It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, September 06, 2022
Discovery of new types of microfossils may answer an age-old scientific question
IMAGE: A MASSIVE OUTCROP OF STROMATOLITIC CHERT FROM THE GUNFLINT FORMATION.view more
CREDIT: SASAKI ET AL.
Scientists have long pondered how and when the evolution of prokaryotes to eukaryotes occurred. A collaborative research team from Tohoku University and the University of Tokyo may have provided some answers after discovering new types of microfossils dating 1.9 billion years.
Details of their findings were published in the journal Precambrian Research on August 19, 2022.
The Gunflint Formation traverses the northern part of Minnesota into Ontario, along the northwestern shores of Lake Superior. The first bacterial microfossils were discovered there in 1954, with Gunflint microfossils now recognized as a 'benchmark' in the field of life evolution.
Yet, since the 1970s, little research on the diversity of Gunflint microfossils has been conducted, and no conclusive evidence of eukaryotic microfossils has been reported.
Seeking to reassess the microfossils, the research team carried out a geological survey of the Gunflint Formation and collected microfossil-containing rocks. After investigating the microfossils' three-dimensional shape and size distribution, they unearthed five types of microfossils: colonial, ellipsoidal, intracellular inclusion-bearing (ICI), spinous and tail-bearing types.
"The newly found ones are more functional," said the leader of the team Kohei Sasaki, a research fellow at Tohoku University. "The ellipsoidal microfossils resemble modern cyanobacteria, which evolved to improve their tolerance to harsh environments; whereas chemical analysis showed that the ICI microfossils were packed with nutrients."
This evidences that the microorganisms evolved to store nutrients that could weather environmental stress.
Meanwhile, the spinous and tail-bearing types demonstrated features advantageous for motility and nutrient transfer among cells, a typical morphological feature of eukaryotes.
"Although the size of cells is prokaryote by definition, they had already developed eukaryotic functions," added Sasaki. This indicates that prokaryotes may have begun diversifying their functions and preparing for evolution before the emergence of eukaryotes 1.8 - 1.6 billion years ago.
The team speculates that the unique environment at the time facilitated the divergent expansion of microbial forms. The collision of land masses accelerated oxidative weathering from the fresh continent to the ocean. This increased the nutrient supplies and raised seawater temperatures, making the marine environment unstable.
"Under such conditions, microorganisms probably diversified their morphology as a survival strategy, paving the way for eukaryotes to evolve," continued Sasaki.
Sasaki and his team's landmark discovery will help scientists pinpoint the timing and factors that ushered in the evolution of prokaryotes to eukaryotes, providing not only geological significance, but aiding the fields of life sciences and evolutionary biology as well.
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Common types of Gunflint microfossils, with white scale bars at a scale of 0.01mm.
CREDIT
Sasaki et al.
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Images of the newly discovered microfossils, with white scale bars at a scale of 0.01mm.
The more that people express admiration for a public figure, the more likely they are to forgive and defend them after a “moral violation”, according to a new study analysing the posts from 36,464 YouTube followers of a famous online prankster.
The findings suggest that we “resist updating our beliefs” about those we publicly support – even when they commit acts that might appall us, say researchers.
Psychologists from Cambridge University investigated fan reactions to online celebrity Logan Paul’s videos before and after a notorious incident in which he filmed the dead body of a man in Japan’s Aokigahara forest – tragically known as a ‘suicide site’ – and shared it with his followers.
In the video, Paul and friends make highly inappropriate jokes. At the time, the final day of 2017, he had over 15 million YouTube subscribers. The “suicide forest scandal” led to a major backlash against Paul and indeed YouTube, despite a public apology from him 48 hours later.
In a study published in the journal Social Psychological Bulletin, researchers used language-processing algorithms to assess the level of “moral emotions” – from anger and disgust to adoration – displayed in comments by some of Paul’s army of YouTube followers over the course of the scandal.
The psychologists deployed a “concept dictionary” – lists of words associated with, for example, notions of love or forgiveness – to scan user commentary on seven Logan Paul videos prior to the scandal, and posts from those same followers on his apology video in the wake of the scandal.
