Tech
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will challenge cities in ways that are difficult to fully predict, and yet critical to address early. A particular challenge is the potential for AVs to upset municipal budgets, as they upend traditional auto-related funding streams like vehicle registration fees and parking revenues. To prepare for this uncertain future, cities should practice scenario planning to understand revenue implications and identify alternative solutions.
Philadelphia, August 6, 2020 - Children's pester power may contribute to improvements in their family's food environments. A new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, highlights the potential for children to influence food consumption and habits at home.
Today, the entire globe is broken up into tectonic plates that are shifting past each other, causing the continents to drift slowly but steadily. But this has not always been the case.
The earliest evidence for plate tectonic features which could have been localized does not signify when plate tectonics became a global phenomenon. So, when did plate tectonics go global?
A lizard-like creature whose ancestors once roamed the Earth with dinosaurs and today is known to live for longer than 100 years may hold clues to a host of questions about the past and the future.
In a study published Aug. 5 in Nature, an interdisciplinary, international team of researchers, in partnership with Māori tribe Ngātiwai, sequenced, assembled and analyzed the complete genome of the Sphenodon punctatus, or the tuatara, a rare reptile whose ancestors once roamed the earth with dinosaurs. It hasn't changed much in the 150 million to 250 million years since then.
The geometry of an object indicates its shape or the relationship of its parts to each other. Did you know that the electrons in solids also have geometric structures? In quantum mechanics, an electron in solids takes the form of a wave with periodicity so that the periodic electronic state, so-called the Bloch state, can be characterized by specifying its energy and crystal momentum which is proportional to its wave number. The relationship between the energy and the crystal momentum of electrons is called the band structure of solids.
Huntington disease is a progressive and aggressively debilitating brain disorder that causes uncontrolled movements, psychological problems, and loss of cognition. It is caused by a mutation in the gene that encodes the protein huntingtin, causing it to build an abnormally long tail of the amino acid glutamine. This tail prevents huntingtin from folding properly and as a result it aggregates inside neurons of the brain, and eventually kills them.
Two in three hospitalized seniors are prescribed drugs that should be avoided by older adults, increasing the risk of injury and adverse drug reactions. Improving hospital prescribing practices can reduce the frequency of inappropriate medications and resulting harm, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.
TROY, N.Y. -- If builders could incorporate solar harvesting into the siding of a building, the amount of energy from the grid that a structure would need may significantly decrease.
In research published recently in Renewable Energy, a team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, led by Diana-Andra Borca-Tasciuc, a professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, demonstrated the potential of wedge-shaped luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs). These efficient modular solar units could easily be hung on the side of a building.
Microbes in "starter cultures" impart a distinctive tang and longer shelf life to food like sourdough bread, yogurt and kimchi through the process of fermentation. To get a better grasp of how microbes do this in fermented sausages, such as chorizo and pepperoni, researchers reporting in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry carefully show that these tiny organisms change the composition of fatty acids in these meats, contributing to many desirable traits.
Computational modeling has provided new insights into the heart's vascular system, a complex and mechanically demanding system that remains poorly understood.
Researchers from the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin and Iowa State University used computational modeling techniques to enable accurate visualizations of valve behavior for the first time.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) brought the atomic scale imaging resolution of scanning tunnelling microscopy, a technique that won the Nobel Prize in Physics, to non-conducting surfaces. However, imitations remain when trying to use the technique at its most sensitive with photosensitive samples in liquids. Now researchers at Kanazawa University show how to overcome these constraints, by driving a cantilever several micrometres in size at megahertz frequencies with stability and control in liquid and without potentially exposing the sample to light.
A team of chemists from HSE University and the Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry used molecular modelling to find out that two medications that have been known for a long time can be used to fight SARS-CoV-2. These are disulfiram, which is used to treat alcoholism, and neratinib, an experimental drug being used to treat breast cancer. The paper about the discovery has been available online since August 4, 2020, in the 4th issue of Mendeleev Communications journal.
The heights of La Soufrière de Guadeloupe volcano can be hellish, sweltering at more than 48 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) and swathed in billows of acidic gas. Researchers would like to monitor gas and steam eruptions at its summit, to learn more about the volcano's explosive potential, but conventional seismometers are destroyed quickly in the hostile environment.
Scientists have created a rapid and affordable test for breast cancer that is designed for use in developing regions, where patients often face delayed diagnoses that worsen their outcomes. The diagnostic showed an initial accuracy of 100% when tested in a small group of 68 patients, and could yield repeated results in less than 1 hour. Although more testing with large patient groups is necessary, the technique's speed and ease-of-use could help clinicians in resource-limited settings overcome barriers to rapid cancer diagnosis.
Usher and Ng, journalism professors at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, identified nine clusters of journalists or “communities of practice” in their study, published online by the journal Social Media and Society.
Their “elite/legacy” cluster was the largest, including about 30% of the journalists covered in the study, with The Washington Post, NBC News, NPR and The New York Times among the major newsrooms represented.