Tempoh pengeraman coronavirus sekitar 5 hari

Korona: Foto: REUTERS

WASHINGTON: Secara purata tempoh antara pendedahan kepada coronavirus dari China dan simptom adalah 5.2 hari, namun berbeza antara pesakit, menurut satu kajian terhadap virus yang mengorbankan banyak nyawa itu.

Mengakui anggaran tempoh itu tidak tepat, pasukan China yang dilaporkan dalam New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) pada Rabu berkata penemuan mereka disokong tempoh pemerhatian perubatan selama 14 hari terhadap individu yang terdedah dengan patogen berkenaan.

Pertubuhan Kesihatan Sedunia (WHO) berkata tempoh pengeraman berkisar antara dua dan 10 hari sebelum gejala seperti demam, batuk, sesak nafas dan tekanan pernafasan akut muncul.

Anggaran diperoleh hasil kajian itu adalah berdasarkan pemerhatian terhadap 10 pesakit.

Penyelidik juga mengkaji 425 pesakit pertama virus dalam usaha membangunkan dua ciri asas wabak berkenaan.

Sejak pertama kali muncul di Wuhan pada Disember, jumlah kes coronavirus meningkat dua kali ganda setiap 7.4 hari, kata penyelidik.

Mereka juga menganggarkan setiap orang yang dijangkiti kemudiannya menjangkiti purata 2.2 orang lain, angka yang dikenali sebagai nombor pembiakan asas, atau R0 (disebut "R-naught").

Pasukan itu juga mendapati bahawa jangkitan antara manusia dengan manusia berlaku dalam kalangan yang ada hubungan rapat sejak pertengahan Disember lalu.

Pasukan penyelidik China di Belanda menemui tempoh pengeraman 5.8 hari, dengan variasi yang besar. Lelaki Vietnam berusia 27 tahun yang dijangkiti daripada ayahnya menunjukkan gejala sekitar tiga hari, menurut surat yang disiarkan dalam NEJM.

Dalam kajian utama China, separuh daripada 425 kes adalah pesakit berusia 60 tahun ke atas dan tidak ada yang berumur di bawah 15 tahun. 

SUMBER: AFP

Google teams up with AirAsia to launch new tech academy

As digital disruption continues to weigh heavy on future job security, Southeast Asian airline AirAsia has teamed up Google to launch a new tech academy to reskill employees.

The first of its kind “AirAsia Google Cloud Academy” will be managed by AirAsia’s venture arm, RedBeat Ventures, and will offer courses including digital marketing, software engineering and tech infrastructure design — all of which will be accredited by the Silicon Valley tech giant.

Google Cloud’s Southeast Asia regional director Tim Synan said in a statement to CNBC Make It that the deal would enable participants to better understand its technology.

“Together we’re working to upskill AirAsia AllStars with relevant expertise in Google Cloud technologies and build deep technical knowledge and Cloud expertise including Kubernetes, smart analytics, Cloud AI and more,” he said.

AirAsia has partnered with Google since 2018, when it struck a deal to integrate Google Cloud’s machine learning capabilities to improve its digital capabilities.

AirAsia did not immediately confirm further details on the training facility. AirAsia’s head office is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The airline’s group president, Aireen Omar, told the Nikkei Asian Review the academy will initially open to current employees next month, before being extended to the public by year end.

She said that the launch is part of the budget carrier’s long-term strategy to prepare workers for the shifting jobs landscape.

“More jobs might become redundant in the next three years, so we are giving our employees the opportunities to reskill to suit the digital economy,” Omar told Nikkei.

The launch of a tech academy is the latest move by AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes to diversify his business for the digital age.

SOURCE: CNBC.COM

Toyota investing $400 million in flying car company

Toyota's coined phrase "Let's go places" takes on new meaning.

Toyota/Joby

Japanese car giant Toyota said Thursday it is investing nearly $400 million in a company working on commercialising electric flying cars for "fast, quiet and affordable air transportation services".

