Tech

"Humidity is one of the most controlled and most monitored aspects nowadays owing to its great importance in a whole range of industrial processes or in areas such as food monitoring, air quality, biomedicine or chemistry," explained Aitor Urrutia, who is from Auritz/Burguete, but who currently resides in Irúñea-Pamplona. "Yet problems remain in terms of measuring and monitoring it in specific situations such as environments where the humidity level is very high".

Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 22, 2016 -- A 200-square-foot slab of seemingly ordinary concrete sits just outside the Peter Kiewit Institute as snowflakes begin parachuting toward Omaha on a frigid afternoon in late December.

The snow accumulates on the grass surrounding the slab and initially clings to the concrete, too. But as the minutes pass and the snow begins melting from only its surface, the slab reveals its secret: Like razors, stoves and guitars before it, this concrete has gone electric.

Fukuoka, Japan - Carbon capture and storage projects rely on effective monitoring of injected CO2. However, the high number of necessary surveys makes this a costly endeavor.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated the transfer of triplet exciton energy from semiconductor nanocrystals to surface-bound molecular acceptors, extending the lifetime of the originally prepared excited state by six orders of magnitude. This finding has implications for fields ranging from solar energy conversion to photochemical synthesis to optoelectronics to light therapy for cancer treatment.

Too much confidence is placed in economic games, according to research by academics at Oxford University.

While traditional economic and evolutionary theory predicts that people will typically seek to maximise their own success, the results of economic games have shown people to be much more altruistic than expected.

A limitation of organ transplant is acute rejection of the graft by the host immune system. Graft rejection is mediated by the development of CD8+ cytotoxic T cells that target donor MHC class I molecules, and in animal models, these cells have been shown to develop in secondary lymphoid organs. However, in humans, there is evidence that cytotoxic T cells mature within the graft without trafficking to secondary sites. A new study in the inaugural issue of JCI Insight indicates that the development of graft-targeting CD8+ cytotoxic T cells requires CD4+ effector memory T cells.

LOS ANGELES - Despite continuing reports that methamphetamine abuse during pregnancy can lead to behavioral and emotional problems in children, pregnant women continue to abuse the illicit drug. Nearly one-fourth of pregnant women seeking treatment at federal facilities were methamphetamine users.

A lithium-ion battery that self heats if the temperature is below 32 degrees Fahrenheit has multiple applications, but may have the most impact on relieving winter "range anxiety" for electric vehicle owners, according to a team of researchers from Penn State and EC Power, State College.

Lithium-air batteries hold the promise of storing electricity at up to five times the energy density of today's familiar lithium-ion batteries, but they have inherent shortcomings. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have helped prove that a new prototype is powered by a surprising chemical reaction that may solve the new battery's biggest drawback.

The findings are reported in the Jan. 11, 2016 issue of Nature.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Two MIT researchers have developed a thin-film material whose phase and electrical properties can be switched between metallic and semiconducting simply by applying a small voltage. The material then stays in its new configuration until switched back by another voltage. The discovery could pave the way for a new kind of "nonvolatile" computer memory chip that retains information when the power is switched off, and for energy conversion and catalytic applications.

Saffron from Spain is one of the world's most superior varieties, but the majority of this product which is labelled and exported as such originates in other countries. Scientists from the Czech Republic and Spain confirmed this false labelling after analysing 44 commercial products. By using a new technique based on each type of saffron's unique chemical 'fingerprint', the scientists have proved that over 50% of the samples were fraudulent.

AURORA, Colo. (Jan. 20, 2016) - Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have shown a direct link between indoor tanning and substance abuse among Colorado high school students.

"A growing national body of evidence links indoor tanning with other risky health-related behavior among adolescents," said study author Robert Dellavalle, MD, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Scientists at ETH Zurich have developed a new method of 3D microprinting. This can be used to manufacture even tiny, partly overhanging structures easily and in a single step. One day, this could pave the way for the manufacture of complex watch components or microtools for keyhole surgery, for example.

Quantum computing will change lives, society and the economy and a working system is expected to be developed by 2020 according to a leading figure in the world of quantum computing, who will talk tomorrow Jan. 21, 2016 at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

Researchers from the University of Granada (UGR) have proven that frying in Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) is the cooking method that increases the phenolic fraction present in raw vegetables used in Mediterranean diet (potato, pumpkin, tomato and eggplant) the most. This means an improvement to this foods in the cooking process.