The study found a "systematic and quantifiable pattern" of political parties officers opting against fielding minority candidates where they perceive that their non-white appearance might prevent a win. This includes constituencies already held by the party, and those within reach, requiring just a small swing in the vote to change hands. Dr Patrick English, from the University of Exeter, who carried out the research, said: "This combination of public opinion and party strategy is one of the most significant blockages to electing parliaments which fully reflect ...

A team of researchers from Colorado State University and the University of Cincinnati have discovered a new mode of snake locomotion that allows the brown tree snake to ascend much larger smooth cylinders than any previously known behavior. This lasso locomotion, named because of a lasso-like body posture, may contribute to the success and impact of this highly invasive species. It allows these animals to access potential prey that might otherwise be unobtainable and may also explain how this species could climb power poles, leading to electrical outages. Researchers said they hope the findings will help people protect endangered birds from the snakes. The ...

Researchers reporting in Current Biology on January 11 have discovered that invasive brown tree snakes living on Guam can get around in a way that had never been seen before. The discovery of the snake's lasso-like locomotion for climbing their way up smooth vertical cylinders has important implications, both for understanding the snakes and for conservation practices aimed at protecting birds from them. "Our most important finding is a new mode of snake locomotion," says co-senior author Julie Savidge of Colorado State University (CSU). "Only four major types have been recognized for nearly 100 ...

What The Study Did: Researchers examined pediatric COVID-19 hospitalization trends in 22 states for both severity among this population and spread of the virus. Authors: Pinar Karaca-Mandic, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management in Minneapolis, 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/jamapediatrics.2020.5535) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including ...

What The Study Did: Medical records for patients admitted to an urban academic medical center were analyzed for race and ethnicity for evidence of racial bias in clinician documentation. Authors: Jessica R. Balderston, M.D., of Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond, 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.2020.5792) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest ...

BOSTON - A diet rich in healthy and plant-based foods is linked with the presence and abundance of certain gut microbes that are also associated with a lower risk of developing conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to recent results from a large-scale international study that was co-senior authored by Andrew T. Chan, MD, MPH, from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). The report appears in Nature Medicine. "This study demonstrates a clear association between specific microbial species in the gut, certain foods, and risk of some common ...

Smartwatches and other battery-powered electronics would be even smarter if they could run AI algorithms. But efforts to build AI-capable chips for mobile devices have so far hit a wall - the so-called "memory wall" that separates data processing and memory chips that must work together to meet the massive and continually growing computational demands imposed by AI. "Transactions between processors and memory can consume 95 percent of the energy needed to do machine learning and AI, and that severely limits battery life," said computer scientist Subhasish Mitra, senior author of a new study published in Nature Electronics. Now, a team that includes Stanford computer scientist ...

Fish populations tend to do better in places where rigorous fisheries management practices are used, and the more measures employed, the better for fish populations and food production, according to a new paper published Jan. 11 in Nature Sustainability. The study, led by Michael Melnychuk of the University of Washington's School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, draws upon the expertise of more than two dozen researchers from 17 regions around the world. The research team analyzed the management practices of nearly 300 fish populations to tease out patterns that lead to healthier fisheries across different locations. Their findings confirmed, through extensive data analysis, what many researchers ...

Galaxies begin to "die" when they stop forming stars, but until now astronomers had never clearly glimpsed the start of this process in a far-away galaxy. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, astronomers have seen a galaxy ejecting nearly half of its star-forming gas. This ejection is happening at a startling rate, equivalent to 10 000 Suns-worth of gas a year -- the galaxy is rapidly losing its fuel to make new stars. The team believes that this spectacular event was triggered by a collision with another ...

Most organisms on earth depend on the energy from the sun. Sunlight is also an important coordinator of life's timers. Animals take important cues for proliferation, activity, feeding, or sleep from changing light conditions. These rhythms also exist in humans - as changing light conditions across the year can strongly impact human mood and psychology. Part of the natural light from the sun we are exposed to consists of ultraviolet (UVA and UVB) light, a short-wavelength part of the spectrum that is largely missing in artificial lighting. So far, most research on seasonal cycles has focused on daylength. "In contrast to previous assumptions, we discovered that, in addition to daylength, the intensity of UVA light influences the seasonal responses of the bristle worm ...

Astronomers have looked nine billion years into the past to find evidence that galaxy mergers in the early universe could shut down star formation and affect galaxy growth. New research led by Durham University, UK, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)-Saclay and the University of Paris-Saclay, shows that a huge amount of star-forming gas was ejected into the intergalactic medium by the coming together of two galaxies. The researchers say that this event, together with a large amount of star formation in the nuclear regions ...

Through the centuries, scientists and non-scientists alike have looked at the night sky and felt excitement, intrigue, and overwhelming mystery while pondering questions about how our universe came to be, and how humanity developed and thrived in this exact place and time. Early astronomers painstakingly studied stars' subtle movements in the night sky to try and determine how our planet moves in relation to other celestial bodies. As technology has increased, so too has our understanding of how the universe works and our relative position within it. What remains a mystery, however, is a more detailed understanding of how stars and planets formed in the first place. Astrophysicists and cosmologists understand that the movement of materials across the interstellar medium (ISM) helped ...

