Boron nitride is a technologically interesting material because it is very compatible with other two-dimensional crystalline structures. It therefore opens up pathways to artificial heterostructures or electronic devices built on them with fundamentally new properties. About a year ago, a team from the Institute of Physics at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Wuerzburg in Bavaria, Germany, succeeded in creating spin defects, also known as qubits, in a layered crystal of boron nitride and identifying them experimentally. Recently, the team led by Professor ...

Misinformation about COVID-19 is spreading from the United States into Canada, undermining efforts to mitigate the pandemic. A study led by McGill University shows that Canadians who use social media are more likely to consume this misinformation, embrace false beliefs about COVID-19, and subsequently spread them. Many Canadians believe conspiracy theories, poorly-sourced medical advice, and information trivializing the virus--even though news outlets and political leaders in the country have generally focused on providing reliable scientific information. How then, is misinformation spreading so rapidly? "A lot of Canadians are struggling to understand COVID-19 denialism and anti-vaccination attitudes among their loved ones," says ...

New York, NY--April 6, 2021--The digital revolution is built on a foundation of invisible 1s and 0s called bits. As decades pass, and more and more of the world's information and knowledge morph into streams of 1s and 0s, the notion that computers prefer to "speak" in binary numbers is rarely questioned. According to new research from Columbia Engineering, this could be about to change. A new study from Mechanical Engineering Professor Hod Lipson and his PhD student Boyuan Chen proves that artificial intelligence systems might actually reach higher levels of performance if they are programmed with sound files of human language rather than with numerical data labels. The researchers discovered that in a side-by-side comparison, a neural network whose "training labels" consisted ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Exposure to phthalates, a class of chemicals widely used in packaging and consumer products, is known to interfere with normal hormone function and development in human and animal studies. Now researchers have found evidence linking pregnant women's exposure to phthalates to altered cognitive outcomes in their infants. Most of the findings involved slower information processing among infants with higher phthalate exposure levels, with males more likely to be affected depending on the chemical involved and the order of information presented to the infants. Reported in the journal Neurotoxicology, the study ...

The global movement of goods and people, in its modern form, has many unwanted side effects. One of these is that animal and plant species travel around the world with it. Often they fail to establish themselves in the ecosystems of the destination areas. Sometimes, however, due to a lack of effective management, they multiply to such an extent in the new environment that they become a threat to the entire ecosystem and economy. Thousands of alien species are currently documented worldwide. A quarter of them are in highly vulnerable, aquatic habitats. So far, research has mainly focused on the ecological consequences of these invasions. In a first global data analysis, 20 scientists from 13 countries led by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel have now compiled the economic ...

Researchers from Columbia University and Georgetown University published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines how consumers can adopt a sustainable consumption lifestyle by purchasing durable high-end and luxury products. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Buy Less, Buy Luxury: Understanding and Overcoming Product Durability Neglect for Sustainable Consumption" and is authored by Jennifer Sun, Silvia Bellezza, and Neeru Paharia. What do luxury products and sustainable goods have in common? Luxury goods possess a unique, sustainable trait that gives them a longer lifespan than lower-end products. Sustainable consumption is on the rise with all consumers. However, younger millennial ...

BOSTON - A gene called KRAS is one of the most commonly mutated genes in all human cancers, and targeted drugs that inhibit the protein expressed by mutated KRAS have shown promising results in clinical trials, with potential approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration anticipated later this year. Unfortunately, cancer cells often develop additional mutations that make them resistant to such targeted drugs, resulting in disease relapse. Now researchers led by a team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have identified the first resistance mechanisms that may occur to these drugs and identified strategies to overcome them. The findings are published in END ...

