Science
press releases.

Science7 Jul 2023

Privacy-preserving collaborative data collection and analysis with many missing values

To control pandemics like the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), data such as the age, gender, family composition, and medical history of infected individuals are required. While patients themselves may provide this information to medical institutions, these details are highly confidential. If the data is properly handled for privacy protection, it can be shared with researchers worldwide without identifying the infected individual, which can help clarify the state of the pandemic and more accurately predict its progression. There ...

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Science7 Jul 2023

Hexagonal MBene: A promising platform for the electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction

They published their work on July. 6 in Energy Material Advances. "In 2017, we reported a new family of 2D transition metal borides as analogues to MXenes and coined a catchy name for them, MBenes," said paper author Zhimei Sun, professor of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Beihang University. "Up till now, MBenes have been widely studied as catalysts or substrates of various reactions, including HER, ORR/OER, NRR and CO2RR. Notably, the exploration of electrocatalytic performance for MBenes mainly focuses on those with orthorhombic structures, while there are few studies on applying ...

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Science7 Jul 2023

Spider mite males undress maturing females to win the first mating

In males of many species, it pays to identify females that are nearing maturity to be the first in line for mating. Now researchers reporting in the journal iScience on July 7 have found a remarkable example: male spider mites guard and then actively strip off the skin of premature females that are soon to molt and mature to make them accessible for mating sooner. “Our study documents an exceptional male behavior in the animal kingdom, namely that male spider mites strip off the skin of premature females that are close to molting into adulthood,” said Peter Schausberger ...

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Science7 Jul 2023

A multi-model prediction system for ENSO

A multi-model ensemble (MME) prediction system has been recently developed by a team led by Dr. Dake Chen. This prediction system consists of 5 dynamical coupled models with various complexities, parameterizations, resolutions, initializations, and ensemble strategies, to address various possible uncertainties of ENSO prediction. One long term over past 100 year (1880-2017) ensemble hindcast demonstrated the superiority of the MME over individual models, evaluated by both deterministic and probabilistic skills, and suffered less from ...

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Science7 Jul 2023

More extreme-heat occurrences related to humidity in China

One of the main risks posed by climate change is exceeding the thermal limits of the human body. In hot environments, evaporation is considered to be the primary means by which human bodies cool down. However, atmospheric humidity is a crucial factor affecting the efficiency of evaporation, making the combination of hot and humid conditions more physiologically stressful than extreme dry-temperature conditions. Besides the human health impacts, the occurrence of extreme-heat events also has severe socioeconomic impacts. For example, the record-breaking ...

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Science7 Jul 2023

Molecular mechanism of BraRGL1 regulating bolting and flowering in Brassica rapa

In June 2023, Prof. Riyuan Chen's team of South China Agricultural University online published a research article entitled Role of BraRGL1 in regulation of Brassica rapa bolting and flowering in the well-reputed journal Horticulture Research (Advance Access). In this study, the authors performed highly efficient and inheritable mutagenesis using the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system in BraPDS (phytoene desaturase) and BraRGL1 (key DELLA protein) genes. The flower bud differentiation and bolting time ...

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Science7 Jul 2023

Nucleo-cytoplasmic interaction in seedless cybrid citrus

The mitochondrial genome of cybrid citrus (G1 + HBP) is from the CMS callus parent ‘Guoqing No. 1’ Satsuma mandarin (G1), while the nuclear and chloroplast genomes of G1 + HBP are from the fertile mesophyll parent Hirado Buntan pummelo (HBP). The tree of G1+HBP resembles HBP, as well as fruit appearance and flavor, while G1+HBP showed typical male sterility including degenerated petals and stamens and aborted pollen which resulted in seedless fruit. The interaction of mitochondrion from CMS parent G1and nucleus from HBP might attribute to male sterility of G1+HBP. The male sterility candidate genes of the cybrid were identified using comparation analysis of ...

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Science7 Jul 2023

Board games are boosting math ability in young children

Board games based on numbers, like Monopoly, Othello and Chutes and Ladders, make young children better at math, according to a comprehensive review of research published on the topic over the last 23 years. Board games are already known to enhance learning and development including reading and literacy. Now this new study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Early Years, finds, for three to nine-year-olds, the format of number-based board games helps to improve counting, addition, and the ability to recognize if a number is higher or lower than another. The researchers say children benefit from ...

