The first pirate website for academic peer review research papers

The first pirate website in the world to provide mass and public access to tens of millions of research papers.

A research paper is a special publication written by scientists to be read by other researchers. Papers are primary sources necessary for research – for example, they contain detailed description of new results and experiments.

papers we have in our library:
more than 47,000,000 and growing

At this time the widest possible distribution of research papers, as well as of other scientific or educational sources, is artificially restricted by copyright laws. Such laws effectively slow down the development of science in human society. The Sci-Hub project, running from 5th September 2011, is challenging the status quo. At the moment, Sci-Hub provides access to hundreds of thousands research papers every day, effectively bypassing any paywalls and restrictions.

The Sci-Hub project supports Open Access movement in science. Research should be published in open access, i.e. be free to read.

The Open Access is a new and advanced form of scientific communication, which is going to replace outdated subscription models. We stand against unfair gain that publishers collect by creating limits to knowledge distribution.

“If it were not for Sci-Hub – I wouldn’t be able to do my thesis in Materials”

Source:

http://sci-hub.io/

Google DeepMind AI navigates a Doom-like 3D maze just by looking

Google DeepMind just entered the 90s. Fresh off their success in playing the ancient game of Go, DeepMind’s latest artificial intelligence can navigate a 3D maze reminiscent of the 1993 shooter game Doom.

Unlike most game-playing AIs, the system has no access to the game’s internal code. Instead it plays just as a human would, by looking at the screen and deciding how to proceed. This ability to navigate a 3D space by “sight” could be useful for AIs operating in the real world.

The work builds on research DeepMind published last year, in which the team trained an AI to play 49 different video games from the Atari 2600, a games console popular in the 1980s. The software wasn’t told the rules of the games, and instead had to watch the screen to come up with its own strategies to get a high score. It was able to beat a top human player in 23 of the games.

High score

That AI relied on a technique called reinforcement learning, which rewards the system for taking actions that improves its score, combined with a deep neural network that analyses and learns patterns on the game screen. It was also able to look back into its memory and study past scenarios, a technique called experience replay.

But experience replay has drawbacks that make it hard to scale up to more advanced problems. “It uses more memory and more computation per real interaction,” write the DeepMind team in its latest paper. So it has come up with a technique called asynchronous reinforcement learning, which sees multiple versions of an AI tackling a problem in parallel and comparing their experiences.

This approach requires much less computational might. While the previous system required eight days of training on high-end GPUs to play Atari games, the new AI achieved better performance on more modest CPUs in just four days. With Atari well and truly beaten, the team moved on to other games. In a simple 3D racing game (see video below) it achieved 90 per cent of a human tester’s score.

The AI’s greatest challenge came from a 3D maze game called Labyrinth, a test bed for DeepMind’s tech that resembles Doom without the shooting (see video at top). The system is rewarded for finding apples and portals, the latter of which teleport it elsewhere in the maze, and has to score as high as possible in 60 seconds.

“This task is much more challenging than [the driving game] because the agent is faced with a new maze in each episode and must learn a general strategy for exploring mazes,” write the team. It succeeded, learning a “reasonable strategy for exploring random 3D mazes using only a visual input”.

Source:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1602.01783

Kali Linux on Virtual Box in Windows

The following instructions are are how to run Kali Linux on a Windows 64-Bit Machine inside of a virtual box OS. This is strictly for educational purposes and is not safe or secure in anyway. To do that you will want to make an Excalibur USB.

You will want to download the following:

Kali Linux 64 Bit:
http://cdimage.kali.org/kali-2016.1/kali-linux-2016.1-amd64.iso

Virtual Box Download:
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.14/VirtualBox-5.0.14-105127-Win.exe

Virtual Box Extension Pack:
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.14/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.0.14-105127.vbox-extpack

Step 1: Create a new Virtual Machine

I’ve already given instructions and provided links on how to get VirtualBox and install that above. If you’ve missed it, go back and install VirtualBox.

Once you’ve installed VirtualBox,

• Open it.
• Click on New to create a New Virtual Machine.

Step 1.a: Enter a name for you VBox

Enter Kali Linux 1.0.6 as the name. You’ll see Type is set to Linux automagically and version will be Linux 2.3/3.x. We will fix those later. Click Next.

Step 1.b: Allocate Memory/RAM

Default memory size is 256 MB.

Change it to 1024 (1GB).

Step 2: Create a Virtual Hard Drive

In this screen select “Create a virtual hard drive now” – 2nd option and click Create.

Step 2.a: Select Virtual Drive File type

On the next screen select “VDI” – VirtualBox Disk Image as your Hard Drive File Type. Click Next.

