Knowledge Update

New York, Jan 24 (IANS) Love to watch satirical news programmes? It may have a serious impact on your political attitudes and efficacy, a new research has suggested.

The finding showed that people chose satirical news -- often dismissed as mere entertainment -- that matched their pre-existing attitudes such as liberal or conservative.

"Satirical news matters. It is not just entertaining -- it has a real-life impact on viewers as serious news and it reinforces your political attitudes," said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, professor at The Ohio State University.

Watching satirical news also affects feelings of political efficacy -- people's belief that they can influence political processes -- as much as watching serious news.

The study further showed that people with little interest in politics were more likely to select satirical over serious news. 

"Satirical news can engage people who otherwise would avoid political news and could act as a gateway into more serious news use for people who aren't currently engaged in politics," Knobloch-Westerwick added in a paper published in the Journal of Communication.

For the study, the team involved 146 college students who selected news clips -- that were liberal, conservative, satirical and serious -- to watch concerning climate change, gun control and immigration.

The results showed that regardless of whether they viewed the serious or the satirical news clips, participants' political views were strengthened if they viewed videos that agreed with their original beliefs.

​New York, Jan 24 (IANS) Nicotine may have a direct impact on the restoration of normal brain activity in people suffering from psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia -- a disorder affecting 51 million people worldwide, a study has found.

The findings showed that when mice with schizophrenic characteristics were given nicotine daily, their sluggish brain activity increased within two days and within a week it was normalised.

"Since the repeated administration of nicotine restores normal activity to the prefrontal cortex, it could pave the way for a possible therapeutic target for the treatment of schizophrenia," said lead author Uwe Maskos from Integrative Neurobiology of Cholinergic Systems Unit or Institut Pasteur -- a French non-profit private foundation.

It has been observed that schizophrenic patients often use smoking as a form of self-medication to alleviate the deficit symptoms caused by their disorder or to combat the serious side effects of their treatment -- lethargy, lack of motivation, etc. 

Patients with schizophrenia -- 80 to 90 per cent of whom are often heavy smokers -- have impairments in the prefrontal cortex -- the brain region associated with cognition, decision-making and working memory.

Recently, the genetic mutation CHRNA5, which encodes a nicotinic receptor subunit, was identified as being associated with the cognitive impairments in schizophrenic patients and with nicotine dependence.

In the new study, scientists introduced the human CHRNA5 gene into mice with the aim of reproducing the cerebral deficits that characterise schizophrenia, namely behavioural deficits in situations of social interaction and while performing sensorimotor tasks.

The results showed that mice with the CHRNA5 mutation had reduced activity in their prefrontal cortex. 

The drop in activity measured in this model is similar to that observed in patients with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and addiction, the researchers said.

The study was published online in the journal Nature Medicine.

​London, Jan 24 (IANS) Using the 3D-printing technology, a team of Spanish scientists has for the first time created proper human skin that can be used in transplants on burn patients and those with other skin problems and also in chemical tests.

According to José Luis Jorcano, professor, department of bioengineering and aerospace engineering at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the new human skin is one of the first living human organs created using bioprinting to be introduced to the marketplace. 

It replicates the natural structure of the skin, with a first external layer, the epidermis with its stratum corneum, which acts as protection against the external environment, together with the dermis -- another thicker, deeper layer. 

The last layer consists of fibroblasts that produce collagen, the protein that gives elasticity and mechanical strength to the skin.

The skin "can be transplanted to patients or used in business settings to test chemical products, cosmetics or pharmaceutical products in quantities and with timetables and prices that are compatible with these uses," Luis Jorcano noted. 

When creating skin, instead of cartridges and coloured inks, injectors with biological components are used. 

The act of depositing these bioinks is controlled by a computer, which deposits them on a print bed in an orderly manner to then produce the skin.

"We use only human cells and components to produce skin that is bioactive and can generate its own human collagen, thereby avoiding the use of the animal collagen that is found in other methods," the researchers noted in a paper published in the scientific journal Biofabrication.

"This method of bioprinting allows skin to be generated in a standardised, automated way, and the process is less expensive than manual production," Alfredo Brisac, CEO of Spanish bioengineering firm BioDan Group pointed out.

Currently, this development is in the phase of being approved by different European regulatory agencies to guarantee that the skin that is produced is adequate for use in transplants on burn patients and those with other skin problems. 

In addition, these tissues can be used to test pharmaceutical products, as well as cosmetics and consumer chemical products where current regulations require testing that does not use animals.

Beijing, Jan 23 (IANS) The second-child policy implemented in China increased the number of births to 17.86 million in 2016, an increase of 7.9 per cent and the highest annual number since since 2000, according to health authorities.

The number of newborns has increased by 1.31 million compared with 2015, the National Health and Family Planning Commission revealed on Sunday.

The portion of the births to couples who already had at least one child rose quickly to at least 45 per cent last year, Yang Wenzhuang, a division director of the commission, said. 

The proportion was around 30 per cent before 2013, the China Daily reported.

"It demonstrates that the universal second-child policy (implemented early last year) came in time and worked effectively," Yang said.

"Some regions, mostly large cities in eastern areas, began recording second children as comprising more than half of local newborns," he added.

Yang expected that by 2020, the number of new births each year would stand between 17 to 20 million in China.

The top decision makers intensified efforts in late 2013 to adjust birth policies in place for three decades that limited most couples to just one child, aiming at addressing major demographic challenges such as an aging population and a looming labour shortage.

Starting in early 2014, couples in which one was an only child could have a second child. The universal second-child policy was implemented at the start of 2016.

By 2050, the policy is expected to bring about an extra 30 million working age people and reduce the nation's aging rate by 2 per cent, commission projections showed.

A 2015 survey by the commission found nearly 75 per cent of respondents were reluctant to have a second baby, largely due to economic burdens, the China Daily said.

Other major concerns were age, parents' career development, and a lack of caregivers, it showed. 

In the mid-1950s, the average number of annual births in China was around 18 million, almost the same as in 2016. But the fertility rate (the average number of children a woman will have during her life) has dropped from more than six then to less than two.

​New York, Jan 22 (IANS) Non-invasive brain stimulations can work like a scalpel to improve the precise memory of a human and can also be used as a treatment for those who have memory problem because of brain injury, a new study has found.

Precise memory is critical for knowing details such as the specific colour, shape and location of a building you are looking for, rather than simply knowing the part of town it is in.

Researchers from the Northwestern University found that by stimulating the brain network responsible for spatial memory with powerful electromagnets, the precision of people's memory for identifying locations improved.

"We show that it is possible to target the portion of the brain responsible for this type of memory and to improve it," said Joel Voss, assistant professor.

The scientists used MRI to identify memory-related brain networks then stimulated them with non-invasive electromagnetic stimulation.

The paper, published in the journal Current Biology, paves the way for developing new treatments for people who have problems with precise memory because of brain injury.

Toronto, Jan 22 (IANS) Scanning the brain of a premature baby shortly after birth to map the location and volume of lesions -- small areas of injury in the brain's white matter -- may help doctors better predict whether the baby will have disabilities later, researchers say.

Lack of oxygen to the brain is the most common form of brain injury in premature infants, resulting in damage to the white matter - which contains nerve fibers that maintain contact between various parts of the brain.

Damage to white matter can interfere with communication in the brain and the signals it sends to other parts of the body.

"In general, babies who are born before 31 weeks gestation have a higher risk of thinking, language and movement problems throughout their lives, so being able to better predict which infants will face certain developmental problems is important so they get the best early interventions possible," said Steven P. Miller from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada.

For the study, the team looked at a group of A58 premature babies with white matter injury who had an MRI brain scan at an average of 32 weeks after gestation. These babies were then evaluated for motor, thinking and language skills when they were 18 months old.

The findings showed that a greater volume of small areas of injury, no matter where they were located in the brain, could predict movement problems at 18 months.

A greater volume of these small areas of injury in the frontal lobe -- area of the brain that regulates problem solving, memory, language skills and voluntary movement skills -- could predict thinking problems.

On the other hand, premature infants with larger frontal lobe injuries had a 79 fold greater odds of developing thinking problems than infants without such injuries, as well as a 64 fold greater odds of problems with movement development.

