Knowledge Update

​New York, June 30 (IANS) Facebook has made changes in news feed ranking to ensure you do not miss updates from families and friends amid the flood of information on the social media platform of over a billion users.

"The goal of News Feed is to show people the stories that are most relevant to them. Today, we’re announcing an update to News Feed that helps you see more posts from your friends and family,” Facebook executive Adam Mosseri wrote on a blogpost on Wednesday.

The new changes mean that wedding photographs of your close friend would get more prominence than the stories linked to what happened in Turkey or for that matter in India.

"When we launched News Feed in 2006, it was hard to imagine the challenge we now face: far too much information for any one person to consume,” Mosseri said.

"In the decade since, more than a billion people have joined Facebook, and today they share a flood of stories every day. That’s why stories in News Feed are ranked ? so that people can see what they care about first, and don’t miss important stuff from their friends,” Mosseri explained.

"If the ranking is off, people don’t engage, and leave dissatisfied. So one of our most important jobs is getting this ranking right,” the post said.

The social networking giant recently faced allegations of political bias in the selection or prominence of stories in its "Trending Topics" feature. An internal investigation of the organisation, however, revealed no evidence of any systematic political bias.

"Facebook was built on the idea of connecting people with their friends and family. That is still the driving principle of News Feed today,” Mosseri said.

"We are not in the business of picking which issues the world should read about. We are in the business of connecting people and ideas ? and matching people with the stories they find most meaningful,” Mosseri pointed out.​

​New Delhi, June 26 (IANS) Excessive use of electronic gadgets, including mobile phones and tablets, can cause "tech neck" that leads to early signs of ageing, health experts have warned.

According to experts, "tech neck", which leads to sagging skin, dropping jowls, and creases above the clavicle, seriously affects facial looks of the person by causing frown lines, undereye bags, and horizontal lines on the neck along with fat prominences.

"People who bend down constantly for long hours while using any handheld electronic device, like smartphones, tablet or computers, are more likely to get wrinkles. The bending position while texting on mobile phones can cause neck, back and shoulder pain, apart from headache, numbness, tingling in the upper limb and pain in hands, arm, elbows and wrists," said Vinod Vij, Cosmetic Surgeon, at Mumbai-based Fortis Hospital.

A recent report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) had revealed that the number of mobile internet users in the country was expected to reach 371 million by June 2016. As much as 40 per cent of the users consist of youngsters between the age group of 19-30.

Experts have said that the frequent forward flexion causes changes in the cervical spine, curve, supporting ligaments, tendons and musculature, as well as the bony segments, commonly causing postural change.

Mohan Thomas, Senior Cosmetic Surgeon, Cosmetic Surgery Institute, said: "As people do not realise the negativity they are causing to their neck bone and the skin, tech obsessed people should take necessary steps to avoid the overuse of the electronic gadgets."

He said the overuse of smart phones causes shortening of the neck muscles.

"Apart from shortening of the neck muscle it also increases the gravitational pull on the skin. Ultimately, this results in sagging skin, double chin, marionette lines (vertical lines from lips to chin) and loose jowls (drooping jawline). All these signs have been collectively labelled medically as "smartphone face," he said.​

​New Delhi, June 28 (IANS) Besides following a hydrating and high fibre diet that will help to stay cool, also indulge in power-packed foods to stay energised, says an expert.

Dolly Kumar, health expert, founder and Director at health brand GAIA, shares how:

* Most of us like to enjoy light and healthy meals during summer since they are easy to digest and don’t leave us feeling bloated, uncomfortable and lazy. A healthy quick fix is to start the day with muesli along with skimmed milk and fresh fruits for breakfast. Rich in dietary fibre, proteins, iron and anti-oxidants, this power-food is extremely healthy. 

* Summer is also the time to indulge in cooling beverages which keep us energised and refreshed all day. Green tea is a wonderful beverage to drink early in the morning or even late evenings. Green tea is packed with anti-oxidants and is known to strengthen the immune system and improve memory. Along with its aroma and pleasant taste, your body is bound to stay hydrated and fresh all summer. Add a dash of honey and squeeze a lemon in your cup of green tea and add some tanginess and zest to your day.

* Munch on healthy sweet and salty snacks regularly. Trail mix is a wonderful snack that will help you regain that lost energy. High on proteins and good fats, most trail mixes are packed with the goodness of assorted nuts, dried fruits and crunchy seeds. The mix provides instant energy from the proteins, dietary fibres and good fats found in its ingredients. ​

​London, June 28 (IANS) Children who regularly participate in physical activities are likely to have improved brain function, intellect and academic performance, says a research.

The findings showed that regular exercise can help children in developing important life skills, boost self-esteem, motivation, confidence as well as foster relationship with their parents and peers.

Vigorous exercise in childhood can also help keep at bay the risk of developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes in later life.

A frequent exercise schedule of moderate intensity can also act as a natural cure for heart problems as well as improve the metabolic process in children.