The researchers say that this approach allowed them to account for specific slang in their sentiment analyses, such as “logang4life”: a phrase used by Paul’s more devoted fans to demonstrate commitment.
“Imagine a celebrity or a politician you greatly admire does something you consider deeply immoral and repugnant. Would you stand by them?” said lead author Simon Karg, who conducted the work while at the Cambridge Body, Mind and Behaviour Laboratory.
“We can see that people often keep holding on to a positive character evaluation even when the admired person commits a severe transgression. The more important the person has been to us, the less likely we are willing to change our favourable opinion,” Karg said.
Cambridge social psychologist Prof Simone Schnall, the study’s senior author, said: “People often use celebrities in the construction of their social identity. A threat to the standing of a public figure can be perceived by fans as a threat to their own self-identity – something we may feel compelled to defend.”
Previous studies on how people judge moral character have been limited by small participant groups, often lab-based, as well as hypothetical scenarios. By scraping and analysing YouTube comments, the Cambridge team were able to investigate thousands of reactions to a “real life” scandal of moral transgression.
Overall, 77% of the YouTube users who had left comments on a Logan Paul video before the scandal continued to support him afterwards, with only 16% expressing anger, and 4% disgust, after Paul mocked the suicide victim.
Psychologists were able to examine the link between pre-scandal attitudes and post-scandal messages of support among individual social media users.
YouTube users who commented often and positively on Logan Paul videos prior to the scandal were 12% more likely to continue to voice support for him once he had publicly disgraced himself.
Those who posted positively using Logan Paul fan language – an expression of “social identity” – were 10% more likely to back Paul after the Aokigahara forest video.
Online behavior predicted fan reactions beyond merely support for Logan Paul. For each one of his videos a user had commented on, their likelihood to display “adoration” for Paul after the scandal increased by 4%.
Conversely, each pre-scandal Logan Paul video commented on by a YouTube user left them 5% less likely to express anger, and 9% less likely to express disgust, at his transgressive behaviour in Japan.
“High levels of online approval only led to the entrenchment of support when fans were suddenly faced with extremely negative information about their hero,” said Karg, who is now at Aarhus University.
“There are numerous examples of celebrities and politicians acting in less than ideal ways without much backlash from devoted partisans. It seems that fervent supporters will readily excuse deplorable actions by their heroes. The question is whether anything can break this spell of commitment,” Karg said.
If you own a retro gaming console or have an old roll of packing tape, you’ve seen how plastics turn yellow as they age. Though the cause of this color change has long been attributed to the formation of molecules that act as dyes — the actual chemical changes that take place remained unexplained. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Polymer Materials have identified surface-based chiral nanostructures as the potential culprit.
Understanding how and why polymers degrade with age is key to designing alternatives that can avoid these pathways, allowing plastic products to have a longer lifespan. For one of the most commonly used plastics, polyethylene, it’s long been suggested that ultraviolet (UV) light — the same light that gives us sunburns — initiates reactions in the backbone of the polymer’s structure that cause the yellow color change. However, though chemical changes to polyethylene’s polymeric backbone have been observed after exposure to UV light, those new structures cannot account for polyethylene’s yellowing. One emerging way to intentionally modify the color and the ways that plastics interact with light is to create nano-sized “supramolecular” structures on their surfaces that impact plastics’ properties in a controllable way. Inspired by these surface-based technologies, Margaret M. Elmer-Dixon, Melissa A. Maurer-Jones and colleagues wanted to see if such nanostructures formed unintentionally by UV light could be the cause of polyethylene yellowing.
The researchers first investigated if potential structures formed on yellowed polyethylene films’ surfaces interacted with circularly polarized light, a type of light whose waves travel with a right- or left-handed rotation. The amount of circularly polarized light absorbed by the film in these experiments changed depending on the film’s orientation, suggesting that the yellowed plastic contains new chemical structures that are chiral, that is, they are directional and aren’t identical to their mirror images. Additional experiments showed that most of the degradation during film yellowing occurred on the surface of the films. The team concluded that chiral chemical structures on the surfaces of the polyethylene films are formed during exposure to UV light and are a potential cause for the yellow color of old plastics. They say that these insights could help researchers design plastic products that last longer before becoming unsightly or unusable.
The authors acknowledge funding from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, the University of Minnesota McKnight Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
Could superficial chiral nanostructures be the reason polyethylene yellows as it ages?
Turning over a new leaf: Local mountain climate is affected by leaf area ratio
A research group led by the University of Tsukuba finds that the leaf area index of mixed-forests influences seasonal changes in the formation of a nocturnal cold-air pool at a small mountain basin in central Japan
Tsukuba, Japan—The changing seasons tell us much about the workings of nature. Now, a research group from Japan has discovered that the seasonal changes of tree leaf growth and shedding can have a big influence on climate even on small, local scales.
Forests act as intermediaries between the atmosphere and land, reducing surface wind speeds and controlling surface heat budgets, as well as indirectly affecting cloud formation and the energy-water cycle. The forest canopy protects the forest floor from sunlight and reduces diurnal variations in surface air temperature. These effects may alter not only forest ecology, but also the surrounding microclimate. For mountain forests, the effects of global climate change on phenology (periodic biological events, e.g., flowering, in relation to climatic conditions) have been shown, such as an extended growing season for deciduous forests. Changes in forest phenology could also alter local circulation and heat budgets of the low-level atmosphere in surrounding environments.
"However, previous studies have not fully considered the contribution of mountain forests to the nocturnal local climate in downstream areas," says senior author of the study, Professor Kenichi Ueno. "This is what we set out to investigate."
Specifically, the researchers sought to clarify the effects of leaf expansion (the stage in deciduous plant phenology where leaves expand from buds to mature leaves) on nocturnal temperature inversion (NTI) in mountain basins. NTI is a key factor that characterizes the local climate in mountainous areas, and much of the mountain slopes in central Japan are covered by deciduous forests.
The research team conducted a three-year study of leaf area index (LAI) at a mixed-forest mountain slope site in a small basin. They observed sudden shifts in the development of the nighttime cold-air pool over the basin that were related to leaf expansion and leaf fall. Specifically, they found weakening of the NTI related to leaf expansion, and strengthening after leaf fall. On the basis of these relationships, the researchers concluded that changes in LAI influenced seasonal changes in the development of the nighttime cold-air pool.
"Our results indicated that changeability in daytime forest heat storage can offset nighttime radiative cooling from the forest canopy," says Professor Ueno. "In short, our research has revealed that the cycle of tree leaf growth and leaf shedding in mountain forests has an observable effect on the local climate."
The results of this study will be applicable to research on the effects of mountain forest processes on nearby areas, such as downwind locations in which human activities are focused, which has important implications for how agricultural areas are designed, and on long-term mountain meteorological records. Future studies are expected to assess the effects of forest phenology of mountain areas on inland nocturnal climates.
### Funding: Field research project (2018-2019), Mountain Science Center, University of Tsukuba
Original Paper
The article, "Development of a nocturnal temperature inversion in a small basin associated with leaf area ratio changes on the mountain slopes in central Japan," was published in the Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan at DOI: 10.2151/jmsj.2022-047
No movie experience is complete without popcorn, whether plain, buttered, or coated with sweet or savory toppings. Microwaves and counter-top air poppers are common appliances for making this tasty snack at home, but now, a study in ACS Food Science & Technology reports that infrared cooking is yet another way people can make the treat. Using a pilot infrared popping system, the researchers were able to produce a version of the snack that taste-testers liked.
Infrared cooking has been gaining steam in home-sized pizza ovens and outdoor grills because it heats food quickly and evenly, without needing as much energy as other techniques. Previously, Majid Javanmard and colleagues showed that this cooking method is successful at making popcorn. So, to optimize the method for this snack, the team developed a pilot infrared popping system with a rotating chamber that held corn kernels close to two infrared lamps. They tested the new system with three different levels of heat power (600, 700 and 800 W) and found that 700 W produced the highest amount of fully or semi-popped kernels, as well as the largest kernels. Then a sensory panel also determined that the popcorn from 700 W lamps had the best color, taste and firmness, scoring over four on a five-point scale for overall acceptability. Based on their results, the researchers say that their infrared system can make tasty popcorn in a more energy-efficient way than traditional methods.
