Knowledge Update

Beijing, Sep 26 (IANS) Chinese Shenzhen International Airport has employed robots to patrol one of its terminals, making it the first public place in the country to be so guarded.

The Anbot robots are oval-shaped and resemble the Star Wars 'R2D2' robot or the Daleks from Doctor Who, EFE news reported.

​Beijing, Oct 28 (IANS) Toyota will recall 819,598 vehicles in China due to defective airbags installed in several vehicle models, the country's top quality watchdog said on Friday. The models affected were the VIOS, COROLLA, COROLLA EX and YARIS, built between May 1, 2007, and August 29, 2013, according to a report filed to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. The defective vehicles were equipped with airbags whose inflators could rupture, causing risks of injury, Xinhua news agency reported. The recall will start from November 30, 2016, and Toyota dealers will change the faulty parts at no charge.

New York, Sep 25 (IANS) Healthy city design and planning in densely populated countries like India can reduce growing epidemics, injuries and non-communicable (NCD) diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer, finds a new study.

According to the study, published in the journal The Lancet, health gains can be achieved if cities are designed in a way that shops, facilities, work and public transportation are within walking distance of most residents.

By 2050, the US, China and India are predicted to see their populations increase by 33, 38 and 96 per cent respectively, the study found.

Sprawling residential developments lead to declines in physical activity, increases in air pollution and higher rates of road death and serious injury.

Researchers studied how to implement timely research into city design, planning and policy to improve the health of a city's residents. 

"Shifting from city infrastructure that encourages the use of automobiles to a design providing safe and easy walking, cycling and public transportation options would reduce traffic injuries, air pollution and physical inactivity," said James F. Sallis, researcher at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, US.

Additionally, limitations in the ability of people to walk or cycle in their daily commute makes public transportation expensive to deliver, which can lead to an increase in chronic disease and injury.

"Many city leaders around the world are not applying the lessons of research to make cities as healthy as possible," said Sallis.

To improve the effectiveness and implementation of research, Sallis and team suggested that studies must include collaborations between scientists and multisector policy makers and address questions that are relevant to city leaders, including information about public opinion and costs. 

"City planning policies can affect health, both positively and negatively. A major incentive to make changes now is that designing cities for health and active transport, rather than automobile-dependence also makes the cities more environmentally sustainable," Sallis added.

Beijing, Sep 28 (IANS) The world's longest and highest glass bridge, in Hunan province, will reopen for China's Golden Week holiday in October, after a month-long safety overhaul.

The bridge over the spectacular Grand Canyon Scenic Area in Zhangjiajie, a Unesco world heritage site, was temporarily closed at the beginning of September, following a huge influx of tourists after its initial opening on August 20, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the bridge management committee, after the reopening on September 30, tourists will be able to visit the bridge by swiping their ID cards on machines at the entrance, after booking tickets via the official website.

The bridge was closed for safety modifications due to the need for an internal system upgrade, as more than 10,000 people were visiting the site every day, exceeding the planned daily limit of 8,000.

During the revamp, the management committee installed an intelligent monitoring system to help control the population flow at the entrance and exit, and also prepared a free shuttle bus service to take visitors to the area.

The 430-metre long, six-metre wide bridge is paved with 99 panes of three-layer transparent glass and hangs between two steep cliffs 300 meters above the ground.

The bridge set 10 world records for its design and construction. 

A ticket for the bridge costs 138 yuan ($21). No personal belongings are allowed on the bridge except wallets and mobile phones. Visitors are not allowed to wear high heels and must cross the bridge without the aid of the railings.

London, Sep 26 (IANS) Low and moderate levels of physical activity may significantly lower the risk of bacterial infection, a new study has found.

Regular physical activity is known to have various health benefits including reduced risk of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, colon and breast cancer, as well as depression.

The results showed that compared with sedentary behaviour, low leisure-time physical activity was associated with a 10 per cent lower risk of any suspected bacterial infection, said Kathrine Pape Madsen from the Aalborg University, in Denmark.

Further, compared with individuals classified as sedentary, those undertaking low and moderate levels of leisure-time physical activity were associated with a 21 per cent and 32 per cent reduction of suspected cystitis -- urinary tract infections. 

Suspected respiratory tract bacterial infections, however, were not associated with physical activity level, the study said.

Physical inactivity has been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality causing an estimated 3.2 million deaths globally, according to World health Organisation.

In the study, the researchers examined the relationship between leisure-time physical activity and suspected bacterial infections during a one-year follow up.

Information on leisure-time physical activity was obtained from the 2007 and 2010 North Denmark Region Health Surveys of 18,874 Danes. 

