Knowledge Update

​New York, Feb 2 (IANS) Examining a Martian meteorite found in Africa, scientists have uncovered evidence of at least two billion years of volcanic activity on Mars.

The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, offer new clues to how the planet evolved and insight into the history of volcanic activity on Mars, said lead author of the study Tom Lapen, Professor at University of Houston in the US.

Much of what we know about the composition of rocks from volcanoes on Mars comes from meteorites found on Earth. 

The meteorite, known as Northwest Africa 7635 and discovered in 2012, was found to be a type of volcanic rock called a shergottite. 

Eleven of these Martian meteorites, with similar chemical composition and ejection time, have been found.

"We see that they came from a similar volcanic source," Lapen said. 

"Given that they also have the same ejection time, we can conclude that these come from the same location on Mars," Lapen noted.

Together, these meteorites provide information about a single location on Mars. Previously analysed meteorites range in age from 327 million to 600 million years old. 

In contrast, the meteorite analysed by Lapen's research team was formed 2.4 billion years ago and suggests that it was ejected from one of the longest-lived volcanic centers in the solar system.

The finding confirms that some of the longest-lived volcanoes in the solar system may be found on the Red Planet.

London, Feb 2 (IANS) Do you chronically spend sleepless nights, have poor sleep quality or face difficulties initiating or maintaining sleep? Beware, you may be more than thrice at risk of developing asthma in adulthood, researchers have warned.

Asthma affects approximately 300 million people worldwide, with major risk factors including smoking, obesity and air pollution.

"The study found that those people with chronic insomnia had more than three times the risk of developing asthma, suggesting that any changes in the body due to insomnia may accumulate and result in more severe harmful effects on the airways," said lead author Ben Brumpton from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Norway.

More recently, symptoms of depression and anxiety have also been associated with a risk of developing asthma in adulthood, the researchers said.

For the study, published in the European Respiratory Journal, the team used statistical analysis to assess the risk of asthma among 17,927 participants aged between 20 and 65 years in Norway. 

The results showed that those participants reporting difficulty falling asleep "often" or "almost every night" during the last month had a 65 per cent and 108 per cent increased risk of developing asthma over the following 11 years, respectively.

Similarly, those who reported waking too early without being able to go back to sleep "often" or "almost every night" had a 92 per cent and 36 per cent increased risk of developing asthma. 

For people who reported poor quality sleep more than once a week, the risk of developing asthma increased by 94 per cent.

"As insomnia is a manageable condition, an increased focus on the adverse health effects of insomnia could be helpful in the prevention of asthma," suggested Linn Beate Strand from NTNU.

Beijing, Feb 1 (IANS) In a first, Chinese scientists have used a novel version of the CRISPR gene-editing technology to successfully produce live cows with increased resistance to bovine tuberculosis (TB).

The researchers from Northwest A&F University in China used a modified version of the CRISPR system called CRISPR/Cas9n to insert a new TB resistance gene -- NRAMP1 -- into the genome of bovine foetal fibroblasts -- a cell derived from female dairy cows.

"We used a novel version of the CRISPR system to successfully insert a TB resistance gene into the cow genome. We were then able to successfully develop live cows carrying increased resistance to TB," said led author Yong Zhang.

These cells were then used as donor cells in a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer, where the nucleus of a donor cell carrying the new gene is inserted into an egg cell, known as an ovum, from a female cow.

These ovum were then nurtured in the lab into embryos before being transferred into mother cows for a normal pregnancy cycle, in which cows were produced with no off target effects on the animals' genetics -- a common problem when creating transgenic animals using CRISPR.

"Importantly, our method produced no off target effects on the cow genetics meaning the CRISPR technology we employed may be better suited to producing transgenic livestock with purposefully manipulated genetics," Zhang added in the study published in the journal Genome Biology.

For the study, the team used CRISPR to insert the new gene in 11 calves.

The results revealed that NRAMP1 had successfully integrated into the genetic code at the targeted region in all of the calves. 

When exposed to Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) -- the bacterium that causes bovine TB -- the transgenic animals showed an increased resistance to the bacteria measured by standard markers of infection in a blood sample.

Further, white blood cells taken from the calves also showed much resistance to M. bovis exposure in laboratory tests.

​Mumbai, Jan 31 (IANS) Liqvd Asia, a digital marketing agency recognised by Google as a Premier Partner, has launched a one of its kind online exhibition gateway titled ExFirst.com, an open platform where an exhibition from any industry can be conducted by any organisation.

New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry on Wednesday updated its crisis communication platform "AtHoc" with enhanced mobile alert functionality, upgraded map-based experiences for emergency operators and other performance improvements.

​New York, Feb 1 (IANS) Communication in data centres in near future can become hassle-free as engineers are proposing to eliminate most of the wires and substitute infrared free-space optics for communications.

