Enhancing face recognition tools with generative face completion

Researchers at the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) in California have recently carried out a study investigating whether completing obstructed faces using artificial neural networks (ANN) can improve the accuracy of face recognition tools. Their study originated from the IARPA Odin research project, which is aimed at identifying true and false faces in images, ultimately to enhance the performance of biometric authentication tools.

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Dissemination of pathogenic bacteria by university student's cell phones

New research has demonstrated the presence of S. aureus in 40% of the cell phones of students sampled at a university. S. aureus is a common cause of hospital and community-based infections and is currently considered an important pathogen because of its level of antibiotic resistance. The research, conducted at the Western University of São Paulo, Brazil, is presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

* This article was originally published here

Google rolled out fix for Nest cam look-through

Finders, weepers. That seemed to be a suitable tweak to the old saying, when the news hit that a former owner of a used Nest Indoor Cam could access the new owner's video feed.

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Fungus produces highly effective surfactant

Mortierella alpina lives in the soil and likes to keep cool. This fungus, which belongs to the zygomycetes, grows best at temperatures of 10 to 15 degrees C and occurs mainly in alpine or arctic habitats. In biotechnology, the fungus has been used for the large-scale production of polyunsaturated fatty acids such as arachidonic acids, mainly as a dietary supplement in baby foods.

* This article was originally published here

Your brain activity can be used to measure how well you understand a concept

As students learn a new concept, measuring how well they grasp it has often depended on traditional paper and pencil tests. Dartmouth researchers have developed a machine learning algorithm, which can be used to measure how well a student understands a concept based on his or her brain activity patterns. The findings are published in Nature Communications.

* This article was originally published here

Researching slang to help solve gang crime

Gang-related violent crime continues to affect young people across England and Wales, with the latest reports suggesting that gang leaders are offering teenagers up to £1,000 pounds to carry out stabbings. In their efforts to curb violence among young people, police and politicians must distinguish between those who are involved in crime and those who are innocent—or risk further marginalizing deprived communities.

* This article was originally published here

Climbing droplets driven by mechanowetting on transverse waves

Modern applications use self-cleaning strategies and digital microfluids to control individual droplets of fluids on flat surfaces but existing techniques are limited by the side-effects of high electric fields and high temperatures. In a new study, Edwin De Jong and co-workers at the interdisciplinary departments of Advanced Materials, Mechanical Engineering and Complex Molecular Systems developed an innovative "mechanowetting" technique to control droplet motion on changing surfaces based on the interfacial surface tension.

* 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

Exposure to others' suffering even worse than being shot at

We usually think that trauma from war is related to the fact that soldiers have been under constant threat of death. New research shows a slightly different picture.

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Possible signal pathway in the fight against obesity-related fatty liver disease identified

A research group from the Medical University of Vienna reports how the hormone leptin stimulates the liver to export lipids and reduce the fat production in the liver. This occurs due to the activation of neurons in the brain stem. These findings provide new approaches for the fight against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which often occurs in connection with obesity. The results were just published in Nature Communications.

* This article was originally published here

Shaken and stirred: Scientists capture the deformation effect of shock waves on a material

Understanding how shock waves affect structures is crucial for advancements in material science research, including safety protocols and novel surface modifications. Using X-ray diffraction probes, scientists at the Institute of Materials Structure Science of KEK, Tokyo of Tech, Kumamoto University, and University of Tsukuba studied the deformation of polycrystalline aluminum foil when subjected to a laser-driven shock wave.

* 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

A miniature robot that could check colons for early signs of disease

Engineers have shown it is technically possible to guide a tiny robotic capsule inside the colon to take micro-ultrasound images.

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In nationwide first, UC Davis doctors can peek into your whole body with one scan by 3-D device

Starting this summer, physicians at UC Davis Health will be able to use a powerful new scanner that can render detailed, 3-D images of the inner workings of the entire human body in as little as one minute, the creators of the device announced recently.

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Imaging results, health data combine in AI model to predict breast cancer

Women know the drill: Breast cancer is too commonly a cancer diagnosis to be ignored, as early detection could make a difference. While false positives may cause an enormous amount of undue stress, false negatives have an impact on how early a cancer is detected and subsequently treated.

* This article was originally published here

National emergency alerts potentially vulnerable to attack

On October 3, 2018, cell phones across the United States received a text message labeled "Presidential Alert." The message read: "THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed."

* This article was originally published here

Advanced NMR captures new details in nanoparticle structures

Advanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have revealed surprising details about the structure of a key group of materials in nanotechology, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), and the placement of their active chemical sites.

* This article was originally published here

Americans still eat too much processed meat and too little fish

A new study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that the amount of processed meat consumed by Americans has remained unchanged in the past 18 years, nor has their intake of fish/shellfish increased. In addition, one quarter of US adults are still eating more unprocessed red meat than the recommended level, and less than 15 percent meet the guidelines for fish/shellfish consumption. On a positive note, Americans are eating less beef and more chicken than they did 18 years ago, and in fact, for the first time, consumption of poultry exceeds that of unprocessed red meat.

* This article was originally published here

Animals may have more than one means of surviving hypoxia

A tidepool crustacean's ability to survive oxygen deprivation though it lacks a key set of genes raises the possibility that animals might have more ways of dealing with hypoxic environments than had been thought.

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Researchers discover new genetic link to premenopausal breast cancer

University of Alberta researchers have added a new genetic marker to the breast cancer map, helping to expand the list of genetic mutations clinicians can watch for in cancer screenings.

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NASA selects PUNCH mission to image beyond the Sun's outer corona

NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute to lead the "Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere" (PUNCH) mission, a landmark Small Explorers Program mission that will image beyond the Sun's outer corona.

* This article was originally published here