كلية الأفق الجامعية
كلية الأفق الجامعية

Knowledge Update

Vitamin D3 may improve heart functioning

London, April 5 (IANS) A daily dose of vitamin D3 is likely to improve the functioning of the heart in people with chronic failure of the organ, a new study has found.

The results revealed that for patients with heart disease taking vitamin D3 regularly may lessen the need for them to be fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), a device that detects dangerous irregular heart rhythms and can shock the heart to restore a normal rhythm.

The patients, in the study, who took vitamin D3 experienced an improvement in heart functioning, as compared to those who did not.

The ejection fraction -- measuring the pumping of blood from the heart with each heartbeat -- in heart failure patients is often significantly impaired whereas in a healthy person it is usually between 60 and 70 percent.

The heart's pumping function improved from 26 percent to 34 percent, in patients who took Vitamin D3.

"This is a significant breakthrough for patients. It is the first evidence that vitamin D3 can improve heart functioning of people with heart muscle weakness -- known as heart failure," said led researcher Klaus Witte from the University of Leeds in Britain.

The study involved more than 160 patients from Leeds who were already being treated for their heart failure using proven treatments including beta-blockers, ACE-inhibitors and pacemakers.

The targeted patients were asked to take vitamin D3 or a dummy (placebo) tablet for one year. Those who took placebo, there was no change found in cardiac function.

The findings could make a significant difference to the care of heart failure patients as ICDs are expensive and involve an operation, the researchers maintained.

Heart failure affects more than 23 million worldwide.The condition can affect people of all ages, but it is more common in older people -- more than half of all people globally with heart failure are over the age of 75.

The findings were presented at the American College of Cardiology 65th Annual Scientific Session & Expo in Chicago, US.​

Bilingual babies better at executive functioning

New York, April 6 (IANS) Researchers have found that babies raised in bilingual households show brain activity linked to executive functioning as early as when they are 11 months old.

Bilingual children have more activity in areas associated with executive function, a set of mental abilities that includes problem-solving, shifting attention and other desirable cognitive traits, and the difference in their brain activity is evident as early as 11 months of age.

"Our results suggest that before they even start talking, babies raised in bilingual households are getting practice at tasks related to executive function," said lead author Naja Ferjan Ramírez from University of Washington.

"This suggests that bilingualism shapes not only language development, but also cognitive development more generally," Ramírez added in the paper published online in the journal Developmental Science.

Brains of babies from bilingual families are more open to learning new language sounds, compared with babies from monolingual families.

The team used magnetoencephalography (MEG), which measures magnetic changes given off by active nerve cells. 

They compared the brain responses to the language sounds of 16 11-month-old babies -- eight from English-only households and eight from Spanish-English households. 

The Spanish-English bilingual babies had stronger brain responses to speech sounds, compared with English-only babies, the study found.

The findings suggested that the boost bilingualism gives to executive function areas in the brain could arise from switching back and forth between languages, allowing them to routinely practice and improve executive function skills.

"The 11-month-old baby brain is learning whatever language or languages are present in the environment and is equally capable of learning two languages as it is of learning one language," Ferjan Ramírez said.

"Our results underscore the notion that not only very young children capable of learning multiple languages, but that early childhood is the optimum time for them to begin," she said.​

How our lungs respond during asthma attacks

London, April 6 (IANS) Scientists have discovered a new biochemical process, which reveals how the lungs operate during normal functioning and during asthma -- a chronic respiratory condition marked by difficulty in breathing.

The study conducted in mouse model reveals how air enters and leaves the lungs.

The findings showed that disrupting these biochemical pathways in a mouse model could prevent airway narrowing and maintain normal lung function.

"The fundamental biochemical process that we have discovered will ultimately allow us to better design ways to develop new treatments for those suffering from asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)," said one of the researchers Andrew Tobin, professor at the University of Leicester in Britain.

It is too early to say whether these results apply to humans, the researchers maintained in the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The lung is made up of tiny tubes called airways, surrounded by muscles that allow air in and out of the lung.

In asthma and other airway diseases such as COPD, the airway muscle contracts causing the airways to become narrow and restricting the flow of air in and out of the lung.

"This breakthrough will lay the essential foundations on which to build new strategies to combat airway diseases such as asthma," added Tobin.

According to the World Health Organisation estimates, 235 million people worldwide currently suffer from asthma with over 80 percent of asthma deaths occurring in low and lower-middle income countries. The disease is predicted to increase worldwide over the next 10 years.​

Touching man-like robot can stir emotions in humans

New York, April 6 (IANS) Robots having close resemblance with humanoid robot movie characters like C-3PO and Wall-E, which are seen as "friendly, non-threatening computers", can evoke emotional response from humans, a study has found.

In an experiment, researchers at Stanford University used a human-shaped robot which was programmed to verbally instruct study participants to touch 13 parts of its body.

Participants were fitted with an Affectiva Q-Sensor on the fingers of their non-dominant hand. This measured skin conductance, a measure of physiological arousal, and reaction time of the participant.

The findings, which will be presented in June at the 66th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Fukuoka, Japan, showed that when participants were instructed to touch the robot in areas that people usually do not touch, like the eyes or the buttocks, they were more emotionally aroused when compared to touching more accessible parts like the hands and neck. 

Participants also were more hesitant to touch these intimate parts based on the response times.

"Our work shows that robots are a new form of media that is particularly powerful. It shows that people respond to robots in a primitive, social way," said Stanford researcher Jamy Li.

"Social conventions regarding touching someone else's private parts apply to a robot's body parts as well. This research has implications for both robot design and theory of artificial systems," Li added.​

Comet bombardment may have helped ancient Mars support life

New York, April 6 (IANS) If early Mars was as barren and cold as it is today then the bombardment of the Red Planet some four billion years ago by comets and asteroids may have made its climate more conducive to life, according to a study.

The impacts would have produced regional hydrothermal systems on Mars similar to those in Yellowstone National Park, which today harbour chemically powered microbes, some of which can survive boiling in hot springs or inhabiting water acidic enough to dissolve iron nails, said study co-author Stephen Mojzsis from the University of Colorado at Boulder. 

Scientists have long known there was once running water on Mars, as evidenced by ancient river valleys, deltas and parts of lake beds, Mojzsis added. 

In addition to producing hydrothermal regions in portions of Mars' fractured and melted crust, a massive impact could have temporarily increased the planet's atmospheric pressure, periodically heating Mars up enough to "re-start" a dormant water cycle.

Published recently in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the study took into consideration temperatures beneath millions of individual craters on Mars. 

The researchers used computer simulations to assess heating and cooling, as well as the effects of impacts on the planet from different angles and velocities.

They found the heating of ancient Mars caused by individual asteroid collisions would likely have lasted only a few million years before the Red Planet -- about one and one-half times the distance to the sun than Earth -- defaulted to today's cold and inhospitable conditions.

"None of the models we ran could keep Mars consistently warm over long periods," Mojzsis said.

While Mars is believed to have spent most of its history in a cold state, Earth was likely habitable over almost its entire existence. 

"What really saved the day for Earth was its oceans," Mojzsis said. "In order to wipe out life here, the oceans would have had to have been boiled away. Those extreme conditions in that time period are beyond the realm of scientific possibility," he added.

Mojzsis said the next step would be to model similar bombardment on Mercury as well as Venus to better understand the evolution of the inner solar system and apply that knowledge to studies of planets around other stars.​

Death of spouse ups irregular heartbeat risk

London, April 6 (IANS) The death of a spouse is linked to increased risk of developing an irregular heartbeat up to a year after the bereavement, says a study adding that the risk is prevalent among those below 60.

The condition known as atrial fibrillation -- itself a risk factor for stroke and heart failure -- can also flare up in cases when the loss was least expected.

According to Danish researchers, acute stress may directly disrupt normal heart rhythms and prompt the production of chemicals involved in inflammation.

"The elevated risk was especially high for those who were young and those who lost a relatively healthy partner," said Simon Graff of Aarhus University in Denmark.

The team collected information on 88,612 people newly diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and 886,120 healthy people.

They looked at several factors that might influence atrial fibrillation risk which included time since the bereavement, age and sex, heart disease and diabetes, the health of the partner a month before death, and whether they were single.

The results, published in the online journal Open Heart, indicated that the risk of developing an irregular heartbeat was 41 percent higher among those who had been bereaved than it was among those who had not experienced such a loss.

The risk seemed to be greater during eight to 14 days following a death, after which it gradually subsided until after a year the risk was similar to that of someone who had not been bereaved.

The highest risk was seen among people under the age of 60: they were more than twice as likely to develop atrial fibrillation if they had been bereaved and the risk also seemed to be greater where the partner's death had been unexpected.

Those whose partners were relatively healthy in the month before death were 57 percent more likely to develop atrial fibrillation. 

"In addition, patients with atrial fibrillation often claim that emotional stress is a common triggering factor and increasing levels of perceived stress are associated with prevalent atrial fibrillation," the researchers explained.

Oxytocin can make overweight men less impulsive

New York, April 4 (IANS) A single dose of oxytocin nasal spray, known to cut food intake, can lower impulsive behaviour in overweight and obese men, say researchers.

Oxytocin nasal spray is a synthetic version of the hormone oxytocin which is important for controlling food intake and weight.

"Our preliminary results in men are promising. Oxytocin nasal spray showed no strong side effects and is not as invasive as obesity surgery," said Franziska Plessow, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Results of their new pilot study in 10 overweight and obese men suggest that one way oxytocin lowers food intake might be by improving self-control.

"Knowing the mechanisms of action of intranasal oxytocin is important to investigating oxytocin as a novel treatment strategy for obesity," Plessow added.

Participants took a psychology research test on two occasions 15 minutes after they self-administered a dose of nasal spray in each nostril.

In a randomly assigned order, one day they received oxytocin and another they received a placebo or dummy drug.

After receiving oxytocin, participants were acting less impulsively and exerting more control over their behaviour after receiving oxytocin.

More study is necessary to determine how oxytocin alters self-control and how important this mechanism is in regulating food intake since not all overeating relates to poor self-control.

The information may allow scientists to move forward to large clinical trials, identify who can benefit from the drug, and help optimise the treatment. They also will need to test the drug in women.

The preliminary study was presented at the Endocrine Society's 98th annual meeting in Boston last weekend.​

Age, gender linked to peripheral vascular disease risk

New York, April 4 (IANS) A person's age and gender can affect the prevalence of certain types of peripheral vascular diseases (PVD), which can lead to heart attack, stroke and even amputation of the limbs.

PVD is a circulation disorder that affects blood vessels outside of the heart and brain, particularly the veins and arteries that supply blood to the arms and legs. 

The results revealed that women, especially younger women, have a significantly higher prevalence of peripheral artery disease than men.

"These findings point to very important differences between women and men, and older and younger individuals, when it comes to PVD," said one of the researchers, Jeffrey S. Berger, associate professor at NYU Langone Medical Centre in New York, US. 

"Sex-specific guidelines for PVD are important, and we are starting to realise that women and men need to be approached differently," Berger added.

In addition, diabetes was found to be a major risk factor for developing PVD, even in patients without heart disease.

The team used data collected from more than 3.6 million individuals and found that people with both diabetes and coronary heart disease the risk of developing PVD increases.

However, the researchers cautioned that the findings might not represent PVD prevalence in all men and women, or disease risk in people with diabetes. 

The findings were presented at the American College of Cardiology's 65th Annual Scientific Session in Chicago, US.​

El Nino can have huge impact on marine food chain: Study

New York, April 5 (IANS) El Nino - the climate cycle that develops along the tropical west coast of South America every three to seven years - can have huge impact on the marine food chain with rippling effect on fisheries and the livelihoods of fishermen, says a new NASA study.

El Nino's mass of warm water puts a lid on the normal currents of cold, deep water that typically rise to the surface along the Equator and off the coast of Chile and Peru, said Stephanie Uz, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.

In a process called upwelling, those cold waters normally bring up the nutrients that feed the tiny organisms, which form the base of the food chain.

These tiny plants, called phytoplankton, are fish food -- without them, fish populations drop, and the fishing industries that many coastal regions depend on can collapse.

"An El Nino basically stops the normal upwelling," Uz said, adding that "there's a lot of starvation that happens to the marine food web". 

Uz's team used NASA satellite data and ocean colour software called SeaDAS to find out El Nino's impact on phytoplankton. 

From shades of blue and green, scientists calculated the amount of green chlorophyll -- and therefore the amount of phytoplankton present.

They found that in December 2015, at the peak of the current El Nino event, there was more blue -- and less green chlorophyll -- in the Pacific Ocean off of Peru and Chile, compared to the previous year. 

After analysing data from the large 1997-1998 El Nino event, the researchers said the green chlorophyll virtually disappeared from the coast of Chile. 

In 1997-1998, the biggest ocean temperature abnormalities were in the eastern Pacific Ocean. But this year's event caused a drop in chlorophyll primarily along the equator, the study said. 

"We know how important phytoplankton are for the marine food web, and we're trying to understand their role as a carbon pump," Uz said. 

Other scientists at Goddard are investigating ways to forecast the ebbs and flows of nutrients using the centre's supercomputers, incorporating data like winds, sea surface temperatures, air pressures and more.​

Type 1 diabetes may up risk of epilepsy

Taipei, April 3 (IANS) People with type 1 diabetes are three times more prone to the risk of developing epilepsy later in life, finds a new research.

The findings revealed that in patients with type 1 diabetes, the risk of developing epilepsy -- a neurological disorder -- was significantly higher than that in patients without the disease.

Also, an excess of glucose in the bloodstream known as hyperglycaemia and deficiency of glucose in the bloodstream, known as hypoglycaemia, can alter the balance between the inhibition and excitation of neuronal networks and cause focal motor seizures.

Immune abnormalities, brain lesions, genetic factors and metabolic abnormalities have been identified as the potential causes for the link between type 1 diabetes and epilepsy.

In addition, younger age has been linked with an increased risk of developing epilepsy, the researchers said.

"This result is consistent with those of previous studies in that epilepsy or seizures are observed in many autoimmune or inflammatory disorders and are linked to the primary disease, or secondary to pro-inflammatory processes," said I-Ching Chou from China Medical University in Taiwan.

In the study, published in the journal Diabetologia, computer modelling was used to estimate the effects of type 1 diabetes on epilepsy risk.

The study cohort contained 2,568 patients with type 1 diabetes, each of whose frequency was matched by sex, urbanisation of residence area and index year with 10 control patients without type 1 diabetes.

The results showed that the type 1 diabetes the cohort was 2.84 times more likely to develop epilepsy than the control cohort.​