Knowledge Update

Washington, June 5 (IANS) Mental illnesses and mood disorders are more common in urban areas partly due to reduced access to nature, say researchers.

"There's an enormous amount of disease largely tied to our removal from the natural environment," said Peter Kahn, Professor at University of Washington.

In a perspective piece published in the journal Science, the authors discussed the growing tension between an arguably necessary role urban areas play in society and the numbing, even debilitating, aspects of cities that disconnect humans from the natural world.

"Kids in large cities are growing up having never seen the stars. Can you imagine that -- having never in your life walked under the vastness of the star-lit sky, and there's that feeling of awe, restoration and imaginative spark?" Kahn said.

"As we build bigger cities, we're not aware how much and how fast we're undermining our connection to nature, and more wild nature -- the wellspring of our existence," he pointed out.

In the article, Kahn, and co-author Terry Hartig at Uppsala University in Sweden, pointed to research that shows the emotional and mental strain cities can have on people.

"I'm willing to say there's a naturalness we can achieve in cities, but not at the scale we're building or at the scale we're headed with many cities," Kahn said.

"There's nothing natural about a megacity," he noted.

There are steps cities can take to introduce nature into the urban core, including requiring buildings to have windows that open to allow in fresh air and natural light; incorporating more rooftop gardens and urban agriculture; and creating spaces within and around buildings to touch, see and smell native plants.

But these remedies first require an appreciation for nature in urban centres, as well as the space, resources and collective will to make these changes.

Kahn argues that it is more than just introducing nature into urban areas.

People must be able to interact with these elements using more of their senses in order to experience physical and psychological benefits of nature, as well as to shift the collective baseline toward better understanding and appreciation of the natural world.

For example, looking at an office plant on the windowsill might be soothing, but having a place to sit in the grass on a lunch break and perhaps even sink one's feet into the soil are sensory experiences that can deepen a person's engagement with nature.

Thoughtfully designed cities with nature can offer both the stimulation and energy of an urban area and meaningful interaction with a psychologically restorative natural environment.

"Thus, cities designed well, with nature in mind and at hand, can be understood as natural, supportive of both ecosystem integrity and public health," the authors noted.​

London, June 5 (IANS) Researchers have discovered that two neurons in the brain hold the key to explaining how complex behavioural decisions are made.

In this study, scientists monitored the snails' behaviour while they made decisions in their search for food.

"Our study reveals for the first time how just two neurons can create a mechanism in an animal's brain which drives and optimises complex decision making tasks," said lead researchers George Kemenes, Professor at the University of Sussex in Britain.

They then measured the activity in the snail's brain by using electrodes to record small electrical changes, called action potentials, in individual neurons.

The results showed a controller type neuron which lets the snail's brain know potential food is present and a second neuron which transmits signals telling the snail's brain what it's motivational state is, i.e., whether it's hungry or not.

Also, the system created by the neurons was found to enable the snails to save energy by reducing brain activity when food is not available.

"The findings can help scientists to identify other core neuronal systems which underlie similar decision making processes," Kemenes added in the paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

"The study will eventually help us design the 'brains' of robots based on the principle of using the fewest possible components necessary to perform complex tasks," Kemenes concluded.​

​London, June 5 (IANS) A team of researchers has devised a new method for stacking microscopic marbles into regular layers, producing intriguing materials which scatter light into intense colours and which change colour when twisted or stretched.

The team, led by the University of Cambridge, used a new method called Bend-Induced-Oscillatory-Shearing (BIOS) to produce hundreds of metres of these materials, known as 'polymer opals', on a roll-to-roll process.

The results, reported in the journal Nature Communications, has allowed such sheets to be manufactured on industrial scale, opening up applications ranging from smart clothing for people or buildings, to banknote security.

Some of the brightest colours in nature can be found in opal gemstones, butterfly wings and beetles. These materials get their colour from the systematically-ordered microstructures they contain.

When stretched, the material shifts into the blue range of the spectrum and when compressed, the colour shifts towards red. When released, the material returns to its original colour.

