Fear of thunder or other loud noises, nervousness about new areas, and fear of slippery surfaces and heights are common among dogs but a new paper says these non-social fears can be mitigated.

Not for all dogs, the typical Cairn Terrier will remain more fearful than the average Chinese Crested Dog, but living environment and lifestyle will help.

What works, according to 14,000 dog owners surveyed? Exposure to new things as puppies. Insufficient socialization of puppies to various situations and new environments were a link with fearfulness related to novel situations, loud noises as well as different walking surfaces. The company of other dogs reduced the occurrence of non-social fear.

Data from 737,839 people with dementia find that 73.5 percent of them filled at least one prescription for an antidepressant, opioid painkiller, epilepsy drug, anxiety medication or antipsychotic drug in a one-year period. 

The percentages generally were even higher among women, non-Hispanic white patients, people in their late 60s and early 70s, and people with low incomes.

The problem; there is no evidence they work, they are not approved for off-label use in dementia, and some of the drugs have been linked to worse cognitive symptoms in old adults. 

Tennessee corn, soybean, cotton and wheat producers are estimated to have declines in income of $58.8 million, $21.4 million, $20.3 million and $1.2 million, respectively, for a total decline of $101.7 million - and that's just what is known right now.

Samples of breast milk collected by the Mommy's Milk Human Milk Research Biorepository from women infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) only showed one positive for viral RNA. However, subsequent tests found that the virus was unable to replicate, and thus unable to cause infection in the breastfed infant.

There have been no documented cases to-date of an infant contracting COVID-19 as a result of consuming infected breast milk but without studies it was hard to be sure, to this is good news for families with new babies.

A new epoxy material is a first-of-its-kind, 3-D printable, stimuli-responsive polymeric material that enable massive reconfigurability in future military platforms, according to a recent paper.

It will have embedded intelligence allowing it to autonomously adapt to its environment without any external control. It is a system of materials to simultaneously provide structure, sensing and response.

A new paper supports the traditional relationship of dromaeosaurid ('raptors') and troodontid theropods as the closest relatives of birds, but also supports the status of the controversial anchiornithine theropods as the earliest birds.

The authors say theirs is the most comprehensive study of feathered dinosaurs and early birds into the evolutionary relationships of dinosaurs at the origin of birds. They used an analytical pipeline to search for evolutionary trees, and estimated how each species may have crossed the stringent thresholds for powered flight.