Knowledge Update

​New York, Dec 19 (IANS) Researchers have developed a simple brain test that can potentially be used on a three-year-old to determine whether he or she is likely to grow up to become a criminal.

In the study, neuro-scientists at Duke University followed more than 1,000 children of pre-school age until they were 38, to find out if it was possible to predict who would go on to lead troubled lives.

The study showed that those with the lowest scores (20 per cent) went on to commit more than 80 per cent of crimes as adults.

The test found that these children began their lives with mild problems with brain function and brain health.

Growing up in a socio-economically deprived family, exposure to maltreatment, low intelligence quotient (IQ) and poor self-control were identified as the risk factors that can cause poor outcomes in adults, the researchers said.

In the study, the researchers tested the 'Pareto principle' -- also known as the '80-20 rule' -- which states that in the majority of systems, around 80 per cent of the effects come from about 20 per cent of the causes.

This principle, which worked in the field of computer science, biology, physics, economics, was also found to be true for societal burden.

By assessing a child's history -- beginning at age three -- of disadvantage, and particularly their brain health, one can predict where he or she might end up.

"Being able to predict which children will struggle is an opportunity to intervene in their lives very early to attempt to change their trajectories, for everyone's benefit and could bring big returns on investment for government," Terrie Moffitt, Professor at Duke University in North Carolina, was quoted as saying to the Telegraph.co.uk.

If problematic children could be targeted early, society could benefit hugely in the long term, the researchers noted in the study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

​New York, Dec 19 (IANS) Bad bosses who play a significant role in increasing stress for employees, may be of two types -- 'dark' who have destructive behaviours or 'dysfunctional' who are not very good at their job, researchers have found.

"Dysfunctional bosses don't want to hurt you. Through lack of skill, or other personality defects, they're just not very good at their job. Largely, that's what we would call 'dysfunctional'," said Seth M. Spain from Binghamton University in New York, US.

Dark bosses, on the other hand, have destructive behaviours and hurt others to elevate themselves, Spain said.

These bosses are looked at through the three characteristics called the "Dark Triad", which includes Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy.

"Dark bosses are people who enjoy the pain and suffering of others -- they're going to be mean, abusive and harassing in daily life," Spain added.

Team leaders can act as a lens through which people tend to view their work experience. Thus such bosses -- dysfunctional or dark -- can cause a great deal of stress to employees, the study observed.

The study, which looks to establish a taxonomy for identifying bad bosses and their distinct behaviours, can help fixing them and ultimately reduce stress in the workplace.

"We believe that these characteristics are extremely important for understanding employee development and career advancement," Spain noted.

The study was published in the journal Research in Occupational Stress and Well-Being.

​London, Dec 19 (IANS) Bullying affects men and women differently. Whereas it often causes women to go on prolonged sick leave or use antidepressants, men often choose to leave the labour market altogether for a period of time, a new research has found.

The researchers said it was a surprise to learn that bullying does not seem to increase men's sickness absence.

"In fact, it seems that men who are bullied are more likely than women to go to work even though they are actually sick," said Tine Mundbjerg Eriksen, Assistant Professor at School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University in Denmark.

"At the same time, it appears that bullying affects men's salary level negatively, which indicates that the bullying hampers their opportunities for pay increases and promotions," she said.

One way of bullying is that your colleagues or your boss impede your ability to do your job properly, make changes to your work or hand the fun and important tasks to others, she explained.

In the study involving over 3,000 people in both public and private organisations, seven per cent of the respondents reported that they were being subjected to bullying. Of these, 43 per cent were men.

When it comes to the type and frequency of bullying, the research, published in the journal of Labour Economics, showed that men are just as exposed to work or personal-related bullying as women, but are actually slightly more exposed to physical intimidation than women.

"The million-dollar question is why men primarily react by leaving the workplace, while women react to bullying by taking prolonged sick leaves. If anything, this illustrates that men and women handle bullying differently," Eriksen said.

New York, Dec 19 (IANS) Rapid population decline among vertebrates began at the end of the 19th century when industrialisation was at its peak, leading to profound change in global living ecosystems, says a study.

"Industrialisation is the most natural explanation as to why we have rapid population decline in that period of time. It has to be somehow caused by human impact," said Yun-Xin Fu, Professor at University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, US.

The current rate of species extinction is approximately 1,000 times the background rate of extinction and is attributable to human impact, ecological and demographic fluctuations, and inbreeding due to small population sizes. 

The researchers believe that the rate and the initiation date of rapid population decline can provide important clues about the driving forces of population decline in threatened species, but they are generally unknown

So the team reviewed thousands of scientific articles about the genetic diversity of vertebrate species. 

Their efforts yielded genetic data from 2,764 vertebrate species, 600 of which are endangered.

The researchers used a population genetics approach to model when each threatened species began to rapidly decline in population size. 

On average, the population size of endangered species declined by about 25 per cent every 10 years starting 123 years ago, said the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A group of international academics has condemned the UN convention banning child labour as "harmful", saying the policy ignores benefits and reflects Western prejudice.

New York, Dec 18 (IANS) Apple customers, who pre-ordered the tech giant's wireless earphones AirPods, have started receiving a pair of the product after the sales went live recently, a media report said. Customers received a word that their orders had been shipped and were scheduled to arrive as promised on December 21, a report on AppleInsider said. Apple announced its first branded wireless headphones with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in September 2016 and the product went up for sale on December 13. AirPods are priced at Rs 15,400 in India. According to the report, AirPods were regarded as a highly anticipated item and the initial supply was quickly depleted, pushing back shipment estimates to four weeks mere hours after release. Alongside pre-order shipments, AirPods are rumoured to land in Apple retail stores, as well as mobile carrier outlets and authorised Apple resellers by as early as next week. AirPods are automatically on and always connected. They can sense when they are in ears and pause when taken out. They are driven by the custom-designed Apple W1 chip for efficient wireless connection and improved sound. The W1 chip manages battery life which lets the product deliver five hours of listening time on a single charge. Just 15 minutes of charging can give three hours of listening time. To check the battery, user can hold the AirPods next to an iPhone or ask Siri "How's the battery on my AirPods?"

​Abu Dhabi, Dec 18 (IANS/WAM) The UAE has signed an open skies agreement with Sweden to boost investment and tourism in the country.

The agreement was signed by Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi, Director-General of the General Civil Aviation Authority, and Jan Thesleff, Sweden Ambassador to the UAE, at a ceremony here.

"Conducting air transport agreements with other countries helps boost investment and tourism and strengthens business ties with countries across the globe," Al Suwaidi said.

The agreement enables both parties full flexibility on routes, capacity, frequency and types of aircraft.

​London, Dec 18 (IANS) If you are a morning person, working in night shifts may affect you more, a study said. According to the study, morning persons demonstrate a quicker reaction time when solving unusual attention-related tasks when working at night, but are more prone to make errors. This may be the result of sleep deprivation and a relative increase in the time spent awake which negatively impacts the brain's attention system, the researchers said. The study showed that morning persons completed their tasks quicker than the night persons, but with errors. On the contrary, night persons were found to spend more time finishing than tasks. But, their level of accuracy in completing the task was higher, the researcher noted. "To deal with the most difficult test -- resolving a conflict of attention -- it was necessary not only to concentrate on the main visual stimulus, but at the same time to ignore accompanying stimulus that distract from the core task," said Andriy Myachykov from Oxford University. Though night people turned out to be slower, they were more efficient compared to the early risers. "Our study demonstrated how night owls working late at night 'sacrifice' speed for accuracy," Myachykov added. The results of this study may be useful for people who work night shift and could challenge the education system and human resources management in certain areas. For pilots, air traffic controllers, drivers, etc., attention, the ability to deal with large sets of data, and reaction time are all very important. During emergencies, these features could play a vital role. The study is available in the journal Experimental Brain Research.

​Washington, Dec 18 (IANS) Scientists have claimed to figured out how the world's biggest and most-valuable diamonds formed, media reported on Sunday.

In a study published this week in the US journal Science, the scientists said large gem-quality diamonds, like the world-famous Cullinan or Lesotho Promise, may be born in metallic liquid deep inside the Earth's mantle, Xinhua news agency reported.

The research team, led by Evan Smith of the Gemological Institute of America, reached the conclusion after examining so-called "offcuts" of massive diamonds, which are the pieces left over after the gem's facets are cut for maximum sparkle.

They found tiny metallic grains trapped inside in more than 30 exceptionally large stones, which are made up of a mixture of metallic iron and nickel, along with carbon, sulfur, methane, and hydrogen.

These inclusions led the researchers to conclude that these diamonds formed, like all diamonds, in the Earth's mantle, but they did so under conditions in which they were saturated by liquid metal.

Most diamonds formed at depths of 150 to 200 km under the continents and shoot to the surface in volcanic eruptions.

"Pure carbon crystallised in this mix of molten metallic liquid in Earth's deep mantle to form diamonds," the team explained in a statement.

"Small droplets of this metallic liquid were occasionally trapped within the diamonds as they grew," offering useful clues that may help "advance our understanding of Earth's deep mantle, hidden beneath tectonic plates and largely inaccessible for scientific observation," the statement added.

The findings may tell scientists about oxygen availability in different parts of the mantle.

Near the surface, the mantle chemistry is more oxidized, which scientists can tell from the presence of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide in magmas erupted in volcanoes.

"Previous experiments and theory predicted for many years that parts of the deep mantle below about 250 km depth contain small amounts of metallic iron and have limited available oxygen," Smith said.

Sydney, Dec 18 (IANS) People who leave school without a school certificate are more than twice as likely to have a heart attack as those with a university degree, researchers said.