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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 16, 2021 at 7:04am

There's a Link Between Air Pollution And Irreversible Vision Loss, Study Reveals

Air pollution could cloud your vision in later life, according to a large study that found a link between fine particle air pollution and macular degeneration, an age-related eye disease that can lead to irreversible blindness.

The findings serve as a clear reminder of the many ways that air pollution can be harmful to our health, even though it's still early days for this research.  

The biggest public health concerns about poor air quality circle around pollutants such as particulate matter (dust, soot, and more), ground-level ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and other gases, which are emitted from motor vehicles, heavy industry, and wood fires.

Fine particles, called PM_2.5 for short, are especially concerning. These microscopic particles less than 2.5 micrometres in size can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, causing inflammation around the body.

Repeated exposure to pollutants like these can irritate people's eyes and throat, cause breathing difficulties. Furthermore, ambient air pollution accounts for 43 percent of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and for over a quarter of all deaths from lung cancer, heart disease, or stroke.

In this study, the focus was on age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition where a person's vision worsens with age, leading to increased vision loss and potentially even blindness.

The disease is linked to leaky blood vessels in the back of the eye and small blobs of fat and protein that build up on the macula, the part of the eye at the centre of the retina. Genetics and being a smoker are amongst the main risk factors for this condition.

What the study found is that people who were exposed to higher levels of fine particle air pollution had higher rates of self-reported AMD.

Exposure to other pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide but not coarse particulate matter, was also associated with changes in retina thickness, detected on imaging.

But don't be swayed by the big numbers alone. Only a tiny fraction of people were actually diagnosed with AMD during the study – and remember, while this observational study can bring our attention to trends and patterns observed across a population, it can't establish a cause. 

The researchers suggest that air pollution may affect the eye in a roundabout way through inflammation and oxidative stress, two defence mechanisms where the body is fighting against foreign material and trying to detoxify chemical species, respectively. But more research will be required to examine that plausible link.

https://bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2021/01/11/bjophthalmol-2020-316218

https://www.sciencealert.com/air-pollution-linked-to-deteriorating-...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 15, 2021 at 12:10pm

scientists develop urine test to detect womb cancer

scientists announced on Friday they had developed a test to detect womb cancer using urine samples, explaining the method could replace a painful and invasive procedure currently in use.

At present, clinicians diagnose the cancer by taking a biopsy, a process which requires a narrow telescope called a hysteroscope, to examine inside of the uterus and remove cells.

Nearly a third of women who undergo the procedure have the process repeated because of technical difficulties or intolerable pain, the research showed.

 developed a new detection tool which examines urine or vaginal samples that can be collected by women on their own at home.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, showed analysis of the samples correctly diagnosed 91.7 percent of women with womb cancer.

The proportion of women without womb cancer who tested negative with the new tool was 88.9 percent, the study showed. The results show that womb cancer cells can be detected in urine and vaginal samples using a microscope.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21257-6

https://researchnews.cc/news/5144/UK-scientists-develop-urine-test-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 15, 2021 at 12:04pm

LaserFactory: Fabricating fully functional devices

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 15, 2021 at 11:39am

South Africa coronavirus variant identified in reinfection case

Patient critical after reinfection with S.African variant: study

 Doctors in France are treating a critically ill patient infected with the South African coronavirus variant, four months after he recovered from Covid-19, in what study authors said was the first case of its kind. The 58-year-old man had a history of asthma and initially tested positive for Covid-19 in September when he presented to medical staff with a fever and shortness of breath. The symptoms persisted only for a few days, and the man tested negative for Covid-19 twice in December 2020. However, he was admitted to hospital in January and diagnosed with the South African variant. The patient's condition worsened, and he is currently in a "critical condition" on a ventilator. "This is, to our knowledge, the first description of reinfection with the South African (variant) causing severe Covid-19, four months after a first mild infection," said authors of a study published this week in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant emerged late last year in South Africa and immediately provoked alarm among disease specialists.

It has eight key mutations, one of which affects the virus' spike protein, making it more effective at binding to human cells and therefore more infectious.

Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna say their mRNA vaccines retain their effectiveness against the South African variants and another that emerged last year in Britain.

However a study last week showed that AstraZeneca's vaccine failed to prevent mild and moderate cases of infection of the South African variant.

"The impact of 501Y.V2 mutations on the effectiveness of vaccines developed based on earlier SARS-CoV-2 strains is still unknown," said the authors of the reinfection study.

https://www.mdlinx.com/news/patient-critical-after-reinfection-with...

https://researchnews.cc/news/5146/Patient-critical-after-reinfectio...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 15, 2021 at 11:09am

Elderly show fewer post-vaccine symptoms than young: Study

The elderly, who bore the brunt of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, have reacted with fewer symptoms after taking the vaccine against Covid-19 as compared to people in the 20-40 age group. This was the broad observation across India 29 days after the vaccination drive started on January 16.

With eight million healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated across the country by the end of Saturday, there are a range of observations that doctors’ associations and groups have made. For instance, most manage to make it to work despite suffering post vaccine symptoms, ranging from fatigue and headache to nausea. The majority of those vaccinated have some postvaccine symptom.

