Every high-school physics student learns that sound and light travel at very different speeds. If the brain did not account for this difference, it would be much harder for us to tell where sounds came from, and how they are related to what we see. Instead, the brain allows us to make better sense of our world by playing tricks, so that a visual and a sound created at the same time are perceived as synchronous, even though they reach the brain and are processed by neural circuits at different speeds. One of the brain's tricks is temporal recalibration: ...

A novel technique for studying vortices in quantum fluids has been developed by Lancaster physicists. Andrew Guthrie, Sergey Kafanov, Theo Noble, Yuri Pashkin, George Pickett and Viktor Tsepelin, in collaboration with scientists from Moscow State University, used tiny mechanical resonators to detect individual quantum vortices in superfluid helium. Their work is published in the current volume of Nature Communications. This research into quantum turbulence is simpler than turbulence in the real world, which is observed in everyday phenomena such as surf, fast flowing rivers, billowing storm clouds, or chimney smoke. Despite ...

Scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CBM-CSIC-UAM) have discovered that the nitric oxide (NO) pathway is overactivated in the aortas of mice and patients with Marfan Syndrome and that the activity of this pathway causes the aortic aneurysms that characterize this disease. The results of the study, published today in Nature Communications, reveal the essential role played by NO in Marfan Syndrome aortic disease and identify new therapeutic targets and markers of NO pathway activation that could be used to monitor disease status and progression. Aortic aneurysm ...

A new paper in the Journal of the European Economic Association, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that distrust generated by a 2011 CIA-led vaccination campaign ruse designed to catch Osama Bin Laden resulted in a significant vaccination rate decline in Pakistan. Using a local doctor, the US Central Intelligence Organization planned an immunization plan in Pakistan to obtain DNA samples of children living in a compound in Abbottabad where American authorities suspected Bin Laden was hiding in order to obtain proof of Bin Laden's location (because the presence of close ...

About 42% of rural school districts in the U.S. offered fully in-person instruction as of February, compared with only 17% for urban districts, according to a new RAND Corporation survey of school district leaders. The opposite pattern held for fully remote learning: 29% of urban districts offered fully remote instruction compared with 10% of rural districts and 18% of suburban districts. The choice of in-person versus remote learning has important implications. Over a third of all U.S. school districts offering some form of remote instruction in early 2021 had shortened the school day, and a quarter had reduced instructional minutes. "This survey shows how the choice of remote instruction has ramifications that extend beyond longstanding concerns about ...

Aqueducts are very impressive examples of the art of construction in the Roman Empire. Even today, they still provide us with new insights into aesthetic, practical, and technical aspects of construction and use. Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) investigated the longest aqueduct of the time, the 426-kilometer-long Aqueduct of Valens supplying Constantinople, and revealed new insights into how this structure was maintained back in time. It appears that the channels had been cleaned of carbonate deposits just a few decades before the ...

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a new material that prevents infections in wounds - a specially designed hydrogel, that works against all types of bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant ones. The new material offers great hope for combating a growing global problem. The World Health Organization describes antibiotic-resistant bacteria as one of the greatest threats to global health. To deal with the problem, there needs to be a shift in the way we use antibiotics, and new, sustainable medical technologies must be developed. "After testing our new hydrogel on different types of bacteria, we observed a high level of effectiveness, including against those ...

In some countries of the WHO European Region, 1 in 3 children aged 6 to 9 years is living with overweight or obesity. Mediterranean countries have the highest rates of obesity, but the situation there is starting to improve. These are some of the findings of a new WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) report on the fourth round of data collection (2015-2017), presented at this week's European Congress on Obesity (held online this year). The report gives the latest data available on 6- to 9-year-olds in 36 countries in the region. A questionnaire collecting ...

