Knowledge Update

​New York, April 5 (IANS) Scientists have proposed a new concept that could make it possible to generate electricity from coal with much greater efficiency -- possibly reaching as much as twice the fuel-to-electricity efficiency of today's conventional coal plants.

The concept, proposed by doctoral student Katherine Ong and professor Ahmed Ghoniem at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), combines into a single system two well-known technologies -- coal gasification and fuel cells.

Coal gasification is a way of extracting burnable gaseous fuel from pulverised coal, rather than burning the coal itself, while fuel cells produce electricity from a gaseous fuel by passing it through a battery-like system where the fuel reacts electrochemically with oxygen from the air.

The attraction of combining these two systems, explained in the Journal of Power Sources, is that both processes operate at similarly high temperatures of 800 degrees Celsius or more. 

Combining them in a single plant would thus allow the two components to exchange heat with minimal energy losses. In fact, the fuel cell would generate enough heat to sustain the gasification part of the process, Ong said, eliminating the need for a separate heating system, which is usually provided by burning a portion of the coal.

Coal gasification, by itself, works at a lower temperature than combustion and "is more efficient than burning," Ong said. 

First, the coal is pulverised to a powder, which is then heated in a flow of hot steam, somewhat like popcorn kernels heated in an air-popper. The heat leads to chemical reactions that release gases from the coal particles -- mainly carbon monoxide and hydrogen, both of which can produce electricity in a solid oxide fuel cell.

In the combined system, these gases would then be piped from the gasifier to a separate fuel cell stack, or ultimately, the fuel cell system could be installed in the same chamber as the gasifier so that the hot gas flows straight into the cell. 

In the fuel cell, a membrane separates the carbon monoxide and hydrogen from the oxygen, promoting an electrochemical reaction that generates electricity without burning the fuel.

Because there is no burning involved, the system produces less ash and other air pollutants than would be generated by combustion, the MIT researchers said.

It does produce carbon dioxide, but this is in a pure, uncontaminated stream and not mixed with air as in a conventional coal-burning plant. That would make it much easier to carry out carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) -- that is, capturing the output gas and burying it underground or disposing of it some other way -- to eliminate or drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. 

In conventional plants, nitrogen from the air must be removed from the stream of gas in order to carry out CCS.

One of the big questions answered by this new study, which used simulations rather than lab experiments, was whether the process would work more efficiently using steam or carbon dioxide to react with the particles of coal. 

Both methods have been widely used, but most previous attempts to study gasification in combination with fuel cells chose the carbon dioxide option. This new study demonstrates that the system produces two to three times as much power output when steam is used instead.​

​London, April 5 (IANS) A daily dose of vitamin D3 is likely to improve the functioning of the heart in people with chronic failure of the organ, a new study has found.

The results revealed that for patients with heart disease taking vitamin D3 regularly may lessen the need for them to be fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), a device that detects dangerous irregular heart rhythms and can shock the heart to restore a normal rhythm.

The patients, in the study, who took vitamin D3 experienced an improvement in heart functioning, as compared to those who did not.

The ejection fraction -- measuring the pumping of blood from the heart with each heartbeat -- in heart failure patients is often significantly impaired whereas in a healthy person it is usually between 60 and 70 percent.

The heart's pumping function improved from 26 percent to 34 percent, in patients who took Vitamin D3.

"This is a significant breakthrough for patients. It is the first evidence that vitamin D3 can improve heart functioning of people with heart muscle weakness -- known as heart failure," said led researcher Klaus Witte from the University of Leeds in Britain.

The study involved more than 160 patients from Leeds who were already being treated for their heart failure using proven treatments including beta-blockers, ACE-inhibitors and pacemakers.

The targeted patients were asked to take vitamin D3 or a dummy (placebo) tablet for one year. Those who took placebo, there was no change found in cardiac function.

The findings could make a significant difference to the care of heart failure patients as ICDs are expensive and involve an operation, the researchers maintained.

Heart failure affects more than 23 million worldwide.The condition can affect people of all ages, but it is more common in older people -- more than half of all people globally with heart failure are over the age of 75.

