EUGENE, Ore. -- Jan. 4, 2021 -- Phosphorous, calcium and charcoal in spotty patches of fertile soil in the Amazon rainforest suggest that natural processes such as fires and river flooding, not the ingenuity of indigenous populations, created rare sites suitable for agriculture, according to new research. The presence of pre-Columbian artifacts and signs of plant domestication uncovered in the region's fertile soil, commonly called Amazonian dark earth, had been thought to mean that agricultural practices, including controlled burning, by indigenous people had boosted soil nutrients. However, radiocarbon dating ...

What The Study Did: Denmark was one of the first countries to enforce lockdown to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and subsequent gradual reopening, whereas Sweden has had few restrictions, largely limited to public recommendations. Researchers assessed public mobility and social media attention associated with COVID-19 spread and societal interventions from February to June in Denmark and Sweden. Authors: Isabell Brikell, Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institutet in  Stockholm, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at ...

What The Study Did: Researchers used health insurance data from Taiwan to investigate the risk of substance use disorder among patients with autism spectrum disorder and its associations with risk of death. Authors: Chih-Sung Liang, M.D., of the National Defense Medical Center, and Mu-Hong Chen, M.D., Ph.D., of the Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan, are the corresponding authors. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.5371) Editor's Note: The article includes funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author ...

Bitterling fishes (Subfamily: Acheilognathinae) spawn in the gills of living freshwater mussels obligately depending on the mussels for reproduction. On the Matsuyama Plain, Japan, populations of unionid mussels--Pronodularia japanensis, Nodularia douglasiae, and Sinanodonta lauta--have decreased rapidly over the past 30 years. Simultaneously, the population of a native bitterling fish, Tanakia lanceolata, which depends on the three unionids as a breeding substrate, has decreased. Furthermore, a congeneric bitterling, Tanakia limbata, has been artificially introduced, and hybridisation and genetic introgression occur between them. Here, we surveyed the reproduction and occurrence of hybridisation between native and invasive species ...

Improving solar cell design is integral for improving energy consumption. Scientists have lately focused on making solar cells more efficient, flexible, and portable to enable their integration into everyday applications. Consequently, novel lightweight and flexible thin film solar cells have been developed. It is, however, not easy to combine efficiency with flexibility. For a material (usually a semiconductor) to be efficient, it must have a small "band gap"--the energy required to excite charge carriers for electrical conduction--and should absorb and convert a large portion of the sunlight into electricity. Till date, no such efficient absorber suitable for thin film solar cells has been developed. Typically, charge carriers in a semiconductor are ...

Osaka, Japan - A cancer-specific L-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1) is highly expressed in cancer tissues. Inhibiting the function of LAT1 has been known to have anti-tumor effects, but there has been limited progress in the development of radionuclide therapy agents targeting LAT1. Now, a multidisciplinary research team at Osaka University has established a targeted alpha-therapy with a novel drug targeting LAT1. The researchers first produced the alpha-ray emitter 211Astatine, no easy task given that Astatine (At) is the rarest naturally occurring element on Earth. Targeted alpha-therapy selectively delivers α-emitters to tumors; the advantage over conventional β-therapy is that alpha ...

The odd, wavy pattern that results from viewing certain phone or computer screens through polarized glasses has led researchers to take a step toward thinner, lighter-weight lenses. Called moiré, the pattern is made by laying one material with opaque and translucent parts at an angle over another material of similar contrast. A team of researchers from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, TUAT, in Japan have demonstrated that moiré metalenses--tiny, patterned lenses composed of artificial "meta" atoms--can tune focal length along a wider range than previously seen. They published their results on November ...

Mothers and fathers of children diagnosed with cancer are affected financially in different ways. While mothers' incomes fall in the short term and then rise, the adverse financial repercussions on fathers occur later. Researchers at Uppsala University have investigated the socioeconomic impact on parents of having a child diagnosed with cancer. The study is published in the International Journal of Cancer. Previous research has shown that when a child falls ill with cancer, the parents are affected financially as well as psychologically. The available literature shows that mothers are more affected than ...

High-performance, eco-friendly, safe and at the same time cost-effective: the zinc-air battery is an attractive energy storage technology of the future. Until now, the conventional zinc-air battery has struggled with a high chemical instability, parasitic reactions which rooted in the usage of alkaline electrolytes lead to electrochemical irreversibility. Based on an innovative, non-alkaline, aqueous electrolyte, an international research team led by scientist Dr. Wei Sun of MEET Battery Research Center at the University of Muenster has developed a new battery chemistry for the zinc-air battery which overcomes the previous technical obstacles. The scientific team has published the detailed results of their research project, involving ...

December 31, 2020 - Data on COVID-19 transmission among Chicago youth - particularly in the city's extensive network of Catholic schools - supports a strategy for gradual reopening of the city's public school system, according to a report in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "Data from the nation's largest Catholic school system reveals that implementation of layered mitigation efforts can support the goal of reopening in-person education in a safe but not zero-risk environment," write Marielle Fricchione, MD, and colleagues of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). Based ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- A pair of recent studies from Oregon State University found that Oregon's Medicaid expansion in 2014 has led to increased prenatal care among low-income women, as well as improved health outcomes for newborn babies. In the three years after the expansion, one study found that Oregon saw an almost 2 percentage point increase in first trimester prenatal care utilization, relative to 18% of the pre-expansion population who lacked any access to prenatal care in the earlier stages of pregnancy. In the same period, the second study found, Medicaid expansion was associated with a 29% reduction in low birthweight among babies born to women on Medicaid, ...

