COVID mutates rapidly in white-tailed deer, but here's why we don't need to worry - for now

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COVID mutates rapidly in white-tailed deer, but here's why we don't need to worry - for now     At some point during the pandemic, Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, spread from humans to white-tailed deer in the US. In 2021, scientists revealed that 40% of white-tailed deer sampled in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York state had COVID antibodies. Continued here

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When Your Employee Isn't Reaching Their Full Potential     It can be frustrating to feel that your employees aren’t taking the initiative to do more with their talents. As their manager, you may even wonder if it’s a question of knowledge or willpower: Do they not understand what’s necessary to perform at their best? Or are they just unmotivated? In this article, the authors examine three main reasons why your employee may not be reaching their full potential: personal challenges, interpersonal issues, and leadership problems. It’s unpleasant to consider, but remember that at least 30% of employees’ performance is the product of how they’re managed, meaning that your leadership could play a big role in determining whether people are reaching their potential or not. It’s possible that, despite intending to support and nurture your employee, you may be squelching their talents through micromanagement, overly loose supervision, or poorly communicated objectives, among other managerial sins. The good news about this potentially alarming revelation is that it’s one area that’s firmly within your control. Continued here

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Three Differences Between Managers and Leaders     You’re probably counting value, not adding it, if you’re managing people. Only managers count value; some even reduce value by disabling those who add value. If a diamond cutter is asked to report every 15 minutes how many stones he has cut, by distracting him, his boss is subtracting value. Continued here

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Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail     In the past decade, the author has watched more than 100 companies try to remake themselves into better competitors. Their efforts have gone under many banners: total quality management, reengineering, right sizing, restructuring, cultural change, and turnarounds. In almost every case, the goal has been the same: to cope with a new, more challenging market by changing how business is conducted. Continued here

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How to Negotiate with Powerful Suppliers     In many industries the balance of power has shifted from buyers to suppliers. Companies that have gotten into a weak position need to tackle the problem strategically, the authors argue. They should consider the following actions and implement the least-risky one that is feasible for their organization. Continued here

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The CEOs drawing a hard line on return-to-office policies     Throughout the past couple of years, many employers have been relatively lenient about office returns, even in stricter industries like finance and consulting. In response, employees have largely shown a preference for remote work.By July 2023, data from Kastle Systems, measuring entry swipes at office buildings, showed the average workplace occupancy among 41,000 businesses in the US sat at around 50%. In response to diminished attendance, some of the world's biggest firms have even been forced to slash their real estate footprints.  Continued here

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The legacy of Star Trek: The Animated Series, 50 years on     On a remote planet, the Guardian of Forever sits, a passageway through time to other realities, locations, dimensions. All of a sudden, Captain Kirk comes through the portal, with Spock close behind him, fresh from an adventure observing the beginnings of the Orion civilisation. There's just one problem: Dr Bones McCoy has no idea who Spock is – and neither does anyone else on the starship USS Enterprise.  This scene, from an episode called Yesteryear, doesn't feature in any of the five core Star Trek series. The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise are modern classics that contain unending nostalgia for fans, but there's another early Star Trek show that many people overlook – Star Trek: The Animated Series. It ran for just 20 episodes. Its status, and specifically whether it's considered part of the "canon", is uncertain. But it has an important legacy, bringing animation in as a key part of the franchise as well as keeping Star Trek in people's minds during an in-between era, much like the one we're entering now. Continued here

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Grattan on Friday: Transport Minister Catherine King struggles to find a landing strip amid Qatar turbulence     A few days ago, the furore over the government’s rejection of Qatar Airways’ bid for more flights into major cities was all about cheaper tickets and additional seats.Now the issue has doubled back to become, apparently, at least in part about the mistreatment of the Australian women who were hauled off a flight in 2020 and subjected to invasive body searches, after a newborn was found abandoned in Doha Airport. Continued here

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Nanoparticles will change the world, but whether it's for the better depends on decisions made now     Group Leader, Chemical and Biological Signatures, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Technologies based on nanoscale materials – for example, particles that are more than 10,000 times smaller than the period at the end of this sentence – play a growing role in our world. Continued here

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Heat pumps will cool your home during the hottest of summers and reduce your global warming impact     PhD Candidate, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Davis, University of California, Davis Heat pumps can be used to both cool and heat homes. The 2022 federal Inflation Reduction Act provides financial incentives for installing one. SciLine interviewed Theresa Pistochini of the Energy Efficiency Institute and Western Cooling Efficiency Center at the University of California, Davis. She describes how home heat pumps work; how switching to a heat pump reduces your home’s environmental impact; and when to upgrade your heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Continued here

