Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Google Digital News Initiative has funded 107 journo-tech projects
 Google’s Digital News Initiative, now in its third round, has awarded over £19m in funding to over 100 projects across Europe - including Dennis’ publisher sell-side platform Project Arete, Jimmy Wales’ news platform Wikitribune, and Al Jazeera’s news messaging app.

The Digital News Initiative was launched two years ago as part of a partnership between Google and news publishers in Europe. The initiative forms part of a wider strategy from the search giant to show news publishers it supports, rather than undercuts, quality journalism, having come under the spotlight this year for the often detrimental effect it can have on news.

As well as investing in product development, research and training, the search giant also launched the DNI Innovation Fund, committing €150m (£132m) to innovation projects across the European news industry.

It received more than 988 project submissions from 27 countries in Europe for the fund, of which 107 projects have received funding worth €22m (£19m) in total. Of the 107 projects funded today, 49 are prototypes (early stage projects requiring up to €50k of funding), 31 are medium-sized projects (requiring up to €300k of funding) and 27 are large projects (requiring up to €1m of funding).

Google said it has seen a growing interest in fact checking experiments, with 29% more applications in that field in comparison to the previous rounds.

This comes in the midst of a fake news crisis whereby many in the news industry have pointed the finger at Google and Facebook for proliferating the spread of fake news online by not placing enough value in quality news.

In response to this, Google in April released tools that enable web users to flag up questionable content, as it reshuffled sites known to share such items down the search rankings.

There’s also been a rise in projects including artificial intelligence (+23% more applications than last round), investigative reporting (+20% more) and immersive approaches through virtual and augmented reality (+20% more), as well as collaborative projects between organisations.

Dennis Publishing’s Project Arete is one such example of a collaborative project that will be built and launched as part of the publisher co-operative Pangaea Alliance. Members of the alliance include Dennis, CNN, the Guardian, the Financial Times, Reuters and Inc magazine.

Project Arete will develop a prototype sell-side digital advertising trading platform designed specifically for premium publishers. Its key USP is that it will “guarantee transaction transparency” for both the sell-side and the buy-side, at a time when adtech players are facing increased scrutiny from publishers due to cases of disappearing revenue.

“This layer of verified transparency will afford legacy publishers the ability to demonstrate and execute the true value of their media and audiences,” Dennis said in a statement.

WikiTribune, meanwhile, a news platform launched by Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, has been awarded €385,000.

The platform seeks to solve the problem of clickbait low-quality journalism by bringing community members into the virtual newsroom to work side-by-side with paid professional journalists. The latter will research and report news stories alongside volunteers who curate articles by proofreading, fact-checking, suggesting changes and adding sources for stories that matter.

Al Jazeera’s AJ Labs London has received funding to build an open-source, interactive, storytelling app for news and current affairs features where the user experiences journalism via a messaging platform.

The app enables journalists to embed content from interviews with a variety sources into a series of messaging exchanges, and it allows the user to choose between a number of seemingly direct conversations with the interviewees. The user’s responses trigger the next messaging exchange and pivotal “decision points” give the user choices on how to progress.

“The result is a personalised, immersive, in-depth experience of a serious news story,” Al Jazeera said in the release.

Other projects that received funding include Full Fact, a non-partisan fact-checking service, and Verifeye Media, a technology that would allow news organisations to quickly verify video and photos taken by eyewitnesses.

Output: Google's Digital News Initiative has awarded more than £19m in funding for over 100 journalism-based tech projects in Europe. Those awarded with funding include the Wikitribune news platform developed by Jimmy Wales and the Al Jazeera news messaging app. The initiative rewards digital publishers in a bid to strengthen the social media giant's relationship with the media sector. Google has also launched the DNI Innovation Fund with £132m dedicated to supporting innovation across the European media sector.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Blockchain offers numerous advantages to ad transactions
 Blockchain, an unmodifiable and unbreachable digital ledger, was conceived 10 years ago to support the cryptocurrency bitcoin. But it has since seeped into new categories, jumping from finance to health care and, more recently, digital advertising.

It’s doing so with the backing of big companies like IBM and Comcast, as well as smaller startups like MadHive and Rebel AI.

Why all the excitement?

While government-backed legal tender is secured in bank vaults, bitcoin uses a blockchain ledger to guarantee security by providing full transparency around the currency. The ledger tracks each unit of the currency ever created or transacted, and the number of bitcoins held by any individual as well as the path of any single unit of the currency are visible to all.

By applying blockchain technology to ad transactions, data owners can securely share their assets without exporting or handing them over to another stakeholder. And media owners can strike a blow against unauthorized sellers and domain spoofers.

“Blockchain’s strongest application is for a network where there’s mistrust across the stakeholders,” said IBM’s Media & Entertainment group CTO, Peter Guglielmino.

Despite the ad tech community’s interest in blockchain, the potential applications – and their level of maturity – vary dramatically.

So what can blockchain do for the ad industry?

Weed out unwanted supply chain intermediaries: Blockchain could help secure the supply chain from intermediaries that manipulate inventory or from third parties like ad blockers.

For ousting intermediaries, here’s blockchain’s role: an unethical media seller could trick buyers by creating near-clones of legitimate URLs and tags, like CNN-trending.com or NBCcom.com. A blockchain would stop those capers, since publishers and resellers would be recognizable from their unique blockchain keys instead of gimmicky names, and each unit of inventory would trace back to a true source.

Facilitate data sharing: For most companies, their data is among their most valuable assets. So it’s no wonder that data sharing – even with trusted partners – can be fraught. But some vendors are pushing blockchain as a means to log data transactions, so data owners know exactly which of its available data assets its partners took, and when.

These solutions typically focus on TV ad buying, and require multiple stakeholders to form agreements with each other. In June, IBM formed the AdLedger Consortium with Integral Ad Science, blockchain-based ad tech startup MadHive and Premion OTT ad-buying subsidiary TEGNA. The goal is to build a blockchain data-sharing solution geared toward advanced TV advertisers.

Comcast also revealed a blockchain-based coalition of broadcasters, including Altice USA, Cox, NBCUniversal and Disney, who would share their data and record those transactions in blockchain. So a vetted, trusted media buyer could execute a campaign against segments provided by members of the Comcast consortium.

The process relies on “smart contracts,” automated protocols that manage transactions on a blockchain. So if Comcast and Cox have different inventory rates for specific content or audiences, or if a buyer wants to blacklist certain supply sources, that’s baked into each company’s smart contract and dictates how others on the blockchain can access its data.

Reselling inventory: NYIAX, a Nasdaq-based startup that aims to sell media futures contracts over a blockchain, hopes to make advertisers comfortable with buying future inventory contracts. If successful, NYIAX could give pubs more flexibility in how inventory is packaged. Advertisers could lock up inventory over the long term and pubs could score bigger upfront deals or offer different types of discounts. And in this instance, blockchain would serve as the ledger recording all of these transactions – and their value.

Early Days

Before anyone gets too excited, remember that blockchain ad tech is still in its infancy and many of the tools supporting the aforementioned applications are still in beta or alpha, or are still as vaporous as an idea.

Comcast’s blockchain platform isn’t expected to go live until 2018. AdLedger is still forming a working group that will dictate policy and API specs for its platform. And NYIAX is still developing proofs of concept with beta partners.

“We’ve talked to hundreds of publishers, all the big holding companies and agencies within them, and it’s a slow, methodical, phased-in approach,” said NYIAX CEO Lou Severine. “It’ll be some time before we’re in an RFP-type stage with agency clients.”

But blockchain technology is interesting enough such that trade groups are assessing it. The IAB is “in an exploratory phase” on blockchain and is in talks with startups from the new blockchain ad tech cottage industry, said Alanna Gombert, general manager of the IAB Tech Lab.

IBM’s Guglielmino said blockchain startups today are using various methods, “but as consensus comes to the space, existing systems will be more integrated.”

He added, “What’s important is to set the bar with standards. Then it will be available to anyone to leverage if their companies can step up to that bar and demonstrate value in the chain.”

Major speed bumps ahead

Blockchains face tough hurdles in the ad arena. Chief among them: It’s too slow to scale.

Scaled ad platforms like AppNexus or DoubleClick Ad Exchange process millions of ad calls per second. Bitcoin, meanwhile, handles around five transactions per second.

“The distributed nature of the blockchain existing and updating alongside every computer on the network around the world is both the benefit and the challenge,” said Will Luttrell, co-founder and former CTO of Integral Ad Science who is in a beta phase on blockchain technology startup Curren-C.

Blockchain’s latency makes it impossible, at least for now, to enter the RTB market. Which is partially why early market entrants like Comcast’s platform or the AdLedger Consortium are focused more on data sharing and campaign planning than actual media execution.

Confirming transactions on a blockchain ledger takes 10-30 seconds, according to Manny Puentes, CEO of the blockchain ad tech startup Rebel AI. “There’s going to be a lot of development before they can get that down to the milliseconds used to measure online ad calls.”

NYIAX works around this issue by selling guaranteed future media and not live inventory.

“The speed isn’t there and, frankly, may never be,” Severine said.

Whether blockchain transactions will ever fit into an RTB ad tech stack remains an open question for those occupying the market niche.

Blockchain ad buying will start with direct deals between media companies and pilot agency or brand partners akin to linear TV contracts due to real-time latency, Gombert said. “But once it gets better, and it is, it isn’t necessarily limited.”

Too Much Transparency?

Brands and media companies are demanding transparency from digital media – but too much of a good thing can hurt you.

“In addition to scale and speed, there’s a transparency issue that’s tricky to negotiate,” Luttrell said.

Consider Comcast’s blockchain initative. The broadcasters involved want to expose some data to some buyers, but they don’t want other broadcasters on the platform to see what kind of data they share, who they share it with or what rates they charge. Neither do they want their DSPs, SSPs or ad network vendors to be publicly available.

Blockchains are incorporating more supply chain stakeholders, said Ken Brook, CEO of blockchain advertising company MetaX. “But as you start adding proxies, vendors and data that impacts the logic and delivery of campaigns, it gets technically challenging.”

Vendor list

MadHive: One of the early advertising blockchains, MadHive is pursuing a partner-driven growth strategy with an early focus on OTT ad budgets. IBM is the first enterprise partner for MadHive’s AdLedger Consortium, which it hopes will be transacting data-for-data deals, if not actual media buys, by the end of the year. “Advanced television is where experimental budgets are happening right now,” said founder Adam Helfgott.

Rebel AI: This blockchain ad tech startup is hoping to develop direct pipelines between media partners and potential agency or DSP buyers that “are more like the verified relationships buyers used to have with media companies,” Puentes said. The startup’s go-to-market play is as a secure buying channel for publishers that want to avoid ad fraud and quality concerns on open programmatic exchanges.

MetaX: MetaX is experimenting with a mix of blockchain and off-chain solutions as it tests use cases in online advertising. The company operates adChain, its non-profit blockchain protocol built off the open-source Ethereum blockchain platform. MetaX, the for-profit parent company, will monetize applications built off adChain, such as data sharing or attribution. The startup is working with one DSP, a brand and the Data & Marketing Association advertising trade group.

Comcast: With its own extensive broadcast portfolio and cable pipes into homes across America, Comcast is pursuing a blockchain data-sharing as a way to allow first-party data matching without the web of intermediaries, like legacy data players Acxiom and Experian, as well as addressable TV ad startups forming a new layer within the broadcast Lumascape, that add value but absorb margins. Comcast’s Blockchain Insights Platform has another year and a half before it’s set to launch from beta, but even with that time educating stakeholders and developing tech integrations is a tall order.

NYIAX: Backed by Nasdaq’s proprietary blockchain technology, NYIAX aims to let traders buy and sell the rights to future digital media inventory. This would allow online media companies to package guaranteed inventory more like upfront TV deals, though it faces a potential challenge onboarding publishers, who don’t think of their inventory as a commodity like salt or corn that can be sold like every unit is equivalent. NYIAX hopes its ad tech Rolodex, with a C-suite made up of former AOL execs and Mediaocean founder and CEO Bill Wise as a board member, will help it get past those sticking points.

IBM: The tech giant is in a relatively strong position to establish Bluemix, its cloud-based services suite, as a blockchain frontrunner, Guglielmino said. Ad tech blockchain startups are in the uncomfortable position of finding revenue in a system that doesn’t process budgets yet, whereas IBM could stomach the R&D costs and apply advances in the technology to other industry verticals, like healthcare and finance.

Output: Blockchain could be useful in providing additional security to transactions in the advertising industry. The distributed ledger technology could enable data owners to share assets without giving them to stakeholders and give media owners the ability to counteract efforts by unauthorised sellers and domain spoofers. The new method could streamline supply chains and protect assets such as URLs. It could also facilitate inventory sales. However, the technology is not yet being adopted by the wider sector, though there are groups working to introduce it.


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Opiates added to heroin are linked to UK drug fatalities
 Dozens of drug deaths in the UK this year are being linked to the opiates fentanyl and carfentanyl, which are being added to heroin even though they are many times stronger. The National Crime Agency has warned that dealers are mixing the class A drugs with heroin, and the Guardian has learned that the substances have been found in the bodies of up to 46 people who died this year, although the exact causes of their deaths remained uncertain.

Many toxicologists have only recently started looking for fentanyl and carfentanyl in postmortem examinations, and cases involving the substances have yet to reach coroners’ courts – meaning there has been little public discussion of the impact of the drugs.

Public Health England said heroin users should be “extra careful” when using the drug, urging them to test a small amount first and not to take it alone. In April, the body issued an alert to medical and emergency services to be vigilant following a spate of deaths in the north of England.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate, which can be prescribed as a painkiller in carefully measured doses. It is up to 100 times stronger than morphine. Its analogue carfentanyl is 10,000 times stronger and has been used as an elephant tranquilliser. Fentanyl hit international headlines in June, when it was found that Prince died after overdosing on it. In the US, fentanyl is one of the drugs blamed for the rapid rise in overdose deaths and widespread opioid addiction.

Prince died from a fentanyl overdose. Photograph: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Harry Sumnall, a professor of substance use at the Public Health Institute at Liverpool John Moores University, said it was unclear why fentanyl and carfentanyl were appearing on the black market in the UK. He suggested it could have been bought on the dark web, and that new suppliers may be trying to enter the market.

“Whether it’s so-called user dealers who are buying a local supply, or new actors trying to enter the market but at a much lower level than the established heroin gangs, we don’t really know,” said Sumnall.

Simon Hudson, a technical director at LGC, which tests biological samples from coroners for pathology labs, said carfentanyl or fentanyl had been found in up to 46 cases since March.

He said about three or four of the 15 cases he received every week were testing positive for the substances but that in most instances a coroner had not yet recorded an official cause of death.

Hudson said that 20 micrograms of carfentanyl could be enough to kill someone. “If you look at a grain of sugar, that is one or two milligrams, so 20 micrograms is a 50th of that. You wouldn’t even be able to see that if it was on the desk in front of you. It would be like a spec of dust.

“So if somebody’s trying to cut heroin and make it uniform throughout the whole amount of heroin, that’s pretty much impossible,” he said. “Taking it is like playing Russian roulette. One portion of heroin won’t have anything in it, but another will have a couple of specs and it’ll be enough to kill you.”

The majority of drug overdoses thought to have involved fentanyl and carfentanyl are in the Yorkshire and the Humber region, but police forces across the north of England, Northern Ireland and Hampshire have issued warnings after finding evidence that heroin was being mixed with the drugs.

In April, Humberside police confirmed that two people in Hull had died after taking heroin mixed with fentanyl. DCI Paul Kirby said the force was also trying to establish how a number of other drug users had died in the city.

The same month, police said they were investigating whether two deaths in the Leeds area were connected to “unusually strong heroin or heroin derivates”. In May, police linked the death of a 43-year-old man in Wakefield to carfentanyl-laced heroin.

A few days later, South Yorkshire police said they were investigating seven deaths around Barnsley. They said they were looking into the possibility that the dead had taken heroin contaminated with carfentanyl and fentanyl.

Rosanna O’Connor, the director of drugs, alcohol and tobacco at Public Health England, said the organisation was working closely with coroners, the police, drug testing labs and local drug services to get more information on confirmed and suspected cases.

Output: Opiates Fentanyl and Carfentanyl have been connected to dozens of drug deaths in the UK. The drugs, the former of which was responsible for the musician Prince’s fatal overdose, are being added to heroin and have so far been found in the bodies of up to 46 people who have died in the country this year from uncertain causes. Fentanyl is up 100 times stronger than morphine, whilst Carfentanyl is 10,000 stronger. The former drug has been linked to the rising numbers of overdose deaths and opioid addiction in the US.


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Samsung said to be working a Bixby-powered smart speaker
 Samsung is working on a smart speaker powered by its new Bixby voice assistant, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The project is said to be codenamed Vega, but little more is known about the device; its features and specifications are apparently yet to be decided, much less a release date.

The Vega project’s development is reportedly being slowed by the progress of Bixby itself. Samsung had to launch the Galaxy S8 without support for English voice commands, despite marketing Bixby as a prominent feature of the phone and giving it a dedicated button. Voice support started to roll out in preview form last month, but there’s clearly still a long way to go.