By applying statistical geometry to analyzing urban road networks, KAUST researchers have advanced understanding of how wireless charging roads might influence driver behavior and city planning in a future where electric vehicles (EVs) dominate the car market. "Our work is motivated by the global trend of moving towards green transportation and EVs," says postdoc Mustafa Kishk. "Efficient dynamic charging systems, such as wireless power transfer systems installed under roads, are being developed by researchers and technology companies around the world as a way to charge EVs while driving without the need ...

VANCOUVER, Wash. --People dreaming of travel post-COVID-19 now have some scientific data to support their wanderlust. A new study in the journal of Tourism Analysis shows frequent travelers are happier with their lives than people who don't travel at all. Chun-Chu (Bamboo) Chen, an assistant professor in the School of Hospitality Business Management at Washington State University, conducted a survey to find out why some individuals travel more frequently than others and whether or not travel and tourism experiences have a prolonged effect on happiness and wellness. The results of his analysis show individuals who pay more attention to tourism-related information and frequently discuss their travel plans ...

San Antonio, Texas (January 4, 2020) - Scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) and Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) published their findings regarding a comprehensive animal model study of SARS-CoV-2 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Microbiology. These findings were originally posted online in BioRxiv in June of 2020. The study evaluated three nonhuman primate (NHP) species (Indian rhesus macaques, African baboons and new-world origin common marmosets) and young and old animals, to determine susceptibility to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the development of COVID-19 disease. Over the course of the study, the macaque and baboon ...

TAMPA, Fla (Jan 4, 2021) -- Despite the progress made in managing asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), poorly controlled symptoms for both respiratory diseases can lead to severe shortness of breath, hospitalizations or even death. "Only about 50 percent of asthmatics, and an even lower percentage of people with COPD, achieve adequate control of lung inflammation and airway constriction with currently available medications," said END ...

There has been frequent occurrence of red tide in coastal waters around Korea where the sea turns red. Red tide is a phenomenon in which phytoplankton proliferate as nutrient or sewage flow into seawater, making it appear red. This not only causes damage to the fisheries industry but also affects the marine ecosystem. Professor Kitack Lee and Ph.D. candidate Ji-Young Moon (first author) of POSTECH's Division of Environmental Science and Engineering have confirmed that the inflow of nitrogen pollutants since the 1980s has disturbed the nutrient balance in the northeast Asian waters and is changing the species of phytoplankton responsible for red tide. The team also found that the ...

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has created a novel film that is very effective in evaporating sweat from our skin to keep us cool and comfortable when we exercise, and the moisture harvested from human sweat can be used to power wearable electronic devices such as watches, fitness trackers, and more. Sweating is a natural process for our body to reduce thermal stress. "Sweat is mostly composed of water. When water is evaporated from the skin surface, it lowers the skin temperature and we feel cooler. In our new invention, we created a novel film that is extremely effective in evaporating ...

Real-life applications like magnetometry or quantum gyroscope typically involve precise measurement on multiple parameters. How to achieve the ultimate precision limits simultaneously is a long sought-after grail in the field. It is widely believed that the ultimate precision limits for all parameters cannot be achieved simultaneously, since generators of different parameters are generally non-commuting, which induces the trade-offs among the precisions. Yet such trade-offs are escaped from by the group of Prof. LI Chuanfeng and Prof. XIANG Guoyong from Key Laboratory of Quantum Information at University of Science and ...

Researchers have found a novel way to identify heat-stressed corals, which could help scientists pinpoint the coral species that need protection from warming ocean waters linked to climate change, according to a Rutgers-led study. "This is similar to a blood test to assess human health," said senior author Debashish Bhattacharya, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "We can assess coral health by measuring the metabolites (chemicals created for metabolism) they produce and, ultimately, identify the best interventions to ensure reef health. Coral bleaching from warming ...

DALLAS, Jan. 4, 2021 -- Smoking traditional cigarettes in addition to using e-cigarettes results in harmful health effects similar to smoking cigarettes exclusively, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association's flagship journal Circulation. Smoking, a well-known link to cardiovascular disease and death, appears to be on the decline. While the use of e-cigarettes, known as vaping, is increasingly popular, there has been limited research on the impact of vaping on the body. In a large data analysis of more than 7,100 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, researchers studied the association of cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use with inflammation and oxidative stress as biomarkers. Inflammation and ...

To effectively combat an infection, the body first has to sense it's been invaded, then the affected tissue must send out signals to corral resources to fight the intruder. Knowing more about these early stages of pathogen recognition and response may provide scientists with crucial clues when it comes to preventing infections or treating inflammatory diseases resulting from overactive immunity. That was the intent behind a new study, led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, examining infection with the parasite Cryptosporidium. ...

To control mosquito populations and prevent them from transmitting diseases such as malaria, many researchers are pursuing strategies in mosquito genetic engineering. A new Texas A&M AgriLife Research project aims to enable temporary "test runs" of proposed genetic changes in mosquitoes, after which the changes remove themselves from the mosquitoes' genetic code. The project's first results were published on Dec. 28 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, titled "Making gene drive biodegradable." Zach ...

What The Patient Page Says: We have all lived with COVID-19 for about a year now. Overall, we have learned that children get sick less often than adults, but a few children have gotten severely sick. This update summarizes the current understanding of how children are affected and gives ways to keep families safe as children continue to grow and thrive. Authors: Lindsay A. Thompson, M.D., M.S., and Sonja A. Rasmussen, M.D., M.S., of the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, are the authors. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.5817) Editor's ...

What The Study Did: Researchers looked at whether health outcomes of white citizens living in the richest U.S. counties were better than that of average individuals in other developed countries. Authors: Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, 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.2020.7484) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

What The Study Did: This observational study examined whether lasting change in sweetened beverage prices or the volume sold was associated with the implementation and repeal of a sweetened beverage tax in Cook County, Illinois, where Chicago is. Authors: Lisa M. Powell, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois Chicago, 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.2020.31083) Editor's Note: The article includes ...