A team of scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich has now discovered that the odorant receptor OR5K1 is specialized to recognize pyrazines in both humans and domesticated animals. These are volatile substances that contribute to the typical odor of many vegetables or are formed when food is heated. In addition, pyrazines also play a role as signaling substances in intra- or interspecific communication. The new research results contribute to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the odor perception ...

A single measurement result is not a proof - this has been shown again and again in science. We can only really rely on a research result when it has been measured several times, preferably by different research teams, in slightly different ways. In this way, errors can usually be detected sooner or later. However, a new study by Prof. Andrej Pustogow from the Institute of Solid State Physics at TU Wien together with other international research teams shows that this can sometimes take quite a long time. The investigation of strontium ruthenate, a material that plays an important role in unconventional superconductivity, has now disproved an experiment that gained fame in the 1990s: it was believed that a novel form of superconductivity ...

The spinal cord is an important component of our central nervous system: it connects the brain with the rest of the body and plays a crucial part in coordinating our sensations with our actions. Falls, violence, disease - various forms of trauma can cause irreversible damage to the spinal cord, leading to paralysis, sometimes even death. Although many vertebrates, including humans, are unable to recover from a spinal cord injury, some animals stand out. For instance, the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum), a salamander from Mexico, has the remarkable ability to regenerate its spinal cord after an injury. When an axolotl's tail is amputated, neural stem cells residing in the spinal cord are recruited to the injury ...

Researchers have identified a combination of biological markers in patients with dengue that could predict whether they go on to develop moderate to severe disease, according to a study published today in eLife. Biomarkers are used to identify the state or risk of a disease in patients. Examples of biomarkers can include naturally occurring molecules or genes in the vascular, inflammatory or other biological pathways. The new findings could aid the development of biomarker panels for clinical use and help improve triage and risk prediction in patients with dengue. Dengue is the most common mosquito-borne viral disease to affect humans globally. In 2019, the World Health Organization identified dengue as one of the top 10 threats to global health, with transmission occurring ...

The ancient Maya city of Tikal was a bustling metropolis and home to tens of thousands of people. The city comprised roads, paved plazas, towering pyramids, temples and palaces and thousands of homes for its residents, all supported by agriculture. Now researchers at the University of Cincinnati say Tikal's reservoirs -- critical sources of city drinking water -- were lined with trees and wild vegetation that would have provided scenic natural beauty in the heart of the busy city. UC researchers developed a novel system to analyze ancient plant DNA in the sediment of Tikal's temple and palace reservoirs to identify more than 30 species ...

HOUSTON - (June 22, 2021) - How do you kill tumor cells that can't be targeted? Get their more susceptible neighbors to help. The Rice University lab of synthetic chemist K.C. Nicolaou, in collaboration with AbbVie Inc., has created unique antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) that link a synthetic uncialamycin analogue to antibodies that target cancer cells. Once they enter the targeted tumor cells, these ADCs exhibit a "significant bystander effect," according to the study. In other words, cancerous neighbor cells that aren't directly attacked by the drugs are also affected. The study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presents "an intriguing opportunity ...

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine have developed a blueprint for a protein that plays an important role in the development and regulation of reproductive organs. The knowledge advances our understanding of the protein anti-Müllerian hormone hormone (AMH), which helps form male reproductive organs and in females regulates follicle development and ovulation in the ovaries, explains Thomas Thompson, PhD, professor in the UC Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology. Scientists have been looking to regulate AMH because it might play a role in developing a novel contraceptive, aid in treatments for infertility ...

An enzyme found in fat tissue in the centre of our bones helps control the production of new bone and fat cells, shows a study in mice published today in eLife. The findings may help scientists better understand how the body maintains fat stores and bone production in response to changing conditions, such as during aging. They may also suggest new approaches to treating conditions that cause bone loss in older adults. Fat cells, including those found in the bone marrow, are increasingly recognised as an important part of the body that helps regulate body weight, insulin sensitivity and bone mass. Fat tissue ...

DETROIT - Jessica Damoiseaux, Ph.D., an associate professor with the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University, recently published the results of a three-year study of cognitive changes in older adults. The team followed 69 primarily African American females, ages 50 to 85, who complained that their cognitive ability was worsening though clinical assessments showed no impairments. Three magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRIs) at 18-month intervals showed significant changes in functional connectivity in two areas of the brain. "An older adult's perceived cognitive decline could be an important precursor to dementia," Damoiseaux said. "Brain alterations that underlie the experience of decline could reflect ...

(Boston)--Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80-85 percent cases of lung cancer and when diagnosed early, has a five-year survival rate of 50-80 percent. Black patients have lower overall incidence of NSCLC than white patients, but are more likely to be diagnosed at later stages. They also are less likely to receive surgery for early-stage cancer. Now a new study from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) highlights the impact that structural racism and residential segregation has on NSCLC outcomes. The researchers analyzed patient data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program--a database of Black and white patients diagnosed with NSCLC from 2004-2016 in the 100 ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- What motivated Americans to wear masks and stay socially distanced (or not) at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic? More often than not, it was partisanship, rather than perceived or actual health risk, that drove their behavior, according to a new study co-authored by researchers at Brown University. By analyzing the results of two online surveys of more than 1,100 adults in total, Mae Fullerton, a Class of 2021 Brown graduate, and Steven Sloman, a professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, found that in spring and fall 2020, political partisanship was the strongest predictor of whether someone ...

An analysis of survey data from more than 280,000 young adults ages 18-35 showed that cannabis (marijuana) use was associated with increased risks of thoughts of suicide (suicidal ideation), suicide plan, and suicide attempt. These associations remained regardless of whether someone was also experiencing depression, and the risks were greater for women than for men. The study published online today in JAMA Network Open and was conducted by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. "While we cannot establish that cannabis use caused the increased suicidality we observed in this study, these associations warrant further research, especially ...

What The Study Did: Researchers report their study found no association in SARS-CoV-2 positivity rates among health care workers wearing respirator masks compared with medical masks when performing nonaerosolizing routine patient care. Authors: :Aldon Li, M.D., of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Riverside, California, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: END ...

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2021 -- Two COVID-19 pandemic curves emerged within many cities during the one-year period from March 2020 to March 2021. Oddly, the number of total daily infections reported during the first wave is much lower than that of the second, but the total number of daily deaths reported during the first wave is much higher than the second wave. This contradiction inspired researchers from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus to explore the uncertainty in the daily number of infections reported during the first wave, caused by insufficient contact tracing between March and April 2020. In Physics of Fluids, ...

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2021 -- Emerging open-source programming language Julia is designed to be fast and easy to use. Since it is particularly suited for numerical applications, such as differential equations, scientists in Germany are using it to explore the challenges involved in transitioning to all-renewable power generation. Decarbonization implies a radical restructuring of power grids, which are huge complex systems with a wide variety of constraints, uncertainties, and heterogeneities. Power grids will become even more complex in the future, so new computational tools are needed. In Chaos, from AIP Publishing, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) scientists describe a software package they built to enable the simulation of general dynamical ...

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2020 -- Most models explaining how viruses are transmitted focus on viral particles escaping one person to infect a nearby person. A study on the role of microscopic particles in how viruses are transmitted suggests pollen is nothing to sneeze at. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis investigate how pollen facilitates the spread of an RNA virus like the COVID-19 virus. The study draws on cutting-edge computational approaches for analyzing fluid dynamics to mimic the pollen movement from a willow ...

Genetic mosaic individuals, which contain cells of different genotypes, arise naturally in multicellular organisms. In humans, the development of cancer - where one cell acquires a mutation that allows it to proliferate, while other cells don't - is a prime example of genetic mosaicism. But inversely, genetic mosaicism can be used to study and understand the development of disease. A common quirk of nature used to understand genes One experimental genetic mosaic approach is called Mosaic Analysis with Double Markers (MADM), in which genes are mutated in individual cells while, at the same time, the mutated cells are labelled in fluorescent colors. ...

Scientists at Nagoya University, with colleagues at Kyoto University in Japan, have uncovered a mechanism that allows a protein complex to bind to DNA without impeding some of the important processes of cell division. Their findings, published in the journal Cell Reports, could further understandings of developmental disorders arising from mutations in the gene that codes for the complex. DNA condenses during cell division to form structures called chromosomes that are formed of two identical copies, called sister chromatids. These sister chromatids are bound together by proteins called cohesins, until it is time for them to be pulled apart and directed into the newly formed cells. Scientists know quite a bit about the ...

The venom of a caterpillar, native to South East Queensland, shows promise for use in medicines and pest control, Institute for Molecular Bioscience researchers say. The Doratifera vulnerans is common to large parts of Queensland's south-east and is routinely found in Toohey Forest Park on Brisbane's southside. Dr Andrew Walker has been researching the striking looking caterpillar since 2017. "We found one while collecting assassin bugs near Toowoomba and its strange biology and pain-causing venom fascinated me," Dr Walker said. Unlike The Very Hungry Caterpillar that charmed generations of children around ...

"Detecting primordial black holes opens up new perspectives to understand the origin of the Universe, because these still hypothetical black holes are supposed to have formed just a few tiny fractions of a second after the Big Bang. Their study is of great interest for research in theoretical physics and cosmology, because they could notably explain the origin of dark matter in the Universe". You can see stars in the eyes of the members of the team led by Professor Fuzfa, astrophysicist at UNamur, when talking about the perspectives of their research. This project is the result of an unprecedented collaboration between the UNamur ...

Researchers from the Turku PET Centre and Technical University of Munich have discovered a new mechanism controlling satiation. According to the recently published study, the hormone secretin induces satiation by activating brown adipose tissue. Brown adipose tissue is known for its ability to generate heat in response to cold exposure. Its activity has been proven to be connected to normal weight and glucose metabolism as well as lesser risks of cardiovascular diseases. Meals have also been shown to increase the thermogenesis in brown fat, but the significance of this phenomenon has been unclear. ...

Teacher training students who practised teaching virtual pupils developed greater confidence in their teaching ability, according to a study from Linköping University. In the long term, simulation can make the students better prepared for their workforce debut. Teacher training programmes often have difficulty offering their students sufficient teaching practice for their future profession. Many teaching graduates feel unprepared when they start working, and some decide to change career path, despite good employment prospects caused by a teacher shortage. A group of researchers at Linköping University investigated whether teaching virtual pupils could make teacher training students better prepared for teaching in a real classroom. "By ...

Wouldn't it be amazing if printed images can look three-dimensional (3D)? Unfortunately, conventional prints like photographs display two-dimensional (2D) images with a fixed appearance as they contain only intensity and colour information. These prints are unable to display a 3D image because they lack directional control of light rays, hence resulting in the loss of depth information. To address this problem, a team of researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) used a nanoscale 3D printing technique to create high-resolution light field prints ...

A research team led by Professor Jang-Sik Lee of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has successfully developed the halide perovskite-based memory with ultra-fast switching speed. The findings from this study were published in Nature Communications on June 10, 2021. Resistive switching memory is a promising contender for next-generation memory device due to its advantages of simple structure and low power consumption. Various materials have been previously studied for resistive switching memory. Among them, halide perovskites are receiving much attention for use in the memory because of low operation voltage and high on/off ratio. However, halide perovskite-based ...

People who have contact with other social groups are more likely to be committed to social justice. However, an international study led by the University of Zurich has shown that for this to be the case, power relations and discrimination must be actively addressed and group-specific needs must be met. It is important that disadvantaged group members, such as racial minorities and LGBTIQ+ individuals, are given a voice, and that those who belong to advantaged groups do not feel labeled as biased. People who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against because they belong to a particular group often join forces with other disadvantaged people to fight together for better rights. Prominent examples of such political engagement are the women's rights movement, Black Lives ...