Suspected bacterial infections were determined based on filled prescriptions for antibiotics. 

During a one year follow-up, 5368 participants filled at least one antibiotic prescription.

There was a statistically significant difference between physical activity level and filling any antibiotic prescriptions among women but not among men.

Washington, Sep 26 (IANS) Scientist have developed a set of five instruments that can potentially advance NASAs understanding of wind and weather conditions on the surface of Mars that can help ascertain the planet's habitability.

The US space agency sends rovers to the surface of Mars to photograph the landscape and operate scientific experiments to understand the habitat for humans or other kinds of life.

One of those future rover missions may host the Martian Aqueous Habitat Reconnaissance Suite (MAHRS), a set of five instruments that can take surface measurements in the search for habitable environments, NASA said.

Developed at NASA Glenn Research Centre in partnership with the University of Michigan, MAHRS is specifically focused on searching for wet brine environments in the shallow subsurface of Mars.

"Brine environments are where you would look for life," said Project Manager Dan Vento of NASA.

"Any water that exists today on Mars would likely be in the form of a brine if is in a liquid state," he added.

The MAHRS research hardware includes an optical microscope to study the size and characteristics of settling dust on Mars. 

"The interesting feature about the microscope, is that the electronics architecture can support a camera lens or hyperspectral sensor depending on the scientific goals of the mission," Norman Prokop from NASA Glenn Research Centre said.

Mounted to the microscope, a radiometre measures the amount of solar energy absorbed at the surface to study the amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere. 

Less energy making it to the surface means more dust in the atmosphere is absorbing the solar energy.

A saltation probe, which would hang vertically off the bottom of a rover, measures the impact of soil and dust swirling on the Martian surface. 

Because it is close to the ground, it can measure the impact, mass and velocity of soil as it hits the probe, giving researchers an indication of wind energy and soil movement.

The scientists also developed a soil wetness sensor, which measures water content on the surface and detects the formation of liquid brine.

And finally, Michigan engineers are testing an electric field sensor to measure electrical charges in the atmosphere caused by airborne dust, NASA said. As it sits and spins on a rover arm, it will measure weather patterns and indicate the level of erosion on Mars.

As NASA seeks to develop more sophisticated scientific devices for solar system exploration, this integrated suite of instruments can potentially advance understanding of wind and weather conditions on the surface of Mars and the implications for habitability.

NASA's Mars rover missions advance understanding about the Red Planet and serves in preparation for planned human-crew missions to Mars beginning in the 2030s.

​London, Sep 28 (IANS) Most people are responding to messages, looking at social media notifications, reading news or replying to office emails in middle of the night which has significantly disrupted their sleep patterns, a new study has warned.

The study "Global Mobile Consumer Survey 2016" conducted by global consultancy firm Deloitte found that almost half of 18 to 24-year-olds check their phones in the middle of the night.

The study, involving 4,000 people in Britain, revealed that if users do not wake up to check their texts, they take time to scroll through their notifications right before bed.

Ten per cent of users also like to check their smartphone first thing in the morning, Fortune reported, quoting the study.

Less than a quarter of smartphone users are unplugging at least an hour before they go to sleep.

"Nearly 27 per cent of smartphones include a fingerprint reader, of which 76 per cent are used while 31 per cent of smartphone users make no traditional voice calls in a given week. This contrasts with a quarter in 2015 and just 4 per cent in 2012," the findings showed.

The majority of survey participants have downloaded 20 or fewer apps. By mid-2016, almost two-thirds of British adults had access to a tablet, but penetration growth had slowed down.

​New York, Sep 26 (IANS) Although garlic is good for health, many people tend to stay away from it due to the stingy bad breath it produces. Now a new study has revealed that consuming raw apple, mint or lettuce right after garlic may help reduce the pungent smell.

Garlic breath is caused by the volatiles -- including diallyl disulfide, allyl mercaptan, allyl methyl disulfide, and allyl methyl sulfide -- present in garlic, said the researchers from the Ohio State University.

In the study, the team gave participants three grams of softneck garlic cloves to chew for 25 seconds, and then water (control); raw, juiced or heated apple; raw or heated lettuce; raw or juiced mint leaves; or green tea were consumed immediately.

The levels of volatiles on the breath after consumption were analysed by selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry.

The findings showed that raw apple and raw lettuce decreased the concentration of volatiles responsible for garlic breath by 50 per cent or more compared to the control for the first 30 minutes.

Mint leaves had a higher deodorisation level compared to raw apple and raw lettuce for all volatile compounds measured.

