Science And Technology

[savramesh 37]

Blind man's sight restored 'by having tooth implanted in eye'

Source

London (PTI): In a rare surgical feat, doctors in Britain have successfully restored the sight of a blind man by transplanting his tooth into his eye.

A team, led by Christopher Lui of Sussex Eye Hospital, carried out the rare procedure on 42-year-old Martin Jones who was blinded for 12 years after a tub of hot aluminium exploded in his face as he worked at a scrapyard.

In fact, the procedure began when one of Jones' canine teeth was removed and converted into a holder for a special optical lens by drilling a hole in it. The tooth was inserted into his cheek for three months to enable it to grow absolute new tissue and blood vessels.

Then finally came the delicate operation to insert the tooth, complete with the fitted lens into Jones right eyeball.

And, within two weeks of the final operation to implant the tooth in his eyeball his sight returned, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

"I met my wife when I was blind and when I found out there was a chance I would get my sight back the first person I wanted to see was her.

"The doctors took the bandages off and it was like looking through water and then I saw this figure and it was her. She's wonderful and lovely. It was unbelievable to see her for the first time.

"When I first heard about the technique I couldn't believe it. (Now) I feel fantastic getting my sight back. I can't really describe it -- it's beyond words. I was blind for 12 years and when my sight came back everything had changed," Jones was quoted as saying.

Edited July 5, 2009 by savramesh

[savramesh 37]

Penumbral lunar eclipse on Tuesday

Source

New Delhi (PTI): A penumbral lunar eclipse will occur on Tuesday, the second of four such phenomena this year, but sky watchers in India will be a disappointed lot as it will not be visible in the country.

The July 7 penumbral lunar eclipse will occur as the moon rises over Australia and sets in western North and South America in the early predawn hours, Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) Director C.B. Devgun told PTI.

The last penumbral lunar eclipse this year took place on February 9 and two more will occur after the July 7 event on August 6 and December 31.

During Tuesday's eclipse, the moon will only enter the southernmost tip of the penumbral shadow of the earth and thus will be very difficult to observe visually, Mr. Devgun said.

The moon will be located in the constellation of Sagittarius when the eclipse occurs. Thus, the eclipse will be visible in North America west of the Great Lakes, including Hawaii, and many parts of Alaska (Harrington, 1997). The moon will also be high in the sky over New Zealand and eastern Australia during the eclipse, he said.

The eclipse is an event of Saros series 110. The previous such phenomenon occurred on June 27, 1991. The next is on July 18, 2027, which will end the series.

According to NASA, the phenomenon is only of academic interest since the magnitude of the eclipse is just 0.156 at its maximum. Therefore, there is only a little chance for seeing any of the eclipse's dimming effect. It will, however, last for two hours.

The first penumbral contact is predicted to occur at 8.37.51 am Universal Time (2.07.51 pm IST). The ecliptic conjunction will occur at 9.21.25 am UT and the point of greatest eclipse occurs at about 9.38.37 am UT. It is predicted to end at about 10.39.23 am UT.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is in a direct line between the sun and the moon and the shadow of the earth falls on the moon, Mr. Devgun said, adding that a penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes through penumbra, the lighter part of the earth's shadow.

The lighter part of the earth's shadow is called the penumbra and the totally dark part is called the umbra.

[savramesh 37]

Broken spine rejoined in 'miracle' surgery

Source

New Delhi (IANS): Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here have rejoined a 10-year-old boy's broken spinal cord, hospital authorities said Saturday, terming it as a "first-of-its-kind case".

The boy, Premchand from Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh, fell while playing in a field and the moving blades of a tractor's harrow went over his back cutting his vertebral column into two.

He was brought to the AIIMS Trauma Centre Sep 4 and immediately operated upon after five hospitals said they could not treat him. Nine months later, he is back on his feet and walking without help.

At AIIMS a team of doctors performed the rare surgery lasting over eight hours.

D.B. Choudhary, senior consultant orthopaedic surgeon at AIIMS, said: "The child was in a state of shock due to blood loss and had two deep wounds on the back with active leak of cerebrospinal fluid and rib fracture.

"His entire spine was fragmented in two parts. Initially he was given blood and treated with other medicines to prevent meningitis," he added.

