ITHACA, N.Y. - For more than seven years, a mysterious wasting disease has nearly killed off sea star populations around the world. Some of these species stand at the brink of extinction. New Cornell University-led research suggests that starfish, victims of sea star wasting disease (SSWD), may actually be in respiratory distress - literally "drowning" in their own environment - as elevated microbial activity derived from nearby organic matter and warm ocean temperatures rob the creatures of their ability to breathe. "As humans, we breathe, we ventilate, we bring air into our lungs ...

In the digital age, data traffic is growing at an exponential rate. The demands on computing power for applications in artificial intelligence such as pattern and speech recognition in particular, or for self-driving vehicles, often exceeds the capacities of conventional computer processors. Working together with an international team, researchers at the University of Münster are developing new approaches and process architectures which can cope with these tasks extremely efficient. They have now shown that so-called photonic processors, with which data is processed by means of light, can process information much more rapidly and in parallel - something ...

Young adults ages 18-24 years old in the U.S. say that porn is their most helpful source of information about how to have sex, according to a new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researcher published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. In the nationally representative survey, a quarter of young adults said porn was their most helpful source of information about how to have sex. Slightly less than a quarter said sexual partners were the most helpful source, and fewer pointed to friends, parents, media, or healthcare professionals. However, female respondents were much more likely than male respondents to report that their partners ...

2020 was an eventful year, with science at the front and center of most news cycles. As this seemingly long year wraps up, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, is highlighting the biggest chemistry stories, top research trends and predictions for the coming year. Predictably, research on the novel coronavirus was the biggest chemistry story of the year, beginning in January when the genetic code for SARS-CoV-2 was published. Since then, thousands of papers have been published on the subject, with topics like mask efficacy, disinfectants and virus transmission getting the most attention. Other popular chemistry subjects included new insights about the atmospheres of other planets and how climate change fueled ...

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death associated with smoking cigarettes. But as use of e-cigarettes ("vaping") becomes more popular, including as a way to cut back on cigarettes, little is known about its effect on cardiovascular health. Now, a new Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) study, published in the journal Circulation, finds that vaping may not cut risk of cardiovascular disease in the way that most adults use them--in combination with cigarettes. "Dual use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes appears to be as harmful to cardiovascular health as exclusive cigarette smoking," says study lead author Dr. Andrew Stokes, assistant professor of global health at BUSPH. Stokes ...

New Rochelle, NY, January 6, 2021--Women physicians feel pressured to spend more time in work-related citizenship tasks, based largely on their age and race. Nearly half of women perceived that they spent more time on citizenship tasks than their male colleagues, according to a study in Journal of Women's Health. Click here to read the article now. "When compared to their younger counterpart, women physicians older than 49 years stated to feel obligated to volunteer for these tasks because of their age," state Priscila Armijo, MD, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and coauthors. "We also found that a higher proportion of women of color physicians perceived race as a factor in feeling obligated to volunteer for work-related citizenship ...

They are as thin as a hair, only a hundred thousand times thinner--so-called two-dimensional materials, consisting of a single layer of atoms, have been booming in research for years. They became known to a wider audience when two Russian-British scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 for the discovery of graphene, a building block of graphite. The special feature of such materials is that they possess novel properties that can only be explained with the help of the laws of quantum mechanics and that may be relevant for enhanced ...

Starting as a single cell, organisms undergo millions of generations of divisions to ultimately generate the bones, heart, brain and other components that make up a living being. The mainspring within this intricate process is the transfer of DNA through each subsequent cell split within discrete packets called chromosomes. It's critical that all chromosomes are duplicated and precisely distributed through every generation of cell division. If the inherited chromosome components are altered, even slightly, birth defects and certain cancers can result. A new study published in the journal Science by postdoctoral scholar Pablo Lara-Gonzalez, Division of Biological Sciences Professor Arshad Desai and their colleagues addresses ...