The WSJ now says Samsung sees the full release of Bixby voice support as “unlikely before the second half of July.”

Output: Samsung is developing a smart speaker powered by its Bixby voice assistant, according to sources familiar with the matter. However, delays to the full release of the Bixby voice assistant are slowing the project's development. Despite marketing Bixby as a Samsung Galaxy S8 feature, Samsung launched the S8 without support for English voice commands. The phone maker is unlikely to release Bixby voice support in full until the second half of July, according to the sources.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Eye-tracking technology used to study property viewing habits
 Some 27 per cent of the viewers’ focus was spent on furnishings, 24 per cent on looking personal effects and clutter, with just four per cent given over to the layout of the property.

The study, for Anglian Home Improvements, involved viewers agreeing to wear spectacles that tracked their eye movements, recording what they looked at, what things disrupted their natural eye movements, and what they lingered on.

A study using ‘eye-tracking’ technology has revealed what prospective buyers pay most attention to during viewings and shows critical differences between male and female viewers.

Personal effects and clutter were most distracting for female viewers, who spent 28 per cent of their viewing time focusing on them, compared to 20 per cent for male buyers.

The company claims that the results show that even when potential buyers did not mention clutter or mess to agents in their post-viewing feedback, their eyes were repeatedly drawn to it when panning a room.

Overall, men spent more time than women looking at the structure and features of the grounds and building (32 per cent compared to 22 per cent), while women focused more on the personal elements such as decoration and furnishings.

Personal items constantly drew the participants' gaze. “Photos were a big element of this - the data showed that house hunters often made eye contact with specific photographs, which distracted the viewers from other elements of the room” says a statement from the company.

Repairs or structural features made up just four per cent of participants’ viewing behaviors. This included checking door frames, sliding doors or light switches.

Looking at exterior features and the garden accounted for 22 per cent of the participants’ focus, with 17 per cent of time spent looking outside through the windows.

Output: People viewing potential homes for purchase focus just 4% of their attention on the building's layout, repairs or structural features, while more than a quarter of viewers' attention is directed at furnishings, according to research by Anglian Home Improvements. The study asked buyers to don spectacles that tracked their eye movements and found that exterior features took up 22% of viewers' attention, that 17% of the time was spent looking through windows and that 28% of female viewers were distracted by personal effects or clutter, compared to 20% of males.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Trump's half-hearted pension change boosts fintech uptake
 Adviser demand for a technological answer to meeting new requirements of the DOL fiduciary rule has jumped in the three weeks since part of the retirement advice regulation was implemented.

Technology providers said interest in their fiduciary fintech had cooled following the election of President Donald J. Trump, who some speculated would scrap the best interest rule before its targeted April 10 implementation date. Instead, the Labor Department delayed it until June 9, when part of the rule went into effect while the agency continues to review the entire regulation.

(More: DOL fiduciary rule takes effect but more uncertainty lies ahead)

“We’ve seen a tidal wave of interest since June 9,” said Daniel Satchkov, president of RiXtrema, which sells a tool to help advisers compare costs of rolling funds out of 401(k) plans. “I think a lot of advisers were close to doing something for awhile, but they kept waiting because of the delays coming from the DOL.”

RiXtrema has signed up 74 firms so far in June for its IRAFiduciary Optimizer, compared to single-digit sales of the tool during the other months of 2017.

RiXtrema’s technology generates a report for transactions involving individual retirement accounts, comparing total fees an investor would pay before and after a rollover.

When the firm released the tool in October 2016, it quickly signed up about 30 clients before Nov. 8, when Mr. Trump was elected president.

“Since the election until June, everybody just stopped,” he said.

It also helps an adviser show “fee reasonableness,” Mr. Satchkov said.

TWO PROVISIONS

The two provisions that have gone into effect govern adviser interactions with clients in retirement accounts. Under those provisions, advisers must give advice that is in the best interests of their clients, charge reasonable compensation and avoid “misleading statements” about investment transactions and what they’re being paid. The entirety of the rule’s provisions, which could still see changes, won’t be active until 2018.

Aaron Klein, chief executive at Riskalyze, said since May, when it became clear to many that the DOL rule was going to happen, his firm has seen a 40% increase in its growth rate.

“Advisers seemed to say, ‘DOL is here, I have to find a way to document that I’m making decisions in their best interest,’” Mr. Klein said.

Riskalyze‘s Autopilot investment platform includes “one-click fiduciary technology” that will help advisers keep track of the investments within portfolios to make sure they’re meeting risk and other parameters and provide documentation of this care.

(More: Most advisers could be doing a lot more with tech)

Another firm, The E-Valuator, sells a tool for advisers that sets investment performance thresholds across mutual funds and exchange-traded-funds in a client’s account to help ensure a company is meeting its fiduciary obligations.

For lagging investments, the tool will identify suitable replacements.

“The week of June 9 we had two phone calls from very large, well-known institutions that decided now they had better act,” said Collin Miller, president of The E-valuator. “They had been working under the assumption that the rule was going to get pushed over.”

The firm has 22 organizations using the tool, including one of its largest clients, Redhawk Wealth Advisors, which manages about $900 million in assets.

(More: Labor secretary Alexander Acosta gives DOL fiduciary rule supporters something to cheer about — at least for now)

Lisa Graham, product manager of eMoney Advisor, said this month firms have been very active in terms of asking about how the company’s products can help advisers meet the fiduciary rule.

She said eMoney, which is owned by Fidelity Investments, has seen a greater number of advisory firms expanding their eMoney relationship with add-ons this year.

Soon they’ll be able to add a new feature offered by CapitalROCK that will examine the client’s current retirement account situation and recommend whether rolling over a 401(k) into an individual IRA or annuity would be best for the client. It will provide documentation of that decision.

In September 2016, eMoney said it was boosting the compliance functions of its financial planning platform to help advisers meet the Labor Department’s new fiduciary requirements for retirement advice.

Its “fiduciary framework” adjusts the client on-boarding procedures and enhances monitoring and archiving of the interactions between clients and advisers, all to provide documentation that shows advisers acted in the best interests of clients when giving recommendations.

Output: Demand for how to meet the DOL fiduciary rule requirements has jumped in the three weeks following implementation. Tech providers said interest in fiduciary fintech is not as strong following President Donald Trump's election, with speculation that the best interest rule would be scrapped before its April implementation date. However, the Labour Department delayed it until June, and currently some of the ruling is still under review.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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TomTom and Cisco to develop IoT-enabled traffic flow technology
 Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here.

Network tech titan Cisco is working with TomTom to research and develop what the two are calling an “ultra-fast lane level traffic technology” that supports autonomous driving.

Cisco already operates in the connected transport realm, offering a range of sensors, controllers, and routers that connect systems to improve things like traffic flow. With TomTom on board, the duo plan to carry out research to leverage Cisco’s roadside data and create the “next generation of traffic information technology,” according to a statement issued by the companies. This initiative will be underpinned by Cisco’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform.

Founded in 1991, TomTom is perhaps best known in the public sphere for its GPS-powered devices, including dedicated satellite navigation units for cars and watches. But the company also offers a number of other services, such as telematics to help businesses manage their fleet of vehicles, as well as a range of automotive services that includes maps for self-driving cars, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), traffic information, and on-street parking data.

Put simply, both companies have significant expertise harnessing traffic data, and now they’re putting their heads together and pooling resources.

“With this project, we are connecting road infrastructure, vehicles, drivers, and road authorities, enabling them to exchange information in near real time,” explained Edwin Paalvast, president EMEAR (Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Russia) at Cisco. “That is what the Internet of Things is about. With TomTom’s expertise, its gigantic pool of traffic data and innovative traffic technology, TomTom is a strong company to work with in this field.”

In terms of the kinds of things the two companies will be working on, one example cited is Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology, which involves burying a fibre optic cable adjacent to a busy road to detect vibrations and provide real-time monitoring of vehicle movements, making it possible to establish trends and patterns. Combining such data with TomTom’s pool of GPS-based floating car data means it can be displayed and analysed through a TomTom interface designed specifically for traffic management centers.

Elsewhere in the world, a number of big data initiatives have emerged to help develop smarter cities. Earlier this year, we reported on how China is meshing ride-sharing data with smart traffic lights to ease road congestion, while Uber has previously partnered with Boston and other cities for projects that involve analyzing trip-level data to establish traffic patterns and improve infrastructure. GPS data derived from a number of etaxi platforms is also being used to improve road conditions in developing countries.

Ultimately, TomTom and Cisco are working to increase the precision of real-time traffic services and make them more affordable to cities or companies that find value in such data. It’s worth noting that this ties in with the burgeoning autonomous car industry, too. Self-driving cars require ridiculously accurate on-board sensors so they can “see” the world around them — which is why Intel shelled out $15.3 billion for computer vision firm Mobileye — and vehicles without humans at the wheel need accurate, real-time data of the environment around them.

Whatever the context, dialog between the car and the outside world needs to be a two-way conversation, which is why Cisco and TomTom are investing resources in traffic technology that’s embedded in the physical world.

Output: Cisco and TomTom have announced they will pool their vast reserves of traffic-based data to research and create the "next generation of traffic information technology", according to a joint statement. Tech firm Cisco will provide an internet of things (IoT) platform to underpin the initiative. "We are connecting road infrastructure, vehicles, drivers, and road authorities, enabling them to exchange information in near real time,” said Edwin Paalvast, SVP of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia at Cisco.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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AI choice of healthy embryos superior to doctors in IVF treatment
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Scientists are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help predict which embryos will result in IVF success.

In a new study, AI was found to be more accurate than embryologists at pinpointing which embryos had the potential to result in the birth of a healthy baby.

Experts from Sao Paulo State University in Brazil have teamed up with Boston Place Clinic in London to develop the technology in collaboration with Dr Cristina Hickman, scientific adviser to the British Fertility Society.

They believe the inexpensive technique has the potential to transform care for patients and help women achieve pregnancy sooner.

During the process, AI was “trained” in what a good embryo looks like from a series of images.

AI is able to recognise and quantify 24 image characteristics of embryos that are invisible to the human eye.

These include the size of the embryo, texture of the image and biological characteristics such as the number and homogeneity of cells.

During the study, which used cattle embryos, 48 images were evaluated three times each by embryologists and by the AI system.

The embryologists could not agree on their findings across the three images, but AI led to complete agreement.

Stuart Lavery, director of the Boston Place Clinic, said the technology would not replace examining chromosomes in detail, which is thought to be a key factor in determining which embryos are “normal” or “abnormal”.

He said: “Looking at chromosomes does work, but it is expensive and it is invasive to the embryo.

“What we are looking for here is something that can be universal.

“Instead of a human looking at thousands of images, actually a piece of software looks at them and is capable of learning all the time.

“As we get data about which embryos produce a baby, that data will be fed back into the computer and the computer will learn.

“What we have found is that the technique is much more consistent than an embryologist, it is more reliable.

“It can also look for things that the human eye can't see.

“We don't think it will replace genetic screening – we think it will be a complimentary to this type of screening.

“Analysis of the embryo won't improve the chances of that particular embryo, but it will help us pick the best one.

“We won't waste time on treatments that won't work, so the patient should get pregnant quicker.”

He said work was under way to look back at images from parents who had genetic screening and became pregnant. Applying AI to those images will help the computer learn, he said.

Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 / 20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify “dangerous” humans from listening to each other’s warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or “contact calls” (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the “Goldilocks Zone” which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planet’s oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a “transient anus” that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Müller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the “interstitium”. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs José Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary

Mr Lavery added: “This is an innovative and exciting project combining state of the art embryology with new advances in computer modelling, all with the aim of selecting the best possible embryo for transfer to give all our patients the best possible chance of having a baby.

“Although further work is needed to optimise the technique, we hope that a system will be available shortly for use in a clinical setting.”

Output: Artificial intelligence (AI) was more accurate at choosing embryos with the potential to result in a healthy birth than embryologists, according to a study from São Paulo State University and Boston Place Clinic in London. By training the AI programme to identify healthy embryos from a series of images, the researchers improved the selection of embryos for in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The AI, which the scientists think will compliment rather than replace genetic screening, identified 24 characteristics of embryos that are invisible to the human eye, including the embryo's size and biological characteristics such as cell count.


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MP Sajid Javid sets up £2.3bn fund for 100,000 new homes
 The communities secretary Sajid Javid (pictured above) has announced the launch of a £2.3bn fund which could deliver 100,000 new homes in areas of high demand.

Speaking in Birmingham at the LGA Conference yesterday (4th July 2017), he said that the investment would help to fund vital physical infrastructure projects such as the building of roads, bridges, energy networks and other utilities.

The funding will be made available through the Housing Infrastructure Fund and will also be used to help build new schools, healthcare centres and digital infrastructure.

Mr Javid said: “To build the homes this country needs, we need to deliver the right infrastructure in the right place at the right time.

Poll As a broker, do you currently quote 'green' loan options alongside standard loan quotes for property development finance? Yes No Vote Results

“The Housing Infrastructure Fund will also make sure we have better public services in place for local communities.”

Mr Javid added that by investing in local infrastructure, the government could help to build thousands of new homes in the areas where they are most needed.

It is expected that once proposals have been approved, local authorities would begin building infrastructure immediately, which would then be followed by housing.

The Housing Infrastructure Fund is part of the government’s £23bn National Productivity Investment Fund.

“Funding necessary infrastructure will give local authorities the opportunity to remove barriers to developments being delivered,” said Andrew Whitaker, planning director at the Home Builders Federation.

“Direct support for critical infrastructure will not only unlock more housing, it should also help to accelerate planned developments.

“Local authorities that plan for growth should be supported and that will, in turn, allow housebuilders to get on and deliver the homes our communities so desperately need.”

Output: UK communities secretary Sajid Javid has launched the £2.3bn ($2.9bn) Housing Infrastructure Fund, which could pay for the construction of 100,000 new homes where they are needed most, as well as facilitating investment in amenities such as roads, schools and healthcare centres. Speaking at the LGA Conference in Birmingham, Javid said the fund, which is part of the government’s £23bn National Productivity Investment Fund, will "make sure we have better public services in place for local communities." Following planning approval, it is expected that infrastructure work will commence immediately.


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3D printed robot could improve breast cancer diagnostics
 The world’s smallest and most accurate 3D-printed biopsy robot was revealed this week.

The Stormram 4, as the robot is named, is made from 3D-printed plastic and is driven by air pressure. The advantage of plastic is that the robot can be used in an MRI scanner. Carrying out a biopsy (removing a piece of tissue) during a breast cancer scan in an MRI significantly increases accuracy. The robot won a prestigious award during the Surgical Robotic Challenge at the international Hamlyn Symposium in London: one of the world’s most important events in the field of robotic surgery.

The Stormram 4 is a stimulus for the entire diagnostic phase of breast cancer; the accurate needle control, effectively real-time MRI scanning and a single, thin-needle biopsy enable quicker and more accurate diagnoses to be made. Medical robotics is sure to become standard procedure in hospitals in the near future.

Stormram 4

The Stormram 4 is driven by rectilinear and curved air-pressure motors. The robot is controlled from outside the MRI scanner by means of 5-metre-long air pipes. The design is smaller than the previous version, enabling it to fit inside the MRI scanner’s narrow tunnel.

Biopsy

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women. By inserting a needle in the patient’s breast and navigating to the abnormal tissue (lesion), it is possible to take a tissue sample. A good diagnosis is made possible through subsequent clinical analysis; a process known as a biopsy.

No invasive surgery

Accurate navigation of the biopsy needle is of crucial importance in combating breast cancer and other forms of cancer. Through the use of special needles, the tip of which can be very hot (thermal ablation) or very cold (cryoablation), it is possible to destroy tumour cells close to the tip of the needle. This enables the treatment of cancer without the need for invasive surgical procedures.

Robotics is the solution

MRI scanners are the answer when it comes to the extremely accurate detection and visualisation of the location of abnormal tissue. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make full use of this accuracy as long as needles are controlled by hand. Robotics offers the solution. Not all robots can be used in combination with MRI scanners. Robots are often made of metal, a material that cannot be used in the strong magnetic fields of MRI scanners. For this reason, the UT, in collaboration with Ziekenhuis Groep Twente (ZGT), has made the robot entirely of plastic.

UT scientists and partners

The development of Stormram 4 was carried out by: Vincent Groenhuis MSc, Dr. Françoise Siepel and Prof. Stefano Stramigioli from the University of Twente’s Robotics and Mechatronics (RAM) lab. In addition, it involved close collaboration with Dr. Jeroen Veltman, a radiologist at Ziekenhuis Groep Twente (ZGT), to make the design as suitable as possible for clinical practice, and Abe van der Werf from Machnet B.V.

Output: The University of Twente's Robotics and Mechatronics lab has unveiled Stormram 4, heralded as the world's smallest 3D printed robot, motored by air pressure. Since it is composed of plastic, it can be utilised in an MRI scanner, which has been shown to provide breast cancer patients with relatively high-accuracy biopsy data. The robot earned an award at the Surgical Robotic Challenge at the Hamlyn Symposium in London. Medical robots could soon become a standard feature of hospitals, as the time-effectiveness and precision tests that come with robots like the Stormram 4 could significantly alter the diagnostic phase of breast cancer, according to the university.


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Turkish start-up offers 3D-printed hand prosthetics for children
 Jul 5, 2017 | By Tess

All around the world, 3D printing is helping to give people—especially children—access to affordable and customizable prosthetic devices. Following that trend is Robotel Türkiye, a 3D printed prosthetics initiative that is helping to change young lives in Turkey.

Robotel Türkiye has its origins in 5 dakika, a Turkey-based design studio that had experience with 3D printing. In 2014, the studio came into contact with Enabling The Future, the non-profit aimed at providing children from all over the globe with low-cost prosthetic hands.

After providing its first 3D printed prosthetic limb to Mehmet Ali Toprak in 2014, 5 dakika realized it could expand its project to all of Turkey to help more people in need. According to the startup, the 3D printed prosthetic project really got started in 2015, as it gained momentum in Turkish media and established itself on social media. Earlier this year, Robotel Türkiye became officially recognized as an NGO, Robotel Derneği.

Now, Robotel Türkiye is working towards providing people (mostly children) who have finger or hand deformations with custom-sized 3D printed hand prosthetics. “Our organization aims to help these people participate in daily life and integrate into society," it says. "The purpose of the 3D printed hand is both to make their lives easier physically and to make them feel special instead of inadequate or disabled.”

Many of the people Robotel Türkiye has been helping have a developmental disorder caused by Amniotic Band Syndrome (ABS). Traditionally, children are not always provided with prosthetics because they can be expensive and children grow out of them quickly. 3D printed prosthetics, however, because of their low-cost and easy adaptability, can be made quickly and efficiently for children to use.

Equipping children with prosthetics—even 3D printed ones—from a young age can help them to adapt to using assistive devices, making it easier to use a permanent one when they grow up. But more than that, the 3D printed hands “provide social and emotional support” to children. As they are made with colorful materials and can be customized to the child’s taste, children can feel special wearing them.

Robotel Türkiye is continually trying to expand its mandate to help as many people as possible. In order to do this, it regularly sends volunteers to Instanbul, Ankara, and Izmir to discuss the project and educate newcomers about 3D printing technology and its prosthetics. It also puts together a number of workshops and events which help promote social awareness for people with disabilities and bring more volunteers to its cause.

Currently, the organization has over 1,200 volunteers and access to about 160 3D printers around Turkey. So far, Robotel Türkiye has provided 32 3D printed hand prosthetics to people in need and are working on manufacturing many more.

“With these hands we aim to increase the life standards of these children. By giving them a tool to facilitate their daily routines and proving them with a joyful design to make them feel like exceptional; we aim to touch as many lives and hearts as possible,” said the organization.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Output: Turkey-based non-governmental organisation Robotel Türkiye, which is officially known as Robotel Derneği, is using 3D printing to create bespoke prosthetic hands for children with finger or hand deformations. The system, which is low-cost and adaptable, enables youngsters to easily adapt to wearing a prosthetic and to take part in everyday life. "The purpose of the 3D printed hand is both to make their lives easier physically and to make them feel special instead of inadequate or disabled,” the company said. So far it has provided 32 prosthetic hands to children.


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Fidelity, American Century switch to single fee for pension funds
 Two of the largest managers of target-date-fund assets, Fidelity Investments and American Century Investments, are changing how they assess fees in the multi-asset funds, at a time of heightened cost scrutiny and as TDFs capture an increasing portion of 401(k) contributions.

The two asset managers are the first among their peers to switch to a “single fee” management structure in their target-date mutual funds, analysts said. This structure allows the firms to charge a fixed fee for their TDFs, irrespective of the underlying funds that make up the portfolios.

Target-date managers have historically used an “acquired fee” model, whereby firms determine the cost of the overall portfolio based on the asset-weighed cost of the underlying funds.

For example, a portfolio of two mutual funds, one costing 0.5% and the other 1%, both with the same amount of assets, would have an overall cost of 0.75% under the acquired-fee approach.

But, adding a relatively expensive strategy, perhaps a liquid-alternative portfolio, could increase the expense ratio by several basis points, making the TDF less attractive to 401(k) advisers and plan sponsors, said Chris Brown, the founder and principal of Sway Research, which studies asset management distribution in defined contribution plans.

The single-fee method doesn’t impose such limitations — asset managers are free to add whichever asset classes they like to the portfolios, with an eye toward enhancing performance, without sacrificing on cost marketability, Mr. Brown said.

“Target-date managers are trying to find any and every way they can to compete on costs,” said Jeff Holt, multi-asset analyst at Morningstar Inc.

Fidelity and American Century are respectively the No. 2 and No. 8 TDF managers by mutual fund assets.

Fidelity changed the management fee structure for its Fidelity Freedom and Fidelity Advisor Freedom TDF series in June, and American Century’s switch is expected later in 2017, Mr. Holt said.

Fidelity has two other series — Fidelity Freedom Index and Fidelity Multi-Manager — to which the changes don’t pertain. The Fidelity Freedom funds hold the lion’s share of its TDF assets, at 82%. American Century has one series, the One Choice funds.

Both firms fall into the camp focused on active management of their funds. They use underlying stock and bond funds engaged in the active selection of securities, whereas firms focused on passive management use funds that track an index like the S&P 500.

Active managers tend to asses higher fees than passive managers. As advisers and plan sponsors have sought out lower fees, due in part to the proliferation of lawsuits attacking plan fees and growing importance of fee transparency, flows to index funds have dominated those of active funds — roughly two of every three dollars directed to TDFs in 2016 went to a passive series, according to Morningstar.

Since 2006, assets held in passive TDFs have doubled to roughly 40% of total target-date mutual fund assets, whereas those held in active funds have dipped to 60%, from more than 80%, according to Morningstar.

Target-date mutual funds held $880 billion in assets at the end of 2016.

“At the end of the day, investors want lower fees. This is just another way to get there,” Mr. Holt said of the single-fee management style.

Of course, there’s always the concern firms will charge more than the underlying funds, but thus far it appears to be an effort to lower costs or afford the flexibility to lower costs, Mr. Holt added.

Target-date-fund marketability is only becoming more important as TDFs swell in popularity. As of 2016, the funds accounted for around one-half of all 401(k) contributions, according to Cerulli Associates. By 2020, Cerulli projects that 401(k) participants will direct 75% of all contributions to TDFs.

American Century managed to notch one of the largest annual TDF gains last year, in percentage terms, among its competitors despite its active-management focus.

Despite some of the advantages a single-fee approach affords asset managers, Mr. Holt doesn’t expect it to catch on among other firms any time soon.

That partly stems from the effort it could take to achieve the end result — American Century, for example, is launching a share class of its underlying funds, exclusively for its TDFs, with no fees, allowing the firm to charge a fixed fee for the whole portfolio, Mr. Holt said.

Fidelity, though, is waiving underlying fund expenses in the new fee structure, Mr. Holt said.

Output: Target-date-fund managers Fidelity Investments and American Century Investments are altering their fee assessment methods for multi-asset funds, as cost security and elevated interest from 401(k) contributors become more prominent. The companies are amongst the first to change to a "single fee" management system for their TDFs, with the current preference being for the "acquired fee" model. The move will likely attract more interest as asset managers have increased flexibility in class selection without increasing costs.


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Opinion: Snapchat should follow Foursquare and make use of data
 Sometimes the social application everyone thought you were needs to become something different for your business to evolve. Foursquare is a case in point. The company that used to be all about the social check-in has become a data powerhouse and a potential model for the future of Snapchat.

Output: Snapchat should follow Foursquare's example and turn to data to find revenues, especially in the location space, according to Jay Hawkinson of SIM Partners. In an op-ed, he praised Snapchat's partnership with Foursquare and said the social media company's acquisition of Placed gave it the foundation to leverage online to drive offline sales. He also said that the recently-launched and somewhat controversial tool, Snap Maps, showed the firm was still a disruptive force.


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Havas acquires health communication specialists SO What Global
 Havas Group has acquired SO What Global, a London-based firm that specializes in health and wellness communications.

SO What Global will be housed within Havas’s Health & You business unit under the new name Havas SO. As part of the deal, existing Havas Group agency Health for Brands London will become part of Havas SO Group.

Output: Ad agency Havas has acquired SO What Global, a London-based health and wellness communications firm. Havas-owned agency Health for Brands London will become part of the newly formed Havas SO division as part of the deal. This division will also absorb SO What agencies SO Healthy and SO Active. Havas will also take ownership of SO What Global's RelationSHIFT, a development framework for nurturing relationships between clients and their stakeholders. SO What Global's co-founders, Scott Clark and Oliver Parsons, will retain their roles at the firm.


