Knowledge Update

​London, July 6 (IANS) Infections with two types of malaria parasite lead to greater health risks because one species helps the other to thrive, new research has found.

The researchers sought to understand what happens when the two most common malaria parasites cause infection at the same time, as they are known to attack the body in different ways.

They found that one type of parasite leads to the second species being provided with more of the resources it needs to prosper.

In people, a parasite known as P. falciparum infects red blood cells of all ages, while another - P. vivax - attacks only young red blood cells.

"Our findings also challenge ideas that one species will outcompete the other, which explains why infections involving two parasite species can pose a greater health risk to patients," said one of the researchers Sarah Reece, Professor at University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Experiments in mice with equivalent malaria parasites showed that the body's response to the first infection produces more of the type of red blood cell that the second parasite needs.

In response to the first infection, millions of red blood cells are destroyed. The body responds by replenishing these cells. These fresh cells quickly become infected by the second type of parasite, making the infection worse, the researchers said.

The finding could explain why infections with both P. falciparum and P. vivax in people often have worse outcomes for patients than single infections, the team noted.

Until recently, it was unclear how two parasite species interacted during co-infections.

The study, published in the journal Ecology Letters, was carried out in collaboration with the University of Toronto. ​

​New York, July 6 (IANS) Ditching homemade food for that king size burger and French fries can add not only extra kilos around your belly but may also increase the risk of developing diabetes, a study has warned.

Individuals who often ate from outside, typically fast food were more prone to gain weight -- a major cause for developing Type 2 diabetes, the researchers said.

Concerns have been raised that such people have a diet that is rich in energy but relatively poor in nutrients -- this could lead to weight gain, which is, in turn, associated with an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, said Qi Sun from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The findings showed that the people who consumed five-seven evening meals prepared at home during a week had a 15 per cent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes than those who consumed two such meals or fewer in a week. 

A smaller, but still statistically significant, reduction was apparent for those who consumed more midday meals prepared at home. 

Well-established diabetes prevention strategies include behavioural interventions aimed at increasing exercise and improving dietary habits.

The nutritional and lifestyle benefits of consuming meals prepared at home could contribute to these diabetes prevention efforts, the researchers suggested.

For the study, appearing in the journal PLOS Medicine, the team employed large prospective datasets in which US health professionals -- both men and women--were followed-up for long periods, with rigorous collection of data on health indicators, including self-reported information on eating habits and occurrence of diabetes.

New York, July 6 (IANS) Researchers have discovered that a protein in urine samples correlates with the presence and severity of Parkinson's disease.

The biomarker may act as a possible guide for future clinical treatments and a monitor of the efficacy of potential new Parkinson's drugs in real time during treatment.

"Nobody thought we'd be able to measure the activity of this huge protein called LRRK2 (pronounced lark two) in biofluids since it is usually found inside neurons in the brain," said Andrew West, Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the US.

For more than five years, urine and cerebral-spinal fluid samples from patients with Parkinson's disease have been locked in freezers in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) National Repository.

They were stored with the expectation they might someday help unravel the still hidden course of this slow acting neurodegenerative disease.

"New biochemical markers like the one we've discovered together with new neuroimaging approaches are going to be the key to successfully stopping Parkinson's disease in its tracks,” West said. 

"I think the days of blindly testing new therapies for complex diseases like Parkinson's without having active feedback both for 'on-target' drug effects and for effectiveness in patients are thankfully coming to an end," West noted.

The findings appeared in the journal Movement Disorders.

A biomarker helps physicians predict, diagnose or monitor disease, because the biomarker corresponds to the presence or risk of disease, and its levels may change as the disease progresses. 

Validated biomarkers can aid both preclinical trial work in the laboratory and future clinical trials of drugs to treat Parkinson's. ​

​London, July 6 (IANS) The first-ever record of a tumourous facial swelling found in a fossil has been discovered in the jaw of an estimated 69 million-year-old dwarf dinosaur, say researchers.

The fossil was discovered in the 'Valley of the Dinosaurs' in the Dinosaurs Geopark in Transylvania, western Romania. 

The non-cancerous facial tumour found on Telmatosaurus -- a type of primitive duck-billed dinosaur and also known as a hadrosaur -- had been previously seen in humans, mammals and some modern reptiles, but never before encountered in fossil animals.

"This discovery is the first ever described in the fossil record and the first to be thoroughly documented in a dwarf dinosaur,” said Kate Acheson, doctoral student at the University of Southampton in Britain.

“Telmatosaurus is known to be close to the root of the duck-billed dinosaur family tree, and the presence of such a deformity early in their evolution provides us with further evidence that the duck-billed dinosaurs were more prone to tumours than other dinosaurs," Acheson added.

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Scans taken of the Telmatosaurus fossil suggested that the dinosaur suffered from a condition known as 'ameloblastoma' -- a tumourous, non-cancerous growth known to afflict the jaws of humans and other mammals and some modern reptiles, too.

It is unlikely that the tumour caused the dinosaur any serious pain during its early stages of development, just as in humans with the same condition, but this particular dinosaur died before it reached adulthood, the researchers said, though they could not ascertain the cause of its death. 

"The tumour in this dinosaur had not developed to its full extent at the moment it died, but it could have indirectly contributed to its early demise," Zoltan Csiki-Sava from the University of Bucharest in Romania noted. ​

London, July 3 (IANS) Does your boss always punish you? If so, he or she may be afraid of losing the power and position, reveals a study.

The findings showed that distrust is the main reason why leaders impose punishments on the people over whom they have power.

Afraid of losing their power, the leaders use punishments as deterrents and to ensure that similar rule-breaking behaviour never happens again.

“Leaders expect other people not to obey the rules and punish them on the basis of this distrust,” said Marlon Mooijman, psychologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Further, leaders are afraid that if they are too trusting of others, this trust can be abused. This would then, of course, threaten their position.

Unfortunately, punishments of this kind do not have the desired effect. "We see that some power systems can actually exacerbate the problems. This particularly relates to issues such as unethical behaviour, plagiarism and fraud," the researchers explained.

"When people feel distrusted, they are less likely to obey the rules. They see this assumption on the part of the leaders as a sign of disrespect. It also violates an implicit social contract: If you treat me well, I will act accordingly," Mooijman added.

For the study, the team conducted experiments with groups of students, who were temporarily assigned to a manager position. They were asked to write about an incident in which they felt very powerful, or conversely very powerless.

They then had to decide how someone who had committed plagiarism should be punished.

Students who had been made to feel powerful were found to favour punishments designed to make an example of the offenders.

The deterrent aspect was important, and some were even prepared to publicly name the people who had committed plagiarism.

New York, July 3 (IANS) The brain activity generated while relaxing is likely to indicate individuals who can learn new languages faster, says a research.

The findings showed that a five-minute measurement of resting-state brain activity predicted how quickly adults picked up a second language.

“The way someone's brain functions while at rest can predict 60 per cent of their capacity for learning a second language,” said lead author Chantel Prat, Associate Professor at the University of Washington.

The patterns of resting-state brain waves reflect synchronised firing of large networks of neurons and can determine subsequent language learning rate.

The findings showed that the larger the networks in "beta" frequencies -- brain frequencies associated with language and memory, the faster was the learning.

"This is vital brain function research that could enable the military to develop a more effective selection process of those who can learn languages quickly," said Ray, a program officer in Office of Naval Research's (ONR) Warfighter Performance Department, who oversees the research.

"This is especially critical to the intelligence community, which needs linguists fluent in a variety of languages, and must find such individuals rapidly," Perez added.

For the study, 19 participants -- adults between the ages of 18 and 31, with no previous experience learnt French over eight weeks for 30-minute French lessons delivered through an immersive, virtual-reality computer program.

For five minutes before and after the eight-week curriculum, the team had participants sit still, close their eyes, breathe deeply and wear an EEG (electroencephalogram) headset measuring resting-state brain activity from the cerebral cortex--an area of the brain crucial to memory, attention and perception.

The results showed that those with the larger "beta" networks learned French twice as quickly.

