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PARIS — Providing simple and cheap healthcare measures to pregnant women — such as offering aspirin — could prevent more than a million babies from being stillborn or dying as newborns in developing countries every year, recent research said.

An international team of researchers also estimated that one quarter of the world’s babies are born either premature or underweight, adding that almost no progress is being made in this area.

The team called for governments and organisations to ramp up the care women and babies receive during pregnancy and birth in 81 low- and middle-income countries.

Eight proven and easily implementable measures could prevent more than 565,000 stillbirths in these countries, according to a series of papers published in the Lancet journal.

The measures included providing micronutrient, protein and energy supplements, low-dose aspirin, the hormone progesterone, education on the harms of smoking, and treatments for malaria, syphilis and bacteria in urine.

If steroids were made available to pregnant women and doctors did not immediately clamp the umbilical cord, the deaths of more than 475,000 newborn babies could also be prevented, the research found.

Implementing these changes would cost an estimated $1.1 billion, the researchers said.

This is “a fraction of what other health programmes receive”, said Per Ashorn, a lead study author and professor at Finland’s Tampere University.

Another study author, Joy Lawn of the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told AFP that the researchers used a new definition for babies born premature or underweight.

She said the traditional way to determine a baby had a low birthweight — if it was born weighing under 2.5 kilogrammes — was “a bit randomly selected” by a Finnish doctor in 1919.

This “very blunt measure” has remained the benchmark for more than a century, despite plentiful evidence that “those babies are not all the same”, Lawn said.

The researchers analysed a database that included 160 million live births from 2000 to 2020 to work out how often babies are born “too soon and too small”, she said.

“Quite shockingly, we found that this is much more common once you start to think about it in a more nuanced way.”

The researchers estimated that 35.3 million — or one in four — of the babies born worldwide in 2020 were either premature or too small, classifying them under the new term “small vulnerable newborns”.

While most of the babies were born in southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, Lawn emphasised that every country was affected.

Another published study estimated that a different simple and cheap treatment plan could reduce the rate of severe bleeding in women after giving birth by 60 per cent.

Postpartum bleeding is the leading cause of women dying during pregnancy worldwide, affecting 14 million people a year, mostly in developing countries.

The treatment plan combines a drape, which is put under the woman to measure how much blood is being lost, with uterine massage, an intravenous drip and some drugs to stop the bleeding. 

Study co-author Arri Coomarasamy of Birmingham University in the UK said the new approach could “radically improve women’s chances of surviving childbirth globally”.

Pascale Allotey of the World Health Organisation, which co-led the research, said: “No woman should fear for her life when giving birth.”

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved more than 210,000 women in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania.

PARIS — The warnings are coming from all angles: artificial intelligence (AI) poses an existential risk to humanity and must be shackled before it is too late.

But what are these disaster scenarios and how are machines supposed to wipe out humanity?

Paperclips of doom

Most disaster scenarios start in the same place: machines will outstrip human capacities, escape human control and refuse to be switched off.

“Once we have machines that have a self preservation goal, we are in trouble,” AI academic Yoshua Bengio told an event this month.

But because these machines do not yet exist, imagining how they could doom humanity is often left to philosophy and science fiction.

Philosopher Nick Bostrom has written about an “intelligence explosion” he says will happen when superintelligent machines begin designing machines of their own.

He illustrated the idea with the story of a superintelligent AI at a paperclip factory.

The AI is given the ultimate goal of maximising paperclip output and so “proceeds by converting first the Earth and then increasingly large chunks of the observable universe into paperclips”.

Bostrom’s ideas have been dismissed by many as science fiction, not least because he has separately argued that humanity is a computer simulation and supported theories close to eugenics.

He also recently apologised after a racist message he sent in the 1990s was unearthed.

Yet, his thoughts on AI have been hugely influential, inspiring both Elon Musk and Professor Stephen Hawking.

