Knowledge Update

New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) Joining the 'go digital' bandwagon, South Korean giant Samsung on Wednesday launched Samsung Pay, the company's flagship mobile payments service, in India.

​Las Vegas, March 22 (IANS) Claiming it is "creating magic in the clouds", top officials of creatives company Adobe launched its Experience Cloud, bringing together digital intelligence and machine learning to provide customers with what they called was a complete solution for their digital needs.

​Hong Kong, March 22 (IANS) Investors based in Hong Kong are putting more money in start-ups and are increasingly looking at India as an investment option due to its strengths in areas such as information technology, a senior official has said.

New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) Marking its entry into the mid-segment smartphone category, domestic mobile manufacturing company Lava on Wednesday launched Z25 and Z10 smartphones at Rs 18,000 and Rs 11,500, respectively. Lava Z25 sports 5.5-inch 2.5D-curved HD IPS display. The dual-sim device is powered by an Octacore processor, supported by 4GB and 32GB on-board memory with 3020 mAh (ATL) battery. The phone runs on Android Marshmallow 6.0 operating system. The device sports 13MP rear camera and an 8MP selfie camera. "Lava Z25 and Z10 are packed with premium features of camera, fingerprint, design and durability that go well beyond the conventional boundaries in this price segment," said Gaurav Nigam, Product Head, Lava International. Lava Z10 sports a 5 inch 2.5D curved HD IPS Display, an 8MP rear camera and 5MP selfie shooter. It is also powered by Octacore processor and runs on Android Marshmallow 6.0 OS. This device has 2620 mAh (ATL) battery with 'Power Saver mode' and ‘Super Power Saver mode'. Lava Z25 and Lava Z10 will be available in select retail stores in Delhi from March 23 and in other cities in a few weeks' time, the company said.

​New York, March 22 (IANS) Scientists have developed an ultra-thin gel-like coating material that has the potential to extend the life and improve the efficiency of lithium-sulfur batteries.

"Our approach is general, in that it can be integrated with virtually any kind of sulfur electrode to increase cycling stability," said lead investigator of the study Hailiang Wang, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, US.

In a study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers described the new material which can be applied to any sulfur cathode. 

A cathode is the positive terminal on a battery.

Sulfur cathodes coated with the material can be stably discharged and recharged for more than 1,000 cycles, enhancing the battery's efficiency and number of cycles, according to the researchers.

"The developed film is so thin and light it will not affect the overall size or weight of the battery, and thus it will function without compromising the energy and power density of the device," Wang said.

New types of electrodes -- positive and negative terminals -- are considered essential for the development of a new generation of high energy-density batteries. 

As lithium-ion batteries -- currently widely used in mobile phones and laptops, among other electronic devices -- begin to reach their capacity limits, many researchers are looking at lithium-sulfur as a solution. 

Sulfur is both lightweight and abundant, with a high theoretical energy capacity. 

The Yale team made its discovery by combining the distinct properties of two material components. 

They merged the mechanical strength of graphene oxide with the ability of a dendrimer molecule to confine lithium polysulfides. 

The result is a gel-like slurry that can be readily coated as a 100-nanometer-thin film onto sulfur electrodes, the study said.

​Washington, March 22 (IANS) The first woman to serve on Facebook's board, who is now the Social media giants Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg has announced the release of her latest book, which focusses on finding meaning and happiness after an adversity.

Titled "Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy," the book has been co-written with author Adam Grant. 

In a Facebook post, Sandberg said that the book focuses on how she learned to find meaning and happiness after the sudden death of her husband, Dave Goldberg, in 2015. 

The title, Sandberg said, has been inspired by a conversation with a friend. 

"A few weeks after my husband Dave died, I was talking to my friend Phil Deutch about a father-son activity that Dave was not here to do. We came up with a plan for someone to fill in so my son would not have to miss out. I cried, 'But I want Dave.' Phil put his arm around me and said, 'Option A is not available. So let's just kick the shit out of Option B,'" Sandberg wrote in a post on Facebook. 

"That became my mantra, and for the past two years I've tried hard to find meaning and happiness in the wake of our despair." 

"Because no one's life is perfect, we all live some form of Option B," she wrote. "It's my deepest hope that Option B will help others learn what I learned: that when life pulls you under, you can kick against the bottom, break the surface, and breathe again."

Sandberg, who previously authored "Lean In" in 2012, she was named in the Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world according to Time magazine.

​New York, March 22 (IANS) Researchers have found that flaw in a gene linked to birth defects in mouse models may cause cleft lip and palate in humans too.

In the study, three siblings born with cleft lip and palate were found to have the same gene mutation associated with the birth defect.

The gene intraflagellar transport 88 (IFT88) ensures transportation antennae (cilia) on embryonic cells travel to the right place, enabling the development of cartilage, bone and smooth muscle in the face and skull.

"Finding this birth defect in every single child in a family is like catching lightning in a bottle because it allowed us to pinpoint the gene mutation that is probably responsible," said senior author of the study Yang Chai from University of Southern California in the US.

"Our finding that the gene IFT88 is involved in cleft lip and palate is unlikely to be mere coincidence," Chai said.

However, because this study - published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics -- involved only three children, Chai said more investigation is needed to find a causal relationship.

Operation Smile, an international nonprofit that provides free facial surgeries in developing countries, found and provided support to the three siblings -- two boys and a girl -- in Mexico who were born with cleft lip and palate. 

Their mother did not have the congenital disorder, but their father did.

Researchers went through 32,061 unique gene variations to identify IFT88.

"If someone carries this mutation, they may have a higher chance of giving birth to children with cleft lip and palate," said Chai.

"In our study, the animal model and the human mutation match," Chai said. 

"In the animal model, there is no doubt. We have shown that 100 per cent of the mice who have a single mutation in IFT88 have cleft lip and palate," Chai added.

New York, March 22 (IANS) Insulin resistance, caused in part by obesity and physical inactivity, is also linked to a more rapid decline in cognitive performance, researchers say.

Insulin resistance is a condition in which cells fail to respond normally to the hormone insulin. The resistance prevents muscle, fat, and liver cells from easily absorbing glucose. As a result, the body requires higher levels of insulin to usher glucose into its cells.

The study, appearing in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, showed that both diabetic and non-diabetic subjects with insulin resistance experienced accelerated cognitive decline in cognitive functions such as memory, executive function, visual spatial processing, and attention. 

"The findings may help to identify a group of individuals at increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia in older age," said David Tanne, Professor at Tel Aviv University in Israel. 

Without sufficient insulin, excess glucose builds up in the bloodstream, leading to prediabetes, diabetes, and other serious health disorders.

However, "insulin resistance can be prevented and treated by lifestyle changes and certain insulin-sensitizing drugs. Exercising, maintaining a balanced and healthy diet, and watching your weight will help you prevent insulin resistance and, as a result, protect your brain as you get older," Tanne added.

For the study, the team followed a group of nearly 500 patients with existing cardiovascular disease for more than two decades and assessed their insulin resistance with the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) -- calculated using fasting blood glucose and fasting insulin levels --, and cognitive functions. 

​Washington, March 22 (IANS) In a key advance for safely navigating future human exploration of the solar system, NASA said it is set to send its next-generation atomic clock to space in late 2017.

This clock will be smaller, lighter and magnitudes more precise than any atomic clock flown in space before, NASA said.

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California have completed integration of the instrument, the Deep Space Atomic Clock, with the spacecraft that will take it into orbit later in 2017, the US space agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

Timekeeping plays a critical role in spacecraft navigation and will be especially important for future deep space missions. 

Most spacecraft are tracked using "two-way" methods -- the ground-based antenna 'pings' the spacecraft and waits for the signal to return. 

By measuring how long the signal takes to travel, the distance to the spacecraft can be calculated. 

A navigation team then processes this information to determine the spacecraft's flight path and also determine if any course corrections are required. 

The next-generation atomic clock developed by NASA enables "one-way" tracking, where the spacecraft does not need to send the signal back to Earth. 

The tracking measurements could be taken onboard and processed with a spacecraft-based navigation system to determine the path and whether any manoeuvre are needed to stay on course. 

This will be a key advance for safely navigating future human exploration of the solar system by providing astronauts with their position and velocity when they need it, according to NASA.

It will lighten the load on the antennas in NASA's Deep Space Network, allowing more spacecraft to be tracked with a single antenna.

The Deep Space Atomic Clock would also improve the precision and quantity of the radio data used by scientists for determining a planet's gravity field and probing its atmosphere, NASA said.

United Nations, March 22 (IANS) Nearly 600 million children, one in four worldwide, will live in areas with extremely limited water resources by 2040, according to a UN report.

The report was released late Tuesday by the UN International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef), Efe news reported on Wednesday.

Unicef warned of the threat to children's lives due to the lack of safe water and of how climate change is exacerbating the problem.

"Water is elemental; without it, nothing can grow. But around the world, millions of children lack access to safe water -- endangering their lives, undermining their health, and jeopardising their future," Unicef Executive Director Anthony Lake said.

"This crisis will only grow unless we take collective action now," he insisted.

The report warns that population growth as well as increased consumption and demand are putting more and more stress on water availability, while right now such stress is already "extremely high" in 36 countries.

The situation occurs when demand for water far exceeds the renewable supply available, the report said.

It also highlighted various factors affecting the quality and availability of water such as warmer temperatures, rising sea levels, melting ice and increasing droughts.

To date, 663 million people are lacking adequate access to water sources and more than 800 children under the age of five die every day from diarrhoea linked to contaminated water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene.

According to Unicef, the lack of an adequate supply exposes children to deadly diseases forcing children in many places to spend hours every day to collect water, preventing them from going to school.

The report furthermore includes recommendations for different sectors and urges governments to plan for possible changes in water availability and demand over the coming years.

According to Unicef, the priority must be to safeguard access to water for the most vulnerable children