Introduction & Purpose
Knowledge update and Industry update at Skyline University College (SUC) is an online platform for communicating knowledge with SUC stakeholders, industry, and the outside world about the current trends of business development, technology, and social changes. The platform helps in branding SUC as a leading institution of updated knowledge base and in encouraging faculties, students, and others to create and contribute under different streams of domain and application. The platform also acts as a catalyst for learning and sharing knowledge in various areas.
SUC Editing Team
Information Systems
New York, Dec 11 (IANS) You may soon be able to charge cell phones and power Bluetooth headsets with the swipe of a finger as scientists have developed a device that can harvest energy from human motion.
Super User
From Different Corners
Beijing, Dec 11 (IANS) China launched a weather satellite at 12:11 a.m. local time on Sunday, marking an upgrade of China's meteorological satellites in geostationary orbit.
The Fengyun-4 satellite, the first of China's second-generation weather satellites in geostationary orbit to have been launched, is also the country's first quantitative remote-sensing satellite in high orbit, Xinhua news agency reported.
The satellite, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China's Sichuan Province, was taken into orbit by a Long March-3B carrier rocket. The launch marked the 242nd mission of China's Long March series of rockets.
The satellite will make high time, spatial and spectral resolution observations of the atmosphere, clouds and space environment of China and surrounding regions, significantly improving capabilities of weather and climate forecasts, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
The China Meteorological Administration is the primary user of the satellite.
Previously, China had successfully launched 14 weather satellites, seven of which are still in orbit.
SUC Editing Team
Information Systems
New York, Dec 19 (IANS) Apple is rumoured to release iPhone 8 in OLED and LCD variants next year, of which OLED models are likely to sport curved displays.
"Apple may or may not use new technology which enables the phone to respond when users touch any side of the device," appleinsider.com reported on Sunday.
SUC Editing Team
Accounting & Finance
New York, Dec 9 (IANS) Mobile money services, which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone, can help lift people in developing economies out of poverty, a new study suggests.
Super User
Retail and Marketing
New York, Dec 10 (IANS) The availability of Apple's wireless headphones, called AirPods, is delayed as the company is experiencing problems in getting the audio from both the earpieces at the same time, a media report said on Saturday.
According to Fortune, "technology problems with how the earpieces receive wireless signals via Bluetooth are causing delay."
Apple launched AirPods along with the iPhone 7 in September this year as a replacement for conventional earphones that require a headphone jack.
The company launched iPhone 7 without the headphone jack, however, consumers can still use wired earphones, but can be done by using a dongle to connect them via lighting port.
"The original plan was to ship the AirPods in October, but Apple decided to delay the earphones that month without giving a reason," the report added.
Super User
From Different Corners
New York, Dec 10 (IANS) Climate change is to blame for a deadly glacier collapse this year in the once stable region of the Tibetan Plateau, says a study.
On July 17, more than 70 million tonnes of ice broke off from the Aru glacier in the mountains of western Tibet and tumbled into a valley below, taking the lives of nine nomadic yak herders living there.
Glacial collapse is unprecedented in western Tibet, which for decades has resisted the effects of climate change while glaciers in southern and eastern Tibet have melted at an accelerating rate.
The most important fact about the avalanche is that it lasted only four or five minutes (according to witnesses), yet it managed to bury 3.7 square miles of the valley floor in that time, said Lonnie Thompson, Professor at The Ohio State University in the US.
Meltwater at the base of the glacier must have lubricated the ice to speed its flow down the mountain, said the study published in the Journal of Glaciology.
"Given the rate at which the event occurred and the area covered, I think it could only happen in the presence of meltwater," Thompson noted.
The researchers used satellite data and GPS to get precise measurements of how much ice fell in the first avalanche and the area it covered.
"We still don't know exactly where the meltwater came from, but given that the average temperature at the nearest weather station has risen by about 1.5 degrees Celsius over the last 50 years, it makes sense that snow and ice are melting and the resulting water is seeping down beneath the glacier," Thompson said.
Increased snowfall has even led to the expansion of some glaciers in western Tibet -- and the extra snowfall likely played some role in the avalanche by creating additional meltwater, said lead author of the paper Lide Tian from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Other nearby glaciers may be vulnerable, "but unfortunately as of today, we have no ability to predict such disasters", Thompson added.
Researchers could not have predicted, for example, that a neighbouring glacier in the same mountain range would give way just two months later, but it did in September 2016.
That avalanche appears not to have resulted in any deaths, and the cause is still under investigation.
Super User
From Different Corners
New York, Dec 10 (IANS) A $15 prosthetic hand created by a student at Ithaca College here can offer a helping hand to a person who still has the ability to move their wrist.
By moving their wrist, they can control and use the hand's fingers to grab and hold various objects.
Unlike electronic hands, which are typically made from metal and are generally expensive, Ryan Bouricius's prosthetic hand is mostly plastic.
"The nice thing about 3D printing is that the price only has to do with the amount of plastic used, not the complexity of the piece," Bouricius said.
Bouricius derived the idea for his innovation from a YouTube video but through testing and tinkering, he made changes to the original design to give the hand more functionality.
"So even though my modified pieces are trickier shapes, since it is the same amount of plastic, it's the same amount of money," Bouricius noted in a statement released by Ithaca College.
This is especially important for families with children who need prostheses. Because children outgrow them quickly, the costs of prostheses can be considerable over time.
With 3D printing, however, Bouricius' model can be affordably re-printed in larger sizes as the child grows.
Bouricius is working with eNABLE, a non-profit organisation that matches 3D-printed prostheses with those in need of them, to find a recipient for his printed hand.
Super User
From Different Corners
London, Dec 10 (IANS) Researchers in Belgium have found that 20 to 40 per cent of patients with the multiple myeloma type of leukaemia have a defect in the ribosome, the protein factory of the cell.
Multiple myeloma (MM, also known as Kahler's disease) is a blood cancer in which the plasma cells in the bone marrow start proliferating malignantly.
The disease cannot be cured and is most common among older people. Various treatments exist to temporarily suppress the disease, but the challenge is determining to which treatment the patient will respond best.
The researchers believe that the new findings - published in the journal Leukemia - can lead to tests to identify defects in the protein factory and also determine an effective therapy.
"The ribosome is the protein factory of a cell. In MM patients, one part of the ribosome is produced less in 20 to 40 percent of the patients, depending on how aggressive the cancer is. We suspect that their cells are still producing protein, but that the balance is somewhat disrupted," said Kim De Keersmaecker, Professor at University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium.
"On the basis of these findings, we can now develop tests to identify defects in the ribosome and thus determine which therapy will have most effect in a specific patient," she said.
The notion that cancer is related to ribosome defects is a relatively new concept in science.
"A few years ago, we discovered defects in the ribosome of patients with acute lymphatic leukaemia. Now we know that the same applies to MM," De Keersmaecker said.
In all likelihood, this will also hold true for other types of cancer, she noted.
Super User
From Different Corners
London, Dec 10 (IANS) Increased exposure to gaseous air pollutants such as Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Ozone (O3) can impair the function of blood vessels in the lungs and raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a study.
The findings showed that air pollution is a major public health issue for people living in polluted urban areas where exercise could damage the lungs and potentially lead to decompensated heart failure.
"Air pollution is associated with increased pulmonary vascular tone which makes it more difficult for blood to flow to the lungs. Longer exposure to air pollution exposure seems necessary to impair right ventricular systolic function," said lead author Jean-Francois Argacha, cardiologist at the University Hospital (UZ) in Brussels.
According to researchers, if air pollution causes narrowing of the blood vessels in the lungs -- vasoconstriction -- this combined with the systemic effects of air pollution, which consists of particulate matter of different sizes and gases such as nitrogen dioxide and ozone, could cause decompensated heart failure.
The study showed a negative effect of particulate matter -- PM10, PM2.5 and ozone on pulmonary circulation.
Increase in PM10 and PM2.5 over ten days were associated with worse right ventricle function.
Specifically, increases in these pollutants were associated with reduced pulmonary acceleration time and increased pulmonary acceleration slope.
The negative impact of PM10 on pulmonary circulation was more pronounced in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea.
In addition, the study showed that exposure to diesel exhaust did not modify the pulmonary circulation compared to ambient air when the volunteers were resting but did when dobutamine was administered.
"This suggests that pollution is more harmful to the lung circulation during exercise," Argacha said.
"Our main advice is to limit physical activities during heavy air pollution," Argacha suggested in the study presented at annual meeting EuroEcho-Imaging 2016 in Leipzig, Germany.
Super User
From Different Corners
London, Dec 10 (IANS) Ever wondered why you can't simply resist that mouth-watering chicken or delicious chocolate cake made by your mother?
According to researchers, food that is perceived to have been "made with love" tastes more delicious.
The emotional perception of taste can be enhanced or diminished by the amount of time, love and care that goes into meals, which ultimately can increase people's enjoyment of food, a Britain-based food psychologist, Christy Fergusson, was quoted as saying by dailymail.co.uk.
"We set out to prove that food made with love tastes better and demonstrates how the power of intention impacts people's perception of food enjoyment," Fergusson said.
The findings revealed that 58 per cent of people enjoy food more when it has been prepared with a certain level of time and love, said research led by Birds Eye -- frozen food firm in Britain.
For the study, the team fed two groups of people with an identical Christmas dinner.
The first group ate their meal in a festively decorated room after being told the food had been lovingly prepared by a team of chefs using family-favourite recipes.
In contrast, the second group ate in conditions where little effort was made to make the participants feel welcome and the room was sparingly decorated.
The results showed that the first group believed their meal tasted better.