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Categories: Ecology: Extinction, Mathematics: General

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Protected natural areas of the UK are struggling to halt declines in insects and spiders that have occurred over the past 30 years, according to a new study.

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Intact forests are important climate regulators and harbors of biodiversity, but they are rapidly disappearing. Agriculture is commonly considered to be the major culprit behind forest loss, but the authors of a new article show that agriculture isn't solely to blame. For forest loss associated with the 2014 world economy, over 60% was related to final consumption of non-agricultural products, such as minerals, metals and wood-related goods, and the authors argue that we must consider international trade markets when designing conservation strategies.

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In order to meet climate protection goals, renewable energies are booming -- often wind power. More than 30,000 turbines have already been installed on the German mainland so far, and the industry is currently scrambling to locate increasingly rare suitable sites. Thus, forests are coming into focus as potential sites. A scientific team has now demonstrated that wind turbines in forests impair endangered bat species: Common noctules (Nyctalus noctula), a species with a high risk of colliding with rotor blades, are attracted to forest wind turbines if these are located near their roosts. Far from roosts, common noctules avoid the turbines, essentially resulting in a loss of foraging space and thus habitat for this species.

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Flooding in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin is creating ideal breeding conditions for many native species that have evolved to take advantage of temporary flood conditions. Scientists have now developed virtual models of the Murray River to reveal a crucial link between natural flooding and the extinction risk of endangered southern bell frogs (Litoria raniformis; also known as growling grass frogs). Southern bell frogs are one of Australia's 100 Priority Threatened Species. This endangered frog breeds during spring and summer when water levels increase in their wetlands. However, the natural flooding patterns in Australia's largest river system have been negatively impacted by expansive river regulation that in some years, sees up to 60% of river water extracted for human use.

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A mathematician was keen to forecast the evolution of the COVID epidemic. Instead, he ended up solving a problem which had troubled computer scientists for decades.

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A study is providing a glimpse into dinosaur and bird diversity in Patagonia during the Late Cretaceous, just before the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct. The fossils represent the first record of theropods -- a dinosaur group that includes both modern birds and their closest non-avian dinosaur relatives -- from the Chilean portion of Patagonia. The researchers' finds include giant megaraptors with large sickle-like claws and birds similar to todays ducks and geese.

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A team that has used two-photon imaging technology to show the creation and elimination of synapses between neurons in the brains of live mice.

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A new paper presents a mathematical model for the motion of bacteria that includes cell division and death, the basic ingredients of the cell cycle.

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Mathematical analysis identifies a vortex structure that is impervious to decay.

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The reliability of data storage and writing speed in advanced magnetic devices depend on drastic, complex changes in microscopic magnetic domain structures. However, it is extremely challenging to quantify these changes, limiting our understanding of magnetic phenomena. To tackle this, researchers developed, using machine learning and topology, an analysis method that quantifies the complexity of the magnetic domain structures, revealing hidden features of magnetization reversal that are hardly seen by human eyes.

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With the theory that for every action, even those seemingly complex and random, there is a math problem that describes it, a researcher is publishing a new formula that helps find that equation quickly. Yes, he's speeding up science.

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Researchers have devised a computer-based platform for drug discovery that could make the process more effective, more efficient and less costly.

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Researchers have identified a new method for scheduling radiation therapy that could be as much as 22 percent more effective at killing cancer cells than current standard radiation treatment regimens.

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Coupling two approaches of game theory can shed light on how moral norms evolve.

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A new study by mathematicians shows that math borrowed from neuroscience can describe how swarms of these unique insects coordinate their light show, capturing key details about how they behave in the wild.

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Reducing redundant information to find simplifying patterns in data sets and complex networks is a scientific challenge in many knowledge fields. Moreover, detecting the dimensionality of the data is still a hard-to-solve problem. A new article presents a method to infer the dimensionality of complex networks through the application of hyperbolic geometrics, which capture the complexity of relational structures of the real world in many diverse domains.

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America was unprepared for the magnitude of the pandemic, which overwhelmed many counties and filled some hospitals to capacity. A new study suggests there may have been a mathematical method, of sorts, to the madness of those early COVID days.

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Music and arts classes are often first on the chopping block when schools face tight budgets and pressure to achieve high scores on standardized tests. But it's precisely those classes that can increase student interest in school and even benefit their math achievement, according to a new study.

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Policy makers assume that adding more detail to mathematical models will produce more accurate predictions, but that's not always the case, a new study shows.

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Predicting the rupture of aneurysms is crucial for medical prevention and treatment. As aspect ratio and size ratio increase and an aneurysm expands, the stress applied against the aneurysm walls and the time blood spends within it increase. This leads the probability of rupture to rise. Researchers develop a patient-specific mathematical model to examine what aneurysm parameters influence rupture risk prior to surgery. Computed tomography scans are fed into the model, which reconstructs the geometry and blood flow of the aneurysm. It then uses equations to describe the fluid flow, generating information about the blood vessel walls and blood flow patterns.