312 articles from TUESDAY 22.9.2020

New drug candidate found for hand, foot and mouth disease

Duke researchers have identified a potential drug candidate against enterovirus 71, a common cause of hand, foot and mouth disease in infants and young children. The compound of interest is a small molecule that binds to RNA, the virus's genetic material, and changes its 3-D shape in a way that stops the virus from multiplying without harming its human host. It's an antiviral strategy that could...

New freshwater database tells water quality story for 12K lakes globally

Although less than one per cent of all water in the world is freshwater, it is what we drink and use for agriculture. In other words, it's vital to human survival. York University researchers have just created a publicly available water quality database for close to 12,000 freshwater lakes globally - almost half of the world's freshwater supply - that will help scientists monitor and manage the...

NIH study details self-reported experiences with post-exertional malaise in ME/CFS

One of the major symptoms of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is post-exertional malaise (PEM), the worsening of symptoms after physical or mental activities. Using their own words and experiences, people with ME/CFS described how debilitating PEM can be in a study in Frontiers in Neurology. This is the first publication to come out of the National Institutes of Health's...

NIST scientists get soft on 3D printing

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new method of 3D-printing gels and other soft materials. Published in a new paper, it has the potential to create complex structures with nanometer-scale precision.

Parylene photonics enable future optical biointerfaces

Carnegie Mellon University's Maysam Chamanzar and his team have invented an optical platform that will likely become the new standard in optical biointerfaces. He's labeled this new field of optical technology 'Parylene photonics,' demonstrated in a recent paper in Nature Microsystems and Nanoengineering.

Patients with COVID-19 may have higher risk of kidney injury

According to Jochen Reiser, MD, PhD, the Ralph C Brown MD professor and chairperson of Rush's Department of Internal Medicine, patients with COVID-19 experience elevated levels of soluble urokinase receptor (suPAR), an immune-derived pathogenic protein that is strongly predictive of kidney injury.

Perspective on employment rates after spinal cord injury - 30 years after the ADA

Thirty years after the passage of the ADA, planning for return to work is often a low priority during rehabilitation for spinal cord injury, The authors emphasize that vocational rehabilitation services, when delivered soon after injury and integrated into the medical rehabilitation plan, contribute to better employment outcomes. "Implementing evidence-based practices during rehabilitation is an...

Photoacoustic microscopy for identifying sentinel lymph nodes of breast cancer

Tumor metastatic sentinel lymph nodes is difficult to distinguish from normal or inflamed lymph nodes (Inf-LN). Researchers designed a dual-targeting nanoparticle 5K-HA-HPPS for fluorescent/photoacoustic imaging of sentinel LN. Photoacoustic imaging showed a distinct spatial distribution of 5K-HA-HPPS among different LN statuses, which the signals were mainly distributed at the centre of T-MLN but...

Reading in company boosts creativity

Language has evolved as a consequence of social interaction; however, most research is conducted with participants in isolation. What happens in our brain when we read in the company of others? Is it the same as reading alone? Researchers at the Complutense University of Madrid and the Carlos III Health Institute have found that company is conducive to a more creative and integrated understanding...

Researchers find new way to protect plants from fungal infection

Widespread fungal disease in plants can be controlled with a commercially available chemical that has been primarily used in medicine until now. This discovery was made by scientists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the University of the State of Paraná in Brazil. In a comprehensive experiment the team has uncovered a new metabolic pathway that can be disrupted with this...

Silk offers homemade solution for COVID-19 prevention

A University of Cincinnati biology study found that silk fabric performs similarly to surgical masks when used in conjunction with respirators but has the added advantages of being washable and repelling water, which would translate to helping to keep a person safer from the airborne virus.

Single photon emission from isolated monolayer islands of InGaN

Single photon emitters are essential devices for the realization of future optical quantum technologies including optical quantum computing and quantum key distribution. Towards this goal, Scientists in China and Japan identified and characterized a novel type of quantum emitter formed from spatially separated monolayer islands of InGaN sandwiched in a GaN matrix. This new structure could open new...

Small increase in risk of autism seen for pre- and post-term births

A study of more than 3.5 million Nordic children suggests that the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may increase slightly for each week a child is born before or after 40 weeks of gestation. Martina Persson of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine.