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Categories: Chemistry: Thermodynamics, Computer Science: General

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A team has shown that reinforcement learning -i.e., a neural network that learns the best action to perform at each moment based on a series of rewards- allows autonomous vehicles and underwater robots to locate and carefully track marine objects and animals.

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Heat load mitigation is critical to extending the lifetime of future fusion device. Researchers have found a way to explain the rotational temperatures measured in three different experimental fusion devices in Japan and the United States. Their model evaluates the surface interactions and electron-proton collisions of hydrogen molecules.

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Researchers have developed a highly efficient method to investigate systems with long-range interactions that were previously puzzling to experts. These systems can be gases or even solid materials such as magnets whose atoms interact not only with their neighbors but also far beyond.

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If you find the computer security guidelines you get at work confusing and not very useful, you're not alone. A new study highlights a key problem with how these guidelines are created, and outlines simple steps that would improve them -- and probably make your computer safer.

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Excess heat from electronic or mechanical devices is a sign or cause of inefficient performance. In many cases, embedded sensors to monitor the flow of heat could help engineers alter device behavior or designs to improve their efficiency. For the first time, researchers exploit a novel thermoelectric phenomenon to build a thin sensor that can visualize heat flow in real time. The sensor could be built deep inside devices where other kinds of sensors are impractical. It is also quick, cheap and easy to manufacture using well-established methods.

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A new patented software system can find the curves of motion in streaming video and images from satellites, drones and far-range security cameras and turn them into signals to find and track moving objects as small as one pixel. The developers say this system can enhance the performance of any remote sensing application.

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A team of computer scientists and designers has developed a tool to help people use color better in graphic design.

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A catalyst using a single or just a few palladium atoms removed 90% of unburned methane from natural gas engine exhaust at low temperatures in a recent study. While more research needs to be done, the advance in single atom catalysis has the potential to lower exhaust emissions of methane, one of the worst greenhouse gases that traps heat at about 25 times the rate of carbon dioxide. Researchers showed that the single-atom catalyst was able to remove methane from engine exhaust at lower temperatures, less than 350 degrees Celsius (662 degrees Fahrenheit), while maintaining reaction stability at higher temperatures.

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Putting a suite of new materials synthesis and characterization methods to the test, a team of scientists has developed 14 organic-inorganic hybrid materials, seven of which are entirely new.

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Researchers report achieving self-sustaining and long-term levitation of millimeter-sized droplets of several different liquids without any external forces. To get the droplets to levitate, they use solutocapillary convection, which occurs when a surface tension gradient is formed by nonuniform distribution of vapor molecules from the droplet at the pool surface. Further exploring the effects of various external conditions on self-sustained droplet levitation will reveal whether it can be harnessed and adapted for microbiology and biochemistry applications.

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Small-winged and lighter colored butterflies likely to be at greatest threat from climate change. The family, wing length and wing colour of tropical butterflies all influence their ability to withstand rising temperatures, say ecologists. The researchers believe this could help identify species whose survival is under threat from climate change.

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When an electric vehicle is parked outside, its temperature can swing wildly from day to night and season to season, which can lead to deterioration of the battery. To dampen these fluctuations and extend the battery's lifespan, researchers have designed an all-season thermal cloak that can cool an electric vehicle by 8°C on a hot day and warm it by 6.8°C at night. The cloak, made predominantly of silica and aluminum, can do so passively without outside energy input and operates without any modification between hot or cold weather.

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A new study has linked underground climate change to the shifting ground beneath urban areas. The phenomenon is affecting all major urban areas around the globe, causing civil structures and infrastructures to crack.

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Wearable sensors are becoming a promising tool in personalized healthcare and exercise monitoring. In a recent study, researchers develop a novel wearable chemical sensor capable of measuring the concentration of chloride ions in sweat. By using a heat-transfer printing technique, the proposed sensor can be applied to the outer surface of common textiles to prevent skin irritation and allergies, and could also be useful in the early detection of heat stroke and dehydration.

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The climate control used by termites in their mounds could inspire tomorrow's climate-smart buildings. New research shows that future buildings inspired by the termites could achieve the same effect as traditional climate control, but with greater energy efficiency and without its carbon dioxide footprint.

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Researchers have developed a metallic gel that is highly electrically conductive and can be used to print three-dimensional (3D) solid objects at room temperature.

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For the first time, researchers have succeeded in predicting how to change the optimum temperature of an enzyme using large computer calculations. A cold-adapted enzyme from an Antarctic bacterium was used as a basis.

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Overheating of wearable skin-like electronic devices increases the risk of skin burning and results in performance degradation. A research team has now invented a photonic material-based 'soft, ultrathin, radiative-cooling interface' that greatly enhances heat dissipation in devices, with temperature drops more than 56°C, offering an alternative for effective thermal management in advanced wearable electronics.

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With a flick of a switch, current technologies allow you to quickly change materials from being dark to light, or cold to hot, just by blocking or transmitting specific wavelengths. But now, inspired by squid skin, researchers report a soft film that can regulate its transparency across a large range of wavelengths -- visible, infrared and microwave -- simultaneously. They demonstrated the material in smart windows and in health monitoring and temperature management applications.

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New research from Dartmouth takes a fresh look at game theory to show that being uncooperative can help people on the weaker side of a power dynamic achieve a more equal outcome -- and even inflict some loss on their abusive counterpart. The findings can be applied to help equalize the balance of power in labor negotiations, international relations and everyday interactions, as well as integrate cooperation into interconnected AI systems such as driverless cars.