February 2013 ~ Technology Update

Details of the new Samsung Galaxy S IV phone have been reportedly leaked on the Internet, just weeks before its rumoured launch.

According to the leaks, the new Galaxy smartphone, which is rumoured to be released as soon as March, is set for a major screen upgrade that would make it the most high-definition mobile in the market, the Daily Mail reports.

Samsung Galaxy S IV

According to a document which is said to be leaked by a Korean financial services firm, the Galaxy SIV will boast a 5 inch 1920x1080 display, quad-core processor and will run 2 GB of RAM.

The phone will have the latest version of Android Jelly Bean, the document added.

According to other reported leaks, however, the processor will be an ARM-based Qualcomm model equipped, running at 2GHz.

Rumours also claim that the camera in the new phone will feature a rather standard 2MP front-facing CCD and a high definition 13MP rear-facing one capable of shooting HD video in 1080p at 30 frames per second.

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) may play a wide-ranging role in staving off ageing, says a research team from China who has explored the compound’s plethora of potential anti-ageing pathways.

H₂S has been gaining increasing attention as an important endogenous signaling molecule because of its significant effects on the cardiovascular and nervous systems, the team noted.

The evidence is mounting, they said, that hydrogen sulfide slows ageing by inhibiting free-radical reactions, by activating SIRT1, an enzyme believed to be a regulator of lifespan, and probably through its interactions with a gene, klotho, which appears to have its own market basket of anti-ageing activity.

Hydrogen sulfide is produced within the human body, and has a variety of important physiological effects. For example, it relaxes the vascular endothelium and smooth muscle cells, which is important to maintaining clean arteries as one ages, explained first author Zhi-Sheng Jiang, of the University of South China, Hunan.

It functions as an antioxidant. And it inhibits expression of pro-inflammatory factors, all of which “imply an important role in ageing and age-associated diseases,” according to the study.

For example, mice lacking CSE, the gene for an enzyme involved in producing H₂S, manifest extensive, premature arteriosclerosis, an inevitable consequence of ageing, said Jiang.

The gene, klotho, which appears to be upregulated by hydrogen sulfide, is thought to extend lifespan via a number of different pathways, some of which promote production of endogenous antioxidants, according to the their report.

Produced in the kidneys, it has direct angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibiting activity; that is, it’s an ACE inhibitor, just like certain drugs that mitigate high blood pressure. Not surprisingly, plasma H₂S declines with age, and is lower in spontaneously hypertensive rats than in those with normal blood pressure. More generally, a lack of H₂S is implicated in cardiovascular disease.

A decline in H₂S is also thought to undermine neurological health. Endogenous H₂S has been found wanting in an animal model of Parkinson’s disease, and is found to be depressed in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. There are even suggestions, mostly in animal models, but also in human studies, that H₂S may be protective against cancer, according to the report.

“Data available so far strongly suggest that H₂S may become the next potent agent for preventing and ameliorating the symptoms of ageing and age-associated diseases,” concluded Jiang.

In the future, he asserted, people may take H₂S via food, or as an anti-ageing supplement.

The results appeared online ahead of print in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology.