Web Desk
-
Kids and parents worry about schoolwork after concussions
Studies in the last five years have focused largely on the athletic side of the equation – “taking them off the field, not putting them back on the field with symptoms, but this is really looking at the student side of the equation,” said senior author Gerard A. Gioia of Children’s National Health System in Rockville, Maryland.
A toolkit called HEADS UP to Schools, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, already advises school professionals that after a concussion, kids may need to spend fewer hours at school, take more time for tests or assignments, or may feel frustrated at being unable to keep up with schoolwork. Students should be seen by a health care professional, who can make decisions about school readiness based on symptoms.
The new results “support what we thought was happening,” Gioia told Reuters Health by phone.
He and his coauthors surveyed 239 pairs of kids and their parents, plus another 110 kids’ parents, after the kids were treated at an outpatient concussion clinic within 28 days of the injury, after they had returned to school. The youngsters ranged in age from 5 to 18.
Kids and parents reported post-injury academic experiences and concerns.
Based on neurocognitive tests at the clinic, only 109 of the 349 students, or 31 percent, were recovered from their concussion and no longer had symptoms.
Almost 60 percent of kids with symptoms, and 64 percent of their parents, said they were moderately or very concerned about the concussion affecting school learning and performance, compared to 16 percent of recovered kids and 30 percent of their parents.
More high schoolers than middle school or elementary school students said they were concerned about their schoolwork, the researchers reported in Pediatrics.
More symptomatic kids reported having headaches interfere with school, problems paying attention or feeling too tired than kids without symptoms.
More than half of symptomatic kids said they were now spending more time on homework, compared to one-fifth of those without symptoms. They also reported more difficulty studying and taking class notes.
“The persistence of symptoms clearly is the most significant factor in academic impact,” said Susan Saliba, a physical therapist, athletic trainer and associate professor at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
The results reinforce that symptoms should be the guide in return to learn programs, Saliba, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health by email.
“Anxiety, sleeplessness and moodiness are symptoms of concussion, but are strongly associated with adolescent behavior and any external stress,” she said. Having a plan in place helps alleviate stress, she said.
“The academic impact does differ depending on the kind of demand that a student experiences,” Gioia said. “High schools students were reporting significantly greater concern, and a higher number of problems in school relative to middle school and younger students.”
High school tests and timelines have implications for graduation and college, which could be a source of concern, he said.
“Concussions vary widely, generally speaking we want kids to get back into school as soon as they can tolerate it,” Gioia said.
Most are ready by two to three days of restful downtime after the injury, he said.
“School systems need to be prepared to accept and support these kids heading back into classrooms before full recovery,” which requires collaboration between medical professionals and school staff, he said. – Reuters
-
London-bound traveller causes Paris chaos with World War shell
“Towards the end of the morning, a passenger heading for Britain tried to catch a train with a World War I or World War II shell in his bag,” a spokesperson for national rail firm SNCF said.
“Bomb disposal experts had to be called in and all the passengers were evacuated” from the main hall at the Gare du Nord, which services international departures and arrivals and long-distance domestic trains.
Adding to the traffic problems were two separate incidents near the Gare du Nord — an electrical fire on a nearby building site and passengers on the track.
Traffic was slowly returning to normal, the SNCF official told AFP. -AFP
-
PPP says action against Zulfiqar Mirza ‘legal’
She was talking to media after meeting special assistant to CM Sindh, Akhter Jadoon at his residence in Karachi.
Sherry Rehman entirely negated the perception that Peoples Party victimized anyone including Zulfikar Mirza on political basis.
“However, when Mirza violated the law at a police station in Badin and caused unrest, then an action was taken against him in accordance with all legal procedures,” she said.
Moreover, Ms Rehman said that her party has kicked off preparations for local body elections and will secure considerable seats.
-
KP lawmakers to stage dharna outside Parliament House today
Qaumi Watan Party and Pakistan People’s Party have announced their support for the protest, while Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam has voiced in opposition of such a plan.
KP Finance Minister Mushtaq Ghani said the federal government was not releasing outstanding amount in connection to power sector.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the KP lawmakers had been allowed to hold peaceful protest outside the Parliament House in Islamabad. He added that irrelevant persons will be barred from red zone in Islamabad.
Any person found/seen involved in vandalism will be strictly dealt as per law, said the spokesperson.
Imran Khan’s admonitions
PTI chief Imran Khan said his party would welcome parties joining the protest today. He stated this while presiding over a meeting of KP lawmakers in Islamabad.
