Northwestern engineering researchers have demonstrated a new approach to chemical catalysis that results in high propylene yields using less energy. The findings could support more energy-efficient production processes for many plastics. One of the highest volume chemical products, more than $100 billion worth of propylene is produced each year and used primarily to produce polypropylene for a variety of materials, from injection moldings in car parts to consumer products. Producing propylene is also energy intensive, requiring temperatures around 800 degrees Celsius to convert propane gas to propylene. One technique, called oxidative dehydrogenation, ...

A researcher from Skoltech has filled in the gaps connecting quantum simulators with more traditional quantum computers, discovering a new computationally universal model of quantum computation, the variational model. The paper was published as a Letter in the journal Physical Review A. The work made the Editors' Suggestion list. A quantum simulator is built to share properties with a target quantum system we wish to understand. Early quantum simulators were "dedicated" - that means they could not be programmed, tuned or adjusted and so could mimic one or very few target systems. Modern quantum simulators enable some control over their settings, offering more possibilities. In contrast to quantum simulators, the long-promised quantum computer is a fully programmable quantum system. While ...

A Korean research team has recently developed an innovative vesico-vaginal fistula treatment method using the mussel adhesive protein (MAP) that can effectively seal fistulas in organs even when exposed to urine. Professor Hyung Joon Cha, Dr. Hyo Jeong Kim (currently at Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology), and Dr. Tae Yoon Park of POSTECH's Department of Chemical Engineering with Professor Seok Ho Kang of the Department of Urology at Korea University School of Medicine and Professor Jong Hyun Pyun of the Department of Urology at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital have together improved the underwater adhesive using mussel protein and applied it to a pig model that simulated a vesico-vaginal fistula. ...

Osaka, Japan - Scientists from the Graduate School of Science at Osaka University created superabsorbent polymer (SAP) microparticles that self-assemble into structures that can be modified by adjusting the proportion of particle type. This research may lead to new tunable biomimetic "smart materials" that can sense and respond to specific chemicals. Biological molecules in living organisms have a remarkable ability to form self-assembled structures when triggered by an external molecule. This has led scientists to try to create other "smart materials" that respond to their environment. Now, a team of researchers at Osaka University has come up with a tunable system involving poly(sodium acrylate) microparticles that can have one of two types of chemical ...

The white paper, published today (March 22) by REPHRAIN, the National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online in collaboration with the Dutch National Police, offers a solution to big data problems that tend to hamper police probes into this type of law-breaking. The practice of attribution - who did what - is becoming increasingly complex as organised crimes incorporate deception, deletion and encryption in today's Information Age. Even when law enforcement are able to retrieve evidence via digital forensics, the complexities of the collected data mean it cannot be easily processed into factual police reports. ...

One prospective source of renewable energy is hydrogen gas produced from water with the aid of sunlight. Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have developed a material, nanoporous cubic silicon carbide, that exhibits promising properties to capture solar energy and split water for hydrogen gas production. The study has been published in the journal ACS Nano. "New sustainable energy systems are needed to meet global energy and environmental challenges, such as increasing carbon dioxide emissions and climate change", says Jianwu Sun, senior lecturer in the ...

A lot of the attention around "pandemic pets" has focused on families with children getting a cat, dog or other pet in 2020, during a time when many people were learning or working from home. But a new poll shows that older adults also got in on the trend. According to the National Poll on Healthy Aging, 10% of all people between the ages of 50 and 80 got a new pet between March 2020 and January 2021. The percentage was indeed higher - 16% -- among the people in this age range who have at least one child or teen living with them. But the vast majority of people between the ages of 50 and 80 don't live with someone under age 18 -- and nearly 9% of them also got a pet during the pandemic. All told, 59% of people age 50 to 80 who completed the poll in January 2021 are pet owners. ...

The Covid-19 pandemic severely impacted the mental health of young people, with increased levels of clinical depression being identified, a new study published in the journal Psychiatry Research reports. A decrease in alcohol consumption was also identified amongst young people during the pandemic. During this unique study researchers from the University of Surrey surveyed 259 young people pre- pandemic (autumn 2019) and in the midst of initial lockdown measures (May/June 2020) on their levels of depression, anxiety, wellbeing, alcohol use and sleep quality. Researchers found evidence of a substantial impact on the mental health of these young adults due ...

