Knowledge Update

​New York, Nov 10 (IANS) The Indian Ocean's Agulhas Current -- one of the strongest currents in the world -- is getting wider rather than strengthening, which will have important implications for global climate change, a study says.

The findings suggest that intensifying winds in the region may be increasing the turbulence of the current, rather than increasing its flow rate.

"To find decades of broadening, rather than intensification, profoundly impacts our understanding of the Agulhas Current and its future role in climate change," said study co-author Shane Elipot of the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in the US.

The Agulhas Current flows along the east coast of South Africa, transporting warm, salty water away from the tropics toward the poles.

Using measurements collected during three scientific cruises to the Agulhas Current, the Indian Ocean's version of the Gulf Stream, the researchers estimated the long-term transport of the current leveraging 22 years of satellite data. 

They found the Agulhas Current has broadened, not strengthened, since the early 1990s, due to more turbulence from increased eddying and meandering.

"Increased eddying and meandering could act to decrease poleward heat transport, while increasing coastal upwelling and the exchange of pollutants and larvae across the current from the coast to the open ocean," Elipot said.

The Agulhas, which is hundreds of kilometres long and over 2,000-metres deep, transports large amounts of ocean heat and is considered to have an influence not only on the regional climate of Africa, but on global climate as part of the ocean's global overturning circulation.

"Changes in western boundary currents could exacerbate or mitigate future climate change," lead author of the study Lisa Beal, also a professor at the Rosenstiel School noted.

"Currently, western boundary current regions are warming at three times the rate of the rest of the world ocean and our research suggests this may be related to a broadening of these current systems," Beal said

​Rio de Janeiro, Nov 9 (IANS) German automaker Volkswagen announced it would invest $2.18 billion in Brazil by 2020, to cover the production of a new family of cars and to prepare the ground for an expected rise in sales across Latin America.

​Hong Kong, Nov 9 (IANS) Researchers have developed the world's first light-seeking synthetic nanorobot that can help surgeons remove tumours and enable more precise engineering of targeted medications.

​New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS) As equity markets became jittery with Republican Donald Trump being elected the 45th President of the US on Wednesday, investors found safe haven in gold, triggering a spike in prices.

Mumbai, Nov 9 (IANS) Anil Ambani-led Reliance Entertainment on Wednesday announced a new venture, an Android app called Chillx.

The entertainment conglomerate has invested in digital media content and distribution company called FunOnGo Media & Entertainment LLP, founded by Vijay Singh and Ujjwal

​New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS) Sony India on Wednesday launched a new model in Cyber-shot RX100 series with the world's fastest auto-focus (AF) speed for Rs 79,990 in India. RX100 V is equipped with a Fast Hybrid auto-focus (AF) system with AF acquisition at 0.05 seconds and comes with world's highest number of AF points on sensor -- with 315 points covering approximately 65 per cent of the frame. With a shooting speed of up to 24 frames per second (fps) at full 20.1MP resolution with auto-focus/automatic exposure tracking for up to 150 continuous shots, RX100 V is claimed to be the world's fastest for a compact camera. The camera features 4K video recording and a high-speed Anti-Distortion Shutter (maximum speed of 1/32000 second) that allows the camera to capture sharp, crystal clear images with a wide open aperture at brightness levels. RX100 V is able to record super-slow motion video at up to 40x slower than the standard rate and can achieve this for about twice as long as its predecessor. RX100 V is available at all Sony Centres, "Alpha" flagship stores and major electronic stores across India.

​New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS) Expanding its Zenfone 3 series, Taiwanese giant ASUS on Wednesday launched two variants of Zenfone 3 Max smartphone with a massive 4,100 mAh battery in India. The two variants -- 5.5 inch (ZC553KL) and 5.2 inch (ZC520TL) -- are priced at Rs 17,999 and Rs 12,999, respectively. "With Zenfone 3 Max, users can enjoy smartphone experience for longer durations without having to look for a plug point," Peter Chang, Region Head-South Asia and Country Manager for ASUS India, said in a statement. The smartphone features a high capacity 4,100mAh lithium-polymer battery and the device doubles up as a fast-charge power bank for charging other devices. The smartphone sports 2.5D contoured glass touchscreen in a sandblasted full-metal, aluminum alloy body with chamfered edges. Designed for photography enthusiasts, the 5.5-inch device features 16MP primary and 8MP secondary cameras while the 5.2-inch variant sports 13MP primary and 5MP secondary shooters. Zenfone 3 Max has a fingerprint sensor near the top of the rear panel. While, the 5.5-inch Zenfone 3 Max is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 64-bit octa-core processor, the 5.2-inch smartphone is powered by a 64-bit quad-core processor. Both of them have a 3GB RAM. The 5.5-inch Zenfone 3 Max has 32GB onboard memory which can be expanded by a 128GB memory card. The other variant's 32GB onboard memory can be expanded by 32GB. Zenfone 3 Max ZC520TL is available from Wednesday and Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL will be available by November end.

London, Nov 9 (IANS) Extending the number of pregnant women given a common drug to boost thyroid hormone levels may lead to a reduced number of still-births, early caesarean sections and low-weight babies, says a new study.

"Our work raises the possibility of providing real benefits from using a safe, cheap and well established treatment by simply extending it to the number of pregnant women we treat," said lead author of the study Peter Taylor from University of Cardiff in Britain.

The thyroid gland is an organ found in the base of the neck. It produces essential hormones that control the body's metabolism -- the way we use energy. 

Thyroid hormones are also critical for foetal brain development, but babies cannot make any of their own until the second trimester and have to source all of it from their mothers.

Pregnant women with mild hypothyroidism have low levels of thyroid hormones. This can be treated with a hormone replacement drug called levothyroxine.

In this study, the researchers investigated whether pregnant women with mild hypothyroidism and their babies would also benefit from levothyroxine treatment. 

They combined data from a thyroid screening study and linked it to routinely collected clinical data to study the effect of correcting borderline thyroid function on obstetric outcomes.

The researchers analysed over 13,000 women who were 12-16 weeks pregnant, 518 of whom had mild hypothyroidism. 

Of these, 263 women received levothyroxine and the rest received no treatment. 

They assessed the women's pregnancy outcomes by measuring stillbirth rates, preterm delivery, length of stay at hospital, birth weight and the number of early caesarean sections.

They found that women with mild hypothyroidism treated with levothyroxine had a lower risk of giving birth to low weight babies and were also less likely to undergo an early caesarean.

Untreated women with mild hypothyroidism were more likely to have a stillbirth than women with normal thyroid function and no stillbirths occurred in the treated group. 

The findings were presented at the Society for Endocrinology's annual conference in Brighton, England.

​New York, Nov 9 (IANS) Neanderthal genetic material is found in only small amounts in the genomes of modern humans because, after inter-breeding, natural selection removed large numbers of weakly deleterious Neanderthal gene variants, says a study.

Humans and Neanderthals inter-bred tens of thousands of years ago, but today, Neanderthal DNA makes up only one to four per cent of the genomes of modern non-African people. 

"For a while now we have known that humans and Neanderthals hybridised. Many Europeans and Asians - along with other non-African populations - are the descendants of those hybrids," said Ivan Juric from the University of California, Davis in the US.

"Previous work has also shown that, following hybridisation, many Neanderthal gene variants were lost from the modern human population due to selection. We wanted to better understand the causes of this loss," Juric noted.

To understand how modern humans lost their Neanderthal genetic material and how humans and Neanderthals remained distinct, the researchers developed a novel method for estimating the average strength of natural selection against Neanderthal genetic material.

They found that natural selection removed many Neanderthal alleles from the genome that might have had mildly negative effects. 

The scientists estimated that these gene variations were able to persist in Neanderthals because Neanderthals had a much smaller population size than humans. 

Once transferred into the human genome, however, these alleles became subject to natural selection, which was more effective in the larger human populations and has removed these gene variants over time.

"Our results are compatible with a scenario where the Neanderthal genome accumulated many weakly deleterious variants, because selection was not effective in the small Neanderthal populations. Those variants entered the human population after hybridisation," Juric said.

"Once in the larger human population, those deleterious variants were slowly purged by natural selection," Juric noted.

These findings, published in the journal PLOS Genetics, shed new light on the role of population size on losing or maintaining Neanderthal ancestry in humans.

New York, Nov 9 (IANS) Offering a potential new tool to study respiratory diseases, researchers have transplanted lab-grown mini lungs into immunosuppressed mice where the structures were able to survive, grow and mature.

"In many ways, the transplanted mini lungs were indistinguishable from human adult tissue," said senior study author Jason Spence, Associate Professor at University of Michigan Medical School in the US.

Respiratory diseases account for nearly one in five deaths worldwide, and lung cancer survival rates remain poor despite numerous therapeutic advances during the past 30 years.

The numbers highlight the need for new, physiologically relevant models for translational lung research.

Lab-grown lungs can help because they provide a human model to screen drugs, understand gene function, generate transplantable tissue and study complex human diseases, such as asthma.

The researchers used numerous signalling pathways involved with cell growth and organ formation to coax stem cells -- the body's master cells -- to make the miniature lungs.

The findings, published in the journal eLife, suggest that scientists can now grow 3-D models of lungs from stem cells, creating new ways to study respiratory diseases.