Monthly Archives: June 2017

Cloning Thousands of Genes for Massive Protein Libraries – Lab Manager Magazine

Posted: June 29, 2017 at 11:19 am

New DNA-based LASSO molecule probe can bind target genome regions for functional cloning and analysis.Image credit: Jennifer E. Fairman/Johns Hopkins UniversityDiscovering the function of a gene requires cloning a DNA sequence and expressing it. Until now, this was performed on a one-gene-at-a-time basis, causing a bottleneck. Scientists atRutgers University-New Brunswickin collaboration with Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Medical School have invented a technology to clone thousands of genes simultaneously and create massive libraries of proteins from DNA samples, potentially ushering in a new era of functional genomics.

We think that the rapid, affordable, and high-throughput cloning of proteins and other genetic elements will greatly accelerate biological research to discover functions of molecules encoded by genomes and match the pace at which new genome sequencing data is coming out, saidBiju Parekkadan, an associate professor in theDepartment of Biomedical Engineeringat Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

In a study published online June 26in the journalNature Biomedical Engineering, the researchers showed that their technologyLASSO (long-adapter single-strand oligonucleotide) probescan capture and clone thousands of long DNA fragments at once.

As a proof-of-concept, the researchers cloned more than 3,000 DNA fragments fromE. coli bacteria, commonly used as a model organism with a catalogued genome sequence available.

We captured about 95 percent of the gene targets we set out to capture, many of which were very large in DNA length, which has been challenging in the past, Parekkadan said. I think there will certainly be more improvements over time.

They can now take a genome sequence (or many of them) and make a protein library for screening with unprecedented speed, cost-effectiveness and precision, allowing rapid discovery of potentially beneficial biomolecules from a genome.

In conducting their research, they coincidentally solved a longstanding problem in the genome sequencing field. When it comes togenetic sequencingof individual genomes, todays gold standard is to sequence small pieces of DNA one by one and overlay them to map out the full genome code. But short reads can be hard to interpret during the overlaying process and there hasnt been a way to sequence long fragments of DNA in a targeted and more efficient way. LASSO probes can do just this, capturing DNA targets of more than 1,000 base pairs in length where the current format captures about 100 base pairs.

The team also reported the capture and cloning of the first protein library, or suite of proteins, from a human microbiome sample. Shedding light on thehuman microbiomeat a molecular level is a first step toward improving precision medicine efforts that affect the microbial communities that colonize our gut, skin, and lungs, Parekkadan added.Precision medicine requires a deep and functional understanding, at a molecular level, of the drivers of healthy and disease-forming microbiota.

Today, the pharmaceutical industry screens synthetic chemical libraries of thousands of molecules to find one that may have a medicinal effect, said Parekkadan, who joined RutgersSchool of Engineeringin January.

Our vision is to apply the same approach but rapidly screen non-synthetic, biological or natural molecules cloned from human or other genomes, including those of plants, animals and microbes, he said. This could transform pharmaceutical drug discovery into biopharmaceutical drug discovery with much more effort.

The next phase, which is underway, is to improve the cloning process, build libraries and discover therapeutic proteins found in our genomes, Parekkadan said.

Other authors include Lorenzo Tosi, Viswanadham Sridhara, Yunlong Yang, Dongli Guan, and Polina Shpilker of Harvard Medical School; Nicola Segata of the University of Trento in Trento, Italy; and H. Benjamin Larman of Johns Hopkins University.

Read more:

Cloning Thousands of Genes for Massive Protein Libraries - Lab Manager Magazine

Posted in Cloning | Comments Off on Cloning Thousands of Genes for Massive Protein Libraries – Lab Manager Magazine

A billion-year arms race against viruses shaped our evolution – Nature – Nature.com

Posted: at 11:19 am

Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library

Viruses have evolved to invade the cells of plants, animals and other organisms.

Viruses and their hosts have been at war for more than a billion years. This battle has driven a dramatic diversification of viruses and of host immune responses. Although the earliest antiviral systems have long since vanished, researchers may now have recovered remnants of one of them embedded, like a fossil, in human cells.

A protein called Drosha, which helps to control gene regulation in vertebrates, also tackles viruses, researchers report today in Nature1. They suggest that Drosha and the family of enzymes, called RNAse III, it belongs to were the original virus fighters in a single-celled ancestor of animals and plants. You can see the footprint of RNAse III in the defence systems through all kingdoms of life, says Benjamin tenOever, a virologist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and lead author of the paper.

Plants and invertebrates deploy RNAse III proteins in an immune response called RNA interference, or RNAi. When a virus infects a host, the proteins slice the invaders RNA into chunks that prevent it from spreading. But vertebrates take a different approach, warding off viruses with powerful interferon proteins while Drosha and a related protein regulate genes in the nucleus.

But in 2010, tenOever witnessed an odd phenomenon: Drosha appeared to leave the nucleus of human cells whenever a virus invaded2. That was weird and made us curious, tenOever says. His team later confirmed the finding, and saw that Drosha demonstrates the same behaviour in cells from flies, fish and plants.

To test the hypothesis that Drosha leaves the nucleus to combat viruses in vertebrates, the researchers infected cells that had been genetically engineered to lack Drosha with a virus. They found that the viruses replicated faster in these cells. The team then inserted Drosha from bacteria into fish, human and plant cells. The protein seemed to stunt the replication of viruses, suggesting that this function dates back to an ancient ancestor of all the groups. Drosha is like the beta version of all antiviral defence systems, tenOever says.

tenOever speculates that RNAse III proteins originally helped bacteria to maintain their own RNA, and that bacteria later deployed the proteins against the genetic material of viruses. He points out the occurrence of RNAse III proteins in immune responses throughout the tree of life. For instance, some CRISPR systems, a virus-fighting response in archaea and bacteria, include RNAse III proteins. Plants and invertebrates deploy the proteins in RNAi. And although vertebrates rely on interferons for viral control, this study now shows that Drosha still chases after viruses, in the same way a pet Golden Retriever a dog bred to retrieve waterfowl fetches a stick as if it were a fallen duck.

Donald Court, a geneticist at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, calls the finding cool, but he doesnt buy the evolutionary scenario. RNAse III is involved in many things, in almost all domains of life, he explains. He sees no reason to think that one antiviral system evolved into the next. For instance, he says, the fact that one CRISPR system includes RNAse III whereas others dont suggests that the proteins were probably deployed acquired independently and not inherited.

Its a really intriguing story, and the data are good, but youre talking about processes that happened over millennia so its hard to know whether its true, says Bryan Cullen, a virologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Cullen predicts that the paper will prompt researchers who study RNA and infectious diseases to test tenOevers hypothesis. The immune system has been under tremendous pressure to evolve as viruses overcome defences, and this paper suggests that RNAse III has played an important role in that evolution, he says. Its like what the Red Queen said to Alice in Through the Looking-Glass: you have to keep running to stay in one place.

Read the rest here:

A billion-year arms race against viruses shaped our evolution - Nature - Nature.com

Posted in Evolution | Comments Off on A billion-year arms race against viruses shaped our evolution – Nature – Nature.com

Chimpanzee Interactions Lead To New Clues About Human Evolution – Paste Magazine

Posted: at 11:19 am

Signs of altruism selfless concern for others have been seen in chimpanzees, giving scientists cause to believe that this could be the basis of modern-day human cooperation.

Until this point, it has been difficult to pinpoint such behavior in animals closest to humans evolutionary makeup, as anything akin to selflessness had only been noted in rats in the past. However, in a recent experiment, it appeared that chimps would be willing to give up a treat if it meant that another unrelated chimp could be helped. In addition, it was found that chimps in the wild would risk going on patrols and standing guard even for those not of their own kin.

As Science Magazine reported, the first study was formulated around a sharing game that required the chimps be put into pairs and given options for receiving or not receiving treats. After this, one chimp was trained to give up their treat completely, while the second chimp had the option to simply eat their own treat or pull a rope and reward the both of them. At least 75% of the time, the second chimp would pull the rope, rewarding both of them and showing appreciation for the first chimp whod given its treat for the pure reason of that chimp having taken a risk.

To take the experiment one step further, researchers wanted to see if the chimps would pay their partners back simply just for having been shown kindness and giving up their treat in the first place. Results showed that the chimps did, in fact, feel compelled to frequently reward the first chimp for its perceived selflessnesseven at their own expense, as reported by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Though nothing is definitive yet, some researchers believe that this could be the first key to unlocking the psychological phenomenon that compels humans to cooperate with large, diverse communities or determine what it is that makes them reject that kind of cooperation.

Top photo by foshie / Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Natalie Wickstrom is a freelance writer based in Athens, Georgia. She most likely wrote this piece to the tune of a movie score whilst chewing gum.

See the article here:

Chimpanzee Interactions Lead To New Clues About Human Evolution - Paste Magazine

Posted in Evolution | Comments Off on Chimpanzee Interactions Lead To New Clues About Human Evolution – Paste Magazine

Darwinism Will Fix the Investment Industry – Bloomberg

Posted: at 11:18 am

The Financial Conduct Authority concluded its two-year investigation into the U.K. asset management industry by ordering investment firms to provide customers with an "all-in fee." It's a welcome attempt to eliminate the hidden costs that undermine people's efforts to save for their old age. Far more effective than an increase in regulation, however, is the financial Darwinism already wreaking change on the industry.

The FCA move, announced Wednesday, obliges fund managers to tell investors how much they charge for managing assets, as well as how much is paid to intermediaries and an estimate of transaction costs. While knowing what the fees are is clearly important, achieving lower fees is even more essential to delivering better returns that will let pensioners retire comfortably.

British fund managers oversee almost 7 trillion pounds ($9 trillion) of assets, including more than 1 trillion pounds for U.K. retail investors and about 3 trillion pounds for institutional investors including pension funds. Almost three-quarters of the money is invested in active funds, which charge an average fee of 0.9 percent of assets under management, compared with just 0.15 percent levied on passive funds.

As things stand, customers aren't getting value for money from active funds, according to the FCA. "There is no clear relationship between charges and the gross performance of retail active funds in the U.K.," it said. "There is some evidence of a negative relationship between net returns and charges. This suggests that when choosing between active funds, investors paying higher prices for funds, on average, achieve worse performance."

The FCA calculates that, after fees, a typical low-cost passive fund would deliver almost 25 percent more in returns than an active fund over a 20-year investment horizon, assuming it matched the performance of the benchmark U.K. FTSE All-Share index. Once transaction costs are included, that outperformance of passive versus active investment soars to almost 45 percent.

Yet the growth of passive funds is already driving fees down across the industry -- and there's more to come. A survey published this week by State Street Corp. showed the vast majority of industry players expect more downward pressure on fees in coming years.

Under Pressure

Looking ahead to the next five years, to what extent do you agree or disagree with the statement that fee compression in the asset management industry will intensify?

Source: State Street industry survey of more than 200 asset managers, more than half of which manage more than $10 billion

As a result, 76 percent of the funds surveyed anticipate more consolidation in the industry, as my Bloomberg News colleague Sarah Jones reported earlier this week. Mergers and acquisitions are seen as an "essential strategy" for survival, especially for smaller managers, the State Street survey showed.

Aberdeen Asset Management Plc, for example, is merging with Standard Life Plc to create the U.K.'s biggest active fund manager. Aberdeen suffered about $85 billion of net outflows in the past two years, and it has seen a drop in the fees it can charge.

Getting Cheaper

Aberdeen's blended average management fee

Source: Company filings

In its interim report in November, the FCA highlighted that asset managers "have consistently earned substantial profits" in recent years, with an average profit margin of about 36 percent since the start of the decade. Little wonder, then, that U.K. fund management firms have outperformed the broader stock market since the financial crisis.

Fund Managers Outperform

Source: Bloomberg

Those days of outperformance may be drawing to a close, and not just because of increased regulatory scrutiny. The rise of cheap exchange-traded funds continues apace; active funds will have to fight harder for market share, by lowering fees as well as proving to investors that they really can outperform their benchmarks on a consistent basis. Darwinism, not tighter rules, will produce a healthier asset management industry.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Mark Gilbert in London at magilbert@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.net

Here is the original post:

Darwinism Will Fix the Investment Industry - Bloomberg

Posted in Darwinism | Comments Off on Darwinism Will Fix the Investment Industry – Bloomberg

UK police to embrace IoT in age of ‘Digital Darwinism’ – The Internet of Business (blog)

Posted: at 11:18 am

A report published today by UK technology association techUK and the Centre for Public Safety explores how police forces can address the challenges and embrace the opportunities associated with the IoT.

The report,Policing and the Internet of Things, provides recommendations on how UK police forces can evolve with the fast-moving world of technology, particularly IoT, to create a digitally skilled police force.

Law enforcement officers in the UK have already begun to embrace emerging technologies, such as drones, for fighting crime. A growing number of officers are also using wearable cameras on the beat these days, while at least one crime scene investigation unit is already working on taking digital forensics from smart devices. However, more work is needed.

According to the report, with fraud and cyber crime now heading the list ofthe UKs top criminal offences, the growth of the IoT and the increasing number of devices connected to the internet means that the way police forces operate needs to change.

Not only have new risks been created, such as the deployment of ransomware onto devices, but more traditional crimes can now be committed online, targeting large numbers of people from almost anywhere in the world, it says.

Currently, online fraud is the most common crime in the country, but a joint report from the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Center suggests that IoT-related crimes may soon become more frequent.

In light of the changing nature of crime, thereport recommends six incremental steps that police forces can take to address both the challenges and the opportunities of IoT.

To address the challenges presented by the IoT, they should:

To maximize the opportunities, meanwhile, they should:

Read more:Dubai rolls out Robocop to fight crime

The report has been endorsed by a number of senior police officers, includingAssistant Chief Constable Richard Berry, chief officer lead on the Digital Investigations and Intelligence Programme for the National Police Chiefs Council. Commenting on the report, he said:

The digital environment presents a number of challenges for public safety and the prevention and detection of crime. Police forces across the country have already adapted locally and there are many pockets of good practice. However, digital challenges can be different to those previously familiar to many in policing.

Working in new partnerships will help the Police Service discover and respond to threats and opportunities better and, in particular, closer working with industry will be critical. In order to fight crime in the digital age, it is vital that police have a good understanding of market capabilities. It will be important to ensure a regular exchange of ideas is facilitated, for police and industry to work collaboratively in responding to new crime and security issues.

This report sets out six incremental steps, which will help police forces meet the challenges presented and harness the opportunities available. Beyond this, I hope this report sparks discussion and debate for how we, as the Police Service can rise to the challenges of Digital Darwinism.

Read more:Ransomware disables connected hotel door system in Austria

Read the original:

UK police to embrace IoT in age of 'Digital Darwinism' - The Internet of Business (blog)

Posted in Darwinism | Comments Off on UK police to embrace IoT in age of ‘Digital Darwinism’ – The Internet of Business (blog)

Growing robotics industry helps drive development in Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Posted: at 11:18 am


Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Growing robotics industry helps drive development in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh's growing robotics industry is helping to drive development and the demand for space in the Strip District and other East End neighborhoods, at times pushing rents even higher than they are in the best Downtown offices. That's the conclusion ...

Go here to read the rest:

Growing robotics industry helps drive development in Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Posted in Robotics | Comments Off on Growing robotics industry helps drive development in Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The one law of robotics: Humans must flourish – BBC News – BBC News

Posted: at 11:18 am


BBC News
The one law of robotics: Humans must flourish - BBC News
BBC News
Can we simplify the laws of robotics, governing the intelligent machines we will soon live alongside?

and more »

Read the original post:

The one law of robotics: Humans must flourish - BBC News - BBC News

Posted in Robotics | Comments Off on The one law of robotics: Humans must flourish – BBC News – BBC News

The Robotarium: A remotely accessible swarm robotics research testbed – Robohub

Posted: at 11:18 am

Figure 8: Example of a 15 robot swarm of GRITSBots on the arena surface of the second instantiation of the Robotarium.

When developing algorithms for coordinating the behaviors of swarms of robots it is crucial that the algorithms are actually deployed and tested on real hardware platforms. Unfortunately, building and maintaining a swarm robotics testbed is a resource-intense proposition and, as a consequence, resources rather than ideas tend to be the bottleneck and swarm robotics research does not progress at the rate it could. The Robotarium sets out to remedy this problem by providing remote access to a large team of robots, where users can upload their code, run the experiments remotely, and get the scientific data back. This article describes the structure and architecture of the Robotarium as well as discusses what constitutes an effective, remotely accessible research platform.

This paper won the IEEE Robotics & AutomationBest Multi-Robot Systems Award at ICRA 2017.

The Robotarium Vision

As a swarm-robotic research testbed, the Robotariums main goal is to lower the barrier of entrance into multi-agent robotics and provide access to a state-of-the-art test facility for researchers around the globe. Remote accessibility is therefore an integral part of the design of the Robotarium and is currently realized through a public web interface that gives users the flexibility to test a variety of multi-robot algorithms. Making robotic hardware available online requires the Robotarium to tackle a number of challenges including robust and safe long-term operation of large groups of robots with minimal operator intervention.

In particular, the continuous operation of the Robotarium highlights the need for automated maintenance, which relies on global position tracking, automated battery recharging, and provably collision-free execution of motion paths. To fulfill its intended use effectively, the Robotarium has to implement a number of high-level design requirements that can be summarized as follows:

Robotarium Instantiations

The Robotarium aims to improve and streamline the user experience and facilitate the control of swarms of mobile robots not just for researchers well-versed in robotics but also for interested hobbyists and students. Part of this desired user experience is achieved by providing a seamless transition from prototyping swarm algorithms in the Robotarium simulator to executing the same code on robotic hardware. While methods as outlined in the Usage section below can narrow the gap between simulation and hardware, the initial prototypes of the Robotarium made clear that tight integration between its hardware and software components is highly beneficial.

Therefore, the Robotarium contains custom-designed robots that use a novel wireless charging system, WiFi-based wireless communication between the robots and the Robotariums servers, as well as an overhead position tracking system. The software stack extends from custom firmware for the robots to server backend software consisting of the simulation infrastructure, interaction components (APIs that allow users to write their algorithms in higher-level languages), and coordinating server applications. A detailed description of all these components can be found in [1] while an overview of the system architecture is shown in Figure 1. Here, we just want to highlight the components that set the Robotarium apart, namely its custom miniature robots and their novel wireless charging system that enables automated maintenance and charging.

Robots: At the core of the Robotarium are our custom-designed GRITSBot robots (shown in Figure 2). These inexpensive, miniature differential drive robots simplify operation and maintenance of the Robotarium through features such as (i) automated registration with the server when powered up, (ii) automatic battery charging, and (iii) wireless (re)programming. The GRITSBots provide WiFi-based communication, battery-powered operation up to 45 minutes per charge, and stepper motor-based locomotion. Additionally, these robots are equipped with a slew of introspective sensors that enable predictive diagnostics through precise monitoring of their internal states.

Charging: The GRITSBots are equipped with a wireless charging system. A receiver coil is attached to the robot (see Figure 2 (right)) and transmitters are built into the Robotarium arena surface (see Figure 3 and 4). Automatic recharging of robots is an essential aspect that will enable the long-term use of robots and the automated management of the Robotarium hardware with minimal operator intervention and at the same time make the continuous operation of the Robotarium economically feasible.

To date, three versions of the Robotarium have been built.

Safety on the Robotarium

One of the main challenges faced by remote-access testbeds like the Robotarium is how to faithfully execute remote users instructions without endangering the safety of its hardware. Inter-robot collisions are very likely to happen within a large team of robots, which might result in significant damage to the equipment. Safety on the Robotarium is enforced through so-called safety barrier certificates. Each of the robots is encapsulated in a safety bubble whose size is based on the position and velocity of the robot. This safety bubble is not allowed to be penetrated by other robots. Utilizing these mathematically rigorously formulated certificates, users control inputs to the robots are modified in a minimally invasive fashion such that no collisions will occur. With the help of safety barrier certificates, remote users experiments can be safely performed on the Robotarium. An example of ten robots successfully executing individual trajectories while avoiding collisions is shown in Figure 6 (a video of this experiment can be found on the Robotariums Youtube channel).

Usage

Users interact with the Robotarium by prototyping their code in the Robotariums simulator and submitting their code online via the Robotarium website. This workflow allows users to quickly and efficiently transfer their preexisting work into a Robotarium-compatible format and see their algorithms work on real robots. To ensure a smooth transition from simulator to physical hardware, the Robotarium employs system identification techniques to ensure that these simulated robots emulate the GRITSbots. However, depending on their complexity, some experiments require a few simulation/deployment cycles before achieving the desired result. To ameliorate this condition, the Robotarium aims to operate 24/7, providing a quick turnaround time for users.

This ambitious operating schedule allows users from around the world to interact with the Robotarium in their preferred time frame. However, automating such a complex system incurs some challenges that the Robotarium solves through both hardware and software. For example, the Robotarium and the GRITSbot employ wireless charging to ensure a high degree of reliability and efficiency in autonomous operation. Additionally, the Robotarium regularly undergoes maintenance procedures, which typically range from 2-8 hours in length, ensuring that the requisite hardware is operating correctly. The Robotarium also employs state-of-the-art software packages to meet this operating goal, such as the IoT-friendly MQTT publish/subscribe architecture and Docker.

Altogether, these hardware and software developments allow the Robotarium to service a wide array of users. To date, over 100 users have submitted experiments to the Robotarium. Institutions that have used the Robotarium include the University of Texas Austin, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Along with these institutional partners, the Robotarium typically executes 1-2 experiments per day, a number that continuous to grow, from remote users in different countries around the world.

Reference:

First printed: Pickem, D.; Glotfelter, P.; Wang, L.; Mote, M.; Ames, A.; Feron, E. & Egerstedt, M., The Robotarium: A remotely accessible swarm robotics research testbed. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), (2017) (Best Multi-Robot Systems Paper)

Image citations:

Figure 1, 2, 7:

Pickem, D.; Glotfelter, P.; Wang, L.; Mote, M.; Ames, A.; Feron, E. & Egerstedt, M., The Robotarium: A remotely accessible swarm robotics research testbed. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), (2017) (Best Multi-Robot Systems Paper)

Figure 3, 4, 5, 6, 8: Newly created images.

Excerpt from:

The Robotarium: A remotely accessible swarm robotics research testbed - Robohub

Posted in Robotics | Comments Off on The Robotarium: A remotely accessible swarm robotics research testbed – Robohub

Industrial robotics security is really, really terrible / Boing Boing – Boing Boing

Posted: at 11:18 am

Researchers from Politecnico di Milano and Trend Micro conducted an audit of the information security design of commonly used industrial robots and found that these devices are extremely insecure: robots could be easily reprogrammed to violate their safety parameters, both by distorting the robots' ability to move accurately and by changing the movements the robots attempt to perform; hacked robots can also be made to perform movements with more force than is safe; normal safety measures that limit speed and force can be disabled; robots can be made to falsify their own telemetry, fooling human operators; emergency manual override switches can be disabled or hidden; robots can be silently switched from manual to automatic operation, making them move suddenly and forcefully while dangerously close to oblivious, trusting humans; and of course, robots can be caused to manufacture faulty goods that have to be remanufactured or scrapped.

All of this is possible because industrial robotic control systems lack even the most basic security -- instead of cryptographically hashing passwords, they store them in the clear (with a single, deterministic XOR operation to provide a useless hurdle against hackers); controllers expose an FTP process during bootup that accepts new firmware loads without authentication; network-level commands are not encrypted or signed; controllers use hardcoded usernames and passwords; memory corruption attacks are easy and devastating; the runtimes for the control instructions are poorly isolated from other processes -- the paper goes on and on.

Industrial robots epitomize all the problems of the Internet of Shit -- operators who have little or no security expertise, a lack of easy updating, and lazy, sloppy design. But whereas killing someone with the Internet of Shit involves things like turning off the heat in February in Minnesota, industrial robots are giant, barely constrained killing machines.

We explored, theoretically and experimentally, the challenges and impacts of the security of modern industrial robots. We built an attacker model, and showed how an attacker can compromise a robot controller and gain full control of the robot, altering the production process. We explored the potential impacts of such attacks and experimentally evaluated the resilience of a widespread model of industrial robot (representative of a de facto standard architecture) against cyber attacks. We then discussed the domain-specific barriers that make smooth adoption of countermeasures a challenging task.

Interesting future research directions include exploring multi-robot deployments, co-bots, and the safety and security implications of the adoption of wireless connections. Also, an improved survey would produce statistically significant results. We definitely plan to analyze controllers from other vendors, to further confirm the generality of our approach.

An Experimental Security Analysis of an Industrial Robot Controller [Davide Quarta, Marcello Pogliani, Mario Polino, Federico Maggi, Andrea Maria Zanchettin, and Stefano Zanero/Industrial Robots Security]

(via 4 Short Links)

University of Tulsa security researchers Jason Staggs and his colleagues will present Adventures in Attacking Wind Farm Control Networks at this years Black Hat conference, detailing the work they did penetration-testing windfarms.

Yesterdays massive ransomware outbreak of a mutant, NSA-supercharged strain of the Petya malware is still spreading, but the malwares author made a mere $10K off it and will likely not see a penny more, because Posteo, the German email provider the crook used for ransom payment negotiations, shut down their account.

