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Gujarat cricket will be professionalised, says Modi

September 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Sep.15 (ANI): Ending the Congress party’s domination of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) by taking over the presidency of the outfit, state Chief Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that it would be his endeavour to professionalise the activities of the GCA.

Speaking to reporters after being elected unanimously to the post, Modi said that there was so much taking place outside and beyond the world of cricket, that he would use every opportunity and technical know-how to make cricket in Gujarat more market savvy and a better sporting entity.

Thanking all those who had elected him unopposed, he said that in the coming months and years he would do his best to improve the state of cricket in the state.

Modi replaced Narhari Amin as GCA president.

The GCA, affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), governs the game of cricket in Gujarat.

It is involved in the conduct of the game from the grass root level to the International level. (ANI)

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World’s most advanced CT scanner to see through solids

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 11 (ANI): Researchers at The University of Nottingham, UK, have created the most advanced 3D X-ray micro Computed Tomography (CT) scanner in the world, which will help scientists from a wide variety of departments across the University literally see through solid materials, including soil.

Known as the ‘Nanotom’, the machine will make previously difficult and laborious research much easier as it allows researchers to probe inside objects without having to break into them.

The Nanotom will produce high-resolution 3D and slice images of solids with a pixel resolution of up to half micron or 500 nanometres.

It will be based at the School of Biosciences as the centrepiece of research into efforts to understand the microscopic interactions between plant root growth and soil structure.

The first project to use it will examine the sensing ability of roots to grow in the best direction for the health of the plant through the soil.

It aims to provide evidence of how the root reacts and adapts to soil stresses like drought and compaction by adjusting the genetic information in the tips of the root as it grows.

The Nanotom will allow researchers to follow the progress of the root growth and soil structural development for the first time without disturbing the sample of the plant growing in the soil.

The eventual aim of research like this is to contribute to worldwide efforts for food security and sustainable food production by preserving and improving the vital but finite soil resources of the planet.

It will enable scientists to come up with a recipe for the best soil composition and level of compaction as well as informing plant breeding programmes.

Accurate soil structure measurement will be also be essential in changing farming practices to cut CO2 which is released into the atmosphere during traditional ploughing of agricultural soil.

According to Dr Sacha Mooney from the University’s Division of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, “This new kit will completely revolutionize our work in trying to understand the key factors that control some of the many functions that soils perform.”

“Of course it’s not just soils we’ll be scanning, I think I am just as excited about the opportunity to look inside newly created environmental building materials, eco-friendly crops developed to improve yield and even chocolate bars for the food industry,” Mooney added. (ANI)

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KNP to hold Black Day on Oct.22

September 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep.8 (ANI): The Supreme Council of the KNP held an important meeting in Luton on September 6, which was presided by the party Chairman Abbas Butt. The meeting discussed and analysed the current situation of the Kashmiri struggle and made important decisions.

The Supreme Council strongly condemned the government of Pakistan’s latest attempts to grab territory which is legal part of State of Jammu and Kashmir. The SC said Pakistani governments have never been sincere with the cause of Kashmir and always have formulated policies to snatch Kashmir; and have deliberately deprived people of their fundamental human rights.

The SC said people of Gilgit Baltistan deserve to have their basic human rights which have been denied since 1947; but no one should be allowed to implement their imperialist designs in name of giving rights to people of the region. The KNP leaders said, if Pakistani authorities were sincere they could have discussed the issue with the people of the region and given these rights without making the region a ‘province’ of Pakistan.

PPP government claims to advance rights of people and democracy, but their policies are designed to deprive people of basic rights and advance undemocratic and unconstitutional practises. They tried to make Pakistani Administered Kashmir a province after the Shimla Pact and they plan to make Gilgit Baltistan a province and pave way for division of Jammu and Kashmir.

KNP leaders said some people of Jammu and Kashmir hold Black Day on 27th October, as that is the day when Indian army landed in Kashmir. KNP leaders said in our opinion their wisdom is misdirected. We have to look at the root cause. Indian army came after the tribal invasion and subsequent ‘Provisional Accession’.

KNP Supreme Council said, ‘It was the Pakistani tribesmen supported by the Pakistani government of the time which violated the Standstill Agreement and invaded parts of the State territory. It was these tribesmen which contravened the State sovereignty and killed thousands of innocent Kashmiri men and women. It was because of this unprovoked and unjustified attack on our sovereignty which seriously threatened life, honour and property of people that the Maharaja was compelled to seek help from India.

KNP leaders said we have serious issues with India on their Kashmir policy, as we believe Kashmir is not their internal part; but as for the Black Day is concerned we should have Black Day on 22 October because this is the day when our troubles and miseries started.

KNP SC has decided to take a lead on this matter and hold a BLACK DAY on 22 October; and in this regard various responsibilities have been given to Dr Shabir Choudhry and Nawaz Majid who will liaise with other like minded people and parties. The meeting was addressed by ZubairAnsari, Nazam Bhatti, Nawaz Majid, Asim Mirza, Abbas Butt and Dr Shabir Choudhry.

Earlier KNP held an Iftar Party in which more than eighty people were present; among them were leaders and political activists of various Kashmiri parties who spoke against the new package for Gilgit and Baltistan and condemned designs of Pakistani government. In the meeting pro Pakistan and nationalist leaders were present, and they all strongly spoke against this new package and demanded that it must be taken back.

A unanimous resolution was passed which strongly criticised the new package and demanded from government of Pakistan to withdraw it as it will seriously damage our struggle for right of self determination. The resolution fully supported fundamental rights of people of Gilgit Baltistan; but added that the State of Jammu and Kashmir is one political entity and it must not be divided. (ANI)

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Sharifs soften stance against Musharraf trial under Saudi pressure

September 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Sep 7 (ANI): The Sharif brothers and top leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are believed to have softened their demand for the trial of former President Pervez Musharraf owing to international pressure by his guarantors, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Well-placed party sources said that the PML-N central leadership would take the party hierarchy into confidence about the pressure for softening their anti-Musharraf stance and to chalk out the party’s new plan of action to prepare it for next elections at party’s scheduled CEC meeting in Murree on Monday.

Sources attach great importance to Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Saudi Arabia in next few days where apart from performing Umrah he is expected to meet the Saudi high-ups in the backdrop of Musharraf’s recent visit to the Kingdom and his meeting with the King Abdullah.

The Nation quoted sources as saying that Saudi authorities have already conveyed to the Sharifs to take soft stance on Musharraf’s trial as the Kingdom regards him needy for help and cooperation as they were while out of power.

The meeting, sources further said, would discuss and evolve a comprehensive strategy to hold party’s elections but after pushing it through an intense process of restructuring and reorganization at grass root level in all parts of the country.

The CEC meeting would decide about the election timeframe either by the end of this year or early next year.

The meeting would also take host of political issues for consideration including PML-N, PPP relations, law and order situation in Balochistan, fate of Local Bodies and implementation of Charter of Democracy by the PPP-led coalition government, they added. (ANI)

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Spare gene in fish provides raw materials for evolution of new Traits

September 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 4 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have discovered that a duplicate copy of a gene involved in embryonic development of fish has taken up a newer role in the evolution of fish scales.

Scientists have suspected that spare parts in the genome-extra copies of functional genes that arise when genes or whole genomes get duplicated-might sometimes provide the raw materials for the evolution of new traits.

Now, researchers say that they have discovered a prime example of this in fish.

The researchers show that a duplicate copy of a gene involved in embryonic development has taken up a newer and decidedly less essential role in the development of fish scales.

Zebrafish carrying a mutant version of that extra fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (fgfr1) gene show decreases in their scale formation.

What’s more, the spare fgfr1 gene is at the root of similar scale loss seen in domesticated carp, which have been selectively bred by humans for the last 2,000 years.

“Our finding is an excellent case for (gene) duplication supporting diverse forms,” said Matthew Harris of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology.

“By ‘tweaking’ the use of one of the two copies of the fish fgfr1, the teleost order that contains zebrafish and carp have a specialized ‘toolbox’ gene that now controls adult-specific variation in form,” added Nicolas Rohner, also of the Max Planck Institute.

Fish species outnumber all other vertebrates combined and include many with spectacular features to match the diverse environments in which they live, according to Harris and Rohner.

Teleost fish in particular represent the largest assemblage of vertebrates, comprising over 26,000 species with astonishing diversity in their form and physiology.

Although little is known about the genetic basis of that diversity, it is clear that gene duplication is commonplace within teleost groups, providing a source of genetic raw material for selection.

To further explore in the new study, the researchers first examined mutant strains of zebrafish in search of those with changes to their fins, skulls, or scales, all structures that tend to vary among species.

They focused their attention on one with fewer scales and in an unusual pattern-an abnormality they traced to fgfr1.

“We were surprised to find severe coding mutations in such an important developmental gene to cause an adult-specific and viable phenotype,” Harris said.

