Culture

Many children with autism face developmental delays, including communication and behavioral challenges and difficulties with social interaction. This makes learning new skills a major challenge, especially in traditional school environments.

Previous research suggests socially assistive robots can help children with autism learn. But these therapeutic interventions work best if the robot can accurately interpret the child's behavior and react appropriately.

The impacts of the corona virus on people's health and daily life, stock markets, and businesses illustrate the increasingly interconnected nature of the challenges facing governments around the world. Putting systemic thinking at the centre of policymaking will be essential to address these issues in an era of rapid and disruptive change, according to a new joint report by IIASA and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Scientists from the University of Surrey have identified mutations in a gene in an Escherichia coli (E. coli) model that could help explain a form of anti-microbial resistance (AMR) known as 'persistence'.

For many years, researchers have disagreed as to why some global areas have an extremely large species richness, while others have almost no species. In other words, what explains the uneven distribution of biodiversity on earth?

Older people's risk of recurrent fractures decreases by 18 percent if the care they receive is more structured and preventive, through fracture liaison services. This is shown by a study from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

How did the universe begin? How does quantum mechanics, the study of the smallest things relate to gravity and the study of big things? These are some of the questions physicists have been working to solve ever since Einstein released his theory of relativity.

Now researchers are presenting guidelines for how active matter, such as cells and microorganisms, can best be studied using machine learning techniques. The guidelines can help others navigate the new field, which can significantly improve research in active matter.

Penn Medicine researchers are the first to discover two distinct neuroanatomical subtypes of schizophrenia after analyzing the brain scans of over 300 patients. The first type showed lower widespread volumes of gray matter when compare to healthy controls, while the second type had volumes largely similar to normal brains. The findings, published Thursday in the journal Brain, suggest that, in the future, accounting for these differences could inform more personalized treatment options.

The first UK clinical trial to increase the identification and treatment of hepatitis C (HCV) patients in primary care has been found to be effective, acceptable to staff and highly cost-effective for the NHS. The University of Bristol-led Hepatitis C Assessment to Treatment Trial (HepCATT), published in the British Medical Journal today [27 February], provides robust evidence of effective action GPs should take to increase HCV testing and treatment.

For half a century, scientists who have developed models of how ecological communities function have arrived at an unsettling conclusion. Their models' predictions--seen as classic tenets of community ecology--suggested that mutualistic interactions between species, such as the relationship between plants and pollinators, would lead to unstable ecosystems.

A new study has found that socioeconomic status (SES) has the strongest impact on whether secondary school students study the STEM sciences.

A research team drew on data from over 4,300 pupils in Australia, and also looked at Indigenous students who are less likely to study all sciences.

UCLA engineers have developed minuscule warehouse logistics robots that could help expedite and automate medical diagnostic technologies and other applications that move and manipulate tiny drops of fluid. The study was published in Science Robotics.

For more than five years, University of Utah air quality sensors have hitched rides on TRAX light rail trains, scanning air pollution along the train's Red and Green Lines. Now the study, once a passion project of U researchers, has become a state-funded long-term observatory, with an additional sensor on the Blue Line into Sandy and Draper and additional insights into the events that impact the Salt Lake Valley's air, including summer fireworks and winter inversions.

Flashing crosswalk lights are no match for flashy cars, according to a new UNLV study which found that drivers of expensive cars are least likely to stop for crossing pedestrians.

Wearing hearing aids may delay cognitive decline in older adults and improve brain function, according to promising new research.

Cognitive decline is associated with hearing loss, which affects about 32 per cent of people aged 55 years, and more than 70 per cent of people aged over 70 years. Hearing loss has been identified as a modifiable risk factor for dementia.

University of Melbourne researchers have tested the use of hearing aids in almost 100 adults aged 62-82 years with hearing loss.