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58 per cent willing to accept LoC as permanent border

May 29, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Jammu, May 28 — A myth has been exploded that the people in Kashmir were against making Line of Control as permanent border between two parts of Jammu and Kashmir. A survey by a UK based think tank has discovered that 58 per cent of the people were in favour of that.

Those surveyed on either side of the 744-km LoC that divides the Himalayan state between India and Pakistan said that the LoC be made a permanent border, but with lot of relaxation on the borderline. Robert Bradrock, a visiting senior research fellow at King’s College, London in his study, “Kashmir: Paths to Peace “for Chatham House, where he works as an associate fellow, that a majority of the people were in favour of the LoC being made permanent border.

“Overall, a majority of the total population, 58 per cent were prepared to accept the LoC as a permanent border if it could be liberalized for people and/or trade to move across it freely, and a further 27 per cent were in favour of it in its current form.” This survey vindicates Kashmir leaders like Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah, who since 1990s has been advocating the line.

He has been pleading for making the LoC as a permanent border. Farooq’s argument all along has been that “converting the LoC into a permanent border was the best solution to Kashmir crisis.

” It had also formed a critical part of former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf’s four point formula on Kashmir-making the borders irrelevant. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had proposed of LoC merely a “line on the map”.

The study which addressed a series of questions, including the approach of the people of this state toward becoming independent, joining India or Pakistan, found out from among 3,774 respondents on both sides of the LoC..

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: associate fellow, best solution, Chatham House, college london, Himalayan State, India and Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmir, manmohan, Manmohan Singh, pakistan president pervez musharraf, Pervez Musharraf, president pervez musharraf, prime minister manmohan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, renewable energy, research fellow, s college, total population, Union Minister

Dads enjoy less with kids than mums

May 20, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Melbourne, May 20 (ANI): Dads not only spend less time with their kids, they don’t even enjoy that time as much as mums do, revealed new research.

Twice as many fathers say they “sometimes or less often” enjoy spending time with their children as do mothers, according to a report by the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

AIFS research fellow and the author of ‘The Best Start: Supporting Happy, Healthy Childhoods’, Jennifer Baxter said that when fathers were asked whether they enjoyed spending time with their children, 28 per cent said they “always or almost always” did, compared with 40 per cent of mothers.

In addition, 21 per cent of dads said they “sometimes or less often” enjoyed time spent with their kids, compared with 11 per cent for mums.

“Dads often have that added pressure of long work hours,” News.com.au quoted her as telling The Australian.

“They”re there in the mornings when time is so rushed and at dinner when there”s so much going on, so that stress of combining work with the hard parts of the family day may be spilling over into their level of enjoyment,” added Baxter.

Baxter said that part of the answer to why dads are less satisfied could be that they are more honest about it than mothers.

“There”s a very strong ethos that mothers must love and care and nurture their children. . . while fathers might be more inclined to admit when things aren”t going well,” she said. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Added Pressure, australian institute of family studies, Baxter, Hours News, Melbourne, news com au, research fellow, spending time, stress

Mental stress doesn’t distract young people behind the wheel

May 19, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 19 (ANI): A new study has shown that anxiety and depression do not play a role in teen motor vehicle accidents.

“Psychological distress does not appear to pose the risk we thought it did for motor vehicle crash in young people,” said lead author Alexandra Martiniuk, a senior research fellow at the George Institute for International Health at the University of Sydney in Australia.

The study followed 20,822 new drivers in New South Wales for two years. Participants from ages 17 to 24 reported whether they had symptoms of psychological distress, such as nervousness, restlessness, depression or sadness.

Researchers used police database records to link teens’ responses to future motor vehicle crashes.

During the study, 1,495 teens and young adults had one or more crashes and 289 had a single crash, but stress levels did not appear to raise a teen’s risk.

“No group of young drivers with psychological distress had an increased risk of crash. We did not find an increased risk of motor vehicle crash for young drivers who had severe psychological distress — a level of distress that correlates with a mental health diagnosis,” Martiniuk said.

In fact, teens with some anxiety or depression were 15 percent less apt to crash their vehicles over the two-year period, Martiniuk said.

The authors theorized that young drivers with symptoms of mild anxiety and depression might be less prone to take risks and more likely to be vigilant behind the wheel.

