RELMα is the first example of an antimicrobial protein that requires dietary vitamin A for its bacterial killing activity. This finding gives us an important clue about how the skin defends itself against infection, and how skin defense is regulated by the diet.”Dr. Lora Hooper, Chair of Immunology and corresponding author on the study published in Cell Host & Microbe Source:UT Southwestern Medical CenterJournal reference:Hooper,L.V. et al. (2019) Resistin-like Molecule α Provides Vitamin-A-Dependent Antimicrobial Protection in the Skin. Cell Host & Microbe. doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2019.04.00 Related StoriesNew protein target for deadly ovarian cancerSorting protein in neurons protects against neurodegenerative disordersStudy: Surveillance for antibiotic-resistant bacteria continues to be core focus for healthcare facilitiesTo study how the microbiome impacts immunity, the researchers used Dr. Hooper’s colony of germ-free mice – mice raised from birth without exposure to germs – and identified genes that are turned on when such mice are exposed to bacteria.”When the skin encounters bacteria, cells respond by making molecules that help defend the skin against infection,” she explained, adding that scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) collaborated on the study.The researchers included some caveats. The skin is the largest organ of the human body and is tasked with defending us against infection.”Dr. Tamia Harris-Tryon, Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Immunology Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)May 16 2019People who have inadequate vitamin A in their diets are more susceptible to skin infection, yet how that vitamin affects skin immunity has been unclear. In a study published today, UT Southwestern researchers shed some light on that mystery by identifying a previously unknown bacteria-killing protein on the epidermis that requires the vitamin to work.The researchers found that one protein in the resistin-like molecule (RELM) family – RELMα – acts as an antibiotic to rapidly kill bacteria. Both RELMα, which is made by mice, and the corresponding human RELM family protein, called resistin, are stimulated by dietary vitamin A. Dermatologists use synthetic vitamin A, called retinoid, to treat acne, psoriasis, and other skin conditions, although how those drugs work has long been a mystery. Considering how often retinoids are used in dermatology, the implications of our findings are potentially vast. The skin is an important interface between us and the environment and must defend us against infection and inflammation. We are just beginning to understand how bacteria and the microbiome (the term for the population of bacteria living with us) impact skin diseases such as psoriasis and acne. Our work helps to define the molecules that the skin uses to create a healthy relationship between the microbiome and us, the hosts.” “If the skin immune system breaks down, infection results. Skin infections, from bacteria such as Streptococcus, are among the most common reasons people come to the emergency room,” added Dr. Harris-Tryon, a physician-scientist who completed postdoctoral training in the Hooper lab.Dr. Hooper is well known for her research on the commensal or “good” bacteria that inhabit the gut – where they aid in digestion and infection control.The team’s experiments in human tissue and mice illuminate a previously unappreciated link between diet and innate immunity of the skin, suggesting why vitamin A derivatives are effective treatments for skin disease, said Dr. Hooper, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator who is also a UTSW Professor of Immunology and Microbiology with an additional appointment in the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense. Dr. Hooper holds the Jonathan W. Uhr, M.D. Distinguished Chair in Immunology and is a Nancy Cain and Jeffrey A. Marcus Scholar in Medical Research, in Honor of Dr. Bill S. Vowell.In addition to identifying RELMα’s unique feature – its requirement for dietary vitamin A to kill bacteria – the team showed that mice fed a diet deficient in vitamin A made no RELMα. The researchers also found that mice missing RELMα were more susceptible to infection and had different bacterial species on their skin compared with typical mice.Dr. Harris-Tryon added: This study gives us a better understanding of how diet impacts the ability of the skin to defend itself against bacterial infection – but more research will be needed to determine how these findings will impact patients with inflammatory skin diseases such as acne and psoriasis.”Dr. Harris-Tryon, who earned her M.D.-Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University
The University of Texas at Arlington has patented a smart skin, created by a UTA researcher, that will give robots more sensitive tactile feeling than humans. “The idea is to have robots work better alongside people,” said Zeynep Çelik-Butler, a UTA electrical engineering professor. “The smart skin is actually made up of millions of flexible nanowire sensors that take in so much more information than people’s skin. As the sensors brush against a surface, the robot collects all the information those sensors send back.”Çelik-Butler said the sensors, which are flexible and made of zinc oxide nanorods, are self-powered and do not need any external voltage for operation. Each is about 0.2 microns in diameter, while a human hair is about 40 to 50 microns.In addition, the developed sensors were fully packaged in a chemical and moisture resistant polyimide that greatly enhances usability in harsh environments. The result is a thin, flexible, self-powered tactile sensing layer, suitable as a robotic or prosthetic skin.The smart skin technology allows the robots to sense temperature changes and surface variations, which would allow a person alongside the robot to be safer or react accordingly.Other possible future applications include adhering the smart skin to prosthetics to equip them with some feeling, applying the technology to other medical devices, weaving the skin into the uniform of a combat soldier so that any toxic chemicals could be detected or fingerprint identification.”These sensors are highly sensitive and if they were brushed over a partial fingerprint, the technology could help identify who that person is,” Çelik-Butler said. “Imagine people being able to ascertain a person’s identity with this hairy robot, as my students call it.”Teri Schultz, director of technology management in the UTA Office of Research, said the technology shows promise in a number of commercial sectors.”Robots are the here and now,” Schultz said. “We could see this technology develop with the next generation of robots to allow them to be more productive in helping people.”The research yielded an academic paper in a 2015 issue of IEEE Sensors Journal. Provided by University of Texas at Arlington Explore further More information: Bhargav P. Nabar et al. Self-Powered Tactile Pressure Sensors Using Ordered Crystalline ZnO Nanorods on Flexible Substrates Toward Robotic Skin and Garments, IEEE Sensors Journal (2014). DOI: 10.1109/JSEN.2014.2337115 Synthetic ‘brainy skin’ with sense of touch gets £1.5m funding Citation: Hairy robot (2018, August 9) retrieved 18 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2018-08-hairy-robot.html Smart skin technology. Credit: University of Texas at Arlington This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Waste plastic in concrete could support sustainable construction in India The construction industry is one of the most resource-intensive sectors of the German economy. The nation’s buildings constitute a vast store of raw materials, harboring some 100 billion metric tons of materials that could be recovered and returned to the material cycle at the end of their service life. Four Fraunhofer Institutes have joined forces in the BauCycle project to kick-start recycling of sand and gravel fine particle fractions that cannot be reclaimed today for reuse in further construction projects. The research team will present the results of their work at the 2019 BAU trade fair in Munich from January 14 to 19. The showcase at booth 528 in hall C2 will feature aerated concrete blocks made of recycled rubble, acoustical building materials, and components made of mineral granulates. Citation: A novel approach to recycling construction waste (2018, October 25) retrieved 17 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2018-10-approach-recycling.html Opto-pneumatic sorting for fine fractionsThe first step is to sort the rubble’s heterogeneous content. Gypsum particles have to be selectively separated – they are decisive to the concrete fraction’s recyclability. The researchers developed an opto-pneumatic detector that enables fine fractions to be separated on the basis of the color, brightness and chemical composition of the particles; it is even capable of distinguishing sulfates from silicates. “The waste components are placed on a conveyor belt that transports them past an infrared camera equipped with special filters to detect the various fine fractions. The particles drop off the end of the belt in free fall, past nozzles that shoot the main components into different containers with targeted blasts of compressed air,” says Thome, describing this optical computing technique. Dr. Thome and his team have succeeded in differentiating one-millimeter particles. This technology can achieve a throughput of 1.5 metric tons per hour.Making aerated concrete from building rubbleIn the best-case scenario, four clean aggregates may be recycled and reused to produce aerated concrete, a light building material with good thermal insulation properties. It is suitable for building two-story houses and as indoor insulation. Tests have shown that aggregates of concrete and sand-lime bricks are also recyclable and can serve as a secondary raw material for making competitive grades of aerated concrete. The scientists achieved the best results with a mix of 80 percent sand-lime bricks and 20 percent reclaimed concrete. Another project finding was that a combination of bricks and recovered concrete can be used to make geopolymers, a cement-free building material that is strong and acid-resistant, much like concrete. Geopolymers have the added advantage of a very low carbon footprint.The researchers made various components to demonstrate the recycling potential of construction waste. These will feature prominently at the Fraunhofer booth (booth 538 in hall C2) at the BAU trade fair in Munich from January 14 to 19. A team of experts will show samples of different aerated concrete mixes, facade cladding made of geopolymers, and a prototype of a sound-absorbing, open-pored panel made of granulates. “In tests, our acoustical component made of secondary raw materials exhibited the same sound-absorbing properties as products available on the market,” says Thome.Commodities exchange on the drawing boardPlans are underway to establish a commodities exchange where raw material vendors and recycling companies can offer their products. Building material manufacturers will be able to buy source materials on this platform. “Recycled products have yet to be sold on established markets. There is a lack of confidence in and knowledge of these secondary raw materials. We want to close this gap with a commodities exchange,” says the project manager by way of explanation.This recycling concept for fine-grained construction materials is also applicable to other industries that work with similar fine fractions. Many mechanical processing plants such as glass-recycling and mining-industry facilities produce this type of waste. Provided by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Explore further After a day at the beach, sand would hardly seem to be in short supply. Appearances deceive, for this valuable commodity is growing scarce in many countries, one reason being the global construction boom. It takes mountains of concrete, which consists mostly of sand and gravel, to build hotels, shopping centers and industrial parks. Dubai, for example, had to import Australian sand to erect the Burj Khalifa skyscraper; its own desert sand was ill-suited to this purpose. Even Germany’s deposits of gravel and sand are dwindling, as a recent report by the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources noted.Worldwide, some 40 billion metric tons of sand and gravel are used up every year. During the same time span in Germany, demolished buildings and infrastructure leave behind around five million metric tons of fine-grained building rubble. To date, it has ended up in landfills or was used in road construction; upcycling was unheard of. This prompted the Fraunhofer Institutes for Building Physics IBP, for Material Flow and Logistics IML, for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, and for Optronics, Systems Technology and Image Analysis IOSB (see box) to launch a project called BauCycle to recycle construction waste. Their aim is to transform this mix of minerals into a sustainable resource and demonstrate potential applications in construction. One specific target is to recycle particles of mineral construction waste measuring less than two millimeters in diameter. To do so, the researchers are developing innovative sorting processes and high-quality building materials. And to cover the entire value chain, they also plan to set up a dynamic market platform where raw materials are traded as commodities.”Building sand is not superabundant; in Europe, for example, sand is in short supply in Sweden and France. The conventional method of treating rubble is to crush it. Components of less than two millimeters are sieved out and end up in landfill. If this fine-grained building rubble – which consists mainly of sand-lime bricks, bricks, concrete and small amounts of gypsum – were to be recycled, this could redress the sand shortage over the long term,” says Fraunhofer IBP scientist Dr. Volker Thome, the project’s manager. Aerated concrete made of brick (rear); aerated concrete made of sand-lime stones (front). Credit: Fraunhofer IBP
