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At home with my wife Anu and son Zain

The moment that forever changed our lives

• Published on October 21, 2017
• Featured in: Big Ideas & Innovation, Design, Editor's Picks, Education, Leadership & Management, Technology, The Weekend Essay, What Inspires Me

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Satya Nadella

CEO at Microsoft

I remember the year 1996 as a thrilling time. My wife, Anu, was 25 and I was 29. My career as an engineer was taking off, while she was building her career as an architect. We were far from our families in India, but settling into our new life together in the Seattle area. Even more exciting, however, was that Anu was pregnant with our first child. In the apartment we were renting next to the Microsoft campus, we spent months busily preparing for his arrival — decorating a nursery, putting plans in place for Anu to return to her career, envisioning how our weekends and holidays would change….We were ready to add a new joy to our life.

But then our plans changed.

An excerpt from “Hit Refresh”:

One night, during the thirty-sixth week of her pregnancy, Anu noticed that the baby was not moving as much as she was accustomed to. So we went to the emergency room of a local hospital in Bellevue. We thought it would be just a routine checkup, little more than new parent anxiety. In fact, I distinctly remember feeling annoyed by the wait times we experienced in the emergency room. But upon examination, the doctors were alarmed enough to order an emergency cesarean section. Zain was born at 11:29 p.m. on August 13, 1996, all of three pounds. He did not cry.

Zain was transported from the hospital in Bellevue across Lake Washington to Seattle Children’s Hospital with its state-of-the-art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Anu began her recovery from the difficult birth. I spent the night with her in the hospital and immediately went to see Zain the next morning. Little did I know then how profoundly our lives would change. Over the course of the next couple of years we learned more about the damage caused by in utero asphyxiation, and how Zain would require a wheelchair and be reliant on us because of severe cerebral palsy. I was devastated. But mostly I was sad for how things turned out for me and Anu.

To say that period of time was difficult is an understatement. One of the things I remember most clearly, however, is how Anu’s reaction to Zain’s birth was immediately so different from mine. For Anu, it was never about what this meant for her — it was always about what it meant for Zain and how we could best care for him. Rather than asking “why us?” she instinctually felt his pain before her own.

Watching her in those first few days, weeks and beyond taught me a lot. Over time, Anu helped me understand that nothing had happened to me or to her, but something had happened to Zain. As his parents, it was up to us not to question “why,” but instead to do everything we could to improve his life. Anu is an amazing woman, mother and partner. Her empathy for others runs deep, and from her I have learned that when I infuse empathy into my every day actions it is powerful, whether they be in my role as a father or as a CEO. She inspires me with her willingness to share more about her journey as a mom in the hope it can help others.

Becoming a father of a son with special needs was the turning point in my life that has shaped who I am today. It has helped me better understand the journey of people with disabilities. It has shaped my personal passion for and philosophy of connecting new ideas to empathy for others. And it is why I am deeply committed to pushing the bounds on what love and compassion combined with human ingenuity and passion to have impact can accomplish with my colleagues at Microsoft.

It is fitting that the theme of this year’s U.S. National Disability Employment Awareness Month — recognized every October— is “Inclusion drives innovation.” We could not agree more. At Microsoft, we are making accessibility a top priority in our product development efforts, from core features in Windows 10 like Narrator to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible through innovations like Hearing AI created by Azure engineer Swetha Machanavajhala. In addition, we know that having an employee base that is representative of all backgrounds and abilities is one of our greatest strengths. This is why we continue to be passionate about hiring people with disabilities through initiatives like the Autism Hiring Program and Supported Employment Program, which help us advance our mission to empower every person on the planet — including more than 1 billion people who have disabilities.

I am an optimist who firmly believes that at its most powerful, technology can contribute to incredible human capability and insight. I also believe it can help people find immense joy and a deeper connection to the world around them, by enabling them to realize their professional and personal potential.

Some powerful examples of technology in action are where people have come together from across Microsoft, united by a shared passion to hack and build solutions that have the potential to benefit millions: 

• Eye Control: The new Eye Control feature in Windows 10 began as a passion project from our first and now annual OneWeek Hackathon. Inspired by a challenge from former NFL player Steve Gleason in 2014, who has a neuromuscular disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the hackathon team produced the first Eye Gaze Wheelchair, which allowed Steve to drive his wheelchair with only the movement of his eyes as he looked at controls on his Surface. Fast-forward three years, thanks to the work of many across the company, Eye Control now makes Windows 10 more accessible by empowering people with disabilities to operate an onscreen mouse, keyboard and text-to-speech experience using only their eyes and a compatible eye tracker like the Tobii 4C. Even better, this was one of several new accessibility features announced this week as part of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

• Seeing AI: Recently, one of my colleagues, Angela Mills, shared her personal story with me. Angela is visually impaired — having lost her central vision when she was a child, today she has only her peripheral vision. Over the years, she has used various technologies to assist her daily activities, but she calls the early release of the new Seeing AI app “life-changing.” Before, when she went into a cafeteria for lunch, she would have to find a cafeteria worker and ask for help picking out a salad. Now, she can go to the salad area and use the app on her phone to read the labels of the salads before choosing one by herself. She can walk confidently into a conference room, knowing for sure she’s in the right place with the right people; and when she’s cooking at home, she doesn’t have to rely on her husband to read out the labels on the spice jars. It’s incredible to see how this idea that was sparked and developed at our annual hackathon by Saqib Shaikh, Anirudh Koul and team, is now a free application that enables Angela and many others to feel more included and connected to the world around them, and we can’t wait to bring it to more folks around the world in weeks and months to come.

• Learning Tools: Another Hackathon project brought an incredible team of individuals together from across Microsoft in the U.S. and Canada to focus on technology for children with dyslexia. The team leveraged complex academic research on reading rates and translated it into technology, and built a simple set of experiences with big impact. The Office and Windows teams embraced the thinking and in addition to being an add-in for OneNote, Learning Tools is now built into Word and Outlook Online and Microsoft Edge. Learning Tools was initially designed to improve the reading and writing experience for dyslexic students. But by leveraging a variety of existing technologies like Bing’s speech recognition, simultaneous audio text playback and natural language processing, it actually makes reading and writing more accessible to all students. What I especially love is that it is truly an example of inclusive design — a one-size-fits-all solution that can work for a full spectrum of diverse users.

These are just a few examples of the power of inclusive design — it goes beyond any one product or feature. Inclusive teams that propagate and advance inclusive principles will have the deepest impact in building products designed for everyone. This is particularly important, considering that at some point in our lives, each of us may rely on assistive technologies.

Our work in accessibility has an incredibly deep meaning to me personally. Our family’s experience has required me to continually hit refresh on my emotions and on my outlook, and it is in this constant quest for renewal that I realize — despite the fact we are making progress — we still have much to do, quickly, for so many.

But Zain reminds me that we can get there. He is the joy of our family, whose strength and warmth both inspire and motivate me to keep pushing the boundaries of what technology can do. And I’ve found that the moments that so deeply change our lives can also be a catalyst to empower those around us. This is what I see in the scores of passionate people at Microsoft. My hope is that we can collectively work together to amplify this across the planet.

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Satya Nadella

CEO at Microsoft

• 19 articles

THE BIRTH OF A DYSLEXIC CHILD TO NADELLA WAS AN ACT OF GOD .BUT HE (GOD)COULD HAVE DONE BETTER TO GET SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS IN DYSLEXIA AND OTHER DIS ABILITIES THAN BY FORCING  A DYSLEXIC CHILD TO NADELLA.

NEXT NEEDS SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS IN UNDERSTANDING THIS STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF  GOD IN ITS/HIS/HER  CREATIONS
HE -GOD COULD HAVE DONE MUCH BETTER IN HIS CREATIONS AND ACTIVITY THAN THESE SLOPPY RESULTS! SUCH AS THE ABOVE .
BUT I KNOW IT WILL REMAIN SAME IN FUTURE ALSO ,SAME DEFECTS IN CREATION
NOTHING CAN BE DONE TO IMPROVE THE CREATOR'S
   ACTIVITIES AND SLOPPY RESULTS
 GET USED TO THAT
GOD IS GREAT
BUT SLOPPY MY NATURE WHICH IS ALSO OF OWN WILL!!
FUNNY CREATURE
THE ONLY ALIEN IN MY LIFE AND I CANNOT AND WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND

There's something attractive about deep-fried, greasy fast food. But after you see why McDonald's burgers are "unfit for human consumption," you'll think twice before eating them. See these ingredients you don't want in your body.

Researchers from Columbia University may have just replaced the need for dental implants!

