Features

MUMBAI — Three Indian actors sharing a surname have ruled Bollywood box offices across three decades, but the success of wrestling blockbuster “Dangal” means it is Aamir who’s currently king of the Khans.

Known as the “Khans of Bollywood”, Aamir, Shah Rukh, and Salman have been the undoubted superstars of the Hindi film industry since the mid-1990s, taking it in turns to reign supreme.

But with “Dangal” smashing records, Salman suffering a rare flop and Shah Rukh without a major hit in four years, the crown for now is firmly placed on Aamir’s head.

“The Khans used to be on a par but Aamir has moved ahead and Shah Rukh is kind of lagging behind recently,” film trade analyst Ramesh Bala said of the trio who all turn 52 this year and who are not related.

“Dangal” has set new and previously unimaginable parameters for the box office potential of a Bollywood movie since it was first released in India in December last year.

It quickly became the highest-grossing Bollywood film ever, knocking another of Aamir’s movies off the top spot, and has made close to 20 billion rupees ($310 million) worldwide.

Khan plays the role of wrestling coach Mahavir Singh Phogat who defies the odds by raising his daughters Geeta and Babita Phogat to become champion wrestlers. Geeta won gold for India at the 2010 Commonwealth Games while Babita topped the podium at the 2014 edition.

Critics say the movie resonated because it was a patriotic story about a triumphant underdog that dealt with India’s skewed attitude towards girls, and credit a large part of Aamir’s success to his careful choosing of movies with a message.

“Aamir is one person who really puts a lot of thought and effort into selecting films that are relevant to an Indian audience. There are very few actors who really do enough of that,” film distributor Akshaye Rathi told AFP.

Audiences lapped up Aamir’s 2014 satirical science fiction comedy “PK”, number two on the all-time Bollywood grossing list, for its questioning of religious superstitions.

His 2009 hit “3 Idiots” appealed for its coming of age tale about students struggling to deal with the pressure of becoming engineers.

‘Genius’

Rathi also points to the fact that Aamir does one film every two years on average, while Salman and Shah Rukh regularly release two a year.

“Aamir has been very consistent for a very long time. He doesn’t do as many films as Shah Rukh or Salman and the more films you do the higher the chance that one misses,” Rathi explained.

Salman’s annual Eid holiday release is usually a blockbuster shoo-in, but the latest, “Tubelight” bombed.

Critics panned the script and said the star’s portrayal of a “village idiot” failed to resonate with his largely young Indian male fan base.

Bala blames Shah Rukh’s failure to register a hit since “Chennai Express” in 2013 on “experimenting with different genres”, including romance, action and drama.

Aamir is lauded for taking on challenging roles. For “Dangal” he gained and then lost again 25 kilogrammes in weight while cinemagoers adored his portrayal of a humanoid alien stranded on Earth in “PK”.

“As a star he doesn’t enjoy so much of a fan following as he enjoys the trust of the audience for his craft. People believe at the back of their minds that if Aamir appears in a film there will be something, different, something novel in it,” said Rathi.

“Dangal” has made around $180 million more than “PK” in global sales thanks to a record-breaking run in the hugely profitable Chinese market, where Aamir has worked hard at building his brand, becoming the biggest Indian star there.

“Aamir has time and again proven his marketing genius and his genius when it comes to choosing the right script, delivering a terrific performance and enthralling the audience,” said Rathi.

In India, unlike many other countries in the world, there is no social stigma attached in announcing loudly that you want to go to the toilet. Nobody uses fine terminology like ‘I am going to powder my nose’, or ‘he is answering the call of nature’ or ‘she is washing her hands’ as euphemisms for visiting a lavatory. In fact, there was a phase when all the people from Bollywood, our celebrated film industry, were found for long periods in their respective bathrooms. Whenever you called them on the phone, that is.

These days one sees photographs of film stars splashed all over the social media, carrying a fancy cell-phone in their hands that whenever it rings, they presumably answer themselves. But before the introduction of the mobiles, all of them had landline connections that were handled by other people, like their assistants, butlers or man Fridays. And the most popular response to any phone call was ‘Sorry, Sir is in the bathroom’ or ‘Madam can’t talk to you right now, she’s in the bathroom’. 

If one was persistent, more details would emerge about the actors like ‘Sir is taking a shower’, or ‘Madam is having a bath’. Even if you did not want to know the specifics about where exactly they had reached in his/her grooming ritual, you were provided it anyway. 

In one particular instance, I called up this celebrity that I was supposed to interview for a newsmagazine daily, for an entire week, on the number that was provided to me by his agent. It was picked up every time after the first few rings. The voice on the phone was always courteous and greeted me politely. But I was never connected to the person I wanted to speak to because, you guessed it right. He was constantly in the bathroom! So permanent was his presence there that I was convinced that he suffered from constipation, running stomach or other types of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I mean, why else would he prefer to be cooped up in his toilet for such lengthy intervals? Either that or he was a compulsive bather, who can tell? 

