Tag: 上海夜网

Add to Queue Twitter January 18, 2017 Columnist at PCMag.com Twitter’s problems stem from being a modern tech company that isn’t growing fast enough. I have two solutions. Learn from renowned serial entrepreneur David Meltzer how to find your frequency in order to stand out from your competitors and build a brand that is authentic, lasting and impactful. Image credit: Shutterstock Fireside Chat | July 25: Three Surprising Ways to Build Your Brand This story originally appeared on PCMag 3 min read Enroll Now for $5 –shares There has been a lot of discussion about Twitter lately, most of it negative — it can’t make money on advertising, growth is down and online bullies remain a problem.Meanwhile, Donald Trump tweets daily; more every day since the election. This alone, you’d think, would draw more attention to Twitter and make it more popular. Twitter actually does over $2.5 billion in revenue, but tech companies are supposed to grow like crazy, not freeze up at a mere $2.5 billion dollars, which is ludicrous.   With that revenue, all Twitter needs to do is have a bunch of sales folks sell the ads and a slew of IT guys keep the thing running. That should not cost billions, although it looks like it does.So what’s the solution to this “problem”?When I listen to all the pundits, I see two solutions. The first is never brought up for any other billion-dollar company: stabilization. In other words, do nothing.In tech, there is a never-ending mad dash for growth. It stems from the late 1990s, when one company would replace another after the simplest of stumbles. The financiers, mostly venture capitalists, demanded high performance growth so they could dump the company and do it all over again with some other crazy idea. This is an unnatural way to do business. Most businesses stabilize and become fixtures. Not so with tech, where everything seems like a fad.Online customers can easily drop one thing and flock to another. Thus, Twitter’s $2.5 billion in revenue could drop to a billion — or nothing — almost overnight. It cannot just stabilize and coast for as long as possible, or die a natural death, or morph the way AOL morphed. It is a spawn of the go-go tech grow-like-crazy-or-die syndrome.The irony is that such companies often get acquired by other growth-oriented places like Google or Facebook. What happens then? They slowly die a natural death … usually quicker.Twitter, unlike many of these operations, has a different dimension, though. It’s a kind of public service. It breaks news and can trigger revolutions or protests. It’s casual, too. Twitter is an enjoyable product if you are not attacked by its mad dogs.That’s not to say there aren’t problems with Twitter. There is some sort of corruption with the “Who to follow” recommendations; it seldom makes sense especially for those signing up for a new account. Maybe that’s part of its advertising, although I do not think so. There is a lot of spam. I find fake accounts daily and do not see how they can possibly remain unless Twitter wants phony numbers. That said, its core users seem content.Which brings us to the second solution, which is simple. Do what LinkedIn did and add a premium tier. I’d pay $5 or $10 a year for an upper tier account. There are over 300 million active users. Sell them something! How hard can it be? John C. Dvorak How to Solve Twitter’s Biggest Problems Next Article read more

Easy Search. Quality Finds. Your partner and digital portal for the cannabis community. Add to Queue –shares Free Green Entrepreneur App Next Article Governor’s Veto Stalls Vermont Legislation to Legalize Marijuana dispensaries.com Voters are far more willing to legalize cannabis than the representatives they elect. Vermont’s movement to become the first state to consider legalizing recreational marijuana without a vote of the people got derailed this week when Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the measure.Scott rejected a bill that allowed for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The measure also created a commission to study how to set up a regulated adult-use marijuana market in the state, with recommendations on how it might work delivered by November.It did not create a regulated adult-use marijuana market, such as voter-passed measures did in eight states, including Colorado, Washington and California (a distinction lost in many media reports). Scott, a Republican, rejected it, anyway. However, he also made it clear he’s not opposed to legalization and left the door open to compromise.The only roadblock to completing a deal will likely be members of his own party.Related: Congressional Cannabis Caucus Unites to Protect Marijuana IndustryNot philosophically opposed.The other eight states to legalize recreational marijuana all did so through a popular vote by the people. Vermont lawmakers wanted to make possession legal through legislation, and also set up a commission that could eventually recommend how the state could create, regulate and tax an adult-use marijuana market.Other states have watched closely how things turn out in Vermont. Some lawmakers in Illinois, for example, are considering introducing similar legislation. Their issue mirrors that in other states – they want the tax money marijuana brings in to help balance the state budget.For Scott, marijuana legalization presents a bit of a legal quagmire. A Republican serving his first year in office, Scott has politicians in his party vehemently opposed to legalized, adult-use marijuana.However, the bill, passed in the Legislature by a narrow margin, had approval of 57 percent of the state’s voters, according to this survey from March.Scott told reporters after his veto of the bill that he is “not philosophically opposed to eliminating the prohibition on marijuana,” he just wants some changes.Related: San Diego Company Bids to Become First Marijuana Business on NYSEFew changes needed.Actually, the changes Scott wants are relatively minor, leading Vermont newspaper the Burlington Free Press to report there might be a deal by summer.Most of Scott’s issues are about kids and time. He wants:Longer sentences for those who use marijuana in front of children or offer it to children, as well as more severe penalties for driving under the influence of marijuanaMore time for the state to study the regulatory structure needed to have a legal marijuana market, perhaps pushing it back to 2019 or beyondThe Vermont Legislature goes back into session in late June and there could be a compromise worked out there. State Sen. Dick Sears, a Democrat, told the Free-Press its “not a slam dunk but it’s possible.”But while Scott has proposed a compromise, his own party may keep it from happening. Rep. Don Turner, a Republican, said the majority of Republicans lawmakers remain opposed to legalization and will not likely change their minds.Follow dispensaries.com on Twitter to stay up to date on the latest cannabis news. Image credit: Martin Bernetti | Getty Images May 30, 2017 Download Our Free Android App 3 min read Keep up with the latest trends and news in the cannabis industry with our free articles and videos, plus subscribe to the digital edition of Green Entrepreneur magazine. Guest Writer Cannabis Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. read more

This story originally appeared on PCMag How to Work On a Flight With No Laptop The laptopocalypse is coming. In one of the most insane tech and travel related decisions I’ve ever seen, the Department of Homeland Security is considering banning any electronic device larger than a smartphone on a wide range of commercial flights.I won’t get into the purported security rationale for this, except to say that we wouldn’t be “completely safe” in the air even if we all flew naked; terrorists could just put bombs where the sun don’t shine. In terms of 2017, flying without laptops and tablets makes business travelers feel pretty naked. In fact, airlines have downgraded their in-flight entertainment offerings over the past few years assuming that travelers are bringing their own gadgets.The mechanics of any future ban will probably play out like the ban on large electronic devices on flights from the Middle East, just on a much larger scale. Middle Eastern airlines have rallied by providing laptops and tablets to business and first-class customers. That doesn’t help coach class passengers on a 10-hour flight, though.Being forced to check expensive electronics would create all sorts of security and liability concerns. Right now, most airlines disclaim liability for damaged electronics in luggage. That means they won’t pay you if the baggage handlers break or steal your laptop.Airlines affected by the current Middle East laptop ban, for example Qatar and Etihad, have changed that policy. Hopefully, other affected airlines would as well. But even then, airlines may not pay you the full value of your damaged electronics: according to the Montreal Convention treaty, airlines are only responsible for about $1,560 worth of luggage per passenger on international flights.Pick the best airlineWith no laptop in the air, in-flight entertainment systems become more critical than ever. Every hour you spend watching that seatback screen is an hour you aren’t stressing about your laptop.So, first of all, don’t accept any flight without seatback screens. For transatlantic flights, various reports have said that Air Canada, Icelandair, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic are all good choices. Of the major U.S. based airlines, Delta gets the nod for best in-flight entertainment from Skytrax.Your mobile office: phone, keyboard, touchpad If your airline doesn’t lend you a laptop, it’s time to get used to working on your smartphone.Android and iOS phones support Bluetooth keyboards, and the Microsoft Office apps on these devices aren’t half bad. For email, web browsing and document management, you can get quite a lot done on your phone. Use a cloud storage service such as Dropbox or OneDrive for your documents, so you can access them on your home computer, your phone and any computers you get access to at the other end of your journey.You can get more done with a keyboard. The Logitech K480 Bluetooth keyboard works with your phone and includes a groove that will prop up your phone at the right angle on a tray table. There are a lot of smaller, weirder Bluetooth keyboards out there, but we really like this one.Not having room on your tray table for a mouse can be a problem, though. I tend to use a keyboard and the phone’s touch controls. Android users could also upgrade to the Logitech K830 keyboard, which has an integrated touchpad. iPhones don’t support Bluetooth mice or touchpads, alas.Stunningly, I think we’ve also just found a real use for Dex, the new desktop dock for Samsung’s Galaxy S8 phones. Bring a Dex dock with your S8, and you’ll be able to turn it into a desktop computer on the other end of your flight.For the kids: iPod touch Since the DHS ban applies to anything larger than a smartphone, that puts the tablets we use to entertain kids into peril. Even the Amazon Fire Kids Edition won’t hold up to this ban.Enter the iPod touch. Now available for $199, this will be family frequent fliers’ best friend: a small, portable entertainment device for kids that doesn’t require phone service and isn’t larger than a phone. Download movies from Netflix or the iTunes Store before leaving on a trip.There is no high-quality Android equivalent to the iPod touch. There were in the past, but they’ve gone off the market. If you don’t want an Apple product, your best bet is to get an inexpensive unlocked Android phone such as the $139 Moto G4 Play, and just not install a SIM card.How About Reading a Book?Books are good. Try one. Just not on an e-reader. They’ll be banned, too. The only list that measures privately-held company performance across multiple dimensions—not just revenue. Add to Queue Image credit: Shutterstock Flights 2019 Entrepreneur 360 List Next Article June 12, 2017 4 min read Sascha Segan Banning laptops on flights in 2017 is an insane idea, but here’s how to deal if it happens. 90shares Lead Mobile Analyst Apply Now » read more

Technology Sarah Pierce From MySpace-style profiles to video blogs, check out the cool new things businesses are doing with their intranets. It wasn’t too long ago that intranets–internal company websites–were considered the redheaded stepchild of a business’s technology efforts. Once reserved for HR policies and company documents, intranets took a back seat to the company’s website as an underdeveloped–and rarely used–tool for employees.But many are turning their attention back to their intranet and discovering cool new ways to engage employees. Whether it’s MySpace-style profiles or video sharing, intranets have expanded from a corporate bulletin board to a social networking tool.Intranets in ActionInteractive promotion company ePrize, based in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, expanded its intranet nearly 18 months ago to include more employee-centric features, including an area called the “Water Cooler” where employees can sell personal items, such as extra concert tickets and homes, and post announcements, such as needing a sub for the company’s softball team. Employees can also log into the system each morning to order from a daily lunch menu. The $4 lunches are automatically deducted from their paycheck and delivered that afternoon.Another new feature ePrize employees enjoy is the ability to create personal profile pages that include contact info, languages spoken, birthdays and wedding anniversaries.”The intranet is the way we stay connected and network within our company,” says Alesya Opelt, senior marketing director. “It isn’t a place reserved for boring HR guidelines and document sharing. We use our intranet as a place to interact, build and document our culture, and to get to know each other beyond just an e-mail address.”Developing intranets that allow employees to interact using the same tools they’re used to outside the workplace is a new trend many businesses are exploring successfully. Lois Paul & Partners, a public relations company headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts, recently expanded its intranet from the usual company announcements, info and links to resources, by creating an “LP&P Underground” blog. The blog serves as an outlet for employees to talk about topics that interest them outside of work, such as the latest in pop culture, TV shows, music and other random topics.”It’s a nice way to take a break from the busy day to talk about something fun,” says Kristin Cronin, senior account representative. “It’s also a good way to get to know fellow employees a little bit better.”Cronin adds that the blog has been a great way for newer employees to engage with employees that have been with the company longer, and despite business owners’ fears, it hasn’t cut into productivity. “People here work hard and know when they have a few minutes to browse the latest blog posts and when they don’t,” she says. “Blog entries can be a quick thing that the multi-tasking Gen Yers, and even the Gen Xers, can handle with little interruption to work.”The AppealThis attempt to reach twentysomething employees is the crux of the