Russian cosmonauts may take Olympic torch into space

MOSCOW: Russian cosmonauts could take an unlit Olympic torch aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the relay route for the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, an official related to expedition has said.

The torch is expected to be carried into orbit by a crew led by Mikhail Tyurin and handed over to Yurchikhin's crew, who will return it to Earth November 12, after a space walk with the torch is performed.

"It will be an honour for the crew," expedition commander Fyodor Yurchikhin said on Wednesday.

"And we will be very happy to see the backup crew (led by Mikhail Tyurin) at this milestone event - the Olympic torch handover," he told reporters in Zvyozdny Gorodok (Star City) in the Moscow Region.

The torch will not be lit, as naked flames are prohibited inside spaceships going to the ISS.

Sergei Krikalev, head of the Cosmonaut Training Center, confirmed that such plans are being discussed but said that the program "has not yet been approved."

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Eating soy and tomato may help prevent prostate cancer

WASHINGTON: Tomatoes and soy foods may be more effective in preventing prostate cancer when they are eaten together than when either is eaten alone, according to a new study.

"In our study, we used mice that were genetically engineered to develop an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Even so, half the animals that had consumed tomato and soy had no cancerous lesions in the prostate at study's end," said John Erdman, a University of Illinois professor of food science and nutrition.

"All mice in the control group - no soy, no tomato - developed the disease," Erdman said.

From the time they were 4 to 18-weeks-old, the animals were fed one of four diets: 10 per cent whole tomato powder; 2 per cent soy germ; tomato powder plus soy germ; and a control group that ate neither tomato nor soy.

The 4 to 18-week time frame modelled an early and lifelong exposure to the bioactive components in these foods, he said.

"Eating tomato, soy, and the combination all significantly reduced prostate cancer incidence. But the combination gave us the best results. Only 45 per cent of mice fed both foods developed the disease compared to 61 per cent in the tomato group, and 66 per cent in the soy group," he said.

Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men, but the disease has nearly a 100 per cent survival rate if it's caught early.

In older men, it is often a slow-growing cancer, and these men often choose watchful waiting over radiation and surgical treatments that have unwelcome side effects, said Krystle Zuniga, co-author of the paper.

In countries where soy is eaten regularly, prostate cancer occurs at significantly lower levels, Erdman noted.

"The results of the mouse study suggest that three to four servings of tomato products per week and one to two servings of soy foods daily could protect against prostate cancer," Zuniga said.

"It's better to eat a whole tomato than to take a lycopene supplement. It's better to drink soy milk than to take soy isoflavones. When you eat whole foods, you expose yourself to the entire array of cancer-fighting, bioactive components in these foods," Erdman said.

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Cluster of hydrogen clouds found lurking in nearby galaxies

WASHINGTON: Astronomers have discovered a never-before-seen cluster of hydrogen clouds strewn between two nearby galaxies, Andromeda (M31) and Triangulum (M33).

The researchers speculate that these rarefied blobs of gas - each about as massive as a dwarf galaxy - condensed out of a vast and as-yet undetected reservoir of hot, ionised gas, which could have accompanied an otherwise invisible band of dark matter.

The astronomers detected these objects using the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).

"We have known for some time that many seemingly empty stretches of the Universe contain vast but diffused patches of hot, ionised hydrogen," said Spencer Wolfe of West Virginia University in Morgantown.

"Earlier observations of the area between M31 and M33 suggested the presence of colder, neutral hydrogen, but we couldn't see any details to determine if it had a definitive structure or represented a new type of cosmic feature.

"Now, with high-resolution images from the GBT, we were able to detect discrete concentrations of neutral hydrogen emerging out of what was thought to be a mainly featureless field of gas," Wolfe said.

Astronomers are able to observe neutral atomic hydrogen, which is referred to as HI (H and the Roman numeral one), because of the characteristic signal it emits at radio wavelengths, which can be detected by radio telescopes on Earth.

Though this material is abundant throughout the cosmos, in the space between galaxies it can be very tenuous and the faint signal it emits can be extremely difficult to detect.

A little more than a decade ago, astronomers had the first speculative hints that a previously unrecognised reservoir of hydrogen lay between M31 and M33. The signal from this gas, however, was too faint to draw any firm conclusions about its nature, origin, or even certain existence.

Last year, preliminary data taken with the GBT confirmed that there was indeed hydrogen gas, and a lot of it, smeared out between the galaxies.

New and more thorough studies of this region with the GBT revealed that the hydrogen gas was not simply in the form of wispy streamers, as would be expected by the interactions of two galaxies in a gravitational ballet.

Instead, a full 50 per cent of the gas was conspicuously clumped together into very discrete and apparently self-gravitating blobs that - apart for their lack of stars - would be dead ringers for dwarf galaxies.

The GBT was also able to track the motion of these newly discovered clouds, showing that they were travelling through space at velocities similar to M31 and M33.

The study was published in the journal Nature.

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Dynamic vaccine blocks relapse to compulsive intake of heroin

LONDON: A vaccine to help combat heroin addiction by eliminating the drug's psychoactive properties has shown promising results in preclinical trials, helping prevent addicted rats from escalating their habit. Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute ( TSRI) have reported successful tests of a new vaccine against heroin.

The vaccine targets heroin and its psychoactive breakdown products in the bloodstream, preventing them from reaching the brain.

Scientists said: "Heroin-addicted rats deprived of the drug will normally resume using it compulsively if they regain access, but our vaccine stops this from happening."

George Koob who chairs TSRI's addiction research group says that if the vaccine works in human trials, it could become a standard part of therapy for heroin addiction, which is estimated to affect more than 10 million people worldwide.

Designing an effective vaccine against heroin has been particularly challenging because the drug breaks down rapidly in the bloodstream after injection. "Heroin is metabolized very quickly to another compound called 6-acetylmorphine, which crosses into the brain and accounts for much of heroin's effect."

The team, therefore, designed the heroin vaccine to elicit antibodies against not only heroin, but also 6-acetylmorphine and morphine.

The researchers are currently looking for a drug company to sponsor clinical trials in humans.

"Although it may not be a 'magic bullet' against all aspects of drug addiction, the dynamic nature of our heroin vaccine represents a promising and innovative adjunct therapy in the treatment of heroin addiction," the authors wrote.

In one challenging test, rats that had become severely addicted to heroin and were taking it compulsively in escalating amounts—amounts that would have been lethal to drug-naive rats—were forced to abstain for 30 days before being given renewed access.

In rats that had received a placebo vaccine, intake resumed and they re-escalated, taking the drug compulsively. But in the heroin-vaccinated rats, intake failed to escalate and compulsive drug taking did not redevelop.

"Basically we were able to stop them from going through that cycle of taking more and more heroin. And that was with the vaccine alone—ideally for human patients, the vaccine would be given with other treatments," the team said.

The researchers confirmed that the vaccine sequesters heroin and 6-acetylmorphine in the bloodstream, keeping it out of the brain.

The vaccine did not block the effects of methadone, buprenorphine and other opioid-receptor-targeting drugs that are commonly used in addiction therapy.

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European and Asian tongues share origin

LONDON: For the first time ever, European and Asian languages spoken by billions of people today have been traced back to a single mother tongue as old as the Ice Age.

Researchers from Britain's University of Reading have found that our Ice Age ancestors used some words in common with us, such as "you", "mother" and "fire". These words now point to the existence of a linguistic super-family that unites seven major language families of Eurasia: Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, Kartvelian, Dravidian, Chuckchee-Kamchatkan and Eskimo-Aleut

The research traced a set of common words back in time further than ever before to identify the origins of Eurasian languages to a time nearly 15,000 years ago, and corresponding to the end of the last Ice Age.

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Cougars & sugar daddies? More a myth than reality

WASHINGTON: Playboy's Hugh Hefner may just be an exception! The popular image of the rich older man or woman supporting an attractive younger spouse is more of a myth than reality, a new study has found.

Researchers from University of Colorado Denver found that those married to younger or older mates have on average lower earnings, lower cognitive abilities, are less educated and less attractive than couples of similar ages. "Our results call into question the conventional wisdom regarding differently-aged couples," said Hani Mansour, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado Denver and co-author of the study.

The study found that those married to older or younger spouses scored negatively in key areas like education, occupational wages, appearance and cognitive skills. The researchers did not give a range of how much older or younger a spouse had to be to see these effects. It simply found that the greater the age difference, the higher the negative indicators.

The economists examined US Census Bureau data from 1960 through 2000 looking at age at first marriage, completed education, occupational wages, and earnings.

The research found that men married to younger or older spouses made less money than those married to women of a similar age. A battery of tests conducted in high school measured verbal, math and arithmetic reasoning skills. Those married to differently-aged spouses scored lower on the tests. Men with spouses at least eight years younger scored on average 8.4 points less than those who married women of a similar age. Women had less drastic drops in their scores. Physical attractiveness was determined by interviewers conducting the survey.

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Hark! Are the plants chatting with each other?

NEW DELHI: Plants may be able to 'talk' to each other say researchers from the University of Western Australia after carrying out experiments in which two types of plants were completely separated from each other and yet one appeared to influence the other.

Basil, known and revered in India as 'tulsi', is well known to have a beneficial effect on neighboring plants. This is because it gives out some organic volatile substances that inhibit the growth of some weeds. Its roots retain moisture longer and so help the neighboring plants. Earlier research had established that like basil, many plants 'communicate' to other plants by chemicals, touch or shade giving.

But in this latest research by Monica Gagliano and Michael Renton, published online in the scientific journal BMC Ecology, it was shown that basil plants could influence chili plants in a positive way even after they were completely separated from each other by a vacuum barrier.

The researchers said that since chemical, touch or light communication was ruled out, the possibility of 'acoustic' signals, that is, sound was strongly suggested. They suggested that 'nanomechanical oscillations of various components in the cytoskeleton can produce a spectrum of vibrations' communicating to other plants necessary information.

In the experiments, chili seeds were planted surrounding a basil plant which was enclosed in a double walled box with vacuum between the two walls. The whole set of plants was further enclosed in a similar double walled vacuumed box to block any outside interference.

It was discovered that chili seeds planted next to the basil plant germinated faster than those which did not have the good neighbor. This happened irrespective of whether the basil plant was masked (kept in the box) or open (no box).

According to the researchers this shows that the other methods of communication (light, touch or chemicals) play an important role but are not the exclusive means with which plants communicate. That is why they theorise that tiny sound waves might be doing the same job.

Why do plants communicate? The researchers suggest that this is an adaptive mechanism by which plants prepare to respond to the competitive environment right from the point of seeds germinating. If they have competing species, they may be triggered to opt for faster growth, and so on.

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Hark! Are the plants chatting with each other?

NEW DELHI: Plants may be able to 'talk' to each other say researchers from the University of Western Australia after carrying out experiments in which two types of plants were completely separated from each other and yet one appeared to influence the other.

