New online tool to transform how high blood pressure is treated

IANS Photo

New Delhi, (IANS): A global team of researchers from India, Australia, the US, and the UK has developed a novel online-based tool which can transform how hypertension is managed, allowing doctors to choose a treatment for each patient based on the degree to which they need to lower their blood pressure.

The 'blood pressure treatment efficacy calculator' is built on data from nearly 500 randomised clinical trials in over 100,000 people. It allows doctors to see how different medications are likely to lower blood pressure.

“We cannot overlook the importance of controlling high blood pressure effectively and efficiently. Achieving optimal control requires a clear understanding of the efficacy of antihypertensive drugs at different doses and in various combinations. Without clarity on what we want to achieve and how to achieve it, we will not meet our targets. Guidelines define the target blood pressure, while our online tool helps identify which antihypertensive drugs are best suited to reach that target,” said Dr. Mohammad Abdul Salam, from The George Institute for Global Health, Hyderabad.

A single antihypertensive medication -- still the most common way treatment is started -- typically lowers systolic BP by just 8-9 mmHg, while most patients need reductions of 15-30 mmHg to reach ideal targets.

Nelson Wang, cardiologist and Research Fellow at the Institute, noted that while the traditional way of doing this is by measuring blood pressure directly for each patient and adjusting treatment accordingly, BP readings are far too variable, or ‘noisy’, for it to be reliable.

The new tool, described in research published in The Lancet, helps overcome this challenge by calculating the average treatment effect seen across hundreds of trials.

It also categorises treatments as low, moderate, and high intensity, based on how much they lower blood pressure (BP) -- an approach already routinely used in cholesterol-lowering treatment.

High blood pressure is one of the world’s biggest health challenges, affecting as many as 1.3 billion people and leading to around ten million deaths each year.Often called a silent killer as it does not cause any symptoms on its own, it can remain hidden until it leads to a heart attack, stroke, or kidney disease. Fewer than one in five people with hypertension have it under control. New online tool to transform how high blood pressure is treated | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→November 11, 2025

WhatsApp bans 2.4 million Indian accounts in July

WhatsApp banned 2.39 million Indian accounts in July, the highest so far this year, the Meta-owned popular instant messaging app said late on Thursday in its monthly report.

The Asian nation’s stricter IT laws have made it necessary for large digital platforms to publish compliance reports every month.

Draft rules circulated in June proposed setting up a panel to hear user appeals, and said that significant social media messaging platforms shall allow identification of the first originator of information if directed by courts to do so.

Of the accounts barred, 1.42 million were ‘proactively banned,’ before any reports from users.

Several accounts were banned based on complaints received through the company’s grievances channel and the tools and resources it uses to detect such offenses, the social media platform said. In July, WhatsApp received a total of 574 grievance reports.

The messsaging platform, which has been criticised earlier for spreading fake news and hate speech in the country, as well as elsewhere in the world, had taken down 2.21 million accounts in India in June WhatsApp bans 2.4 million Indian accounts in July: WhatsApp bans 2.4 million Indian accounts in July: 

Read More........→October 09, 2022

How to create your own Facebook Avatar

Facebook has brought a new feature following James Cameron’s 3D movie ‘Avatar’ to create animated pictures of the users.

Any Facebook user can create their own animated avatar or character with this feature. Users will get face and outfit options to design a character. Users will find a variety of hairstyles, facial shapes, and great dress options in this feature.

Ways to create Avatar:

> Update your Facebook app first.

> Now go to the see more option by clicking on the menu option of the app.

> You have to click on the ‘Avatars’ option.

> Clicking Avatar will open a new page. Here you can choose the cartoon face of your choice by clicking on the Avatar option. Avatar’s eyes, nose, lips, hair, eyebrows, mustache - everything can be arranged as you wish.

> Users can also choose the clothes of their choice.

> Once the avatar is ready, the self-made avatar can also be used as a profile picture.Source: https://www.daily-bangladesh.com

Read More........→September 30, 2020

Researcher Gains Control Of Another Man's Brain Over The Internet

Human To Human Brain Interface Allows Researcher To Control Another Person Hand Motions Over The Internet, Credit: University of Washington

