Culture
Two papers in Genome Research by the FANTOM Consortium have provided new insights into the core regulatory networks governing cell types in different vertebrate species, and the role of RNA as regulators of cell function and identity.
Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) was initially domesticated by Native Americans over 10.000 years ago. Nowadays, America's "favourite corn" is cultivated throughout the world and is used in varying ways, ranging from animal feed to biofuel. Maize has been able to adapt to different climates and conditions around the world, indicating that the genetic variability between lines must be large.
The Yellow River (YR) is the fifth-longest and the most sediment-laden river in the world. Although the YR accounts for only 3% of China's water resources, it irrigates 13% of its cropland.
Since the 1960s, an increasing number of large-scale dams and reservoirs have been built in the main YR channel, and water consumption by agricultural irrigation along the YR middle course has risen sharply. In recent decades, YR runoff and sediment load have fallen sharply.
Osteoporosis, a disease which leads to bone fragility and an increased risk of fractures, is very common among postmenopausal women, affecting around one in three over the age of 50 worldwide. However, as osteoporosis and related fragility fractures are rare in younger women, there is far less research, and consequently a lack of consensus and guidance on its diagnosis and management in this population group.
The maize genome tells an intriguing story about domestication and the shaping of the genome by human selection. Around 10,000 years ago, Native Americans started to domesticate maize in what is Mexico today. They created the basis for one of today's most important sources of food for both humans and livestock. After the discovery of the "new world" by Columbus, maize was brought from the Americas to Europe. Maize adapted to new growing and climate regimes through directed breeding and selection and finally spread around the globe.
Humans have a hard time identifying individual birds just by looking at the patterns on their plumage. An international study involving scientists form the CNRS, Université de Montpellier* and the University of Porto in Portugal, among others, has shown how computers can learn to differentiate individual birds of a same species. The results are published on 27 July 2020 in Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
An international team of scientists has collated all known bacterial genomes from the human gut microbiome into a single large database. Their work, published in Nature Biotechnology, will allow researchers to explore the links between bacterial genes and proteins, and their effects on human health.
This project was led by EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and included collaborators from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Trento, the Gladstone Institutes, and the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute.
Relaxing on the sofa or savoring a delicious meal: Enjoying short-term pleasurable activities that don't lead to long-term goals contributes at least as much to a happy life as self-control, according to new research from the University of Zurich and Radboud University in the Netherlands. The researchers therefore argue for a greater appreciation of hedonism in psychology.
Thanks to optical tweezers, a new study reveals unexpected properties of the neurons responsible for the transduction of light signals. The research has been published in PLOS Biology.
Hokkaido University researchers have found a soft and wet material that can memorize, retrieve, and forget information, much like the human brain. They report their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Chromatin Biology group aims to define the mechanisms involved in the cellular response to different types of stress such as metabolic, oxidative and genotoxic stress. In particular, they focus their studies on the impact of a family of enzymes, Sirtuins (responsible of the cellular stress response) in the maintenance of genome stability under these conditions and their impact in aging and different types of cancers, with a special focus on hematologic malignancies.
In terms of its structure and organization, the cryptocurrency market is a rather young and a very specific financial market. Due to its relatively short history, it is difficult to fully analyze the cryptocurrency market (it appeared only in 2009), which makes this task even more attractive for researchers.
BOSTON - (July 27, 2020) - Type 1 diabetes occurs when a person's own immune system destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. In recent years, scientists have learned how to grow large volumes of replacement beta cells, but the researchers are still trying out many options to protect these cells against the immune attack. Joslin Diabetes Center researchers now have found an unusual strategy that eventually may help to guard such transplanted beta cells or to slow the original onset of the disease.
In a study published in Nature Astronomy, an international team of researchers has presented a new, detailed look inside the "central engine" of a large solar flare accompanied by a powerful eruption first captured on Sept. 10, 2017 by the Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA) -- a solar radio telescope facility operated by New Jersey Institute of Technology's (NJIT) Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR).
The differing immune system responses of patients with COVID-19 can help predict who will experience moderate and severe consequences of disease, according to a new study by Yale researchers published July 27 in the journal Nature.
The findings may help identify individuals at high risk of severe illness early in their hospitalization and suggest drugs to treat COVID-19.