Knowledge Update

Seoul, March 15 (IANS) After working for foldable displays for years, South Korean giant Samsung will start manufacturing game-changer smartphone that can be folded in the third quarter of 2017. "Q3 2017 is already marked in some calendars as the time for IFA 2017 in Berlin. Samsung usually introduces the Galaxy Note series, but that does not exclude the possibility of having a foldable smartphone presented to the crowd, or at least tease one for a later date," GSMArena.com reported on Wednesday. Last year, Samsung has reportedly filed a patent with the Korean Intellectual Property Office for a smartphone that can be folded in half and is expected to arrive next year. Called the Galaxy X, the front of the smartphone will sport traditional Samsung home button in between a back button on the right and a menu button on the left, media reports said.

New York, March 15 (IANS) Google will maintain its dominance and account for 40.7 per cent of US digital ad revenues in 2017 -- more than double Facebooks share, market research company eMarketer said. According to eMarketer's forecast, the US digital ad spending will reach $83 billion in 2017, representing an increase of 15.9 per cent. eMarketer expects Google's share of the search market to grow 16.1 per cent to $28.55 billion in 2017 and the search giant will claim roughly 78 per cent of total US search ad revenues this year. "Google's dominance in search, especially mobile search, is largely coming from the growing tendency of consumers to turn to their smartphones to look up everything from the details of a product to directions," Monica Peart, Forecasting Analyst, eMarketer, said in a statement. As Google dominates search, Facebook rules display. The social network's US display business will jump 32.1 per cent to $16.33 billion, capturing 39.1 per cent of the US display market, taking share away from Google, Yahoo, and Twitter, the findings showed. Facebook's revenue growth can be attributed to growth in both usage and time spent, which continues to draw advertisers in greater numbers. Instagram is also helping to drive Facebook's revenue growth. In fact, Instagram will make up 20 per cent of Facebook's US mobile revenue this year, up from 15 per cent last year. "Facebook users are increasingly captivated by videos on the platform -- not just on Facebook, but on Instagram as well. Video, both live and recorded, is a key driver of growing user engagement and advertiser enthusiasm," added Peart. Meanwhile, Google's display business will rise to $5.24 billion, but its share of the display market will drop to 12.5 per cent, the report noted. In 2017, Snapchat's ad revenue will grow 157.8 per cent to $770 million in the US. That's slightly lower than the $800 million previously projected, due to higher-than-estimated revenue sharing with partners. Snapchat's ad business, which is made up entirely of mobile display, is still small. Snapchat will account for 1.3 per cent of the mobile ad market this year. By 2019, that will grow to 2.7 per cent, the report added.

​Hong Kong, March 15 (IANS) It is easy to remember Hong Kong for its enormous variety of food and leisure, and the way these can be relished in quick time. But for me, Hong Kong is also about neatness, planning, seamless transport and the no-fuss attitude of its street vendors who make budget shopping a memorable experience.

Hong Kong delighted me in several ways. The manner in which people of the city have overcome challenges posed by nature, created opportunities for themselves and made the city one of the top business hubs of the world seemed worth emulating.

Hong Kong, which became a special administrative region (SAR) of China in 1997 after 150 years of British administration, has few natural resources. Given that it's tiny (its land area is only 1,073 sq km), most commercial and residential buildings shoot skyward. Hong Kong has the most skyscrapers in the world for any city.

The city's small area has its own advantages for a tourist. For instance, the city's historic tram, it's mass transit railway (MTR) system, colourful taxis, double-decker buses and the famous star ferry can all be experienced one after the other within a few hours while hopping from one place to the other.

Hong Kong has shops to cater to every pocket and taste and there is enough for a budget tourist to explore. I, too, searched for options that were not hard on the pocket.

The Ladies' Market near Mong Kok MTR station had vendors selling an array of products including bags, purses, shoes, track suits, T-shirts and accessories. A large number of products were for ladies and they were also the ones managing most of the stalls.

I bargained to bring down prices, but it was not always easy. A survey of the market helped identify vendors who seemed inclined to bring down prices. Trials were not allowed on garments and one had to go by one's estimation. Several vendors seemed to have difficulty with English but, nevertheless, managed to communicate in a business-like manner.

