Aspetar, the orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital, participated in the fourth annual Arabian Gulf University Sports Medicine Conference that concluded in Bahrain yesterday.  
The involvement of Aspetar in the conference reflects the hospital’s commitment to enhancing co-operation across the region and internationally in sports medicine, clinical training and scientific research. 
Participating in such events also highlights Aspetar’s leading position in enhancing medical education in sports medicine and orthopaedic surgery based on its role as a Reference Collaborator Centre in the GCC region.
During the conference, Aspetar’s physiotherapists and sports medicine experts shared insights drawn from their extensive experience with the participants from the GCC and students of medicine in Bahrain.
The conference sponsored by Aspetar, shed light on the role of the sports medicine sector in managing and preventing sports-related injuries. It also explored the role of sports and physical activity in managing and preventing chronic diseases and helped raise awareness of the importance of a range of preventative healthcare practices and the rehabilitation of sports-related injuries.
Other important themes discussed during the conference included the role of sports medicine in building healthy and active societies, the most effective approaches for increasing knowledge of medical concepts related to the field of sports medicine and recommended steps for building a common base of knowledge across the GCC. Other sessions explored options and ideas for new sports programmes and activities that can support the growth of the sports medicine sector in general. 
Aspetar is considered one of the leading sports medicine institutes in the region and around the world. In 2013, it was chosen by the executive board of the GCC Council of Health Ministers as a Reference Collaborator Centre in recognition of the hospital’s contributions to scientific research and technical training.


Study links human behaviour
to birds when events go ‘viral’


A new research developed in Qatar by a scientist at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), one of Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s (HBKU’s) national research institutes, has shown that people behave like schools of fish or flocks of birds when events go viral on social media.
The research, led by Dr Javier Borge-Holthoefer, a scientist from QCRI with collaboration from Northeastern University, the Centre for Data Science (New York University) and the University of Pennsylvania, analyses how collective attention builds on Twitter.
Borge-Holthoefer and his fellow scientists looked at five different events as they unfolded on Twitter: the Spanish 15M protests, the Outono Brasileiro (Brazilian autumn) movement, the announcement of the Higgs boson discovery, the release of a Hollywood blockbuster movie, The Dark Knight Rises and the acquisition of Motorola by Google.
Borge-Holthoefer said the researchers detected a change in the communication time scale from slow to fast and the network structure from hierarchical to distributed in the reactions to the events.
They discovered that often the events started with just a small, scattered group of people planning them but gained momentum. As the time between tweets on a topic decreased and the elements of them became increasingly aligned, some users were leading as others started to adopt a similar opinion. However, at some point, the alignment was complete with no clear leader, and leaders became indistinguishable from followers.
“I would say that the result is intriguing, because it relates human unplanned behaviour to other collective behaviour we observe in nature such as in bird flocks and fish schooling,” Borge-Holthoefer said. 
The researchers found there were early warning signs that could detect when a transition was about to take place in the build-up of collective attention.
They discovered that as the pace of tweeting accelerated, the complexity of the information exchange increased.
“These early warnings happen some time before a lot of people start tweeting about an issue,” Borge-Holthoefer said. 
The research was published in the journal, Science Advances, recently. Borge-Holthoefer said further work and refinement could potentially lead to reliable methods to forecast episodes of collective attention or behaviour.


Javier Borge-Holthoefer


Senegal leader lauds Emir’s support


QNA
Dakar


President Macky Sall of Senegal has met Qatar’s  Attorney General HE Dr Ali bin Fetais al-Marri and his accompanying delegation, at the presidential palace in the capital Dakar. 
The Senegalese President lauded the role of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and his continued  support to Senegal, particularly, the Senegalese judicial authorities and institutions of the rule of law and anti-corruption. 
President Macky Sall awraded the Attorney General the Senegalese Medal of “Legion of Honour with the rank of Commander”.


President Macky Sall of Senegal receiving Qatar’s Attorney General HE Dr Ali bin Fetais al-Marri in Dakar.