issn 0970-6488 science servicepti science service february 01 - 15, 20171 material reproduced should...

1PTI Science Service February 01 - 15, 2017Material reproduced should be credited to the PTI Science Service

Registration No.39337/81

ISSN 0970-6488

Vol 36 No. 03 (24 pages including cover)

CONTENTS

Rs. 275/-

NATIONAL SCIENCE BRIEFS:

*CSIR TO HELP PRESERVE SUGARCANE JUICE FOR 3-5 MONTHS* UNSAFE ABORTIONS KILL 10 WOMEN DAILY ININDIA: EXPERTS*DISADVANTAGED WOMEN MORE PRONE TO HEART ATTACK THAN MEN: STUDY* SHARINGINFORMATION KEY TO ENSURE CYBER SECURITY: EXPERTS* NEED TO SPEED UP ANTIBIOTIC RELATEDRESEARCH: IMA* LIFE SPAN OF GALL BLADDER CANCER PATIENTS CAN IMPROVE: DOCTORS* NEARLY 100PIGEONS DIE IN ODISHA'S KENDRAPARA DISTRICT* RARE BIRDS SIGHTED IN BHITARKANIKA*'HEALTH ANDFITNESS LEVELS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IS DROPPING'*TOBACCO MAIN CAUSE OF HIGH LUNG CANCERS INNORTH KERALA* NOVEL SOLAR-POWERED BICYCLE TO COMBAT AIR POLLUTION* DELHI GIRL CROWDFUNDSTO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE*DELHI ZOO LIMPS BACK TO NORMALCY, RECORDS EXOTIC DEER BIRTHS* NEWWAY TO IDENTIFY CREDIBLE TWEETS MAY COMBAT 'FAKE NEWS'* LSD MAY LATCH ON TO BRAIN CELLS FORHOURS: STUDY*

INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE BRIEFS:

*LOW VITAMIN A IN PREGNANCY MAY UP ALZHEIMER'S RISK IN BABY*SPACE TRAVEL MAY CAUSE GENETICCHANGES: STUDY*SLEEP DEPRIVATION MAY SUPPRESS YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM*BILLBOARDS OF HEALTHYFOODS MAY HELP FIGHT OBESITY* NEW WAY TO IDENTIFY CREDIBLE TWEETS MAY COMBAT 'FAKE NEWS'*LSD MAY LATCH ON TO BRAIN CELLS FOR HOURS: STUDY* NEW GENE-DELIVERY THERAPY RESTORES PARTIALHEARING IN MICE*BRAIN HORMONE THAT TRIGGERS FAT BURNING FOUND* LOW VITAMIN A IN PREGNANCYMAY UP ALZHEIMER'S RISK IN BABY* SPACE TRAVEL MAY CAUSE GENETIC CHANGES: STUDY* SLEEPDEPRIVATION MAY SUPPRESS YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM* BILLBOARDS OF HEALTHY FOODS MAY HELP FIGHTOBESITY* SAFER, EFFECTIVE STROKE TREATMENTS IN THE OFFING* PREMATURE BABIES DON'T USE SENSORY-PREDICTION BRAIN PROCESS* GIRLS AS YOUNG AS SIX BELIEVE 'GENIUS' IS MALE TRAIT: STUDY* 'AMERICANSSPLIT IF US WILL BE SCIENCE LEADER UNDER TRUMP'* TWO NEW FLU VACCINES FOR DOGS DEVELOPED*WHATTRIGGERED BIGGEST VOLCANIC ERUPTION FOUND* NEW DRUG MAY HELP TREAT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE:STUDY* 'TWICE-DAILY RADIATION THERAPY MAY CUT CANCER DEATH RISK'*'EATING FRUITS, VEGGIES, FISHMAY REDUCE BONE LOSS IN WOMEN'*

GLOBE SCAN:

*NEW TECHNIQUE TO BOOST TASTE OF TOMATOES*'EARTH, MOON FORMED FROM SIMILAR MATERIALS:STUDY*MEDITERRANEAN DIET MAY HELP HIV, DIABETES PATIENTS: STUDY* NEW WAY TO DEFLECTASTEROIDS IN THE OFFING* SMOKING MARIJUANA IN TEENS MAY AFFECT VERBAL IQ* 'CONDITIONS INWOMB MAY AFFECT BRAIN DEVELOPMENT IN TEENS' * ANXIETY, DEPRESSION MAY UP RISK OF DEATH FROMCANCERS: STUDY* PETS, NOT SIBLINGS, CHILD'S BEST FRIEND!*

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2PTI Science Service February 01 - 15, 2017

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CSIR TO HELP PRESERVE SUGARCANEJUICE FOR 3-5 MONTHS

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR) has come up with a technology that can helppreserve sugarcane juice for 3-5 months, opening up thepossibilities of commercially exploiting it as a beverage.

India is one of the leading producers ofsugarcane in the world.

Sugarcane juice has low glycemic index due tothe presence of complex sugars and hence it is also goodfor even diabetic population. However its consumptionis limited to roadside crushers and only in a specific season,a senior CSIR scientist said.

The presence of bacteria and yeast in thesugarcane juice causes quick fermentation, making it unfitto compete in the massive Indian beverage market, saidAlok Dhawan, Director of Lucknow-based CSIR-IndianInstitute of Toxicology Research (IITR), which isspearheading the mission.

He said, it was the industry that first approachedthe IITR to come up with such a technology to optimisethe yield.

"By making sugarcane juice fit for consumptionfor three to five months from the date of manufacture,given its popularity to beat the heat, it is expected to becomemulti-crore industry, directly benefitting the farmers,"Dhawan added.

Elaborating on the technology, Dutta said bacteriais a major culprit that leads to fermentation of sugarcanejuice when it is extracted.

"We treat the sugarcane with very light electricitycurrent and this helps in killing the bacteria. The long termplan is to make it run on solar so it becomes cost-effective," he added.

In comparison to other beverages sugarcane juiceis loaded with abundant carbohydrates, proteins andminerals like calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, andpotassium, and vitamins A, B-complex, and C, Dhavansaid.

The nutrients of this juice strengthen liver, whichis useful during jaundice. Unlike other sweet drinks, whichhurt teeth, sugarcane contains a host of minerals such ascalcium and phosphorus, which help build your teethenamel, he added

Apart from IITR, six other laboratories of CSIRhave come together to work in a mission mode in threefocus areas, namely milk and beverages, edible oils andfood storage.

"Scientists from different disciplines, for example,physics, chemistry, economics, psychology, biology, don'toften get the opportunity to mingle and put their collectivewisdom together. This exercise is a classic example wherebrains from different streams have come together to makethis a mission, Girish Sahni, Director General, CSIR, said.

UNSAFE ABORTIONS KILL 10 WOMENDAILY IN INDIA: EXPERTS

Ten women die of unsafe abortions every day inIndia which sees nearly 68 lakh pregnancy terminationsevery year, with Rajasthan accounting for about 40,000of them, experts said today.

Unsafe abortion is the third leading cause ofmaternal deaths in the country, contributing eight per centof all such deaths annually, said Karuna Singh of stateprogramme manager of IPAS Development Foundation(IDF), an organisation dedicated to ending preventabledeaths and disabilities from unsafe abortion.

It is estimated that 68 lakh abortions occur in thecountry every year and only a small percentage is relatedto sex selections, Singh said, adding that to facilitate fasterdecline in the overall maternal mortality, it is imperativethat access to safe abortion is made available so that nowoman has to die or suffer disabilities.

Research shows more than 80 per cent of womendo not know that abortion is legal in India and thiscontributes to women seeking terminations frombackstreet providers, Singh said.

Nearly 68 lakh abortions take place in India eachyear and Rajasthan contributes 30,000 to 40,000 of theseabortions annually, the organisation said.

Rizwan Parwez, Coordinator, Girls CountCoalition, said that in India, very often, the practice ofgender-biased sex selection is linked to access to legalabortion. In 2015, the central government issued a guidanceensuring access to safe abortion while addressing gender-biased sex selection. This important policy document alsoreiterates that over 90 per cent of all abortions inIndia are for medical or socio-economic reasons, Parwezsaid.


It is important to keep implementation of thePre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques(PC&PNDT) Act, 1994 and separate from provision ofsafe abortion services.

DISADVANTAGED WOMEN MORE PRONETO HEART ATTACK THAN MEN: STUDY

Women from low socio-economic backgroundsare 25 per cent more likely to suffer a heart attack thantheir male counterparts, according to a new study.

Researchers from the George Institute for GlobalHealth (GIGH), who examined data from 22 millionpeople from North America, Europe, Asia and Australiabefore reaching the conclusion, said the burden ofcardiovascular disease in India has been growing steadily.

"Women from low socio-economic backgroundsare 25 per cent more likely to suffer a heart attack thandisadvantaged men," the study said.

The effect of levels of education, income, jobtype and postcode on the risk of cardiovascular diseasewere assessed in the study, published in the Journal ofEpidemiology and Community Health.

"It is widely known that people fromdisadvantaged backgrounds are at greater risk of heartattack and stroke than people with more affluentbackgrounds.

"However, our study has shown there is asignificant difference between the sexes. Disproportionallymore disadvantaged women are suffering from heartdisease than their male counterparts, which is a cause forconcern," said Sanne Peters, Research Fellow at GIGH,the UK.

Executive Director of GIGH Vivekanand Jhasaid the study gives a very interesting insight on the gendercomparison data among people from low socio-economicbackgrounds.

"It has shown disadvantaged women are moresusceptible to mortality due to cardiovascular diseases thandisadvantaged men. In India, we need such a study to beconducted and look at gender specific data oncardiovascular diseases and its relation to morbidity andmortality," Jha said.

Cardiovascular disease is the single leading causeof death in women worldwide, with an estimated 8.6million women dying every year.

"The burden of cardiovascular disease in Indiahas been growing steadily over the past few decades. Thecardiovascular related mortality among women has grownfrom around 10 per cent in 1980 to around 25 per cent in2013 as per the latest data available from the GlobalBurden of Disease report.

