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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 21, 2021 at 10:22am

Omega-3 supplements do double duty in protecting against stress

A high daily dose of an omega-3 supplement may help slow the effects of aging by suppressing damage and boosting protection at the cellular level during and after a stressful event, new research suggests.

Researchers found that daily supplements that contained 2.5 grams of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, the highest dose tested, were the best at helping the body resist the damaging effects of stress.

Compared to the placebo group, participants taking omega-3 supplements produced less of the stress hormone cortisol and lower levels of a pro-inflammatory protein during a stressful event in the lab. And while levels of protective compounds sharply declined in the placebo group after the stressor, there were no such decreases detected in people taking omega-3s.

The supplements contributed to what the researchers call stress resilience: reduction of harm during stress and, after acute stress, sustained anti-inflammatory activity and protection of cell components that shrink as a consequence of aging.

Annelise A. Madison et al. Omega-3 supplementation and stress reactivity of cellular aging biomarkers: an ancillary substudy of a randomized, controlled trial in midlife adults, Molecular Psychiatry (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-021-01077-2

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-omega-supplements-duty-stres...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 21, 2021 at 10:18am

Flushing a public toilet? Don't linger, because aerosolized droplets do

Flushing a toilet can generate large quantities of microbe-containing aerosols depending on the design, water pressure or flushing power of the toilet. A variety of pathogens are usually found in stagnant water as well as in urine, feces and vomit. When dispersed widely through aerosolization, these pathogens can cause Ebola, norovirus that results in violent food poisoning, as well as COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2.

Respiratory droplets are the most prominent source of transmission for COVID-19, however, alternative routes may exist given the discovery of small numbers of viable viruses in urine and stool samples. Public restrooms are especially cause for concern for transmitting COVID-19 because they are relatively confined, experience heavy foot traffic and may not have adequate ventilation.

A team of scientists put physics of fluids to the test to investigate droplets generated from flushing a toilet and a urinal in a public rest room under normal ventilation conditions. To measure the droplets, they used a particle counter placed at various heights of the toilet and urinal to capture the size and number of droplets generated upon flushing.

Results of the study, published in the journal Physics of Fluids, demonstrate how public restrooms could serve as hotbeds for airborne disease transmission, especially if they do not have adequate ventilation or if toilets do not have a lid or cover. 

The droplets were detected at heights of up to 5 feet for 20 seconds or longer after initiating the flush. Researchers detected a smaller number of droplets in the air when the toilet was flushed with a closed lid, although not by much, suggesting that aerosolized droplets escaped through small gaps between the cover and the seat.

Jesse H. Schreck et al, Aerosol generation in public restrooms, Physics of Fluids (2021). DOI: 10.1063/5.0040310

Using a public restroom? Mask up!

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-flushing-toilet-dont-linger-aerosoliz...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 20, 2021 at 10:10am

Russian scientists discover a new gene regulation mechanism

A team of scientists from Russia studied the role of double-stranded fragments of the maturing RNA and showed that the interaction between distant parts of the RNA can regulate gene expression. The research was published in Nature Communications.

At school, we learn that DNA is double-stranded and RNA is single-stranded, but that is not entirely true. Scientists have encountered many cases of RNA forming a double-stranded (a.k.a. secondary) structure that plays an important role in the functioning of RNA molecules. These structures are involved in the regulation of gene expression, where the double-stranded regions typically carry specific functions and, if lost, may cause severe disorders. A double-stranded structure is created by sticky complementary regions. For the strands to stick to each other, U and G should appear opposite A and C, respectively. The majority of the sticking regions are located close to one another, but the role of those located far apart has not been well understood.

Scientists from the Skoltech Center for Life Sciences (CLS) led by professor Dmitri Pervouchine and their colleagues from Russian and international laboratories used molecular and bioinformatics techniques to analyze the structure and roles of complementary RNA regions spaced far apart but capable of forming secondary structures. It transpired that the secondary structure plays an important role in the maturation of information-carrying RNA molecules and particularly in splicing, a process in which non-coding regions are cut out, and the coding regions are stitched together. The team showed that the RNA secondary structures can regulate splicing and thus contribute strongly to gene regulation.

"This paper culminates years of research on the RNA secondary structure and its role in the regulation of gene expression. We have published an extensive computation-based catalog of potentially important RNA structures, but the experimental research in this direction is just starting", professor Pervouchine comments.

Web: https://www.skoltech.ru/en.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/sios-rsd041921.php

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 20, 2021 at 9:47am

Study finds humans are directly influencing wind and weather over N...

A new study led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science provides evidence that humans are influencing wind and weather patterns across the eastern United States and western Europe by releasing CO2 and other pollutants into Earth's atmosphere.

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Ocean currents modulate oxygen content at the equator

Due to global warming, not only the temperatures in the atmosphere and in the ocean are rising, but also winds and ocean currents as well as the oxygen distribution in the ocean are changing. For example, the oxygen content in the ocean has decreased globally by about 2% in the last 60 years, particularly strong in the tropical oceans. However, these regions are characterized by a complex system of ocean currents. At the equator, one of the strongest currents, the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC), transports water masses eastwards across the Atlantic. The water transport by the EUC is more than 60 times larger than that of the Amazon river.

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When stars get too close to each other, they cast out interstellar ...

In October 2017, humanity caught its first-ever glimpse of an interstellar object—a visitor from beyond our solar system—passing nearby the sun. We named it "Oumuamua, and its unusual properties fascinated and confounded astronomers. Less than two years later, amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov found a second interstellar object: a comet-like body that began to disintegrate as it passed within 2 AU of the sun (1 AU equals the distance from Earth to the sun). Where do these interstellar objects come from? How common are they? With a sample size of just two, it's difficult to make any generalizations just yet. On the other hand, given what we know about star formation, we can begin to make some inferences about the likely origins of these objects, and what we are likely to see of them in the future.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 20, 2021 at 9:47am

Brazil nut mystery - part 2

The team captured the unique imaging experiment on video showing the temporal evolution of the nut mixture in 3D. Peanuts are seen to percolate downwards whilst three larger Brazil nuts are seen to rise upwards. The first Brazil nut reaches the top 10% of the bed height after 70 shear cycles, with the other two Brazil nuts reaching this height after 150 shear cycles. The remaining Brazil nuts appear trapped towards the bottom and do not rise upwards.

Critically, the orientation of the Brazil nut is key to its upward movement. It 's found that the Brazil nuts initially start horizontal but do not start to rise until they have first rotated sufficiently towards the vertical axis. Upon reaching the surface, they then return to a flat orientation.

This study highlights the important role of particle shape and orientation in segregation. Further, this ability to track the motion in 3D will pave the way for new experimental studies of segregating mixtures and will open the door to even more realistic simulations and powerful predictive models. This will allow us to better design industrial equipment to minimize size segregation thus leading to more uniform mixtures. This is critical to many industries, for instance ensuring an even distribution of active ingredients in medicinal tablets, but also in food processing, mining and construction.

Scientific Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-87280-1

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-scientists-brazil-nut-puzzle-largest-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 20, 2021 at 9:45am

Scientists crack 'the Brazil-nut' puzzle, how do the largest nuts rise to the top?

Scientists have for the first time captured the complex dynamics of particle movement in granular materials, helping to explain why mixed nuts often see the larger Brazil nuts gather at the top. The findings could have vital impact on industries struggling with the phenomenon, such as pharmaceuticals and mining.

Many people will have the experience of dipping their hands into a bag of mixed nuts only to find the Brazil nuts at the top. This effect can also be readily observed with cereal boxes, with the larger items rising to the top. Colloquially, this phenomenon of particles segregating by their size is known as the 'Brazil-nut effect' and also has huge implications for industries where uneven mixing can critically degrade product quality.

Now, for the first time, scientists at The University of Manchester have used time-resolved 3D imaging to show how the Brazil nuts rise upwards through a pile of nuts. The work shows the importance of particle shape in the de-mixing process.

A common difficulty with examining granular materials is following what happens to particles on the inside of the pile, which cannot easily be seen. This new research published in the journal Scientific Reports makes a key breakthrough in our understanding by utilizing advanced imaging techniques at the new National Research Facility for Lab-based X-ray Computed Tomography (NXCT)

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 20, 2021 at 9:40am

Study reveals the workings of nature's own earthquake blocker

A new study finds a naturally occurring "earthquake gate" that decides which earthquakes are allowed to grow into magnitude 8 or greater.

Sometimes, the "gate" stops earthquakes in the magnitude 7 range, while ones that pass through the gate grow to magnitude 8 or greater, releasing over 32 times as much energy as a magnitude 7.

Researchers learned about this gate while studying New Zealand's Alpine Fault, which they determined has about a 75 percent chance of producing a damaging earthquake within the next 50 years. The modeling also suggests this next earthquake has an 82 percent chance of rupturing through the gate and being magnitude 8 or greater. These insights are now published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Jamie D. Howarth et al, Spatiotemporal clustering of great earthquakes on a transform fault controlled by geometry, Nature Geoscience (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-021-00721-4

Researchers' work combined two approaches to studying earthquakes: evidence of past earthquakes collected by geologists and computer simulations run by geophysicists. Only by using both jointly were the researchers able to get new insight into the expected behavior of future earthquakes on the Alpine Fault.

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-reveals-nature-earthquake-blocker.htm...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 20, 2021 at 9:35am

Researchers find snake venom complexity is driven by prey diet

Diversity in diet plays a role in the complexity of venom in pit vipers such as rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouths. Right?NO!

Now scientists found that the number of prey species a snake ate did not drive venom complexity. Rather, it was how far apart the prey species were from each other evolutionarily. It's not just diet that drives the variation in venom across snakes. It's the breadth of diet.

If a snake eats 20 different species of mammals, its venom will not be very complex. But if it eats a centipede, a frog, a bird and a mammal, it's going to have a highly complex venom because each component of that venom is affecting something different in one of the different animals the snake is feeding upon."

The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the findings in a paper titled "Phylogenetically diverse diets favor more complex venoms in North American pit vipers."

The research could lead to better anti-venoms and serve as a dietary database for other snake researchers.

 Matthew L. Holding el al., "Phylogenetically diverse diets favor more complex venoms in North American pitvipers," PNAS (2021). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2015579118

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-snake-venom-complexity-driven-prey.ht...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 20, 2021 at 8:49am

Earth's biggest mass extinction took ten times longer on land than in the water

Our planet's worst mass extinction event happened 252 million years ago when massive volcanic eruptions caused catastrophic climate change. The vast majority of animal species went extinct, and when the dust settled, the planet entered the early days of the Age of Dinosaurs. Scientists are still learning about the patterns of which animals went extinct and which ones survived, and why. In a new study in PNAS, researchers found that while extinctions happened rapidly in the oceans, life on land underwent a longer, more drawn-out period of extinctions.

Pia A. Viglietti el al., "Evidence from South Africa for a protracted end-Permian extinction on land," PNAS (2021). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2017045118

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Part of why scientists had looked to the marine extinctions for clues as to what happened on land is that there's a more complete fossil record of life underwater. If you want to become a fossil, dying by water, where your body will rapidly get covered by sediment, is a good way to make that happen. As a result, paleontologists have known for a while that 252 million years ago a mass extinction hit at the end of the Permian period, and within 100,000 years, more than 85% of the species living in the ocean went extinct. And while that seems like a long time to us, that's very quick in geologic time. The marine version of the end-Permian extinction took up 100,000 years out of the entire 3,800,000,000 years that life has existed—the equivalent to 14 minutes out of a whole year.

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-earth-biggest-mass-extinction-ten.htm...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 19, 2021 at 8:35am

Researchers create light waves that can penetrate even opaque materials

Why is sugar not transparent? Because light that penetrates a piece of sugar is scattered, altered and deflected in a highly complicated way. However, as a research team from TU Wien (Vienna) and Utrecht University (Netherlands) has now been able to show, there is a class of very special light waves for which this does not apply: for any specific disordered medium—such as the sugar cube you may just have put in your coffee—tailor-made light beams can be constructed that are practically not changed by this medium, but only attenuated. The light beam penetrates the medium, and a light pattern arrives on the other side that has the same shape as if the medium were not there at all.

This idea of "scattering-invariant modes of light" can also be used to specifically examine the interior of objects. The results have now been published in the journal Nature Photonics.

This method of finding light patterns that penetrate an object largely undisturbed could  be used for imaging procedures. "In hospitals, X-rays are used to look inside the body—they have a shorter wavelength and can therefore penetrate our skin. But the way a light wave penetrates an object depends not only on the wavelength, but also on the waveform.

Pritam Pai et al. Scattering invariant modes of light in complex media, Nature Photonics (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41566-021-00789-9

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-penetrate-opaque-materials.html?utm_s...

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