

Powered by a downsized but more powerful engine and most notably featuring four-wheel-steering for enhanced agility and stability, the new Megane R.S. most immediate departure from its 3-door coupe/hatchback predecessor is the adoption of a more practical 5-door design for improved rear seat access and daily usability. A more mature and evolved design with greater emphasis on width from its widened track, more prominent haunches, almost full width rear lights and narrower more aerodynamically efficient rear spoiler, the new Megane R.S. also trades its predecessor’s highly raked and low roofline for a more upright design for better rear headroom and improved visibility. 

If more practical and mature than before, the new Megane R.S. is, however, no less sporty, and in fact projects a tenser and more urgent road stance and demeanour. With a double layer LED light design and large bold emblem within a mesh grille, the new Megane R.S. also features bigger air intakes that incorporate an F1-style front blade in contrasting gun metal grey to underline Renault’s sporting heritage. Meanwhile prominent side sills lend a more grounded look while a bigger and more effective rear air diffuser sits between a large central exhaust tip and generates more downforce. Featuring functional side vents to dissipate heat and improve airflow.

Power and efficiency

Giving away 200cc displacement to its predecessor and powered by a retuned version of the same turbocharged 1.8-litre 4-cylinder used by the recently resurrected Alpine A110 sports car, the new Megane R.S. gains 11BHP and 21lb/ft. With a total output of 276BHP delivered at a higher revving 6,000rpm and 287lb/ft available throughout a broader, lower and more generously accessible 2,400-4,800rpm, the new Megane R.S. is 0.2-seconds quicker through the 0-100km/h dash at 5.8-seconds, despite a slight weight gain to 1,430kg, as fitted with the newly available and responsively slick shifting 6-speed automated dual clutch gearbox. Also more frugal, its combined cycle fuel consumption is just 7l/100km, compared to its predecessor’s 8.2l/100km.

Responsive off the line with its quick spooling turbo, the Megane R.S. pounces swiftly and tidily with the toque steer often associated with powerful front-drive cars virtually eliminated owing to the use of modified MacPherson strut front suspension with an independent steering axis pivot, just like the outgoing model. 

Effortlessly versatile throughout a generously abundant mid-range torque band for decisive in-gear acceleration, the Megane R.S. is builds power with an eager urgency and subdued snarl towards a higher peak than its predecessor. With little aerodynamic resistance and muscular delivery, the Megane R.S. defiantly and easily achieved high speeds, as driven at the Dubai Autodrome circuit, and is capable of a 250km/h maximum.

Corner carving

Reassuringly stable and with plenty of downforce generated to keep it planted through fast sweeping corners, the Megane R.S. also proved smooth, comfortable and highly settled for so sporting and composed a high performance hatchback riding on sticky and firm low profile 245/35R19.

Inspired by rally car technology, the Megane R.S. features hydraulic compressions stops within its dampers to act like a secondary internal damper at the end of wheel travel and bump stop. 

In practical terms this translates to a more settled and committed ride quality, with highly settled rebound and pendulum effect control, which also works to push the tyre into better contact with the ground for improved traction, cornering grip and braking.

Ever dynamically adroit in terms of ride and handling characteristics, the Megane Renault Sport’s piece de resistance is its 4Control four-wheel-steering system. Innovative to its segment and conceptually similar to recently featured cars like the Lamborghini Aventador S and Audi Q8, the Megane R.S.’ rear wheels turn 2.7° opposite to the front at moderate and lower speeds to effectively shorten the wheelbase for much enhanced agility and manoeuvrability, and alternately turn 1° in the same direction at speed for improved response and stability. On the already compact and manoeuvrable Megane R.S. the result is that it handles with the agility of a yet smaller segment hot hatch and the high speed stability of a larger car. 

Comfort and control

A revelation on the fast, demanding and sometimes intricate Dubai Autodrome circuit, the Megane R.S. was in its element. Braking with consistent confidence from a high speed straight and into a fast dipped carousel-like corner with rear wheels steering with the front, its stability was heroic. Impressing the feel of a tail slide while perfectly planted, it meanwhile fluently and easily recovers when tightening a cornering line by edging the rear out slightly.

Dropping several gears at once in paddle shift mode when approaching a series of chicanes, the R.S. turns in crisply and with superb body control. And with rear wheels turning opposite to front, quick and successive direction changes are executed with light-footed and nimble agility.

Comfortable, refined and sporty inside with optional Alcantara seats, contrasting stitching and smatterings of carbon fibre and aluminium the Megane R.S. delivers decent visibility and a supportive, well-adjustable driving position with integrated headrests.

Meanwhile its tablet-like infotainment screen can display various additional gauges for G-force, steering angle, temperature and more, and to suit different situations, one can choose from five driving modes including a customisable mode in terms of acoustics, gear shifts, stability setting and steering. 

Featuring numerous convenience, comfort and safety features in the more road-biased Sport version, the Megane R.S. is also available with driver assistance systems cornering direction lights, rear view camera, blindspot warning and parking assistance. 

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.8-litre, transverse, turbocharged 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 79.7 x 90.1mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing

Gearbox: 6-speed dual clutch automated, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 276 (280) [205] @6,000rpm

Specific power: 153.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 193BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 287 (390) @2,400-4,800rpm

Specific torque: 216Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 272.7Nm/tonne

0-100 km/h: 5.8-seconds

Top speed: 250km/h

Fuel capacity: 50-litres

Fuel economy, urban/extra-urban/combined: 8.5-/6.1-/ 7-litres 

/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 158g/km

Length: 4,372mm

Width: 1,874mm

Height: 1,445mm

Wheelbase: 2,699mm

Track, F/R: 1,615/1,596mm

Overhang, F/R: 916/786mm

Ground clearance: 101mm

Cabin width, F/R: 1,418/1,420mm

Unladen weight: 1,430kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion, four-wheel-steering

Turning radius: 10.3-metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts, independent steering axis pivot/H-beam

Brakes, F/R: 355mm ventilated discs/290mm discs

Stopping time, from 400-/1,000-metres: 14-/25-seconds

Tyres: 245/35R19

Mental engagement through problem-solving games like crossword puzzles, sudoku and brain teasers may not offset cognitive losses due to age-related dementia, a new study suggests. 

Still, practicing these kinds of activities throughout life might boost mental ability and provide a higher starting point before decline, researchers write in The BMJ. 

“This puts the ‘use it or lose it’ conjecture into question,” said lead author Roger Staff of the University of Aberdeen in the UK. 

Instead, childhood mental ability and intellectual engagement throughout life seem most related to cognitive scores after age 65, he said. 

“This idea is more about what you enjoy and gravitate towards throughout your life,” Staff said in a telephone interview. “Smart people want to engage rather than go home and not do anything.” 

Staff and colleagues were able to factor-in childhood ability when looking at decline in later years by analysing data from Scotland-wide testing in 1947 of all children born in 1936. Some of these students were recruited into a long-term study of aging when they were 64 and came back for testing up to five times over the next 15 years. 

During these visits, a psychologist administered tests to evaluate memory and mental processing speed. 

Staff’s team focused on about 500 participants, and also looked at their scores on a questionnaire measuring intellectual engagement, which the researchers defined as people’s interest, enjoyment and participation in reading, problem solving and thinking about abstract ideas as well as their overall intellectual curiosity. 

Overall, they found that early-life intellectual measures were associated with later-in-life engagement levels. In particular, early and continuing intellectual engagement in problem solving activities was tied to delayed cognitive decline in old age. 

Nevertheless, cognitive performance declined for everyone over time by about one point per year, indicating that decline cannot be prevented, Staff said. 

“We were expecting to find an association between intellectual engagement and the trajectory of decline and the received wisdom of ‘use it or lose it,’” Staff noted. “That seems important in terms of the group of friends and the interests you have to start with but not the rate of decline.” 

If decline starts from a higher level of cognitive ability, it will likely take longer to reach a level that is noticeable or interferes with functioning, the study team writes. 

“The higher up the mountain you are, the more you can lose before you’re impaired,” Staff said. “Essentially, people shouldn’t be afraid of a difficult task in front of them and should acquire a language or musical skill or tackle that dense novel.” 

Although cognition declines with age, targeted cognitive training programmes can improve certain specific abilities later in life, said Karlene Ball of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was not involved in the current study. 

In her own research, she says, she has “found that improved cognition is long-lasting in that those who are trained are still better than they were prior to training, even after five-10 years”. 

“Novelty is important,” she told Reuters Health by e-mail. “Participants needed to be continually challenged by novel tasks which push them to greater and greater difficulty levels... which can provide people with a higher cognitive ability level to sustain function into later life.” 

