1 . AI could help us deconstruct the magic of music

We all know that music is a powerful influencer.     1     Fitness without a warm-blooded song would be boring. But is there a way to quantify these reactions? And if so, could they be reverse-engineered and put to use?

In a new paper, researchers at the University of Southern California mapped out how things like tone, rhythm, and harmony cause different types of brain activity, physiological reactions (heat, sweat, and changes in electrical response), and emotions(happiness or sadness), and how machine learning could use those relationships to predict how people might respond to a new piece of music. The results, presented at a conference on the intersections of computer science and art, show how we may one day be able to engineer targeted musical experiences for purposes ranging from therapy to movies.

    2     “Once we understand how media can affect our various emotions, then we can try to productively use it for actually supporting or enhancing human experiences,” says Shrikanth Narayanan, a professor at USC and the principal investigator in the lab.

The researchers first searched music streaming sites for songs with very few plays, tagged either “happy” or “sad.”     3     Two reliably caused sadness and one reliably caused happiness. One hundred participants who hadn’t heard the songs before split into two groups, listened to all three pieces, and either took a special scan or wore pulse, heat, and electricity sensors on their skin and rated the intensity of their emotions on a scale of 0 to 10. The researchers then fed the data, along with 74 features for each song, into several machine-learning mathematical steps and examined which features were the strongest predictors of responses. They found, for example, that the brightness of a song (the level of its medium and high frequencies) and the strength of its beat were both among the best predictors of how a song would affect a listener’s heart rate and brain activity.

The research is still in very early stages, and it will be a while before more powerful machine-learning models will be able to predict your mental and physical reactions to a song with any precision. But the researchers are excited about how such models could be applied: to design music for specific individuals, to create movie soundtracks easily arousing sympathy, or to help patients with mental health problems stimulate specific parts of their brain.     4     They want to start trying music-based therapies as well.

Public image doesn't make money directly. nor is it anything visible. However, excellent public image is such an important thing that it is     1     desired by every company, enterprise, institution, etc. Public image refers to how a company is     2     by its customers, suppliers, and stockholders, by the financial community, by the communities where it operates, and by federal and local governments. Public image is controllable to     3     extent. just as the product, price, place, and promotional efforts are.

A firm's public image plays a vital role in the attraction of the firm and its products to employees, customers, and to such outsiders as stockholders, supplies, creditors (贷款方), government officials, as well as different special groups. With some things it is impossible to     4     all the different publics: for example, a new highly automated plant may meet the     5     of creditors and stockholders. However, it will     6     find resistance from employees who see their jobs     7    . On the other hand, high quality products and service standards should bring almost complete approval, while low quality products and false claims would be widely looked down upon.

A firm's public image, if it is good, should be     8    . It is a valuable strength that usually is built up over a long and satisfying relationship of a firm with publics. If a firm has developed a quality image, this is not easily imitated by competitors. Such as image may enable a firm to     9     higher prices, to win the best distributors and dealers, to attract the best employees, to expect the most favorable creditor relationships and lowest borrowing costs. It should also allow the firm's stock to     10     higher price-earnings ratio (比例) than other firms in the same industry with such a good reputation and public image.

6 . Imagine you're standing in line to buy an after-school snack at a store. You step up to the counter and the cashier scans your food. Next, you have to pay. But instead of scanning a QR code with your smartphone, you just hold out your hand so the cashier can scan your fingerprint. Or, a camera scans your face, your eyes or even your ear.

    1     As technology companies move away from traditional password, biometric security, which includes fingerprint, face and voice ID, is becoming increasingly popular.

In 2013, Apple introduced the iPhone 5s, one of the first smartphones with a fingerprint scanner. Since then, using one's fingerprint to unlock a phone and make mobile payments has become commonplace, bringing convenience to our lives. And since lasts year, San-sun has featured eye-scanning technology in its top smartphone, while Apple's new iPhone X can even scan a user's face.

    2     “Bio-metrics, ideally are good.” John Michener, a biometric expert, told tech website Inverse. “In practice, not so much.”

When introducing the new iPhone's Face ID feature at Apple's Keynote Event in September. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president, said. “     3    ”.

But it's already been done. In a video posted on community website Reddit on Nov 3, two brothers showed how they were each able to unlock the same iPhone X using their own face. Quartz reported. And they aren't even twins.

“We may expect too much from bio-metrics.” Anil Jain, a computer science professor at Michigan State University. told CBS news. “No security systems are perfect.”

Earlier this year, Jain found a way to trick biometric security. Using a printed copy of a thumbprint, she was able to unlock a dead person's smartphone for police.

“It's good to see bio-metrics being used more,” Jain told CBS News, “because it adds another factor for security.     4    .”

