Knowledge Update

​New York, May 1 (IANS) Have you ever been bullied in school, college or social media? A new study shows that the combined effect of both face-to-face and cyber-bullying may increase the risk of aggressive behaviour in teenagers.

These teenagers were twice as likely to show aggressive behaviours themselves like verbal hostility, physical fighting and damaging property.

Teenagers who were victims of both face-to-face and cyber-bullying, representing three percent of the youth, were more than twice as likely as those experiencing just one form of bullying to engage in aggressive behaviours.

"Victims who had been subjected to multiple forms of peer aggression were at increasingly greater risk of showing aggressive behaviours themselves," said senior author Andrew Adesman from Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York.

"These behaviours may involve retaliatory measures against their aggressors, acting aggressive in order to fend off future bullying attempts, or worse, learning by example and engaging in bullying of previously uninvolved peers," Adesman added.

The team analysed adolescents between ages 10 and 17 on how they behaved after experiencing face-to-face bullying, cyber-bullying and both.

The results revealed that overall, 43 percent of the teens in the study reported having been the victim of face-to-face bullying, while seven percent reported that they experienced some form of cyber-bullying.

The teenagers who experienced both forms of victimisation, 38 percent showed aggressive behaviour, compared with 15 percent of those who were cyber-bullied and 4 percent of those were victims of face-to-face bullying.

"This phenomenon may lead to a vicious cycle whereby bullies create bullies out of those they victimize."

The study was scheduled to be presented at the ongoing Pediatric Academic Societies 2016 Meeting in Baltimore in the US.​

New York, May 1 (IANS) To cut down the waste that fashion industry generates, a team of US researchers has developed a new fibre from a green tea by-product that is 100 percent biodegradable.

Young-A Lee and her research team have designed a vest and shoe prototype from the cellulosic fibre grown in LeBaron Hall on the Iowa State University campus, US, and testing it if it is a viable alternative.

"Fashion is an ephemeral expression of culture, art and technology manifesting itself in form. Fashion companies keep producing new materials and clothing to fulfill consumers' desire and needs," Lee said.

"These items eventually go underground and take spaces of Earth like other trash," Lee, who is an associate professor of apparel, merchandising and design at Iowa State, added.

LeBaron Hall has plastic bins in which all trash is dumped. The bins contain a gel-like film consisting of cellulose fibres --- a byproduct of kombucha tea -- that feeds off a mixture of vinegar and sugar.

The cellulose fibre reduces waste by creating a continuous cycle of reuse or regeneration, what is known as cradle-to-cradle design. Even if clothing is recycled or repurposed, it still eventually ends up in the trash.

The material has been tested for other applications, such as cosmetics, foods and biomedical tissue for wound dressing but it is relatively new to the apparel industry.

The fact that the fibre is 100 percent biodegradable is a significant benefit for the fashion industry, which by its very nature generates a lot of waste.

Lee said she envisions a truly sustainable fabric or material that is biodegradable and goes back into the soil as a nutrient rather than taking up space in a landfill.​

​New York, May 1 (IANS) Researchers have found that an elusive brain receptor may play an important role in the death of neurons from neurological diseases.

Strokes, seizures, traumatic brain injury and schizophrenia leads to persistent, widespread acidity around neurons in the brain.

Analysing NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) - a family of brain receptors that are critical to learning and memory - the researchers found that one of these receptors called N3A functions through a different mechanism than all other NMDA receptors.

"We found that in contrast to all other NMDA receptors, acidity can reactivate dormant N3A receptors," said one of the researchers Gabriela K. Popescu, professor at University of Buffalo, in US.

The results, published in Scientific Reports, showed that, as acidity increases after a stroke or an epileptic seizure, reactivation of N3A receptors may be one reason why neurons die after these neurologic events.

"When the N3A receptors were exposed to acidic conditions they reactivate, causing neurons to become more sensitive to the neurotransmitter glutamate, which can, under certain circumstances, kill them," said lead author Kirstie A. Cummings, doctoral candidate.

Also, N3A proteins were found to be more abundant in brains of people with schizophrenia -- a disease associated with high acidity in the brain, causes brains to shrink.

Finding ways to prevent acidification or the reactivation of N3A receptors may prevent brain damage from strokes or seizures, the researchers suggested.

In addition, the researchers have identified the site on the receptor where acidity acts to reactivate these receptors, a different location from the site where acidity acts to inhibit all other NMDA receptors.

"This site is new and unique and thus can be used to make drugs that are very specific to the N3A receptor," Popescu said.​

​New York, April 30 (IANS) Family, social and community strength can have a protective effect against adverse childhood experiences, researchers say.

Ccommunity support can boost kids to become strong and increase their chances of flourishing from long-term physical and mental health problems that results from childhood hardship and trauma.

