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WASHINGTON, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Those childhood music lessons could pay off decades later -- even for those who no longer play an instrument -- by keeping the mind sharper as people age, according to a preliminary study published by the American Psychological Association (APA).The study recruited 70 healthy adults age 60 to 83 who were divided into groups based on their levels of musical experience. The musicians performed better on several cognitive tests than individuals who had never studied an instrument or learned how to read music, according to the research findings published Wednesday online in the APA journal Neuropsychology."Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging," said lead researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, a clinical neuropsychologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center. "Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could compensate for cognitive declines as we get older."The three groups of study participants included individuals with no musical training; with one to nine years of musical study; or with at least 10 years of musical training. All of the participants had similar levels of education and fitness and didn' t show any evidence of Alzheimer's disease.All of the musicians were amateurs who began playing an instrument at about 10 years of age. More than half played the piano while approximately a quarter had studied woodwind instruments such as the flute or clarinet. Smaller numbers performed with stringed instruments, percussion or brass instruments.The high-level musicians who had studied the longest performed the best on the cognitive tests, followed by the low-level musicians and non-musicians, revealing a trend relating to years of musical practice. The high-level musicians had statistically significant higher scores than the non-musicians on cognitive tests relating to visuospatial memory, naming objects and cognitive flexibility, or the brain's ability to adapt to new information.The brain functions measured by the tests typically decline as the body ages and more dramatically deteriorate in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. The results "suggest a strong predictive effect of high musical activity throughout the lifespan on preserved cognitive functioning in advanced age," the study stated.Half of the high-level musicians still played an instrument at the time of the study, but they didn't perform better on the cognitive tests than the other advanced musicians who had stopped playing years earlier. This suggests that the duration of musical study was more important than whether musicians continued playing at an advanced age, Hanna-Pladdy says."Based on previous research and our study results, we believe that both the years of musical participation and the age of acquisition are critical," Hanna-Pladdy says. "There are crucial periods in brain plasticity that enhance learning, which may make it easier to learn a musical instrument before a certain age and thus may have a larger impact on brain development."The preliminary study was correlational, meaning that the higher cognitive performance of the musicians couldn't be conclusively linked to their years of musical study. More research is needed to explore that possible link.

WASHINGTON, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Researchers at the University of Colorado (CU) and the Harvard University have found that people living at higher altitudes have a lower chance of dying from ischemic heart disease and tend to live longer than others, according to a study published this week in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.They spent four years analyzing death certificates from every county in the United States. They examined cause-of-death, socio- economic factors and other issues in their research.They found that of the top 20 counties with the highest life expectancy, eleven for men and five for women were located in Colorado and Utah. And each county was at a mean elevation of 5, 967 feet above sea level. The men lived between 75.8 and 78.2 years, while women ranged from 80.5 to 82.5 years.Compared to those living near sea-level, the men lived 1.2 to 3. 6 years longer and women 0.5 to 2.5 years more."If living in a lower oxygen environment such as in our Colorado mountains helps reduce the risk of dying from heart disease it could help us develop new clinical treatments for those conditions," said Benjamin Honigman, professor of Emergency Medicine at the CU School of Medicine. "Lower oxygen levels turn on certain genes and we think those genes may change the way heart muscles function. They may also produce new blood vessels that create new highways for blood flow into the heart."Another explanation, he said, could be that increased solar radiation at altitude helps the body better synthesize vitamin D which has also been shown to have beneficial effects on the heart and some kinds of cancer.Despite these numbers, the study showed that when socio- economic factors, solar radiation, smoking and pulmonary disease were taken into account, the net effect of altitude on overall life expectancy was negligible.Still, Honigman said, altitude seems to offer protection against heart disease deaths and may also play a role in cancer development.Colorado, the highest state in the nation, is also the leanest state, the fittest state, has the fewest deaths from heart disease and a lower incidence of colon and lung cancer compared to others.