University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with one researcher able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of a fellow researcher. University of Washington researcher Rajesh Rao, left, plays a computer game with his mind. Across campus, researcher Andrea Stocco, right, wears a magnetic stimulation coil over the left motor cortex region of his brain. Stocco’s right index finger moved involuntarily to hit the “fire” button as part of the first human brain-to-brain interface demonstration. Using electrical brain recordings and a form of magnetic stimulation, Rajesh Rao sent a brain signal to Andrea Stocco on the other side of the UW campus, causing Stocco’s finger to move on a keyboard. While researchers at Duke University have demonstrated brain-to-brain communication between two rats, and Harvard researchers have demonstrated it between a human and a rat, Rao and Stocco believe this is the first demonstration of human-to-human brain interfacing. “The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains,” Stocco said. “We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain.” The researchers captured the full demonstration on video recorded in both labs. The following version has been edited for length. Rao, a UW
professor of computer science and engineering, has been working on brain-computer interfacing in his lab for more than 10 years and just published a textbook on the subject. In 2011, spurred by the rapid advances in technology, he believed he could demonstrate the concept of human brain-to-brain interfacing. So he partnered with Stocco, a UW research assistant professor in psychology at the UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. On Aug. 12, Rao sat in his lab wearing a cap with electrodes hooked up to anelectroencephalographymachine, which reads electrical activity in the brain. Stocco was in his lab across campus wearing a purple swim cap marked with the stimulation site for the transcranial magnetic stimulation coil that was placed directly over his left motor cortex, which controls hand movement. The team had a Skype connection set up so the two labs could coordinate, though neither Rao nor Stocco could see the Skype screens. Rao looked at a computer screen and played a simple video game with his mind. When he was supposed to fire a cannon at a target, he imagined moving his right hand (being careful not to actually move his hand), causing a cursor to hit the “fire” button. Almost instantaneously, Stocco, who wore noise-canceling earbuds and wasn’t looking at a computer screen, involuntarily moved his right index finger to push the space bar on the keyboard in front of him, as if firing the cannon. Stocco compared the feeling of his hand moving involuntarily to that of a nervous tic. “It was both exciting and eerie to watch an imagined action from my brain get translated into actual action by another brain,” Rao said. “This was basically a one-way flow of information from my brain to his. The next step is having a more equitable two-way conversation directly between the two brains.” The cycle of the experiment. Brain signals from the “Sender” are recorded. When the computer detects imagined hand movements, a “fire” command is transmitted over the Internet to the TMS machine, which causes an upward movement of the right hand of the “Receiver.” This usually results in the “fire” key being hit.

Credit: University of Washington

The technologies used by the researchers for recording and stimulating the brain are both well-known. Electroencephalography, or EEG, is routinely used by clinicians and researchers to record brain activity noninvasively from the scalp. Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a noninvasive way of delivering stimulation to the brain to elicit a response. Its effect depends on where the coil is placed; in this case, it was placed directly over the brain region that controls a person’s right hand. By activating these neurons, the stimulation convinced the brain that it needed to move the right hand. Computer science and engineering undergraduates Matthew Bryan, Bryan Djunaedi, Joseph Wu and Alex Dadgar, along with bioengineering graduate student Dev Sarma, wrote the computer code for the project, translating Rao’s brain signals into a command for Stocco’s brain. “Brain-computer interface is something people have been talking about for a long, long time,” saidChantel Prat, assistant professor in psychology at the UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, and Stocco’s wife and research partner who helped conduct the experiment. “We plugged a brain into the most complex computer anyone has ever studied, and that is another brain.” At first blush, this breakthrough brings to mind all kinds of science fiction scenarios. Stocco jokingly referred to it as a “Vulcan mind meld.” But Rao cautioned this technology only reads certain kinds of simple brain signals, not a person’s thoughts. And it doesn’t give anyone the ability to control your actions against your will. Both researchers were in the lab wearing highly specialized equipment and under ideal conditions. They also had to obtain and follow a stringent set of international human-subject testing rules to conduct the demonstration. “I think some people will be unnerved by this because they will overestimate the technology,” Prat said. “There’s no possible way the technology that we have could be used on a person unknowingly or without their willing participation.” Stocco said years from now the technology could be used, for example, by someone on the ground to help a flight attendant or passenger land an airplane if the pilot becomes incapacitated. Or a person with disabilities could communicate his or her wish, say, for food or water. The brain signals from one person to another would work even if they didn’t speak the same language. Rao and Stocco next plan to conduct an experiment that would transmit more complex information from one brain to the other. If that works, they then will conduct the experiment on a larger pool of subjects. Their research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering at the UW, the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Institutes ofHealth. Contacts and sources:Doree Armstrong, Source: Article

Read More........→November 26, 2015

World's first e-ink traffic signs installed

The Australian city of Sydney is the first in the world to install e-ink traffic signs. Slovenian digital signage company Visionect has worked with the New South Wales' Road and Maritime Services (RMS) agency to install digital signage around the city to improve daily transit and simplify road sign deployment. The displays will also significantly help cut the costs of changing road signs to reflect upcoming events.
The e-ink displays look much the screen on an Amazon Kindle device, and have the advantage of being easy to read in bright sunlight. The devices are also powered via solar panels, so are self-contained and low-cost to run. Messages to the screen can be updated remotely via smartphone or PC, and opens up traffic management to the Internet of Things (IOT) world.  Rok Zalar, Visionect’s head of product development, explains how it works: "The hardware components are managed by server software programmed to 'wake up' the sign for certain pre-scheduled windows of time when the content on the sign will be changed using 3G technology. Outside of the ‘waking’ time, the traffic signs use no power." In addition to saving energy, the fully customisable e-traffic signs help cities save on temporary road sign placement as well. It has been reported, for example, that the city Los Angeles puts up 558,000 temporary parking restrictions signs every year at a cost of $9.5 million. Source: InAVate

Read More........→July 31, 2015

The Internet is losing its baby teeth

In 2010, Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine, wrote “The Web Is Dead.” He argued that the future of the Internet and connectivity wasn’t in the World Wide Web, but in a fragmented collection of many different platforms — people consuming content via mobile devices, native apps and other means outside of a traditional web browser. While Anderson’s sensational claim raised a lot of eyebrows, and sparked enormous debate, I wasn’t sure what to make of his prediction at the time. But four years later, we have a little more perspective. In 2014, ‘the web’ — the means by which we access the Internet using a web browser — is hardly dead, although there certainly has been a significant shift our relationship with the Internet. In its infant stages, going online meant using AOL or Earthlinkto dial up a connection to the web. Today, we use the Internet for different reasons, and our connectivity is better, faster and stronger than ever. The disruptive technology that is the Internet is no longer a baby, it’s more like a toddler learning to walk. When your babies learn to walk, you breathe a sigh of relief at their newfound mobility. But that relief quickly turns to frustration as you realize you’ve only traded one set of problems for another. Your newly mobile child can now get into everything, climb and break everything. The same is true with the Internet. One of the most astonishing ways it's changed our lives, for example, is by changing the way we consume music and videos. It’s severed our ties to old, “hard media” like videotapes, CDs and DVDs — an amazing liberation — but has also introduced a whole new, frustrating labyrinth of alternatives at the same time. Anderson’s prediction of fragmentation is most obvious when you look on top of (or under) your TV. Odds are, where we used to store our DVD cases and video sleeves, most of us now have an assortment of streaming devices. Instead of having one giant VCR, we can now choose from having a cable box, TiVO, DVR, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and much more. But the irony is that with all these choices, we can’t actually choose just one. You can’t stream iTunes media through your Chromecast, and you can’t watch Amazon Prime on your Apple TV. Roku is great, but doesn't work with AirPlay. You can watch Netflix on your Apple TV, but, of course, Netflix doesn’t have half the movies you wish it did available for streaming. If you want voice control on your device, only Amazon Fire TV has it. Are you the old fashioned type who still likes using a remote control? Don’t get Chromecast. Oh and by the way, if you don't want a wallet-sized device cluttering up your living room, you can just switch to Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick, which is about the size of a thumb drive. But that’s only if you don’t already have the Roku Streaming Stick, or if you aren’t waiting for Wal-Mart’s just-announced VUDU Spark Stick. (I can’t wait to see what Microsoft and Blackberry have up their sleeves to try to jump into this game — their product names are bound to be interesting.) I’m old enough to remember watching VHS tapes, but not enough to remember the video format wars in the ‘80s. My dad told me a story of the VHS tape fighting against the smaller, arguably better, Betamax format. As the story goes, VHS ended up with a better selection of videos – today we’d say they had more “content providers” — and ergo won the format war despite downfalls in size and picture quality. There was a similar war in the early 2000s: HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray. But what this costly war actually proved was that hardware format doesn’t matter anymore. While people were busy upgrading their home video collections from VHS to HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, the Internet was born. Streaming digital media became the new way to watch movies and most of us stopped purchasing movies altogether, opting for monthly subscription fees for on-demand consumption using services like Netflix. The lure of the Internet delivering whatever we wanted, whenever and wherever we wanted and on any device wanted, trumped everything else. Is this all for the better? I still don’t know. I see benefit in no longer needing to spend my hard-earned cash on hardware that’ll become obsolete in five or 10 years, and not being confined to a desktop when I want to access web content. (I'm grateful to be free from lugging my massive CD sleeve around in my car too. However, there’s always the risk that I’ll want to listen to a certain album, or watch a certain movie, only to find out that it's “not available.”) I think we’ve reached an awkward phase for the Internet. It’s beyond the baby stages and learned to walk. It’s still gaining confidence, and smiles a big, toothy grin with several missing teeth. The web isn’t dead; we’re all just impatiently watching it to grow up. Ron is a web guy, IT guy, and Internet marketer living in Colorado Springs with his wife and five children. He can often be overheard saying things like "Get a Mac!" and "Data wins arguments,” wandering around the downtown area at least five days a week. Follow him on Twitter at@ronstauffer or email him at indy@ronstauffer.com. Questions, comments and snide remarks are always welcome. Source: Article

Read More........→March 12, 2015

Apple, Microsoft and Google: what does 2014 hold in store?

Will Google Glass see the light of day? Will Surface re-surface? A tech lecturer offers his predictions

WITH Microsoft losing controversial CEO Steve Ballmer, Apple launching new iPads and iPhones and the rise of wearable devices all making headlines, it’s been another huge year for technology. But what will 2014 hold? Apple – a larger tablet? The recent changes to Apple’s professional-level laptops (decreasing weight, adding battery life and reducing cost) have created a degree of overlap with their Macbook Air range. Rumours suggest that Apple may prototype a larger tablet, or a new design of ultra-thin laptops running iOS. This larger form factor with an ARM processor could have 20-30 hours battery life and run iPad/iPhone apps, but not traditional Mac OS X applications, which would be a significant change. The Apple Watch is still missing: perhaps they’ve realised the number of 20 to 30-year-olds wearing watches has significantly decreased, so the market is not worth pursuing. Microsoft – time for a redesign? The new Microsoft CEO will inherit a restructured company that must succeed in the mobile and home market under significant competitive pressure. Hopefully the issues with the XBOX ONE launch (some hardware problems and a limited number of games) will be quickly overcome. The Surface tablet is starting to look tired compared to the sleeker, lighter alternatives available, so a redesign towards the end of 2014 looks likely. A reduction in price may also make these more desirable.There is a vast market eager for Office to run on Android and Apple devices. The problem is that this would remove one of the significant reasons for purchasing a Surface. Google – the Samsung threat 2014 will either see Google roll out Glass or abandon it in favour of some lighter, less intrusive technology. Some restaurants and public spaces in America are already placing restrictions on Glass use because of its video-recording facility, an issue which is only likely to become more prominent with an increasing number of similar style devices. In the mobile sector Samsung has become the dominant seller of Android phones with 60 per cent of the market. The issue for Google is that such dominance allows Samsung the ability to control which features they allow through to their customers, which could bring conflict between the two. The recent Jolla phone may demonstrate the ability of alternative app stores to match Google’s offering - what would happen if Samsung decided it was more profitable to switch their customers away from Google? All in all, 2014 will see many things that were hinted at in 2013 become more mainstream or die off. It’s unlikely we’ll all be looking at our smart watches through our Google Glasses. But who knows, this time next year I could be declaring 2014 the Year of the SmartWig. This is an abridged version of an article originally published at The Conversation. The author, Barry Avery, is Principal Lecturer, Informatics and Operations, at Kingston University. Source: The Week UK, Image: flickr.com

Read More........→January 02, 2014

Gene of the week: internet addiction

Everybody is talking about internet addiction – many people spend hours online and immediately start feeling bad if they are unable to do so. Medically, this phenomenon has not been as clearly described as nicotine or alcohol dependency. But a German study in the Journal of Addiction Medicine suggests that there are molecular-genetic connections in internet addiction, too. "It was shown that Internet addiction is not a figment of our imagination," says the lead author, Dr. Christian Montag of the University of Bonn. "Researchers and therapists are increasingly closing in on it." He found that some people’s thoughts revolve around the internet during the day and that they feel their wellbeing is severely impacted if they have to go without it. The problem users seem to have a genetic variation that also plays a major role in nicotine addiction. "It seems that this connection is not only essential for nicotine addiction, but also for internet addiction," reports the Bonn psychologist. “The current data already shows that there are clear indications for genetic causes of Internet addiction." The actual mutation is on the CHRNA4 gene that changes the genetic make¬up for the Alpha 4 subunit on the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. "Within the group of subjects exhibiting problematic Internet behavior this variant occurs more frequently – in particular, in women," says Dr. Montag. ~ Universität Bonn press release, Aug 29 Source BioEdge, Image

Read More........→December 19, 2013

Google buys military company that made robots for Pentagon

Boston Dynamics' robot Big Dog on ice and snow, also demoing its walking gait 

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On Friday Google confirmed that it had completed the purchase of Boston Dynamics, a military grade robotic engineering company that has designed mobile research robots for the Pentagon (VIDEO). Executives at the Internet giant are very cautious about what exactly they plan to do with their robot collection, but Boston Dynamics and its machines can bring significant cachet to Google’s robotic efforts. Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 by Marc Raibert, a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. it has not sold robots commercially, but has pushed the limits of mobile and off-road robotics technology, mostly for Pentagon clients like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa. Boston Dynamics specialise in animal kingdom-inspired creations. They are known for being incredibly agile, and have the ability to scale all types of challenging terrains. The company has gained a reputation for machines that walk with an amazing sense of balance and ability to run faster than the fastest humans. It is the eighth robotics company that Google has acquired in the last half-year. Voice of Russia, The New York Times, Mirror. Source: Article

Read More........→December 17, 2013

100 Gigabits A Second: World Record Wireless Data Transmission Set

Photo: KIT

Extension of cable-based telecommunication networks requires high investments in both conurbations and rural areas. Broadband data transmission via radio relay links might help to cross rivers, motorways or nature protection areas at strategic node points, and to make network extension economically feasible. In the current issue of the nature photonics magazine, researchers present a method for wireless data transmission at a world-record rate of 100 gigabits per second. (doi: 10.1038/nphoton.2013.275) In their record experiment, 100 gigabits of data per second were transmitted at a frequency of 237.5 GHz over a distance of 20 m in the laboratory. In previous field experiments under the “Millilink” project funded by the BMBF, rates of 40 gigabits per second and transmission distances of more than 1 km were reached. For their latest world record, the scientists applied a photonic method to generate the radio signals at the transmitter. After radio transmission, fully integrated electronic circuits were used in the receiver. Setup for the world record of wireless data transmission at 100 gigabits per second: The receiver unit (left)

Photo: KI

receives the radio signal that is recorded by the oscilloscope (right).  “Our project focused on integration of a broadband radio relay link into fiber-optical systems,” Professor Ingmar Kallfass says. He coordinated the “Millilink” project under a shared professorship funded by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Since early 2013, he has been conducting research at Stuttgart University. “For rural areas in particular, this technology represents an inexpensive and flexible alternative to optical fiber networks, whose extension can often not be justified from an economic point of view.” Kallfass also sees applications for private homes: “At a data rate of 100 gigabits per second, it would be possible to transmit the contents of a blue-ray disk or of five DVDs between two devices by radio within two seconds only.” In the laboratory experiment, radio relay transmission has covered a distance of up to 20 m already. In the experiments, latest photonic and electronic technologies were combined: First, the radio signals are generated by means of an optical method. Several bits are combined by so-called data symbols and transmitted at the same time. Upon transmission, the radio signals are received by active integrated electronic circuits. The transmitter generates the radio signals by means of an ultra-broadband so-called photon mixer made by the Japanese company NTT-NEL. For this, two optical laser signals of different frequencies are superimposed on a photodiode. An electrical signal results, the frequency of which equals the frequency difference of both optical signals, here, 237.5 GHz. The millimeter-wave electrical signal is then radiated via an antenna. “It is a major advantage of the photonic method that data streams from fiber-optical systems can directly be converted into high-frequency radio signals,” Professor Jürg Leuthold says. He proposed the photonic extension that was realized in this project. The former head of the KIT Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics (IPQ) is now affiliated with ETH Zurich. “This advantage makes the integration of radio relay links of high bit rates into optical fiber networks easier and more flexible.“ In contrast to a purely electronic transmitter, no intermediate electronic circuit is needed. “Due to the large bandwidth and the good linearity of the photon mixer, the method is excellently suited for transmission of advanced modulation formats with multiple amplitude and phase states. This will be a necessity in future fiber-optical systems,” Leuthold adds. Reception of radio signals is based on electronic circuits. In the experiment, a semiconductor chip was employed that was produced by the Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Solid State Physics (IAF) within the framework of the “Millilink” project. The semiconductor technology is based on high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMT) enabling the fabrication of active, broadband receivers for the frequency range between 200 and 280 GHz. The integrated circuits have a chip size of a few square millimeters only. The receiver chip can also cope with advanced modulation formats. As a result, the radio link can be integrated into modern optical fiber networks in a bit-transparent way. Already in May this year the team succeeded in transmitting a data rate of 40 gigabits per second over a long distance in the laboratory using a purely electronic system. In addition, data were transmitted successfully over a distance of one kilometer from one high-riser to another in the Karlsruhe City center. “The long transmission distances in “Millilink” were reached with conventional antennas that may be replaced by fully integrated miniaturized antenna designs in future compact systems for indoor use,” says Professor Thomas Zwick, Head of the KIT Institut für Hochfrequenztechnik und Elektronik (Institute of High-Frequency Technology and Electronics). The present data rate can be still increased. “By employing optical and electrical multiplexing techniques, i.e., by simultaneously transmitting multiple data streams, and by using multiple transmitting and receiving antennas, the data rate could be multiplied,” says Swen König from the KIT Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics (IPQ), who conceived and conducted the recent world-record experiment. “Hence, radio systems having a data rate of 1 terabit per second appear to be feasible.” The “Millilink” project (March 2010 to May 2013) was funded with a total budget of EUR 2 million by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the program “Broadband Access Networks of the Next Generation”. Apart from the research institutions of Fraunhofer IAF and KIT, the industry partners Siemens AG, Kathrein KG, and Radiometer Physics GmbH participated in the project.  The project focused on integrating wireless or radio links into broadband optical communication networks for rapid internet access in rural areas in particular. Other possible applications are indoor wireless local area networks (WLAN), wireless personal area networks (WPAN), and intra-machine and board-to-board communication. In the recent experiment, the originally purely electronic “Millilink” concept was extended by a photonic transmitter. At KIT, work is now continued under the Helmholtz International Research School of Teratronics (HIRST), a graduate school focusing on the combination of photonic and electronic methods for signal processing at highest frequencies. Contacts and sources: Monika Landgraf. Helmholtz Association Reference: Wireless sub-THz communication system with high data rate. S. Koenig, D. Lopez-Diaz, J. Antes, F. Boes, R. Henneberger, A. Leuther, A. Tessmann, R. Schmogrow, D. Hillerkuss, R. Palmer, T. Zwick, C. Koos, W. Freude, O. Ambacher, J. Leuthold, and I. Kallfass. nature photonics. doi: 10.1038/nphoton.2013.275, http://www.nature.com/nphoton/index.html. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is a public corporation according to the legislation of the state of Baden-Württemberg. It fulfills the mission of a university and the mission of a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. Research activities focus on energy, the natural and built environment as well as on society and technology and cover the whole range extending from fundamental aspects to application. With about 9000 employees, including nearly 6000 staff members in the science and education sector, and 24000 students, KIT is one of the biggest research and education institutions in Europe. Work of KIT is based on the knowledge triangle of research, teaching, and innovation. Source: Nano Patents And Innovation

