Can South Africa's justice system handle the Oscar Pistorius case? (+video)

The lead detective in the Oscar Pistorius murder case has been replaced. But can the South African police force recover from the mistakes made to date?

By Staff,?CSMonitor.com / February 21, 2013

Detective Hilton Botha sits inside the court witness box during the Oscar Pistorius bail hearing in Pretoria, South Africa. Botha is off the case, and now faces attempted murder charges himself over a 2011 shooting, police said Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013,

AP Photo/Themba Hadebe

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The lead investigator in the Oscar Pistorius murder case has been replaced. Why? Detective Hilton Botha himself now faces charges of attempted murder.

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Hilton Botha, the lead investigator in the Oscar Pistorius case was replaced Thursday. Botha faces attempted murder charges.

Yes, the detective investigating the murder of Reeve Steenkamp had attempted murder charges reinstated on Feb. 4 ? some 10 days before the Pistorius case. Botha and two other police officers face seven counts of attempted murder in a 2011 shooting incident. The drunk policemen allegedly fired at a minibus they were trying to stop.

In an attempt to rebound from this setback, South Africa's National Police Commission Riah Phiyega said Thursday that a team of "highly skilled and experienced' detectives will now take over the investigation. South African Olympic runner Pistorius faces a premeditated murder charge for the killing of his girlfriend Reeva SteenKamp.

But this sudden removal of Botha, in addition to his testimony during three days of bail hearings, is raising questions not only about the quality of the prosecution's case but the effectiveness of South Africa's judicial system.

During Thursday's bail hearing, Pistorius's defense attorney Barry Roux cast doubt on the version of events given by Botha on previous days.? Prosecutors claimed Steenkamp had fled to the bathroom after a fight, fearing an enraged Pistorius. But Pistorius's version of events was that she had gone to the bathroom to relieve herself, and he didn't know it was her behind the door when he fired the gun four times. He thought she was an intruder.

On Thursday, Botha conceded that the angle of the shots was consistent with Pistorius's version of events.

As The Guardian live blog on the case reported:

"Defence lawyer Barry Roux said that Steenkamp?s bladder was empty when she died, indicating she had indeed got up to use the toilet. Usually at 3am you would not find an empty bladder, Roux said. Roux said Steenkamp?s autopsy showed no sign of defensive wounds or an assault. Botha said that was correct. Roux said that Steenkamp might have locked the toilet door to protect herself when she heard Pistorius shouting that there was a burglar. And he said that Botha could not say for sure that the shots were fired from 1.5m away and at the angle he described ? and Botha admitted he couldn?t be sure about that. Roux also criticised Botha?s handling of the crime scene, saying the police had failed to find a bullet cartridge and that Botha had walked in to the house without protective feet covers on, contaminating the scene."

And there were other mistakes that came to light on Wednesday, as The Christian Science Monitor reported, "Police ... left a 9 mm slug from the barrage that killed Reeva Steenkamp inside a toilet and lost track of illegal ammunition found inside the house."

"Unfortunately there are too many instances of poor police work," Gerhard Kemp, a professor of criminal law at the University of Stellenbosch, told Reuters. "It's absolutely not CSI. It's a totally different world."

On Thursday, Desmond Nair, the magistrate in charge of the bail hearing, also raised questions about the competence of Botha's work, asking why the police hadn't acquired Steenkamp's phone records yet.

"Do you agree that [if] the deceased received SMSs or Phonecalls at 3 a.m., would it change the position of case?" the judge asked.

Pistorius's attroney, Roux pressed his advantage Thursday. "The poor quality of the evidence offered by investigative officer Botha exposed the disastrous shortcomings of the state's case," Roux said. "We cannot sit back and take comfort that he [Botha] is telling the truth."

Asked about Botha's court performance and handling of the investigation, National Police Commission Phiyega said South Africa's police force "can stand on its own" compared to others around the world, according to The Associated Press.

And Reuters reports:

With huge international media interest in the case against a global celebrity, many South Africans feel that apparent initial slip-ups by the police are hurting the country's image.

"Bring someone from outside to sort out this mess," said businessman Godfrey Baloyi. "The whole justice system needs an overhaul."

The bail hearing in Pretoria is scheduled to continue on Friday.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/P76Hp9gzA4s/Can-South-Africa-s-justice-system-handle-the-Oscar-Pistorius-case-video

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With Its New Medical Language iPad App, Swiftkey Edges Closer To The iOS Platform

Switftkey ? the intuitive typing interface for smartphones which has made its way into some Android phones and is reputedly behind the new BlackBerry touchscreen keyboard (though the company declines to comment or confirm) ? is edging closer to the iOS platform. Today it announced exclusively with TechCrunch at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, that it is launching an iPad typing app aimed at the lucrative Healthcare market.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/NQ8c3NLM_dA/

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The 2013 Bunny Dash 5k provides students and members of the ...

Posted on 26 February 2013.

Beth Godwin congratulates Wayne Glass at the finish line of the Bunny Dash 5K last year. (Photo courtesy of R&C Services)

Pensacola prides itself in its foot races, with the hosting of the Double Bridge Run, McGuire?s St. Patrick?s Day 5K, the recent Jubilee Run, Walk or Drag with Color and several others.

The University of West Florida holds two races every year: the Ghost Chase 5K in the fall semester and the Bunny Dash 5K in spring.

Runners will head to the Multipurpose Fields for the Bunny Dash 5K on the morning of March 30. They will be trekking through 3.1 miles of the cross country trails at the Edward Ball Nature Trail.

Light refreshments will be provided. Bunny costumes are encouraged.

?For Halloween, people dress up way more, of course,? said Jennifer Hernandez, the supervisor for Fitness and Wellness at the Health, Leisure and Sports Facility. ?For Bunny Dash, people wear bunny ears or they paint their faces.?

The Bunny Dash 5K is open to the public. Registration can be completed online at www.uwf.edu/recreation/FitnessWellness/bunnydash1.cfm or in person at the front desk downstairs in the HLS Facility. Students can register at no cost for the race with a valid Nautilus card. Faculty, staff and community members will be charged a $15 registration fee until March 23, but after March 23, the fee will increase to $20.

The race is limited to 150 runners. Hernandez said that more runners come from the community than the university.

?It?s a mix, but there are actually more community members, a lot of older alumni,? Hernandez said. ?They bring their kids or grandchildren. Out of 150, there?s probably 70 that are actual students.?

James Barnett, a sophomore pre-professional biology major, will participate again this year.

?When a lot of people show up to races, it makes it enjoyable,? Barnett said in an email interview. ?5K races are something I always look forward to because it gives me a chance to meet new people who share the love for running.?

Barnett placed first with a time of 19 minutes and 16 seconds in the men?s division last spring.

The race will begin at 9:00 a.m. and is hosted by Recreation and Sports Services at the university. For more information about the Bunny Dash 5K, contact Beth Godwin at erg1@students.uwf.edu.

Kristine Medina
Staff Writer

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Source: http://www.thevoyager.net/2013/02/the-2013-bunny-dash-5k-provides-students-and-members-of-the-community-a-fun-way-to-burn-off-all-those-pre-easter-candy-calories/

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The Consmer: Questions About a Robotic Surgery

Ever since it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2005, robotic surgery for hysterectomy has been heavily advertised. Surgeons promise that using the da Vinci robotic device will bring better results and an easier recovery, and many hospitals claim that patients will experience less pain and fewer complications, getting back on their feet faster.

The company that makes da Vinci robotic surgery equipment promoted it last May at free health workshops organized by the federal Office on Womens? Health. On Sunday, the Liberty Science Museum in Jersey City will host its first ?Let?s Operate Day,? offering guests ?hands-on? practice peering into video monitors and using da Vinci?s robot arms to pick up and manipulate small objects.

The cost of the new technology is rarely mentioned. But last week, a new study that evaluated outcomes in more than a quarter of a million American women raised questions about the manufacturer?s claims. The paper, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, compared outcomes in 264,758 women who had either laparoscopic or robotically assisted hysterectomy at 441 hospitals between 2007 and 2010. Both methods are minimally invasive and involve smaller incisions than open abdominal surgery.

The researchers found no overall difference in complication rates between the two groups, and no difference in the rates of blood transfusion, even though one of the claims regarding robotic surgery is that it causes less blood loss.

But the researchers did find a big difference in cost. Robotically assisted surgery for hysterectomy costs on average about one-third more than laparoscopic surgery.

?It?s important to separate the marketing from the data,? said Dr. Jason D. Wright, the study?s lead author, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University Medical Center. ?For the surgeon, there is a greater degree of movement and control of the instruments and the visualization is better.

?But the ultimate question is, does this change outcomes for patients? This study suggests that there really is not a lot of difference as far as quantifiable outcomes.?

The majority of patients in both groups left the hospital in less than two days, though patients who had robotic surgery were slightly more likely to go home that early: 80 percent went home in less than two days, compared with 75 percent of those who had laparoscopic surgery.

But the cost of robotic surgeries was significantly higher, with a median cost to the hospital of $8,868, compared with $6,679 for laparoscopic hysterectomy. The study did not look at the difference in patients? bills, but according to Newchoicehealth.com, the average patient price for a laparoscopic hysterectomy ranges from $7,700 in Dallas to $11,600 in Los Angeles.

With laparoscopic surgery ? sometimes called keyhole surgery ? narrow instruments and a small video camera are inserted through tiny incisions; the surgeon sees the image on a monitor and can cut and sew tissue with the instruments. With robotically assisted surgery, the surgeon sits at a console with a 3-dimensional view of the surgical site, and computer technology translates his or her hand movements into precise, scaled movements of the instruments.

Even without offering clear advantages the proportion of hysterectomies performed robotically has increased rapidly, up to nearly 10 percent of hysterectomies in 2010 from less than 1 percent in 2007, Dr. Wright said. Minimally invasive surgeries for hysterectomies are increasing across the board, he found, even at hospitals not performing robotic surgery.

Dr. Myriam J. Curet, chief medical adviser to Intuitive Surgical, which makes the da Vinci systems, did not dispute the study?s findings, but said the important message was that more women were able to receive minimally invasive surgeries because more options were available.

?That?s good for patients and for the health care system,? Dr. Curet said. Women who are not candidates for laparoscopic surgery might still be candidates for robotically-assisted surgery, she added.

Right now, however, it is not clear how to identify which women would benefit from robotic surgery and which would do well with a less expensive method.

The growing use of robotic surgery in hospitals will continue to drive up health costs, said Joel S. Weissman, of Brigham and Women?s Hospital and a co-author of an editorial published with the study.

?Once you have that robot, the tendency is to use it for all kinds of things, for which it may or may not have great value,? Dr. Weissman said. Studies like this one, he said, demonstrate the waste of health care dollars on ?something that costs a lot more and doesn?t offer any added benefit over current treatment options.?

Each year approximately 600,000 American women have hysterectomies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By age 60, one in three American women has had her uterus removed, often along with her ovaries and cervix.

Critics who say far too many hysterectomies are done in the United States worry that all the attention to surgical method distracts from the question of whether patients should be having the surgery at all.

Most hysterectomies are prescribed for conditions that are not life-threatening, and advocates worry that women are not fully informed of the long-term harms, which may include a loss of sexual responsiveness, depression and chronic constipation, and higher risk for osteoporosis and heart disease, said Nora W. Coffey, the founder of the nonprofit Hysterectomy Educational Resources and Services Foundation.

?That?s the conversation we should be having,? Ms. Coffey said.

---

Nora W. Coffey and other experts emphasize that women considering a hysterectomy should discuss all options with their doctors.

?Ask what the alternatives are and whether watchful waiting is an option. Remember that it is irreversible, regardless of how the surgery is done.

?Learn about the nonreproductive functions of the uterus, ovaries and cervix, and the potential long-term consequences associated with their removal, as well as the function of the ovaries and cervix.

?If you proceed, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different surgical methods with your doctor. Interview several surgeons and inquire about the cost and how much insurance will cover. Your co-pay may vary depending on the surgical method.

?Tell your surgeon if you do not want your ovaries and cervix removed.

Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/questions-about-a-robotic-surgery/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Apple Patents Situational Awareness And Location Information Sharing For Mobile Devices

Apple was issued a couple of interesting new patents today (spotted by AppleInsider), including one that could make an iPhone aware of changes in a user's situation, and alter phone settings accordingly. That would make for a mobile phone that might be able to automatically switch to silent mode when in a movie theatre, for instance, or which could wake from sleep upon being pulled out of a pocket.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/JV4dQztEc3k/

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Nobel Prize medal for DNA work to be sold

Heritage Auctions

The 1962 Nobel Prize gold medal awarded to Dr. Francis Crick for his work in the discovery of the structure of DNA will be offered by his family in a public auction in New York City on April 10.

By Wynne Parry
LiveScience

Sixty years after the discovery of DNA's spiraling, ladderlike structure first hinted at the mechanism by which life copies itself, one of the Nobel Prize medals honoring this achievement is up for sale.

Three men who played crucial roles in deciphering DNA's double helix in 1953 later received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The family of one of those men, Francis Crick, plans to sell his medal, the accompanying diploma and other items at auction with a portion of the proceeds set to benefit research institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom.

"It had been tucked away for so long," said Kindra Crick, Francis Crick's 36-year-old granddaughter, of the medal. "We really were interested in finding someone who could look after it, and possibly put it on display so it could inspire the next generation of scientists." Francis Crick passed away in 2004 at the age of 88.?

The value of Nobel gold
There is little precedent for this sale. Nobel medals appear to have changed hands publicly in only a couple of instances. This particular medal, like others made before 1980, is struck in 23-carat gold, and recognizes a particularly high-profile accomplishment in biology, one fundamental to modern genetics.

The auction house handling the sale, Heritage Auctions, has valued the medal and diploma at $500,000, which is "an educated guestimate," said Sandra Palomino, Heritage Auctions' director of historical manuscripts. Estimates by Heritage's in-house coin experts went as high as $5 million, Palomino said. [See Photos of Crick's Medal & Other Auction Items]

The April auction will also include Crick's award check with his endorsement on the back, the scientist's lab coat, his gardening logs, nautical journals and books. Separately, the family hopes to sell a letter Crick wrote in 1953 to his then-12-year-old son Michael, who is Kindra's father, describing the discovery's meaning. The auction house Christies, which Kindra Crick said is handling the sale, declined to confirm plans to sell this letter.

Out of the box
The medal was not displayed much within Crick's family. Kindra remembers that the Nobel, which she has yet to see herself, was locked in a room with her grandfather's other awards and other family heirlooms after he moved to California at the age of 60. After the scientist's wife, Odile, passed away in 2007, the medal was sequestered in a safe deposit box. Crick's children, including Kindra's father, Michael, attended the award ceremony in 1962, but saw almost nothing of the medal afterward.

Kindra plans to get a look at the medal before the auction.

"My grandfather was not the type of personality to show off," she said. "His conversation tended to be on what's next as opposed to reminiscing about the past. ? I guess he always thought there was more to come."

Crick's family hopes to see the medal displayed publicly after its sale; however, Kindra Crick acknowledged that a public auction offered no guarantee a buyer would display the award. But she is optimistic, saying those individuals or institutions with enough interest in science to bid on the medal are also likely to display it publicly. [Creative Genius: The World's Greatest Minds]

Crick's family and Heritage Auctions plan to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the medal and the other items to The Francis Crick Institute, a medical research institute scheduled to open in London in 2015. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the letter will go to benefit the Salk Institute in California, where Francis Crick studied consciousness?later in his career, Kindra said.

Sixty years later
On Feb. 28, 1953, according to legend, Crick and his colleague James Watson announced that they had discovered the "secret of life" in a pub frequented by other Cambridge University scientists.

This followed Watson's realization that the molecular bonds between the two types of base pairs in DNA ? adenine with thymine and cytosine with guanine ? were identical in shape, suggesting a double helix with complementary halves, Watson recounts in "The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix" (Simon & Schuster, 2012).

