Knowledge Update

New York, Jan 30 (IANS) Using a mechanism similar to the one used by the organ that allows pit vipers to sense their prey, researchers have developed an artificial skin capable of detecting temperature changes.

The material could be grafted onto prosthetic limbs to restore temperature sensing in amputees. 

It could also be applied to first-aid bandages to alert health professionals of a temperature increase -- a sign of infection -- in wounds.

While fabricating synthetic woods in a petri dish, a team led by California Institute of Technology's Chiara Daraio created a material that exhibited an electrical response to temperature changes in the laboratory. 

It turned out that the component responsible for the temperature sensitivity was pectin, a long-chain molecule present in plant cell walls.

"Pectin is widely used in the food industry as a jellifying agent; it's what you use to make jam. So it's easy to obtain and also very cheap," said Daraio.

Intrigued, the team shifted its attention to pectin and ultimately created a thin, transparent flexible film of pectin and water, which can be as little as 20 micrometres thick (equivalent to the diameter of a human hair). 

Pectin molecules in the film have a weakly bonded double-strand structure that contains calcium ions. 

According to a paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the film senses temperature using a mechanism similar -- but not identical -- to the pit organs in vipers, which allow the snakes to sense warm prey in the dark by detecting radiated heat. 

In those organs, ion channels in the cell membrane of sensory nerve fibres expand as temperature increases. 

This dilation allows calcium ions to flow, triggering electrical impulses, the researchers explained.

​London, Jan 30 (IANS) Kids get more satisfaction from relationships with their household pets than with their brothers or sisters, new research suggests.

"Anyone who has loved a childhood pet knows that we turn to them for companionship and disclosure, just like relationships between people," said lead researcher Matt Cassells from University of Cambridge.

"We wanted to know how strong these relationships are with pets relative to other close family ties. Ultimately this may enable us to understand how animals contribute to healthy child development," Cassells said.

Researchers surveyed children of 12 years of age from 77 families with one or more pets of any type and more than one child at home. 

The children reported strong relationships with their pets relative to their siblings, with lower levels of conflict and greater satisfaction in owners of dogs than other kinds of pets.

"Even though pets may not fully understand or respond verbally, the level of disclosure to pets was no less than to siblings," Cassels said. 

"The fact that pets cannot understand or talk back may even be a benefit as it means they are completely non-judgmental," Cassels noted.

While previous research had often found that boys report stronger relationships with their pets than girls do, the new research actually found the opposite. 

"While boys and girls were equally satisfied with their pets, girls reported more disclosure, companionship, and conflict with their pet than did boys, perhaps indicating that girls may interact with their pets in more nuanced ways," Cassels noted.

The research, published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, adds to increasing evidence that household pets may have a major influence on child development, and could have a positive impact on children's social skills and emotional well-being.

​New York, Jan 29 (IANS) Engineers say data from Twitter and other social media platforms can help improve event planning, route scheduling, crowd regulations and subway operations.

​Toronto, Jan 29 (IANS) Maintaining good exercise regimen may be difficult and risky, especially for people with Type 1 diabetes, because exercise tends to cause fluctuations in blood sugar, which may even become dangerous, researchers warned. Patients with Type 1 diabetes have to monitor their blood glucose levels before, during and after exercise, said Michael Riddell, Professor at York University in Ontario, Canada. Regular exercise can help individuals with diabetes to achieve their blood lipid, body composition, fitness and blood sugar goals. However, for people living with Type 1 diabetes, the fear of hypoglycemia, loss of glycemic control, and inadequate knowledge around exercise management are major barriers, Riddell said. In the study, published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, a team of 21 international experts brought out a set of guidelines on glucose targets for safe and effective exercising as well as nutritional and insulin dose adjustments to prevent exercise-related fluctuations in blood sugar. Diabetic patients should maintain a healthy body weight nor do they achieve the minimum required moderate-to-vigorous aerobic activity of150 minutes per week. In paediatric patients, exercise reduces the cardiovascular disease risk profile, improves the sense of well-being and brings down average blood glucose levels, whereas in adults, being physically active may decrease the risk of both diabetic eye disease and kidney disease. They also have a better chance of achieving target levels of glycated hemoglobin levels, blood pressure levels and a healthier body mass index (BMI) when compared to inactive patients, Riddell said. The results showed that aerobic exercises such as walking, jogging or light cycling are associated with reductions in glycemia while anaerobic exercise like sprinting, heavy weight-lifting, and interval sports like hockey are known to temporarily increase glucose levels. Hence, a clear understanding of the physiology of different forms of exercise and the changes that can influence glycemia during exercise may ensure safe and diabetes control, the researchers noted.

​Beijing, Jan 29 (IANS) Beijing's 11 parks and the Museum of Chinese Garden and Landscape Architecture received a total of 180,000 tourists on the first day of the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, the media reported on Sunday.

During the Spring Festival public holiday, a string of events and activities, such as winter sports and flower exhibitions, are being held across the parks, Xinhua news agency reported. 

Many have said that visiting parks is on their holiday "must do" list.

Taoranting Park reported 40,000 visitors on Saturday, while the Temple of Heaven Park and the Summer Palace saw 30,000 tourists each, according to the Beijing parks office.

 

New York, Jan 29 (IANS) A group of researchers has invented new ways to interact with smartwatches that not only eases the user-device communication but also gives users better control over the gadget.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers developed enhancements using LG and Sony smartwatches that allow a user to scroll through apps by running fingers along the watch band, and let him/her launch eight smartwatch apps by tapping key points on the watch case (or bezel) and reject phone calls by blowing on the screen or tapping the side of the watch.

The new enhancements, recently presented at the 2016 ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces, also let a user to edit dictated text message errors by breathing on the screen, transfer on-screen information from the watch to a phone with breaths and select numbers by tapping the back of the hand.

Ph.D. student Cheng Zhang oversaw WatchOut -- an interaction technique that uses taps and scrolling gestures on the case and watchband. The tapping and scrolling on the smartwatch band was possible because of the watch's gyroscope and accelerometer sensors.

"We wanted to create a technique that allows the user to tap the watch to accept or deny phone calls. Hitting the right side answers the call; the left side ignores it," Zhang said in a statement.

"Other techniques that improve control of smartwatches have included 3D gestures above the screen, bigger screens or adding an extra armband. We wanted to show it could be done with existing technology already common on today's devices," Zhang added.

​Seoul, Jan 28 (IANS) The number of people in South Korea who used the popular augmented reality game "Pokemon Go" in a single day has surpassed 4.2 million just three days after its official launch in the country, according to a survey.

​Helsinki, Jan 28 (IANS) Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia has created a customised digital assistant "MIKA" that will improve telecom operators' efficiency by providing engineers faster access to critical information.

New York, Jan 28 (IANS) The US Patent and Trademark Office has published an application that shows Apple has filed a patent for a vapouriser technology -- an apparatus that can regulate temperature to release heat from a substance within a canister.

​Tokyo, Jan 28 (IANS) Japan-based Kyocera has introduced a new "rafre" washable smartphone that features resistance to hot water and a touchscreen that be can be used even when the user's hands are wet or when wearing gloves. The product will be available from March 2017 in Japan and will be offered in three colours -- pale pink, clear white and light blue. "The smartphone is a successor to the orignal DIGNO rafre, which launched in December 2015 as the world's first hand-soap-washable smartphone. In addition to resistance against foaming hand soap, the second-generation model possesses resistance to foaming body soap," the company said in a post on Friday. Furthermore, the new handset is equipped with a special cooking app which allows users to scroll through recipes, set timers and answer calls through hand gestures without having to touch the display. Equipped with phase detection auto-focus and auto HDR, the device sports 13MP rear camera, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal memory, 3,000mAh battery and runs on Android 7.0 Nougat operating system.