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Conversations with family, friends are critical to estate planningListen, I was part of the camp that wanted Drake Maye to wait it out for 6-8 weeks and then get the nod. Well, he’s proven to be more ready than I thought and I’m glad he got his chance earlier in the season than I predicted. In the game against Miami, he again showed flashes but there are still teething problems. Maye may have a fumbling problem. He coughed up the ball in two consecutive weeks and this was his fifth fumble of the season. The good news is that it should be coachable and easy to fix. Young quarterbacks in the league at times still think they’re playing a college defense so they hold the ball that extra second or two longer, but in the NFL that’s just another second the defense can get to the ball. Maye also tends to hold the ball away from his body when he’s under pressure. I understand why he does it because he’s looking to still make a play, but something he’ll need to learn, sometimes it’s best to just take the sack and punt the ball away. Postgame Maye spoke about being loose with the football. “The fumble – just find a way to protect the football and go down, or find a way to get it out. I think I maybe could have spun out of it – reversed out of it and escaped it... don’t want to swim move the guy with a football. That’s just bad,” he said. In addition to the turnovers, Maye didn’t get much help from his offensive line. I knew it was going to be a difficult year with this offensive line especially, without David Andrews, but Sunday was just really bad. Five pre-snap offensive penalties dug Maye and the rest of the offense into a bigger hole. Vederian Lowe accounted for three false starts, Demontrey Jacobs accounted for one false start, and Austin Hooper accounted for an offensive offsides. What’s frustrating is Lowe looked like a serviceable left tackle this season, so to have this bad of a game is concerning. It’s only November so I won’t be writing my column about potential offensive line draft prospects just yet, but best believe it’s in the drafts waiting. The other surprising takeaway from this game was how bad our defense looks. Against the Rams, Sean McVay had the perfect gameplan of having his two best receivers lineup or motion away from Christian Gonzalez and our other corners couldn’t stop them. Against Miami, Gonzalez held his own, but every other corner and safety got torched. Jaylen Waddle has had a down year until Sunday. Waddle posted eight catches for 144 yards and a touchdown. The receptions and yards were all season-highs for him. I get it, Bill Belichick isn’t in charge anymore so the defense, which was top 10 last year, was bound to take a hit, but I wasn’t expecting the hit to sink the ship. Injuries and suspensions have played a toll, but to give up 24 points in the second quarter alone is unacceptable. Hopefully being back at Gillette Stadium against the Indianapolis Colts, the Patriots will take a step in the right direction and not haunt themselves.
New shape-changing polymer developed December 6, 2024 Ohio State University A team of scientists has created a new shape-changing polymer that could transform how future soft materials are constructed. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIN Email A team of scientists has created a new shape-changing polymer that could transform how future soft materials are constructed. Made using a material called a liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE), a soft rubber-like material that can be stimulated by external forces like light or heat, the polymer is so versatile that it can move in several directions. Its behavior, which resembles the movements of animals in nature, includes being able to twist, tilt left and right, shrink and expand, said Xiaoguang Wang, co-author of the study and an assistant professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering at The Ohio State University. "Liquid crystals are materials that have very unique characteristics and properties that other materials cannot normally achieve," said Wang. "They're fascinating to work with." This new polymer's ability to change shapes could make it useful for creating soft robots or artificial muscles, among other high-tech devices in medicine and other fields. Today, liquid crystals are most often used in TVs and cell phone displays, but these materials often degrade over time. But with the expansion of LEDs, many researchers are focused on developing new applications for liquid crystals. Unlike conventional materials that can only bend in one direction or require multiple components to create intricate shapes, this team's polymer is a single component that can twist in two directions. This property is tied to how the material is exposed to temperature changes to control the molecular phases of the polymer, said Wang. "Liquid crystals have orientational order, meaning they can self-align," he said. "When we heat the LCE, they transition into different phases causing a shift in their structure and properties." This means that molecules, tiny building blocks of matter, that were once fixed in place can be directed to rearrange in ways that allow for greater flexibility. This aspect may also make the material easier to manufacture, said Wang. The study was recently published in the journal Science . If scaled up, the polymer in this study could potentially advance several scientific fields and technologies, including controlled drug delivery systems, biosensor devices and as an aid in complex locomotion maneuvers for next-generation soft robots. One of the study's most important findings reveals the three phases that the material goes through as its temperature changes, said Alan Weible, co-author of the study and a graduate fellow in chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State. Throughout these phases, molecules shift and self-assemble into different configurations. "These phases are one of the key factors we optimized to allow the material ambidirectional shape deformability," he said. In terms of size, the study further suggests that the material can be scaled up or down to adapt to nearly any need. "Our paper opens a new direction for people to start synthesizing other multiphase materials," said Wang. Researchers note that with future computational advances, their polymer could eventually be a useful tool for dealing with delicate situations, like those that require the precise design of artificial muscles and joints or upgrading soft nanorobots needed for complex surgeries. "In the next few years, we plan to develop new applications and hopefully break into the biomedical field," said Weible. "There's a lot more we can explore based on these results." This work was supported by the Department of Energy and the Harvard University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. Other co-authors include Yuxing Yao, Shucong Li, Atalaya Milan Wilborn, Friedrich Stricker, Joanna Aizenberg, Baptiste Lemaire, Robert K. A. Bennett, Tung Chun Cheung and Alison Grinthal from Harvard University; Foteini Trigka and Michael M. Lerch from the University of Groningen; Guillaume Freychet, Mikhail Zhernenkov and Patryk Wasik from Brookhaven National Laboratory; and Boris Kozinsky from Bosch Research. Story Source: Materials provided by Ohio State University . Original written by Tatyana Woodall. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Journal Reference : Cite This Page :
By Sheila Dang and Chibuike Oguh NEW YORK (Reuters) -TikTok advertisers were in no rush to shift their marketing budgets after a U.S. appeals court upheld a law on Friday requiring a divestment or ban of the popular Chinese-owned short video app, citing TikTok’s continued survival despite years of threats. Chinese tech firm ByteDance must sell TikTok’s U.S. assets by Jan. 19 or the app that is used by 170 million Americans will face an unprecedented ban that jeopardizes billions in ad revenue. TikTok and ByteDance had argued that the law is unconstitutional and violates Americans’ free speech rights. The ruling is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. With TikTok’s future in the U.S. uncertain, advertising executives said brands are maintaining their activities on the app, while ensuring they have a plan B. “Advertisers have not pulled back from TikTok, though several are developing contingency plans for potential reallocation of investment should there be a ban,” said Jason Lee, executive vice president of brand safety at media agency Horizon Media. Horizon is working with clients to prepare for a variety of scenarios if the app is sold or banned, Lee said. Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook and Instagram, stands to gain the majority of TikTok’s ad revenue if the app is banned, followed by Alphabet’s YouTube, said Erik Huberman, CEO of marketing agency Hawke Media. Both companies have introduced short-form video features in the past few years to compete with TikTok. Still, “there’s no decision to make until there’s a decision to make,” he said. TikTok’s U.S. ad revenue is expected to reach $12.3 billion this year, according to estimates from research Emarketer. By comparison, analysts on average expect Meta Platforms’ advertising revenue in 2024 to reach about $159 billion, according to LSEG data. The potential boon for rivals propelled stocks on Friday. Meta Platforms shares rose to an all-time record high of $629.78 earlier on Friday, and were up 2.3% at $622.85 in late afternoon regular trading. Alphabet shares were up 1.1% at $176.21. Trump Media & Technology, which operates the Truth Social app and is majority-owned by President-elect Donald Trump, rose 3% to $34.78. Shares of Snap, owner of messaging app Snapchat, rose 1.89% to $12.40. (Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York and Sheila Dang in Austin; Editing by Bill Berkrot) Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content. var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.removeEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);lazyloadmyframes();};document.addEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);window.addEventListener('scroll', function() {if (ytflag == 0) {lazyloadmyframes();ytflag = 1;}});function lazyloadmyframes() {var ytv = document.getElementsByClassName("klazyiframe");for (var i = 0; i < ytv.length; i++) {ytv[i].src = ytv[i].getAttribute('data-src');}} Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );