Knowledge Update

​Beijing, July 1 (IANS) Long-term exposure to air pollution, which has risen to alarming levels in the past years, is likely to cause damages to the kidneys, irrespective of age, warns a study.

The findings showed that air pollution increased the chances of developing membranous nephropathy -- an immune disorder of the kidneys -- that can lead to kidney failure.

Long-term exposure to high levels of particulate matter (PM 2.5) was associated with an increased risk of membranous nephropathy.

Previous studies have showed that increased exposure to air pollution may raise respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

To examine how particulate matter in the air is affecting kidney health, a team analysed data on kidney biopsies taken over 11 years from 71,151 patients from 938 hospitals in 282 cities across China, encompassing all age groups.

The areas with high levels of fine particulate air pollution had the highest rates of membranous nephropathy.

On average, the likelihood of developing membranous nephropathy increased 13 per cent annually over the 11-year study period.

"Our primary finding is that the frequency of membranous nephropathy has doubled over the last decade in China. We show that the increase corresponds closely with the regional distribution of particulate air pollution," said lead author Fan Fan Hou of China's Southern Medical University.

The results, which appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN), calls for attention on the role of air pollution in the development of kidney disease in urban areas, the researchers concluded.​

​New York, July 1 (IANS) Researchers have identified a protein that acts as a powerful protectant against free radicals -- a molecule that causes cell damage and death as well as ageing.

The findings showed that Lysosomes -- the protein that comprise the cell's recycling centre, are crucial for cleaning up injured and dying parts of the cells.

“Free radicals are guilty in the ageing process. If we have chemical compounds that can directly activate this channel, we can lower the oxidative stress in ageing and other diseases," said lead researcher Haoxing Xu, Associate Professor at University of Michigan, in the US.

Lysosomes were found to have a radical-sensing ability to know that the body has many free radicals.

Thus, when lysosomes "sense" an overload of free radicals, they activate a calcium channel on their membranes. 

This triggers the expression of many genes and the production of more and stronger lysosomes, which spurs into overdrive to get rid of the damaged parts of the cells.

"The result will be that cell damage and free radical levels could be reduced, and one can possibly slow down ageing," Xu added.

Ironically, the protein is activated by excessive free radicals. Human mutations of the gene for this protein are previously known to cause a rare, neurodegenerative disease, said the paper published in the journal Nature Communications.​

​Washington, June 30 (IANS) A new study has confirmed the link between eating canned food and increased exposure to a chemical linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other health effects.

The study, by researchers at Stanford and Johns Hopkins universities, with a first-of-its-kind sample including thousands of people of various ages, and geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, highlights the challenges consumers face in trying to limit their exposure to the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA), Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

Published in the recent issue of Environmental Research, the study of 7,669 participants, 6 years and older with 24-hour dietary recall information and urinary BPA concentrations from year 2003 through 2008 establishes the link that the more canned food consumed, the higher the BPA, confirming canned food's outsized influence on exposure to BPA.

"I could eat three cans of peaches, and you could eat one can of cream of mushroom soup and have a greater exposure to BPA," said lead author Jennifer Hartle, a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Prevention Research Centre.

According to the study, the consumption of one canned food to none was found to be associated with 24 per cent higher urinary BPA concentrations; and the consumption of two or more canned foods to none was associated with 54 per cent higher urinary BPA concentrations.

BPA is a compound used to make, among other things, resins that coat the inside of food cans and jar lids. Previous research has focused on analysing levels of BPA in canned products and measuring BPA exposure within groups of fewer than 75 people.

The new study also finds that different foods have different amounts of BPA contamination, and particular kinds of canned food are associated with higher urinary BPA concentrations. The worst offenders, in descending order: canned soup, canned pasta, canned vegetables and fruit.

The state of California has listed BPA as a female reproductive toxicant, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has restricted its use in some products, such as baby bottles, sippy cups and liquid infant formula canned linings. 

However, the FDA said the federal agency is still working to "answer key questions and clarify uncertainties about BPA".​

​London, June 30 (IANS) Researchers in Norway have identified a blood bio-marker that could indicate the long-term risk of developing cardiovascular diseases

The findings of the research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) showed that the bio-marker -- called circulating microRNAs -- can predict ten-year risk for myocardial infarction -- a blockage of blood flow to the heart muscle.

