Knowledge Update

​Marrakech, Nov 11 (IANS) The Africa50 Fund is willing to invest in Morocco and turn the country into a hub to invest in other African countries, said its Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

New York, Nov 11 (IANS) People who sleep five or fewer hours a night are likely to drink significantly more sugary caffeinated drinks, such as sodas and energy drinks, according to a new study

"We think there may be a positive feedback loop where sugary drinks and sleep loss reinforce one another, making it harder for people to eliminate their unhealthy sugar habit," said Aric A. Prather, assistant professor at the University of California San Francisco.

"This data suggests that improving people's sleep could potentially help them break out of the cycle and cut down on their sugar intake, which we know to be linked to metabolic disease," Prather added.

To understand whether this is a more general pattern in the adult population, the researchers in the study published in the journal Sleep Health analysed the records of around 18,000 participants.

The study included participants' reports of how much sleep they usually got during the work week, as well as their total consumption of various beverages, including caffeinated and non-caffeinated sugar-sweetened beverages, fruit juice, drinks with artificial sweeteners, and plain coffee, tea and water.

The researchers found that people who regularly slept five or fewer hours per night also drank 21 per cent more caffeinated sugar-sweetened beverages -- including both sodas and non-carbonated energy drinks -- than those who slept seven to eight hours a night.

People who slept six hours per night regularly consumed 11 per cent more caffeinated sugar-sweetened beverages. On the other hand, the team found no association between sleep duration and consumption of juice, tea or diet drinks.

"Sleeping too little and drinking too many sugary drinks have both been linked to negative metabolic health outcomes, including obesity," Prather added.

Enhancing the duration and quality of sleep could be a useful new intervention for improving the health and well-being of people who drink a lot of sugary beverages, the study suggests

​New Delhi, Nov 13 (IANS) Twenty-three-year-old Rahul (name changed) faced an unusual problem. He used to suffer dizziness, anxiety and regular headaches every time after having a meal. When the problem persisted, he decided to see a doctor and on investigation it was found that the root of the problem was an unusual condition where the blood sugar level drops after a meal instead of rising as is the norm.

Rahul was diagnosed with a relatively uncommon condition called reactive hypoglycemia, or postprandial hypoglycemia, which happens due to excess insulin secretion after a meal.

"The family history of diabetes could have been the reason for the excess insulin secretion," Ajay Kumar Ajmani, Senior Consultant, Endocrinology, BLK Super Speciality Hospital here, told IANS.

Although extreme cases of reactive hypoglycemia are very rare, doctors say that people with insulin resistance and those who are overweight or obese are vulnerable to this condition.

Insulin resistance is a risk factor for the development of Type-2 diabetes, which is increasing in epidemic proportions worldwide -- and more so in India.

Postprandial hypoglycemia occurs when too much insulin is produced and released by the pancreas following a large carbohydrate-based meal.

"Reactive hypoglycemia refers to low blood sugar that occurs after a meal -- usually within four hours after eating. This is different from low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) that occurs while fasting," Subhash Kumar Wangnoo, Senior Consultant Endocrinologist and Diabetologist at the capital's Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, told IANS.

"People who have undergone bariatric surgery (for weight loss) are also more likely to get reactive hypoglycaemia," Wangnoo noted. "In those who have undergone bariatric surgery, the food can pass too quickly into the small intestine (dumping syndrome). As a result, the glucose in food is not absorbed resulting in hypoglycaemia.

"Also an uncommon complication of bariatric surgery is nesidioblastosis -- a condition in which the insulin producing cells of the pancreas undergo hyperplasia, resulting in excess insulin production that can cause reactive hypoglycaemia," Wangnoo explained.

Signs and symptoms of reactive hypoglycemia include hunger, weakness, shakiness, sleepiness, sweating, light-headedness, headache, palpitations, irritability and anxiety.

"Increasing use of carbohydrates and fats and processed foods, along with reduced physical activity, are the underlying factors leading to the increasing prevalence of these conditions," Wangnoo said.

A study published in the journal Diabetologia detailed the history of three patients who did not have diabetes but who suffered so much from severe hypoglycemia following meals that they became confused and sometimes blacked out. Following weight loss surgery, all three patients -- a woman in her 20s, another in her 60s and a man in his 40s - developed postprandial hypoglycemia that failed to respond to dietary or medical intervention.

The immediate cause of hypoglycemia was exceptionally high levels of insulin following meals. All three patients in the study failed to respond to medication and ultimately required partial or complete removal of the pancreas, the major source of insulin, to prevent dangerous declines in blood glucose.

Thankfully, most cases of postprandial hypoglycemia can be managed by simple modifications in the diet, according to the doctors.

After monitoring blood glucose levels hourly before and after a meal, Rahul's diet too was modified.

"Rahul takes small meals every four hours, exercises daily in the morning and his blood sugar level does not dip below 80 mg/dL. After two months, he seemed to have got rid of the symptoms he used to complain of," Ajmani said.

"Dietary modification with controlled carbohydrate content has been demonstrated to improve symptoms of postprandial hypoglycemia in bariatric surgery-associated hypoglycemia, dumping syndrome, insulin autoimmunity, and postprandial syndrome," Manoj Kumar, Consultant, Endocrinology Department, Jaypee Hospital, Noida, noted.

The doctors advised that patients diagnosed with the condition should have a balanced diet -- high-fibre foods, non-meat source of protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. They should also avoid sugary food on an empty stomach.

"Avoid sugary soft drinks and eat several small meals and snacks throughout the day, no more than three hours apart during the waking hours," Ajmani said.

Patients with reactive hypoglycaemia should be screened for diabetes or later development of diabetes as they might be having prediabetes, Wangnoo pointed out.

Washington, Nov 11 (IANS) In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, NASA's Spitzer and Swift space telescopes joined forces to reveal a brown dwarf - thought to be the missing link between planets and stars, with masses up to 80 times that of our solar system's most massive planet, Jupiter.

The discovery of this brown dwarf, with the unwieldy name OGLE-2015-BLG-1319, marks the first time two space telescopes have collaborated to observe a microlensing event -- when a distant star brightens due to the gravitational field of at least one foreground cosmic object, NASA said in a statement on Thursday.

"We want to understand how brown dwarfs form around stars, and why there is a gap in where they are found relative to their host stars," said Yossi Shvartzvald from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and lead author of a study published in the Astrophysical Journal. 

Spitzer and Swift observed the microlensing event after being tipped off by ground-based microlensing surveys, including the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE). 

By combining data from these space-based and ground-based telescopes, researchers determined that the newly discovered brown dwarf is between 30 and 65 Jupiter masses.

They also found that the brown dwarf orbits a K dwarf, a type of star that tends to have about half the mass of the sun. 

"In the future, we hope to have more observations of microlensing events from multiple viewing perspectives, allowing us to probe further the characteristics of brown dwarfs and planetary systems," co-author of the study Geoffrey Bryden Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

​Tokyo, Nov 11 (IANS) More than half of Japan's largest coral reef has been destroyed due to the rise in water temperatures this year, says a study released by the Ministry of Environment on Friday.

The reef, located in front of Ishigaki island in Okinawa and protected as a natural reserve, boasts over 70 coral species and is considered one of the oldest and largest in the northern hemisphere, Efe news reported.

Ninety-seven per cent of the corals have undergone bleaching and 56 per cent have died, according to the ministry study which analysed the reef between September and October.

The deterioration was attributed to the 2 degree Celsius rise in average water temperatures in the area and the ministry warned that the remaining corals are at risk of disappearing in these conditions.

The meteorological phenomenon of El Nino, which causes temperatures of the sea surface to rise, has contributed to the coral bleaching around the world this year, including some of the largest protected reefs in Australia, Thailand and Maldives.

Coral bleaching occurs when they are faced with constant and extreme changes of temperature, light and nutrients.

This process puts at risk the abundance of fish species that depend on the reefs for their shelter and food.

In the Indian and Pacific oceans, if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current level, fish stocks could diminish between 10 and 30 per cent by 2050 compared to the 1970-2000 period, according to data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 

​New York, Nov 11 (IANS) Researchers have reported the discovery of a smart material that can be applied to any surface to repel ice and which "outperforms all others currently in use".

"Anti-icing surfaces have a critical footprint on daily lives of humans ranging from transportation systems and infrastructure to energy systems, but creation of these surfaces for low temperatures remains elusive," the researchers wrote. 

"Non-wetting surfaces and liquid-infused surfaces have inspired routes for the development of icephobic surfaces. However, high freezing temperature, high ice adhesion strength, and high cost have restricted their practical applications," the study said.

The new material, known as a magnetic slippery surface (MAGSS), was described in the journal Nature Communications.

Among the advantages of the new material is that it has a far lower freezing threshold than the best icephobic technology currently available, said principal investigator for the research Hadi Ghasemi, Assistant Professor at University of Houston in the US. 

"These new surfaces provide the path to tackle the challenge of icing in systems, thereby improving the quality of human life," he said.

Potential applications range from the aircraft industry -- planes can encounter freezing rain or super-cooled water droplets while flying, leading to a buildup of ice and, potentially, a crash -- to the power industry, where icing can cause power poles, towers and transmission lines to collapse.

These surfaces promise a new paradigm for development of icephobic surfaces in aviation technologies, ocean-going vessels, power transmission lines and wind turbines in extreme environments, the researchers wrote.

While one side of the surface is coated with a magnetic material, a thin layer of magnetic fluid -- a mixture of fluid and iron oxide nanoparticles -- is deposited on the other side, Ghasemi said.

The magnetic fluid faces outside. When a droplet of water hits the surface, the magnetic fluid acts as a barrier, stopping the droplet from reaching the solid surface.

"There's no adhesion of the ice to the solid surface, so it basically slides off the surface," he said.

Ultimately, Ghasemi said he hopes to develop the coating as a spray that can be applied to any surface. 

​London, Nov 11 (IANS) Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed a new, portable breath analyser that could someday help doctors diagnose diabetes without painful pinpricks, needles or other unpleasant methods.

Many studies examining the hallmarks of diabetes in exhaled breath have shown that elevated levels of acetone are strongly linked to diabetes. 

Detecting the concentrations of any given substance in breath in a simple way, however, is a major challenge. 

Breath contains a complex mix of compounds, including water, carbon dioxide and methane, that can throw results off. 

A technique called mass spectrometry can do the job, but it is not very practical for point-of-care testing. 

Robert Peverall from University of Oxford and colleagues wanted to fill that void.

The researchers created a hand-held device with an adsorbent polymer that can trap acetone from exhaled breath, then release it into a cavity where a laser probes its concentration. 

"The device features a seven cm long high finesse optical cavity as an optical sensor that is coupled to a miniature adsorption preconcentrator containing 0.5 g of polymer material," the researchers said.

They tested the accuracy of the device on the breath of healthy participants under different conditions, such as after overnight fasting or exercising, and compared results with mass spectrometry readings. 

The measurements were a close match and covered a wide range of concentrations, including those that would suggest a patient has undiagnosed Type-1 diabetes, or has problems controlling their blood glucose, said the study published in the American Chemical Society's journal Analytical Chemistry.

Adding to the practicality of the device, the researchers said it could be re-used many times.

​Beijing, Nov 11 (IANS) Scientists have discovered a dinosaur fossil -- nicknamed the 'Mud Dragon' -- that can help them better understand how the last-surviving dinosaurs were flourishing before their mass extinction.

'Mud Dragon', which meant 'muddy dragon on the road to heaven', was a bird-like species, discovered from a building site near Ganzhou in China. 

According to the study published in journal Scientific Reports, the two-legged animal belonged to a family of feathered dinosaurs called oviraptorosaurs. They were characterised by having short, toothless heads and sharp beaks.

"This new dinosaur is one of the most beautiful, but saddest, fossils. Its skeleton is one of the best examples of a dinosaur that was flourishing during those final few million years before the asteroid came down and changed the world in an instant," said Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Fossil discoveries in recent decades suggest that this group of flightless animals were experiencing a numbers boost, diversifying into new species, during the 15 million years before the dinosaurs went extinct, the researchers noted. 

Further, the study showed that it was probably one of the last groups of dinosaurs to diversify before the asteroid impact 66 million years ago, which killed off all of the non-bird dinosaurs.

The fossil remains was remarkably well preserved and almost intact, lying on its front with its wings and neck outstretched.

According to scientists, the creature may have died in this pose after becoming mired in mud about 66-72 million years ago.

​New York, Nov 11 (IANS) Researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine has come out with a new test to check eye pressure to prevent possible vision loss.

The most common complication from cataract surgery is high eye pressure, which can cause swelling and other issues that can lead to vision loss or even blindness. 

"The current standard of care following cataract surgery is to refill the eye with a saline solution and tap on the eye with a Q-tip to observe if it is too firm, too soft or just right," said John Jarstad, Associate Professor at the University of Missouri School of Medicine in a statement.

"This Goldilocks-style guesstimate often is inaccurate, and patients might actually have higher eye fluid pressure than the surgeon believes. We use a device known as a tonometer to accurately gauge eye pressure," Jarstad added.

An electronic eye pressure monitoring device known as a tonometer often is used in a clinical setting to determine eye pressure, but the device rarely is used in a surgical setting. 

The researchers studied 170 patients who had eye pressure adjusted after cataract surgery with a tonometer and found that patients were 2.5 to 4 times less likely to develop cystoid macular edema -- cyst-like pockets of fluid in the macula of the eye.

According to the researchers, normal eye pressure should be between 16 and 21 mmHg, or millimeters of mercury.

In most cases, a high eye pressure will resolve itself in a matter of days without issue, but in cases in which the pressure is significantly high, a person can experience symptoms of nausea and pain above the eyebrow.

In these cases, it's important that the pressure be adjusted to prevent permanent damage to the eye, the study suggested.

"I recommend eye surgeons adopt this practice for the good of their patients. There is no additional cost to patients, and if it saves just one patient from going blind, it would be well worth every doctor using it in his or her surgical practice," the researcher said

New York, Nov 11 (IANS) In a major breakthrough, a team of researchers, including one of Indian origin, has identified two chemicals that can help develop heart cells that can beat harder, faster and stronger, bringing technology one step closer to regenerating damaged hearts.

Scientists from Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, in San Francisco, US, tested 5,500 chemicals, and identified two that can potentially transform a scar tissue into healthy beating heart muscle -- a discovery that can help find new and effective treatments for heart failure. 

The two chemicals increased eightfold the number of heart cells created, as well as sped up the process of cell conversion, achieving in one week what used to take six to eight weeks, the study said.

"The study discovered that chemically inhibiting two biological pathways active in embryonic formation improves the speed, quantity, and quality of the heart cells produced from our original process," said senior author Deepak Srivastava, Director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease. 

After suffering a heart attack, the connective tissues develop scar tissue, which then contribute to heart failure.

When the heart muscle gets damaged, the body is unable to repair the dead or injured cells.

According to researchers, the first chemical inhibits a growth factor that helps cells grow and divide and is important for repairing tissue after injury. 

The second chemical inhibits an important pathway that regulates heart development. 

By combining the two chemicals with the current method -- of reprogramming connective tissue cells into heart muscle cells using certain proteins -- the researchers successfully regenerated heart muscle and greatly improved heart function in mice that had suffered a heart attack.

In addition, the chemicals were also used to improve direct cardiac reprogramming of human cells, which is a more complicated process that requires additional factors, the researchers noted in the paper published in the journal Circulation.