Earth
DALLAS – May 25, 2020 – Scientists have known for a decade that cells that fuse with others to perform their essential functions – such as muscle cells that join together to make fibers – form long projections that invade the territory of their fusion partners. But how the thin and floppy polymers involved in this process propel mechanically stiff protrusions has been unknown.
Spring is in full swing. Trees are leafing out, flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, and birds are singing. But a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that those birds in your backyard may be changing right along with the climate.
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an aggressive form of cancer in the brain that is typically fatal. But new findings by VCU Massey Cancer Center and VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM) researchers could help increase the effectiveness of the most common current treatments with the addition of lumefantrine, an FDA-approved drug used to treat malaria.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered evidence of ear infections in the skull remains of humans living in the Levant some 15,000 years ago.
By Sunday, May 24, Tropical Cyclone Mangga had already transitioned to an extra-tropical storm and was affecting the southwestern coast of Australia.
The inner mantles of icy giant planets such as Uranus and Neptune are mainly composed by water, ammonia and methane, while their atmospheres are made of hydrogen and helium. Under high pressures inside giant planets, it is unclear whether the helium can diffuse into the depths and react with the mantle materials. Moreover, exotic phenomena such as superionicity (a partially molten phase) and plasticity (spinning molecules in a regular crystal) might occur in these compounds under the environments of giant planets.
What The Study Did: Postmortem records from the National Violent Death Reporting System were used to determine how common being bullied was among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) youth ages 10 to 19 who died by suicide compared with non-LGBTQ young people who died by suicide.
Authors: Kirsty A. Clark, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut, is the corresponding author.
What The Study Did: Whether the amount of blood pressure medications taken by older adults could be reduced safely and without a significant change in short-term blood pressure control was the objective of this randomized clinical trial that included 534 adults 80 and older. For some older adults the potential risks of continuing treatment with multiple medications may outweigh the benefits.
Authors: James P. Sheppard, Ph.D., of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, is the corresponding author.
Durham, NC - In a study released today in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM), a team led by researchers at the Eugenia Menni Research Centre (CREM) in Brescia, Italy, show for the first time how stem cells collected from human amniotic membrane (one of the two fetal membranes forming the amniotic sac, which surrounds the fetus during pregnancy and is generally discarded after a baby's birth) can slow the progression of scarring in pulmonary fibrosis. This pre-clinical study could lead to new treatments for this deadly disease.
Lensless imaging technology introduces computing power into the conventional optical imaging system. The lensless camera becomes compact and easy-to-build. The earliest lensless camera could be pinhole camera, but the low light throughput limits its popularization. Then coded aperture cameras extend the idea of a pinhole camera by replacing the pinhole with a mask which allows more light throughput. Since the image reconstruction in lensless imaging is susceptible to the noise, current implementations need multiple shots or strict calibrations to enhance robustness.
The simulations show that the asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which maximised the amount of climate-changing gases thrust into the upper atmosphere.
Such a strike likely unleashed billions of tonnes of sulphur, blocking the sun and triggering the nuclear winter that killed the dinosaurs and 75 per cent of life on Earth 66 million years ago.
Enzymes from cold-loving organisms that live at low temperatures, close to the freezing point of water, display highly distinctive properties. In a new study published in Nature Communications, scientists at Uppsala University have used large-scale computations to explain why many cold-adapted enzymes stop functioning at around room temperature.
"Directed evolution" is the process by which scientists produce tailor-made proteins for cell biology, physiology and biomedicine in the laboratory. Based on this method, Max Planck researchers from Martinsried have now developed a method to optimize proteins directly in mammalian cells. Using the new method, the scientists have produced the fluorescent protein mCRISPRred, which fluoresces brightly in lysosomes - very acidic, all-decomposing cell vesicles - which were previously difficult to label.
Fibroblasts are the most common connective tissue cells. They produce the structural framework for animal tissues, synthesise the extracellular matrix and collagen, and play a critical role in wound healing. However, during the cellular aging process, fibroblasts lose their ability to contract, leading to stiffness due to reduced connective tissues.
How can patterns in the marine biodiversity of the past help us to understand how it may change in the future? A recent research by Drs Moriaki Yasuhara and Timothy C Bonebrake (School of Biological Sciences and Swire Institute of Marine Science, the University of Hong Kong) and numerous international collaborators finds that the tropical diversity decline now seen in the ocean is not purely human induced, but nonetheless will worsen considerably if we do not limit anthropogenic climate warming.