"Our study showed that by measuring a combination of five different microRNAs and adding this information to the traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease, we could identify those that were going to experience a myocardial infarction with considerably improved precision," said lead author Anja Bye, researcher at NTNU.

Regular analysis of blood for microRNAs, rather than just cholesterol and triglycerides, can provide 77.6 per cent accurate results of the risk of heart disease, the researchers noted.

Traditionally, it was risk factors such as body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, smoking and dietary habits that have indicated the health of the heart.

Though these did provide a degree of accuracy, results still overlooked 15-20 per cent of myocardial infarction patients who were on the “low risk” list based on lifestyle factors.

For the study, published in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, the team looked at 212 healthy participants aged between 40-70 years that either died from myocardial infarction within ten years or remained healthy at the time of the final study in 2006.​

​Washington, June 30 (IANS) Researchers have developed a unique, multifunctional smart material that can change shape from heat or light and and also heal its scratches.

Smart materials that can react to external stimuli, like light or heat, have been an interesting novelty and look almost magical as they mysteriously fold and unfold themselves. 

They have a variety of potential applications, such as for actuators, drug delivery systems and self-assembling devices. For instance, smart materials could change shape to unfold a solar panel on a space satellite without need of a battery-powered mechanical device.

But smart materials haven't come into widespread use because they are difficult to make and often can only perform one function at a time. 

The Washington State University research team developed a material that allows multiple functions at once with the potential to add more.

A paper describing the material was published in Applied Materials & Interfaces, a journal of the American Chemical society.

The team worked with a class of long-chain molecules, called liquid crystalline networks (LCNs), which provide order in one direction and give material unique properties. 

The researchers took advantage of the way the material changes in response to heat to induce a unique three-way shape shifting behaviour. 

They added groups of atoms that react to polarised light and used dynamic chemical bonds to improve the material's reprocessing abilities.

"We knew these different technologies worked independently and tried to combine them in a way that would be compatible,'' said one of the lead researchers Michael Kessler, Professor at Washington State University.

The resulting material reacts to light, can remember its shape as it folds and unfolds and can heal itself when damaged. 

For instance, a razor blade scratch on the material can be fixed by applying ultraviolet light.

The material's movements can be pre-programmed and its properties tailored, the researchers said.​

​London, June 30 (IANS) The universe is becoming gradually cleaner as more and more cosmic dust is being mopped up by the formation of stars within galaxies, an international team of astronomers has revealed.

Peering back 12 billion years using the Herschel space telescope to produce far-infrared images of the sky, the team led by researchers at Cardiff University was able to observe the very early formation of galaxies and compare them to galaxies that have formed much more recently.

"Our results show that the reason for this evolution is that galaxies used to contain more dust and gas in the past, and the universe is gradually becoming cleaner as the dust is used up," said co-leader of the project Steve Eales, Professor at Cardiff University's School of Physics and Astronomy.

The findings were presented at the National Astronomy Meeting in Nottingham, Britain. 

Cosmic dust is comprised of tiny solid particles that are found everywhere in space between the stars. The dust and the gas in the universe is the raw material out of which stars and galaxies form.

Though this blanket of material is key to the formation of stars and galaxies, it also acts as a sponge, absorbing almost half of the light emitted by stellar objects and making them impossible to observe with standard optical telescopes.

The Herschel space telescope was launched in 2009 to provide researchers better tool for probing this hidden universe.​

​New York, June 29 (IANS) Adolescents living in neighbourhoods with more greenery may exhibit less aggressive behaviour, finds a new study.

The findings showed that increasing greenery levels like parks, golf courses or fields, might lead to a 12 per cent decrease in clinical cases of aggressive behaviour. 

"Our study provides new evidence that increasing neighbourhood greenery may be an effective alternative intervention strategy for an environmental public health approach that has not been considered yet," said Diana Younan, doctoral student, at the University of California in the US. 

Nine to 18-year-olds who lived in places with more greenery had significantly less aggressive behaviour than those living in neighbourhoods with less greenery. 

Both short-term (one to six months) and long-term (one to three years) exposure to green spaces within 1,000 metres of residences were associated with reduced aggressive behaviour. 

The behavioural benefit of green spaces equated to approximately two to two-and-a-half years of adolescent maturation.

In addition, these benefits existed for both boys and girls of all ages and races/ethnicities, and across populations with different socio-economic backgrounds and living in communities with different neighbourhood quality.

"It is important that we target aggressive behaviours early. Identifying effective measures to reduce aggressive and violent behaviours in adolescents is a pressing issue facing societies worldwide," Younan added.

Factors such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, parents' educational background, occupation, income level, or marital status and whether their mother smoked while pregnant or was depressed did not affect the findings.

For the study, the team followed 1,287 adolescents from Southern California who were aged nine to 18 years to see whether greenery surrounding the home could reduce aggressive behaviour.

The results will be published in the forthcoming issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP). ​

​London, June 28 (IANS) A team of researchers has developed a new approach to find natural researves of helium -- a key element in MRI scanners, welding, industrial leak detection and nuclear energy -- the known reserves of which are quickly running out.

The first use of this method, developed by scientists at Oxford and Durham universities, has resulted in the discovery of a world-class helium gas field in Tanzania.

Until now helium has never been found intentionally -- being accidentally discovered in small quantities during oil and gas drilling. 

The study, presented recently at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Yokohama, Japan, shows that volcanic activity provides the intense heat necessary to release the gas from ancient, helium-bearing rocks.

"We show that volcanoes play an important role in the formation of viable helium reserves. Volcanic activity likely provides the heat necessary to release the helium accumulated in ancient crustal rocks," said Diveena Danabalan of Durham University.

"However, if gas traps are located too close to a given volcano, they run the risk of helium being heavily diluted by volcanic gases such as carbon dioxide, just as we see in thermal springs from the region (Tanzanian East African Rift Valley)," she added.

Danabalan and her team are now working to identify the "goldilocks-zone" between the ancient crust and the modern volcanoes where the balance between helium release and volcanic dilution is "just right".

The discovery of helium gas field in Tanzania using the new approach is being considered as a game changer for the future security of society's helium needs.

​New York, June 28 (IANS) Scientists have built a "bionic" cardiac patch that could act similarly to a pacemaker and monitor as well as respond to cardiac problems.

The researchers from Harvard University constructed nanoscale electronic scaffolds that can be seeded with cardiac cells to produce a bionic cardiac patch -- the engineered heart tissue with ability to replace heart muscle damaged during a heart attack. 

"I think one of the biggest impacts would ultimately be in the area that involves replaced of damaged cardiac tissue with pre-formed tissue patches," said Charles Lieber, who along with colleagues described the work in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

"Rather than simply implanting an engineered patch built on a passive scaffold, our works suggests it will be possible to surgically implant an innervated patch that would now be able to monitor and subtly adjust its performance," he added.

Once implanted, the "bionic" patch could act similarly to a pacemaker -- delivering electrical shocks to correct arrhythmia.

Unlike traditional pacemakers, the "bionic" patch -- because its electronic components are integrated throughout the tissue -- can detect arrhythmia far sooner, and operate at far lower voltages.

"Even before a person started to go into large-scale arrhythmia that frequently causes irreversible damage or other heart problems, this could detect the early-stage instabilities and intervene sooner," Lieber said. "It can also continuously monitor the feedback from the tissue and actively respond," he added.

The patch might also find use as a tool to monitor the responses under cardiac drugs, or to help pharmaceutical companies to screen the effectiveness of drugs under development.

​Beijing, June 28 (IANS) A new study has pinned down an overlooked source of outdoor pollution in Beijing -- residential cooking and heating -- which according to scientists contributes more to the city's choking smog than do the transportation sector and power plants combined.

"Coal and other dirty solid fuels are frequently used in homes for cooking and heating," said Denise Mauzerall from Princeton University who was part of the research team. 

"Because these emissions are essentially uncontrolled they emit a disproportionately large amount of air pollutants which contribute substantially to smog in Beijing and surrounding regions," she added.

According to the team from Princeton, the University of California-Berkeley, Peking University and Tsinghua University, households account for about 18 per cent of total energy use in the Beijing region but produce 50 per cent of black carbon emissions and 69 per cent of organic carbon emissions. 

In the Beijing area, households contribute more pollutants in the form of small soot particles (which are particularly hazardous to human health) than the transportation sector and power plants combined. In the winter heating season, households also contribute more small particles than do industrial sources.

The high levels of air pollutant emissions are due to the use of coal and other dirty fuels in small stoves and heaters that lack the pollution controls in place in power plants, vehicles and at some factories, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The region in the study included the cities of Beijing and the surrounding Tianjin and Hebei provinces.​