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ULYANOVSK, Russia — Crowds are sparse these days at the world’s biggest Lenin museum in the Russian city of Ulyanovsk, which has fences round it to protect visitors after several massive panels dropped off its facade.

A giant topiary sign still spells “Lenin” near the white stone box of the Lenin Memorial Museum on the bank of the Volga River, but the former Soviet leader’s home city is in search of a new identity 100 years after the October Revolution.

The city of Simbirsk 700 kilometres southeast of Moscow, where Lenin was born and lived until he was 17, was renamed Ulyanovsk in his honour after his death in 1924.

It became a mecca for tour groups of Lenin lovers from socialist countries.

To communists, Lenin is still the best thing to happen to Ulyanovsk, and local 68-year-old communist activist Yevgeny Lytyakov says the city owes its growth and status to the fact that Lenin was born there. 

“Before the revolution, Simbirsk was a nondescript little town,” he said. 

But Lenin no longer resonates in the same way and AFP journalists saw only a handful of visitors at the city’s showpiece museums.

“We call Ulyanovsk Lenin’s motherland, but all the same, the young generation has moved on,” admits Yelena Bespalova, head of research at the Lenin Motherland Reserve, the city’s second biggest Lenin museum.

From idolised to demonised

In the red-carpeted halls of the Lenin Memorial Museum, which covers some 4,000 square metres, exhibits range from Lenin’s death mask to a giant map of the Soviet Union that lights up glowing red.

Contemporary touches include a huge photograph of President Vladimir Putin, who visited in 2002.

“Today practically the biggest [Lenin] museum that is left is ours, in his motherland,” says former director Valery Perfilov, 70, who still works there.

The museum was once lavishly funded by the Communist Party and had around 5,000 visitors a day, but after the breakup of the USSR “it all suddenly collapsed,” he recalls. 

“We were left without any funding.”

“If in the Soviet period, Lenin was idolised, deified, in the 1990s he was demonised.”

Today the museum is financed by the regional culture ministry and the current director Lidiya Larina says the complex, including a concert hall, has half a million visitors a year, but admits it is “outdated”.

It is due for a makeover ahead of Lenin’s 150th birthday in 2020 according to Larina, who wants to bring in interactive displays as well as a better shop and cafe.

The museum is also shifting its focus from Lenin as a political figure to his childhood in Ulyanovsk, Larina said, as Lenin’s role as an ideologue in the Soviet era is now generally downplayed by officials.

A plaque on Lenin’s former school calls him “Vladimir Ulyanov, the head of the government of Soviet Russia and the USSR from 1917 to 1923”.

“There’s a certain number of people in power who according to their views would happily raze the whole memory of the October Revolution and Lenin,” complains communist Lytyakov. 

“But society won’t let this happen.”

The Lenin Motherland Reserve museum, which has federal funding, has a different aim — to immerse visitors in the atmosphere of Simbirsk in Lenin’s day.

It is an open-air museum of colourful painted wooden buildings in the neighbourhood where Lenin lived in various houses — his family moved constantly — including a fire station and a corner shop.

“The mission of our organisation is to preserve this corner of old Simbirsk,” says deputy development director Oksana Solovei.

The complex has more than 200,000 visitors a year, mostly locals, she says.

“Unfortunately we don’t have as many foreign tourists as in the Soviet period.”

The museum also gives a darker picture, with an exhibition on 1917 documenting looting and robberies by freed criminals and ex-soldiers.

“It was very dangerous even to walk on the streets. In 1917 the curfew started at 6 pm,” says Bespalova.

‘Alternative view’

The city markets its Lenin links as part of a “Red Circuit” for Chinese tourists to visit Soviet sites around Russia.

Museum staff said Chinese groups visit often, however AFP journalists did not see any Chinese tourists over two days.

The city is also looking to other famous natives, including 19th-century novelist Ivan Goncharov, and to possibly end Lenin’s domination over its image.

Two 26-year-old designers from Ulyanovsk have created a range of funky postcards, magnets and mugs presenting what they call an “alternative view” of the city.

