As luck would have it, the air quality sensors that University of Utah researcher Daniel Mendoza and his colleagues installed in Park City, Utah in September 2019, hoping to observe how pollution rose and fell through the ski season and the Sundance Film Festival, captured a far more impactful natural experiment: the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, the air sensors watched during lockdowns as air pollution fell in residential and commercial areas, and then as pollution rose again with reopenings. The changing levels, the researchers found, which behaved differently in residential and commercial parts of the city, show where pollution is coming from and how it might change in the future under different policies. "The lockdown period demonstrated ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- When it comes to what users share on Twitter, women and users who never attended college voluntarily disclose more personal information than users from other socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds -- potentially making these populations more susceptible to online privacy threats, according to a recent study led by the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology. Additionally, the researchers unexpectedly found that neither socioeconomic status nor demographics is a significant predictor of the use of account security features such as two-factor login authentication, and that users from all backgrounds actually ...

URBANA, Ill. - If you've ever been to an eye doctor, there's a good chance you've felt the sudden puff of air to the eye that constitutes a traditional test for glaucoma. It's no one's favorite experience, but the puff is non-invasive and harmless. Scientists use a similar method to test learning and memory in animals and humans. Like Pavlov's classic experiments linking a neutral stimulus with a physiological response, the eyeblink test pairs a light or sound with a quick puff of air to the eye. With repetition, the animal learns to close its eye, or blink, in response ...

Researchers from the University of Sussex have determined the structure of a tiny multi-protein biological machine, furthering our understanding of human cells and helping to enhance research into cancer, neurodegeneration and other illnesses. A biological nanomachine is a macromolecular machine commonly found within the cell, often in the form of multi-protein complexes, which frequently perform tasks essential for life. The nanomachine R2TP-TTT acts as a molecular chaperone to assemble others in the human cell. It is especially important for constructing mTORC1 - a complicated nanomachine that regulates the cell's energy metabolism, and which often becomes misregulated in human diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Scientists from the School ...

Researchers, including academics from the University of York, analysed systematic reviews of 1,200 Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) to assess whether reporting had improved over time. However, the information the researchers needed to assess what adverse effects were reported (and how they were reported) was only included in less than half of the RCTs they analysed. Co-author Dr Su Golder from the Department of Health Sciences, said: "Drug trials are conducted to give clinicians information on the benefits and adverse effects of treatments. Our study shows that, ...

Rude behavior is a common form of insensitive and disrespectful conduct that harms employees' performance in the workplace. In a new study, researchers examined the impact of rude behavior on how individuals make critical decisions. The study found that in certain situations, these behaviors can have deadly consequences. The study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, was conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the University of Florida (UF), the University of Maryland, Envision Physician Services, and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. The researchers looked at the effect of rudeness on workers' tendency to engage in a judgment bias called anchoring, which is the tendency to rely too ...

ORLANDO, July 8, 2021 - A new University of Central Florida study indicates that smaller loggerhead and green sea turtles are nesting on Florida beaches than in the past; however, researchers aren't sure why. The findings, published this month in the journal Ecosphere, give clues to the status of the turtles, which is important to researchers who are monitoring the population health of the threatened species. Central Florida's Atlantic coastline hosts about one-third of all green turtle nests in the state and is one of the most important nesting areas in the world for loggerheads. Sea turtles are important as iconic symbols of conservation in Florida and for the role they play in maintaining a healthy ocean ecosystem. The reason for the appearance of smaller ...

People who get type 2 diabetes need to gain control of their blood-sugar levels -- fast. The years immediately after diagnosis are strikingly critical in terms of their future risk for heart attacks and death. This is shown by a joint study from the Universities of Gothenburg and Oxford. In a collaboration between the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and the University of Oxford in the UK, the significance of blood sugar levels from the time type 2 diabetes is diagnosed for the risk of heart attacks and death has been studied. The project was led jointly by Professor Marcus Lind in Gothenburg and Professor Rury Holman in Oxford. The research was based on a key trial in type 2 diabetes, the UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS). This new analysis examined ...

