Knowledge Update

New York, July 16 (IANS) When cows are happy, they produce more nutritious milk with higher levels of calcium, new research suggests.

The researchers found that daily infusions with a naturally-occurring chemical commonly associated with feelings of happiness increased calcium levels in the milk of Jersey cows that had just given birth. 

The results, published in the Journal of Endocrinology, could lead to a better understanding of how to improve the health of dairy cows, and keep the milk flowing.

Demand is high for milk rich in calcium and dairy products such as milk, cheese and yoghurt are primary sources of the mineral. 

But this demand can take its toll on milk-producing cows as evident from the fact that a large number of dairy cow population suffers from hypocalcaemia -- in which calcium levels are low.

A team of researchers led by Laura Hernandez from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US investigated the potential for serotonin (a naturally occurring chemical commonly associated with feelings of happiness) to increase calcium levels in both the milk and blood of dairy cows. 

The team infused a chemical that converts to serotonin into 24 dairy cows, in the run up to giving birth. 

Half the cows were Jersey and half were Holstein -- two of the most common breeds. Calcium levels in both the milk and circulating blood were measured throughout the experiment.

While serotonin improved the overall calcium status in both breeds, this was brought about in opposite ways. 

Treated Holstein cows had higher levels of calcium in their blood, but lower calcium in their milk (compared to controls). 

The reverse was true in treated Jersey cows and the higher milk calcium levels were particularly obvious in Jerseys at Day 30 of lactation -- suggesting a role for serotonin in maintaining levels throughout lactation.

"By studying two breeds we were able to see that regulation of calcium levels is different between the two," Hernandez said. 

"Serotonin raised blood calcium in the Holsteins, and milk calcium in the Jerseys. We should also note that serotonin treatment had no effect on milk yield, feed intake or on levels of hormones required for lactation," she noted.​

​London, July 16 (IANS) Repeated stimulation of muscles can restore movement after a paralytic attack, finds a study that could pave a new opportunity to rehabilitate patients with spinal cord damage.

In the study, two patients with spinal cord injuries caused by trauma received a form of treatment that combined transcranial magnetic stimulation with simultaneous peripheral nerve stimulation repeatedly for nearly six months.

One patient was paraplegic -- paralysed from the knees down, and the other was tetraplegic -- partial or total loss of use of all four limbs and torso --, with some voluntary movement of the hands but no capacity to grasp.

After approximately six months of the stimulation treatment, the paraplegic patient could bend both ankles, and the tetraplegic could grasp an object.

"We observed strengthened neural connections and partial restoration of movement to muscles which the patients were previously entirely unable to use," said Anastasia Shulga, Neurologist, at University of Helsinki in Finland.

The movement restored during the treatment was still present a month after the stimulation treatment had ended.

"This is a case study with two patients only, but we think the results are promising," added Jyrki Makela from Helsinki University Hospital, pointing out that rehabilitation of patients with chronic spinal cord injuries is highly challenging, and new treatment methods are sorely needed.

Long-term stimulation treatment of this type was used for the first time to rehabilitate patients paralysed as a result of a spinal cord injury.

Further study is needed to confirm whether such long-term stimulation can be used in rehabilitation after spinal cord injury or can be used in combination with other therapeutic strategies, the researchers concluded.​

​​​​Toronto, July 16 (IANS) Hypertension is the single major risk factor for stroke, which is a highly preventable medical condition globally, irrespective of age and sex, reveals a study led by an Indian-origin researcher.

Stroke which is caused when poor blood flow to the brain results in cell death, is the leading cause of mortality and disability, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries.

The findings showed that 47.9 per cent of stokes were caused as a result of hypertension whereas physical inactivity caused 35.8 per cent.

"The study confirmed that hypertension is the most important modifiable risk factor in all regions and is therefore the key target in reducing the burden of stroke globally," said Salim Yusuf, Professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

Poor diet and obesity caused 23.2 per cent and 18.6 per cent of strokes, respectively.

While smoking caused 12.4 per cent, heart diseases was accounted for 9.1 per cent of strokes.

Diabetes resulted in 3.9 per cent and alcohol intake in 5.8 per cent of strokes.

Stress caused 5.8 per cent and lipids 26.8 per cent of strokes.

When combined together, the total for all ten risk factors was 90.7 per cent, which was similar in all regions, age groups and in men and women, the researchers said.

"The wider reach confirms the ten modifiable risk factors associated with 90 per cent of stroke cases in all major regions of the world, young and older and in men and women,” said Martin O'Donnell, Associate Professor at McMaster University.

Further, hypertension was found as the highest reason behind strokes in Southeast Asia (59.6 per cent), whereas in western Europe, North America and Australia it caused 38.8 per cent of strokes.

Alcohol intake was found lowest in western Europe, North America, Australia but at 10.4 per cent and 10.7 per cent it was highest in Africa and south Asia, respectively. Physical inactivity was found as the highest reason of strokes in China.

In addition, ischaemic stroke -- caused by blood clots -- accounted for 85 per cent of strokes and haemorrhagic stroke -- bleeding in the brain -- accounted for 15 per cent of strokes, was found as the two major types of strokes.

"The study included better health education, more affordable healthy food, avoidance of tobacco and more affordable medication for hypertension and dyslipidaemia -- abnormal amount of lipids in the blood -- as global population-level interventions to reduce stroke," Yusuf added. 

Governments, health organisations, and individuals should proactively reduce the global burden of stroke, said the paper published in The Lancet.

For the study, the team included 6000 participants from 22 countries and later an additional 20000 individuals from 32 countries in Europe, Asia, America, Africa and Australia.​

​New York, July 16 (IANS) Tech giant Google's augmented reality (AR) eyewear Google Glass may not have worked among real life consumers but the device is helping US aircraft manufacturing company Boeing build airplanes, media reported this week.

​​Washington, July 16 (IANS) The US space agency is ready to proceed with the final design and construction of its next Mars rover, currently targeted to launch in the summer of 2020 and arrive on the Red Planet in February 2021, NASA said.

The Mars 2020 rover will investigate a region of Mars where the ancient environment may have been favourable for microbial life, probing the Martian rocks for evidence of past life.

"This mission marks a significant milestone in NASA’s Journey to Mars - to determine whether life has ever existed on Mars, and to advance our goal of sending humans to the Red Planet,” said Geoffrey Yoder, Acting Associate Administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 

Throughout its investigation, it will collect samples of soil and rock and cache them on the surface for potential return to Earth by a future mission.

"The Mars 2020 rover is the first step in a potential multi-mission campaign to return carefully selected and sealed samples of Martian rocks and soil to Earth,” Yoder noted.

To reduce risk and provide cost savings, the 2020 rover will look much like its six-wheeled, one-tonne predecessor, Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012, but with an array of new science instruments and enhancements to explore Mars as never before, NASA said in a statement.

The Mars 2020 rover will use the same sky crane landing system as Curiosity, but will have the ability to land in a more challenging terrain with two enhancements, making more rugged sites eligible as safe landing candidates, the US space agency pointed out.

The Mars 2020 mission has already passed an extensive review process and a major development milestone.

Once a mission receives preliminary approval, it must go through four rigorous technical and programmatic reviews -- known as Key Decision Points (KDP) to proceed through the phases of development prior to launch. 

Phase A involves concept and requirements definition, Phase B is preliminary design and technology development, Phase C is final design and fabrication, and Phase D is system assembly, testing, and launch. Mars 2020 has just passed its KDP-C milestone.

"Since Mars 2020 is leveraging the design and some spare hardware from Curiosity, a significant amount of the mission's heritage components have already been built during Phases A and B,” George Tahu, Mars 2020 Programme Executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington said. 

"With the KDP to enter Phase C completed, the project is proceeding with final design and construction of the new systems, as well as the rest of the heritage elements for the mission," Tahu added.​

​London, July 16 (IANS) Nearly half of the parents in Britain think heavy social media use is hampering their children's moral development, a British poll revealed on Saturday.

Only 15 per cent of parents thought that popular social media websites such as Facebook provided a positive influence on a young person’s character, said the poll from the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, University of Birmingham.

The team of researchers found that 40 per cent of parents were "concerned" or "extremely concerned" about the negative and potentially harmful impact of social media.

"There are some surprising findings in the poll, not the least the low level of agreement that social media can enhance or support a young person's character or moral development," lead researcher Dr Blaire Morgan said in a university statement.

According to the report, 24 percent of the respondents said forgiveness and self-control were the qualities that were least present in them, followed by honesty (21 per cent), fairness (20 per cent) and humility (18 per cent).

"Sixty percent of parents named anger and hostility as the most negative trait displayed, followed by arrogance (51 per cent), ignorance (43 per cent), bad judgment (41 per cent) and hatred (36 per cent)," the report noted.

Meanwhile, the top five character strengths promoted at least once a month on social media sites were identified as humour (52 per cent), appreciation of beauty (51 per cent), creativity (44 per cent), love (39 per cent) and courage (39 per cent).​

​New York, July 16 (IANS) Turtles developed shells as a tool for burrowing underground to escape harsh climatic conditions, a study has found, contradicting the traditional belief that they used their shells for their protection.

The study was conducted on new fossil material, a 15 cm long specimen of the 260- million-year-old, partially shelled, proto turtle or stem turtle, Eunotosaurus Africanus from the Karoo Basin of South Africa, which indicated that the initiation of rib broadening was an adaptive response to fossoriality. 

Numerous fossorial animal -- one that is adapted to digging and life underground such as the badger -- correlates are expressed throughout Eunotosaurus' skeleton.

These stem turtles indicate that the shell did not evolve for protection, rather adaptation related to digging was the initial impetus in the origin of the shell.

"The earliest beginnings of the turtle shell was not for protection but rather for digging underground to escape the harsh South African environment where these early proto turtles lived," said lead author Tyler Lyson, Paleontologist Denver Museum of Nature & Science in Colorado, US.