new “social” intranet movement. As more and more Generation Y employees enter the workplace, employers have to find new and different ways to get employees involved.”What’s happening is people are gathering in intranet chat rooms to have events people used to have in a conference room,” says Richard Laermer, author of Punk Marketing and CEO of RLM PR, which helped its client Comcast be recognized as one of 2007’s “10 Best Intranets” by the Nielson Norman Group. “It’s a fun way to participate without having to go to a sock hop or company picnic, which is hard for people these days, who work more than they ever did,” Laermer adds.He encourages business owners to let employees share industry-related stories and video on the intranet. He refers to this as “edutainment”–the ability to blend educational material about the company and its field.”The last thing employees want to see on the company intranet is the company handbook,” he says. “Have a good time with it–put up videos and hold online chat sessions instead of meetings. Employers who set up intranets need to remember, it’s not supposed to be a brochure; it’s supposed to be ‘intra’-active.”Dr. Gerry McCartney, CIO of Purdue University, agrees. While other CIOs are trying to discourage viewing video online, he decided that if that’s how people want to communicate, then that’s the medium he should use. His video blog, Vignettes, engages his staff more than any e-mail or newsletter ever could, he says.McCartney sees the increasing use of Web 2.0 technologies as the future of the intranet. He predicts that as we move toward communicating more on mobile devices, businesses will begin delivering communication to employees via text messaging and providing access to the intranet through employees’ cell phones.Whatever stage your intranet is in, it’s time to pull it out of the past and start treating it as the valuable tool it is. Whether you’re connecting employees to important information or connecting them to each other, the intranet has become a powerful new way to internally strengthen your business. The Intranet Grows Up The only list that measures privately-held company performance across multiple dimensions—not just revenue. Add to Queue –shares Apply Now » 5 min read 2019 Entrepreneur 360 List June 20, 2007 Next Article read more

Learn how to successfully navigate family business dynamics and build businesses that excel. Most business owners are aware of the rudimentary keywords and tools necessary to promote their goods and services to consumers, but only search engine optimization experts fully grasp the myriad complexities that earn the maximum bang for your digital marketing buck. Now, thanks to Trada, any business can hire an army of SEO specialists–and even name its price in the bargain.Founded in late 2008 by Niel Robertson in Boulder, Colo., Trada is a crowdsourced paid-search marketplace that lets small businesses leverage the collective acumen of more than 700 certified search experts who earn their living generating low-cost clicks and conversions. Prospective advertisers come to Trada with basic information about who they are and what they do, establishing campaign parameters such as daily budgets, prices per click and target costs per conversion. From there, Trada taps its freelance expert network, and interested parties begin creating ad groups, keywords and ads. If the search experts sell the ad below the advertiser’s preset price, they keep the difference and give Trada 25 percent of their cut. “Paid search is such a big marketplace that it’s hard to get value out of it,” Robertson says. “The basic idea behind Trada was to create a marketplace system where advertisers spend what they want.” The Search Party, Reinvented Next Article • The typical small-business advertiser spent 159 percent more on search advertising this year than in 2009. Add to Queue Marketing Trada aims to make broader online marketing capabilities more accessible–and affordable–to any size business • Attorneys, general contractors and dentists were the most popular advertiser categories.–J.A. Magazine Contributor Small businesses are spending more on online advertising this year than in 2009–and seeing better returns on their investments. A recent report from WebVisible, an online marketing firm in Irvine, Calif., breaks it down: • Approximately 43 percent of all clicks resulted in a web conversion in the second quarter of 2010–an improvement of nearly 40 percent year-over-year. • Conversion activity more than doubled from 2009 for form fills, video views, printed driving directions and bookmarking. This story appears in the November 2010 issue of . Subscribe » Twenty search experts collaborate on the average Trada campaign, which runs about 6,500 keywords and 110 ads across three search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft Bing). By comparison, the typical DIY small-business campaign incorporates about 60 kMost business owners are aware of the rudimentary keywords and tools necessary to promote their goods and services to consumers, but only search engine optimization experts fully grasp the myriad complexities that earn the maximum bang for your digital marketing buck. Now, thanks to Trada, any business can hire an army of SEO specialists–and even name its price in the bargain.Founded in late 2008 by Niel Robertson in Boulder, Colo., Trada is a crowdsourced paid-search marketplace that lets small businesses leverage the collective acumen of more than 700 certified search experts who earn their living generating low-cost clicks and conversions. Prospective advertisers come to Trada with basic information about who they are and what they do, establishing campaign parameters such as daily budgets, prices per click and target costs per conversion. From there, Trada taps its freelance expert network, and interested parties begin creating ad groups, keywords and ads. If the search experts sell the ad below the advertiser’s preset price, they keep the difference and give Trada25 percent of their cut.”Paid search is such a big marketplace that it’s hard to get value out of it,” Robertson says. “The basic idea behind Trada was to create a marketplace system where advertisers spend what they want.”Twenty search experts collaborate on the average Trada campaign, which runs about 6,500 keywords and 110 ads across three search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft Bing). By comparison, the typical DIY small-business campaign incorporates about 60 keywords and spans just one search engine.”We offer scale, delivered by people who know what they’re doing–they know how much to bid on keywords and how to write an ad,” Robertson says. “These are things that are not easy to learn. You should be an expert on your business, not paid search.”Google itself has taken notice of Trada: In July, Google Ventures invested $5.75 million in the startup in tandem with Foundry Group, a VC firm in Boulder, Colo. Trada has about 200 advertiser clients across multiple verticals who spend $3,000 to $50,000 per month.Robertson envisions the Trada concept expanding across all segments of online advertising. “It’s a pay-per-performance system, we don’t charge anyone a fee, and we only make money if we surpass the goals our advertisers set for us,” he says. “We’re all in this together.” Free Webinar | July 31: Secrets to Running a Successful Family Business 4 min read October 4, 2010 Upping the Ad Ante Jason Ankeny –shares Register Now » read more

All content in the NF Data Portal is compatible with global scientific initiatives to establish common vocabularies and protocols for sharing data across all diseases. Furthermore, the NF Data Portal hosts analysis tools to integrate different modalities of data including drug efficacy across model systems, drug-target analysis, clinical trial data, and molecular adaptive responses in patients. The datasets coming from funded research are subject to a short embargo period (generally up to 18 months), during which the researchers will use the Data Portal for their own research before releasing the dataset to the research community under a Creative Commons (CC) license, or similar. The user-centered design approach employed by Sage Bionetworks for the NF Data Portal enables more users to easily find and access the data they need.As the portal evolves and grows, it will include data from other significant research programs, such as the CDMRP-NF program (Congressionally Directed Medial Research Programs in Neurofibromatosis), as well as other funders of NF research. All are welcome to participate.”We are very excited to have attracted the most important funders of NF research in order to enhance and expand use of the NF Data Portal, and to be working with Sage Bionetworks, which possesses the expertise to build what we consider to be the most promising model of data-sharing in the rare disease area,” said Salvatore La Rosa, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of the Children’s Tumor Foundation.Sara Gosline, PhD, Senior Scientist at Sage Bionetworks and lead of the NF Open Science Initiative, added, “Through our work with CTF and NTAP we have been able to capture an unprecedented amount of data across the NF community that will undoubtedly fuel further scientific discoveries in this field.”La Rosa concluded, “This is big news for researchers, but ultimately even bigger news for patients, who can be assured that critical information is being shared openly so that treatments can be developed as quickly as possible.”Source: https://www.ctf.org/news/open-science-and-data-initiative-announced-for-neurofibromatosis Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Dec 17 2018The Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF), together with the Neurofibromatosis Therapeutic Acceleration Program (NTAP) and Sage Bionetworks (Sage), has announced the first-ever open data portal for scientific research results in the field of neurofibromatosis (NF). The NF Data Portal marks the major first milestone in all three organizations’ commitment to the development of the larger NF Open Science Initiative (NF-OSI), which draws experts from across research disciplines and disease