The study appears online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: anxiety and depression, correlates, Database Records, International Health, Journal Of Adolescent Health, Mental Health Diagnosis, mental stress, Mild Anxiety, motor vehicle accidents, Motor Vehicle Crash, Motor Vehicle Crashes, New South Wales, Police Database, psychological distress, research fellow, restlessness, stress levels, university of sydney, young adults, Young Drivers

Seven children hacked to death in China

May 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 12 (ANI): Pressure caused by modern social stress in China has resulted in yet another violent incident in which seven children were hacked to death and at least 20 others injured in a violent attack at a kindergarten school in Shaanxi Province on Wednesday morning.

It was the fifth such attack against school children in less than two months. The country has taken measures to boost campus security in recent weeks.

The incident happened at about 8 a.m. at a kindergarten in Nanzheng County of Hanzhong City, said Liu Xiaoming, a local publicity official.

“The injured have been rushed to hospital,” Xinhua quoted him, as saying.

On Monday, another such incident occurred in Shaanxi province in which a knife-wielding villager stabbed two women to death and injured seven other women and children.

Domestic and foreign experts said the recent killing sprees, together with a series of violent school attacks in the past two months, could possibly be the result of “modern social stress in China”.

Joshua Miller, chairman of the Social Welfare Policy and Services Sequence at Smith College of the United States, said: “The string of school attacks occur when society causes stress on people, like rapid social change, mass migrations, increasing disparities in wealth and weakening of traditions.”

Han Buxin, a research fellow with the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the attacks reflect stress and social conflicts that cannot be ignored.

Han said people suffering from mental disorders could also attack people, but the suspects in recent cases carefully planned their assaults. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Campus Security, chinese academy of sciences, disparities, Foreign Experts, Joshua Miller, Kindergarten School, Liu Xiaoming, Mass Migrations, Mental Disorders, Rapid Social Change, research fellow, smith college, Social Conflicts, social stress, Social Welfare Policy, villager, violent attack, violent incident, Violent School, xinhua

‘Irascible’ Chinese villager stabs nine women and children, 2 dead

May 11, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 11 (ANI): Just a day after a Chinese man killed eight people, another such incident occurred in Shaanxi province in which a knife-wielding villager stabbed two women to death and injured seven other women and children on Monday.

This is the seventh incident just over a month that young children have been attacked in China, a country where violent criminal attacks are relatively rare.

The latest killing spree in Shaanxi comes a day after a man killed eight people, including his mother, wife and daughter, in Jishui county of East China’s Jiangxi province.

The suspect, Song Rong, allegedly barged into houses in Songhiapo village in Wubao county of Yulin city and stabbed each person he came across, cnwest.com, an official provincial news portal, reported on Monday evening.

The youngest of Song’s victims was only 2 years old, the report said, citing unnamed sources. Song is now in police custody.

According to the villagers, Song is an “irascible man who has little personal contact with neighbors and often beat his family members”.

Song’s father allegedly left home to be a migrant worker to avoid his violent son and also persuaded Song’s wife and children to leave home, China Daily quoted the report, as saying.

Han Buxin, a research fellow with the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the attacks reflect stress and social conflicts that cannot be ignored.

Han said people suffering from mental disorders could also attack people, but the suspects in recent cases carefully planned their assaults. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: china daily, chinese academy of sciences, chinese man, east china, Foreign Experts, Jiangxi Province, Joshua Miller, killing spree, Mass Migrations, migrant worker, Personal Contact, police custody, Provincial News, Rapid Social Change, research fellow, Social Conflicts, social stress, Social Welfare Policy, unnamed sources, Violent School

US must push Pak to deal ‘unambiguously’ with terrorists targeting India, world: Curtis

May 5, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 5 (ANI): Even though Faisal Shehzad, who has been accused of plotting the failed Times Square bombing, has claimed that he was acting ‘alone’ and not on behalf of any terror organisation, US policymakers have their task cut out, which is to convince Pakistan to deal firmly and unambiguously with all extremist organisations operating from its soil, including the ones targeting India.

According to Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow for South Asia in the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, Washington must make Islamabad take tangible action against all extremist organisation operating from terror hot beds situated in the country’s lawless tribal regions.

