Knowledge Update

London, Sep 26 (IANS) Low and moderate levels of physical activity may significantly lower the risk of bacterial infection, a new study has found.

Regular physical activity is known to have various health benefits including reduced risk of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, colon and breast cancer, as well as depression.

The results showed that compared with sedentary behaviour, low leisure-time physical activity was associated with a 10 per cent lower risk of any suspected bacterial infection, said Kathrine Pape Madsen from the Aalborg University, in Denmark.

Further, compared with individuals classified as sedentary, those undertaking low and moderate levels of leisure-time physical activity were associated with a 21 per cent and 32 per cent reduction of suspected cystitis -- urinary tract infections. 

Suspected respiratory tract bacterial infections, however, were not associated with physical activity level, the study said.

Physical inactivity has been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality causing an estimated 3.2 million deaths globally, according to World health Organisation.

In the study, the researchers examined the relationship between leisure-time physical activity and suspected bacterial infections during a one-year follow up.

Information on leisure-time physical activity was obtained from the 2007 and 2010 North Denmark Region Health Surveys of 18,874 Danes. 

Suspected bacterial infections were determined based on filled prescriptions for antibiotics. 

During a one year follow-up, 5368 participants filled at least one antibiotic prescription.

There was a statistically significant difference between physical activity level and filling any antibiotic prescriptions among women but not among men.

Washington, Sep 26 (IANS) Scientist have developed a set of five instruments that can potentially advance NASAs understanding of wind and weather conditions on the surface of Mars that can help ascertain the planet's habitability.

The US space agency sends rovers to the surface of Mars to photograph the landscape and operate scientific experiments to understand the habitat for humans or other kinds of life.

One of those future rover missions may host the Martian Aqueous Habitat Reconnaissance Suite (MAHRS), a set of five instruments that can take surface measurements in the search for habitable environments, NASA said.

Developed at NASA Glenn Research Centre in partnership with the University of Michigan, MAHRS is specifically focused on searching for wet brine environments in the shallow subsurface of Mars.

"Brine environments are where you would look for life," said Project Manager Dan Vento of NASA.

"Any water that exists today on Mars would likely be in the form of a brine if is in a liquid state," he added.

The MAHRS research hardware includes an optical microscope to study the size and characteristics of settling dust on Mars. 

"The interesting feature about the microscope, is that the electronics architecture can support a camera lens or hyperspectral sensor depending on the scientific goals of the mission," Norman Prokop from NASA Glenn Research Centre said.

Mounted to the microscope, a radiometre measures the amount of solar energy absorbed at the surface to study the amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere. 

Less energy making it to the surface means more dust in the atmosphere is absorbing the solar energy.

A saltation probe, which would hang vertically off the bottom of a rover, measures the impact of soil and dust swirling on the Martian surface. 

Because it is close to the ground, it can measure the impact, mass and velocity of soil as it hits the probe, giving researchers an indication of wind energy and soil movement.

The scientists also developed a soil wetness sensor, which measures water content on the surface and detects the formation of liquid brine.

And finally, Michigan engineers are testing an electric field sensor to measure electrical charges in the atmosphere caused by airborne dust, NASA said. As it sits and spins on a rover arm, it will measure weather patterns and indicate the level of erosion on Mars.

As NASA seeks to develop more sophisticated scientific devices for solar system exploration, this integrated suite of instruments can potentially advance understanding of wind and weather conditions on the surface of Mars and the implications for habitability.

NASA's Mars rover missions advance understanding about the Red Planet and serves in preparation for planned human-crew missions to Mars beginning in the 2030s.

​Sydney, Sep 26 (IANS) Managing diabetes could become much cheaper and simpler as researchers in Australia have developed a copper film that can detect glucose from body fluids containing salt, such as sweat or tears.

Researchers at the University of Wollongong's (UOW) Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) reported demonstration of the first construction of copper with a sponge-like porous structure, which can quickly and accurately detect glucose in salt-based fluids.

"The sponge-like porous structure greatly increases the surface area and therefore enhances the sensitivity required to trigger an electrochemical signal," said Professor Yusuke Yamauchi.

"The extraordinary sensing performance of the copper film is probably attributed to its intrinsically good reaction toward glucose oxidation," Yamauchi noted.

