Knowledge Update

New York, March 16 (IANS) Scientists have developed a new pill that can act as non-invasive alternative to colonoscopies -- an effective way to screen for colon cancer -- and help identify growths called polyps.

Colorectal cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths in women and second leading cause in men. Early detection and screening are essential to reduce the rates of colorectal cancer.

The pill -- PillCam Colon 2 -- contains two miniature cameras on either end. After being ingested by the patient, the capsule travels through the digestive tract, captures images and wirelessly transmits them to a recorder the patient wears on a belt.

Like a colonoscopy, the system can help identify growths called polyps, said researchers from Loyola University in Chicago, US.

During a standard colonoscopy, a flexible tube (colonoscope) is inserted into the rectum and guided by a physician through the colon. A camera at the end of the colonoscope allows for visualisation of polyps.

However, some patients cannot tolerate the procedure, or may be at higher risk for sedation, the researchers said.

With the new system, the patient swallows the capsule with water. After the non-reusable capsule is excreted, it's flushed down the toilet. The patient returns the recorder to the physician's office. If a polyp is found, the patient arranges to undergo a colonoscopy to remove the growth.

"Early detection has been proven to save lives, and the video capsule system offers a convenient screening test for people who are unable to have a complete colonoscopy," Mukund Venu from Loyola University, said in a statement.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved the capsule system for patients whose anatomy of the colon makes it difficult to guide a colonoscope through the entire colon and for patients who have elevated risk of complications due to age or other reasons.

​Bengaluru, March 15 (IANS) Software major Wipro on Wednesday announced opening an automotive engineering centre at Detroit in the US to drive innovation in connected vehicles concepts.

New York, March 16 (IANS) A common genetic variant that accelerates normal brain ageing in older people by up to 12 years has been identified by US researchers.

The findings could point towards a novel biomarker for the evaluation of anti-ageing interventions and highlight potential new targets for the prevention or treatment of age-associated brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, the researchers said.

"If you look at a group of elderly, some will look older than their peers and some will look younger. The same differences in ageing can be seen in the frontal cortex, the brain region responsible for higher mental processes," said Asa Abeliovich, Professor at Columbia University Medical Centre (CUMC) in the US.

The results, published in the journal Cell Systems, showed that many of these differences are tied to variants of a gene called TMEM106B. About one-third of people have two copies of TMEM106B and another third have one copy.

People who have two 'bad' copies of this gene have a frontal cortex that, by various biological measures, tends to appear 12 years older than those who have two normal copies.

"TMEM106B begins to exert its effect once people reach age 65. Until then, everybody's in the same boat, and then there's some yet-to-be-defined stress that kicks in. If you have two good copies of the gene, you respond well to that stress. If you have two bad copies, your brain ages quickly," Abeliovich explained.

"It's in healthy tissue that you start to get disease. It appears that if you have these genetic variants, brain ageing accelerates and that increases vulnerability to brain disease. And vice versa: if you have brain disease, the disease accelerates brain ageing," he noted. 

​London, March 15 (IANS) Sixty-eight per cent of organisations use artificial intelligence (AI) for IT functions, but 70 per cent believe AIs greatest impact by 2020 will be in marketing, customer service, finance and HR, a new study said on Wednesday.

​New York, March 15 (IANS) Software giant Microsoft has rolled out its collaboration and communication platform Teams to all its 85 million monthly active users of Office 365 for free.

Seoul, March 15 (IANS) After working for foldable displays for years, South Korean giant Samsung will start manufacturing game-changer smartphone that can be folded in the third quarter of 2017. "Q3 2017 is already marked in some calendars as the time for IFA 2017 in Berlin. Samsung usually introduces the Galaxy Note series, but that does not exclude the possibility of having a foldable smartphone presented to the crowd, or at least tease one for a later date," GSMArena.com reported on Wednesday. Last year, Samsung has reportedly filed a patent with the Korean Intellectual Property Office for a smartphone that can be folded in half and is expected to arrive next year. Called the Galaxy X, the front of the smartphone will sport traditional Samsung home button in between a back button on the right and a menu button on the left, media reports said.

New York, March 15 (IANS) Google will maintain its dominance and account for 40.7 per cent of US digital ad revenues in 2017 -- more than double Facebooks share, market research company eMarketer said. According to eMarketer's forecast, the US digital ad spending will reach $83 billion in 2017, representing an increase of 15.9 per cent. eMarketer expects Google's share of the search market to grow 16.1 per cent to $28.55 billion in 2017 and the search giant will claim roughly 78 per cent of total US search ad revenues this year. "Google's dominance in search, especially mobile search, is largely coming from the growing tendency of consumers to turn to their smartphones to look up everything from the details of a product to directions," Monica Peart, Forecasting Analyst, eMarketer, said in a statement. As Google dominates search, Facebook rules display. The social network's US display business will jump 32.1 per cent to $16.33 billion, capturing 39.1 per cent of the US display market, taking share away from Google, Yahoo, and Twitter, the findings showed. Facebook's revenue growth can be attributed to growth in both usage and time spent, which continues to draw advertisers in greater numbers. Instagram is also helping to drive Facebook's revenue growth. In fact, Instagram will make up 20 per cent of Facebook's US mobile revenue this year, up from 15 per cent last year. "Facebook users are increasingly captivated by videos on the platform -- not just on Facebook, but on Instagram as well. Video, both live and recorded, is a key driver of growing user engagement and advertiser enthusiasm," added Peart. Meanwhile, Google's display business will rise to $5.24 billion, but its share of the display market will drop to 12.5 per cent, the report noted. In 2017, Snapchat's ad revenue will grow 157.8 per cent to $770 million in the US. That's slightly lower than the $800 million previously projected, due to higher-than-estimated revenue sharing with partners. Snapchat's ad business, which is made up entirely of mobile display, is still small. Snapchat will account for 1.3 per cent of the mobile ad market this year. By 2019, that will grow to 2.7 per cent, the report added.

​Hong Kong, March 15 (IANS) It is easy to remember Hong Kong for its enormous variety of food and leisure, and the way these can be relished in quick time. But for me, Hong Kong is also about neatness, planning, seamless transport and the no-fuss attitude of its street vendors who make budget shopping a memorable experience.

Hong Kong delighted me in several ways. The manner in which people of the city have overcome challenges posed by nature, created opportunities for themselves and made the city one of the top business hubs of the world seemed worth emulating.

Hong Kong, which became a special administrative region (SAR) of China in 1997 after 150 years of British administration, has few natural resources. Given that it's tiny (its land area is only 1,073 sq km), most commercial and residential buildings shoot skyward. Hong Kong has the most skyscrapers in the world for any city.

The city's small area has its own advantages for a tourist. For instance, the city's historic tram, it's mass transit railway (MTR) system, colourful taxis, double-decker buses and the famous star ferry can all be experienced one after the other within a few hours while hopping from one place to the other.

Hong Kong has shops to cater to every pocket and taste and there is enough for a budget tourist to explore. I, too, searched for options that were not hard on the pocket.

The Ladies' Market near Mong Kok MTR station had vendors selling an array of products including bags, purses, shoes, track suits, T-shirts and accessories. A large number of products were for ladies and they were also the ones managing most of the stalls.

I bargained to bring down prices, but it was not always easy. A survey of the market helped identify vendors who seemed inclined to bring down prices. Trials were not allowed on garments and one had to go by one's estimation. Several vendors seemed to have difficulty with English but, nevertheless, managed to communicate in a business-like manner.

The evening market near Sham Shui Po MTR station was also quite an experience and I found a few people from India and Pakistan surreptitiously selling their wares, mostly garments and shoes, on the pavement. They told me that they did not have valid documents to engage in jobs or businesses and were planning to return home in due course. The present tensions between India and Pakistan did not matter to them as they stayed and dined together. They kept track of domestic developments in their countries through WhatsApp messages and the Internet.

The market had an array of products including watches, clocks, toys, phones, accessories and electronic goods. But one had to be careful about prices. A wireless microphone Hifi speaker, being sold by a street vendor at HK$150 (Rs 1,260), was priced at a nearby shop for HK$280.

I also realised the enormous spread of China-made goods and the variation in their prices at different places. An alarm clock I had seen in a gift shop in east Delhi for Rs 500 was available at a local shop in the market for HK$35 (Rs 315) and I could purchase it for HK$32 (Rs 288) after a little bargaining. Quite a steal!

But while Sham Shui Po is a working class neighbourhood, I also spotted a street market in upmarket Wan Chai. Here, the quality of products was better though a little higher priced. There were also no-frills shops along some the main roads in Wan Chai which offered good quality garments, purses and bags at very decent prices.

Hong Kong offers a rich variety of cuisine and has thousands of restaurants to cater to various tastes. Apart from venues for fine dining, the city has several road-side eateries which offer a mind-boggling variety of non-vegetarian stuff.

There are options for vegetarians too, but one has to look at the menu and the medium of cooking carefully. Indian food is also becoming increasingly popular and vegetarianism is gaining ground with the "Green Monday" campaign.

Hong Kong's cleanliness is remarkable and demonstrated to me the vast distance we have to cover to make our cities clean despite programmes like Swachh Bharat (Clean India).

Tourists have their hands full in Hong Kong and are spoilt for choice. Apart from its well-known attractions like Disneyland and Ocean Park, Hong Kong offers a lot to explore including beaches, city parks, museums, harbour views, cycling, modern architecture and visits to outlying islands.

The city also takes continuous care of its infrastructure to keep it world class. The traffic flows smoothly on well-planned roads and magnificent bridges. An express rail link is being built to provide speedy connectivity with mainland China. The transport system in Hong Kong is neatly integrated and provides multiple options to reach a destination depending on time and money a traveller is willing to spend.

Hong Kong, it was clear, innovates constantly to create opportunities for its people and new avenues of recreation for tourists.

New York, March 15 (IANS) Scientists have developed a high-resolution retinal prosthesis using nanowires and wireless electronics that may aid neurons in the retina to respond to light.

The technology could help tens of millions of people worldwide suffering from neurodegenerative diseases that affect eyesight, including macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and loss of vision due to diabetes.

In the study, detailed in the Journal of Neural Engineering, the researchers demonstrated this response to light in a rat retina interfacing with a prototype of the device in vitro.

"We want to create a new class of devices with drastically improved capabilities to help people with impaired vision," said Gabriel A. Silva, Professor at the University of California San Diego in the US.

The new prosthesis relies on two ground-breaking technologies. One consists of arrays of silicon nanowires that simultaneously sense light and electrically stimulate the retina accordingly.

The nanowires give the prosthesis higher resolution than anything achieved by other devices -- closer to the dense spacing of photoreceptors in the human retina. 

The other is a wireless device that can transmit power and data to the nanowires over the same wireless link at record speed and energy efficiency.

Further, the new system does not require a vision sensor outside of the eye to capture a visual scene and then transform it into alternating signals to sequentially stimulate retinal neurons.

Instead, the silicon nanowires mimic the retina's light-sensing cones and rods to directly stimulate retinal cells.

Nanowires are bundled into a grid of electrodes, directly activated by light and powered by a single wireless electrical signal. 

The power provided to the nanowires from the single wireless electrical signal gives the light-activated electrodes their high sensitivity while also controlling the timing of stimulation.

Seoul, March 15 (IANS) Challenging a commonly held theory that changes in the Earth's orbit triggered Sahara desertification, a new study suggests that humans may have played an active role in the transition of a lush green landscape into the world's largest hot desert thousands of years ago.

The desertification of the Sahara has long been a target for scientists trying to understand climate and ecological tipping points. 

Most studies done to date point to changes in the Earth's orbit or natural changes in vegetation as the major driving forces.

In a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science, David Wright from Seoul National University in South Korea challenges the conclusions of these studies.

"In East Asia there are long established theories of how Neolithic populations changed the landscape so profoundly that monsoons stopped penetrating so far inland," said Wright. 

Evidence of human-driven ecological and climatic change has been documented in Europe, North America and New Zealand, said Wright who believed that similar scenarios could also apply to the Sahara.

To test his hypothesis, Wright reviewed archaeological evidence documenting the first appearances of pastoralism across the Saharan region, and compared this with records showing the spread of scrub vegetation, an indicator of an ecological shift towards desert-like conditions. 

The findings confirmed his thoughts.

Beginning approximately 8,000 years ago in the regions surrounding the Nile River, pastoral communities began to appear and spread westward, increasing at the same time the spread of scrub vegetation, the study said.

Growing agricultural addiction had a severe effect on the region's ecology. As more vegetation was removed by the introduction of livestock, it increased the albedo (the amount of sunlight that reflects off the earth's surface) of the land, which in turn influenced atmospheric conditions sufficiently to reduce monsoon rainfall. 

The weakening monsoons caused further desertification and vegetation loss, promoting a feedback loop which eventually spread over the entirety of the modern Sahara, the study said.