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NotPetya ransomware attack may cost Reckitt Benckiser £100m
 Some of the world’s biggest companies are counting the cost of lost business following last week’s “NotPetya” ransomware cyber-attack, with Nurofen maker Reckitt Benckiser taking an estimated £100m hit in revenue.

Reckitt – which also makes Dettol cleaning products and Durex condoms – said the attack on 27 June had disrupted production and deliveries of goods to customers in several countries.

“Consequently, we were unable to ship and invoice some orders to customers prior to the close of the quarter,” the British consumer goods company said in a statement on Thursday. “Some of our factories are currently still not operating normally but plans are in place to return to full operation.”

Last week’s attack affected some of the world’s biggest corporate names, including the UK-based advertising group WPP, Danish shipping company AP Moller-Maersk, and US delivery service FedEx.

Anthony Dagostino, head of global cyber-risk at Willis Towers Watson, said such attacks were starting to take a greater toll on businesses. “We’ve really crossed the threshold into new territory regarding damages sustained from an attack. No longer is it limited to data and privacy compromise with expenses incurred to remediate the breach. Now we’re seeing disruption to supply chains and production, material loss of income, and physical damage becoming more of a reality.”

Reckitt Benckiser said it was still assessing the financial impact of the attack on the company. “We expect that some of the revenue lost from the second quarter will be recovered in the third quarter. However, the continued production difficulties in some factories mean that we also expect to lose some further revenue permanently.”

The Slough-based company now expects like-for-like net revenue in 2017 to increase by about 2%, down from an earlier growth forecast of 3%. With the company making almost £10bn in revenues in 2016, that would equate to about £100m in lost revenue.

It said a new goods and sales tax in India also resulted in reduced orders from some customers in June. Reckitt’s shares were among the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 in early trading on Thursday, down 2%.

Eddy Hargreaves, analysts at Investec bank, said that profits and turnover would both be hit: “The cost of recovery from the recent cyber-attack on Reckitt’s operations is still being assessed by management. But we expect an impact both on top line, through disruption to production, order handling and logistics, and margin, through the need to upgrade systems and recover data.”

The company has operations in more than 60 countries and sells its products around the world, employing about 37,000 people globally. The sharp fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote has benefited companies like Reckitt Benckiser, because it has significant operations outside the UK.

Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, said it had been forced to redirect ships to alternative locations after the attack on its computer systems left it unable to dock and unload containers at some of its ports.

In its latest message to customers the company said its operations were now “running close to normal again”, but it was still experiencing some issues such as disruption to phone lines in some regions.

Charlie Huggins, fund manager at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Reckitt should recover from the NotPetya attack. “The effects of the cyber-attack should prove temporary, while some of the other headwinds holding back sales in the first and second quarter should abate in the second half. As a result, we expect sales to recover relatively quickly.

“Cybercrime is fast becoming the number one risk for companies, which is absorbing greater resources and management time. But the reputational cost of getting this wrong can be significant so its vital businesses commit the appropriate resources to reassure investors.”

Neil Campling, analyst at Northern Trust Capital Markets, said this latest attack was a wake-up call for firms. “Companies all over the world will be reviewing the robustness of their hard and soft procedures to ensure they’ve done everything possible to protect themselves from hackers and others who might wish to disrupt normal operations,” he said.

Output: Consumer goods manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser could lose up to £100m ($130m) in net revenue following the NotPetya ransomware attack, which severely disrupted the company's supply chain. While Reckitt Benckiser said it expected some of the Q2 revenue losses to be made up in Q3, it added it expected some revenue losses to be permanent, as shares slumped 2%. "We’re seeing disruption to supply chains and production, material loss of income, and physical damage becoming more of a reality," said Anthony Dagostino, head of global cyber-risk at Willis Towers Watson.


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Baidu buys machine learning chatbot platform Kitt.AI
 Chinese search giant Baidu has acquired Kitt.AI, a natural language processing startup, for an undisclosed sum.

Since it was founded in 2014, Kitt has launched three products: Snowboy, a customizable hotword detection engine; NLU, a multilingual natural language engine; and ChatFlow, a framework for building chatbots.

The two companies will work together “to continue a joint mission of making the complex world simpler with natural language understanding technologies,” said Xuchen Yao, Kitt.AI’s founder and CEO, in a blog post announcing the deal.

“How does this affect existing and future developers of Kitt.AI?” said Yao. “Better products, better services and a peace of mind that Kitt.AI will continue to operate with its existing products in the years to come.

“Yes, literally nothing changes in our existing products and brands. We'll be continuing to support developers with best of our efforts as we have always been.”

Don’t forget to enter the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards. The Early Bird deadline for submissions is 22 July. More details here.

Output: Chinese search engine Baidu has acquired natural language processing start-up Kitt.AI for an undisclosed amount. The deal will see the two firms "continue a joint mission of making the complex world simpler with natural language understanding technologies," according to a blog post by Xuchen Yao, CEO of Kitt.AI. He stressed the deal would not affect the company's existing products and brands.


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Global warming hindering ocean’s ability to contain carbon
 MIT climate scientists have found that the ocean’s export efficiency, or the fraction of total plankton growth that is sinking to its depths, is decreasing, due mainly to rising global temperatures. Credit: MIT News

If there is anywhere for carbon dioxide to disappear in large quantities from the atmosphere, it is into the Earth's oceans. There, huge populations of plankton can soak up carbon dioxide from surface waters and gobble it up as a part of photosynthesis, generating energy for their livelihood. When plankton die, they sink thousands of feet, taking with them the carbon that was once in the atmosphere, and stashing it in the deep ocean.

The oceans, therefore, have served as a natural sponge in removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, helping to offset the effects of climate change.

But now MIT climate scientists have found that the ocean's export efficiency, or the fraction of total plankton growth that is sinking to its depths, is decreasing, due mainly to rising global temperatures.

In a new study published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography Letters, the scientists calculate that, over the past 30 years, as temperatures have risen worldwide, the amount of carbon that has been removed and stored in the deep ocean has decreased by 1.5 percent.

To put this number in perspective, each year, about 50 billion tons of new plankton flourish in the surface ocean each year, while about 6 billion tons of dead plankton sink to deeper waters. A 1.5 percent decline in export efficiency would mean that about 100 million tons of extra plankton have remained near the surface each year.

"We figured the amount of carbon that is not sinking out as a result of global temperature change is similar to the total amount of carbon emissions that the United Kingdom pumps into the atmosphere each year," says first author B.B. Cael, a graduate student in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). "If carbon is just standing in the surface ocean, it's easier for it to end up back in the atmosphere."

Cael's co-authors on the paper are Kelsey Bisson of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Mick Follows, an associate professor in EAPS.

Photosynthesizers versus respirers

In 2016, the team first started looking into whether sea surface temperature has an effect on the ocean's export efficiency. The group's main research focus is on marine microbes, including interactions between communities, and their effects on and responses to climate change.

In studying export efficiency, the researchers identified two processes in surface ocean microbes that affect the rate at which carbon is drawn down to the deep ocean: Photosynthesizing organisms such as plankton absorb carbon dioxide from surface waters, fixing carbon into their systems; respiring organisms such as bacteria and krill take in oxygen and emit carbon dioxide into the surrounding waters.

Based on the chemistry of photosynthesis and respiration, the researchers realized that the two processes respond differently depending on temperature. Photosynthesizers grow and die relatively faster in colder environments, while respirers are relatively more active in warmer temperatures.

In 2016, the researchers developed a simple model to predict the ocean's rate of drawing down carbon at given sea surface temperatures. Their results matched with recorded observations of the amount of carbon exported to the deep ocean.

"We had a simple way to describe how we think temperature influences export efficiency, based on this fundamental metabolic theory," Cael says. "Now, can we use that to see how export efficiency has changed over the time period where we have good temperature records? That's how we can estimate whether export efficiency is changing as a result of climate change."

Out to sea

For this new paper, the researchers used the model to estimate the ocean's export efficiency over the last three decades. Since 1982, satellites, ships, and buoys have made measurements of sea surface temperatures around the world, which scientists have averaged for each measured location and aggregated into publicly available databases.

For this study, the team used temperature measurements from three different databases, taken every month from 1982 to 2014, for locations around the world. The group used the temperature to estimate export efficiency across the global ocean for each month, based on their simple model. They traced the change in export efficiencies across the globe, over the 33-year period during which measurements were available.

They found that, worldwide, the rate at which the ocean draws down carbon has declined by 1 to 2 percent since 1982. Sea surface temperatures have increased during this period.

"People probably expected a decline in export efficiency, but the thing I find interesting is, we have a nice way to try and quantify it," Cael says. "We're able to estimate that over last 30 years, export efficiency has declined by 1 or 2 percent, so 1 to 2 percent less of total plankton productivity is making it out of the surface ocean, which is actually a pretty big number."

Cael says the team's model could potentially be applied to predict the ocean's future as a carbon sink, though uncertainty in temperature projections makes this a much more complicated goal.

"How carbon moves around on Earth is fundamental to understanding both Earth's biosphere and climate, and requires understanding how carbon moves through the ocean," Cael says. "This [model] is something you could potentially apply to temperature projections, to guess how carbon will move through the Earth in the future."

More information: B. B. Cael et al. How have recent temperature changes affected the efficiency of ocean biological carbon export?, Limnology and Oceanography Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1002/lol2.10042

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.

Output: The amount of plankton that sinks to the deep ocean, taking carbon dioxide with it, has been decreasing due to global warming, according to MIT scientists. The researchers estimate that the amount of carbon stored in the deep ocean has fallen by 1.5% over the past 30 years, reducing the oceans’ ability to act as a sponge removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. This decline means that approximately 100 million tons of additional plankton have stayed close to the surface of the seas each year, preventing carbon equivalent to the UK’s annual emissions output from sinking.


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Protests at Sainsbury’s AGM over axing of Fairtrade tea
 Sainsbury’s has been accused of undermining the Fairtrade movement by experimenting with dropping the ethical mark for its own label tea.

A series of shareholders and campaign groups criticised the supermarket group for dropping Fairtrade at its annual meeting in London on Wednesday, in an increasingly fraught exchange with the company’s board. Outside the event, protesters carried placards expressing their concern at the development.

The protests follow Sainsbury’s recent pilot in which it no longer labels its own-brand teas as Fairtrade, badging them “fairly traded” instead. The company said it was running a pilot with its tea products – but those opposing the change fear it will be extended to other products, including bananas and coffee.

Anne Lindsay, a private-sector analyst from Cafod, the Catholic charity, said to the board: “I am concerned that after years of being an extremely valuable champion of Fairtrade, Sainsbury’s is starting in a direction that could undermine Fairtrade and lead to a plethora of different standards by different companies and confusion for consumers.”

Another shareholder said: “I have seen the publicity about the proposed change from Fairtrade to ‘fairly traded’ tea. I have come across the term fairly traded when I have shopped in budget chains. I don’t know what it means and I don’t think most people who shop in Sainsbury’s do either.”

She said information on how Sainsbury’s scheme would work was “sketchy” and that it was not clear who would decide how the premium paid for ethically traded goods would be distributed to farmers and communities.

Some other shareholders, who nearly missed out on asking questions as Sainsbury’s chairman David Tyler tried to bring the meeting to a close, accused the company of trying to stifle debate. At least one campaigner was not able to ask a question at all.

“Are you now reasserting the power of the retailer against that of the producer – taking back control – and putting developing world producers back in the subservient role that Fairtrade redeems them from?” said Douglas James, an independent shareholder.

He said recognition of the Fairtrade mark outshone that of any other ethical mark and was “the envy of the marketing world, the gold standard”. “What do you hope to achieve by giving up the moral high ground and the kudos you currently enjoy and going it alone as yet another self-defining brand?”

Mike Coupe, Sainsbury’s chief executive, defended the change at the AGM, saying the company was “trying to bring clarity to a very complicated environment”, which encompassed many different ethical standards and labels.

He said the changes being made on tea products were a pilot and Sainsbury’s was committed to a transparent review of how well it worked with the seven producer groups involved.

“We are committed to the standards Fairtrade currently apply but we have to move on to ensure we cover social, environmental and economically sustainable standards around the world.”

He said Sainsbury’s “didn’t want to mark its own homework” and would work with independent groups to verify its practices. But he suggested Fairtrade had become outdated.

“It might have been fit for purpose 25 years ago, but we’re in a new world with new technology,” he said.

Output: Sainsbury’s was criticised by shareholders and campaigners at its AGM on Wednesday for dropping the Fairtrade mark for its own brand tea. Protests both inside and outside the meeting were staged in response to a pilot programme by the supermarket which saw it label the tea as “fairly traded”. Those opposed to the change fear it will be extended to products including bananas and coffee and that it will weaken the Fairtrade system. Sainsbury’s CEO Mike Coupe said that the company was attempting “to bring clarity to a very complicated environment,” which contained a number of different ethical marks.


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Some UK gig economy workers earning £2.50 an hour: Frank Field
 The government has been urged to stage an “emergency intervention” to protect gig economy workers, amid concerns they are being forced into contracts that sometimes pay less than £2.50 an hour and can be cancelled at any moment.

The allegations are detailed in the latest report by the former work and pensions committee chair, Frank Field MP, into the gig economy, where people work flexible hours on short-term or freelance contracts without the rights of permanent employees.

Field’s report comes nine months after Theresa May promised in her maiden party conference speech as prime minister to “make sure that, in our modern and flexible economy, people are properly protected at work”.

Its findings are likely to intensify scrutiny of a government-backed review by former Tony Blair adviser Matthew Taylor into modern employment practices, which is expected to be published early next week.

Field’s report focuses on firms including Parcelforce, DPD, and – for the first time – British Car Auctions, owner of webuyanycar.com.

Complaints raised by staff interviewed for the report include being fined hundreds of pounds unless they worked while ill, while others said that self-employment meant they ended up earning as little as £2.22 an hour, or even losing money.

Field also claimed that Parcelforce, owned by Royal Mail, “tied each driver’s hands behind their back” by requiring them to sign a contract forbidding them from challenging their employment status.

He said the clause – which echoes a similar passage dropped by Deliveroo after a backlash from couriers – was “symptomatic of the threatening and hostile environment in which some people are required to work”.

He added that such contracts were “too often characterised by poverty wages, chronic insecurity and appalling treatment”, with terms designed to subsidise company profits.

The report cites testimony from some of Parcelforce’s 3,000 couriers, about a quarter of whom are self-employed owner-drivers who are paid per delivery and must fund their own vehicle, fuel, insurance and uniform.

Many of the owner-drivers, it says, were persuaded to give up their status as full employees – which granted them superior workers’ rights – on the promise of better pay and more flexibility.

Two Parcelforce drivers told Field “we are frequently warned we could lose our jobs if we don’t do as we’re told”, while a DPD driver said “conditions of employment are precarious, to say the least”.

The report said drivers were “coming to work with broken bones” to avoid fines of up to £400 a day for failing to work their shifts. One Parcelforce courier said he paid for a colleague to join him on deliveries “whilst I sat next to him with a bucket in case I was sick”.

Royal Mail, which was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2013 and is no longer government-owned, made a profit of £742m last year.

Parcelforce said: “We strongly believe that our owner-drivers are treated fairly.”

It said owner-drivers could expected “significant returns” of an average £39,400 after running costs.

“Many of our self-employed owner-drivers are substantial businesses in their own right. For this reason, Parcelforce Worldwide sets out the contractual terms clearly for both the benefit of the company and the owner-drivers. Self-employed owner-drivers do not therefore receive the benefits of employment such as sick pay, pension and holiday pay.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “As a responsible business, we treat all of our business partners with fairness and respect. At Parcelforce Worldwide, 75 per cent of our drivers are employees. They have amongst the best terms and conditions in our industry.

“The parcels market is highly competitive. It is becoming ever more so. In the early 2000s, Parcelforce Worldwide had to adapt its business model to remain in business and employees were offered enhanced voluntary redundancy terms. At that time, with the agreement of our union, we also introduced self-employed owner-driver contracts. Employees who took enhanced voluntary redundancy were able to tender for these if they wished.”

Couriers for DPD said the requirement to cover the cost of a replacement driver when they are ill meant they could end up losing money.

One said a colleague earned £2,100 in four weeks, but ended up being charged £2,800 due to costs such as petrol and insurance, as well as “fines because he was too poorly to drive the van”.

Couriers for DPD said the requirement to cover the cost of a replacement driver when they are ill meant they could lose money. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Another driver for DPD, which made a pre-tax profit of £125m last year, said: “They are quick to brag about how much profit the company makes, but this is at the expense of not treating its drivers properly.”

One driver for British Car Auctions claimed the terms of his self-employment contract meant he often ended up being paid a fraction of the “national living wage” of £7.20 for over-25s.

“I, along with all other self-employed drivers, have been paid as little as £2.22 per hour. BCA will argue that we are self-employed and paid per car, but does that give them the right to pay third-world wages?”

