Latest news with #AllIndiaInstituteofMedicalSciences
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
HC directs former MP to deposit Rs 5 lakh for PIL on pastor death
Vijayawada: The high court on Wednesday directed former MP G V Harsha Kumar to deposit Rs 5 lakh with the registry to prove his bona fides in filing the PIL petition seeking a judicial inquiry into the death of pastor Praveen Pagadala. The HC bench headed by Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Cheemalapati Ravi observed that Praveen was seen purchasing liquor in the CCTV footage and later driving his bike, which the bench said was a dangerous combination. The bench also asked whether any material was available suggesting it as murder. Harsha Kumar filed the PIL seeking a judicial inquiry with a sitting judge of the high court and a re-postmortem with forensic experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Arguing on his behalf, advocate Balaiah said there were many doubts over the death of Praveen and the investigation being done by the police. The bench asked why another PIL was filed when two similar petitions were already pending. The bench also asked why the petitioner filed a PIL when he was not related to the deceased. Directing the registry to tag the petition with those filed earlier, the high court clarified that the hearing would be taken up only after depositing the money with the registry.
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Business Standard
2 days ago
- Science
- Business Standard
How an AI bot cracked the tough NEET exam, beating most human scores
The results of India's competitive medical entrance examination — the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2025 — have recently been announced, but it wasn't just human aspirants in the race this year. As students tackled the high-stakes paper, Allen, one of the country's leading coaching institutes, quite literally put its AI-powered bot 'Allie' to the test. As a result, while Allen's top-performing student, Tanmay Jagga, secured an All India Rank (AIR) of 74 with 650 out of 720 marks, Allie outshone him by some margin with 678 marks, a score likely to fetch a candidate a top-10 rank and a seat at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, according to the coaching institute. Thankfully, the bot has not been developed to directly compete with students but to build trust in the AI-driven complimentary support system offered to students for academic problem-solving. "We are pedagogically and result-wise quite sound but there was always a scope for improvement. We realised that apart from in-class learning, a lot happens outside of class where students practice, have doubts, and get stuck," said Ankit Khurana, Allen's chief product officer on the company's motivation behind the bot. "In this journey, students face several challenges but teachers can't be a support for every student. So, we thought our digital platform could be a companion for students. With that philosophy, we created 'Allie'." According to data shared by the institute's chief technology officer Saurabh Tandon, over 90,000 students used the bot to solve nearly 600,000 queries last month. Out of these, roughly 80 per cent of doubts were immediately responded to while the rest were transferred to a human teacher for resolution. Allie, who somewhat resembles ChatGPT in appearance, answers the questions within seconds but for complex questions, such as those comprising images, it can take up to three minutes, Tandon said. The bot was initially launched in December 2024 and was trained for biology subjects but by March 2025, it covered almost the entire syllabus for the NEET examination, barring some topics like organic chemistry. That omission could explain why Allie got two questions wrong and didn't attempt eight questions in the NEET exam. As for the underlying technology, the company said it relies on a proprietary verifier model and a dynamic routing system. While a proprietary verifier model refers to the use of targeted strategies to verify answers by cross-referencing them with curated study content, including theory and Q&A (question and answers) archives, the dynamic routing system sends queries to a suitable language model based on the problem type (image-based, text-based, or reasoning-based question), and other metrics. Going forward, the company plans to train the bot with the NEET examination syllabus in its entirety while also assisting students preparing for other examinations such as the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission to undergraduate engineering programs. In the ecosystem of Allen, around 5 lakh students prepare for JEE and NEET examinations as paid subscribers. "The interaction with Allie has grown roughly six times in the last six months, that's something which we did not expect. The amount of interaction that happened was unprecedented. As we improve the technology, we will do the same for JEE examination. We will also keep on refining the bot for NEET in terms of the quality of answers and conversation," Khurana said.
The Hindu
4 days ago
- Health
- The Hindu
Warmer climate could make sleep apnoea more severe, common, study finds
Sleep apnoea, a condition characterised by having trouble breathing properly while sleeping, could become more common and severe in a warmer future, a new study has found. Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) is a common sleep disorder, estimated to affect about a billion worldwide. The condition occurs when muscles in the throat narrow the airways, impacting breathing and blood oxygen levels during sleep. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, show that one's chances of experiencing sleep apnoea could spike by 45 per cent on days with higher temperatures. The effect is projected to be stronger in European countries. However, chances of these effects in populations of countries with a lower gross domestic product per capita, including India, Israel and Brazil, are higher, the study found. Lead author Bastien Lechat from Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute Sleep Health, Australia, said the study helps "understand how environmental factors like climate might affect health by investigating whether ambient temperatures influence the severity of OSA." The study also projected that the burden, impacts, and costs of obstructive sleep apnoea could double by 2100, under a warming of 1.8 degrees Celsius in global ambient temperature above pre-industrial levels. In 2023, the increased prevalence of sleep apnoea due to global warming was "associated with a loss of over 780,000 healthy life years and 105 million workplace productivity days across 29 countries," the authors wrote. The authors quantified well-being and productivity burden due to sleep apnoea. The overall loss was found to be USD 98 billion, with a workplace productivity loss of USD 30 billion, and a well-being loss of USD 68 billion. Study highlights The study is the first of its kind outlining how global warming could be expected to affect breathing during sleep and impact the world's health, wellbeing and economy, Lechat added. Studies have related sleep apnoea with an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease and mental conditions, including anxiety, depression, dementia and Parkinson's disease. More than 500 nights of sleep data of 116,620 people from across 41 countries -- a total of about 62 million nights -- were analysed. Data was gathered using a sensor placed under the participants' mattresses. The researchers then compared this sleep data with detailed 24-hour temperature information sourced from climate models. "Globally, higher temperatures were associated with a 45 per cent higher probability of having OSA (obstructive sleep apnoea) on a given night," the authors wrote. Further, "scenarios with projected temperatures (of over) 1.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels would incur a further 1.2 to 3-fold increase in OSA burden by 2100," the study said. A 2023 study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews, estimated that 104 million Indians of working age suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea, of whom nearly 50 per cent have it in a moderate or severe form.
