Focus: Hidden - DC Metro

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Hearing has long been suspected as being "on" all the time -- even in our sleep. Sounds that occur during the night have a way of registering in the brain. Now scientists are reporting results on what is heard and not heard during sleep and what that might mean for a developing brain. At the Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting, Nov. 5-9, researchers from Vanderbilt University will present preliminary results from a study in which preschool children showed memory traces for sounds heard during nap time.

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To find ways to improve man-made active sensing, scientists worldwide study the sonar systems of bats and dolphins. During the Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting, Nov. 5-9, Laura Kloepper will compare bat and dolphin sonar systems, describing her work on how the two animals cope with acoustic interference. She'll use her findings to argue why bats have the superior system.

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The American Psychological Association voiced opposition to a proposed rule that would allow the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services to detain immigrant children with their families indefinitely.

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To mitigate the impact of flood disasters, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has initiated multiple projects across the nation through its Flood Apex Program.

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Many of today’s methods of purifying water rely on filters and chemicals that need regular replenishing or maintenance. Millions of people, however, live in areas with limited access to such materials, leading the research community to explore new options of purifying water in using plasmas. Many plasma-based approaches are expensive, but a new class of plasma devices may change that. Researchers at the have been studying a new type of plasma generator for water purification. They will present the research next week at the APS 71st Annual Gaseous Electronics Conference and the 60th Annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, Nov. 5-9.

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Landfill gases contain numerous contaminants, but one group has demonstrated a promising new application of plasma technology capable of removing such compounds. Researchers have demonstrated an experimental plasma device capable of cleaning gas samples of D4, one of the most common siloxanes. Drawing on a technique for creating plasma called dielectric barrier discharge, the group was able to significantly reduce the amount of D4 samples after treating it with a helium-based plasma. They will present at the APS 71st Annual Gaseous Electronics Conference and 60th Annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, Nov. 5-9.

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A whiff of plasma, when combined with a nanosized catalyst, can cause chemical reactions to proceed faster, more selectively, at lower temperatures, or at lower voltages than without plasma. Using computer modeling, researchers investigated the interactions between plasmas and metal catalysts embedded into ceramic beads in a packed bed reactor. They discovered that together, the metals, beads and gas create plasma that intensifies electric fields and locally heats the catalyst, which can then accelerate reactions. They will present at the APS 71st Annual Gaseous Electronics Conference and 60th Annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, Nov. 5-9.

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Elevated levels of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO)—a compound linked with the consumption of fish, seafood and a primarily vegetarian diet—may reduce hypertension-related heart disease symptoms. New research in rats finds that low-dose treatment with TMAO reduced heart thickening (cardiac fibrosis) and markers of heart failure in an animal model of hypertension. The study is published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology—Heart and Circulatory Physiology and was chosen as an APSselect article for November.

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With thousands of fans, college basketball games can be almost deafeningly loud. Some arenas have decibel meters, which can provide some indication of the noise generated. Researchers at Brigham Young University wanted to see whether machine learning algorithms could pick out patterns within the raw acoustical data that indicated the crowd’s mood, thereby providing clues as to what was happening in the game itself. They’ll present at the Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting, Nov. 5-9.

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Some conversations are forgotten as soon as they are over, while other exchanges may leave lasting imprints. Researchers want to understand why and how listeners remember some spoken utterances more clearly than others. They’re specifically looking at ways in which clarity of speaking style can affect memory. They will describe their work at the Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting, Nov. 5-9.

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Next month, Rodney Rountree, “The Fish Listener,” will talk about his work with Francis Juanes of the University of Victoria, to document calls made by fish in the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve in Peru in a presentation at the Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting, Nov. 5-9. These calls may be useful for tracking piranha populations through passive acoustic monitoring.

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Experimental warming treatments show how peatland forests may respond to future environmental change.

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The American Thyroid Association (ATA) announces with pleasure that Elizabeth Pearce, MD, MSc, began a one-year term as president of the Board of Directors at the close of the Annual Meeting, October 7 in Washington, DC. Dr. Pearce has served for the past year as President-Elect. Newly elected board members are: Martha Zeiger, MD, President-Elect Jacqueline Jonklaas, MD, Secretary-Elect Joshua Klopper, MD, Director Angela Leung, MD, MSc, Director.

