Tech
WASHINGTON --Researchers have developed advanced optical security features that use a two-piece metamaterial system to create a difficult-to-replicate optical phenomenon. Metamaterials are engineered to have a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials. The new security features could offer improved forgery protection for high-value products or banknotes and enhance encryption of information such as pin numbers that are physically sent to recipients.
Colloidal suspensions heterogenous mixtures of particles with diameters of about 2-500 nanometers, which are permanently suspended in a second phase, usually a liquid. Owing to the small particle size of the suspended material, a colloid does not separate into its characteristic components even if allowed to remain undisturbed, nor can the suspended material be separated through filtration.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - It's an age-old debate: are time-outs bad for kids?
Now, a new study suggests that despite sometimes getting a bad rap in the news, the common disciplinary strategy isn't linked to harmful effects in children.
Researchers compared emotional and behavioral health between kids whose parents reported using time-outs and those who didn't over a roughly eight-year period. The result: no difference.
TROY, N.Y. -- A promising semiconductor material could be improved if flaws previously thought irrelevant to performance are reduced, according to research published today in Nature Communications. A group of researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and other universities has shown that a specific defect impacts the ability of halide perovskite to hold energy derived from light in the form of electrons.
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 12, 2019 -- African Americans are seeing growth in many engineering and physical sciences fields, but they are not progressing at the same rate when compared to the general population.
A report from the American Institute of Physics (AIP) Statistical Research Center (SRC) examined the number of bachelor's degrees earned from 2005 to 2015 and separated out the numbers for African Americans from the rest of the students. The data was gathered by the National Center for Education Statistics from postsecondary institutions in the United States.
University of Delaware molecular biologist Mona Batish and collaborators at Harvard Medical School and University of California, Los Angeles, have identified a new circular ribonucleic acid (RNA) that increases tumor activity in soft tissue and connective tissue tumors.
Finding this new genetic unit has the potential to advance understanding of the genetics of cancer and how cancer is identified and treated.
High levels of pollutants, such as industrial fluids and mercury, may have accumulated in the blubber and skin of one of the largest coastal populations of dolphins in Europe, a study in Scientific Reports indicates. Mercury concentrations found in 82 dolphins living in the English Channel are among the highest concentrations observed in the species, the work suggests.
USC scientists have surmounted a big roadblock in regenerative medicine that has so far constrained the ability to use repurposed cells to treat diseases.
The researchers figured out how to reprogram cells to switch their identity much more reliably than present capabilities allow. The technique uses enzymes to untangle reprogramming DNA, somewhat similar to how a coiffeur conditions tangled hair. The technique works with near-perfect efficiency -- in mice and humans -- for all types of cells tested in the laboratories of USC's stem cell center.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (September 12, 2019)- A new study from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and Eckerd College estimates the waters of Tampa Bay contain four billion particles of microplastics, raising new questions about the impact of pollution on marine life in this vital ecosystem.
This is the first measurement of microplastic abundance and distribution in the region. Researchers hope the findings will provide necessary data to inform the debate around policies to reduce plastic in the marine environment.
A strong ability in languages may help reduce the risk of developing dementia, says a new University of Waterloo study.
The research, led by Suzanne Tyas, a public health professor at Waterloo, examined the health outcomes of 325 Roman Catholic nuns who were members of the Sisters of Notre Dame in the United States. The data was drawn from a larger, internationally recognized study examining the Sisters, known as the Nun Study.
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Stems, leaves, flowers and fruits make up the biggest chunk of potential living space for microbes in the environment, but ecologists still don't know a lot about how the microorganisms that reside there establish and maintain themselves over the course of a growing season.
Scientists have identified a molecular pathway that contributes to the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a severe, often fatal condition that has no cure.
The discovery, published Sept. 12, 2019, in Nature Communications, suggests a new target for developing new drug therapies for PAH, according to researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
What is PAH?
WASHINGTON -- For the first time, researchers have used ultra-thin layers of 2D structures known as metasurfaces to create holograms that can measure the polarization of light. The new metasurface holograms could be used to create very fast and compact devices for polarization measurements, which are used in spectroscopy, sensing and communications applications.
Professor Sue Jordan from the University's College of Human and Health Sciences led the research which is newly published in the PLOS ONE journal. The study showed how care home residents' adverse side effects were picked up more effectively by their nurses and carers when a structured monitoring system was used alongside administration of mental health medicines.
The over-use of mental health medicines in care homes has long been a cause for concern, and insufficient patient monitoring has been seen as an important cause of medicines-related harms.
SINGAPORE, 12 September 2019 - Using cutting-edge technologies, researchers at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, have developed the first genome-wide dataset on protein translation during fibroblast activation, revealing a network of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) that play a key role in the formation of disease-causing fibrous tissue in the heart. Their findings, published in the journal Circulation, could help in the search for treatments for this condition.