Feed aggregator

Urbanization drives antibiotic resistance on microplastics in Chinese river

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Microplastic pollution of waterways has become a huge concern, with the tiny pieces of plastic entering food webs and potentially having harmful effects on animals and people. In addition, microplastics can act as breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Now, researchers reporting in Environmental Science & Technology have analyzed antibiotic-resistance genes (ARGs) on five types of microplastics at different locations along the Beilun River in China, finding much higher abundances in urban than rural regions.
Categories: Content

Ozone pollution has increased in Antarctica

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Ozone is a pollutant at ground level, but very high in the atmosphere's 'ozone layer,' it absorbs damaging ultraviolet radiation. Past studies have examined ozone levels in the Southern Hemisphere, but little is known about levels of the molecule in Antarctica over long periods. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology have analyzed more than 25 years of Antarctic data, finding that concentrations near the ground arose from both natural and human-related sources.
Categories: Content

Keeping strawberries fresh using bioactive packaging

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Québec produces more strawberries than any other Canadian province. Strawberries are delicate and difficult to keep fresh. In response to this challenge, Monique Lacroix, a professor at INRS (l'Institut national de la recherche scientifique), and her team have developed a packaging film that can keep strawberries fresh for up to 12 days. The team's findings on how this film protects against mould and certain pathogenic bacteria have been published in Food Hydrocolloids.
Categories: Content

Fossil research shows woodlice cousins roamed Ireland 360 million years ago

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
The old cousins of the common woodlice were crawling on Irish land as long as 360 million years ago, according to new analysis of a fossil found in Kilkenny, Ireland.
Categories: Content

We cannot cheat ageing and death

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Philosophers, artists and scientists - and probably all the rest of us - have long obsessed over the key to human immortality. We all, no matter our income, culture or religion are bound to die. Even if we escape mortal diseases or accidents, we all face a deadly biological deterioration. While the debate of human longevity has divided the scientific community for centuries, a new study finds fresh evidence for our inevitable death.
Categories: Content

Ocean circulation is key to understanding uncertainties in climate change predictions

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Thirty state of the art IPCC-climate models predict dramatically different climates for the Northern Hemisphere, especially Europe. An analysis of the range of responses now reveals that the differences are mostly down to the individual model's simulations of changes to the North Atlantic ocean currents and not only -- as normally assumed -- atmospheric changes.
Categories: Content

Nematic transition and nanoscale suppression of superconductivity in an iron chalcogenide

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Examining an iron chalcogenide high-temperature superconductor, an international team of researchers has found that just before the material fully enters the nematic state, electronic nematicity first appears in nanoscale patches on its surface. In addition, minute stretching of the material, or strain, can induce local nematicity, which in turn suppresses superconductivity, according to a report in Nature Physics.
Categories: Content

Semiconductor technology mitigates fire risk in electric vehicle batteries

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Despite rapid development of EVs, the safety of the Li-ion batteries remains a concern as they are as a fire and explosion risk. Among the various approaches to tackle this issue, Korean researchers have used semiconductor technology to improve the safety of Li-ion batteries. A research team has succeeded in inhibiting the growth of dendrites, crystals with multiple branches that cause EV battery fires by forming protective semiconducting passivation layers on the surface of Li electrodes.
Categories: Content

Glyphosate pesticides persist for years in wild plants and cause flower infertility

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
Glyphosate is an herbicide commonly used in forestry operations throughout British Columbia, Canada. Researchers investigated how the chemical may affect the reproductive health of prickly wild rose, a perennial plant found beneath the forest canopy. The new study, by the open access publisher Frontiers, found that pollen viability decreased by an average of 66 percent compared to untreated plants a year after the herbicide was initially applied, with traces of glyphosate persisting for at least two years.
Categories: Content

Study shows Head Start teachers' depressive symptoms related to children's math skills

