Billions of people's lives changed across the world when the pandemic began, as we experienced a 'new normal' with more people being online than ever before With this there came a surge of unique cyber-crime related circumstances affecting society and businesses On some days 3 or 4 unique cyber-attacks were being reported during the pandemic, a consortium of researchers have found There has been a remarkable surge in cyber-security crime experienced during the global COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular significance between governmental policy announcements and cyber-crime campaigns. A consortium of researchers, including WMG, University of Warwick report that some days as many as 3 to 4 new cyber-attacks were being ...

(Boston)--Primary myelofibrosis (PMF), a relatively rare but painful type of bone marrow cancer, disrupts the body's normal production of blood cells by causing extensive scarring in the bone marrow. Regrettably, few treatment options are available, with most of them being palliative in nature. The only curative treatment is a stem cell transplant, for which few patients are eligible. A new study by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) led by corresponding author Katya Ravid, DSc, has found that the drugs PXS-LOX_1 and PXS-LOX_2 are capable of slowing PMF's disease progression in experimental models. According to Ravid, professor of medicine ...

(Boston)--While transgender and gender-diverse individuals have historically been disproportionately susceptible to violence and homicides, the recent rise in visibility of ongoing trans-focused violence has highlighted how the medical-legal community, in general and forensic anthropology, in particular, have largely neglected trans and gender-diverse people. This is exemplified by a new study that found nearly 30 percent of forensic anthropologists surveyed had participated in a case involving a transgender individual, yet the vast majority (75 percent) were unfamiliar with gender-affirming surgeries. "Because medical interventions to treat the distress ...

(Boston)--There are two simultaneously occurring pandemics in the U.S.: Racism and COVID-19. "These mutualistic pandemics have thrown into stark focus the separate and unequal systems through which people access health care," explained corresponding author Emily Cleveland Manchanda, MD, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. Cleveland Manchanda and colleagues authored a JAMA Network Open commentary explaining that it is imperative that crisis standards of care (CSC), guidelines designed to ensure the fair allocation of scarce hospital resources across racial and ethnic groups, do not exacerbate racial inequities further. Their commentary is in response to a study also published in JAMA ...

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. - Army-funded researchers demonstrated a machine learning approach that corrects quantum information in systems composed of photons, improving the outlook for deploying quantum sensing and quantum communications technologies on the battlefield. When photons are used as the carriers of quantum information to transmit data, that information is often distorted due to environment fluctuations destroying the fragile quantum states necessary to preserve it. Researchers from Louisiana State University exploited a type of machine learning to correct ...

For the study, 209 farmers and 98 environmental scientists were asked how they perceive agricultural biodiversity and its management in Germany and Austria. "The results show that the perceptions of scientists and farmers on biodiversity, ecosystem services and management measures are very different," says Bea Maas, lead author from the University of Vienna. "Especially the diverging perceptions of information sources that are important for agricultural decisions show need for more cross-disciplinary collaboration in sustainable development processes," adds Maas. The survey integrated ...

The lightning speed with which scientists developed and tested the COVID-19 vaccine is a true scientific triumph -- one that would not have been possible without the more than 70,000 volunteers who participated in clinical trials of the vaccine. Public participation is critical to the success of any medical research. Yet recruiting volunteers for trials is increasingly challenging. New research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests the widening ideological gap in the U.S. may contribute to these challenges. Researchers found evidence that Americans approach opportunities to contribute to medical research with either a general aversion or an inclination to participate. This research ...

While some youth experiment with marijuana but don't go on to long-term use, others develop a problematic pot habit that continues into adulthood. A major new analysis shows that at least a small portion of the risk for developing into an adult marijuana user may be related to inherited behaviors and traits that appear during adolescence. The journal Addiction published the findings by researchers at Brown University and Emory University. "Our analysis suggests that some early adolescent behaviors and traits -- like depression, neuroticism and acting out -- can be indicative for cannabis use later in life," says Rohan Palmer, senior author of the paper and assistant professor in Emory's ...

Politicians and business leaders often make claims about why certain sectors in the economy are shrinking, such as the decline in U.S. manufacturing is due to robotics or trade with China. Such assessments are flawed, as the sectoral composition of the economy is mostly driven by preferences and not by productivity, according to a recent study that models this long-run structural change in the economy. As consumers become richer, they spend more on services such as health and education whose demand is much more income elastic, and less on agriculture and manufactured goods. Until now, productivity has often been considered at least as important, if not more, than preferences, in shaping the sectoral composition of the economy. The results ...

With the offshore wind industry expanding in the United States and elsewhere, a new study raises questions about how the noise from impact pile driving to install turbine supports can affect feeding behaviors of longfin squid, a commercially and ecologically important cephalopod. The research, conducted by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and other institutions, is believed to be the first to demonstrate that anthropogenic noise prompts changes in cephalopod feeding behaviors. "The whole reason we are doing this study is because we are concerned about how construction from offshore wind farms and the sounds associated with that are going to affect important fisheries species, one ...

A considerably higher dose of the anti-tuberculosis drug rifampicin is safe and can also lead to a shorter treatment for tuberculosis and less resistance. This is what researchers from Radboud university medical center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, write in a recent publication. With this they complete a year-long search for the right dosing of an old drug against tuberculosis that appears to be the key drug. Tuberculosis is a deadly, pertinacious bacterial infectious disease that affects nine million people worldwide each year, mainly in countries in low and middle income countries. For over a million, ...

Northwestern engineering researchers have demonstrated a new approach to chemical catalysis that results in high propylene yields using less energy. The findings could support more energy-efficient production processes for many plastics. One of the highest volume chemical products, more than $100 billion worth of propylene is produced each year and used primarily to produce polypropylene for a variety of materials, from injection moldings in car parts to consumer products. Producing propylene is also energy intensive, requiring temperatures around 800 degrees Celsius to convert propane gas to propylene. One technique, called oxidative dehydrogenation, ...

A researcher from Skoltech has filled in the gaps connecting quantum simulators with more traditional quantum computers, discovering a new computationally universal model of quantum computation, the variational model. The paper was published as a Letter in the journal Physical Review A. The work made the Editors' Suggestion list. A quantum simulator is built to share properties with a target quantum system we wish to understand. Early quantum simulators were "dedicated" - that means they could not be programmed, tuned or adjusted and so could mimic one or very few target systems. Modern quantum simulators enable some control over their settings, offering more possibilities. In contrast to quantum simulators, the long-promised quantum computer is a fully programmable quantum system. While ...

A Korean research team has recently developed an innovative vesico-vaginal fistula treatment method using the mussel adhesive protein (MAP) that can effectively seal fistulas in organs even when exposed to urine. Professor Hyung Joon Cha, Dr. Hyo Jeong Kim (currently at Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology), and Dr. Tae Yoon Park of POSTECH's Department of Chemical Engineering with Professor Seok Ho Kang of the Department of Urology at Korea University School of Medicine and Professor Jong Hyun Pyun of the Department of Urology at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital have together improved the underwater adhesive using mussel protein and applied it to a pig model that simulated a vesico-vaginal fistula. ...

Osaka, Japan - Scientists from the Graduate School of Science at Osaka University created superabsorbent polymer (SAP) microparticles that self-assemble into structures that can be modified by adjusting the proportion of particle type. This research may lead to new tunable biomimetic "smart materials" that can sense and respond to specific chemicals. Biological molecules in living organisms have a remarkable ability to form self-assembled structures when triggered by an external molecule. This has led scientists to try to create other "smart materials" that respond to their environment. Now, a team of researchers at Osaka University has come up with a tunable system involving poly(sodium acrylate) microparticles that can have one of two types of chemical ...

The white paper, published today (March 22) by REPHRAIN, the National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online in collaboration with the Dutch National Police, offers a solution to big data problems that tend to hamper police probes into this type of law-breaking. The practice of attribution - who did what - is becoming increasingly complex as organised crimes incorporate deception, deletion and encryption in today's Information Age. Even when law enforcement are able to retrieve evidence via digital forensics, the complexities of the collected data mean it cannot be easily processed into factual police reports. ...

One prospective source of renewable energy is hydrogen gas produced from water with the aid of sunlight. Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have developed a material, nanoporous cubic silicon carbide, that exhibits promising properties to capture solar energy and split water for hydrogen gas production. The study has been published in the journal ACS Nano. "New sustainable energy systems are needed to meet global energy and environmental challenges, such as increasing carbon dioxide emissions and climate change", says Jianwu Sun, senior lecturer in the ...

A lot of the attention around "pandemic pets" has focused on families with children getting a cat, dog or other pet in 2020, during a time when many people were learning or working from home. But a new poll shows that older adults also got in on the trend. According to the National Poll on Healthy Aging, 10% of all people between the ages of 50 and 80 got a new pet between March 2020 and January 2021. The percentage was indeed higher - 16% -- among the people in this age range who have at least one child or teen living with them. But the vast majority of people between the ages of 50 and 80 don't live with someone under age 18 -- and nearly 9% of them also got a pet during the pandemic. All told, 59% of people age 50 to 80 who completed the poll in January 2021 are pet owners. ...

The Covid-19 pandemic severely impacted the mental health of young people, with increased levels of clinical depression being identified, a new study published in the journal Psychiatry Research reports. A decrease in alcohol consumption was also identified amongst young people during the pandemic. During this unique study researchers from the University of Surrey surveyed 259 young people pre- pandemic (autumn 2019) and in the midst of initial lockdown measures (May/June 2020) on their levels of depression, anxiety, wellbeing, alcohol use and sleep quality. Researchers found evidence of a substantial impact on the mental health of these young adults due ...

Research has found that experiencing a traumatic event at close quarters changes people's political attitudes. However, in the case of the 2017 terrorist attack in Stockholm, proximity to the attack had no additional political significance. Research from the University of Gothenburg shows that Swedes' attitudes toward terrorism-related questions were affected equally, regardless of whether they happened to be close to the attack. On 7 April 2017, Rakhmat Akilov stole a truck and ran down multiple people on Drottninggatan, a street in central Stockholm. Five people died, fifteen were injured and many people witnessed ...

A study which looked at activity levels before and during the COVID-19 pandemic has found lockdown restrictions significantly reduced light activity associated with socialising and work. The study, published recently in BMJ Neurology and led by King's College London, examined how activity levels changed in study participants with muscular dystrophy and other inheritable myopathies. The sample included people with a range of physical abilities, from highly independent to assisted mobility, including 41 wheelchair users, who are often underrepresented in research. However, the authors say the findings are likely to be relevant to adults of various ...

The excavation of shell middens off two sites in the Gulf of Mexico and Northern Europe dating back to when the seabed was dry land thousands of years ago, reveal how they can offer new ground-breaking insights into the hidden history of submerged landscapes. An international team of archaeologists from Moesgaard Museum (Denmark), the University Of Georgia (USA), the University of York (UK) Flinders University and James Cook University partnered to excavate two sites containing shell middens in the Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Jutland in Denmark in 2018, showing that middens can be ...

Crystals inherently possess imperfections. Vacancies, as the simplest form of point defects, significantly alter the optical, thermal, and electrical properties of materials. Well-known examples include colour centres in many gemstones, the nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond, vacancy migration in solid-state batteries, and the metal-insulator transition in phase-change materials. The vacancies in these cases are in frame-works with no or weak interactions. However, the role of vacancies in strongly correlated materials is thus far unclear due to the lack of an ideal prototype. Strongly ...

El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a recurring climate phenomenon involving changes in the temperature of waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. It is one of the most important climate perturbations on Earth because it can change the global atmospheric circulation, which in turn, influences temperature and precipitation across the globe. Scientists have found ENSO has an impact on hydroclimate over the Tibetan Plateau but how it works, or its physical mechanism, remains unclear. In a recently published research article in Journal of Climate, Shuai Hu, Tianjun Zhou and Bo Wu from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, explored the dynamical processes that ...

Durham, NC - The standard of treatment for bone tumors is often two-fold: surgery to remove the cancerous section followed by radiation therapy to ensure all the cancerous cells have been killed off. This is an effective way to defeat bone tumors; however, it often results in large bone defects and hampers wound healing because of extensive tissue cutoff and irradiation-induced tissue damage. A new study published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine demonstrates how stem cells primed with ferulic acid can repair such bone damage and how this occurs. The information this study provides could aid in the development of new treatments for irradiated bone injuries. Heng Zhu, M.D., Ph.D., of the Beijing Institute of ...