Knowledge Update

New York, Nov 13 (IANS) A research team in the US has created a software that can quickly identify the information in cancer reports that would not only save time and work-hours but also reveal overlooked avenues in cancer research.

Much of the cancer-related data is drawn from electronic, text-based clinical reports that must be manually curated -- a time-intensive process -- before it can be used in research. 

"The manual model is not scalable and we need to develop new tools that can automate the information-extraction process and truly modernise cancer surveillance in the US," said Georgia Tourassi, director of the Health Data Sciences Institute at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

After experimenting with conventional natural-language-processing software, the team found an answer via deep learning -- a machine-learning technique that employs algorithms, big data and the computing power of GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) to emulate human learning and intelligence.

"Our work shows deep learning's potential for creating resources that can capture the effectiveness of cancer treatments and diagnostic procedures and give the cancer community a greater understanding of how they perform in real life," Tourassi added.

GPUs, such as those in Titan, can accelerate this training process by quickly executing many deep-learning calculations simultaneously. 

​New York, Nov 13 (IANS) Thousands of years ago, when the ancestors of modern humans made their way out of Africa to other parts of the globe, their encounter with Neanderthals and Denisovans helped the human race over the years, researchers have said.

Ancient humans met up -- and in some cases had children with -- other forms of humans, including the Neanderthals and Denisovans. This was found through the traces of those meetings remaining in the human genome.

"Our work shows that hybridisation was not just some curious side-note to human history, but had important consequences and contributed to our ancestors' ability to adapt to different environments as they dispersed throughout the world," Joshua Akey of University of Washington said in a statement.

The researchers used genome-scale maps of Neanderthal and Denisovan sequences identified in more than 1,500 geographically diverse people.

The researchers were searching for archaic DNA sequences in those human genomes at frequencies much higher than would be expected if those genes were not doing people any good.

While the vast majority of surviving Neanderthal and Denisovan sequences are found at relatively low frequencies (typically less than five per cent), the new analyses turned up 126 places in our genomes where these archaic sequences exist at much higher frequencies, reaching up to about 65 per cent. 

Seven of those regions were found in parts of the genome known to play a role in characteristics of our skin. Another 31 are involved in immunity.

"The ability to increase to such high population frequencies was most likely facilitated because these sequences were advantageous," Akey explains in paper published in the journal Current Biology.

New York, Nov 14 (IANS) Immune cells in the spleen can contribute to prolonged anxiety following psychological stress, new research has found.

The abundance of white blood cells in the spleen could be sending messages to the brain that result in behavioural changes long after experiencing repeated stress, the study conducted in mice showed.

"Our findings emphasise the possibility that the immune system represents a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of mental health conditions," said Daniel McKim from Ohio State University in the US.

In this study, the scientists determined that the immune cell changes persisted for almost a month after the mice experienced the stress.

"Stress appears to prompt the release of stem cells from the bone marrow to the spleen, where they develop into white blood cells, or monocytes, and expand over time," Jonathan Godbout, Associate Professor at Ohio State, said.

"Then the spleen becomes a reservoir of inflammatory cells," Godbout noted.

The researchers said that the spleen is now understood to be integral to the sensitisation that happens after prolonged stress in mice, leading to anxiety and other cognitive problems down the road. 

"It's like a stress memory," Godbout said.

The researchers said that the work towards explaining the complicated interplay between immunity and stress in animals that have experienced "repeated social defeat" is an effort to eventually improve the well-being of people who experience chronic psychological stress.

The research was presented at Neuroscience 2016, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, in San Diego.

New York, Nov 15 (IANS) Microsoft said its Cheyenne datacentre in Wyoming will now be powered entirely by 237 megawatts of wind energy.

"Our commitment extends beyond greening our own operations because these projects help create a greener, more reliable grid in the communities in which we operate," Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, said in a Microsoft blog post on Monday.

"That's why we are announcing our largest wind energy purchases yet - 237 megawatts of wind energy - that will allow our datacenter in Cheyenne, Wyoming to be powered entirely by wind power," Smith added.

Microsoft has also structured the purchase and partnered with the local utility in novel ways to facilitate a shift of cities and states towards a cleaner energy grid. 

Microsoft said it entered into agreements with two wind farms to power its Cheyenne datacentre from renewable sources.

Of the two partnerships, Microsoft has procured 178 megawatts from the Bloom Wind Project in Kansas through Allianz Risk Transfer (ART) to help bring this new project online and partnered with Black Hills Corp. to purchase wind power from the 59-megawatt Happy Jack and Silver Sage wind farms in Wyoming.

With these energy deals, Microsoft's total investment in wind energy projects in the US has gone up to over 500 megawatts. 

"The combined output of the Bloom and Happy Jack/Silver Sage projects will produce enough energy on an annual basis to cover the energy used at the datacenter," Smith said.

