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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 27, 2015 at 9:53am

Smartphone Use Appears to Change How Brains and Thumbs Interact
Tapping a handheld device for emails and texts may lead to alterations in neurological activity
Typing text messages, scrolling web pages, and checking your email on your smartphone could be changing the way your thumbs and brain interacts, new research hints.

Dr. Arko Ghosh, of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland, led the research which involved using electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the cortical brain activity in 37 right-handed people, 26 of whom were touchscreen Smartphone users and 11 users of old-fashioned cellphones.
Electrical activity in the brains of smartphone users was shown to be enhanced when all three fingertips were touched, the researchers report in a paper online now in Current Biology.
According to research student Magali Chytiris, activity in the cortex of the brain associated with the thumb and index fingertips was directly proportional to the intensity of phone use, as quantified by built-in battery logs. The results suggest that repetitive movements over the touchscreen surface reshape sensory processing from the hand, with daily updates in the brain's representation of the fingertips. Cortical sensory processing in the contemporary brain is continuously shaped by personal digital technology..

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 27, 2015 at 7:29am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 26, 2015 at 9:30am

People who have suffered serious head injuries show changes in brain structure resembling those seen in older people, according to a new study. Researchers at Imperial College London analysed brain scans from over 1,500 healthy people to develop a computer program that could predict a person's age from their brain scan. Then they used the program to estimate the "brain age" of 113 more healthy people and 99 patients who had suffered traumatic brain injuries.

The brain injury patients were estimated to be around five years older on average than their real age.

Head injuries are already known to increase the risk of age-related neurological conditions such as dementia later in life. The age prediction model may be useful as a screening tool to identify patients who are likely to develop problems and to target strategies that prevent or slow their decline.
There was also a correlation between time since injury and predicted age difference, suggesting that these changes in brain structure do not occur during the injury itself, but result from ongoing biological processes, potentially similar to those seen in normal ageing, that progress more quickly after an injury.

"Traumatic brain injury is not a static event. It can set off secondary processes, possibly related to inflammation, that can cause more damage in the brain for years afterwards, and may contribute to the development of Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia" according to the researchers.
"Prediction of brain age suggests accelerated atrophy after traumatic brain injury"
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.24367/abstract;jsess...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 23, 2015 at 7:57am

Biodegrading of plastics is not working!
When the late Arizona paleontologist William Rathje dug up garbage from deep in landfill sites, he discovered that, even after many years of being buried underground, chicken bones still had meat on them, grass was still green, and that carrots still retained their orange color. If all that organic material had survived the landfill process, what chance is there of plastics biodegrading?
This is a big problem for the management of garbage disposal facilities, landfills, and composting sites around the world. In recent years several companies have being marketing additives which they claim will accelerate the decomposition process. A new study from Michigan State University has evaluated the claims and came to a simple and very blunt conclusion; additives to biodegrade plastics just don’t work.
These additives are supposedly able to break down polyethylene, a common constituent of plastic bags, and polyethylene terephthalate, used in the manufacturing of soda bottles. But the MSU tests found that in normal disposal situations, these additives are completely ineffective.
The three-year study concentrated on five specific additives. Three different types of biodegradation were examined: biodegradation with oxygen, such as composting, biodegradation without oxygen, such as in an anaerobic digester or a landfill, and simply burying the plastics.
According to the researchers, recycling, tighter legislation, and improved production methods are more preferred alternatives.

The results have been published in the current issue of Environmental Science and Technology.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 20, 2015 at 8:08am

'survival of the fittest' no more?
According to a new study it is the wealth that is behind the decline in number of reproducing males!
Researchers have discovered a dramatic decline in genetic diversity in male lineages four to eight thousand years ago -- likely the result of the accumulation of material wealth.

This male-specific decline occurred during the mid- to late-Neolithic period while, in contrast, female genetic diversity was on the rise.

"Instead of 'survival of the fittest' in biological sense, the accumulation of wealth and power may have increased the reproductive success of a limited number of 'socially fit' males and their sons," said lead study author Melissa Wilson Sayres from Arizona State University.

It is the survival of the richest  not the fittest!

“Having a high level of genetic diversity is beneficial to humans for several reasons”. “… When the genes of individuals in a population vary greatly, the group has a greater chance of thriving and surviving – particularly against disease.  This trend may also reduce the likelihood of passing along unfavorable genetic traits, which can weaken a species over time.”

