Coral skeleton crystals record ocean acidification ´Iceberg Fantasy´ by artist and astronomer Daniel Durda, used here with permission to illustrate the surface of an ocean planet. © Daniel Durda 1998 Imagine a world with no land at all, merely the impenetrable depths of a seething ocean. Models of planet formation predict the existence of such worlds, even though our own solar system has none. Indeed, their formation should actually be rather common — and new satellites may soon detect them around other stars. Planetary embryos that form far from a star are composed mostly of water ice. Pluto and the comets are good examples of such icy bodies, as are the moons Titan and Europa. Early in our own solar system’s history, the largest of these planetary embryos acquired a dense envelope of hydrogen and helium and transformed into the gas giants we know today. But what would happen if they drifted a bit closer to the Sun before getting so big?Planets that form far from their parent star are expected to have a composition similar to comets (50% rock, 50% water by weight). Once a planet exceeds about ten Earth masses it has enough gravity to attract any hydrogen and helium near its orbit, and will rapidly transform into a gas giant. But what happens to planets in this region that never exceed the threshold?It becomes an “ocean planet”, a term coined by Alain Léger (Université Paris-Sud, France) when he first proposed the existence of such worlds in 2003. An ocean planet that stays in the outer disk will probably be captured by the gas giants forming there, perhaps to become a moon like Europa. Such worlds will be composed mostly of rock and ice, and depending on their environment and formation history may harbor liquid oceans below their surface.Hydrodynamic simulations have shown that it is common for planets to migrate inwards or outwards as they plunge through the turbulent gas of the disk. It is therefore quite possible for an ocean planet to creep close enough to its star to melt the ice. So why doesn’t our system have any ocean planets? It’s hard to say, but it’s also clear that random chance plays a large role in planet formation. “Simulations … starting from random initial conditions produce a broad diversity of planets, including small planets migrating through the ice line.” explains Franck Selsis (Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France), one of Léger’s principle collaborators and the author of a more recent article on the detection of ocean planets. “Planets with masses less than 20 Earth-masses have been found at short periods with the instrument HARPS.”These objects are too big to be ocean planets; rather, they are small gas giants like Neptune or Uranus. As gas giants cannot form close to a star, it appears that they must have formed in the outer planetary nebula and migrated inwards. As Selsis tells PhysOrg.com, “Their detection shows that the process that can give birth to ocean planets is common.” Water, water every where…The water content of the Earth is only about one part in 4400, yet water covers over two-thirds of its surface. Not only would water cover the entire surface of an ocean planet, but its average depth would on the order of 100 kilometers! All the rocky matter would sink to the center of the planet, forming a dense core not unlike the Earth’s. Where the Earth has a thick mantle of magma, however, ocean planets would have a mantle of exotic ice. The pressure at the bottom of the ocean would be10 million atmospheres or more; under such a crushing weight, water has no choice but to solidify. …nor any drop to drink.Depending on its proximity to the star, an ocean planet’s surface might be icy, liquid, or some combination of the two. If it gets too close, however, the surface temperature might rise high enough for the oceans to transform into a global sauna. Such a planet wouldn’t have an ocean at all; at temperatures above the critical point of water, the distinction between liquid and gas disappears. Instead of an ocean, the ice mantle would be surrounded by a thick envelope of supercritical water: an even mix of vapor and suspended droplets at hundreds of degrees Celsius.Right now, ocean planets exist only in the realm of theory. They might well be detected by the recently launched CoRoT satellite, however. In a recent article posted to arXiv.org, Selsis describes how CoRoT and ground-based observations can be combined to estimate the density of extrasolar planets and thus tell the difference between an ocean world and a rocky world like the Earth. In the case of CoRoT any ocean worlds it can detect will be much closer to their star than even Mercury is to the Sun. The Kepler satellite (due to launch in 2008), on the other hand, will be able to detect such planets as far out as the habitable zone of some stars. Planet-finders have much to look forward to, and the discovery of these exotic worlds will provide a great deal of support for current theories of planet formation. Nobody knows yet whether such planets could evolve life, but they clearly have one of the essential ingredients in abundance. Citations: 1. Alain Léger et al. 2004, “A new family of planets? ‘Ocean Planets’ “. Icarus 169, 499L. An online version of this paper is available at arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0308324.2. Franck Selsis et al. 2007, “Could we identify hot ocean planets with CoRoT, Kepler, and Doppler velocimetry?” Icarus (submitted); an online version of this paper is available at xxx.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0701608 .By Ben Mathiesen, Copyright 2007 PhysOrg.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or part without the express written permission of PhysOrg.com. Explore further Citation: Ocean Planets on the Brink of Detection (2007, February 2) retrieved 18 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2007-02-ocean-planets-brink.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
A follower robot follows a leader robot (with UC Davis logo). Using behavioral cues, the follower can make its mission more reliable and accurate. Image credit: Chueh, et al. ©2008 IEEE. Identifying perceived emotions from people’s walking style Explore further This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Citation: Robots Detect Behavioral Cues to Follow Humans (2008, August 21) retrieved 18 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2008-08-robots-behavioral-cues-humans.html In experiments, the researchers tested how well a follower robot (Evolution Robotics’ Scorpion) could follow a leader robot (another Scorpion) as it zig-zagged and turned a corner of a hallway. Turning was the more difficult action to follow, since the leader robot escaped the sight of the follower robot. Without using behavioral cues, the follower robot would initiate a searching algorithm by turning and looking around. If the leader wasn’t too far away, the follower could detect it and continue following; otherwise, it would be lost and stop moving.The addition of the behavioral-cue controller significantly helped the follower robot to keep track of the leader. By detecting the leader’s subtle behaviors, the follower could anticipate when the leader was about to turn and predict its future path. Even though it lost sight of the leader, it kept close enough to its path so that it could find the leader again after the “blind” turn.Overall, the behavioral-cue model had advantages in cases where the leader robot made drastic turns that would otherwise leave the follower robot lost. But since other controllers also had advantages, the researchers suggest that a supervisory control system that coordinates multiple controllers could be useful. They also anticipate that a wide range of behavioral cues should lead to highly successful robot followers.“In the future, we hope to explore relevant behavioral cues for other robot tasks in human-robot work environments, and work on the robotics and computer science tools needed to make effective use of those cues,” Joshi said.More information: Chueh, Michael; Au Yeung, Yi Lin William; Lei, Kim-Pang Calvin; and Joshi, Sanjay S. “Following Controller for Autonomous Mobile Robots Using Behavioral Cues.” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 55, No. 8, August 2008.Copyright 2008 PhysOrg.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or part without the express written permission of PhysOrg.com. Robots can be ironic. Even though they might not have emotions of their own, they can still detect and respond to humans’ emotions. A recent study has shown that, by picking up on human emotional traits, as well as a variety of other conscious and unconscious behavioral cues, robots may be able to act more naturally and accurately with humans. The researchers, from the University of California, Davis, have developed a system that allows follower robots to use behavioral cues from human leaders and other robots in order to track and follow them. The ability to follow will likely be essential as robots continue to work alongside people more and more, such as in office buildings, hospitals, and airports.“As humans, we constantly incorporate other peoples’ current actions as clues (cues) as to what they may do in the future,” Sanjay Joshi of the University of California, Davis, told PhysOrg.com. “For instance, we have a ‘sixth sense’ on the highway to know that a certain car will swerve into our lane soon, based on the driver’s current driving patterns. Then, we may become more defensive in our own driving. In our work, we wanted to begin the process of allowing robots to use behavioral cues (of humans or other robots), to make the robot’s mission more reliable and accurate. In social work environments populated by numerous people and robots, these types of cues should be abundant.”In their robot-following system, the researchers integrated information provided by behavioral cues to improve the performance of robot followers along with other tracking methods, such as cameras. The system continuously estimates the future predicted position of the leader as it moves, and then directs the follower robot to the predicted position.The researchers’ aim was to reduce the amount of instructions or technical expertise required from human leaders to robots. As the authors noted, robots may be accepted if they are helpful, but can easily be rejected if they are difficult to work with. The researchers explained that behavioral cues that robots might use could include any action or signal that the leader exhibits that hints at a future action. These might be intended behaviors, such as pointing or waving. Other cues might be unconscious, such as behaviors that indicate stress or sadness, since they may indicate generally quick or slow movement patterns. Also, studies on human walking have shown that people unconsciously turn their head up to 25 degrees about 200 milliseconds before turning.
More information: Deuknam An et al. Enhanced call effort in Japanese tree frogs infected by amphibian chytrid fungus, Biology Letters (2016). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0018 A pair of researchers with Seoul National University has found that Japanese tree frogs infected with Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) fungus make different advertisement calls than uninfected frogs. In their paper published in The Royal Society Biology Letters, Deuknam An and Bruce Waldman explain their study and results and what impact the change in calls has on the frogs. Deadly amphibian fungus may decline, study says © 2016 Phys.org Bd causes a disease called chytridiomycosis in amphibians, where the skin is depleted and the immune system compromised—in most species it has been found to be deadly, killing off millions of frogs, salamanders and other species. Some experts believe it could ultimately wipe out a third of all amphibian populations worldwide. The disease was first noted by scientists in the 1990’s but since that time, researchers have found preserved samples going back as far as 1938. Scientists around the world have been working to better understand the fungus that causes the disease in hopes of perhaps preventing its spread further—one important area of research surrounds the Japanese tree frog, which become infected, but do not usually die from the associated disease. To learn more An and Waldman focused their attention on 42 of the male specimens in the wild, making recordings of their mating calls. They looked for such things as call duration, pulse length, pitch and how often the calls were repeated. They also tested the frogs for infection.In looking at their data, the researchers found that nine of the frogs were infected, and surprisingly, they were also the group that appeared to put the most effort into their mating efforts—their calls were longer and faster—this was surprising because another symptom of chytridiomycosis is lethargy. Also interesting was that the females in the area generally found the more energetic calls more enticing than normal, which meant the infected frogs found more success mating than those that were uninfected.The researchers offer two perspectives on their observations—either the fungus is causing the frogs to behave differently so as to improve its infection abilities (male frogs passed on the fungus to females during mating), or the male frogs were simply reacting to their stressed condition by attempting to reproduce earlier, due to an expected shortened lifespan. Citation: Researchers find male frogs infected with fungus have more enticing calls (2016, March 4) retrieved 18 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2016-03-male-frogs-infected-fungus-enticing.html Journal information: Biology Letters Explore further Tree frog. Credit: Julia Platter This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
The ongoing India International Trade Fair (IITF) 2014 has been attracting a large crowds. Apart from several of individual business visitors, the fair has elicited over 50 foreign delegations from 30 countries during initial eight days. Delegations are mainly from Afghanistan, Angola, Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Germany, Ghana Hong Kong, Iran, Indonesia, Japan, Lesotho, Mexico, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Senegal, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Surinam, UK and USA. The fair started on 14 November and will continue till 27 November at the Capital’s Pragati Maidan. Also Read – ‘Playing Jojo was emotionally exhausting’There has been a lot of interest in a wide range of engineering and consumer products and services including: Infrastructure, Electronics, Food Processing machinery, health Resources, auto components, agricultural machinery, packaging machinery, Hand tools, agricultural implements, construction equipment, agricultural implements, construction equipment, construction material, kitchen appliances, giftware, processed foods, electrical machinery and household electrical appliances. Consumer Products: home furnishings and made-ups, Apparel Accessories, Floor Coverings, Handicrafts, Wooden Furniture, Houseware items, utensils, Cotton Textiles, silk items, Foods, ceramics, carpets, Plastic and rubber products, coir products, cosmetics, jute and textiles, food and agro products, Fashion Accessories, handicrafts, and others also recieved very positive responses from the audiende.
Kolkata: Bidhannagar police have arrested the three contract killers in connection with the murder of Shampa Das, a civic volunteer who was found dead inside her in-laws house at Kaikhali on Friday evening.Nazir Sahu, Hafizul Mollah and Rashid Ali Mollah were arrested from Michael Nagar area of North 24-Parganas on Tuesday. They are remanded to eight-day police custody after being produced before a Barrackpore court.The victim’s husband Suparatim Das and his mother were earlier arrested by police for their alleged involvement in the crime. Also Read – Heavy rain hits traffic, flightsDuring the interrogation, the husband told police that he engaged two contract killers to carry out the murder.The hired criminals went into the room, tied up the husband with a rope against a chair and hit the woman with a sharp weapon. After a preliminary investigation, police suspected that his family members might be involved in the incident.Police suspected her husband’s involvement after interrogating him as there were irregularities in his Also Read – Speeding Jaguar crashes into Merc, 2 B’deshi bystanders killedstatements. During interrogation, Das told police that his wife used to torture and mount pressure on them to hand over the property. Das’s mother is the owner of the property and the house at Kaikhali, where the couple lived with their 3-year-old son.Police came to know that Das had hired the criminals by paying nearly Rs 1 lakh. Das and his mother helped the criminals to enter the house after the victim woman arrived the from her duty on Friday evening. The victim’s mother-in-law stepped out of the house with her grandson a few minutes before the incident.Police said Das hired three criminals with the help of one Roshid Ali Mollah with whom Das had come in terms a few months ago. Das had struck a deal with the two hired criminals.
Kolkata: A 45-year-old man and one woman were trampled to death by a wild tusker. The incident took place in Hindupara division of Gayerkata tea garden in Jalpaiguri on Friday morning.Police are yet to ascertain the identity of the woman, while the other victim has been identified as Karmi Minaz (45). Some locals on Friday morning found that the victims lying inside the tea garden.According to the preliminary investigation, police suspect that the incident might have occurred on Thursday night. Police are investigating as to why the victims went into the tea garden during the night. According to the injury marks found on their bodies, it is suspected that they were killed in an elephant attack. The exact cause of their death is yet to be ascertained by the police.Locals on Friday morning reported the matter to the forest department officials who rushed to the spot. They took both the victims to a nearby hospital where they were declared brought dead.Police are trying to ascertain the identity of the woman victim.They suspect that both the victims went to the spot to meet each other when they might have been attacked by an elephant.The victims could not flee the spot as the tusker might have appeared at the garden all of a sudden. The exact reason behind their deaths is yet to be confirmed bythe police.The investigating officers are waiting for the post-mortem report.The locals, however, informed the police that incidents of elephant attacks in the area is nothing new. People have died in elephant attacks in the past as well.
North Korea announced Friday that it was changing its standard time to GMT+8:30, 30 minutes behind South Korea.Pyongyang offered a nationalist rationale for the move, saying it would return the North to an original time zone used before Japan imposed Tokyo standard time during its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.The new system is to take effect on August 15 this year –the 70th anniversary of the peninsula’s liberation from Japanese rule. Also Read – Nine hurt in accident at fireworks show in French resort“It is highly regrettable that the North unilaterally changed its time zone with no consultation with us,” Park said during a meeting with senior aides.Noting that Pyongyang’s move had triggered international criticism, Park said it also threatened a “further deepening of
Kolkata: With only 33 days left for the biggest festival in the state, the Transport department has come up with a plethora of initiatives to make this Durga Puja a memorable one.The online booking for all the services will begin from Wednesday. One needs to log in to www.wbtc.co.in, www.online.sbstcbooking.co.in and www.nbstconline.com for booking.On Tuesday, Suvendu Adhikari, the state Transport minister, unveiled the guide — Puja Parikrama 2018 — containing details of the special transport arrangements of all the transport Corporations. Chairman of West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC), Rachpal Singh and Managing Director of WBTC, N S Nigam were also present. Also Read – Rain batters Kolkata, cripples normal lifeThe services have become immensely successful in 2017. Around eight lakh people had availed the state-run buses only on the days of Navami and Dashami in 2017. It was also a profit-making venture for the Corporation.The WBTC has come up with eight different services including tour to Bonedi Barir Puja, Pujas in Kolkata and its surrounding areas, Kolkata’s Puja in luxurious buses, tour to Jayrambati and Kamarpukur during Puja. At the same time, there are arrangements to visit Puja mandaps in North Kolkata through waterways. Moreover, one can also avail the vessel service to watch the immersion of idols of Goddess Durga and her entourage in River Hooghly. Also Read – Speeding Jaguar crashes into Mercedes car in Kolkata, 2 pedestrians killedThere will be arrangements for Puja Parikrama in traditional air-conditioned trams as well. Mainly, Pujas in North Kolkata can be visited in trams. The service will be available on Saptami and Navami.This time, a new initiative has been introduced, namely the one ticket system, that may be used to travel in both buses and vessels of the WBTC. One needs to buy a ticket that costs Rs 100 and it will remain valid for 24 hours.Similarly, the South Bengal State Transport Corporation (SBSTC) has made arrangements to take people in buses to enjoy the Durga Puja at Rajbari, Bonedi Bari and other famous Pujas in South Bengal. At the same time, the North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) has made arrangements for Puja Parikrama in buses in Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Malda respectively.
Kolkata: The state Women & Child Development & Social Welfare department has urged the state Labour department to work out the feasibility of bringing private placement agencies under the ambit of some control.”A number of women go missing and then are trafficked on the pretext of lucrative jobs. Hence, we are trying to have a database of the private placement agencies and for this we have sought assistance from the Labour department. We have already given them a draft regarding our plan,” said Shashi Panja, minister of state for Women & Child Development & Social Welfare on the sidelines of a cumulative workshop for Also Read – Rain batters Kolkata, cripples normal lifeimplementation of State Plan of Action against human trafficking. It may be mentioned that in December 2014, the department had launched State Plan of Action Against Human Trafficking in Women and Children (SPAHT) as a pilot project in Jalpaiguri and South 24-Parganas. Bengal was the first state in India to launch such a plan. “We have now decided to roll it out throughout the district. UNICEF, our key technical partner in the SPAHT process, and various other NGOs working with women and child trafficking have been roped in. We have Child Protection Committees (CPCs) at every block in the state that will organise towards finalising the action plan,” Panja said. Also Read – Speeding Jaguar crashes into Mercedes car in Kolkata, 2 pedestrians killedThe implementation of SPAHT is visualised through the convergence of various departments and agencies, where victims remain central. The department has come out with a handbook stating the responsibilities of government departments like Youth Affairs, School Education, Home, Panchayat & Rural Development, Urban Development, Public Works Department, Health & Family Welfare and Industries to curb child and human trafficking. According to a senior official of the department, it has now CPC’s in 2308 wards under the different urban local bodies and 49646 gram sansads across the state. The committee consists of teachers, doctors and anganwadi workers etc. The SPAHT uses a child-rights framework to comprehensively map the responsibilities of key government departments that are tasked with affirmative action for children. These responsibilities are operationalised through the implementation of central and state government schemes, as well as specific actions taking into account the states’ local needs and critical issues. “The Swayangsiddha project to curb human trafficking is also being rolled out in the entire state by the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID). We are also arranging rehabilitation of the victims after they are rescued,” a senior official of the department said.
In the winter season, safeguard yourself against dry and dehydrated skin. Give yourself oil massages, use cream-based products and apply cold cream before sleeping, says an expert.Here are some tips:* Turn to cream-based products early: If winter is approaching, it’s time to turn to skincare products that have cream-based thick moisturizers. So, your light water-based moisturizer will pave way for a heavy and thick cream. Switch over to a milder facewash and use a sunscreen that has moisturiser. While removing make-up too, use moisturizing cleansers and toners. Also Read – Add new books to your shelf* Give yourself oil massages: Just when you wake up in the morning, give yourself 15 minutes to apply warm oil all over the body, including on the face and the scalp. Leave it for an hour as you finish your morning chores. Then take a bath as usual and proceed for the day. This will go a long way in keeping your skin healthy, not just for the winter, but for a long time.*Exfoliate and steam: As we apply more creams, more oil and more products to stave off the dehydrating winter chill, the skin pores sometimes get blocked. For this purpose, exfoliating skin once or twice every ten days is recommended. Use a gentle scrub in circular motions on the skin to remove dead cells and clean up the skin. Once a month, also take recourse to steaming therapy. This will help soften the skin, open pores, and remove white heads and acne. Also Read – Over 2 hours screen time daily will make your kids impulsive* Nourishing skin procedures: Visit a dermatologist just before the onset of winters and seek a good solution for skin dryness. Deep moisturizing hydra facials once a month can be of much help in treating, even preventing excessive dryness. * Drink water: The icy cold weather often discourages us from drinking sufficient water and we tend to increase our skin dehydration due to this reason. Keep heated water in a thermostat. But keep drinking water to keep skin hydrated and prevent lips from cracking. * Feet care: Cracked heels, irritated soles, and itchy and swollen feet can be a major irritant, but feet are often at the lowest end of our priority. Apply cold cream to feet every night before going to bed. Use an exfoliating agent to remove jagged and hard skin from the heels once every fortnight. It is extremely important to wear warm, preferably woollen socks in winters.* Diet is important too: It is important to take a good intake of vitamin and minerals rich foods during winters to boost immunity and health. Consume a lot of fruits and vegetables, and take diet rich in Omega 3 fatty acids like fish to boost skin health and nourishment.