New research presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity (held online, 10-13 May) shows that fat around the waist (abdominal obesity) is more important than general obesity as shown by body mass index (BMI) in predicting the severity of chest X-ray results in patients with COVID-19. The study is by Dr Alexis Elias Malavazos, I.R.C.C.S.Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, Italy, and colleagues. Previous research has established that both chest x-ray (CXR) severity score and obesity are predictive risk factors for COVID-19 hospital admission. However, the relationship between abdominal obesity and CXR severity score is not fully explored. This retrospective cohort study analysed the association of different methods of measuring obesity, ...

New research presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity (held online, 10-13 May) reveals an association between increasing body mass index (BMI) and the risk of testing positive SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19. The study is by Dr Hadar Milloh-Raz, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel-HaShomer, Ramat-Gan, Israel, and colleagues. Obesity-related factors, including changes to the innate and adaptive immune systems brought on by excess weight, are believed to be associated with an increased risk of contracting various viral diseases. ...

A new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal has found that the risk of delayed acute complications after non-hospitalised SARS-CoV-2 infection is low, but persistent symptoms in this group could lead to increased visits to general practitioners or outpatient clinics in the six months following infection. The study assessed only those complications that led to contact with hospitals. Researchers assessed the risk of initiating medication and receiving a hospital diagnosis for a new condition by comparing individuals who tested positive via a PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 with individuals who had a negative test during the first wave of the pandemic in Denmark. Results found SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals ...

Antibiotic resistance in E. coli has been steadily increasing since the early 2000s despite attempts to control it, a new study suggests. In the biggest genomic survey of E. coli to date, that took more than 16 years in Norway, researchers have successfully tracked the spread of antibiotic resistant genes and have shown that these genes are being transferred between E. coli strains. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and University of Oslo have tracked multidrug resistance in Norway and compared this to a previous study from the UK. They found that ...

As more private data is stored and shared digitally, researchers are exploring new ways to protect data against attacks from bad actors. Current silicon technology exploits microscopic differences between computing components to create secure keys, but artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be used to predict these keys and gain access to data. Now, Penn State researchers have designed a way to make the encrypted keys harder to crack. Led by Saptarshi Das, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, the researchers used graphene -- a layer of carbon one atom thick -- to develop a novel low-power, scalable, reconfigurable hardware security device with significant resilience ...

According to the International Whaling Commission, whale-watching tourism generates more than $2.5 billion a year. After the COVID-19 pandemic, this relatively safe outdoor activity is expected to rebound. Two new studies funded by a collaborative initiative between the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama and Arizona State University (ASU) show how science can contribute to whale watching practices that ensure the conservation and safety of whales and dolphins. "The Smithsonian's role is to provide scientific advice to policy makers as they pioneer management strategies to promote whale conservation," said STRI marine biologist, Hector Guzmán, whose previous work led the International Maritime Organization to establish ...

Conducting a discussion in a noisy place can be challenging when other conversations and background noises interfere with our ability to focus attention on our conversation partner. How the brain deals with the abundance of sounds in our environments, and prioritizes among them, has been a topic of debate among cognitive neuroscientists for many decades. Often referred to as the "Cocktail Party Problem", its central question focuses on whether we can absorb information from a few speakers in parallel, or whether we are limited to understanding speech from only one speaker at a time. One ...

Chemotherapy can induce a painful peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), a chronic condition and common adverse effect for cancer patients undergoing treatment. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues elsewhere, have used a mouse model to demonstrate the pivotal role of cholesterol in CIPN, and proposed a novel therapeutic approach to reverse it. The findings are published in the May 10, 2021, online issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. The study was a collaboration between the laboratories of senior study author Yury Miller, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, and Tony Yaksh, PhD, professor of anesthesiology and pharmacology, both at UC San Diego School of Medicine. ...

Evidence of recent volcanic activity on Mars shows that eruptions could have taken place in the past 50,000 years, according to new study by researchers at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the Planetary Science Institute. Most volcanism on the Red Planet occurred between 3 and 4 billion years ago, with smaller eruptions in isolated locations continuing perhaps as recently as 3 million years ago. But, until now, there was no evidence to indicate Mars could still be volcanically active. Using data from satellites orbiting Mars, researchers discovered a previously unknown volcanic ...

All three species of manatee now present on Earth share a common ancestor from which they split some 6.5 million years ago, when a huge lake in Amazonia, then linked to the Caribbean, was cut off from the sea. The African manatee Trichechus senegalensis is not as genetically close to the West Indian manatee T. manatus as was thought, and adaptation to this complex environment by the Amazonian manatee T. inunguis has left at least one mark in its genetic code.  These are key findings of a study supported by FAPESP and published in Scientific Reports, with hitherto unknown details of the evolutionary history of these aquatic mammals. The authors are an international group of scientists led by researchers at the University of Campinas ...

The American College of Chest Physicians® (CHEST) recently released new clinical guidelines on the Diagnosis and Evaluation of Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis (HP). The guidelines contain 14 evidence-based recommendations to improve individual diagnostic decision-making and to decrease diagnostic practice variability. Occurring at any age, HP is an immunologically mediated form of lung disease resulting from inhalational exposure to a large variety of environmental and/or occupational inciting antigens (typically fungal, bacterial, avian). Over the years, the categorization of HP based on clinical features and disease duration coupled with traditional diagnostic criteria has been unhelpful, even when accurate, when separated from a probabilistic diagnostic ...

Clavelina oblonga, an invasive marine fouling species, not only reduces diversity in communities it invades, it also interferes in their recovery following natural disasters - a process known as "succession." Succession refers to how an ecosystem recovers after a disturbance or natural disaster - does the system come back more or less the same as it was in terms of species composition, or is it different? "The classic example of succession is a forest that experiences a wildfire," says Kayla Christianson, former NC State graduate student and first author of a paper describing the research. "As the community recovers from the fire, it proceeds through a predictable pattern of community development - starting with grasses and ending with trees and a mature forest. This ...

Since it debuted in 2011, the Get SET Early program, which provides pediatricians and parents with a relatively simple process to screen for indicators of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children as young as age 1, has steadily grown in use and validation. Early screening and identification of ASD has been linked to more effective treatment. A new study, published in the April 26, 2021 issue of the END ...

PHILADELPHIA-- Human brain organoids are remarkable platforms for modeling features of human brain development and diseases. Building on methods to generate organoids to model different brain regions such as the cortex and the midbrain, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have generated the first organoids of the arcuate nucleus (ARC), an essential structure in the hypothalamus that sends signals of hunger and feeling full. This part of the hypothalamus exhibits a tremendous amount of cell diversity, and is far more complex than previously modeled parts of the brain. In a paper ...

Scientists have made major advances in understanding and developing treatments for many cancers by identifying genetic mutations that drive the disease. Now a team led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian and the New York Genome Center (NYGC) has developed a machine learning technique for detecting other modifications to DNA that have a similar effect. The study, published May 10 in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, focuses on a type of chemical modification to DNA, called methylation, that typically silences nearby genes. The new technique can analyze the thousands of DNA methylation changes detected in tumor cells and infer which ones are likely ...

HOUSTON - Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a first-of-its-kind spatial atlas of early-stage lung cancer and surrounding normal lung tissue at single-cell resolution, providing a valuable resource for studying tumor development and identifying new therapeutic targets. The study was published today in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. The findings reveal a heterogeneous lung cancer ecosystem, with extensive interactions between cancer cells and the surrounding microenvironment that regulate early cancer development. ...

New research on the growth rates of coral reefs shows there is still a window of opportunity to save the world's coral reefs--but time is running out. The international study was initiated at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE), which is headquartered at James Cook University (JCU). Co-author Professor Morgan Pratchett from Coral CoE at JCU said the results show that unless carbon dioxide emissions are drastically reduced the growth of coral reefs will be stunted. "The threat posed by climate change to coral reefs is already very apparent based on recurrent episodes of mass coral bleaching," Prof Pratchett said. "But changing environmental conditions will have other far-reaching consequences." Co-author Professor Ryan Lowe, from Coral CoE at The University ...