Knowledge Update

Toronto, Oct 31 (IANS) Reminding people of their close, caring relationships can reduce their tendency to anthropomorphise objects -- ascribing humanlike characteristics to inanimate objects -- as a way of feeling socially connected, and help people reconnect with real people, suggests new research.

"Although anthropomorphism is one of the more creative ways people try to meet belonging needs, it is nevertheless difficult to have a relationship with an inanimate object," the researchers said.

There are many ways that people who feel socially disconnected can reconnect -- they can try reinforce existing social bonds or forge new relationships, but there are other ways, too. 

An earlier study showed that one of the ways that people may try to increase their sense of connection and belonging is by anthropomorphising inanimate objects, such as a pillow or an alarm clock.

"Reliance on such a compensatory strategy could permit disconnected people to delay the riskier--but potentially more rewarding -- steps of forging new relationships with real people," the current study noted.

"We think this work really highlights how important feeling socially connected is to people and the lengths people will go to 'reconnect' when they feel disconnected, and it reminds us of the value of our close relationships," lead researcher Jennifer Bartz of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The researchers wondered whether boosting people's feelings of social connection might make them less likely to anthropomorphise.

They also explored whether attachment anxiety -- marked by a preoccupation with closeness and intimacy and heightened sensitivity to social cues of rejection -- might be one individual characteristic associated with this tendency to anthropomorphise.

To find out, the researchers conducted an online experiment with a total of 178 participants, who completed a variety of established survey measures aimed at assessing their feelings of attachment anxiety and avoidance, loneliness, self-esteem, and need to belong.

Some of the participants were then asked to think about someone who was important to them and whom they could trust.

Other participants completed the same tasks but were told to think about an acquaintance, instead of someone they were close to, serving as a comparison group.

The results, published in the journal Psychological Science, showed that thinking about a close relationship can make a difference.

Participants who thought and wrote about someone they were close to were less likely to anthropomorphise objects compared with participants who thought about an acquaintance.

In addition, the researchers found that attachment anxiety was associated with a tendency to anthropomorphise, and was actually a stronger predictor than loneliness was.

​London, Oct 30 (IANS) Researchers have developed a new lab technique that is a safe way for using drug-eluting polymer beads to treat cancer.

Used particularly in cases of liver cancer, polymer beads are injected into arteries that feed a tumour, where they block the blood flow, cutting off the supply of oxygen and nutrients.

The beads then also release an anti-cancer drug directly into the tumour, reducing the systemic side effects.

The new research, conducted by the University of Huddersfield has provided with a method of finding a safe way of predicting what would happen in a patient's body if the beads and the drug they contain are modified. 

"There was no lab mimic that was able to adequately predict how the drug was released from these drug-eluting beads once they were in the body," said Laura Waters, lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, London.

"The article describes a way of doing it in the lab. We compared our results with in vivo data and proved that the method worked," Waters added in the study published in the European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 

The researchers were able to carry out lab experiments in which a buffer -- a liquid that mimics blood -- was pumped at different rates through the beads. 

They also modified the quantities of drug contained in the beads. By comparing their laboratory observations with in vivo data, the research team was able to establish the validity of their simulation technique.

"It's important from a product development perspective that if we wanted to put other drugs into the beads, or change anything about their chemistry, we could use this system to predict product behaviour before it is given to people," said Andy Lewis, professor at the University of Huddersfield.

​Beijing, Oct 30 (IANS) The contribution of China to the world economy will remain around 30 percent for the next five years, an expert said in remarks published on Sunday.

The transition of China's economy would become an important driver of global economic growth, the Global Times quoted Chi Fulin, director of the China Institute for Reform

Kathmandu, Oct 30 (IANS) Road connectivity has put Jumla, an under-developed region in Nepal, back on the map.

Some 850 km away from Kathmandu and also the largest region in the Himalayan country, Jumla has always remained in isolation, reports Xinhua news agency.

New York, Oct 30 (IANS) Supplements of a natural compound can compensate the human body for the loss of energy production, and reduce the typical signs of ageing, a study has found.

With age, the body structure loses its capacity to make a key element of energy production called NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). This results in gradual weight gain, loss of insulin sensitivity and decline in physical activity.

A team of researchers at Washington University - St. Louis, has found a natural compound called NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide)with potential anti-ageing remedies. NMN naturally occurs in a number of foods, including broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, edamame and avocado.

The research, conducted on ageing mice, showed a way to slow the physiologic decline in them, which means older mice can have metabolism and energy levels resembling that of younger mice. 

"Since human cells rely on this same energy production process, we are hopeful this will translate into a method to help people remain healthier as they age," said Shin-ichiro Imai, Professor at Washington University - St. Louis.

The study showed that NMN supplementation has long-term benefits in skeletal muscle, liver function, bone density, eye function, insulin sensitivity, immune function, body weight and physical activity levels.

Administering NMN was found to help energy metabolism by improving the function of mitochondria, powerhouse of cells.

Further, the mice given NMN gained less weight with ageing even as they consumed more food, likely because their boosted metabolism generated more energy for physical activity.

In addition, NMN supplementation led to improved insulin sensitivity in the older mice, better functioning of the mouse retina as well as increased tear production, which is often lost with ageing.

On the other hand, these NMN supplementation had no effect in the young mice because they are still making plenty of their own NMN, the researchers said.

NMN, when dissolved in drinking water and given to mice, appeared in its bloodstream in less than three minutes. This NMN in the blood could then quickly convert to NAD in multiple tissues, reducing the signs of ageing.

"We wanted to make sure that when we give NMN through drinking water, it actually goes into the blood circulation and into tissues," Imai said.

The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

​New York, Oct 30 (IANS) What would it be like to be a pedestrian in an urban neighbourhood where most of the cars are self-driving? Actually, pretty good, suggests new research.

Self-driving cars are by design risk-averse and they are programmed to obey the rules of the road, including waiting for pedestrians to cross, the researchers said.

"Autonomous vehicles have the potential to transform travel behaviour," said study author Adam Millard-Ball, Assistant Professor at University of California - Santa Cruz, US.

Secure in the knowledge that a car will yield, pedestrians merely need to act unpredictably or step into the street to force the risk-averse car to stop, said the study that looked at the prospect of urban areas where a majority of vehicles are "autonomous" or self-driving.

The research, published online in the Journal of Planning Education and Research, uses game theory to analyse the interactions between pedestrians and self-driving vehicles, with a focus on yielding at crosswalks.

Because autonomous vehicles are by design risk-averse, Millard-Ball's model suggests that pedestrians will be able to act with impunity, and he thinks autonomous vehicles may facilitate a shift towards pedestrian-oriented urban neighbourhoods.

However, the study also suggests that the potential benefits of self-driving cars -- avoiding tedium of traffic and trauma of collisions -- may be outweighed by the drawbacks of an always play-it-safe vehicle that slows traffic for everybody.

"From the point of view of a passenger in an automated car, it would be like driving down a street filled with unaccompanied five-year-old children," Millard-Ball wrote.

​New York, Oct 30 (IANS) US scientists have developed a non-toxic strain of Salmonella to penetrate and target cancer cells which may lead to promising new treatments that actively target and control the spread of cancer.

Salmonella -- bacterium that causes food borne diseases -- has a unique characteristic that allows the bacteria to penetrate through cell barriers and replicate inside its host.

"Salmonella strains have a natural preference for infiltrating and replicating within the cancer cells of a tumour, making the bacteria an ideal candidate for bacteriotherapy," said Robert Kazmierczak, post-doctoral fellow at the University of Missouri, the US.

Bacteriotherapy is the use of live bacteria as therapy to treat a medical condition, like cancer.

For the study, the team developed CRC2631 -- a Salmonella strain derived from a Salmonella sample that was stored in a test tube at room temperature for more than 50 years.

The Salmonella strain was genetically modified to render the bacteria non-toxic and enhance its natural ability to target and kill cancer cells -- without harming normal, healthy cells and was then administered directly into the circulatory system of mice with prostate cancer.

"We found that the mice tolerated the treatment well and when examined, their prostate tumours decreased by about 20 per cent compared to the control group," Kazmierczak said.

"One of the most remarkable aspects of Salmonella is its ability to target, spread and persist inside the tumour. We are taking advantage of this ability by using Salmonella to carry or generate effective chemotherapeutic drugs, concentrating them at and throughout the tumour," he added.

Kazmierczak said the goal of this treatment is to develop a bacterial vector that can destroy the tumour from the inside out and reduce the amount of side effects endured by patients with cancer.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

​London, Oct 30 (IANS) Oceans may be responsible for making the Earth move in and out of ice ages every 100,000 years, finds a study.

According to the study published in the journal Geology, oceans sucking carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere may have triggered this phenomena. 

Dubbed the "100,000-year problem", this phenomena has been occurring for the past million years or so and leads to vast ice sheets covering North America, Europe and Asia.

By studying the chemical make-up of tiny fossils on the ocean floor, the team discovered that there was more CO2 stored in the deep ocean during the ice age periods at regular intervals every 100,000 years.

This suggested that extra carbon dioxide was being pulled from the atmosphere and into the oceans at this time, subsequently lowering the temperature on the Earth and enabling vast ice sheets to engulf the Northern Hemisphere.

"We can think of the oceans as inhaling and exhaling carbon dioxide, so when the ice sheets are larger, the oceans have inhaled carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making the planet colder. When the ice sheets are small, the oceans have exhaled carbon dioxide, so there is more in the atmosphere which makes the planet warmer," said Carrie Lear, researcher at the Cardiff University, Britain. 

"By looking at the fossils of tiny creatures on the ocean floor, we showed that when ice sheets were advancing and retreating every 100,000 years, the oceans were inhaling more carbon dioxide in the cold periods, suggesting that there was less left in the atmosphere," Lear added.

Marine algae play a key role in removing CO2 from the atmosphere as it is an essential ingredient of photosynthesis.

CO2 is put back into the atmosphere when deep ocean water rises to the surface through a process called upwelling. But when a vast quantity of sea ice is present, this prevents the CO2 from being exhaled, which could make the ice sheets bigger and prolong the ice age.

The last ice age ended about 11,500 years ago, and began 21,000 years ago, according to earlier study reports.

​New York, Oct 29 (IANS) In yet another attempt to take on photo sharing mobile service Snapchat, Facebook is testing photo effects and masks into its main camera app for stills and videos that disappear after 24 hours.

Beijing, Oct 29 (IANS) There are many reasons why investing in India could boost the Chinese capital's clout in the Indian economy, a Chinese specialist says.

Investing in India is an inevitable choice of capital, which essentially pursues profits, said Ge Cheng, Assistant Research Fellow at the National Institute of International Strategy