"This is primarily due to the change in the overalllifestyle of Indians in the past couple of decades," Jhasaid.

The results demonstrate a need for tailoredinterventions for women to address the gender gap anddeliver the best possible care, he said.

SHARING INFORMATION KEY TO ENSURECYBER SECURITY: EXPERTS

Sharing information relating to cyber breach withother countries can help tackle the threat of cyber crimewhich is increasing in the age of fast-growing use ofinternet and technology, cyber experts said today.

Cyber conflict will anyhow increase in the futureas well as the complexity and penetration of malware. Bycooperating with each other, data can be kept safe andsecure and these threats can be kept at bay, Gulshan Rai,National Cyber Security Co-ordinator, today said duringa conference on 'Cyber Security: The Internet of risks' atthe Raisina Dialogue here.

"The more we will share information regardingany cyber breach or theft with cooperating countries ordifferent stakeholders, the more we will be prepared andequipped with dealing such threats in the age ofinformation technology and fast-increasing internetconnectivity. We have to be transparent in sharinginformation," Rai said.

He asserted that tackling cyber crime and threatis, however, very challenging task and more complex one.The security of data is of prime importance.

"It needs greater attention as those indulged incyber attacks are much more advanced and fast in carryingout their task. Attackers are evolving themselves," Rai said.

Uri Rosenthal, Special envoy for cyberspace,ministry of foreign affairs, the Netherlands, said that"Internet is all about trust. We have to also focus on theneed of developing a mechanism where cyber securitycan be ensured".


The defencive capabilities must be strong enoughso that authorities can retaliate in the event of cyber breach.

"It is not only the responsibility of the governmentto ensure cyber security but private sectors and NGOsmust also pay enough attention in this direction. There isan urgent need to address the problems in the way ofcyber security," Rosenthal said.

He said that cyber attacks may come fromanywhere, be it a private organisation, state actor or non-state actor.

"When it comes to ensuring cyber security, it isnot only about the technicalities but cooperation is alsorequired," Rosenthal said, adding that China should openits internet on global level.

Chris Painter, cyber coordinator, department ofstate, the US, said that cyber security is not only related tointernet and technologies but also related to the nationalsecurity of a country, hence, it requires greater attention.

Li Yan, Vice Professor at China Institutes ofContemporary International Relations, also highlighted therisks relating to the internet and cyber security and saidpublic private partnership can play a key role in ensuringcyber security.

Patricia Lewis, Research Director, InternationalSecurity, Chatham House, the UK said ensuring cybersecurity requires much larger attention as merely makinglegislations in this regard will not serve the purpose.

"There is a need to create a culture in terms ofcyber security. We need to inform each other in the eventof a cyber breach as greater cooperation can save us frommany challenges.

"Cyber security should also be cost effectiveotherwise small and medium enterprises or organisationswould not be able to afford its cost and hence, cybersecurity would be at risk. We have to recognise what is atstake and what is important when it comes to cybersecurity, only then we would be able to take betterdecisions in this regard," Lewis said.

She said that ensuring cyber security includesknowing what a crime is in the cyber world and protectingthe citizens from cyber attackers.

When asked about the challenges of cyberterrorism, Rai said that the issue is complex and needs tobe taken cautiously while dealing with it.

It is easy to shut down such accounts promotingterrorism using social media platform. There are issues

while scanning data as about 70 per cent traffic on theinternet is encrypted. So, the action has to be in accordancewith the law of the land, Rai added.

NEED TO SPEED UP ANTIBIOTICRELATED RESEARCH: IMA

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) today saidthere was a need to speed up antibiotic related researchfor developing new drugs as antibiotic resistance wasemerging as a global threat.

"Spurious use of antibiotics has resulted in severalimportant life-saving drugs becoming obsolete. There isa need to speed up and support research on new drugmolecules and drug targets. The idea of re-purposing oldantibiotics also merits more attention," Dr K K Aggarwal,National President of IMA said.

Antibiotic resistance has emerged as a global threat,and the problem is particularly stark in India. The totalmortality burden of infectious diseases in India is about416/1000 persons every year.

In this scenario, simple infections have thepotential to turn deadly, and the situation clearly warrantsthat research in antibiotic development must beaccelerated.

"The problem of antibiotic resistance in India isfurther exacerbated by a constellation of factors like poorpublic health systems and hospital infection, high rates ofinfectious disease, inexpensive antibiotics and risingincomes.

"All of these factors contribute to increasingprevalence of resistant microbes, resulting in the risingburden of infection-related mortality like neonatal sepsis,"he said.

Citing over prescription and unguided over-the-counter usage of antibiotics have reduced efficacy ofvaluable drugs, Dr RN Tandon Secretary General of IMAcalled upon doctors to put an end to unnecessaryprescriptions, and advised patients to check over-the-counter use of antibiotics.

"We are fast running out of life-saving options asthe medical community at present heavily relies onantibiotics right from treating simple infections to complexsurgical procedures.

"Doctors need to put an end to unnecessaryprescriptions, and patients themselves need to check over-


the-counter use of antibiotics. The use of antibiotics inpoultry and farming also needs to be vigilantly monitored.Time is short, and R&D initiatives need to look foralternatives to salvage this situation," added Dr Tandon.

Medical science still lacks a clear knowledge abouthow resistance develops and evolves. There are severalgaps in the understanding of cellular and molecularprocesses involved. These factors make antibiotic researcha very fertile ground and concerned authorities need towake up to the absolute need and potential of this field,he added.

LIFE SPAN OF GALL BLADDER CANCERPATIENTS CAN IMPROVE: DOCTORS

Chemotherapy followed by surgical procedurescan triple the life span of gall bladder cancer patients,researchers at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute ofMedical Sciences in Lucknow have claimed.

Gall bladder cancer is commonly found amongwomen of Indo-Gangetic basin and during their three-year-long study of such patients, the researchers havearrived at the conclusion that if surgery of such patients ispreceded by adequate regimens of chemotherapy, theirsurvival rates triple.

Rajan Saxena of gastro-surgery department andSushma Agrawal of radiotherapy department studied theresponse of patients to upfront chemotherapy followedby surgery, in which cancer had spread to adjacent organs,vessels or lymph glands and cannot be operated upon.

They claimed to have found that while survivalrate of patients diagnosed with gall bladder cancerhovered around nine months if given chemotherapy alone,those operated upon after chemotherapy easily livedbeyond 27 months.

"In order to improve survival we at SGPGI dida feasibility study of upfront therapy followed byevaluation for surgery in locally advanced cases. We found15 per cent resectability rate in this subgroup and 70 percent of operated patients are surviving till date (mediansurvival 24 months)," Agrawal told PTI.

She said gall bladder cancer is known as highlyfatal because usually it is diagnosed at very advanced stageswhen the disease has already spread.

When asked why is it so difficult to track thedisease in early stages, Agrawal said, "There are no

symptoms except those of pain in abdomen and aciditysometimes. Patients present with symptoms of gallbladder stones, abdominal pain and acidity."

Gall stones are not a definitive causative factor,but long standing gall stones are associated with cancer,she said.

She said it is the third commonest form of cancerin the Indo-Gangetic belt among women after breast andcervix cancer.

NEARLY 100 PIGEONS DIE IN ODISHA'SKENDRAPARA DISTRICT

Nearly a hundred pigeons have died in a far-flungvillage in Odisha's Kendrapara district, triggering panic inthe wake of the bird flu scare gripping the state.

A district veterinary official said today that avianspecies are dying almost daily along the seaside inMahakalpada tehsil.

Last week death of chickens has been reportedin nearby areas. Similarly, death of rare breed of sheephad hogged the spotlight from a village near here,Kendrapara Chief District Veterinary Officer, ChaitanyaKumar Sethy said.

Death of animals and winged species has madepeople apprehensive as they fear that bird flu has hit thelocalities in Mahakalpada tehsil, said former Sarpanch, BijoyShukla.

After death of pigeons was reported, a team ofveterinary surgeons has rushed to the village to take stockof the situation. Blood samples have been collected forlaboratory test of the samples, Sethy said.

After the pathological test, the exact cause of thepigeons' death could be ascertained. The blood sampleswhich would be tested at headquarters laboratory wouldlater be dispatched to state animal disease researchlaboratory for confirmatory report regarding the causeof death, he said.

However, there was no reason to panic. Thoughthe birds were found dropping, possibility of their mightnot have been due to avian influenza or flu. From thesymptoms shown by the pigeons, it seems that the birdsmight have been afflicted with 'Ranikhet', a virus-bornedisease that hits the winged species. Besides Vitamin Cdeficiency or food poisoning also results in pigeons'mortality, CDVO Sethy said.


Asked on the death of chickens and 'kuji' breedsof rare sheep recently recorded in Mahakalpada, he saidexact cause of mortality could be ascertained after thetest report findings is received from the Bhopal-basednational animal disease laboratory.

However, the mortality of sheep and chicken hascome down considerably from these areas after the vetslaunched a mass vaccination drive in the affected villages.

"I have reared a dozen pet pigeons. With utmostcare, I had installed wooden shelves aviary for the birdsto ensure their safety and comfort. I used to feed themwith grains thrice every day. I had an emotional bondwith them. Since past three days, seven of them died.Pigeons' death has saddened me. They were like my familymembers", said a local resident of Mahakalpada, SanatanMallik.

RARE BIRDS SIGHTED IN BHITARKANIKA

There has been a drop in the number of birdsvisiting the wetlands of Bhitarkanika national park inKendrapara district though some of the rare species havebeen spotted this time.

Rare bird species of central Asian origin havebeen spotted in the wetland spots of the park.

Though there has been discernible drop in numberof winged species this year, the marshy and swampywetland spots in Bhitarkanika have again emerged as acongenial and human-interference-free winter habitat forfeathered guests from central Asian and Himalayan region.

