A new snapshot of an ancient, far-off galaxy could help scientists understand how it formed and the origins of our own Milky Way.   At more than 12 billion years old, BRI 1335-0417 is the oldest and furthest known spiral galaxy in our universe.  Lead author Dr Takafumi Tsukui said a state-of-the-art telescope called ALMA allowed them to look at this ancient galaxy in much greater detail.  “Specifically, we were interested in how gas was moving into and throughout the galaxy,” Dr Tsukui said.  “Gas is a key ingredient for forming stars and can give ...

Professor Chen Shiyi's team at Huashan Hospital of Fudan University commented on the concept, policy, development and prospect of exercise prescription in the context of " Health for All", which was published in Research (10.34133/research.0284) under the title of " Exercise Prescription: Pioneering the “Third Pole” for Clinical Health Management". Modern lifestyles have led to reduced physical activity and a rise in chronic diseases from a young age. Exercise ...

Species throughout the animal kingdom feature vital interfaces between the outermost layers of their bodies and the environment. Intricate microscopic structures—featured on the outer skin layers of humans, as one example—are known to assemble in matrix patterns. But how these complex structures, known as apical extracellular matrices (aECMs) are assembled into elaborately woven architectures has remained an elusive question. Now, following years of research and the power of a technologically advanced instrument, University of California San Diego scientists have unraveled the underpinnings ...

Waltham — December 11, 2023 —   In recent years, clinical trial reports in major urology journals have been more likely to include data on harmful effects of treatments, reports a study in the January issue of The Journal of Urology®, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.  "Our analysis finds a marked increase in reporting of potential harms in randomized treatment trials ...

Researchers have identified a previously unrecognized class of antibodies—immune system proteins that protect against disease—that appear capable of neutralizing multiple forms of flu virus. These findings, which could contribute to development of more broadly protective flu vaccines, will publish December 21st by Holly Simmons of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, US, and colleagues in the open access journal PLOS Biology. A flu vaccine prompts the immune system to make antibodies that can bind to a viral protein ...

Despite use of tecovirimat since the beginning of the 2022 mpox outbreak, few data have been published on its antiviral effect in humans; this study predicts the impact of early tecovirimat administration on the time to viral clearance in patients with mpox infection, using an integrative modeling approach combining pre-clinical and clinical data ##### In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology:   http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002249 Article Title: Early administration of tecovirimat shortens the time to mpox clearance ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A lot has changed in the world since the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was enacted 50 years ago in December 1973.   Two researchers at The Ohio State University were among a group of experts invited by the journal Science to discuss how the ESA has evolved and what its future might hold.   Tanya Berger-Wolf, faculty director of Ohio State’s Translational Data Analytics Institute, led a group that wrote on “Sustainable, trustworthy, human-technology partnership.”  Amy Ando, professor and chair of the university’s Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, ...

New research, publishing December 21st in the open access journal in PLOS Biology, shows that tears from women contain chemicals that block aggression in men. The study led by Shani Agron at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, finds that sniffing tears leads to reduced brain activity related to aggression, which results is less aggressive behavior. Male aggression in rodents is known to be blocked when they smell female tears. This is an example of social chemosignaling, a process that is common in animals but less common—or less understood—in humans. To determine whether tears have the same affect in people, ...

Inspired by the structure of polar bear fur, researchers present a knittable aerogel fiber with exceptional thermal and mechanical properties. The fibers are washable, dyeable, durable, and well-suited to be used in advanced textiles. This allowed the researchers to test them in a sweater that demonstrated impressive thermal insulation, among other features. Aerogels are an ideal material for thermal insulation. They demonstrate high porosity and extremely low thermal conductivity. However, the application of ...

Racial disparities related to health and physical well-being motivate Americans to take action for social change more than racial disparities related to other factors, like economics, a new study finds. This is because health-related racial inequalities are perceived to be more unjust. The results suggest that framing racial disparities to tap into feelings of moral injustice may motivate policy reform – a finding of potential interest to policymakers, social movements, and citizens seeking to gain support for actions to reduce racial inequality. “…this work can help us understand ...

Genetic analyses of an Antarctic octopus show that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) collapsed during the Last Interglacial ~129,000 to 116,000 years ago when temperatures were only about 1 degree Celsius (°C) warmer than preindustrial levels. The findings suggest that WAIS collapse and resultant sea-level rise could be caused by even the minimal temperature rises projected by the most optimistic climate change mitigation plans. Climate change is driving unprecedented change to Earth’s cryosphere. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is considered particularly vulnerable to warming ...

In El Salvador, preference for cash and privacy fears deterred the widespread adoption of Bitcoin as an everyday currency, researchers report. The findings suggest that policies incentivizing cryptocurrency adoption as legal tender will likely fail unless populations are financially literate and already trust digital currencies. The introduction of digital currencies is one of the most important developments in monetary economics in the last decade. Unlike traditional digital currencies, which rely on central authorities such as governments or banks governed by regulations ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers mapped how the measles virus mutated and spread in the brain of a person who succumbed to a rare, lethal brain disease. New cases of this disease, which is a complication of the measles virus, may occur as measles reemerges among the unvaccinated, say researchers. Using the latest tools in genetic sequencing, researchers at Mayo Clinic reconstructed how a collective of viral genomes colonized a human brain. The virus acquired distinct mutations that drove the spread of the virus from the frontal cortex outward. "Our study provides compelling data that ...

