Psychology researchers at UC Santa Cruz have found that playing games in virtual reality creates an effect called "time compression," where time goes by faster than you think. Grayson Mullen, who was a cognitive science undergraduate at the time, worked with Psychology Professor Nicolas Davidenko to design an experiment that tested how virtual reality's effects on a game player's sense of time differ from those of conventional monitors. The results are now published in the journal Timing & Time Perception. Mullen designed a maze game that could be played in both virtual reality and conventional formats, then the research team recruited 41 UC Santa Cruz undergraduate ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has been shown to have caused a significant strain on the healthcare system and resources in the United States. However, data regarding the impact of the virus on hip fractures, primarily seen in elderly patients, is lacking. Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) sought to compare characteristics and outcomes of hip fracture patients admitted during the COVID-19 outbreak to patients admitted before the outbreak. They also examined characteristics and outcomes of hip fracture patients with and without the virus. Their findings were presented at the 2021 Spring American Society of Regional Anesthesia and ...

Interim results of a study conducted by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) suggest that oral tranexamic acid (TXA) is non-inferior to intravenous (IV) TXA in preventing blood loss in total knee and total hip replacement surgery. These findings were presented at the 2021 Spring American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) Annual Meeting.1 Previously available information suggests that oral, IV and topical TXA are all effective at reducing blood loss and drastically reducing blood transfusion rates during and after surgery, but research with direct comparisons for each method is limited. "TXA in orthopedic surgery has become the standard ...

While it has been said that the eyes are a window to the soul, a new study shows they could be a means for understanding diseases of the brain. According to new research by scientists at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, retinal scans can detect key changes in blood vessels that may provide an early sign of Alzheimer's, while offering important insights into how one of the most common Alzheimer's risk genes contributes to the disease. "The most prevalent genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease is a variant of the APOE gene, known as APOE4," said lead author Fanny Elahi, MD, PhD. "We still don't fully understand how this variant increases risk of brain degeneration, we just know that it does, and that this risk is modified by sex, race, and lifestyle. "Our ...

Climate change is exacerbating problems like habitat loss and temperatures swings that have already pushed many animal species to the brink. But can scientists predict which animals will be able to adapt and survive? Using genome sequencing, researchers from McGill University show that some fish, like the threespine stickleback, can adapt very rapidly to extreme seasonal changes. Their findings could help scientists forecast the evolutionary future of these populations. A popular subject of study among evolutionary ecologists, stickleback are known for their different shapes, sizes, and behaviours - they can even live in both seawater and freshwater, and under a wide range of temperatures. But what ...

Plants have evolved unique immunity mechanisms that they can activate upon detecting the presence of a pathogen. Interestingly, the presence of some nonpathogenic microorganisms can also prompt a plant to activate its systemic immunity mechanisms, and some studies have shown that pretreating agricultural crops with such "immunity-activating" nonpathogenic microorganisms can leave the crops better prepared to fight off infections from pathogenic microorganisms. In effect, this means that immunity-activating nonpathogenic microorganisms can function like vaccines for plants, providing a low-risk stimulus for the plant's immune system that prepares it for dealing with genuine threats. These are exciting findings for crop scientists because they suggest the ...

Researchers at UC San Francisco have observed a new feature of neural activity in the hippocampus - the brain's memory hub - that may explain how this vital brain region combines a diverse range of inputs into a multi-layered memories that can later be recalled. Using a special "micro-grid" recording device developed by colleagues at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the UCSF researchers were able to measure hippocampus activity in study participants undergoing surgery to treat severe epilepsy. They discovered that brain waves travel back and forth across this structure, integrating messages ...

The international scientific community agrees that the latest findings of an FAU research team will revolutionise the entire chemistry of magnesium. The research team have discovered magnesium, which usually has a double positive charge in chemical compounds, in the elemental zero-oxidation state. They have published their ground-breaking findings in the journal Nature. In the periodic table of elements, magnesium (Mg) is a metal with low electronegativity, which means it does not easily attract electrons but easily loses both the electrons in its outer shell during chemical reactions. It therefore only exists in nature as a compound ...

Ishikawa, Japan - Today, many well-studied materials in various fields, such as electronics and catalysis, are close to reaching their practical limits. To further improve upon modern technology and outperform state-of-the-art devices, researchers looking for new functional materials have to push the boundaries and explore more extreme cases. A clear example of this is the study of low-dimensional materials, such as monoatomic layers (2D materials) and monoatomic chains (1D materials). It has been proved time and time again that low-dimensional materials exhibit exotic properties that are absent in their 3D bulk counterparts. For example, monoatomic chains of metals like gold ...

High-temperature and high-pressure experiments involving a diamond anvil and chemicals to simulate the core of the young Earth demonstrate for the first time that hydrogen can bond strongly with iron in extreme conditions. This explains the presence of significant amounts of hydrogen in the Earth's core that arrived as water from bombardments billions of years ago. Given the extreme depths, temperatures and pressures involved, we are not physically able to probe very far into the earth directly. So, in order to peer deep inside the Earth, researchers use techniques involving seismic data to ascertain things like composition and density of subterranean material. Something that has stood out for as long as these kinds of measurements have been taking place is that the core is primarily ...

The ease with which anyone can create online content for free, especially on social media, has led to superabundance of information being one of the defining characteristics of today's communication systems. This situation has resulted in increasingly intense competition for attention, which has become a scarce good. The researchers from the Complex Systems group (CoSIN3) at the UOC's Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) María José Palazzi and Albert Solé --professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications?--, led by Javier Borge, have participated in the design of ...

When it comes to ancient Roman imperial architecture, most people usually have a mental image of white marble statues, columns, or slabs. While it is true that many buildings and squares at that time were decorated with marble, it was frequently not white but colored marble that was employed, such as the green-veined Cipollino Verde, which was extracted on the Greek island of Euboea. Because marble was very expensive, it was often placed in thin slabs as a cladding over other, cheaper stones. "To date, however, no actual remains of marble workshops from the Roman imperial era have been found, so little is known about marble processing during this period," said Professor Cees Passchier ...

An international research team analyzed a database of more than 1000 supernova explosions and found that models for the expansion of the Universe best match the data when a new time dependent variation is introduced. If proven correct with future, higher-quality data from the Subaru Telescope and other observatories, these results could indicate still unknown physics working on the cosmic scale. Edwin Hubble's observations over 90 years ago showing the expansion of the Universe remain a cornerstone of modern astrophysics. But when you get into the details ...

A group of scientists at Nagoya University, Japan, have developed an incredibly versatile DNA fluorescent dye, named 'Kakshine' after a former NU student of its members, Dr Kakishi Uno, but it also means to make the nucleus shine brightly, since the nucleus is pronounced 'Kaku' in Japanese. Dr Uno, with Dr Yoshikatsu Sato and Nagisa Sugimoto, the other two members of the research team at the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM), succeeded in developing a DNA binding fluorescent dye with the pyrido cyanine backbone, which satisfied the three principal qualities required of such a dye - that it have high selectivity for DNA, ability to use visible light with limited phototoxicity, ...

A new method to analyse the blood thinning drug Heparin has been developed that can pinpoint contaminants more accurately and quickly, providing greater quality control and safety. An interdisciplinary team from the University of Nottingham's Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine have used the latest chemical imaging technology to identify contaminants in Heparin at the nanoscale, a discovery that manufacturers could use to improve the quality and safety of this widely used anticoagulant drug. The research has been published in Communications Chemistry. Heparin is naturally occurring glycosaminoglycan ...

ATS 2021, New York, NY - The use of e-cigarettes is associated with wheezing and shortness of breath in young adults and adolescents, even in those who don't smoke cigarettes or marijuana, according to research presented at the ATS 2021 International Conference. Alayna P. Tackett, PhD, assistant professor of preventive medicine, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, and colleagues conducted a web-based survey of 2,931 adolescents and young adults (average age: 18.9) with questions on the use of e-cigarettes, cigarettes and cannabis, along with self-reported asthma diagnosis and respiratory symptoms, over the previous 30 days. The survey was fielded between August 6 and 30, 2020 among a national convenience sample of youth and young ...

