Daily Newscap

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has removed India from the list of countries with active endemic wild poliovirus transmission. In written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury said Polio free is certified for WHO regions by the Regional Certification Commission and not for individual country. The South-East Asia Regional Commission for Polio Eradication (SEA-RCCPE) has examined the data of 31 states/Union Territories of India and has accepted the report of the Indian National Certification Committee for Polio Eradication and has concluded that the wild polio virus is not circulating in these states. Each region can consider certification only when all countries in the area demonstrate the absence of wild poliovirus transmission for at least three consecutive years in the presence of certification standard surveillance. In addition, all facilities holding wild poliovirus infectious and potentially ...

Preeti Rathi  came to Mumbai to join duty as a nurse in the Naval Hospital — INHS Ashwini. Sadly, her dreams were shattered when she suffered an acid attack at Bandra station as she got off her train. She sustained severe burns to her face, neck, chest and arms and was critical for a few days after admission. Doctors treated her for her injuries but she had lost vision in her right eye. While she subsequently regained consciousness and could communicate only with written notes, she pleaded with the doctors to help restore her vision.  A few years ago this request would have been impossible, but thanks to the latest advances in stem cell therapy it’s now a very feasible possibility. We talked to ophthalmologist  Dr Yasmin Bhagat  who has treated a number of acid attack victims and helped them regain vision using this procedure. Excerpts from the exclusive interview where she explains the procedure:  At the offset, Dr Bhagat said that the media reports that...

WASHINGTON, MAY 7:   A 5.6-km high Martian mound that scientists suspect preserves evidence of a massive lake might actually have formed as a result of the Red Planet’s famously dusty atmosphere, according to a new analysis. The research, if correct, could dilute expectations that the mound holds evidence of a large body of water, which would have important implications for understanding Mars’ past habitability. Researchers based at Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology suggest that the mound, known as Mount Sharp, most likely emerged as strong winds carried dust and sand into the 154-km-wide crater in which the mound sits. They reported in the journal Geology that air likely rises out of the massive Gale Crater when the Martian surface warms during the day, then sweeps back down its steep walls at night. Though strong along the Gale Crater walls, these “slope winds” would have died down at the crater’s centre where the fine dust in the a...

Here is a solution to keep your temper in check - bite into a piece of dark chocolate! Polyphenols in dark chocolate increase calmness and contentedness, a new study has found. Polyphenols are found naturally in plants and are a basic component of the human diet. These compounds have been shown to reduce oxidative stress which is associated with many diseases. They may also have beneficial psychological effects, scientists believe. "Anecdotally, chocolate is often linked to mood enhancement," said lead author of the study, Matthew Pase, from Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. "This clinical trial is perhaps the first to scientifically demonstrate the positive effects of cocoa polyphenols on mood," Pase said. Seventy-two healthy men and women aged 40-65 years took part in the randomised study to receive a dark chocolate drink mix standardised to contain either 500 mg of cocoa polyphenols, 250 mg of cocoa polyphenols or 0 mg of cocoa polyphenols. ...

A novel experimental drug has shown promise in treating influenza, preventing lung injury and death from the virus in preclinical studies, researchers claim. Scientists found that a drug called Eritoran can protect mice from death after they have been infected with a lethal dose of influenza virus.The potential value of this drug as single therapy or in combination with antivirals is further supported by previous research that found that it is safe for use in humans. Previous scientific studies have revealed that acute lung injury caused by the influenza virus is the result of an immune reaction mediated by a protein called Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Senior author Stefanie Vogel, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Medicine at the University of Maryland, and colleagues previously demonstrated that mice that lack the ability to signal through TLR4 are highly refractory to influenza-induced lethality. In their new study, they extend these findings by showing that Erito...

The most common form of joint disease and a leading cause of disability in the elderly, osteoarthritis (OA) affects about 200 million people worldwide. A new joint lubricant could bring longer lasting relief to millions of osteoarthritis sufferers, say researchers who developed it. The new synthetic polymer supplements synovial fluid, the natural lubricant in joints, and works better than comparable treatments currently available. According to Boston University Professor of Biomedical Engineering Mark W. Grinstaff, who led the team, the best fluid supplement now available offers temporary symptom relief but provides inadequate lubrication to prevent further degradation of the cartilage surfaces that cushion the joint. To achieve both objectives, Grinstaff, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School orthopedic surgeon Brian Snyder and a team of Boston University chemistry and engineering students, fellows and clinicians have advanced the first synthetic synovi...

NEW DELHI: Conservator Aparajita Datta has won the Whitley Award, also called "Green Oscar", for her work to save threatened hornbills in the forests of Arunachal Pradesh.   Datta is one of eight grassroots conservation leaders awarded a share of prize funding worth £295,000 by the Whitley Fund for Nature.  Datta leads a programme to conserve hornbills in the Eastern Himalaya at the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), an NGO set up in 1996 to promote science-based wildlife conservation in India.  "Focussing on hornbills as a conservation flagship species, she is seeking to improve the status of the bird's populations outside protected areas by establishing models of community-based conservation," the Whitley Fund said.  "Datta is spreading knowledge of the needs of hornbills and their importance, as seed dispersers, in the maintenance of healthy forest ecosystems. Key to her approach is raising awareness of the threats to the bird's survival, and cre...

