Brit workers have no confidence in their bosses

London, Sep 2 (ANI): One third of Brit workers have no trust in their senior managers, and the trend is more visible among those working in large public sector companies, according to a new study.

Conducted by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), the research has suggested that managers at larger companies trigger the least trust.

In fact, workers have instilled far more confidence in their line managers than chief executives.

Ever since the recession and expenses scandal, the reputation of businesses and politics has hit a low point, and thus local and national government bosses have become the least trusted positions.

Workers in the charity and retail sectors were found to trust their managers the most.

The study showed that workers want their chief executives to show more ability and integrity, while line managers were expected to demonstrate understanding and fairness.

ILM has claimed that their study has shown that high-up management is required to do more to win the trust of their employees.

“Teams are more effective in a trusting environment, and people work better and harder if they trust their leaders,” Sky News quoted Penny De Valk, ILM’s chief executive, as saying.

She added: “For leaders, being good at their job is simply not enough anymore. The more senior you are, the more gap between what you say and what you do… is amplified.” (ANI)

Antarctica’s plumbing system more dynamic than previously believed

Washington, Sept 2 (ANI): Scientists, using space-based lasers on a NASA satellite have created the most comprehensive inventory of lakes that actively drain or fill under Antarctica’s ice, which has revealed a continental plumbing system that is more dynamic than previously thought.

“Even though Antarctica’s ice sheet looks static, the more we watch it, the more we see there is activity going on there all the time,” said Benjamin Smith of the University of Washington in Seattle, who led the study.

Unlike most lakes, Antarctic lakes are under pressure from the ice above. That pressure can push melt water from place to place like water in a squeezed balloon.

The water moves under the ice in a broad, thin layer, but also through a linked cavity system. This flow can resupply other lakes near and far.

Understanding this plumbing is important, as it can lubricate glacier flow and send the ice speeding toward the ocean, where it can melt and contribute to sea level change.

But figuring out what’s happening beneath miles of ice is a challenge.

Researchers led by Smith analyzed 4.5 years of ice elevation data from NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation satellite (ICESat) to create the most complete inventory to date of changes in the Antarctic plumbing system.

The team has mapped the location of 124 active lakes, estimated how fast they drain or fill, and described the implications for lake and ice-sheet dynamics.

Smith, Helen Fricker, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and colleagues extended their elevation analysis to cover most of the Antarctic continent and 4.5 years of data from ICESat’s Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS).

By observing how ice sheet elevation changed between the two or three times the satellite flew over a section every year, researchers could determine which lakes were active.

They also used the elevation changes and the properties of water and ice to estimate the volume change.

Only a few of the more than 200 previously identified lakes were confirmed active, implying that lakes in East Antarctica’s high-density “Lakes District” are mostly inactive and do not contribute much to ice sheet changes.

Most of the 124 newly observed active lakes turned up in coastal areas, at the head of large drainage systems, which have the largest potential to contribute to sea level change.

According to Robert Bindschadler, a glaciologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, “The survey shows that most active subglacial lakes are located where the ice is moving fast, which implies a relationship.” (ANI)

Brain function of earthquake survivors gets acutely affected

Washington, Sep 1 (ANI): The earthquake that jolted Wenchuan, China, in 2008 has had an acute impact on the brain function of physically healthy survivors, and even poses a risk to their mental health, according a new research.

Working with collaborators from universities in China, the US and Liverpool, researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry focussed on the survivors of the earthquake that occurred on May 12 last year.

The researchers wanted to gain a better understanding of how functional brain systems adapt to severe emotional stress.

Previous animal studies have demonstrated the importance of limbic, paralimbic, striatal, and prefrontal structures of the brain in stress and fear responses.

Human studies, which have focused primarily on patients with clinically established posttraumatic stress disorders, have reported abnormalities in similar brain structures.

But not much is known about potential alterations of brain function in trauma survivors shortly after traumatic events such as an earthquake.

The epicentre of the devastating earthquake was in Wenchuan, in the Sichuan Province of China.

The tremor measured 8.0 on the Richter scale and severely affected many geographical regions including Yingxiu, Wenchuan, Dujiangyan, and Shifang, where 45 million people were directly affected.

The researchers found that a significant proportion of the survivors (around 20 per cent) are likely to develop stress-related disorders, such as acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“Given the serious and persistent impact of these highly prevalent psychiatric disorders, it is vital to develop a better understanding of the alterations of cerebral function evident in the early stages of adaptation to trauma. Such knowledge may lead to a better understanding of posttraumatic responses and the development of more effective early interventions,” said Dr Andrea Mechelli from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London.

