Knowledge Update

​New York, Jan 31 (IANS) Apple has removed the "Activation Lock" tool that allows users to check the ownership status of their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

"The tool allowed users to enter the serial number or IMEI of iOS devices to find out if 'Activation Lock' was active, helping consumers who were interested in purchasing used

New York, Jan 31 (IANS) In a bid to make it tough for rival social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, Twitter has announced its first livestreaming deal in Europe to will telecast the proceedings of the transfer deadline day.

​London, Jan 31 (IANS) A French designer duo has unveiled a new concept for the future smartphone which is made around holograms, voice control and face-tracking technology with translucent gelatinous features, media reported. The smartphone, called Alo, will be designed in a way that is appropriate for the palm of a hand, said Philippe Starck and Jerome Olivet. Controlled by voice commands, every time the user wants to open a text message or watch a movie on the device, it will pop up in a 3D hologram. "Alo provides a fully vocalised interface in all phone functions, reads SMS and emails, and even allows them to dictate their messages rather than typing them," design magazine dezeen.com quoted Olivet as saying. The translucent skin emits vibrations by producing heat depending on its activity and its skin repairs automatically as soon as it is damaged. The holographic images will be projected by a so-called "eye" which will allow the reader to read the texts he detects or to identify the faces. Moulded aluminium alloy core at the centre of the device will function as haptic interface giving feedback through heat as well as vibration. "While it is currently only a concept, Olivet plans to develop Alo, or a version of it, into a prototype. It is attached to French electronics brand Thomson," the report added.

Beijing, Jan 31 (IANS) Volkswagen China will recall 1,993 vehicles in China due to defective body control modules (BCM), according to the country's top quality watchdog. The recall, set to begin on February 20, affects 1,476 imported 2016 Magotan travel series manufactured between Febuary 9, 2016 and May 30, 2016, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. It will also affect 517 imported 2016 Magotan four-wheel drive series manufactured between Febuary 9, 2016 and June 2, 2016, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. The defective BCM of affected vehicles might cause the dysfunction of car lamps when driving, posing safety risks, said the statement. Volkswagen China promised to check all the affected vehicles and replace the defective parts free of charge.

Madrid, Jan 31 (IANS) Spain welcomed a record number of 75.6 million foreign tourists in 2016, according to data released on Tuesday.

The number of tourists exceeded government estimations and represented a 10.3 per cent increase year on year, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said.

Visitors from the UK made up the largest tourist population, with 17.8 million Britons choosing to holiday in Spain -- a 12.4 per cent increase on the previous year, Efe news reported.

UK citizens were followed by the French (11.4 million visitors representing a 7.1 per cent increase) and the Germans (11.2 million, a 6.4 per cent increase).

The autonomous region of Catalonia received most tourists in 2016 (almost 18 million).

The Canary Islands were the second most popular destination (13.3 million) followed by the Balearic Islands (13 million).

Experts have suggested the tourism boom experienced by Spain has been influenced by the security situation of its main competitors such as Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey.

Tourism is one of the main sources of income for the Spanish economy.

​Sydney, Jan 31 (IANS) Most of the over 100 natural World Heritage sites that are being severely damaged by expanding human infrastructure and land use are in Asia, a new study has warned.

India's Manas Wildlife Sanctuary and Nepal's Chitwan National Park are among the most impacted Natural World Heritage Sites (NWHS), the study, published in the journal Biological Conservation, identified.

"It is time for the global community to stand up and hold governments to account so that they take the conservation of natural World Heritage sites seriously," said lead author James Allan from University of Queensland in Australia.

"We urge the World Heritage Committee to immediately assess the highly threatened sites we have identified. Urgent intervention is clearly needed to save these places and their outstanding natural universal values," Allan added.

Natural World Heritage Sites (NWHS), via the formal process run by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), are globally recognised as containing some of the Earth's most valuable natural assets.

The authors looked at human pressure over time using the updated global Human Footprint criteria, which includes roads, agriculture, urbanisation and industrial infrastructure, along with forest loss.

They found that the Human Footprint has increased in 63 per cent of Natural World Heritage Sites (NWHS) across all continents except Europe over the past two decades. 

The most impacted NWHS were found in Asia. Even celebrated places like Yellowstone National Park in the US were impacted, losing some six per cent of its forests. 

Meanwhile, Waterton Glacier International Peace Park that crosses the Canadian and USA border lost almost one quarter of its forested area (23 per cent or 540 km2).

"Any place that is listed as a World Heritage site is a globally important asset to all of humanity," said senior author James Watson of the University of Queensland and Wildlife Conservation Society.

"The world would never accept the Acropolis being knocked down, or a couple of pyramids being flattened for housing estates or roads, yet right now, across our planet, we are simply letting many of our natural World Heritage sites be severely altered," Watson noted

​Kathmandu, Jan 31 (IANS) Nepal has geared up to develop a strong disaster response plan for major airports following the devastating earthquake in the country on April 2015.

Considering possible disasters in future, more than 30 officials from government agencies and airports, military and humanitarian partners and international experts were discussing the action plan at a four-day workshop which kicked off here on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The event plans to assess and strengthen post-disaster preparedness and arrangements at two of Nepal's most strategic airports, the Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) here and the one at Nepalgunj in the western part of the country.

Addressing the inaugural session, Tourism Secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari said the disaster response capacity of TIA was not sufficient during the earthquake.

"We have to focus on further developing our airports' capacities," he said.

Being a landlocked country, Nepal relies heavily on air routes to transport aid supplies during emergency.

Right after the disaster that killed nearly 9,000 people, the country's only international airport was flooded with humanitarian aid supplies and rescue and relief teams coming from all around the world.

Large aircraft were unable to land at the airport as the runway was damaged from the influx of flights delivering aid.

Valerie Julliand, the UN Development Fund Resident Coordinator for Nepal, said: "We just can't wait for another disaster to strike to have a strong and effective contingency plans to manage the flow of emergency relief goods to the people in need. If Nepal really works on a good action plan, Nepal can transform its vulnerability of being landlocked into strength."

During the workshop, participants and trainers will evaluate the current level of preparedness at the two airports, go through trainings and provide concrete recommendations.

The workshop will also identify priorities for investment in national infrastructure that could further improve Nepal's resilience of emergency supply chains during a disaster. 

​Dubai, Jan 31 (IANS/WAM) The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has announced plans to launch a new smart phone app to help users locate blood donation centres near them.

The app, to be launched in April, will enable potential donors to answer an eligibility questionnaire and read pre-donation advisory material on their mobile phones prior to visiting blood-donor centres.

"The new system and smart application will help streamline the blood donation process and provide a smart solution that allows donors to locate the nearest blood donation centre, or Mobile Blood Donation Unit, via their mobile phone," said Amani Al Jassmi, director of Information Technology at the DHA.

The app will also allow donors to receive appreciation letters, blood donation reminders and notifications of forthcoming blood donation campaigns.

Additionally, the app will store information of registered donors who agree to donate blood during emergencies and disasters and also reach out to them if the need arises.

May Raouf, director of the DHA Blood Donation Centre, said: "The aim of developing this app is to help the centre stay connected with all its donors, and provide both donors and potential donors with ease of use so that they are encouraged to donate blood and save lives."

​Bogota, Jan 31 (IANS) Colombia will host the 16th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates here on Thursday where 31 laureates will speak on peace, reconciliation and development, the media reported.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will inaugurate the event, his office said.

The summit, organised by the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, will end on February 5.

It is the first time the summit will be held in Latin America.

Earlier venues have been Barcelona (2015), Rome (2014), Warsaw (2013), Chicago (2012), Hiroshima (2010), Berlin (2009), Paris (2008) and Rome (1999 to 2007).

London, Jan 31 (IANS) A novel gene-editing method has been found to partially restore sight in rats bred with a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa -- a condition that causes blindness in humans.

The researchers believe that the method could lead to new therapies for diseases of the eye, brain and heart.

Despite recent advances in editing targeted genes within cultured cells, editing genes within living organisms has remained elusive because current tools are inefficient. 

This is especially the case for non-dividing cells, which make up most adult tissues, including those of the brain, the pancreas, the eyes and the ears.

"For the first time, we have a method to edit the genome of non-dividing cells in the body. This could mean revolutionary new therapies for diseases of the eye, brain and heart," said study co-author Mo Li, Assistant Professor of Bioscience at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

Current gene-editing techniques typically use a natural DNA repair pathway, called homology-directed repair (HDR), to insert genetic material. 

However, this pathway is inefficient and not readily accessible in non-dividing cells. Another natural DNA repair pathway, called non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ), is more efficient in higher organisms and is active in non-dividing cells.

Studies have shown that NHEJ is error prone when used to turn off targeted genes but highly precise when used to insert DNA sequences into a gene. 

Until now, NHEJ had not been used for gene insertion in non-dividing cells, especially in tissues inside living adult animals.

So the research team developed a new technique called homology-independent targeted integration (HITI), which uses the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to cut DNA at a specific location. The new genetic material is then inserted into the cut DNA using the NHEJ repair pathway.

The team found their method compared favourably to other gene-editing techniques, according to the study published in the journal Nature. 

"The new technology is considerably more efficient than existing methods," said Pierre Magistretti, Dean of the Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division at KAUST.

The researchers used the method for gene-replacement therapy in rats bred with a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa. 

This condition causes blindness in humans and is caused by a mutation in the Mertk gene. 

The team aimed to restore Mertk function by inserting a copy of the missing DNA segment into the gene. 

Tests revealed partial restoration of sight, the study said.