Computer Science: Virtual Reality (VR)
Published

Video games offer the potential of 'experiential medicine'      (via sciencedaily.com) 

After a decade of work, scientists have developed a suite of video game interventions that improve key aspects of cognition in aging adults.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Study finds higher rates of traumatic injuries for outdoor workers during hotter weather      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Rates of traumatic injury among workers in the Oregon agricultural and construction sectors are significantly higher during periods of high heat compared with periods of more moderate weather, a recent study found.

Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Cattle grazing with virtual fencing shows potential to create wildfire fuel breaks, study finds      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The use of virtual fencing to manage cattle grazing on sagebrush rangelands has the potential to create fuel breaks needed to help fight wildfires, a recent study found.

Computer Science: Virtual Reality (VR)
Published

An AI message decoder based on bacterial growth patterns      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Depending on the initial conditions used, such as nutrient levels and space constraints, bacteria tend to grow in specific ways. Researchers have created a new type of encryption scheme based on how a virtual bacterial colony grows with specific initial conditions.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Indoor air quality experiments show exposure risks while cooking, cleaning      (via sciencedaily.com) 

When you're cooking or cleaning inside your home, what chemicals are you breathing, and are they potentially harmful? Chemists have given us a solid start on the answer. A large, collaborative research experiment recently attempted to map the airborne chemistry of a typical home. Researchers performed typical home activities like cooking and cleaning and used sophisticated instrumentation to document the chemistry that resulted.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Now you don't have to wait for smoke to know where fires are likely to occur      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have developed a way to forecast which of the Great Basin's more than 60 million acres have the highest probability of a large rangeland fire. The forecasts come from a model developed by the researchers that combines measures of accumulated annual and perennial grass vegetation that is potential fire fuel with recent weather and climate data. When integrated, this information can be translated into maps showing the likelihood of a large wildfire -- greater than 1,000 acres--across the Great Basin. These forecasts also can be scaled down to predict fire risk for counties or even single pastures.

Computer Science: Virtual Reality (VR)
Published

Can eyes on self-driving cars reduce accidents?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Robotic eyes on autonomous vehicles could improve pedestrian safety, according to a new study. Participants played out scenarios in virtual reality (VR) and had to decide whether to cross a road in front of a moving vehicle or not. When that vehicle was fitted with robotic eyes, which either looked at the pedestrian (registering their presence) or away (not registering them), the participants were able to make safer or more efficient choices.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Pollutants from burning structures linger in waterways post-wildfire      (via sciencedaily.com) 

As the frequency of wildfires has increased, so have pollutants in the waters from burned watersheds, say researchers in a review paper that highlights the need for more research in the area.

Computer Science: Virtual Reality (VR)
Published

New method for comparing neural networks exposes how artificial intelligence works      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team has developed a novel approach for comparing neural networks that looks within the 'black box' of artificial intelligence to help researchers understand neural network behavior. Neural networks recognize patterns in datasets; they are used everywhere in society, in applications such as virtual assistants, facial recognition systems and self-driving cars.

Computer Science: Virtual Reality (VR)
Published

Optical rule was made to be broken      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Engineers find a way to identify nanophotonic materials with the potential to improve screens for virtual reality and 3D displays along with optical technologies in general.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

New AI system predicts how to prevent wildfires      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A machine learning model can evaluate the effectiveness of different management strategies.

Computer Science: Virtual Reality (VR)
Published

City digital twins help train deep learning models to separate building facades      (via sciencedaily.com) 

To automatically generate data for training deep convolutional neural network models to segment building facades, researchers used a three-dimensional model and game engine to generate digital city twin synthetic training data. They found that a model trained on these data mixed with some real data was competitive with a model trained on real data alone, revealing the potential of digital twin data to improve accuracy and replace costly manually annotated real data.

Environmental: Wildfires Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Smoke from the Black Summer wildfires in Australia impacted the climate and high altitude winds of the southern hemisphere for more than a year and a half      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The 2019/20 wildfires in Australia transported more smoke into the atmosphere than observed ever before anywhere in the world. In the so-called Black Summer, three times as many particles reached high air layers as in the previous record wildfires in Canada during summer 2017. Research now reveals the climate impact of these huge fires: Smoke particles with a total mass of around one million tonnes spread across the southern hemisphere and affected the climate for about one and a half years by warming the upper atmosphere and cooling the lower atmosphere close to Earth's surface.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

The impact of megafires on estuaries from Australia's 'Black Summer'      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Estuaries are one of the most valuable biomes on Earth, and megafires -- like Australia's 2019/20 Black Summer fires -- represent an emerging threat to estuarine and coastal ecosystems, with the extent and proximity of the wildfire influencing the impact on estuaries.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Wildfire experts provide guidance for new research directions      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new paper by dozens of wildfire experts across the nation highlights the need for a more strategic and interdisciplinary approach to pursuing wildfire research and protecting vulnerable communities.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Dry lightning sparks some of the most destructive and costly wildfires in California      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed the first long-term climatology of dry lightning -- lightning which occurs with less than 2.5mm of rainfall -- in central and northern California.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Air pollution, including during wildfires, shows ill effects in children      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research linking air pollution data from federal monitors in the Sacramento area of California, including during significant fires, is showing ill effects of pollution exposure among children, a new study suggests.

Computer Science: Virtual Reality (VR)
Published

New chip-based beam steering device lays groundwork for smaller, cheaper lidar      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed a new chip-based beam steering technology that provides a promising route to small, cost-effective and high-performance lidar systems. Lidar, which uses laser pulses to acquire 3D information about a scene or object, is used in a wide range of applications such as autonomous driving, free-space optical communications, 3D holography, biomedical sensing and virtual reality. Researchers describe their new chip-based optical phased array (OPA) that solves many of the problems that have plagued previous OPA designs.

Computer Science: Virtual Reality (VR)
Published

Augmented reality could be the future of paper books, according to new research      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Augmented reality might allow printed books to make a comeback against the e-book trend, according to researchers.

Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Wildfires disproportionately affect the poor      (via sciencedaily.com) 

With fires raging from California to Alaska, the 2022 wildfire season is off to a violent start. It's an ominous sign of what promises to be another record-breaking fire season in the U.S. Roughly 2 million acres burned last month. And major fires are currently scorching Idaho, Utah and California, threatening tens of thousands of Americans' homes and livelihoods. Many of those at risk are lower-income Americans who face canceled homeowners insurance policies and rising premiums, according to new research.