Knowledge Update

New York, July 6 (IANS) Accuracy is the paramount principle of trust, followed by timeliness and clarity, when it comes to news, a new study has said.

The research, conducted by Media Insight Project -- an initiative of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research -- found that in the digital age, several new factors like intrusiveness of ads, navigability, load times and having the latest details also play critical role in making a publisher competent and worthy of trust.

The study reaffirmed that consumers do value broad concepts of trust like fairness, balance, accuracy and completeness. 

The team found that accuracy is the paramount principle of trust. Eighty-five per cent of US citizens rated it as extremely or very important that news organisations get the facts right -- higher than any other general principle. 

The second most valued factor was trust although it had more to do with timeliness. Three-quarters of adults (76 per cent) said it was critical to them that a news report be up to date with the latest news and information. 

The third most cited factor that determined why people rely on a news source was related to clarity, with 72 per cent respondents saying it was extremely or very important to them that a news report be concise and gets to the point.

When it comes to online news, people cited three specific factors as most important: That ads not interfere with the news (63 per cent); that the site or app loads fast (63 per cent); and that the content works well on mobile phones (60 per cent). 

The reasons people trust and rely on a news source vary by topic, according to the study. 

For example, people are significantly more likely to say that expert sources and data are an important reason they turn to a source for news about domestic issues than about lifestyle news (76 per cent vs 48 per cent). 

People are far more likely to want their source to be concise and get to the point for national politics (80 per cent) than sports (61 per cent). 

Similarly, people care more that their sources for sports and lifestyle present the news in a way that is entertaining (54 per cent and 53 per cent) than say the same about political news (30 per cent).

The research, featuring a combination of ethnographic activities and focus groups, was conducted from February 24 through March 2 this year.​

​New York, July 6 (IANS) Argentine Tango dance has the potential to significantly improve balance and reduce falls risk among cancer patients post treatment, finds a study that addresses the prevalent side effects of cancer treatment.

According to researchers nearly 70 per cent of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy will experience peripheral neuropathy as a side effect post treatment. 

Peripheral neuropathy is weakness, numbness or loss of sensation in the hands, fingers, feet and toes and pain from nerve damage. 

The findings revealed that after just five weeks of Argentine tango, medial and lateral sway decreased by 56 per cent indicating that this is a promising balance intervention for cancer survivors experiencing impaired balance post treatment.

“The study showed that Argentine Tango has measurable effects on balance -- but our patients report really enjoying dance as therapy. It is a fun, social way to do the necessary work and our initial data shows it has some positive impact for restoring balance," said Mimi Lamantia from The Ohio State University in the US.

In addition, the patients also found that the Argentine tango was more easier to adhere than the traditional physical therapy. 

"So many patients tell us that it is difficult to stay committed to physical therapy because it is hard and feels like work,” Lamantia added.

Long-term neuropathy in the feet and toes can be especially problematic because it affects a person's balance and gait. This puts them in an elevated fall risk when they are engaging in daily life activities.

"That's a big deal because many more people are surviving cancer. Dealing with the issues that impact a person's quality of life after cancer is extremely important," noted another researcher Lise Worthen-Chaudhari from The Ohio State University.

For the study, the team designed a dance intervention course that involved 20 sessions of adapted Argentine Tango. Patients participated in one-hour sessions twice a week for 10 weeks.

Researchers measured patients' standing postural sway (eyes closed) with a computer-aided force platform at the beginning of the dance intervention series and at completion of the 10-weeks of instruction. Patients were also asked to report satisfaction with the intervention.

Initial data from the first three patients who participated in the Argentine Tango study will be presented at the 2016 annual meeting of American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine in Chicago.​

​New York, July 6 (IANS) Analysis of fossil remains dating 50 million years represent a new species that is a previously unknown relative of the modern-day ostrich, researchers say.

The bird fossils were found more than a decade ago, completely intact with bones, feathers, and soft tissues in a former lake bed in Wyoming in the US. 

"This is among one of the earliest well-represented bird species after the age of large dinosaurs," said study co-author Sterling Nesbitt, Assistant Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).

"You can definitely appreciate how complete these fossil are," Nesbitt added.

The new species is named Calciavis grandei -- with "calci" meaning "hard/stone," and "avis" from the Latin for bird, and "grandei" in honour of famed paleontologist Lance Grande.

The bird is believed to be roughly the size of a chicken, and similar to chickens, were mostly ground-dwelling, only flying in short bursts to escape predators.

Two fossils of Calciavis dating from the Eocene epoch -- roughly between 56 million and 30 million years ago -- were found by fossil diggers within the Green River Formation in Wyoming, a hot bed for extinct fish. 

"These are spectacularly preserved fossils, one is a nearly complete skeleton covered with feather remains, the others are nearly are nearly as complete and some show soft tissue remains," Nesbitt said.

The findings were published in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.

"The new bird shows us that the bird group that includes the largest flightless birds of today had a much wider distribution and longer evolutionary history in North America," Nesbitt said.

"Back when Calciavis was alive, it lived in a tropical environment that was rich with tropical life and this is in stark contrast to the high-desert environment in Wyoming today," Nesbitt pointed out.

​London, July 6 (IANS) Infections with two types of malaria parasite lead to greater health risks because one species helps the other to thrive, new research has found.

The researchers sought to understand what happens when the two most common malaria parasites cause infection at the same time, as they are known to attack the body in different ways.

They found that one type of parasite leads to the second species being provided with more of the resources it needs to prosper.

In people, a parasite known as P. falciparum infects red blood cells of all ages, while another - P. vivax - attacks only young red blood cells.

"Our findings also challenge ideas that one species will outcompete the other, which explains why infections involving two parasite species can pose a greater health risk to patients," said one of the researchers Sarah Reece, Professor at University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Experiments in mice with equivalent malaria parasites showed that the body's response to the first infection produces more of the type of red blood cell that the second parasite needs.

In response to the first infection, millions of red blood cells are destroyed. The body responds by replenishing these cells. These fresh cells quickly become infected by the second type of parasite, making the infection worse, the researchers said.

The finding could explain why infections with both P. falciparum and P. vivax in people often have worse outcomes for patients than single infections, the team noted.

Until recently, it was unclear how two parasite species interacted during co-infections.

The study, published in the journal Ecology Letters, was carried out in collaboration with the University of Toronto. ​

​New York, July 6 (IANS) Ditching homemade food for that king size burger and French fries can add not only extra kilos around your belly but may also increase the risk of developing diabetes, a study has warned.

Individuals who often ate from outside, typically fast food were more prone to gain weight -- a major cause for developing Type 2 diabetes, the researchers said.

Concerns have been raised that such people have a diet that is rich in energy but relatively poor in nutrients -- this could lead to weight gain, which is, in turn, associated with an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, said Qi Sun from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The findings showed that the people who consumed five-seven evening meals prepared at home during a week had a 15 per cent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes than those who consumed two such meals or fewer in a week. 

A smaller, but still statistically significant, reduction was apparent for those who consumed more midday meals prepared at home. 

Well-established diabetes prevention strategies include behavioural interventions aimed at increasing exercise and improving dietary habits.

The nutritional and lifestyle benefits of consuming meals prepared at home could contribute to these diabetes prevention efforts, the researchers suggested.

For the study, appearing in the journal PLOS Medicine, the team employed large prospective datasets in which US health professionals -- both men and women--were followed-up for long periods, with rigorous collection of data on health indicators, including self-reported information on eating habits and occurrence of diabetes.

New York, July 6 (IANS) Researchers have discovered that a protein in urine samples correlates with the presence and severity of Parkinson's disease.

The biomarker may act as a possible guide for future clinical treatments and a monitor of the efficacy of potential new Parkinson's drugs in real time during treatment.

"Nobody thought we'd be able to measure the activity of this huge protein called LRRK2 (pronounced lark two) in biofluids since it is usually found inside neurons in the brain," said Andrew West, Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the US.

For more than five years, urine and cerebral-spinal fluid samples from patients with Parkinson's disease have been locked in freezers in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) National Repository.

They were stored with the expectation they might someday help unravel the still hidden course of this slow acting neurodegenerative disease.

"New biochemical markers like the one we've discovered together with new neuroimaging approaches are going to be the key to successfully stopping Parkinson's disease in its tracks,” West said. 

"I think the days of blindly testing new therapies for complex diseases like Parkinson's without having active feedback both for 'on-target' drug effects and for effectiveness in patients are thankfully coming to an end," West noted.

The findings appeared in the journal Movement Disorders.

A biomarker helps physicians predict, diagnose or monitor disease, because the biomarker corresponds to the presence or risk of disease, and its levels may change as the disease progresses. 

Validated biomarkers can aid both preclinical trial work in the laboratory and future clinical trials of drugs to treat Parkinson's. ​

​London, July 6 (IANS) The first-ever record of a tumourous facial swelling found in a fossil has been discovered in the jaw of an estimated 69 million-year-old dwarf dinosaur, say researchers.

The fossil was discovered in the 'Valley of the Dinosaurs' in the Dinosaurs Geopark in Transylvania, western Romania. 

The non-cancerous facial tumour found on Telmatosaurus -- a type of primitive duck-billed dinosaur and also known as a hadrosaur -- had been previously seen in humans, mammals and some modern reptiles, but never before encountered in fossil animals.