The findings were presented at the American College of Cardiology 65th Annual Scientific Session & Expo in Chicago, US.​

New York, April 6 (IANS) Researchers have found that babies raised in bilingual households show brain activity linked to executive functioning as early as when they are 11 months old.

Bilingual children have more activity in areas associated with executive function, a set of mental abilities that includes problem-solving, shifting attention and other desirable cognitive traits, and the difference in their brain activity is evident as early as 11 months of age.

"Our results suggest that before they even start talking, babies raised in bilingual households are getting practice at tasks related to executive function," said lead author Naja Ferjan Ramírez from University of Washington.

"This suggests that bilingualism shapes not only language development, but also cognitive development more generally," Ramírez added in the paper published online in the journal Developmental Science.

Brains of babies from bilingual families are more open to learning new language sounds, compared with babies from monolingual families.

The team used magnetoencephalography (MEG), which measures magnetic changes given off by active nerve cells. 

They compared the brain responses to the language sounds of 16 11-month-old babies -- eight from English-only households and eight from Spanish-English households. 

The Spanish-English bilingual babies had stronger brain responses to speech sounds, compared with English-only babies, the study found.

The findings suggested that the boost bilingualism gives to executive function areas in the brain could arise from switching back and forth between languages, allowing them to routinely practice and improve executive function skills.

"The 11-month-old baby brain is learning whatever language or languages are present in the environment and is equally capable of learning two languages as it is of learning one language," Ferjan Ramírez said.

"Our results underscore the notion that not only very young children capable of learning multiple languages, but that early childhood is the optimum time for them to begin," she said.​

​London, April 6 (IANS) Scientists have discovered a new biochemical process, which reveals how the lungs operate during normal functioning and during asthma -- a chronic respiratory condition marked by difficulty in breathing.

The study conducted in mouse model reveals how air enters and leaves the lungs.

The findings showed that disrupting these biochemical pathways in a mouse model could prevent airway narrowing and maintain normal lung function.

"The fundamental biochemical process that we have discovered will ultimately allow us to better design ways to develop new treatments for those suffering from asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)," said one of the researchers Andrew Tobin, professor at the University of Leicester in Britain.

It is too early to say whether these results apply to humans, the researchers maintained in the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The lung is made up of tiny tubes called airways, surrounded by muscles that allow air in and out of the lung.

In asthma and other airway diseases such as COPD, the airway muscle contracts causing the airways to become narrow and restricting the flow of air in and out of the lung.

"This breakthrough will lay the essential foundations on which to build new strategies to combat airway diseases such as asthma," added Tobin.

According to the World Health Organisation estimates, 235 million people worldwide currently suffer from asthma with over 80 percent of asthma deaths occurring in low and lower-middle income countries. The disease is predicted to increase worldwide over the next 10 years.​

​New York, April 6 (IANS) Robots having close resemblance with humanoid robot movie characters like C-3PO and Wall-E, which are seen as "friendly, non-threatening computers", can evoke emotional response from humans, a study has found.

In an experiment, researchers at Stanford University used a human-shaped robot which was programmed to verbally instruct study participants to touch 13 parts of its body.

Participants were fitted with an Affectiva Q-Sensor on the fingers of their non-dominant hand. This measured skin conductance, a measure of physiological arousal, and reaction time of the participant.

The findings, which will be presented in June at the 66th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Fukuoka, Japan, showed that when participants were instructed to touch the robot in areas that people usually do not touch, like the eyes or the buttocks, they were more emotionally aroused when compared to touching more accessible parts like the hands and neck. 

Participants also were more hesitant to touch these intimate parts based on the response times.

"Our work shows that robots are a new form of media that is particularly powerful. It shows that people respond to robots in a primitive, social way," said Stanford researcher Jamy Li.

"Social conventions regarding touching someone else's private parts apply to a robot's body parts as well. This research has implications for both robot design and theory of artificial systems," Li added.​

​New York, April 6 (IANS) If early Mars was as barren and cold as it is today then the bombardment of the Red Planet some four billion years ago by comets and asteroids may have made its climate more conducive to life, according to a study.

The impacts would have produced regional hydrothermal systems on Mars similar to those in Yellowstone National Park, which today harbour chemically powered microbes, some of which can survive boiling in hot springs or inhabiting water acidic enough to dissolve iron nails, said study co-author Stephen Mojzsis from the University of Colorado at Boulder. 

Scientists have long known there was once running water on Mars, as evidenced by ancient river valleys, deltas and parts of lake beds, Mojzsis added. 

In addition to producing hydrothermal regions in portions of Mars' fractured and melted crust, a massive impact could have temporarily increased the planet's atmospheric pressure, periodically heating Mars up enough to "re-start" a dormant water cycle.

Published recently in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the study took into consideration temperatures beneath millions of individual craters on Mars. 

The researchers used computer simulations to assess heating and cooling, as well as the effects of impacts on the planet from different angles and velocities.

They found the heating of ancient Mars caused by individual asteroid collisions would likely have lasted only a few million years before the Red Planet -- about one and one-half times the distance to the sun than Earth -- defaulted to today's cold and inhospitable conditions.

"None of the models we ran could keep Mars consistently warm over long periods," Mojzsis said.

While Mars is believed to have spent most of its history in a cold state, Earth was likely habitable over almost its entire existence. 

"What really saved the day for Earth was its oceans," Mojzsis said. "In order to wipe out life here, the oceans would have had to have been boiled away. Those extreme conditions in that time period are beyond the realm of scientific possibility," he added.

Mojzsis said the next step would be to model similar bombardment on Mercury as well as Venus to better understand the evolution of the inner solar system and apply that knowledge to studies of planets around other stars.​

​London, April 6 (IANS) The death of a spouse is linked to increased risk of developing an irregular heartbeat up to a year after the bereavement, says a study adding that the risk is prevalent among those below 60.

The condition known as atrial fibrillation -- itself a risk factor for stroke and heart failure -- can also flare up in cases when the loss was least expected.

According to Danish researchers, acute stress may directly disrupt normal heart rhythms and prompt the production of chemicals involved in inflammation.

"The elevated risk was especially high for those who were young and those who lost a relatively healthy partner," said Simon Graff of Aarhus University in Denmark.

The team collected information on 88,612 people newly diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and 886,120 healthy people.

They looked at several factors that might influence atrial fibrillation risk which included time since the bereavement, age and sex, heart disease and diabetes, the health of the partner a month before death, and whether they were single.

The results, published in the online journal Open Heart, indicated that the risk of developing an irregular heartbeat was 41 percent higher among those who had been bereaved than it was among those who had not experienced such a loss.

The risk seemed to be greater during eight to 14 days following a death, after which it gradually subsided until after a year the risk was similar to that of someone who had not been bereaved.

The highest risk was seen among people under the age of 60: they were more than twice as likely to develop atrial fibrillation if they had been bereaved and the risk also seemed to be greater where the partner's death had been unexpected.

Those whose partners were relatively healthy in the month before death were 57 percent more likely to develop atrial fibrillation. 

"In addition, patients with atrial fibrillation often claim that emotional stress is a common triggering factor and increasing levels of perceived stress are associated with prevalent atrial fibrillation," the researchers explained.

​New Delhi, April 6 (IANS) Data security company WinMagic on Wednesday introduced a security software that encrypts virtual machines running on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platforms in India.

​Tokyo, April 4 (IANS) A Japanese ice cream company has apologised to consumers for hiking the price of its popsicles for the first time in 25 years. The public apology was made through an online video, in which the company's president Hideki Inoue and employees bow to viewers in an expression of remorse. The clip, posted on YouTube and played on national television, has now gone viral, with over 700,000 views as of Monday, EFE news reported. The company, Akagi Nyugyo, made the video after raising the price of its iconic Gari Gari Kun popsicles from ten yen to 70 yen after maintaining the same price for a quarter of a century. The company explained the price increase of the product, which has been wildly popular since it went on sale in 1981, due to higher production and packaging costs. Gari Gari, a name that in Japanese resembles the crunchy sound made from chewing ice, is beloved in Japan due both to its availability at most convenience shops and also its unique flavours alongside the traditional soda and fruit tastes, including potato stew, neapolitan spaghetti and corn potage.​