6 IST

Treating blindness with gene therapy might be possible, says new study

Researchers at Oxford University are working towards a solution for blindness!

Blindness

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Blindness is a condition where a person is totally sightless in both eyes. A completely blind individual is unable to see anything at all. However, the word is mostly used as a relative term to signify visual impairment or low vision. A huge population suffers from vision impairment which can range from mild to severe.

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Researchers at Oxford University are working towards a solution for blindness! Their study has shown that gene therapy might help reverse blindness by reprogramming cells to become more light sensitive. This will help cure the most common cause of blindness in young people, which is Retinitis Pigmentosa. In this condition, millions of light-sensitive photoreceptor cells that line the retina are lost.
Currently, the study has been monitored for over a year in mice and was highly successful. They maintained vision during this time as they were able to recognise objects in their environment which indicated a high level of visual perception. The cells expressing melanopsin were able to respond to light and send visual signals to the brain.

Lead author of the research Samantha de Silva, specialist registrar, Ophthalmology and Clinical research training fellow at the University of Oxford said, "There are many blind patients in our clinics and the ability to give them some sight back with a relatively simple genetic procedure is very exciting. Our next step will be to start a clinical trial to assess this in patients."

Facts on blindness:

• Over 350 million people are visually impaired due to various causes

• More than 50 million of these people are totally blind, unable to see light in either eye

• Eighty per cent of blindness cases occurs in people over 50 years old

• Common causes of blindness include diabetes, macular degeneration, traumatic injuries, infections of the cornea or retina and glaucoma

• Less common causes of blindness includes vitamin A deficiency, retinopathy of prematurity, vascular disease involving the retina or optic nerve including stroke, ocular inflammatory disease, retinitis pigmentosa, primary or secondary malignancies of the eye, congenital abnormalities, hereditary diseases of the eye, and chemical poisoning from toxic agents such as methanol

• Majority of the cases of blindness in the world is preventable through a combination of education, access to good medical care, and provision of glasses.

Interested in General Knowledge and Current Affairs? Click here to stay informed and know what is happening around the world with our G.K. and Current Affairs section.
To get more updates on Current Affairs, send in your query by mail to education.intoday@gmail.com

HIV rates climbing among over-50s in UK and Europe, researchers warn

Older people more likely to be infected through heterosexual sex and to have more advanced disease when it is finally diagnosed, new study reveals

The National Aids Trust say say that action is needed to prevent infection, such as offering HIV tests in places other than sexual health clinics. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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Sarah Boseley Health editor

Tuesday 26 September 2017 23.30 BST

HIV rates are climbing in the over-50s in the UK and across Europe, while the rate of new infections among younger people is dropping, according to new research which warns that the epidemic may be taking a new direction.
The study, from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Sweden, says that older people are most likely to be infected through heterosexual sex. They are also likely to have more advanced disease – which will be harder to treat and could be life-threatening – when it is finally picked up.
The study’s authors suggest that the over-50s may be either complacent or ignorant of the risks of HIV, which has dropped out of the headlines since it became a treatable disease. Their doctors also tend to assume that older people are not running risks through unsafe sex.

HIV tests for GPs' new patients could save lives and money, says study

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“Our findings suggest a new direction in which the HIV epidemic is evolving,” said lead author Dr Lara Tavoschi. “This potentially is a result of older peoples’ low awareness of HIV and how it is transmitted, leading to misconceptions and low perception of their own risk.
“This perception of older people not being at risk is shared by some healthcare providers, and HIV-related services focus more on younger people. Our study shows the need to ensure all ages are appropriately targeted by sexual health services.”
The study, published in the Lancet HIV journal, has found that one in six new cases of HIV are in people over the age of 50. Between 2004-2015, the rate of diagnosis in older people increased in 16 countries. That included the UK, where the rate of new diagnoses went up from 3.1 per 100,000 to 4.32. Belgium, Germany and Ireland also saw rises in the rate of infection among older people. By 2015, the rate in over-50s was highest in Estonia, Latvia, Malta, and Portugal.
While the rate of newly reported cases remained steady in those aged 15 to 49, it grew by 2.1% each year overall in older people across the 28 European nations, increasing from 2.1 people in every 100,000 in 2004 to 2.5 per 100,000 in 2015.
Infection through sex between men increased in both age groups between 2004-2015. Cases due to heterosexual sex reduced in younger people and remained stable in older people, while those attributable to injecting drug use also reduced in younger people but increased in older people.
The National Aids Trust said they had been aware of the rising rates in older people in the UK for some time and that action was needed to prevent these infections, such as targeting different age groups – not just the young – with information about their risks and offering HIV tests in places other than sexual health clinics, such as GP surgeries.

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“In recent years there has been a steady increase in HIV diagnoses amongst people over the age of 50 in the UK, accounting for 9% of new diagnoses in 2006 and 17% in 2015,” said Kat Smithson, director of policy and campaigns. “The trend is not limited to, but is more prominent, in the heterosexual population. This presents a challenge to think about whether our prevention efforts meet the needs of changing demographics.”
Government cuts to public health budgets were damaging local authorities’ capacity to offer prevention and testing to older people,” she said. “High prevalence areas are spending a third less on HIV prevention than they were two years ago, and it’s targeted services that are suffering most. We are concerned that generalised health promotion around sexual health and HIV may not reach some smaller but growing areas of need, such as in the older heterosexual population. We have the tools to reverse this trend, but without investment we cannot use them.”
Professor Janet Seeley from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who wrote a commentary in the Lancet on the study, said that many older people did not think they were running a risk. “The main thing is complacency, and also they are in relationships where pregnancy is not a problem, so contraception isn’t something people consider,” she said. “I think there is very little publicity around HIV in Europe now that prevalence and incidence have gone down.”

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The new infections were more often caused by heterosexual sex, she thought, because the gay community was far more aware of the risks. “Men of that particular age have gone through quite a lot themselves,” she said. It would be naive to expect governments to do anything about increasing awareness among the over-50s, given the pressures on health services, she acknowledged, but the study should encourage big campaigning groups – in particular the Terrence Higgins Trust, which had been working on the issue. “It is a very difficult group to reach,” she said. “It is very heterogeneous. If someone is going for a well-man or well-woman check up, it could be something the GP could mention.” It is difficult to ask people if they are having unprotected sex in a new relationship, but few people took notice of leaflets because they didn’t think they were relevant to them, she added.

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Tavoschi says that HIV services need to be geared up to the needs of this age group. “Our findings illustrate a clear need to provide comprehensive HIV prevention programmes, including education, access to condoms, better testing opportunities, and treatment, targeted towards older adults across Europe,” she said.
“We need to make both healthcare workers and the general population aware of this issue to reduce stigma and inform people about HIV risks and prevention methods. Testing in healthcare settings and innovative HIV test approaches – such as self-testing – need to be more easily accessible to older people to improve early diagnosis and fast-track treatment initiation. When achieved, this should help to prevent further transmission and lower the risk of severe health complications, which is of utmost importance among older adults living with HIV as their risk of mortality is higher as compared to younger individuals.”

New vaccine by Pune-based institute safe against severe rotavirus gastroenteritis: Study

To be launched in Nov; Centre orders 3.8 million doses for use in Universal Immunisation Programme

• Written by Anuradha Mascarenhas | Pune | Published:September 27, 2017 8:51 am

The results showed that ROTASIL reduced severe rotavirus diarrhoea by more than a third, by 39.5 per cent over two years.

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A new vaccine against rotavirus gastroenteritis, developed by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, promises to be a cost-effective and heat-stable option in the global strategy for diarrhoea prevention, according to the results of a study published in the international journal Vaccine.
Rotavirus is the most common cause of diarrhoea and one of the leading causes of mortality among children who are under five years of age. Rotavirus accounts for approximately 40 per cent of all diarrhoea cases requiring treatment. A Rotavirus disease cannot be treated with antibiotics or other drugs.
The new vaccine, ROTASIL, is supposed to be orally administered to infants in a three-dose course at 6, 10, and 14 weeks of age, at the same time when the existing vaccinations under India’s Universal Immunisation Programme are administered.
The international non-profit PATH partnered with Serum Institute to evaluate this vaccine in the Phase 3 efficacy study. Initiated in May 2014, the study was conducted at clinical sites across six places in India — Pune, Kolkata, Sewagram, Delhi, Manipal, and Jammu. A total of 7,500 infants were followed from the time of vaccination until 2 years of age, to check the efficacy and safety outcomes.

The results showed that ROTASIL reduced severe rotavirus diarrhoea by more than a third, by 39.5 per cent over two years. The vaccine efficacy was nearly 55 per cent against the most severe and potentially life-threatening cases of rotavirus diarrhoea, which represent the highest risk of dehydration, hospitalisations, and deaths.
“The Centre has placed an order for 3.8 million doses of the vaccine to use in the Universal Immunisation Programme, which serves 26 million children. The Serum Institute has manufactured the vaccine doses and will launch the vaccine in November,” Dr Rajeev Dhere, executive director of the Serum Institute of India, told The Indian Express.
It is estimated that 11.37 million episodes of rotavirus gastroenteritis occur every year in India alone, and they require 3.27 million outpatient visits and 872,000 in-patient admissions. In 2013, an estimated 47,100 rotavirus deaths occurred in India — 22 per cent of all rotavirus deaths that occurred globally. Currently, two rotavirus vaccines — Rotarix and RotaTeq — are licensed internationally and are prequalified by the World Health Organisation. A third vaccine, Rotavac, was recently licensed in India.
Despite the presence of these vaccines, there remains an overwhelming need for cost-effective and safe rotavirus vaccines for the worst-affected countries, said Dr Prasad Kulkarni, medical director at Serum Institute of India, who led the study.
Meanwhile, Médecins Sans Frontieres and Epicentre are also evaluating the efficacy and safety of ROTASIL in a separate Phase 3 study in Niger.  That study is still ongoing, but results from the primary analysis also showed the vaccine to be highly efficient for the prevention of severe rotavirus diarrhoea, and with an excellent safety profile. The efficacy of the vaccine against severe and very severe rotavirus diarrhoea in the Niger study was 66.7 per cent and 78.8 per cent, respectively. These results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in March 2017.

Home Cities Bengaluru

From Monday, pregnant women, new moms to get hot meals

By Express News Service  |   Published: 27th September 2017 03:23 AM  |  

Last Updated: 27th September 2017 07:28 AM  |   A+A A-   |  

BENGALURU: A maternal nutrition scheme, ‘Mathrupoorna’, which will provide one freshly cooked meal to pregnant and lactating mothers, will be launched on October 2. The scheme will replace the take-home meals that were being offered as part of the supplementary nutrition programme under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

Under this programme, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers will be given one full meal during the day consisting of rice, dal, lentils, vegetables, boiled egg, peanut (chikki) and milk for a minimum of 25 days every month. The women will also be given iron, folic acid and calcium tablets along with the meal. The one meal will be of 1,342 calories and will meet up to 45 per cent of the recommended daily nutritional need. The meal will be served at local anganwadis. Similar schemes are already being implemented in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

A pilot project was conducted in February at Manvi, H D Kote, Jamkhandi and Madhugiri taluks, where 36,000 women were covered under the scheme. The scheme is expected to benefit 12 lakh women in the state. Since the meals will be cooked at anganwadis, the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) has decided that meals served to children (3-6 years) will also be the same so that meals do not have to cooked twice.

Keeping in mind the restrictions placed on new mothers, meals will be allowed to be taken home 30 days before delivery and 45 days after. In coastal areas like Uttara Kannada and Udupi, where anganwadis are far away, DWCD is considering allowing women to take the meals home.

Principal Secretary to DWCD Uma Mahadevan said surveys held in the past decade had shown that malnutrition, stunted growth and wasting has not reduced much in children who do not have access to better facilities. “We realised that to address the issue, it is not sufficient to focus on the child alone, but also on the mother.  Most of the women are anaemic and calcium deficient before pregnancy and this contributes to poor health of the child and in the long term, poorer prospects of leading a better life,” she said.

While the DWCD will focus on providing the meal, the Health and Family Welfare Department, through ASHA workers and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives, will record their development through mother and child tracking software, check haemoglobin content and also counsel on birth preparedness.

Several issues to cover

The successful implementation of the scheme which follows a life-cycle approach, with focus on the mother and the child too stands a better chance, depending on how DWCD manages several problems. There is some resistance among anganwadi workers who feel they are not able to concentrate on their core function as they are being frequently drawn into other works like surveys and census. While stress is also being laied on construction of toilets to prevent diarrhoea and other infections, encouraging women and children to use the toilets when water is a scarce commodity in north Karnataka is also a challenge. In addition, the DWCD also has been unable to tackle child marriages satisfactorily, despite conducting awareness campaigns.  Also, younger anaemic mothers have a higher rate of maternal mortality and also give birth to underweight children. Whether families are willing to let these young mothers have access to these meals is yet to be seen.