Knowledge Update

New York, June 14 (IANS) Physical activity builds stronger bones in children, even for those who carry genetic variants that predispose them to bone weakness, new research has found.

"While we have known for decades that physical activity during childhood builds up bone and confers lifelong benefits, we did not know whether the effects of activity depend on genetic risks for bone fragility," said study first author Jonathan Mitchell from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in the US.

The study, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, showed that physical activity can counteract the negative effects of genetic variants that associate with bone fragility in childhood.

For the study, the researchers analysed a cohort of 918 children and adolescents, from five to 19 years old.

The researchers used questionnaires in which study participants estimated their amount and type of physical activity during childhood. 

The study team also measured the participants' bone density and genotyped their DNA for over 60 genetic variants known to be associated with bone density.

The researchers found that across the board, children had higher bone density scores if they had higher levels of physical activity. 

This even applied to those with a higher genetic risk for bone fragility. Importantly, the benefits of activity were driven entirely by high-impact, weight-bearing activity, such as gymnastics and soccer, which involve sprinting, turning or jumping actions.

Their findings underscore that genetics does not necessarily equate to destiny, and reinforce the importance of physical activity as a key factor to improve the bone health of children in the present and into later life.​

London, June 14 (IANS) Consuming peanuts products during early infancy can have zero effect on the growth of a child and on his or her nutrition, confirms a study.

The findings showed that peanut consumption in infancy can have no negative effect on a child's growth as well as nutrition.

"The results reassured that peanut consumption did not affect the duration of breastfeeding, thus countering concerns that introduction of solid foods before six months of age could reduce breastfeeding duration," said led author Mary Feeney from King's College London.

The research, published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, aimed at determining the adverse effects on child growth and nutrition as a result of taking high peanut products during early infancy along with the ones who avoid it. 

"These findings indicate that early-life introduction of peanut-containing foods as a strategy to prevent the subsequent development of peanut allergy is both feasible and nutritionally safe, even at high levels of peanut consumption," said Marshall Plaut from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the US.

The results of an earlier clinical trial showed that introducing peanut products as a part of the dietary foods for infants lead to an 81 per cent relative reduction of allergies in comparison to products that avoided peanut altogether.

For the study, the investigators randomly assigned 640 infants aged four to 11 months, which continued till the age of five, to either consume at least two grams of peanut protein three times a week or to avoid peanut entirely.​

​New York, June 14 (IANS) In 2015, charitable giving among Americans hit a record $373.3 billion with individuals donating over two-thirds of the amount, according to the annual report by the Giving USA Foundation.

Donations from foundations, corporations, estates and individuals rose four per cent last year, that was “record-setting whether measured in current or inflation-adjusted dollars,” the report says.

The figure was lower than the 6.1 per cent inflation-adjusted growth reported in 2014, but the unceasing climb indicates philanthropic giving especially by individuals is growing.

“It's heartening that people really do want to make a difference, and they're supporting the causes that matter to them,” said W. Keith Curtis, chairman of the Giving USA Foundation, adding that Americans are embracing philanthropy at a higher level than ever before.

According to the report, $264.6 billion came from individuals, 3.8 per cent more compared to 2014. Foundations donated $58.6 billion, up 6.5 percent. Corporate giving was $18.45 billion up 3.9 percent, with charitable bequests lifted 2.1 per cent to $31.76 billion.

The largest share of the donations - $119.3 billion went to religious organisations, with education and human services receiving $57.48 and $45.21 billion, according to the report.

The least was contributed to the environment and animals - $10.68 billion, as well as international affairs - $15.75 billion.

The only segment that suffered a decline last year was giving to foundations, which fell by four percent when inflation-adjusted, to $42.3 billion.

The data revealed in the report was researched by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.​

Beijing, June 14 (IANS) If you are less than attractive, it is likely that a child may not trust you, says a new study, suggesting that for kids an individual's trustworthiness is linked to how attractive they find him or her.

The findings showed that the ability to make the judgement about one's trustworthiness develops as one grows older. 

Also, girls proved to be better at trustworthiness judgement than boys.

In addition, the children were also found to look to a person's attractiveness as an indication of their character.

People use facial cues to make judgements on a person's character -- and this ability to infer social traits is a crucial part of social functioning and development, the researchers said. 

Although well researched in babies and adults, the development of this ability in children was not previously known, they added.

