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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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Bacteria supply their allies with munitions

Many bacteria possess molecular spear guns, which they fire at enemies and rivals, thus putting them out of action. The tips of these nano-spear guns, known as Type VI secretion system (T6SS), are loaded with toxic molecules that lead to death of their adversaries. However, sometimes close related bacteria come under fire.

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  • Biology & Nature

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Kill them with cuteness: The adorable thing bats do to catch prey

A Johns Hopkins University researcher noticed the bats he works with cocked their heads to the side, just like his pet Pug.

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  • Biology & Nature

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Seek and you shall find -- bees remain excellent searchers even when ill

Honeybees are hardwired to efficiently search the landscape enabling them to continue working for the greater good of their hives even when they are sick, according to new research co-authored by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).

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  • Biology & Nature

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Study reveals how ionising radiation damages DNA and causes cancer

For the first time, researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators have been able to identify in human cancers two characteristic patterns of DNA damage caused by ionising radiation. These fingerprint patterns may now enable doctors to identify which tumours have been caused by radiation, and investigate if they should be treated differently.

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  • Biology & Nature

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Apple announces software tools for developers to create apps for Vision Pro

Apple has announced that starting today, its global community of developers will be able to create spatial computing apps for Vision Pro.




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Microsoft says new computing service for chemicals can slash R&D time

The new offering uses a combination of existing quantum computers, artificial intelligence and conventional high-performance computing systems.




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New AI-enabled Outlook app to replace Mail, Calendar apps on Windows 11

On existing devices, users can switch to the new Outlook for Windows from a toggle in the Mail and Calendar applications.




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Growing wearables production in India bleeds China units

Top wearables brands such as Boat and Gizmore are making most products locally in key categories audio and smartwatch through electronics contract manufacturers such as Dixon Technologies and Optiemus Electronics. Domestic shipments of wearables jumped 81% on-year in the first quarter of calendar year 2023 to 25 million units, with India surpassing China to become the largest market in the world, according to IDC India.




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Apple in talks with NPCI, plans to launch UPI based Apple Pay service in India

According to RBI’s Bulletin for June, UPI transactions in May reached a record Rs 14.3 trillion in terms of value and 9.41 billion in volume. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is expected to account for 90% of retail digital transactions volume in the next five years.




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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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Microsoft announces AI-powered shopping tools in Bing, Edge

The new tools help users to harness the power of AI "to make it easier to discover, research, and complete your purchase, all in one place with information you need from expert sources," the tech giant said in a blogpost on Thursday.




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US lawmaker urges labelling, restrictions on AI content

In the letter to the chief executives of OpenAI, which released ChatGPT, and its partner Microsoft among others, Bennet said it was especially important for Americans to know when AI was used to make political content. US senator Bennet noted that some companies - including OpenAI and Alphabet's Google - have begun marking some content as AI- generated but added that those companies' policies are "alarmingly reliant on voluntary compliance."




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Microsoft announces AI-powered shopping tools in Bing, Edge

The new tools help users to harness the power of AI "to make it easier to discover, research, and complete your purchase, all in one place with information you need from expert sources," the tech giant said in a blogpost on Thursday.




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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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Google training Bard on scraped web data: Here's what the company has to say

“Our privacy policy has long been transparent that Google uses publicly available information from the open web to train language models for services like Google Translate,” The Verge quoted Google spokesperson Christa Muldoon as saying. This publically available data includes data available on the internet, device type and settings, operating system, mobile network information including carrier name and phone number, and application version number.




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Global IT hardware companies bat for lifting of import restrictions

In a meeting with IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, held earlier this week, the companies said the import licensing requirement puts "unnecessary pressure" since there is no ecosystem in place in India at present to manufacture these products such as laptops, tablets and servers, executives present at the meeting told ET.




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Apple removes 25 VPN apps from App Store in Russia, here's why

Apple has removed 25 VPN apps from its App Store in Russia, complying with orders from the communications regulator. This move comes amidst Russia's crackdown on VPNs and ongoing tensions with big tech companies over content regulation and censorship.




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IT hardware makers push for faster BIS certification to boost local production under PLI scheme

Industry executives have informed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) about the extended timelines for acquiring BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) certification. This is due to the mandatory separate tests for battery packs installed on laptops, after running viability tests for making the products with local contract manufacturers.




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Digital payments show strong uptick buoyed by wider adoption of credit during festive season

During this year’s festive season sales, credit cards and credit-based payment instruments like pay-later products saw a significant increase, according to industry reports. Transactions rose by 35-50% compared to last year, with a large share being made through credit cards, EMIs, and pay-later options. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) remained the dominant payment method, with a 34% rise in transactions and over 500 million daily payments recorded.




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How 5-star online customer reviews can backfire

It may be counterintuitive, but the more positive online reviews a product gets may actually lead to a net negative profit for the retailer. That's the conclusion of new research by a team of marketing experts from a Dutch and a German university that will be published in the September 2016 issue of the Journal of Retailing.

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  • Mathematics & Economics

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Researchers find that Android apps can secretly track users' whereabouts

Three years ago, the Federal Trade Commission dimmed hopes for the Brightest Flashlight app for Android, slapping its developer with charges of consumer deception. Why? The app was transmitting users' locations and device IDs to third parties without telling the users or getting their permission.

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  • Mathematics & Economics

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In right balance, environmental regulations increased firms' profits, new study finds

CEOs and corporate lobbyists often spend plenty of time decrying how potential government regulations will affect their bottom line, but a new University of Kansas study finds that the U.S. Clean Water Act, when implemented in the right balance, improves firms' profitability.

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  • Mathematics & Economics

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New study: Are voters influenced by campaign visits?

Los Angeles, CA (August 17, 2016) Despite their extensive national press coverage, campaign visits might not be worth presidential candidates' time and resources. A new study out today finds that voters are largely unaware of and unresponsive to campaign visits. The study was published as part of a special issue of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (a journal from SAGE Publishing) titled "Elections in America."

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  • Mathematics & Economics

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New device could help improve taste of foods low in fat, sugar and salt

Scientists may be closing in on a way to let consumers savor the sweet taste of cake, cookies and other culinary delights without the sugar rush. In preliminary tests using a new device developed in-house that allows them to screen for odor compounds in real foods, they have isolated several natural aromatic molecules that could be used to trick our brains into believing that desserts and other foods contain more fat, sugar or salt than they actually do.

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  • Mathematics & Economics

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Norwegian prisons rehabilitate criminal offenders

The research project "The Social Costs of incarceration" is the largest study of imprisonment and return to a normal life that has ever been conducted in Europe.

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  • Mathematics & Economics

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New service improves cloud storage usage on mobile devices

A new service developed at Binghamton University, State University of New York could improve performance of mobile devices that save data to the cloud.

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  • Mathematics & Economics

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Team of robots learns to work together, without colliding

When roboticists create behaviors for teams of robots, they first build algorithms that focus on the intended task. Then they wrap safety behaviors around those primary algorithms to keep the machines from running into each other. Each robot is essentially given an invisible bubble that other robots must stay away from. As long as nothing touches the bubble, the robots move around without any issues. But that's where the problems begin.

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  • Mathematics & Economics

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App vs. website: Which best protects your privacy?

That's the ques­tion that North­eastern researchers, led by assis­tant pro­fessor David Choffnes, ask in new research that explores how free app- and web- based ser­vices on Android and iOS mobile devices com­pare with respect to pro­tecting users' privacy.

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  • Mathematics & Economics

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New tools assess the future of wind power

Using software tools developed by Near Zero, a research group hosted by the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology, a team of researchers has completed the largest expert survey yet on any energy technology, in this case wind energy.

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  • Mathematics & Economics

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New data bill’s mandate could pose security risk, say social media platforms

For users in India between 13 and 18 years of age, apps may now have to get parental consent by verifying the identity of the children and their parents.. The Digital Personal Data Protection bill defines children as those below 18 years, which is above the global threshold. Users above 13 years of age, for example, are typically allowed on many social media platforms.




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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.




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Generative AI biggest weapon and tool for cybersecurity: Microsoft's Brad Smith

Addressing cybersecurity attack concerns raised by generative AI, Smith said that there will be an increasing number of organisations and governments that will use the technology to develop cybersecurity threats.




