Knowledge Update

​Beijing, June 13 (IANS) China's first high-orbit remote sensing satellite, Gaofen-4, has been activated after six months of in-orbit testing, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced on Monday.

Gaofen-4 is China's first geosynchronous orbit high-definition optical imaging satellite and the world's most sophisticated, Xinhua reported.

Unlike Gaofen-1 and Gaofen-2 in low-orbits around the Earth, Gaofen-4 is orbiting at 36,000 km. High-orbit satellites have the advantage of being able to photograph "grand scenarios". Low-orbit satellites, in contrast, can see more detail at faster speed.

Low-orbit satellites cannot always follow natural disasters, but Gaofen-4 can continuously observe a disaster because it moves synchronously with the Earth.

It improves the response to disasters like earthquakes, landslides and typhoons with its high-precision sensors.

Gaofen-4, which was launched in December 2015, has a designed lifespan of eight years, compared to other remote sensing satellites which remain in service for less than three to five years.

During the in-orbit test, Gaofen-4 has been used to collect imageries of flood-hit areas in south China and monitor fires that occurred in Sichuan province and Russia.

China started the Gaofen project with the launch of Gaofen-1 in April 2013. It aims to launch seven high-definition observation satellites before 2020, designed for disaster prevention, surveillance of geological disasters and forest disasters and weather forecast.

Gaofen-3 is set to be launched in August 2016, according to the SASTIND.​

London, June 13 (IANS) An international team of scientists has discovered a material that can clear up nuclear waste gases produced by nuclear-fuel reprocessing plants more efficiently, cheaply and safely than currently available methods.

The material, abbreviated as SBMOF-1, is a nanoporous crystal and belongs to a class of materials that are currently used to clear out CO2 emissions and other dangerous pollutants.

The team led by scientists from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland carried out the screening of large material databases of over 125,000 candidates before identifying SBMOF-1 as the likely material to be able to absorb nuclear waste gases like xenon and krypton emitted as by-products of nuclear-fuel reprocessing. 

Current ways of capturing and clearing out these gases involve distillation at very low temperatures, which is expensive and poses a risk of explosion.

SBMOF-1 can separate xenon and krypton at room temperature, according to the study published recently in the journal Nature Communications. 

These materials are also very versatile, and scientists can tweak them to self-assemble into ordered, pre-determined crystal structures. 

In this way, they can synthesise millions of tailor-made materials that can be optimised for gas storage separation, catalysis, chemical sensing and optics.​

New York, June 13 (IANS) Deficiencies in certain vitamins are the likely reason behind the development of migraines in children, teens and young adults, finds a new study.

The findings revealed that a high percentage of children, teens and young adults with migraines had mild deficiencies in vitamin D, riboflavin and coenzyme Q10 -- a vitamin-like substance found in every cell of the body that is used to produce energy for cell growth and maintenance.

While girls and young women were more likely to have coenzyme Q10 deficiencies, boys and young men were more likely to have vitamin D deficiency.

Further, patients with chronic migraines were more likely to have coenzyme Q10 and riboflavin deficiencies than those with episodic migraines.

"Further studies are needed to elucidate whether vitamin supplementation is effective in migraine patients in general and whether patients with mild deficiency are more likely to benefit from supplementation," said lead author Suzanne Hagler from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in the US.

For the study, the team analysed patients with migraines who had baseline blood levels checked for vitamin D, riboflavin, coenzyme Q10 and folate, all of which were implicated in migraines by previous studies.

Many were put on preventive migraine medications and received vitamin supplementation, if levels were low.

Previous studies have indicated that certain vitamins and vitamin deficiencies may be important in the migraine process. However, studies using vitamins to prevent migraines have had conflicting success.

The results were presented at the 58th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society in San Diego, in the US, recently.​

New York, June 12 (IANS) Exposure to blue light for a short period can help you make difficult decisions faster up to 40 minutes after the exposure had ended, suggests new research.

"Previous studies only focused on the effects of light during the period of exposure. Our study adds to this research by showing that these beneficial effects of blue wavelength light may outlast the exposure period by over 40 minutes," said lead author Anna Alkozei, post-doctoral fellow at the University of Arizona.

The results also showed that a short single exposure to blue light for half an hour is sufficient to produce measurable changes in reaction times and more efficient responses (answered more items correctly per second) during conditions of greater cognitive load after the light exposure had ended.

Moreover, these improvements were directly associated with measurable changes in the activation of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviour and decision making.

"Blue-enriched white light could be used in a variety of occupational settings where alertness and quick decision making are important, such as pilot cockpits, operation rooms, or military settings,” Alkozei noted.

