Researchers at Siegen University and Würzberg University, in Germany, have recently carried out a study investigating the user experience and acceptability associated with the use of social robots in religious contexts. Their paper, published in Springer's International Journal of Social Robotics, offers interesting insight into how people perceive blessing robots compared to other robots for more conventional purposes.
* This article was originally published here
Thursday 6 June 2019
Just a phage? How bacteria's predators can shape the gut microbiome
The gut microbiome is a complex, interconnected ecosystem of species. And, like any ecosystem, some organisms are predators and some are prey. A new study led by investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Wyss Institute investigates the impact of bacteriophage, viruses that infect and kill bacteria. They find that phage can have a profound impact on the dynamics of the gut microbiome, not only affecting certain species directly but also having a cascading effect on others. Phage may also be impacting their human host by modulating metabolites, including chemical substances found in the brain. The team, which includes first author Bryan Hsu, Ph.D., and co-corresponding senior author Pamela Silver, Ph.D., at the Wyss Institute, and Lynn Bry, MD, Ph.D., at the Brigham and director of the Massachusetts Host-Microbiome Center, has published its results in Cell Host & Microbe.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
News Media Alliance pushes for new Senate antitrust bill
The News Media Alliance is scoring some legislative points against the much bigger K Street players Google and Facebook with a bipartisan Senate bill unveiled Monday evening that would temporarily exempt publishers from antitrust laws.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Earthquake, flood, hurricane: Google Maps adds tools to help you navigate a crisis
Google is adding tools to Google Maps and search to help you survive a natural disaster.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Planck finds no new evidence for cosmic anomalies
ESA's Planck satellite has found no new evidence for the puzzling cosmic anomalies that appeared in its temperature map of the Universe. The latest study does not rule out the potential relevance of the anomalies but they do mean astronomers must work even harder to understand the origin of these puzzling features.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Autonomous boats can target and latch onto each other
The city of Amsterdam envisions a future where fleets of autonomous boats cruise its many canals to transport goods and people, collect trash, or self-assemble into floating stages and bridges. To further that vision, MIT researchers have given new capabilities to their fleet of robotic boats—which are being developed as part of an ongoing project—that lets them target and clasp onto each other, and keep trying if they fail.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Evolving neural networks with a linear growth in their behavior complexity
Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are designed to replicate the behavior and evolution of biological organisms while solving computing problems. In recent years, many researchers have developed EAs and used them to tackle a variety of optimization tasks.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Where to draw the line between mental health and illness?
Accoording a recent study, schizophrenia is considered an illness by nearly all Finns, while grief and homosexuality are not. On the other hand, opinions vary greatly on whether alcoholism, work exhaustion, drug addiction and gambling addiction are illnesses. People's notions of what is and is not a disease are important in the discourse on mental health and human behavior; these notions also influence the allocation of society's resources and the stigmatization of various groups of people.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
New option for treating active rheumatoid arthritis
In a large-scale, international study led by renowned rheumatologist Josef Smolen from the Department of Medicine III, a still-to-be-approved drug containing the selective janus kinase inhibitor upadacitinib has proved itself to be a new option for treating active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It was found that between 12.5 percent and 20 percent of patients who were given the drug on a daily basis experienced so-called "sustained remission"—a state that is almost like being cured. The results of the study have now been published in top journal The Lancet.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
The waltz of the LHC magnets has begun
Major endeavors are underway in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) over the past few weeks, with the extraction of magnets from the accelerator tunnel. The LHC has a total of 1232 dipoles, magnets which bend the particles' trajectories, and 474 quadrupoles, which squeeze the bunches. All these magnets are superconducting, i.e. they operate at a temperature of -271°C, are 15 meters long and weigh up to 28 tons. So moving them around is no trivial matter.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
New gene therapy poised to transform care for spinal muscular atrophy
The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) has been tapped as one of the first institutions in the U.S. to offer a new gene replacement therapy to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). The new treatment can be delivered within weeks of birth and clinical trials have shown that it dramatically changes the course of the disease.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
New preprint server for the health sciences announced today
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), Yale University, and BMJ today announced the forthcoming launch of medRxiv (pronounced "med-archive"), a free online archive and distribution service for preprints in the medical and health sciences.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
A 3-D printer powered by machine vision and artificial intelligence
Objects made with 3-D printing can be lighter, stronger, and more complex than those produced through traditional manufacturing methods. But several technical challenges must be overcome before 3-D printing transforms the production of most devices.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
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