Knowledge Update

New York, Jan 20 (IANS) In an aim to improve competition in downloadable audiobook distribution in Europe, Apple and Amazon have agreed to end an exclusivity agreement that made Audible the only seller of audiobooks inside of iTunes.

​Copenhagen, Jan 20 (IANS) Social media giant Facebook announced on Thursday that it would build a new data centre in Odense, Denmark's third largest city in Funen island.

The new centre, which is Facebook's third outside the United States, would be one of the most advanced and energy-efficient data centres in the world and would be powered

​New York, Jan 20 (IANS) In an attempt to search for life outside Earth, an astronomer has studied an exoplanet called Wolf 1061 and found the celestial body could be habitable in the future.

Astronomer Stephen Kane from San Francisco State University, in his research focused on finding "habitable zones" where water could exist in a liquid state on a planet's surface. 

Kane and his team examined a habitable zone on a planetary system 14 light years away. "The Wolf 1061 system is important because it is so close and that gives other opportunities to do follow-up studies to see if it does indeed have life," Kane said in a statement.

One of the three known planets in the Wolf 1061 system, a rocky planet called Wolf 1061c, is entirely within the habitable zone. 

When scientists search for planets that could sustain life, they are basically looking for a planet with nearly identical properties to Earth. 

"Simply put, the planet can't be too close or too far from its parent star. A planet that's too close would be too hot like Earth's twin Venus. If it's too far, it may be too cold and any water would freeze, which is what happens on Mars," Kane noted.

Since Wolf 1061c is close to the inner edge of the habitable zone, meaning closer to the star, it could be that the planet has an atmosphere that's more similar to Venus. 

Kane and his team also observed that unlike Earth, which experiences climatic changes such as an ice age because of slow variations in its orbit around the sun, Wolf 1061c's orbit changes at a much faster rate, which could mean the climate there could be quite chaotic.

According to Kane, life is possible on Wolf 1061c under one possibility -- the short time scales over which Wolf 1061c's orbit changes could be enough that it could actually cool the planet off.

But fully understanding what's happening on the planet's surface will take more research, he added.

The findings are forthcoming in the Astrophysical Journal in a paper titled "Characterization of the Wolf 1061 Planetary System".

​New York, Jan 20 (IANS) Older adults with low blood levels of a circulating protein in the blood may be at an increased risk of experiencing decline in their kidney function, a study has found.

The findings showed that higher blood levels of a protein called soluble klotho -- with anti-ageing properties -- may help preserve kidney function. 

"We found a strong association between low soluble klotho and decline in kidney function, independent of many known risk factors for kidney function decline," said David Drew from Tufts University in Massachusetts, US.

The kidney has the highest levels of klotho expression and is likely the major source of soluble klotho, and thus, in patients with kidney disease levels of klotho tend to be low.

Although the exact mechanism of action of soluble klotho remains to be identified, the protein has been shown to influence multiple cellular and endocrine pathways, the researchers said.

After adjusting for various factors such as demographics, comorbidities, and kidney disease risk factors, each two-fold higher level of klotho was linked with a 15-20 per cent lower likelihood of experiencing kidney function decline in the elderly.

"This suggests that klotho could play a role in the development of chronic kidney disease and also raises the possibility that klotho could be an important therapeutic target for future clinical trials," Drew added.

For the study, the team analysed 2496 study elderly with measures of soluble serum klotho and repeated measures of kidney function over 10 years of follow up.

Although additional studies are needed, the findings point to a potential target for preventing and treating kidney disease, the researchers stated.

The study is forthcoming in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

​Singapore, Jan 20 (IANS) Ever wondered why we are not plunged into intermittent darkness when we blink? Researchers in Singapore may have the answer.

It is because our brain works extra hard to stabilise our vision, without which our surroundings would appear shadowy, erratic and jittery after we blink, a study has showed.

Blinking lubricates dry eyes and protects them from irritants. However, when we blink, our eyeballs roll back in their sockets and do not always return to the same spot when we reopen our eyes. 

This misalignment prompts the brain to activate the eye muscles to realign our vision, the researchers said. 

The finding showed that when we blink, our brain repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused on what we are viewing.

"Our eye muscles are quite sluggish and imprecise, so the brain needs to constantly adapt its motor signals to make sure our eyes are pointing where they're supposed to," said lead author Gerrit Maus, Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. 

"Our findings suggest that the brain gauges the difference in what we see before and after a blink and commands the eye muscles to make the needed corrections," Maus added.

For the study, healthy young adults participated where they sat in a dark room for long periods staring at a dot on a screen while infrared cameras tracked their eye movements and eye blinks in real time.

Every time they blinked, the dot was moved one centimetre to the right. While participants failed to notice the subtle shift, the brain's oculomotor system registered the movement and learned to reposition the line of vision squarely on the dot.

After 30 or so blink-synchronised dot movements, participants' eyes adjusted during each blink and shifted automatically to the spot where they predicted the dot to be.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

​Seoul, Jan 19 (IANS) South Korean currency's volatility to the US dollar hit the highest in six years in 2016 on external uncertainties including the presidential election and the expected rate hike in the US, central bank data showed on Thursday.

​New York, Jan 19 (IANS) Apple has updated its music creation apps -- GarageBand -- for iOS 2.2 and Logic Pro X 10.3 -- with new features for music makers on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

​New York, Jan 19 (IANS) In a bid to help developers build better apps and grow their business, Google has acquired micro-blogging platform Twitter's mobile app developer platform called Fabric.

San Francisco, Jan 19 (IANS) Retailers remain in the early phases of digital transformation and are missing a $187 billion opportunity by not prioritising investments in employee productivity, global networking giant Cisco said on Thursday. Six per cent of retailers' investment priorities are focused on employee productivity use cases despite the fact these use cases deliver the greatest return on investment for retailers, the company estimated. "The shakeup caused by digital disruption is already underway with major retailers announcing the closure of hundreds of their brick and mortar stores in recent months in order to better compete in a landscape where physical and digital channels are increasingly converging," said Kathryn Howe, Director, US Commercial Digital Transformation, Retail and Hospitality Industries, Cisco, in a statement. In an effort to help retailers achieve digital transformation, Cisco has released "A Roadmap to Digital Value in the Retail Industry" which guides retailers through three phases -- enable digital capabilities, differentiate their brand through new digital capabilities and define new business models through digital disruption. Only 29 per cent of retailers' investment priorities are currently focused on the "differentiate" phase and only 22 per cent in the "define" phase, the second and third phases of the roadmap, respectively. The findings indicate that most retailers have not made enough progress when it comes to digital transformation and may be at risk of being out-performed by faster moving, more innovative retail ventures. Retailers are prioritising the majority of their digital technology investments in customer experience use cases (37 per cent) that aim to improve personal engagement with consumers. "Retailers need to make more progress in digitising their workforce and their core operations in order to execute on the innovative customer experiences they want to deliver, and to position themselves for success in the new retail landscape," added Howe.

​Beijing, Jan 19 (IANS) The number of outbound cruise passengers in China topped 2 million for the first time in 2016, according to a report by China Cruise & Yacht Industry Association (CCYIA) on Thursday.

A total of 2.12 million Chinese holiday-makers departed from China's 10 major port cities, including Tianjin, Dalian, Yantai, Shanghai, Guanghzou and Haikou, to travel overseas last year, up 91 per cent year-on-year, Xinhua news agency reported.

In the meantime, the number of overseas cruise tourists visiting the 10 Chinese ports rose 8 per cent to 138,715 in 2016.

Shanghai, Tianjin and Guanghzou were the top three ports to welcome passengers last year, taking up 65 per cent, 16.3 per cent and 7.2 per cent of total inbound and outbound travellers respectively, according to the report.

China has become the world's eighth biggest cruise market, with domestic tourists planning more diverse travel experiences in recent years.

"Amid the burgeoning cruise industry, issues such as poor service should also be highlighted," said Zheng Weihang, Executive Vice Chairman and Secretary General of CCYIA.

"China will make more efforts in enhancing the manufacturing of cruise liners and improving the capacity and efficiency of its ports."