Curtis stressed that Pakistan cannot make distinctions among terror groups, which it had been doing so far.

“The increasing fluidity and cross-pollination of the different terrorist groups in Pakistan makes it no longer possible to make distinctions between those groups targeting India and those targeting the rest of the world, including Pakistan itself,” Curtis said.

She noted that due to the fact that several terror attacks and plots in the US, Europe and India in the last five years have had a Pakistani link, the focus of the investigations needs to turn to Shahzad’s activities during his five-month stay in Pakistan, which may have been critical in both motivating and technically preparing him to carry out the attempted attack.

The case of David Coleman Headley, who scouted sites for November 2008 Mumbai attacks and was arrested in Chicago in October 2009, is a prime example of the need for U.S. investigators to run down leads inside Pakistan, Curtis said.

She, however, said that although it is too early to speculate on Shahzad’s connections to international terrorist networks, it is clear that the U.S. will need to work closely with Pakistan’s authorities to run down any leads inside that country. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: asian studies center, Attempted Attack, Cross Pollination, Curtis Washington, David Coleman, distinctions, extremist, fluidity, heritage foundation, India world, Mumbai, prime example, research fellow, rest of the world, south-asia, Tangible Action, terror attacks, terror groups, terrorist groups, times square

Cisco Brings Business Collaboration to the iPad With Cisco WebEx Meeting Center Available Immediately in the App Store

April 3, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

SAN JOSE, CA, Apr 02 (MARKET WIRE) —
Further enhancing the online meeting experience for participants, Cisco
(NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced Cisco WebEx Meeting Center for the Apple
iPad. This free business application allows participants to join and
engage in robust online meetings right from their iPad with a few simple
taps on the screen.

The Cisco WebEx application is available today via download from the App
Store. Once downloaded, participants easily engage in meetings by tapping
the meeting URL found in the email or calendar invitation. This
application provides users another way to benefit from today’s widespread
global WiFi access.

Facts/Highlights:

– Cisco WebEx Meeting Center for the iPad provides robust in-meeting
features that take full advantage of the iPad-optimized user
experience. Using animation, visual effects, user movements and touch,
the user experience is simple and intuitive.

– The in-meeting experience allows participants to view shared
presentations, applications and desktops. It also allows users to view
the meeting participant list, see who’s talking, and chat privately or
with all attendees using the chat window on the screen.

– Users can take advantage of Cisco WebEx VoIP audio directly from the
iPad or request a call-back on a phone for easy audio conferencing
with data sharing.

Supporting Quotes:

– “Plantronics is constantly pursuing solutions that enhance mobile
collaboration between our employees, partners and customers,” said
Steve Kjaer, IT Director, Plantronics. “With Cisco WebEx Meeting
Center on the iPad, people can quickly join a WebEx VoIP meeting to
present information and share applications from anywhere they might be
working.”

– “The Apple iPad with the availability of Cisco WebEx online meetings
makes a simple, but very powerful interface,” said Zeus Kerravala,
Distinguished Research Fellow at Yankee Group. “The trend of using
personal devices for business purposes is here to stay, moving from
tech savvy users to the mainstream. As a result, business productivity
will be able to reach new levels.”

– “This latest innovation continues to showcase Cisco’s ongoing
commitment to bringing the value of collaboration to users on their
device of choice,” said Debra Chrapaty, senior vice president and
general manager, Cisco Collaboration Software Group. “When a powerful
collaboration solution like Cisco WebEx Meeting Center for the iPad is
combined with an intuitive and WiFi enabled user experience,
businesses and users both win.”

Links:

– Podcast introducing Cisco WebEx Meeting Center for the iPad
– Cisco WebEx Meeting Center
– Cisco WebEx Meeting Center on the iPhone

Video:

Tap into your next WebEx meeting by tapping your Apple
mobile device:
www.webex.com/apple

Technorati Tags: Cisco, Cisco WebEx, Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, Apple,
Apple iPad, iPad, App Store, business collaboration, collaboration,
online meetings, web meetings

About Cisco Collaboration
From award-winning IP communications to
mobility, customer care, Web conferencing, messaging, enterprise social
software, and interoperable telepresence experiences, Cisco brings
together network-based, integrated collaboration solutions based on open
standards. These solutions, as well as services from Cisco and our
partners, help promote business growth, innovation and productivity. They
also help accelerate team performance, protect investments, and simplify
the process of finding the right people and information.

