1) `Moo-Q` app tells when your brain is on top of its game.
- A new Smartphone app that measures mood and brain power can help you discover what time of the day your brain works best.
- The app, Moo-Q, asks users how positive or negative they are feeling- for instance whether they are awake, nervous, or happy, and then records how well they perform in mental tests that measure processing speed and memory.
- If you notice your brain test scores are highest early in the day, you might be well advised to undertake important tasks that require a bit more brain power first thing in the morning.
- This app will also help alert users to changes in brain over time, in memory or processing speed and it can even help users to exercise their brain- something everyone should do.
- The Moo-Q alerts will prompt users to open the app and complete mood ratings and three short tasks in a safe environment. Users will then be asked to answer a few brief questions about their surroundings and the activities they have done during the day.
2) Tweets now visible on Google search.
- Now users can see Tweets in the Google search results as Google has added Tweets to their real-time search results on the desktop.
- Google’s results will now show Tweets along with standard search results on desktop, especially when search terms have to do with keywords that are trending on Twitter at the time the search is made.
- For example, searching for ‘NASA Twitter’ will not only show you a link to NASA’s official Twitter page, it will also show NASA’s most recent Tweets.
- The feature was already available for mobile browsers and on the Google app for both iOS and Android devices.
3) New app can turn your smartphone into 3D scanner.
- Creating instant 3D scans with your smartphone may soon be as quick and easy as texting or making a phone call, thanks to a new app developed by researchers, including one of Indian-origin.
- The app, called MobileFusion, by Microsoft Research can turn a smartphone into a 3D scanner, without use of any extra hardware or Internet connection.
4) Facebook has ‘Donate Now’ option for Non-profits pages.
- Users would now have the option of a `donate` button on the pages of all non-profit organisations and linked advertisements on Facebook, Techcrunch.com reported.
- On click the "Donate Now" button on an NGO`s page you are first alerted that the organisation is "Not endorsed by or affiliated with Facebook" and then redirected to the page’s external site where you can complete the donation.
Background Initiative:
- Facebook had rolled out a "Donate" button in late 2013 with specific partners like the American Cancer Society and The Red Cross. For partnering non-profits, the button was integrated into Pages and the donation took place internally with credit card information that could be stored on the site.
5) ISRO successfully launches GSLV-D6 carrying GSAT-6 satellite.
- The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D6) has successfully blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Sriharikota, AP.
- This is the third time the indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) is being carried onboard during a GSLV flight.
- It may be noted the second mission of GSLV during the last five years after two such rockets failed in 2010.
- One of the GSLV rockets flew with Indian cryogenic engine and the other one with a Russian engine.
- GSAT-6 will join the group of India`s other operational geostationary satellites and it will provide communication through five spot beams in S-band and a national beam in C-band for strategic users.
- The S-Band Unfurlable Antenna of six metre diameter is one of the advanced features of GSAT-6 satellite.
About GSAT:
- INSAT-4E, also known as GSAT-6, is a multimedia communication satellite that will offer a Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (S-DMB) service across several digital multimedia terminals or consoles which can be used to provide information services to vehicles on the fly and to the mobile phones.
- Launch Vehicle: GSLV Mk.II D6
- Manufacturer: ISRO
- Launch site: Satish Dhawan, Sriharikota
- Objective: Make India self-reliant in broadcasting services
6) Facebook reaches 1 billion users in one day.
- Setting a new milestone in social media connectivity, one billion people from around the world flocked to Facebook in a single day, the highest ever.
- The California-based social networking giant boasted of the new benchmark which was set.
- One 24 August, 1 in 7 people on Earth used Facebook to connect with their friends and family.
About Facebook:
- Since Mr. Zuckerberg created Facebook in his Harvard Dorm room in 2004, the social network firm has become the second most trafficked website globally.
7) Palakkad to be declared first HIV/AIDS literate district.
- Palakkad would soon be declared as the first total HIV/AIDS literate district in the country.
- This project implemented in the in the last nine months by the district panchayat and voluntary organisation KESS-HAPPI had helped win the title.
About Project Jyothirgamaya:
- The project, Jyothirgamaya, was implemented with the cooperation of 91 grama panchayats and four municipalities in the district.
- The project was to educate people about AIDS and the need to remove the stigma and discrimination against its victims.
- Messages aimed at protecting and bringing the affected to the mainstream of life and rehabilitating them have also been spread.
- Under Jyothirgamaya, workers of Asha, Anganwadi and Kudumbasree had distributed pamphlets in every household, conducted awareness classes, quiz contests and rallies.
8) Medicinal properties of Ocimum sanctum unraveled.
- For the first time, a draft genome covering 374 million bases (61 per cent coverage) of the tulsi herb (Ocimum sanctum) has been sequenced and the main enzymes responsible for the synthesis of secondary metabolites which have medicinal properties have been unravelled by a team of nearly 30 scientists at the Bengaluru-based National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms, Bengaluru.
Research report:
- Of the nearly 40 secondary metabolites that have medicinal value, the genes and enzymes responsible for the production of 14 metabolites have been mapped on the genome. Not much information on the pathway is available for the remaining metabolites.
- Of the 14 metabolites that have been mapped, eight have anti-cancer properties and the remaining six have antifungal, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and cardio protective properties. The results were published recently in the journal BMC Plant Biology.
- Tulsi is well known for its myriad medicinal properties - antibacterial, antifungal, antipyretic, antioxidant, antiseptic and anticancer.
9) Swiss Company launches Free Your Feet socks.
- Switzerland company Bare foot says these are 15 times as strong as iron and are very light in weight.
- Doesn’t give the feel of wearing it on. Mountaineers, athelets, sportspersons etc.. can wear them on to enhance their comfort.