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100 articles from PhysOrg
New study describes how employee opinion impacts CEO dismissal
Corporate governance decisions, like CEO dismissal, can disrupt organizations. As a result, the board of directors treads with caution while making such decisions. Previous research suggests that boards rely on factors like financial performance and security analyst recommendations to decide on CEO dismissal. A new study published in the Strategic Management Journal in October suggests that...
Participating in college football bowl games may slightly improve players' academic outcomes, study finds
For college football teams that win six or more games in a season, their reward is the opportunity to play in a postseason bowl game on national television. While many players and fans look forward to the opportunity each December or January, speculation remains if participating in a bowl game negatively impacts the academic outcomes for college football players during the end of the busy fall...
Environmental justice has the White House's attention—but funding won't immediately solve deeply entrenched problems
A new office within the Environmental Protection Agency is bringing increased attention to a once-obscure concept: environmental justice.
Should kids be cramming for tests or competing at sports?
Most parents want to help their kids get ahead. But how do you that? Should you press them to excel at academics, devote hours to sports and other extracurriculars, or get an afterschool job? Or should you dial back on such demands, to avoid causing unhealthy levels of stress?
Footprints indicate human presence in Spain in Middle Pleistocene, 200,000 years earlier than previously thought
Researcher and GRS Radioisotopes technician Jorge Rivera, from the University of Seville, has participated in an incredible discovery that is unique in Europe. After applying an optically-stimulated luminescence technique at the Center for Research, Technology and Innovation laboratories at the University of Seville (CITIUS) and at CENIEH to hominin footprints found at Matalascañas in 2020,...
Planting and management of improved grass in tropical savannas can increase soil carbon by 15%
An improved variety of grass combined with a rotational grazing system can boost levels of soil carbon on tropical savannas by 15% compared to degraded pasture, a new study performed by the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the University of Stuttgart, and the World Bank has found.
Team uses AI and satellite images to release first-ever global estimates for road transportation greenhouse emissions
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the transportation sector accounts for approximately 27% of all greenhouse gas emissions annually in the United States, and emissions from road transportation—driven by carbon-creating internal combustion vehicles—account for a large majority of that.
Mineral soil in forests accumulates carbon as trees grow
A recent study by the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) investigated the accumulation of soil carbon in forest sites monitored intensively in the long term. In mature spruce- and pine-dominated forests where the growing stock volume increased, the soil acted as a carbon sink. In turn, natural damage and roundwood removals reduced soil carbon stocks.
A dual boost for optical delay scanning
Various applications of pulsed laser sources rely on the ability to produce a series of pulse pairs with a stepwise increasing delay between them. Implementing such optical delay scanning with high precision is demanding, in particular for long delays. Addressing this challenge, ETH physicists have developed a versatile "dual-comb" laser that combines a wide scanning range with high power, low...
Global changes in wetlands help clarify the decline of shorebirds
Over a half of all shorebird populations—sandpipers, plovers, avocets, oystercatchers, among others—are currently declining, according to scientific publications and reports of several Environmental NGOs, such as BirdLife International. The decline of shorebirds is a global phenomenon for which the causes are not yet fully understood.
New study suggests evolutionary forces are behind collective discrimination
New research published in the inaugural issue of the academic journal Collective Intelligence suggests that evolutionary forces may be fueling collective tendencies to discriminate.
Bibliometric study ranks world-leading institutions researching liver cirrhosis
The University of Barcelona is the institution with the most publications and number of bibliometric citations worldwide in research on liver cirrhosis, followed by the Virginia Commonwealth University (United States), the University College London (United Kingdom), the Mayo Clinic (United States) and the University of Padova (Italy).
Centimeter-scale multicolor printing with a pixelated optical cavity
Structural colors result from interactions between light and nanostructures. Engineering structural colors is a promising, rapidly emerging research field. Compared with conventional painting technology using chemical dyes, structural color has a broader range of technological applications for color management. Thanks in part to its excellent durability, structural color offers an environmentally...
Using 1980s environmental modeling to mitigate future disasters
On March 11, 2011, multiple catastrophes in Japan were triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake, including the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This event, also known as the 3/11 disaster, is what is known as a compound disaster. Now that over a decade has passed since this event, researchers are investigating how to prevent the next compound disaster.
116 scientists reject WHO's draft PFAS guidelines
More than 100 scientists sent a letter to the World Health Organization today urging a complete overhaul or withdrawal of the organization's draft drinking water guidelines for the two most well-studied per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The letter details how WHO's draft eschews calculating health-based standards, disregarding robust evidence for the harms of PFOS and PFOA. The letter...
Section of destroyed shuttle Challenger found on ocean floor
A large section of the destroyed space shuttle Challenger has been found buried in sand at the bottom of the Atlantic, more than three decades after the tragedy that killed a schoolteacher and six others.
Research reveals how a common bacterium may spread from the intestine
A typical gut bacterium that can spread through the body and cause a serious infection resists natural immune defenses and antibiotics by enhancing its protective outer layer, known as the cell envelope, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The finding suggests possible new ways to target these bacterial infections.
Arts education can support students' growth towards global citizenship
Arts education offers powerful ways to explore ethical responsibility, values, and attitudes of global citizenship by means of interdisciplinary, intersubjective and embodied participation and experience, according to the Finnish researchers in the University of the Arts Helsinki.
A new way of fabricating high-efficiency diffraction gratings for astronomical spectroscopy
Today, astronomers seek to observe the faintest and most distant objects possible. Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs), with apertures in the order of several dozen meters, are the next generation facilities to do so. However, building larger telescopes is only one part of the equation. The other part is the capability of detecting the gathered photons in the most efficient way possible.
Chinese incursions into India are increasing and are strategically planned, study finds
Chinese incursions across India's west and central borders are not independent, random incidents that happen by mistake. Instead, these incursions are part of a strategically planned, coordinated effort in order to gain permanent control of disputed border areas, a new study has found.
Hundred-year-old riddle in botany reveals key plant adaptation to dry land
The green world that we live in would not have been possible without hidden changes to the plant body over the last 400 million years. To grow beyond just centimeters tall outside of the wettest places on land, plants had to re-arrange their water-conducting tissues to keep them safe from drought.
Researchers manage to extend the field of view for speckle-correlation imaging under a limited memory effect
Trying to see through scattering media like haze and fog is often accompanied by disappointment or even difficulties in our daily lives—if you have ever experienced a sunrise-watching trip on a cloudy morning or a palm-sweating drive through dense fog. For researchers in optics and photonics, seeing through scattering media is also a long-standing challenge in a broad range of application...
Why we build networks that hurt our performance, and what we can do about it
The network of informal ties we build in the workplace is key to our success and performance. Yet, as researchers at ESMT Berlin found, we often build networks that hamper our performance.
Climate change affects mosquito behavior, making it harder to end malaria in South Africa
Changes in climatic factors—such as higher temperatures and increased rainfall—affect the developmental, behavioral and distribution patterns of insects like mosquitoes. These changes have serious implications for the effective control of insect-borne diseases such as malaria.
Burning waste must end: African leaders look to recycling for better health and value
When African environment ministers met in Senegal in mid-September, they made one of the most important decisions in the history of waste management in Africa.