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Breakthrough Prize Foundation Partners with U.S. National Academy of Sciences to Support Scientists Forced to Flee Ukraine

With a $1 million donation, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation joins a growing number of individuals and institutions that are supporting an NAS effort to help displaced Ukrainian researchers relocate, continue their work, and stay connected to the international scientific community.




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To Modernize the Consumer Price Index, BLS Should Accelerate Use of New Data Sources and Provide Price Indexes for Different Incomes, Says New Report

To modernize the consumer price index — the most widely used measure of inflation in the U.S. — the Bureau of Labor Statistics should accelerate its use of new sources of data and develop price indexes based on different income levels, says a new report.




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New Publication Explores How to Prioritize Investments in Infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico

The recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act presents a unique opportunity for the U.S. to improve its transportation, water, communication, and energy systems.




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Science Academies Call on G-7 Governments to Take Urgent Action to Accelerate Decarbonization, Develop Antiviral Drugs to Increase Pandemic Preparedness, Address Other Global Challenges

Science academies from the G-7 nations issued statements urging their governments to take action on four global challenges — developing antiviral drugs to prepare for future pandemics, speeding progress on decarbonization, protecting the oceans and sea ice, and implementing a One Health approach to zoonotic disease and antimicrobial resistance.




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National Academies’ Gulf Research Program Awards $3.7 Million to Support Innovative Community Engagement Methods and Enhance Data Usage to Develop Equitable Outcomes to Climate Hazards

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced grant awards for 13 new projects totaling $3.7 million.




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Protecting the Public and Workers from Future Airborne Hazards - Next Steps

The COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires, and other hazards have highlighted major gaps in the nation’s system for ensuring timely access to respirators and masks for the public and for many workers. A recent report and two webinars examined ways to fill these gaps.




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Engineering the Transition to Net-Zero Carbon Emissions

In an interview, NAE President John Anderson discusses the national and global transition to net-zero carbon emissions and how engineers — and NAE in particular — can support that shift. Energy Transitions is the theme of NAE’s annual meeting this year, taking place Oct. 2-3.




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VA Should Focus its Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry on Communications and Improving Health Care

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry should be optimized to be a user-friendly resource and focus on improving health care quality and access for veterans and providing two-way communication between veterans who participate and the VA.




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Scientific Organizations Form International Group to Advance Ukrainian Science and Support Researchers - Breakthrough Prize Foundation Provides $3 Million

With a $3 million donation from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, a high-level, international coordinating group of scientific organizations has been established to take concrete steps to support Ukraine’s scientists and research community with the aim of rebuilding a successful global science and innovation system in Ukraine.




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Industry and Government Should Begin Planning Carbon Dioxide Utilization in Circular Economy, Says New Report

As part of the shift to a net-zero carbon emissions economy, industry and government should begin planning for the deployment of carbon dioxide utilization systems to turn captured CO2 into useful products, such as aviation fuel and aggregates for construction.




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Secretaries of Energy and Transportation Discuss Getting to ‘Net-Zero’ in U.S. Transportation During TRB’s 2023 Annual Meeting

Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took the stage at the 2023 annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board to discuss the federal government’s plan to reach “net-zero” carbon emissions in the U.S. transportation sector by 2050.




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Nobel Prize Summit on Countering Misinformation and Building Trust in Science To Be Held May 24-26

Nobel Prize laureates and other esteemed experts and leaders will gather at “Truth, Trust and Hope” for a global dialogue on how to stop misinformation from eroding public trust in science. Hosted by NAS and the Nobel Foundation, the summit takes place May 24-26 in Washington, D.C., and virtually.




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Higher Ed Institutions, STEMM Organizations Should Act to Change Cultures to Support Inclusive Excellence and Dismantle Barriers Created by Systemic Racism and Implicit Bias

Higher education institutions and science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine organizations should go beyond a focus on simply increasing the numeric participation of minoritized racial and ethnic groups. To increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEMM fields, organizations of all sizes must act to change their cultures and environments.




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Gutierrez-Scaccetti to Lead Transportation Research Board Executive Committee in 2023

Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti has been appointed as chair of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Executive Committee by Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences. Her term begins March 4, 2023.




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More Investment and Attention Needed to Address Pandemic-Related Harms on Children and Families in Marginalized Communities

Strengthening and expanding critical safety net programs is necessary to address the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on children and families, says a new report that examines the substantial toll the pandemic has taken on their health and well-being, especially those in marginalized communities.




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Registration Now Open -- May 24-26 Nobel Prize Summit on Misinformation and Trust in Science

Registration is now open for the Nobel Prize Summit “Truth, Trust and Hope,” a global conversation on how to stop misinformation from eroding public trust in science. Hosted by NAS and the Nobel Foundation, the summit takes place May 24-26 in Washington, D.C., and virtually.




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Measurement and Management of Systemic Risk in Gulf of Mexico Offshore Oil and Gas Operations Have Improved Since Deepwater Horizon Disaster, But Progress Lags in Some Areas

Most of the offshore oil and gas industry operating in the Gulf of Mexico has improved its management of systemic risk in recent years, according to a new report that also points out where uneven progress and critical gaps remain for industry and regulators to address.




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Beyond the buzz: Understanding AI and its role in cybersecurity

A new white paper from ESET uncovers the risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence for cyber-defenders




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Hacktivism is evolving – and that could be bad news for organizations everywhere

Hacktivism is nothing new, but the increasingly fuzzy lines between traditional hacktivism and state-backed operations make it a more potent threat




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Small but mighty: Top 5 pocket-sized gadgets to boost your ethical hacking skills

These five formidable bits of kit that can assist cyber-defenders in spotting chinks in corporate armors and help hobbyist hackers deepen their understanding of cybersecurity




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Telegram for Android hit by a zero-day exploit – Week in security with Tony Anscombe

Attackers abusing the EvilVideo vulnerability could share malicious Android payloads via Telegram channels, groups, and chats, all while making them appear as legitimate multimedia files




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Threat actors exploiting zero-days faster than ever – Week in security with Tony Anscombe

The average time it takes attackers to weaponize a vulnerability, either before or after a patch is released, shrank from 63 days in 2018-2019 to just five days last year




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Life on a crooked RedLine: Analyzing the infamous infostealer’s backend

Following the takedown of RedLine Stealer by international authorities, ESET researchers are publicly releasing their research into the infostealer’s backend modules




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Statistical visualization functions and “Open in MATLAB Online”

Jiro's Pick this week is dabarplot, daviolinplot, daboxplot by Povilas Karvelis.Today, I'd like to highlight a couple of things in this post.Statistical visualization functions"Open in MATLAB Online"... read more >>




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Celebrating Pi Day with cool visualizations

Jiro's Pick this week is Happy Pi Day by Zhaoxu Liu / slandarer. I'm a couple of days late, but I wanted to highlight this set of cool visualizations by Zhaoxu for Pi Day. It's amazing to see so... read more >>




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Visualizing number of letters in a number

Jiro's Pick this week is CountLettersNum by Edgar Guevara.Edgar created this interesting visualization inspired by a blog post by @matthen2. The concept is simple.Start with a number between 1 and... read more >>




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Four trends that will revolutionize data management in 2024

The capabilities of data are expanding and revolutionizing with each passing day. It is important for technology business leaders to stay updated on the top data trends and use data more efficiently to improve their existing business models.




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Navigating data localization laws in an evolving business landscape

As the digital economy expands, so does the volume of data generated and stored within India. This presents an opportunity for the government to implement data localization policies to safeguard sensitive data, protect national security, and promote the growth of the domestic IT industry and related sectors.




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Sayed Peerzade to spearhead Jio’s cloud revolution as Executive Vice President

In this new role, he will focus on advancing AI and cloud technologies, leveraging his extensive experience to drive innovation within the organization.




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Union Bank of India and Zoho Mark Digital Transformation Success with Leadership Meet

The partnership between Union Bank of India and Zoho began in 2021 after the merger of Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank with Union Bank of India, which significantly expanded its operations.




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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy explains why he hates bureaucracy

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, in a recent internal meeting, outlined the company's strategy to reduce management layers, aiming to eliminate bureaucracy and foster a more agile and innovative culture. Citing the rapidly evolving tech landscape, Jassy emphasized the need for faster decision-making and increased individual ownership.




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New material to revolutionize water proofing

Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have developed a new spray-on material with a remarkable ability to repel water.

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  • Physics & Chemistry

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PPPL researchers successfully test device that analyzes components within a vacuum

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have successfully tested a new device that will lead to a better understanding of the interactions between ultrahot plasma contained within fusion facilities and the materials inside those facilities. The measurement tool, known as the Materials Analysis Particle Probe (MAPP), was built by a consortium that includes Princeton University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U. of I.).

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  • Physics & Chemistry

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How Karza Technologies makes due diligence and onboarding simpler for banks & NBFCs

One of the key pillars of growth for the Indian economy are small and medium-sized businesses, which generate roughly 30 percent of the countrys GDP and provide jobs to over 110 million people.




