Tech
Recently, platinum-containing core-shell structures with tunable magnetic and catalytic properties have attracted intensive attentions and offered a wide range of applications. To date, their synthetic routes are mostly based on galvanic replacement, co-reduction, thermal decomposition and seed-mediated method. But the detailed formation mechanisms of core-shell structures in solution, especially, at gas-liquid interface are still not completely clear, which is mostly achieved based on post reaction studies or ex situ characterizations.
Photosensitized generation of singlet oxygen attracted a great deal of interest reaching applications in various fields owing to its high biological activity and strong oxidation, including organic synthesis, wastewater treatment, photodynamic therapy (PDT). Although singlet oxygen can be produced in a variety of ways, triplet state energy transfer from some organic molecules under light illuminations is one of the most efficient and controllable way to produce the active oxygen species, where the organics are called photosensitizers.
New research published by NUI Galway's Centre for Climate & Air Pollution Studies (C-CAPS) has shone light on the impact of clouds on climate change. The study has raised serious doubts of the likely impact of human-led interventions involving methods of cloud 'brightening' to counteract climate change. The new study has been published today in the Nature's journal - Climate and Atmospheric Science.
Analyses of cell signals provide insight into the origin of severe inflammatory symptoms that appear in various types of blood cancer and point to possible therapeutic approaches: In around one-fourth of patients suffering from juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML), there is evidence of mutations in the so-called KRAS gene in the leukemia cells. Patients affected by JMML carrying these mutations suffer particularly often from signs of inflammation, such as fever, weight loss, and an abnormal enlargement of the spleen.
Autoimmunity, a condition in which the body's immune system reacts with components of its own cells, appears to be increasing in the United States, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health and their collaborators.
Tiny fragments of plastic waste are dispersed throughout the environment, including the oceans, where marine organisms can ingest them. However, the subsequent fate of these microplastics in animals that live near the bottom of the ocean isn't clear. Now, researchers report in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology that lobsters can eat and break down some of this microplastic material, releasing even smaller fragments into the water that other deep-sea organisms could ingest.
Someday, microbial cyborgs -- bacteria combined with electronic devices -- could be useful in fuel cells, biosensors and bioreactors. But first, scientists need to develop materials that not only nurture the microbes, but also efficiently and controllably harvest the electricity or other resources they make. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have developed one such material that enabled them to create a programmable "biohybrid" system that conducts electrons from electricity-producing (exoelectrogenic) bacteria.
A national modelling paper predicting the number of available ICU beds across Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that self-isolation will likely not be enough to keep demand from exceeding supply. It is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Researchers modelled several scenarios:
A fast-acting anti-malarial compound discovered at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital was well tolerated and showed promising anti-malarial effects in the first study in humans. The findings appear online first this week in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) have defined a crucial window of time that mice need to key in on visual events. As the brain processes visual information, an evolutionarily conserved region known as the superior colliculus notifies other regions of the brain that an event has occurred. Inhibiting this brain region during a specific 100-millisecond window inhibited event perception in mice.
Consuming foods high in vitamin D may have heart-protective effects, according to new research published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.
The study was conducted during 2001-2012 and included 1,514 men and 1,528 women from the greater Athens area, in Greece. In the lowest, middle, and highest categories of vitamin D intake, cardiovascular events (such as heart attacks and strokes) occurred in 24%, 17%, and 12% of men and 14%, 10%, and 11% of women.
In most animals, females are larger than males, but in most mammals, males are larger than females. A new analysis published in Mammal Review examines the potential drivers of these differences.
Naturally occurring (geogenic) groundwater arsenic contamination is a problem of global significance, with noteworthy occurrences in large parts of the alluvial and deltaic aquifers in South and Southeast Asia. To address this problem tremendous research efforts have been dedicated over the last two decades to better understand the sources and distribution of arsenic-polluted groundwater.
Viruses that jump from animals to people, like the one responsible for COVID-19, will likely become more common as people continue to transform natural habitats into agricultural land, according to a new Stanford study.
The Russian side is represented by Structural Biology Lab (Kazan Federal University) and Institute of Proteins (Russian Academy of Sciences). This particular paper tackles the issue of stress resistance in Staphylococcus aureus. The results can help in finding new antibiotics.