Curated News: Scientific Meetings

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A fleet of driverless cars working together to keep traffic moving smoothly can improve overall traffic flow by at least 35 percent, researchers have shown.

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Last year, an estimated 18 million cancer cases existed worldwide. This year, an estimated 1.76 new cancer cases will be diagnosed and 606,000 cancer deaths will occur in the United States. The number of cancer survivors worldwide is also growing, with more than 15.5 million cancer survivors in the United States alone – a figure expected to double in the coming decades. Ongoing research is necessary to help prevent and treat cancer. This is a selection of related research that will be presented during ACSM's 66th Annual Meeting – May 28-June 1 in Orlando, Florida.

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Acoustics consultant Klaus Genuit says that new ISO guidelines for defining, measuring and evaluating soundscapes are a big step forward in guiding the creation of audibly fine restaurants. "A soup might be delicious or not, but you can't answer this by knowing the temperature of the soup. It is the same with restaurant soundscapes -- you need a lot more information than just noise level," he said. He will present an application of the new ISO restaurant soundscape standards at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17.

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Current treatments of Type 2 diabetes can help the body use insulin at various stages of the disease, but they can also be expensive and subject patients to lifelong medication regimens and side effects. Thanks to new therapeutic ultrasound technology, one promising alternative looks to reshape how early Type 2 diabetes is managed. A group of researchers has used ultrasound therapy to stimulate insulin release from mice on demand. The team will present their findings at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17.

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University of Washington researchers have defined for the first time what children mean when they say technology is “creepy.”

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Every year, bald and golden eagles are killed when they inadvertently fly into wind turbine blades. One possible way to prevent these deaths is to chase the birds away with acoustic signals. To determine what types of sounds are most effective in deterring the birds, researchers tested the behavioral responses of bald eagles to a battery of both natural and synthetic acoustic stimuli. Auditory neuroscientist JoAnn McGee will present the results of those tests at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17.

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Referees and others using whistles on the job need a simple way to determine whether it’s harmful to their hearing, so researchers set out to put it to the test and to provide some clarity and damage risk criteria for impulse noise exposures. To do this, the group carefully measured and analyzed the acoustic signature of 13 brands of whistles identified as the “most commonly used” by 300 sports officials -- both indoors and outdoors. They will present their findings during the 177th ASA Meeting.

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Screaming is well-studied in animals, but much less is known about how human screams function in communication, or how similar or different human screams are from those of other species. To help unlock the secrets of human screaming, researchers at Emory University have studied human vocal sounds, representing a broad acoustical range and array of emotional contexts, and studied what makes a sound a scream or not. They will describe the work in a presentation at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17, in Louisville.

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Wind turbines are a critical component in the strategy for energy independence, but these massive structures are also killing bats. Now, researchers from Texas A&M University are exploring a unique passive acoustic whistle mounted on turbine blades to warn bats of the deadly turbines using a sound they can easily hear and recognize. They will present the team’s research findings at the 177th ASA Meeting.

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The different soundscapes of NICUs has recently attracted interest in how changes in what we hear in our earliest days might affect language development in the brain. One ongoing study is hoping to better understand these differences by painting a clearer picture of what kinds of sounds full-term infants are exposed to in the womb. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are conducting one of the first studies on how often full-term fetuses hear spoken language before birth. They will present their preliminary findings at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17.

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Conversation is an important part of what makes us human. Previous research has shown that children begin to develop this skill at a young age. While many assume that mothers instigate communication with their children, new research suggests that children are the ones who get the conversation started. “I was surprised that kids were drivers of conversation,” said Mark VanDam, who will present his team’s research findings at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17.

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The quickest way to decide if a watermelon is ripe or not is by tapping on it. And if you’re having trouble detecting the subtleties of the sound, listen to some Nigerian traditional music to get your ears attuned. Nigerian researcher Stephen Onwubiko has found a link between the sounds of drumming in traditional Nigerian music and the sound of fingers drumming on watermelons in the markets. His team will present the findings at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17.

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Children glean all kinds of information from the people around them. In particular, children mimic and learn speech patterns from their family. Previous work has shown that infants attend selectively to their mother’s voice over another female’s voice. But new research suggests that children learn new words best from other children. Yuanyuan Wang will present research findings from a collaborative work with Amanda Seidl from Purdue University at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17.

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If you’ve ever wished for a quieter commute, you may be in luck: The low-emission electric vehicles of tomorrow are expected to lower noise pollution as well as air pollution. The prospect of a future powered by environmentally friendly electric vehicles is leading experts to consider the benefits -- and the risks -- of quieter traffic. Two acoustics experts, Klaus Genuit and Rene Weinandy, will present their work studying acoustic vehicle alerting systems, or AVAS, at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17.

