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Sunday, January 28, 2024

NEWS TODAY 26.01.2024

Five children born deaf can now hear, thanks to just one injection

Five children born deaf can now hear, thanks to just one injection

Six children who were born deaf were given a revolutionary gene therapy treatment in the form of an injection in the ear. Now, five of them have regained their hearing.

Written by Sethu Pradeep

Kochi | Updated: January 27, 2024 10:09 IST

The snail-shaped cochlea of the inner ear (Katelyn Comeau/Harvard Medical School)

After receiving an experimental treatment consisting of an injection into the ear, six children who were born deaf can now hear. The researchers behind the novel gene therapy approach believe that it may be useful in other treatments as well.

The research was conducted in Fudan, China but the team was co-led by Harvard Medical School researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear. They treated six children between the ages of one and seven suffering from a type of inherited deafness. This was caused by the mutation of the OTOF gene, which manufactures a protein that plays an important role in transmitting signals from the ear to the brain.

Over the course of the 26-week trial, five of the six children showed signs of improved hearing, with the researchers describing four of the outcomes as “robust,” according to Harvard Medical School. The results of the study were published in the journal Lancet on Wednesday. Hearing ability is a critical factor in language learning. For the study, the researchers also measured speech perception, which is the ability to recognise sounds as speech. All five of the children who responded showed improvement there.

“This really opens the door to developing other treatments for different kinds of genetic deafness,” said co-senior author Zheng-Yi Chen in a press statement. Chen is an HMS associate professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, and a researcher at Mass Eye and Ear’s Eaton-Peabody Laboratories.

The OTOF gene is responsible for the otoferlin protein, which is produced by cells in the snail-shaped part of the inner ear called the cochlea. The cochlea is the place where sound waves are translated into electric pulses carried to the brain by nerve cells. Otoferling helps transmit pulses from cochlear cells to nerves. Without it, sound would be translated to electric signals but they would never reach the brain.

The OTOF gene mutation the children had is an attractive target for gene therapy because it is a relatively simple condition caused by a single mutation. It also involves no physical damage to the cochlear cells.

When the researchers requested for study partners, they received a large response of 425 potential participants. According to Chen, this reflects the need for improved treatment for such congenital deafness that has no approved drugs. After screening the participants, the researchers enrolled just six at the end.

Among the six, four children had cochlear implants. With training, these implants allowed for the interpretation of speech and sound. The youngest two participants were aged one and two and had no implants. And when the implants were switched off, all the participants were completely deaf.

The procedure used by the researchers called for the gene to be inserted into the cochlea using a type of virus often used for this kind of treatment. The virus will insert the gene into the DNA of the target cells, causing them to manufacture the missing protein. But there was a problem — the OTOF gene was too big for the virus to hold.

They got past this problem by dividing the gene into two and then containing the halves in two different viruses. After that, they injected the mixture with both halves of the gene into the cochlea. Even though the viruses inserted the gene halves into different spots on the cells’ DNA, cellular machinery assembled the complete protein when the halves were expressed.

This special mixture was injected into the fluid of the inner ear, and from there, the viruses made their way to the target cells just like you would expect in a normal injection. The researchers and the participants waited for four to six weeks in each case to see the first signs of hearing being restored.

Five of the six participants displayed signs of progressive improvement. When the three older children had their cochlear implants turned off, they could understand and respond to speech by 26 weeks, with two among them able to recognise speech in a noisy room and even have a telephone conversation. The youngest children also showed improvements but they were too young for the tests.

Only one of the participants showed no signs of improvements. The researchers are not entirely sure about the cause, but they say it may have been because of an immune reaction to the viral vector.

First uploaded on: 27-01-2024 at 09:32 IST

Major reforms in NAAC accreditation

The reforms have been recommended by the Ministry of Education Committee headed by Dr. K Radhakrishnan, Former Chairman ISRO and Chairperson, Standing Committee IIT Council

BY TELANGANA TODAY

PUBLISHED DATE - 27 JANUARY 2024, 08:25 PM

Hyderabad: Doing away with its present system, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) undertook major reforms in the accreditation process introducing Binary Accreditation and Maturity-Based Graded Accreditation for the Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in the country.

