Tech
Researchers have developed a new pair of agents that show exceptional effectiveness for precision diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer in preclinical studies. The agents, which target prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), can be easily and economically synthesized without specialized equipment. This research was presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging's 2020 Annual Meeting on July 11-14.
A new approach to functional bone imaging has established that bone metabolism is abnormally elevated in patients with knee osteoarthritis. This physiological information provides a new functional measure to help assess degeneration of the knee joint. The research was presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting, July 11-14.
Whole body positron emission tomography (PET) has, for the first time, illustrated the existence of inter-organ communication between the heart and kidneys via the immune system following acute myocardial infarction, or heart attack. According to research presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging's 2020 Annual Meeting, the identification of a systemic inflammatory response to myocardial infarction has the potential to assist physicians in identifying patients most at risk of disease progression and most likely to respond to therapy.
Ever smaller and ever more compact - this is the direction in which computer chips are developing, driven by industry. This is why so-called 2D materials are considered to be the great hope: they are as thin as a material can possibly be, in extreme cases they consist of only one single layer of atoms. This makes it possible to produce novel electronic components with tiny dimensions, high speed and optimal efficiency.
Microplastics (MPs), i.e., tiny plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in length, can now be found throughout the ocean and other aquatic ecosystems, and even in our seafood and salt. As MPs have become ubiquitous, scientists have become concerned about the transfer of MPs from the environment to the food chain and the potential impact of MPs on human health.
Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently found that microplastics are indeed contaminating edible plants, including vegetables we eat. The study was published in Nature Sustainability on July 13.
A team, led by Dr. Jung-hoon Lee of the Computational Science Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), recently collaborated with a team, led by Professor Jeffrey B. Neaton from the UC Berkeley Department of Physics, to develop a theoretical explanation for the structural changes and metallization that take place when hybrid (organic metal halide) Perovskite solar cells are exposed to external pressure.
NTMs are closely related to tuberculosis bacteria and can (but do not need to) cause infectious diseases in humans. They are called "nontuberculous mycobacteria" (NTMs) to distinguish them from tuberculosis bacteria. There are approximately 200 different species and subspecies of these bacteria. Patients with bronchiectasis (dilation of the airways) are particularly affected. It is not uncommon for a chronic infection to develop.
Research laboratories are constantly developing new materials that are expected to exhibit novel properties bound to revolutionize this or that technology. But it's not enough to simply create these materials; scientists also need to find efficient methods of processing and fine-tuning them. Moreover, composites are often made via the addition of nanoparticles into a base matrix, which is why it is necessary to find a way of manipulating the location, size, and concentration rate of these particles that would exclude even the smallest deviations that are invisible to the human eye.
Among the Sun's most striking features are its sunspots, relatively darker areas compared to the rest of the surface, some of which are visible from Earth even without magnification. Numerous other stars, which like the Sun are in the prime of their lives, are also covered by spots. In red giants, on the other hand, which are in an advanced stage of stellar evolution, such spots were previously considered to be rare. The reason for this difference can be found deep in the interior of stars.
Waterborne diseases affect more than 2 billion people worldwide, causing substantial economic burden. For example, the treatment of waterborne diseases costs more than $2 billion annually in the United States alone, with 90 million cases recorded per year. Among waterborne pathogen-related problems, one of the most common public health concerns is the presence of total coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli (E. coli) in drinking water, which indicates fecal contamination.
Irvine, CA - July 13, 2020 - A compound commonly found in pickled capers has been shown to activate proteins required for normal human brain and heart activity, and may even lead to future therapies for the treatment of epilepsy and abnormal heart rhythms.
Lasers etch a simple way to address global water crisis
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, people in developed countries are assured of ample supplies of clean water to wash their hands as often as needed to protect themselves from the disease. And yet, nearly a third of the world's population is not even assured of clean water for drinking.
University of Rochester researchers have now found a way to address this problem by using sunlight - a resource that everyone can access - to evaporate and purify contaminated water with greater than 100 percent efficiency.
Key Takeaways:
Social media visuals are overtaking text in defining online brand conversations.
User-generated visuals are reflective of consumer brand perceptions.
Researchers developed a new model called BrandImageNet to map images to perceptual attributes of a brand.
Firms can use the BrandImageNet model to automatically monitor consumers' brand perceptions and examine the effectiveness of their positioning strategies.
One day, people could monitor their own health conditions by simply picking up a pencil and drawing a bioelectronic device on their skin. In a new study, University of Missouri engineers demonstrated that the simple combination of pencils and paper could be used to create devices that might be used to monitor personal health.
Their findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.