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​Washington, May 7 (IANS) Scientists have detected atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere for the first time since the last observation 40 years ago.

Atomic oxygen -- an elemental form of oxygen that does not exist in Earth's atmosphere -- affects how other gases escape Mars and therefore has a significant impact on the planet's atmosphere. 

An instrument onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) - a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center - helped detect these atoms in the upper layers of the Martian atmosphere known as the mesosphere, NASA said in a statement.

"Atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere is notoriously difficult to measure," said SOFIA project scientist Pamela Marcum. 

"To observe the far-infrared wavelengths needed to detect atomic oxygen, researchers must be above the majority of Earth’s atmosphere and use highly sensitive instruments, in this case a spectrometer. SOFIA provides both capabilities," Marcum noted.

The scientists could detect only about half the amount of oxygen expected, which may be due to variations in the Martian atmosphere. 

The Viking and Mariner missions of the 1970s made the last measurements of atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. 

These more recent observations were possible thanks to SOFIA’s airborne location, flying between 37,000-45,000 feet, above most of the infrared-blocking moisture in Earth’s atmosphere, NASA said.

The advanced detectors on one of the observatory’s instruments, the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (GREAT), enabled astronomers to distinguish the oxygen in the Martian atmosphere from oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere.

The findings were presented in a paper published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP jetliner modified to carry a 100-inch diametre telescope.​

New York, May 8 (IANS) Climate change is likely to accelerate rates of chronic kidney disease worldwide as rising temperatures and heat stress harm kidneys.

New findings show that heat stress nephropathy -- chronic kidney diseases are on the rise, especially in many rural communities in hot regions.

With rise in temperature worldwide, dehydration and heat stress are likely to take a toll on the kidneys, emerging as a major cause of poor kidney health in the near future.

"A new type of kidney disease, occurring throughout the world in hot areas, is linked with temperature and climate and may be one of the first epidemics due to global warming," said Richard Johnson, from the University of Colorado in the US.

Also, global warming and a rise in extreme heat waves have increased the risk of kidney disease, especially for the agricultural workers, who are exposed to the heat for longer duration.

Decreasing amounts of rain contribute to the growing epidemic of the chronic kidney disease consistent with heat stress -- by reducing water supplies and quality as temperatures rise, the researchers noted.

"We were able to connect increased rates of chronic kidney disease in different areas to an underlying mechanism -- heat stress and dehydration -- and to climate," Johnson said.

The findings will be detailed in forthcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).

Governments and scientists need to work together to learn more about this threat and take action to reduce the risk of climate change-linked kidney disease, the researchers said.​

​London, May 7 (IANS) Most people feel that friendship is a two-way street, but only half of your buddies would actually consider you their friend, a study has found, adding that this limits their ability to influence them and further impacts on human behaviour.

Companies and social groups that depend on social influence for collective action, information dissemination and product promotion could improve their strategies and interventions.

"It turns out that we're very bad at judging who our friends are and difficulty in determining the reciprocity of friendship significantly limits our ability to engage in cooperative arrangements," said Erez Shmueli from Tel Aviv University.

“We learned that we can't rely on our instincts or intuition. There must be an objective way to measure these relationships and quantify their impact," Shmueli added in a paper published in the journal PLoS One.

The team conducted extensive social experiments and examined six friendship surveys from some 600 students in Israel, Europe and the United States to assess friendship levels and expectations of reciprocity.

They then developed an algorithm that examines several objective features of a perceived friendship -- the number of common friends or the total number of friends and then distinguish between unidirectional and reciprocal.

The findings showed that 95 percent of participants think that their relationships were reciprocal.

"If you think someone is your friend, you expect him to feel the same way. But in fact that's not the case -- only 50 percent of those polled matched up in the bidirectional friendship category."

"Reciprocal relationships are important because of social influence as influence is the name of the game," Shmueli stated.​

​New York, May 9 (IANS) Does your child run at the sight of apples, bananas and green leafy vegetables? If yes, serious video games may help your kid increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables, says an interesting study.

Eating adequate amounts of these foods is not only ideal for a healthy lifestyle, but can also reduce the risk of some chronic diseases including heart disease and certain cancers. 

The findings showed that serious video games that are designed to both entertain and promote behaviour change, create specific plans with goals, which help children improve fruit and vegetable intake at specific meals.

"By using a serious video game, we saw increases in meal-specific vegetable intake at dinner for the children and fruit intake at breakfast, lunch, and snacks time," said lead author Karen Cullen, professor at Baylor College of Medicine in the US.

For the study, published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 400 fourth and fifth grade students played 10 episodes of Squires Quest! II -- a serious online video game -- that promotes fruit and vegetable intake. 

At six months after intervention, results showed improvements in both fruit and vegetable intake in participants.

Of the 400 participants, 79 percent reported meeting all goals during game play.

​London, May 6 (IANS) Drinking cherry juice can significantly reduce high blood pressure, particularly in males with early hypertension, to a level comparable to that achieved by medication, new research has found.

High blood pressure if left untreated, increases risk of heart attack, heart failure, kidney disease, stroke or dementia. 

The findings showed that men who drank tart Montmorency cherry juice -- a variety of sour cherry -- saw a peak reduction in their blood pressure of seven millimetre of mercury (mmHg) in the three hours after consuming the drink.

This reduction is comparable to the level achieved by anti-hypertensive drugs, the researchers said.

When phenolic acids, protocatechuic and vanillic -- compounds present within the cherry concentrate -- reached their peak levels in the plasma, systolic blood pressure showed greatest improvement. 

"The magnitude of the blood pressure lowering effects we observed was comparable to those achieved by a single anti-hypertensive drug and highlights the potential importance that Montmorency cherries could have in the effective management of high blood pressure," said lead author Karen Keane, lecturer at Northumbria University in Britain.

Raised blood pressure is the leading cause of deaths from heart diseases, yet relatively small reductions in blood pressure can have a large impact on mortality rates, Keane added in the paper published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The team worked with fifteen participants who were displaying early hypertension with blood pressure readings of at least 130/90 mmHg, meaning they were at higher risk of experiencing heart related problems.

They were given either 60ml of a Montmorency cherry concentrate or the same amount of a commercially available fruit-flavoured cordial.

Blood pressure and blood samples were taken before the cherry concentrate was consumed and blood pressure was measured on an hourly basis thereafter.

Washington, May 8 (IANS) NASA's MESSENGER mission has unveiled the first global digital elevation model (DEM) of Mercury, revealing in stunning detail the topography across the entire innermost planet.

It will also pave the way for scientists to fully characterise Mercury's geologic history.

"The wealth of these data has already enabled and will continue to enable exciting scientific discoveries about Mercury for decades to come," said Susan Ensor, software engineer at The Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).

This new model reveals a variety of interesting topographic features, including the highest and lowest points on the planet.

The highest elevation on Mercury is at 4.48 km above Mercury's average elevation, located just south of the equator in some of Mercury's oldest terrain.

The lowest elevation, at 5.38 km below Mercury's average, is found on the floor of Rachmaninoff basin, an intriguing double-ring impact basin suspected to host some of the most recent volcanic deposits on the planet.

More than 100,000 images were used to create the new model.

"This has become one of my favourite maps of Mercury. Now that it is available, I'm looking forward to it being used to investigate this epic volcanic event that shaped Mercury's surface," added Nancy Chabot, instrument scientist for the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) in a NASA statement.

"During its four years of orbital observations, MESSENGER revealed the global characteristics of one of our closest planetary neighbours for the first time.

The data from the mission will continue to be utilised by the planetary science community for years to come.​

New York, May 7 (IANS) Researchers have developed a new antibody-based drug that has the potential to slow down the replication of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the body and may also provide a better strategy for long-term control of the deadly infection.

Anti-retroviral therapy -- a combination of drugs that slows the replication of HIV in the body -- currently used to treat HIV has drawbacks. If a person discontinues his or her treatment, even missing a few doses, the level of the virus in the body is able to rebound quickly.

In the antibody therapy, the researchers used 3BNC117 -- a molecule -- also called as a broadly neutralising antibody because it has the ability to fight a wide range of HIV strains.

The findings of the first clinical trial showed that using the antibody could greatly reduce the amount of virus that is present in an individual's blood.

"This study provides evidence that a single dose of an antibody stimulates patients' immune response, enabling them to make new or better antibodies against the virus," said lead author Till Schoofs, postdoctoral fellow at The Rockefeller University in the US. 

For the study, published in the journal Science, the team included 15 patients, in the clinical trial, who had high levels of the virus in their blood, and 12 other patients whose virus levels were being controlled with antiretroviral therapy (ART). 

The patients were infused with a single dose of 3BNC117 and were monitored over a six-month period.

In 14 out of 15 patients who had higher levels of the virus at the time they were given the antibody were seen making new antibodies that could neutralise a number of different strains of HIV.

It usually takes several years for the body to begin to make good antibodies against HIV. So there might be an even better effect later on, especially if patients are given more than one dose of 3BNC117, the researchers added.

To determine further benefits of treatment with 3BNC117, the researchers conducted another study, also published in the journal Science, in a mouse model. 

The results revealed that 3BNC117 was able to engage the animals' immune cells and accelerate their clearance of HIV-infected cells. 

"This shows that the antibody not only can exert pressure on the virus, but also can shorten the survival of infected cells," first author of the study Ching-Lan Lu, doctoral student at The Rockefeller University, noted. 

Further, the researchers plan to test 3BNC117 in combination with other antibodies that target HIV, to determine whether an even stronger antiviral effect can be found. 

New York, May 8 (IANS) Introducing a noise net around airfields that emit sound levels equivalent to those of a conversation in a busy restaurant could prevent collisions between birds and aircraft, saving lives and billions in damages, new research has found.

Filling a controlled area with acoustic noise around an airfield, where the majority of collisions tend to take place, can reduce the number of birds in the area by 80 percent, the findings showed.

"We are using a different kind of deterrent - trying to stop birds from hearing one another by playing a noise that is at the same pitch as the alarm calls or predator noises they are listening out for," said lead researcher John Swaddle, professor of biology at College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, US.

"By playing a noise at the same pitch, we mask those sounds, making the area much riskier for the birds to occupy. The birds don't like it and leave the area around the airfields, where there is potential for tremendous damage and loss of life," Swaddle noted.

The researchers set up speakers and amplifiers in three areas of an airfield in Virginia state and observed bird abundance over eight weeks, the first four weeks without noise and the second four weeks with the noise turned on.

Results showed a large decrease in the number of birds in the 'sonic net' and areas just outside and found that it was particularly effective at deterring a number of species that were at high risk of bird strike such as starlings.

"We have conducted prior research in an aviary but this is the first study done out in the field to show the efficacy of the sonic net," Swaddle, who is also a visiting research associate at University of Exeter in Britain, said.

The study was published in the journal Ecological Applications.

Bird strikes cost the aviation industry worldwide billions of dollars annually, and were responsible for 255 deaths between 1988 and 2013, yet measures to reduce these have been largely ineffective, the study noted.

Techniques to deter birds from airports include shooting, poisoning, live-capture and relocation, and the use of scare technologies, but these have proved largely ineffective.​

​New York, May 7 (IANS) Women in the age group 30-60 worldwide are sleeping more than men -- about 30 minutes more on average -- while middle-aged men are getting the least sleep, often getting less than the recommended seven-eight hours, a smartphone app-based study spanning 100 countries has revealed.

People who spend some time in the sunlight each day tend to go to bed earlier and get more sleep than those who spend most of their time in indoor light, the team from University of Michigan (UM) found.

The pioneering study of worldwide sleep patterns combined math modelling, mobile apps and big data to find the roles society and biology each play in setting sleep schedules.

The team used a free smartphone app that reduces jetlag to gather robust sleep data from thousands of people in 100 nations.

Among their findings is that cultural pressures can override natural circadian rhythms, with the effects showing up most markedly at bedtime.

While morning responsibilities like work, kids and school play a role in wake-time, the researchers say these are not the only factor.

"Across the board, it appears that society governs bedtime and one's internal clock governs wake time, and a later bedtime is linked to a loss of sleep," said Daniel Forger from U-M's college of literature, science and the arts.

"At the same time, we found a strong wake-time effect from users' biological clocks -- not just their alarm clocks. These findings help to quantify the tug-of-war between solar and social timekeeping," he added in a paper published in the journal Science Advances.

"Sleep is more important than a lot of people realise. Even if you get six hours a night, you're still building up a sleep debt," noted Olivia Walch, doctoral student in the mathematics department.

Internal or biological clocks are circadian rhythms -- fluctuations in bodily functions and behaviours that are tied to the planet's 24-hour day.

These rhythms are set by a grain-of-rice-sized cluster of 20,000 neurons behind the eyes and are regulated by the amount of light, particularly sunlight, our eyes take in.

Some years ago, the team released an app called "Entrain" that helps travellers adjust to new time zones.

With information from thousands of people from 100 nations in hand, the team analysed it for patterns.

The spread of national averages of sleep duration ranged from a minimum of around seven hours, 24 minutes of sleep for residents of Singapore and Japan to a maximum of eight hours, 12 minutes for those in the Netherlands.

That's not a huge window but the researchers say every half hour of sleep makes a big difference in terms of cognitive function and long-term health.

"It doesn't take that many days of not getting enough sleep before you're functionally drunk," Walch noted, adding that the researchers have figured out that being overly tired can have that effect.

What is terrifying at the same time is that people think they are performing tasks way better than they are despite less sleep. 

"Your performance drops off but your perception of your performance doesn't," the authors emphasised.​

New York, May 7 (IANS) If you are able to steadily maintain a lean body all your life, you are likely to live longer in comparison to those who have since childhood a heavy body that has got heavier during middle age, new research reveals.

The findings showed that people who had a heavy body shape from their childhood and also put on weight during their middle age are at highest risk of mortality with a 15-year risk of death being 19.7 percent in women and 24.1 percent in men.

In contrast, those who remained stably lean throughout life had the lowest mortality, with a 15-year risk of death being 11.8 percent in women, and 20.3 percent in men.

"Our findings provide further scientific rationale for recommendations of weight management, especially avoidance of weight gain in middle life, for long-term health benefit," said Mingyang Song, doctoral student at Harvard University in the US.

In addition, high body mass index (BMI) in adulthood can also increase the mortality risk.

Among the study participants, lowest mortality was found in the BMI range 22-23 among including healthy non-smokers and excluding people with prevalent diseases.

Obesity has become a public health crisis in most countries worldwide. But, these results indicate the importance of weight management across the lifespan, the researchers noted.

For the results, published in The BMJ, the team of researchers tracked the evolution of body shape and associated mortality in two large cohort studies.

Body shape of 80,266 women and 36,622 men were studied at ages 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 years.

Their body mass indexes were measured at age 50, and were followed from age 60 over a median of 15-16 years for death. 

In a second study, the team carried out a large meta-analysis of 230 prospective studies with more than 3.74 million deaths among more than 30.3 million participants.

They analysed people who never smoked to rule out the effects of smoking, and the lowest mortality was observed in the BMI range 23-24 among this group.