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Ponting tells team not to ease off against England

September 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep.15 (ANI): Australian middle-order batsman Michael Hussey has revealed that skipper Ricky Ponting has told the team not ease off against England in the ongoing one-day series despite taking a series-winning 4-0 lead.

“Ricky’s been on our hammer already basically about trying to maintain our momentum. We’ve also identified some areas we need to improve. We want to finish this summer well here in England and it’s a really good lead-up to the Champions Trophy, Fox Sports quoted Hussey, as saying.

“Momentum is not something you can turn on and off like a switch. If we can finish this series strongly, that will give us some good impetus going into the Champions Trophy … we’ve got to make sure that we maintain our standards leading into another huge one-day series in South Africa,” he added.

“Winning four games in a row is a very good achievement but we’ve got to keep building that winning momentum, that winning feeling around the team, and there’s still things I think we can improve at a lot if we are going to really challenge for the Champions Trophy,” Hussey said. (ANI)

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Original Walt Disney drawings found in an attic office in Blackpool

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep 9 (ANI): Original Walt Disney drawings have been recovered from an attic office in Blackpool, which could be worth up to 12,000 pounds each.

The 15 mint condition black and white and colour drawings were in the middle of hundreds of files gathered in over a century of Blackpool Illuminations.

Altogether the files have been valued at 500,000 pounds for insurance purposes, but it is thought the original Disney drawings alone could fetch up to 180,000 pounds altogether should they be auctioned off.

The material is being catalogued, and will be archived for future public viewing for the first time.

The Disney drawings had been sent from Hollywood to Blackpool by Walt Disney himself.

His studio was first approached in 1953 by Blackpool Council’s Illuminations staff, when they wanted to include characters, including Mickey Mouse, in their tableaux.

One of the drawings featuring Mickey shows how they wanted to animate him for the Golden Mile, but Disney demanded the characters be totally accurate to the original cinema blockbusters, and so sent off artists’ work to the English resort.

“The attic room is actually part of one of Blackpool’s original farmhouses built long before the town became a seaside resort,” the Telegraph quoted Colette Halstead, Illuminations’ creative development coordinator, as saying.

“The Illuminations department has just grown round it over the decades and old files and equipment like the ex Army field telephones used to co-ordinate the seven mile switch on were stored there.

“We are slowly moving to new premises and we were asked to catalogue the room’s contents when we came across the Disney material,” she added. (ANI)

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‘Master switch’ gene may help control obesity

September 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 4 (ANI): Scientists from University of Michigan claim to have discovered a gene, which when switched off, can control obesity in mice and help them remain thin.

According to Alan Saltiel, the Mary Sue Coleman Director of the U-M Life Sciences Institute, deleting the gene, called IKKE, appears to protect mice against conditions that, in humans, lead to Type 2 diabetes, which is associated with obesity.

He said that if follow-up studies confirm IKKE is tied to obesity in humans, the gene and the protein it will be prime targets for the development of drugs to treat obesity and diabetes.

“We’ve studied other genes associated with obesity – we call them ‘obesogenes’ – but this is the first one we’ve found that, when deleted, stops the animal from gaining weight,” said Saltiel, senior author of a paper.

“The fact that you can disrupt all the effects of a high-fat diet by deleting this one gene in mice is pretty interesting and surprising,” Saltiel added.

During the study, the high-fat-diet mice were fed a lard-like substance with 45 percent of its calories from fat. Control mice were fed standard chow with 4.5 percent of its calories from fat.

The gene IKKE produces a protein kinase also known as IKKE. The IKKE protein kinase appears to target proteins, which, in turn, control genes that regulate the mouse metabolism.

When the high-fat diet is fed to a normal mouse, IKKE protein-kinase levels rise, the metabolic rate slows, and the animal gains weight. In that situation, the IKKE protein kinase acts as a brake on the metabolism.

The new study showed that knockout mice placed on the high-fat diet did not gain weight, apparently because deleting the IKKE gene releases the metabolic brake, allowing it to speed up and burn more calories, instead of storing those calories as fat.

The new study is published in the journal Cell. (ANI)

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Alonso reveals real reason behind his decision to quit Liverpool

September 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep 3 (ANI): Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso, who knew that his time at Liverpool was up a year ago, has now revealed the full details behind a dramatic 28 million pounds Anfield exit.

