KNOW MORE ABOUT DODO BIRD
The dodo is among the most famous extinct creatures and a poster child for human-caused extinction events. Despite its notoriety and the fact that the species was alive during recorded human history, little is actually known about how this animal lived, looked, and behaved. The study was made with a 3D laser scan and was presented at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Estrel, Berlin. leon Claessens, associate professor, Holy Cross and lead researcher of the study said, “The 3D laser surface scans of the fragile Thirioux dodo skeletons enable us to reconstruct how the dodo walked, moved and lived to a level of detail that has never been possible before. There are so many outstanding questions about the dodo bird that we can answer with this new knowledge.”
GOOD EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAMES
Researchers are to begin testing a new computer game which they hope could hold the key to helping visually-impaired children lead independent lives. Developed by a team of neuroscientists and video game designers from the University of lincoln, UK, and the WESC Foundation, one of the UK's leading specialist schools for visually impaired children, the Eyelander game features exploding volcanoes, a travelling avatar and animated landscapes. The idea is to improve the functional vision of children who have sight issues due to a brain injury rather than damage to the eye itself. Functional vision is used to perform everyday tasks such as safely crossing the road or finding a book on a bookshelf, but when the visual pathways between the brain and the eyes become damaged, the messages aren't correctly relayed and the visual field becomes reduced. Causes of blindness in children are varied but cerebral visual impairment is among the most common.
new drug treats common liver disease
An experimental drug aimed at treating a common liver disease came up with promising results at a clinical trial in the US. People with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) who took obeticholic acid (OCA) had improved liver health during that period, including decreased inflammation and fat in the liver and decreased body weight versus people receiving a placebo, the findings of FlIN, or the Farnesoid X Receptor ligand Obeticholic Acid in NASH treatment trial, showed. “The FlINT trial represents an important advance in the search for treatments for NASH. The causes of NASH are not fully understood, and causes and treatments may be different among patients,” said Brent Neuschwander-Tetri, professor at the St louis University, US. The major feature of NASH is fat in the liver, along with inflammation and damage. For the study, 283 people were enrolled at eight centres across the country.
lINK BETWEEN AIR POllUTION AND ADHD
Prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) a component of air pollution and raises the odds of behavior problems associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at Mailman School of Public Health. The researchers followed 233 nonsmoking pregnant women and their children in New York City from pregnancy into childhood and found that children born to mothers exposed to high levels of PAH during pregnancy had five times the odds of a higher-than-usual number and degree of symptoms that characterise ADHD as compared to children whose mothers did not have such exposure. The study will explore the connection between prenatal PAH and ADHD in school-age children over time.
VARIED USES OF SMARTPHONES
While young American smartphone users are more likely to use their phones for email, texting and social media, those from South Korea are more interested in entertainment and information gathering, new research says. The two countries were selected for the study due to the high rates of smartphone ownership among their young adults. Eighty per cent of Americans own smartphones, while the ownership rate in South Korea is about 90 per cent. “Mobile media is facilitating our communication needs more than traditional media such as television, radio or newspapers,” said co-researcher Seok Kang from the University of Texas, San Antonio. For nearly a year, the researchers conducted online surveys and analysed the data of more than 1,600 students from both countries. The study was published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.