 YAOUNDE: Cashew seed extract may play an important role in preventing and treating diabetes, new research suggests.Scientists at the University of Montreal and the University of Yaounde in Cameroon studied how cashew products affected the responses of rat liver cells to insulin. They looked at cashew tree leaves, bark, seeds and apples. They found that only the cashew seed extract increased the absorption of blood sugar by the cells. "Extracts of other plant parts had no such effect, indicating that cashew seed extract likely contains active compounds, which can have potential anti-diabetic properties," senior author Pierre Haddad, a pharmacology professor at the University of Montreal's Faculty of Medicine, said in a release. "These results collectively suggest that cashew seed extract may be a potential anti-diabetic nutraceutical, the study reads. In some people with diabetes, a condition called insulin resistance prevents the body from processing the hormone, which regulates energy and the processing of sugars in the body. Lack of insulin can lead to heart or kidney diseases over time. In Canada, more than three million Canadians have diabetes and this number is expected to reach 3.7 million by 2020, according to the Canadian Diabetes Association. The study is published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research. |
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Cashew extract may treat diabetes: study
Robotic skateboard from Japan is great for navigation
 TOKYO: Here’s where Jetsons meet the current age and well yeah, better get yourself one before you’re not the only one walking around.What makes me say this is the amazing robotic skateboard we have here that’s just rolled out from the Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo. Weighing a mighty 15 kilograms, this 60 cm long skateboard recognizes your forward leans that will propel the ‘vehicle’ forward. The top speed can touch 6 mph. To turn to a particular direction all you need to do is turn your body. It may lead to all the lethargy that we’ve dreaded ever since the release of the movie Wall-E. But then there aren’t too many things that promise luxury, and appeal to us at the same time. |
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Kat not to marry Sallu, predicts Astrologer
 MUMBAI: Katrina Kaif will not marry Salman Khan! This is what the star signs are telling about Katrina Kaif. Famous astrologer Bhavikk Sangghvi predicts Katrina Kaif’s personal and professional life.Kat steps into 27th year. In professional front, this year will strengthen her position but on personal front, he predicted that she will not marry Salman and if she does, their marriage will not last long. He predicts, “Katrina was born on July 16, 1984which makes her a Number 7 (Neptune) person in numerology. Being ruled by Number 7, she is also ruled by Number 2 (Moon) as these two numbers always go hand in hand. She is a Cancerian (ruler Moon and Neptune – Numbers 2 and 7 again) and her destiny number adds up to 9 (Mars)”, explains Bhavikk. “ Katrina will be entering her 27th year which indicates health issues, mainly due to unnecessary stress, negativity etc. which she is so much surrounded with and hence can affect her blood pressure levels”, predicts Bhavikk. “On the professional front, her next release Farah Khan's Tees Maar Khan adds up to Number 38 (2). For Kat, Number 2 is one of her strongest numbers and so this film will make her position stronger than what it already is. Her pairing with Akshay Kumar will 'click' once more and the movie will turn out to be one of the biggest hits of this year”, predicts Bhavikk. “On the personal front, Katrina will not marry Salman and if she does, then it will not last long. They are completely different persons. Salman is a Number 9 (December 27, 1965) ruled by Mars (Number 9), Number 8 (Saturn – Capricorn) and Number 6 (Venus). They share just the Number 9 in common but nothing else. Numbers 7 and 9 do not gel well with difference of opinion being the main negative aspect. They both are different people with no similar ideologies but can be friends for sure. In nutshell, there is no great compatibility between the two and Katrina should avoid taking Salman too seriously. Rather, Katrina should not even think of marriage till July 2011”, informs Bhavikk. “I would advise her to wear an Emerald and a Pearl set in silver to bring in mental peace and stop unnecessary delays in his life (whatsoever)”, advices Bhavikk before signing off. |
Australia 'psychic' octopus picks Gillard as election winner
The Sydney Morning Herald showed off "Cassandra" just as Gillard told the Australian people that they would go to national elections on August 21. The paper hopes Cassandra will rival the predictive powers of "Paul", a German octopus that called a string of results including the World Cup winner. "Cassandra's preference for Julia Gillard was clear," the newspaper said. "Despite being a solitary animal, she wrapped her long arms around the Prime Minister," it said next to a photo of the octopus wound around a picture of Gillard. But the octopus's reaction to conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott's photo was less enthusiastic -- she turned a "defensive black colour", the paper said. Marine science expert Professor Rob Harcourt however warned that as octopuses have "episodic personalities", Cassandra could change her eight-tentacled vote at any time. "On any given day, an octopus may be bold in all situations and then shy and timid the next day," he told the paper. |
Friday, July 16, 2010
Twitter: The World Cup Final Was Our Most Tweeted Event, Ever
The 2010 World Cup has come to a close, and you can bet that the team at Twitter is losing slightly less sleep than they have been over the last month. That’s because the global event drove record traffic to the service, resulting in some downtime and other quirks. But it also led to some pretty staggering stats: Twitter has just announced
that The World Cup Final marked the largest period of sustained activity for an event in the service’s history, with over 2,000 Tweets Per Second during the last 15 minutes of the match, and 3,051 tweets per second when Spain scored its winning goal.To mark the occasion Twitter’s analytics and relevance teams created a nifty infographic tracking tweets over the course of the tournament (the flags denote the number of tweets containing a hashtag for a given country). You can see it above (click it for the full version).
Other key stats from the World Cup:
- During the final, people from 172 countries tweeted in 27 different languages.
- At the moment of the winning goal, people from 81 countries tweeted in 23 different languages. This moment is represented on this Wordle infographic.
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