Indonesia's erupting Sinabung volcano belches column of ash

Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupted on Tuesday

morning, spewing out a massive column of smoke and ash 

BAHARI TARIGAN AFP

Medan (Indonesia) (AFP)

Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupted on Tuesday morning, spewing a massive column of smoke and ash up to 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) into the sky.

The volcano on Sumatra island started blasting debris early in the morning, according to a local geological agency, which recorded 13 bursts.

Authorities have instructed residents to avoid a five-kilometre radius around the crater, a zone that has been left unoccupied for years as volcanic activity increased.

No evacuation orders have been issued, and there has been no reported flight disruption.

"There is no indication of increasing potential danger," the agency said in a statement.

Sinabung, a 2,460-metre (8,070-foot) volcano, was dormant for centuries before roaring back to life in 2010 when an eruption killed two people.

After another period of inactivity, it erupted again in 2013 and has remained highly active since.

In 2014, an eruption killed at least 16 people, while seven died in a 2016 blast.

Indonesia -- an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands and islets -- has nearly 130 active volcanoes.

It sits on the "Ring of Fire", a belt of tectonic plate boundaries circling the Pacific Ocean where frequent seismic activity occurs.

Mount Merapi on Java island, one of the world's most active volcanoes, also erupted this week, emitting lava on Monday.


© 2021 AFP

CAPITALI$M WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS
China's billionaires club swells as market rally offsets virus pain

Issued on: 02/03/2021 - 

Beijing is top of the list with the world's most billionaires for the sixth year in a row 

WANG ZHAO AFP


Beijing (AFP)

More than 200 billionaires were created in China last year as booming stock markets and a flood of new listings offset the ravages of the virus pandemic, according to a global tally released Tuesday.

The size of China's exclusive billionaire's club has almost doubled in the past five years as the world's number two economy continued to outpace most others, and its ability to mostly avoid the worst of the coronavirus meant it was one of the few to expand in 2020.

And the Hurun Global Rich List showed 259 people breaking into the billion-dollar bracket -- more than the rest of the world combined -- taking China total to 1,058, the first country to break the 1,000 mark.

In comparison, second best performer the United States saw 70 new billionaires created, taking its total to 696.

Leading the Chinese pack was Zhong Shanshan of bottled water giant Nongfu, who entered the list for the first time with an $85 billion fortune, putting him number one in Asia and into Hurun's global top 10. Zhong, a former construction worker, made his cash following a $1.1 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong last year.

However, a clampdown on ecommerce giant Alibaba saw tycoon Jack Ma fall down the pecking order. The one-time darling of China's entrepreneurs has come under pressure from regulators, who have reigned in Alibaba and fintech arm Ant Group on anti-trust issues.

Three individuals globally added more than $50 billion in a single year, the survey found: Tesla's Elon Musk, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Colin Huang of Pinduoduo, one of China's fastest-growing ecommerce players.

Overall, China continues to lead the world's wealth creation, Hurun's report said, adding 490 new billionaires in the past five years compared with the 160 added in the US.

Hurun Report chairman Rupert Hoogewerf said that even with the pandemic chaos, the past year saw the biggest wealth increase of the past decade due to new listings and booming stock markets.

"Asia has, for the first time in perhaps hundreds of years, more billionaires than the rest of the world combined," he added.

The report also flagged a shift in Hong Kong, pointing out that the city's entrepreneurs are now being "dwarfed" by their counterparts in the mainland -- only three Hong Kong tycoons make it into the China top 50.

Six of the world's top 10 cities with the highest concentration of billionaires are now in China, with Beijing top of the heap for the sixth year running.

© 2021 AFP

AT LONG LAST

Dozens of refugees released after years detained by Australia


Issued on: 02/03/2021 - 

Protesters attend a pro-refugee rights march in Sydney in June 

Peter PARKS AFP


Brisbane (Australia) (AFP)

Australia has freed dozens of refugees after holding them in detention for years under a policy designed to deter people from seeking asylum in the country, advocates said Tuesday.

More than 60 refugees were released over the past two days from hotels and detention centres in Brisbane, Sydney and Darwin, according to the Refugee Action Coalition and legal representatives.

They were granted temporary visas after spending up to eight years in Australian detention on Pacific islands before being transferred to the country for medical treatment.

Canberra has sent anyone attempting to arrive in Australia by boat to Papua New Guinea's Manus island and Nauru, under a hardline approach it says is designed to prevent people-smuggling.

The group's release comes after more than 60 refugees were freed in similar circumstances in December and January.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told local radio in January that it was "cheaper" for the refugees to be released into the community than to be held in detention.

