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Study provides detailed look at intriguing property of chiral materials

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
A new study is advancing scientists' understanding of magneto-chiral dichroism.
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Host, management, or microbial traits: Which is dominant in plant microbiome assemblage?

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
In a new study published in the Phytobiomes Journal, "Influence of plant host and organ, management strategy, and spore traits on microbiome composition," Dr. Frances Trail and her research group are interested in three factors that might attribute to microbial assemblage: the age of the plant, the organ or tissue type, and the management strategy. They followed a 3-year crop rotation that included corn, wheat, and soybean planted in a single field.
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Stem cell therapy promotes recovery from stroke and dementia in mice

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
A one-time injection of an experimental stem cell therapy can repair brain damage and improve memory function in mice with conditions that replicate human strokes and dementia, a new UCLA study finds.
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Right to food strategy could eliminate food waste on farms

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
A national strategy to ensure that families have access to food could revolutionize Canada's farms, according to a new study from Simon Fraser University's Food Systems Lab. The study proposes implementing a "right to food" framework that would support the needed funding, infrastructure, and stability that can reduce losses of edible food at the farm, while creating better access to local foods for consumers.
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Inflammatory diet linked to testosterone deficiency in men

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
Consuming a diet high in pro-inflammatory foods - including foods that contain refined carbohydrates and sugar as well as polyunsaturated fats - may be associated with increased odds of developing testosterone deficiency among men, suggests a study in The Journal of Urology®, Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
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What leads young women to disclose abuse in their first relationships?

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
A new study from Michigan State University is one of the first to examine multiple factors that influence young women's disclosure of partner violence that occurred during their first relationships, when they were just under 15 years old, on average.
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Lighting it up: Fast material manipulation through a laser

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
Researchers from the Physical Chemistry Department of the Fritz Haber Institute and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg have found out that ultrafast switches in material properties can be prompted by laser pulses - and why. This knowledge may enable new transistor concepts.
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Monkeys are less cuddly with each other when dealing with an infection, study finds

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
Wren, a visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Purdue University, spent a year studying wild vervet monkey troops in South Africa, tracking both their social grooming behavior and their parasite load. Her results, some of which were published Wednesday (April 21) in PLOS ONE showed evidence that monkeys carrying certain gastrointestinal parasites do not groom others as much as those without the parasite, and that routes of transmission may not be as clear cut as biologists think.
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New cognitive bias affecting evaluation processes: Generosity-erosion effect

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
Researchers have analysed 10,000 evaluations carried out to candidates who wish to hold a public teaching permanent. They studied how the decision by the evaluators is affected by the position of each candidate in the lists of people to be assessed. The study, published in the journal Science Advances, identifies the cognitive bias: "generosity-erosion effect". It involves that once the evaluators have scored one candidate generously, they tend to act harsher to the subsequent ones.
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Mechanical engineers develop new high-performance artificial muscle technology

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
Associate professor Michael Shafer and professor Heidi Feigenbaum of Northern Arizona University's Department of Mechanical Engineering, along with graduate student Diego Higueras-Ruiz, published a paper in Science Robotics presenting a new, high-performance artificial muscle technology they developed in NAU's Dynamic Active Systems Laboratory. The paper details how the new technology enables more human-like motion due to its flexibility and adaptability, but outperforms human skeletal muscle in several metrics.
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Pregnant/postpartum women report higher depression, post-traumatic stress during pandemic

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
Substantial proportions of nearly 7,000 pregnant or postpartum women surveyed around the world reported elevated anxiety, depression, loneliness, and post-traumatic stress due to COVID-19. Seeking information about the pandemic five or more times a day or worrying about children and childcare or economic concerns were linked with worse mental health in women. Public health campaigns and medical care systems should explicitly address the impact of COVID-19-related stressors on mental health in pregnant and postpartum women.
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Swing vote 'trumped' turnout in 2016 election

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
Swing voters in battleground states delivered Donald Trump his unexpected victory in the 2016 presidential election, suggests a new study coauthored by Yale political scientist Gregory A. Huber.
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Delaying second dose of COVID-19 vaccines may be an effective public health strategy

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
Two of the COVID-19 vaccines currently approved in the United States require two doses, administered three to four weeks apart, however, there are few data indicating how best to minimize new infections and hospitalizations with limited vaccine supply and distribution capacity. A study published on 21st April, 2021 in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Seyed Moghadas at York University in Toronto, Canada, and colleagues suggests that delaying the second dose could improve the effectiveness of vaccine programs.
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Scientists find CO2-rich liquid water in ancient meteorite

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
By studying ancient meteorite fragments, scientists can gain important insights into how our solar system formed eons ago. Now, in a new study, researchers have discovered carbon dioxide-rich liquid water inside a meteorite from an asteroid that formed 4.6 billion years ago. This finding suggests that the meteorite's parent asteroid formed beyond Jupiter's orbit before being transported into the inner solar system and provides key evidence for the dynamics of the Solar System's formation.
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'Ice cube tray' scaffold is next step in returning sight to injured retinas

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
New advances by medical researchers and engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison may provide hope for those suffering from vision loss.
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Chronic stress may reduce lifespan in wild baboons, according to new multi-decadal study

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
Addressing a much-debated question about the impact of stress on survival in wild, nonhuman primates, a new multi-decadal study involving 242 wild female baboons found evidence to support chronic stress as a significant factor affecting survival. The study found that a female baboon with a stress response - as reflected in fecal glucocorticoid concentrations, a biomarker.
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Using floodwaters to weather droughts

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
Using a new computer framework, scientists are able to project future floodwaters under a changing climate. The approach could help California water managers plan for and redirect floodwaters toward groundwater aquifers, alleviating both flood and drought risks.
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Cracking the code of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered some seventy years ago, are famous for containing the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and many hitherto unknown ancient Jewish texts. But the individual people behind the scrolls have eluded scientists, because the scribes are anonymous. Now, by combining the sciences and the humanities, University of Groningen researchers have cracked the code, which enables them to discover the scribes behind the scrolls.
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Scientists capture first ever image of an electron's orbit within an exciton

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
In a world-first, researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have captured an image showing the internal orbits, or spatial distribution, of particles in an exciton - a goal that had eluded scientists for almost a century. Their findings are published in Science Advances.
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Stress and death in female baboons

Eurekalert - Apr 21 2021 - 00:04
Female baboons lead extremely challenging lives that leave some of them with chronically high levels of glucocorticoid stress hormones. A new study appearing 21 April in Science Advances shows that female baboons with high life-long levels of glucocorticoids, the hormones involved in the 'fight or flight' response, have a greater risk of dying than those with lower levels. Modeling showed the high stress levels may cost 25 percent of lifespan.
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