Culture
PRINCETON, N.J.--The rise of populist movements is changing political systems around the world. As support for these "anti-elite" movements intensifies, many are scrambling to understand whether economic decline and intensifying inter-group conflict are playing a role.
A model developed by a team of researchers -- including Nolan McCarty of Princeton University -- shows how group polarization, rising inequality, and economic decline may be strongly connected.
The number of obstetrician-gynecologists who are able to prescribe a lifesaving opioid addiction medicine called buprenorphine to their patients is woefully small, comprising less than two percent of the 31,000-plus doctors studied across the country, according to new analysis. This is especially concerning as the proportion of those expecting to give birth who are using prescription opioids has increased exponentially in the last several decades. The researchers' findings were published today in JAMA Network Open.
An international study led by researchers from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Complutense University of Madrid has identified a series of biosynthetic genes involved in the production of usnic acid in lichen, a compound showing antiviral, antioxidant, neuroprotective, antibacterial and anticancer activity.
Depression is a mental disorder that affects more than 264 million people of all ages worldwide. Understanding its mechanisms is vital for the development of effective therapeutic strategies. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, Inserm and the CNRS recently conducted a study showing that an imbalance in the gut bacterial community can cause a reduction in some metabolites, resulting in depressive-like behaviors. These findings, which show that a healthy gut microbiota contributes to normal brain function, were published in Nature Communications on December 11, 2020.
Researchers at Drexel University's College of Engineering have reported that fabric coated with a conductive, two-dimensional material called MXene, is highly effective at blocking electromagnetic waves and potentially harmful radiation. The discovery is a key development for efforts to weave technological capabilities into clothing and accessories.
Sebastian Lobentanzer of Goethe University, Frankfurt, has been studying small RNA dynamics in various contexts using bioinformatic methods. Recently, small RNAs have become more and more interesting for researchers, primarily because of their extensive regulatory functions. To examine these functions in stroke, Lobentanzer joined Katarzyna Winek of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, to study microRNAs and tRNA fragments in blood samples from ischemic stroke patients collected at Charité, Berlin.
Bacteria are always hungry, according to Thomas Wood, Biotechnology Endowed Chair and professor of chemical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering. If you gave a single bacterium all the food it wanted, it would obtain the mass of the Earth in about two days.
A muscle fiber consists of just one cell, but many nuclei. A team at the MDC led by Professor Carmen Birchmeier has now shown just how varied these nuclei are. The study, which has been published in Nature Communications, can help us better understand muscle diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, a lot of things will go back to normal. We'll stop wearing masks. We'll crowd into restaurants. We'll walk whatever direction we want to down grocery store aisles. But some changes that the pandemic spurred might be here to stay. Among them: the expansion of telepsychiatry.
"This will be part of the new normal," said James Berry, a clinician with the West Virginia University School of Medicine. "The genie is now out of the bottle, and it isn't going back in."
Combining neuroscience and robotic research has gained impressive results in the rehabilitation of paraplegic patients. A research team led by Prof. Gordon Cheng from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) was able to show that exoskeleton training not only helped patients to walk, but also stimulated their healing process. With these findings in mind, Prof. Cheng wants to take the fusion of robotics and neuroscience to the next level.
A team of McGill University researchers has found that young adults who perceived higher levels of social support reported fewer mental health problems.
"The biohybrid retina is a cell therapy for the reconstruction of the damaged retina by implanting healthy cells in the patient's eye," says Fivos Panetsos, director of the Neuro-computation and Neuro-robotics Group of the UCM and member of the Institute of Health Research of the Hospital Clínico San Carlos de Madrid (IdISSC).
Once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, a lot of things will go back to normal. We’ll stop wearing masks. We’ll crowd into restaurants. We’ll walk whatever direction we want to down grocery store aisles. But some changes that the pandemic spurred might be here to stay. Among them: the expansion of telepsychiatry.
URBANA, Ill. - Scientists are getting closer to finding the genes for maleness in waterhemp and Palmer amaranth, two of the most troublesome agricultural weeds in the U.S.
Finding the genes could enable new "genetic control" methods for the weeds, which, in many places, no longer respond to herbicides.
Already possessing more salamander species than any other state in the country with 63, North Carolina has just added one more to make it 64. The aptly named Carolina Sandhills Salamander (Eurycea arenicola) is found in association with springs, seepages and small blackwater streams of the Sandhills region of North Carolina.