As for the binary accreditation, the Council will be declaring whether the HEI is accredited or unaccredited without awarding a score and grade as is being done now. As part of the Maturity-Based Graded Accreditation, the HEIs will be categorized under leveled accreditation from Level 1 to 5.

This, according to NAAC, is to encourage accredited institutions to raise their bar from ‘Level 1’ to ‘Level 4’ as Institutions of National Excellence, and then to ‘Level-5’ i.e.

Institutions of Global Excellence for Multi-Disciplinary Research and Education.

These reforms have been recommended by the Ministry of Education Committee headed by Dr. K Radhakrishnan, Former Chairman ISRO and Chairperson, Standing Committee IIT Council.

The metrics for both the Binary and Maturity-Based Graded Accreditation will focus on processes, outcomes and impact across different attributes of HEIs instead of mere input-centric.

Further, the One Nation One Data Platform has been proposed as part of the reform to ensure integrity and transparency in handling institutional data.

The reforms will be implemented in two stages with Binary accreditation coming into force in the next four months and no new applications will be accepted as per the present methodology thereafter.

Institutions that have already applied and are applying in the next four months will have the option to either go by the present process or by the new methodology of binary accreditation. The Maturity-based Graded levels will be implemented by December 2024.

Saturday, January 27, 2024

After flip flops on NExT, NMC now seeks public feedback on the medical test’s feasibility

National Medical Commission has asked students, faculty and institutions whether a single test can replace final year MBBS exams & entrance test for PG seats in medical colleges.

SUMI SUKANYA DUTTA

26 January, 2024 06:32 pm IST

New Delhi: Last year saw several flip flops by the National Medical Commission (NMC) over when the National Exit Test (NExT) — a singular qualifying examination to replace three existing exams in the field of medicine — should be implemented.

But the apex medical education regulator now seems unsure about the basic premise of the test and has sought feedback from students, faculty members and institutions on whether a single test can replace the final year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) exams and entrance test for post-graduate (PG) seats in medical colleges.

The NMC Act of 2019 envisaged NExT as a singular qualifying examination to replace three existing exams in the field of medicine — the final MBBS exams, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for post-graduate seats (NEET-PG), and the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) for foreign medical graduates to practice medicine in India.

The Act stated that qualifying in NExT shall be a must — within three years of the Act getting notified — for every MBBS pass out to receive a license to practice medicine in India.

But in a public notice issued this week, the NMC has sought opinions from stakeholders on the NExT regulations issued last year which were later withdrawn at the behest of the Union health ministry following an outcry from students.

In an accompanying form, the stakeholders have been asked basic questions such as whether the NExT exam should replace the conventional MBBS final year exam or if the NMC should hold separate tests in addition to the MBBS final year exam.

The NMC also wants the stakeholder to share whether the NExT exam can serve as a qualifying exam for MBBS final year students, licensing and admission to the PG course, apart from their opinion on whether the exam should be held in retrospective or prospective manner.

Last year, the NMC had announced that from 2024 onwards, the NExT exam would be conducted twice a year, meaning that the 2019 batch of MBBS students would have to clear it to get their degrees. This decision sparked an outcry from 2019 batch students and their parents, who filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court, arguing that it was unfair to subject their batch to the NExT, as the NMC Act was passed after they had taken admission in medical colleges.

Later, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the exam would not be held in 2024 and that the government would refrain from taking any decisions regarding NExT that could cause “confusion”.

His ministry also pointed out to the NMC several discrepancies in the NExT regulations, directing it to issue a fresh notification.

A senior NMC official who did not wish to be named said the latest initiative was aimed at understanding why the popular opinion is that the NExT should not be held.

“Unless we seek consultation from the stakeholders, we will not understand their point of view,” the official told ThePrint.

ThePrint reached NMC spokesperson Dr Yogender Malik for comment over phone. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.