Alonso admits the decision to skip a Champions League match for the birth of his son almost three years ago caused a rift with manager Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez.

And the midfielder admits he found it hard to accept being classed as a cash cow when Benitez tried to sell him a year ago, The Sun reports.

Alonso, 27, is now one of the next generation of Real Madrid ‘Galacticos’ after his switch last month. But only now has he spoken out about his relationship with fellow Spaniard Benitez – and the joy of feeling wanted at Real.

“It was a tough call and a very difficult decision to make after five years at the club. I have always said that it has been a professional relationship. I have always tried to do what he asked me to do, to try to deliver on the pitch, to do the talking on the pitch,” he said.

Benitez made no secret of wanting to bring Gareth Barry to the club from Aston Villa last year.

Alonso was identified as the valuable asset to fund the move. The deal did not materialise and Barry ended up joining Manchester City in the most recent transfer window.

“Last summer when the club proposed I had to be sold to get funds to sign new players. It was difficult to accept that. I accept it as a professional but that moment probably changed my mind – and I thought, maybe, from that moment it was maybe time for a change,” Alonso said.

Benitez did little to disguise his displeasure with playmaker Alonso when he opted out of a Champions League last-16 second leg at Inter Milan with Liverpool leading 2-0 to be with his pregnant wife.

Alonso said: “When the birth of my child happened, I had to make a decision. I had to be with my family as it was a very important moment.” (ANI)

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Beefed-up diets of Asia’s middle class may lead to chronic food shortages

August 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 30 (ANI): Scientists have said that the beefed-up diets of Asia’s expanding middle class could lead to chronic food shortages for the water-stressed region.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the threat was highlighted in a study by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which estimate that Asian demand for food and livestock fodder will double in 40 years.
Asia’s growing economy and appetite for meat will require a radical overhaul of farmland irrigation to feed a population expected to swell to 1.4 billion by 2050, scientists warned at Stockholm’s World Water Week recently.
At current crop yields, East Asia would need 47 percent more irrigated farmland and to find 70 percent more water, the study found.
South Asia would have to expand its irrigated crop areas by 30 percent and increase water use by 57 percent.
Given existing agriculture pressure on water resources and territory, that’s an impossible scenario, according to the study authors.

Scientists urge modernization of existing large-scale irrigation systems, most of which were installed in the 1970s and 1980s.
It’s estimated that India, the world’s largest consumer of underground water, has 19 million unregulated groundwater pumps.
Groundwater in northern India is receding by as much as a foot (0.3 meter) a year due to rampant water extraction, most of it for crop irrigation, according to a study.
More than 109 cubic kilometres of groundwater were drained from the region between 2002 and 2008, according to the satellite image-based study led by scientists with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
“Governments’ inability to regulate this practice is giving rise to scary scenarios of groundwater over-exploitation, which could lead to regional food crises and widespread social unrest,” said Tushaar Shah of IWMI.

As for China, the country’s per capita “water footprint” for food production has almost doubled since 1985, according to Junguo Liu of the Beijing Forestry University.
“A switch from traditional rice and noodles to a meatier diet is behind the change,” Liu said. “Changes in food consumption are the major cause of worsening water scarcity in China,” he added.
Total water requirements for food production in China are predicted to rise by 40 to 50 percent in the next 30 years, he further added.
“Where do you get such a big amount of water? It is a really big question and a big challenge,” he said.
“If other developing countries follow China toward a Western diet, the global water shortage becomes even more serious,” he added. (ANI)

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“This is Man U’s Thierry Henry moment,” says Wenger

August 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Aug 29(ANI): Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United are facing the same trauma as Arsenal did, when Thierry Henry left the club in 2007.

“Thierry was, in the end, a personality that had a big weight in the team. Also no one could refuse to give him the ball so when he left our play sometimes became a bit more diversified,” The Sun quoted Wenger, as saying.

“United have some big personalities in the team. But, Ronaldo won Player of the Year and European Player of the Year so suddenly they have a lack of charisma around them and everybody will look at their team differently. Yes, you could say this is their Thierry Henry moment,” he added.

Wenger reckons that the Red Devils are in a weak situation and will take time to adjust with Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov after Ronaldo left the club following a world record 80 million pound switch to Real Madrid in the summer.

“Ronaldo didn’t look as convincing as the year before. Though when you look at the numbers of games he played and the number of goals he scored he was still as efficient as before,” Wenger said.

