Knowledge Update

New York, July 14 (IANS) A new, minimally invasive procedure could improve treatment for many patients with a common eye disease, without the potential side effects and cost of the current standard of care -- a cornea transplant, new research has found.

In the study involving patients suffering from Fuchs endothelial dystrophy (FED), the researchers showed that removing a few square millimetres of a single layer of cells on the inside of the cornea allowed rejuvenation of the surrounding tissue, without the need for a corneal transplant. 

This simple procedure restored clear vision to three out of four patients suffering from FED, the most frequent cause for corneal transplantation in the US.

"It's quick, inexpensive and it spares patients from having someone else's cells in their eyes, which requires local immunosuppression," said lead researcher Kathryn Colby, Professor at the University of Chicago.

The proof-of-concept study was published in the journal Cornea.

Over the past two years while at Harvard Medical School, Colby performed the new procedure, known as Descemet stripping.

Descemet stripping involves removing a small patch of the corneal endothelium (the pumping cells that stop working in FED) attached to an underlying layer (the Descemet membrane). 

In patients with FED, water accumulates in the cornea, the clear front window of the eye, because of the dysfunction of the pumping cells, causing reduced vision, glare and haloes. 

If left untreated, the condition progresses to painful blindness.

Removal of the central dysfunctional cells enables healthier peripheral cells to migrate to the centre of the cornea, where they re-establish pumping capacity and removal of fluid from the layers above. This gradually restores clear vision.

"Although Descemet stripping is a relatively simple procedure, its potential is revolutionary," Colby said.​

​Buenos Aires, July 14 (IANS) Researchers in Argentina have excavated the fossil of a new carnivorous dinosaur that lived around 90 million years ago, a media report said on Thursday.

The 26-feet (8 metres) long dinosaur had two-fingered small forearms that were merely 2 feet (60 cm) long, scientists said in a news conference after the team published the discovery in the PLOS ONE journal, Xinhua news agency reported.

The dinosaur belonged to the theropods (beast footed) -- a family that also included Tyrannosaurs and Velociraptors, the scientists said.

The dinosaur was named Gualicho Shinyae, a combination of the name of an evil spirit Gualichu -- worshipped by the local Tehuelche community in the Patagonia region and Akiko Shinya, the scientist who first discovered the dinosaur in southern Rio Negro Province.

The dinosaur was unearthed in 2007, but difficulties postponed the team's analysis.

The fossil was currently being conserved at the Patagonian Museum of Natural Sciences in the city of General Roca and the Carlos Ameghino Provincial Museum in Cipolletti, both in Rio Negro Province.

​London, July 15 (IANS) Scientists have found a new method of creating human stem cells which could solve the big problem of the large-scale production needed to fully realise the potential of these remarkable cells for understanding and treating disease.

The discovery has been made by a team of scientists at the University of Nottingham in Britain, Uppsala University and GE Healthcare in Sweden.

"By using a protein derived from human blood called Inter-alpha inhibitor, we have grown human pluripotent stem cells in a minimal medium without the need for costly and time-consuming biological substrates,” said first author Sara Pijuan-Galito from Uppsala University.

Inter-alpha inhibitor is found in human blood at high concentrations, and is currently a by-product of standard drug purification schemes.

"The protein can make stem cells attach on unmodified tissue culture plastic, and improve survival of the stem cells in harsh conditions,” Pijuan-Galito said.

"It is the first stem cell culture method that does not require a pre-treated biological substrate for attachment, and therefore, is more cost and time-efficient and paves the way for easier and cheaper large-scale production," Pijuan-Galito explained.

Human pluripotent stem cells are undifferentiated cells which have the unique potential to develop into all the different types of cells in the body. 

With applications in disease modelling, drug screening, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, there is already an enormous demand for these cells, which will only grow as their use in the clinic and by the pharmaceutical industry increases.

However, production of stem cells at the scale required for optimal application in modern healthcare is currently not feasible because available culture methods are either too expensive, or reliant on substances that would not be safe for clinical use in humans.

The new research, published in the journal Nature Communications, could lead to quicker and cheaper large scale industrial production.