Dr Aviral Mathur, president of the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) — an association of resident doctors from across the country — told ThePrint that the latest NMC notice “was a long time coming”.

Meanwhile, Dr Karan Juneja, standing committee member of the IMA’s junior doctors’ division said that if NExT is implemented, it should be done with prior information, planning and changes in academic pattern.

NMC plans to control ghost faculty, boost infrastructure in medical colleges with new regulations

TNN | Jan 26, 2024, 03.24 PM IST

To improve the medical education system and uplift the standard of hospitals, the National Medical Council (NMC) has asked all the government and private medical institutions to follow the “minimum standard of requirements” for postgraduate courses (PGMSR, 2023). A notice was issued by the Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB), NMC to control the irregularities in several private and government hospitals associated with medical colleges.

Speaking to Education Times, Aujender Singh, deputy secretary, NMC, says, “The recent norms have been introduced to improve quality of medical education. It has come to NMC’s notice that several colleges lack infrastructure and logistics required for post graduate medical education. NMC will take action against those medical colleges found not fulfilling the necessary criteria. The PGMEB will assess the medical colleges at regular intervals. The NMC has introduced a monetary penalty of Rs 1 crore, for medical colleges that fail to adhere to norms and standards set by the Commission.”

NMC has decided to bar the medical faculties to practise privately to make them focus on hospital operations and reduce the burden on the PG students. “It has come to our notice that several medical college hospitals are being run by PG students as the senior doctors appointed as the faculty are largely absent from work as they practise privately.”

A senior health ministry official says the new rules will strengthen the quality of medical education in private colleges where ghost faculty are ruling the roost. “NMC guidelines mandates full-time faculty who can’t engage in private practice during college hours. It is mandatory to have at least 75% attendance for the senior faculty. In private medicate colleges the doctors are found absent from classrooms as many of them visit hospitals, sign the attendance register and leave to attend their private clinics,” he says.

“NMC has also made it compulsory for medical colleges to have 80% beds occupied throughout the year. Some of the private medical colleges with high fees were found with less occupied beds,” the senior official adds. Occupancy of beds in hospitals and inflow of patients are important for medical students. “This gives hands-on learning experience. This is particularly important for students in private colleges where patients are less due to high cost,” he adds.

According to NMC, minimum 15% of the total beds should be ICU/HDU (High Dependency Unit). Average daily out patient department (OPD) attendance should also not be less than 60 in general medicine.

The colleges offering programmes in PG medicine must have five departments including biochemistry, pathology, microbiology, radio-diagnosis, and anaesthesiology. “The biochemistry, pathology, microbiology labs are necessary for undergraduate students of second and third year. Some colleges were founded lacking in the necessary laboratory infrastructure and departments without which medical education remains incomplete. Following which the new norms were established,” he added.

Infrastructure and faculty

According to NMC’s ‘minimum standard of requirements’, the hospital building shall follow the existing national building norms and various local statutory regulations for hospitals including administration, registration, records storage, out-patient and inpatient areas, operating theatres, Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD), Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Radiology and laboratory services, emergency areas, etc.

The institutes must get mandatory regulatory/licensing approvals and all statutory requirement/clearances obtained from the appropriate administrative authorities/State Government/Central Government/Pollution Control Board/Municipal Corporations/ Councils etc. The colleges shall have one teaching room for each department with a capacity to accommodate an adequate number of students for clinical case discussions/demonstrations. Each such room shall have audio-visual facilities. The institution shall have adequate in-house laboratory and imaging facilities for the training of post-graduate students.

The colleges must increase the faculty, infrastructure and other staff in the subject of Radio-diagnosis, Anaesthesia, Pathology, Microbiology, and Biochemistry with the increase in the number of beds in the hospital. The Commission has also asked the institutions to increase faculty and infrastructure if the workload of any department is more. The departments should have adequate latest in-house equipment and training facilities as per curriculum requirements for the training of postgraduate students.

Along with that, a digital library and seminar hall with well-equipped high-speed internet, Wi-Fi connected media room is must for each departments for a direct relay from in-house operation theatres.

