Knowledge Update

​Toronto, Oct 6 (IANS) Children have no difficulty and can easily distinguish between truth and lies, regardless of age. However, as they age, they get confused around particular kinds of truths and lies, a study has found.

Younger children see things more starkly. For them, truths are good and lies are bad.

But, by the time the children are 10-12 years old, they become more aware that truth and lies are less binary. 

"Children get a lot of messages from their parents saying that lying is always bad, but at the same time they see their parents telling 'white' lies to make life easier. Depending on their age, this is likely to be a bit confusing for children," said Victoria Talwar from the McGill University in Quebec, Canada. 

As children get older, their moral evaluations of both lies and truths increasingly gets influenced by whether they think this behaviour will cause harm to either others or themselves.

Younger children saw false confessions to help someone else as being more negative than older ones did.

Younger children are less concerned by truth-telling that had negative consequences for someone else, whereas older children were more conflicted about tattling. 

"The older they are, the more interested children are in the consequences of these actions. They are also more able to start looking at the intentions behind the speech," added Shanna Mary Williams, doctoral student at the McGill University. 

Further, the study showed that both young and old children had different views when it came to the skill of deciding which behaviours to reward or condemn. 

While younger children may be reflecting what is taught by parents and caregivers when it comes to tattling (i.e. that honesty in all forms is virtuous), the older children may be less likely to reward tattling because they are concerned with how their peers will perceive this behaviour, the researchers observed. 

In both cases, parents and teachers need to have a much more involved conversation about truth-telling or lie-telling with children starting as early as the age six, the researchers suggested. 

For the study, the team assessed how a child's moral understanding develops. They studied the behaviour of close to 100 children, aged six to 12.

"Looking at how children see honesty and deceit is a way of gaining insight into different stages of moral and social development," Talwar said.

The study was published in the journal International Review of Pragmatics.

​New York, Oct 18 (IANS) If you find your teenage son indulging in alcohol or drugs, do not just blame his peers. A specific imbalance in the functioning of his brain may put him at risk-taking behaviour risk, a study has found.

The study conducted on animals showed that the adolescent-specific behaviour may be driven by an imbalance in activity between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) -- an area of the brain involved in cognitive control and inhibition -- and the nucleus accumbens (NAC) which plays a central role in reward-seeking and addiction. 

Researchers from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in the US said that the low activity in PFC with concurrent high activity in NAC -- an imbalance which appears to exist only during adolescence -- is essentially at odds with each other.

This imbalance is behind the tendency that could lead to potentially dangerous behaviour, including drug use, harmful drinking, addiction, unsafe sex and risky driving, which may result in unintended injuries, violence and/or even premature death.

"Understanding how specific changes in brain function during development relate to behaviour is critically important for determining why some individuals engage in excessive risk-taking behaviour during adolescence," said David J Bucci, professor at Dartmouth College.

For the study, researchers used adult rats, which normally have balanced activity in these areas and used a novel approach to decrease the activity in PFC and simultaneously increase activity in NAC while the rats learned an inhibition task. 

The rats that were treated with the new approach exhibited a dramatic delay in learning to inhibit and required twice the amount of training to learn the behaviour. 

The delay in learning this inhibitory response matched the delay that the researchers observed in normal adolescent rats during an earlier study. 

"Our hope is that these findings will inform new means to minimise the potential for engaging in drug use and other harmful behaviours during this important period of development," Bucci added in the paper published in the journal Current Biology. 

New York, Oct 18 (IANS) Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School have developed a biocompatible and highly stretchable optical fiber which can be implanted in the body to deliver therapeutic pulses of light or light up at the first sign of disease.

According to the study, the researchers suggested that such stretchable, strain-sensing optical fibers could be implanted or fitted along the length of a patient's arm or leg to monitor for signs of improving mobility.

The study also suggested that the fibers may also serve as sensors, lighting up in response to signs of disease.

"We may be able to use optical fibers for long-term diagnostics, to optically monitor tumors or inflammation. The applications can be impactful," said Xuanhe Zhao, Associate Professor, MIT in the study published in the journal Advanced Materials.

The fiber, made from hydrogel is as bendable and is an elastic, rubbery material composed mostly of water and may serve as a long-lasting implant that would bend and twist with the body without breaking down.

Using light to activate neurons in the brain, which is a highly active field known as optogenetics, in which researchers delivered short pulses of light to targeted tissues using needle-like fibers, through which they shine light from an LED source.

"But the brain is like a bowl of Jell-O, whereas these fibers are like glass -- very rigid, which can possibly damage brain tissues. If these fibers could match the flexibility and softness of the brain, they could provide long-term more effective stimulation and therapy," Zhao added.

For the study, the researchers began to play with the fiber's optical properties, to see if they could design a fiber that could sense when and where it was being stretched.

Then they shone a laser light through the fiber and stretched and measured the spectrum of light.

By measuring the amount of light at the far end of the fiber, the researchers could quantitatively determine where and by how much a fiber was stretched.

​London, Oct 18 (IANS) Pregnant women who are dissatisfied in their relationship may be at an increased risk of developing infectious diseases, which may in turn, also affect their children, researchers have found.

The risk of pregnant women with the lowest satisfaction in their relationship becoming ill is more than twice than those who are satisfied.

"The study does not prove that the first thing leads to the second. But those who report that they are dissatisfied in their relationship more often report illnesses during pregnancy. Their children are also reported ill more often during their first year," said Roger Ekeberg Henriksen from the University of Bergen in Norway.

"Infections during pregnancy may lead to complications and diseases later in life, Henriksen said, adding "dissatisfaction with your partner during pregnancy should be considered a risk factor for reproductive health." 

Relationship researchers have been usually interested in psychological factors such as depression and life quality. But social isolation and loneliness can also directly affect the physiology.

During stressed condition our immune system may be given lower priority, and we thus become less resistant towards infectious diseases from bacteria and viruses, the researchers said.

"If we look at brain research and other research on physiological mechanisms, we see that having a partner who is predictable and supportive may be decisive for our ability to handle stress. On the opposite side, stress responses may occur with the absence of social support," Henriksen stated.

In the study, Henriksen looked at the occurrence of eight different infectious diseases, from the common cold to stomach flu and inflammation of the ear. 

With children up to six months, the occurrence of all eight infections was higher when the mothers were dissatisfied in their relationship.

"If there's a lot of stress in your life and you have few good relations, this should be given particular attention. It might be a good idea to talk to your midwife or your general practitioner about this," Henriksen suggested.

For the study, the team collected data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) -- a health study on mothers and their children since 1999. The study of pregnant women's infectious diseases includes more than 67,000 women. The study of children's infectious diseases includes nearly 91,000 women and more than 100,000 children.

​London, Oct 18 (IANS) Higher body mass index (BMI) in women before pregnancy can lead to shorter telomere length -- a biomarker for biological age -- in their newborns, according to a study.

Telomeres are structures at the ends of chromosomes which are vital in maintaining the stability of a person's genome as they protect chromosomes from degradation. 

"Compared with newborns of mothers with a normal BMI, newborns of women with obesity are older on a molecular level, because shortened telomere lengths mean that their cells have shorter lifespans," said Tim Nawrot, Professor at Hasselt University in Belgium. 

Telomere length, which is measured by the number of DNA base pairs they occupy, is directly linked to the number of times a cell can divide in its lifetime. 

Thus, longer telomeres allow cells to divide more often, providing a link between telomere length and biological age. 

Telomere length in adults has been associated with age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and increased mortality.

In the study, the research team found that for each one-point increase in the mothers' BMI, telomeres in the babies were about 50 base pairs shorter. 

According to the researchers, this 50 base pair shortening of telomere length is equivalent to the length that people normally lose in 1.1 - 1.6 years of adult life, which may increase the risk of chronic diseases in adulthood.

"Our results add to the growing body of evidence that high maternal BMI impacts foetal programming, which could lead to altered foetal development and later life diseases," Nawrot said. 

"So maintaining a healthy BMI during a woman's reproductive age may promote molecular longevity in the offspring," he added.

For the study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, the team involved 743 mothers, who were 17 to 44 years of age, and their newborn babies. 

​Sydney, Oct 18 (IANS) Researchers from University of Adelaide have developed a world's first optical sensor that can detect vitamin B12 in diluted human blood - a novel step towards developing a low-cost and portable deficiency test.

Vitamin B12 deficiency is associated with an increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Such a device would enable the tracking of vitamin B12 levels in high-risk patients and early intervention can help overcome the limitations of current testing methods which are time-consuming and costly.

"Vitamin B12 deficiency has been shown to be a potential modifiable risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer's disease and is associated with cognitive decline," said Dr Georgios Tsiminis, Research Fellow at University of Adelaide.

Older adults are particularly at risk of B12 deficiency due to age-related reduction in absorbing vitamin B12 received through their diet.

"Our sensor is an early step towards a point-of-care solution for measuring and tracking B12 in healthy ageing adults. This would allow doctors to monitor B12 levels and intervene as soon as B12 deficiency was detected," Dr Tsiminis added.

The sensor is still at proof-of-concept stage but, with development, has wide-reaching potential applications.

The optical sensor measurement of B12 in human blood takes less than a minute and requires minimum preparation.

This is the first demonstration of vitamin B12 being measured in human blood serum without the need for a full laboratory test.

The sensor uses an optical measuring technique called Raman spectroscopy which produces a unique optical fingerprint of a target molecule, in this case vitamin B12.

"Our method provides a realistic basis for a system that is portable, cost-effective, and affords rapid results, along the lines of the pin-prick test for diabetes," Dr Tsiminis noted in a statement.

The research by scientists in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP), the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing, and the Schools of Physical Sciences and Medicine was presented at an international biophotonics conference in Adelaide last weekend.