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking
that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, this
year celebrates 25 years of technology innovation, operational excellence
and corporate social responsibility. Information about Cisco can be found
at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to

http://newsroom.cisco.com.

Cisco, the Cisco logo, Cisco Systems, and Cisco TelePresence are
registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its
affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other
trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their
respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a
partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This
document is Cisco Public Information.

For direct RSS Feeds of all Cisco news, please visit “News@Cisco” at the
following link:

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html

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Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Apple Ipad, Audio Conferencing, Business Application, Business Collaboration, collaboration, csco, desktops, Distinguished Research, Kerravala, meeting, Meeting Center, nasdaq, Online Meeting, participants, Plantronics, research fellow, San Jose Ca, Screen Users, Share Applications, tapping, user experience, Visual Effects, Webex Online Meetings, Yankee Group, Zeus

Scientists unearth Australian T rex

March 27, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Australian scientists say they have discovered the first evidence that an ancestor of the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex once roamed across Australia.

The finding, published today in the journal Science, fills a major gap in the evolutionary history of T rex and overturns the theory the giant predator was a purely northern hemisphere animal.

It also puts a dampener on hopes of finding a unique Australian dinosaur, says Museum Victoria curator of vertebrate palaeontology Dr Tom Rich.

The discovery is based on a pubic bone found about 20 years ago at Dinosaur Cove, 220 kilometres west of Melbourne in Victoria.

It was made after Dr Rich took a number of isolated and unidentified bones overseas for identification.

Conspicuous feature

Lead author Dr Roger Benson, a research fellow in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge, says he instantly recognised one of the bones belonged to a coelurosaur.

Coelurosaurs are the group of mainly small-bodied, predatory dinosaurs that includes birds at one end and tyrannosaurs at the other, Dr Benson says.

He says the identification was initially based on “one conspicuous feature”.

Dr Benson says the far end of the pubic bone was expanded into a “boot” shape fore and aft, but was very narrow across.

“Basically, our [the Museum Victoria] pubis is almost identical to that of T rex, only much smaller,” Dr Benson said.

The new species, which Dr Rich says would have been about one-third to one-quarter the size of T rex, shares other features with the giant predator, including short arms and powerful jaws.

“It’s much more similar to T rex than one other tyrannosaur (Raptorex, from China) of slightly older age than ours,” Dr Benson said.

“We know Raptorex had a robust skull and small arms and we know that our new fossil is from a tyrannosaur even more closely related to T rex. Thus it’s most likely the general body plan of our new one was similar.”

Surge in discovery

Until recently the only known tyrannosaurs were those like T rex – giant predators from Asia and North America that lived about 70 million years ago, just before the Cretaceous mass extinction, says Dr Benson.

However in the past decade a “surge” in discoveries has revealed diverse types and body sizes in the tyrannosauroid family from up to 170 million years back in the Middle to Late Jurassic.

“It’s these discoveries, mostly man-sized or smaller, that have filled in the story of tyrannosaur evolution,” says Dr Benson.

“Since all discoveries have been from the northern hemisphere, tyrannosaurs have been considered as northern dinosaurs that might have just never made it down into the south.

“The new discovery shows that this is wrong and that 110 million years ago tyrannosaurs were probably global. This poses a question. Why did tyrannosaurs grow to giant size and dominance in the north, but apparently not in the south?”

Dr Rich says the new species of Tyrannosaurus also shows the likelihood of finding a unique Australian dinosaur is low.

“The picture that seems to be emerging is that dinosaurs were more or less cosmopolitan,” he says.

“We are getting elements that look like those found in the northern hemisphere and we haven’t found the dinosaur equivalent of the koala; we don’t seem to have a unique dinosaur.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Australia, australian dinosaur, Australian Scientists, ballarat-3350, Conspicuous Feature, dampener, dinosaur cove, dinosaurs, earth sciences, evolutionary history, first evidence, fossils, journal science, Major Gap, melbourne-3000, museum victoria, northern hemisphere, palaeontology, Predatory Dinosaurs, Pubic Bone, research fellow, science and technology, t-rex, Tyrannosaurs, tyrannosaurus rex, United Kingdom, university of cambridge, Vertebrate Palaeontology

Pentagon poised to raise bar for kicking out gays – officials

March 25, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates plans to announce on Thursday interim steps that would, in some cases, make it more difficult for gays to be kicked out of the military, defence officials said on Wednesday.

