The Life Technology™ News Blog: 06/20/19

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Research team supersizes 'quantum squeezing' to measure ultrasmall motion

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have harnessed the phenomenon of "quantum squeezing" to amplify and measure trillionths-of-a-meter motions of a lone trapped magnesium ion (electrically charged atom).

* This article was originally published here

Restrictive approach to blood cell transfusions safe for heart surgery patients

In a recent clinical trial of higher risk patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery, a restrictive approach to blood cell transfusions resulted in fewer transfusions without putting patients at increased risk of acute kidney injury. The findings appear in an upcoming issue of JASN.

* 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

Multi-mobile (M2) computing system makes Android, iOS apps sharable on multiple devices

Computer scientists at Columbia Engineering have developed a new computing system that enables current, unmodified mobile apps to combine and share multiple devices, including cameras, displays, speakers, microphones, sensors, and GPS, across multiple smartphones and tablets. Called M2, the new system operates across heterogeneous systems, including Android and iOS, combining the functionality of multiple mobile systems into a more powerful one that gives users a seamless experience across the various systems.

* This article was originally published here

Psoriasis patients turn to alternative medicine when traditional treatments fail

Patients with psoriasis frequently use complementary or alternative therapies to treat their symptoms, according to survey results published by dermatologists from the George Washington University (GW) in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

* This article was originally published here

Timed release of turmeric stops cancer cell growth

A Washington State University research team has developed a drug delivery system using curcumin, the main ingredient in the spice turmeric, that successfully inhibits bone cancer cells while promoting growth of healthy bone cells.

* This article was originally published here

Skinflow: A soft robotic skin based on liquid transmission

Researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory and the University of Bristol have recently developed a new soft robotic skin-like sensor that is based on fluidic transmission. This sensor, presented at the second IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), could have interesting applications in a variety of fields, ranging from robotics to virtual reality (VR).

* This article was originally published here

Heat kills invasive jumping worm cocoons, could help limit spread

New research out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum shows that temperatures of about 100 degrees Fahrenheit kill the cocoons of invasive jumping worms.

* 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

Electron-behaving nanoparticles rock current understanding of matter

It's not an electron. But it sure does act like one.

* This article was originally published here

The safer way to ease post-surgical pain

(HealthDay)—For people recovering from surgery or dealing with a painful injury, an expert suggests that there are a number of safer alternatives for managing pain than using potentially addictive opioids.

* This article was originally published here

The health benefits of sleeping on your side

(HealthDay)—You know how important getting enough restorative sleep is for facing each new day refreshed and ready to take on the world. Now research suggests that your sleep position may have an impact on brain health, too.

* This article was originally published here

Electron-behaving nanoparticles rock current understanding of matter

It's not an electron. But it sure does act like one.

* This article was originally published here

Vanilla makes milk beverages seem sweeter

Adding vanilla to sweetened milk makes consumers think the beverage is sweeter, allowing the amount of added sugar to be reduced, according to Penn State researchers, who will use the concept to develop a reduced-sugar chocolate milk for the National School Lunch Program.

* This article was originally published here

Spintronic memory cells for neural networks

In recent years, researchers have proposed a wide variety of hardware implementations for feed-forward artificial neural networks. These implementations include three key components: a dot-product engine that can compute convolution and fully-connected layer operations, memory elements to store intermediate inter and intra-layer results, and other components that can compute non-linear activation functions.

* This article was originally published here

Ethics of AI: how should we treat rational, sentient robots – if they existed?

Imagine a world where humans co-existed with beings who, like us, had minds, thoughts, feelings, self-conscious awareness and the capacity to perform purposeful actions—but, unlike us, these beings had artificial mechanical bodies that could be switched on and off.

* This article was originally published here

Spintronic memory cells for neural networks

Using game theory to model poisoning attack scenarios

Poisoning attacks are among the greatest security threats for machine learning (ML) models. In this type of attack, an adversary tries to control a fraction of the data used to train neural networks and injects malicious data points to hinder a model's performance.

* This article was originally published here

Algorithm quickly finds hidden objects in dense point clouds

A new MIT-developed technique enables robots to quickly identify objects hidden in a three-dimensional cloud of data, reminiscent of how some people can make sense of a densely patterned "Magic Eye" image if they observe it in just the right way.

* This article was originally published here