"By studying individual differences in the brain, we're figuring out key constraints on learning and information processing, to develop ways to improve language mastery," said Prat.​

​New York, July 3 (IANS) Auricular acupuncture has a greater overall impact on headache-related quality of life (QoL) than did traditional Chinese acupuncture, says a new US study.

The study, published in Medical Acupuncture journal, compared the effectiveness of usual care alone to usual care plus either auricular or traditional Chinese acupuncture in treating patients with headaches due to a previous traumatic brain injury (TBI) and showed a significant improvement in headache-related quality of life (QoL) with the addition of acupuncture. 

The study was conducted on previously deployed members of the US military who had mild to moderate TBI and headaches. Chronic or recurrent headache is reported by 80 per cent of service members with TBI.

"Chronic concussion headaches are a clinical challenge. Acupuncture appears promising to avoid the opioid gateway for these patients," says Richard C. Niemtzow, director, US Air Force Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine Center.

​Norwich, July 3 (IANS) Realistic workloads and ongoing emotional support are essential if social workers are to manage stress and perform their job effectively, says a study by British researchers.

Involving 209 child and family social workers across eight local authorities in Britain, the study by University of East Anglia's Centre for Research on Children and Families (CRCF) examined the relationship between emotional intelligence - the ability to identify and manage emotions in oneself and others, stress, burnout and social work practice. 

"The study confirmed that social work is an emotionally demanding profession, suggesting that particular attention should be given by social work employers to the workplace environment and social worker support," said Laura Biggart, lecturer in social science research and psychology.

The researchers recommend that if social workers are to be most effective, it is essential that they have realistic workloads and good administrative support and that the demands for more recording and regulation should come with provision of sufficient resources.​

​Beijing, July 3 (IANS) Installation was completed on the world's largest radio telescope on Sunday as the last of 4,450 panels was fitted into the centre of the big dish.

Hoisting of the last triangular panel to the reflector, which is the size of 30 football fields, began at 10.47 a.m. and lasted about an hour. It was a landmark step for the telescope's planned launch of operations in September, Xinhua news agency reported.

About 300 people, including builders, experts, science fiction enthusiasts and reporters, witnessed the installation at Karst Valley in the southwestern province of Guizhou.

"The telescope is of great significance for humans to explore the universe and extraterrestrial civilisations," said Liu Cixin, a renowned science fiction writer.

"I hope scientists can make epoch-making discoveries," said Liu, who won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Scientists will begin debugging and trial observation of the 500 metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), said Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astronomical Observation (NAO) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which built the telescope.

The project has the potential to search for more strange objects to better understand the origin of the universe and boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life, said Zheng. It will be the global leader for the next 10 to 20 years.

In the first two or three years after its completion, the telescope will undergo further adjustment, and during that period Chinese scientists will use it for early-stage research.

After that, it will be open to scientists worldwide, said Peng Bo, director of the NAO Radio Astronomy Technology Laboratory.

Upon completion, the telescope will dwarf Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 metres in diameter. It will also be 10 times more sensitive than the steerable 100-metre telescope near Bonn in Germany, he said.

Work on the 1.2-billion-yuan ($180 million) FAST project began in 2011.​

​Toronto, July 3 (IANS) Activities such as playing cards and repeatedly throwing a foam ball or wad of paper into a wastepaper basket are just as effective in helping people regain strength and co-ordination following a stroke as playing virtual reality games, a new study has found.

The study, published in the 'Lancet Neurology' journal, was based on a clinical trial conducted at 14 centres in four countries in which patients were randomised into two groups.

One group received one-hour sessions of virtual reality using the Nintendo Wii system and the other spent the same amount of time doing simple recreational activities such as playing cards or dominoes.

Patients randomised to both groups saw a 30 per cent and 40 per cent improvement in motor performance at the end of two weeks of the intervention and four weeks after the intervention, respectively.

"There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of strength, dexterity, gross motor skills, quality of life or activities of daily living. We all like technology and have the tendency to think that new technology is better than old-fashioned strategies, but sometimes that's not the case," said Dr. Gustavo Saposnik, scientist at St. Michael's Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute in Toronto. 

This study revealed that simple recreational activities that can be implemented anywhere may be as effective as technology.​