36 articles from SATURDAY 1.5.2021

Extra testing to start in east London after overseas Covid variants detected

Officials say cases of South African and Brazilian variants picked up in Tower HamletsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageSurge testing will begin in parts of east London after several cases of the South African and Brazilian variants of coronavirus were detected, according to the Department of Health.NHS test and trace will be working with the council in Tower Hamlets to...

Mend your clothes and do yourself some good

Care and repair is an invaluable mantra for your wardrobe, your mental health, your wallet and the planetIn today’s society, many of us go through our whole lives without ever working with our hands; we live, we work, we eat, we buy, we repeat. Everything is made and delivered at a blistering rate, from fast food to fast fashion and, although this may keep the economy buoyant, it’s not...

What India needs to get through its covid crisis

In a cruel irony, India, the world’s vaccine manufacturing powerhouse, is now crippled by a virus for which multiple safe and effective vaccines have been developed in record time. Official reports of more than 380,000 new cases and 3,400 deaths daily, while staggering, likely underestimate the actual toll. As health systems across India buckle under the pressure of a second wave of covid-19...

Dare we hope? Here’s my cautious case for climate optimism | Rebecca Solnit

The Green New Deal, formerly seen as radical, is now in mainstream debate. And renewable energy becomes more efficient every dayThat we are living in science fiction was brought home to me last week when I put down Kim Stanley Robinson’s superb climate-futures novel The Ministry for the Future and picked up Bill McKibben’s New Yorker letter on climate, warning of the melting of the Thwaites...

England urged to be patient amid reports hugging may soon be allowed

Vaccine rollout and reduction in cases means family and friends reportedly could be allowed to hug in a fortnight Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coveragePeople are being urged to remain patient before the next relaxation of lockdown restrictions as there is still a possibility for coronavirus cases to “reignite”, amid reports that family and friends in England could be...

Three ways to improve scholarly writing to get more citations

Researchers from University of Arizona and University of Utah published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines why most scholarly research is misinterpreted by the public or never escapes the ivory tower and suggests that such research gets lost in abstract, technical, and passive prose.

So you’ve had your Covid jab. What can you safely do now?

Those who are vaccinated still need to take precautions. Experts advise on the social etiquetteCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMore than 33 million people in the UK have now received a first coronavirus vaccine dose, while a quarter of adults – just over 13.2 million people – have had both doses. As more people around the world join this exclusive “fully...

A glimmer of hope: New weapon in the fight against liver diseases

The information presented in this study is primarily positioned to benefit scientists and experts in regenerative medicine where new tools strategies to treat liver diseases are required. The evidence presented in this manuscript illustrates exploiting small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) derived from interferon-γ (IFN-γ) pre-conditioned MSCs (γ-sEVs) can be a foundational...

Study finds up to 24 percent of esophagectomy patients can develop VTE post-operatively

A new study presented today at the AATS 101st Annual Meeting, found that the percentage of patients undergoing esophagectomy for cancer who suffer Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) post-operatively is much higher than previously reported, with as many as 24 percent suffering from Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) or Pulmonary Embolism (PE). Six-month mortality for patients with VTE was 17.6 percent compared...

The neural mechanism of autonomous learning uncovered by researchers at IBEC

An international team led by SPECS Lab at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) reveals how the brain improves through self-supervised learning. Researchers also propose a novel brain-based solution to solve a fundamental challenge in artificial intelligence: how machines could learn without direct supervision. In their opinion article, scientists provide evidence for their...