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Knowledge Update

Introduction & Purpose
Knowledge update and Industry update at Skyline University College (SUC) is an online platform for communicating knowledge with SUC stakeholders, industry, and the outside world about the current trends of business development, technology, and social changes. The platform helps in branding SUC as a leading institution of updated knowledge base and in encouraging faculties, students, and others to create and contribute under different streams of domain and application. The platform also acts as a catalyst for learning and sharing knowledge in various areas.

Monkeys have vocal chords to speak, lack wired brain

Washington, Dec 11 (IANS) Monkeys have the vocal tracts to produce human speech sounds, but what they lack is a speech-ready brain, a new study has found.

The study, conducted by researchers from the US and Europe and published this week in the US journal Science Advances, used X-ray video to see within the mouth and throat of macaque monkeys induced to vocalise, eat food or make facial expressions, Xinhua news agency reported.

The scientists then used these data to build a computer model of a monkey vocal tract, allowing them to answer the question "what would monkey speech sound like, if a human brain were in control?"

The results showed that monkeys could easily produce many different sounds, enough to produce thousands of distinct words.

For example, monkeys could produce comprehensible vowel sounds -- and even full sentences -- with their vocal tracts if they had the neural ability to speak.

However, the researchers noted that while monkeys would be understandable to the human ear, they would not sound precisely like humans.

Therefore, the researchers concluded that previous research -- largely based on plaster casts made from the vocal tracts of a monkey cadaver -- underestimates primate vocal abilities and that evolution of human speech capabilities required neural changes rather than an adaptation of vocal anatomy.

"Now nobody can say that it's something about the vocal anatomy that keeps monkeys from being able to speak -- it has to be something in the brain," said Asif Ghazanfar, Professor of psychology at the Princeton University and one of the study leaders.

"Even if this finding only applies to macaque monkeys, it would still debunk the idea that it's the anatomy that limits speech in nonhumans."

Thore Jon Bergman, Assistant Professor of psychology and ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan, who is familiar with the research but was not involved in it, said the research could help narrow down the origin of human speech.

"It looks like mainly neuro-cognitive -- as opposed to anatomical -- differences contribute to the broader range of sounds we produce relative to other primates," Bergman said in a statement released by the Princeton University.

"An important part of understanding human uniqueness is to know what our relatives do," he said.

"This study shows the anatomical capability to make a variety of sounds, as we do with speech, was present long ago. This is useful for understanding the starting point for the evolution of language."

A powerful CEO less helpful to a company in time of crisis?

New York, Dec 11 (IANS) Bestowing considerable power in the CEOs may not create value for the firm during industry-wide downturns, a study led by Indian-origin scientist has found.

"We look at severe industry downturns. The essential idea is, when you have concentrated power in the hands of the CEO or a small group of decision-makers, does that lead to better decision-making or worse?" said Vikram Nanda, Professor at the University of Texas - Dallas, US.

The study found that for innovative firms with powerful CEOs, an industry downturn results in a notable decrease in the firm's value, or book-to-market ratio, relative to a less powerful CEO.

Conversely, for competitive industries and high-discretion industries with powerful CEOs, a downturn results in a decrease in firm value.

In the study, the team wanted to look at crisis situations in which urgency -- the speed of making a decision -- could potentially be really important.

They found that a small concentration of power does not work well, even in times of crisis.

Although decisions may be made faster because only one or two persons need to weigh in, but it could be detrimental if the CEO does not get input from other sources.

Instead, companies should keep their information channels open. The search for more information should not be sacrificed by urgency, the study suggested.

Regulatory response has been to increase the power of the board or make the board independent of the CEO. Although there is some skepticism about the benefits of intervention, such as independent audit committees, on average, these regulations have helped, Nanda said.

"CEOs can actually benefit from having a board of independent members, or having different voices in the boardroom. That can lead to better decision-making. It would be positive for the firm to view it from that perspective. Many of them do, but there are always people who want more power and more authority, and don't want to have people looking over their shoulder. On the other hand, that may be what helps a firm deal with a crisis," Nanda noted.

The study was published online in the journal Group & Organization Management.

Wind turbines may favour growing condition of crops, says study

New York, Dec 11 (IANS) Corn and soyabeans that are close to wind turbines grow in more favourable conditions as turbulence created by wind influences temperature and carbon dioxide concentration, a new research has revealed.

The researchers from the Iowa State University (ISU) installed research towers on a 200-turbine wind farm in Iowa and collected data from 2010 to 2013 on wind speeds and directions, temperature, humidity, turbulence, gas content and precipitation.

"Tall wind turbines disbursed throughout a field create air turbulence that may help plants by affecting variables such as temperature and carbon dioxide concentrations," said Gene Takle, professor at the Iowa State University, US.

The research revealed that turbines can lower the temperature about a half degree during the day and make it half to full degree warmer at night.

"That is because the turbulence mixes air at different elevations. That mixing cools the ground level during the daylight hours, like a fan blowing on a wet surface. But at night, as the ground loses heat, the mixing brings warmer air aloft down to ground level, resulting in a net warming effect," Takle said in a university statement.

The turbulence also suppresses the formation of dew and dries the crops, Takle said, which could combat harmful molds and fungi, the research found.

Researchers noted that the turbulence, enrich the carbon dioxide content in the air surrounding crops that can favour the growing condition of the plants.

However, it remains a challenge for the researchers to figure out if the changes actually improve plant performance.

"The next step would be to answer if this turbulence changes biomass uptake of plants, or if it affects plant size or functions or yield," Takle added.

Nanotechnology that captures energy from human motion

​New York, Dec 11 (IANS) You may soon be able to charge cell phones and power Bluetooth headsets with the swipe of a finger as scientists have developed a device that can harvest energy from human motion.

China launches new-generation weather satellite

Beijing, Dec 11 (IANS) China launched a weather satellite at 12:11 a.m. local time on Sunday, marking an upgrade of China's meteorological satellites in geostationary orbit.

The Fengyun-4 satellite, the first of China's second-generation weather satellites in geostationary orbit to have been launched, is also the country's first quantitative remote-sensing satellite in high orbit, Xinhua news agency reported.

The satellite, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China's Sichuan Province, was taken into orbit by a Long March-3B carrier rocket. The launch marked the 242nd mission of China's Long March series of rockets.

The satellite will make high time, spatial and spectral resolution observations of the atmosphere, clouds and space environment of China and surrounding regions, significantly improving capabilities of weather and climate forecasts, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. 

The China Meteorological Administration is the primary user of the satellite.

Previously, China had successfully launched 14 weather satellites, seven of which are still in orbit.

Apple's OLED 'iPhone 8' models likely to sport curved panels

​New York, Dec 19 (IANS) Apple is rumoured to release iPhone 8 in OLED and LCD variants next year, of which OLED models are likely to sport curved displays.

"Apple may or may not use new technology which enables the phone to respond when users touch any side of the device," appleinsider.com reported on Sunday.

Mobile money can help lift people out of poverty: Study

New York, Dec 9 (IANS) Mobile money services, which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone, can help lift people in developing economies out of poverty, a new study suggests.

Apple AirPods experiencing glitches, delayed: Report

​New York, Dec 10 (IANS) The availability of Apple's wireless headphones, called AirPods, is delayed as the company is experiencing problems in getting the audio from both the earpieces at the same time, a media report said on Saturday. According to Fortune, "technology problems with how the earpieces receive wireless signals via Bluetooth are causing delay." Apple launched AirPods along with the iPhone 7 in September this year as a replacement for conventional earphones that require a headphone jack. The company launched iPhone 7 without the headphone jack, however, consumers can still use wired earphones, but can be done by using a dongle to connect them via lighting port. "The original plan was to ship the AirPods in October, but Apple decided to delay the earphones that month without giving a reason," the report added.

Climate change likely triggered deadly 2016 avalanche in Tibet

New York, Dec 10 (IANS) Climate change is to blame for a deadly glacier collapse this year in the once stable region of the Tibetan Plateau, says a study.

On July 17, more than 70 million tonnes of ice broke off from the Aru glacier in the mountains of western Tibet and tumbled into a valley below, taking the lives of nine nomadic yak herders living there.

Glacial collapse is unprecedented in western Tibet, which for decades has resisted the effects of climate change while glaciers in southern and eastern Tibet have melted at an accelerating rate. 

The most important fact about the avalanche is that it lasted only four or five minutes (according to witnesses), yet it managed to bury 3.7 square miles of the valley floor in that time, said Lonnie Thompson, Professor at The Ohio State University in the US.

Meltwater at the base of the glacier must have lubricated the ice to speed its flow down the mountain, said the study published in the Journal of Glaciology.

"Given the rate at which the event occurred and the area covered, I think it could only happen in the presence of meltwater," Thompson noted.

The researchers used satellite data and GPS to get precise measurements of how much ice fell in the first avalanche and the area it covered. 

"We still don't know exactly where the meltwater came from, but given that the average temperature at the nearest weather station has risen by about 1.5 degrees Celsius over the last 50 years, it makes sense that snow and ice are melting and the resulting water is seeping down beneath the glacier," Thompson said.

Increased snowfall has even led to the expansion of some glaciers in western Tibet -- and the extra snowfall likely played some role in the avalanche by creating additional meltwater, said lead author of the paper Lide Tian from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Other nearby glaciers may be vulnerable, "but unfortunately as of today, we have no ability to predict such disasters", Thompson added.

Researchers could not have predicted, for example, that a neighbouring glacier in the same mountain range would give way just two months later, but it did in September 2016. 

That avalanche appears not to have resulted in any deaths, and the cause is still under investigation.

Now, a 3-D printed affordable prosthetic hand

New York, Dec 10 (IANS) A $15 prosthetic hand created by a student at Ithaca College here can offer a helping hand to a person who still has the ability to move their wrist.

By moving their wrist, they can control and use the hand's fingers to grab and hold various objects.

Unlike electronic hands, which are typically made from metal and are generally expensive, Ryan Bouricius's prosthetic hand is mostly plastic.

"The nice thing about 3D printing is that the price only has to do with the amount of plastic used, not the complexity of the piece," Bouricius said. 

Bouricius derived the idea for his innovation from a YouTube video but through testing and tinkering, he made changes to the original design to give the hand more functionality.

"So even though my modified pieces are trickier shapes, since it is the same amount of plastic, it's the same amount of money," Bouricius noted in a statement released by Ithaca College.

This is especially important for families with children who need prostheses. Because children outgrow them quickly, the costs of prostheses can be considerable over time. 

With 3D printing, however, Bouricius' model can be affordably re-printed in larger sizes as the child grows.

Bouricius is working with eNABLE, a non-profit organisation that matches 3D-printed prostheses with those in need of them, to find a recipient for his printed hand.

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