LONDON, ON - Hospital researchers from Lawson Health Research Institute have published a recent study that assessed the use of a specialized treatment for chronic pain and its impact on health care use and opioid prescribing. Paravertebral blocks (PVBs) belong to a broader group of procedures called "nerve blocks." A recent Toronto Star report noted that OHIP has been billed $420 million for nerve block procedures since 2011. PVBs involve injecting medication around the nerves where they exit the bones of the spine, at different locations depending on the patient and the chronic pain they are experiencing. ...

A new study shows that individuals with bipolar disorder who are exposed to significant trauma may be at greater risk for suicide death, suggesting that clinical diagnosis of or genetic predisposition to trauma-related conditions could be important factors to consider in suicide prevention. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for over 40,000 deaths each year, and suicide death rates are 10 to 30 times higher for people with bipolar disorder than for the general population. The research, spearheaded by Eric Monson, MD, PhD, and Hilary Coon, PhD, from the University of Utah, in collaboration with Virginia Willour, PhD, from the University of Iowa, set out to identify unique risk factors for suicide attempt and death ...

Researchers have made significant advancements in correlating aberrations in specific brain circuits with neuropsychiatric conditions like depression. However, it remains difficult to prove that damage to these circuits causes the symptoms themselves and that targeting them with therapeutics could help patients. By integrating brain lesion datasets with data on how two treatments -- deep brain stimulation (DBS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) -- influence neuropsychiatric disorders, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and collaborators developed a new brain mapping approach that may help clarify the cause of a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions and identify promising stimulation sites to target therapeutically. Findings are published ...

As the world continues to warm, many arid regions that already have marginal conditions for agriculture will be increasingly under stress, potentially leading to severe food shortages. Now, researchers at MIT have come up with a promising process for protecting seeds from the stress of water shortage during their crucial germination phase, and even providing the plants with extra nutrition at the same time. The process, undergoing continued tests in collaboration with researchers in Morocco, is simple and inexpensive, and could be widely deployed in arid regions, the researchers say. ...

As atmospheric concentrations of CO2 continue to rise, we are putting future generations at risk of having to deal with a massive carbon debt. IIASA researchers and international colleagues are calling for immediate action to establish responsibility for carbon debt by implementing carbon removal obligations, for example, during the upcoming revision of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. Over the last several decades, governments have collectively pledged to slow global warming through accords such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Despite the ratification of these agreements by a large number of countries, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 continues to rise. At the rate we are going, we are well on our way to using up the remaining quantity of CO2 emissions to limit temperature ...

Doha, Qatar, July 8, 2021: In March 2020, thousands of scientists around the world united to answer a pressing and complex question: which genetic factors influence the wide variation in COVID-19 severity? Why are some patients severely affected while others escape with mild or no symptoms at all? A comprehensive summary of their findings to date, published in Nature - the world's leading multidisciplinary science journal - revealed 13 loci, or locations in the human genome, that are strongly associated with infection or severe COVID-19. The researchers also identified causal factors such ...

In March of 2020, thousands of scientists around the world united to answer a pressing and complex question: what genetic factors influence why some COVID-19 patients develop severe, life-threatening disease requiring hospitalization, while others escape with mild symptoms or none at all? A comprehensive summary of their findings to date, published in Nature, reveals 13 loci, or locations in the human genome, that are strongly associated with infection or severe COVID-19. The researchers also identified causal factors such as smoking and high body mass index. These results come from one of the largest ...

What The Study Did: The SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine appeared to be safe and achieve satisfactory serologic status in patients with cancer. While there was a lag in antibody production compared with the rate in the noncancer control group, seroconversion occurred in most patients after the second dose. Authors: Irit Ben-Aharon, M.D., Ph.D., of the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, 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/jamaoncol.2021.2675) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please ...

Tumor fragments in the lab are able to predict whether the corresponding real-life patients will benefit from immunotherapy. "We've solved a major problem many scientists had been facing: preserving a tumors original composition and structure outside of the patient in the lab", says cancer researcher Daniela Thommen from the Netherlands Cancer Institute. On 8 July, the results of her study are published in Nature Medicine. While some cancer patients experience incredible results from immunotherapy, many others do not benefit from this treatment, which puts patients' ...

What The Study Did: A decline in COVID-19 cases after the vaccination of health care workers in a region of California that experienced high rates of COVID-19 disease over the winter is reported in this single-center study. Authors: Shruti K. Gohil, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, 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.2021.15980) Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other ...

A research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified potential new treatment targets for Alzheimer's disease, as well as existing drugs that have therapeutic potential against these targets. The potential targets are defective proteins that lead to the buildup of amyloid in the brain, contributing to the onset of problems with memory and thinking that are the hallmark of Alzheimer's. The 15 existing drugs identified by the researchers have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for other purposes, providing the possibility of clinical trials that could begin sooner than is typical, according to the researchers. In addition, the experiments yielded seven drugs that may be useful for treating faulty proteins linked to Parkinson's ...

HOUSTON - Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found specific intestinal microbiota signatures correlate with high-grade adverse events and response to combined CTLA-4 and PD-1 blockade treatment. The study, published today in Nature Medicine, also identified a potential new strategy to treat toxicity - while maintaining response - to combined immune checkpoint blockade through either IL-1R inhibition or manipulation of the gut microbiota. Dual immune checkpoint therapy has contributed to progress in overall survival for many cancer types, including ...

One of the things the human brain naturally excels at is recognizing all sorts of patterns, such as stripes on zebras, shells of turtles, and even the structure of crystals. Thanks to our progress in math and the natural sciences, we are not limited to just seeing the patterns; we can also understand how they readily originate out of pure randomness. A notable example of different natural patterns with a single mathematical explanation are Turing patterns. Conceived in 1952 by the renowned mathematician Alan Turing, these patterns arise as the solutions to a set of differential equations that describe the diffusion and reaction of chemicals satisfying a few conditions. Going well beyond pure chemistry, Turing demonstrated ...

Though writing by hand is increasingly being eclipsed by the ease of computers, a new study finds we shouldn't be so quick to throw away the pencils and paper: handwriting helps people learn certain skills surprisingly faster and significantly better than learning the same material through typing or watching videos. "The question out there for parents and educators is why should our kids spend any time doing handwriting," says senior author Brenda Rapp, a Johns Hopkins University professor of cognitive science. "Obviously, you're going to be a better hand-writer if you practice it. But since people are handwriting less then maybe who cares? The real question is: Are there other benefits to handwriting that have to do with reading and spelling and ...

Seismic waves passing through the ground near Longyearbyen in the Adventdalen valley, Svalbard, Norway have been slowing down steadily over the past three years, most likely due to permafrost warming in the Arctic valley. The trend, reported in a new study published in Seismological Research Letters, demonstrates how seismic monitoring can be used to track permafrost stability under global climate change. The study is part of a focus section in an upcoming issue of the journal on Arctic and Antarctic seismology. Julie Albaric of the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté, while employed at NORSAR (Norway), and colleagues ...

Coastal wetlands - such as salt marshes - provide even more flood protection than previously thought, reducing the risk to lives and homes in estuaries, a new study has revealed. The researchers' simulations showed that wetlands that grow in estuaries, such as salt marshes, can reduce water levels by up to 2 metres and provide protection far inland up estuary channels. This subsequently saved up to $38 (£27) million in avoided flood damage costs per estuary during a large storm thanks to the wetlands' role in preventing storm floods. The research is timely as wetlands are facing growing threats from continued urban development. 22 of the largest 32 cities in the world - including London, New York and Tokyo - are built on low-lying land around estuaries, ...

Populist anti-foreign aid rhetoric works - but only fans of populist politicians are convinced by hostile messages about charity abroad, a new study shows. Those who distrust populist politicians are significantly less susceptible to these messages. The research shows international aid institutions and non-populist politicians should not be unduly worried about the impact of populism on global development cooperation. Those wanting to convince the public about the importance of foreign aid should focus on communicating their message transparently and clearly, and using local partnerships. The research, by A. Burcu Bayram from the University of Arkansas and Catarina Thomson from ...