Tech
Taenia solium--also called pork tapeworm--is a parasite which causes disease around the world, particularly in very poor communities with deficient santiation and where pigs roam free. Researchers have now analyzed the efficacy and adverse effects of three chemotherapeutics against T. solium and report their results in a review published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
WASHINGTON -- Researchers have harnessed the power of a type of artificial intelligence known as deep learning to create a new laser-based system that can image around corners in real time. With further development, the system might let self-driving cars "look" around parked cars or busy intersections to see hazards or pedestrians. It could also be installed on satellites and spacecraft for tasks such as capturing images inside a cave on an asteroid.
Dragonflies and damselflies are animals that may appear gentle but are, in fact, ancient hunters. The closely related insects shared an ancestor over 250 million years ago -- long before dinosaurs -- and provide a glimpse into how an ancient neural system controlled precise and swift aerial assaults.
Boston, MA -- In 2017, for every victim who died of a firearm injury in the U.S, three individuals survived. But the burden of firearm injuries is not limited to death. A new study led by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital finds that 6-to-12 months after traumatic injury, rates of chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other poor physical and mental health outcomes were alarmingly high among survivors of firearm violence -- even higher than among survivors who had sustained similar injuries in motor vehicle crashes.
New Haven, Conn. -- Volcanic activity did not play a direct role in the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs, according to an international, Yale-led team of researchers. It was all about the asteroid.
The Gouti lab from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) has developed functional neuromuscular organoids (NMOs) that self-organize into spinal cord neurons and muscle tissue. Together the two cell types form a complex neuronal network that directs muscle tissue to contract. The neuromuscular organoids, described in the journal Cell Stem Cell, represent a breakthrough for the study of human neuromuscular system development and disease.
Contrary to the findings of a 2019 study that associated the release of the Netflix series "13 Reasons Why" with an increase in monthly suicide rates among adolescent boys, a reanalysis of the data by the Annenberg Public Policy Center finds no evidence of contagion. The reanalysis, published today in PLOS ONE, found that after controlling for the dramatic increase in adolescent suicide in recent years, the show's release had no clear effect.
Scientists from Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, and the University of California San Diego have engineered the first breed of genetically modified mosquitoes resistant to spreading all four types of the dengue virus.
Dengue infects more than 390 million people every year.
Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting for hydrogen fuel generation has been considered the Holy Grail of electrochemistry. But to achieve it, many scientists believe the materials have to be abundant and low cost.
The most promising oxide photocathodes are cuprous oxide (Cu2O) photoelectrodes. In 2018 and 2019, researchers at EPFL achieved champion performance with cuprous oxide, rivaling photovoltaic (PV) semiconductor-based photocathodes.
The chess world was amazed when the computer algorithm AlphaZero learned, after just four hours on its own, to beat the best chess programs built on human expertise. Now a research group at Aarhus University in Denmark has used the very same algorithm to control a quantum computer.
All across the world, numerous research groups are attempting to build a quantum computer. Such a computer would be able to solve certain problems that cannot be solved with current classical computers, even if we combined all these computers in the world into one.
UK scientists have identified a new way to kill pancreatic cancer cells by 'pulling the plug' on the energy generator that fuels calcium pumps on their cell surface. The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, reports how switching off the cancer's energy supply causes the pancreatic cancer cells to become 'poisoned' by an irreversible build-up of calcium.
According to received wisdom, local activism against the establishment of industrial plants follows a cycle, with its highest intensity a short time after mobilization. If a firm stands, activism is destined to fade away. New research published in the Strategic Management Journal suggests us to think it again.
Micromotors are artificial microscale devices which can achieve autonomous movement by converting supplied fuels or externally provided energy into kinetic energy. Since the concept of micromotors was proposed, great scientific interest has been attracted, as a consequence, impressive progress has been made in exploiting various kinds of micromotors. Major efforts have revealed that micromotors present copious values in fields of biomedical engineering, environmental science, and so on. In particular, there is considerable interest in the use of micromotors in biosensing.
In the summer of 2019, larotrectinib was approved as the first drug in Europe to be used in numerous different solid tumours if the tumour tissue displays a so-called NTRK gene fusion. Since such a fusion of a Neurotrophic Tyrosine Receptor Kinase gene with another gene leads to increased proliferation of the tumour cells, the aim is to selectively block the corresponding signal pathway. The new inhibitor was approved for cases in which the disease is locally advanced or metastatic and there are no other satisfactory treatment options.
Superconductors allow electrical current to flow without any resistance - but only below a certain critical temperature. Many materials have to be cooled down to almost absolute zero, while some materials keep their superconducting properties up to much higher temperatures. How this "high-temperature superconductivity" works and how it is possible to develop new materials that are superconductors even at normal room temperature is still one of the great mysteries of modern physics.