Research has found that experiencing a traumatic event at close quarters changes people's political attitudes. However, in the case of the 2017 terrorist attack in Stockholm, proximity to the attack had no additional political significance. Research from the University of Gothenburg shows that Swedes' attitudes toward terrorism-related questions were affected equally, regardless of whether they happened to be close to the attack. On 7 April 2017, Rakhmat Akilov stole a truck and ran down multiple people on Drottninggatan, a street in central Stockholm. Five people died, fifteen were injured and many people witnessed ...

A study which looked at activity levels before and during the COVID-19 pandemic has found lockdown restrictions significantly reduced light activity associated with socialising and work. The study, published recently in BMJ Neurology and led by King's College London, examined how activity levels changed in study participants with muscular dystrophy and other inheritable myopathies. The sample included people with a range of physical abilities, from highly independent to assisted mobility, including 41 wheelchair users, who are often underrepresented in research. However, the authors say the findings are likely to be relevant to adults of various ...

The excavation of shell middens off two sites in the Gulf of Mexico and Northern Europe dating back to when the seabed was dry land thousands of years ago, reveal how they can offer new ground-breaking insights into the hidden history of submerged landscapes. An international team of archaeologists from Moesgaard Museum (Denmark), the University Of Georgia (USA), the University of York (UK) Flinders University and James Cook University partnered to excavate two sites containing shell middens in the Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Jutland in Denmark in 2018, showing that middens can be ...

Crystals inherently possess imperfections. Vacancies, as the simplest form of point defects, significantly alter the optical, thermal, and electrical properties of materials. Well-known examples include colour centres in many gemstones, the nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond, vacancy migration in solid-state batteries, and the metal-insulator transition in phase-change materials. The vacancies in these cases are in frame-works with no or weak interactions. However, the role of vacancies in strongly correlated materials is thus far unclear due to the lack of an ideal prototype. Strongly ...

El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a recurring climate phenomenon involving changes in the temperature of waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. It is one of the most important climate perturbations on Earth because it can change the global atmospheric circulation, which in turn, influences temperature and precipitation across the globe. Scientists have found ENSO has an impact on hydroclimate over the Tibetan Plateau but how it works, or its physical mechanism, remains unclear. In a recently published research article in Journal of Climate, Shuai Hu, Tianjun Zhou and Bo Wu from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, explored the dynamical processes that ...

Durham, NC - The standard of treatment for bone tumors is often two-fold: surgery to remove the cancerous section followed by radiation therapy to ensure all the cancerous cells have been killed off. This is an effective way to defeat bone tumors; however, it often results in large bone defects and hampers wound healing because of extensive tissue cutoff and irradiation-induced tissue damage. A new study published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine demonstrates how stem cells primed with ferulic acid can repair such bone damage and how this occurs. The information this study provides could aid in the development of new treatments for irradiated bone injuries. Heng Zhu, M.D., Ph.D., of the Beijing Institute of ...

As World Water Day is observed around the globe, new research from UBC Okanagan suggests a systematic approach to forest and water supply research may yield an improved assessment and understanding of connections between the two. Healthy forests play a vital role in providing a clean, stable water supply, says eco-hydrologist Dr. Adam Wei. Acting as natural reservoirs, forests in watersheds release and purify water by slowing erosion and delaying its release into streams. But forests are changing--in part because of human activity--and that's having an impact on forests' interaction with hydrological ...

Latino undergraduate male college students are involved in many leadership roles, yet how this leadership evolves in higher education has been understudied. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University in collaboration with San Diego State University and Texas A&M University explored how Latino male college students make meaning of their masculinity and how this meaning shapes their understanding and performance of leadership. The study published in the International Journal of Leadership Education, utilized a qualitative method to delve deep into the understandings of the masculinities, gender socialization, leadership and transfer experiences of 34 Latino undergraduate male students. Using a philosophical approach, the researchers ...

Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology have produced a structural battery that performs ten times better than all previous versions. It contains carbon fibre that serves simultaneously as an electrode, conductor, and load-bearing material. Their latest research breakthrough paves the way for essentially 'massless' energy storage in vehicles and other technology. The batteries in today's electric cars constitute a large part of the vehicles' weight, without fulfilling any load-bearing function. A structural battery, on the other hand, is one that works as both a power source and as part of the structure - for example, in a car body. This is termed 'massless' energy storage, because in essence the battery's weight vanishes when it becomes part of ...

Announcing a new article publication for BIO Integration journal. In this review article the authors Oliver K. Semisch-Dieter, Andy H. Choi and Martin P. Stewart from the University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, Australia discuss the use of biomaterials in dental implants. Biomaterials have become essential for modern implants. A suitable implant biomaterial integrates into the body to perform a key function, whilst minimizing negative immune response. Focusing on dentistry, the use of dental implants for tooth replacement requires a balance between bodily response, mechanical structure and performance, and aesthetics. ...

A team of researchers from Tübingen and Israel uncovers how brain structures can maintain function and stable dynamics even in unusual conditions. Their results might lay the foundations for better understanding and treating conditions like epilepsy and autism. The neurons in our brains are connected with each other, forming small functional units called neural circuits. A neuron that is connected to another one via a synapsis can transmit information to the second neuron by sending a signal. This, in turn, might prompt the second neuron to transmit a signal to ...

Tsukuba, Japan - An earthquake is generally viewed to be caused by a rupture along a fault that is transmitted outward from its point of origin in a uniform, predictable pattern. Of course, given the complexity of the environments where these ruptures typically occur, the reality is often much more complicated. In a new study published in Scientific Reports, a research team led by the University of Tsukuba developed a new method to model the details of complex earthquake rupture processes affecting systems of multiple faults. They then applied this method to the magnitude ...

An international team of interdisciplinary researchers has identified mathematical metrics to characterize the fragility of financial markets. Their paper "Network geometry and market instability" sheds light on the higher-order architecture of financial systems and allows analysts to identify systemic risks like market bubbles or crashes. With the recent rush of small investors into so-called meme stocks and reemerging interest in cryptocurrencies talk of market instability, rising volatility, and bursting bubbles is surging. However, "traditional economic theories cannot foresee events like the US subprime mortgage collapse of 2007" according ...

Point Epithelial cell rests of Malassez derived from the periodontal ligament were transformed into progenitor stem-like cells by stimulation with epigenetic agents. Subsequently, the progenitor stem-like cells were directly differentiated into endothelial, mesenchymal stem, and osteogenic cells that constitute the periodontal ligament. Background Stem cells derived from the dental pulp or periodontal ligament have been used for regenerative dentistry. Although it is relatively easy to collect the dental pulp stem cells, it is difficult to obtain adequate numbers of good quality cells; a ...

Using an improved version of the gene editing tool CRISPR/Cas9, researchers knocked out up to twelve genes in plants in a single blow. Until now, this had only been possible for single or small groups of genes. The approach was developed by researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB). The method makes it easier to investigate the interaction of various genes. The study appeared in The Plant Journal. The inheritance of traits in plants is rarely as simple and straightforward as Gregor Mendel described. The monk, whose experiments in the 19th century on trait inheritance in peas laid the foundation of genetics, in fact got lucky. "In the traits that ...

Patricia Bernal, a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Department of Microbiology of the University of Seville's Faculty of Biology, is working with the bacterium Pseudomonas putida, a biological control agent found in the soil and in plant roots and which, as such, has the ability to protect plants from pathogen attacks (organisms that cause diseases) also known as phytopathogens. Specifically, the US researcher is studying a molecular weapon that bacteria use (Type VI Secretion System or T6SS) to eliminate their competitors. The T6SS could be compared to a harpoon with a poisonous tip that bacteria throw at their enemies to annihilate them. In a recent paper, which has just been published in the scientific journal PNAS and for ...

Igor Stagljar made his career building molecular tools to combat cancer. But when the pandemic hit last March, he aimed his expertise at a new adversary, SARS-CoV-2. Stagljar is a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research at U of T's Temerty Faculty of Medicine. Last spring, with support from U of T's Toronto COVID-19 Action Fund, his team began developing a new method for measuring immunity to coronavirus in those who recovered from COVID-19. They are now ready to reveal their creation -- a pinprick test that accurately measures ...