Knowledge Update

​London, June 4 (IANS) Obese individuals who undergo a weight loss surgery are less likely to face death, than those do not undertake a surgery, finds a new study.

Being obese can increase an individual's risk of mortality from numerous diseases like heart attack, stroke and a number of cancers.

Bariatric surgery has shown to prevent obesity related mortality as well as morbidity, the researchers said.

The findings showed that the mortality rate was higher in the non-surgical group (4.21 per cent) compared to the surgical group (1.11 per cent).

Mean follow-up time for the surgical group was 5.4 years and 5.5 for the non-surgical group.

Heart disease, followed by cancer was the most common cause of death in this group.

However, the overall mortality decreased by 57 per cent in the surgery group, even after taking into consideration the age, previous comorbidity and other factors including sex, coronary heart disease, valvular disease, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, stroke and atrial fibrillation.

"The study indicates that the overall all-cause mortality is considerably lower among obese individuals who undergo bariatric surgery compared to non-surgical obese individuals, and the differences lies mainly in cardiovascular disease and cancer," said Christina Persson from University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The study population comprised 48,693 obese patients aged between 18-74 years. Of this 22,581 underwent bariatric surgery (gastric bypass 92.8 per cent) while the other 26,112 did not undergo the surgery.

The results were presented at European Obesity Summit 2016, in Sweden recently.​

​Washington, June 3 (IANS) In a discovery that points to exciting geological activity on a distant cold planet billions of miles from the Earth, NASA scientists have discovered that the icy surface of Pluto's "heart" is being constantly renewed by a process called convection that replaces older surface ice with fresher material.

The prime attraction in the photos of Pluto sent by NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft during its July 2015 flyby was its heart -- a large plain informally known as Sputnik Planum.

Combining computer models with topographic and compositional data gathered by the mission last summer, the scientists showed that the surface of Sputnik Planum is covered with icy, churning, convective "cells" 16 to 48 kms across, and less than one million years old. 

The findings offer additional insight into the unusual and highly active geology on Pluto and, perhaps, other bodies like it on the outskirts of the solar system.

"For the first time, we can really determine what these strange welts of the icy surface of Pluto really are," said lead researcher William McKinnon from Washington University in St. Louis. 

"We found evidence that even on a distant cold planet billions of miles from Earth, there is sufficient energy for vigorous geological activity, as long as you have 'the right stuff,' meaning something as soft and pliable as solid nitrogen," noted McKinnon, who is co-investigator on the New Horizons science team.

The study was published in the journal Nature.

McKinnon and colleagues believe the pattern of these cells stems from the slow thermal convection of the nitrogen-dominated ices that fill Sputnik Planum. 

A reservoir that is likely several miles deep in some places, the solid nitrogen is warmed by Pluto's modest internal heat, becomes buoyant and rises up in great blobs -- like a lava lamp -- before cooling off and sinking again to renew the cycle. 

The computer models showed that ice need only be a few miles deep for this process to occur, and that the convection cells are very broad. 

These convective surface motions average only a few centimetres a year - about as fast as your fingernails grow - which means cells recycle their surfaces every 500,000 years or so. While slow on human clocks, it is a fast clip on geological timescales, the researchers said.

"This activity probably helps support Pluto's atmosphere by continually refreshing the surface of 'the heart,'" McKinnon said. 

"It wouldn't surprise us to see this process on other dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt," he added.

New Horizons flew through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015, making the first close observations of Pluto and its family of five moons.​

Toronto, June 4 (IANS) A dietary supplement containing a blend of 30 vitamins and minerals has the potential to slow the progress of catastrophic neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, researchers say.

The supplement has shown remarkable anti-ageing properties that can prevent and even reverse massive brain cell loss, according to the study by Ontario's McMaster University researchers.

"The findings are dramatic," said lead author of the study Jennifer Lemon.

"Our hope is that this supplement could offset some very serious illnesses and ultimately improve quality of life," Lemon noted.

The formula contains common ingredients such as vitamins B, C and D, folic acid, green tea extract, cod liver oil and other nutraceuticals.

The mice used in this study had widespread loss of more than half of their brain cells, severely impacting multiple regions of the brain by one year of age, the human equivalent of severe Alzheimer's disease.

The mice were fed the supplement on small pieces of bagel each day over the course of several months. Over time, researchers found that it completely eliminated the severe brain cell loss and abolished cognitive decline.

"The research suggests that there is tremendous potential with this supplement to help people who are suffering from some catastrophic neurological diseases," Lemon noted.

The findings were published online in the journal Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis.

"We know this because mice experience the same basic cell mechanisms that contribute to neurodegeneration that humans do. All species, in fact. There is a commonality among us all," she explained.

In addition to looking at the major markers of aging, they also discovered that the mice on the supplements experienced enhancement in vision and most remarkably in the sense of smell - the loss of which is often associated with neurological disease - improved balance and motor activity.

The next step in the research is to test the supplement on humans, likely within the next two years, and target those who are dealing with neurodegenerative diseases, the researchers said.​

​London, June 4 (IANS) What archaeologists earlier thought to be ancient underwater remains of a long lost Greek city were in fact created by a naturally occurring phenomenon, suggests new research.

When underwater divers discovered what looked like paved floors, courtyards and colonnades, they thought they had found the ruins of a long-forgotten civilisation that perished when tidal waves hit the shores of the Greek holiday island Zakynthos.

But new research published in the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology reveals that the site discovered a few years ago was created by a natural geological phenomenon that took place in the Pliocene era - up to five million years ago.

"The site was discovered by snorkelers and first thought to be an ancient city port, lost to the sea. There were what superficially looked like circular column bases, and paved floors. But mysteriously no other signs of life - such as pottery," said lead author Julian Andrews , professor at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.

