**Online intervention helps sustain weight loss**

New research, led by the University of Southampton, has found that an online behavioural counselling tool is effective at helping people lose weight.

Obesity is a common problem that affects around a quarter of adults in the UK. It can result in a number of health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, joint problems and stroke. Aside from changes to diet and increased levels of physical activity, behavioural counselling is effective at helping people lose weight, but previous studies have shown that to be effective intensive counselling and support is needed.

People given evidence-based information online that had been shown to help previously lost around 3 Kg, but using the Positive Online Weight Reduction (POWeR)+ online programme with very brief support from practice staff, participants lost over one kg more averaged over 12 months and were more likely to maintain clinically important weight loss by 12 months.

Professor Paul Little, Professor of Primary Care Research who developed POWeR+, said: "Many people receiving the POWeR+ intervention were able to sustain weight loss over one year but also felt more enabled in managing their weight going forward, and fewer resorted to other activities such as commercial slimming programmes to lose weight."

POWeR+ is an online behavioural intervention that is supported by brief contacts from a practice nurse. It teaches participants self-regulation and cognitive behavioural techniques to provide them with long-term, sustainable ways of forming healthy eating and exercise habits.

The NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA)-funded study, published inThe Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal, involved 818 people with a BMI over 30 who took part in 24 web-based sessions over six months. They were randomly allocated to one of three groups; 1) control -- an existing online intervention that encourages healthier options. 2) POWeR+ with face-to-face support from a nurse, and 3) POWeR+ with remote very brief support from a nurse (on average three email contacts and one phone contact). All patients were asked to come for appointments for weighing at six and also 12 months to see if weight loss was maintained.

They found that while people in all groups lost weight, the two groups receiving the POWeR+ intervention lost more. The control group lost an average of 3kg during 12 months and 21 per cent of people were able to maintain a clinically important amount of weight loss by 12 months. The POWeR+ group with face-to-face support lost 1.5kg more averaged over 12 months and 29 per cent of people had maintained important weight loss by 12 months. The POWeR+ group with remote support lost 1.3kg more averaged over 12 months with 32 per cent able to maintain clinically important weight loss by 12 months.

Professor Little said: "Large patient numbers, limited staff training and time pressures mean that delivering face-to-face behavioural interventions in practice can be resource intensive.

"This has the potential to save the NHS money if obesity-linked health problems can be prevented. The intervention was mostly delivered online, the costs of the intervention are low, it is easy to roll out, and likely to be very cost-effective for the NHS."

*New device steps us towards quantum computing*

If biochemists had access to a quantum computer, they could perfectly simulate the properties of new molecules to develop drugs in ways that would take today's fastest computers decades. A new device takes us closer to providing such a computer. The device successfully traps, detects, and manipulates an ensemble of electrons above the surface of superfluid helium. The system integrates a nanofluidic channel with a superconducting circuit.

Because they are so small, electrons normally interact weakly with electrical signals. The new device, however, gives the electron more time to interact, and it is this setup that makes it possible to build a qubit, the quantum computing equivalent of a bit. Quantum computers could provide the necessary computing power to model extremely large and complex situations in physics, biology, weather systems and many others.

While isolated electrons in a vacuum can store quantum information nearly perfectly, in real materials, the movements of surrounding atoms disturbs them, eventually leading to the loss of information. This work is a step towards realizing isolated, trapped single electrons by taking advantage of the unique relationship existing between electrons and superfluid helium. Electrons will levitate just above the surface of helium, about 10 nanometers away, insensitive to the atomic fluctuations below. While this effect has been known, holding them in a superconducting device structure has not been demonstrated before this work. At the heart of this new technology is a resonator based on circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) architecture, which provides a path to trap electrons above helium and detect the spins of the electrons. Because they are so small, electrons normally interact only very weakly with electrical signals. In the resonator however, the signal bounces back and forth more than 10,000 times, giving the electron more time to interact. It is this setup that makes it possible to build a qubit, while also maintaining quantum coherence. University of Chicago researchers have measured microwave photons emerging from the resonator as electrons were slowly leaked from the trap with a goal of measuring single electrons. The specialized device was designed and built in collaboration with nanofabrication scientists at the Center for Nanoscale Materials. The initial experiments involved about 100,000 electrons -- too many to control quantum mechanically -- but current experiments are decreasing the number. The goal is to trap a single electron whose behavior can be analyzed and controlled for use as a quantum bit.

