Knowledge Update

New York, March 4 (IANS) If you are diagnosed with depression, just take a deep breath and join yoga classes to experience significant reduction in symptoms without the side effects associated with antidepressants, new research suggests. "This study supports the use of a yoga and coherent breathing intervention in major depressive disorder in people who are not on antidepressants and in those who have been on a stable dose of antidepressants and have not achieved a resolution of their symptoms," explained corresponding author Chris Streeter, Associate Professor at Boston University School of Medicine in the US. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is common, recurrent, chronic and disabling. The findings, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, provide support for the use of yoga-based interventions as an alternative or supplement to pharmacologic treatments for depression. Due in part to its prevalence, depression is globally responsible for more years lost to disability than any other disease. Up to 40 per cent of individuals treated with antidepressant medications for MDD do not achieve full remission. This study used lyengar yoga that has an emphasis on detail, precision and alignment in the performance of posture and breath control. Individuals with major depressive disorder were randomised to the high dose group, three 90-minute classes a week along with home practice, or the low dose group, two 90-minute classes a week, plus home practice. Both groups had significant decreases in their depressive symptoms and no significant differences in compliance. Although a greater number of participants in the high dose group had less depressive symptoms, the researchers believe attending twice weekly classes (plus home practice) may constitute a less burdensome but still effective way to gain the mood benefits from the intervention. Compared with mood altering medications, this intervention has the advantages of avoiding additional drug side effects and drug interactions, Streeter said. "While most pharmacologic treatment for depression target monoamine systems, such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine, this intervention targets the parasympathetic and gamma aminobutyric acid system and provides a new avenue for treatment," Streeter explained.

Washington, March 4 (IANS) The Hubble space telescope has captured an image to showcase an incredible massive galaxy, UGC 12591, that lies just under 400 million light-years away from the Earth.

The galaxy and its halo together contain several hundred billion times the mass of the Sun -- four times the mass of the Milky Way, NASA said in a statement on Friday.

It also whirls round extremely quickly, rotating at speeds of up to 1.8 million kilometers per hour, it added.

UGC 12591 sits somewhere between a lenticular and a spiral. 

It lies in the westernmost region of the Pisces-Perseus Supercluster, a long chain of galaxy clusters that stretches out for hundreds of light-years ? one of the largest known structures in the cosmos.

Observations with Hubble are helping astronomers to understand the mass of UGC 12591, and to determine whether the galaxy simply formed and grew slowly over time, or whether it might have grown unusually massive by colliding and merging with another large galaxy at some point in its past, NASA said.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a collaboration between NASA and European Space Agency (ESA).

​Kathmandu, March 4 (IANS) Nepal Investment Summit, the biggest investment summit in Nepal, has garnered nearly $13.51 billion (around NRs 1,446 billion) in foreign investment commitment, with northern neighbour China leading the pack of investment from six countries.

​London, March 4 (IANS) Researchers have developed an innovative method to engineer cheap versatile computer chips that could offer greater speed, efficiency and capability of the next generation of computers.

New York, March 4 (IANS) After the success of its Facebook Live feature, Facebook is looking for original TV-like programmes from various genres and may pay hefty amount for it, a media report said.

Seoul, March 4 (IANS) South Korean electronics major LG will update two of its smartphone models -- the G4 and V10 -- with the latest operating system (OS). LG plans to offer the upgrade of the OS with Android 7.0 for the V10 in the second half of this year and for the G4 in the third quarter, Yonhap news agency reported on Saturday. The schedule applies to phones sold in South Korea, with consumers abroad to be notified of a separate schedule later. The G4, which debuted in April 2015, had its OS updated twice. The V10 was released in October the year and also has had two OS updates. But LG had announced plans to discontinue updates, saying the phones are not optimised with the latest version. Kicking off an era of premium smartphones with the unique 18:9 screen aspect ratio, LG introduced the G6 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) this year in Barcelona, Spain that features a bold new display format complemented by a cinematic viewing experience. The device has Google Assistant built-in, empowering users to get quick answers, manage everyday tasks, enjoy the best music and videos and search G6 more efficiently than ever.

New York, March 4 (IANS) US tech giant Google will release a new Pixel smartphone later this year. The device, with the built-in personal Google Assistant, will directly competes with the Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. "The device will remain 'premium' in its next iteration and the company is not interested in offering a low-cost version, preferring instead to let that segment be addressed by its external hardware partners," techcrunch.com quoted Rick Osterloh, Google SVP of Hardware as saying. Launched last year, Pixel is the first smartphone that works as an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator. The 5-inch smartphone is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset, 4GB of RAM and runs on Android Nougat 7.0 operating system. The device also has Pixel Imprint -- a fingerprint scanner on the back of the smartphone for quick access to all apps, texts and e-mails.

​Lhasa, March 4 (IANS) The Mount Everest base camp received more than 113,000 tourists last year, with a year-on-year increase of 91 per cent, the local tourist administration said on Saturday.

Among them were more than 5,100 foreign visitors, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Tingri county government has been making efforts to offer a better travel experience to visitors in recent years. 

The government has repaired roads from the county to the base camp and ensured the power supply for the camp.

The base camp, which sits at an altitude of 5,200 metres, is suitable for year-round travel.

London, March 4 (IANS) Eating foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids could significantly reduce damage caused by air pollution, suggests new research.

Omega-3 fatty acids (OFAs), found in a variety of foods including in oily fish, soy beans and spinach, could reduce inflammation and oxidative stress caused by air pollution by up to half, according to the study conducted in mice.

However, the research also shows air pollution particles can penetrate through the lungs of lab animals into many major organs, including the brain and testicles. This raises the possibility that the health damage caused by toxic air is even greater than currently known, The Guardian reported on Friday.

"I would definitely recommend taking OFAs to counter air pollution problems," lead researcher Jing Kang, at Massachusetts General Hospital, part of Harvard Medical School in the US, was quoted as saying.

"OFAs are well known to have many other healthy benefits and the key thing is they are not like a drug, but a nutrient with so many benefits," Kang said.

Two to four grammes per day would be the equivalent dose in humans to that given to the mice, Kang said.

The research suggests that omega-3 fatty acids could provide an immediate, practical solution for reducing the disease burden of air pollution.

London, March 4 (IANS) Researchers have discovered a new way of developing painkillers that act only on inflamed tissues, while keeping healthy ones unaffected, suggesting that the severe side effects currently associated with these medicines might be avoided.

When used in an animal model, their prototype of a morphine-like molecule was able to produce substantial pain relief in inflamed tissues without severe side effects, according to a study published in the journal Science.

The team of researchers used computational simulation to analyse interactions at opioid receptors -- the cell's docking sites for painkillers. 

"By analysing drug-opioid receptor interactions in damaged tissues, as opposed to healthy tissues, we were hoping to provide useful information for the design of new painkillers without harmful side effects," said Christoph Stein from Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin in Germany.

Opioids are a class of strong pain killers and are mainly used to treat pain associated with tissue damage and inflammation, such as that caused by surgery, nerve damage, arthritis or cancer. 

Common side effects associated with their use include drowsiness, nausea, constipation and dependency and, in some cases, respiratory arrest. 

In this study, the the researchers showed that they were able to analyse morphine-like molecules and their interactions with opioid receptors. 

They were able to successfully identify a new mechanism of action, which is capable of producing pain relief only in the desired target tissues -- those affected by inflammation.

The new findings could lead to treating postoperative and chronic inflammatory pain without causing side effects. 

Doing so would substantially improve patient quality of life.