Knowledge Update

​Washington, July 8 (IANS) NASA is set to launch a new airborne mission to map the contours of the atmosphere as carefully as explorers once traced the land and oceans below.

The Atmospheric Tomography, or ATom, is the first to survey the atmosphere over the oceans, the US space agency said in a statement.

Scientists aboard NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory will journey from the North Pole south over the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand and then across to the tip of South America and north up the Atlantic Ocean to Greenland. 

ATom will discover how much pollution survives to the most remote corners of the earth and assess how the environment has changed as a result, the statement added.

"We've had many airborne measurements of the atmosphere over land, where most pollutants are emitted, but land is only a small fraction of the planet," said Michael Prather, an atmospheric scientist and ATom's deputy project scientist at University of California Irvine.

"The oceans are where a lot of chemical reactions take place, and some of the least well understood parts are hard to get to because they are so remote. With ATom we're going to measure a wide range of chemically distinct parts of the atmosphere over the most remote areas of the ocean that have not been measured before," Prather noted.

While the majority of the flight path takes the DC-8 over the ocean, the science team expects to see influence from human pollution that originates on land.

ATom's first flight is planned for July 28, a there-and-back trip over the tropics between Palmdale, California and the equator. 

On July 31, the mission begins its around-the-world trip lasting 26 days. It's the first of four deployments that will take place over the next three years in different seasons. 

The data collected will be used to improve atmospheric computer models used to predict future climate conditions into the 21st century as well as to provide checks and calibration in otherwise unreachable areas for several major satellite systems, NASA said.

The suite of 20 instruments aboard the DC-8 will measure airborne particles called aerosols and more than 200 gases in each sampled air patch, documenting their locations and allowing scientists to determine interactions. 

The science team will use ATom's collected data on the air's chemical signatures to understand where pollutants originate, and where and how quickly these climate gases react chemically and eventually disappear from the atmosphere.​

​London, July 7 (IANS) Sending low-frequency acoustic shock waves to injured muscles could speed up the healing process in the tissues, says an interesting study.

The Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) works by mechanically stimulating the tissue, which prompts stem cells to kick-start repair work.

"Our study indicates that shock waves increase the levels of chemical signalling factors in muscle tissue. These factors wake up "satellite" progenitor cells which gradually becomes new muscle fibres," said Angela Zissler, at the University of Salzburg in Austria.

For injuries like ligament and tendon damage, applying the low-frequency shock waves in ESWT has already proved to be a promising technique.

In the study, the team tested ESWT on rats and discovered that the procedure triggered muscle tissue to kick-start the self-healing process.

ESWT has good potential as a non-invasive therapy complementing or supplementing existing recovery regimes, said the paper published in the journal Society for Experimental Biology.

"This therapy only needs sessions of around 15 minutes, so easily complements traditional practices such as physiotherapy. Another bonus is that there are no side-effects to low-energy ESWT, unlike some other methods," Zissler explained.

In an ESWT session, shock waves are applied on the patient's damaged area at a low frequency (roughly 1 pulse per second).

These waves then focus a small amount of energy (less than 0.2 mJ/mm2) on the damaged area, without the need for using local anaesthetics.

This technique could also help injured athletes to return to training and be able to compete more quickly than just with traditional methods, the researchers concluded.​

​New York, July 7 (IANS) Combined impacts of volcanic eruptions in India and an asteroid impact in Mexico brought about one of the Earth's biggest mass extinctions that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, confirms a new study.

"It's quite likely both the volcanism and the asteroid were to blame for the ultimate mass extinction,” said one of the researchers, Andrea Dutton from the University of Florida.

"The Deccan Traps weakened the ecosystems before the asteroid slammed into the Earth -- it's consistent with an idea called the press-pulse hypothesis: a 'one-two punch' that proved devastating for life on Earth," Dutton noted.

Located in India, the Deccan Traps are one of the largest volcanic provinces in the world.

Dutton and her colleagues at the University of Michigan utilised a new technique of analysis to reconstruct Antarctic Ocean temperatures that support the idea that the combined impacts of volcanic eruptions and an asteroid impact brought about the mass extinctions 66 million years ago.

Their research, published in the journal Nature Communications, used a recently developed technique called the carbonate clumped isotope paleothermometer to analyse the chemical composition of fossil shells in the Antarctic Ocean. 

This analysis showed that ocean temperatures rose significantly.

The researchers linked these findings to two previously documented warming events that occurred near the end of the Cretaceous Period - one related to volcanic eruptions in India, and the other, tied to the impact of an asteroid or comet on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

To create their new temperature record, which spans 3.5 million years at the end of the Cretaceous and the start of the Paleogene Period, the researchers analysed the isotopic composition of 29 remarkably well-preserved shells of clam-like bivalves collected on Antarctica's Seymour Island.

The data showed two significant temperature spikes. 

The first corresponds to the eruption of the Deccan traps flood basalts. The other lines up exactly with the asteroid impact, which, in turn, may have sparked a renewed phase of volcanism in India. 

Intriguingly, both events are associated with extinction events of nearly equal magnitude on Seymour Island, Antarctica, the study said.​

​New York, July 7 (IANS) Genetics, effects on early development and social learning are some factors that can increase the risk of chronic pain transmitting from parent to children, researchers suggest.