"This makes this copper film a good candidate for the direct detection of glucose to satisfy the requirements of diverse applications, such as diabetes management," he added.

People with diabetes often have low levels of insulin, a hormone that converts sugars to energy, which means they have to closely watch their glucose or blood-sugar levels to prevent further chronic health complications.

Foods, physical activity and other factors can influence glucose levels.

This has led medical device manufactures toward developing continuous glucose monitors that can be inserted just under the skin, providing the wearer with regular blood-sugar readings, removing the need for regular finger-pricking to extract a drop of blood for sugar measurement.

But the technology remains expensive, mainly due to the use of precious metals such as platinum in the sensor.

"Precious metals such as gold and platinum have very good conductivity but they are very expensive and we wanted to focus on more abundant and cheaper metals," Yamauchi said.

So the researchers developed a porous copper film with the sponge-like structure.

Testing revealed the film has high selectivity, reacting to glucose without interference from other acids and sugars that can be present in sweat, said the study published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

The researchers believe the copper film could be integrated into a wearable sensor or a smartwatch, providing continual glucose readings to the wearer, which could also be sent via wireless to their doctor.

Washington, Sep 27 (IANS) Nasa on Monday released further evidence to show that there may be oceans on Europa -- Jupiter's largest moon.

Releasing new images captured from the Hubble Space Telescope, the space research organisation announced "surprising evidence of activity" on Europa which could be water vapour erupting from the icy moon, the telegraph reported.

Hubble made its latest identification by studying Europa as it passed in front of Jupiter.

The telescope looked in ultraviolet wavelengths to see if the giant planet's light was in any way being absorbed by material emanating from the moon's surface.

Ten times Hubble looked and on three of those occasions it spied what appeared to be "dark fingers" extending from the edge of Europa.

William Sparks, the lead astronomer on the study, said he could think of no natural phenomenon other than water plumes that might produce such protuberances.

"We're not aware of any instrumental artefacts that could cause these features; they are statistically significant. But we remain cautious because we are working at difficult wavelengths for Hubble," the BBC quoted him as saying.

"We do not claim to have proven the existence of plumes, but rather to have contributed evidence that such activity may be present."

Nonetheless, the location for the putative jets looks very similar to the region where Hubble earlier this decade detected an excess of oxygen and hydrogen -- the component parts of water, the BBC reported.

Europa is one of the largest of Jupiter's 67 known moons. In late 2013 the Hubble telescope observed water vapour erupting from Europa, in what was hailed as a ‘tremendously exciting' discovery.

Previous scientific findings had already pointed to the existence of an ocean located under Europa's icy crust, but it was thought teams in the future would have to drill through the thick layer of ice before any signs of life would be detectable.

Lorenz Roth of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio said at the time that if the plumes of vapour were connected to the ocean beneath the crust they could start searching for life nearer the surface.

"This means that future investigations can directly investigate the chemical makeup of Europa's potentially habitable environment without drilling through layers of ice," the telegraph quoted him as saying.

"And that is tremendously exciting."

Participants in the teleconference included Paul Hertz, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division; William Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore; Britney Schmidt of the Georgia Institute of Technology; and Jennifer Wiseman, senior Hubble project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre.

Washington, Sep 27 (IANS) The moon was formed by a planetary object hitting the infant Earth some 4.5 billion years ago, say researchers who studied a layer of iron and other elements.

The authors argue this was the same impact that sent a great mass of debris hurtling into space, creating the moon.

The scientists used laboratory simulations of an Earth impact as evidence that a stratified layer beneath the rocky mantle -- which appears in seismic data -- was created when Earth was struck by a smaller object.

"Our experiments bring additional evidence in favour of the giant impact hypothesis," said Maylis Landeau, post-doctoral fellow in Johns Hopkins University's department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

"The giant impact scenario also explains the stratification inferred by seismology at the top of the present-day Earth's core. This result ties the present-day structure of Earth's core to its formation," added Landeau, now a Marie Curie Fellow at University of Cambridge.

According to Peter Olson, Research Professor at Johns Hopkins, the giant impact argument for the formation of the moon is the most prevalent scientific hypothesis on how Earth satellite was formed, but it is still considered unproven because there's been no "smoking gun" evidence.