The study was published online in the journal Genome Research.

A recent bottleneck of Y chromosome diversity coincides with a global change in culture

http://genome.cshlp.org/content/early/2015/03/13/gr.186684.114#fn-1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 19, 2015 at 8:33am

Language of gene switches unchanged across the evolution
The language used in the switches that turn genes on and off has remained the same across millions of years of evolution, according to a new study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The findings, which are published in the scientific journal eLife , indicate that the differences between animals reside in the content and length of the instructions that are written using this conserved language.
Each gene has a regulatory region that contains the instructions controlling when and where the gene is expressed. These instructions are written in a language often referred to as the 'gene regulatory code'. This code is read by proteins called transcription factors that bind to specific ‘DNA words’ and either increase or decrease the expression of the associated gene.

The gene regulatory regions differ between species. However, until now, it has been unclear if the instructions in these regions are written using the same gene regulatory code, or whether transcription factors found in different animals recognise different DNA words.

In the current study, the researchers used high throughput methods to identify the DNA words recognised by more than 240 transcription factors of the fruit fly, and then developed computational tools to compare them with the DNA words of humans.
Tiny fruit flies look very different from humans, but both are descended from a common ancestor that existed over 600 million years ago. Differences between animal species are often caused by the same or similar genes being switched on and off at various times and in different tissues in each species.
In the new study, it has been observed that, in spite of more than 600 million years of evolution, almost all known DNA words found in humans and mice were recognised by fruit fly transcription factors.
The researchers also noted that both fruit flies and humans have a few transcription factors that recognise unique DNA words and confer properties that are specific to each species, such as the fruit fly wing. Likewise, transcription factors that exist only in humans operate in cell types that do not exist in fruit flies. The findings suggest that changes in transcription factor specificities contribute to the formation of new types of cells.

The study of fundamental properties of gene switches is important in medicine, as faulty gene switches have been linked to many common diseases, including cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e04837

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 19, 2015 at 7:36am

Long-term decline of the Amazon carbon sink
Amazon rainforest losing capacity to soak up CO2
The Amazon rainforest may be approaching the limit of how much excess carbon dioxide it can capture from the atmosphere.

A global research effort, led by scientists from the University of Leeds, has revealed a one-third decline in the rainforest' growth overall, according to a paper published today in Nature.

This could have significant implications for global carbon dioxide levels, as the rainforest previously absorbed up to two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, converting it into biomass.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v519/n7543/full/nature14283.html

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 19, 2015 at 6:42am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 19, 2015 at 6:17am

Look, your eyes are wired backwards: here’s why
The human eye is optimised to have good colour vision at day and high sensitivity at night. But until recently it seemed as if the cells in the retina were wired the wrong way round, with light travelling through a mass of neurons before it reaches the light-detecting rod and cone cells. New research presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society has uncovered a remarkable vision-enhancing function for this puzzling structure.
Researchers in Leipzig found that glial cells, which also span the retinal depth and connect to the cones, have an interesting attribute. These cells are essential for metabolism, but they are also denser than other cells in the retina. In the transparent retina, this higher density (and corresponding refractive index) means that glial cells can guide light, just like fibre-optic cables.
These results mean that the retina of the eye has been optimised so that the sizes and densities of glial cells match the colours to which the eye is sensitive (which is in itself an optimisation process suited to our needs). This optimisation is such that colour vision during the day is enhanced, while night-time vision suffers very little. The effect also works best when the pupils are contracted at high illumination, further adding to the clarity of our colour vision.
https://theconversation.com/look-your-eyes-are-wired-backwards-here...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 19, 2015 at 6:06am

The latest Research advance published by eLife is a study by Syenina et al. The authors have discovered that, when a person is infected by the dengue virus for a second time, antibodies specific to the dengue virus interact with mast cells lining our blood vessels and enhance vascular leakage. The study builds upon earlier research looking into why a small percentage of infected individuals go on to suffer from dengue hemorrhagic fever. They find that the vascular leakage triggered by this hemorrhagic fever is triggered by mast cells indicating a potential new treatment target.
http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e05291#sthash.LI0mDyAD.dpuf?utm_...

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