Claiming it a medical feat, AIIMS Trauma Centre chief M.C. Mishra said: "I have done extensive research and can conclude that it is a first-of-its-kind case in medical history. Such a case with sharp penetrating injury to the spine in a child causing complete breakage of the lumbar spine in two parts presenting with complete loss of power and sensations is extremely unusual and has not been reported in literature either."

The child started responding and felt sensations only a month after his surgery and now after nine months he is able to walk with minimal assistance.

He is currently undergoing rehabilitation physiotherapy. "We are expecting him to recover soon," Deepak Gupta, one of the doctors who operated upon the boy, told reporters. "There is no threat of infection."

Urging small hospitals to refer such critical cases directly to the AIIMS, Choudhary said the Trauma Centre is capable of handling difficult cases. Referring to Premchand's treatment, he said: "It is another miracle carried out at AIIMS."

[savramesh 37]

Screens to improve mobile’s battery

Source

LONDON: Scientists have come up with a way to make limited-coloured screens for mobile phones, which can improve batter life.

Johnson Chuang of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, has shown that OLEDs can be made frugal by carefully choosing the balance of colours used to make up an image.

The researcher says that each pixel in an OLED screen is made from a spot of polymer that emits coloured light when supplied with power, and each uses different amounts of energy depending on the colour being displayed.

According to him, yellow colour uses less energy than magenta at the same brightness.

"Colours with equal perceived brightness don't necessarily use the same amount of energy," New Scientist magazine quoted the researcher as saying.

The researcher further said that LCD panels use the same amount of energy no matter what hue the screen, as the backlights in the display always remain switched on.

Chuang and his colleagues have now successfully designed sets of colours that slash the power consumption of an OLED panel by up to 40 per cent, with minimal effect on how people perceive an image.

They have revealed that their colour choice resulted in energy savings of between 37 and 41 per cent over a traditional colour palette, depending on the scene being shown.

The new colour palette could help the designers of mobile devices like cellphones extend their battery life.

Presently, about 50 per cent of the stored power of a mobile device, such as a cellular phone, is typically used to run its LCD display.

"Say you're running low on battery and you want to use Google maps to get home. Switching to an energy-aware colour set could make your battery last longer," says Chuang.

Edited July 11, 2009 by savramesh

[savramesh 37]

A robot that has learned to smile!

Source

New York (PTI): Scientists have developed a a hyper-realistic Einstein robot which they claim has learned to smile and even make facial expressions through a process of self-guided learning.

A team at California University used machine learning to "empower" their robot to learn to make realistic facial expressions.

The Einstein robot head has about 30 facial muscles, each moved by a tiny servo motor connected to the muscle by a string. Today, a highly trained person must manually set up these kinds of realistic robots so that the servos pull in the right combinations to make specific face expressions.

In order to begin to automate this process, the team looked to both developmental psychology and machine learning.

Developmental psychologists speculate that infants learn to control their bodies through systematic exploratory movements, including babbling to learn to speak. Initially, these movements appear to be executed in a random manner as infants learn to control their bodies and reach for objects.

"We applied this same idea to the problem of a robot learning to make realistic facial expressions," said Javier Movellan, a team member.

Although their preliminary results are promising, the scientists noted that some of the learned facial expressions were still awkward. One potential explanation is that their model may be too simple to describe the coupled interactions between facial muscles and skin.

To begin the learning process, the team directed the Einstein robot head to twist and turn its face in directions, a process called "body babbling".

During this period the robot could see itself on a mirror and analyse its own expression using facial expression detection software created at the university. This provided the data necessary for machine learning algorithms to learn a mapping between facial expressions and the movements of the muscle motors.

Once the robot learned the relationship between facial expressions and the muscle movements required to make them, the robot learned to make facial expressions it had never encountered, the scientists said.

"During the experiment, one of the servos burned out due to misconfiguration. We therefore ran the experiment without that servo. We discovered that the model learned to automatically compensate for the missing servo by activating a combination of nearby servos.

"Currently, we are working on a more accurate facial expression generation model as well as systematic way to explore the model space efficiently," the scientists said.

[KumaarShah 143]

Excellent article on cancer. Pass it on.

AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY .

Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins:

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few

billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumours.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental,food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

WHAT CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses

but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells are being starved.

c.. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork.. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach

down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try

and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees c).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes.

Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of

cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the

body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger,unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level.. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

Source: Not available as this is a email forward received by me. Readers are free to draw their own conclusions. If this post is wrongly placed or the facts are wrong/illegal etc, Mods/Admins may take appropriate action in this matter.

