390 articles from THURSDAY 14.1.2021
New study: Without right messaging, masks could lead to more COVID-19 spread
A novel study showed that people who wear face coverings tend to have more contacts with others, putting them at risk of contracting COVID-19. Masking directives should accompanied by forceful messaging stressing the importance of social distancing.
New suspicious lesions on breast MRI in neoadjuvant therapy
According to ARRS' American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), new suspicious findings occurred in 5.5% of breast MRI examinations performed to monitor response to neoadjuvant therapy; none of these new lesions were malignant.
New way to control electrical charge in 2D materials: Put a flake on it
Gaining control of the flow of electrical current through atomically thin materials is important to potential future applications in photovoltaics or computing. Physicists in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered one way to locally add electrical charge to a graphene device.
Not as simple as thought: How bacteria form membrane vesicles
Researchers from the University of Tsukuba identified a novel mechanism by which bacteria form membrane vesicles, which bacteria employ to communicate with each other or to defend themselves against antibiotics. By studying mycolic acid-containing bacteria (MCB), which also includes tuberculosis-causing bacteria, the researchers demonstrated that environmental stimuli dictate the route by which...
Overactive food quality control system triggers food allergies, Yale scientists say
In a paper published Jan. 14 in the journal Cell, four Yale immunobiologists propose an expanded explanation for the rise of food allergies -- the exaggerated activation of our food quality control system, a complex and highly evolved program designed to protect us against eating harmful foods.
Physical frailty syndrome: a cacophony of multisystem dysfunction
Aging experts synthesize converging evidence that the aging-related pathophysiology underpinning the clinical presentation of phenotypic frailty is a state of lower functioning due to severe dysregulation of the complex dynamics in our bodies that maintains health and resilience. When severity passes a threshold, the clinical syndrome and its phenotype are diagnosable. This paper summarizes...
Physical virology shows the dynamics of virus reproduction
The reproductive cycle of viruses requires self-assembly, maturation of virus particles and, after infection, the release of genetic material into a host cell. New physics-based technologies allow scientists to study the dynamics of this cycle and may eventually lead to new treatments.
Pillarene hybrid material shows enhanced tunable multicolor luminescence and sensing ability
Tunable luminescent materials are highly desirable owing to their broad application potential in various fields. Recently, a pillar[5]arene-based hybrid material with stimuli-responsive luminescent properties and ion sensing abilities has been elegantly constructed from a pyridine-modified conjugated pillar[5]arene and a planar chromophore oligo(phenylenevinylene) upon coordination of Cd (II)...
Population density and virus strains will affect how regions can resume normal life
As a new, apparently more transmissible version of the virus that causes COVID-19 has appeared in several countries, new research finds that the transmissibility of viral strains and the population density of a region will play big roles in how vaccination campaigns can help towns and cities return to more normal activities. The findings suggest that directing vaccines toward densely populated...
Posidonia marine seagrass can catch and remove plastics from the sea
Posidonia oceanica seagrass -an endemic marine phanerogam with an important ecological role in the marine environment- can take and remove plastic materials that have been left at the sea, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. The article's first author is the tenure-track 2 lecturer Anna SÃ nchez-Vidal, from the Research Group on Marine Geosciences of the Faculty of...
Presidential inaugurations boost tourism, but not this year
While new research from West Virginia University economists finds that presidential inaugurations have gained popularity as must-see tourist events in recent years, major security threats will keep visitors away for the inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden.
Progression of myopia in children after COVID-19 home confinement
Researchers investigated the association of home confinement during the COVID-19 outbreak with myopia (nearsightedness) development in school-age children in China.
Quantum computers to study the functioning of the molecules of life
A breakthrough that has implications for molecular biology, pharmacology and nanotechnologies. The fields of application are many. Identifying the mechanisms behind neurodegenerative processes in some proteins, for example, can help limit their proliferation. Understanding how a protein takes on a certain shape can open the way to use the nanomachines that nature has designed to cut, edit or block...
Rare lichen unique to Florida discovered in museum collections, may be extinct
Scientists have found a new species of fleshy verdigris lichen, thanks to DNA analysis of museum specimens. Misidentified by its original collectors, the lichen is only known from 32 specimens collected in North and Central Florida scrubland between 1885 and 1985. Now the hunt is on to find it in the wild -- if it still exists.
Research breaks new ground in understanding how a molecular motor generates force
A team of biophysicists set out to tackle the long-standing question about the nature of force generation by myosin, the molecular motor responsible for muscle contraction. The key question they addressed - one of the most controversial topics in the field - was: how does myosin convert chemical energy, in the form of ATP, into mechanical work? The answer revealed new details into how myosin, the...
Research reveals new insight into why breastfed babies have improved immune systems
Research has revealed new insight into the biological mechanisms of the long-term positive health effects of breastfeeding.
Researchers link cellular transport pathway to aggressive brain cancer
Researchers at McGill University have identified a new cellular pathway that limits the growth and spread of brain tumors by controlling the recycling of cell surface receptor proteins. The study, which will be published January 14 in the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), suggests that the pathway, which involves a protein called Rab35, is defective in many patients with glioblastoma and that...
Researchers rewind the clock to calculate age and site of supernova blast
Astronomers are winding back the clock on the expanding remains of a nearby, exploded star. By using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, they retraced the speedy shrapnel from the blast to calculate a more accurate estimate of the location and time of the stellar detonation.
Researchers show Irish soil can offer more hope in fight against antibiotic resistance
Scientists who highlighted the bug-busting properties of bacteria in Northern Irish soil have made another exciting discovery in the quest to discover new antibiotics.
Retinal cell transplant clears experimental hurdle toward treating blindness
Retinal cells derived from adult human eye stem cells survived when transplanted into the eyes of monkeys, an important early step in the validation of this approach for treating blindness, according to a study by Liu, et al recently published in Stem Cell Reports. The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a layer of pigmented cells in the retina, is essential for sustaining normal vision. Blindness...
Reverse engineering 3D chromosome models for individual cells
A new computational technique that uses heat map data to reverse engineer highly detailed models of chromosomes and researchers have uncovered new information about the close spatial relationships that chromatin folding creates between genes.
Scholars link diet, dentition, and linguistics
University of Miami anthropologist Caleb Everett and former student Sihan Chen used a novel data analysis of thousands of languages, in addition to studying a unique subset of celebrities, to reveal how a soft food diet--contrasted with the diet of hunter-gatherers--is restructuring dentition and changing how people speak. Their findings were published this week in Scientific Reports.
Scientists discover electric eels hunting in a group
Deep in the Brazilian Amazon River basin, scientists discovered a small, river-fed lake filled with more than 100 adult electric eels. Researchers witnessed the electric eels working together to herd small fish into tightly packed balls. Groups of up to 10 eels periodically split off to form cooperative hunting parties. Those smaller groups then surrounded the prey and launched simultaneous...
Scientists discover the secret of Galápagos' rich ecosystem
New research has unlocked the mystery of how the Galápagos Islands, a rocky, volcanic outcrop, with only modest rainfall and vegetation, is able to sustain its unique wildlife habitats.
Scientists take important step toward using retinal cell transplants to treat blindness
Latest discovery is promising step in use of cell therapy to treat retinal diseases