Knowledge Update

​London, Feb 13 (IANS) Film production in Britain last year earned a record-breaking $2 billion for the country's economy, a new report revealed on Sunday.

Xinhua news agency quoted the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as saying that 2016 proved to be a bumper year for Britain's creative industries.

​Washington, Feb 13 (IANS) Scientists have shortlisted three landing sites for NASA's Mars 2020 rover -- slated for launch in July 2020 aboard an Atlas V 541 rocket from the Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The three potential landing sites include Northeast Syrtis (a very ancient portion of Mars' surface), Jezero crater, (once home to an ancient Martian lake), and Columbia Hills (potentially home to an ancient hot spring and explored by NASA's Spirit rover).

The sites were recommended by participants in a landing site workshop, NASA said in a statement on Monday.

The rover will conduct geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient Martian life, and assess natural resources and hazards for future human explorers. 

It will also prepare a collection of samples for possible return to the Earth by a future mission.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover.

​London, Feb 12 (IANS) Although taking selfies is hugely popular, most people would prefer to see fewer selfies on social media, a study has found. Selfies are enormously popular on social media. According to Google statistics estimates, about 93 million selfies were taken per day in 2014, counting only those taken on Android devices. The findings showed that compared to the selfies taken by themselves, people attributed greater self-presentational motives and less authenticity to selfies taken by others. Selfies taken by themselves were also judged as self-ironic and more authentic. This phenomenon, where many people regularly take selfies but most people don't appear to like them has been termed the "selfie paradox" by Sarah Diefenbach, Professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Germany. To assess people's motives and judgements when taking and viewing selfies, the team conducted an online survey of a total of 238 persons living in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The results showed that 77 per cent of the participants regularly took selfies. "One reason for this might be their fit with widespread self-presentation strategies such as self-promotion and self-disclosure" Diefenbach said, in the paper published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Interestingly, despite 77 per cent of the participants taking selfies regularly, 62-67 per cent agreed on the potential negative consequences of selfies, such as impacts on self-esteem. This negative perception of selfies was also illustrated by 82 per cent of participants indicating that they would rather see other types of photos instead of selfies on social media.

​New York, Feb 12 (IANS) Though technological advancements in smart electrical grid create improvements in monitoring, they also act as an entry point for hackers, researchers have revealed.

​New York, Feb 12 (IANS) Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's may be linked to defective brain cells disposing toxic proteins, making neighbouring cells sick, scientists say.

The findings showed that although healthy neurons should be able to sort out and rid brain cells of toxic proteins and damaged cell structures, they are unable to do so always.

"Normally the process of throwing out this trash would be a good thing," said Monica Driscoll, professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

"But we think with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's there might be a mismanagement of this very important process that is supposed to protect neurons but, instead, is doing harm to neighbour cells," Driscoll added, in the paper published in Nature.

To understand how the mechanism of eliminating toxic cellular substances works externally, the team conducted experiments on the transparent roundworm, known as the C. elegans, which are similar in molecular form, function and genetics to those of humans.

The researchers discovered that the worms -- which have a lifespan of about three weeks -- had an external garbage removal mechanism and were disposing these toxic proteins outside the cell as well.

However, the roundworms engineered to produce human disease proteins associated with Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's, were found to throw out more trash consisting of these neurodegenerative toxic materials.

While neighbouring cells degraded some of the material, more distant cells scavenged other portions of the diseased proteins.

"These finding are significant. The work in the little worm may open the door to much needed approaches to addressing neurodegeneration and diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," Driscoll said.

​Beijing , Feb 11 (IANS) China plans to relocate 3.4 million people from poverty-stricken communities to more developed areas this year as part of its poverty reduction drive.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's economic planner, said 2.49 million people living in poverty had been relocated in 2016, meeting the

​New York, Feb 11 (IANS) Cellphones and other devices could soon be controlled with touchless gestures and charge themselves using ambient light thanks to new LED displays that can both emit and detect light.

New York, Feb 11 (IANS) Finding it tough to cope with stress in your life? Eat prebiotics fibers that may help protect the beneficial bacteria in your gut and restore healthy sleep patterns after a stressful event, researchers suggest. Prebiotics are certain types of non-digestible fibers that probiotic bacteria feed on, such as the fibers found in many plant sources like asparagus, oatmeal, and legumes as well as in breast milk. The findings showed that stress could upset the gut's microbiome, as well as restful sleep -- essential elements for a healthy life. "Acute stress can disrupt the gut microbiome," said Agnieszka Mika, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder, in the US. A diet rich in prebiotics was found to increase beneficial bacteria as well as protect gut microbes from stress-induced disruptions. In addition, prebiotics also lead to the recovery of normal sleep patterns, since they tend to be disrupted after stressful events. "So far no adverse effects from prebiotics have been reported...and they are found widely in many plants, even present in breast milk, and are already commercially available," Mika added. For the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, the team tested rats that received prebiotic diets for several weeks prior to a stressful test condition and compared with control rats that did not receive the prebiotic-enriched diet. The rats that ate prebiotics prior to the stressful event did not experience stress-induced disruption in their gut microbiota and also recovered healthier sleep patterns sooner than controls, the researchers said. As the stressor that the rats received was the equivalent of a single intense acute stressful episode for humans, such as a car accident or the death of a loved one, the results may be relevant in humans, noted Robert S. Thompson from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Washington, Feb 11 (IANS) Comet hunters have a chance to spot comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova in the next few days using binoculars or a telescope, NASA said on Saturday.

"It's the first of a trio of comets that will -- between now and the end of 2018 -- pass close enough to Earth for backyard observers to try to spot and for scientists to study using ground-based instruments," the US space agency said.

The recommendation for backyard astronomers is to use binoculars or a telescope to look for the comet several times during the coming days, NASA said.

Discovered in 1948, 45P is a short-period comet, with an orbit that takes it around the sun and out by Jupiter about every 5-1/4 years. 

This weekend's encounter will be the comet's closest with Earth - passing by at a distance of about 12.4 million kilometres -- through the end of this century.

The comet will pass by our planet again in 2032 but will be much farther away - at a distance of nearly about 48 million kilometres.

Scientists have taken advantage of 45P's approach, making observations using powerful ground-based telescopes such as NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility to investigate the gases, dust and ice particles that are released from the comet nucleus and show up in the coma and tail. 

By looking for water, methane and other important compounds, astronomers get clues about how the comet is put together and where it originated in the cloud of material that surrounded the young sun as the solar system formed.

By observing the same comet more than once, astronomers can see how the object changes over time.

"Observing a comet multiple times over successive orbits is like taking snapshots at different stages of life," said Joseph Nuth, a senior scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 

NASA said ground-based observations also are planned for comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, which will pass closest to Earth on April 1, 2017, and for comet 46P/Wirtanen, passing closest to Earth on December 16, 2018. 

By studying this trio of comets, astronomers can learn more about the differences among comets -- information they use to fill in the comet family tree.

Kathmandu, Feb 11 (IANS) Nepal has recorded a new species of bird from upper Dolpa, the largest district of the mid-western development region.

Organising a press meet here on Friday, discovery of a single individual of Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush Monticola saxitilis was made public, Xinhua news agency reported. 

The bird was seen and photographed in May near the Shey monastery within the Shey-Phoksundo National Park of Dolpa.

The Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush is considered as an autumn passage migrant in Pakistan and India.

A four-member team including young wildlife researcher of Nepal Naresh Kusi and Geraldine Werhahn from University of Oxford made the record during their visit to the region.

The team was studying the Himalayan wol., wild yak and snow leopard while they discovered this new bird species.

Bird experts have claimed that more researches are needed to ascertain the status of Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush in other parts of Nepal.

With this record, Nepal now has a total of 886 species of birds.