Knowledge Update

​New York, Dec 13 (IANS) In a move aimed at doing away with the rigid touch most robots are associated with, researchers have devised a way for a soft robot to feel its surroundings internally, in much the same way humans do.

​London, Dec 5 (IANS) Eating at least 20 gram of nuts a day -- equivalent to a handful -- can reduce the risk of a wide range of diseases including heart disease and cancer, new research has found. Handful of nuts daily can cut people's risk of coronary heart disease by nearly 30 per cent, their risk of cancer by 15 per cent, and their risk of premature death by 22 per cent, the study said. The study included all kinds of tree nuts, such as hazel nuts and walnuts, and also peanuts -- which are actually legumes. The results - published in the journal BMC Medicine - were in general similar whether total nut intake, tree nuts or peanuts were analysed. What makes nuts so potentially beneficial is their nutritional value, said study co-author Dagfinn Aune from Imperial College London. "Nuts and peanuts are high in fibre, magnesium, and polyunsaturated fats -- nutrients that are beneficial for cutting cardiovascular disease risk and which can reduce cholesterol levels," Aune said. "Some nuts, particularly walnuts and pecan nuts are also high in antioxidants, which can fight oxidative stress and possibly reduce cancer risk," Aune explained. The research team analysed 29 published studies from around the world that involved up to 819,000 participants, including more than 12,000 cases of coronary heart disease, 9,000 cases of stroke, 18,000 cases of cardiovascular disease and cancer, and more than 85,000 deaths. While there was some variation between the populations that were studied, such as between men and women, people living in different regions, or people with different risk factors, the researchers found that nut consumption was associated with a reduction in disease risk across most of them. "Even though nuts are quite high in fat, they are also high in fibre and protein, and there is some evidence that suggests nuts might actually reduce your risk of obesity over time," Aune said. The study also found that if people consumed on average more than 20 gram of nuts per day, there was little evidence of further improvement in health outcomes.

​Rabat, Dec 5 (IANS/MAP) Moroccos net international reserves amounted to MAD 250.2 billion (around $24 billion) until November 25, 2016, recording a 13.5 per cent increase on an annual basis, Al-Maghrib Bank said.

Colombo, Dec 5 (IANS) Russia on Monday said it will increase trade and economic ties with Sri Lanka as the two countries celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations.

Russia's Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alexander Karchava said that Colombo and Moscow have set up a joint committee on trade and economy and science and technology and the

​New York, Dec 6 (IANS) In an effort to stop the proliferation of fake news, Facebook has initiated a "Survey" that asks users to what extent they think an article uses misleading language.

​Dubai, Dec 5 (IANS/WAM) The UAE on Monday highlighted its efforts on biodiversity protection at the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

A delegation from the UAE is participating in the meeting in Cancun, Mexico, which is aimed at the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of the components of biological diversity and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources.

Khalfan Al Suwaidi, Deputy Executive Director of Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity Sector, who is representing the UAE, said: "The preservation of natural life and its development are top priorities in the UAE and considered as the cornerstones of the country's policy in the field of environmental conservation and development."

Quoting President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan regarding the nation's environment conservation strategy, Al Suwaidi said: "Since its inception, the UAE has been keeping the balance between economic and social development and the preservation of the country's cultural, social and environmental heritage."

"The country has been taking a number of measures, as well as developing relevant laws and legislation regulating professional fishing to preserve, develop and ensure the sustainability of fish stocks," he added.

Toronto, Dec 5 (IANS) Is the very idea of exam giving you stress and negative moods? Take heart, a new study suggests that the occasional bout of bad feelings can actually improve a student's academic performance.

The findings showed that students who were mostly happy during their four years of university but who also experienced occasional negative moods had the highest grade per annum (GPA) at the time of graduation.

In contrast, students who experienced high levels of negative moods and low levels of positive moods often ended up with the lowest GPAs -- a pattern consistent with depressive disorders.

"Students often report feeling overwhelmed and experiencing high levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. The study shows that we need to teach them strategies to both manage negative emotions and stress in productive ways and to maintain positive emotional experiences," said Erin Barker, Professor at Concordia University in Quebec, Canada.

For the study, Barker and her team worked with 187 first-year university students. They looked at the students' response patterns to better understand how experiences of positive and negative emotions occurred over time.

The study also demonstrated that both negative and positive emotions play a role in our successes.