Basil, known and revered in India as 'tulsi', is well known to have a beneficial effect on neighboring plants. This is because it gives out some organic volatile substances that inhibit the growth of some weeds. Its roots retain moisture longer and so help the neighboring plants. Earlier research had established that like basil, many plants 'communicate' to other plants by chemicals, touch or shade giving.

But in this latest research by Monica Gagliano and Michael Renton, published online in the scientific journal BMC Ecology, it was shown that basil plants could influence chili plants in a positive way even after they were completely separated from each other by a vacuum barrier.

The researchers said that since chemical, touch or light communication was ruled out, the possibility of 'acoustic' signals, that is, sound was strongly suggested. They suggested that 'nanomechanical oscillations of various components in the cytoskeleton can produce a spectrum of vibrations' communicating to other plants necessary information.

In the experiments, chili seeds were planted surrounding a basil plant which was enclosed in a double walled box with vacuum between the two walls. The whole set of plants was further enclosed in a similar double walled vacuumed box to block any outside interference.

It was discovered that chili seeds planted next to the basil plant germinated faster than those which did not have the good neighbor. This happened irrespective of whether the basil plant was masked (kept in the box) or open (no box).

According to the researchers this shows that the other methods of communication (light, touch or chemicals) play an important role but are not the exclusive means with which plants communicate. That is why they theorise that tiny sound waves might be doing the same job.

Why do plants communicate? The researchers suggest that this is an adaptive mechanism by which plants prepare to respond to the competitive environment right from the point of seeds germinating. If they have competing species, they may be triggered to opt for faster growth, and so on.

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Now, robot that can 'discover' new objects on its own

WASHINGTON: More than a good eye! Researchers, including an Indian-origin scientist, have developed a new 'smart' robot that can analyse and learn about new objects on its own.

The two-armed mobile robot called HERB can 'discover' more than 100 objects in a home-like laboratory, including items like computer monitors and plants.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute built digital models and images of objects and loaded them into the memory of HERB - the Home-Exploring Robot Butler - so the robot could recognise objects that it needs to manipulate.

With the team's implementation of HerbDisc, the robot could discover these objects on its own.

With more time and experience, HerbDisc gradually refines its models of the objects and begins to focus its attention on those that are most relevant to its goal - helping people accomplish tasks of daily living.

The robot's ability to discover objects on its own sometimes takes even the researchers by surprise, said Siddhartha Srinivasa, associate professor of robotics and head of the Personal Robotics Lab, where HERB is being developed.

In one case, some students left the remains of lunch - a pineapple and a bag of bagels - in the lab when they went home for the evening.

The next morning, they returned to find that HERB had built digital models of both the pineapple and the bag and had figured out how it could pick up each one.

"We didn't even know that these objects existed, but HERB did," said Srinivasa, who jointly supervised the research with Martial Hebert, professor of robotics.

"That was pretty fascinating," said Hebert. Discovering and understanding objects in places filled with hundreds or thousands of things will be a crucial capability once robots begin working in the home and expanding their role in the workplace.

However, manually loading digital models of every object of possible relevance simply isn't feasible, Srinivasa said.

Object recognition has long been a challenging area of enquiry for computer vision researchers. Recognising objects based on vision alone quickly becomes an intractable computational problem in a cluttered environment, Srinivasa said.

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Mental illness getting more common: Expert

ALLAHABAD: Although less than 6% adults suffer from severe mental illness every year, according to a study of 2005, almost 25% of all adults will have a diagnosable mental problem during their lifetime, said psychiatrist of Moti Lal Nehru Medical College Dr Anurag Varma.

"People often don't realise how unwell they are. It is hard to tell if we are mentally as healthy as we were a generation ago. We are better off now at detecting mental illness with the technique of genetics and brain imaging for diagnosis and if we detect it timely, we can, intervene to reduce the intensity and/or frequency of symptoms," he said. Hyperactivity, depression, or substance abuse are more likely to be recognised and diagnosed now than before and increased awareness and can check mental illness better, said the expert.

"We are actually getting "mentally sicker". More of us are mentally ill than in previous generations, and our mental illness is manifesting at earlier points in our lives. One study supporting this explanation took the scores on a measure of anxiety of children with psychological problems in 1957 and compared them with the scores of today's average child. Today's children-not specifically those identified as having psychological problems, as were the 1957 children-are more anxious than those in previous generations", said Dr Varma.

An additional study supports the explanation that more people are diagnosed with mental illness because more of us have it. Collectively, this line of research indicates that more is going on than simply better detection of mental illness.

Some of the behaviours, thoughts, and feelings that were within the then-normal range of human experience or attributed to supernatural powers are now deemed to be in the pathological part of the continuum. This explanation implies that we, as a culture, are more willing now to admit mental illness in ourselves and in others.

Increased work expectations are another factor. The pace and demands of jobs has increased. Many companies maintain as few workers as possible to get the work done, and if an employee can't reliably perform up to the (more intense) pace, he or she risks getting fired on top of other problems, Dr Varma added.

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Childhood rape can cause genetic changes: Study

NEW DELHI: Childhood rape or other traumatic events like car accidents or recurrent abuse can change the genetic functioning of the victim, a new study led by Divya Mehta of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany, has found.

Comparing the genetic structure of blood cells drawn from childhood abuse victims with that of persons who had not suffered such abuse, the researchers found that changes in the genes were 12 times more visible in the abused persons. These are called epigenetic changes - the DNA has not changed but there are chemical differences that affect the way the genes do their work. Epigenetic changes are caused by outside circumstances and usually last lifelong.

The study has been published in a recent issue of the scientific journal Proceedings of National Academy of Science (PNAS). Scientists from Emory University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute also participated in the research

Mehta and her colleagues studied 169 persons in their late thirties or early forties. They had suffered from seven traumatic events on an average including rape, being held at knife-point, going through a car accident, etc. While a majority of them (108) had got over the trauma, 61 were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition where they experienced an extreme anxiety disorder arising from the traumatic event. Of the PTSD patients, 32 had suffered childhood abuse while 29 had not.

"These results show that while these patients have similar or even indistinguishable symptoms on the outside, they are very different on the inside. The molecular mechanism and biological pathways altered among the two sets of patients are distinct," Mehta told TOI.

"Trauma/abuse which occurs very early in life leaves long-lasting epigenetic marks on the genome as compared to trauma which occurs later in life," she added.

This discovery radically changes the way victims of trauma need to be looked at. Not just the symptoms but the path leading to the disease - timing, type of trauma and the preexisting genetic risk factors) are all important according to Mehta.

The research also has major implications for wider psychiatric treatment. One of the reasons why psychiatric treatment has a low success rate could be that patients with different 'biologies', that is, internal genetic structures are all being grouped under one disease, Mehta said.

The study shows that in the future, trauma victims will need to be first checked through blood markers whether they have childhood trauma changes - this will open the door to better more effective customized treatment.

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India to have five rocket launches, including Mars mission, in 2013

CHENNAI: India's space agency is planning to have a total of five rocket launches in 2013 from its rocket launch pad at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, around 80 km from here. This will include a mission to Mars later this year.

Four of the launches are expected to happen between June and December, including the launch of communication satellite G-Sat 14 using heavier rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) - powered with a domestic cryogenic engine.

"Between June 10 and 15 we are planning to launch the first navigational satellite, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-R1A (IRNSS-R1A) and it will be followed by the launch of G-Sat 14 some time in July," a senior official at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS, preferring anonymity.

According to officials, the assembling of two rockets is going on at a good pace at the rocket launch centre. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-XL (PSLV-XL) version that will carry the navigation satellite is being assembled at the first launch pad.

"The assembling of the first stage/engine and the strap on motors has been completed. The second stage is under preparation. The satellite is expected soon from the satellite centre in Bangalore," officials said.

The IRNSS-R1A satellite will be the first of seven satellites to be launched into earth orbit to provide real-time position, navigation and time services to multiple users. The space agency plans to launch the second navigation satellite three months after in-orbit tests of the first one and the remaining five satellites over a 14-month period by 2014-15.

These two launches will be followed by the mission to Mars later this year. The launch of one more remote sensing satellite is also being planned before the end of this year.

In February this year India launched the Indo-French Saral satellite and six other small foreign satellites using the PSLV rocket.

India started putting into space third-party satellites for a fee in 1999 on its PSLV-C2 rocket. Since then India has been successful in launching medium-weight satellites for overseas agencies. Initially ISRO started carrying third-party satellites atop PSLV rockets as co-passengers of its own remote sensing/earth observation satellites.

In 2007 ISRO for the first time launched an Italian satellite - Agile - as a standalone for a fee.

India has earned a revenue of $17.17 million and euro 32.28 million by launching 35 foreign satellites till date, parliament was told recently by V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office.

"Some customers paid in dollars and some in euros and hence we are giving it separately," an ISRO official said.

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Indian women more keen on health and wellness trips: Survey

MUMBAI: Indian women are more keen on health and wellness trips compared to Indian men, which usually look for discounts before booking a holiday. A recent survey by travel research site, Skyscanner, reveals that 67 percent men opt to book in advance compared to women. Women, when it comes to booking, look at a wholesome or even luxurious holiday.

"The survey results indicated that men were keener on finding ways to reduce holiday expenses with more than half of the male travellers (51%) stated that they would scout for the most cost effective holiday deals to avoid holiday expenses from burning a hole in their pockets. Women on the other hand were more intent on pampering themselves with 39% of lady travellers in favour of health and wellness trips as compared to 29% of the male travellers," the survey stated.

The survey also reveals that while 88 percent of women choose shopping as a means of relaxation when on holiday, men focus on surveying the night life at the destination.

Beach holiday destinations emerged the most popular among Indian travellers. Backpacking turned out to be the least chosen holiday experience with only 184 travellers out of the 1,000 travellers surveyed opting for it.

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Nanoparticle jab may control insulin in diabetics

WASHINGTON: In good news for diabetes patients, researchers have developed a smart network of nanoparticles that can be injected into the body to release insulin when blood-sugar levels rise.

The technique was able to maintain normal blood sugar levels for more than a week in animal-based laboratory tests.

"We've created a 'smart' system that is injected into the body and responds to changes in blood sugar by releasing insulin, effectively controlling blood sugar levels," said Dr Zhen Gu, lead author of the paper.

"We've tested the technology in mice, and one injection was able to maintain blood sugar levels in the normal range for up to 10 days," Gu said.

Currently, diabetes patients must take frequent blood samples to monitor their blood sugar levels and inject insulin as needed to ensure their blood sugar levels are in the "normal" range.

However, these injections can be painful, and it can be difficult to determine the accurate dose level of insulin. Administering too much or too little insulin poses its own health risks.

The new, injectable nano-network developed by researchers at North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Children's Hospital Boston, is composed of a mixture containing nanoparticles with a solid core of insulin, modified dextran and glucose oxidase enzymes.

When the enzymes are exposed to high glucose levels, they effectively convert glucose into gluconic acid, which breaks down the modified dextran and releases the insulin.

