Knowledge Update

​London, Dec 11 (IANS) For individuals suffering from various mental illness, pets can provide them with unconditional support as well as help manage stigma, a research suggests. The study found that the consistent presence and close physical proximity of their pets can provide an immediate source of calm and therapeutic benefit for people with mental health conditions. "The people we spoke to through the course of this study felt their pet played a range of positive roles such as helping them to manage stigma associated with their mental health by providing acceptance without judgement," said lead author Helen Brooks from University of Manchester in Britain. For 60 per cent of study participants, pets played a central role in the social networks of people managing a long-term mental health problem. "Pets were also considered particularly useful during times of crisis. Pets provided a unique form of validation through unconditional support, which they were often not receiving from other family or social relationships," Brooks added. According to the participants, one reason for this was that their pet helped by distracting them from symptoms and upsetting experiences such as hearing voices or suicidal thoughts. Participants from the study were quoted as saying: "I felt in a sense that my cat was familiar, in that he understood or was an extension of my thoughts." However, despite the identified benefits of pet ownership, pets were neither considered nor incorporated into the individual care plans for people with mental conditions, the researchers said, suggesting that pets should be considered a main source of support in the management of long-term mental health problems. For the research, published in the journal BMC Psychiatry, the team interviewed 54 participants, aged 18 and above, who were under the care of community-based mental health services and had been diagnosed with a severe mental illness.

​London, Dec 11 (IANS) Cancer patients who also suffer from diabetes also risk heart damage because of chemotherapy, a study has found.

The study found that cardiotoxicity induced by chemotherapy with anthracyclines is being increasingly reported, mainly because a smaller proportion of patients now die from cancer.

"In the coming years this cardiotoxicity looks set to increase the burden of heart failure in cancer survivors," said Ana Catarina Gomes, cardiologist in training at the Hospital Garcia de Orta in Almada, Portugal.

"The good news is that cardiotoxicity can be reversible in the early stages before overt heart failure develops. Surveillance programmes are hugely beneficial, particularly in the first year of treatment when up to 80 per cent of the systolic dysfunction develops," Gomes added.

The research investigated factors that could affect the likelihood of patients having heart damage after treatment with anthracyclines.

Of 83 patients included in the surveillance programme, 54 had breast cancer, 20 had lymphoma and nine had gastric cancer.

"Patients with diabetes had a significantly greater decrease in global longitudinal strain during treatment, despite having baseline levels similar to non-diabetics," the research noted.

According to Gomes, sub-clinical reduction in global longitudinal strain is an early predictor of heart failure and was particularly pronounced in patients with diabetes.

"It is possible that the trend for greater reduction in patients with hypertension might become statistically significant in a larger study," Gomes added.

The researchers hypothesised that cancers themselves could have direct cardiotoxic effects induced by cytokines.

The cardiotoxic effects may vary with the type of cancer, study noted.

Researchers suggested that cancer patients should strictly control cardiovascular risk factors with lifestyle changes and, if necessary, with medication.

The findings were presented at EuroEcho-Imaging 2016 in Leipzig, Germany.

​Washington, Dec 11 (IANS) Monkeys have the vocal tracts to produce human speech sounds, but what they lack is a speech-ready brain, a new study has found.

The study, conducted by researchers from the US and Europe and published this week in the US journal Science Advances, used X-ray video to see within the mouth and throat of macaque monkeys induced to vocalise, eat food or make facial expressions, Xinhua news agency reported.

The scientists then used these data to build a computer model of a monkey vocal tract, allowing them to answer the question "what would monkey speech sound like, if a human brain were in control?"

The results showed that monkeys could easily produce many different sounds, enough to produce thousands of distinct words.

For example, monkeys could produce comprehensible vowel sounds -- and even full sentences -- with their vocal tracts if they had the neural ability to speak.

However, the researchers noted that while monkeys would be understandable to the human ear, they would not sound precisely like humans.

Therefore, the researchers concluded that previous research -- largely based on plaster casts made from the vocal tracts of a monkey cadaver -- underestimates primate vocal abilities and that evolution of human speech capabilities required neural changes rather than an adaptation of vocal anatomy.

"Now nobody can say that it's something about the vocal anatomy that keeps monkeys from being able to speak -- it has to be something in the brain," said Asif Ghazanfar, Professor of psychology at the Princeton University and one of the study leaders.

"Even if this finding only applies to macaque monkeys, it would still debunk the idea that it's the anatomy that limits speech in nonhumans."

Thore Jon Bergman, Assistant Professor of psychology and ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan, who is familiar with the research but was not involved in it, said the research could help narrow down the origin of human speech.

"It looks like mainly neuro-cognitive -- as opposed to anatomical -- differences contribute to the broader range of sounds we produce relative to other primates," Bergman said in a statement released by the Princeton University.

"An important part of understanding human uniqueness is to know what our relatives do," he said.

"This study shows the anatomical capability to make a variety of sounds, as we do with speech, was present long ago. This is useful for understanding the starting point for the evolution of language."

