The Science & Technology Weekly – 25 March – 2 April, 2016

Starting 4th April, 2016 we have a started a new initiative to post Science and Technology Compilation of all articles coming in leading newsdaily on a weekly basis. We look forward to simplify the preparation of aspirants by easing out their task in one of the most vague topics in UPSC preparation. The compilation will make aspirants aware with day to day happenings in the field of science and technology as well list out basics in brief.
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1. A simple blood test can reduce global burden of TB
2. Drug resistant TB and a promising drug
3. India’s tuberculosis challenge
4. High-energy blip or herald of new physics?
5. Decline of pollinators threatens food supply
6. To our health
7. Scientists create bacterium with fewest number of genes
8. Tech fraternity wants iPhone compatibility with Aadhaar

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[1]. A simple blood test can reduce global burden of TB

• 40 per cent of the population is infected with TB
• 10 per cent of people infected with TB will develop the disease as they grow old, become infected with HIV or have diabetes
• A set of 16 genes can be used as biomarkers to trace out this information. The genes become more active in those who will develop TB disease in the next one or two years than in people who will continue to stay healthy.

Solution

• Since the infected population acts as a huge reservoir and as all infected people across the world cannot be given preventive TB treatment for at least six months, picking out only those who are very likely to develop the disease and providing them preventive treatment will go a long way in reducing the TB burden in the world.
• Because people only become infectious after they have fallen ill

The robustness of the 16 genes to act as biomarkers was validated in many cases.

The accuracy of the biomarkers was maximum when the diagnosis was made close to the time when people became diseased. 71.2 per cent when the diagnosis was made six months prior, 63 per cent when the diagnosis was made 6-12 months , 48 per cent during 12-18 months prior to TB disease diagnosis.

Conclusion

• The ability of the blood-based signatures to predict progression to active tuberculosis disease in healthy individuals can pave the way for the establishment of diagnostic methods that are scalable and inexpensive.
• The newly described signature holds potential for highly targeted preventive therapy, and therefore for interrupting the worldwide epidemic

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[2]. Drug resistant TB and a promising drug

24th march

• World Tuberculosis Day

Health Ministry launched

• New drug for Drug Resistant TB

What is tuberculosis?

• Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs, but they can also damage other parts of the body. TB spreads through the air when a person with TB of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes, or talks.

What is drug resistant TB?

• Multi-drug–resistant tuberculosis (MDR–TB, also known as Vank’s Disease) is defined as a form of TB infection caused by bacteria that are resistant to treatment with at least two of the most powerful first-line anti-TB drugs, isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RMP).

What is the New Drug?

• Bedaquiline
• It belongs to Diarylquinoline class, it targets the Mycobacterial ATP Synthase which give energy to the different Mycobacteria.

Introduction

• It is introduced at six tertiary centres pan india.

Which patients it will target

• multi-drug resistant TB patients with resistance to either all fluoroquinolone and/or all second line injectables and extensive drug resistant TB

It also include 500 Cartridge-Based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (CBNAAT) machines

• It is a molecular test which detects Mycobacterium tuberculosis and rifampicin drug resistance
• It is fully automatic
• It will give result in just two hours
• It can be used in remote and rural areas without sophisticated infrastructure or specialised training.

This announcement has given the over 71,000 multidrug resistant TB patients in India some hope

The donation is provided through USAID’s agreement with the Stop TB Partnership’s Global Drug Facility (GDF)

Multidrug resistant TB is a complex infection. Every patient may not be eligible for Bedaquiline. Even if half the MDR TB patients in India are eligible, we are looking at over 35,000 doses. So 600 is but a drop in the ocean.

India is a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals where TB figures prominently. It plans to ‘End TB’ by 2035, and to do that it needs to accelerate rapidly. Early and easy access is key to this.

If one looks at how India won the battle over HIV, the turning point came when testing, treatment and care became freely available.

India can take examples from Bangladesh

• They tested an interesting model, which it called Community based programmatic Management of Drug Resistant TB (cPMDT).
• This has shown good results and brought benefits to patients as it is based on patients receiving MDR-TB treatment within their own communities.
• Patients find treatment at home more convenient, and close daily support from family members is possible.
• Community-based care is more economical than hospital-based care yet it is compatible with hospital care.

Conclusion

• Drug resistant TB patient numbers are growing.
• There is only one way to fight this: accelerate access to diagnosis, treatment and care.
• No more pilots, no more small numbers of doses, no more red tape.
• The time has come to have one DRTB centre in each district.
• The time to scale up tested models from within India and other settings is now.