areas in order to develop treatments for NF, a genetic disorder which affects 2.5 million people worldwide (1 in 3,000 births), and currently has no cure or effective treatment options.The unique challenge for researchers studying NF, and particularly for patients living with the disease, is that NF is extremely variable. It causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body, and can cause deafness, blindness, disfigurement, bone abnormalities, learning disabilities, disabling pain and cancer. This makes diagnosis and treatment particularly difficult, and as a result, many patients are told to ‘watch and wait’ as their tumors grow. Researchers working on the disease have likewise faced the challenge of working in independent groups and relying primarily on data made public through published works.The Children’s Tumor Foundation looked to turn this ‘traditional research model’ on its head, and in 2014 launched the NF Open Science Initiative, in collaboration with Sage Bionetworks, in order to enable CTF sponsored project teams to share their data in real-time through Sage Bionetworks’ Synapse platform. This was started in connection with the Foundation’s Synodos research model, which brings together multidisciplinary experts from leading institutions and across basic, translational and clinical disciplines, in order to solve complex NF issues.This spirit of collaboration has attracted other significant partners, and in 2015, CTF committed to supporting data collection and integration from a large National Cancer Institute (NCI) project, called DHART SPORE (Developmental and HyperActive Ras Tumor Specialized Programs of Research Excellence). That same year, NTAP initiated a relationship with Sage requiring that data generated through NTAP funded initiatives be uploaded, harmonized and indexed within Synapse. Across all of these projects – from CTF to NTAP to the NCI – Sage Bionetworks interacts directly with the project scientists to coordinate data upload and organization, and applies expertise in computational biology, oncology, data harmonization, and community-building to expand and enhance the value of the data generated across all of these initiatives.Building on the success of these efforts, CTF, NTAP and Sage have formally aligned to launch the NF Data Portal and the NF Open Science Initiative to support:Related StoriesResearchers identify gene mutations linked to leukemia in children with Down’s syndromeHealthy lifestyle lowers dementia risk despite genetic predispositionBacteria in the birth canal linked to lower risk of ovarian cancer computational biologists seeking to analyze NF data and run their analyses, bench scientists who are interested in seeing what models/studies have been carried out on NF-related models, clinicians interested in seeing if a compound of interest has been used in an in-vivo, in-vitro or an in-silico model, and the general public who are interested in reading about what symptoms of NF are currently being studied. read more

There will obviously be testing to check the molecule is safe. And we need to show that it’s different from alcohol. We will demonstrate that it doesn’t produce toxicity like alcohol does and doesn’t have the bad effects of alcohol.” We know where in the brain alcohol has its ‘good’ effects and ‘bad’ effects, and what particular receptors mediate that. The effects of alcohol are complicated but… you can target the parts of the brain you want to target.” Commenting on the place Alcarelle may take in the alcohol industry, global drinks analyst, Jonny Forsyth, says the future is promising, given that the industry is increasingly investing in alcohol alternatives:”If the science is right, and if it’s easy to mask the taste, I think it’s got a great chance”. By Sally Robertson, B.Sc.Mar 27 2019Reviewed by Kate Anderton, B.Sc. (Editor)Professor David Nutt, an expert in neuropsychopharmacology, is aiming to make hangovers a thing of the past by introducing a synthetic alcohol alternative that provides the relaxing effects of alcohol, without causing hangovers and health problems. Jag_cz | ShutterstockNutt, who oversees the neuropsychopharmacology unit at the Imperial College London, believes that the alcohol substitute, which he has named “Alcarelle,” could change alcohol consumption, if it becomes regulated and available on the market.Nutt first discovered an antidote to alcohol in 1983 when studying the effects that alcohol has on the Gaba system. He realised that the antidote was too dangerous, but continued researching how Gaba receptors respond under the influence of alcohol.Nutt has now learned that 15 subtypes of Gaba receptor are present in multiple regions of the brain and that alcohol will bind to all of them. However, Alcarelle, he claims, can stimulate the Gaba receptors that cause tipsiness, without stimulating the receptors that induce negative effects such as headaches: Furthermore, the way in which Alcarelle binds to a receptor can be modified to produce different effects, meaning a person could choose to feel the effects of drinking, whilst avoiding inebriation.Nutt and colleagues have been working on the Alcarelle molecule, also referred to as “alcosynth,” for more than a decade, but the final hurdle they face is bringing the product to the masses.“The real challenge is taking that molecule to a drink. The regulatory side is much harder than the science,” explains Nutt, who is currently working with his partner David Orren to raise the £20 million it would cost to bring Alcarelle to the market.However, the researchers have adopted a five-year plan in collaboration with food scientists to have the molecule regulated as a food additive or ingredient. Source:This story is based on an interview with David Nutt, published in The Guardian on the 26 March 2019: “Could ‘alcosynth’ provide all the joy of booze – without the dangers?” read more

Explore further This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. More information: Matheus Thomas Kuska et al. Spectral Patterns Reveal Early Resistance Reactions of Barley Against Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei, Phytopathology (2017). DOI: 10.1094/PHYTO-04-17-0128-R Mirwaes Wahabzada et al. Plant Phenotyping using Probabilistic Topic Models: Uncovering the Hyperspectral Language of Plants, Scientific Reports (2016). DOI: 10.1038/srep22482 AI is acquiring a sense of smell that can detect illnesses in human breath Citation: Combating hunger with artificial intelligence (2018, June 22) retrieved 18 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2018-06-combating-hunger-artificial-intelligence.html Journal information: Scientific Reports Almost 800 million people worldwide suffer from malnutrition. In the future there could be around 9.7 billion people—around 2.2 billion more than today. Global demand for food will increase as climate change leaves more and more soil infertile. How should future generations feed themselves?Kristian Kersting, Professor of Machine Learning at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, and his team see a potential solution in the application of artificial intelligence (AI). Machine learning, a special method of AI, could be the basis for so-called precision farming, which could be used to achieve higher yields on areas of equal or smaller size. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Partners are the Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES) at the University of Bonn and the Aachen-based company Lemnatec.”First of all, we want to understand what physiological processes in plants look like when they suffer from stress,” said Kersting. “Stress occurs, for example, when plants do not absorb enough water or are infected with pathogens. Machine learning can help us to analyse these processes more precisely.” This knowledge could be used to cultivate more resistant plants and to combat diseases more efficiently.The researchers installed a hyperspectral camera that records a broadwave spectrum and provides deep insights into the plants. The more data available on the physiological processes of a plant during its growth cycle, the better a software is able to identify recurring patterns that are responsible for stress. However, too much data can be a problem, as the calculations become too complex. The researchers therefore need algorithms that use only part of the data for learning without sacrificing accuracy.Kersting’s team found a clever solution: To evaluate the data, the team used a highly advanced learning process from language processing, which is used, for example, at Google News. There, an AI selects the relevant articles for the reader from tens of thousands of new articles every day and sorts them by topic. This is done using probability models in which all words of a text are assigned to a specific topic. Kersting’s trick was to treat the hyperspectral images of the camera like words: The software assigns certain image patterns to a topic such as the stress state of the plant.The researchers are currently working on teaching the software to optimise itself using deep learning and to find the patterns that represent stress more quickly. “A healthy spot can for instance be identified from the chlorophyll content in the growth process of the plant,” said Kersting. “When a drying process occurs, the measured spectrum changes significantly.” The advantage of machine learning is that it can recognise such signs earlier than a human expert, as the software learns to pay attention to more subtleties.It is hoped that someday, cameras can be installed along rows of plants on an assembly line in the greenhouse, allowing the software to point out abnormalities at any time. Through a constant exchange with plant experts, the system should also learn to identify even unknown pathogens. “Ultimately, our goal is a meaningful partnership between human and artificial intelligence, in order to address the growing problem of world nutrition,” says Kersting. In order to improve world food conditions, a team around computer science professor Kristian Kersting was inspired by the technology behind Google News. Provided by Technische Universitat Darmstadt read more