"Finding a way to coax objects a billionth of a metre across into perfect formation over kilometre scales is a miracle," said Professor Jeremy Baumberg, the paper's senior author.

"It is wonderful to finally understand the secrets of these attractive films," said PhD student Qibin Zhao, the paper's lead author.​

​New York, June 5 (IANS) Immune cells of older people are less likely to be effective at fending off the hepatitis C virus (HCV), finds a new study suggesting a correlation between ageing and the effectiveness of T-cells.

Using a novel technique called iTAST (in situ TCR affinity and sequence test), the team measured a group of donors' T-cell's affinity -- a physical parameter that determines how well the immune cell receptors recognise and bind to their antigens -- for HCV.

If a person has low-affinity T-cells for a specific virus, the body won't mount an effective fight against the virus.

However, high-affinity T-cells can launch strong fights against diseases and illnesses such as cancer and diabetes.

"T-cell affinity is a parameter that can gauge how healthy your immune system is toward a specific antigen," said lead author Jenny Jiang, Assistant Professor, at University of Texas, in the US.

The findings showed a stark difference between the HCV-specific T-cells of older and younger donors.

"The study found that as one grows older, the T-cells capable of recognising some of the viruses become progressively lower in affinity," Jiang added.

iTAST is the first technique capable of retrieving and measuring the affinity of a large volume of T-cells and their correlated receptor sequences from an individual, the researchers said in the paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"What we are doing is isolating T-cells from a patient. They are the patient's own cells, so iTAST is potentially a way to isolate safe high-affinity T-cells for adoptive immunotherapy," explained Shuqi Zhang, Graduate Student at University of Texas.

ITAST's ability to identify and retrieve a person's high-affinity T-cells could benefit immunotherapy and vaccine development, resulting in improved personalised medicine and therapies, the researchers noted.​

London, June 6 (IANS) There could soon be a pill to reduce your calorie consumption as researchers have identified a bitter plant extract that can suppress food intake by stimulating the secretion of gut peptide hormones involved in appetite regulation.

Gut chemosensory mechanisms, particularly those involved in detecting and relaying to the brain the chemical composition of food during digestion, play an important role in regulating appetite and food intake. 

The researchers hypothesised that activation of specific bitter taste receptors which are expressed throughout the gastrointestinal tract by hormone secreting 'enteroendocrine' cells, could also regulate food intake by triggering the release of satiety or 'fullness' hormones, a mechanism termed by the team as the "bitter brake."

The study was conducted by John Ingram and colleagues from the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited and University of Auckland, New Zealand.

The team screened over 900 plant extracts for their ability to stimulate enteroendocrine "I cell" hormone release before identifying a highly bitter, non-nutritive plant derived ingredient they have called "Amarasate extract" to take forward into clinical testing. 

Twenty lean healthy male volunteers were recruited (mean body mass index 23.4 kg/m2) with 19 completing all three treatments within the randomised, double-blind study.

Treatments comprising 500 mg Amarasate extract or a placebo were administered for targeted intestinal (duodenal) or stomach (gastric) release. 

The researchers found that, compared with placebo, both gastric and duodenal delivery of the Amarasate extract stimulated significant increases in the gut peptide hormones CCK, GLP-1 and PYY while significantly reducing total (lunch plus snack) meal energy intake by 218 calories and 226 calories, respectively. 

However, no significant treatment effects were observed for any subjective ratings of appetite or nausea.

"We have demonstrated that activation of the 'bitter brake' mechanism by a bitter plant extract can stimulate the release of gut peptide hormones involved in appetite regulation and suppress subsequent feeding behaviour in healthy men," the authors noted.

The findings were presented at the 2016 European Obesity Summit in Gothenburg, Sweden.​

​Washington, June 3 (IANS) In a discovery that points to exciting geological activity on a distant cold planet billions of miles from the Earth, NASA scientists have discovered that the icy surface of Pluto's "heart" is being constantly renewed by a process called convection that replaces older surface ice with fresher material.

The prime attraction in the photos of Pluto sent by NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft during its July 2015 flyby was its heart -- a large plain informally known as Sputnik Planum.

Combining computer models with topographic and compositional data gathered by the mission last summer, the scientists showed that the surface of Sputnik Planum is covered with icy, churning, convective "cells" 16 to 48 kms across, and less than one million years old. 

The findings offer additional insight into the unusual and highly active geology on Pluto and, perhaps, other bodies like it on the outskirts of the solar system.

"For the first time, we can really determine what these strange welts of the icy surface of Pluto really are," said lead researcher William McKinnon from Washington University in St. Louis. 

"We found evidence that even on a distant cold planet billions of miles from Earth, there is sufficient energy for vigorous geological activity, as long as you have 'the right stuff,' meaning something as soft and pliable as solid nitrogen," noted McKinnon, who is co-investigator on the New Horizons science team.

The study was published in the journal Nature.

McKinnon and colleagues believe the pattern of these cells stems from the slow thermal convection of the nitrogen-dominated ices that fill Sputnik Planum. 

A reservoir that is likely several miles deep in some places, the solid nitrogen is warmed by Pluto's modest internal heat, becomes buoyant and rises up in great blobs -- like a lava lamp -- before cooling off and sinking again to renew the cycle. 

The computer models showed that ice need only be a few miles deep for this process to occur, and that the convection cells are very broad. 

These convective surface motions average only a few centimetres a year - about as fast as your fingernails grow - which means cells recycle their surfaces every 500,000 years or so. While slow on human clocks, it is a fast clip on geological timescales, the researchers said.

"This activity probably helps support Pluto's atmosphere by continually refreshing the surface of 'the heart,'" McKinnon said. 

"It wouldn't surprise us to see this process on other dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt," he added.

New Horizons flew through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015, making the first close observations of Pluto and its family of five moons.​

Toronto, June 4 (IANS) A dietary supplement containing a blend of 30 vitamins and minerals has the potential to slow the progress of catastrophic neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, researchers say.

The supplement has shown remarkable anti-ageing properties that can prevent and even reverse massive brain cell loss, according to the study by Ontario's McMaster University researchers.

"The findings are dramatic," said lead author of the study Jennifer Lemon.

"Our hope is that this supplement could offset some very serious illnesses and ultimately improve quality of life," Lemon noted.

The formula contains common ingredients such as vitamins B, C and D, folic acid, green tea extract, cod liver oil and other nutraceuticals.

The mice used in this study had widespread loss of more than half of their brain cells, severely impacting multiple regions of the brain by one year of age, the human equivalent of severe Alzheimer's disease.

The mice were fed the supplement on small pieces of bagel each day over the course of several months. Over time, researchers found that it completely eliminated the severe brain cell loss and abolished cognitive decline.

"The research suggests that there is tremendous potential with this supplement to help people who are suffering from some catastrophic neurological diseases," Lemon noted.

The findings were published online in the journal Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis.

"We know this because mice experience the same basic cell mechanisms that contribute to neurodegeneration that humans do. All species, in fact. There is a commonality among us all," she explained.

In addition to looking at the major markers of aging, they also discovered that the mice on the supplements experienced enhancement in vision and most remarkably in the sense of smell - the loss of which is often associated with neurological disease - improved balance and motor activity.

The next step in the research is to test the supplement on humans, likely within the next two years, and target those who are dealing with neurodegenerative diseases, the researchers said.​

​London, June 4 (IANS) What archaeologists earlier thought to be ancient underwater remains of a long lost Greek city were in fact created by a naturally occurring phenomenon, suggests new research.

When underwater divers discovered what looked like paved floors, courtyards and colonnades, they thought they had found the ruins of a long-forgotten civilisation that perished when tidal waves hit the shores of the Greek holiday island Zakynthos.

But new research published in the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology reveals that the site discovered a few years ago was created by a natural geological phenomenon that took place in the Pliocene era - up to five million years ago.

"The site was discovered by snorkelers and first thought to be an ancient city port, lost to the sea. There were what superficially looked like circular column bases, and paved floors. But mysteriously no other signs of life - such as pottery," said lead author Julian Andrews , professor at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.

The research team went on to investigate in detail the mineral content and texture of the underwater formation in minute detail, using microscopy, X-ray and stable isotope techniques.

"We investigated the site, which is between two and five meters under water, and found that it is actually a natural geologically occurring phenomenon,” Andrews said.

"The disk and doughnut morphology, which looked a bit like circular column bases, is typical of mineralisation at hydrocarbon seeps - seen both in modern seafloor and palaeo settings,” Andrews noted.

Microbes in the sediment use the carbon in methane as fuel. Microbe-driven oxidation of the methane then changes the chemistry of the sediment forming a kind of natural cement, known to geologists as concretion.

"In this case the cement was an unusual mineral called dolomite which rarely forms in seawater, but can be quite common in microbe-rich sediments,” Andrews explained.​

​Toronto, June 4 (IANS) Factors such as whether you are alone or with friends can affect how wisely you reason, says a study that suggests that our level of wisdom varies depending on the situation.

The study defines wise reasoning as a combination of such abilities as intellectual humility, consideration of others' perspective and looking for compromise. 

"This research does not dismiss that there is a personality component to wisdom, but that's not the whole picture," said lead author of the study Igor Grossmann, Professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada. 

"Situations in daily life affect our personality and ability to reason wisely," Grossmann said.

The observation that wise reasoning varies dramatically across situations in daily life suggests that while it fluctuates, wisdom may not be as rare as we think. 

Further, for different individuals, only certain situations may promote this quality.

"There are many examples where people known for their critical acumen or expertise in ethics seem to fall prey to lack of such acumen or morals. The present findings suggest that those examples are not an anomaly," Grossmann said.

The study was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

"We cannot always be at the top of our game in terms of wisdom-related tendencies, and it can be dangerous to generalise based on whether people show wisdom in their personal life or when teaching others in the classroom," Grossmann noted.

By examining conditions and situations under which people may or may not show wisdom in their lives, researchers and practitioners may learn more about situations promoting wisdom in daily life and recreating those situations. 

For the next stage of this work, Grossmann and his team are preparing a tool to assess wisdom according to the situation. ​

London, June 4 (IANS) Researchers have found a new test that can detect changes in the levels of metabolites in the blood and help identify whether a cancer drug is working as designed or not.

According to researchers, cancer drugs affect the amount of metabolites -- the building blocks of fats and proteins -- present in the blood of patients with the deadly disease. 

“Our study is an important step in the development of new precision cancer therapies and is the first to show that blood metabolites have real potential to monitor the effects of novel agents,” said Florence Raynaud from The Institute of Cancer Research in Britain. 

The study investigated the metabolic markers that could accurately assess how cancers were responding to the targeted drug pictilisib.

Pictilisib is designed to specifically target a molecular pathway in cancer cells, called PI3 kinase, which has key a role in cell metabolism and is defective in a range of cancer types.

As cancers with PI3K defects grow, they cause a decrease in the levels of metabolites in the bloodstream.

For the study, published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, the team measured the levels of 180 blood markers in 41 patients with advanced cancers in a phase I clinical trial conducted both in preclinical mouse models and also in humans.

In the mice study, the findings showed an increase in the presence of 26 different metabolites in the bloodstream of mice that were given pictilisib, which were low prior to the therapy.

This indicated that the drug was hitting its target as well as reversing the effects of the cancer on mouse metabolites.

In the trial conducted on humans, 22 out of the 26 metabolites increased in response to the pictilisib therapy.

A single dose of pictilisib increased the blood levels of the metabolites, however, when the treatment stopped a resultant decrease was noted, suggesting that the effect was directly related to the introduction of pictilisib.

"Our method could eventually be used to monitor patients routinely during the course of treatment, as a quick and easy way of assessing whether a drug is still working, or whether treatment needs to be adapted," added one of the researchers Paul Workman, Professor at The Institute of Cancer Research.

The new way of monitoring cancer therapy could speed up the development of new-targeted drugs - which exploit specific genetic weaknesses in cancer cells - and help in modifying treatment for patients, the researchers concluded.