U.S. Employment of people with disabilities declines but remains near all-time high

nTIDE May 2026 jobs report

Reports and Proceedings

Kessler Foundation

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From March 2026 to April 2026, the employment-to-population ratio decreased from 38.5 to 37.9 percent for people with disabilities and increased from 74.8 to 74.9 percent for people without disabilities. The labor force participation rate decreased from 41.9 to 41.1 percent for people with disabilities and decreased from 78.0 to 77.9 percent for people without disabilities.

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Credit: Kessler Foundation

East Hanover, NJ – May 8, 2026 – The May 2026 National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) report indicates a decline in employment for people with disabilities. But while month-to-month changes are expected within a more limited range at the post-pandemic plateau, people with disabilities continue to maintain stronger employment gains than before the pandemic. nTIDE is issued monthly by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD).

Based on data from today’s BLS Jobs Report and separate nTIDE analysis, the employment-to-population ratio for people with disabilities (ages 16-64) decreased from 38.5 percent in March 2026 to 37.9 percent in April 2026 (down 1.6 percent or 0.6 percentage points). For people without disabilities (ages 16-64), the employment-to-population ratio increased slightly from 74.8 percent in March 2026 to 74.9 percent in April 2026 (up 0.1 percent or 0.1 percentage points). The employment-to-population ratio, a key indicator, is the percentage of people who are working relative to the total population (the number of people working divided by the total population, then multiplied by 100).

“We hoped April’s employment-to-population ratio (37.9%) would continue the upward trend seen late last year,” remarked John O’Neill, PhD, director of the Center for Employment and Disability Research at Kessler Foundation. “Even so, April’s numbers remained well within the historically high range achieved by people with disabilities during the post-pandemic employment plateau,” he added.

Similarly, the labor force participation rate for people with disabilities decreased from 41.9 percent in March 2026 to 41.1 percent in April 2026 (down 1.9 percent or 0.8 percentage points). For people without disabilities, the labor force participation rate decreased from 78 percent in March 2026 to 77.9 percent in April 2026 (down 0.1 percent or 0.1 percentage points). The labor force participation rate reflects the percentage of people who are in the labor force (working, on temporary layoff, on furlough, or actively looking for work in the last four weeks) relative to the total population (the number of people in the labor force divided by the number of people in the total population multiplied by 100).

“The labor force participation rate of people with disabilities has been declining since it reached its all-time high of 42.8 percent in November 2025,” said Andrew Houtenville, PhD, professor of economics and director of the UNH-IOD. “These declines still fall within the new plateau of around 41.5 percent that was established during the post-pandemic recovery. As price of oil remains high, we expect labor force participation to increase as people with disabilities and their families cope with rising prices of gasoline and other basic necessities. Recall that people with disabilities are more than twice as likely to live in families with incomes below the poverty line, according the most recent Annual Report on People with Disabilities in America, making inflation even more perilous for people with disabilities and their families,” he added.

Year-to-Year nTIDE Numbers (comparing April 2025 to April 2026)

Compared with the same time last year, the employment-to-population ratio for people with disabilities increased from 37.4 percent in April 2025 to 37.9 percent in April 2026 (up 1.3 percent or 0.5 percentage points). For people without disabilities, the employment-to-population ratio decreased slightly from 75.1 percent in April 2025 to 74.9 percent in April 2026 (down 0.3 percent or 0.2 percentage points).

The labor force participation rate for people with disabilities increased slightly from 41.0 percent in April 2025 to 41.1 percent in April 2026 (up 0.2 percent or 0.1 percentage points). For people without disabilities, the labor force participation rate decreased slightly from 78.0 percent in April 2025 to 77.9 percent in April 2026 (down 0.1 percent or 0.1 percentage points).

In April, among workers ages 16-64, the 6,450,000 workers with disabilities represented 4.3 percent of the total 151,198,000 workers in the U.S.

