Culture
More than eight million to 14 million tonnes of unreported fish catches are traded illicitly every year, costing the legitimate market between $9 billion and $17 billion in trade each year, according to new UBC research.
Doctors who use drugs that target antibiotic-resistant bacteria as a first-line defense against pneumonia should probably reconsider this approach, according to a new study of more than 88,000 veterans hospitalized with the disease. The study, conducted by University of Utah Health and VA Salt Lake City Health Care System researchers, found that pneumonia patients given these medications in the first few days after hospitalization fared no better than those receiving standard medical care for the condition.
When it comes to the smallest of creatures, the hydrogen bonds that hold water molecules together to form "surface tension" lend enough strength to support their mass: think of insects that skip across the surface of water. But what happens to small creatures that dwell below the surface of the water?
UConn researchers have taken a close look, and in research published recently in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B, have documented how tiny tadpoles are able to access air above the water's surface, breathing without having to break through the surface tension.
Cats who suffered burns and smoke inhalation in recent California wildfires also had a high incidence of heart problems, according to a new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis, Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. The study represents the first published research to come from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine on feline victims of California wildfires and was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.
A new study examines how color evolved in one of the flashiest groups of parrots--Australasian lorikeets--finding that different plumage patches on the birds evolved independently through time. The study, published this week in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, helps explain why it's possible for the birds' faces and front sides to display a dazzling variety of colors--from vibrant ultraviolet blue only visible to other birds to deep crimson and black--while their wings and backs tend to be the same color: green.
A new study exposes the fallacy of relying on pronunciation as a measure of linguistic proficiency. The study, 'Revisiting phonetic integration in bilingual borrowing', by Shana Poplack, Suzanne Robillard, Nathalie Dion (all from the University of Ottawa), and John. C. Paolillo (University of Indiana Bloomington) will be published in March 2020 issue of the scholarly journal Language.
New research shows that experiencing chronic job insecurity can change your personality for the worse.
The study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, found those exposed to job insecurity over more than four years became less emotionally stable, less agreeable, and less conscientious.
Report co-author Dr Lena Wang from RMIT University's School of Management said the study built on a growing evidence base about the negative consequences of job insecurity.
The latest image published February 20, 2020 from the international Gemini Observatory showcases the striking planetary nebula CVMP 1. This object is the result of the death throes of a giant star and is a glorious but relatively short-lived astronomical spectacle. As the progenitor star of this planetary nebula slowly cools, this celestial hourglass will run out of time and will slowly fade from view over many thousands of years.
University of Maryland School of Medicine's (UMSOM) Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) researchers have created the first catalog of genes that comprise the community of microbes, which inhabit the human vagina. The catalog, called human vaginal non-redundant gene catalog (VIRGO), was recently released as a public resource that can be used by researchers to facilitate a more in-depth understanding of the role of vaginal microorganisms in women's health and to potentially develop future treatments for certain gynecologic conditions.
Paul Szyszka, Lecturer in the University of Otago's Department of Zoology, says "as alpha oscillations are associated with brain functions such as; attention, memory, and consciousness, bee brains may provide new avenues to understanding how our own brains work."
New Curtin University-led research has found that the smallest type of killer whale has 28 different complex calls, comprising a combination of burst-pulse sounds and whistles, which they use to communicate with family members about the changing landscape and habitat.
The research, published in Royal Society Open Science, analysed data collected in 2012 and 2013 to better understand the call repertoire of Ross Sea killer whales, also known as Type C, which are found in the McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.
Planetary scientists at Curtin University have shed some light on the tumultuous early days of the largely preserved protoplanet Asteroid 4 Vesta, the second largest asteroid in our Solar System.
Research lead Professor Fred Jourdan, from Curtin University's school of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said Vesta is of tremendous interest to scientists trying to understand more about what planets are made of, and how they evolved.
The size of neutrons cannot be measured directly: it can only be determined from experiments involving other particles. While such calculations have so far been made in a very indirect way using old measurements with heavy atoms, a team at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) has taken a different approach. By combining their very accurate calculations with recent measurements on light nuclei, the researchers have arrived at a more direct methodology.
Quantum physics describes the inner world of individual atoms, a world very different from our everyday experience. One of the many strange yet fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics is the role of the observer - measuring the state of a quantum system causes it to change. Despite the importance of the measurement process within the theory, it still holds unanswered questions: Does a quantum state collapse instantly during a measurement? If not, how much time does the measurement process take and what is the quantum state of the system at any intermediate step?
Functional metrics in ecology -indicators based on the biological features of the organisms, in this case, water invertebrates- could help researchers to detect the impacts of human origins in temporary rivers, according to a new study carried out by experts from the Research Group Freshwater Ecology, Hydrology and Management (FEHM) of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio).