Knowledge Update

​London, May 25 (IANS) The communicative exchanges in bonobos and chimpanzees closely resemble human communication -- which is one of the most sophisticated signalling systems in the animal kingdom -- being highly cooperative and including fast interactions.

The team of Marlen Frohlich and Simone Pika from Germany's Max Planck Institute conducted the first systematic comparison of communicative interactions in mother-infant group of two different bonobo and two different chimpanzee communities in their natural environments.

The study showed that communicative exchanges in both species resemble cooperative turn-taking sequences in human conversation. However, bonobos and chimpanzees differ in their communication styles. 

"For bonobos, gaze plays a more important role and they seem to anticipate signals before they have been fully articulated," said Marlen Froehlich in the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

In contrast, chimpanzees engage in more time-consuming communicative negotiations and use clearly recognizable units such as signal, pause and response. 

Bonobos may, therefore, represent the most representative model for understanding the prerequisites of human communication. 

"Communicative interactions of great apes thus show the hallmarks of human social action during conversation and suggest that cooperative communication arose as a way of coordinating collaborative activities more efficiently," noted lead researcher Simone Pika.​

New York, May 26 (IANS) Internet of Things (IoT) success is dependent on tiny communication devices and instead of powering those machines by fossil fuels, they can be run on wind or solar energy, say scientists.

​New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Chinese internet and technology conglomerate LeEco on Monday announced that the sale for its supertainment-loaded device Le 1s Eco will begin on Flipkart's big shopping days from May 25 to May 27. The consumers planning to buy a Le 1s Eco device will be offered LeEco earphone worth Rs.1,300 on every purchase, additional 10 percent cash back on Citibank debit and credit cardholders, additional Rs.2,000 on exchange of the old phone and free back cover on every purchase. "We are overwhelmed with the kind of responses we are getting from our users. This announcement of giving special offers is a way of expressing our gratitude to our loyal users," said Atul Jain, COO, LeEco India, in a statement. The Rs.9,999 device will come with a one-year free LeEco membership programme worth Rs.4,900 where the users will have access to over 2,000 movies (in 10 languages) and over 100 live TV channels. The device comes with 3GB RAM and 32GB ROM and a mirror-surfaced fingerprint scanner.​

​Mumbai, May 23 (IANS) TataCLiQ.com, the Tata group's multi-brand e-commerce platform, on Monday said it has formalised a strategic partnership with Genesis Luxury Fashion to offer a wide range of international luxury brands exclusively. "The partnership is a testament to providing the Indian consumer authentic brand experiences directly through authorized sellers and not unknown resellers. Currently, all the international luxury brands online on TataCLiQ.com are through our exclusive tie-up," said ecommerce portal's CEO Ashutosh Pandey. "They are also targeting a number of luxury brands that are not present in India .... These will be launched over a period of time on," he said. "The partnership enable us to expand our presence to cater to our growing affluent consumer market," said Genesis CEO Nikhil Mehra.

​New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Taipei-based technology products marketer BenQ has once again emerged as the top player in the Indian projector market with a market share of 25 percent in the first quarter of 2016, said a report by global research and consulting firm Futuresource Consulting on Monday. In 2015, BenQ's annual market share was 22.3 percent with top market raking. The company registered a growth of 24 percent year-on-year for the quarter and a quarter-on-quarter growth of over 50 percent during the first quarter of 2016, the company said in a statement. The company is also at the top in three important categories -- Full HD, "High Brightness 4000AL~4999AL" and "Short Throw" projectors. "This is a result of BenQ's strong focus on technology specifically meant for India, service capability and deep penetration of our sales and marketing efforts," said Rajeev Singh, managing director, BenQ India. The company sold more than 50,000 projectors in 2015.​

​New York, May 24 (IANS) Higher long-term fluctuations in blood pressure readings may be linked to faster declines in brain and cognitive function among older adults, says a study.

"Blood pressure variability might signal blood flow instability, which could lead to the damage of the finer vessels of the body with changes in brain structure and function," said Bo (Bonnie) Qin, lead study author and a postdoctoral scholar at Rutgers Cancer Institute in New Brunswick, New Jersey, US.

"These blood pressure fluctuations may indicate pathological processes such as inflammation and impaired function in the blood vessels themselves," she noted.

For the study, the researchers analysed results from 976 Chinese adults (half women, age 55 and or older) who participated in the China Health and Nutrition Survey over a period of five years. 

Blood pressure variability was calculated from three or four visits to the health professional. Participants also underwent a series of cognitive quizzes such as performing word recall and counting backwards.

Higher visit-to-visit variability in the top number in a blood pressure reading (systolic blood pressure) was associated with a faster decline of cognitive function and verbal memory, the findings showed.

However, higher variability in the bottom number (diastolic blood pressure) was associated with faster decline of cognitive function among adults aged 55 to 64, but not among those aged 65 and older.

The findings appeared in the journal Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

While physicians tend to focus on average blood pressure readings, the new findings suggest that high variability may be something for physicians to watch for in their patients.

"Controlling blood pressure instability could possibly be a potential strategy in preserving cognitive function among older adults," Qin said.​

Munich, May 23 (IANS) Bayer, Germany-based life science company in health and agriculture has offered to buy Monsanto, the American seed multinational in an all-cash deal worth $62 billion.

Washington, May 24 (IANS) Solar storms four billion years ago may have provided the crucial energy needed to warm Earth and seed life despite the Sun's faintness, new research has revealed.

Some four billion years ago, the sun shone with only about three-quarters the brightness we see today, but its surface roiled with giant eruptions spewing enormous amounts of solar material and radiation out into space. 

The eruptions also may have furnished the energy needed to turn simple molecules into the complex molecules such as RNA and DNA that were necessary for life, said NASA researchers.

“Back then, Earth received only about 70 percent of the energy from the Sun than it does today,” said Vladimir Airapetian, solar scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

That means Earth should have been an icy ball.

“Instead, geological evidence says it was a warm globe with liquid water. We call this the 'Faint Young Sun Paradox'. Our new research shows that solar storms could have been central to warming Earth,” he added.

Understanding what conditions were necessary for life on our planet helps us both trace the origins of life on Earth and guide the search for life on other planets.

Until now, however, fully mapping Earth's evolution has been hindered by the simple fact that the young Sun wasn't luminous enough to warm Earth.

Scientists are able to piece together the history of the sun by searching for similar stars in our galaxy.

By placing these sun-like stars in order according to their age, the stars appear as a functional timeline of how our own Sun evolved.

It is from this kind of data that scientists know the sun was fainter four billion years ago.

Such studies also show that young stars frequently produce powerful flares - giant bursts of light and radiation -- similar to the flares we see on our own Sun today.

Such flares are often accompanied by huge clouds of solar material, called coronal mass ejections or CMEs which erupt out into space.

NASA's Kepler mission has found stars that resemble our sun about a few million years after its birth.

The Kepler data showed many examples of what are called "superflares" - enormous explosions so rare today that we only experience them once every 100 years or so.

Yet the Kepler data also show these youngsters producing as many as 10 superflares a day.

While our sun still produces flares and CMEs, they are not so frequent or intense.

What's more, Earth today has a strong magnetic field that helps keep the bulk of the energy from such space weather from reaching Earth, the authors said.

Our young Earth, however, had a weaker magnetic field, with a much wider footprint near the poles.

This newly discovered constant influx of solar particles to early Earth may have done more than just warm the atmosphere; it may also have provided the energy needed to make complex chemicals.

In a planet scattered evenly with simple molecules, it takes a huge amount of incoming energy to create the complex molecules such as RNA and DNA that eventually seeded life.

While enough energy appears to be hugely important for a growing planet, too much would also be an issue -- a constant chain of solar eruptions producing showers of particle radiation can be quite detrimental.

Such an onslaught of magnetic clouds can rip off a planet's atmosphere if the magnetosphere is too weak.

Understanding these kinds of balances help scientists determine what kinds of stars and what kinds of planets could be hospitable for life.

The research was published in the journal Nature Geoscience.​

​Sydney, May 24 (IANS) Unlike the declining populations of many fish species, the number of cephalopods - octopus, cuttlefish and squid -- has increased in the world's oceans over the past 60 years, new research has found.

To investigate long-term trends in its abundance, the international team of researchers compiled a global database of cephalopod catch rates 

"Our analyses showed that cephalopod abundance has increased since the 1950s, a result that was remarkably consistent across three distinct groups," said study lead author Zoe Doubleday from University of Adelaide in Australia.

"Cephalopods are often called 'weeds of the sea' as they have a unique set of biological traits, including rapid growth, short lifespans and flexible development. These allow them to adapt to changing environmental conditions (such as temperature) more quickly than many other marine species, which suggests that they may be benefiting from a changing ocean environment," Doubleday said.

The research stemmed from an investigation of declining numbers of the iconic Giant Australian cuttlefish, Doubleday said.

"Surprisingly, analyses revealed that cephalopods, as a whole, are in fact increasing; and since this study, cuttlefish numbers from this iconic population near Whyalla are luckily bouncing back," Doubleday noted.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

Cephalopods are found in all marine habitats and, as well as being voracious predators, they are also an important source of food for many marine species, as well as humans.

"As such, the increase in abundance has significant and complex implications for both the marine food web and us," Doubleday said.​

​London, May 24 (IANS) The rise of user-generated content (UGC) - information submitted by members of the public or posted on social media - has made journalists harness a variety of new skills, thereby bringing in a sea change in the profession, a study says.

"As more news organisations move towards becoming 'digital first', the skills journalists are expected to possess have changed,” said study author Lisette Johnston from London's City University.

"They must become more "tech-savvy" … In turn, the role of the journalist itself is being redefined, as are the skills needed by newsroom staff," Johnston noted.

The study was published in the journal Digital Journalism.

To understand the evolution of journalism in the age of social media, Johnston studied how journalists from BBC World News integrated user-generated content into their reports on the conflict in Syria. She studied hours of video as well as interviewed reporters and newsroom staff.

As expected, user-generated content formed a large part of the material she studied. More than half the 35 reports or 'news packages' on Syria she analysed opened with a social media clip. 

She also found that the amount of user-generated content integrated by BBC journalists increased as the conflict wore on and reporters found access to the country more challenging.

But the increasing amount of social media content used by BBC journalists was only part of the story. The journalists to whom Johnson spoke said they felt “they had to harness a variety of new skills to enable them to "harvest" content uploaded to digital platforms”. 

They also found themselves actively engaged in "social media newsgathering" -- for images, contacts and eyewitnesses -- across multiple platforms, a practice encouraged by their managers.

Johnston's contacts also admitted that shifting through the immense volume of UGC posted online posed a huge challenge, as did verifying what was chosen -- a task made even more difficult in a war zone, where contacting the uploader of the footage could put his or her life at risk. 

Journalists had to become 'detective-like' when verifying footage found online; but even if they weren't responsible for the actual verification themselves, they had to learn how to use social media content appropriately in terms of attribution, labelling and caveats.

As for the future, “being capable of processing user-generated content and being able to navigate social media platforms which audiences inhabit are becoming core skills which journalists need to possess and maintain”, Johnston concluded.​