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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Analysing 2500-year-old teeth has thrown open a window onto life and gender inequality during Bronze Age China.

The University of Otago-led research has cast light on breastfeeding, weaning, evolving diets and the difference between what girls and boys were eating, lead researcher Dr. Melanie Miller, a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Otago's Department of Anatomy, says.

The teeth come from the Central Plains of China and date from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, between 771 and 221 BC. Despite their extreme antiquity (they are as old as Athens' Parthenon and the Old Testament sacking of Jerusalem's First Temple) the teeth's dentin—the bony tissue forming the bulk of our teeth's structure—was full of information.

Using stable isotope analysis, researchers were able to show the types and amounts of various elements in the dentin, including carbon and nitrogen, unlocking information about the individuals' life and diet. That enabled a picture to be drawn of a changing society, Dr. Miller says.

[...] The analysis of 23 individuals from two different archaeological sites shows children were breastfed until they were between 2.5 and four years old, with weaning onto solids—consisting mostly of wheat and soybean—occurring slightly earlier in females than in males.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has found that current estimates of flood risk rely upon methods for calculating flood damage which are inadequately verified and match poorly with observations.

[...] When calculating flood risk—that is, translating modelled representations of the physical of phenomenon of flooding to its impacts—it is common to apply a 'depth-damage function' or curve, which relates a given water depth to a proportional building loss (for example one metre of water equals 50 per cent loss of building value).

[...] The new study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, used commonly applied curves, developed by various US government agencies, and examined how they compare to millions of actual flood insurance claims made in the US.

[...] It found that universally applied depth-damage curves show low skill in the replication of property-level damages, rendering the results of projects where they have been applied (for example the justification of billions of dollars of infrastructure investment) suspect.

[...] At low inundation depths, most damages are somewhat minimal (<10 per cent of building value) with a very low chance of experiencing maximal (>90 per cent) damage. But as depth increases, the distribution shifts and swings towards greater probability of high (>90 per cent) damage and lower probability of low (<10 per cent) damage.

Lead author, Dr. Oliver Wing from Bristol's School of Geographical Sciences, said: "This relationship can be represented with a beta distribution, meaning future flood risk analyses can employ a function which properly captures the true stochastic relationship between depth and damage."

More information: O. Wing, N. Pinter, P. Bates, C. Kousky. New insights into US flood vulnerability revealed from flood insurance big data.Nature Communications, 2020.

Journal information: Nature Communications

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

7.5-inch e-ink display is powered completely by NFC:

NFC (Near Field Communication) is usually only used to for quick text transfers, like a tap-and-pay transaction at a register or a quick data transfer from an NFC sticker. A company called "Waveshare" is really pushing the limits of NFC, though, with a 7.5-inch e-ink display that gets its data, and its power, from an NFC transfer. The $70 display doesn't have a battery and doesn't need a wired power connection.

E-paper (or e-ink) displays have the unique property of not needing power to maintain an image. Once a charge blasts across the display and correctly aligns pixels full of black and white balls, everything will stay where it is when the power turns off, so the image will stick around. You might not have thought about it before, but in addition to data, NFC comes with a tiny wireless power transfer. This display is designed so that NFC provides just enough power to refresh the display during a data transfer, and the e-ink display will hold onto the image afterward.

NFC's power transfer works just like wireless phone charging: the reader (probably your phone) generates an RF field to transfer power to the passive NFC object. NFC stickers (and any other NFC device) have a sizable spiral antenna to harvest the RF signal, just like a wireless charging coil. The amount of power you can transfer over NFC depends on the design of the object and the reader, but Waveshare warns that some phones might not put out enough power. If your phone doesn't work, the company recommends an NFC board that puts out 1.4 watts of power, but Waveshare also shows the device working with a pretty old Android phone, a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge from 2016.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Einstein’s theory of Brownian motion, which describes the random movement of particles in fluids, is widely used to model randomness throughout science. However, this revolutionary model only works when a fluid is static, or at equilibrium.

[...]Experiments have shown that non-moving 'passive' particles can exhibit strange, loopy motions when interacting with 'active' fluids containing swimmers. Such movements do not fit with the conventional particle behaviours described by Brownian motion and so far, scientists have struggled to explain how such large-scale chaotic movements result from microscopic interactions between individual particles.