Further study showed the reason why: zebrafish maintain two copies of fgfr1 that function redundantly during embryonic development. One of those two genes is also required for the formation of the scales in juveniles. (ANI)

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Kudzu extract shows promise as dietary supplement for metabolic syndrome

September 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 4 (ANI): Kudzu, the nuisance vine that has overgrown almost 10 million acres in the southeastern United States, can be used as a dietary supplement for metabolic syndrome.

Scientists in Alabama and Iowa have found that root extracts from kudzu show promise as a dietary supplement for metabolic syndrome that increases the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and problems with their body”s ability to use insulin.

Those disorders mean a high risk for heart attacks, strokes, and other diseases.

Lead researcher J. Michael Wyss showed that kudzu root extract contains healthful substances called isoflavones.

People in China and Japan have long been using kudzu supplements as a health food.

The study found that a kudzu root extract had beneficial effects on lab rats with metabolic syndrome.

After two months of taking the extract, the rats had lower cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and insulin levels that a control group not given the extract.

Kudzu root “may provide a dietary supplement that significantly decreases the risk and severity of stroke and cardiovascular disease in at-risk individuals,” the article notes.

The study appears in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. (ANI)

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How plant tissues know which end is their growing tip

August 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 30 (ANI): A team of scientists has silenced nine genes in a multicellular organism, which allowed them to discover molecular secrets of how certain plant tissues know which end is their growing tip, also referred to as polarized growth.

The research was carried out by biologist Magdalena Bezanilla and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, US.

The biologists conducted these experiments in a moss, but the findings illuminate processes in two tissues-root hairs and pollen tubes-found in all seed plants.

Root hairs are extremely fine individual cells that grow out of a plant’s root, greatly increasing its surface area to collect water, essential minerals and nutrients.

Pollen tubes travel down the flower to fertilize the plant’s egg.

Scientists have “a very limited knowledge” at the molecular level of how such cells determine the direction they’re growing, according to Bezanilla.

Knowing how to interrupt pollen tube formation in plants such as corn and soybeans, for example, could help prevent genetically engineered crops from interbreeding with wild populations.

Aiding root hair growth could boost drought-resistance to other economically important plants.he researchers focused on two proteins, actin and formin.

Actin, in this case a kind of scaffold-builder needed to form root hairs and pollen tubes, forms filamentous polymers and is important for many cellular processes in species ranging from yeast to man. ormins, like actin, are found in many species and help to control actin polymer formation. Formins are critical for actin-based cellular processes.

Tools in a biologist’s kit can now remove the function of specific proteins-usually one or two at a time-to silence a gene, but in this study, the researchers succeeded in silencing a remarkable nine genes at one time.

Bezanilla and colleagues systematically silenced the many actin-regulating formins and determined which members of this protein family are needed to generate cells for proper tip growth.ther tools in the researchers’ kit are methods for re-introducing the silenced genes, either normal or modified versions.

By “swapping parts” from closely related formin proteins and measuring tip growing activity for each combination, her research group eventually concluded that only one intact subclass of formins drives normal growth and controls how the plant recognizes its growing tip.

“If you take away any part of the formin, tip growth stops,” said Bezanilla.

Interestingly, the researchers also discovered that this particular subclass of formins is the fastest yet known in any organism. (ANI)

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Pine bark extract ‘helps reduce inflammation’

July 16, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 16 (ANI): An antioxidant plant extract from the bark of the French maritime pine tree has been found effective in reducing inflammation, and soothing pain associated with various health problems, claim researchers.

According to lead researcher Dr. Raffaella Canali of the National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition in Rome, Italy, pycnogenol can actually decrease pain and reduce inflammatory conditions by shutting down the production of enzymes COX-2 and 5-LOX involved with inflammation.

During the study, the researchers investigated healthy volunteers ranging from ages 35-50, who consumed Pycnogenol tablets (150 mg) for five consecutive days in the morning before breakfast.

Blood was drawn before and after supplementation to investigate how immune cells respond towards pro-inflammatory stimuli.

The behaviour of specific white blood cells (leukocytes) for generating a repertoire of enzymes in inflammatory condition was tested by real-time PCR.

The gene expression of enzymes COX-2, 5-LOX, FLAP and COX-1 were monitored and the products these enzymes generate, prostaglandins and leukotrienes, were quantified.

The researchers found that the volunteers’ immune cells rapidly initiated production of COX-2, 5-LOX and FLAP enzymes upon pro-inflammatory stimulation.