The directives are the result of a 45-day review of what the Pentagon can do in the short-term while Congress considers President Barack Obama’s call to repeal the existing “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bars homosexuals from serving openly in the U.S. military.

By Dec. 1, the Pentagon is expected to complete a more sweeping review of how any repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” could be implemented.

The interim changes to be ordered by Gates are expected to include raising the rank of those allowed to begin investigation procedures against suspected violators of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, officials said.

Gates is also expected to raise the bar for what constitutes “credible” information to start an inquiry, and to curb expulsions of servicemen and women “outed” by third parties, the officials said on condition of anonymity because an announcement has yet to be made.

The changes are fashioned to give commanders the leeway to enforce the existing prohibitions in a “fair and more appropriate manner,” a defence official said.

Another official said, “He’s going to order policy changes within the confines of the existing law to make the procedures less draconian right now.”

Critics say the Pentagon has been dragging its feet. It has opposed efforts advocated by some lawmakers to implement a moratorium or an outright repeal before the Pentagon’s nearly yearlong review is completed.

Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow at the Palm Center, a research institute of the University of California, Santa Barbara, said a full-fledged ban on third-party outings would be “substantial.”

“That could create a scenario where the world knows a servicemember is gay but the Pentagon continues to let her serve,” said Frank, a proponent of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

But Frank said it would be crucial to carefully review the wording of any changes in Pentagon enforcement, adding “the devil is in the details.”

Only about a fifth of discharges are the result of third-party outings, the rest by direct admissions by gay servicemembers, according to Palm Center research.

People who oppose allowing gays to serve openly in the military argue that doing so would harm morale, undermine unit cohesion and hurt good order and discipline in the ranks.

While the top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, has supported a repeal, several prominent officers and lawmakers have questioned lifting the ban at a time when the U.S. military is stretched by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Americans favour allowing gays to serve openly in the military by 57 percent to 36 percent, according to a recent poll by Quinnipiac University.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Will Dunham and Stacey Joyce)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Barack Obama, california santa barbara, defence officials, defence secretary, Expulsions, homosexuals, Interim Changes, Interim Steps, Investigation Procedures, leeway, Military Defence, moratorium, Outright Repeal, Policy Officials, prohibitions, research fellow, Robert Gates, secretary robert, university of california santa barbara, Violators

Aspirin a day ‘cuts breast cancer risk’

March 24, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, March 24 (ANI): A new study has shown that postmenopausal women who take aspirin and other analgesics (known as painkillers) regularly have lower estrogen levels, which could contribute to a decreased risk of breast or ovarian cancer.

“We observed some significant inverse associations between concentrations of several estrogens and the use of aspirin, aspirin plus non-aspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and all analgesics combined,” said Margaret A. Gates, Sc.D., research fellow at the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women”s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

“Our results suggest that among postmenopausal women, regular users of aspirin and other analgesics may have lower estrogen levels than non-users,” Gates added.

Gates and colleagues examined the association between use of aspirin, NSAIDs and acetaminophen and concentrations of estrogens and androgens among 740 postmenopausal women who participated in the Nurses” Health Study.

Frequency of all analgesic use was inversely associated with estradiol, free estradiol, estrone sulfate and the ratio of estradiol to testosterone.

Average estradiol levels were 10.5 percent lower among women who regularly used aspirin or non-aspirin NSAIDs. Similarly, free estradiol levels were 10.6 percent lower and estrone sulfate levels were 11.1 percent lower among regular users of aspirin or other NSAIDs.

Among regular users of any analgesic (aspirin, NSAIDs or acetaminophen), levels of these hormones were 15.2 percent, 12.9 percent and 12.6 percent lower, respectively, according to Gates.

