Culture
NEW YORK...June 8, 2020 - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have determined that zero interest rates are more efficient than negative interest rates in terms of motivating individual investors to borrow money and take risks.
"President Trump tweeted in September 2019, 'The Federal Reserve should get our interest rates down to ZERO, or less.' The goal of this paper is to evaluate the impact of zero and negative interest rates on individuals' investment decisions," says Prof. Mosi Rosenboim, of the BGU Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management.
The first-ever detailed study of the diets of great white sharks off the east Australian coast reveals this apex predator spends more time feeding close to the seabed than expected.
"Within the sharks' stomachs we found remains from a variety of fish species that typically live on the seafloor or buried in the sand. This indicates the sharks must spend a good portion of their time foraging just above the seabed," said lead author Richard Grainger, a PhD candidate at the Charles Perkins Centre and School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney.
By delving deeper into metabolism problems, the research team has found that the nutrient sensing capacity of Enterochromaffin (EC) cells - which line the gastrointestinal tract and are the source of almost all serotonin in the body - have changed in mice under the influence of high?fat diet?induced obesity and metabolic disease.
Scientists from the University of Nottingham have developed a new way to control harmful fungi, without the need to use chemical bioactives like fungicides or antifungals.
Fungi cause diverse, serious societal and economic problems in the UK and globally. As well as causing fatal diseases in humans, fungi devastate food crops and spoil valuable products and materials. This has led to an antifungals/fungicide industry worth around $30bn globally.
The clinical presentation of Covid-19 varies from patient to patient and understanding individual genetic susceptibility to the disease is therefore vital to prognosis, prevention, and the development of new treatments. For the first time, Italian scientists have been able to identify the genetic and molecular basis of this susceptibility to infection as well as to the possibility of contracting a more severe form of the disease.
A research team from Genethon, in collaboration with teams from CNRS/Inserm and from the biotechnology company Spark Therapeutics, announced today in Nature Medicine that it has succeeded in inhibiting the immune response induced by AAV antibodies present as a result of natural immunity or following gene therapy, thanks to the IdeS enzyme. This result opens up new therapeutic prospects and the possibility of treating more patients.
n 2017 and 2019, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) had already examined the advantages and disadvantages of ribociclib in combination with an aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant in comparison with the appropriate comparator therapy in patients after menopause, with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Since the assessments were based on ongoing studies, the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) had limited its corresponding decisions.
What The Study Did: The clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients who received intervention by a COVID-19 palliative care response team are examined in this case series.
Authors: Shunichi Nakagawa, M.D., of the Columbia University Medical Center in NewYork, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.2713)
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (June 5, 2020)--Researchers at Tufts University's School of Engineering have developed biomaterial-based inks that respond to and quantify chemicals released from the body (e.g. in sweat and potentially other biofluids) or in the surrounding environment by changing color. The inks can be screen printed onto textiles such as clothes, shoes, or even face masks in complex patterns and at high resolution, providing a detailed map of human response or exposure.
A research group led by the University of Bologna identified a new mechanism that allows to obtain serological tests that are quicker, more cost-effective and more reliable than those currently in use. This mechanism is based on the technique of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) and is applicable to serological tests devised to detect the antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.
Sometimes toxins, such as hazardous wastes and industrial byproducts, seep into groundwater, the source of our drinking water. One such pollutant is perchlorate, a chemical compound used in rocket fuels, fireworks, fertilizers and other materials. The compound is thought to contribute to health issues in humans such as hypothyroidism, the decreased production of hormones from the thyroid gland, which can impact development.
The findings, they say, suggest that an acceptable safe concentration of perchlorate in drinking water is 10 times less than previously thought.
Seeking to address estimates that more than a third of COVID-19 deaths nationally have occurred in nursing homes and long-term care facilities--more than 38,000 - the American Medical Directors Association published recommendations for reducing the spread of the pandemic virus among residents and staff.
Perhaps no region of the brain is more fittingly named than the claustrum, taken from the Latin word for "hidden or shut away." The claustrum is an extremely thin sheet of neurons deep within the cortex, yet it reaches out to every other region of the brain. Its true purpose remains "hidden away" as well, with researchers speculating about many functions. For example, Francis Crick of DNA-discovery fame believed that the claustrum is the seat of consciousness, responsible for awareness and sense of self.
Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, joined by a colleague from Argonne National Laboratory, U.S., have implemented an advanced quantum algorithm for measuring physical quantities using simple optical tools. Published in Scientific Reports, their study takes us a step closer to affordable linear optics-based sensors with high performance characteristics. Such tools are sought after in diverse research fields, from astronomy to biology.
Protecting nerve cells from losing their characteristic extensions, the dendrites, can reduce brain damage after a stroke. Neurobiologists from Heidelberg University have demonstrated this by means of research on a mouse model. The team, led by Prof. Dr Hilmar Bading in cooperation with Junior Professor Dr Daniela Mauceri, is investigating the protection of neuronal architecture to develop new approaches to treating neurodegenerative diseases. The current research findings were published in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences".