PGI Chandigarh PG Courses 2011 (January 2011) Entrance Exam Dates MD, MS, MCh, PHd Notification

PGI Chandigarh PG Courses 2011 (January 2011) Entrance Exam Dates MD, MS, MCh, PHd Notification

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DNA test may predict your child's talent

What if you knew your child has genes to be the next Einstein and you could very well bring out the best in him?

An increasing no. ofparents in the United States and Europe are getting their kids undergo a DNA or gene test that might give them an insight into the child's future prospects.

While some claim that knowing the results could help parents make decisions about where their kids might excel; others wonder if such a test is really a good idea.

Early gene mapping for future
The DNA test offers parents a glimpse of their kids future. It is a technology that promises to revolutionize the way we groom our children.

It is possible to determine a child's genetic makeup or genetic map well before he or she first kicks a ball, learns to swim or even before takes his or her first step.

“A child can be tested directly right after they're born,” Mike Weinstein of Atlas Sports Genetics said. “Because of this in-depth gene mapping knowledge we can determine the inborn or natural talents of your child. ”

Even, India has started using “sports genetics” to ascertain what sport their children will do best in when they grow up.

Doctors use information contained in the so-called “sports gene ACTN3” to predict what kind of game the child would excel in as an adult.

“Analysis of the ACTN3 gene can be used to predict the kind of muscle fibre the child will develop as he/she grows up. Based on this we can figure out the body’s capacity to adapt to different sports,” says a leading orthopedic surgeon in Chennai.

Till date, at least 100 parents across India have got their children's special genes tested.

How is it done?
The DNA talent test is done with a simple saliva swab costing Rs. 2,000. The ideal age to take the test is from 4 to 10 years.

The sample can collect as many as 10,000 cells that enable scientists to isolate up to 40 different genes.

By studying the genetic code, scientists can extract specialized DNA information about a child's IQ, athletic ability, artistic ability, emotional control, focus and other talents and even health and disease related factors.

China leads in DNA testing: CNN
Though the technology is fast getting popular all over the world, but in China, most parents are using this specialized DNA Talent Testing so they can steer their child along an athletic and scholastic path to which they are genetically suited, reported CNN.

In fact, the Chinese government has special programs for talented children as young as 2 years. Under the program, lucky parents are given scholarships and may even be paid a government salary, if needed.

If some are labeling the test as an attempt by performance-obsessed parents to overburden children already under pressure, many have welcomed the futuristic approach with both the hands.

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iPhone application to replace stethoscope

iPhone application to replace stethoscope

                                        

The iPhone could replace the stethoscope as millions of doctors worldwide are signing up for a free application created by a University College London researcher.

Peter Bentley invented the iStethoscope application which monitors heartbeat through sensors in the phone as just a bit of fun.

But it took off and now 500 applications are being downloaded everyday after a free version was introduced last week, reports the Telegraph.

"Everybody is very excited about the potential of the adoption of mobile phone technology into the medical workplace, and rightly so," said Bentley.

"Smartphones are incredibly powerful devices packed full of sensors, cameras, high-quality microphones with amazing displays," he said.

In the furture it could be possible for people to conduct their own ultrasounds or monitor blood pressure through smartphones.

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Facebook to unveil new office in Hyderabad

Facebook to unveil new office in Hyderabad

Leading social networking site Facebook, which has around half billion users worldwide, is unveiling its new office in Hyderabad in India. Hyderabad will be Facebook's second international office in the world.

Recently, Facebook has opened an international office in Dublin, Ireland. The headquarters of Facebook is located in Palo Alto, California.

Facebooks is planning to have several teams in Hyderabad office including a 24/7 support team. Big companies such as Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle etc. also have their offices in Hyderabad.

The office is expected to be operational from September 2010. However, the staff members from the US have already arrived in Hyderabad to oversee the progress.

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Health check: how to tackle childhood obesity

Health check: how to tackle childhood obesity

Obesity is a growing (excuse the pun) problem in the UK, especially in children.

Obesity levels have trebled since the 1980s and a 2007 study carried out for the Department of Health predicts that if current trends continue, 60% of men and 50% of women will be obese by 2050. One in five four-to-five-year-olds and one in three 10-11 year-olds are currently overweight or obese.

Health problems associated with obesity include heart disease, type-2 diabetes and high blood pressure. These are just the physical problems. Being overweight can also affect a child’s self-esteem and there is a possible link between obesity and depression.

Tackling a child’s weight is a sensitive issue. If you are concerned about your child’s weight, you can check their BMI (body mass index) against a centile chart for their age and sex. If they are above the 85th centile, they are overweight and, above the 95th centile, obese.

To calculate BMI, divide weight in kg by height in metres squared.

I must stress, however, that you should see your GP if you are concerned.

If your child is overweight, there is plently you can do and it’s important to act early to prevent them becoming an obese adult and developing serious health problems. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Don’t put them on a diet
Children don’t respond to being denied food and the very idea of ‘dieting’ will cause resistance. Instead, make a lifestyle change. Swap sugary foods for healthier alternatives i.e. porridge with honey instead of a sugary cereal. Don’t deny them treats, just limit them. Giving treats as a reward makes them more desirable so try to avoid praising good behaviour with their favourite sugary snack.

2. Be a good role model
If you’re eating healthy food, you child is more likely to follow. Make changes as a family and you’ll all reap the rewards.

3. Get active
The more active we are, the faster we lose weight. Chances are, if your child is overweight, they won’t enjoy exercise and will probably find it very difficult to start with. The key is to find something they enjoy and start gently. Don’t make it feel like exercise and they’re more likely to do it. Start simply walking to the shops instead of driving, going for a short bike ride, splashing around in a swimming pool or even putting on some loud music and dancing around the living room!

4. Limit their time in front of a screen
Agree with your children on a set time they can spend watching TV, playing video games or at a PC each day and stick to it.

5. Make sure they get a good night’s sleep
Research has linked poor sleeping habits with being overweight. Try a gentle wind-down in the evening with calming activities. Watching TV in bed and playing games in the evening can over-stimulate children and make it difficult for them to sleep.

There is a wealth of information online on how to help children lose weight. Try these sites for starters: 

www.nhs.uk/change4life;

www.mendprogramme.org

Further reading

• http://www.corestrengthstudios.co.uk

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Facebook popularity growing but privacy still a worry: Experts

NEW DELHI: More and more Indians might be hooked to social networking site Facebook, but experts feel that privacy issues still remain a concern since users face the vulnerability of their personal data getting hacked. 

According to experts and publicly available information, users' privacy is not fully protected while using many of the applications available on Facebook. 

Facebook applications have potential privacy issues and when a user signs up for an application, they are in essence allowing the developer to access all of their information and their friends' information, they said. 

Rahul Chaudhry, partner at intellectual property law firm Lall Lahiri & Salhotra said that although Facebook is a great way of being connected, the site also brings several potential privacy issues which the user must be aware of. 

"Your basic information, pictures, notes, local hard drive, the posts that one likes are vulnerable of becoming public," Chaudhry told media. 

"A users' profile pictures would be available on websites liked by clicking Facebook 'like' application. The pictures can also be downloaded by the person one is allowing to view them. Your local drive/information becomes accessible to third parties," he noted. 

Moreover, the users profile pictures and names would always be available on the internet. 

Last month, in an effort to highlight the privacy issues involved with the website globally, a security consultant had published personal details of 100 million Facebook users on the internet. 

Earlier this year, Facebook had faced public ire over the complexity of its privacy settings, following which the site had rolled out simplified privacy controls. 

"Privacy setting can be edited to hide the information from 'everyone' to 'friends of friends', only friends, customised etc, but the risk still remains," Chaudhry added. 

Depicting the fast growing popularity of the website, Facebook has beaten competitors like Orkut and Yahoo! to become the top social networking site in India with 20.9 million visitors in July this year, as per the report by research firm comScore. 

Another legal expert said that the loopholes in privacy could make a user vulnerable to cyber criminals and hackers. 

The user has to be aware of protecting himself and his personal data as, "Facebook has completely absolved itself of any liabilities as it has expressly stated in their terms of agreement importance of account settings and that applications developed by third parties are not created by it." 

"And Facebook has stated that it does not have the ability to control such applications or remove any infringing content from them," he said.

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Frog skin may offer 'kiss of death' for antibiotic-resistant germs

Kissing a frog won't turn it into a prince - except in fairy tales - but frog's skin can actually provide a 'kiss of death' for antibiotic-resistant germs.

Scientists have claimed that frog skin contains natural substances that could be the basis for a powerful new genre of antibiotics.

In a new study, the team of stalwart frog-fanciers described enlisting colleagues worldwide to ship secretions from hundreds of promising frog skins to their laboratory in the United Arab Emirates.

Using that amphibious treasure trove, they identified more than 100 antibiotic substances in the skins of different frog species from around the world.

