Inherent bias is often the unconscious driver of human behavior, and the first step towards overcoming these biases is our awareness of them. In this article the authors investigate whether race, gender or species affect the choice of charity by middle class Spaniards. Their conclusions serve as a starting point for further studies that could help charities refine their campaigns in light of these biases effectively transcending them or taking advantage of them to improve their fundraising attempts.
Wang and Gong developed a novel dynamic gene-searching algorithm called Dynamic Gene Search (DyGS) to create a gene panel for each of the 12 cancers with the highest annual incidence and death rate. The 12 gene panels the DyGS algorithm selected used only 3.5% of the original gene mutation pool, while covering every patient sample. About 40% of each gene panel is druggable, which indicates that the DyGS-generated gene panels can be used for early cancer detection as well as therapeutic targets in treatment methods.
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is faint electromagnetic radiation left over from early stages in the formation of the universe. In order to analyze the CMB, scientists need to remove from electromagnetic data foreground radiation that contaminates CMB datasets. In this study, students utilize extensive updated datasets to analyze the correlation between CMB maps and Faraday RM and WMAP sky maps.
This study compares the voltage output of two potential alternative energy sources: water drops hitting a piezoelectric surface and water flowing through a hydroelectric turbine. The findings of this study suggest that harnessing kinetic energy from falling raindrops may be a viable alternative energy source.
The authors looked at the antibacterial effects of oregano and star anise essential oils against E. coli or S. epidermis. They found that oregano oil showed antibacterial activity against both E. coli or S. epidermis, and that star anise oil had a larger zone of inhibition in E. coli than tetracycline, a conventional antibiotic.
Plastic pollution in the ocean is a major global concern. Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) have promise for removing debris from the ocean, but more research is needed to achieve full effectiveness of the ROV technology. Wahlig and Gonzales tackle this issue by developing a deep learning model to distinguish trash from the environment in ROV images.
Here the authors investigated the optical possibilities of gelatin and acrylic in regards to potential implementations at soft contact lenses. They fabricated lenses of different shapes and evaluated the refraction of laser light finding that gelatin needed to be thickened or increased in curvature to account for its lower refractive index compared to plastics, or used in a mixture to strengthen the lens.
Natural selection shapes the evolution of all organisms, and one question of interest is whether natural selection will reach a "stopping point": a stable, ideal, value for any particular trait. Madhan and Kanagavel tackle this question by building a computer simulation of trait evolution in organisms.
The energy of an atom is extremely useful in nuclear physics and reaction mechanism pathway determination but is challenging to compute. This work aimed to synthesize regression models for Pople Gaussian expansions of Slater-type Orbitals (STO-nG) atomic energy vs. atomic number scatter plots to allow for easy approximation of atomic energies without using computational chemistry methods. The data indicated that of the regressions, sinusoidal regressions most aptly modeled the scatter plots.