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The understanding of diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s is
set to take a step forward following groundbreaking technology which
will enable cell analysis using automated 3D microscopy.
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death. AD is diagnosed in people over 65 years of age, although the less-prevalent early-onset Alzheimer's can occur much earlier. Failure to diagnose Alzheimer’s in a timely manner would mean failure to improve the quality of life for millions of
people. AD is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people globally by 2050.
The cause for most Alzheimer's cases is still essentially unknown and even today AD, cannot be cured and is degenerative in nature.
The most common symptom in the early stage of Alzheimer’s disease development is difficulty in
remembering recent events. Early symptoms are often mistakenly thought to be 'age-related' concerns, or manifestations of stress. As the disease advances, symptoms can include confusion, irritability and aggression, mood swings, trouble with language, and long-term memory loss.
For the very same reason, early stage detection of AD is very much essential and an initiative between the Griffith’s School of Information
Communication Technology and the Eskitis Institute for Cellular and
Molecular Biology, the technology will allow the automated
identification, separation and analysis of cells as complex as nerve
cells in the brain, would definitely help this cause.
“Scientists and clinicians will be able to superimpose multiple data
sets in three dimensions using automated techniques and then conduct
detailed analysis of the data in a far improved way from the two
dimensional microscopy that is currently available,” said Dr Adrian
Meedeniya, manager of Griffith’s Imaging and Image Analysis Facility.
Microscopy and image acquisition technology has undergone a recent
revolution, with modern microscopes generating huge multi-dimensional
data sets that can easily fill an entire hard drive. Manually analyzing
these data-sets is incredibly time consuming and prone to human error
and bias.
“One of the main motivations for establishing this collaboration with
the School of ICT was to create the technology to efficiently deal with
these huge data sets,” Dr Meedeniya said.
“We will be able to use this technology to rapidly increase our
understanding of the way neuro-degenerative disorders affect nerve cell
function in the brain.”
Underpinned by neural network algorithms (artificial intelligence),
the cutting-edge technology is expected to be widely used in disease
research within a matter of a few years.
The new groundbreaking 3 D Microscopy imaging technique would definitely help in early stage detection of the disease which in turn would lead to improved quality of life of patient and caregiver; for Alzheimer's disease is known for placing a great burden on caregivers; the pressures can be wide-ranging, involving social, psychological, physical, and economic elements of the caregiver's life.
As per the latest news, Indian
scientists are one step away from identifying and quantifying Gas Hydrates,
described as the energy of the future and present in large quantities in Bay of
Bengal and the Indian Ocean.
A
Remotely
Operated Vehicle (ROV) developed by the scientists of Chennai-based
National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) has proved that it can undertake
missions up to 6,000 meters to the sea bottom and identify gas hydrates and
poly metallic nodules.
Gas Hydratesor Clathrate hydrates (or gas clathrates, gas hydrates,
clathrates, hydrates, etc.) are crystalline water-based solids
physically resembling ice, in which small non-polar molecules (typically gases)
or polar molecules with large hydrophobic moieties are trapped inside
"cages" of hydrogen bonded water molecules. These hydrates are formed
at low temperatures and high pressure in the deep sea and contain gases, such
as hydrocarbons. Naturally occurring gas hydrates are a form of water ice which
contains a large amount of methane within its crystal structure, and are thus
very important energy source.
India also has huge
reserves of gas hydrates along its eastern coast. The initial estimation of the
reserves are said to be at least 1,500 times the country's current fossil fuel
reserves - coal, oil and natural gas put together. The hydrate reserves are
found in Krishna-Godavari basin, Mahanadi basin and Andaman regions.
Hydrates store
immense amounts of methane, with major implications for energy resources and
climate, but the natural controls on hydrates and their impacts on the
environment are very poorly understood.
The worldwide
amounts of carbon bound in gas hydrates is conservatively estimated to total
twice the amount of carbon to be found in all known fossil fuels on Earth.
The immense volumes of
gas and the richness of the deposits may make methane hydrates a strong
candidate for development as an energy resource.
Results of USGS investigations indicate that methane hydrates possess
unique acoustic properties
Polymetallic nodules, also called manganese nodules, are rock
concretions on the sea bottom formed of concentric layers of iron and manganese
hydroxides around a core. The core may be microscopically small and is
sometimes completely transformed into manganese minerals by crystallization.
Nodule growth is one of the slowest of all geological phenomena – on the order
of a centimeter over several million years. Several processes are involved in the
formation of nodules, including the precipitation of metals from seawater and
the precipitation of metal hydroxides through the activity of microorganisms.
Several of these processes may operate concurrently or they may follow one
another during the formation of a nodule. These nodules are great source of
metals including those of greatest economic interest such as manganese
(27-30 %), nickel (1.25-1.5 %), copper
(1-1.4 %) and cobalt
(0.2-0.25 %). Other constituents include iron (6 %), silicon (5%) and
aluminium (3%), with lesser amounts of calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, titanium
and barium, along with hydrogen and oxygen.
Manganese Nodule
The
ROV fitted with scientific payloads like sensors, and sonar instruments could
identify gas hydrates and poly metallic nodules in the bottom of the sea and will
help India launch deep sea mining for poly metallic manganese nodules in the
1,50,000 sq km region in the Central Indian Ocean Basin allocated to the
country by the International Sea Bed Authority.
By this year end, NIOT scientists expect to
commission the Autonomous Coring System with which they can explore the
manganese nodules.
As in nature, every positive is almost always associated with negative, this immense
source of energy is also associated with many potential hazards, including
environmental, that we need to consider and technological difficulties that
need to be triumphed over.
Technological
difficulties:
Absence
of representative deepwater gas hydrates field anywhere in the world
Gas
production rate (Gas in the production testing of Mallik well in Canada’s
permafrost area have yielded very low production rate and could not sustain
more than 7 days of production using thermal and depressurization methods)
Managing
Water production rate (High amount of water is expected to be produced along
with the dissociation of hydrates)
Environmental
Problems:
Sand
control since the hydrate reservoirs exist at very shallow depth below sea bed
(200-400 mbsf) the sands here would not be consolidated due to absence of
overburden pressure and mining of these gas
hydrates could lead to landslides
Methane, a "greenhouse" gas, is 10 times more effective
(hazardous) than carbon dioxide in causing climate warming and could lead to global catastrophe
Nodule mining could
affect tens of thousands of square kilometers of deep sea ecosystems. Nodule
regrowth takes decades to millions of years and that would make such mining an
unsustainable and nonrenewable practice. Humans have little knowledge of the
vast number of deep-sea species that occur and their biology, making
predictions about the effects of mining extremely uncertain. Thus, nodule
mining could cause habitat alteration, direct mortality of benthic
creatures, or suspension of sediment, which can smother filter feeders
There is no doubt
that gas hydrates are abundant source of energy, whether we will be able to utilize
this source of energy remains to be seen. We need tread a very cautious and balanced
path. Risk to benefit ratio of such mining along with the economic viability and
technological feasibility needs to be studied at great length. Whether we are
able to use this energy resource or it continues to lie in sea will largely
depend on how well we are able to address the potential concern of global environmental
hazards like greenhouse effect.
