Thursday 20 June 2019

Automated cryptocode generator is helping secure the web

Nearly every time you open up a secure Google Chrome browser, a new MIT-developed cryptographic system is helping better protect your data.

* This article was originally published here

Global treaty is leaving some countries vulnerable to increase in tobacco consumption

There is no statistical evidence that global cigarette consumption has fallen as a result of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and in low- and middle-income countries it has actually increased, according to two studies led by global health researchers at York University.

* This article was originally published here

Sugars that coat proteins are a possible drug target for pancreatitis

Pancreatitis is an inflammation of the pancreas that accounts for 275,000 hospitalizations in the United States annually. Patients who suffer from hereditary pancreatitis have a 40 to 50 percent lifetime risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

* This article was originally published here

SPFCNN-Miner: A new classifier to tackle class-unbalanced data

Researchers at Chongqing University in China have recently developed a cost-sensitive meta-learning classifier that can be used when the training data available is high-dimensional or limited. Their classifier, called SPFCNN-Miner, was presented in a paper published in Elsevier's Future Generation Computer Systems.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers use facial quirks to unmask 'deepfakes'

After watching hours of video footage of former President Barack Obama delivering his weekly address, Shruti Agarwal began to notice a few quirks about the way Obama speaks.

* This article was originally published here

PizzaGAN gets the picture on how to make a pizza

Is nothing sacred? Who would dare to even attempt to talk about a machine-learning experiment that results in the perfect (gasp) pizza? It is difficult to contemplate, but a research quintet did not shy away from trying, and they worked to teach a machine how to make a great pie.

* This article was originally published here

Russia to release 100 illegally captured whales

Russian officials have launched an operation to release nearly 100 illegally captured whales whose confinement in Russia's far east has become a rallying cry for environmentalists.

* This article was originally published here

New e-tattoo enables accurate, uninterrupted heart monitoring for days

The leading cause of death in Texas is heart disease, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, accounting for more than 45,000 deaths statewide in 2017. A new wearable technology made from stretchy, lightweight material could make heart health monitoring easier and more accurate than existing electrocardiograph machines—a technology that has changed little in almost a century.

* This article was originally published here

Squeezing of blood vessels may contribute to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's

Reduced blood flow to the brain associated with early Alzheimer's may be caused by the contraction of cells wrapped around blood vessels, according to a UCL-led study that opens up a new way to potentially treat the disease.

* This article was originally published here

Merkel boosts EU push for 2050 net zero emissions target

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday endorsed for the first time a European Union target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, putting pressure on reluctant coal-dependent eastern European countries.

* This article was originally published here

Perovskite solar cells tested for real-world performance—in the lab

It was only ten years ago that metal-halide perovskites were discovered to be photovoltaic materials. Today, perovskite solar cells are almost as efficient as the best conventional silicon ones, and there is much hope that they will become a highly efficient and low-cost alternative, as they can be manufactured by rather simple and fast methods like printing.

* This article was originally published here

Dynamic collaboration behind new research into best way of using biologging tags

Methods used to design F1 cars and spacecraft have played a crucial role in new research into the tags used to track animal movements.

* This article was originally published here

Connecting the dots: nitrogen dioxide over Siberian pipelines

New maps that use information from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite reveal emissions of nitrogen dioxide along a Siberian natural gas pipeline that connects the Urengoy gas field—the second-largest gas field in the world—with Europe.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers see around corners to detect object shapes

Computer vision researchers have demonstrated they can use special light sources and sensors to see around corners or through gauzy filters, enabling them to reconstruct the shapes of unseen objects.

* This article was originally published here

Imaging results, health data combine in AI model to predict breast cancer

Women know the drill: Breast cancer is too commonly a cancer diagnosis to be ignored, as early detection could make a difference. While false positives may cause an enormous amount of undue stress, false negatives have an impact on how early a cancer is detected and subsequently treated.

* This article was originally published here

Abundance of gases in Enceladus's ocean are a potential fuel—if life is there to consume it

The subsurface ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus probably has higher than previously known concentrations of carbon dioxide and hydrogen and a more Earthlike pH level, possibly providing conditions favorable to life, according to new research from planetary scientists at the University of Washington.

* This article was originally published here

New platform flips traditional on-demand supply chain approach on its head

Imagine you are heading to the grocery store and receive a phone alert asking if you'd also be willing to bring your neighbor's groceries home. Or you are on your way to a concert and see you could fill the seats of your car—and your wallet—if you picked up a few other music fans along the way. As the supplier in these scenarios, you have the choice of which services you provide and when. This may very well be the way commerce is headed.

* This article was originally published here

Frog protein may mitigate dangers posed by toxic marine microbes

A new study from UC San Francisco suggests that a protein found in the common bullfrog may one day be used to detect and neutralize a poisonous compound produced by red tides and other harmful algal blooms. The discovery comes as these waterborne toxic events are becoming increasingly common, a consequence of climate change making the world's oceans more hospitable to the microbes responsible for these formerly infrequent flare-ups.

* This article was originally published here

From one brain scan, more information for medical artificial intelligence

MIT researchers have devised a novel method to glean more information from images used to train machine-learning models, including those that can analyze medical scans to help diagnose and treat brain conditions.

* This article was originally published here

Inflammatory mechanisms may underlie increased risk of prostate cancer among WTC responders

Inflammatory and immune-regulatory mechanisms were found to be altered in animal models and in archived prostate cancer tumor samples of responders exposed to dust from the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

* This article was originally published here