Culture
A high-salt diet is not only bad for one's blood pressure, but also for the immune system. This is the conclusion of a current study under the leadership of the University Hospital Bonn. Mice fed a high-salt diet were found to suffer from much more severe bacterial infections. Human volunteers who consumed an additional six grams of salt per day also showed pronounced immune deficiencies. This amount corresponds to the salt content of two fast food meals. The results are published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Can robots be effective tools in combating the COVID-19 pandemic? A group of leaders in the field of robotics, including Henrik Christensen, director of UC San Diego's Contextual Robotics Institute, say yes, and outline a number of examples in an editorial in the March 25 issue of Science Robotics. They say robots can be used for clinical care such as telemedicine and decontamination; logistics such as delivery and handling of contaminated waste; and reconnaissance such as monitoring compliance with voluntary quarantines.
PITTSBURGH--Robots could perform some of the "dull, dirty and dangerous" jobs associated with combating the COVID-19 pandemic, but that would require many new capabilities not currently being funded or developed, an editorial in the journal Science Robotics argues.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Researchers have developed the first computational model of a human cell and simulated its behavior for 15 minutes - the longest time achieved for a biological system of this complexity. In a new study, simulations reveal the effects of spatial organization within cells on some of the genetic processes that control the regulation and development of human traits and some human diseases.
The study, which produced a new computational platform that is available to any researcher, is published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.
Nationwide survey data on more than 230,000 U.S. adolescents over the period 2005 to 2018 suggest that anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and other "internalizing" problems account for an increasing share of the adolescent mental health burden, according to a study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Columbia University.
A transport protein that is used by the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis to import vitamin B12 turns out to be very different from other transport proteins. It contains a huge water-filled cavity, in which hydrophilic substances are transported across the cell membrane. This discovery, which changes our understanding of bacterial physiology, was made by imaging the transport protein using cryo-electron microscopy. The results were published in the journal Nature on 26 March.
What The Study Did: This observational study of 416 patients in Wuhan, China, with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reports that cardiac injury is a common condition among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and it is associated with higher risk of in-hospital mortality.
Authors: Bo Yang, M.D., Ph.D., and He Huang, M.D., Ph.D., of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University in China, are the corresponding authors.
What The Study Did: Researchers examined changes over time in the kinds of mental health problems for which adolescents in the United States received care and where they got that care in this survey study with findings that should be interpreted within the context of several limitations including self-reported information.
Authors: Ramin Mojtabai, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, is the corresponding author.
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology is best known for its potential role in correcting genetic diseases. But it can also be used as a tool to find genes that act as supporting players, making the disease better or worse. Such genes might make good targets for new treatments.
New artifacts uncovered at the Waim archaeological site in the highlands of New Guinea - including a fragment of the earliest symbolic stone carving in Oceania - illustrate a shift in human behavior between 5050 and 4200 years ago in response to the widespread emergence of agriculture, ushering in a regional Neolithic Era similar to the Neolithic in Eurasia.
In this post-industrialization age, electricity has become the backbone of our society. However, using fossil fuels to generate it is not the best option because of their limited availability and harmful nature. In the last two decades, significant efforts have been made to develop techniques to foster sustainable energy. Against this backdrop, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have risen as a clean and highly efficient alternative that can generate electrical energy. However, a major drawback of SOFCs is their high operating temperatures, restricting their widespread usage.
Most people know about the painkiller paracetamol, commonly used against headaches and ingested orally.
However, in hospitals, paracetamol is administered intravenously. In this way, doctors and nurses can help critically ill patients who are unable to swallow one or more pills.
Furthermore, the substance acts much faster intravenously, and the method allows healthcare professionals to control the doses and the timing of their effect very precisely.
Nevertheless, the intravenous paracetamol has a serious side effect: namely, a temporary large drop in blood pressure.
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Researchers at MIT and the University of Colorado at Denver have proposed a stopgap measure that they believe could help Covid-19 patients who are in acute respiratory distress. By repurposing a drug that is now used to treat blood clots, they believe they could help people in cases where a ventilator is not helping, or if a ventilator is not available.
The study, conducted by Imperial College London on data from 2009 to 2018, looked at a third of a million passenger responses to Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSSs) from 28 cities across four continents.
They found that on average, women are ten per cent more likely than men to feel unsafe on metro trains (trains that go underground) and six per cent more likely than men to feel unsafe on buses.
The largest difference between women and men's perceptions of safety was in Europe, where women were 12 per cent more likely to report feeling unsafe than men.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - During the COVID-19 pandemic, every frequently touched surface outside our home seems as dangerous as a hot pot right out of the oven. We won't get burned if we touch it, but we might get infected with a potentially dangerous virus.
A recent study suggests that even organized efforts to clean surfaces can fall short, a reminder for us all that keeping our surroundings clean may require some additional work.