Step 2.b: Select Physical hard drive allocation type

Select Dynamically Allocated and click Next on Storage on Physical hard drive screen.
I will explain soon why we’ve chosen this.

Step 2.c: Allocate disk size

On “File location and size” screen, it will come up as 8.00 GB as default size and Kali Linux 1.0.6 as the name (which we’ve set on step 1.a).

Change the Virtual Hard Drive size to 20.00 GB and Click Create.

Here’s the best part.. on step 2.b we’ve selected Dynamicallt Allocated for our Storage on Physical hard drives. That means, you’re not wasting 20.00 GB disk space straight way. Usual Kali Installation install just below 5.00 GB. In this way, you will use only that much space, but your Virtual Hard Disk can increase up to 20.00 GB if you put more and more stuffs in there. An example is to downloading big dictionary files to crack WiFi passwords using Pyrit

So, yes, give it some space, it also helps avoiding some pesky installation errors.

Step 3: Modify VirtualBox settings

So far, we’ve done the followings, checklist for you:

1. Created a New Virtual Machine
2. Created Virtual Hard disk
3. Fiddled with disk properties, type and size.

At this point you should be in the following screen. Note that I am using Kali 1.0.6 x64 bit, incase you’re using 32-bit you can change those options in here.

Select Kali Linux 1.0.6 (I got many), you might have just one and click on Settings icon

Step 3.a: Select type of OS

Depending on which ISO you downloaded you should select the correct Version here.

As Kali Linux is derived from Debian, I’ve selected Debian (64-bit) on General > Basic > Version. If you’re using a 32-bit ISO, select Debian (32-bit) as your version.

Step 3.b: Enable shared clipboard and dragn’drop feature

Select General > Advanced TAB and change Shared Clipboard and Dragn’Drop to Bidirectional. This will allow you to copy paste files from your HOST machine on the fly.

Step 3.c: Update Virtual Motherboard options

Select System > Motherboard, un-check Floppy (Do you even have a floppy disk drive anymore?) and Check the box for “Enable I/O APIC”. Note that you can change base memory allocation in the same screen. We’ve set it to 1024MB previously. My PC got 8.00GB RAM, which means I can actually allocate a lot more to make Kali response faster on my Virtual Machine. If you feel your Virtualized Kali Linux is slow, you should increase this Base Memory allocation.

The calculations are as follows:

1.00 GB = 1024MB
2.00 GB = 2048MB
3.00 GB = 3072MB

You get the idea, just multiply 1024 with the amount of Memory / RaM you want and put the value in here.

Step 3.d: Select number of Processors and enable PAE/NX

I’ve changed Processor to 2 (I got 8 CPU’s in my machine, this screen will show how many you got). Try sticking with EVEN numbers here.

Check the box for “Enable PAE/NX”.

Step 3.e: Allocate Video memory and 3D acceleration

Select Display > Video and set Video Memory to 128MB. This allows you have a good responsive desktop environment.

Also check the box for “Enable 3D Acceleration”.

Step 4: Loading Kali ISO

Select Storage > Controller: IDE and highlight Empty CD ICON. Now on your right, you should be able to use the little CD ICON (it should be CD/DVD Drive: IDE Secondary Master already, if not change it) and select your downloaded ISO.

Once you select your downloaded ISO (in my case, it’s kali-linux-1.0.6-amd64.iso). See the properties and information’s changes accordingly.

Step 4.a: Select Network connection type

If your computer is connection to internet, select NAT on Network > Adapter 1. You can enable more network adapters if you feel like to play around.

Step 4.b: Enable USB 2.0 Controllers

From USB TAB, check the boxes for Enable USB Controller > Enable USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller. Note that I got “Invalid settings detected” error at the bottom of the screen. Install VirtualBox Extension Pack to remove this error.

You need to PRESS OK and save your Settings first.

Close VirtualBox and then install VirtualBox 4.3.10 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack for All supported platforms.

It will enable virtual USB 2.0 (EHCI) device support, VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol (VRDP) support, Host webcam passthrough support.

Re-Open VirtualBox and Select Settings > USB again to confirm you don’t have that error anymore. Save your settings by pressing OK.

Step 4.c: Compare settings with mine

At this point your screen should be somewhat similar to mine. I’ve highlighted the imporatnt parts, if something didn’t match you can go back and enable disable those settings. Note that, for 32-bit users, it will be slightly different.

 

 

Magic Leap’s CEO, who just raised $793 million, is getting ready to mass produce his hallucinogenic technology

It’s official: The secretive “cinematic reality” startup Magic Leap has raised $793.5 million in Series C funding at an astounding $4.5 billion post-money valuation.

