312 articles from TUESDAY 17.11.2020

Why the UK needs a full peat compost ban

Bags are still on sale despite a phasing out in England for amateur usersGrowing plants, both in houses and gardens, has been hugely popular this year, helping to raise spirits during the coronavirus lockdowns. But gardeners and the horticulture industry often use peat compost from peatlands.Peatlands hold vast amounts of carbon that was absorbed by living sphagnum moss. When the moss dies it does...

Study analyzes what leads U.S. citizens to support intervention abroad

When it wants to promote democracy in other countries, the U.S. has several options, ranging from foreign democracy aid and economic sanctions to military intervention. But, what do North Americans think about these different strategies for promoting democracy? What features of authoritarian countries determine their preferences when wanting one or another form of intervention?

Controlling magnetization direction of magnetite at room temperature

Over the last few decades, conventional electronics has been rapidly reaching its technical limits in computing and information technology, calling for innovative devices that go beyond the mere manipulation of electron current. In this regard, spintronics, the study of devices that exploit the "spin" of electrons to perform functions, is one of the hottest areas in applied physics. But,...

Sustainable shotcrete mix-designs for tunnels with longer service life

The service life of tunnels today is designed to last at least for one hundred years—in the case of the Brenner basis tunnel it is even 200 years. The problem with this: "The service life is currently calculated on the basis of theoretical key figures and empirical values. Environmental conditions such as chemically aggressive groundwater, for example, can possibly lead to cost-intensive...

Researchers improve neuronal reprogramming by manipulating mitochondria

The replacement of lost neurons is a holy grail for neuroscience. A new promising approach is the conversion of glial cells into new neurons. Improving the efficiency of this conversion or reprogramming after brain injury is an important step towards developing reliable regenerative medicine therapies. Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and Ludwig Maximilians University Munich (LMU) have...

Algorithm-driven digital program helped lower patients' cholesterol, blood pressure

Researchers enrolled 5,000 patients in a remote, cholesterol and blood pressure management program utilizing care navigators and pharmacists, supported by specialists and using specialist-designed algorithms to initiate and adjust medications. Participants who completed the cholesterol program achieved a 52 mg/dl (42%) reduction in LDL cholesterol levels. Participants who completed the blood...

Retinas: New potential clues in diagnosing, treating Alzheimer's

A study has identified certain regions in the retina - the lining found in the back of the eye - that are more affected by Alzheimer's disease than other areas. The findings may help physicians predict changes in the brain as well as cognitive deterioration, even for patients experiencing the earliest signs of mild impairment.

COVID-19 highlights risks of wildlife trade

Many diseases, such as COVID-19, have made the jump from animals to people with serious consequences for the human host. An international research team, including researchers from the University of Göttingen, says that more epidemics resulting from animal hosts are inevitable unless urgent action is taken. In order to protect against future pandemics which might be even more serious, they call...

Burning wood in district heating plants has resulted in climate saving

A conversion to wood biomass (wood chips and pellets) by Danish district heating plants has benefited the climate and is the more climate-friendly option compared to coal and natural gas. These are the findings of a new report from the University of Copenhagen's Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management.

COVID-19 highlights risks of wildlife trade

Researchers say that more epidemics resulting from animal hosts are inevitable unless urgent action is taken. To protect against future pandemics, they call for governments to establish effective legislation addressing wildlife trade, protection of habitats and reduction of interaction between people, wildlife and livestock.

Semi-random scattering of light

What is the exact path of light inside a highly scattering material like white paint? This is a question that is impossible to answer, as the particles inside the paint are distributed randomly. This, at the same time, is a very attractive property for applying photonics in non-hackable security applications. Still, you would like to have a look inside to see what is happening. For this reason,...

Microbial remedies target chemical threats in the environment

Across America, hazardous waste sites pose an ongoing threat to human and environmental health. The most severe cases are known as Superfund sites, of which over a thousand currently exist. Some 50 million Americans live within three miles of one of these zones, potentially placing them at increased risk for cancer and other serious diseases.

Sensor experts invent supercool mini thermometer

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have invented a miniature thermometer with big potential applications such as monitoring the temperature of processor chips in superconductor-based quantum computers, which must stay cold to work properly.

Carbyne: Researchers investigate optical band gap of carbon compound

Which photophysical properties does carbyne have? This was the subject of research carried out by scientists at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the University of Alberta, Canada, and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, which has led to a greater understanding of the properties of this unusual form of carbon. Their findings have now been...

NASA model reveals how much COVID-related pollution levels deviated from the norm

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, space- and ground-based observations have shown that Earth's atmosphere has seen significant reductions in some air pollutants. However, scientists wanted to know how much of that decline can be attributed to changes in human activity during pandemic-related shutdowns, versus how much would have occurred in a pandemic-free 2020.

Nations refine mathematics and science education to keep pace with a changing world

Across the world, many new mathematics and science curricula have been implemented in the last decade, according to results released today from TIMSS, the longest running large-scale international assessment of mathematics and science education in the world. IEA's TIMSS assessment, directed by the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College, was conducted in 64 countries as well as...

Jumps in elementary school violence linked to increased student transfers

New research finds that student exposure to violent crime in urban elementary schools is linked to higher transfer rates, with students ineligible for free- or reduced-price meals and students from safer neighborhoods more likely to leave than their less advantaged peers. The study was published today in the American Educational Research Journal, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational...

Report outlines route toward better jobs, wider prosperity

Decades of technological change have polarized the earnings of the American workforce, helping highly educated white-collar workers thrive, while hollowing out the middle class. Yet present-day advances like robots and artificial intelligence do not spell doom for middle-tier or lower-wage workers, since innovations create jobs as well. With better policies in place, more people could enjoy good...

Drug discovery: First highly scalable method to monitor protein levels and localizations

Until now, scientists typically studied the changes of proteins and their roles in the cell by using a fluorescent tag to label and follow one protein at a time. This approach limited the number of proteins that could be studied and precluded unbiased discovery approaches. Researchers at CeMM, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, have now developed a...

Palladium, meet copper: Researchers use machine learning to improve catalysts

Researchers from Skoltech and their colleagues from Germany and the US have studied the properties and behavior of a palladium-copper alloy under changing temperatures and hydrogen concentrations, with highly relevant implications of this research for catalyst design. The paper was published in the Journal of Applied Physics.

New phase of modeling the viscous coupling effects of multiphase fluid flow

Many applications, including carbon dioxide storage and oil recovery, involve the simultaneous flow of two or more phases of matter (solid, liquid, gas, etc.) through porous materials. Pore-scale modeling of such multiphase flow has struggled to capture important phenomena referred to as viscous coupling effects. But now, a research team has developed a method that overcomes this limitation with...

Environmental scientists' new ozonation method treats water from antibiotic residues

Clean drinking water is considered to be one of the Earth's most precious and threatened resources. Recent studies show that increasing concentrations of pharmaceuticals can be found in surface waters, which can end up in drinking water. TalTech environmental scientists are looking for ways to treat drinking water from hazardous pharmaceutical residues.