Selfie righteous: New tool corrects angles and distances in portraits

Ever taken a selfie? Around the world, people snap tens of millions of these self-portraits every day, usually with a mobile device held at arm's length. For all their raging popularity, though, selfies can often be misrepresentative, even unflattering. Due to the camera's proximity, selfies render subjects' noses larger, ears smaller and foreheads more sloping.

To tackle this issue, as well as explore the basic science of digital photo manipulation, Princeton researchers have unveiled a new method for transforming individual selfies. The method can modify a person's face to look as though it were photographed from farther away, like at the distances opted for by professional photographers. The editing tool can also alter someone's apparent pose, as if the camera were placed higher, lower, or at an angle. When superimposed, images adjusted in this manner can further be used to generate 3-D head shots. Down the road, the researchers said, it may even be possible to make "live" photos that seem to move uncannily, like the portraits hanging in the Hogwarts School from the Harry Potter franchise.

"Although it is the age of the selfie, many people are unaware of how much these self-portraits do not really look like the person being photographed because the camera is way too close," said Ohad Fried, lead developer of the new method and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Computer Science at Princeton University. "Now that people can edit so many aspects of a photo right on their phones, we wanted to provide a quick way to edit faces that maintains realism."

The project is the first of its kind to address the fixing of self-portrait distortions owing to camera distance, the researchers said.

"As humans, we have evolved to be very sensitive to subtle cues in other people's faces, so any artifacts or glitches in synthesized imagery tend to really jump out," said Adam Finkelstein, senior author of the paper and a professor of computer science. "With this new method, we therefore had to make sure the photo modifications looked extremely realistic, and we were frankly surprised at the fidelity of the results we were able to obtain starting from just a single photo."

Fried, who is supported by a Google Graduate Fellowship, is presenting a paper describing the latest progress in the photo editing software technique July 28 at the SIGGRAPH 2016 conference in Anaheim, Calif., held by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The paper will also appear in the journal ACM Transactions on Graphics.

In developing the method, Fried and colleagues began with a model for generating digital, 3-D human heads. The model came from FaceWarehouse, a database of 150 people photographed in 20 different poses, compiled by Zhejiang University researchers. The next ingredient, a program made available by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, identified nearly six dozen reference points across someone's face, such as the corners of the eyes, top of the head, chin, and so on, when presented with a selfie.

The Princeton-led, photo-editing method then adjusts the 3-D head model so that it optimally corresponds to the points detected on the face. In other words, the eyes in the 3-D model subsequently corresponded to where the subject's eyes, for instance, were in the selfie. "Now we had an underlying 3-D model of the 2-D selfie image," said Fried.

Modifying the selfie then proved straightforward. The selfie's coordinates for facial reference points needed to be updated to match those in the 3-D image of a face, photographed either in a different pose or by a more distant camera. Presto, the 2-D image underwent a warp to approximate a desired change in its virtual 3-D orientation, and all within just a handful of seconds.

"I believe the reason the synthetic image looks so good is that it has exactly the same pixel colors as in the original photo--it's just that they have been moved around a little bit to provide the illusion that the camera had been in a different location," said Finkelstein.

Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Washington who was not involved in the research, said "I love this paper" because it presents a "fantastic idea . . . the paper shows that head geometry can be 3-D manipulated for perspective and pose without an actual 3-D reconstruction of the input person. She noted that adjusting apparent camera distances could also let people forego the awkward, hand-held poles, known as selfie sticks, when trying to capture snazzier self-portraits. "The selfies application is very fun, which could bring an end to the selfie stick!" Kemelmacher-Shlizerman said.

Other applications besides correcting the distance perspective and poses of selfies include creating 3-D anaglyphs, Harry Potter-style "live" portraits, and editing frames of video.

Before potentially pursuing commercial development or release, Fried and colleagues want to first focus on honing their photo-editing tool. One remaining challenge area is hair. When warped in the same manner as other cranial characteristics, hair can look distorted because of its varied texture, styling and color. "Hair is tricky," said Fried. Another problem: automatically synthesizing, or "hallucinating" a missing feature, such as a left or right ear, not visible due to a subject's pose in an original picture, and which would appear to be missing when altering the subject's pose in a modified image.

"We still have a lot of research to do," said Fried. "We are happy with what we achieved so far, but we look forward to learning how we can make these selfie transformations appear even more realistic."

***Exclusive: Clinton campaign also hacked in attacks on Democrats***

A computer network used by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign was hacked as part of a broad cyber attack on Democratic political organizations, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The latest attack, which was disclosed to Reuters on Friday, follows two other hacks on the Democratic National Committee, or DNC, and the party’s fundraising committee for candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives.

A Clinton campaign spokesman said in a statement late on Friday that an analytics data program maintained by the DNC and used by the campaign and a number of other entities "was accessed as part of the DNC hack."

"Our campaign computer system has been under review by outside cyber security experts. To date, they have found no evidence that our internal systems have been compromised," said Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill.

Later, a campaign official said hackers had access to the analytics program's server for approximately five days. The analytics data program is one of many systems the campaign accesses to conduct voter analysis, and does not include social security numbers or credit card numbers, the official said.

The U.S. Department of Justice national security division is investigating whether cyber attacks on Democratic political organizations threatened U.S. security, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The involvement of the Justice Department’s national security division is a sign that the Obama administration has concluded that the hacking was sponsored by a state, people with knowledge of the investigation said.

While it is unclear exactly what material the hackers may have gained access to, the third such attack on sensitive Democratic targets disclosed in the last six weeks has caused alarm in the party and beyond, just over three months before the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

Hackers, whom U.S. intelligence officials have concluded were Russian, gained access to the entire network of the fundraising Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, said people familiar with the matter, detailing the extent of the breach to Reuters for the first time.

Cyber security experts and U.S. officials said earlier this week they had concluded, based on analysis of malware and other aspects of the DNC hack, that Russia engineered the release of hacked Democratic Party emails to influence the U.S. presidential election.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Friday it was "aware of media reporting on cyber intrusions involving multiple political entities, and is working to determine the accuracy, nature and scope of these matters."

"The FBI takes seriously any allegations of intrusions, and we will continue to hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace," the agency said in an emailed statement.

The hack did not involve the private email system Clinton used while she was secretary of state.

Yahoo News reported on Thursday night that the FBI had warned the Clinton campaign last March that it was a target of a cyber attack involving spearphishing and had asked the campaign to turn over sensitive data to help in its investigation, but that campaign lawyers rejected this request as too intrusive. A source familiar with the matter confirmed this account to Reuters.

RUSSIAN HACKERS

The new disclosure to Reuters that hackers gained access to the full DCCC network means they would have had access to everything on the network from emails to strategy memos and opposition research prepared to support Democratic candidates in campaigns for the House.

The hack of the DCCC, which is based in Washington, was reported first by Reuters on Thursday, ahead of Clinton’s speech in Philadelphia accepting the Democratic party’s nomination.

Russian officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Several U.S. officials said the Obama administration has avoided publicly attributing the attacks to Russia as that might undermine Secretary of State John Kerry’s effort to win Russian cooperation in the war on Islamic State in Syria.

The officials said the administration fears Russian President Vladimir Putin might respond to a public move by escalating cyber attacks on U.S. targets, increasing military harassment of U.S. and allied aircraft and warships in the Baltic and Black Seas, and making more aggressive moves in Eastern Europe.

Some officials question the approach, arguing that responding more forcefully to Russia would be more effective than remaining silent.

The Obama administration announced in an April 2015 executive order that it could apply economic sanctions in response to cyber attacks.

TRUMP ON EMAILS

The hack on the DNC, made public in June, led to WikiLeaks publishing more than 19,000 emails last weekend, some of them showing favoritism within the DNC for Clinton over U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned on Sunday as a result, creating a rocky start for the party's convention in Philadelphia this week.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday invited Russia to dig up thousands of "missing" emails from Clinton's time at the State Department, prompting Democrats to accuse him of urging foreigners to spy on Americans.

On Thursday, Trump said his remarks were meant as sarcasm.

Earlier in the week, Clinton campaign senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan had criticized Trump and called the hacking "a national security issue."

Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said on Friday the reported breach showed cyber security is "a problem wherever Hillary Clinton goes. Hopefully this time there wasn't classified or top secret information that puts American lives at risk."

In Washington, the DCCC said early on Friday it had hired cyber security firm CrowdStrike to investigate. "We have taken and are continuing to take steps to enhance the security of our network," the DCCC said. "We are cooperating with federal law enforcement with respect to their ongoing investigation."

The DCCC had no additional comment late on Friday. Officials at the DNC did not respond to requests for comment.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, told CNN on Friday she had not heard about the hack of the Clinton campaign.

But she said: "It wouldn't surprise me. I think it should be pretty clear that both campaigns should be aware that there's a problem out there. Everybody should be cautious."

