Very often, people fighting obesity hear that they should stop consuming rice and rice products because it promotes weight gain. Look at the people from other South-East Asian countries where rice is more a staple than in India. How many of them are overweight or obese? In fact, new research suggests that a diet based on rice is less likely to make you obese than a diet devoid of it. This is where nutrigenomics (also known as nutritional genomics) comes into play. It gives you a better understanding of your body’s requirement and the food it needs.

What is nutrigenomics and why does it matter?

There is a deep connection between food and genes. The food you eat has an impact on your genes and your genes have a profound impact on your nutritional requirements, metabolism and the ability to lose or gain weight. Every person’s genes respond differently to the nutrients consumed through food or supplements. This knowledge is profound in leading a healthy life. Armed with this information, an individual can make appropriate choices regarding his or her health and is saved from a lot of trial and error. While it sounds all too technical, it’s not anymore – you can get your genes tested to determine your nutrition needs, all without a single prick on your body. Read Complete Article

Researchers have found that a simple blood test can detect breast cancer up to five years before there are any clinical signs of it.

The blood test identifies the body’s immune response to substances produced by tumour cells, according to the research presented at the 2019 NCRI (National Cancer Research Institute) Cancer Conference in Glasgow, UK, on Sunday.

“We need to develop and further validate this test,” said Daniyah Alfattani from University of Nottingham in Britain.

“However, these results are encouraging and indicate that it’s possible to detect a signal for early breast cancer. Once we have improved the accuracy of the test, then it opens the possibility of using a simple blood test to improve early detection of the disease,” she said.

Cancer cells produce proteins called antigens that trigger the body to make antibodies against them – auto-antibodies. Read Complete Article

Apple has released the first developer beta of iOS 13.3 for all compatible iPhones, just a week after the launch of iOS 13.2.

The latest builds can be obtained from the Apple Developer Centre for participants in the Developer Beta programme, as well as via the usual over-the-air update for the devices already used for testing beta software.

The new update introduces Communication Limits for Screen Time, a feature that iPhone maker promised was coming to iOS 13 in a future update, MacRumors reported on Wednesday.

With this new feature, parents can control who their children are able to contact. It applies to the Phone, FaceTime, and Messages apps, along with iCloud contacts.

The beta appears to fix the iOS 13.2 issue that was causing apps to refresh more frequently than normal. Additionally, there’s a new option to prevent Animoji and Memoji stickers from being displayed on the Emoji keyboard.

US-based search engine giant Google has finally released the Android Auto for phone screens, what it promised back in May at I/O 2019.

The app is now live in the Play Store, it is basically the same as the previous app but just adds an icon that is slightly different and it is only compatible with Android 10 on certain devices.

“This app lets you use Android Auto on your phone screen with a phone running Android 10. If you have Android 10 and an Android Auto compatible car, you can project to your car display without downloading this app. Simply plug in your phone to get started,” the company noted recently.

“Android Auto is your smart driving companion that helps you stay focused, connected, and entertained with the Google Assistant. With a simplified interface, large buttons, and powerful voice actions, Android Auto is designed to make it easier to use apps that you love from your phone while you’re on the road,” the company added.

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Chinese electronics manufacturer Huawei received two prestigious awards at the annual TechRadar Mobile Choice Consumer Awards (MCCA) 2019, held at London.

The award ceremony is part of an annual consumer survey, where candidates are selected by TechRadar’s expert panel of judges. Consumers are also invited to vote for the coveted winner of the TechRadar MCCA trophy and elect a winner each for the consumers’ choice award for the best network and device.

The Huawei P30 Pro that comes with a sophisticated rear camera developed by Leica, was elected as the Best Camera Phone and the Huawei P smart 2019 was crowned as the Best Value Phone. While the P30 Pro retails in India at a starting price of Rs 71,990, the Huawei P smart is yet to make it to Indian shores.

“The Huawei P smart 2019 was praised by our judges for its slick design and an impressive amount of storage- all for an incredible price,” said the hosts.

This was quickly followed by the Best Camera Phone category where the Huawei P30 Pro was announced as the winner. Read Complete Article

In a bid to let users connect with news in multiple languages, Google News will now provide access to news articles from multiple languages and countries from around the world, all within one app, the company has announced.

According to the search engine giant, with this update, users will be able to include content in two languages together within the news app and benefit from the headlines and stories in each language to learn more about a culture or to catch up on what’s going on elsewhere.

“Today, over 60 per cent of people around the world speak and consume news across two or more languages. Finding articles in these languages can be challenging, since it requires you to search for topics across various apps and websites,” the company wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. Read Complete Article

Regular exercise may reduce the risk of depression, even in people who are genetically prone to the condition, according to a new study.

“Our findings strongly suggest that, when it comes to depression, genes are not destiny and that being physically active has the potential to neutralize the added risk of future episodes in individuals who are genetically vulnerable,” study lead author Karmel Choi, postdoctoral fellow in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a statement.

The study discovered that certain genes boost risk of depression of a person while increased levels of exercise essentially cancelled out that genetic risk, Live Science reported.

According to the study, for every four hours of exercise per week, participants saw a reduction of 17 per cent in their chances of experiencing bouts of depression over the next two years.

The study was published on Tuesday in the journal Depression and Anxiety. Readmore

Yamaha on Friday launched in India two new soundbars, Yamaha YAS 109 and Yamaha YAS 209, in India that come with built-in Alexa support.

The YAS 109 features built-in subwoofers while the YAS 209 includes a separate wireless subwoofer. Both soundbars come with Wi-Fi connectivity to allow music playback from Spotify Connect, Amazon Music, and Alexa-supported music services, the official release notes.

The new soundbars will be available exclusively at authorised Yamaha AV dealers. The YAS 109 is priced at INR 23,990 while the YAS 209 is priced at INR 35,490.

Even as India’s capital city scrambles to tackle its epic air pollution problems, there seems to be no end to the woes of people residing in Delhi and its adjoining areas. On Monday morning, Delhi air quality was in ‘severe-plus emergency’ category. SAFAR, the government-run monitoring agency, said Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) was 708 at 6:30 am. Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida and Ghaziabad too recorded severe-plus emergency overall air quality.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered good, 51-100 satisfactory, 101-200 moderate, 201-300 poor, 301-400 very poor, and 401-500 severe. Above 500 is severe-plus emergency category.

The AQI of four places in and around Delhi has been provided in the table given below.

Smartphones are running out of differentiators. The current line of premium smartphones is piggybacking on the assumption that their most innovative — and impractical — design language speaks to everyone alike. A metallic chassis sandwiched between glass panels on both sides has become too common to be called innovative. This is why every once in a while, when a phone tries to break this stereotype, it catches my attention. The recently launched gaming phone from Nubia, the Red Magic 3S, has spent more than a few days in my hands as an entertainment device, also fiddling with coins and keys in my pocket and capturing the sun and the seas in a new country. Here’s what it can do.

Design 4.5/5

The Red Magic 3S is a performance upgrade of its predecessor. So it gets the same 6.65-inch HDR AMOLED display with a tall 19:5:9 aspect ratio in a similar design. The phone is almost as long as my face so I find my eyes running up and down on the screen far too often, unless I hold it at a distance. But turn it horizontally and the ultra-wide screen is near-perfect for gaming and streaming videos. The phone weighs about 215 gm, making it heavier than the iPhone 11 (194 gm), the OnePlus 7T (206 gm) but lighter than its gaming rival ASUS ROG Phone II (240 gm). It’s an important consideration if you spend many hours in bed holding the phone above your face. The phone gets an even top and bottom notch (border), which does not interfere with full-screen videos and gaming. Readmore