Knowledge Update

​London, Jan 25 (IANS) People are more likely to get affected by superbugs due to over use of antibiotics rather than dirty hospitals, a study has found.

The study, led by researchers at the University of Oxford, showed that the widespread prescription of fluoroquinolone antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin was the reason behind a serious stomach bug Clostridium difficile (C. diff), that caused a diarrhoea outbreak in Britain in 2006.

In 2007, a programme of deep cleaning aimed at combating lack of hygiene in hospitals was announced by the National Health Services.

However, the cases of C. difficile fell only when fluoroquinolone use was restricted and used in a more targeted way as one part of many efforts to control the outbreak, the researchers said.

The restricted use of fluoroquinolones resulted in the disappearance in the vast majority of cases and lead to around an 80 per cent fall in the number of these infections.

"Our study shows that the C. difficile epidemic was an unintended consequence of intensive use of an antibiotic class, fluoroquinolones and control was achieved by specifically reducing use of this antibiotic class, because only the C. difficile bugs that were resistant to fluoroquinolones went away," said Derrick Crook, Professor at University of Oxford.

Meanwhile, the smaller number of cases caused by C. diff bugs not resistant to fluoroquinolone antibiotics remained the same.

Infection prevention and control measures such as better handwashing had no impact on the number of C.diff bugs transmitted between people in hospital, the researchers noted.

Ensuring antibiotics are used appropriately is the most important way to control the C. difficile superbug. 

For the study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, the team analysed data on the numbers of C. diff infections and amounts of antibiotics used in hospitals and by doctors in Britain.

London, Jan 24 (IANS) Are you anxious that your kid is hooked to social networking sites or busy playing video games throughout the night? You now have another reason to blame for the growing addiction: Genes.

According to researchers from King's College London, online media use such as social networking, instant messaging and playing games for entertainment and education could be strongly influenced by our genes.

Genetic factors was found to influence time spent on all types of media including entertainment (37 per cent) and educational (34 per cent) media, online gaming (39 per cent) and social networking (24 per cent). 

The study found that people are not passively exposed to media; instead they tailor their online media use based on their own unique genetic predispositions -- a concept known as gene-environment correlation.

"The DNA differences substantially influence how individuals interact with the media and puts the consumer in the driver's seat for selecting and modifying their media exposure according to their needs," said lead author Ziada Ayorech from King's College London. 

"Our findings contradict popular media effects theories, which typically view the media as an external entity that has some effect -- either good or bad -- on 'helpless' consumers," Ayorech added.

In addition, unique environmental factors such as one sibling having a personal mobile phone and the other not, or parents monitoring use of social networks more heavily for one sibling compared to the other, accounted for nearly two-thirds of the differences between people in online media use. 

For the study published in the journal PLOS ONE, the team analysed online media use in more than 8,500 16-year-old twins. 

The researchers compared identical twins -- who share 100 per cent of their genes -- and non-identical twins -- who share 50 per cent of their genes.

London, Jan 24 (IANS) After analysing minerals from 43 rare meteorites that landed on Earth 470 million years ago, a team of scientists proposes to revise the current understanding of the history and development of the solar system.

There was a giant collision in outer space 460 million years ago. Something hit an asteroid and broke it apart, sending chunks of rock falling to Earth as meteorites since before the time of the dinosaurs. 

The discovery confirms the hypothesis presented by geology professor Birger Schmitz at Lund University in Sweden. He found what he referred to as an "extinct meteorite" - a meteorite dinosaur - which was named "Osterplana 065".

The term 'extinct' was used because of its unusual composition, different from all known groups of meteorites, and because it originated from a celestial body that was destroyed in ancient times.

The discovery led to the hypothesis that the flow of meteorites may have been completely different 470 million years ago compared to today, as meteorites with such a composition no longer fall on Earth.

"The new results confirm the hypothesis. Based on 43 micrometeorites, which are as old as Österplana 065, the new study shows that back then, the flow was actually dramatically different," said Schmitz. 

