Mobile e-commerce startup Wish files IPO, claims 108 mn users

The operator of the mobile e-commerce startup Wish filed documents for a share offering Friday, revealing a user base of more than 100 million.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-mobile-e-commerce-startup-ipo-mn.html

After more than a decade, ChIP-seq may be quantitative after all

For more than a decade, scientists studying epigenetics have used a powerful method called ChIP-seq to map changes in proteins and other critical regulatory factors across the genome. While ChIP-seq provides invaluable insights into the underpinnings of health and disease, it also faces a frustrating challenge: its results are often viewed as qualitative rather than quantitative, making interpretation difficult.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-decade-chip-seq-quantitative.html

Study: Countering hate on social media

The rise of online hate speech is a disturbing, growing trend in countries around the world, with serious psychological consequences and the potential to impact, and even contribute to, real-world violence. Citizen-generated counter speech may help discourage hateful online rhetoric, but it has been difficult to quantify and study. Until recently, studies have been limited to small-scale, hand-labeled endeavors.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-countering-social-media.html

States unfairly burdening incarcerated people with 'pay-to-stay' fees

Pay-to-stay, the practice of charging people to pay for their own jail or prison confinement, is being enforced unfairly by using criminal, civil and administrative law, according to a new Rutgers University-New Brunswick led study.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-states-unfairly-burdening-incarcerated-people.html

Zebra finches amazing at unmasking the bird behind the song

If songbirds could appear on "The Masked Singer" reality TV competition, zebra finches would likely steal the show. That's because they can rapidly memorize the signature sounds of at least 50 different members of their flock, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-zebra-finches-amazing-unmasking-bird.html

Science reveals secrets of a mummy's portrait

How much information can you get from a speck of purple pigment, no bigger than the diameter of a hair, plucked from an Egyptian portrait that's nearly 2,000 years old? Plenty, according to a new study. Analysis of that speck can teach us about how the pigment was made, what it's made of—and maybe even a little about the people who made it. The study is published in the International Journal of Ceramic Engineering and Science.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-science-reveals-secrets-mummy-portrait.html

China's new coal plants risk 2060 climate target: researchers

China must stop building new coal power plants and ramp up its wind and solar capacity if it wants to become carbon neutral by 2060, researchers said Friday.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-china-coal-climate.html

Apple to press ahead on mobile privacy, despite Facebook protests

Apple confirmed Thursday it would press ahead with mobile software changes that limit tracking for targeted advertising—a move that has prompted complaints from Facebook and others.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-apple-mobile-privacy-facebook-protests.html

Switch to electric vehicles could 'end oil era': analysis

Emerging markets switching from petrol and diesel engines to electric vehicles (EVs) could save $250 billion annually and slash expected growth in global oil demand by as much as 70 percent, an industry analysis showed Friday.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-electric-vehicles-oil-era-analysis.html

Australia signals shift away from climate credit 'cheating'

Australia's prime minister said the country may no longer rely on a much-criticised accounting tactic to meet its emissions targets, stepping away from an approach international partners had labelled "cheating".

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-australia-shift-climate-credit.html

Idaho is top pick for Energy Department nuclear test reactor

The U.S. government said Thursday that Idaho is its preferred choice ahead of Tennessee for a test reactor to be built as part of an effort to revamp the nation's fading nuclear power industry by developing safer fuel and power plants.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-idaho-energy-department-nuclear-reactor.html

Coaching sales agents? Use AI and human coaches

Researchers from Temple University, Sichuan University, and Fudan University published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that explores the growing use of AI to coach sales agents to determine if there are any caveats that inhibit the effective use of this technology.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2020-11-sales-agents-ai-human.html

Simple, no-cost ways to help the public care for the commons

Researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison, New York Institute of Technology, University of Iowa, and Cornell University published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines whether it is possible to make people feel as if the property is theirs—a feeling known as psychological ownership—and how this affects their stewardship behaviors.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-simple-no-cost-ways-commons.html

The microbiome of Da Vinci's drawings

The work of Leonardo Da Vinci is an invaluable heritage of the 15th century. From engineering to anatomy, the master paved the way for many scientific disciplines. But what else could the drawings of Da Vinci teach us? Could molecular studies reveal interesting data from the past? These questions led an interdisciplinary team of researchers, curators and bioinformaticians, from both the University of Natural Resources and Life Science and the University of Applied Science of Wien in Austria, as well as the Central Institute for the Pathology of Archives and Books (ICPAL) in Italy, to collaborate and study the microbiome of seven different drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-microbiome-da-vinci.html

Climate change and 'atmospheric thirst' to increase fire danger and drought in NV and CA

Climate change and a "thirsty atmosphere" will bring more extreme wildfire danger and multi-year droughts to Nevada and California by the end of this century, according to new research from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of California, Merced.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-climate-atmospheric-thirst-danger-drought.html

College students are less food insecure than non-students

College students are significantly less likely to be food insecure than non-students in the same age group, according to a new study from the University of Illinois.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-college-students-food-insecure-non-students.html

Spill-over effects show prioritising education of very poorest improves attainment of all

International development projects that target the education of the world's very poorest children and marginalised girls also significantly improve other young people's attainment, according to new research that suggests such initiatives should become a priority for international aid.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-spill-over-effects-prioritising-poorest.html

Artificial intelligence and satellite technologies reveal detailed map of air pollution across UK

A novel method that combines artificial intelligence with remote sensing satellite technologies has produced the most detailed coverage of air pollution in Britain to date.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-11-artificial-intelligence-satellite-technologies-reveal.html