Knowledge Update

​Beijing, Feb 24 (IANS) China will build 6 million new homes for residents of shanty towns before the end of 2017.

This was announced by Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Chen Zhenggao on Thursday, People's Daily reported.

Singapore, Feb 24 (IANS) Singaporean telecommunications company Singtel and Swedish communication technology firm Ericsson on Friday announced a partnership to co-develop a consumer internet of things (IoT) solution called Assured+.

​New York, Feb 24 (IANS) Standing with heels planted allows humans more swinging force when fighting, but the heel-down posture also makes us bad at fleeing, says a study. In contrast, many other species of mammals, including most primates, stand, walk and run with their heels elevated, and on the balls of their feet or toes, a posture important for quickness, said the study published in the journal Biology Open. The findings suggest that aggression played a role in shaping stance of modern humans. "This story is one more piece in a broader picture, a suite of distinguishing characteristics that are consistent with the idea that we're specialised at some level for aggressive behaviour," said lead author of the study David Carrier from University of Utah in the US. The physiological traits that confer advantages in fighting are different from those required for other tasks, such as running. "Certain species tend to be good at fighting or fleeing, but not both," Emily Carrington from US National Science Foundation (NSF) said. "This study provides insight into the basis for this trade-off. Animals that use their heels to plant their feet firmly to the ground, like bears, badgers and great apes, are able to deliver stronger blows to their opponents," Carrington added. The heel-up stance, called digitigrade and unguligrade, seen in animals from wolves to horses and deer, increases the economy of running by lengthening the leg and improving the storage and recovery of energy in the tendons and ligaments of the lower limb. The heel-down, or plantigrade, posture shared by great apes and other species, such as bears, wolverines and some rodents, is less specialised for running, however. The researchers hypothesised that the evolution of great apes' plantigrade stance had to do with how apes climb and forage in trees.

New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) Rather than focussing only on weight-loss and a well-toned body, one should have a holistic approach to fitness and build stamina across all areas -- running marathons, lifting weights, cycling, and performing basic daily chores, experts say. "Fitness doesn't mean good looks, It means progressive improvement in strength, endurance and mobility. Weight lifting plays an important role in building all three," Rishabh Telang, fitness expert and level-2 crossFit trainer with Cult -- a Bengaluru-based fitness chain that was acquired by CureFit, a healthcare start-up launched by former Flipkart executives Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, in 2016. In a conventional gym training a person exercises his/her abs one day and chest the next day and then the whole process gets repeated in the next week. But that does not help in stamina building of the person. "You must have noticed body builders, who although are good at lifting weight and pumping iron, may start panting after climbing a slew of stairs or after running a small stretch. This is because the monotony of doing the same exercises week after week reduces your attendance over time," Telang told IANS in a telephonic interview. At the same time, a person who undergoes endurance training does various forms of machine-less exercises in a single session, which ensures a more balanced development of strength, flexibility and endurance rather than focusing on one and missing out on the other. "The human body should go through all formats of exercise. If it is given only one type of exercise, it will hit a plateau or stop reacting," Shwetambari Shetty, fitness expert and master trainer for Zumba at Tribe-Cult, told IANS. CureFit recently acquired the The Tribe fitness chain that also offers a mix of activities just as Cult does. Endurance training -- which can also be termed as functional training -- combines cardio endurance and weight lifting to build up muscles. The training session uses body as a machine and engages many muscles at once, leading to higher efficiency to build reasonably good endurance and stamina required for performing any functional task. "The functional movements which combine running, swimming, cross-training, martial art forms, etc. are also safer since one can have higher body control here rather when using machines," said Ankit Nagori, Co-Founder, CureFit. Endurance training also helps burn more calories, helps strength-building and reduces weight faster than conventional gym training Endurance training also focuses on interval training, which involves brief bursts of vigorous exercise separated by short periods of recovery. It has been proven to be an effective and time-efficient approach for improving cardiorespiratory fitness by various studies. It also helps achieve a holistic lifestyle good enough to shape the body as well as to tranquilise the mind; that is, it also plays a great role in alleviating stress, Telang said. Age is not a bar for fitness under the endurance-training method. "From a nine-year-old child to a 75-year-old lady, anyone can adapt as the techniques are basically day-to-day activity. "It can also be practiced by a pregnant woman and can prove to be very useful during the pre-natal and post-natal stages of birth. However, they should train only under the guidance of an expert," Shwetambri maintained. The benefits of endurance training, such as improved cardiovascular, respiratory and muscular endurance, has also been proved by various studies. A recent study, published in the journal Experimental Physiology, revealed that just a single session of endurance exercise helped participants increase the expression of genes that are used to repair damaged DNA as well as helped remodel heart tissue.