These study results are published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Analgesics, Androgens, anti inflammatory drugs, Aspirin A Day, breast cancer, breast cancer risk, brigham and women, Cancer Epidemiology, cancer research, Channing Laboratory, estrogens, harvard medical school, health study, Lower Estrogen Levels, NSAIDs, nurses health, ovarian cancer, postmenopausal women, research fellow, s hospital

Aussie dads lead world in parenting

March 22, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Sydney, March 22 (ANI): Australian dads are better when compared to those in Italy, France or Denmark, says a study.

Lyn Craig, a senior research fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of NSW, found fathers Down Under worked harder than Danish, French or Italian ones and the same as Americans in terms of their long hours in paid work combined with their domestic labours.

For example, Australian fathers spend 10 to 11 hours a day in paid and domestic work as compared to eight hours for Danish men, according to researchers.

””They do less than Australian women but they compare favourably to men in some other countries,”” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Dr Craig as saying.

She added: ””Intensive parenting seems to be a phenomenon of Anglo countries. ”Australian men and women -but especially women – spend more time with their children than do parents in the other countries, with only the US coming close.”” (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Australian Men, australian women, countries, craig, Danish Men, Denmark, eight hours, italy france, lead, Lyn, men and women, morning herald, parenting, parents, phenomenon, research fellow, Social Policy Research Centre, sydney march, sydney morning herald

Early humans in Indonesia for 1 million years

March 19, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Scientists have discovered evidence that early humans were living on the Indonesian island of Flores at least one million years ago.

An archaeological dig has discovered stone tools that have pushed back the age that hominins were living on the island.

Now scientists are speculating that this mystery human may have evolved into the now famous hobbit of Flores.

Dr Adam Brumm, a research fellow at the Centre for Archaeological Science at the University of Wollongong, was part of a team that went to Indonesia to find out just how long humans have been living on Australia’s doorstep.

Their work is published today in the science journal Nature.

“We’ve found a site in the Soa Basin of Flores, which is in central Flores, which back dates the known occupation of early humans on the island by at least 120,000 years,” he said.

Dr Brumm and his colleagues dug up some primitive stone tools.

“The stone tools are in a deposit that are sealed by volcanic layers like ash, that are dated by the argon dating technique to one million years ago,” he said.

“We can’t go down any deeper so we now have absolutely no idea how long the hominins may have been on the island for. It could be two million years for all we know.”

Dr Brumm says the finding gives some credence to a theory that it was this mystery hominin that gave rise to the tiny human species that lived on Flores 18,000 homo floresiensis – better known as the hobbit.

“Recent studies based on certain characteristics of the feet, the brain, the skull, the hand, the arm and the shoulders of the hobbit are actually suggesting that it may well have evolved from a much earlier and a much more primitive human population then homo erectus,” he said.

“One postulation is in fact that this proposed new species may well have radiated out out Africa and reached south-east Asia as early as 1.8 to 2 million years ago.

“The door is certainly open to the possibility that this sort of unknown and mysterious new lineage of hominids may well have been present somewhere in south-east Asia and potentially on Flores at a extraordinarily early point in time.”

Dr Brumm hopes to find more evidence as he and his colleagues widen their search for human ancestors.

“There are 17,000 islands across Indonesia and we know that they must have been through this area,” he said.

“We’re literally dealing this with a pin prick or a glimmer of insight into what potentially could be out there.

“It is just mind boggling to think of what new discoveries may be made in south-east Asia of the next 50 years or so and what more we will be learning about the evolution of our kind.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Archaeological Science, archaeology, Argon, Australia, Central Flores, credence, doorstep, dr adam, early humans, Hobbit, hominin, human population, Human Species, Indonesia, Indonesian Island, Island Of Flores, lineage, One Million Years, Postulation, Primitive Stone Tools, research fellow, science and technology, Science Journal Nature, south east asia

Blocking protein may prevent smoke-induced lung damage

March 19, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, March 19 (ANI): A new research has found that blocking a certain protein can reduce or prevent cigarette smoke-induced lung inflammation in mice.

Inflammation results in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and many other smoking-related ailments.

Cigarette smoke triggers the release of Granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), which is linked to growth, activation and survival of leukocytes directly implicated in the pathogenesis of COPD.

It also causes activation and recruitment of more inflammatory cells into the lung, thereby perpetuating the inflammatory response and exacerbating ongoing inflammation.

