Category: Misc….

Individual frequency can be used to specifically influence certain areas of the brain and thus the abilities processed in them – solely by electrical stimulation on the scalp, without any surgical intervention. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences have now demonstrated this for the first time.

Source: Using personal frequency to control brain activity

Two algorithms that account for distinctive use of repeated words and word pairs require as few as 50 tweets to accurately distinguish deceptive ”troll” messages from those posted by public figures. Sergei Monakhov of Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, presents these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 12, 2020.

Source: A novel strategy for quickly identifying twitter trolls

It is conventional wisdom that Americans cherish democracy — but a new study by Yale political scientists reports that only a small fraction of U.S. voters are willing to sacrifice their partisan and policy interests to defend democratic principles.

Source: Study: Americans prize party loyalty over democratic principles

Research published in DeGruyter’s International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health suggests TikTok is rich with untapped educational potential. The platform could play a vital role in conveying important health information alongside lip-syncing videos and viral dance challenges, the paper’s authors say.

Source: Untapped potential for TikTok to convey COVID-19 guidance

Researchers at the Universities of Bologna and Padua studied the subsurface cavities that lava created underground on Mars and the Moon. These cavities can shield from cosmic radiations

Source: Lava tubes on Mars and the Moon are so wide they can host planetary bases

A new study from Oregon State University found that 77% of low- to moderate-income American households fall below the asset poverty threshold, meaning that if their income were cut off they would not have the financial assets to maintain at least poverty-level status for three months.

Source: Study: Most Americans don’t have enough assets to withstand 3 months without income

A new national survey commissioned by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center finds more Americans are adjusting how they use social media platforms. Many participants cited stress from COVID-19 and divisive political issues as reasons for taking a social media break. The survey found more than half of Americans (56%) changed their social media habits because of tensions surrounding current events this year, and 1 in 5 (20%) have taken breaks from social media.

Source: Survey finds Americans social media habits changing as national tensions rise

A new study shows the surprising way that many American taxpayers adjust their standard of living when they owe money to the IRS versus when they receive tax refunds. Researchers found that when households received tax refunds, they immediately started spending that new money. But those same households didn’t cut their spending in years when they owed taxes to the IRS.

Source: Owe the IRS? No problem, some Americans say

Recent events have shown how vulnerable the meat processing industry is to COVID-19. Professor Robert Henry says reducing risk of spreading infection in a future pandemic will require automation. But is the public ready for robots slaughtering and eviscerating animals to reduce the risk of infectious disease? And while there is ongoing resistance to GMOs and gene edited foods, Professor Henry says governments need policies to support these technologies, to safeguard regionally-based future food production.

Source: Post-pandemic brave new world of agriculture

A new study shows other stars could have as many as seven Earth-like planets in the absence of a gas giant like Jupiter.

Source: Surprising number of exoplanets could host life

Using an internet survey distributed in the last week of March that sampled 10,368 adults from across the country, researchers found increased levels of depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies and psychological trauma among American adults.

Source: Pandemic leads to higher depression, anxiety and fear, studies show

According to recent Gallup polls, socialism is now more popular than capitalism among Democrats and young people, and support for ”some form of socialism” among all Americans is at 43% (compared to 25% in 1942). Policies that went unmentioned or were declared out-of-bounds in elections four years ago — a federal jobs guarantee, single-payer health care, free college, massive tax hikes on the rich, and the Green New Deal–are commonplace in Democrats’ 2020 campaigns.

Source: A rebranding of ‘freedom’?

When you don’t understand how things work, it’s not unusual to think of them as just plain old junk. So it was with DNA that repeats the same sequences over and over again; how could such junk DNA be useful? Isn’t it just garbage that nature didn’t bother to take out? In a paper published in Trends in Genetics, Dr. Alan Herbert of InsideOutBio Inc shows that these repeats may be more treasure than trash.

Source: Junk DNA might be really, really useful for biocomputing

The lack of human activity during lockdown caused human-linked vibrations in the Earth to drop by an average of 50% between March and May 2020.

Source: COVID-19 lockdown caused 50% global reduction in human-linked Earth vibrations

Fertility is likely to decline in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new Bocconi University study finds

Source: Fertility is likely to decline in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study finds

Researchers combined avalanche physics with ecosystem data to create a computational method for predicting extreme ecological events. The method may also have applications in economics and politics.

Source: Researchers develop a method for predicting unprecedented events

A Policy Forum article published today in Science shows that an annual investment of $30 billion should be enough to offset the costs of preventing another global pandemic such as COVID-19.

Source: Preventing the next pandemic

The ongoing disruptive changes from efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 are having a substantial negative impact on the physical and mental well-being of parents and their children across the country, according to a new national survey published today in Pediatrics.

Source: Health, well-being and food security of families deteriorating under COVID-19 stress

The number of epidemics of infectious diseases affecting humans is positively associated with global livestock increases from the beginning of the 1960s until 2019.

Source: Livestock expansion is a factor in global pandemics

New RAND report says US should prepare for a triumphant or ascending People’s Republic of China — scenarios that not only align with current PRC national development trends but also represent the most challenging future scenarios for the US military.

Source: China 2050: How the US should prepare for an ascendant China — RAND Report

The lack of human activity during lockdown caused human-linked vibrations in the Earth to drop by an average of 50% between March and May 2020.

Source: COVID-19 lockdown caused 50% global reduction in human-linked Earth vibrations

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a disproportionate, negative impact on the careers of scientists with young children at home, a new survey finds. They have been forced to drastically reduce the amount of time they spend on their research, which could have long-term effects on their careers and could exacerbate existing inequalities.

