Every year, millions of newborns — especially those born premature, underweight or sick — are at risk of neonatal hypoglycemia, a dangerous drop in blood sugar that can lead to seizures, brain injury and lifelong developmental challenges if not detected quickly. Early testing and treatment are essential, but many hospitals around the world lack access to reliable devices designed specifically for newborns. A new study led by researchers at Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, in collaboration with global clinical partners, offers a promising path forward. Published in BMC Pediatrics, the research systematically evaluated the accuracy and reliability of 11 commonly available point-of-care glucometers — small handheld devices widely used at home to monitor diabetes in adults — to determine which could safely be adapted for neonatal care in resource-constrained settings.

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed AI-powered headphones that automatically isolate conversation partners in a noisy soundscape. The system employs AI models that listen for the back-and-forth pattern of conversation and mute voices that aren’t following the established rhythm.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Spacecraft Engineering Department recently developed the Transmit/Receive Enterprise (TREx) service with sponsorship from the Space Development Agency, Space Rapid Capabilities Office, and Space Systems Command to provide software development and mission operations for sponsoring organizations across the space community.

With natural disasters striking communities across the U.S. at an accelerating pace, the question of how to build homes that can endure them has never been more critical. New research spanning political science and civil engineering shows that the answer could lie at the intersection of smarter regulatory systems and stronger structures. University of Notre Dame political scientist Susan Ostermann and her team have identified the building code features that have the biggest impact on hazard resilience and translated those features into tangible, practical building solutions.

Conventional telescopes are limited in detecting low-surface-brightness (LSB) structures, which are essential for studying galaxy evolution. Now, researchers have developed a new telescope system featuring a confocal off-axis design with three freeform mirrors, optimized for deep LSB imaging. This system enables astronomers to observe faint galactic features more clearly, revealing how galaxies evolve over time.

 

As long as humans write software by hand, errors will remain inevitable. “Automatically synthesizing systems that are correct by design is considered the Holy Grail of software engineering,” says CISPA-Faculty Rayna Dimitrova. While it is already possible to automatically and correctly generate simple programs, suitable techniques for complex software systems are still lacking. With a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) worth approximately two million euros, Dimitrova aims to change that. In her SyReP project, she is developing new synthesis methods for so-called reactive software systems—systems that continuously interact with their environment and must make sophisticated decisions on the fly.