PULLMAN, Wash. – An artificial intelligence algorithm can allow researchers to more efficiently use 3D printing to manufacture intricate structures. The Washington State University study, published in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies, could allow for more seamless use of 3D printing for complex designs in everything from artificial organs to flexible electronics and wearable biosensors. As part of the study, the algorithm learned to identify, and then print, the best versions of kidney and prostate organ models, printing out 60 continually improving versions. “You can optimize the results, saving time, cost and labor,” said Kaiyan Qiu, co-corresponding ...

New research from Northwestern University has systematically proven that a mild zap of electricity can strengthen a marine coastline for generations — greatly reducing the threat of erosion in the face of climate change and rising sea levels. In the new study, researchers took inspiration from clams, mussels and other shell-dwelling sea life, which use dissolved minerals in seawater to build their shells. Similarly, the researchers leveraged the same naturally occurring, dissolved minerals to form a natural cement between sea-soaked grains of sand. But, instead of using metabolic energy like mollusks ...

A computational model built by researchers at the Institute of Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) can predict which drugs will be most effective in treating diseases caused by mutations that can bring protein synthesis to a halt, resulting in unfinished proteins.  The findings, published today in Nature Genetics, mark an important step in helping personalise treatment by matching patients with specific mutations with the most promising drug candidate. The predictive model, a publicly ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University and Johns Hopkins University have demonstrated a technology capable of a suite of data storage and computing functions – repeatedly storing, retrieving, computing, erasing or rewriting data – that uses DNA rather than conventional electronics. Previous DNA data storage and computing technologies could complete some but not all of these tasks. “In conventional computing technologies, we take for granted that the ways data are stored and the way data are processed are compatible with each other,” ...

One hundred years after the human brain’s electrical activity was first recorded, experts are celebrating the legacy of its discovery and sharing their predictions and priorities for its future.  Since the first recording in July 1924, human electroencephalography (EEG) has been integral to our understanding of brain function and dysfunction: most significantly in the clinical diagnosis of epilepsy, where the analysis of the EEG signal meant that a condition previously seen as a personality disorder was quickly redefined as a disorder of brain activity.  Now, a century on, more than 500 experts from around the globe, ...

Stroke and spinal cord injuries can severely impair motor functions, and understanding how to promote recovery is a critical challenge. While damaged neurons in the brain and spinal cord have limited ability to regenerate, the brain can form or strengthen alternative neural pathways involving uninjured parts of the brain, enabling functional recovery. Such reorganization of pathways in the brain is called neural plasticity, and identifying the involved pathways and understanding their functions can ...

A study carried out in St Vincent’s University Hospital (SVUH) Dublin challenges the belief that weight loss medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy or Monjaro work just by promoting satiety and making you eat less. The randomized controlled trial with 30 patients was led by Professor Donal O’Shea, SVUH and UCD School of Medicine, and examined the family of medications based on the hormone Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). The findings published today in the Journal of the Obesity Society shows that there is a strong relationship between the increase in metabolic ...

Inflammation of the abdominal cavity in human fetuses resulting from a perforation of their intestine is likely to be caused by proteins contained in the fetal stool. This is the result of a Kobe University study that establishes a new mouse model allowing research and drug development for a condition that is otherwise difficult to approach. The fetus’s stool, called the “meconium,” is sterile but nevertheless causes inflammation of the abdominal cavity when it leaks out of the intestine after a perforation. Called “meconium peritonitis,” this is a life-threatening condition for the baby with a mortality rate of 10%-15% in humans, and neither a cause ...

In radiology, diagnostic imaging requires specialized knowledge to interpret the findings associated with a wide variety of diseases. Fortunately, in recent years, generative AI models, such as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT), have shown potential as diagnostic tools in the medical field, but their accuracy must be evaluated for optimal use in the future. Therefore, Dr. Daisuke Horiuchi and Associate Professor Daiju Ueda of Osaka Metropolitan University’s Graduate School of Medicine led a research team that compared the diagnostic accuracy of ChatGPT and radiologists. They used 106 musculoskeletal radiology cases with patient medical history, images, ...

My new article, ‘Quantum Entanglement of Optical Photons: The First Experiment, 1964-67’, is intended to convey the spirit of a small research project that reaches into uncharted territory. The article breaks with tradition, as it offers a first-person account of the strategy and challenges for the experiment, as well as an interpretation of the final result and its significance. In this guest editorial, I will introduce the subject and also attempt to illuminate the question ‘What is a paradox?’ Let’s begin with the gyroscope that I bought when I was eight, from a store ...

Kumamoto University researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery that sheds light on how the HMGA2 gene—an essential transcriptional activator involved in chromatin modification—regulates stress responses in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), thereby enhancing blood cell production recovery.   Exposure to infections or treatments such as chemotherapy often leads to a rapid decline in blood cells, including red blood cells and platelets. HSCs, which reside in the bone marrow that can develop into various types of blood cells, are crucial for recovering from these stress-induced blood disorders. Under stressd ...

Physicians at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University are working with Polaris Dawn, the first of the Polaris Program’s three human spaceflight missions, to better understand the eye changes many astronauts experience during spaceflight that can leave them with a wide range of symptoms once they return to Earth — from a new need for glasses to significant loss of vision. The Polaris Program is a first-of-its-kind effort to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities while continuing to raise funds and awareness for important causes on Earth. More than 70% of astronauts experience a phenomenon ...

