Movies

Dundee College personnel start three-week strike

Graeme OgstonTayside and Central reporterBBCA rally and public assembly...

Historical visible results studio collapses in UK

Chris Vallance & Tom GerkenBBC InformationGetty PicturesTechnicolor, the...

Donald Trump has modified Ukraine dialog

Joshua NevettPolitical reporterJames WaterhouseUkraine correspondentPA MediaUS President Donald...

TV Shows

Dundee College personnel start three-week strike

Graeme OgstonTayside and Central reporterBBCA rally and public assembly...

Historical visible results studio collapses in UK

Chris Vallance & Tom GerkenBBC InformationGetty PicturesTechnicolor, the...

Donald Trump has modified Ukraine dialog

Joshua NevettPolitical reporterJames WaterhouseUkraine correspondentPA MediaUS President Donald...

Music

Dundee College personnel start three-week strike

Graeme OgstonTayside and Central reporterBBCA rally and public assembly...

Historical visible results studio collapses in UK

Chris Vallance & Tom GerkenBBC InformationGetty PicturesTechnicolor, the...

Donald Trump has modified Ukraine dialog

Joshua NevettPolitical reporterJames WaterhouseUkraine correspondentPA MediaUS President Donald...

Celebrity

Dundee College personnel start three-week strike

Graeme OgstonTayside and Central reporterBBCA rally and public assembly...

Historical visible results studio collapses in UK

Chris Vallance & Tom GerkenBBC InformationGetty PicturesTechnicolor, the...

Donald Trump has modified Ukraine dialog

Joshua NevettPolitical reporterJames WaterhouseUkraine correspondentPA MediaUS President Donald...

Scandals

Dundee College personnel start three-week strike

Graeme OgstonTayside and Central reporterBBCA rally and public assembly...

Historical visible results studio collapses in UK

Chris Vallance & Tom GerkenBBC InformationGetty PicturesTechnicolor, the...

Donald Trump has modified Ukraine dialog

Joshua NevettPolitical reporterJames WaterhouseUkraine correspondentPA MediaUS President Donald...

Drama

Dundee College personnel start three-week strike

Graeme OgstonTayside and Central reporterBBCA rally and public assembly...

Historical visible results studio collapses in UK

Chris Vallance & Tom GerkenBBC InformationGetty PicturesTechnicolor, the...

Donald Trump has modified Ukraine dialog

Joshua NevettPolitical reporterJames WaterhouseUkraine correspondentPA MediaUS President Donald...

Lifestyle

Dundee College personnel start three-week strike

Graeme OgstonTayside and Central reporterBBCA rally and public assembly...

Historical visible results studio collapses in UK

Chris Vallance & Tom GerkenBBC InformationGetty PicturesTechnicolor, the...

Donald Trump has modified Ukraine dialog

Joshua NevettPolitical reporterJames WaterhouseUkraine correspondentPA MediaUS President Donald...

Health

Dundee College personnel start three-week strike

Graeme OgstonTayside and Central reporterBBCA rally and public assembly...

Historical visible results studio collapses in UK

Chris Vallance & Tom GerkenBBC InformationGetty PicturesTechnicolor, the...

Donald Trump has modified Ukraine dialog

Joshua NevettPolitical reporterJames WaterhouseUkraine correspondentPA MediaUS President Donald...

Technology

Dundee College personnel start three-week strike

Graeme OgstonTayside and Central reporterBBCA rally and public assembly...

Historical visible results studio collapses in UK

Chris Vallance & Tom GerkenBBC InformationGetty PicturesTechnicolor, the...

Donald Trump has modified Ukraine dialog

Joshua NevettPolitical reporterJames WaterhouseUkraine correspondentPA MediaUS President Donald...

Company

Subscribe to newsletter

Inside Updates

Monday, February 24, 2025
Home Blog Page 1680

A new material for small electronics that gives batteries longer life

0
A new material for small electronics that gives batteries longer life


A new material for small electronics that gives batteries longer life
Angular dependence of the quantum oscillation. a) Magnetoresistance measured at selected angles θ with respect to the film normal direction, as depicted in the inset, where θ=0° indicates out-of-plane magnetic field B and θ=90° corresponds to B parallel to current Je. b) Oscillatory traces of Δρxx(B)/ρxx(0) vs. 1/B (shifted vertically for clarity). c) Fast Fourier transform frequency analysis of the SdH spectra, revealing contributions from two 3D bulk pockets. The dashed line of 1/cosθ indicates that the secondary band 2 is not of 2D origin. Credit: Materials Today Physics (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2024.101486

Scientists have achieved a series of milestones in growing a high-quality thin film conductor, suggesting in a new study that the material is a promising candidate platform for future wearable electronics and other miniature applications.

Researchers at The Ohio State University, the Army Research Laboratory and MIT determined that the material is the best among similarly built films for its electron mobility—an index of how easy it is for an electrical current to pass through it.

Coupled with low defect density to reduce interference with electron movement on the surface, the material is like a tiny empty freeway where all the electrons can easily get where they need to go with no traffic to be seen.

“We redefined what a car on this highway does—it’s like a car that can go really fast without getting encumbered by other things on the road,” said first study author Patrick Taylor, a physicist at the Army Research Laboratory.

“Future generations of electronics will use that kind of technology because it’s low-power,” Taylor said. “The Army is interested in low power because they don’t want to give a soldier something that hogs their battery. On the flip side, the commercial sector is looking at this kind of technology for what happens after silicon, because silicon’s reaching the end of its road and there has to be something that follows it.”

The research team reported the findings in Materials Today Physics.

Co-lead author Brandi Wooten, a recent Ph.D. graduate in materials science and engineering at Ohio State who is now a research technician in mechanical and aerospace engineering, noted that exhaustive testing of the materials produced another milestone: Researchers were able to detect elusive oscillations that confirmed the pristine films were nearly scatter-free—unlike their counterparts in nature.

“These materials, naturally speaking, just aren’t the best quality in terms of thin film growth, but we need thin films to make devices,” Wooten said. “This is a nice paper showing we can make these materials good enough in thin film form to be put into devices. This is a steppingstone to getting these materials to do more.”

Part of doing more would likely involve taking advantage of—and expanding upon—the films’ thermoelectric capabilities. Wooten, who interned at Taylor’s lab for two summers while pursuing her Ph.D., oversaw highly sensitive tests to gauge the thin films’ thermal properties for this study, and the team has already begun working on new versions of the films based on what she found.

Though military and commercial applications are years away, these films, consuming very little energy, could be integrated with the super-thin chips now fabricated for miniature electronics. Potential uses could include serving as a basic building block for the next generation of magnetic memory in computers or to generate energy that powers robots or drones—or even wearable devices that keep soldiers cool while they’re wearing heavy gear and bulletproof vests.

The thin films—between 90 and 150 nanometers thick—are refined versions of ternary tetradymite, a mineral consisting of bismuth, tellurium and sulfur. For about two decades, scientists have focused on perfecting tetradymite films because of their potential to function as topological insulators: materials in which electrical current flows on the surface while the interior acts as an insulator, reducing any dissipation of the surface flow. This surface conduction also has spin properties, which could open the door to spintronic devices that use very low levels of power.

To achieve those properties, Taylor built the thin films using a technique called molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)—starting with the same crystal structure as tetradymite, but substituting other elements to come up with two different compositions that feature separate conduction mechanisms.

Joseph Heremans, a co-lead author of the paper, helped guide the selection of elements to arrive at the best films. A professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, materials science and engineering, and physics at Ohio State, Heremans advised Taylor to aim for equilibrium while composing the materials—not a typical characteristic of films made with the MBE process.

“That was his guiding light,” Taylor said. “We did try to target more equilibrium conditions, and it paid off—and so the material we have has unusually high mobility.”

The high electron mobility is enabled by growing films in a way that reduces the concentration of moving particles carrying an electric charge that exist in the interior of natural tetradymites, Wooten said.

“By lowering that carrier concentration, we can utilize these really strong and robust states on the surface,” she said. “In topological insulators, the current can go in one direction on the surface, but not the other. It can’t back-scatter, and that’s what makes them more robust.”

This work represented an advance in being able to not just build these films, but to test their properties in the lab—previously, materials made for lab study were much larger.

“Using this molecular beam epitaxy technique, we can now envision a pathway toward something that might fit in your computer or cell phone someday,” Taylor said.