All technological advancements have their pros and cons. Social media has its dark side too. 

Message to parents 

Users, especially teenagers, often seek social acceptance and relate the number of followers they get or likes they receive on their photos to their self-image.

As a parent ensure that your teen knows that she is beautiful, smart, accepted and loved regardless of the results (acceptance) of the virtual world; otherwise, the future will be full of adults with personality and behavioural problems dependent on social media for their acceptance. We should be more cautious not to be trapped within these virtual platforms all day. 

Navigating different sites and applications can be entertaining for a short period and only if we are done with our priorities or in between breaks; as excessive existence on social media is definitely “ not to be” in the real world! 

Social media in numbers

At the International Mobile Summit 2018 in Amman a few months ago, one of the speakers pointed out that if you are planning to start any business, ask yourself this question: can my business be on mobile phones as a mobile application, website or social media platform? If the answer is yes, go ahead but if the answer is no then maybe you need re-think your plan. 

Needless to say, content is a crucial issue that most companies, projects, start-ups should take into consideration. Content varies between clean professional images to videos; interesting information is of major importance. Nevertheless, when developing content, keep your target audience in mind all the time so that they find your posts: 

• Interesting

• Convenient

• Useful

• Entertaining 

• Clear, not confusing

Professional presence on social media is your first impression — people meet you virtually before meeting you in the real world and so it is your image that you have not only to work on developing in the minds of your potential customers or clients, but also maintain this through every post and frequent interaction.

Below are interesting findings from Crowd Analyser’s State of Social Media 2018 report. Note that in all three countries, most social media users are male. Females, though, outnumber males when it comes to Snapchat. Most social media users in Saudi Arabia and Egypt prefer to publish their content in Arabic, while users in the United Arab Emirates prefer to publish in English.

Social media use in Jordan and beyond

Among all popular social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat and Whatsapp, Facebook has the highest number of active users in Jordan and worldwide. 

According to StatCounter Global Stats for Jordan (May 2017-May 2018): 

• 60 per cent of social media users in Jordan are using Facebook

• Almost 35 per cent use YouTube

• Less than 2 per cent are on Pinterest 

• 1 per cent are on Twitter 

• Less than 0.5 per cent on Instagram

Instagram

• Saudi Arabia is one of the most active countries in the region on Instagram. Most users prefer publishing their content in Arabic. Their most engaging topic is news, followed by travel.

• UAE: Shopping, fashion and food are the most interesting interactive topics on Instagram for users in this country 

• Egypt: The main topics that interest Egyptians on Instagram are online shopping, followed by games.

Facebook

• Saudi Arabia: 16 million Saudis are active on Facebook and a majority of them are interested in publishing content about games and fashion shopping.

• UAE: Expats are 6 million out of 9 million active users in the country.

• Egypt: Egyptian users on Facebook compose a huge base of users that exceeds 35 million.

Twitter

• Saudi Arabia: KSA has the highest number of active Twitter users compared to UAE and Egypt. Millennials (those born after 1980) are the majority of users

• UAE: The majority of Twitter users are most interested in fitness and sport

• Egypt: Compared to other platforms, a small number of Egyptians are active on Twitter. Their favourite topic is music

Linkedin

• Saudi Arabia: LinkedIn users are top and middle managerial levels

• UAE has the highest number of users compared to Egypt and Saudi Arabic, which is not surprising, given that the country is a business hub in the region

• Egypt: Egypt has almost the same number of LinkedIn users as Saudi Arabia

Snapchat

• Saudi Arabia: Snapchat insights are slightly different from the norm. Saudi users are really active on this platform

• UAE: Millennials are the majority of users

• Egypt: Egyptians are not fond of Snapchat, at least not as much as Saudi users. Millennials tend to be the most active

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

A brief programme that encouraged people to track their weight and to be mindful of the excess energy in every holiday cookie or cup of nog seems to have helped participants get through the holiday season without gaining weight. 

The trial in the UK recruited participants in November and December of 2016 and 2017, and followed up with them about 45 days later. Those assigned to the weight-gain prevention program ended up losing 0.13kg, on average, while the control group gained 0.37kg, the study team reported December 10 online in The BMJ. 

