Knowledge Update

New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry on Wednesday updated its crisis communication platform "AtHoc" with enhanced mobile alert functionality, upgraded map-based experiences for emergency operators and other performance improvements.

​New York, Feb 1 (IANS) Communication in data centres in near future can become hassle-free as engineers are proposing to eliminate most of the wires and substitute infrared free-space optics for communications.

​New York, Feb 1 (IANS) In a bid to display more relevant stories on its News Feed, Facebook has rolled out fresh changes with new signals to "better identify and rank authentic content".

San Francisco, Feb 1 (IANS) Riding on the success of iPhone 7 and Apple Watch, the Cupertino-based company on Wednesday announced an all-time record revenue of $78.4 billion -- with a record quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.36 -- for the first quarter of 2017 that ended on December 31. The results compare to revenue of $75.9 billion and earnings per diluted share of $3.28 in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 per cent of the quarter's revenue, the company said in a statement. Apple shares rose three per cent in after-hours trading following the results. "We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Revenue from Services grew strongly over last year, led by record customer activity on the App Store, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline," he said. Apple faced falling revenue for three consecutive quarters as Chinese competition hit sales of its flagship iPhone series. But iPhone7 changed Apple's fortune in 2017 first quarter. The company sold 78.3 million iPhones, up from 74.8 million a year before. "It reported revenue of $54.3 billion from iPhone sales, along with $7.2 billion from the Mac, $5.5 billion from the iPad and $4 billion from other products, including the Apple Watch," BBC reported. "Our outstanding business performance resulted in a new all-time record for earnings per share, and over $27 billion in operating cash flow," said Luca Maestri, Apple's CFO. "We returned nearly $15 billion to investors through share repurchases and dividends during the quarter, bringing cumulative payments through our capital return program to over $200 billion," Maestri added. Revenues from its services division -- including the App Store, Apple Music and iCloud -- were $7.1 billion.

​London, Feb 1 (IANS) Observing a curious neutron star in a binary system known as the 'Rapid Burster', scientists have found that its magnetic field could explain 40-year-old mystery surrounding its puzzling X-ray bursts.

Discovered in the 1970s, the Rapid Burster is a binary system comprising a low-mass star in its prime and a neutron star -- the compact remnant of a massive star's demise. 

The scientists discovered that its magnetic field creates a gap around the star, largely preventing it from feeding on matter from its stellar companion. 

Gas builds up until, under certain conditions, it hits the neutron star all at once, producing intense flashes of X-rays. 

The discovery, reported in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, was made with space telescopes including European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and NASA's NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) and Swift missions.

In a a binary system known as the 'Rapid Burster', the gravitational pull of the dense remnant strips the other star of some of its gas; the gas forms an accretion disc and spirals towards the neutron star.

As a result of this accretion process, most neutron star binaries continuously release large amounts of X-rays, which are punctuated by additional X-ray flashes every few hours or days.

Scientists can account for these 'type-I' bursts, in terms of nuclear reactions that are ignited in the inflowing gas -- mainly hydrogen - when it accumulates on the neutron star's surface.

But the Rapid Burster is a peculiar source: at its brightest, it does emit these type-I flashes, while during periods of lower X-ray emission, it exhibits the much more elusive 'type-II' bursts - these are sudden, erratic and extremely intense releases of X-rays.

"The Rapid Burster is the archetypal system to investigate type-II bursts - it's where they were first observed and the only source that shows both type-I and type-II bursts," said lead author Jakob van den Eijnden from Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Despite 40 years of searches, type-II bursts have been detected only in one other source besides the Rapid Burster. 

Known as the Bursting Pulsar and discovered in the 1990s, this binary system exhibits only type-II bursts.

Because of the scarcity of sources that display this phenomenon, the underlying physical mechanisms have long been debated, but the new study of the Rapid Burster could provide evidence for what is occurring.

New York, Feb 1 (IANS) Researchers have invented a hand-held breath monitor that can potentially detect flu virus and help prevent flu epidemics from spreading.

The device could eventually be available in drug stores so that people can be diagnosed quickly and take advantage of medicines used to treat the flu in its earliest stages. 

"I think that technology like this is going to revolutionise personalised diagnostics," said Perena Gouma, Professor at The University of Texas at Arlington in the US.

"This will allow people to be proactive and catch illnesses early and the technology can easily be used to detect other diseases such as Ebola virus disease, simply by changing the sensors," said Gouma, who has described her invention in the journal Sensors.

Gouma's device is similar to the breathalysers used by police officers when they suspect a driver to be under the influence of alcohol. 

A patient simply exhales into the device, which uses semiconductor sensors like those in a household carbon monoxide detector.

The difference is that these sensors are specific to the gas detected, yet still inexpensive, and can isolate biomarkers associated with the flu virus and indicate whether or not the patient has the flu. 

Researchers believe that the device may help prevent flu epidemics from spreading, protecting both individuals as well as the public health.

Gouma and her team relied on existing medical literature to determine the quantities of known biomarkers present in a person's breath when afflicted with a particular disease, then applied that knowledge to find a combination of sensors for those biomarkers that is accurate for detecting the flu. 

Gouma found that the breath monitor may detect the flu virus possibly as well as tests done in a doctor's office.

​New York, Feb 1 (IANS) Astronauts' brains compress and expand during spaceflight, show results of brain scans before and after space missions.

The researchers examined structural MRIs in 12 astronauts who spent two weeks as shuttle crew members, and 14 who spent six months on the International Space Station. 

All experienced increases and decreases in gray matter in different parts of the brain, with the changes more pronounced the longer the astronauts spent time in space, according to the study published in the journal Nature Microgravity.

"We found large regions of gray matter volume decreases, which could be related to redistribution of cerebrospinal fluid in space," said principal investigator Rachael Seidler, Professor at University of Michigan in the US.

"Gravity is not available to pull fluids down in the body, resulting in so-called puffy face in space. This may result in a shift of brain position or compression," Seidler noted.

The researchers also found increases in gray matter volume in regions that control leg movement and process sensory information from legs, which may reflect changes related to the brain learning how to move in microgravity. 

These changes were greater in space station astronauts because their brains were learning and adapting all the time. 

"It's interesting because even if you love something, you won't practice more than an hour a day," Seidler said. 

But the brain changes researchers observed were equivalent to someone practicing a new skill round-the-clock. 

"In space, it's an extreme example of neuroplasticity in the brain because you're in a microgravity environment 24 hours a day," Seidler said. 

Seidler said the brain changes could reflect new connections between neurons.

"The behaviour may return to normal, but the way the brain controls the behaviour may change," she said. 

The findings may lead to new ways of thinking about certain health conditions -- for example, people on long-duration bed rest or people who have normal pressure hydrocephalus, a condition in which cerebrospinal spinal fluid accumulates in ventricles in the brain and causes pressure. 

​New York, Feb 1 (IANS) Children exposed to complications shortly before or during birth are more likely to develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD), says a study.

The perinatal complications that had the highest association with ASD were birth asphyxia -- deprivation of oxygen during the birthing process -- and preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication characterised by high blood pressure and signs of damage to other organ systems, according to the study published in the American Journal of Perinatology.

Other perinatal complications that were associated with ASD included premature separation of the placenta from the uterus, breech/transverse fetal presentation, fetal dystocia/abnormal size or position, and a prolapsed/exposed umbilical cord.

For this study, researchers examined the electronic health records of 594,638 children born in Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Southern California between 1991 and 2009.

During this time, 6,255 of these children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 37 per cent of whom experienced perinatal complications. 

Researchers found that children exposed to complications during birth were at a 10 per cent increased risk of developing ASD, compared to children who did not experience perinatal complications.

That number rose to a 22 per cent increased risk of developing ASD for children exposed to complications before labour began. 

The study also showed that children exposed to complications both before and during birth had a 44 per cent greater risk of developing ASD than children who did not experience perinatal complications.

"Our study suggests that children exposed to certain perinatal complications, especially birth asphyxia and preeclampsia, were more likely to be diagnosed with ASD than those who were not exposed," said study lead author Darios Getahun from Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation. 

"While there currently is no cure for ASD, early identification of children who may be at risk of developing the disorder is extremely important, as research shows that early intervention treatment services for children with ASD can greatly improve their development," Getahun noted.

​New York, Jan 31 (IANS) US-based gaming firm Razer has acquired Nextbit, the startup that launched the "Cloud first" Android device Robin last year in India which comes with 100GB of free Cloud storage.

​London, Jan 31 (IANS) Acupuncture treatment can boost the effectiveness of standard medical care, reducing the severity of chronic pain and depression, new research has found. The research showed that acupuncture provides more than a placebo effect. "Our new data provides a significant step forward in treating chronic pain and managing depression, because patients and health professionals can now make decisions on acupuncture with more confidence," said Hugh MacPherson, Professor of Acupuncture Research at University of York in Britain. "Not only is it more cost effective, but it reduces pain levels and improves mood levels, which could reduce over reliance on drugs that can sometimes result in unwanted side effects," MacPherson noted. The finding, published in the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Journals Library, is based on results of 29 clinical trials focused on patients treated with acupuncture and standard medical care. In the majority of these trials, patients with chronic pain treated with acupuncture and standard medical care were tested against those who were provided with standard medical care alone, such as anti-inflammatory drugs and physiotherapy. The trials involved approximately 18,000 patients diagnosed with chronic pain of the neck, lower back, head, and knee. The report showed that the addition of acupuncture compared to standard medical care alone significantly reduced the number of headaches and migraine attacks and reduced the severity of neck and lower back pain. It also showed that acupuncture reduced the pain and disability of osteoarthritis, which led to patients being less reliant on anti-inflammatory tablets to control pain. The team also conducted a new clinical trial for depression, where acupuncture or counselling was provided and compared to the effectiveness of medication, such as antidepressants. In a study of 755 patients with depression in the North of England, researchers showed that both acupuncture and counselling significantly reduced the severity of depressions and that these benefits were largely sustained for up to 12 months after treatment.