Friday 17 May 2019

New laws of robotics needed to tackle AI: expert

Decades after Isaac Asimov first wrote his laws for robots, their ever-expanding role in our lives requires a radical new set of rules, legal and AI expert Frank Pasquale warned on Thursday.

* This article was originally published here

HP Enterprise buying supercomputer star Cray

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) on Friday announced a $1.3 billion deal to buy supercomputer maker Cray, part of a move to expand into data analysis from connected devices .

* This article was originally published here

Black women more likely to die of breast cancer, especially in the South

When Felicia Mahone was 27, she felt her breast and found a mass. Breast cancer had killed nearly all the women in her family—her mother, two aunts and two cousins. Her doctor, though, downplayed the lump, assuring her everything would be all right.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers develop novel framework for tracking developments in optical sensors

Plasmonics and photonics have been drawing attention in both academia and industry due to their use in an extensive range of applications, one of which includes optical sensing. The development of optical sensing technology not only contributes to the scientific research community as a versatile tool, but also offers substantial commercial value for smart city and Internet of Things (IOT) applications due to its energy efficiency, lightweight, small size and suitability for remote sensing. Reinforcing its significance, Scientific American identified plasmonic sensing as one of the top 10 emerging technologies of 2018.

* This article was originally published here

Study finds narrowing gender gap in youth suicides

New research from Nationwide Children's Hospital finds a disproportionate increase in youth suicide rates for females relative to males, particularly in younger youth aged 10-14 years. The report, which describes youth suicide trends in the United States from 1975 to 2016, appears this week in JAMA Network Open.

* This article was originally published here

Essentials for growing tasty herbs on your windowsill

(HealthDay)—Whether you have a dedicated space in an outdoor garden or just a few buckets on a small patio, there's nothing quite like having your own herb garden for giving your cooking fresh flavor boosts.

* This article was originally published here

Quinn on Nutrition: Carbs—how low can we go?

"Fruit has carbs? I had no idea," a stunned patient told me recently.

* This article was originally published here

Scientists capture first-ever video of body's safety test for T-cells

For the first time, immunologists from The University of Texas at Austin have captured on video what happens when T-cells—the contract killers of the immune system, responsible for wiping out bacteria and viruses—undergo a type of assassin-training program before they get unleashed in the body. A new imaging technique that allowed for the videos, described today in the journal Nature Communications, holds promise for the fight against autoimmune disorders such as Type 1 diabetes.

* This article was originally published here

Tobacco and e-cigarette promotions spark teens' use of nicotine products, study finds

Owning items that promote e-cigarettes and other alternative tobacco products doubles the likelihood that a young person will try these products, a new study led by the Stanford University School of Medicine has found. The finding illustrates the influence of such marketing on teenagers.

* This article was originally published here

New AI sees like a human, filling in the blanks

Computer scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have taught an artificial intelligence agent how to do something that usually only humans can do—take a few quick glimpses around and infer its whole environment, a skill necessary for the development of effective search-and-rescue robots that one day can improve the effectiveness of dangerous missions. The team, led by professor Kristen Grauman, Ph.D. candidate Santhosh Ramakrishnan and former Ph.D. candidate Dinesh Jayaraman (now at the University of California, Berkeley) published their results today in the journal Science Robotics.

* This article was originally published here

Microsoft alerts hospitals to fix potential security risk

Computer experts inside hospitals were working diligently on Wednesday to address a serious new security vulnerability in older versions of the Windows operating system, which is still used in many health care devices even though Microsoft hasn't actively supported the older software in years.

* This article was originally published here

Machine learning speeds modeling of experiments aimed at capturing fusion energy on Earth

Machine learning (ML), a form of artificial intelligence that recognizes faces, understands language and navigates self-driving cars, can help bring to Earth the clean fusion energy that lights the sun and stars. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are using ML to create a model for rapid control of plasma—the state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei, or ions—that fuels fusion reactions.

* This article was originally published here

First anticoagulant approved for preventing VTE recurrence in children

(HealthDay)—Fragmin (dalteparin sodium) injection has been granted the first approval for subcutaneous use in preventing recurrence of symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) in children aged 1 month or older, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced.

* This article was originally published here

Making the best of sparse information

New findings reported by LMU researchers challenge a generally accepted model of echolocation in bats. They demonstrate that bats require far less spatial information than previously thought to navigate effectively.

* This article was originally published here

Why onlookers often don't report sexual harassment

Why don't good people report bad things?

* This article was originally published here

Just like toothpaste: Fluoride radically improves the stability of perovskite solar cells

Solar cells made of perovskite hold much promise for the future of solar energy. The material is cheap, easy to produce and almost as efficient as silicon, the material traditionally used in solar cells. However, perovskite degrades quickly, severely limiting its efficiency and stability over time. Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology, energy research institute DIFFER, Peking University and University of Twente have discovered that adding a small amount of fluoride to the perovskite leaves a protective layer, increasing stability of the materials and the solar cells significantly. The solar cells retain 90 percent of their efficiency after 1000 hours operation at various extreme testing conditions. The findings are published today in the leading scientific journal Nature Energy.

* This article was originally published here

What do they mean by 'stem cells'? Recommended guidelines for reporting on cell therapies

Cell therapies including so-called "stem cells" are increasingly being marketed and used for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders - despite questions about these treatments and their effectiveness. A new tool for standardizing communication about cell therapies is presented in the May 15 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers find way to build potassium-oxygen batteries that last longer

Researchers have built a more efficient, more reliable potassium-oxygen battery, a step toward a potential solution for energy storage on the nation's power grid and longer-lasting batteries in cell phones and laptops.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers create washable sensor that can be woven into materials

Forget the smart watch. Bring on the smart shirt.

* This article was originally published here

Stop gambling with black box and explainable models on high-stakes decisions

As the buzzwords "machine learning" continue to grow in popularity, more industries are turning to computer algorithms to answer important questions, including high-stakes fields such as healthcare, finance and criminal justice. While this trend can lead to major improvements in these realms, it can also lead to major problems when the machine learning algorithm is a so-called "black box."

* This article was originally published here

New Horizons team publishes first Kuiper Belt flyby science results

NASA's New Horizons mission team has published the first profile of the farthest world ever explored, a planetary building block and Kuiper Belt object called 2014 MU69.

* This article was originally published here