Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon – November 30

All the statement given above is correct.

Important Learning:

• US space agency NASA has successfully launched the world’s smallest and lightest satellite built by students from Tamil Nadu
• The satellite is named after former President and nuclear scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and is called ‘KalamSat’
• The satellite, which is lighter than a smartphone and made of reinforced carbon fibre polymer
• It’s a 3-D printed satellite. It is for the first time that 3-D printing technology is being used in space

Statement A is correct:

• Criticality is a nuclear term that refers to the balance of neutrons in the system.
• When the neutron population remains constant, this means there is a perfect balance between production rate and loss rate, and the nuclear system is said to be “critical.”
• The criticality of a system can be calculated by comparing the rate at which neutrons are produced, from fission and other sources, to the rate at which they are lost through absorption and leakage out of the reactor core.
• A nuclear reactor is a system that controls this criticality or balance of neutrons.

Statement B is incorrect:

The definition given in the statement holds true for sub-critical

• Subcritical” refers to a system where the loss rate of neutrons is greater than the production rate of neutrons and therefore the neutron population (or number of neutrons) decreases as time goes on.

Statement C is incorrect:

The statement holds true for Super-critical and not criticality.

• “Supercritical” refers to a system where the production rate of neutrons is greater than the loss rate of neutrons and therefore the neutron population increases.

• The haemoglobinopathies are inherited disorders of haemoglobin synthesis (thalassaemias) or structure (sickle cell disorders)
• These disorders result in errors in oxygen-carrying capacity of haemoglobin . Diseases linked to genetic predisposition are not only kill prematurely, but result in long years of ill health and disability, loss of work and income, possible poverty, loneliness and depression.
• Sickle cell and thalassaemia are inherited disorders that are passed on from parents to children through unusual haemoglobin genes.
• People only have these disorders if they inherit two unusual haemoglobin genes – one from their mother, and one from their father.
• People who inherit just one unusual gene are known as ‘carriers’. Carriers are healthy and do not have the disorders.

Important Learning:

• The Ministry of State (Health and Family Welfare) has prepared and issued comprehensive guideline for Haemoglobinopathies (Thalassemia, Sickle cell anemia and other variant anemia) for prevention and management of Haemoglobinopathies.
• The guidelines provide for screening of every pregnant woman during ANC, pre-marital counseling at the college level and onetime screening for variant anemia for all children in class VIII.

There is no proposal to make carrier testing compulsory for relatives of thalassemia patients as it should be  voluntary and not cause stigmatisation of the family. Awareness programme on thalassemia are being conducted by several State Governments.

1 and 2 is incorrectly matched .Below here is the explanation

NICER:

• NASA will launch the world’s first mission devoted to studying rapidly spinning neutron stars.
• Neutron stars are the remnants of massive stars that, after exhausting their nuclear fuel, exploded and collapsed into super-dense spheres
• Although neutron stars emit radiation across the spectrum, observing them in the energetic X-ray band offers the greatest insights into their structure and the high-energy phenomena that they host, including starquakes, thermonuclear explosions, and the most powerful magnetic fields known in the cosmos.

NIUSAT:

• It is one of the nano-satellites from India sharing space in PSLV C-38 mission which carries CARTOSAT and 29 other nano-satellites from 14 countries.
• NIUSAT was designed and developed by the Noorul Islam University in Tamil Nadu.
• This nano-satellite is built for disaster management and crop monitoring, equipped with an RGB camera for multispectral imagery.

NISAR:

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission is a joint project between NASA and ISRO to co-develop and launch a dual frequency synthetic aperture radar satellite. The satellite will be the first radar imaging satellite to use dual frequency and it is planned to be used for remote sensing to observe and understand natural processes of the Earth.

2 AND 3 is correct and it is classified under In-situ Bioremediation while 1 is incorrect because Bio-piles falls under the category of Ex-situ Bioremediation

Important learning:

Bioremediation can be defined as a process which removes or neutralises waste and toxic substances in the environment, using organisms such as microorganisms, small organisms and plants. Many microorganisms and plants are capable of degrading toxic and hazardous substances and reducing the toxicity. Naturally occurring microorganisms decompose the organic waste in the environment by biodegradation. There are two main types of bioremediation; in situ and ex situ.

In-situ bioremediation:

In situ bioremediation refers to the bioremediation process which is performed at the original site of the contamination. In situ bioremediation concept is mainly used to treat contaminations in soil and ground water.  It includes

• Bioventing

Bioventing involves supplying air or oxygen, and nutrients if needed, into the unsaturated zone. Oxygen is delivered to the unsaturated zone by forced air movement either through extraction or injection of air to increase oxygen concentrations.

Biosparging

• Biosparging is an in-situ remediation technology that uses indigenous microorganisms to biodegrade organic constituents in the saturated zone. In biosparging, air (or oxygen) and nutrients (if needed) are injected into the saturated zone to increase the biological activity of the indigenous microorganisms

Ex-situ Bioremediation:

• Ex situ bioremediation is a technique which treats the contaminants away from the location where they were found. Contaminants are excavated or pumped out from the original site and treated inside the controlled environments.
• A wide range of hydrocarbons is purified by ex situ bioremediation. Contaminated soils are excavated and placed on the surface of the ground and treated using indigenous microorganisms.
• Ex situ bioremediation can be controlled and managed by providing required conditions.
• Examples of ex situ bioremediation processes including composting, soil biopiles, landfarming, slurry reactors.

The Reserve Bank of India has three categories for wallets—closed, semi-closed and open.

• Closed Wallet: Certain amount of money is locked with a mobile wallet company, where he allows the customer to utilize the amount to purchase the goods only from his company.
• Semi-Closed Wallet: It also does not allow permitting cash withdrawal or redemption from the wallet like the previous case but it allows the customer to purchase goods with listed merchants.

Open Wallet: It is solely owned by the bank authorities, so it allows us to buy goods and allows to withdraw the cash at ATM‘s during the time of emergency

Statement 1 is incorrect because it is launched by Ministry of Electronics and IT

Important Learning:

• Under the scheme, 25 lakh candidates will be trained in the FY 2016-17; 275 lakh in 2017-18; and 300 lakh in 2018-19.
• To ensure equitable geographical reach, each of the 250,000 Gram Panchayats across the country will be expected to register an average of 200-300 candidates.
• Digitally literate persons will be able to operate computers/digital access devices, send and receive emails, access government services, browse internet, search for information, undertaking cashless transactions, etc..
• The scheme will be implemented under the supervision of Ministry of Electronics and IT in collaboration with States/UTs through their designated State Implementing Agencies, District e-Governance Society (DeGS), etc.