It could also be used in settings where natural sunlight does not exist, such as the International Space Station.

“Importantly, our findings suggest that using blue light before having to engage in important cognitive processes may still impact cognitive functioning for over half an hour after the exposure period ended,” Alkozei pointed out.

The research abstract was published in an online supplement of the journal Sleep.

Toronto, June 12 (IANS) Ancient geologic events may have left deep 'scars' that can play a crucial role in earthquakes, mountain formation, and other ongoing geomorphological processes on our planet, says a new study.

An international team of geologists has created super-computer models that suggest former plate boundaries could stay hidden deep beneath the Earth's surface. 

These multi-million-year-old geological structures, situated at sites away from existing plate boundaries, may trigger changes in the structure and properties at the surface in the interior regions of continents.

"This is a potentially major revision to the fundamental idea of plate tectonics," said study lead author Philip Heron from University of Toronto.

Heron, together with University of Aberdeen geologist Randell Stephenson, has proposed a "perennial plate tectonic map" of the Earth to help illustrate how ancient processes may have present-day implications, according to the study published recently in the journal Nature Communications.

"It's based on the familiar global tectonic map that is taught starting in elementary school," said co-author Russell Pysklywec, who is also chair of University of Toronto's department of earth sciences. 

"What our models redefine and show on the map are dormant, hidden, ancient plate boundaries that could also be enduring or 'perennial' sites of past and active plate tectonic activity," he added.

The team used Toronto's SciNet -- Canada's most powerful computer and one of the most powerful in the world -- to make numerical models of the crust and upper-mantle into which they could introduce ancient scar-like anomalies.

Using these models, the researchers found that different parts of the mantle below the Earth's crust may control the folding, breaking, or flowing of the Earth's crust within plates -- in the form of mountain-building and seismic activity -- when under compression.

In this way, the mantle structures dominate over shallower structures in the crust that had previously been seen as the main cause of such deformation within plates.

"The mantle is like the thermal engine of the planet and the crust is an eggshell above," said Pysklywec. "We're looking at the enigmatic and largely unexplored realm in the Earth where these two regions meet," he added.

The simulations show that mantle anomalies are generated through ancient plate tectonic processes, such as the closing of ancient oceans, and can remain hidden at sites away from normal plate boundaries until reactivation generates tectonic folding, breaking, or flowing in plate interiors.​

​London, June 11 (IANS) Prolonged repetitive physical workload increases the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, new research has found.

The findings suggest that building workers are particularly vulnerable to developing the condition.

For example, exposure to repeated vibration , carrying or lifting weights greater than 10 kg, bending/turning, and working with hands either below knee level, or above shoulder level may put people at higher risk of developing the inflammatory disorder affecting many joints, including those in the hands and feet, the findings showed.

For the study, the researchers analysed information from a population of 3,680 rheumatoid arthritis patients and 5,935 matched controls included in the Swedish Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis (EIRA). 

To investigate whether some people are more susceptible than others, the risk was compared in participants with and without a specific genotype (HLA-DRB1), and an analysis was performed in relation to the presence/absence of ACPA (anti-citrullinated protein antibodies) among rheumatoid arthritis patients.

"We found that some types of physical workload increased the odds of developing RA (rheumatoid arthritis) more than others," said Pingling Zeng from Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. 

"There also appeared to be a significant interaction between genetic makeup, in terms of HLA-DRB1 genes, and the risk of ACPA-positive RA from specific types of physical workload," she noted.

The estimated odds ratio of developing rheumatoid arthritis in exposed versus unexposed participants was greater than or equal to 1.5, the study said.

The findings were presented at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2016) in London.

"These new insights into the cause of RA may hopefully lead to effective strategies to prevent the development of RA, particularly in those RA patients with a susceptible genotype," Zeng concluded.​

New York, June 8 (IANS) Formed in the early stages of universe, carbon planets consisting of graphite, carbides and diamonds might have been the first potentially habitable worlds, suggests a new research.

"This work shows that even stars with a tiny fraction of the carbon in our solar system can host planets," said lead author and Harvard University student Natalie Mashian.

"We have good reason to believe that alien life will be carbon-based, like life on the Earth, so this also bodes well for the possibility of life in the early universe," she added.

The early universe consisted mostly of hydrogen and helium, and lacked chemical elements like carbon and oxygen necessary for life as we know it.

Only after the first stars exploded as supernovae and seeded the second generation did planet formation and life become possible.

The study, published recently in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, examined a particular class of old stars known as carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars (CEMP).

