Knowledge Update

Toronto, June 12 (IANS) Ancient geologic events may have left deep 'scars' that can play a crucial role in earthquakes, mountain formation, and other ongoing geomorphological processes on our planet, says a new study.

An international team of geologists has created super-computer models that suggest former plate boundaries could stay hidden deep beneath the Earth's surface. 

These multi-million-year-old geological structures, situated at sites away from existing plate boundaries, may trigger changes in the structure and properties at the surface in the interior regions of continents.

"This is a potentially major revision to the fundamental idea of plate tectonics," said study lead author Philip Heron from University of Toronto.

Heron, together with University of Aberdeen geologist Randell Stephenson, has proposed a "perennial plate tectonic map" of the Earth to help illustrate how ancient processes may have present-day implications, according to the study published recently in the journal Nature Communications.

"It's based on the familiar global tectonic map that is taught starting in elementary school," said co-author Russell Pysklywec, who is also chair of University of Toronto's department of earth sciences. 

"What our models redefine and show on the map are dormant, hidden, ancient plate boundaries that could also be enduring or 'perennial' sites of past and active plate tectonic activity," he added.

The team used Toronto's SciNet -- Canada's most powerful computer and one of the most powerful in the world -- to make numerical models of the crust and upper-mantle into which they could introduce ancient scar-like anomalies.

Using these models, the researchers found that different parts of the mantle below the Earth's crust may control the folding, breaking, or flowing of the Earth's crust within plates -- in the form of mountain-building and seismic activity -- when under compression.

In this way, the mantle structures dominate over shallower structures in the crust that had previously been seen as the main cause of such deformation within plates.

"The mantle is like the thermal engine of the planet and the crust is an eggshell above," said Pysklywec. "We're looking at the enigmatic and largely unexplored realm in the Earth where these two regions meet," he added.

The simulations show that mantle anomalies are generated through ancient plate tectonic processes, such as the closing of ancient oceans, and can remain hidden at sites away from normal plate boundaries until reactivation generates tectonic folding, breaking, or flowing in plate interiors.​

​Ottawa, June 12 (IANS) The construction of a record-setting 53-metre high tower building, using mostly wooden material, is under way on the campus of the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada's Vancouver city.

Its bold and green design aims to demonstrate that building large, wooden structures is not too much complex, Xinhua news agency quoted Russell Acton, principal architect from the building designer Acton Ostry Architects, as saying.

"It's got less of an environmental impact with respect to producing greenhouse gases," he said, adding that the 18-storey building will serve as a student dormitory.

He said the design is hybrid, using concrete for a podium on the first floor, and for two core structures.

"Absolutely, it's as strong. There are particular code requirements, building code requirements we have to adhere to and prove out that it's as strong as a concrete or steel building. It will perform similarly to the same level as concrete or steel when in a seismic event," Acton added.

The dormitory building, named Brock Commons, is designed to accommodate 400 students and expected to be completed by September 2017 with an investment of 53 million Canadian dollars (more than $41 million).

According to the UBC, the wooden material to be used, including cross laminated timber floors and glued laminated timber wall pillars, will be all produced and pre-fabricated in Canada, partly in an effort to boost local forestry industry.

The designers said the structure should last as long as a steel or concrete tower of the same size, or having a life length of about 60 to 100 years.​

​New York, June 11 (IANS) An individual's caloric intake and body weight can deeply influence the time spent in specific sleep stages, says a new study.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania analysed sleep patterns among 36 healthy adults who experienced two consecutive nights of 10 hours in bed per night at the university hospital. 

Using polysomnography, the researchers recorded physiological changes that occur during sleep on the second night.

Body composition and resting energy expenditure were assessed on the morning following the first night of sleep, while food and drink intake was measured each day.

The researchers found that body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage and resting energy expenditure were not significant predictors of sleep stage duration, but that overweight adults exhibited a higher percentage of time spent in the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep than normal-weight adults. 

REM is a sleep stage when dreams typically occur characterised by faster heart rate and breathing.

The researchers also found that increased protein intake predicted less stage 2 sleep -- the period when a person's heart rate and breathing are relatively normal and his/her body temperature lowers slightly -- and predicted more REM sleep.

The study findings will be presented at SLEEP 2016 -- a joint meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society to be held in Denver, Colorado, from June 11 to 15. 