The research team went on to investigate in detail the mineral content and texture of the underwater formation in minute detail, using microscopy, X-ray and stable isotope techniques.

"We investigated the site, which is between two and five meters under water, and found that it is actually a natural geologically occurring phenomenon,” Andrews said.

"The disk and doughnut morphology, which looked a bit like circular column bases, is typical of mineralisation at hydrocarbon seeps - seen both in modern seafloor and palaeo settings,” Andrews noted.

Microbes in the sediment use the carbon in methane as fuel. Microbe-driven oxidation of the methane then changes the chemistry of the sediment forming a kind of natural cement, known to geologists as concretion.

"In this case the cement was an unusual mineral called dolomite which rarely forms in seawater, but can be quite common in microbe-rich sediments,” Andrews explained.​

​Toronto, June 4 (IANS) Factors such as whether you are alone or with friends can affect how wisely you reason, says a study that suggests that our level of wisdom varies depending on the situation.

The study defines wise reasoning as a combination of such abilities as intellectual humility, consideration of others' perspective and looking for compromise. 

"This research does not dismiss that there is a personality component to wisdom, but that's not the whole picture," said lead author of the study Igor Grossmann, Professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada. 

"Situations in daily life affect our personality and ability to reason wisely," Grossmann said.

The observation that wise reasoning varies dramatically across situations in daily life suggests that while it fluctuates, wisdom may not be as rare as we think. 

Further, for different individuals, only certain situations may promote this quality.

"There are many examples where people known for their critical acumen or expertise in ethics seem to fall prey to lack of such acumen or morals. The present findings suggest that those examples are not an anomaly," Grossmann said.

The study was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

"We cannot always be at the top of our game in terms of wisdom-related tendencies, and it can be dangerous to generalise based on whether people show wisdom in their personal life or when teaching others in the classroom," Grossmann noted.

By examining conditions and situations under which people may or may not show wisdom in their lives, researchers and practitioners may learn more about situations promoting wisdom in daily life and recreating those situations. 

For the next stage of this work, Grossmann and his team are preparing a tool to assess wisdom according to the situation. ​

London, June 4 (IANS) Researchers have found a new test that can detect changes in the levels of metabolites in the blood and help identify whether a cancer drug is working as designed or not.

According to researchers, cancer drugs affect the amount of metabolites -- the building blocks of fats and proteins -- present in the blood of patients with the deadly disease. 

“Our study is an important step in the development of new precision cancer therapies and is the first to show that blood metabolites have real potential to monitor the effects of novel agents,” said Florence Raynaud from The Institute of Cancer Research in Britain. 

The study investigated the metabolic markers that could accurately assess how cancers were responding to the targeted drug pictilisib.

Pictilisib is designed to specifically target a molecular pathway in cancer cells, called PI3 kinase, which has key a role in cell metabolism and is defective in a range of cancer types.

As cancers with PI3K defects grow, they cause a decrease in the levels of metabolites in the bloodstream.

For the study, published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, the team measured the levels of 180 blood markers in 41 patients with advanced cancers in a phase I clinical trial conducted both in preclinical mouse models and also in humans.

In the mice study, the findings showed an increase in the presence of 26 different metabolites in the bloodstream of mice that were given pictilisib, which were low prior to the therapy.

This indicated that the drug was hitting its target as well as reversing the effects of the cancer on mouse metabolites.

In the trial conducted on humans, 22 out of the 26 metabolites increased in response to the pictilisib therapy.

A single dose of pictilisib increased the blood levels of the metabolites, however, when the treatment stopped a resultant decrease was noted, suggesting that the effect was directly related to the introduction of pictilisib.

"Our method could eventually be used to monitor patients routinely during the course of treatment, as a quick and easy way of assessing whether a drug is still working, or whether treatment needs to be adapted," added one of the researchers Paul Workman, Professor at The Institute of Cancer Research.

The new way of monitoring cancer therapy could speed up the development of new-targeted drugs - which exploit specific genetic weaknesses in cancer cells - and help in modifying treatment for patients, the researchers concluded.

New York, June 4 (IANS) Software giant Google, in its Self-Driving Car Project's latest monthly report, has said that it has been experimenting with horn algorithms in the vehicle.

San Francisco, June 3 (IANS) China will constantly boost green and low-carbon development in an effort to promote harmony between human and nature, according to a congratulatory letter sent by President Xi Jinping to the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) and inaugural Mission Innovation Ministerial on Thursday.

​Dubai, June 2 (IANS) The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) on Thursday said it will launch concentrated solar po

​New York, June 2 (IANS) The same brain circuits that are activated by eating chocolate and winning money are activated when teenagers see large numbers of “likes” on their own photos or the photos of peers in a social network, new research has found.

For the study, the researchers from the University of California - Los Angeles observed activation in the brain’s reward regions when teenagers saw their photos with a large number of likes, 

The 32 teenagers, ages 13-18, were told they were participating in a small social network similar to the popular photo-sharing app, Instagram. 

In an experiment, the researchers showed them 148 photographs on a computer screen for 12 minutes, including 40 photos that each teenager submitted, and analysed their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. 

Each photo also displayed the number of likes it had supposedly received from other teenage participants -- in reality, the number of likes was assigned by the researchers. 

"When the teenagers saw their own photos with a large number of likes, we saw activity across a wide variety of regions in the brain,” said lead author Lauren Sherman.

A region that was especially active is a part of the striatum called the nucleus accumbens, which is part of the brain’s reward circuitry, she said. 

This reward circuitry is thought to be particularly sensitive during adolescence. 

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.​