Edited July 11, 2009 by KumaarShah

[savramesh 37]

^^^

Some information from "Food that Harms and Food that Heals" book..

For Cancer

Eat Plenty of

-Citrus and other fruits and dark green or yellow vegetables for Vitamin C, beta carotene, bioflavonoids and the plant chemicals that protect against cancer

-Whole-grain breads and cereals and other high-fiber foods to promote smooth colon function

Limit

-Fatty foods, especially those hgj in saturated fats

-Alcoholic beverages

-Salt-cured, smoked, fermented and charcoal-broiled foods

Avoid

-Foods that may contain pesticide residues and environmental pollutants

The Anticancer Diet

-Eat more fruits and vegetables

-Reduce your fat intake

-Eat more fiber

Top cancer-fighting food

-Apples, berries, broccoli and other cruiciferous vegetables and citrus fruits

-Tomatoes and tomato products

-Onions and garlic

-Green tea

-Brazil nuts, seafood, some meats and fish, bread, wheat bran, wheat germ, oats and brown rice

Break high-risk habits

-Limit your alcohol intake

-Stop smoking

-Limit your consumption of processed foods

[savramesh 37]

Recent Research on antioxidant supplementation has yielded conflicting results. But there is no doubt about one thing - eating a diet high in antioxidant rich foods is a smart choice. There are hundreds of studies linking antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables to a lower risk of heart disease, cancer and many other illness.

Top antioxidant fruits

-Prunes, Raisins, Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Plums, Oranges, Grapes, Cherries, Kiwi

Top antioxidant vegetables

-Kale, Spinach, Brussels sprouts, Broccoli florets, Beets, Red bell peppers, Onions, Corn, Eggplant, Carrots

According to research led by the National Institutes of Health, zinc takers had twice the risk of prostate cancer. Researchers examined zinc intake and prostate cancer risk in nearly 47,000 men. Compared with men who did not take supplements, men who took more than 100 mg of zinc a day had more than twice the risk of advanced prostate cancer.

[savramesh 37]

Dear friends,

If you need any information from the following books, then please ask me, i will mail you the information..

Foods that Harms and Foods that Heals - An A-Z Guide to safe and healthy eating

Everyday Arthritis Solutions - food, exercises and lifestyle strategies to help you ease the pain

A Practical Guide to Self-Massage - Exercises and Relaxation techniques to improve your health

[santhoshavanoor 7]

Really impressing article in our beloved Rimweb. Thanks to Ramesh & special thanks to Kumaar Shah. Keep posting like these articles.

Thanks

[savramesh 37]

Coming soon: Unmanned aircraft!

Source

MELBOURNE: Imagine an eerie experience on board an unmanned aircraft which may soon fly side-by-side with piloted passenger planes.

Well, your imagination may soon come true -- thanks to a team of scientists who are carrying out an experiment which, if successful, would make flying machines buzz about without any incident and without direct control inputs from any human.

Inside the laboratory in Seattle, the scientists watch unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) airborne, swarming around the shed, their pre-determined altitudes and collision avoidance mechanisms already programmed in, using advanced algorithms that could ultimately spell the end of piloted aircraft.

The algorithms developed in the lab will soon be put to the test in the skies above Kingaroy in southern Queensland in the world's first ever trial of unmanned aircraft inside controlled airspace, the 'Courier Mail' reported.

Small UAVs will fly in the same airspace as larger piloted planes to prove that the unmanned aircraft can operate safely alongside more traditional, human flown craft, the team from University of Queensland and aviation giant Boeing said.

Even inside the Boeing lab, the engineers fly up to a dozen small, four rotor UAVs simultaneously to test their theories and to establish the ground rules for safe unmanned flight in crowded airspace.

According to Boeing's new Australian research chief Bill Lyons, the aim is clear. "To allow (unmanned) systems to operate at least as well as human piloted systems."

However, senior Boeing engineer John Vian said the major challenge for unmanned aircraft operating in controlled air space is safety.

"We don't know how these systems will develop. For these systems to be viable they have to be reliable and totally autonomous. We develop the technology, how it is applied is up the customer," Dr Vian said.

