Knowledge Update

London, Feb 8 (IANS) Using Facebook can be a fun way to while away the hours -- but a new study suggests that updating your status or commenting on a friend's holiday pictures can make us lose track of time as we do it. People who are using Facebook or surfing the web suffer impaired perception of time, said the study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. "We found evidence that Internet and Facebook related stimuli can distort time perception due to attention and arousal related mechanisms," said the study by researchers from University of Kent in England. The researchers found that the way people perceived time varied according to whether their internet use was specifically Facebook related or more general. Using well-established internal clock models, the researchers attempted to separate the roles of 'attention' and 'arousal' as drivers for time distortion. In the study, Lazaros Gonidis and Dinkar Sharma monitored the responses of 44 people who were shown images for varying degrees of time. While some of the images were associated with Facebook, another set had more general internet associations with yet another set as neutral 'control' images. Those taking part had to say whether the image they had just seen had been visible for a short or long time. The key finding was that people tended to underestimate the time they had been looking at Facebook-related images to a greater extent than other more general internet related images, but that in both cases time was underestimated. This suggests that Facebook-related images affect time by changing how we pay attention to them. The researchers believe that the findings are likely to have implications for future study into addictive behaviour.

​New York, Feb 8 (IANS) US tech giant Apple announced that BeatsX wireless earbuds will be available globally later this week. BeatsX earphones deliver up to eight hours of battery life and with "Fast Fuel", a five-minute charge gives you two hours of playback. "The earbuds come with unique flex-form cable that provides all-day comfort and easy pocket portability, while eartip options provide a personalised fit and secure-fit wingtips offer added stability," Apple said in a statement. BeatsX features optimised noise isolation, RemoteTalk allows you to take calls with a built-in mic, play music, adjust volume and activate Siri and also comes with variety of eartip options to offer personalised comfort.

​London, Feb 8 (IANS) If your child is good at maths, chances are that he or she may have an increase in positive emotions, but bad results in maths may trigger negative emotions such as anxiety and boredom, a new study has found.

The findings showed that mathematics -- a subject that is known to trigger strong emotions in students -- impacted their academic performance for years.

"Successful performance in math increased students' positive emotions and decreased their negative emotions over the years," said Stephanie Lichtenfeld from the University of Munich in Germany.

Students with higher intelligence had better grades and test scores, but those who also enjoyed and took pride in math had even better achievement. 

While, students who experienced anger, anxiety, shame, boredom or hopelessness had lower achievements.

"In contrast, students with poor grades and test scores suffered from a decline in positive emotions and an increase in negative emotions, such as math anxiety and math boredom. Thus, these students become caught in a downward spiral of negative emotion and poor achievement," Lichtenfeld added.

For the study, published in the journal Child Development, the team studied 3,425 German students from grades five to nine belonging to different socio-economic backgrounds, whose annual assessments of emotions and achievement in math were evaluated.

While questionnaires measured the self-reported emotions of students, their achievement was assessed by year-end grades and scores on a math achievement test.

Administrators, educators and parents need to strengthen students' positive emotions and minimise negative emotions relating to subjects in school, the researchers recommended.

​London, Feb 8 (IANS) In a first, anonymised data from mobile phones and satellite imagery data can be combined to create high resolution maps to measure poverty.

The researchers from the University of Southampton and the Sweden-based Flowminder Foundation found that by combining mobile data and geospatial data from satellites, they were able to produce poverty predictions which are comparable with those made from traditional sources, but with significant advantages.

"Census and household surveys are normally used as data sources to estimate rates of poverty. However, they aren't regularly updated -- for example, censuses only take place every ten years -- and in low income countries, surveys can be patchy," said Jessica Steele, lead author of the study.

Since the information on mobile phone is continually updated, it can be interrogated in various ways and can track changes on an ongoing basis. 

"Paired with satellite data that has similar features, it can give a much more dynamic view of poverty and its geographic spread," Steele added.

The researchers explained that every time a person uses a mobile it sends information to a receiving tower and gives an approximate location of where they are. 

"It also contains information about levels of data usage, numbers of texts sent, times calls were made and their duration. It can reveal how much and how far people are travelling, as well as the type of phone they're using. This kind of anonymised data helps build a picture of poverty," the paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface noted.

For example, monthly credit consumption on mobiles, and the proportion of people in an area using them, can indicate household access to financial resources. While movements of mobiles and their use of networks provide information on individuals' economic opportunities.

"Satellite data can provide us with excellent information about living conditions in rural areas, but in tightly packed cities it's more difficult. It's the reverse for mobiles as more masts in cities means more information, contrasted with the countryside where mobile receiving towers can be thinly spread," Steele said.

The researchers noted that some of the poorest in society may not own a mobile, but even taking this in to account, they were able to identify distinct differences between low income informal settlements and richer areas.

​Beijing, Feb 7 (IANS) Demand for new employees in China's Guangdong province increased after the Spring Festival vacation, when migrant workers return to their hometowns for the holiday, the media reported on Tuesday.

Beijing, Feb 7 (IANS) China announced on Tuesday that it has approved two electric car projects worth 6.15 billion yuan ($896 million).

After completion, the two projects will boast a combined output of 115,000 electric cars, according to a statement by the National Development and Reform Commission.

​London, Feb 7 (IANS) Nearly 250,000 jobs in Britain's public sector could be replaced by websites and artificially intelligent "chat bots" in the near future, leading to higher efficiency in the sector, a new report said.

​New York, Feb 7 (IANS) People who regularly eat pasta -- the fundamental component of Italian Mediterranean cuisine -- may have better diet quality, greater intake of vitamin and minerals and can better manage blood sugar levels, compared to those who do not eat pasta, new research shows. Pasta is a low-sodium and cholesterol-free food with a low glycemic index -- foods that keep blood sugar levels in control. "The study shows that pasta eaters have better quality diets than those who don't eat pasta," said Diane Welland, dietitian and Nutrition Communications Manager for the National Pasta Association -- a US based organisation. The findings showed that pasta eaters had a greater intake of nutrients and minerals that most people lack in their diets such as folate -- that helps the body form red blood cells and reduces the risk of defects during foetal growth --; iron -- used to carry oxygen in the blood and aids in reducing anemia --; magnesium -- a mineral used in building bones and releasing energy from muscles -- and dietary fiber -- which helps reduce blood cholesterol levels and lower risk of heart disease, obesity and Type 2 diabetes. In addition, eating pasta also led to less intake of saturated fat -- which can help lower the level of cholesterol in your blood to decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke -- and less added sugar -- like sucrose and high fructose corn syrup that contain a whole bunch of calories with no essential nutrients. "Pasta can be an effective building block for good nutrition, as it serves as a perfect delivery system for fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish and legumes," Welland added. For the study, presented at The Obesity Society's annual meeting in New Orleans, the team conducted a survey to examine the associations between pasta consumption, shortfall nutrient intakes as defined by the 2015 Dietary Guidelines (2015 DG) and diet quality in comparison to non-pasta consumption in the US adults.

​Beijing, Feb 7 (IANS) Shipping 44.9 million iPhones to China, Apple has beaten Xiaomi, touted as the 'Apple' of China that shipped 41.5 million smartphones and slipped to fifth spot, market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed. According to IDC's Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report, Apple dropped from 58.4 million iPhones in 2015 and Xiaomi from 64 million Mi phones, drops of 23 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively. Oppo, which shipped 78.4 million phones -- more than double the 35.4 million it shipped in 2015. Huawei came in at second, shipping 76 million phones, while Vivo managed to almost double its shipments, going from 35 million in 2015 to 69 million last year. "Increased dependence on mobile apps has led to consumers to seek phone upgrades, thus helping drive the large growth in fourth quarter of 2016. In lower tiered cities, there was a similar demand by consumers, which Oppo and vivo met by aggressively pushing mid-range smartphones in these cities," said Tay X iaohan, Senior Market Analyst, IDC Asia/Pacific's Client Devices team, in a statement. Despite the decline, IDC does not believe Chinese vendors have actually eaten away Apple's market share. Most Apple users are expected to be holding out for the new iPhone that will be launched this year, and that will help the brand to see a growth in 2017. Apple's 10-year anniversary iPhone will also likely attract some of the high-end Android users in China to convert to an iPhone. "The smartphone market in China saw a 19 per cent year-on-year growth and 17 per cent quarter-on-quater growth fourth quarter of 2016. For the full year of 2016, the market grew by nine per cent with top Chinese smartphone vendors taking up a larger share of the market," the findings showed. At present, out of the top three Chinese vendors in China, Huawei is the most successful with half of its shipments coming from markets outside China in fourth quarter of 2016. Cameras will continue to be a key focus in the marketing messages by vendors especially given the strong selfie culture in China, as exemplified by the popularity of apps such as Meitu, the report added.

​Brasilia, Feb 7 (IANS) Tourism revenue during the Brazilian Carnival is expected to hit 5.8 billion reais ($1.8 billion), a government report said.

The report, issued on Monday by the National Commerce Confederation (CNC), showed that food and beverage services in bars and restaurants are projected to bring in around 57 per cent of the income, followed by hotels and transportation, Xinhua news agency reported.

However, the total volume of income expected from the Carnival in 2017, which will last from February 24 to March 1, is 5.7 per cent lower than last year and the worst prediction in the past three years.

Rio de Janeiro, host of the largest carnival, will receive the largest boost to its income, estimated at 2.4 billion reais ($770 million), followed by Sao Paulo, with 1.5 billion reais ($480 million), the report said.

The two states will claim 68 per cent of the tourism revenue during the Carnival celebrations, with large parades also staging in the southern state of Minas Gerais and the northeastern states of Bahia, Ceara and Pernambuco, it added.