Thursday 9 May 2019

Cities can follow Stanford's energy makeover to cut emissions of carbon dioxide affordably, new study finds

Over the past several years, Stanford transformed its energy infrastructure by electrifying its heating system, replacing its gas-fired power plant with grid power, creating a unique system to recover heat, building massive tanks to store hot and cold water, and building a solar power plant. The Stanford Energy System Innovations project cut the campus's total greenhouse gas emissions 68 percent and is lowering the system's operating costs by $425 million over 35 years.

* This article was originally published here

Methane-consuming bacteria could be the future of fuel

Known for their ability to remove methane from the environment and convert it into a usable fuel, methanotrophic bacteria have long fascinated researchers. But how, exactly, these bacteria naturally perform such a complex reaction has been a mystery.

* This article was originally published here

China Mobile blocked from offering phone service in US

U.S. communications regulators on Thursday rejected a Chinese telecom company's application to provide service in the U.S. due to national security risks amid an escalation in tensions between the two countries.

* This article was originally published here

Officials seek to open major spillway on Mississippi River

Army Corps of Engineers officials in Louisiana aim to open a historic flood control structure above New Orleans on Tuesday for an unprecedented second time in one year.

* This article was originally published here

Secrets of fluorescent microalgae could lead to super-efficient solar cells

Tiny light-emitting microalgae, found in the ocean, could hold the secret to the next generation of organic solar cells, according to new research carried out at the Universities of Birmingham and Utrecht.

* This article was originally published here

Hope on the horizon for treating stroke

A stroke treatment developed by researcher Byron Ford at the University of California, Riverside, has moved toward clinical trials.

* This article was originally published here

Radio-frequency heating of hip arthroplasty implants during metal artifact reduction

Clinical metal artifact reduction sequence (MARS) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols at 3 Tesla (3T) on hip arthroplasty implants pose minimal risk of thermal injury, according to a study to be presented at the ARRS 2019 Annual Meeting, set for May 5-10 in Honolulu, HI.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers make transformational AI seem 'unremarkable'

Physicians making life-and-death decisions about organ transplants, cancer treatments or heart surgeries typically don't give much thought to how artificial intelligence might help them. And that's how researchers at Carnegie Mellon University say clinical AI tools should be designed—so doctors don't need to think about them.

* This article was originally published here

Substrate defects key to growth of 2-D materials

Creating two-dimentional materials large enough to use in electronics is a challenge despite huge effort but now, Penn State researchers have discovered a method for improving the quality of one class of 2-D materials, with potential to achieve wafer-scale growth in the future.

* This article was originally published here

In Wall Street debut, Uber set to turn a corner

Uber is expected to reveal pricing Thursday for a massive share offering that is a milestone for the ride-hailing industry and the so-called "sharing economy," but which comes amid simmering concerns about its business model.

* This article was originally published here

Just add water: Salt battery could help renewable energy use

Amid the hum and heat of Berlin's Reuter thermal power station stands a shining contraption that looks out of place in the decades-old machine hall.

* This article was originally published here

Researchers create 'force field' for super materials

Researchers have developed a revolutionary method to intricately grow and protect some of the world's most exciting nanomaterials—graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNT).

* This article was originally published here

Genome of the endangered pygmy hog reveals interbreeding with several pig species

The little pygmy hog turns out to be a big piece in resolving the complex evolutionary puzzle of wild boar speciation. Researchers from Wageningen University & Research found the common wild boar interbred with other wild boar subspecies during their expansion from South East Asia to the Indonesian isles, Europe and North Africa, just like human ancestors 'interbred' with Neanderthals. Their findings are reported in Nature Communications.

* This article was originally published here

Migraines may increase risk of pregnancy complications

In a study of women in Denmark with and without migraines who became pregnant, migraines were associated with an increased risk of pregnancy-associated hypertension disorders in the mother. Also, in newborns, maternal migraine was associated with an increased risk of a variety of adverse outcomes, including low birth weight, preterm birth, cesarean delivery, respiratory distress syndrome, and febrile seizures.

* This article was originally published here

Emirates Airline profit dives 69 percent in 'tough' year

Emirates Airline reported a 69 percent drop in net profits Thursday on high fuel prices and a strong dollar in what it described as a "tough" year.

* This article was originally published here

A multi-scale body-part mask guided attention network for person re-identification

Person re-identification entails the automated identification of the same person in multiple images from different cameras and with different backgrounds, angles or positions. Despite recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), person re-identification remains a highly challenging task, particularly due to the many variations in a person's pose, as well as other differences associated with lighting, occlusion, misalignment and background clutter.

* This article was originally published here

US shuts down illegal web marketplace; 2 Israelis charged

The FBI has shut down a website it says was a gateway to illegal marketplaces on the darknet and announced the arrest of its two alleged Israeli operators. They are accused of making millions of dollars in kickbacks for their services.

* This article was originally published here