Now researchers from Queen Mary University of London, Tsukuba University, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Imperial College London, have presented a novel theory to explain observed particle movements in these dynamic environments.

They suggest the new model could also help make predictions about real-life behaviours in biological systems, such as the foraging patterns of swimming algae or bacteria.

Dr Adrian Baule, Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at Queen Mary University of London, who managed the project, said: "Brownian motion is widely used to describe diffusion throughout physical, chemical and biological sciences; however it can't be used to describe the diffusion of particles in more active systems that we often observe in real life."

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Fnord666:

Precision mirrors poised to improve sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors:

Researchers have developed a new type of deformable mirror that could increase the sensitivity of ground-based gravitational wave detectors such as the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Advanced LIGO measures faint ripples in space time called gravitational waves, which are caused by distant events such as collisions between black holes or neutron stars.

"In addition to improving today's gravitational wave detectors, these new mirrors will also be useful for increasing sensitivity in next generation detectors and allow detection of new sources of gravitational waves," said research team leader Huy Tuong Cao from the University of Adelaide node of the Australian Center of Excellence for Gravitational Waves Discovery (OzGrav).

Deformable mirrors, which are used to shape and control laser light, have a surface made of tiny mirrors that can each be moved, or actuated, to change the overall shape of the mirror. As detailed in The Optical Society's (OSA) journal Applied Optics, Cao and colleagues have, for the first time, made a deformable mirror based on the bimetallic effect in which a temperature change is used to achieve mechanical displacement.

"Our new mirror provides a large actuation range with great precision," said Cao. "The simplicity of the design means it can turn commercially available optics into a deformable mirror without any complicated or expensive equipment. This makes it useful for any system where precise control of beam shape is crucial."

[...] Most deformable mirrors use thin mirrors to induce large amount of actuation, but these thin mirrors can produce undesirable scattering because they are hard to polish. The researchers designed a new type of deformable mirror using the bimetallic effect by attaching a piece of metal to a glass mirror. When the two are heated together the metal expands more than the glass, causing the mirror to bend.

The new design not only creates a large amount of precise actuation but is also compact and requires minimum modifications to existing systems. Both the fused silica mirrors and aluminum plates used to create the deformable mirror are commercially available. To attach the two layers, the researchers carefully selected a bonding adhesive that would maximize actuation.

Journal Reference:
Huy Tuong Cao et al. High dynamic range thermally actuated bimorph mirror for gravitational wave detectors, Applied Optics (2020). (DOI: 10.1364/AO.376764)

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Pervasive digital surveillance of citizens deployed in COVID-19 fight, with rules that send genie back to bottle:

Pervasive surveillance through digital technologies is the business model of Facebook and Google. And now governments are considering the web giants' tools to track COVID-19 carriers for the public good.

Among democracies, Israel appears to have gone first: prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced "emergency regulations that will enable the use of digital means in the war on Corona. These means will greatly assist us in locating patients and thereby stop the spread of the virus."

[...] The idea of using tech to spy on COVID-carriers may now be catching.

The Washington Post has reported that the White House has held talks with Google and Facebook about how the data they hold could contribute to analysis of the virus' spread. Both companies already share some anonymised location [data] with researchers. The Post suggested anonymised location data be used by government agencies to understand how people are behaving.

Thailand recently added a COVID-19-screening form to the Airports of Thailand app. While the feature is a digital replica of a paper registration form offered to incoming travellers, the app asks for location permission and tries to turn on Bluetooth every time it is activated. The Register has asked the app's developers to explain the permissions it seeks, but has not received a reply in 48 hours.

[...] If other nations follow suit, will it be possible to put the genie back in?

Probably not: plenty of us give away our location data to exercise-tracking apps for the sheer fun of it and government agencies gleefully hoover up what they call "open source intelligence". ®

After the 9/11 attacks, laws were enacted in the United States that have since resisted being scaled back. Think, for example, of the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001).

There were sunset provisions to the act which, failing reauthorization, would cause provisions to expire on December 31, 2005. In the years since, most of the provisions have been extended. Most recently we have the USA FREEDOM Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015). Among its provisions was the extension of the USA PATRIOT Act.

"KTO NIE PAMIẸTA HISTORII SKAZANY JEST NA JEJ PONOWNE PRZEŻYCIE" GEORGE SANTAYANA ("THE ONE WHO DOES NOT REMEMBER HISTORY IS BOUND TO LIVE THROUGH IT AGAIN" / GEORGE SANTAYANA) from a plaque at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Polish and translated into English. Wikipedia link.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Adobe has released out-of-band updates addressing critical vulnerabilities in its Photoshop and Acrobat Reader products, which if exploited could allow arbitrary code-execution.

Overall, Adobe on Wednesday patched flaws tied to 41 CVEs across its products, 29 of which were critical in severity. The fixes were released outside of Adobe’s regularly scheduled update day, which was earlier in March (during which, in fact, Adobe had no patches).

In this most recent group, Adobe Photoshop had the most vulnerabilities fixed, with 22 CVEs addressed overall, 16 of which were critical: “Adobe has released updates for Photoshop for Windows and macOS. These updates resolve multiple critical and important vulnerabilities,” according to Adobe’s advisory. “Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code-execution in the context of the current user.”

[...] Adobe also addressed 13 vulnerabilities in Acrobat and Reader, including nine critical flaws. [...] All of these critical flaws enable arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user, according to Adobe.

[...] Other vulnerabilities include two critical flaws in Adobe ColdFusion

[...] Two critical flaws were also rooted out in Adobe Bridge that could enable arbitrary code execution [...] And, Adobe also patched important severity flaws in its Adobe Genuine Integrity Service and Adobe Experience Manager.

While Adobe had no regularly scheduled updates earlier in March, it did stomp out flaws tied to 42 CVEs in its regularly scheduled February updates, with 35 of those flaws being critical in severity. That well trumped Adobe’s January security update, which addressed just nine vulnerabilities overall, including ones in Adobe Illustrator CC and Adobe Experience Manager.

See the linked article for the CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) IDs.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The San Francisco Bay Area is in lockdown to fight the spread of the coronavirus. Under a "shelter in place" order announced Monday, people in seven Bay Area counties are prohibited from leaving their homes except for essential activities like visiting the doctor or buying food.

Tesla's Fremont car factory is in Alameda County, which is participating in the lockdown. But Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been defiant. In a Monday evening email, he told employees that they could stay home from work if they felt sick. However, he wrote, "I will personally be at work" on Tuesday.

But late on Tuesday, the Alameda County Sheriff's office fired a shot across Tesla's bow:

Alameda County's Monday order directed businesses in the county to "cease all activities at facilities located within the County except Minimum Basic Operations"—like processing payroll.

[...] Tesla's stock plunged on news that Tesla could be forced to shut down its Fremont factory. As of publication time, Tesla's stock is down more than 11 percent at $380. That's down from a high above $900 the stock hit just last month—before the economic impact of the coronavirus became clear.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Separation anxiety in dogs should be seen as a symptom of underlying frustrations rather than a diagnosis, and understanding these root causes could be key to effective treatment, new research by animal behaviour specialists suggests.

Many pet owners experience problem behaviour in their dogs when leaving them at home. These behaviours can include destruction of household items, urinating or defecating indoors, or excessive barking and are often labelled as 'separation anxiety' as the dog gets anxious at the prospect of being left alone.

Treatment plans tend to focus on helping the dog overcome the 'pain of separation', but the current work indicates dealing with various forms of frustration is a much more important element of the problem.

[...] The team, led by scientists from the University of Lincoln, UK, identified four main forms of distress for dogs when separated from their owners. These include a focus on getting away from something in the house, wanting to get to something outside, reacting to external noises or events, and a form of boredom.

[...] Daniel Mills, Professor of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Lincoln, said: "Until now, there has been a tendency to think of this as a single condition, ie "My dog has got separation anxiety" and then to focus on the dependence on the owner and how to make them more independent. However, this new work indicates that having separation anxiety is more like saying "My dog's got an upset tummy" which could have many causes and take many forms, and so both assessment and treatment need to be much more focussed.

Journal Reference:

Luciana S. de Assis, Raquel Matos, Thomas W. Pike, Oliver H. P. Burman, Daniel S. Mills. Developing Diagnostic Frameworks in Veterinary Behavioral Medicine: Disambiguating Separation Related Problems in Dogs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2020; 6 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2019.00499

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

El Reg has the story on chipmaker Broadcom sueing Netflix for shrinking the set-top box market, which it claims could not be done without infringing its patents.

In a lawsuit [PDF] filed late last week in California, the San Jose-based Broadcom – which designs and sells chipsets used in millions of set-top boxes – argued that "Netflix has caused, and continues to cause, substantial and irreparable harm to the Broadcom Entities [that] sell semiconductor chips used in the set top boxes that enable traditional cable television services.

"Upon information and belief, as a direct result of the on-demand streaming services provided by Netflix, the market for traditional cable services that require set top boxes has declined, and continues to decline, thereby substantially reducing Broadcom's set top box business."

The claim is that Netflix must have used Broadcom's "novel" patents to run its service

"Upon information and belief, Netflix could not displace traditional cable television services, or could not do so as effectively, without the use of the Broadcom Entities' patented technology"

Broadcom wants a jury trial, royalty fees, attorney fees, and damages.

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

For those tracking the twisting tale of the NASA Mars InSight Lander's plucky heat probe nicknamed 'the mole' - there is some good news! NASA reports:

A bit of good news from #Mars: our new approach of using the robotic arm to push the mole appears to be working! The teams @NASAJPL/@DLR_en are excited to see the images and plan to continue this approach over the next few weeks. 💪 #SaveTheMole

FAQ: https://t.co/wnhp7c1gPT pic.twitter.com/5wYyn7IwVo
— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) March 13, 2020

The mole is a 16-inch-long (40-centimeter) spike equipped with an internal hammering mechanism that relies on friction from the soil to help it dig down. The likely reason for its trouble digging is that the fine dry regolith, which is supposed to provide friction to keep the mole from bouncing up on each strike has not been doing so, causing the mole to work its way up and almost out of its hole.

By pushing down on the rod with a shovel-like sampling instrument, NASA is finally making progress getting the mole to dig again.

Direct link to the mission blog: https://www.dlr.de/blogs/en/all-blog-posts/The-InSight-mission-logbook.aspx.

Previously:
Mashing May Mitigate Mars Mole Meandering
More Mars Mole Mission Misfortune
Mars Mole Mission Rues Resistanceless Regolith
NASA to Jack up Insight Lander to Assess Non-Penetrating Probe
InSight Impinges Insufficiently in Site

Original Submission

[20200319_040606 UTC Updated: Editor's note: The original story was updated subsequent to this story submission; an excerpt from the original submission appears here in a <spoiler> followed by the update. --martyb]

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/21184308/coronavirus-italy-medical-company-threatens-sue-3d-print-valves-treatments

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

A medical device manufacturer has threatened to sue a group of volunteers in Italy that 3D printed a valve used for life-saving coronavirus treatments. The valve typically costs about $11,000 from the medical device manufacturer, but the volunteers were able to print replicas for about $1 (link to a TechDirt piece).

Basically, in Italy battling the wuflu epidemic, a hospital ran out of valve parts used in a treatment equipment, but the supplier weren't able to supply them. So the doctors got the local media to sound out for alternative solutions, and a 3d printing outfit stepped up. They all banged their heads together to produce the needed parts, enabling the hospital to continue treating patients.

The printed parts work to the degree they do, but it would be better to have the part's blueprint with precise specs so the printed parts can fit and function properly. So the 3d printing outfit asked the manufacturer for the blueprint. The manufacturer refused and threatened to sue the 3d printing outfit.

Here are other links covering the story, including the techdirt piece mentioned above:

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200317/04381644114/volunteers-3d-print-unobtainable-11000-valve-1-to-keep-covid-19-patients-alive-original-manufacturer-threatens-to-sue.shtml
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-italian-hospital-3d-printed-breathing-valves-covid-19-patients-2020-3
https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/16/firm-refuses-give-blueprint-coronavirus-equipment-save-lives-12403815/

Update, March 18th 5:30PM ET: A group of Italian volunteers distributed 3D-printed versions of a vital medical device — but it doesn't appear that the original manufacturer threatened a legal crackdown. As we reported earlier, Cristian Fracassi and Alessandro Romaioli used their 3D printer to create unofficial copies of a patented valve, which was in short supply at Italian hospitals. Business Insider Italia quoted Massimo Temporelli, the Italian professor who recruited the pair, saying that the device maker threatened them with an infringement claim.

