High-power laser diode (LD) driven solid-state lighting can generate super-high luminance far exceeding the state-of-art light-emitting diodes (LEDs) source by factors of 2-10, enabling it particularly attractive for automotive headlamp, outdoor lighting, multimedia projectors, laser TVs and so on. Whereas, the thermal shock of laser is extreme, and under intense laser excitation, traditional LEDs phosphor would suffer from luminescence degradation or even failure due to the luminescence saturation. Aiming to overcome this deficiency, highly efficient and stable luminescence bulk phosphors including single crystal, polycrystalline ceramic phosphor and glass ceramic composite phosphor ...

Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is emitted during plant photosynthesis. SIF results from vegetation chlorophyll giving off red and infrared light wavelengths when excited by solar radiation. Measuring SIF is important because it is closely related to the terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP), which calculates the total amount of carbon dioxide fixed through photosynthesis in a given area. According to many laboratory and field experiments, studies show that SIF can effectively improve estimations of GPP, which is necessary for global carbon sink research and carbon mitigation strategies. China has committed to carbon neutrality by 2060. Technological upgrades and energy structure adjustments through the next four decades will be vital to reducing carbon ...

This is a landmark study in so far as being the first to raise the alarm that, despite early successes with Covid-19 vaccines, further research is warranted on a next generation of Covid-19 vaccines. The results from this study, however, only indicate that the AstraZeneca vaccine does not have at least 60% efficacy against mild-moderate Covid-19 due to the B.1.351 (N501Y.V2) variant. Based on a broader body of evidence, the World Health Organization recommends that this vaccine still be deployed in countries where the B.1.351 variant circulates, as it likely still protects against severe ...

Researchers from Skoltech and their colleagues from Hadassah Medical Center have developed hybrid nanostructured particles that can be magnetically guided to the tumor, tracked by their fluorescence and pushed to release the drug on demand by ultrasound. This technology can help make cancer chemotherapy more targeted. The paper was published in the journal Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces.Current treatments for cancer include chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation, and surgery, but these are often not selective enough to target just the tumor ...

The diesel engine is the backbone of transportation due to its irreplaceability as the primary power source for the freight, navigation and marine engine industries and non-road engineering machinery for the foreseeable future. However, the control of contaminants from fuel combustion has become an urgent global concern. Nitrogen oxides are the primary pollutants from transportation and can contribute to the formation of haze, photochemical smog and acid rain. Selective catalytic reduction of NOx with ammonia (NH3-SCR) technology has been successfully and commercially applied for controlling pollution from diesel vehicle exhaust. The development of ...

Electronic organic materials offer promise to support alternative and green energy sources to meet escalating global energy demands and strict environmental regulations. A KAUST-led team has now developed electron-transporting, so-called n-type, organic semiconductors that could help generate electricity from waste heat released by industrial processes and homes. Thermoelectric generators that can convert temperature changes or gradients into electricity are highly suited for harnessing waste heat. These readily scalable devices are environmentally friendly and do not have any moving parts, which makes them ...

The use of fossil fuels as energy carriers and raw materials promotes the rapid development of the society. However, the excessive exploitation of fossil fuels gives rise to the energy crisis and undesirable environmental changes. In particular, a continuous increase of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, which is > 400 ppm today and is estimated to triple by 2040, might result in a series of environmental issues, such as global warming, rising sea levels, and more extreme weather. Therefore, cutting CO2 emissions and developing abundant renewable energy are urgent needs and challenges for our society. CO2 is not only one of the main greenhouse gases but also an abundant, nontoxic, nonflammable, and renewable C1 resource. Electrochemical conversion of CO2 is an attractive way to recycle ...

According to a new study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the carbon footprint of personal protective equipment (PPE) provided to health and social care staff in England during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic was equivalent to flying from London to New York 244 times every day. The good news is that adopting a range of strategies including increased UK manufacture, reusing and recycling could reduce the environmental impact of PPE dramatically while maintaining the safety of staff and patients. The study, by Brighton and Sussex Medical School and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, found that the 3 billion items of PPE used from ...

Precision or invar alloys have been developed by scientists for many centuries. These iron and nickel-based alloys are capable of keeping their size unchanged within a given range of temperatures. Because of this, they are used in the manufacture of precision gages, standards of length, details for mechanical dial plates, and similar devices. However, invar alloys lack many other useful physical characteristics, and this limits their use in other areas, for example, those that require high thermal conductivity of materials. Therefore, scientists have long been trying to create a unique composite material based on other metals ...

Connections are crucial. Bacteria may be most dangerous when they connect - banding together to build fortress-like structures known as biofilms that afford them resistance to antibiotics. But a biomolecular scientist in Israel and a microbiologist in California have forged their own connections that could lead to new protocols for laying siege to biofilm-protected colonies. Their research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), USA. This interdisciplinary collaboration began with a lecture given at the Weizmann Institute of Science in the Life Sciences Colloquium. Prof. Dianne Newman of the California Institute of Technology was the speaker, ...

A research breakthrough shows that a simple blood test could reduce, or in some cases replace, the need for intrusive surgery when determining the best course of treatment for patients with a specific type of brain tumour. Researchers at the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at the University of Plymouth have discovered a biomarker which helps to distinguish whether meningioma - the most common form of adult primary brain tumour - is grade I or grade II. The grading is significant because lower grade tumours can sometimes remain dormant for long periods, not requiring high risk surgery or harsh treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Tumours classified as grade II can progress to become cancerous and more aggressive treatment may be needed in order ...

Many athletes, from football players to equestrians, rely on helmets to protect their heads from impacts or falls. However, a loose or improperly fitted helmet could leave them vulnerable to traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), a leading cause of death or disability in the U.S. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sensors have developed a highly sensitive pressure sensor cap that, when worn under a helmet, could help reveal whether the headgear is a perfect fit. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1.6 to 3.8 million sports- and recreation-related TBIs occur each year in the U.S. Field data suggest that loose or improperly fitted helmets can contribute ...

March 17, 2021-- A new study published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society reveals how socioeconomic factors partially explain the increased odds that Black and Hispanic Americans have of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In "Association of Race and Ethnicity With COVID-19 Test Positivity and Hospitalization Is Mediated by Socioeconomic Factors," Hayley B. Gershengorn, MD, associate professor, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and co-authors ...

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute demonstrated for the first time that blocking "cell drinking," or macropinocytosis, in the thick tissue surrounding a pancreatic tumor slowed tumor growth--providing more evidence that macropinocytosis is a driver of pancreatic cancer growth and is an important therapeutic target. The study was published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Now that we know that macropinocytosis is 'revved up' in both pancreatic cancer cells and the surrounding fibrotic tissue, blocking the process might provide a 'double whammy' to pancreatic tumors," ...

Researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed software to improve the accuracy of 3D-printed parts, seeking to reduce costs and waste for companies using additive manufacturing to mass produce parts in factories. "Additive manufacturing is incredibly exciting and offers tremendous benefits, but consistency and accuracy on mass-produced 3D-printed parts can be an issue. As with any production technology, parts built should be as close to identical as possible, whether it is 10 parts or 10 million," said Professor Bill King, Andersen Chair in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering and leader of the project. The team's ...

- The increasing complexity of treatments for lung cancer and language differences can make it difficult for patients to communicate with their medical teams - Risks of jeopardising the treatment and care journey as well as recent progress in patient empowerment. Lugano, Switzerland; Denver, CO, USA, 17 March 2021 - More than one in 10 patients with lung cancer do not know what type of tumour they have, according to data from a 17-country study carried out by the Global Lung Cancer Coalition (GLCC) to be presented at the European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) ...

