Culture
The United States generates seven million tons of sewage sludge annually, enough to fill 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. While a portion of this waste is repurposed for manure and other land applications, a substantial amount is still disposed of in landfills. In a new study, Texas A&M University researchers have uncovered an efficient way to use leftover sludge to make biodegradable plastics.
Oxidized organic aerosol is a major component of ambient particulate matter, substantially impacting climate, human health, and ecosystems. Oxidized aerosol from biomass burning is especially toxic, known to contain a large amount of species that are known carcinogens, mutagens. Inhaling biomass burning particles also cause oxidative stress and cause a wide range of diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, and asthma.
Parrotfishes are abundant herbivores that primarily graze upon algae, which may indirectly benefit corals by mitigating coral-algae competition. At a local scale, management efforts to increase populations of parrotfishes are believed to be critically important to maintaining resilient, coral-dominated reefs. Yet, some parrotfish species also occasionally graze coral - a behavior known as corallivory.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Meier-Gorlin syndrome, or MGS, is a rare genetic developmental disorder that causes dwarfism, small ears, a small brain, missing patella and other skeletal abnormalities. In severe cases, MGS results in miscarriages and stillbirths.
Igor Chesnokov, Ph.D., and his University of Alabama at Birmingham colleagues study this recessive, autosomal disorder in an unusual way -- by placing mutant human genes into fruit flies. Specifically, they look at one of the genes involved in MGS called Orc6.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--December 14, 2020--An important part of the brain's immune system, cells called microglia constantly extend and retract "branches" from their cell body to survey their environment. Think of an octopus, not moving its body, but reaching its tentacles in every direction. That's how microglia operate. In the span of an hour, each cell will have covered the entire three-dimensional space that surrounds it. And then, it will start all over again.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine published one of the most comprehensive analyses of how genes get expressed during infection (known as a transcriptome). The analyses include three different strains of the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae, which causes pneumonia, meningitis and middle-ear infections. It also includes analyses of the lungs and four other organs in an animal model where the bacteria resides, multiplies and takes hold in the body. Their findings were published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Unraveling the links among obesity, aging, telomere lengths and metabolic diseases is the subject of the study published today in Nature Metabolism by a collaborative research team at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
Below please find a summary and link(s) of new coronavirus-related content published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The summary below is not intended to substitute for the full article as a source of information. A collection of coronavirus-related content is free to the public at http://go.annals.org/coronavirus.
1. Accounting for recent population aging is critical for estimating non-COVID-19 excess deaths in the U.S.
Over 50 per cent of Asians living in the UK are severely deficient in vitamin D, leaving them more vulnerable to respiratory infections such as COVID-19 and musculoskeletal disorders, according to a large-scale population study published this week.
The journal Clinical Nutrition also reports that more than a third of Black Africans living in Britain have high levels of vitamin D deficiency, and lower socio-economic groups are more at risk.
A team of astronomers used the Keck I telescope to measure the distance to an ancient galaxy. They deduced the target galaxy GN-z11 is not only the oldest galaxy but also the most distant. It's so distant it defines the very boundary of the observable universe itself. The team hopes this study can shed light on a period of cosmological history when the universe was only a few hundred million years old.
An AI developed by Japanese researchers might soon help stroke survivors get the right treatment by detecting a patient's post-stroke depression (PSD) type, a frequently seen but often overlooked neuropsychiatric manifestation after a stroke that could impair functional recovery.
Thinking like Earthlings may have caused scientists to overlook the electrochemical effects of Martian dust storms.
On Earth, dust particles are viewed mainly in terms of their physical effects, like erosion. But, in exotic locales from Mars to Venus to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, electrical effects can affect the chemical composition of a planetary body's surface and atmosphere in a relatively short time, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.
PHILADELPHIA - Primary liver cancer is on the rise worldwide, largely due to an increase in hepatitis C infections and chronic liver disease. Liver cancer is also hard to treat - it kills 750,000 people a year worldwide, making it the second deadliest type of cancer behind lung cancer. Current treatments include a targeted radiation therapy delivered with the help of radiation-emitting glass beads.
That is the key finding in a new study published today in Environmental Research Letters by scientists from the Carnegie Institution for Science, USA and the University of Waterloo, Canada.
In a paper just published in the Journal for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (doi:10.1136/jitc-2020-001712), Dr Herbert, Head of Discovery at InsideOutBio, asks whether cancer cells stiff-arm immune cells just like rugby players push off defenders from the other team. He describes the nanoscale machinery used by tumors to fend off the immune system. The molecules involved are capable of flexing and extending as needed, just like a rugby player's arm.