Soft drinks tied to increased aggression in kids: Study

Heavy soft drink consumption is associated with aggression, attention problems and withdrawal behaviour in young children, a new study has found.

The study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, University of Vermont, and Harvard School of Public Health assessed approximately 3,000 5-year-old children.

The kids were enrolled in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a prospective birth cohort that follows mother-child pairs from 20 large US cities.

Mothers reported their child's soft drink consumption and completed the Child Behaviour Checklist based on their child's behaviour during the previous two months.

The researchers found that 43 per cent of the children consumed at least 1 serving of soft drinks per day, and 4 per cent consumed 4 or more.

Aggression, withdrawal, and attention problems were associated with soda consumption. Even after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, maternal depression, intimate partner violence, and paternal incarceration, any soft drink consumption was linked to increased aggressive behaviour.

Children who drank 4 or more soft drinks per day were more than twice as likely to destroy things belonging to others, get into fights, and physically attack people.

They also had increased attention problems and withdrawal behaviour compared with those who did not consume soft drinks.

"We found that the child's aggressive behaviour score increased with every increase in soft drinks servings per day," said Shakira Suglia, Mailman School assistant professor of Epidemiology.

Although this study cannot identify the exact nature of the association between soft drink consumption and problem behaviours, limiting or eliminating a child's soft drink consumption may reduce behavioural problems, researchers said.

The study was published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Interesting Information: Australian researchers find new drug to tackle mal...

Interesting Information: Australian researchers find new drug to tackle mal...: Australian researchers have said that a new drug that stops the malaria parasite from using vitamin B1 to multiply is now plausible. Pharm...

Interesting Information: New malaria vaccine shows promise in clinical tria...

Interesting Information: New malaria vaccine shows promise in clinical tria...: A new malaria vaccine, which is being developed in the US, has shown promising results in early stage clinical trials, scientists say. Re...

India launched First Indigenous Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant

India will launch its first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant on Monday, making an entry into a select club of countries capable of designing and building a carrier of this size and capability.

Defence Minister A K Antony's wife Elizabeth will launch the 37,500 tonne carrier at Kochi shipyard close to four-and-a-half years after its keel was laid by the minister.

Other countries capable of designing and building an equivalent size ship are the US, the UK, Russia and France.

The launch will mark the end of the first phase of its construction and it will then be re-docked for outfitting and construction of superstructure.

It is set to go for extensive trials till 2016 before being inducted into the Navy by 2018 end, as per its schedule.

Mig29K, Light Combat Aircraft and Kamov 31 could fly from the carrier.

The launch would be the "crowning glory" of Indian Navy's indigenisation programme, said Vice-Admiral R K Dhowan, the Vice-Chief of Naval Staff.

Apart from domestic design and manufacturing work, it is the high grade warship steel made by the Steel Authority of India which has been used for building the ship.

The indigenous component in the warship would be approximately anywhere between 80 and 90 per cent in floating department, up to 60 per cent in movement and not more than 30 per cent in fighting component of the carrier.

The ship, which will be a length of 260 m and breadth of 60 m, has been designed by Directorate of Naval Design and is being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited.

Its production work had commenced in November 2006. Controller Warship Production and Acquisition Vice Admiral K R Nair told reporters on board the massive vessel, "We have built 6000-7000 tonnage capacity ships so far. This is 37,500 tonnes."

"The gas turbine ship will be operating MIGs and other aircraft," he said.

On the challenges faced during construction of the ship, he said there were quite a few problems. Availability of steel, problems with acquisition of machines were some of them. Most of the equipment has gone on board while the weapons have to be inducted.

"Its tonnage and complexity is very important. It has got ski jump from where aircraft will take off. It will operate 25-30 aircraft -- including Mig 29K and light combat aircraft," he said.

Cochin Shipyard Chairman and Managing Director, Commodore K Subramaniam, said the second phase construction has already started. The aircraft carrier was the most 'challenging' work the shipyard, which had so far constructed only commercial vessels, had undertaken, he said. With the launch of the ship, the first phase would be completed.

The second phase will see the detailed laying of electrical cables, ventilation systems and setting up of about 2,300 compartments. This phase will take four years to be completed, Commodore Subramaniam said.

"Initially we were not planning to have ski jump. That was not part of the original first phase. But the Navy wanted it. So it was included," he said.

The Super structure's first tier has been fitted. Another four tiers would be ready by 2014, he said.

Shipping Minister G K Vasan will preside over the function in which Naval chief D K Joshi would also be participating.

Eight diesel generators and four gas turbines, have already been installed which can generate about 24 MW power capable of lighting up the entire Kochi city, Suresh Kumar, General Manager (Planning) Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) said.

There are two take-off points -- one long take-off runway and one short besides a landing point, he said.

Heavy monsoon rains had affected completion of the works.

Fresh coat of paint and colourful lights have been put up for the grand launching ceremony tomorrow.

The workers of the shipyard are also excited. Govindankutty and Ravindran, both from the quality control department, said this was a great moment for them as they had been working tirelessly since the past four years.

On board the ship, 850-1000 workers had been on the job daily since February-March this year to complete the works on schedule.

