Culture

Two factors that control the expression of a key gene required by luminescent bacteria to kill competing bacterial cells have been identified. The finding, by researchers at Penn State, sheds light on the molecular mechanisms that enable different strains of bacteria to compete and establish symbiosis in the Hawaiian bobtail squid. Consequently, the study, which appears online in the Journal of Bacteriology, adds to our understanding of how the make-up of a host's microbiome is determined, and may be applicable to more complex microbiomes in humans.

A dataset of large-scale aerial images produced by Intelinair, a spinout from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, aims to give farmers visibility into the conditions of their fields. The dataset, called Agriculture-Vision, will enable agricultural pattern analysis of aerial images, providing farmers with actionable insights into the performance of their crops to improve decision-making and maximize yields.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Being distracted by technology during mealtimes may decrease the amount of food a person eats, nutrition scientists suggest in a new study.

When 119 young adults consumed a meal while playing a simple computer game for 15 minutes, they ate significantly less than when they ate the same meal without distractions, said lead author Carli A. Liguori.

DALLAS - March 6, 2020 - Could the response to cancer immunotherapy depend on bacteria that originate in the gut and travel to the tumor?

A study by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Chicago suggests exactly that, revealing that gut bacteria can penetrate tumor cells and boost the effectiveness of an experimental immunotherapy that targets the CD47 protein.

Leesburg, VA, March 6, 2020--An open-access American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) Collections article detailing how a tertiary hospital in Singapore responded to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) offers a thorough summary of ground operational considerations for radiology departments presently reacting to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic.

In the 1930s, famed biologist Ernst Mayr became the first to study Pacific Robins. Based on his observations of the robins and other birds on Australia and its outlying islands, he developed foundational concepts that continue to inform the study of evolution. He took copious notes on the birds’ physical characteristics, behaviors, and habitats. Always, he described the robin populations as a single species, albeit with significant variation from island to island.

A new method of bioprinting uses aspiration of tiny biologics such as spheroids, cells and tissue strands, to precisely place them in 3D patterns either on scaffolding or without to create artificial tissues with natural properties, according to Penn State researchers.

Helper T cells play an important role in the immune response against pathogens. The role of a particular subset of these immune cells was previously unclear. It's now been shown that T follicular helper cells live much longer than previously thought and contribute to long-term immunity. Researchers at the University of Basel's Department of Biomedicine reported these findings in Science Immunology.

URBANA, Ill. - Dried distiller's grains with solubles (DDGS), a co-product from corn ethanol processing, is commonly used as feed for cattle, swine and poultry. However, DDGS contains more phosphorus than the animals need. The excess ends up in manure and drains into the watershed, promoting algae production and eventually contributing to large dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico.

Irvine, Calif. - March 6, 2020 - New discovery in breast cancer could lead to better strategies for preventing the spread of cancer cells to other organs in the body, effectively reducing mortality in breast cancer patients.

According to a study, published today in Nature Cell Biology, breast cancer cells shift their metabolic strategy in order to metastasize. Instead of cycling sugar (glucose) for energy, they preferentially use mitochondrial metabolism.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A relatively new theory that identifies universal concerns underlying human judgment could be key to helping people with opposing views on an issue coax each other to a different way of thinking, new research suggests.

The study tested the effectiveness of pro-environment messages guided by moral foundations theory, which suggests that at least five foundational principles influence our decisions about right and wrong.

What The Study Did: This report describes the kinds of vaping products used by and the clinical characteristics of patients hospitalized in California last year with e-cigarette or vaping-associated lung injury.

Authors: Jason A. Wilken, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Christina Armatas, M.D., M.P.H., of the California Department of Public Health, Richmond, California, are the corresponding authors.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

All dog breeds have unwanted behaviour, such as noise sensitivity, aggressiveness and separation anxiety, but differences in frequency between breeds are great. Various unwanted behaviour traits often occur simultaneously, as indicated by a study recently completed by Professor Hannes Lohi's research group from the University of Helsinki.

Unwanted behaviour occurs in many Finnish pet dogs.

There may be a better way for autonomous vehicles to learn how to drive themselves: by watching humans. With the help of an improved sight-correcting system, self-driving cars could learn just by observing human operators complete the same task.

Researchers from Deakin University in Australia published their results in IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica, a joint publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Chinese Association of Automation.

One drone, four microphones and a loudspeaker: nothing more is needed to determine the position of walls and other flat surfaces within a room. This has been mathematically proved by Prof. Gregor Kemper of the Technical University of Munich and Prof. Mireille Boutin of Purdue University in Indiana, USA.

Can walls and flat surfaces be recognized using sound waves? Mathematicians have been studying this question from a theoretical standpoint for quite some time.