Knowledge Update

New York, Dec 14 (IANS) Researchers at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in the US are developing a smartphone app that can help reduce risk of injuries in factory workers due to the strain of repetitive motion required to perform their work.

​Colombo, Dec 14 (IANS) The Maldives tourism industry has seen a remarkable growth this year, contributing to strengthening the archipelago nation's economy, the country's embassy in Colombo said on Wednesday.

"The growth has been achieved with the dynamic economic policies introduced by President Abdullah Yameen to transform the economy of Maldives," Xinhua news agency cited an embassy statement as saying.

Maldives this year unveiled seven new resorts, including Huravalhi Island Resort, featuring the world's largest underwater restaurant.

The government said 20 new resorts would be unveiled next year.

"With the opening of the new resorts and influx of tourism investments, the industry has become a catalyst for the governments key pledge of youth employment," the embassy statement said.

In addition to the new resorts in April, the government also launched the expansion of the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport with a 3,400 metre long and 65 metre wide new runway to cater to the expanding tourism industry.

Upon completion of the expansion, 7.5 million passengers would be catered annually, creating thousands of job opportunities for the youth of the country.

New York, Dec 14 (IANS) Claimed to boost physical activity levels and promote public health, augmented reality game Pokemon Go's health benefits are just moderate as well as short-lived, researchers say. Pokemon Go is a smartphone-based game that projects graphics onto the real world and has been downloaded over 500 million times since its launch in July 2016 in many countries. The findings showed that the game improves physical activity such as walking only moderately, and the effect is lost in a matter of six weeks. The first week of installation saw that the daily average steps increased by 955 additional steps. However, the number of steps gradually decreased over the following five weeks and by the sixth week the number had returned to pre-installation levels. "Our results indicate that the health impact of Pokemon Go might be moderate. Even if smaller amounts of physical activity might also be important for health outcomes, the increase in steps from Pokemon Go, as with many physical activity interventions, was not sustained over time," said Katherine Howe from Harvard University. The results remained the same even after accounting for a number of factors that may have influenced the findings, such as age, sex, race, weight status, and walkability of the area of residence, the study reported. "Over a six-week period one can do a lot to increase physical activity. We just have to be more creative about finding ways to get people to keep exercising," the researchers said. Further, the effect of Pokemon Go on physical activity might be different in children, and there might also be other potential benefits associated with the game, such as increased social connectedness and improved mood, they added. For the study, published in the journal BMJ, researchers conducted an online survey of 1,182 participants, out of which 560 between the age of 18-35, reported playing Pokemon Go.

​New York, Dec 14 (IANS) Researchers have found that eating food low in carbohydrates is safe for up to six months and can also help reduce more weight than following a low-fat diet. "Adhering to a short-term low-carb diet appears to be safe and may be associated with weight reduction," said lead researcher Heather Fields, MD, an internal medicine physician at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, US. "We encourage patient to eat real food and avoid highly processed foods, especially processed meats, such as bacon, sausage, deli meats, hot dogs, and ham when following any particular diet," Fields noted. Depending on the diet, participants lost between two-and-a-half to almost nine more pounds than those who followed a low-fat diet, showed the findings published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. Analysing research published over more than a decade, Fields reviewed articles that addressed potential adverse effects and overall safety of low-carb diets. Diets that heavily restrict carbohydrates often lead to greater consumption of meats -- some of which have been implicated in worsened all-cause mortality and increased cancer risk. While available studies did not consistently address the source or quality of proteins and fats consumed in such diets, they did show short-term efficacy in weight loss without negative effects on blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol, compared with other diets.

​New York, Dec 14 (IANS) NASA's Curiosity rover has detected boron for the first time on the surface of Mars, indicating the potential for long-term habitable groundwater in the ancient past.

"No prior mission to Mars has found boron," said Patrick Gasda of the US Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. 

"If the boron that we found in calcium sulfate mineral veins on Mars is similar to what we see on Earth, it would indicate that the groundwater of ancient Mars that formed these veins would have been 0-60 degrees Celsius and neutral-to-alkaline pH," Gasda noted.

The temperature, pH, and dissolved mineral content of the groundwater could make it habitable, according to the scientists.

The boron was identified by the rover's laser-shooting Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, which was developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in conjunction with the French space agency. 

Boron is famously associated with arid sites where much water has evaporated away. However, environmental implications of the boron found by Curiosity are still open to debate.

Whether Martian life has ever existed is still unknown. No compelling evidence for it has been found. When Curiosity landed in Mars' Gale Crater in 2012 the mission's main goal was to determine whether the area ever offered an environment favourable for microbes.

Curiosity is currently climbing a layered Martian mountain and finding rock-composition evidence of how ancient lakes and wet underground environments changed, billions of years ago.

The discovery of boron is only one of several recent findings related to the composition of Martian rocks. 

Hematite and clay minerals are among the other ingredients found to be more abundant in layers farther uphill, compared with lower, older layers examined earlier in the mission.

"The boron and clay underline the mobility of elements and electrons, and that is good for life," John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, pointed out.

The findings were discussed in San Francisco during the American Geophysical Union conference.

​London, Dec 14 (IANS) A sound sleep in the first 24 hours after suffering a trauma can help individuals with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to process the horrific experiences, a study has found.

