ENGLISH STUDY GROUP ONLINE

A new sweetener made from the tequila plant could help reduce blood glucose levels in diabetics and contribute to weight loss in obese people.

A researcher has outlined the potential benefits of agavins, the natural sugar found in the agave plant, which is non-digestible and may act as a dietary fiber rather than a sugar that raises blood glucose.

The findings were presented at the 247th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society gathering, happening through Thursday, March 20 at the Dallas Convention Center and surrounding hotels. The meeting involves thousands of scientists and some 10,000 reports on new scientific advances and similar topics.

"We have found that since agavins reduce glucose levels and increase GLP-1, they also increase the amount of insulin," said Mercedes G. López, Ph.D. of the Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados, Biotechnology and Biochemistry Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico.

GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) is a hormone "that slows the stomach from emptying," which subsequently begins insulin production.

Lopez and her team analyzed a group of mice fed a standard diet and added agavins to their daily water. The mice were weighed every day and had their glucose blood levels checked weekly. The majority of the mice that drank agavins ate less, lost weight and had lower blood glucose levels compared to sweeteners such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, aspartame and agave syrup.

"Agavins are not expensive and they have no known side effects, except for those few people who cannot tolerate them," Lopez continued, adding that much like other fructans, agavins are comprised of fructose. Fructose contributes to healthy microbe growth in the mouth and intestines. Because fructans are linked together in long, branched chains, they can't affect blood sugar the way high fructose corn syrup does. 

Agavins are occasionally confused with agave nectar or agave syrup, both of which are health-food store shelf staples. However, these products feature individually broken-down fructans, making them similar to high-fructose corn syrup.

Lopez also notes that agavins are better than artificial sweeteners, as the latter are absorbed by the body, resulting in side effects such as headaches. Artificial sweeteners have also been linked to weight gain among other adverse health effects, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

"One slight downside, however, is that agavins are not quite as sweet as their artificial counterparts," she said.

Paris (AFP) - The Burmese python has a built-in compass that allows it to slither home in a near-straight line even if released dozens of kilometres away, researchers said Wednesday.

Capable of growing over five metres (16 feet) long, pythons are among the world's largest snakes. Although native to South and Southeast Asia, the snakes have taken up residence in South Florida's Everglades National Park, possibly after being released as unwanted pets.

They have adapted so well to their new habitat that they now pose a serious threat to several species which they hunt as prey.

They implanted radio trackers in the animals and followed their movements with GPS readings from a small fixed-wing plane -- measuring their direction and speed.

All the snakes immediately oriented themselves towards the place where they were captured, with five of the six returning to within five kilometres (three miles) of that spot.

The sixth veered somewhat off course as it was nearing its destination.

The snakes travelled between 94 and 296 days, displaying "high motivation to reach home locations", according to the study, published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

"This study provides evidence that Burmese pythons have navigational map and compass senses," the authors wrote.

No other snake species has yet been shown to possess a similar homing ability.

Such navigational skills suggest the python has a razor-sharp sense of territoriality. This could help combat the species in places where it is unwanted by predicting where the snake is likely to spread. 

Burmese pythons eat everything from tiny birds to deer and even alligators. They swallow their food whole.

The hunt has major ramifications for Beijing, which has been rapidly improving its military while aggressively challenging neighbors over territorial disputes. Washington is looking to prove it's still the top dog to allies worried about how seriously it takes the threat China poses to the Pacific status quo.

So far, neither country has come up with anything significant. But they have been vigorously waving their flags.

China has the most at stake and has been taking an unusually high-profile role. Almost immediately after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared March 8, China dispatched its largest-ever rescue flotilla to the initial search area in the South China Sea, which Beijing considers its own backyard.

Beijing sent four warships and five coast guard and civilian patrol service vessels, along with helicopters and fixed-wing surveillance aircraft. Among the warships are two of China's largest and most advanced amphibious docking ships. The 20,000-ton vessels are equipped with helicopters and a range of small boats, including up to four hovercrafts.

"On the one hand, China is simply doing its duty in orchestration with other countries," said Ni Lexiong, a military expert at Shanghai's University of Political Science and Law. "On the other hand, this operation offers an opportunity to assess the Chinese navy's willpower, efficiency and ability to carry out operations far from home, especially in comparison with the U.S."

Fresh off a massive relief effort after Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines — which China barely got involved in — the U.S. was once again quick to respond. Within days, the Navy had two destroyers in the South China Sea participating in the search, the USS Kidd and the USS Pinckney. Both are both based in San Diego but were training in the area when the jet disappeared.

Since the flight was bound for Beijing and two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, the public expects the government and military to pull out all the stops. With more Chinese traveling abroad than ever — 100 million last year, more than double the figure for 2009 — they are increasingly reliant on their government to assist and protect them when overseas, and they are looking for proof that it can fulfill that role. 

National prestige is also a huge factor.

Though the U.S. remains the dominant power in the Pacific, China deeply craves that role. Sizable chunks of its defense spending, which has grown significantly over the past two decades to $131 billion, have been devoted to boosting its ability to project force for both military and humanitarian missions.

China's Achilles' heel is its relative lack of experience, not having fought in a major conflict since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Its leaders have been trying to compensate with more realistic training scenarios, including joint maritime search and rescue exercises with other nations.

Given new clues from radar and satellite data that the missing Boeing 777 turned west and flew on for several more hours, the search has shifted to a vast swath of land and sea stretching from the southern Indian Ocean up to Kazakhstan. That's an area that neither China nor the U.S. has traditionally put much emphasis on, and has forced both to rethink their strategies.

The U.S. Navy decided that long-range naval aircraft were a more efficient way to search such a vast area, so will be relying on P-3 and P-8 planes, while the two destroyers go back to normal duties.

The mission is one of the first on the international stage for the P-8 Poseidon, one of the newest additions to the Navy's air capabilities. The Navy touts the aircraft as the world's most advanced anti-submarine and anti-surface ship reconnaissance plane and says it can cover 15,000 square miles (38,850 square kilometers) in a nine-hour flight.

China, meanwhile, has sent most of its ships involved in the search toward Singapore, where they will split into two groups, one traveling north and the other south. They will be searching two huge blocks of ocean off the coast of Sumatra and near the Andaman Islands — a total area of 300,000 square kilometers (186,000 square miles), or roughly three times the area they searched in the South China Sea.

A big problem for China is its bad blood with virtually all of its neighbors, many of whom are key players in the search. China has territorial disputes with India, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam, and many other countries in the region are wary of its efforts to exert more control over Pacific shipping lanes that could impact their freedom of trade.

Chinese officials haven't done themselves any favors by criticizing Malaysia's leadership in the search effort. Some saw that as an attempt to shift public attention away from its own shortcomings, and Beijing's weak military-to-military relationship with Malaysia probably exacerbated the issue.

"Some people say China is trying to use the mission as a way to show off its presence, but that also means they are stepping up their efforts and capabilities in disaster relief," said Kyouji Yanagisawa, a former Japanese Cabinet adviser on national security. "This is a search operation and I think it could be an opportunity to cultivate trust among participating countries, rather than conflict."