Thursday 27 June 2019

Robots to take 20 mn jobs, worsening inequality: study

Robots are expected to take over some 20 million manufacturing jobs worldwide by 2030, extending a trend of worsening social inequality while boosting overall economic output, a new study shows.

* This article was originally published here

Society pays heavy price for failure to diagnose and treat conduct disorder

Much greater awareness, improved diagnosis and enhanced treatment are all required in order to reduce the burden on society of the severe behavioural condition conduct disorder, according to a new expert review led by the University of Bath (UK).

* This article was originally published here

EU okays IBM's $34 bn buyout of Red Hat

The EU's powerful anti-trust authority on Thursday cleared the buyout by IBM of open source software company Red Hat, one of the biggest tech mergers in history which the computing giant said would enhance its cloud offerings.

* This article was originally published here

New research raises prospect of better anti-obesity drugs

Effective weight-loss strategies call for eating less food, burning more calories—or ideally, both. But for the more than 90 million Americans who suffer from obesity, a disease that contributes to conditions ranging from cancer to heart disease, behavioral change is hard to accomplish or not effective enough—which is why scientists have long sought drugs that would help people shed pounds. Yet effective, long-lasting treatments have thus far eluded them.

* This article was originally published here

Higher salt intake can cause gastrointestinal bloating

A study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that individuals reported more gastrointestinal bloating when they ate a diet high in salt.

* This article was originally published here

Extreme exercise can strain the heart without causing permanent damage

Researchers have found no evidence of elevated cardiac risk in runners who completed a 24-hour ultramarathon (24UM), despite the transient elevation of blood biomarkers that measure cardiac health. According to the study in the journal Heliyon, published by Elsevier, trained runners were more likely than their novice counterparts to experience raised levels, reflecting the greater cardiac load and pituitary-adrenocortical response to extremely strenuous exercise.

* This article was originally published here

Airline group advocates more training for Boeing 737 Max

A trade group representing hundreds of airlines is renewing its push for additional pilot training and coordination among global aviation regulators to ensure that the Boeing 737 Max is safe before it is allowed to fly again after two deadly crashes.

* This article was originally published here

Enhancing the vertical mobility of six-legged robot RHex using microspines

A team of researchers at Carnagie Mellon University has recently proposed a method to improve the vertical mobility of a renowned hexapod robot. Their approach, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, entails the addition of microspines to RHex, an existing cockroach-inspired robotic platform designed to navigate unstructured environments at relatively high speed.

* This article was originally published here

Facebook enlists plain English to clarify how it makes money

Facebook is updating its terms and services guidelines to clarify how it makes money from the personal information of its users. The changes reflect its ongoing attempts to satisfy regulators in the U.S. and Europe, which have urged the company to make sure users know what they are signing up for.

* This article was originally published here

Drag-and-drop data analytics

In the Iron Man movies, Tony Stark uses a holographic computer to project 3-D data into thin air, manipulate them with his hands, and find fixes to his superhero troubles. In the same vein, researchers from MIT and Brown University have now developed a system for interactive data analytics that runs on touchscreens and lets everyone—not just genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropists—tackle real-world issues.

* This article was originally published here

Algorithm quickly finds hidden objects in dense point clouds

A new MIT-developed technique enables robots to quickly identify objects hidden in a three-dimensional cloud of data, reminiscent of how some people can make sense of a densely patterned "Magic Eye" image if they observe it in just the right way.

* This article was originally published here

Children living in countryside outperform children living in metropolitan areas in motor skills

In a recent study, 3 to 7-year-old children provided an example of how children's daily living environment and motor skills are closely related in the Finnish context. The main finding revealed that residential density is related to children's motor skills, engagement in outdoor play and organised sports. It was found that Finnish children living in the countryside spent more time outdoors and had better motor skills than their age-matched peers in the metropolitan area. On the other hand, children living in the metropolitan area participated the most in organised sports.

* This article was originally published here

Amazon is watching, listening and tracking you. Here's how to stop it

Amazon is not only watching over your shopping, TV viewing, music listening and book reading histories, it's also listening to you at home or in the car.

* This article was originally published here

Image: Fire red lines

One of the largest wildfires recorded in Arizona, US, has been burning since 8 June, destroying vast swathes of vegetation across the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix.

* This article was originally published here

Old at heart: A solution to red giants' age paradox

Four years ago, several red giant stars were discovered to pose a paradox: even though they are built from very old stellar material, their large masses indicate a clearly younger age. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (Germany), Aarhus University (Denmark), and The Ohio State University (U.S.) have now solved the apparent contradiction. For the first time, they investigated the abundances of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen swirled from the nuclei of these stars to their surfaces. This allows for an indirect look at processes deep within. Several of the investigated red giants must have merged with others during an advanced stage of stellar evolution, the researchers conclude. In these cases, mass is not a suitable criterion for age determination; the stars are indeed old.

* This article was originally published here

Australian plant 'kangaroo paw' may hold clues to understanding biodiversity down under

A new study on kangaroo paws by The University of Western Australia and researchers at Kings Park and Botanic Gardens has challenged existing views that plants favour long distance rather than short distance pollination to reproduce.

* This article was originally published here

Understanding how tics are suppressed may help some at risk for tic disorders

At least 20 percent of elementary school-age children develop tics such as excessive blinking, throat clearing or sniffing, but for most of those kids, the tics don't become a long-term problem. Conventional wisdom has held that most tics go away on their own and that only in rare cases do they become chronic or develop into a disorder such as Tourette syndrome.

* This article was originally published here

Phones and wearables combine to assess worker performance

Using smartphones, fitness bracelets and a custom app, researchers have created a mobile-sensing system that judges employee performance.

* This article was originally published here

3-D body mapping could identify, treat organs, cells damaged from medical conditions

Medical advancements can come at a physical cost. Often following diagnosis and treatment for cancer and other diseases, patients' organs and cells can remain healed but damaged from the medical condition.

* This article was originally published here