​New York, Feb 1 (IANS) In a bid to display more relevant stories on its News Feed, Facebook has rolled out fresh changes with new signals to "better identify and rank authentic content".

San Francisco, Feb 1 (IANS) Riding on the success of iPhone 7 and Apple Watch, the Cupertino-based company on Wednesday announced an all-time record revenue of $78.4 billion -- with a record quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.36 -- for the first quarter of 2017 that ended on December 31. The results compare to revenue of $75.9 billion and earnings per diluted share of $3.28 in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 per cent of the quarter's revenue, the company said in a statement. Apple shares rose three per cent in after-hours trading following the results. "We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Revenue from Services grew strongly over last year, led by record customer activity on the App Store, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline," he said. Apple faced falling revenue for three consecutive quarters as Chinese competition hit sales of its flagship iPhone series. But iPhone7 changed Apple's fortune in 2017 first quarter. The company sold 78.3 million iPhones, up from 74.8 million a year before. "It reported revenue of $54.3 billion from iPhone sales, along with $7.2 billion from the Mac, $5.5 billion from the iPad and $4 billion from other products, including the Apple Watch," BBC reported. "Our outstanding business performance resulted in a new all-time record for earnings per share, and over $27 billion in operating cash flow," said Luca Maestri, Apple's CFO. "We returned nearly $15 billion to investors through share repurchases and dividends during the quarter, bringing cumulative payments through our capital return program to over $200 billion," Maestri added. Revenues from its services division -- including the App Store, Apple Music and iCloud -- were $7.1 billion.

​London, Feb 1 (IANS) Observing a curious neutron star in a binary system known as the 'Rapid Burster', scientists have found that its magnetic field could explain 40-year-old mystery surrounding its puzzling X-ray bursts.

Discovered in the 1970s, the Rapid Burster is a binary system comprising a low-mass star in its prime and a neutron star -- the compact remnant of a massive star's demise. 

The scientists discovered that its magnetic field creates a gap around the star, largely preventing it from feeding on matter from its stellar companion. 

Gas builds up until, under certain conditions, it hits the neutron star all at once, producing intense flashes of X-rays. 

The discovery, reported in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, was made with space telescopes including European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and NASA's NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) and Swift missions.

In a a binary system known as the 'Rapid Burster', the gravitational pull of the dense remnant strips the other star of some of its gas; the gas forms an accretion disc and spirals towards the neutron star.

As a result of this accretion process, most neutron star binaries continuously release large amounts of X-rays, which are punctuated by additional X-ray flashes every few hours or days.

Scientists can account for these 'type-I' bursts, in terms of nuclear reactions that are ignited in the inflowing gas -- mainly hydrogen - when it accumulates on the neutron star's surface.

But the Rapid Burster is a peculiar source: at its brightest, it does emit these type-I flashes, while during periods of lower X-ray emission, it exhibits the much more elusive 'type-II' bursts - these are sudden, erratic and extremely intense releases of X-rays.

"The Rapid Burster is the archetypal system to investigate type-II bursts - it's where they were first observed and the only source that shows both type-I and type-II bursts," said lead author Jakob van den Eijnden from Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Despite 40 years of searches, type-II bursts have been detected only in one other source besides the Rapid Burster. 

Known as the Bursting Pulsar and discovered in the 1990s, this binary system exhibits only type-II bursts.

Because of the scarcity of sources that display this phenomenon, the underlying physical mechanisms have long been debated, but the new study of the Rapid Burster could provide evidence for what is occurring.

New York, Feb 1 (IANS) Researchers have invented a hand-held breath monitor that can potentially detect flu virus and help prevent flu epidemics from spreading.

The device could eventually be available in drug stores so that people can be diagnosed quickly and take advantage of medicines used to treat the flu in its earliest stages. 

"I think that technology like this is going to revolutionise personalised diagnostics," said Perena Gouma, Professor at The University of Texas at Arlington in the US.

"This will allow people to be proactive and catch illnesses early and the technology can easily be used to detect other diseases such as Ebola virus disease, simply by changing the sensors," said Gouma, who has described her invention in the journal Sensors.

Gouma's device is similar to the breathalysers used by police officers when they suspect a driver to be under the influence of alcohol. 

A patient simply exhales into the device, which uses semiconductor sensors like those in a household carbon monoxide detector.

The difference is that these sensors are specific to the gas detected, yet still inexpensive, and can isolate biomarkers associated with the flu virus and indicate whether or not the patient has the flu. 

Researchers believe that the device may help prevent flu epidemics from spreading, protecting both individuals as well as the public health.

Gouma and her team relied on existing medical literature to determine the quantities of known biomarkers present in a person's breath when afflicted with a particular disease, then applied that knowledge to find a combination of sensors for those biomarkers that is accurate for detecting the flu. 

Gouma found that the breath monitor may detect the flu virus possibly as well as tests done in a doctor's office.