The evening market near Sham Shui Po MTR station was also quite an experience and I found a few people from India and Pakistan surreptitiously selling their wares, mostly garments and shoes, on the pavement. They told me that they did not have valid documents to engage in jobs or businesses and were planning to return home in due course. The present tensions between India and Pakistan did not matter to them as they stayed and dined together. They kept track of domestic developments in their countries through WhatsApp messages and the Internet.

The market had an array of products including watches, clocks, toys, phones, accessories and electronic goods. But one had to be careful about prices. A wireless microphone Hifi speaker, being sold by a street vendor at HK$150 (Rs 1,260), was priced at a nearby shop for HK$280.

I also realised the enormous spread of China-made goods and the variation in their prices at different places. An alarm clock I had seen in a gift shop in east Delhi for Rs 500 was available at a local shop in the market for HK$35 (Rs 315) and I could purchase it for HK$32 (Rs 288) after a little bargaining. Quite a steal!

But while Sham Shui Po is a working class neighbourhood, I also spotted a street market in upmarket Wan Chai. Here, the quality of products was better though a little higher priced. There were also no-frills shops along some the main roads in Wan Chai which offered good quality garments, purses and bags at very decent prices.

Hong Kong offers a rich variety of cuisine and has thousands of restaurants to cater to various tastes. Apart from venues for fine dining, the city has several road-side eateries which offer a mind-boggling variety of non-vegetarian stuff.

There are options for vegetarians too, but one has to look at the menu and the medium of cooking carefully. Indian food is also becoming increasingly popular and vegetarianism is gaining ground with the "Green Monday" campaign.

Hong Kong's cleanliness is remarkable and demonstrated to me the vast distance we have to cover to make our cities clean despite programmes like Swachh Bharat (Clean India).

Tourists have their hands full in Hong Kong and are spoilt for choice. Apart from its well-known attractions like Disneyland and Ocean Park, Hong Kong offers a lot to explore including beaches, city parks, museums, harbour views, cycling, modern architecture and visits to outlying islands.

The city also takes continuous care of its infrastructure to keep it world class. The traffic flows smoothly on well-planned roads and magnificent bridges. An express rail link is being built to provide speedy connectivity with mainland China. The transport system in Hong Kong is neatly integrated and provides multiple options to reach a destination depending on time and money a traveller is willing to spend.

Hong Kong, it was clear, innovates constantly to create opportunities for its people and new avenues of recreation for tourists.

New York, March 15 (IANS) Scientists have developed a high-resolution retinal prosthesis using nanowires and wireless electronics that may aid neurons in the retina to respond to light.

The technology could help tens of millions of people worldwide suffering from neurodegenerative diseases that affect eyesight, including macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and loss of vision due to diabetes.

In the study, detailed in the Journal of Neural Engineering, the researchers demonstrated this response to light in a rat retina interfacing with a prototype of the device in vitro.

"We want to create a new class of devices with drastically improved capabilities to help people with impaired vision," said Gabriel A. Silva, Professor at the University of California San Diego in the US.

The new prosthesis relies on two ground-breaking technologies. One consists of arrays of silicon nanowires that simultaneously sense light and electrically stimulate the retina accordingly.

The nanowires give the prosthesis higher resolution than anything achieved by other devices -- closer to the dense spacing of photoreceptors in the human retina. 

The other is a wireless device that can transmit power and data to the nanowires over the same wireless link at record speed and energy efficiency.

Further, the new system does not require a vision sensor outside of the eye to capture a visual scene and then transform it into alternating signals to sequentially stimulate retinal neurons.

Instead, the silicon nanowires mimic the retina's light-sensing cones and rods to directly stimulate retinal cells.

Nanowires are bundled into a grid of electrodes, directly activated by light and powered by a single wireless electrical signal. 

The power provided to the nanowires from the single wireless electrical signal gives the light-activated electrodes their high sensitivity while also controlling the timing of stimulation.

Seoul, March 15 (IANS) Challenging a commonly held theory that changes in the Earth's orbit triggered Sahara desertification, a new study suggests that humans may have played an active role in the transition of a lush green landscape into the world's largest hot desert thousands of years ago.

