291 articles from WEDNESDAY 1.7.2020

Children's National Hospital quality initiative changes culture of antibiotic prescribing in NICU

A quality improvement initiative in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Children's National Hospital led to a significant reduction in treatment with intravenous vancomycin, an antibiotic used for resistant gram positive infections, which is often associated with acute kidney injury. The findings, published in the journal Pediatrics, show the initiative reduceed vancomycin use in patients...

CityU's CRISPR-assisted novel method detects RNA-binding proteins in living cells

A research led by biomedical scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has developed a novel detection method, called CARPID, to identify binding proteins of specific RNAs in the living cells. It is expected the innovation can be applied in various cell researches, from identifying biomarkers of cancer diagnosis to detecting potential drug targets for treating viral diseases.

Consumption of products derived from vulnerable wildlife species pervasive in Laos

A new study of wildlife consumption in northern Laos by San Diego Zoo Global researchers found widespread use of products made from sun bears, Asiatic bears and serows--goat-like mammals found throughout Asia--among other vulnerable species. The findings indicate that efforts are needed to reduce the unsustainable harvest of bears and serows, in particular, 'before this demand becomes a...

Controlled human infection models and SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development

Infecting volunteers with COVID-19 may provide valuable insights for future rounds of vaccine testing, but would require very strict controls and is unlikely to advance the current slate of vaccines in advanced development, argues a group of infectious disease experts. Though model development would be laborious, it could ultimately be advantageous, allowing researchers to answer a broader range...

Coordinating complex behaviors between hundreds of robots

Researchers from Duke University propose a new approach to finding an optimal solution for controlling large numbers of robots collaboratively completing a set of complex linear temporal logic commands called STyLuS*, for large-Scale optimal Temporal Logic Synthesis, that can solve problems massively larger than what current algorithms can handle, with hundreds of robots, tens of thousands of...

Crystal wars

Scientists at The University of Tokyo and Fudan University researched the process of crystallization in which competing structural forms coexist. By compensating for fluctuations, they were able to more accurately describe the process that determines the final crystalline form. This work may help industrial chemists design new methods.

Elucidating how asymmetry confers chemical properties

New research by Carnegie's Olivier Gagné and collaborator Frank Hawthorne of the University of Manitoba categorizes the causes of structural asymmetry, some surprising, which underpin useful properties of crystals, including ferroelectricity, photoluminescence, and photovoltaic ability.

Energy-saving servers: Data storage 2.0

A research team of Mainz University has developed a technique that will potentially halve the energy required to write data to servers and make it easier to construct complex server architectures.

FAST detects neutral hydrogen emission from extragalactic galaxies for the first time

Recently, an international research team led by Dr. CHENG Cheng from Chinese Academy of Sciences South America Center for Astronomy (CASSACA) observed four extragalactic galaxies by using the FAST 19-beam receiver, and detected the neutral hydrogen line emission from three targets with only five minutes of exposure each. This is the first publication for FAST to detect extragalactic neutral...

Feeds of the future

Worldwide there is growing demand for animal products for human nutrition, despite the popularity of plant-based diets. This means more feed is needed for animals. Future feedstuffs will need to be produced without exacerbating deforestation. Insects and microalgae are up-and-coming sectors to meet protein demands for humans and animals. Therefore, researchers at Göttingen University...

First exposed planetary core discovered

Researchers led by the University of Warwick have discovered the first exposed core of an exoplanet, which provides an unprecedented glimpse inside the interior of a planet. Christoph Mordasini from the University of Bern is leading the theoretical interpretation of this discovery.

Giant leap in diagnosing liver disease

A collaborative team of Salk Institute and UC San Diego scientists have created a novel microbiome-based diagnostic tool that, with the accuracy of the best physicians, quickly and inexpensively identifies liver fibrosis and cirrhosis over 90 percent of the time in human patients. The non-invasive method relies on an algorithm to analyze patient stool samples--which contains traces of what lives...