With over 70% of respondents to a AAA annual survey on autonomous driving reporting they would fear being in a fully self-driving car, makers like Tesla may be back to the drawing board before rolling out fully autonomous self-driving systems. But new research from Northwestern University shows us we may be better off putting fruit flies behind the wheel instead of robots. Drosophila have been subjects of science as long as humans have been running experiments in labs. But given their size, it's easy to wonder what can be learned by observing them. Research published today in the journal Nature Communications demonstrates that fruit flies use decision-making, learning and memory to perform simple functions like escaping heat. And researchers are using ...

LAWRENCE -- An international trade law expert at the University of Kansas argues in a pair of new articles that human rights and trade are now inextricably linked, as evidenced by U.S. and international reactions to actions in China, and asserts that approach is an appropriate use of trade. Raj BhalaAfter the United States, then Canada and the Netherlands, declared the Chinese Communist Party's actions against Uyghur Muslims as genocide, the nations followed with various trade sanctions. Likewise, countries have adopted trade measures in response to China's violation of its one-country, two-systems agreement with Hong Kong. ...

Researchers at the University of Konstanz and Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany have found that birds are able to change their culture to become more efficient. Populations of great tits were able to switch from one behavior to a better alternative when their group members were slowly replaced with new birds. Published today as open access in the journal Current Biology, this research reveals immigration as a powerful driver of cultural change in animal groups that could help them to adapt to rapidly changing environments. In animals, "culture" is considered to be any behavior that is learned from others, shared by members of the ...

Ann Arbor, April 6, 2021 - New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that one in four adults with HIV in the United States has experienced intimate partner violence (IPV), which disproportionately affects women and LGBT populations. Further, people with HIV who experienced IPV in the past 12 months were more likely to engage in behaviors associated with elevated HIV transmission risk, were less likely to be engaged in routine HIV care and more likely to seek emergency care services and have poor HIV clinical outcomes. The findings are reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier. Lead Investigator Ansley B. Lemons-Lyn, MPH, and colleagues from the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, ...

At a cost of $38 billion a year, an estimated 5.3 million people are living with a permanent disability related to traumatic brain injury in the United States today, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The physical, mental and financial toll of a TBI can be enormous, but new research from the University of Georgia provides promise. In a new study, researchers at UGA's Regenerative Biosciences Center have demonstrated the long-term benefits of a hydrogel, which they call "brain glue," for the treatment of traumatic brain injury. The new study provides evidence that not only does the gel protect against loss of brain tissue after ...

Bethesda, MD (April 6, 2021) -- Obesity is a global pandemic, affecting about 40% of adults in the United States. There is an enormous unmet need for an effective weight-loss solution. After a detailed review of available literature, the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) has released new clinical guidelines recommending the use of intragastric balloons (IGB) for patients with obesity who have not been able to lose weight with traditional weight-loss strategies. This treatment is most successful with accompanying therapy, such as lifestyle modifications and pharmacological agents, ...

Researchers have uncovered pathways involved in the body's response to glucocorticoid treatments and identified a novel biomarker that could be used to monitor how these drugs work in patients, according to a clinical study published today in eLife. A more reliable indicator of an individual's response to glucocorticoid drugs could be used to develop a clinically applicable test that could help tailor treatments and potentially minimise side-effects. Glucocorticoids, such as cortisol, are a type of hormone with key roles in the body's response to stress. Glucocorticoid ...

Researchers from Skoltech and their collaborators have designed, synthesized and evaluated new compounds that can serve as catholytes and anolytes for organic redox flow batteries, bringing this promising technology closer to large-scale implementation. The two papers were published in the END ...

A new U.S. Geological Survey study provides an updated, statewide estimate of high levels of naturally occurring arsenic and uranium in private well water across Connecticut. This research builds on a USGS report published in 2017, with the new study including additional groundwater samples and focusing on previously underrepresented areas. The research, undertaken in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Public Health, projects that approximately 3.9% of private wells across Connecticut contain water with arsenic at concentrations higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's maximum contaminant level for ...

Sea urchins receive a lot of attention in California. Red urchins support a thriving fishery, while their purple cousins are often blamed for mowing down kelp forests to create urchin barrens. Yet for all the notice we pay them, we know surprisingly little about the microbiomes that support these spiny species. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara led by geneticist Paige Miller sought to uncover the diversity within the guts of these important kelp forest inhabitants. Their results reveal significant differences between the microbiota of the two species, as well as between individuals living ...

Philadelphia, April 6, 2021 - Since the discovery of leptin in the 1990s, researchers have wondered, how does leptin, a hormone made by body fat, suppress appetite? Despite tremendous gains in the intervening three decades, many questions still remain. Now, a new study in mice describes novel neurocircuitry between midbrain structures that control feeding behaviors that are under modulatory control by leptin. The study appears in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier. John Krystal, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, said of the findings, "Omrani and colleagues shed light on how, in non-obese animals, leptin puts the brakes on overeating." Leptin acts as a critical link between the body and the brain, providing information about metabolic ...

In addition to smoothing out wrinkles, researchers have found that the drug Botox can reveal the inner workings of the brain. A new study used it to show that feedback from individual nerve cells controls the release of dopamine, a chemical messenger involved in motivation, memory, and movement. Such "self-regulation," the researchers say, stands in contrast to the widely held view that the release of dopamine -- known as the "feel good" hormone -- by any cell relied on messages from nearby cells to recognize that it is releasing too much of the hormone. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, ...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2021 -- Scientists from MIT and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras have grown small amounts of self-organizing brain tissue, known as organoids, in a tiny 3D-printed system that allows observation while they grow and develop. The work is reported in Biomicrofluidics, by AIP Publishing. Current technology for real-time observation of growing organoids involves the use of commercial culture dishes with many wells in a glass-bottomed plate placed under a microscope. The plates are costly and only compatible with specific microscopes. They do not allow for the flow or replenishment of a nutrient medium to the growing tissue. Recent advances have used a technique known as microfluidics, where a nutrient ...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2021 -- Cryocoolers are ultracold refrigeration units used in surgery and drug development, semiconductor fabrication, and spacecraft. They can be tubes, pumps, tabletop sizes, or larger refrigerator systems. The regenerative heat exchanger, or regenerator, is a core component of cryocoolers. At temperatures below 10 kelvins (-441.67 degrees Fahrenheit), performance drops precipitously, with maximum regenerator loss of more than 50%. In their paper, published in Applied Physics Letters, by AIP Publishing, researchers at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences used ...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2021 -- Dragonfly wings, lotus leaves, cicada wings -- thanks to millennia of evolution, nature has optimized the ways these surfaces and others behave to offer antibacterial functionality. An international, interdisciplinary team of researchers is trying to find the best way to translate these features to create nature-inspired bactericidal surfaces for use in medical implants. They discuss the surface structures and chemical compositions for an ideal implant material in the journal Applied Physics Reviews, from AIP Publishing. "Objects in ...

What The Study Did: Researchers compared the effectiveness of case-based (including contact tracing and quarantine) and population-based (including social distancing and facial masking) interventions for COVID-19 containment in Taiwan, one of the few countries with initial success in COVID-19 control without strict lockdown or school closure. Authors: Hsien-Ho Lin, M.D., Sc.D., of National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.1644) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including ...

What The Study Did: This study investigated the role of droplet or contact transmission in the development of Kawasaki disease in Japan during the COVID-19 state of emergency. Kawasaki disease primarily affects children and is characterized by fever and swelling in the walls of some blood vessels. Authors: Toshiro Hara, M.D., Ph.D., of the Fukuoka Children's Hospital in Fukuoka, Japan, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.4475) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, ...

What The Study Did: A model to prioritize vaccination was developed that estimates the risk of SARS-CoV-2-related death among enrollees in the Veterans Affairs health care system. Authors: George N. Ioannou, B.M.B.Ch., M.S., of the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Healthcare System in Seattle, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.4347) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media ...