​New York, Dec 11 (IANS) Bestowing considerable power in the CEOs may not create value for the firm during industry-wide downturns, a study led by Indian-origin scientist has found.

"We look at severe industry downturns. The essential idea is, when you have concentrated power in the hands of the CEO or a small group of decision-makers, does that lead to better decision-making or worse?" said Vikram Nanda, Professor at the University of Texas - Dallas, US.

The study found that for innovative firms with powerful CEOs, an industry downturn results in a notable decrease in the firm's value, or book-to-market ratio, relative to a less powerful CEO.

Conversely, for competitive industries and high-discretion industries with powerful CEOs, a downturn results in a decrease in firm value.

In the study, the team wanted to look at crisis situations in which urgency -- the speed of making a decision -- could potentially be really important.

They found that a small concentration of power does not work well, even in times of crisis.

Although decisions may be made faster because only one or two persons need to weigh in, but it could be detrimental if the CEO does not get input from other sources.

Instead, companies should keep their information channels open. The search for more information should not be sacrificed by urgency, the study suggested.

Regulatory response has been to increase the power of the board or make the board independent of the CEO. Although there is some skepticism about the benefits of intervention, such as independent audit committees, on average, these regulations have helped, Nanda said.

"CEOs can actually benefit from having a board of independent members, or having different voices in the boardroom. That can lead to better decision-making. It would be positive for the firm to view it from that perspective. Many of them do, but there are always people who want more power and more authority, and don't want to have people looking over their shoulder. On the other hand, that may be what helps a firm deal with a crisis," Nanda noted.

The study was published online in the journal Group & Organization Management.

​New York, Dec 11 (IANS) Corn and soyabeans that are close to wind turbines grow in more favourable conditions as turbulence created by wind influences temperature and carbon dioxide concentration, a new research has revealed.

The researchers from the Iowa State University (ISU) installed research towers on a 200-turbine wind farm in Iowa and collected data from 2010 to 2013 on wind speeds and directions, temperature, humidity, turbulence, gas content and precipitation.

"Tall wind turbines disbursed throughout a field create air turbulence that may help plants by affecting variables such as temperature and carbon dioxide concentrations," said Gene Takle, professor at the Iowa State University, US.

The research revealed that turbines can lower the temperature about a half degree during the day and make it half to full degree warmer at night.

"That is because the turbulence mixes air at different elevations. That mixing cools the ground level during the daylight hours, like a fan blowing on a wet surface. But at night, as the ground loses heat, the mixing brings warmer air aloft down to ground level, resulting in a net warming effect," Takle said in a university statement.

The turbulence also suppresses the formation of dew and dries the crops, Takle said, which could combat harmful molds and fungi, the research found.

Researchers noted that the turbulence, enrich the carbon dioxide content in the air surrounding crops that can favour the growing condition of the plants.

However, it remains a challenge for the researchers to figure out if the changes actually improve plant performance.

"The next step would be to answer if this turbulence changes biomass uptake of plants, or if it affects plant size or functions or yield," Takle added.

​New York, Dec 11 (IANS) You may soon be able to charge cell phones and power Bluetooth headsets with the swipe of a finger as scientists have developed a device that can harvest energy from human motion.

​Beijing, Dec 11 (IANS) China launched a weather satellite at 12:11 a.m. local time on Sunday, marking an upgrade of China's meteorological satellites in geostationary orbit.

The Fengyun-4 satellite, the first of China's second-generation weather satellites in geostationary orbit to have been launched, is also the country's first quantitative remote-sensing satellite in high orbit, Xinhua news agency reported.

The satellite, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China's Sichuan Province, was taken into orbit by a Long March-3B carrier rocket. The launch marked the 242nd mission of China's Long March series of rockets.

The satellite will make high time, spatial and spectral resolution observations of the atmosphere, clouds and space environment of China and surrounding regions, significantly improving capabilities of weather and climate forecasts, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. 

The China Meteorological Administration is the primary user of the satellite.

Previously, China had successfully launched 14 weather satellites, seven of which are still in orbit.

​New York, Dec 19 (IANS) Apple is rumoured to release iPhone 8 in OLED and LCD variants next year, of which OLED models are likely to sport curved displays.

"Apple may or may not use new technology which enables the phone to respond when users touch any side of the device," appleinsider.com reported on Sunday.

New York, Dec 9 (IANS) Mobile money services, which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone, can help lift people in developing economies out of poverty, a new study suggests.

​New York, Dec 10 (IANS) The availability of Apple's wireless headphones, called AirPods, is delayed as the company is experiencing problems in getting the audio from both the earpieces at the same time, a media report said on Saturday. According to Fortune, "technology problems with how the earpieces receive wireless signals via Bluetooth are causing delay." Apple launched AirPods along with the iPhone 7 in September this year as a replacement for conventional earphones that require a headphone jack. The company launched iPhone 7 without the headphone jack, however, consumers can still use wired earphones, but can be done by using a dongle to connect them via lighting port. "The original plan was to ship the AirPods in October, but Apple decided to delay the earphones that month without giving a reason," the report added.