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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 27, 2023 at 1:27pm

Link Between Vitamin D And Psoriasis Severity

Vitamin D deficiency or lower vitamin D levels are associated with a significant increase in the severity of psoriasis, according to new research on nearly 500 cases, one of the largest studies yet. These findings suggest people with the irritating skin condition that affects millions of people may benefit from vitamin D-rich foods or supplements. Psoriasis is an immune-mediated disease characterized by an abnormally fast turnover of skin cells, and its exact cause is unclear. It's thought to arise from a genetic predisposition triggered by environmental factors. Anyone who experiences its chronic buildup of dead cells, which causes itchy, scaly patches, knows psoriasis can be painful and involve more than just physical health. Some people even wrongly assume it's contagious. Scientists think vitamin D plays a role in preventing the progression of skin diseases by modulating the immune response and acting directly on the skin's repair cells. The researchers used self-reported psoriasis-affected body surface area to measure the severity of the disease in each individual. They also collected data on vitamin D levels from blood samples. After adjusting the data to account for lifestyle factors like age, gender, race, BMI, and smoking habits, the analysis found that people with lower vitamin D levels had significantly more severe psoriasis. Those with more psoriasis-affected body surface area had lower average vitamin D levels. On the other hand, the less affected someone's skin was by psoriasis, the higher their average vitamin D levels were. This relationship suggests that vitamin D might affect how psoriasis develops and progresses. Vitamin D deficiency has been previously linked with an increased risk of depression and COVID-19 mortality, while supplementation, when levels are inadequate, may reduce heart attack risk and ease depressive symptoms.

The study has been presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, NUTRITION 2023.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 27, 2023 at 10:37am

Egg 'signatures' allow drongos to identify cuckoo 'forgeries' almost every time, study finds

African cuckoos may have met their match with the fork-tailed drongo, which scientists predict can detect and reject cuckoo eggs from their nest on almost every occasion, despite them on average looking almost identical to drongo eggs.

Fork-tailed drongos, belligerent birds from sub-Saharan Africa, lay eggs with a staggering diversity of colors and patterns. All these colors and patterns are forged by the African cuckoo. Through natural selection, the African cuckoo's eggs have evolved to look almost-identical to drongo eggs—a rare example of high-fidelity mimicry in nature.

African cuckoos lay their eggs in drongos' nests to avoid rearing their chick themselves (an example of so-called brood parasitism). By forging drongo egg colors and patterns, cuckoos trick drongos into thinking the cuckoo egg is one of their own.

But drongos use knowledge of their own personal egg "signatures"—their eggs' color and pattern –to identify cuckoo egg "forgeries" and reject them from their nests, say scientists. These "signatures" are like the signatures we use in our daily lives: unique to each individual and highly repeatable by the same individual.

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Researchers 

found that despite near-perfect mimicry of fork-tailed drongo eggs, African cuckoo eggs still have a high probability of being rejected.

Researchers carried out field work in the Choma district of Zambia during September to November across four years. The first step was to measure the differences in color and pattern of the fork-tailed drongo eggs and cuckoo eggs. The team found that the color and pattern of cuckoo eggs was, on average, almost identical to that of drongo eggs, and that all the broad types of drongo egg signatures were forged by the cuckoos.

The second step involved "egg rejection" experiments in which the researchers simulated cuckoo visits by "parasitizing" drongo nests with foreign eggs from other drongo nests (as a proxy for African cuckoo eggs). They then checked the nest daily to see whether the drongo parents accepted the foreign egg as one of their own, or realized it was an imposter and rejected it by removing it from their nest. The team could then test what differences in color and pattern between the foreign egg and the drongo's own eggs best predicted whether or not the drongo parents were tricked.

By combining results from both steps of the study, the researchers were able to create a model that predicted how often, on average, an African cuckoo would have its eggs rejected by a fork-tailed drongo host. They found the predicted rate of rejection to be 93.7%.

Additional simulations show this is likely due to drongos having evolved 'signatures' on their eggs. Even though cuckoos have evolved excellent 'forgeries,' individual cuckoos don't target individual drongo nests that match their own eggs. This means that for each cuckoo  egg laid, the likelihood that it will be a good enough match to that drongo's 'signature' is very low."

Lund et al. When perfection isn't enough: host egg signatures are an effective defence against high-fidelity African cuckoo mimicry, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1125. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi … .1098/rspb.2023.1125

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 26, 2023 at 12:32pm

Gloomy climate calculation: Scientists predict a collapse of the Atlantic ocean current to happen mid-century

Important ocean currents that redistribute heat, cold and precipitation between the tropics and the northernmost parts of the Atlantic region will shut down around the year 2060 if current greenhouse gas emissions persist. This is the conclusion based on new calculations from the scientists that contradict the latest report from the IPCC.