This is a trailer for the government to mend its ways, warned Imran.
-
U.S., allies conduct 18 air strikes against Islamic State militants: military
Most of the Syrian strikes, six, hit targets near Al Hasakah, where they destroyed Islamic State fighting positions, vehicles, mortar positions, heavy machine guns and a supply point.
There were also air strikes near Ar Raqqah and Kobani, according to a military state.
In Iraq, forces struck targets near Bayji, Fallujah, Haditha, Mosul, Ramadi and Sinjar.
-
Moroccan F-16 jet from Saudi-led coalition in Yemen goes missing
The disappearance of the Moroccan jet and intensifying duels of heavy-weapons fire across the border between the Iran-allied Houthis and Saudi forces could endanger a five-day humanitarian truce due to start in Yemen on Tuesday morning.
Saudi-led air strikes hit military bases and weapons stores in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on Monday evening, setting off huge blasts that residents said launched rockets into the air which then crashed back down.
“The violent explosions can be heard from anywhere in the city and we feel they could land on our heads. We’re living a life of terror,” Sanaa resident Ahmed Fawaz said.
Backed by Washington, the Saudi-led coalition has been bombing Houthi rebels and army units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh since March 26 with the aim of restoring exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.
The Houthis’ ties to regional rival Iran have rattled the Gulf Arab states and the rebels remain the strongest force in Yemen’s civil war. Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, regards the Houthis’ rise as a grave threat.
Morocco is one of eight Arab states to have joined Saudi Arabia in the military intervention against Houthi advances.
“One of the F-16s of the Royal Armed Force put at the disposal of the coalition led by Saudi Arabia to restore the legitimacy in Yemen went missing on Sunday at 6 p.m. local time,” Morocco’s military said in a statement on Monday.
The Houthis’ official news channel al-Masirah said on Monday that anti-aircraft guns had downed an F-16 over in the remote Wadi Nashour area in the northwestern province of Saada, a Houthi stronghold bordering on Saudi Arabia.
The channel showed gun-toting tribesmen on a rocky hillside pumping their fists and chanting, “Death to America!” One man, holding a piece of what looked like aircraft wreckage, said: “God felled this plane. Even though our weapons are basic and modest, we’ll shoot down all their planes, God willing.”
A Yemeni Twitter account published photos of what it described as the body of a pilot.
BORDER WAR
In the border fighting, the Houthis said they fired Katyusha rockets and mortars on the Saudi cities of Jizan and Najran near the frontier on Monday, after the Saudis hit Saada and Hajjah provinces in Yemen with more than 150 rockets.
A spokesman for the Najran civil defense department said that a school and house were hit and a Pakistani expatriate was killed and four people were wounded including a Saudi child.
Saudi-owned Ekhbariya TV showed Saudi buildings ripped open by apparent artillery shells but said there were no casualties. Houthi TV reported Saudi artillery and air strikes on civilian areas and said 13 people were killed.
Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television said Riyadh had deployed a “strike force” to its border with Yemen and showed a column of military trucks carrying tanks bound for the frontier, in an apparent escalation of its preparedness for a border war.
More than six weeks of air strikes by jets from the Sunni Muslim Gulf monarchies have failed to significantly push back the Shi’ite Muslim Houthis and militia and army units loyal to Saleh, who was forced from power by a popular uprising in 2011.
At least 10 Saudi soldiers and border guards have been killed by shelling across the border.
On Monday evening, residents of the southern port of Mukalla said an apparent American drone strike killed four local leaders of al Qaeda, which has capitalized on the breakdown in state order to operate openly in the city and parts of south Yemen.
The Houthis accepted a five-day humanitarian ceasefire proposed by Saudi Arabia on Sunday but said they would respond to any violations of the pause.
Riyadh had said on Friday the truce could begin on Tuesday if the Shi’ite militia agreed to the calm, which would let in badly needed food and medical supplies for civilians caught in zones of conflict.
A group of 17 international humanitarian groups working in Yemen said on Sunday that a five-day truce was not enough to provide sufficient relief to the large number of Yemenis affected by the crisis. They demanded a permanent ceasefire to halt a “rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis”.
-
King’s absence from U.S. summit shows Saudi displeasure over Iran push
Analysts and diplomats in the Middle East described King Salman’s decision to skip the meeting at Camp David this week as a snub, despite denials from U.S. officials and some Saudi insiders.
