Barking characterizes dogs as voice characterizes people.

Research on canine behavior shows that gender, age, context and individual recognition can be identified with a high percentage of success through statistical and computational methods of pattern recognition applied to their barking. The canine communication has been a research topic in ethology over the last decade. Most of the research has focused on studying how dogs are capable to understand different forms of human communication, for example by displaying gestures and human voice recognition. This joint research between CIG and UPM aimed to understand the acoustic signals obtained from dog barking when they are subjected to certain situations. This research is conducted through the development of a computational system based on statistic modeling that is able to recognize diverse characteristics of the dog . The experiments were carried out in Budapest with eight dogs -- three males and five females -- Mudi breed, from Hungary usually used as sheep-dogs. Each dog (aged between one and 10) registered 100 barks. A total of 800 barks was obtained by placing the dog in seven different situations: (a) alone, the owner tied the dog to a tree; (b) playing with a ball; (c) fighting, the human pretended to attack the dog's owner; (d) receiving their food ration; (f) in the company of a person who was foreign to the dog; and (g) to get ready to going out with the owner. Each one of the 800 barks was characterized from 29 acoustic measurements. By using the diverse computational models obtained from the collected data during the experiment, researchers were able to successfully recognize the dog's gender the 85.13% of the time while the age of the dog (recorded as young, adult and old) was classified without mistakes the 80.25% of the time. The task of identifying the situation in which the dog was it was successful the 55.50%, while the recognition (among the eight dogs participating in the study) of the Mudi breed was successful the 67.63% of the time.This study reveals the biological relevance and richness of the information in dog barking and brings new possibilities in applied research. story source; Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Fish oil may help curb seizure frequency in epilepsy.

Low doses of fish oil may help to curb the frequency of epileptic seizures when drug treatment no longer works, suggests a small study. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil are able to cross over from the bloodstream into heart cells where they work to stabilize heart rhythm and protect against heart attacks. This is particularly important for people with epilepsy because they have a significantly high risk of having a heart attack. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil are able to cross over from the bloodstream into heart cells where they work to stabilize heart rhythm and protect against heart attacks.This is particularly important for people with epilepsy because they have a significantly higher risk of having a heart attack than those without the condition.And experimental research indicates that omega 3 fatty acids can also cross over into the central nervous system, where they reduce the excitability of brain cells which trigger seizures. source;British Medical Journal

Fish oil helps transform fat cells from storage to burning.

.Credit: Eiri Ono/Kyoto University. Kyoto University researchers have found that fish oil transforms fat-storage cells into fat-burning cells, which may reduce weight gain in middle age. Fish oil activates receptors in the digestive tract, fires the sympathetic nervous system, and induces storage cells to metabolize fat. The team explains in Scientific Reports that fish oil activates receptors in the digestive tract, fires the sympathetic nervous system, and induces storage cells to metabolize fat.Fat tissues don't all store fat.The So-called "white" cells store fat in order to maintain energy supply, while "brown" cells metabolize fat to maintain a stable body temperature. Brown cells are abundant in babies but decrease in number with maturity into adulthood. A third type of fat cell -- "beige" cells -- have recently been found in humans and mice, and have shown to function much like brown cells. Beige cells also reduce in number as people approach middle age; without these metabolizing cells, fat continues accumulating for decades without ever being used. story courtesy;science daily

New NDV-H5NX avian influenza vaccine has potential for mass vaccination of poultry.

Researchers have developed and tested a new vaccine that protects chickens and other poultry from multiple strains of avian influenza found in the U.S., including H5N1, H5N2 and H5N8. A team of researchers at Kansas State University, in collaboration with Garcia-Sastre of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has developed a vaccine that protects poultry from multiple strains of avian influenza found in the U.S., including H5N1, H5N2 and H5N8. The vaccine has the potential to be administered through water or into embryonated eggs, making it easier for poultry producers to vaccinate flocks.The vaccine, called NDV-H5Nx, protects chickens and likely other poultry against the three recently introduced U.S. avian influenza strains H5N1, H5N2 and H5N8, as well as against Newcastle disease virus -- a virus that naturally affects poultry. Avian influenza killed millions of chickens and turkeys in the U.S. in spring and summer 2015, leading to billions in lost revenue for the U.S. poultry industry. The NDV-H5Nx vaccine also has the potential to be administered to millions of birds at a time through water, said Jürgen Richt, Regents distinguished professor of veterinary medicine, director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases at Kansas State University and one of the researchers involved in the discovery. "The vaccine we produced is a live vaccine, which means it replicates in birds," Richt said. "Because it's live, we believe that the vaccine could be sprayed into the air or put in the water supply so that when the chickens need a drink, they could be vaccinated. A poultry farm could vaccinate all of its birds in a single day because all living creatures need water to live." The vaccine also has potential to be administered to developing chicks in eggs, resulting in offspring being automatically vaccinated for the diseases, said Wenjun Ma, Kansas State University assistant professor of diagnostic medicine and patho biology and one of the researchers involved. The NDV-H5Nx vaccine has the ability to differentiate infected from vaccinated animals, or DIVA. This compatibility is critical for the U.S. poultry industry because it provides evidence to trade partners that poultry have been vaccinated and is free of H5, Richt said. H5 vaccines currently on the market require that each chicken be injected by hand. Many poultry operations have millions of birds and it would take many hours to vaccinate every chicken, Richt said.This is a major advantage as many birds can be vaccinated per time. Story source; science daily.

ELEPHANT INFECTED 7 ZOO WORKERS WITH TUBERCULOSIS.

Seven employees of an Oregon zoo contracted tuberculosis from three elephants in their care in 2013, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.The staff members at the Oregon Zoo in Portland were infected with a latent form of the respiratory illness and therefore displayed no symptoms and were not contagious, a report published by the CDC said. The CDC report on the outbreak pointed to a lack of research about tuberculosis in elephants. It also called for improved screening to detect the disease because the present method of detection – taking cultures – may miss some cases or result in false positives.Jennifer Vines, deputy health officer for Multnomah County, whose office worked with the CDC on its report, said the investigation did not conclude that tuberculosis is highly transmissible between elephants and people. About 5 percent of captive Asian elephants in North America, like the ones in Portland, are believed to have tuberculosis, the CDC said. Human-to-elephant transmission was first identified in 1996 and there have been a handful of cases in recent years in Tennessee and elsewhere.The outbreak prompted the Portland zoo to say it would conduct more frequent tuberculosis tests of both animals and staff through at least June 2016. The outbreak was identified in May 2013 when a routine annual check of elephants found that a 20-year-old bull named Rama was infected.Rama’s father, 51-year-old Packy, also tested positive as did Tusko, a 44-year-old former circus performer. Public health officials do not know the cause of the outbreak. The CDC said it was possible that a zoo volunteer diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2012 may have spread the disease to the elephants.The zoo’s other elephants were not infected, nor were another roughly 100 people who were near the three sickened bull elephants. story source;http://newsdaily.com/2016/01/elephants-infected-seven-oregon-zoo-workers-with-tuberculosis-cdc/

NANOTECHNOLOGY TO TREAT HUMAN WASTE AND REMOVE STENCH.

A toilet that does not need water, a sewage system or external power but instead uses nanotechnology to treat human waste, produce clean water and keep smells at bay is being developed by a British university.The innovative toilet uses a rotating mechanism to move waste into a holding chamber containing nano elements. The mechanism also blocks odors and keeps waste out of sight. “Once the waste is in the holding chamber we use membranes that take water out as vapor, which can then be condensed and available for people to use in their homes,” Alison Parker, lead researcher on the project, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The pathogens remain in the waste at the bottom of the holding chamber, so the water is basically pure and clean.”Cranfield University is developing the toilet as part of the global “Reinvent the toilet Challenge” launched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Nanotechnology is the science of creating and working with materials about one nanometer wide, or one-billionth of a meter. A human hair is about 80,000 nanometers wide. According to the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) 2.4 billion people, mostly in rural areas, live without adequate toilets.Poor sanitation is linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio, the WHO says. A replaceable bag containing solid waste coated with a biodegradable nano-polymer which blocks odor will be collected periodically by a local operator, it says. story courtesy;News daily. http://newsdaily.com/2016/01/waterless-toilet-uses-nanotechnology-to-treat-waste-banish-smells/

BIO-DIGESTER. SUPPLIES ENERGY TO FARMS.

The digestive system of a cow served as a model to researchers to create a container that receives organic waste, mostly livestock manure, where it is mixed with millions of bacteria to obtain natural gas integrated mostly of methane, called biogas, as well as a high quality bio-fertilizer. The principle of action of the digestive system of a cow served as a model to Camilo Pagés and Alexander Eaton to create a container that receives organic waste, mostly livestock manure, where it is mixed with millions of bacteria to obtain natural gas integrated mostly of methane, called biogas, as well as a high quality bio-fertilizer. The biodigester, commercially called Biobolsa (bio-bag), transform the waste in a container made of high density geomembrane where polyethylene components and bacteria generate gas that is used as fuel for stoves or heaters, and even in the form of electricity. In very simple terms, Alex Eaton explains that his technology is a huge bag of 15 meters long and two meters wide and two more in height, which can contain up to 40,000 liters of liquid capacity, and treat one ton waste per day. However, they have adapted it to specific needs and created smaller Bio-bags of two by two meters, working with 20 kilos of manure. "The system is modular and can interface, it also is deployable and adjustable. On average, the return on investment is contemplated in a year and a half, and if you consider that the material used for the Biobolsa lasts longer than 20 years, there is much room for profit," says the journalist with a graduate degree in environmental protection. Source; science daily.