Knowledge Update

London, Feb 13 (IANS) Babies exposed to nicotine before and after birth may be at an increased risk of developing hearing problems due to abnormal development in the auditory brainstem, researchers have found.

The findings showed that the auditory brainstem -- an area of the brain which plays a role in analysing sound patterns -- may have abnormal development in kids when pregnant mothers are exposed to nicotine before and after giving birth. 

Children with impaired auditory brainstem function are likely to have learning difficulties and problems with language development.

"If mothers smoke during pregnancy and their children show learning difficulties at school, they should be tested for auditory processing deficits," said lead author Ursula Koch, professor at the Free University of Berlin in Germany. 

For the study, published in The Journal of Physiology, the team exposed the offspring of the mice to nicotine before birth and via the mother's milk until they were three weeks old -- an age that is approximately equivalent to primary school children. 

Analysing the brains of the mice offsprings, the researchers found that neurons that get input from the cochlea -- sensory organ in the ear -- were less effective at transmitting signals to other auditory brainstem neurons in mice exposed to nicotine.

Moreover, these signals were transmitted with less precision, which deteriorates the coding of sound patterns. These could be part of the underlying causes for auditory processing difficulties in children of heavy smoking mothers, the researchers said.

"We do not know how many other parts of the auditory system are affected by nicotine exposure. More research is needed about the cumulative effect of nicotine exposure and the molecular mechanisms of how nicotine influences the development of neurons in the auditory brainstem," Koch said.

Washington, Feb 13 (IANS) Researchers have used data from the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite to identify a sudden drainage of large pools below West Antarctica's Thwaites glacier, the media reported.

Thwaites Glacier, already one of the planet's fastest-moving glaciers, is sliding unstoppably into the ocean, mainly due to warmer seawater lapping at its underside, speeding up by about 10 per cent from June 2013 and January 2014, Xinhua news agency reported.

In a study published in The Cryosphere, the researchers from the University of Washington (UW) and the UK's University of Edinburgh reported finding four interconnected lakes drained during the eight-month period.

"This was a big event, and it confirms that the long-term speed-up that we're observing for this glacier is probably driven by other factors, most likely in the ocean," said corresponding author Ben Smith, a glaciologist with the UW's Applied Physics Laboratory, on Sunday. 

"The water flow at the bed is probably not controlling the speed."

The authors used a new technique to discover drops at the glacier's surface of up to 70 feet, over a 20 km by 40 km area.

Calculations show it was likely due to the emptying of four interconnected lakes far below. The peak drainage rate was about 240 cubic metres, per second, the largest melt-water outflow yet reported for subglacial lakes in this region.

The study supports previous UW research from 2014 showing that Thwaites glacier will likely collapse within 200 to 900 years to cause seas to rise by 2 feet. 

​London, Feb 13 (IANS) Data from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) shows the number of cosmetic surgeries conducted last year fell to 40 per cent -- a near-decade low in the UK from a record-breaking high in 2015, the media reported on Monday.

​London, Feb 13 (IANS) Film production in Britain last year earned a record-breaking $2 billion for the country's economy, a new report revealed on Sunday.

Xinhua news agency quoted the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as saying that 2016 proved to be a bumper year for Britain's creative industries.

​Washington, Feb 13 (IANS) Scientists have shortlisted three landing sites for NASA's Mars 2020 rover -- slated for launch in July 2020 aboard an Atlas V 541 rocket from the Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The three potential landing sites include Northeast Syrtis (a very ancient portion of Mars' surface), Jezero crater, (once home to an ancient Martian lake), and Columbia Hills (potentially home to an ancient hot spring and explored by NASA's Spirit rover).

The sites were recommended by participants in a landing site workshop, NASA said in a statement on Monday.

The rover will conduct geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient Martian life, and assess natural resources and hazards for future human explorers. 

It will also prepare a collection of samples for possible return to the Earth by a future mission.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover.

​London, Feb 12 (IANS) Although taking selfies is hugely popular, most people would prefer to see fewer selfies on social media, a study has found. Selfies are enormously popular on social media. According to Google statistics estimates, about 93 million selfies were taken per day in 2014, counting only those taken on Android devices. The findings showed that compared to the selfies taken by themselves, people attributed greater self-presentational motives and less authenticity to selfies taken by others. Selfies taken by themselves were also judged as self-ironic and more authentic. This phenomenon, where many people regularly take selfies but most people don't appear to like them has been termed the "selfie paradox" by Sarah Diefenbach, Professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Germany. To assess people's motives and judgements when taking and viewing selfies, the team conducted an online survey of a total of 238 persons living in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The results showed that 77 per cent of the participants regularly took selfies. "One reason for this might be their fit with widespread self-presentation strategies such as self-promotion and self-disclosure" Diefenbach said, in the paper published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Interestingly, despite 77 per cent of the participants taking selfies regularly, 62-67 per cent agreed on the potential negative consequences of selfies, such as impacts on self-esteem. This negative perception of selfies was also illustrated by 82 per cent of participants indicating that they would rather see other types of photos instead of selfies on social media.

​New York, Feb 12 (IANS) Though technological advancements in smart electrical grid create improvements in monitoring, they also act as an entry point for hackers, researchers have revealed.

​New York, Feb 12 (IANS) Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's may be linked to defective brain cells disposing toxic proteins, making neighbouring cells sick, scientists say.

The findings showed that although healthy neurons should be able to sort out and rid brain cells of toxic proteins and damaged cell structures, they are unable to do so always.

"Normally the process of throwing out this trash would be a good thing," said Monica Driscoll, professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

"But we think with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's there might be a mismanagement of this very important process that is supposed to protect neurons but, instead, is doing harm to neighbour cells," Driscoll added, in the paper published in Nature.

To understand how the mechanism of eliminating toxic cellular substances works externally, the team conducted experiments on the transparent roundworm, known as the C. elegans, which are similar in molecular form, function and genetics to those of humans.

The researchers discovered that the worms -- which have a lifespan of about three weeks -- had an external garbage removal mechanism and were disposing these toxic proteins outside the cell as well.

However, the roundworms engineered to produce human disease proteins associated with Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's, were found to throw out more trash consisting of these neurodegenerative toxic materials.

While neighbouring cells degraded some of the material, more distant cells scavenged other portions of the diseased proteins.

"These finding are significant. The work in the little worm may open the door to much needed approaches to addressing neurodegeneration and diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," Driscoll said.

​Beijing , Feb 11 (IANS) China plans to relocate 3.4 million people from poverty-stricken communities to more developed areas this year as part of its poverty reduction drive.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's economic planner, said 2.49 million people living in poverty had been relocated in 2016, meeting the

​New York, Feb 11 (IANS) Cellphones and other devices could soon be controlled with touchless gestures and charge themselves using ambient light thanks to new LED displays that can both emit and detect light.