Read More........→October 16, 2013

Malware re-birth a new threat?

Indian Express, Agencies : Washington, Scientists have claimed that new breeds of malware could leave computer systems and even critical infrastructure defenceless to attack from cyber criminals or foreign governments. An international team, led by Murray Brand, says that a theoretical attack strategy it calls a malware rebirthing botnet would render existing antivirus measures obsolete by using different kinds of malware in a coordinated strike. The attacker would first use a worm to create a botnet of infected slave computers, then upload a honeypot programme to attract and capture other malware from the internet. The captured malware would then be sent back to the attacker and altered in what Brand calls a rebirthing suite, improving its defences against antivirus programs with anti-analysis tools and tailoring them for the coming attack before distributing them among the botnet. The attacker now has an array of advanced, customised malware that are extremely difficult if not impossible for antivirus programs to detect that can be deployed against a target system from multiple angles. "Recognition of malware is dependent upon an analyst having already analysed the behaviour of the malware and extracted an identifying signature," Dr Brand said. If the new malware is significantly different to any known malware, antivirus software is unlikely to recognise the threat until the malware has disabled it, say the scientists. Dr Brand says antivirus software is already struggling to keep up with the growing volume of malware rapidly appearing on the internet, more than 75 million by the end of 2011. He says one third of malware in existence was created in the first 10 months of 2010 and new threats are often not properly identified for 48 days, with another 48 hours to program new definitions. Dr Brand says the processing power needed to scan for and delete malware may soon outstrip capacity of most computers. "At the other end of the spectrum, customised malicious software that does have a coordinated objective could be used to take over control of critical infrastructure or network operations in a very stealthy manner," he added. Source: Indian Express

Read More........→September 21, 2013

Popular game Angry Birds now on Facebook

Are you fond of Computer games and facebook? If you want to be on facebook and play your favourite game at same time, then it is possible now. As promised, the mega popular casual game Angry Birds has made its way to Facebook for the first time. The game's developer Rovio previously announced it would bring the avian-flinging adventure to the social platform just in time for Valentine's Day, and here we are. How romantic Yes, nothing screams romance and valentines quite like oblong green pigs, so the launch date seems perfectly fitting. This isn't the first time Valentine's Day has been an important affair for Angry Birds. Rovio previously released a themed 'holiday' version of the game filled with pink backgrounds and a whole slew of little hearts. Angry Birds has, of course, become one of the most popular casual games of all time. However, it is largely a single-player affair. Rovio could have brought it to Facebook a long time ago but it was apparently working on how to turn it into a more social experience. Angry Birds on Facebook includes online leaderboards and special power-ups that users can buy for 99 cents a pop. In case you've been keeping track, Angry Birds is already available for Android, the iPhone and iPad, Windows Phone, handheld game systems, and TV set-top boxes. And that doesn't even include the board game or any of the myriad other merchandising ventures. So as for Angry Birds making its way to Facebook, the only real reaction to have is - it's about time.Source: Ananta-Tec

Read More........→May 25, 2013

Internet in Space

Now onwards Internet can be used from the space to control machines on earth! The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA jointly conducted an experiment in that direction, recently. An interplanetary internet has been used by Sunita Williams, the astronaut at the International Space Station (ISS) to send commands to control a rover in Germany. The new technology named Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol, could be a future way to communicate with astronauts on other planets like Mars The work on the DTN was first proposed a decade ago by Vint Cerf - one of the creators of the internet on Earth.The technology was first tested in November 2008, when Nasa successfully transmitted images to and from a spacecraft 20 million miles away with a communications system based on the net. The experiment demonstrated that it is possible to send commands to a surface robot from an orbiting spacecraft and receive images and data back from the robot. Source: eNLokam