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Magicbricks ups its matchmaking game with an AI-powered reach maximizer engine

The new AI-powered Project Market Scanner (PMS) engine helped the developers increase their reach by 65% and the lead-to-impression ratio on its platform by 80%.




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Help my organization deliver with agile IT infrastructure

BT Compute brings you a choice of data centre and expert services that enable you to deliver applications and services where and when you need them -- Global services delivered locally. Our hybrid cloud services blend intelligent network and compute resources giving you the IT infrastructure you need to adapt, quickly and cost effectively.




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DX is revolutionizing vehicle crash test system industry: Abhinav Srivastava, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles

Abhinav Srivastava, CIO, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, talks about how technology is reshaping automotive safety.




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Democratizing health insurance: The transformative role of technology

Expanding access to insurance is crucial for strengthening our country’s social safety net, addressing inequality, and building a more resilient society.




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How my organization fell prey to transnational cyber fraud

Last year my organization fell victim to a trans- national export invoice fraud. Since 99 percent of our sales come from exports, the cyber fraud dealt a big blow to our organization. We have a customer in South East Asia and my organization had business dealings with this customer for over five years.




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Germany's Scholz to meet Intel CEO amid intensive talks on chip plant

Germany is in intensive discussions with Intel, the economy ministry said on Friday, without commenting on how much state funding the company is set to receive for the project.




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Zetwerk is said to consider raising $1 billion in Indian IPO

The Bangalore-based firm, backed by investors such as Peak XV Partners and Lightspeed India Partners, has held talks with investment banks to help prepare for a potential IPO in Mumbai next year, as per sources.




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Amazon offers free computing power to AI researchers, aiming to challenge Nvidia

AWS said researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of California, Berkeley, are taking part in the program. The company plans to make 40,000 of the first-generation Trainium chips available for the program.




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OpenAI to enable more customizations for enterprise and individual users

Speaking to investors at a Morgan Stanley conference, Altman said the AI company will focus on building a platform that sells APIs to others and creates killer apps like ChatGPT.




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Experts renew calls to save vestiges of ancient metal tech, artefacts of Zawar

India supplied zinc for the industrial revolution of Europe, and the ancient metallurgical remains at Zawar, a geo-heritage site nearly 45 km off Udaipur, lie as a living testimony. Lack of progress in work to preserve this spectacular geological heritage and promote geo-tourism has left experts wondering.




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Yellow or black, large or small? Ant color and body size respond strongly to environment

A University of Liverpool study of ants across three continents has revealed that their colour and size is strongly influenced by their environment, and that the dominant colour and average body size can change from year to year as temperatures vary. This finding has implications for how ant communities will cope with rising global temperatures.

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  • Biology & Nature

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Chinese investigators characterize the world of resistance gene exchange among bacteria

Certain antibiotic resistance genes are easily transferred from one bacterial species to another, and can move between farm animals and the human gut. A team led by Chinese researchers has characterized this "mobile resistome," which they say is largely to blame for the spread of antibiotic resistance. They found that many antibiotic resistance genes that are shared between the human and animal gut microbiome are also present in multiple human pathogens. These findings are published September 9 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

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  • Biology & Nature

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Trees recognize roe deer by saliva

In spring, the young, delicate shoots in the forest light up, bright and May green. The buds and shoots are the future of the forests as they allow young trees to grow. The problem for the trees is: Roe deer like to eat them, and especially their buds. With a bit of luck, the young, gnawed saplings will only take a few more years to grow than their non-bitten conspecifics. In the worst case, they will become stunted trees, or they will have to give up their fight for survival after a number of years. In this respect, roe deer can cause a great deal of damage and hinder the regeneration of many deciduous tree species.

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  • Biology & Nature

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Zoox headcount grows as Amazon's self-driving unit expands testing in Vegas

Amazon's shares were 1.2% higher at $128.84 in early afternoon trading.




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Mark Zuckerberg vs Elon Musk: Meta’s Twitter clone Threads sees 5 million signups in 4 hours

In just four hours of its launch, the social media platform has recorded over five million signups, Zuckerberg announced on Thursday.




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Building the government-to-citizen (G2C) value chain with cloud-first-security-first approach

The government will need to start by assessing and uplifting the digital posture of each concerned department, further enabling an interconnected ecosystem of government, private, and peering parties, and offering seamless and secure last mile for government-to- citizen services and support. All this while keeping the citizen’s data and identity safe.