"This discovery is the first ever described in the fossil record and the first to be thoroughly documented in a dwarf dinosaur,” said Kate Acheson, doctoral student at the University of Southampton in Britain.

“Telmatosaurus is known to be close to the root of the duck-billed dinosaur family tree, and the presence of such a deformity early in their evolution provides us with further evidence that the duck-billed dinosaurs were more prone to tumours than other dinosaurs," Acheson added.

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Scans taken of the Telmatosaurus fossil suggested that the dinosaur suffered from a condition known as 'ameloblastoma' -- a tumourous, non-cancerous growth known to afflict the jaws of humans and other mammals and some modern reptiles, too.

It is unlikely that the tumour caused the dinosaur any serious pain during its early stages of development, just as in humans with the same condition, but this particular dinosaur died before it reached adulthood, the researchers said, though they could not ascertain the cause of its death. 

"The tumour in this dinosaur had not developed to its full extent at the moment it died, but it could have indirectly contributed to its early demise," Zoltan Csiki-Sava from the University of Bucharest in Romania noted. ​

​Bangalore, July 4 (IANS) Taking the burgeoning gaming market to a new height, Global PC, tablet and smartphone maker Lenovo on Monday launched a new gaming portfolio for the millennial gamers in India. The thin and portable Rs 99,990 Lenovo Y700 Windows 10 is packed with an in-built 1 TB + 128 GB SSD and runs on standard volt Intel Core i7 Skylake CPU with Turbo Boost abilities. "The new Y700 is testimony to Lenovo’s constant innovation and pursuit to create new categories that enhance the consumer experience. The sleek Lenovo Y700 offers the experience, performance and versatility that gamers look for,” said Bhaskar Choudhuri, Director, Marketing Lenovo India, in a statement. For gamers on the go, this machine has plenty of horsepower to swap between graphics-intensive game time and rich-media software like Photoshop and CorelDraw. The machine comes with latest 4GB NVIDIA graphics, powerful Dolby audio JBL speakers, a subwoofer and an optional 10-point multi-touch display or Intel’s RealSense Camera (on the 15-inch laptop) that further enhances the gaming and multimedia experience. The “Optimised Thermal Cooling” technology keeps the Y700 stay cool even in intense on-screen actions. Along with the Y700, customers will also get a free Lenovo Y Gaming Backpack that fits up to a 17.3-inch laptop, includes padded pockets, a protective hard shell compartment and a chest strap for extra carrying support. As a special launch offer, the some cool gaming accessories worth Rs 12999 are available to customers at the price of Rs 2499 that include Lenovo Y Gaming Surround Sound Headset, Lenovo Y Gaming Precision Mouse and Lenovo Y Gaming Mechanical Switch Keyboard. The gaming portfolio is available on Lenovo's thedostore.com.​

​New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) A two-day meeting of the BRICS Working Group on 'Energy Saving and Energy Efficiency' will be held on July 4-5 in Visakhapatnam, an official said here on Sunday.

​London, July 2 (IANS) Want to stop craving for mouth-watering desserts? No worries as eating a powdered food supplement -- based on a molecule produced by bacteria in the gut -- can reduce craving for high-calorie foods such as chocolates, cakes and pizzas.

Sscientists have developed an ingredient called inulin-propionate ester to investigate the role of propionate molecule produced by the gut microbiota in human health.

For the study, the team analysed 20 volunteers who consumed a milkshake that either contained inulin-propionate ester or a type of fibre called inulin.

After drinking milkshakes, the participants underwent an MRI scan where they were shown pictures of various low or high calorie foods such as salad, fish and vegetables or chocolate, cake and pizza.

The findings showed that when the volunteers drank the milkshake containing inulin-propionate ester, they had less activity in areas of their brain linked to reward -- but only when looking at the high-calorie foods.

"The study shows that this supplement can decrease activity in brain areas associated with food reward at the same time as reducing the amount of food they eat," said Gary Frost, professor at Imperial College London.

Further, the volunteers were found to rate the high-calorie foods as less appealing.

In another experiment, the volunteers were given a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce and asked to eat as much as they like.

However, after drinking the inulin-propionate ester, the participants ate 10 per cent less pasta than when they drank the milkshake that contained inulin alone.

"This study shows that altering how the gut works can change not only appetite in general, but also change how the brain responds when they see high-calorie foods and how appealing they find the foods to be," noted another researcher Tony Goldstone from Imperial College London.

“Using inulin-propionate ester as a food ingredient may help prevent weight gain as it could reduce the urge to consume high calorie foods," suggested Claire Byrne from Imperial College London.

Some people's gut bacteria may naturally produce more propionate than others, which may be why some people seem more naturally predisposed to gain weight, said the paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.​