These activated and recruited inflammatory cells also release proteases such as matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-12, which destroy the lung tissue, resulting in emphysema.

The researchers from the University of Melbourne set out to determine whether blocking GM-CSF could reduce the inflammation and other deleterious effects of cigarette smoke exposure in mice.

They exposed a group of mice, half of which had been treated with a GM-CSF blocking agent, anti-GM-CSF, and half of which were controls, to the equivalent of nine cigarettes of smoke each day for four days. At the end of four days, the mice were killed and their lung tissue was examined for the presence of inflammatory cells.

Lead researcher on the study, Ross Vlahos, a senior research fellow with the lung disease research group at the University of Melbourne, said:

“We found that anti-GM-CSF strongly reduced the number of potentially harmful white blood cells that infiltrate the lung after smoke exposure, as well as inhibiting the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-?, the chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2), which coordinates the movement of white blood cells into the lung. It also inhibited the protease MMP-12, which is known as one of the main enzymes able to destroy lung tissue.

“Cigarette smoke-exposed mice that were treated with an anti-GM-CSF had significantly less lung inflammation in comparison to untreated mice. This indicates that GM-CSF is a key mediator in smoke-induced lung inflammation and its neutralization may have therapeutic implications in diseases such as COPD.”

He added: “Short-term models often translate into benefits in longer-term models. We still need to develop new methods and agents to test this idea long term and we also need to learn if it is effective in reversing longstanding disease.

Now, Dr. Vlahos plans to test whether GM-CSF could be a key target in other disease processes.

He concluded: “We want to understand exactly how blocking GM-CSF alters disease processes at the cellular and molecular levels so we can use this fine detail to make other treatments.

“Our treatment deals with cigarette smoke-induced lung inflammation involved in COPD, not cancer and other smoking-related ailments. Quitting remains the best and only cure for smoking-related lung disease.”

The study will soon be published in the American Thoracic Society”s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: chemokine, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cigarette smoke, Deleterious Effects, Disease Research Group, inflammatory cells, inflammatory protein, london march, lung damage, Lung Inflammation, lung tissue, Macrophage Colony, Matrix Metalloproteinase, obstructive pulmonary disease, research fellow, smoke exposure, Tumor Necrosis Factor, university of melbourne, Vlahos, white blood cells

Study sheds light on fundamental DNA repair mechanism

March 6, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, March 5 (ANI): A team of researchers has demonstrated for the first time the specific activity of the protein NEIL3, one of a group responsible for maintaining the integrity of DNA in humans and other mammals.

Since it was first identified about eight years ago, NEIL3 has been believed to be a basic DNA-maintenance enzyme of a type called a glycosylase.

These proteins patrol the long, twisted strands of DNA looking for lesions-places where one of the four DNA bases has been damaged by radiation or chemical activity.

They cut the damaged bases free from the DNA backbone, kicking off follow-on mechanisms that link in the proper undamaged base.

The process is critical to cell health, says National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) biochemist and Senior Research Fellow Miral Dizdaroglu.

“DNA is damaged all the time. About one to two percent of oxygen in the body becomes toxic in cells, for example, creating free radicals that damage DNA. Without these DNA repair mechanisms there wouldn”t be any life on this planet, really.”

The glycosylases seem to be highly specific; each responds to only a few unique cases of the many potential DNA base lesions. Figuring out exactly which ones can be challenging. NEIL3 and its kin NEIL1 and NEIL2 are mammalian versions of an enzyme found in the bacterium E. coli.

The lesion targets of NEIL1 and NEIL2 have been known for some time, but NEIL3, a much more complicated protein twice the size of the others, had resisted several attempts to purify it and determine just what it does.

In a significant advance, the research team managed to clone the house mouse version of NEIL3 (99 percent identical to the human variant), and then prepare a truncated version of it that was small enough to dissolve in solution for analysis but large enough to retain the portion of the protein that recognizes and excises DNA lesions.

Using a technique they developed for rapidly analyzing such enzymes, NIST researchers mixed the modified protein with sample DNA that had been irradiated to produce large numbers of random base lesions.

Because glycosylases work by snipping off damaged bases, a highly sensitive analysis of the solution after the DNA has been removed can reveal just which lesions are attacked by the enzyme, and with what efficiency.

