Knowledge Update

​Sydney, Jan 24 (IANS) The Australian city of Sydney was on Tuesday named the second most expensive city for housing in the world while Hong Kong was ranked as the most expensive urban centre.

​New York, Jan 24 (IANS) People who fall asleep within 30 minutes or less and wake up no more than once at night qualify for several health benefits associated with good sleep, researchers have suggested. Sleeping more time while in bed (at least 85 per cent of the total time) and being awake for 20 minutes or less after initially falling asleep are other key determinants of good quality sleep issued by the US non-profit National Sleep Foundation (NSF). The researchers used at-home sleep technology devices -- gadgets worn throughout sleep or placed on the bed stand -- to analyse the amount of deep and light sleep people get each night, how frequently one wakes up and the length of tossing and turning on the bed. "Millions of Americans are sleep technology users. These devices provide a glimpse into one's sleep universe, which is otherwise unknown and provide consumers with the resources needed to understand their sleep," said Max Hirshkowitz, Chairman at NSF. According to NSF's recent Sleep Health Index, as many as 27 per cent of people take longer than 30 minutes, on average, to fall asleep. Sleep deprivation may result in impairment of judgement, depression, heart problems, obesity and drastic reduction in general well-being of an individual. The report, published in the journal Sleep Health, also highlights areas where research is needed to identify and further delineate additional indicators of good sleep quality across age groups.

​Seoul, Jan 24 (IANS) Samsung Electronics on Tuesday posted an operating profit of 29.2 trillion won ($25 billion) in 2016, up 10.7 per cent from the previous year, despite losses suffered by its mobile division due to the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco.

​Lhasa, Jan 24 (IANS) The output of bottled natural drinking water from Tibet, known as "Asia's water tower", will surpass one million tonnes this year, a media report said on Tuesday. Qiu Chuan, deputy director of the Industry and IT Department, said Tibet had more than 40 bottled water production lines, with a combined capacity of 3.25 million tonnes a year, Xinhua news agency reported. In 2016, 600,000 tonnes of bottled water from Tibet were sold, up 41 per cent year on year, according to Qiu. Tibet is rich in water resources, with the total topping 400 billion cubic meters.

Jakarta, Jan 24 (IANS) Indonesia is eying potentialities that can be tapped from India and south Asian markets to further boost its tourism sector by taking part in Indian and regional landmark travel expos scheduled to take place in February.

The expos comprise of India's Outbound Travel Mart (OTM) -- slated for February 21 to 23 in the Bombay Exhibition Centre (Mumbai) -- and regional tourism event of 2017 South Asia Tourism and Travel Expo (SATTE) -- to be held from February 15 to 17 in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

The regional tourism expo of SATTE is a popular business event attended by buyers and sellers and attracts 350,000 people from 40 countries. Some 750 exhibitors were expected to sell their tour packages to buyers attending the event, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

"Expand the selling, strengthen business to business and use multi sales platform by embracing the largest online trading agent in that country, connect it with our ITX," Indonesia's Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said in a statement.

The number of Indian visitors to Indonesia grew by 23 per cent in 2015 from 2014 to 293,415. The figure increased significantly to 336,575 in the first nine months of 2016 -- or 29.35 per cent higher compared to the same period a year earlier, according to data released by the ministry.

The figure makes India among the top 10 countries to contribute the most visitors to Indonesia.

"We would consistently engage our best efforts to tap more potentialities from the Indian market," said Vincensius Jemadu, Deputy Minister Assistant for Asia Pacific Market Development.

London, Jan 24 (IANS) Are you anxious that your kid is hooked to social networking sites or busy playing video games throughout the night? You now have another reason to blame for the growing addiction: Genes.

According to researchers from King's College London, online media use such as social networking, instant messaging and playing games for entertainment and education could be strongly influenced by our genes.

Genetic factors was found to influence time spent on all types of media including entertainment (37 per cent) and educational (34 per cent) media, online gaming (39 per cent) and social networking (24 per cent). 

The study found that people are not passively exposed to media; instead they tailor their online media use based on their own unique genetic predispositions -- a concept known as gene-environment correlation.

"The DNA differences substantially influence how individuals interact with the media and puts the consumer in the driver's seat for selecting and modifying their media exposure according to their needs," said lead author Ziada Ayorech from King's College London. 

"Our findings contradict popular media effects theories, which typically view the media as an external entity that has some effect -- either good or bad -- on 'helpless' consumers," Ayorech added.

In addition, unique environmental factors such as one sibling having a personal mobile phone and the other not, or parents monitoring use of social networks more heavily for one sibling compared to the other, accounted for nearly two-thirds of the differences between people in online media use. 

For the study published in the journal PLOS ONE, the team analysed online media use in more than 8,500 16-year-old twins. 

The researchers compared identical twins -- who share 100 per cent of their genes -- and non-identical twins -- who share 50 per cent of their genes.

London, Jan 24 (IANS) After analysing minerals from 43 rare meteorites that landed on Earth 470 million years ago, a team of scientists proposes to revise the current understanding of the history and development of the solar system.

There was a giant collision in outer space 460 million years ago. Something hit an asteroid and broke it apart, sending chunks of rock falling to Earth as meteorites since before the time of the dinosaurs. 

The discovery confirms the hypothesis presented by geology professor Birger Schmitz at Lund University in Sweden. He found what he referred to as an "extinct meteorite" - a meteorite dinosaur - which was named "Osterplana 065".

The term 'extinct' was used because of its unusual composition, different from all known groups of meteorites, and because it originated from a celestial body that was destroyed in ancient times.

The discovery led to the hypothesis that the flow of meteorites may have been completely different 470 million years ago compared to today, as meteorites with such a composition no longer fall on Earth.

"The new results confirm the hypothesis. Based on 43 micrometeorites, which are as old as Österplana 065, the new study shows that back then, the flow was actually dramatically different," said Schmitz. 

Schmitz conducted the study with colleagues at Lund University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

"We can now recreate late history of not only the Earth but of the entire solar system. The scientific value of this new report is greater than the one last summer", Schmitz added in a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

"We found that the meteorite flux, the variety of meteorites falling to Earth, was very, very different from what we see today," added the paper's lead author Philipp Heck of The Field Museum in Chicago.

Beijing, Jan 24 (IANS) China plans to build a next-generation synchrotron radiation facility in Beijing, according to a researcher from Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Dong Yuhui said on Monday that the project is expected to start in November 2018 and will be completed in six years. The total investment will reach 4.8 billion yuan ($698 million), the China Daily reported.

The facility, dubbed Beijing Light Source, will meet the national security demands and create aerospace materials among other products. It will provide high-resolution method to know substantial structures better.

Beijing Light Source will be the so-called fourth generation light source and its key performance indicators would be higher than the third-generation ones.

It will create the brightest X-rays worldwide, 70 times brighter than the US National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) and 10 times brighter than Sweden's MAX IV, the strongest of its kind in the world.

Bright X-rays could help measure the atomic structure of various substances and the higher brightness will help people to see more details of substances, something akin to using flashlight to see things, Dong said.

Around the world, there are more than 50 such facilities providing support in many research fields. 

The light source plays an important role in the medical field, helping researchers know mechanisms of tumours and cerebrovascular diseases.

New York, Jan 24 (IANS) Love to watch satirical news programmes? It may have a serious impact on your political attitudes and efficacy, a new research has suggested.

The finding showed that people chose satirical news -- often dismissed as mere entertainment -- that matched their pre-existing attitudes such as liberal or conservative.

"Satirical news matters. It is not just entertaining -- it has a real-life impact on viewers as serious news and it reinforces your political attitudes," said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, professor at The Ohio State University.

Watching satirical news also affects feelings of political efficacy -- people's belief that they can influence political processes -- as much as watching serious news.

The study further showed that people with little interest in politics were more likely to select satirical over serious news. 

"Satirical news can engage people who otherwise would avoid political news and could act as a gateway into more serious news use for people who aren't currently engaged in politics," Knobloch-Westerwick added in a paper published in the Journal of Communication.

For the study, the team involved 146 college students who selected news clips -- that were liberal, conservative, satirical and serious -- to watch concerning climate change, gun control and immigration.

The results showed that regardless of whether they viewed the serious or the satirical news clips, participants' political views were strengthened if they viewed videos that agreed with their original beliefs.

​New York, Jan 24 (IANS) Nicotine may have a direct impact on the restoration of normal brain activity in people suffering from psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia -- a disorder affecting 51 million people worldwide, a study has found.

The findings showed that when mice with schizophrenic characteristics were given nicotine daily, their sluggish brain activity increased within two days and within a week it was normalised.

"Since the repeated administration of nicotine restores normal activity to the prefrontal cortex, it could pave the way for a possible therapeutic target for the treatment of schizophrenia," said lead author Uwe Maskos from Integrative Neurobiology of Cholinergic Systems Unit or Institut Pasteur -- a French non-profit private foundation.

It has been observed that schizophrenic patients often use smoking as a form of self-medication to alleviate the deficit symptoms caused by their disorder or to combat the serious side effects of their treatment -- lethargy, lack of motivation, etc. 

Patients with schizophrenia -- 80 to 90 per cent of whom are often heavy smokers -- have impairments in the prefrontal cortex -- the brain region associated with cognition, decision-making and working memory.

Recently, the genetic mutation CHRNA5, which encodes a nicotinic receptor subunit, was identified as being associated with the cognitive impairments in schizophrenic patients and with nicotine dependence.

In the new study, scientists introduced the human CHRNA5 gene into mice with the aim of reproducing the cerebral deficits that characterise schizophrenia, namely behavioural deficits in situations of social interaction and while performing sensorimotor tasks.

The results showed that mice with the CHRNA5 mutation had reduced activity in their prefrontal cortex. 

The drop in activity measured in this model is similar to that observed in patients with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and addiction, the researchers said.

The study was published online in the journal Nature Medicine.