Schmitz conducted the study with colleagues at Lund University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

"We can now recreate late history of not only the Earth but of the entire solar system. The scientific value of this new report is greater than the one last summer", Schmitz added in a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

"We found that the meteorite flux, the variety of meteorites falling to Earth, was very, very different from what we see today," added the paper's lead author Philipp Heck of The Field Museum in Chicago.

Beijing, Jan 24 (IANS) China plans to build a next-generation synchrotron radiation facility in Beijing, according to a researcher from Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Dong Yuhui said on Monday that the project is expected to start in November 2018 and will be completed in six years. The total investment will reach 4.8 billion yuan ($698 million), the China Daily reported.

The facility, dubbed Beijing Light Source, will meet the national security demands and create aerospace materials among other products. It will provide high-resolution method to know substantial structures better.

Beijing Light Source will be the so-called fourth generation light source and its key performance indicators would be higher than the third-generation ones.

It will create the brightest X-rays worldwide, 70 times brighter than the US National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) and 10 times brighter than Sweden's MAX IV, the strongest of its kind in the world.

Bright X-rays could help measure the atomic structure of various substances and the higher brightness will help people to see more details of substances, something akin to using flashlight to see things, Dong said.

Around the world, there are more than 50 such facilities providing support in many research fields. 

The light source plays an important role in the medical field, helping researchers know mechanisms of tumours and cerebrovascular diseases.

New York, Jan 24 (IANS) Love to watch satirical news programmes? It may have a serious impact on your political attitudes and efficacy, a new research has suggested.

The finding showed that people chose satirical news -- often dismissed as mere entertainment -- that matched their pre-existing attitudes such as liberal or conservative.

"Satirical news matters. It is not just entertaining -- it has a real-life impact on viewers as serious news and it reinforces your political attitudes," said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, professor at The Ohio State University.

Watching satirical news also affects feelings of political efficacy -- people's belief that they can influence political processes -- as much as watching serious news.

The study further showed that people with little interest in politics were more likely to select satirical over serious news. 

"Satirical news can engage people who otherwise would avoid political news and could act as a gateway into more serious news use for people who aren't currently engaged in politics," Knobloch-Westerwick added in a paper published in the Journal of Communication.

For the study, the team involved 146 college students who selected news clips -- that were liberal, conservative, satirical and serious -- to watch concerning climate change, gun control and immigration.

The results showed that regardless of whether they viewed the serious or the satirical news clips, participants' political views were strengthened if they viewed videos that agreed with their original beliefs.

​New York, Jan 24 (IANS) Nicotine may have a direct impact on the restoration of normal brain activity in people suffering from psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia -- a disorder affecting 51 million people worldwide, a study has found.

The findings showed that when mice with schizophrenic characteristics were given nicotine daily, their sluggish brain activity increased within two days and within a week it was normalised.

"Since the repeated administration of nicotine restores normal activity to the prefrontal cortex, it could pave the way for a possible therapeutic target for the treatment of schizophrenia," said lead author Uwe Maskos from Integrative Neurobiology of Cholinergic Systems Unit or Institut Pasteur -- a French non-profit private foundation.

It has been observed that schizophrenic patients often use smoking as a form of self-medication to alleviate the deficit symptoms caused by their disorder or to combat the serious side effects of their treatment -- lethargy, lack of motivation, etc. 

Patients with schizophrenia -- 80 to 90 per cent of whom are often heavy smokers -- have impairments in the prefrontal cortex -- the brain region associated with cognition, decision-making and working memory.

Recently, the genetic mutation CHRNA5, which encodes a nicotinic receptor subunit, was identified as being associated with the cognitive impairments in schizophrenic patients and with nicotine dependence.

In the new study, scientists introduced the human CHRNA5 gene into mice with the aim of reproducing the cerebral deficits that characterise schizophrenia, namely behavioural deficits in situations of social interaction and while performing sensorimotor tasks.

The results showed that mice with the CHRNA5 mutation had reduced activity in their prefrontal cortex. 

The drop in activity measured in this model is similar to that observed in patients with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and addiction, the researchers said.

The study was published online in the journal Nature Medicine.

​London, Jan 24 (IANS) Using the 3D-printing technology, a team of Spanish scientists has for the first time created proper human skin that can be used in transplants on burn patients and those with other skin problems and also in chemical tests.

According to José Luis Jorcano, professor, department of bioengineering and aerospace engineering at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the new human skin is one of the first living human organs created using bioprinting to be introduced to the marketplace. 

It replicates the natural structure of the skin, with a first external layer, the epidermis with its stratum corneum, which acts as protection against the external environment, together with the dermis -- another thicker, deeper layer. 

The last layer consists of fibroblasts that produce collagen, the protein that gives elasticity and mechanical strength to the skin.

The skin "can be transplanted to patients or used in business settings to test chemical products, cosmetics or pharmaceutical products in quantities and with timetables and prices that are compatible with these uses," Luis Jorcano noted. 

When creating skin, instead of cartridges and coloured inks, injectors with biological components are used. 

The act of depositing these bioinks is controlled by a computer, which deposits them on a print bed in an orderly manner to then produce the skin.

"We use only human cells and components to produce skin that is bioactive and can generate its own human collagen, thereby avoiding the use of the animal collagen that is found in other methods," the researchers noted in a paper published in the scientific journal Biofabrication.

"This method of bioprinting allows skin to be generated in a standardised, automated way, and the process is less expensive than manual production," Alfredo Brisac, CEO of Spanish bioengineering firm BioDan Group pointed out.

Currently, this development is in the phase of being approved by different European regulatory agencies to guarantee that the skin that is produced is adequate for use in transplants on burn patients and those with other skin problems. 

In addition, these tissues can be used to test pharmaceutical products, as well as cosmetics and consumer chemical products where current regulations require testing that does not use animals.

Beijing, Jan 23 (IANS) The second-child policy implemented in China increased the number of births to 17.86 million in 2016, an increase of 7.9 per cent and the highest annual number since since 2000, according to health authorities.

The number of newborns has increased by 1.31 million compared with 2015, the National Health and Family Planning Commission revealed on Sunday.

The portion of the births to couples who already had at least one child rose quickly to at least 45 per cent last year, Yang Wenzhuang, a division director of the commission, said. 

The proportion was around 30 per cent before 2013, the China Daily reported.

"It demonstrates that the universal second-child policy (implemented early last year) came in time and worked effectively," Yang said.

"Some regions, mostly large cities in eastern areas, began recording second children as comprising more than half of local newborns," he added.

Yang expected that by 2020, the number of new births each year would stand between 17 to 20 million in China.

The top decision makers intensified efforts in late 2013 to adjust birth policies in place for three decades that limited most couples to just one child, aiming at addressing major demographic challenges such as an aging population and a looming labour shortage.

Starting in early 2014, couples in which one was an only child could have a second child. The universal second-child policy was implemented at the start of 2016.

By 2050, the policy is expected to bring about an extra 30 million working age people and reduce the nation's aging rate by 2 per cent, commission projections showed.

A 2015 survey by the commission found nearly 75 per cent of respondents were reluctant to have a second baby, largely due to economic burdens, the China Daily said.

Other major concerns were age, parents' career development, and a lack of caregivers, it showed. 

In the mid-1950s, the average number of annual births in China was around 18 million, almost the same as in 2016. But the fertility rate (the average number of children a woman will have during her life) has dropped from more than six then to less than two.

​New York, Jan 22 (IANS) Non-invasive brain stimulations can work like a scalpel to improve the precise memory of a human and can also be used as a treatment for those who have memory problem because of brain injury, a new study has found.

Precise memory is critical for knowing details such as the specific colour, shape and location of a building you are looking for, rather than simply knowing the part of town it is in.

Researchers from the Northwestern University found that by stimulating the brain network responsible for spatial memory with powerful electromagnets, the precision of people's memory for identifying locations improved.

"We show that it is possible to target the portion of the brain responsible for this type of memory and to improve it," said Joel Voss, assistant professor.

The scientists used MRI to identify memory-related brain networks then stimulated them with non-invasive electromagnetic stimulation.

The paper, published in the journal Current Biology, paves the way for developing new treatments for people who have problems with precise memory because of brain injury.