"We're saying this stratified layer might be the smoking gun," said Olson. "Its properties are consistent with it being a vestige of that impact."

Their argument is based on seismic evidence of the composition of the stratified layer -- believed to be some 200 miles thick and lie 1,800 miles below Earth's surface -- and on laboratory experiments simulating the turbulence of the impact.

The turbulence, in particular, is believed to account for the stratification -- meaning a mix of materials in layers rather than a homogeneous composition -- at the top of the core.

The stratified layer is believed to consist of a mix of iron and lighter elements, including oxygen, sulphur and silicon.

The very existence of this layer is understood from seismic imaging, as it lies far too deep underground to be sampled directly.

The study was published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

London, Sep 27 (IANS) Bilingual educational programmes in those subjects that were taught in English have a negative effect on the level of competence and knowledge in students, finds a study.

Bilingual education programmes, in which a substantial part of the teaching is done in a language different from the mother tongue and from the language of the students' surroundings, have been introduced in countries such as India, Spain and the US. 

The researchers analysed the effects of these programmes and have found a negative effect on the level of competence and knowledge displayed by the students who have followed this bilingual programme in those subjects that were taught in English.

The study, which was published in the journal Economic Inquiry, used data from the test of essential knowledge administered by the Community of Madrid when students complete their elementary education.

"These students and teachers are making an additional effort because they have to teach and learn the subjects in a language that is not theirs. They have to spend more time and make a greater effort to learn English, which can affect their learning of the specific material taught in subjects such as Science, History and Geography," said Jesus Carro, researcher at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain.

This negative result is more pronounced in those students whose parents have a lower level of education, while the difference is hardly noticeable in students whose parents have a higher level of studies.

"We can establish a number of hypotheses with the regard to the reasons behind this, such as that they receive more help at home, they have greater resources, they are more exposed to situations where other languages are used or that are linguistically richer," Carro added. 

According to the study, it is possible that the negative effect that has been detected will disappear at that point because, in secondary school, the students have a higher level of English

​New York, Sep 27 (IANS) Scientists know that stimulating the brain via electricity or other means may help ease the symptoms of various neurological and psychiatric disorders like epilepsy and depression.

Now, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and University at Buffalo have discovered that stimulation of a single region of the brain affects the activation of other regions and large-scale activity within the brain.

"We don't have a good understanding of the effects of brain stimulation," said first author Sarah Muldoon, assistant professor of mathematics in University at Buffalo's college of arts and sciences.

"When a clinician has a patient with a certain disorder, how can they decide which parts of the brain to stimulate? Our study is a step toward better understanding how brain connectivity can better inform these decisions," she added.

If you look at the architecture of the brain, it appears to be a network of interconnected regions that interact with each other in complicated ways. 

"The question we asked in this study was how much of the brain is activated by stimulating a single region. We found that some regions have the ability to steer the brain into a variety of states very easily when stimulated, while other regions have less of an effect," explained Danielle S Bassett, associate professor of bioengineering in the University of Pennsylvania.

The study used a computational model to simulate brain activity in eight individuals whose brain architecture was mapped.

The research examined the impact of stimulating each of 83 regions within each subject's brain. While results varied by person, common trends emerged.

Network hubs -- areas of the brain that are strongly connected to other parts of the brain via the brain's white matter -- displayed what researchers call a "high functional effect": 

Stimulating these regions resulted in the global activation of many brain regions.

These patterns suggest that doctors could pursue two classes of therapies when it comes to brain stimulation: a "broad reset" that alters global brain dynamics, or a more targeted approach that focuses on the dynamics of just a few regions.

The research was published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.

New York, Sep 28 (IANS) US researchers have designed a peptide-based nanoparticle, which when injected into an injured joint will not only suppress the inflammation immediately but also reduce the destruction of cartilage, thus lowering the risk for osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis is a type of arthritis that occurs when flexible tissue at the ends of bones wears down.

In this study, the nanoparticles were injected locally shortly after injury into the joint of the participants to penetrate into the injured cartilage to prevent cartilage breakdown that could eventually cause osteoarthritis. 