Ask Questions about Disability and Employment
On the same day nTIDE is issued, the team hosts an nTIDE Lunch & Learn webinar. This live Zoom broadcast gives attendees a chance to ask questions about the latest findings, hear news and updates from the field, and learn from invited panelists who discuss current disability-related research and events.

On May 8, 2026, guest presenter Kimberly Knackstedt, principal at Unlock Access, joined Drs. O’Neill, Houtenville, and Lillie Heigl, director of policy at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities. Visit the nTIDE archives at ResearchonDisability.org/nTIDE to see a recording of this and other nTIDE Lunch & Learn episodes.

About National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE)
nTIDE is a joint effort of Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability. The nTIDE team tracks employment trends for people with and without disabilities, issuing monthly reports that reflect the impact of economic changes on the workforce. These reports use data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics but are customized by UNH-IOD to focus on working-age adults (ages 16 to 64). nTIDE is funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR; 90RTGE0005) and Kessler Foundation.

About the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire
The Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire, founded in 1987, seeks to expand access and opportunity for people with disabilities in ways that strengthen communities locally and nationally. As part of a Carnegie Classification R1 university, the IOD accelerates disability inclusion through research, education, and collaboration. Its Center for Research on Disability delivers trusted analysis and tools that make disability data more accessible and actionable. For more information, visit ResearchOnDisability.org. 

About Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation, founded in 1985, is a New Jersey-based nonprofit and global leader in rehabilitation research committed to changing the lives of people with disabilities. By conducting groundbreaking research, Kessler Foundation advances recovery and fosters independence to build a more inclusive and accessible world.

Our team of award-winning scientists develop and test novel interventions to transform care and optimize mobility, cognition, and quality of life for people with traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, autism, and other neurological and developmental disabilities. By analyzing community and workforce participation, developing evidence-based solutions, and funding impactful community initiatives that expand employment opportunities, Kessler Foundation also addresses barriers to inclusion for people with disabilities.

Powered by a dedicated team of over 175 professionals funded by federal and state grants and private philanthropy, Kessler Foundation is redefining what is possible in rehabilitation care and recovery. For more information, visit kesslerfoundation.org.

 

Ground-breaking study finds immigrants face a host of hurdles in the workforce

University of British Columbia

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From seasonal farmhands to health care workers to high-level software analysts, immigrant workers play a significant role in companies and industries across Canada and around the globe. 

But immigrants also face a host of hurdles as they try to translate their knowledge, skills and abilities in ways that employers recognize and value — and a ground-breaking review from the UBC Sauder School of Business examines that process, as well as how social networks and the length of time immigrants intend to stay affects their job prospects. Along the way, the team also developed cutting-edge machine learning models. 

When immigrants arrive on new shores, they must effectively present their knowledge, skills and abilities in a way that employers can understand and appreciate; employers, in turn, have to determine how credible and transferable their skills really are.  

But challenges on either side of that process can land immigrants in jobs they’re overqualified for, which in turn can lead to lower income, stunted careers and reduced wellbeing; at the same time, companies — and entire economies — risk missing out on valuable immigrant talent. 

When researchers Dr. Snehal Hora, Dr. Emily Campion, Dr. Sima Sajjadiani and Dr. Diana Lee decided to dive into the existing academic literature on the immigrant experience in workplaces, however, they were surprised to find just a handful of studies out of their home domain of management.  

However, academics from fields including sociology, anthropology and economics had examined the broader immigrant labour market, and the movement of populations, but immigrants’ everyday employment experiences had largely been invisible in the organizational psychology and management realm.  

For the paper, Dr. Sajjadiani helped to create a machine learning model to review more than 13,000 research papers — dating from 1888 to 2022 — on the subject of first-generation adult immigrants. “We used machine learning to identify the studies most relevant to our research, narrowing more than 13,000 papers to about 5,000,” says Dr. Sajjadiani, Assistant Professor at the UBC Sauder School of Business. “Then we used another type of machine learning to uncover the main themes across that body of work.” 

