Knowledge Update

​Washington, April 23 (IANS) The Trump administration is pursuing over 3 per cent economic growth with the support of tax reforms and regulatory relief, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said.

​New York, April 23 (IANS) Google has introduced the first code for a new feature called 'Copyless Paste' in its Chrome app running on Android OS that will take data from Chrome usage and use that to improve the experience in other apps.

​Vancouver, April 23 (IANS) With Indians reporting high rate of urinary tract infections, the world's top cranberry producer Ocean Spray is eying the huge Indian market for its products.

​New York, April 23 (IANS) Researchers have found that 10 minutes of walking up and down stairs at a regular pace is more likely to make you feel energised than ingesting 50 milligrams of caffeine -- about the equivalent to the amount in a can of soda. "We found, in both the caffeine and the placebo conditions, that there was not much change in how they felt," said study co-author Patrick J. O'Connor, Professor at University of Georgia in the US. "But with exercise they did feel more energetic and vigorous. It was a temporary feeling, felt immediately after the exercise, but with the 50 milligrams of caffeine, we didn't get as big an effect," O'Connor said. The study, published in the journal Physiology and Behavior, aimed to simulate the hurdles faced in a typical office setting, where workers spend hours sitting and staring at computer screens and do not have time for a longer bout of exercise during the day. For the study, participants on separate days either ingested capsules containing caffeine or a placebo, or spent 10 minutes walking up and down stairs -- about 30 floors total -- at a low-intensity pace. O'Connor wanted to compare an exercise that could be achieved by people in an office setting, where they have access to stairs and a little time to be active, but not enough time to change into workout gear, shower and change back into work clothes. "And a lot of people working in office buildings have access to stairs, so it's an option to keep some fitness while taking a short break from work," O'Connor said. Study participants were female college students who described themselves as chronically sleep deprived - getting less than 6 and half hours per night. To test the effects of caffeine versus the exercise, each group took some verbal and computer-based tests to gauge how they felt and how well they performed certain cognitive tasks. Neither caffeine nor exercise caused large improvements in attention or memory, but stair walking was associated with a small increase in motivation for work.

Beijing, April 23 (IANS) A set of bamboo slips dating back more than 2,300 years were officially recognised on Sunday by the Guinness World Records as the world's earliest decimal calculation tool.

"The significance is that it's decimal, not duodecimal as seen in other countries. Decimal did not appear in Europe until the 15th century," Xinhua news agency quoted head of the Research and Conservation Centre for Excavated Texts of Beijing-based Tsinghua University Li Xueqin as saying.

The 21 slips, crafted around 305 BC during the Warring States period, are each 43.5 centimetres long and 1.2 centimetres wide.

When arranged together as a multiplication table, the slips can perform multiplication and division of any two whole numbers under 100 and numbers containing the fraction 0.5.

The slips have inscribed numbers and holes, where threads used to go. A user would pull the threads corresponding to numbers needed to be calculated in order to see the result.

The owner of the slips remains unknown, according to Li. "Our guess is that the tool might be used in trade, or measurement of land in the kingdom of Chu."

In July 2008, Tsinghua acquired a rare collection of 2,500 bamboo slip items from the late Warring States period, which had been smuggled out of China, including the multiplication table.

​New York, April 23 (IANS) Researchers have developed thin carbon nanotube (CNT) textiles that exhibit high electrical conductivity and a level of toughness about 50 times higher than copper films, currently being used in electronics.

"The structural robustness of thin metal films has significant importance for the reliable operation of smart skin and flexible electronics, including biological and structural health monitoring sensors," said Sameh Tawfick from the College of Engineering at University of Illinois. 

Aligned carbon nanotube sheets are suitable for a wide range of application spanning from the micro to the macro-scales, Tawfick noted in the study published in the journal Advanced Engineering Materials. 

"The study of the fracture energy of CNT textiles led us to design these extremely tough films. Tough nano-architectured conductive textile made by capillary plicing of Ccrbon nanotubes," said lead author Yue Liang. 