The investment in Joby Aviation comes as the automaker looks to expand into new sectors as the industry rapidly transforms, with president Akio Toyoda pledging to move the firm "from a car manufacturer to a mobility company".

"Air transportation has been a long-term goal for Toyota, and while we continue our work in the automobile business, this agreement sets our sights to the sky," Toyoda said in a statement announcing the investment.

"Through this new and exciting endeavour, we hope to deliver freedom of movement and enjoyment to customers everywhere, on land, and now, in the sky."

Founded in 2009, Joby Aviation is developing a four-passenger electric aircraft that takes off and lands vertically, like a helicopter, though it has multiple rotors.

The firm envisions the aircraft as a mode of commercial transport, rather than for sale to individuals, with its pilots ferrying commuters around.

Toyota said it would also offer its "expertise in manufacturing, quality and cost controls for the development and production" of Joby's aircraft.

One of its executive vice presidents, Shigeki Tomoyama, will join Joby's board, playing an "active role in setting strategic direction", Toyota said.

Joby already has a partnership with ride-sharing firm Uber to develop an "urban air taxi service".

Toyota has ventured into the flying vehicle field elsewhere, investing in the Japanese SkyDrive project to develop what is intended to be the world's smallest flying car.

It has also branched out into other sectors, announcing at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month its plans for a "woven city" at the base of Mount Fuji that would be powered by hydrogen fuel cells and include roads for autonomous vehicles as well as smart homes.

SOURCE: AFP

'Slow slip' detected off the Pacific side of Japan

Photo: NHK WORLD

A Japanese research team has detected shifts at the boundary of tectonic plates off the Pacific coast of Japan. The phenomenon, known as slow slip, is being studied for possible links to mega-quakes.

Researchers from the University of Tokyo and the Japan Coast Guard say they have confirmed that the events occurred at seven locations more than 50 kilometers off the coast.

At two locations, the boundary moved six centimeters and eight centimeters respectively toward the southeast around 2018.

Scientists have been monitoring slow-slip events to find out if they are related to major earthquakes.

Tadashi Ishikawa of the Japan Coast Guard says he plans to gather more observational data to grasp what is happening at the boundary between tectonic plates. He says he hopes such data will be used for simulations and help reduce impact of possible disasters.

Scientists say there is a 70 to 80 percent chance that an earthquake of magnitude 8 or higher could hit around the Nankai Trough, off Japan's Pacific Coast, within the next 30 years.

SOURCE: NHK WORLD NEWS

5 Sebab Strawberi Jadi Pilihan Jika Nak Diet

SAYUR-SAYURAN dan buah-buahan adalah makanan yang perlu menjadi keutamaan dalam proses menurunkan berat badan.

Seperti buah, ia mengandungi banyak gizi dan mineral yang bukan sahaja membantu menurunkan berat badan tetapi juga mencegah penyakit.

Strawberi adalah salah satunya - Tidak hanya tinggi anti oksidan dan enzim anti radang, buah itu juga kaya dengan serat serta mampu membantu melancarkan sistem pencernaan.

Berikut adalah lima manfaat strawberi yang mungkin tidak anda ketahui;



Amalan makan strawberi mampu membantu sistem pencernaan.

1. Melancarkan proses pencernaan

Strawberi tinggi dengan serat sehingga ia mampu melancarkan sistem pencernaan. Pengambilan semanguk strawberi setiap hari juga dapat membantu mengurangkan lemak di perut.

Serat yang terdapat dalam buah itu juga boleh membuat kita berasa kenyang selain mengurangkan rasa mengidam untuk mengambil makanan atau minuman bergula.

2. Membantu menurunkan berat badan

Bagi yang sedang berdiet, strawberi meningkatkan penghasilan dua hormon penting iaitu adiponektin dan leptin. Kedua-dua hormon ini membantu membakar lemak serta meningkatkan metabolisme tubuh.


Strawberi rendah kalori dan sesuai untuk yang sedang berdiet. 

3. Rendah kalori

Seratus gram strawberi hanya mengandungi sekitar 33 kalori dan sebab itu ia menjadi buah kegemaran bagi orang yang sedang berdiet.