It is documented that the Tudor monarchs had company even when they visited the lavatory. The ‘groom of stool’ was the person who attended to the Sovereign and he was an important man whose office was highly prized. He spent more time alone with the Ruler than anyone else and very often became his most trusted confidant. This regular access gave him great power.

King Louis XIV’s toilet was designed to look like another throne which he supposedly used while conducting court sessions. A replica of this can be viewed at the International Museum of Toilets, an unusual collection of bizarre loos from down the ages, in New Delhi. It contains hundreds of ancient specimens from across the globe, including a French one that is disguised as a bookcase. The vast assortment of commodes and bidets has been curated to mark the history of sanitation. 

Running late for a meeting recently, I impulsively decide to adopt the toilet manners of our famous Bollywood stars. 

“Your phone is ringing,” my husband calls out. 

“Who is calling?” I ask.

“Blogger Dellybelly,” he reads out the caller identity. 

“Please tell him I’m in the bathroom,” I instruct. 

“But you are not there,” he protests.

“Just say it, will you?” I dictate. 

“Hello, sorry my wife is in the bathroom,” my spouse improvises reluctantly.

LOS ANGELES — An unlikely battle emerged at the box office this weekend between “The Emoji Movie” and “Dunkirk”. As of Saturday morning the animated feature and war epic seemed to be in a dead heat. But by Sunday morning, most of the dust had settled, and “Dunkirk” will once again be the weekend’s first place film.

Christopher Nolan’s latest from Warner Bros. over-performed last weekend when it opened to over $50 million, showing that the director, combined with positive critical reception, still has a strong draw — even for a movie lacking movie star power, and at risk of being written off as yet another World War II movie. This time around it looks to take in $26.6 million from 3,748 locations, for a strong hold.

It is the first time that a movie has been first place two weekends in a row since the same studio’s “Wonder Woman” in early June. Patty Jenkins’ movie has had a phenomenal run since, and is currently closing in on $400 million domestic (right now it’s at $395.4 million).

That means Sony’s “Emoji Movie” is in second for the weekend with $24.5 million from 4,075 locations. The animated adventure took a lot of heat from critics — reaction ranged from meh to horrible, earning its current Rotten Tomatoes score of 8 per cent. Its B CinemaScore is also quite low for an animated movie, meaning audiences are not particularly enjoying the movie either.

T.J. Miller plays the central character, a “Meh” emoji who has “no filter”, meaning his expression can change. The same cannot be said for the rest of the cast, which includes James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Christina Aguilera, and Sofia Vergara. Oh yeah, and Sir Patrick Stewart plays “Poop”.

“We’re thrilled,” said Sony’s marketing chief Josh Greenstein. “The audience has spoken and made the ‘Emoji Movie’ a family event.”

That leaves this week’s other major release, “Atomic Blonde” somewhat straggling. Focus Features and Sierra/Affinity is looking at a decent, but slightly below expectations launch for the Charlize Theron-starrer with $18.3 million from 3,304 locations. Earlier in the week “Blonde” was pegged at $20 million, but the opening weekend result is still solid considering its $30 million budget. It is also one of the largest launches for Focus, behind only “Insidious Chapter 3” ($22.7 million); “London Has Fallen” ($21.6 million); and “Burn After Reading” ($19.1 million).

The R-rated spy thriller has been compared to a female “Bond” or “John Wick”. After all, it shares DNA with the latter in stuntman-turned-director David Leitch, who will next helm the “Deadpool” sequel. “Blonde’s” launch is bigger than the first “Wick”, which opened in Fall 2014 to $14.4 million, but less than its sequel ($30.4 million).

In “Blonde”, Theron plays a hardcore action star — the type of character that knocked out audiences in “Mad Max: Fury Road” — named Lorraine Broughton. The rest of the cast includes James McAvoy, John Goodman, and Sofia Boutella.

“We’re very happy with the opening. I feel this movie is going to have legs to it,” said Lisa Bunnell, distribution chief at Focus Features.

Bunnell also pointed to Focus’ commitment to putting women in and front and behind the camera with recent releases including “The Beguiled” and “The Zookeeper’s Wife.” “There’s always a thought process behind ‘Let’s see some diversity,’” she said. “This is definitely a movie where Charlize takes centre stage... she can fight men, and she can beat men, so it’s a really empowering movie to go see.”

“Blonde” landed just below the summer comedy event that “Girls Trip” has become. Universal’s release is posting $19.6 million during its second weekend from 2,648 theatres, for only a 37 per cent drop from last weekend. Conversely, EuropaCorp and STX’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” flopped last weekend, and is falling off fast. This weekend, Luc Besson’s epic domestic dud made $6.4 million from 3,553 locations. Sony’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” is hanging in the top five with an additional $13.3 million this weekend.

Annapurna showed Kathryn Bigelow’s “Detroit” at 20 locations before its wide rollout next weekend. From those theatres, the critically approved crime drama took in $365,455 for a per screen average of $18,273.

“We’re seeing that first and foremost, people are really into the movie,” said Annapurna’s distribution head Erik Lomis, who pointed to strong exit information, including 71 per cent of the audience marked “definite recommend”. “It’s a Kathryn Bigelow film, so it’s for everybody,” he added.

To treat the bigger picture, this weekend is not good news for the summer box office overall, which is now 8.1 per cent behind last year.

“We have been in a major struggle to compare favourably with last year’s summer season week after week and with yet another ‘down’ weekend on the books, the summer deficit just added another percentage point in the wrong direction,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore, who pointed out that this weekend’s crop could not compete with 2016’s “Jason Bourne” and “Bad Moms”. Looking ahead, the first weekend in August seems to signal even more gloom and doom, as several films will be measured up against “Suicide Squad’s” record-breaking August 2016 tally.

SAN JUAN — Something unusual is happening in La Perla, a poor barrio clinging to a steep hillside between Old San Juan and the sea where the video for the pop hit “Despacito” was filmed.

“The gringos are coming!”

Outsiders were afraid to venture in before, but since Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s megahit, tourists from all over the world are descending on the narrow streets that wind among La Perla’s brightly coloured houses.

“Despacito?” they inquire.

And the barrio’s residents obligingly point out the locations where the video was filmed: the rocks facing the sea where Fonsi sings the refrain, the sea wall where ex-Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera strolls, the little plaza where men play dominoes — the tables and chairs just as they were in the video.

With the video on the verge of becoming the most watched on YouTube (2.9 billion visits since January, fast approaching the 2.98 billion record held by Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again”), a barrio once burdened with a bad reputation is now a tourist hot spot.

“I totally came for the tourist video,” said Jennifer Adams, a 28-year-old middle school teacher from North Carolina. “I’ve seen the music video many times and I knew where I needed to go, I got pictures, I tried to dance.”

As for Rivera’s sexy walk by the sea, she laughed and said, “I tried.”

Her goal now is to learn the song’s lyrics so she can sing it in karaoke.

Meanwhile, a Swedish woman took photos of herself in front of Luis’s rocks and a Moroccan tourist ambled along “Despacito coast” — as the area around the sea wall has come to be known in tourist brochures.

In a recent interview, Fonsi marvelled at the song’s impact on the non-Spanish speaking public.

“The language doesn’t matter,” he said. “What’s important is the flavour, the rhythm, the music.”

‘No monster here’

The video’s director, Carlos Perez, said Fonsi and Daddy Yankee “had a very clear vision of what they wanted”.

“The key words were culture, sensuality, colour and dance. What we did in essence was to go film in a barrio that had the qualities that supported what we wanted to do,” Perez said.

“But the evolution of La Perla begins and ends in La Perla.”

In fact, residents’ efforts to improve their barrio are independent of “Despacito.” 

The song’s success is a welcome coincidence that “fell from the sky,” said community board president Yashira Gomez.

Old San Juan, with its cobbled streets and colonial buildings, sits on a hill on a walled peninsula. 

The little houses that make up La Perla are clustered on the other side of the wall, where the sea crashes against the rocks.

Its residents have fought tooth and nail to preserve it, and artists like Calle 13, Ismael Rivera and Ruben Blades have dedicated songs to it.

With 1,600 inhabitants, it is one of the poorest communities in San Juan. Drug trafficking largely drives its economy, with the government trying in vain to clear it.

On Yelp, reviewers comment on the dangers outsiders risk going there.

“Please don’t go there! It is NOT SAFE!” wrote user Gaby G in a three-year-old posting.

But that is changing thanks to the efforts of the community, which set up a communal baker, cultivated two vegetable gardens and raised $80,000 from private donors to paint 402 houses in vivid colours this year.

“They always said it was a dangerous barrio because we’ve been saddled with a history that wasn’t the best,” said Gomez.

“But now you can go in and see that nothing will happen. There is no monster here, no bogeyman, nobody is going to kill you, nobody is going to mug you.”

As she spoke, the community board’s vice president, Lourdes Lopez, showed a group of tourists around. Later, she explained that the community’s next project is to set up a small business offering guided tours.

Hotel occupancy in May rose 9 per cent compared to the same month last year, but there are still no overall figures to confirm the impression that tourist visits are up, said Jose Izquierdo, executive director of the government’s Puerto Rico Tourism Company.

Puerto Rico hosted 1.7 million tourists in 2015, 6 per cent of its total GDP, according to the US Senate Finance Committee.

But even when official figures are available, statistics will not say how many specifically came for the “Despacito” experience. A bump could also be attributable to the end of last year’s Zika crisis.

But Izquierdo is sure that “Despacito” enhanced the island’s brand recognition.

“All the elements are in place for Puerto Rico to top the list for travellers seeking a Caribbean destination,” he told AFP.

And that is good news for the US territory, which has been hard hit by a financial crisis that resulted in bankruptcy in May.

Marwan Badran, Hotels.com’s manager for Latin America, said online searches for hotel rooms in Puerto Rico shot up 45 per cent this year.

