Integrating sensors into rotational mechanisms could make it possible for engineers to build smart hinges that know when a door has been opened, or gears inside a motor that tell a mechanic how fast they are rotating. MIT engineers have now developed a way to easily integrate sensors into these types of mechanisms, with 3D printing. Even though advances in 3D printing enable rapid fabrication of rotational mechanisms, integrating sensors into the designs is still notoriously difficult. Due to the complexity of the rotating parts, sensors are typically embedded manually, after the device has already ...

Swansea University News Release 17 March 2023 £1 million for projects involving Swansea experts to tackle gambling harm among Armed Forces veterans Research to tackle gambling harm among Armed Forces veterans has received a major boost with three awards, totalling £1 million, for new projects in the field that involve Swansea University experts. The projects include evaluating a smartphone app for veterans with gambling disorder and PTSD, which is aimed at reducing symptoms,  The three projects ...

A new scientific study by researchers from the University of Liège (Belgium) shows that rivers in the Andean mountains contribute 35% and 72% of riverine emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and methane (CH4 ) in the Amazon basin, the world's largest river. This study is published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. Rivers contribute substantially to global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). The Amazon River, the World's largest river, plays an important role in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is the largest river on the planet in terms of freshwater flow," explains Alberto Borges, ...

Boston, MA -- Walking is a complex task that is most commonly performed while completing other tasks like talking, reading signs, or making decisions. For most, after the age of 65, such “dual tasking” worsens walking performance and may even cause unsteadiness. Intriguingly, older adults that are more affected by dual tasking are at higher risk of suffering adverse health outcomes, including both falls and dementia.   A new research study published in Lancet Healthy Longevity has reported that the ability to dual task when walking starts to decline by the age of 55, up to a decade before ‘old ...

New Swansea University research has looked at the long-term environmental impact of different methods to control Japanese knotweed. The invasive species has been calculated to cost more than £165 million to manage every year in the UK alone. Its presence can blight property purchases for households across the country. This has led to the development of different ways of trying to control it but with sustainability becoming increasingly important, understanding the effect of these management methods is vital. A new study, led by biosciences lecturer Dr Sophie Hocking and looking ...

The ability of a cell to divide, to proliferate, is essential for life and gives rise to the formation of complex organisms from a single cell. It also allows the replacement of used cells from a limited number of “stem” cells, which then proliferate and specialize. In cancer, however, cell proliferation is no longer controlled and becomes chaotic. Researchers from the GIGA Institute at the University of Liège have discovered that, in a healthy individual, certain blood immune cells, the monocytes, ...

March 17, 2023, TORONTO —  A new study led by researchers at York University has found a link between shift work and frailty among middle-aged and older workers in Canada, especially for women on rotating shifts.  While there is a large body of research suggesting the disruptions to circadian rhythms that shift workers experience are linked to various illnesses, this study was the first to take a comprehensive or “holistic” look at the connection between shift work and frailty.  “We cannot ignore the negative health outcomes related to shift work, including cardiovascular diseases, ...

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory hosted an American Physical Society (APS) Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) on Jan. 20-22. The conference series, sponsored by DOE and the National Science Foundation, is designed to support undergraduate women and gender minorities in physics by connecting them with resources, community, information on graduate school and professionals in their field. It also provides students with access to other women in physics with whom they can share experiences, advice and ideas. The January 2023 event is one of 14 APS CUWiP events hosted across the country and ...

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., March 16, 2023 — Without plants, we’d have no air to breathe or food to eat, yet plant science lingers in the shadowy wings while other fields take center stage. With the goal of shining the spotlight on plants, a new study presents the field’s top 100 most pressing questions for research to address the greatest challenges facing humanity. “The study highlights the importance of plant science for society by laying out myriad questions and technical challenges ...

Depression is widely reported to be more common in women than in men, with women twice as likely to receive a diagnosis than men. A new sex-specific study from McGill University has found that there are differences between male and female genes and how they relate to depression. In a study of more than 270,000 individuals, the researchers found that sex-specific prediction methods were more accurate in forecasting an individual’s genetic risk of developing depression than prediction methods that did not specify sex. The researchers found ...

A study with people who inject drugs evaluated a minimally invasive test based on dried blood spots (DBS) for the monitoring of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The use of DBS samples for HCV RNA detection and genotyping was shown to effectively assess cure after treatment and to differentiate between reinfection and treatment failure. The results support the viability of decentralizing treatment and post-treatment monitoring for people who inject drugs, who frequently face challenges accessing the healthcare system. The study, which has been published in the Journal of Medical Virology, was carried out as part of a project with support from the "Conquering ...

AMHERST, Mass. – University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics is offering 30 three-year scholarships to a diverse cohort of students majoring in mathematics and statistics, thanks to a $1.5 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The six-year project, called Enhancing Underrepresented Participation in Mathematics & Statistics: Mentoring from Junior to Master’s, will welcome its first cohort in the Fall of 2023, and will support each student for their junior and senior years, as well as through a one-year master’s program. The program will accept ...

Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs) are being used to develop a third generation of optimized shortwave infrared photodetectors that will improve pixel size, weight, power consumption, performance and cost over photodetectors made from traditional materials.   Ultrasensitive shortwave infrared photodetectors, which detect a subset of shortwave infrared light wavelengths outside of the visual spectrum, have many potential applications, including night surveillance, navigation during poor weather conditions, fiber optic communications and semiconductor quality control.  Shortwave ...

More than 85% of the world’s bird, mammal, and amphibian species live in mountains,  particularly in forest habitats, but researchers report in the journal One Earth on March 17 that these forests are disappearing at an accelerating rate. Globally, we have lost 78.1 million hectares (7.1%) of mountain forest since 2000—an area larger than the size of Texas. Much of the loss occurred in tropical biodiversity hotspots, putting increasing pressure on threatened species. Though their rugged location once protected mountain forests from deforestation, they have been increasingly exploited since the turn of ...

The livelihoods of millions of people who live in river deltas, among the world’s most productive lands, are at risk. Created where large rivers meet the ocean and deposit their natural sediment load, river deltas are often just a few meters above sea level. And while they make up less than 0.5 % of the world’s land area, river deltas contribute more than 4 % of the global GDP, 3% of global crop production, and are home to 5.5 % of the world’s population. All of these values are highly vulnerable to imminent global environmental change, according to a new Stanford University-led study. “It is often not rising seas, but sinking land due to human activities that ...

WASHINGTON (March 17, 2023)— Medicaid beneficiaries face barriers in accessing medical care – and that includes contraceptive care. A new study finds that despite birth control being an essential health service, all primary care physicians that see them may not be offering Medicaid patients some of the most effective, longer-acting birth control methods. While nearly half (48%) of primary care physicians who treat Medicaid patients provided prescription contraception like the birth control pill, only 10% provided longer-acting methods like IUDs ...

About The Study: In this study of Oregon residents in households of at least two members, the findings suggest that household prescription availability is associated with increased odds of opioid overdose for others in the household, even if they do not have their own opioid prescription. These findings underscore the importance of educating patients about proper opioid disposal and the risks of household opioids.  Authors: Michelle A. Hendricks, Ph.D., of Comagine Health in Portland, Oregon, is the corresponding ...

About The Study: Long-term heat and cold exposure from the second trimester until four weeks after birth was associated with newborn lung volumes, especially among female newborns, in this study of 343 mother-child pairs. The findings suggest an association between ambient temperature and newborns’ respiratory systems and underlines the vulnerability of pregnant women and their future children to climate change.  Authors: Ariane Guilbert, M.Sc., and Johanna Lepeule, Ph.D., of Universite Grenoble Alpes in La Tronche, France, are the corresponding authors.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.3376) Editor’s ...

Ice surfaces have a thin layer of water below its melting temperature of 0℃. Such premelting phenomenon is important for skating and snowflake growth. Similarly, liquid often crystallizes into a thin layer of crystal on a flat substrate before reaching its freezing temperature, i.e. prefreezing. The thickness of the surface layer usually increases and diverges as approaching the phase transition (such as melting and freezing) temperature. Besides premelting and prefreezing, whether similar surface phenomenon ...

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors are a type of targeted cancer medicine that can attack specific types of cancer cells and prevent them from multiplying. Although these inhibitors, called TKIs, can be very useful in fighting certain cancers, they also cause serious inflammatory side effects that limit their use. A Japanese research team has discovered the underlying mechanism that causes this inflammation. "This study revealed the underlying mechanism by which the TKIs cause inflammation, and therefore provides the molecular basis that is essential to overcome the inflammatory-based ...

Publishing in the International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing (IJEM), researchers from Harbin Institute of Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Guizhou University and Ruhr-University Bochum present a brief review on the application of numerical simulations in addressing the impact of properties and microstructures of workpiece materials on the diamond cutting mechanisms of different types of workpiece materials, such as metallic, hard brittle materials and composite materials. In addition, the effect of applying an external energy field to the diamond cutting of difficult-to-cut materials is also discussed. The anisotropic deformation ...

A new simulation approach named eTLE aims to improve the precision of a primary tool for estimating neutron behaviours in 3D space. This study examines the approach in detail – validating its reliability in predicting the scattering of neutrons in crystalline media. Tripoli-4® is a tool used by researchers to simulate the behaviours of interacting neutrons in 3D space. Recently, researchers developed a new ‘next-event estimator’ (NEE) for Tripoli-4®. Named eTLE, this approach aims to increase Tripoli-4®’s precision using Monte ...

Researchers in China have successfully restored the vision of mice with retinitis pigmentosa, one of the major causes of blindness in humans. The study, to be published March 17 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, uses a new, highly versatile form of CRISPR-based genome editing with the potential to correct a wide variety of disease-causing genetic mutations. Researchers have previously used genome editing to restore the vision of mice with genetic diseases, such as Leber congenital amaurosis, that affect ...

Deyi Li from the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence believes that humans and machines have a mutually beneficial relationship. His paper on machine intelligence, which was published Feb. 15 in Intelligent Computing, a Science Partner Journal, builds on five groundbreaking works by Schrödinger, the father of quantum mechanics, Turing, the father of artificial intelligence, and Wiener, the father of cybernetics. Schrödinger and beyond: Machines can think and interact with the world as time goes by. ...

Ikoma, Japan – Rho GTPases have a crucial role in the orchestration of cell movements. Cells use Rho GTPases to coordinate cytoskeletal reorganization in dynamically changing environments. Among these RhoGTPases, Cdc42 and Rac1 promote cytoskeletal formation, whereas RhoA is involved in myosin II-mediated cytoskeletal retraction and formation. Simultaneous live observations of multiple GTPase activities and cell morphology changes by specific biosensors and the resulting spatiotemporal data might help to determine the coordinated regulation of ...