People who experience economic hardship, exposure to violence or the death of a loved one are more likely to have lasting physical and mental health problems.

"We focused on questions about ACEs exposure, but also family, social and community assets that could serve to moderate that risk or enhance resilience," said lead study author Iman Sharif from Nemours/Alfred I duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington in the US.

The team analysed data from the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health to gauge children's health and well-being, physical, emotional and behavioural health indicators, family context and neighbourhood environment.

Additional protective factors identified included fathers in excellent mental health, mothers and fathers who had completed at least some college, living in a neighbourhood with amenities such as sidewalks, a library, a park and a recreation centre, and mothers in good physical health.

"With appropriate screening to identify children at risk we can support children and families through the patient-centred medical home, linking parents to mental health services and building community social supports to help children succeed," Sharif advised.

The study was scheduled to be presented at the Pediatrics Academic Societies 2016 meeting in Baltimore.​

​New York, April 30 (IANS) Feeding premature babies mostly breast milk - irrespective of whether that came from the babies' own mothers or donated by other women - during the first month of life appears to spur more robust brain growth, compared with babies given little or no breast milk, says a study.

"The brains of babies born before their due dates usually are not fully developed," said senior investigator Cynthia Rogers from St. Louis Children's Hospital in the US. 

"But breast milk has been shown to be helpful in other areas of development, so we looked to see what effect it might have on the brain,” Rogers said.

"With MRI scans, we found that babies fed more breast milk had larger brain volumes. This is important because several other studies have shown a correlation between brain volume and cognitive development," Rogers explained.

The findings are scheduled to be presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, in Baltimore on May 3.

The study included 77 preterm infants. The researchers retrospectively looked to see how much breast milk those babies had received while being cared for in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at St. Louis Children's Hospital in the US. 

Then, the researchers conducted brain scans on those infants at about the time each would have been born had the babies not arrived early. 

All of the babies were born at least 10 weeks early, with an average gestation of 26 weeks, or about 14 weeks premature. Because they are still developing, preemies typically have smaller brains than full-term infants.

In gauging the effects of breast milk on the babies' brains, the researchers did not distinguish between milk that came from the babies' own mothers and breast milk donated by other women. Rather, they focused on the influence of breast milk in general, first author Erin Reynolds, aresearch technician in Rogers' laboratory, said.

"As the amount of breast milk increased, so did a baby's chances of having a larger cortical surface area," Reynolds said. 

"The cortex is the part of the brain associated with cognition, so we assume that more cortex will help improve cognition as the babies grow and develop," Reynolds said.

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​Port Moresby, April 29 (IANS) India and Papua New Guinea signed four agreements, including in the areas of healthcare and information technology (IT), on Friday, the second and concluding day of President Pranab Mukherjee's visit to this Pacific island-nation.

​London, April 29 (IANS) Words like "gent" instead of "man" and "authentic" for products in place of "genuine" can fetch up to fifty percent more money on eBay, revealed a research conducted by a British university Researchers from Birmingham City University trawled more than 68,000 items sold on eBay and spanned more than 15 million words to find out how online sellers choose to describe their products and revealed patterns in language which significantly changes the price. Results showed that items like watches labelled as "men's" word are sold for an average of 30 pounds while "gents" went for 70 pounds, and fragrances labelled "genuine" fetched 21 pounds but "authentic" ones set buyers back 34 pounds. 'What's also interesting is that on eBay, unlike other online stores, sellers write their own descriptions, so we find a lot of language variation between sellers too. The variation between those categories is really interesting from a linguistic perspective,' said Amdrew Kehoe, researcher from Birmingham City University's School of English. Grammatical errors such as missing apostrophes and internet speak were also found to have a negative impact on the price products sold for. Used car sellers were found to shy away from the term "second-hand" with only nine instances of the phrase found among nearly 1,000 sold. Instead traditional car sales speak was found with phrases like "honest", "reliable", "clean" and "reluctant" all among the top terms. "The term 'second-hand' seems to have a stigma attached when it comes to cars, but people will happily use it to sell smaller items like books or DVDs. We've found that the language used in eBay descriptions really does have an impact on whether items sell and for how much," added Kehoe.​

​Colombo, April 29 (IANS) Sri Lanka will borrow $1.5 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the government's economic reform agenda, the IMF said on Friday.

Todd Schneider, IMF mission chief for Sri Lanka, said a staff-level agreement was reached on a three-year programme to be supported by the IMF's Extended Fund Facility

​New York, April 29 (IANS) Taking a break from the tradition where Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin shared the company's progress and vision every year, this time it was Indian-origin CEO Sundar Pichai who updated the world with some of Google's achievements and key highlights.