News
Aug 25, 2020
Penn State black walnut trial turns 40, now ideal climate-change experiment
Visitors to Penn State’s University Park campus often arrive with a short list of attractions they want to see. Among the most popular are the Nittany Lion Shrine, the Berkey Creamery and The Arboretum at Penn State. However, few are aware of the Black Walnut Provenance Study, let alone care to visit it.
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Aug 25, 2020
Measles outbreaks in Niger linked to rainfall and temperature, study finds
Rainfall and temperature drive agricultural activity, which, in turn, influences patterns of measles outbreaks in the West African nation of Niger, according to an international team of researchers. The findings may be useful for improving vaccine coverage for seasonally mobile populations within Niger and other countries.
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Aug 25, 2020
Advanced biofuels show promise for replacing some fossil fuels
Plant-based biofuels can play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and growing these crops in certain landscapes offers net climate benefits compared to other land use options, according to a team of international scientists.
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Aug 25, 2020
Grant to enable creation of AI tools to improve adolescents' diets and nutrition
With a $1.2 million grant from Fondation Botnar, an international team of researchers will assess the feasibility of creating and launching a global-scale artificial-intelligence (AI) app for mobile devices that diagnoses diet-related problems and offers nutritional advice to adolescent girls living in urban settings in Ghana and Vietnam.
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Aug 25, 2020
Faculty funded to study how people's movement impacts COVID-19 transmission
Nita Bharti, Lloyd Huck Early Career Professor and assistant professor of biology at Penn State, and her collaborator Anthony Robinson, associate professor of geography at Penn State, have been awarded seed funding from the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State to study how monitoring the movement of people can potentially be used as a predictor or early indicator of COVID-19 transmission and guide health policy decisions.
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Aug 24, 2020
Bull elected fellow of American Phytopathological Society
Carolee Bull, professor of systematic bacteriology and plant pathology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, has been elected as a fellow of the American Phytopathological Society, an honor given to members in recognition of distinguished contributions to the discipline of plant pathology.
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Aug 24, 2020
Reducing transmission risk of livestock disease
The risk of transmitting the livestock virus PPRV, which threatens 80% of the world’s sheep and goats, increases with certain husbandry practices but not herd size. A new study, led by researchers at Penn State, investigated how transmission of PPRV might change at different scales and identified specific husbandry practices associated with increased odds of infection — including the introduction of sheep and goats to the herd, sheep or goat attendance at seasonal grazing camps, and the sales or gifting of goats from the herd.
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Aug 24, 2020
New tool for identifying endangered corals could aid conservation efforts
Coral conservation efforts could get a boost from a newly developed genotyping “chip” — the first of its kind for corals. The chip allows researchers to genetically identify corals and the symbiotic algae that live within the coral’s cells, a vital step for establishing and maintaining genetic diversity in reef restoration efforts.
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Aug 19, 2020
Invasive shrubs in Northeast forests grow leaves earlier and keep them longer
The rapid pace that invasive shrubs infiltrate forests in the northeastern United States makes scientists suspect they have a consistent advantage over native shrubs, and the first region-wide study of leaf timing, conducted by Penn State researchers, supports those suspicions.
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Aug 17, 2020
Podcast unpacks potential for social evolution in the midst of crisis
The newest episode of The Symbiotic Podcast welcomes the husband-and-wife team of David Loye and Riane Eisler, experts in how and why societies evolve and devolve, for an examination of multiple global crises occurring simultaneously in 2020.
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