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Measuring sound diversity of quietness

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
The world is filled with myriad sounds that can overwhelm a person with relentless acoustics. Noise is so prevalent in everyday life that the concept and achievement of comfortable quiet is hard to define. During the 180th ASA Meeting, Aggelos Tsaligopoulos from the University of the Aegean will describe how quiet could be measured in the hopes of better understanding its impact on people. The session, "Towards a new understanding of the concept of quietness," will take place Wednesday, June 9.
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Language extinction triggers loss of unique medicinal knowledge

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Indigenous peoples pass on their knowledge of medicinal plants orally. If their languages go extinct, valuable medical knowledge will be lost. A study by the University of Zurich estimates that 75% of the world's medicinal plant applications are only known in one language.
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A new approach will help save X-ray studies from failing results

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Scientists from the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University with foreign colleagues have developed a method that allows not only to predict the appearance of glitches but even to eliminate their influence on experiments.
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The iron jaws of the bristle worm

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Bristle worms have remarkably stable jaws. They are made of a very unusual material containing protein structures and metal atoms. Scientists at TU Wien have now been able to analyze and explain the properties of these structures, which could lead to novel industrially usable materials.
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Identifying the main culprit of the COVID-19 disaster

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
A research team led by Professor Jianping Huang from Lanzhou University explored the periodicity and mutability in the evolutionary history of the COVID-19 pandemic and investigated the principle mechanisms behind them. The evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic features the alternation of the abrupt rise and periodic oscillations. The oscillations are attributable to seasonal modulations and reporting bias, while mass gatherings are the main cause of the abrupt rise.
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Machine learning speeds up simulations in material science

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Research, development, and production of novel materials depend heavily on the availability of fast and at the same time accurate simulation methods. Machine learning, in which artificial intelligence autonomously acquires and applies new knowledge, will soon enable researchers to develop complex material systems in a purely virtual environment. How does this work, which applications will benefit? In an article published in Nature Materials, researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Göttingen and Toronto explain it all.
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Researchers realize unconventional coherent control of solid-state spin qubits

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Researchers realized robust coherent control of solid-state spin qubits using anti-Strokes (AS) excitation, broadening the boundary of quantum information processing and quantum sensing. This study was published in Nature Communications.
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RUDN professor clarified benefits of Mg supplementation in pregnancy and hormonal disorders

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
RUDN University professor and her colleagues from France proved that higher intake of magnesium and vitamin B6 helps to cope with the consequences of magnesium deficiency during pregnancy and in hormone-related conditions in women. Within four weeks, the painful symptoms become less severe, the quality of life improves, and the risks of miscarriage are reduced.
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Māori connections to Antarctica may go as far back as 7th century, new study shows

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Indigenous Māori people may have set eyes on Antarctic waters and perhaps the continent as early as the 7th century, new research published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand shows.
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Food for thought: Eating soft foods may alter the brain's control of chewing

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have found that eating a soft diet during development leads to altered electrical activity and movement in the jaw muscles of rats in response to stimulation of the anterior cortical masticatory area. Their findings suggest that reduced chewing function may be at least partly improved by simple treatments that involve increasing the difficulty of chewing, thus improving the brain's control of jaw movements.
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Researchers reveal relationship between magnetic field and supercapacitors

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Recently, an experiment designed by Professor YAN Xingbin's group from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revealed that applying an external magnetic field can induce capacitance change in aqueous acidic and alkaline electrolytes, but not in neutral electrolytes. The experiment also shows that the force field can explain the origin of the magnetic field effect.
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RUDN University chemist created coordination polymers with up to 99.99% antibacterial efficiency

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
RUDN University chemist with his colleagues from Portugal has developed two types of coating based on new coordination polymers with silver. Both compounds were successfully tested against four common pathogens.
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DNA methylation changes and characteristics in neurons of bipolar disorder patients

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
A research collaboration based in Kumamoto University, Japan has revealed the DNA methylation status of gene transcriptional regulatory regions in the frontal lobes of patients with bipolar disorder (BD). The regions with altered DNA methylation status were significantly enriched in genomic regions which were reported to be genetically related to BD. These findings are expected to advance the understanding of the pathogenesis of BD and the development of therapeutic drugs targeting epigenetic conditions.
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Scientists use public databases to leap over scourge of publication bias

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Publication bias, or the tendency of researchers and journals to not publish uninteresting findings, plagues much of the natural sciences and especially biomedical research. Hiroshima University researchers have developed a meta-analytic technique exploiting publicly available transcriptome databases that avoids the problem -- and in so doing, discovered four genes previously unknown to be associated with responding to low-oxygen stress.
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Artificial light harming clownfish

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
An international team establish that artificial lighting is killing young clownfish living closest to shore. They also found that clownfish grew 44% more slowly than clownfish under natural lighting conditions.
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New study presents tip-induced nano-engineering of strain, bandgap, and exciton funneling in 2D semiconductors

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has succeeded in investigating and controlling the physical properties of naturally-formed nanoscale wrinkles in 2D semiconductors.
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Not just a phase for RNAS

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
A phenomenon in which an RNA named NORAD drives a protein named Pumilio to form liquid droplets in cells, much like oil in water, appears to tightly regulate the activity of Pumilio. A new study led by UT Southwestern scientists suggests that such RNA-driven "phase separation," in turn, protects against genome instability, premature aging, and neurodegenerative diseases, and may represent a previously unrecognized way for RNAs to regulate cellular processes.
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Turning the heat on: A flexible device for localized heat treatment of living tissues

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Combining thermotherapy with other treatment modalities can improve the treatment's effectiveness. However, there is a dearth of suitable heat-generating wireless devices that can be implanted in the patient's body enabling greater flexibility and ease of treatment. Recently, researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have invented a unique induction-based flexible heating device that can address these gaps. The study has been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
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Novel compound reveals fundamental properties of smallest carbon nanotubes

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Chemical rings of carbon and hydrogen atoms curve to form relatively stable structures capable of conducting electricity and more -- but how do these curved systems change when new components are introduced? Researchers based in Japan found that, with just a few sub-atomic additions, the properties can pivot to vary system states and behaviors, as demonstrated through a new synthesized chemical compound.
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Alarming rising trends in suicide by firearms in young Americans

Eurekalert - Jun 09 2021 - 00:06
Researchers explored suicide trends by firearms in white and black Americans ages 5 to 24 years from 1999 to 2018. From 2008 to 2018, rates of suicide by firearms quadrupled in those ages 5 to 14 years and increased by 50% in those ages 15 to 24 years. Suicide deaths by firearms were more prevalent in white than black Americans -- a marked contrast with homicide by firearms, which are far more prevalent in black than white Americans.
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