Knowledge Update

New York, Sep 25 (IANS) In a study having far-reaching implications like helping preserve the environment through reducing excess carbon expelled by humans into the atmosphere, an international research team has catalogued surface ocean viruses treble the number of those known hitherto.

The study, led by scientists from Ohio State University, in the US, including University of Michigan biologist Melissa Duhaime, catalogues triple the number of known types of viruses living in waters around the globe and is expected to provide scientists a better idea about what role they play in nature.

Microbes in the oceans make half of the oxygen humans breathe, making viruses that infect these microbes particularly important.

"Our work not only provides a relatively complete catalogue of surface ocean viruses, but also reveals new ways that viruses modulate greenhouse gases and energy in the oceans," said lead author Simon Roux of Ohio State.

The researchers processed viral samples collected by scientists aboard two exploration ships to Antarctica.

Roux analysed genetic information from those samples to catalogue 15,222 genetically distinct viruses and group them into 867 clusters that share similar properties.

"Ten years ago I would never have dreamed that we could establish such an extensive catalogue of ocean organisms around the world," added Matthew Sullivan, the study's senior author and an associate professor of microbiology.

"Scientists around the world are revealing how microbes impact our bodies, soil, air and oceans. As we improve our ability to study viruses, we're seeing the role viruses play in these microbial functions," Sullivan noted.

"These findings have implications far beyond ocean viral diversity and will help us better understand microbial diversity on a global scale," added Duhaime in a paper published online in the journal Nature.

​London, Sep 26 (IANS) Researching about the the early origins of the common house cat , a new DNA study has found that the felines travelled the world with farmers and Vikings.

The findings showed that there appeared to be two big migration waves of ancient cats -- the first occurred not long after the development of agriculture by humans and the second shortly after the domestication of cats in ancient Egypt approximately 4,000 years ago, said Eva-Maria Geigl, an evolutionary geneticist at the Institut Jacques Monod in France. 

The first wave was the result of agriculture by humans.

Small cats came into contact with the humans as an increased populations of rodents started consuming the grains they grew.

A link between cats in the Fertile Crescent -- a region in the Middle East and other parts of the Mediterranean, confirmed this, the researchers said. 

The second wave occurred several thousand years later and appeared to be driven by human migrations out of Egypt. 

Due to farmers and seafaring travellers taking cats along with them to reduce rat and mouse populations, cats were found in Egypt and throughout Eurasia as well as parts of Africa.

In addition, the researchers also found that the fierce Vikings apparently had a soft spot for little kitties and one of them was found buried alongside its master in a common grave site that was dated back 1000 years. 

To learn more about the ancestry of the cat, the researchers obtained mitochondrial DNA samples of 209 cats from multiple archaeological sites around the world. 

The ages of the remains ranged from approximately 15,000 years ago to just 300 years ago. 

The study was presented at International Symposium on Biomolecular Archaeology 2016 at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, in Britain.

Tokyo, Sep 26 (IANS) Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are potentially more exposed to reproaches, say researchers in a study that aimed to find the effect of punishment in children with the disorder.

Children with ADHD often get into trouble with their parents, teachers and friends, for their elevated activity levels, impulsive actions and difficulty in focusing. 

The findings showed that children with ADHD try to avoid punishment more often over time than other children without the disorder. 

On the other hand, for children without the disorder, punishment seemed to be less distractive as they keep their focus on winning.

"If a child with ADHD is reluctant in doing a task, or if the child gives up easily, it might be important for the parent or the teacher to check if the task has the appropriate balance of reward and punishment," said Gail Tripp, Professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), in Japan. 

"The task may not have punishment built in, rather the effort needed to do the task might be perceived as punishing by the child," Tripp added. 

For children without ADHD, the more effortful a task is, the more incentives a child is going to need to keep persisting.

"Simple but frequent rewards, such as smiles or words of encouragements, can help children with ADHD to stay on the task," Tripp suggested. 

The same could be said for children without the disorder, but this is especially important for children with ADHD, as they seem more sensitive to repeated experiences of punishment or failure, and are more likely to miss opportunities for success, the researchers said. 

For the study, a team of researchers involved 210 children from Japan and New Zealand. Out of these, 145 were diagnosed with ADHD. 

Both groups of children had to chose between playing two simultaneously available computer-based games that were engaging but still incorporated an element of punishment. 

In both games, when a child won, the computer gave him or her 10 points and played a simple animation. But when a child lost, the computer took away five points and played a laughing sound. 

Over time, the children with ADHD found losing points and the laughter more punishing than children without the disorder. They were also much less likely to play the more punishing game, the researchers concluded.

The results are published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

​San Francisco, Sep 24 (IANS) Amid the rumours that the micro-blogging site Twitter may be up for sale to Google and Cloud computing company Salesforce, a top executive from Salesforce has tweeted why it makes sense to buy Twitter.

One of the major concerns in strategic planning for any organization is to have good Succession planning to ensure that the organization will move in the right direction to achieve objectives and also continue the legacy of the founders.  Succession planning drives company leadership development process and it assumes equal weights along with the strategic plan. However many people from CEO to the lower level managers consider the word "succession Planning" a taboo. Planning your exit is like scheduling your own funeral, and it evokes fears and emotions long hidden under layers of defense mechanisms and imperceptible habits. Many executives believe that leadership development is a job for the Human Resource department. This is one of the major misconceptions that managers can have. Succession planning should happen at all levels of management to ensure smooth functioning of the organization at all times.

In UAE context we have many business which are family run and there are many medium and small enterprises which continue to leave succession planning to chance in spite of knowing its importance. Succession planning in simple terms consist of selecting a successor, which includes identifying the potential successors, developing the criteria for selection, and designating the successor, communicating the decision, training the successor, developing the successor and defining the departing leaders role after succession if any. These steps need not be sequential and some can be performed simultaneously. Failure to plan for orderly business succession can result in both monetary losses and even closure of business.

In reality companies that are good at growing leaders like GE, senior managers are at the fore front of succession planning and leadership development. It is part of the manager's job to recognize subordinate's developmental needs, to help cultivate new skills and to provide them with opportunities for professional development and personal growth. One of the roles of manger is to mentor emerging leaders, from their own and other departments, passing on important knowledge and providing helpful evaluation and feedback during the process. In addition manager's own evaluation, development plans and promotions in turn depend on how successfully they nurture their subordinates.

Two important requirements for the succession planning to be successful at the workplace are one, the involvement of the board / directors/ founder/ CEO who will have to spend time to get to know the rising stars, and gauge the efficacy of the leadership. Second key requirement is creating a culture within the organization where all senior managers and head of the units share upcoming junior managers with other units. In this way the rising future leaders will gain exposure to the company's operations and also experience how various units collaborate and execute the strategy. Cross functional assignments also provide opportunities to master new business challenges.

Succession planning can be proactive and reactive. A proactive one is when people move into different areas for experience and training before they occupy key positions. Reactive succession planning is when the organizations frantically searches for appropriate candidate at the last second and end up either experiencing a steady attrition in talent or retaining people with outdated skills or promoting mediocre employees and end up low performing units.

 Some companies however have not only recognized the importance of including succession planning and leadership development on the board's agenda but also have taken steps to ensure that those items get the due attention to deliberate and take it forward. A proper succession planning not only provides stability to an organization to have a longer life span but also emerges as a successful firm with steady growth. Following are some of the benefits of succession planning:

Benefits of Succession Planning

• Aligning strategic goals and human resources to enable the "right people with right attitude in the right place at the right time" to achieve desired business results
• The development of qualified pools of candidates ready to fill critical or key positions
• Providing stability in leadership and other critical positions to sustain a high-performing public service and ensure uninterrupted delivery of services and programs to New Brunswickers
• Identifying workforce that needs to be retained and targeting necessary employee training and development
• Helping individuals realize their career plans and aspirations within the organization
• Improving employees' ability to respond to changing environmental demands, and
• The opportunity for timely corporate knowledge transfer

How to do a Succession Planning for your firm - A 5 Step Process

Step 1:  Identify critical positions

Critical positions are the focus of succession planning efforts.  Without these roles, the department or agency would be unable to effectively meet its business objectives.  Workforce projection data or demographic analysis is essential in identifying risk areas.  A risk assessment may also be conducted and compared to current and future vacancies to identify critical positions within your organization. 

