The findings showed that short and long-term brain functioning can be influenced by immune system activity during the third trimester of gestation.
Infections, stress, illness, or allergies are commonly known to trigger immune responses.
When the body's immune system detects one of these factors, two proteins namely IL-6 and CRP are released as part of an inflammatory response.
The researchers found that higher maternal levels of these proteins were associated with greater connectivity of the infants' brain regions in this network and with higher cognitive ability at 14 months of age.
"Our brain is constantly receiving information from our bodies and the external world," said Bradley Peterson, Director at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles -- a non-profit.
"The salience network sifts through that information and decides what is important and warrants action," Peterson added.
The activation of the maternal immune system was also associated with lower foetal heart rate at the end of gestation, which may indicate delayed development of the autonomic nervous system.
These results suggest that the final weeks of pregnancy have an important influence on a child's brain development, the researchers said.
For the study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the team recruited young women in their second trimester and involved a blood draw and foetal heart monitoring during the third trimester, along with anatomical brain scans of the newborns, and cognitive behavioural assessment of the babies at 14 months of age.
Blood drawn from mothers during their third trimester was tested for levels of IL-6 and CRP.
Accused Damayanti Pradhan has been arrested after she confessed to the crime before Rambha police. The deceased child has been identified as Ayus Palai.
"We have registered a case under section 302 of IPC and arrested the accused after she confessed to the crime during interrogation," Rambha police IIC Namita said.
According to police, Damayanti had vowed to eliminate the family of the deceased over previous enmity. Ayus, who is the only son of his parents, was alone at home yesterday and taking advantage of his parents' absence, Damayanti fed him the poisonous seeds.
The child complained of vomiting and nausea following which he was rushed to the nearest Purusottampur Community Health Centre and later shifted to MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur after his condition deteriorated. However, he died while undergoing treatment.
Doctors cited that the child died due to consumption of poisonous substance.
"They (family of deceased) always beat me and torture me. I didn't know that the child would die," Damayanti said.
The mother of the child branded him with hot iron with the help of neighbours to cure his stomach ache. The baby sustained critical burns on stomach.
As his condition deteriorated, his parents rushed him to district headquarters hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.
The parents refused to comment on the matter.
After being informed by the hospital authorities, police seized the body and detained the parents for interrogation. A case has been registered in this connection, sources said.
According to sources, the father of the girl, Shatrughan, had a fight with her wife, Mamali, after a quarrel. Vexed on it, the father of Shatrughan attacked Mamali with a wooden stick when it hit the infant.
The infant was rushed to District Headquarters Hospital, Nayagarh, in a critical condition where she breathed her last.
After receiving the complaint of Mamali, Odagaon police have arrested Shatrughan and his father.
The baby girl has been admitted to the Pallahada Sub-divisional Hospital as her condition deteriorated. She suffers from burn injuries on her stomach.
The child was born to Buduni and Ajay Munda of Muktapur village under Pallahada block in Angul district. The baby suffered from indigestion and his stomach swelled. Instead of taking her to the hospital, Ajay and his wife Buduni branded her with a hot iron as per the advice of villagers.
"Neighbours advised us to brand her with hot iron which would cure her stomach swelling. Our baby got some relief but cough continued. So, we admitted her to hospital", said Ajay, father of victim.
The baby is undergoing treatment at the hospital. Her condition is stable, doctor said.
The practice of branding children with hot iron and bangles to cure ailments is rampant in remote areas of the State.
Notably, the shocking incident had occurred on December 1 when the four-year old boy was mauled by a pack of stray dogs as he was on the way to his aunt’s house to watch the TV.
Also Read: 4-yr old child killed by stray dogs, kin blame civic body
Following the incident, the Puri Municipality later issued directions to strictly enforce the guidelines to curb stray dog menace in the city and directed the chief district veterinary medical officer (CDVO) to prepare an action plan for immediate sterilization and vaccination of the stray dogs.
“We will discuss with the Puri municipality authorities and the chief district veterinary medical officer and seek a solution through which such type of incidents can be stopped,” said Puri Sub-Collector, Udhab Majhi.
Stating that the death of the 4-year-old was a lesson, executive engineer of the Puri Municipality, Sanjay Mishra said all the stray dogs in the city will be sterilised in the next 7 days.
She told the media that the state government was "positive that the Rotavirus vaccine will play a monumental role in bringing down the infant mortality rate".
The vaccine will be part of the routine immunization programme in the state.
"All newborns must be administered the Rotavirus vaccine in a 3-dose schedule at 6, 10 and 14 weeks along with 5 drops of pentavalent 1, 2 and 3 vaccine," National Immunisation Officer A.P. Chaturvedi said.
With this launch Uttar Pradesh became the 11th state in the country to introduce the vaccine that ensures complete prevention from Rotavirus.
The vaccine was included in routine immunization programme since 2016 in Odisha and subsequently expanded to Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Jharkhand.
"More than 2.1 crore doses of Rotavirus vaccine have been administered to children till May 2018," Director General Family Welfare Neena Gupta said.
Diarrhoea is responsible for about 10 per cent of deaths among the under-five in India. Rotavirus is involved in 40 per cent of the cases that leads to approximately 78,000 deaths in the country, Director of National Health Mission Pankaj Kumar said.
The government's Information Department quoting medical officials said the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital in Galle had been experiencing an increase in the number of patients who arrived with a fever over the past few days, Xinhua news agency reported.
According to doctors, patients who were admitted included children aged two to three years old as well as infants who were less than six months old.
The symptoms of the disease included high fever, cough and breathing difficulties.
Aruna De Silva of the Pediatric Unit at Karapitiya Hospital said they examined the matter and had identified that the situation arose as a result of a virus that causes pneumonia.
He added that the disease was caused by the Influenza and Adino viruses and affects children who are less than two years old.
The study found that the detrimental effects of bullying decreased over time, which shows the potential for resilience in children exposed to bullying.
"While our findings show that being bullied leads to detrimental mental health outcomes, they also offer a message of hope by highlighting the potential for resilience," said author Jean-Baptiste Pingault at the University College London (Psychology and Language Sciences).
"Bullying certainly causes suffering, but the impact on mental health decreases over time, so children are able to recover in the medium term."
The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, involved 11,108 participants from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS).
By surveying twins, researchers were able to look at the associations between bullying and mental health outcomes and then account for the confounding effects of their genes.
Both children and their parents filled out a questionnaire: at age 11 and 14 they were asked about peer victimisation and at 11 and 16 they were asked about mental health difficulties.
The effect sizes were stronger before controlling for shared environmental factors and genetics, confirming that bullying itself is only partly to blame for the poor mental health outcomes experienced by bullied children.
The researchers found that once confounding factors were removed, there remained a causal contribution of exposure to bullying to concurrent anxiety, depression, hyperactivity and impulsivity, inattention and conduct problems.
Two years later, the impact on anxiety persisted. Five years later, there was no longer an effect on any of those outcomes, but 16-year-olds who had been bullied at age 11 remained more likely to have paranoid thoughts or cognitive disorganisation.
According to the Union Health Ministry, the cooperation between India and Norway will continue to be aligned with the development goals of India as outlined in its National Health Policy 2017 for achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.
The letter of intent was inked by Union Health Secretary C.K. Mishra and Norwegian Ambassador Nils Ragnar Kamsvag. The initiative will be through the Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) for a period of three years starting from 2018.
"The cooperation will continue to focus on innovative, catalytic and strategic support, taking the Indian Government's Intensification Plan for Accelerated Maternal and Child Survival in India as the starting point," said the ministry in a statement.
The Indian and Norwegian Governments had agreed in 2006 to collaborate towards achieving Millenium Development Goals 4 to reduce child mortality based on commitments made by the two Prime Ministers.
The partnership was based on India's health initiative, the National Health Mission (NHM), and aimed at facilitating rapid scale-up of quality child and maternal health services in four high focus states - Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The main activities in Phase I (2006-2012) were home-based new born care, Yashoda through State health system, establishing Sick Newborn Care Units, techno managerial support, and providing strategic support for immunization and Public Private Partnership initiatives.
Subhankar Behera was rushed to the community health centre in the locality in Kendrapara district, an official said.
He sustained minor injuries and is out of danger, said Child Development Programme Officer Manorama Swain.
Officials in Left-ruled Tripura maintain that the poor parents, who already had three children, did not sell the infant for a mere Rs.4,500 but "gifted" him to a childless couple living in the Madhabbari area of the Mandai block in west Tripura district.
As a controversy erupted, the authorities "rescued" the newborn with an NGO's help a week later and lodged him at a government-run shelter, away from his biological as well as adoptive parents. The incident was reported from the remote tribal-dominated Munda Basti, 125 km north of Agartala.
Ironically, the week-old newborn's fate is still in the hands of the biological parents who "sold" the child in the first place, since they would soon be asked by authorities if they wish to raise the infant on their own or not.
"When my wife was three months pregnant, we asked a local government doctor to abort the foetus. However, my neighbours advised us not to terminate the pregnancy. They assured us that I will be put in contact with someone who will ensure a better life for the baby," the infant's father, Ranjit Tanti, told IANS.
The 48-year-old said he eked out a living by selling firewood.
"My son was born on June 2 and we handed him to a childless couple (in western Tripura) the very next day. They gave me Rs.4,500," Tanti said.
Local villagers corroborated Tanti's version.