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Cybersecurity firms CrowdStrike, Okta shares jump after better-than-expected earnings

CrowdStrike beat estimates when it reported late on Wednesday that its revenue jumped 37% to $731.6 million while adjusted net income more than doubled to $180 million in the second quarter on strong growth in subscriptions to its cloud-based data and identity protection services.




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What Google's antitrust trial means for your search habits

If Mehta rules that Google has been running an illegal monopoly in search, the punishment could open up new online avenues for consumers and businesses to explore in pursuit of information, entertainment and commerce.




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IT hardware companies may require global certification

The Indian government is considering asking importers of IT hardware to provide an international certification, attesting that their products are from trusted sources. This move is in response to concerns raised by countries such as China, the US, South Korea, and Taiwan about India's restrictions on the import of these products.




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Cisco launches Secure Networking approach in India

Organizations can apply controls to identify, set and enforce policy, and gain visibility across all users, devices, and entities on the network to empower and enable work from anywhere.




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API integration: Fueling business the secure way

At the ETCIO Annual Conclave 2024, top IT leaders converged to discuss the critical topic of API integration. This gathering of minds explored how APIs are not only catalysts for digital transformation but also a cornerstone for enterprise security.




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Tech Mahindra and Cisco to deliver AI-powered firewall solution

Tech Mahindra expands partnership to deliver NGFW modernization solution with Cisco. The solution includes unified policy management, Talos threat intelligence integration, and comprehensive malware defense for network and endpoints.




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California lawmakers pass AI safety bill

At least 40 states have introduced bills this year to regulate AI, and a half dozen have adopted resolutions or enacted legislation aimed at the technology, according to The National Conference of State Legislatures.




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IT industry needs guardrails to weed out graft: Staffing experts

This comes after the country’s largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services found senior executives breaching corporate code of conduct to give preferential treatment to some recruiters. The incident was discovered following a whistle-blower complaint. Initial reports suggested that TCS had blacklisted three staffing firms identified during an investigation.




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War of billionaires: Musk, Tata, Mittal & Amazon on one side, Ambani on other for satellite spectrum

Starlink wants India to just assign a license for the service and not insist on auctioning the signal-carrying spectrum or airwaves. This stand finds Musk on the side of Tatas, Sunil Bharti Mittal's firm, and Amazon, who too prefer the same route. But Ambani's Reliance says there must be an auction of spectrum for foreign satellite service providers to offer voice and data services to provide a level playing field to traditional telecom players who offer the same services using airwaves bought in government auctions.




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US considering new restrictions on AI chip exports to China: report

The Commerce Department will stop the shipments of chips made by Nvidia and other chip companies to customers in China as early as July, the report said.




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Persistent Systems positive on generative AI-led growth

Despite the noise around AI in the market right now, it is going to take time for companies to develop and adapt to the technology, Kalra said. On the business front, the company expects to fair well despite the challenging global environment and continue on its plan to expand in Europe and Asia Pacific while continuing the North America focus.




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Vedanta deepens tech push with $4 billion India display factory

Even as it’s suffering from a heavy debt load, billionaire Anil Agarwal’s metals and mining conglomerate is expanding in electronics components to take advantage of India’s push to become a technology manufacturing hub. The display business is separate from Vedanta’s struggling chip venture and may find an easier path to success as it’s a less techically demanding undertaking.




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TecRivulet transforms customer service with advanced helpdesk systems

It offers centralized request management, omnichannel integration, self-service capabilities, enhanced visibility for business partners, employee training and tools, powerful analytics capabilities, seamless integration with existing systems, and comprehensive service offerings.




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Data enabling agility to changes in healthcare landscape: Preetam Biswas, Aditya Birla Health Insurance

Hospitals and healthcare systems utilize data to streamline their operations. Through predictive analytics, they can forecast patient admissions, optimize staff scheduling, and manage inventory efficiently. These data-driven insights enhance resource allocation and ensure that healthcare facilities are prepared for fluctuations in demand.




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CaratLane adopts low-code, no-code development for efficient operations

About 40% of CaratLane’s backend processes have been automated using a unified low-code platform for enterprises.




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How Flipkart leverages data analytics to create e-commerce strategies

In an interview with ETCIO, Ravi Vijayaraghavan, SVP & Chief Data & Analytics Officer, Flipkart shares how the homegrown e-commerce giant leverages data science to drive customer experience and seller profitability.