Knowledge Update

New York, Feb 24 (IANS) Nature's clock is running fast in the Arctic, thanks to climate change. Due to diminishing sea ice cover, spring is coming sooner to some plant species in the low Arctic of Greenland, while other species are delaying their emergence amid warming winters, says a study.

The timing of seasonal events, such as first spring growth, flower bud formation and blooming make up a plant's phenology -- the window of time it has to grow, produce offspring, and express its life history. It can be called "nature's clock."

While how early a plant emerges from its winter slumber depends on the species, the study, published in the journal Biology Letters, demonstrates that the Arctic landscape is changing rapidly. 

Such changes carry implications for the ecological structure of the region for years to come.

"The Arctic is really dynamic, and it's changing in a direction that won't be recognisable as the same Arctic to those of us who have been working there for decades," said lead author Eric Post, a polar ecologist at the University of California - Davis in the US.

"The picture is definitely being reorganised," Post said.

The study covered 12 years of observations at a West Greenland field site, about 240 km inland from the Davis Strait. 

The site is near Russell Glacier, a dynamic front protruding from the massive inland ice sheet that covers most of the island. 

Each year from early May to late June, researchers looked daily for the first signs of growth in plots enclosing individual plant species.

They found that warming winters and springs associated with declining arctic sea ice cover created a mixture of speed demons, slowpokes and those in between. 

One racehorse of a sedge species now springs out of the proverbial gate a full 26 days earlier than it did a decade ago. 

This was the greatest increase in the timing of emergence the researchers had seen on record in the Arctic.

"When we started studying this, I never would have imagined we'd be talking about a 26-day per decade rate of advance," Post said.

"That's almost an entire growing season. That's an eye-opening rate of change," Post said.

​London, Feb 23 (IANS) Announcing its entry into the $4 billion mobile data connectivity and cross-border Internet of Things (IoT) market, Tata Communications on Thursday unveiled "MOVE" platform that will enable humans and IoT devices to connect seamlessly on a global scale.

​Kathmandu, Feb 23 (IANS) India has approved 16 road projects to be undertaken through its financial assistance to the Himalayan country under the third Line of Credit.

The matter was agreed upon here on Wednesday during the 5th bilateral two-day Line of Credit (LoC) Review Meeting between the two governments.

​New York, Feb 23 (IANS) US wireless communications service provider Verizon and Swedish communication technology firm Ericsson are set to put 5G network on trial in multiple cities across the US.

​London, Feb 23 (IANS) People who suffer long-term stress may also be more prone to gaining extra kilos overtime, says a study. The findings, published in the journal Obesity, are based on examination of hair samples for levels of cortisol, a hormone which regulates the body's response to stress. The study showed that exposure to higher levels of cortisol over several months is associated with people being more heavily, and more persistently, overweight. "People who had higher hair cortisol levels also tended to have larger waist measurements, which is important because carrying excess fat around the abdomen is a risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, and premature death," said lead researcher Sarah Jackson from the University College London. "These results provide consistent evidence that chronic stress is associated with higher levels of obesity," Jackson added. Chronic stress has long been hypothesised to be implicated in obesity -- people tend to report overeating and 'comfort eating' foods high in fat, sugar and calories in times of stress, and the stress hormone cortisol plays an important role in metabolism and determining where fat is stored. Previous studies looking at the link between cortisol and obesity relied mainly on measurements of the hormone in blood, saliva or urine which may vary according to the time of day and other situational factors. These studies failed to capture long-term cortisol levels. This research involved 2,527 men and women aged 54 and older taking part in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, taking data over a four-year period. In the research, the scientists took a lock of hair two centimetre long from each participant which was cut as close possible to a person's scalp. This represented approximately two months' hair growth with associated accumulated levels of cortisol. The researchers found that people who had higher levels of cortisol present in their hair tended to have larger waist circumference measurements, were heavier, and had a higher body mass index (BMI).

