Culture
Waste gases of many branches of industry contain mainly carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Nowadays, these gases are simply blown into our atmosphere, but this may soon change. The idea is to use the power of bacteria to turn toxic waste gases into valuable compounds such as acetate or ethanol. These can be used afterwards as biofuels or basic compounds for synthetic materials.
Fifty protein fragments known as peptides associated with liver fibrosis were found in the urine of patients, according to collaborative study between University of Warwick, Mosaiques Diagnostics, Hannover Medical School and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire
The identified peptides could be potentially used in a test to spot people with the condition if further validated
Liver fibrosis is often symptomless in early stages and can progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer
A new species of tiny cave snail that glistens in the light and has a muffin-top-like bulge, was discovered by Marina Ferrand of the French Club Etude et Exploration des Gouffres et Carrie?res (EEGC), during the Phouhin Namno caving expedition in Tham Houey Yè cave in Laos in March 2019. The new species, Laoennea renouardi, is 1.80 mm tall and is named after the French caver, Louis Renouard, who explored and mapped the only two caves in Laos known to harbor this group of tiny snails.
For more than 40 years, Stanislav Filatov, Professor at St Petersburg University, together with colleagues from other research institutions in Russia, has been studying the mineralogy of scoria cones and lava flows of fumaroles in Kamchatka. They were formed after two major eruptions of Tolbachik Volcano - in 1975-1976 and 2012-2013. This territory is unique in its mineralogical diversity. In recent years, researchers have discovered dozens of new minerals here, many of which are one-of-a-kind in the world.
Under the leadership of Professor Lars Allan Larsen and Professor Søren Tvorup Christensen at University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark, an international research team has taken an important step forward in understanding the complex mechanisms that control development of the so-called cerebral cortex, which is the part of the brain that play a key role in attention, perception, awareness, thought, memory, language, and consciousness. The results have just been published in the internationally recognized journal Nature Communications.
Researchers at the University of Sussex have found widespread contamination of English rivers with two neurotoxic pesticides commonly used in veterinary flea products: fipronil and the neonicotinoid imidacloprid. The concentrations found often far exceeded accepted safe limits.
New research into how a common parasite infection alters human behaviour could help development of treatments for schizophrenia and other neurological disorders.
Scientists say behaviour changes in those infected with T. gondii, which currently infects 2.5 billion people worldwide and causes the disease Toxoplasmosis, could be linked to lowered amounts of norepinephrine, a chemical released in the brain as part of the stress response. Norephinephrine also controls neuroinflammation, the activation of the brain's immune system against infection.
A new study led by researchers at Queen Mary University of London uses a novel approach to investigate the effects of cardiovascular risk factors on the risk of COVID-19 infection.
Several observational studies have reported the link between cardiovascular risk factors (such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol) and COVID-19 severity. However, these studies could not ascertain the cause and effect relationship due to the observational design.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common dementia worldwide and it is characterized by learning impairment, memory loss, disorientation, and anxiety, among other behavioral and psychological symptoms. Since Alois Alzheimer described the first case at the beginning of the 20th century, important advances have been achieved in terms of understanding physiopathology, but, unfortunately, an effective treatment has not been developed yet.
Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps the patient's immunological system to combat it and has a hugely positive impact in cancer treatments, even though it does not work in all cases: it is highly successful in some patients whereas in others it has little or no effect. Given the risks inherent in these procedures, a growing need has emerged to specify which patients are more likely to benefit from them, thus avoiding unnecessary exposure of those who will not benefit.
In their paper published in Frontiers of Physics, Franco Vazza (astrophysicist at the University of Bologna) and Alberto Feletti (neurosurgeon at the University of Verona) investigated the similarities between two of the most challenging and complex systems in nature: the cosmic network of galaxies and the network of neuronal cells in the human brain.
Millions of years ago, in the warm Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California, walrus species without tusks lived abundantly.
But in a new study, Cal State Fullerton paleontologists have identified three new walrus species discovered in Orange County and one of the new species has "semi-tusks" -- or longer teeth.
The other two new species don't have tusks and all predate the evolution of the long iconic ivory tusks of the modern-day walrus, which lives in the frigid Arctic.
A collaborative team of ecologists, led by those from Trinity College Dublin, has been using recordings of animal noises to assess biodiversity in sub-tropical Japan. The team assessed how effective these acoustic surveys were for pinpointing Okinawa's wild and wonderful fauna in different sonic conditions--and discovered that the incessant choruses of the local cicadas disguise the true diversity of the region.
PRINCETON, N.J.-- People around the world, especially in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and South America, consume wild game, or bushmeat, whether out of necessity, as a matter of taste preference, or, in the case of particularly desirable wildlife species, to connote a certain social status. Bushmeat consumption, however, has devasted the populations of hundreds of wildlife species and been linked to the spread of zoological diseases such as the Ebola virus.
University of Texas at Dallas computer scientists have devised a new weapon against video game players who cheat.
The researchers developed their approach for detecting cheaters using the popular first-person shooter game Counter-Strike. But the mechanism can work for any massively multiplayer online (MMO) game that sends data traffic to a central server.
Their research was published online Aug. 3 in IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing.