When do bees sting and how do they organise their collective defence behaviour against predators? An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Universities of Constance and Innsbruck has provided new insights into these questions. Their study, published in BMC Biology, combined behavioural experiments with an innovative theoretical modelling approach based on "Projective Simulation". It shows that individual bees decide whether to sting - or not - based on the presence and concentration of an alarm pheromone. The scientists suggest that each bee has a likelihood of stinging that is not constant, but shows at least two internal thresholds for the concentration of the pheromone: one to start stinging and one to stop stinging. The computational modelling also revealed how several environmental ...

A long-standing theory assumes that terrestrial plants could only have developed by entering into a symbiosis with fungi, whereby the two organisms exchange resources in a mutually beneficial way. A new study by an international group of scientists has now confirmed this theory. By studying a liverwort species (a bryophyte related to mosses), the scientists succeeded in demonstrating that a lipid transfer takes place between the plant and the fungus similar to that already known to exist in plants with stems and roots - so called vascular plants. The study was led by French researchers from the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and the Université de Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, in collaboration with the ...

Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have found strong evidence that warm ice - that is, ice very close in temperature to zero degrees Celsius - may fracture differently than the kinds of ice typically studied in laboratories or nature. A new study published in The Cryosphere takes a closer look at the phenomenon, studied at the world's largest indoor ice tank on Aalto's campus. Understanding how ice breaks is crucial for ensuring safe harbours and bridges in cool climates, as well as transportation through historically ice-heavy regions. As global warming brings changes to once-predictable seasonal conditions, the rules underpinning infrastructure ...

A paper published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine presents the results from a study which examined the use of an infrared thermal imaging camera as a novel non-invasive point-of-care tool for lymphatic filariasis lower-limb lymphoedema. Thermal imaging has been used for several decades in a wide range of medical disciplines, but this is the first time it has been used for filariasis or any skin neglected tropical disease (NTD). LSTM's Dr Louise Kelly-Hope led the research. She said: "Infrared thermal imaging presents an innovative and objective method for quantifying clinical change in filarial lymphoedema status by using naturally emitting infrared radiation to capture skin surface temperatures. This ...

A recent study finds that the vast majority of Black adolescents have experienced racism, that they experience anticipatory stress about experiencing racism again, and that their racial identity can influence that stress in a variety of ways. "We know that racism is stressful," says Elan Hope, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of psychology at North Carolina State University. "Part of that stress is anticipatory - waiting for the next racist thing to happen. But not everyone experiences this stress the same way. We wanted to know how racial identity may influence ...

Non-parents expand the range of their facial expressions in caring for infants among primates, a team of anthropologists has found. The study shows the ability, among non-relatives, to both decipher facial expressions and to be attuned to others' emotional states, revealing the evolutionary nature of communication. The research, which appears in the journal Evolution, focused on the relationship between alloparenting, or infant care by non-parents, and the adoption of detailed facial expressions across more than 30 species of primates. "Our results confirm previous work indicating ...

FinBIF, which is coordinated and developed by the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus of the University of Helsinki: digitises natural history specimens and produces digital DNA barcodes collects born-digital observation records of professionals and amateurs alike integrates data collated from different sources distributes the data mass as open data offers data management services, such as platforms for recording and publishing monitoring data and for reporting observations, to researchers, the environmental administration and the public Typically, different types of species data and the different stages of the data life cycle, that is, digitisation, collection, ...

Whether in desalination, water purification or CO2 separation, membranes play a central role in technology. The Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon has been working for several years on a new variant: it consists of special polymers that form pores of the same size on the nanometer scale. The materials to be separated, such as certain proteins, can literally slip through these pores. Because these separation layers are very thin and thus very fragile, they are bound to a spongey structure with much coarser pores, providing the structure with the necessary mechanical stability. "A special aspect is that these structures form in an act of self-organization," says Prof. Volker Abetz, director of the Hereon Institute of Membrane Research and professor of physical chemistry at the University ...

Current wireless networks such as Wi-Fi, LTE-Advanced, etc., work in the lower radio spectrum, below 6 GHz. Experts warn that soon this band will become congested due to mushrooming data traffic. It is calculated that by 2024, 17,722 million devices will be connected. To meet the growing, ubiquitous demand for wireless broadband connectivity, communication via the terahertz band (THz) (0.1 to 10 THz) is seen as a necessary choice for 6G networks and beyond, due to the large amount of available spectrum in these frequencies. A study published in the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications presents a new communication design that ...

Researchers from the Danish psychiatry research-project iPSYCH have contributed to identify 33 new genetic variants which, as it turns out, play a role in bipolar disorder. To achieve this, they have examined DNA profiles from 413,000 people. A number of scientific working groups are currently attempting to identify the genetic architecture underlying heritable and severe psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. One of these working groups is iPSYCH, Denmark's largest research project focusing on psychiatric disorders. Together with international colleagues, they have recently examined the genetic risk factors behind bipolar disorder. The research groups have examined DNA profiles from a total of 413,000 people of European ...

Washington, DC-- The cause of Earth's deepest earthquakes has been a mystery to science for more than a century, but a team of Carnegie scientists may have cracked the case. New research published in AGU Advances provides evidence that fluids play a key role in deep-focus earthquakes--which occur between 300 and 700 kilometers below the planet's surface. The research team includes Carnegie scientists Steven Shirey, Lara Wagner, Peter van Keken, and Michael Walter, as well as the University of Alberta's Graham Pearson. Most earthquakes occur ...

Abstract 803: Impact of social isolation and quarantine on the course of diabetes mellitus and its complications during Covid 19 pandemic in Adjara Region Country of Georgia Abstract 1337: Psychological distress in patients with hypocortisolism during mass quarantine for Covid-19 epidemic in Italy Studies reveal that social isolation and quarantine throughout the COVID-19 pandemic may have a detrimental impact on people living with pre-existing conditions. Social isolation and quarantine can have a detrimental impact on physical and mental health of people living with pre-existing conditions, according to two studies being presented ...

Tobacco use continues to be a primary contributor to the global burden of disease, causing an estimated 12% of deaths worldwide among people aged 30 and over. Four leading cardiovascular organizations - American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, European Society of Cardiology and World Heart Federation - today released a joint opinion calling for greater action at the global scale to end the tobacco epidemic once and for all. The organizations are urging governments to take immediate action to implement the World Health Organization's MPOWER framework, which outlines six essential policy approaches proven to reduce tobacco use: Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies; Protect people from tobacco smoke; Offer help to quit tobacco use; Warn about the dangers ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Time not only flies when you're having fun - sometimes anticipating a fun event makes it feel like it will be over as soon as it begins, a new study suggests. Researchers found that people judge future positive events as being both farther away as well as shorter in duration than negative or neutral events. Combining those two elements has a strange effect when people look forward to a positive event like a vacation, said Selin Malkoc, co-author of the study and associate professor of marketing at The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business. "The seemingly endless wait for the vacation ...

SAN RAMON, Calif., May 26, 2021--A new paper that has been accepted for publication in Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics, the peer-reviewed journal of The College of Optometrists (UK), furthers understanding of myopia control efficacy in the context of normal childhood eye growth. Axial Length Targets for Myopia Control (Chamberlain P, et al.) is now available online via END ...

REYKJAVIK, Iceland 26 May 2021 - Current vaccination programmes alone will have a limited effect in stopping the second wave of COVID infections in the US, according to a study conducted by scientists from Reykjavik University, University of Lyon, University of Southern Denmark and University of Naples Federico II, and published in the Nature Group journal Scientific Reports today. The findings suggest that strict social distancing and other non-pharmaceutical methods are still necessary to end the ongoing second wave in the US and prevent a new one from rising. The study fed real-world data on human mobility into a mathematical model previously used to predict the second wave of ...

Researchers have successfully detected the environmental DNA (eDNA *1) of the Argentine ant (*2) in surface soil samples from sites on Kobe's Port Island and in Kyoto's Fushimi District, two areas that have a long history of destruction caused by this invasive species. The research group included then graduate student YASASHIMOTO Tetsu and Associate Professor MINAMOTO Toshifumi of Kobe University's Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Visiting Professor OZAKI Mamiko of the Graduate School of Engineering, and NAKAJIMA Satoko, formally of the Kyoto Prefectural Institute of Public Health and Environment. This method can be used to enable scientists ...

A newly released scientific paper in Nature Publishing's Scientific Reports Journal has revealed unprecedented amounts of highly toxic mercury are deposited in the deepest trenches of the Pacific Ocean. The study, a multi-national effort involving scientists from Denmark, Canada, Germany and Japan, reports the first-ever direct measurements of mercury deposition into one of the logistically most challenging environments to sample on Earth, and the deepest at eight to 10 kilometers under the sea. Lead author Professor Hamed Sanei, Director of the Lithospheric Organic Carbon Laboratory (LOC) at the Department of Geoscience, ...

What information is retained in a memory over time, and which parts get lost? These questions have led to many scientific theories over the years, and now a team of researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Birmingham have been able to provide some answers. Their new study, which is published today in Nature Communications, demonstrates that our memories become less vibrant and detailed over time, with only the central gist eventually preserved. Moreover, this 'gistification' of our memories is boosted when we frequently recall our recent experiences. The work could have implications in a number of areas, including the nature of memories in post-traumatic stress disorder, the repeated questioning ...

The biological clock is present in almost all cells of an organism. As more and more evidence emerges that clocks in certain organs could be out of sync, there is a need to investigate and reset these clocks locally. Scientists from the Netherlands and Japan introduced a light-controlled on/off switch to a kinase inhibitor, which affects clock function. This gives them control of the biological clock in cultured cells and explanted tissue. They published their results on 26 May in Nature Communications. Life on Earth has evolved under a 24-hour cycle; of light and dark, hot and cold. 'As a result, our cells are synchronized to these 24-hour oscillations,' says Wiktor Szymanski, Professor of Radiological Chemistry at the University ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (May 26, 2021)--Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), which causes tingling and numbness in the hand, more commonly affects women than men and tends to peak around the age of menopause. A new study suggests the risk of severe CTS increases in women who underwent bilateral oophorectomy before menopause, and estrogen therapy didn't provide a protective effect. Study results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common nerve disorder in the upper body. Although predominately idiopathic in nature, an association with sex hormones has been suggested because of a higher incidence in women ...

Oncotarget published "Creation of a new class of radiosensitizers for glioblastoma based on the mibefradil pharmacophore" which reported that this group previously identified a calcium channel blocker, mibefradil, as a potential GBM radiosensitizer. They discovered that mibefradil selectively inhibits a key DNA repair pathway, alternative non-homologous end joining. Then, they initiated a phase I clinical trial that revealed promising initial efficacy of mibefradil, but further development was hampered by dose-limiting toxicities, including CCB-related cardiotoxicity, off-target hERG channel and cytochrome P450 enzymes interactions. Here, the authors show that mibefradil inhibits ...

Even among a large group of cancer survivors who were mostly insured, college educated and had annual incomes above the national average, up to 10% delayed care in the previous 12 months because they simply could not afford out of pocket expenses like copays and deductibles, investigators report. Being unable to get time off from work and being "nervous" about seeing a health care provider, were among the other frequently cited reasons for not always getting timely survivorship care, investigators at the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Cancer Center report in the journal Cancer Medicine. Investigators analyzed data from 5,426 cancer survivors who volunteered to share their information with the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program, a historic effort ...

The pandemic has increased older adults' willingness to receive the flu shot, new research shows. The study analyzed survey results of 4,501 Canadians over the age of 50 from ten provinces. Twenty per cent of 1,001 research participants aged 50 to 64 indicated they had not considered getting a flu shot, but were now more likely to given the impact of COVID-19. Of these respondents, 92 per cent inducated that they had not been vaccinated against influenza the year before. Of the 3,500 participants aged 65 and older, eight per cent reported that they had not originally planned to get a flu shot but were now more likely to receive it. "The pandemic has been ...

A hidden planetary crisis has long been neglected that is as serious as the disappearance of species and degradation of habitats. Genetic diversity, which reflects the variation in DNA within species and populations and is the key to their capacity to adapt in times of change, is being lost at an alarming rate. According to an article by 28 authors representing 16 countries, the loss of genetic diversity can affect resiliency in the face of environmental change and result in the loss of important services provided to society. Once gone, genetic diversity can take millennia to return. ...