Culture
Power consumption of a home refrigerator can be cut by 29% while improving cooling capacity. Researchers replaced widely-used, but environmentally unfriendly, R134a refrigerant with the more energy-efficient R600a. They dosed R600a with multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanoparticles. Drop-in refrigerant replacement in the field by trained technicians is possible, says an engineer from the University of Johannesburg.
What to do. You're a dog. Your owner is trapped in a box and is crying out for help. Are you aware of his despair? If so, can you set him free? And what’s more, do you really want to?
That's what Joshua Van Bourg and Clive Wynne wanted to know when they gave dogs the chance to rescue their owners.
Recently discovered 'single-pixel vision' in fish could help researchers understand how humans are able to spot tiny details in their environment - like stars in the sky.
In a paper published this week, researchers at the University of Sussex found that zebrafish are able to use a single photoreceptor to spot their tiny prey.
This photoreceptor is like an 'eye pixel' and seems to provide enough of a signal for the fish to go and investigate the stimulus.
Much of what we will be as adults depends on the first years of life, on what we simply observe happening around us and not only on what we are taught explicitly. This also applies to the development of the visual system. This is the conclusion reached by two neuroscientists of SISSA (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati), who, for the first time, have experimentally shown the importance of passive visual experience for the maturation and the proper functioning of some key neurons involved in the process of vision.
Despite improvements in their performance over the past decade, electronic health records (EHRs) commonly used in hospitals nationwide fail to detect up to one in three potentially harmful drug interactions and other medication errors, according to scientists at University of Utah Health, Harvard University, and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. In tests using simulated medical records, the researchers found that EHR systems consistently failed to detect errors that could injure or kill patients.
What The Study Did: This case report describes a 25-year-old female radiographer with no significant medical history who had been working in a COVID-19 ward who presented with a mild dry cough that lasted for one day, followed by persistent severe anosmia (loss of smell) and dysgeusia (an impaired sense of taste).
Authors: Letterio S. Politi, M.D., of the IRCCS Istituto Clinico Humanitas in Rozzano, Italy, is the corresponding author.
The more people know about when and why behavioural interventions are being used and their effectiveness, the more likely they are to accept their use to change their behaviour, according to recent research from Queen Mary University of London and the University of Oxford.
The study, published in the journal Behavioural Public Policy, investigated people's views on how acceptable they found the use of behavioural interventions, or nudges, in a variety of different situations.
An individualised and family-based physical activity and dietary intervention reduced the plasma LDL cholesterol concentration of primary school children, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows. The findings of the Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children (PANIC) Study ongoing at the University of Eastern Finland were published in the European Journal of Nutrition.
The most common organism in the oceans, and possibly on the entire planet, is a family of single-celled marine bacteria called SAR11. These drifting organisms look like tiny jelly beans and have evolved to outcompete other bacteria for scarce resources in the oceans.
We now know that this group of organisms thrives despite -- or perhaps because of -- the ability to host viruses in their DNA. A study published in May in Nature Microbiology could lead to new understanding of viral survival strategies.
A team of researchers has generated a developmental map of a key sound-sensing structure in the mouse inner ear. Scientists at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their collaborators analyzed data from 30,000 cells from mouse cochlea, the snail-shaped structure of the inner ear. The results provide insights into the genetic programs that drive the formation of cells important for detecting sounds.
From bacteria-made insulin that obviates the use of animal pancreases to a better understanding of infectious diseases and improved treatments, genetic engineering of bacteria has redefined modern medicine. Yet, serious limitations remain that hamper| progress in numerous other areas.
In New York City, the first confirmed COVID-19 cases arose mostly through untracked transmission of the virus from Europe and other parts of the United States, a new molecular epidemiology study of 84 patients reports. The results provide limited evidence to support any direct introductions of the virus from China, where SARS-CoV-2 originated. The first SARS-CoV-2 case in New York State was identified in New York City by 29 February. Knowing the route it took to arrive is essential for evaluating and designing effective containment strategies. Ana S.
The world has been experiencing an unprecedented economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant number of economic activities have shut down, causing contractions in global output, as well as the loss of businesses and family income. Recent evidence shows that millions of people globally lost their jobs and projecting the extent of the impending global economic loss remains a difficult endeavor. In response, almost all countries have been declaring various economic stimulus packages to overcome this situation.
In 2014, EU leaders agreed that all sectors should contribute to the European 2030 emission reduction target, including the land use sector, which did not count towards the achievement of the previous climate change mitigation goals. In 2018, this agreement was implemented by the Regulation on the inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions and removals from land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) in the 2030 EU climate and energy framework.
What is and is not possible for natural evolution may be explained using models and calculations from theoretical physics, say researchers in Japan.
Theoretically, every component of every chemical in every cell of all living organisms could vary independently of all the others, a situation researchers refer to as high dimensionality. In reality, evolution does not produce every possible outcome.