Knowledge Update

​Washington, Nov 5 (IANS) NASA has said its Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, or MMS -- that is giving scientists new insight into Earths magnetosphere -- now holds the Guinness World Record for highest altitude fix of a GPS signal.

Operating in a highly elliptical orbit around Earth, the MMS satellites set the record at 70,006.4 kilometres above the surface, the US space agency said on Friday.

The four MMS spacecraft incorporate GPS measurements into their precise tracking systems, which require extremely sensitive position and orbit calculations to guide tight flying formations.

Earlier this year, MMS achieved the closest flying separation of a multi-spacecraft formation with only about seven kilometres between the four satellites. 

When MMS is not breaking records, it conducts ground-breaking science, NASA said.

Still in the first year of its prime mission, MMS is giving scientists new insight into Earth's magnetosphere. 

The mission uses four individual satellites that fly in a pyramid formation to map magnetic reconnection - a process that occurs as the sun and Earth's magnetic fields interact. 

Precise GPS tracking allows the satellites to maintain a tight formation and obtain high resolution three-dimensional observations.

Understanding the causes of magnetic reconnection is important for understanding phenomena around the universe from auroras on Earth, to flares on the surface of the sun, and even to areas surrounding black holes. 

Shanghai, Nov 5 (IANS) With the internet taking on an industrial dimension whereby new equipment and other technologies are transforming the way goods are produced, industrial innovation must integrate multiple digital concepts to revolutionise existing processes, top executives of 3D software major Dassault Systemes said here at an event.

Digital technology can drive the industrial (r)evolution 4.0 -- innovation programmes to reduce manufacturing costs, increase efficiencies and sustainability, inspire creativity and generate new business models, the French technology company demonstrated at its two-day "Manufacturing in the Age of Experience" event that concluded on Friday.

"Digital's most visible value is to increase productivity and competitiveness, but its true power is the imagination. Manufacturers that succeed will be those that will create a world which does not yet exist," said Pascal Daloz, Executive Vice President, Brands and Corporate Development, Dassault Systemes. 

"The digital factory is not only virtual, connected and automated, but is above all an execution system, where men's skills are turned to innovation, performance, quality and continuous change," Daloz said.

"The virtual becomes constitutive of the products themselves. As a consequence, the value is migrating to the cloud services where data are a strategic asset for the industry to reinvent itself," Daloz noted.

The event highlighted how the digital makeover of the manufacturing sector is essential for creating a dynamic, holistic and more sustainable production model that results in a better consumer experience.

Dassault Systemes provides "3DEXPERIENCE" universes for collaboration and innovation to implement innovative strategies in supply and demand.

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform features virtual design, simulation, manufacturing and collaboration applications in a digital environment that integrate products, processes and supply chains, and offer a federated view of a manufacturer's business in real time.

During the plenary session of the even, top brand leaders of the compnay gave presentations on virtualising the industry value chain 

Top officials from Airbus Helicopters, Doosan Infracore and Honda Motor also shared customer case stories on manufacturing transformation and success.

Dassault Systemes is focused on developing technologies and solutions that propel digital transformation in industries ranging from aerospace to life sciences.

​Shanghai, Nov 5 (IANS) With the internet taking on an industrial dimension whereby new equipment and other technologies are transforming the way goods are produced, industrial innovation must integrate multiple digital concepts to revolutionise existing processes, top executives of 3D software major Dassault Systemes said here at an event.

Digital technology can drive the industrial (r)evolution 4.0 -- innovation programmes to reduce manufacturing costs, increase efficiencies and sustainability, inspire creativity and generate new business models, the French technology company demonstrated at its two-day "Manufacturing in the Age of Experience" event that concluded on Friday.

"Digital's most visible value is to increase productivity and competitiveness, but its true power is the imagination. Manufacturers that succeed will be those that will create a world which does not yet exist," said Pascal Daloz, Executive Vice President, Brands and Corporate Development, Dassault Systemes. 

"The digital factory is not only virtual, connected and automated, but is above all an execution system, where men's skills are turned to innovation, performance, quality and continuous change," Daloz said.

"The virtual becomes constitutive of the products themselves. As a consequence, the value is migrating to the cloud services where data are a strategic asset for the industry to reinvent itself," Daloz noted.

The event highlighted how the digital makeover of the manufacturing sector is essential for creating a dynamic, holistic and more sustainable production model that results in a better consumer experience.

Dassault Systemes provides "3DEXPERIENCE" universes for collaboration and innovation to implement innovative strategies in supply and demand.

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform features virtual design, simulation, manufacturing and collaboration applications in a digital environment that integrate products, processes and supply chains, and offer a federated view of a manufacturer's business in real time.

During the plenary session of the even, top brand leaders of the compnay gave presentations on virtualising the industry value chain 

Top officials from Airbus Helicopters, Doosan Infracore and Honda Motor also shared customer case stories on manufacturing transformation and success.

Dassault Systemes is focused on developing technologies and solutions that propel digital transformation in industries ranging from aerospace to life sciences.

Washington, Nov 5 (IANS) Thirteen individuals have become ill from a serious and sometimes fatal fungal infection previously unseen in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.

The fungus, Candida auris, is known to occur in healthcare settings such as hospitals and nursing homes, CNN reported.

Seven cases occurred between May 2013 and August 2016 in four states: Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and New York. As of August 31, four of these seven patients, all with bloodstream infections, died, though it is unclear whether their deaths were due to C. auris.

The remaining six cases were identified after August and are still under investigation.

"It appears that C. auris arrived in the United States only in the past few years," Dr. Tom Chiller, Chief of the CDC's Mycotic Diseases Branch, said in a statement. 

He added that scientists are working to better understand the fungus so they can develop recommendations to protect those at risk.

C. auris bloodstream infections have a 50 per cent fatality rate in some countries, according to one study.

Some strains of this yeast are multidrug-resistant and cannot be treated by the three major classes of antifungal medications. 

First reported in 2009 in Japan, cases have been recorded in South Korea, India, South Africa, Kuwait, Colombia, Venezuela, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.

"Experience outside the United States suggests that C. auris has high potential to cause outbreaks in healthcare facilities," the CDC notes on its website. 

Importantly, this deadly organism is difficult to identify using traditional laboratory biochemical methods.

​New York, Nov 4 (IANS) US tech giant Microsoft has ended sale for both the Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems and these can no longer be bought with a new PC. "End of sales refers to the date when a particular version of Windows is no longer shipped to retailers or Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)," Forbes.com reported on Thursday. Examples of OEMs include Dell and Toshiba, PC manufacturers who often pre-install Windows software. While Windows 7, launched in 2009, was on sale for seven years, Windows 8/8.1 was on sale for just four years. Despite ongoing updates support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 until January 2020 and 2023, the end of sales is likely to give the flatlining Windows 10 a boost, the report said. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it would roll out two major updates for Windows 10 next year. According to Windows Central, while the first major update for 2017 -- codenamed Redstone 2 -- would release in the early part of 2017, the second one -- codenamed Redstone 3 -- might be released in 2017 summer.

​New York, Nov 4 (IANS) An increase in muscle size with exercise may not be directly related to an increase in muscle strength, suggests a recent study.

Researchers suggested that size and muscle strength may actually be separate phenomena.

The researchers in the study published in the journal Muscle and Nerve, noted that there is a weak correlation between change in muscle size and change in muscle strength following training.

Also, there is a loss of muscle mass with detraining, yet often a maintaining muscle strength. Furthermore, similar muscle growth can occur with low load or high load resistance training, yet there are divergent results in strength.

"Neural adaptations are contributing first with muscle growth playing a more prominent role in the latter portion of a training program: however, there is little direct evidence that this is actually true in an adult partaking in a resistance training program," said Jeremy Loenneke, Researcher at the University of Mississippi, Mississippi.

New York, Nov 4 (IANS) Neural activation patterns in the brain remain same when we read different languages like English or Portuguese, finds a study.

"This tells us that, for the most part, the language we happen to learn to speak does not change the organisation of the brain," said Marcel Just, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, in the US, in the study published in the journal NeuroImage. 

"Semantic information is represented in the same place in the brain and the same pattern of intensities for everyone. Knowing this means that brain-to-brain or brain-to-computer interface can probably be the same for speakers of all languages," Just added.

For the study, 15 native Portuguese speakers -- eight were bilingual in Portuguese and English -- read 60 sentences in Portuguese while in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. 

The university developed computational model was able to predict which sentences the participants were reading in Portuguese, based only on activation patterns.

The resulting brain images showed that the activation patterns for the 60 sentences were in the same brain locations and at similar intensity levels for both English and Portuguese sentences.

Additionally, the results revealed the activation patterns could be grouped into four semantic categories, depending on the sentence's focus: people, places, actions and feelings.

"The cross-language prediction model demonstrated a meta-language prediction capability from neural signals across people, languages and bilingual status," said Ying Yang, researcher at the Carnegie Mellon University.

New York, Nov 4 (IANS) Soaking up sun may help you to keep level of emotional distress stable, finds a new study.

"When it comes to your mental and emotional health, the amount of time between sunrise and sunset is the weather variable that matters most. This applies to the clinical population at large, not just those diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder," said Mark Beecher, Professor at the Brigham Young University, US.

The study analysed many meteorological variables such as wind chill, rainfall, solar irradiance, wind speed, temperature and more. The weather data could be analysed down to the minute in the exact area where the clients lived. 

The study focused on a clinical population instead of a general population and used a mental health treatment outcome measure to examine several aspects of psychological distress, rather than relying on suicide attempts or online diaries.

According to the study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, one thing that was really significant was the amount of time between sunrise and sunset.

"On a rainy day or a more polluted day, people assume that they'd have more distress. But we didn't see that. We looked at solar irradiance, or the amount of sunlight that actually hits the ground. We tried to take into account cloudy days, rainy days, pollution but they washed out," Beecher added.

​London, Nov 4 (IANS) British scientists have identified the reason behind what makes a song so catchy that it gets stuck in our head and goes on playing in an endless loop -- known as experiencing involuntary musical imagery or earworms.

Findings of a study, published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, showed that songs that are usually faster and have a fairly generic and easy-to-remember melody but have some unique intervals such as leaps or repetitions that set them apart from the "average pop song" get stuck in our head.

"Our findings show that you can, to some extent, predict which songs are going to get stuck in people's heads based on the song's melodic content," said lead author Kelly Jakubowski from Durham University in Britain.

In addition to a common melodic shape, the other crucial ingredient in the earworm formula is an unusual interval structure in the song such as some unexpected leaps or more repeated notes than you would expect to hear in the "average pop song". 

"The study could help aspiring song-writers or advertisers write a jingle that everyone will remember for days or months afterwards," Jakubowski added.

In the study, the team asked 3,000 people for their most frequent earworm tunes and compared these to tunes which had never been named as earworms in the database but were a match in terms of popularity and how recently they had been in Britain's music charts.

The melodic features of the earworm and non-earworm tunes were then analysed and compared. Songs were limited to popular music genres, such as pop, rock, rap, rhythm and blues.