Childhood anxiety is a condition supposedly noted in children who remain socially unconnected. Apparently researchers from the UW-Madison pinpoint elevated brain activity in the amygdala and anterior hippocampus to help decide new strategies for early detection and treatment of at-risk children. Scientists assume children having higher activity in these brain regions to develop anxiety and depression.

In a prior investigation, it was concluded that anxious young monkeys are similar to children who are temperamentally anxious. In the course of the present research, experts assayed the extent of genetic and environmental factors to promote activity in the anxiety-related brain regions, making children accessible. Claimed to be the largest imaging research of non-human primates, scientists scanned the brains of 238 young rhesus monkeys. It was mentioned that all the study subjects belonged to the same extended family.

"Children with anxious temperaments suffer from extreme shyness, persistent worry, and increased bodily responses to stress. It has long been known that these children are at increased risk of developing anxiety, depression and associated substance abuse disorders," affirmed Dr. Ned H. Kalin, chair of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, who led the research.

During the investigations, monkeys were subjected to a positron emission tomography (PET) scan. This scan is apparently employed in humans to evaluate the regional brain function by calculating the brain's use of glucose. Researchers found young rhesus monkeys from a large related family to have a clear pattern of inherited anxious temperament. Those monkeys who were registered with anxious temperaments revealed higher activity in the central nucleus of the amygdala and the anterior hippocampus.

While analyzing, the scientists were supposedly able to determine an individual's degree of anxious temperament by the brain activity. Activity in the amygdala and hippocampus seemed to be affected by genes and environmental factors in different ways. The scientists were seemingly provided with a brain-based understanding of the way nature and nurture can interact for ascertaining an individual's ability to acquire common psychiatric disorders.

Kalin explained, "We believe that young children who have higher activity in these brain regions are more likely to develop anxiety and depression as adolescents and adults, and are also more likely to develop drug and alcohol problems in an attempt to treat their distress."

It was uncovered that activity in the anterior hippocampus is more heritable as compared to the amygdale. The findings may lead to new ways of identifying anxiety in children. Markers of familial risk for anxiety are seemingly found by understanding modifications in specific genes promoting hippocampal function. It was concluded that alteration in the environment can probably avoid children from developing anxiety.

The research is published in the August 12 edition of the journal Nature.

THE Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday slammed the report that claimed a drug-resistant superbug was traced back to India, terming it as "alarmist".

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said it was unfair to say that the so-called "superbug NDM-1" was found only in India and Pakistan.

"It's universal and is found in the intestines of humans and animals. It's wrong to say that it's found only in India and Pakistan. They say it's found in patients who visit India and Pakistan. It was nowhere mentioned if the bacteria were there even before those persons visited India," he told reporters outside Parliament.

The Health Ministry, which was ascertaining the motives behind the study, also took strong exception to the last sentence of the report. "Concluding sentence presents a frightening picture which is not supported by any scientific data," said an official.

Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi strongly objected to the naming of the "superbug" after New Delhi. "It's like HIV. As far as my information is, the first patient of HIV was in America. Can we say it originated in America? So, instead of HIV, can we say 'America NMD' or something like that?" he wondered aloud.

"Karthikeyan Kumaraswamy, one of the co-authors, has denied and disassociated himself from the report. We have to find if there's some ulterior motive of some pharmaceutical industry," he told reporters.

Karthikeyan also dismissed as hypothetical this conclusion and said the alarmist interpretations were made without his knowledge. He said there was nothing to fear about the bacteria. "Without my knowledge some of the interpretations were written in the report," said the 32-year-old research scholar of AL Mudaliar Post-Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Madras.Karthikeyan co-authored with Timothy Walsh the research article published in the Lancet.

MUMBAI: The BMC on Wednesday sent samples of various brands of an oil used to kill mosquito larvae to Haffkine Research Institute. The institute will check the product's efficacy.

The test reports are expected by Thursday. BMC's chief insecticide officer Dr Arun Bamne said that the institute will check the oil's potency. "After we get the test reports, we will procure the brand that is found to be the most effective in controlling larvae,'' he said.

Dr Ramaiya Mira, head of the Zoonosis department, Haffkine Research Institute, said that larvae and adult mosquitoes are collected and studied in small boxes named `colonies'. "Mosquito colonies to study efficacy of repellents have been used for several decades. It is an established method of testing compounds in this institute,'' she added.

A source from the institute said that the Defence Research and Development Organisation has not commissioned any study recently as reported in the media. It was actually done in 2008-09, the source added.

Dengue cases in the city climbed to 140 today after 19 more people tested positive for the virus.

"19 new patients tested positive for dengue fever. A total of 140 people have tested positive for dengue this season," MCD municipal health officer NK Yadav said.

Yadav said that the dengue cases reported at this time of the year was more in comparison to the corresponding period last year.

"Rains, Commonwealth Games and increased surveillance is the result of the increased number of cases being reported this year," Yadav said.

Municipal authorities have issued challans to many residents and organisations for breeding of mosquitoes in their premises.

Researchers found that male asthma sufferers who use inhalers are up to 40 per cent more likely to develop tumours than men without the condition.

Merely having asthma increases a man's likelihood of developing prostate cancer by 26 per cent.

The Australian academics who carried out the study said the results showed the need for more research into the relationship between asthma, inhalers and prostate cancer.

They originally chose to investigate a possible link between the two conditions because both involve an inflammation of the body.

Cancer experts stressed that the new findings - based on an analysis of the medical histories of 1,179 men diagnosed with prostate cancer - were preliminary, and urged asthma sufferers to continue using their inhalers.

Dr Elaine Vickers from Asthma UK told the Daily Mail: "This research suggests their could be a weak association between asthma and prostate cancer risk.

"However even if this is true, the association is marginal, and there is no reason for men with asthma to be concerned."

The study was published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.