Coastal marine environments are impacted by human disturbance. Dock pilings allow MarineGEO researchers to study these impacts in a standardized way around the world to […]

The post The incredible marine diversity under boat docks appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Zebra mussels in the Great Lakes, lionfish in the Atlantic and pythons in the Everglades: Large creatures like these generally draw the spotlight when talking […]

The post DNA is trusty new weapon for detecting slime nets and other invasive marine parasites appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Ninety Limosa harlequin frogs (Atelopus limosus) bred in human care are braving the elements of the wild after Smithsonian scientists sent them out into the […]

The post Scientists Release Frogs Wearing Mini Radio Transmitters appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Smithsonian’s MarineGEO (Marine Global Earth Observatory) conducts long-term research around the world on coastal marine ecosystems, including at their field station on Carrie Bow Cay […]

The post MarineGEO Field Campaign: Belize appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Forty percent of the world’s 2.5 billion people live in coastal cities and towns. A team including Smithsonian marine biologists just released 25 years of […]

The post The Caribbean is stressed out appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The addition of tert-butyl hydro­peroxide (tBuOOH) to two MnII complexes, differing by a small synthetic alteration from an ethyl to a propyl linker in the ligand scaffold, results in the formation of the high-valent bis-oxo complexes, {[MnIV{N4(6-Me-DPEN)}]2(μ-O)2}2+ (1) and {[MnIV{N4(6-Me-DPPN)}]2(μ-O)2}2+ (2).

Features of azimuthal plots for RHEED and its new counterpart, RHEPD, are discussed. The plots, for both electrons and positrons, are determined using dynamical diffraction theory.

A Landau theory for the wurtzite-based heterovalent ternary semiconductor ZnSnN2 is developed and a first-order reconstructive phase transition is proposed as the cause of observed crystal structure disorder. The model infers that the phase transition is paraelectric to antiferroelectric.

File photo: Lorne Street Elementary students had to grab books from a book bin after their library was closed during the recession.; Credit: Annie Gilbertson/KPCC

More than 200 Los Angeles Unified School District elementary school libraries have reopened in just two months, according to district officials.

Recession-era budget cuts had left many libraries without staffing. The cuts persisted even when the economy began to improve: a year ago half of the district's 650,000 students were still without a librarian or library aide.

Without library workers, state law prohibits students from browsing collections, pulling reference materials or checking out books. 

“We have been living without libraries and, no, we don’t want to because they are essential for academic achievement and learning for our students," said Mark Bobrosky, a librarian at Walter Reed Middle School.

School board member Monica Ratliff created a task force to recommend ways to expand libraries after KPCC reported that Lorne Street Elementary in Northridge had a library full of books collecting dust.

"This idea of equity — we are trying to make sure we don't have library deserts," Ratliff said at the board's curriculum, instruction and assessment committee meeting on Tuesday.

Even when the board committed funds for elementary school libraries, the district found it hard to fill openings. Library aides worked just three hours a day, five days a week.

Members of the task force suggested assigning library aides to two schools, doubling their hours and providing benefits.  Elementary school libraries began to quickly reopen. 

But while conditions have improved for elementary students, middle school libraries are still hard hit, with nearly 65 percent of their campus libraries shuttered.

Bobrosky said reopening the libraries is vital for L.A. Unified's success in implementing the Common Core state standards, which require research projects incorporating a variety of texts.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Norbert Volkmar
Apr 24, 2020; 133:jcs243519-jcs243519
REVIEW

Full Text:

Scientists have recovered the first genetic data from an extinct bird in the Caribbean, thanks to the remarkably preserved bones of a Creighton's caracara in a flooded sinkhole on Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas. Studies of ancient DNA from tropical birds have faced two formidable obstacles. Organic material quickly degrades when exposed to heat, light and oxygen. And birds' lightweight, hollow bones break easily, accelerating the decay of the DNA within. But the dark, oxygen-free depths of a 100-foot blue hole known as Sawmill Sink provided ideal preservation conditions for the bones of Caracara creightoni, a species of large carrion-eating falcon that disappeared soon after humans arrived in the Bahamas about 1,000 years ago. Florida Museum of Natural History researcher Jessica Oswald and her colleagues extracted and sequenced genetic material from the 2,500-year-old C. creightoni femur. Because ancient DNA is often fragmented or missing, the team had modest expectations for what they would find –- maybe one or two genes. But instead, the bone yielded 98.7% of the bird's mitochondrial genome, the DNA most living things inherit from their mothers. The mitochondrial genome showed that C. creightoni is closely related to the two remaining caracara species alive today: the crested caracara and the southern caracara. The three species last shared a common ancestor between 1.2 and 0.4 million years ago. "This project enhanced our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary implications of extinction, forged strong international partnerships, and trained the next generation of researchers," says Jessica Robin, a program director in National Science Foundation's Office of International Science and Engineering, which funded the study.

Image credit: Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace

Visa has teamed up with Kenyan telecom Safaricom, operator...

Netherlands-based payments platform

Cancer-causing chemicals that occur naturally in foods are far more numerous in the human diet than synthetic carcinogens, yet both types are consumed at levels so low that they currently appear to pose little threat to human health, a committee of the National Research Council said in a report released today.

Marijuanas active components are potentially effective in treating pain, nausea, the anorexia of AIDS wasting, and other symptoms, and should be tested rigorously in clinical trials.

Good morning and welcome. There has been unprecedented interest in recent years about whether marijuana or its constituent compounds should be used as medicine. Since 1996, voters in seven states have approved the medical use of marijuana.

The evidence does not support a causal link between sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and either the diphtheria, tetanus, and whole-cell pertussis (DTwP) vaccine or exposure to multiple childhood vaccines, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

Ovarian cancer should not be categorized as a single disease, but rather as a constellation of different cancers involving the ovary, yet questions remain on how and where various ovarian cancers arise, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The best indicator of whether a disabled adult who receives Social Security benefits is capable of managing his or her benefits is evidence of real-world performance of meeting his or her own basic needs, rather than an office-based assessment of financial competence, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Hearing loss is a significant public health concern, and efforts should be made to provide adults with easier access to and more affordable options for hearing health care, especially for those in underserved and vulnerable populations, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Rising levels of noise in the ocean have been identified as a growing concern for the well-being of marine mammals, but other threats such as pollution, climate change, and prey depletion by fisheries may also harm marine mammals and influence their response to additional noise.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers a rigorous review of scientific research published since 1999 about what is known about the health impacts of cannabis and cannabis-derived products – such as marijuana and active chemical compounds known as cannabinoids – ranging from their therapeutic effects to their risks for causing certain cancers, diseases, mental health disorders, and injuries.

Good morning. Welcome to the release of the report Preparing for Future Products of Biotechnology, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are now serving as the host for the InterAcademy Partnership for Research (IAP-R) secretariat.

The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) is pleased to announce the publication of Collaborations of Consequence - NAKFI’s 15 Years of Igniting Innovation at the Intersections of Disciplines.

Representatives from the national academies of sciences of the G20 countries handed over recommendations for improving marine conservation to the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examines the effects and efficacy of using dispersants in marine oil spill response.

A centralized, consistently reported system of indicators of educational equity is needed to bring attention to disparities in the U.S. education system, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Whether a patient has a safe place to live or healthy food to eat has an important influence on their health, but such nonmedical social needs have not traditionally been addressed in routine health care visits.

Medicine regulatory authorities — including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — should strengthen cooperation with other countries’ regulators to ensure the quality, safety, and efficacy of medicines, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends ways to make supply chains -- the systems that provide populations with critical goods and services, such as food and water, gasoline, and pharmaceuticals and medical supplies – more resilient in the face of hurricanes and other disasters, drawing upon lessons learned from the 2017 hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

Although the immediate side effects of antimalarial drugs are widely recognized, few studies were designed specifically to examine health problems that might occur or persist months or years after people stopped taking them.

President Trump walks to the White House on Sunday, after returning from Camp David in Maryland.; Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

As President Trump attempts to project an image of America rising out of quarantine and beginning to reopen, he's set to travel to an Arizona factory that's expanded into production of N95 face masks to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

And while the trip is in part meant to tell a positive story about the Trump administration's response, it also highlights the challenges of the current moment.

Arizona remains under a modified stay-at-home order until May 15, though Republican Gov. Doug Ducey allowed some retail establishments to begin to open voluntarily Monday. The state hasn't yet notched the two consecutive weeks of reduced COVID-19 cases called for as a first step in the White House guidelines for reopening. In fact, the number of confirmed cases in the state is on the rise.

And Trump's trip itself will be anything but normal. Those traveling with the president or coming in close proximity to him in Arizona are being tested for the coronavirus. Social distancing measures are expected.

"The President takes the health and safety of everyone traveling in support of himself and all White House operations very seriously," White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement provided to NPR. "When preparing for and carrying out any travel, the White House's operational teams work together to ensure plans to incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting COVID-19 exposure are followed to the greatest extent possible."

Asked last week if he would wear a mask on the trip, Trump was noncommittal.

"I'm going to have to look at the climate. I'd have no problem wearing a mask. I don't know," Trump said at the White House. "I'm supposed to make a speech. I just don't know: Should I speak in a mask? You're going to have to tell me if that's politically correct. I don't know. If it is, I'll speak in a mask."

Vice President Mike Pence faced criticism for not wearing a mask while visiting the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota last week, in apparent violation of the center's policy. Sitting next to Trump at a televised town hall Sunday night, Pence said he "should have worn a mask at the Mayo Clinic."

Pence has left Washington, D.C., a few times recently — a series of trips the White House used in part as test runs for Trump to get back on the road.

Different than the big rallies

Tuesday's travel is a far cry from Trump's last trip to Arizona, for a campaign rally on Feb. 19. He didn't mention the coronavirus in his speech that night, and when asked about it in an interview with a local TV reporter, he downplayed the risk.

"I think it's going to work out fine," Trump told Fox 10 Phoenix. "I think when we get into April, in the warmer weather, that has a very negative effect on that and that type of a virus. So let's see what happens, but I think it's going to work out fine."

As of Monday morning, more than 350 deaths had been attributed to COVID-19 in Arizona, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, with about 68,000 deaths nationwide.

Trump still yearns for those big rallies of the not-so-distant past, musing about the day when he can pack arenas again and not have to have people spaced 6 feet apart. But for now, he's relishing the idea of escaping the confines of the White House. Aside from a trip to the presidential retreat at Camp David last weekend, this will be Trump's first trip away from the White House since March 28, when he sent off the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort in Norfolk, Va. While it's been a little more than a month, Trump has described himself as stuck at the White House "for many months."

In Phoenix, Trump will tour a Honeywell aerospace manufacturing facility that freed up space to start making N95 respirator masks. According to a company spokesman, the first masks rolled off the line on April 30, ahead of schedule. Once up to full capacity, it will make 10 million of the masks per month. The company said it would be adding 500 employees to make the masks. Another Honeywell factory in Rhode Island also started making masks last month. Most of them are headed to the federal government, which is distributing the protective equipment. Mask shortages have been a major concern for health care workers treating patients with the highly contagious coronavirus.

Battleground state

Although there isn't officially a political component to the trip, Arizona is a state Trump won in 2016, but that Democrats expect to be competitive in 2020.

Trump's visit clearly underscores how he isn't taking anything for granted in the state in 2020. His goal is to remind voters how the Arizona economy was booming before the pandemic.

"Arizona is a state where President Trump's campaign will be aggressive, where we have had a presence since 2015," said Erin Perrine, principal deputy communications director for the reelection campaign. "We will reach voters where ever they are — sharing the message that only President Trump can bring back the booming Trump economy and highlighting his strong leadership during the coronavirus."

For several election cycles, Democrats have been eyeing Arizona as a state they might put in the presidential win column. Analysts say Democrats challenge will will be to win in the suburbs and get a solid turnout from Hispanics, even as the pandemic's effect on campaigning and on the actual process of voting is yet to be known. No Democratic nominee had carried the state since Bill Clinton in 1996. In 2016, there was talk of a late play for the state by Hillary Clinton's campaign, but that was seen more as overconfidence than her actually have a real shot at winning there. Then, when the votes were counted, Trump won the presidency, including a victory in Arizona, but his margin in the state was only 3.5%.

Four years earlier, GOP nominee Mitt Romney carried the state over President Obama by more than 9 percentage points. Democrats took Trump winning so narrowly in the state as a sign that maybe the future was closer than people realized. Longtime GOP strategist Chuck Coughlin says Democrats kept the story line going two years later by winning four statewide offices, including an open U.S. Senate seat and secretary of state. Now strategist Coughlin says, "There is a trend line going on, Republicans have had to acknowledge that, and the swing voters have become more important — independents and Republican suburban women." He says those are the keys to a Democratic victory in the state.

An average of recent polls shows former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, leading in head-to-head matchups. Although horse race polling this far out, and especially in the middle of an unprecedented crisis, isn't necessarily predictive, it's one of a few causes for alarm for Republicans.

In 2018, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema won an open U.S. Senate seat in Arizona. Another Senate seat is up in 2020, and the latest campaign finance reports show Democratic challenger Mark Kelly with nearly twice as much cash on hand as incumbent Republican Sen. Martha McSally. Kelly has also led in recent polls.

McSally portrays herself as a strong ally of Trump's, even echoing his style of negative campaigning. Here's how she began her remarks when Trump called her up to speak at that big rally in February, "I just want to say I have a message for the liberal hack media in the back," she told the noisy crowd, "Arizona is going to vote in November to keep America great and send President Trump back to the White House.

In April McSally tweeted that she was able to secure ventilators for her state after talking to Trump.

"Huge news for Arizona!" McSally tweeted. "I spoke with @realDonaldTrump on Wednesday afternoon to request additional ventilators from the Strategic National Stockpile. Today, POTUS delivers with 100 ventilators headed to AZ. Thank you to President Trump and @VP for hearing our call."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A new study has investigated the effects of set-aside management —when fields are taken out of agricultural production — on common invertebrate decomposers in soil. The diversity of woodlice species was higher in set-aside fields compared to neighbouring wheat fields and this effect increased in older set-asides. This study highlights the importance of set-aside areas as habitats for soil invertebrates, which are important for soil health.

Director Michael Apted (L) with Larry Mantle in the AirTalk studio.

This past Wednesday on "AirTalk," film director Michael Apted came in to talk with us about his eighth documentary in the series that's followed the lives of 13 people, beginning in 1964 when the kids were seven.  They've shared their stories with Apted every seven years, and he's clearly invested a lot of emotion into this project.

"56 Up" is wonderful for how it shows the mid-life evolution of the participants.  Apted includes scenes from earlier interviews, so that we see what aspects of today's 56-year-olds were present in childhood and what turns their lives have made over these years. 

"56 Up" is showing at the Nuart in West Los Angeles, and Apted will be doing Q-and-A at some of the screenings.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

KJ Apa and Britt Robertson in "I Still Believe" ; Credit: Lionsgate/I Still Believe (2020)

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Amy Nicholson and Wade Major review this weekend’s new movie releases.

• "I Still Believe" on VOD

• "Banana Split" on VOD 

• "Vivarium" on VOD

• "Resistance" on VOD

• "Vitalina Varela" on GrasshopperFilm.com

• "Uncorked" on Netflix

• "Dosed" on film's website

• "The Occupant" on Netflix

• "Tape" on VOD

• "There's Something In The Water" on Netflix

Guests:

Amy Nicholson, film critic for KPCC, film writer for The Guardian and host of the podcasts ‘Unspooled’ and the podcast miniseries “Zoom”; she tweets @TheAmyNicholson

Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and CineGods.com

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Selective fishing aims to prevent the overexploitation of target fish species and to protect by-catch species, but recent research has indicated that it could be having the opposite effect by damaging biodiversity and sustainability. An alternative approach called 'balanced exploitation' works at the level of the ecosystem instead of selectively removing specific components from the ecosystem.

A recent study has demonstrated that it is possible to identify which human pressures, such as fisheries and environmental pollution, are causing changes in Marine and Coastal by combining the trends in different indicators. This approach can be used as a tool for integrated ecosystem assessment and management.

Although a total of 1.3 per cent of global marine areas is currently within Marine Protection Areas (MPAs), this is far from the Convention of Biodiversity's (CBD) 10 per cent target. Significant progress has been made over the last few years, but a new report suggests there is room for improvement as MPA coverage is very uneven and not all eco-regions and habitats are represented. The report makes several recommendations for maximising the effects of MPAs.

Renovating coastal structures, such as breakwaters, groynes, artificial reefs, quays and sea walls, can be destructive to Marine and Coastal as it encourages opportunistic and invasive species, according to recent research. Repairs can be particularly damaging if conducted in spring or summer, so repair schedules should be recognised in marine planning strategies to minimise negative ecological effects, say the researchers.

Between 10 and 50% of marine species and ecosystems are recovering from population declines and degradation, according to recent research, which identified five strategies for successful recoveries. Recoveries are often driven by a combination of factors, which include restricting exploitation, better protection of vulnerable habitats and greater political support and local involvement with conservation.

A new study of pollutants in Mediterranean coastal waters assesses the risks posed by difficult-to-detect chemicals present at low concentrations. Coastal monitoring programmes may be required to control discharges of some of these pollutants, which, at current levels, could be harmful to sensitive marine creatures.

AB 2293 bans drivers from using their personal policies and mandates that drivers have to be covered from the moment they turn on their app and look for customers.; Credit: Photo by Daniel X. O'Neil via Flickr Creative Commons

Amid all the talk about cutting-edge technology, much of Uber and Lyft’s success actually owes to that fact the ride-sharing companies have been able to exploit a basic loophole: The companies foist the cost of insurance on their drivers, but the drivers' insurance companies don’t know they are underwriting cars for hire, and even if drivers wanted to be honest and get a policy that would cover ride-sharing, they couldn’t, because no such policy exists.

AB-2293, introduced by Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla (D-Concord) and signed into law Wednesday by Governor Jerry Brown, tries to close the loophole by paving the way for insurance companies to offer hybrid personal/commercial policies by next summer.

Uber once derided the bill as a backroom deal between insurance companies and trial lawyers.

"The bill does nothing to enhance safety, yet compromises the transportation choices and entrepreneurial opportunities Uber offers Californians," the company wrote in a June blog post that encouraged customers to contact their representatives opposing the bill.

However, the company backed down and supported the legislation when Bonilla insurance requirements were lowered.

AB 2293 also specifically bans drivers from using their personal policies and mandates drivers have to be covered from the moment they turn on their app and look for customers, which is a response to the tragic accident on New Year's Eve in San Francisco when an UberX driver hit and killed a six year old child.

Uber argued that because the driver was waiting for a fare he wasn't working for the company at the time, so he wasn't covered by the company's insurance.

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