What would a volcano - and its lava flows - look like on a planetary body made primarily of metal? A pilot study from North Carolina State University offers insights into ferrovolcanism that could help scientists interpret landscape features on other worlds. Volcanoes form when magma, which consists of the partially molten solids beneath a planet's surface, erupts. On Earth, that magma is mostly molten rock, composed largely of silica. But not every planetary body is made of rock - some can be primarily icy or even metallic. "Cryovolcanism is volcanic activity on icy worlds, and we've seen it happen on Saturn's moon Enceladus," says Arianna Soldati, assistant professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the ...

TORONTO, ON - American adults 65 years old and older have better vision than that age group did nearly a decade ago, according to a recent study published in the journal Ophthalmic Epidemiology. In 2008, 8.3% of those aged 65 and older in the US reported serious vision impairment. In 2017 that number decreased to 6.6% for the 65-plus cohort. Put another way: if vision impairment rates had remained at 2008 levels, an additional 848,000 older Americans would have suffered serious vision impairment in 2017. "The implications of a reduction in vision impairment are significant," ...

Cancer develops when changes occur with one or more genes in our cells. A change in a gene is called a fault or a mutation. The inherited gene mutations found in this study, are passed from parent to child and are common in the population. However, each one individually does not significantly raise cancer risk. Instead, these mutations collectively act to raise the risk of cancer developing. They do not directly cause cancer, instead they most likely interact with many other risk factors or random mutations that accumulate over a person's lifetime. Cancers caused by inherited faulty genes were previously thought to be very rare, compared with mutations that happen by chance as we ...

Fields and farms with more variety of insect pollinator species provide more stable pollination services to nearby crops year on year, according to the first study of its kind. An international team of scientists led by the University of Reading carried out the first ever study of pollinator species stability over multiple years across locations all around the world, to investigate how to reduce fluctuations in crop pollination over time. They found areas with diverse communities of pollinators, and areas with stable populations of dominant species, suffered fewer year-to-year fluctuations ...

Living for nearly 2 months in simulated weightlessness has a modest but widespread negative effect on cognitive performance that may not be counteracted by short periods of artificial gravity, finds a new study published in END ...

Scleritis is a vision-threatening inflammatory condition of the white portion of the eye, or the sclera, that is thought to be the result of an over-reaction of the body's immune system. A new study published in Arthritis & Rheumatology provides estimates of the incidence and prevalence of scleritis between 1997 and 2018 in the U.K. Investigators found that the U.K. incidence of new cases appears to have fallen by about one-third over the past 22 years, to 2.8 new cases per 100,000 people per year. This trend is likely due to improvements in the management of immune-related diseases. Individuals who developed scleritis often ...

Fractures in the vertebrae of the spine and calcification in a blood vessel called the abdominal aorta can both be visualized through the same spinal imaging test. A new study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research that included 5,365 older men indicates that each of these measures are linked with a higher risk of developing hip and other fractures. Investigators found that including both measures compared with including only abdominal aortic calcification or only vertebral fractures improved the ability to predict which men were most likely to experience a hip or other fracture in the future. "Both abdominal aortic calcification ...

While play and playfulness have been studied well in children, their structure and consequences are understudied in adults. A new article published in Social and Personality Psychology Compass highlights available research on this topic and also examines why playfulness is important in romantic relationships. The authors note that playfulness encourages the experience of positive emotions and might relate to potential biological processes--such as the activation of hormones and certain brain circuits. It also influences how people communicate and interact with each other, for example by helping to deal with stress, and solving interpersonal tension. These can all impact relationship ...

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which involves passing electricity through the brain, remains a controversial psychiatric treatment for depression and other conditions because it can cause side effects such as memory loss and is ineffective for many patients. A recent study published in Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice has examined how ECT is currently administered and monitored throughout England. The study was based on data provided by 37 National Health Service Trusts' responses to requests under the Freedom of Information Act. The audit found that the dwindling use of ECT in England has levelled off at about 2,500 people per year. Most recipients are women and over 60 years old. Only one Trust could report ...