FORT LAUDERDALE/DAVIE, Fla. - We know that the domestic cat has distant relatives that roam the earth - lions, tigers, cheetahs and mountain lions. Less familiar are the 38 distinct species in the Family Felidae, many with strange names like pampas cat, kodkod and rusty spotted cat. The new field of genomics - the unravelling of DNA genomes of separate species - is resolving old conundrums and revealing new secrets across the history of evolutionarily related species among cats, dogs, bears and ourselves. In the largest-ever study undertaken of Chinese cats, genetic detectives highlight the evolutionary uniqueness and premier conservation importance of the elusive Chinese mountain cat (Felis silvestris bieti), found only in the Tibetan ...

A joint research team led by Prof. FU Qiaomei from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences sequenced the ancient genomes of 31 individuals from southern East Asia, thus unveiling a missing piece of human prehistory. The study was published in Cell on June 24. Prof. FU's team used DNA capture techniques to retrieve ancient DNA from Guangxi and Fujian, two provincial-level regions in southern China. They sequenced genome-wide DNA from 31 individuals dating back 11,747 to 194 years ago. Of these, two date back to more than 10,000 years ago, making them the oldest ...

This worm that lives in the White Sea is able to restore lost body segments. However, it turned out that suppression of FGF protein activity disturbs this ability. Similar proteins are found in humans. This discovery may lead to developing methods of fast wound healing. The research findings are published in the journal Genes as part of the project supported by the Russian Science Foundation. Fibroblast growth factors (FGF) are proteins that play an important role in wound healing and tissue growth. When the need for regeneration of damaged body parts occur, FGFs are produced by epidermis, nervous tissue, macrophages and fibroblasts, which are the main cells of connective tissue. As a result, ...

Adolescent marijuana use and binge drinking did not significantly change during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite record decreases in the substances' perceived availability, according to a survey of 12th graders in the United States. The study's findings, which appeared online on June 24, 2021, in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, challenge the idea that reducing adolescent use of drugs can be achieved solely by limiting their supply. The work was led by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. In contrast to consistent rates of marijuana and alcohol use, nicotine vaping in high school seniors ...

Philadelphia, June 24, 2021 - After beginning treatment with remdesivir for COVID-19, a patient experienced significant bradycardia, or low heart rate. Her physicians used a dopamine infusion to stabilize her through the five-day course of remdesivir treatment, and her cardiac condition resolved itself at the end of the treatment. The case is discussed in Heart Rhythm Case Reports, an official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society, published by Elsevier. "Remdesivir has become the standard of care for COVID-19 pneumonia and there is a paucity of data on its cardiac effects," explained lead author Jomel Patrick Jacinto, DO, HCA Healthcare/USF ...

Motions of a remarkable cosmic structure have been measured for the first time, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The blast wave and debris from an exploded star are seen moving away from the explosion site and colliding with a wall of surrounding gas. Astronomers estimate that light from the supernova explosion reached Earth about 1,700 years ago, or when the Mayan empire was flourishing and the Jin dynasty ruled China. However, by cosmic standards the supernova remnant formed by the explosion, called MSH 15-52, is one of the youngest in the Milky Way galaxy. The explosion also created ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A new study demonstrates that many younger adult dental patients are taking medications and highlights the importance of dental providers reviewing medication histories regardless of age. The study from Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Dentistry looked at dental records from 11,220 dental patients over the age of 18. The results showed: 53 percent of all patients reported taking at least one medication 12 percent of those age 18-24 were taking at least one medication 20 percent of those age 25-34 were taking at least one ...

In a study in Nature Plants, Yiping Qi, associate professor of Plant Science at the University of Maryland (UMD), introduces a new and improved CRISPR 3.0 system in plants, focusing on gene activation instead of traditional gene editing. This third generation CRISPR system focuses on multiplexed gene activation, meaning that it can boost the function of multiple genes simultaneously. According to the researchers, this system boasts four to six times the activation capacity of current state-of-the-art CRISPR technology, demonstrating high accuracy and efficiency in up to seven genes at once. While CRISPR is more often known for its gene editing capabilities that can knock out genes that are undesirable, activating genes to gain functionality is essential to creating better plants ...

