Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Science & Technology)|October 29, 2020

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is developing methane-powered rocket engines.
•The space agency is developing two ‘LOx methane’ engines (liquid oxygen oxidiser and methane fuel) engines.
•One of the two projects is trying to convert the existing cryogenic engine, which uses liquid hydrogen for fuel, into a LOx methane engine.
•The other is a smaller engine of 3 tonnes thrust, which will feature an electric motor.
•These are being developed at ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Trivandrum.
Source: The Hindu

The South Central Railway (SCR) announced the introduction of a new technology – Head On Generation (HOG) system – in Telangana Express where power from the engine would be supplied to the entire train for lighting and air-conditioning.
•The trains like these have two power cars known as End On Generators (EOG) on either end to provide electricity to all the coaches.
•These power cars produce electricity by the diesel generators with each using 40 litres of fuel per hour for a non-AC coach and 65-70 litres of diesel per hour per coach in case of an AC coach.
•The new HOG technology obviates the need for using diesel as power is tapped from the overhead electric traction lines through a pantograph to the train engine and the same is distributed to the trailing coaches.
•Earlier, the power supply from the overhead electric traction was being used to only run the engine and haul the coaches.
•“The new system does not require any diesel and hence, will reduce air and noise pollution, besides providing uninterrupted illumination in all the coaches.
•On an average, it will reduce carbon emission by 700 metric tonnes per year per train”.
Source: Indian Express

EChO Network, a national program to provide a template for cross-disciplinary leadership in India with the specific focus of increasing research, knowledge, and awareness of Indian ecology and the environment.
•India faces unprecedented threats to its human environmental and ecosystems, solving which requires a confluence of India’s strong technological expertise and knowledge of the natural world itself.
•EChO Network would develop a national network to catalyse a new generation of Indians who can synthesize interdisciplinary concepts and tackle real-world problems in medicine, agriculture, ecology, and technology.
•With no precedent for such a network anywhere in the world, EChO Network establishes a new platform to change how science is embedded in our modern society.
•Through interactive sessions with citizens, industry, academia, and the government, the Network will identify gaps in knowledge regarding selected topics in human and environmental ecosystems.
•The program will then train postdoctoral leaders in research and outreach on these topics, while also incorporating current public and private efforts into a national network.
•It would then go on to establishing nation-wide awareness in these issues through public discourse and education for citizens, industry, and government with information exchange at all educational levels.
•Over time EChO Network intends to create an international distributed institute comprising individuals housed within industry, government, private, and academic sectors, combining their expertise and resources collectively to tackle large scale problems.
Source: Indian Express

A Bilateral Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program has commenced between the Indian Patent Office (IPO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO).
The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is a set of initiatives for providing accelerated patent prosecution procedures by sharing information between some patent offices.
Source: The Hindu

Department of biotechnology (DBT) and NWO, the Netherlands Science Agency announced a joint call for proposals to clean the Barapullah drain in New Delhi.
•LOTUS-HR stands for Local Treatment of Urban Sewage streams for Healthy Reuse plant.
•The project was initiated in 2017. It aims to demonstrate a novel holistic waste-water management approach that will produce clean water that can be reused for various proposes.
•The project also aims to simultaneously recover nutrients and energy from the urban wastewater thus converting drain into profitable mines.
•The project is jointly supported by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Government of the Netherlands.
The partners in the project are IIT-Delhi, NEERI and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
Source: The Hindu

Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) is a serious public health problem in India. It is characterized as acute-onset of fever and a change in mental status (mental confusion, disorientation, delirium, or coma) and/or new-onset of seizures in a person of any age at any time of the year.
•The syndrome most commonly affects children and young adults and can lead to considerable morbidity and mortality.
•Viruses are the main causative agents in AES cases, although other sources such as bacteria, fungus, parasites, spirochetes, chemicals, toxins and noninfectious agents have also been reported over the past few decades.
•In May-June 2019, the acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Sheohar and East Champaran districts has so far claimed the lives of over 100 children.
•More than 400 children with AES have been admitted to various hospitals. Most of the deaths have been attributed to low blood sugar level (hypoglycaemia).
•In Bihar, convulsions in children (which is AES) are found in combination with hypoglycaemia.
Source: The Hindu

Japanese Encephalitis (JE) is a mosquito-borne viral infection of the brain. There is, however, a debate about the origin of the disease and whether it is enteroviruses — caused by virus found in pigs and birds. There is no cure for JE.
•The efficacy of the JE vaccine is between 85-90%. The lessons learnt from polio vaccination drives is that people left out of each round of vaccination are the most disenfranchised, most likely to take ill and least likely to seek medical care in time.
•One hundred and ninety positive cases of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) have been reported and 49 people have died of the vector-borne disease in Assam since January 2019 to June 2019.
•Assam is an ecologically favorable region for the spread of JE due to heavy rainfall, large paddy fields and water bodies and pig farming almost throughout the State.
•Pigs act as amplifying host for the JE virus transmitted through culex mosquito, as do wading birds such as herons and egrets.
Source: The Hindu

A new initiative aims at reducing the population of Aedes aegypti mosquito by introducing genetically modified version of mosquitoes.
•Aedes aegypti mosquito is the carrier of diseases such as Zika, dengue and chikungunya.
•The genetic strategy employed to control A. aegypti population known as RIDL (the Release of Insects carrying Dominant Lethal genes) is to reduce the population of the naturally occurring A. aegypti mosquitoes and not affect or alter their genetics.
Source: The Hindu

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) seized one tonne of artificially ripened bananas and plantains from a market in Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu). According to FSSAI officials, a trader had used ripening agent ethephon (2-chloroethylphosphonic acid) on the bananas and plantains kept for sale.
Source: Down to Earth

The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), with help from Gujarat’s forest department, is attempting for the first time a process to restore coral reefs using biorock or mineral accretion technology.
•A biorock structure was installed one nautical mile off the Mithapur coast in the Gulf of Kachchh.
•Biorock is the name given to the substance formed by electro accumulation of minerals dissolved in seawater on steel structures that are lowered onto the sea bed and are connected to a power source, in this case solar panels that float on the surface.
•The technology works by passing a small amount of electrical current through electrodes in the water.
•When a positively charged anode and negatively charged cathode are placed on the sea floor, with an electric current flowing between them, calcium ions combine with carbonate ions and adhere to the structure (cathode).
•This results in calcium carbonate formation. Coral larvae adhere to the CaCO3 and grow quickly.
Source: The Hindu