Field added: “The poverty pay and shoddy treatment meted out to some of those workers is, sadly, inevitable in the absence of statutory minimum standards in the gig economy. That generates huge profits while minimising tax payments.”

DPD and BCA did not return requests for comment.

Field said the evidence gathered for the report showed that companies should be forced to prove staff are self-employed – reversing existing labour laws, where the onus is on staff to prove their status.

“We believe such moves are necessary to bring to an end the current free-for-all whereby an unknown number of workers on low incomes are, in effect, subsidising the companies with whom they work,” the report says.

He also called for a more immediate “emergency intervention” to guarantee labour rights, particularly a minimum income.

Several high-profile cases involving firms such as Uber and CitySprint have seen staff argue that they should be classed as workers, an official classification that carries additional rights to independent contractors, including a minimum wage and holiday pay.

What the drivers say...

...on ‘threats’ and insecurity

“Conditions of employment are precarious to say the least. The communication received from DPD always has a threatening edge to it as they know people worry about their jobs.” – DPD driver

“I have been fined over £400 for being too sick to get to work for just one day and once I had to pay for a company employee’s overtime to come out on route with me whilst I sat next to him with a bucket in case I was sick.” – Parcelforce driver

...on ‘poverty pay’

“I, along with all other self-employed drivers, have been paid as little as £2.22 per hour. £3/£4/£5 per hour is not unusual and is probably the norm. BCA will argue that we are self-employed and paid per car, but does that give them the right to pay third-world wages?” – British Car Auctions driver

“While profits soar, we as drivers get exploited, underpaid and taken for granted.” – DPD driver

...on flexibility

“I cannot see if you are told how, when and what to do you can be truly self-employed. If [you] say ‘no’ to them you are threatened with contract cancellation and if you question them then you are told that you can always leave as someone else can take [your] place.” – Parcelforce driver

“If you work at the same depot every day, wear a DPD uniform, drive a DPD van, get given a DPD scanner, are told by DPD management what parcels to deliver at what rate, don’t work for anyone else, you legally should be protected by the government as being employed.” – DPD driver

...on the impact on workers’ lives

“If I fail to turn up to work I can get fined up to £400 a day. I recently had to go into work after sitting up all night with my mother until she died – and then do a 12-hour day.” – Parcelforce driver

“This isn’t self-employment, or employment either. It’s a living hell, a nightmare scenario and the government needs to bring in legislation to stop these crooks from ripping off vulnerable people.” – DPD driver.

Output: Gig economy workers in the UK are sometimes being paid less than £2.50 ($3.22) an hour, according to the latest report by former work and pensions committee chair, Frank Field MP.  The report focuses on firms including British Car Auctions, DPD and Parcelforce. Staff interviewed complained that they were fined hundreds of pounds if they did not work due to ill-health, whilst others claimed to earn as little as £2.22 per hour or even to work at a loss. Field called for an “emergency intervention” by the government to protect labour rights and a minimum wage.


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Standard Life, Investec among firms aided by FCA robo accelerator
 The FCA has revealed Standard Life’s Financial Planning arm is among firms that is has been helping to develop robo advice.

The regulator announced the names of firms who have participated in the Advice Unit.

This was established in 2016 following a recommendation from the Financial Advice Market Review to provide regulatory feedback to firms developing automated advice and discretionary investment management models.

Follow our Day in the Life of Financial Planning live blog now https://t.co/wBZXHZF0Vi — FP Today Magazine (@FPTodayMagazine) June 30, 2017

The Advice Unit is open to applications from firms of all sizes, whether new start-ups or large firms, provided they meet FCA eligibility criteria.

There have been two cohorts of firms who have participated in the Advice Unit so far.

Ten firms were accepted in Summer 2016:

evestor, FinEx Capital Management, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Money Guidance, Mortimer Mackenzie Ltd, National Westminster Bank Plc, Nationwide Building Society, True Potential Investments, Santander

The second group of seven firms joined in early 2017:

1825 (part of the Standard Life group), Direct Life & Pension Services Limited, Investec Click & Invest, Moneyfarm, Multiply.ai, Personal Touch Financial Services Limited, WealthKernel

The FCA also announced today the expansion of the scope of the Advice Unit so it will now take in firms developing automated advice models within the mortgage, general insurance and debt advice sectors.

The Advice Unit will also now accept firms that want to provide guidance instead of regulated advice as well as firms not intending to seek authorisation.

The application process is also changing so that the Advice Unit will now be accepting applications from firms throughout the year, rather than on a cohort basis.

Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said: “The Advice Unit’s initial work, including the support it has provided to firms, has shown its potential and the changes announced today present a further opportunity to widen consumer access to financial advice and guidance across a broader range of sectors.”

Output: Asset manager Standard Life's financial planning unit and the new Click & Invest robo service from Investec are among those receiving help from UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in developing their automated advice offerings. The FCA advice unit gives regulatory feedback to firms developing robo-advisers and discretionary investment management models. They are among the seven businesses that were taken under the wing of the regulator's fintech accelerator earlier this year. Direct Life & Pension Services, Moneyfarm, Multiply.ai, Personal Touch Financial Services and WealthKernel are also part of the same cohort.


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Secourriel launches message system compliant with new regulations
 In the presence of the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Luxembourg, almost 30 guests and representatives of financial institutions, law firms and SMEs welcomed the opportunity to gain an insight into the FinTech start-up Secourriel at their offices in Luxembourg on Tursday evening.

Secourriel is transforming classic email and messaging through a secure, contract-ready trusted solution. Its founder, Jorg Reinking, has over 20 years experience in the financial industry and firmly believes that "this will revolutionise B2B and B2C messaging and unlock the potential of eCommerce within the financial ecosystem".

As regulations, such as MiFID II, GDPR & PSD II evolve, the entire financial sector and those who serve it will have to update their procedures for sending and receiving digital information. To achieve this, Secourriel provides a unique platform delivering convenience and usability without compromising on security. Secourriel provides the secure framework in which companies can flourish and grow.

For further information, see www.secourriel.com

Photo (L-R): Ambassador Dr. Kreft; Jorg Reinking, CEO

Output: Luxembourg fintech start-up Secourriel has created a messaging system that it believes will transform B2B and B2C messaging in the financial industry. The contract-ready solution offered by the platform will allow users to communicate in a secure manner that meets the demands of new regulations, including Mifid II, the general data protection regulation (GDPR) and the second payments services directive (PSD2), said the release.


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Moscow researchers develop solar design using plant pigments
 A member of the Faculty of Biology of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, in cooperation with colleagues, has optimized and characterized TiO₂-based solar cell design using diverse plant pigments. The study involved two types of solar cells with two photosensitizers, thylakoid membrane preparations and anthocyanin-enriched raspberry extracts. The project results have been published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.

Suleyman Allakhverdiev, one of the article authors, says, "To understand processes occurring in the solar cells, investigations characterizing the efficiency and stability with regard to environmental factors are also required. For this aim, novel instrumentation for the investigation of environmental effects on photocurrent generated by solar cells has been designed and constructed. The system reflects conditions required for effective and stable functioning of the solar cells. We've designed and studied solar cells in which components of the photosynthetic apparatus are used as photosensitizers. With the help of the stabilizing compounds, we have increased the active stable operation time of a system by four to six times. We've also proved the possibility of applying long-wave forms of chlorophyll, capable of absorbing low-energy photons, which aren't absorbed by usual chlorophyll molecules."

In order to create the solar cell, the scientists used methods of immobilization of various biological pigment-protein complexes on the surface of nanostructured titanium dioxide.

The scientist concludes: "In the future, we are going to use complexes of isolated reaction centers of photosynthesis as sensitizers in such systems, as well as chlorophyll molecules which are able to absorb light in far red and near infrared spectral ranges. Biological systems used as photosensitizers are inexpensive and environmentally safe. Moreover, the same principle could be applied to the creation of photocatalytic water cleavage systems with the outcome of molecular hydrogen, which could be a promising alternative to fossil fuel. Creation of artificial photobiosynthesis systems could meet ever-increasing needs for cheap, environmentally safe and energy-rich fuel types."

More information: R.A. Voloshin et al, Optimization and characterization of TiO 2 -based solar cell design using diverse plant pigments, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.11.148 Journal information: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

Output: Researchers from the Faculty of Biology at the Lomonosov Moscow State University have created a solar cell design using a range of plant pigments. The technique emerged from an investigation of the environmental effects on photocurrents in solar cells, and increased the active stable operation time of a system by four to six times. The technique was created by immobilising pigment-protein complexes on a nanostructured titanium dioxide. The same principle could be used to create fuels by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen