Tech
When living cells are bombarded with fast, heavy ions, their interactions with water molecules can produce randomly scattered 'secondary' electrons with a wide range of energies. These electrons can then go on to trigger potentially damaging reactions in nearby biological molecules, producing electrically charged fragments. So far, however, researchers have yet to determine the precise energies at which secondary electrons produce certain fragments.
TROY, N.Y. -- A small energy harvesting device that can transform subtle mechanical vibrations into electrical energy could be used to power wireless sensors and actuators for use in anything from temperature and occupancy monitoring in smart environments, to biosensing within the human body.
Washington, October 29, 2020--A study published today in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association, provides preliminary projections of the impact of COVID-19-related school closures in spring 2020 on student learning. The study authors found that compared to a typical year, students likely did not gain as much academically during the truncated 2019-20 school year and likely lost more of those gains due to extended time out of school.
BOSTON - A key step in the immune system's response to allergens has been uncovered by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). They have shown that a neuropeptide called Substance P is released by certain neurons in the skin when they detect allergens, and that this substance is essential in the development of allergen-induced immune responses. This research could lead to the development of new and better methods to treat and prevent allergies.
(Philadelphia, PA) - Like a key, SARS-CoV-2 - the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) - attaches to specific molecules on the host cell surface, opening gateways into the cell interior. Viral entry into host cells triggers a prodigious immune response. Much of this battle is waged within the lungs, which explains why many patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have severe respiratory symptoms.
Boulder, Colo., USA: Per-/poly-fluroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are everywhere. They are used in firefighting foam, car wax, and even fast-food wrappers. They're one of the most toxic substances ever identified--harmful at concentrations in the parts per trillion--yet very little is known about them. PFAS, which is a class of over 3000 compounds, are only regulated at the state level, so while some states are working to aggressively tackle the problem, other states have chosen to ignore PFAS completely, leaving concentrations unknown and health risks unexplored.
Silicon does not have to be crystalline, but can also be produced as an amorphous thin film. In such amorphous films, the atomic structure is disordered like in a liquid or glass. If additional hydrogen is incorporated during the production of these thin layers, so-called a-Si:H layers are formed. "Such a-Si:H thin films have been known for decades and are used for various applications, for example as contact layers in world record tandem solar cells made of perovskite and silicon, recently developed by HZB" explains Prof. Klaus Lips from HZB.
When satellites take pictures of Earth at night, how much of the light that they see comes from streetlights? A team of scientists from Germany, the USA, and Ireland have answered this question for the first time using the example of the U.S. city of Tucson, thanks to "smart city" lighting technology that allows cities to dim their lights. The result: only around 20 percent of the light in the satellite images of Tucson comes from streetlights. The study is published today in the journal Lighting Research & Technology.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- We know how search engines can favor certain results and how social media might push us into bubbles, but it's still easy to view the internet as a place where we're in control.
A new study, however, argues that notion of personal empowerment is "an illusion." Corporations are "nudging" the flow of our online attention more than we realize, and often in hidden ways - not unlike radio and TV programmers of the past - said co-authors Harsh Taneja, with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Angela Xiao Wu, with New York University.
President Donald Trump is about even with former Vice President Joe Biden in a close contest for Texas' 38 electoral votes in a new swing state poll of Texas likely voters released today.
Former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by 10 points among likely New Hampshire voters, according to a new poll released today by the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion.
Biden has extended his lead over Trump in the contest for New Hampshire's four electoral votes in a new swing state poll of likely New Hampshire voters by the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion. New Hampshire was hotly contested in 2016 with Hillary Clinton besting Trump by fewer than 3,000 total votes, a margin of less than one half of 1 percent.
With less than a week to go before Election Day, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden remain deadlocked in the race for the 15 electoral votes in the swing state of North Carolina, according to a new poll released today.
"North Carolina is a must-win state for Trump, who trails Biden in most national polls and must hold onto the narrow map of states that brought him a victory in 2016," said Joshua Dyck, director of the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion and associate professor of political science.
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., October 29, 2020 - Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and their collaborators from the University of California, Irvine have created fundamental electronic building blocks out of tiny structures known as quantum dots and used them to assemble functional logic circuits. The innovation promises a cheaper and manufacturing-friendly approach to complex electronic devices that can be fabricated in a chemistry laboratory via simple, solution-based techniques, and offer long-sought components for a host of innovative devices.
New model treats decided voters as 'infected' and undecided voters as 'susceptible' to infection
Democratic and Republican 'diseases' propagate through a population, 'infecting' undecided voters
Model introduces the possibility of asymmetric relationships, or influence, among states
As of today (Oct. 29), the model forecasts a victory for Biden 89.03% of the time
EVANSTON, Ill. -- A new election forecasting approach uses mathematical modeling to describe how voters in different states may influence each other during an election year.
HOUSTON - (Oct. 29, 2020) - Marrying two layers of graphene is an easy route to the blissful formation of nanoscale diamond, but sometimes thicker is better.
While it may only take a bit of heat to turn a treated bilayer of the ultrathin material into a cubic lattice of diamane, a bit of pressure in just the right place can convert few-layer graphene as well.