The Ascension Products Blog.

In the largest study of its kind, researchers from the Musculoskeletal Research Unit at the University of Bristol have identified the most important risk factors for developing severe infection after knee replacement. Patients who are under 60 years of age, males, those with chronic pulmonary disease, diabetes, liver disease, and a higher body mass index are at increased risk of having the joint replacement redone (known as revision) due to infection.

* This article was originally published here

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Fundamentally new MRI method developed to measure brain function in milliseconds

The speed of the human brain is remarkable—in a fraction of a second, neurons are activated, propagating thoughts and reactions to stimuli. But the speed at which we can noninvasively follow brain function using an MRI is not as impressive. Functional MRI (fMRI), which measures changes in blood oxygen levels, has revolutionized the field of neuroscience by revealing functional aspects of the brain. But the changes that fMRI is sensitive to can take up to six seconds in humans—a veritable eon in brain time. Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital, in collaboration with colleagues at King's College London and INSERM-Paris, have discovered a fundamentally new way to measure brain function using a technology known as magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), an approach that creates maps of tissue stiffness using an MRI scanner. In a paper published in Science Advances, the team presents data from preclinical studies indicating that the technique can track brain function activity on a time scale of 100 milliseconds. Studies of the technique in human participants are now underway.

* This article was originally published here

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Novel batteries are the first to use water-splitting technology at their core

Inside modern cell phones are billions of nanoscale switches that flip on and off, allowing the phone to function. These switches, called transistors, are controlled by an electrical signal that is delivered via a single battery. This configuration of one battery to power multiple components works well for today's technologies, but there is room for improvement. Each time a signal is piped from the battery to a component, some power is lost on the journey. Coupling each component with its own battery would be a much better setup, minimizing energy loss and maximizing battery life. However, in the current tech world, batteries are not small enough to permit this arrangement—at least not yet.

* This article was originally published here

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Two security researchers find WPA3 vulnerabilities

You mean my safety blanket isn't safe? A next-gen standard "was supposed to make password cracking a thing of the past," clucked Ars Technica, after learning that vulnerabilities were found in the WPA3 protocol that could allow adversaries to get to Wi-Fi passwords and access the target network.

* This article was originally published here