Thursday 20 June 2019

Compact, low-cost fingerprint reader could reduce infant mortality around the world

A team of Michigan State University researchers have created Infant-Prints—a low-cost, high-resolution and portable solution to accurately identify infants in an effort to help reduce infant mortality around the world.

* This article was originally published here

New e-tattoo enables accurate, uninterrupted heart monitoring for days

The leading cause of death in Texas is heart disease, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, accounting for more than 45,000 deaths statewide in 2017. A new wearable technology made from stretchy, lightweight material could make heart health monitoring easier and more accurate than existing electrocardiograph machines—a technology that has changed little in almost a century.

* This article was originally published here

Landmark study signals shift in thinking about stem cell differentiation

A pioneering new study led by Florida State University biologists could fundamentally change our understanding of how embryonic stem cells differentiate into specific cell types.

* This article was originally published here

Facebook takes on the world of cryptocurrency with 'Libra' coin

Facebook unveiled plans Tuesday for a new global cryptocurrency called Libra, pledging to deliver a stable virtual money that lives on smartphones and could bring over a billion "unbanked" people into the financial system.

* This article was originally published here

Heat kills invasive jumping worm cocoons, could help limit spread

New research out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum shows that temperatures of about 100 degrees Fahrenheit kill the cocoons of invasive jumping worms.

* This article was originally published here

Timed release of turmeric stops cancer cell growth

A Washington State University research team has developed a drug delivery system using curcumin, the main ingredient in the spice turmeric, that successfully inhibits bone cancer cells while promoting growth of healthy bone cells.

* This article was originally published here

Restrictive approach to blood cell transfusions safe for heart surgery patients

In a recent clinical trial of higher risk patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery, a restrictive approach to blood cell transfusions resulted in fewer transfusions without putting patients at increased risk of acute kidney injury. The findings appear in an upcoming issue of JASN.

* This article was originally published here

Under pressure, plane industry vows cleaner flight—someday

Battery-powered planes, solar planes, hydrogen planes—jet makers are working on myriad ways to make flying less damaging to the planet. Yet clean flying on a mass scale remains decades away.

* This article was originally published here

Video: Why does the moon smell like gunpowder?

After walking on the moon, astronauts hopped back into their lunar lander, bringing the heavenly body's dust along with them on their spacesuits.

* This article was originally published here

Vanilla makes milk beverages seem sweeter

Adding vanilla to sweetened milk makes consumers think the beverage is sweeter, allowing the amount of added sugar to be reduced, according to Penn State researchers, who will use the concept to develop a reduced-sugar chocolate milk for the National School Lunch Program.

* This article was originally published here

Global treaty is leaving some countries vulnerable to increase in tobacco consumption

There is no statistical evidence that global cigarette consumption has fallen as a result of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and in low- and middle-income countries it has actually increased, according to two studies led by global health researchers at York University.

* This article was originally published here

Treatment for common cause of diarrhea more promising

One of the most common causes of diarrhea worldwide—accounting for millions of cases and tens of thousands of deaths, mostly of small children—is the parasite Cryptosporidium. Doctors can treat children with Cryptosporidium for dehydration, but unlike many other causes of diarrhea, there are no drugs to kill the parasite or vaccines to prevent infection.

* This article was originally published here

Scientists map toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer's

A team of researchers from McMaster University has mapped at atomic resolution a toxic protein linked to Alzheimer's disease, allowing them to better understand what is happening deep within the brain during the earliest stages of the disease.

* This article was originally published here

Digitally programmable perovskite nanowire-block copolymer composites

One-dimensional nanomaterials with highly anisotropic optoelectronic properties can be used within energy harvesting applications, flexible electronics and biomedical imaging devices. In materials science and nanotechnology, 3-D patterning methods can be used to precisely assemble nanowires with locally controlled composition and orientation to allow new optoelectronic device designs. In a recent report, Nanjia Zhou and an interdisciplinary research team at the Harvard University, Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute developed and 3-D printed nanocomposite inks composed of brightly emitting colloidal cesium lead halide perovskite (CsPbX3, where X= Cl, Br, or I) nanowires.

* This article was originally published here

A miniature camera for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will help test the observatory and take first images

Scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are building the world's largest digital camera for astronomy and astrophysics—a minivan-sized 3,200-megapixel "eye" of the future Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) that will enable unprecedented views of the universe starting in the fall of 2022 and provide new insights into dark energy and other cosmic mysteries. In the meantime, the lab has completed its work on a miniature version that will soon be used for testing the telescope and taking LSST's first images of the night sky.

* This article was originally published here

Scaffold helps cells repair torn meniscus in lab tests

About a million times a year, Americans with a torn meniscus in their knee undergo surgery in hopes of a repair. Certain tears can't be fixed or won't heal well, and many patients later suffer osteoarthritis from the injury.

* This article was originally published here

Deep submersible dives shed light on rarely explored coral reefs

Just beyond where conventional scuba divers can go is an area of the ocean that still is largely unexplored. In waters this deep—about 100 to at least 500 feet below the surface—little to no light breaks through.

* This article was originally published here

How information is like snacks, money, and drugs—to your brain

Can't stop checking your phone, even when you're not expecting any important messages? Blame your brain.

* This article was originally published here

Teaching artificial intelligence to connect senses like vision and touch

In Canadian author Margaret Atwood's book The Blind Assassin, she says that "touch comes before sight, before speech. It's the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth."

* This article was originally published here

Teaching AI agents navigation subroutines by feeding them videos

Researchers at UC Berkeley and Facebook AI Research have recently proposed a new approach that can enhance the navigation skills of machine learning models. Their method, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, allows models to acquire visuo-motor navigation subroutines by processing a series of videos.

* This article was originally published here

Study predicts more long-term sea level rise from Greenland ice

Greenland's melting ice sheet could generate more sea level rise than previously thought if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase and warm the atmosphere at their current rate, according to a new modeling study. The study, which used data from NASA's Operation IceBridge airborne campaign, was published in Science Advances today. In the next 200 years, the ice sheet model shows that melting at the present rate could contribute 19 to 63 inches to global sea level rise, said the team led by scientists at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. These numbers are at least 80 percent higher than previous estimates, which forecasted up to 35 inches of sea level rise from Greenland's ice.

* This article was originally published here