A new study unveils a breakthrough approach to detecting fatigue cracks in Orthotropic steel bridge decks (OSDs) using advanced robotics and deep learning.

Forests with few tree species pose considerably higher risk of being damaged and especially vulnerable is the introduced lodgepole pine. This is shown in a new study by researchers from Umeå University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Science in Uppsala. The results can be useful for preventing forest damages and financial losses related to the forest industry.

A re-engineered wearable ultrasound patch for continuous and noninvasive blood pressure monitoring has undergone comprehensive clinical validation on over 100 patients, marking a major milestone in wearable technology research. The soft, stretchy patch provides precise, real-time readings of blood pressure deep within the body. It could offer a simpler and more reliable alternative to current clinical methods.

A new method enables researchers to analyse magnetic nanostructures with a high resolution. It was developed by researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle. The new method achieves a resolution of around 70 nanometres, whereas normal light microscopes have a resolution of just 500 nanometres. This result is important for the development of new, energy-efficient storage technologies based on spin electronics. The team reports on its research in the current issue of the journal "ACS nano".

 

Resembling a seahorse, as its name implies from the Greek words “hippos” (horse) and “kampus” (sea monster), the hippocampus is a brain region crucial for memory formation. But until recently, scientists have not been able to link memory formation to distinct molecular signals. Now, a team of scientists from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences likely opened this black box. Their results are published in PLOS Biology.

The current single-atom catalysts (SACs) for medicine still suffer from the limited active site density. Here, we develop a synthetic method capable of increasing both the metal loading and mass-specific activity of SACs by exchanging zinc with iron. The constructed iron SACs (h³-FNC) with a high metal loading of 6.27 wt% and an optimized adjacent Fe distance of ~ 4 Å exhibit excellent oxidase-like catalytic performance without significant activity decay after being stored for six months and promising antibacterial effects. Attractively, a “density effect” has been found at a high-enough metal doping amount, at which individual active sites become close enough to interact with each other and alter the electronic structure, resulting in significantly boosted intrinsic activity of single-atomic iron sites in h³-FNCs by 2.3 times compared to low- and medium-loading SACs. Consequently, the overall catalytic activity of h³-FNC is highly improved, with mass activity and metal mass-specific activity that are, respectively, 66 and 315 times higher than those of commercial Pt/C. In addition, h³-FNCs demonstrate efficiently enhanced capability in catalyzing oxygen reduction into superoxide anion (O₂·⁻) and glutathione (GSH) depletion. Both in vitro and in vivo assays demonstrate the superior antibacterial efficacy of h³-FNCs in promoting wound healing. This work presents an intriguing activity-enhancement effect in catalysts and exhibits impressive therapeutic efficacy in combating bacterial infections.