The researchers used a method known as ‘resting-state fMRI’ to examine 44 healthy survivors and 32 controls shortly after the massive psychological trauma.

They found that significant alterations in brain function similar to those observed in posttraumatic stress disorders could be seen shortly after major traumatic experiences, highlighting the need for early evaluation and intervention for the survivors.

The results of the study show that individuals experiencing severe emotional trauma showed hyperactivity in certain areas of the brain, and decreased functional connectivity in others, shortly after the massively traumatic Wenchuan earthquake.

Particularly, the findings indicated that traumatic experiences affect not only regional function but also dynamic interactions within brain networks.

It is not clear if this pattern of brain alteration remains the same or evolves further over the following weeks or months after the traumatic experiences.

“A better understanding of the impact of traumatic events on brain function may help us identify those in need of early treatment and reduce the long-term psychological impact in trauma survivors of national disasters, military conflict, and other causes of severe emotional distress,” said Mechelli.

The results of the study have been published in PNAS online. (ANI)

Gene behind gum disease, osteoporosis, arthritis identified

Washington, Aug 31 (ANI): An international team of researchers have identified a gene that is common in the development of gum disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis.

Experts at Hospital for Special Surgery say that their findings about the gene, called interferon regulator factor-8 (IRF-8), may lead to new treatments in future.

“The study doesn’t have immediate therapeutic applications, but it does open a new avenue of research that could help identify novel therapeutic approaches or interventions to treat diseases such as periodontitis, rheumatoid arthritis or osteoporosis,” said Nature magazine quoted Dr. Baohong Zhao, a research fellow in the Arthritis and Tissue Degeneration Program at Hospital for Special Surgery located in New York City, as saying.

The researchers discovered that downregulation of IRF-8 (meaning that the gene produces less IRF-8 protein) increases the production of cells called osteoclasts that are responsible for breaking down bone.

In humans and animals, bone formation and bone resorption are closely coupled processes involved in the normal remodelling of bone. Enhanced development of osteoclasts, however, can create canals and cavities that are hallmarks of diseases such as periodontitis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The genome-wide study showed that the expression of IRF-8 was reduced by 75 percent in the initial phases of osteoclast development.

The genetically engineered mice deficient in IRF-8 had decreased bone mass and severe osteoporosis.

The researchers concluded that IRF-8 suppresses the production of osteoclasts.

“This is the first paper to identify that IRF-8 is a novel key inhibitory factor in osteoclastogenesis (production of osteoclasts),” said Zhao.

“We hope that the understanding of this gene can contribute to understanding the regulatory network of osteoclastogenesis and lead to new therapeutic approaches in the future,” Zhao added.

The study has been published in the journal Nature Medicine. (ANI)

Counting duplicated genome segments now possible with new computational method

London, August 31 (ANI): Counting copies of duplicated genome sequences and doing initial analyses of their contents are possible with the aid of a new computational method, according to a study.

Led by scientists at the University of Washington (UW), the study suggests that the number of copies of particular DNA segments can differ from one person to the next.

The researchers use the term mrFAST, an acronym for micro-read Fast Alignment Search Tool, to refer to the novel method.

In their study report, they have highlighted the fact that segmental duplications in the human genome have been associated with susceptibility and resistance to disease.

The report points out that duplicated segments have been linked to such disorders as lupus, Crohn’s disease, mental retardation, schizophrenia, colour blindness, psoriasis, and age-related macular degeneration.

It adds that segmental duplications often contain duplicated genes, many of which have an unknown function, and that individuals have different numbers of copies of some of these duplications.

The researchers write that determining the number, content, and location of segmental duplications is an important step in understanding the health significance of gene copy-number variation.

“New computational methods, combined with next-generation DNA sequencing technology, has provided for the first time an accurate census of specific genes that exist in varying number of copies,” Nature magazine quoted Alkan as saying.

“This is a way to deal with some of the most complex regions of the human genome and do what might appear to be a simple thing: Count whether a person has one, two, three or more copies of a gene. In fact, such counting is surprisingly difficult,” said Kidd.

The researchers say that next-generation technology for sequencing the human genome has far greater detection power, and costs substantially less than the traditional sequencing method known as Sanger sequencing.

According to them, the new technologies are beginning to distinguish subtle dissimilarities between nearly identical gene copies.

“This can provide researchers with a more accurate assessment of specific gene content and insight into functional constraints,” Alkan said.

“The newer, faster genome sequencing platforms may eventually make it feasible to detect the full-spectrum of genomic variation among many individuals, including patients suffering from diseases of genetic origin. Next-generation technology and computational methods promise low cost, rapid sequencing of different individuals and may lead to a fuller understanding of the patterns and significance of human genetic variation,” Alkan added.

