A multi-institutional research team led by Osaka University has introduced a piezoelectric device that can measure acceleration and pressure simultaneously. The device can be manufactured at room temperature and is made from inexpensive materials, which makes it a promising candidate for a wide range of applications, including the maintenance of industrial machinery and disaster mitigation.

This study reveals that traditional biomass assessments in the Miombo ecoregion of Sub-Saharan Africa often overlook the significant contribution of understorey trees and shrubs. By comparing sites at the extreme ends of the rainfall gradient, dry Miombo woodland in Namibia and wet Miombo woodland in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), researchers found that understorey biomass accounts for up to 28.2% of total above-ground biomass (AGB) in drier regions, highlighting the need for more comprehensive forest carbon assessments.

Research team led by Limin Xiao revolutionizes metadata management in distributed file systems with a novel consistency framework that reduces synchronization delay and enhances scalability, outperforming existing methods in global virtual data space file systems.

New EU laws now require risk management and compliance with ethical standards when using artificial intelligence (AI) is used. Validaitor, a start-up company spun off from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), assists organizations and businesses in implementing the rules. KIT has now decided to take a stake in the company.