Knowledge Update

Canberra, Jan 11 (IANS) The Australian government plans to tax all online transactions, Treasurer Scott Morrison said on Wednesday, as part of a so-called 'tax strike' on the rapidly-growing digital economy.

Toronto, Jan 11 (IANS) Playing a musical instrument does not only produce melodies but can make the elderly more reactive and alert in daily life, says a new study. According to the researchers from Université de Montréal, musicians have a faster reaction time to sensory stimuli than non-musicians have. "The more we know about the impact of music on really basic sensory processes, the more we can apply musical training to individuals who might have slower reaction times," said lead researcher Simon Landry. Playing an instrument also has implications for preventing some effects of ageing. "As people get older, for example, we know their reaction times get slower. So if we know that playing a musical instrument increases reaction times, then maybe playing an instrument will be helpful for them," Landry explained. In the study that involved 16 musicians and 19 non-musicians, the researchers found significantly faster reaction times with musicians for auditory, tactile and audio-tactile stimulations. "The idea is to better understand how playing a musical instrument affects the senses in a way that is not related to music," Landry added in a paper published in the journal Brain and Cognition.

​New York, Jan 11 (IANS) Microsoft is launching a web-based account privacy dashboard that gives users control over their data and lets them monitor the information Microsoft services use.

Toronto, Jan 11 (IANS) If you are a sedentary type and prefer sleeping over hitting the ground, better start exercising or face the risk of developing dementia like those who are genetically predisposed to it, warns a new study. According to researchers from McMaster University, carriers of a variant of the 'apolipoprotein E' (APOE) genotype are more likely to develop dementia and inactivity dramatically increases the risk for non-carriers. APOE is the principal cholesterol carrier in the brain. This protein is involved in Alzheimer's disease and cardiovascular disease. "The important message here is that being inactive may completely negate the protective effects of a healthy set of genes," said Jennifer Heisz, Assistant Professor at McMaster. Approximately 47.5 million people worldwide are living with dementia and the numbers are expected to surge to 115.4 million by the year 2050. Researchers suggested that physical exercise can reduce the risk of developing dementia among those individuals who are not at genetic risk. "Exercise can mitigate the risk of dementia for people without the variant of the 'apolipoprotein genotype'. However, more research is needed to determine the implications from a public health perspective," added Barbara Fenesi, postdoctoral fellow. The study involving over 1,600 Canadians and published in the journal Alzheimer's Disease, also noted that a physically-active lifestyle helps the brain operate more effectively.

​New York, Jan 11 (IANS) Apple's next generation bezel-less iPhone 8 is rumoured to sport a bold new design and would feature an OLED display full of holes, a media report said. "The patent filed by Apple for 'Electronic devices having displays with openings' describes a method by which various components can be mounted behind perforations in a device screen that are so small as to be imperceptible to the human eye. This arrangement would allow engineers to design a smartphone or tablet with a true edge-to-edge, or full-face display," appleinsider.com reported on Wednesday. The openings may be located in the active portion of the display. The display may be mounted in a housing associated with the electronic device. An electronic component may be mounted in alignment with the one or more openings in the display. The electronic component may be a structure that uses light such as a camera, a light sensor, a light-based proximity sensor, a status indicator light, a light-based touch sensor array, or a secondary display that has display pixels that may be viewed through the openings. Signals associated with the electronic component may pass through the openings. The signals may include acoustic signals, electromagnetic signals such as radio-frequency electromagnetic signals, and light. One or more openings in the display may form a window through which a user of the device may view an external object. Display pixels in the window region may be used in forming a heads-up display. The 2017 version of Apple's iPhone is also rumoured to come in red and will retain the same design as the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Alongside its usual 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch smartphone offerings, the company will also unveil a third model that will be priced at a higher side than iPhone 7 and will sport a 5.1-inch or 5.2-inch OLED display with invisible home button, all-glass housing, wireless charging, according to earlier reports. Samsung and LG, joined by Foxconn-owned Sharp by 2018, are said to be Apple's primary OLED suppliers.

​Beijing, Jan 11 (IANS) China's tourist spending is expected to be more than six trillion yuan ($865 million) in 2017, Xinhua news agency said citing a report.

The number of domestic, inbound and outbound tourists might reach over five billion in 2017, with outbound tourism expected to grow as more Chinese people have time and money to travel abroad, according to a report released by the China Tourism Academy and online travel agency giant Tuniu.com.

Chinese tourists are called "walking wallets".

Around 4.7 billion domestic, inbound and outbound tourists spent 5.5 trillion yuan in 2016, the report claimed.

Chinese tourists no longer prefer group tours and many go to suburban and rural areas.

Cruises and island tours are gaining popularity, with cruises expected to have earned 1.8 billion yuan in 2016.

China plans to raise tourism revenue to 7 trillion yuan by 2020, according to the country's five-year tourism plan.

New York, Jan 11 (IANS) Contrary to the common perception that people who post frequent selfies on social media platforms are generally narcissists, a new study now says selfie lovers may have different motives which often extend beyond self-obsession and showing off.

After analysing their survey results and interviews, a team of researchers from Texas Tech University found that there are three categories of selfie-takers -- communicators, autobiographers and self-publicists.

"It is important to recognise that not everyone is a narcissist," said Steven Holiday, study co-author in a paper published in the journal Visual Communication Quarterly.

Communicators are those who post selfies on social media such as Facebook and Instagram primarily to engage with their friends, family or followers in a conversation.

"They are all about two-way communication," added team member Maureen "Mo" Elinzano.

Autobiographers use selfies on social media platform as a tool to record key events in their lives and preserve significant memories. 

Lastly, self-publicists are the people who love documenting their entire lives.

"Identifying and categorising the three groups is important because it's a different kind of photography than we have ever experienced before," Holiday added.

Understanding people's motives can be valuable, because years from now, our society's visual history is going to be largely comprised of selfies. 

"And to find out why people do it, that contributes a lot to the discussion on selfies and visual communication in general," added Matt Lewis, co-author.

Sydney/Kolkata, Jan 11 (IANS) Think twice before blaming the weather gods for achy joints as researchers now claim that the weather plays no part in the symptoms associated with either back pain or osteoarthritis.

A new research from The George Institute for Global Health has debunked beliefs that episodes of both back pain and arthritis can be triggered by changes in the weather, including temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind direction and precipitation.

"The belief that pain and inclement weather are linked dates back to Roman times. But our research suggests this belief may be based on the fact that people recall events that confirm their pre-existing views," said Chris Maher, of the institute.

"Human beings are very susceptible so it is easy to see why we might only take note of pain on the days when it is cold and rainy outside, but discount the days when they have symptoms but the weather is mild and sunny," he added.

The studies were carried out across Australia with average daily temperatures ranging from 5.4 degrees Celsius to 32.8 degrees Celsius.

Almost 1,000 people with lower back pain, and around 350 with knee osteoarthritis were recruited for the Australia-based studies.

Weather data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology were sourced for the duration of the study period.

Results showed no association between back pain and temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind direction or precipitation.

However, higher temperatures did slightly increase the chances of lower back pain, but the amount of the increase was not clinically important.

Back pain affects up to a third of the world's population at any one time, while almost 10 per cent of men and 18 per cent of women over the age of 60 have osteoarthritis.

Manuela Ferreira, who led the osteoarthritis research at the institute, said: "People who suffer from either of these conditions should not focus on the weather as it does not have an important influence on your symptoms and it is outside your control."

Washington, Jan 11 (IANS) Charon -- Pluto's moon which is more than half its diameter and orbits only 12,000 or so miles away -- is slowing down the decay of Pluto's atmosphere, scientists have found.

To put that into perspective, picture our moon three times closer to Earth and as large as Mars.

A new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology has provided additional insight into this relationship and how it affects the continuous stripping of Pluto's atmosphere by solar wind. 

When Charon is positioned between the Sun and Pluto, the research indicates that the moon can significantly reduce atmospheric loss.

"Charon doesn't always have its own atmosphere. But when it does, it creates a shield for Pluto and redirects much of the solar wind around and away," said Carol Paty, associate professor in the school of earth and atmospheric sciences.

This barrier creates a more acute angle of Pluto's bow shock, slowing down the deterioration of the atmosphere. 

When Charon doesn't have an atmosphere, or when it's behind or next to Pluto (a term scientists call "downstream"), then Charon has only a minor effect on the interaction of the solar wind with Pluto.

The study's predictions, performed before the New Horizons probe collected and returned data to Earth, is consistent with the measurements made by the spacecraft about Pluto's atmospheric loss rate. 

The research was published in a special Pluto issue of the journal Icarus.

London, Jan 11 (IANS) In a first, Danish researchers including one of Indian origin, have engineered E. coli bacteria to develop a cell line that produces large quantities of the compound serine -- used in detergents, tube feeding formula and as building blocks for many key chemicals.

The researchers from The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (DTU Biosustain) believe this cell line will help produce the ingredients sustainably and at low cost. 

"This discovery is quite unique and proves that we can actually adapt cells to tolerate large amounts of serine -- something many people thought wasn't possible," said Professor Alex Toftgaard Nielsen from DTU Biosustain. 

In order to develop these cells, the team used highly specialised robots.

"Cell growth must be monitored 24 hours a day, and the cells must be transferred to new medium at a certain time of growth. Therefore, it is crucial that we use 'Adaptive Laboratory Evolution' (ALE) robots," explained lead author Hemanshu Mundhada from Technical University of Denmark.

Serine is an amino acid important for humans because it is one of the 20 amino acids forming proteins in our bodies. 

Being highly water soluble, serine finds application as moisturiser in lotions of pharma and cosmetic industry.

The first step in the development process was to produce E. coli cells that could survive high concentrations of serine. 

To achieve this, the scientists used ALE method in which they first exposed the cells to a small amount of serine. When the cells had grown accustomed to these conditions, the bacteria were transferred to a slightly higher concentration. 

The experiment was repeated several times with the cells best suited to tolerate serine.

The tolerant E. coli cells were subsequently optimised genetically to produce serine.

"We have shown that our E coli cells can use regular sugar and even residues from sugar production, molasses, in lower concentrations. We have seen promising results with less expensive sugars, which makes it even more attractive to produce serine in E. coli," Mundhada added in a paper published in the journal Metabolic Engineering.