The Terminator

If superintelligent machines are to destroy humanity, they surely need a physical form.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s red-eyed cyborg, sent from the future to end human resistance by an AI in the movie “The Terminator”, has proved a seductive image, particularly for the media.

But experts have rubbished the idea.

“This science fiction concept is unlikely to become a reality in the coming decades if ever at all,” the Stop Killer Robots campaign group wrote in a 2021 report.

However, the group has warned that giving machines the power to make decisions on life and death is an existential risk.

Robot expert Kerstin Dautenhahn, from Waterloo University in Canada, played down those fears.

She told AFP that AI was unlikely to give machines higher reasoning capabilities or imbue them with a desire to kill all humans.

“Robots are not evil,” she said, although she conceded programmers could make them do evil things.

Deadlier chemicals

A less overtly sci-fi scenario sees “bad actors” using AI to create toxins or new viruses and unleashing them on the world.

Large language models like GPT-3, which was used to create ChatGPT, it turns out are extremely good at inventing horrific new chemical agents.

A group of scientists who were using AI to help discover new drugs ran an experiment where they tweaked their AI to search for harmful molecules instead.

They managed to generate 40,000 potentially poisonous agents in less than six hours, as reported in the Nature Machine Intelligence journal.

AI expert Joanna Bryson from the Hertie School in Berlin said she could imagine someone working out a way of spreading a poison like anthrax more quickly.

“But it’s not an existential threat,” she told AFP. “It’s just a horrible, awful weapon.”

Species overtaken

The rules of Hollywood dictate that epochal disasters must be sudden, immense and dramatic — but what if humanity’s end was slow, quiet and not definitive?

“At the bleakest end our species might come to an end with no successor,” philosopher Huw Price says in a promotional video for Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.

But he said there were “less bleak possibilities” where humans augmented by advanced technology could survive.

“The purely biological species eventually comes to an end, in that there are no humans around who don’t have access to this enabling technology,” he said.

The imagined apocalypse is often framed in evolutionary terms.

Stephen Hawking argued in 2014 that ultimately our species will no longer be able to compete with AI machines, telling the BBC it could “spell the end of the human race”.

Geoffrey Hinton, who spent his career building machines that resemble the human brain, latterly for Google, talks in similar terms of “superintelligences” simply overtaking humans.

He told US broadcaster PBS recently that it was possible “humanity is just a passing phase in the evolution of intelligence”.

Introduced globally early last year, the Kia Niro Plus arrived just months after the late 2021 launch of an all-new second generation Kia Niro. The Niro Plus is in essence a more spacious legacy model derived from the first generation model, circa 2016.

Designed as more practical and accommodating version of the Korean manufacturer’s segment-bending and purpose-built hybrid that combined an assertive Crossover aesthetic with MPV-like utility, the Niro Plus’ slightly higher roofline, however, leans into latter side of its persona.

Confident continuation

Intended as a more accommodating an accessible car for certain markets such as the Middle East, the Niro Plus was also designed to serve as a taxi for other markets, where its low fuel consumption and enhanced cabin space would be of particular benefit. Bucking the trend for ever lower rooflines in favour of the practicality and comfort of an 85mm higher roof that deliver excellent rear headroom, the Niro Plus cuts a more upright and individualistic shape among competitors.

Otherwise little changed in dimensions and basic design, the Niro Plus retains the outgoing Niro’s aggressively swept back diamond-like headlights, convex and concave surfacing, sculpted sills and rear light deign. It does, however, gain a more aggressive facia with bigger lower side light housing and light elements. Its lower air intake is meanwhile noticeably wider, and makes up for the loss of an actual grille opening, which is now replaced with a textured body coloured panel in place of the previous Niro’s grille mesh.

Frugal efficiency

Designed from the ground up for service as either a hybrid of EV, the Niro Plus is better weighted and better integrates hybrid components than most cars that are converted from conventional combustion engine designs to hybrids. It also features comparatively lighter batteries and construction, at least for when it was first launched as the original Niro. Under its bonnet, the Niro Plus retains the same naturally aspirated direct injection 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine driving the front wheels, and assisted by an electric motor. 

With its thermally efficient but somewhat low-revving Atkinson cycle combustion engine producing 103BHP at 5,700rpm and 108lb/ft at 4,000rpm, and electric motor developing 43BHP and 125lb/ft, the Niro’s maximum combined system output is 139BHP and 195lb/ft. With both motors working in unison or individually, depending on conditions, throttle input and battery charge, the Niro is perkier than stats suggest, with its electric motor’s near instant torque allowing for confidence from low speed and in mid-range, while fuel consumption is frugal at 4.3l/100km, combined.

Smooth and refined

Capable of estimated 0-100km/h acceleration in 11.5-seconds and a 162km/h top speed, the Niro Plus’ hybrid system is smoother and better integrated than lesser hybrids, especially on throttle lift-off response when driven hard. Able to drive briefly in electric-only mode, the Niro Plus’ battery charge and discharge times impressed, as driven on mostly flat yet fast roads. That said, steep, sustained and swiftly driven inclines would be expected to deplete batteries quicker and leave the combustion engine to both provide drive and charging.

Riding on MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension, the Niro felt refined and comfortable on Saudi roads, where driven. More forgiving over road imperfections — and with better steering feel — as driven with moderately taller and slimmer 215/55R17 tyres than its predecessor — the Niro was smooth, stable and refined on highway. Unexpectedly agile for a tall and comparatively high riding car of its segment, the Niro Plus is happy to be hustled briskly through winding roads and quick and tight corners and direction changes.

Pleasantly practical

Turning in tidily with little at the limit understeer, the Niro Plus’ electric-assisted steering is quick and direct if not especially textured or nuanced for road feel, but felt positive with good self-centring when exiting corners. Leaning somewhat through corners, as expected, the Niro Plus’ rear grip was reassuring, but nevertheless allowed one to easily adjust cornering lines by shifting weight to the outside rear for a pivot effect on throttle lift-off. At the limit oversteer was meanwhile gradual, predictable and easily controlled.

A well thought out and executed car with a 6-speed automated dual clutch gearbox providing more driver engagement than elastic-feeling continuously variable transmissions, the Niro Plus also delivers MPV-like practicality and improved cabin space, especially rear headroom, owing to the higher roofline. Pleasant, uncluttered and ergonomic, the Niro Plus’ horizontally-oriented cabin design features user-friendly layouts, controls and infotainment screen, while wide-swinging doors allow easy access. Well equipped and spacious, the Niro Plus features comfortable and well-adjustable seating, good visibility and generous, expandable luggage room.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Engine: petrol/electric hybrid, 1.6-litre, transverse, 4-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 72 x 97mm
• Compression ratio: 13:1
• Valve-train: Direct injection, 16-valve, DOHC
• Gearbox: 6-speed automated dual clutch, front-wheel-drive
• Power – petrol engine, BHP (PS) [kW]: 103.5 (105) [77.2] @5700rpm
• Power – electric motor, BHP (PS) [kW]: 42.9 (43.5) [32]
• Power – combined, BHP (PS) [kW]: 139 (141) [104] @5700rpm
• Torque – petrol engine, lb/ft (Nm): 108 (147) @4000rpm
• Torque – electric motor, lb/ft (Nm): 125 (170)
• Torque – combined, lb/ft (Nm): 195 (265) @4000rpm
• 0-100km/h: 11.5-seconds (estimate)
• Top speed: 162km/h (estimate)
• Fuel consumption, city/highway/combined: 3.9-/4.9-/4.3-litres/100km
• Fuel capacity: 45-litres
• Wheelbase: 2,700mm
• Track, F/R: 1,562/1,574mm
• Ground clearance: 180mm
• Cargo volume, min/max: 425/1,500-litres (estimate)
• Unladen weight: 1,450kg 
• Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link, anti roll bars
• Steering: Electric-assisted, rack and pinion
• Lock-to-lock: 2.66-turns
• Turning circle: 10.6-metres
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs, regenerative braking
• Tyres: 215/55R17

By Sara Mahdawi
Clinical Psychologist

I can’t emphasise how crucial it is to give our mental health the highest priority. You deserve to feel good; looking after our mental health is just as important as looking after our physical health.