According to a report in the journal PAIN, the researchers identified some plausible mechanisms to explain the transmission of chronic pain from parent to child. 

Genetic is a factor, which the research suggests, may account for roughly half of the risk of chronic pain in adults.

The study, conducted by Amanda Stone of Vanderbilt University and Anna Wilson of Oregon Health & Science University in the US also revealed that having a parent with chronic pain may affect the features and functioning of the nervous system during critical periods in early development.

"The outlined mechanisms, moderators, and vulnerabilities likely interact over time to influence the development of chronic pain and related outcomes in offspring of parents with chronic pain," the researchers said.

Parents' physical activity level and adverse effects from growing up in stressful circumstances are also related to increase in transfer of chronic pain, the study said

​London, July 7 (IANS) The pound sterling on Thursday continued to hover around 31-year lows in Asian trading as more UK property funds suspended withdrawals in the wake of Britain voting to exit the European Union (EU).

​New York, July 7 (IANS) In a fresh bid to connect nearly four billion people to internet, Facebook on Thursday announced an open source and cost-effective, software-defined wireless access platform aimed to improve connectivity in remote areas of the world.

Washington, July 7 (IANS) What if your shirt or trouser can detect moisture in the air and gauge the outside temperature or your new-born baby's diaper can alert you that it is time for you to change it?

​New York, July 7 (IANS) Those who live exceptionally long lives lead a much healthier life, suggests new research. It found the onset of illness came decades later in life for centenarians than those not blessed with longevity.

The findings in a study of nearly 3,000 people contradict the notion that the older the people get, the sicker they become and the greater the cost of taking care of them.

"Most people struggle with an ever-increasing burden of disease and disability as they age," said study leader Nir Barzilai, Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

"But we found that those who live exceptionally long lives have the additional benefit of shorter periods of illness -- sometimes just weeks or months -- before death," Barzilai said.

The study appeared in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The data for the study was collected from two studies with participants from North America, England, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Analysis revealed a consistent pattern of delayed onset of illness in the centenarian groups compared to their respective comparison groups.

The findings suggest that discoveries made in one group of centenarians can be generalised to diverse populations. ​

New York, July 7 (IANS) Air pollutants interact with and break down plant-emitted scent molecules, which insect pollinators such as bees use to locate needed food, says a new study.

The pollution-modified plant odours can confuse bees and, as a result, bees' foraging time increases and pollination efficiency decreases, the study said.

This happens because the chemical interactions decrease both the scent molecules' life spans and the distances they travel.

While foraging for food, insects detect floral scent molecules in the air. Wind currents can carry these molecules up to thousands of feet from their original source to where bees have their hives.

"Many insects have nests that are up to 3,000 feet away from their food source, which means that scents need to travel long distances before insects can detect them," said Jose Fuentes, Professor at Pennsylvania State University in the US.

Plant-emitted hydrocarbons break down through chemical interactions with certain air pollutants such as ozone. 

This breakdown process results in the creation of more air pollutants, including hydroxyl and nitrate radicals, which further increase the breakdown rate of plant odours.

The researchers sought to understand how these chemical interactions, which start with the presence of air pollutants, would impact bees' ability to find food. 

The researchers ran 90,000 simulations representing various bees' foraging and movement patterns amid differing scent levels modified by air pollution and diluted by wind speeds.

The team reported in the journal Atmospheric Environment that, as air pollution increases, hydrocarbons' lifetime and travel distance decreases. 

The changes in air chemistry impacted the number of bees able to detect food sources in a given time frame. 

"We found that when we confused the bees' environment by modifying the gases present in the atmosphere, they spent more time foraging and would bring back less food, which would affect their colonies," Fuentes said. ​

​Seoul, July 7 (IANS) Riding on the huge success of its Galaxy S smartphone series, South Korean giant Samsung on Thursday announced that its operating profit rose to its highest level in about two years. The company earned 8.1 trillion Korean won ($7 billion) in operating profit in April-June period. The consolidated sales likely rose 3 per cent to about 50 trillion won from 48.5 trillion won a year earlier. Improvement in smartphone sales as well as a weaker won against the dollar helped push up the profit, media reports said. According to The Australian, the profits lend further evidence that the worst of the company's recent struggles may be over, thanks to the sustained popularity of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Samsung sold the most number of smartphones worldwide in the first quarter of the year and is expected to sell 320 million smartphones by the end of the year, a new report said recently. According to US-based market research company IC Insights, buoyed by the strong sales growth of Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, Samsung sold 81.5 million smartphones, followed by Apple with 51.6 million smartphones -- in the first quarter. Samsung Galaxy Note 5 device has also topped the 2016 American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) poll. According to the annual poll comprising 12,710 people, Samsung Galaxy Note 5 phablet has a rating of 86 out of 100, 9to5mac.com reported recently. The high-end smartphone market is expected to grow 19 per cent in 2016 from 15 per cent in the previous year as more and more customers are upgrading to premium devices from top brands like Samsung, Apple and OnePlus, another report said recently. While Samsung and Apple will continue to be strong players, new brands such as Gionee, Huawei, Vivo and Lenovo will make some commendable inroads, said the report released by the market research firm CyberMedia Research (CMR). Samsung and Apple increased their market share in 2015 (in the above Rs 20,000 price band) to 44 per cent and 27.3 per cent, respectively.​