402 articles from THURSDAY 19.11.2020

Potential new target to combat inflammatory diseases

An international team of researchers have uncovered a drug-like compound that blocks a crucial inflammatory pathway, potentially paving the way for a new treatment for a host of diseases - including COVID-19.WEHI's Associate Professor Seth Masters and his research team discovered the compound could prevent up-regulation of CD14, a key inflammatory protein. The discovery was recently published in...

Predicting forces between oddly shaped nanoparticles

Materials scientists at Duke University have devised a simplified method for calculating the forces that cause nanoparticles to self-assemble. With this new model and graphical user interface, researchers will be able to make previously impossible predictions about how nanoparticles with a wide variety of shapes will interact with one another. The new method offers opportunities for rationally...

Researchers create first map of bee species around the globe

There are over 20,000 species of bee, but accurate data about how these species are spread across the globe are sparse. However, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on November 19 have created a map of bee diversity by combining the most complete global checklist of known bee species with the almost 6 million additional public records of where individual species have appeared...

Researchers peer inside deadly pathogen's burglary kit

The bacterium that causes the tick-borne disease tularemia is a lean, mean infecting machine. It carries a relatively small genome, and a unique set of infectious tools, including a collection of chromosomal genes called 'the pathogenicity island.' Structural insights from Cryo-EM microscopy, appearing Nov. 19 in Molecular Cell, point to a way in which the bacterium's unique infectious machinery...

Researchers prove water has multiple liquid states

When water reaches approximately -63 degrees centigrade it can separate into two liquid states, with one liquid being 20% more dense than the other. This is a fundamental finding that explains many of the anomalous properties of water at low temperatures. The finding has potential implications in low-temperature chemical and biochemical processes in aqueous environments.

RIT students discover hidden 15th-century text on medieval manuscripts

Rochester Institute of Technology students discovered lost text on 15th-century manuscript leaves using an imaging system they developed as freshmen. By using ultraviolet-fluorescence imaging, the students revealed that a manuscript leaf held in RIT's Cary Graphic Arts Collection was actually a palimpsest, a manuscript on parchment with multiple layers of writing.

Scientists age quantum dots in a test tube

Researchers from MIPT and the RAS Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics have proposed a simple and convenient way to obtain arbitrarily sized quantum dots required for physical experiments via chemical aging.

Showing robots how to drive a car...in just a few easy lessons

USC researchers have designed a system that lets robots autonomously learn complicated tasks from a very small number of demonstrations--even imperfect ones.While current state-of-art methods need at least 100 demonstrations to nail a specific task, this new method allows robots to learn from only a handful of demonstrations.

Simple measurement could transform injury rehabilitation

Researchers from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia have found a simple way to analyse the effectiveness of exercise training that could one day be conducted easily at a local gym or physio.Using vertical jumps as a test activity, the researchers could predict detailed information regarding technique and muscle activation patterns just through a relatively simple analysis of forces...

Social isolation during COVID-19 pandemic linked with high blood pressure

Lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with an increase in high blood pressure among patients admitted to emergency. That's the finding of a study presented at the 46th Argentine Congress of Cardiology (SAC). SAC 2020 is a virtual meeting during 19 to 21 November. Faculty from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) will participate in joint scientific sessions with the Argentine...

Stem cell transplantation: undesirable rejection mechanism identified

In the treatment of leukaemia, stem cell transplantation subsequent to chemotherapy and radiation can often engender severe adverse inflammatory reactions - especially in the skin or in the gut, since these so-called barrier organs are more frequently affected. Up until now, the reason for this was unclear. A team of researchers in Vienna has now identified an immune mechanism that is partially...

Study of 'exceptional responders' yields clues to cancer and potential treatments

In a comprehensive analysis of patients with cancer who had exceptional responses to therapy, researchers have identified molecular changes in the patients' tumors that may explain some of the exceptional responses. The results demonstrate that genomic characterizations of cancer can uncover genetic alterations that may contribute to unexpected and long-lasting responses to treatment, according to...

Study of hope and optimism: New paper examines research in emerging fields

A new paper published by the John Templeton Foundation explores the latest scientific and philosophical research on the related but distinct virtues of hope and optimism. The 45-page white paper, written by Michael Milona, a philosophy professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, examines findings on the benefits and risks involved in both hope and optimism. It examines projects by more...

Synthesis study demonstrates phytoplankton can bloom below Arctic sea ice

Researchers used historical scientific studies, along with contemporary observations employing autonomous floats and robotic vehicles, to demonstrate that phytoplankton blooms occur under Arctic Ocean sea ice. Previously, scientists had assumed that was impossible due to low-light conditions, particularly when ice cover was thicker before climate change. The synthesis of more than half a century...

Taking out the trash is essential for brain health

Researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have identified a protein called Wipi3 that is essential for cellular waste disposal via the alternative autophagy system. Deletion of Wipi3 in the brains of mice causes growth and motor defects attributed to neuronal accumulation of iron, resulting in neurodegeneration. However, over-expression of another alternative autophagy protein,...

The challenges of treating acute myocardial infarction due to variant angina

In a new publication from Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications; DOI https://doi.org/10.15212/CVIA.2019.1262, Wen-Yuan Ding, Jia-Min Li, Fei Zheng, Li-Li Wang, Xin-Yi Wei and Guo-Hua Li from Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Ji'nan, China, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ji'nan, China and Shandong First Medical University, Tai'an, China...