Khomein, May 12, IRNA – An archeologist and petroglyph researcher said that there is some fascinating evidence that shows ancient Iranian people have most probably emigrated to the American continent.
Mohammad Naserifard told IRNA on Tuesday that these finding are being presented for the first time.
Naserifard said after years of research on ancient painting in the caves and mountains of Iran, some fascinating achievements have been gained that are nationally and internationally important.
He said it was the first time that Iranian petroglyphs and cave paintings were compared with those of other parts of the world.
The similarity in form and messages between petroglyphs of ancient people of Iran and those of America unravel numerous lost rings of human history and art, he said.
The date of the paintings of appaloosa horse of the native Americans with the paintings found in Sistan-Baluchestan, southeastern Iran, which are 11,000 years old. The same paintings are seen in a cave in France.
Pech Merle, France
The French had claimed that that kind of horse had just lived in Europe. This is while the 11,000-year old paintings of Iran show women riding the legendary horses of the American Indians, he said.
The Iranian archeologist added that the recent research conducted on the petroglyphs of Teymareh, central Iran, showed that ancient Iranians have migrated to America as well. Belgian Professor Marcel Ot had already reached in his studies that Europeans have Asian roots.
Naserifard said that the migration has taken place through the Bering Strait, between northeastern Asia and northwestern America of through the Arctic Ocean 10,000 BC.
Bering Strait
The paintings found in Khomein, central Iran, show the same feather that the Native American wear on their heads, which signifies that the people of two cultures have the same roots. They show that ancient Iranians have migrated to the Americas thousands of years ago, he said.
Teymareh, central Iran
He went on to say that in the decade-long research, Iranian archeologists encountered signs and symbols in the petroglyphs and cave paintings that had been seen in ancient clay tablets of Jiroft, southeastern Iran, and Shoosh (Susa), southwestern Iran.
The same symbols have been discovered in the Native American habitats in Kentucky. For example, pictures of ephedra plant that symbolizes eternal life. The same symbol with the sane divine meaning has seen in Central Asian Turks and Caucasus.
In the 10,000-year old petroglyphs of Teymareh, are seen the same spiral paintings as those of Red Indians of New Mexoco, Iota, California, and Nevada.
Spiral petroglyphs of Iran and the US
Semiotically speaking, spiral symbols the beginning, development and culmination of entities, an idea which has most probably been taken from Iran to the Americas, he said.
The winged man paintings were first discovered in Iran. In the beliefs of ancient Iranians, they wear savior angels that helped people in difficulties. The paintings date back to 11,000 to 2,700 years ago, he said, adding that images similar to the ones found allover Iran are seen in Yellostone National Park in Wyoming, the US.
The Iranian and the American images are so alike that one may think they have been painted by the same artist 12,000 years ago, Naserifard said.
We believe that the same paintings mean that the two people had the same beliefs, and inasmuch as the Iranian ones are older, they mean that the ancient Iranians have migrated to America and have taken their beliefs with them.
The most common petroglyphs of Iran are images of wild goats in different styles. They are also seen in ideograms painted or carved by Native Americans in Nevada, California, Iota, Arizona, and New Mexico states. They are so similar that you may think have been painted by one artist in thousands of years.
Mythologically speaking, wild goats are angels in disguise. It is fascinating that Native Americans have mostly painted wild goats with the same message, he said.
He said these were just a few examples of the similarities. They are by no means over.
Comparison has a high place in anthropology; there are images of people while worshipping both in Teymareh and New Mexico, which are undoubtedly not accidental. They are ideograms.
The pictures of two wild goats with a smaller one between their horns are of great importance too (17,000 to 1,000 C). One of them is in Iran, the other one in Iota, the US. They have the same message. Similar figurines, dating back to Bronze Age, have been found in Lorestan, southwestern Iran. They made them and attached to the clothes of women in labor so that the savior angel would help them. Traces of the same belies are seen in the paintings on the walls and mountains near ancient Native Americans’ habitats.
Lors of Iran have a kind of sleeveless garment named Choogha that is woven with thin strings made from wool. The traditional patterns used on Choogha is used by Native Americans too, which is amazing.