The authors acknowledge funding from the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST).
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
Continuous Infrared Popping: Effect on Key Physicochemical Attributes of Popcorn
Machine learning shows links between bacterial population growth and environment
Researchers from the University of Tsukuba find via machine learning that the differentiation in decision-making components for the lag, growth, and saturation phases of bacterial population growth protects the population against extinction
Tsukuba, Japan—Microbial populations may be small but they are surprisingly complex, making interactions with their surrounding environment difficult to study. But now, researchers from Japan have discovered that machine learning can provide the tools to do just that. In a study published this month in eLife, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have revealed that machine learning can be applied to bacterial population growth to discover how it relates to variations in their environment.
The dynamics of microbe populations are usually represented by growth curves. Typically, three parameters taken from these curves are used to evaluate how microbial populations fit with their environment: lag time, growth rate, and saturated population size (or carrying capacity). These three parameters are probably linked; trade-offs have been observed between the growth rate and either the lag time or population size within species, and with related changes in the saturated population size and growth rate among genetically diverse strains.
"Two questions remained: are these three parameters affected by environmental diversity, and if so, how?" says senior author of the study, Professor Bei-Wen Ying. "To answer these, we used data-driven approaches to investigate the growth strategy of bacteria."
The researchers built a large dataset that reflected the dynamics of Escherichia coli populations under a wide variety of environmental conditions, using almost a thousand combinations of growth media composed from 44 chemical compounds under controlled lab conditions. They then analyzed the big data for the relationships between the growth parameters and the combinations of media using machine learning (ML). ML algorithms built a model based on sample data to make predictions or decisions without being specifically programmed to do so.
The analysis revealed that for bacterial growth, the decision-making components were distinct among different growth phases, e.g., serine, sulfate, and glucose for growth delay (lag), growth rate, and maximum growth (saturation), respectively. The results of additional simulations and analyses showed that branched-chain amino acids likely act as ubiquitous coordinators for bacterial population growth conditions.
"Our results also revealed a common and simple strategy of risk diversification in conditions where the bacteria experienced excess resources or starvation, which makes sense in both an evolutionary and ecological context," says Professor Ying.
The results of this study have revealed that exploring the world of microorganisms with data-driven approaches can provide new insights that were previously unattainable via traditional biological experiments. This research shows that the ML-assisted approach, although still an emerging technology that will need to be developed in terms of its biological reliability and accessibility, could open new avenues for applications in the life sciences, especially microbiology and ecology.
### The study was funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 21K19815 and 19H03215.
Original Paper
The article, "Machine learning-assisted discovery of growth decision elements by relating bacterial population dynamics to environmental diversity," was published in eLife at DOI: 10.7554/eLife.76846
Machine learning-assisted discovery of growth decision elements by relating bacterial population dynamics to environmental diversity
Children with autism benefit when parents are trained to provide at-home interventions
Study shows that after parents receive specialized training, children with autism spectrum disorder markedly improve their social and communication skills.
IMAGE: A SUMMARY OF 50 STUDIES FOUND THAT WHEN PARENTS WERE EDUCATED IN WAYS TO OFFER INTERVENTIONS AT HOME, CHILDREN SAW MARKED IMPROVEMENT IN SOCIAL SKILLS AS WELL AS LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS.view more
CREDIT: NATE EDWARDS
Training and empowering parents to offer at-home interventions to children with autism spectrum disorder helps children improve in positive behaviors and language communication skills says a new study from BYU.
“We’ve known for a long time that early interventions for children with autism improve learning and social skills at a greater rate than if interventions are offered later,” said Timothy B. Smith, BYU counseling psychology professor. “The problem lies in the bottleneck between the small number of practitioners available and the large numbers of children with symptoms who aren’t receiving treatment. Many can spend months on a waitlist before meeting a clinician.”
Utilizing at-home interventions in conjunction with professional clinical treatment is one way to expand treatment services. The study, recently published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, found that when parents were educated in ways to offer interventions at home, children saw marked improvement in social skills as well as language and communication skills when compared to children receiving no specialized home interventions.
Parents could be taught strategies that they can use to help their child develop social, communication, and play skills. For instance, they would be trained on how to help a child focus on desired tasks, or how to take turns when interacting with others. Parents would be empowered to implement these tactics throughout the course of the day.
“There is no scientific justification to not train parents,” said Smith. “A parent can constantly reinforce social behaviors if they know what to look for and how to do it. It’s about meeting the kids where they’re at. It has a potentially remarkable impact on child outcomes.”
The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of over 50 different studies to understand the impact of parent-led interventions. In total, the studies included 2,895 child participants with an average age of five and a half. On average, parents received about 90 minutes of intervention training each week. Impact on child development was measured using direct observation by a professional as well as parent and observer ratings. No differences were observed when the mother, father, or both implemented interventions.
Moderate gains in development while they’re young crescendo over time, said Smith. Children with autism spectrum disorder who benefit from home interventions will enter preschool more prepared and they’ll leave preschool feeling more equipped for kindergarten.
“They’ll get more out of first grade and then second grade, and the effect continues to multiply,” he said. “That trajectory then continues to widen the path where the child will end up across their lifetime.”
When considered with lifelong costs associated with education, social programs and eventually welfare programs that take care of adults with disabilities, Smith estimates that parent-led interventions are a procedure that could save billions of dollars.
Researchers say they’re hopeful that such findings can be used by lawmakers to introduce legislation to add parent training as a covered benefit of insurance policies, like recent changes in federal legislation that offered insurance coverage of professional treatment for children with developmental delays.
“Kids diagnosed with ASD are higher functioning today than even twenty years ago because they’re getting interventions when they’re one or two years old,” said Dr. Tina Taylor, associate dean in the David O. McKay School of Education, and co-author of the study. “We need continued resources to help equip parents help their children. Parents are able and willing to help their children build the skills they need to be successful and make huge contributions to the world.”
Additionally, when pediatricians find symptoms of developmental delays in well child visits, they could immediately make the recommendation for parent training programs, while simultaneously making referrals for professional services.
“Intensive interventions can require 25 hours or more per week, and it’s unrealistic to expect that solely from a professional provider. Parents can have the knowledge and skills to help their children develop,” said Linda Cheng, lead author of the paper and current doctoral student studying educational inquiry, measurement and evaluation in the McKay School. “If we only stay with the traditional methods of treatments, we’re missing an opportunity to help those in need.”
For parents interested in learning more about strategies of parent led interventions, Smith suggests exploring the online resources offered by Project-Impact.
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Parents could be trained on how to help a child focus on desired tasks, or how to take turns when interacting with others.
IMAGE: A SOFT, BIORESORBABLE, IMPLANTABLE DEVICE DEVELOPED BY RESEARCHERS FROM PUSAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY PROVIDES A FOCUSED, REVERSIBLE, AND PRECISE COOLING EFFECT TO BLOCK PAIN SIGNALS FROM PERIPHERAL NERVESview more
CREDIT: PUSAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Owing to their high efficacy, opioids are used widely for the management of neuropathic pain, despite the increasing rates of opioid addiction and deaths due to overdose. To avoid these side effects, there is an urgent need for pain management approaches that can substitute opioid use.
It is well known that cold temperatures numb the sensation in our nerves. Evidence suggests that cooling peripheral nerves can in fact reduce the velocity and amplitude of neural signals that cause pain, leading to pain relief. What’s great about this approach is that if made possible, it will be completely reversible and non-addictive.
To this end, a team of researchers led by Professor Min-Ho Seo from Pusan National University developed a soft, bioresorbable, implantable device with the potential to cool peripheral nerves in a minimally invasive, focused manner. “Scientists already knew that low temperatures could numb the nerves in the body. But demonstrating this phenomenon with a small device at a clinical level was not an easy task,” said Prof. Seo while discussing the study, which was published in Volume 377 Issue 6601 of Science on June 30, 2022.
To develop the device, the team designed a microfluidics system formed with a bioresorbable material—poly(octanediol citrate)—with interconnects carrying a liquid coolant to a serpentine chamber. To top it off, a Magnesium temperature sensor for real-time temperature monitoring was incorporated at its distal end. The intensity and localization of the cooling effect was regulated by perfluoro pentane (PFP) and dry nitrogen gas (N2)—the two components of the liquid coolant, as well as the geometry of the serpentine chamber.
Next, the team tested the device by implanting it into the sciatic nerves of living rat models with neuropathic pain associated with spared nerve injury. After a three-week evaluation, the team found that the device successfully delivered cooling power to the peripheral nerves of the rats, which led to a reduction in their pain. Fortunately, the delivery of the cooling power occurred in a minimally invasive, stable, and precise manner. What’s more, this application was localized and reversible, and remained effective for almost 15 minutes during one session.
On being submerged in phosphate-buffered saline solution at 75°C, the device, which was made of bioresorbable materials, dissolved within 20 days and got eliminated in approximately 50 days. These findings imply that it has the potential to naturally degrade and get resorbed in the human body.
So, what are the future applications of this device? “The developed device can be used to treat pain after surgery. Since it is connected to an external source of fluid and power like a commercial intravenous (IV) device, it can easily be controlled by the patient. This way, our implantable device will be able to provide targeted and individualized relief without the drawbacks of the addictive pain medications,” said Prof. Seo in response.
With such progress underway, patients with neuropathic pain will finally be able to receive safe and sustainable treatment, without the risk of adverse effects associated with opioid use!
Authors: Jonathan T. Reeder1,2,3, Zhaoqian Xie4,5, Quansan Yang3,6†, Min-Ho Seo2,3,7†, Ying Yan8, Yujun Deng9, Katherine R. Jinkins3, Siddharth R. Krishnan2,3, Claire Liu3,10, Shannon McKay10, Emily Patnaude10, Alexandra Johnson10, Zichen Zhao4,5, Moon Joo Kim11§, Yameng Xu12, Ivy Huang2,3, Raudel Avila6, Christopher Felicelli13, Emily Ray14, Xu Guo4,5, Wilson Z. Ray8,14, Yonggang Huang2,3,6,15, Matthew R. MacEwan8,14, John A. Rogers2,3,6,10,16,17,18
Affiliations:
1Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
3Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
4State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
5Ningbo Institute of Dalian University of Technology, Ningbo, China
6Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
7School of Biomedical Convergence Engineering, College of Information and Biomedical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea.
8Department of Neurological Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
9State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
10Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
11Department of Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
12The Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
13Department of Pathology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA 14Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
15Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
16Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
17Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
18Department of Neurological Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
About Pusan National University Pusan National University, located in Busan, South Korea, was founded in 1946, and is now the no. 1 national university of South Korea in research and educational competency. The multi-campus university also has other smaller campuses in Yangsan, Miryang, and Ami. The university prides itself on the principles of truth, freedom, and service, and has approximately 30,000 students, 1200 professors, and 750 faculty members. The university is composed of 14 colleges (schools) and one independent division, with 103 departments in all.
About Assistant Professor Min-Ho Seo Dr. Min-Ho Seo received his B.S. degree (Magna cum laude, 2011) in nanomechatronics engineering from Pusan National University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees (2013 and 2018, respectively) in electrical engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Between 2018 and 2019, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Information and Electronics Research Institute at KAIST, following which from 2019 until 2020, he joined the Center for Bio-integrated Electronics at Northwestern University in USA as a postdoctoral researcher.
Since 2020, he has been affiliated with the School of Biomedical Convergence Engineering, Pusan National University, where he works as an assistant professor. His research interests include nano/microelectromechanical systems, biomedical devices and electronics, flexible and wearable electronics, and physical, chemical, hydrogen, and optical sensor devices and electronics.