The analytical method they devised is already being tapped for the 1000 Genome Project, an international effort to catalog and compare the genomes of hundreds of people from around the world.

Alkan, Kidd, and their colleagues note that the ability to accurately and systematically determine the absolute copy number for any genomic segment is a notable step toward a true and complete picture of individual genomes, and how the genome shapes a person’s characteristics.

“The next challenge will be defining variation in the sequence content and the structural organization of these dynamic and important regions of the human genome,” they wrote.

A research article describing their study has been published in the journal Nature Genetics. (ANI)

New, improved zebrafish cloning method may further human health research

London, August 31 (ANI): In what may eventually prove very useful in human health research, scientists at Michigan State University have come up with a more efficient method to clone zebra fish.

What makes this work an important achievement is the fact that zebra fish, which have served as an excellent model for understanding normal development and birth defects for more than 20 years, are quickly becoming the animal of choice for many researchers.

“After the mouse, it is the most commonly used vertebrate in genetic studies. It is used in cancer research and cardiovascular research because they have many of the same genes we have,” Nature magazine quoted Jose Cibelli, an MSU professor of Animal Science, as saying.

While previous methods of cloning zebra fish have had very low success rates, the MSU researchers say that their novel method can increase the number of cloned fish that can be obtained from an adult fin cell or an embryonic tail clip increased by 2 percent to 13 percent, respectively.

What makes zebra fish so useful in research is their eggs are transparent and the fish’s development is easy to follow.

Improving on the techniques of zebra fish cloning also is important because currently only the mouse remains the best model for gene targeting.

“So far the mouse is the only one from which you can delete genes in a reliable fashion. What researchers do is mutate a gene, abolish its function completely, and then study the consequences,” Cibelli said.

A research article describing the novel technique has been published in the journal Nature Methods. (ANI)

Vettori cleverest finger spinners in the world, says Boock

Colombo, Aug 30(ANI): Former New Zealand cricketer Stephen Boock reckons that captain Daniel Vettori is one of the cleverest finger spinners to grace the cricketing world.

“Everyone knows what Dan bowls: little spinners that turn away [from the right-hander] or ones that skid through, that’s the guts of it. There’s no secrets in his armoury but the way he uses what he’s got is the best I’ve seen,” Boock told the Sunday Star-Times.

“What you’ve got to do is be able to read the wicket and work out what is about this wicket that will give me the best result. How fast should I bowl, how much effort should I put into turning he ball. Dan either does that naturally or by learning,” he added.

Speaking after Vettori double feat of 3000 runs and 300 wickets, Boock said Vettori’s intelligence as a bowler was without peer, as he possessed the ability to figure up the pitch in order to adjust his bowling pace and spin to get the best results, Stuff.co.nz reports.

“Dan’s not a flamboyant player, but he’s a clear thinker who has a good understanding of cricket and he will have no expectation that he will be treated as a movie star because that’s not what he is: he’s a spin bowler who works very hard,” Boock said.

He further said that if Vettori keeps on playing for another four-five years, he could go beyond Sir Richard Hadlee as New Zealand’s wicket-taker and could join Kapil Dev. (ANI)

Ancient Indus Valley script might soon be decoded by computer program

Sydney, August 29 (ANI): A recent research has determined that an ancient, indecipherable text from the Indus Valley civilization is being decoded with the help of a computer program.

According to a report by ABC News, though it has yet to decrypt this mysterious language, the program may help to decipher other ancient texts whose meanings have been long since forgotten.

“The computer program operates on sequences of symbols, so it can be used to learn a statistical model of any set of unknown or known texts,” said Rajesh Rao, University of Washington professor of computer science and co-author of the research paper.

“In fact, such statistical models have been used to analyze a wide variety of sequences ranging from DNA and speech to economic data,” he added.

Roughly 5,000 seals, tablets and amulets, filled with about 500 different symbols, were created somewhere between 2600 and 1900 B.C. by a people living in the Indus River Valley.

Despite numerous attempts to decipher the symbols, a full translation has long eluded scientists.

In fact, one recent paper even cast doubt on whether the Indus Valley script was even a written text at all, but rather political or religious symbols.

To start the search for what meaning the text might hold, American and Indian scientists input the symbols into a computer program and ran a statistical analysis of the symbols and where they appear in the texts.

With that information, the program can do many things including creating new, hypothetical Indus Valley texts, fill in missing symbols in existing texts, and tell the scientist if a particular text has been generated by their computer model.

