Eurekalert

Knowing what consumers mean by "authenticity" can help marketers deliver it in their products and services.

A new study is the first to examine the brain activity behind successful and missed penalty kicks under real-world conditions. Successful kicks involved activation of "useful" areas of the brain, such as the motor cortex which is involved in movement. For missed kicks, areas involved in long-term thinking were more active, suggesting players were overthinking the consequences of the shot. Strikingly, the findings could help soccer players, and others, to perform better under pressure.

Properly understanding and responding to customer feedback on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms is crucial for brands, and it may have just gotten a little easier thanks to research out of the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Cosmologists have found a way to double the accuracy of measuring distances to supernova explosions - one of their tried-and-true tools for studying the mysterious dark energy that is making the universe expand faster and faster.

Scientists from Nanjing University and University of Macau have discovered nano-scaled apoptotic bodies (ABs) as a new brain-targeting drug carrier, bringing new promise for the Parkinson's Disease as well as other brain diseases.

Researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology have found that a compound from a tropical ginger plant could help treat and prevent inflammatory diseases. Immune cells from mice produced lower levels of crucial inflammatory markers when treated with this compound, called ACA. ACA also helped block these signals in a mouse model of colitis. This work provides vital information in the fight against diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and even COVID-19.

The way we live has created the "perfect storm" for the evolution and transmission of infectious diseases like Covid-19.A new editorial shows how the world's vast population of people, pets and livestock has created an ideal breeding ground for infectious diseases which are passed between humans and animals.It shows how we urgently need to control the transmission of pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 with vaccination passports, maximising genetic variation in livestock, and reducing meat consumption.

Post-pandemic, there is a historic opportunity to strengthen the NHS and improve health and care for all, according to a new LSE-Lancet Commission on the future of the NHS. The report is the first comprehensive analysis of the initial phases of the COVID-19 response and the main opportunities and challenges facing the NHS.

How did people living in the Bronze Age manage their finances before money became widespread? Researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Rome have discovered that bronze scrap found in hoards in Europe circulated as a currency. These pieces of scrap - which might include swords, axes, and jewellery broken into pieces - were used as cash in the late Bronze Age, and in fact complied with a weight system used across Europe. Results were published in Journal of Archaeological Science.

New research led by a team at Massachusetts General Hospital points to a promising strategy to boost tumors' intake of cancer drugs, thereby increasing the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatments.

A new study published in the Journal of Medical Toxicology reveals that opioid prescribing behavior can also be decreased by external factors, such as a supply shortage. In this case, the shortage was of parenteral morphine and hydromorphone, as a result of supply chain disruptions caused by Hurricane Maria in 2018.

A team of researchers from UCLA, Cedars-Sinai and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has developed a first-of-its-kind molecular catalog of cells in healthy lungs and the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis.

By swiping surfaces in commercial food processing plants with specially designed rapid-testing adenosine triphospate (ATP) swabs - which produce a light similar to the glow of fireflies in the presence of microorganisms - spoilage and foodborne illness could diminish, according to a new study from Cornell University food scientists.

Plants are unparalleled in their ability to capture carbon from the air, but this benefit is temporary. Researchers have proposed a more permanent, and even useful, fate for this captured carbon by turning plants into a valuable industrial material called silicon carbide (SiC). A new study from Salk scientists quantifies this process with more detail than ever before.

People who feel younger have a greater sense of well-being, better cognitive functioning, less inflammation, lower risk of hospitalization and even live longer than their older-feeling peers. A study published by the American Psychological Association suggests one potential reason for the link between subjective age and health: Feeling younger could help buffer middle-aged and older adults against the damaging effects of stress.

A new study from McGill University suggests that some Icelandic killer whales have very high concentrations of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in their blubber. But it seems that other orcas from the same population have levels of PCBs that are much lower. It mainly depends on what they eat.

Researchers at Gladstone Institutes have uncovered molecular clues that help explain what makes some neurons more susceptible than others in Alzheimer's disease. In a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the scientists present evidence that neurons with high levels of the protein apolipoprotein E (apoE) are more sensitive to degeneration, and that this susceptibility is linked to apoE's regulation of immune-response molecules within neurons.

As state and federal authorities decide whether to continue reimbursing for telehealth services that were suddenly adopted last spring in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a new study out of UC San Francisco has found that clinicians in the San Francisco Health Network (SFHN) overwhelmingly support using these services for outpatient primary care and specialty care visits.

A team of environmental engineers, alerted by the unusual wealth of data published regularly by county health agencies throughout the pandemic, began researching new methods to describe what was happening on the ground in a way that does not require obtaining information on individuals' movements or contacts. In a recently published paper, they presented their results: a model that predicts where the disease will spread from an outbreak, in what patterns and how quickly.

Story tip from Johns Hopkins experts on COVID-19.