Keeping children safe in the 'Internet of Things' age

Children need protection when using programmable Internet computing devices—and Lancaster University scientists have drawn up new guidelines to help designers build in safeguards.

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How working out in anger can put you at risk

(HealthDay)—Research points to a very long list of benefits from exercise, from improving your overall health to easing stress and enhancing mental well-being. But a landmark study in the journal Circulation highlights a negative, yet specific, concern.

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First-ever successful mind-controlled robotic arm without brain implants

A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota, has made a breakthrough in the field of noninvasive robotic device control. Using a noninvasive brain-computer interface (BCI), researchers have developed the first-ever successful mind-controlled robotic arm exhibiting the ability to continuously track and follow a computer cursor.

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Women more likely to face long-term impairment after childhood brain tumor radiation

Young women who undergo radiation therapy to treat pediatric brain tumors are more likely to suffer from long-term cognitive impairment than male survivors, according to a study by Georgia State University researchers.

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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.

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Applying active inference body perception to a humanoid robot

A key challenge for robotics researchers is developing systems that can interact with humans and their surrounding environment in situations that involve varying degrees of uncertainty. In fact, while humans can continuously learn from their experiences and perceive their body as a whole as they interact with the world, robots do not yet have these capabilities.

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Engineers 3-D print flexible mesh for ankle and knee braces

Hearing aids, dental crowns, and limb prosthetics are some of the medical devices that can now be digitally designed and customized for individual patients, thanks to 3-D printing. However, these devices are typically designed to replace or support bones and other rigid parts of the body, and are often printed from solid, relatively inflexible material.

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A new drug target for chemically induced Parkinson's disease

More than three decades ago, scientists discovered that a chemical found in a synthetic opioid, MPTP, induced the onset of a form of Parkinson's disease. In a new study led by scientists from the School of Veterinary Medicine, researchers found that an enzyme in the body can metabolize compounds formed in the brain from alkaloids present in certain foods and tobacco into MPTP-like chemicals, triggering a neurodegenerative condition in mice.

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Marshall Islanders 'sitting ducks' as sea level rises, says president

Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine stressed Friday the need for dramatic climate action and international support to ensure her people are not left as "sitting ducks" when sea levels inevitably rise.

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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.

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Bacteria live on our eyeballs—and understanding their role could help treat common eye diseases

You may be familiar with the idea that your gut and skin are home to a collection of microbes—fungi, bacteria and viruses—that are vital for keeping you healthy. But did you know that your eyes also host a unique menagerie of microbes? Together, they're called the eye microbiome. When these microbes are out of balance—too many or too few of certain types—eye diseases may emerge.

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PizzaGAN gets the picture on how to make a pizza

Is nothing sacred? Who would dare to even attempt to talk about a machine-learning experiment that results in the perfect (gasp) pizza? It is difficult to contemplate, but a research quintet did not shy away from trying, and they worked to teach a machine how to make a great pie.

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Majority of people return lost wallets – here's the psychology and which countries are the most honest

Honesty is one of the traits we value most in others. We often assume it is a rather rare quality, making it important for us to find out who we can actually trust in this selfish world. But according to new research, there's no need to be so cynical—it turns out most people in the world are honourable enough to return a lost wallet, especially if it contains a lot of cash.

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Northern lights' social networking reveals true scale of magnetic storms

Magnetic disturbances caused by phenomena like the northern lights can be tracked by a 'social network' of ground-based instruments, according to a new study from the University of Warwick.

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There are infinite ways to have sex, and there's nothing unnatural about any of them

Humans have discovered an almost infinite amount of ways to have sex —and things to have sex with. The famous sex researcher Alfred Kinsey said: "The only unnatural sex act is that which can't be performed."

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Neuroscience research questions current alcohol limit

New research by neuroscientists from the University of Sussex shows that drinking only one pint of beer or a large glass of wine is enough to significantly compromise a person's sense of agency.

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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.

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Automated cryptocode generator is helping secure the web

Nearly every time you open up a secure Google Chrome browser, a new MIT-developed cryptographic system is helping better protect your data.

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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.

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Miracle machine makes heroic rescues and leaves patients in limbo

The latest miracle machine in modern medicine—whose use has skyrocketed in recent years—is saving people from the brink of death: adults whose lungs have been ravaged by the flu; a trucker who was trapped underwater in a crash; a man whose heart had stopped working for an astonishing seven hours.

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