“We used the latter to show that the Indus texts that have been discovered in West Asia are statistically very different from the texts found in the Indus Valley, suggesting that the Indus people used their script to represent different content or language when living in a foreign land,” said Rao.

For now, however, the Indus Valley script, along with many other ancient texts, remains indecipherable, but scientists are hopeful that computers will eventually decode the symbols on them.

“I am however optimistic that given a few more years, we may be able to at least narrow down the language family of the script by using computer analysis to gain an in-depth understanding of the underlying grammar,” said Rao. (ANI)

Scientists discover new connections that may help predict Indian monsoon’s intensity

Washington, August 28 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have determined that subtle connections between the 11-year-solar cycle, the stratosphere and the tropical Pacific Ocean work in sync to generate periodic weather patterns that affect much of the globe, an understanding which would help in predicting the intensity of the Indian monsoon.

“It’s been long known that weather patterns are well-correlated to very small variations in total solar energy reaching our planet during 11-year solar cycles,” said Jay Fein, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences, which funded the research.

“What’s been an equally long mystery, however, is how they are physically connected. This remarkable study is beginning to unravel that mystery,” he added.

An international team of authors led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, used more than a century of weather observations and three powerful computer models to tackle one of the more difficult questions in meteorology: if the total energy that reaches Earth from the Sun varies by only 0.1 percent across the approximately 11-year solar cycle, how can it drive major changes in weather patterns on Earth?

The answer, according to the study, has to do with the Sun’s impact on two seemingly unrelated regions.

Chemicals in the stratosphere and sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean respond during solar maximum in a way that amplifies the Sun’s influence on some aspects of air movement.

This can intensify winds and rainfall, change sea surface temperatures and cloud cover over certain tropical and subtropical regions, and ultimately influence global weather.

“The Sun, the stratosphere, and the oceans are connected in ways that can influence events such as winter rainfall in North America,” said NCAR scientist Gerald Meehl, the lead author of the paper.

“Understanding the role of the solar cycle can provide added insight as scientists work over the next decade or two toward predicting regional weather patterns,” he added.

The Indian monsoon, Pacific precipitation and sea surface temperatures, and other regional climate patterns are largely driven by rising and sinking air in Earth’s tropics and subtropics.

The new study could help scientists use solar-cycle predictions to estimate how that circulation, and the regional climate patterns related to it, might vary over the next decade or two. (ANI)

‘Laughing gas’ leaves ozone layer in splits

Washington, August 28 (ANI): A new study has determined that nitrous dioxide, popularly known as ‘laughing gas’, has now become the largest ozone-depleting substance emitted through human activities, and is expected to remain the largest throughout the 21st century.

The study was authored by A.R. Ravishankara, J.S. Daniel and Robert W. Portmann of the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) chemical sciences division.

For the first time, this study has evaluated nitrous oxide emissions from human activities in terms of their potential impact on Earth’s ozone layer.

As chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which have been phased out by international agreement, ebb in the atmosphere, nitrous oxide will remain a significant ozone-destroyer, the study found.

Today, nitrous oxide emissions from human activities are more than twice as high as the next leading ozone-depleting gas.

Nitrous oxide is emitted from natural sources and as a byproduct of agricultural fertilization and other industrial processes.

Calculating the effect on the ozone layer now and in the future, NOAA researchers found that emissions of nitrous oxide from human activities erode the ozone layer and will continue to do so for many decades.

ESRL tracks the thickness of the ozone layer, as well as the burden of ozone-depleting compounds in the atmosphere. It maintains a large portion of the world air sampling and measurement network.

NOAA scientists also conduct fundamental studies of the atmosphere and atmospheric processes to improve understanding of ozone depletion and of the potential for recovery the ozone layer.

“The dramatic reduction in CFCs over the last 20 years is an environmental success story. But manmade nitrous oxide is now the elephant in the room among ozone-depleting substances,” said Ravishankara, lead author of the study and director of the ESRL Chemical Sciences Division in Boulder, Colorado.

The ozone layer serves to shield plants, animals and people from excessive ultraviolet light from the sun.

Thinning of the ozone layer allows more ultraviolet light to reach the Earth’s surface where it can damage crops and aquatic life and harm human health.

Though the role of nitrous oxide in ozone depletion has been known for several decades, the new study is the first to explicitly calculate that role using the same measures that have been applied to CFCs, halons and other chlorine- and bromine-containing ozone-depleting substances.

