Tuesday 25 June 2019

Hate speech on Twitter predicts frequency of real-life hate crimes

According to a first-of-its-kind study, cities with a higher incidence of a certain kind of racist tweets reported more actual hate crimes related to race, ethnicity, and national origin.

* This article was originally published here

Voxelotor improves hemoglobin levels in sickle cell disease

(HealthDay)—For individuals with sickle cell disease, 1,500 mg of voxelotor increases hemoglobin levels and reduces the incidence of worsening anemia compared with placebo, according to a study published in the June 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

* This article was originally published here

Hacker used Raspberry Pi computer to steal restricted NASA data

A hacker used a tiny Raspberry Pi computer to infiltrate NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory network, stealing sensitive data and forcing the temporary disconnection of space-flight systems, the agency has revealed.

* This article was originally published here

Microscopic glass blowing used to make tiny optical lenses

Inserting air into hot glass to form a bubble has been used to make glass objects since Roman times. In new work, researchers apply these same glass blowing principles on a microscopic scale to make specialized miniature cone-shaped lenses known as axicons.

* This article was originally published here

Private prisons have a political role in corrections issues in the US, researcher finds

Private prisons play a political role in immigration and incarceration issues in the United States and the industry may face obstacles as well as opportunities in the current political landscape, a new paper from an Oregon State University researcher suggests.

* This article was originally published here

Little Raspberry Pi 4 debut marks big upgrade

That credit card-sized computer that has been a standout learning experience for students and hobbyists at affordable cost just stole the show, again. The new Raspberry Pi, announced Monday, "packs significant upgrades that could let it finally pass as an incredibly cheap desktop computer," said Gizmodo's Andrew Liszewski.

* This article was originally published here

Multiresistant intestinal bacteria spread widely in Vietnamese hospitals

Around half of patients admitted to hospital in Vietnam are carriers of multiresistant intestinal bacteria, which are resistant to carbapenems, a group of broad-spectrum antibiotics. This is the conclusion of a study by Swedish and Vietnamese scientists led by Linköping University, published in the Journal of Infection.

* This article was originally published here

How to help physics teachers who don't know physics

A shortage of high school physics teachers has led to teachers with little-to-no physics training taking over physics classrooms, causing additional stress and job dissatisfaction for those teachers—and a difficult learning experience for their students.

* This article was originally published here

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

Sugary drink taxes reduce consumption, major review shows

A 10 per cent tax on sugary drinks has cut the purchase and consumption of sugary drinks by an average of 10 per cent in places it has been introduced, a just published major review has found.

* This article was originally published here

Designing light-harvesting organic semiconductor microcrystals with wavelength-tunable lasers

Organic solid-state lasers are essential for photonic applications, but current-driven lasers are a great challenge to develop in applied physics and materials science. While it is possible to create charge transfer complexes (i.e. electron-donor-acceptor complexes among two/more molecules or across a large molecule) with p-/n- type organic semiconductors in electrically pumped lasers, the existing difficulties arise from nonradiative loss due to the delocalized states of charge transfer (CT). In a recent report, Kang Wang and a team of researchers in the departments of chemistry, molecular nanostructure and nanotechnology in China demonstrated the enduring action of CT complexes by exciton funneling in p-type organic microcrystals with n-type doping.

* This article was originally published here

Setting the standard for machine learning

The microcomputer revolution of the 1970s triggered a Wild West-like expansion of personal computers in the 1980s. Over the course of the decade, dozens of personal computing devices, from Atari to Xerox Alto, flooded into the market. CPUs and microprocessors advanced rapidly, with new generations coming out on a monthly basis.

* This article was originally published here

Robot circulatory system powers possibilities

Untethered robots suffer from a stamina problem. A possible solution: a circulating liquid—"robot blood"—to store energy and power its applications for sophisticated, long-duration tasks.

* This article was originally published here

Next-gen solar cells spin in new direction: Phosphorene shows efficiency promise

A nanomaterial made from phosphorus, known as phosphorene, is shaping up as a key ingredient for more sustainable and efficient next-generation perovskite solar cells (PSCs).

* This article was originally published here

Why money cannot 'buy' housework

If a man is handy with the vacuum cleaner, isn't averse to rustling up a lush family meal most nights after he's put on the washing machine having popped into the supermarket on his way home then it's more than likely his partner will have her own bank account.

* This article was originally published here

Does limited underground water storage make plants less susceptible to drought?

You might expect that plants hoping to thrive in California's boom-or-bust rain cycle would choose to set down roots in a place that can store lots of water underground to last through drought years.

* This article was originally published here

Combatting the world's deadliest infections using groundbreaking human-mimetic tools

A new article published today in the journal Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology shows that research built around human-mimetic tools are more likely to succeed in the search for effective treatments for and prevention of flavivirus infection as compared to research using monkeys or other animals as laboratory models. The study, led by Dr. David Pamies at the University of Lausanne, with researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Vaccines Research Center in the United States, includes a comprehensive review of the models used to study deadly mosquito-borne flaviviruses (MBF) such as dengue fever and the Zika virus, known to cause neurological disease in humans.

* This article was originally published here

How you lock your smartphone can reveal your age: study

Older smartphone users tend to rely more on their phones' auto lock feature compared to younger users, a new UBC study has found. They also prefer using PINs over fingerprints to unlock their phones.

* This article was originally published here