Noeline Balasanthiran Harendran of Sydney West Legal and Migration said the releases came after several refugees took court action against the Australian government challenging the validity of their detention.

"From our point of view, it's because we've been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they're being held with no purpose... to hold people in detention you need to have a purpose," she told AFP.

Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition, urged the government to release about 75 other refugees still being held in Australia.

More than 250 also remain in limbo in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

"They've got no idea why they've been left behind and no idea what the future holds," he told AFP.

The Department of Home Affairs said government policy remained "steadfast" that the refugees "will not settle permanently in Australia".

"Transitory persons have third country migration options and are encouraged to finalise their medical treatment so they can continue on their resettlement pathway to the United States, return to Nauru or PNG, or return to their home country," a spokesperson said.

However, Dutton has admitted it would now be "very hard" for the government to make that happen.

The United Nations, human rights groups and doctors have condemned Canberra for its treatment of detainees, as stories of dire living conditions, self-harm and violence emerged from the offshore camps over the years.

© 2021 AFP

Reconstructing historical typhoons from a 142-year record

HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: PHOTO OF A WEATHER MAP WHEN A TYPHOON HIT JAPAN ON 30 AUGUST 1896. NOW ARCHIVED IN THE TAIWAN CENTRAL WEATHER BUREAU (PHOTO: HISAYUKI KUBOTA). view more 

CREDIT: HISAYUKI KUBOTA

A team of scientists has, for the first time, identified landfalls of tropical cyclones (TCs) in Japan for the period from 1877 to 2019; this knowledge will help prepare for future TC disasters.

In recent years strong TCs have been making landfalls in Japan, such as Typhoon Jebi in 2018, which severely hit the Kinki region, and Typhoon Hagibis in 2019, which severely hit eastern Japan. While Japan has suffered from a number of TC impacts throughout its history, meteorological data for these events has been sparse.

The team, including Specially Appointed Associate Professor Hisayuki Kubota of the Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, investigated TC activity over the western North Pacific and TC landfalls in Japan by analyzing a combination of TC tracking and meteorological data observed at weather stations and lighthouses, including rescued and recovered historical observations.

The team has collected and recovered TC track and landfall data and meteorological observations in the mid-19th century and later through an approach that rescues, collects and digitizes weather data across the world that has been stored away and often forgotten. To give the data useful consistency, the team developed a new, unified definition for TCs, based on minimum pressure.

According to their analysis, TC landfall locations tend to shift to the northeast and then southwest regions of Japan at roughly 100-year intervals. The analysis also shows that annual TC landfall numbers and their intensities have been increasing in recent years, while noting that these increases may be part of an oscillated fluctuation operating on interdecadal time scales.

The landfall numbers were relatively small in the late 20th century, and larger at other times. The Tohoku and Hokkaido regions, which experienced small numbers of TC landfalls in the late 20th century, may experience more landfalls in the future.

Japan's first official meteorological observation was conducted in Hakodate, Hokkaido, in 1872. There is very little earlier meteorological data obtained by meteorological instruments at terrestrial stations, which makes it difficult to perform long-term meteorological variability analyses. In a new approach, the team focused on foreign ship log weather records from the mid-19th century made with meteorological instruments on vessels sailing through East- and Southeast Asian waters.

The team used records from the US Navy expedition fleet to Japan led by Commodore Matthew C. Perry and from British Navy ships that also sailed to Japan to accurately identify the track of a TC moving over the ocean around the Okinawa Islands from 21 to 25 July 1853, and the track of a TC moving north over the East China Sea from 15 to 16 August 1863.

The results of the study show for the first time the usefulness of such marine data in identifying weather patterns after the mid-19th century in Asia, where there is much less meteorological data for that time period compared with Western countries. "It is projected that stronger TCs will hit Japan in the future due to global warming. The long-term data from our research is indispensable for knowing the variabilities of TC activities in the past and to prepare for future TCs," says Hisayuki Kubota.

###

Learning about health from trusted sources may help teens battle depression

PENN STATE

Research News

 

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Depression can be a common problem for teens and adolescents, and while many treatments exist, they don't always work for everyone. A new study found that feeling more informed about their health may help teens take better care of themselves, leading to less depressive symptoms.

The researchers also found that trust played a factor in whether receiving health information improved depression. The more that adolescents trusted their parents or teacher as a credible source of health information, the more likely they were to experience less depression.

Additionally, even though adolescents reported that they trusted traditional media -- like TV, radio and newspapers -- more than online content, only content from social media or websites resulted in actual changes in behavior.

