News at a glance: Plants ’ tree of life, conserving U.S. federal lands, and entertaining invertebrate sentience
CONSERVATION
Interior Department boosts restoration
The largest manager of public lands in the United States last week announced it will manage them to promote ecological stewardship, while continuing to allow extractive commercial uses such as mining, oil drilling, and cattle grazing. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees nearly 1 million square kilometers of federal land, about 10% of the country’s landmass, mostly in Western states. Under a rule issued on 18 April,
BLM will now assess the ecological condition of all hectares it manages
, not just grazing land. The agency will a...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - April 25, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
Can science find ways to ease loneliness?
Related podcast
The science of loneliness, making one of organic chemistry’s oldest reactions safer, and a new book series
BY
Sarah Crespi
,
Kelly Servick
,
Ariana Remmel
,
Valerie Thompson
,
Angela Saini
Podcast
25 Apr 2024
One Wednesday in May 2023, a small group gathered at an outdoor café in Barcelona, Spain, sipping coffee in t...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - April 25, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
OSLD nanoDot characterization for carbon radiotherapy dosimetry
This study characterized OSLD nanoDots for use in a therapeutic carbon beam using the IROC framework for remote output verification. 
Approach: The absorbed dose correction factors for OSLD (fading, linearity, beam quality, angularity, and depletion), as defined by AAPM TG 191, were characterized for carbon beams. For the various correction factors, the effect of carbon LET was examined by characterizing in both a low and high LET setting. 
Main Results: Fading was not statistically different between reference photons and carbon, nor between low and high LET carbon; thus, the standard IROC-defined exponenti...
Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - April 25, 2024 Category: Physics Authors: Paige Taylor Shannon Hartzell Alfredo Mirandola Mario Ciocca Giuseppe Magro Paola Alvarez Christine B Peterson Christopher R Peeler Eugene J Koay Rebecca M Howell Stephen F Kry Source Type: research
Sensors, Vol. 24, Pages 2729: Development of a Unified IoT Platform for Assessing Meteorological and Air Quality Data in a Tropical Environment
This study addresses this challenge by introducing an affordable internet of things (IoT) monitoring system capable of tracking atmospheric pollutants and meteorological parameters. The IoT platform combines a Bresser 5-in-1 weather station with a previously developed air quality monitoring device equipped with Alphasense gas sensors. Utilizing MQTT, Node-RED, InfluxDB, and Grafana, a Raspberry Pi collects, processes, and visualizes the data it receives from the measuring device by LoRa. To validate system performance, a 15-day field campaign was conducted in Santa Clara, Cuba, using a Libelium Smart Environment Pro as a r...
Source: Sensors - April 25, 2024 Category: Biotechnology Authors: David Kairuz-Cabrera Victor Hernandez-Rodriguez Olivier Schalm Alain Martinez Laguardia Pedro Merino Laso Daniellys Alejo S ánchez Tags: Article Source Type: research
What does the Brazilian National Health Survey have to say about the influence of cigarette spending on household income?
Cad Saude Publica. 2024 Apr 22;40(3):e00175423. doi: 10.1590/0102-311XPT175423. eCollection 2024.ABSTRACTIn a country whose indicators of population impoverishment continue to increase, it is concerning that individuals spend money to buy cigarettes instead of using this resource in actions that strengthen aspects of the well-being of their lives and that of their families. Based on the Brazilian National Health Survey conducted in 2019, the influence of spending on manufactured cigarettes on the family budget in households with at least one smoker was estimated, stratified by sociodemographic characteristics. Brazilian sm...
Source: Cadernos de Saude Publica - April 24, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Andr é Szklo Mirian Carvalho de Souza Aline de Mesquita Carvalho Source Type: research
Effects of parliamentary amendments on municipal financing of primary health care in the Brazilian Unified National Health System
This study aims to analyze the effects of the expansion of the federal transfer of parliamentary amendments for municipal financing of primary health care (PHC) in the Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS), from 2015 to 2020. A longitudinal study was conducted using secondary data on transfers of parliamentary amendments from the Brazilian Ministry of Health and expenditure of municipalities' own resources on public health actions and services and PHC. The effect of the transfer of parliamentary amendments on municipal financing was verified in a stratified way by population size of the municipalities, using gener...
Source: Cadernos de Saude Publica - April 24, 2024 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Karla Giovana Bavaresco Ulinski Br ígida Gimenez Carvalho Fabiola Sulpino Vieira Renne Rodrigues Luciana Dias de Lima Source Type: research
NIH boosts pay for postdocs and graduate students
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced pay increases today for early-career scientists who are recipients of its Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSAs), after an
NIH advisory group recommended raises in December 2023
. Postdocs will now be paid at least $61,008, an increase of $4500 over their current minimum salary level—though still below the advisory group’s recommendation of $70,000. Graduate students will receive a $1000 raise, bringing their minimum to $28,224. NIH also announced a $500 increase in child care subsidies for early-career researchers who are parents.