But it gets far creepier. Your personal email inbox is also fair game for tech firms. In 2017, Google said it would no longer analyse email content for the purposes of advertising, but recent reports suggest that other large firms still do this. New tech also provides another data source, be it wearables, smart TVs, other in-home smart devices or the smartphone apps that we have come to love. These can gather data on how you use your smart devices, who you contact, what you watch and for how long, other devices on your home network, or where you go.It’s not just individual sites or devices that monitor your online behaviour. A massive ecosystem of advertisers and supporting companies is dedicated to tracking your activity across the internet. Sites commonly record what pages you look at by saving a small file called a “cookie” to your browser. And your activity across different sites can be matched by looking at your browser’s “fingerprint”, a profile made up of details such as your screen size, the version of the browser you’re using and what plug-in tools you have downloaded to use with it. Then, when you visit another website, an ad firm that has built a profile of you based on your cookies and browser fingerprint can load a “third-party script” to display ads relevant to your profile.Perhaps even more alarmingly, this tracking does not stop at online data. Tech firms are known to purchase data from financial organisations about user purchases in the real world to supplement their ad offerings. According to some reports, this includes information on income, types of places and restaurants frequented and even how many credit cards are present in their wallets. Opting out of this tracking and onward data sharing is incredibly difficult.Even where you ask to opt out of this data gathering, your request might not be respected. An example is the uproar caused when it was discovered that Google tracks the location of Android users even when the location setting is turned off. Location data is one of the most useful for advertising and many firms, including Apple, Google and Facebook, track the location of individuals to use as input into their bespoke algorithms.Putting the data togetherTo sum up with a simple example, imagine you have just started to think about where to go for your next holiday. You spend the morning visiting travel agents to discuss the latest deals and then visit your favourite restaurant, a popular Caribbean food chain, in the city. Excited about your potential trip, later that night you watch mostly TV shows on the tropics. The next day, your social media feed contains flight, hotel and tour ads with deals to Barbados. This is a very real illustration of how data on your location, financial purchases, interests, and TV viewing history can be correlated and used to create personalised ads. While some might welcome holiday deals, it becomes much more worrying when we consider data gathering or ads targeting sensitive health issues, financial difficulties, or vulnerable people such as children.The future of digital advertising is set to be as scary as it is intriguing. Even with new laws that try to protect people’s information, tech firms are constantly looking to push the boundaries of data gathering and algorithm design in ways that can feel invasive. It may yet be proven that some firms aren’t being honest with us about all the data they collect, but the stuff we know about is more than enough to build an alarmingly accurate picture of us. Citation: Amazon, Facebook and Google don’t need to spy on your conversations to know what you’re talking about (2019, January 16) retrieved 17 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2019-01-amazon-facebook-google-dont-spy.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Credit: vchal/Shutterstock Explore further US Congress to see push to regulate Big Tech in 2019
If you’ve ever wondered if your phone is spying on you, you’re not alone. One of the most hotly debated topics in technology today is the amount of data that firms surreptitiously gather about us online. You may well have shared the increasingly common experience of feeling creeped out by ads for something you recently discussed in a real life conversation or an online interaction. Provided by The Conversation This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. This kind of experience has led to suggestions that tech firms are secretly recording our private conversations via smartphones or other internet-connected devices such as smart TVs, Amazon Echo or Google Home. Or that they are reading our private messages even when they are supposedly encrypted, as with Facebook’s WhatsApp. If this were proven to be true, it would reveal a huge conspiracy that could do untold damage to the tech industry – which makes it seem somewhat far-fetched. But recent revelations about the degree to which Facebook users’ data has been shared certainly won’t help to convince people that the big firms aren’t spying on them. Yet, there is another, more compelling reason for the incredibly relevant ads you see. Simply put, tech firms routinely gather so much data about you in other ways, they already have an excellent idea what your interests, desires and habits might be. With this information they can build a detailed profile of you and use algorithms based on behavioural science and trends found elsewhere in their data, to predict what ads might be relevant to you. In this way they can show you products or services that you’ve been thinking about recently, even if you’ve never directly searched for or otherwise indicated online that you’d be interested in them. Firms invest heavily in gathering user data and do so in a number of clever ways. Social networks and other apps offer to store and share our uploaded data for “free” while using it, and the content we access and “like”, to learn about our interests, desires and relationships. And, of course, there is our search history, which can reveal so much about our current circumstances that Google data has even been used to spot the start of flu epidemics.
Credit: Grejak/Shutterstock Citation: Facebook’s cryptocurrency: a financial expert breaks it down (2019, March 13) retrieved 17 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2019-03-facebook-cryptocurrency-financial-expert.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Facebook is reportedly preparing to launch its own version of Bitcoin, for use in its messaging applications, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram. Could this “Facecoin” be the long-awaited breakthrough by a global technology giant into the lucrative market for retail financial services? Or will it be yet another exaggerated “crypto” project, buying into the continuing excitement about decentralised peer-to-peer exchange but, in the end, not delivering very much? Time will tell, but my two decades of research into the economics of payments makes me sceptical. Explore further Q&A: What is bitcoin?