The desertification of the Sahara has long been a target for scientists trying to understand climate and ecological tipping points. 

Most studies done to date point to changes in the Earth's orbit or natural changes in vegetation as the major driving forces.

In a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science, David Wright from Seoul National University in South Korea challenges the conclusions of these studies.

"In East Asia there are long established theories of how Neolithic populations changed the landscape so profoundly that monsoons stopped penetrating so far inland," said Wright. 

Evidence of human-driven ecological and climatic change has been documented in Europe, North America and New Zealand, said Wright who believed that similar scenarios could also apply to the Sahara.

To test his hypothesis, Wright reviewed archaeological evidence documenting the first appearances of pastoralism across the Saharan region, and compared this with records showing the spread of scrub vegetation, an indicator of an ecological shift towards desert-like conditions. 

The findings confirmed his thoughts.

Beginning approximately 8,000 years ago in the regions surrounding the Nile River, pastoral communities began to appear and spread westward, increasing at the same time the spread of scrub vegetation, the study said.

Growing agricultural addiction had a severe effect on the region's ecology. As more vegetation was removed by the introduction of livestock, it increased the albedo (the amount of sunlight that reflects off the earth's surface) of the land, which in turn influenced atmospheric conditions sufficiently to reduce monsoon rainfall. 

The weakening monsoons caused further desertification and vegetation loss, promoting a feedback loop which eventually spread over the entirety of the modern Sahara, the study said.

London, March 15 (IANS) Stimulating the brain with electricity may synchronise brain waves and help improve short-term working memory that could improve treatments for people with traumatic brain injury, stroke or epilepsy, a study has found.

According to researchers, applying a weak electrical current through the scalp can align different parts of the brain, synchronising brain waves and enabling people to perform better on tasks involving working memory.

"What we observed is that people performed better when the two waves had the same rhythm and at the same time," said lead author Ines Ribeiro Violante, a neuroscientist at the Imperial College London.

"The hope is that it could eventually be used for patients with brain injury, or even those who have suffered a stroke or who have epilepsy," Violante added. 

For the study, published in the journal eLife, the team used a technique called transcranial alternating current stimulation (TACS) to manipulate the brain's regular rhythm in 10 volunteers.

Using TCAS, the researchers targeted two brain regions -- the middle frontal gyrus and the inferior parietal lobule -- known to be involved in working memory.

The findings revealed that when the brain regions were stimulated in sync, reaction times on the memory tasks improved.

Functional MRI images of the brain showed changes in activity occurring during stimulation, with the electrical current potentially modulating the flow of information.

"The results show that when the stimulation was in sync, there was an increase in activity in those regions involved in the task. When it was out of sync, the opposite effect was seen.

"The hope is that it could eventually be used for patients with brain injury, or even those who have suffered a stroke or who have epilepsy," Violante added.

​London, March 14 (IANS) Suffering from severe back pain? Blame your clothing and accessories such as skinny jeans, oversized bags and those worn on one side of the body, coats with large fluffy hoods, high heeled shoes and backless shoes, according to a survey from the British Chiropractic Association (BCA). The survey showed that three-quarters (73 per cent) of women have suffered with back pain and their wardrobe could be a major cause of the discomfort. "While overloaded and heavy handbags are a common culprit, some more unexpected items like skinny jeans can also wreak havoc -- they restrict free movement in areas such as the hips and knees, affecting the way we hold our bodies," Tim Hutchful, chiropractor at BCA, said in a statement on Tuesday. "New trends such as asymmetric hemlines, oversized sleeves and hoods and heavy jewellery can also create problems," Hutchful added. While over a quarter (28 per cent) of women are aware clothing effects their back, one-third of women (33 per cent) were completely unaware that their choice of clothing could impact their back or neck health. "I am always surprised at how many of my patients are unaware that their clothing and accessories can affect their back health and their posture and, equally, how many decide their outfit-choice outweighs their pain," Hutchful said. Suggesting a slew of measures to reduce the impact on the posture and overall health, Hutchful suggested: "Try and limit the number of times you wear skinny jeans or high heels every week where you're giving your body a break, or try investing in a backpack for days when you have a lot to carry around."

London, March 14 (IANS) If your kid is spending three or more hours daily in front of TV, using computers, games consoles, tablets and smartphones, he or she may be at risk of developing diabetes, a study has showed. The findings showed that children with increased exposure to digital screens may be at risk of having high adiposity levels, which describes total body fat, and, crucially, insulin resistance, which occurs when cells fail to respond to insulin, the hormone produced by the pancreas to control levels of blood glucose. "Our findings suggest that reducing screen time may be beneficial in reducing Type 2 diabetes risk factors, in both boys and girls, from an early age," said Claire. M. Nightingale from St George's, University of London. "This is particularly relevant, given rising levels of Type 2 diabetes, the early emergence of Type 2 diabetes risk, and recent trends suggesting that screen time-related activities are increasing in childhood and may pattern screen-related behaviours in later life," Nightingale added, in a paper published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood. Children who reported spending three or more hours of daily screen time showed high ponderal index -- an indicator of weight in relation to height -- and skinfolds thickness and fat mass -- indicators of total body fat -- than in those who said they spent an hour or less on it. Further, there was also a strong link between a daily quota of three or more hours of screen time and levels of leptin, the hormone that controls appetite, glucose and insulin resistance, the researchers said. For the study, the team assessed a sample of nearly 4,500 9-10 year old pupils from 200 primary schools in London, Birmingham and Leicester for a series of metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors.

​Beijing, March 14 (IANS) Retail trade in China began 2017 with a cumulative increase of 9.5 per cent between January and February -- as compared to the same period in 2016 -- which is below economists' expectations of 10.5 percent and also its slowest growth in 11 years since February 2006, official date revealed on Tuesday. According to the National Bureau of Statistics data, with a slowdown in trade, investment in fixed assets rose to 8.9 per cent year-on-year making it its largest rise since June with real estate reaching its peak in two years to stand at 8.9 per cent and industrial production accelerating to 6.3 per cent year-on-year -- three-tenths more than in December, Efe news reported. The 9.5 per cent increase in China's retail sales was seven-tenths below the rise recorded in the same period in 2016 and almost point and a half below that of December. Analysts blame this slight slowdown on the previous year's trend, as well as a decline in car sales -- affected by the partial withdrawal of the tax incentive they enjoyed until the end of the year -- fell by 1 per cent from 2016. Industrial production or industrial value-added, too, experienced a slight rise of 6.3 per cent, as compared to 5.4 per cent in the same period in 2016. This indicator measures the activity of large companies with an annual turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about $2 million). The production of steel and other metals, including cement, improved early this year, while glass, mobile phones and industrial robots saw a slowdown. Investment in fixed assets started the year with a faster growth rate, as compared to the 8.1 per cent in January and February 2016, and 7.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year. China, during its annual plenary session of the National People's Congress held on March 5 in Beijing, has set its growth target at 6.5 percent for 2017 as compared to 6.7 percent attained in 2016.

New York, March 14 (IANS) US tech giant Apple is expected to host an event where it will unveil the new iPad Pro lineup, a larger iPhone SE model with 128GB storage and new Apple Watch bands. "Rumours widely suggest at least a trio of new iPad Pro models will be unveiled as early as this month, including an all-new 10.5-inch model with slimmer bezels and updated 9.7-inch and 12.9-inch versions," tech website macrumors.com reported on Tuesday. The new 10.5-inch iPad Pro will not include Home button and is also rumored to have a higher-resolution display and quad microphones. The updated 12.9-inch iPad Pro is expected to feature a 12MP rear camera and True Tone display using advanced four-channel ambient light sensors to automatically adapt the colour and intensity of the display to match the light in the surrounding environment. Apple is also said to launch a 5.8-inch iPhone 8 with an OLED display, that may be called 'iPhone X', along with two other devices -- updated iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus (with brand names as iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus). The company is also planning to introduce a new connector type for accessories for the iPhone, iPad and other devices through its official Made-for-iPhone (MFi) licensing programme. Called 'Ultra Accessory Connector' (UAC), the eight-pin connector is slightly less thick than USB-C and near half as wide as both USB-C and Lightning.