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[3]. India’s tuberculosis challenge

• India has a large and heterogeneous tribal population of approximately 104 million.
• This accounts for 8.6 per cent of the total population and it is spread over a vast area. Apart from the States of the northeastern region, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkand, Maharashtra, Orissa and Gujarat have large tribal populations.
• Physical remoteness, high rates of malnutrition and poor living conditions contribute to the vulnerability of tribal people to TB and other infectious diseases.
• Ignorance, misconceptions and variable access to quality healthcare make them vulnerable to exploitation by quacks, leading to poor health outcomes.
• Pulmonary TB prevalence among tribal people was 703 per 100,000, which is almost three times that in the general population (256 per 100,000)

Social assessment study commissioned by the Central Tuberculosis Division of the Union Ministry (in 2005 and in 2011)

• Identified various gaps in service delivery to tribal populations.
• The first study led to the development of the tribal action plan

Aim of the plan:

• it outlined differential strategies and packages for the tribal population under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP).
• Second study in 2011 revealed limited improvement in terms of two key parameters
• access to services and awareness among the community
• Insufficient community engagement, non-involvement of traditional healers, distance of the tribal populations from government health centres, and lack of appropriate awareness-building measures were some of the other issues identified.
• These resulted in significant delays and under-utilisation of programmatic services by the tribal population.

Solutions

• These vulnerable populations need special attention
• bold initiatives are needed to reach out to them

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in collaboration with the Central Tuberculosis Division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,

• is planning an innovative project
• to-reach tribal areas in central and western India.
• It will be implemented initially in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh (19 districts and 17,000 villages) covering a population of approximately 18 million.

Aim of the Project

1. A clearly defined implementation plan and strategies to engage the community to improve their awareness about TB and other diseases that affect them
2. involve traditional healers in aiding early detection and referral, have been designed.
3. A mobile diagnostic van equipped with digital X-ray and sputum microscopy services will go to identified villages at regular intervals and offer services at the doorstep.
4. Sputum will be collected from those with symptoms and brought to the nearest testing centre and the results conveyed the next day.
5. Where possible, the latest diagnostic techniques such as Gene Xpert will be used.
6. Individuals identified to have TB will be linked with the nearest treatment centre and treatment initiated quickly.
7. Through the involvement of local community members and traditional healers (in terms of sensitising and training them and providing incentives), levels of community awareness will be increased and their participation in health programmes strengthened.
8. These efforts should lead to people seeking care early, reduction in delays in diagnosis and treatment initiation and lower out-of- pocket expenditure.

• Patients need emotional and social support during treatment to ensure regular and complete therapy.
• It is to be hoped that corporates and others will come forward to provide nutritional and other kinds of support, as patients need good nutrition to recover rapidly.
• This kind of implementation research will provide the needed evidence to scale up such strategies in other areas.

Conclusion

• India having committed to the “End TB strategy” that calls for a 75 per cent reduction in deaths and 50 per cent reduction in incidence by 2025, it must take on tuberculosis in mission mode.

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[4]. High-energy blip or herald of new physics?

Issue

• Two parallel but different experiments at CERN (Compact Muon Solenoid experiment and ATLAS experiment) observed presence of a new particle at energy of 750 GeV.

What is CERN:

1. The European organization for nuclear research also known as CERN, located at Geneva, along France- Swiss border.
2. It is the world’s largest nuclear physics laboratory carrying out various experiment. For example ATLAS and Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment.

In 2012 scientists’ discovered the Higgs Boson at 125 GeV, all the particles predicted by the Standard Model of physics.

What is Standard Model of physics.

• It is a theory of particle physics which says that all the material around us is made up of 12 matter particle (also known as Fermions).

Recent Findings

• Compact Muon Solenoid experiment and ATLAS experiment, of CERN, both of which smash together high energy proton beams observed what seems like signs of a new particle at energy of 750 Giga electronvolts(GeV).
• The experiments still have not announced the detection as a discovery, because the statistical significance of these events is a mite below the threshold level of 5 sigma, which is the minimum needed to constitute a discovery.
• The two experiments are totally different in what they are geared to detect. And what is more, the signal has been picked up at the same energy of 750 GeV. Since two different experiments have detected a blip at the same energy, given the wide range of energies scanned, it would be too much of a coincidence for it to be attributed to a systemic error.
• If the experiment will gather enough statistical evidence, it will give evidence to Supersymetry(SUSY). Susy is also used in String theories; hence, evidence of susy would add support to string theories, which aim to unify all the forces in the world.

What is Supersymetry?

• In particle physics, Supersymetry is a space-time symmetry relating particles having integer spin, known as bosons (e.g., the Higgs particle or photons), and those having half-integer spins, known as fermions (e.g. electrons, protons). This property has not been discovered in nature so far.

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[5]. Decline of pollinators threatens food supply

Issue

• Declining Pollinators and Food security

Wild pollinators

• Bees, birds ,insects, bats, butterflies , moths and some reptiles like Lizards and snakes

Wheat, rice, sorghum, barley and maize do not require animals for their pollination

Some pulses, sunflower seeds, cardamom, coffee, cashew nuts, oranges, mangoes and apples require pollinators.

• A study by Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services(IPBES) and its report under UN reveals that the wild pollinators are declining and their loss will imperil our food supply.

What is IPBES

• It is an intergovernmental body, established in 2012, by more than 100 governments to provide scientific information about biodiversity and ecosystem services to policymakers of the member countries.
• The IPBES, with its secretariat in Germany, is administered by the UN, including the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

What are these Ecosystem Services

• They are the many benefits which society derives from nature.
• They include fresh water; fertile soil; wild plant resources such as foods, fibres, medicinal plants and the wild relatives of crops; wild pollinators and the natural enemies of crop pests; carbon sequestration from the atmosphere; and the important spiritual, aesthetic and recreational values of nature.

Indian context

• Important pollinators of food crops : various species of honeybee, Apis, such as A. Dorsata, A. Cerana, A. Florae, A. Andreniformes and A. Laboriosa.
• The European honeybee, A. Mellifera, also pollinates many crops and fruits such as apples.
• Many of these pollinators are declining.
• In the Himalayas, apple yields in recent years have decreased.
• The decreases have been attributed to reduction in the number of bees, but the exact causes of low yields are not known.
• And this is a potential crisis not only for biodiversity but also for our agricultural economy.

IPBES recommendations to restore the integrity of pollinators

• Improvements in the science of pollination
• Better land management,
• Strong regulations underlying pesticide use,
• Restoration and protection of habitats for wild pollinators.
• Above all, there is an urgent need for monitoring wild pollinators, and for strengthening the governance of natural assets.

Government Initiative

• The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has recently launched a programme to establish a network of Indian Long Term Ecological Observatories (I-LTEO) to monitor the country’s ecosystems.
• The I-LTEO network offers tremendous opportunities to monitor wild pollinators.

Conclusion

• Pollinators span wild and managed habitats, agricultural and urban landscapes. Pollinators in urban areas can service and enhance food production in peri-urban areas. Wild biodiversity, including pollinators, must become a significant component of future ‘smart cities’.
• The IPBES assessment serves notice to government agencies that they must rethink conventional sectoral approaches and narrow disciplinary perspectives. There are many factors involved in the complex environmental challenges threatening human security today. Only well-integrated approaches can successfully address them.

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[6]. To our health

Aim

• To improve the management of preventable disorder

How

• PM has initiated a time bound process by refocussing on containing mortality due to cancer,diabetes and cardiovascular conditions.
• The ministries of Health family welfare and AYUSH are to deliver the framework within 3 months and roll it out within next year
• Special importance is given to plans for screening for oral,breast and cervical cancers
• Other important public health innovations are also deadlined like : National Health Protection Scheme is to be actionable within 6 months,Reform in MCI within 2 months,3000 Jan aushadhi store must be opened within a month
• Some deadlines enumerated actually from global framework: 2017 target for elimination of Kala azar and Filariasis-WHO
• Its also been discussed that Yoga and other wellness regimes play a significant role in reducing the burden of disease and help in the management of existing disorders but alternative methods cannot replace mainstream protocols wholesale.

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[7]. Scientists create bacterium with fewest number of genes

A bacterium with a minimal number of genes for independent living is made up of just 473 genes.

It is considered to be biologically active.

In the natural world, no living organism is ever known to possess fewer than 1000 genes.

The knowledge gained from this creation may be foundational to understand how organisms can be created from scratch.

The fundamental question of whether there is a minimum number of genes without which a cell would be dead.

That question is also of immense practical interest as there is an entire subfield — called Synthetic biology

• that’s modifying bacteria and other microorganisms at the level of genes to make organic machines that can be employed to, for instance, clear oil spills and industrial enzymes.

To build complex organisms would mean having a fine-grained understanding of why some genes are more essential than others.

Scientists have sought to study bacteria of the Mycoplasma genus — as it has relatively few genes and multiplies quite quickly — to analyse the relationship between genes and the chemical pathways they make.

Stable cell with 473 genes is Syn 3.0. Intriguingly, they cannot yet explain why 149 of Syn 3.0’s 473 genes are essential to the survival of their test bacterium.

Conclusion

• Finding a precise answer to making a so-called minimal genome is an extremely important theoretical question…there is still too much unknown.

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[8]. Tech fraternity wants iPhone compatibility with Aadhaar

• Apple should make the fingerprint reader in their iconic iPhone compatible with Aadhaar for biometric authentication, if it has to tap the South Asian country’s market. Apple is averse to allow open application programme interface that allows access to their propriety software.
• “India is an open market, but we also want people in this market to play by our rules,” said Mr. Nandan Nilekani. He said that the government should take up the issue and make sure the smartphones sold in India with biometric system including fingerprint readers and iris scanners are compatible with Aadhaar. India has certain digital standards which are required for the economic growth and Aadhaar authentication on the smartphone is one of them.
• Smartphone makers like Samsung, Lenovo and Micromax have already made their phones compatible with Aadhaar.The current implementation of Apple’s authentication is not Aadhaar-compatible.
• For transactions, consumers would need to do two factor authentication: phone and biometric (fingerprint reader, iris scanner) or one time password (OTP) linked to biometric authentication, depending on the nature of the transaction.
• Closed-source platform like Apple’s mobile operating system iOS will not allow developers to build innovations atop the Aadhaar platform.
• Privacy advocates say that smartphone makers should learn from Apple, for not allowing any backdoors and not compromising on privacy and security
• But in a system like Aadhaar, there won’t be any compromises made in the security standards for capture, transmission, validation and storage of resident data.In any biometric authentication, the data is never allowed to be stored anywhere during the transaction.

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