"As many as 76,268 winter migrant winged specieswere counted to have visited this year while the headcountof last year stood at 1,06,156. The number has dropped.The factors leading to fall in number are being studied byornithologists", said Divisional Forest Officer, BimalPrasanna Acharya.

"The drop in number is more than 30 per centthan the number recorded in 2016. In all probability,frequent depression and cyclonic weather acted as a majordeterrent for birds' flight to Bhitarkanika from far offplaces," he said.

Despite the drop in feathered guests' number,the highlight of this year's headcount exercise was thesighting of endangered and rare bird species.

These species trans migrated from Siberia,Ladakh, Lake Mansarovar and Himalayan region. The

enumerators found these species fatigued after their longflight.

"The enumerators have spotted hordes ofGreater crested tern, common shell duck and blue tailedgodwits. All these species come under rare and threatenedcategory.

"This is for the first time that these species weresighted in Bhitarkanika although the number of thesespecies sighted was less than a hundred. Their arrival wasnot recorded by enumerators earlier. Their flight owed itsorigin to Central Asian region.

"Unable to cope with extreme cold in theiroriginal habitat, the feathered species preferred thesecongenial wetland spots," said wildlife expert, BiswajitMohanty, who took part in the headcount drive.

Prominent species who made Bhitarkanika theirwinter home are Brahmin Duck, Bar-headed Geesse,godwin, Pintail, painted stork, seagauls, commonteal,tawny eagle and osprey.

These species were spotted mainly along thewetland spots of Satabhaya, Raipatia, Agarnasi,Bhitarkanika, Hukitola, Gupti Rajagada, Batighar, Jatadharaand Kalibhanjadiha.

There is ample food security for the birds as theplace crisscrossed by innumerable water inlets and nullahsis free of human interference, officials said.

Other prominent winged visitors to Bhitarkanikathis time are Indian Skimmers, Grey Pelicans and White-backed vultures, Lesser adjutant, Grater spotted eagles.All of these species are conferred endangered status underInternational Union for Conservation for Nature (IUCN)'sRed Book Data containing the list of highly threatenedanimals worldwide.

These apart, other delicate and prominent birdssighted this time are Black-tailed godwit, Northern pin-tail, Lesser whistling duck, Grey plover, Egret spottedbills, Oriental darter, White belley seagull.

Unbearable cool atmospheric condition duringwinter months forces these migrant species to temporarilyleave their original habitat. The Chilka and Bhitarkanikawetland spots in the state are the favoured destination ofmigratory birds.

Lack of human interference, ideal climaticcondition, cool breeze and the river system here all haveemerged to the liking of these delicate chirpy wingedspecies. This itself is a positive sign and thus further research


on the behavioural pattern of these threatened species isbeing taken up, said wildlife officials.

'HEALTH AND FITNESS LEVELS OFSCHOOL CHILDREN IS DROPPING'

The fitness and body mass index (BMI) levels ofschool children in India -- regardless of age, gender, regionor city -- continued to be far from satisfactory, accordingto the 7th Annual School Health and Fitness Study 2016by EduSports. The study revealed that every third childhas an unhealthy BMI, and only schools with more thanthree sessions of physical education had fitter children.

The nationwide study covered 1,69,932 childrenin the age group of 7 to 17 in 326 schools across 86 citiesin 26 states. It assessed fitness parameters, like sprintcapacity, flexibility, lower and upper body strength,abdominal strength and BMI.

The comparative study found that 69 per centgirls have a healthy BMI compared to 62 per cent boys.At least 51 per cent girls had desired levels of flexibilityagainst only 45 per cent among boys.

However, boys showed stronger lower bodystrength than girls, while both tied scores in other fitnesstests measuring abdominal strength, sprint capacity andupper body strength.

The fitness levels of children in metro and non-metro cities were similar. Only 66 per cent children inmetros had a healthy BMI against 65 per cent in non-metros. The percentage of children with unhealthy BMIhas increased from 20 per cent last year to 33 per cent thisyear. This trend needs to be reversed to have a healthygeneration of children, it said.

A third of children in all five regions haveunhealthy BMI scores: 37 per cent in Central, 36 per centin East, 39 per cent in North, 37 per cent in South and 34per cent in West. The weighted scores for these regionsacross all fitness parameters do not vary a lot. Thisreinforces the view that children across the country showlack of fitness.

The study revealed that schools with a sustainable,structured sports and physical education sessions haveimproved children's fitness.

According to Saumil Majmudar, CEO ofEduSports, "Children are becoming less active forenvironmental or interpersonal reasons. Lack of physical

activity increases the risk of obesity and health-relatedproblems in adolescence, and adulthood. We believe thatschools provide the ideal environment to promote physicalactivity at the right age and improve fitness standardsamong children."

The study showed that schools with a structured,age-appropriate sports programme witnessed a substantialimprovement in health and fitness levels, compared toschools which don't have a structured sports programme.Research also showed that active children have greaterattention spans and perform better academically.

TOBACCO MAIN CAUSE OF HIGH LUNGCANCERS IN NORTH KERALA

Tobacco use is said to be the cause of highincidence of lung cancers in north Kerala districts ofKozhikode, Kannur and Kasargod, according to a study.

As much as 36 per cent of overall patients acrossthese districts had the habit of smoking,the study byMalabar Cancer Centre (MCC), a tertiary cancer centre inKannur, stated.

Patients from Kasargod were the most prone tosmoking at 40 per cent; followed by Kannur at 34 percent and Kozhikode at 33 per cent.

The extent of smoking among Kerala adults, asper the latest benchmark figures of Global Adult TobaccoSurvey of Union Health Ministry, is 13.4 per cent.

Lung and breast cancer rank high among variouscancers across the three study districts.

The distribution of lung and breast cancers inKannur is 15 per cent.

Lung cancers contribute to 11 per cent and breastcancers are at 13 per cent in Kozhikode, while in Kasargodlung and breast cancers are 13 and 15 per cents respectively.

The study 'Geographical Distribution of Cancerin Northern Kerala,India: A Retrospective Analysis' wasconducted based on data of the hospital based cancerregistry for the year 2011 in MCC and published in IndianJournal of Applied Research.

A total of 2,366 cancer patients – 1,259 malesand 1,107 females – had registered at MCC in 2011 fromthe districts of Kozhikode (457), Kannur (1670) andKasargod (239).

A semi-structured questionnaire was used tocollect the information from the patient’s medical records


to understand the demographic factors, personal habits,and tumour staging.

The study also refers to harms of second-handsmoke or passive smoke as it found that 10 per cent offemale registered patients were passive smokers.

Citing scientific literature, it adds that second-hand smoke is linked to lung cancer and also lymphoma,leukaemia, brain tumours in children, cancers of breast,stomach and the brain, among others.

Dr Satheesan B, Director, Malabar Cancer Centreand the study's principal investigator and co-author said"The study findings yet again brings out the role oftobacco in cancers and underlines that tobacco control isthe best way to prevent cancers." "Things can no longer be left to chance as thecombined burden that tobacco use causes on morbidityand mortality at micro and macro levels is enormous.Regular monitoring and consolidation of tobacco controlmeasures taken at the district level should happen throughmonthly reviews of enforcement and awareness activities."

NOVEL SOLAR-POWERED BICYCLE TOCOMBAT AIR POLLUTION

In an effort to reduce air pollution due tovehicular emissions in the country, scientists have designeda new solar-assisted bicycle that may prove to be a low-cost, eco-friendly alternative to two wheeler motorvehicles, and may hit the market by next year.

The bicycles, which can switch between the solarenergy powered motor and the pedals, may cost around12,000 to 15,000 rupees, researchers said.

India was the sixth largest motor vehiclemanufacturer in 2014-15, producing a record 23.4 millionvehicles in the period, they said.

Two wheeler production reached 18.5 millionunits in the same year. The growth of vehicles has doubledin last two decades, and they have become the majorsource of pollution in urban India.

The major air pollutants emitted from vehiclesare carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx) andparticulate matter (PM).

Increasing air pollution is not only affecting theenvironment, it also has adverse health effects like lungcancer, cardiovascular mortality, leading to 10 per centdeaths in the country per annum according to estimates.

"To overcome this problem, an effort is beingmade for developing an eco-friendly vehicle to reducepollution in India," said S A Puviyarasu, from Dr N G PInstitute of Technology, Anna University in Tamil Nadu.

"If we use solar assisted bicycle, we can reduceoverall 60 per cent of all vehicle pollution in our country."

The design consists of brushless DC motormounted on the front wheel of the bicycle, an electricthrottle for varying the speed of the bicycle, and a leadacid battery that stores solar energy.

"A solar panel is mounted on the bicycle carrier.We can use solar panels of any specification, and dependingupon the specification of solar panel, energy is produced,"Puviyarasu said.

When the power supply is given to the hub motorfrom solar panel unit, the bicycle wheels rotate to move.The rider can choose between the motor and the pedals,or even use both at the same time.

The bicycle can be customised according to theneeds of the user, Puviyarasu said.

For example, if users are looking for a bicyclewith speeds of about 80 km/hr, the solar panelspecification and hub motor power can be adjustedaccordingly to suit people's needs.

"My plan is to implement this bicycle soon. Wecan expect these type of bicycles by the year 2018 in India,"Puviyarasu said.

DELHI GIRL CROWDFUNDS TO FIGHTCLIMATE CHANGE

City-based Digantika Mitra has taken to crowd-funding to raise funds for her travel to the 'Leadership onthe Edge - 2041's International Antarctic Expedition onClimate Change' as the Indian representative.

According to her, climate change is the "singlelargest and most important issue facing mankind today"and she feels it is very important to educate one self andthe people around to mitigate the challenge.

An employee at Google, Digantika is one of the100 people selected for the expedition, from more than5000 applications.

"As I read up, watch documentaries and learnmore about climate change, I have started to understandthat this is the single largest and most important issue facingmankind today.


