By Julia Simon | NEW YORK NEW YORK Oil prices collapsed on Thursday to their lowest since late November as investor worries about the world’s stubbornly persistent glut of crude erased most of the gains that followed last year’s OPEC’s output cut. The slide worsened after OPEC delegates downplayed the chance that their group and other producing countries would deepen their output cuts when they meet on […]
Figure 1: An X-ray diffraction image of a chip package containing four multi-stacked silicon die. The thickest silicon die (300 µm thick) is the large flat stripe, which experiences the least warpage as it is glued to the package lead frame (lead frame not imaged). The three “wiggly” strips are individual transmission section images for each of the three remaining die (each 50 µm thick) stacked upon […]
About 1.2 million people is estimated to be infected with HIV in the United States. The infection is fatal for those who eventually develop AIDS. An existing medical technology though potentially offers a cure. In a new study published in the journal Molecular Therapy, researchers have made important strides towards finding a treatment for HIV, one that can eliminate and not just suppress the virus, using the controversial […]
Metadata is not ground truth. In the space of all possible partitions of a real-world social network, the lower peak corresponds to the social group partition given by the metadata. The higher peak corresponds to a leader-follower partition within the network. Image courtesy Peel, Larremore, and Clauset. Credit: Santa Fe Institute Community detection is an important tool for scientists studying networks. It provides descriptions of the large-scale […]
As noted earlier, while European stocks and US equity markets have ignored the commodity crash in China, which in addition to iron ore plunging limit down, also saw rubber tumble 7% lower, and steel rebar, coke, coking coal plunge over 6% … … Axiom’s Gordon Johnson warns (as we did a month ago) that the worst is yet to come, and in fact, the “backdrop of […]
Despite significant breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, it has been notoriously hard for computers to understand why a user behaves the way s/he does. Now researchers report that computers are able to learn to explain the behavior of individuals by tracking their glances and movements. (via WSJ)
11:00 am Suppose we could be brave, Bryce, and go with a pic of Jeffery Lacker as our portrait for today 11:01 am Well, he stepped down from the Richmond Fed after fessing up to helping a colleague at a sister publication — Medley — on a story 11:02 am 11:03 am I could give you a rival’s analysis of the story 11:03 am It’s not the […]
Facebook‘s female engineers are less likely to get their code accepted than their male engineer counterparts. That’s according to an internal study reported by The Wall Street Journal, which puts in question Facebook’s efforts to foster diversity. At present, only 33 percent of Facebook’s workforce is composed of females. An astounding number by Silicon Valley’s standards, to be sure, but still an example of the lack of […]
Researchers have developed a new approach for manipulating the behavior of cells on semiconductor materials, using light to alter the conductivity of the material itself. (via WSJ)
What are the major drivers of Twitter take-up, in Australia and elsewhere? Do we connect around shared interests, shared location, or pre-existing offline relationships? And when, in the eleven-year history of the platform, did these structures form? These are the questions that guided a new, long-term study of the Australian national Twittersphere that my colleagues and I have undertaken. Drawing on , a major multi-institutional facility for […]
Optus has announced that it will be wholesaling its 4G network to niche mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Moose Mobile for the next five years. Moose Mobile said it targets the youth market by selling refurbished iPhones and Android phones at low prices — pricing the iPhone 6 at AU$369, the iPhone 5s at AU$225, and the iPhone 5c at AU$199 — and has now become a […]
By Rishika Sadam and David Ingram Facebook Inc reported surging quarterly profit and revenue on Wednesday, helped by its fast-growing mobile ad business, but its shares dipped from a record high in after-hours trading as investors showed some nervousness about future earnings. The world’s biggest online social network, which is nearing the five-year anniversary of its initial public offering, is searching for new types of advertising features […]
Smartwatches such as the Apple Watch have been called a ‘revolution on the wrist’, but the operation of these devices is complicated, because the screen is small. Researchers have therefore developed a novel input method that expands the input space to the back of the hand and the 3-D space above the back of the hand wearing the watch. (via WSJ)
Digitization identified as key for region to retain leadership in global logistics landscape Dubai, United Arab Emirates, May 4 2017 Supply chain optimization took center stage at the ninth GPCA Supply Chain Conference, which took place between 2-4 May 2017 at the Rosewood Hotel in Abu Dhabi. During the event, speakers highlighted logistical efficiency as a top industry priority in the GCC as traditional supply chains across […]
Using loop-mediated isothermal amplification, or LAMP, researchers found that they could easily detect Zika virus in human and mosquito samples from the United States, Brazil and Nicaragua. (via WSJ)
Earlier today, MarketWatch highlighted the rather blunt investing advice that the ‘highly reputable’ investing newsletter, The Prudent Speculator, and its editor, John Buckingham, recently offered up to millennial investors: “If you are 50 or younger, or have 10 years before taking money out, and do not have 100% in equities, you are crazy.” And while we can certainly appreciate his attempt to achieve crystal clarity with his […]
A graphical representation of a swath of Facebook users illustrates the distributed nature of this research. The nodes represent Facebook accounts and connections represent friendships. Credit: Isaac Klickstein It is human nature to seek to spend the least amount of energy, time and cost on any given task to achieve a desirable result, whether that is working out at the gym, finding the best path to travel […]
Water-splitting systems require a very efficient catalyst to speed up the chemical reaction that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, while preventing the gases from recombining back into water. Now an international research team has developed a new catalyst with a molybdenum coating that prevents this problematic back reaction and works well in realistic operating conditions. (via WSJ)
The health benefits one can reap if they commit themselves to a regular exercise regimen — such as running — are many. However, there are scores of people around the world who, due to physical or other limitations, are unable to run to build their stamina. A new study now shares that building stamina may not require so much time, or exercise, as previously thought. In previous […]
In its bid to make the United Arab Emirates city the “safest electronic city in the world,” the Dubai Electronic Security Centre (DESC) is looking to expand its Emirati-only workforce by 50 percent this year. The centre, which has a budget of millions of dollars, monitors and researches potential electronic incidents that may affect governmental institutes. To do that, the relatively new center, established in 2014, is […]
Prototype of the hand that sees. Credit: Newcastle University A new generation of prosthetic limbs which will allow the wearer to reach for objects automatically, without thinking—just like a real hand—are to be trialled for the first time. Led by biomedical engineers at Newcastle University, UK, and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the bionic hand is fitted with a camera which instantaneously […]
Ramil Comendador used his salary to pay for his law school tuition. SCREENGRAB FROM INQUIRER.net VIDEO Ramil Comendador, a former janitor at the Commission on Elections (Comelec), said he could not believe how lucky he was to pass the 2016 bar examination. “I don’t know how to thank the Lord and all those people who gave me strength. I am No. 914,” he said, pointing at the […]
Yum Brands Inc (YUM.N) posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by lower taxes, vigorous sales of Taco Bell’s Naked Chicken Chalupas and lower costs at KFC restaurants. Shares of the company were up 1.7 percent at $67.45 before the opening bell on Wednesday. Sales rose 8 percent at Taco Bell restaurants open for more than a year, topping the 3.7 percent growth expected by analysts polled by […]
A research team has made new headway on a solution to remove beetle-killed trees from the forest and use them to make renewable transportation fuels or high-value chemicals. The researchers have refined this technique to process larger pieces of wood than ever before, saving time and money in future commercial applications. (via WSJ)
