SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks involving care homes with fully vaccinated residents have been reported across Germany. In order to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon, a team of researchers from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin used an outbreak at a Berlin-based facility to analyze virus-related data and study the immune responses of elderly residents following vaccination. The researchers' data, which have been published in Emerging Infectious Diseases*, confirm vaccine effectiveness in the elderly. However, they also indicate a delayed and slightly reduced immune response. In light of their findings, the researchers emphasize the need to vaccinate both caregivers and close contacts in order to better protect this high-risk group. The BioNTech/Pfizer ...

Research combining systematic observations with cosmological simulations has found that, surprisingly, black holes can help certain galaxies form new stars. On scales of galaxies, the role of supermassive black holes for star formation had previously been seen as destructive - active black holes can strip galaxies of the gas that galaxies need to form new stars. The new results, published in the journal Nature, showcase situations where active black holes can, instead, "clear the way" for galaxies that orbit inside galaxy groups or clusters, keeping those galaxies from having their star formation disrupted as they fly through the surrounding intergalactic gas. Active black holes are primarily thought to have a destructive influence on their surroundings. As they blast ...

At a classical second-order phase transition, condensed matter systems acquire long-range order upon cooling below the transition temperature, and the properties near the transition are driven by thermal fluctuations. These behaviors have been long explained by the Landau theory of phase transitions, which leads to the notion of universality, whereby systems with very different microscopic constituents exhibit certain universal macroscopic behaviors close to a phase transition. Some condensed matter systems however can be tuned so that the phase transition is suppressed to zero temperature at a quantum critical point (QCP), where the behaviors are no longer driven by thermal fluctuations, but by quantum fluctuations arising as a consequence of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Heavy ...

North Carolina State University researchers continue to track the evolution of different strains of the plant pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s, which set down roots in the United States before attacking Europe. NC State plant pathologists studied the genomes of about 140 pathogen samples - historic and modern - from 37 countries on six continents to track the evolution of differing strains of Phytophthora infestans, a major cause of late-blight disease on potato and tomato plants. The study, published in Scientific Reports, shows that the historic lineage called FAM-1 was found in ...

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines applied in national vaccination programs protect against most cancers associated with oncogenic, high-risk (hr) HPV types. Two recent studies demonstrate the impact of gender-neutral HPV vaccination in the overall protection against hrHPV infections already with low vaccination coverage. More than 30 000 12-15-year-old Finnish girls and boys participated in a community-randomized trial that evaluated the impact of gender-neutral vs. girls-only HPV16/18 vaccination in the two school years of 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 in 33 communities. To evaluate the occurrence of HPV infections, pre- and post-vaccination serum samples collected in the same communities were used to measure the antibodies against ...

A new high-performance plastic foam developed from whey proteins can withstand extreme heat better than many common thermoplastics made from petroleum. A research team in Sweden reports that the material, which may be used for example in catalysts for cars, fuel filters or packaging foam, actually improves its mechanical performance after days of exposure to high temperatures. Reporting in Advanced Sustainable Systems, researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm say the research opens the door to using protein-based foam materials in potentially tough environments, such as filtration, ...

WESTMINSTER, Colorado - June 06, 2021 - Many invasive plants are expanding their growing range in response to climate change, making early detection and rapid response more critical than ever. Limited resources, though, can make it impossible to track and manage every range-shifting species. To help invasive species managers bring focus their efforts, a team from the University of Massachusetts suggests prioritizing potential invaders based on the threat they represent. In a research project featured in the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management, the team explored data on 87 plant species that are projected ...

A plant-based diet appears to afford significant protection to rats bred to become hypertensive on a high-salt diet, scientists report. When the rats become pregnant, the whole grain diet also protects the mothers and their offspring from deadly preeclampsia. Although we have all heard to avoid the salt shaker, an estimated 30-50% of us have a significant increase in blood pressure in response to high-salt intake, percentages that are even higher and more impactful in Blacks. The two new studies provide more evidence that the gut microbiota, which contains trillions of microorganisms that help us digest food and plays a key role ...

In cultures that place a high value on conventional gender norms, particularly those that prize men as the breadwinners in a family, their unemployment plays an outsized role in whether a romantic relationship ultimately succeeds or fails. That's according to new research from sociologists Pilar Gonalons-Pons of the University of Pennsylvania and Markus Gangl of Goethe University Frankfurt. They published their findings in the journal END ...

Haifa, Israel June 11, 2021 - Using an ultrafast transmission electron microscope, researchers from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology have, for the first time, recorded the propagation of combined sound and light waves in atomically thin materials. The experiments were performed in the Robert and Ruth Magid Electron Beam Quantum Dynamics Laboratory headed by Professor Ido Kaminer, of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the Solid State Institute. Single-layer materials, alternatively known as 2D materials, are in themselves novel materials, solids consisting of a single layer of atoms. Graphene, the first 2D material discovered, was isolated for the first time in 2004, an achievement ...

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine (KSOM) of USC are among the contributors to a large-scale ethnically diverse genetic study that has expanded what we know about potential causes of type 2 diabetes. The research, published in Nature Genetics, was conducted by the international MAGIC collaboration, made up of 400 global academics and led by researchers at the University of Exeter. The study, a genome-wide meta-analysis, has identified more regions of the genome that are linked to blood glucose and insulin levels, features that contribute to the ...

The build-up of calcium in a major blood vessel is linked with a 39 per cent higher risk of serious falls in older women, new Edith Cowan University (ECU) research has found. This calcium build-up, known as abdominal aortic calcification (AAC), is a hardening of the abdomen's largest artery, which can be identified early on a commonly used bone density machine scan. The study's findings could help health professionals to identify people at risk of serious falls early to prevent future falls and their potentially life changing consequences. Foiling future falls Falls are a growing public health concern, causing the deaths of an estimated 680,000 people globally each year. They are also one of ...

Hokkaido University researchers have developed a simple method that converts existing generic polymers into luminescent polymers using mechanical force. Researchers from Hokkaido University have successfully developed a new method to give luminescent properties to generic polymers, such as polystyrene and polyethylene. The technique, which was published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, makes it possible to easily prepare luminescent polymers without using complicated organic synthetic methods. "Luminescent polymers are widely used in modern society, in applications such as organic lasers, solar cells, sensors and bioimaging, but their preparation often requires multiple chemical synthesis steps, which are both time ...

The biophysical modelling study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, challenges outdated public health guidance that discourages fan use in temperatures higher than 35 degrees Celsius / 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Based on human studies carried out at the University of Sydney's Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory, the researchers developed a model to determine the humidity-dependent temperature thresholds at which fans could become detrimental, providing conditions that exacerbate heat stress. "The effectiveness of a fan depends on temperature and ...

In the field of quantum measurement, weak values, introduced in 1988 by Aharonov, Albert and Vaidman (AAV), represent undoubtedly one of the most intriguing and puzzling paradigm, with many properties in sharp contrast with respect to traditional (projective) quantum measurements. In fact, by weakening the coupling between measured particle and measuring device, and exploiting suitable pre- and postselection, AAV demonstrated that it was possible to obtain a value of 100 while (weakly) measuring the spin of a ½-spin particle. Such a result was obtained after averaging on multiple measurements on identically pre- and postselected ...

The gold standard in functional brain imaging for over two decades, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has transformed the landscape of research and clinical care. Yet, because of its cost and functional limitations, scientists have continued to look for new ways to see into the human brain. Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), with the help of patients recovering from traumatic brain injury, have now demonstrated an alternative way to produce highly detailed images of the human brain. Their work, published in END ...

