Knowledge Update

Seoul, Feb 17 (IANS) Researchers have found that gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 can be delivered directly into the eye to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an advance that may pave way for a new therapy for non-hereditary degenerative diseases.

It is estimated that almost one in every ten persons over 65 has some signs of AMD -- a form of blindness which causes distorted vision and blind spots. 

In the study, scientists used CRISPR-Cas9 to perform "gene surgery" in the layer of tissue that supports the retina of living mice. 

"We believe that this is a new therapeutic modality for the treatment of non-hereditary degenerative diseases," said Kim Jeong-Hun, Professor at Seoul National University in South Korea.

The most common retinopathies causing blindness are 'retinopathy of prematurity' in children, 'diabetic retinopathy' and 'AMD' in older adults. 

In these diseases, abnormally high levels of a protein called Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) are secreted which leads to leakages of blood and fluid into the eye, damaging an area at the centre of the retina called macula.

Currently, injections of anti-VEGF drugs are the most common treatment against AMD. 

"The injections tackle the effects, but not the main cause of the problem. By editing the VEGF gene, we can achieve a longer-term cure," added Kim Jin-Soo, Director of the Center for Genome Engineering at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea.

The CRISPR-Cas9 system works by cutting DNA at a target site, inside the VEGF gene. 

For the study, published in the journal Genome Research, the team injected the pre-assembled CRISPR-Cas9 complex into the eyes of a mice model.

They found that the delivering CRISPR-Cas9 complex was more efficient, modified only the VEGF gene and did not affect other genes.

Washington, Feb 17 (IANS) In line with its shift in focus from low-Earth orbit to deep space missions, NASA has selected proposals for the creation of two multi-disciplinary, university-led research institutes that will focus on the development of technologies critical to extending human presence deeper into our solar system.

The new institutes will advance NASA's aim of developing technologies that will allow long-duration mission crews to manufacture the products they need, rather than relying on the current practice of resupply missions from Earth.

The new Space Technology Research Institutes (STRIs) created under these proposals will bring together researchers from various disciplines and organisations to collaborate on the advancement of cutting-edge technologies in bio-manufacturing and space infrastructure.

The goal is to create Earth-independent, self-sustaining exploration mission capabilities, NASA said in a statement.

"NASA is establishing STRIs to research and exploit cutting-edge advances in technology with the potential for revolutionary impact on future aerospace capabilities," said Steve Jurczyk, Associate Administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington.

"These university-led, multi-disciplinary research programs promote the synthesis of science, engineering and other disciplines to achieve specific research objectives with credible expected outcomes within five years," Jurczyk added.

Each STRI will receive up to $15 million over the five-year period of performance, said NASA .

​London, Feb 17 (IANS) Treating schizophrenia patients with high-dose B-vitamins -- including B6, B8 and B12 -- supplements may significantly reduce symptoms of the mental disorder that affects nearly one per cent of the population more than standard treatments alone, researchers suggest.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves.

The findings showed that B-vitamin interventions which used higher dosages or combined several vitamins were consistently effective for reducing psychiatric symptoms, whereas those which used lower doses were ineffective.

"Looking at all of the data from clinical trials of vitamin and mineral supplements for schizophrenia to date, we can see that B vitamins effectively improve outcomes for some patients," said lead author Joseph Firth from University of Manchester in Britain. 

Currently, treatments are based around the administration of antipsychotic drugs.

Although patients typically experience remission of symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions within the first few months of treatment, long-term outcomes are poor and 80 per cent of patients relapse within five years.

B-vitamin supplements were also found most beneficial when implemented early on, as B-vitamins were most likely to reduce symptoms when used in patients with shorter illness durations.

"High-dose B-vitamins may be useful for reducing residual symptoms in people with schizophrenia," Firth added. 

For the study, published in Psychological Medicine, the team carried out a meta-analysis that identified 18 clinical trials with a combined total of 832 patients receiving antipsychotic treatment for schizophrenia.

"The study builds on existing evidence of other food-derived supplements, such as certain amino-acids, been beneficial for people with schizophrenia," noted co-author Jerome Sarris, Professor at Western Sydney University in Australia.

Wellington, Feb 17 (IANS) Zealandia -- a lost continent submerged in the southwest Pacific -- is a step closer to being recognised, the authors of a new scientific paper have claimed.

A paper published in GSA Today, the journal of the Geological Society of America, contends that the vast, continuous expanse of continental crust, which centres on New Zealand, is distinct enough to constitute a separate continent, the Guardian reported.

The paper's authors argued that the incremental way in which it came to light goes to show that even "the large and the obvious in natural science can be overlooked".

Zealandia covers nearly 5 million sq. km, of which 94 per cent is under water, and encompasses not only New Zealand but also New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, the Lord Howe Island group and Elizabeth and Middleton reefs.

The area, about the same size as the Indian subcontinent, is believed to have broken away from Gondwana -- the immense landmass that once encompassed Australia -- and sank between 60 and 85 million years ago.

"This is a big piece of ground we're talking about, even if it is submerged," said Nick Mortimer, a New Zealand geologist who co-authored the paper.

Geologists have argued in favour of Zealandia being recognised as its own continent intermittently over the past 20 years.

Zealandia would be the world's seventh and smallest continent, after Eurasia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, and Australia. 

Mumbai, Feb 16 (IANS) In a bid to foray into a new era of tech-powered healthcare, Intelenet Global Services -- a Mumbai-based business process service provider -- on Thursday launched a mobile app called Radius that can help transform the nursing allocation process.

​Moscow, Feb 16 (IANS) Russia-based software security company Kaspersky Lab on Thursday launched an updated version of its Password Manager app that offers users remote access to their passwords through their personal page on the My Kaspersky portal.

​Mumbai, Feb 16 (IANS) As global smartphone sales to end-users hit nearly 432 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, once a market leader BlackBerry now virtually has a zero per cent share. According to the market research firm Gartner, out of more than 431.5 million smartphones sold last year, about 200,000 were BlackBerry devices that were running on its own operating system but that gives it less than half the unit volume of the "other OS" category. "This wasn't hard to see coming given BlackBerry's years-long decline, gradual shift toward Android and recent focus on services," Engadget reported. Microsoft's Windows phones are not doing good either. The share of Windows fell from 1.1 percent to 0.3 percent in the last quarter of 2016. In a bid to provide acceleration to BlackBerry's transition into a security software and services company, BlackBerry and TCL Communication Technology Holdings Limited entered into a long-term licensing agreement recently. Under the terms, BlackBerry will license its security software and service suite, as well as related brand assets, to TCL Communication who will design, manufacture, sell and provide customer support for BlackBerry-branded mobile devices. TCL Communication will be the exclusive global manufacturer and distributor for all BlackBerry-branded smartphones with the exception of the following countries -- India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia. The company announced partnership with Optiemus, a Delhi-based telecom enterprise to licence software and services for the production of secure Android handsets in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Under the terms of the agreement, BlackBerry will licence its security software and services suite, as well as related brand assets to Optiemus Infracom Ltd. The partner will design, manufacture, sell, promote and provide customer support for BlackBerry-branded mobile devices that offer the full BlackBerry experience, including the trusted BlackBerry for Android secure software.

New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) Concerned over Malaysia losing Indian tourists to other South-East Asian countries in recent years, the Malaysian government has come up with certain measures to check the fall in numbers and plans to make further investment to attract more tourists.

Malaysia's Tourism Minister Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz, talking to IANS, said they were in the process of fixing the visa-related issues -- the top-most concern raised by some quarters.

"Othe countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, are making it easier for Indians to travel to their countries, thus taking away some of the tourists previously visiting Malaysia. So, now we have introduced visa-free entry facility for Indians, even for those living away from their home country," Nazri said.

Nazri said that after he found that extra visa fee was being charged from those Indians applying for multiple entry, he standardised the visa fee.

The minister said that his government was planning a tie-up with PayTM --a digital wallet widely used in India -- to facilitate smooth transaction for India tourists in his country.

Noting that Indians are frequent visitors to his country, Nazri said: "We have planned many incentives for Indians. For example, we have made easier for Indian travel agents to set up companies in Malaysia, investors can have 100 per cent ownership, such as in five-star hotels and resorts, without any involvement of local partners."

"We will also make it easy for the Indian movie-makers to shoot in Malaysia and provide some special incentives to Indian markets," he said and stressed the traditional social and cultural bonding between the two countries.

In 2015, over 722,000 tourists from India visited Malaysia, making the country one of the 10 largest source of tourists. However, the number declined to 620,000 in 2016, against the projected one million tourists for the year.

Nazri said that he did not know the exact tourist projection for this year "but the number will top 700,000".

"We are promoting eco-tourism in Borneo. Also, health tourism is big thing in Malaysia and we have many Indian tourists visiting Malaysia for treatment. Almost 25 per cent of our doctors are trained in India," he said.

Asked about the effect of the demonetisation of high-value currency notes in India, Nazri said: "It will be too early to say if it had any impact on the decline in number of Indian tourists to Malaysia."

"Even if it did affect, the impact will be minimal. The most important issue is visa, which we are already addressing," he said.

New York, Feb 16 (IANS) Have you ever thought of having a Tablet that can be stretched from small to a large size, or a wallpaper that turns a wall into an electronic display? This imagination may soon be a future reality.

Engineering researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have developed the first stretchable integrated circuit that is made entirely using an inkjet printer, raising the possibility of inexpensive mass production of smart fabric.

"We can conceivably make the costs of producing flexible electronics comparable to the costs of printing newspapers. Our work could soon lead to printed displays that can easily be stretched to larger sizes, as well as wearable electronics and soft robotics applications," said Chuan Wang, Assistant Professor at MSU.

Since the material can be produced on a standard printer, it has a major potential cost-advantage over current technologies that are expensive to manufacture.

According to the researchers, the smart fabric is made up of several materials fabricated from nanomaterials and organic compounds. 

"These compounds are dissolved in solution to produce different electronic inks, which are run through the printer to make the devices," a paper published in the journal ACS Nano noted.

Researchers created an elastic material, the circuit and the organic light-emitting diode, or OLED from the ink. 

Researchers estimate that in a year or two, they will be able to combine the circuit and OLED into a single pixel, and once that is done, the smart fabric can be potentially commercialised.

"Conceivably, the stretchable electronic fabric can be folded and put in one's pocket without breaking. This is an advantage over current 'flexible' electronics material technology that cannot be folded," added Wang.

"We have taken it one big step beyond the flexible screens that are about to become commercially available," Wang added.

Dubai, Feb 16 (IANS) The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will build the first city on the Red Planet as part of the 2117 Mars project in collaboration with specialised international organisations and scientific institutes.

The Mars 2117 Project was announced by Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Gulf News reported on Tuesday.

As part of a 100-year national programme, the UAE will set in operation a plan to prepare national cadres who can achieve scientific breakthroughs to facilitate the transport of people to the Red Planet over the next decades.

The 100-year plan will involve scientific research programmes to nurture national cadres specialised in space sciences at universities in the UAE. 

The announcement was made on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in the presence of representatives of 138 governments, six major international organisations, as well as leading international tech companies. 

The new project will be associated with research themes featuring the exploration of transportation means, energy and food on Mars. It will also try to find faster transportation methods for travelling to and from Mars.

"The landing of people on other planets has been a longtime dream for humans. Our aim is that the UAE will spearhead international efforts to make this dream a reality," said Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid.

Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed said the short-term goal is to develop the capacities and skills of Emiratis. 

"The 2117 Mars initiative is a long-term project, which will first help develop our education, universities and research centres that will empower young Emiratis to enter all disciplines of scientific research fields," he said.

In 2015, the UAE announced its Mars Probe mission, which will send the Arab world's first spacecraft to the Red Planet in a scientific exploration mission that will land on planet in 2021.