Science and Technology MCQ Set 12
Showing question 56 to 60 of total 301 MCQs
MCQ Set: 12
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Question No: 56
WHO has released new guidelines to prevent which global epidemic?
- Childhood obesity
- Lung cancer
- SARS
- Zika
Answer and Explanation
Answer: A
Explanation
With increasing evidence that childhood obesity is a “global epidemic” affecting even the poorer nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) has released new guidelines on how trained professionals can better identify youngsters in need of help.
India has the second highest number of obese children in the world after China.
Doctors say identification of obesity in children is the main issue as often parents think a chubby child is a healthy child.
The WHO guidelines titled “Assessing and managing children at primary healthcare facilities to prevent overweight and obesity in the context of the double burden of malnutrition” provides updates for the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI).
The guideline includes counselling, dieting and assessment of eating habits along with the usual weight and height measurements.
In 2016, one half of all children overweight or obese lived in Asia and one quarter lived in Africa.
Paradoxically, overweight and obesity is found in populations where under-nutrition remains common - the term ‘double-burden of malnutrition’ is sometimes used to describe these settings.”
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is disseminating the WHO guideline to all its members.
The prevalence of obesity in children reflects changing patterns towards unhealthy diets and physical inactivity.
A study published in Paediatric Obesity says India will have over 17 million children with excess weight by 2025.
Dr. Aggarwal said that urbanisation, increased income, availability of fast foods, educational demands, television viewing and gaming have led to a rise in the consumption of foods high in fats, sugar and salt and low physical activity.
Most obese children develop early puberty, joint pain and find it difficult to exercise. This in turn results in metabolic syndrome and they end up with Type 2 diabetes.
Question No: 57
According to researchers, how are children impacted by air pollution?
- It damages their cognitive capabilities
- It damages working memory
- It impacts long term memory adversely
- It harms decision making capacities
Answer and Explanation
Answer: B
Explanation
Exposure to air pollution on the way to school can have damaging effects on growth of children's working memory, suggests new research.
The study found an association between a reduction in working memory and exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) - fine inhalable particles that have diameters of 2.5 micrometres or less-and black carbon-a pollutant directly related to traffic-during the walking commute to and from school.
The findings of an earlier study had shown that 20 percent of a child's daily dose of black carbon is inhaled during urban commutes.
The results of earlier toxicological and experimental studies have shown that these short exposures to very high concentrations of pollutants can have a disproportionately high impact on health.
The detrimental effects may be particularly marked in children because of their smaller lung capacity and higher respiratory rate.
The study was carried out in Barcelona and enrolled over 1,200 children aged from 7 to 10, from 39 schools, all of whom walked to school on a daily basis.
The children's working memory and attention capacity were assessed several times during the 12-month study.
Their exposure to air pollution over the same period was calculated on the basis of estimated levels on the shortest walking route to their school.
Statistical analysis of the findings revealed that exposure to PM2.5 and black carbon was associated with a reduction in the growth of working memory.
An interquartile range increase in PM 2.5 and black carbon levels were associated with a decline of 4.6 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively, in the expected annual growth of working memory, the study said.
The interquartile range (IQR) is a measure of variability based on dividing a data set into quartiles.
Question No: 58
Antibiotic resistance can be passed between bacteria found in _______.
- Water
- Air
- Soil
- Both a and c
- All the above
Answer and Explanation
Answer: C
Explanation
Antibiotic resistance can be passed between bacteria found in the soil, researchers, including one of Indian origin, have found.
Researchers from North Carolina State University in the US studied antibiotic resistance and how it can persist and spread among food animals, humans and the environment they all share.
The study found that spreading manure on the ground as fertiliser can also spread antibiotic resistance to bacteria in the soil.
Bacteria contain small DNA molecules known as plasmids.
These plasmids are separate from the bacterias actual DNA, and can pick up and exchange genes between bacteria.
The researchers took soil samples from a swine farm prior to and for three weeks after a manure spread.
They had previously tested the manure for antibiotic resistant strains of salmonella, a pathogen responsible for causing the highest number of bacterial food borne illnesses in the US every year.
After sampling the soil, researchers found that antibiotic-resistant salmonella bacteria were still present in the manure up to 21 days after it had been spread.
They also discovered that a particular plasmid associated with the antibiotic-resistant salmonella from the manure, which weighed around 95 kilo-base (kb), was now turning up in different salmonella serotypes from the soil samples and every serotype with plasmid 95 kb was now resistant to antibiotics.
This tells us that this particular plasmid is shuttling across different serotypes.
It could explain why we find antibiotic resistant salmonella strains even on farms that do not use antibiotics.
It seems that once antibiotic resistance takes hold, it doesn’t go away.
These bacteria are simply better equipped to survive and so they prosper.
Question No: 59
It uses 5G technology to monitor what treatment is needed
- It uses 5G technology to monitor what treatment is needed
- It uses X-ray technology to assess the state of the wound
- It uses gamma rays to assess the rate at which the wound is healing
- It uses temperature differential to pinpoint treatment required
Answer and Explanation
Answer: A
Explanation
Smart bandage using 5G technology to detect wound healing
Scientists in the UK have designed a new “intelligent” bandage which can detect how well a wound is healing and send a progress report to the doctor.
The bandage, which could be trialled within the next 12 months, uses real-time 5G technology to monitor what treatment is needed and also keep track of a patient’s activity levels.
The intelligent dressing uses nano-technology to sense the state of the wound at any one specific time.
It would connect that wound to a 5G infrastructure and that infrastructure through your telephone will also know things about you - where you are, how active you are at any one time.
The plaster would help clinicians know the performance of the specific wound at any specific time, who can then tailor the treatment protocol for the individual.
3D printers would be used to produce the bandages which would bring down the cost.
Question No: 60
Which is the Martian moon also known as the Death Star?
- Phobos
- Deimos
- Themis
- Both b and c
Answer and Explanation
Answer: A
Explanation
Mars Odyssey orbiter has captured its first images of the ‘Death Star’ moon Phobos–a region that could one day host a human-mission outpost.
Using the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THERMIS) camera, the orbiter has gathered new information on the changing surface temperatures of the Martian moon over the course of a day, revealing how quickly the ground warms and cools.
In stunning new images from the Sept 29 observation, NASA has combined the visible-wavelength and infrared data to show the surface colour-coded by temperature.
ASA has combined the visible-wavelength and infrared data to show the surface colour-coded by temperature.
By reading the photo from left to right, it reveals a sequence of times of day, from pre-dawn through sunrise, and long after dawn, according to NASA.
NASA has combined the visible-wavelength and infrared data to show the surface colour-coded by temperature.
By reading the photo from left to right, it reveals a sequence of times of day, from pre-dawn through sunrise, and long after dawn, according to NASA.
Phobos: Know More
A football-shaped object just 16.5 miles by 13.5 miles by 11 miles, Phobos is one of the smallest moons in the solar system.
It is so tiny that it would fit comfortably inside the Washington, D.C. Beltway.
The little moon completes an orbit in just 7 hours and 39 minutes, which is faster than Mars rotates.
Rising in the Martian west, it runs three laps around the Red Planet in the course of one Martian day, which is about 24 hours and 40 minutes.
It’s the only natural satellite in the solar system that circles its planet in a time shorter than the parent planet’s day.
Part of the observed face of Phobos was in pre-dawn darkness, part in morning daylight.
Including a predawn area in the observation is useful because all the heating from the previous day’s sunshine has reached its minimum there.
By reading the photo from left to right, it reveals a sequence of times of day, from pre-dawn through sunrise, and long after dawn, according to NASA.
While other orbiters have taken high-resolution photos of the Martian moon, THEMIS is the first to capture this type of infrared information.
This can provide information on the mineral composition, as well as the texture, of the surface.
The texture is related to the ground’s ability to warm up and cool down, the researchers explain.
Scientists are working to understand if Phobos, and the smaller Martian moon Deimos, are captured asteroids or pieces of Mars itself, knocked in space by impacts.
The orbiter gathered new information on the changing surface temperatures of the Martian moon over the course of a day.
Odyssey’s new observations are the first the craft has captured of Phobos since it began orbiting the Red Planet in 2001.