This discovery was the result of a combination of approaches; Watson and Crick built models, trying to determine how the molecules known to make up DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) fit together. Meanwhile, two of their colleagues, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, created images by bouncing X-rays off DNA crystals.

One of Franklin's images, called Photograph 51, provided key evidence of a helical shape.

Crick, Watson and Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in 1962. Franklin did not because she passed away in 1958, and the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.

Form means function
In the years prior to this discovery, scientists knew of the existence of DNA (a type of molecule known as a nucleic acid), but not what it looked like or its true function. They also knew genes carried traits from generation to generation, but many scientists believed genes to be made of proteins, said Jan Witkowski, executive director of the Banbury Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.

The discovery of the structure of DNA was key to understanding the molecule's function as the code for genes. Watson and Crick understood this, but when they described their discovery in a paper in the journal Nature in April 1953, they wrote coyly of the implications: "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for genetic material." [Code of Life: Photos of DNA Structures]

However, in the letter to 12-year-old Michael, dated March 19, 1953, Crick drew a diagram spelling out the scientists' theory of how DNA replicated: the double helix and its base-pair rungs separated to create templates for new strands.

"In other words, we think we have found the basic copying mechanism by which life comes from life," Crick wrote to his son. The scientists signed the letter, which appears in "The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix," "lots of love, Daddy."

A geneticist himself, Witkowski lists the discovery of the structure of DNA as one of the three most pivotal accomplishments in biology, along with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and Gregor Mendel's principles of inheritance. ?

"Of course, it wasn't so much what each discovery was in itself, but what avenues it opened up and what it led on to," said Witkowski, who with Alexander Gann, edited the "Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix."

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?and Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/25/17089577-for-sale-famed-nobel-medal-for-discovery-of-dna-structure?lite

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Obesity Reduces Quality of Life in Boys | Psych Central News

By Traci Pedersen Associate News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on February 23, 2013

For boys, being overweight or obese significantly lowers their quality of life compared to healthy weight peers.? Interestingly, these results were not found in girls.

The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, also showed that quality of life (QOL) scores improved for children of either sex whose weight status changed from overweight/obese to normal.

The research involved more than 2,000 Australian school children who were about 12 years old at the start of the study in 2004-2005. The researchers followed up with the children after five years.?

The participants then answered a questionnaire designed to measure whether being obese (also known as? adiposity) influenced their quality of life at age 17 or 18.

?Adiposity in boys was associated with poorer quality of life during adolescence. This association was not observed among girls.

?In both boys and girls, though, persistent overweight or obesity was related to poorer physical functioning after the five years. In contrast, weight loss was associated with improved quality of life during adolescence,? said Bamini Gopinath, Ph.D., senior research fellow at the University of Sydney in Australia.

The questionnaire measured the children?s physical and psychosocial health.?It also calculated a combined total quality of life score. The psychosocial health summary score reflected how well the teens were functioning emotionally and socially.

The study revealed that both males and females who were obese at the start of the study and who later reduced to a normal weight had far better physical functioning scores than those who remained obese after five years. These physical functioning scores measured one aspect of the overall quality of life score.

?The findings suggest that an unhealthy weight status and excess body fat could negatively impact the mental and physical wellbeing of adolescents, particularly boys,? said Gopinath.

He noted that the study highlights the value of looking at the quality of life among obese teens in both clinical practice and in research studies.?

He also added that ?obesity prevention and treatment efforts [ought] to address the broad spectrum of psychosocial implications of being obese as a teenager.?

Lawrence J. Cheskin, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, noted that the differences in quality of life and physical functioning between obese and normal weight teens has not been carefully done before.

?The fact that QOL improved with improvement in weight over time is also important,? said Cheskin. He added that parents, health care providers and teenagers need to understand the far-reaching effects that being overweight can have on a teen?s enjoyment of life.

Source:? Center for Advancing Health

?

Obese boy on scale photo by shutterstock.

APA Reference
Pedersen, T. (2013). Obesity Reduces Quality of Life in Boys. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 25, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/02/24/obesity-reduces-quality-of-life-in-boys/51902.html

?

Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/02/24/obesity-reduces-quality-of-life-in-boys/51902.html

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