Science and Technology MCQ Set 55
Showing question 271 to 275 of total 301 MCQs
MCQ Set: 55
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Question No: 271
Which creature have scientists in the Philippines discovered for the first time?
- Live giant shipworm
- Live giant airworm
- Live giant soilworm
- Live giant mudworm
Answer and Explanation
Answer: A
Explanation
Scientists have discovered the first live specimen of a bizarre, giant worm-like animal in the Philippines.
This worm plants itself into mud like carrots and feeds on noxious fumes of sulphur.
The existence of the black, mud dwelling creature has been known for centuries.
Its tusk-like shells, measuring three to five feet long, were first documented in the 18th century.
"The shells are fairly common. But we have never had access to the animal living inside.
Scientists set up an expedition and found live specimens of Kuphus polythalamia planted like carrots in the mud of a shallow lagoon.
With a live giant shipworm finally in hand, researchers carefully washed the sticky mud caked to the outside of the giant shipworm shell and tapped off the outer cap, revealing the creature living inside.
The giant shipworm was radically different from other wood-eating shipworms.
The worm was found in a remote habitat–a lagoon laden with rotting wood.
Normal shipworm burrows deep into the wood of trees that have washed into the ocean, munching on and digesting the wood with the help of bacteria.
Unlike its shipworm cousins, Kuphus lives in the mud. It also turns to bacteria to obtain nourishment, but in a different way.
Kuphus lives in a pretty stinky place. The organic-rich mud around its habitat emits hydrogen sulfide, a gas derived from sulphur, which has a distinct rotten egg odour.
This environment may be noxious for you and me, but it is a feast for the giant shipworm, researchers said.
Kuphus themselves do not eat, or if they do, they eat very little.
Instead, they rely on beneficial bacteria that live in their gills that make food for them.
Like tiny chefs, these bacteria use the hydrogen sulfide as energy to produce organic carbon that feeds the shipworm.
This process is similar to the way green plants use the Sun's energy to convert carbon dioxide in the air into simple carbon compounds during photosynthesis.
As a result, many of Kuphus's internal digestive organs have shrunk from lack of use.
Question No: 272
Scientists have discovered a wristband that can analyse ________ to diagnose conditions like diabetes and cystic fibrosis.
- Sweat
- Skin
- Blood
- Tissue
Answer and Explanation
Answer: A
Explanation
Stanford scientists have developed a new wristband-type wearable device that can analyse sweat to diagnose and monitor diseases like diabetes and cystic fibrosis.
The new sensor collects sweat, measures its molecular constituents, such as chloride ions and glucose and then transmits the results for analysis and diagnostics.
Unlike old-fashioned sweat collectors, the new device does not require patients to sit still for a long time while sweat accumulates in the collectors.
The two-part system of flexible sensors and microprocessors sticks to the skin, stimulates the sweat glands and then detects the presence of different molecules and ions based on their electrical signals.
The more chloride in the sweat, for example, the more electrical voltage is generated at the sensor's surface.
The team at Stanford University in the US used the wearable sweat sensor in separate studies to detect chloride ion levels–high levels are an indicator of cystic fibrosis–and to compare levels of glucose in sweat to that in blood.
High blood glucose levels can indicate diabetes.
This wearable can track your ECG.
Conventional methods for diagnosing cystic fibrosis require that patients visit a specialised centre and sit still while electrodes stimulate sweat glands in their skin to provide sweat for the test.
Children have to sit still for 30 minutes while an instrument attached to their skin collects sweat.
By comparison, the wearable sweat sensor stimulates the skin to produce minute amounts of sweat, quickly evaluates the contents and beams the data by way of a cellphone to a server that can analyse the results.
People living in remote villages in developing countries, where conventional testing is unavailable, could also benefit from a portable, self-contained sweat sensor, he said.
The wearable device is robust and can be run with a smartphone, which can send measurements to a cloud and receive a result right back after review at a specialised centre.
Researchers also measured glucose levels in sweat, which correspond to blood glucose levels, making the device potentially useful for monitoring pre-diabetes and diabetes.
Researchers develop flexible wearable device to monitor body signals
However, the technology can also be used to measure other molecular constituents of sweat, such as sodium and potassium ions and lactate.
The platform can be used to measure virtually anything found in sweat.
Sweat is hugely amenable to wearable applications and a rich source of information.
A wearable sweat sensor allows for frequent monitoring to see how patients respond to a treatment or if they are complying with treatment.
Question No: 273
A glacier's risk of thinning can be predicted by analysing its ________.
- Published on 19 Apr 17
- Shape
- Size
- Rate of melting
- None of the above
Answer and Explanation
Answer: A
Explanation
A glacier's risk of thinning can be predicted by analysing its shape.
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin in the US identified glaciers in West Greenland that are most susceptible to thinning in the coming decades by analysing how they are shaped.
The Greenland Ice Sheet is the second-largest ice sheet on Earth and has been losing mass for decades, a trend scientists have linked to a warming climate.
However, the mass change experienced by individual coastal glaciers, which flow out from the ice sheet into the ocean, is highly variable.
This makes predicting the impact on future sea-level rise difficult.
The new study could help predict how much the Greenland Ice Sheet will contribute to future sea-level rise during the next century.
This is a number that currently ranges from inches to feet.
The analysis works by calculating how far inland thinning that starts at the terminus of each glacier is likely to extend.
Glaciers with thinning that reaches far inland are the most susceptible to ice mass loss.
How susceptible a glacier is to thinning depends on its thickness and surface slope, features that are influenced by the landscape under the glacier.
Thinning spreads more easily across thick and flat glaciers and is hindered by thin and steep portions of glaciers, researchers said.
These calculations will help improve estimates on how much Greenland can contribute to future sea- level rise. However, while the method can point out vulnerable areas, it can not predict how much mass loss is likely to occur.
Question No: 274
Which village was adopted by Microsoft to be developed as India's first digital village?
- Harisal
- Melghat
- Dhule
- Bid
Answer and Explanation
Answer: A
Explanation
Harisal village was adopted by Microsoft to be developed as India’s first ideal digital village.
Underpinned by public health initiatives of the state government, the village is now in the reckoning for the Prime Minister’s Award for excellence in Public Administration.
It may provide a replicable public-service delivery model for the whole state.
Two key initiatives began for the first ideal digital village turning the wheel,
Creating an approach of just increasing access to fair-price shops was not going to solve the problem.
In villages like Harisal, this never helped curb malnutrition.
Second, the government sought a comprehensive view of the population in the region to find a solution to the seemingly endemic health problem.
Villages like Harisal score significantly low in all the Human Development Index parameters, such as education, employment, and income levels.
The government’s next big initiative was, therefore, built around the granularity of data.
Both have benefited Harisal
Harisal: Know More
Taluka Name : Dharni
District : Amravati
State: Maharashtra
Region: Vidarbha
Division: Amravati
Language: English and Hindi, Marathi,
Elevation / Altitude: 304 meters. Above Seal level
Assembly constituency: Melghat assembly constituency
Assembly MLA: Bhilawekar Prabhdas Babulal(2017)
Lok Sabha constituency: Amravati parliamentary constituency
Parliament MP: Adsul Anandrao Vithoba(2017)
Question No: 275
Scientists have used which laser based techniques to undo tissue damage after a heart attack?
- Laparoscopy
- Laser based 3-D bioprinting techniques
- Laser based 2-D bioprinting techniques
- None of the above
Answer and Explanation
Answer: B
Explanation
The discovery is a major step forward in treating patients with tissue damage after a heart attack.
During a heart attack, a person loses blood flow to the heart muscle and that causes cells to die.
Our bodies can not replace those heart muscle cells so the body forms scar tissue in that area of the heart, which puts the person at risk for compromised heart function and future heart failure.
Researchers used laser-based 3D-bioprinting techniques to incorporate stem cells derived from adult human heart cells on a matrix that began to grow and beat synchronously in a dish in the lab.
When the cell patch was placed on a mouse following a simulated heart attack, the researchers saw significant increase in functional capacity after just four weeks.
Since the patch was made from cells and structural proteins native to the heart, it became part of the heart and absorbed into the body, requiring no further surgeries.
The research is different from previous ones as the patch is modelled after a digital, three- dimensional scan of the structural proteins of native heart tissue.
The digital model is made into a physical structure by 3D printing with proteins native to the heart and further integrating cardiac cell types derived from stem cells.
Only with 3D printing of this type can researchers achieve one micron resolution needed to mimic structures of native heart tissue.