“I believe they will miss him. When a player becomes too strong in a team, others are a little bit isolated or forgotten. So, when he disappears many of the players turn up because of the way the game goes through different players,” he added. (ANI)

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Our nostrils share a ‘smelly’ rivalry

August 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 21 (ANI): Our nostrils may look like a happy pair, but according to a new study, when they pick up conflicting scents, the nose holes become deadly rivals.

The study, published online in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, explains that when the nose encounters two different scents simultaneously, the brain processes them separately through each nostril in an alternating fashion.

The finding by researchers at Rice University in Houston is the first demonstration of “perceptual rivalry” in the olfactory system.

“Our discovery opens up new avenues to explore the workings of the olfactory system and olfactory awareness,” said Denise Chen, assistant professor of psychology, who coauthored the research paper with graduate student Wen Zhou.

For the study, 12 volunteers sampled smells from two bottles containing distinctively different odors. One bottle had phenyl ethyl alcohol, which smells like a rose, and the other had n-butanol, which smells like a marker pen.

The bottles were fitted with nosepieces so that volunteers could sample both scents simultaneously-one through each nostril.

During 20 rounds of sampling, all 12 participants experienced switches between smelling predominantly the rose scent and smelling predominantly the marker scent. Some experienced more frequent and drastic switches than others, but there was no predictable pattern of the switch across the whole group of volunteers or within individuals.

Chen said this “binaral rivalry” between the nostrils resembles the rivalry that occurs between other pairs of sensory organs.

When the eyes simultaneously view two different images-one for each eye-the two images are perceived in alternation, one at a time. And when alternating tones an octave apart are played out of phase to each ear, most people experience a single tone that goes back and forth from ear to ear.

In the laboratory setting in which each nostril simultaneously received a different smell, the participants experienced an “olfactory illusion,” she said.

“Instead of perceiving a constant mixture of the two smells, they perceive one of the smells, followed by the other, in an alternating fashion, as if the nostrils were competing with one another. Although both smells are equally present, the brain attends to predominantly one of them at a time,” the expert added.

“The binaral rivalry involves adaptations at the peripheral sensory neurons and in the cortex,” Chen said.

“Our work sets the stage for future studies of this phenomenon so we can learn more about the mechanisms by which we perceive smells,” the expert said.

In binaral rivalry, the tug-of-war between dominance and suppression of the olfactory perception exists only in the mind of the person who smells the odors, while the physical properties of the olfactory stimuli remain unchanged, Chen said. This gives humans the rare opportunity to dissociate olfactory perception and physical stimulation. (ANI)

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Orgy takes place during masked ball at 17th century hall

July 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 15 (ANI): A group of partygoers reportedly held an orgy at a masked ball inside an upmarket 17th century hall.

A company hired the picturesque Halswell House, in Goathurst, for 9,000 pounds for the swingers’ romp involving 350 well-off guests.omen wore corsets and suspenders and everyone was in masks and capes for the sexy get-together at the Somerset pile.

Owner Grahame Bond, an ex-estate agent, who has spent 2million pounds doing up the house, said that the well-heeled guests swept up the drive to the house in a succession of Porsches, BMWs and Aston Martins.

But at midnight, Bond said that one of the organisers announced: “The moment has come. The spell has begun”.

“Within minutes, the entire assembly began kissing and shortly afterwards having sex,” the Sun quoted him as saying.

“To say I was shocked was an understatement. It was as if a switch had been flicked on.

“One of my staff came up to me and said, ‘you have to see this’, and I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“I realised it was a swingers party. Everywhere there were couples having sex. Over the banisters alone I counted four couples at it.

“I was very worried for my staff and told them they could go home if they wanted, and two of them, who were only 19-years-old, did so.

“The guests were all public-school types and I jokingly said to one: ‘I suppose you are a High Court judge’. He replied: ‘You’re not far off the mark’.

“Afterwards, I called the police, but they said that as it was a private party, there was nothing illegal about it,” Bond added.

On its website, Halswell House is billed as a “glorious grade 1-listed house”, and says it hosts parties, weddings and corporate events. (ANI)

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Indian-origin scientist finds genetic switch that may help treat vascular diseases

July 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 6 (ANI): Taking a big leap towards finding a treatment of vascular diseases, a team led by an Indian-origin scientist at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) has discovered a key switch that makes stem cells turn into the type of muscle cells that reside in the wall of blood vessels.