Neglecting our mental health can have serious repercussions since it influences how we feel, think and behave. If you don’t take care of the engine in your car, it won’t run well, and the same is true of our mental health. 

Psychological issues

The stigma associated with mental illness can make people avoid seeking help. Many are reluctant to discuss their psychological problems because they worry about being judged or putting themselves at risk of being discriminated against. This can worsen mental health issues by causing feelings of humiliation and loneliness in addition to what they’re already going through.

A more inclusive society

However, it’s important to remember that psychological problems don’t discriminate. Mental health issues can affect anyone, regardless of their age, gender, race, or socio-economic status. We need to be kind to ourselves and others because, at the end of the day, everyone is fighting their own battle. By reducing stigma, we can promote a more inclusive and accepting society, where mental health issues are not taboo.

Mental illness is treatable, and seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness. Unfortunately, mental health hasn’t only been affecting individuals, but also society at large. The World Health Organisation estimates that mental illness accounts for approximately 15 per cent of the global burden of the disease.

Mental health related problems can lead to a series of social and economic problems such as decreased productivity and increased absenteeism in the workplace, which can result in economic losses for businesses and the overall economy.

The financial cost

Moreover, mental health issues can also lead to increased healthcare costs, as individuals may require more medical attention or hospitalisation. These costs can burden families and communities, and it could also lead to higher healthcare premiums and taxes.

It can also impact the social fabric of our communities. Individuals with untreated mental health conditions may struggle with maintaining relationships or engaging in social activities, which can lead to social isolation and feelings of loneliness. In some cases, individuals may turn to substance abuse or other unhealthy coping mechanisms to manage their symptoms, which can further compound their mental health issues and contribute to wider social problems like addiction and crime.

By raising awareness and reducing stigma around mental health, we can work towards creating a society where mental health is given the same level of importance as physical health. We can support individuals who are struggling with mental health issues and help them access resources and the treatment they need.

Care for ourselves

We can also work to create more supportive and inclusive communities, where individuals feel comfortable sharing their mental health concerns and receiving support from others. In doing so, we can foster a healthier and more productive society, where individuals can thrive both personally and professionally.

The best way to take care of your mental health is by taking care of yourself and others. By working together to prioritise mental health, we can create a brighter future for ourselves and make sure that everyone feels empowered to seek help when they need it.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

WASHINGTON — People classified as overweight though not obese are not at a higher risk of death, according to a new study Wednesday that underscores the limitations of the body mass index (BMI), long a standard medical metric.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS ONE, come as populations in both rich and poor countries are becoming heavier. In the United States, more than 70 per cent of adults are defined as either overweight or obese. 

BMI, which was first described by a Belgian mathematician in the 19th century, is calculated by dividing a person’s weight by the square of their height. It is increasingly seen as a crude instrument for measuring individual health. 

Lead author Aayush Visaria of Rutgers University told AFP: “I think the real thing that people should get from this is that BMI by itself is just not a great indicator of health.”

Measuring waist circumference or performing a type of scan that visualises bone density, body fat and muscle mass should also be used for a more holistic interpretation, he said. Having excess fat still increases risk for a range of conditions including heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

“I’ve seen patients with the same exact BMI, but with vastly different metabolic and health implications. So I wanted to investigate this further,” added Visaria, a physician.

Older studies on the link between weight and death rates drew inconsistent and uncertain results, and were mostly focused only on non-Hispanic white adults.

In the new work, Visaria and his co-author Soko Setoguchi drew on data on more than 550,000 American adults from the 1999-2018 National Health Interview Survey and the 2019 US National Death Index. 

They calculated BMI based on the self-reported height and weight of the participants, and gathered data on demographics, socio-behavioural factors such as smoking and physical activity, underlying health conditions, and access to healthcare.

More than 75,000 people who were included in the study died during the period of research.

After adjusting for other variables, the results showed that people with a BMI between 25 and 30, which is classified as overweight, did not have an increased risk of death compared to people whose BMI was between 22.5 and 24.9.

However, the mortality risk rose markedly among people whose BMI was under 20, and those with BMI greater or equal to 30, defined as obese. 

Obesity carries higher death risk

For example, a person with “third degree” obesity, defined as a BMI of 40 or above, but had never smoked and had no history of cardiovascular disease or non-skin cancer, was more than twice as likely to die as an equivalent counterpart with BMI defined as average.

The average age of participants was 46. Half were female, and 69 per cent were non-Hispanic white. Of those included, 35 per cent had a BMI between 25 and 30, and 27.2 per cent had a BMI above or equal to 30.

“It’s a large study with a representative sample which is good,” George Savva, a biostatistician at the Quadram Institute in the United Kingdom, told AFP. “The authors have, as far as I can see, done a good job of analysing the mortality link with baseline weight status.”

He added it might be the case that diseases linked with higher weight are managed better than they once were, for example high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

“So you would expect the relationship between weight and death to change over time, which potentially is what this is showing,” Savva said.

WASHINGTON — US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced its experimental Alzheimer’s drug significantly slowed cognitive and functional decline, results hailed as “remarkable” by experts despite some patients experiencing serious side effects.

In an analysis of nearly 1,200 people in the early stages of the disease, donanemab slowed the progression of symptoms by 35 per cent over a period of 18 months compared to placebo.

This was measured by cognition and their ability to carry out daily tasks like managing finances, driving, engaging in hobbies and conversing about current events in a standardised index called the Integrated Alzheimer’s Disease Rating Scale.

Side effects included temporary swelling in parts of the brain, which occurred in almost a quarter of the treated patients, as well as microhaemorrhages that occurred in 31 per cent of patients on the treatment arm and 14 per cent of patients in the placebo group.

Two participants’ deaths were attributed to the side effects, while a third might have also died from the treatment.

Nonetheless, the data was widely praised by independent experts, who said donanemab had the potential, if approved, to significantly improve the lives of people suffering from the most common form of dementia.

The news comes after the US approved another Alzheimer’s drug in January, Biogen and Eisai’s lecanemab, which slowed the rate of cognitive decline by 27 per cent and was also declared a blockbuster by experts.

Biogen and Eisai had also developed aducanumab, known by the trade Aduhelm, which was given US approval in 2021, though that decision was mired in controversy and led to a damning report by Congress.

In addition to severe side effects, Aduhlem’s clinical effectiveness was ambiguous, which is so far not the case for the two subsequent drugs.

Lilly said it would rapidly submit its results to the US Food and Drug Administration as well as other global regulators.

“We are extremely pleased that donanemab yielded positive clinical results with compelling statistical significance for people with Alzheimer’s disease in this trial,” said Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific and medical officer, in a statement.

Mark Mintun, a top Lilly executive in neuroscience R&D, added however that “like many effective treatments for debilitating and fatal diseases, there are associated risks that may be serious and life-threatening”.

Targeting amyloid

In Alzheimer’s disease, two key proteins, tau and amyloid beta, build up into tangles and plaques, known together as aggregates, which cause brain cells to die and lead to brain shrinkage.

Like lecanemab (also known by its trade name Leqembi), donanemab is an antibody therapy that targets amyloid beta.

Experts said that the results for both drugs validated the theory that removing amyloid beta does improve the course of the disease, and that future therapies targeting both proteins might have even better outcomes.

Nick Fox, of the UK Dementia Research Institute, said that although the full dataset was not yet available, the results announced by press release “confirms that we are in a new era of disease modification for Alzheimer’s disease”.

“This clinical trial is a real breakthrough, demonstrating a remarkable 35 per cent slowing of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients with high amyloid beta but low tau burden,” added Marc Busche, UK Dementia Research Institute group leader at University College London.

“These are the strongest phase 3 data for an Alzheimer’s treatment to date,” said Maria Carrillo, chief science officer at the US Alzheimer’s Association. “This further underscores the inflection point we are at for the Alzheimer’s field.”

Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 60-80 per cent of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. It progressively destroys thinking and memory, eventually robbing people of the ability to carry out the simplest of tasks.

PARIS/NEW YORK — Elon Musk spent the weekend further alienating Twitter users with more drastic changes to the social media giant, and he is facing a new challenge as tech nemesis Mark Zuckerberg prepares to launch a rival app this week.

Zuckerberg’s Meta group, which owns Facebook, has listed a new app in stores as “Threads, an Instagram app”, available for pre-order in the United States, with a message saying it is “expected” this Thursday.

The two men have clashed for years but a recent comment by a Meta executive suggesting that Twitter was not run “sanely” irked Musk, eventually leading to the two men offering each other out for a cage fight.

Since buying Twitter last year for $44 billion, Musk has fired thousands of employees and charged users $8 a month to have a blue checkmark and a “verified” account.

On the weekend, he limited the posts readers could view and decreed that nobody could look at a tweet unless they were logged in, meaning external links no longer work for many.

He said he needed to fire up extra servers just to cope with the demand as artificial intelligence (AI) companies scraped “extreme levels” of data to train their models.

But commentators have poured scorn on that idea and marketing experts say he has massively alienated both his user base and the advertisers he needs to get profits rolling.

In another move that shocked users, Twitter announced on Monday that access to TweetDeck, an app that allows users to monitor several accounts at once, would be limited to verified accounts next month.

John Wihbey, an associate professor of media innovation and technology at Northeastern University, told AFP that plenty of people wanted to quit Twitter for ethical reasons after Musk took over, but he had now given them a technical reason to leave too.

And he added that Musk’s decision to sack thousands of workers meant it had long been expected that the site would become “technically unusable”.

‘Remarkably bad’

Musk has said he wants to make Twitter less reliant on advertising and boost income from subscriptions.

Yet, he chose advertising specialist Linda Yaccarino as his chief executive recently, and she has spoken of going into “hand-to-hand combat” to win back advertisers.

“How do you tell Twitter advertisers that your most engaged free users potentially will never see their ads because of data caps on their usage,” tweeted Justin Taylor, a former marketing executive at Twitter.

Mike Proulx, vice president at market research firm Forrester, said the weekend’s chaos had been “remarkably bad” for both users and advertisers.

“Advertisers depend on reach and engagement yet Twitter is currently decimating both,” he told AFP.

He said Twitter had “moved from stable to startup” and Yaccarino, who remained silent over the weekend, would struggle to restore its credibility, leaving the door open to Twitter’s rivals to suck up any cash from advertisers.

‘Open secret’

The technical reasons Musk gave for limiting the views of users immediately brought a backlash.

Many social media users speculated that Musk had simply failed to pay the bill for his servers.

French social data analyst Florent Lefebvre said AI firms were more likely to train their models on books and media articles than social network content, which “is of much poorer quality, full of mistakes and lacking in context”.

Yoel Roth, who stepped down as Twitter’s head of security weeks after Musk took over, said the idea that data scraping had caused such performance problems that users needed to be forced to log in “doesn’t pass the sniff test”.

“Scraping was the open secret of Twitter data access,” he wrote on the Bluesky social network — another Twitter rival.

“We knew about it. It was fine.”