BURLINGTON, VT -- Findings from a study on the feasibility of addressing anxiety, pain and stress with Olfactory Virtual Reality (OVR) -- a new form of VR that incorporates the sense of smell into its augmented reality -- paint a clearer picture for clinical psychiatrists about how it could be used to safely and effectively help mental health and mood disorders. What's more, it holds promise for improved access and inclusion of patients impacted by physical limitations or constraints, such as patient mobility, comorbidities and safety. Building on previous research proving VR's effectiveness in "distraction for pain and medical procedures, relaxation and calming, and immersion therapy for trauma, PTSD and ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (June 11, 2021) -- In recent years, community science--also known as citizen science--has become a global phenomenon, engaging millions of people through wildlife observation platforms like END ...

The internet era that we live in depends completely on the transfer of vast information over optical fibers. Optical fibers are literally everywhere. In fact, the overall length of optical fibers installed on our planet is sufficient to reach planet Uranus and back. However, the transfer of information from point A to point B is not enough. The information that we send and receive must also be processed. Light waves take up an increasing role in addressing that task as well. In addition, optical fibers can do more for us than just relay information: They constitute an exceptional sensing platform. Optical fibers support measurements from a long stand-off distance, simply installed within structures, ...

Researchers from University of Adelaide published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines how advertising can increase the informativeness of a firm's stock price by reducing its stock price synchronicity. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Tarred with the Same Brush? Advertising Share of Voice and Stock Price Synchronicity" and is authored by Chee Cheong, Arvid Hoffmann, and Ralf Zurbruegg. Firms are sometimes "tarred with the same brush" by investors instead of being traded based on firm-specific information. ...

Earth's atmosphere has a budget, and when expenses outpace savings, secondary aerosols form in areas of excessive pollution. Greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere, and free radicals bond to the molecules, rendering them inert. But when there are more pollution molecules than free radicals, they are left to recombine and form ozone and visible particulate matter -- smog and haze. The precise mechanisms underlying this atmospheric oxidation capacity are not well understood, leaving the process inadequately described or completely missed in research, according to Yuesi Wang, professor with the State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and ...

PHILADELPHIA-- The prevalence of genetic mutations associated with breast cancer in Black and white women is the same, according to a new JAMA Oncology study of nearly 30,000 patients led by researchers in the Basser Center for BRCA at the Abramson Cancer Center. About five percent of both Black and white women have a genetic mutation that increases their risk of breast cancer. "The findings challenge past, smaller studies that found Black women face a greater genetic risk and the suggestion that race should be an independent factor when considering genetic testing," said first author Susan Domchek, MD, executive director of the Basser Center for BRCA. "We shouldn't make changes to testing guidelines based on race alone. Rather, our efforts should ...

The Multivariable Integrated Evaluation (MVIE) method can help meteorologists to quantitatively evaluate the overall performance of a climate model in simulating multiple variables like air temperature, precipitation, and vector wind, against observed ones. Recently, researchers from Nanjing University and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a simple-to-use Multivariable Integrated Evaluation Tool (MVIETool) coded with Python/NCL to facilitate climate model evaluation and models inter-comparison, improving the MVIE method. The study was published in Geoscientific Model Development. "The improved MVIE method can provide a more comprehensive and precise evaluation of climate model performance. With the support of ...

Optical solitons are nonlinear optical wave-packets that can maintain their profile during the propagation even in the presence of moderate perturbations, offering useful applications in optical communications, all-optical information processing as well as ultrafast laser techniques. The interaction between optical solitons exhibit many particle-like properties, and has been widely investigated for decades. Particularly, the bound-states of optical solitons in nonlinear dissipative systems, as a result of balanced interactions, have been found to manifest unique matter-light analogies and are epitomized by the "soliton molecules" - compact ...

Male infertility affects more than 20 million men globally and is a contributing cause to around 50% of infertility in couples. Frequently, male infertility is the result of defects in the sperm tail, the flagellum, which allows the sperm to swim toward an egg. Males with severe infertility can experience multiple sperm malformations, including flagella that are shortened, irregular, coiled or even absent, preventing them from swimming. In humans, several genetic mutations lead to malformed sperm, including those affecting the sheath that covers the sperm; the mitochondria, which power sperm as they swim; and ...