One postcard has the slogan “Ulyanovsk — motherland of talents” and cartoons of 20 figures including Goncharov — but Lenin is conspicuously absent, and the women say this is no accident.

“We have nothing against him — Vladimir Ilyich,” said designer Nataliya Chebarkova.

“But it’s nice to tell people that Ulyanovsk isn’t just Lenin and the USSR.”

By Lisa M. Krieger

The Mercury News (TNS)

MOFFETT FIELD, California — What began as a trickle of new planet discoveries from the Kepler Space Telescope a decade ago has turned into a torrent: 2,337 verified sightings, with about 50 in the “goldilocks zone” — our size, shape and orbit around the warm glow of stars like our own sun, perhaps hosting life.

At a recent news conference at NASA’s Ames Research Centre, scientists added 219 new planet candidates — 10 of them potentially habitable — to the final and most definitive tally from the prolific planet detector Kepler, which gazes into a slice of sky near the constellation Cygnus to find the subtle dimming that occurs every time a planet passes in front of — or “transits” — its sun.

“Are we alone? Maybe Kepler today has told us indirectly, although we need confirmation, that we are probably not alone,” said Mario Perez, Kepler programme scientist in the Astrophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission.

William Borucki, the now-retired scientist who devoted two decades to getting the Kepler project launched, said “most stars have planets. Many of these planets are Earth-like. A fair fraction are in the habitable zone”.

Of particular interest in this newest batch is a planet called 7711, with a size, orbit and sunlike star similar to three planets in our solar system: Venus, Earth and Mars. “But we’d only want to live in one of them,” cautioned Susan Thompson, Kepler research scientists at the SETI Institute in Mountain View.

After years of searching, the Kepler mission has fundamentally changed our understanding of the diverse planets in our galaxy. At the conference, scientists lumped planets into five categories: “Hot Jupiters”, “Cold Gas Giants”, “Lava Worlds”, “Ice Giants” and — most promising — small “Rocky Planets”.

New findings suggest two distinct size groupings of these small rocky planets, both of them with inhospitable environments. One group is so close to its host star that its surface has been blowtorched. The other group has a crushing atmosphere “so thick that it would not be a nice place to live”, said Benjamin Fulton, doctoral candidate at the University of Hawaii in Manoa.

“Finding two distinct groups of exoplanets is like discovering mammals and lizards make up distinct branches of a family tree,” he said.

Before Kepler, no one knew if our sun was the only star to support planets.

The spacecraft was launched in March 2009 to survey the Milky Way galaxy in search of potentially habitable planets around other stars like our sun.

Calling it “the little spacecraft that could”, NASA Ames director Eugene L. Tu said Kepler “has rewritten the textbook on exoplanets”.

While Kepler has offered a pioneering look at the sky, surveying 200,000 stars, it sees only a fraction of the celestial landscape, according to the scientists.

To cover the entire sky, 400 Keplers would be needed.

Is your Microsoft Windows or Apple OS version the absolute newest, the most up to date? Do you always own and show the world the latest smartphone model?

You may be following up closely on technology trends. You may be trying to keep up with the change, upgrading and replacing software or equipment as soon as new versions or models are available. Whatever your approach to that may be, it is virtually impossible always to have the very latest. It is exhausting, time-consuming, mind-stressing and nerve-breaking; not to mention the expense it entails.

To avoid having to endure the above pains, users often choose a compromise solution. They skip one or two releases. They postpone moving up to the next thing immediately. It reduces the expense while it still spares them the shame of being kept in the Middle Ages of technology. Surely by now no one is still running their computer on Windows XP, for example!

The problem is that such solution is not workable on all software or equipment. With some, there is little choice but to upgrade or move up without any delay. Failure to do so may seriously affect operating the programme or the device. In extreme cases, it could even prevent working at all with them or it could create network security issues.

Smartphones for instance are more tolerant to postponing the change than say Microsoft Windows system. Many of us do not systematically buy the next Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy that these two manufacturers release, replacing their model N by model N+1. In the typical case, consumers would skip one, two or even three releases.

It is common at present to see owners of Samsung Galaxy trading their S5 model for an S8, ignoring the company’s S6 and S7 models on the way. Such buying habits do not really affect the usage of the smartphone, for the changes and improvements from S5 to S8, while being certainly interesting and worthwhile, are not life changing. Incidentally, Samsung has just announced their Galaxy S9 smartphone for next spring. Yes, no respite is allowed. 

On the other hand, you cannot seriously skip Windows upgrades without being negatively affected one way or another. From the date of this writing and until mid-2020, there are no fewer than eight major upgrades to Windows 10 that are planned by Microsoft. The most widely used computer operating system in the world will still be named Windows 10, but the upgrades will be significant — and unavoidable. Interestingly, and at the same time, the company has confirmed that if you are still holding on strong to good old Windows 7, it will keep supporting it officially and will back it up until 2020, technically only, not commercially.

Somewhere between smartphones and MS-Windows, it remains a matter of personal decision to skip releases or not, depending on how you might be affected by not moving up your device or your software.

Take Bluetooth speakers for instance. Old models run under version 3 whereas the newer ones feature version 4. The two versions provide the same transmission speed and quality of sound, but the first over a range of 10 metres maximum, whereas the second can cover up to 60 metres, theoretically at least. If you are happy with your Bluetooth version 3 speakers, have paid a lot to own them and do not need to transmit music over distances longer than 10 metres, then you do not need to buy ones featuring version 4 of the technology. Otherwise version 4 becomes a must.

PARIS — Asterix, the indomitable pint-sized Gaul forever outfoxing the Romans, returns for his 37th comic adventure on Thursday, this time battling his way across Italy in a chariot race. 

The moustachioed hero, who has been entertaining readers with his magic-potion exploits alongside Obelix since 1959, has become a mainstay in the publishing industry, with more than 370 million albums sold worldwide. 

As well as being translated into more than 100 languages, the books have inspired a dozen movies and cartoon series, making it a global phenomenon. 

The latest edition, ‘Asterix et la Transitalique’ (Asterix and the Chariot Race), is set in ancient Italy. 

Rather than a showdown with Julius Caesar, it involves the resolute Gauls meeting a tribe called the Italics who are also fighting to remain independent from Rome. 

The original books, written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo, built up a mass following in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, with many childhood readers from those days still snapping up the titles decades on. 

After Goscinny’s death in 1977, Uderzo wrote and illustrated the series until he retired in 2009. The last three editions have been written by Jean-Yves Ferri and drawn by Didier Conrad, sticking closely to the original format. 

“We had Italy in mind and then I had the idea of a chariot race, a sort of rally from ancient times, a trip across the peninsula leading from one city to another,” said Ferri as he and Conrad presented the new edition this week. 

According to tradition, the latest Asterix book features a new villain, Coronavirus, a mysterious, masked chariot racer who will stop at nothing to win. 

While Uderzo plays a role overseeing the series, Ferri said he had not asked for any changes. 

”He wanted a team able to perpetuate the tradition and he put his trust in us,“ he said. ”He shows his support, but is not really critical. 

“The only change we had to make was putting a dot on the ‘i’ of ‘italique’,” he joked. “We agreed against our will.” 

With the Asterix movies proving box office successes, the books have attracted a new, younger generation of followers. That is reflected in the print run for Asterix and the Chariot Race, with 5 million copies planned.

Sick or injured men who receive blood transfusions may be more likely to die if their donor was a woman who has been pregnant in the past, a new study suggests. 

The reasons are unclear, and the study wasn’t focused on explaining them, but senior author Rutger Middelburg of Leiden University Medical Centre in The Netherlands and colleagues write in JAMA that it is possible antibodies women develop during pregnancy to protect their growing baby might later trigger dangerous reactions in some male recipients of blood from previously pregnant donors. 

“During pregnancy, the mother is exposed to her child’s blood, and can, therefore, develop antibodies that she will have for life, which will be carried in her donated blood,” said Dr Henrik Bjursten a researcher at Lund University and Skane University Hospital in Sweden who was not involved in the study. 

“These antibodies can be one explanation for the finding,” Bjursten said by email. “But no definitive mechanism has been found.” 

The study team examined data on 31,118 patients who received a total of 59,320 red blood cell transfusions at six Dutch hospitals from 2005 to 2015. The majority of the blood donors were men; just 6 per cent were women who had been pregnant in the past, and another 6 per cent were women without a history of pregnancy. 

Overall, 3,969 blood recipients, or 13 per cent, died during the study. 

When men got transfusions from previously pregnant female donors, the mortality rate was 101 fatalities for every 1,000 recipients per year, compared to 80 fatalities per 1,000 recipients with male donors and 78 per 1,000 recipients with never-pregnant female donors, the study found. 

Women did not appear to have an increased risk of death when they received blood from a previously pregnant female donor, however. 

Research to date on sex-mismatched blood donations has been inconclusive, and the current findings would need to be verified in other patient populations before considering any changes to current transfusion practices that do not consider sex in matching donors with recipients, said Gustaf Edgren, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm who was not involved in the study. 

“The largest study to date with almost a million patients did not find an association between donor sex and patient survival,” Edgren said by e-mail. “Another fairly large Canadian study did find such an association, but neither of these studies did look specifically at donor pregnancy status.” 

The most common cause of death in the study was what is known as transfusion-related acute lung injury, which has been linked to transfusions from female donors with a history of pregnancy. 

For female recipients of blood transfusions, mortality rates were 74 deaths for every 1,000 patients per year with a previously pregnant female donor and 62 deaths with a male donor. 

One limitation of the study is that the difference in mortality rates for male recipients with previously pregnant female donors was only statistically meaningful for men age 50 or younger, the authors note. Researchers also lacked data on the pregnancy history for some female donors in the study. 

Even so, the results add to research suggesting that there may be some unknown harms associated with blood transfusions, said Dr Fred Buckhold, a researcher at Saint Louis University School of Medicine who was not involved in the study. 

Under current transfusion practices, however, it is not possible for doctors and patients to know the sex of donors, Buckhold said by e-mail. Transfusions are not risk free, and patients should get them only when necessary, he added. 

“It is clear in the US that blood transfusions are overused and there is often a mentality of, ‘we might as well fill up the tank’ for an anaemic patient,” Buckhold said. “While that concept is good in theory, it is becoming clear that there are clear harms that need to be considered fully.” 

Still, there is not enough evidence yet to warrant changes in transfusion practices based on the sex of donors and recipients, said Dr Ritchard Cable of the American Red Cross in Farmington, Connecticut, who co-wrote an editorial accompanying the study. 

“No change in transfusion practices is needed now,” Cable said by e-mail. “Rather, efforts to restudy the findings in different populations and with different methods should be undertaken.” 

My sister-in-law once told me that my brother was a colossal time waster. I did not agree with her of course, even though I secretly admired her casual use of a most unusual adjective in describing my sibling’s shortcomings. She had complained that the reason the two of them could never be punctual at any event was because he always found an extremely insignificant task that needed to be completed, just before they were to step out.

I remember that I had tried to dissuade her from explaining further, but by now she was in full flow. It could be programming the television channels, fixing a light-bulb, removing stains from a tablecloth or cleaning his wrist watch — the more trivial the chore, the more importance he attached to it during their rush hour, she had grumbled in a quivering voice. My sense of loyalty told me to stop listening to her, because she was obviously trying to drive a wedge between the family members, but in my heart of hearts I knew that she was right. 

I made some placatory sounds in order to avoid being dragged into a marital quarrel. Also, I did not want to take sides because I would have unhesitatingly favoured my brother over her. I was taught by my noble nuns at school that blood is thicker than water, you see, but they had also instilled in my conscience a sense of being fair. Therefore, I felt I was on very precarious ground here, which was almost like walking a tightrope, so to speak. 

This incident got me thinking and I decided to take a deeper look at the other couples around me. What I discovered surprised me immensely because in majority of the cases it was the male partners who dawdled, especially where getting dressed for an occasion and arriving on time was concerned. This fact was additionally confusing because for men, all they had to do after wearing their outfits was to run a comb through their hair, which also became less of a complication as they grew older and their heads became balder.

Women on the other hand, had to don their fancy evening dresses that had countless hooks, sashes, bows or strings and match it with the appropriate jewellery, makeup and hairstyles. This obviously took a lot of effort, so how could they manage it more efficiently than their male counterparts? 

My quarrelsome sister-in-law insisted that men had no concept of time management. When I visited them the last time, she even suggested I take up the challenge of getting my brother to a music party at a dignitary’s house, on time. Despite my better judgement, I picked up the gauntlet.

Everything was going smoothly — my sibling and I were about to get into the car which would deliver us to our destination on the dot. Suddenly, my brother disappeared into the garden shed while I waited for him at the door. A good fifteen minutes later I went looking for him. He was carefully filling a fountain pen from a bottle of ink, with a piston!

“What are you doing Bhaiya?” I called out. 

My brother jumped up at my voice, spilling some of the ink. 

“Look, what you made me do, silly girl,” he scolded. 

“Why now? We are running late,” I exclaimed. 

“Let me refill that and I’ll be with you,” he stated calmly.

“I shall wait in the car,” I said stomping off.

WASHINGTON — It was a dismal weekend for North American cinemas — but Lionsgate’s “Boo 2! A Madea Halloween” managed to scare some life back into the box office, bagging the top spot, according to industry data released on Monday.

Starring Tyler Perry — who also wrote, directed and produced the comedy horror sequel — “Boo 2!” sees Madea and the gang head to a haunted campsite, only then to have to escape monsters lurking there.

With takings of $21.2 million, “Boo 2!” is the tenth Perry title to snatch the top spot on its opening weekend, Deadline reports.

“Geostorm” — another new release — took second place, but it was a disappointing opening for the latest offering from Warner Bros., with earnings of $13.7 million.

The sci-fi disaster thriller follows Gerard Butler as a satellite designer tasked with saving the world from an apocalyptic storm — caused by climate controlling satellites attacking the planet.

Meanwhile, “Happy Death Day” dropped to third place from last week’s top spot — with takings plummeting from $26 million to $9.4 million.

Starring Jessica Rothe, the comedy slasher follows a college student who repeatedly relives the day she was murdered until she discovers who killed her.

Sitting in fourth was Warner Bros.’s “Blade Runner: 2049”, which halved its earnings for the second weekend running, taking $7.4 million.

The sci-fi reboot features Ryan Gosling as a new Los Angeles Police Department “blade runner” charged with killing bioengineered androids known as “replicants”.

After uncovering a secret that threatens society, he embarks on a search for Harrison Ford’s character, a former blade runner who disappeared 30 years ago.

In at fifth was Sony’s new release “Only The Brave”, starring Josh Brolin, with earnings of $6 million.

Based on a true story, the drama tells the tale of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a group of firefighters in Arizona who battle to protect a town from an historic wildfire.

Rounding out the top 10 were “The Foreigner” ($5.8 million), “It” ($3.5 million), “The Snowman” ($3.4 million), “American Made” ($3.1 million) and “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” ($3 million).

LOS ANGELES — Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars surfaced at the Suburbicon premiere, and they did not shy away from the Harvey Weinstein controversy upending their industry.

Sexual harassment stories about the disgraced movie mogul continued to grow over the weekend, followed by Sunday’s Los Angeles Times expose alleging similar predatory behaviour by director James Toback.

Nonetheless, a rather routine scene played out in Westwood on Sunday night, where the cast turned out to debut George Clooney’s new Coen brothers-style satire, told against a backdrop of racism and white privilege in the 1950s.

Clooney, who directed the film, walked the red carpet with Matt Damon and Julianne Moore. Prior to the stars’ arrival, studio representatives promised the A-listers would talk to “everyone” (meaning they would not pose for photos and duck inside, a common strategy for avoiding hot topics).

More: George Clooney on selling the twins’ photos: “We’d like to not do it”.

They kept to their word.

George Clooney

 We wanted to know: Has the Weinstein scandal changed the way Clooney and his producing partner Grant Heslov think about who they’re choosing to do work with?

“Certainly some of the people we’re doing business with, yeah,” Clooney told USA TODAY after posing for photos with his wife, Amal.

“I think the teachable moment isn’t just with this industry,” he continued, name-checking Saturday’s disclosure that Fox News reupped a contract with Bill O’Reilly after he paid out a $32 million settlement for sexual harassment. “If anything, what we hope is that this is a watershed moment for us as a society where women feel safe enough to talk about this issue, feel believed.”

Also: Harvey Weinstein’s ties to fashion world provided access to beautiful women.

Clooney embraced an environment of accountability, “where men who are committing these crimes, these violations, don’t feel safe, and feel as if they do these things, they are going to be outed, they’re going to be sued, they may even get litigated, maybe even go to jail for it”, he said. “If we can get to that point, then we’ve actually succeeded.”

He disagreed with Woody Allen, who recently told BBC News he hoped that the allegations against Weinstein would lead to “some amelioration”, but not “to a witch hunt atmosphere” in Hollywood. (Allen subsequently emphasised in a statement that Weinstein is a “sick, sad man”.)

Earlier: Harvey We “instein responds, has ‘different recollection” of Nyong’o claims.

Clooney called the remark “a stupid thing to say. The reality is, it’s not a witch hunt to these women who were trapped in a hotel room and told they were going to get a part and then suddenly out comes Harvey Weinstein in his birthday suit. That’s not a witch hunt, that’s an assault.”

 Matt Damon

 Damon, who brought his wife, Luciana, told USA TODAY that he, too, hoped for a “massive, systemic change” in the industry following the Weinstein scandal.

“The fact that somebody that powerful, his career has been completely ruined — that’s a real message to anyone who would behave like this,” he said, crediting social media with raising the voices of women. “It has to change. Maybe I’m totally naive. I just don’t see how someone could even think they could get away with this anymore, in this day and age. Seriously.”

Related: Directors Guild brings disciplinary charges against Harvey Weinstein.

 Julianne Moore

 Moore had just read about two lawmakers in New York working to pass legislation that releases women from non-disclosure agreements in cases of harassment.

“I was like, thank God,” she said. “Because that was my first question, how is this legal? How can people be protected for these kind of crimes?”

Moore wants this conversation to keep going. “What you want to do is find a way to talk about it without being salacious,” she said, emphasising: “That’s not what this is about. These are criminal acts.”

Asthma attacks serious enough to require steroid treatment or hospitalization may be less likely when people take vitamin D supplements, a recent analysis suggests. 

Researchers examined data combined from seven previously published studies with a total of 955 asthma patients who were randomly selected to take vitamin D or a placebo pill, in addition to any other medicines prescribed to manage their symptoms. 

When asthma patients took vitamin D supplements, they were 54 per cent less likely to have an attack severe enough to require an emergency room visit or hospital admission, the study found. They were also 31 per cent less likely to have frequent asthma attacks requiring treatment with corticosteroids. 

The apparent benefits of taking vitamin D were significant only in people who started out with a deficiency, however. 

“The take-home message is that asthma patients who suffer with attacks [exacerbations] should get their vitamin D level checked, and if it is low, they should take a vitamin D supplement — there is negligible risk associated with doing this, and there is pretty good evidence to suggest that this could reduce their risk of having an attack,” said senior study author Dr Adrian Martineau of Queen Mary University of London in the UK. 

“It’s very important to emphasise that asthma patients should not stop taking their usual asthma therapy,” Martineau said by email. “All of the studies included in our review looked at the effects of giving vitamin D on top of usual therapy.” 

Worldwide, more than 300 million people have asthma, and the disease is responsible for an estimated 400,000 deaths each year, researchers note in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 

In the study, participants lived in six countries on three continents and ranged in age from 1 to 85 years. 