The contract for the construction of the aircraft carrier was signed with the navy in 2007 and the keel laid in February 2009.

"This bears great significance to Indian Navy. It makes India only the fifth country after the US, Russia, Britain and France to have such capabilities," Senior Captain Zhang Junshe, Vice-President of China's Naval Research Institute, told the state-run CCTV on Monday.

The Indian Navy will have lead over China as it will have two aircraft carriers by the end of this year with INS Vikramaditya, the refitted carrier from Russia joining INS Viraat, which is already in service even though Vikrant was expected to be operational by 2018, he said.

"Which means by the end of this year India will become the only country in Asia to have two aircraft carriers. This will enhance the overall capabilities especially the power projection capabilities of the Indian Navy," Zhang said.

Ruling out any race for more carriers in the region, Zhang defended India and China having more carriers since they have vast coasts and huge populations and the importance of defending the sea lanes far from home due to dependence on external trade.

In 2012, China had launched its first aircraft carrier, Lioning. Its hull was imported from Ukraine and refurbished in China.

China also subsequently launched J-15 aircraft to operate from its deck. The ship with over 50,000 tonnes displacement will have about 30 aircraft on its deck.

China is reportedly building two more aircraft carriers but their schedules are not known yet.

Zhang earlier told the state-run China Daily that with Vikrant, the Indian navy will be more capable of patrolling distant oceans.

"India's first self-made carrier, along with reinforced naval strength, will further disrupt the military balance in South Asia," he said.

India is very likely to quicken its pace to steer eastward to the Pacific, where the US and China are competing to dominate.

The launch of the Vikrant as well the first nuclear submarine Arihant also aroused the curiosity and concerns among analysts from different state-run think tanks in China.

"The new indigenous carrier will further strengthen India's naval power and also add some bargaining chips with the world's major military vendors such as Russia," Wang Daguang, a researcher of military equipment based in Beijing told the Daily.

Song Xiaojun, a military commentator in Beijing, said the Vikrant uses technology from the 1980s and thus serves as an experiment for the Indian Navy to set technical standards for future vessels.

sources : the indian express

Drinking hot chocolate keeps brain healthy: study

Drinking two cups of hot chocolate a day may help older people keep their brains healthy and their thinking skills sharp, according to a new study.

US researchers studied 60 people with an average age of 73 who did not have dementia. The participants drank two cups of hot cocoa per day for 30 days and did not consume any other chocolate during the study.

They were given tests of memory and thinking skills. They also had ultrasounds tests to measure the amount of blood flow to the brain during the tests.

"We're learning more about blood flow in the brain and its effect on thinking skills," said study author Farzaneh A Sorond, of Harvard Medical School in Boston and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

"As different areas of the brain need more energy to complete their tasks, they also need greater blood flow. This relationship, called neurovascular coupling, may play an important role in diseases such as Alzheimer's," Sorond said.

Of the 60 participants, 18 had impaired blood flow at the start of the study. Those people had an 8.3 per cent improvement in the blood flow to the working areas of the brain by the end of the study, while there was no improvement for those who started out with regular blood flow.

The people with impaired blood flow also improved their times on a test of working memory, with scores dropping from 167 seconds at the beginning of the study to 116 seconds at the end. There was no change in times for people with regular blood flow.

A total of 24 of the participants also had MRI scans of the brain to look for tiny areas of brain damage. The scans found that people with impaired blood flow were also more likely to have these areas of brain damage.

Half of the study participants received hot cocoa that was rich in the antioxidant flavanol, while the other half received flavanol-poor hot cocoa. There were no differences between the two groups in the results.

"More work is needed to prove a link between cocoa, blood flow problems and cognitive decline. But this is an important first step that could guide future studies," said Paul B Rosenberg, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

The study was published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

sources : the indian express

New malaria vaccine shows promise in clinical trials

A new malaria vaccine, which is being developed in the US, has shown promising results in early stage clinical trials, scientists say. Researchers found that high doses of the vaccine protected 12 out of 15 patients from the disease. The vaccine involves injecting live but weakened malaria-causing parasites directly into patients to trigger immunity.

"We were excited and thrilled by the result, but it is important that we repeat it, extend it and do it in larger numbers," said lead author Dr Robert Seder, from the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, in Maryland. Previous research has found that exposure to mosquitoes treated with radiation can protect against malaria. But studies have shown that it takes more than 1,000 bites from the insects over time to build up a high level of immunity.

A US biotech company called Sanaria took lab-grown mosquitoes, irradiated them and then extracted the malaria-causing parasite (Plasmodium falciparum), all under the sterile conditions. These living but weakened parasites are then counted and placed in vials, where they can then be injected directly into a patient's bloodstream. This vaccine candidate is called PfSPZ.

To carry out the Phase-1 clinical trial, the researchers looked at a group of 57 volunteers, none of whom had had malaria before. Of these, 40 received different doses of the vaccine, while 17 did not. They were then all exposed to the malaria-carrying mosquitoes, 'BBC News' reported. The researchers found that for the participants not given any vaccine, and those given low doses, almost all became infected with malaria.

However, for the small group given the highest dosage, only three of the 15 patients became infected after exposure to malaria. "Based on the history, we knew dose was important because you needed 1,000 mosquito bites to get protection – this validates that," Seder said. "It allows us in future studies to increase the dose and alter the schedule of the vaccine to further optimise it. The next critical questions will be whether the vaccine is durable over a long period of time and can the vaccine protect against other strains of malaria," he said. The results were published in the journal Science.

 

First malaria vaccine works in major trial

An experimental vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline halved the risk of African children getting malaria in a major clinical trial, making it likely to become the world's first shot against the disease.

Final-stage trial data released Tuesday showed it gave protection against clinical and severe malaria in 5- to 17-month-olds in Africa. "These data bring us to the cusp of having the world's first malaria vaccine," said Andrew Witty, chief executive of the British drugmaker that developed the vaccine along with the non-profit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI).

While hailing an unprecedented achievement, Witty, malaria scientists and global health experts stressed that the vaccine — known as RTS,S or Mosquirix — was no quick fix for eradicating malaria. The new shot is less effective than others against common infections like polio and measles.

"We would have wished that we could wipe it out, but I think this is going to contribute to the control of malaria rather than wiping it out," Tsiri Agbenyega, a principal investigator in the RTS,S trials in Ghana, told Reuters at a conference in Seattle about the disease.

Malaria is endemic in more than 100 countries worldwide and killed around 781,000 people in 2009, according to the World Health Organisation. Most deaths in India are of children under the age of five.

Dr Sanjay Singh, CEO of Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, which has been involved with MVI and hopes to launch an Indian malaria vaccine next year, described the news as "very encouraging", and a sign that a malaria vaccine was possible. — Reuters with ENS, Pune, Kate Kelland & Ben Hirschler

 

Malaria Vaccine Shows Strongest Protection Yet Against Parasite

Healthy adults immunized with an experimental malaria vaccine may be completely protected from infection, according to government researchers.

The vaccine, called PfSPZ, is being developed by an American biotech company Sanaria and contains weakened forms of the live parasite — Plasmodium falciparum — responsible for causing malaria.

The vaccine is made from sporozoites, or early-stage parasites extracted from infected mosquitoes, which are the most common carriers of P. falciparum. The sporozoites were incapacitated so they can’t develop into disease-causing maturity, and infused intravenously into vaccinees. Among 40 healthy volunteers, those who received the higher doses of the vaccine showed more antibodies against the malaria parasite’s proteins than those getting lower doses. When the immunized participants where tested with exposure to P. falciparum, none of the six who received six doses of the vaccine developed malaria, while five of the six who were not vaccinated became infected.

That’s encouraging news, say the scientists, led by Dr. Robert Seder of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, who were supported by the  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Naval Medical Research Center.

The trial was only the first phase of clinical testing for the vaccine, but, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID in a statement, it is an “important step forward” in controlling malaria, which infects about 219 million people worldwide annually and leads to 600,000 deaths. While drug treatments can protect against infection, they are most effective when used in combination with bed nets and insect repellent.

(MORE: Early Results: A First-Ever Malaria Vaccine Protects Children)

“It allows us in future studies to increase the dose and alter the schedule of the vaccine to further optimise it. The next critical questions will be whether the vaccine is durable over a long period of time and can the vaccine protect against other strains of malaria,” Seder told the BBC.

The results, which were published in the journal Science, are especially encouraging after initially promising findings from another malaria vaccine developed by Glaxo Smith Kline proved less robust than thought. In 2012, a trial involving infants in seven African counties, where malaria is endemic, showed that the vaccine, called RTS,S, was 30% effective in protecting babies aged five to 17 months from infection. At the time, public health officials debated whether that was sufficient to start vaccinating kids in countries where the disease is more rampant. TIME wrote:

At its current power, the candidate vaccine “potentially translates to tens of millions of malaria cases among children that can be averted annually,” Dr. Tsiri Agbenyega, head of the malaria research unit at the Komfo-Anokye Hospital in Ghana and chair of the RTS,S Clinical Trials Partnership Committee, told reporters during Tuesday’s briefing. “The study found that RTS,S also reduced risk of severe malaria by 47%. That’s remarkable when you consider that there has never been a successful vaccine against a human parasite, nor against malaria.”

(MORE: Drug-Resistant Malaria Is Spreading, and It Could Be a Public Health Disaster)

But an updated report in the New England Journal of Medicine this past March found that the protection from the vaccine didn’t last. Beginning eight months after vaccination, the shot’s effectiveness started to wane, and four years later, its efficacy dropped to about 17%. “It was a bit surprising to see the efficacy waned so significantly over time. In the fourth year, the vaccine did not show any protection,” follow-up study leader Ally Olotu of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya, told Reuters in March. Researchers continue to test RTS,S in final-stage trials with over 15,000 kids, and the results are expected by the end of next year, according to Reuters.

That vaccine, however, used snippets of the malaria parasite’s proteins that were fused with proteins from the hepatitis B virus in order to activate the immune system into producing antibodies against P. falciparum. Researchers hope that the weakened, live form of the the parasite contained in PfSPZ produces more lasting responses, but more research will need to be done to see if that’s the case. It’s also not clear how practical the IV delivery of this vaccine will be, since countries where malaria is common often have weak health systems and fewer medical resources.

