Friday 31 May 2019

Societal values and perceptions shape energy production and use as much as new technology

Societal values and perceptions have shaped the energy landscape as much as the technologies that drive its production and consumption, a new paper from an Oregon State University researcher suggests.

* This article was originally published here

K-Athena: a performance portable magnetohydrodynamics code

Running large-scale simulations is a crucial aspect of modern scientific research, yet it often requires a vast amount of computational resources. As we approach the era of exascale computing, which will be marked by the introduction of highly performing supercomputers, researchers have been trying to develop new architectures and codes to meet the huge computational requirements of our times. An important property to consider when developing codes for the exascale computing era is performance portability, which prevents the repeated, non-trivial refactoring of a code for different architectures.

* This article was originally published here

Maestro: a new attack that orchestrates malicious flows with BGP

Researchers at the University of Tennessee have recently identified the Maestro attack, a new link flooding attack (LFA) that leverages plane traffic control engineering techniques to concentrate botnet-sourced distributed denial of service (DDos) flows on transit links. In their paper, recently published on arXiv, the researchers outlined this type attack, tried to understand its scope and presented effective mitigations for network operators who wish to insulate themselves from it.

* This article was originally published here

Pediatric nurse practitioner shortage looming

(HealthDay)—There is a looming critical shortage of pediatric nurse practitioners (PNPs), according to a white paper published in the May-June issue of the Journal of Pediatric Health Care.

* This article was originally published here

Native plant species may be at greater risk from climate change than non-natives

As spring advances across the Midwest, a new study looking at blooming flowers suggests that non-native plants might outlast native plants in the region due to climate change.

* This article was originally published here

30 dead deer found at Utah landfill starved, died of disease

Utah officials have determined that more than 30 deer found near a landfill in northeastern Utah died from starvation, diseases and other causes.

* This article was originally published here

Image: Hubble sees a galaxy bucking the trend

This luminous orb is the galaxy NGC 4621, better known as Messier 59. As this latter moniker indicates, the galaxy is listed in the famous catalog of deep-sky objects compiled by French comet-hunter Charles Messier in the 18th century. However, German astronomer Johann Gottfried Koehler is credited with discovering the galaxy just days before Messier added it to his collection in 1779.

* This article was originally published here

Atlantic hurricane season begins after three years of big storms

The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season begins Saturday, and authorities are warning coastal residents to stock up on supplies and remain vigilant after a spate of intense storms in recent years.

* This article was originally published here

Colloidal gel properties under the microscope

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have devised a method for following the gelation of colloidal gels. Their confocal microscopy technique has allowed the different stages of the process to be analyzed, leading to insights into their mechanical stability. It is hoped that the understanding gained using this technique will contribute to the development of colloidal gels in the many fields in which they impact everyday lives, from pharmaceuticals to construction.

* This article was originally published here

Only few hundred training samples bring human-sounding speech in Microsoft TTS feat

Microsoft Research Asia has been drawing applause for pulling off text to speech requiring little training—and showing "incredibly" realistic results.

* This article was originally published here

US holds CBD hearing as fans, sellers await legal clarity

CBD products have surged in popularity despite confusion around their legal status . Now U.S. regulators are exploring ways to officially allow the hemp ingredient in food, drinks and dietary supplements.

* This article was originally published here

U.S. Postal Service mail, packages are headed to Dallas by self-driving truck

Before letters end up in your mailbox and packages land on your doorstep, many travel hundreds or thousands of miles in the back of a truck. Now, the United States Postal Service is testing what it would take to shuttle that cargo without a driver in the front seat.

* This article was originally published here

A new molecular mechanism could explain the origins of the depressive symptoms in Huntington's disease

About 40 percent of the affected patients with Huntington's disease—a neurodegenerative pathology- show depression symptoms, even in early stages before the apparition of the typical motor symptoms of the disease. An altered function of Cdk5 kinase—an essential enzyme in several cell signalling pathways- could explain the physiopathology of the depressive-like behaviour in Huntington's disease, according to a pre-clinical study in which the UB experts Sílvia Ginés, Verónica Brito, Albert Giralt and Jordi Alberch, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Institute of Neurosciences of the University of Barcelona (UBNeuro) have taken part.

* This article was originally published here

Stanford Doggo: a highly agile quadruped robot

Researchers at Stanford University have recently created an open-source quadruped robot called Stanford Doggo. Their robot, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv and set to be published by IEEE Explore, exceeds the performance of many state-of-the-art legged robots in vertical jumping agility.

* This article was originally published here

Bird personalities influenced by age and experience, study shows

Differences in the personalities of birds are related to both age and experience, according to new research by University of Alberta biologists.

* This article was originally published here

Why thousands are getting hit with unexpected medical bills

Hardly a week goes by without another story in the media covering a family somewhere in America dealing with an outrageous medical bill. Yet, in more and more cases, these families don't have junk insurance, or lack coverage altogether. Indeed, they have what Americans would consider decent coverage, either through their employer or an Affordable Care Act marketplace. They also followed, or so they thought, the rules of their insurance policy requiring them to seek care inside their provider network. Yet, they are slapped with surprise bills, and often threatened by bankruptcy.

* This article was originally published here

Winter could pose solar farm 'ramping' snag for power grid

By adding utility-scale solar farms throughout New York state, summer electricity demand from conventional sources could be reduced by up to 9.6% in some places.

* This article was originally published here

PULP Dronet: A 27-gram nano-UAV inspired by insects

Researchers at ETH Zürich and the University of Bologna have recently created PULP Dronet, a 27-gram nano-size unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a deep learning-based visual navigation engine. Their mini-drone, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, can run aboard an end-to-end, closed-loop visual pipeline for autonomous navigation powered by a state-of-the-art deep learning algorithm.

* This article was originally published here

NICER's night moves trace the X-ray sky

In this image, numerous sweeping arcs seem to congregate at various bright regions. You may wonder: What is being shown? Air traffic routes? Information moving around the global internet? Magnetic fields looping across active areas on the Sun?

* This article was originally published here

Health progress threatened by neglect of gender

The Sustainable Development Goals offer the prospect of ensuring healthy lives for the world's population by 2030. But this ambition will not be realised without eliminating gender inequality and changing society's attitudes to women and men.

* This article was originally published here

Infectious Diseases A-Z: Vaccine best way to prevent hepatitis A as infections rise nearly 300%

Drug use and homelessness are cited as two main reasons why hepatitis A infections have increased nearly 300% in the U.S. since 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Hepatitis A is a viral hepatitis that can infect humans, and it infects through the oral-fecal route," says Dr. Stacey Rizza, an infectious diseases specialist at Mayo Clinic.

* This article was originally published here