[savramesh 37]

British girl's heart heals itself after transplant

Source

LONDON (AP): British doctors designed a radical solution to save a girl with major heart problems in 1995: they implanted a donor heart directly onto her own failing heart.

After 10 years with two blood pumping organs, Hannah Clark's faulty one did what many experts had thought impossible: it healed itself enough so that doctors could remove the donated heart.

But she also had a price to pay: the drugs Clark took to prevent her body from rejecting the donated heart led to malignant cancer that required chemotherapy.

Details of Clark's revolutionary transplant and follow-up care were published online Tuesday in the medical journal Lancet.

``This shows that the heart can indeed repair itself if given the opportunity,'' said Dr. Douglas Zipes, a past president of the American College of Cardiology. Zipes was not linked to Clark's treatment or to the Lancet paper. ``The heart apparently has major regenerative powers, and it is now key to find out how they work.''

In 1994, when Clark was eight months old, she developed severe heart failure and doctors put her on a waiting list to get a new heart. But Clark's heart difficulties caused problems with her lungs, meaning she also needed a lung transplant.

To avoid doing a risky heart and lung transplant, doctors decided to try something completely different.

Sir Magdi Yacoub of Imperial College London, one of the world's top heart surgeons, said that if Clark's heart was given a time-out, it might be able to recover on its own. So in 1995 Yacoub and others grafted a donor heart from a 5-month-old directly onto Clark's own heart.

After four and a half years, both hearts were working fine, so Yacoub and colleagues decided not to take out the extra heart.

The powerful drugs Clark was taking to prevent her from rejecting the donor heart then caused cancer, which led to chemotherapy. Even when doctors lowered the doses of drugs to suppress Clark's immune system, the cancer spread, and Clark's body eventually rejected the donor heart.

Luckily, by that time, Clark's own heart seemed to have fully recovered. In February 2006, Dr. Victor Tsang of Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, Yacoub and other doctors removed Clark's donor heart.

Since then, Clark -- now 16 years old -- has started playing sports, gotten a part-time job, and plans to go back to school in September.

``Thanks to this operation, I've now got a normal life just like all of my friends,'' said Clark, who lives near Cardiff.

Still, transplants like Clark's won't be widely available to others due to a shortage of donor hearts and because the necessary surgeries are very complicated. In the last few years, artificial hearts also have been developed that can buy patients the time needed to get a transplant or even for their own heart to recover.

Zipes said if doctors can figure out how Clark's heart healed itself and develop a treatment from that mechanism, many other cardiac patients could benefit.

At the moment, doctors aren't sure how that regeneration happens. Some think there are a small number of stem cells in the heart, which may somehow be triggered in crisis situations to heal damaged tissue.

Experts said Clark's example is encouraging both to doctors and patients.

``It reminds us that not all heart failure is lethal,'' said Dr. Ileana Pina, a heart failure expert at Case Western Reserve University and spokeswoman for the American Heart Association. ``Some heart failure patients have a greater chance of recovery than we thought.''

[savramesh 37]

Source

London (PTI): Coming soon: Robot-insects!

Yes, scientists are on track to develop robot-insects which they claim could eventually help police fight crime and even aid rescue teams searching for earthquake survivors.

A team at Tokyo University, which has studied insect brains for three decades, is creating the robot insects -- in fact, it claims that the ultimate goal is to understand human brains and restore connections damaged by diseases.

But to get there the scientists claim to be taking a very close look at insects' "micro-brains".

Prof Ryohei Kanzaki said that insects' tiny brains can control complex aerobatics, such as catching another bug while flying, proof that they are "an excellent bundle of software" finely honed by hundreds of millions of years of evolution.

For example, male silkmoths can track down females from half a mile away by sensing their smell.

The team hopes to artificially recreate insect brains. .

"Supposing a brain is jigsaw-puzzle picture, we would be able to reproduce the whole picture if we knew how each piece is shaped and where it should go.

"It will be possible to recreate an insect brain with electronic circuits in the future. This would lead to controlling a real brain by modifying its circuits," Prof Kanzaki was quoted by 'The Daily Telegraph' as saying.

The team has already made some progress.

In an example of "rewriting" insect brain circuits, the team succeeded in genetically modifying a male silkmoth so that it reacts to light instead of odour, or to the odour of a different kind of moth.

"Such modifications could pave the way to creating a robo-bug which could in future sense illegal drugs several kilometres away, as well as landmines, people buried under rubble, or toxic gas," he said.