Step 2:  Identify competencies

A clear understanding of capabilities needed for successful performance in critical positions is essential for guiding, learning and developing succession plans. Setting clear performance expectations and assessing performance follows plans. By completing the process of competency or position profiling within your organization, current and future employees gain an understanding of the key responsibilities of the position including the qualifications and behavioral and technical competencies required to perform them successfully.

Step 3:  Identify succession management strategies

After identifying critical positions profiles for competencies need to be prepared, the next step is to choose from a menu of several human resource strategies, including developing internal talent pools, onboarding and recruitment to address appropriate succession planning. 

Step 4: Document and implement succession plans

Once strategies have been identified, the next step is to document the strategies of succession plan into an action plan.  Action Plan provides a mechanism for clearly defining timelines and roles and responsibilities.   

Step 5:  Evaluate Effectiveness

To ensure that the department or agency's succession planning efforts are successful, it is important to systematically monitor workforce data, evaluate activities and make necessary adjustments.

 The best of succession planning programs share some common attributes. They are not stand-alone adhoc activities coordinated by the Human Resource Department, their development initiatives are embedded in every area of the business. From the board of directors, senior managers to the first level managers are deeply involved in evaluating managers and promote them mainly based on their contributions to the organization. By engaging managers and the board in this way, a company can align its succession planning process with its strategic priorities. Such coherence, identity and authenticity in succession planning makes it easier for the company to attract the future leaders it needs.

Succession planning is always an ongoing process and is never finished. On a regular basis, each organization must look at its needs and resources to determine where it needs to have successors in place or in the process of learning the requisite disciplines. Each organization also needs to determine how long a candidate should be involved or exposed to the training and development programs. The organizations should also focus on policies, procedures and practices and not on personalities. Succession planning is a matter of strong HR practices, not a matter of sudden crisis management. To be realistic succession must be planned years in advance of expected needs. To properly train a successor, the organization needs sufficient time to expose the personnel to the full spectrum of opportunities within the firm, as well as any desired or required outside education/ experience expected. Skillfully done succession planning will bring peace of mind to senior management, based on the understanding and expectations of its future leadership. Lot of time and resources are spend on succession planning to ensure that there is a smooth transition and should be integrated with the strategic plan of the organizations.

Prof. Sudhakar Kota

Dr. Ajith Kumar.V.V

Washington, Sep 24 (IANS) A NASA-funded sounding rocket to study the origin of X-rays in the universe has helped scientists reveal a new mystery - an entire group of X-rays that don't come from any known source.

Some of this invisible light that fills space takes the form of X-rays, the source of which has been hotly contended over the past few decades.

The DXL (Diffuse X-ray emission from the Local galaxy) sounding rocket was launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in 2012 to study the source of certain X-rays observed near Earth.

In a new study, DXL's data confirms some of our ideas about where these X-rays come from, thus strengthening our understanding of our solar neighbourhood's early history.

The two known sources of X-ray emission are the solar wind and the Local Hot Bubble - a theorised area of hot interstellar material that surrounds our solar system.

"We show that the X-ray contribution from the solar wind charge exchange is about 40 percent in the galactic plane, and even less elsewhere," said Massimiliano Galeazzi, astrophysicist at University of Miami.

"So the rest of the X-rays must come from the Local Hot Bubble, proving that it exists," he added.

However, DXL also measured some high-energy X-rays that could not possibly come from the solar wind or the Local Hot Bubble.

"At higher energies, these sources contribute less than a quarter of the X-ray emission," noted Youaraj Uprety, lead author and astrophysicist at University of Miami at the time the research was conducted. "So there's an unknown source of X-rays in this energy range."

"We think that around 10 million years ago, a supernova exploded and ionized the gas of the Local Hot Bubble," said Galeazzi.

But one supernova wouldn't be enough to create such a large cavity and reach these temperatures - so it was probably two or three supernova over time, one inside the other.

"Identifying the X-ray contribution of the Local Hot Bubble is important for understanding the structure surrounding our solar system," added Uprety who is now astrophysicist at Middle Tennessee State University.

It helps us build better models of the interstellar material in our solar neighbourhood, the authors noted in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.

​New York, Sep 24 (IANS) Fish oil which contains Omega-3 fatty acids helps to boost brain functions and acts as an anti-inflammatory within the body -- helping athletes and soldiers manage intense training better, finds a study.

Low concentration of fish oil in the blood and also lack of physical activity may contribute to the high levels of depressed mood among soldiers returning from combat, the study suggested.

Fish oil content is especially important for soldiers due to the consistent training and physical regiments performed in and out of combat and risk of traumatic brain injury.

For the study, published in the journal Military Medicine, researchers worked with 100 soldiers to identify which factors affected the moods of those returning from combat.

"We looked at how physical activity levels and performance measures were related to mood state and resiliency. What we found was the decrease in physical activity and the concentration of fish oil and Omega-3s in the blood were all associated with resiliency and mood," said Richard Kreider, Researcher at the Texas A and M University.

The study originated from research that examined Omega-3 fatty acid levels of soldiers who committed suicide compared to non-suicide control and found lower Omega-3 levels in the blood were associated with increased risk of being in the suicide group.

According to the researchers, these findings are significant toward addressing some of the issues many soldiers face.

"The mental health of soldiers is a serious concern and it is exciting to consider that appropriate diet and exercise might have a direct impact on improving resiliency," said Nicholas Barringer, Researcher at the Texas A and M University.

In order to properly measure soldiers physically, Kreider and Barringer developed a formula that has the potential to assist in effectively screening soldiers with potential post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ahead of time. 

The formula measures a number of factors including fitness and psychometric assessments, physical activity and additional analysis.

"By improving resiliency in service members, we can potentially decrease the risk of mental health issues. Early identification can potentially decrease the risk of negative outcomes for our active service members as well as our separated and retired military veterans," Barringer added. 

"The military is using some of our exercise, nutrition, and performance-related work and the findings may help identify soldiers at risk for depression when they return from combat tours," Kreider added. 

The study mentioned that by working to identify such high-risk issues faced by soldiers, it can set a precedent that will benefit not only the military leadership, but also the general public.

​London, Sep 24 (IANS) To identify individuals at risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) much earlier and improve its prevention, a new genetic risk tool has been developed by an Indian-origin researcher.

Genetic factors have long been known to make a significant contribution to CHD risk. Recent advances in genetics have led to the identification of many Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, or SNPs -- very small differences in our DNA that vary from person to person. 

The research, published in the European Heart Journal, shows how using this new knowledge could pave the way for earlier and more personalised preventative interventions.

By looking at over 49,000 SNPs the researchers created a score, known as a genomic risk score (GRS), and showed that the higher the GRS the higher the future risk of CHD. People with a GRS in the top 20 per cent had an over five-fold higher life-time risk of CHD.

The clinical risk scores are based on known risk factors for CHD such as cholesterol level, having high blood pressure or diabetes and smoking. But such scores are imprecise and unable to identify a large proportion of people who develop CHD. 

The researchers showed that the GRS was independent of the clinical risk scores and by combining the two risk score tools they were better able to predict people who were at risk of developing CHD in the next 10-years.

"This study shows the potential benefits of using a genetic risk score over and above current methods to identify people at increased risk of coronary heart disease. We already know that CHD starts at an early age, several decades before symptoms develop, and preventative measures should ideally be applied much earlier, especially to those who are at increased risk," said Nilesh Samani, Professor at the University of Leicester, England.

Beijing, Sep 25 (IANS) The world's largest radio telescope began operations on Sunday in a mountainous region of China's Guizhou province.

Shortly after noon, in a valley in Pingtang county, hundreds of astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts witnessed the official launch of the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope's (FAST) mission to explore space and hunt for extraterrestrial life, Xinhua news agency reported.

Work on the nearly 1.2 billion-yuan ($180 million) project started in 2011, 17 years after it was proposed by Chinese astronomers.

The installation of the telescope's main structure -- a 4,450-panel reflector as large as 30 football pitches -- was finished in early July.

​Beijing, Sep 23 (IANS) A Chinese shopping website affiliated with e-commerce giant Ali Baba group plans to launch the world's first e-commerce satellite to provide consumers with customisd products.