Captive marmosets that listened in on recorded vocal interactions between other monkeys appeared to understand what they overheard - and formed judgements about one of the interlocutors as a result, according to behavioral analyses and thermal measurements that corresponded with the marmosets' emotional states. The findings suggest that the eavesdropping monkeys perceived these vocalizations as "conversations" rather than isolated elements and indicate that, on the whole, they prefer to interact with cooperative rather than noncooperative individuals. However, the researchers observed notable differences in how male or female and breeder or helper animals (those without their own offspring) reacted after eavesdropping. While behavioral ...

Scientists have developed a monitoring system based on commercial smartwatches that can detect movement issues and tremors in patients with Parkinson's disease. The system was tested in a study involving 343 patients - including 225 who the researchers followed for 6 months. The system gave evaluations that matched a clinician's estimates in 94% of the subjects. The findings suggest the platform could allow clinicians to remotely monitor the progression of a patient's condition and adjust medication plans accordingly to improve outcomes. Parkinson's disease is marked by a breakdown in voluntary movement ...

Participants in an international survey study reported greater willingness to reshare a call for social distancing if the message was endorsed by well-known immunology expert Anthony Fauci, rather than a government spokesperson or celebrity. Ahmad Abu-Akel of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and colleagues Andreas Spitz and Robert West of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, report these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on February 3. Previous research has extensively explored how to maximize the effectiveness of public health messages by altering their style and content. However, relatively few studies have examined the impact of spokesperson identity on the effectiveness of health messages, especially during crises like the ongoing COVID-19 ...

DALLAS - Feb. 3, 2021 - Inactivating a gene in young songbirds that's closely linked with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevents the birds from forming memories necessary to accurately reproduce their fathers' songs, a new study led by UT Southwestern shows. The findings, published online today in Science Advances, may help explain the deficits in speech and language that often accompany ASD and could eventually lead to new treatments specifically targeting this aspect of the disorder. Study leader Todd Roberts, Ph.D., associate professor of neuroscience and a member of the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at UT Southwestern, explains that the vocalizations that comprise a central part of human communication are relatively unique among ...

A novel artificial intelligence (AI) approach based on wireless signals could help to reveal our inner emotions, according to new research from Queen Mary University of London. The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, demonstrates the use of radio waves to measure heartrate and breathing signals and predict how someone is feeling even in the absence of any other visual cues, such as facial expressions. Participants were initially asked to watch a video selected by researchers for its ability to evoke one of four basic emotion types; anger, sadness, joy and pleasure. ...

(Boston)-- While a number of topical products designed to reduce the occurrence of sexually transmitted infections have been tested with largely disappointing results, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Mapp Biopharmaceutical have now found that MB66, a vaginal film product containing monoclonal antibodies against human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) and herpes simplex viruses types 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and 2), is safe and effective. HIV-1 and HSV-1 and 2 are relatively common sexually transmitted infections associated with significant illness and sometimes even death. Though antiviral drugs can suppress viral concentrations and dramatically slow ...

Humans continuously observe and evaluate interactions between third parties to decide with whom to interact in the future. But it is difficult to measure what information animals gain when they eavesdrop on vocal interactions between conspecifics: If they do understand such conversations, they do not necessarily exhibit behavioral expressions that can be easily observed. To overcome this hurdle, anthropologists from the University of Zurich created a study combining call simulations, thermography methods and behavioral preference measures. Using thermal imaging, the researchers were able to non-invasively measure temperature changes in the faces of marmoset monkeys to quantify ...

Narrowing of the trachea or the main bronchi due to injury or illness can end very badly. If patients get too little air,oxygen, they risk suffocating and often need medical help as quickly as possible. Surgeons insert stents made of medically usable silicone or metal as a way of treating these patients. Although they quickly bring relief, the implants also have disadvantages: Metal stents have to be removed surgically with some effort, which is a burden for the patients, while silicone stents often migrate away from the insertion site. The reason for this is that the implants are not adapted to a patient's anatomy. An ETH Zurich research team, composed of members of the Complex Materials and Drug Formulation and Delivery groups, has now developed an ...