The work was started at Uppsala University in Sweden, and the first author, Dr Sara Pijuan-Galitó, is now continuing her work as a Swedish Research Council Research Fellow at Nottingham. Sara said: 

"This new method has the potential to save time and money in large-scale and high-throughput cultures, and be highly valuable for both basic research and commercial applications," Cecilia Anneren, who has a joint position at Uppsala University and at GE Healthcare in Uppsala, said.​

​New York, July 15 (IANS) American black bears may be able to recognise things they know in real life, such as pieces of food or humans, when looking at a photograph of the same thing in the computer, suggests new research.

"Bears can transfer learning with real objects to photographs of those objects presented on computer screens," said one of the researchers, Zoe Johnson-Ulrich from the Oakland University in the US.

The study involving a black bear called Migwan and a computer screen was part of a broader research project into the welfare of bears in captivity. 

It aimed to find out how the animals themselves rate the environment in which they are held, and the facilities, food and features provided to them. 

The goal is to assess this by presenting bears with photographs of objects. 

To do so, the research team first had to assess whether bears are in fact able to recognise images of objects and people familiar to them when these are presented to them on a touch screen.

With this in mind, the researchers tested the responses of Migwan. 

The bear was born in the wild, but was rescued at a very young age and rehabilitated due to injuries. 

She had previously received several months of training on an unrelated task using photographs of food items from her normal diet. 

In this study, Migwan was first presented with two sets of objects new to her. Her ability to recognise these later, when presented with photographs including the items she had learned, was then assessed. 

In a reverse task, she was also trained on the photographs of two different sets of objects and tested on the transfer to real objects.

It was found that Migwan was able to recognise, on a photograph, the visual features of objects or natural stimuli she already knew. It is an ability that bears share with hens, rhesus monkeys, pigeons, tortoises and horses.

The findings were published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition.

The researchers believe that the findings have important implications for the use of photographs in computerised studies involving bears, and in ultimately ensuring the welfare of captive bears.

"Bears' responses to these photographs may reflect behaviors towards real items," Jennifer Vonk who is also from Oakland University noted.​

New York, July 15 (IANS) The largest island in the Philippines may be home to the greatest concentration of mammal diversity in the world, say researchers who have been exploring the island for the past 15 years.

Their research, published in the scientific journal Frontiers of Biogeography, showed that 56 species of non-flying mammals are now known to live on the island, 52 of which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. 

And out of those 56 species, 28 were discovered in the course of the team's research.

"It's become clear that Luzon Island has exceptional diversity and the greatest concentration of mammal diversity, I'd say on the planet," said one of the researchers Scott Steppan, Professor at Florida State University in the US.

Luzon is roughly 40,000 square miles and has never been connected to any continental land, but it has a complex geography. 

It is tropical, but also very mountainous with lots of volcanic pieces that have come together as the continental plates have crunched into each other.

The mountaintops form distinct habitats that are widely different from the base of the mountain. 

Combining the expertise of scientists from a variety of backgrounds, the team embarked on an extensive effort to catalogue the numerous species they believed were on this island.

Among the 28 new species discovered by the team, there are four species of tiny tree-mice with exceptionally long whiskers, and five species of mice that look like shrews and feed on earthworms. 

"The fact that we found some new ones was not surprising," Steppan said. "New small mammals are being discovered all the time, but finding 28 new species on one island -- an island that had been studied pretty well before -- was beyond expectation," Steppan said.

For comparison, in Luzon there are 56 non-flying land mammals, 52 of which are endemic to the island. 

In Cuba, which is roughly the same size, there are 15 total native non-flying mammals, most of which are native to the island, the researchers said.

"This revealed the exceptional diversity of Luzon," Steppan said. ​

​New Delhi, July 13 (IANS) The newly-launched augmented reality (AR) game Pokemon Go poses a great data security threat to users as the app gets "full access" to their Google account, allowing the gaming company to read all emails, a new report said on Wednesday.

According to security software company Trend Micro, for some users of iPhones, signing into the game with the most convenient option -- using your Google account -- allows the gaming company to read your emails. 

"Other risks this game exposes are physical risks to actual life and limb," the report said.

While enjoying the game, the user is exposed to many threats and introduces whole new categories of life risks.

Firstly, Pokemon Go's real-world gameplay has been linked to armed robberies as criminals have used the game to locate and lure intended targets. 

Secondly, there are reports of trespassing as enthusiastic players try to "find" and "capture" creatures on others' property. In the US, gamers trespassing on others' property face a real threat of physical harm from property owners who may use force to protect their property. 

"And of course, there's the risk of injury or death from not paying attention to your surroundings as you play the game," the report added.

Thirdly, the users can meet an accident while they are indulged in gaming. 

The game requires users' full attention immediately to the exclusion of all else. 

Although, there is a warning each time you start the game to be sure to pay attention but that warning is quickly overlooked.

In the US, where the game is very popular, police departments and safety agencies have warned players of Pokemon Go to stay safe and alert as hysteria over the popular mobile game swells.

Since launch, the game has topped 7.5 million downloads and pulled in an average of $1.6 million a day in revenue, according to estimates from research firm SensorTower.

"Agencies have urged players to stay aware of their surroundings and be careful," USA Today reported.

This is how the game works.

It uses the GPS capabilities of your device in conjunction with Google Maps to "place" creatures in real world locations, which you then try to find them using your device as a guide. 

Once you are in proximity to the "placed" creature, you then use your device's camera to "view" the creature and try to "capture" it. 

"This works with you using your device as a viewer to 'see' the creature near you by looking at an image from the camera with the creature superimposed on it. You then 'capture' the creature for points by throwing Poké Balls at it on the device's screen," Trend Micro stated.

The Pokemon Go is available on Google Playstore and Apple's App Store in the US, Japan and Australia, Philippines, New Zealand and is coming soon in India, Singapore, Germany, Taiwan, Indonesia and Britain.

However, a mirror file is available on the internet and people in India are already downloading the game from insecured sources. 

The Pokemon Go Plus device which is a wrist watch will be available in August, informed apkqueen.com, the website which is providing link to download the game.​

​Johannesburg, July 13 (IANS) Countering a common perception, a new study suggests that climate change, after all, may not have been directly linked to cultural and technological innovations of Middle Stone Age humans in southern Africa.

The Middle Stone Age marked a period of dramatic change among early humans in southern Africa, and climate change has been postulated as a primary driver for the appearance of technological and cultural innovations such as bone tools, ochre production, and personal ornamentation.

The new study published in the journal PLOS ONE showed that while climate shifts may have influenced human subsistence strategies, it may not have been the driving factor behind innovation.

"While acknowledging that climate and environmental shifts may have influenced human subsistence strategies, the research suggests climate change may not have been the driving factor behind cultural and technological innovations in these localities,” said one of the lead researchers Chris Henshilwood, Professor at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The authors of this study carried out analyses of animal remains, shellfish taxa and the stable carbon and oxygen isotope measurements in ostrich eggshell, from two archaeological sites, Blombos Cave and Klipdrift Shelter to acquire data regarding possible palaeoenvironmental conditions in southern Africa at the Middle Stone Age.

For instance, ostrich eggshell carbon and oxygen stable isotope levels may reflect vegetation and water consumption, which in turn vary with rainfall seasonality and amount in this region.

The researchers found that climatic and environmental variation, reflected in ostrich eggshell stable isotope measurements, faunal records, and shellfish indicators, may not have occurred in phase with Middle Stone Age human technological and cultural innovation at these two sites.

"Our results suggest that although climate and environmental changes occurred, they were not coincident with cultural innovations, including personal ornamentation, or the appearance of complex tool-types,” Patrick Roberts from University of Oxford .

"This suggests that we have to consider that other factors drove human innovation at this stage in our species' evolution," Roberts noted.​

​New York, July 13 (IANS) Big news organisations who first embraced social media use at workplace are now seeing more risks than benefits in employees' use of Facebook and Twitter, reveals an interesting study.

Realising the risks of social media, major news organisations have created guidelines for employees on how to use these outlets, separate from the companies' existing codes of conduct.

Jayeon Lee, assistant professor of journalism at Pennsylvania-based Lehigh University, found that news organisations are more concerned about the current social media environment than excited about it at least when it comes to their employees.

“I was wondering what approaches news organisations take when it comes to their own employees' social media uses," Lee said.

“In particular, knowing both positive and negative implications of journalists' social media uses, I wanted to see if their guidelines were dominantly positive, negative, or neutral in their framing of the implications,” she added.

Overall, Lee found that the guidelines focus primarily on the risks and challenges presented by the use of social media rather than the opportunities and advantages for media.

"As some media critics point out, overreaching rules can stifle creativity and morale and even discourage overall social media use itself," she explained in a paper set to be published in the journal The Communication Review.

The study looked at eight US news organisations - The New York Times, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, and NPR - and three British news outlets - BBC, The Times and The Daily Telegraph.

According to the findings, news organisations are most concerned about: accuracy, breaking objectivity, inappropriate online behaviours and harming their principles and credibility.

Accuracy - sourcing or redistributing false information from social media without sufficient fact verification - was the most frequently raised topic and accounted for 17.8 percent of the total sentences studied.

“The results show that the prevention-focused approach is more common than I would have predicted," Lee said.

"Although I expected that the guidelines would include various warnings related to risky social media activities, I was surprised to find little comment about how to use social media wisely or effectively to derive full benefit from it,” she commented.

Lee recognised that news organizations are actively utilizing various social media to reach a wider audience and build brand loyalty.

“However, it seems they are keen on keeping their own employees from actively engaging in social media,” she added.​

​Washington, July 13 (IANS) A drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat leukemia has the potential to improve motor and cognitive functions of patients suffering from Parkinson's disease and dementia, a small study has found.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder that causes a range of motor and non-motor symptoms. 

During the course of the disease, dopamine (DA)-producing neurons are lost and bundles of proteins known as Lewy Bodies (LBs) form in the brain.

The researchers found that the leukemia drug nilotinib may restore brain dopamine and reduce toxic proteins associated with Lewy Bodies formation in Parkinson's disease and dementia patients.

The findings were reported in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease.

The researchers conducted a small phase one study that included only 12 patients, primarily intended to evaluate whether patients could tolerate the drug. 

The results showed unanticipated improvements in clinical outcomes and motor function.

"This is the first study to treat subjects with advanced PD with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor," 

"This study suggests that low doses of nilotinib appear to be relatively safe in a small cohort of participants with advanced PD or dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB), and although the data are supportive of additional trials, caution must be used in any future studies,” explained lead investigator Charbel Moussa from Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) in Washington, D.C. 

"The data give a clear signal to move forward with more definitive trials to determine an appropriate therapeutic dose and evaluate nilotinib effects in larger, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials," Moussa noted.​

​London, July 13 (IANS) Researchers have found that an extinct specie of primates who walked thousands of years ago had indistinguishable footprints similar to those of a modern day human.

In the study, an international team of scientists examined a set of 1.5-million-year-old footprints of Homo erectus, discovered at a site near the town of Ileret in Kenya in 2009. 

Continued work, since the initial discovery by scientists has revealed an unprecedented set of trace fossils of hominin, including a total of 97 tracks created by at least 20 different presumed Homo erectus individuals from five distinct sites.

The footprints revealed new insight on how they moved and interacted.

Habitual bipedal locomotion is a defining feature of modern humans compared to other primates, the researchers said.

Using an experimental approach, the researchers have found that the shapes of their footprints are indistinguishable from those of modern habitually barefoot people, most likely reflecting similar foot anatomies and foot mechanics.

"Our analyses of these footprints provide some of the only direct evidence to support the common assumption that at least one of our fossil relatives at 1.5 million years ago walked in as much the same way as we do today," said Kevin Hatala, Paleoanthropologist at Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Germany.

Further, there is evidence of several adult males at each of the sites, suggesting these groups had developed tolerance and may be even cooperation.

"It isn't shocking that we find evidence of mutual tolerance and perhaps cooperation between males in a hominin that lived 1.5 million years ago, especially Homo erectus, but this is our first chance to see what appears to be a direct glimpse of this behavioural dynamic in deep time," Hatala added.