QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 15 May 2020

Solution: d)

A report compiled by Niti Aayog has questioned the methodology adopted by an Australian based institute to rank India as the seventh worst terrorism affected country ahead of conflict-ridden countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Palestine and Lebanon.

The report also questions the opaque funding of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

India has moved to the seventh position from the previous year’s eighth in the annual Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2019.

The GTI report issued by the IEP is based primarily on the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland, besides other sources.

Source

Solution: c)

The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) is a 1951 multilateral treaty deposited with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) that aims to secure coordinated, effective action to prevent and to control the introduction and spread of pests of plants and plant products. The Convention extends beyond the protection of cultivated plants to the protection of natural flora and plant products. It also takes into consideration both direct and indirect damage by pests, so it includes weeds.

The Convention created a governing body consisting of each party, known as the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM), which oversees the implementation of the Convention. As of March 2017, the Convention has 183 parties, which includes 180 United Nations member states, the Cook Islands, Niue, and the European Union. The Convention is recognized by the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement) as the only international standard setting body for plant health. 

While the IPPC’s primary focus is on plants and plant products moving in international trade, the Convention also covers research materials, biological control organisms, germplasm banks, containment facilities, food aid, emergency aid and anything else that can act as a vector for the spread of plant pests – for example, containers, packaging materials, soil, vehicles, vessels and machinery.

Source

Solution: b)
Scientists are exploring the use of nanobots for a number of healthcare uses, not only for fighting cancer, but also to unblock blood vessels in hard to reach areas, taking biopsies or measuring the level of certain chemicals in otherwise inaccessible areas of the body. A nanobot is a device typically ranging from 0.1-10 micrometres (a micrometre is one millionth of a metre), roughly the size of a red blood cell or smaller. This is too small to add a traditional robotic element like a motor, computer chip or camera.

Source

Solution: c)

Samudrayaan:

It is a pilot project of the Ministry of Earth Sciences for deep ocean mining for rare minerals.

It proposes to send men into the deep sea in a submersible vehicle for ocean studies.

The project is expected to become a reality by 2021-22.

The project has been undertaken by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).

Source

Solution: d)

How are zoonotic diseases transmitted? 

Direct contact with animals is the easiest way for diseases to spread from animals to humans, such as through petting, handling or getting bitten or scratched by an animal. People who work in the livestock industry or in animal care industries (zoos or aquariums, for instance) are more susceptible to exposure to zoonotic diseases because they’re often in direct contact with animals. Domestic pets can also be a direct source of exposure, as can wild animals that come in contact with hunters.

Spending time in areas where animals live can lead to indirect exposure to zoonotic disease agents through contact with water or surfaces that infected animals have also come in contact with. Some zoonotic germs can even contaminate the air we breathe. Hantaviruses, for instance, are a family of viruses spread by rodents, but rarely through direct contact. Instead, the viruses are more often spread in aerosolized bits of the rodent’s infected fecal matter. For example, people sweeping out their sheds after a long period of time may inhale dust contaminated with infected fecal particles from mice.

Zoonotic diseases can also be transferred from animals to humans through insects that act as a “middle-man,” or vectors for the disease-causing agent. Ticks, for example, transfer bloodborne pathogens, such as the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, from an infected animal to other animals and humans. Mosquitoes and fleas are also common vectors for zoonotic diseases, such as the Zika virus (transmitted by mosquitoes) and the bacterium that causes plague (transmitted by fleas).

People can also catch zoonotic diseases through consuming contaminated food. Eating undercooked meat or eggs, or eating unwashed produce that’s contaminated with animal feces can lead to illness from germs carried by an animal. Drinking raw, unpasteurized milk or contaminated water can also cause zoonotic diseases to spread to humans.