In Canadian author Margaret Atwood's book The Blind Assassin, she says that "touch comes before sight, before speech. It's the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth."
* This article was originally published here
Wednesday 19 June 2019
Researchers use biological evolution to inspire machine learning
As Charles Darwin wrote in at the end of his seminal 1859 book On the Origin of the Species, "whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." Scientists have since long believed that the diversity and range of forms of life on Earth provide evidence that biological evolution spontaneously innovates in an open-ended way, constantly inventing new things. However, attempts to construct artificial simulations of evolutionary systems tend to run into limits in the complexity and novelty which they can produce. This is sometimes referred to as "the problem of open-endedness." Because of this difficulty, to date, scientists can't easily make artificial systems capable of exhibiting the richness and diversity of biological systems.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
People with multiple physical conditions have faster brain decline, higher suicide risk
Having arthritis, or diabetes, or heart disease can change a person's life, getting in the way of daily activities and requiring special diets and medicines.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
The dynamics of workplace sexual harassment in the US
A new Gender, Work & Organization analysis of U.S. data from 1997-2016 provides new insights into workplace sexual harassment.
* This article was originally published here
* 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
* This article was originally published here
Study predicts more long-term sea level rise from Greenland ice
Greenland's melting ice sheet could generate more sea level rise than previously thought if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase and warm the atmosphere at their current rate, according to a new modeling study. The study, which used data from NASA's Operation IceBridge airborne campaign, was published in Science Advances today. In the next 200 years, the ice sheet model shows that melting at the present rate could contribute 19 to 63 inches to global sea level rise, said the team led by scientists at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. These numbers are at least 80 percent higher than previous estimates, which forecasted up to 35 inches of sea level rise from Greenland's ice.
* This article was originally published here
* 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
* This article was originally published here
Finding 'Nemo's' family tree of anemones
Thanks in part to the popular film Finding Nemo, clownfishes are well known to the public and well represented in scientific literature. But the same can't be said for the equally colorful sea anemones—venomous, tentacled animals—that protect clownfishes and that the fish nourish and protect in return. A new study published online this month in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution takes a step to change that, presenting a new tree of life for clownfish-hosting sea anemones along with some surprises about their taxonomy and origins.
* This article was originally published here
* 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
* This article was originally published here
Summer suppers fresh from the farmers' market
(HealthDay)—Summer is the perfect time to give your stove a rest and kick back with some fast, no-cook meals made with veggies you can grab at your farmers' market.
* This article was originally published here
* 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
* This article was originally published here
Early research shows a way to develop effective therapies against pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common form of pancreatic cancer, is the fifth most common cause of death from cancer in the UK and the third in the United States. Deaths from PDAC outnumber those from breast cancer despite the significant difference in incidence rates.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Medicare program aimed at lowering costs, improving care may not be working as well as thought
As the Medicare system seeks to improve the care of older adults while also keeping costs from growing too fast, a new University of Michigan study suggests that one major effort may not be having as much of an impact as hoped.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Good physical fitness in middle age linked to lower chronic lung disease risk
Good heart and lung (cardiorespiratory) fitness in middle age is associated with a lower long term risk of chronic lung disease (COPD), suggests Danish research published online in the journal Thorax.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Unexpected culprit—wetlands as source of methane
Wetlands are an important part of the Earth's natural water management system. The complex system of plants, soil, and aquatic life serves as a reservoir that captures and cleans water. However, as cities have expanded, many wetlands were drained for construction. In addition, many areas of land in the Midwest were drained to increase uses for agriculture to feed a growing world.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Applying active inference body perception to a humanoid robot
A key challenge for robotics researchers is developing systems that can interact with humans and their surrounding environment in situations that involve varying degrees of uncertainty. In fact, while humans can continuously learn from their experiences and perceive their body as a whole as they interact with the world, robots do not yet have these capabilities.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Facebook takes on the world of cryptocurrency with 'Libra' coin
Facebook unveiled plans Tuesday for a new global cryptocurrency called Libra, pledging to deliver a stable virtual money that lives on smartphones and could bring over a billion "unbanked" people into the financial system.
* This article was originally published here
* 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
* This article was originally published here
Size matters: New data reveals cell size sparks genome awakening in embryos
Transitions are a hallmark of life. When dormant plants flower in the spring or when a young adult strikes out on their own, there is a shift in control. Similarly, there is a transition during early development when an embryo undergoes biochemical changes, switching from being controlled by maternal molecules to being governed by its own genome. For the first time, a team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found in an embryo that activation of its genome does not happen all at once, instead it follows a specific pattern controlled primarily by the various sizes of its cells. The researchers published their results this week as the cover story in Developmental Cell.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
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