{"id":14466,"date":"2021-03-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/20-03-2021\/facts-in-news-105\/"},"modified":"2021-03-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T00:00:00","slug":"facts-in-news-105","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/20-03-2021\/facts-in-news-105","title":{"rendered":"Facts in News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Facts In News<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Baikal-GVD<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

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  • Russian scientists have deployed Baikal-GVD<\/strong>, a giant underwater space telescope in Lake Baikal<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  • It will search for neutrinos<\/strong>, which are nearly massless subatomic particles<\/strong> with no electrical charge<\/strong>.\n
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    • Neutrinos are the smallest particles <\/strong>currently known.<\/li>\n
    • Neutrinos are everywhere, but they interact so weakly with the forces around<\/strong> hence, are hard to detect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
    • Clear freshwater<\/strong> and thick<\/strong>, protective ice cover <\/strong>make Lake Baikal an ideal place to search for neutrinos.<\/li>\n
    • Lake Baikal<\/strong>\n
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      • Situated in south-east Siberia<\/strong>, the 3.15-million-ha lake is the oldest <\/strong>(25 million years) and deepest<\/strong> (1,700 m) lake in the world<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
      • It contains 20% of the world’s total unfrozen freshwater reserve<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
      • Known as the ‘Galapagos of Russia<\/strong>‘, its age and isolation have produced one of the world’s richest and most unusual freshwater faunas<\/strong>.\n
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        • It is home to approximately 1,700 to 1,800 endemic plant and animal species<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
        • In 1996<\/strong>, <\/strong>it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          <\/p>\n

          \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0(Image Courtesy: Britannica<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Inflation Targeting<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

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Vaccine Wastage<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

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  • It is an expected component of any large vaccination drive<\/strong>.\n
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    • Vaccines are procured with an estimated wastage, which has to be within recommended limits.<\/li>\n
    • The Prime Minister of India raised concerns on vaccine wastage emerging from the Covid-19 inoculation drive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
    • High vaccine wastage inflates vaccine demand <\/strong>and increases vaccine procurement<\/strong> and supply chain costs<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
    • It is directly linked to vaccine usage<\/strong>, which is the proportion of vaccines administered against vaccines issued to a vaccination site.<\/li>\n
    • Wastage Multiple Factor<\/strong> (WMF) is calculated from the formula \u201cWMF = 100\/(100 \u2013 wastage)\u201d.<\/li>\n
    • Two categories<\/strong>\n
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      • Wastage in Unopened Vials: <\/strong>Occurs if expiry date has been reached; if vaccine is exposed to heat; if vaccine has been frozen; breakage; missing inventory and theft and while discarding unused vials.<\/li>\n
      • Wastage in Opened Vials:<\/strong> Occurs while discarding remaining doses; not being able to draw the number of doses in a vial; submergence of opened vials in water; suspected contamination and poor vaccine administration practices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
      • Wastage occurs at three levels:<\/strong> During transportation, during cold chain point and at a vaccination site, both at service and delivery levels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Diatom Test<\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

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  • Diagnosis <\/strong>of death by drowning <\/strong>is deemed as a difficult task in forensic pathology<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  • A number of tests have been developed to confirm the cause of such deaths with the diatom test emerging<\/strong> as one of the most important tests.<\/li>\n
  • \u00a0The test entails findings if there are diatoms<\/strong> in the body being tested.\n
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    • Diatoms are photosynthesizing algae<\/strong> that are found in almost every aquatic environment<\/strong> including fresh and marine<\/strong> waters, soils, in fact, almost anywhere moist.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      \u00a0<\/p>\n

      Science behind the diatom test<\/strong><\/p>\n

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      • A body recovered<\/strong> from a water body does<\/strong> not necessarily imply<\/strong> that the death was due to drowning<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
      • If the person is alive<\/strong> when he enters <\/strong>the water, the diatoms <\/strong>will enter the lungs<\/strong> when the person inhales water while drowning.<\/li>\n
      • These diatoms then get carried to various parts of the body<\/strong>, including the brain, kidneys, lungs and bone marrow by blood<\/strong> circulation.<\/li>\n
      • If a person is dead when is thrown in the water, then there is no circulation and there is no transport of diatom cells to various organs.<\/strong><\/li>\n
      • Diatom analysis is considered positive only when the number of diatoms recovered<\/strong> from the body is more than a minimal <\/strong>established limit.<\/li>\n
      • Forensic experts also correlate the diatoms extracted from the body and the samples<\/strong> obtained from the water body where the drowning took place to ascertain the place of drowning. \u201c<\/li>\n
      • The result of a diatom test will be different if a person is thrown in the water after he is dead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Reliability <\/strong><\/p>\n

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        • It is reliable unless and until the deceased person<\/strong> has been drinking water from the same source<\/strong> of water before his death<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
        • For example, a person is drinking water from a well, then the diatoms from the well will be found in the body and so if he has drowned in the same well, then the diatom test will not be reliable.<\/strong><\/li>\n
        • Also, the test will be negative if the person died instantly after falling into the water.<\/li>\n
        • The diatom test need not be done if classical signs of drowning \u2014 like froth at mouth and nostrils, cadaveric<\/strong> spasm, presence of water<\/strong> from drowning medium <\/strong>is seen in stomach and oedema of lungs \u2014 are present.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Covovax<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

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  • The Serum Institute of India (SII) hopes to launch Covovax<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  • This is SII\u2019s version of NVX-CoV2373,<\/strong> the protein-based Covid-19 vaccine<\/strong> developed by Novavax, headquartered <\/strong>in the USA.<\/li>\n
  • In August 2020, the two companies announced an agreement under which Novavax had given SII <\/strong>the licence to manufacture and supply the vaccine<\/strong> in low- and middle-income countries<\/strong> as well as India<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  • The agreement is expected to support the supply of a minimum of 1 billion dose<\/strong>s of this vaccine in these regions.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    How does it work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    • Like several other Covid-19 vaccines, Covovax targets the spike protein<\/strong> on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 <\/strong>coronavirus \u2014 the protein that allows the virus to penetrate the human cell<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Efficiency<\/strong><\/p>\n

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      • The vaccine recently showed an efficacy of 96.4%<\/strong> against mild to severe disease caused<\/strong> by the original strain of SARS-CoV-2<\/strong> from ongoing late-stage global trials.<\/strong><\/li>\n
      • Against mutant variants of the virus, it showed the efficacy of around 86.3%<\/strong> (UK variant) and only 55.4%<\/strong> among HIV-negative <\/strong>participants in its trial in South Africa. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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SAAMAR Campaign<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

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  • The Jharkhand government announced the launch of the SAAMAR (Strategic Action for Alleviation of Malnutrition and Anemia Reduction) <\/strong>campaign to tackle malnutrition<\/strong> in the state.<\/li>\n
  • The campaign aims to identify anaemic women and malnourished <\/strong>children and converge various departments <\/strong>to effectively deal with the problem <\/strong>in a state where malnutrition has been a major problem.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • The campaign also tries to target Primarily Vulnerable Tribal Groups.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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    • It has been launched with a 1000 days target<\/strong>, under which annual surveys<\/strong> will be conducted to track the progress<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Facts In News Baikal-GVD Russian scientists have deployed Baikal-GVD, a giant underwater space telescope in Lake Baikal. It will search for neutrinos, which are nearly massless subatomic particles with no electrical charge. Neutrinos are the smallest particles currently known. Neutrinos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[30,26,25,42,29],"class_list":["post-14466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs-2","tag-gs-3","tag-gs1","tag-literature","tag-thehindu"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/1336076268277current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}