Manipal Hospitals Bengaluru Launches “WE CAN” for Cancer Survivors

Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Care Centre (MCCC), part of Manipal   Hospitals, one of India’s leading healthcare provider unveiled a unique Cancer Survivors support and rehabilitation group  “We Can”,  in an endeavour to instill hope and provide full-fledged assistance for cancer survivors.

This nobel initiative was unveiled by Dr. Somashekhar SP, HOD & Chairman- Surgical Oncology along with his team of oncologists consisting of Dr Amit Rauthan, Consultant ,HOD,  Medical Oncology, Dr Poonam Patil, Consultant, medical Oncology, Dr Ashwin Raj Gopal  , consultant , Surgical Oncology, Dr Shabber S Zaveri, Consultant , Surgical Oncology, Dr Srimanth B S , Associate Consultant ,    Surgical Oncology,    Dr Kakoli,  Consultant, Medical Oncology, and Dr Vadhiraja B M, Consultant [HOD] Radiation Oncology in the presence of cancer survivors.

With an aim to give new hope for Cancer Survivors and to help them cope up with life, this unique group will be a one stop solution which will offer therapy sessions, continuous engagement, counselling and much more.

Sharing their tales of sorrows and joys, many cancer survivors shared details on their emotional journey and their battle against Cancer. Many patients who were successfully treated and are now leading a cancer free life came forward to share their inspiring stories. Case of 56 year old Mrs Parveen Jassawala, who was diagnosed with breast cancer, fought the disease with determination and grit, underwent mastectomy and responded well to the treatment. Today she is leading a cancer free life.

In another heartwarming case, 60 year old Mrs Susan Abraham who was suffering from abdominal cancer was diagnosed and treated with 11 cycles of Chemotherapy. Additionally she also underwent cytoredutive and HIPEC surgery at Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Centre and recovered well.

Suhayma is a 14 year girl from Mauritius. She had sustained a fall in September 2018 in Mauritius. She was diagnosed with fracture of her left femur bone and subsequently underwent a surgery with fixation. Unfortunately, her fractured bone looked abnormal which prompted the orthopedic surgery team to send for further testing. Suhayma, her parents and the medical team were in for a shock when the reports suggested a tumor. The treatment consisted of administering chemotherapy followed by Limb Saving Surgery. The surgery per se was a challenge due to the presence of implant in the cancerous bone and previous surgeries. Bone sarcomas such as Ewing’s sarcoma are rare.

Expressing the need for Cancer Survivors group, Dr. Somashekhar SP, HOD & Chairman- Surgical Oncology, Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Centre said, “Just treating the patient does not complete cancer treatment. Post cancer care and therapy is an important aspect to keep the individual healthy and avoid relapse. Any person who survives a deadly disease like Cancer is no less than a champion! The disease and treatment in itself effects the patient both mentally and physically. Coming out of that phase requires self-confidence, therapy and much needed motivation. Over the years, we constantly felt that more than doctors, patients show positive signs after hearing stories of other cancer survivors and hence we felt the need for launching a support group like ‘We can’. This group is not only for Manipal Hospitals patients but we extend warm welcome to any cancer survivor who want to join us as volunteers and be a part of the network.”

“We Can “Programme will be spearheaded by Mr. Salil Jain, who is a cancer survivor and was treated at Manipal Hospitals 6 years ago. Having undergone the treatment himself while battling for colorectal cancer. He has been working closely with Manipal Hospitals for the to help cancer patients and survivors with their various requirements.

Salil Jain, Cancer Survivor & We Can support Group said, “We are happy to launch “We Can” Support Group in the city. Our aim would be to support cancer survivors and giving patients the hope of revival. It takes a lot of positivity and determination to fight the disease. Through this group, we will support cancer patients and spread positivity around them. The program is structured to take care of the requirements of Survivors on detection, treatment and post treatment. The programme is expected to help Survivors make the right choices of treatment, go through treatment peacefully, bounce back to a good quality of life after treatment and catch early recurrence, if any, for a better outcome of treatment. The programme will be open for all Survivors irrespective of where they get themselves treated.

The entire programme is designed as a 3 step mechanism. On detection - help understand the diagnosis, treatment options, second opinions and tackle the fear and apprehensions of the patient and family about the treatment and its outcomes.

During treatment - Coordinate with the doctors to help go through the treatment, tackle side effects, deal with emotional, physical and medical concerns of the patient.

