Access to mobile technology is extremely common in the United States, so much so that it is hard to imagine daily life without it. More than 86% of Americans report using their smartphone as their primary source of obtaining information. Low- and middle-income countries that do not have easy access to digital media face deficits in receiving information, including knowledge related to health.   A recent study by Dongqing Wang, assistant professor in the Department of Global and Community Health, evaluated the access to digital media and devices, such as mobile phones, computers, tablets, social media, and the internet, among adolescents in sub-Saharan ...

Modeling the emergence and spread of biological threats isn’t as routine as forecasting the weather, but scientists in two of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) national laboratories were awarded funding to try to make it so. DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories were one of the three projects to receive a total of $5 million from DOE to advance computational tools to better prepare for natural and human-created biological threats. The laboratories will work together to harness Sandia’s algorithms of real-world outcomes to Argonne’s high performance models that address spread ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Last summer, researchers at Michigan State University reported that one in five Michigan adults, or about 1.7 million people, don’t want children and therefore are child-free. Although that number was surprisingly large to many data has now been confirmed in a follow-up study. “We found that 20.9% of adults in Michigan do not want children, which closely matches our earlier estimate of 21.6%, and means that over 1.6 million people in Michigan are child-free,” said Jennifer Watling Neal, MSU professor of psychology ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2023 MINNEAPOLIS – People who have sleep problems may be more likely to have a stroke, according to a study published in the April 5, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Sleep problems included getting too much or too little sleep, taking long naps, having poor quality sleep, snoring, snorting and sleep apnea. In addition, those who had five or more of these symptoms had an even greater risk of stroke. The study does not show that sleeping problems cause stroke. It only shows an association. “Not only do our results suggest that individual sleep problems ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2023 MINNEAPOLIS – Among those living with Parkinson’s disease, Black, Hispanic and Asian people were found to have a lower health-related quality of life than white people, according to a new study published in the April 5, 2023, online issue of Neurology® , the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Health-related quality of life is a measure of a person’s level of comfort, health and happiness. Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system that causes uncontrolled movements, stiffness and loss of balance. It can be debilitating. ...

HERSHEY, Pa. — Whether you’re afraid of dogs, needles or enclosed spaces, one of the most effective interventions for this type of anxiety disorder is exposure therapy in which you confront your fear in a safe environment. A new study led by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine finds that exposure therapy is also a promising treatment for adolescents with eating disorders. They found that exposure to feared foods — such as candy bars and pizza — helped kids who were in a partial hospitalization program for eating disorders experience decreased anxiety toward food. “As ...

AMHERST, Mass. – It’s the spines. This is the conclusion of two new papers, led by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, showing that the spiny pollen from plants in the sunflower family (Asteraceae) both reduces infection of a common bee parasite by 81 – 94% and markedly increases the production of queen bumble bees. The research, appearing in Functional Ecology and Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, provides much-needed food for thought in one of the most ...

Seismic arrays deployed in California’s Long Beach and Seal Beach areas detected more than a thousand tiny earthquakes over eight months, many of them located at surprisingly shallow depths of less than two kilometers below the surface. The findings, reported in Seismological Research Letters, confirm that the region’s portion of the Newport-Inglewood fault splays widely at these shallow depths, showing for the first time with seismic evidence that it may spread out by more than a kilometer. The destructive 1933 magnitude 6.4 Long Beach earthquake may have ruptured in part on the Newport-Inglewood fault. ...

People misremember events within just seconds, often re-shaping their memories to fit their expectations ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0283257 Article Title: Seeing Ɔ, remembering C: Illusions in short-term memory Author Countries: The Netherlands, Canada Funding: AKS is grateful to the European Research Council (ERC-2020-ADG, grant 1010192654) for support. END ...

Hypergentrification of NYC neighborhoods is associated with better mental health for White populations, but not among Black and Latino populations ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0283191 Article Title: Can changing neighborhoods influence mental health? An ecological analysis of gentrification and neighborhood-level serious psychological distress—New York City, 2002–2015 Author Countries: USA Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. END ...

Researchers tend to co-author with individuals of the same gender, partly because of demography, norms and gender representation, but seemingly also through personal preference ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0283106 Article Title: Gender-based homophily in collaborations across a heterogeneous scholarly landscape Author Countries: USA Funding: This research was supported by the Royalty Research Fund Grant #A118374 awarded to EE (PI) and CL (co-PI), National Science Foundation Grant #1735194 awarded to JW (co-PI), and National Science Foundation SMA 19-52069 to CTB. https://www.washington.edu/research/or/royalty-research-fund-rrf/; ...

Smartphone plant identification apps may not be accurate enough to be relied on, especially in avoiding toxic plants when foraging ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0283386 Article Title: A repeatable scoring system for assessing Smartphone applications ability to identify herbaceous plants Author Countries: Ireland, UK Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. END ...

A new review of previously published studies on methods for reducing conspiracy beliefs has shown that most of these methods are ineffective, but that those focused on fostering critical thinking or an analytical mindset show some promise. Cian O’Mahony of University College Cork, Ireland, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on April 5. Evidence from prior studies suggests that belief in conspiracy theories can be associated with harmful consequences, such as—in the case of ...

DNA and associated proteins in active regions of the genome are condensed but behave like a viscous liquid at the molecular level. This finding greatly increases our understanding of the physical nature of expressed genome regions in living human cells. The human genome DNA has a remarkable capacity for compaction. When 46 sets of human chromosomes are stretched end to end, they collectively reach two meters in length but are somehow arranged in a nucleus with only about ten micrometers in diameter. To fit inside the nucleus, the strands of DNA are wrapped ...

Researchers have developed a way to create photonic time crystals and shown that these bizarre, artificial materials amplify the light that shines on them. These findings, described in a paper in Science Advances, could lead to more efficient and robust wireless communications and significantly improved lasers. Time crystals were first conceived by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek in 2012. Mundane, familiar crystals have a structural pattern that repeats in space, but in a time crystal, the pattern repeats in time instead. While some physicists were ...

Embargoed: Not for Release Until 2:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time Wednesday, 05 April 2023. TUSCALOOSA, Ala. —  Through global-scale seismic imaging of Earth’s interior, research led by The University of Alabama revealed a layer between the core and the mantle that is likely a dense, yet thin, sunk ocean floor, according to results published today in Science Advances. Seen only in isolated patches previously, the latest data suggests this layer of ancient ocean floor may cover the core-mantle boundary. Subducted underground long ago as the Earth’s plates shifted, this ultra-low velocity zone, or ULVZ, is denser than the rest ...

A new review of methods for reducing conspiracy beliefs has shown that most methods are ineffective, but that those focused on fostering critical thinking or an analytical mindset show some promise. Led by researchers at University College Cork (UCC), the study is the first comprehensive review of the effectiveness of various conspiracy interventions. It is published in PLOS ONE.  While holding conspiracy beliefs has been associated with several detrimental social, personal, and health consequences, little research has been dedicated to systematically reviewing the methods that could reduce conspiracy beliefs. To ...

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Infections of the middle ear, the air-filled space behind the eardrum that contains the tiny vibrating bones of hearing, annually affect more than 700 million people worldwide. Children are especially prone to ear infections, with 40% of them developing recurrent or chronic infections that can lead to complications like impaired hearing, speech and language delays, perforations in their eardrums, and even life-threatening meningitis. As a treatment, doctors may surgically insert ear tubes knowns as “tympanostomy tubes” (TTs) into the eardrum to create an opening between the ear canal ...

Memphis, Tenn.—April 5, 2023) Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital revealed that human ribosomes decode messenger RNA (mRNA) 10 times slower than bacterial ribosomes, but do so more accurately. The study, published today in Nature, used a combination of field-leading structural biology approaches to better understand how ribosomes work. The scientists pinpointed where the process slows down in humans, which will be useful information for developing new therapeutics for cancer and infections.    Ribosomes are ...

The scientists designed a special cell in order to observe the transport of lithium-ions between the anode and the cathode in a solid-state Lithium-Sulfur battery. Since lithium can hardly be detected with x-ray methods, HZB physicists Dr. Robert Bradbury and Dr. Ingo Manke examined the sample cell with neutrons, which are extremely sensitive to lithium. In conjunction with Dr. Nikolay Kardjilov, HZB, they used neutron radiography and neutron tomography methods on the CONRAD2 instrument at the Berlin neutron source BER II1. Groups from Giessen (JLU), Braunschweig (TUBS) and Jülich (FZJ) were also involved in the work.  Lithium ...

Natural disasters can devastate a region, abruptly killing the species that form an ecosystem’s structure. But how this transpires can influence recovery. While fires scorch the landscape to the ground, a heatwave leaves an army of wooden staves in its wake. Storm surges and coral bleaching do something similar underwater. UC Santa Barbara scientists investigated how these two kinds of disturbances might affect coral reefs. They found that coral struggles more to recover from bleaching than from storms, ...

Even after three years since the emergence of COVID-19, much remains unknown about how it causes severe disease, including the widespread organ damage beyond just the lungs. Increasingly, scientists are learning that organ dysfunction results from damage to the blood vessels, but why the virus causes this damage is unclear. Now a multidisciplinary team of Emory researchers has discovered what they believe is the key molecular pathway. Results of their study, published today in Nature Communications, show that COVID-19 damages the cells lining the smallest blood vessels, choking off blood flow. These results could pave the way for new treatments to save lives at a time when hundreds ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the inequality in American health care systems, which consistently neglect the needs of underserved communities, leaving them without access to quality care. A commentary published in Population Health Management highlights the need for a transformational change in our health care systems to advance health equity and address structural racism and health disparities affecting wellbeing. Click here to read the article now. Coauthors Dr. Jonathan B. Perlin, President ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Teens’ trust in the news they consume on social media – or lack of it – may be key to whether it supports or detracts from their well-being, according to Cornell-led psychology research. Surveying nearly 170 adolescents and young adults from the U.S. and U.K. early in the pandemic, the researchers found that those more trusting of the COVID-19 information they saw on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok were more likely to feel it was empowering, while those less trusting were more likely to find it stressful. The findings highlight the need for news literacy programs to help young people discern fact-based, trustworthy sources from misinformation ...

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced today that Monica P. Medina, the first diplomat in the U.S. designated to advocate for global biodiversity, has been named WCS President and CEO, effective June 1, 2023. Medina, current Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment, and Science; and Special Envoy for Biodiversity and Water Resources will serve until April 30, 2023, at the U.S. Department of State. Medina ushered in a new era of environmental diplomacy as a foreign policy priority at the State Department. She will join WCS to lead its mission to save wildlife and wild places, harnessing the power of its four zoos, an aquarium, and its Global ...