Knowledge Update

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.

London, Jan 31 (IANS) Repeated antibiotic treatment not only can increase bacteria's resistance to drugs but also help them reproduce faster than before, warns a new study.

The finding that growth of bacteria can be stimulated by antibiotics underlines the importance of using the right antibiotic on patients as soon as possible.

For the study, the researchers exposed E.coli bacteria to eight rounds of antibiotic treatment over four days and found the bug -- which can cause severe stomach pain, diarrhoea and kidney failure in humans -- had increased antibiotic resistance with each treatment.

This had been expected, but researchers were surprised to find mutated E.coli reproduced faster than before encountering the drugs and formed populations that were three times larger because of the mutations.

This was only seen in bacteria exposed to antibiotics -- and when researchers took the drug away, the evolutionary changes were not undone and the new-found abilities remained, said the study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

"Our research suggests there could be added benefits for E.coli bacteria when they evolve resistance to clinical levels of antibiotics," said lead author Robert Beardmore, Professor at University of Exeter in Britain.

"It's often said that Darwinian evolution is slow, but nothing could be further from the truth, particularly when bacteria are exposed to antibiotics," Beardmore said.

"Bacteria have a remarkable ability to rearrange their DNA and this can stop drugs working, sometimes in a matter of days," Beardmore explained. 

The researchers tested the effects of the antibiotic doxycycline on E.coli as part of a study of DNA changes brought about by antibiotics.

"It is said by some that drug resistance evolution doesn't take place at high dosages but our paper shows that it can and that bacteria can change in ways that would not be beneficial for the treatment of certain types of infection," Mark Hewlett, also of the University of Exeter, pointed out.

"This shows it's important to use the right antibiotic on patients as soon as possible so we don't see adaptations like these in the clinic," Hewlett noted.

​London, Jan 31 (IANS) There has been no improvement since 1998 in survival rates for heart failure patients, a new study has found.

Researchers from the University of Oxford looked at routinely collected medical records from 54,313 patients with heart failure and found 81.3 per cent survived for one year, 51.5 per cent survived for two years, and 29.5 per cent survived for 10 years, following diagnosis with the condition.

"Getting an accurate estimate of heart failure prognosis is vital for those who commission healthcare services, so resources can be allocated appropriately," said Clare Taylor, a primary care researcher at the University of Oxford.

Survival rates, between 1998 and 2012, for people aged over 45 with heart failure showed no improvement though, in contrast to cancer survival rates in the Britain which have doubled in the last 40 years.

"Perhaps more importantly, this allows patients to make more informed choices about treatments and possible end-of-life care. While the survival rates were better than other studies, we disappointingly did not see any improvement over time," added Taylor.

According to the study published in the journal Family Practice, heart failure is a common long-term condition affecting around nine lakh in the Britain and represents the second highest cost to the National Health Service for any disease after stroke.

"An estimated one to two in every 100 adults in the west currently live with the condition," the study noted.

The paper found that survival rate estimates vary depending on a person's age, gender, other health conditions and blood pressure.

Toronto, Jan 31 (IANS) If you thought bursting balloons at a birthday party is plain fun, think again! Researchers have found that popping balloons can be louder than shotgun blasts -- and can lead to permanent hearing loss.

"We are not saying don't play with balloons and don't have fun, just try to guard against popping them. Hearing loss is insidious -- every loud noise that occurs has a potential lifelong impact," said one of the researchers Bill Hodgetts from University of Alberta in Canada.

The researchers measured the noise generated by bursting balloons and were startled to find that the impact, at its highest level, was comparable to a high-powered shotgun going off next to someone's ear.

Wearing ear protection and using a high-pressure microphone and a preamplifier, the researchers measured the noise effects by busting balloons three different ways: popping them with a pin, blowing them up until they ruptured and crushing them until they burst.

The loudest bang was made by the ruptured balloon at almost 168 decibels, four decibels louder than a 12-gauge shotgun, according to the study published in the journal Canadian Audiologist.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety recommends that the maximum impulse level any Canadian should experience should not exceed 140 decibels. Even one exposure could be considered potentially unsafe to hearing for both children and adults.

"It's amazing how loud the balloons are," Dylan Scott, also of University of Alberta, noted.

"Nobody would let their child shoot something that loud without hearing protection, but balloons don't cross people's minds," Scott pointed out.

The results for the other two methods were slightly lower, but still a concern, he said.