Culture
Annapolis, MD; June 17, 2020--While the prevalence of Lyme disease and other illnesses spread by ticks has steadily increased in the United States over the past 20 years, a new study of the state of American tick surveillance and control reveals an inconsistent and often under-supported patchwork of programs across the country.
With the global spread of coronavirus infections, personal protective equipments especially hygeine face masks are receiving much attention. Masks are essential items for the primary protection of the respiratory tract from viruses and bacteria that are transmitted through the air as droplets.
Molecular containers that remove drugs, toxins, or malodorous substances from the environment are called sequestering agents. Scientists have developed a class of molecular containers that specifically sequester neurotransmitter antagonists. The barrel-shaped molecules called Pillar[n]MaxQ bind neuromuscular blocking chemicals 100,000-fold more tightly than established macrocyclic detoxification agents, the researchers report in the journal Angewandte Chemie.
Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and NEC Corporation have jointly developed a 28 GHz phased-array[1] transceiver supporting dual-polarized MIMO[2] for fifth-generation mobile communications system (5G) radio units. Advances in 5G will benefit an array of industries ranging from healthcare, manufacturing and transportation to education and entertainment that require high bandwidth and high-quality connectivity.
New Rochelle, NY, June 16, 2020--COVID-19 is like a heat-seeking missile that targets the most vulnerable. The bull's-eye is environmental justice communities, which are the poorest, the most polluted, and the sickest when it comes to comorbidities. A Roundtable Discussion on this subject is in the current issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Justice. Click here to read the article now.
North America had the T. rex, South America had the Giganotosaurus and Africa the Spinosaurus - now evidence shows Australia had gigantic predatory dinosaurs.
The discovery came in University of Queensland research, led by palaeontologist Dr Anthony Romilio, which analysed southern Queensland dinosaur footprint fossils dated to the latter part of the Jurassic Period, between 165 and 151 million-year-ago.
"I've always wondered, where were Australia's big carnivorous dinosaurs?" Dr Romilio said.
"But I think we've found them, right here in Queensland.
Like any cells in the body, cancer cells need sugar - namely glucose - to fuel cell proliferation and growth. Cancer cells in particular metabolize glucose at a much higher rate than normal cells. However researchers from USC Viterbi's Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science have unlocked a weakness in a common type of cancer cell: sugar inflexibility. That is, when cancer cells are exposed to a different type of sugar - galactose - the cells can't adapt, and will die.
WASHINGTON--Mild thyroid abnormalities affect up to one in five women with a history of miscarriage or subfertility which is a prolonged time span of trying to become pregnant, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Nanoparticles cloaked in human lung cell membranes and human immune cell membranes can attract and neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 virus in cell culture, causing the virus to lose its ability to hijack host cells and reproduce.
The first data describing this new direction for fighting COVID-19 were published on June 17 in the journal Nano Letters. The "nanosponges" were developed by engineers at the University of California San Diego and tested by researchers at Boston University.
Scientists are working overtime to find an effective treatment for COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Many of these efforts target a specific part of the virus, such as the spike protein. Now, researchers reporting in Nano Letters have taken a different approach, using nanosponges coated with human cell membranes -- the natural targets of the virus -- to soak up SARS-CoV-2 and keep it from infecting cells in a petri dish.
Iron fortification of food is a cost-effective method of preventing iron deficiency. But finding iron compounds that are easily absorbed by the intestine without compromising food quality is a major challenge. Now, studies from Chalmers University of Technology, ETH Zurich and Nestlé show that a brand-new iron compound, containing the iron uptake inhibitor phytate and the iron uptake enhancing corn protein hydrolysate, meets the criteria.
How does our memory work and how can we optimize its mechanisms on a daily basis? This question is at the heart of many neuroscience research projects. Among the brain structures examined to better understand memory mechanisms, the reward system is now at the centre of investigations. Through the examination of brain activity in healthy human subjects, scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have highlighted the lasting positive effect of a reward - monetary, in this case - on the ability of individuals to retain a variety of information.
In the absence of a vaccine or highly effective treatments for COVID-19, combining isolation and intensive contact tracing with physical distancing measures--such as limits on daily social or workplace contacts--might be the most effective and efficient way to achieve and maintain epidemic control, according to new modelling research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
If you want to see one of the wonders of the natural world, just startle a bombardier beetle. But be careful: when the beetles are scared, they flood an internal chamber with a complex cocktail of aromatic chemicals, triggering a cascade of chemical reactions that detonates the fluid and sends it shooting out of the insect's spray nozzle in a machine-gun-like pulse of toxic, scalding-hot vapor. The explosive, high-pressure burst of noxious chemicals doesn't harm the beetle, but it stains and irritates human skin--and can kill smaller enemies outright.
BOSTON, MASS. (June 16, 2020) - A new study co-authored by six scientists with the New England Aquarium has found that rehabilitated Kemp's ridley and loggerhead sea turtles experience a substantial stress response when transported to release locations in the southern United States but that the turtles remained physically stable and ready for release.