Dr. Deepak Srivastava’s study claimed that the same switch could be used in the future to limit growth of vascular muscle cells that cause narrowing of arteries leading to heart attacks and strokes, limit formation of blood vessels that feed cancers, or make new blood vessels for organs that are not getting enough blood flow.

It was found that a tiny RNA molecule, called microRNA-145 (miR-145), not only had all the information necessary to turn a stem cell into a vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC), but could also affect VSMCs in the adult artery.

VSMCs possess the unique property of dividing on their own when an artery is injured or during atherosclerosis, ultimately causing narrowing of the vessel leading to occlusion.

The researchers found that miR-145 and its sister microRNA, miR-143, work together to stop the pathologic division of VSMCs.

But in the setting of vessel disease, their activity was turned down, which made the VSMCs to divide and clog up the artery.

MicroRNAs are small RNA molecules that do not make protein, but instead affect that amount of protein synthesized by the cell from their target mRNAs-the blueprints for translating the genetic code into proteins.

The researchers found that miR-145 and miR-143 together controlled the synthesis of a network of “master regulators” that control VSMCs, and thereby were able to function as a central “switch” for the behaviour of these important cells.

“The ability of miR-145 to efficiently direct the cell fate of vascular smooth muscle cells from stem cells represents the power of these tiny microRNAs to exert major effects on cells. We hope that we can use this knowledge to control when the body makes or does not make new blood vessels,” Nature magazine quoted Srivastava as saying.

He added: “Our findings in this study offer insights into regulatory mechanisms that govern the differentiation and proliferation of smooth muscle. They have fundamental implications for the treatment of vessel diseases like atherosclerosis and also may be important for cancer.”

The study has been published in the current issue of the journal Nature. (ANI)

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Cockroaches, too, get fat eating unhealthy diet

July 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 4 (ANI): Just like humans, cockroaches too can get fat on an unhealthy diet, says a British researcher.

Patricia Moore, of the University of Exeter, came to this conclusion after studying how female cockroaches change their mating behaviour in response to their diet, specifically what they eat when they are young, as part of a decade’s worth of research.

“We already knew that what they eat as adults influences reproductive decisions,” Live Science quoted Moore as saying.

However, it was not known how the food consumed by the eternal pests in life shaped these decisions.

To find out, Moore’s team picked young female cockroach nymphs, and divided them into two dietary groups.

She revealed that the cockroaches in one group were fed a good-quality balanced diet of protein-rich fish food and high-carbohydrate oatmeal, while the rest were raised on fish food only.

She further revealed that both groups could eat as much as they wanted.

The difference in diets “was not quantity but variety,” Moore said.

When the nymphs became adults, the researchers switched the diets of some of them.

Half of the cockroaches raised with good quality diet lost their oatmeal, while half of the bugs fed poorly were promoted to a good-quality diet.

Moore said that 18 days after the switch, the diet control ended. While some of the surviving cockroaches were dissected, she said, the rest were allowed to live on and reproduce.

The researchers observed that while the lifespan of the members of both groups was about the same, the cockroaches on the poor diet were fatter and took longer to mature.

Moore said that the poorly fed bugs were storing up excess fat at the expense of their growth in case their dietary options got even worse.

“This was a surprising result, but it shows the importance of a balanced diet for healthy development,” she said

According to her, the effects of unbalanced meals continued throughout the cockroaches’ lives, even for the few that were switched to good-quality food.

She and her colleagues observed that females fed on a poor-quality diet were less willing to mate, and less likely to produce offspring.

Such females were also more picky, and spent more time considering possible mates, said the researchers.

Based on the study’s findings, Moore concluded: “Poor diets (during early life) have an effect on the way cockroaches respond to their environment and cannot be reset later on.”

A research article describing the study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. (ANI)

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Even minor weight loss ‘ups fertility’ in obese women

July 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 1 (ANI): A new study has suggested that minor weight loss in obese women could boost their chances of getting pregnant.

Professor Bill Ledger, from the University of Sheffield, and colleagues said conducted a three-month study of 40 obese women who were not ovulating.

Many of them suffered from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

The group’s average age was 29 and their body mass index (BMI) was around 40. Health service guidelines do not recommend IVF treatment for women with a BMI of above 30.

The women were given weight loss drugs to help them lose 5 percent of their body weight over a three-month period.

The weight loss of 5 percent was connected with a 19 percent rise in blood flow to the womb.