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Religious leaders without religion: How humanist, atheist and spiritual-but-not-religious chaplains tend to patients' needs     In times of loss, change or other challenges, chaplains can listen, provide comfort and discuss spiritual needs. These spiritual caregivers can be found working in hospitals, universities, prisons and many other secular settings, serving people of all faiths and those with no faith tradition at all.Yet a common assumption is that chaplains themselves must be grounded in a religious tradition. After all, how can you be a religious leader without religion? Continued here

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Do unbiased jurors exist to serve at Trump's trials in the age of social media?     As trial dates approach for former President Donald Trump’s indictments, both he and prosecutors are already claiming it will be hard to secure an impartial jury. Special counsel Jack Smith has said Trump’s public statements risk contaminating the jury pool for the charges he will face in a federal court in Washington, D.C., related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Continued here

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Secondhand smoke may be a substantial contributor to lead levels found in children and adolescents, new study finds     Secondhand smoke may be an important but overlooked source of chronic lead exposure in kids and adolescents. That is the key finding of our recent study, published in the journal BMC Public Health.We analyzed national data on blood lead levels and secondhand smoke exposure in 2,815 U.S. children and teenagers ages 6 to 19 from 2015 to 2018. We looked at levels of lead and a nicotine metabolite – a substance known as cotinine produced in the body’s chemical process that forms when tobacco smoke is inhaled. Levels of cotinine indicate exposure to tobacco smoke. Continued here

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IRS is using $60B funding boost to ramp up use of technology to collect taxes - not just hiring more enforcement agents     The IRS plans to use most of these new funds to step up enforcement and improve customer service for taxpayers. There’s been plenty of conjecture about what the added enforcement will look like and no shortage of fearmongering about the tens of thousands of new agents the IRS might hire. Continued here

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Death and mourning in Ghana: how gender shapes the rituals of the Akan people     Gender has a significant impact on the socio-economic, political and religious experiences of Ghanaians. For Akans, the country’s largest ethnic group, descent is traced through the maternal line. Property is transferred in this line too. Mourning rituals are another area of life that’s shaped by gender in Ghana – as in many other cultures of the world. Continued here

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Why mothers and babies will suffer more as Africa grows hotter     University of the Witwatersrand provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA.As Africa gets hotter, mothers and babies are most at risk. Why is this and what can be done about it? Matthew Chersich, a specialist in climate change and maternal health, explains the reasons to health editor Nadine Dreyer. Continued here

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South Africa's great white sharks are changing locations - they need to be monitored for beach safety and conservation     South Africa is renowned for having one of the world’s biggest populations of great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias). Substantial declines have been observed, however, in places where the sharks normally gather on the coast of the Western Cape province. Sharks congregate at these locations to feed, interact socially, or rest. In Cape Town, skilled “shark spotters” documented a peak of over 300 great white shark sightings across eight beaches in 2011, but have recorded no sightings since 2019. These declines have sparked concerns about the overall conservation status of the species. Continued here

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Martha's rule: second-opinion law can work - but only if organisational shortcomings are addressed     As things stand, hospital patients in England have no legal right to a second medical opinion. But that could soon change, as a campaign to give patients formal entitlement to an urgent second opinion is gathering momentum and gaining support from key figures, including those in government as well as the NHS England Ombudsman. The proposal, called Martha’s rule, is named after a young girl whose life might have been saved by it. In 2021, 13-year-old Martha Mills died following an injury she sustained while on holiday with her family. Martha was treated at King’s College Hospital in London, where she developed life-threatening sepsis. The inquest following Martha’s death found it was avoidable, and that she would have survived were it not for tragic failures in the medical care she received. These failures included doctors withholding important information about Martha’s condition from her parents and ignoring their concerns. Continued here

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The Boy and the Heron: Hayao Miyazaki's latest (and last?) Studio Ghibli film is a skilled remix of his greatest hits     In the official pamphlet sold at Japanese cinemas for The Boy and the Heron, its 82-year-old director, Hayao Miyazaki, expresses concerns about his age: “Clearly, I believe the biggest problem is that the director is long in the tooth.” He needn’t have worried. The Boy and the Heron is Miyazaki’s masterclass in cel animation. This hand-drawn, traditional style – made by layering hand-painted images on celluloid on top of exquisite, painted backdrops – is Studio Ghibli’s signature. And in The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki brings over half a century’s worth of his animated masterpieces together into a single coming-of-age story. Continued here