Choogha
Rock arts, petroglyphs and pictographs are documents that acquaint researches with the cultures of different places and times. They talk though the language of symbols and images, which has been the same all over the globe.
VIENNA, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
revised down its forecast of global oil demand for 2020, predicting a 9.07 million barrels
per day (b/d) year-on-year contraction in its monthly report published on Wednesday.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) oil demand was
revised lower by 1.20 million b/d, while non-OECD oil demand growth was adjusted down
by 1.03 million b/d, for total oil demand to reach 90.59 million b/d, according to the report.
Crude oil prices recorded a second sharp monthly drop in April amid an increasing oil surplus, it said. The OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) value plummeted by 16.26 U.S. dollars per barrel, or 48.0 percent
month-on-month, to 17.66 dollars per barrel, the lowest monthly level since December 2001.
The report expected that the worst contraction in major oil demand centers around the
world to take place in the second quarter of 2020, mostly in OECD Americas and Europe,
with transportation and industrial fuels affected the most.
It pointed out that demand contraction in 2020 can be mitigated with sooner-than-expected
easing of COVID-19 restriction measures and faster response of economic growth to
stimulus packages.
OPEC also predicted that the world economy will decline by 3.4 percent in 2020,
following global economic growth of 2.9 percent in 2019.
The U.S. economy is forecast to contract by 5.2 percent, while an even larger
decline is expected in the Euro-zone, where economic activity is forecast to
fall by 8.0 percent in 2020.
China's 2020 GDP is forecast to grow by 1.3 percent, recovering from a sharp
contraction in the first quarter.
Russia's economy is forecast to contract by 4.5 percent in 2020, not only due to
COVID-19, but also because of the considerable decline in oil prices.
New York (CNN Business)The unemployment rate in the United States will peak at 25%, rivaling the worst period of the Great Depression, Goldman Sachs warned on Wednesday.
Economists at Goldman Sachs downgraded their labor market forecast "to assume that more workers will lose their jobs and a larger share of them will be classified as unemployed," the Wall Street bank wrote in a report to clients.
Goldman Sachs previously projected the unemployment rate would peak at 15%. The new forecasts are based on government statistics, the first glimpse of the reopening process and new big data sources, the bank said.
The federal government's monthly unemployment statistics only go back to 1948. The current level of unemployment is the highest monthly rate on record.
Annual data, which go back to 1929, show that the unemployment rate peaked during the Great Depression at an average of 24.9% in 1933.
The so-called real jobless rate, which captures the percentage of Americans who want a job but have given up trying to find one, surged to 22.8% in April. That was up from just 8.7% the month before.
Goldman Sachs warned Wednesday that the real jobless rate will peak at 35%, up from the bank's previous projection for a peak of 29%.
That would be worse than what the White House has publicly been bracing for. Kevin Hassett, senior economic adviser to President Donald Trump, told CNN last week that the real jobless rate could hit 25% before "hopefully" falling following a transition period this summer.
No matter where the unemployment peaks, economists have cautioned that it will take years, perhaps even more than a decade, to get the jobless rate back near pre-crisis levels. Goldman Sachs expects the unemployment rate to stand around 10% at the end of 2020. For context, that matches the worst levels of the Great Recession. And even by the end of 2021, Goldman Sachs sees unemployment above 8%.
Reopening the economy
The dire forecasts come as some states have begun to reopen their economies, a challenging task given the risk of giving new life to the pandemic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said Tuesday that the "consequences could be really serious" if states reopen ahead of the guidelines issued by the White House.
Goldman Sachs said the reopening process presents risks in both positive and negative directions.
For instance, China's reopening suggests that a "much quicker pace of recovery is possible."
Goldman also upgraded its GDP forecasts, predicting a "somewhat more V-shaped path" as states relax lockdown orders. The bank now expects rapid annualized growth of 29% in the third quarter, up from 19% previously.
"With the reopening process now underway in many US states, we have more confidence that a large amount of activity will return fairly quickly," the report said.
'Scarring effects'
But that doesn't mean the US economy will recover to its pre-crisis size anytime soon.
Even Goldman's call for a faster-than-usual recovery would leave the US economy with an output gap, which measures the difference between actual and potential growth, of three percentage points at the end of 2021.