This increase in flow could assist an egg’s release from the ovaries and help with embryo implantation.

The researchers stated that the increase in blood flow worked like a “switch” to stimulate the ovaries.

Testosterone levels – which are higher in PCOS sufferers – also decreased as the blood flow picked up.

Ledger said that requesting that women lost 5-10 percent of their body weight was a ‘modest target’.

“The message for women with PCOS is don’t think you have to lose half your body weight. This could also encourage moderately overweight women to lose 5-10 percent,” the BBC quoted Ledger as saying.

Women with PCOS, which is one of the most common causes of infertility, tend to put on weight because of their condition and struggle more than other women to lose it through diet and exercise.

The study was presented at the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). (ANI)

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Recession caused drop in greenhouse gas emissions by half in 2008

June 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 27 (ANI): An analysis has revealed that the financial crisis may have been good for the climate, as high oil prices caused the growth of greenhouse gas emissions to drop by half in 2008.

According to a report in New Scientist, that is the conclusion of an analysis of preliminary data released yesterday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (NEAA).

Emissions grew by 1.7 per cent in 2008, compared to 3.3 per cent in 2007.

The agency’s analysis suggests that this was mostly because fossil fuel consumption decreased globally for the first time since 1992.

The researchers say a growing switch to biofuels in the US, Europe and China, encouraged by national climate and energy policies, helped contribute to the trend.

Biofuels accounted for 2.5 per cent of global fuel consumption in road transport in 2008, representing a gross saving of over 100 million tonnes in CO2 emissions.

According to a recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme, 2008 was the first year new investments in renewable energies were greater than investments in fossil-fuelled technologies.

While cheaper oil and greater incentives to use renewable fuels played a key part in slowing emissions, the global financial crisis, which kicked off in the autumn of 2008, also played a role by restricting industrial activity.

In particular, the high-energy steel production industry was hard hit. “Finally, the European emissions trading market demonstrated it could be effective in limiting emissions despite the criticism it has received,” said Oliver.

“The scheme managed to get domestic CO2 emissions from large industries down by 3 per cent,” he told New Scientist.

The data, from oil giant BP, also show that for the first time developing nations were responsible for pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than developed nations and international transport combined.

According to Oliver, none of this means governments can sit back and relax.

Oil prices dropped at the end of the year, but are slowly climbing again, and no one knows how long the financial downturn will last.

“Governments would be wise to maintain their support for reducing fossil fuel use with energy conservation measures and by expanding renewable energy use,” said Olivier. (ANI)

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How eating less can help boost lifespan

June 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 25 (ANI): Scientists have long known that a restricted diet extends life. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified two enzymes that provide a new molecular explanation for how eating less leads to living longer.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Andrew Dillin and colleagues identified two proteins, WWP-1 and UBC-18, that link dietary restriction to longevity in roundworms.

Dillin says when researchers removed the two enzymes from the test animals, the benefits of a restricted diet disappeared.

And when those enzymes were enhanced, longevity and disease resistance increased.

The scientists say understanding how these molecules influence longevity could have implications for developing new treatments for age-related diseases.

“The only other known factor regulating longevity in response to diet restriction operates at the very end of the signaling cascade,” said Howard Hughes Medical Investigator and senior author Andrew Dillin, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory.

“These two enzymes are further up the ladder, bringing us closer to the receptor that receives the signal for throwing the switch to promote a healthy lifespan,” Dillin added.

The study has been published in the June 24, 2009, advance online edition of the journal Nature. (ANI)

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Battling TB could be possible by just ‘flipping a switch’ in immune response

June 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 23 (ANI): Fighting tuberculosis or other airborne pathogens could only be a matter of manipulating what is called the “switching time” in immune response, say researchers at Ohio State University.

They define ‘switching time’ as the point at which a highly regulated immune response gives way to powerful cells that specialize in fighting a specific invading bug.

For dealing with tuberculosis, the researchers are using mathematical modelling to determine whether a change to the natural switching time would result in a more effective immune response.

They are also analysing which parts of the immune response are most important to striking a balance between properly timing the switch and killing the microbe.

The complex modelling considers the huge assortment of cells and molecules at work in the human immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the microbe that causes TB.

The modelling suggests that the average switching time occurs about 50 days after tuberculosis invades the lung, which roughly coincides with clinical expectations that a skin test will turn up positive for TB between four and eight weeks after infection.

But, by that time, bacteria have settled in and are harder to kill, even with the more robust immune response.

The launch of the stronger immune response goes unnoticed in about 90 percent of infections Because TB is highly evolved and adapted to the human host.

With less adapted but virulent pathogens, on the other hand, an individual becomes acutely ill, and sometimes dies, when the switching time occurs.

Scientists say that the mathematical models that predict relationships and interactions in the immune response could guide planning for therapies that would be designed to either accelerate or slow the switching time, depending on the pathogen.

“A great problem in developing drugs and vaccines against airborne pathogens is this apparent bottleneck in the immune response and the inability to quickly and effectively eradicate microbes in the lung environment. Understanding that bottleneck is an important part of this paper, and brings new insight into how to override the problem with tuberculosis and other pathogens,” said Larry Schlesinger, a senior author of the study.

In this research, the scientists sought to determine what it would take to shorten the switching time and reduce the number of bacteria in the lung.

“If we could shorten the treatment for TB, that would be very powerful in breaking the transmission cycle,” said Schlesinger.

The researchers could use the precision of the modelling to simulate outcomes resulting from multiple tweaks to the values assigned to the various immune response activities.

The research is scheduled to appear in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)

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How obesity increases diabetes risk

June 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 22 (ANI): Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered how obesity makes a person more prone to diabetes, and why thin people can become insulin-resistant.

Led by Dr. Marc Montminy, a professor in the Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology, the study has shown how a condition known as ER (endoplasmic reticulum) stress triggers abnormal glucose production in the liver, an important step on the path to insulin resistance.

ER stress is induced by a high fat diet, and is overly activated in obese people.

In healthy people, a “fasting switch” only flips on glucose production when blood glucose levels run low during fasting.

“The existence of a second cellular signalling cascade-like an alternate route from A to B-that can modulate glucose production, presents the potential to identify new classes of drugs that might help to lower blood sugar by disrupting this alternative pathway,” Nature magazine quoted Montminy as saying.

However, not all obese people become insulin resistant, and insulin resistance occurs in non-obese individuals, which led researchers to suspect that fasting-induced glucose production was only half the story.
“When a cell starts to sense stress a red light goes on, which slows down the production of proteins. This process, which is known as ER stress response, is abnormally active in livers of obese individuals, where it contributes to the development of hyperglycemia, or high blood glucose levels. We asked whether chronic ER stress in obesity leads to abnormal activation of the fasting switch that normally controls glucose production in the liver,” said Montminy.

A transcriptional switch called CRTC2 turns on glucose production.

Normally, CRTC2 sits outside the nucleus waiting for the signal that allows it to slip inside and do its work and after entering the nucleus, it teams up with a protein called CREB and together they switch on the genes necessary to increase glucose output.

In insulin-resistant mice, however, the CRTC2 switch seems to get stuck in the “on” position, and the cells start churning out glucose like sugar factories in overdrive.

But when the conditions of ER stress were mimicked in mice, CRTC2 moved to the nucleus but failed to activate gluconeogenesis, and instead switched on genes important for combating stress and returning cells to health.

On closer inspection, the researchers found that in this scenario CRTC2 did not bind to CREB, but instead joined forces with another factor, called ATF6a.

However, it was found that the more ATF6a is bound to CRTC2, the less there is for CREB to bind to.

“This clever mechanism ensures that a cell in survival mode automatically shuts down glucose production, thus saving energy,” said a co-author of the study.

The researchers then found the levels of ATF6a to go down when ER stress was chronically activated, compromising the cells’ survival pathway and favouring the glucose production pathway.

Hyperglycemia wins in conditions of persistent stress.

“Our study helps to explain why obese people have a stronger tendency to become diabetic. When ER stress signaling is abnormal glucose output is actually increased,” said a co-author.

“It is possible that mutations in the highly conserved CRTC2 lead to a predisposition to inappropriate gluconeogenesis,” said Montminy.

The study has been published in the advance online edition of the journal Nature. (ANI)

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Now obesity increases diabetes risk

June 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 22 (ANI): Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered how obesity makes a person more prone to diabetes, and why thin people can become insulin-resistant.

ER stress is induced by a high fat diet, and is overly activated in obese people.

In healthy people, a “fasting switch” only flips on glucose production when blood glucose levels run low during fasting.