Beginning with catalyst deposited on a silicon oxide substrate, vertically aligned carbon nanotubes were synthesised via chemical vapour deposition in the form of parallel lines of 5 micrometre wide, 10 micrometre in length, and 20-60 micrometre in heights.

"Looking for ways to staple the CNTs together, we were inspired by the splicing process developed by ancient Egyptians 5,000 years ago to make linen textiles," Liang added.

The new CNT textile, with simple flexible encapsulation in an elastomer matrix, can be used in smart textiles, smart skins and a variety of flexible electronics. 

Owing to their extremely high toughness, they represent an attractive material, which can replace thin metal films to enhance device reliability.

​London, April 23 (IANS) A team of engineers has developed a process by which it is now possible to 3D print complex forms of glass.

The scientists at the Germany-based Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) mixed nanoparticles of high-purity quartz glass and a small quantity of liquid polymer and allow this mixture to be cured by light at specific points by means of stereolithography.

The material, which has remained liquid, is washed out in a solvent bath, leaving only the desired cured structure. The polymer still mixed in this glass structure is subsequently removed by heating.

"The shape initially resembles that of a pound cake; it is still unstable, and therefore the glass is sintered in a final step, that is, heated so that the glass particles are fused," said Bastian E. Rapp from KIT Institute of Microstructure Technology.

The scientists presented the method in the journal Nature.

"We present a new method, an innovation in materials processing, in which the material of the piece manufactured is high-purity quartz glass with the respective chemical and physical properties," added Rapp.

The glass structures made by the KIT scientists show resolutions in the range of a few micrometers -- one micrometer corresponding to one thousandth of a millimeter.

3D-formed glass can be used in data technology.

​Sydney, April 22 (IANS) Homo floresiensis, a species of tiny human discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, most likely evolved from an ancestor in Africa and not from Homo erectus - an ancestor to modern humans - as has been widely believed, a study says.

The researchers believe that their findings, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, should help put to rest a hotly contested debate about the origin of Homo floresiensis.

"We can be 99 per cent sure it's not related to Homo erectus and nearly 100 per cent chance it isn't a malformed Homo sapiens," said Mike Lee of Australia's Flinders University and the South Australian Museum.

Homo floresiensis, dubbed "the hobbits" due to their small stature, were most likely a sister species of Homo habilis -- one of the earliest known species of human found in Africa 1.75 million years ago, the study said.

Data from the study concluded there was no evidence for the popular theory that Homo floresiensis evolved from the much larger Homo erectus, the only other early hominid known to have lived in the region with fossils discovered on the Indonesian mainland of Java.

"The analyses show that on the family tree, Homo floresiensis was likely a sister species of Homo habilis. It means these two shared a common ancestor," said study leader Debbie Argue of the Australian National University.

"It's possible that Homo floresiensis evolved in Africa and migrated, or the common ancestor moved from Africa then evolved into Homo floresiensis somewhere," Argue said.

Homo floresiensis is known to have lived on Flores until as recently as 54,000 years ago.

Where previous research had focused mostly on the skull and lower jaw, this study used 133 data points ranging across the skull, jaws, teeth, arms, legs and shoulders.

None of the data supported the theory that Homo floresiensis evolved from Homo erectus, Argue said.

"We looked at whether Homo floresiensis could be descended from Homo erectus," she said.

"We found that if you try and link them on the family tree, you get a very unsupported result. All the tests say it doesn't fit -- it's just not a viable theory," Argue said.

This was supported by the fact that in many features, such as the structure of the jaw, Homo floresiensis was more primitive than Homo erectus, she added.

​New York, April 22 (IANS) Snap Inc has acquired "Geofilters," or photo filters based on location, patent from photo-sharing platform Mobli for $7.7 million, a media report said.

New York, April 22 (IANS) In celebration of Earth Day 2017, Apple has released a new video series featuring candid interviews with employees leading Apples efforts to address climate change, conserve resources and pioneer safer materials.