Music training benefits babies' brains

Toronto: Early musical training benefits children even before they can walk or talk, says the first-ever study of its kind.
One-year olds who participated in interactive music classes with their parents were found to smile more, communicate better, and show earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music.
'Many past studies of musical training have focused on older children. Our results suggest that the infant brain might be particularly plastic with regard to musical exposure,' says Laurel Trainor, director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, the journals Developmental Science and Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences report.
Trainor, together with David Gerry, music educator and graduate student, received an award from the Grammy Foundation in 2008 to study the effects of musical training in infancy.
In the recent study, groups of babies and their parents spent six months participating in one of two types of weekly music instruction, according to a McMaster's statement.
One music class involved interactive music-making and learning a small set of lullabys, nursery rhymes and songs with actions. Parents and infants worked together to learn to play percussion instruments, take turns and sing specific songs.
In the other music class, infants and parents played at various toy stations while recordings from the popular Baby Einstein series played in the background. Before the classes began, all the babies had shown similar communication and social development and none had previously participated in other baby music classes.
'Babies who participated in the interactive music classes with their parents showed earlier sensitivity to the pitch structure in music,' says Trainor. 'Specifically, they preferred to listen to a version of a piano piece that stayed in key, versus a version that included out-of-key notes,' he adds.

'Infants who participated in the passive listening classes did not show the same preferences. Even their brains responded to music differently. Infants from the interactive music classes showed larger and/or earlier brain responses to musical tones,' adds Trainor. The non-musical differences between the two groups of babies were even more surprising, say researchers.

Music training benefits babies' brains

Toronto: Early musical training benefits children even before they can walk or talk, says the first-ever study of its kind.
One-year olds who participated in interactive music classes with their parents were found to smile more, communicate better, and show earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music.
'Many past studies of musical training have focused on older children. Our results suggest that the infant brain might be particularly plastic with regard to musical exposure,' says Laurel Trainor, director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, the journals Developmental Science and Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences report.
Trainor, together with David Gerry, music educator and graduate student, received an award from the Grammy Foundation in 2008 to study the effects of musical training in infancy.
In the recent study, groups of babies and their parents spent six months participating in one of two types of weekly music instruction, according to a McMaster's statement.
One music class involved interactive music-making and learning a small set of lullabys, nursery rhymes and songs with actions. Parents and infants worked together to learn to play percussion instruments, take turns and sing specific songs.
In the other music class, infants and parents played at various toy stations while recordings from the popular Baby Einstein series played in the background. Before the classes began, all the babies had shown similar communication and social development and none had previously participated in other baby music classes.
'Babies who participated in the interactive music classes with their parents showed earlier sensitivity to the pitch structure in music,' says Trainor. 'Specifically, they preferred to listen to a version of a piano piece that stayed in key, versus a version that included out-of-key notes,' he adds.

'Infants who participated in the passive listening classes did not show the same preferences. Even their brains responded to music differently. Infants from the interactive music classes showed larger and/or earlier brain responses to musical tones,' adds Trainor. The non-musical differences between the two groups of babies were even more surprising, say researchers.

Antarctic ice shelf faces threat from warm waters

Berlin: Scientists have punched holes in Antarctic's viability by refuting the prevalent assumption that its Weddell Sea ice shelves would remain impervious to global warming due to the sea's peripheral location.

Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, fringing the Weddel Sea, may start to melt rapidly this century and no longer act as a barrier for ice streams draining the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

'The Weddell Sea was not really on the screen because we all thought that unlike the Amundsen Sea its warm waters would not be able to reach the ice shelves,' said Hartmut Hellmer, oceanographer at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany, who led the study, the journal Nature reported.

'But we found a mechanism which drives warm water towards the coast with an enormous impact on the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in the coming decades,' added Hellmer, according to a Alfred Wegener statement.

Using different calculations, Hellmer and colleagues Frank Kauker, Ralph Timmermann and Jurgen Determann, besides Jamie Rae from Met Office, Hadley Centre, Britain, demonstrate that large ice masses could presumably slide into the ocean within the next six decades, thanks to a chain reaction.

This chain reaction is triggered by rising air temperatures above the southeastern Weddell Sea. 'Our models show that the warmer air will lead to the currently solid sea ice in the southern Weddell Sea becoming thinner and therefore more fragile and mobile in a few decades,' said Kauker.

