news 2020

A new study has revealed paying patients are 20 per cent less likely to die or develop major complications, such as reintervention or stroke, after cardiac surgery than NHS patients - findings researchers say cannot be explained by socioeconomic factors alone. The study, led by academics at the University of Bristol, looked at the data of over 280,000 patients who underwent adult cardiac surgery over a ten-year period from 2009 to 2018 at 31 NHS cardiac units in England.

BAME babies at highest risk of Vitamin D deficiency, highlighting need for improvements to UK antenatal supplementation programme, new study suggests A third of all babies and half of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) babies are vitamin D deficient, a large study of 3000 newborn's in the West Midlands has shown, highlighting potential shortfalls in the current UK antenatal supplementation programme.

Most comprehensive evaluation of the occurrence of vascular plants in Germany to date Life Germany's plant diversity is on the decline: in the last 60 years, decreases by an average of 15 percent have been observed across Germany in over 70 percent of the more than 2,000 species examined. These are the findings of the most comprehensive analysis of plant data from Germany ever conducted, recently published in "Global Change Biology".

Prolonged exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of the weedkiller Roundup causes significant harm to keystone species according to new research at the University of Birmingham. A team in the University's School of Biosciences used waterfleas, or Daphnia, to test the effects prolonged exposure to concentrations of Roundup deemed safe by regulatory agencies.

Under a cross-disciplinary program spearheaded by EPFL, scientists will develop an AI-based system that can predict whether Covid-19 patients will develop severe cardiovascular complications and, in the longer term, detect the likely onset of inflammatory disease. Covid-19 comes with a range of symptoms - from a sore throat and the loss of taste to more serious ones like lung failure.

An international research team led by the University of Bern has discovered an exotic binary system composed of two young planet-like objects, orbiting around each other from a very large distance. Although these objects look like giant exoplanets, they formed in the same way as stars, proving that the mechanisms driving star formation can produce rogue worlds in unusual systems deprived of a Sun.

Sorbonne University Alliance Multidisciplinary research Mathematician Pascal Frey heads the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ISCD). Frey takes stock of ten years of interdisciplinary research and innovation around scientific computing, simulation and data analysis. The Institute is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

Skyrmions are small magnetic objects that could revolutionize the data storage industry and also enable new computer architectures. However, before they can be utilized in such applications, there are still a number of challenges that need to be overcome. A team of Empa researchers has now succeeded for the first time in producing a tunable multilayer system in which two different types of skyrmions - the future bits for "0" and "1" - can exist at room temperature, as they recently reported in the renowned .

A new study published today highlights the importance of overcoming gender inequality for climate change adaptation and explores future pathways of gender equality for sustainable development Vulnerability to the impacts of climate change differs on a wide range of factors including socio-economic status, education, ethnicity and gender.

Invited paper at IEDM 2020 shows benefit of CEA-List's architectures in co-optimizing CEA-Leti's 3D toolbox to enable higher bandwidth & heterogeneity for high-performance processors. CEA Institutes Combine 3D Integration Technologies & Many-Core Architectures to Enable High-Performance Processors That Will Power Exascale Computing S AN FRANCISCO - Dec.

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the presence of amyloid plaques 1 in the patient's brain. These plaques sequester copper, and contain approximately five times as much as a healthy brain. Two CNRS scientists from the Coordination Chemistry Laboratory recently developed, with their colleagues from the Guangdong University of Technology and Shenzhen University (China), a molecule that regulates the circulation of copper in the brain.

The yield and quality of many crops benefit from pollination, but it isn-t just honey bees that do this work: bumble bees also have a role. However, placing honey bee or bumble bee colonies next to the field does not guarantee that they will visit the desired plants since there may be other plant species flowering at the same time that prove more attractive.

A team of scientists has shown that a key type of immune cell "self-renews? in humans. It is an unexpected discovery, as it was previously thought this specific type of "senescent? killer immune cell had reached "end-stage? and would die following one more stint at helping people fight off - or live with - certain infections.

Researchers at UCL and the Francis Crick Institute have rebuilt a human thymus, an essential organ in the immune system, using human stem cells and a bioengineered scaffold. The study in mice marks an important step towards building artificial thymi for use in transplants. The thymus is an organ in the chest where T lymphocytes, which play a vital role in the immune system, mature.

High levels of cadmium, a chemical found in cigarettes and in contaminated vegetables, are associated with higher death rates in patients with influenza or pneumonia-and may increase the severity of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses, according to a new study. "Our study suggests the public in general, both smokers and nonsmokers, could benefit from reduced exposure to cadmium,” said lead author Sung Kyun Park, associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

The research study was carried out in two different habitats: in the Cíes Islands (Vigo), a protected marine area where recreational fishing is not allowed, and in contiguous areas open to fishing. Photo: Lluís Cardona. Recerca Not all specimens of the same species are the same: there is a marked variability within the same population and sometimes these morphological differences are translated into a different behaviour.

The spread of the Internet is shaping migration in profound ways. A McGill-led study of over 150 countries links Internet penetration with migration intentions and behaviours, suggesting that digital connectivity plays a key role in migration decisions and actively supports the migration process. Countries with higher proportions of Internet users tend to have more people who are willing to emigrate.

A group of proteins called 4E-BPs, involved in memory formation, is the key to unlocking the antidepressant effect of ketamine in the brain, according to researchers from three Canadian universities. The discovery could lead to better and safer treatments for certain patients suffering from major depression.

Facial expressions of emotion transcend geography and culture, new study shows. (Image by Alan Cowen) Whether at a birthday party in Brazil, a funeral in Kenya or protests in Hong Kong, humans all use variations of the same facial expressions in similar social contexts, such as smiles, frowns, grimaces and scowls, a new UC Berkeley study shows.

New research from The Australian National University (ANU) shows palm cockatoos, renowned for their human-like musical drumming behaviour, are threatened with extinction.