4. Memperbaiki otot

Kandungan anti peradangan dalam strawberi boleh membantu mempercepatkan proses pemulihan otot selepas melakukan senaman berat.

5. Pemanis semulajadi

Strawberi merupakan pemanis semulajadi dan boleh dijadikan sebagai pengganti gula seperti mencampurkan di dalam yogurt atau sebagai smoothie.

SUMBER: MSTAR ONLINE

800,000 years ago, a meteor slammed into Earth. Scientists just found the crater

By Mindy Weisberger, Live Science

About 790,000 years ago, a meteor slammed into Earth with such force that the explosion blanketed about 10 percent of the planet with shiny black lumps of rocky debris.

Known as tektites, these glassy blobs of melted terrestrial rock were strewn from Indochina to eastern Antarctica and from the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific. For more than a century, scientists searched for evidence of the impact that created these pitted blobs.

But the crater's location eluded detection — until now.

Geochemical analysis and local gravity readings told researchers that the crater lay in southern Laos on the Bolaven Plateau; the ancient impact was concealed under a field of cooled volcanic lava spanning nearly 2,000 square miles, the scientists reported in a new study.

Related: Fallen Stars: A Gallery of Famous Meteorites

When a meteor hits Earth, terrestrial rocks at the impact site can liquefy from the intense heat and then cool into glassy tektites, according to the Jackson School Museum of Earth History at The University of Texas. Scientists can look at the abundance and locations of tektites to help locate an impact, even if the original crater is eroded or concealed, the study authors wrote.

In this case, there were plenty of tektites — so where was the crater?

The force of the impact is thought to have created a rim measuring more than 300 feet tall, according to the study. Tektites from the impact were at their biggest and most abundant in the eastern part of central Indochina, but because the tektites were so widespread, previous estimates of the crater's size ranged from 9 miles in diameter to 186 miles, and the feature's precise position remained uncertain even though scientists spent decades searching.


There are at least 4 different ways of aging, scientists say

For the new study, the researchers first investigated several promising eroded crater candidates in southern China, northern Cambodia and central Laos, but soon ruled out those spots. In all cases, the suspected crater-like features turned out to be much older and were instead identified as erosion in rocks dating to the Mesozoic era — about 252 million years ago to about 66 million years ago.

Was the crater buried? On Laos' Bolaven Plateau, the scientists found a site where fields of volcanic lava might have hidden signs of an older meteor impact. In a region that the researchers targeted as a likely spot for a crater, most of the lava flows were also in the right age range: between 51,000 and 780,000 years old.

The study authors peered below the lava's surface by taking gravity readings at more than 400 locations. Their resulting gravity map showed one area "of particular interest" with a gravitational anomaly, a subsurface zone less dense than the volcanic rock surrounding it. Their measurements hinted at an elliptical, "elongated crater" about 300 feet thick, about 8 miles wide and 11 miles long, according to the study.

Together, all of these clues suggested that "this thick pile of volcanic rocks does indeed bury the site of the impact," the scientists wrote.

SOURCE: Live Science

Pesawat Ukraine ditembak kerana kesilapan manusia

DUBAI: Pesawat Ukraine yang terhempas minggu lalu, terbang terlalu hampir dengan kawasan tentera dan ditembak berikutan kesilapan manusia.

Kenyataan yang disiarkan oleh TV rasmi Iran berkata, pihak yang terbabit akan dikenakan tindakan sewajarnya.

Pesawat milik syarikat penerbangan Ukraine yang terhempas di barat daya Tehran, Khamis lalu dan membunuh semua 176 penumpang serta kru, didapati terbakar sebelum menjunam.

Pesawat Boeing 737-800 milik Ukrainian International Airlines yang dalam penerbangan ke Kiev dengan sebahagian besar penumpang ialah rakyat Iran dan Iran-Kanada itu, terhempas sejurus meninggalkan lapangan terbang Imam Khomeini.