NEW DELHI, May 3, 2013: Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar appears to have slid deeper into a crisis following the comments of Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Ranjit Sinha should not have shared the report on coal scam probe with the politician. Kumar is already under fire from both the Opposition parties as well as the Supreme Court, which is hearing the Coalgate sam case, for his role in vetting the CBI report on coal block allocations, despite the court’s earlier ruling. The SC will take up the case on May 8. The CBI is set to file a fresh affidavit in the case on May 6. The minister’s fate is likely to be known on May 8, as the Union Government and Congress, to which Kumar belongs, would keenly be watching what the apex court has to say on his controversial actions. Congress has given indications that it would not support the minister if the SC came down on him. Speaking to TV channels, Parasaran, however, managed to put th...

Long sleep duration is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer, especially among people who snore and are overweight, researchers reported. In analysis of two long-running prospective observational cohorts, people who reported sleeping at least 9 hours a night were more likely to develop the disease than those who slept an average of 7 hours, according to Xuehong Zhang, MD, ScD, of Harvard Medical School, and colleagues. But the association was restricted to people who either snored regularly or were overweight, Zhang and colleagues reported in the May issue of  Sleep . There has been little study of potential links between sleep and cancer incidence, although there is some evidence that hypoxemia might play a role, the researchers noted. The study "adds to the very limited literature regarding the relationship between sleep duration and/or sleep quality and colorectal cancer risk," Zhang said in a statement. And the "novel observation" t...

         NASA is sending a six feet-tall solar-powered rover prototype designed for ice exploration on highest part of Greenland's massive ice sheet.The space agency's newest scientific rover is set for testing from May 3 through June 8 in the highest part of Greenland, NASA said.            The robot known as GROVER, which stands for both Greenland Rover and Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research, will roam the frigid landscape collecting measurements to help scientists better understand changes in the massive ice sheet. This autonomous, solar-powered robot carries a ground-penetrating radar to study how snow accumulates, adding layer upon layer to the ice sheet over time.             Greenland's surface layer vaulted into the news in summer 2012 when higher than normal temperatures caused surface melting across about 97 percent of the ice sheet, NASA said. Scientists at ...

CHENNAI: The state government announced a grant of Rs 9 crore to Chennai's public cord blood bank on Tuesday. The fund will be issued over three years to Jeevan Blood Bank and Research Centre to help the bank host a collection of 3,000 cord blood donations from the state, Jeevan co-founder Dr P Srinivasan said in a statement. At present, the bank has an inventory of 700 cord blood units. Public stem cell banks store stem cells drawn from cord blood donated by women during child birth, and sell them to patients for a price. Stem cell transplant is the only hope for patients with blood disorders, cancers and thalassemia. But, only two of the more than 1,000 patients who requested for stem cells from the public bank have got treatment in the past four years. In order to get a transplant, the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) of the donor and the recipient should match. However, the chances of an Indian finding a match is less than 10 per cent as the country lacks an inventory...

When exposed to secondhand smoke at home, teenage girls tend to have lower levels of the "good" form of cholesterol that reduces  heart disease risk, according to a recent study .   High-density lipoproteins (HDL) pick up excess cholesterol in the blood stream and take it to the liver where it can be broken down. Unlike low-density lipoproteins that can create a waxy build-up that blocks blood vessels, HDL cholesterol can play a key role in combatting heart disease risk.  "In our study, we found 17-year-old girls raised in households where passive  smoking  occurred were more likely to experience declines in HDL cholesterol levels," said the study's  lead author , Chi Le-Ha, MD, of the  University of Western Australia .  "Secondhand smoke did not have the same impact on teenage boys of the same age, which suggests passive smoking exposure may be more harmful to girls. Considering cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in  women...

PARIS: Taking their cue from Nature, engineers have built a camera using stretchable electronics that scans the world like a fly's compound eye -- with a wide field of view and no distortion, they said Wednesday.  The digital device, which has a multitude of tiny, pliable lenses like those found in ant, beetle, and lobster eyes, also allows for a near-infinite depth of field and high motion sensitivity, the team wrote in the journal Nature.  "We've figured out ways to make cameras that incorporate all of the essential design features of eyes found in the insect world," study co-author  John Rogers  of the University of Illinois' engineering department told AFP.  "The result is a new type of camera that offers exceptionally wide-angle fields of view (nearly 180 degrees) with zero aberrations and uniform illumination intensity."  Most classical cameras mimic the working of the animal eye: light reflected off an object passes through the lens which bends a...

ohannesburg: The landing of a private aircraft full of guests for an Indian wedding - billed as South African wedding of the century - on a restricted Air Force base has raised eyebrows here with the ruling African National Congress demanding explanation from the military.  An aircraft, chartered by the prominent Gupta family - which has close ties to President Jacob Zuma - landed at the Waterkloof Air Base yesterday.  Local radio reported that the Guptas' wedding guests were flown to the base and escorted from there by blue-light vehicles to Sun City, in North West.  The billionaire family, which owns The New Age newspaper and Sahara Computers, is expected to celebrate the wedding of Vega Gupta, 23, to Indian-born Aaskash Jahajgarhia at Sun City between May 1-4.  The family says permission to land at Waterkloof was obtained through the Indian High Commission, while a SANDF spokesperson said that he was not aware of permission being given to any private airplane t...

Researchers at hospitals in London and Glasgow plan to use an engineered virus to smuggle DNA into the heart in the first ever clinical trial of "gene therapy" for heart failure. Our goal is to fight back against heart failure by targeting and reversing some of the critical molecular changes arising in the heart when it fails. Alex Lyon, cardiologist The technique, which has been 20 years in development, could help the 750,000 people in the UK living with heart failure. The condition results from damage to the heart left over from a heart attack or side-effects of powerful chemotherapy drugs. After the heart is starved of oxygen, cells die and the remaining heart cells become fatigued. "Once heart failure starts, it progresses into a vicious cycle where the pumping becomes weaker and weaker, as each heart cell simply cannot respond to the increased demand." said Alex Lyon, a cardiologist at the Royal Brompton hospital in London who is leading the trial in...

After nearly four years mapping the "hidden universe," the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space has reached the end of its life, European Space Agency officials say. The $1.4 billion Herschel Space Observatory has exhausted the vital supply of liquid helium coolant that allowed it make the most sensitive and detailed observations of the cosmos in infrared light, ESA officials announced Monday (April 29). The infrared space telescope's official end was recorded by a ground station in Australia, which recorded an increase in temperature for all of the spacecraft's instruments during the telescope's daily communications session. It began its mission in May 2009. [ Amazing Photos from the Herschel Space Telescope ]

Researchers have recreated the whiff of Earth 1.9 million years ago - and found our ancient planet smelt of rotten eggs.  Tiny 1,900 million-year-old fossils from rocks around Lake Superior, Canada, give the first ever snapshot of organisms eating each other and suggest what the ancient Earth would have smelled like, researchers said.  The fossils capture ancient microbes in the act of feasting on a cyanobacterium-like fossil called Gunflintia - with the perforated sheaths of Gunflintia being the discarded leftovers of this early meal. A team, led by Dr David Wacey of the University of Western Australia and Bergen University, Norway, and Professor Martin Brasier of Oxford University, found the fossil evidence for how this type of feeding on organic matter - called 'heterotrophy' - was taking place. They also show that the ancient microbes appeared to prefer to snack on Gunflintia as a 'tasty morsel' in preference to another bacterium.  "What we call 'heterotro...

A few simple changes to diet and lifestyle can protect you against a string of killer diseases and add years to your life, a landmark study has shown . Following seven golden rules not only cut the risk of dying from  cancer  by 20 per cent, it also slashed risks of lung  disease  by half and  heart attacks  by 44 per cent, the study of nearly 380,000 people by scientists at Imperial College London found. The researchers noted that those who stick closely to the rules, which also govern exercise and alcohol consumption, will cut their risk of dying from any of the major circulatory or  respiratory  diseases, including  stroke  and angina, by at least 34 per cent. The rules were drawn up six years ago by the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, the  Daily Express reported. Now, by studying patients across nine European countries, the British scientists have shown that they help people live...

Over 600 Chinese have applied to join an ambitious Dutch aerospace project that plans to send humans on a one-way trip to Mars for permanent settlement. The Dutch project, while triggering enthusiasm to explore outer space, is also under fire with the trip being viewed by some as a suicide mission, with applicants being shipped to a planet that is uninhabitable by humans. The project, Mars One, is being launched by a Dutch non-profit organization, and is scheduled to take four humans to the Red Planet in 2023. In the first three days after it was launched this week, over 20,000 people from all over the world submitted their applications online, with more than 600 coming from China, state-run China Daily reported. Bas Lansdorp, co-founder of Mars One told the media in Shanghai that he is confident of turning the dream into reality, and plans to attract more than five lakh applicants. The Chinese enthusiasm to travel to Mars is building up as China, which has a well funded s...

GUWAHATI: At least two people were killed and ten others injured when police opened fire at a mob which had turned violent following the recovery of a dead body in lower Assam'sGoalpara district, some 120 km away from Guwahati on Monday.   On Monday morning after police found the body of Taher Ali (46), a cowherd who was missing since Sunday at Mailapathar area near Rakshashini forest  of the district, locals turned out in large number and started protesting against the police for having failed to protect the commoner's life.  The mob turned violent and attacked the police with sticks and stones injuring seven policemen and district administration officials.  According to Syamal Prasad Saikia, SP Goalpara, the mob attacked the police team and even tried to burn one man who was riding a motorcycle in the area. Saikia said police had no option but to open fire at the mob to disperse them. Two protestors were killed in the firing.  The man who suffered burn i...