The reopening process itself poses serious health and economic challenges. Health experts have warned that coronavirus infections could ramp back up if social distancing is not followed.
And Goldman noted several "serious health risks": "insufficient testing and contact tracing" in some states, reopening high-risk sectors and limited evidence of how effective measures like social distancing and will be.
Likewise, there are concerns that the economic damage done by the pandemic may not be easily reversed -- despite the federal government's efforts to help businesses and households.
"Prolonged weakness could cause severe scarring effects such as permanent layoffs and business closures that delay the recovery," Goldman Sachs economists wrote
Newswise — Children suffering from sickness and diarrhea, coupled with a fever or history of exposure to coronavirus, should be suspected of being infected with COVID-19, recommends a new study published in Frontiers in Pediatrics.
The research also suggests that the gastrointestinal symptoms first suffered by some children hints at potential infection through the digestive tract, as the type of receptors in cells in the lungs targeted by the virus can also be found in the intestines.
"Most children are only mildly affected by COVID-19 and the few severe cases often have underlying health issues. It is easy to miss its diagnosis in the early stage, when a child has non-respiratory symptoms or suffers from another illness," says author of this study, Dr. Wenbin Li, who works at the Department of Pediatrics, Tongji Hospital, Wuhan, China.
He continues, "Based on our experience of dealing with COVID-19, in regions where this virus is epidemic, children suffering from digestive tract symptoms, especially with fever and/or a history of exposure to this disease, should be suspected of being infected with this virus."
In this study, Li and his colleagues detail the clinical features of children admitted to hospital with non-respiratory symptoms, which were subsequently diagnosed with pneumonia and COVID-19.
"These children were seeking medical advice in the emergency department for unrelated problems, for example, one had a kidney stone, another a head trauma. All had pneumonia confirmed by chest CT scan before or soon after admission and then confirmed to have COVID-19. While their initial symptoms may have been unrelated, or their COVID-19 symptoms were initially mild or relatively hidden before their admission to hospital, importantly, 4 of the 5 cases had digestive tract symptoms as the first manifestation of this disease."
By highlighting these cases, Li hopes that doctors will use this information to quickly diagnose and isolate patients with similar symptoms, which will aid early treatment and reduce transmission.
The researchers also link the children's gastrointestinal symptoms, which have been recorded in adult patients, to an additional potential route of infection.
Li explains, "The gastro-intestinal symptoms experienced by these children may be related to the distribution of receptors and the transmission pathway associated with COVID-19 infection in humans. The virus infects people via the ACE2 receptor, which can be found in certain cells in the lungs as well as the intestines. This suggests that COVID-19 might infect patients not only through the respiratory tract in the form of air droplets, but also through the digestive tract by contact or fecal-oral transmission."
While COVID-19 tests can occasionally produce false positive readings, Li is certain all these five children were infected with the disease, but he cautions that more research is needed to confirm their findings.
"We report five cases of COVID-19 in children showing non-respiratory symptoms as the first manifestation after admission to hospital. The incidence and clinical features of similar cases needs further study in more patients."
Too much coffee can increase the risk of osteoarthritis, arthropathy (joint disease) and obesity.
Newswise — Cappuccino, latte or short black, coffee is one of the most commonly consumed drinks in the world. But whether it’s good or bad for your health can be clarified by genetics, as a world-first study from the University of South Australia’s Australian Centre for Precision Health shows that excess coffee consumption can cause poor health.
Using data from over 300,000 participants in the UK Biobank, researchers examined connections between genetically instrumented habitual coffee consumption and a full range of diseases, finding that too much coffee can increase the risk of osteoarthritis, arthropathy (joint disease) and obesity.
Expert genetic epidemiologist, UniSA’s Professor Elina Hyppönen, says understanding any risks associated with habitual coffee intakes could have very large implications for population health.
“Globally, we drink around three billion cups of coffee each day, so it makes sense to explore the pros and cons of this on our health,” Professor Hyppönen says.
“Typically, the effects of coffee consumption are investigated using an observational approach, where comparisons are made against non-coffee-drinkers. But this can deliver misleading results.