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 6, 2021-- In the United States, Black, Latino and low-income communities have historically lacked nearby access to pharmacy services. To provide the first record of these "pharmacy deserts" in Los Angeles County, a University of California, Irvine study identified communities where the nearest pharmacy was at least one mile away. Unlike previous studies, this one describes pharmacy deserts in terms of social determinants of health - such as owning a vehicle, crime rates and poverty - to determine which communities have the greatest need for pharmacy access. Published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, ...

The small GTPases of the ADP-ribosylation factor (Arf) family are key initiators of various physiological processes including secretion, endocytosis, phagocytosis and signal transduction. Arf family proteins function to mediate recruitment of cytosolic effectors to specific subcellular compartments. This process facilitates Arf effectors to perform cargo recognition, lipid modification or other cellular functions. Blocking the activities of Arf family proteins inhibits secretion of important molecules from the cell and also inhibits cellular uptake of nutrients. Defects in Arfs or their regulatory proteins are related to various inherited diseases, including X-linked intellectual disability (XLID), Joubert syndrome, Bardet-Biedl syndrome and cilia dysfunction. Thus, studying molecular ...

When ridesourcing companies Uber and Lyft show up in urban areas, vehicle registrations per capita increase by 0.7% on average, increasing even more in car-dependent cities. Researchers reporting in the journal iScience on January 6 made this discovery by analyzing data from major US cities between 2011 to 2017, comparing trends in cities where Uber and Lyft entered with those where they didn't. They also found that Uber and Lyft displace transit more in cities with higher income and fewer children. "I would have expected people to own fewer vehicles once they gain access to this alternative transportation mode," says Jeremy Michalek, a professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University and co-author ...

Researchers have successfully used a DNA-editing technique to extend the lifespan of mice with the genetic variation associated with progeria, a rare genetic disease that causes extreme premature aging in children and can significantly shorten their life expectancy. The study was published in the journal Nature, and was a collaboration between the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Boston; and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee.? DNA is made up of four chemical bases -- A, C, G and T. Progeria, which is also known as Hutchinson-Gilford ...

A new class of protein material that interacts with living cells without being absorbed by them can influence cell signaling, a new study shows. The material does this by binding and sequestering cell surface receptors. The discovery could have far-reaching implications for stem cell research and enable the development of new materials designed to modulate the behavior of living systems. The research, reported in the January 6 edition of Nature, was led by the Baker lab at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Derivery lab at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, U.K. Their paper is titled, Design of Biologically Active Binary Protein 2D Materials. Cells ...

The westerlies--or westerly winds--play an important role in weather and climate both locally and on a global scale, by influencing precipitation patterns, impacting ocean circulation and steering tropical cyclones. So, finding a way to assess how they will change as the climate warms is crucial. Typically, the westerlies blow from west to east across the planet's middle latitudes. But scientists have noticed that over the last several decades, these winds are changing, migrating poleward. Research suggests this is because of climate change. But, scientists have been debating whether the poleward movement of ...

What The Study Did: The findings of this survey study suggest that simply providing maps with COVID-19 case information wasn't necessarily associated with improved public knowledge, risk perception or reported intent to adhere to health guidelines. Authors: Angela Fagerlin, Ph.D., of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, 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.2020.33538) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional ...

What The Study Did: Changes in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and fatalities in the Detroit area during the COVID-19 pandemic are compared with year-earlier events for the same period in this observational study. Authors: Adrienne V. Nickles, M.P.H., of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in Lansing, 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.2020.32331) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest 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 ...

Writing, driving a screw or throwing darts are only some of the activities that demand a high level of skill. How the brain masters such exquisite movements has now been described in the journal "Nature" by a team of researchers at the University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research. A map of brainstem circuits reveals which neurons control the fine motor skills of the arm and hand. Picking up a pen and writing our name or reaching for a fork to eat spaghetti with tomato sauce are things we take for granted. However, holding a pen properly or bringing spaghetti to the mouth without making a mess requires precise ...

Chinese scientists from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have found a gene that plays an important role in helping rice adapt to low soil nitrogen. Nitrogen fertilizer application is a strategic challenge for sustainable agriculture: On the one hand, it plays an indispensable role in increasing crop yields, thus ensuring global food security. On the other hand, it creates a severe threat to ecosystems. For this reason, breeding new crop varieties with high nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is a high priority for both agricultural production and environmental protection. Using a diversified rice population derived from different ecogeographical regions, the scientists carefully evaluated how various agronomic traits responded to ...

Chinese scientists have established the world's first integrated quantum communication network, combining over 700 optical fibers on the ground with two ground-to-satellite links to achieve quantum key distribution over a total distance of 4,600 kilometers for users across the country. The team, led by Jianwei Pan, Yuao Chen, Chengzhi Peng from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, reported in Nature their latest advances towards the global, practical application of such a network for future communications. Unlike conventional encryption, quantum communication is considered ...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - There's no doubt the Earth's temperatures are going up. According to a December report by the World Meteorological Organization, 2020 is on track to be one of the three hottest years on record, already within the warmest decade to date. During the year's hottest months, many people rely on electricity-generated cooling systems to remain comfortable. But the power plants that keep air conditioners pushing out cold air could soon be in a vicious cycle in a warming world-not able to keep up with growing demands on hotter days and driving up greenhouse gas emissions ...

Amsterdam, NL, January 6, 2021 - There is growing evidence to support the hypothesis that there is a neurodevelopmental component to the late-onset neurodegeneration occurring in the brain of huntingtin gene (HTT gene) mutation carriers, and that this increased susceptibility to brain cell death begins during childhood. Experts discuss the evidence that the HTT gene mutation affects brain and body growth based on a unique study of children at risk for HD, the Kids-HD study, in a review paper and accompanying research article published in the Journal of Huntington's Disease. The classic concept is that Huntington's disease is caused by toxic mutant huntingtin (mHTT) acting over time on mature brain cells. However, there is growing evidence for an alternative ...

Engineers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have created a new shape-changing or "morphing" 3D printing nozzle that was featured as a Frontispiece in the January 5th issue of the journal Advanced Materials Technologies. The team's morphing nozzle offers researchers new means for 3D printing "fiber-filled composites" - materials made up of short fibers that boost special properties over traditional 3D-printed parts, such as enhancing part strength or electrical conductivity. The challenge is that these properties are based on the directions or "orientations" of the short fibers, which has been difficult to control during the 3D printing process, until now. "When 3D printing with the morphing nozzle, the power lies on ...

A survey of approximately 5,000 Americans suggests that 31.1 percent of the U.S. public does not intend to get the COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available to them - and the likelihood of vaccine refusal is highest among Black Americans, women and conservatives. Timothy Callaghan, assistant professor at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, led the study with the aim of better understanding the intentions of the American public regarding vaccines. The results were recently published in Social Science and Medicine. According to the study, survey respondents answered a series of questions about their behaviors and attitudes about COVID-19, including why or why not they intend to pursue vaccination. Women are 71 percent ...

In a paper published by the journal Matter, engineers from the University of Surrey together with partners from Harvard University, University of Science and Technology of China, UK National Physical Laboratory, George Washington University and Zhejiang University Ningbo Research Institute report on how they have developed a breakthrough sensor system and manufacturing process. The global team of engineers reveal that the new contact lens sensor system contains a photodetector for receiving optical information, a temperature sensor for diagnosing potential corneal disease and a glucose sensor ...

Musical masterworks as the Queen of the Night's Aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute, are examples of the sounds trained human voices can produce. The precondition for vocal virtuosity as well as for any spoken word is vocal learning, the ability to imitate auditory input. Some songbirds and bats can do this, but humans excel. We can acquire new languages into old age. To shed light on the evolution of vocal learning, a team led by Julia Fischer from the German Primate Center (DPZ) - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research has analyzed the sound structures of Guinea baboons and was ...