Culture
When the U.S. flooded Panama's Chagres River valley in 1910, Gatun Lake held the record as the world's biggest reservoir. This record was surpassed, but researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), who are now studying invading lizards on the tiny islands that dot the lake, discovered that islands with native lizards act as another kind of reservoir, harboring the parasites that control invaders. The study, published in the journal Biology Letters, is valuable experimental evidence that biodiversity is better, making ecosystems more resistant to invasion.
BOSTON (August 10, 2020, 9:00 a.m. EDT)--Whole grain labels on cereal, bread, and crackers are confusing to consumers and could cause them to make fewer healthy choices, according to the results of a study that tested whether people are able pick out the healthier, whole grain option based on food package labels.
Whether you are playing Go in a park amid chirping birds, a gentle breeze and kids playing catch nearby or you are playing in a den with a ticking clock on a bookcase and a purring cat on the sofa, if the game situation is identical and clear, your next move likely would be, too, regardless of those different conditions. You'll still play the same next move despite a wide range of internal feelings or even if a few neurons here and there are just being a little erratic. How does the brain overcome unpredictable and varying disturbances to produce reliable and stable computations?
Secondary school students perform better in natural sciences and mathematics and are more motivated when digital tools are used in instruction. However, success depends on the design of the tools used. Success levels are higher when children and young adults do not study alone and when digital instruction is accompanied by paper-based teaching materials, according to the conclusion reached by one of the largest investigations on the topic, evaluating approximately 90 individual studies.
PULLMAN, Wash. - Automatic gratuities leave restaurant patrons with a bad taste, even when the meal and the service were excellent, new research from Washington State University indicates.
"We thought if service quality was high, people wouldn't care if an automatic service charge was added to their bill," said Jeff Joireman, the study's coauthor and professor and chair of the Department of Marketing and International Business at the Carson College of Business.
Scientists are closer to gaining the upper hand on a disease that has wiped out citrus orchards across the globe. New models of the bacterium linked to the disease reveal control methods that were previously unavailable.
Metabolic models of organisms are like road maps of cities.
"They show you all the biological processes, and how they work together," said UC Riverside microbiology professor James Borneman. "They also show you which molecular pathways, if blocked, will kill the organism."
Modelling the predicted movements of pervasive sap-sucking tiny insects before they infest banana crops has the potential to become a key tactic in the fight against a devastating virus, according to QUT research.
Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) is an aphid-transmitted banana disease that has been in Australia since 1913 and has been contained by biosecurity agencies to southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales.
Badly affected plants will not produce fruit if left unchecked and entire plantations can become infested.
Researchers from University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and University of Pennsylvania published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the effectiveness of what they call "the dueling preferences approach" on prosocial giving.
The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Penny for Your Preferences: Leveraging Self-Expression to Encourage Small Prosocial Gifts" and is authored by Jacqueline Rifkin, Katherine Du, and Jonah Berger.
A Korean research team has reported important findings that could potentially improve the performance of retinal prostheses creating artificial vision for blind individuals. The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that a research team led by Dr. Maesoon Im of the Center for BioMicrosystems, Brain Science Institute had found retinal neural signals arising from electric stimulation are altered depending on disease progression in mice affected by outer retinal degeneration.
When the eye isn't getting enough oxygen in the face of common conditions like premature birth or diabetes, it sets in motion a state of frenzied energy production that can ultimately result in blindness, and now scientists have identified new points where they may be able to calm the frenzy and instead enable recovery.
FAIRFAX, Va. -- Expanding standard techniques during mechanical thrombectomy -- a procedure that removes a clot from an artery during stroke -- allows researchers to reproducibly obtain and study local leukocyte populations during human stroke, according to a study by the University of Kentucky Department of Neurology, released today at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery's (SNIS) 17th Annual Meeting.
Several different kinds of bacteria can cause lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis (CF). Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause pneumonia, typically infects infants or young children and persists for life, while Burkholderia cepacia complex species only infect teenagers and adults. Although Burkholderia infections are rare, when they do take hold, they are deadly. Now, UNC School of Medicine scientists led by Peggy Cotter, PhD, professor in the UNC Department of Microbiology and Immunology, have discovered a reason for this pathogen's apparent age discrimination.
What do you think of when you hear the word "refugee"? For many people, what comes to mind is vulnerability--you might imagine the grim conditions of a refugee camp or the dangers of the desperate journey to safety. So perhaps it's unsurprising that refugees are widely perceived to be especially needy or dependent on public assistance.
AUSTIN, Texas -- The "invisible" words that shaped Dickens classics also lead audiences through Spielberg dramas. And according to new research, these small words can be found in a similar pattern across most storylines, no matter the length or format.
Enzymes are molecules that catalyze metabolisms. Discovery and mining of enzymes, such as those producing oils or fixing carbon dioxide, have been a key mission of the biotechnology industry. However, this mission can be very slow and tedious.
To tackle this key challenge, Chinese scientists have now developed a flow mode Raman-activated cell sorter (RACS), called FlowRACS, to support high-throughput discovery of enzymes and their cell factories, at the precision of just one microbial cell. The study was published in Science Advances on August 7.