By Shuddhanta Patra

Friday, January 26, 2024

Man Refuses To Buy Latest iPhone 15 For Daughter, 11, She Says He Is "Ruining Her Life". Post Viral

Apple launched the iPhone 15 Pro Max in September, 2023. The smartphone has the new A17 Pro chip.

Edited by Amit Chaturvedi Updated: January 25, 2024 7:28 pm IST

The man said he and his wife are considering getting the iPhone 15 Pro Max after all.

A man has sought advice from social media users after his 11-year-old daughter told him he was ruining her life by not buying her the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the flagship Apple phone - and people have come to his aid. The man shared the question on Reddit and the post has received more than 9,000 comments from users. The man said he told his daughter the top-spec iPhone costs nearly $1,200 (Rs 1 lakh). The girl owned an older variant of the phone and had asked for a new smartphone as her friends all have one.

"We gave her a phone two years ago it was an old iPhone 8 of mine. She mainly uses it for calling texting with friends and social media. Recently she's been wanting a new phone because her phone was old and all her friends have new phones," the man said in the Reddit post shared on Monday.

"So I thought the iPhone 13 would be a good option as it's 600 dollars, has good camera/battery life and it looks the same as every other iPhone. But she specifically wanted the iPhone 15 Pro Max because apparently it plays console level games and has a 120 Hz display," added the user Able_Texas5286.

The man said he finds it a waste of money. "My daughter then got mad at me and said I'm ruining her life and that her best friend has a 15 Pro Max."

The man said he and his wife are considering getting the iPhone 15 Pro Max after all and tell their daughter '"it's a big gift".

The post attracted any comments and users shared their own experiences.

"Shoot, if you haven't heard "you're ruining my life!" more than once by the time your kid is 11, you aren't doing your job," commented one Redditor.

"Who's the parent? Don't let your daughter guilt you into something, an iPhone 13 is still a new and good phone," said another.

"An 11-year-old doesn't need a thousand-dollar phone," said a third user.

Apple launched the iPhone 15 Pro Max in September, 2023. The smartphone has the new A17 Pro chip.

Karnataka to implement old pension scheme for 13,000 govt employees who joined before April 2006

The Congress had promised to ‘sympathetically consider’ the demand to revert to the fixed-benefits pension scheme.

By: Express News Service

Bengaluru | January 25, 2024 20:41 IST

In its election manifesto, the Congress had assured implementation of OPS for more than 3.5 lakh government employees. (Photo/X/@siddaramaiah)

The Karnataka government has announced that around 13,000 government employees who got their jobs before April 1, 2006, when the new pension scheme came into force, will be eligible for the old pension scheme, which entails fixed benefits.

According to a government order issued on Wednesday, employees willing to opt for the new pension scheme will have to apply before June 30. And those who do not opt for the old pension scheme will continue under the new pension scheme.

Department heads will have to compile lists of employees opting for the old pension scheme and submit them for approval by the end of August 2024, the order read.

In its election manifesto, the Congress had promised to “sympathetically consider” the implementation of the old pension scheme for more than 3.5 lakh government employees.

P Guruswamy, president of the Secretariat Employees Association, told The Indian Express that the January 24 order followed a Supreme Court ruling that directed governments to implement the old pension scheme for such employees whose posts were notified before April 2006.

“Based on this order, the Centre had issued directions to all state governments,” he said, noting that the new order benefited only around 13,000 people, while the demand was to bring all government employees under the scheme.

Guruswamy said that out of the 3.5 lakh employees, around 2.5 lakh worked in state-run boards and corporations, adding that the cabinet had discussed the proposal for implementing the old pension scheme.

Government employees have staged several protests over the past few years demanding the restoration of the old pension scheme. Past state governments, however, dragged their heels owing to the financial burden the scheme would put on the exchequer.

The finance department has also flagged the significant outgo required for pension expenses over the past few years. In March last year, the BJP government formed a panel to study the implementation of the old pension scheme.

It may be recalled that Congress governments in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan had decided to revert to the old pension scheme.