Bu Zhong, associate professor of communications at Penn State, said the findings -- recently published in the journal Child: Care, Health and Development -- suggest that while adolescents are probably taught to be skeptical of online content, websites and social media have the potential to powerfully affect adolescent health.

"The kids weren't purposefully being misleading when they said they didn't trust information online, even though that information was ultimately linked with lower depression," Zhang said. "They were probably told by their parents and teachers to be wary of information found online or on social media. But our research found that online content has a strong impact on their health behavior and depression mitigation strategies, which are not found in the traditional media content."

According to the researchers, depression is one of the most common mental disorders among adolescents in China. In the United States, the National Institute of Mental Health reported that 13.3% of the U.S. population aged 12 to 17 in 2017 had at least one major depressive episode.

Additionally, previous work has shown that depression increases the risk of adolescents experiencing poorer school performance and social withdrawal, along with an increased risk of self-harm and suicide ideation.

"This study was actually inspired by my students, after several of them came to me really stressed out," Zhong said. "I know firsthand how widespread depression can be among students, so I was interested in what kind of health information people shared with the young people and if it can help them cope with depression."

The researchers recruited 310 adolescents from elementary, middle and high schools in North China for the study. Participants answered information about health information -- such as seminars, classes, pamphlets and other media -- they recently consumed, including its quality and whether the source and information were credible.

They also answered questions about their health, including their symptoms of depression and whether consuming health information led to changes in their behavior, such as whether they felt it helped them prevent disease and if it increased their likelihood to discuss and share health information with friends.

The researchers found that the older participants were, the more likely they were to be depressed. Additionally, participants with higher GPAs were also more likely to be depressed. Zhang said this could be because the longer students were in school, and the better their grades were, the more likely they were more likely to feel more pressure to succeed.

However, the more frequently participants used social media, the more likely they were to change their health behaviors, which led to less depression.

Lastly, adolescents felt more depressed when their mothers had a higher level of education, but less depressed when their fathers had a higher level of education. Zhong described this finding as the "tiger mom effect."

"These findings don't mean that a mom's education causes their kids' depression, but one interpretation could be that it may not be a good idea for moms to dominate their children's school life and push them too hard," Zhong said. "Kids may do much better at school and more importantly are less likely to experience stress or other depressive symptoms. Parents may learn from each other in educating their teen children."

Overall, the researchers said the results suggest that health information has the potential to be strategically used to help mitigate depression in teens and adolescents.

"Our research is interested in providing long-term health outcomes, not just temporary relief," Zhong said. "So we're looking for anything in addition to drugs, in addition to therapy, that can help people with their depression, and this offers another possibility. It may not be able to remove all the stressors causing teen depression, but it's possible we could equip adolescents with better health information gathering skills to help battle depression."

###

Juan Chen, South China University of Technology, collaborated with Zhong on this research.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Bioinspired materials from dandelions

The air trapping capacity of dandelion clocks submerged in water has been measured in the lab for the first time at the University of Trento

UNIVERSITÀ DI TRENTO

CAPTION

Air-encapsulating elastic mechanism of submerged Taraxacum blowballs

CREDIT

University of Trento

 Fields are covered with dandelions in spring, a very common plant with yellow gold flowers and toothed leaves. When they wither, the flowers turn into fluffy white seed heads that, like tiny parachutes, are scattered around by the wind. Taraxacum officinale, that is its scientific name, inspired legends and poems and has been used for centuries as a natural remedy for many ailments.

Now, thanks to a study conducted at the University of Trento, dandelions will inspire new engineered materials. The air trapping capacity of dandelion clocks submerged in water has been measured in the lab for the first time. The discovery paves the way for the development of new and advanced devices and technologies that could be used in a broad range of applications, for example, to create devices or materials that retain air bubbles under water.

The study was coordinated by Nicola Pugno, professor of the University of Trento and coordinator of the Laboratory of Bio-inspired, Bionic, Nano, Meta Materials & Mechanics at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering.

The discovery was given international prominence by "Materials Today Bio", a multidisciplinary journal focused on the interface between biology and materials science, chemistry, physics, engineering, and medicine.

Nicola Pugno outlined how the research unfolded: "Diego Misseroni and I started to work on a discovery that my daughter made, in her first year in high school. She noticed that dandelion clocks, when submerged by water, turn silvery because they trap air. We have quantified this discovery. For the first time, we have measured the air trapping capacity of dandelion clocks in a laboratory setting. This paper demonstrated that kids and young adults can make significant discoveries by observing nature".

