Igihe

Category: Science &Technology

  • Apple Unveils iPad Mini

    Apple is set to start selling an 8-inch version of the iPad to compete with Amazon.com’s Kindle and other smaller tablets, but it set a higher-than-expected price tag of $329 that Wall Street fears could curb demand.

    Apple’s pencil-thin, smaller iPad Mini will cost much more than its competitors when it goes on sale on Friday, signalling the company is not going to get into a mini-tablet price war.

    The company debuted the iPad Mini on Tuesday, with a screen two-thirds smaller than the full model and half the weight. In a surprise, Apple also revamped its flagship, full-sized iPad just six months after the launch of the latest model.

    Apple’s late founder Steve Jobs once ridiculed a small tablet from a competitor as a “tweener” that was neither big enough nor small enough to compete with tablets or smartphones. Now Apple’s own Mini enters a growing small-tablet market dominated by the Kindle Fire.

  • Japan Makes Phone Call Translater App

    In Japan , an app offering real-time translations is to allow people in Japan to speak to foreigners over the phone with both parties using their native tongue.

    NTT Docomo – the country’s biggest mobile network – will initially convert Japanese to English, Mandarin and Korean, with other languages to follow.

    It is the latest in a series of telephone conversation translators to launch in recent months.

    Lexifone and Vocre have developed other products.

    Alacatel-Lucent and Microsoft are among those working on other solutions.

    The products have the potential to let companies avoid having to use specially trained multilingual staff, helping them cut costs. They could also aid tourism.

    However, the software involved cannot offer perfect translations, limiting its use in some situations.

  • Breast Cancer Cases Increasing

    Rwanda is recording a rise in cases of breast cancer.

    According to the division in charge of fighting Non Communicable Diseases at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), since 2009 the cases have increased.

    Dr Leonard Kayonde, Director of Cancer Diseases Unit said though the prevalence of breast cancer is still unknown, there are cases that have been reported, and documented.

    “There 66 cases in 2009, 79 cases were reported; in 2010 and 103 cases of breast cancer were recorded in 2011,” he said.

    Medics have not established the real cause of cancer but there are risk factors that cannot be prevented; aging, genetic risk factors (inherited), family history, personal history and menstrual cycle, among others.

    However, there are lifestyle risks which individuals can avoid in order to prevent breast cancer like oral contraceptive use, hormone replacement therapy, alcohol use, obesity, high fat diets, physical inactivity, and smoking among others.

    Oda Nsabimana a cancer survivor and a mother of four had the risk factor of age but up to now she is not aware of what caused breast cancer.

    “By then I was 41 years of age and I had stopped breast feeding my baby five months ago. I touched my breast and I felt a small swelling, I immediately had to visit the doctor,” she said adding the subsequent test proved she had the disease.

    The world has dedicated October as month for cancer awareness and several activities are being done in different parts of the world.

    In Rwanda, in observance of the month, awareness/fund raising event has been organised for Sunday, October 28, a walk aimed at raising awareness for breast cancer. “Ulinzi Walk” has been also organised on the same day to be followed by discussions, breast self examination demonstration, and health exercises.

    “In regards with screening we carry out Clinical Breast Exam (CBE) performed by community health workers, and other providers, primarily at the health centre level,” said Kayonde, explaining the purpose of the campaign.

    NewTimes

  • Rwanda at Risk of Marburg Disease

    Rwanda is at risk of attack by a deadly Marburg disease which has been confirmed in the Ugandan district of Kabale.

    Five Ugandans have already succumbed to the deadly virus.

    Kabale district of Uganda Borders Rwanda. Its also where Katuna Border crossing is located….a major interuction point between Rwanda and Uganda on a daily basis.

    Ugandan media has reported that in Kabale District, four members of the same family reportedly died of Marburg disease.

    It has also been reported that A case of yellow fever was confirmed in the northern district of Agago.

    Uganda health officials have confirmed an outbreak of deadly yellow fever, Marburg and Hepatitis B.

    Marburg virus (MARV) causes severe disease in humans and nonhuman primates in the form of viral hemorrhagic fever.

    Marburg virus was first recognized in 1967, when outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia).

    The first people infected had been exposed to African green monkeys or their tissues. In Marburg, the monkeys had been imported for research and to prepare polio vaccine.

  • DRC to Connect to Submarine Optical Fiber

    DRC is expected to get connected to the Optical fiber The Managing Director of the Company Congolese General of Posts and Telecommunications (SCPT), Placide Mbatika said October 18.

    Mbatika said the work of installing transmission equipment will start next Monday at the Moanda landing station, where the DRC must be connected to the optical fiber.

    According to Mbatika, the connection to the optical fiber must be made two weeks after the beginning of this work.

    However,Mbatika said that the commercialization of the connection will begin three months later.

    DRC missed a first opportunity to connect to the fiber in May. Thirteen other African countries had done at the start of the project WACS (West African Cable system submarin).

    This project Telecom giant MTN aims to connect fourteen African countries to use fiber optic broadband internet.

    “The DRC has not been connected because we’re a little behind the construction of the landfall to be connected to the optical fiber.

    In two months, the work [construction of this station] will be finished, “said Mbatika who attended the launch of the WACS in South Africa.

    Arrested at the National Assembly in June, about this failure, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Kin-Kiey Mulumba, said connecting the DRC to the optical fiber was blocked following the hijacking of the US$3 million for this operation.

  • Ugandan Doctor Invents Microchip to Diagnose TB

    A Ugandan doctor Dr Frederick Balagadde has invented a microfluidic chip to test for tuberculosis that can do the work of dozens of laboratory technicians, saving time and money.

    Dr. Balagadde has now brought the technology to Durban, South Africa where a new $40m centre for HIV and tuberculosis research has opened.

    Balagadde hopes to develop his invention further and engage in cutting-edge research in an area suffering from these two major epidemics.

    South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world and because tuberculosis flourishes in people with deficient immune systems it is the leading cause of death in HIV patients.

  • Amateur Astronomers Discover Planet with Four Suns

    This week, reality trumped (science) fiction with an image even more enthralling: two amateur astronomers poring through data from deep, distant skies and discovering a planet with four suns.

    NASA’s website calls the phenomenon a circumbinary planet, or a planet that orbits two suns.

    Rare enough on its own — only six other circumbinary planets are known to exist — this planet is orbited by two more distant stars, making it the first known quadruple sun system.

    Researchers presented the finding Monday night at the annual meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Reno, Nevada.

    The discovery of the four-sun planet by amateur scientists takes crowd sourcing to new heights.

    The expression, coined by Wired magazine editor Jeff Howe, describes tasks that are outsourced to a disparate group of people to come up with a solution.

    In this case, the Planet Hunters group made data from NASA’s $600 million Kepler telescope available to the public through its website and coordinates their findings with Yale astronomers.

    In combing through the data, “Citizen scientists” Robert Gagliano and Kian Jek spied anomalies that confirmed the existence of the special planet, now known as PH1 — short for Planet Hunters 1 — the first heavenly body found by the online citizen science project.

    The planet is a little bigger than Neptune, with a radius about six times greater than Earth.

    “I celebrate this discovery for the wow-factor of a planet in a four-star system,” said Natalie Batalha, a Kepler scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California.

    “Most importantly, I celebrate this discovery as the fruit of exemplary human cooperation — cooperation between scientists and citizens who give of themselves for the love of stars, knowledge, and exploration.”

  • Microsoft launches New Music Service

    Microsoft announced October 15, it was launching a music service which offers free streaming for computers and tablets with the new Windows operating system to be launched this month.

    The Xbox Music service will allow users to stream custom-created playlists for free, along with music subscriptions and downloads, which will be managed in the Internet cloud to enable access on tablets, PCs, phones and television.

    Microsoft said the new service will be “on par with iTunes,” the leading music service from Apple, with a global catalog of more than 30 million songs.

    It will begin rolling out around the world this week on Xbox 360 and later this month on Windows PCs and tablets and on mobile phones.

    “The launch of Xbox Music is a milestone in simplifying digital music on every type of device and on a global scale,” said Don Mattrick, president of interactive entertainment at Microsoft.

    “We’re breaking down the walls that fracture your music experiences today to ensure that music is better and integrated across the screens that you care about most — your tablet, PC, phone and TV.”

  • Belgium Donates CT-Scan Equipment to CHUK

    Aho_basuzumira_abarwayi_bakoresheje_CT_Scan.jpg
    The University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK) has for long faced a challenge of shortage of oxygen and the lack of a latest technological CT scan (64 slices) for precise imagery diagnostic.

    “Having a CT scan and Oxygen plant improved health care service delivery in CHUK,” the Medical Director Dr. Martin Nyundo revealed October 9.

    ‘Before getting the CT Scan, we used to transfer our patients to the King Faisal Hospital but now all diagnostic services are done within our hospital without waste of time and money.

    Introduction of CT Scan brought a tremendous change,” said Radiologist Dr. Kalisa Louise.

    Dr. Nyundo added that every day around 20 patients need to pass through CT scan for accurate diagnostic.

    It is in this regard, the Belgium Development Agency (BTC) through Institutional Support Program to the Conception and Implementation of a Strategic Health Development Plan for Kigali City (PAPSDSK) donated a 64 slices CT scan, X-ray digitalize equipment to handle all diagnostic services and Oxygen production plant to improve health care and service delivery in CHUK.

    For the Oxygen power plant , the Medical Director Dr Nyundo furthered saying that the health services of CHUK used to cost approximately Frw 300, 000, 000 per year for oxygen when the hospital buys it from private companies.

    “But we are currently spending less due to the donated Oxygen power plant,” explained Dr. Nyundo.

    According to the Biomedical Engineer of PAPSDSK, Marc Myszkowski, “it was an urgent concerted need to give a CT Scan to CHUK to facilitate diagnostic services because there was only one hospital of King Faisal with an operational CT scan in the country in 2010”.

    He added that as (PAPSDSK) has an objective of improving healthcare of Kigali City, the oxygen production plant was also given to CHUK to handle the instant shortage of oxygen which is highly needed in many hospital departments to the rest district hospitals of Kigali City.

    The project of CT scan has taken over 1 million Euros including a three years full maintenance contract while the Oxygen plant is over Euros 400 000.

  • Tomatoes May Cut Stroke Risk by 55%

    A diet rich in tomatoes may reduce the risk of having a stroke, according to researchers in Finland.

    They were investigating the impact of lycopene – a bright red chemical found in tomatoes, peppers and water-melons.

    A study of 1,031 men, published in the journal Neurology, showed those with the most lycopene in their bloodstream were the least likely to have a stroke.

    The Stroke Association called for more research into why lycopene seemed to have this effect.

    The levels of lycopene in the blood were assessed at the beginning of the study, which then followed the men for the next 12 years.

    They were split into four groups based on the amount of lycopene in their blood.

    There were 25 strokes in the 258 men in the low lycopene group and 11 strokes out of the 259 men in the high lycopene group.

    The study said the risk of stroke was cut by 55% by having a diet rich in lycopene.

    Dr Clare Walton, from the Stroke Association, said: “This study suggests that an antioxidant which is found in foods such as tomatoes, red peppers and water-melons could help to lower our stroke risk.

    “However, this research should not deter people from eating other types of fruit and vegetables as they all have health benefits and remain an important part of a staple diet.

    BBC