Training deep learning models on large datasets is essential for their success; however, these datasets often contain label noise, which can significantly decrease the classification performance on test datasets. To address this issue, a research team consisting of Enes Dedeoglu, H. Toprak Kesgin, and Prof. Dr. M. Fatih Amasyali from Yildiz Technical University developed a groundbreaking method called Adaptive-k, which improves the optimization process and yields better results in the presence of label noise. Their research was published on 15 August 2024 in ...

□ A team led by Professor Ji-woong Yang of DGIST’s (President Kun-woo Lee) Department of Energy Science and Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Moon-kee Choi of UNIST's Department of New Materials and Dr. Taeg-hwan Hyun of the IBS Nanoparticle Research Center, has developed a double-layer dry transfer printing technology that simultaneously transfers light-emitting and electron-transferring layers onto a substrate. This technology is expected to provide a more life-like view in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), greatly enhancing the immersive experience.   □ ...

Shawna Hollen, associate professor of physics, has been named to The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s 2024 cohort of Experimental Physics Investigators. The prestigious honor, which is accompanied by $1.25 million in funding over the next five years, will advance understanding of the link between charge density waves and quantum dots, two physical phenomena that could lead to improvements in quantum computing. “The ideas that I put forward [in my proposal] haven’t been demonstrated. It’s not something that anyone else ...

In 2011, UNESCO issued The UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (“The Recommendation” hereafter), introducing the concept of “historic urban landscape” (HUL). HUL is defined as “the urban context and its geographical setting taking into consideration the historical layering of cultural and natural values and attributes”. It is noteworthy that ancient towns or historic cities, as an important subclass of HUL, have garnered increasing attention. In recent years, public perception and emotional experience of physical environments have become ...

Metasurfaces are two-dimensional counterparts of metamaterials, which are the artificial materials that possess unusual characteristics. With a variety of fascinatingly innovative and diverse uses, these specially-prepared surfaces with engineered patterns can modify the propagation of electromagnetic waves across the entire spectrum of wavelengths. Though the journey of metamaterials began with metal-dielectric systems, the metasurfaces have gone all-dielectric, and are crucial in applications relating to optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and light emitting diodes (LED) to improve their efficiency through a mere surface effect. Student researchers led ...

This year, New Zealand became among the first countries in the world to force their largest companies and financial institutions (about 200 in all) to disclose their climate-related risks and opportunities in their annual reports, and make regulatory filings. Over the last month, these reports have been filed under the disclosure regime led by the Financial Markets Authority. But do these kinds of initiatives improve environmental outcomes? A new study, co-authored by Professor Charl de Villiers (University of Auckland, Business ...

Solution-processed semiconductor nanocrystals are also called colloidal quantum dots (QDs). While the concept of size-dependent quantum effects had been long known to physicists, a sculpture of the theory into real nanodimensional objects remained impossible till the discovery of QDs. The size-dependent colors of QDs are essentially naked-eye, ambient-condition visualization of the quantum size effect. In recent years, researchers across the world have been searching for fascinating quantum effects or phenomena using the material platform of QDs, such as single-photon emission and quantum coherence manipulation. Floquet states (i.e., ...

Antarctica’s unique ecosystems could be threatened by the arrival of non-native marine species and marine pollution from Southern Hemisphere landmasses, new oceanographic modelling shows.  In a study published today in Global Change Biology, scientists from UNSW Sydney, ANU, University of Otago and the University of South Florida suggest that floating objects can reach Antarctic waters from more sources than previously thought. “An increasing abundance of plastics and other human made debris in the oceans means there are potentially more opportunities ...

A recent study has explored the legal and ethical challenges expected to arise in human brain organoid research. Human brain organoids are three-dimensional neural tissues derived from stem cells that can mimic some aspects of the human brain. Their use holds incredible promise for medical advancements, but this also raises complex ethical and legal questions that need careful consideration. Seeking to examine the various legal challenges that might arise in the context of human brain organoid research and its applications, the team of researchers, which included a legal scholar, identified and ...

University of Queensland researchers have discovered a mechanism in DNA that regulates how disease-causing mutations are inherited.   Dr Anne Hahn and Associate Professor Steven Zuryn from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute said the findings could provide a promising therapeutic avenue to stop the onset of heritable and age-related diseases.  “Mitochondrial DNA is essential for cell function,” Dr Hahn said.   “But as we age it mutates, contributing to diseases ...

LA JOLLA, CA—In a struggle that probably sounds familiar to dieters everywhere, the less a Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) worm eats, the more slowly it loses fat. Now, scientists at Scripps Research have discovered why: a small molecule produced by the worms’ intestines during fasting travels to the brain to block a fat-burning signal during this time. Although the exact molecule they identified in the worms has not yet been studied in humans, the new work helps scientists better ...

Modelling study using data on 854 European cities is the first to estimate current and future deaths from hot and cold temperatures at this level of regional detail for the entire continent.  Study suggests existing regional disparities in death risk from hot and cold temperatures among adults will widen in the future due to climate change and ageing populations.  A slight decline in cold-related deaths is projected by 2100, while deaths from heat will increase in all parts of Europe, most significantly in southern regions. Areas worst affected will include Spain, Italy, Greece and parts of France.   Currently, around eight times ...

Suicide rates among doctors have declined over time, but are still significantly higher for female doctors compared with the general population, finds an analysis of evidence from 20 countries published by The BMJ today. The researchers acknowledge that physician suicide risk varies across different countries and regions, but say the results highlight the ongoing need for continued research and prevention efforts, particularly among female physicians. According to some estimates, one doctor dies by suicide every day in the US, and ...