Introduction & Purpose
Knowledge update and Industry update at Skyline University College (SUC) is an online platform for communicating knowledge with SUC stakeholders, industry, and the outside world about the current trends of business development, technology, and social changes. The platform helps in branding SUC as a leading institution of updated knowledge base and in encouraging faculties, students, and others to create and contribute under different streams of domain and application. The platform also acts as a catalyst for learning and sharing knowledge in various areas.
Super User
From Different Corners
New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS) The WHO on Monday said it it has published the first-ever list of antibiotic-resistant "priority pathogens", 12 families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health, to guide and promote research and development of new antibiotics.
The Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO) said that list was drawn up as part of its efforts to address growing global resistance to antimicrobial medicines.
According to the global health body, the list is divided into three categories according to the urgency of need for new antibiotics: critical, high and medium priority.
"The most critical group of all includes multi-drug resistant bacteria that pose a particular threat in hospitals, nursing homes, and among patients whose care requires devices such as ventilators and blood catheters. They include Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and various Enterobacteriaceae (including Klebsiella, E. coli, Serratia, and Proteus)," said a WHO statement.
It said that all the bacteria can cause severe and often deadly infections such as bloodstream infections and pneumonia.
"These bacteria have become resistant to a large number of antibiotics, including carbapenems and third generation cephalosporins - the best available antibiotics for treating multi-drug resistant bacteria," said the report.
The second tier which includes antibiotics of high priority includes for Enterococcus faecium, which is vancomycin-resistant, Staphylococcus aureus which is methicillin-resistant, Helicobacter pylori which is clarithromycin-resistant, Campylobacter spp which is fluoroquinolone-resistant, Salmonellae which is fluoroquinolone-resistant, Neisseria gonorrhoeae which is cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone-resistant.
The third tier which includes medium priority includes Streptococcus pneumoniae which is penicillin-non-susceptible, Haemophilus influenzae, which is ampicillin-resistant and Shigella spp which is fluoroquinolone-resistant.
"This list is a new tool to ensure research and development responds to urgent public health needs," said WHO's Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation Marie-Paule Kieny in the statement.
Evelina Tacconelli, Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Tübingen and a major contributor to the list, said :"New antibiotics targeting this priority list of pathogens will help to reduce deaths due to resistant infections around the world.
"Waiting any longer will cause further public health problems and dramatically impact on patient care."
SUC Editing Team
Information Systems
London, Feb 26 (IANS) "Benevolent bots" that are designed to improve articles on Wikipedia -- just like humans -- have online "fights" over content that can continue for years, researchers have found.
SUC Editing Team
Retail and Marketing
Barcelona, Feb 26 (IANS) Targetting today's mobile professionals who want a stylish device that is easy to use, HP Inc on Sunday announced a dynamic new commercial 2-in-1 detachable laptop at Mobile World Congress 2017 here. The new HP Pro x2 612 G2 is a versatile 2-in-1 detachable laptop, featuring multiple modes ideal for commercial use, including presentation mode, inking mode for taking notes, tablet mode for data collection, and notebook mode. "Today, more than 60 percent of Millennials work from more than one location and by 2020 they will be a majority of the workforce. They want sexy mobile devices that meet their on-the-go work styles and IT needs these devices to be manageable, serviceable and secure," said Michael Park, Vice President and General Manager, Mobility, Personal Systems, HP Inc. "Only HP is combining these amazing mobile form factors with the built-in security and vertical workflow capabilities with a lower total cost of ownership," Park said. The Pro x2 can be configured with a choice of the latest seventh generation Intel processors, providing reliable performance to meet a variety of end-user-needs. The Pro x2 includes a USB-C connection for quick charging and data transfers and USB-A for accessing traditional legacy peripherals. The device was built from the ground up for secure work environments and includes a built-in smart card reader, a removable SSD, and the HP Client Security Suite Gen3, along with an optional fingerprint sensor and optional Near Field Communications (NFC), HP said. HP also announced a range of new vertical workflow accessories for the company's x2 lineup and Elite x3 platform. These accessories are designed with versatility in mind, helping mobile professionals be productive and remain connected whether they are in the office or on the go, HP said.
Super User
From Different Corners
New York, Feb 26 (IANS) Although the last Neanderthal died tens of thousands years ago, their DNA sequences still influence how genes are turned on or off in modern humans, and their effects can contribute to traits such as height and susceptibility to schizophrenia or lupus, says a study.
Experts know that after leaving Africa, our ancestors -- the homo sapiens -- mated with Neanderthals thousands of years ago, and today Neanderthal DNA makes up one to four per cent of the genomes of modern non-African people.
"Even 50,000 years after the last human-Neanderthal mating, we can still see measurable impacts on gene expression," said study co-author Joshua Akey from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.
"And those variations in gene expression contribute to human phenotypic variation and disease susceptibility," Akey added.