"These stars are fossils from the young universe," said Mashian's PhD thesis advisor Avi Loeb from Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. 

"By studying them, we can look at how planets, and possibly life in the universe, got started," he added.

Although lacking in iron and other heavy elements compared to Sun, CEMP stars have more carbon than expected given their age. 

According to the researchers, a dedicated search for planets around CEMP stars would help in finding out "how early planets may have formed in the infant universe". 

"We'll never know if they exist unless we look," Mashian said.​

New York, June 8 (IANS) An international team of astronomers has discovered a “hot Jupiter” exoplanet that is so massive and close to its parent star that it influences the star's rotation with its gravity, media reported.

The planet, called HATS-18b, is about 2,100 light years away, Popular Mechanics reported on Tuesday.

Hot Jupiters are giant exoplanets that orbit close to their parent stars. Also known as roaster planets, they orbit their stars in a short time and can be easily observed in transit. 

The newly discovered exoplanet orbits its star in just 0.84 days, has a radius about 1.34 times that of Jupiter, and has twice the mass of the Jovian gas giant in our solar system, the report said.

The research team was led by Kaloyan Penev of Princeton University. 

"The high planet mass, combined with its short orbital period, implies strong tidal coupling between the planetary orbit and the star," said the researchers.

"In fact, given its inferred age, [the star] HATS-18 shows evidence of significant tidal spin up," the authors said.

The new findings were presented in a paper published online on arXiv.org.

“The HATS-18 system is among the best systems (and often the best system) for testing a multitude of star--planet interactions, be they gravitational, magnetic or radiative, as well as planet formation and migration theories,” the authors noted.​

​Sydney, June 11 (IANS) Regular exercise of any type in middle age - from walking the dog to mountain climbing -- is the best lifestyle change you can make to prevent memory loss in the later years, suggest results of a 20-year study.

"The message from our study is very simple. Do more physical activity, it doesn’t matter what, just move more and more often. It helps your heart, your body and prevents obesity and diabetes and now we know it can help your brain,” said study author Cassandra Szoeke, associate professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

"It could even be something as simple as going for a walk, we weren’t restrictive in our study about what type,” Szoeke noted.

For the study, the researchers followed 387 Australian women from the Women’s Healthy Ageing Project for two decades. 

The women were aged 45 to 55-years-old when the study began in 1992.

The research team made notes of their lifestyle factors, including exercise and diet.

They were also asked to learn a list of 10 unrelated words and attempt to recall them half an hour later, known as an Episodic Verbal Memory test.

When measuring the amount of memory loss over 20 years, frequent physical activity, normal blood pressure and high good cholesterol were all strongly associated with better recall of the words.

In the study more weekly exercise was associated with better memory.

The findings suggest that regular exercise could protect people from dementia typically characterised by memory impairment.

"We now know that brain changes associated with dementia take 20 to 30 years to develop,” Szoeke said in a University of Melbourne media release.

"The evolution of cognitive decline is slow and steady, so we needed to study people over a long time period. We used a verbal memory test because that’s one of the first things to decline when you develop Alzheimer’s Disease,” Szoeke explained.

The best effects came from cumulative exercise, that is, how much you do and how often over the course of your life, she said.​

New York, June 12 (IANS) Scientists have identified for the first time a tiny liver protein that when disrupted can lead to cardiovascular disease as well as fatty liver disease -- a precursor to cancer.

Lipoproteins (VLDL) are crucial for healthy liver function. Normal VLDL secretion must be kept in a delicate balance as too little VLDL secretion causes fatty liver and, potentially, liver cancer. 

Lipoproteins are also known to increase cholesterol levels, a risk factor for plaque buildup in the arteries. 

In a study, published recently in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Shadab Siddiqi from University of Central Florida found a tiny protein -- called a Small Valosin-Containing Protein Interacting Protein (SVIP) -- that regulates how much VLDL is secreted into the blood. 

"SVIP in the liver must be regulated properly to ensure optimum health," Siddiqi said.

He equates the operation of the tiny protein to a manually operated car. "To run smoothly, the driver must synchronise the gas pedal and the clutch. If the two aren't synchronised, the car doesn't move easily; it has fits and starts and ultimately stalls," he said.

The study also suggests that high levels of myristic acid in the diet -- through animal and dairy fats -- keep SVIP from properly regulating the liver's secretion of VLDL.

"These findings suggest that our diet modulates the complex molecular processes that have profound effects on our health and lifespan," Siddiqi explained. 

"The challenge will be in creating a therapy that does not impact the liver's many other functions," he added.​