Contrary to what we may imagine about the impact of climate change in Europe, a colder future may be in store. In a new study, published in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Niels Bohr Institute and Department of Mathematical Sciences predict that the system of ocean currents which currently distributes cold and heat between the North Atlantic region and tropics will completely stop if we continue to emit the same levels of greenhouse gases as we do today.

Using advanced statistical tools and ocean temperature data from the last 150 years, the researchers calculated that the ocean current, known as the Thermohaline Circulation or the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), will collapse—with 95% certainty—between 2025 and 2095. This will most likely occur in 34 years, in 2057, and could result in major challenges, particularly warming in the tropics and increased storminess in the North Atlantic region. "Shutting down the AMOC can have very serious consequences for Earth's climate, for example, by changing how heat and precipitation are distributed globally. While a cooling of Europe may seem less severe as the globe as a whole becomes warmer and heat waves occur more frequently, this shutdown will contribute to an increased warming of the tropics, where rising temperatures have already given rise to challenging living conditions.

"This result underscores the importance of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible," says the researchers.

The calculations contradict the message of the latest IPCC report, which, based on climate model simulations, considers an abrupt change in the thermohaline circulation very unlikely during this century.

Peter Ditlevsen, Warning of a forthcoming collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39810-w. www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39810-w

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 25, 2023 at 12:48pm

Dementia risk linked to protein imbalance
Abnormal levels of certain proteins — most of which have functions unrelated to the brain — could be an early hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. In a decades-long study of more than 10,000 people, unbalanced levels of 32 proteins during middle age were strongly associated with an elevated chance of developing dementia in later life. Some of the proteins showed changes only in blood plasma but not in brain tissue, which suggests that “mechanisms below the neck could also play a role”, says neurologist Nicholas Seyfried.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.adf5681

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 25, 2023 at 12:25pm

Psychological study suggests arithmetic is biologically-based and a natural consequence of our perception

Everyone knows that 2 + 2 = 4, but why do we have arithmetic in the first place, and why is it true?  have recently answered these questions by "reverse engineering" arithmetic from a psychological perspective. To do this, they considered all possible ways that quantities could be combined, and proved (for the first time in mathematical terms) that addition and multiplication are the simplest.

Their proof is based on four assumptions—principles of perceptual organization—that shape how we and other animals experience the world. These assumptions eliminate all possibilities except arithmetic, like how a sculptor's work reveals a statue hidden in a block of stone.

Monotonicity is the idea of "things changing in the same direction," and helps us keep track of our place in the world, so that when we approach an object it looms larger but smaller when we move away. Convexity is grounded in intuitions of betweenness. For example, the four corners of a football pitch define the playing field even without boundary lines connecting them. Continuity describes the smoothness with which objects seem to move in space and time. Isomorphism is the idea of sameness or analogy. It's what allows us to recognize that a cat is more similar to a dog than it is to a rock.

Taken together, these four principles structure our perception of the world so that our everyday experience is ordered and cognitively manageable.

The implications, explained in a paper in Psychological Review, are far-reaching because arithmetic is fundamental for mathematics and science. They suggest arithmetic is biologically-based and a natural consequence of our perception. Mathematics is thus a realization in symbols of the fundamental nature of the mind, and as such both invented and discovered. The seemingly magical success of mathematics in the physical sciences hints that our mind and the world are not separate, but part of a common unity.

Matt Grice et al, The psychological scaffolding of arithmetic., Psychological Review (2023). DOI: 10.1037/rev0000431

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 25, 2023 at 12:20pm

The cost of being a non-native English speaker in science

English serves as a convenient, common language for science. However, this practice poses insurmountable barriers to those whose first language is not English—the majority of people around the world.

According to research published on July 18 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, the disadvantages of being a non-native English speaker in science range from difficulties in reading and writing papers to reduced participation in international conferences.

Few studies to date have quantified the manifold costs of being a non-native English speaker in science. Researchers surveyed 908 environmental scientists from eight countries with different linguistic and economic backgrounds, and compared the amount of effort required by individual researchers to conduct a variety of scientific activities in English.

The survey revealed clear and substantial disadvantages for non-native English speakers. Compared to native English speakers, non-native English speakers need up to twice as much time to read and write papers and prepare presentations in English. Papers written by non-native English speakers are 2.5 times more likely to be rejected and 12.5 times more likely to receive a request for revision, simply due to the written English. Many of them also give up attending and presenting at international conferences because they are not confident communicating in English.

These findings have important implications for global efforts to create a more inclusive academia where anyone can thrive and shine. The authors found that these disadvantages disproportionately affect those at an early career stage and from lower income countries. Unless we break down these barriers, the authors argue, we won't be able to achieve fair participation for non-native English speakers in science, nor can we expect contributions to science from those whose first language happens to be a language other than English.

