Femtosecond direct laser writing as a 3D printing technology has been one of the key building blocks for miniaturization in modern times. It has transformed the field of complex microoptics since the early 2000s. Especially medical engineering and consumer electronics as vastly growing fields benefit from these developments. It is now possible to create robust, monolithic and nearly perfectly aligned freeform optical systems on almost arbitrary substrates such as image sensors or optical fibers. Simultaneously, the miniaturisation of spectroscopic measurement devices has been advanced, for instance based on quantum dot or nanowire technology. These are based on computational approaches, which have the drawback of ...

For decades, the speed of our computers has been growing at a steady pace. The processor of the first IBM PC released 40 years ago, operated at a rate of roughly 5 million clock cycles per second (4.77 MHz). Today, the processors in our personal computers run around 1000 times faster. However, with current technology, they're not likely to get any faster than that. For the last 15 years, the clock rate of single processor cores has stalled at a few Gigahertz (1 Gigahertz = 1 billion clock cycles per second). And the old and tested approach of cramming ...

In diagnostic medicine, biopsies, where a sample of tissue is extracted for analysis, is a common tool for the detection of many conditions. But this approach has several drawbacks - it can be painful, doesn't always extract the diseased tissue, and can only be used in a sufficiently advanced disease stage, making it, in some cases, too late for intervention. These concerns have encouraged researchers to find less invasive and more accurate options for diagnoses. Professor Nir Friedman and Dr. Ronen Sadeh of the Life Sciences Institute and School of Computer Engineering have published a study in Nature Biotechnology that shows how a wide range of diseases can be detected through a simple ...

In certain materials, electrical and mechanical effects are closely linked: for example, the material may change its shape when an electrical field is applied or, conversely, an electrical field may be created when the material is deformed. Such electromechanically active materials are very important for many technical applications. Usually, such materials are special, inorganic crystals, which are hard and brittle. For this reason, so-called ferroelectric polymers are now being used. They are characterised by the fact that their polymer chains exist simultaneously in two different microstructures: some areas are strongly ...

A study has described genetic changes in patients with the most common form of hereditary kidney disease that affects an estimated 12.5 million people worldwide. The research, which focussed on Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) in Ireland, provides insights into PKD that will assist doctors and patients in the management of this of inherited condition. The study, led by researchers from the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, is published in the European Journal of Human Genetics. In the research, a cohort of 169 patients with PKD in Ireland were analysed. The genetic changes were identified in up ...

Results from a new study which draws on survey data collected during the peak of the first wave of the pandemic suggests that being forced to slow down life, as a consequence of lockdown, has had significant, positive impacts for many people and their families. The research, recently published in the British Journal of Psychiatry from a team at the University of Bath with international colleagues, analysed survey results from 385 caregivers of children aged 6-16 both in the UK and Portugal. Individuals completed an online questionnaire between 1 May 2020 and 27 June 2020. This cohort had ...

Swapping the car for walking, cycling and e-biking even just one day a week makes a significant impact on personal carbon emissions in cities. 'Active transport' - cycling, e-biking or walking - can help tackle the climate crisis according to a new study led by the University of Oxford's Transport Studies Unit and including researchers from Imperial's Centre for Environmental Policy as part of the EU-funded project PASTA: Physical Activity Through Sustainable Transport Approaches. Meeting greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets requires a significant move away from motorised transport. The team found that shifting to active transport could save as ...

Molecular iodine, a major emission from the ocean, can quickly convert to iodic oxoacids even under weak daylight conditions. These oxoacids lead rapidly to aerosol particles that significantly affect climate and human health. Iodine-containing vapors that are emitted from oceans are a major source of aerosol particles. "Despite their importance to the climate, the formation of marine particles has been poorly understood," says Siddharth Iyer, Postdoctoral Researcher in Aerosol Physics Laboratory at Tampere University. In this research, the formation of aerosol particles form from iodine-containing vapours under marine boundary layer conditions were studied. The experiments were carried out in the ultra-clean CLOUD chamber in CERN, where the nucleation and growth rates as well as ...

Cells, like humans, cast votes to make decisions as a group. But how do they know what to vote for? Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and King's College London have uncovered how cells actively seek information in order to make faster and better collective decisions to coordinate the growth of new blood vessels. This provides a new basis for understanding intelligence in cells. The process of how cells precisely and quickly coordinate action when they create new tissue is complex. They must collectively decide which cells should take on specific jobs and ensure that not too ...

Is a quantum machine really more efficient than a conventional machine for performing calculations? Demonstrating this 'advantage' experimentally is particularly complex and a major research challenge around the world1. Scientists from the CNRS2, the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) and the QC Ware, Corp., (France and USA) have just proved that a quantum machine can perform a given verification task in seconds when the same exercise would take a time equivalent to the age of the universe for a conventional computer. For this demonstration, they combined a complex interactive algorithm that solves a certain type of mathematical problem with limited information and a simple experimental photonics ...

Goal 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. Yet according to new research by Copenhagen Business School the poor planning and execution of decarbonisation strategies in emerging markets challenges the aims of Goal 7. "In the effort to produce renewable energy and decarbonise their economies, emerging countries have neglected the effect on marginalised populations, which could ultimately prove unsustainable for all," says Assistant Professor Jacobo Ramirez from the ...

An important class of challenging computational problems, with applications in graph theory, neural networks, artificial intelligence and error-correcting codes can be solved by multiplying light signals, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge and Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Russia. In a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, they propose a new type of computation that could revolutionise analogue computing by dramatically reducing the number of light signals needed while simplifying the search for the best mathematical solutions, allowing for ultra-fast optical computers. Optical or ...

A way of using machine learning to more accurately identify patients with a mix of psychotic and depressive symptoms has been developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham. Patients with depression or psychosis rarely experience symptoms of purely one or the other illness. Historically, this has meant that mental health clinicians give a diagnosis of a 'primary' illness, but with secondary symptoms. Making an accurate diagnosis is a big challenge for clinicians and diagnoses often do not accurately reflect the complexity of individual experience or indeed neurobiology. Clinicians diagnosing psychosis, for example, would frequently regard depression as a secondary illness, with implications for treatment decisions which focus more on ...

The outbreak of COVID-19 raised a question about the relationship between anthropogenic emissions and air pollution, which has aroused heated discussion. Research on air-quality changes caused by the lockdowns in different areas shows similar substantial reductions in primary emissions. However, regional disparities exist in responses of secondary pollutants to emissions reduction, especially fine particulate matter and ozone (O3). Professor Ding Aijun and his team from Nanjing University explored global air-quality changes during COVID-19 lockdowns and regional disparities in O3 responses to emission reductions. They integrated multiple observational datasets, including global air quality ...

In a new study published in Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, Chen-Yu Zhang's group and Antonio Vidal-Puig's group at University of Cambridge report that pancreatic β cells secrete miR-29 family members (miR-29a, miR-29b and miR-29c) in response to high levels of free fatty acids (FFAs). These β cell-derived miR-29s are delivered to the liver, promoting insulin resistance and enhancing hepatic glucose output. Over 100 years after insulin was discovered, it was believed that pancreatic β cells only secreted a single hormone--insulin. Pancreatic β cell-derived insulin regulates glucose homeostasis by binding with the insulin receptors located in the liver, skeletal ...

The scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University jointly with the colleagues from Keysight company have conducted an experiment with an electron beam at the TPU microtron to study a super-radiant regime that occurs when radiation is generated by a train of electron bunches. The research findings obtained by a high-precision measurement of a spectral line width proved that about 8,000 electron bunches in a super-radiant regime form monochromatic Cherenkov radiation. This experiment was conducted for the first time. The fundamental research findings are published in the Scientific Reports academic journal (IF: 4.120, Q1) and can be used for further research on the new sources of radiation in the terahertz range. A super-radiant regime is a coherent ...

Scientists at HSE University have learned that disagreeing with the opinion of other people leaves a 'trace' in brain activity, which allows the brain to later adjust its opinion in favour of the majority-held point of view. The article was published in Scientific Reports. We often change our beliefs under the influence of others. This social behavior is called conformity and explains varios components of our behaviour, from voting at elections to fashion trends among teenagers. Brain research has recently well informed about short-term effects of social influence on decision making. If our choice coincides with the point of view of the people who are important to us, this decision is reinforced in ...