“In this study, we used a genetic approach – called MR-PheWAS analysis – to establish the true effects of coffee consumption against 1117 clinical conditions.
“But it also showed that habitual coffee consumption increased the risks of three diseases: osteoarthritis, arthropathy and obesity, which can cause significant pain and suffering for individuals with these conditions.”
Professor Hyppönen says the prevalence of these conditions in Australia and around the world shows how important it is to determine possible causes and influencers of the diseases.
“Excess coffee consumption can lead to increased risks of certain diseases,” Professor Hyppönen says.
“For people with a family history of osteoarthritis or arthritis, or for those who are worried about developing these conditions, these results should act as a cautionary message.
“The body generally sends powerful messages with respect to coffee consumption, so it’s imperative that individuals listen to these when consuming coffee.
“While these results are in many ways reassuring in terms of general coffee consumption, the message we should always remember is consume coffee in moderation – that’s the best bet to enjoy your coffee and good health too.”
MOSCOW, May 11. /TASS/. Whipping up tensions in the Czech Republic without any reason does not promote a constructive dialogue in Russian-Czech relations, Head of Russia’s Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation Eleonora Mitrofanova told TASS.
The Prague-based Respekt weekly newsmagazine reported earlier citing sources in the Czech special services that in early April a Russian national holding a diplomatic passport had allegedly arrived in Prague carrying ricin, a highly potent toxin. The man allegedly headed to the Russian embassy and the poison could be aimed for municipal politicians.
"This situation is the continuation of hostile actions in addition to the dismantling by the Czech municipal authorities of the monument to Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Konev," Mitrofanova said. "We regret to see additional escalation in bilateral Russian-Czech relations."
According to the official, the Czech authorities have slapped unfounded accusations against a staff member of the Russian federal agency in Prague. "This is certainly pure provocation. There are forces seeking to boost this negative reaction," she noted. "Our representative in the Czech Republic is a young man, who speaks the Czech language, who treats this country well and loves it. I believe that this is an unfounded and groundless provocation by the Czech authorities, which is part and parcel of actions they have been taking recently."
Tensions between the two countries escalated following the demolition of a monument dedicated to WWII Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev in Prague. The monument was removed on April 3 following a decision by the authorities of the district Prague-6. The municipal authorities intend to hand it over to the Museum of the 20th Century that the Prague Mayor’s Office plans to establish. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier that Moscow was waiting for the Czech authorities to respond to Russia’s proposal to discuss the violation of the 1993 friendship treaty.
Through a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, UD professors Pei Chiu and Daniel Cha are working with Brian Hubbard, an environmental, safety and occupational health officer with the U.S. Army, to break down explosives in wastewater.
Newswise — An activated carbon filter — found in many household filtration systems—can purify your drinking water, but it’s no match for wastewater that contains military-grade explosives. To clean wastewater from munitions processing and demilitarization, a pair of University of Delaware environmental engineeringprofessors and a UD engineering alumnus are teaming up to test a novel technology using iron nanoparticles.
Through a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), professors Pei Chiu and Daniel Cha are working with Brian Hubbard, an environmental, safety and occupational health officer with the U.S. Army, to break down explosives in wastewater. The three-year grant, which began in 2019, comes from DOD’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP). Hubbard, who received a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in environmental engineering from UD, is the principal investigator, and Cha and Chiu are collaborators on the project. Several students, including undergraduate environmental engineering student Aidan Meese, are also participating in the project.
By developing and implementing new treatment technologies for wastewaters containing insensitive munitions compounds, the military can promote environmental stewardship and reduce costs.
Safer weapons, dirtier water
Old-school explosive compounds such as TNT detonate easily and can go off accidentally in the presence of vibrations or sudden temperature increases. The sensitivity of these munitions poses risks for people who handle them, so today, the military is producing insensitive munitions that are more difficult to set off. Insensitive munitions are safer for users, though are more water soluble than their historical counterparts. These materials dissolve easily in water used in the manufacturing and related processes and can exist in water at much higher concentrations.
“The current treatment methods, such as activated carbon adsorption, are not very effective at removing these highly soluble munitions compounds,” said Chiu. (Adsorption is the adhesion in an extremely thin layer of molecules — such as gases, liquids or dissolved substances — to the surfaces of solid bodies or liquids with which they are in contact.) “Traditional treatment technologies just do not work as well as they did for the munitions of the past.”
An inexpensive, effective water purification technology could benefit the environment and the military. “Processes such as manufacturing often generate wastewater, but what if that water could be treated and reused?” said Chiu. “Army operations could save water and money and reduce risks at the same time.”
What’s more, activated carbon does not destroy munitions compounds. It adsorbs them, leaving a second source of waste, and potential liability, to deal with.
The research team is using microscopic iron particles, nanoscale zerovalent iron, to treat this water. Instead of being corroded by oxygen in water, forming rust, the 25-nanometer iron particles are corroded by munitions compounds in wastewater. The nanoparticles donate electrons to munitions compounds and, through electron transfer, the dissolved insensitive munitions compounds break down. Nanoscale zerovalent iron has been used to treat groundwater, but this is its first application to munitions wastewater.
The team collected wastewater samples from Army facilities and, at UD’s laboratory, performed water quality and munitions compound analyses using high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode-array detector.
After using iron nanoparticles to destroy the munitions compounds in the wastewater, the team adds hydrogen peroxide to oxidize the residues to harmless byproducts.
This is the beauty of the technology. The same iron is used three times for three different purposes. First, the nano zero-valent iron destroys munitions compounds instantly by donating electrons and becomes di-valent iron. Di-valent iron activates hydrogen peroxide to oxidize the compounds, and in this step, di-valent iron becomes tri-valent iron. Tri-valent iron, which is commonly used in water treatment, can remove particles and residues and polish the treated wastewater for potential discharge or reuse.
“With our technology, we are actually destroying the pollution,” said Cha.
Early experimental results are promising and ongoing and will elucidate optimal conditions for field testing. Field-scale pilot testing will begin in spring 2020.
“It’s an ongoing process,” said Chiu. “As we learn more about the chemistry, we will be able to come up with better and more efficient conditions to treat this wastewater.”
The project will also include a cost analysis. “We anticipate that this process will be much cheaper than activated carbon,” said Chiu.
The team suspects that their technology could be versatile, too, with applicability for treatment of industrial wastewater from industries other than the military—such as agrichemicals and consumer product manufacturing.
The team submitted a provisional patent disclosure in 2019.
(This article was approved by the U.S. Army for Public Release PAO # 289-20)
SEOUL, May 11 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's health authorities said Monday that the loss of smell and taste are among the key clinical symptoms associated with the novel coronavirus as the country tries to stem the spread of the infectious disease amid a spike in new cases linked to bars and clubs in Seoul.
In its latest revision to the country's COVID-19 response manual, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said the inability to smell and a diminished sense of taste can be indications that a person has been infected with COVID-19.
It also officially said that headaches, chills and muscle cramps can indicate a coronavirus infection.
In the past, only fever, coughing, shortness of breath, sore throat and pneumonia were listed as physical signs of the illness.
After having successfully controlled the epidemic, the country reported yet another cluster of infections linked to nightclubs and bars in Seoul's trendy Itaewon district.
So far, 86 virus cases have been traced to Itaewon facilities, with authorities trying to find and test possibly thousands of people who visited such establishments. As of Monday, South Korea has confirmed 10,909 cases and 256 deaths from the pandemic.
Local government officials post entry restriction signs and warnings that masks must be worn at all times at a club in Suwon, 46 kilometers south of Seoul, on May 11, 2020. (Yonhap)
"The changes reflect clinical data collected so far, and people showing these kinds of symptoms need to be checked," Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the public health agency, stressed at a news briefing.
She said that front-line doctors are encouraged to administer coronavirus tests on people they suspect may be infected.
The latest update comes as the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention already said that prolonged chills, muscle cramps and migraines are telltale signs of the coronavirus.
In addition to adding more symptoms to its guidelines, the KCDC said it will tighten rules on releasing people in quarantine.
The move comes as scores of people who were released after undergoing repeated tests and showing no outward symptoms tested positive for COVID-19 later on.
The health agency said the revised guidelines only allow people to be released if they meet all set preconditions, like passing tests and showing no symptoms of the virus for seven days.
