Knowledge Update

​London, Dec 14 (IANS) A sound sleep in the first 24 hours after suffering a trauma can help individuals with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to process the horrific experiences, a study has found.

People with PTSD experience highly emotional and distressing memories or even flashbacks where they feel as if they were experiencing the trauma all over again. 

Sleep could play a key role in processing what they have suffered.

"Our approach offers an important non-invasive alternative to the current attempts to erase traumatic memories or treat them with medication," said lead author Birgit Kleim from the University of Zurich. 

The findings showed that a good sleep can help weaken emotions connected to an existing memory, such as fear caused by traumatic experiences. 

In addition, sleep also helps contextualise the recollections, processing them as information and storing the memories. 

However, the process may take several nights, the researchers said.

"The use of sleep might prove to be a suitable and natural early prevention strategy," Kleim added.

For the study, the researchers showed participants a traumatic video. The recurring memories of the images in the film that haunted the participants for a few days were recorded in detail in a diary. 

Study participants were randomly assigned to two groups. One slept in the lab for a night after the video while their sleep was recorded via an electroencephalograph (EEG), the other group remained awake. 

The results revealed that people who slept after the film had fewer and less distressing recurring emotional memories than those who were awake.

"This supports the assumption that sleep may have a protective effect in the aftermath of traumatic experiences," Kleim said, in the study published in the journal Sleep.

​London, Dec 14 (IANS) A drug used for sleep disorder could also reduce the impulse for food, thereby helping food addicts to lose weight, a study says.

The researchers discovered that a drug called Modafinil, usually used for narcolepsy, shift work disorder and excessive daytime sleepiness, can reduce impulsivity and thus food addiction.

"We found Modafinil, which is already on the market, did reduce people's impulsive behaviour," said Ivo Vlaev, Professor at University of Warwick in Britain.

Impulsive behaviour is an important factor that could lead to to food addiction.

"It has been shown to reduce impulsiveness in a variety of disorders such as alcohol dependence, schizophrenia and ADHD (Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). Food addicts suffer from the same neurobiological conditions so we believe it will help food addicts as well and our initial tests have backed up that theory," Vlaev noted.

This could have important implications for people who are obese. 

"There is mounting evidence to show that there is a substantial number of obese people who are food addicts because they have an inability to control their impulsive actions and this drug has shown it can give them more control, which will help overweight people lose weight and so improve their health," Vlaev said.

Food addicts have also been found to have a deficiency in a certain type of dopamine so that their sense of reward and pleasure is diminished, thus they have to eat more to reach the same level of pleasure as anybody else.

The drug, which is sold under a wide variety of brand names around the world, was one of two drugs tested by researchers, the other being Atomoxetine. 

Both drugs have been used for impulsive conditions, including ADHD.

In a paper published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the scientists conducted a series of trials on 60 men aged between 19 and 32, with 20 taking a placebo, 20 Atomoxetine and 20 Modafinil.

The tests revealed that those who had taken Modafinil had a significantly reduced level of impulsiveness, whereas Atomoxetine produced no difference compared to the placebo group.

"Modafinil was found to have an effect on impulsivity in healthy individuals and so would be able to have an even bigger effect on food addicts, who are lacking in certain types of dopamine," Vlaev said.

​New York, Dec 13 (IANS) Microsoft has succesfully targeted Mac users with its Surface commercials, as a report revealed that more people were switching from Macs to Surface recently. According to Microsoft, people were switching from Macs to Surface because of the disappointment of the new MacBook Pro among professionals combined with "the excitement for the innovation of Surface." The company termed November as their best month ever for consumer Surface sales, although it did not provide any sales numbers. "The best buy-exclusive Surface bundle sold out on the first day. The momentum was seen worldwide. In the Britain, we had the best single week for Surface ever and in Germany the Surface Pen became the best seller in PC accessories on Amazon for over 12 hours," the company said in a blog post on Monday.

​The Asian Development Bank on Tuesday lowered India's growth forecast for this year from 7.4 per cent to 7 per cent due to a slight slowdown in the economy following the central government's demonetisation move.

The Manila-headquartered ADB's review said the shortage of cash after the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and 500 notes was one of the reasons for the decline in India's economic growth in 2016, Xinhua news agency reported.

ADB highlighted weak investments and slow down in the agricultural sector in the country among other reasons for the fall, Efe news cited the report as saying.

