This feature is available on Android devices only for now.

The company introduced this feature to the “Local Guides” about two weeks ago.

Google is now notifying users about it via email and will likely release it for public in the near future,

Previously, users could attach only photographs to locations on Google Maps and there was no option to add videos.

IANS

Picture courtesy: Alamy

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“Our vision is to develop a device that someone with asthma or another respiratory disease can wear around their neck or on their wrist and blow into it periodically to predict the onset of an asthma attack or other problems,” said Mehdi Javanmard, Assistant Professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Jersey, US.

“It advances the field of personalised and precision medicine,” Javanmard said.

Asthma, which causes inflammation of the airway and obstructs air flow, affects about 300 million people worldwide. The symptoms include coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness.

Today’s non-invasive methods for diagnosing and monitoring asthma are limited in characterising the nature and degree of airway inflammation, and require costly, bulky equipment that patients cannot easily keep with them.

There is an urgent need for improved, minimally invasive methods for the molecular diagnosis and monitoring of asthma, the study published online in the journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering said.

Measuring biomarkers in exhaled breath condensate—tiny liquid droplets discharged during breathing—can contribute to understanding asthma at the molecular level and lead to targeted treatment and better disease management.

The researchers’ miniaturised electrochemical sensor accurately measures nitrite in exhaled breath condensate using reduced graphene oxide.

Reduced graphene oxide resists corrosion, has superior electrical properties and is very accurate in detecting biomarkers.

“Nitrite level in breath condensate is a promising biomarker for inflammation in the respiratory tract. Having a rapid, easy method to measure it can help an asthmatic determine if air pollutants are affecting them so they can better manage use of medication and physical activity,” said Clifford Weisel, study co-author and Professor at Rutgers University.

“Just looking at coughing, wheezing and other outward symptoms, diagnosis accuracy is often poor, so that’s why this idea of monitoring biomarkers continuously can result in a paradigm shift,” Javanmard said.

The next step is to develop a portable, wearable system, which could be commercially available within five years, he added.

The researchers said they also envision expanding the number of inflammation biomarkers a device could detect and measure.

IANS

Picture source: Alamy

Picture used for illustrative purposes alone

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The world body hopes to help change that by convening its first-ever conference on global data starting this weekend in Cape Town, South Africa.

More than 1,000 government statisticians, private-sector data scientists, politicians and others are expected at the U.N. World Data Forum , which aims to spark new ideas about using the world’s ever-expanding stream of digital information. Tech giants including Google, Facebook and Amazon have signed up to send representatives the four-day event that starts Sunday, U.N. organizers said. The companies didn’t immediately respond to inquiries about their plans.

Planned discussions include gleaning information on refugees’ migration from phone records, using data to illustrate people’s concerns, and mapping poverty and measuring crop yields by scouring satellite images.

“Data are not only for policymakers — data are also for citizens, who need to have access to data to understand what is happening in their various communities … and to be able to hold the various layers of government accountable,” Stefan Schweinfest, director of the U.N.’s Statistics Division, said at a news conference Tuesday. “This is something really that we are well placed, at the U.N., to invest in.”

The U.N. already collects and puts out information on subjects ranging from trade to temperatures to how people spend their time.

But data can be patchy. For example, the world body estimates nearly one-fourth of the world’s children under 5 have no record of their births. Without birth certificates, they may not be able to go to school or get health care, among other problems.

The U.N. has flagged the problem for over a decade. A 2002 report by UNICEF, the U.N.’s children’s agency, called for free birth registration and new laws to facilitate registration, among other measures. The U.N. is continuing work with many countries on systems for recording births and vital statistics, Schweinfest said.

The world body also is increasingly looking for ways to measure such issues as security and public safety, particularly as new Secretary-General Antonio Guterres prioritizes efforts to prevent conflicts. That could entail developing ways to pick up early on data that signal a spiral toward trouble.

The U.N. has made strides in boosting nations’ interest in the idea, but acting on it can be a challenge for countries, said Jennifer Ellis, who works on public health issues at Bloomberg Philanthropies, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s foundation. It’s putting $100 million into improving health data in poor and middle-income countries and is sending a technical expert to be on a panel at the U.N. forum.

“Our hope would be that this meeting makes some of that interest more concrete and informs action,” Ellis said.—AP

Image: undataforum.org/

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