People with PTSD experience highly emotional and distressing memories or even flashbacks where they feel as if they were experiencing the trauma all over again. 

Sleep could play a key role in processing what they have suffered.

"Our approach offers an important non-invasive alternative to the current attempts to erase traumatic memories or treat them with medication," said lead author Birgit Kleim from the University of Zurich. 

The findings showed that a good sleep can help weaken emotions connected to an existing memory, such as fear caused by traumatic experiences. 

In addition, sleep also helps contextualise the recollections, processing them as information and storing the memories. 

However, the process may take several nights, the researchers said.

"The use of sleep might prove to be a suitable and natural early prevention strategy," Kleim added.

For the study, the researchers showed participants a traumatic video. The recurring memories of the images in the film that haunted the participants for a few days were recorded in detail in a diary. 

Study participants were randomly assigned to two groups. One slept in the lab for a night after the video while their sleep was recorded via an electroencephalograph (EEG), the other group remained awake. 

The results revealed that people who slept after the film had fewer and less distressing recurring emotional memories than those who were awake.

"This supports the assumption that sleep may have a protective effect in the aftermath of traumatic experiences," Kleim said, in the study published in the journal Sleep.

​London, Dec 14 (IANS) A drug used for sleep disorder could also reduce the impulse for food, thereby helping food addicts to lose weight, a study says.

The researchers discovered that a drug called Modafinil, usually used for narcolepsy, shift work disorder and excessive daytime sleepiness, can reduce impulsivity and thus food addiction.

"We found Modafinil, which is already on the market, did reduce people's impulsive behaviour," said Ivo Vlaev, Professor at University of Warwick in Britain.

Impulsive behaviour is an important factor that could lead to to food addiction.

"It has been shown to reduce impulsiveness in a variety of disorders such as alcohol dependence, schizophrenia and ADHD (Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). Food addicts suffer from the same neurobiological conditions so we believe it will help food addicts as well and our initial tests have backed up that theory," Vlaev noted.

This could have important implications for people who are obese. 

"There is mounting evidence to show that there is a substantial number of obese people who are food addicts because they have an inability to control their impulsive actions and this drug has shown it can give them more control, which will help overweight people lose weight and so improve their health," Vlaev said.

Food addicts have also been found to have a deficiency in a certain type of dopamine so that their sense of reward and pleasure is diminished, thus they have to eat more to reach the same level of pleasure as anybody else.

The drug, which is sold under a wide variety of brand names around the world, was one of two drugs tested by researchers, the other being Atomoxetine. 

Both drugs have been used for impulsive conditions, including ADHD.

In a paper published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the scientists conducted a series of trials on 60 men aged between 19 and 32, with 20 taking a placebo, 20 Atomoxetine and 20 Modafinil.

The tests revealed that those who had taken Modafinil had a significantly reduced level of impulsiveness, whereas Atomoxetine produced no difference compared to the placebo group.

"Modafinil was found to have an effect on impulsivity in healthy individuals and so would be able to have an even bigger effect on food addicts, who are lacking in certain types of dopamine," Vlaev said.

​New York, Dec 13 (IANS) Microsoft has succesfully targeted Mac users with its Surface commercials, as a report revealed that more people were switching from Macs to Surface recently. According to Microsoft, people were switching from Macs to Surface because of the disappointment of the new MacBook Pro among professionals combined with "the excitement for the innovation of Surface." The company termed November as their best month ever for consumer Surface sales, although it did not provide any sales numbers. "The best buy-exclusive Surface bundle sold out on the first day. The momentum was seen worldwide. In the Britain, we had the best single week for Surface ever and in Germany the Surface Pen became the best seller in PC accessories on Amazon for over 12 hours," the company said in a blog post on Monday.

​The Asian Development Bank on Tuesday lowered India's growth forecast for this year from 7.4 per cent to 7 per cent due to a slight slowdown in the economy following the central government's demonetisation move.

The Manila-headquartered ADB's review said the shortage of cash after the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and 500 notes was one of the reasons for the decline in India's economic growth in 2016, Xinhua news agency reported.

ADB highlighted weak investments and slow down in the agricultural sector in the country among other reasons for the fall, Efe news cited the report as saying.

However, the report said Indian economy will recover next year with an estimated growth of 7.8 per cent.

For the Asian continent, the ADB forecast growth from 5.7 to 5.6 per cent, and said the growth for 2017 would remain unchanged at 5.7 per cent.

The growth is expected to remain stable in the coming year, ADB Deputy Chief Economist Juzhong Zhuang said.

"Asian economies continue their robust expansion in the face of global economic uncertainties," said Zhuang.

"Structural reforms to boost productivity, improving investment climate and supporting domestic demand can help maintain growth momentum," he added.

"Growth in China, the world's second largest economy, is expected to hit 6.6 per cent this year, driven by strong domestic consumption, solid wage growth, urban job creation, and public infrastructure investment," the report said.

The bank's forecast for China in 2017 was maintained at 6.4 per cent.

Manila, Dec 13 (IANS)

​London, Dec 13 (IANS) Growth in the British economy in 2016 is set to be stronger than expected, but the momentum is unlikely to be maintained into 2017, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has forecast.