Knowledge Update

​London, March 26 (IANS) A group of researchers has demonstrated that both humans and smartphones show a degree of error in distinguishing face morph photos from their 'real' faces on fraudulent identity cards.

Researchers at the University of York in Britain investigated what the success rate would be like if two faces were morphed together to create a "new" face.

"We use photo ID all the time, not just at borders, and we know that people are not very accurate when matching the photo to the real face," said Professor Mike Burton from University of York's Department of Psychology.

"In recent years, we have seen more examples of photo IDs that have been created by morphing two faces together, which can be used as fraudulent ID by both parties. Our research is important in highlighting the potential security problem with this and quantifying the risk of this type of fraud being missed," Burton added.

In their study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, the researchers found that initially human viewers were 68 per cent of the time unable to distinguish a 50/50 morph photo from its contributing photos.

However, after simply briefing the viewers to look out for manipulated, "fraudulent" images, the error rate dropped greatly to 21 per cent.

The team also looked at smartphone software, which achieved similar results to briefed human viewers, with an error rate of 27 per cent.

These rates, however, are still significantly higher than error rates when comparing two photos of entirely different people.

"Raising awareness of this type of fraud and including it in training schemes for frontline staff can help overcome these issues and with new technologies coming on line, it should be a challenge that can be tackled with some success," Burton added.

​London, March 25 (IANS) Stem cell therapy can potentially reduce lung damage caused by chronic inflammation in conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis, research from a pre-clinical trial has revealed.

In the study, the researchers investigated the effectiveness of Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy in a mouse model of chronic inflammatory lung disease, which can lead to reduced lung function and eventually respiratory failure. 

The results showed that inflammation was significantly reduced in the group receiving MSC therapy. 

"The preliminary findings demonstrate the potential effectiveness of MSC treatment as a means of repairing the damage caused by chronic lung diseases such as COPD," said Declan Doherty from Queens University Belfast in Britain.

The study was presented at the European Respiratory Society's Lung Science Conference in Portugal.

Further, the cell counts for both monocytic cells and neutrophils -- both signs of inflammation -- were significantly reduced after MSC therapy. 

Analysis of lung tissue revealed reduction in inflammation in the lung and significant improvements in lung structure, suggesting that this form of treatment has the potential to repair the damaged lung, the researchers said.

"The ability to counteract inflammation in the lungs by utilising the combined anti-inflammatory and reparative properties of MSCs could potentially reduce the inflammatory response in individuals with chronic lung disease whilst also restoring lung function in these patients," Doherty added. 

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy is currently being investigated as a promising therapeutic approach for a number of incurable, degenerative lung diseases.

​London, March 25 (IANS) A record breaking brown dwarf -- a star too small for nuclear fusion -- with the purest composition and the highest mass yet known has been identified by an international team of astronomers.

The object, known as SDSS J0104+1535, is a member of the so-called halo - the outermost reaches of our Galaxy -- and is made up of the most ancient stars, the scientists reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"We really didn't expect to see brown dwarfs that are this pure. Having found one though often suggests a much larger hitherto undiscovered population - I'd be very surprised if there aren't many more similar objects out there waiting to be found," said lead authors ZengHua Zhang from the Institute of Astrophysics in the Canary Islands in Spain.

Located 750 light years away in the constellation of Pisces, SDSS J0104+1535 is made of gas that is around 250 times purer than the Sun, so consists of more than 99.99 per cent hydrogen and helium. 

It is estimated to have formed about 10 billion years ago and measurements also suggest it has a mass equivalent to 90 times that of Jupiter, making it the most massive brown dwarf found to date.

SDSS J0104+1535 has been classified as an L type ultra-subdwarf using its optical and near-infrared spectrum, measured using the European Southern Observatory's "Very Large Telescope" (VLT). This classification was based on a scheme very recently established by Zhang.

Brown dwarfs are intermediate between planets and fully-fledged stars. Their mass is too small for full nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium (with a consequent release of energy) to take place, but they are usually significantly more massive than planets.

It was previously not known if brown dwarfs could form from such primordial gas, and the discovery points the way to a larger undiscovered population of extremely pure brown dwarfs from our Galaxy's ancient past.

San Francisco, March 24 (IANS) US tech giant Apple has acquireed 'Workflow,' a popular iOS tool that allows users combine the functionalities of various apps together to automate normally complex processes, media reported on Friday.

New York, March 24 (IANS) Tech giant Google has introduced shortcuts on the Google Search app for Android, iOS and Google.com on the mobile web that gives users the ability to explore deeper within topics they care about.

​New York, March 24 (IANS) Researchers have found a way to make the normally brittle material of glass bend and flex, adding a new level of flexibility to the microscopic world of medical devices.

