Tech
AUGUSTA, Ga. (June 9, 2020) - Particularly in females with untreated hypertension, reducing salt intake to what's considered a healthier level appears to be good for both their gut microbiome and their blood pressure, scientists report.
Patients recovering from COVID-19 could suffer significant long-term effects, according to research into the experiences of people hospitalised by previous coronavirus outbreaks.
Researchers at the universities of Leeds, Manchester and Hull have for the first time collated evidence on physical, psychological and social impacts among patients who fell victim to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) - two previous viral infection outbreaks similar to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Amsterdam, June 9, 2020 - Solar energy is considered by some to be the ultimate solution to address the current energy crisis and global warming and the environmental crises brought about by excessive consumption of fossil fuels. However, this clean and inexhaustible energy source is difficult to capture and store.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- For 25 years, Carol Augspurger visited a patch of ancient woods near Urbana, Illinois to look at the same 25 one-square-meter plots of earth she first demarcated for study in 1993. She surveyed the plots once a week in spring and summer, tracking the major life events of each of the herbaceous plants that grew there. In fall, she visited every other week. In winter, once a month.
Inflammatory-rheumatic disorders are a widespread ailment, affecting at least 1.5 million people in Germany alone. Because there is a shortage of rheumatologists, however, only half of the patients in this country are adequately treated (1,2). The use of other health care professionals, as is the case in Denmark and the UK, could help to improve the situation. A study in Germany has shown for the first time that the care of patients with inflammatory-rheumatic diseases by 'rheumatological assistants' (RFA*) is just as effective as treatment by specialist rheumatologists.
Neurons that are responsible for new experiences interfere with the signals of neurons that contain memories and thereby disturb the recall of memories - at least in mice. The research group of Martin Fuhrmann of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) reports this phenomenon in the scientific journal "Nature Neuroscience". The results of this study potentially shed new light on memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease.
In a paper published by the Behavioral Sciences & Law journal, experts from the University of Surrey take a critical look at the growing use of algorithmic risk assessment tools, which act as a form of expert scientific evidence in a growing number of criminal cases.
The review argues that because of several issues, such as the biases of the developers and weak statistical evidence of the AI's predictive performance, judges should act as gatekeepers and closely scrutinise whether such tools should be used at all.
Doctors could soon be administering an entire course of treatment for life-threatening conditions with a 3D printed capsule controlled by magnetic fields thanks to advances made by University of Sussex researchers.
Engineers and pharmaceutical scientists from the University of Sussex and The University of Texas at Austin have developed a triggerable and remotely controllable system for on-demand drug delivery.
A study by the Centre for Chromosome Biology at NUI Galway, Ireland, in partnership with the University of Zurich, has uncovered new insights into how the replication of DNA occurs which can be applied to help develop novel cancer treatments.
The breakthrough research looked at a protein called CDC7 which is a trigger for cancer cells to replicate their DNA and form tumors. The NUI Galway research shows how drugs that block CDC7 work, indicating how they could be further developed to stop cancer growth.
Oxygen first accumulated in the Earth's atmosphere about 2.4 billion years ago, during the Great Oxidation Event. A long-standing puzzle has been that geologic clues suggest early bacteria were photosynthesizing and pumping out oxygen hundreds of millions of years before then. Where was it all going?
Something was holding back oxygen's rise. A new interpretation of rocks billions of years old finds volcanic gases are the likely culprits. The study led by the University of Washington was published in June in the open-access journal Nature Communications.
An unexpected property of nanometer-scale antimony crystals -- the spontaneous formation of hollow structures -- could help give the next generation of lithium ion batteries higher energy density without reducing battery lifetime. The reversibly hollowing structures could allow lithium ion batteries to hold more energy and therefore provide more power between charges.
Researchers at Uppsala University have developed a method for identifying functional mutations and their effect on genes relevant to the development of glioblastoma - a malignant brain tumour with a very poor prognosis. The study is published in Genome Biology.
The largest study of its kind in the U.S. shows thousands of different types of bacteria living on cell phones and shoes, including groups that have barely been studied by scientists.
"This highlights how much we have to learn about the microbial world around us," said David Coil, a researcher at the University of California, Davis Genome Center and first author on the paper, published June 9 in the journal PeerJ.
Researchers have developed a new method to create microcapsules, which are tiny droplets surrounded by a solid shell. The technique can be used to make microcapsules that respond to changes in pH, which are useful for applications such as anti-corrosion coatings.
The study "Fabrication of pH-responsive monodisperse microcapsules using interfacial tension of immiscible phases" was published in the journal Soft Matter.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - A seven-year field experiment on 88 tree stands across Oregon's western Cascade Range found no discernable difference in the abundance and occupancy rates of rare Oregon slender salamanders on recently harvested tree stands - clear-cuts - compared to stands late in the harvest rotation - older than 50 years.
The findings are published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management. The project was a collaboration of Oregon State University, Weyerhaeuser, Port Blakely Tree Farms, Bureau of Land Management and the Oregon Department of Forestry.