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takyon writes:

Warning to academics: Hyphens in paper titles harm citation counts and journal impact factors

According to the latest research results, the presence of simple hyphens in the titles of academic papers adversely affects the citation statistics, regardless of the quality of the articles. The phenomenon applies to all major subject areas. Thus, citation counts and journal impact factors, commonly used for professorial evaluations in universities worldwide, are unreliable.

[...] Professor [T.H.] Tse and team members proposed an innovative method named "metamorphic robustness testing" to verify Scopus and Web of Science. The in-depth study uncovered robustness defects in both systems that might produce erroneous citation counts for papers with hyphens in the titles, so that the journal impact factors subsequently computed are problematic.

Back in 2015, Letchford and colleagues conducted a large-scale study on Scopus, and found that papers with shorter titles tended to be cited more than those with longer titles. Their results were widely reported in international media including Science and Nature.

On the contrary, Professor Tse and the present team find that it is actually the number of hyphens in the title that serves as the more dominating factor for citation counts. Usually, the number of hyphens is correlated to a paper's title length, thus giving the misinterpretation that citation counts depend on title length.

[...] "Our results question the common belief by the academia, governments, and funding bodies that citation counts are a reliable measure of the contributions and significance of papers. In fact, they can be distorted simply by the presence of hyphens in article titles, which has no bearing on the quality of research. Similarly, our results also challenge the validity of journal impact factors," said Professor Tse. "These surprising results are of interest not only to professors seeking tenure or promotion, but also to the senior management such as presidents, deans, and heads. They are applicable to all faculties in any university," he added.

Metamorphic Robustness Testing: Exposing Hidden Defects in Citation Statistics and Journal Impact Factors (open, DOI: 10.1109/TSE.2019.2915065) (DX)

Older research: The advantage of short paper titles (open, DOI: 10.1098/rsos.150266) (DX)

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

John Romero, the game developer virtuoso behind Hexen, Quake, Wolfenstein, and other games still being remade and sequelized to this day, just dropped a massive, free mod for one of his most famous and popular creations: Doom.

The new expansion is called "Sigil", and it's the unofficial fifth episode in the game's story (three episodes were part of the original release, a fourth was added with the Ultimate Doom edition from 1995). It contains nine single-player levels and nine deathmatch levels and is "megawad"-sized, meaning it's almost the same size as a commercial game.

[...] If you want to try your hand at "Sigil", you can download it from Romero's website. You'll need the original Doom in order to play it, though that's readily available on Steam.

Source: https://thenextweb.com/gaming/2019/06/01/doom-creator-john-romero-sigil-addition/

Previously: John Romero Gifts 'Doom' 18 New Levels For Its 25th Birthday

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

Most of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites are already on track

The first batch of 60 Starlink internet satellites has been orbiting Earth for about a week, and now SpaceX has released a status update on the mission. According to a spokesperson, "all 60 satellites have deployed their solar arrays successfully, generated positive power and communicated with our ground stations."

The statement didn't directly mention concerns by astronomers about their brightness and visibility, but Elon Musk already has, and they aren't expected to reach their full altitude for three to four weeks. According to SpaceX, "observability of the Starlink satellites is dramatically reduced as they raise orbit to greater distance and orient themselves with the phased array antennas toward Earth and their solar arrays behind the body of the satellite."

Parabolic Arc notes that during a speech at MIT this week, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell mentioned four of the units had unspecified problems, while today's update said "most" are using their Hall thrusters to reach operational altitude and have already made contact with their broadband antennas, but all of them have maneuvering capability to avoid each other and other objects.

Previously: SpaceX to Launch 60 Starlink Satellites

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/this-2400-year-old-bark-shield-took-a-beating-in-an-iron-age-fight/

When they found the shield, University of York archaeologists Michael Bamforth and his colleagues thought it must have been ceremonial, because surely bark couldn't hold up against heavy iron-tipped spears and iron axes. After all, every other Iron Age shield archaeologists have found in Europe so far has been made of wood or metal. But it turned out that the tough, springy bark would have been perfectly capable of repelling arrows. Its lightness may even have made an Iron Age warrior more agile on the battlefield.

[...] Archaeologists working at the Everard Meadows site, south of Leicester in the UK, found the bark shield buried in the mud of a livestock pond. Made of willow or alder bark (microscopic analysis couldn't narrow the species down any further), it had the same elongated shape, slightly narrowed at the waist, as wood and metal shields from the same period.

Radiocarbon dating suggests that sometime between 395 and 255 BCE, the shield's maker peeled a strip of bark several feet wide right off the trunk of a willow or alder tree. They then folded it in half, with the inside of the bark facing out (freshly peeled bark is surprisingly flexible stuff). Small, flat strips of wood inserted between the layers helped strengthen the shield, as did a strip of hazel-wood trim around the edges. The result was about 10mm (0.39 inches) thick, 67cm (26.38 inches) tall, and 37cm (14.6 inches) wide. 2,400 years later, we can only guess at the meaning of the checkerboard pattern etched into the surface of the bark, painted red with pigment from the iron-rich mineral hematite.

[...] Bamforth and his colleagues decided that there was only one way to truly understand how well the shield would have held up in combat: they built their own and shot it with arrows. "As the bark of the shield dried and bent into its final shape, we realized how strong it would be. The bark, which had been soft and easy to cut when 'green' (wet still from being part of a tree) rapidly stiffened up," explained Bamforth. "We shot some arrows from a wooden bow and were surprised to see them bouncing off."

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Physicists create stable, strongly magnetized plasma jet in laboratory

When you peer into the night sky, much of what you see is plasma, a soupy amalgam of ultra-hot atomic particles. Studying plasma in the stars and various forms in outer space requires a telescope, but scientists can recreate it in the laboratory to examine it more closely.

Now, a team of scientists led by physicists Lan Gao of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Edison Liang of Rice University, has for the first time created a particular form of coherent and magnetized plasma jet that could deepen the understanding of the workings of much larger jets that stream from newborn stars and possibly black holes -- stellar objects so massive that they trap light and warp both space and time.

"We are now creating stable, supersonic, and strongly magnetized plasma jets in a laboratory that might allow us to study astrophysical objects light years away," said astrophysicist Liang, co-author of the paper reporting the results in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

[...] "This is groundbreaking research because no other team has successfully launched a supersonic, narrowly beamed jet that carries such a strong magnetic field, extending to significant distances," said Liang. "This is the first time that scientists have demonstrated that the magnetic field does not just wrap around the jet, but also extends parallel to the jet's axis," he said.

The researchers hope to expand their research with larger laser facilities and investigate other types of phenomena. "The next step involves seeing whether an external magnetic field could make the jet longer and more collimated," Gao said.

"We would also like to replicate the experiment using the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which has 192 laser beams, half of which could be used to create our plasma ring. It would have a larger radius and thus produce a longer jet than that produced using OMEGA. This process would help us figure out under which conditions the plasma jet is strongest."

L. Gao, et. al. Mega-Gauss Plasma Jet Creation Using a Ring of Laser Beams. The Astrophysical Journal, 2019; 873 (2): L11 DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab07bd

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Stratolaunch space company denies rumors it's closing down

The space vehicle launch company owned by the late Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, has confirmed that it's still operational, following a report that it was closing shop.

Earlier Friday, Reuters said four sources told it that Stratolaunch Systems Corporation would be closing down.

Stratolaunch has been developing a series of space launch vehicles including a super-sized aircraft. In August 2018, the company unveiled a lineup of vehicles.

Also at:
https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/31/paul-allen-stratolaunch-shutdown-report/
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28319/stratolaunch-reportedly-shuts-down-leaving-worlds-largest-plane-with-an-uncertain-future
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/the-worlds-largest-aircraft-may-never-launch-rockets-nor-even-fly-again/

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Facebook reportedly thinks there's no 'expectation of privacy' on social media

Facebook on Wednesday reportedly argued that it didn't violate users' privacy rights because there's no expectation of privacy when using social media.

"There is no invasion of privacy at all, because there is no privacy," Facebook counsel Orin Snyder said during a pretrial hearing to dismiss a lawsuit stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to Law 360.

The company reportedly didn't deny that third parties accessed users' data, but it instead told US District Judge Vince Chhabria that there's no "reasonable expectation of privacy" on Facebook or any other social media site.

Facebook declined to comment.

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for AnonymousLuser

The defect-free assembly of 2-D clusters with over 100 single-atom quantum systems

Researchers at Technische Universität Darmstadt have recently demonstrated the defect-free assembly of versatile target patterns of up to 111 single-atom quantum systems. Their findings, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, could drive assembled-atom architectures beyond the threshold of quantum advantage, paving the way for new breakthroughs in quantum science and technology.

"Our research is driven by the observation that physical sciences are right in the middle of a paradigm shift in which the application of quantum physics, i.e. quantum technologies, are becoming the leading technologies in the near future," Gerhard Birkl, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. "A vast list of applications are already foreseeable but I am convinced that of most applications we are not even aware of."

