Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Sea otters have low genetic diversity like other threatened species, biologists report

Sea otters have low genetic diversity, which could endanger their health as a species, a UCLA-led team of life scientists has discovered. The findings have implications for the conservation of rare and endangered species, in which low genetic diversity could increase the odds of extinction.

* This article was originally published here

Connecting the dots between voice and a human face

Once again, artificial intelligence teams tease the realm of the impossible and deliver surprising results. This team in the news figured out what a person's face may look like just based on voice. Welcome to Speech2Face. The research team found a way to reconstruct some people's very rough likeness based on short audio clips.

* This article was originally published here

Study reveals key locations for declining songbird

Many of North America's migratory songbirds, which undertake awe-inspiring journeys twice a year, are declining at alarming rates. For conservation efforts to succeed, wildlife managers need to know where they go and what challenges they face during their annual migration to Latin America and back. For a new study published by The Condor: Ornithological Applications, researchers in six states assembled an unprecedented effort to track where Prothonotary Warblers that breed across the eastern U.S. go in winter—their "migratory connectivity"—and found that nearly the entire species depends on a relatively small area in Colombia threatened by deforestation and sociopolitical changes.

* This article was originally published here

A new manufacturing process for aluminum alloys

An advanced manufacturing process to produce nano structured rods and tubes directly from high-performance aluminum alloy powder—in a single step—was recently demonstrated by researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

* This article was originally published here

Europe wary as Facebook takes up cryptocurrency challenge

European financial leaders on Tuesday vowed vigilance after Facebook announced it was diving into the cryptocurrency market, as analysts warned the social media giant could face major regulatory questions.

* This article was originally published here

Collegiate affirmative action bans tied to rise in smoking among minority high schoolers

College affirmative action bans may adversely affect the health of underrepresented minority high school students, according to the results of a new study from researchers at Penn Medicine. Between 1996 and 2013, nine U.S. states banned consideration of race and ethnicity in college admissions. A new study in PLOS Medicine shows that the action bans had unanticipated effects, specifically resulting in increased rates of smoking among minority high school students. The researchers also found evidence to suggest these effects could persist, as these students were also more likely to smoke into young adulthood compared to those who lived in states where an affirmative action ban was not enacted.

* This article was originally published here

New evidence supports the presence of microbes in the placenta

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine previously found evidence that the placenta harbors a sparse but still present community of microorganisms, which they and other researchers speculate may contribute to key functions in pregnancy, including immunity.

* This article was originally published here

Foreign investment limits cost Canadian economy almost $10 billion a year says new study

Canada is stunting its own economy and blocking businesses from reaping the benefits of innovation by clinging to protectionist policies that curb foreign investment, a new study from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management says.

* This article was originally published here

Atrial fibrillation linked to increased risk of dementia, even in stroke-free patients

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is linked to an increased risk of dementia, even in people who have not suffered a stroke, according to the largest study to investigate the association in an elderly population.

* This article was originally published here

NVIDIA going full stack for ARM boosts supercomputing presence

NVIDIA and ARM make one power couple for supercomputing. NVIDIA has announced its chips will work with ARM processors. Outside observers got busy earlier this week assessing why this was a big deal to empower both companies and the effort to explain was not at all difficult.

* This article was originally published here

Behind the magic: Making moving photos a reality

People moving in and out of photographs used to be reserved for the world of Harry Potter. But now computer scientists at the University of Washington have brought that magic to real life.

* This article was originally published here

U.S. youth suicide rate reaches 20-year high

(HealthDay)—Suicide rates among teens and young adults have reached their highest point in nearly two decades, a new study reports.

* This article was originally published here

A dietary supplement improves skills of an atypical Rett syndrome patient

A multicentric translational research study carried out by groups of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Sant Joan de Déu Hospital (HSJD) , the University of Barcelona (UB), Hospital Clínic (IDIBAPS), the University of Vic (UVic), Sant Pau i la Santa Creu Hospital (IIB Sant Pau), the Rare Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERER) and the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA, France), has demonstrated the potential of the amino acid L-serine—administered as a dietary supplement—to improve the neuronal function of a patient with a mutation of glutamate receptors associated with atypical Rett syndrome with severe encephalopathy.

* This article was originally published here

Another climate change threat: More 'flesh-eating' bacteria?

(HealthDay)—A flesh-eating bacteria has migrated into the Delaware Bay between Delaware and New Jersey, drawn north by the warmer waters of climate change, doctors say.