And according to Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz, that means the company’s mysterious “mixed reality lightfield” technology — which has been described by some as a combination of virtual reality and an acid trip — is getting closer to launching.

Abovitz tells Business Insider that the roughly 500-person team needed the hefty cash infusion to help it accelerate the manufacturing and launch phase of its product.

“We’re now setting up a production line to mass fabricate,” he said. “We’re sort of past the ‘sciencing the heck out it’ phase and now getting this pilot production level of it.”

When exactly the technology will become available to the public is still undetermined. Abovitz says he doesn’t want to put a date on it yet.

What is it?

So, what exactly is Magic Leap making?

Unlike virtual reality products like Facebook’s forthcoming Oculus Rift, the company doesn’t create a 3D world for you inside of a headset that a consumer must wear.

And Abovitz also describes it as “very different” from what people call augmented reality like Google Glass or Microsoft’s HoloLens, in which digital images are overlayed on real world scenery. Although Microsoft hasn’t revealed exactly how its holographic goggles will work, either, Magic Leap describes its technology as projecting digital light fields onto your retina, helping your eyes and brain see things that look like they’re part of the real world.

Source:

http://www.businessinsider.com/magic-leap-rony-abovitz-interview-on-793-million-fundraise-at-45-billion-valuation-2016-2

This new drug is as strong as morphine, but without the addiction

Scientists have developed a new drug that could be a safer alternative to morphine for medical use. The researchers found that engineered variants of endomorphin, a naturally occurring chemical in the body, are as strong as morphine when it comes to killing pain.

On top of that, the medication doesn’t produce any of the unwanted side effects that come with opium-based drugs – such as being extremely addictive. At this point, the findings only relate to tests in rats, but it’s a promising start to what could be a powerful and less problematic painkiller.

Opioid pain medications are commonly used to treat severe and chronic pain, but in addition to their habit-forming qualities, patients also build up a tolerance to them over time. Hand in hand with their addictiveness, this can makes higher doses – and overdoses in drug abuse situations – dangerous. Overdoses can cause motor impairment and potentially fatal respiratory depression, resulting in thousands of deaths in the US every year.

In contrast, the researchers found that engineered endomorphin in rats produced similar pain relief without the problems stemming from opium-based drugs.

“These side effects were absent or reduced with the new drug,” said pharmacologist and neuroscientist James Zadina from the Tulane University School of Medicine. “It’s unprecedented for a peptide to deliver such powerful pain relief with so few side effects.”

In their testing, the scientists found that their endomorphin variants produced equal or greater pain relief than morphine without causing substantially slower breathing in rats. When given a similarly potent dose of morphine to the animals, the animals experienced significant respiratory depression.

Motor coordination problems were also not evident in the rats given endomorphin, although significant impairment could be seen in animals on morphine. The engineered drug also produced far less tolerance than morphine.

To determine whether the new medication was addictive, the researchers ran several tests that they say are predictive of human drug abuse.

This included seeing whether the animals spent more time in a compartment where they received the substances. With morphine, the rats hung around, but with the endomorphin, they didn’t.

In another experiment, the rats could press a bar to produce an infusion of the drug. The animals demonstrated effort to obtain morphine, but didn’t press the bar to get the engineered drug.

The findings, published in Neuropharmacology, are an exciting development, given how problematic and destructive opium-based medications are, but it’s early days for the researchers’ neurochemical variants.

The team hopes to start human clinical trials within the next two years. If results in testing with people show similar effects to those observed in rats, we could really be onto something here.

Especially since new data came out recently showing that deaths from drug overdoses reached a new high in 2014 in the US, totalling some 47,055 people. As this is largely being driven by opiates – including prescription drugs – the sooner we can have less dangerous, non-addictive painkillers, the better.

Source:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028390815302203

Got Allergies? Blame Neanderthals

Humans can thank their Neanderthal ancestors for giving them the genes that fight diseases, but also for their allergies, new research suggests.

Genetic variants found in modern humans that originally came from Neanderthals may predispose the human immune system to overreact to environmental allergens, according to two new studies published today (Jan. 7) in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

But these Neanderthal loaner genes may have had a silver lining. The studies also found that interbreeding with Neanderthals may have helped ancient humans, who came from Africa, get a head start in settling Europe.

“Neanderthals, for example, had lived in Europe and western Asia for around 200,000 years before the arrival of modern humans. They were likely well-adapted to the local climate, foods and pathogens,” Janet Kelso of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said in a statement. “By [Neanderthals] interbreeding with these archaic humans, we modern humans gained these advantageous adaptations.”

Source:

http://www.cell.com/ajhg/abstract/S0002-9297(15)00486-3