"In a culture of increasing pressure to sacrifice sleep to maintain productivity, this research adds to the body of knowledge on how lifestyle behaviours may influence the quality of our sleep" said study lead author Andrea M. Spaeth.

A 2013 study from the team found that those with late bedtimes and chronic sleep restriction may be more susceptible to weight gain due to the increased consumption of calories during late night hours. 

A 2015 study from the same group found that eating less late at night may help curb the concentration and alertness deficits that accompany sleep deprivation.​

​London, June 11 (IANS) All the countries who signed up to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change complied with their emission targets, says a new study.

"There is often scepticism about the importance of international law, and many critics claim that the Kyoto Protocol failed. The fact that countries have fully complied is highly

​London, June 11 (IANS) Prolonged repetitive physical workload increases the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, new research has found.

The findings suggest that building workers are particularly vulnerable to developing the condition.

For example, exposure to repeated vibration , carrying or lifting weights greater than 10 kg, bending/turning, and working with hands either below knee level, or above shoulder level may put people at higher risk of developing the inflammatory disorder affecting many joints, including those in the hands and feet, the findings showed.

For the study, the researchers analysed information from a population of 3,680 rheumatoid arthritis patients and 5,935 matched controls included in the Swedish Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis (EIRA). 

To investigate whether some people are more susceptible than others, the risk was compared in participants with and without a specific genotype (HLA-DRB1), and an analysis was performed in relation to the presence/absence of ACPA (anti-citrullinated protein antibodies) among rheumatoid arthritis patients.

"We found that some types of physical workload increased the odds of developing RA (rheumatoid arthritis) more than others," said Pingling Zeng from Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. 

"There also appeared to be a significant interaction between genetic makeup, in terms of HLA-DRB1 genes, and the risk of ACPA-positive RA from specific types of physical workload," she noted.

The estimated odds ratio of developing rheumatoid arthritis in exposed versus unexposed participants was greater than or equal to 1.5, the study said.

The findings were presented at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2016) in London.

"These new insights into the cause of RA may hopefully lead to effective strategies to prevent the development of RA, particularly in those RA patients with a susceptible genotype," Zeng concluded.​

New York, June 8 (IANS) Formed in the early stages of universe, carbon planets consisting of graphite, carbides and diamonds might have been the first potentially habitable worlds, suggests a new research.

"This work shows that even stars with a tiny fraction of the carbon in our solar system can host planets," said lead author and Harvard University student Natalie Mashian.

"We have good reason to believe that alien life will be carbon-based, like life on the Earth, so this also bodes well for the possibility of life in the early universe," she added.

The early universe consisted mostly of hydrogen and helium, and lacked chemical elements like carbon and oxygen necessary for life as we know it.

Only after the first stars exploded as supernovae and seeded the second generation did planet formation and life become possible.

The study, published recently in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, examined a particular class of old stars known as carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars (CEMP).

"These stars are fossils from the young universe," said Mashian's PhD thesis advisor Avi Loeb from Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. 

"By studying them, we can look at how planets, and possibly life in the universe, got started," he added.

Although lacking in iron and other heavy elements compared to Sun, CEMP stars have more carbon than expected given their age. 

According to the researchers, a dedicated search for planets around CEMP stars would help in finding out "how early planets may have formed in the infant universe". 

"We'll never know if they exist unless we look," Mashian said.​

New York, June 8 (IANS) An international team of astronomers has discovered a “hot Jupiter” exoplanet that is so massive and close to its parent star that it influences the star's rotation with its gravity, media reported.

The planet, called HATS-18b, is about 2,100 light years away, Popular Mechanics reported on Tuesday.

Hot Jupiters are giant exoplanets that orbit close to their parent stars. Also known as roaster planets, they orbit their stars in a short time and can be easily observed in transit. 

The newly discovered exoplanet orbits its star in just 0.84 days, has a radius about 1.34 times that of Jupiter, and has twice the mass of the Jovian gas giant in our solar system, the report said.

The research team was led by Kaloyan Penev of Princeton University. 

"The high planet mass, combined with its short orbital period, implies strong tidal coupling between the planetary orbit and the star," said the researchers.

"In fact, given its inferred age, [the star] HATS-18 shows evidence of significant tidal spin up," the authors said.

The new findings were presented in a paper published online on arXiv.org.

“The HATS-18 system is among the best systems (and often the best system) for testing a multitude of star--planet interactions, be they gravitational, magnetic or radiative, as well as planet formation and migration theories,” the authors noted.​

​Sydney, June 11 (IANS) Regular exercise of any type in middle age - from walking the dog to mountain climbing -- is the best lifestyle change you can make to prevent memory loss in the later years, suggest results of a 20-year study.

"The message from our study is very simple. Do more physical activity, it doesn’t matter what, just move more and more often. It helps your heart, your body and prevents obesity and diabetes and now we know it can help your brain,” said study author Cassandra Szoeke, associate professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

"It could even be something as simple as going for a walk, we weren’t restrictive in our study about what type,” Szoeke noted.

For the study, the researchers followed 387 Australian women from the Women’s Healthy Ageing Project for two decades. 

The women were aged 45 to 55-years-old when the study began in 1992.

The research team made notes of their lifestyle factors, including exercise and diet.

They were also asked to learn a list of 10 unrelated words and attempt to recall them half an hour later, known as an Episodic Verbal Memory test.

When measuring the amount of memory loss over 20 years, frequent physical activity, normal blood pressure and high good cholesterol were all strongly associated with better recall of the words.

In the study more weekly exercise was associated with better memory.

The findings suggest that regular exercise could protect people from dementia typically characterised by memory impairment.

"We now know that brain changes associated with dementia take 20 to 30 years to develop,” Szoeke said in a University of Melbourne media release.

"The evolution of cognitive decline is slow and steady, so we needed to study people over a long time period. We used a verbal memory test because that’s one of the first things to decline when you develop Alzheimer’s Disease,” Szoeke explained.

The best effects came from cumulative exercise, that is, how much you do and how often over the course of your life, she said.​

New York, June 12 (IANS) Scientists have identified for the first time a tiny liver protein that when disrupted can lead to cardiovascular disease as well as fatty liver disease -- a precursor to cancer.

Lipoproteins (VLDL) are crucial for healthy liver function. Normal VLDL secretion must be kept in a delicate balance as too little VLDL secretion causes fatty liver and, potentially, liver cancer. 

Lipoproteins are also known to increase cholesterol levels, a risk factor for plaque buildup in the arteries. 

In a study, published recently in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Shadab Siddiqi from University of Central Florida found a tiny protein -- called a Small Valosin-Containing Protein Interacting Protein (SVIP) -- that regulates how much VLDL is secreted into the blood. 

"SVIP in the liver must be regulated properly to ensure optimum health," Siddiqi said.

He equates the operation of the tiny protein to a manually operated car. "To run smoothly, the driver must synchronise the gas pedal and the clutch. If the two aren't synchronised, the car doesn't move easily; it has fits and starts and ultimately stalls," he said.

The study also suggests that high levels of myristic acid in the diet -- through animal and dairy fats -- keep SVIP from properly regulating the liver's secretion of VLDL.

"These findings suggest that our diet modulates the complex molecular processes that have profound effects on our health and lifespan," Siddiqi explained. 

"The challenge will be in creating a therapy that does not impact the liver's many other functions," he added.​

London, June 12 (IANS) An analysis of microscopic aquatic creatures called planktonic foraminifera, whose fossil remains now resemble miniaturised popcorn, has provided the first statistical evidence that the number of species that can exist on the Earth depends on how the environment changes.

"While the idea of infinite species on a finite Earth is clearly fanciful, the relevance of upper limits to diversity is still a fractious debate amongst evolutionary biologists, ecologists and palaeontologists," said study lead author Thomas Ezard from the University of Southampton.

"We are the first to show statistically that this upper limit is environmentally dependent. It's intuitive that a changing environment alters how many species we see -- the spatial gradient of more species in the tropics than at the poles is pervasive evidence for its large-scale impact," Ezard added.

While previous research typically focused individually on either biological, climate change or geological explanations, this new study -- published recently in the journal Ecology Letters -- examined the co-dependence of these factors on how species interact.

Looking at the fossil history of 210 evolutionary species of macroperforate planktonic foraminifera in the Cenozoic Era from 65 million years ago to the present, the researchers found that the number of species was almost certainly controlled by competition among themselves and probably kept within a finite upper limit.

"We used mathematical models to reveal how environmental changes influence both the rate of diversification among species and how many species can co-exist at once. Our results suggest that the world is full of species, but that the precise fullness varies through time as environmental changes alter the outcome of competition among species," Ezard said. ​