One even fights "Iraqibacter," the bacterium responsible for drug-resistant infections in wounded soldiers returning from Iraq.

Dr. Michael Conlon, who reported on the research, noted that the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, which have the ability to shrug off conventional antibiotics, is a growing problem worldwide.

Thus, patients need new types of antibiotics to replace drugs that no longer work.

"Frog skin is an excellent potential source of such antibiotic agents. They've been around 300 million years, so they've had plenty of time to learn how to defend themselves against disease-causing microbes in the environment. Their own environment includes polluted waterways where strong defenses against pathogens are a must," said Conlon.

In the new study, the researchers discovered a way to tweak the molecular structure of frog skin antibiotic substances, making them less toxic to human cells but more powerful germ killers. Similarly, the scientists also discovered other tweaks that enabled the frog skin secretions to shrug off attack by destructive enzymes in the blood.

The result was antibiotics that last longer in the bloodstream and are more likely to be effective as infection fighters, Conlon noted.

The antibiotic substances work in an unusual way that makes it very difficult for disease-causing microbes to develop resistance, Conlon said.

The scientists are currently screening skin secretions from more than 6,000 species of frogs for antibiotic activity. So far, they have purified and determined the chemical structure of barely 200, leaving a potential bonanza of antibiotic substances awaiting discovery.

"Many people are working with me, giving me samples of frog skin secretions. We only actually use the frogs to get the chemical structure of the antibiotic, and then we make it in the lab. We take great care not to harm these delicate creatures, and scientists return them to the wild after swabbing their skin for the precious secretions," said Conlon.

The study was presented at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. (ANI)

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Urine-powered fuel cells to offer pee power to people

This could literally be called pee power to the people-researchers have figured out a way to make the world's first urine-powered fuel cells.

Chemistry postdocs Shanwen Tao and Rong Lan at Heriot-Watt University's School of Engineering and Physical Sciences in Edinburgh are turning pee into electricity and clean water with a prototype fuel cell system. I had heard about pee-power for robots, but not pee-power for everyone.

While fuel cells usually rely on flammable hydrogen gas or toxic methanol to generate electricity, Tao and Lan's cheaper prototype relies instead on urea, an organic chemical compound produced as waste when the body metabolizes protein.

Urea, also called "carbamide," has several advantages as a potential fuel source-it's abundant, non-toxic, relatively straightforward to transport and rich in nitrogen, reports Discovery News.

According to the university, Tao thought about incorporating urea because he had seen it used as a fertilizer while growing up in eastern China.

The Carbamide Power System prototype can break urea or urine from humans or animals down into water, nitrogen and CO2, and also produce electricity at the same time.

Unlike existing fuel cells that require catalysts made from precious metals like platinum, the "Youtricity" research group's prototype uses a cheaper catalyst and less expensive membranes.

A 203,000-dollar grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is helping the team develop the technology, which they think could be ideal for islands, deserts and even on submarines.

Plus, municipalities already spend a ton of money and energy removing urea from wastewater, so incorporating a system like this could help reduce those costs.

The prototype's exact components aren't being publicized, but the team is planning to have a demonstration system ready next year. (ANI)

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Sad mothers give birth to smaller babies

Sad mothers give birth to smaller babies

A new research has revealed that clinical depression and anxiety during pregnancy results in smaller babies who are more likely to die in infancy. 

The study, which focused on women living in rural Bangladesh, provides the first finding of its kind in a non-Western population.

The research indicated that mental health issues are likely to be a primary contributor to infant mortality and poor child health, above poverty, malnutrition or low socio-economic status.

A collaboration between researchers at the Karolinska Instituet in Sweden and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee ( BRAC) assessed the mental health of 720 women in the third trimester of pregnancy from two rural sub-districts of Bangladesh for symptoms of antepartum depression ( Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale) and antepartum anxiety (State Trait Anxiety Inventory) and followed them until 6-8 months postpartum.

Infant birth weight of 81 percent babies born at term was measured within 48 hours of delivery and baseline data provided socio-economic, anthropometric, reproductive, obstetric and social support information.

"18 percent of the women we studied in two rural areas of Bangladesh were diagnosed as having depression and one-quarter as having anxiety during pregnancy, and these women were much more likely to give birth to very small babies. This is a worrying problem, since low birth weight is strongly associated with infant death, which may in turn perpetuate the cycle of mental health problems and underdevelopment," said lead author Hashima-E- Nasreen.

The research has been published in the open access journal BMC Public Health. 


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