However, the report said Indian economy will recover next year with an estimated growth of 7.8 per cent.

For the Asian continent, the ADB forecast growth from 5.7 to 5.6 per cent, and said the growth for 2017 would remain unchanged at 5.7 per cent.

The growth is expected to remain stable in the coming year, ADB Deputy Chief Economist Juzhong Zhuang said.

"Asian economies continue their robust expansion in the face of global economic uncertainties," said Zhuang.

"Structural reforms to boost productivity, improving investment climate and supporting domestic demand can help maintain growth momentum," he added.

"Growth in China, the world's second largest economy, is expected to hit 6.6 per cent this year, driven by strong domestic consumption, solid wage growth, urban job creation, and public infrastructure investment," the report said.

The bank's forecast for China in 2017 was maintained at 6.4 per cent.

Manila, Dec 13 (IANS)

​London, Dec 13 (IANS) Growth in the British economy in 2016 is set to be stronger than expected, but the momentum is unlikely to be maintained into 2017, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has forecast.

​Singapore, Dec 13 (IANS) Rating agency Moodys Investors Services said on Tuesday that its outlook for banks in the Asia-Pacific region remains negative for 2017 based on the assumption of a difficult operating environment impacting banks' asset quality and profitability.

​New York, Dec 13 (IANS) An intense flare detected last year in a distant galaxy about four billion light years from Earth, considered to be the brightest supernova ever observed, is actually a tidal disruption event (TDE) -- the destruction of a star by a rapidly spinning supermassive black hole, suggests new research.

The findings are based on new astronomical observation data from the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO), a global robotic telescope network, and the Hubble Space Telescope.

"We observed the source for 10 months following the event and have concluded that the explanation is unlikely to lie with an extraordinarily bright supernova," said lead researcher Giorgos Leloudas from Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

"Our results indicate that the event was probably caused by a rapidly spinning supermassive black hole as it destroyed a low-mass star," Leloudas explained.

Using images from the Hubble Space Telescope that were not available when the event, called ASASSN-15lh, was observed, the scientists found that the event occurred at the centre of the galaxy where the supermassive black hole resides. 

The black hole inferred to lie in this galaxy is more than 100 million times the mass of the sun.

For a star to be tidally disrupted by such a massive black hole -- rather than swallowed whole -- the black hole must be spinning very rapidly, said the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

This discovery marks the first time that a TDE has been used to probe the spin of a black hole, a property that is very difficult to measure and is used to infer the existence of so-called Kerr black holes.

ASASSN-15lh occurred when the star strayed too close to the supermassive black hole and was torn apart by the tides generated by the extreme gravity. 

The stellar material orbited around the black hole, collided with itself at high velocity and started falling into the black hole. 

This released copious amounts of energy and generated the bright flare astronomers observed as ASASSN-15lh.

"Years ago we just wouldn't have been able to follow an event like this," study co-author Andy Howell, University of California, Santa Barbara, US, noted.

"This study shows that large area surveys, a global robotic telescope network and a NASA satellite can come together to reveal dramatic new discoveries that wouldn't be possible without each piece of that puzzle," Howell said.

​New York, Dec 13 (IANS) Researchers have identified that bone marrow-derived cells are the source of suPAR -- a protein recently identified as both a reliable marker for chronic kidney disease and a pathogen of the often deadly condition.

The place of origin of suPAR in the human body had been a mystery until now. 

"SuPAR is not just a biomarker; it may also be a cause of the disease," said Jochen Reiser, Professor at Rush University in Illinois, US.

Thus the new discovery may aid search for kidney disease treatment and prevent recurrence after transplant, the researchers said. 

The research showed a type of immature myeloid cell, located in the bone marrow, as the source of abnormal levels of suPAR.

"These immature myeloid cells appear as a main source of circulating suPAR," Reiser added.

Myeloid cells are one of three main types of blood cells. It appears that "these cells are producing high amounts of suPAR, which becomes the mediator that communicates between the immune system and the kidney. At high levels, suPAR travels to the kidneys, causes a reaction, and takes the kidney down," Reiser explained.

The researchers identified bone marrow GR-1lo, Sca1+ immature myeloid cells as the specific type of cells giving rise to suPAR.

"The benefit of knowing what we know about suPAR is that it will allow for much better risk stratification," Reiser said. 