LA JOLLA--(June 24, 2021) When looking at a complex landscape, the eye needs to focus in on important details without losing the big picture--a charging lion in a jungle, for example. Now, a new study by Salk scientists shows how inhibitory neurons play a critical role in this process. The study, published May 25, 2021, in the journal Cell Reports, shows that inhibitory neurons do more than just inhibit neuron activity like an off-switch; paradoxically, they actually increase the amount of information transmitted through the nervous system when it needs to be flexible. To make this possible, inhibitory neurons need to be integrated into the circuit in a specific way. These observations could help scientists better understand and treat disorders involving our ability to focus and modulate ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- It can be difficult to get young kids to eat enough vegetables, but a new Penn State study found that simply adding more veggies to their plates resulted in children consuming more vegetables at the meal. The researchers found that when they doubled the amount of corn and broccoli served at a meal -- from 60 to 120 grams -- the children ate 68% more of the veggies, or an additional 21 grams. Seasoning the vegetables with butter and salt, however, did not affect consumption. The daily recommended amount of vegetables for kids is ...

Rude behavior at work has come to be expected, like donuts in the breakroom. Two decades of research on employee relationships shows that 98 percent of employees experience rude behavior at work, but now a new study suggests a large majority of workplace relationships are not characterized by rudeness. Isolated incidents of rude behavior at work, although somewhat common, do not point to widespread incivility between employees and their colleagues, according to a new UCF study. "Because prior research suggests workplace mistreatment is harmful and widespread, it is often called an epidemic, but our findings show that rude behavior is less like the flu and more like cholera," says Shannon Taylor, an associate professor of management and co-author of the ...

Berlin and Bath, 24th June 2021 - Precision-fermentation company Formo and the University of Bath co-published the first large-scale study of consumer acceptance for animal-free dairy products. Researchers surveyed 5,054 individuals from Brazil, Germany, India, the UK, and the USA to understand what consumers think of animal-free dairy products. Precision fermentation is a process that allows specific proteins to be produced via microorganisms. By inserting a copied stretch of cow DNA, microorganisms produce milk proteins. The process is more efficient than using animals to make proteins and avoids the negative side effects of industrial animal agriculture, which is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions. The findings of the study, published in ...

Leukemia is a group of blood cancers that affects thousands of people worldwide. However, with advances in medicine, several different types of leukemia can be effectively treated with donor stem cells through allogenic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). One such type of leukemia is B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), which is caused by uncontrolled proliferation and prolonged existence of cancerous B-cells. While allo-SCT can 'cure' B-ALL in several cases, there are also cases of failure, characterized by deterioration in health after a period ...

The brain is not a passive recipient of injury or disease. Research has shown that when neurons die and disrupt the natural flow of information they maintain with other neurons, the brain compensates by redirecting communications through other neuronal networks. This adjustment or rewiring continues until the damage goes beyond compensation. This process of adjustment, a result of the brain's plasticity, or its ability to change or reorganize neural networks, occurs in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease (HD). As the conditions progress, many genes change the way they are normally expressed, turning some genes up and others down. The challenge for researchers like Dr. Juan Botas ...

The central goal of cloud computing is to provide fast, easy-to-use computing and data storage services at a low cost. However, the cloud environment comes with data confidentiality risks attached. Cryptography is the primary tool used to enhance the security of cloud computing. This mathematical technique protects the stored or transmitted data by encrypting it, so that it can only be understood by intended recipients. While there are many different encryption techniques, none are completely secure, and the search continues for new technologies that can counter the rising threats to data privacy and security. In a recent study published in KeAi's International Journal of Intelligent Networks, a team of researchers from India and Yemen describe a novel, two-step cryptography ...

A research team, led by Prof. Nathaniel S. Hwang and Prof. Byung-gee Kim, from Seoul National University (SNU) and Prof. Dong Yun Lee, from Hanyang University, has used enzymatic crosslinking to create nanofilms on cell surfaces. SNU has announced that it has developed a "cell caging" technology for the applications in cell-based therapies. The "cell caging" technique can prevent immune rejection during heterologous islet cell transplantation, facilitate smooth cell insulin secretion, and treat type 1 diabetic patients without immunosuppressants. The research team succeeded in producing a nanofilm by using the electrostatic force to stack chitosan, which is a biological polymer, and hyaluronic acid in that order. To overcome the shortcomings ...

Across the world, type 2 diabetes is on the rise. A research group has discovered a new gene that may hold the key to preventing and treating lifestyle related diseases such as type 2 diabetes. The results of their research were published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research on June 18, 2021. Selenoprotein P (SeP) is an essential plasma protein containing the micronutrient selenium. However, too much SeP spells trouble. Excess SeP increases insulin resistance, thus weakening the effect of insulin, and worsening the metabolism of glucose. "Excess SeP is the enemy when it comes to type 2 diabetes," stressed professor Yoshiro Saito from the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Tohoku University and co-author of the ...