​London, Oct 17 (IANS) Researchers from University of Cambridge said they are developing a new imaging technique with the aim of detecting and characterising early cancerous changes in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

The technique involves using a standard endoscopy system with a novel set of camera filters, increasing the number of colours that can be visualised during endoscopy and potentially improving the ability to detect abnormal cells in the lining of the gut.

"In traditional endoscopy, we use white light and detectors that replicate our eyes, which detect light in red, green and blue colour channels. We are now developing an approach called 'hyperspectral imaging', which will increase the number of colour channels that can be visualised from three to over 50," explained Sarah Bohndiek from University of Cambridge.

"Since cell changes associated with the development of cancer lead to colour changes in the tissues, we believe that hyperspectral imaging could help us to improve the specificity of lesion identification because we can use these colours to identify abnormal tissues," Bohndiek added.

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) collects and processes information from across the electromagnetic spectrum. 

In contrast to the human eye, which sees colour primarily in three bands (red, green and blue), spectral imaging divides the colour spectrum into many more bands and can be extended beyond the visible range of light. 

The images obtained by hyperspectral imaging can provide information about the physiology and chemical composition of human tissues, and the technique is emerging as having great potential for non-invasive diagnosis and image-guided surgery.

"Hyperspectral imaging is a powerful tool that can reveal the chemical composition of human tissues and together with different fluorescent dyes, can identify a range of biological processes," Bohndiek pointed out. 

"The technique has many potential applications within cancer diagnostics, with exciting developments already reported in the detection of Barrett's oesophagus, which is a precancerous condition in some people," Bohndiek noted.

The technique was presented at UEG Week 2016 in Vienna, Austria.

​San Francisco, Oct 17 (IANS) US' Stanford University is moving ahead with its goal that 50 per cent of its electricity will be powered by a new solar plant now in the final stages of construction.

With one of the largest campuses in the country, the private research university in northern California announced the Stanford Solar Generating Station project last year. The plant, in Kern county of southern California, is scheduled to be functional by the end of November, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

After a testing period, according to a news release from Stanford, the plant located on a site of 242 acres, or nearly 1 sq.km, in the high desert region about 300 miles, or 483 km, southeast of Stanford is expected to be providing power to the 125-year-old school on a regular basis by the end of 2016.

Built for Stanford by the northern Californian solar company SunPower Corp., the plant's construction began in January 2016. The solar panels have now been installed, and work is proceeding on wiring and completing the system. When finished, the plant will draw on more than 150,000 solar panels and produce a peak 67 megawatts of power.

While several Stanford building complexes already feature solar panels, under the Stanford Energy System Innovations (SESI), which includes a heat recovery system completed last year for the heating and cooling of campus buildings, 16 additional campus buildings are being outfitted with solar panels and the work is expected to be complete later this fall, so that they provide an additional five megawatts of power for the school.

We have been engaged in a major effort to make Stanford one of the most energy-efficient universities in the world, and this expansion of our solar resources will make a dramatic difference," Joseph Stagner, executive director of sustainability and energy management at Stanford said on Sunday. 

"Clean, renewable energy will become the dominant part of Stanford's energy mix, and its proportion in that mix will continue to grow over time."

The solar plant and the campus rooftop panels will produce 53 per cent of Stanford's electricity. The university will purchase the remaining 47 per cent from the California electricity grid, of which 25 per cent currently comes from renewable power sources including solar, wind and geothermal, and 50 per cent will be renewable by 2030 under state law.

In total, once its solar projects are complete by year's end, Stanford said it would be getting 65 per cent of its power from renewable sources. 

Dubai, Oct 16 (IANS) Chinese ICT giant Huawei on Sunday said Dubai is the smartest city in the Gulf region in relation to strategy and execution.

The emirate of Dubai has emerged number one in a Smart City Index that examined the smart city campaigns across 10 Gulf Arab cities, Xinhua news agency cited the company as saying.

The Gulf emirate stood out for its "strategic vision coupled with a clear understanding of the practical requirements to deliver on its vision", said Huawei and research firm Navigant which conducted the study.

"While we realise that each city is different and has its own smart city needs, we valued the strategic impact of the governments' vision and even more important how effectively a government of a city or emirate executes that strategy," Safder Nazir, an executive at Huawei Middle East in Dubai, said.

The Smart Dubai roadmap has targeted the delivery of 1,000 services by next year across 100 initiatives, said Huawei.

As of September this year, it had documented more than 500 current and planned smart services and initiatives, of which 150 have been completed, it added.

Eric Woods, research director at Navigant Consulting, said: "Dubai stands out in this Navigant Research ranking as a leader among cities for its strategic vision and ambitious implementation programme."

Dubai's neighbour Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and Doha, the capital of Qatar, were contenders in the smart city index. Kuwait city ranked 10th and therefore last.

The five-day fair hosts 4,000 exhibiting companies and expects 100,000 trade visitors from 150 countries, according to the organiser Dubai World Trade Centre.