“We often see spikes upwards for locations of hit movies or TV series and celebrity weddings,” he said.

“Puerto Rico is no different now that Despacito has become the world’s most streamed song in history.”

Sister to Audi’s petrolhead-favourite RS6 Avant super-estate model, the RS7 is the Ingolstadt manufacturer’s low-slung, luxurious and dramatic answer to the Mercedes-AMG CLS63 and fellow competitor with the BMW M6 GranCoupe and Porsche Panamera Turbo.

If less practical than the RS6’s family wagon body style, the RS7’s low and rakishly descending coupe-like body, however, appeals to a broader audience of high performance luxury car buyers. 

Powerful enough in regular 552BHP guise, the driven RS7 Performance, however, turns up the power event further, with an additional 45BHP and 37lb/ft torque, and cuts 0-100km/h acceleration by 0.2-seconds.

Low-slung and assertive

Beating the Lexus GS-F to take the 2017 Middle East car of the Year awards’ Best Midsize Premium Performance Sedan category, the RS7 Performance’s body style could, however, be described as a more practical liftback design, with its rear hatch lifting up to provide better access to a generous 535-litre boot that is the case for a traditional saloon body. 

And as a luxurious, high performance, coupe-like 5-door with plenty of premium cache, one could also view the RS7 Performance as somewhat of an indirect competitor to more powerful versions of the electric-powered Tesla Model S, with which it shares a similar body style, weight and size.

Slightly lower and longer than its RS6 sister, the RS7 shares a similarly assertive fascia, with vast honeycomb hexagonal single-frame grille, surrounded by strongly browed and slim LED headlights and bide hungry side intakes.

A moody and dramatic design with deep-set rear lights, muscular haunches and chiselled and ridged bodywork, the RS7 performance features defined wheel-arches and again, huge alloy wheels, twin integrated tailpipes, sharp edged air-splitter style lower front bumper lip and level waistline that emphasises its Quattro four-wheel-drive. The Performance is distinguished by matt titanium exterior details and is available in Ascari blue paint, exclusive to this more powerful version.

Vicious and versatile

No slouch in standard guise, the RS7 is already a brutally powerful performer capable of blasting through the 0-100km/h benchmark in just 3.9-seconds, however, the RS7 Performance unleashes yet more power and performance from the same 4-litre direct injection twin-turbocharged V8 engine. Intense and abundant, the RS7 Performance develops ekes out a tremendous 597BHP at 6100-6800rpm from its comparatively small V8 engine, and the same 516lb/ft torque but over a wider 1750-6000rpm band.

However, for short bursts on overboost, torque output rises to a 553lb/ft peak throughout 2500-5500rpm. Altogether, this reduces 0-100km/h acceleration to a supercar-rivalling 3.7-second time, while top speed can optionally be de-restricted to 305km/h.

Meanwhile seamless cylinder de-activation and stop/start system yields restrained and unchanged when driven modestly.

With turbochargers positioned for short intake gas flow path piping and responsive quick-spooling turbos, the RS7 Performance almost eliminates turbo lag, and with Quattro four-wheel-drive ensuring tenacious traction, it is able to launch from standstill with staggering immediacy. 

Pulling with volcanic urgency throughout its rev range when driven with intent, the RS7 Performance remains responsively effortless even when cruising in high gears. Its acoustics include bass-heavy mid-range burbling, bellowing top-end and a crackle on lift-off and gear changes from hard throttle inputs. Meanwhile seamless cylinder de-activation when cruising and a stop/go system help the RS& Performance achieve 9.6l/100km combined fuel efficiency, which given its prodigious performance and 1930kg mass, is very much restrained.

Adjustable and agile

Resolutely stable at speed and indefatigably confident in getting there, the RS7 Performance is driven through a crisp, quick and smooth shifting 8-speed automatic gearbox, with the many ratios allowing for responsive performance and economic cruising. 

Featuring numerous and individually adjustable driving modes for steering, damping, engine, gearbox, exhaust and sport differential, the RS7 can be tailored to be tauter, more responsive and vocal, or more comfortable, smooth and relaxed. Whether in light resistance Comfort mode or meaty Dynamic, steering features excellent directional stability at speed and is precise through corners, if not textured with much road feel. Meanwhile brakes are highly effective and fade-resilient.

With Quattro four-wheel-drive allocating 60 per cent power rearwards and able to vary the split between 70 per cent frontwards and 85 per cent rearwards, the RS7 Performance seemingly defies its front-biased weight distribution, with its engine positioned just ahead of the front axle.

A limited-slip differential further distributing power left and right as necessary, and a torque vectoring system that brakes the inside wheel through corner additionally enhances the RS7 Performance’s agility and eager, tidy turn-in. With phenomenal traction and grip, the RS7 Performance takes fast corners in its stride, while eventual understeer can be kept at bay by its stability systems or by simply easing off the throttle.

