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India, Pakistan among countries with worst iodine deficiency

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:53:00 -0500

World experts in iodine deficiency have set a goal of working toward eliminating iodine deficiency, by assigning top support priority to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

World health officials say that millions of people around the world are deficient in iodine, which causes fetal brain damage.

And they are calling on the international community to increase iodized salt to one-third of households in mostly developing countries that do not have access to the micronutrient.

Officials of the Network for Sustained Elimination of Iodine Deficiency met at the United Nations Headquarters, New York on Dec. 12 to mark a major public health advance achieved in two decades.

They say that 70 percent of world households now consume iodized salt. But since 2002, they say there's been a significant drop in progress toward fulfilling a mandate of 100 percent coverage.

The result, according to experts, is that nearly two billion people worldwide are at risk of iodine deficienicy and 38 million newborns are unprotected.

“Poverty and associated health, nutrition, and social factors prevent at least 200 million children in developing countries from attaining their development potential. Among these factors the estimated impact of iodine deficiency is considered the largest and affects at least 20-25% of children in developing countries,” Network Chair Alan Court, Director of the UNICEF Programme Divisio, aid.

“This overwhelming evidence makes prevention of iodine deficiency a high priority which fosters children’s development. The good news is that all of these disorders are easily preventable at very low cost ensuring adequate intake of iodine through the addition of a small amount of iodine to salt,” he added.

To avoid suffering iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) a human requires in a life time a total just one teaspoon of iodine – this can be added to salt at a cost of about 10 cents worth per year. Experts say that the greatest need for micro amounts of iodine is in the mother’s womb.

Hence, the Network for Sustained Elimination of Iodine Deficiency Network said its top priority is to ensure access to iodized salt for the final 30 percent of households that do not have it, most of them found in just 20 countries.

The Network has assigned top priority in 2005-2010 to supporting India, Pakistan and Bangladesh among other countries.

Other countries are: Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Niger, The Philippines, Russia, Senegal, Sudan, Ukraine, and Vietnam. (ANI)

Kith and kin more likely than strangers to agree that youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re attractive

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:53:00 -0500

Friends, siblings and spouses are more likely to agree on the attractiveness of your face than strangers, says a study.

The study, led by led by Richard Russell, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, and Matthew Bronstad a postdoctoral researcher at the Schepens Eye Research Institute, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, found that there was some agreement regarding facial attractiveness among the strangers but the close relations were in even greater agreement.

“While there are some universal standards of beauty, this study shows that perception and standards of attractiveness are more likely to be shared among individuals who know each other well,” Russell said.

In the study, 113 participants were asked to rate 74 faces on a scale from one to seven, from very attractive to very unattractive.

Among the participants were 20 pairs of spouses, 20 pairs of siblings and 41 pairs of close friends.

Each of the pairs completed the test separately, so that they could not influence each other’s ratings. Participants who were part of a pair of close relations were also paired with another individual who they had not met, in order to form a pair of strangers.

After analysing the ratings, the researchers found that while the strangers’ ratings of the faces were often similar the ratings of the spouses, siblings and close friends were markedly more in agreement.

This study narrows the focus of preferences for beauty within even smaller groups: individuals who know each other well and have personal relationships.

The researchers speculated that this greater agreement among close relations could stem from several different causes.

One could be the number of years that the pairs of people spent in daily contact were related to the strength of their agreement on facial attractiveness. This could be because those individuals who spent a great deal amount of time together saw many of the same faces on a day-to-day basis.

“Because close relations know and see many of the same people, their visual ‘diet’ of faces has been similar. It’s likely that repeated visual exposure to the same faces could have an effect on their perception of what makes a face attractive,” Bronstad said.

The study appears in the current issue of the journal Perception. (ANI)

Primitive relative of armadillo identified by scientists

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:39:00 -0500

A team of scientists has identified the fossilized remains of an extinct mammal as being a primitive relative of armadillos.

The fossil was found at the unusually high elevation of 14,000 feet in the Andes.

The research team unearthed the partial skeleton in 2004, and found out that it represented a new species of glyptodont—a family of hard-shelled, grazing.

The newly described animal, which was given the tongue-twisting name “Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis”, likely weighed in at a mere 200 pounds and was covered with a massive shell of immovable armored plates, unlike the hinged rows of plates on armadillos.

The new species was reconstructed from remains of the jaw, shell, leg, and backbone and compared with other known glyptodonts as well as with close relatives of glyptodonts.

Based on supporting evidence, the team concluded that P. septentrionalis lived about 18 million years ago, making it one of the earliest-diverging members of its family. As a result, the authors proposed a new evolutionary tree for glyptodonts and their nearest relatives.

"When we collected the fossil, we had no idea that it would turn out to be a new species," said Darin Croft, assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. "We knew that it would be an important specimen, given its completeness, but it was only after cleaning it and carefully studying it that we realized how unusual it was," he added.

Though the thin air, scarce water, and frigid temperatures of the high Andes posed significant challenges to the researchers, they were not the conditions under which this animal lived.

"Our studies elsewhere on the Altiplano suggest that the region was at a much lower elevation when these fossils lived," said John Flynn, Chairman of the Division of Paleontology and Frick Curator of Fossil Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. "In addition to providing a look at the paleoecology of the region, this has given us new insights into the timing and rate of uplift of the Andes,” he added.

Over the past decade, the team's fossil-hunting expeditions to northern Chile have discovered a diverse array of several hundred fossil mammal specimens. These animals, known collectively as the “Chucal Fauna”, include at least 18 species of armadillos and glyptodonts, rodents, relatives of opossums, and a variety of extinct hoofed mammals.

Together with the plant fossils recovered from the same area, these suggest that northern Chile was an open savannah about 3,000 feet above sea level at the time that P. septentrionalis lived, with relatively few trees and populated mainly by grazing animals. (ANI)

EarthÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s magnetosphere can protect astronauts from radiation on moon missions

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:48:00 -0500

A new research has suggested that the magnetosphere of Earth can protect some parts of the moon as well, thus protecting astronauts from radiation on future moon missions.

The research was carried out by Erika Harnett, a UW (University of Washington) assistant research professor of Earth and space sciences.

The magnetosphere is that area of space, around the Earth, that is controlled by the Earth's magnetic field.

Though Earth is largely protected by this magnetic field, there are areas of the moon that would be completely protected by the magnetosphere and other areas that are not protected at all.

This finding could prove important to future astronomers going to the moon because there are concerns about potential radiation danger for astronauts during long missions on the lunar surface.

A significant part of that danger results from solar storms, which can shoot particles from the sun to Earth at nearly the speed of light and can heat oxygen in the Earth's ionosphere and send it in a hazardous stream toward the moon.

Solar energetic particles, which are generated during solar storms, carry enough energy to disrupt communications on Earth or even kill satellites in Earth orbit. During those same storms, particles from Earth's ionosphere, primarily oxygen, also can become significantly energized.

Though they are not as powerful as solar energetic particles, they still pose a significant threat to astronauts working on the moon, or even en route to Mars.

Using computers to model properties of the magnetosphere, Harnett found that while solar storms can increase the danger from ionosphere particles hitting the moon they also trigger conditions in the magnetosphere that deflect many hazardous solar particles.

“Particles with high enough energy can pass directly through a human without much damage, but particles packing slightly less oomph, though unfelt by a human, can lodge in a person,” said Harnett. “Typically, it's not just one particle but many, and the accompanying radiation can damage cells,” she added.

Today, there is much greater understanding of the danger posed by solar energetic particles, particularly because of the adverse effects they can have on satellite communications during periods of intense solar flare activity.

"The problem is that we can't predict when this activity is going to take place so we can't warn astronauts to take shelter, so they could be vulnerable when the moon is outside the magnetosphere," said Harnett. "The particles travel near the speed of light, so when we see them generated on the sun's surface they will arrive in a few minutes and there is little time to react," she added.

”The new research could help determine when it is safe for astronauts to work far from a lunar base,” said Harnett. (ANI)

Mars Express witnesses dust storm on the planet

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:48:00 -0500

New observations from Mars Express, a Mars exploration mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), have indicated the occurrence of a dust storm that engulfed the Red Planet recently.

This dust storm, which takes place on the planet on a regular basis, contributed to a temporary warming effect around Mars, which raised the temperature of the atmosphere by around 20-30 deg C. However, this resulted in a drop in the surface temperature of the planet.

