A research team at the University of Seville, Spain, developed a novel extension of virus machines, an emerging computing model that draws inspiration from how viruses propagate among hosts. These super virus machines, as the team calls them, address time efficiency limits in basic virus machines. This work was published under the title "Super Virus Machines: Faster Virus Transmission, More Efficiency Using Superchannels" on March 21 in Intelligent Computing, a Science Partner Journal.

Here, researchers from Laval University, Harbin Institute of Technology, University of Toronto, University of L’ Aquila, and University of Rome proposed a frequency multiplexed photothermal correlation tomographic (FM-PCT) technique. This approach overcomes the limitations of 2D imaging modes in infrared thermography, as well as the challenges of low imaging speed, narrow field of view, and low resolution in photothermal imaging.

The leading researcher, Dr Andreas Mandelis, commented: “It is these conditions that, for the first time, make FM-PCT a leading candidate for implementation in fast-turn-around quality control situations, such as industrial manufacturing environments.”

A research article published by the University of Macau presented a robotic US scanning system based on a hybrid active–passive force control method, which can be helpful in modern medical treatment via US imaging.

The new research paper, published on May. 2 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, summarized a robotic ultrasound scanning system with a constant-force end-effector. Its uniqueness is the introduction of a hybrid active–passive force control approach to maintaining a constant contact force between the ultrasound probe and the continually changing surface.