Culture
URBANA, Ill. - Public parks can be valuable assets for communities, but crime in the area can "lock up" that amenity value. Crime directly affects the use that people get from their local parks. If crime is reduced, the environmental value can be unlocked, a new University of Illinois study shows.
"Our research is the first to rigorously quantify this effect, which turns out to account for nearly half of the total value of parks in major U.S. cities," says Peter Christensen, environmental economist at U of I, and one of the study's authors.
A University of Cincinnati ear, nose and throat specialist says your nose may hold a clue in identifying COVID-19.
The loss of smell may be a key indicator.
Physicians are increasingly recognizing the importance of the nasal cavity in determining the physiology of COVID-19, explains Ahmad Sedaghat, an associate professor in the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine's Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and an UC Health physician specializing in diseases of the nose and sinuses.
KANSAS CITY, MO -- Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have fine-tuned a method to pinpoint surfaces within large multi-protein complexes that are close to, and likely to be directly interacting with, one another.
Until now, the immune sensor TLR8 has remained in the shadows of science. A research team led by the University of Bonn has now discovered how this sensor plays an important role in defending human cells against intruders. The enzymes RNaseT2 and RNase2 cut ribonucleic acids (RNAs) of bacteria into small fragments that are as characteristic as a thumbprint. Only then can TLR8 recognize the dangerous pathogens and initiate countermeasures. The results have now been published in the renowned journal "Immunity".
In recent decades, alternative food supply movements have arisen. These are based on greater society involvement in coordinating and making decisions regarding food. These short food supply chains translate into producer markets, food co-ops and consumer groups in which a group of people organizes with producers in order to get supplies of necessary products.
A drug that is well-tolerated in patients and prevents cancer coming back in mice has been identified by researchers at the Francis Crick Institute.
One of the biggest challenges in cancer research is preventing cancer returning in patients who have already had treatment. A reason for these relapses is that some cancer cells survive and are able to grow into a new tumour.
Researchers have been able to identify and track the exchange of genes among bacteria that allow them to become resistant to drugs, according to a new study published today in eLife.
The findings add to our understanding of how this exchange of genetic material, also known as horizontal gene transfer, happens in bacteria that cause infections in hospitals. They also highlight that while this transfer is likely to happen frequently, it is a complex process and challenging to study with current methods.
The discovery that immune T cells have a spectrum of responsiveness could shed light on how our immune system responds to infections and cancer, and what goes wrong in immune diseases. Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Open Targets, Biogen, GSK and their collaborators found that T cells responded very differently to immune signals the more 'training' they had been exposed to, rather than being a simple switch from naïve to experienced. This could help guide research into finding drug targets for immune diseases such as asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
A new study in The Economic Journal finds that societies with a history of farming crops heavily reliant on labor effort prefer harder work and longer hours.
New Orleans, LA -- Research led by Si-Qiong June Liu, MD, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, has shown how stress changes the structure of the brain and reveals a potential therapeutic target to the prevent or reverse it. The findings are published in JNeurosci, the Journal of Neuroscience, available here.
Tandem cells combine two different semiconductors that convert different parts of the light spectrum into electrical energy. Metal-halide perovskite compounds mainly use the visible parts of the spectrum, while CIGS semiconductors convert rather the infrared light. CIGS cells, which consist of copper, indium, gallium and selenium, can be deposited as thin-films with a total thickness of only 3 to 4 micrometers; the perovskite layers are even much thinner at 0.5 micrometers.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Researchers working on a U.S. Army project discovered a key insight for the development of quantum devices and quantum computers.
Scientists found that a class of particles known as bosons can behave as an opposite class of particles called fermions, when forced into a line.
BUFFALO, N.Y. - China and South Korea are surging in the international brain race for world-class universities, as schools in the East Asian nations are replacing institutions in the United States in international college rankings, according to new University at Buffalo-led research.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (April 14, 2020) -- Scientists may have solved one of the most puzzling and persistent mysteries in neuroscience: why some people are "right-brained" while others are "left-brained."
The answer lies in how certain genes on each side of the brain are switched "on" and "off" through a process called epigenetic regulation. The findings may explain why Parkinson's disease and other neurological disorders frequently affect one side of the body first, a revelation that has far-reaching implications for development of potential future treatments.
The increase in resource consumption and polluting emissions as a result of economic growth is not compatible with biodiversity conservation. However, most international policies on biodiversity and sustainability advocate economic growth. These are the main conclusions of the study 'Biodiversity policy beyond economic growth', published this week in the scientific journal Conservation Letters. This contradiction became clear after a review of international scientific and policy work on the subject.