What is Malware and spyware ?

Malware is a malicious unwanted software often take control of users' computers for black-market exploitation. 

Malware infected computers are called "zombie computers" and can be used for many malicious purposes like sending email spam, hosting offensive material and for conducting denial of service attacks.

A Malware can be a computer virus or trojan horse or spyware or adware or any other type of malicious programme. A Malware can be used to gain personal information or sensitive government data. The rise of the broadband internet led to the proliferation of profit oriented malwares.

Spyware is a type of malware which monitors user's web browsing data. Then the spyware displays advertisements based on the browsing data and fetch advertisement income to the spyware creators.

Indian Space Vision 2025

Indian Space Vision 2025

• Satellite based communication and navigation systems for rural connectivity, security needs and mobile services.
• Enhanced imaging capability for natural resource management, weather and climate change studies.
• Space science missions for better understanding of solar system and universe.
• Planetary exploration.
• Development of Heavy lift launcher.
• Reusable Launch Vehicles - Technology demonstrator missions leading to Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO).
• Human Space Flight

The Viruses

• The viruses are non-cellular organisms that are characterised by having an inert crystalline structure outside the living cell. 
• Once they infect a cell they take over the machinery of the host cell to replicate themselves, killing the host. 
• Viruses could be crystallised and crystals consist largely of proteins. They are inert outside their specific host cell. 
• Viruses are obligate parasites.In addition to proteins viruses also contain genetic material, that could be either RNA or DNA. 
• No virus contains both RNA and DNA. 
• A virus is a nucleoprotein and the genetic material is infectious. 
• In general, viruses that infect plants have single stranded RNA and viruses that infect animals have either single or double stranded RNA or double stranded DNA. 
• Bacterial viruses or bacteriophages (viruses that infect the bacteria) are usually double stranded DNA viruses. 
• The protein coat called capsid made of small subunits called capsomeres, protects the nucleic acid. These capsomeres are arranged in helical or polyhedral geometric forms. 
• Viruses cause diseases like mumps, small pox, herpes and influenza. AIDS in humans is also caused by a virus. 
• In plants, the symptoms can be mosaic formation, leaf rolling and curling, yellowing and vein clearing, dwarfing and stunted growth.

The fungi and Lichens

The fungi constitute a unique kingdom of heterotrophic organisms. They show a great diversity in morphology and habitat. Fungi are cosmopolitan and occur in air, water, soil and on animals and plants. They prefer to grow in warm and humid places. Food is kept in the refrigerators to prevent food from going bad due to bacterial or fungal infections.

• The bread develops a mould or orange rots because of fungi. 
• The common mushroom and toadstools are also fungi. 
• White spots seen on mustard leaves are due to a parasitic fungus. 
• Some unicellular fungi, e.g., yeast are used to make bread and beer. 
• Other fungi cause diseases in plants and animals; wheat rust-causing Puccinia is an important example. 
• Some are the source of antibiotics, e.g., Penicillium. 
• Most fungi are heterotrophic and absorb soluble organic matter from dead substrates and hence are called saprophytes. 
• Those that depend on living plants and animals are called parasites. 
• They can also live as symbionts – in association with algae as lichens and with roots of higher plants as mycorrhiza. 
• Reproduction in fungi can take place by vegetative means – fragmentation, fission and budding.
• With the exception of yeasts which are unicellular, fungi are filamentous. Their bodies consist of long, slender thread-like structures. 

Lichens: Lichens are symbiotic associations i.e. mutually useful associations, between algae and fungi. The algal component is known as phycobiont and fungal component as mycobiont, which are autotrophic and heterotrophic, respectively. Algae prepare food for fungi and fungi provide shelter and absorb mineral nutrients and water for its partner. So close is their association that if one saw a lichen in nature one would never imagine that they had two different organisms within them. Lichens are very good pollution indicators – they do not grow in polluted areas.