But in an interview with The Verge, Romaioli denied they'd received threats. He said the company had simply refused to release design files, forcing them to reverse-engineer the valve. "I talked to an operator who told me he couldn't give me the files, but after that we didn't receive anything from the original company — so I can assure you we didn't get any threat," he said. "They said they couldn't give us the file because it's company property, but that's all." While earlier reporting said the original valve cost over $10,000, Fracassi also told Fast Company that this number was inaccurate.

Temporelli gave The Verge a more ambiguous account of the call, which he says he wasn't directly involved in. "The group we asked for the files refused and said it was illegal" to copy the valves, he said. He stopped short of calling the statement a threat. "Let's say the risk to be sued exists since they bypassed a patent, but that's it."

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, who circled moon, dies at 88:

Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, who circled the moon alone in 1971 while his two crewmates test-drove the first lunar rover, has died at age 88, his family said Wednesday.

His family said he died in his sleep in Houston. No cause of death was given.

"Al was an American hero whose achievements in space and on Earth will never be forgotten., said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a statement. He also praised Worden for his appearances on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," to explain space flight to children.

Worden flew to the moon in 1971 along with David Scott and Jim Irwin. As command module pilot, Worden remained in lunar orbit aboard the Endeavour while Scott and Irwin descended to the surface and tried out NASA's first moon buggy.

Scott is one of four moonwalkers still alive. Irwin died in 1991.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

University of Washington researchers have discovered that large predators play a key yet unexpected role in keeping smaller predators and deer in check. Their "fatal attraction" theory finds that smaller predators are drawn to the kill sites of large predators by the promise of leftover scraps, but the scavengers may be killed themselves if their larger kin return for seconds.

The study, published March 18 in the journal Ecology Letters, is the first to examine carnivore killing and scavenging activities in relation to each other across dozens of landscapes around the world. Patterns that emerged from their analysis could be used to make important management decisions about large carnivores worldwide, the authors said.

"I hope this paper will spur researchers to think more holistically about these killing and scavenging interactions, because currently we're not really getting a full understanding of how carnivore communities function by examining them separately," said senior author Laura Prugh, a wildlife ecologist and associate professor in the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.

Large carnivores such as cougars, wolves and grizzly bears have disappeared from many regions, allowing some smaller carnivores—coyotes, foxes and bobcats, for example—to increase in population. The absence of large carnivores, especially on the East Coast, also has ignited populations of deer and other prey, creating an imbalance in many areas.

But in regions where top carnivores are present, such as the western U.S., their relationship with smaller predators is complex. When they kill deer and other prey, they often leave scraps for smaller predators to scavenge. But larger predators also are known to kill smaller carnivores.

[...] "We initially thought maybe smaller carnivores are scavenging the wolf kills and benefiting," explained Prugh, referencing one of the top predators, wolves, examined in the study. "But then we realized that at these scavenging sites, they might be running into the wolves and getting killed. The scavenging, instead of providing a benefit, could actually be functioning as a trap that's drawing in the smaller carnivores."

The researchers thus developed their fatal attraction theory, which proposes that even though large predators are helpful providers of food, their kill sites ultimately are dangerous for smaller predators, which can then become prey themselves when the top predator returns.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A team of workers at Art Fraud Insights, LLC, has found that all of the Dead Sea Scroll (DSS) fragments housed at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. are fake. They have published their findings on their company website.

The Dead Sea scrolls are a collection of scrolls found in the Qumran Caves near the shore of the Dead Sea. They were discovered by a Bedouin shepherd in 1946. Since that time, the scrolls have been identified as ancient Jewish manuscripts created over the last three centuries BCE and the first century CE. They are housed in the Shrine of the Book on the grounds of the Israel Museum.

[...] the team [at Art Fraud Insights, LLC] [...] found that the material makeup of the collection did not match that of the original DSS fragments—they appeared to be ancient leather rather than parchment. More importantly, they had found that modern ink had been used to print words on the old material fragments—it had pooled on the old dried leather. The group also found evidence of clay mineral dust similar to that found in the Qumran Caves that had been applied after the inking had been done—evidence of an attempt to cover up the fake materials below. The final verdict: the fragments were not only fake, but had been created for the purpose of deception.

It is still not known who went to such great lengths to create the fake DSS fragments.

Original Submission