Sensors 2022, 22(9), 3374 March 31, 2022 Researchers in South Korea optimized an environmentally adaptive detection algorithm that can better reflect changes in the complex South Korean environment than the current models. The algorithm distinguished between normal and biological particles using a laser-induced fluorescence-based biological particle detector capable of real-time measurements and size classification. It operates with minimal false alarms in any environment by training based on experimental data acquired from an area where rainfall, snow, fog and mist, Asian dust, and water waves on the beach occur. The detection performance for each level of sensitivity was examined to enable […]
Researchers find citation bias in published papers and evidence that the problem is getting worse
Phys.org June 1, 2022 Citations and text analysis are both used to study the distribution and flow of ideas between researchers, fields, and countries, but the resulting flows are rarely equal. A team of researchers in the US (City University of New York, UCLA, Stanford University) argues that the differences in these two flows capture a growing global inequality in the production of scientific knowledge. They offered a framework called ‘citational lensing’ to identify where citations should appear between countries but are absent given that what is embedded in their published abstract texts is highly similar. This framework also identifies […]
Researchers identify alternative to lithium-based battery technology
Science Daily May 31, 2022 To make all-solid-state sodium batteries (ASSSBs) commercially viable a team of researchers in the US (University of Houston, Iowa State University, Purdue University, Rice University, Northern Illinois University, UC Irvine) has developed a family of oxysulfide glass solid electrolytes (SEs) that not only exhibit the highest critical current density among all Na-ion conducting sulfide-based SEs, but also enable high-performance ambient-temperature sodium-sulfur batteries. By forming bridging oxygen units, the solid electrolytes undergo pressure-induced sintering at room temperature, resulting in a fully homogeneous glass structure with robust mechanical properties. The self-passivating solid electrolyte interphase at the Na|SE […]
Want to prevent pandemics? Stop spillovers
Nature 605, 419-422 (2022) According to a team of medical professionals and practitioners in the US spillover events, in which a pathogen that originates in animals jumps into people, have probably triggered every viral pandemic that’s occurred since the start of the twentieth century. An August 2021 analysis of disease outbreaks over the past four centuries indicates that the yearly probability of pandemics could increase several-fold in the coming decades, largely because of human-induced environmental changes. Fortunately, for around US$20 billion per year, the likelihood of spillover could be greatly reduced. This is the amount needed to halve global deforestation […]
Writing with light on titania: Rewritable UV-sensitive surfaces made from doped TiO2 nanocrystals
Phys.org May 30, 2022 Nanocrystalline TiO2, a semiconductor, darkens when irradiated with ultraviolet (UV) light due to charge separation and reduction of titanium atoms. The color change is not permanent because oxygen in the air re-oxidizes the titanium and causes a return to transparency. To sustain the color change for a longer period researchers at UC Riverside used nitrogen as a dopant and decorated the crystals with a common non-toxic substance diethylene glycol which played a crucial role in the color change. Using light-writing methods they produced patterns or printed text by illuminating the paper or glass substrate through a […]
Top 10 Science and Technology Inventions for the Week of May 27, 2022
01. Acoustic sensors to pinpoint shooters in an urban setting 02. Autonomous underwater imaging: Faster and more accurate 03. Developing next-generation superconducting cables 04. Emulating impossible ‘unipolar’ laser pulses paves the way for processing quantum information 05. Explosions help probe elusive atmospheric waves 06. Generating ultra-violet lasers with near-infrared light through ‘domino upconversion’ of nanoparticles 07. The limits of vision: Seeing shadows in the dark 08. Long-hypothesized ‘next generation wonder material’ created 09. Nuclear Fusion Can Unleash Even More Power Than We Realized, Scientists Say 10. Secure communication with light particles that sidesteps the reliance on polarization And others… Is […]
Acoustic sensors to pinpoint shooters in an urban setting
Phys.org May 23, 2022 Instead of a sound propagation-based approach, researchers in Germany focused on an information theoretical analysis using the Cramér-Rao bound to predict the achievable shooter localization accuracy. They showed that accounting for incomplete and heterogeneous acoustic measurement data sets leads to maximization of the fusion gain and consequently to improved achievable localization accuracy. They validated the match between predicted and actual experimental performance in free-field measurements with supersonic gunshots including varying sensor-to-shooter geometries, weapon types, and various measurement types. By measuring signatures of impulsive gas cannon shots in urban terrain, they analyzed the effect of buildings to […]
Autonomous underwater imaging: Faster and more accurate
Science Daily May 26, 2022 Many modern imaging sensors must obtain multiple looks or “views” of a target at different orientations to automatically classify it with high confidence. Therefore, when tasked with classifying many targets, a mobile sensor may need to travel a long distance to change its position and orientation relative to every target, resulting in costly and time-consuming operations. A team of researchers in the US (Cornell University, Naval Surface Warfare Center) has developed a new approach, referred to as informative multiview planning (IMVP) that simultaneously determines the most informative sequence of views and the shortest path between […]
Developing next-generation superconducting cables
Science Daily May 24, 2022 Previous work showed that the body of superconducting cables could be cooled with helium gas, but the cable ends needed another medium for cooling, such as liquid nitrogen. To improve efficiency and practicality a team of researchers in the US (University of Colorado, Florida State University, industry) overcame that obstacle and were able to cool an entire cable system with helium gas. Removing the need for liquid nitrogen allowed them to make a highly compact superconducting power cable that can be operated in a continuous mode. The system is small and lightweight, and it allows […]
Emulating impossible ‘unipolar’ laser pulses paves the way for processing quantum information
Science Daily May 24, 2022 Key applications such as THz scanning tunnelling microscopy or electronic devices operating at optical clock rates call for ultimately short, almost unipolar waveforms, at megahertz (MHz) repetition rates. An international team of researchers (Germany, USA – University of Michigan) has developed a flexible and scalable scheme for the generation of strong phase-locked THz pulses based on shift currents in type-II-aligned epitaxial semiconductor heterostructures. The measured THz waveforms exhibit only 0.45 optical cycles at their centre frequency within the full width at half maximum of the intensity envelope, peak fields above 1.1 kV cm−1 and spectral components up […]