More information:
Patrick J. Taylor et al, Magnetotransport properties of ternary tetradymite films with high mobility, Materials Today Physics (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2024.101486

Citation:
A new material for small electronics that gives batteries longer life (2024, July 18)
retrieved 19 July 2024
from https://techxplore.com/news/2024-07-material-small-electronics-batteries-longer.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.





Source link

UK study finds urban residents score the lowest in social and economic satisfaction and well-being

0
UK study finds urban residents score the lowest in social and economic satisfaction and well-being


A study of 156,000 UK residents found that urban residents score the lowest in social and economic satisfaction and well-being
Optimal distances with healthiest and most equal responses were observed for family satisfaction, friendship satisfaction financial satisfaction, loneliness, and meaningful life. The optimal distances are illustrated for three cities with different sizes. Credit: Finnemann et al

A study conducted by the Center for Urban Mental Health at the University of Amsterdam finds that, in a sample of 156,000 UK residents aged 40 and up, urban living is linked to lower levels of well-being, social satisfaction, and economic satisfaction. The paper is published in the journal Science Advances.

Urban residents also exhibit greater psychological inequality. The study identifies a “Goldilocks zone” between cities and rural areas, where the highest satisfaction and most equal scores are observed.

The percentage of people living in cities has surged from 10% in the 1910s to a projected 68% by 2050. This shift means that cities are increasingly shaping our psychological lives, making it crucial to understand urban well-being. This popularity of cities is largely driven by the abundance of social and economic opportunities.

In response to this observation, psychologist and lead author Adam Finnemann investigated with colleagues whether the popularity of cities makes sense from a psychological perspective.

In other words, does the abundance of economic opportunities translate into higher urban economic satisfaction? Does the wealth of people lead to urban social satisfaction? Do urban residents experience higher well-being compared to those living farther from cities?

A sample of 156,000 people from multiple cities

The study aimed to answer these questions by comparing urban and rural areas using large samples ranging from 40,000 to 156,000 individuals aged 40 to 70 from the UK Biobank. “A central challenge in urban psychology is defining urban, suburban, peri-urban, and rural areas,” states Finnemann.

“To address this problem, we propose a novel measure of urbanicity based on the distance between individuals and their nearest city center. This measure also accounts for the fact that living 15 km from London differs from living 15 km from Leeds—one is still urbanized while the other is countryside.”

A study of 156,000 UK residents found that urban residents score the lowest in social and economic satisfaction and well-being
Figure showing how average scores vary with urbanicity for eight variables, grouped into three psychological dimensions: well-being, social satisfaction, and economic satisfaction. Lower values generally indicate worse outcomes, except for loneliness, where lower values are better. Lower values of Adjusted Distance captures individuals living close to city centers. For instance, an adjusted distance of 0.01 reflects individuals living 4 km from city centers of cities with 200,000 inhabitants, 7 km from 500,000 inhabit cities, and 10 km from 1,000,000 cities. Credit: Finnemann et al

The urban desirability paradox

The study finds that while urban residents have the highest incomes, this does not translate into psychological advantages. On the contrary, residents in highly urban areas score worse on all eight measures covering well-being, social satisfaction, and economic satisfaction.

The researchers conclude that there exists a conundrum, which they term the ‘urban desirability paradox;’ highlighting the contrast between the popularity of cities and the psychological state of their residents.

Benefiting the already advantaged

The study also finds increased inequality in satisfaction, particularly regarding income and financial satisfaction, with the highest satisfaction inequality near city centers.

“This increased social and economic satisfaction inequality aligns with theories that suggest cities disproportionately benefit the already advantaged,” Finnemann notes.

Optimal distances

Finally, the novel measure of urbanicity allowed the researchers to examine the effects between highly urban and highly rural areas. They identified optimal distances for five variables: meaningful life, family satisfaction, friendship satisfaction, loneliness, and financial satisfaction.

“Areas near cities but beyond their boundaries, the hinterlands, show the highest and most equal levels of psychological satisfaction,” explains Finnemann.

“These optimal distances might result from happy individuals moving there rather than the locations themselves enhancing individual well-being. Thus, our findings do not imply that anyone will benefit psychologically from moving to these areas.”

More information:
Adam Finnemann, The Urban Desirability Paradox: UK Urban-rural Differences in Well-being, Social, and Economic Satisfaction, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn1636. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn1636

Citation:
UK study finds urban residents score the lowest in social and economic satisfaction and well-being (2024, July 19)
retrieved 19 July 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2024-07-uk-urban-residents-score-lowest.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.





Source link

It’s just been found in Madagascar

0
It’s just been found in Madagascar


Giant millipede was lost to science for 126 years: It’s just been found in Madagascar
Credit: Re:wild

When a new species is discovered in the depths of the rainforest or on top of a mountain, it can be years before the creature is cataloged again. Separated from science by elevation, water or tangled branches, the species lives undisturbed, its populations existing in an almost-separate world.

Sometimes, so much time passes, scientists can’t be sure whether the animals still exist. That’s when they send out an expedition. Re:wild is working to rediscover these species “lost to science,” according to a July 17 news release.

This includes species that aren’t extinct and may have been observed by local communities, but they have not been identified in a scientific study for an extended period of time.

In a recent expedition to Makira, the largest rainforest in Madagascar, researchers, entomologists and trail guides searched the trees, ground and rivers for 30 different “lost” species, according to the release.

“In the past, the Search for Lost Species has primarily looked for one or two species on each expedition, but there are now 4,300 species that we know of around the world that have not been documented in a decade or more,” Christina Biggs, a Re:wild officer, said.

“Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot and Makira is an underexplored area within the country, so we decided to pilot a new model for lost species searches there. We convened a group of scientists to search for as many species as possible, and it proved successful.”

Of the 30 species on the need-to-find list, there were three mammals, three fish, seven reptiles, 12 insects and five spiders, according to the release.

They searched for five days before local guides and fishers helped to identify all three fish species. The guides walked for days to local communities and discovered a Makira rainbow fish that was brought back to camp, as well as photos of a fish with “iridescent scales and red highlights,” according to the release.

The team also rediscovered several species of insects, some of which weren’t on the initial list, before something “most unexpected” caught their eye.

“I personally was most surprised and pleased by the fact that the giant millipede Spirostreptus sculptus, not uncommon in Makira Forest, appeared to be another lost species known only from the type specimen described in 1897,” entomologist Dmitry Telnov said. “The longest specimen of this species we observed in Makia was a really gigantic female measuring (10.8 inches) long.”

Spirostreptus species can live up to five years and regularly reach longer than six inches, according to Ant’s Kingdom. They are also called “olive-striped” millipedes.

Despite 21 species being rediscovered, many couldn’t be confirmed.

The Masoala fork-marked lemur, not documented since 2004, evaded the research team, as well as a large chameleon species missing since 2006, according to the release.

A dusky tetraka, a type of bird rediscovered on another expedition in December 2022, lives on both sides of Makira, and researchers were hoping to find it in the forest, but were unsuccessful, researchers said.

“Though Makira is the largest forest in Madagascar, it is still facing pressure from agriculture,” Re:wild said. “The expedition team worries that species in the underexplored forest could face steep population declines before scientists have an opportunity to study them.”

The Makira forest is in northeastern Madagascar, an island nation off the east coast of Mozambique.

2024 The Charlotte Observer. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Citation:
Giant millipede was lost to science for 126 years: It’s just been found in Madagascar (2024, July 19)
retrieved 19 July 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2024-07-giant-millipede-lost-science-years.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.





Source link

Microsoft users worldwide report widespread outages affecting banks, airlines and broadcasters

0
Microsoft users worldwide report widespread outages affecting banks, airlines and broadcasters


Microsoft users worldwide report widespread outages affecting banks, airlines and broadcasters
A sign for Microsoft offices is seen, May 6, 2021, in New York. Microsoft Corp. has agreed to pay $14.4 million to settle allegations that the global software giant retaliated and discriminated against employees who took protected leave, including parental and disability, the California Civil Rights Department announced Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File

Microsoft users worldwide, including banks and airlines, reported widespread outages on Friday, hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.

The cause, exact nature and scale of the outage was unclear. Microsoft appeared to suggest in its X posts that the situation was improving but escalating outages were still being reported around the world hours later.

The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta.

News outlets in Australia reported that airlines, telecommunications providers and banks, and media broadcasters were disrupted as they lost access to computer systems. Some New Zealand banks said they were also offline.

Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”

The company did not respond to a request for comment. It did not explain the cause of the outage further.

Australian outages reported on the site included the banks NAB, Commonwealth and Bendigo, and the airlines Virgin Australia and Qantas, as well as internet and phone providers such as Telstra.

News outlets in Australia—including the ABC and Sky News—were unable to broadcast on their TV and radio channels, and reported sudden shutdowns of Windows-based computers.

An X user posted a screenshot of an alert from the company Crowdstrike that said the company was aware of “reports of crashes on Windows hosts” related to its Falcon Sensor platform. The alert was posted on a password-protected Crowdstrike site and could not be verified. Crowdstrike did not respond to a request for comment.

© 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Citation:
Microsoft users worldwide report widespread outages affecting banks, airlines and broadcasters (2024, July 19)
retrieved 19 July 2024
from https://techxplore.com/news/2024-07-microsoft-users-worldwide-widespread-outages.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.





Source link

International study highlights large and unequal life expectancy declines in India during COVID-19

0
International study highlights large and unequal life expectancy declines in India during COVID-19


India
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A new paper published in Science Advances today finds that life expectancy in India was 2.6 years lower in 2020 than 2019, with women and marginalized social groups suffering the greatest declines.

The international study, co-authored by the Department of Sociology and the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science’s Dr. Aashish Gupta and Professor Ridhi Kashyap, reveals that life expectancy in India suffered large and unequal declines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Overall, mortality across India was 17% higher in 2020 compared to 2019, implying 1.19 million excess deaths in India. This extrapolated estimate is about eight times higher than the official number of COVID-19 deaths in India, and 1.5 times higher than the World Health Organization’s estimates.

Kashyap, Professor of Demography and Computational Social Science at the University of Oxford said, “Our findings challenge the view that 2020 was not significant in terms of the mortality impacts and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. While a mortality surge caused by the delta variant in 2021 received more attention, our study reveals significant and unequal mortality increases even earlier on in the pandemic.”

Using high-quality survey data from 765,180 individuals, the study estimated changes in life expectancy at birth, by sex and social group between 2019 and 2020 in India—a country where one-third of global pandemic excess deaths are thought to have occurred.

The study found large mortality impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 on younger age groups, women, and marginalized social groups. Marginalized social groups within India experienced greater life expectancy declines than the most privileged social groups.

Gupta, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Oxford said, “Marginalized groups already had lower life expectancy, and the pandemic further increased the gap between the most privileged Indian social groups, and the most marginalized social groups in India.”

While high caste Hindu groups experienced a life expectancy decline of 1.3 years, the loss for Muslims was 5.4 years and 4.1 years for Scheduled Tribes. These marginalized caste and religious groups already faced large disadvantages in life expectancy—disparities which were only exacerbated by the pandemic.

The study also found larger losses among females compared to males among almost all Indian social groups and classes. Women in India experienced life expectancy declines of 3.1 years—one year more than men who experienced life expectancy losses of 2.1 years. This pattern could be explained by gender inequalities in health care and allocation of resources within households. It also contrasts with the pattern found in high-income countries where excess mortality was higher among men than women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While life expectancy declines in high-income countries were primarily driven by mortality increases in over 60s, mortality increased in almost all age groups in India and most prominently in the youngest and older age groups. Excess mortality in the youngest ages could be explained by children in certain areas being more susceptible to COVID-19 and by indirect effects of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, including deteriorating economic conditions and disruptions to public health services.

Kashyap said, “Using unique demographic and health survey data, our study highlights the importance of focusing on inequality when measuring mortality and shows that pandemics can worsen, rather than equalize, existing disparities. This was particularly noticeable on the role that COVID-19 had in further exacerbating the health impacts of pre-pandemic gender disparities.”

This study shows the potential for accurately estimating mortality—even for short periods—using retrospective mortality information collected in a relatively poor context. It also emphasizes the need for policies that address the underlying social determinants of health to mitigate the impact of future health crises.

More information:
Aashish Gupta et al, Large and unequal life expectancy declines during the COVID-19 pandemic in India in 2020, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk2070. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adk2070

Citation:
International study highlights large and unequal life expectancy declines in India during COVID-19 (2024, July 19)
retrieved 19 July 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2024-07-international-highlights-large-unequal-life.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.





Source link