Knowledge Update

​Toronto, March 19 (IANS) Why was 6 afraid of 7? Because 789. Whether this pun makes you giggle or groan in pain, your reaction is a consequence of the ambiguity of the joke.

Thus far, models have not been able to fully account for the complexity of humour or exactly why we find puns and jokes funny but researchers now suggest a novel approach: quantum theory.

In a paper, they have outlined a quantum inspired model of humour, hoping that this new approach may succeed at a more nuanced modelling of the cognition of humour.

"Funniness is not a pre-existing 'element of reality' that can be measured; it emerges from an interaction between the underlying nature of the joke, the cognitive state of the listener, and other social and environmental factors," explained Liane Gabora from University of British Columbia, corresponding author of the paper.

This makes the quantum formalism an excellent candidate for modelling humour, Gabora added in the paper published in the journal Frontiers in Physics.

The results indicate that apart from the delivery of information, something else is happening on a cognitive level that makes the joke as a whole funny whereas its deconstructed components are not, and which makes a quantum approach appropriate to study this phenomenon.

For decades, researchers have tried to explain the phenomenon of humour and what happens on a cognitive level in the moment when we "get the joke".

During the build-up of the joke, we interpret the situation one way, and once the punch line comes, there is a shift in our understanding of the situation, which gives it a new meaning and creates the comical effect, the authors noted.

Although much work remains before the completion of a formal quantum theory model of humour, the findings provide an exciting first step and opens for the possibility of a more nuanced modeling of humour, the team said.

Beijing, March 18 (IANS) To boost local talent, tech giant Apple has announced it would invest $508 million in China to build two additional Research and Development (R&D) centres in Shanghai and Suzhou.

Dubai, March 18 (IANS) Manager Education Sector at the World Bank group Harry Patrinos said on Saturday that globally more money has to be invested into primary school education with a focus on reading skills.

New York, March 18 (IANS) Children with chronically disrupted sleep are likely to have defects in their brain cells that are associated with mental skills, mood and behaviour, researchers have warned.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a common sleep disturbance which affects up to five per cent of all children. 

The findings showed that children between 7 and 11 years of age who had moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea showed significant reductions of gray matter -- brain cells involved in movement, memory, emotions, speech, perception, decision making and self-control.

Further, there is also a strong connection between sleep apnea and the loss of neurons or delayed neuronal growth in the developing brain.

"The images of gray matter changes are striking. There is also clear evidence of widespread neuronal damage or loss compared to the general population," said Leila Kheirandish-Gozal, Director at the University of Chicago in the US. 

For this study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, the team evaluated sleep patterns of 16 children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). 

Each child also went through neuro-cognitive testing and had his or her brain scanned with non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

They found reductions in the volume of gray matter in multiple regions of the brains of children with disrupted sleep. 

These included the frontal cortices -- which handle movement, problem solving, memory, language, judgement and impulse control -- the prefrontal cortices -- complex behaviours, planning, personality -- parietal cortices -- integrating sensory input -- temporal lobe -- hearing and selective listening -- and the brainstem -- controlling cardiovascular and respiratory functions.

This extensive reduction of gray matter in children with a treatable disorder provides one more reason for parents of children with symptoms of sleep apnea to consider early detection and therapy, the researchers noted.

​Tokyo, March 18 (IANS) A laboratory at a university in Japan will restart its research nuclear reactor, the first ever in the country, in April after meeting safety standards. the media reported on Saturday.

It will be the first research reactor in Japan to go back online under stringent regulations introduced by the government in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident that was triggered after the massive earthquake and tsunami, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Kindai University in Higashi-Osaka said on Friday that the reactor has passed a series of checks by Japan's nuclear regulator.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority gave in-principle approval for the restart of the reactor in May last year. 

The university subsequently made further adjustments to protect against fire, tornados and other risks.

The small reactor has a maximum output of just 1 watt, and is used exclusively for academic purposes.