Planetary scientists watched the latest dust storm take shape at the end of June. By mid July it had covered the Red Planet, dispersing gradually over the next few months.

The Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) instrument was able to work throughout the event and has gained new insights into the effects of the dust storms on the atmosphere of Mars.

"Once the atmosphere becomes full of dust, only 20% of the solar radiation can reach the surface of the planet," said Vittorio Formisano, principal investigator of the PFS instrument.

The dust absorbs the solar radiation which directly heats the atmosphere, creating a strong warming effect.

This year, PFS saw the temperature of the Martian atmosphere rise by between 20-30 deg C. As the atmosphere heats up, the atmosphere inflates around the planet.

According to Formisano, this increase was probably by about 20 km and hopes that a fuller analysis of the PFS data will give a precise figure.

PFS determines the composition of the Martian atmosphere from both the wavelengths of sunlight absorbed by the various molecules in the atmosphere and from the infrared radiation they absorb and emit. It collects infrared radiation in the range of 1.2–45 micrometres (microns).

But, there is still a lot to understand about Martian dust storms.

They begin during summer in Mars's southern hemisphere. Southern summer is hotter than the northern summer because Mars's orbit is elliptical and draws the planet closer to the Sun during southern summer than during northern summer.

The Hellas Basin obviously plays a very important role as the dust storms usually begin in its vicinity. Hellas is a vast impact structure, 9 km deep and about 2300 km across. It is so large that it disrupts the circulation of the atmosphere.

"How the dust propagates into the whole atmosphere is still a complete mystery," said Formisano. (ANI)

Working mums happier than stay-at-home moms

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 03:28:00 -0500

If you think that working mums become gloomy as a consequence of toiling both at office and home, you need to get your facts checked, for an academic research has revealed that working mums are happier than stay-at-home mums irrespective of the hours they have to spend in the office.

The study was led by Alison Booth and Jan Van Ours and was carried out by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex.

It was found that even those mothers who work more than 45 hours a week benefit from much higher levels of “life satisfaction” than full-time mums.

This finding counters the long held assumption that mothers would be more pleased if they stayed home with their children.

It was concluded three years ago by a research conducted by the Centre for Policy Studies that almost half of the mothers were working only because they needed money.

The popularity of David Cameron’s promise to offer tax breaks to married couples to help mothers stay at home was also doubted by the researchers.

However, the report guaranteed Job Satisfaction and Family Happiness, high levels of life satisfaction was found among women working part time, those who work 30-34 hours a week and 41-45 hours a week also reported high levels of wellbeing.

“Women without children do not care about their working hours, while women with children are significantly happier if they have a job, regardless of how many hours it entails,” Times Online quoted the authors of the report, as saying.

The data compiled in eight years of the British Household Panel Survey, which questions 5,500 households on an annual basis, had been utilized for the report.

It was also found that children had no role in increasing life satisfaction for men.

However, among women, it increases only when children start going to school.

The report concluded: “Given this finding, perhaps it is not surprising fertility is declining in Britain.”

The Conservatives will be charting out plans to make single parents, who have children at school, work and to make joining a training programme a condition of receiving benefit. (ANI)

Uranus and Neptune played flip-flop four billion years ago

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 03:21:00 -0500

A recent study by scientists has said that Uranus and Neptune had switched places four billion years ago, indicating that the planets in our solar system weren’t always in the order they are today.

Steve Desh, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, carried out the study.

Desh based his conclusion on calculations of the surface density of the soalr nebula.

The solar nebula is the disk of gas and dust out of which all of the planets formed. The surface density (mass per area) of the solar nebula protoplanetary disk is a fundamental quantity needed to calculate everything from how fast planets grow to the types of chemicals they are likely to contain.

After going through various models on planet formation, the research team developed the Nice model, which is based on sophisticated numerical calculations of the planets' orbits over millions of years.

It explains several aspects about the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, as well as the Kuiper Belt of comets beyond, by assuming the giant planets formed a lot closer together than they're found today. Neptune, for example, formed less than half the distance from the Sun that it orbits today. And in 50% of their simulations, Uranus and Neptune switched places, although there was no way to determine whether they did or not.

According to Desch, the Nice model implied the mass of the solar system was packed together more tightly than the minimum mass solar nebula assumed.

By spreading the masses of the planets over their original orbits, as predicted by the Nice model, he found a very smooth variation of surface density with distance from the Sun, albeit one that fell off very sharply far from the Sun. The fit varied by only a few percent from the planets' masses, but only if Uranus and Neptune did indeed switch places.

"Neptune had to form closer to the sun than Uranus or you don't get the smooth profile," said Desch.

The new findings have other profound implications.

"The surface density of the solar nebula isn't what we originally thought – it is actually much higher – and this has implications for where we formed and for how fast planets grow,” said Desch. “A higher surface density of the solar nebula means that Uranus and Neptune formed closer and faster, in only 10 million years instead of billions," he added.

This finding is important because Uranus and Neptune contain a few Earth masses of hydrogen and helium gas, and observations of other protoplanetary disks show these gases don't hang around for more than 10 million years.

In addition to demonstrating for the first time that all of the giant planets can grow within the lifetime of the solar nebula, the study also uncovered the reason behind the sharp variation in density with distance from the Sun.

"The distribution of mass falls off very steeply because the outer edge is constantly being boiled away through the process of photoevaporation, by the ultraviolet radiation of nearby massive stars," said Desch. (ANI)

Time does not slow in crisis situations

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 03:21:00 -0500

Accident victims often report experiencing the mishap in slow motion. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston have now found evidence that this experience is a result of a trick of the people’s memory.

The researchers, who studied how volunteers experience time when they free-fall 100 feet into a net below, say that their findings are contrary to the suggestion that time slows down during crisis situations.

“People commonly report that time seemed to move in slow motion during a car accident. Does the experience of slow motion really happen, or does it only seem to have happened in retrospect? The answer is critical for understanding how time is represented in the brain,” said Dr. David Eagleman, assistant professor of neuroscience and psychiatry and behavioural sciences at BCM.

In their study, the researchers involved Suspended Catch Air Device diving, a controlled free-fall system in which “divers” were dropped backwards off a platform 150 feet up and landed safely in a net. Divers were not attached to ropes, and reached 70 miles per hour during the three-second fall.

The study was conducted in two parts. In one experiment, the participants were asked to reproduce with a stopwatch how long it took someone else to fall, and then how long their own fall seemed to have lasted.

The researcher found that people in general estimated that their own fall appeared 36 per cent longer than that of their compatriots.

A watch-like unit called the perceptual chronometer, which showed numbers flickered on its screen, was strapped on the volunteers’ wrists. The speed of this flickering was adjusted until it was too fast for the divers to see.

The researchers were of the opinion that just in case time perception really slowed, the flickering numbers would appear slow enough for the divers to easily read while in free-fall.

It was observed that while the subjects were able to read numbers presented at normal speeds during the free-fall, they could not read them at faster-than-normal speeds.

“We discovered that people are not like Neo in The Matrix, dodging bullets in slow-mo. The paradox is that it seemed to participants as though their fall took a long time. The answer to the paradox is that time estimation and memory are intertwined: the volunteers merely thought the fall took a longer time in retrospect,” Eagleman said.

He further said that during a frightening event, a brain area called the amygdala becomes more active, laying down a secondary set of memories that go along with those normally taken care of by other parts of the brain.

“In this way, frightening events are associated with richer and denser memories. And the more memory you have of an event, the longer you believe it took,” he said.

Based on their findings, the researchers came to the conclusion that a person’s perception of time is not a single phenomenon that speeds or slows.

They have even verified their conclusion in laboratory experiments, wherein the subjects were made to observe on the computer screen flashes like ‘a shoe’, ‘a shoe’, ‘a flower’, and ‘a shoe’.

The viewers believed that ‘a flower’ stayed on the screen longer, even though all flashes remained on the screen for the same duration.

“It can seem as though an event has taken an unusually long time, but it doesn’t mean your immediate experience of time actually expands. It simply means that when you look back on it, you believe it to have taken longer,” Eagleman said.

“This is related to the phenomenon that time seems to speed up as you grow older. When you’re a child, you lay down rich memories for all your experiences; when your older, you’ve seen it all before and lay down fewer memories. Therefore, when a child looks back at the end of a summer, it seems to have lasted forever; adults think it zoomed by,” he added.

The study has been reported online in the journal Public Library of Science One. (ANI)