Households in low-income areas face significantly higher increases in petrol prices when rival fuel stations close compared to high-income areas, according to new research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA).   At the same time, low-income areas do not benefit from a higher drop in prices when new stations open.   The study is published today in the Journal of Industrial Economics. It shows that it matters who operates the petrol stations: large chains respond with higher price increases following the exit of one of their rivals.   Other factors, such as reliance on cars, commuting distance, age, or education also drive some of this ...

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI  10.29026/oea.2024.240040, discusses an externally perceivable smart leaky-wave antenna based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons.   Smart antennas have garnered significant attention for their ability to enable both communication and perception functions simultaneously, commonly with complicated control and high cost though. The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) has led to new applications across disciplines, and a range of flexible and miniaturized perceptive devices. Therefore, smart antennas that can ...

MSU has a satellite uplink/LTN TV studio and Comrex line for radio interviews upon request. EAST LANSING, Mich. – Researchers in Michigan State University’s Department of Kinesiology found significant geographic variations in concussion diagnoses in United States emergency departments — with the highest rates in the South and lower rates in the Midwest and Northeast. The study, published by the Journal of Safety Research, analyzed a public database of emergency department visits from 2010 to 2018, focusing on sport-related concussions, or SRC, and nonsport-related concussions, or NSRC. The study authors, from MSU’s College of Education and ...

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI  10.29026/oea.2024.240061, discusses soliton microcomb generation by cavity polygon modes.   Optical frequency comb (OFC) is a coherent light source consisting of a series of discrete, equally spaced and phase-locked frequency lines, which is crucial for practical applications in building optical clocks, searching Earth-like exoplanets, exploring quantum optics, optical frequency synthesis, high-resolution optical spectroscopy, lidar, high-speed telecom communication, microwave photonics, and many others.   In recent years, on-chip soliton microcomb, which finely balances ...

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI  10.29026/oea.2024.240076 , discusses spin-controlled generation of a complete polarization set with randomly-interleaved plasmonic metasurfaces.   Optical metasurfaces are finely crafted two-dimensional artificial nanostructures composed of meticulously designed arrays of ultrathin artificial atoms. These surfaces possess capabilities beyond natural materials, enabling multifunctional control of electromagnetic waves. By designing the shape, ...

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Sciences; DOI 10.29026/oes.2024.240012, discusses a multi-functional and highly reconfigurable monolithic signal processing system.   Photonic signal processing offers a versatile and promising toolkit for contemporary scenarios ranging from digital optical communication to analog microwave operation. Compared to its electronic counterpart, it eliminates inherent bandwidth limitations and meanwhile exhibits the potential to provide unparalleled scalability and flexibility, particularly through ...

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Sciences; DOI 10.29026/oes.2024.240005, discusses advances in optical micronanofiber enabled tactile sensors and soft actuators.   As a perfect combination of fiber optics and micro/nanotechnology, optical micro/nanofiber (MNF) is a new type of micro/nano-waveguide structure developed in recent years. Compared with standard fiber, MNF has smaller diameter and larger core cladding refractive index contrast, so it offers unique optical properties, including low transmission loss, strong light-field constraint, large evanescent ...

Xiaopeng Zhao, a professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering and founding director of the Applied AI Program in the College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies at UT, is part of a collaborative team that has been awarded a $401,090 grant from the National Institutes of Health.  The team received the multi-year funded grant for the project “Robot-based Information and Support to Enhance Alzheimer’s Caregiver Health (RISE).” The research is supported ...

While doctors can track cancer progression at the cellular level or use a blood test to obtain precise blood cholesterol levels, talk therapy’s impact on mental health is still largely reliant on gut feelings more than hard data.  A national initiative led by the National Institute of Mental Health is now underway to find figurative “rulers” that can accurately measure and compare the quality of the various mental health treatments available. To lead off this effort, UCLA Health researchers were awarded a four-year, $2.1 million federal grant to study and test whether such a quality measure can be created and applied across all social groups in the United States.  “We ...

A Cleveland Clinic study recently published in Blood Cancer Journal evaluated factors associated with delayed time to treatment with oral antimyeloma medications in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.  The research found a significant delay in the initiation of these more costly medications compared to the time to initiate any other treatment for multiple myeloma (including inpatient chemotherapy or more affordable corticosteroids), especially among Black and elderly patients. The retrospective study also identified independent predictors associated with delayed prescription fill. These findings highlight the urgent need to address barriers to ...

Texas A&M University is joining a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center (ERC), led by Northwestern University, seeking to develop robots capable of enhancing human labor. A central goal of the Human AugmentatioN via Dexterity (HAND) center is to make robotic assistance accessible and applicable to a wide range of physical actions through an engineered system of dexterous robotic hands, AI-powered fine motor skills, human interface, as well as developing the workforce and training for the future. The five-year, $26 million grant also includes Carnegie-Mellon University and Florida A&M University, ...

https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.15212/CVIA.2024.0034 Announcing a new article publication for Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications journal.  Aortic dissection (AD) is a fatal cardiovascular disease for which the key involved genes are largely unknown. The authors of this article aimed to identify promising AD biomarkers from high-throughput RNA expressing data. In the GSE98770 dataset, differentially expressed mRNAs (DE-mRNAs) and microRNAs (DE-microRNAs) were identified through differentially expressed gene analysis and gene set enrichment ...

In the latest of three online gambling surveys conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, monthly gamblers in Massachusetts reported an increase in gambling intensity and gambling harms. In addition, their attitudes toward gambling have grown more negative. The online surveys – conducted in 2014, 2022 and 2023 – can’t be generalized to the overall population but give the Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA) research team a picture of changing behaviors and attitudes over time ...

The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) proudly announces the appointment of Tim Bertram, PhD, as its new Chief Ecosystem Officer. He will serve as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) multi-million-dollar long-term investment in commercializing advanced regenerative medical technologies from leading North Carolina academic institutions.  With an illustrious career marked by innovation and leadership, Bertram brings decades of transformative ...

Davis, CA — The NEC Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a devastating neonatal intestinal disease, proudly marks its 10th anniversary. Founded by Jennifer Canvasser after the tragic loss of her son, Micah, the organization works tirelessly to build a world without NEC, the disease that killed her child and claims another child every day in the United States. Canvasser shares, "Ten years ago, patient-families affected by NEC were isolated, and clinician-scientists worked in silos. Over the past decade, we've built an empowered community dedicated to transforming our pain into power and isolation into collaboration.”  Since ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Aug. 29, 2024 – A new study from researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine is shedding light on how scientific evidence and the uncertainty surrounding three unproven therapeutics were portrayed by the U.S. news media during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings appear online in the Journal of Medical Internet Research Infodemiology. For the study, the researchers conducted an analysis of 479 reports of hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir and/or convalescent plasma in traditional and online U.S. ...

This summer, Yishu Wang was awarded a $719,000 research grant from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to study the dynamic and microscopic behaviors of magnets with quantum mechanical properties. Magnetism originates from electrons in a material. When the electrons in a material all spin in the same direction, as they do in metals like iron, the material is magnetic, with poles that attract or repel other magnetic materials. “Magnets that we are using today can be viewed as static orderings of electrons, analogous to the static pattern of brushstrokes in a painting,” said Wang, a joint assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering ...

Terahertz communications represent the next frontier in wireless technology, promising data transmission rates far exceeding current systems. By operating at terahertz frequencies, these systems can support unprecedented bandwidth, enabling ultra-fast wireless communication and data transfer. However, one of the significant challenges in terahertz communications is effectively managing and utilising the available spectrum. The team has developed the first integrated terahertz polarisation (de)multiplexer implemented on a substrateless silicon base which they have successfully tested in the sub-terahertz J-band (220-330 GHz) for 6G communications and beyond. The University of Adelaide’s ...

Studies have shown that undergraduate students who participate in research activities under the guidance of a faculty mentor are more likely to finish college. That’s one of the many reasons universities like The University of Texas at Arlington are increasing their investment into undergraduate research. Such research opportunities are not offered at many two-year colleges. To help bridge this gap, Jianzhong Su, professor of mathematics at UTA, is piloting a new program where students from the North Lake campus of Dallas College can come to UT Arlington to participate in a paid research ...

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory added a new neutron scattering instrument to its powerhouse of discovery at the Spallation Neutron Source, charting new territory for neutron imaging through artificial intelligence. In July, DOE’s Office of Science approved the final commissioning of the Versatile Neutron Imaging Instrument, or VENUS. “It’s a dream come true,” said ORNL neutron scattering scientist Hassina Bilheux. “It has been an honor and privilege to ...

A machine-learning tool created by Weill Cornell Medicine and Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) investigators can help distinguish subtypes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which may help scientists find ways to improve care for the complex condition. The study published Aug. 29 in Nature Communications shows that artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies can effectively and efficiently subtype pathology samples from patients with RA. “Our tool automates the analysis of pathology slides, which may one day lead to more precise and efficient disease diagnosis and personalized treatment for ...

An ancient gene is crucial for the development of the distinctive waist that divides the spider body plan in two, according to a study publishing August 29th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Emily Setton from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, and colleagues. The spider body is divided into two sections, separated by a narrow waist. Compared to insects and crustaceans, relatively little is known about embryonic development in spiders, and the genes involved in the formation of the spider waist are poorly understood. To investigate, researchers sequenced genes expressed in embryos of the Texas brown tarantula (Aphonopelma hentzi) ...

A new study paves the way to understanding biotic recovery after an ecological crisis in the Mediterranean Sea about 5.5 million years ago. An international team led by Konstantina Agiadi from the University of Vienna has now been able to quantify how marine biota was impacted by the salinization of the Mediterranean: Only 11 percent of the endemic species survived the crisis, and the biodiversity did not recover for at least another 1.7 million years. The study was just published in the renowned journal Science. Lithospheric movements throughout Earth history have repeatedly led to the isolation of regional seas from the ...

Staphylococcus aureus has the potential to develop durable vancomycin resistance, according to a study published August 28, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Samuel Blechman and Erik Wright from the University of Pittsburgh, USA. Despite decades of widespread treatment with the antibiotic vancomycin, vancomycin resistance among the bacterium S. aureus is extremely uncommon—only 16 such cases have reported in the U.S. to date. Vancomycin resistance mutations enable bacteria to grow in the presence of vancomycin, but they do so at a cost. Vancomycin-resistant S. aureus (VRSA) strains grow more slowly and will often lose their resistance mutations if vancomycin ...

A person’s exhaled breath – which provides information that could unveil diverse health insights – has been hard to analyze. Now, a novel “smart mask” provides real-time, non-invasive monitoring of what people exhale. The mask, dubbed EBCare, captures and analyzes exhaled breath condensate (EBC), and it offers a promising solution for continuous EBC analysis at an affordable cost. “The significance of EBCare lies in its role as a versatile, convenient, efficient, real-time research platform and solution in various medical domains, ...