October 09 2024 Current Affairs MCQs

Explanation

Option (c) is correct

• The Caspian Sea is bordered by five countries: Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Russia, and Kazakhstan.
• Uzbekistan does not border the Caspian Sea and it is a landlocked country.
• The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world’s largest lake or a full-fledged sea.
• It lies to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the vast steppe of Central Asia.

Answer: (c) Only four | Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Statement 1 is incorrect

• Trachoma is not caused by a viral infection. It is caused by a bacterium, specifically Chlamydia trachomatis.
• Additionally, trachoma is not primarily transmitted through contaminated water. Instead, the bacterium spreads through direct contact with the eye or nasal discharge of an infected person, often via fingers, fomites (contaminated objects), and flies that come into contact with these secretions.
• The misconception that it is waterborne or viral is incorrect, as its transmission is largely due to poor hygiene and crowded living conditions.

Statement 2 is correct

• Trachoma is indeed classified as a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) by WHO.
• NTDs are a diverse group of diseases that disproportionately affect impoverished populations in tropical and subtropical regions.
• WHO recognizes it as an NTD because it has historically received less attention and funding compared to other diseases, despite its significant impact on public health.

Answer: (b) 2 only | Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct

• Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are computational models that are inspired by the way biological neural networks (such as the human brain) function.
• Just as neurons in the brain adjust their connections based on stimuli, ANNs adjust their internal parameters (known as weights) based on the data they process.
• This adjustment allows the ANN to improve its ability to recognize patterns and make decisions over time, a process known as learning.
• ANNs are specifically designed to modify their structure (i.e., their internal connections) in response to input, similar to the biological learning process.

Statememt 2 is incorrect

• One of the key characteristics of Artificial Neural Networks is that they typically require large datasets for effective training.
• This is because neural networks consist of numerous parameters (weights and biases) that need to be adjusted during the learning process.
• The more complex the task (such as image recognition or natural language processing), the larger the dataset that is usually required.

Statement 3 is correct

• ANNs are designed to learn from experience, a process known as incident learning or training. Through repeated exposure to tasks, such as recognizing patterns in data or predicting outcomes, ANNs improve their ability to make predictions.
• This iterative learning process is similar to how humans learn from experience.
• This allows ANNs to detect trends and patterns in the data they process, making them valuable for applications such as fraud detection, stock market predictions, and personalized recommendations.

Answer: (c) 1 and 3 | Difficulty Level: Easy

Explanation

Statement 1 is incorrect

• An experiment found that thermal fogging kills no mosquitoes, while cold fogging kills all.
• Fogging is a vector control method that involves using a fine pesticide spray directed by a blower.

Statement 2 is correct

Answer: (b) 2 only | Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Statements 1, 2 and 4 are correct

• WHO recommends the SAFE strategy to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem.
• The SAFE strategy consists of:
  1. Surgery to treat the blinding stage,
  2. Antibiotics to clear the infection, particularly mass drug administration of the azithromycin
  3. Facial cleanliness and
  4. Environmental improvement.

Statement 3 is incorrect

• Faster recovery from severe diseases is not a component of SAFE Strategy recommended by WHO.

Answer: (c) 1, 2 and 4 only | Difficulty Level: Easy

Explanation

Pair 2 and 3 are incorrectly matched

• Kanha was the first tiger reserve in India to officially introduce a mascot — Bhoorsingh the Barasingha — to present the hard ground swamp deer as the spirit of the reserve and spread awareness to save it from possible extinction.
• Barasingha, or swamp deer, is the state animal of Madhya Pradesh. The Kanha tiger reserve, spread over Mandla and Balaghat districts, is the only place in the world where the species exists.
• Corbett Tiger Reserve is the oldest tiger reserve in India and was originally established as Hailey National Park in 1936. It is located in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand.

Pair 1 is correctly matched

• Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Maharashtra was approved as the country’s first Dark Sky Park.
• A dark-sky preserve is an area, typically surrounding a park or observatory, that limits artificial light pollution. The primary objective of the dark-sky movement is generally to endorse astronomy.
• The Pench Tiger Reserve stands as one of India’s premier tiger reserves and the first to span two states – Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only | Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Option (c) is correct

• It refers to a rapid and severe reduction in the size or volume of a body of water, such as a sea or lake, often due to a combination of natural and human-induced factors.
• Causes of Catastrophic Shrinkage include:
  • Climate Change: Increased temperatures lead to higher evaporation rates.
  • Reduced River Inflow: Major rivers feeding the sea are experiencing decreased flow due to climate change and human activities.
  • Human Activities: Water diversion for agriculture and industrial use further reduces the water levels.

Option (a) is incorrect

• Natural disasters kill an average of 60,000 people each year globally and can cause people to be displaced from their homes, sometimes permanently. But catastrophic shrinkage is not related to this.
• In 2023, 26.4 million people were displaced by disasters, with 77% of those displacements caused by weather-related hazards.

Option (b) is incorrect

• The term “demographic winter” refers to a situation where birth rates fall below the replacement level, resulting in an aging population, a shrinking workforce, and economic challenges.
• By 2022, people aged 65 and older made up about 10% of the global population.

Option (d) is incorrect

• A mass extinction event is when species vanish much faster than they are replaced,
• This event is usually defined as about 75% of the world’s species being lost in a short period of geological time – less than 2.8 million years
• Such an event is identified by a sharp fall in the diversity and abundance of multicellular organisms.

Answer: (c) A rapid and severe reduction in the size or volume of a body of water often due to a combination of natural and human-induced factors | Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Option (b) is correct

• The Marburg virus causes Marburg hemorrhagic fever, a severe and often fatal disease that affects multiple organ systems and is characterized by bleeding (hemorrhage).
• The Marburg virus is genetically related to the Ebola virus, as both belong to the Filoviridae family (filoviruses).
• These viruses share similar disease mechanisms and symptoms, although they are distinct viruses.

All other options are incorrect

• The Marburg virus was discovered in 1967 in Germany, specifically in the city of Marburg, where lab workers handling infected green monkeys (imported from Uganda) became infected.
• While the virus is zoonotic (transmitted from animals to humans), it primarily affects humans and non-human primates, not domestic animals like cows or pets.
• Currently, there is no specific antiviral drug or treatment available for the Marburg virus.
• While it’s true that the virus was first identified in Germany, it originated from infected green monkeys imported from Uganda, not from camels.

Answer: (b) It causes a type of hemorrhagic fever and is genetically related to the Ebola virus | Difficulty Level: Medium