Of those, the researchers narrowed the search to papers that specifically involved immigrant employment experiences such as discrimination based on language proficiency, or navigating organizational constructs. They ended up with a final sample of 833 papers on 32 topics, from the challenges for immigrant nurses to discrimination in hiring to skill transferability.  

They found several key factors that make it difficult for immigrants to effectively translate their human capital in the host market. First, it’s the lack of recognition of degrees, certificates and licenses they obtained in their home country.  

“Some companies, especially those that aren't as globally represented, might not know how high quality a degree is from a certain university,” says Dr. Campion of the University of Iowa. “So immigrants face a kind of penalty from the recruiters not knowing how to understand or place or recognize their knowledge, skills and abilities.” 

What’s more, immigrants are often unfamiliar with employment norms in their host country, such as resumes that don’t include pictures or hobbies. As a result, their resume could confuse a recruiter.  

“We found that immigrants who took the time to reframe their human capital and revise their resumes to look like what one would expect in the host country were able to overcome some of those challenges and legitimize their human capital in the eyes of recruiters,” says Dr. Campion. “That then facilitated them finding employment — and critically, employment they were well qualified for, because underemployment and overqualification, two sides of the same coin, are a problem in highly skilled immigrant communities.” 

Dr. Snehal Hora of Drexel University adds that countries like Canada often don’t have the human capital they need, especially in key areas such as healthcare — but they do have options. “Our paper shows there are some relatively easy solutions,” says Dr. Hora, who is herself an immigrant. “If we give immigrants the tools to translate or present their human capital correctly and open the doors for certificates, we can benefit a lot from it in Canada.” 

Dr. Campion says one of the smartest things policymakers can do is create hypothetical “crosswalks” that allow immigrants to translate their skills and education in their host country; HR departments can also take steps to prevent losing out. 

“In your employment interviews and assessments, you want to really focus on the core skills needed, and ensure that applicants have the opportunity to communicate the skills they have that meet the job,” says Dr. Campion. “If you make assumptions in the screening process, you can end up screening out high-quality talent.” 

The researchers also found the social circles immigrants choose in their host countries play a role. They can often land jobs through their immigrant community, but they risk missing out on opportunities that come with developing relationships with people outside their social circles — especially if they plan on sticking around. 

“It becomes a trade-off: do you want a job quickly, or do you want a job that matches your skills? And do you want to earn a quick buck and go back, or do you want to settle here?” says Dr. Hora, who also wants immigrants to understand there’s a great deal they can do to control and improve their own paths. “The kinds of people you network and interact with govern the kinds of resources you're getting from them — and that helps you translate your skills.” 

That intention to stay can also evolve depending on what immigrants experience, adds Dr. Sajjadiani. “If we facilitate the translation of human capital, even those who didn’t intend to stay for long may want to stay and contribute,” she says. “And if someone wants to stay, but faces all these barriers, they may not see a path to contribute and decide to leave.” 

Societies have all the tools at their disposal to make clear paths for immigrant workers, say the researchers, but it comes down to motivation and resources from organizational and governmental leaders. Especially at a time when anti-immigrant rhetoric has gone mainstream in the United States and beyond, they warn that countries who alienate immigrant labour do so at their peril. 

“Immigrants represent such a formidable form of progress for any country. They bring novel human capital. They bring culture and connections to other countries. They create pathways we could never achieve otherwise,” says Dr. Campion.  

“We're seeing very real consequences of taking a hardline approach in the United States, and I believe it will only harm us in the long run if we don't re-recognize the crucial role that immigration plays,” she says. “The global competition for talent should benefit everyone.” 

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Journal

Applied Psychology

DOI

10.1037/apl0001343 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Translating human capital amid varying intentions to stay: An integrative conceptual review of the immigrant employment attainment process.

A biochar-based material offers a promising route for uranium recovery from seawater

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University

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Synergistic adsorptive reduction for enhanced U(VI) recovery from seawater via Fe3S4-decorated biochar nanosphere hybrids

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Credit: Shijing Zhang, Shuang-Shuang Liu, Daiming Liu, Geyi Xu, Mengting Huang, Yuhui Zeng & Si Luo

\Researchers have developed a new biochar-based composite that can capture uranium from water while also converting part of it into a less toxic chemical form, offering a potential strategy for recovering uranium from seawater and supporting future nuclear energy resources.