Sebelum ini, Presiden Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, berkata pesawat penumpang Ukraine itu mungkin ditembak menggunakan peluru berpandu.

Perdana Menteri Kanada, Justin Trudeau, pula berkata, pesawat itu berkemungkinan besar ditembak jatuh menggunakan peluru berpandu Iran, berdasarkan laporan risikan negara itu dan sumber lain. 

REUTERS/AFP

Iran nafi pesawat Ukraine terkena peluru berpandu

DUBAI 10 JAN: Iran menafikan pada hari Khamis bahawa sebuah pesawat Ukraine yang terhempas berhampiran Tehran telah terkena peluru berpandu, jurucakap kerajaan Iran, Ali Rabiei dalam satu kenyataan, menurut TV negara.

"Semua laporan itu adalah perang psikologi terhadap Iran ... semua negara yang rakyatnya berada di dalam pesawat itu boleh menghantar wakil dan kami meminta Boeing menghantar wakilnya untuk menyertai proses penyiasatan kotak hitam."

Perdana Menteri Kanada, Justin Trudeau, pada Khamis mengatakan bahawa negaranya mempunyai perisikan dari pelbagai sumber yang menunjukkan bahawa pesawat Ukraine yang terhempas di luar Teheran itu secara tersilap ditembak oleh Iran.

"Kami mempunyai perisikan dari pelbagai sumber, termasuk sekutu dan perisikan kami sendiri. Bukti menunjukkan bahawa pesawat itu ditembak jatuh oleh peluru berpandu dari permukaan ke udara Iran," kata Trudeau kepada pemberita.

Perdana Menteri Britain, Boris Johnson, pada Khamis turut mengatakan bahawa terdapat bukti bahawa pesawat Ukraine yang terhempas di Iran itu secara tidak sengaja terkena bedilan peluru berpandu dari permukaan ke udara.

Senada dengan kesimpulan oleh Amerika Syarikat dan Kanada, Johnson menyeru diadakan siasatan penuh yang telus terhadap kemalangan yang membunuh semua 176 orang di atas pesawat berkenaan termasuk empat warga Britain.

Sekarang terdapat satu maklumat yang mengatakan pesawat itu ditembak jatuh oleh peluru berpandu dari permukaan ke udara Iran. Ini mungkin tidak disengajakan," kata Johnson dalam satu kenyataan.

"United Kingdom terus menyeru semua pihak supaya segera menamatkan ketegangan di rantau berkenaan." -

 REUTERS/AFP

Australia berdepan kebakaran ekstrim baharu, suhu meningkat

Credit:Getty Images

SYDNEY 10 JAN: Pihak berkuasa mengeluarkan amaran ‘kebakaran ekstrim’ di beberapa kawasan di Australia hari ini, susulan suhu tinggi dan angin tidak menentu yang dijangka menyebabkan kebakaran hutan di negara itu semakin marak, serta mungkin mencetuskan insiden baharu.

Seramai 27 individu terbunuh dan ribuan hilang tempat tinggal kesan kebakaran yang berlaku di kawasan seluas lebih 10.3 juta hektar, keluasan sama dengan Korea Selatan.

Beberapa bandar dan komuniti di kawasan tenggara negara itu yang padat dengan penduduk telah dinasihatkan untuk berada dalam keadaan berjaga-jaga dan berpindah jika perlu.

“Ini hari yang dinamik dan bahaya,” kata Pesuruhjaya Pengurusan Bencana Victoria, Andrew Crisp, ketika di mana beberapa amaran pemindahan dikeluarkan.

“Kami mengeluarkan amaran, mesej bertulis kepada 240,000 penduduk, secara umumnya di seluruh kawasan timur negara. Jika boleh, berpindahlah kerana kamu tidak sepatutnya berada di kawasan terpencil dan berhutan,” katanya kepada ABC News.

Suhu dijangka meningkat sehingga lebih 40 darjah Celsius di beberapa kawasan di Australia hari ini.

Larangan membakar turut dikenakan di 10 kawasan kejiranan di New South Wales, di mana api sudah memusnahkan 1,870 rumah.

Pihak berkuasa turut khuatir perubahan tiupan angin yang dijangka berlaku hari ini, akan memarakkan serta mengubah arah kebakaran.

Tiupan angin itu juga dijangka cukup kuat untuk diklasifikasikan sebagai ‘merosakkan’ dan dijangka melanda bandar Sydney, Melbourne dan Adelaide.

Kerajaan Australia ketika ini mengekalkan pendirian bahawa kebakaran teruk di negara itu tidak menunjukkan perkaitan dengan perubahan iklim. - 

SUMBER: REUTERS

Pesawat Ukraine terbakar sebelum terhempas

Foto : FOX NEWS

DUBAI: Pesawat milik syarikat penerbangan Ukraine yang terhempas di barat daya Tehran dan membunuh semua 176 penumpang serta kru semalam, didapati terbakar sebelum menjunam, dedah laporan awal penyiasat Iran.

Pesawat Boeing 737-800 milik Ukrainian International Airlines yang dalam penerbangan ke Kiev dengan sebahagian besar penumpang adalah rakyat Iran dan Iran-Kanada itu, terhempas sejurus meninggalkan lapangan terbang Imam Khomeini.

Laporan Pertubuhan Penerbangan Awam Iran memetik kenyataan saksi di darat dan sebuah pesawat lain yang terbang pada altitud lebih tinggi serta melihat ia dijilat api sebelum terhempas.

Menurut laporan terbabit, pesawat berusia tiga tahun itu yang kali terakhir disenggara pada 6 Januari lalu, mengalami masalah teknikal sejurus berlepas dan cuba menuju ke lapangan terbang berhampiran sebelum terhempas.

Jenis masalah teknikal tidak disebut secara khusus dalam laporan berkenaan.

Pasukan keselamatan Kanada bagaimanapun berkata, wujud bukti satu daripada enjin pesawat berada dalam keadaan terlalu panas.

Sumber: FLIGHT RADAR24

Nahas berlaku beberapa jam selepas Iran melancarkan serangan peluru berpandu ke atas pasukan Amerika Syarikat (AS) di Iraq, sekali gus menimbulkan spekulasi ia ditembak.

Lima sumber keselamatan, tiga dari AS dan masing-masing seorang dari Kanada serta Eropah yang enggan dikenali memberitahu, penilaian awal agensi perisik Barat mendapati pesawat itu mengalami kerosakan teknikal, bukan kerana ditembak peluru berpandu.

Di Kiev, Presiden Volodymyr Zelenskiy berkata, kerajaan menimbangkan beberapa kemungkinan yang dilihat sebagai punca nahas.

Zelenskiy ketika membuat kenyataan di rangkaian televisyen, meminta orang ramai tidak menimbulkan spekulasi, teori konspirasi atau penilaian rambang mengenai tragedi terbabit.

Beliau turut mengisytiharkan hari ini sebagai tarikh berkabung untuk seluruh negara dan akan menghubungi presiden Iran ke arah menyegerakan kerjasama mengenal pasti punca kejadian. 

SUMBER: REUTERS

Pesawat Ukraine terhempas dibedil roket?

Rescue teams gather at the scene after a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 passengers crashed near Imam Khomeini airport Getty Images

KIEV: Serangan pengganas dan dibedil roket antara teori dikaitkan dengan nahas pesawat Ukraine yang terhempas di Iran semalam, mengakibatkan 176 orang terkorban.

Setiausaha Pertahanan dan Keselamatan Ukraine, Oleksiy Danylov, berkata selain serangan pengganas dan dibedil roket, pihaknya melihat pelbagai kemungkinan punca nahas termasuk letupan enjin dan pelanggaran.

Katanya, pasukan penyiasat Ukraine di Iran turut mahu mencari serpihan peluru berpandu milik Russia yang berkemungkinan berada di lokasi nahas selepas penularan laporan di internet mengaitkan bedilan senjata itu.

