Your tweets can reveal whether you are a psychopath, with the frequent use of words such as 'die', 'kill' and 'bury' among the key warning signs.

Swearing too much is also a giveaway, according to research by computer science professors and doctoral students at London's Online Privacy Foundation.

The boffins claim users' word choices indicate personality traits and their research could be used by police to identify potential threats or by bosses when hiring employees.

Chris Sumner, who heads the foundation, warned: 'People are making judgements about others based on social media. Companies even exist that will do this for you if you're hiring.
'However, almost all research says more research is needed before social media screening should be considered for use.'

Previous studies have looked at relationships between a person's mental health and their language but few have focused on social media - used by millions every day to share their thoughts and feelings with the world.

Engineering and computer science professor, Taghi Khoshoftaar, and doctoral student, Randall Wald, applied existing psychological formula to a person's writing to determine if they were psychopathic.

They used a computer programme to scan tweets - as well as looking at questionnaire answers - of nearly 3,000 volunteers and found around 1.4 per cent showed showed psychopathic tendencies.

But the research is limited, with the computer programme not able to recognise abbreviated words common on Twitter or the tone of a tweet.

Wald told US newspaper Sun Sentinel: 'It is not enough to send in the SWAT team because someone is highly rated on this.'

India's rising global presence is often associated with its booming tech sector. But in many poor countries, India's role is that of a low-cost pharmacy. The country has become a leading supplier of affordable HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis medications and is the second leading provider of medicines distributed by UNICEF in the developing world. This, however, may change.

On Wednesday, the Indian Supreme Court is set to hear a landmark patent case that could limit Indian companies' right to make inexpensive copies of pricey drugs developed and patented in the U.S. and Europe. The high-profile case the first of its kind to reach India's highest court has created a sharp divide between defenders of intellectual property rights, who demand that India do more to protect patented drugs developed in the West, and international aid groups who say excessive pharmaceutical patenting stifles generic competition that makes life-saving medication accessible to patients around the world. "This case is key because the scaling up AIDS treatment around the world has come from Indian made medicines," says Leena Menghaney, manager of Doctors without Borders' access to medicines campaign in India. "If they did not exist or were not available most governments would not have ventured into starting large scale AIDS treatment programs."

At the heart of the current dispute is the breakthrough cancer drug Glivec (Gleevec in the U.S.). Novartis, the Swiss drug company that helped develop the drug, is appealing the rejection of its 2006 patent application in India. In the U.S., where patent laws make it easier to register a patent claim, a monthly dose of Glivec can cost as much $5,000. In India, locally made generics cost patients $200.

In 1970, the Indian government disallowed the patenting of drugs, paving the way for Indian pharmaceutical companies to freely produce medicines pioneered by foreign drug companies at a fraction of the cost. Today, India's pharmaceutical industry is worth $10 billion a year and is one of the nation's largest sectors. The price of HIV/AIDS treatment, a first-line combination of stavudine, lamivudine, and nevirapine, which cost patients $10,000 a year in 2000, now sells for $150 worldwide, due primarily to Indian companies' low cost manufacturing. This rush of cheap drugs, which are also produced in the U.S. and Europe, now provides medication for 80% of the 6 million people receiving treatment in the developing world today, according to Doctors Without Borders.

In 2005, as a requirement of admission into the WTO, India reenacted patent protections for intellectual property, which included medicines. The Indian patent law, however, set the bar much higher than in the U.S. "India has time and again really expressed a strong preference for public health concerns over private patent rights," says Shamnad Basheer, a professor of intellectual property law at the National University of Juridical Sciences in Calcutta. Earlier this year, the Indian patent office reasserted its preference for generic competition, stating that if a patented drug in the Indian marketplace is not made widely available at a reasonable price, then generic manufacturers are entitled to make their own versions of the drug and pay a royalty to the patent holder.

Novartis' first attempts at patenting Glivec were rejected in India because it was considered to be an updated version of an existing Novartis drug, and therefore not eligible for patent protection. To protect consumers of low-cost medicines and its pharmaceutical industry Indian patent law aims to curtail a process known as 'evergreening,' in which pharmaceutical companies make sometimes minor improvements to an old medicine, allowing them to renew their patent. Under India's tough standards, modifications that do not improve the efficacy of the drug are not eligible for extended patents.

Novartis cites modifications that make its new drug more effectively absorbed into the bloodstream, an improvement that was granted a patent in the U.S. in 2001. "All the drugs that come out from USDA are not new molecules that are formed every year," says Ranga Iyer, former head of the Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India. "They are newer versions of penicillin and other drugs. Do we call that evergreening? No. There's a lot of work going on to do that." Iyer and other critics of India's patent laws claim they are stifling innovation on new groundbreaking drugs. "If you tell an innovator to set prices low enough that everybody can afford it, how can a company recover cost?" says Iyer. "If innovation is not protected, people will not innovate."

But international pharmaceutical companies aren't the only ones innovating. Generic drug manufacturers have also pioneered new treatments, creating pediatric HIV/AIDS drugs to cater to a segment of the market in developing countries that the big global drug manufacturers tend to overlook. Breakthroughs often come from publicly funded labs making the cost of research and development not as high as it seems, says Yusuf Hamied, chairman of the Indian pharmaceutical company CIPLA. "If you look at the world's top 50 drugs being sold today, they are being marketed and sold by companies that did not invent them," says Hamied. "I respect patents. I'll pay a royalty. But I shouldn't be denied the right to produce drugs for poor people at reasonable prices."

For both proponents and critics of India's patent laws, the supreme court's interpretation will set an important precedent. Foreign drug companies see India as a growing market, but perhaps more importantly as a potential model for other developing countries' patent regulations. If the court rules in favor of Novartis' claim, aid groups worry it will set off numerous new patent claims making it impossible for India to produce cheap generics of all sorts. But the court is unlikely to lower the standard thereby granting Novartis a patent, says Shamnad Bhasheer. The Indian laws were designed specifically to favor public health interests, and the court would likely only lower the standard if it believed that innovation, particularly by Indian companies, was being stifled.

Green tea not just helps in weight loss but also getting rid of smoking. And to be true, it is becoming more and more popular in India with every passing day.

Green tea is more popular in China than the generally consumed tea with milk and loads of sugar in India. But as tea with milk helps us put on more and more weight, green tea has a number of benefits that help people live a healthy life.

Drink green tea to get over the nicotine urge, say Chinese researchers - and this is a finding that medical professionals in Kerala have reacted positively to.

A recent study titled 'A Revolutionary Approach for the Cessation of Smoking', published in Science China Life Sciences, a peer-reviewed open-access journal, cites how researchers used custom-developed cigarettes with components of green tea as filters in a bid to treat addiction to smoking.

Phinse Philip, a lecturer in the Community Oncology Division of the Malabar Cancer Centre, said pharmacotherapy such as nicotine replacement therapy had generally been found effective in getting smokers to give up the habit.

"A majority of users smoke as it purportedly gives them some form of relaxation. The oral intake of the amino acid L-Theanine, uniquely found in green tea, is known to have anti-stress effects and acts as a relaxing agent. The study conducted in China shows that green tea may be an alternative to quit this addictive habit," Phillip said.

Even though there has been a nationwide ban on smoking in public since 2008, it continues to be rampant in public places in Kerala, including bus stops and cinema halls.

Around 21.9 per cent of Kerala's population is addicted to smoking and in the process, makes itself vulnerable to a wide variety of diseases such as cancer, heart ailments and osteoporosis.

Thomas Varughese, head of surgical oncology and reconstructive surgery at Kochi's Lakeshore Hospital and Research Centre, said drinking green tea after quitting smoking completely could contribute to reversing the possibility of lung cancer.

"Green tea, which is rich in antioxidants, can help in restoring the oxidant/antioxidant imbalance among those who have quit tobacco-use completely, both smoking and smokeless, provided they have used it long enough to cover the impact of the period of use," said Varughese.

He also pointed out that smokers typically have low levels of vital nutrients like Vitamins C and E, zinc, calcium, folate and the Omega-3 essential fatty acid which are vital for the human body's immune system and proper metabolic activity.

"Consumption of green tea can boost the body's immune system by fighting free radicals and can reduce the risk from damage caused by toxins in cigarette smoke," Varughese added. (IANS)

Scientists have discovered a gene that carries a protein linked to liver cancer, paving the way for treatment targeting the pro-inflammatory protein.

Researchers from Georgia Health Sciences University Cancer Centre found that laboratory mice bred without the gene lacked a protein called TREM-1 which protected them from developing liver cancer after exposure to carcinogens.

"We have long suspected that chronic inflammation is a very powerful tool in the initiation of cancer, and also in progression or metastasis of cancer," lead researcher Dr Anatolij Horuzsko, said.

"We (looked) at the molecules that control inflammatory responses to gain a better understanding of how this process works. One important triggering receptor for inflammation is TREM-1," he said. TREM-1's role in promoting inflammation is useful in cases such as battling viral or bacterial infections and maintaining normal tissue function.

The team found in abnormal conditions such as liver damage due to alcohol abuse or other irritants, production of TREM-1 goes haywire.

The team hopes the findings will be applicable to other cancers as well.

The study was published in journal Cancer Research.

Denton County officials say the continually growing number of West Nile virus cases is the reason for a county health emergency declaration and imminent aerial spraying to combat the outbreak.

Officials are waiting on responses from Denton County cities to see what municipalities want to be sprayed and which do not, so they can give the word to state officials who then can begin the next phase of fighting the virus.

During a Thursday news conference, Bing Burton, the Denton County Health Department director, said there were six new cases confirmed Thursday, bringing the total to 118, including one death. He believed that to be the highest per capita in the state.

"It's a dubious honor we're not real proud of," Burton said.

Of the county cases, 82 have been diagnosed as West Nile fever, while 36 were found to be the more serious neuro-invasive disease.

Burton said the previous calculation of 16 cases per 100,000 people would have to be adjusted to factor in the new cases.

He said officials are not taking the virus lightly.

"Many of those people will fully recover; for many it will be a life-changing event," Burton said.

He said municipalities have been doing a good job of ground spraying, and the aerial spraying would just add to those efforts.

Decisions on spraying unincorporated areas have not yet been made, Burton said.

Spraying would take place between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. from planes that would fly out of Denton Airport. Spraying could begin as early as Thursday, but it depends on how quickly cities are able to pass their decisions along to the Commissioners Court.

Pilot Point officials already have approved spraying there, while Providence Village and Shady Shores leaders have said they do not want to be sprayed.

County Judge Mary Horn said officials are hoping to have a list of cities opting in at the next news conference, scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Commissioners Courtroom.

City officials in Denton have not yet scheduled a meeting to discuss whether to request aerial spraying.

The county will use Clarke, which is the same pesticide company Dallas County used, to oversee its aerial operation.

University of North Texas biology professor James Kennedy, who supervised the study that first detected West Nile virus in Denton County in 2002, couldn't say whether aerial spraying would have an effect on the virus this year because "the horse is already out of the barn."

Kennedy also supervises the city's monitoring program. From the first traps in May, mosquitoes were testing positive for West Nile. It wasn't until the first week of August that the city had its first week where none of the traps - the UNT crew sets out about 40 all around the city where problems are known - held West Nile-positive mosquitoes.

"In the last couple of weeks, only one site, or two, showed up positive," Kennedy said.

Denton has seen a decline in the virus in the traps just as Dallas County began its aerial spraying program, he said.

While evidence of the effectiveness of spraying could be argued either way, he says the recent decline in positive mosquitoes is more likely explained by the very hot weather during that time.

Biologists know that Culex quinquefasciatus, the mosquito species that carries West Nile in this area, doesn't do well in extreme heat. They also know the insect overwinters in culverts and under bridges, Kennedy said. Last winter was mild, with only a few frosts and freezing days, and the mosquitoes were out early.

Spraying in those areas where mosquitoes are known to overwinter could be more efficient, he said.

"We don't do that currently," Kennedy said.

Pilot Point resident Buddy Cole, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is less concerned about the pesticide in the spray than the spraying itself, which is atomized into droplets so small it takes more than 800 of them to line up an inch long.

"DEET for protection is OK, but breathing the spray is not," Cole said in an e-mail. "It does come in wipes or [you can] get someone to spray a cloth for you if you have breathing problems."

Jody Gonzalez, Denton County's emergency management coordinator, said he thinks the spray, which has been ruled harmless to pets and people, will indeed work well against the mosquitoes and the spread of the virus.

"Based on what the state told us previously and what we were told today, one night of aerial spray is as good as 40 spray trucks," Gonzalez said.

He said the planes would use the same pesticide that ground sprayers use, but in a more diluted form.

Horn said the county is trying to stay ahead of the virus outbreak.

"This is something to be taken serious, and I certainly do," she said. "Hopefully this proactive approach will lessen the impact to Denton County citizens."