Taking Pycnogenol almost entirely subdued COX-2, 5-LOX and FLAP induction in the immune cells of volunteers.

“Standard NSAID medications reduce the production of prostaglandins by COX enzymes for lowering the pain,” said Dr. Canali.

“In contrast, Pycnogenol turns to the root of the problem, completely stopping the production of COX-2 in inflammation. Thus far, Pycnogenol seems to be a unique tool for modulating inflammatory processes,” Canali added.

The study is published in International Immunopharmacology. (ANI)

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Educational institutions remain shut in Gujarat to condemn hooch tragedy

July 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Ahmedabad, July 10 (ANI): Schools and colleges remained closed in Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Friday as a mark of protest over the death of around 105 people due to consumption of spurious liquor.

Cases of people dying after consuming spurious liquor were reported on Monday and by Thursday (around105 deaths were reported.

Consumption and sale of liquor is officially banned in Gujarat.

Meanwhile, schools and colleges remained closed for the day on Friday. The call for shutdown of educational institutions was given by the students association National Students Union of India (NSUI) and Youth Congress to protest against the alleged lackadaisical role of police and state administration to nab the culprits.

Authorities deployed security personnel outside educational institutions to avoid any kind of mischief.

The students union demanded that the government should go to the root cause of the entire problem and find out from where this spurious liquor is distilled and sourced to various outlets, usually in slum areas.

“The way more than 100 people have died because of hooch tragedy in Gandhi’s Gujarat is really shameful on the part of the state government. Police is supporting the bootleggers because of which poor people are suffering,’ said said Manish Doshi, General Secretary, Youth Congress.

“It’s been three days since the tragedy took place and the government has done nothing. So taking the matter into consideration and taking social and political responsibility, the Youth Congress and NSUI have called for the bandh so that such incidences is not repeated again,” he added.

Illicit liquor, also known as grog or hooch, is a flourishing beverage in India, particularly in states like Gujarat where prohibition is in force.

The illicit liquor is much cheaper as compared to the licensed drinks, which cannot be afforded by most of the people from the poorer sections of society.

In May 2008, at least 180 people had died in Southern Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states due to drinking spurious liquor, considered as one of India’s worst bootlegging tragedies. (ANI)

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How can jihadis termed as heroes now be arch-enemies, asks Pak paper

July 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Islamabad, July 10 (ANI): A leading Pakistani daily has asked how is it possible to rationally explain to the people of the country that militants who were termed as heroes of yesteryear by the state are the arch-enemies today.

Speaking about the root cause of Pakistan’s problems, President Asif Ali Zardari said that the military’s erstwhile ‘strategic assets’ were the ones against whom military operations were now required, The Dawn says.

And in a meeting with retired senior bureaucrats in Islamabad on Tuesday, Zardari again said that “militants and extremists had been deliberately created and nurtured as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives.”

The paper asks Zardari that if the policy of creating militants was wrong earlier, then it is wrong now. It cannot be any other way.

It would be not possible to explain to Pakistani people that the heroes of yesteryear are the arch-enemies of today. The militants’ religious justifications remain the same; what’s changed is that the militants were fighting the state’s ‘enemies’ yesterday, but now have turned their guns on the state and its allies.

The paper asks should we have ever used jihadi proxies to fight the Russians in Afghanistan? Should we have ever supported the idea of armed jihad in Kashmir? Should we have ever sought to retain our influence in Afghanistan through the Taliban?

If any of those choices ever made sense, then we should have no complaints about the rise of Talibanisation in Pakistan because we created the climate and opportunity for them to run amok, it adds.

It further says that fault is of course not of Pakistan alone and the US obsession with the Soviet enemy, happily colluded in the creation of Muslim warriors.

Pakistan’s Middle Eastern and Gulf allies were happy to create a Sunni army to counter the ‘threat’ from post-revolution Shia Iran, but at the end of the day it was Pakistani soil on which they were primarily nurtured.

The jihadis were raised in our midst we should have always been wary of the extreme blowback we are now confronted with, the Dawn says. (ANI)

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How a plant hormone is crucial in controlling root growth

July 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 8 (ANI): An international group of scientists, led by the Centre for Plant Integrative Biology at The University of Nottingham, UK, has shed light on how a plant hormone is crucial in controlling the growth of plant roots.

Plant growth is driven by an increase in two factors: the number of cells, and their size.

It is already known that the plant hormone gibberellin controls how root cells elongate as the root grows in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Now, a new research has described for the first time how this hormone also regulates the number of cells in the root in order to control root growth.