Vitamin D supplement doses varied across all the studies in the analysis. One study tested a 100,000 IU (international units) dose every two months; four studies examined daily doses ranging from 500 IU to 2,000 IU; and two studies explored giving patients vitamin D both daily and once every two months. 

Supplements appeared to have the biggest impact on reducing the risk of asthma attacks in people who started out with blood levels of the circulating form of vitamin D that were below 25 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L), which is widely considered deficient. For people who started with circulating levels of 25 nmol/L or higher, there was some reduction in asthma attacks, but the difference was too small to rule out the possibility it was due to chance. 

One potential explanation of the results is that vitamin D boosts immunity to respiratory viruses that are the major precipitant of asthma attacks, Martineau said. It also dampens harmful inflammatory responses in the airway that can contribute to the development of an asthma attack and may enhance the anti-inflammatory effects of corticosteroids for some people. 

“In addition to benefits in asthma, vitamin D supplementation can reduce risk of colds and flu in people who don’t have asthma and protect against rickets in children and osteomalacia [softening of the bones] in adults,” Martineau said. 

“It is possible to take too much vitamin D, and if you do, it can cause high calcium levels that can result in kidney damage in extreme cases,” Martineau added. “However, this would not occur at the doses investigated in the trials that contributed to our analysis.” 

The study didn’t examine the ideal dose of vitamin D or test possible reasons the supplement might ease asthma symptoms. The small studies in the analysis also had different methods of measuring the effectiveness of vitamin D for reducing asthma attacks, making it hard to say for sure who would benefit most from supplements. 

“This analysis suggests that vitamin D supplementation may be beneficial in patients with asthma, although the evidence is not yet strong enough to recommend its use,” said Dr Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand in Wellington, coauthor of an accompanying editorial. 

“Vitamin D supplementation is potentially an attractive therapeutic approach as it is relatively cheap, and vitamin D deficiency is common in many populations where asthma is also common,” Beasley said by email. 

Launched globally last week and brimming with cutting edge technology, the latest Audi A8 throws down the gauntlet to its almost exclusively German competitors. The fourth incarnation of Audi’s full-size luxury flagship, the 2018 A8 is a stately and statuesque design that builds on its predecessors’ futuristic appeal, four-wheel-drive dynamics and tastefully plush interiors. 

The focus is firmly on high tech and mild hybrid systems and gadgetry, and its pièce de résistance is its first ever production car level three self-driving ability, on a scale of just five levels.

 Stately and statuesque

 Exuding a distinct and substantial presence, the new A8’s focal design point is its vast, tall, wide, seemingly rapacious and now hexagonal single-frame grille. With extensive use of chrome, the grille is flanked by slim, furrowed and bisected LED and laser headlights, and chromed side intakes.

Chiselled and sculpted, the A8’s surfacing features sharp ridges and great attention to detail. At the rear, full-length light and chrome strips link the rear lights. However, this makes it somewhat colour-sensitive, with dark blue, as tested, best complementing this particular design element.

From profile, the A8’s flowing roofline is almost coupe-like, while its level waistline and proportions lend it a grounded and road-hugging stance alluding to its Quattro four-wheel-drive, and allow for good visibility. Slightly longer, taller and narrower but with more rakish roofline than its predecessor, the new A8, however, deliver improved cabin space, and particularly improved rear headroom. 

Built on a light and stiff mixed compound construction incorporating aluminium, steel, carbon-fibre and magnesium, the new A8 is 24 per cent more rigid, which translates into improved ride, handling and safety benefits.

 Versatile V6

 Initially available in 55 TFSI guise with turbocharged 3-litre V6 engine, the entry-level A8 range soon expands to include more powerful twin-turbo 4-litre V8 and 6-litre W12 petrol versions, and a full hybrid model.

Developing 335BHP at a 5000-6400 plateau and muscular 368lb/ft throughout a broad 1370-4500rpm mid-range peak, the 55 TFSI is a brisk and confident performer, irrespective of upcoming variants. With quick-spooling turbocharger and four-wheel-drive traction, it is quick to launch from standstill, cracking the 0-100km/h benchmark in just 5.6-seconds, and capable of a 250km/h top speed.

Pulling hard throughout a versatile mid-range and urgent at top end, the 55 TFSI delivers smooth, refined and progressive performance. Designed as a mild hybrid from ground up, all A8s feature a 48V battery and electric system, which charges through regenerative braking.

Not part of the A8’s driveline, its 48V system does however run various ancillary systems and allows the car to coast briefly between 55-160km/h with engine off, and for the stop/start system to operate from 22km/h. Consequently fuel consumption is reduced by 0.7l/100km to achieve comparatively frugal 7.8l/100km combined consumption.

Adaptive and adroit

 Driving all four wheels through an 8-speed automatic gearbox, shifts are slick and responsive, with shorter lower gears for performance and taller top gears for refinement and efficiency.

Meanwhile, the A8’s Quattro system delivers sure-footed handling and reassuring road-holding through winding routes, and can redistribute power between front and rear, as necessary for agility and traction.

An optional rear sport differential can also enhance agility and road-holding. Underneath, the A8 rides on sophisticated five-link suspension with standard adaptive air suspension, improved from its predecessor for better ride comfort and handling.

Planted, stable and settled at speed, the A8 is a natural continent-cruncher that is committed and reassuring through fast sweeping bends.

Meanwhile, adaptive air suspension fluently responds to textural changes and remains buttoned down over crests and dips. Supple and smooth is comfort mode, the A8’s suspension becomes taut and delivers good cornering body control in dynamic mode. Through narrow and winding mountain routes on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, the V6-powered standard wheelbase A8 was more agile than expected and seemed to shrink around the driver, and provided tidy and precise turn-in.

 Autonomy and ambiance

The A8 can also be optioned with electromechanical suspension, which features an electric motor powered by its 48V system at each corner to individually control each wheel to respond to — and soon even predict — road texture changes. Also operated through the zFAS computer and series of sensors, cameras and radars are the A8’s extensive driver-assistance systems, and Audi AI self driving function. Set to be rolled out in individual markets according to prevailing legal situations, the A8’s self driving function is activated through the Traffic Jam Pilot system.

Different from previous systems, the A8 self-driving mode doesn’t require constant monitoring and can stop, start, steer and brake up to 60km/h under the right circumstances, while remote auto parking is also available. Meanwhile, the A8’s cabin features extensive use of fine leathers, suedes, metals, open pore wood, soft textures and tasteful hues.

Spacious, comfortably accommodating and with excellent seat adjustability, it features a clean, focused and horizontal layout. Seamlessly incorporating a configurable digital instrument panel, 10-1-inch infotainment screen and touch buttons and surfaces, the A8’s interfaces even features analogue simulation with haptic feedback.

 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

 Engine: 3-litre, turbocharged, in-line V6-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 84.5 x 89mm

Compression ratio: 11.2:1

Valve-train: 32-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 4.714; 2nd 3.143; 3rd 2.106; 4th 1.667; 5th 1285; 6th 1.0; 7th 0.839; 8th 0.667

Reverse/final drive: 3.317/3.076

Drive-line: self-locking centre differential, optional limited-slip rear-differential

Power distribution, F/R: 40 per cent/60 per cent

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 335 (340) [250] @5000-6400rpm

Specific power: 111.8BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 174.5BHP/tonne (unladen)

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 368.8 (500) @1370-4500rpm

Specific torque: 166.9Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 260.4Nm/tonne (unladen)

0-100km/h: 5.6-seconds

Top speed: 250km/h (electronically governed)

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 10.3-/6.4-/7.8-litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 178g/km

Fuel capacity: 72-litres

Length: 5172mm

Width: 1945mm

Height: 1473mm

Wheelbase: 2998mm

Track, F/R: 1644/1633mm

Approach/departure angles: 14°/13.7°

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.27

Luggage volume: 505-litres

Unladen/kerb weight: 1920/1995kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 12.5-metres

Suspension: Five-link, adaptive air dampers

Brakes: Ventilated & perforated discs

Tyres: 265/40R20