Refined and reassuring

Brutally effective through corners, the RS7 Performance sticks to the road like glue and if one forces the rear out, its four-wheel-drive quickly claws back traction. Meanwhile, adjustable adaptive air dampers provide taut flat body control through corners in dynamic mode, with tauter better body control in “dynamic” mode, and a more forgiving ride in ‘comfort’ mode. 

Firm and busy on imperfect surfaces in “dynamic”, the RS7 performance’s default “auto” mode actively changes damper settings. Reassuringly planted at speed, the RS7 Performance is a natural continent-cruncher, and is settled and buttoned down over crests and dips and on rebound.

Well equipped and refined inside, the RS7 Performance is both distinctly sporty yet luxurious, and features sophisticated sound cancellation, acoustic window lamination, frameless windows and optional massaging front seats. 

The RS7 Performance features supportive, well-adjustable and comfortably body-hugging sports seats, while layouts are logical, textures soft and materials include good quality leathers, carbon-fibre, metal and Alcantara rooflining. Spacious in front and with practical lift-back boot, the RS7’s rear headroom and side rear visibility is not as generous as the estate body RS6. 

Equipment includes 360° camera for improved manoeuvrability, intuitive infotainment system with 4G Wifi connectivity, numerous driver-assistance systems and a comprehensive range of creature comforts and gadgets.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 4-litre, twin-turbo, in-line V8-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 84.5 x 89mm

Compression ratio: 9.3:1

Valve-train: 32-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic

Ratios: 1st 4.714; 2nd 3.143; 3rd 2.106; 4th 1.667; 5th 1285; 6th 1.0; 7th 0.839; 8th 0.667

Reverse/final drive: 3.317/3.076

Drive-line: four-wheel-drive, self-locking centre differential, optional limited-slip rear-differential

Power distribution, F/R: 40 per cent/60 per cent

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 597 (605) [445] @6100-6800rpm

Specific power: 149.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 309BHP/tonne (unladen)

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 516 (700) @1750-6000rpm

Torque, lb/ft (Nm), overboost: 553 (750) @2500-5500rpm

Specific torque: 187.8Nm/litre (overboost, unladen)

Torque-to-weight: 388.6Nm/tonne (overboost)

0-100km/h: 3.7-seconds

Top speed, restricted/de-restricted: 250/305km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined:

13.3-/7.3-/9.5-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 221g/km

Fuel capacity: 75-litres

Wheelbase: 2915mm

Track, F/R: 1634/1625mm

Overhangs, F/R: 960/1137mm

Headroom, F/R: 1028/944mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.30

Luggage volume, min/max: 535-/1390-litres

Unladen/kerb weight: 1930kg/2005kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 11.9-metres

Suspension: Multi-link, adaptive air dampers

Brakes: Ventilated & perforated discs

Tyres: 275/30ZR21

When sick kids leave the hospital, parents often do not understand what follow-up care is needed or how to give children medicine at home, a research review suggests. 

Getting instructions right is essential to avoid mistakes that can prolong children’s illnesses or make them sicker, sometimes so much worse that they need to return to the hospital for additional care, researchers note in paediatrics. 

In the review of 64 studies, medication errors were the most common problem researchers found. For example, up to 38 per cent of parents and caregivers did not know the right medicine dose and up to 42 per cent of them did not understand how often children needed to take prescribed drugs. 

Dosing errors with prescriptions — when parents gave kids at least 20 per cent more or less medication than they were supposed to — occurred 42 per cent to 48 per cent of the time. The majority of these errors happened with measuring liquid medications that are commonly used for children. 

“Underdosing medications may lead to worsening of a child’s illness, while overdosing puts children at risk for dangerous side effects,” said lead study author Dr Alexander Glick, of New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital Centre in New York. 

Parents also frequently misunderstood what follow-up appointments kids needed and what signs of worsening illness would require children to return to the hospital, the study found. 

Up to 62 per cent of families missed recommended follow-up appointments after kids were discharged from an inpatient hospital stay, as did up to 81 per cent of families of children treated in emergency rooms. 

Parents were more likely to miss these appointments or fail to schedule them when they had more than one child, lacked private health insurance, spoke little or no English or had difficulty missing work or taking kids out of school for doctor visits, researchers report in Paediatrics. 

“When children miss follow-up appointments, they lose the opportunity for additional monitoring and physicians also cannot ensure that parents are following instructions correctly,” Glick said by e-mail. “Misunderstanding discharge instructions has the potential to lead to unnecessary and unanticipated readmissions and visits to the emergency department.” 

Kids were more likely to go to needed follow-up appointments when these visits were scheduled before they left the hospital, the study found. 

Medication mistakes were less common when clinicians spent time in the hospital showing parents the correct way to fill medication cups or syringes to give children the right amount of liquid medicine. 

Researchers got this snapshot of how well parents understand discharge instructions for their children by analysing data from studies published between 1985 and 2016. Most were done in the US, but some also examined what happens in Canada, Chile, India, Israel, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Taiwan and Uganda. 

One limitation of the current review is that the studies analysed tended to rely heavily on research done during the day for convenience, which excludes kids sent home from hospitals on evenings and weekends, the authors note. This may have underestimated how often parents misunderstand instructions because they are more likely to get help understanding needed follow-up care on weekdays. 

Even so, the analysis offers fresh evidence of how often parents fail to follow doctors’ orders for medications and follow-up appointments their kids need, said Dr Denise Klinkner, medical director of the paediatric trauma centre at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. 

“This study highlights the overwhelming rate of non-compliance with medications and follow-up,” Klinkner, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. “Especially for the more complex children, failure to comply may lead to lifelong disability and chronic disease.” 

To avoid mistakes, parents should speak up when they do not understand instructions or when factors like a lack of insurance or transportation might prevent them from getting children needed care, Klinkner added. Clinicians should also keep instructions simple and ask families questions to make sure they understood what they were told. 

“A team approach is key,” Klinkner said. 

Three-month-old infants have better recall when they get a brief nap after learning something new, according to small experiment that suggests sleep may play a role in solidifying memories very early in life. 

While previous research has linked frequent naps to better memory in babies as young as 6 months, the current study examined the impact of a single 1.5- to 2-hour nap for infants half that age. 

The experiment tested memory by counting on babies to quickly tire of looking at faces they remember. Researchers showed infants one of two cartoon characters with distinctive facial features, let some of the babies nap, then showed all of the babies both characters to see which one captured their attention longer. 

More than half of the babies who napped turned their gaze to the unfamiliar cartoon face, indicating they remembered what they saw before they slept, the study found. But without a nap, babies appeared to randomly choose which face they looked at, suggesting they forgot what they had seen before and found both cartoons new and interesting. 

“Three month-old babies could only remember the newly shown face if they had a nap right after seeing the new cartoon face,” said lead study author Dr Klara Horvath, who conducted the study at the University of Oxford in the UK. 

“It seems for them having a short period of sleep is necessary to be able to consolidate memories, otherwise they just forget the newly learned information,” Horvath, now a paediatrics researcher at Semmelweis University in Budapest, said by e-mail. 

For the study, researchers also looked at something known as sleep spindles, or spikes of brain activity thought to be involved in consolidation of memories. Sleep spindles show up on electroencephalogram (EEG) tests that examine brain wave patterns. 

Among babies who napped, infants who also had more sleep spindles appeared to become familiar with the faces more quickly, suggesting that the brief periods of rest might influence how fast the brain processes information, researchers report in Developmental Science. 

One limitation of the study is its small size — only 45 infants altogether. There were just 28 babies in the nap group, and only 15 had EEG data. 

Another drawback is that all the babies in the nap group saw the cartoon faces right before they went to sleep, making it impossible to rule out the potential for that learning experience to influence the number of sleep spindles, the researchers note. 

The study also did not find a difference in memory based on the duration of babies’ naps, which suggests that more sleep may not always be best when it comes to learning, said Sabine Seehagen, a psychology researcher at the University of Waikato in New Zealand who was not involved in the study. 

“It is possible that some undetermined minimum duration of sleep was all that was needed for infants to ‘succeed’ in the task,” Seehagen said by e-mail. “We also don’t know how effective the nap was compared to, say, a full night’s sleep and we don’t know if several naps might have added benefits.” 

Still, the findings offer fresh evidence that sleep is critical to normal development even at a very young age, said Gina Poe, a researcher in physiology and psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, who wasn’t involved in the study. 

“We neuroscientists and biopsychologists have a long way to go before we understand how long different types of memory consolidation tasks take and why,” Poe said. “But once the job is done, more sleep may be akin to the builders hammering more nails into a structure that is already securely connected.” 

That does not mean that parents should cut short naps to help babies’ development, however. 

“Even if the job that you are tracking is done with a short nap, there may be other brain tasks that the brain is attending to during a longer nap that we don’t know about,” Poe added. “So never wake a sleeping baby.” 

The Roomba robotic vacuum has been whizzing across floors for years, but its future may lie more in collecting data than dirt.

That data is of the spatial variety: the dimensions of a room as well as distances between sofas, tables, lamps and other home furnishings. To a tech industry eager to push “smart” homes controlled by a variety of Internet-enabled devices, that space is the next frontier.

Smart home lighting, thermostats and security cameras are already on the market, but Colin Angle, chief executive of Roomba maker iRobot Corp., says they are still dumb when it comes to understanding their physical environment. He thinks the mapping technology currently guiding top-end Roomba models could change that and is basing the company’s strategy on it. 

“There’s an entire ecosystem of things and services that the smart home can deliver once you have a rich map of the home that the user has allowed to be shared,” said Angle. 

That vision has its fans, from investors to the likes of Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Alphabet who are all pushing artificially intelligent voice assistants as smart home interfaces. According to financial research firm IHS Markit, the market for smart home devices was worth $9.8 billion in 2016 and is projected to grow 60 per cent this year. 

Angle told Reuters that iRobot, which made Roomba compatible with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant in March, could reach a deal to share its maps for free with customer consent to one or more of the Big Three in the next couple of years. Angle added the company could extract value from those agreements by connecting for free with as many companies as possible to make the device more useful in the home. 

Amazon declined to comment, and Apple and Google did not respond to requests for comment.

So far investors have cheered Angle’s plans, sending iRobot stock soaring to $102 in mid-June from $35 a year ago, giving it a market value of nearly $2.5 billion on 2016 revenue of $660 million.

But there are headwinds for iRobot’s approach, ranging from privacy concerns to a rising group of mostly cheaper competitors — such as the $300 Bissell SmartClean and the $270 Hoover Quest 600 — which are threatening to turn a once-futuristic product into a commoditised home appliance. 

Low-cost Roomba rivals were the subject of a report by short-seller Ben Axler of Spruce Point Capital Management, which sent the stock down 20 per cent to $84 at the end of June.

The company’s smart home vision has helped bring around some former critics. Willem Mesdag, managing partner of hedge fund Red Mountain Capital — who led an unsuccessful proxy fight against Angle last year and wound up selling his iRobot shares — is now largely supportive of the company’s direction. 

“I think they have a tremendous first-mover advantage,” said Mesdag, who thinks iRobot would be a great acquisition for one of the Big Three. “The competition is focused on making cleaning products, not a mapping robot.”

Military roots

Founded in 1990, iRobot saw early success building bomb disposal robots for the US Army before launching the world’s first “robovac” in 2002. The company sold off its military unit last year to focus on the consumer sector, and says the Roomba — which ranges in price from $375 to $899 — still has 88 per cent of the US robovac market.

All robovacs use short-range infrared or laser sensors to detect and avoid obstacles, but iRobot in 2015 added a camera, new sensors and software to its flagship 900-series Roomba that gave it the ability to build a map while keeping track of their own location within it.

So-called simultaneous localisation and mapping technology right now enables Roomba, and other higher-end Robovacs made by Dyson and other rivals, to do things like stop vacuuming, head back to its dock to recharge and then return to the same spot to finish the job. 

Guy Hoffman, a robotics professor at Cornell University, said detailed spatial mapping technology would be a “major breakthrough” for the smart home.

Right now, smart home devices operate “like a tourist in New York who never leaves the subway”, said Hoffman. “There is some information about the city, but the tourist is missing a lot of context for what’s happening outside of the stations.”

With regularly updated maps, Hoffman said, sound systems could match home acoustics, air conditioners could schedule airflow by room and smart lighting could adjust according to the position of windows and time of day. 

Companies like Amazon, Google and Apple could also use the data to recommend home goods for customers to buy, said Hoffman.

One potential downside is that sharing data about users’ homes raises clear privacy issues, said Ben Rose, an analyst who covers iRobot for Battle Road Research. Customers could find it “sort of a scary thing”, he said.

Angle said iRobot would not sharing data without its customers’ permission, but he expressed confidence most would give their consent in order to access the smart home functions.

Another Roomba risk is that cheaper cleaning products are what consumers really want. In May, The New York Times’ Sweethome blog dethroned the $375 Roomba 690 as its most-recommended robovac in favour of the $220 Eufy RoboVac 11, saying the connectivity and other advanced features of the former would not justify the greater cost for most users.

Short-seller Axler’s June report caused a stir mostly with its prediction that value-priced appliance maker SharkNinja Operating LLC could launch a robovac by year’s end. SharkNinja declined to comment.

One potential iRobot bulwark against these new competitors: a portfolio of 1,000 patents worldwide covering the very concept of a self-navigating household robot vacuum as well as basic technologies like object avoidance. 

A handful of those patents are now being tested in a series of patent infringement lawsuits iRobot filed in April against Bissell, Stanley Black & Decker, Hoover Inc., Chinese outsourced manufacturers and other robovac makers. The litigation is the most significant in iRobot’s history.

A lawyer for Hoover declined to comment. Lawyers for Bissell and Black & Decker did not respond to requests for comment. 

The patents are a “huge part of our competitive moat”, Angle said. “It is getting really hard not to step on our intellectual property.”

SYDNEY — Aboriginal people have been in Australia for at least 65,000 years, longer than previously thought, roaming the area alongside giant megafauna, scientists said in a finding that sheds fresh light on when modern humans left Africa.

Australian Aborigines are believed to be custodians of the oldest continuous culture on the planet, but when they first arrived has been a contested issue. Previous estimates have ranged from 47,000 to 60,000 years ago.

A key site in the debate is Madjedbebe, a remote rock shelter in northern Australia’s Kakadu region that is the oldest-known human occupation area in the country.

New evidence uncovered by a team of archaeologists and dating specialists during a dig there, including the oldest ground-edge stone axe technology in the world, has pushed back their presence even further.

The findings, published in the journal Nature this week, set a new minimum age for the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa and across south Asia. 

“It’s hugely significant in tying down what happened,” the University of Queensland’s Chris Clarkson, the lead author who led the team that excavated the site, most recently in 2015, told AFP.