Still, the findings hold promise that it may be possible to protect against malaria with a vaccine, and avoid hundreds of thousands of deaths.
sources : the indian express

Gene that may stop spread of breast cancer identified

Scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have found that limiting the function of a gene can stop the spread of breast cancer and reduce the risk of death.

The study by Kiran Chada, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, part of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and his team shows that metastasis in breast cancer and the risk of death are reduced when the function of the gene HGMA2, is limited.

"Our research has shown that HGMA2 plays a part in regulating the spread of cancer and could be considered a driver of the process," said Chada, who was principal investigator of the study.

"Further studies could result in the development of therapeutic treatments for patients with breast cancer which could prevent HGMA2's function, reduce the spread of cancer and extend a patient's life," he said.

According to Chada, only a subset of cancer cells in the primary tumour is potentially metastatic and these cells are found at the edge of the tumour in a region known as the invasive front.

Chada's laboratory showed that normal cells do not express HMGA2, and the expression of this gene product converts normal cells into metastatic cells. Furthermore, the majority of cells which express HMGA2 in human breast cancer tissue were found to be at the invasive

front. In additional studies, the researchers showed mice that could not express the HMGA2 gene were found to have a

substantially reduced incidence of breast cancer.

The study was published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

sources : the Indian express 

Australian researchers find new drug to tackle malaria

Australian researchers have said that a new drug that stops the malaria parasite from using vitamin B1 to multiply is now plausible.

Pharmacologist Kevin Saliba of Australian National University along with his team have reported their findings in recent issue of Nature Communications, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Just like humans, malaria parasites need vitamins to grow and multiply. Thiamine (vitamin B1) is converted in cells to a cofactor, which then binds a number of enzymes involved in energy production.

Saliba and colleagues worked on if it might be possible to inhibit this thiamine metabolism pathway.

"We can target the pathways by which the parasite takes up the vitamin and metabolises it. These pathways can serve as drug targets," Saliba said.

As a 'probe drug', they used an analogue of thiamine, which looks similar to the vitamin but cannot actually be used in energy production.

To provide proof of principle they looked at what happens to the pathway involving two enzymes – oxoglutarate dehydrogenase and pyruvate dehydrogenase.

In an invitro experiment, the researchers found that the parasite metabolised the analogue into a cofactor which binds to the enzymes, but they found evidence that the analogue was inhibiting one of the enzymes.

Saliba and the team also gave the thiamine analogue to mice infected with malaria and found they lost weight.

"That's consistent with the drug having some toxicity," said Saliba.

The thiamine analogue used here would interfere with energy metabolism in humans so any anti-malarial drug based on these findings would have to be designed very carefully, he added.

"The idea is that you come up with a drug that would selectively target the parasite pathway. We would have to rely on slight differences between the human and parasite thiamine metabolism pathways," said Saliba.

There are currently anti-malarial drugs that target folate metabolism,which means there is a precedent for having a drug that targets a metabolic pathway in a pathogen that also exists in humans.

A major problem with anti-malarials is the development of resistance.

"The malaria parasite has become resistant to just about all the drugs we've used against it," Saliba said.

He said it is exciting to have one drug that is metabolised in the parasite that targets multiple enzymes in energy metabolism.

"It will be more difficult for the parasites to become resistant to a drug that's binding to several enzymes," said Saliba.

According to the World Health Organisation, about 3.3 billion people - almost half of the world's population – are at risk of malaria.

source : the Indian express

Skipping breakfast increases heart attack risk

Men who regularly skip breakfast may be at a 27 per cent higher risk of heart attack than those who take their morning meal, a large 16-year study has warned.

According to the study published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, men who reported they skipped breakfast had a higher risk of heart attack or death from coronary heart disease.

The timing of meals, whether it's missing a meal in the morning or eating a meal very late at night, may cause adverse metabolic effects that lead to coronary heart disease.

Even after accounting for modest differences in diet, physical activity, smoking and other lifestyle factors, the association between skipping breakfast (or eating very late at night) and coronary heart disease persisted.

Researchers analysed food frequency questionnaire data and tracked health outcomes for 16 years (1992-2008) on 26,902 male health professionals ages 45-82. During the study, 1,572 of the men had first-time cardiac events.

The study found that men who reported eating late at night (eating after going to bed) had a 55 per cent higher coronary heart disease risk than those who didn't. However, researchers were less convinced this was a major public health concern because few men in the study reported this behaviour.

"Skipping breakfast may lead to one or more risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, which may in turn lead to a heart attack over time," said Leah E Cahill, study lead author and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

"Our study group has spent decades studying the health effects of diet quality and composition, and now this new data also suggests overall dietary habits can be important to lower risk of coronary heart disease," said Eric Rimm, senior author and Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School.

Men who reported eating breakfast ate on average one more time per day than those who skipped breakfast, implying that those who abstained from breakfast were not eating additional make-up meals later in the day.

Although there was some overlap between those who skipped breakfast and those who ate late at night, 76 per cent of late-night eaters also ate breakfast, researchers said. While the current study group was composed of men who were of 97 per cent white European descent, the results should also apply to women and other ethnic groups, but this should be tested in additional studies, researchers said.

source : the Indian express

10 All-Time Greatest Books

10. E.B. White, Charlotte's Web (1952)

Author :  E. B. White
Illustrator : Garth Williams
Country : United States
Language : English
Genre    Children's
Publisher    Harper & Brothers
Publication date    1952
Pages    192 pp
Charlotte's Web is a children's novel by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published in 1952 by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (Some Pig) in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.

9. Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)

Beloved is a novel by the American writer Toni Morrison. Set after the American Civil War, it is inspired by the story of an African-American slave, Margaret Garner, who temporarily escaped slavery

Beloved is a novel by the American writer Toni Morrison. Set after the American Civil War(1861–1865), it is inspired by the story of an African-American slave, Margaret Garner, who temporarily escaped slavery during 1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, a free state. A posse arrived to retrieve her and her children under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which gave slave owners the right to pursue slaves across state borders. Margaret killed her two-year-old daughter rather than allow her to be recaptured.

 

 

 

 

8. John Updike, The Rabbit Quartet (1960-1990)

  ''Rabbit'' Angstrom runs from marriage and responsibility and runs smack into them again in Updike's masterful chronicle of a man's four-decade race against the American zeitgeist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter: The Complete Series (1997-2007)

  Surprised to see Harry so high on our list? Well, his is the richest coming-of-age tale ever. Thanks to Rowling's luminous storytelling and dazzling imagination, people will still be tearing through it in a hundred years.

 

 

 

 

6. Willa Cather, My Ántonia (1918)

  My Ántonia, first published 1918, is considered one of the greatest novels by American writer Willa Cather. It is the final book of her "prairie trilogy" of novels, the companion volumes being O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude(1967)

  One Hundred Years of Solitude, is a novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez that tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town of Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861)

  Great Expectations is Charles Dickens's thirteenth novel. It is the second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London.
Though the story is set at the turn of the 19th century, it retains a fascination for modern readers, continuing near the top of lists of "most loved books" such as The Big Read. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature and receives considerable attention from literary scholars. Modern interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austen's memorable characters or themes. To date, the book has sold some 20 million copies worldwide

 

 

2. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

  The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1878)

Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger.

Britain's royal baby billionaire even before birth

As Britain counts the hours before Prince William and Kate Middleton announce the birth of their first child, a global intelligence firm on ultra high net worth (UHNW) individuals has estimated that the royal baby could inherit as much as 1 billion pounds in royal legacy.
Wealth-X found that the unborn child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is already a billionaire, given the fortunes of the immediate members of the British royal family, including great grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, great grandfather Princes Philip, grandfather Charles and father William.
Queen Elizabeth II, who celebrated her diamond jubilee as Britain's monarch last year, tops the wealth stakes with a personal net worth of USD 660 million with her income in 2014 is expected to rise by 15 per cent from USD 54 million to nearly USD 58 million, after the Crown Estate reported an increase in profits in June.
However, the net worth figures do not include the possible inheritance of the crown jewels and the Royal Collection.
Prince Charles is worth around USD 370 million and William around USD 20 million, making the combined net worth of the immediate members of the royal family over USD 1 billion.
The royal baby, who will be third in line to the throne and the future King or Queen of England, is expected any time now.
Buckingham Palace has not confirmed an exact date for Kate to give birth, but speculation has centered on this weekend.
She has opted for a natural birth at the private Lingo wing of St Mary's hospital in Paddington, central London, where a police presence has increased in recent days.
Media from the world over have camped out at the hospital, which was also where Princess Diana gave birth to both princes William and Harry.
William, who took leave from official duties as an air-sea rescue helicopter captain with the Royal Air Force (RAF) based at Anglesey in North Wales, is whiling away the wait by playing polo.
The father-to-be played at a fundraising match in Hampshire for a charity run by the Duchess of Cornwall's brother and was to play again today at a club in Wiltshire, despite predictions that Sunday is the most likely day for his wife to give birth.
Buckingham Palace said the prince would play unless he had to be at his wife's side.
William's cousin, Zara Phillips, was also playing polo at a separate event on Saturday, the week after she announced that she and her husband Mike Tindal, the former England rugby captain, are expecting their first child in the New Year.
source : The Indian Express

Chinese institute develops 100-megapixel IOE3-Kanban camera

Reporters on the 9th learned from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Optoelectronic Technology researchers hospital lasted two years, successfully developed up to 100 million pixel camera IOE3-Kanban. The camera uses international professional company area array CCD chip, integrated developed a camera that can actually work the whole, is currently the highest in China monolithic CCD pixel digital CCD camera.

New developed the 100 million pixel camera IOE3-Kanban small size, light weight, body only 19.3 cm at its widest point, the imaging frame reaches 10240 × 10240 pixels, at -20 ℃ to 55 ℃ temperature range can achieve high-resolution imaging, and has a high sensitivity, high dynamic range, and can be used in aerial mapping, urban planning, disaster monitoring, intelligent transportation systems require more than ten kinds of high-definition imaging field.

According to reports, the Chinese Academy of optoelectronic camera configuration developed by a large field, high-precision, low distortion optics and advanced camera control system and large capacity data recording system that integrates a "national aviation remote sensing system" on the basis of remote sensor of the "big matrix CCD mapping camera system, "recently completed research also carried out after the flight test, successfully obtained high-quality digital images.

Back in the "fifth" period, the Chinese Academy of Opto-Electronics has successfully developed a 81 million pixel area array CCD camera system, reached the international advanced level. Experts said the completion of 100 million pixel camera developed, marking the Chinese Academy of Sciences Photonics Large Area Development of high-resolution CCD digital camera technology is more mature.

A Chinese institute claimed to have successfully developed a 100-megapixel camera which could produce high-resolution imaging in the fields of aerial mapping, disaster monitoring and intelligent transportation systems.

The IOE3-Kanban camera was developed by the Institute of Optics and Electronics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences making it China's highest pixel camera, CAS said in a statement.

The camera is capable of producing images with 10,240 x 10,240 pixels, the statement said. Moreover, it is small and light, with its widest part measuring only 19.3 cm, state-run Xinhua quoted the statement as saying, adding that it can be used at temperatures ranging from minus 20 degrees centigrade to 55 degrees centigrade.

Its high sensitivity and high dynamic range (HDR) features mean it will be useful in high-resolution imaging in the fields of aerial mapping, city planning, disaster monitoring and intelligent transportation systems, the statement said.

Intelligent transportation system is aimed to provide innovative services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management, enabling various users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and 'smarter' use of transport networks.

The camera is equipped with advanced optical systems, camera control systems and high-capacity data recording systems, and it has proven successful in a recent trial use as a part of a national aerial remote-sensing system, it said.

The institute also developed an 81-megapixel camera during the 10th Five Year Plan period (2001-2005), and the latest achievement took the researchers two years to develop.

A megapixel is one million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays.

source : the Indian express

Twitter can't beat news agencies: study

News agencies continue to have an edge over Twitter in being the first to provide people with the news, UK scientists have found.

Research into reporting of news events by Twitter and newswire services has found that while Twitter can sometimes break news before news-wires, for major events there is little evidence that it can replace traditional news outlets.

Scientists at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow developed a software algorithm to track Twitter activity.

They used it to study 51 million tweets over 11 weeks in summer of 2011 and compared these with output from news outlets for the same period.

Media houses tracked for the study included the BBC, CNN and the New York Times, which seek to set the news agenda and break news stories ahead of one another.

Scientists were able to examine Twitter messages relating to major news items. They also identified a large amount of minor news items that had featured on Twitter but had been ignored by the mainstream media, researchers said.

However, neither Twitter nor news-wires was regularly faster than the other in breaking high-profile news, researchers said.

When Twitter outperformed news-wires for speed, it was for mainly for sport and disaster-related events, their findings show.

Twitter's main benefits for news are bringing additional coverage of events, and for sharing news items of interest to niche audiences or with a short lifespan, such as local sports results, the study found.

source : the Indian express

Bugs may be last surviving life on Earth

Thermophilic or heat-loving bacteria may be amongst the last life on Earth: study

Bugs may be among the last survivors of the end of the world, researchers say. Thermophilic or heat-loving bacteria may be amongst the last life on Earth, perhaps surviving 2.8 billion years into the future, according to a new study.

In two billion years' time, life on Earth will be confined to pockets of liquid water deep underground, according to Astros biologist Jack O'Malley James of the University of St Andrews.

The new research also suggests that though the hardiest forms of life may have a foothold on similar worlds in orbit around other stars, evidence for it may be very subtle. Ultimately, a combination of slow and rapid environmental changes will result in the extinction of all species on Earth, with the last inhabitants disappearing within 2.8 billion years from now.

The main driver for these changes will be the Sun. As it ages over the next few billion years, the Sun will remain stable but become steadily more luminous, increasing the intensity of its heat felt on Earth and warming the planet to such an extent that the oceans evaporate.

O'Malley James has created a computer model to simulate these extremely long-range temperature forecasts and has used the results to predict the time-line of future extinctions. Within the next billion years, increased evaporation rates and chemical reactions with rainwater will draw more and more carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere. The falling levels of CO2 will lead to the disappearance of plants and animals and our home planet will become a world of microbes.

At the same time the Earth will be depleted of oxygen and will be drying out as the rising temperatures lead to the evaporation of the oceans. A billion years after that the oceans will have gone completely.

"The far-future Earth will be very hostile to life by this point. All living things require liquid water, so any remaining life will be restricted to pockets of liquid water, perhaps at cooler, higher altitudes or in caves or underground," said O'Malley-James. This life will need to cope with many extremes like high temperatures and intense ultraviolet radiation and only a few microbial species known on Earth today could cope with this. The new model not only tells us a lot about our own planet's future, but it can also help us to recognize other inhabited planets that may be approaching the end of their habitable lifetimes.

"We have now simulated a dying biosphere composed of populations of the species that are most likely to survive to determine what types of gases they would release to the atmosphere. By the point at which all life disappears from the planet, we're left with a nitrogen:carbon-dioxide atmosphere with methane being the only sign of active life," said O'Malley-James.

source : the Indian express 

Brain's 'switch' for long-term memory identified

Scientists have identified calcium in the cell nucleus to be a cellular "switch" responsible for the formation of long-term memory.

Neurobiologists at Heidelberg University in Germany used the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model to investigate how the brain learns.

The team led by Professor Dr Christophe Schuster and Professor Dr Hilmar Bading wanted to know which signals in the brain were responsible for building long-term memory and for forming the special proteins involved.

The team from the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences (IZN) measured nuclear calcium levels with a fluorescent protein in the association and learning centres of the insect's brain to investigate any changes that might occur during the learning process.

Their work on the fruit fly revealed brief surges in calcium levels in the cell nuclei of certain neurons during learning. It was this calcium signal that researchers identified as the trigger of a genetic programmed that controls the production of "memory proteins." If this nuclear calcium switch is blocked, the flies are unable to form long-term memory.

Schuster explained that insects and mammals separated evolutionary paths approximately 600 million years ago. In spite of this sizable gap, certain vitally important processes such as memory formation use similar cellular mechanisms in humans, mice and flies, as the researchers' experiments were able to prove.

"These commonalities indicate that the formation of long-term memory is an ancient phenomenon already present in the shared ancestors of insects and vertebrates. Both species probably use similar cellular mechanisms for forming long-term memory, including the nuclear calcium switch," Schuster said.

The researchers assume that similar switches based on nuclear calcium signals may have applications in other areas presumably whenever organisms need to adapt to new conditions over the long term. "Pain memory, for example, or certain protective and survival functions of neurons use this nuclear calcium switch, too," said Bading.

"This cellular switch may no longer work as well in the elderly, which Bading believes may explain the decline in memory typically observed in old age. "Thus, the discoveries by the Heidelberg neurobiologists open up new perspectives for the treatment of age- and illness-related changes in brain functions," Bading said. The study was published in the journal Science Signaling.

SOURC : THE INDIAN EXPRESS

India launches first ever dedicated navigation satellite, joins elite club

In a landmark late night journey into a new era of space application, India today successfully launched its first dedicated navigation satellite using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle which blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here.
Precisely at 11.41 pm, India's workhorse PSLV C22 lifted off in a perfect text book launch, carrying IRNSS-1A satellite, painting a dense golden flame in the dark canvas of the sky.
About 20 minutes after its launch, the rocket placed into the IRNSS-1A into its orbit.
An elated ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said the IRNSS-1A satellite was precisely injected into its intended orbit.
"This only proves that PSLV is an extremely reliable vehicle and with this flight, we are also entering into a new era of space application in the country that is the beginning of satellite navigation programme."
The data from the satellite would help the country in a range of fields including disaster management, vehicle tracking, fleet management and marine navigation.
Developed by India, the IRNSS-1A, the first of the 7 satellites constituting the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) space segment, has a mission life of 10 years.
It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in the country as well as the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary,which is its
primary service area. IRNSS will be on lines with Russia's Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), European Union's Galileo (GNSS), China's BeiDou satellite navigation system and the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System.
"I am extremely happy to announce that we had another excellent flight of our PSLV vehicle. This is the 23rd successive successful flight of PSLV and the fourth successful flight of extended version of PSLV," Radhakrishnan said.
The navigational system would provide two types of services --Standard Positioning Service, which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service, which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users.

ISRO looking for more participation of private players in Joint Ventures

With its workhorse PSLV creating a niche for itself in the space industry across the globe, ISRO is looking for the more participation of private players in joint ventures, a top official said today. "
Over 400 industrial firms are already working with us. PSLV has created a niche for itself in the industry, which can carry over 1.5 tonnes. We have 12 missions in a year. We are looking for partnership from more private players," ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan told reporters here.
After India's first dedicated navigation satellite, IRNSS-1A-- was successfully launched on board the PSLV-C22 today, Radhakrishnan said, "This only proves that PSLV is an extremely reliable vehicle and with this flight, we are also entering into a new era of space application in the country that is the beginning of satellite navigation programme."
"I am extremely happy to announce that we had another excellent flight of our PSLV vehicle. This is the 23rd successive successful flight of PSLV and the fourth successful flight of extended version of PSLV," he said.
sours : the inidan express Updated: Tue, 2 Jul 2013

China Builds World's Fastest Supercomputer (Tianhe-2)

China has built the world's fastest supercomputer, which is almost twice the speed of the previous record-holder from the US DoE’s Titan super computer.

In a massive escalation of the supercomputing arms race, China has built Tianhe-2, a supercomputer capable of 33.86 petaflops — almost twice as fast as the US Department of Energy’s Titan, and topping the official Top 500 list of supercomputers by some margin. The US isn’t scheduled to build another large supercomputer until 2015, suggesting China will hold pole position for a long time to come. The computer has 32,000 Ivy Bridge Xeon CPUs and 48,000 Xeon Phi accelerator boards for a total of 3,120,000 compute cores, which are decked out with 1.4 petabytes of RAM. And of course the operating system is Linux.

Tianhe-2 marks the second time a Chinese machine has been a world-beater. Tianhe-1 grabbed the top spot in November 2010 before relinquishing it 6 months later to Japan's K computer. China's second ascent demonstrates the country's sustained commitment to funding high performance computing, says Jack Dongarra, a computer scientist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who closely follows international supercomputing trends. "It shows no signs of changing, only increasing," Dongarra says about China's investment in supercomputing.

The Tianhe-2 has been developed by the National University of Defense Technology in central China's Changsha city and is capable of 33,800 trillion calculations per second.

Coffee can help you loose weight: study

Coffee could help one live longer and lose weight, claimed a new study. Scientists at Griffith University are currently studying, if drinking coffee helps people lose weight by suppressing their appetite, reported AAP news agency.

The results of early trials will come as good news to coffee addicts who are also looking to shed weight. Part

icipants were given either normal coffee, decaffeinated coffee, or a caffeine tablet with breakfast and their appetites were monitored until lunch.

"So far, we're seeing a decrease in hunger and an increase in fullness in the caffeinated coffee condition, a trend we're not observing with decaffeinated coffee or caffeine alone," Griffith University doctoral student Matt Schubert said in a statement.

"This may be important for weight control, as any decrease in appetite could help reduce food intake. Coffee has already been shown to reduce the risk of diabetes, stroke, some cancers, mental illness and overall mortality," he said.

Four daily cups of tea or coffee can lower blood pressure

People who drink four cups of tea or coffee a day have lower blood pressure than those who drink none, a new 10-year study has found. French scientists in the long-term study found heavy tea drinkers had lower blood pressure, pulse pressure and heart rate than lighter drinkers.

The research analysed 176,437 men and women aged between 16 to 95 years. The participants answered how much coffee or tea they drank per day in a questionnaire. Based on the consumption of these beverages, individuals were classified into three groups: those who drank no coffee/tea, those who drank one to four cups, and those who drank more than four cups.

Researchers found that heavy coffee drinkers were found to have slightly higher blood pressure than normal but non-drinkers had the highest readings, the 'Daily Express' reported. Study author Bruno Pannier, from the Preventive and Clinical Investigations Centre in Paris, said it was possible that the flavonoids in tea had a relaxing effect on blood vessels.

"The vasorelaxing compounds included in these beverages might be involved in these results, something that has been suggested by the experimental data," he said. The study was presented to the European Society of Hypertension in Milan.

source : The Indian EXPRESS

Women try out 150 hairstyles in their lifetime: study

Women sport 150 different hairstyles in their lifetime, trying out various cuts, colours and shapes, according to a new research.

The study of 2,000 women found that about one in 20 likes to try something different with each trip to the hairdresser.

Almost half are willing to be experimental and take risks with their tresses.

Women are likely to go for two new styles and at least one colour change every year with some switching shades 100 times between the ages of 15 and 65, the 'Daily Express' reported.

The study found 64 per cent of women will alter their hair simply because they are bored with their current style.

Nearly 12 per cent will change their hair so as to look like a celebrity while 15 per cent will change their style for a wedding.

Thirteen per cent women would change their hairstyle after having a baby. Other reasons for trying out a new hairstyle were birthdays and break-ups.

The research by Toni&Guy stylists found women visit the hairdresser five times a year making around 250 trips before hitting 65.

"It's great to see that most women will experiment with their hair rather than stick to the same tried and tested look," said Sacha Mascolo-Tarbuck, global creative director for the chain.

"A new hairstyle or colour can be a great way to brighten up your appearance or even celebrate a big life change or milestone event.

"If you like being the centre of attention and keeping up with the latest trends, nothing does this more than a radical cut or colour.

"And if you aren't brave enough to go for a completely different look, just going for a slightly lighter or darker shade than usual, or chopping more off the ends, can still have the same effect," Sacha said.

 

source : The Indian EXPRESS

World experts pool knowledge against killer virus

Around 80 of the world's leading scientists, doctors and public health officials met in Cairo to discuss building defences against a deadlyvirus known as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
UAE daily The National said that the World Health Organisation convening such a meeting "is both worrying and reassuring".
"Medical experts and public-health authorities are obviously taking the problem seriously, which is a good start to managing it," it said.
However, the experts admitted that they know very little about the coronavirus that causes the disease - not even where it comes from, or how it is transmitted.
The nearest related virus is found in bats, and it is speculated that it passes to camels via dates infected by bat droppings and then onto humans. Transmission from camel to human - and between humans - is also not fully understood.
"The ailment's name is based on the fact that the majority of the 60 cases - and 38 deaths - identified worldwide starting in April 2012 have originated in the Middle East. The handful of cases in western Europehave involved travellers from the Middle East," the newspaper said.
So far, at least, the pneumonia-like sickness the virus causes has not been very contagious. There is no "sustained community transmission".
However, the experts were concerned that the occasional MERS victims could become what they call a "super-spreader" - a person with an increased ability to infect others.

source : the times of India news