https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from University of Electro-Communications In a typical online meeting, humans don't always wait politely for their turn to speak. They interrupt to express strong agreement, stay silent when they are unsure, and let their personalities shape the flow of the discussion. Yet, when artificial intelligence (AI) agents are programmed to debate or collaborate, they are usually forced into a rigid, round-robin structure that stifles this natural dynamic. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-ai-agents-debate-effectively-personalities.html Hi Tech & Innovation Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:20:02 EST news689519162 Researchers have discovered how bacteria break through spaces barely larger than themselves, by wrapping their flagella around their bodies and moving forward. Using a microfluidic device that mimics insect gut channels, the team revealed a remarkable "flagellar wrapping" motion that lets symbiotic bacteria pass through 1-micrometer-wide tunnels. Genetic manipulation and mathematical calculation showed that the flexibility of a tiny joint in the flagellum, called the hook, is crucial for this screw-like movement and even determines whether the bacteria can successfully infect their insect hosts. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-bacteria-flagella-tunnel-microscopic-passages.html Cell & Microbiology Sun, 25 Jan 2026 12:30:01 EST news688303630 What connection could possibly exist between the stripes on tropical fish and crystal growth? The answer is the way in which order emerges from randomness through Turing patterns, according to what a research team led by Dr. Fuseya of the University of Electro-Communications, Japan, has recently found. After analyzing a mysterious striped pattern, they observed while trying to grow a monoatomic layer of bismuth, they showed that Turing patterns also exist at the nanoscale. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-scientists-turing-patterns-manifest-nanoscale.html Nanophysics Thu, 08 Jul 2021 11:00:11 EDT news544956386 It is widely accepted that there is a sex-dependent difference in physical performance. Specifically, it has been shown that females show superior fatigue resistance compared to males. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-vivo-bioimaging-elucidate-sex-dependent-differences.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 11 Mar 2020 10:50:01 EDT news503141530 Near-infrared spectroscopy provides absorption spectrum unique to substances so that discrimination of gas species becomes possible. Miniaturization of spectrometers is thus required to realize compact gas sensors for monitoring air quality in living spaces. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-mems-technology-fabricating-plasmonic-near-infrared.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 11 Mar 2020 10:39:47 EDT news503141985 To supply high-quality products to the market, visual inspection by human senses is conducted in many manufacturing industries. It is generally recommended that visual inspection for a high-quality product be performed in a clean room. https://techxplore.com/news/2019-12-effect-dirty-surfaces-accuracy-visual.html Engineering Mon, 16 Dec 2019 09:43:37 EST news495711814 Fiber-optic strain sensing is known for its ability to monitor large areas. However, most types of fiber-optic strain sensors require spectrum analysis instruments, which drastically increases the overall cost of sensor systems. In contrast, fiber-optic strain sensors such as Bragg-grating or Brillouin optical time domain reflectometers, have reliable structures that are commercially available. However, they are not widely used to support workers in high-risk construction sites. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-polymer-based-optical-fiber-visualization-material.html Polymers Mon, 16 Dec 2019 09:25:22 EST news495710720 Professor Kaoru Minoshima from the University of Electro-Communications and NEOARK Corporation have succeeded in prototyping a greatly improved magneto-optic effect measurement device as part of the ERATO MINOSHIMIA Intelligent Optical Synthesizer Project, under the JST Strategic Basic Research Programs. An exhibition of the prototype device is planned for the Science Photonics Fair 2019 being held at the Science Museum from November 12 to 14, 2019. https://phys.org/news/2019-11-magneto-optic-effect-device-dual-comb-spectroscopy.