Saturday 8 June 2019

Probing semiconductor crystals with a sphere of light

Tohoku University researchers have developed a technique using a hollow sphere to measure the electronic and optical properties of large semiconducting crystals. The approach, published in the journal Applied Physics Express, improves on current photoluminescence spectroscopy techniques and could lead to energy savings for mass producers, and thus consumers, of power devices.

* This article was originally published here

Job demands, burnout tied to weight gain

(HealthDay)—Employees with heavier workloads or who are burned out are more likely to emotionally eat and exercise less, according to a study published online May 30 in the Journal of Health Psychology.

* This article was originally published here

Infusing machine learning models with inductive biases to capture human behavior

Human decision-making is often difficult to predict and delineate theoretically. Nonetheless, in recent decades, several researchers have developed theoretical models aimed at explaining decision-making, as well as machine learning (ML) models that try to predict human behavior. Despite the achievements associated with some of these models, accurately predicting human decisions remains a significant research challenge.

* This article was originally published here

How your phone can interrupt the good vibes of a summer music festival

For many communities, summertime is festival season. Festivals allow us to escape our everyday lives. Whether it is time spent listening to music outside with our friends or trying out food trucks on date night, community events are a valued part of social life.

* This article was originally published here

How much would you pay to eliminate child labor from your cocoa?

An increase in cocoa price by 2.8 percent could potentially eliminate the very worst forms of child labor from cocoa production in Ghana, according to a new economic model described in a study published June 5, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jeff Luckstead and Lawton L. Nalley from the University of Arkansas, USA, and Francis Tsiboe from Kansas State University, USA.

* This article was originally published here

New radiotracer can identify nearly 30 types of cancer

A novel class of radiopharmaceuticals has proven effective in non-invasively identifying nearly 30 types of malignant tumors, according to research published in the June issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Using 68Ga-FAPI positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT), researchers were able to image a wide variety of tumors with very high uptake and image contrast, paving the way for new applications in tumor characterization, staging and therapy.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers discover meat-eating plant in Ontario, Canada

Call it the "Little Bog of Horrors." In what is believed to be a first for North America, biologists at the University of Guelph have discovered that meat-eating pitcher plants in Ontario's Algonquin Park wetlands consume not just bugs but also young salamanders.

* This article was originally published here

Diabetes can be detected in gut of cats

The cat is the only animal, aside from humans and primates, which spontaneously develops type 2 diabetes. Therefore, researchers are interested in studying how diabetes develops in cats in order to learn more about the disease in general.

* This article was originally published here

Everything will connect to the internet someday, and this biobattery could help

In the future, small paper and plastic devices will be able to connect to the internet for a short duration, providing information on everything from healthcare to consumer products, before they are thrown away. Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have developed a micro biobattery that could power these disposable sensors.

* This article was originally published here

Discovery sheds light on synthesis, processing of high-performance solar cells

Halide perovskite solar cells hold promise as the next generation of solar cell technologies, but while researchers have developed techniques for improving their material characteristics, nobody understood why these techniques worked. New research sheds light on the science behind these engineering solutions and paves the way for developing more efficient halide perovskite solar cells.

* This article was originally published here

Mojo Vision shows off display technology for augmented reality

What meets the eye is important—but in the case of entering the realm of augmented reality, how it meets the eye is an issue. A California company is on that case. They have technology to let AR users keep in the flow eyes-up. Hands-free.

* This article was originally published here