AMHERST, Mass. - Millions of Americans will visit New England's beaches this summer to cool off, play in the waves and soak up the sun. Until now, the factors governing which beaches slope gradually to the sea and which ones end abruptly in a steep drop-off have been largely unknown. However, new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst reveals, with unprecedented detail, how the grain size of beach sand relates to the slope of the beach itself. These new findings are critical to understanding how New England's beaches will respond to both rising sea levels and increased storm activity. Many of New England's beaches are made up of a mixture of sand and small stones. Or, to be more precise, the grain sizes on these beaches are "bi-modal" ...

WASHINGTON -- Although quantum technology has proven valuable for highly precise timekeeping, making these technologies practical for use in a variety of environments is still a key challenge. In an important step toward portable quantum devices, researchers have developed a new high-flux and compact cold-atom source with low power consumption that can be a key component of many quantum technologies. "The use of quantum technologies based on laser-cooled atoms has already led to the development of atomic clocks that are used for timekeeping on a national level," said research team ...

New findings published this week in Physical Review Letters, Measurement of the Iron Spectrum in Cosmic Rays from 10??GeV/n to 2.0??TeV/n with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope on the International Space Station, suggest that cosmic ray nuclei of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen travel through the galaxy toward Earth in a similar way, but, surprisingly, that iron arrives at Earth differently. A series of recent publications based on results from the CALorimetric Electron Telescope, or CALET, instrument on the International Space Station, or ISS, have cast new light on the abundance of high-energy cosmic ray nuclei -- atoms stripped of their ...

The human intestine is made up of more than 40 square meters of tissue, with a multitude of folds on its internal surface that resemble valleys and mountain peaks in order to increase the absorption of nutrients. The intestine also has the unique characteristic of being in a continuous state of self-renewal. This means that approximately every 5 days all the cells of its inner walls are renewed to guarantee correct intestinal function. Until now, scientists knew that this renewal could take place thanks to stem cells, which are protected in the so-called intestinal crypts, and which give rise to new differentiated cells. However, the process that leads to the concave shape of the crypts and the migration of new cells towards the intestinal peaks was unknown. Now, an international ...

Extreme heat waves in urban areas are much more likely than previously thought, according to a new modeling approach designed by researchers including University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) assistant professor Lei Zhao and alumnus Zhonghua Zheng (MS 16, PhD 20). Their paper with co-author Keith W. Oleson of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, "Large model structural uncertainty in global projections of urban heat waves," is published in the journal Nature Communications. Urban heat waves (UHWs) can be devastating; a 1995 heat wave in Chicago caused more than 1,000 deaths. Last year's heat wave on the west coast caused wildfires. ...

In a new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI https://doi.org/10.29026/oea.2021.200006, Researchers led by Professor Junsuk Rho from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea consider switchable diurnal radiative cooling by doped VO2. As the impacts of climate change are increasingly felt, thermoregulation technologies that do not consume external energy have attracted considerable attention in the field of energy-saving applications. Radiative cooling has received much research interest for its ability to cool an object even under direct solar illumination. Nanostructured materials, or multi-stacked layers, can be designed to control reflection and emission spectrum ...

Researchers at Tampere University and their collaborators have shown how spectroscopic measurements can be made much faster. By correlating polarization to the colour of a pulsed laser, the team can track changes in the spectrum of the light by simple and extremely fast polarization measurements. The method opens new possibilities to measure spectral changes on a nanosecond time scale over the entire colour spectrum of light. In spectroscopy, often the changes of the wavelength, i.e. colour, of a probe light are measured after interaction with a sample. Studying these changes is one of the key methods to gain a deeper understanding of the properties ...

Biologists at the Universities of Bath and Vienna have discovered 71 new 'imprinted' genes in the mouse genome, a finding that takes them a step closer to unravelling some of the mysteries of epigenetics - an area of science that describes how genes are switched on (and off) in different cells, at different stages in development and adulthood. To understand the importance of imprinted genes to inheritance, we need to step back and ask how inheritance works in general. Most of the thirty trillion cells in a person's body contain genes that come from both their mother and father, with each parent contributing one version of each gene. The unique combination of genes goes part of ...

Fat biomolecules in the blood, called "serum lipids," are necessary evils. They play important roles in the lipid metabolism and are integral for the normal functioning of the body. However, they have a darker side; according to several studies, they are associated with various cancers. The medical community has fathoms to go before truly understanding the implications of different serum lipid levels in cancer. As a major step in this direction, a group of scientists from the Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research, Laboratory of Genetics, Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute; Hua County People's Hospital; and Anyang Cancer Hospital, have successfully determined that a family history ...

(BOSTON) - Research collaborators from the VA, Boston University, and the Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF) published an inspiring new report today, "1,000 Reasons for Hope," which exclusively details the first 1,000 brain donors studied at the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank since 2008 and how they have advanced research on concussions and CTE. The report also explains how the next 1,000 brain donors will answer critical questions that take us closer to preventing, diagnosing, and treating CTE, as well as the long-term consequences of concussion and traumatic brain injury. "Our understanding ...

Johan Gaume, an EPFL expert in avalanches and geomechanics, has turned his attention to ice. His goal is to better understand the correlation between the size of an iceberg and the amplitude of the tsunami that results from its calving. Gaume, along with a team of scientists from other research institutes, has just unveiled a new method for modeling these events. Their work appears in Communications Earth & Environment, a new journal from Nature Research. These scientists are the first to simulate the phenomena of both glacier fracture and wave formation when the iceberg falls into the water. "Our goal was to model the explicit interaction between water and ice - but that has a substantial cost in terms of computing time. We therefore decided ...

An increasing number of studies on artificial intelligence (AI) are published in the dental and oral sciences but aspects of these studies suffer from a range of limitations. Standards towards reporting, like the recently published CONSORT-AI extension, can help to improve studies in this emerging field. Watch authors Falk Schwendicke and Joachim Krois of the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany, discuss the Journal of Dental Research (JDR) article "Better Reporting of Studies on Artificial Intelligence: CONSORT-AI and Beyond," moderated by JDR Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Jakubovics, Newcastle ...

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit during the winter of 2020, locking down entire countries and leaving people isolated in their homes without outside contact for weeks at a time, many relationship experts wondered what that kind of stress would do to romantic couples. What they found was that when couples blamed the pandemic for their stress, they were happier in their relationships. The findings are outlined in a paper out today in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. Previous research has shown that romantic partners tend to be more critical toward each other when experiencing ...

Forces of nature have been outsmarting the materials we use to build our infrastructure since we started producing them. Ice and snow turn major roads into rubble every year; foundations of houses crack and crumble, in spite of sturdy construction. In addition to the tons of waste produced by broken bits of concrete, each lane-mile of road costs the U.S. approximately $24,000 per year to keep it in good repair. Engineers tackling this issue with smart materials typically enhance the function of materials by increasing the amount of carbon, but doing so makes materials lose some mechanical performance. By introducing nanoparticles into ordinary cement, Northwestern University ...

TAMPA, Fla (June 21, 2021) -- A blood gene profile associated with a high risk of dying from a severe lung disease can also predict poor outcomes in patients with COVID-19, a multicenter retrospective study led by the University of South Florida Health (USF Health) demonstrated. The risk profile based on 50 genes could help customize how COVID-19 is treated, improve allocation of limited health care resources such as intensive care beds and ventilators, and potentially save lives. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a disease of unknown cause, affects the lung interstitium or the space between the lung sacs and the bloodstream, leading ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Using solar energy to inexpensively harvest hydrogen from water could help replace carbon-based fuel sources and shrink the world's carbon footprint. However, finding materials that could boost hydrogen production so that it could compete economically with carbon-based fuels has been, as yet, an insurmountable challenge. In a study, a Penn State-led team of researchers reports it has taken a step toward overcoming the challenge of inexpensive hydrogen production by using supercomputers to find materials that could help accelerate hydrogen separation when water is exposed to light, a process called photocatalysis. Both electricity and solar energy can be used to separate hydrogen from water, ...

Sperm size varies dramatically among different animal species. But why is sperm size so variable when they share the same job - to fertilize eggs? In a new article published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, researchers from Stockholm University show that animal sperm evolution become supercharged only when sperm swim inside females. Sperm are the most variable cell type known, ranging in size from 0.002 millimeters in a freshwater rotifer to nearly 6 centimeters in a fruit fly. Explaining why sperm are so variable has been a major focus in evolutionary ...

One in three patients who dies in a hospital has sepsis, a severe inflammatory response to an infection, marked by organ dysfunction, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This heavy toll makes predicting which patients are at risk for developing the devastating condition a top priority for clinicians. Additional motivation to identify and treat sepsis cases lies in the fact that sepsis serves as a system-level quality measure, with hospitals judged by both the by the federal Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC on their sepsis rates. Complicating efforts to reduce sepsis is how difficult it can be to diagnose--both accurately and quickly. "Sepsis is something we can ...

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) - According to the American Burn Association, burn injuries affect approximately 250,000 children in the United States each year. The pain associated with burn injuries extends beyond the injury itself; there is also significant pain from dressing changes, which can be exacerbated by the anxiety of anticipating this additional pain. Although opioids relieve burn injury-related pain, they have serious adverse side effects. Prior studies have investigated alternative approaches to pain reduction in burn injury patients that focus on distraction, such as music, hypnosis, toys, and virtual reality (VR). In a study published today in JAMA Network Open, Henry Xiang, MD, MPH, PhD, MBA, and his research team reported the ...

What The Study Did: In the context of recently revised guidelines that discourage routine use of aspirin in adults 70 years and older, these findings suggest that older adults may have potential overuse of aspirin therapy if it is not actively discontinued, especially among those with diabetes. Authors: Rita R. Kalyani, M.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.12210) Editor's Note: The article includes funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author ...

What The Study Did: This qualitative study reports that, in the midst of a major public health crisis, the erosion of family-centered care practices was associated with a dramatic impact on the experiences of family members of patients who died. Authors: Nancy Kentish-Barnes, Ph.D., of  Saint Louis University Hospital in Paris, France, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.13355) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial ...

What The Study Did: Results of this study suggest race-specific disparities in SARS-CoV-2 testing and COVID-19 hospital outcomes seen in adults also exist among children, after accounting for several clinical and sociodemographic factors thought to play a role in the disease. Authors: Defne Saatci, M.D., of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.1685) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, ...

What The Study Did: Using administrative healthcare data on 2.9 million households, this study suggests that events that lead to small and informal social gatherings, such as birthdays, and in particular, children's birthdays, are a potentially important source in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Authors: Anupam B. Jena, M.D., Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School in Boston, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.2915) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please ...

What The Study Did:  This study demonstrated a decrease in respiratory virus detections and a decline in antibiotic prescribing rates for respiratory tract infections during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authors: Alexander J. Lepak, M.D., of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.2363) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and ...

In counties with already high COVID-19 infection rates, birthday bashes may have fueled infection spread during the peak months of the pandemic, according to a new analysis led by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the RAND Corporation. The report, published June 21 in JAMA Internal Medicine, shows that in counties with high rates of COVID-19, households with recent birthdays were 30 percent more likely to have a COVID-19 diagnosis, compared with households with no birthdays. The analysis is based on data from health insurance claims. The researchers ...