As researchers push the boundaries of battery design, seeking to pack ever greater amounts of power and energy into a given amount of space or weight, one of the more promising technologies being studied is lithium-ion batteries that use a solid electrolyte material between the two electrodes, rather than the typical liquid. But such batteries have been plagued by a tendency for branch-like projections of metal called dendrites to form on one of the electrodes, eventually bridging the electrolyte and shorting out the battery cell. Now, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found ...

Even though a fruit fly doesn't have ears, it can hear with its antennae. In a END ...

The first known study to explore optimal outpatient exam scheduling given the flexibility of inpatient exams has resulted in shorter wait times for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) patients at END ...

FINDINGS A new UCLA study shows that while men and women who have high muscle mass are less likely to die from heart disease, it also appears that women who have higher levels of body fat -- regardless of their muscle mass -- have a greater degree of protection than women with less fat. The researchers analyzed national health survey data collected over a 15-year period and found that heart disease-related death in women with high muscle mass and high body fat was 42% lower than in a comparison group of women with low muscle mass and low body fat. However, women who had high muscle mass and low ...

A global review of coastal drowning science has found there is only one study worldwide that has evaluated beach safety education programs in schools. Researchers from UNSW's Beach Safety Research Group have conducted the first in-depth review specific to coastal drowning. The study, published in PLOS ONE, reviewed 146 coastal drowning studies from around the world. "We found that evaluation of coastal drowning prevention strategies is rare," said William Koon, the lead author of the study and a PhD candidate in the School of Biological, Earth ...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) selected an NYU Tandon School of Engineering professor who is developing new approaches to training deep learning (DL) artificial intelligence frameworks, to receive its most prestigious award for promising young academics. Anna Choromanska, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), received a 2021 NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award, more widely known as a CAREER Award, which supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. A five-year, $532,892 grant will support a project that focuses on new, more efficient ways of training ...

The continuous improvement of imaging technology holds great promise in areas where visual detection is necessary, such as with cancer screening. Three-dimensional imaging in particular has become popular because it provides a more complete picture of the target object and its context. "More doctors and radiologists are looking at these 3D volumes, which are new technologies that allow you to look not just at one image, but a set of images," said UC Santa Barbara psychology professor Miguel Eckstein(link is external), whose expertise lies in the field of visual search. "In some imaging modalities this gives doctors information about volume and it allows them to segment what they're interested in." Common wisdom is that with all ...

Bring on Twilight. Lee Child's Jack Reacher? Yes, please. More of James Patterson's Alex Cross while we're at it. And let's finish off with revisiting the million-plus words of the Harry Potter saga. No one will confuse the above book series with high literature. But a new study published in the journal Reading and Writing shows that the more people read any kind of fiction -- even mass market stuff sniffily derided as pulp -- the better their language skills are likely to be. The piece was written by Sandra Martin-Chang, professor of education in the Faculty of Arts and Science, and PhD student Stephanie Kozak. They found that people who enjoyed reading fiction for leisure and who identified as a reader scored higher on language tests, whereas ...

It's not uncommon for crescent-shaped swaths of sand to dot the shorelines of meandering rivers. These swaths usually appear along the inner side of a river bend, where the bank wraps around the sandy patch, forming deposits known as a "point bars." When they appear along an outer bank, which curves the opposite way, they form "counter-point" bars, which are usually interpreted by geoscientists as an anomaly: a sign that something - such as a patch of erosion-resistant rocks - is interfering with the river's usual manner of sediment deposition. But according to research led by The University of Texas at Austin, counter-point bars are not the oddities they're often ...

PHILADELPHIA (March 16, 20201) - After a traumatic injury, returning to work (RTW) can be a strong indication of healing and rehabilitation and may play a pivotal role in promoting physical and functional recovery. But how does RTW after a traumatic injury affect mental health recovery, particularly in individuals who experience social and economic marginalization? In a new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), researchers investigated the ways that RTW after an injury predict mental health outcomes in Black men living and recovering in Philadelphia. The study found that men ...

AI has, for some time, been applied to diagnose medical conditions in specific fields. It can build on knowledge of particular disciplines to hone in on details such as the shape of a tumor that suggests breast cancer or abnormal cells that indicate cervical cancer. While AI is very good when trained on years of human data in specific domains, it has not been able to deal with the huge number of diagnostic tests (about 5000) and disorders (about 14,000) of modern clinical practice. Now, a new algorithm developed by engineers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering can think and learn just like a doctor but with essentially infinite experience. The work comes out of the lab of Gerald Loeb, a professor ...

BOSTON - In addition to lowering risk of heart disease, maintaining a heart-healthy lifestyle may pay off in lower risk for developing cancer, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and other centers in the United States and the Netherlands have found. Looking at the potential link between cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer among participants in two large population-based health studies, Emily S. Lau, MD, and Jennifer E. Ho, MD, from the division of Cardiology at MGH and their co-authors found that traditional risk factors for CVD, including older age, male ...

The discovery of a rare bone artefact near the Lower Murray River casts more light on the rich archaeological record on Ngarrindjeri country in southern Australia. Details of the Murrawong bone point, dated between c. 5,300-3,800 years old, has have been described by Flinders University, Griffith University and other experts in a new paper in Australian Archaeology. Probably made from a macropod (kangaroo or wallaby) bone, the point was likely used for piercing soft materials - for example, used as a pin on a cloak made of possum furs - or possibly as a projectile point, say the research leaders ...

Vision impairment is a pervasive problem facing nearly 2.2 billion people globally, according to the World Health Organization. But help is on the way: Neuroscientists are working at the cutting edge of technology and brain science to develop new ways for the vision impaired to navigate the world around them. At the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS), researchers are presenting new techniques for integrating digital haptics and sound technology to transform vision rehabilitation for both children and adults alike. "Vision rehabilitation requires bridging fundamental research, modelling and neuroimaging methods," ...

FAIRFAX, Va. (March 16, 2021)--Many women suffering significant postpartum bleeding continue to receive hysterectomies, rather than uterine artery embolization (UAE), despite evidence that UAE results in reduced hospital stays and costs, and offers an opportunity to preserve fertility, according to new research to be presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting. "Giving birth has become increasingly dangerous for women in the U.S., and postpartum hemorrhage is a leading cause of the loss of life related to childbirth," said Janice M. Newsome, MD, FSIR, associate professor, Department of Radiology and Imaging ...

FAIRFAX, Va. (March 16, 2021)-- A minimally invasive treatment for patients whose cancer has spread to their bones provides quick and sustained pain relief and improves quality of life, according to a new study to be presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting. The palliative treatment known as radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is effective in providing relief in as little as three days, and the benefits last more than 12 months--a significant improvement over radiation treatment. "Commonly used radiation treatments can take weeks to provide pain relief," said Jason R. Levy, MD, a vascular and interventional radiologist at Northside Hospital in Atlanta and ...

FAIRFAX, Va. (March 16, 2021)-- A non-surgical treatment for arthritis in the knee is safe and effective in providing immediate and long-term pain relief, according to a new study to be presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting. Genicular artery embolization (GAE) reduces inflammation in the knee to improve function and quality of life for people with moderate to severe knee pain. Osteoarthritis is one of most common causes of disability, limiting daily activities of 40% of all U.S. adults. "Prior to treatment, patients' knee pain had taken over their whole life," said Siddharth A. Padia, MD, FSIR, professor of radiology, UCLA Health, and lead researcher of the study. ...

In an analysis that explores the structural underpinnings of a SARS-CoV-2 strain, G614, that quickly became dominant early in the pandemic, researchers discovered interactions that prevent this strain's spike from shedding its host binding domain too early. This may explain the enhanced infectivity of the G614 virus, they say. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, epidemiologists have monitored evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with particular focus on the spike (S) protein. Spike trimers decorate the viral surface and facilitate host cell entry. An early variant with a single-residue substitution ...

March 16, 2021, PORT ST. LUCIE, FL: Researchers from Cleveland Clinic's Florida Research and Innovation Center (FRIC) have identified a potential new target for anti-COVID-19 therapies. Their findings were published in Nature Microbiology. Led by FRIC scientific director Michaela Gack, Ph.D., the team discovered that a coronavirus enzyme called PLpro (papain-like protease) blocks the body's immune response to the infection. More research is necessary, but the findings suggest that therapeutics that inhibit the enzyme may help treat COVID-19. "SARS-CoV-2 - the virus that causes COVID-19 - has evolved quickly against many of the body's well-known ...

The storms, which consist of brightenings and broadenings of the dawn flank of an oval of auroral activity that encircles Jupiter's poles, evolve in a pattern surprisingly reminiscent of familiar surges in the aurora that undulate across Earth's polar skies, called auroral substorms, according to the authors. The new study is the first to track the storms from their birth on the nightside of the giant planet through their full evolution. It was published today in AGU Advances, AGU's journal for high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences. During a dawn storm, Jupiter's quiet and regular auroral arc transforms into a complex and intensely bright auroral ...

The market for air purifiers is booming, but a new study has found that some air cleaning technologies marketed for COVID-19 may be ineffective and have unintended health consequences. The study, authored by researchers at Illinois Tech, Portland State University, and Colorado State University, found that cleaning up one harmful air pollutant can create a suite of others. Both chamber and field tests found that an ionizing device led to a decrease in some volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including xylenes, but an increase in others, most prominently oxygenated VOCs (e.g., acetone, ethanol) and toluene, substances commonly found in paints, ...

Those who have persistent trouble sleeping may have an especially difficult grieving process after the death of a loved one, a new study co-authored by a University of Arizona researcher finds. Most people who lose a close friend or family member will experience sleep troubles as part of the grieving process, as the body and mind react to the stress of the event, said study co-author Mary-Frances O'Connor, a professor in the UArizona Department of Psychology. But O'Connor and her collaborators found that those who had persistent sleep challenges before losing someone were at higher risk for developing complicated grief after a loss. Complicated grief is characterized by a yearning for a lost loved one ...

It would surprise no one that pursuing a graduate degree can be a stressful endeavor, and for students who are transgender and nonbinary (TNB), the atmosphere can become toxic, according to University of Houston researcher Nathan Grant Smith. In a new paper published in Higher Education, Smith provides an analysis of current literature pertaining to TNB graduate student experiences and suggests interventions in graduate education to create more supportive environments for TNB students. "Nearly 50% of graduate students report experiencing emotional or psychological distress during their enrollment in graduate school. Levels of distress are particularly high for transgender ...

It has long been understood that a parent's DNA is the principal determinant of health and disease in offspring. Yet inheritance via DNA is only part of the story; a father's lifestyle such as diet, being overweight and stress levels have been linked to health consequences for his offspring. This occurs through the epigenome - heritable biochemical marks associated with the DNA and proteins that bind it. But how the information is transmitted at fertilization along with the exact mechanisms and molecules in sperm that are involved in this process has been unclear until now. A new study from McGill, published recently in Developmental Cell, has made a significant advance in the field by identifying how environmental information is transmitted by ...

Lightning strikes -- perhaps a quintillion of them, occurring over a billion years -- may have provided sparks of life for the early Earth. A new study by researchers at Yale and the University of Leeds contends that over time, these bolts from the blue unlocked the phosphorus necessary for the creation of biomolecules that would be the basis of life on the planet. "This work helps us understand how life may have formed on Earth and how it could still be forming on other, Earth-like planets," said lead author Benjamin Hess, a graduate student in Yale's Department of Earth & Planetary ...