Knowledge Update

​London, March 17 (IANS) Researchers have found that the absence of a protein could trigger obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that can lead to repetitive ritualised behaviour such as washing hands or body time and again.

"We were able to show in mouse models that the absence of the protein SPRED2 alone can trigger an excessive grooming behaviour," said Professor Kai Schuh from the Institute of Physiology at the Julius-Maximilians-Universitat (JMU) Wurzburg in Bavaria, Germany.

Schuh believes that this finding is crucial as no clear trigger for this type of disorder has been identified until now. 

Previous research pointed to multiple factors being responsible for developing OCD.

Occurring in all cells of the body, the protein SPRED2 is found in particularly high concentrations in regions of the brain, namely in the basal ganglia and the amygdala.

Normally, the protein inhibits an important signal pathway of the cell, the so-called Ras/ERK-MAP kinase cascade. When it is missing, this signal pathway is more active than usual.

The findings could lead to new treatment for the disorder characterised by persistent intrusive thoughts.

Like depression, eating disorders and other mental diseases, OCD is treated with anti-depressants. 

However, the drugs are non-specific, that is they are not tailored to the respective disease. 

Therefore, scientists have been looking for new and better targeted therapies that have fewer side effects.

"Our study delivers a valuable new model that allows the disease mechanisms to be investigated and new therapy options for obsessive-compulsive disorders to be tested," Schuh said.

Beijing, March 17 (IANS) Researchers from China, New Zealand and the US have found four intact mushroom fossils, sources said on Friday.

The four, well preserved in Burmese amber (fossilised sap of extinct trees) for at least 99 million years, are the earliest complete mushroom fossils ever found, according to the sources with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The findings represent four species of mushroom. A stalk and a complete cap containing distinct gills are visible in most of the mushrooms, which are two to three mm long, Xinhua news agency reported.

The research team led by professor Huang Diying from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, reported the finding after researching more than 20,000 pieces of Burmese amber collected over 10 years.

The discovery highlights the palaeo-diversity of mushrooms, pushing back the presence of agaric mushrooms by at least 25 million years.

Mushrooms are common and morphologically diverse fungi. Their bodies are soft and ephemeral and therefore extremely rare in fossils. 

Until the recent discovery, only five species of mushrooms were known exclusively from amber.

​New York, March 17 (IANS) Facebook videos continue to dominate the social media, driving growth, engagement and media consumption, a new report has said.

Social media analytics platform Quintly examined 167,000 profiles during the last six months of 2016 and found that 47 per cent of those profiles used video of some sort in their

​New York, March 17 (IANS) More than 50 per cent of millennials in the US prefer checking Snapchat first over other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, the results of a new survey suggest.

The survey involving nearly 10,000 college students found that 58 per cent of them check Snapchat over Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn combined. 

Instagram accounted for 27 per cent, Facebook for 13 per cent, and LinkedIn for two per cent, or a total of 42 per cent, showed the new data gathered by LendEDU, an online marketplace for student loans and student loan refinancing.

The findings suggest that Snap Inc., parent company of messaging app Snapchat, may not only survive the volatile Wall Street environment, but prosper.

Snap Inc has been the word on Wall Street since it went public on March 2.

Snap rode its immense popularity to produce eye-popping numbers during its initial offering, with a first day closing price at $24.53. 

In the days following the IPO, shares of Snap traded lower as exuberance and volume settled. 

But the messaging app's popularity among millenials (born between 1980 and and early 2000s)can help the company prosper in the stock market, according to the new results.

"Overall, Snap's access and importance to millennials will be the driving force behind their success in the stock market," LendEDU said in a report on Thursday.

For the study, LendEDU has gathered this data under license from polling company WhatsGoodly.

According to Snap, the majority of Snapchat users are aged 18-to-34 years old. On an average, these users visit the app 18 times a day for a combined 25 to 30 minutes. 

Additionally, users younger than 25 visit the application more than 20 times a day for more than 30 minutes.

