Improvements in the material that converts X-rays into light, for medical or industrial images, could allow a tenfold signal enhancement. Scintillators are materials that emit light when bombarded with high-energy particles or X-rays. In medical or dental X-ray systems, they convert incoming X-ray radiation into visible light that can then be captured using film or photosensors. They’re also used for night-vision systems and for research, such as in particle detectors or electron microscopes. Researchers at MIT have now shown how…
To address climbing economic losses from swine that contract the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, Virginia Tech researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine are developing a vaccine to combat the disease that has a near 100 percent mortality rate in newborn piglets. The disease emerged in the United States in 2013 and has since caused around $600 million in annual losses to swine producers. When combined with increased food prices for consumers and decreased exports of…
UC researchers develop new probe, imaging technique that can aid future studies. In the field of scientific research, details matter. The minutia of processes and structures are explained with specificity, data points are reported to the most precise decimal and seeing is believing. Now, University of Cincinnati cancer biologists have developed a new piece of technology and a new imaging technique that will help researchers glean more detailed data points and see cells in more precise detail when studying the…
Using adaptive mesh refinement, supercomputer simulation narrows axion mass range. Physicists searching — unsuccessfully — for today’s most favored candidate for dark matter, the axion, have been looking in the wrong place, according to a new supercomputer simulation of how axions were produced shortly after the Big Bang 13.6 billion years ago. Using new calculational techniques and one of the world’s largest computers, Benjamin Safdi, assistant professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley; Malte Buschmann, a postdoctoral research…
This has been confirmed by researchers from the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) after producing sea salinity data obtained from measurements by the SMOS satellite, which were later incorporated into the TOPAZ Arctic prediction model. Researchers at the Barcelona Expert Center (BEC) of the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) have proved that satellite-derived salinity improves marine circulation prediction in the Arctic, which, as in the rest of the planet, is directly influenced by this and other parameters such…
Graphene multiplexed sensor works quicker, faster, and cheaper than previous opioid wastewater monitoring methods. The unique properties of the atom-thick sheet of carbon, known as graphene, enabled a new penny-sized, multiplexed bio-sensor that’s the first to detect opioid byproducts in wastewater, a team of researchers from Boston College, Boston University, and Giner Labs report in the latest online edition of the journal ACS Nano. The novel device is the first to use graphene-based field effect transistors to detect four different…
… paving the way for advances in optical computing. The work is a significant step toward realizing a new generation of ultra-compact, low-energy-use computers capable of complex mathematical computation. Computers are an indispensable part of our daily lives, and the need for ones that can work faster, solve complex problems more efficiently, and leave smaller environmental footprints by minimizing the required energy for computation is increasingly urgent. Recent progress in photonics has shown that it’s possible to achieve more efficient…
Within the joint project LAOLA, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and has now been completed, large-area lighting applications with OLEDs on flexible substrates should be developed. The project focused on ultra-thin glass, which offers advantages compared to plastic as a substrate due to its excellent barrier properties. At the Fraunhofer FEP, the OLEDs were applied to the flexible glass using a roll-to-roll process. A surgical light designed using this process will be…
Sensor of novel material an alternative for blood glucose measurement. An interdisciplinary team of researchers at TU Bergakademie Freiberg has developed a novel sensor from a bio-based material that enables enzyme-free measurement of glucose concentration in the blood. Anyone suffering from diabetes cannot live without them – the test strips for measuring blood glucose levels. They contain enzymes that react with glucose in the blood. “Once used, the conventional enzyme based photometric or electrochemical measurement no longer work and the…
Tandem cells made of silicon and perovskite are able to convert the broad energy spectrum of sunlight into electrical energy more efficiently than the respective single cells. Now, for the first time, two teams from HZB and ISFH Hameln have succeeded in combining a perovskite top cell with a so-called PERC/POLO silicon cell to form a tandem device. This is an important achievement, since PERC silicon cells on p-type silicon are the “workhorse” of photovoltaics, with a market share of…
A new non-invasive technique provides a near-real-time view of the human brain’s waste-clearance vessels. A joint research team at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the University of Florida describes the first non-invasive and near real-time visualization of the human brain’s waste-clearance system in Nature Communications. The brain is densely organized, and visualizing the structures dedicated to waste removal, also known as lymphatic structures, had been a limitation in the field. “This is the first report to show…
Ultrasound scans, best known for monitoring pregnancies or imaging organs, can also be used to stimulate cells and direct cell function. A team of Penn State researchers has developed an easier, more effective way to harness the technology for biomedical applications. The team created a transparent, biocompatible ultrasound transducer chip that resembles a microscope glass slide and can be inserted into any optical microscope for easy viewing. Cells can be cultured and stimulated directly on top of the transducer chip and…
Spectacular structure of chain-mail may explain the success of C.diff at defending itself against antibiotics and immune system molecules. The spectacular structure of the protective armour of superbug C.difficile has been revealed for the first time showing the close-knit yet flexible outer layer – like chain mail. This assembly prevents molecules getting in and provides a new target for future treatments, according to the scientists who have uncovered it. Publishing in Nature Communications, the team of scientists from Newcastle, Sheffield…
Transfer project strengthens robot autonomy and teamwork with humans. Autonomous mobile robots that work safely and intuitively with humans are not only an important building block of Industry 4.0. In future space missions, they are expected to support infrastructure construction on foreign planets. In the recently completed transfer project TransFIT, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the University of Bremen and Siemens AG developed the robotic skills required for the autonomous and collaborative execution of complex assembly work….
Divide, differentiate or die? Making decisions at the right time and place is what defines a cell’s behavior and is particularly critical for stem cells of an developing organisms. Decision making relies on how information is processed by networks of signaling proteins. The teams around Christian Schröter from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund and Luis Morelli from IBioBa have now revealed for the first time, that ERK, a key player in stem cell signaling processes information…
Uniting with the enemy: Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen have discovered how benign strains of Pseudomonas protect against their harmful bacterial relatives. The study, now published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, shows that the coexistence of beneficial and pathogenic Pseudomonas on Arabidopsis thaliana improves plant health, but that the exact extent depends on the genetic makeup of both the plant and the microbes. The findings could help to design natural alternatives to synthetic pesticides. Plants host…
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