Female elephant seal weigh on average 350 kg, and dive continuously to the ocean's mesopelagic zone, about 200 to 1,000 meters deep, to consume their only prey: small fish that weigh less than 10 grams. Now, an international team of researchers, armed with eight years of data, may have answered a decades-long question: How do seals maintain their large size on such small prey? They published their answer on May 12 in Science Advances. "It is not easy to get fat," said paper author Taiki Adachi, research fellow with the National Institute of Polar Research and the School of Biology, University of St Andrews. "Elephant seals have to spend almost ...

Genome study reveals East Asian coronavirus epidemic 20,000 years ago An international study has discovered a coronavirus epidemic broke out in the East Asia region more than 20,000 years ago, with traces of the outbreak evident in the genetic makeup of people from that area. Professor Kirill Alexandrov from CSIRO-QUT Synthetic Biology Alliance and QUT's Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health, is part of a team of researchers from the University of Arizona, the University of California San Francisco, and the University of Adelaide who have published their findings in the journal Current Biology. In the past 20 years, there have been three outbreaks of epidemic severe coronaviruses: ...

In the 1950s, researchers made the first unexpected discoveries of dinosaur remains at frigid polar latitudes. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on June 24 have uncovered the first convincing evidence that several species of dinosaur not only lived in what's now Northern Alaska, but they also nested there. "These represent the northernmost dinosaurs known to have existed," says Patrick Druckenmiller of the University of Alaska Museum of the North. "We didn't just demonstrate the presence of perinatal remains--in the egg or just hatched--of one or two species, rather we documented at ...

Images of dinosaurs as cold-blooded creatures needing tropical temperatures could be a relic of the past. University of Alaska Fairbanks and Florida State University scientists have found that nearly all types of Arctic dinosaurs, from small bird-like animals to giant tyrannosaurs, reproduced in the region and likely remained there year-round. Their findings are detailed in a new paper published in the journal Current Biology. "It wasn't long ago that people were pretty shocked to find out that dinosaurs lived up in the Arctic 70 million years ago," said Pat Druckenmiller, the paper's lead author and director of the ...

The 'anterior cingulate cortex' is key brain region involved in linking behaviours to their outcomes. When this region was temporarily silenced, monkeys did not change behaviour even when it stopped having the expected outcome. The finding is a step towards targeted treatment of human disorders involving compulsive behaviour, such as OCD and eating disorders, thought to involve impaired function in this brain region. Researchers have discovered a specific brain region underlying 'goal-directed behaviour' - that is, when we consciously do something with a particular goal in mind, for example going to the shops to buy food. The ...

LA JOLLA, CA--New research led by scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and the University of Liverpool may explain why many cancer patients do not respond to anti-PD-1 cancer immunotherapies--also called checkpoint inhibitors. The team reports that these patients may have tumors with high numbers of T follicular regulatory (Tfr) cells. In a healthy person, Tfr cells do the important job of stopping haywire T cells and autoantibodies from attacking the body's own tissues. But in a cancer patient, Tfr cells dramatically dial back the body's ability to kill cancer cells. Anti-PD-1 cancer immunotherapies boost the body's cancer-fighting T cells, but ...

'Precision agriculture' where farmers respond in real time to changes in crop growth using nanotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI) could offer a practical solution to the challenges threatening global food security, a new study reveals. Climate change, increasing populations, competing demands on land for production of biofuels and declining soil quality mean it is becoming increasingly difficult to feed the world's populations. The United Nations (UN) estimates that 840 million people will be affected by hunger by 2030, but researchers have developed a roadmap combining smart and nano-enabled agriculture with AI and machine learning capabilities that could help to reduce this ...

A new study by engineers at MIT, Caltech, and ETH Zürich shows that "nanoarchitected" materials -- materials designed from precisely patterned nanoscale structures -- may be a promising route to lightweight armor, protective coatings, blast shields, and other impact-resistant materials. The researchers have fabricated an ultralight material made from nanometer-scale carbon struts that give the material toughness and mechanical robustness. The team tested the material's resilience by shooting it with microparticles at supersonic speeds, and found that the material, which is thinner than the width of a human hair, prevented the miniature projectiles from tearing through ...