Venom From A Caribbean Sea Snail Offers Long Lasting Pain Relief .

The venom of a small snail native to the Caribbean could be used to develop a completely new way of treating chronic pain, according to researchers.The venom of the Conus regius sea snail, which is normally used to paralyze or kill the snail’s prey, also contains a compound that seems to offer long-lasting pain relief. The compound was still working and still blocking pain three days after being administered in experiments with rats. According to the American research team, the findings meant that it may be possible to create a new pain therapy for patients who had exhausted all other options. Opioids, which are the medicines most commonly used to treat moderate to severe pain, work by reducing the perception of pain. They do this by attaching to specific proteins in the brain and organs of the body, called opioid receptors. A compound known as Rg1A works in a different way using a new pathway. Scientists from the University of Utah, writing in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said the compound appeared to have a beneficial effect on parts of the nervous system. This, in turn, could open the door to new opportunities to treat pain, they said. The researchers added that drugs that worked in this way could reduce the use of opioids, such as morphine, which are addictive and can cause a number of serious side-effects. This new compound offers a potential new pathway to prevent pain from developing in the first place and offers a new therapy to patients who have run out of options. In research on rats, scientists found that pain was experienced by those animals treated with a chemotherapy drug that caused them to be hypersensitive to cold and touch. Those also treated with the snail compound did not experience pain and the relief was long lasting, moreover. more

5-year-old girl attacked by dogs is dead .

5-year-old girl attacked by dogs is dead . Aliyah, the 5-year-old girl attacked on Monday by 3 dogs in Lagos has died. She passed on at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Wednesday evening. She had been transferred from the Ikorodu General Hospital, where she was first admitted. Punch had reported that Aliyah was sleeping at home on Alhaji Abdul Hakeem Bin Sulaimon Avenue, off Ewuren Road, Ikorodu, when an Alsatian dog broke loose. The dog, named Rover, was one of the15 other dogs owned by the landlord who is based in London, United Kingdom. It dragged Aliyah to the back of the house where two other Alsatian dogs joined it in attacking her. They inflicted multiple injuries on her body in an attack residents said lasted for about two hours. The father, Wasiu, who was responsible for the care of the dogs, had reportedly gone to buy the dogs’ feed when the incident happened. Around 11pm of that day, some residents reportedly invaded the house and killed Rover. more

Radioactive boars found in Czech forests 31yrs after Chernobyl disaster.

Radioactive boars found in Czech forests 31yrs after Chernobyl disaster. Radioactive wild boars have been detected in Czech forests, some 31 years after the Chernobyl disaster, a veterinary administration official said, adding that they are eating mushrooms that can absorb high levels of radioactive isotopes. The animals became radioactive due to false truffles, the underground mushrooms they feed on, Jiri Drapal at the Czech State Veterinary Administration told Reuters. The mushroom is found in the Sumava mountain region in the Czech Republic, which borders Austria and Germany. It can absorb high levels of radioactive isotopes, including Caesium 137, which was released in great quantities after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Caesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years, which means it loses half of its radioactivity within that period. When boars eat radioactive mushrooms, they become radioactive themselves. Boar meat is highly popular in the Czech Republic, so there’s danger of radioactive meat ending up on one’s table.more

The Challenges for Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture.

The Challenges for Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture. A group of maize farmers stands huddled around an agronomist and his computer on the side of an irrigation pivot in central South Africa. The agronomist has just flown over the pivot with a hybrid UAV that takes off and lands using propellers yet maintains distance and speed for scanning vast hectares of land through the use of its fixed wings. The UAV is fitted with a four spectral band precision sensor that conducts onboard processing immediately after the flight, allowing farmers and field staff to address, almost immediately, any crop anomalies that the sensor may have recorded, making the data collection truly real-time. In this instance, the farmers and agronomist are looking to specialized software to give them an accurate plant population count. It’s been 10 days since the maize emerged and the farmer wants to determine if there are any parts of the field that require replanting due to a lack of emergence or wind damage, which can be severe in the early stages of the summer rainy season. At this growth stage of the plant’s development, the farmer has another 10 days to conduct any replanting before the majority of his fertilizer and chemical applications need to occur. Once these have been applied, it becomes economically unviable to take corrective action, making any further collected data historical and useful only to inform future practices for the season to come.more

Techie who extols benefits of organic milk.

Techie who extols benefits of organic milk.Techie sets up farm not just to supply milk, but also to breed the best bovines. Just like his love for IT profession, his passion for organic milk is unadulterated. He doesn’t want to milk profits from his supply, but purely believes in maintaining the purity of nature’s gift to mankind. No wonder this IT professional with a comfortable job in the United States has set up an organic farm not just for supplying healthy and unadulterated milk but also to breed the best bovine in the country. “To maintain purity we grow fodder on the 9 acres farm on the outskirts of the city for the 150 animals consisting of 70 cows and 80 buffaloes,” says Kotesh Mukkamala, an IT professional in the USA. On the eight acres of the 9 acres land, he cultivates green fodder recommended by NG Ranga University to feed the animals year round. The remaining acre is used for housing cattle, staff and other infrastructure. As the grass grown in the cities is produced in the drainage segregation area and is infested with synthetics and human waste here only ground and rain water is used. Cultivation is pesticide and chemical fertiliser-free. Diet of the animals is balanced with the right quantities of protein and fodder. more

Teenager who 'died' after being bitten by stray dog WOKE UP on way to his funeral.

Teenager who 'died' after being bitten by stray dog WOKE UP on way to his funeral.A teenager believed to have died after being bitten by a stray dog WOKE UP on the way to his funeral. Kumar Marewad, 17, left family, friends and locals in complete shock with his sudden revival. The boy had come down with a high fever after the dog bite and his condition deteriorated after being brought to hospital in the Dharwad area of India. Doctors had told relatives to expect the worse as an infection had spread throughout his body. After hours on a life support machine, Kumar's family decided to take him home for his final moments, the Times of India reports . According to Kumar's family, including parents Ningappa and Manjula, he eventually stopped moving or breathing for some time and they presumed he was dead.They had asked villagers to prepare for his funeral and had carried Kumar two kilometres when he suddenly opened his eyes, started breathing and moved his hands and legs. The teenager was rushed to hospital where he remains on a ventilator. Dr Mahesh Neelakhantannavar said: "We suspect he suffers from meningoencephalitis, an infection caused due to dog bite." Kumar's parents expressed relief at his apparent recovery and told how he had given up school to support his family. more

China orders drivers to fit GPS trackers to their cars so Muslims can be monitored using central computer.

A region of China is ordering every motorist to install a GPS tracking device so authorities can monitor the movements of Muslims. The "police state" policy is designed so officials can keep a closer eye on the Uighurs, a minority Muslim group the Government says is being radicalised by foreign jihadists. Anyone who fails to comply with the GPS rule will be refused access to petrol stations and will be unable to sell their vehicle. The draconian rule was imposed in the Bayingolin Mongol, a self-governing region of north-west China in the province of Xinjiang. Drivers have until the end of June to install the Beidou navigation system in their cars at a cost of £25 a year. more