Culture
UPTON, NY--When there are several processes going on at once, establishing cause-and-effect relationships is difficult. This scenario holds true for a class of high-temperature superconductors known as the cuprates. Discovered nearly 35 years ago, these copper-oxygen compounds can conduct electricity without resistance under certain conditions.
NORMAN, OKLA. - A University of Oklahoma-led study shows that paddy rice (both area and plant growth) is significantly related to the spatial-temporal dynamics of atmospheric methane concentration in monsoon Asia, where 87% of paddy rice fields are situated in the world.
Methane is one of the major greenhouse gases. It has a lifetime of 12.4 years and its global warming potential is approximately 86 times higher than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
NORMAN, OKLA. - At the beginning of each summer, mayfly larvae emerge from bodies of water and shed their skin to become full-fledged mayflies, similar to how caterpillars become butterflies. Then, all at once, a swarm of these insects simultaneously takes flight to reproduce, acting as an important component in the food chain for birds.
Merit-based grants are a government's best bet for providing effective student aid for long-term economic growth - increasing both welfare (measured in terms of long-term well-being outcomes) and efficiency, according to a new joint study from the University of British Columbia, Queen's, Princeton and Yale. The study focuses on current education policy in the United States, and finds that the current system of grants and loans has significant long-term value.
For most social animals, even humans, the ability to distinguish friend versus foe can be a challenge that often can lead to knee-jerk aggression. But when it comes to ants getting aggressive, there's a more sophisticated method to their madness.
Abrupt thawing of permafrost will double previous estimates of potential carbon emissions from permafrost thaw in the Arctic, and is already rapidly changing the landscape and ecology of the circumpolar north, a new CU Boulder-led study finds.
Behavioral therapy assisted by a smartphone app, delivered via telemedicine by a health coach, was an effective treatment for several symptoms of binge eating disorders, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published this week in The American Journal of Psychiatry.
February 3, 2020 - With a new focus on quality of care and outcomes achieved, healthcare organizations are challenged to make the transition to value-based care. A model called the Value Transformation Framework (VTF) provides a structured, step-by-step approach to help guide the shift to value-based healthcare, reports a paper in the Jo
ANN ARBOR--The herbicide Roundup is the most widely used agricultural chemical in history. But over the past two decades, a growing number of weed species have evolved resistance to Roundup's active ingredient, glyphosate, reducing the product's dominance somewhat.
Research on the genetic basis of glyphosate resistance has focused largely on target-site resistance, which involves mutations to the single gene that encodes the plant protein disrupted by the herbicide.
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (February 3, 2020)-- Habitat loss, pesticide use and, surprisingly, artificial light are the three most serious threats endangering fireflies across the globe, raising the spectre of extinction for certain species and related impacts on biodiversity and ecotourism, according to a Tufts University-led team of biologists associated with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Five years ago, a team of computer scientists, biomedical researchers, and bioinformaticians set out to bring the power of collective knowledge to genomic research. Their new publication in PLOS Biology shares the culmination of that effort, an analytical platform that guides researchers through the process of interpreting complex genomic datasets.
Many of the biggest questions in physics can be answered with the help of quantum field theories: They are needed to describe the dynamics of many interacting particles, and thus they are just as important in solid state physics as in cosmology. Often, however, it is extremely complicated to develop a quantum field theoretical model for a specific problem - especially if the system in question consists of many interacting particles.
(Boston)-- The benefits of yoga have been widely documented by scientific research, but previously it was not clear as to how yoga exerts its physiologic effect.
Now a new study from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) proposes that yoga can increase levels of Gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) in the short-term and completing one yoga class per week may maintain elevated GABA that could mitigate depressive symptoms.
Oil poses a considerable danger to aquatic life. Researchers at the Universities of Bonn and Aachen and the Heimbach-GmbH have developed a new technology for the removal of such contaminations: Textiles with special surface properties passively skim off the oil and move it into a floating container. The scientists used surfaces from the plant kingdom as a model. The study has now been published in the journal "Philosophical Transactions A".
For over a century, Alzheimer's disease has confounded all attempts to treat it. But in recent years, perplexing experiments using flickering light have shown promise.
Now, researchers have tapped into how the flicker may work. They discovered in the lab that the exposure to light pulsing at 40 hertz - 40 beats per second - causes brains to release a surge of signaling chemicals that may help fight the disease.