Knowledge Update

​New York, Sep 12 (IANS) Facebook-owned Instagram is redesigning its upcoming iOS app to take advantage of iPhone 7 camera capabilities and will add new filters and GIF features, a media report said.

​Panaji, Sep 13 (IANS) Goa hopes to ride the heritage tourism wave with the help of vintage vehicles, state Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar said on Tuesday, while announcing the state's first vintage bike and car festival organised by the Tourism Ministry.

Over 50 such vintage bikes and cars will be driven through the main streets of Panaji as part of the one-day festival on October 1, Parulekar said. 

"We are planning this event which is going to be very exciting and enlightening as vintage cars and bikes from vintage car museums, those in use and those maintained for exhibitions and special occasions will all be participating in it," Parulekar said, adding that the event would be included in the Tourism Ministry's annual events calendar. 

"We hope to make it a regular attraction for in-bound travellers," Parulekar said.

Vintage two-wheelers and four wheelers dating from 1921 to 1970 will be on display during the event. Cars that one would get a glimpse of at the festival include the Citroen, Austin, Morris, Cadillac, Ford, Chevrolet, Mercedes, Volkswagen and bikes like Norton, BSA and BMW.

"Vintage automobiles are another form of heritage and in Goa there are vintage car fans who are passionate about this. Through this festival we hope to kindle that hobby and motivate local Goans and others to preserve vintage vehicles so that the present generation and the future will have something to appreciate and admire," Goa Tourism Development Corporation Chairperson Nilesh Cabral said.

"This can draw tourists from domestic and international markets who have an appetite for heritage and they will surely have one more facet to engage in when in Goa," he added.

The state already has two privately run vintage car museums and a large number of vintage bike and car owners and collectors.

​Istanbul, Sep 13 (IANS) The scintillating blue water of the Bosphorus strait and the high boundary walls of the erstwhile Byzantine civilisation strewn with royal structures in every nook and corner of Istanbul offer travellers everything they would ask for on a holiday.

Thanks to Bollywood, Indians have of late become acquainted with various parts of Istanbul and Turkey at large.

The film "Guru" (2007), apart from picturising the sizzling bellydance in the song 'Mayya Mayya', had also shown Istanbul's Nuruosmaniye Mosque. Also, several scenes of "Baby" (2015), a film based on international terrorism, were shot in the Turkish capital.

Belly dancing is very popular in entire Turkey. One can visit a night club to get a glimpse of this spectacular show. Belly dancers are even hired for private parties and weddings.

The scenic beauty of the place and various historical sites spanning several civilisations have always attracted tourists from across the globe.

Istanbul, earlier known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the most populous (around 15 million) city in Turkey with the majority of the population believing in Islam. Uniquely located in two continents -- Europe and Asia -- the city is home to seven hills. Thus, while travelling across the city, one experiences a lot of undulating landscapes.

Emerging from Istanbul's Kemal Ataturk Airport and approaching the city, one can see a lot of construction work under way in this centuries-old city. But as one heads deeper into the city the high walls of Byzantine civilisation stand tall to welcome visitors.

In some parts of the city, the old houses may make Indians feel they are in Goa.

A cruise down the Bosphorus strait along the azure coloured Marmara Sea, looking at the landscape and buildings in Asia on one side and Europe on the other, makes people feel they are straddling two worlds. And when one is tired of taking selfies and clicking pictures of the sea and the beautiful palaces alongside, a host of eateries are there along the strait waiting to welcome guests. On alighting from the cruise, one can adequately satisfy gastronomical desires.

One must-visit is the Blue Mosque or the Sultan Ahmed Mosque with its five main domes, six minarets and eight secondary domes. It was build between 1609 and 1616 during the Ottoman period.

Adjacent to Blue Mosque is the Topkapi Palace. This was one of the major residencies of the Ottoman sultans for around 400 years. The sprawling palace, which overlooks the Marmara Sea, has interesting museums of armoury and clocks. The royal structures and the greenery around cast a sort of spell on every visitor.

For food connoisseurs, Istanbul is a must-visit destination. A visit to a fine Ottoman cuisine restaurant, Asitane, will surprisingly reveal an extensive vegetarian menu.

It serves dishes like Ottoman humus, which is crushed chickpeas, lightly pureed with currants and cinnamon powder; Lor cheese blend, a mix of Lor cheese with scallions, parsley, green peppers and tomatoes, seasoned with rosemary and paprika among many other preparations.

If you want to loosen your purse strings, the places to go are the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar. The Spice Bazaar, as the name suggests, offers a variety of exotic spices and herbs along with other Turkish delights, while the Grand Bazaar has everything from hand-painted porcelain items and textiles to gold jewellery.

The warmth of Turkish hospitality is visibly in the hawkers' attempt to lure Indians by singing film legend Raj Kapoor's famous "Awara hoon...". Even film star Aamir Khan is quite popular among the masses. Many recalled watching his hit movie "3 Idiots".

But tourism has taken a hit after the attempted military coup in mid-July that claimed at least 90 lives in Ankara and left around 1,150 injured.

"We get a lot of Indian tourists, but they are mostly from the US or Europe. In the last few years we have seen lots of tourists coming from China as well. But, of course, after the coup attempt, the flow of tourists has slowed," Ozlem, a tourist guide told said.

The Turkish government and Turkish Airlines are going all out to spread the word that the country is safe and tourists can visit without fear.

The best time to visit is April-May and September-October.

London, Sep 12 (IANS) Children who spend a lot of time on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are less happy with their appearance and they are more likely to quarrel with their parents, show results of a survey.

The survey involving 3,500 children between ages 10-15 found that of those who use social media for more than three hours a night, only 53 per cent were happy with their looks compared with 82 per cent who never use such sites.

The survey, carried out by Essex University in Britain over several years, also found that heavy users of social media are also more likely to argue with their parents, Daily Mail reported.

Some 44 per cent who are online for more than three hours said that they quarrelled with their mother more than once a week. Light and non-users of social networks are half as likely to argue with their mothers.

Truancy rates are also higher for heavy users (14 per cent) than light users (six per cent), the report added.

The survey, however, showed that aspiration to go to a university is marginally higher among social media users as compared to those who avoid social networks.

​New York, Sep 13 (IANS) NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has sent back spectacular colour images of layered rock formations on the Red Planet.

Curiosity, which is currently exploring the "Murray Buttes" region of lower Mount Sharp, took the images with its Mast Camera (Mastcam). The new images represent Curiosity's last stop in the Murray Buttes, where the rover has been driving for just over one month, NASA said.

"Curiosity's science team has been just thrilled to go on this road trip through a bit of the American desert southwest on Mars," said Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena, California.

The Martian buttes and mesas rising above the surface are eroded remnants of ancient sandstone that originated when winds deposited sand after lower Mount Sharp had formed.

"Studying these buttes up close has given us a better understanding of ancient sand dunes that formed and were buried, chemically changed by groundwater, exhumed and eroded to form the landscape that we see today," Vasavada said.

Curiosity landed near Mount Sharp in 2012. It reached the base of the mountain in 2014 after successfully finding evidence on the surrounding plains that ancient Martian lakes offered conditions that would have been favourable for microbes if Mars has ever hosted life. 

Rock layers forming the base of Mount Sharp accumulated as sediment within ancient lakes billions of years ago.

On Mount Sharp, Curiosity is investigating how and when the habitable ancient conditions known from the mission's earlier findings evolved into conditions drier and less favourable for life.

​New York, Sep 10 (IANS) Facebook's photo sharing app Moments, has advanced from mobile space to the web and now allows users to share a web link to your private album with anyone.

​London, Sep 10 (IANS) Moderate physical activity in midlife, for instance a strenuous walk, is associated with better cognition in old age, finds a new research.

"The study suggests that the beneficial influence of physical activity on the brain and cognition is not solely based on decreasing vascular risk factors," said researcher Paula Iso-Markku from the University of Helsinki in Finland.

The study was conducted in pairs where one twin was more physically active than the other and found that increasing the volume of physical activity was not associated with increased memory-protecting benefits.

Instead, quite a moderate amount of physical activity was found to be sufficient for memory-protecting benefits and only the most inactive group of twins stood out with a significantly higher risk for cognitive impairment, suggested the study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

The traditional vascular risk factors (elevated blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, diabetes and lack of exercise) have also been associated with dementia risk.

Although the incidence of dementia seems to have decreased in less senior generations, the total prevalence of dementia is still expected to rise.

"However, few long-term, high-quality, follow-up studies on physical activity and cognition have been published, and it has remained unclear what type and amount of exercise is needed to safeguard cognition," Iso-Markku added.

