Knowledge Update

Canberra, April 12 (IANS) Severe coral bleaching on Australia's Great Barrier Reef may result in a loss of some $750 million for the economy and tourism industry in the state of Queensland, a media report said on Wednesday.

​Toronto, April 12 (IANS) Researchers have identified 26 new genes linked to intellectual disability which is characterised by significant limitations in learning.

More than one in 100 children worldwide is affected by intellectual disability. Frequently, intellectual disability also accompanies symptoms of autism spectrum disorders, and many genes have been found to be shared by the two illnesses.

The study, published online in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, could eventually lead to personalised treatments for affected individuals, and also add to our growing knowledge of brain development and functioning. 

"Knowing the genes involved is a big step forward, but understanding how they function is also crucial before we can start planning treatments or even cures," said team leader John Vincent from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada.

The study, which was jointly led with Muhammad Ayub of Queen's University in Canada, involved 192 families from Pakistan and Iran with more than one affected family member. 

Intellectual disability is frequently caused by recessive genes, meaning that an affected child gets a defective copy of the gene from each parent.

The families in the study all had a history of marriage among relatives, which occurs quite commonly in communities in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. 

Studying families with this background, and multiple affected individuals, can enable researchers to identify disease genes that would otherwise remain hidden.

The research team pinpointed mutations related to intellectual disability in half of these 192 families. 

The identification of 26 new genes adds to 11 new genes that the team had previously linked to intellectual disability.

One immediate implication of the study is to prevent future cases of intellectual disability, the researchers note. 

Unaffected family members and relatives could be genetically screened to see if they carry these mutations. 

While 26 genes may seem a substantial number, there are likely hundreds of genes that, when defective, may lead to intellectual disability, the researchers pointed out. 

"The strategy we have used speeds up the process of identifying disease genes and of enabling diagnostic labs to deliver more accurate information for clinicians and families," Vincent said.

​London, April 12 (IANS) In a first, scientists have developed a drug activated by light which has therapeutic applications for the treatment of pain.

The new "photo-drug" -- JF-NP-26 -- is a molecule that can be specifically activated at any wished moment (that is, with a high spatiotemporal resolution) with light, the researchers said.

"This is the first light-activated drug designed for the treatment of pain in vivo with animal models," said Francisco Ciruela, Professor at the University of Barcelona. 

JF-NP-26 is activated when receiving light -- using an optical fibre -- of a suitable wave length and with an exact precision on the target tissue (brain, skin, articulations, etc).

The drug does not show toxic or unwanted effects even if the dose is high in short-length studies on animals.

The discovery, published in the journal eLife, will overcome the problems faced with the uses and effects of current drugs such as slow and inexact distribution of the drug, lack of spatiotemporal traits in the organism and difficulties in the dose adjustments, the researchers said.

JF-NP-26's lightening includes a treatment on the molecule that releases the active molecule (raseglurant) that blocks the metabotropic glutamate type 5 (mGlu5) receptor, found in lots of neuronal functions such as the spread of neuronal pain. 

Blocking this receptor allows preventing the pain from spreading into the brain. This can be produced both due to the outlying neurons and the central nervous system (brain) and create, in both cases, an analgesic effect as a result.

"The molecule created by the action of light, the raseglurant, does not belong to any group of drugs from the classic anti-pain list of drugs: non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAID (paracetamol, ibuprofen, etc.) and opioids (morphine, phentanyl)," Ciruela said.

​New York, April 12 (IANS) Ever wondered what causes your shoelaces to loosen even when you tie them as firmly as possible?

It is because while running, the force of a foot striking the ground stretches and then relaxes the knot, a study has showed. 

As the knot loosens, a second force caused by the swinging leg acts on the ends of the laces, like an invisible hand, which rapidly leads to a failure of the knot in as few as two strides after inertia acts on the laces.

The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, may help understand things like DNA that fail under dynamic forces, the researchers said. 

"When you talk about knotted structures, if you can start to understand the shoelace, then you can apply it to other things, like DNA or microstructures, that fail under dynamic forces," said Christopher Daily-Diamond, graduate student at the University of California-Berkeley.

Using a slow-motion camera and a series of experiments, the researchers assessed a pair of running shoes that were laced-up and were on a treadmill. 

They found that shoelace knot failure happens in a matter of seconds, triggered by a complex interaction of forces, as when running, the foot strikes the ground at seven times the force of gravity.

In addition, the study showed that some laces might be better than others for tying knots, but the fundamental mechanics causing them to fail is the same.

"The interesting thing about this mechanism is that your laces can be fine for a really long time, and it's not until you get one little bit of motion to cause loosening that starts this avalanche effect leading to knot failure," said Christine Gregg, graduate student at the University of California-Berkeley.

​New York, April 12 (IANS) Individuals' different social etworking profile on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn stem from a desire to fit within the distinctive culture or etiquette of each site, say researchers, including one of Indian-origin.

The findings showed that users are not explicitly modifying their profile, but rather subconsciously adapting the behaviour modelled to fit in.

"Despite our best efforts, we do still fit stereotypes of gender and age in the way we tailor our persona," said Nishanth Sastry, Senior Lecturer at King's College London.

For instance, a photo of someone's colourful Starbucks drink may be popular on Instagram, but the same image post to LinkedIn would be frowned upon. 

"The users tend to portray themselves differently in these different worlds," added Dongwon Lee, Associate Professor at the Pennsylvania State University.

The findings will be presented at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM) in Canada.

For the research, the team compiled information on over 100,000 social media users by utilising About.me -- a site that acts as a social media directory -- where users volunteer their own profiles, making it an extremely reliable dataset.

Upon analysing the profile pictures and biography information provided by these users, the team also found some surprising differences in how different demographics portray themselves. 

The results showed that women were less likely to wear corrective eyewear, like reading glasses, in their profile pictures and users under the age of 25 were less likely to be smiling in their profile picture.

"Social media consumes an increasingly large portion of our lives. Therefore, understanding how we interact with each other on social media is important to understanding who we are in the online world, and how we relate to each other in virtual but still meaningful ways," Sastry added. 

​Mumbai, April 11 (IANS) India's first industrial-articulated robots in different sizes targeted at micro, small and medium enterprises besides large-scale manufacturers, to help increase their efficiency, were launched by Tata Motors Ltd here on Tuesday.

​New York, April 11 (IANS) Software giant Microsoft has bought startup Deis that specialises in containers -- a modern way to develop and deploy software.

The deal is seen as a boost to Microsoft's cloud because software containers are termed as the new building blocks of cloud-based applications.

Beijing, April 11 (IANS) Boeing on Tuesday said its Boeing Business Jet variants for the corporate jet market have seen continuous growth in China with a fleet of 29 aircraft in operation.

Washington, April 11 (IANS) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has underlined the importance of sustaining growth in emerging markets and developing economies, as they face less supportive external environment.

Washington, April 4 (IANS) Apart from undertaking various expeditions beyond Earth, scientsts at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida have joined a partnership created to develop self-driving cars using radar, lasers, the Global Positioning System and computer vision.