Tech
An MIT research team that has already conquered the problem of getting ketchup out of its bottle has now tackled a new category of consumer and manufacturing woe: how to get much thicker materials to slide without sticking or deforming.
1. Metformin may help patients maintain weight loss long-term
Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M18-1605
Editorial: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M19-0782
URLs go live when the embargo lifts
COLUMBUS, Ohio - There are a few things that will result in poor customer reviews of a restaurant: bad service, bad food - and bad weather.
A study of 32 Florida restaurants found that customers left more negative remarks on comment cards on days when it was raining than on days when it was dry.
Results showed the odds of patrons leaving very negative comments versus very positive comments were 2.9 times greater on rainy days.
The largest study of bisexual people in the world to date, led by La Trobe University, has examined why bisexual people experience higher rates of psychological distress than heterosexual and homosexual people.
Questioning more than 2,600 bisexual people across Australia, the Who I Am study's aim was to uncover the reasons for poor mental health in bisexual people. The study found significant links between poor mental health and the following factors:
Bisexual people who are in heterosexual relationships;
A pair of researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) describes a way of making a submicron-sized cylinder disappear without using any specialized coating. Their findings could enable invisibility of natural materials at optical frequency [1] and eventually lead to a simpler way of enhancing optoelectronic devices, including sensing and communication technologies.
Bottom Line: This study looked at the privacy practices of popular apps for depression and smoking cessation. Researchers assessed the content of privacy policies and compared disclosures regarding data sharing with commercial third parties to actual behavior for 36 apps.
Authors: Kit Huckvale, M.B.Ch.B., M.Sc., Ph.D., UNSW (University of New South Wales) Sydney, Australia, and coauthors
(doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.2542)
Solid-state sodium-ion batteries are far safer than conventional lithium-ion batteries, which pose a risk of fire and explosions, but their performance has been too weak to offset the safety advantages. Researchers Friday reported developing an organic cathode that dramatically improves both stability and energy density.
The improved performance, reported in the journal Joule, is related to two key findings:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Hospitality service Airbnb is fast becoming the 800-pound gorilla that's shaking up the hotel industry and forever changing it.
New research from Florida State University finds Airbnb's exponential growth worldwide is devouring an increasing share of hotel revenues and also driving down room prices and occupancy rates.
Physicists at the University of Zurich have developed an amazingly simple device that allows heat to flow temporarily from a cold to a warm object without an external power supply. Intriguingly, the process initially appears to contradict the fundamental laws of physics.
Sorry, Siri, but just giving a chatbot a human name or adding humanlike features to its avatar might not be enough to win over a user if the device fails to maintain a conversational back-and-forth with that person, according to researchers. In fact, those humanlike features might create a backlash against less responsive humanlike chatbots.
(Hoboken, N.J. – April 16, 2019) – Farmers rely on phosphorus fertilizers to enrich the soil and ensure bountiful harvests, but the world’s recoverable reserves of phosphate rocks, from which such fertilizers are produced, are finite and unevenly distributed. Stevens Institute of Technology is spearheading an international effort to map the global flow of phosphorus -- from soil to crops, and from there to livestock and humans, and eventually into sewers and landfills – and jump-start efforts to recapture and recycle the vital nutrient.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Our system for protecting health data in the United States is fundamentally broken and we need a national effort to rethink how we safeguard this information, say three experts in data privacy.
In a perspective article in the April 18, 2019, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the experts call for an effort similar to what led to the Belmont Report in 1979, which laid the foundation for bioethics standards in the United States to protect human participants in research.
New research from the University of East Anglia reveals how soil bacteria build the only known enzyme for the destruction of the potent global warming and ozone-depleting gas nitrous oxide.
Alongside carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O), commonly known as 'laughing gas', is now a cause for great concern, and there is much international focus on reducing emissions.
In a new study published today in the Journal of Periodontology researchers found that using psychological techniques to communicate the risk of developing periodontal disease to patients improved dental hygiene over a three month period. It was further associated with reduced scores for gum inflammation as well.
Of all the different possible methods to combat anthropogenic climate change conceived of so far, among the least studied is climate engineering.
An umbrella term for large-scale projects designed to disrupt the Earth's carbon cycle or radiation balance, climate engineering has only relatively recently been included in the conversation about methods that could mitigate the harm caused by carbon emissions.