Long-term exposure to fine particulate matter air pollution was associated with an increase in hospital procedures in heart failure patients, according to a study published May 3, 2023, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Samantha Catalano from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, and colleagues. Tiny airborne particles smaller than 2.5μm in diameter (PM2.5) are air pollutants generated by traffic, industry activity, combustion, and more. Though exposure to PM2.5 has been associated with illness and death worldwide, ...

The first modern humans spread across Europe in three waves during the Paleolithic, according to a study published May 3, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Ludovic Slimak of the CNRS and University of Toulouse III, France. The archaeological record of Paleolithic Europe leaves many open questions regarding the nature of the arrival of modern humans into the region and the nature of how these newcomers interacted with the resident Neanderthal populations. In this study, Slimak compared records of stone tool technology across western Eurasia to document the sequence of early human activity in the region. This study primarily focused on ...

For immigrants with limited education, the personality traits of extraversion and openness significantly boost lifetime employment probabilities, likely by facilitating better integration ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0281048 Article Title: Non-cognitive skills and labour market performance of immigrants Author Countries: Germany, Türkiye Funding: We appreciate the financial support from the University of Gothenburg”. The funders had no ...

Visitors to a modern art museum lingered in front of artworks longer and exhibited more signs of excitement when given detailed descriptions of each piece compared to seeing basic labels, according to a study published May 3, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Serena Castellotti from the University of Florence, Italy, and colleagues.  Improving the cultural and aesthetic experience of non-expert visitors is a critical task for art museums. In this study, the authors examined how museum-provided descriptions of art might influence a visitor’s ...

Packaged foods marketed to kids are significantly higher in sugar and lower in other nutrients than other products, according to Canadian study of almost 6,000 items ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0284350 Article Title: Child-appealing packaged food and beverage products in Canada–Prevalence, power, and nutritional quality Author Countries: Canada Funding: This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Frederick Banting and Charles Best Doctoral ...

Electric vehicles may mostly decrease pollution in richer, whiter neighborhoods, with less benefit for disadvantaged communities, per analysis of California's Clean Vehicle Rebate Project. #### Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000183 Article Title: Emissions redistribution and environmental justice implications of California’s clean vehicle rebate project Author Countries: USA Funding: Funding was provided through the SURGE Research Fellowship, Stanford University School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (JMD). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, ...

Dangerous bacterial bloodstream infections in preemies may originate from the infants’ gut microbiomes, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Such infections are of substantial concern, as about half of infants who are extremely preterm or have very low birth weights experience at least one episode of the life-threatening infection after 72 hours of life. The findings are published May 3 in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Preterm infants are at high risk of infections due to underdeveloped organs, coupled with considerable antimicrobial exposure. ...

Link to video and sound (details below): https://go.hawaii.edu/qRX Sweat is more than just a sign of a good workout. It holds vital information about our health, providing clues to dehydration, fatigue, blood sugar levels and even serious conditions such as cystic fibrosis, diabetes and heart failure. Researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Engineering have taken a giant leap forward in sweat analysis with an innovative 3D-printed wearable sweat sensor called the “sweatainer.” Harnessing the power of additive manufacturing (3D-printing), the researchers have developed ...

Water isn’t just a universal solvent that remains unaffected by its interactions. New publications from North Carolina State University show that water can change its solubility characteristics depending upon what it interacts with. Specifically, when water interacts with cellulose, it can stack in layered shells to control chemical reactions within, and physical properties of, the material. The work has implications for more sustainable and efficient design of cellulose-based products. “Cellulose is the world’s most abundant biopolymer, and it’s used in applications ...

As the cosmetics industry continues to shift to more natural ingredients, some natural preservatives have been found to not be strong enough to withstand the conditions of large-scale manufacturing processes compared to chemical counterparts. One University of Cincinnati program is addressing the issue. “The manufacturing process is optimized to work with the current system, and as a result, when they are trying to make products with these new materials, we are ending up with an increased number of cases of microbiological ...

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 – This year and next, Americans will have the extraordinary opportunity to witness two solar eclipses as both will be visible throughout the continental U.S. On Oct. 14, 2023, the moon will obscure all but a small annulus of the sun, producing a “ring of fire” eclipse. On April 8, 2024, the eclipse will be total in a band stretching from Texas to Maine. Both occurrences promise to be remarkable events and teachable moments. But preparation is essential. In The Physics Teacher, co-published ...

An Oak Ridge National Laboratory-developed advanced manufacturing technology, AMCM, was recently licensed by Orbital Composites and enables the rapid production of composite-based components, which could accelerate the decarbonization of vehicles, airplanes and drones. Additive manufacturing compression molding, or AMCM, uses short-fiber-filled polymer and continuous fiber to print directly onto a mold with precise orientation to make parts such as propeller blades or battery boxes. Compression molding then ...

Inside a lab, scientists marvel at a strange state that forms when they cool down atoms to nearly absolute zero. Outside their window, trees gather sunlight and turn them into new leaves. The two seem unrelated—but a new study from the University of Chicago suggests that these processes aren’t so different as they might appear on the surface. The study, published in PRX Energy on April 28, found links at the atomic level between photosynthesis and exciton condensates—a strange state of physics that allows energy to flow frictionlessly ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a new high-speed way to detect the location, size and category of multiple objects without acquiring images or requiring complex scene reconstruction. Because the new approach greatly decreases the computing power necessary for object detection, it could be useful for identifying hazards while driving. “Our technique is based on a single-pixel detector, which enables efficient and robust multi-object detection directly from a small number of 2D measurements,” said research team leader Liheng Bian from the Beijing Institute ...

New research highlights potential safety concerns around women taking romosozumab, a new anti-osteoporosis drug available on the NHS. The University of Bristol-led study, published in Arthritis & Rheumatology, analysed genetic data on nearly 34,000 people. Despite romosozumab being particularly effective at reducing the risk of fracture in women with severe osteoporosis, potential safety concerns following trial data suggest the drug may cause an increased risk of heart attack. However, subsequent research has produced conflicting results. An international team, led by Bristol Medical School researchers, sought to investigate whether, ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A power transmission grid can be destabilized by hackers who manipulate smart meters to create an oscillation in electricity demand, researchers in the Oregon State University College of Engineering have shown. Findings were published in IEEE Access. The study is important because understanding where a grid’s vulnerabilities lie and what they look like is the first step in designing protection mechanisms, says associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez, who led the project with graduate student Falah Alanazi. A ...

The need to capture CO2 and transport it for permanent storage or conversion into valued end uses is a national priority recently identified in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to move toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.  Now, Northwestern University researchers have worked with an international team of collaborators to create acetic acid out of carbon monoxide derived from captured carbon. The innovation, which uses a novel catalyst created in the lab of professor Ted Sargent, could spur new interest in carbon capture and storage. “Carbon capture is feasible today from a technical point of view, but not yet from an economic point ...

Virtual consulting is a new and emerging contributor to environmentally sustainable health care, according to findings of new research published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to virtual consulting, leading to its growing use. As health systems across the world strive to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, a critical question arises: what is the impact of virtual consulting on environmental sustainability in health care? A new research study led by Sara Shaw and team aims to address this ...

LOS ANGELES — For the first time, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital (USC-VHH) earned an “A” Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization, for achieving the highest national standards in patient safety. This achievement places USC-VHH among top tier hospitals in the nation for safety and quality.   “Our entire staff is dedicated to improving and upholding the highest standards of patient care,” said Mary Virgallito, MSN, RN, chief quality officer at USC-VHH. “This score reinforces our ...

As a star runs out of fuel, it will billow out to a million times its original size, engulfing any matter — and planets — in its wake. Scientists have observed hints of stars just before, and shortly after, the act of consuming entire planets, but they have never caught one in the act until now.  In a study that will appear in Nature, scientists at MIT, Harvard University, Caltech, and elsewhere report that they have observed a star swallowing a planet, for the first time.  The ...

Artefacts made of stone, bones or teeth provide important insights into the subsistence strategies of early humans, their behavior and culture. However, until now it has been difficult to attribute these artefacts to specific individuals, since burials and grave goods were very rare in the Palaeolithic. This has limited the possibilities of drawing conclusions about, for example, division of labor or the social roles of individuals during this period. In order to directly link cultural objects to specific individuals and thus gain deeper insights into Paleolithic ...

  Graphics  //  Video Traces of sex hormones extracted from a woolly mammoth's tusk provide the first direct evidence that adult males experienced musth, a testosterone-driven episode of heightened aggression against rival males, according to a new University of Michigan-led study.   In male elephants, elevated testosterone during musth was previously recognized from blood and urine tests. Musth battles in extinct relatives of modern elephants have been inferred from skeletal injuries, broken tusk tips and other indirect lines of evidence.   But the new study, scheduled ...

About The Study: The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis of secondary data from 40 studies suggest that the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against laboratory-confirmed Omicron or Delta infection and symptomatic disease rapidly wanes over time after the primary vaccination cycle and booster dose. These results can inform the design of appropriate targets and timing for future vaccination programs.  Authors: Piero Poletti, Ph.D., of the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento, Italy, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this ...

Menlo Park, Calif. – Photosynthesis plays a crucial role in shaping and sustaining life on Earth, yet many aspects of the process remain a mystery. One such mystery is how Photosystem II, a protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water, producing the oxygen we breathe. Now researchers from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, together with collaborators from Uppsala University and Humboldt University and other institutions have succeeded in cracking a key secret of Photosystem II. Using SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light ...

About The Study: In this study that included 240,000 individuals, the most common causes of hospitalization in people with depression were endocrine, musculoskeletal, and vascular diseases, not psychiatric disorders. These findings suggest that depression should be considered as a target for the prevention of physical and mental disease. Authors: Philipp Frank, Ph.D., of University College London, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.0777) Editor’s ...