Gibberellin normally acts by signaling the removal of proteins which repress growth, and so promotes root cell production.

The new research shows that mutant plants that do not produce gibberellin are unable to increase their cell production rate and the size of the root meristem, the zone of cell proliferation.

Plants in which the cells in the meristem were made to express a mutant version of the growth-repressing protein GAI not degraded by gibberellin showed disrupted cell proliferation.

Expressing this mutant form, gai, in only one tissue, the endodermis (the innermost layer of the root cortex of a plant), was sufficient to stop the meristem enlarging.

In effect, the rate of expansion of dividing endodermal cells dictates the equivalent rate in other tissues.

According to Professor Malcolm Bennett, Biology Director for the Centre for Plant Integrative Biology and Professor of Plant Sciences in the Division of Plant and Crop Sciences, “We have shown that gibberellin plays a crucial role in controlling the size of the root meristem, and that it is the endodermis which sets the pace for expansion rates in the other tissues.”

“Understanding precisely how hormones regulate plant growth is one of the key areas of fundamental plant biology which will underpin crop improvements in the future,” he said. (ANI)

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Anti-drug campaign to spread awareness in Punjab

July 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Amritsar, July 6 (ANI): In a bid to raise awareness about the cost the society due to drug addiction, a play was staged here recently.

At Patti, a town located at the India-Pakistan border, the Punjab Police, in association with the State health department, launched a campaign to raise awareness about the menace.

It intended to educate public about drug-addiction’s deadly effect in daily life, as drugs have been noticed being the root cause of many crimes and social evils. And, the play highlighted its ill effects on the society and on the addicts’ families.

The play demonstrated how a family raises a happy child and bad company leads him towards drugs addiction. And the end is very tragic.The Indian government has decided to celebrate an Anti-drug Campaign Day. And it has been taken up by the Punjab police that observe the day to spread mass awareness. This programme makes the locals aware of the consequences and aftermath of drug addiction. I appeal to the officials to take this campaign to smaller towns and villages so that they can also benefit from it,” said Prof. Lakshmi Kanta Chawla, State Health Minister in Punjab.

“We want cooperation from everyone, the society, government authorities, and family members. We should also know that how and what to advocate so that maximum awareness can be spread, and for that there should be advocacy camps. Heads of the village Panchayats should be made aware of the consequences of drugs on both family and society,” said Dr. Rana Ranbir Singh, the Village Head.

A survey conducted by the Department of Social Security Development of Women and Children reveals that 67 per cent of the rural households in the state have at least one drug addict.

Also, the spread of AIDS is linked with the malady due to sharing of syringes. The death rate and the HIV positive cases have increased in Punjab by 60 per cent due to widespread use of intoxicants.

However, light has dawned on many individuals after passing through the dark tunnel of drug addiction.

Over 100 families want to spread this light through ‘Wisdom Club’, formed by DR. JPS Bhatia, a renowned psychotherapist. Apart from medical treatment, Bhatia counsels the patient to reject drugs.

“We have taken addiction as a disease. And we have drafted a plan to counter this disease. We have drawn it up according to the Punjabi culture. We do not follow the western style. So this programme of combating the addiction is planned to take care of Punjabi population, culture, beliefs, and identity. We are also focusing the NRI’s from the outside states. We try to understand their psychology and motivate them. We take the help of religion. We work on the patients with a very humanistic approach,” said J.P.S. Bhatia, a psychotherapist related to de-addiction of drugs.

For many years, Punjab was a transit point for drugs from Afghanistan, which were being routed to other parts of the world or metropolitan cities in the country.

Drug trafficking has increased by at last 30-40 per cent in the last year since cross-border civilian movement increased between India and Pakistan. By Ravinder Singh Robin (ANI)

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New plasma torch may improve root canal treatment, reduce infection rates

June 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, June 24 (ANI): Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have come up with the world’s smallest plasma torch that may one day make root canal treatment faster and less painful, besides reducing the chance of infection after the procedure.

“Our goal is to guarantee that you won’t have to see a doctor for a follow-up visit,” ABC Science quoted says Professor Chunqi Jiang Jiang, who has reported this work in the online edition of the journal Plasma Processes and Polymers, as saying.

“One problem is that between 8 per cent and 10 per cent of patients have an infection post-operation. This is intended to eliminate the chance of an infection,” the researcher added.

Plasma, or ionized gas, is one of the four basic states of matter, the other three being solid, liquid and gas.

The researchers reveal that the trick to creating plasma at room temperature is to pulse it. They say that a continuous stream of plasma very quickly heats up the surrounding air.

According to them, pulsing the plasma allows the tiny electrons in it to heat up and move around, while keeping the much larger and heavier atom nucleus from heating up.

“If you have a piece of paper with bacteria on it and you apply cold plasma to it, the paper won’t burn but the bacteria will die,” says Professor Mounir Laroussi, of Old Dominion University in Virginia, who has studied the effect of cold plasmas for years.

“Cold plasma can kill bacteria on a variety of surfaces such as teeth or skin,” Laroussi adds.

The researchers say that upon being used in the mouth, the free electrons of plasma create single atoms of pure oxygen, ozone and other reactive forms of oxygen, all of which search for other atoms to bind with in the organic biofilms inside decayed teeth.

Biofilms are basically walled colonies of bacteria. In the human body, they can trigger the onset of an infection, and even protect the harmful bacteria from the most powerful antibiotics.

The researchers have revealed that cool, pulsed and purple plasma takes about five to ten minutes to clear an infected tooth of biofilms as compared to bleach, the conventional method for cleaning an infected tooth, which takes 30 minutes.

While about 10 per cent of patients treated with bleach are still infected, tests using the plasma torch on a few dozen human teeth have shown no signs of infection.

The plasma torch is also not as expensive as laser systems that are used as high-tech solutions to biofilms.

While laser systems costing up to 25,000 dollars, the plasma torch could retail for as little as 1,000 dollars, provided it passes official clinical trials.

Laroussi, who used to test cold plasmas effect on teeth, skin and wound healing, says that the trick to regulatory acceptance and commercialisation is ensuring that only harmful cells are killed.

“We can kill bacteria on teeth and on wounds. But we have to ensure that we are not creating a worse problem in nearby healthy cells as well,” says Laroussi.

Initial tests have shown that surrounding healthy tissue remains intact, although more testing is needed to definitively prove this.

Meanwhile, the USC researchers are concentrating on getting the funding necessary to continue with their research. (ANI)

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Buddhadeb assures of more relief as ‘Aila’ death toll reaches 60

May 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Kolkata, May 26 (ANI): The death toll due to havoc caused by cyclone ‘Aila’ in West Bengal has increased to 60. The highest number of deaths occurred in South 24 Parganas district followed by North 24 Parganas, Kolkata and Howrah.

Aila also wrecked havoc in Hooghly, Burdwan and Bankura districts of West Bengal on Monday. About 22 lakh people across the state have suffered losses, according to Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty.

The state government has released Rs.1 crore for rescue and relief so far. Eighteen hundred tonne of rice and one-lakh tarpaulins have been requisitioned for the purpose.

The ruling Left Front Government in Bengal seems to have finally woken up to the demands of the people after the crushing defeat in the recently held Lok Sabha polls.

In an effort to regain contact with the common man, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today personally visited a relief camp in Nimpith Panchayat under Joynagar Block in South 24 Parganas district, and assured the victims of all government support.

One of the major criticisms, which emerged against Left leaders after the poll debacle, was on their growing inaccessibility and loss of contact from the grass root levels.

Bhattacharjee’s visit to the village camp is being seem as an effort to assure the people that the ruling Left Front has not abandoned them.

The worst affected South 24 Parganas’ district administration has set up over 250 relief camps to accommodate those who have lost their home and hearth to high speed winds and high tides in the Sunderbans delta area.

The Chief Minister asked the victims not to worry about their lost homes, and promised them that money to rebuild homes would be made available within a few days time.

Bhattacharjee has assured that 57 tonne of dry food would be dispatched to the district expeditiously.

He advised the victims in the camp to keep an eye on their children and ensure that all got proper food. The rest, he said would be taken care of by the government. By Ajitha Menon (ANI)

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Scientists identify promising compound to treat epilepsy

May 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 5 (ANI): Scientists have identified a new anticonvulsant compound, called paxilline, which may cease the progression of epilepsy, a neurological disorder marked by abnormal electrical activity in the brain that leads to recurring seizures.

The study by Carnegie Mellon University researchers is based on a previous work in which scientists identified a specific molecular target whose increased activity is linked with seizure disorders- a potassium channel known as the BK channel.
“We have found a new anticonvulsant compound that eliminates seizures in a model of epilepsy,” said Alison Barth, associate professor of biological sciences at Carnegie Mellon’s Mellon College of Science.

She added: “The drug works by inhibiting ion channels whose role in epilepsy was only recently discovered. Understanding how these channels work in seizure disorders, and being able to target them with a simple treatment, represents a significant advance in our ability to understand and treat epilepsy.” he researchers found that after a first seizure, BK channel function was markedly enhanced.

Thus, the neurons became overly excitable and were firing with more speed, intensity and spontaneity, which led the researchers to believe that the abnormal increase in the activity of the channels might play a role in causing subsequent seizures and the emergence of epilepsy. n the current study, the researchers tested this theory by blocking the ion channels using a BK-channel antagonist called paxilline.

Using an experimental model for epilepsy, Barth tested whether paxilline could reduce or prevent experimentally induced seizures, as it could normalize aberrant brain activity induced by previous seizures.

And to their surprise, the researchers discovered that the compound was effective at completely blocking subsequent seizures. The drug is orally available, and works in the low nanomolar range,” said Barth.

As the drug is effective in low concentrations and can be taken as a pill, it could turn out to be an especially promising compound for treatment in epilepsy patients.

The researchers believe that targeting the BK channels and the abnormal brain activity that they induce might one day be used as a way to prevent the progression of seizure disorders over time, thus attacking the root cause of epilepsy.

The findings have been published in the current issue of the journal Epilepsia. (ANI)

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Chemical found in medical devices may impair heart function

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 1 (ANI): A chemical commonly used in the production of such medical plastic devices as intravenous (IV) bags and catheters can impair heart function in rats, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have found.

Appearing online this week in the American Journal of Physiology, the new findings suggest a possible new reason for some of the common side effects-loss of taste, short term memory loss-of medical procedures that require blood to be circulated through plastic tubing outside the body, such as heart bypass surgery or kidney dialysis.

In addition to loss of taste and memory, coronary bypass patients often complain of swelling and fatigue. These side effects usually resolve within a few months after surgery, but they are troubling and sometimes hinder recovery.

His personal experience with coronary bypass surgery propelled his search for a root cause for the loss of taste phenomenon, reports principal investigator Artin Shoukas, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, physiology and anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins.

“I’m a chocoholic, and after my bypass surgery everything tasted awful, and chocolate tasted like charcoal for months,” Shoukas said.

The expert and Caitlin Thompson-Torgerson, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in anesthesiology and critical care medicine suspected that the trigger for these side effects might be a chemical compound of some kind.

To test their theory, Shoukas and his team of researchers took liquid samples from IV bags and bypass machines before they were used on patients. The team analyzed the fluids in another machine that can identify unknown chemicals and found the liquid to contain a chemical compound called cyclohexanone.

The researchers thought that the cyclohexanone in the fluid samples might have leached from the plastic. Although the amount of cyclohexanone leaching from these devices varied greatly, all fluid samples contained at least some detectable level of the chemical.

The researchers then injected rats with either a salt solution or a salt solution containing cyclohexanone and measured heart function. Rats that got only salt solution pumped approximately 200 microliters of blood per heartbeat and had an average heart rate of 358 beats per minute, while rats injected with cyclohexanone pumped only about 150 microliters of blood per heartbeat with an average heart rate of 287 beats per minute.

In addition to pumping less blood more slowly, rats injected with cyclohexanone had weaker heart contractions. The team calculated that cyclohexanone caused a 50 percent reduction in the strength of each heart contraction. They also found that the reflex that helps control and maintain blood pressure is much less sensitive after cyclohexanone exposure. Finally, the team observed increased fluid retention and swelling in the rats after cyclohexanone injections.

According to Thompson-Torgerson and Shoukas, they would like to figure out how these side effects-decreased heart function and swelling-occur and to what degree cyclohexanone is involved. Despite the findings in this study, they emphasize that patients should listen carefully to the advice of their physicians.

“We would never recommend that patients decline this type of treatment if they need it,” says Shoukas. (ANI)

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Convincing Pak internal terror bigger threat to it than India proving “tough sell” for US

April 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Lahore, Apr.23 (ANI): The United States is finding convincing Pakistan that the internal threat posed by extremism is a bigger threat to it than India, a “tough sell”.

Delivering a lecture at the Harvard University, Central Command chief General David Petraeus said Islamabad must change its attitude towards New Delhi.

“The existential threat facing Pakistan is internal extremists and not India,” The Daily Times quoted Petraeus, as saying.

Petraeus said India realizes that reducing tension with Pakistan is very necessary for regional peace, so Pakistan should also focus more on its efforts in fighting extremism inside its territory.

Meanwhile, addressing a US think tank, Senator Joseph Lieberman also highlighted the need for Islamabad to understand and realize who its real enemy was.

“Pakistanis have to understand that their major enemy in the region is no longer India, but its extremism. In fact, they have a common enemy in that with the Indians,” Lieberman told Council on Foreign Relations.

However, Lieberman said that it was very difficult to make Pakistan accept the fact that it’s internal problem is the root cause of all the trouble.

“That’s a tough sell,” he added. (ANI)

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IAEA says dialogue only way forward for North Korea

April 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

BEIJING (Reuters) – International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Monday called for new dialogue to solve the diplomatic stand-off with North Korea, adding that he hopes the six-party talks will resume and the IAEA will be allowed back into the country.

“There is no other solution apart from dialogue,” ElBaradei said at a conference on nuclear energy in Beijing. “The only way to resolve these issues is not through flexing muscles … but to try to engage the root causes.”

Monitors from the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, left North Korea on Thursday after being ordered out by Pyongyang, which has raised regional tensions by saying it will abandon atomic disarmament talks and restart an aged nuclear complex it had agreed to shut in an aid-for-disarmament deal.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket on April 5, saying the action contravened a U.N. ban.

North Korea has said it will revive all its facilities at its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear complex, including a reprocessing plant that makes plutonium which can be used for nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang began taking apart the Yongbyon plant more than a year ago as a part of a deal reached in so called six-party talks with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. IAEA inspectors were invited to monitor the moribund plant.

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Danger looms large over Islamabad due to Swat deal : Holbrooke

April 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Lahore, Apr.20 (ANI): The US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke has said that there is an increased risk of Islamabad being affected by the Swat deal inked between the Taliban and the government of Pakistan.

“You cannot deal with these people by giving away territory. They are now getting closer and closer to Islamabad and Punjab,” Holbrooke said.

In an interview with CNN, Holbrooke expressed his concerns about the Taliban insurgents entering Islamabad following establishing their command over the Swat Valley, as the capital city in only hundred kilometers away from the valley.

“Swat is not in the tribal areas. It is only 100 miles from Islamabad.It is like East Hampton and Manhattan, people from Islamabad went to Swat for holidays. It is really an extraordinary situation,” Holbrooke said.

Terming the current situation in Pakistan as ‘very perilous’ he said that the extremists operating in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Swat are planning to expand their area and have already entered Punjab.

“There can be more terrorist attacks in cities like Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi,” The Dawn quoted Holbrooke, as warning.

He highlighted that the US, India and Pakistan were facing a common enemy.

Holbrooke noted that the threat can not be thwarted by military confrontation only, and stressed on the need of dismantling the root cause of the issue.

“First of all, we need to do deal with economic and social roots. More economic aid was needed to do away with the breeding grounds for the kind of rebellions witnessed in Swat more than once,” he added.

Holbrooke said there was an urgent need of strengthening Pakistan’s Army to counter the increasing extremism and to win the propaganda battle in the region. (ANI)

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Wine changes its taste with lunar cycle

April 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Apr 19 (ANI): Fancy some wine today? Well, the fruition of your desire will end in disappointment – not because of bad selection or the bottle being corked but due to a cosmic force: the moon.

A growing number of experts reckon that today is the worst possible day for a glass of the old vino.

According to scientists, wine changes its taste with the lunar cycle. And most of yesterday and today is a Root period, when the moon casts an unpleasant flavour.

It has emerged that Tesco and Marks and Spencer only invite critics to taste their ranges when the moon-related biodynamic calendar dictates that wines will be at their best.

Both firms pay strict attention to a moon calendar published for nearly half a century by a German great-grandmother called Maria Thun. She has divided the days of the year into ‘fruit’, ‘flower’, ‘leaf’ and ‘root’ – the first two are best for drinking wine, the second two worst.

Pierpaolo Petrassi, Tesco’s senior product development manager, admitted his firm held its tastings in line with the calendar.

“Our first choice is a fruit day. We seek to avoid root and leaf days. It may be a little step beyond what consumers can comprehend. We have so many other things to educate consumers about,” The Scotsman quoted Petrassi, as saying.

M and S winemaker Jo Ahearne is another convert.

“Before the tasting, I was really unconvinced, but the difference between the days was so obvious I was blown away,” he said.

David Motion, a London wine merchant, said: “I live in the city and don’t think much about nature, but it is clear it has an influence.” (ANI)

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