Your Cellphone Could Be a Sonar Device

LiveScience.com —  Submarines have used sonar for decades. Bats and dolphins have used it for millions of years. And thanks to a little math, humans could soon be echolocating with their mobile phones.

At the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Switzerland, experts in signal processing discovered a mathematical technique that allows ordinary microphones to “see” the shape of a room by picking up ultrasonic pulses as they bounce off the walls. The work was published in this week’s edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Microphone echolocation is harder than it sounds. Ambient noise in any room interferes with the sounds used to locate the walls, and the echoes sometimes bounce more than once. There is also the added challenge of figuring out which echoes are bouncing off which wall. [See also: "How Bats Stay on Target: Bio Sonar"]

Bats have had millions of years to evolve specialized neural circuits to fine-tune their echolocation abilities, said Ivan Dokmanic, a doctoral researcher and lead author of the PNAS paper. He added that humans can echolocate too, though not as precisely. (Some blind people have demonstrated this ability.)

One reason echolocation is easier for bats and humans than it is for computers is that bats and humans have skulls that filter the sound. Tracking where a sound originates is easier for humans because people’s two ears hear slightly different things. This allows humans to pinpoint the origin of a sound.

To enable echolocation in mobile devices, Dokmanic investigated the math behind echolocation. What he found was that it’s possible to treat the echoes of sounds emitted by a speaker as sources, rather than as waves bouncing off of something.

It’s kind of like what happens when you look into mirror: Your eyes see a reflection, but there’s the illusion that there’s another person who looks just like you standing at precisely the same distance from the mirror.

That’s what Dokmanic did with sound. He assumed that each echo was a source, and created a kind of grid, called a matrix, of distances. Using some advanced math, he was then able to create an algorithm that could group the echoes in the correct way to deduce the shape of a room.

First, the team experimented with an ordinary room at the EPFL, using a set of microphones and a laptop computer to test whether the algorithm worked. It did, and their next step was to test their program in the real world. So they went to a cathedral and tested it there.

“It was really the opposite environment,” Dokmanic said, adding that unlike a controlled lab setting, a cathedral has a lot of ambient noise and the space isn’t perfectly square.

The algorithm worked there too, showing that the echolocation scheme could detect the cathedral’s walls.

“The innovation is in the way that they process the signal to calculate the shape of the room,” said Tommaso Melodia, an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University at Buffalo who was not involved in the study.

Martin Vetterli, professor of communications systems at EPFL and a co-author of the paper, said that mobile phones could be used to locate people more precisely. One problem with getting anyone’s precise location on the phone is that only certain frequencies penetrate building walls, so GPS signals are sometimes useless.

Moreover, GPS is not always precise — if there’s a lot of interference,it’s not uncommon for a phone to say it can’t locate you more precisely than within a half mile. Wi-Fi could work, but it depends on the existence of a local network.

Echolocation partly solves that problem, because it can measure the distance from where a user is standing to the walls of an individual room, and send that more precise information to tell the network exactly where that person is located. Instead of knowing where someone is within a city block, you’d be able to see that he or she is inside a room of a certain size or is surrounded by walls that give an intersection a certain shape.

One other issue is the distance between two microphones on a mobile phone. Many mobile phones have two mics —the directional mic is used when it’s pressed to your head while you’re on a phone call, and the other is used for canceling out the ambient noise.

The two microphones on a phone calculate the distance by triangulating – measuring the small gap between when an echo reaches each microphone. The distance between the microphones is the base of a triangle, and the time difference between echoes’ time of arrival tells you the length of the other two sides.

But these two microphones usually aren’t very far apart on phones, so calculating the distance to a source that’s far away is harder to do.

One solution, Vetterli said, might be to use people’s tendency to walk with their phones in order to help echolocate walls more accurately.

Since you can’t make phones much bigger, it is simpler to have the phone take measurements from more than one spot as the user walks with it, so the base of the triangle is longer, he said.

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How a High Fat Diet Increases Alzheimer’s Risk

LiveScience.com – Diets high in saturated fat and sugar may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and a new study may explain why.

In the study, participants who ate a diet high in saturated fat (including lots of beef and bacon) and “high glycemic index” foods (such as white rice and white bread) had an increase in levels of a protein called amyloid-beta in their cerebral spinal fluid. Amyloid-beta is a key component of the brain plaques that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. High glycemic index foods release sugar quickly into the bloodstream.

In contrast, participants who ate a diet low in saturated fat (including fish and chicken) and low in high glycemic index foods (such as whole grains) had a decrease in amyloid-beta in their cerebral spinal fluid.

While previous studies have found that poor diet, obesity and diabetes are linked with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, the new study is one of the first to try to explain why, on a biological level, this might occur.

“Diet is a very important factor in determining brain health,” said study researcher Suzanne Craft, a professor of medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. “The types of food we eat, particular dietary patterns that happen over long periods of time, are likely to have a substantial impact on our brains to the point where they may either protect or increase your risk of developing late-life brain disease like Alzheimer’s disease,” Craft said.

However, the study was small and examined the effect of diet over a very short time period — just one month. More research is needed to know whether the increase in amyloid-beta seen in this study would really result in Alzheimer’s disease.

In addition, it’s not clear if changing their diet would be helpful for people who already have a genetic risk for Alzheimer’s.

Brain health and diet

Amyloid-beta normally gets cleared from the brain, and problems with this process may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, Craft said.

One of the ways amyloid-beta is cleared is when it attaches to a protein called apolipoprotein E. When amyloid-beta is not attached to apolipoprotein E, it is in a “lipid-depleted” (LD) form that is less stable, and more likely to be toxic to the brain, Craft said.

The new study involved 47 adults in their late 60s, about half of whom had mild cognitive impairment, a condition in which people experience noticeable declines in their cognitive function, including memory and language problems.

Participants were randomly assigned to follow a high saturated fat, high glycemic index diet or a low saturated fat, low glycemic index diet for four weeks. Both groups ate the same number of total calories. Samples of cerebral spinal fluid were collected at the beginning and end of the study through a lumbar puncture.

Before participants started the diet, those with mild cognitive impairment had higher levels of LD amyloid-beta compared to those with normal cognition. Levels of LD amyloid-beta were particularly high among adults with mild cognitive impairment who also had a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s (a mutation in a gene called ApoE4.)

After four weeks, those on the high saturated fat diet saw an increase in LD amyloid-beta levels, while those on the low saturated fat diet saw a decrease in LD amyloid-beta.

However, those with the ApoE4 mutation, who already had high levels of amyloid beta, did not get any better or worse when on either diet.

“It may be that the diet actually produces the same problem that the genetic risk factor produces,” Craft said.

Good for the heart and brain?

A high saturated fat, high glycemic index diet, known to be bad for heart health, can lower levels of the hormone insulin in the brain. Insulin may be involved in the clearance of amyloid-beta from the brain, and thus play a role in Alzheimer’s disease, Craft said.

In addition, high levels of “bad” cholesterol in the blood tend to be linked with low levels of “good” cholesterol in the brain, Craft said.

From this study, it’s not clear whether changes in diet would eventually lead to less brain decay and better cognition, Dr. Deborah Blacker, of Massachusetts General Hospital, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.

Still, the study “adds another small piece to the growing evidence that taking good care of your heart is probably good for your brain too,” Blacker, who was not involved in the study, said.

The study is published today (June 17) in the journal JAMA Neurology.

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Facebook Helped Boost Organ Donor Registration

LiveScience.com – Raising awareness of organ donation on social media websites can help boost donation rates, according to a new study.

Facebook began allowing users to make their status as organ donors visible in their profiles in May 2012, and on the first day of the change, about 13,000 people in the U.S. registered to become organ donors —20 times more than the average number of daily registrations.

The effect of the social media initiative on its first day varied across states, ranging from a seven-fold increase in registrations in Michigan, to 100-fold increase in Georgia, the results showed.

The findings mean that social media might be an effective tool for encouraging organ donation, as well as tackling other public health problems in which communication and education are essential, the researchers said.

“Our research speaks to on-going efforts to address the organ availability crisis in the United States. It also suggests that social media and social networks may be valuable tools in re-approaching refractory public health problems,” said study researcher Dr. Andrew Cameron, the surgical director of liver transplantation at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Today, more than 118,500 people in the U.S. are on the waiting list for organs, and one name is added to the list every ten minutes, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. On average, 18 people die every day waiting for an organ.

Despite countless previous efforts, organ donation rates in the United States have not grown, while need for transplants has risen dramatically. Therefore, new efforts are needed to boost organ donation through public education, the researchers said.

The Facebook initiative t let users add their organ-donation status to the timeline for their friends and family to see. It also directed people to the official organ donation registry websites of their states.

The results showed high registration rates following the Facebook initiative, compared with usual rates at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

The boost may stem from the fact that people are more open to making decisions about sensitive and difficult topics when they are in an environment “amongst friends,” compared with the environment at the DMV, the researchers said.

However, after the initial spike, registration rates diminished over the following weeks. The researchers said this shows more work is needed to find ways to sustain the increase.

“The next challenge for efforts like the organ donor initiative will be utilization of social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram more effectively and more durably,” the researchers wrote in the study, which was published today (June 18) in the American Journal of Transplantation.

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Jennifer Lopez dans le film sur les 33 mineurs Chiliens

ActuCine — Jennifer Lopez a signé pour jouer dans un film basé sur l’effondrement de la mine chilienne en 2010. Intitulé « The 33 » (« Los 33 »), le film met en image l’histoire de 33 mineurs pris au piège pendant 69 jours, avant d’être libérés lors d’une opération de sauvetage qui a été très médiatisée.

La chanteuse et actrice rejoint Antonio Banderas au casting, qui campera le mineur charismatique, Mario Sepulveda, connu sous le surnom de « Super Mario ». Martin Sheen incarnera le père de ce mineur, tandis que Rodrigo Santoro dépeindra l’un des travailleurs pris au piège.

Mike Medavoy, le producteur de « Black Swan », a acquis les droits de l’histoire en 2011. A l’époque, Juan Andres Illanes, un des mineurs, avait déclaré: « Un an après l’effondrement de la mine, nous considérons que ceci est un grand pas vers la réalisation d’un film basé sur notre expérience dans la mine. C’est le seul film officiel et autorisé sur ce que nous avons vécu dans la mine de San José. Une grande partie de notre histoire n’a jamais été racontée. »

« The 33 » sera réalisé par Patricia Riggen. La production du film commencera au Chili cet automne.

Source: http://www.actucine.com/cinema/jennifer-lopez-dans-le-film-sur-les-33-mineurs-chiliens-80181.html

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Avengers 2 : Loki ne sera pas de retour

ActuCine — Le scénariste/réalisateur Joss Whedon a confirmé que Tom Hiddleston ne reprendra pas le rôle de Loki dans « Avengers 2 ».

Interrogé à propos de l’évolution de la suite d’« Avengers », Joss Whedon a répondu : « J’ai livré un premier brouillon, mais l’histoire est bien définie. Tout le monde est partant pour faire le film que j’ai en tête, et c’est ça qui a marché la première fois. »

Ensuite, l’interviewer d’Empire lui a posé une question sur un moment précis comprenant Loki dans « Avengers », la réponse comportait une mauvaise nouvelle pour les fans du personnage : « Imiter ce que j’ai déjà fait est le meilleur moyen de ne pas faire aussi bien. De plus, Loki ne sera pas là. »

Joss Whedon a également parlé de la production de la série « Agents of S.H.I.EL.D. ».
« Nous sommes en train de créer les prochains épisodes, nous reprendrons le tournage en juillet », a-t-il indiqué.

La série « Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. » sera diffusée sur ABC cet automne, tandis que « Avengers 2 » sortira le 1er mai 2015.

Source: http://www.actucine.com/cinema/avengers-2-loki-ne-sera-pas-de-retour-80161.html

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The Amazing Spider-Man 3 et 4 prévus en 2016 et 2018

ActuCine — Alors que « The Amazing Spider-Man 2 » est toujours en tournage, Sony Pictures vient d’annoncer les dates de sortie des troisième et quatrième volets de la franchise.

Le studio ne compte pas seulement produire une nouvelle trilogie, mais planifie déjà toute une saga en annonçant vouloir sortir « The Amazing Spider-Man 3 » le 10 juin 2016 et « The Amazing Spider-Man 4 » le 4 mai 2018.

Le patron du studio explique : « Spider-Man est notre franchise la plus importante, la plus aimée et qui rencontre le plus de succès, donc nous sommes heureux d’être en position de bloquer ces dates de sortie dans les cinq prochaines années. »

Ces deux suites succéderont donc « The Amazing Spider-Man 2 » qui sortira le 30 avril prochain.

Source: http://www.actucine.com/cinema/the-amazing-spider-man-3-et-4-prevus-en-2016-et-2018-80199.html

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Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan investigated over alleged illegal gender testing of unborn child

CbsNews — Health officials in Mumbai are investigating reports that Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and his wife know the sex of a baby they are having through a surrogate mother.

Sex determination tests are banned in India to stop the practice of aborting female fetuses due to a preference for sons. Khan was not at home when municipal authorities tried to question him about reports that the woman had such a test, Press Trust of India reported.

Shah Rukh Khan cancels trip to U.S.
A complaint filed by an unidentified, non-governmental organization alleged that Khan and his wife know they are expecting a boy. Khan has refused to comment.

The hospital where the surrogate mother is receiving prenatal care denied conducting any sex determination tests, according to the Times of India.

The 47-year-old actor, popularly known as “King Khan” in the Indian film industry, has acted in around 75 Hindi feature films, including many box-office hits. He has also hosted a season of the Hindi version of the game show, “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?”

Shah Rukh Khan detained at U.S. airport
He and his childhood sweetheart Gauri have a son and a daughter. India’s 2011 census showed that the country had 914 girls for every 1,000 boys under age 6, a gender ratio mainly attributed to sex-selective abortions despite the ban on prenatal gender tests.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57589807/bollywood-superstar-shah-rukh-khan-investigated-over-alleged-illegal-gender-testing-of-unborn-child/

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Les Chinoises adoptent les collants poilus

7sur7 – En matière de mode absurde, le Japon se démarque généralement des autres pays. Mais visiblement, la Chine souhaite bousculer le leadership nippon en matière de tendance avec ses collants poilus.
Non, les Chinois ne sont pas imberbes. Enfin, surtout les femmes. Car oui, ce sont bien des jambes de femmes qui vous sont présentées. Mais, rassurez-vous, les Chinoises ne cèdent pas aux caprices d’une
mode passagère mais tentent plutôt de se protéger en portant des collants à poils.

Il ne s’agit pas de s’isoler du froid mais bien de s’enlaidir pour dissuader d’éventuels agresseurs et pervers sexuels. Comme l’indique le HuffingtonPost, le harcèlement en rue est très fréquent. Et cette supercherie aurait pour vocation de les faire diminuer. Cette invention a été popularisée par une utilisatrice de Sina Weibo – le Twitter chinois – auteur de la photo. “Super collants d’été sexy, indispensables pour toutes les filles qui sortent”, a écrit @HappyZhangJiang.

Ce dernier gadget va-t-il devenir le “must-have” des jeunes chinoises? Et surtout, va-t-il avoir un impact sur la criminalité? Il est sans doute trop tôt pour le dire, mais comme le rappelle Grazia, il ne s’agit pas de la première invention de ce type. L’Inde avait en effet vu débarquer des soutiens-gorges “anti-viol”, qui envoient des décharges électriques à quiconque tenterait de toucher la poitrine de la personne qui le porte, tandis qu’une montre envoyait un signal d’alerte immédiat à la famille et au bureau de police le plus proche.
Source: http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1504/Insolite/article/detail/1654131/2013/06/18/Les-Chinoises-adoptent-les-collants-poilus.dhtml

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Football transfer rumours: Nani fleeing Manchester United for Juventus?

TheGuardian – You might think you’ve peeped the transfer scene. You haven’t. The real one’s far too mean. The watered-down one, the one you know, was made up years ago. They made it sound wack and corny and yes it’s awful and blasted boring full of twisted fictions but gather ’round children, zip it and listen.

Sasquatch, Godzilla, King Kong, Loch Ness, goblins, ghouls, a zombie with no conscience and Nani going to Juventus. Question: what do these things all have in common? Well none of them monsters are real, innit? But since we have all come to the Mill this morning let’s all put our imagination caps on for a moment or two, do some make-believe and indulge in the dark fantasy that the Nani one is fo’ real.

The Portuguese winger had such an impressive season last time around that he thinks whatever brand of horribly coloured boots he rocks, that so appal us, are too big for a return to Sporting Lisbon (“I think my level at the moment is different,” he snubbed) but are a perfect fit for the Italian champions. However if La Vecchia Signora decides that she wants a different devil in a new dress, then Nani will not be found boo-hooing his little eyes out in the corner and asking his Mr 15% to bring him an industrial-size box of Kleenex. No, instead he will flutter those same eyes in the direction of Monaco, Arsenal, Napoli, Milan, Abura Abaka Vision Stars, Real Madras, Samut Prakan Customs United, Queen of the South, King of the North, Bray Wanderers and just about any other club who will have him.

Somewhere in a parallel universe, West Ham United have more dosh than Scrooge McDuck and make the sort of splendid signings that keep the fans happy all night long. However, in the real world, it seems they are spunking a spanking stash of cash on Andy Carroll, who any minute now is set to sign a contract with the club that will be worth a whopping £100,000 to the England striker. Once that deal is done, West Ham’s owners reckon there will be enough left over to attract another striker to lie on the injury table next to Carroll and have decided Emmanuel Adebayor is just the man for that very job.

Tottenham supporters will, of course, be distraught at the thought of their much-beloved striker waving goodbye to the club and they will try to be strong when they say goodbye at platform two of Northumberland Park station but they know, you know and the Mill knows that in certain situations – be it seeing off a loved one or watching an episode of Don’t Tell the Bride where the groom picks the right dress and pulls it all together perfectly at the final moment, giving his bride the day she deserves – it is not always possible to win that tussle with the tears and sometimes you just need a good old cry. But dry your eyes north London mates of the Mill for all the lights have not gone out on your upcoming season just yet, not when you see the David Villa-shaped figure emerging from the steam and smoke and fog of people on the other platform.

The Barcelona striker has been top of André Villas-Boas’s shopping list for some time now and as a present to his manager for rejecting Parisian overtures, Daniel Levy is going to take the spare change he found under the couch when looking for the remote control and offer it all in exchange for the Spain international.

Speaking of strikers, Darren Bent likes a laugh and had such a blast the last time he was in the north-east that he has decided that he would like to go back there again and try his luck with Joseph P*****k Kinnear’s Newcastle. The 29-year-old forward may not be young or French or talented or worth the money but Alan Pardew has nevertheless decided that he is the right man to shoot the Toon to top 10 glory next season. However, if Kinnear were to scupper those transfer talks, and we all know he has the power to do so, then Pardew’s toys will be ejected from the pram pronto and he will be on the next runway running away to London.

Finally, Peter Odemwingie is set to get his dream move to London after Crystal Palace decided that the striker is worth a punt or two. It’s a hell of a life, ain’t it?

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jun/18/transfer-rumours-nani-united-juventus

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Ils vont se marier dans un train

7sur7 — Se marier dans un train: telle est la proposition très sérieuse de la plus importante compagnie de chemin de fer de Tokyo qui offre à un couple la possibilité de convoler à bord d’une des rames de la très fréquentée ligne Yamanote au centre de la capitale. JR East a lancé cette opération publicitaire insolite pour fêter les 141 ans du chemin de fer nippon et les 50 ans de la couleur verte de la Yamanote.

La compagnie espère trouver un couple qui souhaite s’unir devant 120 invités à bord du légendaire train au parcours circulaire. “Nous nous attendons à des candidatures de fiancés qui vouent un certain attachement à la ligne Yamanote, dont des personnes qui vivent à proximité”, a expliqué à l’AFP un porte-parole de JR East, Yoichi Suzuki.

JR East ne s’adresse cependant pas qu’aux amoureux du rail, même s’ils sont très nombreux au Japon. Les époux et leurs convives auront l’usage exclusif d’un train de 11 voitures, alors que les rames de la Yamanote, qui s’enchaînent toutes les 2 à 5 minutes, transportent chacune en temps normal environ 1.000 passagers généralement bien serrés.

Le train, sans toilettes, partira de la gare d’Ikebukuro où il reviendra après avoir effectué un tour, soit environ 35 kilomètres en une heure, avec un arrêt portes fermées à chacune des 28 autres stations de cette ligne généralement bondée de salariés aux heures de pointe.

La cérémonie doit avoir lieu le 14 octobre et JR East acceptera les demandes durant les trois prochaines semaines. Le couple gagnant pourra organiser la cérémonie d’union comme il le souhaite, mais la réception suivant le mariage proprement dit devra obligatoirement avoir lieu dans une salle de banquet d’un hôtel géré par le groupe JR.

Source: http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1504/Insolite/article/detail/1654073/2013/06/18/Ils-vont-se-marier-dans-un-train.dhtml

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