Source: Pandemic disproportionately affects scientists with young children

The fear that people developed at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak has given way to anger over the course of the pandemic, a study of global sentiments led by NTU Singapore has found. Xenophobia, a common theme among anger-related tweets, evolved to reflect feelings arising from isolation and social seclusion. Accompanying this later shift is the emergence of tweets that show joy, which suggest a sense of gratitude and hope.

Source: Global sentiments towards COVID-19 shifts from fear to anger

As data accumulates on COVID-19 cases and deaths, researchers have observed patterns of peaks and valleys that repeat on a near-weekly basis. A study published this week in mSystems reports that those oscillations arise from variations in testing practices and data reporting, rather than from societal practices around how people are infected or treated.

Source: Ups and downs in COVID-19 data may be caused by data reporting practices

New research led by The University of Queensland has provided the first comprehensive analysis of pesticide mixtures in creeks and rivers discharging to the Great Barrier Reef.

Source: Pesticide mixtures a bigger problem than previously thought

Health systems worldwide are massively struggling and services for mothers, newborns, young children and adolescents are crumbling, warns the UN Secretary-General’s Independent Accountability Panel for Every Woman, Every Child, Every Adolescent reviewing the impact of COVID-19. Especially worrisome: declines in access to life-saving vaccines for children and maternal health services due to closures and movement restrictions. Immunization campaigns are being halted and health workers are being diverted from maternity to COVID-19.

Source: Women, newborns, young children and adolescents lose 20 percent of health and social services to COVID-19

Here’s a good way to make sure a friend hates a gift from you: Say it will save him money. In a series of studies, researchers found that people reacted negatively to gifts that they were told – or that they inferred – were given to help them save money.

Source: Researchers find the worst reason to give a gift

Previous research points to the effect of social stressors on developing upper respiratory infections, holding clues to COVID-19 risk.

Source: Self-isolation may increase susceptibility to COVID-19

Findings from an Oregon State University study into the effects of radiofrequency radiation generated by the wireless technology that will soon be the standard for cell phones suggest few health impacts.

Source: 5G networks have few health impacts, Oregon State study using zebrafish model finds

A new article published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science explores how lifestyle, social, and psychological factors may increase the risk of contracting COVID-19.

Source: Contracting COVID-19, lifestyle and social connections may play a role

Skoltech scientists in collaboration with researchers from the University of Stuttgart showed that the concentration of short-lived ions (H3O+ and OH-) in pure liquid water is much higher than that assumed to evaluate the pH, hence significantly changing our understanding of the dynamical structure of water.

Source: Liquid water is more than just H2O molecules

Based on one new and three recent studies, the authors of this commentary in Pediatrics conclude that children rarely transmit Covid-19, either among themselves or to adults. Based on the evidence, the authors recommend that schools reopen in the fall, since staying home can adversely affect children’s development.

Source: Commentary in Pediatrics: Children don’t transmit Covid-19, schools should reopen in fall

Archaeologists from Cardiff University and the University of Sheffield have combined the latest scientific methods to offer new insights into life during the Norman Conquest of England. Until now, the story of the Conquest has primarily been told from evidence of the elite classes of the time. But little has been known about how it affected everyday people’s lives.

Source: Norman Conquest of 1066 did little to change people’s eating habits

Patient and public voices were ”regrettably” absent in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, but must now move centre stage, argue experts in The BMJ today.

Source: Why are patient and public voices absent in COVID-19 policy-making?

Since COVID-19’s spread to the United States earlier this year, death rates in the U.S. have risen significantly. But deaths attributed to COVID-19 only account for about two-thirds of the increase in March and April, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Source: Study: 35% of excess deaths in pandemic’s early months tied to causes other than COVID-19

States with the highest level of income inequality had a larger number of COVID-19-related deaths compared with states with lower income inequality. For instance, New York state, with the highest income inequality, had a mortality rate of 51.7 deaths per 100,000. This is 125 times greater than Utah, the state with the lowest income inequality and which had a mortality of 0.41 per 100,000 at the end of the period studied.

Source: States with highest income inequality experienced a larger number of COVID-19 deaths

There has been a surge in domestic child abuse during the coronavirus pandemic, suggests the experience of one specialist UK children’s hospital, reported in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Source: Surge in domestic child abuse during pandemic, reports specialist UK children’s hospital

A new study by the University of Plymouth explains for the first time how quantum supercomputers could be helpful in the world of making and performing music

Source: Science fiction becomes fact — Teleportation helps to create live musical performance

The findings of a nationwide survey assessing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the emotional wellbeing of U.S. adults show 90 percent of survey respondents reported experiencing emotional distress related to the pandemic.

Source: National survey on COVID-19 pandemic shows significant mental health impact

COVID-19, climate emergencies, and mass extinction all share striking similarities, especially with regard to their ‘lagged impacts.’ In each, early intervention can prevent further damage.

Source: Global threats: How lessons from COVID-19 can prevent environmental meltdown

Research forthcoming in Strategic Management Journal explores potential biases that limit the effectiveness of ML process technologies and the scope for human capital to be complementary in reducing such biases.

Source: Machine learning has a flaw; it’s gullible

Facebook is a more fertile breeding ground for fake news than Twitter, and ideological extremists are most likely to spread it, according to a new study of 783 social media users.

Source: Ideologically extreme Facebook users spread the most fake news

A new model from NASA scientists supports the theory that the interior ocean in Jupiter’s moon Europa would be able to sustain life. In addition they have calculated that this water, believed to be an ocean under the surface ice shell, could have been formed by breakdown of water-containing minerals due to either tidal forces or radioactive decay. This new work is presented at the virtual Goldschmidt conference.

Source: Ocean in Jupiter’s moon Europa