* This article was originally published here

Facebook to unveil new cryptocurrency

Facebook is set Tuesday to unveil a bid to bring cryptocurrency payments into the mainstream, reportedly with the endorsement of governments and financial giants.

* This article was originally published here

Facebook research focuses on lifelike environments for AI-powered assistants

Virtual Robots have moved up to an elite platform dedicated to stepping up their game. The platform is dubbed AI Habitat.

* This article was originally published here

Cognitive consequences worse for pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis

(HealthDay)—Patients with pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (POMS) have a more rapid reduction in information-processing efficiency over time in adulthood, and they are more likely to experience cognitive impairment than patients with adult-onset MS (AOMS), according to a study published online June 17 in JAMA Neurology.

* This article was originally published here

'Self-healing' polymer brings perovskite solar tech closer to market

A protective layer of epoxy resin helps prevent the leakage of pollutants from perovskite solar cells (PSCs), according to scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). Adding a "self-healing" polymer to the top of a PSC can radically reduce how much lead it discharges into the environment. This gives a strong boost to prospects for commercializing the technology.

* This article was originally published here

New time-banking system utilizes blockchain tech to measure one's value to society

Citizens from the island of Aneityum in the Republic of Vanuatu are working with faculty from Binghamton University, State University of New York to test their true value as humans.

* This article was originally published here

Quantum music to my ears

It sounds like an old-school vinyl record, but the distinctive crackle in the music streamed into Chris Holloway's laboratory is atomic in origin. The group at the National Institute for Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, spent a long six years finding a way to directly measure electric fields using atoms, so who can blame them for then having a little fun with their new technology?

* This article was originally published here

Scientists identify plant that flowers in Brazilian savanna one day after fire

Plants in the Brazilian savanna, the Cerrado, have evolved to deal with fire. When fire is used intelligently as part of a carefully planned land management method, it is indispensable to the conservation of this superb ecosystem, the world's most biodiverse savanna. Two months suffice for the Cerrado to burst into flower after a fire.

* This article was originally published here

Sea otters have low genetic diversity like other threatened species, biologists report

Sea otters have low genetic diversity, which could endanger their health as a species, a UCLA-led team of life scientists has discovered. The findings have implications for the conservation of rare and endangered species, in which low genetic diversity could increase the odds of extinction.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers explore RAMBleed attack in pilfering data

Do you remember Rowhammer, where an attacker could flip bits in the memory space of other processes?

* This article was originally published here

Comcast remote lets people with physical disabilities control the TV with their eyes

Most TV viewers take for granted the ability to change the channel from their couches with a remote control. That task may be near impossible for viewers with the most severe physical challenges.

* This article was originally published here

The fellowship of the wing: Pigeons flap faster to fly together

New research publishing June 18 in the open-access journal, PLOS Biology, led by Dr. Lucy Taylor from the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology now reveals that homing pigeons fit in one extra wingbeat per second when flying in pairs compared to flying solo.

* This article was originally published here

Food neophobia may increase the risk of lifestyle diseases

Food neophobia, or fear of new foods, may lead to poorer dietary quality, increase the risk factors associated with chronic diseases, and thus increase the risk of developing lifestyle diseases, including cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes.

* This article was originally published here

A new approach for unsupervised paraphrasing without translation

In recent years, researchers have been trying to develop methods for automatic paraphrasing, which essentially entails the automated abstraction of semantic content from text. So far, approaches that rely on machine translation (MT) techniques have proved particularly popular due to the lack of available labeled datasets of paraphrased pairs.

* This article was originally published here

Boeing's troubled 737 MAX gets huge vote of confidence from IAG

US aircraft giant Boeing got a welcome vote of confidence in its beleaguered 737 MAX plane on Tuesday when International Airlines Group, owner of British Airways, said it wanted to buy 200 of the planes.

* This article was originally published here

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

Afraid of food? The answer may be in the basal forebrain

After fasting for 24 hours the typical laboratory mouse spends much time eating. Surprisingly, this is not what Jay M. Patel saw when he was studying basal forebrain circuits in mice.

* This article was originally published here

Reducing brain inflammation could treat tinnitus and other hearing loss-related disorders

Inflammation in a sound-processing region of the brain mediates ringing in the ears in mice that have noise-induced hearing loss, according to a study publishing June 18 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Shaowen Bao of the University of Arizona, and colleagues.

* This article was originally published here

New time-banking system utilizes blockchain tech to measure one's value to society

Citizens from the island of Aneityum in the Republic of Vanuatu are working with faculty from Binghamton University, State University of New York to test their true value as humans.

* This article was originally published here