Post Treatment - Survivorship Assessment, intervention for consequences of cancer and treatment, prevention of new/recurrent cancer and late effects, Surveillance, Co-ordination between primary care providers and Survivorship Care Planning (Diet and nutrition, Physical Activity, Emotional well-being, group activities, etc., etc.)

Speaking on the occasion Dr. Amit Rauthan, HOD & Medical Oncologist said, “Unfortunately, in India due to lack of awareness and lack of symptoms most people come to oncologists at an advanced stage. With the advent of latest drugs and surgical innovations, Cancer can be treated via many forms ie. surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy.  With multimodality, approach cancer can be cured completely. Studies have shown that these new revolutionary treatment options has shown dramatic response which was never seen earlier. It is truly heartening to see improved survival in patients, in what was considered until recently to be incurable cancers.”

Recent advancement in treatment of cancer is Immunotherapy, which can now be used to achieve positive results. It works by allowing the body’s own immune system to fight the cancer cells. The major advantage is that it does not have the side effects of chemotherapy; and in patients who respond, the response can last for very long. Thus, it not only helps cancer patients survive longer with good quality of life, but can also potentially cure some advanced cancer patients

Sharing her thoughts Dr. Poonam Patil, HOD & Medical Oncologist said, “ It is important to stay informed and aware about Cancer. Symptoms like Change in bowel habits or bladder functions, Sores that do not heal, unusual bleeding or discharge, lumps or thickening of breast or other parts of the body, Indigestion or difficulty swallowing and recent change in wart or mole need immediate attention and visit to oncologist.”

Cancer is a disease caused primarily due to environmental and genetic factors. It can affect almost any part of the body. According to National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), an estimated number of around 2.25 million people are living with cancer. 

Atos Strengthens its Supercomputer Portfolio with Launch of New Range of Modular Storage Appliances

Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, has announces BullSequana Xstor, its new range of modular storage appliances, which enables organizations to harness the power of supercomputing now and in the future.

The BullSequana Xstor is a high-performing storage appliance to meet the constant growth in data, which needs to be processed. This offer is scalable to support future storage needs, modular (it can either focus on optimized bandwidth or storage capacity) and cost-optimized. A complete plug-and-play solution, it has been pre-tested and pre-installed for fast deployment and has one single monitoring tool for ease of use.

BullSequana Xstor is one of the first storage systems on the market to be optimized for Simulation, Data Lake , AI and Data Tiering using various dedicated file systems, such as lustre®, CEPH and HPSS.

“With the expansion of the volume of data to be processed and analyzed, companies and research centers need high-performance storage solutions to optimize their research results and manage digital simulations. Our range of highly scalable and modular solutions contributes and supports our customers in their innovation projects. With our new BullSequana xStor offering, we are proving to our customers an improved way to master end-to-end solutions coupling Supercomputing and Data Management." said Agnès Boudot, GM & SVP, Head of HPC & Quantum Business line Atos.

To find out more about the BullSequana Xstor, go to http://atos.net/BullSequana-xstor.

New Mcfee Report Finds Eighty-seven Percent of Companies Experince Business Acceleration from Use of Cloud Services

Key Findings:

Eighty-seven percent of companies experience business acceleration from their use of cloud services.
The majority (52 percent) of organizations experience better security in the cloud than on-premise IT environments.
Organizations are over 35 percent more likely to launch new products, speed time to market, and expand to new markets when they use a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) to protect their data in the cloud.
SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 18, 2019 – McAfee, the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company, today released a special edition of its Cloud and Risk Adoption Report, focused on the business impact of cloud services and how organizations around the world are addressing security gaps to accelerate their businesses with the cloud. Cloud services are the most significant advance in IT since the introduction of the internet itself, and most organizations today benefit from the collaboration, scalability and cost-effectiveness enabled by the use of cloud services. With an increasing amount of sensitive data stored in the cloud, organizations are also finding challenges in managing their risk, which holds back many organizations from realizing their full potential.

McAfee surveyed 1,000 enterprise organizations worldwide and combined results with insights from billions of anonymized cloud events seen every month by McAfee’s CASB, MVISION Cloud. The results demonstrate that a wide range of organizations accelerate their business from the use of cloud services. However, there is a striking divide between organizations who have addressed their shared responsibility for protecting data in the cloud, and those who have not – organizations were over 35 percent more likely to launch new products, speed time to market, and expand to new markets with the cloud when proactively addressing security of their data in the cloud through the use of a CASB.

This edition of the McAfee Cloud Adoption and Risk Report also reveals the following:

Most sensitive data is under the IT team’s control: Results showed that 65 percent of enterprise data lives in collaboration and business software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, 25 percent in infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and only 10 percent in “Shadow IT” unknown to the IT department.  IT teams are subscribing to these cloud applications themselves, effectively fulfilling many employee needs that were previously unmet or were met through the use of “Shadow IT”.

Gap between secure enablement and cloud adoption: Only 36 percent of organizations said they could enforce data loss prevention in the cloud, and only 33 percent could control the collaboration settings that determine how their data is shared. In the case of IaaS, only 26 percent said they could audit configuration settings, widening the gap between risky and secure cloud adoption.
A minority of organizations experiencing the full potential of business acceleration: Although the likelihood of launching new products, speeding time to market and expanding to new markets is higher when a CASB is part of their cloud security strategy, only one in three companies surveyed are currently using one.

“This research shines a light on organizations who are leading the charge in cloud adoption, prioritizing the security of their data as they roll out new cloud services and winning in the market because of the actions they are taking,” said Rajiv Gupta, senior vice president, Cloud Security, McAfee. “Organizations often tell us how much faster their business moves when security is addressed in the cloud and it is exciting for us now to quantify this experience and share our data and recommendations with the rest of the market.”

Organizations who want to learn how they can protect enterprise data wherever it resides can tune in to today’s livestreamed MVISION Briefing at 10 a.m. PT titled, “Cloud Security: New Risks, New Rules.” Attendees will have the chance to hear directly from McAfee partners and customers on how they have successfully put a strategy into action to make cloud the most secure environment for their business.  There will also be a replay available for those unable to attend the live session.

Bengaluru GAFX Meet in Gaming, Animation, Visual Effects will be Held from June 21-23, 2019

The Bengaluru GAFX conference, Asia’s largest animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) event, is coming alive in Bengaluru. The 3-day event will be held on June 21, 22 and 23, 2019 at The Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru.

Jointly organized by Government of Karnataka and Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI), GAFX aims to enrich, energize, inspire and create a vibrant ecosystem in the city and in Karnataka for the graphics industry. A multi-million-dollar global industry that is fueling the world of movies, gaming, and is behind the resurgence of graphic novels and comics, GAFX will identify and build local and national talent and generate jobs.

GAFX conference intends to attract experts, studios, production houses, game developers from all over the world. This biggest event for artists of Games, Animation & Visual Effects Industry will bring together industry veterans, professionals, students, academia, technology partners, animation, VFX & games studios and production houses under one roof to provide exposure to talents as well as subject matter expertise to professionals, artists and students.

Speaking about the event, B.S.Srinivas, Co-chair of Bengaluru GAFX 2019 and Secretary, ABAI, said that, “The Bengaluru GAFX conference has gathered massive response from AVGC experts and enthusiasts across the globe. The event will bring together the best minds in the industry and benefit interested professionals and students. We aim to make the event as helpful and responsive as possible for the benefit of all.”

Eminent speakers such as Pete Draper, PC Sanath, Arielle Martin, Avneet Kaur, Catherine Branscome, Chris Harlowe, Christian Bohm, Cindy Armstrong, JaykarArudra, Matthew Plec, Owen Hurley, Prasad Sutar, Rajiv Chillaka, RK Chand, Sheila De Courcy, and Tushar Kewlani will be taking part in the three-day event.

The conference also plays host to a number of activities including “GAFX ArtAnimathon” - Asia’s biggest art & animation competition. The competitionhas 8 categories to compete for, enabling professionals& students to try for the INR 8 Lakhs+ cash prize& premium goodies. This time it's even bigger with the introduction and indulgence of new emerging technologies like AR/VR & MOCAP.

For the first time, GAFX is conducting ‘Kalayodha-2019,’ a contest exclusively for all digital art centres across Karnataka. Apart from this, a special session called ‘Sketchbook,’ will also be held where artists from various platforms — independent creators of content, independent animation film makers, illustrators, art directors and principal artists from top studios and gaming companies come together to talk about the process of sketchbook where ideas are born.

The event comprises of talks and presentations, film screenings, panel discussions and competitions. The eight categories of competition are as follows: Traditional painting, digital painting, clay sculpting, 3D modelling, 3D character animation, 3D game art, story boarding and story writing.

To know more about GAFX and to register, visit www.gafx.in

ASUS Claims the Second Spot by Laptop Mag; Scored Highest in Innovation

Taiwan-based technology major, ASUS, has climbed to the second spot in the laptop brand category. The findings have been revealed in the Best & Worst Laptop Brands list for 2019 by the major technology publication, Laptop Mag. With a strong focus on innovation, the brand also fared the best in the innovation category, securing a perfect '10 on 10' score.

While ASUS climbed up two spots since last year, the brand has been praised by the Laptop Mag for several additional categories such as Design and Value & Selection. Furthermore, several of its distinguished features garnered praise from the magazine, especially ScreenPad, the world's first intelligent touchpad, and ErgoLift, a unique hinge design that raises the laptop keyboard to provide better ergonomics and more comfortable typing.

One of the brand’s key offerings, ZenBook S13 (UX392) earned laurels by Laptop Mag as the world’s slimmest-bezel Ultrabook with a 97% screen-to-body ratio and NVIDIA® GeForce® MX150 discrete graphics, and ROG Mothership. The laptop is a successful desktop replacement that redefines the gaming laptop form factor with a standing design for increased airflow and a folding detachable keyboard that provides greater gaming flexibility and saves space.

The ranking, along with the appreciation, only cements the spirit of ‘ASUS In Search of Incredible’. ASUS is further committed to pursuing world-class design, innovation, and engineering to deliver the best experiences to customers.

LTTS Held its 24-hour hackathon - Engineering The Change Campaign in Europe

L&T Technology Services Limited, a leading global pure-play engineering services company, successfully concluded its Engineering the Change campaign in Munich with a 24-hour hackathon.

The company’s 16-day pan Europe initiative included a 3,000 km innovation-on-wheels drive covering Greater Manchester & Ellesmere Port (Cheshire) in the UK, Amiens & Paris in France and Eindhoven in Netherlands, culminating in Germany.

A total of 230 visitors, including customers, analysts, industry experts, government officials, local authorities and engineering students attended the drive from Manchester to Munich. They were presented with the latest industry solutions covering domains such as artificial intelligence, digital twin, cyber security, 5G and the Internet of Things.

During the final leg of the campaign through 4 major German cities, including Leverkusen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Frankfurt, LTTS, through its innovation drive showcased demos on leading-edge Industry 4.0 solutions and shared insights on digital transformation across various industries.

The highlight and finalé of the tour in Munich was a 24-hour hackathon on 14th June which received over 250 registrations. 17 teams tackled complex industrial challenges related to factories of the future to reduce workplace risks and errors through Augmented Reality, mobility solutions to reduce traffic congestion in cities using AI & Machine Learning and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) to increase operational efficiency of aircraft using Data Analytics. Nearly 43% of the contestants included technology professionals & freelancers, 30% hailed from the startup community with students also in the mix. The winner of the competition were Munich based collective Intellight who were awarded the top prize of Euro 10,000 for their traffic management solution that uses deep learning algorithms to reduce congestion in cities.

Amit Chadha, President, Sales & Business Development and Executive Director at L&T Technology Services said, “LTTS‘ unique on-the-wheels ER&D campaign spanning 9 cities across Europe has met with an overwhelming response across all locations. This has been an epic odyssey of engineering transformation that brought together industry, academia and the government to create new technologies and solutions in an attempt to improve the lives of the next billion of the world’s population. What is especially praiseworthy is the spirit of creativity and scientific enquiry among the participants that was on display through the exciting proof of concepts.“

NGO CRY Held in Bangalore - World Day Against Child Labour

Child Labour, you have heard about it, now experience it. To observe World Day Against Child Labour, Child Rights and You (CRY) one of India’s leading NGO’s working on child rights has come up with a unique idea to introduce general public to the world of child labour and sensitize them against it.

In a sustained campaign to build awareness around the issue, CRY created an experiential zone that mimicked a working child’s everyday life. Passing visitors from prominent places in the city were asked to walk into a mobile room where an ambiance similar to child labour situation was re-created. Sight, sound and smell were additionally included to instill realism.
                                 
“Child Labour in its many ways is still an acceptable norm in the society. Through this campaign we want to sensitize people against it and make them understand the difficult circumstances a child is put through under labour. It is our effort to reach out to the last child and child labour is one of the battles that we fight. Education and the right to childhood are some of the basic non-negotiable requirements to harness the true potential for the child,” said Suma Ravi, Regional Director of Child Rights and You (CRY).

There are 294745 working children and adolescents between 5-19 years in Bangalore, of which only 35% attend educational institutions. Unless we understand the importance of education and the worth of a child their plight will not improve. The sole purpose of an event like this is to create conversations and raise awareness that makes the impact a more sustainable one.