ATS 2021, New York, NY - Individuals with asthma who live in redlined neighborhoods have worse lung function than those in locales that excluded Black people and benefited from decades of inequitable wealth accumulation at the expense of Black communities in the United States, according to research presented at the ATS 2021 International Conference. Alexander Schuyler, MD/PhD candidate, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Sally Wenzel, MD, director, Asthma & Environmental Lung Health Institute, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, sought to examine the connection between residence in historically ...

Session: TP16 Abstract Presentation Time: Available On-Demand; 8 a.m. EDT, Friday, May 14, 2021 ATS 2021, New York, NY - While vaping is thought to be a safer alternative to smoking, teens and adults who use e-cigarettes have increased odds of developing asthma and having asthma attacks, according to research presented at the ATS 2021 International Conference. Teresa To, PhD, senior scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), and colleagues sought to determine whether youth and young adults ...

Session: TP91 Abstract Presentation Time: On Demand; 8 a.m. EDT, Friday, May 14, 2021 ATS 2021, New York, NY - Having genetic risk variants in the ABO gene might significantly increase the chances of developing COVID-19, and other genes may also increase COVID-19 risk, according to research presented at the ATS 2021 International Conference. Much about COVID-19 remains a medical mystery, including whether certain genes place individuals at greater risk of contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. Ana Hernandez Cordero, PhD, postdoctoral fellow with the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation, University of British Columbia, and colleagues used integrative genomics combined with proteomics to identify ...

The mysteries of sexual attraction just became a little less mysterious - at least for moths. A team of six American and European research groups including Tufts University has discovered which gene expressed in the brain of the male European corn borer moth controls his preference for the sex pheromone produced by females. This complements a previous study on the gene expressed in the female pheromone gland that dictates the type of blend she emits to attract males. The study was reported today in Nature Communications. The implications go beyond ...

3D-printable gels with improved and highly controlled properties can be created by merging micro- and nano-sized networks of the same materials harnessed from seaweed, according to new research from North Carolina State University. The findings could have applications in biomedical materials - think of biological scaffolds for growing cells - and soft robotics. Described in the journal Nature Communications, the findings show that these water-based gels - called homocomposite hydrogels - are both strong and flexible. They are composed of alginates - chemical compounds found in seaweed and algae that are commonly used as thickening agents and in wound ...

Scientists at UCL have identified a new immunotherapy to combat the hepatitis B virus (HBV), the most common cause of liver cancer in the world. Each year, globally, chronic HBV causes an estimated 880,000 deaths from liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma/liver cancer (HCC). The pioneering study used immune cells isolated directly from patient liver and tumour tissue, to show that targeting acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT), an enzyme that helps to manage cholesterol levels in cells*, was highly effective at boosting immune ...

Researchers at the University of Bristol found that plant eaters diversified quickly after mass extinctions to eat different kinds of plants, and the ones that were able to chew harsher materials, which reflected the drying conditions of the late Triassic, became the most successful. These tougher herbivores included some of the first dinosaurs. Following the largest mass extinction of all time, the end-Permian mass extinction, ecosystems rebuilt from scratch during Triassic times, from 252-201 million years ago paving the way for new species, and many new kinds of plants and animals emerged. In a new study published in Nature Communications and led by Dr Suresh Singh of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, fresh ...

A new study led by University of Liverpool researchers has confirmed that children with cystic fibrosis (CF) in the US have better lung function than UK children with the disease. The study suggests that differences do not appear to be explained by early growth or nutrition, but could be linked to differences in the use of early treatments. This long-term analysis follows a 2015 study comparing UK and CF populations in the year 2010, which first highlighted potential differences in lung function. CF is a serious, multi-organ inherited disease characterised by pulmonary infections and progressively declining lung function. Most people ...

Osaka, Japan - Scientists from the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research at Osaka University used machine learning methods to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio in data collected when tiny spheres are passed through microscopic nanopores cut into silicon substrates. This work may lead to much more sensitive data collection when sequencing DNA or detecting small concentrations of pathogens. Miniaturization has opened the possibility for a wide range of diagnostic tools, such as point-of-care detection of diseases, to be performed quickly and with very small samples. For example, unknown particles can be analyzed by passing ...