Knowledge Update

​Florence, Oct 21 (IANS/AKI) Archaeologists have unearthed a luxurious ancient Roman villa complete with thermal baths and stunning mosaics near the central Italian city of Florence in what they described as an "exceptional" find.

"This is a completely exceptional building," said Federico Cantini, from the University of Pisa, who is leading the dig.

Such large and well preserved ancient Roman villas have only previously been found in Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, which Constantine the Great founded as the new capital of the Roman Empire in 330 AD.

The sprawling aristocratic villa, located in a private property in the village of Capraia, has a hexagonal design with intact coloured mosaic floors including an oval mosaic with a wild boar hunting scene in its central reception room.

An inscribed slab of stone at the site refers to the villa's owner, fourth century AD pagan Roman senator Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, according to Cantini.

Praetextatus, who at the time of his death in 384 AD was praetorian prefect at the court of Emperor Valentinian II, completely refurbished the villa, which originally dates from the first century AD.

The villa was abandoned and plundered in the sixth century AD.

​Shillong, Oct 20 (IANS) Come Friday, and all roads in Meghalaya will lead to Madan Kurkalang in Bhoirymbong, Ri-Bhoi district for the seventh edition of Bacardi NH7 Weekender, one of the biggest music festivals in India.

The two-day festival, which will entertain the region's music enthusiasts on October 21 and 22, will see many maiden performances by international and national artistes.

The international artistes expected are Steven Wilson, Natty, Rhythm Shaw, River, Mali, The Ritornellos and Vertical Horizon.

While the Indian part will include Farhan Live, Kumail, What Escapes Me, Elephant In The Elevator and Wild Palms.

They will perform over the weekend at the Shillong edition, and are expected to make it a night to remember for all music aficionados.

Other popular local artistes who will be performing at the festival this year will be Papon and Lucid Recess from Guwahati; Soulmate: History of the Blues, Aberrant, Blue Temptation and Dossers Urge from Shillong; Alobo Naga & Band from Dimapur and Imphal Talkies from Imphal.

The Shillong leg of the festival will host five stages - Bacardi Arena, The Dewarists, The Breezer Vivid Village, Bacardi House Party and Insider.

"Following the overwhelming response we got last year, we decided to start the festival from Shillong again this year. So here we come again," Only Much Louder's COO Vijay Nair said.

"It was one of the best Bacardi NH7 Weekender editions we have ever had. The support we received during the weekend from everyone - the local and state authorities, our fantastic local production and security crews," Nair said.

He also praised their brand partners, and the fans - "who were amazing". 

The NH7 weekender will have imaginative stage designs, exquisite art installations, eclectic food options and a specially curated bazaar for artists, craftspeople, DIYers and hobbyist entrepreneurs to showcase their creativity.

"I am super excited about playing at Shillong. Me being from the region and add to it the beautiful setting - surrounded by hills that no city location can beat - makes the Shillong edition of the Bacardi NH7 Weekender provide for a great exposure along with quality music and fun," singing sensation Agaraag 'Papon' Mahanta said.

Papon also termed the Shillong leg of the festival as one of the best musical extravaganza unfolding in the Northeast. "The Shillong edition of Bacardi NH7 Weekender is definitely one of the best festivals I have played at, in terms of the vibe," he said.

Papon added that the region deserved such an initiative and the team behind OML has been instrumental in giving the region one of its biggest musical extravaganzas.

"The people of the Northeast deserved something like this, something of this magnitude. It's a remote region, so hats off to OML for taking the music to Shillong. It's great exposure for the region, and for the young people who are so talented with such great music traditions," the Assamese singer said.

Excited about his debut at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender in Shillong, noted singer Alobo Naga said, "We are happy and excited to be a part of the festival this year. Such music festivals are not only a treat for music lovers in the region as they get a chance to hear popular national and international bands and performers but also open doors for people from other parts of the country to travel and explore the region... a win-win situation."

Elaborate arrangements are being made by outdoor accommodation providers who are looking to house music lovers during the festival in tents and camps. Camp site Kite Manja, situated within 1.5 km of the venue, is planning to accommodate over 150 people. An additional 50 people will be provided with facilities if they bring their own tents. "On the first day of our tie-up with Make My Trip, we got 15 tent bookings. Seeing such a response, we have increased our capacity to 150 from our initial plan of 100 tents," Founder and Programme Director at Kite Manja, Jnandip Borgohain said.

Jnandip said the festival has been a boon for the local economy as the flow of music lovers to the city will add to many more allied activities.

"Festivals like Bacardi NH7 Weekender provide lots of opportunities to local people in terms of employment. At our campsite, a lot of local population is working. A lot of visitors will come to Shillong in the next many days and this indeed is a big boost to the local economy," he said.

​New York, Oct 21 (IANS) Parents may please take note that it is just not all right to hand your child a smartphone to calm him/her down at home even if it helps keep peace in the house, according to the new guidelines released by the American Academy of Pediatrics on Friday.

Although there are specific instances when using digital media as a soothing tool is helpful, such as on airplanes or during medical procedures, parents should avoid using media as the only way to calm down children, the authors noted.

Using devices as a common soothing strategy may limit children's ability to regulate their own emotions, said one of the lead authors of the statement Jenny Radesky from University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in the US.

"Digital media has become an inevitable part of childhood for many infants, toddlers and preschoolers, but research is limited on how this affects their development," Radesky noted.

"What we do know is that early childhood is a time of rapid brain development, when children need time to play, sleep, learn to handle emotions, and build relationships. Research still suggests that excessive media use can get in the way of these important activities. Our statement highlights ways families and pediatricians can help manage a healthy balance," Radesky noted.

For children aged two to five years, media should be limited to one hour a day, the statement said, and it should involve high-quality programming or something parents and kids can view or engage with together.

With the exception of video-chatting, digital media should also be avoided in children younger than 18 months old, the authors noted.

Too much time using digital media in the wrong way is linked to children's quality of sleep, child development and physical health, according to the guidelines.

​New York, Oct 21 (IANS) An Indian-American researcher and his team have created life-size 3D hand models, complete with all five fingerprints using a high-resolution 3D printer that can produce the same ridges and valleys as a real finger.

Like any optical device, fingerprint and hand scanners need to be calibrated, but currently there is no standard method for doing so.

"This is the first time a whole hand 3D target has been created to calibrate fingerprint scanners," said Distinguished Professor Anil Jain from Michigan State University (MSU). 

"As a byproduct of this research, we realised a fake 3D hand, essentially a spoof, with someone's fingerprints, could potentially allow a crook to steal the person's identity to break into a vault, contaminate a crime scene or enter the country illegally," Jain cautioned.

Jain and his biometrics team were studying how to test and calibrate fingerprint scanners commonly used across the globe at police departments, airport immigration counters, banks and even amusement parks. 

To test the scanners, they created life-size 3D hand models complete with all five fingerprints.

"Another application of this technology will be to evaluate the spoof-resistance of commercial fingerprint scanners. We have highlighted a security loophole and the limitations of existing fingerprint scanning technology, now it's up to the scanner manufacturers to design a scanner that is spoof-resistant," Jain noted in a university statement. 

The study aims to design and develop standard models and procedures for consistent and reliable evaluation of fingerprint readers and is funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

"We are very pleased with this research and how it is showing the uncertainties in the process and what it can mean for the accuracy of the readers," said Nicholas Paulter, Group Leader for the Security Technologies Group at NIST and a co-author of the study. 

The FBI, CIA, military and manufacturers will all be interested in this project, he added.

Along with Jain and Paulter, the study was co-authored by Sunpreet Arora, MSU doctoral student. 

It's the era of the 'platform' business model, which crafts value by easing connections between consumers and producers. Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, Apple, Ola (Taxi Services in India), Careem (Dubai) are all efficacious models of businesses instituted on platform thinking. This is extremely different from the old business models, where value creation

​Washington, Oct 20 (IANS) US economic activity continues to expand at a modest to moderate pace from late August through early October, with most districts expecting positive outlook, the latest survey result released by the Federal Reserve showed on Wednesday.

​New York, Oct 20 (IANS) Facebook on Thursday introduced new features to allow you to order food, request an appointment with a local spa, get a quote and even book movie tickets with your friends' recommendations as you travel to a new place.

Now if you are in the US, write a Facebook post looking for advice on local places or services and you will have the option to turn on "Recommendations" for that post.

If you turn on the feature, your friends can comment on your post with suggestions, and you'll see all of them mapped out and saved in one place.

You can also go to your "Recommendations" bookmark on Facebook to ask a new question or help your friends.

"We're starting to introduce a variety of new features that help you ... to discover new things in the world around you, decide what to do or where to go, and connect with local businesses in easier and faster ways," Facebook said in a blog post.

Users can now order food from restaurants directly from Facebook pages. Simply click "Start Order" on any restaurant's Facebook page that uses Delivery.com or Slice.

"For local businesses..., such as spas and salons, you can now request a time via the business' Facebook page and view their entire slate of services and offerings. They'll then get back to you on Messenger to confirm your appointment," the post read.

Some local business Pages will now have a "Get Quote" button at the top that lets users easily and quickly request a quote from the business.

"You can buy movie tickets straight from Facebook pages via Fandango. In partnership with Ticketmaster and Eventbrite," the post read.

"We're also making it possible for people to get tickets to other events -- free or paid -- directly from the event page on Facebook," it further read.

To make exploring events better, Facebook has revamped the "Events" bookmark on Facebook.

You can catch up on the latest events activity from friends and hosts and browse event recommendations based on what's popular with friends or events you've connected with in the past.

The features will start to roll out in the US in the coming weeks.

​Clayton Christensen, a professor at the Harvard Business School, wrote in the Harvard Business Review in 1995 about the concept of 'disruptive innovation'. He described it as "a process that takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established practices".

The term has since then gone beyond just business and the markets and engulfed the whole gamut of the societal and environmental transformation. It is now termed the process that disrupts the well-established practices by game-changing operations that move from bottom to the top of society for sustainable and better living. 

Last week delegates from 197 countries in an international negotiating conference on the Montreal Protocol -- a multilateral environmental agreement (MEA) -- sparked such disruptive innovation at an unlikely place -- Kigali, the Rwandan capital -- and under the auspices of an environmental off-shoot of the UN more known for its glacial speed of responses to the global crises.

The disruptive innovation stems from the fact that the treaty under which the commitment was agreed was not originally sculpted to reduce emissions of green house gases (GHGs). Thus, 'The Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer' was virtually enshrined with a new tag: 'The Montreal Protocol on substances that do not deplete the ozone layer'.

This signals not only a name change but also a game-changing operation for the betterment of the planet. It has heralded disruptive innovation in the well-established UN practice of never-crossing-the-mandate. Never ever before in the history of a MEA and even in the history of the UN has such social and environmental innovation taken place that stemmed from bottom up from countries.

MEAs are global treaties negotiated to address global environmental issues. Scientific postulations, observations, degrees of environmental and economic impacts as well as threat to the habitat are the drivers of such global negotiations. Differing abilities to perceive the environmental crisis and the unequal capability to deal with its impact as well as transformation to alternative policies and technologies are the major stumbling blocks in the negotiations. The suspicion or the real existence of hidden agendas, mistrust and politics complicate the negotiations, which become notoriously and excruciatingly slow. Each agreement is confined to its mandate and countries zealously guard this.

Even worse, a final agreement is arrived at after long serpentine multilateral negotiations and compromises are no assurance for its effective implementation as amply exemplified by the Kyoto Protocol of 1997.

The Montreal Protocol radiates exceptional success that stands out as one of the rare examples of what the UN is capable of achieving. Copy-book style negotiations under the Montreal Protocol, closely supported by global scientific assessments by top-notch irrefutable scientists, were strengthened with principles of common but differentiated responsibility, precautionary approach and polluter-to-pay issues.

Convened under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Protocol, signed in 1987 which entered into force in 1989, has succeeded in wiping out nearly two million tons of man-made ozone depleting substances (ODS) that were being produced and consumed annually in the 1990s.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in refrigeration, air-conditioning, hair sprays, insulating foams and fire protection, along with more than 90 other ozone depleting chemicals, have been wiped out from planet Earth within a space of one generation. Mildly ozone depleting chemicals -- HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) -- which constitute less than one percent of total ODS remain to be phased out.

A MIT study says there already are early signs that the ozone layer has started recovering and is likely to come to its pre-depletion level by 2050. The world has created an example of 'handing over the natural heritage to the next generation, in same state as was received from our earlier generation'.

In Kigali, countries have decided to use the Montreal Protocol along with its mechanisms as a vehicle to phase-down HFCs and went beyond the mandate of the original Protocol and accepted the legally binding agreement to mitigate the emissions of GHGs. They expect the Protocol to deliver much needed reduction of 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century, bringing the maximum total warming of 1.5 degrees within reach. It is virtually impossible to deliver that under the Paris Agreement.

The countries also want to derive the benefit from this transformation away from HFCs to get more energy-efficient and even super-efficient air-conditioners to save energy, save costs, reduce pollution and derive health benefits.

To that end, Kigali has demonstrated that Silicon Valley, where the concept originated, doesn't have a monopoly on disruptive innovation.

​Bengaluru, Oct 19 (IANS) US-based technology company IBM and Indian Angel Network (IAN) on Wednesday announced a partnership to accelerate technology innovations in the start-up and entrepreneurial ecosystem in India.

​New Delhi, Oct 19 (IANS) Indian drug major Sun Pharmaceutical Industries on Wednesday said it has entered into an agreement with the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) to develop a novel dengue vaccine for India and global markets.