Messages

61

Common Forum / Make your room beautiful with wall art

« on: August 16, 2018, 07:31:36 PM »

A wall of the room exhibit most of the personality and adds little drama to life. They are really game-changers in current affairs of the lifestyle world which definitely demand the right choice at first place hence it is required to accurately choose pieces that will mesh with the existing space and helps to get a harmonious interior.
Sanjay Bafna, senior general manager - design, RG Group, Anjali Jain, founder of Kala Drishti (NGO) and Nitin Aggarwal, head- design and architecture, Gulshan Homz list down some points to consider while doing wall art.

Blending of colours: Choosing the colour palette is one of the prominent and toughest decisions to take as it flaunt most of it. The selection of colour should be definitely based on the existing furniture, the type and placement of the room and to whom the room belongs to. For example: If the room belongs to old member of the house then the light colours would be preferred unlike for kids and adult the bright colours would be more likeable.
Determine the focal point: A great piece of wall art works as an icing on the cake if it get its right place. The space which instantly draws the eye and gives the viewer a sense of satisfaction adds more spice to the room. The creative hanging in front the eyes complements the room and ones day.
Proportionate size: While choosing a piece of wall art for the space, the most important consideration is size. Too small artwork would get dwarfed underneath the furniture or other surrounding and too big will look as it is spilling over. The exposure of the wall should be measured accurately and in that proportion the wall art should be decided and designed.
Sense of texture: Insightful texture can add much need visual weight to the interiors which will help in determine the tone of the room or how it feels. The variety of different mediums helps in bringing a varying sense of texture into the space. It has been witnessed that rough textures are more likely to make a space feel intimate and grounded while smooth textures bring a sleeker more aloof tone to the room.
Check what the wall demands: Wall art is that finishing element that can help pull a space together and make it feel complete. There are various types of wall art which are feasible and within the budget. One of them is wall shelves which helps to decorate the room and also useful in placement of things. They are selected as per the size of room and wall. The other which aids the beauty of the room are paintings and stickers, it adds some drama to ones room and helps in depicting ones personality.

62

Common Forum / Nearly 150m Bangladeshis use mobile phones

« on: April 30, 2018, 08:34:22 PM »

The total number of Bangladesh's mobile phone subscribers reached nearly 150 million at the end of February, with addition of 3.66 million new users in the first two months of the year, statistics of the country's telecom regulator showed on Tuesday.

The number of subscribers in the country reached 148.76 million in February, Xinhua news agency reported citing a data by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

Bangladesh has now four mobile companies, three of whom -- including Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink -- are foreign-backed cellphone operators.

The number of subscribers of the mobile operators, Grameenphone, Robi Axiata, Banglalink and Teletalk stood at 66.47 million, 45.59 million, 32.72 million and 3.98 million respectively at the end of February, BTRC data showed.

The total number of Bangladesh's mobile phone subscribers reached nearly 145.11 million at the end of December 2017.

63

Common Forum / Wikipedia’s new feature ‘page preview’

« on: April 30, 2018, 08:33:27 PM »

Wikipedia has deployed a new ‘page previews’ feature for its English webpages to help users get a peek of the information behind a link without clicking on it.

The goal of ‘page previews’ was to decrease the cost of exploration for each blue link users come across, “allowing readers to satisfy their curiosity or clarify a confusing or unknown topic without the burden of opening a new page and navigating back to the original”, Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts Wikipedia platform, said in an official post last weekend.

The feature would decrease the efforts of going back and forth between articles, allowing readers to decide if the information on that link is what they needed or not, the post said.

“This seemingly cosmetic change may seem far from revolutionary, but has been built through careful and vigorous testing; scaling APIs to Wikipedia levels of traffic and a change to how we build our code,” Wikimedia Foundation said.

“Our testing shows that the feature makes it easier and more efficient for Wikipedia readers to interact with our content and get more context about a topic,” it added.

In 2017, Wikipedia deployed this feature as a default experience to all language Wikipedias, except English and German.

“It (the ‘page preview’ feature) quickly gained attention and praise from readers on-wiki, as well as on other platforms such as Reddit and Twitter,” the post noted.

64

Common Forum / Health

« on: July 28, 2017, 07:10:03 PM »

Regular physical exercise not only enhances fitness but also has a positive impact on brain metabolism, researchers say.

The findings showed that physical activity prevented an increase in choline -- a macronutrient that's important for liver function, normal brain development, nerve function, muscle movement, supporting energy levels and maintaining a healthy metabolism.

The concentration of this metabolite often rises as a result of the increased loss of nerve cells, which typically occurs in the case of Alzheimer's disease, said Johannes Pantel, Professor at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany.

In the study, physical exercise led to stable cerebral choline concentrations in the training group, whereas choline levels increased in the control group.

The participants' physical fitness also improved. They showed increased cardiac efficiency after the training period. Overall, these findings suggest that physical exercise not only improves physical fitness but also protects cells.

To understand the positive influence of physical activity on the brain, gerontologists and sports physicians examined the effects of regular exercise on brain metabolism and memory of participants aged between 65 and 85 on movement-related parameters, cardiopulmonary fitness and cognitive performance.

The participants were asked to mount an exercise bike three times a week over a period of 12 weeks for 30-minute training sessions.

Magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) were used to measure brain metabolism and brain structure.

The results showed that regular physical exercise seems beneficial in the prevention of cognitive impairment and dementia in old age.

65

Common Forum / Health

« on: July 28, 2017, 07:09:14 PM »

Consuming half a cup of walnut per day may help protect the digestive system by increasing the amount of probiotic bacteria in the gut and ward off risks of heart and brain disease as well as cancer, researchers say.

The findings, from the animal study, showed that a walnut-enriched diet reshapes the gut microbe community and causes a significant increase in beneficial bacteria including Lactobacillus, Roseburia, and Ruminococcaceae.

Walnuts act as a probiotic to help nourish and grow the bacteria that keeps the digestive system healthy, the researchers said.

"The health of the gut is related to overall health in the rest of the body. Our study is showing that walnuts change the gut, which could help explain why there are other positive health benefits to eating walnuts such as heart and brain health," said lead researcher Lauri Byerley, associate professor at the Louisiana State University in the US.

Consuming walnuts also has been associated with health benefits including a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer, Byerley added.

The bioactive components of walnuts may be contributing factors in providing these health benefits, the researchers explained in the paper appearing in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.

"Greater bacterial diversity may be associated with better health outcomes, whereas low diversity has been linked to conditions such as obesity and inflammatory bowel disease," Byerley noted.

Walnuts are the only nuts that contain a significant amount of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the plant-based omega-3 fatty acid (2.5 grams per one ounce) and also offer protein (4 grams per one ounce) and fibre (2 grams per one ounce).

For the study, rats were randomly assigned to a diet containing ground walnuts, equivalent to about 2 ounces (1/2 cup) per day in humans, or a diet without walnuts for up to 10 weeks.

66

Common Forum / Science & Tech

« on: July 28, 2017, 07:07:35 PM »

US researchers have successfully carried out gene editing on human embryos using the revolutionary technique known as CRISPR, the first time the procedure has been performed in the US, a report said Thursday.

“The effort, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health and Science University, involved changing the DNA of a large number of one-cell embryos with the gene-editing technique CRISPR, according to people familiar with the scientific results,” the MIT Technology Review said.

But the team behind the work has yet to publish its findings in a scientific journal, and peers said it was too early to judge how successful the results might be.

“The results of this study will be published soon in a scientific journal. Unfortunately we can provide no further information about the work,” Eric Robinson, a spokesman for the OHSU, told the review.

The MIT journal said the experiment appeared to show it was possible to safely and effectively use gene manipulation in embryos to treat hereditary illnesses.

The embryos were only allowed to develop for a few days, the report said.

International experts in the emerging field of gene therapy said it would be hard to assess the results until the Oregon team fully published its findings.

“It’s very difficult to be able to comment on any specifics or the robustness of the science because there is no scientific paper,” said Simon Waddington, Reader in Gene Transfer Technology at University College London.

Scientists in China were the first to carry out gene editing on human embryos in 2015, although with mixed results, the British journal Nature reported.

CRISPR, a revolutionary gene-editing technique, has opened up enormous potential to battle diseases and genetic faults. It involves using molecular “scissors” to remove undesirable elements of gene sequencing and replace them with new DNA elements.

In theory, the technique could also be used to create “designer” babies with specific desirable qualities, such as eye color or strength, and possibly even greater intelligence, a prospect that has sparked a lively ethical debate in the scientific community and beyond.

In December 2015, a group of international scientists and ethicists, including some from China, assembled by the US National Academy of Sciences said it would be irresponsible to use DNA editing tools to alter the genomes of human embryos, eggs, or sperm until safety, ethical and legal issues were resolved.

But in March this year, that academy and the American Medical Academy said in a new report that recent advances in the field “opened up a realistic possibility that deserves serious consideration.”

Scientists in Britain and France have also backed an evaluation of the use of CRISPR on human embryos.               

67

Common Forum / Social Awareness

« on: July 26, 2017, 04:38:06 PM »

As the spread of fake news on social media gains momentum, researchers now reveal that people can detect a fake image of a real-world scene only 60 per cent of the time.

Even then, they can only tell what is wrong with the image only 45 per cent of the time, the researchers added.

The high-quality of these fake images were to be blamed for this, said the team from University of Warwick.

“This has serious implications,” said Sophie Nightingale, PhD student and lead author, adding “People are exposed to these fakes on a daily basis through social networking sites, the Internet and the media.”

To reach this conclusion, the researchers set up an online test that used a bank of 40 images created from 10 original images sourced from Google Images.

Six of the original images were subjected to five different types of manipulation, including physically implausible and physically plausible manipulations, to create 30 manipulated images.

Over 700 participants in the online test were shown 10 random images that included each of the five manipulation types and five original images.

Participants never saw a manipulation or original form of the same image twice.

Sixty per cent of images were correctly identified as being manipulated.

“We found that people were better at detecting physically implausible manipulations but not any better at locating these manipulations, compared to physically plausible manipulations,” explained Derrick Watson, study co-author, in a paper published in the journal Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications.

“We need to work to find better ways to protect people from the negative effects of photo manipulation, and we’re now exploring a number of ways that might help people to better detect fakes,” said Kimberley Wade, another co-author.

68

Common Forum / Health

« on: July 26, 2017, 04:36:55 PM »

Want to reduce that ever-burgeoning waistline? Make breakfast the largest meal of the day as it may help maintain your body mass index (BMI), researchers say.

A study showed that people who ate more than three meals daily and made dinner their largest meal were at the risk of developing a higher BMI-associated with increased of risks of various diseases.

Eating breakfast and lunch, skipping supper, avoiding snacks, making breakfast the largest meal of the day and fasting overnight for up to 18 hours may be the practical weight-management strategy, said Hana Kahleova, from Loma Linda University (LLU) in California.

The findings confirm the ancient nutritional maxim “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper”, Kahleova added.

For the study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, the team examined more than 50,000 participants.

Irrespective of meal pattern, there was, on average, an increase in weight gain year-by-year until participants reached the age of 60. After 60, most participants experienced a weight loss each year, said co-author Gary Fraser, Professor at LLU.

“Before age 60, those eating calories earlier in the day had less weight gain,” Fraser said, adding that after age 60, the same behaviour tended to produce a larger rate of weight loss than average.

“Over decades, the total effect would be very important,” Fraser said.

69

Common Forum / বাংলাদেশ

« on: July 26, 2017, 04:34:33 PM »

টানা বৃষ্টিতে জলজট আর যানজটে চরম ভোগান্তিতে পড়েছেন রাজধানীবাসী। গত রাতে থেমে থেমে বৃষ্টি হলেও আজ বুধবার সকাল থেকে প্রায় টানা বৃষ্টি হচ্ছে। এতে বিশেষ করে স্কুল-কলেজগামী শিক্ষার্থী ও অফিসগামী মানুষের কষ্ট সীমা ছাড়িয়ে গেছে।বৃষ্টির কারণে রাজধানীর প্রায় অধিকাংশ সড়ক পানিতে ডুবে গেছে। ঘর থেকে বের হয়েই পড়তে হয়েছে দুর্ভোগে। যানবাহনের সংকটের কারণে অনেকেই হেঁটে রওনা দেন কর্মস্থলের দিকে। সুযোগ বুঝে রিকশাওয়ালা ও সিএনজিচালকেরা ভাড়া হাঁকেন দ্বিগুণেরও বেশি। বাধ্য হয়ে তাঁদের দাবিই মেনে নিতে হয় যাত্রীদের। বৃষ্টির ভোগান্তির পাশাপাশি রিকশা ও সিএনজিচালিত অটোরিকশার চালকদের এমন ব্যবহারে অনেকেই ক্ষোভ প্রকাশ করেন।সকাল সাতটায় রাজধানীর খিলগাঁও থেকে কারওয়ান বাজারে অফিসের উদ্দেশে রওনা দেন শাপলা বেগম (ছদ্মনাম)। তিনি বলেন, বাসা থেকে বের হয়েই পড়তে হয় দুর্ভোগে। বৃষ্টির কারণে কোনো রিকশা পাওয়া যাচ্ছিল না। কেউ রাজি হলেও দ্বিগুণ ভাড়া চান। অগত্যা ৭০ টাকার ভাড়া ১২০ টাকা দিয়ে আসেন তিনি। তবে রিকশা পেলেও যাত্রা সুখকর ছিল না। বৃষ্টিতে রাস্তায় পানি জমে আর গর্তের কারণে নাজেহাল হতে হয়েছে। বিশেষ করে মালিবাগ-মৌচাক এলাকার রাস্তার যে অবস্থা হয়েছে, তাতে জীবনের ঝুঁকি নিয়ে ওই এলাকা পার হতে হচ্ছে।

মুগদা থেকে কারওয়ান বাজারে যাচ্ছিলেন আলমগীর হোসেন। তিনি বলেন, ‘ছোটবেলায় বইয়ে পড়েছিলাম ঈশ্বরচন্দ্র বিদ্যাসাগরের সাঁতরে দামোদর পার হওয়ার কথা। আর আজ অনেকটা সেভাবেই অফিসে যেতে হচ্ছে। কিছু দূর বাসে করে এসে পরে পানির জন্য একটি ভ্যানের ওপর দাঁড়িয়ে বাকি রাস্তা পার হতে হয়েছে।’এদিকে বৃষ্টির পাশাপাশি যানজট ভোগান্তির মাত্রা বাড়িয়েছে আরও কয়েক গুণ। সকাল সাতটা থেকেই রাজধানীর মোহাম্মদপুর ও ধানমন্ডি এলাকা ছিল যানজটের কবলে। ওই সব এলাকার স্কুল-কলেজের শিক্ষার্থীদের বহনকারী ব্যক্তিগত গাড়ির চাপে স্থবির হয়ে পড়ে সড়কগুলো। অনিরুদ্ধ রনি নামের একজন জানান, ধানমন্ডি ২৭ নম্বর সড়কে সকাল সাতটা থেকেই গাড়ি চলাচল প্রায় বন্ধ হয়ে যায়। সাত মসজিদ সড়কসহ আশপাশের এলাকার রাস্তাগুলোও ছিল চরম যানজটের কবলে। মোটরসাইকেলে করেও মাত্র চার কিলোমিটার রাস্তা যেতে দেড় ঘণ্টা সময় লেগেছে বলে জানান তিনি।আবহাওয়া অধিদপ্তর বলছে, কাল বৃহস্পতিবার বৃষ্টি কমে যেতে পারে। এর লক্ষণ দেখা যেতে পারে আজ বুধবার দুপুরের পর থেকে।

এদিকে আজ সকাল থেকে দেশের সমুদ্রবন্দরগুলো থেকে ৩ নম্বর সতর্কসংকেত সরিয়ে নিতে বলা হয়েছে। ১৮ জুলাই থেকে এই সংকেত দিয়ে রেখেছিল আবহাওয়া অধিদপ্তর। ৩ নম্বরের বদলে এখন শুধু নৌবন্দরগুলোতে ১ নম্বর সংকেত দেখাতে বলা হয়েছে।

70

Common Forum / আদবকেতা

« on: July 26, 2017, 04:32:28 PM »

মনের ভাব প্রকাশের ক্ষেত্রে এখন নতুন নতুন সব মাধ্যমের দেখা মিললেও কথা বলে ভাবের আদান-প্রদানের আবেদন এখনো হারায়নি। কিন্তু কথা বলতে গিয়েই মাঝে মাঝে আমরা এমন সব কথা বলে ফেলি, যা পরবর্তী সময়ে অন্যের মন খারাপের কারণ হয়ে দাঁড়ায়; কিংবা তৈরি হয় ভুল-বোঝাবুঝি।

কথা বলার কারণে এমন সব পরিস্থিতি যাতে তৈরি না হয়, তার সহজ উপায় বলেছেন ব্র্যাক বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের মনোবিজ্ঞান বিভাগের শিক্ষক অ্যানি বাড়ৈ। তিনি বলেন, ‘অনেক সময় আমরা না বুঝে বা না ভেবেই অনেক কিছু বলে ফেলি। যা পরবর্তীকালে ভোগান্তির কারণ হয়ে দাঁড়ায়। যেকোনো কথা বলার ক্ষেত্রে খেয়াল রাখতে হবে, আমি যা বলতে চাইছি বা যে তথ্যটি জানাতে চাইছি, তা যেন সহজ ও সরাসরি হয়। দুই রকমের অর্থ বা “ডাবল মিনিং” করা যায় এমন কথা এড়িয়ে যাওয়াই বুদ্ধিমানের কাজ হবে। মোদ্দা কথা হলো, গুছিয়ে মনের কথাগুলো বলতে হবে। তার আগে ভেবে নিতে হবে।’

 

যখন পাশাপাশি

খুব কাছের কেউ মারা গেছেন এমন অবস্থায় আলাদা করে সান্ত্বনা দেওয়ার চেয়ে আপনি তাঁর পাশে আছেন এই আস্থাটা তৈরি করা জরুরি। সম্পর্কের টানাপোড়েন চলছে দুজনের মধ্যে-এমন সময় আবেগের বশবর্তী হয়ে কিংবা কোনো একজনের পক্ষ নিয়ে বেফাঁস কথা বলে ফেললে অযাচিত উত্তেজনা তৈরি হতে পারে। এ ক্ষেত্রে মনে রাখতে হবে, একটা সময় যখন পরিস্থিতি স্বাভাবিক হবে, তখন আপনার বেফাঁস কথাটা কিন্তু থেকে যাবে। সেদিনের কথার জন্যই আপনার সম্পর্কে ধারণাও বদলে যেতে পারে সেই মানুষের।

 

প্রশংসা করার ক্ষেত্রে

হয়তো কোনো এক অনুষ্ঠানে আপনার এক সহকর্মীকে দেখতে বেশ সুন্দর লাগছে। আপনি প্রশংসাই করতে চাইলেন। মাথায় রাখবেন, এ ক্ষেত্রে ‘তোমাকে এই পোশাকে বেশ সুন্দর লাগছে’ বা ‘কোথা থেকে সেজেছ, খুব সুন্দর লাগছে’-এ রকম কথা বলা থেকে বিরত থাকুন। তাঁকে সরাসরি বলুন, ‘তোমাকে চমৎকার লাগছে’। তা না হলে আপনি যা বলতে ও বোঝাতে চাইছেন, তা হারিয়ে যাবে।

অপরদিকে, কেউ হয়তো চুলে নতুন কাটছাঁট দিয়েছেন কিংবা চেহারায় নতুনত্ব এনেছেন-কিন্তু আপনার কাছে মনে হচ্ছে, তাঁকে তা মানাচ্ছে না। সেটি যদি বলতে চান তবে গুছিয়ে বলুন। কেননা, আপনার কাছে ভালো লাগছে না, মানে এই নয় যে তাঁকে ভালো দেখাচ্ছে না।

 

যখন আসে ব্যর্থতা

জীবনের প্রতিটি ক্ষেত্রে সফলতার পাশাপাশি ব্যর্থতাও থাকবে। কিন্তু হতাশাগ্রস্ত হয়ে অন্যের ওপর নিজের ব্যর্থতা চাপিয়ে দেওয়া উচিত নয়। আপনার ব্যর্থ হওয়ার পেছনে কারও ইন্ধন থাকলেও উচিত হবে শান্ত হয়ে পরিস্থিতির মোকাবিলা করা। মনে রাখতে হবে, রাগারাগি বা গালাগালি করে, দুটো কটু কথা শুনিয়ে সফলতা অর্জন করা যায় না। শুধু তা-ই নয়, ব্যর্থ হয়ে নিজেকে নিয়ে অসন্তোষের কথাও বলেন অনেকে। এ ক্ষেত্রে খেয়াল রাখতে হবে, নিজের প্রতি নিজে শ্রদ্ধাশীল না হলে কিন্তু অন্যদের কাছ থেকে শ্রদ্ধা আশা করা যায় না।

 

মতপ্রকাশের ক্ষেত্রে

যেকোনো কাজের ক্ষেত্রে সবার একই রকম মত থাকবে না, এটাই স্বাভাবিক। কর্মক্ষেত্রে আপনার কোনো সিদ্ধান্ত পছন্দ হয়নি। সে ক্ষেত্রে সিদ্ধান্তটি বাজে হয়েছে বা অপরিপক্ব কাজ-এমন মন্তব্য করবেন না; বরং আপনি কেন অন্যভাবে কাজটি করতে চাইছেন, সে ব্যাপারে যুক্তি দিন। যদি আপনার মতামত ভুল হয়, সেটি যেমন মেনে নেওয়ার মানসিকতা রাখতে হবে, ঠিক তেমনি অপরের ভুলকেও ‘ক্ষমাসুন্দর’ দৃষ্টিতে দেখতে হবে।

 

আনন্দ প্রকাশের ক্ষেত্রে

প্রতিযোগিতা বা অন্য কোথাও বিজয়ী হয়ে আনন্দ প্রকাশ করতে সতর্ক থাকা ভালো। আপনার আনন্দ উদ্‌যাপন মানে অন্য একজনের পরাজয় হতে পারে। এ ক্ষেত্রে যিনি আপনার প্রতিদ্বন্দ্বী ছিলেন, তাঁর সঙ্গে আপনার সাফল্য নিয়ে অহেতুক আলোচনা এড়িয়ে চলুন। এটি আপনার ব্যক্তিত্ব প্রকাশ করবে। অপরদিকে আপনার সফলতায় প্রিয়জনদের আপনার আনন্দে শামিল করুন। কারণ, প্রত্যেক মানুষই আমাদের জীবনে কোনো না কোনোভাবে অবদান রাখেন। শুধু তা-ই নয়, ভালোবাসা প্রকাশের ক্ষেত্রেও মেনে চলুন একই নিয়ম। আপনার অনেক বড় অর্জনের দিনে আপনার সঙ্গী কাছে নেই? অভিমানী সুরে ‘তুমি আমাকে আর ভালোবাসো না’-এমন কথা না বলে বলুন, ‘তোমাকে মিস করছি।’ এতে করে আপনার সঙ্গীও জানবেন, তিনি আপনার জীবনে কতটা গুরুত্বপূর্ণ।

71

Common Forum / Science

« on: July 26, 2017, 04:31:13 PM »

Pilotless aircraft, flying electric vehicles and bespoke air cabins are the future of flight, Airbus said Thursday.

Paul Eremenko, the European plane-maker’s chief technological officer, painted a picture of skies buzzing with new flight forms at the RISE tech conference held in Hong Kong.
Airbus is already testing out what it calls a “module” cabin concept-passenger planes being tailored to different demands.
“You can imagine on a flight to Vegas, you might have a casino module,” said Eremenko.
“Or in a more general sense, you may have a sleeping module and you go and pay 50 bucks an hour to have the ability to sleep in a sound-proof, climate-controlled area,” he added.
Eremenko said Airbus had been working on the project for a year already, including user trials.
Airbus has also been working on a self-piloted flying car, the Vahana, with testing on a full-size prototype to be done by the end of the year.
“Our goal really is to open up the third dimension in cities and we believe that the time is right,” said Eremenko, describing the growth of mega-cities, increasing congestion and technological developments as factors fuelling the development of electric short-hop flight travel.
Pilotless flight was also on the cards, he said, playing down safety fears.
“We believe the first autonomy will come in the domain of urban air mobility where the vehicles are smaller and there are fewer occupants,” he said, adding it was easier to fly autonomously than to drive autonomously.
“That, I have fairly high confidence that we will get to in single-digit years,” he said, adding the problem was not a technical one but of social acceptance.
Artificial intelligence was the main focus of the sprawling RISE conference, which Wednesday included a debate between two lifelike disembodied robot torsos on the future of humanity.

72

Common Forum / Science

« on: July 26, 2017, 04:29:54 PM »

The Moon, long thought to be a dry, inhospitable orb, hosts surprisingly large sub-surface water reserves, which one day may quench the thirst of lunar explorers from Earth, scientists said Monday.

“We found the signature of the lunar interior water globally using satellite data,” Shuai Li, co-author of a study by scientists at Brown University in the United States, told AFP.

“Such water can be used as in situ resources for future exploration,” said Li, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii and Brown Ph.D graduate.

Li noted scientists had believed the Moon to be “bone dry” until about a decade ago, when scientists found evidence of water-an essential ingredient for life-in pebble-like beads brought back by Apollo missions.

The Brown findings show numerous volcanic deposits distributed across the surface of the Moon contain “unusually high amounts of trapped water” compared with surrounding terrain.

They say discovery of water in the ancient deposits, which are believed to consist of glass beads formed by the explosive eruption of magma from beneath the Moon’s surface, boosts the idea that the lunar mantle is surprisingly water-rich.

“The key question is whether those Apollo samples represent the bulk conditions of the lunar interior or instead represent unusual or perhaps anomalous water-rich regions within an otherwise ‘dry’ mantle,” said Ralph Milliken, lead author of the new research, published in the Nature Geoscience journal on Monday.

“The distribution of these water-rich deposits is the key thing,” Milliken said. “They’re spread across the surface, which tells us that the water found in the Apollo samples isn’t a one-off,” he added.

“By looking at the orbital data, we can examine the large pyroclastic deposits on the Moon that were never sampled by the Apollo or (Soviet) Luna missions,” said the associate professor at Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences.

 

“The fact that nearly all of them exhibit signatures of water suggests that the Apollo samples are not anomalous, so it may be that the bulk interior of the Moon is wet.”

Scientists believe the Moon formed from debris left behind after an object about the size of Mars slammed into the Earth early in solar system history.

They had assumed it was unlikely that any of the hydrogen needed to form water could have survived the heat of that impact.

“The growing evidence for water inside the Moon suggests that water did somehow survive, or that it was brought in shortly after the impact by asteroids or comets before the Moon had completely solidified,” said Li.

The volcanic beads contain only tiny amounts of water but the deposits are large and the water could potentially be extracted.

“Other studies have suggested the presence of water ice in shadowed regions at the lunar poles, but the pyroclastic deposits are at locations that may be easier to access,” said Li.

“Anything that helps save future lunar explorers from having to bring lots of water from home is a big step forward, and our results suggest a new alternative.”

73

Common Forum / Life Style

« on: April 20, 2017, 11:08:48 AM »

It's best to wear natural fabrics to beat the heat and to keep skin problems at bay, say experts.

Vandana Anurag, Founder of The Parisian Boudoir and Salesh Grover, Business Head at OSL Luxury Collections, have shared ways in which you can deal with sweat:

* Loose clothes don't touch your body and allow your body to breathe. Believe it or not, but loose fitting apparel like peplum tops, flowy tops or loose pants will always keep you cooler than a pair of skin tight tank and fit denims.

* Keep yourself cool by switching to breathable and sweat absorbing fabrics. Always dress up in clothes with natural fabrics it will keep your temperature low.

* Avoid wearing dresses with embellishments as they weigh down your clothes and leads the fabric to touch your skin, trapping the body heat. Embellishments also don't let air pass through the fabric, thus causing sweating.

* Wearing a light coloured and relaxed fit T-shirt can save you from sweating. They can be played around in different styles.

* Summer style is incomplete without chinos and denim shorts. When it comes to shorts, fit and length is the key. You can pair up denim shorts with cotton Polo T-shirt to get the comfort and style.

[Collected]

74

Common Forum / Health

« on: April 20, 2017, 11:06:52 AM »

A salty diet causes people to drink less water while increasing hunger due to a higher need for energy, suggests new research.
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, are based on a study carried out during a simulated mission to Mars.

"Cosmonauts" who ate more salt retained more water, were not as thirsty, and needed more energy, the results showed.

What does salt have to do with Mars? Nothing, really, except that on a long space voyage conserving every drop of water might be crucial.

The researchers said that the findings should be applicable whether a body is being sent to Mars or not.

In the study carried out by Natalia Rakova from Max-Delbrueck Centre for Molecular Medicine, Berlin in Germany and her colleagues, the participants were two groups of 10 male volunteers sealed into a mock spaceship for two simulated flights to Mars.

The first group was examined for 105 days and the second over 205 days. They had identical diets except that over periods lasting several weeks, they were given three different levels of salt in their food.

The results confirmed that eating more salt led to a higher salt content in urine. Higher amounts of salt also increased overall quantity of urine.

But the increase was not due to more drinking -- in fact, a salty diet caused the participants to drink less. Salt was triggering a mechanism to conserve water in the kidneys.

"This water-conserving mechanism of dietary salt excretion relies on urea transporter-driven urea recycling by the kidneys and on urea production by liver and skeletal muscle," the researchers said.

Before the study, the prevailing hypothesis had been that the charged sodium and chloride ions in salt grabbed onto water molecules and dragged them into the urine.

The new results showed something different: salt stayed in the urine, while water moved back into the kidney and body.

75

Common Forum / Air pollution ups chronic sinus risk

« on: April 20, 2017, 11:05:05 AM »

People living in places like New Delhi or Beijing may be at greater risk of developing chronic sinus problems due to high levels of air polution in these cities, say researchers.

In the study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, the researchers found evidence that breathing in dirty air directly causes a breakdown in the integrity of the sinus and nasal air passages in mice.

"In the US, regulations have kept a lot of air pollution in check, but in places like New Delhi, Cairo or Beijing, where people heat their houses with wood-burning stoves, and factories release pollutants into the air, our study suggests people are at higher risk of developing chronic sinus problems," said Murray Ramanathan, Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Researchers have long known that smog, ash and other particulates from industrial smokestacks and other sources that pollute air quality exacerbate and raise rates of asthma symptoms, but had little evidence of similar damage from those pollutants to the upper respiratory system.

To see how pollution may directly affect the biology of the upper airways, the researchers exposed mice to either filtered air or polluted air.

The aerosolised particles, although concentrated, were 30 to 60 percent lower than the average concentrations of particles of a similar size in cities like New Delhi, Cairo and Beijing, the researchers said.

Nineteen mice breathed in filtered air, and 19 breathed polluted air for six hours per day, five days a week for 16 weeks.

The researchers used water to flush out the noses and sinuses of the mice, and then looked at the inflammatory and other cells in the flushed-out fluid under a microscope.

They saw many more white blood cells that signal inflammation, including macrophages, neutrophils and eosinophils, in the mice that breathed in the polluted air compared with those that breathed in filtered air.

When the researchers examined layers of cells along the nasal passages and sinuses under a microscope, they found that the surface layer - or epithelium - was, notably, 30 to 40 per cent thicker in mice that breathed in polluted air than in those that breathed filtered air.

A thicker epithelium is another sign of inflammation in humans and other animals, Ramanathan said.

"We've identified a lot of evidence that breathing in dirty air directly causes a breakdown in the integrity of the sinus and nasal air passages in mice," Ramanathan said.

"Keeping this barrier intact is essential for protecting the cells in the tissues from irritation or infection from other sources, including pollen or germs," he explained.

[Collected]