Tech

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers have developed a unique approach that allows experienced surgeons and physicians around the world to help less-experienced doctors in war zones, natural disasters and in rural areas perform complicated procedures.

"The most critical challenge is to provide surgical expertise into the battlefield when it is most required," said Juan Wachs, Purdue's James A. and Sharon M. Tompkins Rising Star Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering, who led the project team. "Even without having highly experienced medical leaders physically co-located in the field, with this technology we can help minimize the number of casualties while maximizing treatment at the point of injury."

The team presented the work at the 2018 Military Health System Research Symposium, held Aug. 20-23 in Kissimmee, Florida. Watch a video of how the system works at http://bit.ly/ARHealth-Purdue.

The Purdue technique involves using augmented reality tools to connect health care professionals in remote areas with more experienced surgeons and physicians around the world. The AR headset worn by the mentee in the field is designed to replace current telestrator technology, which uses a separate video screen and freehand sketches to provide feedback.

"There is an unmet need for technology that connects health care mentees in rural areas with experienced mentors," said Edgar Rojas Muñoz, a doctoral student in industrial engineering, who worked on the project. "The current use of a telestrator in these situations is inefficient because they require the mentee to focus on a separate screen, fail to show upcoming steps and give the mentor an incomplete picture of the ongoing procedure."

The Purdue system features a transparent headset screen display that allows the mentee to see the patient in front of them, along with real-time on-screen feedback from the mentor. That mentor is at a separate location using a video monitor to see the AR feed and provide instant feedback to the field surgeon.

Purdue's system uses computer vision algorithms to track and align the virtual notes and marks from the mentor with the surgical region in front of the mentee.

"Our technology allows trainees to remain focused on the surgical procedure and reduces the potential for errors during surgery," Muñoz said.

The U.S. Department of Defense supported the research as it looks to connect its medical professionals out in the field with specialists back at the bases who can provide critical guidance during procedures.

The Purdue technology has gone through a round of clinical evaluation and will soon go through another one. In the next few months, the technology will be tested at a Navy base in Virginia, where mentees and mentors will experiment with a simulated battlefield.

Researchers at Purdue also are working to increase the stabilization ability of the view for the mentees.

Other researchers on the project include Voicu Popescu, an associate professor of computer science at Purdue; Brian Mullis and Ben Zarzaur from the Indiana University School of Medicine; and nurse researchers Kathryn Anderson and Sherri Marley from Eskenazi Health Services in Indianapolis.

The technology aligns with Purdue's "giant leaps" celebrating the university's global advancements made in health, space, artificial intelligence and sustainability highlights as part of Purdue's 150th anniversary. Those are the four themes of the yearlong celebration's Ideas Festival, designed to showcase Purdue as an intellectual center solving real-world issues.

The team is working with the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization on patents for the technology. The research team also is looking for partners.

Searching tweets for text or hashtags allowed researchers to gather information on popular ecological phenomena observed in the UK such as the emergence of flying ants and starling murmurations. Their findings are published today in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

To test how reliable and accurate Twitter is as a data source for scientific research, ecologists from the University of Gloucestershire compared their results directly to three previously published studies on winged ant emergence, autumnal house spider sightings, and starling murmurations. These studies were based on primary data collected by citizen scientists during the same period.

They found that the "Twitter-mined" data was able to replicate most temporal findings, such as date and time of ant mating flights or house spider sightings. The researchers could also reproduce the sex ratio of house spiders by analysing the photos tweeters uploaded and, in some cases, received an indication of where in the house the spider was seen.

Professor Adam Hart from the University of Gloucestershire, who led the study, said: "The retrospective analysis of social media has been used widely to detect earthquakes or political sentiment, but not so much in ecological research. Our study shows that passive citizen science, where we gain information and access to photos indirectly through Twitter or other social media channels such as Facebook and Flickr, can indeed generate robust and interesting data."

All tweets have an automatic date and time stamp and people generally post on the same day of the actual sighting.

"It is perhaps the immediacy of Twitter, the "urgency" of the phenomena and the desire to connect with other users that have produced so many usable tweets. The emergence of winged ants is also popular in the media and hashtags like #flyingantday often trend on Twitter", Hart added.

Determining the exact location of a sighting proved more difficult as people rarely indicate it in their posts and it is not necessarily the same as the home location listed in their Twitter bio. Twitter has recently launched the option of having latitude and longitude automatically added to tweets via "share precise location", which could fill some of these gaps in the future.

As for the observed starling murmurations, 9 of 10 tweets mentioned the geographical location, identifying places such as Blackpool, Aberystwyth, Brighton, the Somerset Levels and East Anglia. These aerial displays often become a hotspot for people wanting to watch them, and thus location is relevant to both tweeter and followers.

Hart concludes: "Twitter can provide a valuable tool for phenological studies of charismatic events and species. Dog owners noting ticks on their animals, or the timing of frog spawning or foxes mating are just some of the questions that could be explored."

To encourage members of the public to participate in ecological studies, the researchers suggest promoting specific hashtags that make the search through Twitter archives easier. There could also be a system that allows people to automatically record data by tweeting about it.

They stress that Twitter-derived data needs to be interpreted with care though as it can be difficult to validate. Thus, it should be compared directly with data gathered through other more robust methods.

New research out of the University of Waterloo has found a way to improve the voice query understanding capabilities of home entertainment platforms.

The research, in collaboration with the University of Maryland and Comcast Applied AI Research Lab, uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to achieve the most natural speech-based interactions with TVs to date.

"Today, we have become accustomed to talking to intelligent agents that do our bidding - from Siri on a mobile phone to Alexa at home. Why shouldn't we be able to do the same with TVs?" asked Jimmy Lin, a professor at the University of Waterloo and David R. Cheriton Chair in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science.

"Comcast's Xfinity X1 aims to do exactly that - the platform comes with a 'voice remote' that accepts spoken queries. Your wish is its command - tell your TV to change channels, ask it about free kids' movies, and even about the weather forecast."

In tackling the complex problem of understanding voice queries, the researchers had the idea to take advantage of the latest AI technology - a technique known as hierarchical recurrent neural networks - to better model context and improve the system's accuracy.

In January 2018, the researchers' new neural network model was deployed in production to answer queries from real live users. Unlike the previous system, which was confused by approximately eight per cent of queries, the new model handles most of the very complicated queries appropriately, greatly enhancing user experience.

"If a viewer asks for 'Chicago Fire,' which refers to both a drama series and a soccer team, the system is able to decipher what you really want," said Lin. "What's special about this approach is that we take advantage of context - such as previously watched shows and favourite channels - to personalize results, thereby increasing accuracy."

The researchers have started work on developing an even richer model. The intuition is that by analyzing queries from multiple perspectives, the system can better understand what the viewer is saying.

The paper, Multi-Task Learning with Neural Networks for Voice Query Understanding Entertainment Platform, was presented at the 24th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery & Data Mining held recently in the United Kingdom. The research was undertaken by Jinfeng Rao, a PhD graduate from the University of Maryland, his advisor Lin, and mentor Ferhan Ture, a researcher at Comcast Applied AI Research Lab.

Half (51%) of people invited to bowel screening for the first time in 2015 didn't take part, according to the latest figures from Cancer Research UK published today (Wednesday) in the European Journal of Cancer.*

Averaged figures from 2010-15 in England showed that those from deprived areas were less likely to participate (43%) than those in wealthier regions (57%) and more women (56%) than men (47%) returned samples from the screening kits sent out in the post.

People who lived in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods were also less likely to take part (41%) than those who didn't (56%).

The current screening kit requires small stool samples to be taken on three separate days and posted back to the bowel screening unit in specially sealed envelopes.

Researchers from University College London (UCL) examined the anonymous data from 4.4 million men and women aged between 60 and 64 who were sent a home test kit for the first time as part of the English Bowel Cancer Screening Programme between 2010 and 2015.

They found that 53% returned samples in 2010, but this dropped to 49% by 2015.

For those who choose to take part in screening the risk of dying from bowel cancer is 25% lower** than for those who don't.

Lead researcher Dr Christian von Wagner from UCL said: "The fact fewer and fewer people are returning their kits and that inequalities in the system are widening, is very worrying. There is an urgent need to revolutionise bowel cancer screening because the earlier cancer is spotted, the more lives can be saved.

"Research has shown the introduction of a new test called the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) would encourage more people to take part, with a 7% increase in uptake.*** The sooner this can be introduced, the more lives will be saved."

FIT is a new test due to be introduced into the national bowel screening programme in England this autumn. It is easier to use than the current test as it only requires one sample instead of three and is more accurate in detecting potential cancers.

Sara Hiom, director of early diagnosis at Cancer Research UK, said: "Our bowel cancer screening programme is extremely effective at detecting early disease before symptoms show themselves, so it's very concerning that so many people are missing out on this potential health benefit.

"We have good evidence to suggest that the new FIT screening test - which is easier to do - will help reduce barriers and result in more people choosing to take up their invitation. So the sooner it is introduced, and made available to everyone eligible, the better.

"When bowel cancer is diagnosed at an early stage, as through screening, more than 9 in 10 people survive but when it is detected in the late stages, survival falls to less than 1 in 10. Every year around 28,500 people aged 60 and over are diagnosed with bowel cancer in England.****

Improved screening will undoubtedly reduce deaths from a cancer that affects so many lives."

Anne Parmenter, 63, from South London was diagnosed with bowel cancer through screening. Following surgery and chemotherapy she is now doing well and back at work as a classroom assistant.

She said: "On my 60th birthday, I received a bowel cancer testing kit in the post from the NHS. I wasn't going to do it but, in the end, I thought it was daft not to and sent it back. The following Tuesday I received a letter asking me to go to hospital for more tests.

"I had no symptoms before and didn't feel unwell, so I feel that kit saved my life. The cancer has changed how I look at life because none of us know what is around the corner. Three years ago, I had no idea of what was to come but I am now slowly recovering and getting back to normal."

Humans may have been cultivating plants on a narrow coastal strip in Brazil as far back as 4,800 years ago, according to a new study.

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of York, analysed the teeth and bones of ancient human remains found at the site in Southern Brazil.

The results reveal that the individuals, who lived around 4,800 years ago, were eating a diet rich in carbohydrates, suggesting that they may have cultivated plants like yams and sweet potatoes.

The area, known as the "Atlantic forest" of South America, was not previously viewed as part of the history of early food production on the continent.

Senior author of the study, Dr André Colonese from the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, said: "Our findings may place the Atlantic Forest 'on the map' of early plant cultivation in the Americas.

"The Atlantic Forest coast has been largely peripheral in this narrative despite its unique plant biodiversity and archaeological record of dense human occupation. "Our study challenges this traditional view. The high consumption of carbohydrate-rich food suggests that permanent populations subsisted on a mixed economy, and possibly cultivated plants along this narrow coastal strip."

The authors suggest that the results support the emerging view that food production along the Atlantic forest coast was practised at the same time as sedentary villages based on plant cultivation began to emerge in Amazonia and La Plata Basin.

The team of researchers from the University of York, Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil), Museu Arqueológico de Sambaqui de Joinville (Brazil), Universidade da Região de Joinville (Brazil) and the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Austria), examined dental caries along with bone and teeth stable isotopes of several individuals found in Morro do Ouro (Golden Hill), a pre-Columbian refuse heap in southern Brazil.

Other evidence, such as stone tools for processing plants and plant remains entrapped in the tooth tartar of these individuals, also indirectly confirmed the regular consumption of plant resources.

Such a level of plant dependence would likely require some kind of management to guarantee long-term and predictable returns, the research team say.

Dr Colonese added: "It is not clear, however, whether domesticated plants were part of their menu, and to what extent these people exerted some selective pressures on plant resources. What is clear is that our understanding of the nature, time and place of early plant management and cultivation in South America is under continuous development. The Atlantic Forest has much to contribute to these debates".

Co-author of the article, Prof. Sabine Eggers, from the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Austria) said: "This work shows that the integration of people with different expertise can lead to new insights into the importance of bioarchaeology in coastal South America"

Fish oil supplement in the later stages of pregnancy is associated with a higher body mass index (BMI) in children in the first six years of life, which is explained by an increase in total lean and bone mass at 6 years of age, but with no increase in fat mass, suggest the findings of a large randomised controlled trial published by The BMJ today.

Studies in animals have shown that supplementing the diet with fish oil during pregnancy affects adipogenesis (the development of fat cells). However, while trials in humans have shown that pregnant women with a higher intake of fish oil give birth to higher birth weight infants, the impact on children later in life has been unclear.

So a team of researchers based in Denmark and the UK set out to examine the effect of taking fish oil supplements during pregnancy on the growth and body composition of children later in life.

