Knowledge Update

​Washington, June 30 (IANS) A new study has confirmed the link between eating canned food and increased exposure to a chemical linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other health effects.

The study, by researchers at Stanford and Johns Hopkins universities, with a first-of-its-kind sample including thousands of people of various ages, and geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, highlights the challenges consumers face in trying to limit their exposure to the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA), Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

Published in the recent issue of Environmental Research, the study of 7,669 participants, 6 years and older with 24-hour dietary recall information and urinary BPA concentrations from year 2003 through 2008 establishes the link that the more canned food consumed, the higher the BPA, confirming canned food's outsized influence on exposure to BPA.

"I could eat three cans of peaches, and you could eat one can of cream of mushroom soup and have a greater exposure to BPA," said lead author Jennifer Hartle, a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Prevention Research Centre.

According to the study, the consumption of one canned food to none was found to be associated with 24 per cent higher urinary BPA concentrations; and the consumption of two or more canned foods to none was associated with 54 per cent higher urinary BPA concentrations.

BPA is a compound used to make, among other things, resins that coat the inside of food cans and jar lids. Previous research has focused on analysing levels of BPA in canned products and measuring BPA exposure within groups of fewer than 75 people.

The new study also finds that different foods have different amounts of BPA contamination, and particular kinds of canned food are associated with higher urinary BPA concentrations. The worst offenders, in descending order: canned soup, canned pasta, canned vegetables and fruit.

The state of California has listed BPA as a female reproductive toxicant, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has restricted its use in some products, such as baby bottles, sippy cups and liquid infant formula canned linings. 

However, the FDA said the federal agency is still working to "answer key questions and clarify uncertainties about BPA".​

​London, June 30 (IANS) Researchers in Norway have identified a blood bio-marker that could indicate the long-term risk of developing cardiovascular diseases

The findings of the research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) showed that the bio-marker -- called circulating microRNAs -- can predict ten-year risk for myocardial infarction -- a blockage of blood flow to the heart muscle.

"Our study showed that by measuring a combination of five different microRNAs and adding this information to the traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease, we could identify those that were going to experience a myocardial infarction with considerably improved precision," said lead author Anja Bye, researcher at NTNU.

Regular analysis of blood for microRNAs, rather than just cholesterol and triglycerides, can provide 77.6 per cent accurate results of the risk of heart disease, the researchers noted.

Traditionally, it was risk factors such as body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, smoking and dietary habits that have indicated the health of the heart.

Though these did provide a degree of accuracy, results still overlooked 15-20 per cent of myocardial infarction patients who were on the “low risk” list based on lifestyle factors.

For the study, published in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, the team looked at 212 healthy participants aged between 40-70 years that either died from myocardial infarction within ten years or remained healthy at the time of the final study in 2006.​

​Washington, June 30 (IANS) Researchers have developed a unique, multifunctional smart material that can change shape from heat or light and and also heal its scratches.

Smart materials that can react to external stimuli, like light or heat, have been an interesting novelty and look almost magical as they mysteriously fold and unfold themselves. 

They have a variety of potential applications, such as for actuators, drug delivery systems and self-assembling devices. For instance, smart materials could change shape to unfold a solar panel on a space satellite without need of a battery-powered mechanical device.

But smart materials haven't come into widespread use because they are difficult to make and often can only perform one function at a time. 

The Washington State University research team developed a material that allows multiple functions at once with the potential to add more.

A paper describing the material was published in Applied Materials & Interfaces, a journal of the American Chemical society.

The team worked with a class of long-chain molecules, called liquid crystalline networks (LCNs), which provide order in one direction and give material unique properties. 

The researchers took advantage of the way the material changes in response to heat to induce a unique three-way shape shifting behaviour. 

They added groups of atoms that react to polarised light and used dynamic chemical bonds to improve the material's reprocessing abilities.

"We knew these different technologies worked independently and tried to combine them in a way that would be compatible,'' said one of the lead researchers Michael Kessler, Professor at Washington State University.

The resulting material reacts to light, can remember its shape as it folds and unfolds and can heal itself when damaged. 

For instance, a razor blade scratch on the material can be fixed by applying ultraviolet light.

The material's movements can be pre-programmed and its properties tailored, the researchers said.​

​London, June 30 (IANS) The universe is becoming gradually cleaner as more and more cosmic dust is being mopped up by the formation of stars within galaxies, an international team of astronomers has revealed.

Peering back 12 billion years using the Herschel space telescope to produce far-infrared images of the sky, the team led by researchers at Cardiff University was able to observe the very early formation of galaxies and compare them to galaxies that have formed much more recently.