New York, Feb 24 (IANS) Facebook Live videos will soon be interrupted by 20-second ads as the social media giant has decided to make money from all the live videos it shares on its network. According to a report in ReCode on Thursday, Facebook would soon start putting ads in the middle of publishers' videos, much like TV commercials. The new update was being tested with a small group of US publishers currently. The ad revenue would be split between these publishers and Facebook, with the latter getting 45 per cent of the share, it said. "This is a big news for publishers, many of whom have trouble making money from videos they share to Facebook," the report said. As a policy, the ads appearing in the middle of a live stream cannot run until a video has crossed 20 seconds. Also, the ads must be at least two minutes apart. "Publishers need to be live for at least four minutes before they can take an ad break, and the stream must have at least 300 concurrent viewers. Each ad will last 20 seconds," a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying.

​New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) Mobile communication app Truecaller has become the only platform apart from Facebook and Google that delivers over 100 million impressions in a single day, a company statement said on Friday. An impression is when an ad is fetched from its source, and is countable. Whether the ad is clicked or not is not taken into account. Each time an ad is fetched, it is counted as one impression. The daily impression on Truecaller's ad platform has grown with over 200 per cent during the past six months, the company said. "Our targeting capabilities backed by call intent based approach ensures brands witness desired visibility and engagement with Truecaller users," said Tejinder Gill, Head of India Operations, Truecaller, in a statement. The mobile communication app delivered over 133 million impressions for e-commerce portal Jabong. "Truecaller has been fantastic for us in terms of delivering high impact and reach amongst smartphone users," added Rahul Taneja, Chief Business Officer, Jabong.

New York, Feb 24 (IANS) Fructose -- simple sugar found in fruits, vegetables, table sugar, and many processed foods -- is converted in the human brain from glucose, according to a new study.

Previous studies have established that excess consumption of fructose contributes to high blood sugar and chronic diseases like obesity. But it was not known whether fructose was produced in the brain or crossed over from the bloodstream.

"In this study, we show for the first time that fructose can be produced in the human brain," said first author Janice Hwang, Assistant Professor at Yale University, in the US.

The study showed that high concentration of fructose in the brain was due to a metabolic pathway called the polyol pathway that converts glucose to fructose.

"By showing that fructose in the brain is not simply due to dietary consumption of fructose, we've shown fructose can be generated from any sugar you eat. It adds another dimension into understanding fructose's effects on the brain," Hwang added, in the paper published in the journal JCI Insight. 

Glucose in the brain sends signals of fullness, but that is not the case with fructose. The conversion of glucose to fructose in the brain also occurs in other parts of the body.

This polyol pathway may be one other mechanism by which high blood sugar can exert its adverse effects.

The finding also raises questions about fructose's effects on the brain and eating behaviour, Hwang said.

For the study, the team gave eight healthy, lean individuals infusions of glucose over a four-hour period, where the sugar concentrations in the brains and blood of the participants were assessed.

The results revealed that cerebral fructose levels rose significantly in response to a glucose infusion, with minimal changes in fructose levels in the blood

​New York, Feb 24 (IANS) Astronomers have spotted an enormous, glowing blob of gas in the distant universe, with no obvious source of power for the light it is emitting.

Called an "enormous Lyman-alpha nebula" (ELAN), it is the brightest and among the largest of these rare objects, only a handful of which have been observed, the researchers said.

The newly discovered nebula was found at a distance of 10 billion light years in the middle of a region with an extraordinary concentration of galaxies. 

Researchers found this massive overdensity of early galaxies, called a "protocluster," through a novel survey project led by Zheng Cai, Hubble postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Santa Cruz in the US.

"Our survey was not trying to find nebulae. We're looking for the most overdense environments in the early universe, the big cities where there are lots of galaxies," said Cai, who is first author of a paper on the discovery to be published in the Astrophysical Journal.

"We found this enormous nebula in the middle of the protocluster, near the peak density," Cai said.

ELANs are huge blobs of gas surrounding and extending between galaxies in the intergalactic medium. 

They are thought to be parts of the network of filaments connecting galaxies in a vast cosmic web. 

Previously discovered ELANs are likely illuminated by the intense radiation from quasars, but it is not clear what is causing the hydrogen gas in the newly discovered nebula to emit Lyman-alpha radiation (a characteristic wavelength of light absorbed and emitted by hydrogen atoms), the researchers said.

The newly discovered ELAN is known as MAMMOTH-1.

"It's a terrifically energetic phenomenon without an obvious power source," said study co-author J. Xavier Prochaska, Professor at University of California, Santa Cruz.

​London, Feb 24 (IANS) Have a sweet tooth? Beware, you may be at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, as a study has found a specific molecular link between abnormally high blood sugar levels, or hyperglycaemia -- a key characteristic of diabetes and obesity -- and Alzheimer's disease.

The findings showed that excess glucose damages a vital enzyme involved with inflammation response to the early stages of Alzheimer's and that is the reason behind diabetes patients having an increased risk of developing the disease compared to healthy individuals.

"Excess sugar is well known to be bad for us when it comes to diabetes and obesity, but this potential link with Alzheimer's disease is yet another reason that we should be controlling sugar intake in our diets," said Omar Kassaar, from the University of Bath in Britain.

For the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, the team studied brain samples from people with and without Alzheimer's using a sensitive technique to detect glycation -- the bonding of a sugar molecule.

The results showed that in the early stages of Alzheimer's, glycation damages an enzyme called MIF (macrophage migration inhibitory factor) which plays a role in immune response and insulin regulation.

MIF is involved in the build-up of abnormal proteins in the brain during Alzheimer's. This inhibition and reduction of MIF activity caused by glycation could be the "tipping point" in disease progression, the researchers said.

"Normally MIF would be part of the immune response to the build-up of abnormal proteins in the brain and we think that because sugar damage reduces some MIF functions and completely inhibits others that this could be a tipping point that allows Alzheimer's to develop," explained Jean van den Elsen, Professor at the University of Bath.

The study may be vital to developing a chronology of how Alzheimer's progresses and help identify those at risk of Alzheimer's and lead to new treatments or ways to prevent the disease, the researchers noted.

Sydney, Feb 24 (IANS) Sweating depends on body size, weight and not on gender, meaning that larger individuals sweat more than smaller ones during exercises in warm and tolerable conditions, a study has found, negating the conventional belief that gender influences sweat.

The body cools itself down in two main ways: Sweating and increasing circulation to the skin's surface. Body shape and size dictates which of these two is relied upon for heat loss, the researchers said. 

"Gender has long been thought to influence sweating and skin blood flow during heat stress. We found that these heat loss responses are, in fact, gender independent during exercise in conditions where the body can successfully regulate its temperature," said lead author Sean Notley from the University of Wollongong in Australia.

The study found that smaller males and females with more surface area per kg of body mass are more dependent on heat loss through increasing circulation and less dependent upon sweating.

For the study, published in the journal Experimental Physiology, the team looked at skin blood flow and sweating responses in 36 men and 24 women.

They performed two trials -- one of light exercise and the other of moderate -- at 28 degrees Celsius and 36 per cent humidity. 

These are conditions where the body is able to mitigate the additional heat produced during exercise and prevent further rises in body temperature by increasing sweating and blood flow to the skin.

The results showed that the body temperature changes were same in all participants within each trial regardless of the gender.