AirAsia flight QZ8501 from Indonesia to Singapore missing

Indonesian authorities were searching for an AirAsia aircraft with 155 passengers onboard Sunday after air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane, the airline said.

The plane, Flight QZ8501, left the Indonesian city of Surabaya in the morning and was bound for Singapore, officials said.

Air traffic control lost contact with the Airbus A320-200 at 7:24 Sunday morning Singapore time, the airline said in a statement on its Facebook page.

AirAsia, a budget operation based in Malaysia, is one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines. Contact with the plane was lost about 42 minutes after takeoff, Hadi Mustofa, an Indonesian transportation ministry official, told Indonesia’s MetroTV, according to The Associated Press.

He said the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact and that the weather had been cloudy. The AirAsia flight had been due to arrive in Singapore at 08:30 (00:30GMT).

AirAsia has set up an emergency line for family or friends of those who may be on board. The number is +622 129 850 801.

The company's chief executive, Tony Fernandes, tweeted: "Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. We must stay strong."

"At the present time we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board, but we will keep all parties informed as more information becomes available," AirAsia said. 

The captain in command had a total of 6,100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2,275 flying hours, according to the airline. The aircraft had undergone its last scheduled maintenance on November 16, 2014. 

The flight manifest for the Airbus A320-200, with the registration number PK-AXC, released by the Indonesian authorities said there were 155 passengers on board, including one infant and 16 children. 

The breakdown of passenger nationalities are 149 Indonesians, three South Koreans, one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one from the United Kingdom while the seven AirAsia staff on board are made up of six Indonesians and one French.

Read more at: http://english.astroawani.com/news/show/qz8501-indonesian-air-ministry-reveals-passenger-manifest-51087?cp

Murjatmodjo, the Indonesian official, said the plane is believed to have vanished somewhere over the Java Sea between Tanjung Pandan on Belitung island and Pontianak, on Indonesia's part of Kalimantan island.

The Singapore aviation authority said it was informed about the missing plane by Jakarta ground control about half an hour after the contact was lost.

"Search and rescue operations have been activated by the Indonesian authorities," it said, adding that the Singapore air force and the navy also were activated with two C-130 planes.
  

Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, said that President Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii, had been briefed on the search for the plane, and that “White House officials will continue to monitor the situation.”

Flightradar24, a website that uses a global system of beacons to monitor air traffic, said the aircraft was flying at 32,000 feet over the Java Sea when the aircraft’s signal was lost. The Java Sea separates the islands of Borneo and Java.

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Singapore has activated its Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) and has offered help to Indonesian authorities in the search and rescue mission following the disappearance of Indonesian AirAsia aircraft, QZ8501.

RCC is managed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and supported by various agencies, including the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) and the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN).

Read more at: http://english.astroawani.com/news/show/qz8501-singapore-activates-coordination-centre-assist-sar-51093?cp

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Malaysia has deployed three army vessels and a C-130 Hercules to the Belitung area in the search and rescue (SAR) operation to find the missing AirAsia flight QZ5801.

"The Malaysian government has committed and deployed our military assets to assist Indonesia with the search operations. I have been in close contact with my counterparts in both Indonesia, Ignasius Jonan and Singapore, Lui Tuck Yew to lend any available assistance in this time of need.

"We have also established the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) at the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre (ATCC) in Subang to assist with the coordination effort in searching for QZ8501," Malaysian Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai told a media conference today.

Read more at: http://english.astroawani.com/news/show/malaysia-deploys-three-vessels-c-130-belitung-liow-51097?cp

Sources:-

1. http://www.nytimes.com

2. http://www.bbc.com/news

3. abcnews.go.com/International 

4. http://www.foxnews.com

World Top 10 Universities for Research in UK

Rankings published today by Research Fortnight magazine, analysing data from the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), show the top universities in the country for research excellence. Check out which institutions made the top 10 and where they were in 2008.

10. University of Leeds
       2008 ranking: 8 

Dropping two places on the previous 2008 ranking, the University of Leeds just manages to make it into the top 10 for research – with 33 departments and 1,149 staff submitted. The University of Leeds also recently featured in Which? University's rankings as one of the top places for student nightlife along with Leeds Beckett University.



_{Data is taken from Research Fortnight}

9. University of Bristol
    2008 ranking: 10

During the course of putting these rankings together, the research of 52,061 academic staff from 154 UK universities was peer-reviewed by a series of panels comprising UK and international experts. The University of Bristol put forward 1,138 staff and 31 departments. Subsequently, 36 per cent of research was judged to be world-leading, putting the institution in the top ten.

8. University of Nottingham
    2008 ranking: 7

The research revealed that three-quarters of universities had at least 10 per cent of their work graded as world-leading, while the top 25 per cent had at least 30 per cent graded to this level. The University of Nottingham fits into the top 25 per cent, with 31.6 per cent of research classed as world-leading. It also makes the top 10 overall; when taking into account the number of staff and departments reviewed, funding allocated and the quality of the overall research.

7. King's College London
    2008 ranking: 11

According to the REF, the quality of research at UK universities was found to have improved significantly since the last exercise in 2008. Reflecting this improvement, King's College London climbed four places in the rankings, moving into the top 10 in seventh place, with 40.2 per cent of research judged to be world-leading.


6. Imperial College London
    2008 ranking: 6

The improvement in the REF results can be seen in the percentage of research outputs judged to be world-leading. According to the figures, across all submissions, 22 per cent were judged at this level, up from 14 per cent in 2008. Furthermore, 50 per cent were judged to be internationally excellent, up from 37 per cent. At Imperial College London, which maintains its position in sixth overall, 44.2 per cent of submissions were considered internationally excellent and a further 46.4 per cent were judged as world class.

5. University of Manchester
    2008 ranking: 4

The University of Manchester just makes it into the top five this year, having slipped a position from 2008. Overall, 1,561 staff and 35 departments were submitted for review, with 35.3 per cent of research judged to be world-leading. Commenting on the results overall, Professor Madeleine Atkins, Chief Executive of HEFCE, said: "UK research has improved from an already strong position in the last exercise, with many universities delivering more ground-breaking work of the highest quality. These achievements demonstrate the huge return on public investment in research."

4. University of Edinburgh
    2008 ranking: 5

Climbing from fifth position in the last exercise in 2008, to fourth this year, the University of Edinburgh maintains its position in the top five overall. Some 1,753 staff and 31 departments were submitted for review, with 37.6 per cent of research judged to be world-leading and a further 44.9 per cent considered internationally excellent.

3. University of Cambridge
    2008 ranking: 2

Dropping from second place in 2008, the University of Cambridge has been ranked third overall for research. 2,088 staff and 32 departments were submitted for review, with 46.8 per cent of research judged to be world-leading and a further 40.4 per cent considered internationally excellent.

2. University College London
     2008 ranking: 3

Climbing from third place in 2008, UCL has overtaken Cambridge and now ranks second overall for research excellence. A massive 2,566 staff – the highest number – and 36 departments were submitted for review, with 42.6 per cent of research judged to be world-leading and a further 39.5 per cent considered internationally excellent.

1. University of Oxford
    2008 ranking: 1

Maintaining its position in the league tables, the University of Oxford holds on to first place overall for research. 2,409 staff and 31 departments were submitted for review, with 48.1 per cent of research judged to be world-leading – the highest out of all institutions reviewed – and a further 39.1 per cent considered internationally excellent.

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Oxford University Researchers : HIV causing AIDS 'weakening over time'

Oxford University researchers have found that the HIV virus is evolving to become less deadly and less infectious

The rapid evolution of HIV, a human immunodeficiency virus, is slowing its ability to cause Aids, according to a study of more than 2,000 women in Africa.


Scientists at Oxford University have said that research suggests a less virulent HIV could be one of several factors contributing to a turning of the deadly pandemic, eventually leading to the end of AIDS.
"Overall we are bringing down the ability of HIV to cause AIDS so quickly," Philip Goulder, a professor at Oxford University who led the study, told Reuters news agency.

"But it would be overstating it to say HIV has lost its potency - it's still a virus you wouldn't want to have."
Some 35 million people currently have HIV and AIDS has killed around 40 million people since it began spreading 30 years ago.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were approximately 35 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS in 2013. Of these, 3.2 million were children (<15 years old).

But campaigners noted on Monday that for the first time in the epidemic's history, the annual number of new HIV infections is lower than the number of HIV-positive people being added to those receiving treatment, meaning a crucial tipping point has been reached in reducing deaths from AIDS.

The research team studied cases in Botswana and South Africa - two countries badly hit by AIDS - where they enrolled more than 2,000 women with HIV.

The vast majority of people living with HIV are in low- and middle-income countries. According to WHO, sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region, with 24.7 million people living with HIV in 2013. Seventy-one percent of all people who are living with HIV in the world live in this region.

First the research team looked at whether the interaction between the body's natural immune response and HIV leads to the virus becoming less virulent or able to cause disease.

Previous research on HIV has shown that people with a gene known as HLA-B*57 can benefit from a protective effect against HIV and progress more slowly than usual to AIDS.
 
The scientists found that in Botswana, HIV has evolved to adapt to HLA-B*57 more than in South Africa, so patients no longer benefited from the protective effect.

But the research team also found the cost of this adaptation for HIV is a reduced ability to replicate - making it less virulent.

The scientists then analysed the impact on HIV virulence of the wide use of AIDS drugs.

Using a mathematical model, they found that treating the sickest HIV patients, whose immune systems have been weakened by the infection, accelerates the evolution of variants of HIV with a weaker ability to replicate.

"HIV adaptation to the most effective immune responses we can make against it comes at a significant cost to its ability to replicate," Goulder said. "Anything we can do to increase the pressure on HIV in this way may allow scientists to reduce the destructive power of HIV over time."

Source :-
http://www.aljazeera.com
http://www.aids.gov