There have been several issues concerning the water quality in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in the past few years. This study, we collected 28 samples from 6 districts of Ulaanbaatar to check if the water supply quality met the standards of the World Health Organization, the Environmental Protection Agency, and a Mongolian National Standard. Only three samples fully met all the requirements of the global standards. Samples in Zaisan showed higher hardness (>120 ppm) and alkalinity levels (20–200 ppm) over the other districts in the city. Overall, the results show that it is important to ensure a safe and accessible water supply in Ulaanbaatar to prevent future water quality issues.

The authors develop a new method for training machine learning algorithms to differentiate between hate speech and cultural speech in online platforms.

Here, the authors sought to better understand how and why people experience beauty in music. They explored this fundamental aesthetic response by considering numerous emotional responses of participants to diverse musical excerpts using a 42-item Aesthetic Emotions Scale assessment. They found that the highly nuanced emotional experience of beauty in music includes positive, negative, and knowledge-related feelings.

In this study, the authors share their work on improving the frame rate of videos to reduce data sent to users with both 2D and 3D footage. This work helps improve the experience for both types of footage!

In this study, the authors look into some of the implications of rising carbon dioxide levels by studying the effects of acidic pH on the ability of T. pyriformis to feed by quantifying phagosome formation and motility.

Complications of robotic-assisted surgery are on the rise, partly due to surgeons not receiving proper training. Al-Akash and Al-Akash hypothesized Nintendo JoyCon controls would improve surgical performance compared to the FDA-approved Da Vinci Surgical System with two user groups (doctor and gamer). Their results show that implementing a Nintendo JoyCon control system is associated with improved surgical performance and learning rate compared to the Da Vinci Surgical System.

Most people put little thought into the type of plastic wrap they use to store their leftovers. This study investigates the differences between biodegradable plastic wrap and non-biodegradable plastic wrap in their ability to prevent food spoilage. Does one work better than the other? Read more to find out!

The authors test the antiproliferative and apoptosis-inducing properties of an extract created from a traditional Indian medicinal plant of the Amaranthus genus.

In this study, the authors investigated the biological mechanism underlying the actions of a traditional medicinal plant, Astragalus membranaceus. Using C. elegans as an experimental model, they tested the effects of AM root on heat stress responses. Their results suggest that AM root extract may enhance the activity of endogenous pathways that mediate cellular responses to heat stress.

In this article, Choi and Rossitto investigated the limitations of virtual learning by examining in-person dance learning compared to virtual dance learning while wearing EEG headsets. They found that in-person learners outperformed virtual learners and that virtual learners had higher mirror neuron activity as assessed by Mu rhythm power.