221 articles from MONDAY 15.2.2021
Improved use of databases could save billions of euro in health care costs
Years of suffering and billions of euro in global health care costs, arising from osteoporosis-related bone fractures, could be eliminated using big data to target vulnerable patients, according to researchers at Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software.
Improving discharge process key to reducing avoidable rehospitalizations, MU study finds
Throughout her career, Lori Popejoy provided hands-on clinical care in a variety of health care settings, from hospitals and nursing homes to community centers and home health care agencies.
In predicting shallow but dangerous landslides, size matters
Scientific understanding of landslides has improved immensely in the last few decades, but models that predict which areas could slide during specific storm events overpredict, forcing government agencies to evacuate unnecessarily large areas. UC Berkeley geoscientists have created improved models that more narrowly pinpoint the most hazardous areas, but they've run up against a wall: they need...
Insight about tumor microenvironment could boost cancer immunotherapy
A paper published today in Nature shows how chemicals in the areas surrounding tumors - known as the tumor microenvironment - subvert the immune system and enable cancer to evade attack. These findings suggest that an existing drug could boost cancer immunotherapy.
Integrating maths and plant science to explain how plant roots generate a hormone gradient
The research team that developed a biosensor that first recorded that a distinct gradient of the plant growth hormone gibberellin correlated with plant cell size has now revealed how this distribution pattern is created in roots.
International study reveals exceptional property of next generation optical fibers
Researchers from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) and Universite Laval, Canada, have successfully measured for the first time back-reflection in cutting-edge hollow-core fibres that is around 10,000 times lower than conventional optical fibres.
Invasive flies prefer untouched territory when laying eggs
A recent study finds that the invasive spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) prefers to lay its eggs in places that no other spotted wing flies have visited. The finding raises questions about how the flies can tell whether a piece of fruit is virgin territory - and what that might mean for pest control.
Kagome graphene promises exciting properties
For the first time, physicists from the University of Basel have produced a graphene compound consisting of carbon atoms and a small number of nitrogen atoms in a regular grid of hexagons and triangles. This honeycomb-structured "kagome lattice" behaves as a semiconductor and may also have unusual electrical properties. In the future, it could potentially be used in electronic sensors or quantum...
Large-scale study finds genetic testing technology falsely detects very rare variants
A technology that is widely used by commercial genetic testing companies is 'extremely unreliable' in detecting very rare variants, meaning results suggesting individuals carry rare disease-causing genetic variants are usually wrong, according to new research published in the BMJ.
Let the immune cell see the virus: Scientists discover unique way to target common virus
Scientists at Cardiff University have discovered a unique way to target a common virus that affects one in 200 newborn babies in the UK but for which there is only limited treatments available.
Light used to detect quantum information stored in 100,000 nuclear quantum bits
Researchers have found a way to use light and a single electron to communicate with a cloud of quantum bits and sense their behaviour, making it possible to detect a single quantum bit in a dense cloud.
Lower testosterone during puberty increases the brain's sensitivity to it in adulthood
Young men with lower testosterone levels throughout puberty become more sensitive to how the hormone influences the brain's responses to faces in adulthood, according to new research published in JNeurosci.
Luminescent windows generate energy from inside and out
Rice University engineers design and build windowpanes that redirect sunlight or illumination from indoors to edge-band solar cells.
Managing crab and lobster catches could offer long-term benefits
A study by the University of Plymouth (UK) has found that managing the density of crab and lobster pots at an optimum level increases the quality of catch, benefits the marine environment and makes the industry more sustainable in the long term.
Membrane building blocks play decisive role in controlling cell growth
Lipids are the building blocks of a cell's envelope - the cell membrane. In addition to their structural function, some lipids also play a regulatory role and decisively influence cell growth. This has been investigated in a new study by scientists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). The impact of the lipids depends on how they are distributed over the plasma membrane. The study...
Method for temporal monitoring of microplastic sedimentation
Researchers in Finland have tested the sediment trap method to analyse the annual accumulation rates of microplastics in a body of water, and possible seasonal variation therein. The most important advantage of the method is that it can be used to determine the time it takes from microplastics to enter and accumulate in bodies of water.
Mid-life cardiovascular disease prevention may protect against later dementia
Employing cardiovascular disease prevention strategies in mid-life may delay or stop the brain alterations that can lead to dementia later in life, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Moffitt uses mathematical modeling to identify factors that determine adaptive therapy success
In a new article featured on this month's cover of Cancer Research, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers, in collaboration with Oxford University, report results from their study using mathematical modeling to show that cell turnover impacts drug resistance and is an important factor that governs the success of adaptive therapy.
Moiré patterns facilitate discovery of novel insulating phases
Materials having excess electrons are typically conductors. However, moiré patterns -- interference patterns that typically arise when one object with a repetitive pattern is placed over another with a similar pattern -- can suppress electrical conductivity, a study led by physicists at the University of California, Riverside, has found.
Neanderthals and Homo sapiens used identical Nubian technology
New analysis of a fossil tooth and stone tools from Shukbah Cave reveals Neanderthals used stone tool technologies thought to have been unique to modern humans
New discovery may enable accurate prediction of cancer spread before cancer develops
Researchers from Erler Group at the Biotech Research & Innovation Centre (BRIC) in Copenhagen have discovered that the rigidity of a thin membrane structure encompassing cells and lining all vessels regulates how easily cancer cells can breach tissues to spread through the body, and is thus a key determinant of cancer patient survival. The results are published in Nature Materials today.
New hope for treating chronic pain without opioids
According to some estimates, chronic pain affects up to 40% of Americans, and treating it frustrates both clinicians and patients--a frustration that's often compounded by a hesitation to prescribe opioids for pain.
New immunotherapy target discovered for malignant brain tumors
Scientists say they have discovered a potential new target for immunotherapy of malignant brain tumors, which so far have resisted the ground-breaking cancer treatment based on harnessing the body's immune system. The discovery, reported in the journal CELL, emerged from laboratory experiments and has no immediate implications for treating patients.
New insight into antibody-induced protective immunity to COVID-19
Researchers at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard and the Brigham and Women's Hospital collaborate with SpaceX to identify humoral immune features which may track with lasting protection against SARS-CoV-2.
New microscopy analysis allows discovery of central adhesion complex
Researchers at University of Münster and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry have developed a method for determining the arrangement and density of individual proteins in cells. In this way, they were able to prove the existence of an adhesion complex consisting of three proteins.