Brasilia, March 17 (IANS/WAM) The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Brazil have signed three accords on air transport and reciprocal exemption of entry visa requirements.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and his Brazilian counterpart Aloysio Nunes met on Thursday to discuss

New York, March 17 (IANS) People who examine an issue virtually as a debate or dialogue between two sides are more likely to have deeper, more sophisticated reasoning skills, according to new research.

The research findings showed that envisioning opposing views leads to a more comprehensive examination of the issue. 

Moreover, constructing opposing views leads people to regard knowledge less as fact and more as information that can be scrutinised in a framework of alternatives and evidence.

"Constructing a dialogue would lead to deeper, more comprehensive processing of the two positions and hence a richer representation of each and the differences between them... thus helping to expand and sharpen students' thinking," said Deanna Kuhn of Columbia University in New York. 

"Everything possible should be done to encourage and support genuine discourse on critical issues, but our findings suggest that the virtual form of interaction may be a productive substitute, at a time when positions on an issue far too often lack the deep analysis to support them," Kuhn added. 

For the study, published in the journal Psychological Science, the team asked 60 undergraduates to participate in a one-hour writing activity. Some participants were randomly assigned to construct a dialogue between TV commentators discussing two mayoral candidates.

They received a list of notable problems that the city was facing and a list of actions proposed by each candidate to solve these problems. 

Other participants received the same information about the city and the candidates but were asked to write a persuasive essay highlighting the merits of each candidate instead. 

Then, participants in both groups were asked to write a script for a two-minute TV spot, promoting their preferred candidate.

The results showed that participants who had constructed a dialogue included more discrete ideas in their writing.

​London, March 17 (IANS) Researchers have found that the absence of a protein could trigger obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that can lead to repetitive ritualised behaviour such as washing hands or body time and again.

"We were able to show in mouse models that the absence of the protein SPRED2 alone can trigger an excessive grooming behaviour," said Professor Kai Schuh from the Institute of Physiology at the Julius-Maximilians-Universitat (JMU) Wurzburg in Bavaria, Germany.

Schuh believes that this finding is crucial as no clear trigger for this type of disorder has been identified until now. 

Previous research pointed to multiple factors being responsible for developing OCD.

Occurring in all cells of the body, the protein SPRED2 is found in particularly high concentrations in regions of the brain, namely in the basal ganglia and the amygdala.

Normally, the protein inhibits an important signal pathway of the cell, the so-called Ras/ERK-MAP kinase cascade. When it is missing, this signal pathway is more active than usual.

The findings could lead to new treatment for the disorder characterised by persistent intrusive thoughts.

Like depression, eating disorders and other mental diseases, OCD is treated with anti-depressants. 

However, the drugs are non-specific, that is they are not tailored to the respective disease. 

Therefore, scientists have been looking for new and better targeted therapies that have fewer side effects.

"Our study delivers a valuable new model that allows the disease mechanisms to be investigated and new therapy options for obsessive-compulsive disorders to be tested," Schuh said.

Beijing, March 17 (IANS) Researchers from China, New Zealand and the US have found four intact mushroom fossils, sources said on Friday.

The four, well preserved in Burmese amber (fossilised sap of extinct trees) for at least 99 million years, are the earliest complete mushroom fossils ever found, according to the sources with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The findings represent four species of mushroom. A stalk and a complete cap containing distinct gills are visible in most of the mushrooms, which are two to three mm long, Xinhua news agency reported.

The research team led by professor Huang Diying from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, reported the finding after researching more than 20,000 pieces of Burmese amber collected over 10 years.

The discovery highlights the palaeo-diversity of mushrooms, pushing back the presence of agaric mushrooms by at least 25 million years.

Mushrooms are common and morphologically diverse fungi. Their bodies are soft and ephemeral and therefore extremely rare in fossils. 

Until the recent discovery, only five species of mushrooms were known exclusively from amber.

​New York, March 17 (IANS) Facebook videos continue to dominate the social media, driving growth, engagement and media consumption, a new report has said.

Social media analytics platform Quintly examined 167,000 profiles during the last six months of 2016 and found that 47 per cent of those profiles used video of some sort in their