Knowledge Update

​New Delhi, June 28 (IANS) Privately owned pan-African telecom group Liquid Telecom has entered into an agreement to acquire South African network operator Neotel, owned by Tata Communications and Nexus Connexion, for South African Rand 6.55 billion (Rs 29 billion), a company statement said on Tuesday.

​Hanoi, June 28 (IANS) The Taj Mahal in India is among the 50 most beautiful places in Asia, according to Conde Nast Traveler (CNT) magazine.

The 17th-century Taj, built entirely in marble by Mughal emperor Shahjahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz, is located in Agra, about 200 km south of New Delhi. It is India's most visited tourist spot. 

Xinhua news agency quoted CNT as saying that among the other 50 most breathtaking sites in Asia were Forbidden City in Beijing, the Great Wall of China and Lhasa in Tibet.​

​Dhaka, June 26 (IANS) The World Bank has approved $150 million in additional financing to help strengthen Bangladesh's health systems and improve its services.

The financing will support implementation of the government's health sector-wide programme, Xinhua news agency cited the World Bank as saying in a statement on Sunday.

​London, June 28 (IANS) Children who regularly participate in physical activities are likely to have improved brain function, intellect and academic performance, says a research.

The findings showed that regular exercise can help children in developing important life skills, boost self-esteem, motivation, confidence as well as foster relationship with their parents and peers.

Vigorous exercise in childhood can also help keep at bay the risk of developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes in later life.

A frequent exercise schedule of moderate intensity can also act as a natural cure for heart problems as well as improve the metabolic process in children.

Regular exercise since childhood can strengthen the cardiovascular region and muscles of the body, which would further help in keeping a check over the risk of developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes in later life, said the paper published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Further, a session of physical activity before, during, and after school can boost academic prowess in children.

"Incorporating physical activity into every aspect of school life and providing protected public spaces, such as bike lanes, parks and playgrounds are both effective strategies for providing equitable access to, and enhancing physical activity for, children and youth," suggested researchers including form Exeter University, Birmingham University, Chester University and University of East London.

London, June 28 (IANS) Sending text messages on a smartphone or iPad can change the rhythm of brain waves in humans -- a finding that has significant implications for brain-computer interfacing, gaming and driving.

People communicate increasingly via text messaging, though little is known on the neurological effects of smartphone use.

To find out more about how our brains work during textual communication using smartphones, a team led by Mayo Clinic researcher William Tatum analysed data from 129 patients.

Their brain waves were monitored over a period of 16 months through electroencephalograms (EEGs) combined with video footage.

Dr Tatum found a unique 'texting rhythm' in approximately one in five patients who were using their smartphone to text message while having their brain waves monitored.

"We believe this new rhythm is an objective metric of the brain's ability to process non-verbal information during use of electronic devices and that it is heavily connected to a widely distributed network augmented by attention or emotion," Dr Tatum commented.

The researchers asked patients to perform activities such as message texting, finger tapping and audio cellular telephone use in addition to tests of attention and cognitive function.

Only text messaging produced the newly observed brain rhythm, which was different than any previously described brain rhythm.

The unicity of the texting rhythm compared to other forms of mental stimulation could be caused by the combination of mental activity with motor and auditory-verbal neurological activity.

The 'texting rhythm' was also found in iPad users.

The researchers hypothesised that the presence of a different brain wave rhythm while using mobile, handheld devices might be caused by their smaller screens, which require more concentration.

“There is now a biological reason why people shouldn't text and drive - texting can change brain waves,” Dr Tatum added in a paper published in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior.​

​London, June 28 (IANS) Britain's National Audit Office on Tuesday put the country's biggest ever rail project under the spotlight, warning of rising costs and the project's timetable.

​New York, June 28 (IANS) With an aim to taking digital signatures mainstream, software major Adobe on Tuesday announced the Cloud Signature Consortium -- a group comprised of industry and academic organisations committed to building a new open standard for cloud-based digital signatures across mobile and web.

New York, June 28 (IANS) Contrary to common perception, chronic fatigue syndrome may not be psychological in origin as researchers have now identified biological markers of the disease in gut bacteria and inflammatory microbial agents in the blood.

The findings suggest that changing diets, using prebiotics such as dietary fibers or probiotics could treat chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition where normal exertion leads to debilitating fatigue that is not alleviated by rest.

Physicians have been mystified by the disease as there are no known triggers, and diagnosis often requires lengthy tests administered by an expert.

Now, for the first time, Cornell University researchers described how they correctly diagnosed myalgic encephalomyeletis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) in 83 per cent of patients through stool samples and blood work, offering a noninvasive diagnosis and a step toward understanding the cause of the disease.

"Our work demonstrates that the gut bacterial microbiome in chronic fatigue syndrome patients isn't normal, perhaps leading to gastrointestinal and inflammatory symptoms in victims of the disease," said professor Maureen Hanson, senior author of the study.

"Furthermore, our detection of a biological abnormality provides further evidence against the ridiculous concept that the disease is psychological in origin," Hanson noted.

"In the future, we could see this technique as a complement to other noninvasive diagnoses, but if we have a better idea of what is going on with these gut microbes and patients, maybe clinicians could consider changing diets, using prebiotics such as dietary fibers or probiotics to help treat the disease," first author of the study Ludovic Giloteaux noted.

In the study, published in the journal Microbiome, the researchers recruited 48 people diagnosed with ME/CFS and 39 healthy controls to provide stool and blood samples.

The researchers sequenced regions of microbial DNA from the stool samples to identify different types of bacteria. 

Overall, the diversity of types of bacteria was greatly reduced and there were fewer bacterial species known to be anti-inflammatory in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome compared with healthy people, an observation also seen in people with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

At the same time, the researchers discovered specific markers of inflammation in the blood, likely due to a leaky gut from intestinal problems that allow bacteria to enter the blood, Giloteaux said.​

​London, June 28 (IANS) Touted as man's best friend, canines can now also be trained to sniff out conditions of low blood sugar in patients with Type-1 diabetes, finds an interesting study.

Hypoglycaemia -- low blood sugar -- can cause problems such as shakiness, disorientation and fatigue and comes with little warning. 

If the patient does not receive a sugar boost in time, it can cause seizures and lead to unconsciousness. 

The findings showed that the scent of chemical isoprene found in human breath could act as a warning for patients with Type-1 diabetes experiencing a rapid decline in the blood sugar levels.

"Isoprene is one of the commonest natural chemicals that we find in human breath," said Mark Evans from University of Cambridge. 

In the study, the team analysed eight women with Type-1 diabetes and within an average age of 40.

The participants' blood glucose levels were slowly lowered during controlled conditions.

Researchers used mass spectrometry to distinguish the presence of chemicals in the women's breath that may change as the blood sugar levels change. 

Isoprene levels were found to significantly rise during hypoglycaemia. 

"We suspect it's a by-product of the production of cholesterol, but it isn't clear why levels of the chemical rise when patients get very low blood sugar,” Evans added.

Further, dogs were found to sniff out the start of a hypoglycemic episode and as a result, prevent blood sugar levels from dropping dangerously low. 

"Humans aren't sensitive to the presence of isoprene, but dogs with their incredible sense of smell, find it easy to identify and can be trained to alert their owners about dangerously low blood sugar levels,” Evans explained.

Isoprene provides a 'scent' that could help us develop new tests for detecting hypoglycaemia and reducing the risk of potentially life-threatening complications for patients living with diabetes," the researchers said in the study published in the journal Diabetes Care.

New York, June 28 (IANS) Based on an analysis of cooling rate and the composition of lava deposits on Mercury's surface, a team of geologists has found that the planet likely has the composition of an enstatite chondrite -- a type of meteorite that is extremely rare on Earth.

The new information on Mercury's past is of interest for tracing the Earth's early formation, according to Timothy Grove from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"Here we are today, with 4.5 billion years of planetary evolution, and because the Earth has such a dynamic interior, because of the water we've preserved on the planet, [volcanism] just wipes out its past," Grove said.

"On planets like Mercury, early volcanism is much more dramatic, and [once] they cooled down there were no later volcanic processes to wipe out the early history. This is the first place where we actually have an estimate of how fast the interior cooled during an early part of a planet's history," he added.

Grove's team utilised data collected by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft. During its mission, MESSENGER produced images that revealed kilometre-thick lava deposits covering the entire planet's surface.

An X-ray spectrometer onboard the spacecraft measured the X-ray radiation from the planet's surface, produced by solar flares on the sun, to determine the chemical composition of more than 5,800 lava deposits on Mercury's surface.

In the study, published recently in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the team recalculated the surface compositions of all 5,800 locations and correlated each composition with the type of terrain in which it was found -- from heavily cratered regions to those that were less impacted.

The researchers determined the chemical compositions of the tiny crystals that formed in each sample in order to identify the original material that may have made up Mercury's interior before it melted and erupted onto the surface. 

They found the closest match to be an enstatite chondrite, an extremely rare form of meteorite that is thought to make up only about 2 per cent of the meteorites that fall on Earth.

"We now know something like an enstatite chondrite was the starting material for Mercury, which is surprising, because they are about 10 standard deviations away from all other chondrites," Grove said.​