An international team led by researchers from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Geneva has found that flash floods may triple across the Earth's "Third Pole" in response to ongoing climate change. Their findings were published in Nature Climate Change on May 6. The Hindu Kush-Himalaya, Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountain ranges are widely known as the "Third Pole" of the Earth. It contains the largest number of glaciers outside the polar regions. Due to global warming, the widespread and accelerated melting of glaciers over ...

Remote quantum distribution on the ground is limited because of the loss of photon in optical fibers. One solution for remote quantum communication lies in quantum memories: photons are stored in the long-lived quantum memory (quantum flash drive) and then quantum information is transmitted by the transportation of the quantum memory. Given the speed of aircrafts and high-speed trains, it is critical to increase the storage time of the quantum memories to the order of hours. In a new study published in Nature Communications, a research team led by Prof. LI Chuanfeng and Prof. ZHOU Zongquan from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) extended the storage time of the optical memories to over one hour. It broke the record of one minute achieved by German researchers in 2013, ...

Chinese researchers achieved 51.5dB nonreciprocal isolation in the atomic ensemble, which is the highest isolation ratio in the non-magnetic nonreciprocal field. They discussed the quantum noise problem in nonreciprocal devices for the first time. The result was published on Nature Communications on April 22, 2021. Nonreciprocity is an important basic concept in the optical field. The isolators and circulators derived from it are all indispensable components in the optical path. Faraday isolator based on circular birefringence of magneto-optical effect is widely used because of its easy construction, high isolation and low loss. However, in the integrated optical path, the traditional faraday isolator is subject to various limitations. ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Watching meaningful films - those that we find moving and poignant - can make us feel more prepared to deal with life's challenges and want to be a better person, a new study found. The findings point to one reason why people may choose to see movies that make them sad as well as happy and that may explore difficult subjects that aren't always uplifting. Researchers found that when people recalled watching meaningful films like The Shawshank Redemption and Up, they reported a variety of positive reactions, such as being better able to accept the human condition and make sense of problems in life. Those positive experiences were less likely to be reported when people thought about watching Hollywood fare like The Big Lebowski or Catch Me ...

TAMPA, Fla. (May 10, 2021) -- Blocking the fat-busting enzyme lipoxygenase with a synthetic inhibitor throws the immune system's innate inflammatory response out of whack, compromising cardiac repair during acute heart failure, USF Health researchers found. Their new preclinical study was published April 13 in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. Acute heart failure - triggered by a heart attack, severely irregular heartbeats, or other causes -- occurs suddenly when the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's demands. Following a heart attack or any cardiac injury, signals to immune cells called leukocytes ...

WASHINGTON - A neurologic pathway by which non-damaging but high frequency brain impact blunts normal brain function and causes long-term problems with learning and memory has been identified. The finding suggests that tailored drug therapy can be designed and developed to reactivate and normalize cognitive function, say neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center. The investigators, working with collaborators at the National Institutes of Health, had previously found that infrequent mild head impacts did not have an effect on learning and memory, but in their new study, reported May 10 in Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22744-6), the investigators found that when the frequency of these ...

How is it possible to move in the desired direction without a brain or nervous system? Single-celled organisms apparently manage this feat without any problems: for example, they can swim towards food with the help of small flagellar tails. How these extremely simply built creatures manage to do this was not entirely clear until now. However, a research team at TU Wien (Vienna) has now been able to simulate this process on the computer: They calculated the physical interaction between a very simple model organism and its environment. This environment is a liquid with a non-uniform ...

The morphological compatibility between flowers and insects was given in the famous textbook example of Darwin's orchids and hawkmoths. As in this example, many studies have shown that geographical variations in flower size match the size of insects in each region. In other words, studies have shown "flower-sized regional adaptation" in which large flowers evolve in areas pollinated by large insects and small flowers evolve in areas pollinated by small insects. However, when examining the genetic similarity between populations, are plants in each region more similar, or are plants with large ...

A team of researchers at the Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, in collaboration with Bielefeld University and Technical University Braunschweig in Germany, came closer to unraveling the complicated optical response of wide-bandgap semiconductor multiple quantum wells and how atomic-scale lattice vibration can generate free space terahertz emission. Their work provides a significant push towards the application of laser terahertz emission microscopes to nano-seismology of wide-bandgap quantum devices. Terahertz (THz) waves can be generated by ultrafast processes occurring in a material. By looking at THz emission, researchers have ...

Point-of-Care UltraSonography (POCUS) deployed during the emergency treatment of patients with acute dyspnea has enormous advantages over standard diagnostic pathways. This is the finding of a joint review conducted by Danube University Krems and MedUni Vienna and recently published in the prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine. It allows serious conditions to be identified more quickly so that appropriate treatment can be initiated. Working on behalf of the American College of Physicians, a joint study group from MedUni Vienna and Danube University Krems conducted a review of the value of Point-of-Care UltraSonography (POCUS) in patients with acute dyspnea (shortness of breath), with a view to drawing up a practical clinical treatment guideline. ...

End-of-life circuit boards, certain magnets in disc drives and electric vehicles, EV and other special battery types, and fluorescent lamps are among several electrical and electronic products containing critical raw materials (CRMs), the recycling of which should be made law, says a new UN-backed report funded by the EU. A mandatory, legal requirement to recycle and reuse CRMs in select e-waste categories is needed to safeguard from supply disruptions elements essential to manufacturers of important electrical and electronic and other products, says a European consortium behind the report, led by the Switzerland-based World Resources Forum. The CEWASTE consortium warns that access to the ...

Whether wastewater is full of "waste" is a matter of perspective. "Why is it waste?" asked Zhen (Jason) He, professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. "It's organic materials," He said, and those can provide energy in a number of ways. Then there's the other valuable resource in wastewater. Water. He's lab has developed one system that recovers both, filtering wastewater while creating electricity. Results from bench-scale trials were published May ...

As humans, the weather where we live influences our energy consumption. In climates where weather shifts from hot summers to very cold winters, humans consume more energy since the body has to work harder to maintain temperature. In much the same way, weather influences microbes such as bacteria and fungi in the soil. Seasonal fluctuations in soil temperature and moisture impact microbial activities that in turn impact soil carbon emissions and nutrient cycles. Microbes consume carbon as the source of energy. As microbes increase in quantity and activities, they consume more carbon which results in more carbon emissions and vice versa. In a modeling study published in Global Change Biology on May 10, San Diego State University ...

DALLAS, May 10, 2021-- Hospitalized COVID-19 patients with impaired first-phase ejection fraction were nearly 5 times more likely to die compared to patients with healthier measures of this early, often undetected sign of heart failure, according to new research published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal. First-phase ejection fraction is a measure of the left ventricular ejection fraction until the time of maximal ventricular contraction. Cardiovascular risk factors and/or disease have been recognized as COVID-19 risk factors that have a high negative impact on patient outcomes, since early in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Researchers ...

DALLAS, May 10, 2021 — Managing weight, blood pressure and cholesterol in children may help protect brain function in later life, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation. This is the first study to highlight that cardiovascular risk factors accumulated from childhood through mid-life may influence poor cognitive performance at midlife. Previous research has indicated that nearly 1 in 5 people older than 60 have at least mild loss of brain function. Cognitive deficits are known to be linked with cardiovascular risk factors, ...

DALLAS, May 10, 2021 — In a small study, researchers found college athletes who contracted COVID-19 rarely had cardiac complications. Most had mild COVID symptoms that did not require treatment, and in a small percentage of those with abnormal cardiac testing, there was no evidence of heart damage on special imaging tests. All athletes returned to sports without any health concerns, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation. In spring 2020, concerns about heart damage, especially inflammation, among athletes with COVID-19 led to recommendations for cardiac screening based on symptom severity before resuming training and competition. The preferred diagnostic test for heart inflammation is an MRI of the heart, ...

Low levels of serotonin in the brain are seen as a possible cause of depression and many antidepressants act by blocking a protein that transports serotonin away from the nerve cells. A brain imaging study at Karolinska Institutet now shows that the average level of the serotonin transporter increased in a group of 17 individuals who recovered from depression after cognitive behavioural therapy. The results are published in the journal Translational Psychiatry. "Our results suggest that changes to the serotonin system are part of the biology of depression and that this change is related to the episode rather than a static feature - a state rather than a trait," says the study's last author Johan Lundberg, researcher at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, ...