Previous studies have found correlations between Neanderthal genes and traits such as fat metabolism, depression, and lupus risk.
In this study, published in the journal Cell, researchers analysed RNA sequences in a dataset called the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) Project, looking for people who carried both Neanderthal and modern human versions of any given gene -- one version from each parent.
For each such gene, the investigators then compared expression of the two alleles head-to-head in 52 different tissues.
"We find that for about 25 per cent of all those sites that we tested, we can detect a difference in expression between the Neanderthal allele and the modern human allele," added Rajiv McCoy, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Washington.
One example uncovered by this study is a Neanderthal allele of a gene called ADAMTSL3 that decreases risk of schizophrenia, while also influencing height.
"Hybridisation between modern humans and Neanderthals increased genomic complexity," Akey explained.
"Hybridisation wasn't just something that happened 50,000 years ago that we don't have to worry about anymore. Those little bits and pieces, our Neanderthal relics, are influencing gene expression in pervasive and important ways," Akey said.
SUC Editing Team
International Business
Beijing, Feb 25 (IANS) China will lift 10 million people out of poverty in 2017, and the country will strictly review the spending of poverty relief funds to ensure transparent and efficient use of the money, the authorities said.
Super User
From Different Corners
New York, Feb 25 (IANS) Researchers have found a 700-per cent surge in infections caused by bacteria that is resistant to multiple kinds of antibiotics among children in the US.
According to researchers, these antibiotic resistant infections -- caused by Enterobacteriaceae, a family of bacteria that also include such pathogens as Salmonella and Escherichia coli -- are linked to longer hospital stays and potentially greater risk of death.
The findings showed that the proportion of these infections in children caused by bacteria increased from 0.2 per cent in 2007 to 1.5 per cent in 2015, a more than 700 per cent increase in prevalence over the eight-year period.
"There is a clear and alarming upswing throughout US of antibiotic resistant Enterobacteriaceae infections in kids and teenagers," said lead author Sharon B. Meropol, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at Case Western Reserve University in the US.
Bacterial infections resistant to multiple drugs are especially concerning in children, for whom there are a limited number of stronger antibiotics currently approved for use compared to adults, putting kids at higher risk for worse outcomes, the researchers said.
For the study, published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, the team analysed data from 48 children's hospitals throughout the US, focusing on approximately 94,000 patients under the age of 18 who were diagnosed with Enterobacteriaceae - associated infections between 2007 and 2015.
More than 75 per cent of the antibiotic-resistant infections were already present when the young people were admitted to the hospital, upending previous findings that the infections were mostly picked up in the hospital.
This suggested that the bacteria may be increasingly spreading in the community.
In addition, the bacterial infection may also cause a greater mortality risk among pediatric patients.
"Health care providers have to make sure we only prescribe antibiotics when they're really needed. It's also essential to stop using antibiotics in healthy agricultural animals", Meropol added.
Super User
From Different Corners
New York, Feb 25 (IANS) What if a drone delivers a mouth-watering pizza right in your car as you wait at the red signal and fly ahead? In a bid to make drones technology more potent, a team led by an Indian-origin researcher is teaching unmanned aerial vehicles to land on moving targets.
Using fuzzy logic, researchers at University of Cincinnati are programming drones so that they can make better navigational decisions on the fly that would eventually make drones autonomous.
"It's the only realistic way that drones will have commercially viable uses such as delivering that roll of toilet paper to customers," said Manish Kumar, associate professor and lead researcher.
According to Kumar, the problem of drones having difficulty in navigating their ever-changing is compounded when the drone tries to land on a moving platform such as a delivery van or even a US Navy warship pitching in high seas.
"It has to land within a designated area with a small margin of error. Landing a drone on a moving platform is a very difficult problem scientifically and from an engineering perspective," Kumar said.
To address this challenge, the team applied a concept called fuzzy logic that helps the drone make good navigational decisions amid a sea of statistical noise.
Researchers successfully employed fuzzy logic in a simulation to show it is an ideal system for navigating under dynamic conditions.
Kumar and co-authors presented the study at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' "SciTech 2017 Conference" held in Texas recently.
SUC Editing Team
Information Systems
San Francisco, Feb 24 (IANS) US wireless communications service provider Verizon on Friday launched a new venture called Exponent Technologies that will help telecom carriers fuel digital transformation by expanding their Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and other internet service delivery platforms.
SUC Editing Team
Accounting & Finance
London, Feb 24 (IANS) Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday reported losses of 7 billion pounds sterling ($8 billion) for 2016, taking its overall losses since its 2008 government bailout to over 58 billion pounds.
SUC Editing Team
Accounting & Finance
Beijing, Feb 24 (IANS) China on Friday said it has no intention of devaluing the yuan to boost exports, and expressed readiness to coordinate its economic and trade policies with the US.