Welcome to the June 20, 2022, edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.

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Dehydrated Seaweed and 3D Printers: Chile's Innovative Approach to Feeding Kids
Yahoo! News
Alberto Pena
June 17, 2022


Nutritional experts in Chile hope to transform the food market, especially for children, using three-dimensionally (3D)-printed food. Researchers at the University of Chile (UCH) have fabricated food using dehydrated cochayuyo seaweed, instant mashed potato powder, and hot water. The gelatinous mixture is fed into a 3D printer, which prints the food into preprogrammed shapes in seven minutes. "The starch of these raw materials combined with the cochayuyo alginate is what generates stabilization within the 3D printing," explained UCH's Roberto Lemus. The technology is being used in dozens of countries to 3D-print sweets, pasta, and other foods.

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Stacking the Deck for Computer Security
Penn State News
WennersHerron Ashley J.
June 17, 2022


An international team of researchers led by Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) has created a more reliable safeguard for data on the stack than a prior classification technique called Safe Stack. Penn State's Trent Jaeger said the DATAGUARD system "improves security through a more comprehensive and accurate safety analysis that proves a larger number of stack objects are safe from memory errors, while ensuring that no unsafe stack objects are mistakenly classified as safe." The system validates stack objects that are safe from spatial, type, and temporal memory errors, via static analysis and symbolic execution. Tests showed DATAGUARD spotted and removed 6.3% of objects wrongly labeled safe by the Safe Stack technique, and found 65% of objects labeled "unsafe" by Safe Stack actually were safe.

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Automating Semiconductor Research with Machine Learning
Tokyo University of Science (Japan)
June 16, 2022


Researchers at Japan's Tokyo University of Science and National Institute for Materials Science found that machine learning techniques can be used to automate the analysis of large amounts of reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) data. RHEED is able to identify structures that form on the surface of thin films at the atomic level and observe real-time structural changes while the thin film is synthesized. The researchers found Ward's method of hierarchical clustering was best able to capture phase transitions in surface superstructures, and also that non-negative matrix factorization can automatically determine optimal deposition times for each superstructure.

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A rabbit hologram levitated above a 3D-printed rabbit. 3D Rabbit 'Hologram' Created by Levitating Screen Using Sound Waves
New Scientist
Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
June 17, 2022


An algorithm developed by researchers at the U.K.'s University College London can generate "holograms" by acoustically levitating objects. The researchers employed a grid of 256 loudspeakers to levitate glowing beads with ultrasound waves into recognizable three-dimensional (3D) shapes, with the algorithm adjusting the shapes to prevent the beads’ scattering by other objects. The researchers used the method to levitate objects near a three-dimensionally (3D)-printed rabbit, in one case levitating and spinning a piece of transparent fabric above the rabbit while a projector cast images of the rabbit onto it, producing a hologram-like 3D image hovering above the sculpture. Bruce Drinkwater at the U.K.’s University of Bristol said the technique could be used to project information in displays or advertising, or in chemical engineering, where the sound waves could be used to mix materials without touching them.

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Can Computers Understand Complex Words, Concepts?
UCLA Newsroom
Stuart Wolpert
June 16, 2022


Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the National Institutes of Health found that artificial intelligence (AI) can learn complex word meanings and understand them like humans do. The researchers developed the "semantic projection" technique to study 52 word groups to determine whether an AI system could learn to sort meanings. The results of their research showed their method was very similar to human intuition. across many objects and contexts. Said UCLA's Idan Blank, "This machine learning system is much smarter than we thought; it contains very complex forms of knowledge, and this knowledge is organized in a very intuitive structure."

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A new guide to programming quantum algorithms walks programmers through every step. Quantum Computer Programming for Dummies
Los Alamos National Laboratory News
June 14, 2022


Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory have formulated a new beginner-level guide for quantum computer programmers. The crowdsourced guide considers 20 quantum algorithms, then walks programmers through deploying them on IBM's 5-quantum bit IBMQX4 quantum computer and other quantum systems. The results of each deployment is detailed, with distinctions between the simulator and the hardware runs specified. Los Alamos’ Stephan Eidenbenz said the guide was prepared to get the Los Alamos workforce ready for quantum computing by assisting those with little or no quantum computing experience; it also can help more experienced staffers in implementing a quantum algorithm on an actual quantum computer.