If this happens, fundamental transport processes will change. 'This will mean that a hydrographic front in the southern Weddell Sea will disappear which has so far prevented warm water from getting under the ice shelf. According to our calculations, this protective barrier will disintegrate by the end of this century,' explained Hellmer.

An inflow of warmer water beneath the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf will melt the ice from below. 'We expect the greatest melting rates near the so-called grounding line, the zone in which the ice shelf settles on the sea floor at the transition to the glacier,' said Determann.

'At this point the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf is melting today at a rate of around five metres per year. By the turn of the next century the melt rates will rise to up to 50 metres per year,' added Determann.

Antarctic ice shelf faces threat from warm waters

Berlin: Scientists have punched holes in Antarctic's viability by refuting the prevalent assumption that its Weddell Sea ice shelves would remain impervious to global warming due to the sea's peripheral location.

Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, fringing the Weddel Sea, may start to melt rapidly this century and no longer act as a barrier for ice streams draining the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

'The Weddell Sea was not really on the screen because we all thought that unlike the Amundsen Sea its warm waters would not be able to reach the ice shelves,' said Hartmut Hellmer, oceanographer at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany, who led the study, the journal Nature reported.

'But we found a mechanism which drives warm water towards the coast with an enormous impact on the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in the coming decades,' added Hellmer, according to a Alfred Wegener statement.

Using different calculations, Hellmer and colleagues Frank Kauker, Ralph Timmermann and Jurgen Determann, besides Jamie Rae from Met Office, Hadley Centre, Britain, demonstrate that large ice masses could presumably slide into the ocean within the next six decades, thanks to a chain reaction.

This chain reaction is triggered by rising air temperatures above the southeastern Weddell Sea. 'Our models show that the warmer air will lead to the currently solid sea ice in the southern Weddell Sea becoming thinner and therefore more fragile and mobile in a few decades,' said Kauker.

If this happens, fundamental transport processes will change. 'This will mean that a hydrographic front in the southern Weddell Sea will disappear which has so far prevented warm water from getting under the ice shelf. According to our calculations, this protective barrier will disintegrate by the end of this century,' explained Hellmer.

An inflow of warmer water beneath the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf will melt the ice from below. 'We expect the greatest melting rates near the so-called grounding line, the zone in which the ice shelf settles on the sea floor at the transition to the glacier,' said Determann.

'At this point the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf is melting today at a rate of around five metres per year. By the turn of the next century the melt rates will rise to up to 50 metres per year,' added Determann.

Party secretary's statement not the final stand of the party: VS
Tiruvananthapuram: Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan on Saturday said the party secretary's statement is not the final stand of the party'. CPM has no high command like in Congress and IUML. CPM has a definite system to decide party's stand. He said he won't approve the comments of VV Dakshinamoorthy who hailed Pinarayi and flayed VS in Onchiyam issue. 
When the comrades in Onchiyam came up with different stand, the party should have accepted a stand to make them return to party by changing their views. But instead they were insulted. Tomorrow party will be forced to take the right stand, VS said 
VS said in 1964 when comrades including him boycotted CPI national council against the monopolistic attitude of S A Dankey 
, Dankey ousted them calling as as class traitors . The latest report presented in party congress stated that there are 10 lakh members in the party and it proved that the stand taken by them in 1964 was right. 

Party secretary's statement not the final stand of the party: VS
Tiruvananthapuram: Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan on Saturday said the party secretary's statement is not the final stand of the party'. CPM has no high command like in Congress and IUML. CPM has a definite system to decide party's stand. He said he won't approve the comments of VV Dakshinamoorthy who hailed Pinarayi and flayed VS in Onchiyam issue. 
When the comrades in Onchiyam came up with different stand, the party should have accepted a stand to make them return to party by changing their views. But instead they were insulted. Tomorrow party will be forced to take the right stand, VS said 
VS said in 1964 when comrades including him boycotted CPI national council against the monopolistic attitude of S A Dankey 
, Dankey ousted them calling as as class traitors . The latest report presented in party congress stated that there are 10 lakh members in the party and it proved that the stand taken by them in 1964 was right. 

Air India pilots ask PM to look into 'genuine demands'

With the agitation by Air India pilots entering the fifth day on Saturday, the national carrier cancelled 16 flights from New Delhi and Mumbai even as senior pilots sought the Prime Minister's intervention to end the impasse.

'16 of our flights originating from Delhi and Mumbai have been cancelled,' an AI spokesperson said. Supporting the agitation, senior pilots wrote a letter to the chairman and managing director of AI and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying the demand of the pilots were genuine and they should be looked into, sources said.

About 200 pilots owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots' Guild are on strike since Tuesday protesting rescheduling of training on Dreamliner and issues related to career progression.Taking a tough stand, the Air India management had on Friday sacked 25 pilots. With this, the total number of pilots whose services have been terminated has gone upto 71.

AI has also written to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asking it to cancel the licenses of 11 office bearers of the IPG whose services have been terminated.The IPG has said that they are ready for talks and have sought time for a meeting with civil aviation minister Ajit Singh.The minister has asked the pilots to return to work and assured them that their demands will be heard

Air India pilots ask PM to look into 'genuine demands'

With the agitation by Air India pilots entering the fifth day on Saturday, the national carrier cancelled 16 flights from New Delhi and Mumbai even as senior pilots sought the Prime Minister's intervention to end the impasse.

'16 of our flights originating from Delhi and Mumbai have been cancelled,' an AI spokesperson said. Supporting the agitation, senior pilots wrote a letter to the chairman and managing director of AI and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying the demand of the pilots were genuine and they should be looked into, sources said.

About 200 pilots owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots' Guild are on strike since Tuesday protesting rescheduling of training on Dreamliner and issues related to career progression.Taking a tough stand, the Air India management had on Friday sacked 25 pilots. With this, the total number of pilots whose services have been terminated has gone upto 71.

AI has also written to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asking it to cancel the licenses of 11 office bearers of the IPG whose services have been terminated.The IPG has said that they are ready for talks and have sought time for a meeting with civil aviation minister Ajit Singh.The minister has asked the pilots to return to work and assured them that their demands will be heard

Italian marines' bail plea rejected, remand extended to May 25
Kollam (Kerala), May 11: A court here Friday rejected the bail application plea of the two Italian security official arrested for shooting dead two Indian fishermen and extended their judicial custody till May 25. 
The two - Latorre Massimillano and Salvatore Girone - were Friday brought before the Kollam chief judicial magistrate who passed the order.
The two, posted aboard cargo vessel Enrica Lexie, were arrested Feb 20 for shooting dead two Indian fishermen, Ajesh Binki, 25, and Gelastine, 45, after allegedly mistaking them for pirates. The incident occurred Feb 15, off Alappuzha.
The marines are lodged at the Thiruvananthapuram Central Prison. They are allowed a special room in the prison and last month their immediate family members were allowed to meet them.
Last week, Italian authorities reached an out-of-court settlement by paying Rs.10 million to the families of each of the killed fishermen and Rs.1.7 million to the boat owner J. Freddy for damage to his vessel.
The Italian cargo vessel Enrica Lexie was allowed to sail out from Kochi May 5. (IANS) 

Italian marines' bail plea rejected, remand extended to May 25
Kollam (Kerala), May 11: A court here Friday rejected the bail application plea of the two Italian security official arrested for shooting dead two Indian fishermen and extended their judicial custody till May 25. 
The two - Latorre Massimillano and Salvatore Girone - were Friday brought before the Kollam chief judicial magistrate who passed the order.
The two, posted aboard cargo vessel Enrica Lexie, were arrested Feb 20 for shooting dead two Indian fishermen, Ajesh Binki, 25, and Gelastine, 45, after allegedly mistaking them for pirates. The incident occurred Feb 15, off Alappuzha.
The marines are lodged at the Thiruvananthapuram Central Prison. They are allowed a special room in the prison and last month their immediate family members were allowed to meet them.
Last week, Italian authorities reached an out-of-court settlement by paying Rs.10 million to the families of each of the killed fishermen and Rs.1.7 million to the boat owner J. Freddy for damage to his vessel.
The Italian cargo vessel Enrica Lexie was allowed to sail out from Kochi May 5. (IANS)