Migrant and refugee children need early education supports too

Early childhood educators need more support to deliver positive outcomes for Australia’s most vulnerable children – including migrant and refugee children – say early childhood experts at the University of South Australia.

Chula Researchers Develop a Rapid MTB Strip Test for Tuberculosis Hoping to Spread to Community Hospitals and Reduce the Number of Patients

Lecturers of the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Chulalongkorn University have developed MTB Strip Test Kit for Tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis that’s accurate and easy to use, guaranteed by the 2023 Invention Award from the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) — Another hope to reduce the spread of tuberculosis in Thailand.

Noise from Urban Environments Affects the Color of Songbirds’ Beaks

A study examined the effects of anthropogenic noise on cognition, beak color, and growth in the zebra finch. Researchers first tested adult zebra finches on a battery of cognition assays while they were exposed to playbacks of urban noise versus birds tested without noise. Urban noises caused the birds to take longer to learn a novel foraging task and to learn an association-learning task. Urban noise exposure also resulted in treated males to develop less bright beak coloration, and females developed beaks with brighter orange coloration, respectively, than untreated birds. Findings suggest that urban noise exposure may affect morphological traits, such as beak color, which influence social interactions and mate choice.

FAU Study Finds Low Salinity Can Work to Culture Popular Florida Pompano Fish

Less than 10 aquaculture farms in the U.S. have been successful in commercially raising and distributing the popular Florida pompano fish. A new study has determined the optimal salinity required to culture fingerlings (juvenile fish) from hatch to weaning under on-farm conditions. Researchers have shown it’s possible to grow this warm water marine species in salinities a low as 10 parts per thousand, which makes it more economic and easier for producers far from the coast to attempt Florida pompano commercial growth.

New Critical Period of Embryonic Sex Determination in Sea Turtles Identified

A study shows that the temperature of the incubation environment could influence the sexualization of the gonads (reproductive organs) in sea turtles earlier than what is currently recognized. Researchers developed a new way to integrate the effect of thermal fluctuations on embryonic sex determination and predict sex ratios with much better accuracy than prior models. By measuring the strength of masculinization or feminization of temperatures using novel parameters, they have uncovered how temperature-sensitive sex determination works. These findings could be similar for other reptiles with temperature-dependent sex determination because similar molecular determinants and enzymatic mechanisms are at play.

Diverse landscapes at the heart of bee conservation

New research from the University of Georgia revealed that mixed land use – such as developments interspersed with forest patches – improves bee diversity and is leading to new solutions for bee conservation. The researchers hypothesized that development would negatively affect bee diversity, but the results of the study were surprising. They found that small amounts of development actually had a positive impact on the number of bee species present in a given area.

Howard County, Johns Hopkins APL Join Forces to Leverage Smart City Innovation in Gateway District

APL is bringing its expertise in public health, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and climate change into a collaboration with the Howard County Economic Development Authority to incorporate smart and connected community concepts within the county’s Gateway District.

Does environmental stress drive migration?

While climate-driven migration has been deemed a major threat in public discourse and academic research, comprehensive studies that take into account both environmental and social factors globally have been scarce. Now, with the help of machine learning, a research team led by Aalto University has drawn a clearer picture of the factors involved in migration for 178 countries.

TE Connectivity acquires three life science development and manufacturing firms; expands reach into IVD, point of care and microfluidics segments

TE Connectivity, a world leader in connectors and sensors, has acquired three companies focused on microfluidic cartridge and blister reagent package development, usability testing, clinical research and manufacturing. The companies are Toolbox Medical Innovations (USA), Wi Inc (USA) and microiLIQUID (Spain).

The combined entities leverage design and manufacturing capabilities in the United States and Europe and are focused on serving a global client base ranging from startups to multinationals in the life science, IVD and cell therapy markets.

Wisconsin bioethics project chronicles pregnancy, substance use disorder and the law

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is embarking on a massive research project to shed light on early child development, including the health and developmental implications of opioid use during pregnancy. The very first task is to ensure the study — the HEALthy Brain and Child Development study (HBCD) — is on solid legal and ethical ground.

Study in Newborn Mice Suggests Sounds Influence the Developing Brain Earlier than Previously Thought

Scientists have yet to answer the age-old question of whether or how sound shapes the minds of fetuses in the womb, and expectant mothers often wonder about the benefits of such activities as playing music during pregnancy. Now, in experiments in newborn mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins report that sounds appear to change “wiring” patterns in areas of the brain that process sound earlier than scientists assumed and even before the ear canal opens.

Girls Who Are Emotionally Neglected or Severely Sexually Abused When Young Report Riskier Sexual Behaviors in Adolescence

Girls who are emotionally neglected or severely sexually abused early in their lives report riskier sexual behaviors during adolescence, Mount Sinai researchers report. The findings highlight the need—and suggest the potential for tailored approaches—to promote healthy sexual development in vulnerable populations.

Biologists Create “Atlas” of Gene Expression in Neurons, Documenting the Diversity of Brain Cells

New York University researchers have created a “developmental atlas” of gene expression in neurons, using gene sequencing and machine learning to categorize more than 250,000 neurons in the brains of fruit flies. Their study, published in Nature, finds that neurons exhibit the most molecular diversity during development and reveals a previously unknown type of neurons only present before flies hatch.

The rise of ‘Zoom Towns’ in the rural west

COVID-19 has expedited a trend of migration into western gateway communities—remote workers are fleeing cities to ride out the pandemic. A new study using data from 2018 found that growing populations caused urgent planning pressures, and officials felt unprepared to respond to and prepare for problems associated with rapid growth.

Land Development in New Jersey Continues to Slow

Land development in New Jersey has slowed dramatically since the 2008 Great Recession, but it’s unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to fight societal and housing inequality will affect future trends, according to a Rutgers co-authored report. Between 2012 and 2015, 10,392 acres in the Garden State became urban land. That’s 3,464 acres a year – far lower than the 16,852 acres per year in the late 1990s and continuing the trend of decreasing urban development that began in the 2008 Great Recession.

Strokes in babies are surprisingly common. Here’s how the body rushes to the rescue.

New research is shedding light on the development of the brain’s immune defenses – and how those defenses respond to strokes that strike one in 4,000 babies in the first month of life.

How to Tackle Climate Change, Food Security and Land Degradation

How can some of world’s biggest problems – climate change, food security and land degradation – be tackled simultaneously? Some lesser-known options, such as integrated water management and increasing the organic content of soil, have fewer trade-offs than many well-known options, such as planting trees, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Global Change Biology.

NRAO’s Central Development Laboratory: Making the Invisible Visible

Nestled among the hills of the University of Virginia campus are a couple of nondescript buildings. They are home to NRAO’s Central Development Laboratory (CDL). The buildings are easy to overlook, just as it is easy to overlook the work done by CDL. We see photographs of the radio dishes at Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Very Large Array (VLA) under a starry sky, and the beautifully rendered scientific images they produce. But between these two extremes is a complex set of processes that transform the faint radio signals of distant space into usable scientific data. Achieving that transformation effectively is one of CDLs most important jobs.

Wistar Joins Global Effort to Expedite Coronavirus Vaccine Development for Outbreak Originating in China

Wistar announces today that they are part of a team to develop a vaccine against the recently emerged strain of coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that has infected hundreds in China and other countries, including the U.S., and resulted in numerous deaths to date. Wistar is part of a collaboration funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).