Culture
First study to map atomic structure of a key enzyme complex in paramyxoviruses, a family of RNA viruses
Enzyme is responsible for assembling RNA molecules, providing a target for new antiviral drugs
Although from a different family, coronavirus functions similarly
Researchers used cryo-EM, a revolutionary technique that gives a clear view of proteins
What The Study Did: Researchers looked at the net income of nonprofit hospitals in the U.S. and examined how their financial status was associated with the level of charity care they provided in 2017 for uninsured and insured patients.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
Authors: Ge Bai, Ph.D., C.P.A., of the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School in Baltimore, is the corresponding author.
Many insects, mosses and lichens in the UK are bucking the trend of biodiversity loss, according to a comprehensive analysis of over 5,000 species led by UCL and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH).
The researchers say their findings on UK biodiversity between 1970 and 2015, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, may provide evidence that efforts to improve air and water quality could be paying off.
The Arctic region has long been seen as one of the Earth's most remote frontiers. However, now the Arctic is changing fast and is important in global governance, geopolitics, and the global economy. Temperatures have warmed faster than the rest of the planet; sea ice is dramatically declined in summers; exploitation of oil and gas, new (sea) trade routes, tourism and other economic activities are expanding.
Scientists at the MDC have discovered stem cells responsible for the most common form of kidney cancer. The team of Walter Birchmeier has found a way to block the growth of these tumors in three models of the disease.
Not all cancer cells are equal. Tumors contain potent cancer stem cells which produce metastases and can regenerate the disease if they escape a treatment. This makes them vital targets for therapies - if scientists can isolate them and probe their weaknesses. But the cells are often so rare that for many types of cancer, they have yet to be found.
In experiments with human cells and mice, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report evidence that combining the experimental cancer medication TAK228 (also called sapanisertib) with an existing anti-cancer drug called trametinib may be more effective than either drug alone in decreasing the growth of pediatric low-grade gliomas. These cancers are the most common childhood brain cancer, accounting for up to one-third of all cases.
What The Study Did: Patients with chronic life-limiting illnesses often have medical orders with treatment limitations in place regarding medical interventions and intensive care unit admissions near the end of their lives. This observational study included about 1,800 patients with such orders who were hospitalized within six months of their death to examine how often care was consistent with those orders.
EVANSTON, Ill. --- A wife-husband team will present both high-tech and low-tech solutions for improving water security at this year's American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Seattle on Sunday, Feb. 16. Northwestern University's Sera Young and Julius Lucks come from different ends of the science spectrum but meet in the middle to provide critical new information to approach this global issue.
For all the benefits in the expansion of the media landscape, we're still struggling with the spread of misinformation--and the damage is especially worrisome when it comes to information about science and health.
"Believing things that aren't true when it comes to health can be not just bad for us, but dangerous," said Dan Gillmor, co-founder of the News Co/Lab at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. "Journalists have a special duty to avoid being fooled, and they can help us learn to sort out truth from falsehood ourselves."
Psychological tests are important instruments used in courts to aid legal decisions that profoundly affect people's lives. They can help determine anything from parental fitness for child custody, to the sanity or insanity of a person at the time of a crime, to eligibility for capital punishment.
While increasingly used in courts, new research shows the tests are not all scientifically valid, and once introduced into a case they are rarely challenged, according to Tess Neal, an assistant professor of psychology at Arizona State University.
In television crime dramas, savvy lawyers are able to overcome improbable odds to win their cases by presenting seemingly iron-clad scientific evidence. In real-world courtrooms, however, the quality of scientific testimony can vary wildly, making it difficult for judges and juries to distinguish between solid research and so-called junk science.
Why do predators sometimes lay dormant eggs -- eggs which are hardy, but take a long time to hatch, and are expensive to produce?
That is the question that researchers from Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) set out to answer in a recent paper published in Advanced Science, a cutting-edge research journal with an impact factor of 15.804 (2019 Journal Citation Reports).
All organisms on our planet store the molecular blueprint of life in a DNA code within their genome. The digital revolution in biology, driven by DNA sequencing, enables us to read the genomes of the myriads of microbes and multi-cellular organisms that populate our world. Today, the DNA sequences of over 200,000 microbial genomes are deposited in digital genome databases and have exponentially increased our understanding of how DNA programs living systems.
A study led by Susan Tsang, a former Fulbright Research Fellow from The City College of New York, reveals dwindling populations and widespread hunting throughout Indonesia and the Philippines of the world's largest bats, known as flying foxes.
In a study with potentially far-reaching implications for criminal justice in the United States, a team of California researchers has found that algorithms are significantly more accurate than humans in predicting which defendants will later be arrested for a new crime.
When assessing just a handful of variables in a controlled environment, even untrained humans can match the predictive skill of sophisticated risk-assessment instruments, says the new study by scholars at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.