Thursday 6 June 2019

Flying-V plane concept marks spectacular new look in air travel

Seating airline passengers in the wings? Think about it. A V-shaped plane designed to carry passengers, cargo, and fuel tanks in its wings is being seeded as a good idea for the future.

* This article was originally published here

Can racquet sports give you a fitter, longer life?

(HealthDay)—When you think of effective cardio exercise, the activities most likely to come to mind are aerobics classes, running, swimming and cycling. But racquet sports like tennis may hold even greater benefits, according to research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

* This article was originally published here

Scientists edge closer to root causes of multiple sclerosis

An international team of researchers led by the University of British Columbia has made a scientific advance they hope will lead to the development of preventative treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS).

* This article was originally published here

Uber's first helicopter rides set for New York

Uber said Thursday it is readying its first helicopter rides, which will carry passengers between New York's JFK Airport and lower Manhattan.

* This article was originally published here

Do medical-alert bracelets benefit patients with chronic kidney disease?

In a pilot study of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), wearing a medical-alert bracelet or necklace was associated with a lower risk of developing kidney failure compared with usual care. The findings, which appear in an upcoming issue of CJASN, call for a randomized trial to fully evaluate the promise of medical-alert accessories for individuals with kidney dysfunction.

* This article was originally published here

Heart rate variation due to stress affects auditory attention

Sudden hearing loss can be experienced in highly stressful situations, usually lasting a short time. Researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil, collaborating with colleagues at Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom, have reported a discovery that contributes to a deeper understanding of this phenomenon.

* This article was originally published here

Unusual Japanese plant inspires recalculation of equation used to model leaf arrangement patterns

Leaves are enjoyed for their shade, autumn colors, or taste, and the arrangement of leaves on a plant is a practical way to identify a species. However, the details of how plants control their leaf arrangement have remained a persistent mystery in botany. A Japanese plant species with a peculiar leaf pattern recently revealed unexpected insight into how almost all plants control their leaf arrangement.

* This article was originally published here

Autonomous boats can target and latch onto each other

The city of Amsterdam envisions a future where fleets of autonomous boats cruise its many canals to transport goods and people, collect trash, or self-assemble into floating stages and bridges. To further that vision, MIT researchers have given new capabilities to their fleet of robotic boats—which are being developed as part of an ongoing project—that lets them target and clasp onto each other, and keep trying if they fail.

* This article was originally published here

300-year-old piston design reinvented with soft flexible materials

Since their invention in the late 1700s when French-born British physicist Denis Papin, the inventor of the pressure cooker, proposed the piston principle, pistons have been used to harness the power of fluids to perform work in numerous machines and devices.

* This article was originally published here

Ultrasound method restores dopaminergic pathway in brain at Parkinson's early stages

While there are several thousand drugs available to treat a wide range of brain diseases, from depression to schizophrenia, they cannot penetrate the blood-brain barrier (BBB) into the brain. The BBB, which protects the brain from pathogens that may be present in blood, also prevents most drugs from gaining access to the brain functional tissue, the parenchyma, a well-known challenge to the treatment of all brain diseases including neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.

* This article was originally published here

Study illuminates how undifferentiated cells commit to their biological fate

From the light-sensing cones of the retina to the blood-pumping muscle of the heart to the waste-filtering units of the kidneys, the human body is made up of hundreds of cell types exquisitely specialized to perform their jobs with great precision.

* 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

Kids are more vulnerable to the flu – here's what to look out for this winter

A ten-year-old Perth boy is the latest Australian child to die from suspected influenza so far this year. This follows the deaths of three Victorian children, and a teenager in South Australia.

* This article was originally published here

Evolving neural networks with a linear growth in their behavior complexity

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are designed to replicate the behavior and evolution of biological organisms while solving computing problems. In recent years, many researchers have developed EAs and used them to tackle a variety of optimization tasks.

* This article was originally published here

Feeling heat on the roof of the world

The Tibetan Plateau, also known as the "roof of the world," is getting hotter. This process is especially fast in places marked by retreating snow, according to new research by scientists from the University of Portsmouth and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ITPCAS).

* This article was originally published here

First-of-its-kind platform aims to rapidly advance prosthetics

A new open-source, artificially intelligent prosthetic leg designed by researchers at the University of Michigan and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is now available to the scientific community.

* This article was originally published here

Pioneering 3-D printed device sets new record for efficiency

A new 3-D printed thermoelectric device, which converts heat into electric power with an efficiency factor over 50% higher than the previous best for printed materials—and is cheap to produce in bulk—has been manufactured by researchers at Swansea University's SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre.

* This article was originally published here

Investigating the implications of social robots in religious contexts

Researchers at Siegen University and Würzberg University, in Germany, have recently carried out a study investigating the user experience and acceptability associated with the use of social robots in religious contexts. Their paper, published in Springer's International Journal of Social Robotics, offers interesting insight into how people perceive blessing robots compared to other robots for more conventional purposes.

* This article was originally published here

Consumers want food labelling details spoon-fed

In 2016, Congress passed a federal mandate requiring manufacturers to label bioengineered foods. Since then, industry leaders have been searching for quick and easily accessible methods for sharing information about how and why a product was bioengineered, and the impact that might have on the consumer or the environment.

* This article was originally published here