Tech
Fences are one of humanity's most frequent landscape alterations, with their combined length exceeding even that of roads by an order of magnitude. Despite their ubiquity, they have received far less research scrutiny than many human-built structures. Writing in BioScience, Alex McInturff, who was at the University of California, Berkeley, at the time of this research, and a global team characterize the current state of fence research and generate a typology to guide future efforts.
Scientists at the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center have developed an unusually rich picture of who is eating whom off the Northeastern United States. The findings, published recently in Fish and Fisheries, provide a close look at fish feeding habits for 17 fish species, predators, and their prey.
Systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that patients with localised and locally advanced prostate cancer may be potentially spared radiotherapy and its associated side effects following surgery
The authors recommend that if prostate cancer later recurs or relapses men should receive radiotherapy at that stage
Philadelphia, September 29, 2020 - A study conducted by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Brown University found that the vast majority of license suspensions are for non-driving-related events, such as failure to pay a fine or appear in court, and that these suspensions disproportionately affect those living in low-income communities and in communities with a greater percentage of Black and Hispanic residents.
Clean air, clean water and a functioning ecosystem are considered priceless. Yet the economic value of nature remains elusive in cost-benefit analysis of climate policy regulations and greenhouse-gas-reduction efforts.
Researchers from RMIT University have developed an eco-friendly zero-cement concrete, which all but eliminates corrosion.
Concrete corrosion and fatbergs plague sewage systems around the world, leading to costly and disruptive maintenance.
But now RMIT engineers have developed concrete that can withstand the corrosive acidic environment found in sewage pipes, while greatly reducing residual lime that leaches out, contributing to fatbergs.
Researchers have found a way to engineer more efficient versions of the plant enzyme Rubisco by using a red-algae-like Rubisco from a bacterium.
For 50 years scientists have striven to boost the activity of Rubisco, a promising target to increase crop production as it controls how much and how fast plants fix carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into sugars and energy during photosynthesis.
Singapore, 28 September 2020 - An international team of researchers has found that selpercatinib, a drug that precisely targets cancers driven by mutations or alterations in the gene RET, was effective at shrinking tumours in patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with a majority of patients living for more than a year without disease progression. Activity was also observed in thyroid cancer, and the findings were recently published in two back to back papers in the high-impact factor journal, New England Journal of Medicine.
For over 15 years, ETH Professor Andreas Hierlemann and his group have been developing microelectrode-array chips that can be used to precisely excite nerve cells in cell cultures and to measure electrical cell activity. These developments make it possible to grow nerve cells in cell-culture dishes and use chips located at the bottom of the dish to examine each individual cell in a connected nerve tissue in detail. Alternative methods for conducting such measurements have some clear limitations.
It is usually believed that ferroelectricity can appear in insulating or semiconducting materials rather than in metals, because conducting electrons of metals always screen out the internal static electric field arising from the dipole moments. In 1965, Anderson and Blount proposed the concept of 'ferroelectric metal', pointing out that the electric polarization may appear in certain martensitic transitions due to the inversion symmetry breaking [Anderson et al. Phys Rev Lett 1965, 14, 217-219].
Scientists from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), and the Institute of Automation and Control Processes of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IACP FEB RAS) have studied a correlation between the shape of Thermal Energy Storages (TES) used in traditional and renewable energy sectors and their efficiency. Using the obtained data, design engineers might be able to improve TES for specific needs. A related article was published in the Renewable Energy.
Researchers have established a novel high-frequency laser facility at the University of Tokyo. The coherent extreme ultraviolet light source can reveal details of biological or physical samples with unprecedented clarity. It also allows for investigation of time-dependent phenomena such as ultrafast chemical reactions. Existing facilities for such investigations necessarily require enormous particle accelerators and are prohibitive to many researchers. This new facility should greatly improve access for a broad range of researchers.
Vanadium flow batteries (VFBs) are promising for stationary large-scale energy storage due to their high safety, long cycle life, and high efficiency.
The cost of a VFB system mainly depends on the VFB stack, electrolyte, and control system. Developing a VFB stack from lab to industrial scale can take years of experiments due to complex factors, from key materials to battery architecture.
Novel methods to accurately predict the performance and cost of a VFB stack and further system are needed in order to accelerate the commercialization of VFBs.
For the first time, data from a study with patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 suggest that the disease might deteriorate men's testosterone levels.
The international collaborative team of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) in Japan, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT Ropar) in India, and Osaka University in Japan has discovered for the first time a topological change of viscous fingering (one of classical interfacial hydrodynamics), which is driven by "a partially miscibility," where the two liquids do not mix completely with finite solubility. This topological change originates from a phase separation and the spontaneous motion driven by it.