Knowledge Update

​London, Feb 28 (IANS) If you are using a pacemaker to regulate your heartbeat, be careful about the proximity to your body of everyday household appliances and electrical tools as these may affect the functioning of the device, warns new research.

A pacemaker is a small device that is placed in the chest or abdomen to help control abnormal heart rhythms. This device uses low-energy electrical pulses to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate and is used to treat problems relating to the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat.

The findings showed that pacemakers are susceptible to electric and magnetic fields (EMF) generated from powerlines, household appliances, electrical tools and entertainment electronics, in particular when programmed to maximum sensitivity or so-called unipolar sensing mode. 

This EMF interference, depending on factors such as the settings of the implant or strength of the field source with pacemakers, can result in bradycardia, or a slow heart rate. 

"Electromagnetic interferences with pacemakers in everyday life can cause harmful interferences," said Andreas Napp, cardiologist at RWTH Aachen University Hospital in Germany.

In many cases, holding the appliance, tool or other EMF source at a forearm's length distance -- greater than 12 inches -- limits the risk of electromagnetic interference. 

Thus, "in occupational environments, such as the manufacturing industry, an individual risk assessment for workers with a pacemaker is required due to the presence of a strong EMF," Napp added, in the paper appearing in the journal Circulation.

However, using dedicated device programming can effectively measure to reduce the individual risk of interference. For example, doctors can reprogramme pacemakers to a lower sensitivity to reduce EMF susceptibility, Napp said.

For the study, the team tested under different conditions the impacts of EMF exposure on 119 patients with pacemakers.

New York, Feb 28 (IANS) Dogs and two-year-old children show similar patterns in social intelligence, much more than one of our closest relatives -- chimpanzees, says a study.

The researchers looked at how two-year-olds, dogs and chimpanzees performed on comparable tests designed to measure various types of cognition. 

While chimpanzees performed well on tests involving their physical environment and spatial reasoning, they did not do as well when it came to tests of cooperative communication skills, such as the ability to follow a pointing finger or human gaze.

Dogs and children outperformed chimpanzees on cooperative communication tasks, and researchers observed similar patterns of variation in performance between individual dogs and between individual children.

"What we found is that there's this pattern, where dogs who are good at one of these social things tend to be good at lots of the related social things, and that's the same thing you find in kids, but you don't find it in chimpanzees," said Evan MacLean, Director of the Arizona Canine Cognition Center at the University of Arizona in the US.

The findings, published in the journal Animal Behaviour, could help scientists better understand how humans evolved socially.

One explanation for the similarities between dogs and humans is that the two species may have evolved under similar pressures that favoured "survival of the friendliest", with benefits and rewards for more cooperative social behaviour.

"Our working hypothesis is that dogs and humans probably evolved some of these skills as a result of similar evolutionary processes, so probably some things that happened in human evolution were very similar to processes that happened in dog domestication," MacLean said. 

"So, potentially, by studying dogs and domestication we can learn something about human evolution," he added.

The research could even have the potential to help researchers better understand human disabilities, such as autism, that may involve deficits in social skills, MacLean said.

New York, Feb 28 (IANS) Shortly after te Earth formed and began to cool, the planet's first outer layer was a single, solid but deformable shell which later began to fold and crack more widely, giving rise to modern plate tectonics, suggests new research.

The research is the latest salvo in a long-standing debate in the geological research community: Did plate tectonics start right away -- a theory known as uniformitarianism, or did the Earth first go through a long phase with a solid shell covering the entire planet? 

"Models for how the first continental crust formed generally fall into two groups: Those that invoke modern-style plate tectonics and those that do not," said study co-author Michael Brown, Professor at the University of Maryland in the US. 

"Our research supports the latter -- a 'stagnant lid' forming the planet's outer shell early in Earth's history," Brown said.

Today's Earth is a dynamic planet with an outer layer composed of giant plates that grind together, sliding past or dipping beneath one another, giving rise to earthquakes and volcanoes. 

Others separate at undersea mountain ridges, where molten rock spreads out from the centers of major ocean basins.

The new research, published in the journal Nature, suggests that plate tectonics began later in the Earth's history.

To reach these conclusions, Brown and his colleagues from Curtin University and the Geological Survey of Western Australia studied rocks collected from the East Pilbara Terrane, a large area of ancient granitic crust located in the state of Western Australia. 

The area is known for having some of the oldest known rocks, ranging from 3.5 to about 2.5 billion years of age. The Earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old.

The researchers specifically selected granites with a chemical composition usually associated with volcanic arcs -- a telltale sign of plate tectonic activity.

Based on their analysis, the researchers concluded that the Earth probably began with a solid outer shell.

"We conclude that a multi-stage process produced Earth's first continents in a 'stagnant lid' scenario before plate tectonics began," Brown said.

​London, Feb 28 (IANS) In a first, researchers have found evidence of planetary debris surrounding a double sun that resembles Tatooine -- Luke Skywalker's home world in the "Star Wars" film.

A scene in "Star Wars", where Skywalker looks at the horizon with the setting of two suns is regarded as one of the most iconic images in cinema.

In a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the researchers described the remains of shattered asteroids orbiting a double sun consisting of a white dwarf and a brown dwarf roughly 1000 light-years away in a system called SDSS 1557.

The debris appears to be rocky and suggests that terrestrial planets like Tatooine might exist in the system, according to the researchers.

"With the discovery of asteroid debris in the SDSS 1557 system, we see clear signatures of rocky planet assembly via large asteroids that formed, helping us understand how rocky exoplanets are made in double star systems," said lead study author Jay Farihi from University College London.

To date, all exoplanets discovered in orbit around double stars are gas giants, similar to Jupiter, and are thought to form in the icy regions of their systems.

In contrast to the carbon-rich icy material found in other double star systems, the planetary material identified in the SDSS 1557 system has a high metal content, including silicon and magnesium. 

These elements were identified as the debris flowed from its orbit onto the surface of the star, polluting it temporarily with at least 1.1 trillion tonnes of matter, equating it to an asteroid at least four km in size.

"Building rocky planets around two suns is a challenge because the gravity of both stars can push and pull tremendously, preventing bits of rock and dust from sticking together and growing into full-fledged planets," Farihi said.

The team studied the binary system and the chemical composition of the debris by measuring the absorption of different wavelengths of light or 'spectra', using the Gemini Observatory South telescope and the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope, both located in Chile.

​New York, Feb 27 (IANS) Paying attention to overnight returns -- between the time the stock market closes and re-opens the next day -- may help investors develop profitable trading strategies, according to a new study.

​Beijing, Feb 27 (IANS) China on Monday said its domestic railway railway system is expected to grow by 30,000 kilometres before 2020.

Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng said one-third of the increased network will consist of high-speed rail, People's Daily reported.

​Barcelona, Feb 27 (IANS) At the ongoing Mobile World Congress here, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) on Monday announced that it was working with Tata Communications to support the rollout of India's first LoRaWAN (LoRa)-based network.

​Beijing, Feb 27 (IANS) The amount of smuggled ivory tracked down in China fell 80 percent in 2016 from previous peak years, China's forest department has said.

Liu Dongsheng, deputy head of the State Forestry Administration, made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a wildlife protection campaign, without specifying detailed

​Barcelona, Feb 27 (IANS) Extending its tablet portfolio, South Korean tech giant Samsung unveiled two new tablets -- Galaxy Tab S3 and Galaxy Book --- at Mobile World Congress (MWC) here featuring HDR, S Pen and Samsung Flow. On March 29, Samsung Electronics will unveil the newest Galaxy as part of its endeavor to unbox your phone, the company teased in an invite on Sunday. Running on Android 7.0 operating system, the Galaxy Tab S3 comes with a 9.7-inch Super AMOLED display and the Galaxy Book is offered in a 10.6-inch TFT LCD version and 12-inch Super AMOLED version and runs on Windows 10. "At Samsung, we are committed to expanding the boundaries of the mobile and computing experience by providing best-in-class products that satisfy mobile users' diverse needs and demands," DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics, told reporters here. For a safe and secure login, Samsung Flow uses biometric authentication to log-in and can wirelessly tether compatible devices to transfer documents from a mobile device to a tablet. The S Pen includes convenient features such as "Screen Off Memo" to quickly jot down notes, PDF annotation for easy editing and professional-level drawing with advanced drawing tools. The Galaxy Tab S3 is the first Samsung tablet to feature quad-stereo speakers tuned by AKG by HARMAN. Both tablets include 13MP rear camera which includes auto-focus and a 5MP front camera and supports up to 12 hours of video playback on the Galaxy Tab S3 and up to 10.5 hours of video playback on the Samsung Book (12-inch). Both devices also support Pogo keyboards with no separate charging or pairing required. The Samsung Galaxy Book 12-inch is equipped with a 7th Generation Intel Core i5 processor, dual core 3.1GHz and the 10.6-inch with an Intel Core m3 processor, dual core 2.6GHz. Samsung also announced the Gear VR with Controller powered by Oculus, the company's first-ever Gear VR headset with a controller. The Gear VR with Controller expands Samsung's virtual reality ecosystem and makes it easier for consumers to enjoy Gear VR experiences.

​Barcelona, Feb 27 (IANS) Seventeen years after its debut, the much-awaited Nokia 3310 has been relaunched in an all new revamped look featuring a colour screen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) here. The device, to be sold under licence by the Finnish start-up HMD Global, is available in four distinctive colours - gloss-finished warm red and yellow, and a matte-finished dark blue and grey. It will cost buyers only 49 Euros ($52) and will be available from the second quarter of this year. Considered as iconic because of its popularity and sturdiness, Nokia sold more than 126 million devices before it was phased out in 2005. "Our efforts in bringing together world class manufacturers, operating systems and technology partners sees us proudly unveiling our first global portfolio of smartphones with a Nokia soul, delivering the very best experience to everyone," Arto Nummela, CEO of HMD Global, said in a statement. Having a 2.4-inch display, the new Nokia 3310 qualifies as a "feature phone" rather than a smartphone as it only provides limited internet facilities. It relies on 2.5G connectivity and is powered by the S30+ operating system. With 1,200mAh battery, the device offers a 22 hours of talk time and has up to a month's standby time. The battery of the new device is removable, like its older version. However, the 2017 model is rechargeable through a microUSB port. Its single camera is also restricted to 2MP. According to HMD Global, which owns the rights to the Nokia brand, the device also comes with the modern version of the classic game Snake pre-installed. The device will power through up to 51 hours of MP3 playback too, as well as up to 39 hours of FM radio playback. "What HMD has created is remarkable. We're excited to see the launch of a new family of smartphones, built to the standards that Nokia is known for." "We believe that their strong design and quality will appeal to Nokia fans around the world and the return of the Nokia 3310 has us smiling too!" Brad Rodrigues, interim President of Nokia Technologies, added. HMD also confirmed the Nokia 6 Android smartphone would be released worldwide following its China debut in January. The device has a 16MP rear camera and a 5.5-inch 1080p display. The new range of Nokia smartphones run on Android Nougat OS and offer a pure and secure experience with an all-feature Google Assistant. The unibody of the Nokia 6 is crafted from a single block of 6000 series aluminium. The smart audio amplifier with dual speakers allow consumers to experience a deeper bass and clarity, whilst Dolby Atmos sound delivers a powerfully moving entertainment experience. Available in four colours - Matte Black, Silver, Tempered Blue and Copper - the Nokia 6 will retail at an average global retail price of 229 Euros ($242). With 64GB storage and 4GB RAM, Nokia also unveiled Nokia 6 Arte Black Limited Edition available for retail price of 299 Euros ($315). In addition, the firm showed off smaller, lower-range Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 models. Nokia 5 has a Corning Gorilla Glass laminated 5.2-inch IPS HD display. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor and is available in four colours -- Matte Black, Silver, Tempered Blue and Copper. It is priced at 189 euros ($199). The Nokia 3 has a Corning Gorilla Glass laminated 5-inch display and 8MP wide aperture front and back cameras. Available in four distinctive colours -- silver white, matte black, tempered blue and copper white - the Nokia 3 will retail at an average global retail price of 139 euros ($146).