Impacts of Climate Change on Indian Agriculture

Indian agriculture, with two-third rainfed area remains vulnerable to various vagaries of monsoon, besides facing occurrence of drought and flood in many parts of the country. Natural calamities such as drought and flood occur frequently in many parts of the country. Climate change will aggravate these risks and may considerably affect food security through direct and indirect effects on crops, soils, livestock, fisheries, and pests. Building climate resilience, therefore, is critical. Potential adaptation strategies to deal with the adverse impacts of climate change are  

• developing cultivars tolerant to heat, moisture, and salinity stresses; 
•  modifying crop management practices; 
•  improving water management;  
• adopting new farm practices such as resource-conserving technologies;  
• crop diversification; 
• improving pest management; 
• making available timely weather-based advisories; 
• crop insurance; and 
• harnessing the indigenous technical knowledge of farmers.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has initiated a scheme on National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture with an outlay of Rs 350 crore for 2010-12. This initiative has been planned as a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional effort covering crops, livestock, and fisheries and focusing mainly on adaptation and mitigation of climate change in agriculture. It also has a component for demonstration of climate-coping technologies on farmers’ fields in 100 most vulnerable districts. State-of-the-art infrastructure is being set up at key research institutes to undertake frontier research on climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Source: Economic Survey

Colour Blindness, Myopia, Hyperopia, Astigmatism, Presbyopia

Colour Blindness: Men are almost 20 times more likely to suffer from colour blindness than women. That makes about 8% of the male population and 0.5% of the female population. This is largely because women will only be affected if both parents have the defective gene.

Myopia: "nearsightedness" , "shortsightedness" is a condition of the eye where the light that comes in does not directly focus on the retina but in front of it. This causes the image that one sees when looking at a distant object to be out of focus but in focus when looking at a close object. The corrective lenses have a negative optical power (i.e. are concave). Myopia is partly hereditary.

Hyperopia: also known as farsightedness, longsightedness, orhypermetropia, is a defect of vision caused by an imperfection in the eye (often when the eyeball is too short or the lens cannot become round enough), causing difficulty focusing on near objects.
Hyperopia is often confused with presbyopia, another condition that frequently causes blurry near vision. Presbyopes who report good far vision typically experience blurry near vision because of a reduced accommodative amplitude brought about by natural aging changes with the crystalline lens.


Astigmatism: is an optical defect in which vision is blurred due to the inability of the optics of the eye to focus a point object into a sharp focused image on the retina. This may be due to an irregular or toric curvature of the cornea or lens.
The astigmatic optics of the human eye can often be corrected by spectacles, hard contact lenses or contact lenses that have a compensating optic, cylindrical lens (i.e. a lens that has different radii of curvature in different planes), or refractive surgery.

Presbyopia: is a condition where the eye exhibits a progressively diminished ability to focus on near objects with age. Presbyopia’s exact mechanisms are not known with certainty

Electromagnetic spectrum

The electromagnetic radiation is broadly classified into the following classes:

(based on decreasing wavelength and increasing frequency)

1. Gamma radiation
2. X-ray radiation
3. Ultraviolet radiation
4. Visible radiation
5. Infrared radiation
6. Microwave radiation
7. Radio waves

Podcast

Podcast consists of digital media such as audio and video, which can be downloaded using RSS feed readers. Podcasts are generally listened on portable media players such as ipods and mp3 players.

The Hindu news paper is providing its opinions and editorials as podcasts in three Indian Languages: Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. They can be downloaded as mp3s from the following link.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article2692465.ece

Quick Response Code (QR Code) and its uses

QR code is two-dimensional code first designed for the use in automotive industry. Invented by the Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process.

QR codes store more data than conventional bar code. QR codes can store URIs, geo codes of the locations, text, numbers, sms etc. They are readily readable by many modern camera phones.

QR codes are increasingly used in marketing campaigns, product information in e-commerce websites, Contact information, sign boards in historical places etc.

DTH vs Analog Cable TV Technology

Direct To Home (DTH) service is a comparatively new technology, DTH technology covers entire country and provides large number of digital TV channels as compared to the analog cable TV. DTH operators provide individual dish antennas for every home, which means there will be no intermediaries. The DTH technology uses Ku Band to transmit and receive signal. Some DTH operators also allow geographical mobility.

DTH services are also available in HD(High definition) with DVR (Digital Video Recording).

DTH being a digital system offers good picture quality, provides value added services, and also FM radio channels.

The Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act Bill seeks to digitise the cable sector in the country by December 31, 2014. It aims for complete digitisation of analog cable TV in the four metropolitan cities by March 31, 2012. The digitisation provides high quality viewing and also higher number of TV channels.

IUCN Red List and Categories

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data List. It is founded in 1963. The general sub classification term "threatened" consists of three categories: Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable.

As per the latest (2011) quantitative evaluation done by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) there are 57 critically endangered species of animals in India.


Categories :

All the species are classified into nine groups. The classification is based on criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation.

1. Extinct (EX) - No individuals remaining.
2. Extinct in the Wild (EW) - Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range.
3. Critically Endangered (CR) - Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
4. Endangered (EN) - High risk of extinction in the wild.
5. Vulnerable (VU) - High risk of endangerment in the wild.
6. Near Threatened (NT) - Likely to become endangered in the near future.
7. Least Concern (LC) - Lowest risk. Does not qualify for a more at risk category. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.
8. Data Deficient (DD) - Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction.
9. Not Evaluated (NE) - Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria.

DPT vaccine

DPT is a combination vaccine against three infectious diseases in humans: diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus. It is given in five doses between 2 months and 15 years.

Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis are caused by bacteria. Diphtheria and pertussis can spread from person to person. Tetanus enters the body through cuts and wounds.

YETI, 2011

YETI is a conference for students and researchers working in the discipline of ecology in India. It is organized entirely by student volunteers. YETI 2011 was held at Guwahati from December 13 – 15, 2011.

YETI - Young Ecologists Talk and Interact.

Stages of Indian Nuclear Power Programme

Stages of Indian Nuclear Power Programme:

Stage-I : envisages, construction of Natural Uranium, Heavy Water Moderated and Cooled Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs). Spent fuel from these reactors is reprocessed to obtain Plutonium.

Stage-II : envisages, construction of Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs) fuelled by Plutonium produced in stage-I. These reactors would also breed U-233 from Thorium.


Stage-III : would comprise power reactors using U-233 / Thorium as fuel.

3V Avatar

• 3V Avatar is a bio-absorbable drug eluting stent which becomes part of patient’s body in just 18 months. 
• A drug eluting stent slowly releases a drug to block cell proliferation and prevents fibrosis that could otherwise block the stented artery. 
• A stent is a tube placed in the coronary arteries that supply the heart, to keep the arteries open in the treatment of coronary heart diseases.

Transparent, Opaque and Translucent objects

If we cannot see through an object at all, it is an opaque object. 
If we are able to see clearly through an object, it is allowing light to pass through it and is transparent. 
If we can see through an object, but not very clearly. It is a translucent object.

Some diseases or disorders caused by deficiency of vitamins and minerals

Vitamin/Mineral	Deficiency disease/disorder	Symptoms
Vitamin A	Loss of vision	Poor vision, loss of vision in darkness (night), sometimes complete loss of vision
Vitamin B1	Beriberi	Weak muscle and very little energy to wok
Vitamin C	Scurvy	Bleeding gums, Wounds take long time to heal
Vitamin D	Rickets	Bones become soft and bent
Calcium	Bone and tooth decay	Weak bones, tooth decay
Iodine	Goiter	Glands in the neck appear swollen, mental disability in children
Iron	Anaemia	Weakness

Terminator Technology

The phrase terminator technology has been coined by the Rural Advancement Foundation Institute (RAFI). It is a Canadian NGO. The terminator technology is basically a biotechnological technique which creates sterile seeds by programming a plant's DNA to kill it's own embryo.

The technique alters four genes in the seeds of plants in such a manner that the second generation seeds (seeds generated from plants which themselves have been raised from genetically altered seeds) become incapable of germination. Technically called as control of Plant gene expression, a patent has been obtained jointly by the Delta Pine Land Company and US Department of Agriculture.

The technique is still in the experimental stage and is being experimented on cotton and tobacco.

Hib vaccine to be introduced in India

Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine is a vaccine used for curing disease caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b bacteria. It is a pentavalent (five-in-one) vaccine. It will be introduces in 2012 and will replace the DPT and Hepatitis ‘B’ vaccines. The vaccine will be given at the sixth, 10th and 14th weeks.

It will be introduced in India to prevent pneumonia among children,and is an essential component of a strategy to cut child mortality, and immunisation against Hib, measles and whooping cough is the most effective way.

Vaccinations against Haemophilus influenzae (Hib) have decreased early childhood meningitis significantly in developed countries and recently in other developing countries.

Gene Therapy

Gene Therapy is a technique for repairing defective genes which cause a particular disease by using insertion, alteration, or removal of genes. The technology is still in its infancy.