Knowledge Update

​New York, July 7 (IANS) Those who live exceptionally long lives lead a much healthier life, suggests new research. It found the onset of illness came decades later in life for centenarians than those not blessed with longevity.

The findings in a study of nearly 3,000 people contradict the notion that the older the people get, the sicker they become and the greater the cost of taking care of them.

"Most people struggle with an ever-increasing burden of disease and disability as they age," said study leader Nir Barzilai, Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

"But we found that those who live exceptionally long lives have the additional benefit of shorter periods of illness -- sometimes just weeks or months -- before death," Barzilai said.

The study appeared in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The data for the study was collected from two studies with participants from North America, England, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Analysis revealed a consistent pattern of delayed onset of illness in the centenarian groups compared to their respective comparison groups.

The findings suggest that discoveries made in one group of centenarians can be generalised to diverse populations. ​

New York, July 7 (IANS) Air pollutants interact with and break down plant-emitted scent molecules, which insect pollinators such as bees use to locate needed food, says a new study.

The pollution-modified plant odours can confuse bees and, as a result, bees' foraging time increases and pollination efficiency decreases, the study said.

This happens because the chemical interactions decrease both the scent molecules' life spans and the distances they travel.

While foraging for food, insects detect floral scent molecules in the air. Wind currents can carry these molecules up to thousands of feet from their original source to where bees have their hives.

"Many insects have nests that are up to 3,000 feet away from their food source, which means that scents need to travel long distances before insects can detect them," said Jose Fuentes, Professor at Pennsylvania State University in the US.

Plant-emitted hydrocarbons break down through chemical interactions with certain air pollutants such as ozone. 

This breakdown process results in the creation of more air pollutants, including hydroxyl and nitrate radicals, which further increase the breakdown rate of plant odours.

The researchers sought to understand how these chemical interactions, which start with the presence of air pollutants, would impact bees' ability to find food. 

The researchers ran 90,000 simulations representing various bees' foraging and movement patterns amid differing scent levels modified by air pollution and diluted by wind speeds.

The team reported in the journal Atmospheric Environment that, as air pollution increases, hydrocarbons' lifetime and travel distance decreases. 

The changes in air chemistry impacted the number of bees able to detect food sources in a given time frame. 

"We found that when we confused the bees' environment by modifying the gases present in the atmosphere, they spent more time foraging and would bring back less food, which would affect their colonies," Fuentes said. ​

​Sydney, July 6 (IANS) Children who have Type-1 diabetes can improve their cardiovascular health simply by taking an extra 1,000 steps a day, according a new research.

Keeping count of daily steps and boosting physical activity can really pay off for children with Type-1 diabetes, the findings showed. 

For the study, the researchers tracked the daily physical activity of 90 pre- to early-teenage children with Type-1 diabetes and found that those who undertook additional physical activity showed improvements in their blood vessel structure and other reductions in risk factors for heart disease.

"Children with Type-1 diabetes often report lower physical activity levels than recommended for children of the same age. We also tend to see early signs of atherosclerosis - a build up of plaque in the arteries - and other adverse cardiovascular risks at an earlier age than usual for these children," said lead author Alexia Pena from University of Adelaide in Australia.

The research team found that 55 per cent of the children took fewer than 10,000 steps per day.

The results were published online in the journal Diabetes Care.

"There were clear correlations between artery thickness and the average number of steps per day. With an increase of 1000 steps each day, we saw a measurable decrease in this arterial thickness," Pena added.

The report also suggested that in the children who had extra physical activity, saw reductions in weight, blood pressure and trigylcerides, which indicates an overall reduction in risk of heart disease.​

New York, July 7 (IANS) People with anger issues tend to misunderstand the intentions of other people and they also do not take in all the data from a social interaction, such as body language, because of decreased connectivity between regions of the brain that process a social situation, a study says.

People with intermittent explosive disorder (IED), or impulsive aggression, have a weakened connection between regions of the brain associated with sensory input, language processing and social interaction, the findings showed.

In a new study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, the scientists showed that white matter in a region of the brain called the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) has less integrity and density in people with anger issues than in healthy individuals and those with other psychiatric disorders. 

The SLF connects the brain's frontal lobe--responsible for decision-making, emotion and understanding consequences of actions--with the parietal lobe, which processes language and sensory input.

"It's like an information superhighway connecting the frontal cortex to the parietal lobes," said lead author of the study Royce Lee, Associate Professor at University of Chicago in the US. 

"We think that points to social cognition as an important area to think about for people with anger problems," Lee said.

Lee and his colleagues, including senior author Emil Coccaro, MD, Ellen C. Manning Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at Chicago. 

For the study, the researchers used diffusion tensor imaging, a form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that measures the volume and density of white matter connective tissue in the brain. 

Connectivity is a critical issue because the brains of people with psychiatric disorders usually show very few physical differences from healthy individuals.

"It's not so much how the brain is structured, but the way these regions are connected to each other," Lee said. 

​Tokyo, July 6 (IANS) In a first, Japanese researchers have rehabilitated a paralysed chimpanzee through interaction with computers and touch screens.

The case of Reo, a male chimpanzee that learned to walk again after being paralysed due to illness, shows how much can be done to rehabilitate animals injured in captivity, said lead author Yoko Sakuraba of Kyoto University.

Reo's example suggests that euthanasia does not have to be the only option for injured animals

The case was described in an article in Primates, the official journal of the Japan Monkey Centre published by Springer.

In their normal work, researchers of the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University use chimpanzees' interaction with computers and touch screens to study the cognition and perception of these primates. 

When Reo was paralysed from the neck down, dedicated staff put this technology to further use by encouraging the animal to walk again. 

When Reo was 24 years old in 2006, he suddenly became paralysed when a portion of his spinal cord became inflamed. 

For the first ten months thereafter, the chimpanzee was severely disabled, lying on his back. He gradually recovered enough to sit up, and could later pull himself upright by using suspended ropes. 

Intensive physiotherapy over a period of 41 months followed, after which he was able to climb about again using only his arms.

To aid Reo's ultimate integration back among the other twelve animals held at the institute, his carers decided to try to get him walking again. 

They incorporated a computerised task in this process. This was considered an option because in his youth Reo had learnt how to perform cognitive tasks on a touch panel, and in so doing had become used to receiving food rewards whenever he succeeded at tasks presented to him.

A computer-controlled monitor was, therefore, placed on one wall, and cognitive tasks were again put to him. 

The rehabilitation sessions encouraged him to increase his movements considerably, and he started walking up to five hundred metres in a two-hour session.

"Cognitive tasks may be a useful way to rehabilitate physically disabled chimpanzees, and thus improve their welfare in captivity," Sakuraba said.​

London, July 4 (IANS) Surviving all kinds of environmental changes, hedgehogs -- the 15 million years old species -- have adapted to city life more than the rural areas, says a new study.

The findings showed that cities have higher hedgehog numbers than rural areas.

Hedgehogs were also found to have adjusted their activity to levels of human disturbance with much smaller nightly ranging areas of five hectares than their rural counterparts with 50 hectares.

While the city hedgehogs mainly stayed in private gardens during the day but around midnight, when the number of humans and pets in local parks decreased, they came out to forage and look for mates.

This shows the importance of gardens or parks for them to remain undisturbed for the entire hibernation season as well as for their future survival, the researchers said.

"Gardens and public parks are very important for city hedgehogs. They need gardens with natural vegetation and public parks less immaculately pruned, with plenty of natural, bushy areas," said lead researcher Lisa Warnecke from University of Hamburg in Germany. 

Further, urban hedgehogs seemed to have similar pattern of hibernation to rural populations. 

During winter season, hedgehogs enter a physiological state called torpor, where their metabolic rate and body temperature decrease significantly in order to save energy. 

"This was despite city hedgehogs often nesting next to busy roads and having potential food sources available throughout winter - such as food scraps or cat food on private terraces," Warnecke added.

City dwellers should take care to avoid disturbing nesting hedgehogs and to keep their gardens free of anything that could do them harm, the researchers suggested. 

"Our work with the hedgehog care station showed that the main problems were injuries caused by fences, plant netting or gardening tools and sickness from ingesting rat poison," Warnecke noted.

For the study, the team fitted free-ranging hedgehogs with temperature-sensitive transmitters to investigate what physiological factors allow them to thrive in urban areas. 

The results were presented at the Society for Experimental Biology's Annual Meeting held at London, recently. ​

​Toronto, July 4 (IANS) Parents, especially fathers, play a vital role in developing healthy behaviours as well as help prevent obesity in young adults, say researchers.

The findings showed that among males, the quality of relationship with the father had a greater impact on their odds of being overweight or obese.

When it came to predicting whether a young male will become overweight or obese, the mother-son relationship mattered far less than the relationship between father and son, the researchers said.

"Our results highlight the importance of examining the influence fathers have on their children and to develop strategies to help fathers support the development of healthy behaviours among their children," said lead author Jess Haines, Professor at the University of Guelph in Canada. 

Further, young adults who grew up in stable families with quality parental relationships were more likely to have healthy diet, activity and sleep behaviours and were less likely to be obese.

Girls who were raised in stable families were also found to consume less fast food and thus less likely to be overweight or obese. 

"It appears the father-son parent relationship has a stronger influence on sons than the mother-daughter relationship has on young women," Haines added.

For the study, the team analysed more than 3,700 females and more than 2,600 males, all aged 14-24. 

Among both males and females, 80 per cent said they had high family function, defined by how well the family managed daily routines, and how family members fulfilled their roles and connected emotionally.

In all, six out of 10 females and half of males reported high quality relationships with their parents.

