VERBAL and physical aggression towards health and social care staff is on the increase. The NHS has reported a rise of 5.8 per cent in reported assaults – up to 63,199 in 2012/13. Now a University of Huddersfield lecturer has called for a programme of research to establish the best methods for dealing with the problem.
Tech
A theoretical study led by the University of Exeter has shed new light on the conditions that lead to the evolution of spite or altruism in structured populations.
Understanding the way in which social behaviours such as altruism – when animals benefit others at their own expense – develop is a long-standing problem that has generated thousands of articles and heated debates.
Scientists have known for years that together, bacteria and plants can remediate contaminated sites. Ramakrishna Wusirika, of Michigan Technological University, has determined that how you add bacteria to the mix can make a big difference.
He has also shed light on the biochemical pathways that allow plants and bacteria to clean up some of the worst soils on the planet while increasing their fertility.
Radio waves are used for many measurements and applications, for example, in communication with mobile phones, MRI scans, scientific experiments and cosmic observations. But 'noise' in the detector of the measuring instrument limits how sensitive and precise the measurements can be. Now researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute have developed a new method where they can avoid noise by means of laser light and can therefore achieve extreme precision of measurements. The results are published in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature.
With cutting-edge technology, sometimes the first step scientists face is just making sure it actually works as intended.
The USC Viterbi School of Engineering is home to the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center (QCC), a super-cooled, magnetically shielded facility specially built to house the first commercially available quantum computing processors – devices so advanced that there are only two in use outside the Canadian lab where they were built: The first one went to USC and Lockheed Martin, and the second to NASA and Google.
When a piece of gift-wrapping tape sticks to itself, it's frustrating, but when small parts in a microgear or micromotor stick together, an electronic device may not work well, if at all. Scientists now report in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces that rough zinc oxide coatings can prevent tiny silicon parts from adhering to each other. The study could accelerate the development of even more advanced, high-performance electronics and small sensors.
This news release is available in French.
We know that babies and young children often put non-food items in their mouths, a behaviour that occasionally leads to swallowing of foreign objects. Metallic toys and low-cost jewelry often contain toxic substances such as lead and cadmium. Do these objects present a health risk for young children?
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that uses existing technology to allow researchers and natural resource managers to collect significantly more information on water quality to better inform policy decisions.
This news release is available in German.
This news release is available in Spanish.
Scientists from the University of Granada (UGR) have opened the door to the development of new drugs against osteoporosis, one of the most common chronic illnesses in the world, especially among women 65 or over.
Scientists from the same team have previously reported large amounts of sulphur and iron accumulation in the warship Vasa. In that study, the scientists found an outbreak of acidity and sulphate salts on the surface of the hull and other wooden objects.
'This is the result of biological and chemical processes that occur naturally in low-oxygen waters and in sediments,' says Yvonne Fors from the Department of Conservation at the University of Gothenburg and one of the scientists behind the article.
You can hear the metallic buzz as the milling machine bores into the workpiece. Just a few last drill holes, and the camshaft is complete. The computer-guided machine performed the entire job – thanks to the digital manufacturing data that were uploaded onto its embedded computer beforehand. Everything runs without a hitch, only – the data are stolen.
The network of charging stations for electric vehicles is becoming more tightly meshed. In Germany, the ratio of electric cars to charging stations is currently two to one and utility companies are pushing forward expansion of charging opportunities, especially in cities and metropolitan areas. Over 2000 charging spots have already been installed nationwide and the country's largest charging infrastructure is at the Fraunhofer Institute Center Stuttgart IZS – where up to 30 electric vehicles (EVs) at a time can re-charge at AC charge spots in the Fraunhofer Campus parking garage.
In physics, there's small, and then there's nullity – as in zero-dimensional.
University of Cincinnati researchers have reached this threshold with a special structure that may someday lead to better ways of harnessing solar energy, stronger lasers or more sensitive medical diagnostic devices.
These structures are semiconductor nanowires. UC doctoral student Teng Shi says she and a team of researchers have observed unique optical signatures indicating that electronic excitations within these nanowires can be confined to a zero-dimensional state called a "quantum dot."
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new tool to detect and contain malware that attempts root exploits in Android devices. The tool improves on previous techniques by targeting code written in the C programming language – which is often used to create root exploit malware, whereas the bulk of Android applications are written in Java.
Root exploits take over the system administration functions of an operating system, such as Android. A successful Android root exploit effectively gives hackers unfettered control of a user's smartphone.