Knowledge Update

​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

​New York, March 21 (IANS) In a bid to make easier for media firms to post live video broadcasts, micro-blogging website Twitter will launch Live video application programming interface (API) later this week.

​New Delhi, March 21 (IANS) With the nominal year-over-year (y-o-y) expenditure growth at 12 per cent and with consumption set to triple to $4 trillion, India will be the third largest consumer market by 2025, a report said on Tuesday.

New York, March 19 (IANS) Yahoo is reportedly in talks with Facebook about an advertising partnership that would allow the social networking site to sell ads on Tumblr.

According to a report in The Information website, Yahoo is considering a deal with Facebook that would allow the social network giant to sell ads inside Tumblr’s mobile app.

​New York, March 21 (IANS) In a battle against fake news, Facebook has started to roll out a new tool that fact-checks the stories a user shares.

According to a report in Telegraph on Monday, some users in the US saw a pop-up window appearing when they shared a story on their profile, reading "Disputed by multiple,

San Francisco, March 21 (IANS) Driven by a series of rumoured new products launch this week, Apple shares on Monday surged one per cent to hit an all-time high of $141.46.

According to media reports, Apple is expected to unveil the new iPad Pro lineup, a larger iPhone SE model with 128GB storage and new Apple Watch bands this week.