...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - April 23, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
Sensors, Vol. 24, Pages 2676: A Lightweight and Affordable Wearable Haptic Controller for Robot-Assisted Microsurgery
This report describes a novel, lightweight, and low-budget wearable haptic controller for teleoperated microsurgical robotic systems. We designed a wearable haptic interface entirely made using off-the-shelf material-PolyJet Photopolymer, fabricated using liquid and solid hybrid 3D co-printing technology. This interface was designed to resemble human soft tissues and can be wrapped around the fingertips, offering direct contact feedback to the operator. We also demonstrated that the device can be easily integrated with our motion tracking system for remote microsurgery. Two motion tracking methods, marker-based and marker-...
Source: Sensors - April 23, 2024 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Xiaoqing Guo Finn McFall Peiyang Jiang Jindong Liu Nathan Lepora Dandan Zhang Tags: Article Source Type: research
GP patients in the emergency department
In this edition of the Emergency Medicine Journal, Dr Cooper and her colleagues explore the facilitators and barriers to the effectiveness of different general practitioner service models in or alongside EDs (GP-ED).1 The availability of these services in the UK expanded in response to a 2017 budget commitment of £100 million to enhance A&E services including the colocation of on-site GP services.2 The authors observed that the demand for ED services is influenced by a range of individual, department and wider system factors, but that colocated GP/ED service models did not reduce attendances and waiting times and...
Source: Emergency Medicine Journal - April 22, 2024 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: FitzGerald, G. Tags: In perspective Source Type: research
Temporal-Focusing Multiphoton Excitation Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy Using Spontaneously Blinking Fluorophores
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2024 Apr 19:e202404942. doi: 10.1002/anie.202404942. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTSingle-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) based on temporal-focusing multiphoton excitation (TFMPE) and single-wavelength excitation is used to visualize the three-dimensional (3D) distribution of spontaneously blinking fluorophore-labeled subcellular structures in a thick specimen with a nanoscale-level spatial resolution. To eliminate the photobleaching effect of unlocalized molecules in out-of-focus regions for improving the utilization rate of the photon budget in 3D SMLM imaging, SMLM with single-wavelength ...
Source: Angewandte Chemie - April 20, 2024 Category: Chemistry Authors: Jian-Zong Lai Chun-Yu Lin Shean-Jen Chen Yu-Min Cheng Manabu Abe Tzu-Chau Lin Fan-Ching Chien Source Type: research
Australian Black Summer smoke signal on Antarctic aerosol collected between New Zealand and the Ross Sea
In this study, five aerosol samples (total suspended particles with a diameter >1 μm) were collected during the XXXV Italian Expedition in Antarctica on board of the R/V Laura Bassi from 6th of January to 16th of February 2020, along the sailing route from Lyttelton harbor (New Zealand) to Terra Nova Bay (Antarctica). Levoglucosan and its isomers have been analyzed as markers of BB, together with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), sucrose and alcohol sugars. Ionic species and carboxylic acids have been analyzed to support the identification of aerosol sources and its aging. Results showed high levoglucosan concen...
Source: Chemosphere - April 19, 2024 Category: Chemistry Authors: Elisa Scalabrin Elena Barbaro Sarah Pizzini Marta Radaelli Matteo Feltracco Rossano Piazza Andrea Gambaro Gabriele Capodaglio Source Type: research
Australian Black Summer smoke signal on Antarctic aerosol collected between New Zealand and the Ross Sea
In this study, five aerosol samples (total suspended particles with a diameter >1 μm) were collected during the XXXV Italian Expedition in Antarctica on board of the R/V Laura Bassi from 6th of January to 16th of February 2020, along the sailing route from Lyttelton harbor (New Zealand) to Terra Nova Bay (Antarctica). Levoglucosan and its isomers have been analyzed as markers of BB, together with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), sucrose and alcohol sugars. Ionic species and carboxylic acids have been analyzed to support the identification of aerosol sources and its aging. Results showed high levoglucosan concen...
Source: Chemosphere - April 19, 2024 Category: Chemistry Authors: Elisa Scalabrin Elena Barbaro Sarah Pizzini Marta Radaelli Matteo Feltracco Rossano Piazza Andrea Gambaro Gabriele Capodaglio Source Type: research
New initiative aims to bolster funding for scientists in war-torn Ukraine
WASHINGTON, D.C.—
For astrophysicist David Spergel, teaching at a summer school about data science in August 2023 in Ukraine was a “surreal” experience. At times, utterly normal—smart students and collegial dinners in the charming cobblestoned city of Lviv. But punctuated by sirens and cellphone alerts warning of Russian missile attacks that compelled attendees to seek refuge in bomb shelters. Spergel, president of
the Simons Foundation
, started to think there had to be something more the West could do to aid his Ukrainian colleagues.
Eight months later, that idea has blossomed into the Scienc...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - April 17, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
Stripped-envelope supernova light curves argue for central engine activity
Nature, Published online: 17 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07262-xAnalysis of the energy budget of a sample of 54 well-observed stripped-envelope supernovae of all sub-types shows statistically significant, largely model-independent, observational evidence for a non-radioactive power source in most of them. (Source: Nature AOP)
Source: Nature AOP - April 17, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Ósmar Rodríguez Ehud Nakar Dan Maoz Source Type: research
Canadian science gets biggest boost to PhD and postdoc pay in 20 years
Nature, Published online: 17 April 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-01124-2Government budget includes more money for basic research and notable increases to postgraduate stipends. (Source: Nature AOP)
Source: Nature AOP - April 17, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Brian Owens Source Type: research