Also, women are more likely than men to develop symptoms. The milder-symptoms-foraged theory has been confirmed by a study of 5,396 healthcare workers put together by the Kochi branch of the Indian Medical Association. Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, head of the epidemiology cell of Kochi IMA who conducted the study, said 947 of the respondents were over 60 years of age.

The Kochi study, based on an online survey conducted between January 29 and February 4, also found that 66% of those vaccinated reported at least one post-inoculation symptom. The most reported symptoms were tiredness (45%), myalgia (44%), fever (34%), headache (28%), local pain at the infection site (27%), joint pain (12%), nausea (8%) and diarrhoea (3%).

The sharpest finding concerns the elderly who have accounted for almost 70% of mortalities caused by Covid-19 across the world. Infectious diseases specialist, Dr Tanu Singhal, from Kokilaben Ambani Hospital in Mumbai said, “People who are older have tolerated the vaccine better than younger people.”

The chance of having symptoms decreased with advancing age. Older people also had later onset of symptoms, occurring at an average of 13.4 hours (70-79 years), compared to 10 hours in younger age groups (20-29 years) following vaccination.

 About 80% of those who took the vaccine said the symptoms didn’t affect their work the next day. “Women were more likely to develop post-vaccination symptoms. This observation was consistent across all age groups,” said the study, which is in pre-print stage.

A sticky topic has been the reaction among recovered Covid-19 patients who took the vaccine: while some doctors said recovered patients showed more symptoms after the vaccine, the study from Kochi hasn’t found this.

https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/diagnostics/elderl...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 15, 2021 at 10:03am

Astronomers confirm orbit of most distant object ever observed in our solar system

A team of astronomers, including associate professor Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona University's Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, have confirmed a planetoid that is almost four times farther from the Sun than Pluto, making it the most distant object ever observed in our solar system. The planetoid, which has been nicknamed "Farfarout," was first detected in 2018, and the team has now collected enough observations to pin down its orbit. The Minor Planet Center has now given it the official designation of 2018 AG37.

Farfarout's nickname distinguished it from the previous record holder "Farout," found by the same team of astronomers in 2018. 

Farfarout's average distance from the Sun is 132 astronomical units (au); 1 au is the distance between the Earth and Sun. For comparison, Pluto is only 39 au from the Sun. The newly discovered object has a very elongated orbit that takes it out to 175 au at its most distant, and inside the orbit of Neptune, to around 27 au, when it is close to the Sun.

Farfarout's journey around the Sun takes about a thousand years, crossing the massive planet Neptune's orbit every time. This means Farfarout has likely experienced strong gravitational interactions with Neptune over the age of theA single orbit of Farfarout around the Sun takes a millennium. Because of this long orbital, it moves very slowly across the sky, requiring several years of observations to precisely determine its trajectory. solar system, and is the reason why it has such a large and elongated orbit. Farfarout is very faint, and based on its brightness and distance from the Sun, the team estimates its size to be about 400 km across, putting it on the low end of being a dwarf planet, assuming it is an ice rich object.

https://www.space.com/farfarout-most-distant-solar-system-object-co...

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-astronomers-orbit-distant-solar.html?...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 15, 2021 at 9:58am

Astronomers confirm orbit of most distant object ever observed in o...

A team of astronomers, including associate professor Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona University's Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, have confirmed a planetoid that is almost four times farther from the Sun than Pluto, making it the most distant object ever observed in our solar system. The planetoid, which has been nicknamed "Farfarout," was first detected in 2018, and the team has now collected enough observations to pin down its orbit. The Minor Planet Center has now given it the official designation of 2018 AG37.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 15, 2021 at 9:46am

Never Google Your Symptoms

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 14, 2021 at 11:56am

Protein behind corona’s slow Asia spread: Study

Deficiency in a particular human protein, which is more common in Europe and the United States than in Asia, could explain why coronavirus is not spreading as fast in Asian countries. The team has explained how higher levels of a human protein — neutrophil elastase — helps the virus to enter the human cell, multiply and also spread faster from infected individuals.

Deficiency in a particular human protein, which is more common in Europe and the United States than in Asia, could explain why coronavirus is not spreading as fast in Asian countries.

A team of scientists from the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in WB, have found a biological reason for the slower spread of a mutant of coronavirus in Asia compared to the West. The team has explained how higher levels of a human protein — neutrophil elastase — helps the virus to enter the human cell, multiply and also spread faster from infected individuals.

However, this protein is kept in check by the biological system, which produces another protein called alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT). AAT deficiency leads to higher levels of neutrophil elastase in the cells, which in turn helps in faster spread of the virus. This deficiency is known to be much higher in Europe and America than among Asians. The study has been published in the journal, Infection, Genetics and Evolution

As per their data, AAT deficiency is the least in East Asian countries — 8 per 1,000 individuals in Malaysia, 5.4 per 1,000 in South Korea, 2.5 in Singapore. On the other hand, 67.3 in per 1,000 individuals in Spain are AAT deficient, 34.6 in the UK and 51.9 in France and in the US it is prevalent in 29 individuals among 1,000.

The numbers are representative of other Asian regions too, including India.

The researchers emphasized that this finding along with other social factors may explain the differential geographical/ethnic spread of the mutant virus.

https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/protein-b...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 13, 2021 at 10:21am

World First BMW Self Driving Motorbike Demo Live Video 2019 BMW Vision R1200 Autonomous Motorbike V

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