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Provided by The Conversation We know little about Facebook’s plans. So far there is just one company statement about a new group set up to look into cryptocurrencies reported by Bloomberg: “Like many other companies, Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology. This new small team is exploring many different applications. We don’t have anything further to share.” Some investigative journalism from Bloomberg and the New York Times reveals a little more. Facecoin (and the similar “Gram” cryptocurrency being developed by the privacy focused messaging app Telegram) will apparently be a “stablecoin”. Rather than having a fixed amount of currency that fluctuates in price, depending on demand, Facecoin will have a fixed price and the amount of it in circulation will vary. So unlike Bitcoin it will not be a vehicle for speculation. What will the fixed price be? Bloomberg reports it will be fixed against the dollar. The New York Times says that it will be against a combination of dollar, euro and yen. Who will use it? Facebook is apparently focusing on providing a technology solution for the large and lucrative remittance market for payments into India. Will transactions in Facecoin be anonymous like those in Bitcoin? No, they will be associated with Facebook accounts, so they won’t be an easy means to avoid laws and regulations.Reasons to be scepticalWhile this is a fascinating development, some scepticism is in order. If there is one common feature to the many hundreds of crypto and blockchain finance projects announced over the past four years, it is exaggerated early claims. In one ongoing research project, I have found that of 103 projects announced since 2015 applying so-called blockchain technologies to financial services, all but a handful have quietly disappeared. None have yet been taken through to commercial-scale launch (although around half a dozen may achieve that by 2021). Is there anything about Facebook’s plans to suggest a different outcome? The obvious parallel is with the Chinese payment solution WeChat Pay, globally the largest mobile and internet payment solution used by “900 million active users”. In Beijing and Shanghai “even beggars have QR codes” that allow passers by to scan and give them money using their smart phones. The integration into the WeChat messaging system is what gave WeChat Pay the critical mass to achieve widespread acceptance. Facecoin’s integration with WhatsApp and other Facebook services could support a similarly rapid take-off. But WeChat Pay doesn’t involve cryptocurrency. It uses established server technologies to enable people to transfer money in and out of conventional bank accounts as well as to other users.The New York Times reports, rather surprisingly, that Facecoin (unlike WeChat Pay) will be based on integration with cryptoexchanges, which trade conventional money for digital currencies, rather than with the conventional banking system. But given that cryptoexchanges are coming under increasing regulatory pressure because of their lack of transparency and irregularities in how they operate, linking with them is hardly likely to encourage people to adopt Facecoin. It is also difficult to make sense of the intended use of Facecoin for remittances. Major banks already send dollars virtually instantaneously and costlessly from one country to another. Costs and inefficiencies arise in the final mile when converting funds to local currency and allocating them to a local bank account or for cash collection. The Facecoin technology will do nothing to address these problems.Who pays out?Another question mark is about the backing for Facecoin. Unlike Bitcoin, which is not pegged to any other currency, Facecoin will need the backing of real money to maintain its fixed price. The safest approach will be full reserving: for every $1 of Facecoin issued, Facebook could hold $1 of reserves in a segregated account. Fractional or partial reserving is also possible but who then guarantees the safety of those reserves? If reserves do not cover withdrawals, who is then responsible and what compensation is there for holders of Facecoin? Facebook would need a banking licence and subject itself to the full burden of banking regulation. Ideally, reserves would be held with a central bank. But central banks will be reluctant to support a private currency.Perhaps the biggest reason for scepticism comes from the challenges Facebook already faces over user data, privacy and authenticity. If Facebook takes as big a role in daily payments as it already has in personal communications and social media, then it will become an even bigger target for the growing anti-trust movement that seeks to break up the tech giants. Fundamental change is possible. Cryptocurrency technologies could be used to eliminate the instability of fractionally reserved banking. But this will have to be through a state currency replacing fractionally reserved bank transaction accounts and not through a private currency. It would probably be wiser for Facebook to outsource Facecoin to an established international bank. But then, of course, this wouldn’t be such a major disruption of established financial services.
The Trail Blazers are still looking to bolster their frontcourt.Portland is hoping to add a center before training camp, according to a report from The Athletic, which cites an unidentified league source. “Acquiring Hassan is an impact move for our roster,” Portland president of basketball operations Neil Olshey said in a statement earlier this month. “He is an elite shot blocker, rebounder and paint presence on both ends of the floor. We have pursued Hassan through multiple avenues at various times in his career and are ecstatic to be adding him to our organization.”Whiteside has averaged 13.4 points, 11.4 rebounds and 2.3 blocks over 343 career NBA games.”This is a fresh start,” Whiteside said at his introductory press conference with Portland. “I really think this team is on the verge of doing something really special.”Watch: Portland Trail Blazers introduce center Hassan Whiteside at press conference in Las Vegas https://t.co/QPxx1yJ9Te- KGW News (@KGWNews) July 11, 2019Whiteside said he has already begun to develop a relationship with Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard.”I’ve never had anybody approach me like that,” Whiteside said, via The Athletic. “What Dame showed me was how serious he is and what kind of leader he is. That made me even more excited about coming here because he was showing me his teammate side, his leadership side.” NBA trade rumors: Trail Blazers get Hassan Whiteside from Heat Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic broke his leg in late March and missed the rest of the season. There is no timetable for when he’ll be back on the court, although Olshey said in May that Nurkic was “on a great trajectory in terms of returning to play.”The Trail Blazers finished last season with a 53-29 record and advanced to the Western Conference finals, where they were swept by the Warriors.
NBA trade news: Trail Blazers acquire Kent Bazemore, send Evan Turner to Hawks According to source, Blazers will add one more player this summer – a center – and will enter training camp with 14 players. Will talk this and more today at noon in my @TheAthleticNBA Q&A https://t.co/0Mx8BE0ec5- Jason Quick (@jwquick) July 17, 2019Greg Monroe, Pau Gasol, Kenneth Faried and Kosta Koufos, among others, are some of the veterans at the position who remain unsigned. Koufos has received interest from at least four teams, according to an earlier report from Yahoo Sports.The Trail Blazers have already acquired one big man this summer as they landed Hassan Whiteside from the Heat. Related News
SEOUL (Reuters) – Memory chip spot prices have risen for the first time this year, indicating grim warnings of “never seen before” spikes and a supply disruption could come to pass as a dispute between South Korea and Japan drags on. FILE PHOTO: Memory chip parts of U.S. memory chip maker MicronTechnology are pictured at their fair booth at an industrial fair in Frankfurt, Germany, July 14, 2015. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File PhotoThe 15% spike in DRAM chip prices over a week – in a sector dogged by oversupply and weak demand for more than a year – comes after Japan tightened curbs on exports of some chipmaking materials to South Korea – home to the world’s top two memory chipmakers, Samsung (005930.KS) and SK Hynix Inc (000660.KS). To be fair, the price surge indicated by industry tracker DRAMeXchange refers to the spot market that accounts for less than a tenth of the memory chip landscape as most major tech firms source through mid- and long-term contracts. Given this background, major customers such as iPhone maker Apple (AAPL.O) are yet to start stockpiling, but the price spike has started fuelling fears that Japan’s curbs will soon impact supply, several industry sources said. “If the ban continues, memory prices will skyrocket like never seen before as 75% of DRAM and 45% of NAND global output is at risk,” Mark Newman from Bernstein said, referring to South Korea’s dominance in the supply of those memory chips. A person at a South Korean chipmaker said customers were “following the situations closely” but “taking a wait-and-see approach as demand still remains weak”. Samsung and SK Hynix declined to comment. “We will need contingency plans if the impact materializes,” said a spokeswoman at Vaio, a Sony Corp (6758.T) spinoff. “Options include seeking alternative chip suppliers outside South Korea,” she said, adding business at the Japanese computer maker had, however, not yet been hit. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (2330.TW), the world’s top contract chipmaker, warned that Japan’s export curb is the “biggest uncertainty” for the fourth quarter. CONTINGENCY PLANS Japan has tightened curbs on exports of three chipmaking materials – fluorinated polyimides, used in smartphone displays; photoresists, used to transfer circuit patterns on to semiconductor wafers; and hydrogen fluoride, used as an etching gas when making chips. South Korea sourced 94% of fluorinated polyimides, 92% of photoresists and about 44% of hydrogen fluoride from Japan in the first five months of this year, Korean industry data showed. Seoul has said it is seeking to make its supply chain more independent and has been getting fresh offers from Russia and China to provide hydrogen fluoride. A local media reported that South Korea was considering lowering import tariffs on these products from other countries to fill in any potential supply gaps. “We … do see some (chip) module manufacturers raising their quotes or announcing halts to production in light of the material restrictions …,” research firm TrendForce said. In NAND flash market, supply has also been hurt by an output halt at Japan’s Toshiba Memory last month due to a power outage. A person at Toshiba Memory said the plant resumed operations in mid-July but it will take time for shipments to recover fully and that the company still has to catch up with existing orders. Brokerage UBS said this week it expects NAND contract chip prices to fall 5% in the third quarter, less than a previous forecast for a 10% quarter-on-quarter drop, citing Toshiba’s output cut and Japan’s export curbs. But it kept its projection for a 17% drop in DRAM contract prices unchanged. NAND chips are found in mobile devices as well as memory cards, USB flash drives and solid-state drives, while DRAM is used to support electronic devices performing multi-tasks. Clear winners from better chip prices would be Micron, Toshiba, Nanya and Western Digital, Bernstein’s Newman said. “Samsung and SK Hynix, although potentially hurt from production issues, would also benefit from significantly higher prices and ironically likely still be net winners,” he added. FILE PHOTO: Mobile memory chips made by chipmaker SK Hynix are seen in this picture illustration taken in Seoul May 10, 2013. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won/Illustration/File PhotoShares of Micron have risen 12% since Japan announced the export curbs on July 1, while Western Digital Corp (WDC.O) and SK Hynix have gained 8% and 7% respectively. Taiwan’s Nanya Technologies (2408.TW) has increased 5%. Samsung shares, however, have dipped 2% over the period, hurt by its forecast for a 56% plunge in second-quarter profit due to tumbling memory chip prices. Reporting by Heekyong Yang, Ju-min Park in SEOUL, Makiko Yamazaki in TOKYO, Sijia Jiang in HONG KONG, Yimou Lee in TAIPEI; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Himani SarkarOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Images: Sharks & Whales from Above The scientists were operating the Deep Discoverer 1,476 feet (450 meters) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, searching for a World War II shipwreck. They directed the rover up a small incline, expecting to find the boat but instead discovered the swarm of small sharks, called dogfish. The predators had likely sensed this swordfish “food fall” from a long distance and had traveled for the feast, Peter J. Auster of Mystic Aquarium and the University of Connecticut, wrote in the team’s mission log. When the wreckfish, a type of grouper, meandered in front of the camera with a shark tail protruding from its mouth, the scientists came to a clear conclusion: The guest had been watching the feeding frenzy the entire time, stealthily hiding behind the rover itself. This swarm of small sharks, known as dogfish, are chowing down on a swordfish. Credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Windows to the Deep 2019 Things didn’t end well for one of the sharks. Credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Windows to the Deep 2019 Though surprising, this isn’t the first time a fish has been caught on camera swallowing a shark. Last year, people fishing off the coast of Florida caught footage of a 500-lb. (227 kg) goliath grouper darting up to the water’s surface and nabbing a 4-foot-long (1.2 m) shark, Fox News reported at the time. One shark expert said this behavior is run-of-the-mill, “fish-eat-fish” ocean life. “It might be unusual to see it, but it’s not entirely unusual [for it to happen], no,” Daniel Abel, a marine biologist at Coastal Carolina University, told Live Science. “A big grouper is going to eat anything smaller than itself.” The law of the ocean food chain is a brutal one, Abel said: Anything smaller than yourself is fair game for predators like sharks and groupers. Large groupers are known predators of sharks like dogfish, Abel said. And aside from humans, sharks are their own greatest predators, he added. The unlucky dogfish caught on camera didn’t fall victim to a fellow shark, but it did just happen to be smaller than the hungry grouper watching it — and too busy chowing down to notice. In Photos: Great White Shark Washes Up on Santa Cruz Beach These Sharks Were Too Busy to Notice a Bigger Predator Watching ThemThe unexpected twist at the end of this feeding frenzy delighted scientists.Credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Windows to the Deep 2019Volume 0%Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcutsKeyboard Shortcutsplay/pauseincrease volumedecrease volumeseek forwardsseek backwardstoggle captionstoggle fullscreenmute/unmuteseek to %SPACE↑↓→←cfm0-9接下来播放Better Bug Sprays?01:33关闭选项Automated Captions – en-US facebook twitter 发邮件 reddit 链接https://www.livescience.com/65926-shark-feeding-frenzy-surprise.html?jwsource=cl已复制自动 270p270p180p直播00:3501:5102:27Your Recommended Playlist01:33Better Bug Sprays?01:08Why Do French Fries Taste So Bad When They’re Cold?04:24Sperm Whale Befriends Underwater Robot00:29Robot Jumps Like a Grasshopper, Rolls Like a Ball01:09Robots to the Rescue02:27Robotic Arms关闭 Catching a glimpse of an underwater feeding frenzy involving 11 sharks was enough to startle and exhilarate a group of scientists off the coast of South Carolina last month. But the researchers lost their minds when a sneaky guest, a wreckfish, swam directly in front of their camera with one of the sharks wriggling around in its mouth. The fish had swallowed a shark whole, as the busy predators darted about to grab morsels from the 250-lb. (110 kilograms) carcass of a swordfish.Advertisement “Oh my god — I’m going to remember this my whole life,” one of the researchers says in footage of the feeding frenzy. [In Photos: Great White Sharks Attack] A remotely operated vehicle called the Deep Discoverer captured the video. The scientists operating the vehicle were conducting research for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aboard the ship Okeanos Explorer. This was the Deep Discoverer’s seventh dive on an expedition called Windows to the Deep. Photos: Orcas Are Chowing Down on Great-White-Shark Organs Originally published on Live Science.
The Mamata Banerjee government has transferred Joy Biswas, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Purulia district, where two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers were allegedly murdered over the last four days. Akash Magharia will take charge in place of Biswas.Trouble broke out on Saturday when the body of BJP worker Dulal Kumar was found hanging from an electric tower in Dava village in Balarampur block of Purulia district. A few days back, another BJP worker and a 21-year-old student, Trilochan Mahato, was found hanging from a tree near his home at Supirdihi village in the same Balarampur block of Purulia. The BJP has won all seven gram panchayat seats in the block, despite the area being a Trinamool stronghold. The BJP has alleged that the deaths were “political murder”, an allegation that has been denied by the ruling Trinamool Congress. No arrests have yet been made by the police with regard to the alleged murders. SHARE COMMENT crime, law and justice SHARE SHARE EMAIL Published on
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Uttar Pradesh SHARE Published on BJP MP Subramanian Swamy – PTI The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to mention his plea, seeking enforcement of what he said was his fundamental right to pray at the disputed site in Ayodhya, after it pronounces its verdict on the question of whether mosques are integral to Islam.On July 20, the special bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra reserved its order on a plea by Muslim groups of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute seeking reconsideration by a larger bench on the observations made by it in a 1994 verdict that a mosque was not integral to Islam.Swamy had moved the apex court seeking enforcement of his right earlier as well.Swamy, at whose instance the sensitive land dispute case in Ayodhya was fast-tracked, had filed a separate petition stating that he had a fundamental right to offer hassle-free prayer at the birthplace of Lord Ram.The special bench of the apex court has a total of 14 appeals filed against the High Court judgment delivered in four civil suits. July 25, 2018 courts and legal SHARE SHARE EMAIL COMMENT religion and belief COMMENTS
IndiaJoy 2018 has lined up exciting interface for media, digital and gaming players hosting the event at the HICC and Hitex during December 2-6.Touted to be a major media and digital entertainment event brought together through an alliance between the Telangana Government’s IT department, IndiaJoy is expected to feature over 15 events where 25,000 plus delegates, 300 exhibitors and 500 speakers from across 30 countries are set to converge. The event facilitated by the Telangana VFX, Animation and Gaming Association, with tracks on Business to Business and Business to Consumer section, will also see several leading venture capitalists converging, scouting for their next important investment.Rajeev Chilaka, President, IVAGA and Founder, GreenGold Animation, said, The State Government encourages its domestic game industry to go global. IndiaJoy 2018 will unfold tremendous benefits and opportunities for investors, corporations, studios, content developers, delegates, consumers, hardware manufacturers and students, through its series of networking, trade exhibitions, product launches, B2B and B2C events.”Interacting with media and sharing the event plans, Sridhar Muppidi, Founder of PurpleTalk, said, “The media and entertainment segment is growing rapidly and there is growing interest among entrepreneurs, academia and professionals about its prospects. With an event of IndiaJoy scale, this is bound to grow bigger and Hyderabad will surely make its mark internationally as a trade destination for media and digital entertainment.”The Government expects the event to be a 360-degree talent-entertainment-networking experience. The event is expected to see the convergence of India Game Developers Conference, Unite India, Indywood (film and VFX), Indian Games Expo, Animation Express, Playmax eSports, Google Developers Day, Association of Designers of India, including a number of interesting and exciting activities.Ravi Kiran, Lead Organiser, IndiaJoy and CEO of GoLive Games, said, “The event will serve as an aggregator platform, bringing together expertise from across various segments in the media, entertainment and gaming spheres.” Apart from the key tracts, participants are expected to get a fair dose of music, gaming and other entertainment facilities. Published on 0 November 20, 2018 Hyderabad COMMENTS
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January 02, 2019 SHARE SHARE EMAIL COMMENT AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Published on mobile phones Andhra Pradesh SHARE smartphone CM releases white paper onState finances Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said smart phones will be distributed to each household to provide knowledge at the doorstep of the common man. He was speaking at Amaravati on New Year’s Day after releasing a white paper on the finances of the State. Online servicesNaidu said that using the smart phone, the common man would be able to get government services online. He said district vision documents would be prepared by January 11 and a State vision document by the end of January.The Chief Minister said the State government had released ten white papers so far to facilitate a debate by common man during the Janmabhoomi Mavooru programme commencing from Wednesday. Naidu said the State had achieved 10.52 per cent average growth rate during the past four-and-a-half years against Telangana’s 9.7 per cent and the all-India average of 7.3 per cent. He said the State economy had grown from ₹4.64 lakh crore in 2013-14 to ₹8.04 lakh crore in 2017-18, registering a net increase of ₹3.4 lakh crore at 73 per cent. Growth rateThe Chief Minister said AP had achieved faster growth rate than Telangana in spite of inheriting a huge revenue deficit. “It should be understood that it had been achieved despite the fact that the State had lost the advantage of having an established capital and a large metropolis like Hyderabad. The Centre’s non-cooperative stand should also be taken into account,” he explained. He said at current prices agriculture and allied sectors had significantly increased from ₹1.28 lakh crore during 2013-14 to ₹2.53 lakh crore during 2017-18. He said, “AP stands number one in agriculture and allied sectors with 97 per cent net increase. This is a result of the efforts of the State government.” Per capita incomeThe per capita income in Andhra Pradesh during 2014-15 was ₹93,903, higher than the national average. In 2017-18, the PCI in AP was ₹1,42,054, which is 25.9 per cent more than the national average.Naidu said the revenue expenditure had increased from ₹79,471 crore in 2014-15 to ₹1,21,214 crore in 2017-18. He said the revenue deficit is substantially higher than that projected by the Fourteenth Finance Commission. The Centre has given lower amount as revenue deficit grant for 2014-15 which has caused a financial stress on the State finances, he added. COMMENTS
Cryptocurrency 12 Jul 2019 Bitcoin extends loss after Fed urges halt to Facebook crypto project Related News TOKYO: Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint suspended all services after losing about 3.5 billion yen ($32 million) in a hack that involved Ripple and other cryptocurrencies. The exchange, which is owned by Remixpoint Inc., said about 2.5 billion yen of stolen funds belonged to customers, while Bitpoint owned the rest. Remixpoint shares plunged 19% to their daily lower limit, and were untraded in Tokyo as of 1:44 p.m. on a glut of sell orders.The funds were stolen from a hot wallet that contained five cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. It said it hasn’t discovered any funds missing from cold wallets.The exchange was among cryptocurrency operators ordered by Japan’s Financial Services Agency to improve internal controls following the 2018 hack of Coincheck. – Bloomberg Tags / Keywords: Nation 09 Jul 2019 Zooming in on cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency 11 Jul 2019 Bitcoin extends losses after Fed chief urges halt to Facebook’s crypto project Related News Cryptocurrency {{category}} {{time}} {{title}}
Tags / Keywords: Business News 10 Jul 2019 Gold slips as dollar strengthens ahead of Powell’s testimony The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rallied 1.4% to 46,560 yuan (US$6,789.65) a tonne, tracking rises of London copper in the previous session.However, gains were capped as investors eyed forecasts for slower growth in China, with vehicle sales potentially falling in 2019 and a Reuters poll showing economists expect economic growth to weaken to a near 30-year low of 6.2% this year.Shanghai lead rose 0.9% while London lead eased 0.2%, hovering around its highest since April 30, as lead stocks continued to deteriorate, hitting their fresh 10-year low on Tuesday, latest data showed. The difference between LME cash and three month lead contracts flipped to a premium of US$10.5 a tonne on Wednesday after holding in discount zone for nearly a month, indicating nearby supply shortage.“Lead smelters are all losing money, so prices should rise. Lead consumption now is not very good, but it will be better. The 3rd and 4th quarters are the peak season for lead-acid battery consumption” a China-based lead sales manager said.London aluminium retreated from a two-month high, falling 0.2% and zinc fell 0.2% while nickel marched towards a three-month high, up 0.7% while Shanghai aluminium rose 0.5%, nickel advanced 2% and zinc eased 0.1%. — Reuters Related News Copper rallies: An interior view of the copper factory owned by Inshaf Ibrahim in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.1% to US$5,948 a tonne after posting its biggest rise since Jan 25 in the previous session. — Reuters Economy 2d ago What Powell’s rate cut signal means for PBoC {{category}} {{time}} {{title}} Forex 11 Jul 2019 Dovish Powell boosts Asian currencies, Korean won leads Copper Related News SINGAPORE: Copper extended gains for the second straight session, as the US dollar eased after dovish comments by US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell reinforced rate cut bets.Powell on Wednesday confirmed that the US economy is still under threat, stressing that uncertainties around trade tensions and concerns about the strength of the global economy continue to weigh on the US outlook.The US dollar retreated, greenback-priced metals cheaper for users of other currencies.Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.1% to US$5,948 a tonne by 0326 GMT, after posting its biggest rise since Jan 25 in the previous session.
Reuters New DelhiJuly 12, 2019UPDATED: July 12, 2019 12:32 IST Raw almonds being crushed inside a factory. (File photo: Reuters)United States will seek rollback of Indian tariffs imposed on some agricultural products such as almonds when the two sides meet on Friday, a senior Indian government source told Reuters.A delegation led by Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, Christopher Wilson, will meet Indian officials to try to re-start negotiations on the tariffs, which were response to the US removing some trade privileges from Indian products.US President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on India to do more to open its markets, saying this week on Twitter that its high tariffs were “unacceptable”.The United States would seek a rollback of some of those tariffs, and India would in return seek better access to the US market for Indian farm products, said the Indian official who is aware of the agenda for discussions. He declined to be named.India was unlikely to immediately commit to any changes to foreign investment rules for foreign e-commerce firms such as Walmart’s Flipkart and Amazon, the official said. The rules have forced the twoAmerican companies to rework their business strategies for India.Walmart told the US government privately in January that India’s new investment rules for e-commerce were regressive and had the potential to hurt trade ties, Reuters reported on Thursday.Also read | India had field day: Trump slams India once again over tariffs on US productsAlso read | Will increase information-sharing, interoperability with Indian Armed Forces: US GeneralAlso watch | PM Narendra Modi and Donald Trump meet on sidelines of G20 SummitFor the latest World Cup news, live scores and fixtures for World Cup 2019, log on to indiatoday.in/sports. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for World Cup news, scores and updates.Get real-time alerts and all the news on your phone with the all-new India Today app. Download from Post your comment Do You Like This Story? Awesome! Now share the story Too bad. Tell us what you didn’t like in the comments Posted byAnumika Bahukhandi Tags :Follow Indo US relationsFollow AgricultureFollow US marketFollow Indian tariff levelsFollow Donald Trump Next US to seek rollback of Indian tariffs on some agricultural productsUS President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on India to do more to open its markets, saying this week on Twitter that its high tariffs were “unacceptable”.advertisement
Press Trust of India AhmedabadJuly 12, 2019UPDATED: July 12, 2019 15:26 IST Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrived in Ahmedabad on Friday to appear before a court in a defamation suit filed against him. (File Photo)Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said he was thankful to his opponents in the RSS and the BJP for providing him with opportunities to take his ideological battle against them to the public.Rahul Gandhi arrived in Ahmedabad to appear before a metropolitan court in a defamation suit filed against him by the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank and its chairman Ajay Patel.”I’m in Ahmedabad today, to appear in another case filed against me by my political opponents in the RSS/BJP. I thank them for providing me these platforms & opportunities to take my ideological battle against them to the public. Satyameva Jayate,” he said in a tweet after reaching Ahmedabad.The defamation suit alleges that Congress leaders, including Gandhi, had falsely claimed that the bank was involved in a “scam” to swap Rs 750 crore in scrapped notes with valid currency within five days of demonetisation in 2016.The defamation suit was filed last year after Gandhi and Surjewala claimed that the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank was involved in a “scam” to swap Rs 745.59 crore in swapped notes with valid currency within five days of demonetisation announcement on November 8, 2016.Union home minister Amit Shah is one of the directors of the ADC Bank.The court issued summonses to the two leaders on April 9 after finding prima facie evidence against them.The complainants said that the Congress leaders leveled “false and defamatory allegations” against the bank.The court had conducted an inquiry under section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before summoning Gandhi and Surjewala.The section deals with inquiry to decide whether there is sufficient ground for proceeding against a person.Gandhi and Surjewala’s allegations were based on the reply given by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to an RTI query of a Mumbai-based activist.ADCB and Patel have denied that the bank exchanged such a huge amount of swapped currency as alleged.READ | Rahul Gandhi issued summonses by two Gujarat courts in defamation casesWATCH | In Depth: The big Congress churnFor the latest World Cup news, live scores and fixtures for World Cup 2019, log on to indiatoday.in/sports. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for World Cup news, scores and updates.Get real-time alerts and all the news on your phone with the all-new India Today app. Download from Post your comment Do You Like This Story? Awesome! Now share the story Too bad. Tell us what you didn’t like in the comments Posted bySumeda Tags :Follow Rahul Gandhi Thankful to BJP-RSS for opportunities to take ideological battle to people, says Rahul GandhiRahul Gandhi is in Ahmedabad to appear before a metropolitan court in a defamation suit filed against him by the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank and its chairman.advertisement Next