​Marrakech, Nov 15 (IANS) The UN Environment has launched a decade-long programme on Climate, Ecosystems and Livelihoods, supported by China, to assist countries in the global south with effective delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The programme aims to seize the 'power of integration' of the SDGs and will be led by the UN Environment's International Ecosystem Management Partnership.

UN Environment's Deputy Executive Director Ibrahim Thiaw, joined by several ministers and heads of UN and government agencies, announced the programme on Monday at the high-level forum on South-South Cooperation at the Marrakech Climate Conference - COP 22 here.

"It's the poor in developing countries who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on the ecosystems they depend on to for food, shelter and livelihoods," an official statement quoting Thiaw said.

"That is why I am delighted to announce the new 10-year programme on Climate, Ecosystems and Livelihoods along the Silk Road. It will not just benefit national targets, it will benefit real people.

"It will not only cement China's commitment to global leade rship in tackling climate change and the environment, but also our shared determination to generate even more results through South-South Cooperation," Thiaw said.

The new programme is a crucial element of a long-term cooperation between China and the UN Environment to achieve the SDGs -- a set of 17 global objectives ranging from eliminating poverty and hunger to protecting biodiversity and combating climate change, to be achieved by 2030.

"This flagship programme is a testimony of our determination to make a real impact and provide long-lasting assistance in improving livelihoods through ecosystem conservation and restoration, while responding to the impacts of climate change," said UN Environment's International Ecosystems Management Partnership Director Jian Liu.

"We are committed to dedicate all our efforts to work with people and institutions in the poorest and most vulnerable settings, with assistance from both Northern and Southern partners."

The Climate, Ecosystems and Livelihoods will draw on the globally-relevant knowledge, expertise and other resources of its core team and network of international partners.

The Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one of the largest national ecosystem monitoring and research networks in the world, will provide technical support for the programme.

The programme aims to protect the most fragile ecosystems, such as dry lands, river basins and coastal zones in Asia, West Asia and Africa. It will be rolled out in three phases: Assessment (2016-2018), Development (2019-2021) and Scaling up (2022-2025).

The first phase of the programme will see a thorough survey of three types of "hotspots" -- fragile ecosystems, biodiversity-rich areas and communities vulnerable to climate change and ecosystem degradation.

The survey will be focused on the countries lying along the land and sea routes of the "New Silk Road" -- an international connectivity and cooperation framework proposed by China.

During the entire duration of the programme, the UN Environment's International Ecosystem Management Partnership will be providing countries with assistance in monitoring and assessment, capacity building, technology demonstration and science for policy.

New York, Nov 15 (IANS) In a first, researchers have shown that doctors can effectively identify bone marrow cancer (myelofibrosis) using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

The findings, in an experimental model and published in the journal Blood Cancer, may change the way this disease is diagnosed which is now through invasive bone marrow biopsies.

"Our study provides proof-of-concept that this non-invasive modality can detect pre-fibrotic stages of the disease," said lead researcher Katya Ravid, Professor at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in the US.

"It is intriguing to speculate that future pre-biopsy MRI of the human pathology might guide in some cases decisions on if and where to biopsy," she added.

Bone marrow cancer is a slow evolving condition hallmarked by increased myeloid cells and in the case of primary myelofibrosis, with an excessive number of large bone marrow cells called megakaryocytes. 

The pathology also is characterised by structural abnormality of the bone marrow matrix, which at end-stage manifests in excessive deposition of reticulin fibers and cross-linked collagen in the bone marrow, suppression of normal blood cell development and bone marrow failure. 

Currently the diagnosis is made via an invasive bone marrow biopsy and histophatology to assess cellularity and reticulin deposition in the marrow, the researchers said.

In this study, the researchers designed and tested whether a T2-weighted MRI could detect bone marrow fibrosis in an experimental model. 

The researchers said they were able to show that an MRI could detect a pre-fibrotic state of the disease with a clear bright signal, as well as progressive myelofibrosis. 

The investigators proposed that the abundance of large bone marrow cells called megakaryocytes contribute to the signal.

Marrakech, Nov 15 (IANS/MAP) The European Union (EU) and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) have announced the release of a new platform for cooperation on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Launched on Monday during the EU Energy Day at COP22, the platform is meant to provide a forum for discussing energy policy objectives and measures, and to identify and implement joint initiatives. 

The Union for the Mediterranean includes 28 EU members and 15 southern and eastern Mediterranean countries, including Morocco.

"The EU's vision for a clean energy transition is one where the decarbonisation challenge is turned into an opportunity for the modernisation and the competitiveness of our economy," said Miguel Arias Canete, Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, EU, in his keynote address.

Canete said that the EU's Smart and Clean Energy package will be announced by the end of November.

"Morocco depends almost entirely from abroad for its supply of fossil fuels, with an average growth rate of 6.5 per cent during the last 10 years," Moroccan Interim Minister of Energy Moulay Hafid Elalamy said, adding that "Security of supply remains one of the major challenges of our energy model."

Other keynote speakers included US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. 

Panel discussions covered Energy for Cities, Energy for Economic Growth, Energy for Rural Areas and Energy for Islands.

Beijing, Nov 12 (IANS) The satellite that China launched into space last year to explore dark matter - thought to be the invisible part of the cosmos - has already detected 1.6 billion particles, officials said on Saturday.

Scientists will now have to analyse the information gathered to try to understand what makes some matter five times more abundant than which is visible - composed of atoms - and thought to form the greater part of the universe, Efe news reported.

Scientists established the existence of dark matter in the 1970's due to its gravitational effects on visible matter although their knowledge about it is very scarce.

Head engineer of the satellite, Wu Jian, explained that researchers have reviewed the systems of calibrated devices to ensure maximum accuracy of their observations, reported the Times.

The satellite called Wukong was launched on December 17, 2015 and after almost a year in operation is currently in orbit at an altitude of 504 km, developing its operations normally.

This satellite includes a space telescope - China's first - which notes the direction, power and electrical load of high-energy space particles.

It is expected that during its first two years of operations, the telescope will look in all directions and after passing the first stage, focus its activity in areas where initial results look most promising.

China Saturday also successfully launched into space a new meteorological satellite, Yunhai-1, from Jiuquan base in the Gobi desert, aboard the Long March-2D rocket.

This satellite, developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, will be dedicated to atmospheric, marine and space observation, prevention of meteorological disasters along with carrying out scientific experiments.

​London, Nov 12 (IANS) Consciousness depends upon the way nerve cells communicate and on the degree to which they manage to differ in terms of their activity patterns, suggests a study.

To establish how the brain produces consciousness the researchers tested the neuronal activity in the brains of mice and compared how brain activity differs in conscious and anesthetised mice.

"We used a fluorescent protein that converts electrical signals into light signals. This enabled us to visualise the frequency and average amplitude of neuronal responses, and allowed us to reveal the existence of neuronal synchrony," said Mazahir T. Hasan, researcher with Charite's NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence, Germany.

Results suggested that consciousness is not simply dependent on the number of active neurons inside the cortex; instead, it seems to be dependent upon the way these nerve cells communicate and on the degree to which they manage to differ in terms of their activity patterns.

The awake cortex showed complex activity patterns, with individual cells firing at different times. Under anesthesia, all neurons displayed identical activity patterns and fired at the same time. 

"While one might expect the brain to cease its activity under anesthesia, in reality, the situation is quite different. Neurons remain highly active but change their communication mode. During unconsciousness they become highly synchonised -- in simple terms all neurons start doing the same thing," said Thomas Lissek, Neurobiologist from Heidelberg, Germany.

Another surprising finding was that neurons were more sensitive to environmental stimuli under anesthesia than when the brain was awake. 

"This is especially surprising, as anesthesia is used to block both pain and environmental stimuli during surgery. Some of the brain regions that are normally dedicated to tactile perception even responded to sound information," Lissek added.

These new insights into neuronal activity patterns provide information regarding the identity of the cellular parameters involved in producing consciousness and the loss of consciousness.

​London, Nov 12 (IANS) Physicists avoid highly mathematical work despite being trained in advanced mathematics, a new study suggests.

The study, published in the New Journal of Physics, shows that physicists pay less attention to theories that are crammed with mathematical details. 

The researchers found using statistical analysis of the number of citations to 2,000 articles in a leading physics journal, that articles are less likely to be referenced by other physicists if they have lots of mathematical equations on each page.

"We have already showed that biologists are put off by equations but we were surprised by these findings, as physicists are generally skilled in mathematics," said Tim Fawcett, researcher at the University of Exeter, Britain. 

According to the researchers, it is an important issue because it shows that there could be a disconnection between mathematical theory and experimental work which presents a potentially enormous barrier to all kinds of scientific progress.

The findings suggested improving the training of science graduates would not help, because physics students already receive extensive maths training before they graduate. 

Instead, they think the solution lies in clearer communication of highly technical work, such as taking the time to describe what the equations mean.

"Physicists need to think more carefully about how they present the mathematical details of their work, to explain the theory in a way that their colleagues can quickly understand. Ideally, the impact of scientific work should be determined by its scientific value, rather than by the presentational style," said Andrew Higginson, researcher at the University of Exeter, Britain.

The study suggests that there are real and widespread barriers to communicating mathematical work and that this is not because of poor training in mathematical skills, or because there is a social stigma about doing well in mathematics.