New technology developed by the University of Bristol has the potential to accelerate uptake and development of on-chip diagnostic techniques in parts of the world where rapid diagnoses are desperately needed to improve public health, mortality and morbidity. Microfluidic devices underpin lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technologies which are developed to provide the rapid diagnoses at that are needed at point of care (POC) for the swift and effective treatment of many diseases. Researchers at Bristol have developed a fast, reliable and cost-effective alternative for producing the soft-lithographic moulds used for fabricating microfluidic devices, published in the journal ...

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 3, 2020 - In a recurring pattern of evolution, SARS-CoV-2 evades immune responses by selectively deleting small bits of its genetic sequence, according to new research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Since these deletions happen in a part of the sequence that encodes for the shape of the spike protein, the formerly neutralizing antibody can't grab hold of the virus, the researchers report today in Science. And because the molecular "proofreader" that usually catches errors during SARS-CoV-2 replication is "blind" to fixing deletions, they become cemented into the variant's genetic material. "You can't ...

Researchers have identified a pattern of deletions in the spike (S) glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 that can prevent antibody binding. Virus lineages featuring this mechanism are currently being transmitted between individuals globally, they say. Their results - reported after analyzing nearly 150,000 S gene sequences collected from many parts of the world - exhibit a form of virus "escape" that resulted from a common, strong selective pressure; for example, the authors identified at least nine instances where deletion variants arose in patients whose COVID-19 infections were persistent. So far, the strongest indicator of protection against SARS-CoV-2 appears to be humoral immunity, such as by antibodies, ...

WASHINGTON -- Researchers have developed a unique inkjet printing method for fabricating tiny biocompatible polymer microdisk lasers for biosensing applications. The approach enables production of both the laser and sensor in a room temperature, open-air environment, potentially enabling new uses of biosensing technologies for health monitoring and disease diagnostics. "The ability to use an inexpensive and portable commercial inkjet printer to fabricate a sensor in an ambient environment could make it possible to produce biosensors on-site as needed," said research team leader Hiroaki Yoshioka from Kyushu University in Japan. "This could help make biosensing widespread even in economically disadvantaged ...

Coffee rust is a parasitic fungus and a big problem for coffee growers around the world. A study in the birthplace of coffee - Ethiopia - shows that another fungus seems to have the capacity to supress the rust outbreaks in this landscape. "Coffee leaf rust is a fungal disease that is a problem for coffee growers around the world, especially on Arabica coffee, which accounts for three quarters of global coffee production and has the finest cup quality. There is a need to learn more about natural solutions instead of just applying pesticides," says Kristoffer Hylander, professor at the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP) at Stockholm ...

Many nations place drugs into various schedules or categories according to their risk of being abused and their medical value. At times, drugs are rescheduled to a more restrictive category to reduce misuse by constricting supply. A new study examined lessons from past efforts worldwide to schedule and reschedule drugs to identify general patterns and found that rescheduling drugs can lower use as well as the dangers associated with the drug. The findings have implications for policy. The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), is published in the International Journal of Drug Policy. "Our review suggests that rescheduling drugs can often disrupt trends in prescribing, use, or harms," says Jonathan Caulkins, professor of operations research and public policy at CMU's ...

In the first longitudinal study to follow Georgia pre-K students through middle school, Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett, associate dean for academic programs and professor in UGA's Mary Frances Early College of Education, found that participating in pre-K programs positively predicted mathematical achievement in students through seventh grade. "Students who participated in the study were twice as likely to meet the state standards in their mathematics achievement," said Neuharth-Pritchett. "School becomes more challenging as one progresses through the grades, and so if ...

Russian enterprises have limited opportunities to carry out technological modernisation on their own. Their technological portfolios reveal a high dependence on imported solutions and a limited deployment of their own developments, HSE University researchers discovered. In recent years, there has been a growing demand for the use of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) in Russia. Between 2011 and 2018, the number of AMT used increased by 33%, and in 2018 they amounted to almost 255,000 units in absolute terms. Meanwhile, innovation strategies focused on independent development of novel manufacturing solutions are not widespread in Russia. Fewer than ...

GROUND-BREAKING research from the University of Huddersfield, announced ahead of World Cancer Day 2021, proves that scalp cooling physically protects hair follicles from chemotherapy drugs. It is the world's first piece of biological evidence that explains how scalp cooling actually works and the mechanism behind its protection of the hair follicle. The study, entitled 'Cooling-mediated protection from chemotherapy drug-induced cytotoxicity in human keratinocytes by inhibition of cellular drug uptake', has been published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE . The data was part of an innovative hair follicle research project carried out by the dedicated Scalp Cooling ...

Antimicrobial packaging is being developed to extend the shelf life and safety of foods and beverages. However, there is concern about the transfer of potentially harmful materials, such as silver nanoparticles, from these types of containers to consumables. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces illustrate that silver embedded in an antimicrobial plastic can leave the material and form nanoparticles in foods and beverages, particularly in sweet and sugary ones. Some polymers containing nanoparticles or nanocomposites can slow ...

In the Namib Desert in southwestern Africa, the Kuiseb River, an ephemeral river which is dry most of the year, plays a vital role to the region. It provides most of the vegetation to the area and serves as a home for the local indigenous people, and migration corridor for many animals. The overall vegetation cover increased by 33% between 1984 and 2019, according to a Dartmouth study published in Remote Sensing . The study leveraged recent drone imagery and past satellite imagery to estimate past vegetation cover in this linear oasis of the Kuiseb River, a fertile area in the middle of one of the driest deserts ...

Some of the most commonly used drugs for treating hereditary breast and ovarian cancers may not work the way we thought they did, according to new University of Colorado Boulder research. The paper, published February 2 in the journal Nature Communications, sheds new light on how they do work and could open the door to new next-generation medications that work better, the authors said. "Despite the success of these drugs which sell in the billions of dollars per year and treat many thousands of patients, there are many unknowns about their potency and efficacy that if better understood ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A popular streaming service boasts a film inventory approaching 4,000 titles. When it's time to pick a movie, are you more likely to quickly make a decision or meticulously sift through the possibilities? Psychologists refer to those who search minimally for something to arrive at an adequate choice as "satisficers." It's the "maximizers," meantime, who search exhaustively for what might be considered as the perfect option. Previous studies exploring both strategies after making a choice often present satisficing as a more psychologically ...

An important bacterial disease that affects citrus trees and causes lesions, citrus canker has been effectively controlled by spraying copper. However standard management techniques involve spraying excessive amounts of copper and water without consideration for the size of the trees. "This technique resulted in a waste of resources as well as higher costs, detrimental environmental impact, and risk for development of copper resistant strains," explained plant pathologist Franklin Behlau, who recently published an article discussing a more sustainable approach to managing citrus canker. Behlau and his colleagues showed that it is possible to control citrus canker by spraying ...

The instrumental climate record is the cultural heritage of humankind, the result of the diligent work of many generations of people all over the world. However, the changes in the way in which temperature is measured, as well as the environment in which weather stations are located can produce spurious trends. An international study carried out by researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), the State Meteorology Agency and the University of Bonn (Germany) have succeeded in identifying the most reliable methods that help correct these trends. These "homogenization methods" are a key step in converting the enormous effort made by observers into reliable data about climate change. The results of this research, funded by ...

The inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris marks a new era for science policy in the U.S. and beyond. The new administration has inherited a global pandemic and worsening climate change, among other science-related issues. A cover story in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, delves into what this means for chemists and chemistry as a whole. One of the most pressing issues facing the Biden administration is the fight against climate change. Biden campaigned on net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and has laid out a sweeping plan to switch the U.S. to cleaner energy sources, which experts say ...

For decades, scientists have wrestled with rival theories to explain how interactions between species, like competition, influence biodiversity. Tracking microbial life across the planet, researchers from McGill University show that biodiversity does in fact foster further diversity in microbiomes that are initially less diverse. However, diversity rates plateau with increased competition for survival and space in more diverse microbiomes. Published in eLife, the findings could help scientists better understand how microbiomes - communities of micro-organisms living together in particular habitats like humans, animals and plants or even soils and oceans ...