Brains of homosexuals are different

Researchers in Europe have revealed what has long been suspected - brains of homosexuals have structural and functional differences from those of "straight" people. Two studies have concluded that while lesbians have a lower proportion of grey matter in their more male-like brains than straight women, the brains of gay men have structural similarities to those of heterosexual ladies.

In fact, gays also exhibit the same powerful response as straight women to the sex hormones released in male sweat, according to the studies.

In one study, a team at University College London used magnetic resonance imaging to look at the brains of 80 men and women, including 16 gay men and 15 lesbians.

They found that lesbians had a "male-like" proportion and distribution of grey matter in their brain when compared with heterosexual women.

"In homosexual women the perirhinal cortex grey matter displayed a male-like structural pattern. The perirhinal area is associated with social and sexual behaviour," ’The Sunday Times’ quoted the British researchers as saying.

In another study, researchers at Karolinska Institute in Sweden questioned 12 gay men, 12 heterosexual women and 12 heterosexual men to smell hormones found in male sweat.

The researchers measured their brain responses and found that the anterior hypothalamus, an area linked to sexual behaviour, responded strongly in both heterosexual women as well as gay men.

However, straight men showed little response - this implies the brains of gay men have functional similarities to those of straight women, according to lead researcher Ivanka Savic.

The team from Sweden also measured the brain responses of 12 lesbians who were asked to smell male and female hormones. The participants actually responded much more strongly to the female hormones.

Tool against TB: Free mobile talktime

CAMBRIDGE/MASSACHUSETTS: Researchers at MIT believe they’ve discovered a new weapon in the battle against tuberculosis: Free cellphone minutes. For years, doctors have struggled to get some TB patients to take all their medication, which generally involves a six-month regimen of multiple drugs.

Now a student-led group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a way to use cellphones to let patients test themselves. And if the tests show patients are following doctor’s orders, they get rewarded with free minutes.

"We’re piggybacking on one of the bigger rollouts of infrastructure out there, which is wireless technology and telecom technology," said Jose Gomez-Marquez, one of the project’s leaders.

The system works like this: Patients test their urine using a strip that reveals a numeric code if it detects TB medicine. They then text message the code to their health care provider and get credit toward incentives such as free minutes.

The in-home tests also eliminate the need for health care workers to make several patient-monitoring visits a week, a routine that is often impractical in remote places, Gomez-Marquez said.

Mobile phones are good tools for the project because they are common in the developing world, where it’s often cheaper to erect cell towers than miles of poles and wires, Gomez-Marquez said.

Dr Mario Raviglione, director of a World Health Organization program to fight TB, called the MIT idea "creative".

But he said personal visits must continue because systems that depend heavily on patient self-reporting have often failed.

"I would think it’s a dangerous game to rely only on incentives," he said.

In 2006, the most recent year statistics are available, 9.2 million people worldwide were diagnosed with tuberculosis and 1.7 million died.

The disease can be cured with a steady regimen of drugs. But many patients start feeling better and stop taking the medicine too soon. Others abandon the drugs because of side effects such as nausea, fever and rashes. If the drugs are taken only sporadically, the bacteria build up resistance. The WHO estimates that 5 to 10% of TB deaths are patients who stop taking medication properly.

The MIT group - which originally included five students - took on the TB problem in 2007 as part of the university’s annual "IDEAS competition", which challenges participants to solve various world problems.

Under the TB treatment system used by the WHO, the relationship between the patient and health care worker can get adversarial, said Elizabeth Leshen, an MIT junior working on the project.

"We wanted to do something that takes the health care worker out of the supervisory role and puts him or her back into the patient care role," she said.

Cell minutes were chosen as an incentive because patients want them and phone companies are willing to give them out, said Gomez-Marquez, who added that other incentives and reporting methods can be tailored to different regions.

A small study of 20 patients in Nicaragua last year indicated the MIT system could work, and a larger study in Pakistan is planned for this summer. The team is trying to raise the $200,000 for a full-scale clinical trial.

The WHO’s Raviglione said the MIT group’s program could be an asset, particularly in developed countries, where people are more familiar with technology. But he said it must be combined with regular visits from health care workers or community leaders who can ensure patients take their medicine.

A pill a day for substance abusers

A single pill taken every day for nine months will now help the country’s intravenous drug users (IDUs) kick the habit. India has finally decided to roll out the ambitious Oral Substitution Therapy (OST) from September, to reduce the risk of HIV transmission among the country’s highly vulnerable IDU community.

The National AIDS Control Board, headed by health secretary Naresh Dayal, has sanctioned Rs 136 crore for the OST programme, which hopes to cover 40,000 IDUs by 2012.

Under the programme, substance abusers will keep an oral pill of Bupernorphin under their tongue for five minutes every day in front of a supervising doctor. This will cut their desire for addiction.

Speaking to TOI, director general of National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) K Sujatha Rao said that the first phase would see India enroll 10,000 IDUs by March 2009 from Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Chandigarh and Delhi.

These places may account for 90% of the country’s IDUs. Orissa, Mumbai, Punjab and Kolkata too are becoming hotbeds for IDUs. NACO estimates that India is home to 2 lakh IDUs.

Nearly 25% of them are suffering from HIV due to sharing of contaminated needles. OST programmes in China and Australia have proved to be a roaring success and it was found that Bupernorphin helped addicts get over hard substances like heroin and cocaine.

Rao had recently visited China, which had upscaled its OST programme to 30,000 IDUs in a year, to study how to formulate, plan and implement the programme in India.

According to Rao, surveys conducted by AIIMS had found the relapse rate after detoxification to be as high as 92% among addicts. "The OST policy has finally been cleared. By August, we will finish procuring the stock of Bupernorphin required to run the OST programme. By March 2009, we will reach out to 10,000 IDUs. Four expert teams are being formed to evaluate the 33 agencies who will implement the OST. The list of IDUs and the eligibility are being finalized - he should have support from family, ought to have gone through detox and failed," Rao said.

According to her, 20% of the IDUs were suffering from such advanced addiction that their brain’s motor functions had stopped responding. "They can even commit murder if not put on OST. However, once they get the medication, they are as normal as you and me. China’s crime rate dipped after they introduced the OST programme. Till now, India followed a conservative 15-day detox programme for addicts. However, it has failed miserably," Rao said.

India is a busy transit route for drug traffickers moving heroin from the Golden Triangle of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand and also from Afghanistan. Inevitably, that has led to a rise in substance addiction in India.

"Denying this would be disastrous - especially because drug addicts are at a higher risk of contracting HIV through sharing needles," an official said.

NACO has already been worried over the increasing number of IDUs as these addicts infect their partners with HIV by having unprotected sex. Needles are the predominant way that HIV is spread. Also, addicts often stop caring about sharing needles and are simply concerned about their next fix.

Chocolate-potent anti-cancer agent

We have all heard that eating chocolate is good for you - now here’s a study that tells you why. A chemical synthesised out of a cocoa compound has accelerated the killing of human tumours in a lab environment, according to the study by Georgetown University researchers.

The researchers described how four different tumour cell lines out of 16 tested sensitive to the chemical, known as GECGC. The strongest response was seen in two different colon cancers; growth was cut in half and most of the tumour cells were damaged.

GECGC "seems to be safe... because it has a structure similar to a natural product in cocoa beans - the same beans that are used to make chocolate," said the study’s lead author Min Kim.

Researchers have long studied the beneficial effects of flavanols - molecules in vegetables and fruits that exhibit potent anti-oxidant and potentially anti-tumour properties.

As part of these studies, investigators have been testing a new synthetic version of natural procyanidins, a class of flavanols, created and patented by a confectionery company Mars Incorporated.

In these studies, the scientists tested the effects of three different doses of GECGC on the cancer cell lines - the first time that a synthetic cocoa derivative has been used to screen human cancer cell lines.

None of the doses tested were extreme, Kim pointed out. "The effective concentrations were considered similar to what a person might eat or use," he said.

They found sensitivity to GECGC in both colon cancer cell lines they tested, in cervical cancer cells and in one line of leukaemia tumour cells. Other cell lines were resistant, including ovarian and prostate cancer cells.

Overall, GECGC showed the most effect in treating cancer cells that are normally fast growing, Kim said. And the fact that it demonstrated the most killing power in colon cancer suggests the chemical "could serve as a promising therapeutic for colon cancer," he said. "So far, these data are very convincing."

The researchers do not yet clearly understand the mechanism by which GECGC disrupts tumour growth, but they think it inhibits the physical connections between cancer cells and blocks internal cell signalling pathways.

The findings of the study have been published online Monday in the journal Cell Cycle .

Reliance to Raise Crude Oil Imports From Saudi Arabia

Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s biggest company, is increasing crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia as it seeks to secure supplies because of rising demand for fuels in India and the rest of Asia.Reliance, based in Mumbai, is boosting purchases by at least 90,000 barrels a day, accounting for 30 percent of Saudi Arabia’s output increase of 300,000 barrels a day this month, P.M.S. Prasad, president of the company’s oil and gas business, said in a telephone interview.

The refiner, building a second oil refinery that would make it the world’s largest by this year, stepped up imports after Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said last month the kingdom is raising output to meet demand from customers. Demand for fuels in the Middle East and Asia is forecast to rise 25 percent to 39 million barrels a day in 2015 from 2008, consultant FACTS Global Energy said today in a report.

``We have been assured of the additional barrels,’’ Prasad said yesterday.

Reliance operates a 660,000 barrel-a-day refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat, and would start operations at a 580,000 barrel-a-day plant under unit Reliance Petroleum Ltd. later this year.

Refiners in Japan and South Korea are poised to increase crude oil imports in the coming months after annual plant maintenance peaked this month.

``There’s an abundant supply of heavy crude but the Saudis are more savvy than others in marketing their crude,’’ said Harry Tchilinguirian, senior oil market analyst at BNP Paribas SA. ``There’s also a seasonal element to this as refiners return from maintenance.’’

Heavy Crudes

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, and the most influential member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumps a variety of light and heavy crudes. OPEC, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil, hasn’t been able to rein in prices, which rose to a record $139.89 a barrel in New York yesterday.

Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani earns more compared with overseas rivals by processing cheaper, dirtier crude with high- sulfur content. His plant is located two days away by ship from the Middle East.

Reliance earned $15.50 from processing a barrel of oil into fuels in the quarter ended March 31, compared with $7 for a plant in Singapore, the company said April 21.

China, the world’s biggest energy user after the U.S., has increased crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia 17 percent this year to almost 10 million tons as new refineries start operations, according to customs data.

Reliance eyeing stake in Jet Airways - paper

Energy group Reliance Industries Ltd is in talks with Jet Airways Ltd to buy a 6-7 percent stake in the private airline, the Mint daily said, citing a source familiar with the development.The newspaper said on Tuesday Reliance was keen to buy a minority stake as it wanted to be associated with the domestic carrier’s proposed cargo airline.

"The mode of Reliance Industries’ investment is not finalised. It could be issue of fresh shares or diluting promoter equity," the daily said.

Spokesmen for Reliance, India’s leading petrochemical maker and a refiner, and Jet were not immediately available for comment.

For Jet, a stake sale would give it cash at a time when Indian airlines are losing money due to high oil prices.

A top company official told Reuters on Monday Jet planned to invest around $10-$15 million to set up a cargo unit, which would likely be launched in mid-2009 or later that year.

I slept with Diana: Butler

In a shocking revelation, disgraced royal butler Paul Burrell has claimed that he secretly bedded Princess Diana, a leading British tabloid said on Sunday. According to the News of the World , the "slimy flunky bragged to his wife’s brother Ron Cosgrove that he was on call for sex 24x7. Ron told us: "Burrell said Diana was so demanding. And he told me he’d caught the Queen naked."

Ron said: "The man has shamed us and made a fool out of my sister Maria. The final straw came when he was caught on video admitting how he lied to Diana’s inquest. I hope I never see him again."

For 25 years furniture dealer 61-year-old Ron has had a ringside seat at Burrell’s extraordinary rise from humble palace footman to millionaire celebrity.

And he revealed how Diana’s trusted servant dropped his bombshell story of sex with the boss over a drink at the local pub.

"It was 1993 while Paul was working for the princess at Kensington Palace," he said. "He and Maria came home to Cheshire one weekend and on the Sunday lunchtime Paul specifically asked if he could talk to me in private.

"He clearly had something on his mind so we went to the Peal of Bells in Holt for a few pints. Then during the conversation he suddenly tells me he’s been having a sexual relationship with Princess Diana.

"He said they did it in the bedroom, the bath, everywhere. He claimed Diana liked to be domineering."

According to the report, Diana’s demands on Burrell eased off when she met and fell for heart surgeon Dr Hasnat Khan.