Knowledge Update

​Seoul, April 5 (IANS) South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors on Tuesday announced a plan to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based, internet-connected car to create a new future lifestyle with a "driving, high-performing computer". The driving computer means a car will become a high-performing computer itself as the car, to be developed by Hyundai and Kia, will self-drive based on AI and connect to electronic devices while driving based on internet connectivity, Xinhua cited a joint statement as saying. The main concept of the project is a "hyper-connected and intelligent car", which means an interaction between cars home as well as home and office in addition to AI-based self-driving. To achieve the goal, the automakers will focus on four major themes, intelligent remote-controlling support service, perfect self-driving, smart traffic and mobility hub. The remote-controlling support service aims to check and examine cars on a real-time basis to detect potential emergency situations in advance. The perfect self-driving is aimed at creating a safe-driving environment by exchanging information with everything, including cars and roads. Smart traffic is designed to reduce time and energy by analysing traffic conditions and finding an optimised route of getting to a destination. Mobility hub means a car becomes a hub to link internet-connected devices. The hyper-connected and intelligent car also aims to enable smartphone functions to be reproduced within a car. The smart home connection service targets a remote control of home appliances within the car.​

London, April 5 (IANS) In older adults, especially women, higher dietary calcium intake may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, but not of stroke and fracture, new research suggests.

"The role of dietary calcium intake in cardiovascular disease, stroke and fracture is controversial. We aimed to evaluate whether high dietary calcium intake increases the risk of CVD, stroke and fracture in a population with low calcium intake," said lead study author Sung Hye Kong from Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul, South Korea.

Researchers conducted their study among individuals in Korea's ongoing prospective community-based Ansung and Ansan Cohort Study that began in 2001.

The authors performed their analyses in 2,199 men and 2,704 women over 50 years of age without previous cardiovascular disease and stroke.

The participants in the study reported their dietary food intake in periodic food frequency questionnaires.

Cardiovascular disease, stroke and fractures were recorded during interviews and examinations every two years.

The findings suggest, in older women in this population with low dietary calcium intake, higher dietary calcium intake was significantly associated with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, but not significantly associated with risk of stroke and fracture.​

​Tokyo, April 5 (IANS) Japanese carmaker Toyota on Tuesday announced it will collaborate with US tech giant Microsoft to improve services for cars connected to the internet in the future.

​Abu Dhabi, April 5 (IANS/WAM) Abu Dhabi-based investment company Reem Investments has announced a net profit of $57.4 million for the financial year 2015.

The company's board of directors approved the 12 percent cash dividend -- an increase of 20 percent over the 2014 dividend.

​Washington, April 6 (IANS) US President Barack Obama has called on Congress to reform the business tax system to close the loophole that allows for a financial practice known as corporate inversions.

​Hong Kong, April 6 (IANS) A rare blue diamond bucked the recent downturn in the auction market when it was sold for $30.8 million at Sotheby's, setting a new record.

The "De Beers Millennium Jewel 4", a 10.10-carat oval-shaped fancy vivid blue diamond, fetched more money than any other jewel at an auction in Asia ever, Efe news agency

​Kathmandu, April 5 (IANS) Indian infrastructure major GMR is in talks with global lenders to raise $1.5 billion to develop the 900 MW Upper Karnali hydel project in Nepal.

Coordinated by the Investment Board Nepal (IBN), representatives from GMR, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Finance Corporation (IFC), International

​London, April 5 (IANS) British scientists have found that by getting robots to "talk with their hands", we can understand them as well as we do our fellow human beings.

In a study aimed at improving communication with robots, Paul Bremner from the University of the West of England and Ute Leonards from the University of Bristol focused on

​New York, April 5 (IANS) Depression is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, a team of US researchers has found that effectively treating depression can reduce a person's risk of cardiovascular problems - stroke, heart failure, heart attack or death.

The researchers found effective treatment for depression can reduce a patient's heart risks to the same level as those who never had short-term depression.

"Our study shows that prompt, effective treatment of depression appears to improve the risk of poor heart health," said Heidi May from Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in US.

"With the help of past research, we know depression affects long-term cardiovascular risks, but knowing that alleviating the symptoms of depression reduces a person's risk of heart disease in the short term, too, can help care providers and patients commit more fully to treating the symptoms of depression," she added.

"The key conclusion of our study is: If depression isn't treated, the risk of cardiovascular complications increases significantly," May stated.

The team compiled information from 7,550 participants, who completed at least two depression questionnaires over the course of one to two years.

They were categorised based on the results of their survey as never depressed, no longer depressed, remained depressed, or became depressed.

Following each patient's completion of the last questionnaire, patients were followed to see if they had any major cardiovascular problems.

The findings suggested that 4.6 percent of patients who were no longer depressed had a similar occurrence of major cardiovascular complications as those who had no depression at all (4.8 percent).

The results indicated that changes in depression symptoms may also cause immediate physiological changes in the body, which in turn cause major cardiovascular problems to occur in the short term, but future studies are needed to further answer these questions.​

​London, April 5 (IANS) The North Atlantic Ocean played a key role in the last climate transition, says a study providing valuable insights into why large continental ice-sheets first grew in North America and Scandinavia some 2.7 million years ago.

An international team of researchers measured the composition of isotopes of the chemical element neodymium that can be found in fish teeth preserved in a North Atlantic marine core to track the origin of deep waters bathing the bottom of the ocean during the climate transition that took place in the late Pliocene Epoch era.

Contrary to previous assertions, they found that the first of these glacial events in the northern hemisphere was associated with major expansions of carbon-rich southern-sourced deep waters into the northwestern Atlantic abyss, over one million years earlier than previously thought.

The study, published recently in the journal Nature Geoscience, said that three of the largest glacial cycles between 2.5 and 2.7 million years ago appear to be associated with southern-sourced water incursions into the deep Atlantic that were as significant as those documented for the last glacial maximum.

"We could not have made these new findings with confidence using only a classic method for tracing watermass origin such as carbon isotopes," said Ian Bailey from the University of Exeter in Britain.

"But when we combined such data with an alternative novel proxy such as neodymium isotopes, we were able to reveal a dramatically new picture of watermass mixing in the deep North Atlantic during late Pliocene glacial intensification," Bailey added.

It has long been argued that changes in North Atlantic circulation played a leading role in driving late Pliocene northern hemisphere glaciation because of its capacity to modulate the transfer of heat and moisture from the tropics to the poles.

"Our findings suggest, though, that the North Atlantic Ocean was not a driving factor in this transition, but, through storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the deep Atlantic, it operated as a positive feedback that helped to usher in glaciation at this time," Bailey said.

"What we've done is document a process which is thought to be special to the largest and longest glacial cycles of the past one million years, but we have shown that it has been occurring ever since large continental ice-sheets formed in the Northern Hemisphere," he added.​