(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) Science & Technology

January - 2014

KINECT Developed by Microsoft

US software company Microsoft recently developed a new cost effective sign language translator that converts signs into spoken and written language - and vice versa. In collaboration with researchers in China, Microsoft created the Kinect Sign Language Trans lator, a prototype system that understands the gestures of sign language and converts them to spoken and written languageand vice versa. The translator uses a computer and a
Kinect camera that recognises signing gestures, then gives a spoken and written translation of languages for people who can hear. The system captures a conversation both sides: the deaf person is shown signing, with a
written and spoken translation being rendered in real-time, while the system takes the hearing person’s spoken words and turns them into accurate, understandable signs.

The system takes a person’s spoken words and translate them into accurate signs carried out by an onscreen avatar. The Kinect’s sensors read a user’s body position and movements and, with the help of a computer, translate them into commands. The project was collaboration between the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Union University, and Microsoft Research Asia.

In Mars Findings Mangalyaan & Maven will Complement Each Other

ISRO and NASA will coordinate functions of their Mars Orbiters-Mangalyaan and MAVEN once both get into orbit of the Mars planet in September 2014. This was announced by ISRO scientists. ISRO scientists also stated that the findings of ISRO’ Mars Orbiter mission and NASA’s Maven would complement each other. NASA’s Mars-bound spacecraft, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) was launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, US on 18 November 2013. MAVEN is the second mission for NASAs Mars Scout Program and is likely to obtain critical measurements of the Martian upper atmosphere to help understand the climate change over the red planet-  Mar’s history. MAVEN carries eight instruments Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph, Magnetometer, Solar Wind Electron Analyzer, Supra Thermal And Thermal Ion Composition, Langmuir Probe and Waves antenna, Solar Energetic Particles and Solar Wind Ion Analyzer. After having successfully completed five orbit raising manoeuvres on its Mars Orbiter, ISRO is expected to perform the crucial event of trans Martian injection of the spacecraft in the early hours of 1 December 2013. The spacecraft will reach the red planet’s orbit by 24 September 2014 after an over 10 month voyage. ISRO’s PSLV-C25 successfully injected 1350-kg Mangalyaan Orbiter (Mars craft) into orbit around Earth some 44 minutes after launch at 2.38 PM from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on 5 November 2013 marking the successful completion of the first stage of the 450 crore Rupees mission.

IICT Received Samples from OPCW The Indian Institute of Chemical  Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, recently received over 50 samples for detection of chemical weapons from the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The samples in the form of soil, water and organic solvents were sent twice a year since 2008 when IICT attained the status of designated laboratory for off-site analysis of weapons. OPCW had been sending to IICT for analysis only blank samples collected from different parts of the world. Six samples which were coded to hide the identity of the substance and the originating country were sent by courier every six months as part of continuous evaluation of the lab. The report of the institute should be cent per cent accurate to be eligible to get three ‘A’ grades in succession and pass the proficiency test every year. The institute has already got the proficiency certificate for this year (2013), but it was yet to enter into a technical agreement with OPCW to get authentic on-site samples. It had the technique to identify chemicals at parts per million (PPM) levels. A dedicated centre for analysis of chemical toxins was set up at the institute to attend to OPCW. The IICT was one of the 21  labs in 17 countries that were designated by OPCW for off-site analysis of chemical weapons. Apart from IICT, the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior, under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is also one of the ‘designated laboratories’ of the OPCW. A ‘designated laboratory’ has to participate every year in the OPCW proficiency test and consistently attain the ‘A’ grade benchmark to  retain its status. From 2008, IICT has retained its status though it has been  associated with OPCW since 1998. The Organi sat ion for the Prohibi t ion of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on 11 October 2013 won the Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2013 for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons.

About Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) Indian Institute of Chemical  Technology, (established in 1989) is a national-level research center located in Hyderabad, India under the Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India. IICT conducts research in basic and applied chemistry, biochemistry,  bioinformatics, chemical engineering and provides science and technology inputs to the industrial and
economic development of the country.

Biosimilar Trastuzumab got Approval of DCGI

Indian Biotech Company Biocon on 26 November 2013 announced that it had received market authorisation from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for its Breast cancer Drug- biosimilar Tras tuzumab. The biosimilar trastuzumab will be marketed in India under the brand name of CANMAb by the company, and is expected to be available to Indian patients in the fourth quarter of FY14. The drug is jointly developed by Biocon along with US-based pharma company Mylan. Breast cancer is one of the most common types of  cancer in India, with over 100000new patients being diagnosed with this disease every year. The cost of biologics in cancer treatment is high, which makes access unaffordable to a large number of patients. Biosimilar Trastuzumab will offer an alternative affordable option thereby enhancing access to treatment for cancer patients in India and the world over.

Biosimilar Trastuzumab drug is used for the treatment of Her 2+ metastatic breast cancer.The Biosimilar Trastuzumab marketed in the brand name of CANMab. CANMab is the first biological equivalent of Herceptin, a
breast cancer drug manufactured by Swiss company, Roche.

Moily sets up team to reassess hydrocarbon resources

• Moving to re-assess the oil and gas potential of the country, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily on Monday announced setting up of a Multi Organisation Team (MOT) to carry out the re-assessment of hydrocarbon resources in all 26 sedimentary basins.

• The assessment is to be completed within 30 months. The Keshav Dev Malviya Institute of Petroleum Engineering (KDMIPE) of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will act as MOT leader with the Director (Exploration) of the ONGC being its chairman, and the Director (Exploration & Development) of Oil India Ltd (OIL) as the co-chairman. A National Level Committee headed by the Petroleum Secretary will monitor and review the progress of work periodically, an official statement said.

• The last such exercise was carried out in 15 sedimentary basins about two decades ago and is overdue for a full-scale revision in view of the vast amount of data collected since then.

• There is also an urgent need for the fresh estimation in the remaining 11 sedimentary basins as well, for which no hydrocarbon resources have been estimated so far.

• During the course of implementation of pre-NELP (New Exploration Licensing Policy) and NELP rounds and other exploration and production activities, substantial geo-scientific data have been acquired and interpreted.

• New oil and gas fields have also been discovered by utilising improved geological understanding and new technology. With the increase in exploration spread and quantum jump in availability of geo-scientific data generated under the NELP, it was felt there is a need to revisit the hydrocarbon resource assessment of India.

New View of Saturn and Earth provided by Cassini Spacecraft

NASA in November 2013 released a natural-color image of Saturn from space, the first in which Saturn, its moons and rings, and Earth, Venus and Mars, all are visible. The panoramic mosaic of the majestic Saturn system was taken by Cassini Spacecraft of the NASA. It shows the view that can be seen by the human eyes. It was unveiled at the Newseum in Washington on 12 November 2013. To create the panorama, the image  team of Cassini processed 141wide-angle images. The image sweeps 404880 miles across Saturn and its inner ring system, which includes Saturn rings out to the E ring, the second outermost ring of Saturn. On July 19, people for the first time had advance notice a spacecraft taking the picture from planetary distance during the Cassini’s Wave at Saturn campaign. During the campaign, NASA invited public to celebrate by finding Saturn in their part of the sky, waving at the ringed planet and sharing pictures over the internet. An annotated version of the Saturn system mosaic labels points of interest. Earth is a bright blue dot to the lower right of Saturn. Venus is a bright dot to Saturn’s upper left. Mars also appears, as a faint red dot, above and to the left of Venus. Seven Saturnian moons are visible, including  Enceladus on the left side of the image. Zooming into the image reveals the moon and the icy plume emanating from its south pole, supplying fine, powder-sized icy particles that make up the E ring. The E ring shines like a halo around Saturn and the inner rings, because it is tenuous and can be seen with the light shine from behind it.