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Militaries have worked hard to develop technologies that simultaneously protect soldiers' hearing and aid in battlefield communication. However, these don’t help if a soldier takes it off to assess the location of incoming gunfire. A French researcher has developed a proof of concept that uses the microphones in a TCAPS system to capture a shooter’s acoustic information and transmit this to a soldier’s smartphone to display shooter location in real time. He will present his shooter location research at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17.

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Excessive noise is widely known to have negative effects on health, and children in neonatal intensive care units are among the most vulnerable. Researchers have conducted one of the first studies linking the quiet time soundscape inside NICUs with infant health. The study examined the effects of quiet time implementation in multiple NICUs on infants up to 18 months after implementation. They will present their findings at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17.

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During WWI, William Lawrence Bragg led the development of an acoustic method to locate enemy artillery, work that was so successful that it was soon used widely throughout the British army. The method, known as sound ranging, was also adopted by the U.S. Army when they joined the war, and earned Bragg a military decoration from the British armed forces. Bragg's story will be presented at the 177th ASA Meeting, May 13-17.

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Your friendly neighborhood hummingbirds. If drones had this combo, they would be able to maneuver better through collapsed buildings and other cluttered spaces to find trapped victims.

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Press conferences for the 177th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America will be held Tuesday, May 14 in the Laffoon Room at the Galt House. The morning and afternoon press conferences will focus on research into human sounds and language learning, protecting wildlife from man-made obstacles and potentially helping authorities respond faster in an active shooting situation, as well as other discoveries in acoustics.

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To help non-professionals create visual blends for their news and PSAs, Columbia Engineering researchers have developed VisiBlends, a flexible, user-friendly platform that transforms the creative brainstorming activity into a search function, and enables a statistically higher output of visually blended images. The VisiBlends platform combines a series of human steps or “microtasks” with AI and computational techniques. Crowd-sourcing is a key component of the system enabling groups of people to collaborate, either together or off-site.

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Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history -- and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating

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The technology exists to replace a single remote controlled drone with an automated fleet, but an Iowa State researcher says there are several obstacles to tackle first. He is part of a team developing models to efficiently operate a fleet, while maintaining security.

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UW researchers conducted in-depth interviews to learn why we compulsively check our phones.

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Small earthquakes in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Texas can be linked to hydraulic fracturing wells

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Researchers have discovered a simple, cost-effective, and accurate new method for equipping self-driving cars with the tools needed to perceive 3D objects in their path.

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The Acoustical Society of America will hold its 177th meeting May 13-17 at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. This major scientific conference brings together interdisciplinary groups of researchers from many far-flung fields, including physics, medicine, music, psychology, architecture and engineering, to discuss their latest research. It will feature nearly 1,000 presentations on sound and its applications

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UW researchers have led the development of Project Sidewalk, an online crowdsourcing game that lets anyone with an internet connection use Google Street View to virtually explore neighborhoods and label curb ramps, missing or rough sidewalks, obstacles and more.

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Only a few years ago, the astronomy and heliophysics communities were skeptical about whether CubeSats could reliably obtain scientific data. But these breadloaf-size satellites have proven their ability to return useful data. During the APS April Meeting 2019, Christopher S. Moore will describe how the twin Miniature X-ray Solar Spectometer CubeSats measure soft X-rays from the Sun. These were the first solar science-oriented CubeSat missions flown for the NASA Science Mission Directorate.

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The Chelyabinsk meteor caused extensive ground damage and numerous injuries when it exploded on impact with Earth’s atmosphere in February 2013; to prevent another such impact, Amy Mainzer and colleagues use a simple yet ingenious way to spot these tiny near-Earth objects as they hurtle toward the planet. She will outline the work of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office this week at the APS April Meeting in Denver -- including her team’s NEO recognition method and how it will aid the efforts to prevent future Earth impacts.

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After watching YouTube videos of people supercooling water in a bottle and then triggering it to freeze by banging it, something about this concept solidified for Matthew M. Szydagis, an assistant professor of physics at the University at Albany, State University at New York, especially when he saw it again during the Disney movie “Frozen.” During the 2019 American Physical Society April Meeting in Denver, Szydagis will describe how this inspired him to explore whether a subatomic particle like dark matter can trigger the freezing of supercooled water.

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Researchers hoping to better interpret data from the detection of gravitational waves generated by the collision of binary black holes are turning to the public for help. West Virginia University assistant professor Zachariah Etienne is leading what will soon become a global volunteer computing effort. The public will be invited to lend their own computers to help the scientific community unlock the secrets contained in gravitational waves observed when black holes smash together.

