Neural circuitry for maternal oxytocin release induced by infant cries Oxytocin is a hormone important for maternal and childcare functions like childbirth and nursing. New research in mice reveals a neural circuit that connects the sounds of infant vocalizations to oxytocin-producing neurons in the brain. These neurons respond to baby cries and help regulate maternal…
Global iron and steel plant CO2 emissions and carbon-neutrality pathways The iron and steel industry, a major source of CO2 emissions, is crucial for addressing climate change. A study mapped emissions and technologies for over 4,800 individual plants, creating tailored plans to reduce emissions. Retrofitting these plants with low-carbon tech during their operational years can limit…
Reductive carboxylation epigenetically instructs T cell differentiation Immune cells called CD8+ T cells play a crucial role in protecting the body from diseases like cancer by undergoing metabolic changes when activated. Researchers found that one specific metabolic process involving a mitochondrial enzyme called IDH2 affects the development of memory CD8+ T cells. Inhibiting IDH2 during…
Neutralization, effector function and immune imprinting of Omicron variants Recent variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, such as BQ.1.1 and XBB.1.5, have developed specific mutations in their spike proteins, which affect how the virus interacts with human cells and the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments. This study found that these variants bind more tightly to human…
Bacterial pathogens deliver water- and solute-permeable channels to plant cells Many harmful bacteria that infect animals and plants use a special system to release proteins into their host cells. Understanding how these proteins work in host cells is vital for studying diseases in animals and plants. Researchers have been trying to figure out how a…
General Equilibrium Effects of (Improving) Public Employment Programs: Experimental Evidence From India Public employment programs, like India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), can reduce poverty directly by increasing household income and indirectly through broader economic effects. Researchers studied a reform that improved NREGS implementation and found that it raised beneficiary earnings by 14%, leading…
Scaling Auctions as Insurance: A Case Study in Infrastructure Procurement Most U.S. government spending on highways and bridges involves a bidding process where private construction firms submit price bids for each material needed. Researchers studied bridge maintenance projects in Massachusetts and found that firms bid strategically to minimize risk, especially on uncertain items. They estimated…
The Old Boys’ Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap This study looked at how employees interact with their managers in the workplace. It found that when employees have more face-to-face conversations with their managers, they tend to get promoted more often. This finding might help explain why there’s a gender pay gap, as this interaction…
Choice Screen Auctions In Europe, you can now choose your search engine on Android instead of using Google’s automatically. However, a small change in how these choices are made, either based on how often they appear or how often they are installed, can affect which search engines win and how much of the market they…
Global population exposure to landscape fire air pollution from 2000 to 2019 Wildfires, worsened by climate change, are becoming more severe and frequent. The smoke they produce, which can harm human health, hasn’t been well understood globally. Using advanced models and machine learning, scientists estimated that from 2000 to 2019, people around the world were…