​London, Feb 23 (IANS) Intake of 10 portions or 800 grammes of fruit and vegetables a day may potentially prevent approximately 7.8 million premature deaths worldwide every year, say researchers. The results, published in the journal International Journal of Epidemiology, revealed that eating up to 800g fruit and vegetables a day - or 10 portions - was associated with a 24 per cent reduced risk of heart disease, a 33 per cent reduced risk of stroke, a 28 per cent reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, a 13 per cent reduced risk of total cancer, and a 31 per cent reduction in dying prematurely. "We wanted to investigate how much fruit and vegetables you need to eat to gain the maximum protection against disease, and premature death. Our results suggest that although five portions of fruit and vegetables is good, ten a day is even better," said lead author Dagfinn Aune from Imperial College, London. The researchers found that apples and pears, citrus fruits, salads and green leafy vegetables such as spinach, lettuce and chicory, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower, may reduce the risk of specific diseases. "Fruit and vegetables have been shown to reduce cholesterol levels, blood pressure and to boost the health of our blood vessels and immune system. This may be due to the complex network of nutrients they hold. For instance they contain many antioxidants, which may reduce DNA damage and lead to a reduction in cancer risk," Aune added. For the study, the team conducted a meta-analysis of all available research in populations worldwide, included up to 2 million people, and assessed up to 43,000 cases of heart disease, 47,000 cases of stroke, 81,000 cases of cardiovascular disease, 112,000 cancer cases and 94,000 deaths.

​Washington, Feb 23 (IANS) In a remarkable step towards answering the question "Are we alone in the universe", astronomers have spotted a nearby star with seven Earth-size planets which could harbour liquid water, key to life as we know it, NASA said.

At about 40 light-years (235 trillion miles) from Earth, the system of planets is relatively close to us, in the constellation Aquarius. 

All of these seven planets could have liquid water under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with three of the plants which are located in the habitable zone, according to the researchers.

"This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 

Because they are located outside of our solar system, these planets are scientifically known as exoplanets.

This exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. 

"The seven wonders of TRAPPIST-1 are the first Earth-size planets that have been found orbiting this kind of star," said Michael Gillon, lead author of the paper and the principal investigator of the TRAPPIST exoplanet survey at the University of Liege, Belgium. 

"It is also the best target yet for studying the atmospheres of potentially habitable, Earth-size worlds," Gillon said.

In May 2016, researchers using TRAPPIST announced they had discovered three planets in the system. 

Assisted by several ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, NASA's Spitzer space telescope confirmed the existence of two of these planets and discovered five additional ones, increasing the number of known planets in the system to seven.

Using Spitzer data, the team precisely measured the sizes of the seven planets and developed first estimates of the masses of six of them, allowing their density to be estimated.

Based on their densities, all of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely to be rocky, according to the new results published on Wednesday in the journal Nature

Further observations will not only help determine whether they are rich in water, but also possibly reveal whether any could have liquid water on their surface. 

The mass of the seventh and farthest exoplanet has not yet been estimated. But scientists believe it could be an icy, "snowball-like" world, but further observations are needed.

The discovery of the seven exoplanets sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system. 

In contrast to our sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star -- classified as an ultra-cool dwarf -- is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system. 

All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun.

The planets also are very close to each other. If a person was standing on one of the planet's surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighbouring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in the Earth's sky, NASA said.

London, Feb 23 (IANS) Would you like to know what does the future hold for you? If yes, you may have only a few company. A new study shows that given the chance to see into the future, most people would rather not know what life has in store for them -- whether it brings good things or bad.

"In Greek mythology, Cassandra, daughter of the King of Troy, had the power to foresee the future. But, she was also cursed and no one believed her prophecies," said the study's lead author Gerd Gigerenzer from Max Planck Institute for Human Development in in Berlin, Germany. 

"In our study, we've found that people would rather decline the powers that made Cassandra famous, in an effort to forgo the suffering that knowing the future may cause, avoid regret and also maintain the enjoyment of suspense that pleasurable events provide," Gigerenzer said.

The findings, published in the journal Psychological Review, are based on two studies involving more than 2,000 adults in Germany and Spain.

The study found that 85 to 90 per cent of people would not want to know about upcoming negative events, and 40 to 70 percent preferred to remain ignorant of upcoming positive events. 

Only one percent of participants consistently wanted to know what the future held. 

The researchers also found that people who prefer not to know the future are more risk averse and more frequently buy life and legal insurance than those who want to know the future. 

This suggests that those who choose to be ignorant anticipate regret, Gigerenzer said. 

The length of time until an event would occur also played a role. Deliberate ignorance was more likely the nearer the event. 

For example, older adults were less likely than younger adults to want to know when they or their partner would die, and the cause of death. 

"Not wanting to know appears counter-intuitive and may raise eyebrows, but deliberate ignorance, as we've shown here, doesn't just exist; it is a widespread state of mind," Gigerenzer said.

​London, Feb 23 (IANS) Injecting a particular weight loss drug in combination with diet and exercise may reduce risk of diabetes by 80 per cent in individuals with obesity and prediabetes, a study said.

The results of the international clinical trial showed that liraglutide promoted weight loss by interacting with the areas of the brain that control appetite and energy intake.

Published in the journal The Lancet, the results showed that three years of continuous treatment with once-daily liraglutide 3.0 mg, in combination with diet and increased physical activity, reduced the risk of developing the Type 2 diabetes.

In fact, in 60 per cent of those patients with borderline diabetes the condition was reversed, and patients returned to healthy blood sugar levels, the study showed.

"Liraglutide promotes weight loss by activating brain areas that control appetite and eating, so that people feel fuller sooner after meals and their food intake is reduced," said Carel le Roux, Professor at Imperial College London. 

"Although liraglutide's role in weight loss is well known, this is the first time it has been shown to essentially reverse prediabetes and prevent diabetes, albeit with the help of diet and exercise," le Roux added.

Of the patients who did go on to develop diabetes, those who were given liraglutide, took nearly three times longer to develop the disease. 

In addition, liraglutide also helped patients lose seven per cent body weight compared to only two per cent in the placebo group, the researchers said.

"Liraglutide 3.0 mg can provide us with a new therapeutic approach for patients with obesity and prediabetes," explained John Wilding, Professor at the University of Liverpool.

For this obesity and prediabetes trial, the team followed 2,254 adults with prediabetes at 191 research sites in 27 countries worldwide. 

The participants were randomly allocated either liraglutide 3.0 mg or a placebo delivered by injection under the skin once daily for 160 weeks. 

They were also placed on a reduced calorie diet and advised to increase their physical activity.

​Washington, Feb 23 (IANS) In a major boost to the search for alien life outside our solar system, astronomers have spotted the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star, NASA said.

All of these seven planets could have liquid water -- key to life as we know it -- under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with three of the plants which are located in the habitable zone, according to the researchers.

"This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 

At about 40 light-years (235 trillion miles) from Earth, the system of planets is relatively close to us, in the constellation Aquarius. 

Because they are located outside of our solar system, these planets are scientifically known as exoplanets.

This exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. 

In May 2016, researchers using TRAPPIST announced they had discovered three planets in the system. 

Assisted by several ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, NASA's Spitzer space telescope confirmed the existence of two of these planets and discovered five additional ones, increasing the number of known planets in the system to seven.

Using Spitzer data, the team precisely measured the sizes of the seven planets and developed first estimates of the masses of six of them, allowing their density to be estimated.

Based on their densities, all of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely to be rocky, according to the new results published on Wednesday in the journal Nature

Further observations will not only help determine whether they are rich in water, but also possibly reveal whether any could have liquid water on their surfaces. 

The mass of the seventh and farthest exoplanet has not yet been estimated. But scientists believe it could be an icy, "snowball-like" world, but further observations are needed.

The discovery of the seven exoplanets sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system. 

"The seven wonders of TRAPPIST-1 are the first Earth-size planets that have been found orbiting this kind of star," said Michael Gillon, lead author of the paper and the principal investigator of the TRAPPIST exoplanet survey at the University of Liege, Belgium. 

"It is also the best target yet for studying the atmospheres of potentially habitable, Earth-size worlds," Gillon said.

In contrast to our sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star - classified as an ultra-cool dwarf - is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system. 

All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun, the researchers said.