Knowledge Update

​Rome, March 11 (IANS) The Italian parliament on Thursday passed the first ever anti-poverty provision aimed at ensuring a stable economic support to poor families in the country, local media reported on Friday.

​Washington, March 10 (IANS) NASA has announced that its upcoming mission to explore the habitability of Jupiter's icy moon Europa will be officially called Europa Clipper.

The mission is being planned for launch in the 2020s, arriving in the Jupiter system after a journey of several years, NASA said in a statement on Friday.

Europa has long been a high priority for exploration because it holds a salty liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust. 

The ultimate aim of Europa Clipper is to determine if Europa is habitable, possessing all three of the ingredients necessary for life -- liquid water, chemical ingredients, and energy sources sufficient to enable biology, the US space agency said. 

Previously, when the mission was still in the conceptual phase, it was sometimes informally called Europa Clipper, but NASA has now adopted that name as the formal title for the mission.

The moniker harkens back to the clipper ships that sailed across the oceans of Earth in the 19th century. 

Clipper ships were streamlined, three-masted sailing vessels renowned for their grace and swiftness. 

These ships rapidly shuttled tea and other goods back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean and around globe.

In the grand tradition of these classic ships, the Europa Clipper spacecraft would sail past Europa at a rapid cadence, as frequently as every two weeks, providing many opportunities to investigate the moon up close. 

The prime mission plan includes 40 to 45 flybys, during which the spacecraft would image the moon's icy surface at high resolution and investigate its composition and the structure of its interior and icy shell.

"During each orbit, the spacecraft spends only a short time within the challenging radiation environment near Europa. It speeds past, gathers a huge amount of science data, then sails on out of there," said Robert Pappalardo, Europa Clipper project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

New York, March 10 (IANS) Higher exposure to some chemicals added to furniture, electronics and numerous other goods to prevent fires may put kids at increased risk of developing aggression and hyperactivity, says a study.

The researchers studied the behavioural effects of organophosphate-based flame retardants (OPFRs) on young children.

"When we analysed behaviour assessments and exposure levels, we observed that the children who had more exposure to certain types of the flame retardant were more likely to exhibit externalising behaviours such as aggression, defiance, hyperactivity, inattention and bullying," said corresponding author of the study Molly Kile, Associate Professor at Oregon State University in the US. 

Flame retardants are found throughout the built environment in furniture, mattresses, carpeting, electronics, vehicles and more. 

The chemicals are added to the products and are not bound in the material, which causes them to be released into indoor environments.

For this study, published in the journal Environmental Health, the research team recruited 92 children between ages three to five to wear a silicone wristband for seven days to measure exposure to flame retardants.

The researchers had parents or primary caregivers complete questionnaires about socio-demographics and the home environment, and preschool teachers completed behaviour assessments for each participating child. 

In all, researchers had complete data and wristband results for 69 children.

Their analysis showed that all of the children were exposed to some level of flame retardant. 

Children who had higher exposure rates of OFPRs showed less responsible behaviour and more aggression, defiance, hyperactivity, inattention and bullying behaviours.

​London, March 10 (IANS) Researchers have found the world's oldest crocodilian eggs that were laid 152 million years ago.

The eggs, discovered in cliffs in Portugal, were laid by close relatives of "true" crocodiles, a group called crocodylomorphs, which according to palaeontologists, had been two metres long.

"The fact that they are from the Late Jurassic period makes these eggs the oldest crocodilian eggs known so far," Joao Russo from the Nova University of Lisbon in Portugal was quoted as saying to the BBC.

"The fossil record tells us that crocodiles and their relatives (forming the larger group of crocodylomorphs) were much more diverse in the past, with different feeding habits, ecological niche distribution or morphology," he added.

The eggs were found in several clutches and appear to be of two different types, the researchers said in the paper published in the journal, Plos One.

"This new discovery from Portugal extends the knowledge of this type of egg by approximately 40 million years," Russo added.

Moscow, March 10 (IANS) Early life changes in brain activity and blood flow may be the reason why people tend to develop abnormally high blood pressure, or hypertension, researchers said.

High blood pressure is a condition in which the force of the blood against the artery walls is too high.

It is also often called the silent killer because it typically has no symptoms until after it has done significant damage to the heart and the arteries.

In 90-95 per cent of people, high blood pressure has no identifiable cause, yet it is a risk factor for diseases of the brain, kidneys, heart, eyes, and other parts of the body, said a group of researchers at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Russia. 

For the study, published in Experimental Physiology, the team investigated physiological changes in a rat model called ISIAH, short for inherited stress-induced arterial hypertension.

These rats develop high blood pressure at four to six weeks of age, and this is sustained throughout their lifetime.

The researchers compared the high blood pressure rats to a control group with normal blood pressure. 

As the mice in high blood pressure group grew older, changes in rates of blood flow in certain arteries were observed.

In addition, changes were found in the brain activity, specifically a decrease in the prefrontal cortex -- the brain region associated with cognition, decision-making and working memory -- as well as an increase in the hypothalamus -- an area of the brain that controls mood and appetite.

"The study of early physiological changes may help clarify the cause of high blood pressure. Understanding this could help us prevent the disease early on," said led author Alisa Seryapina from the Institute of Cytology and Genetics.

​New York, March 10 (IANS) Apple said it has partnered with component supplier Ibiden to power all of its manufacturing in Japan with 100 per cent renewable energy.

To meet the commitment, Ibiden will invest in more than 20 new renewable energy facilities, including one of the largest floating solar photovoltaic systems in the country.

​New York, March 9 (IANS) In a bid to make 360 degree photos and videos more immersive and easier to discover, Facebook has launched a new virtual reality app called "Facebook 360" for Samsung Gear VR headset which is powered by Oculus.

​New York, March 9 (IANS) US tech giant Google has confirmed the acquisition of Australia-born data science community Kaggle for an undisclosed sum.

The confirmation came at the Google's "Cloud Next" conference in San Francisco late on Wednesday.

​New York, March 9 (IANS) After The New York Times, The Guardian and some other leading media organisations, CNN has officially launched "CNNVR" -- a new immersive journalism unit and virtual reality platform.