What has fluid physics to do with the spreading of the Corona virus? Whirlpools and pandemics seem to be rather different things, certainly in terms of comfort. Yet, newest findings about epidemic spreading come from Physics professor Björn Hof and his research group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), who specialize in fluids and turbulent flows. When early last year Björn Hof had to cancel his scheduled visit to Wuhan, his wife's hometown, his focus abruptly shifted to epidemic spreading. "My group normally investigates turbulent flows in pipes and channels", he explains, "Over the last 10 years we have shown that the onset of turbulence is described ...

Infertility affects females and males equally. In male infertility, azoospermia (a medical condition with no sperm in semen) is a major problem that prevents a couple from having a child. For the treatment of patients with azoospermia, testicular sperm extraction (TESE) is required to obtain mature sperms. When examined, histological specimens are typically given a score, called the Johnsen score, on a scale of 1 to 10, based on the histopathological features of the testis. "The Johnsen score has been widely used in urology since it was first reported 50 ...

Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have made several discoveries on the functioning mechanisms of the inner hair cells of the ear, which convert sounds into nerve signals that are processed in the brain. The results, presented in the scientific journal Nature Communications, challenge the current picture of the anatomical organisation and workings of the hearing organ, which has prevailed for decades. A deeper understanding of how the hair cells are stimulated by sound is important for such matters as the optimisation of hearing aids and cochlear implants for people with hearing loss. In ...

In 1884, Edwin Abbott wrote the novel Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions as a satire of Victorian hierarchy. He imagined a world that existed only in two dimensions, where the beings are 2D geometric figures. The physics of such a world is somewhat akin to that of modern 2D materials, such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides, which include tungsten disulfide (WS2), tungsten diselenide (WSe2), molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2). Modern 2D materials consist of single-atom layers, where electrons can move ...

UK landowners and conservationists welcome wider-spread use of Gene Conservation Units (GCUs) to help protect some of the rarest plants and insects, research at the University of York has shown. In particular the Great Yellow Bumblebee and the Mountain Ringlet Butterfly, which are at risk of further population decline, would benefit from Gene Conservation Units, currently only employed for forest trees and agricultural species or their relatives. Genetic diversity in these species is essential if they are to adapt to new, and often challenging, environmental conditions. Gene Conservation Units are areas of land managed to allow the recovery of species, and maintain evolutionary processes to enable them to adapt to environmental change. For tree species, ...

FRANKFURT. When the SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates, this initially only means that there is a change in its genetic blueprint. The mutation may lead, for example, to an amino acid being exchanged at a particular site in a viral protein. In order to quickly assess the effect of this change, a three-dimensional image of the viral protein is extremely helpful. This is because it shows whether the switch in amino acid has consequences for the function of the protein - or for the interaction with a potential drug or antibody. Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt and TU Darmstadt began networking internationally from the very start of the pandemic. Their goal: to describe the three-dimensional structures ...

Thousands of sharks have been illegally caught in a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Indian Ocean, new research shows. The MPA was created in 2010 around the Chagos Archipelago, also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), banning all fishing there. The new study examined information on illegal fishing in the MPA - a vast (640,000 km²/250,000 mi2) area containing pristine and remote reefs. Enforcement data suggests more than 14,000 sharks were caught in the MPA from 2010-20, but discussions with fishers in the region suggest the true number was "considerably ...

BEER-SHEVA, Israel May 10, 2021 - Researchers from Ben-Gurion University (BGU), together with American and German colleagues, have developed new "molecular tweezers" to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Their recently announced findings were published in Cell Chemical Biology. For years, medical professionals have struggled with bacterial infections becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. These molecular tweezers may be the key to battling one of greatest public health issues of the 21st century. "Our discovery prevents infection without building up antibiotic resistance, and it might even be preferable to develop treatments based on molecular tweezers rather than antibiotics," said BGU Department of Chemistry Prof. Raz Jelinek. The research team, led ...