Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Cold wave continues, Capital records 5.5 degrees

News

• Cold wave continues in the Capital with the minimum temperature settling at 5.5 degrees Celsius which is three degrees below the normal for this time of the year.

Beyond News

• The maximum temperature was 18.9 degrees Celsius which was also three degrees colder that the normal for this time of the season.
• The Met Department has, meanwhile, forecast gusty winds during the day with cold wave conditions likely to persist at isolated pockets. Fog is expected in the morning.
• The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to settle between 19 and 5 degrees Celsius respectively.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Coastal security squads of fishers soon

News

• Coastal security squads comprising seasoned fishermen will be formed shortly to strengthen coastal security system and improve rescue measures from the lessons learnt in the aftermath of cyclone Ockhi.

Beyond News

• Members of such coastal squads will be given training in rescue activities at the Goa-based National Institute of Water Sports.
• The squads are being formed with the primary objective of undertaking emergency rescue activities in the wake of disasters like Ockhi for which they will be remunerated at a rate to be fixed by the government.
• Applications have been invited from boat owners having vessels with licence and registration.
• In the case of traditional vessels, applications should be submitted in groups comprising the boat owner and two workers whereas in the case of mechanised boats, groups comprising captain, driver and boat owner/representative should apply.
• If the boat owner is not a fisherman with seagoing experience or does not satisfy the eligibility criteria, then an experienced fisherman could be included in his place.
• Selected fish workers, particularly traditional workers, venturing beyond 36 nautical miles will be issued global satellite phones for communication when in distress.

Ecological festival to discuss threats to Western Ghats

News

• Preparations are nearing completion for the Ecological Festival of Western Ghats, to be held in Coimbatore.
• The three-day national conference aims at building grass root responses for conservation of the Western Ghats .

Beyond News

• Organised by the Save Western Ghats Movement (SWGM) and supported by conservation groups and individual enthusiasts, the conference will see participation by around 1,500 delegates from the six Western Ghats States Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharastra and Gujarat and also from rest of the country.
• It would also draw farmers working for the protection and conservation of the Western Ghats ecosystems and other ecosystems in India.
• The conference will revisit and highlight the present status of the Western Ghats with reference to the reports of Kasturirangan Commission and Madhav Gadgil Commission.
• It will also be a platform to continue discussions with the Government and political parties and youth organisations to bring them into the conservation movement.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

NASA solar probe begins second orbit of Sun

News

• NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has begun its second orbit of the Sun and is on track for its closest approach to our star.

Beyond News

• The spacecraft has now begun the second of 24 planned orbits, on track for its second perihelion.
• Parker Solar Probe entered full operational status, with all systems online and operating as designed. The spacecraft has been delivering data from its instruments to Earth via the Deep Space Network, and to date more than 17 gigabits of science data has been downloaded.
• The full dataset from the first orbit will be downloaded.
• In preparation for the next encounter, the spacecraft’s solid state recorder is being emptied of files that have already been delivered to Earth.
• In addition, the spacecraft is receiving updated positional and navigation information and is being loaded with a new automated command sequence, which contains about one month’s worth of instructions.
• The closest approach will bring the spacecraft to a distance of about 15 million miles from the Sun just over half the previous close solar approach record of about 27 million miles set by Helios 2 in 1976.
• The spacecraft’s four instrument suites will help scientists begin to answer outstanding questions about the Sun’s fundamental physics including how particles and solar material are accelerated out into space at such high speeds and why the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, is so much hotter than the surface below.

GM chickens may lay ‘cheaper medicines’

News

• Genetically modified chickens that produce human proteins in their eggs can offer a cost-effective method of manufacturing drugs widely used for treating cancer and other diseases, a study has found.

Findings

• The research, which initially focused on producing high quality proteins for use in scientific research, found the drugs work at least as well as the same proteins produced using existing methods.
• According to researchers, high quantities of the proteins can be recovered from each egg using a simple purification system and there are no adverse effects on the chickens themselves, which lay eggs as normal.
• The findings, provide sound evidence for using chickens as a cheap method of producing high quality drugs for use in research studies and, potentially one day, in patients.
• Eggs are already used for growing viruses that are used as vaccines, such as the flu jab.
• This new approach is different because the therapeutic proteins are encoded in the chicken’s DNA and produced as part of the egg white.
• The team have initially focused on two proteins that are essential to the immune system and have therapeutic potential a human protein called IFNalpha2a, which has powerful antiviral and anti-cancer effects, and the human and pig versions of a protein called macrophage-CSF, which is being developed as a therapy that stimulates damaged tissues to repair themselves.
• Just three eggs were enough to produce a clinically relevant dose of the drug.
• Protein-based drugs, which include antibody therapies such as Avastin and Herceptin, are widely used for treating cancer and other diseases.
• For some of these proteins, the only way to produce them with sufficient quality involves mammalian cell culture techniques, which are expensive and have low yields.
• Other methods require complex purification systems and additional processing techniques, which raise costs. The approach is efficient and produces better yields.

High resolution satellite imagery for monitoring forest cover

News

• Accelerating its efforts to save forest lands from encroachments, the Telangana State Government has decided to utilise satellite imagery for continuously monitoring the forest cover.

Beyond News

• The State has accordingly roped in the National Remote Sensing Agency for providing high resolution satellite images to enable it to keep a tab on encroachments, if any, in the forest areas.
• The NRSA with its set of satellites will regularly monitor the forest cover and report to the State Government any negative change (decline in the cover on account of encroachments and other reasons).
• The State has been depending on the biennial reports of the Forest Survey of India that provide details of change in the vegetation cover State-wise till recently, but two years is too long a period in view of the utmost priority accorded for preservation of forest cover by Chief Minister.
• Accordingly, the project has been taken up on experimental basis in Bhadradri-Kothagudem and Bhupalpally districts, known for vast extent of forest lands.
• Based on the results of the pilot project, the Government will extend the project to all districts with forest cover subsequently. Though the department initially explored options for deploying high resolution satellite imagery with 1m resolution available, it was decided against these technologies owing to “lot of costs” involved in it.
• The government had decided to rope in the NRSA as it had satellites that too had capabilities of giving out high resolution images.

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