​Madrid, March 16 (IANS) iPhone 7 was a top seller in EU5 with iOS holding a 22.7 per cent share -- a climb of 2.4 percentage points. Android was second and accounted for 74.3 per cent of smartphone sales, with a marginal increase from 72.9 per cent in the three months ending January, a new report said. EU5 stands for European Union Five, in which France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain are members. According to Spain-based consumer research firm Kantar Worldpanel, iOS achieved continued growth across most regions, except for Japan, Spain and Urban China. Android also continued to post market share increases in all regions but the US. The report said iOS and Android were the only two dominating operating systems in the world with BlackBerry OS, Symbian or Windows Mobile losing their grip. "February's Mobile World Congress 2017 demonstrated the true state of the market, with re-emerging brand names Nokia and Blackberry capturing a lot of attention, but now operating on Android rather than on their own legacy operating systems," said Lauren Guenveur, Global Consumer Insight Director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Two all new Android smartphones -- Nokia 3 and 5, plus the expanded global release of the Nokia 6 -- could do well in Western Europe due to loyalty to the Nokia brand name, the report noted. "HMD Global's focus on revitalising the Nokia name seems concentrated on quality for cost. Its three new Android phones are priced at Euro 229 or less, with Android Nougat, Google Assistant, aluminium construction and otherwise solid mid-range specs," added Dominic Sunnebo, Business Unit Director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Europe. Meanwhile, Android remained dominant in Asia accounting for 83.2 per cent of smartphones sold in Urban China -- an increase of 9.3 percentage points versus the same period a year ago. Huawei continued to dominate the region at 26.6 per cent. Apple and Xiaomi are the second and third largest manufacturers in Asia, with 16.6 per cent and 14.5 per cent shares respectively. The picture was different in the US. Android accounted for 56.4 per cent of smartphone sales in the US -- down 1.8 percentage points from the period a year earlier. iOS accounted for 42 per cent of smartphone sales -- up 2.9 percentage points year-on-year.

New York, March 16 (IANS) Scientists have developed a new pill that can act as non-invasive alternative to colonoscopies -- an effective way to screen for colon cancer -- and help identify growths called polyps.

Colorectal cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths in women and second leading cause in men. Early detection and screening are essential to reduce the rates of colorectal cancer.

The pill -- PillCam Colon 2 -- contains two miniature cameras on either end. After being ingested by the patient, the capsule travels through the digestive tract, captures images and wirelessly transmits them to a recorder the patient wears on a belt.

Like a colonoscopy, the system can help identify growths called polyps, said researchers from Loyola University in Chicago, US.

During a standard colonoscopy, a flexible tube (colonoscope) is inserted into the rectum and guided by a physician through the colon. A camera at the end of the colonoscope allows for visualisation of polyps.

However, some patients cannot tolerate the procedure, or may be at higher risk for sedation, the researchers said.

With the new system, the patient swallows the capsule with water. After the non-reusable capsule is excreted, it's flushed down the toilet. The patient returns the recorder to the physician's office. If a polyp is found, the patient arranges to undergo a colonoscopy to remove the growth.

"Early detection has been proven to save lives, and the video capsule system offers a convenient screening test for people who are unable to have a complete colonoscopy," Mukund Venu from Loyola University, said in a statement.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved the capsule system for patients whose anatomy of the colon makes it difficult to guide a colonoscope through the entire colon and for patients who have elevated risk of complications due to age or other reasons.

​Bengaluru, March 15 (IANS) Software major Wipro on Wednesday announced opening an automotive engineering centre at Detroit in the US to drive innovation in connected vehicles concepts.

New York, March 16 (IANS) A common genetic variant that accelerates normal brain ageing in older people by up to 12 years has been identified by US researchers.

The findings could point towards a novel biomarker for the evaluation of anti-ageing interventions and highlight potential new targets for the prevention or treatment of age-associated brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, the researchers said.

"If you look at a group of elderly, some will look older than their peers and some will look younger. The same differences in ageing can be seen in the frontal cortex, the brain region responsible for higher mental processes," said Asa Abeliovich, Professor at Columbia University Medical Centre (CUMC) in the US.

The results, published in the journal Cell Systems, showed that many of these differences are tied to variants of a gene called TMEM106B. About one-third of people have two copies of TMEM106B and another third have one copy.

People who have two 'bad' copies of this gene have a frontal cortex that, by various biological measures, tends to appear 12 years older than those who have two normal copies.

"TMEM106B begins to exert its effect once people reach age 65. Until then, everybody's in the same boat, and then there's some yet-to-be-defined stress that kicks in. If you have two good copies of the gene, you respond well to that stress. If you have two bad copies, your brain ages quickly," Abeliovich explained.

"It's in healthy tissue that you start to get disease. It appears that if you have these genetic variants, brain ageing accelerates and that increases vulnerability to brain disease. And vice versa: if you have brain disease, the disease accelerates brain ageing," he noted. 

​London, March 15 (IANS) Sixty-eight per cent of organisations use artificial intelligence (AI) for IT functions, but 70 per cent believe AIs greatest impact by 2020 will be in marketing, customer service, finance and HR, a new study said on Wednesday.

​New York, March 15 (IANS) Software giant Microsoft has rolled out its collaboration and communication platform Teams to all its 85 million monthly active users of Office 365 for free.