(Additional reporting by Dustin Volz, Susan Cornwell and Emily Stephenson in Washington, Grant Smith in New York and Amanda Becker in Hatfield, Pennsylvania; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Bill Rigby and Mary Milliken)

Getting ready for a party & the low battery alert pops up!

I panic, you panic, we all panic. Not anymore!

सोशल इंजीनियरिंग अटैक यानी विश्वासघात

वर्चुअल वर्ल्ड में ऐसे मामले तेजी से बढ़ रहे हैं, जहां पहले तो अपराधी विश्वास जीतते हैं और फिर धोखाधड़ी करने के लिए विश्वासघात कर जाते हैं। एक तरह से इंटरनेट की यह दुनिया 'सोशल इंजीनियरिंग अटैक की दुनिया" बन गई है। किसी को भी शिकार बनाने के लिए यहां सबसे पहले उसके बारे में जानकारी जुटाई जाती है।

एक उदाहरण से इसे स्थिति को समझते हैं। गुजरात में एक कॉलेज छात्रा का सहपाठी उससे मोबाइल नंबर मांगता है। वह इनकार कर देती है, लेकिन सहपाठी जवाब देता है कि वह किसी तरह हासिल कर ही लेगा।

अगले दिन छात्र ने उस लड़की का नाम, उसके पिता का नाम, पता और फोन नंबर जैसा सबकुछ हासिल कर लिया। आखिर उसने कहां से यह जानकारी हासिल की? बहुत आसान है। उसने छात्रा की स्कूटी का नंबर गुजरात आरटीओ वेबसाइट पर डाला और सबकुछ बड़ी आसानी से हासिल कर लिया।

भारत सरकार के इनकम टैक्स डिपार्टमेंट की साइट 'ई-फिलिंग" भी ऐसा ही एक जरिया है। सायबर क्रिमिनल इस साइट पर जाकर किसी भी व्यक्ति का सरनेम और उसकी जन्म तारीख दर्ज करते हैं, इससे उस शख्स का पेन (स्थायी खाता संख्या) हासिल हो जाता है। इस पेन और उस पर छपे फोटो का इस्तेमाल कर वह फोटोशॉप की मदद से नया पेन कार्ड बनाता है।

वह इस कार्ड का प्रिंट आउट निकालता है, लेमिनेशन कर सिम कार्ड खरीदने निकल पड़ता है। उसे बड़ी आसानी से पीड़ित शख्स के नाम से प्री-पेड सिम कार्ड मिल जाता है। इस कार्ड को आधार बनाते हुए वह अपराध को अंजाम देना शुरू कर देता है। इस तरह से कोई शख्स केवल इसलिए शिकार हो सकता है कि उसकी जानकारी सायबर स्पेस पर उपलब्ध है।

ऐसा ही एक मामला इंदौर की निजी कंपनी के वरिष्ठ अधिकारी का है। वे 'जल बचाओ" के विशेषज्ञ हैं और इसी संबंध में दुनियाभर में आते-जाते रहते हैं। सायबर अपराधियों ने सोशल इंजीनियरिंग तकनीक के जरिए उनसे जुड़ी बातें पता कर लीं और इस जानकारी का उपयोग उन पर सायबर अटैक करने के हथियार के रूप में इस्तेमाल किया। अपराधियों ने उन्हें एक ईमेल किया और इंटरनेशनल सेमिनार में हिस्सा लेने के लिए यूके आमंत्रित किया।

वे जाल में फंस गए और इसके बाद सोची-समझी साजिश के तहत अपराधियों ने उनसे साढ़े पांच लाख रुपए बैंक ऑफ इंग्लैंड स्थित खाते में ट्रांसफर करवा लिए। भारी मशक्कत के बाद उक्त अधिकारी अपराधियों का पता लगाने में कामयाब रहे और उन्हें आश्चर्य हुआ कि घाना में बैठे सायबर अपराधियों ने इसे अंजाम दिया था। यानी पैसा यूके में जमा हुआ, लेकिन अपराधी घाना में बैठे थे। कोई आखिर किस तरह अपराध की तह तक पहुंचे? इस तरह सायबर अपराधियों ने एक परफेक्ट क्राइम को अंजाम दिया।