Read More........→December 24, 2012

Hackers could create havoc with global air traffic

LAS VEGAS — Air traffic control software used around the world could be exploited by hackers to unleash squadrons of ghost planes to befuddle those entrusted to keep the skies safe, a security researcher said Friday. Cyprus-based Andrei Costin demonstrated his findings at a Black Hat gathering of cyber defenders in Las Vegas. “This is for information only,” Costin said as he outlined how someone with modest tech skills and about $2,000 worth of electronics could vex air traffic controllers or even stalk celebrities traveling in private jets. “Everything you do is at your own risk.”  Costin’s target was an ADS-B system in place for aircraft to communicate with one another and with air traffic control systems at airports.The system, which has been rolled out internationally in recent years in a multi-billion dollar upgrade, was designed to better track aircraft so airport traffic can flow more efficiently. A perilous flaw is that the system is not designed to verify who is actually sending a message, meaning that those with malicious intent can impersonate aircraft either as pranks or to cause mayhem, according to Costin. “There is no provision to make sure a message is genuine,” he said.“It is basically an inviting opportunity for any attacker with medium technical knowledge.” Air traffic controllers faced with a signal from a fake airplane resort to cross-checking flight plans, putting relevant portions of air space off limits while they work. “Imagine you inject a million planes; you don’t have that many people to cross-check,” Costin said. “You can do a human resource version of a denial of service attack on an airport.” Denial of service attacks commonly used by hackers involve overwhelming websites with so many simultaneous online requests that they crash or slow to the point of being useless. Aviation agencies are adept at identifying and locating “rogue transmitters” on the ground, but not at countering signals from drones or other robotic aircraft becoming more common and available, according to the researcher. Another danger in the new-generation air traffic control system, according to Costin, is that position, velocity and other information broadcast by aircraft isn’t encrypted and can be snatched from the air. “Basically, you can buy or build yourself a device to capture this information from airplanes,” Costin said. He listed potential abuses including paparazzi being able to track private jets carrying celebrities or other famous people. Costin showed how a friend was able to identify a plane broadcasting the identification numbers of Air Force One, the military jet used by the U.S. president, and plot it on a map on an iPad. “It can be a very profitable business model for criminals to invest a small amount of money in radios, place them around the world” and then sell jet tracking services or information about flights, the independent researcher said. “If it was Air Force One, why does Air Force One show itself?” Costin wondered aloud. “It is a very high profile target and you don’t want everyone to know it is flying over your house.” There are websites with databases matching aircraft registration numbers with listed owners. Source: Sam Daily Times

Read More........→December 16, 2012

Samsung to launch a Facebook-like Social network next year

Are you fed of with facebook , twitter or Google ? If yes then it can be a good News for you all. After Google and Microsoft’s venture into social networking space, now Samsung seems to be working on a social networking service. A recent report from The Korean Times, states that Samsung Electronics is expected to launch a Facebook-like social networking site by early next year.The new social network according to the reports would be accessible on a wide range of devices, including laptops, cameras, televisions etc. To allow users to access the social networking service from any device and at any time, Samsung also plans to integrate the service with Amazon’s cloud computing platform. When asked about the rumors of the upcoming social network, Samsung claimed that the company is just launching an update for Family Story – a social networking service focused on photo sharing, and storing families’ special moments, accessible on a limited number of Samsung smartphones and Web-connected televisions, since February 2012. “By the end of the year, we will have a polished and finished version of Family Story that will be offered first to Samsung device users for free. The new service will become available in the first quarter of next year at the earliest. The eventual goal is to expand our social media service across different devices from different companies across different mobile platforms. That includes cameras, televisions and blue-ray players,”Samsung stated. Source: Ananta Tech, Reference-Image: flickr.com

Read More........→November 16, 2012

Feeling Fat? Maybe Facebook Is To Blame

www.csmonitor.com - Facebook may be promoting poor body image among its users, a new report says, with more than half of survey-takers admitting that they feel more conscious of their weight because of the social networking site, and only a quarter saying they are happy with their body. The report, which was based on an online survey of 600 Facebook users and was conducted by The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore, also found that 32 percent of users feel sad when comparing Facebook photos of themselves to those of their friends, that 37 percent feel they need to change specific parts of their body when comparing their photos to others’, and that 44 percent wish they had the same body or weight as a friend when looking at the photos. Even doctors at the mental health institution were surprised

by the intensity of the survey’s findings. “We’ve known for a long time that people in our culture were dissatisfied with their body,” said Harry Brandt, director of The Center for Eating Disorders. “But the degree of dissatisfaction really surprises me.” Dr. Brandt said that while body image problems are nothing new in our society, he and colleagues suspected that Faceook might be amplifying the obsession with thin. He said they were hearing Facebook-related concerns from many of their eating disorder patients, and decided to commission the research, which polled Facebook users ranging in age from 16 to 40, to find out whether these concerns also existed in the wider population. The results, he said, returned a clear “yes.” While the studies showed that females were more slightly likely than males to worry about and compare their bodies to their friends’, the differences were usually within 10 percentage points; Facebook, it seems, can make everyone insecure.Source: Vedic Views on World News

Read More........→August 23, 2012

Google deploying planes over cities for 3D maps

A three-dimensional view of the Cliff House in San Francisco on Google Earth. -AP

Deccan Chronicle, Reuters, San Francisco: Google is deploying a fleet of small, camera-equipped airplanes above several cities, the Internet search company's latest step in its ambitious and sometimes controversial plan to create a digital map of the world. Google plans to release the first three-dimensional maps for several cities by the end of the year, the company said at a news conference at its San Francisco offices on Wednesday. Google declined to name the cities, but it showed a demonstration of a 3D map of San Francisco, in which a user can navigate around an aerial view of the city. "We're trying to create the illusion that you're just flying over the city, almost as if you were in your own personal helicopter," said Peter Birch, a product manager for Google Earth. Google's head of engineering for its maps product, Brian McClendon, said the company was using a fleet of airplanes owned and operated by contractors and flying exclusively for Google. Asked about potential privacy implications, McClendon said the privacy issues were similar to all aerial imagery and that the type of 45-degree-angle pictures that the planes take have been used for a long time. Google has used airplanes to collect aerial photos in the past, such as following the 2010 San Bruno, California gas-line explosion, but the latest effort marks the first time the company will deploy the planes in a systemic manner to build a standard feature in one of its products. By the end of the year, Google said it expects to have 3D map coverage for metropolitan areas with a combined population of 300 million people. The first 3D cityscape will be available within weeks. Google has for years operated a fleet of camera-equipped cars that crisscross the globe taking panoramic pictures of streets for its popular mapping service. The cars have raised privacy concerns in some countries. In 2010, Google acknowledged that the so-called Street View cars had been inadvertently collecting emails, passwords and other personal data from people's home wireless networks. Collecting the WiFi data was unrelated to the Google Maps project, and was done instead so that Google could collect data on WiFi hotspots that can be used to provide separate location-based services. The forthcoming 3D city maps will be part of the Google Earth software app available for mobile devices such as smartphones based on Google's Android software and Apple's iOS software. The company also announced a version of Google maps for Android smartphones that allows users to access certain maps without an Internet connection. Shares of Google finished on Wednesday's regular session up 1.8 per cent at $580.57. Google's announcement comes a week before Apple Inc's developer conference in San Francisco, as competition between the two tech giants continues to heat up, particularly in the fast-growing mobile market. Apple is planning to replace Google Maps as the built-in mapping service on its iPhone and iPad later this year with technology that it has created in-house, according to media reports. Apple could show off its new mapping software at next week's conference. Google's McClendon said the company would continue to make Google maps services available as widely as possible, on "all platforms." In what appeared to be a veiled jab at Apple, he said the integration with Google's search engine provides a mapping serving that is far more useful than a product that simply uses a 'geocoder' - technology that uses geographic coordinates to create a digital map. Apple began to use its own geocoder technology for the Google-based maps on its smartphones late last year. Google said on Wednesday that there are currently 1 billion monthly active users of Google maps services and that the Street View cars have driven more than 5 million miles (8 million km) Photographing streets all over the world. Asked if Google had any plans to use unmanned aerial drones to gather photos for its 3D cityscapes, McClendon said it was an interesting question, but noted that drones were still being evaluated by the Federal Aviation Administration. "That's a larger can of worms that we're not going to get into here," he said. Source: Deccan Chronicle

Read More........→August 17, 2012

Google Maps to feature canals and rivers

Google has embarked on a project to map towpaths in England and Wales, as part of a plan to get more people on to rivers and canals. Later this year, Google Maps will be updated to enable users to plan journeys that include bridges, locks and the 2,000 miles of canal and river paths across England and Wales. The project is being launched today with the Canal and River Trust, which begins its stewardship of the nation's waterways next month. It takes over from British Waterways and the Waterways Trustin England and Wales to become responsible for the nation's third largest collection of listed structures, as well hundreds of important wildlife habitats. Tony Hales, the chairman of the trust, said: "We are delighted that these exciting partners have come on board as we launch. This is a huge vote of confidence in the Canal and River Trust and recognition of the important role it will play as the guardian of one of the nation's environmental treasures." Ed Parsons, a geospatial technologist at Google UK, said of the project: "Canal towpaths offer green routes through our towns and cities, and by working with the Canal and River Trust we're adding towpaths to Google Maps and encouraging people to discover their local waterway."Source: Sam Daily Times

Read More........→July 21, 2012

The Daily Protein:An Integrated Online News & Media Gadget

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Read More........→July 20, 2012

A 'devil's worm', a sneezing monkey and an orchid that only blooms at night are named in the latest top 10 list of new species

A 'devil's worm', a sneezing monkey and an orchid that only blooms at night have been named in the latest top 10 list of new species. Chosen by scientists from 200 nominated animals and plants described for the first time last year, a venomous jellyfish, giant millipede, parasitic wasp and a blue tarantula also make the top 10. The list is published each year by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State

Read More........→May 27, 2012