“On Christmas Day alone, someone might consume 6,000 calories, or three times the recommended daily allowance,” said a co-author of the study, Amanda Farley of the University of Birmingham. 

“We were unsure how well the public would respond to the idea of controlling their food and drink over Christmas,” Farley told Reuters Health by e-mail. “But we found that participants were very motivated.” 

Past research has found that holiday periods are often when people put on extra kilogrammes, but they do not tend to lose that weight after the holidays are over. Since even a holiday weight gain of just a half a kilogramme to a kilo each year will add up over a decade, the study team wanted to explore tactics to help prevent putting on weight in the first place. 

They recruited 272 adults who were told only that they would participate in a study of winter weight gain. About half were randomly assigned to receive a general brochure on healthy living. 

The other half got advice to weigh themselves frequently, ideally every day, record their weight, and “reflect on weight trajectory”. They also got 10 tips for weight management, as well as a graphical list of holiday foods showing the amount of exercise that would be required to offset the calorie content of each — for instance, expending the calories in a mince pie requires 21 minutes of running, and a small glass of mulled wine requires 32 minutes of walking. 

The 10 tips for weight management included sticking to a regular meal routine, choosing reduced fat options, walking 10,000 steps daily, opting for healthy snacks, reading food labels, thinking twice about large portions and seconds, breaking up sitting time, reducing alcoholic and sweet drinks, slowing down while eating and aiming to include five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. 

About 80 per cent of the participants were women, roughly one third in the normal weight range, more than one third overweight, and the rest obese. 

The researchers’ goal was for participants to gain no more than half a kilogramme over the holiday period. 

Instead, the research team found that the intervention group, on average, lost a little weight while the control group gained a bit. The difference in weight gain between the groups was 0.49kg a statistically meaningful amount, the study team concludes. 

Based on questionnaire responses at the follow-up, people in the intervention group also scored higher for practicing “cognitive restraint”. However, there were no significant differences between the groups in changes in body fat percentage, emotional eating or uncontrolled eating. 

“Many people gain weight over Christmas, but that is not inevitable,” Farley said. “It is possible to demonstrate some restraint of eating and drinking and build in simple ways to be active while still enjoying the festive season.” 

Few randomised controlled trials have studied effective programs to combat the year-end bloat, noted Dale Schoeller of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who was not involved in the study. 

Although this study showed a change, it is hard to say which aspect was effective, Schoeller said. 

“It would be interesting to take this programme apart and try to understand what changes led to the prevention of weight gain,” he said in a phone interview. “Did restraint with food or alcohol, or compensating with exercise, make the difference, or was it a combination?” 

In this study, the majority of participants were white women in their 40s. Future studies should include different communities and could tailor the tips to appeal to different audiences and countries, said Rolando Giovanni Diaz Zavala of the University of Sonora in Hermosillo, Mexico, who also was not involved in the research. 

“Once people are overweight, there are metabolic and neuroendocrine changes [possibly irreversible] that fight to regain weight lost,” he said in an e-mail. “Preventing weight gain seems to be the smartest strategy.” 

WASHINGTON — Researchers have found “different patterns” in brain scans among children who record heavy smart device and video game use, according to initial data from a major ongoing US study.

The first wave of information from the $300 million National Institute of Health (NIH) study is showing that those nine and 10-year-old kids spending more than seven hours a day using such devices show signs of premature thinning of the cortex, the brain’s outermost layer that processes sensory information.

“We don’t know if it’s being caused by the screen time. We don’t know yet if it’s a bad thing,” said Gaya Dowling, an NIH doctor working on the project, explaining the preliminary findings in an interview with the CBS news program 60 Minutes.

“What we can say is that this is what the brains look like of kids who spend a lot of time on screens. And it’s not just one pattern,” Dowling said.

The NIH data reported on CBS also showed that kids who spend more than two hours a day on screens score worse on language and reasoning tests.

The study — which involves scanning the brains of 4,500 children — eventually aims to show whether screen time is addictive, but researchers need several years to understand such long-term outcomes.

“In many ways, the concern that investigators like I have is, that we’re sort of in the midst of a natural kind of uncontrolled experiment on the next generation of children,” Dimitri Christakis, a lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ most recent guidelines on screen time, told 60 Minutes.

Initial data from the study will begin to be released in early 2019.

The academy now recommends parents “avoid digital media use — except video chatting — in children younger than 18 to 24 months”.