Research finds pre-pregnancy weight affects infant growth response to breast milk

In the first study of its kind, LSU Health New Orleans researchers report that women's pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity produces changes in breast milk, which can affect infant growth. The research findings are published in PLOS ONE, available online here.

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Infusing machine learning models with inductive biases to capture human behavior

Human decision-making is often difficult to predict and delineate theoretically. Nonetheless, in recent decades, several researchers have developed theoretical models aimed at explaining decision-making, as well as machine learning (ML) models that try to predict human behavior. Despite the achievements associated with some of these models, accurately predicting human decisions remains a significant research challenge.

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Novel denoising method generates sharper photorealistic images faster

Monte Carlo computational methods are behind many of the realistic images in games and movies. They automate the complexities in simulating the physics of lights and cameras to generate high-quality renderings from samples of diverse image features and scenes. But the process of Monte Carlo rendering is slow and can take hours—or even days—to produce a single image, and oftentimes the results are still pixelated, or "noisy."

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'Locking' an arthritis drug may be key to improving it

Attaching a removable lock to an arthritis drug can make it safer and more effective, according to a new study publishing June 13 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology led by Wen-Wei Lin of Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan. The findings suggest a new way to improve the efficacy of a drug taken by millions of patients throughout the world.

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Light energy and biomass can be converted to diesel fuel and hydrogen

A research group led by Professor Wang Feng at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently developed a method to produce diesel fuel and hydrogen by exploiting light energy (solar energy or artificial light energy) and biomass-derived feedstocks. Their findings were published in Nature Energy.

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Viruses found to use intricate 'treadmill' to move cargo across bacterial cells

Countless textbooks have characterized bacteria as simple, disorganized blobs of molecules.

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Researchers show glare of energy consumption in the name of deep learning

Wait, what? Creating an AI can be way worse for the planet than a car? Think carbon footprint. That is what a group at the University of Massachusetts Amherst did. They set out to assess the energy consumption that is needed to train four large neural networks.

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Head-turning Cassie Cal makes campus moves on hovershoes

A bipedal robot called Cassie Cal is in the news, thanks to a video from its home at the Hybrid Robotics group at University of California Berkeley.

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Nation's first hydrogen fuel cell ferry to transport commuters across San Francisco Bay in early 2020

Creators of the nation's first hydrogen fuel cell ferry always dreamed that if they built the zero-emission vessel, commercial interest would soon follow. It didn't take long.

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Genetic inequity towards endocrine disruptors

Phthalates, one of the most common endocrine disruptors, are commonly used by industry in many plastic products—toys, clothing, baby bottles or even medical equipment—as well as in cosmetics. If guidelines are beginning to be imposed to limit their use, their toxic effect on the endocrine system is worrying. Indeed, the exposure of male fetuses to phthalates can have devastating consequences for the fertility of future individuals by modifying the regulatory elements of the expression of genes responsible for spermatogenesis. However, we are not all equal: researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG), Switzerland, show that phthalate susceptibility depends largely on the genetic heritage of each individual. These results, to be discovered in PLOS One magazine, raise the question of individual vulnerability as well as that of the possible transmission to future generations of epigenetic changes that should normally be erased during fetal development.

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Determining the Earth's gravity field more accurately than ever before

The Earth's gravity fluctuates from place to place. Geodesists use this phenomenon to observe geodynamic and climatological processes. Using satellite-supported recordings, they document the strong fluctuations and the associated spatial and seasonal distributions of mass on and in the Earth. From this, gravity field models can be calculated by which researchers can track rising sea levels or melting glaciers, investigate regional groundwater reserves more closely or analyze oceanic currents.

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'Don't drink and drone,' say Japanese MPs

People in Japan operating drones under the influence could face up to a year in prison under new laws passed Thursday that aim to control the increasingly popular devices.

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Teaching AI agents navigation subroutines by feeding them videos

Researchers at UC Berkeley and Facebook AI Research have recently proposed a new approach that can enhance the navigation skills of machine learning models. Their method, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, allows models to acquire visuo-motor navigation subroutines by processing a series of videos.

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