Tech

A Georgia Institute of Technology research team has devised a novel way to help keep a driverless vehicle under control as it maneuvers at the edge of its handling limits. The approach could help make self-driving cars of the future safer under hazardous road conditions.

Rates of teenage pregnancy in England have halved since the implementation of the Government's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy (TPS) in 1999, and the greatest effect is seen in areas of high deprivation and areas that received the most TPS funding, according to research published in The Lancet.

The study is the first to show the long term effect of a nationwide strategy launched by the Labour government in 1999, aimed at reducing under-18 conception rates by 50% by 2010 and limiting social exclusion among young parents.

Fewer adults who were born prematurely at low-birth weights were employed or had children and they were more likely to have lower incomes, be single and report more chronic health conditions than their normal-birth-weight-term counterparts, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

The first generation of extremely low-birth-weight (ELBW) premature infants (less than 1,000 grams) who were born after the introduction of neonatal intensive care has now survived into their fourth decade.

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed the first flexible wearable device capable of monitoring both biochemical and electric signals in the human body. The Chem-Phys patch records electrocardiogram (EKG) heart signals and tracks levels of lactate, a biochemical that is a marker of physical effort, in real time. The device can be worn on the chest and communicates wirelessly with a smartphone, smart watch or laptop. It could have a wide range of applications, from athletes monitoring their workouts to physicians monitoring patients with heart disease.

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 23, 2016 - If you live in Waco, Texas, your neighbor maneuvering a gas lawn mower in the middle of the night likely wouldn't violate the decibel limit, which is eight times louder than the typical nighttime limit in the United States.

A University of Texas at Dallas researcher has made a discovery that could open the door to cellphone and car batteries that last five times longer than current ones.

Dr. Kyeongjae Cho, professor of materials science and engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, has discovered new catalyst materials for lithium-air batteries that jumpstart efforts at expanding battery capacity. The research was published in Nature Energy.

RMIT researchers have shown how fired-clay bricks made with cigarette butts can save energy and help solve a global littering problem.

Trillions of cigarettes are produced every year worldwide, resulting in millions of tonnes of toxic waste being dumped into the environment in the form of cigarette butts.

As butts have poor biodegradability, it can take many years for them to break down, while heavy metals such as arsenic, chromium, nickel and cadmium trapped in the filters leach into soil and waterways.

Bathing a patient in LED light may someday offer a new way to locate tumors, according to Rice University researchers.

The spectral triangulation system developed by Rice chemist Bruce Weisman and his colleagues is intended to pinpoint targeted cancer tumors tagged with antibody-linked carbon nanotubes. It is described in a paper in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Nanoscale.

In a South Korean port, two research ships are being equipped with instruments that will measure sunlight interacting with the ocean and capture the microscopic life that ebbs and flows with the currents. As part of the Korea-United States Ocean Color (KORUS-OC) expedition, scientists from the Korean Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), NASA and other U.S. institutions are launching an 18-day field campaign to characterize the daily changes of the seas surrounding South Korea.

A biosensor developed by researchers at the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (LNNano) in Campinas, São Paulo State, Brazil, has been proven capable of detecting molecules associated with neurodegenerative diseases and some types of cancer.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., May 19, 2016 - A method to produce significant amounts of semiconducting nanoparticles for light-emitting displays, sensors, solar panels and biomedical applications has gained momentum with a demonstration by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Transporting power sources in the coldest places may be easier with a new re-chargeable, non-metallic battery from Japan. This "eco battery" could provide portable sources of power in environments like refrigerated factories or extreme winter environments.

A team of researchers from University of Cincinnati (UC) in Cincinnati, OH have developed a novel microfluidic device, which combines the inertial effect of fluid and microscale vortices generated in microchambers, to achieve simultaneous double sorting of rare target cells and removal of background cells. Sorting and purification of target cells from complex cellular samples is a critical sample preparation step in cell biology research and clinical diagnostics.

Increased water use in the rapidly growing oil industry in North Dakota's Bakken oil shale region, or play, is surprisingly due not only to oil well development but also to people, according to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

Increased oil development in that region in recent years has attracted thousands of oilfield employees. From 2010 to 2012, nearly 24,000 temporary oilfield workers joined the approximately 27,000 permanent residents in Williams Country, the seat of the region's commercial oil industry.

WASHINGTON - The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident should serve as a wake-up call to nuclear plant operators and regulators on the critical importance of measuring, maintaining, and restoring cooling in spent fuel pools during severe accidents and terrorist attacks, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This report is the second and final phase of a congressionally mandated study on what lessons can be learned from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. The report from Phase 1 of this study was released in July 2014.