Tech
In a study that looked at suicide deaths during 2020's first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Maryland, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found that, contrary to general predictions of suicides skyrocketing, suicides in the overall population actually dropped, relative to previous years. However, the researchers also discovered that suicide deaths increased dramatically among Black Marylanders during the same period.
Big bumblebees take time to learn the locations of the best flowers, new research shows.
Meanwhile smaller bumblebees - which have a shorter flight range and less carrying capacity - don't pay special attention to flowers with the richest nectar.
University of Exeter scientists examined the "learning flights" which most bees perform after leaving flowers.
Honeybees are known to perform such flights - and the study shows bumblebees do the same, repeatedly looking back to memorise a flower's location.
What The Viewpoint Says: This Viewpoint reviews the potential neurologic consequences of any restriction of blood flow or oxygen to the brain and calls for an examination of the safety and appropriateness of the use of neck restraints by law enforcement.
Authors: Altaf Saadi, M.D., M.Sc., of Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School in Boston, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
What The Study Did: Researchers looked at whether health outcomes of white citizens living in the richest U.S. counties were better than that of average individuals in other developed countries.
Authors: Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.7484)
A fast, green and one-step method for producing porous carbon spheres, which are a vital component for carbon capture technology and for new ways of storing renewable energy, has been developed by Swansea University researchers.
The method produces spheres that have good capacity for carbon capture, and it works effectively at a large scale.
In a series of commissions awarded by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) to the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), the question is whether for certain surgical procedures, a correlation can be shown between the volume of services provided per hospital and the quality of treatment results. IQWiG's rapid report on heart transplantations is now available.
Imaging techniques enable a detailed look inside an organism. But interpreting the data is time-consuming and requires a great deal of experience. Artificial neural networks open up new possibilities: They require just seconds to interpret whole-body scans of mice and to segment and depict the organs in colors, instead of in various shades of gray. This facilitates the analysis considerably.
Two new studies from the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) have uncovered an association between vaping and mental fog. Both adults and kids who vape were more likely to report difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions than their non-vaping, non-smoking peers. It also appeared that kids were more likely to experience mental fog if they started vaping before the age of 14.
Researchers from Yokohama National University in Japan have developed a prototype microprocessor using superconductor devices that are about 80 times more energy efficient than the state-of-the-art semiconductor devices found in the microprocessors of today's high-performance computing systems.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A single positive experience on a psychedelic drug may help reduce stress, depression and anxiety symptoms in Black, Indigenous and people of color whose encounters with racism have had lasting harm, a new study suggests.
The participants in the retrospective study reported that their trauma-related symptoms linked to racist acts were lowered in the 30 days after an experience with either psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms), LSD or MDMA (Ecstasy).
Cancer cells are known for spreading genetic chaos. As cancer cells divide, DNA segments and even whole chromosomes can be duplicated, mutated, or lost altogether. This is called chromosomal instability, and scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering have learned that it is associated with cancer's aggressiveness. The more unstable chromosomes are, the more likely that bits of DNA from these chromosomes will end up where they don't belong: outside of a cell's central nucleus and floating in the cytoplasm.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego researchers have uncovered how rain and waves act on different parts of coastal cliffs.
Following three years of cliff surveys in and near the coastal city of Del Mar, Calif., they determined that wave impacts directly affect the base, and rain mostly impacts the upper region of the cliffs.
Archeologists from Kemerovo State University are exploring the Tepsei site of Minusinsk Basin, located in Krasnoturansky district (Krasnoyarsk region). Their research objective is to describe the culture and history of the site, covering over 27 square kilometers. The territory includes Mount Tepsei (630 m high) and the river valley below. The site has already revealed numerous archeological artifacts, burial grounds, and ancient villages of the Yenisey culture.
A study by a team of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) psychologists has found a link between extraverts and their word choices.
The finding highlights the need for stronger linguistic indicators to be developed for use in online personality prediction tools, which are being rapidly adopted by companies to improve digital marketing strategies.
Using genetic data from nearly 30,000 people, Mount Sinai researchers have built risk scores from a combination of datasets representing distinct ancestral populations that improve prediction of risk for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The study was published in Gastroenterology on December 24.