Tech
What The Study Did: This observational study used a study group of children from the Netherlands to examine how common was the use of melatonin and its association with sleep patterns in school-age children.
Author: Henning Tiemeier, M.D., Ph.D., of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, is the corresponding author.
(doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.2084)
Showcasing precise control at the quantum level, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a method for making an ion (electrically charged atom) display exact quantities of quantum-level motion--any specific amount up to 100 packets of energy or "quanta," more than five times the previous record high of 17.
Gas-giant planets orbiting close to other stars have powerful magnetic fields, many times stronger than our own Jupiter, according to a new study by a team of astrophysicists. It is the first time the strength of these fields has been calculated from observations.
WESTMINSTER, Colorado - July 22, 2019 - Rapid increases in herbicide resistance show that weeds can undergo important genetic changes over very brief periods of time. But herbicide use isn't the only factor influencing the evolution of weeds.
An article featured in the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management shows climate and elevated levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) are also influencing how weeds evolve and may actually contribute to the development of herbicide resistance.
A new mechanism for the deactivation of switch proteins has been identified by researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum, headed by Professor Klaus Gerwert and Dr. Till Rudack from the Department of Biophysics, and the University of Uppsala in Sweden. Switch proteins such as Ras regulate many processes in the body and affect diseases such as cancer. The research team published their report on the newly discovered mechanism in the current issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, JACS, on 10 July 2019.
Ultra-accelerated reactions
When people notice one traffic hazard, they are less likely to see a simultaneous second hazard, according to new research from North Carolina State University. The finding has potential applications for both driver training and the development of automated, in-vehicle safety technologies.
The enzyme ribonucleotide reductase is a bottleneck for cancer cell growth. Scientists at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University have identified a way of targeting ribonucleotide reductase that may avoid the toxicity of previous approaches, informing focused drug discovery efforts.
The results were published on July 19 in Nature Communications.
The recent study from Burst Biologics challenges existing standards and outlines future safety and potency benchmarks.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. July 22, 2019--A team of scientists led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have discovered the specific gene that controls an important symbiotic relationship between plants and soil fungi, and successfully facilitated the symbiosis in a plant that typically resists it.
The discovery could lead to the development of bioenergy and food crops that can withstand harsh growing conditions, resist pathogens and pests, require less chemical fertilizer and produce larger and more plentiful plants per acre.
Manganese is not a particularly toxic mineral. In fact, people need a little in their diets to remain healthy.
Research at Washington University in St. Louis has shown however, that in conjunction with certain other chemicals, naturally occurring manganese can lead to big changes in the water in lead pipes. Depending on what disinfectants are used in the water, those changes can have significant -- even dangerous -- consequences.
The results were recently published in Environmental Science and Technology.
WASHINGTON -- Researchers have developed a laser-based system that can be used for airborne measurement of important atmospheric gases with unprecedented accuracy and resolution. The ability to collect this data will help scientists better understand how these atmospheric gases affect the climate and could help improve climate change predictions.
Physicists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have observed a magnetic phenomenon called the "anomalous spin-orbit torque" (ASOT) for the first time. Professor Virginia Lorenz and graduate student Wenrui Wang, now graduated and employed as an industry scientist, made this observation, demonstrating that there exists competition between what is known as spin-orbit coupling and the alignment of an electron spin to the magnetization. This can be thought of as analogous to the anomalous Hall effect (AHE).
A new tropical depression formed in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, far enough away from the coast so that no coastal warnings are needed. Infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite shows that Tropical Depression 5E's strongest storms were southwest of its center of circulation because of outside winds.
NASA's Aqua satellite used infrared light to analyze the strength of storms and found the bulk of them in the southern quadrant. Infrared data provides temperature information, and the strongest thunderstorms that reach high into the atmosphere have the coldest cloud top temperatures.
Miami Beach, FL--The sooner that a severe stroke patient can access thrombectomy, the more likely they are to experience a good outcome. A new study shows that using emergency helicopter ambulance services to transfer a patient to a hospital that can perform a stroke thrombectomy--a minimally invasive surgery which removes the blood clot in the brain causing the stroke--ensures faster access to potentially life-saving care.
Oak Brook, IL - The August edition of SLAS Technology features the cover article, "Technologies for the Directed Evolution of Cell Therapies," a review featured in the journal's March 2019 edition. The research, led by Dino Di Carlo, Ph.D., (University of California Los Angeles) highlights how the next generation of therapies are moving beyond the use of small molecules and proteins to using whole cells.