According to scientists, nitrous oxide is also a greenhouse gas, so reducing its emission from manmade sources would be good for both the ozone layer and climate. (ANI)

100,000 Pakistani labourers expected to work in Malaysia by end 2010

Kuala Lumpur, Aug.27 (ANI): With an estimated three-fold increase in workers, Pakistan is set to join Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar as the largest primary source of foreign labour for Malaysia.

Pakistan High Commissioner to Malaysia, Liutenant General (retired) Tahir Mahmud Qazi said the expected surge in number of labourers would help Malaysia cope up with the increasing demand due to the boom in the construction industry.

“By December next year, I expect the number of Pakistani workers in the country to increase to 100,000. This will be the culmination of joint efforts to bring them here to assist in the development of Malaysia,” Qazi said.

He said the massive influx was made possible due to the memorandum of understanding inked between the two countries in 2005.

Qazi said Pakistanis over the years, have proved that they are hard working and sincere.

“We want more of them to come here to work. They have a proven track record of being hardworking and dependable,” The Newstraits Times quoted Qazi, as saying.

He said senior Pakistani officials would be visiting Malaysia next month to search for investment opportunities in the country and introduce investment opportunities to the Malaysian business community.

“There are huge opportunities awaiting Malaysian businessmen in Pakistan. We need a variety of goods and services, including hypermarkets, communication, information technology facilities and low-cost housing,” Qazi added. (ANI)

Minorities Development Finance Corporation to have 1000 crores share capital

New Delhi, Aug 27 (ANI): The Union Cabinet today accorded approval for increasing the authorized share capital of the National Minorities Development Finance Corporation (NMDFC) from Rs.850 crores to Rs.1000 crores.

The share of the Government of India, the State Governments and individuals/institutions will be Rs.650 crores Rs.260 crores and Rs.90 crores respectively.

The NMDFC is a not for profit company, registered under Section 25 of the Companies’ Act with share contribution from the Government of India (65 per cent), the State Governments (26 per cent) and individuals/institutions (9 per cent).

It provides financial assistance to people belonging to minorities living below double the poverty line for self-employment.

The NMDFC is greatly dependent on Central equity contribution. The enhanced authorised share capital will enable the Central Government release its full budgetary provision of Rs.125 crores towards equity of NMDFC in 2009-10.

The equity contribution from the Government of India, together with contribution from the State Governments and individuals/institutions and also the recovery of loans from beneficiaries will be spent for providing term loans and micro finance through State Channelizing Agencies (SCAs) and for providing micro finance through NGOs.

The NMDFC also provides educational loans and has promotional schemes like vocational training.

NMDFC’s schemes are targeted for economic upliftment of people from minority communities living below double the poverty line through self employment.

The budgetary provision of Rs.125 crores will be released to the NMDFC by way of equity contribution of the Central Government during 2009-10.

As per the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of India and the NMDFC, 66,000 beneficiaries are to be covered during 2009-10.

NMDFC’s schemes envisage to cover minority communities in the entire country through State Channelizing Agencies and NGOs.

As on March 31, the NMDFC has disbursed an amount of Rs.1190.84 crores covering 4,34,329 beneficiaries belonging to the minority communities through their term loan and micro finance schemes. (ANI)

Website that can rank people’s chances of death

Washington, Aug 27 (ANI): Want to know the chances of your death in the near future along with its cause? Well, then log on to www.DeathRiskRankings.com.

The new website, developed by researchers and students at Carnegie Mellon University, allows users to query publicly available data from the United States and Europe, and compare mortality risks by gender, age, cause of death and geographic region.

The Web site not only gives the risk of dying within the next year, but it also ranks the probable causes and allows for quick side-by-side comparison between groups.

For example, if a person wanted to know who is more likely to die next year from breast cancer-a 54-year-old Pennsylvania woman or her counterpart in the United Kingdom.

“This is the only place to look. It turns out that the British woman has a 33 percent higher risk of breast cancer death. But for lung/throat cancer, the results are almost reversed, and the Pennsylvania woman has a 29 percent higher risk,” said Paul Fischbeck, site developer and professor of social and decision sciences and engineering and public policy (EPP) at Carnegie Mellon.

“Most Americans don’t have a particularly good understanding of their own mortality risks, let alone ranking of their relevant risks,” said David Gerard, a former EPP professor at Carnegie Mellon.

They found that beyond infancy, the risk of dying increases annually at an exponential rate.

A 20-year-old U.S. woman has a 1 in 2,000 (or 0.05 percent) chance of dying in the next year.

By 40 years of age, the risk is three times greater, by age 60, it is 16 times greater; and by age 80, it is 100 times greater (around 1 in 20 or 5 percent).

“The risks are higher, but still not that bad. At 80, the average U.S. woman still has a 95 percent chance of making it to her 81st birthday,” said Gerard.

The researchers are hoping that the new Web site will help bring focus to some of the discussion now raging over health care policy in the United States.

“It’s much easier to make a persuasive argument when you have the facts to back it up, and this site provides all sides with the facts. We believe that this tool, which allows anyone to assess their own risk of dying and to compare their risks with counterparts in the United States and Europe, could help inform the public and constructively engage them in the debate,” said Fischbeck. (ANI)

Non-lethal blast waves can cause brain injuries even without direct head impacts

Washington, August 27 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have discovered that non-lethal blast waves can cause human brain injury even without direct head impacts, which could lead to an enhanced understanding of head injuries and improved military helmet design.

Using numerical hydrodynamic computer simulations, Lawrence Livermore scientists Willy Moss and Michael King, along with University of Rochester colleague Eric Blackman, have discovered that non-lethal blasts can induce enough skull flexure to generate potentially damaging loads in the brain, even without direct head impact.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results from mechanical loads in the brain, often without skull fracture, and causes complex, long-lasting symptoms.

TBI in civilians is usually caused by direct head impacts resulting from motor vehicle and sports accidents. TBI also has emerged among military combat personnel exposed to blast waves.

As modern body armor has substantially reduced soldier fatalities from explosive attacks, the lower mortality rates have revealed the high prevalence of TBI.

But, TBIs resulting from blast waves without head impacts have not been well understood.

To tackle this puzzle, the research team used three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations to prove that direct action of the blast wave on the head causes skull flexure, producing mechanical loads in brain tissue comparable to those in an injury-inducing impact, even at non-lethal blast pressures as low as 1 bar above atmospheric pressure.

The Army’s Advanced Combat Helmet replaced the older Personal Armor System for Ground Troops helmet.

Its Kevlar shell provides ballistic and impact protection, and its reduced edge cut, although reducing area of coverage, improves soldiers’ field of vision and hearing.

In particular, the team showed that blast waves affect the brain very differently from direct impacts.

The primary source of injury from direct impacts is the force resulting from the bulk acceleration of the head.

In contrast, a blast wave squeezes the skull, creating pressures as large as an injury-inducing impact and pressure gradients in the brain that are much larger.

This occurs even when the bulk head accelerations induced by a blast wave are much smaller than from a direct impact.

“The blast wave sweeps over the skull like a rolling pin going over dough,” said King, LLNL co-principal investigator.

Although the simulations show that the skull is deformed only about 50 microns, “this is large enough to generate potentially damaging loads in the brain,” according to Moss.

“The possibility that blasts may contribute to traumatic brain injury has implications for injury diagnosis and improved armor design,” he added. (ANI)

Kim Kardashian, Reggie Bush back together?

Washington, Aug 27 (ANI): Kim Kardashian and ex-boyfriend Reggie Bush have reunited, claim American reports.

The couple had broken up in July this year after rumours of both cheating were doing the rounds.

However, it is believed the pair came to an understanding after meeting up in New Orleans – where Bush plays for The New Orleans Saints – earlier this month.

It is reported Kardashian and Bush went out for dinner in the city, where Kardashian also gifted a pup to the footballer.

Contactmusic quoted a source as telling the National Enquirer: “Reggie initiated the reconciliation – he’s been trying to get back with Kim since the second week of the breakup. And when he asked to see her while she was in New Orleans, Kim seized the moment.”

The insider also said Kardashian was now staying with Bush in New Orleans.

“They say they love each other and want to give it another try,” the source added. (ANI)

Kids as young as 10 under constant pressure to have perfect bod

Washington, Aug 27 (ANI): Kids as young as 10 are living under constant pressure to have the perfect body, say researchers.

The study, led by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Alberta, Canada, showed a linear response for girls, who were happiest when thinnest, and a U-shaped response for boys, who were unhappy when they were too skinny or too fat.

To reach the conclusion, the researchers looked at the relationship between size and body satisfaction, as well as the effects of rural/urban residence, parental education and income, and neighborhood household income on kids.

“There is a well-established relationship between poor body satisfaction and increased risk of disordered weight control behaviors, including vomiting, fasting, and use of laxatives and diet pills for weight control. Importantly, body satisfaction appears to be responsive to school-based interventions,” said Bryn Austin, the lead researcher.

“To increase our understanding of body satisfaction and its links with BMI in childhood, we studied the prevalence of poor body satisfaction in prepubescent girls and boys, and its association with body weight and socioeconomic factors,” she added.

