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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, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Lending to China's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) rose faster than loans to large enterprises last year, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank.Outstanding loans to small enterprises by banks and financial institutions jumped 29.3 percent year on year to 7.55 trillion yuan (1.15 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2010, while loans to medium-sized enterprises stood at 10.13 trillion yuan, up 17.8 percent, said the PBOC.Outstanding loans to large enterprises rose 13.3 percent to 13.42 trillion yuan, highlighting the government's efforts to optimize the loan structure, the PBOC said.About 99 percent of Chinese enterprises are SMEs which contribute 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product.Financing has long been difficult for Chinese SMEs as banks prefer to lend to big companies, particularly reputable state-owned enterprises.The government has moved to help SMEs get finance by differentiating the reserve requirement ratio for the Rural Credit Cooperative, the major lender to SMEs, and encouraging innovation in SME bond issuance.In July last year, the PBOC asked financial institutions to establish independent criteria for approving loans to SMEs and to improve efficiency in processing SME loan applications.The PBOC said SME loan growth would continue to accelerate this year.

N'DJAMENA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno said Wednesday while meeting visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi that his country is willing to expand cooperation with China in infrastructure building, agriculture, health care and other fields.During the meeting with Yang, who arrived here Tuesday for an official visit, the president said the Chadian-Chinese relations are based on equality, mutual respect and noninterference in each other's interior affairs. He said China has successfully completed a number of aid projects in Chad, which greatly facilitated the social and economic development of the African country.Deby said Chad is willing to boost cooperation with China in such areas as infrastructure construction, agriculture and health care, and hopes to strengthen coordination with China on international affairs.For his part, Yang said Chad has undertaken the path of national reconciliation, political stability and social progress under the leadership of President Deby, and has made significant achievements in economic development and improvement of the welfare of the Chadian people.He said bilateral relations are developing rapidly since the re-establishment of diplomatic ties, with cooperation and exchanges at different levels significantly increased. The two sides have improved mutual political trust, supported each other on matters regarding each other's core interests, and seen continuous progress in trade and economic cooperation, said the foreign minister.Yang said China sees Chad as an important partner in Africa, and China is willing to further boost mutual political trust with Chad, expand trade and cooperation in infrastructure building, telecommunications as well as education sectors.The visiting Chinese FM also met with his Chadian counterpart Moussa Faki Mahamat Wednesday on further improving bilateral relations and cooperation.

WASHINGTON, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Johns Hopkins University researchers have demonstrated that human liver cells derived from adult cells coaxed into an embryonic state can engraft and begin regenerating liver tissue in mice with chronic liver damage.The work, published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, suggests that liver cells derived from so- called "induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)" could one day be used as an alternative to liver transplant in patients with serious liver diseases, bypassing long waiting lists for organs and concerns about immune system rejection of donated tissue."Our findings provide a foundation for producing functional liver cells for patients who suffer liver diseases and are in need of transplantation," says Yoon-Young Jang, assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. "iPSC-derived liver cells not only can be generated in large amounts, but also can be tailored to each patient, preventing immune-rejection problems associated with liver transplants from unmatched donors or embryonic stem cells." A microsopic view shows human embryonic stem cells in various stages of differentiation into liver cells in this photo taken at Stanford University and released by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, March 9, 2009iPSCs are made from adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to revert to an embryonic stem cell-like state, with the ability to transform into different cell types. Human iPSCs can be generated from various tissues, including skin, blood and liver cells.Although the liver can regenerate in the body, end-stage liver failure caused by diseases like cirrhosis and cancers eventually destroy the liver's regenerative ability, Jang says. Currently, the only option for those patients is to receive a liver organ or liver cell transplant, a supply problem given the severe shortage of donor liver tissue for transplantation. In addition, mature liver cells and adult liver stem cells are difficult to isolate or grow in the laboratory, she says. By contrast, iPSCs can be made from a tiny amount of many kinds of tissue; and the embryonic stem- like iPSCs can grow in laboratory cultures indefinitely.For the study, Jang and colleagues generated human iPSCs from a variety of adult human cells, including liver cells, fibroblasts ( connective tissue cells), bone marrow stem cells and skin cells. They found that though the iPSCs overall were molecularly similar to each other and to embryonic stem cells, they retained a distinct molecular "signature" inherited from the cell of origin.

LOS ANGELES, March 23 (Xinhua) -- People who are more physically active are less likely to have high blood pressure associated with a high-sodium diet, a new study suggests.The study was conducted by researchers at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, HealthDay News reported on Wednesday.Study findings were presented at the on-going American Heart Association's meeting on nutrition, physical activity and cardiovascular disease, held in Atlanta, said the report.To explore a potential association between exercise and the hypertensive role of dietary salt, the researchers focused on roughly 1,900 men and women (average age 38) living in a rural region in northern China. None took blood pressure medication during the study, according to the report.For one week all of the participants consumed 3,000 mg of sodium a day in their diet; for another week, they were placed on a high-sodium diet -- 18,000 mg per day.Nine blood pressure readings were taken each week, and questionnaires were completed to assess routine levels of physical activity, ranging from "very active" to "quite sedentary."When switching from the lower-sodium to a high-sodium diet, those who experienced a 5 percent or greater boost in their systolic blood pressure (the heart contraction measure represented by the top figure of a blood pressure reading) were deemed "high salt-sensitive."Those reporting the most physical activity had a 38 percent lower risk of being highly salt-sensitive than the least active group. This group was the least likely to see a 5 percent or greater rise in their blood pressure in response to a high-salt diet.Compared with the most sedentary group, those in the next-to- highest activity group had a 17 percent lower risk of salt- sensitivity, and those in the next-to-lowest activity group had a 10 percent lower risk.The team concluded that engaging in physical activity has a " significant," independent and progressively healthful impact on the degree to which salt sensitivity relates to blood pressure."For those with low physical activity, their blood pressure will increase more if they increase their sodium intake," study co- author Dr. Jiang He, chair of the department of epidemiology at the school, said in remarks published by HeathDay News."It's a little bit of a surprise," He added. "But this is the first study to look at this particular association between physical activity and salt sensitivity and blood pressure. But after thinking it over it makes sense, because we already know that physical activity will reduce blood pressure."High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a leading cause of stroke. Because of salt's association with high blood pressure, the American Heart Association recommends consuming less than 1, 500 mg of sodium per day.

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