The NIST results closely matched independent tests by others in the team that match the enzyme against short lengths of DNA-like strands with a single specific target lesion.

In addition to finally confirming the glycosylase nature of NEIL3, tests of the enzyme in a living organism-a tailored form of E. coli designed to have a very high mutation rate-had an unexpected bonus.

Measurements at NIST showed that NEIL3 is extremely effective at snipping out a particular type of lesion called FapyGua and seems to dramatically reduce mutations in the bacterium, a result that points both to the effectiveness of NEIL3 and the potentially important role of FapyGua in causing dangerous mutations in DNA. (ANI)

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Gene behind gum disease, osteoporosis, arthritis identified

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 31 (ANI): An international team of researchers have identified a gene that is common in the development of gum disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis.

Experts at Hospital for Special Surgery say that their findings about the gene, called interferon regulator factor-8 (IRF-8), may lead to new treatments in future.

“The study doesn’t have immediate therapeutic applications, but it does open a new avenue of research that could help identify novel therapeutic approaches or interventions to treat diseases such as periodontitis, rheumatoid arthritis or osteoporosis,” said Nature magazine quoted Dr. Baohong Zhao, a research fellow in the Arthritis and Tissue Degeneration Program at Hospital for Special Surgery located in New York City, as saying.

The researchers discovered that downregulation of IRF-8 (meaning that the gene produces less IRF-8 protein) increases the production of cells called osteoclasts that are responsible for breaking down bone.

In humans and animals, bone formation and bone resorption are closely coupled processes involved in the normal remodelling of bone. Enhanced development of osteoclasts, however, can create canals and cavities that are hallmarks of diseases such as periodontitis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The genome-wide study showed that the expression of IRF-8 was reduced by 75 percent in the initial phases of osteoclast development.

The genetically engineered mice deficient in IRF-8 had decreased bone mass and severe osteoporosis.

The researchers concluded that IRF-8 suppresses the production of osteoclasts.

“This is the first paper to identify that IRF-8 is a novel key inhibitory factor in osteoclastogenesis (production of osteoclasts),” said Zhao.

“We hope that the understanding of this gene can contribute to understanding the regulatory network of osteoclastogenesis and lead to new therapeutic approaches in the future,” Zhao added.

The study has been published in the journal Nature Medicine. (ANI)

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Costs of adapting to climate change could be much greater than expected

August 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, August 28 (ANI): A new study has determined that the global cost of adapting to climate change has been grossly underestimated, and it could be much greater than expected.

According to a report in Nature News, although it doesn’t provide concrete new estimates, the report suggests that the total cost of adapting to climate change could be at least 2-3 times more than the previous estimate from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

That figure, published in 2007, suggested that the annual cost from 2030 would be between 49 billion dollars and 171 billion dollars.

The main difference, according to the study, is that the UN number did not account for climate change’s effects on key sectors such as energy, manufacturing, tourism and natural ecosystems.

“The UNFCCC’s estimations were made in a few weeks and weren’t independently reviewed,” said the study’s lead author, Martin Parry, a visiting research fellow at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London and a former co-chair of a working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The UNFCCC numbers were initially intended to come from a literature review of other economic studies, according to Sudhir Sharma, manager of financial cooperation and capacity building at the UNFCCC secretariat in Bonn, Germany.

But the team working on the estimates soon realized that there were massive gaps in the information needed.

The cost of adapting to climate change requires knowledge about what effects climate change will have, what the options are for responding to those changes, and how much those options will cost, according to Sharma.

Sharma argues his group’s estimates weren’t intended to be the final word, but rather a ball-park figure to get the negotiations rolling.

“We clearly indicated that this was not an exhaustive study,” he said. “Our objective was to kick-start the process of putting numbers on the cost of adaptation so that other groups could pick up the baton and refine them,” he added.

The latest study, published by the IIED and the Grantham Institute, has picked up that baton.

It suggests that the UNFCCC estimate of 11 billion dollars per year for adapting to changes in water supply overlooks the expenses of floods and of transporting water from areas of plenty to areas to that need it.

But although the report says previous estimates for adaptation are too low, it doesn’t provide numbers, he admits.

“We didn’t try to come up with new numbers – we pointed out the gaps,” said Sharma. (ANI)

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