“It means that we can set the minimum age for modern humans coming out of Africa, which until now has been a bit tenuous. We can now say with certainty that they arrived in Australia 65,000 years ago.”

It also indicates that they arrived on the continent before the extinction of Australian megafauna such as giant wombats, kangaroos and lizards.

In addition to showing the deep antiquity of Aboriginal occupation, the dig also revealed evidence of activities and complex lifestyle, including flaked stone tools and grinding stones.

“The site contains the oldest ground-edge stone axe technology in the world, the oldest-known seed-grinding tools in Australia and evidence of finely made stone points which may have served as spear tips,” said Clarkson.

“Most striking of all in a region known for its spectacular rock art are the huge quantities of ground ochre and evidence of ochre processing found at the site, from the older layer continuing through to the present.”

It was clear the population was “technologically sophisticated”.

First major water crossing

Some 11,000 artefacts were discovered in the lowest layer from the 2015 dig, with the team carefully assessing the position of each one to ensure they matched the ages of the sediments in which they were found.

Extensive dating by optically stimulated luminescence methods — which estimates the time since mineral grains were last exposed to sunlight — showed a general pattern of increasing age with depth, and provided a timeframe that the scientists said was far more accurate than before.

The new dates for Madjedbebe fit well with genetic analyses indicating modern humans left Africa between 60,000 and 80,000 years ago.

At that time, there were much lower sea levels and the crossing distance from the islands of Southeast Asia to Australia was shorter than today.

“This would have been the first major water crossing ever by humanity,” said Clarkson.

The Mirarr clan, traditional owners of large parts of Kakadu and western Arnhem Land, have now closed access to Madjedbebe, but applications have been made by archaeologists to examine other sites in the area to see if they have the same sequences.

“This study confirms the sophistication of the Australian Aboriginal toolkit and underscores the universal importance of the Jabiluka area,” said Justin O’Brien, chief executive of the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which works to advance the interests of the Mirarr.

“These findings reinforce the need for the highest level of conservation and protection for this site.”

Volunteering at least two hours a week may go a long way towards helping to ease feelings of loneliness and social isolation, a study of recent widows suggests. 

Loneliness is a serious medical problem for many older adults; previous research links it to declines in physical and mental health as well as premature death, researchers note in the Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences. Because strong marriages, friendships and social networks can keep loneliness at bay, researchers wanted to see if becoming more involved in the community through volunteer work might make loneliness less common for an especially vulnerable group: recent widows. 

They found, as expected, that feelings of loneliness were much more intense among recent widows than married people. But the recent widows who started volunteering at least two hours a week developed lower levels of loneliness on par with married people who spend similar amounts of time giving back to their communities. 

This offers fresh insight into “how much of a ‘dose’ of volunteering might be needed to offset loneliness at widowhood”, said lead study author Dawn Carr of the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy at Florida State University in Tallahassee. 

“We do not know exactly how volunteering `gets under our skin,’ but there is some speculation that it is beneficial because it tends to require us to use our mind, it requires us to be more physically active, and it almost always requires us to interact with others,” Carr said by email. 

For the study, researchers examined data collected from 2006 to 2014 on 5,882 adults aged 51 and older. All of the participants were married at the start of the study, but 667 had become widows by the end. 

People widowed during the study were more likely to be women, black, older, sicker, depressed, and experiencing cognitive decline. They were also more likely to have had a spouse who was disabled or suffering from memory loss. 

At the start of the study, roughly half of the participants did some volunteer work. People were more likely to start volunteering during the study if they became widows than if they remained married, and widows were also more likely to devote lots of hours to volunteer work. 

During the study, about 1.5 per cent of the participants started volunteering at least 100 hours a year, and another 6.3 per cent began volunteering, but less often. 

To assess loneliness, researchers examined data from questionnaires that asked how often people felt isolated, left out, or that they lacked companionship. 

One limitation is the possibility that less lonely people might be more apt to venture out to volunteer, rather than volunteering being responsible for any reduction in loneliness, the authors note. 

Even so, the findings offer fresh evidence of the health benefits of regular social interactions, said Dr Guohua Li, director of the Centre for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia University in New York City. 

“Volunteering in particular is an activity that facilitates older adults’ social engagement and the formation of meaningful relationships with others,” Li, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. “Volunteering may also increase older persons’ self-esteem and give them a sense of community, decreasing their feelings of loneliness after the loss of a spouse.” 

To get these benefits from volunteering, though, people need to keep showing up, said Dr Carla Perissinotto, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study. 

“For some people, volunteering regularly can actually help decrease feelings of loneliness and this is important because loneliness is linked to many health outcomes such as increased risk of heart disease, dementia, functional decline and death,” Perissinotto said by e-mail. 

“But the volunteering has to be regular — not just twice a year — to have the benefit,” Perissinotto added. “Similarly to exercise, you need to have a certain amount on a weekly basis for it to be beneficial.”