Culture
What The Study Did: This study delineates the transmission dynamics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and evaluates the transmission risk at different exposure window periods before and after symptom onset.
Authors: Hsien-Ho Lin, M.D., Sc.D., of the National Taiwan University in Taipei, 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.2020.2020)
Tokyo, Japan - Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science, part of The University of Tokyo, and Yokohama City University have introduced novel color-changing organic crystals that spontaneously return to their original shape and hue after being stressed, a property they call superelastochromism. These materials can be used to make sensors for shear forces to monitor locations susceptible to damage.
New research led by University of South Australia has found that smokers who receive the medication varenicline tartrate combined with Quitline counselling following a period of hospitalisation due to a tobacco-related illness are six times more likely to quit smoking than those who attempt to stop without support.
In a new study, researchers report the structure of remdesivir - an antiviral drug that has shown promise against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in lab studies and early clinical trials - bound to both a molecule of RNA and to the viral polymerase. The new structural information illuminates the mechanism that remdesivir uses to interrupt RNA replication and shut down viral reproduction - and may inform efforts to develop new and more potent therapies that employ a similar mechanism.
Researchers from the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, and Maastricht University in the Netherlands have found that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, can infect cells of the intestine and multiply there. Using state-of-the-art cell culture models of the human intestine, the researchers have successfully propagated the virus in vitro, and monitored the response of the cells to the virus, providing a new cell culture model for the study of COVID-19.
A team of Chinese scientists have reported the high-resolution cryo-EM structure of Remdesivir-bound RNA replicase complex from SARS-CoV-2, the infective virus of COVID-19.
The research, published online in Science on May 1, was conducted by Prof. XU Huaqiang and Prof. XU Yechun from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Prof. ZHANG Yan from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Prof. ZHANG Shuyang from Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and their collaborators.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- In regenerative medicine, an ideal treatment for patients whose muscles are damaged from lack of oxygen would be to invigorate them with an injection of their own stem cells.
In a new study published in the journal ACS Nano, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign demonstrated that "nanostimulators" - nanoparticles seeded with a molecule the body naturally produces to prompt stem cells to heal wounds - can amp up stem cells' regenerative powers in a targeted limb in mice.
A study of deforestation in Colombia by researchers from The University of Queensland has revealed some valuable insights which could be used to help slow deforestation in areas around the globe.
PhD student Pablo Negret led an effort to compare the effectiveness of protected areas in Colombia with otherwise similar non-protected sites between 2000 and 2015.
"In Colombia, there has been constant deforestation within protected areas during this 15-year period," Mr Negret said.
A new analysis of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, reveals that the pathogen can infect and replicate in cells that line the inside of the human intestines. The results show that the intestines are a target organ for the virus and could explain why some patients with COVID-19 experience gastrointestinal symptoms. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold across the world, scientists have prioritized understanding how exactly SARS-CoV-2 infects and damages human cells.
Researchers at EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), the University of Dundee and the Wellcome Sanger Institute analysed over 2700 genomes from C. elegans worms in order to better understand the causes of mutations. Their findings, published today in Nature Communications, characterise how DNA mutations result from the combined action of DNA damage and inaccurate DNA repair mechanisms.
Scientists have called for labelling to warn the public about levels of arsenic in rice, after their research found half of rice varieties studied exceeded maximum limits on the deadly toxin.
CHICAGO (May 1, 2020): Stay-at-home orders caught many medical practices and health care systems off guard, leaving them ill-equipped to rapidly adopt an efficient telemedicine platform so they could keep providing time-sensitive care to non-COVID-19 patients. To help organizations rapidly introduce telemedicine as an alternative option, a urology group in North Carolina developed a guide that enabled them to convert all in-person visits to telemedicine in three days.
Newcastle University researchers have developed a new class of self-forming membrane to separate carbon dioxide from a mixture of gases. Operating like a coffee filter, it lets harmless gases, such as nitrogen, exit into the atmosphere and then the carbon dioxide can be processed.
The team believe that the system may be applicable for use in carbon dioxide separation processes, either to protect the environment or in reaction engineering.
The failure of the NHS to provide adequate protective equipment for its employees--including basic items such as gloves and masks--has been among the many unpleasant shocks of the covid-19 crisis for healthcare professionals.
Yet there is a murkier scandal about the procurement of these everyday items that the NHS has yet to face, writes Jane Feinmann, freelance journalist in The BMJ today.
Low income workers in developing countries face a higher risk of income loss during the Covid-19 lockdown as it is less possible to conduct their jobs from home, suggests a new study from UCL, Bank of Thailand, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and GRIPS, Tokyo.
The study, published in Covid Economics: Vetted and Real-Time Papers, used Thailand as a case study but the findings are highly relevant for other countries with similar labour market structures - specifically, those with a large share of self-employment and low social safety net.