Apple juice and mint juice reduced the levels of volatiles, but not as effectively as chewing raw apple or raw mint.

Both heated apple and lettuce produced a significant reduction of volatiles.

However, green tea had no deodorising effect on the garlic compounds, the researchers stated.

According to the researchers, foods deodorise garlic breath through two mechanisms.

First, enzymes in the raw foods help to destroy the odours, and then, phenolic -- chemical compounds consisting of a hydroxyl group (-OH) bonded directly to an aromatic hydrocarbon group -- in both the raw and cooked foods destroy the volatiles.

This is why raw foods were generally more effective because they contain both the enzymes and the phenolic compounds, said Rita Mirondo from the Ohio State University, in the paper published in the Journal of Food Science.

​Sydney, Sep 26 (IANS) Managing diabetes could become much cheaper and simpler as researchers in Australia have developed a copper film that can detect glucose from body fluids containing salt, such as sweat or tears.

Researchers at the University of Wollongong's (UOW) Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) reported demonstration of the first construction of copper with a sponge-like porous structure, which can quickly and accurately detect glucose in salt-based fluids.

"The sponge-like porous structure greatly increases the surface area and therefore enhances the sensitivity required to trigger an electrochemical signal," said Professor Yusuke Yamauchi.

"The extraordinary sensing performance of the copper film is probably attributed to its intrinsically good reaction toward glucose oxidation," Yamauchi noted.

"This makes this copper film a good candidate for the direct detection of glucose to satisfy the requirements of diverse applications, such as diabetes management," he added.

People with diabetes often have low levels of insulin, a hormone that converts sugars to energy, which means they have to closely watch their glucose or blood-sugar levels to prevent further chronic health complications.

Foods, physical activity and other factors can influence glucose levels.

This has led medical device manufactures toward developing continuous glucose monitors that can be inserted just under the skin, providing the wearer with regular blood-sugar readings, removing the need for regular finger-pricking to extract a drop of blood for sugar measurement.

But the technology remains expensive, mainly due to the use of precious metals such as platinum in the sensor.

"Precious metals such as gold and platinum have very good conductivity but they are very expensive and we wanted to focus on more abundant and cheaper metals," Yamauchi said.

So the researchers developed a porous copper film with the sponge-like structure.

Testing revealed the film has high selectivity, reacting to glucose without interference from other acids and sugars that can be present in sweat, said the study published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

The researchers believe the copper film could be integrated into a wearable sensor or a smartwatch, providing continual glucose readings to the wearer, which could also be sent via wireless to their doctor.

Washington, Sep 27 (IANS) Nasa on Monday released further evidence to show that there may be oceans on Europa -- Jupiter's largest moon.

Releasing new images captured from the Hubble Space Telescope, the space research organisation announced "surprising evidence of activity" on Europa which could be water vapour erupting from the icy moon, the telegraph reported.

Hubble made its latest identification by studying Europa as it passed in front of Jupiter.

The telescope looked in ultraviolet wavelengths to see if the giant planet's light was in any way being absorbed by material emanating from the moon's surface.

Ten times Hubble looked and on three of those occasions it spied what appeared to be "dark fingers" extending from the edge of Europa.

William Sparks, the lead astronomer on the study, said he could think of no natural phenomenon other than water plumes that might produce such protuberances.

"We're not aware of any instrumental artefacts that could cause these features; they are statistically significant. But we remain cautious because we are working at difficult wavelengths for Hubble," the BBC quoted him as saying.

"We do not claim to have proven the existence of plumes, but rather to have contributed evidence that such activity may be present."

Nonetheless, the location for the putative jets looks very similar to the region where Hubble earlier this decade detected an excess of oxygen and hydrogen -- the component parts of water, the BBC reported.

Europa is one of the largest of Jupiter's 67 known moons. In late 2013 the Hubble telescope observed water vapour erupting from Europa, in what was hailed as a ‘tremendously exciting' discovery.

Previous scientific findings had already pointed to the existence of an ocean located under Europa's icy crust, but it was thought teams in the future would have to drill through the thick layer of ice before any signs of life would be detectable.

Lorenz Roth of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio said at the time that if the plumes of vapour were connected to the ocean beneath the crust they could start searching for life nearer the surface.

"This means that future investigations can directly investigate the chemical makeup of Europa's potentially habitable environment without drilling through layers of ice," the telegraph quoted him as saying.

"And that is tremendously exciting."

Participants in the teleconference included Paul Hertz, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division; William Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore; Britney Schmidt of the Georgia Institute of Technology; and Jennifer Wiseman, senior Hubble project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre.