In traditional clinical treatment, Trametinib has not shown efficiency in inhibiting the targetted hyper-active pathway of cancer cells, said the research…reports Asian Lite News
An Israeli-led research team has developed a potential new treatment for head and neck cancer (HNC), using a targeted drug and immunotherapy, Ben Gurion University (BGU) in southern Israel has announced.
The findings, co-authored by Israeli, Chinese, French, German and US researchers, were published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.
Through pre-clinical study, the researchers found a new treatment combination of Trametinib, a cancer drug that brings a type of killer white blood cells to the cancer site, and Anti-PD-1, an immunotherapy that not kills cancer cells directly but blocks a pathway on immune cells to make them more engaged in fighting tumors.
In traditional clinical treatment, Trametinib has not shown efficiency in inhibiting the targetted hyper-active pathway of cancer cells, said the research.
Researchers then analysed tumor-host interaction that facilitates immune escape in tumor-bearing mice, and found that using a short Trametinib treatment can make resistant tumors more sensitive to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy.
“We sincerely hope that oncologists will test this treatment combination in HNC patients, as improving immunotherapy efficacy is crucial for prolonging the survival of cancer patients,” the study’s correspondent author Moshe Elkabets was quoted by the BGU statement as saying.
A team in central England generated 59 megajoules of energy for five seconds during an experiment — equivalent to the energy needed to power 35,000 homes for five seconds, reports Asian Lite News
Scientists in Britain announced Wednesday they had smashed a previous record for generating fusion energy, hailing it as a “milestone” on the path towards cheap, clean power and a cooler planet.
Nuclear fusion is the same process that the sun uses to generate heat. Proponents believe it could one day help address climate change by providing an abundant, safe and green source of energy.
A team at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility near Oxford in central England generated 59 megajoules of energy for five seconds during an experiment in December, more than doubling a 1997 record, the UK Atomic Energy Authority said.
That is about the power needed to power 35,000 homes for the same period of time, five seconds, said JET’s head of operations Joe Milnes.
The results “are the clearest demonstration worldwide of the potential for fusion energy to deliver safe and sustainable low-carbon energy”, the UKAEA said.
The donut-shaped machine used for the experiments is called a tokamak, and the JET site is the largest operational one in the world.
Inside, just 0.1 milligrammes each of deuterium and tritium — both are isotopes of hydrogen, with deuterium also called heavy hydrogen — is heated to temperatures 10 times hotter than the centre of the sun to create plasma.
This is held in place using magnets as it spins around, fuses and releases tremendous energy as heat.
Fusion is inherently safe in that it cannot start a run-away process.
Deuterium is freely available in seawater, while tritium can be harvested as a byproduct of nuclear fission.
Pound for pound (gram for gram) it releases nearly four million times more energy than burning coal, oil or gas, and the only waste product is helium.
Reagan-Gorbachev fusion
The results announced Wednesday demonstrated the ability to create fusion for five seconds, as longer than that would cause JET’s copper wire magnets to overheat.
A larger and more advanced version of JET is currently being built in southern France, called ITER, where the Oxford data will prove vital when the site comes online, possibly as soon as 2025.
ITER will be equipped with superconductor electromagnets which will allow the process to continue for longer, hopefully longer than 300 seconds.
About 350 scientists from EU countries plus Britain, Switzerland and Ukraine — and more from around the globe — participate in JET experiments each year.
JET will soon pass the fusion baton to ITER, which is around 80 percent completed, said Milnes.
“If that’s successful, as we now think it will be given the results we’ve had on JET, we can develop power plant designs in parallel… we’re probably halfway there” to viable fusion, he said.
If all goes well at ITER, a prototype fusion power plant could be ready by 2050.
International cooperation on fusion energy has historically been close because, unlike the nuclear fission used in atomic power plants, the technology cannot be weaponised.
The France-based megaproject also involves China, the EU, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US.
Tim Luce, head of science and operation at ITER, said the project emerged in the 1980s from talks on nuclear disarmament between US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
“And the one thing they did agree on was using fusion as a cooperation,” he told AFP.
