Culture
If they don't receive antiretroviral therapy (ART), most HIV patients see a progressive weakening of their immune system. But a very small percentage of patients--0.3%--spontaneously control the virus themselves, without ART. Could an explanation lay partly in the sets of genes expressed by scarce white blood cells that recognize HIV? Yes, according to a study published in Nature Immunology and conducted by researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM).
A new study has concluded that people who wear a hearing aid for age-related hearing problems maintain better brain function over time than those who do not.
It builds on important research in recent years pulled together by the Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention, Intervention and Care, through which hearing loss emerged as an important risk factor for dementia. This research suggests that wearing a hearing aid may mitigate that risk.
What The Study Did: An observational study based on a group of smokers and former smokers in France looked at whether electronic cigarette use was associated with changes in the number of cigarettes smoked, with smoking cessation rates among smokers, and with smoking relapse among former smokers.
Authors: Ramchandar Gomajee, M.Sc., of the Sorbonne Université in Paris, is the corresponding author.
(doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.1483)
People have long dreamed of re-shaping the Martian climate to make it livable for humans. Carl Sagan was the first outside of the realm of science fiction to propose terraforming. In a 1971 paper, Sagan suggested that vaporizing the northern polar ice caps would "yield ~10 s g cm-2 of atmosphere over the planet, higher global temperatures through the greenhouse effect, and a greatly increased likelihood of liquid water."
Algae form the basis of the marine ecosystem, and store more carbon than all land plants put together. The algae's carbohydrates are broken down by bacteria, which thereby turn them into an important energy source for the entire marine food chain. What exactly happens chemically during this degradation of algae biomass was, however, previously unknown.
A new study led by Dr. Antonella Fioravanti in the lab of Prof. Han Remaut (VIB-VUB Center for Structural Biology) has shown that removing the armor of the bacterium that causes anthrax slows its growth and negatively affects its ability to cause disease. This work will be published in the prestigious journal Nature Microbiology can lead the way to new, effective ways of fighting anthrax and various other diseases.
A deadly disease
Apes' abilities have been unfairly measured, throwing into doubt the assumed belief that human infants are superior to adult chimpanzees, according to a new study by leaders in the field of ape cognition.
Researchers studied published work comparing human and ape social cognition and came to the conclusion the studies had got it wrong.
They say it should come as no surprise that apes raised in institutions would not perform well compared with humans raised in western families, especially when tested with western cultural practices, for example, gestures such as pointing.
Genetic analysis has revealed that the ancestors of modern humans interbred with at least five different archaic human groups as they moved out of Africa and across Eurasia.
While two of the archaic groups are currently known - the Neandertals and their sister group the Denisovans from Asia ¬- the others remain unnamed and have only been detected as traces of DNA surviving in different modern populations. Island Southeast Asia appears to have been a particular hotbed of diversity.
A new study, led by researchers from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), uncovers the long-sought-after, three-dimensional structure of a toxin primarily responsible for devastating Clostridium difficile infection (CDI).
Published today in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, the study titled, "Structure of the full-length Clostridium difficile toxin B," sheds light on the weaknesses of TcdB, one of the toxins secreted by the Clostridium difficile (C. diff) bacteria and the main cause of CDI.
Researchers from the Molecular Mechanisms and Experimental Therapy in Oncology program (Oncobell) of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), together with the Biodonostia Health Research Institute (IIS Biodonostia), among others, have published in Nutrients the results of a multicenter study that unveils a correlation between inflammatory and antioxidant diets and the risk of developing colorectal and breast cancer. Dr. Mireia Obón-Santacana from IDIBELL-ICO is the first author of a research which was led by Dr.
The practice of taking small, regular doses of psychedelic drugs to enhance mood, creativity, or productivity lacks robust scientific evidence, say scientists.
The process, called microdosing, has been lauded by some, with high profile proponents in Silicon Valley. But to date, scientific evidence to support or even fully explore claims of the benefits and safety, has been lacking.
Against a backdrop of long-term rises in temperature in recent decades, California has seen ever higher spikes in seasonal wildfires, and, in the last two years, a string of disastrous, record-setting blazes. This has led scientists, politicians and media to ponder: what role might warming climate be playing here? A new study combs through the many factors that can promote wildfire, and concludes that in many, though not all, cases, warming climate is the decisive driver.
What happens at the molecular level when plants defend against invading pathogens? Previously it was assumed that the processes were roughly the same in all plants. However, this is not true, as a team of biologists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) has demonstrated in a new study published in the scientific journal The Plant Cell. The researchers investigated defence processes in the wild tobacco plant N. benthamiana and found that the processes work quite differently than previously thought.
The researchers want to use similar genetic patterns, which have been present in the blood of humans and animals for thousands of years, to improve computer-assisted disease prognosis.
At present, niobium is the material of choice for constructing superconducting radio-frequency cavity resonators. These will be used in projects at the HZB such as bERLinPro and BESSY-VSR, but also for free-electron lasers such as the XFEL and LCLS-II. However, a coating of niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) could lead to considerable improvements.