Thanks to an unusual application of game theory and machine learning technology, a large team of scientists led by experts at Cincinnati Children’s has published the world’s most detailed “atlas” of the many types of stem cells and early progenitors involved in producing human blood from diverse donors. The team has identified more than 80 distinct subsets of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) – early-stage cells that kick off production of mature red cells, white cells ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As climate change worsens global drought conditions, hindering crop production, the search for ways to capture and store atmospheric carbon causing the phenomenon has intensified. Penn State researchers have developed a new high-tech tool that could spur changes in how crops withstand drought, acquire nitrogen and store carbon deeper in soil. In findings published in the January issue of Crop Science, they describe a process in which the depth of plant roots can be accurately estimated by scanning leaves with ...

Ammonia is one of the most widely produced chemicals in the world, and is used in a great many manufacturing and service industries. The conventional production technology is the Haber-Bosch process, which combines nitrogen gas (N2) and hydrogen gas (H2) in a reactor in the presence of a catalyst. This process requires high levels of temperature and pressure, resulting in substantial power consumption. Indeed, ammonia production is estimated to consume 1%-2% of the world’s electricity and to account for about 3% of global carbon emissions. In pursuit of more sustainable alternatives, researchers affiliated with the Center for Development of Functional Materials (CDMF) ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Forests and streams are separate but linked ecosystems, existing side by side, with energy and nutrients crossing their porous borders and flowing back and forth between them. For example, leaves fall from trees, enter streams, decay and feed aquatic insects. Those insects emerge from the waters and are eaten by birds and bats. An international team led by Penn State researchers has now found that these ecosystems appear to keep the energy exchanges in balance — a finding that the scientists called surprising. Scientists ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A product used to control pest slugs on farms in multiple countries is deadly to least one type of native woodland snail endemic to the Pacific Northwest, according to scientists who say more study is needed before the product gains approval in the United States. Dee Denver of the Oregon State University College of Science led a 10-week laboratory project that showed the effect of a biotool marketed as Nemaslug on the Pacific sideband snail. The study was published today in PLOS One. Nemaslug is based on the organism Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita, a species of tiny, parasitic worm known as a nematode. The ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Blood vessels engineered from stem cells could help solve several research and clinical problems, from potentially providing a more comprehensive platform to screen if drug candidates can cross from the blood stream into the brain to developing lab-grown vascular tissue to support heart transplants, according to Penn State researchers. Led by Xiaojun “Lance” Lian, associate professor of biomedical engineering and of biology, the team discovered the specific molecular signals that can efficiently mature nascent stem cells into the endothelial cells that comprise the vessels and regulate exchanges to and ...

EL PASO, Texas (Mar. 21, 2024) - Professors at The University of Texas at El Paso have launched a new industrial engineering lab focused on supporting human performance and behavior in various application areas. Projects include supportive exoskeletons for high-strain occupations and virtual reality that simulates high-stress environments. The facility, known as the Physical, Information and Cognitive Human Factors Engineering (PIC-HFE) Research Lab, was established with the help of a $350,000 STAR grant from the State of Texas. The lab is led by Priyadarshini Pennathur, Ph.D., and Arunkumar ...

Research Highlights: An analysis of health records for almost 110,000 women in the U.K. found that women with poor cardiovascular health after pregnancy or who experienced adverse pregnancy outcomes, including high blood pressure, gestational diabetes and/or pre-term birth, had a significantly higher long-term risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Among women with adverse pregnancy outcomes, those who maintained better cardiovascular health after pregnancy had cardiovascular disease risk similar to women who had no history of pregnancy complications. Embargoed until 1:30 p.m. CT/2:30 ...

https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.15212/AMM-2024-0006 Announcing a new publication for Acta Materia Medica journal. Endocrine therapy that blocks estrogen receptor signaling has been effective for decades as a primary treatment choice for breast cancer patients expressing the estrogen receptor. However, the issue of drug resistance poses a significant clinical challenge. It is therefore critically important to create new therapeutic agents that can suppress ERα activity, particularly in cases of ESR1 mutations. This review article highlights recent efforts in drug development of next ...

For most people, reading about the difference between a global average temperature rise of 1.5 C versus 2 C doesn’t conjure up a clear image of how their daily lives will actually be affected. So, researchers at MIT have come up with a different way of measuring and describing what global climate change patterns, in specific regions around the world, will mean for people’s daily activities and their quality of life. The new measure, called “outdoor days,” describes the number of days per year that outdoor temperatures are neither too ...

A collaboration between scientists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute uncovered four proteins that govern the identity of anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), an aggressive form of cancer. These proteins comprise a core regulatory circuit (CRC) that surprisingly incorporates a dysregulated signaling protein. Establishing the CRC for this lymphoma gives researchers insight into potential vulnerabilities that may be future therapeutic targets. The findings were published today in Cell Reports Medicine. “Mutations in signaling pathways have long been known to drive oncogenic transformation ...

Expanding organic cropland can lead to increased pesticide use in surrounding conventional fields while reducing pesticide use on nearby organic fields, according to a study based in a leading U.S. crop-producing region. The findings provide insight into overlooked environmental impacts of organic agriculture and suggest that clustering organic fields could reduce pesticide use at the landscape scale. Organic agricultural practices are designed to have less negative local environmental impacts than other forms of intensive agriculture. However, the ...

A particular gene plays a critical role in visual preference for mate choice between closely related Heliconius butterflies, according to a new study. The findings provide insight into how visually guided behaviors can be encoded within the genome. Many species use color and other visual cues to attract and recognize suitable mates. As such, visual preferences are important drivers of mate choice and sexual selection. However, while the genetics and evolution of the traits that serve as these cues – such as butterfly wing color  – are ...