As the local media got wind of the issue that acquired political overtones, the Manik Sarkar-led government ordered an inquiry to "find out the actual facts".
"In fact, the tribal couple did not sell the newborn. They gifted him to a childless couple. With the help of the NGO 'Child Line', we rescued the infant and put him in a government-run home in Agartala," Khowai sub-divisional magistrate Sumit Roy Chowdhury told IANS.
"The rescue efforts were very tough as the childless couple was reluctant to return the baby. If the biological parents are keen to raise the newborn, we will return the child to them," the official added.
"Both the couples were unaware of the illegality of the deal. The adoptive parents admitted that they gave a few thousand rupees to the biological parents," he maintained.
"The whole process was videotaped and statements of both the couples were recorded," Roy Chowdhury said.
The Congress demanded a Below Poverty Line (BPL) card for the poor tribal couple to ensure governmental support to it.
Tripura Congress president Birajit Sinha, who met the tribal couple, had a different take on the incident.
"The family admitted they sold the child as it was extremely impossible for them to feed the newborn out of the family's very meagre income. We had earlier heard of such incidents in other states of India. But we are now witnessing child trade in Tripura," said Sinha, a legislative assembly member and a former minister.
"The adoptive couple even gave an advance of Rs.1,000 to the infant's biological mother when she was eight-month pregnant," Sinha maintained.
Child Line official Prasanna Chakraborty, who was part of the team that rescued the child, told IANS. "The Tanti family is very poor, and does not even have a proper house to live in. The couple already has three children. The newborn is their fourth child."
"The child's fate will be decided soon as the biological parents will be asked if they want the newborn back," he added.
Social Welfare and Social Education Minister Bijita Nath refused comment on the issue.
Tribal Welfare minister and veteran tribal leader Aghore Debbarma, who represents Khowai in the legislative assembly, said that "he had heard about the incident and ordered an inquiry".
She captioned it: "Sensitive and emotional, caring and compassionate, generous and gentle, funny and intelligent, delightful and faithful... all this and so much more.
"To my husband, my friend, my lover, my confidante...but more often than not, my child, my infant, my toddler, my dot, my pineapple, my sunshine, my rainbow...May you forever and always be this way. I love you."
The post made many go "aww". Filmmaker Farah Khan, who had helmed Deepika's first Bollywood film, commented by saying: "That's beautiful. Happy birthday to all of them."
Meanwhile, on his birthday, Ranveer had unveiled his look from the upcoming film "'83" in which he will be seen playing the iconic cricketer Kapil Dev.
"If we make sure our children get enough sleep, it can help protect them from mental health problems," said study researcher Bror M Ranum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) in the Norway.
A study of almost 800 children followed over several years shows that those who get the fewest hours of sleep are at greatest risk of developing psychiatric difficulties later, including ADHD, anxiety and depression.
"We're seeing an association between sleep duration and a risk of symptoms of emotional and behavioural disorders," Ranum added.
Read: NICU Babies At Greater Risk Of Mental Health Problems
According to the findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, boys who sleep fewer hours have an increased risk of developing behavioural issues. Both girls and boys who get less sleep are at greater risk for future emotional problems. The measurements do not indicate anything about the quality of sleep.
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Children's sleep was measured with motion sensors every night for a week. The researchers conducted clinical interviews to measure mental health difficulties. These procedures were repeated several times every two years.
The study is part of the Tidlig Trygg I Trondheim project (TtiT - Trondheim Early Secure Study). This is a long-term study that has examined nearly a thousand children when they were 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 years old.
The researchers also investigated whether psychological difficulties might cause children to sleepless. The data do not indicate this to be the case. Sleep duration influences the risk of later problems, not the opposite.
"Previous studies have also shown that sleep is related to mental health difficulties. But our study is one of the first to investigate this in children over several years, and to use an objective measurement of sleep," said senior author Silje Steinsbekk.
Because people tend to be quite poor at reporting how much sleep they get, scientists cannot completely rely on people's self-reported sleep duration data.
Self-reported sleep duration does not correlate with objective sleep duration measurements.
Laboratory studies measure sleep objectively, but this research study is measuring only the immediate effects and does not comment on whether sleep duration affects individuals' psychiatric health over time.
"Our study shows that the children who sleep fewer hours than others more often develop psychiatric symptoms, even two years later," Steinsbekk said.
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The research group has also investigated how many people get too little sleep, and whether or not too little sleep tends to persist throughout childhood.
Also Read: How Diet Affects Your Mental Health
Very few six-year-olds (1.1 per cent) slept less than 7 hours, which is below the internationally recommended sleep guidelines for this age group.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Children with 3-4 years of age should have 10-13 hours of good quality sleep, which may include a nap, with regular sleep and wake-up times.
(IANS)