About the Cassini Spacecraft: Cassini Spacecraft was launched in 1997 and explored the Saturn system for more than nine  years. NASA has planned to continue the mission through 2017 with the anticipation of many more images of Saturn, its rings and moons, along with scientific data. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manage the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo

Orbit Raising Manoeuvre Performed by ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 16 November 2013 performed the last of the five orbit-raising manoeuvre on its Mars Orbiter, raising the apogee (farthest point from Earth) of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km. In the series of five orbit raising manoeuvre with a supplementary operation after the fourth one, the space agency had raised the apogee of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km. After the successful completion of these operations, the Mars Orbiter mission is expected to take on the crucial event of the trans-Mars injection around 12.42am on 1st December 2013. It will reach the orbit of the red planet by 24th September, 2014 after taking on a voyage of over 10 months. ISRO’s PSLV C 25 on 5 November 2013 successfully injected the 1350-kg ‘Mangalyaan’ Orbiter (Mars craft) into the orbit around the earth, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pra desh.

Survival of small farms crucial for food security

For the last 25 years, Deccan Developmental Society (DDS) in Medak District, Andhra Pradesh has been working in more than 70-odd villages along with 5,000 dalit women farmers. “More than 60 per cent of their livelihood is derived from small holdings. In fact there must be more than 300 million small and marginal farmers in this country. And everyone who analyses Indian agriculture and farmers clearly says that the survival
of these small farmers is crucial to the nation’s food security and well being,” says Mr. P.V. Sateesh, Director, DDS. Food analyst Some of the most respected food analysts in the world such as Miguel Altieri, after a decade of study have categorically concluded that small farms are the most efficient food producers. Hence the criticality of small farmers for agricultural future today stands undisputed. Most of these farmers were either landless or marginal farmers two decades ago. But with support from DDS they got into active agriculture. “All of them are ecological farmers and producers of food crops. Through their magnificent efforts they have
become owners of lands between 5- 20 acres though all these lands are non irrigated dry lands,” says Mr. Sateesh.

Take the case of Rayapalli Susilamma, a 40 year old woman farmer who owns three acres of rainfed farm of which half an acre is mango plantation, one acre not cultivable, grows an amazing variety of food crops. She is proud that she does not have to buy food grains. She goes to the market for buying only cooking oil, coconut oil, soap and soap powder. Along with Susilamma are five others, all of whom share the same socio economic and agricultural profile.

They all want to own about five acres of farm, a pair of bullocks, one milch animal, a couple of goats and a few chickens.

Governments role

“The government must ensure  that all farmers like them must own these animals that generate additional cash to support the needs of their children as they grow and get educated,” adds Mr. Sateesh. Increasing cost of cultivation is a major worry for these women. “Weeding wages have gone through the roof. What used to be about Rs.100 per person just two years ago, has gone upto Rs. 250 now. “And even then we find it hard to find labourers,” says Susilamma. She thinks the 100 days rural employment scheme (MNREGA) has caused this situation. Everyone seems to echo this feeling. Though all of them also are benefited by it since they all go for wage work in other people’s lands, they still think that the scheme has dented their own agriculture. To make MNREGA small farmer friendly, they suggest agricultural activities be included in it. Weeding, ploughing (incidentally ploughing costs have gone up by four times in last five years, they point out) and harvesting costs can be borne under the scheme. “If this is done, surely their agriculture will not be under any threat,” asserts Susilamma.’Another farmer, Cheelamamidi Laxmamma, in her late 30’s has nurtured her three acre dryland farm with great love and care for decades.

Weeding cost

“During monsoon, weeding must be done quickly in two or three days. Depending on the soil type, 20 to 40 persons are needed. Current rates are around Rs.200-250 per person. Therefore it costs between Rs. 4,000 and 6,000 per acre. The total income from one acre might be around Rs.8,000. Under these circumstances how can the weeding wages be met?” she asks. Agriculture officials think that weeding is something that a small farmer can do on their own. They treat this argument with heavy contempt. In drylands, particularly on red soils weeding during Kharif must be finished within two or three days. If you prolong it, it becomes unproductive, according to her. An acre needs a minimum of 25 persons. If the farmer does this on her own, it takes 25 days for her to finish the job. Weeds become unmanageable over this gap of time.

Local money lenders Most of these women borrow from local moneylenders at three per cent interest to complete weeding. Add to this the fact that crops like millets and other food crops need more weeding compared to cash crops. Therefore the government must offer 100 per cent subsidy for agricultural activity on millet lands and 50 per cent for cash crops by including these activities under MNREGA scheme

ATV-4 accomplished its Mission

The heaviest-ever cargo-carrier of Europe to the International Space Station burned up in the Earth’s Atmosphere in the controlled manoeuvre after a five month mission on 2 November 2013. When the cargo was burnt, it carried about six tonnes of garbage and waste produced on the board of the ISS. The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) was burnt over the uninhabited zone of the southern Pacific Ocean. The ATV-4 set the record for the heaviest Ariane 5 launch and its mission started on 5 June 2013 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The record cargo of 2480 kg included more than 1400 individual items. Albert Einstein performed a series of delicate manoeuvres to reenter below the Station in order for the astronauts to observe the spacecraft’s fragmentation in the upper atmosphere, providing unique information on reentry physics.

European Space Agency (ESA)

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space and its mission is to shape the development the space capability of Europe ensuring that the investments done in the space can deliver benefits to the people of Europe and the world. ESA is an international organisation with 20 Member States. By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, it can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country.

Study says that Oceans acidifying at Unprecedented Rate

A report released in second week of November 2013 claimed that the world’s oceans are becoming more acidic at an unprecedented rate. The oceans of the world are becoming hot, sour and breathless due to the impact
of the greenhouse gases. As per the new report from scientists, the way those changes work together is creating a very serious outlook for global water. The scientists from the International Biosphere Geosphere Programme said that the human emissions of Carbon  Dioxide are the matter to be blamed. The human activities add 24 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide to the World’s ocean every day. These missions will have a profound effect on the chemistry of sea water. The increasing acidity of the oceans is making the life of the marine organisms hard.

The acidity is happening in the polar oceans at a higher speed, where the cold water holds the larger amount of CO2. The researchers and scientists claim that by the end of this century the acid effect would be global and scientists warn, at least 30 per cent of ocean species will be unable to survive. The acidification of the ocean has increased at an unprecedented rate in the past 300 million years. The scientists have calculated that the world oceans have became 26 percent more acidic since 1880 due to the increase of carbon in the water.

ISRO’s Mars orbiter sent first pictures of earth

The Mars Orbiter Mission also known as Mangalyaan has beamed back the first set of pictures of Earth on 21 November 2013 that was  captured by Mars Color Camera fitted on Mars Orbiter spacecraft. The picture of earth has captured the Indian subcontinent and parts of Africa. The camera has also captured the cyclonic storm Helen that is heading towards Andhra Pradesh coast. The Picture was taken on 19 November 2013 from an altitude of 67975 km with a resolution of 3.53 km. This is the first time after launch that an instrument on board has been checked for its operation. Earlier, ISRO had performed all five orbit raising manoeuvres planned on the Mars Orbiter and raised the apogee of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km.

RH 200 launch spotlights TERLS’ humble beginning

Rohini (RH) 200 took to the sky at 6.25 p.m. on Thursday from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) to mark the golden jubilee of the first successful launch of a sounding rocket from Indian soil,
the beginning of India’s big leap forward in space exploration. It was on this day in 1963, a small Americanbuilt rocket named Nike Apache was fired at 6.25 p.m. from Thumba, a fishing hamlet near here, which was
chosen by Vikram Sarabhai and his team of scientists for its proximity to the earth’s magnetic equator. Since then, the TERLS has grown rapidly. RH 200, built indigenously, which carried copper chaff as payload, was
the 2,328th test flight. RH 200 was a two-stage spinning and fin-stabilised vehicle, with 200 mm in diameter and 3,875 mm in length, weighing 114 kg. These types of rockets are extensively used for meteorological studies and the chaff they release is tracked with the help of radars for processing wind data

‘A low-key affair’

“The day being a momentous occasion we wanted to make it a major event. However, we had to keep it a low-key affair as the top scientific community of the Indian  Space Research Organisation is busy with the Mars orbiter probe and the scheduled launch of the GSLV. We would organise a major event to felicitate the top scientists, including A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who worked for the first launch from here,” TERLS Deputy General Manager Koshy Mammen told The Hindu. Corrections & Clarifications The fourth paragraph of “RH 200 launch spotlights TERLS’ humble beginning” (Nov. 22, 2013) talked about rockets used for metrological studies. It should have been meteorological studies.
 

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