Knowledge Update

Bangalore, April 10 (IANS) E-commerce major Flipkart on Monday said it has raised a total of $1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft.

The latest funding round, at a post-transaction valuation of $11.6 billion, is the largest in Flipkart's 10-year history as well as in the Indian internet sector and comes as Flipkart

​New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) Yahoo India on Monday unveiled Yahoo Storytellers -- a new content marketing solution to help brands and agencies in India meet high expectations and drive engagement among consumers. It will bring Yahoo's editorial expertise, extensive data and native advertising through Yahoo Gemini -- a marketplace for mobile and native ads. "With Yahoo Storytellers, we're offering a better way for brands to create powerful content that's informed by data and engages the right audience." said Gurmit Singh, Vice President and Managing Director, Yahoo India. Yahoo Storytellers will help brands build content consulting services, development of premium video, a full range of editorial content and influencer activations across social platforms. In India, Yahoo has partnered with multiple brands to help them create successful campaigns, including Accenture, Amazon, Madhya Pradesh Tourism and Tourism Australia, among others.

Sydney, April 10 (IANS) A pioneering anaesthesia technique that makes surgery safer for patients with obstructed airways has helped save at least one life already, doctors in Australia said on Monday.

"An adult patient with an infected epiglottis was in danger of having his airway blocked by rapid swelling, and this technique enabled us to safely control his airway without surgery," said Anton Booth, Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

"It is also making a difference to quality of life for those people who may previously have been unsuitable for surgery," Booth said in a university news release.

In a study conducted at Australia's Princess Alexandra Hospital, the team combined two relatively new techniques.

"Traditionally with anaesthesia we expect patients to stop breathing, as we are putting them into a state resembling a medically-induced coma," Booth said.

"Our job as anaesthetists is to take over breathing for the patient to keep them oxygenated, often through intubation. In patients undergoing surgery for narrowed airways we can't insert a tube into the trachea where the surgeons are trying to operate," he said.

"Instead we implemented a way to keep the patient breathing spontaneously during anaesthesia," Booth added.

The team supplemented that approach by adding high-flow nasal oxygen supply, previously used in intensive care and respiratory units.

"Through this combination we have been able to manage anaesthesia for patients with very challenging airway narrowing," he said.

"We have been able to achieve quite spectacular improvements in oxygen levels while patients are in deep anaesthesia. This is a modern alternative to traditional techniques and has great potential to be used in many other scenarios," Booth said.

The technique, known as STRIVE Hi, was detailed in the British Journal of Anaesthesia.

New York, April 10 (IANS) Just by looking at images of winter scenery and imagining yourself in such a setting can help you have increased cognitive control, say researchers.

Cognitive control is the ability to deliberately inhibit responses or make choices that maximise the long-term best interests of the individual. For example, when a person is very hungry and sees a sandwich but does not eat it, he/she is exhibiting cognitive control.

"Metaphorical phrases like 'coldly calculating', 'heated response' and 'cool-headed' actually have some scientific validity, which we demonstrate in our study," said lead researcher Idit Shalev from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel. 

The findings, published in the journal Psychological Research, demonstrated that the perception of cold temperatures elicits greater cognitive control, even from a photo.

"Previous research focused on the actual effect of temperature on the psychological phenomenon known as 'cognitive control'," Shalev said. 

"But this is the first time we were able to measure the effects of perceived temperature," Shalev added.

In one of the experiments conducted for the study, 28 students were shown images of winter scenery, a temperature-neutral concrete street and a sunny landscape, and told to picture themselves in those settings.

The researchers then measured how the participants performed on an "anti-saccade task", an established cognitive control measure which requires looking in the direction opposite to which an object is moving.

"The result indicated that those viewing the cold landscape did better and that even without a physical trigger, cognitive control can be activated through conceptual processes alone," Shalev said.

The researchers said there is a possible explanation for the relation of temperature and cognitive control with social proximity. 

"While signals of warmth induce a relaxed attitude, cool signals trigger alertness and a possible need for greater cognitive control," Shalev explained.

​New York, April 8 (IANS) In a tough challenge to team collaboration tool Slack, Facebook has announced to offer a version of Workplace for free.

Workplace, Facebook's messaging service for businesses, is one of the many products used by businesses to chat and share files within their select groups.

​New York, April 8 (IANS) Researchers have discovered a protein that could help make vaccinations more effective and also provide protection from other diseases such as cancer.

The researchers purified a protein found on the exterior of bacteria (neisseria meningidis) and used it as an accessory to provide a better vaccination response. 

Typically, vaccines can either increase the amount of antibody production or they can stimulate cells (called cytotoxic T cells) to directly kill the offending agent. 

The protein, called PorB, is unique in that it can do both, the researchers said. 

The study, published online in the journal Scientific Reports, may lead to greater understanding of how vaccine enhancers work and can best be used.

"This study has wide implications as it could not only be used to help the body identify and fight off bacterial infections, but it could also potentially help the body use its own machinery to fight off other diseases like cancer, HIV, and influenza before they have a chance to establish within the body," explained corresponding author Lee Wetzler, Professor of Medicine and Microbiology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in the US.

In this study, the researchers used two experimental models. The first model was given a vaccination with antigen and mixed PorB, while the second model was given the antigen alone. 

The model that received the PorB had an increase in the response to the vaccine antigen, evidenced by an increased number of activated cells in the lymph nodes and a gain in the production of cytotoxic T cells, as compared to the vaccination with the antigen alone.

"Our study deepens the general understanding of how vaccine adjuvants modulate immune responses," Wetzler said.

"The antigen formulation with PorB triggers a sequence of cellular events at the periphery and in lymphoid tissue that are critical for the establishment of protection to a broad array of infectious diseases, and maybe for other diseases like cancer," Wetzler added.

New Delhi, April 7 (IANS) With the cost of clean technology continues to fall, the world added record levels of renewable energy capacity in 2016, at an investment level 23 per cent lower than the previous year, says an international research.

​Rome, April 7 (IANS) Global prices for all basic foods dropped globally in March, except meat, which rose slightly, said a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation report.

The FAO's price index for cereal, vegetable oil, sugar, milk and meat markets was at 171 points, a 2.8 per cent fall from the previous month and 13.4 per cent lower year-on-

​Seoul, April 7 (IANS) Riding on an improved performance of its TV and home appliance businesses, LG Electronics Inc. on Friday said its first-quarter operating profit is estimated at 922 billion won ($812.3 million), a market forecast-beating figure.

New Delhi, April 7 (IANS) Driven by e-commerce and financial services, India's internet economy is expected to double from $125 billion to $250 billion -- growing from the current five per cent to 7.5 per cent of the country's GDP, a joint report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) said on Friday.