ECE GYAN

In a study of commuting workers, the number of different types of food stores available near residences and commute routes -- but not near workplaces -- had a significant association with body mass index (BMI). Adriana Dornelles of Arizona State University, U.S. presents these findings in the open access journal  PLOS ONE  on August 7, 2019. Previous research has revealed links between the food stores available in residential neighborhoods and residents' health outcomes, including BMI. However, few prior studies have also included food stores near workplaces, and none have examined food options along commute routes. The new study addresses the relationship between these three food environments and BMI. Dornelles analyzed data from 710 elementary school employees in New Orleans, Louisiana. Drawing on existing databases, she determined the number of supermarkets, grocery stores, full-service restaurants, and fast-food restaurants within 1 kilometer of the employees' resid...

Major surgery is associated with a small long-term decline in cognitive functioning -- equivalent, on average, to less than five months of natural brain ageing, finds a study in  The BMJ  today. But the odds of substantial cognitive decline also increase after surgery -- approximately doubling -- although the likelihood of this is much lower than after admission to hospital for a medical condition, the findings show. Cognitive decline is the gradual loss of brain functioning that occurs with ageing. It often starts decades before the conventional definition of old age and accelerates with ageing and the presence of an increasing number of underlying health conditions. Certain health issues, such as stroke, can lead to a large "step change" in cognitive decline, and there have been concerns that surgery might also do this, with some patients refusing beneficial surgical procedures as a result, say the researchers. Few previous studies have looked at the potential im...

Earth's magnetic field seems steady and true -- reliable enough to navigate by. Yet, largely hidden from daily life, the field drifts, waxes and wanes. The magnetic North Pole is currently careening toward Siberia, which recently forced the Global Positioning System that underlies modern navigation to update its software sooner than expected to account for the shift. And every several hundred thousand years or so, the magnetic field dramatically shifts and reverses its polarity: Magnetic north shifts to the geographic South Pole and, eventually, back again. This reversal has happened countless times over the Earth's history, but scientists have only a limited understanding of why the field reverses and how it happens. New work from University of Wisconsin-Madison geologist Brad Singer and his colleagues finds that the most recent field reversal, some 770,000 years ago, took at least 22,000 years to complete. That's several times longer than previously thought, and ...

Astronomers are planning to hunt for cores of exoplanets around white dwarf stars by 'tuning in' to the radio waves that they emit. Planetary nebula with white dwarf illustration In new research led by the University of Warwick, scientists have determined the best candidate white dwarfs to start their search, based upon their likelihood of hosting surviving planetary cores and the strength of the radio signal that we can 'tune in' to. Published in the  Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , the research led by Dr Dimitri Veras from the Department of Physics assesses the survivability of planets that orbit stars which have burnt all of their fuel and shed their outer layers, destroying nearby objects and removing the outer layers of planets. They have determined that the cores which result from this destruction may be detectable and could survive for long enough to be found from Earth. The first exoplanet confirmed to exist was discovered orbiti...

A team of scientists in Korea and the United States have invented a device that can control neural circuits using a tiny brain implant controlled by a smartphone. Researchers, publishing in  Nature Biomedical Engineering , believe the device can speed up efforts to uncover brain diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, addiction, depression, and pain. The device, using Lego-like replaceable drug cartridges and powerful bluetooth low-energy, can target specific neurons of interest using drug and light for prolonged periods. "The wireless neural device enables chronic chemical and optical neuromodulation that has never been achieved before," said lead author Raza Qazi, a researcher with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and University of Colorado Boulder. Qazi said this technology significantly overshadows conventional methods used by neuroscientists, which usually involve rigid metal tubes and optical fibers to deliver drugs an...

Scientists at the University of Leeds have created a new form of gold which is just two atoms thick -- the thinnest unsupported gold ever created. Gold, periodic table symbol The researchers measured the thickness of the gold to be 0.47 nanometres -- that is one million times thinner than a human finger nail. The material is regarded as 2D because it comprises just two layers of atoms sitting on top of one another. All atoms are surface atoms -- there are no 'bulk' atoms hidden beneath the surface. The material could have wide-scale applications in the medical device and electronics industries -- and also as a catalyst to speed up chemical reactions in a range of industrial processes. Laboratory tests show that the ultra-thin gold is 10 times more efficient as a catalytic substrate than the currently used gold nanoparticles, which are 3D materials with the majority of atoms residing in the bulk rather than at the surface. Scientists believe the new material could...

Afflicting more than one billion adults worldwide, migraine is the third most prevalent illness in the world. In addition to severe headache, symptoms of migraine can include nausea, changes in mood, sensitivity to light and sound, as well as visual and auditory hallucinations. People who suffer from migraine report that weather patterns, sleep disturbances, hormonal changes, stress, medications and certain foods or beverages can bring on migraine attacks. However, few studies have evaluated the immediate effects of these suspected triggers. In a study published today in the  American Journal of Medicine , researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) evaluated the role of caffeinated beverages as a potential trigger of migraine. Led by Elizabeth Mostofsky, ScD, an investigator in BIDMC's Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit and a member of the Department of Epidemiolo...