BEIJING, March 19 (Xinhua) -- In spite of the fact that snow still covers his farmland, Jiang Chen has been busy stocking fertilizers and seeds to prepare for the coming spring farming season."I am almost ready for the sowing," said Jiang, a 64-year-old peasant who farms five hectares of cropland in Liujia Township in Yushu City, northeast China's Jilin Province. "But the costs are rising so I still want to look for better seeds providing a higher yield this year."As the Chinese government continued policies to assure a good grain harvest this year, millions of farmers like Jiang in China's major grain-producing regions such as Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shandong and Henan provinces are now gearing up to finalize preparations for the coming sowing season.The central government's incentives in 2011 include increases in minimum rice purchase prices by 9.7 percent to 21.9 percent from last year, as well as 24.9 billion yuan (about 3.77 billion U.S. dollars) in subsidies to the national grain risk fund for farmers."Though farmers are richer now than before, our economic strength remains relatively weak as compared with urban residents," Jiang said.He noted that he was considering investing less this year because the cost of agricultural production has increased year after year.The average urea price from manufacturers and retailers rose about 10 percent from last year to about 1,980 yuan and 2,100 yuan per tonne at a grain and oil wholesale market near Yuquan Road in Beijing, where many farmers from neighboring Hebei, Henan and Shandong provinces buy agricultural fertilizers and additives.Urea is the primary fertilizer used by Chinese grain growers, though many of the farmers said that they would reduce the use the compound in their fields due to rising prices and the impact on wheat caused by the widespread drought in north China this winter.Wang Quan, the president of China National Agricultural Means of Production Group Corp., the country's largest supplier of agricultural materials, predicted that the use of urea during the spring farming season would be between 20 million tonnes to 25 million tonnes, which is about two fifths of the year's total.Wang said that the urea price is around 400 U.S. dollars per tonne in global markets, or 15.7 percent higher than the domestic price."I think it takes time for Chinese farmers to accept the price hikes gradually," he added.Analysts say that the different perceptions on urea prices between manufacturers and farmers may have affected China's crops because the reduced use of fertilizers usually mean less grain output in the country since many farmers depend more on fertilizers, rather than technology to boost production.China's grain output rose 2.9 percent last year to 546.41 million tonnes, marking the seventh consecutive year of growth. The country aims to keep its 2011 grain production over 500 million tonnes, according to an executive meeting of the State Council, or the Cabinet, Thursday.Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said last month that rising costs of grain production, the lingering drought in north China's major wheat-growing regions and the weakening of agricultural production in some areas would directly affect China's summer grain output.Facing challenges such as higher costs for growing grain, Jiang believed that he could generate higher income from his crops this year with the support of the agricultural sector by the government."If the grain prices also rise this year, I can still earn a net income of 10,000 yuan for every hectare of farmland," Jiang said."I hope to keep my farmland from being seized for industrial or residential development," he added.

CHIAYI, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chen Yunlin, the Chinese mainland chief negotiator with Taiwan, discussed cooperation prospects on Friday with fishermen and farmers in Chiayi in southern Taiwan.Chen, president of the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), led a 50-member delegation and spoke at a seminar attended by more than 70 business people from both the mainland and Taiwan.He said small and medium-sized enterprises on both sides "played an important role in cross-Strait economic development, employment and in maintaining social stability.""Small- and medium-sized businesses are an important part of cross-Strait economic exchanges," he said, adding that among the more than 80,000 Taiwanese enterprises investing on the mainland, over 50 percent are small and medium-sized companies.Chen said that efforts should be made to enhance cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises on the mainland and those in central and southern Taiwan.The mainland delegation arrived in Chiayi from Kaohsiung after investigating the investment environment with local business leaders. They arrived in Taipei on Wednesday at the invitation of Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). Both the SEF and the ARATS are authorized by the two sides to handle cross-Strait affairs.Chen said that since 2005, the mainland bought a large amount of farm and fishing products from Taiwan, which greatly boosted sales of Taiwanese products."Many renowned mainland distribution firms are present here at the seminar to seek cooperation opportunities with Taiwan's farmers and fishermen so that the sale of Taiwanese products on the mainland could increase steadily," he said.Chiang said the farming and fishing industries were the most important sectors in southern Taiwan.He added that the tax-reduction plan of the cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement's (ECFA) "early harvest" program, which took effect on January 1, covered 13 categories for farming products and five categories for fishing goods. Chiang said the plan was an opportunity for the industry to expand its exports to the mainland.He noted that the "early harvest" program's duty exemption also covered sectors like textiles, machinery components, and "all related to small- and medium-sized enterprises."Chiang said Friday's seminar was meant to promote cooperation between smaller businesses across the Strait, to deepen the effect of the ECFA to benefit both sides.The mainland delegation will continue its trip in southern Taiwan and return to Taipei late Saturday. They will visit Taipei's Neihu Industrial Park on Sunday before leaving the island on Monday.