Wednesday 8 May 2019

Researchers propose air conditioners as climate-change remedy

Scientists have an idea that could make you feel more like a green citizen than hedonist if you buy an air conditioner for your living quarters. There is a way that could use the units to fight climate change. OK, let us review the question posed by a Fast Company: What if every air conditioner was stopping climate change as it kept you cool?"

* This article was originally published here

Patent foramen ovale ups ischemic stroke in those with PE

(HealthDay)—For patients with symptomatic pulmonary embolism (PE), the frequency of recent ischemic stroke is higher in those with patent foramen ovale (PFO), according to a study published online May 7 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

* This article was originally published here

Drones to deliver incessant buzzing noise, and packages

A sister company of Google, Alphabet's Wing Aviation, just got federal approval to start using drones for commercial delivery. Amazon's own drone-delivery program is ready to launch as well. As drones take flight, the world is about to get a lot louder – as if neighborhoods were filled with leaf blowers, lawn mowers and chainsaws.

* This article was originally published here

Google bucks soaring smartphone prices with new Pixel

Google bucked the soaring smartphone price trend Tuesday, unveiling a high-performance Pixel handset aimed at the middle of the market as part of a wide-ranging pitch to developers of its new hardware, software and privacy efforts.

* This article was originally published here

An approach for securing audio classification against adversarial attacks

Adversarial audio attacks are small perturbations that are not perceivable by humans and are intentionally added to audio signals to impair the performance of machine learning (ML) models. These attacks raise serious concerns about the security of ML models, as they can cause them to make mistakes and ultimately generate wrong predictions.

* This article was originally published here

Google's AI Assistant aims to transcend the smart speaker

When Google launched its now distinctive digital assistant in 2016, it was already in danger of being an also-ran.

* This article was originally published here

Show your hands: Smartwatches sense hand activity

We've become accustomed to our smartwatches and smartphones sensing what our bodies are doing, be it walking, driving or sleeping. But what about our hands? It turns out that smartwatches, with a few tweaks, can detect a surprising number of things your hands are doing.

* This article was originally published here

What makes athletes report or hide concussion symptoms?

Whether or not an NCAA Division I athlete is likely to report concussion symptoms depends on factors including their vested interests, their understanding of health implications, and their team culture and societal influences drawn from narratives of performance circulating in media, according to a study published May 8, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Steven Corman of Arizona State University, USA, and colleagues.

* This article was originally published here

Grading conservation: Which reserves defend forests?

Lands that shelter forests have value often readily tallied by developers, but until now it's been more difficult to prove the success of protecting those forested lands in pursuit of sustainability. That can put conservationists on the defense.

* This article was originally published here

Study: Some skin cancer doctors cut more

A new study shows that some surgeons cut away significantly more tissue than their peers when removing skin cancer lesions.

* This article was originally published here

Ridesharing companies worsened congestion in San Francisco: study

One of the early promises of the ride-hailing era ushered in by Uber and Lyft was that the new entrants would complement public transit, reduce car ownership, and help alleviate urban congestion.

* This article was originally published here

Intelligence can link to health and aging

For over 100 years, scientists have sought to understand what links a person's general intelligence, health and aging. In a new study, a University of Missouri scientist suggests a model where mitochondria, or small energy producing parts of cells, could form the basis of this link. This insight could provide valuable information to researchers studying various genetic and environmental influences and alternative therapies for age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease.

* This article was originally published here

Study finds Wi-Fi location affects online privacy behavior

Does sitting in a coffee shop versus at home influence a person's willingness to disclose private information online? Does the on-screen appearance of a public location's online "terms and conditions" have an effect? According to researchers at Penn State, the answer to both questions is "yes," especially if the user has a tendency to instinctively distrust public wireless networks.

* This article was originally published here

Location and brand affect people's trust in cloud services

People's stereotypes regarding different locations around the world influence whether they feel secure in storing their data in cloud service centers in those locations, according to researchers at Penn State, who also found that stereotypes regarding brand authority influence people's trust in cloud services.

* This article was originally published here

Suicide rates are rising with or without 13 Reasons Why. Let's use it as a chance to talk

13 Reasons Why, the controversial Netflix programme that broaches the topic of adolescent suicide, has drawn further criticism after new research showed a potential link to a rise in suicide rates coinciding with the show's release.

* This article was originally published here

A multi-scale body-part mask guided attention network for person re-identification

Person re-identification entails the automated identification of the same person in multiple images from different cameras and with different backgrounds, angles or positions. Despite recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), person re-identification remains a highly challenging task, particularly due to the many variations in a person's pose, as well as other differences associated with lighting, occlusion, misalignment and background clutter.

* This article was originally published here

Collision-detecting suitcase, wayfinding app help blind people navigate airports

Carnegie Mellon University researchers say a smart suitcase that warns blind users of impending collisions and a wayfinding smartphone app can help people with visual disabilities navigate airport terminals safely and independently.

* This article was originally published here

New report examines reproducibility and replicability in science

While computational reproducibility in scientific research is generally expected when the original data and code are available, lack of ability to replicate a previous study—or obtain consistent results looking at the same scientific question but with different data—is more nuanced and occasionally can aid in the process of scientific discovery, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Reproducibility and Replicability in Science recommends ways that researchers, academic institutions, journals, and funders should help strengthen rigor and transparency in order to improve the reproducibility and replicability of scientific research.

* This article was originally published here

Percutaneous ablation vs. surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma

Compared to surgery, percutaneous liver ablation interventions (IRs) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are associated with lower inhospital mortality, length of hospital stay (LOS), and hospitalization costs, according to a study to be presented at the ARRS 2019 Annual Meeting, set for May 5-10 in Honolulu, HI.

* This article was originally published here

Supply-chain hack attacks are worrying investigators

What do you know about supply-chain attacks? In January, an article in CSO said it's when a weak link in your enterprise security might lie with partners and suppliers. It's when someone infiltrates your system through an outside partner or provider with access to your systems and data.

* This article was originally published here