Future studies should evaluate premature infants not just at 18 months, but at various points throughout childhood to determine the long-term consequences of early injuries in the brain, Miller added.

The study was published in the journal Neurology.

​London, Jan 21 (IANS) When people start becoming delirious, it may have a long-lasting impact on their brains, accelerating the dementia process among them, a new study has found.

A research conducted in the University College London and the University of Cambridge found that episodes of delirium in people who are not known to have dementia, might also reveal dementia at its earliest stages.

"If delirium is causing brain injury in the short and long-term, then we must increase our efforts to diagnose, prevent and treat delirium. Ultimately, targeting delirium could be a chance to delay or reduce dementia," said Daniel Davis from the University of Cambridge.

The study noted that while both delirium and dementia are important factors in cognitive decline among the elderly, delirium is preventable and treatable through dedicated geriatric care.

"Unfortunately, most delirium goes unrecognised. In busy hospitals, a sudden change in confusion is not noticed by hospital staff. Patients can be transferred several times and staff often switch over -- it requires everyone to 'think delirium' and identify that a patient's brain function has changed," Davis noted in a paper published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

​New York, Jan 20 (IANS) In an attempt to search for life outside Earth, an astronomer has studied an exoplanet called Wolf 1061 and found the celestial body could be habitable in the future.

Astronomer Stephen Kane from San Francisco State University, in his research focused on finding "habitable zones" where water could exist in a liquid state on a planet's surface. 

Kane and his team examined a habitable zone on a planetary system 14 light years away. "The Wolf 1061 system is important because it is so close and that gives other opportunities to do follow-up studies to see if it does indeed have life," Kane said in a statement.

One of the three known planets in the Wolf 1061 system, a rocky planet called Wolf 1061c, is entirely within the habitable zone. 

When scientists search for planets that could sustain life, they are basically looking for a planet with nearly identical properties to Earth. 

"Simply put, the planet can't be too close or too far from its parent star. A planet that's too close would be too hot like Earth's twin Venus. If it's too far, it may be too cold and any water would freeze, which is what happens on Mars," Kane noted.

Since Wolf 1061c is close to the inner edge of the habitable zone, meaning closer to the star, it could be that the planet has an atmosphere that's more similar to Venus. 

Kane and his team also observed that unlike Earth, which experiences climatic changes such as an ice age because of slow variations in its orbit around the sun, Wolf 1061c's orbit changes at a much faster rate, which could mean the climate there could be quite chaotic.

According to Kane, life is possible on Wolf 1061c under one possibility -- the short time scales over which Wolf 1061c's orbit changes could be enough that it could actually cool the planet off.

But fully understanding what's happening on the planet's surface will take more research, he added.

The findings are forthcoming in the Astrophysical Journal in a paper titled "Characterization of the Wolf 1061 Planetary System".

​New York, Jan 20 (IANS) Older adults with low blood levels of a circulating protein in the blood may be at an increased risk of experiencing decline in their kidney function, a study has found.

The findings showed that higher blood levels of a protein called soluble klotho -- with anti-ageing properties -- may help preserve kidney function. 

"We found a strong association between low soluble klotho and decline in kidney function, independent of many known risk factors for kidney function decline," said David Drew from Tufts University in Massachusetts, US.

The kidney has the highest levels of klotho expression and is likely the major source of soluble klotho, and thus, in patients with kidney disease levels of klotho tend to be low.

Although the exact mechanism of action of soluble klotho remains to be identified, the protein has been shown to influence multiple cellular and endocrine pathways, the researchers said.

After adjusting for various factors such as demographics, comorbidities, and kidney disease risk factors, each two-fold higher level of klotho was linked with a 15-20 per cent lower likelihood of experiencing kidney function decline in the elderly.

"This suggests that klotho could play a role in the development of chronic kidney disease and also raises the possibility that klotho could be an important therapeutic target for future clinical trials," Drew added.

For the study, the team analysed 2496 study elderly with measures of soluble serum klotho and repeated measures of kidney function over 10 years of follow up.

Although additional studies are needed, the findings point to a potential target for preventing and treating kidney disease, the researchers stated.

The study is forthcoming in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).