(Lehigh University) Nader Motee, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics at Lehigh University, has won a 2019 Best SICON Paper Prize, presented by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Activity Group on Control and Systems Theory. 'Sparsity and Spatial Localization Measures for Spatially Distributed Systems' was recognized as one of the two most outstanding papers published in the SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization (SICON) in the three calendar years preceding the award year.

(Society of Interventional Radiology) Smart speakers that are customarily used in your living room can be programmed to act as an aid to physicians in hospital operating rooms, according to new research presented today at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting.

(Tokyo Metropolitan University) Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have shown that a newly engineered catalyst made of gold nanoparticles supported on a metal oxide framework shows breakdown of ammonia impurities in air, with excellent selectivity for conversion to nitrogen gas. Importantly, it is effective at room temperature, making it suitable for everyday air purification systems. The team successfully identified the mechanism behind this behavior, paving the way towards the design of other novel catalytic materials.

(Vanderbilt University) The device does not require additional components such as batteries or actuators carried on the back or waist.

(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) A new system devised by researchers at MIT can monitor the behavior of all electric devices within a building, ship, or factory, determining which ones are in use at any given time and whether any are showing signs of an imminent failure. When tested on a Coast Guard cutter, the system pinpointed a motor with burnt-out wiring that could have led to a serious onboard fire.

(Florida State University) A sophisticated new analysis too incorporating advanced mathematical strategies could help revolutionize the way researchers investigate the spread and distribution of dangerous, fast-evolving disease vectors.

Researchers hope that the procedure could be used to restore fertility to human boys undergoing cancer treatment-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

(University of Massachusetts Lowell) A team of UMass Lowell researchers has pioneered a new, more efficient way to power electric vehicles.

(Far Eastern Federal University) Excluding the information recording and reading technology, in the next 15-20 years, the hypersensitive sensors operating under the magnetoresistive principle will be applied in an extensive number of innovative areas. Among them are biomedicine, flexible electronics, position sensors, and human-computer interaction, various types of monitoring, navigation and autonomous transport. An article about this was published in the industry journal IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.

(Chinese Association of Automation) An international team of researchers has built a new sensor network that can monitor two crucial activities, namely biodiversity, or the variety of life, in a particular habitat or ecosystem, and identification of possible illegal activities such as logging or poaching in protected areas. This wireless recording network is capable of recording an ecosystem's sounds with the same quality as devices that have been used to date, but it is significantly more energy-efficient and cost-effective.

(University of California - Irvine) Here's something to chew on: One in four people are impacted by defects of the temporomandibular - or jaw - joint. Despite the pervasiveness of this affliction, treatments are lacking, and many sufferers resort to palliative measures to cope with the pain and debilitation it causes.

(Chinese Association of Automation) Little motors power everything from small comforts, such as desk fans, to larger safety systems, like oven exhaust systems - but they could be more precise, according to a research team from Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories. An international collaboration from Japan and Massachusetts unveiled an improved algorithm to track motor performance and speed estimation. Experiments demonstrate the potential effectiveness and advantages of the proposed algorithm: fast speed estimation transient and ease of tuning.

(Waseda University) Patent law experts demonstrate that private-public partnerships lead to promising innovation output measured in patents. Collaborations between private entities and public institutions have the potential to improve technology transfer in nanotechnology. Nations entering the nano-space can capitalize on collaborative environments, developing frameworks and close institutional networks between entities active in nanotechnology.

(University College London) A consortium of UK cyber security experts including UCL academics is to support global businesses to tackle online threats and protect themselves from cybercrime.The Cyber Readiness for Boards project, which is jointly funded by the National Cyber Security Centre and the Lloyd's Register Foundation, has launched to explore the factors shaping UK board decisions around cyber risk and develop interventions to provide guidance and support.

(University of Massachusetts at Amherst) Guodong Zhang, assistant professor of food science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is being honored with the 2019 Young Scientist Research Award from the American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS).

(DOE/Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory) A detailed examination of the challenges and tradeoffs in the development of a compact fusion facility with high-temperature superconducting magnets.