​New York, Sep 10 (IANS) One week of Panchakarma programme -- an Ayurvedic-based well being programme that features a vegetarian diet, meditation, yoga and massages -- can lead to measurable decreases in a set of blood-based metabolites associated with inflammation, cholesterol regulation and cardiovascular disease risk, the results of a clinical trial have shown.

"It appears that a one-week Panchakarma programme can significantly alter the metabolic profile of the person undergoing it," said senior author Deepak Chopra, Professor at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and a noted proponent of integrative medicine.

The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, represent an attempt to use metabolic biomarkers to assess the reported health benefits of integrative medicine and holistic practices.

"As part of our strategy to create a framework for whole systems biology research, our next step will be to correlate these changes with both gene expression and psychological health," Chopra said.

The research team from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine noted that alternative and integrative medicine practices, such as meditation and Ayurveda, are extremely popular, but their effects on the human microbiome, genome and physiology are not fully understood.

"Our programme of research is dedicated to addressing these gaps in the literature," first author Christine Tara Peterson said.

"Panchakarma refers to a detoxification and rejuvenation protocol involving massage, herbal therapy and other procedures to help strengthen and rejuvenate the body," Peterson pointed out.

The study involved 119 healthy male and female participants between 30 and 80 years of age who stayed at the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California.

Slightly more than half were assigned to the Panchakarma intervention and the remainder to a control group.

Blood plasma analyses, using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, were taken before and after the six-day testing period.

The researchers found that in the Panchakarma group there was a measurable decrease in 12 specific cell-membrane chemicals (phosphatidylcholines) correlating with serum cholesterol and inversely related to Type-2 diabetes risk.

"These phospholipids exert broad effects on pathways related to inflammation and cholesterol metabolism," Peterson explained.

"Plasma and serum levels of the metabolites of phosphatidylcholine are highly predictive of cardiovascular disease risk," Peterson noted.

​Seoul, Sep 10 (IANS) A group of South Korean scientists has developed a new material to effectively block electromagnetic waves emanating from electronic gadgets and appliances, Yonhap news agency reported.

The team led by Gu Jong-min of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and a research team of Drexel University in the US successfully manufactured the material made out of Mxene.

Mxene is a class of two-dimensional inorganic compounds made out of titanium and carbon and a single layer is only about one nanometer.

The team discovered that Mxene can block the electromagnetic waves from mobile phones, televisions, microwave ovens and other appliances, scientists said, noting that the material is easy to process and the cost is relatively cheap.

"It is hoped that the developed material can be used not only to block electromagnetic waves but for other various purposes," Gu said.

The research was published in the journal Science.

New York, Sep 9 (IANS) Neuroscientists have identified two brain regions that are involved in creating panoramic memories and help us to merge fleeting views of our surroundings into a seamless, 360-degree panorama.

As we look at a scene, visual information flows from our retinas into the brain, which has regions that are responsible for processing different elements of what we see, such as faces or objects. 

"Our understanding of our environment is largely shaped by our memory for what's currently out of sight," said lead author Caroline Robertson, post doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

The study found the hubs in the brain where your memories for the panoramic environment are integrated with your current field of view.

The researchers suspected that areas involved in processing scenes -- the occipital place area (OPA), the retrosplenial complex (RSC), and parahippocampal place area (PPA) -- might also be involved in generating panoramic memories of a place such as a street corner.

Brain scans conducted on study participants revealed that when participants saw two images that they knew were linked, the response patterns in the RSC and OPA regions were similar. 

However, this was not the case for image pairs that the participants had not seen as linked. 

This suggests that the RSC and OPA, but not the PPA, are involved in building panoramic memories of our surroundings, the researchers said.

"Our hypothesis was that as we begin to build memory of the environment around us, there would be certain regions of the brain where the representation of a single image would start to overlap with representations of other views from the same scene," Robertson added.

For the study, the team used immersive virtual reality headsets, which allowed them to show people many different panoramic scenes, the researchers showed participants images from 40 street corners in Boston's Beacon Hill neighbourhood.

The images were presented in two ways. Half the time, participants saw a 100-degree stretch of a 360-degree scene, but the other half of the time, they saw two noncontinuous stretches of a 360-degree scene.

After showing participants these panoramic environments, the researchers then showed them 40 pairs of images and asked if they came from the same street corner. 

Participants were much better able to determine if pairs came from the same corner if they had seen the two scenes linked in the 100-degree image than if they had seen them unlinked, said the paper appearing in the journal Current Biology.