An incredibly rare hybrid warbler with mismatched color patterns has allowed researchers to disentangle the genetic drivers of two traits that usually come as a package deal--the black face mask and the black throat patch in blue-winged and golden-winged warblers. A new study describing the peculiar bird and pinpointing the location in the genome that controls the face mask and throat patch appears online in the journal Ecology. "Golden-winged warblers have both a black face mask and a black throat patch, while blue-winged warblers have neither," said Marcella Baiz, postdoctoral researcher at Penn State and first ...

Some exoplanet searches could be missing nearly half of the Earth-sized planets around other stars. New findings from a team using the international Gemini Observatory and the WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory suggest that Earth-sized worlds could be lurking undiscovered in binary star systems, hidden in the glare of their parent stars. As roughly half of all stars are in binary systems, this means that astronomers could be missing many Earth-sized worlds. Earth-sized planets may be much more common than previously realized. Astronomers working at NASA Ames Research Center have used the twin telescopes of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab, to determine that many planet-hosting ...

WASHINGTON, D.C.--A new study in Annals of Emergency Medicine highlights the importance of protecting physician residents--early-career doctors still in training--and emergency care teams from incidents of physical or verbal abuse. The survey of 123 physicians, residents, and staff in one emergency department found that 78 percent of all health care workers experienced a violent assault in the prior 12 months, including more than one in five (22 percent) emergency physician residents. Eighty-nine percent of residents experienced verbal assault by a patient in the prior 12 months, compared to 80 percent of other health care workers. "Violent ...

Philadelphia, June 28, 2021--Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have discovered that a specific type of lung cell exhibits unconventional immune properties and may contribute to the outcome of respiratory viral infections. The researchers focused on type II alveolar (AT2) cells, which are non-immune cells of the lung that are critical for basic lung health and tissue repair after lung injury. They found that AT2 cells express high levels of major histocompatibility complex II (MHC-II), an important immune system trigger, and that AT2 MHC-II expression appears to confer an appreciable ...

Researchers at the University of Chicago and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have leveraged existing advanced X-ray microscopy techniques to bridge the gap between MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and electron microscopy imaging, providing a viable pipeline for multiscale whole brain imaging within the same brain. The proof-of-concept demonstration involved imaging an entire mouse brain across five orders of magnitude of resolution, a step which researchers say will better connect existing imaging approaches and uncover new details about the structure of the brain. The advance, which was published on June 9 in NeuroImage, will allow ...

As social media and other online networking sites have grown in usage, so too has trolling - an internet practice in which users intentionally seek to draw others into pointless and, at times, uncivil conversations. New research from Brigham Young University recently published in the journal of Social Media and Society sheds light on the motives and personality characteristics of internet trolls. Through an online survey completed by over 400 Reddit users, the study found that individuals with dark triad personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) combined with schadenfreude - a German word meaning that one derives pleasure from another's misfortune - were more likely to demonstrate trolling behaviors. "People who exhibit ...

A discovery by a team of researchers, led by a Geisinger professor, could yield a potential new treatment for breast cancer. In a study published this month in Cell Reports, the team used small molecules known as peptides to disrupt a complex of two proteins, RBM39 and MLL1, that is found in breast cancer cells but not in normal cells. The research team discovered that the abnormal interaction between RBM39 and MLL1 is required for breast cancer cells to multiply and survive. The team developed non-toxic peptides that prevent these proteins from interacting in breast cancer cells, disrupting their growth and survival. "Because these proteins do not interact in normal ...

Anxiety, commonly termed as a feeling of fear, dread, and restlessness, is a perfectly normal reaction to stressful situations. However, a state of heightened anxiety, which is the reality for thousands of people who struggle to cope with these feelings, is called anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorder can invoke debilitating fear or apprehension, even without any immediate threat. Though intensive research over the years has yielded a plethora of information, and effective drugs like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been used to alleviate this condition, a lot remains to be understood about this complex condition and ...

The first two COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employed a technology that had never before been used in FDA-approved vaccines. Both vaccines performed well in clinical trials, and both have been widely credited with reducing disease, but concerns remain over how long immunity induced by the new vaccine technology will last. Now, a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, published June 28 in the journal Nature, has found evidence that the immune response to such vaccines is both strong and potentially long-lasting. Nearly four months after the first dose, people who received the Pfizer vaccine still had so-called germinal centers in their lymph nodes churning out ...

The use of transparent masks during communication increases comprehension of speech by about 10% for people with hearing loss and people with normal hearing, according to a study published in the journal Ear and Hearing. The study was conducted at the University of Texas in Dallas (USA), with the participation of Regina Tangerino, a professor at the University of São Paulo's Bauru Dental School (FOB-USP) in Brazil, and with support from São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP. "Our findings show that wearing a transparent mask can facilitate communication for everyone, ...

Hotels that opened their doors to homeless people in their community during lockdown generated greater positive word-of-mouth marketing than those that offered free accommodation to frontline healthcare workers, finds new University research. However, despite the positive impact on tourists' intentions to share the good news story, the immediate impact on intention to book a visit was the reverse, with people less inclined to book a stay at a hotel that had housed homeless people. Researchers at the Universities of Bath and Southampton were struck by news reports of the 'heart-warming initiatives' to offer free accommodation and wanted to investigate how they compared in terms of business benefit to the tourism sector. "Our study found that hotels that ...

A global leading cause of death today is a class of dreaded disorders called cardiovascular diseases (CVD), which are ailments of the heart and blood vessels, such as arrhythmia, stroke, coronary artery diseases, cardiac arrest, and so on. The causes for each CVD are different and can be genetic or lifestyle related; but one key risk factor is hypertension, also known as high blood pressure (BP). For instance, as a recent paper published in Chinese Medical Journal notes, in 2017, hypertension was a factor in over 2.5 million deaths in China alone, 95.7% of which were due to CVD. In this paper, Dr. Jing Liu, expert in the epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases ...

Scientists at the University of Southampton have found that a marine invasive species - a sea squirt that lives on rocky shores - could spread along 3,500 kilometres of South American coastline if climate change or human activities alter sea conditions. The researchers - working with colleagues at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Flinders University, Australia; University of Johannesburg and Rhodes University, South Africa - analysed the creature's DNA and used predictive modelling to identify regions it could move to and thrive in.1 Findings are published in the journal PNAS. The team took a multidisciplinary approach to predict the potential distribution of a species that is currently restricted. Studying species with small distributions ...

A new approach to molecular drug design has yielded a highly promising bladder cancer drug, which induced rapid shedding of tumour cells and resulted in a significant reduction in tumour size when used in clinical trials. These potent effects were seen in patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and the treatment was shown to be safe, as no drug-related side effects were observed. The exciting research involved a collaborative group of scientists from Trinity College Dublin, Charles University and Motol Hospital (Prague), Lund University, and startup company Hamlet Pharma. The study has just been published in leading journal Nature Communications. Bladder cancer - a global killer Bladder cancer is the fifth most common malignancy in Europe (and the ...

Preliminary results from the European gene therapy trial for Crigler-Najjar syndrome, conducted by Genethon in collaboration with European network CureCN, were presented at the EASL (European Association for the Study of the Liver) annual International Liver Congress on June 26. Based on initial observations, the drug candidate is well tolerated and the first therapeutic effects have been demonstrated, to be confirmed as the trial continues. Crigler-Najjar syndrome is a rare genetic liver disease characterized by abnormally high levels of bilirubin in the blood (hyperbilirubinemia). This accumulation of bilirubin is caused by a deficiency of the UGT1A1 enzyme, responsible for transforming bilirubin into a substance that can be eliminated by the ...

ATLANTA - JUNE 28, 2021 - A new study finds evidence for adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on declines in cancer detection and surgical treatments. The study, appearing in JNCI: The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, finds a 10.2% decline in real-time electronic pathology reports from population-based cancer registries in 2020 compared with those in 2019. This study observation period, through December 2020, is one of the longest to date for evaluating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer-related trends. To learn more about the indirect effects of the pandemic on cancer care, investigators led by Robin Yabroff, PhD, MBA of the American ...

Up to 7 million people each year receive care in an emergency department (ED) for chest pain, a symptom of a potential heart condition. Over 80 percent of chest pain patients, however, ultimately have no evidence of cardiovascular disease or acute coronary syndrome. To disincentivize patients from over-utilizing costly care, insurers and employers are increasingly opting for high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) that require significant out-of-pocket spending before coverage begins. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute investigated whether ...

The internet is full of dangers: Sensitive data can be leaked, malicious websites can allow hackers to access private computers. The Security & Privacy Research Unit at TU Wien in collaboration with Ca' Foscari University has now uncovered a new important security vulnerability that has been overlooked so far. Large websites often have many subdomains - for example, "sub.example.com" could be a subdomain of the website "example.com". With certain tricks, it is possible to take control of such subdomains. And if that happens, new security holes open up that also ...

The exoplanet satellite hunter CHEOPS of the European Space Agency (ESA), in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is participating along with other European institutions, has unexpectedly detected a third planet passing in front of its star while it was exploring two previously known planets around the same star. This transit, according to researchers, will reveal exciting details about a strange planet "without a known equivalent". The discovery is one of the first results of CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) and the first time that an exoplanet has been seen with a period longer than 100 days transiting a star which is sufficiently ...

Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University were able to obtain polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes using electrospinning. PTFE is known to be the most stable existent polymer. According to the scientists, it is a simple, affordable and easily scalable method, which will allow obtaining chemically stable membranes in industrial-scale production. The membranes can be used in petrochemical, aerospace, nuclear industries, carbon-free energy and medicine. The latest results of the research of physical and chemical properties and biocompatibility of the obtained membranes are published ...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's controversial decision to approve aducanumab for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease raises at least three major ethical issues that need to be addressed, states a new article in the Hastings Center Report: Billions of dollars in Medicare resources (which is to say, taxpayer dollars) are at risk of being unjustly squandered. Physicians must choose between facilitating this unjust squandering and denying desperate patients and families access to this drug. Patients and families are having false hopes legitimated and encouraged when physicians prescribe aducanumab. The drug's approval was contrary to the nearly unanimous judgment of an FDA advisory committee that there was little reliable evidence of significant ...

HOUSTON - (June 28, 2021) - Rice University computer scientists are sending RAMBO to rescue genomic researchers who sometimes wait days or weeks for search results from enormous DNA databases. DNA sequencing is so popular, genomic datasets are doubling in size every two years, and the tools to search the data haven't kept pace. Researchers who compare DNA across genomes or study the evolution of organisms like the virus that causes COVID-19 often wait weeks for software to index large, "metagenomic" databases, which get bigger every month and are now measured in petabytes. RAMBO, which is short for "repeated and merged bloom filter," is a new method that can cut indexing times for such ...

Neurons in the hippocampus fire during specific moments in time, according to research recently published in JNeurosci. The cells may contribute to memory by encoding information about the time and order of events. Episodic memories involve remembering the "what, where, and when" of past experiences. The "where" may be encoded by place cells in the hippocampus, which fire in response to specific locations. Rodents have hippocampal neurons that fire in response to specific moments in time -- the "when" -- but until recently it was not known if the human brain contained them too. Reddy et al. recorded the electrical activity of neurons in the hippocampus of epilepsy patients undergoing diagnostic invasive monitoring ...

In cancer therapy, the effectiveness of an approach is determined by its ability to preserve the non-cancerous cells. Simply put, the higher the collateral damage, the greater are the side-effects of a therapy. An ideal situation is where only the cancer cells can be targeted and destroyed. In this regard, photothermal therapy--an approach in which cancer cells infused with gold nanoparticles can be heated up and destroyed using near-infrared (NIR) light that is strongly absorbed by the gold nanoparticles--has emerged as a promising strategy due to its minimally invasive nature. "Because NIR light is able to penetrate biological tissues, it can illuminate ...

The Structural Bioinformatics and Network Biology laboratory, led by ICREA Researcher Dr. Patrick Aloy, has completed the bioactivity information for a million molecules using deep machine-learning computational models. It has also disclosed a tool to predict the biological activity of any molecule, even when no experimental data are available. This new methodology is based on the Chemical Checker, the largest database of bioactivity profiles for pseudo pharmaceuticals to date, developed by the same laboratory and published in 2020. The Chemical Checker collects information from 25 spaces of bioactivity for each molecule. These spaces are linked to the chemical structure of the molecule, the targets with which it interacts or the changes ...