“Somehow fusion has had the scientific panache to bring together disparate governmental entities and actually choose to work together on it.”
Despite dozens of tokamaks being built since they were first invented in Soviet Russia in the 1950s, none has yet managed to produce more energy than is put in.
The latest results use about three times the amount of energy that is produced.
Ian Fells, emeritus professor of energy conversion at the University of Newcastle, said Wednesday’s result was a “landmark in fusion research”.
“Now it is up to the engineers to translate this into carbon-free electricity and mitigate the problem of climate change,” added Fells, who is not involved in the project.
The kit, described in the journal PLOS ONE, is based on a simple, non-invasive Covid-19 LAMP test. It uses low-cost hardware, including a centrifuge made from recycled computer hard drives to process samples…reports Asian Lite News
Scientists in the UK have developed a low-cost lab-in-a-backpack that they say is as accurate as commercially available Covid-19 tests at detecting SARS-CoV-2.
The compact, mobile kit is relatively inexpensive to make, costing $51 in total, the researchers said.
It could offer an alternative testing solution for resource-poor countries or remote areas with little access to well-equipped testing labs or trained personnel to process samples, they said.
“We are excited for the potential of this mobile lab to do Covid-19 tests and the possibility to democratise access to inexpensive testing technology,” said Professor Stoyan Smoukov, a professor at the Queen Mary University of London.
“The Covid-19 test is a timely application, but we also believe with this kit people could perform a large array of routine blood and urine tests, providing a centrifuge away from central hospital facilities,” Stoyan said.
The kit, described in the journal PLOS ONE, is based on a simple, non-invasive Covid-19 LAMP test. It uses low-cost hardware, including a centrifuge made from recycled computer hard drives to process samples.
The LAMP test is a widely accepted alternative to the commonly used PCR test, has a similar sensitivity.
However, unlike the PCR test, the LAMP test does not require temperature cycling. It only needs a single high temperature to amplify any potential virus RNA.
This allows the test to be performed with only minimal equipment and reagents, the researchers said.
Because the LAMP test uses saliva samples, it also avoids the need for invasive, uncomfortable nasal swabs, they said.
However, the high costs of commercially available LAMP tests, as well as the expensive lab equipment required to run them, means that current commercial approaches aren’t suitable for remote locations, or in-home testing.
“The new kit will provide a viable and inexpensive test for regions such as Africa, where innovative solutions are particularly important during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Emily Lin, from the Queen Mary University of London.
“It can also be used in resource-rich areas, for example, in high school classrooms to demonstrate how to test for Covid-19,” said Lin, the lead author of the study.
Researchers noted that regular testing is a key part of global efforts to manage the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is hoped low-cost testing solutions like this could help improve access to fast and effective testing.
The next steps will include making the kit instructions even more understandable so that people can use them regardless of their experience or language, as well as validating the test with real patient samples, they added.
South-easterlies become southwest (summer) monsoon winds after crossing the equator, therefore, a strong correlation between them is expected…writes Nivedita Khandekar
Identifying several occurrences of interchanging intense and weak monsoon circulation events during the 145 kyr period (roughly a millennia), Indian scientists have found that warm/cold conditions in Antarctica show a near one-to-one coupling with weak/strong monsoon phases, suggesting a strong mechanistic link between them during the period.
Four scientists from National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Goa, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, and the School of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Goa University, reconstructed the dynamics of the summer monsoon circulation from an upstream region, which is ideally suited for exploring its link with the southern high-latitude climate. The available records of past summer monsoon variability are predominantly based on reconstruction of downstream hydrology, which is identifiable with the thermodynamics of the system.
Antarctica
“The influence of northern high latitude climate variability on the South Asian Summer Monsoon has been extensively studied using both instrumental and proxy based climate data. In comparison, only a few studies have attempted to explore the southern high latitude association of the South Asian Summer Monsoon,” the study said.
South Asian summer monsoon transports large amount of heat and moisture across the equator. A low-pressure system develops over the northwest Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan plateau as a result of sensible heating due to the seasonal position of the Sun. South-easterlies become southwest (summer) monsoon winds after crossing the equator, therefore, a strong correlation between them is expected.
These scientists Manish Tiwari, Sidhesh Nagoji and Rahul Mohan from NCPOR, Goa and Vikash Kumar from Goa University, compared the 145 kyr long record of summer monsoon variability inferred through south-easterlies strength with that of earlier published 2003-reconstruction from the western Arabian Sea reflecting the southwest monsoon wind strength.
They presented 145 kyr long new data – oxygen and carbon isotopic abundance of two depth-stratified species of foraminifera viz. Globigerinoides ruber and Globorotalia menardii – from a sediment core on sub-millennial to millennial scale resolution from the southwestern tropical Indian Ocean, a region swept by the southeasterly wind during boreal summer, which transforms to the southwest monsoon wind after crossing the equator.
The findings from the study – published as ‘a 145 kyr record of upstream changes in Indian monsoon circulation and its link to southern high-latitude climate’ in journal ‘Polar Science’ in October – said “are consistent with our results where warm (cold) Antarctic conditions appear to cause synchronous decline (increase) in monsoon circulation, most likely through an equatorial Indian Ocean bridge”.
The tropical Indian Ocean, apart from being directly affected by the summer monsoon winds, is also ideally suited for exploring any high southern-latitude inter-hemispheric influence on the circulation. “Here, we report oxygen and carbon isotopic abundance of two depth-stratified foraminifera species from a sediment core from the southwestern tropical Indian Ocean covering significant parts of the last two glacial periods,” the study said, adding: “Past upwelling record constructed using the oxygen isotopic composition of depth-stratified species of foraminifera indicates periods of high and low summer monsoon activity from 187.5 kyr to 41.4 kyr BP”.
Antarctica
The carbon isotopic composition primarily records signatures of monsoon induced upwelling during this period. Spectral and wavelet analysis shows dominant power in the precession band throughout the 145 kyr period. “Our record of summer monsoon variability matches with a multi-proxy record of monsoon wind stress from the Western Arabian Sea, a region dominated by high seasonal south-westerly summer monsoon wind. Comparison of our record with the Antarctic climate record during the last two glacial periods suggests coherent changes in cross-equatorial summer monsoon flow and Antarctic temperatures where warm (cold) conditions in Antarctica were phase linked to weak (strong) monsoon circulation.”
It appears that millennial scale variability in the southern high latitude region significantly modulates sub-orbital variance of cross-equatorial monsoon flow, most likely by influencing the sea surface temperatures (SST) in the tropical Indian Ocean, the scientists said.
Indian scientists to dig deep ice to know past climate at Antarctica
It is for the first time that Indian scientists would drill up to 500 metres and pull put ice cores that are repositories of information of the past climate events for long years duration, reports Nivedita Khandekar
Indian scientists from the 41st expedition to Antarctica have embarked upon a multi-year study of the movement of deep ice sheets near the coast to understand the past climate, which in turn, will help understand how it will change in decades to come.
It is for the first time that Indian scientists would drill up to 500 metres and pull put ice cores (cylindrical ice bars) that are repositories of information of the past climate events for long years duration.
Antarctica
“This helps us study the past climate of up to 10,000 years through ice cores that have trapped CO2 from the atmosphere from past.
Called SIWHA or ‘Sea Ice and Westerly winds during the Holocene in coastal Antarctica,’ it is a joint Indo-UK-Norway study with India’s National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) as collaborators.
“The 41st expedition is already at Antarctica. A team is carrying out geo-physical survey to assess correct places to drill. By next year, they will be ready with data that can tell us where exactly to drill. Drilling will start in 2022-23 season,” said NCPOR, Director, Group Director (Polar Science), Dr Thamban Meloth.
“The drilling will be done nearer to the coast with a specific reason to understand how the southern ocean which takes so much of carbon dioxide, which changed in the past. It would have a meaning for us to understand how it will change in the coming decades,” Meloth added.
Collecting the ice cores from near the coast is important and much more challenging as it is much more warmer around Antarctica. “So we need to take it from the right place actually to activate it to understand the properties below the ice.”
A specialised equipment, ground penetrating radar, helps the team identify the ice layering and the bedrock, during the geophysical survey.
The NCPOR has been carrying out studies related to ice cores for few years now but it was limited to 100-150 metres. It is only now that digging will be done for the first time till 500 metres. The fragile ice cores are carefully stored and brought back to NCPOR maintaining minus 20 degrees temperature. To whichever depth digging is done, the cores are collected at every metre. (E.g. a dig of 150 metres will result in 150 ice cores).
For analysis of the cores, the cores are cut into half horizontally. One half is sent into archive. Ice cores are also cut into 5 cm thick slices, each of which reveals climate features from that particular time/age.
In general, the world’s oceans absorb 90 per cent of more heat that is released from burning fossil fuels and much of carbon dioxide. And of that, the southern ocean that surrounds Antarctica can be termed as primary storage house for both heat and CO2. So anything that changes on Antarctica can have an impact on global climate.
Hence, collecting the cores from near the coast is needed. But getting the cores is much more challenging as it is much more warmer around Antarctica. So we need to take it from the right place actually to activate it. So that we also understand the properties below the ice.
A specialised equipment called the ground penetrating radar which will tell us the ice layering and the bedrock, how they are placed. All that information we will get through the geophysical survey.
Mossad recruited Iranian scientists to blow up nuclear facility
Israel’s Mossad recruited a team of Iranian nuclear scientists to carry out a covert operation that blew up one of the regime’s most secure nuclear facilities earlier this year…reports Asian Lite News
Up to 10 scientists were approached by Israeli agents and agreed to destroy the underground A1000 centrifuge hall at Natanz in April, though they believed that they were working for international dissident groups.
Some of the explosives they used were dropped into the compound by a drone and quietly collected by the scientists, while others were smuggled into the high security facility hidden in boxes of food on a catering lorry, the report said.
Mossad recruited Iranian scientists to blow up nuclear facility
The ensuing destruction caused chaos in the highest echelons of the Iranian leadership. It demolished 90 per cent of the centrifuges at the nuclear plant, delaying progress towards a bomb and putting the key complex out of action for up to nine months, the report added.
The new details are among astonishing secrets of three connected Mossad operations that took place over an 11-month period of sabotage in Iran. The first two, in July 2020 and April 2021, targeted the complex in Natanz using explosives, while he third, in June this year, took the form of a quadcopter assault on the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company (TESA), in the city of Karaj, 30 miles northwest of Tehran, Jewish Chronicle reported.
Mossad spies hid explosives in building materials used to construct the Natanz centrifuge hall as long ago as 2019, then triggered them in 2020.
Agents sneaked an armed quadcopter, weighing the same as a motorbike, into Iran piece by piece, and used it to launch missiles at the TESA site in Karaj in June, the report said.
The three operations were planned together over an 18-month period by a team of 1,000 technicians, analysts and spies, as well as scores of agents on the ground.
The three-part assault on Iranian nuclear infrastructure was carried out by Mossad acting alone — known in Israeli intelligence circles as a ‘blue-and-white operation’ — and not jointly with the US, dubbed ‘blue-white-and-red’.
Interestingly, two years ago as well the survey brought the Armed Forces on the top with the only change now is that Corona period has uplifted the sentiments for scientists for their relentless work to find vaccines for the deadly virus…reports Asian Lite News.
Armed Forces and scientists have emerged as the most trustworthy citizens in India, while as politicians and advertising executives are the least, as work around sacrifice and service before self is revered by the Indians.
According to the Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Index 2021, Urban Indians trust the Armed forces (64 per cent) and scientists (64 64 per cent) the most followed by teachers (61 per cent) and doctors (58 per cent).
Interestingly, two years ago as well the survey brought the Armed Forces on the top with the only change now is that Corona period has uplifted the sentiments for scientists for their relentless work to find vaccines for the deadly virus.
When we look at the most trustworthy list of global citizens, doctors (64 per cent) emerged at the top on the Global Trustworthiness Index 2021, followed by scientists (61 per cent) and teachers (55 per cent), the survey said.
“The armed forces are trusted and revered by Indians as their whole aura and work is around sacrifice and service before self; defined by discipline and dedication in their contribution to the nation as they protect our frontiers. Likewise, scientists too have been corona warriors, working overtime to find appropriate vaccines to offset the resilient coronavirus; their contribution is being silently hailed by Indians, putting scientists at par with armed forces. Teachers and doctors, who too stepped up during the pandemic are placed 3rd and 4th in the trustworthiness index,” says Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India.
Ipsos has unveiled findings of its Global Trustworthiness Index 2021, a 28-country survey among 19,570 respondents, globally.
With regard to most untrustworthy professions, India’s list on the Untrustworthiness Index 2021 mirrors the global list on Untrustworthiness Index 2021.
All the stories they weave are not so make believe for the average person — politicians, government ministers and advertising executives are least trusted.
The findings are based on an Ipsos online survey conducted between April 23 and May 7, 2021.
Scientists (IANS)
The survey was conducted in 28 countries around the world, via the Ipsos Online Panel system in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the US.
The headline index results for this year are based on the full 28-country sample while trend results looking back to previous waves of the survey focus only on the 22 markets which have featured in all three waves of the survey.
The results comprise an international sample of 19,570 adults aged 16-74 in most countries and aged 18-74 in Canada, Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey and the US.
Since 2001, research progressed, enrolment of female students as well as research burgeoned on topics from cancer to geology…reports Asian Lite News.
The withdrawal of US forces and return of the Taliban in Afghanistan has stoked much fear and dejection among research scientists who predict huge losses not only in terms of funding but also of science.
During their reign from 1996-2001, the fundamentalist group brutally enforced a conservative version of Islamic Sharia law, characterised by women’s-rights violations and suppression of freedom of expression, Nature reported.
But after they were overthrown in 2001 by a US-led coalition and a new government elected in 2004, international funding including from the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development and other organisations poured into Afghanistan and universities thrived.
Since 2001, research progressed, enrolment of female students as well as research burgeoned on topics from cancer to geology.
But with the regime now taking over again, scientists fear for their lives and the future of research. While many are fleeing out of the country, those who remain face lack of funding and the threat of persecution for being involved in international collaborations, or because of their fields of study or their ethnicity, the report said.
News reports claim that billions of dollars in overseas finance for Afghanistan’s government, such as assets held by the US Federal Reserve and credit from the International Monetary Fund, have been frozen.
“The future is very uncertain,” geologist Hamidullah Waizy, a researcher at Kabul Polytechnic University was quoted as saying.
“The achievements we had over the past 20 years are all at great risk,a added Attaullah Ahmadi, a public-health scientist at Kateb University in Kabul.
In the last 20 years, some three dozen public universities have been established or re-established since 2010, and tens more private universities have been set up.
Even the student population at public universities grew to 170,000 in 2018 from 8,000 in 2001, and one-quarter of these were women, the report said.
Further, the number of research papers also increased to 285 in 2019 from 71 in 2011, according to Scopus – a database of peer-reviewed literature.
But now “there will be a stagnation of science and research progress”, Shakardokht Jafari, a medical physicist at the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK, who is originally from Afghanistan.
While many researchers have gone into hiding, or plan to cross into neighbouring countries, some are also seeking asylum overseas. In August alone, humanitarian organization Scholars at Risk (SAR) in New York City received more than 500 applications from people in Afghanistan, the report said.
So far, 164 institutions globally have agreed to host scholars, and SAR has appealed to US and European governments to fast-track visas and continue evacuation flights, said Rose Anderson, director at SAR.
However, several researchers report that the Taliban is in discussion with university heads about restarting classes. There are also suggestions that women might be allowed to continue their studies, although the Taliban has ordered that women and men be taught separately, and some universities have proposed introducing partitions in classrooms, the report said.