Riyadh announced the monarch’s no-show on Sunday, only two days after the White House had said he would attend the summit of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states – some of which have long doubted Obama’s commitment to confronting Iranian backing of Shi’ite Muslim militias across the region.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who has strong ties with the U.S. political and security establishment, will represent Saudi Arabia at the May 13-14 gathering along with Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the defense minister. Since Salman took power in January, the pair have determined most aspects of Saudi policy.
The leading Gulf Arab power has complained for years that Washington does not take its concerns seriously. It thinks a focus on settling the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program has distracted the United States from more urgent problems.
“The conspiracy theorists of old have been proven right. The U.S. creates threats for us and then offers us more weapons systems. That does not bode well for us,” said Sami Alfaraj, a Kuwaiti security adviser to the six-nation GCC.
Riyadh believes Iranian support for militias in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen is the biggest cause of regional instability, aggravating sectarian tensions, undermining strong government and boosting Sunni Muslim jihadists.
The Saudis fear Obama sees a settlement between world powers and Tehran as his legacy. Such a deal on the nuclear program – which the West believes may be aimed at building weapons despite Iranian denials – could lift international sanctions without taming the country’s regional ambitions, they think.
Washington has repeatedly promised to help curb Iran’s activities, offering the Gulf Arabs new weapons and backing a Saudi-led coalition against Yemeni rebels allied to Tehran.
Backing from the GCC – made up of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman – is important for Obama to show Congress that the Iran deal has broad regional support, despite Israeli opposition.
Salman expressed guarded support for a framework nuclear agreement reached last month, but insists any accord must be robust, verifiable and no threat to Tehran’s neighbors.Saudi insiders are worried that by easing sanctions on Tehran, Iran will have more scope to back the proxies that Riyadh opposes across the Middle East.
NEW WEAPONS
Secretary of State John Kerry has tried to reassure the Gulf states that Washington will not accept a bad nuclear deal, saying the Camp David discussions would flesh out commitments that will create “a new security understanding” with the GCC.
Washington is also poised to offer new weapons under a push for a GCC shared missile defense system, senior U.S. officials said last week.
Obama’s support for the Yemen campaign, despite strategic and humanitarian reservations, also signaled American commitment to Riyadh’s security.
However, these gestures may not have won over the Saudis. “Their experience of six years from Obama is assurances, promises, nice words. But at the end of the day they got nothing in their hands,” said Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi security analyst with close ties to the Saudi crown prince’s Interior Ministry.
He said Riyadh regarded U.S. support for the Yemen campaign, which included intelligence sharing, logistics and expediting weapons deliveries, as a quid pro quo for Saudi blessing of an Iran deal, which both sides are aiming to complete by June.
But Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political scientist in the UAE, underlined the regional doubts. “We still think deeply that Iran is a destabilizing force and with the nuclear deal it is going to be even more destabilizing. So I think fundamentally we – the GCC and the U.S – are not on the same page anymore,” he said.
NEW GENERATION
The decision to send Mohammed bin Nayef and Mohammed bin Salman may simply be aimed at accelerating a move toward a new generation, said Jamal Khashoggi, general manager of al-Arab television station.
“Saudi Arabia understands America is important and wants to continue working with it, especially at this time. We are undergoing a major reconstruction effort in the region that requires American support,” he said.
Some diplomats in the region believe the absence from Camp David of King Salman and close ally King Hamad of Bahrain, host of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, may backfire.
A Saudi decision in 2013 to vacate a seat on the United Nations Security Council that it had spent years seeking, followed by a leak of angry comments about Washington by then spy chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, failed to change U.S. policy.
“Of course it (Salman’s non-appearance) is a snub. But I don’t think Obama is going to put up with this. He wants the nuclear deal. It is the number one priority,” said a Western diplomat based in the region.
-
Pakistan to get $506 mn tranche from IMF next month
He was briefing media along with IMF Mission Chief Harald Finger in Islamabad.
The Finance Minister said revenue collection by FBR (Federal Bureau of Revenue) in first ten months of the current financial year is 1,969 billion, which is 12.8% increase over 1,745 billion rupees of comparable period last year.
He said Pakistan is determined to achieve the fiscal deficit target of 4.9% this year and next year’s target has been kept at 4.3% in view of expenditure on Operation Zarb-e-Azb and rehabilitation of internally displaced persons.
The Finance Minister said foreign exchange reserves with State Bank of Pakistan were 17.6 billion dollar and the Government has a target of crossing the level of reserves above 18.5 billion dollars in coming Ramazan.
Mr. Dar said National Identity Card number would be the tax number from next financial year.