Costs, complications up for minorities in cleft palate repair

(HealthDay)—Racial-minority populations incur higher costs and experience higher rates of complications in cleft palate repair, according to a study published in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

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Frogs find refuge in elephant tracks

Frogs need elephants. That's what a new WCS-led study says that looked at the role of water-filled elephant tracks in providing predator-free breeding grounds and pathways connecting frog populations.

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Ant reactions to habitat disruptions inform a result of evolution

A Concordia biology professor is calling on ant experts to develop a set of common principles that influence the way the insects respond when their habitat undergoes severe disruption.

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Researchers develop superconducting quantum refrigerator

Imagine a refrigerator so cold it could turn atoms into their quantum states, giving them unique properties that defy the rules of classical physics.

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UV light may illuminate improvements for next generation electronic devices

By adding one more layer of atoms to already infinitesimally small semiconductors, a next-level generation of electrical devices becomes possible. This work to build better and faster electronics is well underway, but little was known about how to test the ingredients of these devices to ensure performance. Now, researchers from the Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech) in Japan have developed a method to make sure the connections between the two-dimensional layer of atoms and the semiconductors are as perfect as possible.

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Nation's most ambitious project to clean up nuclear weapons waste has stalled

The Energy Department's most environmentally important and technically ambitious project to clean up Cold War nuclear weapons waste has stalled, putting at jeopardy an already long-delayed effort to protect the Columbia River in central Washington.

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Apple iTunes to play last song

Apple on Monday announced the demise of its groundbreaking iTunes platform in favor of three more tailored apps, as it refines its offerings to be a stage for digital music, films, podcasts and more.

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Stanford Doggo: a highly agile quadruped robot

Researchers at Stanford University have recently created an open-source quadruped robot called Stanford Doggo. Their robot, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv and set to be published by IEEE Explore, exceeds the performance of many state-of-the-art legged robots in vertical jumping agility.

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PULP Dronet: A 27-gram nano-UAV inspired by insects

Researchers at ETH Zürich and the University of Bologna have recently created PULP Dronet, a 27-gram nano-size unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a deep learning-based visual navigation engine. Their mini-drone, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, can run aboard an end-to-end, closed-loop visual pipeline for autonomous navigation powered by a state-of-the-art deep learning algorithm.

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App to improve communication for aphasia diagnosis, treatment

An app being developed by Media School assistant professor John Velez and a team from Texas Tech University will help people with a communication impairment better understand their diagnosis and the treatment needed.

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Researchers find synapse-boosting factors in young blood

A team of researchers at Stanford University has found synapse-boosting factors in the blood of young mice. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their study of the rejuvenating impact of blood from young mice when transfused into older mice, and what they learned about it.

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Research finds soil carbon key to combating climate change

Curtin University research has provided new insights to support more effective management of soil carbon in a bid to help combat global greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

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Shared control allows a robot to use two hands working together to complete tasks

A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin and the Naval Research Laboratory has designed and built a robotic system that allows for bimanual robot manipulation through shared control. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group explains the ideas behind their work and how well they worked in practice.

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Advancing dementia and its effect on care home relationships

As dementia advances, in most cases it can change the behaviour displayed by those with the condition. Such changes in behaviour can bring strain to a wide-ranging network of relationships—from those between people with dementia and their professional carers, between those with dementia and their families, and to relationships between residents in residential care homes—which in turn can affect the delivery of care.

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Agent Unicorn headset for ADHD children may make understanding easier

The quest for a better understanding among scientists of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) goes on.

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Researchers try to recreate human-like thinking in machines

Researchers at Oxford University have recently tried to recreate human thinking patterns in machines, using a language guided imagination (LGI) network. Their method, outlined in a paper pre-published on arXiv, could inform the development of artificial intelligence that is capable of human-like thinking, which entails a goal-directed flow of mental ideas guided by language.

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Anonymous essay says sometimes 'choice' is a lie

An anonymous essay published in Annals of Internal Medicine says that sometimes choice is just a lie. The author vividly describes caring for a pregnant woman who would be forced to carry a baby to term that would soon be born without a skull or brain. While the baby's condition was certainly fatal, state laws prohibited caregivers from ending the pregnancy.

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Measuring impact of product placement

Researchers from Indiana University and Emory University published new research in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science (Editor's note: The source of this research is INFORMS), which reveals the impact of product placement in television programming. The findings indicate that prominent product placement embedded in television programming does have a net positive impact on online conversations and web traffic for the brand.

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