Reston, VA--A combination of radionuclide therapy and immunotherapy has proven successful in slowing the progression of prostate cancer and increasing survival time, according to new research published in the February issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The results of the murine study indicate that radionuclide therapy promotes prostate cancer immunogenicity, provoking a cellular response that makes the tumors more receptive to immunotherapy. "Prostate cancer is generally viewed as an immunological cold cancer in which immunotherapies only have moderate success," said Katharina Lückerath, PhD, assistant professor of preclinical ...

Geoscientists have released a video that for the first time shows the uninterrupted movement of the Earth's tectonic plates over the past billion years. The international effort provides a scientific framework for understanding planetary habitability and for finding critical metal resources needed for a low-carbon future. It reveals a planet in constant movement as land masses move around the Earth's surface, for instance showing that Antarctica was once at the equator. The video is based on new research published in the March 2021 edition of ...

This discovery was made possible by applying the research method for the comparison of the brain activity between monkeys and humans to artificial neural networks. This finding might be helpful not only to understand the cortical mechanism of attentional selection but also to develop artificial intelligence. Deep neural networks (DNNs), which are used in the development of artificial intelligence, are mathematical models for obtaining appropriate mechanisms to solve specific problems from the training with a large-scale dataset. However, the detailed mechanisms underlying DNNs through ...

On Feb 5th, Seoul National University, College of Engineering (Dean Kookheon Char) announced that Professor Sang Woo Seo's research team (Dr. Jina Yang and Mr. Yong Hee Han (graduate student)) at School of Chemical and Biological Engineering has developed a synthetic protein quality control system to enhance full-length translation in bacteria. This technology is expected to increase the efficiency of the production of biopharmaceuticals, industrial enzymes, and bio-based chemicals. Recombinant proteins are used in various industrial fields from protein drugs such as insulin to industrial proteins such as laundry detergents. Since proteins can perform their functions only with full-length and proper 3D structure, recombinant protein production ...

Against the background of global warming, extreme heat days (EHDs) occur frequently and greatly threaten human health and societal development. Therefore, it is of great importance to understand the variation of EHDs. Previous studies have indicated that the frequency of EHDs is mainly modulated by the mean state of temperature, and thus the frequency of EHDs mostly presents an increasing trend. "However, the variability of the daily maximum temperature also plays an important role in the interdecadal change of extreme heat days over Northeast China," says Ms. Liu Wenjun, a Master's student from the group of Dr. Ruidan Chen in the School of Atmospheric Sciences ...

Researchers from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) and the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CU Medicine) have jointly developed the Spermine Risk Score which, coupled with the use of a urine test, provides a non-invasive and more reliable method for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. In a study conducted by the researchers, about 37% of the patients, who were ultimately found to have no prostate cancer, can avoid undergoing a prostate biopsy procedure. The findings have just been published in the scientific journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases. Demand for more reliable and non-invasive diagnosis Prostate cancer is the third most common and the fourth most fatal cancer for the male ...

Which bananas end up in your shopping basket-- the uniformly yellow ones or those with brown spots? If you are like most people, you skip the spotted ones and select those that are perfectly yellow. This is because emotions play an an oversized role in our shopping decisions, according to a new study by Danish and Swedish researchers. "We choose food based upon an expectation of what it will taste like that is bound to our feelings. So, if we expect a brown banana to not match the taste of a yellow one, we opt for the latter," explains Karin Wendin, an associate professor at University of Copenhagen's Department of Food Science, and one of the researchers behind the study. Approximately 716,000 tonnes ...

A team of researchers led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has developed a new material, that when electricity is applied to it, can flex and bend forty times more than its competitors, opening the way to better micro machines. Conversely, when it is bent, it generates electricity very effectively and could be used for better "energy harvesting" - potentially recharging batteries in gadgets just from everyday movements. The novel material is both electrostrictive and piezoelectric. Its electrostrictive properties means it can change shape when an electric current is applied, while piezoelectric means the material can convert pressure into electric charges. When an electric field is applied, the atoms that make up electrostrictive ...