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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.

BEIJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- There is some part of China that could use additional water -- the drought-hit north, even while the central government is grappling to soak up excess liquidity to contain price hikes.The dry spell has continued for months in the grain production regions in northern China, setting off concerns that it might threaten China's grain output and thus cause food price hikes, a major contributor of the country's inflation in recent months.The bad weather came and may aggravate China's battle on price hikes, including higher interest rates and reserve ratios. The government also introduced price caps and promised increases in supplies to stabilize prices.Meteorological and agricultural experts said it is still too soon to predict a decline in grain output. However, they worried that if the drought continues into the spring, grain output will fall and push up food prices.DRY SPELLWater shortages have been gripping nine provinces since October last year, including the six major wheat producing regions in China -- Shanxi, Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu -- which contribute more than 80 percent of the country's total wheat output.Further, rainfall in the six provinces averaged only 40.2 millimeters since October last year, down 53 percent compared with previous years, according to the National Climate Center.As of Monday, 60.39 million mu (4.02 million hectares) of crops throughout the nation were plagued by drought, according to the latest statistics from the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters."There have been no rains for four months. It has been too long," said Song Qingguo, a farmer at the Xitiegang village of Qixian County in Henan, where winter wheat output accounts for almost one-fourth of the country's total."Wheat output will probably drop if such a situation continues," he worried.At present, some 15.86 million mu of wheat is exposed to drought, according to Yang Biantong, an official with Henan's water authorities.Another key wheat growing province of Shandong is facing its worst drought in 60 years, local authorities said. About 2 million hectares of land used for growing wheat, or 56 percent of the wheat-planting areas in the province, have been hit by drought, and the area is expanding, the Shandong provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said.H Scientists say it is a result of the La Nina effect that is also responsible for the harsh winter gripping large parts of China's south, which also affected production and transportation of vegetables and other food.The Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday that Chinese farm produce prices rose for a fourth consecutive week, through Jan. 23, with the wholesale prices of 18 staple vegetables growing 12.6 percent week on week. One reason for the price hike was the freezing weather in the south, it said."The current drought in China is the second worst during the same period of time since 1961 because of the adverse weather", said Zhang Peiqun, director with the weather forecast department of the National Climate Center.The bad weather will persist in the following period of time, which means the drought in the north and the cold snap in the south will continue, Zhang said.The China Meteorological Administration forecast on Wednesday that parts of Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Zhejiang provinces will have heavy snow or snowstorms in the coming three days. Also, icy rain will slash parts of Guizhou and Yunnan provinces.

LOS ANGELES, May 25 (Xinhua) -- NASA project managers bade farewell to the Mars rover Spirit on Wednesday after sending a final set of commands to the stranded vehicle.This marks the completion of one of the most successful missions of interplanetary exploration ever launched, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said."Last night, just after midnight, the last recovery command was sent to Spirit," said John Callas, the Mars Exploration Rover Project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Los Angeles."It would be an understatement to say this was a significant moment. Since the last communication from Spirit on March 22, 2010, as she entered her fourth Martian winter, nothing has been heard from her."NASA has tried in vain to regain communication with Spirit since it got stuck in sand about two years ago. The rover last communicated on March 22, 2010, as Martian winter approached and the rover's solar-energy supply declined.NASA checked frequently in recent months for possible reawakening of Spirit as solar energy available to the rover increased during Martian spring, but to no avail.A series of additional re-contact attempts ended on Wednesday, designed for various possible combinations of recoverable conditions, according to JPL."Our job was to wear these rovers out exploring, to leave no unutilized capability on the surface of Mars, and for Spirit, we have done that," said Callas.

BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government has reiterated a strict ban on hepatitis B tests during pre-employment physical examinations as many companies reportedly violated rules to require hepatitis B tests for job applicants.In a statement released Saturday, the Ministry of Health said that no health institutions are allowed to provide hepatitis B checks as part of pre-employment physical tests regardless of whether the examinees provide consent or not.On Feb. 10, 2010, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security jointly issued a circular demanding the cancellation of the hepatitis B tests during the health checks for school enrollment and employment nationwide.However, according to a survey released this week, which was conducted by the non-profit Beijing Yirenping Center, some 61.1 percent of the 180 state-run companies surveyed included hepatitis B checks in their pre-employment physical examinations.More surprisingly, 63 companies said that they would never consider hepatitis B carriers for a job or were reluctant to hire such people.Yu Fangqiang, the principal of the Yirenping Center, said that such violations mainly resulted from light punishment for violations and some health institutions' desire for profits.According to the survey, employers would only be fined between thousands to tens of thousands of yuan if they lose their lawsuits for bias against hepatitis B carriers.Meanwhile, a worker will spend a lot of time, energy and money to file a lawsuit and collect evidence in order to win.Liu Xiaonan, an associate professor with the China University of Political Science and Law, called on the government to hammer out a particular law and set up a special committee to investigate discrimination cases in order to ensure the rights of workers.In the statement released Saturday, the health ministry also ordered a careful investigation of all cases of hepatitis B discrimination, and promised that violators would be exposed and punished in accordance with laws and regulations.Medical tests show that hepatitis B virus can only be transmitted from mother to child during childbirth or by contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person.

BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Google on Wednesday began fixing a security hole in some 97 percent of Android phones that could let hackers snatch important credentials at public WiFi hotspots.The fix, which addresses a hole allowing hackers to access the contacts, calendars and photos on an Android phone connected to an open WiFi network, will take a few days to cover every phone, a Google spokesman said.Unlike a traditional software update, the problem exists on Google's servers, so Android users won't need to manually take action.The newest versions of Android, including the new wave of tablets running its Honeycomb software, are not affected by the bug, according to the researchers at Germany's University of Ulm who initially reported the issue.The vulnerability could also cause devices synchronizing with Google Picasa web albums to transmit sensitive data through unencrypted channels, the researchers added.The Google spokesman said the company's security team is still investigating those claims.

来源：资阳报