The research opens up the ability to create a new family of lab-on-a-chip devices based on flexing glass.

"If you keep the movements to the nanoscale, glass can still snap back into shape," said lead researcher Aaron Hawkins, Professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, US.

"We've created glass membranes that can move up and down and bend," Hawkins added.

Glass has some great perks. It is stiff and solid and not a material upon which things react, it's easy to clean, and it is not toxic, according to lead study author John Stout from Brigham Young University.

"Glass is clean for sensitive types of samples, like blood samples," Stout said. 

"Working with this glass device will allow us to look at particles of any size and at any given range. It will also allow us to analyse the particles in the sample without modifying them," Stout added.

While current lab-on-a-chip membrane devices effectively function on the microscale, the new research, published in the journal Applied Physics Letters, will allow equally effective work at the nanoscale. 

Chemists and biologists could use the nanoscale devices to move, trap and analyse very small biological particles like proteins, viruses and DNA.

The researchers believe their device could also mean performing successful tests using much smaller quantities of a substance. 

Instead of needing several ounces to run a blood test, the glass membrane device created by the researchers would only require a drop or two of blood.

Beijing, March 23 (IANS) China's economy has been ranked the top performing in terms of overall strength and vitality in a report released at the Boao Forum for Asia on Thursday.

​Los Angeles, March 23 (IANS) Global box office revenue hit a record $38.6 billion in 2016, according to a report released by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

The report on Wednesday said the results mark a 1 per cent rise from last year's record-breaking $38.4 billion, representing a slowdown compared to the growth of more than 5

​London, March 23 (IANS) Researchers have found that several unsaturated fatty acids in the brain may be associated with the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, which causes impaired memory, executive function and language. It accounts for 60-80 per cent of total dementia cases worldwide, with over 46 million people suffering from the disease worldwide. The number of patients is estimated to rise to 131.5 million by 2050.

Currently it is thought that the main reason for developing memory problems in dementia is the presence of two big molecules in the brain called tau and amyloid proteins -- that are shown to start accumulating in the brain up to 20 years prior to the onset of the disease. 

However, the findings, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, showed that the metabolism of omega-3 and omega-6 unsaturated fatty acids were significantly decreased in Alzheimer's brains when compared to brains from healthy patients.

"Our results show a potentially crucial and unexpected role for fats in the onset of dementia. Most surprisingly, we found that a supposedly beneficial omega-3, DHA, actually increased with the progression of the disease," said Cristina Legido Quigley from King's College London. 

In the study, the team looked at brain tissue samples from 43 people ranging in age from 57 to 95 years old. 

The researchers then measured the metabolite levels of the brain regions that are commonly associated with neurodegerative diseases -- the middle frontal gyrus and the inferior temporal gyrus -- as well as the metabolite levels in a brain area that is not normally affected by the disease's pathology -- the cerebellum.

The results showed that unsaturated fatty acid metabolism is significantly dysregulated in the brains of patients with varying degrees of Alzheimer pathology.

The main molecules that were different were six small fats -- docosahexaenoic acid, linoleic acid, arachidonic acid, linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, and oleic acid -- including omegas, which changed in abundance in different regions of the brain.

Washington, March 23 (IANS) While Arctic Sea ice reached this year a record low wintertime maximum extent, sea ice around Antarctica also hit its lowest extent ever recorded by satellites at the end of summer in the Southern Hemisphere, scientists have said.

In February this year, the combined Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extent was at its lowest point since satellites began to continuously measure sea ice in 1979, said scientists at NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado.

Total polar sea ice covered 16.21 million square km, which is two million square km less than the average global minimum extent for 1981-2010 -- the equivalent of having lost a chunk of sea ice larger than Mexico, the study said.

"It is tempting to say that the record low we are seeing this year is global warming finally catching up with Antarctica," Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a NASA release on Wednesday.

"However, this might just be an extreme case of pushing the envelope of year-to-year variability. We'll need to have several more years of data to be able to say there has been a significant change in the trend," Meier added.

The ice floating on top of the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas shrinks in a seasonal cycle from mid-March until mid-September. 

As the Arctic temperatures drop in the autumn and winter, the ice cover grows again until it reaches its yearly maximum extent, typically in March. 

The ring of sea ice around the Antarctic continent behaves in a similar manner, with the calendar flipped --it usually reaches its maximum in September and its minimum in February.

This winter, a combination of warmer-than-average temperatures, winds unfavourable to ice expansion, and a series of storms halted sea ice growth in the Arctic, the scientists said.

This year's maximum extent, reached on March 7 at 14.42 million square kilometres, is 97,00 square kilometres below the previous record low, which occurred in 2015, and 1.22 million square kilometres smaller than the average maximum extent for 1981-2010, according to the scientists.