वर्तमान दौर में ऐसे मामले तेजी से बढ़ रहे हैं। अपराधी सायबर स्पेस में उपलब्ध छोटी-छोटी जानकारियों को दुरुपयोग करते हैं। हो सकता है यह जानकारी हम ही ने वहां डाली हो या किसी थर्ड पार्टी ने। धोखाबाज बड़े सलीके से जानकारी हासिल करते हैं और होशियारी से उसका उपयोग करते हैं। इस जानकारी से एक तो सीधा अपराध को अंजाम दिया जाता है जैसा कि स्कूटी या सिम कार्ड वाले केस में हमने ऊपर देखा, वहीं दूसरी स्थिति यह होती है कि इस जानकारी को आधार बनाकर अपराधी पीड़ित से संपर्क साधते हैं और पहचान बढ़ाने की कोशिश करते हैं। जैसा कि इंटरनेशनल सेमिनार के केस में हुआ। एक बार जब विश्वास हासिल कर लिया जाता है, उसके बाद अपराधी उसका गलत फायदा उठाना शुरू कर देता है। वह पैसे हासिल करता है या अपने दूसरे उल्लू सीधे करने की कोशिश करता है।

अज्ञात ई-मेल, कॉल्स पर भरोसा न करें

अब सबसे बड़ा सवाल यह है कि इससे कैसे बचा जाए? सबसे पहले तो हमारी कोशिश यह होना चाहिए कि हम अपनी कम से कम जानकारी ऑनलाइन जारी करें। अपनी जानकारी से यहां तात्पर्य है - पता, फोन नंबर, ईमेल आईडी, वित्तीय जानकारी, पासवर्ड, शेड्यूल, पेन कार्ड नंबर्स, फोटो आदि। दूसरा- हमें यह आदत बनाना चाहिए कि अज्ञात लोगों से मिले ई-मेल, एसएमएस और फोन कॉल्स पर भरोसा नहीं करेंगे। ऐसे संवाद और उनके जरिए दिए जा रहे ऑफर्स को हमें शक की निगाह से देखना चाहिए। हो सकता है कि कोई शातिर अपराधी हमारी होशियारी की हवा निकालने की कोशिश कर रहा हो। एक बार हम उसके जाल में फंस जाएंगे तो अपराध होने के बाद ही हमें सधााई का अहसास हो पाएगा, लेकिन तब तक बहुत देर हो चुकी होगी।

लेनोवो ने लॉन्च किया नया टैंगो स्मार्टफोन PHAB 2 प्रो, जबरदस्त फीचर्स से लैस...

इस नए स्मार्टफ़ोन PHAB2 प्रो के साथ कंपनी दो नए स्मार्टफोंस को पेश किया है. गूगल के प्रोजेक्ट टैंगो पर आधारित कंपनी का PHBA2 प्रो स्मार्टफ़ोन मोशन ट्रैकिंग के साथ आता है इस फोन की कीमत 499 डॉलर (33 हजार रुपये) होगी.

इसमें आपको 6.4-इंच की इंटेलीजेंट Assertive डिस्प्ले मिल रही है जिसकी रेजोल्यूशन 2560×1440 पिक्सेल है. PHAB2 प्रो में क्वाल-कॉम के स्नेपड्रैगन 652 प्रोसेसर दिया और 4GB की रैम के साथ 64GB की इंटरनल स्टोरेज भी मिल रही है. टैंगो का एक्सपीरियंस के लिए यूजर को इसके साथ डॉल्बी ऑडियो TM capture 5.1 के साथ डॉल्बी की ऐटमोस फीचर भी है. इसके अलावा आपको इसमें ट्रिपल ऐरे माइक्रोफ़ोन और 16MP का रियर कैमरा है जिसे आप माइक्रोएसडी कार्ड की सहायता से 128GB तक बढ़ा सकते हैं. साथ ही इसमें 4050mAH क्षमता की बैटरी भी मौजूद है.

इसके अलावा अगर PHAB2 प्लस की बात करें तो इसमें आपको 13MP का रियर कैमरा f/2.0 लेंस के साथ मिल रहा है. इसके अलावा इसमें आपको 8MP का फ्रंट फेसिंग कैमरा भी मिल रहा है. अगर डिस्प्ले की बात करें तो इसमें आपको 6.4-इंच की FHD डिस्प्ले 2.5D कर्व्ड ग्लास के साथ मिल रही है इसके अलावा इसमें मीडियाटेक का MTK8783 ओक्टा-कोर प्रोसेसर दिया गया है. इसके अलावा इसमें आपको 3GB की रैम और 32GB की इंटरनल स्टोरेज मिल रही है. जिसे आप 128GB तक बढ़ा भी सकते है.