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Applied Automation Technologies wins software contract with leading aircraft manufacturer

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Applied Automation Technologies has secured what it describes as “a major software contract” with a leading North American aircraft manufacturer.

The agreement involves the integration of AAT’s CAPPSNC software to directly interface with controllers on large CNC machines to provide dimensional metrology data for CMM reports, adaptive work offsets, and adaptive tool offsets for 3-5 axis closed-loop manufacturing.

Ray Karadayi, president and CEO of Applied Automation Technologies, says: “This CAPPSNC software is truly Factory 4.0 smart manufacturing technology because it is using metrology information throughout the manufacturing process for adaptive control.” [Read more…] about Applied Automation Technologies wins software contract with leading aircraft manufacturer

Making methane from CO2: Carbon capture grows more affordable

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In their ongoing effort to make carbon capture more affordable, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a method to convert captured carbon dioxide (CO2) into methane, the primary component of natural gas.

By streamlining a longstanding process in which CO2 is converted to methane, the researchers’ new method reduces the materials needed to run the reaction, the energy needed to fuel it and, ultimately, the selling price of the gas.

A key chemical player known as EEMPA makes the process possible. EEMPA is a PNNL-developed solvent that snatches CO2 from power plant flue gas, binding the greenhouse gas so it can be converted into useful chemicals. [Read more…] about Making methane from CO2: Carbon capture grows more affordable

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Like humans, apes communicate to start and end social interactions

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When we’re talking to another person, we probably wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye; that would just be impolite. Apes seem to do something similar, researchers report in a study publishing August 11 in the journal iScience, in which they documented apes purposefully using signals to start and then end interactions – a behavior not seen outside of the human species until now.

They also found that the social and power dynamics between the interacting apes affected the communication efforts used, which the researchers say mirrors patterns similar to human politeness.

“We were able to launch rockets and land on the moon because we have the ability to share our intentions, which allows us to achieve things so much bigger than a single individual can achieve alone. This ability has been suggested to be at the heart of human nature,” says Raphaela Heesen, a postdoctoral researcher at Durham University in the United Kingdom. [Read more…] about Like humans, apes communicate to start and end social interactions

The future of medicine is nearer thanks to researchers’ invention

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Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently unveiled their discovery of a new process for making RNA. The resulting RNA is purer, more copious and likely to be more cost-effective than any previous process could manage.

This new technique removes the largest stumbling block on the path to next-generation RNA therapeutic drugs.

If DNA is the blueprint that tells the cells in our bodies what proteins to make and for what purposes, RNA is the messenger that carries DNA’s instruction to the actual protein-making machinery within each cell. [Read more…] about The future of medicine is nearer thanks to researchers’ invention

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Turning plastic into foam to combat pollution

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Biodegradable plastics are supposed to be good for the environment. But because they are specifically made to degrade quickly, they cannot be recycled.

In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand have developed a method to turn biodegradable plastic knives, spoons, and forks into a foam that can be used as insulation in walls or in flotation devices.

The investigators placed the cutlery, which was previously thought to be “nonfoamable” plastic, into a chamber filled with carbon dioxide. As pressure increased, the gas dissolved into the plastic. [Read more…] about Turning plastic into foam to combat pollution

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    New global rules curb unrestricted plastic waste exportsGovernments at the 14th Conference of the Parties (COP14) of the Basel Convention acted to restrict rampant plastic waste exports by requiring countries to obtain prior informed consent before exporting contaminated or mixed plastic waste. A deluge of plastic waste exports from developed countries has polluted developing countries in Southeast…
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Artificial intelligence breakthrough gives longer advance warning of ozone issues

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Ozone levels in the earth’s troposphere (the lowest level of our atmosphere) can now be forecasted with accuracy up to two weeks in advance, a remarkable improvement over current systems that can accurately predict ozone levels only three days ahead.

The new artificial intelligence system developed in the University of Houston’s Air Quality Forecasting and Modeling Lab could lead to improved ways to control high ozone problems and even contribute to solutions for climate change issues.

“This was very challenging. Nobody had done this previously. I believe we are the first to try to forecast surface ozone levels two weeks in advance,” said Yunsoo Choi, professor of atmospheric chemistry and AI deep learning at UH’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. The findings are published online in the scientific journal, Scientific Reports-Nature. [Read more…] about Artificial intelligence breakthrough gives longer advance warning of ozone issues

New mechanism to control tomato ripening discovered

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An international research group involving the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Plants (IBMCP), a joint centre of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), has discovered that a genetic mechanism, called CHLORAD, which is involved in the ageing of plant leaves, also plays a decisive role in the tomato ripening process.

Thus, tomatoes with an activated CHLORAD system turn red more quickly, and accumulate more lycopene, a compound beneficial to health. The results, which have been published in the latest issue of the journal Nature Plants, will lead to better quality tomatoes.

The ripening of most fleshy fruits gives them attractive colours and smells, which is a trick of the plant to spread its seeds more widely and colonise new territories. In tomatoes, ripening changes their colour from green to orange and red. [Read more…] about New mechanism to control tomato ripening discovered

‘We’re playing Moneyball with building assets’

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Researchers have developed a tool to help governments and other organizations with limited budgets spend money on building repairs more wisely.

The new tool uses artificial intelligence and text mining techniques to analyze written inspection reports and determine which work is most urgently needed.

“Those assessments are now largely subjective, the opinions of people based on experience and training,” said Kareem Mostafa, an engineering PhD student at the University of Waterloo who led the project. “We’re using actual data on buildings to make spending decisions more objective.” [Read more…] about ‘We’re playing Moneyball with building assets’

Scientists shed light on the mechanism of photoactivation of the orange carotenoid protein

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Exposure to light is compulsory for photosynthetic organisms for the conversion of inorganic compounds into organic ones. However, if there is too much solar energy, the photosystems and other cell components could be damaged.

Thanks to special protective proteins, the over-excitation is converted into heat – in the process called non-photochemical quenching.

The object of the published study, OCP, was one of such defenders. It was first isolated in 1981 from representatives of the ancient group of photosynthetic bacteria – yanobacteria. OCP comprises two domains forming a cavity, in which a carotenoid pigment is embedded. [Read more…] about Scientists shed light on the mechanism of photoactivation of the orange carotenoid protein

Transforming atmospheric carbon into industrially useful materials

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Plants are unparalleled in their ability to capture CO2 from the air, but this benefit is temporary, as leftover crops release carbon back into the atmosphere, mostly through decomposition.

Researchers have proposed a more permanent, and even useful, fate for this captured carbon by turning plants into a valuable industrial material called silicon carbide (SiC) – offering a strategy to turn an atmospheric greenhouse gas into an economically and industrially valuable material.

In a new study, published in the journal RSC Advances on April 27, 2021, scientists at the Salk Institute transformed tobacco and corn husks into SiC and quantified the process with more detail than ever before. [Read more…] about Transforming atmospheric carbon into industrially useful materials

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