“Pasukan penyiasat berhubung dengan pihak berkuasa Iran bagi meninjau lokasi nahas dan kami nekad mencari serpihan peluru berpandu Russia kerana ada maklumat di internet mengaitkannya dengan nahas ini,” katanya dalam satu kenyataan.

Oleksiy membuat kenyataan itu selepas pasukan penyiasat Iran melaporkan pesawat terbabit terbakar sebelum terhempas.

Beliau merujuk dakwaan dibedil peluru berpandu selepas gambar di media sosial memaparkan serpihan peluru berpandu Russia, Tor-M1 yang sering digunakan tentera Iran.

Oleksiy berkata, Ukraine akan mengguna pakai kepakaran dimilikinya ketika menyiasat kejadian pesawat Malaysia Airlines, MH17, yang ditembak jatuh di timur Ukraine, mengakibatkan 298 orang terbunuh pada 2014.

Pesawat milik syarikat penerbangan Ukraine yang terhempas di barat daya Tehran dan membunuh semua 176 penumpang serta kru didapati terbakar sebelum menjunam, dedah laporan awal penyiasat Iran.

Pesawat Boeing 737-800 milik Ukrainian International Airlines yang dalam penerbangan ke Kiev dengan sebahagian besar penumpang adalah rakyat Iran dan Iran-Kanada itu, terhempas sejurus meninggalkan lapangan terbang Imam Khomeini. 

SUMBER:  REUTERS

Ukraine won’t rule out missile, terror attack as cause for plane crash in Iran

Getty Images

A senior Ukrainian security official on Thursday described four main theories for why a Ukrainian plane crashed in Iran killing 176 people – including a possible missile strike.

Oleksiy Danylov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said the other possibilities “being studied” are a mid-air collision with a drone or “other flying object,” a blast from a terror attack and a technical failure leading to an engine explosion.

He laid out the theories in a Facebook post as an initial report by Iranian investigators said the Boeing 737-800 had been on fire immediately before it went down.

The crash occurred hours after Iran launched 22 ballistic missiles on two bases housing US troops in Iraq, leading some to speculate that the plane may have been hit.

But an initial assessment by Western intelligence agencies was that the aircraft had suffered a technical malfunction, five security sources — three Americans, one European and a Canadian — told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

A Ukrainian plane carrying 45 experts and search-and-rescue personnel arrived in Tehran on Thursday to take part in the probe as well as identify and repatriate the bodies of the 11 Ukrainians aboard, according to the Washington Post.

Danylov said his team wants to search the crash site for possible remnants of a Russian-made Tor-M1 surface-to-air missile after seeing reports about its possible existence on Iranian social media.

Rescue teams gather at the scene after a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 passengers crashed near Imam Khomeini airport
Rescue teams gather at the scene after a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 passengers crashed near Imam Khomeini airport

“Our (investigative) commission is talking to the Iranian authorities about visiting the crash site and is determined to search for fragments of a Russian Tor air defense missile about which there was information on the internet,” Danylov told Ukrainian news site Censor.net.

He said that Ukraine’s commission includes specialists who helped in the investigation of the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine.

Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, a spokesman for the Iranian armed forces, was quoted by the semiofficial Fars news agency as saying that “the rumors about the plane are completely false and no military or political expert has confirmed it,” adding that the rumors were “psychological warfare” by the government’s opponents.


In Washington, a Democrat who attended a classified briefing from Trump administration officials — including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA Director Gina Haspel — said the briefers had no intelligence suggesting the plane was shot down.

The flight, which was bound for the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, took off from Tehran at 6:12 a.m. Wednesday and was approaching 8,000 feet when it suddenly lost contact with ground control, officials said.

According to a report from Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, eyewitnesses on the ground and from the crew of another flight nearby reported seeing a fire while the Boeing 737 was still in the air.

“The trajectory of the collision indicated that the plane was initially moving toward the west, but after encountering a problem, it turned to the right and was approaching the airport again at the time of the crash,” Ali Abedzadeh, the head of the Civil Aviation Organization, said in the report, according to the Washington Post.

With Post wires