Science & Tech News
11 new solar systems hosting 26 planets discovered
Washington, Jan 31: The Kepler space telescope science team has confirmed the discovery of 11 star systems piled with 26 exoplanets.
With this latest revelation, the number of known multi-planetary star systems has just tripled and the list of confirmed planets beyond our solar system has doubled.
“Prior to the Kepler mission, we knew of perhaps 500 exoplanets across the whole sky,” Discovery News quoted Doug Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C as saying.
“Now, in just two years staring at a patch of sky not much bigger than your fist, Kepler has discovered more than 60 planets and more than 2,300 planet candidates. This tells us that our galaxy is positively loaded with planets of all sizes and orbits,” Hudgins stated.
Although these stars may have nearly a number of planets each, but that is where the similarities to our own solar system end.
The worlds in each of these star systems have very compact orbits - the shortest orbital period (or “year”) is six days while the longest is just 143 days.
In contrast, the orbital period of Mercury is 115 days. All of these worlds have an orbital distance closer than Venus is to the sun.
The range of the recently discovered systems includes some, which are only 1.5 times the size of Earth, while others that are larger than Jupiter.
Fifteen exoplanets are between Earth and Neptune in size, but further observations will be required to establish if any of them have a rocky surface like Earth, or a gaseous consistency like Neptune. (ANI)
Diabetes could cause hearing loss, especially in women
Washington, Jan 31: A new study has found that having diabetes may cause women to experience a greater degree of hearing loss as they age, especially if the metabolic disorder is not well controlled with medication.
According to the study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, women between the ages of 60 and 75 with well-controlled diabetes had better hearing than women with poorly controlled diabetes, with similar hearing levels to those of non-diabetic women of the same age.
The study also shows significantly worse hearing in all women younger than 60 with diabetes, even if it is well controlled.
Men, however, had worse hearing loss across the board compared to women in the study, regardless of their age or whether or not they had diabetes.
“A certain degree of hearing loss is a normal part of the aging process for all of us, but it is often accelerated in patients with diabetes, especially if blood-glucose levels are not being controlled with medication and diet,” Derek J. Handzo, D.O., with the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Henry Ford said.
“Our study really points to importance of patients controlling their diabetes, especially as they age, based on the impact it may have on hearing loss.”
American Diabetes Association said that nearly 26 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, and another 34.5 million have some degree of hearing loss.
Signs of hearing loss include difficulty hearing background noises or hearing conversations in large groups, as well as regularly needing to turn up the volume on a radio or TV.
The study was presented on Jan 26 in Miami Beach at the annual Triological Society’s Combined Sections Meeting. (ANI)
Psychotherapy helps people with depression
Washington, Jan 31: Psychotherapy – both cognitive-behavioural and psychodynamic therapy – helps people with depressive personality traits– chronic melancholics – as much as those without the disposition, a psychologist has found.
Depression is a serious and sometimes devastating health problem, which affects millions of people worldwide.
In her previous work with depressed patients, psychologist Rachel Maddux from Lund University in Sweden, often felt frustrated that treatments were not helpful for all of those diagnosed with depression. The main focus of her thesis therefore asked the question: why is it that some people are helped but others are not?
Her hypothesis was that those with depressive personality traits – chronic melancholics – are more difficult to treat, especially when they suffer from depression.
These people generally feel down and worried, have low self-esteem and are dissatisfied with their lives and environment.
Maddux found that 13 per cent of residents in Lund have these personality traits.
“This is a very large number, but the results are in line with other studies carried out in the US and Canada,” she stated.
The next study looked at how many of those who seek help from a psychologist have depressive personality traits – a large portion, 44 per cent. These people were more seriously ill than other patients when they sought specialist help, according to Maddux.
Contrary to her believe, Maddux found that psychotherapy – both cognitive-behavioural and psychodynamic therapy – helped the depressive personality types as much as those without the disposition.
“The interesting thing was that therapy not only improved the depression itself, it also ameliorated the pervasive depressive traits”, said Maddux.
She cannot say whether the effect is maintained over time. However, she thinks the study indicates that therapy is good for people with this characteristic manner of depressive thinking and behaviour, even if they are not suffering from acute depression.
The main issue for Maddux's research still remains: why aren’t all those diagnosed with depression helped by the treatment they receive? Why do antidepressants or talk therapy work for some but not others?
“But now I know that there is hope for those with depressive personality. The next step will be to study other factors that could affect the outcome of treatment; biology, childhood and development, trauma, etc,” she added. (ANI)
Facebook's new 'mandatory' Timeline feature to expose users' embarrassing photos, status
Canberra, Jan 31: Social networking giant Facebook will now expose people's embarrassing photos and status updates, as it forces users onto its new timeline feature.
According to The Herald Sun, Facebook will soon make it mandatory for users to activate the new Timeline function, which displays their entire history of a person on the site-from status updates to photos.
Timeline is a feature announced by the social network late 2011 that reorganises people's Facebook page to tell their "life story".
But for those who don't use a seven-day grace period to moderate what will appear on their old profile page, it could soon expose embarrassing photos they had forgotten about, News.com.au reports.
Australian Privacy Foundation vice-chair David Vaile equated Facebook to a "naughty teenager" for not encouraging people to think through the changes.
He warned people whose lives had moved on from embarrassing photos that they might face more serious consequences if they resurfaced.
"Up until now you had security by obscurity - now at Facebook's whim rather than yours, stuff will come back bubbling up from your past," Vaile said.
"And one of the problems with Facebook's model of encouraging people not to worry about security is it disrespects other people as well," he added. (ANI)
Vitamin biosynthesis find could lead to novel anti-malaria drug
Washington, Jan 31: A new study has shed light on the nature of the enzymes required for vitamin biosynthesis by the malaria causing pathogen Plasmodium, which could eventually lead to the design of more effective drugs to combat the disease.
Vitamins are essential nutrients required in small amounts, the lack of which leads to deficiencies.
Many pathogenic microorganisms produce vitamins, and these biosynthetic pathways may provide suitable targets for development of new drugs.
Indeed antifolates targeting vitamin B9 biosynthesis of the malarial parasites have been proven valuable chemotherapeutics for the treatment of malaria, one of the most devastating infectious diseases leading to nearly 250 million cases worldwide and about 1 million deaths annually.
Vitamin B6 biosynthesis of the parasite has been discussed as a drug novel target.
A major factor hindering malaria control is the high degree of resistance developed by Plasmodium species against currently available drugs. Hence, there is still an urgent need for the identification of novel drug targets as well as antimalarial chemotherapeutics.
Scientists at the University of Southampton have now been able to describe the malarial enzymes responsible for Vitamin B6 biosynthesis with atomic 3D structures.
Vitamin B6 biosynthesis is a highly organised process involving an enzyme complex of 24 protein subunits. The assembly from individual proteins was studied by electron microscopy in collaboration with the Boettcher group at the University of Edinburgh.
“The structural studies explain how these vital enzymes are activated and show the substrate of vitamin B6 biosynthesis bound to give insights into the chemistry of PLP biosynthesis,” said Dr Ivo Tews, Lecturer in Structural Biology at the University of Southampton.
The enzyme complex has a fascinating internal tunnel for the transfer of reactive reaction intermediates. The studies also discovered an unexpected organisation of enzyme complexes into fibres.
“The new data are a starting point for the development of specific inhibitors that target either the enzyme’s active sites or the assembly of the proteins into functional complexes,” Dr Tews added.
The research has been published in the latest issue of the journal, Structure. (ANI)
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