Sunday 19 May 2019

Stop gambling with black box and explainable models on high-stakes decisions

As the buzzwords "machine learning" continue to grow in popularity, more industries are turning to computer algorithms to answer important questions, including high-stakes fields such as healthcare, finance and criminal justice. While this trend can lead to major improvements in these realms, it can also lead to major problems when the machine learning algorithm is a so-called "black box."

* This article was originally published here

HP Enterprise buying supercomputer star Cray

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) on Friday announced a $1.3 billion deal to buy supercomputer maker Cray, part of a move to expand into data analysis from connected devices .

* This article was originally published here

Machine learning speeds modeling of experiments aimed at capturing fusion energy on Earth

Machine learning (ML), a form of artificial intelligence that recognizes faces, understands language and navigates self-driving cars, can help bring to Earth the clean fusion energy that lights the sun and stars. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are using ML to create a model for rapid control of plasma—the state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei, or ions—that fuels fusion reactions.

* This article was originally published here

Wearable cooling and heating patch could serve as personal thermostat and save energy

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a wearable patch that could provide personalized cooling and heating at home, work, or on the go. The soft, stretchy patch cools or warms a user's skin to a comfortable temperature and keeps it there as the ambient temperature changes. It is powered by a flexible, stretchable battery pack and can be embedded in clothing. Researchers say wearing it could help save energy on air conditioning and heating.

* This article was originally published here

Making the best of sparse information

New findings reported by LMU researchers challenge a generally accepted model of echolocation in bats. They demonstrate that bats require far less spatial information than previously thought to navigate effectively.

* This article was originally published here

After the Moon, people on Mars by 2033... or 2060

On December 11, 2017, US President Donald Trump signed a directive ordering NASA to prepare to return astronauts to the Moon "followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations."

* This article was originally published here

FDA approves venetoclax for chronic, small lymphocytic leukemia

(HealthDay)—Venetoclax (VENCLEXTA) has been approved to treat adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday.

* This article was originally published here

Augmented reality affects people's behavior in the real world

As major technology firms race to roll out augmented reality products, Stanford researchers are learning how it affects people's behavior – in both the physical world and a digitally enhanced one.

* This article was originally published here

Ernst Haeckel: Pioneer of modern science

"By ecology, we understand the whole science of the organism's relationship with the surrounding outside world, which includes in a broader sense all 'existential conditions'. These are partly organic and partly inorganic in nature; both the former and the latter are, as we have previously shown, of utmost importance for the form of the organisms, because they force them to adapt to them."

* This article was originally published here

Life goes on under cloud of smog in Mexico City

Scientists say breathing the heavily polluted air in Mexico City these days is like smoking somewhere between a quarter- and a half-pack of cigarettes a day.

* This article was originally published here

Integrated stepped alcohol treatment for people in HIV care improves both HIV and alcohol outcomes

New clinical research supported by the National Institutes of Health shows that increasing the intensity of treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) over time improves alcohol-related outcomes among people with HIV. This stepped approach to AUD treatment also improves HIV-related disease measures in this patient population. A report of the new study, led by researchers at Yale University, is now online in The Lancet HIV.

* This article was originally published here

Could hypnotherapy be alternative to opioids for pain?

(HealthDay)—Hypnosis might sound like a magic trick to some, but the therapy can be an effective pain reliever, a new review shows.

* This article was originally published here

Changes in subsistence hunting threaten local food security

Scientists with the Universidad San Francisco de Quito and WCS Ecuador Program publishing in the journal BioTropica say that subsistence hunting in Neotropical rain forests—the mainstay of local people as a source of protein and a direct connection to these ecosystems—is in jeopardy from a variety of factors.

* This article was originally published here