In one experiment, a live male moth was strapped onto what looks like a battery-driven toy car, its back glued securely to frame while its legs move across a free-spinning ball. The researchers motivate the insect to turn left or right by using female odour.

They found that the moth can steer the car and quickly adapt to changes in the way the vehicle operates - for example by introducing a steering bias to the left or right similar to effect of a flat tyre.

[savramesh 37]

Coming soon: A grapefruit pill to fight obesity!

Source

London (PTI): Tart and tangy with an underlying sweetness, grapefruit has a juiciness which rivals that of the ever popular orange and sparkles with many of the same health promoting benefits.

And, now researchers are on track to develop a pill from a chemical compound in grapefruit, which they claim would help obese people shed the flab and diabetics control their blood sugar levels.

Researchers at University of Western Ontario have found that naringenin, the chemical compound that gives grapefruit its bitter taste, has revolutionary effect on the liver making it burn fat instead of storing it after a meal.

According to them, this means that without having to change diets or cut out particular foods, a dose of naringenin could prevent weight gain and even help to lose it as well as help those having diabetes to control blood sugar levels.

Lead researcher Murray Huff said: "The study shows naringenin, through its insulin-like properties, corrects many of the metabolic disturbances linked to insulin resistance and represents a promising approach for metabolic syndrome."

They have based their findings on an analysis of tests which were carried out on mice -- two groups of rodents were both fed the equivalent of a Western diet to speed up their "metabolic syndrome", the process leading to Type 2 diabetes

[savramesh 37]

Solar eclipse A partial phase of the total solar eclipse of the longest duration in the 21st century that will occur on July 22 will be visible in five places in Kerala.

[savramesh 37]

Animal life first began in lakes, not oceans

Source

A study of ancient rock samples in South China has found that the first animal fossils in the palaeontological record are preserved in ancient lake deposits, not marine sediments as commonly assumed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A car whose battery is recharged by braking

Source

This car uses a lithium-ion battery pack that is placed under the vehicle floor. The braking system recharges the battery while the car is driving, extending the driving range to 160 kilometres under charge with zero emission.

Edited July 30, 2009 by savramesh

[savramesh 37]

Now, You Can Fly In The Car!

Source

Those who have read J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets would have coveted the car that Harry Potter and Ron Weasley had flown to Hogwarts! The good news is that the flying car is no more an imagination. A new flying car has been successfully test flown!The flying car is called Transition Roadable Aircraft. It is the brainchild of the US firm Terrafugia, and showcased at an experimental aircraft show.

The car's wings can retract in about 20 seconds making it possible to drive it on the road. The car's price is around 200,000 dollars.

Edited August 4, 2009 by savramesh

[savramesh 37]

How Fly's Extremely Quick Eyesight Inspire Ultimate Vision For Robots

Source

Scientists have created a research environment by inspiring how the blow fly's extremely quick eyesight helps to keep it from losing orientation as it makes 'lightning-fast' movements to and fro.

Members of a Munich-based "excellence cluster", called Cognition for Technical Systems (CoTeSys), describe their invention as a flight simulator for flies.

The researchers say that they are investigating what goes on in flies' brains while they're flying, hoping to some day put similar capabilities in human hands.

They are hopeful that their work may one day aid in developing robots that can independently apprehend and learn from their surroundings. A blow fly can perceive 100 images per second, and interpret them quickly enough to steer its movement and precisely determine its position in space.

Given that the fly's brain is hardly bigger than a pinhead, scientists have to date believed that it must have a simpler and more efficient way of processing images from the eyes into visual perception, and that is a subject of intense interest for robot builders.

Within the framework of CoTeSys, brain researchers from the Max-Planck Institute for Neurobiology are exploring how flies manage to apprehend

their environment and their own movement so efficiently.

Led by neurobiologist Prof. Alexander Borst, the research team have made a flight simulator for flies.

On a wraparound display, the researchers present diverse patterns, movements, and sensory stimuli to blow flies.

[savramesh 37]

Brightest star in Orion galaxy to explode soon

Source

With an age of only a few million years, the bright star Betelgeuse is already nearing its end and is doomed to explode soon as a supernova. The supernova should be seen easily from Earth, even in broad daylight.

New HIV strain discovered in a woman from Cameroon

Source

A new strain of the virus that causes AIDS has been discovered in a woman from the African nation of Cameroon. It differs from the three known strains of human immunodeficiency virus and appears to be closely related to a form of simian virus recently discovered in wild gorillas, researchers report in Monday’s edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

The finding “highlights the continuing need to watch closely for the emergence for new HIV variants, particularly in western central Africa,” said the researchers, led by Jean-Christophe Plantier of the University of Rouen, France. The three previously known HIV strains are related to the simian virus that occurs in chimpanzees.

Likely explanation

The most likely explanation for the new find is gorilla-to-human transmission, Plantier’s team said. But they added they cannot rule out

the possibility that the new strain started in chimpanzees and moved into gorillas and then humans, or moved directly from chimpanzees to

both gorillas and humans. The 62-year-old patient tested positive for HIV in 2004, shortly after moving to Paris from Cameroon, according to the researchers. She had lived near Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, but said she had no contact with apes or bush meat, a name often given to meat from wild animals in tropical countries.

The woman currently shows no signs of AIDS and remains untreated, though she still carries the virus, the researchers said. How widespread this strain is remains to be determined. Researchers said it could be circulating unnoticed in Cameroon or elsewhere. The

virus’ rapid replication indicates that it is adapted to human cells, the researchers reported.

Herpes factor

A separate paper, also in Nature Medicine, reports that people with genital herpes remain at increased risk of HIV infection even after the herpes sores have healed and the skin appears normal. The researchers found that long after the areas where the herpes sores existed seem to be clear, they still have immune-cell activity that can encourage HIV infection.

Herpes is marked by recurring outbreaks and has been associated with higher rates of infection with HIV. It had been thought that the breaks in the skin were the reason for higher HIV rates, but a study last year found that treatment of herpes with drugs did not reduce the HIV risk.

Sore location

The researchers tested the skin of herpes patients for several weeks after their sores had healed and found that, compared with other

genital skin, from twice to 37 times more immune cells remained at the locations where the sores had been. “Understanding that even treated (herpes) infections provide a cellular environment conducive to HIV infection suggests new directions for HIV prevention research,” commented Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. — AP

[savramesh 37]

Malaria originated in chimpanzees: research

Source

Researchers have zeroed in on the original source of malaria: a parasite found in chimpanzees in Africa. The parasite spread to humans perhaps 5,000 years ago. This find could aid development of a malaria vaccine.

Bone marrow stem cell treatment saves legs

Source

The results of a clinical trial to save volunteers' leg from amputation by injecting stem cell concentrate to the limb affected by thrombo angitis obliterance (TAO) have been encouraging. The stem cells were taken from the patients' bone marrow.

The clinical trial is being conducted on patients suffering from blocks in the artery of the leg. Sixty patients were enrolled in the trial, and all of them were smokers. Some had diabetes as well.

Thirty nine of the 44 patients who had already undergone the mandatory 6-month follow-up did not require amputation following stem cell injection to the affected legs. Follow-up of the remaining 16 patients is under way.

The last patient, enrolled on May 25, will complete his six-month follow up in November.

"We have got very good results," said Dr. K.S. Vijayaragavan. "The legs of 89 per cent of the patients have been saved." Dr. Vijayaragavan, Head of the Department of Vascular Surgery, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, is conducting the trial.

According to him, the failure to save the leg of five patients was because they continued to smoke even after stem cell injection. Immediate and complete cessation of smoking is the most basic and important requirement for saving the leg. Diabetes should also be under control.

Unlike in the case of atherosclerosis caused by cholesterol, blocks seen in legs are caused mainly by nicotine. Nicotine in the blood causes the muscles of the arteries to constrict. It also damages the vessel's inner lining. The problems get compounded if the patient has diabetes.

While nicotine damages all of the body's arteries equally, the legs are affected the most. That is because the legs depend on one narrow artery for blood supply and there are fewer smaller vessels branching off from the artery (collaterals).

Tobacco in any form can cause TAO. And TAO very often affects younger people around 40 years of age.

The injection of stem cells would therefore help in creating new collaterals and these would provide the vital conduit for blood flow to the parts of the leg below the block. "The stem cells injected help in angiogenesis," said Dr. Vijayaragavan.

"We did not see any great difference in angiogenesis between the two groups [one that got stem cell injections very close to the blood vessel, and the second group that got injections close to the vessel and as well as into the main artery above the block]," he said.

Despite the success of the current trial, Dr. Vijayaragavan insists that stem cell injection should be the last option.

"The first line of treatment is a by-pass," he said. "Angioplasty is not recommended as the first-line treatment. The success rate [of angioplasty] is less than 50 per cent."

Despite the success seen so far in this trial, more such trials involving more volunteers are necessary before this treatment can be offered as a regular treatment modality.

The Chennai based LifeCell International, a private cord blood bank, is an equity partner at TRICell Stem Cell Centre, which is based at the Sri Ramachandra University, where the trial is being conducted.

Edited August 10, 2009 by savramesh

[savramesh 37]

Energy from watermelons

Source

Juice from rejected watermelons is a potential source of biofuel as it can be fermented into ethanol, says a new study.

Wayne Fish worked with researchers at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) lab in Lane, Oklahoma, to evaluate the biofuel potential of juice from ‘cull’ watermelons — those not sold due to cosmetic imperfections.

“About 20 per cent of each annual watermelon crop is left in the field because they are misshapen,” said Fish.

“We’ve shown that the juice of these melons is a source of readily fermentable sugars, representing a heretofore untapped feedstock for ethanol biofuel production,” said Fish.

As well as using the juice for ethanol production, either directly or as a diluent for other biofuel crops, Fish suggests that it can be a source of lycopene and L-citrulline, two ‘nutraeuticals’ for which enough demand currently exists.

After these compounds have been removed from the ‘cull’ juice, it can still be fermented into ethanol , according to an USDA release. — IANS

[savramesh 37]

The double-membrane factor in evolution of life on Earth

Source

A protein’s function remains unchanged over time. Cyanobacteria became the primary oxygen producers

By comparing proteins present in more than 3,000 different prokaryotes — single-celled organisms without a nucleus — molecular biologist James A. Lake from the University of California at Los Angeles’ Center for Astrobiology showed that two major classes of relatively simple microbes fused together more than 2.5 billion years ago. The study was partly funded by NASA.

Lake’s research reveals a new pathway for the evolution of life on Earth. These insights are published online in the journal Nature.

Stable organism

This endosymbiosis, or merging of two cells, enabled the evolution of a highly stable and successful organism with the capacity to use energy from sunlight via photosynthesis.

Further evolution led to photosynthetic organisms producing oxygen as a byproduct. The resulting oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere profoundly affected the evolution of life, leading to more complex organisms that consumed oxygen, which were the ancestors of modern oxygen-breathing creatures including humans.

Why compare proteins of 3,000 different prokaryotes and why proteins?

Responding to this query, Mr. James Lake noted in an email to this Correspondent: “we compared the entire protein domains because they have several properties that are useful for deep studies of evolution that are not possessed by DNA or amino acid sequences.

“For example, a single protein may be coded for by 3,000 DNA nucleotides. Thus the nucleotides within this protein may undergo thousands or millions of changes over time, but the protein itself still performs the same function.

“Since we need to study things that are the most resistant to change to go far back in time, presences/absences of proteins are more useful than the DNA sequences themselves. This allows us to go further back in time.

“Most importantly, however, protein presences and absences allow us to determine which evolutionary branchings occurred earliest. This is something that traditional DNA and amino acid analyses cannot do,” he noted.

A new class

The genetic machinery and structural organization of these two organisms merged to produce a new class of prokaryotes, called double membrane prokaryotes.

As they evolved, members of this double-membrane class, called cyanobacteria, became the primary oxygen-producers on the planet. They generated enough oxygen to alter the chemical composition of the atmosphere. This set the stage for the evolution of more complex organisms such as animals and plants.

The merging of the two cells into a double-membrane cell is a significant development for the evolution of an organism capable of photosynthesis as the membranes enveloping the chloroplasts allow unhindered photosynthesis.

Better performance

“By creating compartments where some processes can be performed without interference by molecules involved in other processes, endosymbiosis can make the cells perform better,” Mr. Lake noted.

The double-membrane envelops each chloroplast. Plants have a third membrane, the cellular membrane.

“The photosystem in chloroplasts, and the cyanobacteria from which they are derived, are in the inner membrane of the double-membrane,” he stated.

[savramesh 37]

High BP linked to memory loss

Source

Studies done on a small number of people have shown that hypertension (high blood pressure) can cause memory loss in people over a period of time. A large-scale study involving nearly 20,000 people and published today in the journal Neurology has now firmly established this.

The study, which involved people of age 45 and older, found that high diastolic blood pressure is more likely to cause cognitive impairment or problems with memory and thinking skills compared with people who have normal blood pressure. Diastolic blood pressure is the bottom number of a blood pressure reading. 120/80 is considered normal and a reading of 140/90 and above is considered as high BP.

The study found that for every 10 point increase in diastolic blood pressure reading, the chances of a person having cognitive problems were 7 per cent higher. The results were valid after adjusting for factors such as age, smoking, exercise level, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

The study was undertaken in people who had participated in the Reasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Study in the U.S. Hypertension can damage the arteries’ inner lining, which in turn leads to a chain of events that make the artery walls thick and stiff. It can also cause a build-up inside the vessels, thus making them narrow. The narrowing of the vessels, in turn, reduces the amount of blood that flows into the brain.

According to a paper published in 2005 in Neurology, about one quart (1.1 litres) of blood flows through the brain every minute under normal conditions. Any reduction in this amount will prevent the brain from working efficiently.

Unlike the heart, the brain receives blood during both systole and diastole. “The brain is very sensitive to lack of oxygen. So any reduction in blood supply will lead to cognitive problems,” said Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, President of the Delhi based Public Health Foundation of India.

“While high systolic pressure [the top number of a blood pressure reading] can cause stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure, high diastolic pressure [bottom number of a blood pressure reading] causes subtle damage like cognitive impairment.”

The biggest problem with hypertension is that it is asymptomatic, and many people are just not aware of their problem. According to the author of the paper, Georgios Tsivgoulis of the University of Alabama at Brimingham, cognitive impairment, which can be a precursor to dementia, can be easily prevented.

Prevalence in India

According to Prof. Reddy, the prevalence of high blood pressure in India is 24-30 per cent in urban areas and 12-14 per cent in rural areas. “Many population studies have shown that the awareness [of their status] is only 30 per cent in the urban population,” he said.

“Of the 30 per cent [who are aware], only half have their BP adequately controlled.” It is far worse in the case of the rural population. “Awareness is only 10-12 per cent, and only 4-5 per cent of these people have their BP adequately controlled.”

The simplest preventive measure is to reduce the salt intake. Sodium in salt increases the contractility of the blood vessels. Increasing the intake of fruits and vegetables is yet another preventive strategy. “Potassium in fruits and vegetables counteracts the effects of sodium,” said Prof. Reddy.

[savramesh 37]

Two-seater rocket may fly humans to space by 2011

Washington, Feb 22 (ANI): Spaceflight could soon be opened up to hundreds or potentially thousands of researchers rather than just an elite few, all thanks to the development of a piloted, two-seat suborbital rocket plane called Lynx that could fly humans and experimental payloads to space as early as 2011.

According to a report in Nature News, the plane was announced recently at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, which drew more than 250 delegates, including space scientists, aerospace-industry representatives and government officials.

Lynx will operate like an aircraft, taking humans and experimental payloads on 30-45-minute suborbital flights up to heights of some 100 kilometres and then returning to the landing strip from which it launched.

"I think it's going to shock a lot of people by how transformative it is when access to space becomes like a laboratory instrument, when it becomes something you just go out and do," said Jeff Greason, president of XCOR Aerospace, based in Mojave, California.

"The immediacy of being able to do science live from space every day of the week is going to be spectacular," he added.

"By the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012, you're going to see spaceports struggling to deal with a flight rate that's completely unprecedented," said Greason. (ANI)

[savramesh 37]

Fruit Extract Found to Kill Breast Cancer Cells

ST. LOUIS, MO (ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO) - New research out of Saint Louis University finds that a fruit extract can kill breast cancer cells in the lab. The fruit, called bitter melon, is a popular ingredient in Indian and Chinese cooking, and is also used in traditional medicine to treat diabetes.

SLU pathologist Ratna Ray led the study. She wanted to see whether bitter melon has any anti-tumor activity. To do that, she tested it on breast cancer cells and on normal, non-cancerous controls.

Ray found that while the bitter melon extract had practically no effect on normal human cells, it killed or slowed the growth of the cancerous ones. She says the next step will be to test whether the extract can prevent cancer growth in mice. She hopes to have those results later this year.

Her current study is published in the March 1 edition of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.