The findings revealed that overall, 7.3pct of girls and 7.8pct of boys reported poor body satisfaction.

For normal weight, overweight and obese girls the prevalence of poor body satisfaction was 5.7pct, 10.4pct and 13.1pct, respectively.

For boys this was 7.6pct, 8.4pct, and 8.1pct, respectively. Girls from parents with low educational attainment and residing in rural areas were more likely to report poor body satisfaction.

“Poor body satisfaction among males with a low BMI may reflect the cultural ideal for males to attain both muscularity and leanness; whereas, among females, thinness remains the culturally defined ideal body shape,” said Austin.

The research is published in the open access journal BMC Public Health. (ANI)

CBSE to make Class X boards optional in 2010-11

New Delhi, Aug.27 (ANI): The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is likely to announce on Friday that from the coming academic year (2010-11), Class X board exams will become optional in all CBSE-run schools.

The board will make a formal announcement once the blueprint of the new system to replace the board exams is frozen.

CBSE sources said board chairman Vineet Joshi would hold the last presentation and consultation session in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday on the changes being brought about before the draft is finalized and made public.

The CBSE has reportedly prepared the format of an aptitude exam that schools can use to test Class X students on their level of understanding in each subject. The emphasis, however, will be on continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) through the year instead of a single public exam at the end of Class X.

“CBSE has decided to go strongly on making the Class X board exam optional and implement CCE grading system and other alternatives. The process of review of the present Class X exam system is over,” Joshi said.

He said that CBSE had also conducted a survey among students on whether they want the board exam to continue.

Joshi said there were apprehensions that the new format would create two categories of students, those who take the exam and others who don’t.

Among these alternatives is the provision of an online, on demand test for those who don’t take the board exam but want certification later on.

In another major decision aimed at ensuring that schools maintain minimum basic standards, the CBSE has decided to have an independent agency for accreditation of CBSE schools.

All schools under the board will have to get themselves evaluated by this agency within three years. New schools will get CBSE affiliation three years after they have been accredited by this agency.

Joshi said the accreditation agency could be either a government or private body.(ANI)

Survey says Chinese, Japanese viewing each other more positively than last year

Beijing/Tokyo, Aug 26 (ANI): A new survey has revealed that the Chinese and the Japanese are seeing each other a bit more positively than last year.

The survey, jointly sponsored by the China Daily and Genron NPO, a Japanese think tank, found that a majority of people in both countries believe Sino-Japanese relations are important.

The survey is a part of the Beijing-Tokyo Forum, a yearly gathering of Chinese and Japanese senior government officials and NGO members, who believe in building up better communication and understanding between the two countries.

The survey, now in its fifth year, divided people into two groups – ordinary citizens, and intellectuals – in both the countries.

The Chinese intellectuals mainly comprised university students from famous well-known institutions like the Peking University. Previous members of Genron NPO formed the Japanese “intellectuals”.

Nearly thirty-six percent ordinary Chinese said they have a “very good” or “relatively good” impression of Japan, which is a 5.5-percentage-point increase over last year.

About 45.2 percent of Chinese students saw Japan in a positive light, a two percentage points increase on the previous year’s figures, whereas, only 26.6 percent of Japanese think positively about China.

However an overwhelming majority of Chinese and Japanese said Sino-Japanese relations were “important” and also wanted the leadership of the two nations to increase talks and enhance mutual cooperation.

Nearly 60 percent of ordinary people and 42.4 percent of Chinese students saw no progress in Sino-Japan relationship over the last year

In Japan, 64.8 percent ordinary people and 53.4 percent intellectuals saw no improvement in bilateral ties this year.

The surveys found historical issues and territorial disputes still remain points of tension between the two nations.

The Chinese are often unhappy over official Japanese visits to Yasukuni Shrine, and the Nanjing Massacre still remains a historical problem.

About 47 percent of ordinary Japanese appreciated Chinese help in fighting the global economic crisis, compared to just 30 percent last year. Japanese intellectuals believing Chinese economic growth to be better for the Japanese leaped from 65.8 percent to 81.4 percent this year.

Cooperation in East Asian issues, economic affairs, energy, environment and climate change should be the top priorities of the talks between the two countries according to the people.

Almost 91 percent of the students and 85.7 percent ordinary people in China and 95.8% intellectuals and 74.8% ordinary people in Japan saw civil exchanges as “important” or “relatively important”.

The survey also found that the people of the two countries found out about each other’s countries mostly through TV news and newspapers. (ANI)

Slow motion testing probes how full-scale buildings collapse in earthquakes

Washington, August 26 (ANI): Scientists have recently tried an innovative “slow motion earthquake” testing that may provide a safer, far less expensive way to learn about how and why full-scale buildings collapse during quakes.

