During the COVID-19 pandemic, people who recognize the connections they share with others are more likely to wear a mask, follow health guidelines and help people, even at a potential cost to themselves, a new University of Washington study shows. Indeed, an identification with all humanity, as opposed to identification with a geographic area like a country or town, predicts whether someone will engage in "prosocial" behaviors particular to the pandemic, such as donating their own masks to a hospital or coming to the aid of a sick person. The study, published March 10 in PLOS ONE, is drawn from about 2,500 responses, from more than 80 countries, to an online, international ...

Images As far back as the Greek historian Herodotus, a group of people called the Scythians were considered highly mobile warrior nomads. Scythian-era people lived across Eurasia from about 700 BCE to 200 BCE, and have long been considered highly mobile warriors who ranged widely across the steppe grasslands. Herodotus describes Scythian populations as living in wagons and engaging in raiding and warfare, and this view has persisted throughout history--supported by archeologists' observations of similar styles of horse harnesses, weapons, burial mounds and animal style motifs throughout ...

A study conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo in Brazil shows that competition for nutrients and lack of cooperation among bacteria of the species Escherichia coli in the same population and in situations of food scarcity prevent mutants that are better adapted to the environment from flourishing, except those that organize in small groups. The phenomenon masks the emergence of novel bacterial variants, making the mutation rate seem lower than it is in fact. Mutants constantly emerge and accumulate from one generation to the next. Mutation frequency determines the evolution of a given species. Understanding ...

The legalization of cannabis and the arrival of nonmedical fentanyl are fundamentally changing drug markets in North America. A large part of these changes relates to the ability to produce large quantities of the drugs at low costs, which has slashed wholesale prices for both drugs and retail prices for cannabis. A new analysis explores the effects of these changes on use. The analysis concludes that sharp declines in production costs for cannabis and opioids could dramatically reduce the price per dose for consumers in ways that alter patterns of use and dependence. The analysis, by a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), is published in the International Journal of Drug Policy. "Historical analogies suggest that very large ...

On December 6, 2016, a high-energy particle called an electron antineutrino was hurtling through space at nearly the speed of light. Normally, the ghostly particle would zip right through the Earth as if it weren't even there. But this particle just so happened to smash into an electron deep inside the South Pole's glacial ice. The collision created a new particle, known as the W- boson. That boson quickly decayed, creating a shower of secondary particles. The whole thing played out in front of the watchful detectors of a massive telescope buried in the Antarctic ice, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. This enabled IceCube ...

MAYWOOD, IL - A recent Loyola Medicine study found that reducing the standard dose of IV-administered ketamine in half is as effective as the larger, standard dose in reducing pain in adults. Ketamine is known to provide pain relief comparable to opioid medications, which are highly addictive. In the recent study, appearing in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine, researchers studied 98 patients, ages 18 to 59, who presented to the emergency department with acute, moderate to severe pain. The patients were randomized prospectively to receive either 0.15 mg/kg of ketamine (low dose) or 0.30 mg/kg (high dose). Patients ...

Drug developed by Northwestern scientists Fatal brain cancer has no current cure Drug is revolutionary new class of drugs applicable to other neurological diseases CHICAGO --- An early clinical trial in individuals with the deadly brain cancer, glioblastoma, showed an experimental spherical nucleic acid (SNA) drug developed by Northwestern University scientists was able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and trigger the death of tumor cells. This is the first time a nanotherapeutic has been shown to cross the blood-brain barrier when given through intravenous infusion and alter the genetic machinery of a tumor to cause cell death. The drug crossed the blood-brain barrier, ...

By analyzing more than a decade's worth of information on 55 crops, all dependent on pollinators, scientists have revealed that developed countries are particularly reliant on imported pollinator-dependent crops, while countries that export the majority of these crop types are major drivers of pollinator declines. Their assessment of the "virtual" exchange of pollinator services in the global food trade could help governments and agencies form new policies to preserve crop diversity and tackle biodiversity loss. In today's globalized world, human food consumption largely depends on the trade of crops and the intense use of resources such as water and land. Pollinators such as bees, ...

OSAKA, Japan - The hippocampus is the part of the brain that deals with information associated with spatial navigation and memory. For example, you are driving and despite the changing environment of different cars going at varying speeds, on and off ramps, distracting billboards, etc., you adjust your speed, glance only momentarily at the billboards, and navigate the roads in a smooth and timely manner. This is your hippocampus at work. It takes the input - a continuously changing environment - and helps turn it into the output - using memory of a road map to safely navigate your way. However, little is known about how information is distributed from the hippocampus to other brain regions that results in the output behaviour. A research team led by Lecturer Takuma Kitanishi and Professor ...

Social distancing not only helped slow the spread of COVID-19 -- it also may have prevented the transmission of an outbreak of a rare polio-like syndrome, according to Princeton University researchers. Though uncommon, acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is a critical spinal condition that causes weakness in the limbs, seriously diminishes motor function, and can lead to lifelong disabilities. The syndrome was first reported in the United States in 2012 and has been coming back every two years, hinting it could strike again in 2020. Using epidemiological surveillance tools, the researchers showed that an AFM outbreak was ...

Harnessing a predictive algorithm, Sang Woo Park and colleagues have mapped out new trends in the incidence of the respiratory virus enterovirus D68 in the U.S. since 2014. Their epidemiological study supports research that has linked enterovirus D68 to acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), a rare and mysterious paralyzing disease, and addresses critical gaps in knowledge of how enterovirus D68 has been spreading in the U.S. The analysis also suggests that social distancing interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic likely lowered the prevalence of AFM in 2020. Cases of the polio-like illness AFM, which rapidly results in ...

Adolescents and young adults may be more susceptible to COVID-19 than previously believed, according to analysis of cases in six U.S. states experiencing surges. INFORMATION: Article Title: Prevalence of COVID-19 in adolescents and youth compared with older adults in states experiencing surges Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. Competing Interests: The authors have declared no competing interests exist. Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0242587 ...

Individuals' willingness to engage in COVID-19 control measures is associated with their trust in the government, other citizens, and in particular science, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Stefano Pagliaro of University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy, and colleagues. The spread of SARS-CoV-2 since December 2019 has posed a severe public health threat to people around the world. As vaccines are being rolled out, behavioral changes are also necessary to counter the spread of the virus. These actions include both prescribed behaviors such as wearing masks, social distancing, and quarantining, as well as discretionary prosocial behaviors like donating to charities ...

New research conducted at the UNESCO World Heritage listed 'Plain of Jars' in Laos has established the stone jars were likely placed in their final resting position from as early as 1240 to 660 BCE. Sediment samples from beneath stone jars from two of the more than 120 recorded megalithic sites were obtained by a team led Dr Louise Shewan from the University of Melbourne, Associate Professor Dougald O'Reilly from the Australian National University (ANU) and Dr Thonglith Luangkoth from the Lao Department of Heritage. The samples were analysed using a technique called Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) to determine when sediment grains were ...

A new study, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that nitrogen-fixing trees play an underrecognized role in recovering tropical forests by enriching nutrient-poor soils with scarce elements such as phosphorus and molybdenum. Coauthor Sarah Batterman, a tropical forest ecologist at END ...

In previous research, ancient massacre sites found men who died while pitted in battle or discovered executions of targeted families. At other sites, evidence showed killing of members of a migrant community in conflict with previously established communities, and even murders of those who were part of religious rituals. But a more recent discovery by a research team -- that includes two University of Wyoming faculty members -- reveals the oldest documented site of an indiscriminate mass killing 6,200 years ago in what is now Potocani, Croatia. "The DNA, combined with the archaeological and skeletal evidence -- especially that ...

An international research team led by NUST MISIS has developed a new iron-cobalt-nickel nanocomposite with tunable magnetic properties. The nanocomposite could be used to protect money and securities from counterfeiting. The study was published in Nanomaterials. Presently, research on magnetic nanomaterials with controlled magnetic characteristics is one of the most promising fields. Due to their small size, as well as their excellent magnetic and electric properties these materials have a broad range of potential applications from mobile devices to space technologies. The new iron-cobalt-nickel nanocomposite was obtained by chemical precipitation, followed by a reduction process. "This ...

Researchers hope to use an agricultural pest's genetic code against it to prevent billions of dollars in annual losses in the United States. Stable flies, or Stomoxys calcitrans, are spotted, tan-colored flies found around the world. They are easily mistaken for the common housefly but for one notable distinction: They bite. "If you get one in your house and it bites you, it's a stable fly," said Joshua Benoit, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Cincinnati. Stable flies don't bite so much as chomp. They are the scourge of beachgoers in Florida and recreational boaters in upstate New York. According to Thomas Jefferson, they tormented signatories ...

DALLAS - March 10, 2021 - UT Southwestern scientists have identified key genes involved in brain waves that are pivotal for encoding memories. The END ...

Bacteria employ many different strategies to regulate gene expression in response to fluctuating, often stressful, conditions in their environments. One type of regulation involves non-coding RNA molecules called small RNAs (sRNAs), which are found in all domains of life. A new study led by researchers at the University of Illinois describes, for the first time, the impacts of sRNA interactions in individual bacterial cells. Their findings are reported in the journal Nature Communications, with the paper selected as an Editors' highlight article. Bacterial sRNAs are often involved in regulating stress responses using mechanisms that involve base-pairing ...

While neurological complications of COVID-19 in children are rare, in contrast to adults, an international expert review of positive neuroimaging findings in children with acute and post-infectious COVID-19 found that the most common abnormalities resembled immune-mediated patterns of disease involving the brain, spine, and nerves. Strokes, which are more commonly reported in adults with COVID-19, were much less frequently encountered in children. The study of 38 children, published in the journal Lancet, was the largest to date of central nervous system imaging manifestations of COVID-19 in children. "Thanks to a major international collaboration, we found that neuroimaging manifestations ...

When we recall a memory, we retrieve specific details about it: where, when, with whom. But we often also experience a vivid feeling of remembering the event, sometimes almost reliving it. Memory researchers call these processes objective and subjective memory, respectively. A new study from the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, shows that objective and subjective memory can function independently, involve different parts of the brain, and that people base their decisions on subjective memory -- how they feel about a memory -- more than on its accuracy. "The study distinguishes between ...

Aspirin is an established, safe, and low-cost medication in long-standing common use in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, and in the past a pain relief and fever reducing medication. The use of aspirin was very popular during the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic, several decades before in-vitro confirmation of its activity against RNA viruses. Studies showed that aspirin, in addition to its well-known anti-inflammatory effects, could modulate the innate and adaptive immune responses helping the human immune system battle some viral infections. With this information ...

Computer engineers at the world's largest companies and universities are using machines to scan through tomes of written material. The goal? Teach these machines the gift of language. Do that, some even claim, and computers will be able to mimic the human brain. But this impressive compute capability comes with real costs, including perpetuating racism and causing significant environmental damage, according to a new paper, "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? ?" The paper is being presented Wednesday, March 10 at the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency (ACM FAccT). This is the first exhaustive review of the literature surrounding the risks that come with rapid growth of language-learning technologies, said ...

Effective, specific, with a reversible and non-harmful action: the identikit of the perfect biomaterial seems to correspond to graphene flakes, the subject of a new study carried out by SISSA - International School for Advanced Studies of Trieste, Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) of Barcelona and the National Graphene Institute of the University of Manchester, in the framework of the European Graphene Flagship project. This nanomaterial has demonstrated the ability to interact with the functions of the nervous system in vertebrates in a very specific manner, interrupting the building up of a pathological process that leads ...