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Shortly after birth when the world is a blur, babies may be learning to identify patterns. According to a new study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), the initial phase of blurry vision may be fundamental to the development of normal visual processing.

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One concern with the increase vessel transits in the western Canadian Arctic is how noise pollution can detrimentally affect marine animals -- including Arctic cod -- given the critical importance of these fish in the arctic food web. Researchers at the University of Victoria, WCS Canada and JASCO Applied Sciences have found that the negative impact of noise from shipping vessels can be mitigated by reducing the ship's speed. They will present their research at the Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting, Nov. 5-9.

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Adolescents with a particular variant of an opioid receptor gene have less response in a part of prefrontal cortex that evaluates rewards, compared to those with the other version of the gene, say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC). The study will be presented Nov. 5 at Neuroscience 2018, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (abstract #7517).

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We all know microwaves are good for cooking popcorn, but scientists have recently shown they can also prevent dangerous waves in plasmas and help produce clean, nearly limitless energy with fusion.

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Fusion offers the potential of near limitless energy by heating a gas trapped in a magnetic field to incredibly high temperatures where atoms are so energetic that they fuse together when they collide. But if that hot gas, called a plasma, breaks free from the magnetic field, it must be safely put back in place to avoid damaging the fusion device—this problem has been one of the great challenges of magnetically confined fusion.

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The Plasma Sciences Expo—planned as the biggest celebration of plasma physics in the country—presents teachers, students and the public with a free opportunity to explore what scientists call “the fourth state of matter.”

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Scientists are working to dramatically speed up the development of fusion energy in an effort to deliver power to the electric grid soon enough to help mitigate impacts of climate change. The arrival of a breakthrough technology

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AIP Publishing has announced its selection of Daniel S. Clark, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and leader of the National Ignition Facility’s (NIF) Capsule Modeling Working Group within the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) Program, as the winner of the 2018 Ronald C. Davidson Award for Plasma Physics.

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The cosmos is a void dotted with stars and an ever-increasing number of newly-observed planets beyond our solar system. Yet, how these stars and planets formed out of clouds of interstellar dust and gas remains mysterious.

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Scientists have produced an extremely bright spot of light that can travel at any speed—including faster than the speed of light. Researchers have found a way to use this concept, called “flying focus,” to move an intense laser focal point over long distances at any speed. Their technique includes capturing some of the fastest movies ever recorded.

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New insights have been gained about stellar winds, streams of high-speed charged particles called plasma that blow through interstellar space. These winds, created by eruptions from stars or stellar explosions, carry with them strong magnetic fields which can interact with or effect other magnetic fields

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Imagine building a machine so advanced and precise you need a supercomputer to help design it. That’s exactly what scientists and engineers in Germany did when building the Wendelstein 7-X experiment.

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Antimatter is an exotic material that vaporizes when it contacts regular matter. If you hit an antimatter baseball with a bat made of regular matter, it would explode in a burst of light. It is rare to find antimatter on Earth, but it is believed to exist in the furthest reaches of the universe.

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Antimatter is an exotic material that vaporizes when it contacts regular matter. If you hit an antimatter baseball with a bat made of regular matter, it would explode in a burst of light. It is rare to find antimatter on Earth, but it is believed to exist in the furthest reaches of the universe.

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As you walk away from a campfire on a cool autumn night, you quickly feel colder. The same thing happens in outer space. As it spins, the sun continuously flings hot material into space, out to the furthest reaches of our solar system.

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Imagine looking under your couch and instead of finding fluffy dust bunnies, you see the dust is arranged in straight lines—you might wonder what caused this order.

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Imagine looking under your couch and instead of finding fluffy dust bunnies, you see the dust is arranged in straight lines—you might wonder what caused this order.

