Knowledge Update

San Francisco, Dec 7 (IANS) The European Commission has cleared the $26 billion LinkedIn acquisition by Microsoft and the deal will close in coming days, Microsoft said on Wednesday.

​Brussels Dec 7 (IANS) NATO foreign ministers on Tuesday agreed on over 40 proposals to deepen NATO-European Union (EU) cooperation, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told media following the meeting.

​London, Dec 6 (IANS) Continuous usage of caesarean sections or c-section may be impacting human evolution as more mothers now need surgery to deliver a baby due to their narrow pelvis size, scientists say.

C-section is the delivery of a baby through a surgical incision in the mother's abdomen and uterus. 

"Women with a very narrow pelvis pass on their genes encoding for a narrow pelvis to their daughters," Philipp Mitteroecker from the University of Vienna in Austria, was quoted as saying to bbc.com.

Historically, these genes would not have been passed from mother to child as both would have died in labour.

However, today the global rate of cases where the baby could not fit through the maternal birth canal have increased from 30 in 1,000 in the 1960s to 36 in 1,000 births.

That is about a 10-20 per cent increase of the original rate, due to the evolutionary effect.

Although, the trend is likely to continue, but not to the extent that non-surgical births will become obsolete, the researchers noted.

The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

San Francisco, Dec 6 (IANS) While the overall wearables market grew 3.1 per cent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2016, Apple Watch share took a downturn owing to an ageing lineup and an unintuitive user interface, market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) has said. Apple's decision to launch its second-generation watches in mid-September, towards the end of the quarter, did contribute to its year-over-year decline in the third quarter and the company stood fourth with 4.9 per cent share. According to IDC's 'Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker' report, total wearables shipments reached 23 million in the third quarter. "Where smartwatches were once expected to take the lead, basic wearables now reign supreme. Simplicity is a driving factor and this is well reflected in the top vendor list as four out of five offer a simple, dedicated fitness device," said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst, IDC Mobile Device Trackers. Basic wearables, primarily comprised of fitness bands, accounted for 85 per cent of the market and experienced double-digit growth. Fitbit, with a 23 per cent share, was once again the market leader in the third quarter as the vendor released a long-awaited refresh for the "Charge HR" wireless activity wristband with "Charge 2". Xiaomi stood second with 16.5 per cent market share. "The company across all business lines continues to struggle to gain any significant traction outside China," the report added. With a market share of 5.7 per cent, Garmin stood third as the company with one of the widest portfolios among all the vendors. "The company managed to expand its channel presence over the past year, focusing on numerous sports equipment chains and independent retailers," the report noted. Samsung, with 4.5 per cent market share, stood fifth and the company was able to sustain shipments of its Gear S2, particularly the cellular-enabled versions, through various wireless service providers, the findings showed. IDC expects the momentum for basic wearables to continue for the remainder of 2016. However, smart wearables capable of running third-party apps will likely continue to struggle in the near term.

​New York, Dec 6 (IANS) If you're a man, gorging on delicious delicacies at a holiday meal or friend's BBQ might have more to do with your ego than the quality of the food. According to a new study, men are at particular risk of overeating in social situations even when there is no incentive to do so, but opportunities for them to "show off". "Even if men aren't thinking about it, eating more than a friend tends to be understood as a demonstration of virility and strength," said Kevin Kniffin from Cornell Food and Brand Lab, a US-based non-profit research firm. For the study, researchers recruited college aged students of similar weight to participate in either a competitive chicken wing eating challenge with cheering spectators, or a competitive chicken wing eating challenge with no spectators. The prize for eating the most chicken wings was a worthless plastic medal, but competitors still ate about four times more food than normal. Men who ate in front of spectators ate 30 per cent more than those without spectators and described the experience as challenging, cool and exhilarating. Women, on the other hand, ate less with spectators than without them and described the experience as slightly embarrassing, the researchers said. "Focus on your friends and not the food," noted Brian Wansink, Director from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab. "If you want to prove how macho you are, challenge your friend to a healthy arm wrestle instead of trying to out-eat him," Wansink said, in the paper published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.

​New Delhi, Dec 6 (IANS) Cashing in on the ongoing demonetisation drive across India, Amazon India is witnessing triple-digit growth in its sales as it has switched to various electronic payments platforms, said the company's Vice President and Country Manager Amit Agarwal.

​Moscow, Dec 6 (IANS) The Russian economy is an integral part of the global economic system and should not develop in isolation from it, President Vladimir Putin has said.

"We have never believed and we should not believe that we must develop our economy in isolation from the global economy. The Russian economy has already become an

​Hanoi, Dec 6 (IANS) The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) submarine fiber optic cable line will be operational in Vietnam, according to the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) on Tuesday.

​New York, Dec 6 (IANS) After a disastrous launch of its previous chatbot Tay, Microsoft is reportedly releasing another artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot named 'Zo' on the social messaging app 'Kik', reports said on Tuesday.

​Toronto, Dec 6 (IANS) People with high attachment anxiety -- those who worry their partners do not love and care for them -- are especially likely to think of past grudges in new, unrelated contexts, leading to more conflicts in the relationship, says a study.

To them, past misdeeds tend to feel closer to the present than for those who are more secure in their relationships, the study said.

"When memories feel closer to the present, those memories are construed as more relevant to the present and more representative of the relationship," said co-author of the study Kassandra Cortes from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

"If one bad memory feels recent, a person will also be more likely to remember other past slights, and attach more importance to them," Cortes said.

The researchers found that even if no one mentions the transgressions during arguments, just thinking about them could be enough to have a detrimental effect on the relationship.

A person may feel confused and frustrated if they do not understand why their partner has become so upset over something so seemingly minor.

The study - published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin - found that those who reported thinking about past transgressions during a recent conflict said they reacted to the current conflict more destructively, reported having more frequent and intense conflicts with their partners and felt worse about their relationships in general.

"It may be useful for people to resolve an issue with their partner when it occurs, rather than pretending to forgive their partner or just letting it go when they are clearly upset. This way, the issue may be less likely to resurface in the future," the study said.