"However, very little is known and being doneby most of us because climate change does not impactour everyday lives yet. That is why I want to becomemore conscious and build awareness in any way that I canbefore it is too late," Digantika writes about her onlinecrowdfunding campaign onwishberry.com.

The program, which is hosted by worldrenowned environmentalist Dr Robert Swan, seeks tobring together individuals from across the world toexperience the effects of climatic change in real time andbrainstorm solutions to combat them.

Once back, Digantika wishes to share herexperience from the expedition and encourage others tounderstand the devastating effects of climate change andtake action.

"I want to develop a program to educate leadersin corporates to consider the effect their decisions canhave on climate change.

"Based on my experience, many people workingin corporates are interested in helping ensure sustainabledevelopment but don't have the time to figure out howto," she writes. She says she would use her acumen as aprogrammer to make it easier for corporates to createschedules that can easily fit into their busy routines.

"I will also create leadership modules with a focuson climate change for corporates, organizations, studentsand entrepreneurs," she writes.

Having started off with a target of raising Rs 6lakhs, Digantika has already procured Rs 2,97,128 andneeds to raise the remaining amount in another 25 days,to be able to be a part of the expedition.

DELHI ZOO LIMPS BACK TO NORMALCY,RECORDS EXOTIC DEER BIRTHS

After a brief hiatus owing to bird flu scare, theNational Zoological Park is limping back to normalcywith the park witnessing a spurt in births of endangeredand exotic deer species.

"Various deer species including Thailand deer,chital, nilgai, sangai, swamp deer, hog deer, chinkara,sambar, brow- antlered deer as well as lion-tailed macaque,hippo and gaur gave births recently," zoo curator said.

He said the zoo recorded births of 11 Thailanddeer, 4 chital, 10 sangai, 2 swamp deer, 5 hog deer, 5sambar and one birth each of chinakra, Gaur and brow-

antlered deer this month. The birth of a hippopotamusand a lion-tailed macaque was also recorded.

The Delhi zoo, a popular spot among childrenand adults alike, was recently opened after being closedfor over three months owing to the death of 13 freeranging birds like painted storks, ducks and rosy pelicansdue to H5N8 Avian influenza.

The park has come under scrutiny for a numberof animal deaths since the past few years. The zoo hadreported deaths of 46 spotted deer last year and cagedbirds like munia, grey partridge and ringneck parrots. Ababy gibbon also died at the zoo recently.

Delhi zoo director Amitabh Agnihotri, in a release,said the zoo was working in close coordination with theCentral Zoo Authority to eliminate all traces of bird flu.

"We have stopped doing post-mortems of birdsat the zoo. We are sending the samples to CZA. Samplesof water, soil, fecal matter, cloacal and tracheal swabsfrom birds are collected by the Rapid Response Team(RRT) on a weekly basis and sent to National Institute ofHigh Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD)," he said.

On whether the temporary shutdown of zoo hadaffected the footfall, the curator said the zoo continuedto be a favorite spot for people.

"We have received more than 25,000 visitors sincethe zoo was reopened on January 11. More than 20,000people, including foreigners, visited the park lastweekend," Khan said.

NEW WAY TO IDENTIFY CREDIBLETWEETS MAY COMBAT 'FAKE NEWS'

Scientists, including one of Indian origin, haveidentified words and phrases that predict the credibilityof posts on microblogging site Twitter, an advance thatmay help tackle the menace of 'fake news'.

The findings suggest that the words of millionsof people on social media have considerable informationabout an event's credibility - even when an event is stillongoing.

"There have been many studies about social mediacredibility in recent years, but very little is known aboutwhat types of words or phrases create credibilityperceptions during rapidly unfolding events," saidTanushree Mitra, a PhD candidate at Georgia Institute ofTechnology, who led the research.


The team looked at 66 million tweets surrounding1,400 real-world events in 2014 and 2015, including theemergence of Ebola in West Africa, the Charlie Hebdoattack in Paris and the death of Eric Garner in New YorkCity. Then the team fed the words into a model that splitthem into 15 different l inguistic categories. Theclassifications included positive and negative emotions,hedges and boosters, and anxiety.

The system then examined the words to judge ifthe tweets were credible or not. It matched the humans'opinions about 68 per cent of the time. That is significantlyhigher than the random baseline of 25 per cent,researchers said.

"Tweets with booster words, such as'undeniable,' and positive emotion terms, such as 'eager'and 'terrific,' were viewed as highly credible," Mitra said.

"Words indicating positive sentiment but mockingthe impracticality of the event, such as 'ha,' 'grins' or'joking,' were seen as less credible. So were hedge words,including 'certain level' and 'suspects'," she said.

Higher numbers of retweets also correlated withlower credibility scores. Replies and retweets with longermessage lengths were thought to be more credible.

"It could be that longer message lengths providemore information or reasoning, so they're viewed as moretrustworthy," she said.

"On the other hand, a higher number of retweets,which was scored lower on credibility, might representan attempt to elicit collective reasoning during times ofcrisis or uncertainty," Mitra said.

The system is not deployable yet, but the teamsays it could eventually become an app that displays theperceived trustworthiness of an event as it unfolds onsocial media.

"When combined with other signals, such as eventtopics or structural information, our linguistic result couldbe an important building block of an automated system,"said Eric Gilbert, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech.

LSD MAY LATCH ON TO BRAIN CELLSFOR HOURS: STUDY

Lysergic acid diethylamide - more commonlyknown as 'LSD' or 'acid' - gets trapped into the receptorcells in the brain for hours, say scientists who have explainedwhy the drug is one of the longest lasting and most potent

hallucinogens. Scientists captured images of an LSDmolecule bound to a human serotonin receptor anddiscovered that the LSD molecule was wedged into thereceptor's binding pocket at an angle no one had expected.

"Once LSD gets in the receptor, a lid comes overthe LSD, so it's basically trapped in the receptor and can'tget out," said Bryan Roth, a professor at University ofNorth Carolina in the US.

"LSD takes a really long time to get on thereceptor, and then once it gets on, it doesn't get off."

The finding explains why LSD trips last for a fullday, even though LSD doses are extremely small - theaverage dose is 100 or so microgrammes - and LSDmolecules are cleared from the bloodstream in a coupleof hours.

Given that there has been a tentative resurgencein testing LSD for some medical conditions, understandingthe mechanism of its potent and long-lasting actions mayhelp drug developers design more effective psychiatricdrugs with fewer side effects, researchers said.

People are increasingly taking LSD at doses toosmall to cause hallucinations with the goal of boostingtheir creativity and countering depression, researchers said.

LSD micro-dosing has never been clinically tested,and many scientists have doubted that taking such smallamounts of the drug would have any detectable effect.

However, when Roth's group exposed live cellsin a petri dish to micro-dose-sized amounts of LSD, thosetiny doses of LSD affected the receptors' signalling.

It is as yet unknown how this signalling wouldtranslate into an effect on a person's mood or perception,although the studies demonstrate LSD's remarkably potentactions on cellular signalling.

LSD's ability to fit in and let the receptor's "lid"close over it depends on the specific chemical structuresof both the drug and the receptor.

When the team exposed cells with mutantreceptors that had floppier lids to LSD, the LSD boundmore quickly and also exited the receptor much faster.

Those short LSD binding events produced verydifferent signaling patterns than the longer binding events.

"I think it's important for the pharmaceuticalindustry to understand that even if you modify just onetiny aspect of any compound, you may affect the way theentire compound sits in the receptor, and that affects thecompound's performance," said Daniel Wacker.


LOW VITAMIN A IN PREGNANCY MAY UPALZHEIMER'S RISK IN BABY

Moms-to-be, take note! Not taking enoughvitamin A during pregnancy may increase your baby's riskof developing Alzheimer's disease in later life, warnscientists who found that the cognitive disorder can beginin the womb or just after birth.

The findings, based on studies of genetically-engineered mice, also show that supplements given tonewborns with low levels of vitamin A could be effectivein slowing the degenerative brain disease.

"Our study clearly shows that marginal deficiencyof vitamin A, even as early as in pregnancy, has adetrimental effect on brain development and has long-lasting effect that may facilitate Alzheimer's disease in laterlife," said Weihong Song, a professor at the University ofBritish Columbia in Canada.

Researchers built on previous studies that havelinked low levels of vitamin A with cognitive impairments.

They examined the effects of vitamin Adeprivation in the womb and infancy on Alzheimer's modelmice.

These early developmental stages are crucialperiods during which brain tissue is "programmed" forthe rest of a person's life.

The researchers found that even a mild vitaminA deficiency increased the production of amyloid beta,the protein that forms plaques that smother and ultimatelykill neurons in Alzheimer's disease.

They also found that these mice, when deprivedof vitamin A, performed worse as adults on a standardtest of learning and memory.

Even when the mice deprived of vitamin A inthe womb were given a normal diet as pups, theyperformed worse than mice who received a normalamount of the nutrient in the womb but were deprivedafter birth. In other words, the damage had already beendone in the womb.

Still, researchers showed that some reversal ispossible. Mice who were deprived in utero but then givensupplements immediately after birth performed better onthe tests than mice who were not given such supplements.

"In some cases, providing supplements to thenewborn Alzheimer's disease model mice could reduce

the amyloid beta level and improve learning and memorydeficits," said Song.

The study also included new evidence in humansof the vitamin A-dementia connection in later years.

Examining 330 elderly people researchers foundthat 75 per cent of those with either mild or significantvitamin A deficiency had cognitive impairment, comparedto 47 per cent of those with normal vitamin A levels.

SPACE TRAVEL MAY CAUSE GENETICCHANGES: STUDY

Space travel may cause changes in gene expressionand other biological markers in astronauts, a NASA studyof twins has found.

Scientists studied the genetic differences betweenastronaut Scott Kelly, who spent nearly a year in space,and his identical twin Mark.

Measurements taken before, during and after ScottKelly's mission show changes in gene expression, DNAmethylation and other biological markers that are likely tobe attributable to his time in orbit.

From the lengths of the twins' chromosomes tothe microbiomes in their guts, "almost everyone is reportingthat we see differences," said Christopher Mason, ageneticist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.

The challenge now is to untangle how many ofthe observed changes are specific to the physical demandsof spaceflight - and how many might be simply due tonatural variations.

Since the Kelly twins are just two people, theresults may not be generalisable to others, researchers said.

Still, the work is some of the most detailedmolecular profiling ever done, involving some of the mostphysically demanding environments.

Scott Kelly spent 340 days in space in 2015–16,giving him a lifetime total of 520 days.

Mark Kelly, also an astronaut, had previouslyflown in space for a total of 54 days over four space-shuttle missions between 2001 and 2011.

Since the two men have almost identical genomesand similar life experiences, NASA arranged to have bloodand other biological samples taken from them to try andobserve biological changes brought about by long-duration spaceflight.


Studies of the twins' telomeres, the caps on theends of their chromosomes, showed that duringspaceflight Scott's telomeres grew to be longer than hisbrother's.

"That is exactly the opposite of what wethought," said Susan Bailey, a radiation biologist atColorado State University in Fort Collins.

A second lab has studied the same samples andconfirmed this puzzling increase in telomere length.

Once Scott returned to the ground, the length ofhis telomeres returned to his pre-flight levels relativelyquickly.

The scientists are working to figure out what thismeans, and are running a separate study of telomere lengthin ten unrelated astronauts that, when completed in 2018,may shed more light on how spaceflight affects telomeres.

DNA methylation - the reversible addition of achemical marker to DNA that can affect gene expression- decreased in Scott during flight and increased in Markover the same period, Feinberg said.

Levels for both men returned close to preflightlevels after Scott came back to Earth. What this means isnot yet clear, Feinberg said.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION MAY SUPPRESSYOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM

Not getting enough sleep may depress yourimmune system, according to a new study that explainswhy some people get sick when they are sleep deprived.

Researchers took blood samples from 11 pairsof identical twins with different sleep patterns anddiscovered that the twin with shorter sleep duration hada depressed immune system, compared with his or hersibling.

"What we show is that the immune systemfunctions best when it gets enough sleep. Seven or morehours of sleep is recommended for optimal health," saidlead author Nathaniel Watson, from University ofWashington in the US.

A unique feature of this study was to employidentical twins in order to control for the large geneticdeterminant to humans' sleep duration.

Researchers say genetics account for 31 to 55 percent of sleep duration and behaviour and environmentaccount for the remainder.

A lot of existing data shows that curtailing sleep- for a limited time in the laboratory setting - can increaseinflammatory markers and activate immune cells, said SinaGharib, from University of Washington.

Little is known, though, about the effects oflongstanding short sleep duration under natural conditions.

The study employed "real world" conditions andshowed for the first time that chronic short sleep shutsdown programs involved in immune response ofcirculating white blood cells.

"The results are consistent with studies that showwhen sleep deprived people are given a vaccine, there is alower antibody response and if you expose sleep deprivedpeople to a rhinovirus they are more likely to get the virus,"Watson said.

"This study provides further evidence of sleepto overall health and well-being particularly to immunehealth," he said.

The researchers said that over the past centurypeople in the US are sleeping an estimated 1.5 to twohours less, and about one-third of the working populationsleeps less than six hours per night.

"Modern society, with its control of light,omnipresent technology and countless competing interestsfor time, along with the zeitgeist de-emphasising sleep'simportance, has resulted in the widespread deprioritisationof sleep," they said.

BILLBOARDS OF HEALTHY FOODS MAYHELP FIGHT OBESITY

Billboards or commercials that point out healthyfood options can pull people out of their obsession withjunk food, according to a new study which could lead tonew ways to counter obesity and related diseases.

Researchers from the University of Sydney usedlab rats to conduct a series of experiments replete withoreos, pringles, jelly snakes and chow.

They showed that environments where tasty high-fat and high-sugar treats were routinely consumed inducedhabitual control: animals lost the ability to make volitionalnutritional choices based on the current value of food.

However, the study also showed that rats couldeasily be brought out of this state. For people, habitualbehaviour means that eating patterns are not necessarilydictated by weight regulation and health concerns, but also


by external food cues that shape and perpetuate certaineating habits: a world where McDonalds billboards loomlarge at every corner, luring you in with the promise ofcheap, high-fat and high-sugar food.

The researchers suggest using simple interventions,such as reminders of how unhealthy certain foods are orinterrupting the automatic processing of junk-food cues.

A number of smartphone apps have already beendeveloped to stymie the consumption of unhealthy food.Equally, simply putting up signs that point out healthy foodoptions in a food court can be an effective way of bringingus into a volitional state of mind.

As a corrective to obesity and metabolic disease,humans can come up with their own preventive cues, whichmay jolt them out of habit and into health.

A first experiment backed this idea up by lookingat volitional versus habitual control in rats.

Animals were first given repeated exposures tojunk food or bland chow environments. After being food-deprived, they were trained to press levers that providedeither sugar water or pellets. Then, once they were full,they were once again placed in junk food and bland chowenvironments in order to see whether these distinctcontexts would affect their food-seeking behaviour.

This first experiment showed that a junk foodenvironment caused rats to exhibit a more habitual modeof behaviour than a bland chow environment.

In a second experiment, the rats underwent thesame procedures as in the first experiment.

However, this time distinct sound cues were playedwhen rats were placed in junk food or bland chowcontexts, creating specific environmental cues associatedwith the food types. The researchers found that the cueplayed in the bland chow context improved sensitivity tothe devaluation of food, when rats were subsequentlyplaced in the junk food context after having been fed.

A sound cue paired with bland food is all it tookto take rats out of a habitual mode of behaviour andback into a volitional mind frame.

SAFER, EFFECTIVE STROKE TREATMENTSIN THE OFFING

Scientists have identified a novel approach toimprove stroke treatments that may offer potential forsafer and more effective removal of blood clots.

The standard of care for treating strokes causedby blood clots involves the therapeutic infusion of tissueplasminogen activator (tPA), which can help to dissolvethe clots and restore blood flow.

This "thrombolytic" treatment carries the risk ofbleeding and swelling in the brain, and it must beadministered within three hours after the start of thestroke, which sharply limits its clinical benefits.

Working with animal models, researchers at JoslinDiabetes Centre in the US now have demonstrated thepotential of giving a drug in combination with tPA thatmight improve stroke outcomes and increase the windowof opportunity for the therapy.

Drugs that target a protein called plasma kallikrein,as well as an activator protein called factor XII, "mayprovide the opportunity to make tPA safer by reducingthese complications and increasing its efficacy in openingblood vessels," said researcher Edward Feener.

Fabricio Simao and colleagues in the Feener labdemonstrated that tPA boosts the activity of plasmakallikrein in both human and mouse plasma.

The scientists next experimented with mousemodels in which blood clots were induced in the brainand then treated with tPA.

Animals that were also given a plasma kallikreininhibitor, and animals that were genetically modified toproduce lower amounts of the protein, showedsignificantly less bleeding, brain swelling and damaged brainareas than control animals without plasma kallikreinblockade. The researchers traced the biologicalmechanisms by which tPA activates plasma kallikren, viathe Factor XII protein, which promotes coagulation.

Plasma kallikrein is known to activate the kallikreinkinin system, a pathway that has been implicated in strokecomplications including brain swelling and breakdown ofthe blood-brain barrier.

The US Food & Drug Administration hasapproved a plasma kallikrein inhibitor for the treatmentof hereditary angioedema, researchers said.

Additional inhibitors targeting this pathway areunder development by multiple pharmaceutical companiesfor this genetic disease and other conditions, includingdiabetic macular edema, they said.

The new findings suggest additional potentialtherapeutic opportunities for plasma kallikrein inhibitorsin thrombolytic therapy.


PREMATURE BABIES DON'T USESENSORY-PREDICTION BRAIN PROCESS

Babies born prematurely do not use theirexpectations about the world to shape their brains as thoseconceived at full term do, according to a new study whichoffers clues to why such babies face higher risk ofdevelopmental delays as they grow.

Researchers, including those from PrincetonUniversity in the US, tested 100 babies, split between thoseborn at full term and those born prematurely. The babieswere tested at 6 months of age, based on their conception.

In 6-month-old babies born at-term, the portionsof the brain responsible for visual processing respondnot just to what the baby sees but also to what the babyexpects to see. That is a sign babies are learning fromtheir experiences, said Lauren Emberson, assistantprofessor of psychology at Princeton.

However, babies born prematurely do notdemonstrate that type of brain response to expectations,known as top-down processing.

"This helps bring together the picture that thistype of processing is important for neural development,"said Emberson.

"This also gives us insights into what might begoing wrong in the case of prematurity. We believe thisinability for learning to shape the brain is possibly one ofthe reasons," Emberson added.

The babies were exposed to a pattern that includeda sound — like a honk from a clown horn or a rattle —followed by an image of a red cartoon smiley face.

The researchers used functional near-infraredspectroscopy, a technology that measures oxygenation inregions of the brain using light, to assess the babies' brainactivity.

After exposing the infants to the sound-and-imagepattern, the researchers began omitting the imagesometimes.

In the full-term infants, brain activity was detectedin the visual areas of the brain even when the image didnot appear as expected, a sign of this top-down sensoryprediction.

The brains of premature babies did not showthis activity.

Emberson said this research sets the stage forcontinued work to understand how top-down processinghelps babies learn better and how the lack of top-downprocessing relates to later developmental delays in thebabies born prematurely.

For example, the first sign of a developmentaldelay for a child might come when they are not using anywords at age two.

GIRLS AS YOUNG AS SIX BELIEVE'GENIUS' IS MALE TRAIT: STUDY

Girls as young as six years old believe thatexceptional talent is a male trait, according to new"heartbreaking" research into gender stereotypes aboutintellectual ability.

This stereotype affects girls as young as six andinfluences their activity choices, researchers said.

Researchers at New York University in the USused a series of experiments to evaluate the beliefs offive-, six- and seven-year-old boys and girls about genderand brilliance.

Women account for more than half the USpopulation, but only 30 per cent of those employed asscientists and engineers in the country.

Researchers investigated several possible factorsthat contribute to this disparity - including the societalstereotype that associates intellectual talent more closelywith men than women.

Stereotypes are powerful. They often influencethe types of careers people see themselves in and ultimatelychoose.

Previous research found that society associates notjust ability in math and science with men and boys butalso the notion of being "brilliant" - of having rawbrainpower.

The researchers wanted to know if this broaderstereotype affects girls' choices.

"Not only do we see that girls just starting out inschool are absorbing some of society's stereotyped notionsof brilliance, but these young girls are also choosingactivities based on these stereotypes. This is heartbreaking,"said Andrei Cimpian, psychology professor at New YorkUniversity.

Researchers used the phrase "really, really smart"as a child's way of understanding the concept of brilliance.


In one experiment, children heard a story abouta gender-neutral protagonist described as "really, reallysmart." They then selected the most-likely protagonistfrom among pictures of two men and two women.

Separately, researchers asked the children to paircertain words like "smart" with either a man or a woman.Using these and similar tests, researchers were able to assesschildren's stereotypes about gender and intellectual ability.

The scientists also asked girls and boys to evaluatetheir preferences for two games - one for "really, reallysmart" children, the other for children who try "really,really hard."

By age six, girls were already significantly less likelythan boys to say that members of their own gender were"really, really smart," the researchers found.

Those same girls were more likely to avoid gamesdescribed as for children who are "really, really smart." Atage five, these differences had not yet appeared and bothboys and girls associated brilliance with their own gendersimilarly.

Researcher's previous work, focused on adults,found that women are most underrepresented in fieldswhose members perceive "brilliance" or innate talent ascrucial for success - fields that include many of the sciences.

'AMERICANS SPLIT IF US WILL BESCIENCE LEADER UNDER TRUMP'

Americans are split on whether the US will beseen as the global leader in science and innovation underPresident Donald Trump, with 41 per cent agreeing, 40per cent disagreeing and 19 per cent not sure, accordingto a new survey. Those in agreement include a strongmajority of Republicans (70 per cent) compared toIndependents (34 per cent) and Democrats (19 per cent),the survey commissioned by Research!America found.

When asked if great strides in science andinnovation will continue while Trump is President, opinionswere also divided (46 per cent agree, 33 per cent disagreeand 22 per cent not sure), with more Republicans (74 percent) than Independents (44 per cent) and Democrats (22per cent) agreeing.

More than half of Americans (54 per cent) saystrengthening ability to fight public health threats andinvesting in medical research (50 per cent) should be apriority for Trump's and Congress' first 100 days in office.

This was compared to other national issuesincluding reducing health care costs (76 per cent), growingjobs (73 per cent), fighting terrorism (65 per cent) andexpanding access to health coverage (64 per cent).

"It is noteworthy that respondents across partylines agree with putting research to work and paying morein taxes to support medical research; at the same time, it isnot surprising that Republicans are significantly moreconfident in President Trump's leadership," said MaryWoolley, president and CEO of Research!America, a not-for-profit market research firm.

More than two-thirds of Americans (67 per cent)said that public policies should be based on the bestavailable science, with 61 per cent saying it is importantfor Congress to provide tax incentives to the private sectorto develop new medicines and medical technologies.

In addition, a majority of Americans agree thatscientists should play a major role in shaping policy over awide range, including the environment (75 per cent),education (58 per cent), roads, bridges and otherinfrastructure (55 per cent), national defence (51 per cent),and at the highest percentage, for medical and healthresearch (83 per cent).

"Americans recognise that science is fundamentalto so many priorities that matter," said Woolley.

When it comes to the health topics, a majority ofrespondents said the US government should play a role inensuring that existing medical treatments are safe andeffective (75 per cent).

The government should identify new ways toprevent illness and disabling conditions (63 per cent),working to prevent and respond to global health threatslike Ebola (60 per cent) and ensure that research is sup-ported adequately to speed medical progress (60 per cent).

TWO NEW FLU VACCINES FOR DOGSDEVELOPED

Dog lovers, rejoice! Scientists have for the firsttime developed two new vaccines for canine influenzathat may not only protect your furry friends but also keepyou safe from the infection.

Dogs that have been infected with multipleinfluenza viruses have the potential to act as "mixingvessels" and generate new flu strains that could infectpeople, researchers said.


Today, veterinarians use vaccines that includeinactivated or killed flu virus, but experts say they provideshort-term, limited protection.

Scientists led by Luis Martinez-Sobrido fromUniversity of Rochester in the US created two "live-attenuated" vaccines against H3N8 canine influenza virus,which is currently circulating in dogs in the US.

Past research shows that live-attenuated vaccines,made from live flu virus that is dampened down so thatit does not cause the flu, provide better immune responsesand longer periods of protection.

Researchers used a genetic engineering techniquecalled reserve genetics to create a live vaccine that replicatesin the nose, but not in the lungs.

The nose is where the virus first enters a dog'sbody, so generating an immune response there could stopthe virus in its tracks.

If the vaccine were to get into the lungs it couldcreate unwanted inflammation in response to the live virus.

The study found the live vaccine was safe andable to induce better immune protection against H3N8canine influenza virus in mice and dog tracheal cells than acommercially available inactivated vaccine.

In a second study the team used reserve geneticsto remove a protein called NS1 from H3N8 canineinfluenza virus.

Previous studies have shown that deleting the NS1viral protein significantly weakens flu viruses so that theyelicit an immune response but don't cause illness.

This approach has been used with human, swineand equine flu viruses to generate potential vaccines andwas also safe and more effective than a traditionalinactivated H3N8 influenza vaccine in mice and dogtracheal cells.

As many dog owners and animal lovers are inclose contact with dogs on a regular basis, Martinez-Sobrido believes its best to prevent dogs from gettingthe flu in the first place.

The team is using this research to tackle otherdog flu viruses, too. They have used the safety of theseapproaches to engineer a live-attenuated vaccine for theH3N2 canine influenza virus, which was introduced inthe US in 2015.

Early results show that similar to the H3N8vaccine, the H3N2 live-attenuated vaccine is able to protect

against the H3N2 canine influenza virus and is moreeffective than the only currently available inactivated vaccine.

WHAT TRIGGERED BIGGEST VOLCANICERUPTION FOUND

Researchers have decoded what triggered one ofthe largest volcanic eruptions witnessed by mankind about73,000 years ago, when extraordinary volumes of volcanicash were ejected into the atmosphere and rained downand covered enormous areas in India and Indonesia.

The volcano's secret was revealed by geochemicalclues hidden inside volcanic quartz crystals.

The deadliest volcanoes on Earth are calledsupervolcanoes, capable of producing cataclysmiceruptions that devastate huge regions and cause globalcooling of the climate.

The Indonesian supervolcano Toba had one ofthese eruptions about 73,000 years ago, when 2,800 cubickilometres of volcanic ash was ejected into the atmosphereand rained down and covered enormous areas inIndonesia and India.

Scientists have long debated how theseextraordinary volumes of magma are generated, and whatmakes this magma erupt so very explosively.

A team of researchers at Uppsala University inSweden, together with international colleagues, have nowfound intriguing clues hidden inside millimetre-sizedcrystals from the volcanic ash and rock.

"Quartz crystals that grow in the magma registerchemical and thermodynamical changes in the magmaticsystem prior to eruption, similar to how tree rings recordclimate variations," said David Budd from UppsalaUniversity.

"When the conditions in the magma change, thecrystals respond and produce distinct growth zones thatrecord these changes. The problem is that each "tree ring"- analogue is only a few micrometres across, which is whythey are extremely challenging to analyse in detail," saidBudd.

The researchers analysed quartz crystals fromToba, and found a distinct shift in the isotopic compositiontowards the outer rim of the crystals.

The crystal rims contain a relatively lowerproportion of the heavy isotope 18O compared to thelighter 16O.


"The low ratio of 18O to 16O contents in thecrystal rims indicate that something in the magmatic systemchanged drastically just before the big eruption," saidFrances Deegan from Uppsala University.

The explanation behind these chemical signaturesis that the magma melted and assimilated a large volumeof a local rock that itself is characterised by a relativelylow ratio of 18O to 16O.

This rock type also often contains a lot of water,which may be released into the magma, producing steam,and thereby an increased gas pressure inside the magmachamber.

"This rapidly increased gas pressure eventuallyallowed the magma to rupture the overlying crust, andsend thousands of cubic kilometres of magma into theatmosphere," Deegan added

NEW DRUG MAY HELP TREATALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: STUDY

Japanese researchers have developed a new drugthat may help treat Alzheimer's disease by improvingcognition and reducing the production of amyloid betaproteins in the brain.

Researchers at Tohoku University in Japan foundthat the T-type calcium channel enhancer, SAK3, stimulatesthe release of acetylcholine in the brain and improvescognition by activating the memory molecule CaMKII.

Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter in the brainthat plays an important role in controlling attention andcognition.

Acetylcholine system dysfunction is believed tobe one of the causes of Alzheimer's disease (AD) andvascular dementia.

According to Kohji Fukunaga from TohokuUniversity, SAK3 also reduces the production of amyloidbeta protein in the study's model mice.

This, he said, could lead to the development ofthe first disease-modifying drug to prevent mild to severeAlzheimer's disease.

SAK3 is now in the preclinical stage of drugdevelopment, and has so far proven to be safe and well-tolerated in animal experiments, researchers said.

Clinical trials are expected to begin in the nextfew years, said researchers.

'TWICE-DAILY RADIATION THERAPY MAYCUT CANCER DEATH RISK'

Treating head and neck cancer patients with atwice-daily radiation therapy combined with chemotherapymay reduce their risk of death from the disease, a newstudy has claimed.

The study, led by Claire Petit from Gustave RoussyCancer Centre in France, included patients with tumoursin their mouths, throats or voice boxes, that had alreadybegun to spread to neighbouring tissue.

These patients tend to have lower rates of survivalthan those whose cancer was diagnosed at an earlier stage.

The twice-daily treatment is known ashyperfractionated radiotherapy. By splitting the dailytreatment in two portions, a higher and more effectivedose can be given to patients.

The researchers hope that this can be achievedwithout increasing side effects.

Around 600,000 people are diagnosed with headand neck cancer worldwide each year. It can be difficultto treat because the area of the body affected contains somany vital structures, including those responsible forbreathing, swallowing and speech, researchers said.

They used a relatively new technique called anetwork meta-analysis to bring together data from 117different trials, including 28,804 patients from around theworld.

This allowed them to compare 16 differenttreatments to find out which was best at reducing thespread of cancer and deaths from the disease.

They discovered that the twice-daily treatment,when combined with chemotherapy, cut deaths by 20 percent compared to the best standard treatment of once-daily radiotherapy with chemotherapy. It also reduced therisk of the cancer getting worse by 23 per cent.

"There are a number of new treatments that haveshown promise in head and neck cancer trials. This largestudy has enabled us to compare several of thesetreatments to see whichis best overall in terms of reducing mortality," said Petit.

Petit cautioned that she has not yet studied theside effects experienced by patients, either duringtreatment or in the longer term, and that more research isneeded to examine this and to confirm the results.


"However, this is an important finding for thisgroup of patients who have a higher risk of their cancerrecurring following treatment," she said.

"This research provides good evidence for thebenefits of treating advanced stage head and neck cancerpatients with a combination of twice-daily radiationtherapy and chemotherapy, compared to one or even noneof these separately," Professor Philip Poortmans fromRadboud University Medical Centre in The Netherlandsadded.

'EATING FRUITS, VEGGIES, FISH MAYREDUCE BONE LOSS IN WOMEN'

Ladies, take note! Regular intake of anti-inflammatory diets - high in vegetables, fruits, fish andwhole grains - may boost your bone health and preventfractures, a first-of-its-kind study has claimed.

Researchers at Ohio State University in the UScompared levels of inflammatory elements in the diet tobone mineral density and fractures and found newassociations between food and bone health.

Women with the least-inflammatory diets lost lessbone density during the six-year follow-up period thantheir peers with the most-inflammatory diets.

This was despite the fact that they started offwith lower bone density overall.

Diets with low inflammatory potential appearedto correspond to lower risk of hip fracture among onesubgroup of the study - post-menopausal white womenyounger than 63.

The findings suggest that women's bone healthcould benefit when they choose a diet higher in beneficialfats, plants and whole grains, said Tonya Orchard, assistantprofessor at The Ohio State University.

"This suggests that as women age, healthy dietsare impacting their bones," Orchard said.

Because the study was observational, it is notpossible to definitively link dietary patterns and bone healthand fracture outcomes.

Rebecca Jackson from Ohio State said the newfindings support a growing body of evidence that factorswhich increase inflammation can increase osteoporosis risk.

Dietary information as well as data on bonedensity and fracture were collected from a large groupof the participants in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI),the largest study of postmenopausal women's healthundertaken in US history.

Participants in the WHI were aged 50 to 79 whenthey enrolled in the study of prevention and control ofcommon diseases impacting older women. Enrolmentran from 1993 to 1998.

For the the first-of-its-kind analysis, the researchteam looked at dietary data from 160,191 women andassigned inflammation scores based on 32 foodcomponents that the women reported consuming in thethree months prior to their enrolment.

They used bone-mineral-density data from asubset of 10,290 women. Fracture data was collected forthe entire study group. They found a correlation onlybetween high-inflammatory diets and fracture in youngerwhite women in the study.

Higher scores were associated with an almost 50per cent larger risk of hip fracture in Caucasian womenyounger than 63, compared with the risk for women inthe group with the lowest inflammatory scores.

Women with the least-inflammatory diets hadlower bone mineral density overall at the start of the study,but lost less bone than their high-inflammation peers,Orchard said.


NEW TECHNIQUE TO BOOST TASTE OFTOMATOES

Scientists have identified the important factorsresponsible for loss of flavour in tomato, an advance thatcan make the supermarket tomatoes taste noticeably better.

Numerous genes responsible for the flavour oftomatoes have been lost, as food producers selected thefruit for other qualities, such as size and firmness.

Now, researchers at University of Florida (UF)in the US have unveiled the lost genes associated with theoriginal flavour.

"We're just fixing what has been damaged overthe last half century to push them back to where theywere a century ago, taste-wise," said Harry Klee, aprofessor of horticultural sciences with UF.

"We can make the supermarket tomato tastenoticeably better," he said, adding the technique involvesclassical genetics, not genetic modification.

In the study, step one was to find out which ofthe hundreds of chemicals in a tomato contribute the mostto taste.

Modern tomatoes lack sufficient sugars andvolatile chemicals critical to better flavour, Klee said.

Those traits have been lost during the past 50years because breeders have not had the tools to routinelyscreen for flavour, he said.

To help, researchers studied what they call "alleles,"the versions of DNA in a tomato gene that give it itsspecific traits.

Klee likened the concept to DNA in humans.Everyone has the same number of genes in their DNA,but a particular version of each gene determines traitssuch as height, weight and hair colour.

"We wanted to identify why modern tomatovarieties are deficient in those flavour chemicals. It's becausethey have lost the more desirable alleles of a number ofgenes," Klee said.

Scientists then identified the locations of the goodalleles in the tomato genome, he said. That required whatis called a genome-wide assessment study.

The scientists mapped genes that control synthesisof all the important chemicals. Once they found them,they used genetic analysis to replace bad alleles in moderntomato varieties with the good alleles, Klee said.

Because breeding takes time, and the scientists arestudying five or more genes, Klee said the genetic traitsfrom his latest study may take three to four years toproduce in new tomato varieties.

EARTH, MOON FORMED FROM SIMILARMATERIALS: STUDY

The Earth as well as the Moon and certainmeteorites were formed from materials that were moresimilar, holding almost indistinguishable isotopiccharacteristics, a new study has found.

Most scientific models contend the Earth formedgradually by addition from an assortment of Moon- toMars-sized masses that had a vast array of isotopiccharacteristics, researchers said.

"The Earth accreted from an isotopicallyhomogenous reservoir," said Nicolas Dauphas, Professorat University of Chicago in the US.

"In terms of colours, you could say that it wasnot 'green, blue, red,' but rather 'green, green, green,'"said Dauphas.

By analysing data for certain elements, Dauphaswas able to decipher the isotopic nature of the materialthat formed the Earth.

Anomalies in the elements provided "fingerprints"to recreate the formation process, helping to establish"genetic ties" between planetary bodies and their buildingblocks.

Dauphas used the isotopic similarities he foundin select elements to record the stages of Earth'sformation.

Soon after the Earth formed 4.5 billion years agoand as its core grew, the core attracted elements that hadstrong affinities for metal.

As core formation was almost complete,however, such elements - as they continued to arrive fromspace - were left to reside in the mantle.

This helps explain the age of parts of the Earthand the role they played in forming our planet, Dauphassaid.

In addition, the research reveals that a rare typeof extraterrestrial material known as enstatite meteorites(named after a mineral they contain in abundance) formedhalf of the first 60 per cent of the Earth.


After that, 100 per cent of the rest of the Earthwas formed by enstatite-type impactors.

"Before this work, the question of the nature ofthe Earth's accreting material through time was mostlyrhetorical," said Dauphas.

"By studying high-precision measurements, wehave shown that the Earth, the Moon and meteorites witha high concentration of the mineral enstatite have almostindistinguishable isotopic compositions," he said.

The findings shed light on the formation of theMoon, which has been difficult to explain using thesimplest models of the Earth's formation.

"The Moon is isotopically similar to the Earth.Therefore the giant impactor that struck the Earth soonafter it was created, thereby forming the Moon, mostlikely had a similar isotopic composition to the Earth,"Dauphas added.

The research was published in the journal Nature.

MEDITERRANEAN DIET MAY HELP HIV,DIABETES PATIENTS: STUDY

Consuming a Mediterranean diet - rich in freshfruits, vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats and lowin refined sugars and saturated fats - for six months maybenefit people with HIV and Type 2 diabetes, a newstudy has claimed.

HIV-positive people who received healthy foodand snacks for six months were more likely to adhere totheir medication regimens, and they, as well as people withtype 2 diabetes, were less depressed and less likely to maketrade-offs between food and health-care, according toresearchers at University of California, San Francisco(UCSF) in the US.

The study was designed to evaluate whetherhelping people get medically appropriate, comprehensivenutrition would improve their health.

Such food assistance as an approach to improvemedication adherence and health has been shown to beeffective in low-resource countries, but it has not beenwell studied in the developed world.

With 52 participants, the new study was too smallto show conclusively whether providing nutritious foodto people with diabetes resulted in better long-termcontrol of their blood sugar, or reduced hospitalisationsor emergency department visits.

It did find increases in the number of peoplewith diabetes who achieved optimal blood sugar controland decreases in hospitalisations or emergency departmentvisits, but these changes did not reach statistical significance.

Participants with diabetes also consumed lesssugar and lost weight.

"We saw significant improvements in foodsecurity and in outcomes related to all three mechanismsthrough which we posited food insecurity may affect HIVand diabetes health - nutritional, mental health, andbehavioural," said Kartika Palar, assistant professor ofmedicine at UCSF.

"For example, we saw dramatic improvementsin depression, the distress of having diabetes, diabetes self-management, trading-off between food and health-care,and HIV medication adherence," said Palar.

Researchers followed the participants for sixmonths and found they consumed fewer fats, whileincreasing their consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Overall, those in the study had fewer symptomsof depression and were less likely to binge drink. Forthose with HIV, adherence to antiretroviral therapyincreased from 47 to 70 per cent.

The meals and snacks, which participants pickedup twice a week, were based on the Mediterranean dietand featured fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins,healthy fats like olive oil, and whole grains.

They were also low in refined sugars and saturatedfats, based on current recommendations from theAmerican Diabetes Association and American HeartAssociation. The meals and snacks fulfilled 100 per centof daily caloric requirements.

NEW WAY TO DEFLECT ASTEROIDS INTHE OFFING

Scientists are developing a way to deflect asteroidsthat are on the path to collide with the Earth, by studyingthe asteroid Chelyabinsk which exploded over Russianskies in 2013.

The study, led by National Research Council(CSIC) in Spain, provides information on the effects aprojectile impact would have on an asteroid.

The research focuses on the study of the asteroidChelyabinsk, which exploded over Russian skies in 2013after passing through the atmosphere.


The probability that a kilometre-sized asteroidcould have devastating consequences after impact withthe Earth is statistically small.

However, objects a few tens of meters acrossreach the Earth's atmosphere far more frequently.

The results indicate that the composition, internalstructure, density and other physical properties of theasteroid are fundamental in determining the success of amission that launches a kinetic projectile to deflect the orbitof a dangerous asteroid.

On February 15 in 2013, an asteroid with adiameter of about 18 metres exploded over the Russiantown of Cheliabinsk, producing thousands of meteoritesthat fell to Earth.

The fragmentation of this object in theatmosphere illustrates the principle that Earth's atmosphereacts as an efficient shield, even though more than athousand meteorites hit the ground, each with a total massexceeding one tonne.

Despite the asteroid's small size, the shock waveit produced when penetrating the atmosphere athypersonic speed caused hundreds of injuries andconsiderable material damage.

"Studying the chemical and mineralogicalcomposition of the Chelyabinsk meteorite allows us tograsp the importance of the collision compactionprocesses that asteroids suffer as they near the Earth,"said CSIC researcher Josep Maria Trigo of the Instituteof Space Sciences.

"The results of this work are extremely relevantfor a possible mission in which we want to efficientlydeflect an asteroid which is close to Earth," said MariaTrigo.

Thus, following rigorous and systematic work,the new study has discovered the properties of thematerials that the asteroid is made of.

In particular, the hardness, elasticity and fractureresistance, which could all be determinants for the successof a kinetic projectile attempting to deflect an asteroid'sorbit.

The Chelyabinsk meteorite belongs to a groupknown as ordinary chondrites. The researchers chose itbecause it was considered representative of the mostpotentially dangerous asteroids in terms of its componentmaterials.

Potentially hazardous asteroids that threaten theEarth suffer many collisions before reaching our planet;therefore, their consistency increases and their mineralsappear battered.

The study was published in The AstrophysicalJournal.

SMOKING MARIJUANA IN TEENS MAYAFFECT VERBAL IQ

Adolescents who smoke pot as early as 14 havedecreased verbal abilities and are more likely to drop outof school than those who hold off until age 17 beforelighting up their first joint, a new study has found.

The study found links between cannabis use andbrain impairment only in the areas of verbal IQ andspecific cognitive abilities related to frontal parts of thebrain, particularly those that require learning by trial-and-error.

"We found that adolescents who started usingcannabis at 17 or older performed equally well asadolescents who did not use cannabis," said lead authorNatalie Castellanos-Ryan, from University of Montreal(UdeM) in Canada.

"Overall, these results suggest that, in addition toacademic failure, fundamental life skills necessary forproblem-solving and daily adaptation may be affected byearly cannabis exposure," said the researchers.

As many as 294 teenagers completed a variety ofcognitive tests at ages 13, 14 and 20 and filled out aquestionnaire once a year from ages 13 to 17 and again at20, between 1991 and 1998.

Roughly half - 43 per cent - reported smokingpot at some point during that time, most of them only afew times a year.

At 20 years of age, 51 per cent said they still usedthe drug. In general, those who started early already hadpoor short-term memory and poor working memory(the ability to store information such as a phone numberlong enough to use it, or follow an instruction shortlyafter it was given).

Conversely, the early users also had good verbalskills and vocabulary.

"It takes quite a lot of skills for a young adolescentto get hold of drugs; they're not easy-access," saidCastellanos-Ryan.


The team found smoking cannabis duringadolescence was only linked to later difficulties with verbalabilities and cognitive abilities of learning by trial-and-error and those abilities declined faster in teens who startedsmoking early than teens who started smoking later.

The early adopters also tended to drop out ofschool sooner, which helped explain the decrease in theirverbal abilities.

The study was published in the journalDevelopment and Psychopathology.

'CONDITIONS IN WOMB MAY AFFECTBRAIN DEVELOPMENT IN TEENS'

A baby's placement in the womb and access tonutrition may impact their cortical structure and affectthe brain later in life, a new study has found.

Researchers, including those at ConcordiaUniversity in Canada, analysed how in utero environmentcan play a role in the development of brain processes.

For the study, researchers followed pairs ofgenetically identical twins from birth into their teenageyears.

They measured the twins' weight at birth to assesswhether different environmental factors had affectedthem while in the womb.

They found that the in-utero environment waslinked to the development of the cortex, a part of thebrain that has many functions including regulating emotionsand is involved in various cognitive abilities.

Because twins share a prenatal environment, thefoetuses have many environmental characteristics incommon, like gestational age and the mother's lifestyle.

However, when they are born, they can still differin birth weight.

"Since the twins in our study are geneticallyidentical, this difference in birth weight must be due tospecific factors acting in utero," said Linda Booij, associateprofessor at Concordia's Faculty of Arts and Science.

"For instance, one foetus might have a betterplacement in the womb or better access to nutrition,"said Booij.

Previous research has shown that birth weight isa predictor of the way the brain develops.

In the present study, Booij and her colleaguesfound that within genetically identical twin pairs, variations

in birth weight were related to differences in the structureof the cortex, an association that cannot be explained bythe genetic code in this case.

The researchers followed the twin pairs throughto adolescence, conducting brain imaging to study thestructure of the cortex in a subgroup of 52 pairs.

They also collected DNA to study epigenetics -changes in the activity of how a gene is expressed throughenvironmental experiences, rather than alteration of thegenetic code itself.

"By the time our participants had reached teenage-hood, differences in brain volume were present in thecortex, which is where much of our regulation ofemotions and cognitive processes takes place," said Booij.

"Interestingly, twins with large differences in birthweight and cortical structure also had epigeneticdifferences, she said.

This means that what happens in utero may affecta person's brain development by the time they reach theirteen years, and that epigenetic processes may play a rolein this relationship," she added.

The study was published in the journal HumanBrain Mapping.

ANXIETY, DEPRESSION MAY UP RISK OFDEATH FROM CANCERS: STUDY

Higher levels of anxiety and depression mayincrease the risk of death from certain cancers, scientistshave warned.

The findings add to the growing evidence thatpsychological distress could have some predictive capacityfor certain physical conditions.

There is some evidence that psychological distress(anxiety and depression) is related to increased rates ofcardiovascular disease, but links with different types ofcancer are either unclear or untested.

Researchers from University College London andUniversity of Edinburgh in the UK set out to examine ifpsychological distress is a potential predictor of sitespecific cancer mortality.

They analysed data from 16 studies which startedbetween 1994 and 2008. In total, 163,363 men andwomen aged 16 or over and free from cancer at the startof the study, were included.


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Psychological distress scores were measured usingthe general health questionnaire and participants weremonitored for an average of nine and a half years. Duringthis time, there were 4,353 deaths from cancer.

Several factors that could have influenced theresults were taken into account, including age, sex,education, socioeconomic status, BMI, smoking andalcohol intake.

"After statistical control for these factors, theresults show that compared with people in the leastdistressed group, death rates in the most distressed groupwere consistently higher for cancer of the bowel, prostate,pancreas, and oesophagus and for leukaemia," said leadauthor David Batty from University College London inthe UK.

This association may also be affected by reversecausality, where undiagnosed (early) cancer might have hadan underlying impact on mood.

In a bid to correct for this, they carried out afurther analysis excluding study participants who died inthe first five years of follow-up, but this made no differenceto the findings - the links between distress and cancerremained.

"Our findings contribute to the evidence that poormental health might have some predictive capacity forcertain physical diseases but we are a long way off fromknowing if these relationships are truly causal," said Batty.

PETS, NOT SIBLINGS, CHILD'S BESTFRIEND!

Parents, take note! Your kids get along with theirpets better than their siblings, according to a new studywhich shows that children get more satisfaction from therelationships with animals.

The new study by researchers at the Universityof Cambridge in the UK adds to the increasing evidencethat household pets may have a major influence on child

development and could have a positive impact onchildren’s social skills and emotional well-being.

Pets are almost as common as siblings in westernhouseholds, although there are relatively few studies onthe importance of child-pet relationships.

"Anyone who has loved a childhood pet knowsthat we turn to them for companionship and disclosure,just like relationships between people," said Matt Cassellsfrom University of Cambridge, who led the study.

"We wanted to know how strong theserelationships are with pets relative to other close familyties. Ultimately this may enable us to understand howanimals contribute to healthy child development," saidCassells.

Researchers surveyed 12 year old children from77 families with one or more pets of any type and morethan one child at home.

Children reported strong relationships with theirpets relative to their siblings, with lower levels of conflictand greater satisfaction in owners of dogs than other kindsof pets.

"Even though pets may not fully understand orrespond verbally, the level of disclosure to pets was noless than to siblings," said Cassels.

"The fact that pets cannot understand or talk backmay even be a benefit as it means they are completelynon-judgmental," Cassels added.

"While previous research has often found thatboys report stronger relationships with their pets than girlsdo, we actually found the opposite," he said.

"While boys and girls were equally satisfied withtheir pets, girls reported more disclosure, companionship,and conflict with their pet than did boys, perhapsindicating that girls may interact with their pets in morenuanced ways," he added.

The study was published in the Journal of AppliedDevelopmental Psychology.

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