The researchers point out that countless people must have given up their scientific careers because of language barriers.

The real, bigger picture issue is that we have done almost nothing as a community, and instead relied on individuals' own efforts to tackle this problem.

With this in mind, the paper also proposes potential solutions, which range from supervisors recognizing the difficulties faced by their students, to journals providing free English editing, and funders offering financial support to efforts working towards overcoming language barriers.

"To date, being fluent in English has been a ticket to enter the world of academia," according to these researchers. "We must abandon this old system. Anyone in any part of the world should be able to participate in science and contribute to accumulating humanity's knowledge", they conclude.

 Amano T, Ramírez-Castañeda V, Berdejo-Espinola V, Borokini I, Chowdhury S, Golivets M, et al. The manifold costs of being a non-native English speaker in science, PLoS Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002184. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/ … journal.pbio.3002184

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 25, 2023 at 9:38am

Deadly dust: Engineered stone is making workers sick

Workers making artificial-stone slabs for the most popular type of countertops  are developing a potentially deadly, irreversible lung disease from tiny particles of toxic dust, researchers found in the largest study of this emerging health crisis.

When the synthetic quartz is cut, ground and polished, lung-damaging dust is released into the air, leading to a disease called silicosis. The disease has plagued miners and cutters of natural stone for centuries, but the engineered stone is far more dangerous due to its high concentration of silica, a natural product in sandstone, and the harmful polymer resins and dyes that are added to the engineered product.

This growing occupational hazard has been sickening and claiming the lives of workers, predominantly young Latino men, at an alarming rate since the first U.S. silicosis case due to engineered stone was reported in 2015, according to the study published in the July 24, 2023, edition of JAMA Internal Medicine.

JAMA Internal Medicine (2023). jamanetwork.com/journals/jamai … ainternmed.2023.3295

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 23, 2023 at 11:34am

Very polite fish form queues in emergencies, new study finds

 Selfish humans push through one another to ensure their own survival – only to make everything worse. One very sensible species of fish forms queues to avoid exactly this issue, according to a new study.

When evacuating through narrow spaces, schools of neon tetra fish (Paracheirodon innesi) queue so that they don’t collide or clog up the line.

Researchers interpret this behaviour as respecting the social rules even in an emergency situation.  

Humans, like sheep, tend to quickly forget about social rules when they encounter a stressful situation, and rather adopt a selfish behaviour.

In the wild, neon tetra fish have to navigate around rocks in the rivers they swim along. To test how they do this when moving in large groups, a team of scientists from the University Grenoble Alpes, France, put the fish in a tank with narrow openings leading to other compartments.

These openings ranged in size from 1.5 to 4cm: not much bigger than the size of the fish themselves, which are 3cm long and 0.5cm wide.

The scientists then moved a fishing net through the tank and observed groups of 30 neon tetra fish as they evacuated through these openings.

The team were surprised to see that the fish gathered around the openings before passing through them – managing to avoid physical contact and clogging so that they could pass through at a constant rate.

The study marks the first time an experiment on crowd movements has focused on group evacuations in water. Previous observations have focused on animals that walk on 2D, solid surfaces.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-36869-9?utm_medium=affil...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 22, 2023 at 10:45am

This is an optical illusion.

The secret behind the confusing images is “reverse engineering”.

Devon, from 3D printing company Make Anything, proved that one side of each cylinder is shaped like a square and the other is more circular.

“Two of the sides are arching upwards, while the other two dip downwards and that basically ‘corrects’ this hybrid ‘squircle’ into either a square or a circle by compensating in opposite directions, which means it blends back into a square or circle when the true shape is right in between.

https://youtube.com/shorts/rVWQoGZeVOg?feature=share

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 22, 2023 at 10:36am

The role of ribosomes in the development of new treatments

The human body consists of trillions of cells, and 60% of the energy used within a cell is dedicated to a specific molecular machine. That machine is responsible for producing proteins, which are fundamental building blocks of the body.

The molecular machine is called a ribosome. The ribosome's task is to create proteins based on a copy of the genetic code found in the genome, known as mRNA. Until now, scientists thought that the ribosome performed the same type of work with all mRNA, like a standardized assembly line that it did not regulate on its own.

However, researchers now have discovered that this is not the case.

It has long been known that there are different types of ribosomes. But it has been assumed that no matter what mRNA you give the ribosome, it will produce a protein. But the new results suggest that different types of ribosomes produce specific proteins.

Scientists found that cancer cells have different ribosomes compared to other cells, and that was the basis for this new discovery. The paper based on this work is published in the journal Developmental Cell.

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