New York, Oct 2 (ANI): Democrat vice presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden Jr. is getting advice from a woman who has been an intimate since he was a grade school student with a stutter and a paper route, to take on his rival Sarah Palin in Thursday night's debate.

"He's been my best friend all my life. I opened my eyes and he was there and he said, 'Let's go.' I was his sidekick," said Biden's sister, Valerie Biden Owens.

As Biden Owens, 62, spoke, she summoned the ghost of her younger self, a kid sister trailing awestruck behind her big brother, Joey, the New York Times reported.

She has managed every one of his campaigns, from high school class president to his New Castle County Council race to his first Senate bid, a 1972 upset victory, to his minefield of a presidential run in 1988.

The tightly controlled Obama operation has been the first time she has had no official position on her brother's campaigns. That does not mean, however, that she is sitting this one out.

"She is absolutely his political alter-ego and confidante. She talks with the campaign every day," said David Wade, Biden's press secretary.

Their talks include advice on how Biden should handle himself during Thursday night's debate, a showdown where many will be watching whether Biden can temper his oversized personality so he does not appear to be overpowering his female opponent.

It was Biden Owens who endorsed the plan to have him practice with Governor Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan, another dynamic female governor with a quick take.

As Biden has written in his autobiography, his trust in his sister is complete.

Biden Owens said her family along with Biden, there are two other brothers - does not know how to do it any other way. "It's just how we grew up," she said.

Having his family closely involved with his life has worked both politically and personally for Biden. (ANI)

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Washington, Sept 4 (ANI): Researchers at the McGill University Health Centre have found that kids who spend time in the intensive care unit of a hospital can be traumatized by the experience even months after returning home.

To measure psychological distress in children following hospital discharge, Dr. Janet Rennick from the Research Institute of The Montreal Children's Hospital of the university and her colleagues have developed the Children's Critical Illness Impact Scale.

The researchers said that this is the first self-report scale ever created to measure the psychological impact of intensive care unit hospitalisation on children.

This 23-item questionnaire provides a tool that will allow health care professionals to pick up on and recognize those children who need psychological support as a result of their hospital stay.

It is based on the results of 64 interviews conducted with children who had been hospitalised in an intensive care unit, their parents, and health care professionals. The study was conducted across three Canadian paediatric hospitals.

"We know some children suffer post traumatic stress symptoms after having spent time in the intensive care unit. Parents and children have described delusional memories of their hospital experience, which continue to bother the child after they go home. In addition, parents have described behavioural changes and ongoing fears in their children, and children have told us they don't feel the same as they did before they were critically ill," Rennick said.

The research team designed the questionnaire specifically for kids aged six to 12 years. It was a challenging exercise because the researchers had to find a way of interviewing children that would encourage and allow them to share their feelings and fears.

The interviews were done in two ways, focus groups and individual interviews. For younger children, researchers used a storyboard with felt pieces and hospital play sets.

The children were encouraged to use the felt pieces to tell a four part story about: being in the hospital, going home, going back to school, and returning to the hospital for a check up.

"This interviewing method worked well for younger children who created detailed stories of their experiences but we discovered that the storyboard method was less effective for children 10 years and older," Rennick said.

According to Rennick, this child friendly, self-report questionnaire would allow health care workers to more effectively determine if children are bouncing back after an intensive care unit stay.

"With this new scale we will be better able to pick-up and help the child whose life simply hasn't returned to normal," Rennick said.

The study was published in the Journal of Paediatric Critical Care Medicine. (ANI)

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Washington, September 22 (ANI): Scientists have again started the great debate on the exact definition of a planet, and have come out with conflicting viewpoints.

Two years ago, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) elected to define the term planet, restricting it to the eight largest bodies orbiting the Sun, and deleting Pluto from the list.

The demotion of Pluto sparked considerable public controversy.

Numerous planetary scientists and astronomers protested the IAU's definition as not useful, while numerous other planetary scientists and astronomers supported the outcome.

Recognizing the need for further scientific debate on planet definition, more than 100 scientists and educators representing a wide range of viewpoints on the issue converged for three days on the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University (APL) for "The Great Planet Debate: Science as Process" conference last month.

NASA, APL, the Planetary Science Institute, The Planetary Society, and the American Astronautical Society sponsored the conference.

Different positions were advocated, ranging from reworking the IAU definition (but yielding the same outcome of eight planets), replacing it with a geophysical-based definition (that would increase the number of planets well beyond eight), and rescinding the definition for planet altogether and focusing on defining subcategories for serving different purposes.

No consensus was reached.

According to planetary scientist Alan Stern, "I was impressed with two things that came out of The Great Planet Debate meeting: first, that no one liked the IAU's definition of planethood, and second, that there are strongly divergent scientific opinions about what a planet is, with those who study orbits and those who study planets themselves seeing the matter very differently."

"My view is that the dynamically based definitions are deeply flawed because they do not take into account any physical properties of the body in question, and give ridiculous results, for example classifying identical large objects in different orbits differently-so that even Earths are not always planets, which is crazy," Stern concluded.

"The word 'planet' has a deep cultural context that cannot be decided by vote of a subset of astronomers meeting in a room somewhere, especially when that debate is rushed and the vote close," said William McKinnon, a Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and an IAU member.

"The IAU should reopen the issue to electronic debate by the entire astronomical community. I am sure the outcome in that case, whatever it turns out to be, or even if it is concluded that no universal definition is necessary, would be more satisfactory to all parties," he added. (ANI)

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London, Sept 26 (ANI): Room with a view no longer applies to home sellers, as a businessman who hopes to sell off his 1.1million-pound home offers to throw in his Lamborghini as part of the deal.

Internet tycoon Rick Hill, 30, hopes that his 152,000-pound car will attract prospective buyers, and help him sell off his luxurious six-bedroom house.

"It is a bit of a novelty but I am offering the ultimate lifestyle package. It's a dream home," the Daily Star quoted him as saying.

"I want to retire and am looking for a simpler life. I feel I have been there and done it with the big house and the cars.

"It is time to move on and let someone else enjoy them," he said.

The house in Hockley, near Southend, Essex, has a pool, gym and games rooms, conservatory and two bathrooms. (ANI)

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