7 . Being Bigger isn’t Necessarily Considered Better

The firm, which famously started life in 1939, has now declared a new age: that of smaller start-up. By 2014, when Ms Whitman announced HP’s decision to separate its computer and printer business from its corporate hardware and services operations, the company had grown into a clumsy _________. Its fortunes started to _________ with a series of expensive and much criticized purchases. By 2012 it had lost its position as the world’s leading supplier of PCs to Lenovo. The dramatic _________ was aimed at helping the firm adapt to the new age of mobile and online computing, responding to shareholder demands for more aggressive _________.

“I would go from laser jet printing to our big enterprise services contracts where we were running the back end of IT for many big companies and organizations. These two things are not like each other. So the ability to focus and engage with customers on a(n) _________ set of objectives and business outcomes... I can already see the difference.” Ms Whitmann, who now heads the new spin-off, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) selling servers and services, says the change has already _________ her performance. “One big change is it _________ each of the divisions to pursue the strategy that is right for them. _________, there is ‘no way’ printer and PC company HP Inc’s decision last year to buy Samsung’s printing business for $1bn would have happened when it was part of the larger firm. So it’s that ability to drive your own program, not _________ by other businesses that don’t have the same characteristics.” Ms Whitman is so convinced her strategy is working that she’s ______________ HPE further, spinning off both its business services division and its software business into separate companies last year.

Her assumption that bigger doesn’t always mean better seems ______________. After all, a larger company should find it easier to dominate the market it operates in. But the rapid rise of much smaller start-ups, competing and often overtaking these established powerful companies means the accepted wisdom that ______________ equals success is being challenged. ______________ in 2014, eBay carved PayPal, the electronic payments arm it bought in 2001, off from the main online sale business.

Box, a cloud storage company, is another case in point. Founder Aaron Levie says “Whether Uber, Airbnb, those same lessons ______________, which is if you can build something that’s cheaper, faster and more scalable and delivers a far better customer experience than what the traditional sellers were able to do, then you can be extremely ______________.”

Adolescents Worldwide Not Sufficiently Physically Active

New WHO-led study says majority of adolescents worldwide are not sufficiently physically active, putting their current and future health at risk.     1     "Urgent policy action to increase physical activity is needed now, particularly to promote and keep up girls' participation in physical activity," says study author Dr Regina Gut-hold, WHO.

The health benefits of a physically active lifestyle during adolescence include improved heart and lungs fitness, bone health and positive effects on weight. There is also growing evidence that physical activity has a positive impact on cognitive development and socializing.     2    .

To achieve these benefits, the WHO recommends for adolescents to do moderate or vigorous physical activity for an hour or more each day. The authors estimated 80 percent of teems do not meet this recommendation by analysing data collected through school-based surveys on physical activity levels.

    3     Urgent scaling up is needed of known effective policies and programmes to increase physical activity in adolescents. Multisectoral action is needed to offer opportunities for young people to be active, involving education, urban planning, road safety and others. The highest levels of society, including national, city and local leaders, should promote the importance of physical activity for the health and well-being of all people, including adolescents.

    4     Strong political will and action can address the fact that four in every five adolescents do not experience the enjoyment and social, physical, and mental health benefits of regular physical activity. Policy makers and stakeholders should be encouraged to act now for the health of this and future young generations.

10 . A sensational new scientific discovery in the ocean near Australia may explain the most massive extinction of living things in Earth’s history. For years, scholars have been frustrated in trying to analyze why 90 to 95 percent of sea life and 75 percent of and life vanished about 250 million years ago. The extinctions were so enormous that they are called The Great Dying. To date, some authorities on ancient life thought that a volcanic eruption or a sudden change in the environment affected all life on Earth. Other specialists have doubted these theories, maintaining that it was not plausible that a solo volcano could bring about such chaos. From the outset, critics believed these claims were exaggerated.

By contrast, there is wide acceptance of the idea that a meteor (流星)which hit Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago was the primary cause of the dinosaurs’ extinction. Nevertheless, until now they had no evidence of an intense meteor impact 185 mill on years earlier. Now they do.

American geologists have been examining rock samples from a deep sea crater (火山口)near the northwest coast of Australia. The samples were initially collected and preserved by petroleum technicians seeking oil. Now the geologists and their colleagues believe that the precise splits in the rock’s structure show a typical pattern for meteors. There is a clear distinction from volcanic patterns. In fact, a spokesperson went so far as to say that these rocks completely revise the way scientists perceive the mass extinctions from the ancient era. Academics say that the meteor’s crater s the size of Mount Qomolangma, the highest mountain on Earth! Literally, the meteor made a mark on Earth as it drowned in the sea. The Earth could not absorb such a harsh blow without sustaining global devastation. Things must have come to a standstill. Evidently, the blow was fatal for many forms of life.

Bear in mind that all this was long before mammals---including humans--emerged in Earth’s history. Still, we would be wise to pay attention to the damage a meteor can cause. Fortunately, meteor strikes on Earth are few and far between.