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Science7 Jul 2023

It worked in the Caribbean – What about here?

While there is extensive data on the high rates of HIV, STIs and unintended pregnancies among Black populations in the U.S., this racial category problematically subsumes the ethnic diversity of immigrant Black populations. Today, one in ten Black people in the U.S. are immigrants, with Caribbean immigrants accounting for approximately 46% of the total Black immigrant population. It can’t be assumed that the variety of effective behavioral interventions (EBIs) that exist to address sexual and reproductive health for Black populations will be effective with Afro-Caribbean ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Reduced levels of FKBP5 promote atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is the most common type of heart arrhythmia. This serious condition occurs when the heart beats so fast that the upper chambers of the heart quiver. This irregular heartbeat can lead to severe conditions, including heart failure, dementia and a fivefold increase in the risk of stroke. AFib affects more than 33.5 million people worldwide, and its prevalence is increasing. Despite intense research to better understand AFib, the molecular mechanism underlying the progression of this condition remains poorly understood. At Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Food labels offer consumer choices but also confusion about animal welfare

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Animal-based food products often come packaged in a wide array of information labels, including organic, natural, grass-fed, humanely raised and pasture-raised. “There’s some confusion about food labels related to animal welfare,” said Purdue University’s Marisa Erasmus, associate professor of animal sciences and a specialist in animal behavior and welfare. “It’s typically up to the consumer to do their homework and figure out what these different claims mean. Labels do provide consumers with a choice because, in theory, you can ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

THC use during pregnancy linked to changes in fetal development

Oregon Health & Science University researchers showed that consuming THC while pregnant could potentially affect development of the fetus and lead to life-long health impacts for offspring. The preclinical study was published today in the journal Clinical Epigenetics. Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, a substance growing in popularity and availability in the United States. The prevalence of cannabis use in pregnancy is also rapidly increasing, especially during the first trimester — a time when the fetus is most vulnerable to environmental exposures — ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Fantasy football in math class?

While mathematics is a fundamental skill crucial to daily life, U.S. parents today see math education as boring, outdated, and disconnected from the real world. (1) At the national level, short and long-term achievement trends paint a disconcerting picture of the need for innovative math education strategies: Math scores among eighth graders dropped in 2022, to the lowest score since 20031 Math scores declined for students regardless of racial and ethnic group, gender, parental education, or disability status1 The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated declines in math achievement; the median school district lost about ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Study supports “catch up” HPV test in older women

For women over the age of 65 who have never had a high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) test, a “catch up” HPV screening intervention may improve cervical cancer prevention by detecting more cervical pre-cancer lesions as compared to women not offered screening. That is the conclusion of a new study publishing July 6th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Mette Tranberg, University Research Clinic for Cancer Screening, Randers Regional Hospital, Denmark, and colleagues. High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) test is replacing cytology as the primary cervical cancer screening test in most countries, but many women over 65 years have never had an HPV ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

The solstice switch: Warming’s effects on autumn leaf senescence depend on timing

How temperate and boreal trees’ leaves respond to climate change remains uncertain. Now, a new study of northern forests reports that while early-season climate warming – that occurring before the summer solstice – tends to be associated with earlier autumn leaf senescence, late-season warming (after the summer solstice) has the opposite impact, delaying onset of leaf senescence in fall. “Improved models of plant development and growth under climate change will need to incorporate the reversal of warming effects after the summer solstice,” write Constantin Zohner and colleagues, authors of the study. Climate change ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Policymakers should consider animal welfare in decisions

Incorporating animal welfare into policymaking may improve policy and practice, according to Rutgers research. The article, published in Science, notes that animal welfare rarely is considered during policymaking, explains why current tools make it difficult to incorporate the well-being of animals into public policy and identifies methods for remedying these issues. “Animal welfare is often ignored in policymaking, despite its relevance across many domains ranging from food systems to biomedical research to climate policy,” said Mark ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Why you won’t see kangaroos in Java but you will find goannas in Australia

Ask anyone what first springs to mind when they think of Australia and they’ll most likely say a kangaroo; the marsupial is ingrained in our national identity. But have you ever wondered why kangaroos never ventured beyond our shores? A major study led by biologists at The Australian National University (ANU) and ETH Zurich in Switzerland provides a new explanation for why you won’t find kangaroos, koalas and other Aussie marsupials in Indonesia, but you will find many groups of animals that originated in Asia, such as goannas, ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

New design rule for high-entropy superionic solid-state conductors

Solid electrolytes with high lithium-ion conductivity can be designed for millimeter-thick battery electrodes by increasing the complexity of their composite superionic crystals, report researchers from Tokyo Tech. This new design rule enables the synthesis of high-entropy active materials while preserving their superionic conduction. As the world transitions towards a greener and more sustainable energy economy, reliance on lithium (Li)-ion batteries is expected to rise. Scientists from across the globe are working towards designing smaller yet efficient batteries that can keep up with the ever-increasing demand for energy ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Why there are no kangaroos in Bali (and no tigers in Australia)

If you travel to Bali, you won’t see a cockatoo, but if you go to the neighbouring island of Lombok, you will. The situation is similar with marsupials: Australia is home to numerous marsupial species, such as the kangaroo and the koala. The further west you go, the sparser they become. While you will find just two representatives of these typically Australian mammals on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, you will search in vain for them on neighbouring Borneo. Australia, on the other hand, is not home to mammals that you will typically find in Asia, such as bears, tigers ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Prize winner reveals how commensal-derived “silent” flagellins evade innate immunity

Sara Clasen is the 2023 winner of the NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize for her work in illuminating how “silent flagellins” from commensal microbiota evade a host’s innate immunity. The NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize aims to reward innovative research from young investigators working on the functional attributes of the microbiota of any organism that has potential to contribute to our understanding of health and disease, or to guide novel therapeutic interventions. Strong adaptive immune responses require activation of innate immunity. To do this, innate ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Top corn producing state to see future drop in yield, cover crop efficiency

URBANA, Ill. — Winter cover crops could cut nitrogen pollution in Illinois’ agricultural drainage water up to 30%, according to recent research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. But how will future climate change affect nitrogen loss, and will cover crops still be up to the job? A new study investigating near- and far-term climate change in Illinois suggests cover crops will still be beneficial, but not to the same degree. The report also forecasts corn ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

New study: Black women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy have increased stroke risk

(Boston) – U.S. Black women have a disproportionately higher burden of both preeclamptic pregnancy and stroke compared with white women, but virtually all existing evidence on the association between the two medical conditions has come from studies of white women. A newly published study focuses on data gathered over 25 years from 59,000 Black women in the Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS) and is led by researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Slone Epidemiology Center. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine Evidence, ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Archaeology: The power of the Copper Age 'Ivory Lady' revealed

The highest status individual in ancient Copper Age society in Iberia, was a woman and not a man as previously thought, according to peptide analysis reported in Scientific Reports. The individual, now re-dubbed the 'Ivory Lady', was buried in a tomb filled with the largest collection of rare and valuable items in the region, including ivory tusks, high-quality flint, ostrich eggshell, amber, and a rock crystal dagger. These findings reveal the high status women could hold in this ancient society. In 2008, an individual was discovered in a tomb in Valencia, Spain dating to the Copper Age between 3,200 and 2,200 years ago. As well as being a rare example of a single occupancy ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Schizophrenia is associated with somatic mutations occurring in utero

As a psychiatric disorder with onset in adulthood, schizophrenia is thought to be triggered by some combination of environmental factors and genetics, although the exact cause is still not fully understood. In a study published in the journal Cell Genomics on July 6, researchers find a correlation between schizophrenia and somatic copy-number variants, a type of mutation that occurs early in development but after genetic material is inherited. This study is one of the first to rigorously describe the relationship between somatic—not inherited—genetic mutations and schizophrenia risk. “We originally thought of genetics as the study of inheritance. But now we ...

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Science6 Jul 2023

Hearing loss and fatigue in middle-age and older adults

About The Study: Hearing loss was cross-sectionally associated with higher frequency of fatigue after adjustment for demographics, lifestyle factors, and comorbidities in this nationally representative sample of middle-age and older adults. Future studies with fatigue assessments capturing its multidimensionality are needed to understand how hearing loss might contribute to physical and mental fatigue differentially and clarify how hearing loss may be associated with downstream outcomes like physical impairment through fatigue. Authors: Nicholas ...

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