Knowledge Update

​Washington, May 19 (IANS) April 2016 was the 12th consecutive month a monthly global temperature record has been broken, the US government's climate agency said on Wednesday.

"This is the longest such balmy streak in the 137-year record, which dates back to 1880," Xinhua quoted the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as saying.

"The heat goes on -- and so do the records," the agency added.

For April, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.98 degrees Fahrenheit (1.10 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average of 56.7 degrees Fahrenheit (13.7 degrees Celsius), according to the monthly report released by the NOAA.

This temperature departure from average was not only the highest for the month of April in the 1880-2016 record, but also the fourth-highest among all months on record, behind March 2016, February 2016, and December 2015, said the report.

On land, all six continents had at least a top nine warm April, with South America, Africa, and Asia observing a record high average temperature for April, the NOAA report said.

Only northeastern Canada and southern South America were cooler than average, with the most notable cool temperature departures across northeastern Canada.

Overall, "April 2016 was characterised by warmer to much warmer-than-average conditions across most of Earth's land surfaces," it concluded.

The globally averaged sea surface temperature for April was also highest for this month on record and surpassed the same period in 1998 by 0.43 degrees Fahrenheit (0.24 degrees Celsius) -- the last time a similar strength El Nino occurred.

This April also saw the the smallest Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent recorded in 50 years of snow-cover data collection.

For the four months of 2016, the average temperature for the globe was 2.05 degrees Fahrenheit (1.14 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average of 54.8 degrees Fahrenheit (12.7 degrees Celsius), the report added.​

Sydney, May 18 (IANS) Australian researchers have created a device that has set a new world record for solar efficiency, the media reported on Wednesday.

The device traps light through a simple prism, which dramatically bolsters the efficiency of solar cells, Xinhua news agency reported.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Martin Green and Mark Keevers said the device extracts the maximum energy from sunlight, using a hybrid four-junction receiver to squeeze even more electricity from each beam of sunlight.

"This encouraging result shows there are still advances to come in photovoltaics research to make solar cells even more efficient," said Keevers.

"Extracting more energy from every beam of sunlight is critical to reducing the cost of electricity generated by solar cells as it lowers the investment needed, and delivering payback faster."

The pair set a new world record for sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency at 34.5 percent.

"What's remarkable is that this level of efficiency had not been expected for many years," said Green.

"A recent study by Germany's Agora Energiewende think tank set an aggressive target of 35 percent efficiency by 2050 for a module that uses unconcentrated sunlight, such as the standard ones on family homes."

The efficiency of commercially available solar panels is said to range between 14 to 22 percent.

"So things are moving faster in solar cell efficiency than many experts expected, and that's good news for solar energy," Green added.

"But we must maintain the pace of photovoltaic research in Australia to ensure that we not only build on such tremendous results, but continue to bring benefits back to Australia."​

​New York, May 18 (IANS) A genetic switch that is turned on in the brain during fasting helps halt the spread of intestinal bacteria into the bloodstream, says a new study.

The study shows a molecular pathway by which the brain communicates with the gastrointestinal (GI) tract to prevent unnecessary activation of the immune system during fasting by strengthening the barrier against gut microbes. 

The discovery of this brain-gut signal in fruit flies, which has many parallels to humans, could eventually inform the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases in people, said the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In addition to its role in promoting the absorption of nutrients from food, the GI tract is host to a panoply of bacteria. These microbes actually help in the digestive process by producing chemicals that break down complex fats and carbohydrates.

"Fasting has a positive value that spills over not just into the metabolic system, but also inflammation and brain function," said the study's lead investigator Marc Montminy, professor at Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, US.

"Understanding how the gut maintains this barrier, and creating drugs to enhance that barrier, may have important benefits for people with inflammatory bowel disease," Montminy noted.

The new study is part of an ongoing research to pin down the mechanisms that a genetic switch in the brain called Crtc uses to control energy balance. ​

​Toronto, May 18 (IANS) Researchers, including one of Indian origin, have developed a device that can dramatically reduce the time and cost required for detecting the deadly E. coli bacteria in drinking water.

Some kinds of E. coli can cause diarrohea, while others cause urinary tract infections, respiratory illness and pneumonia, and other illnesses, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and prevention.

"We have developed a hydrogel based rapid E. coli detection system that will turn red when E. coli is present,” said Sushanta Mitra, professor at York University in Toronto.

"It will detect the bacteria right at the water source before people start drinking contaminated water,” Mitra said.

The new technology can cut down the time taken to detect E. coli from a few days to just a couple of hours. 

It is also an inexpensive way to test drinking water (Rs.155 per test estimated), which is a boon for many developing countries, the researchers said.

"This is a significant improvement over the earlier version of the device, the Mobile Water Kit, that required more steps, handling of liquid chemicals and so on,” Mitra noted.

"The entire system is developed using a readily available plunger-tube assembly. It’s so user-friendly that even an untrained person can do the test using this kit,” he added.

Traditional methods of testing for E. coli contamination involves collecting water samples to send to an appropriate microbiological lab where the bacteria is cultured before a plate count is done to detect E. coli presence.

The testing device uses the porous hydrogel matrix, developed by Mitra’s team at his Micro & Nano-scale Transport Laboratory that cages specific enzymatic substrates that release certain enzymes in E. coli cells. 

These enzymes then chemically react with the substrates to change colour. If there is no E. coli, the colour of the hydrogel won’t change, as there is no chemical reaction.

The results of the water test can be instantly broadcast using a mobile app already developed by the team​

​New York, May 18 (IANS) Are you over 50 and remain wearily busy? If yes, take heart. A new study says older adults with a busy daily lifestyle tend to have better mental functioning than their less busy peers.

The findings showed that at any age, and regardless of education, a busier lifestyle can lead to superior processing speed of the brain, working memory, reasoning, and vocabulary. 

"We show that people who report greater levels of daily 'busyness' tend to have better cognition, especially with regard to memory for recently learned information," said lead author Sara Festini, postdoctoral researcher at University of Texas in the US.

Also, the busiest an individual is, the better can be his/her episodic memory -- the ability to remember specific events in the past.

Busy people are likely to have more opportunities to learn as they are exposed to more information and encounter a wider range of situations in daily life. 

However, it is also possible that people with better mental functioning seek out a busier lifestyle, or that busyness and cognition reinforce each other, resulting in reciprocal strengthening, the researchers said. 

For the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, the team surveyed 330 healthy women and men between 50 and 89.

The participants took part in a long series of neuropsychological tests to measure their cognitive performance.

"Living a busy lifestyle appears beneficial for mental function, although additional experimental work is needed to determine if manipulations of busyness have the same effect," Festini noted.​

​New York, May 18 (IANS) Love to binge on potatoes and French fries? If yes, you may be at an increased risk of developing high blood pressure, warns a new study.

Potatoes are one of the world's most commonly consumed foods -- and are a high source of potassium.

The findings showed that participants who consumed four or more than four servings a week of boiled, baked or mashed potatoes, are at an 11 percent increased risk of hypertension. 

Also, a higher consumption of French fries was associated with a 17 percent increased risk of hypertension in both women and men. 

However, consumption of potato chips (crisps) was associated with no increased risk.

In addition, potatoes have a high glycaemic index compared with other vegetables, thus it can also trigger a sharp rise in blood sugar levels.

"In the study, participants who did not have high blood pressure at baseline, and consumed four or more servings a week of potatoes (boiled, baked or mashed) later had a higher risk of developing hypertension compared to those who consumed one or less than one serving a month," said lead author Lea Borgi, physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in the US. 

Replacing one serving a day of boiled, baked, or mashed potatoes with one serving of a non-starchy vegetable can lower the risk of developing hypertension, the researchers suggested.

For the study, published online in the British Medical Journal, the team followed over 187,000 men and women from three large US studies for more than 20 years. 

Dietary intake, including frequency of potato consumption, was assessed using a questionnaire.

The results "have potentially important public health ramifications, as they do not support a potential benefit from the inclusion of potatoes as vegetables in government food programs but instead support a harmful effect that is consistent with adverse effects of high carbohydrate intakes seen in controlled feeding studies," the researchers concluded.

​New York, May 18 (IANS) Intake of sesame rich food has many health benefits and the antioxidant boosting properties, especially sesame oil, can have a significant effect on oxidative stress, a new study has found.

After multiple clinical trials, researchers reported increased levels of antioxidants and a reduction in oxidative stress with sesame consumption, particularly for individuals with hypertension and with Type 2 diabetes.

Luciana de Almeida Vittori Gouveia and co-authors from Rio de Janeiro State University and Rio de Janeiro Federal University, Brazil, assessed the effects of consuming sesame-based ingredients on markers of oxidative stress in people with high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and type 2 diabetes. 

The study was published in Journal of Medicinal Food.

"In addition to the clinical trial results reviewed in this article, preclinical studies have also shown that sesame oil is very effective in preventing atherosclerosis," said Sampath Parthasarathy from University of Central Florida.

The article effects of the intake of sesame seeds (Sesamm indicum L.) and derivatives on oxidative stress: A Systematic Review includes further discussion of the potential positive effects of sesame on different populations.​

​Washington, May 18 (IANS) Jupiter's moon Europa -- strongly believed to hide a deep ocean of salty liquid water beneath its icy shell -- can have the necessary balance of chemical energy for life even if the moon lacks volcanic hydrothermal activity, researchers have revealed.

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California, compared Europa's potential for producing hydrogen and oxygen with that of Earth through processes that do not directly involve volcanism.

The balance of these two elements is a key indicator of the energy available for life.

The study found that the amounts would be comparable in scale. On both worlds, oxygen production is about 10 times higher than hydrogen production.

The work draws attention to the ways that Europa's rocky interior may be much more complex and possibly Earth-like than people typically think.

“We're studying an alien ocean using methods developed to understand the movement of energy and nutrients in Earth's own systems. The cycling of oxygen and hydrogen in Europa's ocean will be a major driver for Europa's ocean chemistry and any life there, just it is on Earth,” explained Steve Vance, planetary scientist at JPL and lead author.

As part of the study, the researchers calculated how much hydrogen could potentially be produced in Europa's ocean as seawater reacts with rock in a process called serpentinisation.

In this process, water percolates into spaces between mineral grains and reacts with the rock to form new minerals, releasing hydrogen in the process.

New cracks expose fresh rock to seawater, where more hydrogen-producing reactions can take place.

In Earth's oceanic crust, such fractures are believed to penetrate to a depth of five-six kms.

On present-day Europa, the researchers expect water could reach as deep as 25 kms into the rocky interior, driving these key chemical reactions throughout a deeper fraction of Europa's seafloor.

The other half of Europa's chemical-energy-for-life equation would be provided by oxidants -- oxygen and other compounds that could react with the hydrogen -- being cycled into the Europan ocean from the icy surface above.

“The oxidants from the ice are like the positive terminal of a battery, and the chemicals from the seafloor, called reductants, are like the negative terminal," noted Kevin Hand, planetary scientist at JPL.

“Whether or not life and biological processes complete the circuit is part of what motivates our exploration of Europa,” he added in a new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

Europa's rocky, neighbouring Jovian moon “Io” is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.

Scientists have long considered it possible that Europa might also have volcanic activity, as well as hydrothermal vents, where mineral-laden hot water would emerge from the sea floor.

NASA is currently formulating a mission to explore Europa and investigate the moon's potential habitability.​

London, May 18 (IANS) Based on the "liquid wire" technique in spider webs, a team of international researchers has created composite fibers which extend like a solid and compress like a liquid.

Pulling on a sticky thread in a garden spider's orb web and letting it snap back reveals that the thread never sags but always stays taut, even when stretched to many times its original length.

This is because any loose thread is immediately spooled inside the tiny droplets of watery glue that coat and surround the core gossamer fibres of the web's capture spiral.

The study, which was carried out by researchers from the University of Oxford and the Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris, was published by the University of Oxford in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Surprisingly, each drop packs enough punch in its watery skins to reel in loose bits of thread. And this winching behaviour is used to excellent effect to keep the threads tight at all times, as we can all observe and test in the webs in our gardens," said Prof. Fritz Vollrath form the University of Oxford.

The novel properties observed and analysed by the researchers rely on a subtle balance between fibre elasticity and droplet surface tension. The team was also able to recreate this technique in the laboratory using oil droplets on a plastic filament.

This artificial system behaved just like the spider's natural winch silk, with spools of filament reeling and unreeling inside the oil droplets as the thread extended and contracted, according to the study.

"Our bio-inspired hybrid threads could be manufactured from virtually any components. These new insights could lead to a wide range of applications, such as micro-fabrication of complex structures, reversible micro-motors, or self-tensioned stretchable systems," said Herve Elettro, the first author of the study and a doctoral researcher from the Pierre and Marie Curie University.​

​London, May 18 (IANS) A study has found a new link between inflammation and cell division -- two of the most important processes in the human body whose accurate control is a holy grail for scientists researching the prevention of infection, inflammatory disease and cancer.

"This is an exciting discovery: for the first time we find a link between the system which regulates how cells divide and the basis of some of medicine's most intractable diseases," said Mike White, who led the joint study by the University of Manchester and Liverpool. 

Inflammatory signals produced by a wound or during an infection can activate a protein called Nuclear Factor-kappaB (NF-kB), which controls the activity of genes that allow cells to adapt to the situation.

Incorrect control of NF-kB is associated with inflammatory diseases, such as Crohn's disease, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis. It has also been linked with ageing and some cancers.

A key way in which human cells adapt to signals in their environment is by dividing to produce new cells through a repeating pattern of events, called the cell cycle. A cell first makes copies of its DNA, in a stage known as the DNA synthesis phase, and then divides into two daughter cells.

The cell cycle is controlled by a family of proteins called E2 factors, which control the start of the new cell's DNA synthesis phase.

The study published recently in the journal eLife showed that the NF-kB and E2 factors bind to each other in the cell. This controls the level of the NF--kB signal, which is enhanced just before DNA synthesis, but reduced during the DNA synthesis phase.

Scientists also showed that signals which activate NF-kB can change the timing of cell division.

The findings suggest that direct interactions between E2 factor proteins and NF-kB enable cells to decide whether to divide and determine how they react in different ways to inflammatory signals.​