Technology

Multi-domain operations, the Army’s future operating concept, requires autonomous agents with learning components to operate alongside the warfighter. New research reduces the unpredictability of current training reinforcement learning policies so that they are more practically applicable to physical systems, especially ground robots.

A team of New Jersey researchers has shown that gait training using robotic exoskeletons improved motor function in adolescents and young adults with acquired brain injury.

Improved radiotherapy techniques and technologies allow an increasing number of children diagnosed with cancer to survive long into adulthood. Unfortunately, the very treatments that save their lives are associated with several severe, life-threatening, or even fatal chronic health conditions.
For example, children who received radiation therapy are at a heightened risk of developing heart disease later in life. Further improving radiation treatments to minimize this risk requires a deep understanding of the relationship between radiation exposure and heart disease that is currently lacking. A multi-institutional team of researchers in the US has enhanced a critical computational tool to enable new insights into this relationship.

A low-cost, portable brain MRI scanner could expand access to MR neuroimaging, as well as enabling point-of-care diagnostics for neurological emergencies. With this aim, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School are developing a portable scanner based on a compact, lightweight permanent magnet.

Researchers have developed an assay that can detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in a nasal swab using a device attached to an ordinary smartphone, they report December 4 in the journal Cell. Although more research is needed before such a test can be rolled out, the results are promising and ultimately may be applicable to screening more broadly for other viruses.