Tech
A new study led by Australia's national science agency CSIRO, has found 95.5 per cent of current entries in GISAID, the world's largest novel coronavirus genome database, do not contain relevant patient information -- a critical piece of the puzzle to understand the virus and how it is evolving.
The researchers have used this finding to develop a standardised data collection template, which can be implemented on repositories like GISAID, without identifying the patient and making it easier for clinical teams treating patients to share more of their knowledge.
Current state-of-the-art techniques have clear limitations when it comes to imaging the smallest nanoparticles, making it difficult for researchers to study viruses and other structures at the molecular level.
By studying the site of a spectacular stellar explosion seen in April 2020, a Chalmers-led team of scientists have used four European radio telescopes to confirm that astronomy's most exciting puzzle is about to be solved. Fast radio bursts, unpredictable millisecond-long radio signals seen at huge distances across the universe, are generated by extreme stars called magnetars - and are astonishingly diverse in brightness.
EPFL engineers have developed an advanced encoding and decoding system that allows fiber optic sensors to send data up to 100 times faster and over a wider area. "Unlike conventional sensors that take measurements at a given point, like thermometers, fiber optic sensors record data all along a fiber," says Luc Thévenaz, a professor at EPFL's School of Engineering and head of the Group for Fibre Optics (GFO). "But the technology has barely improved over the past few years."
Used widely in safety applications
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Dairy cows, exposed for a few years to drinking water contaminated with heavy metals, carry more pathogens loaded with antimicrobial-resistance genes able to tolerate and survive various antibiotics.
That's the finding of a team of researchers that conducted a study of two dairy herds in Brazil four years after a dam holding mining waste ruptured, and it spotlights a threat to human health, the researchers contend.
A combination of innate differences and diet-induced changes to the reward system may predispose some mice to overeat, according to research recently published in JNeurosci.
Food is fuel, but the rising levels of sugar and fat in modern diets make the brain treat it as a reward. One brain region called the ventral pallidum (VP) serves as a hub between reward areas and the hypothalamus, a region involved in feeding behavior. Intertwining food and reward can lead to overeating and may be a contributing factor to diet-induced obesity.
Shantanu Chakrabartty's laboratory has been working to create sensors that can run on the least amount of energy. His lab has been so successful at building smaller and more efficient sensors, that they've run into a roadblock in the form of a fundamental law of physics.
Sometimes, however, when you hit what appears to be an impenetrable roadblock, you just have to turn to quantum physics and tunnel through it. That's what Chakrabartty and other researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis did.
People who purchase a firearm during the pandemic are more likely to be suicidal than other firearm owners, according to a Rutgers study.
The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that about 70 percent of those who bought a firearm during the COVID-19 pandemic reported having suicidal thoughts throughout their lives, compared to 37 percent of the rest of the community of gun owners.
A simple method developed at KAUST uses laser beams to create graphene electrodes that have better performance than those produced through older methods.
Electrodes consisting of graphene, an atypical form of carbon, may transform the way electroactive substances are detected and measured in numerous fields ranging from food safety and clinical diagnosis to environmental monitoring1,2,3.
OAK BROOK, Ill. - A novel outpatient procedure offers lasting pain relief for patients suffering from moderate to severe arthritis in their hip and shoulder joints, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Researchers said the procedure could help reduce reliance on addictive opiates.
Tokyo, Japan - A team of researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science at The University of Tokyo used advanced electron spectroscopy and computer simulations to better understand the internal atomic structure of aluminosilicate glass. They found complex coordination networks among aluminum atoms within phase-separated regions. This work may open the possibility for improved glasses for smart device touchscreens.
New data on continuous glucose monitoring for people with type 1 diabetes, over a significantly longer period than before, are now available. A University of Gothenburg study shows that using the CGM tool, with its continuous monitoring of blood sugar (glucose) levels, has favorable effects over several years.
The technology of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is superseding that of the classic portable blood glucose meters, which require a prick in the finger several times daily. More and more people with type 1 diabetes have access to the new technology.
A removable coating that can be used to clean desalination membranes has been developed by KAUST researchers. The nontoxic coating could provide a safer and more efficient alternative to harmful chemicals used to clean reverse osmosis systems for seawater desalination.
The investigational drug evinacumab reduced low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol--the so-called "bad" cholesterol--by 50 percent in patients with severe hypercholesterolemia whose condition is resistant to standard treatments, a phase 2 study from the Icahn School of Medicine of Mount Sinai and other global academic sites has found. Results from the study sponsored by Regeneron, are being presented as "late breaking science" at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2020 on Sunday, November 15, and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Deep learning, also called machine learning, reproduces data to model problem scenarios and offer solutions. However, some problems in physics are unknown or cannot be represented in detail mathematically on a computer. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed a new method that brings physics into the machine learning process to make better predictions.
The researchers used turbulence to test their method.