The method was developed by researchers at the University at Buffalo (UB) and Japan’s Kyoto University.

“One of the key issues in earthquake engineering is how much damage structures can sustain before collapsing so people can safely evacuate,” explained principal investigator Gilberto Mosqueda, UB assistant professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering.

“We don’t really know the answer because testing buildings to collapse is so difficult. With this hybrid approach, it appears that we have a safe, economic way to test realistic buildings at large scales to collapse,” he said.

The UB/Kyoto team’s positive results could enable engineers to significantly improve their understanding of the mechanisms leading to collapse without the limitations of cost, reduced scale and simplified models necessary for shake table testing in the US.

In the unusual “slow motion earthquake” test conducted in late July, UB and Kyoto engineers successfully used the hybrid approach to mimic a landmark, full-scale experiment conducted in 2007 on the E-Defense shake table at the Miki City, Japan, facility.

In that test, a four-story steel building was subjected to a simulation of ground motions that occurred during the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

But, instead of using a full-scale steel building, this time, the researchers developed a hybrid representation of that test by combining experimental techniques carried out in earthquake engineering labs in Buffalo and Kyoto with numerical simulations conducted over the Internet.

The landmark data from the E-Defense test was used to verify the effectiveness of the hybrid approach.

Only the parts of the buildings that were expected to initiate collapse were tested experimentally.

“If this had been a real building, it would have toppled over,” said Mosqueda.

That presents a real problem in a laboratory.

“You can’t allow a structure to collapse completely on a shake table. You need to have support mechanisms in place, like scaffolds, to catch the falling structure,” said Mosqueda.

According to Mosqueda, the hybrid test paves the way for additional experiments that will allow researchers to more precisely learn about the nature of structural collapse.

“We want to know, for example, what is the probability that a building will collapse in the next expected earthquake,” he said.

“First, we need to develop this capability to understand and simulate how they collapse. Then, we can determine how to improve new construction or retrofit existing buildings so that they are less likely to collapse,” he added. (ANI)

Scientists establish new link between pre-eclampsia and diet

Washington, August 26 (ANI): A new study has shown that pregnant women with pre-eclampsia have unusually high levels of a chemical compound called ‘ergothioneine’, which is found in unpasteurised food, in the red blood cells.

The finding made by scientists at the University of Leeds attains significance because they suggest that ergothioneine is an indicator of pre-eclampsia, and may help scientists to understand the cause of the condition, which is currently unknown.

The researchers took blood samples from a group of 37 pregnant women, and compared the red blood cells from women with pre-eclampsia with those from women with no symptoms.

Writing about their findings in the journal Reproductive Sciences, the researchers said that they found a significantly higher concentration of the ergothioneine – a compound made by fungi – in the red blood cells of the women with pre-eclampsia.

Ergothioneine is already well known to be made by micro-organisms that are commonly found in foods like unpasteurised dairy products. Since humans cannot synthesise it, the compound finds its way into human cells exclusively through our diet.

Pregnant women are not advised against eating fungi or foods such as unpasteurised dairy products which contain ergothioneine producing fungi. In fact, scientific studies on animals highlight the benefit of ergothioneine.

“These results suggest that a higher level of ergothioneine is an indicator of pre-eclampsia,” says lead researcher Dr. Julie Fisher, a chemist at the University of Leeds.

“I would not recommend that pregnant women stop eating fungi. However, the high concentration of ergothioneine in the red blood cells of women with pre-eclampsia is a very interesting finding – the more we know about the chemicals involved in the disease the closer we get to understanding what causes it,” says Professor James Walker, Professor of Obstetrics at the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine (LIMM), and a co-author of the research.

The symptoms of pre-eclampsia include high blood pressure, protein in urine and fluid retention and affects almost 10 per cent of pregnancies after 20 weeks. If left untreated, the condition can cause a range of problems, such as growth restriction in babies and even foetal and maternal mortality. There is no known cause of the condition.

“Ergothioneine is known as an antioxidant and antioxidants have been proposed to be helpful in reducing the risk of preeclampsia. It is therefore very interesting that we have found it to be in excess for women with the condition,” says Dr. Fisher.

The researchers used a technique that is based on the same science as MRI scans, but which operates on fluids taken from the body, to identify chemicals in the red blood cells of pregnant women.

They say that the amount of these chemicals was found to depend on whether the women were healthy or whether they were suffering from pre-eclampsia.

They previously found that chemical markers for pre-eclampsia also exist in blood plasma. (ANI)