Feed aggregator

Small galaxies likely played important role in evolution of the Universe

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
A study led by University of Minnesota researchers found evidence of the first-ever galaxy in a "blow-away" state, which could give more insight into the Universe's early stages.
Categories: Content

Open-source GPU technology for supercomputers

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
Researchers from the HSE International Laboratory for Supercomputer Atomistic Modelling and Multi-scale Analysis, JIHT RAS and MIPT have compared the performance of popular molecular modelling programs on GPU accelerators produced by AMD and Nvidia. In a paper published by the International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, the scholars ported LAMMPS on the new open-source GPU technology, AMD HIP, for the first time.
Categories: Content

New test detects residual cancer DNA in the blood without relying on tumor data

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
After surgical removal of a tumor, tests for signs of cancer DNA circulating in the blood typically rely on knowing the mutations that were present in a patient's tumor. A new study has found that a "tumor-uninformed" blood-only test can also detect residual disease.
Categories: Content

Discarded ostrich shells provide timeline for our early African ancestors

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
Dating early human middens becomes uncertain beyond 50,000 years, when radiocarbon dating ceases to be useful. Uranium-series dating of marine shells and bone is uncertain by some 10% because of the structure of these materials. A UC Berkeley and Berkeley Geochronology Center team has now improved the method for a more stable discard: ostrich eggshells. The method extends the accuracy and precision of radiocarbon 10 times into the past, to about 500,000 years ago.
Categories: Content

Digital mental health interventions for young people are perceived promising, but are they effective

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
An increasing number of digital mental health interventions are designed for adolescents and young people with a range of mental health issues, but the evidence on their effectiveness is mixed, according to new research. Computerized cognitive behavioral therapy was found effective for anxiety and depression in adolescents and young people, holding promise for increasing access to mental health treatment for these conditions.
Categories: Content

In-person schooling with inadequate mitigation measures raises household member's COVID-19 risk

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
People living with a child who attends school in-person have an increased risk of reporting evidence of COVID-19, but teacher masking, symptom screening, and other mitigation measures in schools may be able to minimize that excess risk, suggests a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Categories: Content

Partnerships between researchers, policymakers and practitioners improve early childhood education

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
New journal volume proves that research practice partnerships (RPPs), long-term collaborations between researchers, policy makers and practitioners, actually improves early childhood education.
Categories: Content

How to level up soft robotics

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
The field of soft robotics has exploded in the past decade, as ever more researchers seek to make real the potential of these pliant, flexible automata in a variety of realms, including search and rescue, exploration and medicine.
Categories: Content

Nearly $500M a year in Medicare costs goes to 7 services with no net health benefits

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
A UCLA-led study shows that physicians frequently order preventive medical services for adult Medicare beneficiaries that are considered unnecessary and of "low value" by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force -- at a cost of $478 million per year.
Categories: Content

Battling public health misinformation online

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
Social media and web-based news channels became a communication superhighway for correct and incorrect public health information during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study of this vast amount of information, known as infodemiology, is critical to building public health interventions to combat misinformation and help individuals, groups, and communities navigate and distill crucial public health messages.
Categories: Content

Pop those 'BPA-free' drinking bottles into the dishwasher before using them

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
A team of researchers at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine decided to test an array of drinking bottles made of Tritan to see if transient BPA was present. Tritan is a BPA-free plastic. They acquired 10 different Tritan bottles and detected BPA release from two kinds of Tritan bottles. The team then tested whether rinsing, handwashing or dishwashing removed the BPA from the Tritan bottles. It showed that multiple cycles through the dishwasher was the most effective at removing BPA.
Categories: Content

An OU-led study sheds new insight on forest loss and degradation in Brazilian Amazon

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
An international team led by Xiangming Xiao, George Lynn Cross Research Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences, published a paper in the April issue of the journal Nature Climate Change that has major implications on forest policies, conservation and management practices in the Brazilian Amazon.
Categories: Content

Less innocent than it looks

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
Researchers in the materials department in UC Santa Barbara's College of Engineering have uncovered a major cause of limitations to efficiency in a new generation of solar cells.
Categories: Content

Baby mantis shrimp don't pull their punches

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
Tiny larvae of the Philippine mantis shrimp (Gonodactylaceus falcatus) display the ultra-fast movements for which these animals are known, even when they are smaller than a short grain of rice. Their ultra-fast punching appendages measure less than 1 mm, and accelerate 100 times faster than a Formula One race car. However, they violate a rule of thumb that smaller is faster; the adults punch even more quickly.
Categories: Content

Plankton have a genome like no other

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
The weird and wonderful genome of dinoflagellates looks nothing like other eukaryotic genomes.
Categories: Content

New Geology articles published online ahead of print in April

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
Thirty-one new articles were published online ahead of print for Geology in April. Topics include shocked zircon from the Chicxulub impact crater; the Holocene Sonoran Desert; the architecture of the Congo Basin; the southern Death Valley fault; missing water from the Qiangtang Basin; sulfide inclusions in diamonds; how Himalayan collision stems from subduction; ghost-dune hollows; and the history of the Larsen C Ice Shelf. These Geology articles are online at https://geology.geoscienceworld.org/content/early/recent.
Categories: Content

Hubble watches how a giant planet grows

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers a rare look at a Jupiter-sized, still-forming planet that is feeding off material surrounding a young star.
Categories: Content

Lightning and subvisible discharges produce molecules that clean the atmosphere

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
Lightning bolts break apart nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the atmosphere and create reactive chemicals that affect greenhouse gases. Now, a team of atmospheric chemists and lightning scientists have found that lightning bolts and, surprisingly, subvisible discharges that cannot be seen by cameras or the naked eye produce extreme amounts of the hydroxyl radical -- OH -- and hydroperoxyl radical -- HO2.
Categories: Content

Considerable gap in evidence around whether portable air filters reduce the incidence of COVID-19

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
There is an important absence of evidence regarding the effectiveness of a potentially cost-efficient intervention to prevent indoor transmission of respiratory infections, including COVID-19, warns a study by researchers at the University of Bristol.
Categories: Content

Multi-drug resistant infection about to evolve within cystic fibrosis patients

Eurekalert - Apr 29 2021 - 00:04
Scientists have been able to track how a multi-drug resistant organism is able to evolve and spread widely among cystic fibrosis patients - showing that it can evolve rapidly within an individual during chronic infection. The researchers say their findings highlight the need to treat patients with Mycobacterium abscessus infection immediately, counter to current medical practice.
Categories: Content