Analysis of organic compounds – called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) – extracted from the Ryugu asteroid and Murchison meteorite has found that certain PAHs likely formed in the cold areas of space between stars rather than in hot regions near stars as was previously thought. The findings open new possibilities for studying life beyond Earth and the chemistry of objects in space. The only Australian members of an international research team, scientists from Curtin’s WA-Organic ...

Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME), Argonne National Laboratory, and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia have developed a new computational tool to describe how the atoms within quantum materials behave when they absorb and emit light. The tool will be released as part of the open-source software package WEST, developed within the Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials (MICCoM) by a team led by Prof. Marco ...

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men other than skin cancer, and more than 288,000 new cases are diagnosed every year, according to the American Cancer Society. The disease’s fatality rate has decreased by more than half since the 1990s, but there is still room for progress—especially in treating or preventing advanced, metastatic disease, which is much more likely to be fatal. A new paper published in Science Advances clarifies how an enzyme called SMYD3 may be involved in prostate ...

The Skin Ageing & Challenges 2023 conference, held in November 2023 in Lisbon, has recognized the outstanding contributions of Prof. Vladimir A. Botchkarev, a distinguished Professor of Dermatology and Co-Director at the Boston University Center for Aging Research, with the prestigious Skin Ageing & Challenges Best Scientific Award 2023. The award acknowledges Prof. Botchkarev's exceptional research in the field of skin biology and aging. Prof. Botchkarev's award-winning work, titled "Skin Aging in Long-Lived Naked Mole-Rats: Mechanisms and Perspectives", delves into the complicated aging process of Naked Mole Rats' skin. His comprehensive ...

Targeting Microbiota 2024: Vision, Strategies and Perspectives The 11th Annual Congress of the International Society of Microbiota (ISM), Targeting Microbiota 2024, is scheduled on October 17-18, at Corinthia Palace Malta. Targeting Microbiota 2024 will not only present the latest advancements but also serve as a pivotal hub for sharing visionary strategies and perspectives that will redefine the landscape of medicine. The Congress promises an immersive experience, offering a dynamic platform for the exchange of ideas, insights, and the exploration of innovative approaches that will shape the future of medicine. Save the date and ...

Highlights Messenger RNA (mRNA) is translated into proteins in the cytoplasm of cells. But rather than being a uniform “soup,” the cytoplasm is divided into multiple distinct compartments or regions. Each region is largely responsible for translating functionally similar types of mRNA, a new MSK study finds. And the location of translation determines the amount of protein produced by the mRNA. The movement of mRNA to specific regions is directed by their size and shape, as well as by RNA-binding protein partners. The findings could help develop new approaches to increase ...

Dec. 21, 2023 Contact: Nicole Casal Moore, 734-709-1651, ncmoore@umich.edu  Images and videos Better prosthetics: $3M to develop more natural robotic leg control An effort to create a control model that moves seamlessly between different activities like standing, walking and climbing stairs is renewed by the National Institutes of Health ANN ARBOR—A smoother experience for robotic prosthetic leg users is the aim of a University of Michigan project that has received renewed support from the National Institutes of Health. The R01 grant ...

Glenview, IL – The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) to improve diagnostic excellence in interstitial lung disease (ILD). The funded project, called, "'How We Do It': CHEST Experts Weigh In," aims to inform future best practices in reducing the time to diagnosis for ILDs. The activities in the series will prepare the learner to: define symptoms and patient profiles associated with ILD; recognize health inequities that may assist in the diagnosis of ILD; identify the appropriate tests that may help validate a suspicion of ILD; ...

Certain Frequencies Enhance Comprehension New research conducted by the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas investigates the impact of binaural beat (BB) on language skills. BB is a sound that occurs when two slightly mismatched pure tones are heard. There is a growing interest in using BB as a non-invasive neuromodulation to enhance cognitive performance. The study, Neural consequences of binaural beat stimulation on auditory sentence comprehension: an EEG study, was recently published in Cerebral Cortex.  Led by researchers in the Speech, Language and Music (SLAM) Lab, this EEG ...

Where You Live Matters: A First-of-Its-Kind Study Illustrates How Racism Is Interrelated With Poor Health   Study published in JAMA Network Open points to discrete factors, like voting participation, employment, education, and housing, that may serve as promising targets for interventions   New York, NY (December 21, 2023) – A team of health equity researchers from several institutions has leveraged a complex web of data to test a hypothesis: That structural racism is associated with resources and structures at the neighborhood level that are closely associated with poor health. What they found in an analysis of highly localized, ...

A new methodology that allows for the categorisation and organisation of single-cell data has been launched. It can be used to create a harmonised dataset for the study of human health and disease. Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge, EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), and collaborators developed the tool, known as CellHint. CellHint uses machine learning to unify data produced across the world, allowing it to be accessed by the wider research community, potentially driving new discoveries. In a new study, ...

A pancake stack of radioactivity-sensitive films carried through the sky by a balloon was able to take the world's most accurate picture of a neutron star's gamma ray beam. To achieve this, Kobe University researchers combined the oldest method of capturing radioactive radiation with the newest data capturing techniques and a clever time-recording device. The stars shine their light on us in the full range of the spectrum of light, from infra-red to gamma rays. For each of these bands, different sensing equipment is needed. The most challenging one is gamma rays, famous for being a high-energy product of nuclear fission, ...