Brain
HOUSTON - (June 2, 2020) - Boron nitride nanotubes are anything but boring, according to Rice University scientists who have found a way to watch how they move in liquids.
The researchers' method to study the real-time dynamics of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) allowed them to confirm, for the first time, that Brownian motion of BNNTs in solution matches predictions and that, like carbon nanotubes of comparable sizes, they remain rigid.
Scientists at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI), and Owerko Centre at UCalgary's Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) have made a breakthrough discovery that could lead to treatment of Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the leading genetic cause of Autism Spectrum Disorder. The study, involving mouse models, shows promise of translating to treatment for people diagnosed with FXS.
In 2015, Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich coauthored a study declaring the world's sixth mass extinction was underway. Five years later, Ehrlich and colleagues at other institutions have a grim update: the extinction rate is likely much higher than previously thought and is eroding nature's ability to provide vital services to people. (Watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vES3YlXcrrc&feature=youtu.be)
There is a world of life on the backs of loggerhead sea turtles, and it's more abundant and diverse than scientists knew.
An international team led by Florida State University researchers found that more than double the number of organisms than previously observed live on the shells of these oceanic reptiles, raising important questions about loggerhead sea turtle ecology and conservation.
The study was published in the journal Diversity.
Boston, MA - JUUL and similar pod-based e-cigarettes have been popular with teenagers and young adults since they came on the market in 2015, but little has been known about their health effects. A new systematic review led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that while the products may contain lower levels of harmful ingredients than conventional cigarettes, there is no evidence that even these lower levels are safe for youth.
In high-pressure experiments, scientists have discovered new forms of the common mineral feldspar. At moderate temperatures, these hitherto unknown variants are stable at pressures of Earth's upper mantle, where common feldspar normally cannot exist. The discovery could change the view at cold subducting plates and the interpretation of seismologic signatures, as the team around DESY scientist Anna Pakhomova and Leonid Dubrovinsky from Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Bayreuth report in the journal Nature Communications.
One of the earth's biggest allies in the fight against global warming is the world's oceans. Since the industrial revolution, the burning of fossil fuels has caused carbon dioxide, the dominant greenhouse gas, to be released into the atmosphere. Approximately 25% of that carbon dioxide is taken each year from the atmosphere by the world's oceans -- without which, the earth's atmosphere would have a higher greenhouse gas concentration and temperature.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- According to a well-studied but controversial principle known as Bergmann's Rule, species tend to be larger in cold climates and smaller in warm ones. As human impacts heat the planet, will animals shrink over time?
To test this, a new study, published today in Scientific Reports, analyzed 70 years of records of the North American deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, arguably the most common and best-documented mammal in the U.S.
A key atomic building block for all living organisms and one of the most abundant elements in the galaxy, nitrogen is an essential part of our ecosystem. But for our ecosystem to function, nitrogen-based compounds must cycle through air, water, and soil in a delicate balance among the other organic chemical drivers of life.
In the periodic table of elements there is one golden rule for carbon, oxygen, and other light elements. Under high pressures they have similar structures to heavier elements in the same group of elements. Only nitrogen always seemed unwilling to toe the line. However, high-pressure researchers of the University of Bayreuth have actually disproved this special status. Out of nitrogen, they have created a crystalline structure which under normal conditions occurs in black phosphorus and arsenic.
An immunotherapy drug called 'avelumab' has been shown to significantly improve survival in patients with the most common type of bladder cancer, according to results from a phase III clinical trial led by Professor Tom Powles from Queen Mary University of London and Barts Cancer Centre, UK.
This is the first time an immune therapy has resulted in a survival advantage in this setting in bladder cancer, and will potentially benefit thousands of patients each year.
Different human tumor types each harbor their own unique bacterial communities, researchers report in a new study that profiled the microbiomes of more than 1,500 individual tumors across seven types of human cancer - the most comprehensive tumor microbiome study to date. It has long been known that bacteria are present in tumors that originate from tissues routinely exposed to microbes (e.g., the gastrointestinal tract) but whether they are present in tumors arising from "sterile" tissues has been less clear.
What The Study Did: Patients with COVID-19 who were discharged from the hospital and had recurrent positive reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results were the focus of this case series.
Authors: Zhixia Jiang, M.S., of the Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University in Zunyi, China, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.10475)
Opioids regulate the feelings of pleasure and pain in the brain. A study by the national Turku PET Centre in Finland shows that age, sex and smoking influence μ-opioid receptor density in the brain. The results of the study help to better understand the differences between individuals when it comes to neuropsychiatric disorders.
Dysfunctions of the brain's opioid system are associated with several disorders, such as addiction, and chronic pain problems.
(Philadelphia, PA) - The main thoroughfare that carries oxygen-rich blood from the heart to the abdomen is known as the abdominal aorta. Strong and thick-walled, this main highway is built to withstand a lifetime of use. But just like expressways traveled by cars and trucks, too much force on its surfaces and exposure to certain environmental factors can cause the vessel to wear and weaken over time - weakening that can lead to abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), a bulge in the aorta wall that has a high risk of rupturing.