A shadow over the promising inhaled interferon beta COVID-19 therapy has been cleared with the discovery that although it appears to increase levels of ACE2 protein - coronavirus' key entry point into nose and lung cells - it predominantly increases levels of a short version of that protein, which the virus cannot bind to. The virus that causes COVID-19, known as SARS-CoV-2, enters nose and lung cells through binding of its spike protein to the cell surface protein angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Now a new, short, form of ACE2 has been identified by Professor Jane Lucas, Professor Donna Davies, Dr Gabrielle Wheway and Dr Vito Mennella at the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. The study, published in Nature Genetics, shows ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Jan. 11, 2021 - Most doctors would agree that advanced care planning (ACP) for patients, especially older adults, is important in providing the best and most appropriate health care over the course of a patient's life. Unfortunately, the subject seldom comes up during regular clinic visits. In a study conducted by doctors at Wake Forest Baptist Health, only 3.7% of primary care physicians had this conversation with their patients as part of their normal care. Yet in the same study, the researchers found that a new approach involving specially trained nurses substantially increased the frequency of doctors initiating ACP discussions with their patients. The study is published ...

Diets rich in certain plant-based foods are linked with the presence of gut microbes that are associated with a lower risk of developing conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to recent results from a large-scale international study that included researchers from King's College London, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the University of Trento, Italy, and health science start-up company ZOE. Key Takeaways The largest and most detailed study of its kind uncovered strong links between a person's diet, the microbes ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Engineers at MIT and Imperial College London have developed a new way to generate tough, functional materials using a mixture of bacteria and yeast similar to the "kombucha mother" used to ferment tea. Using this mixture, also called a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), the researchers were able to produce cellulose embedded with enzymes that can perform a variety of functions, such as sensing environmental pollutants. They also showed that they could incorporate yeast directly into the material, creating "living materials" that could ...

Many Sub-Saharan countries have a desperate shortage of surgeons, and to ensure that as many patients as possible can be treated, some operations are carried out by medical professionals who are not specialists in surgery. This approach, called task sharing, is supported by the World Health Organisation, but the practice remains controversial. Now a team of medical researchers from Norway, Sweden, Sierra Leone and the Netherlands shows that groin hernia operations performed by associate clinicians, who are trained medical personnel but not doctors, are just as safe and effective as those performed by doctors. The study has been published in JAMA Network Open. "The study showed ...

What The Study Did: This randomized clinical trial compares the effects of two antibiotic strategies (oral moxifloxacin versus intravenous ertapenem followed by oral levofloxacin) on hospital discharge without surgery and recurrent appendicitis over one year among adults presenting to the emergency department with uncomplicated acute appendicitis. Authors: Paulina Salminen, M.D., Ph.D., of Turku University Hospital in Turku, Finland, 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/jama.2020.23525) Editor's ...

New York, NY--January 11, 2021--Like a longtime couple who can predict each other's every move, a Columbia Engineering robot has learned to predict its partner robot's future actions and goals based on just a few initial video frames. When two primates are cooped up together for a long time, we quickly learn to predict the near-term actions of our roommates, co-workers or family members. Our ability to anticipate the actions of others makes it easier for us to successfully live and work together. In contrast, even the most intelligent and advanced robots have remained notoriously inept at this sort of social communication. This may be about to change. The study, conducted at Columbia Engineering's Creative Machines Lab led by Mechanical ...

The Third Pole centered on the Tibetan Plateau is home to headwaters of over 10 major Asian rivers. These glacier-based water systems, also known as the Asian Water Towers, will have to struggle to quench the thirst of downstream communities despite more river runoff brought on by a warmer climate, according to a recent study published in Nature Climate Change. By constraining earth system models for precipitation projections, together with estimated glacier melt contributions, the study quantified the wet-season runoff of seven rivers at the Third Pole, and found it would increase 1.0-7.2% by the end of the 21st century for warming in the range of 1.5-4°C. However, the study also showed that rising water demands from the growing population will outweigh ...

To perform calculations, quantum computers need qubits to act as elementary building blocks that process and store information. Now, physicists have produced a new type of qubit that can be switched from a stable idle mode to a fast calculation mode. The concept would also allow a large number of qubits to be combined into a powerful quantum computer, as researchers from the University of Basel and TU Eindhoven have reported in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Compared with conventional bits, quantum bits (qubits) are much more fragile and can lose their information content very quickly. The challenge for quantum computing is therefore to keep the sensitive ...

Diets rich in healthy and plant-based foods encourages the presence of gut microbes that are linked to a lower risk of common illnesses including heart disease, research has found. A large-scale international study using metagenomics and blood chemical profiling has uncovered a panel of 15 gut microbes associated with lower risks of common conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. The study has been published today in Nature Medicine from researchers at King's College London, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the University ...

With the Proof of Concept funding line, the ERC grants recipients of ERC frontier research funds (Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy grants) with 150.000 Euro to develop promising ideas with commercial or societal potential to the proof of concept stage. With this funding, Olaf Groß and his team in the Metabolism and Inflammation Group at the Institute of Neuropathology of the Medical Center - University of Freiburg will test whether a new class of immune activating drugs they discovered can boost the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies ...

Heidelberg/Germany, 11 January 2021 - Development of an in vitro human-derived tissue model for studying virus infection and disease progression in the alveolar cells of the lungs responsible for oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange with the blood might enable the study of possible therapies for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) triggered by SARS-CoV-2. Researchers in the Netherlands have demonstrated that the SARS-CoV-2 replicates efficiently in their model resembling the human bronchioalveolar system that is thought to play a critical role in progression of infection towards pneumonia and ARDS. It is already ...

Two billion years after the Big Bang, the Universe was still very young. However, thousands of huge galaxies, rich in stars and dust, were already formed. An international study, led by SISSA - Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, now explains how this was possible. Scientists combined observational and theoretical methods to identify the physical processes behind their evolution and, for the first time, found evidence for a rapid growth of dust due to a high concentration of metals in the distant Universe. The study, published in Astronomy&Astrophysics, offers a new approach to investigate the evolutionary phase of massive objects. Since their initial discovery 20 years ago, very distant and massive galaxies that form prodigious amount of ...