The insulin then brings the glucose levels under control. Gluconic acid and dextran are fully biocompatible and dissolve in the body.

Each of these nanoparticle cores is given either a positively charged or negatively charged biocompatible coating.

The positively charged coatings are made of chitosan, a material normally found in shrimp shells, while the negatively charged coatings are made of alginate, a material normally found in seaweed.

When the solution of coated nanoparticles is mixed together, the positively and negatively charged coatings are attracted to each other to form a "nano-network".

Once injected into the subcutaneous layer of the skin, the nano-network holds the nanoparticles together and prevents them from dispersing throughout the body.

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More than 80% of healthy Indians are vitamin D deficient: Diabetes Foundation of India

MUMBAI: We might live in a country full of sunshine but Indians are still deprived of the sunshine vitamin.

Vitamin D which is wrongly called so is a pro-hormone that influences the expression of more than 200 genes in the human body. Nearly every tissue in the human body has receptors of vitamin D, be it the brain, heart, skin, kidney, pancreas etc. Any deficiency of vitamin D in the human body is bound to affect normal functioning of all organs having Vitamin D receptors.

Vitamin D deficiency is fast becoming a global and national health concern. It is estimated that around 80% of the Indian population has Vitamin D levels less than normal. However, the bigger concern is that the population at large is not even aware of Vitamin D deficiency and its consequences.

One of India's leading diabetologists, Dr Banshi Saboo, founder of Diabetes Foundation of India, said, "Earlier, vitamin D was thought to be responsible for maintaining calcium homeostasis to prevent osteoporosis and maintain bone health. But, in the past decade, research has established the strong association of vitamin D deficiency in diabetes, immunity, asthma, TB, high blood pressure, neuro-muscular function, etc. Dr Saboo further added, "Low level of vitamin D is associated with higher incidence of type 2 diabetes and correcting Vitamin D deficiency improves insulin sensitivity and helps in better management of hyperglycaemia. Also vitamin D deficiency has been associated with high incidence of type 1 diabetes."

As the mother is the sole source of vitamin D substrate for her developing foetus, vitamin D status is very important during pregnancy. Maternal deficiency of vitamin D is linked with abnormal foetal growth and gestational diabetes. Sunscreen lotions, staying indoors, clothing habits, pollution and minimal exposure to direct sunlight (during the period of 10am to 3pm) are the major reasons of such widespread deficiency in the Indian population.

An eminent endocrinologist from Mumbai, Dr Manoj Chadha said that vitamin D deficiency has no defined signs or symptoms. "People who complain of back pains, unexplained muscle pains, general fatigue are the most likely to be vitamin D deficient. Vitamin D deficiency can be easily corrected by Vitamin D supplementation or some lifestyle changes. In a vitamin D deficient person, oral 60,000 IU per week for 8 weeks followed by maintenance dose of 60,000 IU per month is a reasonably safe method to correct the deficiency."

Although there are few major studies carried out in India to determine the optimum (sufficient) levels of serum vitamin D 25(OH) D to be maintained to prevent chronic ailments, globally there is a consensus that vitamin D deficiency is defined as serum 25(OH) D levels less than 20 ng/ml and insufficiency as serum 25(OH) D less than 30 ng/ml. Whereas, serum 25(OH) D levels above 30 ng/ml is found to be sufficient.

Given the fact that vitamin D receptors are present in various organs and tissues of the human body, maintaining vitamin D levels in blood above 30 ng/ml may ensure normal functioning of the body organs and protect many from suffering from chronic ailments.

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Scientist says he found meteorite that hit Earth in 1908

MOSCOW: A Russian researcher has claimed to have discovered fragments of the largest celestial body to hit the Earth in recorded history - in 1908 -though he has waited for 23 years before going public with the findings.

Three stones found by Andrei Zlobin of the Vernadsky State Geological Museum at the Russian Academy of Sciences in central Siberia may have been part of the so-called Tunguska meteorite that exploded over the area in 1908, he said in a report on Arxiv.org.

Though the Tunguska blast was 1,000 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945, scientists have failed to find any fragments of the celestial body that caused it.

A popular theory puts the Tunguska event down to an ice asteroid or comet that exploded in the atmosphere and evaporated without a trace.

But Zlobin said that he found several fragments of the Tunguska bolide during a 1988 expedition to the area where the event took place.

Three stone bodies found on the shoal of the Khushmo river near the impact site have traces of melting and regmaglypts, or indentations formed during a meteorite's passing through the atmosphere, he said.

The samples, which are still pending a chemical analysis, were mothballed until 2008, Zlobin said, without elaborating on the reasons.

Russian academia suffered a dramatic decline after the Soviet Union's demise in 1991 due to lack of funding.

Even if their link to the Tunguska event is confirmed, the samples would not necessarily disprove the ice comet theory because the comet's nucleus could have contained small stone bodies, the study said.

It added that calculations show the Tunguska object had density comparable to that of the nucleus of Halley's Comet, made up of ice and dust.

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Nasa to study atmospheric storms that disrupt satellites

WASHINGTON: A Nasa-funded sounding rocket mission will help better understand and predict the electrical storms in Earth's upper atmosphere, which can interfere with satellite communication and global positioning signals.

The mission, called Equatorial Vortex Experiment (EVEX) will launch two rockets for a twelve-minute journey through the equatorial ionosphere from an atoll in the Pacific in the next few weeks.

The launch window for the mission from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands is from April 27 to May 10, 2013.

The ionosphere is a crucial layer of charged particles surrounding our planet. This layer serves as the medium through which high frequency radio waves - such as those sent down to the ground by GPS satellites or any satellite communicating with Earth - travel.

