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Droughts longer, rainfall more erratic over the last 50 years in most of the West

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Dry periods between rainstorms have become longer and annual rainfall has become more erratic across most of the western United States during the past 50 years, according to a new study published by the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and the University of Arizona.

Against the backdrop of steadily warming temperatures and decreasing total yearly rainfall, rain has been falling in fewer and sometimes larger storms, with longer dry intervals between.

Total yearly rainfall has decreased by an average of four inches over the last half century, while the longest dry period in each year increased from 20 to 32 days across the West, explained co-senior author Joel Biederman, a research hydrologist with the ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona. [Read more…] about Droughts longer, rainfall more erratic over the last 50 years in most of the West

First-of-its-kind mechanical model simulates bending of mammalian whiskers

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Researchers have developed a new mechanical model that simulates how whiskers bend within a follicle in response to an external force, paving the way toward better understanding of how whiskers contribute to mammals’ sense of touch.

Yifu Luo and Mitra Hartmann of Northwestern University and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology.

With the exception of some primates, most mammals use whiskers to explore their environment through the sense of touch. [Read more…] about First-of-its-kind mechanical model simulates bending of mammalian whiskers

Apples to apples: Neural network uses orchard data to predict fruit quality after storage

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A researcher from Skoltech and his German colleagues have developed a neural network-based classification algorithm that can use data from an apple orchard to predict how well apples will fare in long-term storage. The paper was published in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture.

Before the fruit and vegetables we all like end up on our tables, they have to be stored for quite some time, and during this time they can develop physiological disorders such as flesh browning or superficial scald (brown or black patches on the skin of the fruit).

These disorders contribute to the loss of a substantial amount of product, and a lot of research effort is dedicated to the development of robust methods of disorder prediction – a notoriously difficult task due to the multitude of factors involved, both at the orchard and in the storage facility. [Read more…] about Apples to apples: Neural network uses orchard data to predict fruit quality after storage

Standard vital signs could help estimate people’s pain levels

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A new study demonstrates that machine-learning strategies can be applied to routinely collected physiological data, such as heart rate and blood pressure, to provide clues about pain levels in people with sickle cell disease.

Mark Panaggio of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology.

Pain is subjective, and monitoring pain can be intrusive and time-consuming. Pain medication can help, but accurate knowledge of a patient’s pain is necessary to balance relief against risk of addiction or other unwanted effects. [Read more…] about Standard vital signs could help estimate people’s pain levels

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Does watching Netflix or having Zoom meetings leave a carbon footprint?

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When you think about your carbon footprint, what comes to mind? Driving and flying, probably. Perhaps home energy consumption or those daily Amazon deliveries.

But what about watching Netflix or having Zoom meetings? Ever thought about the carbon footprint of the silicon chips inside your phone, smartwatch or the countless other devices inside your home?

Every aspect of modern computing, from the smallest chip to the largest data center comes with a carbon price tag. For the better part of a century, the tech industry and the field of computation as a whole have focused on building smaller, faster, more powerful devices – but few have considered their overall environmental impact. [Read more…] about Does watching Netflix or having Zoom meetings leave a carbon footprint?

Fujitsu to use ‘world’s fastest supercomputer’ for tsunami prediction

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Fujitsu, in partnership with other companies and academic institutions, has developed a computing system that will enable the prediction of tsunamis – massive, sudden floods caused by turbulence at sea. 

The International Research Institute of Disaster Science at Tohoku University, the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo, and Fujitsu Laboratories have developed an artificial intelligence model that will empower disaster management teams with the ability to predict tsunami flooding in coastal areas in near real-time.

The system harnessed the computational power of what is claimed to be “the world’s fastest supercomputer”, Fugaku, jointly developed by Riken and Fujitsu. [Read more…] about Fujitsu to use ‘world’s fastest supercomputer’ for tsunami prediction

Sensing robot healthcare helpers being developed at SFU

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Robots that could take on basic healthcare tasks to support the work of doctors and nurses may be the way of the future. Who knows, maybe a medical robot can prescribe your medicine someday.

That’s the idea behind 3D structural-sensing robots being developed and tested at Simon Fraser University by Woo Soo Kim, associate professor in the School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering.

“The recent pandemic demonstrates the need to minimize human-to-human interaction between healthcare workers and patients,” says Kim, who authored two recent papers on the subject – a perspective on the technology and a demonstration of a robots’ usefulness in healthcare. [Read more…] about Sensing robot healthcare helpers being developed at SFU

Location tracking apps and privacy implications

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How much personal information can our phone apps gather through location tracking? To answer this question, two researchers – Mirco Musolesi (University of Bologna, Italy) and Benjamin Baron (University College London, UK) – carried out a field study using an app specifically developed for this research.

Through the app employed in the study – published in Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies – researchers were able to identify which kind of personal information the app extracted and its privacy sensitivity according to users.

“Users are largely unaware of the privacy implications of some permissions they grant to apps and services, in particular when it comes to location-tracking information”, explains Mirco Musolesi. “Thanks to machine learning techniques, these data provide sensitive information such as the place where users live, their habits, interests, demographics, and information about users’ personalities”. [Read more…] about Location tracking apps and privacy implications

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On the quest for other Earths

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In the search for planets capable of sustaining life, an international research team with members from ETH has taken a significant step forward.

As the researchers reported recently in the journal Nature Communications, they found signs of a Neptune-sized planet in the Alpha Centauri star system, a mere 4.4 light years away from Earth.

This exoplanet is located in a zone that may offer suitable conditions for life. The team was able to collect data with unprecedented sensitivity, thus registering even very weak signals. [Read more…] about On the quest for other Earths

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Supercomputer turns back cosmic clock

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Astronomers have tested a method for reconstructing the state of the early Universe by applying it to 4000 simulated universes using the ATERUI II supercomputer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).

They found that together with new observations the method can set better constraints on inflation, one of the most enigmatic events in the history of the Universe. The method can shorten the observation time required to distinguish between various inflation theories.

Just after the Universe came into existence 13.8 billion years ago, it suddenly increased more than a trillion, trillion times in size, in less than a trillionth of a trillionth of a microsecond; but no one knows how or why. [Read more…] about Supercomputer turns back cosmic clock