Tween gaming sensation Roblox to go public: filing

Popular gaming platform Roblox, a pandemic sensation among children, is aiming to raise $1 billion in an initial public offering, according to documents published Thursday.

Apple to press ahead on mobile privacy, despite Facebook protests

Apple confirmed Thursday it would press ahead with mobile software changes that limit tracking for targeted advertising—a move that has prompted complaints from Facebook and others.

Biden says won't order 'national shutdown' despite Covid surge

US President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday he would not order a nationwide shutdown to fight the COVID-19 pandemic despite a surge in cases.

Switch to electric vehicles could 'end oil era': analysis

Emerging markets switching from petrol and diesel engines to electric vehicles (EVs) could save $250 billion annually and slash expected growth in global oil demand by as much as 70 percent, an industry analysis showed Friday.

Australia signals shift away from climate credit 'cheating'

Australia's prime minister said the country may no longer rely on a much-criticised accounting tactic to meet its emissions targets, stepping away from an approach international partners had labelled "cheating".

Health experts clash over use of certain drugs for COVID-19

Health officials around the world are clashing over the use of certain drugs for COVID-19, leading to different treatment options for patients depending on where they live.

South Australia to end lockdown early after pizza parlour blunder

South Australia's six-day "circuit-breaker" lockdown will be cut short, officials said Friday, blaming a pizza parlour worker who misled contact tracers about how he contracted the virus.

Official: Italy to start COVID vaccinations in January

A significant number of Italians who want to be vaccinated against COVID-19 should have received their shots by next September, Italy's special commissioner for the virus emergency said Thursday.

Idaho is top pick for Energy Department nuclear test reactor

The U.S. government said Thursday that Idaho is its preferred choice ahead of Tennessee for a test reactor to be built as part of an effort to revamp the nation's fading nuclear power industry by developing safer fuel and power plants.

Coaching sales agents? Use AI and human coaches

Researchers from Temple University, Sichuan University, and Fudan University published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that explores the growing use of AI to coach sales agents to determine if there are any caveats that inhibit the effective use of this technology.

Simple, no-cost ways to help the public care for the commons

Researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison, New York Institute of Technology, University of Iowa, and Cornell University published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines whether it is possible to make people feel as if the property is theirs—a feeling known as psychological ownership—and how this affects their stewardship behaviors.

Limited access to buprenorphine restricts resident physicians treating opioid abusers

A survey of resident physicians in Florida indicates they are interested in treating opioid addiction but face barriers to offering patients treatment using buprenorphine, an FDA-approved medication shown to successfully decrease opioid use, overdose events, and deaths associated with opioids.

The microbiome of Da Vinci's drawings

The work of Leonardo Da Vinci is an invaluable heritage of the 15th century. From engineering to anatomy, the master paved the way for many scientific disciplines. But what else could the drawings of Da Vinci teach us? Could molecular studies reveal interesting data from the past? These questions led an interdisciplinary team of researchers, curators and bioinformaticians, from both the University of Natural Resources and Life Science and the University of Applied Science of Wien in Austria, as well as the Central Institute for the Pathology of Archives and Books (ICPAL) in Italy, to collaborate and study the microbiome of seven different drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci.

Researchers reverse severe lymphatic disorder in patient with Noonan syndrome

Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have resolved a severe lymphatic disorder in a girl with Noonan Syndrome that had led to upper gastrointestinal bleeding, fluid collection around the lungs, and numerous surgeries that had been unable to resolve her symptoms. By identifying a genetic mutation along a pathway related to lymphatic vessel development and function, the research team was able to target the pathway using an existing drug they had used in a previous case to remodel a patient's lymphatic system.

Predicting preterm births

Predicting preterm birth can be difficult, especially for women who have not given birth. It has long been known that the best predictor of preterm birth is someone who has had a prior preterm birth; however, this information is helpful only in second and subsequent pregnancies. For women in their first pregnancy, it is a challenge for obstetricians and midwives to advise them on their risks. To address this issue, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital studied how family history can predict preterm birth. Their findings were published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Infectiousness peaks early in COVID-19 patients, emphasising the need to rapidly isolate cases: study

Although SARS-CoV-2 genetic material may still be detected in respiratory or stool samples for several weeks, no live virus (that can cause infection) was found in any type of sample collected beyond nine days of symptoms starting and people with SARS-CoV-2 are mostly likely to be highly infectious from symptom onset and the following five days, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of three human coronaviruses published in The Lancet Microbe journal.

How rotavirus causes severe gastrointestinal disease

Rotavirus is a major cause of diarrhea and vomiting, especially in children, that results in approximately 128,000 deaths annually. The virus triggers the disease by infecting enterocyte cells in the small intestine, but only a fraction of the susceptible cells has the virus. In the mid-90s, scientists proposed that the small portion of infected cells promotes severe disease by sending out signals that disrupt the normal function of neighboring uninfected cells, but the nature of the signal has remained a mystery.

Climate change and 'atmospheric thirst' to increase fire danger and drought in NV and CA

Climate change and a "thirsty atmosphere" will bring more extreme wildfire danger and multi-year droughts to Nevada and California by the end of this century, according to new research from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of California, Merced.

College students are less food insecure than non-students

College students are significantly less likely to be food insecure than non-students in the same age group, according to a new study from the University of Illinois.

Spill-over effects show prioritising education of very poorest improves attainment of all

International development projects that target the education of the world's very poorest children and marginalised girls also significantly improve other young people's attainment, according to new research that suggests such initiatives should become a priority for international aid.

Artificial intelligence and satellite technologies reveal detailed map of air pollution across UK

A novel method that combines artificial intelligence with remote sensing satellite technologies has produced the most detailed coverage of air pollution in Britain to date.