"Our results show that the reason for this evolution is that galaxies used to contain more dust and gas in the past, and the universe is gradually becoming cleaner as the dust is used up," said co-leader of the project Steve Eales, Professor at Cardiff University's School of Physics and Astronomy.

The findings were presented at the National Astronomy Meeting in Nottingham, Britain. 

Cosmic dust is comprised of tiny solid particles that are found everywhere in space between the stars. The dust and the gas in the universe is the raw material out of which stars and galaxies form.

Though this blanket of material is key to the formation of stars and galaxies, it also acts as a sponge, absorbing almost half of the light emitted by stellar objects and making them impossible to observe with standard optical telescopes.

The Herschel space telescope was launched in 2009 to provide researchers better tool for probing this hidden universe.​

​London, June 30 (IANS) Sleeping more or less than the average seven hours may increase the risk of developing diabetes in men, a new study warns.

The findings showed that men who slept the least and the most were more likely to have an impaired ability to process sugar compared to men who slept an average amount of about seven hours.

The men at either end of the spectrum had higher blood sugar levels than men who got the average amount of sleep.

Conversely, women who slept less or more than average were more responsive to the hormone insulin than women who slept the average amount.

They also had enhanced function of beta cells - the cells in the pancreas that produce the hormone insulin.

This suggests lost sleep may not put women at increased risk of developing diabetes, the study said.

"In men, sleeping too much or too little was related to less responsiveness of the cells in the body to insulin, reducing glucose uptake and thus increasing the risk of developing diabetes in the future," said Femke Rutters from VU University in the Netherlands.

During the last 50 years, the average self-reported sleep duration for individuals has decreased by 1.5 to two hours.

The prevalence of diabetes has doubled in the same time period, the researchers noted.

"Even when you are healthy, sleeping too much or too little can have detrimental effects on your health," Rutters said adding, "this research shows how important sleep is to a key aspect of health - glucose metabolism."

The study, published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, is the first to show opposite effects of lost sleep on diabetes risk in men and women.

In the cross-sectional study, the team examined the sleep duration and diabetes risk factors in 788 healthy adults ranging in age from 30 to 60 years old.

The researchers observed sex-specific relationships between sleep duration and glucose metabolism in the participants.​

​New York, June 30 (IANS) Facebook has made changes in news feed ranking to ensure you do not miss updates from families and friends amid the flood of information on the social media platform of over a billion users.

"The goal of News Feed is to show people the stories that are most relevant to them. Today, we’re announcing an update to News Feed that helps you see more posts from your friends and family,” Facebook executive Adam Mosseri wrote on a blogpost on Wednesday.

The new changes mean that wedding photographs of your close friend would get more prominence than the stories linked to what happened in Turkey or for that matter in India.

"When we launched News Feed in 2006, it was hard to imagine the challenge we now face: far too much information for any one person to consume,” Mosseri said.

"In the decade since, more than a billion people have joined Facebook, and today they share a flood of stories every day. That’s why stories in News Feed are ranked ? so that people can see what they care about first, and don’t miss important stuff from their friends,” Mosseri explained.

"If the ranking is off, people don’t engage, and leave dissatisfied. So one of our most important jobs is getting this ranking right,” the post said.

The social networking giant recently faced allegations of political bias in the selection or prominence of stories in its "Trending Topics" feature. An internal investigation of the organisation, however, revealed no evidence of any systematic political bias.

"Facebook was built on the idea of connecting people with their friends and family. That is still the driving principle of News Feed today,” Mosseri said.

"We are not in the business of picking which issues the world should read about. We are in the business of connecting people and ideas ? and matching people with the stories they find most meaningful,” Mosseri pointed out.​

​New York, June 29 (IANS) Adolescents living in neighbourhoods with more greenery may exhibit less aggressive behaviour, finds a new study.

The findings showed that increasing greenery levels like parks, golf courses or fields, might lead to a 12 per cent decrease in clinical cases of aggressive behaviour. 

"Our study provides new evidence that increasing neighbourhood greenery may be an effective alternative intervention strategy for an environmental public health approach that has not been considered yet," said Diana Younan, doctoral student, at the University of California in the US. 

Nine to 18-year-olds who lived in places with more greenery had significantly less aggressive behaviour than those living in neighbourhoods with less greenery. 

Both short-term (one to six months) and long-term (one to three years) exposure to green spaces within 1,000 metres of residences were associated with reduced aggressive behaviour. 

The behavioural benefit of green spaces equated to approximately two to two-and-a-half years of adolescent maturation.

In addition, these benefits existed for both boys and girls of all ages and races/ethnicities, and across populations with different socio-economic backgrounds and living in communities with different neighbourhood quality.

"It is important that we target aggressive behaviours early. Identifying effective measures to reduce aggressive and violent behaviours in adolescents is a pressing issue facing societies worldwide," Younan added.

Factors such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, parents' educational background, occupation, income level, or marital status and whether their mother smoked while pregnant or was depressed did not affect the findings.

For the study, the team followed 1,287 adolescents from Southern California who were aged nine to 18 years to see whether greenery surrounding the home could reduce aggressive behaviour.

The results will be published in the forthcoming issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP). ​

I stay in rural Maharashtra. We have reached a stage in life where we hardly shop but sometimes need specialty items like books, computer peripherals, herbal teas and the like. These items are not available in our rural town of Phaltan where we live and so we do online shopping. In the last year or so we have discovered the power of such shopping. In the recent past, we would go once a month to Pune (110 km away) to buy a few things. Now because of online shopping, such trips have drastically reduced - and for good reason. It takes about three hours to reach Pune, driving over pot-holed roads, which produces back pain. Besides, the traffic jams and pollution in or near Pune add to the discomfort. Also going to Pune for a few items was quite a chore and waste of energy and time. Now online shopping allows us the luxury of getting all sorts of items at home. Such online shopping is being discovered in all rural towns and areas around the country. However, for such e-commerce to take place, it is necessary to have a good internet connection, ability to sift through the various items offered and zeroing on selection of quality material. All this is possible by googling the items and comparing their prices and specifications. I find that the rural population is learning this search-and-pick at amazing speed - which is reflected in the increase of sales in rural areas via online shopping. They also order items seen on TV ads and those passed by word of mouth. With mobile penetration in rural India, this shopping is also facilitated by various smartphone apps so that desktop PCs are not required. Nevertheless, this online shopping is fuelling consumerism in rural areas and is the engine which is helping it to urbanize. It is happening because it produces a win-win situation. For example, one can get quality goods at substantial savings as they are usually much cheaper than what one would pay in a shop in Pune or other big cities. Besides, most of the time the goods are shipped free and cash-on-delivery basis. Also, the time and energy used in actual shopping and going to the big city are saved. This is the reason why e-commerce has spread so rapidly all over the world and rural India is only now getting the benefits of this revolution. The foray of the online companies in rural India is also fuelling the job market - it is providing employment to a large number of rural youth as delivery boys. Besides, it has given a shot in the arm to loss-making India Post since their large network of postmen is being used by e-commerce companies to penetrate rural areas. However, such shipments are energy intensive. For a small item the packing is almost three-to-four times its size. This is waste of material, and adds to the weight of shipment and to the transport energy cost. Secondly, quite a number of times, the item which is manufactured locally is shipped to big cities and then again to the final destination. For example, we ordered a packet of mango pickle (of a brand that is not available in Phaltan) which is manufactured about 45 km from our rural town. This packet was shipped to Bangalore from where it came to us. This is a real wastage of energy in transport but the shipping company may be finding it cheaper to do so for whatever reasons. Yet with all this travelling around we got this packet at nearly half the price of what we would have paid in a Pune shop. So, how do companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and others who have big online presence in India still make money on such transactions? Data from their financials reveals that presently all of them are losing money - primarily because it is the start of e-commerce boom in India. However, they feel that there is a great future in online shopping and with time, their profits will increase. Thus only those companies with deep pockets will survive since they alone have the staying power to penetrate the rural markets. (Anil K. Rajvanshi is the Director of the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) at Phaltan in Maharashtra. He can be reached at anilrajvanshi@gmail.com)​

Panaji, June 27 (IANS) McDonald's will invest Rs 700-750 crore over the next few years to expand its chain in India, especially in emerging cities and towns, a senior company official said on Monday. The global fastfood chain's vegetarian menu, specifically designed for India, has also found takers in Singapore and the Middle East, Ranjith Paliat, Vice-President, business operations, McDonald's India (West and South), said. He said Indian food items like samosa or dosa on the McDonald menu would depend on customer feedback. "Our customers keep giving us feedback on the way forward," Paliat told IANS when asked if McTikki, an adaptation of the predominantly north Indian 'aloo-tikki', could possibly see competition in the form of McSamosa or McDosa in the future. India was the first market where McDonald's introduced a vegetarian menu soon after the Illinois-headquartered company set up operations in the country in 1996. "It was tried out in Singapore and it was tried out in the Middle East. The products taken there were aloo-tikki and McVeggie. So with growing vegetarianism, there is an interest in what we are serving and how can they take it," Paliat said.​