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
London, Nov 4 (IANS) British scientists have identified the reason behind what makes a song so catchy that it gets stuck in our head and goes on playing in an endless loop -- known as experiencing involuntary musical imagery or earworms.
Findings of a study, published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, showed that songs that are usually faster and have a fairly generic and easy-to-remember melody but have some unique intervals such as leaps or repetitions that set them apart from the "average pop song" get stuck in our head.
"Our findings show that you can, to some extent, predict which songs are going to get stuck in people's heads based on the song's melodic content," said lead author Kelly Jakubowski from Durham University in Britain.
In addition to a common melodic shape, the other crucial ingredient in the earworm formula is an unusual interval structure in the song such as some unexpected leaps or more repeated notes than you would expect to hear in the "average pop song".
"The study could help aspiring song-writers or advertisers write a jingle that everyone will remember for days or months afterwards," Jakubowski added.
In the study, the team asked 3,000 people for their most frequent earworm tunes and compared these to tunes which had never been named as earworms in the database but were a match in terms of popularity and how recently they had been in Britain's music charts.
The melodic features of the earworm and non-earworm tunes were then analysed and compared. Songs were limited to popular music genres, such as pop, rock, rap, rhythm and blues.
Super User
From Different Corners
New York, Nov 4 (IANS) Genetically removing a protein or using drug to target it can help reverse diabetic insulin resistance and glucose intolerance, suggests new research.
By binding to insulin receptors on cells, the protein Galectin-3 (Gal3) prevents insulin from attaching to the receptors, resulting in cellular insulin resistance.
"This study puts Gal3 on the map for insulin resistance and diabetes in mouse model," said senior author of the study Jerrold Olefsky, Professor at University of California - San Diego School of Medicine.
When people have insulin resistance, glucose builds up in the blood instead of being absorbed by the cells, leading to Type-2 diabetes or prediabetes, according to National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
"Our findings suggest that Gal3 inhibition in people could be an effective anti-diabetic approach," Olefsky said.
The team showed that by genetically removing Gal3 or using pharmaceutical inhibitors to target it, insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance could be returned to normal, even among older mice.
Olefsky and other researchers have been studying how chronic tissue inflammation leads to insulin resistance in Type-2 diabetes.
In the current study, published in the journal Cell, researchers explained that inflammation requires macrophages -- specialised cells that destroy targeted cells.
In obese adipose tissue (fat), for example, 40 per cent of cells are macrophages.
Macrophages in turn secrete Gal3, which then acts as a signaling protein attracting more macrophages, thus resulting in the production of even more Gal3.
Furthermore, investigators identified bone marrow-derived macrophages as the source of Gal3 that leads to insulin resistance.
Super User
From Different Corners
London, Nov 3 (IANS) Larger violation of social norms in public spaces may not lead to stronger reaction from public than smaller violations, finds a new study.
The research team investigated how people respond to large and small violations of social norms in public spaces.
The study published in the journal Nature Communications refutes the assumption that larger violations tend to be punished more severely than smaller offences.
The researchers staged small violations (littering a coffee cup) and large violations (littering a coffee cup and bag of trash) at train stations in Germany and recorded how travellers responded in more than 800 trials.
The implicit assumption was that bystanders would react more strongly if more garbage was littered, hence the norm violation was greater.
However, the size of the violation did not affect the likelihood that the litterer would be reprimanded -- nor did it affect the intensity of the reprimand.
Travellers have more negative emotions toward the larger violation and felt that it should be reprimanded more severely.
Despite these emotional responses, however, the surveyed individuals admitted that they would be reluctant to confront or punish such violations in real-life settings.
The scientists explain this reluctance with the perceived risk of retaliation by the norm violator. The greater the norm violation, the greater the retaliation might be.
Bystanders feared that in cases of a more severe social norm violation, the person's reaction would be stronger when confronted or reprimanded.
"The study shows that social self-regulation has its limits. Up to a certain point, we reprimand each other for bad behaviour. But in cases of more extreme norm violations, social self-regulation no longer works and we need authorities, police and security personnel," said Bettina Rockenbach, Professor at the University of Cologne, Germany.
SUC Editing Team
International Business
New York, Nov 3 (IANS) Social media giant Facebook scored big in the third quarter of this year, reporting $7.01 billion in revenue and its daily active users (DAUs) stood at 1.18 billion on average as of September 2016, an increase of 17 per cent year-on-year.
SUC Editing Team
Information Systems
San Diego, Nov 3 (IANS) At a time when design-led thinking in businesses is having a positive effect on creative professionals, keeping pace with content demands across new and traditional platforms, Adobe showcased its next-generation Creative Cloud innovations at the ongoing annual creativity conference here.
SUC Editing Team
Information Systems
New York, Nov 3 (IANS) A major technological advance in the field of high speed beam-scanning devices can increase the speed of 2D and 3D printing by up to 1000 times, researchers have reported.
SUC Editing Team
Accounting & Finance
Cairo, Nov 3 (IANS) The Egyptian central bank on Thursday devalued the country's currency by 48 per cent against the US dollar and raised interest rates by 3 per cent.
The official exchange rate of the Egyptian pound will now be 13 to the US dollar, down from 8.8, Xinhua news agency reported.
SUC Editing Team
Travel and Tourism
Taipei, Nov 3 (IANS) The island nation of Taiwan has something of interest for everyone -- scenic, lush-green mountains, lakes, hot springs, culture, cable cars, high-speed trains, museums, malls, amusement parks, beaches and a world class aquarium.
Taiwan, with a population of around 23 million, is not just an industrialised region churning out electronic and other products for global brands but a fusion of multi-cultural traditions and modernity.
The presence of different classes of lodging options in Taiwan and the newly-floated Scoot Airlines grabbing travellers with low fares, Taiwan can also be added to travel destinations for Indians.
It should however be mentioned that language is one issue to be managed here, as English is not widely understood. Also, vegetarians will find Taiwan a bit of a challenge, though hotels do offer vegetarian food. There are also some Indian restaurants.
Around 1.20 a.m. the yellow-painted aircraft took to the skies from Chennai towards Singapore -- the Lion City. Scoot offers different kinds of classes, including a baby-free class, so that travellers are not disturbed by crying babies. But one is helpless if the person next to you starts his/her roaring snore!
It was a new experience to have the piping hot, spicy and tasty Nasi Lemak Malay fragrant rice dish cooked in coconut milk at an unearthly hour of 2.30 a.m. several thousand feet above the earth.
Travel tip: Better carry a small bottle of water as the airline does not provide even a cup of water free.
We (a group of journalists and I) reached Taipei and were received by Francis Wu, an experienced tour guide assigned to us by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau.
The next morning we boarded the high-speed train (HST) to Zuoying, around 340 km from Taipei. The plan was to travel back over the next couple of days soaking in Taiwan's natural beauty and culture.
The train ride was smooth, sans noise and jerks even while changing tracks at over 230 kmph. The green mountains and farm fields that rushed past were a pleasant sight.
From Zuoying station we reached the YoHo Beach Resort at Pingtung for lunch where the Taiwanese food was good. Beach bummers can go to the popular Baisha Bay for a spectacular sunset, setting the mood for much more fun at the resort.
The other popular spot nearby is the Fu An, the God of Earth temple at Che Cheng. The big temple is built in a royal style and the Earth God is said to be very benevolent in acceding to your prayers.
One of the not-to-be-missed tourist spots in Pingtung is the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium where one can watch dolphins and sharks, among others, gliding elegantly inside the overhead glass enclosures.
Walking through the glass tunnel, tourists can see coral reefs and hundreds of fish and also the manual feeding of stingrays by the aquarium's divers.
The stingray's underside looks like one of the ghosts in the "Casper the Ghost" comic and its wide mouth like the smiley emoticon!
At the Yunlin County en route to Tainan city, daredevils can try out the "Diving Machine G5", a high-speed 65-metre vertical fall at the Janfusun Fancy World, a major amusement park. There is also the "Sky Jet" that offers a high-speed 65-metre ascent and a free fall at the park.
The artistically inclined would find the private Chimei Museum housing sculptures and musical instruments interesting.
Yet another picturesque spot in Taiwan is the Sun Moon Lake located 748 metres above sea level that powers several hydel power plants.
From there, via a cable car ride enjoying the green valley below, one can reach the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village that narrates the story about the ancient tribes or Austronesans and also hosts cultural shows.
After flying sky lanterns and enjoying the waterfall at the Shifen village it was time to reach Taipei to enjoy the city by night from the 89th floor of the 101-storied Taipei 101 building.
And then it was time to scoot back to Chennai, of course with much reluctance.
Super User
Lifestyle and Trends
London, Nov 3 (IANS) If you are physically fit and in good shape, you may be well-guarded against the health problems that arise when you feel particularly stressed at work, a study says.
The findings showed that a high fitness level offers particularly effective protection for professionals who experience a high degree of stress in the workplace -- known as psychosocial stress.
Psychosocial stress is one of the key factors leading to illness-related absences from work. This type of stress is accompanied by impaired mental well-being and an increase in depressive symptoms.
It also raises the likelihood of cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure and an unfavourable blood lipid profile.
Conversely, a high fitness level is associated with fewer depressive symptoms and fewer cardiovascular risk factors, the researchers said.
"The study is significant because it is precisely when people are stressed that they tend to engage in physical activity less often," said Markus Gerber, Professor at the University of Basel in Switzerland.
Further, in the individuals who were stressed showed particularly large differences between those with a high, medium, and low fitness level.
For example, when stress levels were high, the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol -- or the bad cholesterol -- values exceeded the clinically relevant limit in employees with a low fitness level, but not in those with a high fitness level.
By contrast, where the exposure to stress was low, far smaller differences were observed between fitness levels.
To promote a physically active lifestyle, a high priority should be attached to the systematic measurement of cardiorespiratory fitness and the provision of theoretically sound and evidence-based physical activity counselling, the researchers stated.
In addition, the study also has direct implications for the therapy and treatment of stress-related disorders, Gerber said.
It therefore pays to stay physically active, especially during periods of high stress, the researchers noted in the paper published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (MSSE).
Super User
From Different Corners
New York, Nov 2 (IANS) Making canola oil part of your diet may help you burn extra abdominal fat in less than four weeks, finds a new study.
"Visceral, or abdominal, fat increases the risk for cardiovascular disease, and is also associated with increased risk for conditions such as metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Monounsaturated fats in canola oil decreases fat that has adverse health effects," said Penny M. Kris-Etherton, Professor at the Pennsylvania State University, US.
For the study, the researchers tested the effect of five different vegetable oil blended in 101 participants' diets through a controlled study.
The subjects were randomly assigned to follow for four weeks each of the treatment oil diets: conventional canola, high-oleic acid canola, high-oleic acid canola with DHA (a type of omega-3 fatty acid), corn/safflower and flax/safflower.
After each four-week diet period, participants were given a four-week break before starting the next diet period.
All of the participants had abdominal obesity, or increased waist circumference, and were either at risk for or had metabolic syndrome -- a group of conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, low HDL (also known as good cholesterol) and excess body fat around the waist.
When participants consumed conventional canola oil or high-oleic acid canola oil for just four weeks, they lost abdominal fat.
The researchers found that after one month of adhering to diets that included canola oil, participants had 11 kgs, or a quarter pound, less belly fat than they did before the diet.
They also found that the weight lost from the mid-section did not redistribute elsewhere in the body.
In order to incorporate canola oil into the diet the researchers suggested using it when sauteing foods, in baking, adding it to a smoothie and in salad dressings.
The researchers presented their study at The Obesity Society's Annual Scientific Meeting.