Controlling the process of destabilization is important when manipulating the unfolding and refolding of proteins in vitro (outside their native environment). To this end, urea and alcohol are used as cosolvents, substances added in small amounts along with water, to destabilize and denature proteins. Urea disturbs a native protein to produce disordered coils, and the interference by alcohol treatment yields helical structures. Research on the mechanism of cosolvents has shown that a protein’s stability between its native and denatured states is tied ...

Hook-ups where one partner is drunker than the other are more likely to be seen as assault, researchers at the University of Essex revealed.       A study by Dr Veronica Lamarche, from the Department of Psychology, discovered equal consumption was more important than levels of drunkenness.      This was the case even when couples had drunk to excess and was the same across sexualities and genders.       Dr Lamarche discovered that romantic rendezvous were seen most positively when couples drank the same low level of alcohol.      And encounters where one partner was ...

They published their work on Sep. 12 in Energy Material Advances.   "The great electrochemical phase-field simulation efforts devoted to exploring the dendrite growth mechanism under the temperature field recently," said paper author Shi, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University. "The uniformity of temperature distribution inside batteries has a substantial impact on the stability of Li electrodeposition and dissolution, and the mechanism underlying the temperature-dependent Li dendrite growth remains controversial."   Shi said ...

(WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2023) – Patients with multiple myeloma treated with idecabtagene vicleucel, known as “ide-cel,” a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, had no difference in overall survival outcomes regardless of race and ethnicity, according to a study published in Blood Advances. “With this study, we see that Black and white patients with multiple myeloma both respond well to ide-cel,” explained Laura Peres, PhD, an epidemiologist at Moffit Cancer Center and the study’s lead author. “We hope that these findings encourage the use of ide-cel ...

Biodiversity is essential for sustaining food security, livelihood, ecosystem health, and economic development and for preventing future epidemics. Asia, with nearly 60% of the world's population, stands out as a priority for urgent biodiversity conservation due to its large threatened species and protected areas (PAs), and many countries globally are facing extreme biodiversity and ecological threats. Satellite observations have shown that the human activities (i.e., cropland and artificial surface creations) in Asia have rapidly expanded since the 21st century and are being expanded to highlands (hilly and mountainous regions). Obviously, the intensification of human activities ...

Many people have experienced a muddy off-flavor in farmed fish. While the aquaculture industry has known about the problem for 20 years, it continues to impact the consumption of otherwise healthy and potentially sustainable fish. Now, University of Copenhagen researchers have been able to pinpoint exactly when the off-flavors emerge. And this can make it easier to deal with the compounds that turn people away from farmed fish. Yuk! Musty, earthy or muddy-tasting fish is never going to go over well with the family. Perhaps you’ve tasted it in trout caught from a put-and-take pond. The off-flavor ...

Highlights: High blood pressure affects a large share of the global adult population. Previous studies suggest probiotics may help prevent hypertension. New findings point to 2 additional probiotics as potential treatments. Blood pressure in hypertensive mice returned to healthy levels after treatment with Bifidobacterium lactis and Lactobacillus rhamnosus.  The researchers also identified relationships between unexplored gut microbes and hypertension. Washington, D.C. –  An estimated 40% of the global adult population have high blood pressure, or hypertension, ...

As a combustible fuel, the burning of hydrogen gas does not contribute to global warming.  Today, the majority of hydrogen gas is generated from fossil fuels, however, and this process releases greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.  Generating hydrogen gas from clean sources, such as the splitting of water molecules with electricity through electrolysis, is important to achieving future carbon neutrality, but current methods are inefficient and limit the commercial practicality of hydrogen-based technologies.  ...

HOUSTON – (Oct. 19, 2023) – Rice University scientists used a commercially available mixed-reality headset with custom-designed software to measure and analyze forest floor vegetation, demonstrating a correlation between animal diversity and the mapped habitat of a Tanzanian national park. According to the paper published in the journal Ecology, the greater the microhabitat surface area, the richer the biodiversity of its mammals. Traditional habitat field research requires a significant amount of time and effort, but Rice postdoctoral researcher Daniel Gorczynski reduced those costs by ...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Oct. 18, 2023 — In a significant breakthrough that could eventually extend the survival of patients with one of the deadliest of all malignancies, an international team of researchers have devised an investigational blood test that might one day help doctors detect pancreatic cancer earlier. The team from the U.S., China, South Korea and Japan created and tested a biomarker panel that detects small amounts of RNA genetic material that breaks off from pancreatic cancer cells and circulates in the bloodstream, known ...

Scientists and natural resource managers from Canadian First Nations, governments, academic institutions, and conservation organizations published the first results of a unique salmon population monitoring tool in Frontiers in Marine Science. This groundbreaking new technology, dubbed “Salmon Vision,” combines artificial intelligence with age-old fishing weir technology. Early assessments show it to be remarkably adept at identifying and counting fish species, potentially enabling real-time salmon population monitoring for fisheries managers.  “In ...

Unemployment among the youth is a serious problem in many developing countries, especially in Africa. This issue stems in great part from a stagnant manufacturing sector. Firms in African countries have failed to grow significantly over the past decade, leading to fewer job positions for the youth. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a promising avenue for addressing this challenge. Local firms in developing countries can learn advanced technologies and management strategies from multinational companies. This transmission of knowledge, in general, helps make ...

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest and most diverse group of cell surface proteins in humans. These receptors, which can be seen as ‘traffic directors,’ transmit signals from the outside to the inside of cells and are involved in many physiological processes. Given their prominent roles in cellular communication, cell growth, immune responses, and sensory perception, many drugs have been developed to target GPCRs, for the treatment of conditions such as asthma, allergies, depression, hypertension, and heart disease. In fact, more than 300 GPCR-related drugs are currently in clinical trials, 36% ...

Proteins are important molecules that perform a variety of functions essential to life. To function properly, many proteins must fold into specific structures. However, the way proteins fold into specific structures is still largely unknown. Researchers from the University of Tokyo developed a novel physical theory that can accurately predict how proteins fold. Their model can predict things previous models cannot. Improved knowledge of protein folding could offer huge benefits to medical research, as well as to various industrial processes. You are literally made of proteins. These chainlike molecules, made from tens to thousands of smaller molecules called amino acids, form things like hair, ...

A McMaster University-led analysis published in the BMJ on Oct. 19, exposes high rates of injuries with forceps and vacuum delivery in Canada that have been documented for over a decade without efforts to address them.    The paper, titled Maternal and neonatal trauma during forceps and vacuum delivery must not be overlooked, was authored by perinatal epidemiologists, obstetricians, urogynecologists, community advocates and patient partners, and calls for increased recognition, transparency and action to prevent these injuries.   As part of the analysis, researchers present data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation ...

Toronto, ON — New research from the University of Toronto has revealed the mental health toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults with peptic ulcer disease (PUD), a painful condition in which gastric sores develop in the lining of the stomach or upper portion of the small intestine. The researchers examined a subsample of older adults from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, a national dataset of older Canadians. The sample consisted of 1,140 older adults with PUD, of whom 689 had a pre-pandemic history of depression and 451 had no history of depression. By using longitudinal data, the researchers were ...

Key takeaways: Eating more than one weekly serving of red meat may raise type 2 diabetes risk. Replacing red meat with plant-based protein sources, such as nuts and legumes, may reduce risk of type 2 diabetes. Embargoed for release: Thursday, October 19, 4:00 AM ET Boston, MA — People who eat just two servings of red meat per week may have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to people who eat fewer servings, and the risk increases with greater consumption, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. ...

Grouping English learners together in classrooms, a longstanding practice in schools, has no impact—positive or negative—on reading development for elementary school students, shows a new study by a team of literacy education researchers. “When I taught middle school 20 years ago, I noticed that my English learner students were separated from their native English-speaking peers all day long,” says NYU Steinhardt associate professor Michael Kieffer, the study’s lead author. “Data show that this practice continues in many places today, ...

Arlington, Va. — October 19, 2023 — A new report published today in the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) demonstrates that implementing a dedicated team of nurses to assist with central line insertions can reduce patients’ risk of developing bloodstream infections due to those central lines. In this report, infection preventionists at UNC Health found that having this dedicated team reduced the proportion of central line-associated bloodstream infections occurring within ...

Scientists have discovered the deepest known evidence of coral reef bleaching, more than 90 metres below the surface of the Indian Ocean. The damage – attributed to a 30% rise in sea temperatures caused by the Indian Ocean dipole – harmed up to 80% of the reefs in certain parts of the seabed, at depths previously thought to be resilient to ocean warming. However, scientists say it serves as a stark warning of the harm caused in our ocean by rising ocean temperatures, and also of the hidden damage being caused throughout the natural world as a result of climate change. The findings, highlighted in a study published ...

Of all the mammals, bats have one of the poorest fossil records, with palaeontologists estimating that about 80 per cent of it is missing. This has made it difficult to pinpoint exactly when they first began to fly, or began roosting in caves, or developed their unique way of ‘seeing’ their surroundings in the dark using sound – called echolocation. But a near-perfectly preserved bat’s skull discovered by French palaeontologists in a cave that dates back about 50 million years has shed new light on what we thought we knew about this ancient, ...

Many aquifers in California and around the world are being drained of their groundwater because of the combined impacts of excess pumping, shifts in land use, and climate change. However, a new study by scientists at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley, published on Oct. 18 in Nature Water, may offer a solution. It describes the development and operation of a novel incentive program that uses water rebates to pay for some of the costs of getting stormwater runoff into the ground. The program is called recharge net metering (ReNeM). Although ...

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a time-intensive and often stress-inducing fertility procedure. Yet how does that stress impact its success? Investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, assessed the effects of anxiety and depression in men on fertility and IVF outcomes. Their findings reveal no correlation between anxiety, regardless of antidepressant use, on IVF outcomes or live birth rate. Results are published in Human Reproduction. “Our findings indicate that despite past concerns over antidepressant medication’s ...

Niigata, Japan - A new Japanese ecological study revealed that prefecture-specific participation rates for Specific Health Checkups (SHC participation rates) had significant negative effects on prefecture-specific standardized incidence rates (SIRs) of treated ESKD and prefecture-specific prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The findings support the importance of increasing SHC participation rates at the population level and encouraging people to undergo regular health checkups. "Japan has one of the highest incidence and ...

A 2000-year-old practice by Chinese herbalists – examining the human tongue for signs of disease – is now being embraced by computer scientists using machine learning and artificial intelligence. Tongue diagnostic systems are fast gaining traction due to an increase in remote health monitoring worldwide, and a study by Iraqi and Australian researchers provides more evidence of the increasing accuracy of this technology to detect disease. Engineers from Middle Technical University (MTU) in Baghdad and the University of South Australia (UniSA) used a USB web camera and computer to capture tongue ...