"In general, the findings show the importance of family behaviours and relationships on the health of young adults from an early age, which can be powerful determinants of weight and related behaviours," Haines noted.

On the other hand, a high level of family dysfunction may interfere with the development of health behaviours in young adults, said the paper published in the Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.​

​London, July 4 (IANS) Researchers from the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium have built a very sensitive electronic nose with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that can detect pesticides and nerve gas in very low concentrations.

"MOFs are like microscopic sponges. They can absorb quite a lot of gas into their minuscule pores,” said post-doctoral researcher Ivo Stassen.

The chemical sensor can easily be integrated into existing electronic devices.

“You can apply the MOF as a thin film over the surface of, for instance, an electric circuit. Therefore, it's fairly easy to equip a smartphone with a gas sensor for pesticides and nerve gas,” added professor Rob Ameloot.

The best known electronic nose is the breathalyser. As drivers breathe into the device, a chemical sensor measures the amount of alcohol in their breath. 

This chemical reaction is then converted into an electronic signal, allowing the police officer to read off the result. 

"We created a MOF that absorbs the phosphonates found in pesticides and nerve gases. This means you can use it to find traces of chemical weapons such as sarin or to identify the residue of pesticides on food,” added Stassen. 

This MOF is the most sensitive gas sensor to date for these dangerous substances. 

“Further research will allow us to examine other applications as well," Professor Ameloot noted in a university statement. 

“MOFs can measure very low concentrations, so we could use them to screen someone's breath for diseases such as lung cancer and multiple sclerosis (MS) in an early stage,” he added. ​

Sydney, July 4 (IANS) Researchers, including one of Indian origin, are developing a new flying technique for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones that will help the machines visually coordinate their flight and navigation just like birds and flying insects do.

The drones will be able to do their work without human input, radar or even GPS satellite navigation, said the team from University of Queensland.

“We study how small airborne creatures such as bees and birds use their vision to avoid collisions with obstacles, fly safely through narrow passages, control their height above the ground and more,” said lead researcher and Professor Mandyam Srinivasan.

“We then use biologically-inspired principles to design novel vision systems and algorithms for the guidance of UAVs,” he added in a university statement.

At first glance, insects and birds have very different brains in terms of size and architecture, yet the visual processing in both animals is very effective at guiding their flight. 

"Bees' brains weigh a 10th of a milligram and carry far fewer neurones than our own brains; yet the insects are capable of navigating accurately to food sources over 10 km away from their hive," said Srinivasan.

The team compares the flight of bees and budgies in particular because they are easy animals to study.

“The study of their behaviour could also reveal some of the basic principles of visual guidance in a number of organisms including humans,” he noted.

Comparing the flight behaviours of these animals using high-speed cameras will lead to drastically improved UAV guidance systems. 

“These UAVs could be incredibly useful for applications like surveillance, rescue operations, defence, and planetary exploration,” Srinivasan explained.​

​New York, July 5 (IANS) Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new type of easily customisable vaccine that can be manufactured in one week, allowing it to be rapidly deployed in response to disease outbreaks.

So far, they have designed vaccines against Ebola, H1N1 influenza, and Toxoplasma gondii (a relative of the parasite that causes malaria), which were 100 per cent effective in tests in mice, said a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The vaccine consists of strands of genetic material known as messenger RNA, which can be designed to code for any viral, bacterial, or parasitic protein. 

These molecules are then packaged into a molecule that delivers the RNA into cells, where it is translated into proteins that provoke an immune response from the host.

"This nanoformulation approach allows us to make vaccines against new diseases in only seven days, allowing the potential to deal with sudden outbreaks or make rapid modifications and improvements," said Daniel Anderson, Associate Professor at MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering and senior author of the study.

The ability to rapidly design and manufacture these vaccines could be especially beneficial for fighting influenza, because the most common flu vaccine manufacturing method, which requires the viruses to be grown inside chicken eggs, takes months. 

This means that when an unexpected flu strain appears, such as the 2009 pandemic-causing H1N1 virus, there is no way to rapidly produce a vaccine against it.

"Typically a vaccine becomes available long after the outbreak is over," one of the lead researchers Jasdave Chahal explained.

"We think we can become interventional over the course of a real outbreak," Chahal noted.

The vaccine is designed to be delivered by intramuscular injection, making it easy to administer. 

Once the particles get into cells, the RNA is translated into proteins that are released and stimulate the immune system. 

Significantly, the vaccines were able to stimulate both arms of the immune system -- a T cell response and an antibody response.

In tests in mice, animals that received a single dose of one of the vaccines showed no symptoms following exposure to the real pathogen -- Ebola, H1N1 influenza, or Toxoplasma gondii.

"No matter what antigen we picked, we were able to drive the full antibody and T cell responses," one of the first authors Omar Khan said.

In addition to targeting infectious diseases, the researchers are using this approach to create cancer vaccines that would teach the immune system to recognise and destroy tumours.​