The next step for the field of quantum science and technology is the development of experimental platforms that offer extensive scalability, multisite quantum correlations and efficient quantum error correction. Over the past century or so, researchers have carried out a substantial amount of work on single quantum systems, laying the foundations for current developments. Atomic quantum systems have played a key role in these studies, particularly neutral atoms trapped by light, as they provide well-isolated quantum systems with favorable scaling.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Apple's biggest cash cow, the iPhone, continued to suffer weaker sales around the world in first quarter of the year as Chinese tech giant Huawei flexed its muscles and claimed more market share from Apple and its longtime rival, Samsung.

That's according to new data from tech research firm Gartner, which on Tuesday released its latest report on the state of the smartphone market. According to Gartner, worldwide smartphone sales during the first quarter of the year dropped to 373 million units—a 2.7% decline from the same period a year ago. The main reasons cited for the drop were rising prices and slower rates of improvements in phone features that have caused consumers to extend the amount of time they are taking between phone upgrades.

Gartner said that Apple saw its iPhone sales fall to 44.6 million devices from 54.1 million in the first quarter of 2018, while its share of the worldwide market dropped to 11.9% from 14.1% a year ago. Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta said that even though Apple cut iPhone prices in several markets during the quarter, the move wasn't enough to stoke demand and raise sales.

"Apple is facing longer replacement cycles as users struggle to see enough value benefits to justify replacing existing iPhones," Gupta said.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

CRISPR/Cas9 is now a household name associated with genetic engineering studies. Through cutting-edge research described in their paper published in Scientific Reports, a team of researchers from Tokyo University of Science, Meiji University, and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, led by Dr. Takayuki Arazoe and Prof Shigeru Kuwata, has recently established a series of novel strategies to increase the efficiency of targeted gene disruption and new gene "introduction" using the CRISPR/Cas9 system in the rice blast fungus Pyricularia (Magnaporthe) oryzae. These strategies include quicker (single-step) gene introduction, use of small homologous sequences, and bypassing of certain prerequisite host DNA "patterns" and host component modification.

The team led by Dr. Arazoe and Prof Kuwata has devised quick, simple techniques for gene editing (target gene disruption, sequence substitution, and re-introduction of desired genes) using CRISPR/Cas9 in the rice blast fungus Pyricularia (Magnaporthe) oryzae, a type of filamentous fungus. Spurred on by encouraging results, the researchers surmise, "Plants and their pathogens are still coevolving in nature. Exploiting the mutation mechanisms of model pathogenic fungi as a genome editing technique might lead to the development of further novel techniques in genetic engineering."

The working component of the CRISPR/Cas9 system binds to the target gene region (DNA) and causes a site-specific double-stranded break (DSB) in the DNA. Effective binding of this component requires a certain "motif" or "pattern" called the protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM), which follows downstream of the target gene region.

Most genome editing techniques require DSBs induced at the target site, which trigger DNA "repair" pathways in the host. Homologous recombination (HR) is a mechanism for repair of DSBs, and it is useful because it adds complementary sequences. However, the underlying methodology is laborious, and its efficiency conventionally depends on external factors such as the host properties as well as PAMs. HR can be divided into two pathways: "noncrossover" (gene conversion) and "crossover" type. Crossover-type repairs are known to occur in cells that undergo meiosis. However, the understanding of their role in cells that undergo mitosis is limited, and such information on filamentous fungi is virtually unavailable. It is this gap in knowledge that the researchers were looking to address.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Illinois Becomes 11th State to Legalize Recreational Marijuana

Illinois lawmakers voted to legalize recreational marijuana, becoming the 11th U.S. state to do so and bolstering Governor J.B. Pritzker's efforts to shore up the finances of the cash-strapped state.

The House of Representatives Friday passed the measure that allows the purchase and possession of cannabis by those who are 21 and older starting in 2020. The Senate approved the bill on Wednesday. Pritzker, who took office in January, had made legalization a key platform in his campaign and said soon after the legislation passed that he will sign it. The billionaire Democrat's budget proposal for the year that starts July 1 included an estimated $170 million from the sale of producer licenses.

Illinois joins a growing movement to end the prohibition of the drug: ten other states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational pot in the past seven years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Illinois's move follows Michigan, potentially creating a hub in the Midwest after efforts to legalize in New Jersey and New York stalled earlier this year.

Vermont was the first state to legalize cannabis through an act of the legislature. Illinois is now the second state.

Also at Chicago Tribune.

See also: llinois state lawmaker uses eggs to demonstrate 'your brain on drugs'
Legalizing marijuana is a victory for freedom in Illinois

Previously: Vermont Legislature Passes Cannabis Legalisation Bill
Following Years of Opposition, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Plans Cannabis Legalization

Original Submission

takyon writes:

NASA awards contracts to three companies to land payloads on the moon

NASA announced May 31 the award of more than $250 million in contracts to three companies to deliver NASA payloads to the lunar surface by 2021.

The agency said it awarded contracts to Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and OrbitBeyond to carry up to 23 payloads to the moon on three commercial lunar lander missions scheduled for launch between September 2020 and July 2021. The three companies were selected for these task orders from the nine companies that received Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) awards in November 2018.

[...] OrbitBeyond is the first of the three scheduled to fly, with the company currently planning to launch its Z-01 lander on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in Septmber 2020. The New Jersey-based company, which has ties to India's TeamIndus, a former Google Lunar X Prize team, received $97 million from NASA to fly up to four payloads on a lander scheduled to touch down on Mare Imbrium.

Astrobotic plans to launch its Peregrine lander in June 2021, landing in July. The company had previously announced plans to fly the payload as a secondary payload on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5, but John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic, said on the NASA webcast that the company was "assessing our launch options and making a decision very shortly." The company received $79.5 million for carrying up to 14 payloads to the crater Lacus Mortis.

Intuitive Machines plan to launch its Nova-C lander on a Falcon 9 in July 2021, landing on the moon six and a half days later. The Houston-based company received $77 million to carry up to four payloads on its lander, which will touch down on Oceanus Procellarum or Mare Serenitatis.

Also at NYT and The Verge.

Previously: NASA Opens the Floodgates for Firms With Planetary Ambitions

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A USB Stick as an SSD? A New Silicon Motion SM3282 Single-Chip Controller for USB SSDs

Silicon Motion has introduced its first single-chip controller for portable USB SSDs. The SM3282 promises to enable makers of portable drives to offer up to 400 MB/s sequential read speeds in a cost-efficient manner previously unachievable by external SSDs.

[...] Previously, makers of external SSDs had to use a USB-to-PCIe bridge alongside an SSD controller to build their products, which greatly increased BOM costs as well as the final price. The SM3282 packs all the necessary functionality into a single chip and thus reduces BOM cost of external SSDs.

SSD - Solid State Drive
BOM - Bill of Materials

Original Submission

c0lo writes:

BBC:

The UN's special rapporteur on torture said that Assange had been subjected to sustained collective persecution - including threatening statements and incitement to violence against him.

"I've worked in many areas of war in my life, in situations of violence, and I've talked to victims of persecution around the world and I've seen very serious atrocities," Mr Melzer told the BBC.

"But [what] I have never seen is that a single person has been deliberately isolated and, I would say, persecuted - not prosecuted, but persecuted - by several democratic states in a concerted effort to eventually break his will."

He added that he believes Assange "has a very strong case, and a very reasonable fear, that if he gets extradited to the Unites States he has no chance to get a fair trial with the level of public and official prejudice that exists there for him".

Mr Melzer added that, because of his treatment, his health was at serious risk.

"We could see that Assange showed all the symptoms that are typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture," he said.

Assange, he said, needs access to a psychiatrist who is "not part of the prison service - someone he can fully trust" - to avoid his health deteriorating further.

RandomFactor writes:

The MOONRISE project is a technology demonstration project that will send a rover to our nearest neighbor equipped with a lightweight laser system to melt lunar regolith and convert it into building materials.

So far, all the proposals made for a lunar base have centered on in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) and 3D printing – where robots will manufacture the base out of lunar regolith. For this purpose, the Laser Zentrum Hannover (LZH) and the Institute of Space Systems (IRAS) at the Technical University of Braunschweig came together to develop a laser system capable of turning moon dust into building materials.

The ability to generate building materials using local resources is an absolute must for the future of space exploration. At present, the cost of launching payloads to the Moon is still prohibitively expensive – estimated at roughly $780,000 a kilogram ($355,000 a pound). For this reason, the most cost-effective plans involve manufacturing everything directly on the lunar surface.

The MOONRISE project will validate that the 3kg laser system is capable of melting regolith and converting it into a molten ceramic material that could then be 3d-printed into desired shapes.

This, or a similar 3d printing method, will be used in the construction of the ESA's planned International Moon Village.

The results of the previous tests are promising, which validated the system’s laser hardware and optics. The science team has also been using materials that are increasingly similar to lunar regolith to see if the laser is capable of melting them. Currently, the team is working on integrating the laser to fit into the load compartment of the lunar rover so that it is able to fire out of the underside.

The fourth generation four-wheeled rover that will be used for the mission is the Audi Lunar Quattro developed by Berlin-based PTScientists in conjunction with Audi. The rover has stereoscopic vision and is remote controlled from Earth using a joystick.

This regolith reshaping research may come to fruition as early as 2021 when PTScientists plans to launch the rover with its lunar liquefying laser.

Original Submission