When submerged in water, the research team observed, the soft seed heads turn silver in color, become thinner and take on a rhombus-like shape. The team then developed an analytical model to measure the mechanical properties of the flower, in order to mimic them and create re-engineered dandelion-like materials.

Bioinspired engineering can explore different opportunities thanks to this discovery, such as miniaturized parachute-like elements to develop innovative devices and advanced, light and low-cost technological solutions to trap and transport air bubbles underwater. These materials could be used, for example, in underwater operations.

Air-encapsulating elastic mechanism of submerged Taraxacum blowballs (VIDEO)

The article "Air-encapsulating elastic mechanism of submerged Taraxacum blowballs", inspired by a discovery made by student Maria Consolata Pugno, was written with her for the scientific journal "Materials Today Bio" by Nicola Pugno and Diego Misseroni (Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering of the University of Trento).

The battle against hard-to-treat fungal infections

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Systemic fungal infections are much rarer than other illnesses, but they are potentially deadly, with limited options for treatment. In fact, fungi are becoming increasingly resistant to the few drugs that are available, and infections are growing more common. A cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, details how scientists are working to improve our antifungal arsenal.

At present, there are only four types of antifungal drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and some infections are resistant to those drugs, making surgery the only option for treatment, writes Senior Correspondent Bethany Halford. Fungi can be found almost everywhere, but only a few hundred species are able to infect humans, and most people's immune systems can fight them off. However, people with compromised immune systems (for instance, cancer patients being treated with certain chemotherapies) are at a higher risk for developing fungal infections. The FDA has not approved a drug from a new antifungal class in 20 years, and the ones available all have downsides, including drug resistance and kidney toxicity. This dearth of treatments has doctors concerned that the problem will only get worse as time goes on.

Creating a new antifungal drug is challenging because of the biological similarities between humans and fungi. Many molecules that are harmful to fungi are also harmful to people. Experts say that exploiting the differences between humans and fungi is key to developing new treatments; for example, fungal cells have walls, but human cells do not. In addition to developing new treatments, pharmaceutical researchers are working to improve established antifungal drugs to make them more potent and have fewer side effects. Although scientists and doctors are hopeful that new antifungals will be approved, establishing clinical trials has proven challenging because most of the people who get fungal infections are already very sick. However, the COVID-19 pandemic could change how pharmaceutical companies think about therapies for infectious diseases, prioritizing them in the future.

###

The article, "The Fight Against Fungi," is freely available here.

For more of the latest research news, register for our upcoming meeting, ACS Spring 2021. Journalists and public information officers are encouraged to apply for complimentary press registration by emailing us at newsroom@acs.org.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS' mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people. The Society is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a specialist in scientific information solutions (including SciFinder® and STN®), its CAS division powers global research, discovery and innovation. ACS' main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.  

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.  

Follow us: Twitter | Facebook

How math can help us understand the human body

Graph theory helps biologists study homeostasis, researchers say

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Healthy human bodies are good at regulating: Our temperatures remain around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, no matter how hot or cold the temperature around us. The sugar levels in our blood remain fairly constant, even when we down a glass of juice. We keep the right amount of calcium in our bones and out of the rest of our bodies.

We couldn't survive without that regulation, called homeostasis. And when the systems break down, the results can cause illness or, sometimes, death.

In presentations at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting, researchers argued that mathematics can help explain and predict those breakdowns, potentially offering new ways of treating the systems to prevent or fix them when things go wrong. The meeting was held virtually earlier this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Homeostasis "is a biological phenomenon and biological systems wouldn't work without it," said Marty Golubitsky, one of the presenters and a distinguished professor of natural and mathematical sciences at The Ohio State University. "And if you had detailed, accurate mathematical models, you could numerically explore those systems, find places where this control really happens, and then you could estimate how things go wrong and how you might be able to correct it."

Scientists have a good handle on the biological reasons why that regulation happens: Certain systems in our bodies have to remain constant in order to function and keep our bodies alive. The math behind it, though, is less certain.

But understanding homeostasis - including predicting changes to it and calculating ways to keep the body regulated despite breakdowns in the body's systems that manage those regulations - could be a way to provide targeted medical care to people who need it, said Janet Best, co-author of some of the research behind the presentations and professor of mathematics at Ohio State.

"This is part of precision medicine," said Best, who is also co-director of Ohio State's Mathematical Biosciences Institute. "People are different, and you need a model that can work on different people. And we think that's what we've developed here."

Researchers at the MBI and at other institutions who study how math and biology intersect have built models to explain how the body maintains homeostasis in a variety of systems. At the heart of those models is a graph, a mathematical concept that seeks to explain how objects relate to one another. (If you took algebra or geometry in high school, you likely learned some of the basics of graph theory.)

Golubitsky and Best said that graph theory can help explain and predict changes to homeostasis in the body. That explanation, they say, could be useful for biologists and others looking for ways to intervene when homeostasis breaks down. That breakdown causes a number of problems - too much glucose in a person's blood, for example, or not enough calcium in their bones.

The AAAS presentations focused both on a graph that models how the body regulates dopamine levels through homeostasis and how graph theory helps identify properties of graphs that can help predict homeostasis. Golubitsky and Best described how dopamine and the enzymes that break it down can be represented as a mathematical formula associated with a graph.

They showed that, by calculating changes in the nodes, it might be possible to calculate or predict changes in dopamine levels. That approach could be expanded to other systems, Golubitsky said, though future study is needed to know for sure. That study is already underway, he said.

"Homeostasis is an important enough area in biology that if mathematics can contribute anything, it's a success," he said.

###

 

Independent music squashed out of streaming playlists and revenue

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

Research News 

Bands and artists on independent record labels get less than their fair share of access to the most popular playlists on streaming platforms such as Spotify - argues a new paper from the University of East Anglia.

The paper, published today, looks at whether streaming platforms offer a level playing field for artists and record labels.

It finds that major labels have an unfair advantage when it comes to playlist access - and that they take the lion's share of subscription revenue as a result.

As a possible remedy, the research team suggests changing the payment system, so that royalties generated by individual listener subscriptions go direct to the labels, bands and artists they are listening to.

They also recommend more transparency in how playlists are created and how the algorithms behind music recommendations work.

Finally, they recommend greater transparency about contracts and say that major labels with financial stakes in streaming platforms should be forced to divest.

Not overhauling the system, they say, is likely stifle innovation and creativity in the long run - which will in turn impact both the industry and consumers.

Prof Peter Ormosi, from UEA's Norwich Business School and Centre for Competition Policy, said: "Music streaming has become the most important route to market recorded music, and this position is likely to strengthen in future.

"Music streaming platforms like Spotify pay the labels royalties that are calculated on a pro rata basis, as a proportion of the revenues associated with the streams of their content.

"We wanted to see how streaming platforms support or distort fair competition between different types of recorded music and their creators - whether they offer a level playing field for artists and labels.

"A level playing field is important not only for artists but also, over the longer term, for consumers. If competition is distorted it risks inhibiting innovation, variety and the prospects of upcoming and more niche artists.

"Creativity and innovation are vital for the music industry - if streaming platforms stifle this, it will be bad for the whole industry and consumers in the long run."

The team studied in detail how streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music operate - including how streaming revenues are split between major and independent labels and artists, the role of playlists, and how some major labels also hold shares in streaming platforms.

Co-author Prof Amelia Fletcher, also from UEA's Norwich Business School and Centre for Competition Policy, said: "Playlists on music streaming platforms play a central role in disseminating music to consumers. As such, it is important for ensuring fair competition that independent artists have fair access to playlists.

"But our research suggests that independent label artists are getting less than their fair share of access to the most popular playlists.

"While the vast majority of playlists are curated by Spotify, the shares of the major labels' own proprietary playlists may exacerbate the situation.

"This disproportionately lesser access is likely to have a direct impact on revenues for independent labels and their artists as well as an indirect impact on the sustainability of this important segment of the market in the future.

Co-author Daniel Antal, founder of Reprex, a big data startup focusing on the music industry,said: "The impact of playlists on royalty payments is likely to be accentuated under a pro-rata royalty allocation system.

"We recommend that the payment system should be reformed by moving from the pro-rata payment system to a user-centric remuneration, where the royalties generated by an individual user's subscription is simply split between what they choose to listen to.

"We would also encourage greater transparency of contracts, once they are agreed, to help ensure fair treatment, or alternatively that competition authorities should allow industry-wide negotiation by labels, as is already carried out for performance and mechanical royalties on the composition side of the split.

"Finally, we note that some of the majors have residual equity stakes in Spotify. For example Universal holds a 3.5 per cent stake and Sony Music a 2.9 per cent stake, in Spotify. And Deezer is part-owned by Access Industries which in turn owns Warner Music Group.

"Requiring divestment of such stakes could also be helpful in ensuring that streaming platforms have the right incentives to ensure a level playing field."

###

'Music streaming: is it a level playing field?' is published in the journal Competition Policy International.

 

Researchers discover that privacy-preserving tools leave private data anything but

NYU TANDON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Research News

 

BROOKLYN, New York, Wednesday, March 3, 2021 - Machine-learning (ML) systems are becoming pervasive not only in technologies affecting our day-to-day lives, but also in those observing them, including face expression recognition systems. Companies that make and use such widely deployed services rely on so-called privacy preservation tools that often use generative adversarial networks (GANs), typically produced by a third party to scrub images of individuals' identity. But how good are they?

Researchers at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, who explored the machine-learning frameworks behind these tools, found that the answer is "not very." In the paper "Subverting Privacy-Preserving GANs: Hiding Secrets in Sanitized Images," presented last month at the 35th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, a team led by Siddharth Garg, Institute Associate Professor of electrical and computer engineering at NYU Tandon, explored whether private data could still be recovered from images that had been "sanitized" by such deep-learning discriminators as privacy protecting GANs (PP-GANs) and that had even passed empirical tests. The team, including lead author Kang Liu, a Ph.D. candidate, and Benjamin Tan, research assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, found that PP-GAN designs can, in fact, be subverted to pass privacy checks, while still allowing secret information to be extracted from sanitized images.

Machine-learning-based privacy tools have broad applicability, potentially in any privacy sensitive domain, including removing location-relevant information from vehicular camera data, obfuscating the identity of a person who produced a handwriting sample, or removing barcodes from images. The design and training of GAN-based tools are outsourced to vendors because of the complexity involved.

"Many third-party tools for protecting the privacy of people who may show up on a surveillance or data-gathering camera use these PP-GANs to manipulate images," said Garg. "Versions of these systems are designed to sanitize images of faces and other sensitive data so that only application-critical information is retained. While our adversarial PP-GAN passed all existing privacy checks, we found that it actually hid secret data pertaining to the sensitive attributes, even allowing for reconstruction of the original private image."

The study provides background on PP-GANs and associated empirical privacy checks, formulates an attack scenario to ask if empirical privacy checks can be subverted, and outlines an approach for circumventing empirical privacy checks.

The team provides the first comprehensive security analysis of privacy-preserving GANs and demonstrate that existing privacy checks are inadequate to detect leakage of sensitive information. ?

Using a novel steganographic approach, they adversarially modify a state-of-the-art PP-GAN to hide a secret (the user ID), from purportedly sanitized face images. ?

They show that their proposed adversarial PP-GAN can successfully hide sensitive attributes in "sanitized" output images that pass privacy checks, with 100% secret recovery rate. ?

Noting that empirical metrics are dependent on discriminators' learning capacities and training budgets, Garg and his collaborators argue that such privacy checks lack the necessary rigor for guaranteeing privacy.

"From a practical standpoint, our results sound a note of caution against the use of data sanitization tools, and specifically PP-GANs, designed by third parties," explained Garg. "Our experimental results highlighted the insufficiency of existing DL-based privacy checks and the potential risks of using untrusted third-party PP-GAN tools."

###

About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering

The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute. A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences as part of a global university, with close connections to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. NYU Tandon is rooted in a vibrant tradition of entrepreneurship, intellectual curiosity, and innovative solutions to humanity's most pressing global challenges. Research at Tandon focuses on vital intersections between communications/IT, cybersecurity, and data science/AI/robotics systems and tools and critical areas of society that they influence, including emerging media, health, sustainability, and urban living. We believe diversity is integral to excellence, and are creating a vibrant, inclusive, and equitable environment for all of our students, faculty and staff. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu.

Nature: new compound for male contraceptive pill

Dr. Wei Yan discovered a natural compound that exhibits almost ideal male contraceptive effects in pre-clinical studies

THE LUNDQUIST INSTITUTE

Research News

 

IMAGE: DR. WEI YAN, INVESTIGATOR, THE LUNDQUIST INSTITUTE view more 

CREDIT: THE LUNDQUIST INSTITUTE

• Nature Communications Publishes Paper by Lundquist Institute Investigator Dr. Wei Yan and Colleagues on New Promising Compound for Male Contraceptive Pill

• The Lundquist Institute researchers discovered a natural compound that exhibits almost ideal male contraceptive effects in pre-clinical studies

LOS ANGELES (March 3, 2021) -- In a new paper published by Nature Communications, The Lundquist Institute (TLI) Investigator Wei Yan, MD, PhD, and his research colleagues spell out an innovative strategy that has led to the discovery of a natural compound as a safe, effective and reversible male contraceptive agent in pre-clinical animal models. Despite tremendous efforts over the past decades, the progress in developing non-hormonal male contraceptives has been very limited.

The compound is triptonide, which can be either purified from a Chinese herb called Tripterygium Wilfordii Hook F, or produced through chemical synthesis. Single daily oral doses of triptonide induce altered sperm having minimal or no forward motility with close to 100% penetrance and consequently male infertility in 3-4 and 5-6 weeks. Once the treatment is stopped, the males become fertile again in ~4-6 weeks, and can produce healthy offspring. No discernable toxic effects were detected in either short- or long-term triptonide treatment. All of their data suggest that triptonide is a highly promising non-hormonal male contraceptive agent for men because it appears to meet all of the criteria for a viable contraceptive drug candidate, including bioavailability, efficacy, reversibility and safety. A battery of biochemical analyses suggest that triptonide targets one of the last steps during sperm assembly, leading to the production of altered sperm without vigorous motility required for fertilization.

"Thanks to decades of basic research, which inspired us to develop the idea that a compound that targets a protein critical for the last several steps of sperm assembly would lead to the production of nonfunctional sperm without causing severe depletion of testicular cells", said Dr. Yan. "We are very excited that the new idea worked and that this compound appears to be an ideal male contraceptive. Our results using non-injurious studies on lower primates suggest triptonide will be an effective treatment for human males as well. Hopefully, we will be able to start human clinical trials soon to make the non-hormonal male contraceptive a reality."

"Dr. Yan's discovery represents a major leap forward in the field", said Drs. Christina Wang and Ronald Swerdloff, who are TLI co-Principal Investigators helping lead NIH-supported advanced clinical trials on hormone-based birth control approaches. "The more contraceptive methods available, the better, as we will want a family of pharmaceutical products to safely and effectively meet the family planning needs of men and couples at different stages of their reproductive lives, with differing ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds and economic means," emphasized Wang and Swerdloff.

###

Media Contact for The Lundquist Institute:

Max Benavidez
max.benavidez@lundquist.org
310-200-2682

About The Lundquist Institute: Research with reach

The Lundquist Institute is an engine of innovation with a global reach and a 69-year reputation of improving and saving lives. With its new medical research building, its state-of-the-art incubator, "BioLabs at The Lundquist," existing laboratory and support infrastructure, and the development of a new 15-acre business tech park, the Lundquist Institute serves as a hub for the Los Angeles area's burgeoning biotech scene. The research institute has over 100 principal investigators (PhDs, MDs, and MD/PhDs) working on more than 600 research studies, including therapies for numerous, and often fatal orphan diseases.

How to track the variants of the pandemic faster

UNIVERSITY OF BERN

Research News

 

IMAGE: SPECIALISTS IN VIRAL AND GENETIC ANALYSIS, LED BY SWISS SCIENTISTS DR. EMMA HODCROFT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BERN AND PROF. CHRISTOPHE DESSIMOZ AT UNIVERSITY OF LAUSANNE, ALONGSIDE DR. NICK GOLDMAN... view more 

CREDIT: © OLIVER HOCHSTRASSER

"What scientists have achieved in a year since the discovery of a brand-new virus is truly remarkable," says Emma Hodcroft from the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) of the University of Bern, first author on the piece, "but the tools scientists are using to study how SARS-CoV-2 is transmitting and changing were never designed for the unique pressures - or volumes of data - of this pandemic."

SARS-CoV-2 is now one of the most sequenced pathogens of all time, with over 600,000 full-genome sequences having been generated since the pandemic began, and over 5,000 new sequences coming in from around the world every day. However, the analysis and visualization tools used today (including Nextstrain, co-developed by Prof. Richard Neher's group at the SIB and the University of Basel) were never designed to handle the volume and speed of sequences being generated today, or the scale of the involvement with public health response. "Across the world, genomic surveillance rests on the initiative of academic researchers to find essential answers. Public health decision making would benefit from a more sustainalble collaboration framework," says Christophe Dessimoz at SIB and University of Lausanne.

What an improved sequencing would enable

The genetic sequences from SARS-CoV-2 hold valuable information to implementing effective pandemic policies and staying ahead of the virus. Comparing how many mutations different samples share, for example, allows scientists to track the transmission of the virus - helping to identify super-spreading events and international spread. But at the moment it can be hard to combine this genetic information with other key variables - like who attended an event, and when symptoms appeared - which could help make these methods even more informative.

The 'R-number' has gone from a scientific concept to a household word in the last year - it measures the average number of people an infected person will transmit to. Here, sequences can help too, by helping to pick apart imported cases from local transmission. This allows for a more accurate estimate of Re, but needs high levels of sequencing and complex analyses, which are currently not widely implemented.

Finally, sequencing is the only way to identify and track the many mutations that arise in SARS-CoV-2. While mutations are a normal part of virus life, scientists need to know which are harmless variations and which could change the virus' transmissibility or clinical outcome. Combining sequences, lab work, and computational predictions could allow for a better understanding of mutational impacts, but there's little framework to help these different specialities work together. "The viral data - sequences and associated metadata- must be determined, gathered and harmonized thanks to stable infrastructures compatible with the principles of Open Data to facilitate peer-review by the community and their reuse", says Christophe Dessimoz at SIB and University of Lausanne, last author of the comment.

Benefits for Switzerland

"In Switzerland, the population could benefit from more systematic and representative sequencing, for example through better contract tracing, targeted isolation and quarantine of smaller regions, and guiding the closing and opening of schools based on the presence of certain variants", explains Emma Hodcroft. Harmonisation of health data practices is also a critical topic. Switzerland is already putting a lots of efforts at the national level through the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN).

The researchers are convinced that Switzerland's potential in terms of expertise and infrastructure is just waiting to be tapped, to the benefit of public health. "The tools to enable research are there, and researchers have self-organized and taken the first step: to scale up and sustain these efforts to bring research and public health closer together, we rely on a sustainable public funding", says Christophe Dessimoz.

###

Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine ISPM at the University of Bern

The Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) provides undergraduate and postgraduate education and carries out interdisciplinary research in the fields of social and behavioural health, clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, and international and environmental health. It also provides a wide range of postgraduate education to train students to become excellent public health researchers and to work as public health specialists. This year, the ISPM celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics

The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an internationally recognized non-profit organization, dedicated to biological and biomedical data science. Its data scientists are passionate about creating knowledge and solving complex questions in many fields, from biodiversity and evolution to medicine. They provide essential databases and software platforms as well as bioinformatics expertise and services to academic, clinical, and industry groups. SIB federates the Swiss bioinformatics community of some 800 scientists, encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing.

The institute contributes to keeping Switzerland at the forefront of innovation by fostering progress in biological research and enhancing health.

Data scientists for life http://www.sib.swiss

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Lessons from Wuhan: What managers and employees need to know

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO

 NEWS RELEASE 3-MAR-2021

Research News

As COVID-19 lockdowns and quarantines are lifted, businesses are now faced with the challenge of how to keep their employees who are returning to work motivated and engaged.

A study led by a University of Illinois Chicago researcher shows that both employees and managers have an important part to play in promoting employee engagement during the pandemic.

The research, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, suggests employee engagement and performance are the highest when employees are mentally prepared for their return to work and their managers are strongly committed to employees' health and safety at work.

"Given the turmoil and distress during lockdowns and quarantines, employees may have trouble reconnecting with their work. We wanted to find out what factors could help employees effectively stay engaged at work upon return. This is an important topic because highly engaged employees tend to intrinsically enjoy their work and outperform others," says lead author Zhenyu Yuan, assistant professor of managerial studies in the UIC College of Business Administration.

In the study, Yuan and his co-authors surveyed more than 350 employees from the original epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic -- Wuhan, China -- where many employees were returning to work after the strict city-wide lockdown was lifted.

According to the research, employees first need to mentally reconnect with their work.

"As employees are physically returning to work, they also need to be mentally prepared to reconnect," Yuan explained. "For example, employees are encouraged to spend some time reviewing work progress and set work priorities for upcoming tasks before coming back to work. This is similar to the warm-up before a workout. With some mental 'warm-up,' employees will find it easier to reconnect and re-engage at work."

Further, managers also have a critical role to play, Yuan added. With the continuous health threat of the coronavirus, employees can get easily overwhelmed and distracted in the workplace. Therefore, managers need to take concrete measures to promote workplace health and safety so that employees feel safe at work.

"Managers' commitment to safety can't be merely lip service," he said. "They should set a good example themselves by clearly communicating, enforcing, and promoting workplace health and safety protocols."

Importantly, the researchers found these two factors work synergistically.

"Engagement and performance were highest only when both conditions are met," Yuan said. "This reinforces the idea that managers can't simply expect their employees to be devoted to work without providing effective support for their health and safety."

Given that their study was based on data collected from Wuhan, China, Yuan cautioned about the applicability of their findings across different countries and regions.

"Depending on how the virus has spread and been managed in different places, other factors are also important to consider," he said. "But we think our key finding holds regardless of locations. That is, managers and employees are in this together -- they need to work together to promote engagement, workplace productivity, and safety. This will be critical as businesses and employees try to rebound from the economic toll of the current pandemic."

###

Study co-authors include Zhuxin Ye, assistant professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology; and Meng Zhong, a doctoral candidate in the UIC Department of Managerial Studies.