“When a cell starts to sense stress a red light goes on, which slows down the production of proteins. This process, which is known as ER stress response, is abnormally active in livers of obese individuals, where it contributes to the development of hyperglycemia, or high blood glucose levels. We asked whether chronic ER stress in obesity leads to abnormal activation of the fasting switch that normally controls glucose production in the liver,” said Montminy.

A transcriptional switch called CRTC2 turns on glucose production.

In insulin-resistant mice, however, the CRTC2 switch seems to get stuck in the “on” position, and the cells start churning out glucose like sugar factories in overdrive.

On closer inspection, the researchers found that in this scenario CRTC2 did not bind to CREB, but instead joined forces with another factor, called ATF6a.

However, it was found that the more ATF6a is bound to CRTC2, the less there is for CREB to bind to.

“This clever mechanism ensures that a cell in survival mode automatically shuts down glucose production, thus saving energy,” said a co-author of the study.

The researchers then found the levels of ATF6a to go down when ER stress was chronically activated, compromising the cells’ survival pathway and favouring the glucose production pathway.

Hyperglycemia wins in conditions of persistent stress.

“Our study helps to explain why obese people have a stronger tendency to become diabetic. When ER stress signaling is abnormal glucose output is actually increased,” said a co-author.

“It is possible that mutations in the highly conserved CRTC2 lead to a predisposition to inappropriate gluconeogenesis,” said Montminy.

The study has been published in the advance online edition of the journal Nature. (ANI)

Faster, more energy efficient electronics comes closer to reality

June 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 21 (ANI): You may see smaller, faster, more powerful, and less energy consuming electronic devices emerge in future, thanks to a new discovery by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Describing their work in the journal Science, the researchers have revealed that it involves a method to measure intrinsic conducting properties of ferroelectric materials, which for decades have held tremendous promise but have eluded experimental proof.

They believe that with this work, they may be on a path that will see barriers tumble.

“For years, the challenge has been to develop a nanoscale material that can act as a switch to store binary information. We are excited by our discovery and the prospect of finally being able to exploit the long-conjectured bi-stable electrical conductivity of ferroelectric materials,” said ORNL Wigner Fellow Peter Maksymovych.

“Harnessing this functionality will ultimately enable smart and ultra-dense memory technology,” added the expert who has jointly authored this study report with Stephen Jesse, Art Baddorf and Sergei Kalinin at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences.

The researchers claim that this is the first time that any group of researchers have demonstrated a giant intrinsic electroresistance in conventional ferroelectric films, where flipping of the spontaneous polarization increased conductance by up to 50,000 percent.

Ferroelectric materials can retain their electrostatic polarization and are used for piezoactuators, memory devices and RFID (radio-frequency identification) cards.

“It is as if we open a tiny door in the polar surface for electrons to enter. The size of this door is less than one-millionth of an inch, and it is very likely taking only one-billionth of a second to open,” Maksymovych said.

As authors write, the key distinction of ferroelectric memory switches is that they can be tuned through thermodynamic properties of ferroelectrics.

“Among other benefits, we can use the tunability to minimize the power needed for recording and reading information and read-write voltages, a key requirement for any viable memory technology,” Kalinin said.

Maksymovych pointed out that numerous previous works have demonstrated defect-mediated memory, but defects cannot easily be predicted, controlled, analyzed or reduced in size.

Ferroelectric switching, however, surpasses all of these limitations and will offer unprecedented functionality.

The authors believe that using phase transitions such as ferroelectric switching to implement memory and computing is the real fundamental distinction of future information technologies. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: ANI, Art Baddorf, billionth, cannot, center, challenge, computing, conductance, conducting, conductivity, consuming, department, discovery, distinction, door, Electrical Conductivity, electronic devices, electroresistance, energy, Experimental Proof, expert, faster, fellow, Ferroelectric, ferroelectric materials, Ferroelectric Memory, functionality, Future Thanks, giant, group, Harnessing, identification, inch, information, journal, journal science, June, Kalinin, Laboratory, material, memory, memory devices, Memory Technology, method, millionth, Nanophase, Nanophase Materials Sciences, nanoscale, national, new discovery, oak, oak ridge national laboratory, ORNL, path, percent, Peter Maksymovych, phase, polarization, power, promise, proof, prospect, Radio Frequency Identification, reading, reality, recording, report, requirement, RFID, Ridge, ridge national laboratory, Science, Second, Sergei Kalinin, size, Spontaneous Polarization, Stephen Jesse, study, surface, switch, switching, taking, Technology, Thermodynamic Properties, time, tumble, tunability, Washington, Wigner, Wigner Fellow, work

Faster, more energy efficient electronics comes closer to reality

June 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

They believe that with this work, they may be on a path that will see barriers tumble.