The ionosphere begins about 96.5 km above the ground and is filled with electrons and ions, alongside the more familiar extension of our electrically neutral atmosphere.

Governed by Earth's magnetic field, high-altitude winds, and incoming material and energy from the Sun, the ionosphere can be calm in certain places or times of day, and quite turbulent at others.

This area of the ionosphere is known for calm days and tempestuous nights, times when the ionosphere becomes rippled like a funhouse mirror, disturbing radio signals, and introducing GPS errors of a half mile or more.

The two rockets will measure events in two separate regions of the ionosphere to see how they work together to drive the ionosphere from placid and smooth to violently disturbed.

Such information could ultimately lead to the ability to accurately forecast this important aspect of space weather.

"We're looking at the two highest regions of the equatorial ionosphere, called the E and F regions," said Erhan Kudeki, the principal investigator for the mission at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

"Violent ionospheric storms can occur in the equatorial F-region a few hours after sunset and if we can better understand what causes these storms, we'll be able to better mitigate their effects on communication and navigation systems," Kudeki said.

The mission team will wait for the first signs of turbulence developing before launching both rockets.

The research goal is to study whether turbulence at sunset in the E-region of the ionosphere could serve as a warning of storms in the higher F-region an hour or two later.

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Scientists develop nanoparticles for diabetics

BOSTON: US researchers have engineered nanoparticles for diabetics capable of releasing insulin in the blood thereby to help maintain normal blood sugar levels, says a study.

In a promising development for diabetes treatment, researchers have developed a network of nanoscale particles that can be injected into the body and release insulin when blood-sugar levels rise, maintaining normal blood sugar levels for more than a week in animal-based laboratory tests.

The work was done by researchers at North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Children's Hospital Boston, reports Science Daily.

"We've created a 'smart' system that is injected into the body and responds to changes in blood sugar by releasing insulin, effectively controlling blood-sugar levels," says Dr. Zhen Gu, lead author of a paper describing the work and an assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and UNC Chapel Hill.

"We've tested the technology in mice, and one injection was able to maintain blood sugar levels in the normal range for up to 10 days."

The new, injectable nano-network is composed of a mixture containing nanoparticles with a solid core of insulin, modified dextran and glucose oxidase enzymes.

When the enzymes are exposed to high glucose levels they effectively convert glucose into gluconic acid, which breaks down the modified dextran and releases the insulin.

The insulin then brings the glucose levels under control. The gluconic acid and dextran are fully biocompatible and dissolve in the body.

Each of these nanoparticle cores is given either a positively charged or negatively charged biocompatible coating.

The positively charged coatings are made of chitosan (a material normally found in shrimp shells), while the negatively charged coatings are made of alginate (a material normally found in seaweed).

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Mars calling: Send your name, three-line poem

WASHINGTON: Want to be a part of space exploration history ? Nasa is inviting public to submit their names, short poems and personal messages on-line for a DVD to be carried aboard a spacecraft that will study the Martian atmosphere. The DVD will carry every name submitted. The public also is encouraged to submit a message in the form of a three-line poem, or haiku, Nasa said.

However, only three haikus will be selected. The deadline for all submissions is July 1. An on-line public vote to determine the top three messages to be placed on the DVD will begin on July 15. The DVD will be in Nasa's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, which is scheduled for launch in November this year.

The DVD is part of the mission's 'Going to Mars Campaign' coordinated at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP).

"The Going to Mars campaign offers people worldwide a way to make a personal connection to space, space exploration , and science in general, and share in our excitement about the MAVEN mission," said Stephanie Renfrow, lead for the MAVEN Education and Public Outreach programme at CU/LASP.

Participants who submit their names to the campaign will be able to print a certificate of appreciation to document their involvement with the MAVEN mission.

"This new campaign is a great opportunity to reach the next generation of explorers and excite them about science , technology, engineering and math," said Bruce Jakosky , MAVEN principal investigator from CU/LASP. "I look forward to sharing our science with the worldwide community as MAVEN begins to piece together what happened to the Red Planet's atmosphere ," Jakosky said.

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Forever young: Key to halt aging found

LONDON: Scientists may have found the "fountain of aging" . They claim that the hypothalamus — a small region of the brain that plays a fundamental role in growth, development, reproduction and metabolism — holds the key to slowing down the rate of aging throughout the body.

Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York have successfully slowed down the rate of aging in mice by tweaking chemical messengers that affect the hypothalamus.

Their study was published in the journal 'Nature'.

By manipulating the levels of the molecule, known as NF-kB , within the hypothalamus , the researchers were able to slow down the rate of aging and increase longevity of mice. Activating the NF-kB pathway in the hypothalamus of mice significantly accelerated the development of aging. The mice showed a decrease in muscle strength and size, in skin thickness, and in their ability to learn — all indicators of aging.

"Activating this pathway promoted systemic ageing that shortened the lifespan," scientists said. Conversely, they found that blocking the NF-kB pathway in the hypothalamus of mouse brains slowed aging and increased median longevity by about 20%, compared to controls.

"It's clear from our study that many aspects of aging are controlled by the hypothalamus ," said senior author Dongsheng Cai, professor of molecular pharmacology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

"What's exciting is that it's possible — at least in mice — to alter signalling within the hypothalamus to slow down the aging process and increase longevity."

"As people age," he said, "you can detect inflammatory changes in various tissues. Inflammation is also involved in various age-related diseases , such as metabolic syndrome , cardiovascular disease , neurological disease and cancer." To find out how the hypothalamus might affect aging, Dr Cai decided to study hypothalamic inflammation by focusing on a protein complex NF-kB (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells).

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Image shows turbulent birth of stars

BERLIN: The European Southern Observatory, or ESO, released an image Thursday that shows the intense activity that occurs inside an interstellar cloud when stars form.

The image was captured by the 1.54-meter Danish telescope at the ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile and shows the intense activity inside an interstellar cloud.

"The gas in the clouds of NGC 6559, mainly hydrogen, is the raw material for star formation. When a region inside this nebula gathers enough matter, it starts to collapse under its own gravity. The center of the cloud grows ever denser and hotter, until thermonuclear fusion begins and a star is born," the ESO said in a statement.

The hot and brilliant young stars born in the interstellar cloud energize the hydrogen gas remaining around them in the nebula, the ESO said.

"The gas then re-emits this energy, producing the glowing threadlike red cloud seen near the center of the image. This object is known as an emission nebula," the ESO said.

Solid dust particles made of heavier elements, such as carbon, iron and silicon, are also found inside NGC 6559.

"The Milky Way fills the background of the image with countless yellowish older stars. Some of them appear fainter and redder because of the dust in NGC 6559," the ESO said.

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NASA satellite captures spectacular eruption on Sun

WASHINGTON: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite has captured video images of a massive explosion that erupted Wednesday from the edge of the sun.

The explosion, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), can shoot over a billion tonnes of particles into space at more than one million miles per hour (1.6 million km per hour), NASA said on its website.

None of the particles shot into space are expected to impact Earth as the CME is headed in a different direction, the US space agency said.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory was launched in February 2010 and is designed to fly for five years, although many satellites developed by NASA continue to operate long past their estimated expiration date.

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Scientists discover chemical that triggers aging

NEW YORK: A team of scientists including one Indian may have cracked the mystery of aging, according to a study published in the scientific journal 'Nature' on Wednesday. They discovered a chemical dubbed NF-B in a small gland in the brain of mice which appears to trigger off the aging process. This discovery could open the doors for combating diseases of old age and extending lifespan.

The scientists work at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York. Led by Dongsheng Cai, professor of molecular pharmacology, the team includes Sudershana Purkayastha, a post-doctoral investigator from Kolkata.

"It's clear from our study that many aspects of aging are controlled by the hypothalamus. What's exciting is that it's possible - at least in mice - to alter signalling within the hypothalamus to slow down the aging process and increase longevity," said Dongsheng Cai in a statement.

The hypothalamus, an almond-sized structure located deep within the brain, is known to have fundamental roles in growth, development, reproduction, and metabolism.

"As people age," he said, "you can detect inflammatory changes in various tissues. Inflammation is also involved in various age-related diseases, such as metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, neurological disease and many types of cancer." Over the past several years, Dr Cai and his research colleagues showed that inflammatory changes in the hypothalamus can give rise to various components of metabolic syndrome (a combination of health problems that can lead to heart disease and diabetes).

Their work revealed that a protein complex called NF-B seemed to be involved in a key way in inflammation. In the current study, Dr Cai and his team demonstrated that increasing the activity of NF-B in mice significantly accelerated the development of aging.

"The mice showed a decrease in muscle strength and size, in skin thickness, and in their ability to learn - all indicators of aging. Activating this pathway promoted systemic aging that shortened the lifespan," Dr Cai said according to a college statement.

Conversely, Dr Cai and his group found that blocking the NF-B pathway in the hypothalamus of mouse brains slowed aging and increased median longevity by about 20 percent, compared to controls, the statement added.

The findings are "A major breakthrough in ageing research," according to David Sinclair, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, 'Nature' reported.

He says that a key finding is that blocking the effects of NF-B produced anti-aging effects even when it was done in middle age. "If we're going to translate this research into medicines that can help people, clearly we cannot start very early in life."

Still, it is a long way to go before the research can be made available for humans. Extensive research will have to be done on mice and then on humans, to clearly establish that the same pathway works in humans. However, scientists see this as a breakthrough because it is for the first time that a particular chemical pathway has been pinned down.

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Genetic cause for migraines discovered

WASHINGTON: A US scientist, who suffered from crippling migraines as a child, has found the gene flaw that causes the condition, paving way for better treatments for unpredictable and pounding headaches.

As a teenage student athlete, Emily Bates hated never knowing when the next migraine would strike, disrupting her schoolwork, practises and competitions.

The Brigham Young University chemistry professor identified mutations in a gene that makes people more susceptible to migraine headaches.

The study is the first demonstration of a genetic cause for the common migraine and is an important step in the search for a cure.

"I had migraines really frequently and severely," Bates said.

"I would lose my vision, vomit uncontrollably - it would wipe out an entire day. I decided then as a high school student that I was going to work on migraines, that I was going to figure them out and help find a cure," Bates said.

A team of geneticists led by Louis Ptacek at UC San Francisco's medical school worked with two families that appeared to have a dominantly inherited form of the affliction.

The researchers zeroed in on genetic mutations these families had in common - mutations that affect production of a protein known as casein kinase delta.

To test whether this was a cause or a coincidence, Bates designed an experiment to determine whether the same genetic trait led to migraine symptoms in mice.

"All sensations become amplified with migraines, including touch, heat, sound and light," said Bates.

The researchers observed this heightened sensitivity in the migraine mice in very subtle ways - from the warmth of a tiny light and the pressure of a single hair-like filament.

"It's a molecular clue. Now we can try to figure out what this specific protein affects in the body and how that is involved with migraines," Bates said.

"There haven't been a lot of people working on migraine research, mostly because it's so complex and unpredictable," Bates said.

The study was published in journal Science Translational Medicine.

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Two-year-old girl gets windpipe made from own stem cells

CHICAGO: In a pioneering surgery, a two-year-old girl born without a windpipe has become the youngest patient ever to have the vital organ successfully grown from her own stem cells.

Hannah Warren has been unable to talk, swallow or eat on her own since she was born in South Korea in 2010. She lived her whole life in an intensive care unit with a breathing tube.

In a nine-hour surgery last month at a central Illinois hospital, the bio-engineered windpipe was placed inside Hannah. When she woke up after the operation she was breathing on her own for the first time in her life.

Hannah's medical team custom-designed a tube using tiny plastic fibers. It was then bathed in stem cells taken from her bone marrow to promote tissue growth, 'CBS News' reported.

Three weeks after the surgery, she's active and able to even taste her first lollipop. Doctors believe in a few months, she will be able to go home for the first time and may even be able to talk.

The device is made from her own cells, so there is little danger of Hannah's body rejecting it.

Moreover, what makes this technology so exciting is the promise of being able to manufacture organs in a matter of weeks without waiting for a donor.

Her parents, Darryl and Young-mi Warren were told Hannah would not live past age six.

"Hannah didn't have a chance. There was no hope. We were waiting for her to die essentially," said Darryl.

Her only hope was an artificial windpipe; an experimental device which had been tried in only five other patients, none in the US, and none of them were children.

"Lately it's just been kind of fun kind of watching her to learn how to live without a tube hanging out of her mouth.

"So now her lips are together she's learning about her environment with two new senses, before she never tasted and she never smelled," said Dr Mark Holterman, one of Hannah's surgeons.

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Shirt that can be worn for 100 days without being washed

NEW YORK: Who needs laundry? A US company claims to have developed an incredible shirt that can be worn for 100 days straight without needing a wash or ironing.

Manufacturers claim the wool-blended shirt remains wrinkle-free and resists odour so effectively that it even smells fresh after being worn during rigorous exercise.

"We wanted to create the perfect staple shirt for a modern wardrobe, which is why we have developed the oxford solid blue fabric and a small navy and blue gingham check pattern," the company said on its website.

The US company Wool & Prince claims that people can wear their wool button-down shirts for days on end without them wrinkling, smelling or showing any dirt, 'Gizmodo' reported.

Testers recruited by the company all claim that no matter what they do, the shirts look fresh from the dry cleaner all the time.

The company says wool is six times more durable than cotton plus it naturally fights wrinkles and odours and no chemical finishes are needed.

A video also shows the company's founder Mac Bishop wearing the shirt for 100 days and talking to people on the street, who all respond favourably.

The material for the shirts is woven out of fine wool thread and there's a lot of "Wool Science" about temperature, wicking, thread dynamics and cotton comparison.

Wool&Prince is six days into a Kickstarter and is already collecting for stretch goals because it has exceeded the initial USD 30,000 target.

The shirts are USD 98 each, which might be worth it if there's really no dry cleaning or washing needed for months at a time, the report said.

"We stuck to what everyone wants for the shirt they can wear everyday. A simple button-down collar, clean cuffs with pleats, and standard back pleats and yoke to ensure great fit," the website said.

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Body's internal clock triggers late-night snacking

WASHINGTON: A recent study has found that the body's internal clock, the circadian system, increases hunger and cravings for sweet, starchy and salty foods in the evenings.

While the urge to consume more in the evening may have helped our ancestors store energy to survive longer in times of food scarcity, in the current environment of high-calorie food, those late night snacks may result in significant weight gain.

"Of course, there are many factors that affect weight gain, principally diet and exercise, but the time of eating also has an effect. We found with this study that the internal circadian system also likely plays a role in today's obesity epidemic because it intensifies hunger at night," said Steven Shea, Ph.D., director for the Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology at Oregon Health and Science University and senior author on the study.

"People who eat a lot in the evening, especially high-calorie foods and beverages, are more likely to be overweight or obese," he stated.

Indeed, eating a lot in the evening can be counterproductive since the human body handles nutrients differently depending on the time of day. For example, sugar tolerance is impaired in the evening. Additionally, consuming more calories in the evening predisposes people to more energy storage; we simply don't expend as much energy after an evening meal in comparison to morning meals.

Furthermore, artificial light enables people to stay up later than they probably should and often people don't get enough sleep.

"If you stay up later, during a time when you're hungrier for high-calorie foods, you're more likely to eat during that time. You then store energy and get less sleep, both of which contribute to weight gain," Shea said.

Conducted by Shea and two Boston-area researchers, Frank Scheer, Ph.D. and Christopher Morris, Ph.D. of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the study examined the appetite and food preference of 12 healthy non-obese adults throughout a 13-day laboratory stay in very dim light in which all behaviors were scheduled, including timing of meals and sleep.

Dr. Scheer, first author on the study, explained that "by the end of this long protocol, all of the participants' meals and activities were spaced evenly across the day and night, allowing examination of the true internal circadian effects on appetite, while controlling for other effects on appetite including the amount of food recently consumed."

The researchers found that the internal circadian system regulated hunger, with participants feeling the least hungry in the morning (8am) and most hungry in the evening (8pm.).

Similar rhythms were found in appetite for types of food, such as sweet, starchy and salty, and the estimate of how much food participants could eat.

The study concluded that the internal circadian system causes an evening peak in appetite that may promote larger, higher-calorie meals before the fasting period necessitated by sleep.

The study is published in the most recent version of the journal Obesity.

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