Culture
The intestinal disease necrotizing enterocolitis is a leading cause of death among premature infants born in the U.S. and across the globe. Characterized by excessive inflammation that can cause tissue decay in the bowels, the disease provides a pathway for infectious and deadly bacteria to enter the bloodstream.
Despite four decades of research, effective treatments remain elusive, and mortality rates in babies who develop the disease have remained essentially unchanged, hovering at about 30%.
TAMPA, Fla. (June 17, 2021) - Tests that analyze biomarkers are used during cancer management to guide treatment and provide information about patient prognosis. These tests are often performed on tissue biopsy samples that require invasive procedures and can lead to significant side effects.
The Black Sea is an unusual body of water: below a depth of 150 metres the dissolved oxygen concentration sinks to around zero, meaning that higher life forms such as plants and animals cannot exist in these areas. At the same time, this semi-enclosed sea stores comparatively large amounts of organic carbon. A team of researchers led by Dr Gonzalo V.
Woodlands along streams and rivers are an important part of California's diverse ecology. They are biodiversity hotspots, providing various ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and critical habitat for threatened and endangered species. But our land and water use have significantly impacted these ecosystems, sometimes in unexpected ways.
SAN ANTONIO (June 17, 2021) -- Middle-aged people with depressive symptoms who carry a genetic variation called apolipoprotein (APOE) ε4 may be more at risk to develop tau protein accumulations in the brain's emotion- and memory-controlling regions, a new study by researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) and collaborating institutions suggests.
Nanodecoys made from human lung spheroid cells (LSCs) can bind to and neutralize SARS-CoV-2, promoting viral clearance and reducing lung injury in a macaque model of COVID-19. By mimicking the receptor that the virus binds to rather than targeting the virus itself, nanodecoy therapy could remain effective against emerging variants of the virus.
TROY, N.Y. -- Optoelectronic materials that are capable of converting the energy of light into electricity, and electricity into light, have promising applications as light-emitting, energy-harvesting, and sensing technologies. However, devices made of these materials are often plagued by inefficiency, losing significant useful energy as heat. To break the current limits of efficiency, new principles of light-electricity conversion are needed.
The article 'The RNA Atlas expands the catalog of human non-coding RNAs', published today in Nature Biotechnology, is the result of more than five years of hard work to further unravel the complexity of the human transcriptome. Never before such a comprehensive effort was undertaken to characterize all RNA-molecules in human cells and tissues.
RNAs in all shapes and sizes
Additive manufacturing offers an unprecedented level of design flexibility and expanded functionality, but the quality and process can drastically differ across production machines, according to Hui Yang, a professor of industrial engineering at Penn State. With applications in aerospace, health care and automotive industries with potential for mass customization, additive manufacturing needs quality management.
CAMBRIDGE, MA--Geothermal energy systems have the potential to power the world and become the leading technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions if we can drill down far enough into the Earth to access the conditions necessary for economic viability and release the heat beneath our feet. Quaise Inc. is developing a potentially disruptive and completely unique drilling technology to make that happen.
In the realm of social media, anti-science views about COVID-19 align so closely with political ideology -- especially among conservatives -- that its predictability offers a strategy to help protect public health, a new USC study shows.
Resistance to science, including the efficacy of masks and vaccines, poses a challenge to conquering the coronavirus crisis. The goal of achieving herd immunity won't happen until society achieves consensus about science-based solutions.
A rare parasitic infection imported from Europe continues to take root in Alberta, Canada. The province is now the North American hotspot for human alveolar echinococcosis (AE), which takes the form of a growth in the liver, causing serious and potentially deadly health complications.
PHILADELPHIA - Sour taste does not have the nearly universal appeal that sweet taste does. Slightly sour foods or drinks such as yogurt and lemon juice are yummy to many, but such highly sour foods as spoiled milk are yucky, even dangerous. Like humans, many other animals, including insects, prefer slightly acidic over very acidic foods.
The brain presents different states depending on the communication between billions of neurons, and this network is the basis of all our perceptions, memories, and behaviours. It is often considered a "black box", with difficult access for clinicians and researchers, as few limited tools are available to perform accurate and spaciotemporal studies on brain neuronal behaviour.
MADISON - In early January 2021, travelers returning to Tokyo, Japan, from Amazonas, Brazil, were screened for COVID-19 at the airport. A few days later, the National Institute of Infectious Disease of Japan announced that the travelers had returned with a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
That variant, known as gamma, or P.1, led to a deadly surge in COVID-19 cases in Brazil this spring, and has now spread across the world. More than 200 cases have been detected in Wisconsin. Whether current vaccines are as effective against the gamma variant remains unknown.