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People who have fond memories of childhood, specifically their relationships with their parents, tend to have better health, less depression and fewer chronic illnesses as older adults, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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The American College of Radiology (ACR) is proud to co-sponsor the 2018 International Day of Radiology (IDoR), in recognition of the tremendous advances in modern health care made possible by radiology. The celebration, taking place this Thursday, Nov. 8, is a joint effort of the ACR, the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the European Society of Radiology (ESR).

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The American Sociological Association, the American Statistical Association, and the Population Association of America this week filed an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York supporting a challenge to the late addition of a citizenship question in the 2020 Census

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Description: Papers on inflammasomes and Parkinson’s disease; gas extraction and amphibian health; SeqAPASS; and androgen receptor HTS featured in latest issue of Toxicological Sciences.

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Combined with machine learning, however, a camera can tell a different story. Today, this budding technology is helping DHS S&T and Sandia National Laboratories create more precise drone detection capability through visuals alone.

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• In a study that compared uninsured patients starting hemodialysis with similar patients already covered by Medicare or Medicaid, patients with Medicare or Medicaid were more likely to receive dialysis through an arteriovenous fistula or graft by their fourth dialysis month. • Patients with Medicare at the start of dialysis also had fewer hospitalizations involving vascular access infection in dialysis months 4-12.

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Three Endocrine Society members have been appointed to the National Clinical Care Commission.

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Dr. Okihide Hikosaka, senior investigator at the National Eye Institute (NEI) Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, is a recipient of the 2018 Gruber Prize in Neuroscience.

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AIP Publishing has announced its selection of Daniel S. Clark, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and leader of the National Ignition Facility’s Capsule Modeling Working Group within the inertial confinement fusion Program, as the winner of the 2018 Ronald C. Davidson Award for Plasma Physics. The annual award is presented by AIP Publishing in collaboration with the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics, to recognize outstanding plasma physics research by an author published in the journal Physics of Plasmas.

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Developed by DHS S&T, the U.S. Army Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC), and Cole Engineering Services Inc. (CESI), the Enhanced Dynamic Geo-Social Environment (EDGE), a virtual training platform, allows teachers, school staff, law enforcement officers, and others tasked with school security to create and practice response plans for a wide range of critical incidents.

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Spiraling insulin costs have created a dangerous barrier for many people with diabetes who need to access lifesaving treatments. The Endocrine Society is calling on stakeholders across the supply chain to help reduce out-of-pocket costs for people with diabetes.

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The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) today announced former ASN President Raymond C. Harris, Jr., MD, FASN, will serve as co-chair for its Kidney Health Initiative (KHI). Harris, a professor of medicine, molecular physiology, and biophysics, is Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Kidney Disease and former chief of the nephrology division of Vanderbilt University’s Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.

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Janelia and Allen Institute scientists team up, combining genetic analyses, anatomical maps, and detailed studies of neuronal activity to reveal brain cells’ roles in controlling movement.

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The American Physical Society (APS) 71st Annual Gaseous Electronics Conference and 60th Annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics will take place next week, Nov. 5-9, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. These two co-located meetings will form one of the largest gatherings of their kind anywhere in the world this year, with more than 2,000 attendees expected from around the world to convene and discuss the basic understanding and groundbreaking applications of different types of plasma science.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is calling for submissions to a Biometric Technology Rally scheduled for Spring 2019

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Researchers at the George Washington University found skin cooling methods may be the best preventative intervention against taxane-based chemotherapy side effects.

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NIBIB funded researchers have developed laser-activated nanomaterials that integrate with wounded tissues to form seals that are superior to sutures for containing body fluids and preventing bacterial infection.

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The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology announced today that Kerry-Anne Rye of the University of New South Wales Sydney and Nicholas O. Davidson of Washington University in St. Louis will be the next editors-in-chief of the Journal of Lipid Research.

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Recently, DHS S&T hosted the first North American International Forum to Advance First Responder Innovation (IFAFRI) Industry Stakeholder Summit to advance the development of affordable, innovative technology for the more than 7.5 million first responders across IFAFRI member nations.

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Children who are given antibiotics or antacids in their first two years of life are more likely to become obese during their childhood, according to a new study published today in the British Medical Journal, Gut.