Constructing human artificial chromosomes (HACs) in budding yeast overcomes the long-standing problem of uncontrolled multimerization – the rampant joining of similar molecules – and results in HACs that are large, stable, and structurally well-defined, researchers report. The findings may help advance chromosome engineering for precise genome editing in mammals and many other organisms. Artificial chromosomes can carry large numbers of engineered genes. Their use in bacteria and yeast as vehicles for writing and rewriting genomes has hinted at their potential to provide an alternative approach to editing genetic material in human cell lines. Although the first HACs were ...

In a Policy Forum, Alan Schoenfeld and Phil Daro argue that the “equity versus excellence” controversy over how mathematics is taught has long disrupted education in the United States, particularly for underrepresented ethnic and socioeconomic groups. According to Schoenfeld and Daro, K-12 mathematics education in the U.S. is structured in ways that are problematic and do not reflect international trends. For more than 50 years, the typical yet rigid sequence of hierarchical mathematics courses – algebra 1 to geometry to algebra II to precalculus to calculus – has disenfranchised ...

Tropical Heliconius butterflies are well known for the bright colour patterns on their wings. These striking colour patterns not only scare off predators – the butterflies are poisonous and are distasteful to birds – but are also important signals during mate selection. A team led by evolutionary biologist Richard Merrill from LMU Munich, in cooperation with researchers from the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá (Colombia) and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama), has now exploited the diversity of warning patterns of various Heliconius species to investigate the genetic foundations of these preferences. ...

When you are reading this article, there are multiple hormones working diligently inside your body to stabilize your health status. Same as human beings, it is impossible for plants to grow and reproduce without being regulated by phytohormones. One of the phytohormones is the Brassinosteroid (BR) hormones, also named as the sixth phytohormone. According to a study published in Science on March 22, 2024, researchers led by Prof. SUN Linfeng from the Division of Life Sciences and Medicine of the University of Science and Technology ...

    Images   A new way to make an important ingredient for plastics, adhesives, carpet fibers, household cleaners and more from natural gas could reduce manufacturing costs in a post-petroleum economy by millions of dollars, thanks to a new chemical reactor designed by University of Michigan engineers.   The reactor creates propylene, a workhorse chemical that is also used to make a long list of industrial chemicals, including ingredients for nitrile rubber found in automotive hoses and seals as well as blue protective gloves. ...

How does your brain know the position and movement of your different body parts? The sense is known as proprioception, and it is something like a “sixth sense”, allowing us to move freely without constantly watching our limbs. Proprioception involves a complex network of sensors embedded in our muscles that relay information about limb position and movement back to our brain. However, little is known about how the brain puts together the different signals it receives from muscles. A new study led by Alexander Mathis at EPFL now sheds light on the question by exploring how our brains create a cohesive sense of body position and movement. Published in Cell, ...

Species diversity promotes ecosystem stability Biodiversity loss may accelerate ecosystem destabilization What maintains stability within an ecosystem and prevents a single best competitor from displacing other species from a community? Does ecosystem stability depend upon the presence of a wide variety of species, as early ecologists believed, or does diversity do the exact opposite, and lead to instability, as modern theory predicts? Resolving a long-standing debate among ecologists A new study from McGill University and ...

University of Calgary researchers have discovered the lungs communicate directly with the brain when there is an infection. Findings show the brain plays a critical role in triggering the symptoms of sickness, which may change the way we treat respiratory infections and chronic conditions.   “The lungs are using the same sensors and neurons in the pain pathway to let the brain know there’s an infection,” says Dr. Bryan Yipp, MD '05, MSc'05, clinician researcher at the Cumming School of Medicine and ...

A team led by Dr. Samie Jaffrey, the Greenberg-Starr Professor of Pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been awarded a three-year, $1.65 million grant for RNA research under a biotechnology-development program run by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The competitive Molecular Foundations for Biotechnology program funds cutting-edge research that lays the groundwork for future clinical and industrial biotechnologies. The new award is one of nine that have been given to research teams across the United States this year, with funding assistance from the National Institutes of Health, to advance the promise of RNA-based therapeutics and ...

NEW YORK, NY / TORONTO, ON – March, 21, 2024 – Artificial intelligence may make it difficult for even the most discerning ears to detect deepfake voices – as recently evidenced in the fake Joe Biden robocall and the bogus Taylor Swift cookware ad on Meta – but scientists at Klick Labs say the best approach might actually come down to using AI to look for what makes us human. Inspired by their clinical studies using vocal biomarkers to help enhance health outcomes, and their fascination with sci-fi films like “Blade Runner,” the Klick ...

Although there are many differences between type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, there are also similarities, such as inflammation of the insulin-producing cells. Researchers at Lund University have studied a protein called C3, which plays a central role in the body’s immune system. The protein is secreted from cells and is found in large quantities in the blood. Previous studies by the same researchers have shown that C3 is also present inside cells and plays an important role there. Now, their latest study in PNAS shows that the protein C3 protects insulin-producing cells from damage and death when it is present ...

1. A NIMS research team has developed the world’s first n-channel diamond MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor). The developed n-channel diamond MOSFET provides a key step toward CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor: one of the most popular technologies in the computer chip) integrated circuits for harsh-environment- applications as well as the development of diamond power electronics. 2. Semiconductor diamond has outstanding physical properties such as ultra wide-bandgap energy of 5.5 eV, high carriers mobilities, ...