The trial involved 736 pregnant women from the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood study who were randomised to receive n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs) (fish oil) or olive oil (control) daily from week 24 of pregnancy week until one week after birth.

Height, weight, head and waist measurements were assessed 11 times from birth to age 6 years and adjusted for age and sex. These revealed a sustained higher BMI from 1 year to 6 years of age.

Body composition was assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans at 3.5 and 6 years of age and demonstrated that the higher BMI was not the result of a higher fat percentage, but reflected a proportional increase in lean mass, bone mass, and fat mass, suggesting that the fish oil supplementation had a general growth stimulating effect.

At age 6, DXA scans showed children whose mothers had taken fish oil supplements while pregnant had a 395g higher total mass, 280.7g higher lean mass, 10.3g higher bone mineral content and 116.3g higher fat mass compared with children of mothers who took the control oil.

The researchers conclude: “The body composition at age 6 years in children given fish oil supplementation was characterised by a proportional increase in lean, bone, and fat mass suggesting a general growth stimulating effect.”

LAWRENCE -- What people believe is the cause of racial disparities in police stops does influence whether they generally view police officers as trustworthy or not, but most people also don't change their views in light of reading those statistics, according to a study led by a University of Kansas researcher of political behavior and public policy.

"The theme is largely most people are simply reinforcing the attitudes they already have toward law enforcement," said Kevin Mullinix, KU assistant professor of political science. "When most people see information about racial disparities in police stops, it doesn't erode their trust in police. It is troubling that this simply feeds into a narrative - positive or negative - people already have about police."

Mullinix is corresponding author with Robert Norris of George Mason University of an article recently published in Political Research Quarterly that surveyed people on their beliefs about the primary cause of racial disparities in pulled-over rates.

In two experiments, the researchers had two national samples of respondents review statements about statistics that showed black drivers were more likely to be pulled over for minor traffic violations than white drivers. Then they were asked what they thought was the primary reason for the disparity and how much they trusted the police.

Mullinix and Norris found that most people fall into one of three groups based on their beliefs about the cause of racial disparities. One group believes the results simply bear out who is committing most crimes, and this group also exhibits high levels of trust in the police.

A second group attributes the disparity to police racially profiling black drivers, and predictably, this group exhibits the lowest level of trust in the police.

A final group that emerged believed the numbers reflect the strategic placement of police in areas where black drivers live.

"The fascinating thing about this third group is they have really high levels of trust in the police, but they seem susceptible to persuasion," Mullinix said.

However, the majority of respondents appeared to be entrenched and less likely to change their minds about how they view the police.

"When information is disseminated by media outlets, it seems like a lot of people are going to reinforce the position they have, except for one narrow subset," Mullinix said.

The study sheds light on the fact that the cause people attribute to racial disparities in criminal justice is equally or more important as other variables in understanding attitudes toward police, including a person's race, age, ideology and personal experiences with police.

The findings have important implications for people involved in the criminal justice system and considering whether there is a crisis of legitimacy in how people view law enforcement, he said. Several high-profile cases in recent years have heightened tensions across the country in how police interact with minorities, and the Department of Justice especially under the Obama Administrations had conducted investigations of police conduct in several cities.

For one, the current study shows a number of people do exhibit trust in police, while others do not, Mullinix said.

"The flip side to our findings is that if police departments want to raise the trust communities have in them, they have a bit of an uphill battle," Mullinix said. "They are going to have a hard time building that trust."

Another implication of the study could be that raw statistics presented to the respondents are not as persuasive as other means of communication.

"Maybe these statistics don't change attitudes," Mullinix said. "But watching YouTube videos of an altercation with police might be more persuasive."

He said other research has shown that some people shift attitudes in response to narratives and videos.

"People are also going to have their own beliefs about why someone was stopped in the first place, for example," Mullinix said. "It doesn't always shift their attitudes, but giving them a narrative or an image, is sometimes more compelling."

American workers' occupational status reflects that of their parents more than previously known, reaffirming more starkly that the lack of mobility in the United States is in large part due to the occupation of our parents, finds a new study by New York University's Michael Hout.

"A lot of Americans think the U.S. has more social mobility than other western industrialized countries," explains Hout, a sociology professor. "This makes it abundantly clear that we have less."

Previous research had used occupation metrics that relied on averages to gauge social status across generations. This dynamic, also called "intergenerational persistence," is the degree to which one generation's success depends on their parents' resources.

While these studies showed a strong association between parental occupation and intergenerational persistence, they understated the significance of parents' jobs on the status of their children.

The new findings, which appear in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveal a more powerful link as they rely on data that use medians, or middle points, as opposed to average socioeconomic status, in gauging occupations.

The findings, which take into account pay and education of those in a given occupation, are based on General Social Survey (GSS) data from 1994 through 2016.

To measure occupation, GSS interviewers asked respondents for detailed descriptions
of their current occupation, their father's occupation when they were growing up, and (since 1994) their mother's occupation while they were growing up. Their replies were coded to 539 occupational categories, following protocols established by the U.S. Census Bureau, and then given a socioeconomic score ranging from 9 (shoe shiner) to 53 (flight attendant) to 93 (surgeon).

"The underlying idea is that some occupations are desirable and others less so," explains Hout.

Notably, the study shows that the sons and daughters of high-status parents have more advantages in the labor force than earlier estimates suggested.

For example, half the sons and daughters whose parents were in the top tier of occupations now work in occupations that score 76 or higher (on a 100-point scale) while half the sons and daughters of parents from the bottom tier now work in occupations that score 28 or less on that scale.

Hout notes that earlier measures--tracking averages instead of medians--would underestimate that range and show less stark distinctions between the top and bottom tiers of occupation status.

Specifically, in the above instance, using averages would show half the sons and daughters whose parents were in the top tier of occupations work in occupations that score only 72 or higher while half the sons and daughters of parents from the bottom tier work in occupations that score up to 33 or less.

"Your circumstances at birth--specifically, what your parents do for a living--are an even bigger factor in how far you get in life than we had previously realized," observes Hout. "Generations of Americans considered the United States to be a land of opportunity. This research raises some sobering questions about that image."

The aim of the research from Future Consumer Lab was to investigate whether children prefer their food served in a particular way and whether their gender and age make a difference with regard to their preferences.

'As a researcher, I have anecdotally heard parents say that their children prefer to have their food served in a particular way, including in a specific order. But we do not have much evidence-based knowledge about how children sort and eat their food, which is very relevant when, for example, we want our children to eat more vegetables - or eat their food in general,' says Associate Professor Annemarie Olsen from Future Consumer Lab, at the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen.

In addition to being a helping hand for parents, the research can be used to optimise meal programmes in schools and meals that are delivered to pupils by external suppliers.

Big gains with little effort

We already know that you can get children to eat more fruits and vegetables just by presenting them in small portions and making them freely available, so you can easily grab them and eat them. We also know that the visual presentation affects how much children eat.

'At the same time, it would be nice to know whether there are big gains to be made just by arranging food on the plate in a certain way,' says Annemarie Olsen.

100 children ranked food according to their preferred serving style

The researchers asked 100 schoolchildren, aged 7-8 and 12-14 years, to make a priority list of photos of six different dishes served in three different ways:

With the elements of the food presented separately so they did not touch each other

As a mix of separate ingredients and ingredients that were mixed together

With all the food mixed together

From the children's prioritisation of the displayed photos, the researchers could see which presentation of the food they liked best and which serving style they least cared for. The study shows that the younger girls (aged 7-8) prefer the separate serving style, while boys of the same age do not have a preference for how the food is arranged. The research also shows that children between 12 and 14 prefer food to be either mixed together or served as a mix of separate and mixed-together ingredients.

A separated serving style is the best solution

The research does not say why younger girls prefer to have their food served as separate ingredients.

'One suggestion could be that they believe that the different ingredients could contaminate each other. But it could also be that they prefer to eat the different elements in a certain order or that the clear delineation just provides a better overview,' says Annemarie Olsen, who, based on the research, advises that you serve food separated on the plate - at least when it comes to the younger age groups.

'The child can mix the food when the various elements of the food are separated on the plate, while the reverse is not possible,' she says.

NASA's Aqua satellite provided valuable infrared temperature data on Category 4 Hurricane Norman that showed its strongest storms were southeast of center.

On Aug. 31 at 6:10 a.m. EDT (1010 UTC) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite found the coldest temperatures of the strongest thunderstorms in Hurricane Norman were southeast of the center and were as cold as or colder than minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 62.2 Celsius). They were embedded in a large area of storms where cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius). NASA research has shown that storms with cloud top temperatures that cold (that are very high in the troposphere) have the capability to generate heavy rain.

There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect as Norman is far from land. It is 825 miles (1,330 km) west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC), the eye of Hurricane Norman was located near latitude 16.7 degrees north and longitude 120.8 degrees west. Norman is moving toward the west-southwest near 8 mph (13 kph). A turn toward the west and west-northwest with an increase in forward speed is expected over the weekend and into next week.

Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 130 mph (215 kph) with higher gusts. Norman is a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles (150 km).

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- From airplane wings to overhead powerlines to the giant blades of wind turbines, a buildup of ice can cause problems ranging from impaired performance all the way to catastrophic failure. But preventing that buildup usually requires energy-intensive heating systems or chemical sprays that are environmentally harmful. Now, MIT researchers have developed a completely passive, solar-powered way of combating ice buildup.

The system is remarkably simple, based on a three-layered material that can be applied or even sprayed onto the surfaces to be treated. It collects solar radiation, converts it to heat, and spreads that heat around so that the melting is not just confined to the areas exposed directly to the sunlight. And, once applied, it requires no further action or power source. It can even do its de-icing work at night, using artificial lighting.

The new system is described today in the journal Science Advances, in a paper by MIT associate professor of mechanical engineering Kripa Varanasi and postdocs Susmita Dash and Jolet de Ruiter.

"Icing is a major problem for aircraft, for wind turbines, powerlines, offshore oil platforms, and many other places," Varanasi says. "The conventional ways of getting around it are de-icing sprays or by heating, but those have issues."

Inspired by the sun

The usual de-icing sprays for aircraft and other applications use ethylene glycol, a chemical that is environmentally unfriendly. Airlines don't like to use active heating, both for cost and safety reasons. Varanasi and other researchers have investigated the use of superhydrophobic surfaces to prevent icing passively, but those coatings can be impaired by frost formation, which tends to fill the microscopic textures that give the surface its ice-shedding properties.

As an alternate line of inquiry, Varanasi and his team considered the energy given off by the sun. They wanted to see, he says, whether "there is a way to capture that heat and use it in a passive approach." They found that there was.

It's not necessary to produce enough heat to melt the bulk of the ice that forms, the team found. All that's needed is for the boundary layer, right where the ice meets the surface, to melt enough to create a thin layer of water, which will make the surface slippery enough so any ice will just slide right off. This is what the team has achieved with the three-layered material they've developed.

Layer by layer

The top layer is an absorber, which traps incoming sunlight and converts it to heat. The material the team used is highly efficient, absorbing 95 percent of the incident sunlight, and losing only 3 percent to re-radiation, Varanasi says

In principle, that layer could in itself help to prevent frost formation, but with two limitations: It would only work in the areas directly in sunlight, and much of the heat would be lost back into the substrate material -- the airplane wing or powerline, for example -- and would not help with the de-icing.

So, to compensate for the localization, the team added a spreader layer -- a very thin layer of aluminum, just 400 micrometers thick, which is heated by the absorber layer above it and very efficiently spreads that heat out laterally to cover the entire surface. The material was selected to have "thermal response that is fast enough so that the heating takes place faster than the freezing," Varanasi says.

Finally, the bottom layer is simply foam insulation, to keep any of that heat from being wasted downward and keep it where it's needed, at the surface.

"In addition to passive de-icing, the photothermal trap stays at an elevated temperature, thus preventing ice build-up altogether," Dash says.

The three layers, all made of inexpensive commercially available material, are then bonded together, and can be bonded to the surface that needs to be protected. For some applications, the materials could instead be sprayed onto a surface, one layer at a time, the researchers say.

The team carried out extensive tests, including real-world outdoor testing of the materials and detailed laboratory measurements, to prove the effectiveness of the system.

The system could even find wider commercial uses, such as panels to prevent icing on roofs of homes, schools, and other buildings, Varanasi says. The team is planning to continue work on the system, testing it for longevity and for optimal methods of application. But the basic system could essentially be applied almost immediately for some uses, especially stationary applications, he says.

Hurricane Miriam continues to track north through the Central Pacific Ocean and NASA's Aqua satellite analyzed the storm infrared imagery.

On Aug. 31 at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1150 UTC) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite found the coldest temperatures of the strongest thunderstorms Hurricane Miriam were southwest of the center and were as cold as or colder than minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 62.2 Celsius). They were embedded in a large area of storms where cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius). NASA research has shown that storms with cloud top temperatures that cold (that are very high in the troposphere) have the capability to generate heavy rain.

The Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) noted at 11 a.m. EDT (5 a.m. HST/1500 UTC), the center of Hurricane Miriam was located near latitude 18.3 degrees north and longitude 141.2 degrees west. That's about 910 miles (1,470 km) east of Hilo, Hawaii. Miriam is moving toward the north near 10 mph (17 kph). This general motion is expected to continue through tonight.

Maximum sustained winds are near 90 mph (150 kph) with higher gusts. Rapid weakening is expected to begin later today and continue through Sunday. Miriam is expected to become a post-tropical remnant low pressure area on Sunday, Sept. 2.

For updated forecasts, visit: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/cphc

August 31, 2018 - Sitting for too many hours per day, or sitting for long periods without a break, is now known to increase a wide range of health risks, even if one engages in recommended amounts of physical activity. The health risks of prolonged sedentary time - and nurses' role in reducing those risks - are discussed in an integrative literature review and update in the September issue of the American Journal of Nursing. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

But while the evidence on the adverse effects of prolonged sedentary time continues to grow, further studies are needed to determine "the most effective and practical interventions for reducing habitual sitting," according to the article by Linda Eanes, EdD, MSN, of the School of Nursing at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg. She writes, "Nurses have a pivotal role to play in increasing public awareness about the potential adverse effects of high-volume and prolonged uninterrupted sitting."

Health Risks of Too Much Sitting - What's the Evidence?

In recent years, studies have shown a direct relationship between prolonged sitting and the risk of several chronic health conditions. Increased health risks have been reported both for high-volume sitting, such as sitting for seven or more hours per day, and for prolonged uninterrupted sitting, such as sitting for 30 minutes or longer without a break. The health risks of prolonged sitting are independent of whether the person participates in recommended physical activity.

In her review, Dr. Eanes summarizes pivotal studies showing the association between high-volume and prolonged uninterrupted sitting and health risks including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and all-cause mortality. In conjunction with obesity, sedentary time is also linked to an increased risk of certain cancers, including ovarian, endometrial, and colon cancer.

How does too much sitting increase health risks? Immobility decreases stimulation of weight-bearing muscles, leading to decreased activity of an enzyme (lipoprotein lipase) that plays an essential role in lipid metabolism, including production of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (the so-called "good" cholesterol) as well as uptake of glucose from the blood. In contrast, breaking up sedentary times with frequent bouts of standing or slow walking may reduce these metabolic risks--although the optimal levels of standing or walking remain unclear.

Nurses and other healthcare professionals now have a new priority: educating patients about the health risks of prolonged sedentary time and making suggestions to reduce and interrupt sitting times. Proposed interventions include using a standing desk or taking frequent walking or standing breaks, as well as the use of computer or smartphone reminders to take brief physical activity breaks during the day.

But questions remain about the most effective ways to address high-volume or uninterrupted sitting, including the "dose-response relationships" between sedentary behavior, taking breaks, and various health outcomes. In contrast to efforts to increase physical activity, merely providing people with information and education might be effective in promoting reduction of sedentary behavior. "Much more research is needed in the field of inactivity physiology," according to the author.

While it's still important to promote regular physical activity, nurses should pay more attention to evaluating total daily sitting time, and to understanding the individual, social, occupational, and community/environmental factors that contribute to it. "Nurses can also actively encourage all patients, regardless of demographics, to balance sedentary behavior and physical activity simply by taking more frequent standing or walking breaks," Dr. Eanes writes. She believes that nurses are well positioned to contribute to research on the health risks associated with prolonged sitting - and the most effective interventions for reducing those risks.

People who have had a stroke are around twice as likely to develop dementia, according to the largest study of its kind ever conducted.

The University of Exeter Medical School led the study which analysed data on stroke and dementia risk from 3.2 million people across the world. The link between stroke and dementia persisted even after taking into account other dementia risk factors such as blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Their findings give the strongest evidence to date that having a stroke significantly increases the risk of dementia.

The study builds on previous research which had established the link between stroke and dementia, though had not quantified the degree to which stroke actually increased dementia risk. To better understand the link between the two, researchers analysed 36 studies where participants had a history of stroke, totalling data from 1.9 million people. In addition, they analysed a further 12 studies that looked at whether participants had a recent stroke over the study period, adding a further 1.3 million people. The new research, published in the leading dementia journal Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, is the first meta-analysis in the area.

Dr Ilianna Lourida, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "We found that a history of stroke increases dementia risk by around 70%, and recent strokes more than doubled the risk. Given how common both stroke and dementia are, this strong link is an important finding. Improvements in stroke prevention and post-stroke care may therefore play a key role in dementia prevention."

According to the World Health Organisation, 15 million people have a stroke each year. Meanwhile, around 50 million people globally have dementia - a number expected to almost double ever 20 years, reaching 131 million by 2050.

Stroke characteristics such as the location and extent of brain damage may help to explain variation in dementia risk observed between studies, and there was some suggestion that dementia risk may be higher for men following stroke.

Further research is required to clarify whether factors such as ethnicity and education modify dementia risk following stroke. Most people who have a stroke do not go on to develop dementia, so further research is also needed to establish whether differences in post-stroke care and lifestyle can reduce the risk of dementia further.

Dr David Llewellyn, from the University of Exeter Medical School, concluded: "Around a third of dementia cases are thought to be potentially preventable, though this estimate does not take into account the risk associated with stroke. Our findings indicate that this figure could be even higher, and reinforce the importance of protecting the blood supply to the brain when attempting to reduce the global burden of dementia."

Asthma patients, with a specific genetic profile, exhibit more intense symptoms following exposure to traffic pollution, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and collaborators. The study appeared online in Scientific Reports.

The research team, made up of scientists from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH, and Rice University, Houston, also found that asthma patients that lack this genetic profile do not have the same sensitivity to traffic pollution and do not experience worse asthma symptoms. The work brings scientists closer to being able to use precision medicine, an emerging field that intends to prevent and treat disease based on factors specific to an individual.

Co-lead author Shepherd Schurman, M.D., associate medical director of the NIEHS Clinical Research Unit, stated the results are based on genetic variation, the subtle differences in DNA that make each person unique. He further added that to understand the concept, one should think of human genes, which are made up of DNA base pairs A, C, G, and T, as written instructions for making proteins.

"All humans have the same genes, in other words the same basic instructions, but in some people one DNA base pair has been changed," Schurman said. "This common type of genetic variation is called a single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP, and it can alter the way proteins are made and make individuals more or less prone to illness."

Schurman is also head of the Environmental Polymorphisms Registry (EPR), the DNA bank in North Carolina that provided volunteers for the study. The EPR studies how SNPs impact disease risk in combination with environmental exposures.

Together with NIEHS colleague and lung disease expert Stavros Garantziotis, M.D., medical director of the NIEHS Clinical Research Unit, the two scientists examined four SNPs that are involved in a biochemical pathway that leads to inflammatory responses in the body. They explained that SNPs are usually studied one at a time, but they wanted to learn if different combinations of these SNPs, along with pollution exposure, could worsen symptoms in a person with an inflammatory disease like asthma.

Schurman and Garantziotis gathered information about the SNPs, severity of asthma symptoms, and residential addresses of 2,704 EPR participants with asthma. Using the SNPs data, they divided the participants into three groups: hyper-responders, or those very sensitive to air pollution and likely to develop inflammation; hypo-responders, or those insensitive to air pollution and less likely to develop inflammation; and those in between. With the help of collaborators at Rice University, the team used the participants' addresses to calculate their distance from a major road. Participants were categorized depending on whether they lived more or less than 275 yards from a major roadway. Data suggest that air pollution levels are elevated closer to major roads.

The researchers found that asthma sufferers who were hyper-responders and lived closer to heavily travelled roads had the worst asthma symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, chest pain, cough, and wheezing, compared to the other groups. In contrast, asthma patients who were hypo-responders and lived further away from busy roads had milder symptoms. Garantziotis concluded the work could greatly enhance the quality of life for people with asthma.

"Based on this research, we could propose that hyper-responders, who are exposed to traffic pollution, receive air purification intervention, such as HEPA filters, for their home," Garantziotis said.

NIEHS Clinical Director Janet Hall, M.D., said the results emphasize the importance of gene-environment interactions in the progression of disease.

"This research is a great example of how we can approach disease prevention on a personal level, and tailor our treatments to suit individual patients," she said. "That way we can be more efficient with our treatments and preventative measures, while at the same time cutting health care costs."