"We often think that feeling bad is bad for us. But if you're generally a happy person, negative emotions can be motivating. They can signal to you that there is a challenge that you need to face. Happy people usually have coping resources and support that they draw on to meet that challenge," Barker said, in the study published in the journal Developmental Psychology.

​London, Dec 5 (IANS) Women with dementia receive less health monitoring and take more potentially harmful medication than men with dementia, says a study.

The Britain-based study found that women were at particular risk of staying on anti-psychotic or sedative medication for longer. 

This might be because they have fewer appointments where their treatment can be reviewed, the study said.

"As women tend to live longer than men, they are more likely to live alone without a family carer to help them access healthcare," said lead researcher Claudia Cooper from University College London.

"Perhaps because of this, they are more at risk of missing out on medical help that might help them stay well for longer. We found that women were more likely to be on psychotropic drugs -- sedatives or anti-psychotics -- which can be harmful in the long term and may not be appropriate," Cooper said.

"Women tended to stay on such drugs for longer, perhaps because they have fewer check-ups to see if the drugs were still needed," Cooper explained.

The researchers analysed the records of 68,000 dementia patients and 259,000 people without dementia to compare their access to healthcare services, using The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database. 

Overall, people with dementia received less medical care than those without even though they are more vulnerable to physical and mental illnesses, showed the study published in the journal Age and Ageing.

Compared to men with dementia, women with dementia had lower rates of surgery consultations, of annual blood pressure monitoring and of annual weight monitoring .

Men with dementia were less likely to be taking psychotropic medication than women with dementia. 

"Women with dementia who live on their own may need additional support accessing healthcare services," Cooper said.

"Improving access to healthcare and reducing psychotropic drug use in people with dementia, especially women, could help them to live well with dementia for longer," Cooper noted.

New York, Dec 5 (IANS) A person's bones may act as one of the earliest indicators of brain degeneration in Alzheimer's disease, researchers have found.

Alzheimer's is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions.

The study showed that early reduction in bone mineral density that occur in a preclinical model of Alzheimer's are due to degeneration in an area of the brainstem.

The brainstem is a region that controls mood, sleep and metabolism -- that produces the majority of the brain's serotonin -- a neurochemical that controls our mood and sleep.

The reduced bone mineral density, which sometimes leads to osteoporosis, translates to increased bone fracture risk, decreased quality of life, and increased mortality for Alzheimer's patients. 

Further, early bone loss and serotonin deficiency in Alzheimer's may tell us something very important about how we approach diagnosis and treatment, the researchers noted.

"Routine assessment of bone density could serve as a useful biomarker for Alzheimer's risk in ageing population," said lead author Christine Dengler-Crish, Assistant Professor at Northeast Ohio Medical University(Neomed) in the US. 

"The findings of this study motivate us to explore the serotonin system as a potential new therapeutic target for this devastating disease," Dengler-Crish added.

The study is forthcoming in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

​New York, Dec 5 (IANS) Frequent casino goers probably know it already, but a new study has found evidence that our decisions tend to be quicker and less accurate as the day wears on.

The findings based on decisions taken by chess players hold true irrespective of whether someone is in the habit of waking up early in the morning or later in the day.

"During the morning, players adopt a prevention focus policy (slower and more accurate decisions) which is later modified to a promotion focus (faster but less accurate decisions), without daily changes in performance," the study said.

Diego Golombek from the National University of Quilmes in Argentina and colleagues said that human behaviour and physiology exhibit fluctuations in a single day. 

The researchers examined the quality of moves in more than one million games of chess in an online database. They charted the decisions of 99 prolific players by gauging the time they took for each move and its usefulness in leading to a victory, Science magazine reported.

Understanding whether decision-making in real-life situations depends on the relation between time of the day and an individual's diurnal preferences has both practical and theoretical implications. 

However, answering this question has remained elusive because of the difficulty of measuring precisely the quality of a decision in real-life scenarios. 

The researchers choose chess players for the study, as in a chess game, every player has to make around 40 decisions using a finite time budget and both the time and quality of each decision can be accurately determined. 

The researchers were not surprised to find that early risers preferred to play more games in the morning, whereas night owls, or those who generally stay up late at night, were active at dusk and beyond. 

But regardless of their diurnal preferences, the players took longer but better decisions in their early games. Their decisions became quicker and less effective by evening, said the study to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Cognition.