The study adds to a growing body of work showing that attractiveness is a universal language when it comes to that all-important first impression, said Fengling Ma from Zhejiang Sci-Tech University in China. 

For the study, the team assessed 138 participants -- groups of children aged eight, 10 and 12 years old and compared them to a group of adults. 

They used a face generation programme (FaceGen) to produce 200 images of male faces -- all with a neutral expression and direct gaze. 

In the first of two sessions, each participant was shown each face, and asked to rate how trustworthy they thought that person was. 

A second session followed a month later where participants repeated the exercise, this time rating the attractiveness of the same faces. 

The researchers looked first at the ratings of trustworthiness, and level of agreement of the ratings within and between the groups. Next, they looked at the ratings of trustworthiness and attractiveness given to each face. 

They found a strong, direct relationship between the two traits -- the faces deemed more trustworthy were also considered to be more attractive. 

This relationship also strengthened with age, and shows that like adults, children also look to a person's attractiveness as an indication of their character. ​

​Washington, June 14 (IANS) In less than five decades, summers across most of the globe could be hotter than any summer experienced by people to date, researchers have estimated.

If climate change continues on its current trajectory, the probability that summers between 2061 and 2080 will be warmer than the hottest on record stands at 80 per cent across the world's land areas, excluding Antarctica, which was not studied, the researchers said.

If greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, however, that probability drops to 41 per cent.

"Extremely hot summers always pose a challenge to society," said lead author of the study Flavio Lehner, scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

"They can increase the risk for health issues, and can also damage crops and deepen droughts. Such summers are a true test of our adaptability to rising temperatures," Lehner noted.

The research team used two existing sets of model simulations to investigate what future summers might look like.

They created both by running the NCAR-based Community Earth System Model 15 times, with one simulation assuming that greenhouse gas emissions remain unabated and the other assuming that society reduces emissions.

By using simulations created by running the same model multiple times, with only tiny differences in the initial starting conditions, the scientists could examine the range of expected summertime temperatures for future "business-as-usual" and reduced-emissions scenarios.

The results showed that between 2061 and 2080, summers in large parts of North and South America, central Europe, Asia, and Africa have a greater than 90 per cent chance of being warmer than any summer in the historic record if emissions continue unabated.

That means virtually every summer would be as warm as the hottest to date.

The findings will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Climatic Change.

In some regions, the likelihood of summers being warmer than any in the historical record remained less than 50 percent, but in those places -- including Alaska, the central US, Scandinavia, Siberia and continental Australia -- summer temperatures naturally vary greatly, making it more difficult to detect effects of climate change, the researchers said.

Reducing emissions would lower the global probability of future summers that are hotter than any in the past, but would not result in uniformly spread benefits. 

In some regions, including the US East Coast and large parts of the tropics, the probability would remain above 90 percent, even if emissions were reduced, the findings showed.

But reduced emissions would result in a sizable boon for other regions of the world.​

​Toronto, June 14 (IANS) In addition to combatting pests, covering soil with wood mulch can actually help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says a study.

Using mulch in agriculture can cut nitrous oxide emissions up to 28 per cent, the findings showed.

"In addition to saving water, improving soil, combatting pests and stopping weeds, wood mulch actually reduces the release of a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide," said Craig Nichol from the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus in Canada. 

"Provided you are not driving great distances to obtain the mulch, it would appear that mulch could be a powerful tool in helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, particularly if used in these agricultural systems," Nichol said.

Nichol's research was part of a two-year study in which small emissions-recording chambers were placed on top of bare soil as well as soil covered by mulch.

In addition to reduced levels of nitrous oxide emissions, mulched areas also showed a 74 per cent reduction in soil nitrates. The nitrates are the source material for nitrous oxide emissions and can also leach into groundwater.

The study recently published in the journal Agricultural Water Management.

Nitrous oxide emitted from soil accounts for one half of agriculture emissions that contribute to global warming, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.​

​Beijing, June 13 (IANS) China's first high-orbit remote sensing satellite, Gaofen-4, has been activated after six months of in-orbit testing, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced on Monday.

Gaofen-4 is China's first geosynchronous orbit high-definition optical imaging satellite and the world's most sophisticated, Xinhua reported.

Unlike Gaofen-1 and Gaofen-2 in low-orbits around the Earth, Gaofen-4 is orbiting at 36,000 km. High-orbit satellites have the advantage of being able to photograph "grand scenarios". Low-orbit satellites, in contrast, can see more detail at faster speed.

Low-orbit satellites cannot always follow natural disasters, but Gaofen-4 can continuously observe a disaster because it moves synchronously with the Earth.

It improves the response to disasters like earthquakes, landslides and typhoons with its high-precision sensors.

Gaofen-4, which was launched in December 2015, has a designed lifespan of eight years, compared to other remote sensing satellites which remain in service for less than three to five years.

During the in-orbit test, Gaofen-4 has been used to collect imageries of flood-hit areas in south China and monitor fires that occurred in Sichuan province and Russia.

China started the Gaofen project with the launch of Gaofen-1 in April 2013. It aims to launch seven high-definition observation satellites before 2020, designed for disaster prevention, surveillance of geological disasters and forest disasters and weather forecast.

Gaofen-3 is set to be launched in August 2016, according to the SASTIND.​

London, June 13 (IANS) An international team of scientists has discovered a material that can clear up nuclear waste gases produced by nuclear-fuel reprocessing plants more efficiently, cheaply and safely than currently available methods.

The material, abbreviated as SBMOF-1, is a nanoporous crystal and belongs to a class of materials that are currently used to clear out CO2 emissions and other dangerous pollutants.

The team led by scientists from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland carried out the screening of large material databases of over 125,000 candidates before identifying SBMOF-1 as the likely material to be able to absorb nuclear waste gases like xenon and krypton emitted as by-products of nuclear-fuel reprocessing. 

Current ways of capturing and clearing out these gases involve distillation at very low temperatures, which is expensive and poses a risk of explosion.

SBMOF-1 can separate xenon and krypton at room temperature, according to the study published recently in the journal Nature Communications. 

These materials are also very versatile, and scientists can tweak them to self-assemble into ordered, pre-determined crystal structures. 

In this way, they can synthesise millions of tailor-made materials that can be optimised for gas storage separation, catalysis, chemical sensing and optics.​

New York, June 13 (IANS) Deficiencies in certain vitamins are the likely reason behind the development of migraines in children, teens and young adults, finds a new study.

The findings revealed that a high percentage of children, teens and young adults with migraines had mild deficiencies in vitamin D, riboflavin and coenzyme Q10 -- a vitamin-like substance found in every cell of the body that is used to produce energy for cell growth and maintenance.

While girls and young women were more likely to have coenzyme Q10 deficiencies, boys and young men were more likely to have vitamin D deficiency.

Further, patients with chronic migraines were more likely to have coenzyme Q10 and riboflavin deficiencies than those with episodic migraines.

"Further studies are needed to elucidate whether vitamin supplementation is effective in migraine patients in general and whether patients with mild deficiency are more likely to benefit from supplementation," said lead author Suzanne Hagler from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in the US.

For the study, the team analysed patients with migraines who had baseline blood levels checked for vitamin D, riboflavin, coenzyme Q10 and folate, all of which were implicated in migraines by previous studies.

Many were put on preventive migraine medications and received vitamin supplementation, if levels were low.

Previous studies have indicated that certain vitamins and vitamin deficiencies may be important in the migraine process. However, studies using vitamins to prevent migraines have had conflicting success.

The results were presented at the 58th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society in San Diego, in the US, recently.​

New York, June 12 (IANS) Exposure to blue light for a short period can help you make difficult decisions faster up to 40 minutes after the exposure had ended, suggests new research.

"Previous studies only focused on the effects of light during the period of exposure. Our study adds to this research by showing that these beneficial effects of blue wavelength light may outlast the exposure period by over 40 minutes," said lead author Anna Alkozei, post-doctoral fellow at the University of Arizona.

The results also showed that a short single exposure to blue light for half an hour is sufficient to produce measurable changes in reaction times and more efficient responses (answered more items correctly per second) during conditions of greater cognitive load after the light exposure had ended.

Moreover, these improvements were directly associated with measurable changes in the activation of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviour and decision making.

"Blue-enriched white light could be used in a variety of occupational settings where alertness and quick decision making are important, such as pilot cockpits, operation rooms, or military settings,” Alkozei noted.

It could also be used in settings where natural sunlight does not exist, such as the International Space Station.

“Importantly, our findings suggest that using blue light before having to engage in important cognitive processes may still impact cognitive functioning for over half an hour after the exposure period ended,” Alkozei pointed out.

The research abstract was published in an online supplement of the journal Sleep.