Ferroelectric materials can retain their electrostatic polarization and are used for piezoactuators, memory devices and RFID (radio-frequency identification) cards.

As authors write, the key distinction of ferroelectric memory switches is that they can be tuned through thermodynamic properties of ferroelectrics.

Maksymovych pointed out that numerous previous works have demonstrated defect-mediated memory, but defects cannot easily be predicted, controlled, analyzed or reduced in size.

Ferroelectric switching, however, surpasses all of these limitations and will offer unprecedented functionality.

The authors believe that using phase transitions such as ferroelectric switching to implement memory and computing is the real fundamental distinction of future information technologies. (ANI)

Real Madrid’s Perez claims Ronaldo will join club soon

May 30, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

Madrid (Spain), May 30 (ANI): Real Madrid presidential candidate Florentino Perez has hinted that Portuguese and Manchester United star striker Cristiano Ronaldo will join the Spanish football club this summer

According to The Sun, Ronaldo’s switch to Real Madrid has edged closer after Perez claimed that ‘an agreement’ is already in place for Manchester United winger.

Ronaldo had already told close friends he would be leaving Old Trafford before next season.

The Portuguese ace then refused to commit himself to the Premier League champions after Wednesday’s Champions League final defeat to Barcelona.

That will have had boss Alex Ferguson fuming but the latest comments from Florentino Perez, who could take over Real’s presidency as soon as Monday, will enrage him further.

Fergie expects Ronaldo to remain with United, but Perez said: “He’s a player that would be very good if he came to Real Madrid. What I know is what I’ve read, that there is an agreement by means of which he would come for 80 million pounds.

“Next week, we will look at the numbers and nobody should doubt that we are going to design a spectacular project with our sporting advisors,” he added.

AC Milan’s Kaka is another name on Perez’s wish list. (ANI)

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Reducing gasoline emissions will benefit human health

May 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 29 (ANI): A new study has shown that shown that a biofuel eliminating even 10-percent of current gasoline pollutant emissions would have a beneficial impact on human health.

While the focus of a shift from gasoline to biofuels has been on global warming, such a shift could also impact human health.

A grant from the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) has produced a novel and comprehensive “Life Cycle Impact Assessment” (LCIA) to measure the benefits on human health that might result from a switch to biofuels.

Although there are a number of uncertainties that must be addressed for a more accurate picture, these early results show that a biofuel eliminating even 10-percent of current gasoline pollutant emissions would have a substantial impact on human health, especially in urban areas.

Assessments of the life cycle impacts of emissions from gasoline-run motors in the US on a county-by-county basis show that the heaviest damage (darkest coloring) is concentrated in urban areas, especially Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

Nonetheless, Thomas McKone, an expert on health risk assessments and EBI researcher Agnes Lobscheid, were able to prepare an LCIA for reduced gasoline use based on the damage to human health that emissions from gasoline burning can cause.

For a baseline, they used a 10-percent reduction in gasoline use.

In assessing the impact of these emissions on human health, they looked at “disability adjusted life years” or “DALYs,” which is a combination of two common damage factors in LCIAs – years of life lost due to premature mortality (YLLs) and the equivalent years of life lost due to disability (YLDs).

“In looking at emission impacts on health, we have the capacity to carry out county-level resolution measurements for both direct and indirect emissions,” said McKone.

Measured emissions at county-level resolution included direct particulate matter and indirect fine particles (2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller) produced from emissions of sulfate and nitrite gases, volatile organic compounds and ammonia, plus ozone, toxic air pollutants, emissions to surface and ground water, and emissions to soil.

“We found that for the vehicle operation phase of our LCIA, the annual health damages avoided in the US with 10-percent less gasoline-run motor vehicle emissions ranges from about 5,000 to 20,000 DALY, with most of the damage resulting from primary fine particle emissions,” said McKone.

“While county-specific damages range over nine orders of magnitude across all US counties most of the damage, as you would expect, is concentrated in urban populations with the highest impact in the Los Angeles, New York and Chicago regions,” he added. (ANI)

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