Wednesday 15 May 2019

Artificial intelligence shines light on the dark web

Beneath the surface web, the public form of the internet you use daily to check email or read news articles, exists a concealed "dark web." Host to anonymous, password-protected sites, the dark web is where criminal marketplaces thrive in the advertising and selling of weapons, drugs, and trafficked persons. Law enforcement agencies work continuously to stop these activities, but the challenges they face in investigating and prosecuting the real-world people behind the users who post on these sites are tremendous.

* This article was originally published here

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Ann moving over Australia's Cape York Peninsula

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over the Southern Pacific Ocean and captured a visible image of the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Ann moving over Queensland's Cape York Peninsula. Despite the storm weakening below tropical cyclone status, warnings remain active for strong winds and flooding potential.

* This article was originally published here

'Foldable' PC? Lenovo ThinkPad laptop screen bends in half like a book

Samsung has gained a lot attention lately for its Galaxy Fold hybrid smartphone/tablet, though given the recent display snags that have prompted a delay in the product's release, not necessarily for all the right reasons.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers find way to build potassium-oxygen batteries that last longer

Researchers have built a more efficient, more reliable potassium-oxygen battery, a step toward a potential solution for energy storage on the nation's power grid and longer-lasting batteries in cell phones and laptops.

* This article was originally published here

'Striking' differences in rates of HIV/AIDS within African nations

Despite the rapid scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) since 2000, HIV/AIDS is still the most common cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa, according to data from the Global Burden of Disease.

* This article was originally published here

Framework improves 'continual learning' for artificial intelligence

Researchers have developed a new framework for deep neural networks that allows artificial intelligence (AI) systems to better learn new tasks while "forgetting" less of what it has learned regarding previous tasks. The researchers have also demonstrated that using the framework to learn a new task can make the AI better at performing previous tasks, a phenomenon called backward transfer.

* This article was originally published here

New AI sees like a human, filling in the blanks

Computer scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have taught an artificial intelligence agent how to do something that usually only humans can do—take a few quick glimpses around and infer its whole environment, a skill necessary for the development of effective search-and-rescue robots that one day can improve the effectiveness of dangerous missions. The team, led by professor Kristen Grauman, Ph.D. candidate Santhosh Ramakrishnan and former Ph.D. candidate Dinesh Jayaraman (now at the University of California, Berkeley) published their results today in the journal Science Robotics.

* This article was originally published here

Single-chain insulin would change dosage, production

A researcher from the University of Houston has created a form of recombinant insulin that could potentially address some of the biggest concerns about the lifesaving drug, including its price.

* This article was originally published here

How loud is too loud when it comes to sports whistles?

How loud is too loud when it comes to whistle tweets? Referees and others using whistles on the job need a simple way to determine whether it's harmful to their hearing, so a group of researchers set out to put it to the test and to provide some clarity and damage risk criteria for impulse noise exposures.

* This article was originally published here

Bullet train champion in Japan will debut in 2030, now being tested

Testing for a train capable of 249mph (400 kph) speeds is to happen about twice a week at night. Bloomberg said ALFA-X is the world's fastest bullet train— well, for now, it is holding that title. Japan has also been working on a maglev train.

* This article was originally published here

Twitter image colors and content could help identify users with depression, anxiety

Twitter users with depression and anxiety were found to be more likely to post pictures with lower aesthetic values and less vivid colors, particularly images in grayscale, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn Medicine. Additionally, they found that users tended to suppress positive emotions rather than outwardly display more negative emotions, such as keeping a straight face instead of outright frowning, in their profile pictures. The study sought to utilize computer vision and artificial intelligence to determine what qualities of photos posted to and set as profile images on Twitter could be associated with depression and anxiety, with an eye toward using the platform as a method of screening for both. The research will be presented at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media June 11-14 in Munich.

* This article was originally published here

New security flaw in Intel chips could affect millions

Intel has revealed another hardware security flaw that could affects millions of machines around the world.

* This article was originally published here

Stop gambling with black box and explainable models on high-stakes decisions

As the buzzwords "machine learning" continue to grow in popularity, more industries are turning to computer algorithms to answer important questions, including high-stakes fields such as healthcare, finance and criminal justice. While this trend can lead to major improvements in these realms, it can also lead to major problems when the machine learning algorithm is a so-called "black box."

* This article was originally published here

New surface treatment could improve refrigeration efficiency

Unlike water, liquid refrigerants and other fluids that have a low surface tension tend to spread quickly into a sheet when they come into contact with a surface. But for many industrial process it would be better if the fluids formed droplets, which could roll or fall off the surface and carry heat away with them.

* This article was originally published here