Within 24 hours the nanoparticles were at work to tame the inflammation in the joint, the researchers said. 

"These nanoparticles remain in the joint longer (than the traditional anti-inflammotory drugs) and help prevent cartilage degeneration," said Associate Professor Christine Pham from Washington University in St. Louis in the US. 

"The nanoparticles are injected directly into the joint, and due to their size, they easily penetrate into the cartilage to enter the injured cells," added Professor Samuel Wickline of Washington University. 

The newly developed nanoparticles carry a peptide derived from a natural protein called melittin that has been modified to enable it to bind to a molecule called small interfering RNA (siRNA). 

The melittin delivers siRNA to the damaged joint, interfering with inflammation in cells.

It is more than 10 times smaller than a red blood cell, which helps them penetrate deeply into tissues, the researchers noted. 

The findings were reported online in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

​Sydney, Sep 28 (IANS) Cinnamon just not enhances taste but significantly contributes in improving health by cooling the body by up to two degrees, according to research.

The research published in the journal Scientific Reports said that the investigators used pigs for the study and found that cinnamon maintained the integrity of the stomach wall.

"When pigs feed at room temperature, carbon dioxide (CO2) gas increases in their stomach. Cinnamon in their food reduces this gas by decreasing the secretion of gastric acid and pepsin from the stomach walls, which in turn cools the pigs' stomachs during digestion," said Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, Professor at the RMIT's School of Engineering.

The researchers have developed swallowable gas sensor capsules or smart pills which the by-product of digestion and could provide valuable insights into the functioning and health of the gut.

"Our experiments with pigs and cinnamon show how swallowable gas sensor capsules can help provide new physiological information that will improve our understanding of diet or medicine. They are a highly reliable device for monitoring and diagnosing gastrointestinal disorders," Kalantar-zadeh added.

​Palo Alto (California), Sep 28 (IANS) Rapid urbanisation, changing demographics, hyper globalisation and accelerated innovation will shape the future of technology in the next 30 years for countries like India and HP is ready to address these with its advanced research centre HP Labs, a tops executive has said.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of HP Labs here on Tuesday, the printer and laptop major said the research centre was dedicated to develop technology to improve the lives of people globally.

"This is a company on the move and while we are on the move, we have a simple vision to make life better for everyone, everywhere," Dion Weisler, President and Chief Executing Officer, HP, told select mediapersons here.

The vision of blended reality drives the research at HP Labs. 

"Blended reality fuses digital and physical worlds to create new and improved experiences for people at home, at work and on the go," added Shane Wall, Chief Technology Officer, HP and and global head of HP Labs.

In 1991, there were 10 mega cities (defined as having more than 10 million people). 

By 2030, there will be over 40 mega cities and by the end of 30 year time frame, there will be over 50 mega cities.

"Those mega cities will be largely located outside of the mature markets. In fact, most of them are going to be in India, China and Africa," Wall noted. 

On the changing demographics trend, Wall said that 97 per cent of the world's growth will be in emerging markets like India and China and only three per cent will occur in the US and Western Europe.

"By 2025, over half of Fortune 500 companies will be outside the US," Wall noted.

Accelerated innovation in the form of tablets, phablets and PCs that surround us are going to be billion times more powerful 10 years down the line than today.

"HP's vision of blended reality highlights four emerging technologies --3D transformation, Internet of All Things, hyper mobility and microfluidics," the chief technology officer added.

According to Wall, 3D transformation in the form of 3D printing will serve as the next industrial revolution that will transform and disrupt manufacturing, supply chains and the way we live.

It also includes designing in digital way and Wall believes that industry will move to digital manufacturing.

Internet of All Things includes tables, chairs and everything that moves and can be tracked through a supply chain.

"The vision we are driving to is the Internet of All Things," Wall said.

Microfluidics, or labs-on-a-chip is also the next big thing and the last research effort will focus on hypermobility.

"We stare at our phones 137 times a day. In the future, the 'phone' will be on us, either as a wearable or 'on your body, attached to your body, a part of your body,' Wall pointed out.

"The entire way we manufacture will moved to digital manufacturing: How do we take the technologies we have and apply them in areas of health care and life sciences to have a profound effect on life?" the HP Labs global head told the media.