Uranium is a key fuel for nuclear power, but land-based uranium reserves are unevenly distributed and limited. Seawater contains an enormous amount of dissolved uranium, estimated to be roughly 1,000 times greater than the reserves found in terrestrial ores. However, extracting uranium from seawater remains difficult because uranium occurs at very low concentrations and must be selectively separated from many competing ions.

In a new study published in Biochar, researchers report the design of a novel material called BN-PDA@Fe3S4. The material combines biochar nanospheres, a polydopamine coating, and iron sulfide Fe3S4. Together, these components create a hybrid adsorbent that can bind uranium efficiently and promote its chemical reduction.

“Seawater uranium extraction is a long-standing challenge because the material must be efficient, selective, stable, and practical for recovery,” said corresponding author Si Luo. “Our study shows that a biochar nanosphere platform decorated with Fe3S4 can not only adsorb U(VI), but also help convert part of it into less toxic U(IV), which is important for both resource recovery and environmental safety.”

The team synthesized the composite through a two-step method. First, biochar nanospheres were functionalized with polydopamine, a mussel-inspired material rich in active groups that can interact with metal ions. Then, Fe3S4 was grown on the surface to introduce iron and sulfur sites with strong affinity for uranium.

Laboratory tests showed that the composite achieved a maximum U(VI) adsorption capacity of 203.4 mg g⁻¹ at pH 5 and 298 K. The adsorption process followed the Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model, indicating a monolayer chemisorption process. Thermodynamic analysis further showed that the adsorption was spontaneous and endothermic.

The material also performed well in more complex conditions. Tests with coexisting ions suggested that BN-PDA@Fe3S4 maintained strong uranium removal ability in the presence of several common ions, although carbonate and sulfate reduced performance by forming stable uranium complexes in solution. In natural seawater experiments, the composite reached a uranium extraction capacity of 4.5 mg g⁻¹ after 15 days.

A key finding of the study is the dual adsorption and reduction mechanism. Spectroscopic analyses showed that uranium was successfully immobilized on the composite surface. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that part of the captured U(VI) was converted to U(IV). The researchers attributed this reduction to Fe(II) and S(-II) species in Fe3S4, while amino groups from the polydopamine layer also contributed to uranium binding. Density functional theory calculations supported the strong interaction between uranium species and the Fe3S4 surface.

The composite also showed magnetic separability, which could simplify recovery after use, and antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. coli, suggesting potential resistance to biofouling in marine environments.

Although further optimization is needed to improve long-term cycling stability, the study presents a promising biochar-based platform for uranium recovery from seawater. By combining adsorption, reduction, magnetic recovery, and biofouling resistance, BN-PDA@Fe3S4 may provide a useful direction for future materials designed for sustainable nuclear fuel recovery and radionuclide pollution control.

 

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Journal Reference: Zhang, S., Liu, SS., Liu, D. et al. Synergistic adsorptive reduction for enhanced U(VI) recovery from seawater via Fe3S4-decorated biochar nanosphere hybrids. Biochar 8, 99 (2026).   

https://doi.org/10.1007/s42773-026-00605-z

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About Biochar

Biochar (e-ISSN: 2524-7867) is the first journal dedicated exclusively to biochar research, spanning agronomy, environmental science, and materials science. It publishes original studies on biochar production, processing, and applications—such as bioenergy, environmental remediation, soil enhancement, climate mitigation, water treatment, and sustainability analysis. The journal serves as an innovative and professional platform for global researchers to share advances in this rapidly expanding field. 

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Journal

Biochar

DOI

10.1007/s42773-026-00605-z 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Synergistic adsorptive reduction for enhanced U(VI) recovery from seawater via Fe3S4-decorated biochar nanosphere hybrids

Article Publication Date

8-May-2026

Iron minerals help decide whether dissolved organic matter becomes microbial food or long-term carbon

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University

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Iron oxide fractionation alters the biodegradability of dissolved organic matter: molecular dynamics and microbial interactions

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Credit: Yuzhen Liang, Tongxin Liu, Zishan Cen & Zhenqing Shi

Dissolved organic matter, a complex mixture of carbon-containing molecules found in soils, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and sediments, plays a central role in how carbon moves through the environment. It can feed microbes, bind pollutants, influence nutrient availability, and affect how much carbon is stored or released as carbon dioxide. Yet scientists are still working to understand why some dissolved organic matter is quickly consumed by microbes, while other portions persist much longer.

A new study published in Carbon Research offers fresh insight into this question by showing how iron oxide minerals can reshape dissolved organic matter before microbes begin to break it down. The research focuses on goethite, a common iron oxide mineral found in soils and aquatic environments, and reveals that mineral adsorption does not simply remove organic matter from water. Instead, it selectively sorts organic molecules, changing what remains available for microbial degradation.

“Our study shows that minerals and microbes should not be treated as separate controls on dissolved organic matter,” said the study’s corresponding authors. “Iron oxides can first filter the molecular composition of organic matter, and this filtering process then influences which microbes become active and how fast carbon is transformed.”

The researchers extracted dissolved organic matter from forest soil and exposed it to goethite under two pH conditions, 4.5 and 6.5. They then incubated the original and mineral-fractionated samples with native soil microbes for 63 days. To track what happened, the team combined ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, ultrahigh-resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing.

The results showed that goethite preferentially adsorbed aromatic, high-molecular-weight compounds, including lignin-like, tannin-like, and condensed aromatic molecules. These compounds are often more resistant to microbial degradation. In contrast, more biodegradable components, such as proteins, aliphatics, and some low-molecular-weight molecules, were enriched in the remaining solution. This effect was stronger at lower pH.

That mineral-driven sorting had major consequences for biodegradation. Dissolved organic matter fractionated at pH 6.5 showed the greatest overall degradation, with dissolved organic carbon loss reaching about 63.1 percent by Day 63. The pH 4.5 fractionated sample, however, degraded more rapidly at first, reaching about 52.4 percent loss by Day 49, before declining later as the easily degradable pool was depleted. The authors suggest that this later decline reflected microbial cell death and release of intracellular materials back into the solution.

The study also revealed a clear sequence in microbial feeding behavior. Microbial communities first consumed protein-like and lipid-like compounds, then shifted toward quinone-like molecules, and later made greater use of humic-like substances such as lignins. Different bacterial groups were linked to different types of organic matter. Gammaproteobacteria and Actinobacteria were mainly associated with degradation of labile protein-like and lipid-like fractions, while Alphaproteobacteria, Acidimicrobiia, Planctomycetes, and related groups became more important as humic-like compounds accumulated.

These findings are important because iron oxides are widespread in natural and engineered environments. By changing which organic molecules stay dissolved and which are removed, minerals may influence whether carbon is rapidly respired by microbes, transported through water, or stabilized for longer periods.

The study provides a more detailed molecular picture of how mineral surfaces and microbial communities work together to regulate carbon cycling. It may help improve predictions of carbon fate in iron-rich soils, wetlands, sediments, and water treatment systems, especially under changing pH conditions.

 

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Journal reference: Liang, Y., Liu, T., Cen, Z. et al. Iron oxide fractionation alters the biodegradability of dissolved organic matter: molecular dynamics and microbial interactions. Carbon Res. 5, 28 (2026).   

https://doi.org/10.1007/s44246-026-00272-6  

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About Carbon Research

The journal Carbon Research is an international multidisciplinary platform for communicating advances in fundamental and applied research on natural and engineered carbonaceous materials that are associated with ecological and environmental functions, energy generation, and global change. It is a fully Open Access (OA) journal and the Article Publishing Charges (APC) are waived until Dec 31, 2025. It is dedicated to serving as an innovative, efficient and professional platform for researchers in the field of carbon functions around the world to deliver findings from this rapidly expanding field of science. The journal is currently indexed by Scopus and Ei Compendex, and as of June 2025, the dynamic CiteScore value is 15.4.

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Journal

Carbon Research

DOI

10.1007/s44246-026-00272-6 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Iron oxide fractionation alters the biodegradability of dissolved organic matter: molecular dynamics and microbial interactions

Article Publication Date

1-May-2026

Lab-grown diamond device might change how we measure radiation doses

Compact, accurate dosimetry, from diagnosis to treatment

Tokyo Metropolitan University

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New diamond-based detector for dosimetry. The team’s heteroepitaxial diamond detector has vastly improved sensitivity per volume, promising compact and consistent dosimetry in a wide range of applications.

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Credit: Tokyo Metropolitan University

Tokyo, Japan – A team led by researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University, in collaboration with Tohoku University and Orbray Co., Ltd., using heteroepitaxial diamond materials developed by Orbray, have shown that lab-grown diamonds might realize a radiation dosimeter compatible with both medical diagnosis and radiation therapy. They demonstrated that a diamond-based dosimeter could accurately measure doses in the same energy range as diagnostic X-rays, with far better sensitivity per volume than conventional detectors. Using the same device for dosimetry during both diagnosis and therapies could enable improved consistency.

 

Accurate measurement of radiation dose is crucially important in clinical workplaces. The standard option for dosimetry (dose measurement) is the air-based ionization chamber, where radiation passing through a volume of air produces a measurable current. However, a major challenge lies in the range of doses that dosimeters need to handle. For example, diagnostic X-rays involve doses which are much lower than in radiation treatment. Air-based ionization chambers for the former might require a significant volume of air, making detectors cumbersome, with little scope for mapping out how dose changes depending on detector position. Practically, sensitivity is prohibitively low at very low dose levels.

Now, a team of researchers led by Professor Kiyomitsu Shinsho from Tokyo Metropolitan University have challenged this paradigm by using an entirely new material for their ionization chambers. Instead of air, they turned to diamonds grown in the lab using a method known as heteroepitaxy. They used cutting edge technology to lay down atoms layer by layer and grow lab-grown diamonds on an electrode. With this new detector, the team performed systematic experiments on how the diamond might be used as an ionization chamber at the kinds of doses seen in X-ray diagnosis. The chamber, measuring 4 by 4 by 0.5 mm, has a volume around 1250 times smaller than typical air ionization chambers, but a sensitivity per volume which was 13,500 times higher when a relatively low voltage of -100V was put across it. They demonstrated excellent linearity of response with dosage, with very little dependence on the energy of the X-rays. Crucially, its success at the low energies used in diagnostic devices suggests that it might easily deal with the higher doses seen in therapies: this paves the way for the development of a dosimeter that can be used in both diagnosis and radiation therapies. Diamond is also made of carbon, making it an excellent analogue for human tissue.

This is a big step forward for dosimetry for many reasons. The compactness of the device makes it applicable virtually anywhere, from personal dosimetry, real-time measurements during treatments to environmental monitoring. It is compact enough to produce an array, like the sensor array on a camera, which could map the change in dose over some area. Sensitivity to low doses could also revolutionize our understanding of the effects of low radiation exposure on the human body, a crucial component of radiological research. Most importantly, it opens the door to achieving sorely needed consistency to measurements of radiation dose. The potential use of the same device in entirely different contexts would make dose comparisons scientifically sound and fair. The team’s success promises a big leap forward for both medical workplaces and our understanding of radiation in the environment.

This work was supported by a joint research fund, Grant/Award Number GG5-1170, by Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tohoku University, and Orbray Co., Ltd.

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Journal

Medical Physics

DOI

10.1002/mp.70363 

Article Title

First evaluation of a heteroepitaxial diamond ionization chamber operating at low voltage for diagnostic X-ray dosimetry