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 19 Nov 2019 08:55:20 EST news493376115 Snake-like articulated mobile robots can enter narrow spaces and climb obstacles using their long and thin bodies, and are effective for inspection of narrow spaces and search-and-rescue operation on disaster sites. However, it is difficult to control their precise movements because they have so many actuators. https://techxplore.com/news/2019-09-snake-like-robots-high-mobility-dexterity.html Robotics Wed, 11 Sep 2019 08:10:39 EDT news487408227 Biopharmaceutics consisting of middle molecules, for example, peptide or nucleic-acid aptamers, have been attracting attention as promising molecular modalities in current drug discovery. https://phys.org/news/2019-09-efficient-semisynthesis-biopharmaceutic-fc-conjugates.html Biochemistry Wed, 11 Sep 2019 08:04:57 EDT news487407892 Control of atomic-scale friction and adhesion is critical for effective manipulation of the motion of nano- or micro-meter scale objects at interfaces. For example, in nanotechnology controlling adhesion during the peeling process of graphene sheets plays a very important role in manipulation and fabrication. Graphene is a promising material due to its mechanical, electronic, magnetic, spintronic, and optical properties. In previous work, a comparison between simulation and experiment of peeling graphene has revealed its unique frictional and adhesive properties. https://phys.org/news/2019-09-time-saving-simulation-graphene-sheets.html Nanophysics Wed, 11 Sep 2019 08:02:00 EDT news487407713 There is increasing interest in technology for non-contact measurement of human vital signs (heart rate, respiration, and body temperature), which are important for understanding the state of a person's health. New biological measurement sensors have been developed as well as reports on methods for measuring respiration or heartbeat using pressure sensors, microwave radar, RGB camera, and thermography. This technology has wide-ranging applications. Guanghao Sun's group is developing clinical applications for monitoring elderly people, identification of sleep apnea, detection of patients who may carry infectious diseases, and noncontact measurement of stress levels. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-06-multiple-sensor-fusion-technology-non-contact.html Medical research Wed, 12 Jun 2019 08:50:32 EDT news479548226 Biomass materials such as wood are environmentally-friendly alternatives to fossil resources. As an example, wood is typically non-toxic and carbon neutral. Furthermore, wood can be produced in a sustainable manner by appropriate planting and trimming of trees. Therefore, the use of wood resources as industrial materials is an important aspect for realizing a sustainable society. https://phys.org/news/2019-06-injection-molding-wood-powder-sustainable-fabrication.html Engineering Wed, 12 Jun 2019 08:50:08 EDT news479548202 Energy saving is important to reduce transportation costs of vehicles as well as their impact on the environment. In this context, because skin-friction drag increases significantly in turbulent flow, it is important to study flow control techniques for turbulent flow. https://phys.org/news/2019-03-reduction-relaminarization-wall-turbulence.html Soft Matter Fri, 15 Mar 2019 10:00:13 EDT news471860564 Over the past few decades, many studies conducted in the field of learning science have reported that scaffolding plays an important role in human learning. To scaffold a learner efficiently, a teacher should predict how much support a learner must have to complete tasks and then decide the optimal degree of assistance to support the learner's development. Nevertheless, it is difficult to ascertain the optimal degree of assistance for learner development. https://phys.org/news/2019-03-big-based-machine.html Computer Sciences Fri, 15 Mar 2019 10:00:10 EDT news471860548 Researchers at the University of Electro-communications, Tokyo report a single-site catalytic platform with high selectivity for the single-step synthesis of phenol in a paper appeared in ACS catalysis. https://phys.org/news/2019-03-catalytic-synthesis-phenol.html Materials Science Fri, 15 Mar 2019 08:59:47 EDT news471859180 There is an increasing demand for distributing large amounts of digital information to vehicles on the move. However, the current widely used cellular networks are not sufficient due to limited bandwidth in dense vehicle environments. Recently, vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have attracted great interest for improving communications between vehicles using infrastructure-less wireless technologies. IEEE 802.11p is the default standard for providing vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications in VANETs. https://phys.org/news/2018-06-intelligence-inspired-clustering-multi-access-vehicular-networks.html Computer Sciences Thu, 28 Jun 2018 07:50:03 EDT news449389395 CsSnI3 is a prototype inorganic halide perovskite that has recently been proposed as a strong candidate for photovoltaic applications because of its unique properties as a semiconductor. https://phys.org/news/2018-06-phase-stable-inorganic-halide-perovskite.html Materials Science Thu, 28 Jun 2018 07:40:02 EDT news449389380 Neurosurgeons conduct vascular recanalization for treatment of cerebrovascular diseases. Successful surgery necessitates surgery the minimization of flow disturbances due to blood during surgical intervention. However, monitoring the flow of blood under surgery is difficult due to a lack of imaging tools for visualizing microcirculation in the brain. https://phys.org/news/2018-06-technology-visualizing-blood-aid-neurosurgery.html Engineering Thu, 28 Jun 2018 07:30:01 EDT news449389347 Photons are considered to be ideal information carriers and expected to play important roles in quantum communication and information processing, where quantum mechanics allows for absolutely secure cryptographic key distribution as well as computation much faster than conventional computers. In order to take full advantage of quantum information carried by photons, it is important to make them directly interact with each other for information processing. https://phys.org/news/2018-06-photons-photon.html Quantum Physics Thu, 28 Jun 2018 07:22:55 EDT news449389369 It is known that an electron hole moves through double helical DNA and induces oxidative damage at guanine sites. To date, this process has only been investigated in aqueous dilute solutions. https://phys.org/news/2018-04-electron-oxidative-dna-biomimetic-crowding.html Materials Science Mon, 09 Apr 2018 06:55:05 EDT news442475696 Researchers say that artificial intelligence (AI) is now superior to human intelligence in supervised learning using vast amounts of labeled data to perform specific tasks. However, it is considered difficult to realize human-like intelligence using only supervised learning because all supervised labels cannot be obtained for all the sensory information required by robots. https://phys.org/news/2018-04-robots-humans.html Robotics Mon, 09 Apr 2018 06:54:22 EDT news442475654 Aurora light emission appears at high altitudes in the range 100-300 km in the polar atmosphere. Auroras are caused by energetic particles precipitating from space near the Earth.Auroral particle precipitation can induce many kinds of effects in the Earth's atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2018-04-global-sodium-variation-revealed-satellite.html Space Exploration Mon, 09 Apr 2018 06:53:37 EDT news442475609 Social media is expected to be a good source of data for analyzing human behavior and statuses of locations. It is possible to provide location-based information simply by geospatially filtering archived data. https://phys.org/news/2017-12-visualization-twitter-spatial.html Computer Sciences Thu, 28 Dec 2017 06:40:01 EST news433665356 Highly efficient high power short pulse lasers at the wavelength range of 2 µm based on Tm3+ doped materials have a variety of applications such as material processing, LiDAR, mid-infrared OPOs for wavelengths up to 12 μm, or mid-infrared supercontinuum generation. They also would enable direct coherent soft X-ray generation by high order harmonics generation. https://phys.org/news/2017-12-highly-efficient-high-power-short-pulse-lasers.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 28 Dec 2017 06:36:58 EST news433665406 The self-organizing nature of ad hoc networks generally has an advantage that the networks are free from fixed infrastructures such as APs (Access points). However, this also has a disadvantage that the networks are unstable and unreliable compared with wired and fixed communication. https://phys.org/news/2017-12-hierarchical-opportunistic-routing-moderate-clustering.html Telecom Thu, 28 Dec 2017 06:35:48 EST news433665338 Musical scores for piano usually have a large number of notes and instructions, such as marks indicating expression, articulation, and accidentals. When pianists sight-read sheet music, they must decode such information instantly and transform it into finger actions and movement. However, it is still not clear how pianists are able to achieve such fast decoding. https://phys.org/news/2017-12-efficiently-piano-musical-scores-geometrical.html Computer Sciences Thu, 28 Dec 2017 06:26:48 EST news433664797 Controlling and manipulating the interaction of light with nanostructures offers the promise of new and innovative technological applications ranging from nanolasers and sensors to quantum computing. However, in spite of tremendous advances in nanotechnology that has enabled the fabrication of one and two dimensional structures (such as photonic crystal cavities), efficiently integrating nanocrystal cavities with modern optical fibers in communications networks is proving to be difficult. https://phys.org/news/2017-09-nanocavities-optical-fibers-femtosecond-laser.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 27 Sep 2017 06:20:01 EDT news425711908 Optical sensors operating in the near infrared (NIR) are important for applications in imaging, photodetectors, and biological sensors. Notably, recent reports on the synthesis of high quality, large areas of graphene has motivated researchers to search for other 2-D materials with properties suitable for NIR devices. https://phys.org/news/2017-09-advanced-molybdenum-selenide-infrared-phototransistors.html Electronics & Semiconductors Wed, 27 Sep 2017 06:18:27 EDT news425711900 Polycrystalline ceramic materials offer advantages including robustness over conventional glass as gain media for solid state lasers: devices that find many applications such as laser processing and medical surgery. https://phys.org/news/2017-09-solid-state-fluoride-ceramic-lasers.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 27 Sep 2017 06:17:22 EDT news425711832