Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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World’s oldest astrolabe identified

News

• Scientists have discovered the world’s oldest astrolabe an ancient device used for navigating at sea which was part of Portuguese explorers Vasco da Gama’s second voyage to India in the fourteenth century.
• The Guinness World Records independently certified the astrolabe excavated from the wreck site of a Portuguese Armada Ship as the oldest in the world. They also certified a ship’s bell dated 1498 recovered from the same wreck site also as the oldest in the world.

Beyond News

• The Sodre astrolabe is believed to have been made between 1496 and 1501 and is unique in comparison to all other mariner’s astrolabes.
• Mariner’s Astrolabes were used for navigating at sea by early explorers, most notably the Portuguese and Spanish. They are considered to be the rarest and most prized of artefacts to be found on ancient shipwrecks and only 104 examples are known to exist in the world.
• They were first used at sea on a Portuguese voyage down the west coast of Africa in 1481. Thereafter, astrolabes were relied on for navigation during the most important explorations of the late 15th century, including those led by Bartolomeu Dias, Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama.
• As the earliest verifiable mariner’s astrolabe it fills a chronological gap in the development of these iconic instruments and is believed to be a transitional instrument between the classic planispheric astrolabe and the open-wheel type astrolabe that came into use sometime before 1517.
• The thin 175 millimetres diameter disk weighing 344 grammes was analysed by a team who travelled to Muscat, Oman in November 2016 to collect laser scans of a selection of the most important artefacts recovered from the wreck site.
• Using a portable 7-axis Nikon laser scanner, capable of collecting over 50,000 points per second at an accuracy of 60 microns, a 3D virtual model of the artefact was created.
• Analysis of the results revealed a series of 18 scale marks spaced at uniform intervals along the limb of the disk.
• Further analysis showed that the spacing of the scale marks was equivalent to 5-degree intervals.
• This was critical evidence that allowed independent experts to include the disk in their global inventory as the earliest known mariner’s astrolabe discovered to date.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Integrate TB services with primary health system: Lancet

News

• Of the 10 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases reported globally in 2017 by the World Health Organisation, 74 million were from India, showing a marginal reduction from 2.79 million in 2016.
• Despite TB incidence in the country being 204 cases per 1,00,000 in 2017, the government has set a highly ambitious target of “eliminating TB by 2025”, five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target.

Findings

• According to article based on modelling for three high-burden countries, including India, compared with 2015 data, 57% reduction in incidence and 72% reduction in mortality will been seen only by 2035.
• Strengthening the care cascade could reduce cumulative TB incidence by 38% in the case of India.
• The India report card says diagnosis and treatment for drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB need improvement. Modelling suggests that lives of eight million (28%) people with TB can be saved over the next 30 years if tests are subsidised and patients are supported to complete the treatment.
• This would cost an extra $290 million each year, which is significantly less than India’s $32 billion losses associated with TB mortality each year.
• The Lancet Commission recommends that India should scale up access to TB services for all those seeking them, optimise engagement of private sector providers and guarantee universal access to drug susceptibility testing and second line TB drugs.
• Instead of waiting for people with TB to reach diagnostic centres for testing, India has now undertaken case-finding campaigns to cut the transmission cycle. So far 144 million people at risk of the disease in 447 districts have been screened and more than 50,000 new cases have been detected.
• 10% of individuals with TB die or self-cure before presenting for care. According to the survey in Gujarat, 40% of those bacteriologically tested positive for TB had not sought care. Patient delay before first presentation for care is 4.1 months. Even initiation of treatment after diagnosis happens after 2.1 days. The proportion of people with TB completing treatment is 85%. But it says systematic efforts to screen high-risk populations have already begun in India.
• With 1,35,000 cases in 2017, India has the highest number of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases in the world.
• According to Commission report,increasing evidence shows that the majority of MDR-TB cases in India due to direct transmission. Hence, early diagnosis and prompt initiation of effective treatment should be high priority to curb MDR-TB transmission. According to the report, in India, only 14% of people with MDR-TB completed treatment and just 11% remained disease-free at the end of one year.

Hot iron technique used to remove affixed visa from passport

News

• The international human trafficking gang, which was busted by Cyberabad police, had mastered the technique of using an iron box to remove work visa document affixed to the passport and later paste the same on board.
• Using an original job visa, the gang used to create a duplicate visit visa and send Dinar-dreamers to Kuwait taking Emigration Check Required (ECR) clearance from Protector of Emigrants (PoE).

Beyond News

• The agents get work permit approval from the embassy in Mumbai by showing the visa and offer letter. Further to avoid paying 750 Kuwaiti dinars (approximately ₹1.50 lakh) to PoE office – which has to be paid by employer in Kuwait they will remove the permit document from passport with the help of a hot iron box and ask the flyer to affix the same after boarding the flight.
• The agents will manipulate the work visa as visit visa and clear the immigration process. If any flyer is medically unfit, he/she will be taken to Sri Lanka on a transit visa and from there to Kuwait. The passengers were accommodated in hotels and ‘classes’ were conducted to familiarise them with the travel documents.
• In the last few years, the two gangs have sent thousands of people from the Telugu states to Kuwait, forcing them to be ‘bonded labourers’, he said. The entire process is to avoid paying security deposit amount to PoE , he said.
• Cyberabad police arrested 18 people, including 15 agents, two airline staff and a constable attached to Chevella police station. In the last one month, the RGIA police have registered 14 cases, in which 71 accused were arrested and 21 are absconding. They seized 250 passports, fake visas, 38 mobiles, fake rubber stamps, 160 police verification certificates, and other incriminating material.
• Illegal travel agents are operating from all major airports like Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Forest fire detrimental to ecosystem, warns KFRI

News

• Scientists at the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), Peechi, have warned that recurring forest fire will lead to degradation of the ecosystem in forest areas, especially grasslands, of the State.

Beyond News

• According to the data with the Forest and Wildlife Department, 1,056.72 ha of forestland had been devastated in 381 incidents of forest fire in the past four months.
• Since dried materials are needed as fuel, grasslands, scrub jungle, dry deciduous and moist deciduous forests are more susceptible to fire.
• Evergreen and sholaforests generally escape the fire due to high moisture content in soil and absence of fuel load. But in the grasslands, the impact will be mainly on soil which gets degraded and mineralogical transformation may occur, which is irreversible. It decreases soil moisture and water holding capacity, that will have a negative impact on hydrology.
• Fire creates open spaces in the grasslands and there will be an increase in soil nutrient content immediately, which will favour the growth of invasive species that will further degrades the system. The study indicates that the faunal diversity and density could not reach its original state even after a couple of years of a forest fire.
• In natural conditions, when the fuel load is less, the fire will restrict as ground fire but additional fuel material, such as dry leaves, branches and fallen trees, may lead to surface fire.
• In case of crown fire, the extreme stage of a disaster, fire extends to the crown of trees where complete loss of vegetation may happen. Crown fire generally happens when there is fuel load which can act as ladder up to tree canopy.
• Forest fire will also make the system susceptible to exotic species, which is detrimental to the existing natural vegetation.
• When the diversity and density of vegetation go down, it will have a negative impact on all ecosystems services. This will lead to increased soil erosion, soil degradation, decreased water holding capacity, and groundwater recharge.

Evidence of water found on asteroid Bennu

News

• Scientists have discovered evidence of abundant water-bearing minerals on the surface of the near-earth asteroid Bennu.
• Data from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft that is currently orbiting the asteroid confirm presence of aqueously altered, hydrated minerals on its surface.
• Scientists say similar objects may have seeded the earth with water and organic materials.

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