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Health
- Indian Express
Is swaddling overheating your baby? Know how to avoid heat stroke in the newborn
Babies need an air-conditioned environment to avoid heat stroke. In fact, newborns are at a very high risk of hyperthermia or heat stroke because they have a very low weight, which means they can have only that much fluids but have a relatively high surface area for evaporation of water. 'What compounds the problem of sweating and water loss is the cultural belief that babies need to be kept warm. Everyone tends to wrap babies in an extra layer of clothing. They tend to not switch on coolers or air conditioners for the baby. But babies also need to be in a temperature controlled environment, especially when the outdoor temperatures are above 40 degree celsius,' says Dr Ramesh Agarwal, neonatal specialist at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. Babies can't regulate their body temperature as efficiently as adults, making them more susceptible to overheating from excessive clothing or blankets. 'Extra layers of clothing or swaddling can trap heat against the baby's skin, preventing it from dissipating and causing a rise in body temperature,' he adds. It is also important to ensure that infants are kept indoors when the day's temperatures are at their peak, say between 11 am and 5 or 6 pm. 'During these hours, all curtains should be drawn. The windows should be opened only after 6 pm to cool the house again,' says Dr Agarwal. Keep your baby hydrated. Dr Agarwal says that those below the age of six months should be exclusively breast-fed on demand. 'They should be given breast milk as many times as they want it,' he says. For those up to the age of two years, fluids should be given in addition to breast milk. The challenge is that even a little bit of water loss can be a lot for children. 'The amount of fluid in one's body is proportional to their weight. So, children tend to have very small reserves. If an adult loses even 500 ml of fluids, they can be okay. However, for a small child weighing say 12 kg, even the loss of 250 ml of fluid is a lot,' says Dr Nitin Verma, director of paediatrics at Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital. The most important thing for children is to maintain hydration, he says. 'They might not be able to articulate that they are thirsty or keep a track of how much they are drinking like adults do. Parents should ensure adequate fluid intake in the form of not just water but different drinks such as coconut water, lemon shikanji, chaach, lassi, fruit juices among others,' says Dr Verma. This, of course, does not include any aerated soft drinks that are usually loaded with a lot of sugars and can increase the thirst. Dr Agarwal suggests that parents carry a bottle of water and a bottle of ORS when heading out with children. 'When children sweat, they not only lose water but also other nutrients. ORS can play an important role in maintaining the sugar-salt balance,' he says. Dr Verma says a child below the age of 2 years may require just a litre of fluids a day. However, older children may need 2 litres or more. Children who are participating in various sports may need a little more. Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government's management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme. Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports. Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country's space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan. She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University's Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor's Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times. When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More
Time of India
4 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
Warmer climate could make sleep apnoea more severe, common, study finds
New Delhi: Sleep apnoea , a condition characterised by having trouble breathing properly while sleeping, could become more common and severe in a warmer future, a new study has found. Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) is a common sleep disorder, estimated to affect about a billion worldwide. The condition occurs when muscles in the throat narrow the airways, impacting breathing and blood oxygen levels during sleep. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, show that one's chances of experiencing sleep apnoea could spike by 45 per cent on days with higher temperatures. The effect is projected to be stronger in European countries. However, chances of these effects in populations of countries with a lower gross domestic product per capita, including India, Israel and Brazil, are higher, the study found. Lead author Dr Bastien Lechat from Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute Sleep Health, Australia, said the study helps "understand how environmental factors like climate might affect health by investigating whether ambient temperatures influence the severity of OSA." The study also projected that the burden, impacts, and costs of obstructive sleep apnoea could double by 2100, under a warming of 1.8 degrees Celsius in global ambient temperature above pre-industrial levels. In 2023, the increased prevalence of sleep apnoea due to global warming was "associated with a loss of over 780,000 healthy life years and 105 million workplace productivity days across 29 countries," the authors wrote. The authors quantified well-being and productivity burden due to sleep apnoea. The overall loss was found to be USD 98 billion, with a workplace productivity loss of USD 30 billion, and a well-being loss of USD 68 billion. The study is the first of its kind outlining how global warming could be expected to affect breathing during sleep and impact the world's health, wellbeing and economy, Lechat added. Studies have related sleep apnoea with an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease and mental conditions, including anxiety, depression, dementia and Parkinson's disease. More than 500 nights of sleep data of 116,620 people from across 41 countries -- a total of about 62 million nights -- were analysed. Data was gathered using a sensor placed under the participants' mattresses. The researchers then compared this sleep data with detailed 24-hour temperature information sourced from climate models. "Globally, higher temperatures were associated with a 45 per cent higher probability of having OSA (obstructive sleep apnoea) on a given night," the authors wrote. Further, "scenarios with projected temperatures (of over) 1.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels would incur a further 1.2 to 3-fold increase in OSA burden by 2100," the study said. A 2023 study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews, estimated that 104 million Indians of working age suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea, of whom nearly 50 per cent have it in a moderate or severe form.