The adaptations related to fossoriality likely facilitated movement of stem turtles into aquatic environments early in the groups' evolutionary history, and this ecology may have played an important role in stem turtles surviving the Permian/Triassic extinction event that occurred about 252-million-years ago, said the paper published in the journal Current Biology.

Further, the developmental and fossil data showed that one of the first steps toward the shelled body plan was broadening of the ribs.

The distinctly broadened ribs -- that play a crucial role in ventilating the lungs and are used to support the body during locomotion -- has a serious impact on both breathing and speed in these quadrupedal animals. 

These broadened ribs stiffen the torso, which shortens an animals stride length and slows it down, interfering with breathing.

"We knew from both the fossil record and observations how the turtle shell develops into modern turtles that one of the first major changes toward a shell was the broadening of the ribs," Lyson added.

The broad ribs of Eunotosaurus provide an intrinsically stable base on which to operate a powerful forelimb digging mechanism.

Most of these features are widely distributed along the turtle stem and into the crown clade, indicating the common ancestor of Eunotosaurus and modern turtles possessed a body plan significantly influenced by digging, the researchers concluded.​

​Istanbul, July 15 (IANS) China's Zuojiang Huashan rock-art cultural landscape was on Friday added to the World Heritage List at the 40th session of World Heritage Committee held in Istanbul.

The World Heritage Committee cited the site's uniqueness in combining the landscape and rock art with the vivid and deep social life of the Luoyue people, who lived along the Zuojiang river, Xinhua news agency reported.

The landscape was formed 200 million years ago, according to a report presented at the meeting.

The images on the rocks depicting drums and related elements are symbolic records directly associated with the bronze drum culture once widespread in the region, the report said.

The rock art landscape is the first of its kind for China's heritage, and raises to 49 the number of the Chinese properties on the World Heritage List.

During the evaluation of the site, the Turkish representative drew the attention to the natural risks that have been threatening the outstanding universal value of Huashan rock art.

The representative urged the committee to create a risk cover strategy.

At its meeting until Sunday, the World Heritage Committee will review the nominations of 26 other sites to the prestigious World Heritage List.

Among them are nine natural, 13 cultural and four mixed ones submitted from across the world.​

New York, July 16 (IANS) Soon after technology giant Apple reported its first-ever quarterly drop in iPhone sales in April, a new report has found that "the outlook for iPhone demand keeps getting murkier" as other leading smartphone brands like Samsung make inroads in the market. The number of iPhone units sold would tumble 12 per cent from 2015 and the upcoming iPhone 7 would be "a marginal cycle at best", New York Post reported, quoting a Wall Street analyst on Friday. Recently, retail data insights and consulting business Kantar Retail reported that Samsung’s Galaxy 7 line of smartphones grabbed 16 per cent of total sales in the US during the three months ended May 31, exceeding the 14.6 per cent of sales for the iPhone 6s. As the momentum of the 6s has slowed down, investors are worried about iPhone 7 that the device might not be a significant upgrade. Mark Moskowitz of Barclays forecast that this year’s iPhone unit sales would total 203.7 million down from 231.5 million last year. The report by Kantar not only mentioned the threat to Apple but to its biggest rival Samsung as well by the increasing competition from lower-priced rivals, most notably China-based Xiaomi and Huawei. “Apple and Samsung should stop worrying so much about each other and take a look around them,” Kantar analyst Lauren Guenveur was quoted as saying, noting that Huawei aims to overtake Apple as the second-largest smartphone seller by 2020. Guenveur also noted that “rumours are swirling” that Google will soon introduce a handset of its own. Earlier this week, research firm IDC said Apple’s share of the worldwide PC market shrank to 7.1 per cent from 7.4 per cent as customers hold out for a long-awaited refresh to the MacBook Pro line. Apple is slated to give an update on recent demand when it reports results on July 26.​

​New York, July 15 (IANS) Dietary restriction or limited food intake without malnutrition has beneficial effects on longevity in species, including humans, a new study has found.

The study published in the journal PLoS Genetics reveals understanding on how dietary restriction leads to increase in lifespan and impacts autophagy in the intestine.

Autophagy which plays a role in lifespan extension involves breaking down of the cell's parts -- its protein-making, power-generating and transport systems into small molecules.

"In this study, we used the small roundworm C. elegans as a model to show that autophagy in the intestine is critical for lifespan extension," said Malene Hansen, Associate Professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute.

The researchers found that the gut of dietary-restricted worms has a higher rate of autophagy, which appears to improve fitness in multiple ways like preserving intestinal integrity and maintaining the animal's ability to move around.

“We found that blocking autophagy in their intestines significantly shortened their lifespans, showing that autophagy in this organ is key for longevity,” said Sara Gelino, Researcher at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute.

While normal worms' gut barriers become leaky as they get older, those of eat-2 type of worms remain intact. Preventing autophagy indicated that a non-leaky intestine is an important factor for long life, suggested the study.

The research team also observed that turning off autophagy in the intestine made the slow-eating, long-lived worms move around less.

The decrease in physical activity indicates that autophagy in one organ can have a major impact on other organs, in this case probably muscle or motor neurons, suggested the study.​