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Artificial Neural Networks Model Face Processing in Autism
MIT News
Matthew Hutson
June 16, 2022


The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kohitij Kar trained an artificial neural network to model the process through which autistic people recognize emotions on others’ faces. The network features layers of units approximating neurons that process visual information as it passes from an input image to a final evaluation, signaling the likelihood the face is, for example, happy. The network's behavior more closely resembled that of neurotypical controls than it did autistic adults. Kar also found the difference between how well the network matched controls and how well it matched autistic people was greatest when the output was based on the last network layer, which mimics the brain's inferior temporal cortex to a degree.

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Ethereum miner Mikel-Angelo Chalfoun in a warehouse room in Dubai that houses his graphic cards. Ethereum Mining Is Going Away
Bloomberg
Olga Kharif; David Pan
June 16, 2022


Ethereum mining could end soon due to "the Merge," leaving as many as 1 million miners out of a source of income. The Merge (expected to occur in August, though it has been pushed back several times already) involves a shift from the proof-of-work model, which uses a significant amount of computing power and energy, to the proof-of-stake model to record transactions. The alternative model will slash the Ethereum network’s power consumption by about 99%, but also will put miners out of work. Following the Merge, some Ethereum miners plan to mine other coins that require graphics processing units, like Ethereum Classic or Ravencoin, or to use their equipment for rendering (an aspect of digital video production) or machine learning tasks.

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An eelgrass meadow at low tide at False Bay Biological Preserve, WA. AI Reveals Scale of Eelgrass Vulnerability to Warming, Disease
Cornell University Chronicle
Tom Fleischman
June 15, 2022


Cornell University researchers were part of an international, interdisciplinary research team that used artificial intelligence (AI) to detect eelgrass wasting disease at 32 field sites along the U.S. Pacific Coast. The researchers determined that warmer-than-normal water temperatures, especially in early summer and regardless of region, is associated with wasting disease, which is caused by the organism Labyrinthula zosterae. The researchers developed an AI system called Eelgrass Lesion Image Segmentation Application (EeLISA) to analyze thousands of images of seagrass leaves. The system was able to distinguish diseased from healthy tissue 5,000 times faster than human experts, while improving its results over time. Said Cornell's Brendan Rappazzo, "We reached the point where it was at human-level accuracy, and needed to be checked only sporadically."

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A Global Fishing Watch map. Which can identify coastal waters where ships are operating incognito. Global Satellite Map Will Help Hunt Down Illegal Fishing Vessels
New Scientist
David Hambling
June 16, 2022


A digital map developed by researchers at the nonprofit Global Fishing Watch, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Innovation Unit, uses satellite radar imagery to identify potential illegal fishing vessels. Computer-vision algorithms can be used to weed through these satellite images, rather than depending on humans to undertake the time-consuming task. The researchers compared known ship locations determined by Automatic Identification System (AIS) data to petabytes of information from the EU's Sentinel-1 radar satellites, which identify the signatures of vessels in coastal waters to pinpoint areas where vessels are operating without their AIS transponders on.

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Model Automatically Extracts Content From Web Apps
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya News (Spain)
Juan F. Samaniego
June 17, 2022


Researchers at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya in Spain have developed an open-source model for automatically extracting content from content management systems (CMSs). The tool dramatically streamlines the development of mobile applications, resulting in significant time and resource savings. The process begins with giving the tool the CMS' address and login information, enabling it to read and understand the application programming interface, then reverse-engineering it to represent CMS structure and content libraries in a standard format. The tool then produces connector code to mediate between the CMS and the app being developed. The researchers said the libraries generated in this way contain error-free content, stressing that if the work was performed manually, errors could be made.

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