Tech
Acting like an invisible force field, a new liquid coating being developed by UBC Okanagan researchers may provide an extra layer of protection for front-line workers.
Researchers at the Okanagan Polymer Engineering Research and Applications (OPERA) Lab have developed a coating that repels nearly all substances off a surface. And that new coating will make cleaning personal protective equipment a little bit easier for front-line health care workers, explains Kevin Golovin, an assistant professor at UBCO's School of Engineering and director at OPERA.
California may see a 54 percent increase in rainfall variability by the end of this century, according to new research from the lab of Assistant Professor Da Yang, a 2019 Packard Fellow and atmospheric scientist with the University of California, Davis.
A research led by the Department of Geography at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has revealed that the observed average moving speed (or translation speed) of tropical cyclones making landfall over the coast of China dropped by 11% between 1961 and 2017. These slow-moving tropical cyclones brought about 20% more local total rainfall on average when compared with fast-moving ones, resulting in greater flood risks in the region.
DALLAS, July 16, 2020 -- Having more social disadvantages can nearly triple your risk of stroke, particularly if you are under the age of 75, according to new research published today in Stroke, a journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association.
PHILADELPHIA - Rare inherited mutations in the body's master regulator of the DNA repair system - the TP53 gene - can leave people at a higher risk of developing multiple types of cancer over the course of their lives. Now, for the first time, a team led by researchers in the Basser Center for BRCA at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania details the potential implications of a lower risk TP53 mutation, including an association with a specific type of Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS), an inherited predisposition to a wide range of cancers.
An international consortium of scientists has refined the map of caesium and plutonium radionuclide concentrations in soils in Switzerland and several neighbouring countries. Using an archive of European soil samples, the team led by Katrin Meusburger from the University of Basel, now at the WSL research institute, was able to trace the sources of radioactive fallout between 1960 and 2009. This study was published in Scientific Reports.
Bacteria of the genus Bartonella are parasites that can be transmitted to humans via insect bites and animal scratches, resulting in an infection known as "bartonellosis." Cat-scratch disease and trench fever are forms of bartonellosis caused by different Bartonella species infecting humans. Bartonella bacteria can cause lesions to pop up in the skin and internal organs.
One in fifty births in Japan are said to be through in vitro fertilization, and many couples remain unable to conceive for reasons unknown. Infertility is also an undesired side-effect of lifesaving cancer treatment in childhood.
The quantum realm holds the key to the next revolution in communication technology as we know it. With the promise of unprecedented performance and impenetrable security, quantum technology is taking its first steps towards the ultimate goal of applications such as highly encrypted yet nearly fast-as-light financial transactions. However, the ability for quantum computers to communicate with one another has been limited by the resources required for such exchanges, constraining the amount of information that can be traded, as well as the amount of time it can be stored.
They look deceptively real, but they are made by computers: so-called deep-fake images are generated by machine learning algorithms, and humans are pretty much unable to distinguish them from real photos. Researchers at the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Cluster of Excellence "Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries" (Casa) have developed a new method for efficiently identifying deep-fake images. To this end, they analyse the objects in the frequency domain, an established signal processing technique.
The "nanolimpiad", as the complex structure of self-assembled links has been named, looks like the five Olympic Rings and may become the source of new polymeric materials with innovative properties.
Long-range transboundary transport of air pollutants (e.g. ozone) is one of the important environmental concerns globally. Previous studies on trans-Pacific transport of air pollutants have been mainly focused on the influence of anthropogenic fossil fuel combustion sources in Asia, especially from China. This study reveals that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-modulated vegetation fires in Southeast Asia, rather than fossil fuel plumes from China, dominate the springtime trans-Pacific transport of ozone across the entire North Pacific Ocean.
Thousands of years ago the UK was physically joined to the rest of Europe through an area known as Doggerland. However, a marine inundation took place during the mid-holocene, separating the British landmass from the rest of Europe, which is now covered by the North Sea.
Scientists from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick have studied sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) from sediment deposits in the southern North Sea, an area which has not previously been linked to a tsunami that occurred 8150 years ago.
A team of 10 interdisciplinary researchers from the University of Surrey's renowned Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), including PhD students and post-doctoral researchers, have united to develop a rapid assessment of the impact COVID-19 has had on air quality.
Requirements for consumers to wear masks at public places like retail stores and restaurants are very similar to smoking bans, according to three university experts.
In a paper published today (July 16, 2020) in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the professors say mask requirements to stop the spread of COVID-19 should be considered "fundamental occupational health protections" for workers at stores, restaurants and other public places.