Eurekalert - Jun 16 2021 - 00:06
A new study examined both direct and indirect pathways by which preschool teachers' depressive symptoms could influence preschool children's early mathematical skills. The study showed that teachers' depressive symptoms were significantly associated with children's math achievement in Head Start programs. In addition, the linkage was through the quality of the teachers' relationships with the families, which in turn affected young children's motivation, engagement, and persistence in learning (called their approaches to learning).
Categories: Content

Inducing and tuning spin interactions in layered material

Eurekalert - Jun 15 2021 - 00:06
Magnetic-spin interactions that allow spin-manipulation by electrical control allow potential applications in energy-efficient spintronic devices. A Chinese-Australia collaboration published today describes for the first time the induction of such interactions in a layered material tantalum-sulfide by addition of iron atoms, and tuning by insertion of protons.
Categories: Content

Chatbots for dementia patients and caregivers need more work

Eurekalert - Jun 15 2021 - 00:06
Chatbots hold promise for dementia patient or caregiver support, but are still in their infancy, finds a new paper. None of the interactive digital apps tested performed well on all testing criteria, and all the apps contained linguistic biases and usability challenges. The authors conclude that until developers produce evidence-based chatbots that have undergone end user evaluation it will be hard to evaluate their potential to adequately educate and support dementia patients and their caregivers.
Categories: Content

Computers predict people's tastes in art

Eurekalert - Jun 15 2021 - 00:06
A new study showing that computers can predict what paintings people will like offers insight into how our brains make aesthetic judgments.
Categories: Content

Early encounter of microbes and fetal immune system during second trimester of gestation

Eurekalert - Jun 15 2021 - 00:06
The human fetal immune system begins to develop early during gestation, however, factors responsible for fetal immune-priming remain elusive. Dr Florent Ginhoux from A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network, Professor Jerry Chan from KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Professor Salvatore Albani from SingHealth Duke-NUS Translational Immunology Institute, and Cambridge University explored potential exposure to microbial agents in-utero. They identified live microbes across fetal organs that stimulate activation of fetal T-cells during the second trimester of gestation.
Categories: Content

Anti-inflammatory effects of omega-3 fatty acids could help reduce depression

Eurekalert - Jun 15 2021 - 00:06
Research led by King's College London has, for the first time, shown that when omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are given to patients with depression they are metabolised into molecules called lipid mediators and the levels of these in the blood are linked to an improvement in symptoms. The research is published today in Molecular Psychiatry.
Categories: Content

Enormous flock of declining shorebird discovered in South Carolina

Eurekalert - Jun 15 2021 - 00:06
In 2019, on a small island in coastal South Carolina, biologists discovered an animal migration phenomenon that was difficult to believe. Nearly 20,000 whimbrel were stopping at Deveaux Bank along their migration north -- half the estimated eastern population of the declining shorebird.
Categories: Content

Greater than the sum of our parts: The evolution of collective intelligence

Eurekalert - Jun 15 2021 - 00:06
New research -- the evolution of complementary cognition -- proposes that in adapting to enormous environmental upheavals over hundreds of thousands of years, humans evolved to specialize in different but complementary forms of cognition, styles of 'thinking,' that work together as a complex adaptive system -- a kind of collective brain.
Categories: Content

Drone footage reveals social secrets of killer whales

Eurekalert - Jun 15 2021 - 00:06
Killer whales have complex social structures including close "friendships", according to a new study that used drones to film the animals.
Categories: Content

Junk food diet may boost risk of dangerous driving among truck/lorry drivers

Eurekalert - Jun 15 2021 - 00:06
A junk food diet may increase the risk of dangerous driving among truck/lorry drivers by boosting fatigue, which is often a key factor in vehicle collisions, suggests research published online in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine.
Categories: Content

Strict rest after sports-related concussion slows recovery and may prolong symptoms

Eurekalert - Jun 15 2021 - 00:06
Strict rest after a sports related concussion slows recovery and may prolong symptoms, says a consensus statement drawn up by a US expert panel on how best to treat and manage the condition, and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Categories: Content