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A Harvard physicist has shown that wormholes can exist: tunnels in curved space-time, connecting two distant places, through which travel is possible. But don’t pack your bags for a trip to other side of the galaxy yet; although it’s theoretically possible, it’s not useful for humans to travel through, said the author of the study, Daniel Jafferis, from Harvard University, written in collaboration with Ping Gao, also from Harvard and Aron Wall from Stanford University.

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This tip sheet highlights interesting presentations from the upcoming 2019 APS April Meeting in Denver -- a major international meeting that features talks and presentations about discoveries in astrophysics, particle physics, energy research and many other areas of modern physics. The meeting runs from Saturday, April 13 through Tuesday, April 16 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, located at 1550 Court Place in downtown Denver.

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New research from Binghamton University, State University of New York, could make it easier to track and process suspicious activity in surveillance footage.

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Wood may seem more at home in log cabins than modern architecture, but a specially treated type of timber could be tomorrow’s trendy building material. Today, scientists report a new kind of transparent wood that not only transmits light, but also absorbs and releases heat, potentially saving on energy costs.

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Science-fiction writers have long envisioned human–machine hybrids that wield extraordinary powers. However, “super plants” with integrated nanomaterials may be much closer to reality than cyborgs.

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At USC, researchers have published a new study that tackles a long-standing problem for autonomous vehicle developers: testing the system’s perception algorithms, which allow the car to “understand” what it “sees.”

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Traditional surgery to reshape a nose or ear entails cutting, sometimes followed by long recovery times and scars. Now, researchers have developed a “molecular surgery” process using tiny needles, electric current and 3D molds to reshape living tissue with no incisions, scarring or recovery time.

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Hundreds of everyday items contain organophosphate ester (OPE) flame retardants and plasticizers. Some of these compounds make their way into the air, onto surfaces and even inside our bodies, with uncertain health effects.

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When an act of terrorism or a vehicle or industrial accident ignites fuel, the resulting fire or explosion can be devastating. Today, scientists will describe how lengthy but microscopic chains of polymers could be added to fuel to significantly reduce the damage from these terrifying incidents without impacting performance.

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Nature has evolved protein-based substances with mechanical properties that rival even the best synthetic materials. Pound for pound, spider silk is stronger and tougher than steel. But unlike steel, the natural fiber cannot be mass-produced.

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Just as controlled-release medications slowly dole out their cargo after they experience a pH change in the body, implanted “artificial muscles” could someday flex and relax in response to light illuminating the skin. In pilot studies, scientists have developed a new material that expands and contracts.

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From computer hard discs and smart phones to earbuds and electric motors, magnets are at the forefront of today’s technology. Magnets containing rare-earth elements are among the most powerful available, allowing many everyday objects to be ever smaller.

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ORNL used artificial intelligence to analyze data about bullying to reveal potential of broader impacts; flexible sensor wraps around power cables to monitor electrical loads from household appliances; ORNL is evaluating paths for licensing remotely operated microreactors; ORNL used carbon nanotubes to improve process that removes salt from water

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Prehistoric rock paintings are a source of fascination. Aside from their beauty, there’s deep meaning in these strokes, which depict ancient rituals and important symbols. Scientists now describe use of “X-ray vision” to gain brand-new insights about the layers of paint in rock art without needless damage.

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There’s nothing like a glass of orange juice, but prices have soared as the Florida citrus industry fights a citrus greening disease epidemic that's been drying out oranges and reducing crop yield. There’s no cure, but researchers report they have identified a fungal compound that may inhibit the bacteria.

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If you’ve ever dreamed about getting a good night’s sleep, your answer may someday lie in data generated by your sleepwear. Researchers have developed pajamas embedded with self-powered sensors that provide unobtrusive and continuous monitoring of heartbeat, breathing and sleep posture.

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Drawing inspiration from nature, researchers are making polymers with ever-more precise compositions on demand. Using multistep synthesis tools pulled from biology, a group is reporting that it is developing ultra-high precision synthetic polymers with precisely controlled chain lengths.

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Aiming a laser beam at an aircraft isn’t a harmless prank: The sudden flash of bright light can incapacitate the pilot, risking the lives of passengers and crew. Today, researchers report liquid crystals that could someday be incorporated into aircraft windshields to diffuse any wavelength of laser light.

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Freshly distilled, un-aged whiskey is filtered over charcoal made from the sugar maple tree in a mysterious, but necessary step known as the Lincoln County Process. By law, a product cannot be called Tennessee whiskey without it. Researchers have clues as to what the process imparts to the final product.