Petya is a well-known ransomware app that has attained a new, deadly virulence, with thousands of new infection attempts hitting Kaspersky Labs honeypots; security firm Avira attributes this new hardiness to the incorporation of EternalBlue the same NSA cyberweapon that the Wannacry ransomware used, which was published by The Shadow Brokers hacker group []

Aside from specific apps needed for work, the most casual Mac users can probably survive without anything more than the bundled software. iLife is a surprisingly capable office suite (Apple even promotes Keynote as a tool for interface design), and recent versions of Safari are more energy efficient than any other macOS-compatible browser. But if []

Despite the upfront cost, electric toothbrushes are much better at removing plaque than those freebies from the dentists office. For those who struggle to fill the American Dental Associations recommended two minutes of brushing time, or anyone with limited dexterity, a sonic toothbrush can give your oral care routine a boost.To keep your chops healthy []

Learning a new language will give your resume an upgrade, sure, but it will also provide a huge cognitive boost for mental tasks outside of translation and conversation. Bilingual brains have been shown to be better at handling multiple concurrent tasks, and gaining fluency in a new tongue is an amazing way to improve memory, []

Read the original:

Industrial robotics security is really, really terrible / Boing Boing - Boing Boing

Posted in Robotics | Comments Off on Industrial robotics security is really, really terrible / Boing Boing – Boing Boing

Smith & Nephew expands NAVIO Robotics-assisted surgery system into Total Knee replacements – PR Newswire (press release)

Posted: at 11:18 am

"The NAVIO system offers game changing improvements in precision and accuracy without sacrificing efficiency. It allows surgeons the control to create a patient-specific plan in the OR and the confidence to execute with robotic precision," says Dr Joseph Burkhardt from southwest Michigan. "For the Total Knee, it provides surgeons the ability to do more than they have ever been able to do with standard instruments, resulting in improved functional outcomes for the patient."

"The NAVIO partial knee replacement application has been commercially available since 2014, including UKA and PFJ options, and has developed a strong surgeon following," said Glenn Warner, President, US Commercial. "The full market release of the TKA application provides a robotics-assisted solution for one of the largest markets in orthopaedics. Smith & Nephew is committed to continued expansion and growth of the NAVIO robotics-assisted platform."

About Smith & Nephew

Smith & Nephew is a global medical technology business dedicated to helping healthcare professionals improve people's lives. With leadership positions in Orthopaedic Reconstruction, Advanced Wound Management, Sports Medicine and Trauma & Extremities, Smith & Nephew has around 15,000 employees and a presence in more than 100 countries. Annual sales in 2016 were almost $4.7 billion. Smith & Nephew is a member of the FTSE100 (LSE:SN, NYSE: SNN).

For more information about Smith & Nephew, please visit our website http://www.smith-nephew.com, follow @SmithNephewplc on Twitter or visit SmithNephewplc on Facebook.com.

Forward-looking StatementsThis document may contain forward-looking statements that may or may not prove accurate. For example, statements regarding expected revenue growth and trading margins, market trends and our product pipeline are forward-looking statements. Phrases such as "aim", "plan", "intend", "anticipate", "well-placed", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target", "consider" and similar expressions are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from what is expressed or implied by the statements. For Smith & Nephew, these factors include: economic and financial conditions in the markets we serve, especially those affecting health care providers, payers and customers; price levels for established and innovative medical devices; developments in medical technology; regulatory approvals, reimbursement decisions or other government actions; product defects or recalls or other problems with quality management systems or failure to comply with related regulations; litigation relating to patent or other claims; legal compliance risks and related investigative, remedial or enforcement actions; disruption to our supply chain or operations or those of our suppliers; competition for qualified personnel; strategic actions, including acquisitions and dispositions, our success in performing due diligence, valuing and integrating acquired businesses; disruption that may result from transactions or other changes we make in our business plans or organisation to adapt to market developments; and numerous other matters that affect us or our markets, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or reputational nature. Please refer to the documents that Smith & Nephew has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including Smith & Nephew's most recent annual report on Form 20-F, for a discussion of certain of these factors. Any forward-looking statement is based on information available to Smith & Nephew as of the date of the statement. All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to Smith & Nephew are qualified by this caution. Smith & Nephew does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in circumstances or in Smith & Nephew's expectations.

Trademark of Smith & Nephew. Certain marks registered US Patent and Trademark Office.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smith--nephew-expands-navio-robotics-assisted-surgery-system-into-total-knee-replacements-300481704.html

SOURCE Smith & Nephew

http://www.smith-nephew.com

See the article here:

Smith & Nephew expands NAVIO Robotics-assisted surgery system into Total Knee replacements - PR Newswire (press release)

Posted in Robotics | Comments Off on Smith & Nephew expands NAVIO Robotics-assisted surgery system into Total Knee replacements – PR Newswire (press release)