While smoking cessation and losing weight can help bring suPAR levels down. SuPAR levels will likely require pharmacological intervention because "suPAR still won't go down to completely normal levels just because of a better lifestyle," Reiser says.

As for treatments, "stem cell transplantation may prove to be a viable approach to treat diseases such as suPAR-associated kidney disease," the study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, stated.

​London, Dec 13 (IANS) Music may influence a man's ability to focus. While classical music can boost the concentration, rock music can distract, a new research has found.

Interestingly, women's ability to focus is not much affected by the background music -- be it Mozart or AC/DC, the study showed.

"One of our areas of research is how we can boost performance in many different settings -- from rowing in the Olympics, to a musical performance or delivering an important speech," said lead author Daisy Fancourt from the Centre for Performance Science, a collaboration between Imperial College London and the Royal College of Music in Britain.

"This study suggests that for men who are operating or playing a board game, rock music may be a bad idea," Fancourt noted.

In the study, the research team asked 352 participants to play the game Operation.

This game involves removing various body parts from a pretend patient -- Cavity Sam -- whose nose flashes and buzzes if your tweezers touch the metal sides of the body.

Researchers gave the volunteers headphones that played one of three tracks -- Andante from Sonata for Two Pianos by Mozart, Thunderstruck by AC/DC, or the sound of an operating theatre.

The team then timed them how long it took the participants to remove three body parts, as well as tracking their mistakes.

The results revealed that men who listened to AC/DC were slower and made more mistakes, compared to men who listened to Mozart or the sound of an operating theatre.

Thunderstruck triggered around 36 mistakes on average, while the Sonata and operating theatre noises caused 28.

It took volunteers around one minute to complete the task.

Women, however, did not seem to be distracted by the rock music, and none of the three tracks made any difference to performance or speed, showed the findings published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Generally, women took longer to remove the body parts, but made fewer mistakes.

The researchers are unsure why rock music affected men more than women. 

One explanation, they said, could be that rock music causes more auditory stress -- a state triggered by loud or discordant music -- in men.

The scientists also asked people about their musical tastes, and found that Mozart only reduced the number of mistakes people made if they reported high levels of appreciation for the Sonata they listened to.

New York, Dec 13 (IANS) Researchers have found that intermittent fasting inhibits the development and progression of the most common type of childhood leukemia.

This strategy was not effective, however, in another type of blood cancer that commonly strikes adults.

"This study using mouse models indicates that the effects of fasting on blood cancers are type-dependent and provides a platform for identifying new targets for leukemia treatments," said senior author of the study Chengcheng (Alec) Zhang, Associate Professor at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in the US.

"We also identified a mechanism responsible for the differing response to the fasting treatment," he added.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common type of leukemia found in children, can occur at any age. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is more common in adults.

The two types of leukemia arise from different bone marrow-derived blood cells, he explained. 

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia affects B cells and T cells, two types of the immune system's disease-fighting white blood cells. 

AML targets other types of white blood cells such as macrophages and granulocytes, among other cells.

In both ALL and AML, the cancerous cells remain immature yet proliferate uncontrollably.

Those cells fail to work well and displace healthy blood cells, leading to anemia and infection. They may also infiltrate into tissues and thus cause problems.

The researchers created several mouse models of acute leukemia and tried various dietary restriction plans. 

They used green or yellow florescent proteins to mark the cancer cells so they could trace them and determine if their levels rose or fell in response to the fasting treatment, Zhang explained.

"Strikingly, we found that in models of ALL, a regimen consisting of six cycles of one day of fasting followed by one day of feeding completely inhibited cancer development," he said. 

At the end of seven weeks, the fasted mice had virtually no detectible cancerous cells compared to an average of nearly 68 per cent of cells found to be cancerous in the test areas of the non-fasted mice, showed the findings published online in the journal Nature Medicine.

"Mice in the ALL model group that ate normally died within 59 days, while 75 percent of the fasted mice survived more than 120 days without signs of leukemia," Zhang said.

Fasting is known to reduce the level of leptin, a cell signalling molecule created by fat tissue. 

"We found that fasting decreased the levels of leptin circulating in the bloodstream as well as decreased the leptin levels in the bone marrow," he added.

Interestingly, acute myeloid leukemia was associated with higher levels of leptin receptors that were unaffected by fasting, which could help explain why the fasting treatment was ineffective against that form of leukemia.