Regular exercise since childhood can strengthen the cardiovascular region and muscles of the body, which would further help in keeping a check over the risk of developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes in later life, said the paper published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Further, a session of physical activity before, during, and after school can boost academic prowess in children.

"Incorporating physical activity into every aspect of school life and providing protected public spaces, such as bike lanes, parks and playgrounds are both effective strategies for providing equitable access to, and enhancing physical activity for, children and youth," suggested researchers including form Exeter University, Birmingham University, Chester University and University of East London.

London, June 28 (IANS) Sending text messages on a smartphone or iPad can change the rhythm of brain waves in humans -- a finding that has significant implications for brain-computer interfacing, gaming and driving.

People communicate increasingly via text messaging, though little is known on the neurological effects of smartphone use.

To find out more about how our brains work during textual communication using smartphones, a team led by Mayo Clinic researcher William Tatum analysed data from 129 patients.

Their brain waves were monitored over a period of 16 months through electroencephalograms (EEGs) combined with video footage.

Dr Tatum found a unique 'texting rhythm' in approximately one in five patients who were using their smartphone to text message while having their brain waves monitored.

"We believe this new rhythm is an objective metric of the brain's ability to process non-verbal information during use of electronic devices and that it is heavily connected to a widely distributed network augmented by attention or emotion," Dr Tatum commented.

The researchers asked patients to perform activities such as message texting, finger tapping and audio cellular telephone use in addition to tests of attention and cognitive function.

Only text messaging produced the newly observed brain rhythm, which was different than any previously described brain rhythm.

The unicity of the texting rhythm compared to other forms of mental stimulation could be caused by the combination of mental activity with motor and auditory-verbal neurological activity.

The 'texting rhythm' was also found in iPad users.

The researchers hypothesised that the presence of a different brain wave rhythm while using mobile, handheld devices might be caused by their smaller screens, which require more concentration.

“There is now a biological reason why people shouldn't text and drive - texting can change brain waves,” Dr Tatum added in a paper published in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior.​

Sydney, June 24 (IANS) A 30-minute walk in the woods each week can help reduce depression and high blood pressure while enhancing mental health, a study has found.

The findings showed that people who made long visits to green spaces had lower rates of depression and high blood pressure and those who visited more frequently had greater social cohesion. 

Visits to outdoor green spaces of 30 minutes or more during the course of a week could reduce the prevalence of depression by up to 7 per cent and high blood pressure by 9 per cent. 

Further, spending more time outdoors may especially benefit children. 

"Kids who grow up experiencing natural environments may benefit developmentally and have a heightened environmental awareness as adults than those who don't," said lead researcher Danielle Shanahan from University of Queensland in Australia.

Visiting parks has been long known to be good for our health, but there has been almost no guidance on how much or how frequently people need to engage with nature, and what types or characteristics of nature need to be incorporated in cities for the best health outcomes. 

"The study finds specific evidence that we need regular visits of at least half an hour to ensure we get these benefits," added Richard Fuller, Associate Professor at the University of Queensland.

More support and encouragement of community activities in natural spaces would encourage people to spend more time in green space, the paper suggested. 

The study, published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, examines the associations between the duration, frequency and intensity of exposure to nature and health in an urban population. ​

​New York, June 24 (IANS) A long-term exercise regimen may help boost memory as it triggers a protein that enhances brain cell growth, a new study has found.

The findings showed that the production of cathepsin B -- a protein that can be directly traced from the muscles to the brain in mice -- noticeably increased in muscle cells after exercise.

"In the study, we did a screen for proteins that could be secreted by muscle tissue and transported to the brain and among the most interesting candidates was cathepsin B," said Henriette van Praag, Neuroscientist at the National Institute on Aging in the US.

The more time the mice spent on exercise wheels, the level of protein increased in the blood and muscle tissue.

“In humans who exercise consistently for four months, better performance on complex recall tasks, such as drawing from memory, is correlated with increased cathepsin B levels," van Praag added.

Additionally, when cathepsin B was applied to brain cells, it spurred the production of molecules related to neurogenesis.

"We also have converging evidence from our study that cathepsin B is unregulated in blood by exercise for three species -- mice, Rhesus monkeys and humans,” van Praag noted. 

For the study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, the team compared memory recall in normal mice with that in mice lacking the ability to produce cathepsin B under both sedentary and running conditions. 

Over the course of a week, both sets of mice were given a daily swim test in the Morris water maze, in which a mouse is placed in a small pool and must learn to swim to a platform that is hidden just below the surface of the water. 

After doing this task for a few days, normal mice eventually learn where to find the platform. 

However, when both groups ran before their daily swim test, the normal mice were better able to recall the location of the platform, while the mice unable to make cathepsin B could not remember its location, suggesting the potential of the protein in spatial learning.​

New York, June 23 (IANS) Bosses please take note. If you find an employee looking at Facebook, it may actually means a break for him or her from tiredness at work. According to a new survey, workers use social media at work for many reasons and taking a mental break is one of the most common one.

Nearly 34 percent of the people surveyed said they use social media at work to take a mental break from their job, revealed a Pew Research Centre survey of 2,003 US adults.

“These digital platforms offer the potential to enhance worker productivity by fostering connections with colleagues and resources around the globe,” the survey said.

At the same time, employers might worry that employees are using these tools for non-work purposes while on the job or engaging in speech in public venues that might reflect poorly on their organisation.

“While 27 per cent use social media to connect with friends and family while at work, 24 per cent use it to make or support professional connections,” the findings showed.

Twenty per cent go to social media to get information that helps them solve problems at work while 17 percent use it to build or strengthen personal relationships with coworkers.

“Some 14 per cent of workers have found information on social media that has improved their professional opinion of a colleague; at the same time, a similar share (16 per cent) have found information on social media that has lowered their professional opinion of a colleague,” the survey said.

Younger workers are more likely to find information on social media that changes their opinion of a coworker.

Some 23 percent of workers ages 18 to 29 report that they have discovered information on social media that improved their professional opinion of a colleague.

Many workers report that their employers have policies about social media use on the job, or about how employees may present themselves in various online spaces.

Half of all full-time and part-time workers (51 per cent) say their workplace has rules about using social media while at work (45 per cent say their employer does not have these policies), while 32 percent report that their employer has policies about how employees may present themselves on the internet in general (63 per cent say their employer does not have these policies).

Workers whose employers have at-work social media policy are less likely to use social media for personal reasons while on the job, the findings showed.

Seventy-eight per cent of workers who use social media platforms for work-related purposes say social media is useful for networking or finding new job opportunities.

“In the end, a majority (56 per cent) of these workers believe that using social media ultimately helps their job performance. One-in-five (22 per cent) believe that it mostly hurts, 16 per cent feel that it doesn’t have much impact either way and 4 per cent see both the benefits and the drawbacks,” the researchers noted.

Indeed, some 17 per cent of workers report that they “hardly ever” use the internet on a typical day for work-related tasks while 25 per cent report that they “never” use the internet for this reason.​

​New York, June 22 (IANS) Ever received a friend request from your mother, father or math teacher? It may sound weird, but adding adults, from teachers to parents, to a teenager's social media can fundamentally shift his or her online behaviour, a new study says.

"Interactions between adults and teenagers, can be opportunities to model appropriate social media behaviour or for teenagers to build beneficial connections with people who are different from themselves," said lead author Andrea Forte, Assistant Professor at Drexel University in the US.

The presence of adults also leads teenagers' to think before they post.

Learning this sort of self-censoring behaviour at a young age could, be just as important as creating better privacy management tools, the researchers said.

Further, establishing healthy relationships with adults on social media can help teenagers understand where the boundary for appropriate interaction lies.

Many of the students consider this to be an awkward melding of social circles, calling interactions with "big brother" "creepy" and "embarrassing." 

However, they recognise the presence of adult authorities in their social media as a sign of caring and compassion.

"When family, friends, teachers, romantic interests and coworkers mix and mingle, the result is social awkwardness," Forte added.

In addition, this uncomfortable mix can also give rise to a level of access to information that might not be achievable within the familiar confines of a tight circle of friends.

"Weak ties are often connections to people who are less like you and who can provide access to diverse kinds of information and resources," Forte noted adding, "in other words, being connected to others who are very similar to yourself can throttle information flow.”

Schools need to take a closer look at their social media policies and allow for positive interactions between teachers, administrators and their students, the researchers suggested.

The findings are based on surveys and interviews of students in two public high schools in the US -- one with a policy that strictly limits social media interaction between teachers and students and one that with a policy that is more leniently enforced and social media interaction is publicly embraced.

The study will be published in the proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP).​

​Sydney, June 22 (IANS) Consuming high-fibre diet consisting of a bowl of bran and some dried apricots in the morning and intake of Vitamin A can help reduce food allergies, finds a new study.

The findings showed that mice allergic to peanuts were protected against the allergy when fed on a high-fibre diet. 

Food products rich in fibre reshapes the gut and colon microbiota and helps to fight against food allergies, said the study, led by Jian Tan, professor at the Monash University in Australia.

The immune system works with the good bacteria in the gut to help protect against life threatening allergic responses, the researchers said.

The microbiota in the gut was found to assist the immune system in resisting allergies through the breaking down of fibre into short-chain fatty acids. 

These short-chain fatty acids boosted a particular subset of the immune system called dendritic cells, which control whether an allergic response against a food allergen happens or not.

Increased levels of short-chain fatty acids switched these cells to stop the allergic response.

Further, deficiency in vitamin A levels could promote food allergies, especially in infants and children, the researchers noted.

The study opens a potential route for drug therapy for allergies by delivering short-chain fatty acids as a treatment, said the paper published in the journal Cell Reports.