Modern genetic research often works with what are known as reference genomes. Such a genome comprises data from DNA sequences that scientists have assembled as a representative example of the genetic makeup of a species. To create the reference genome, researchers generally use DNA sequences from a single or a few individuals, which can poorly represent the complete genomic diversity of individuals or sub-populations. The result is that a reference does not always correspond exactly to the set of genes of a specific individual. Until a few years ago, it was very laborious, expensive and time-consuming to generate ...

Many eye diseases are associated with a restricted blood supply, known as ischaemia, which can lead to blindness. The role of the protein tenascin-C, an extracellular matrix component, in retinal ischaemia was investigated in mice by researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB). They showed that tenascin-C plays a crucial role in damaging the cells responsible for vision following ischaemia. The results were published online by the team in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience on 20 May 2021. As part of the research, the team around Dr. Susanne Wiemann and Dr. Jacqueline Reinhard from the Department of Cell Morphology and Molecular Neurobiology at RUB collaborated with Professor Stephanie Joachim's research group from ...

Included in the vast fallout stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists are paying closer attention to microbial infections and how life forms defend against attacks from pathogens. Research led by University of California San Diego scientists has shed new light on the complex dynamics involved in how organisms sense that an infection is taking place. UC San Diego Assistant Project Scientist Eillen Tecle in Professor Emily Troemel's laboratory (Division of Biological Sciences) led research focusing on how cells that are not part of the conventional immune system respond to infections when pathogens attack. Scientists have conducted extensive research on so-called "professional" immune cells that are defensive specialists. Much less is known about how "non-professional" cells ...

Alzheimer's disease - also called dementia - where memory and cognitive functions gradually decline due to deformation and death of neurons, and Parkinson's disease that causes tremors in hands and arms impeding normal movement are major neurodegenerative diseases. Recently, a research team at POSTECH has identified the structure of the agent that causes Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases to occur together. A research team led by Professor Joon Won Park and Ph.D. candidate Eun Ji Shin of the Department of Chemistry at POSTECH investigated the surface structure of hetero-oligomers found in the overlap of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, using an atomic force microscopy (AFM) to reveal their structural identity. This study was featured as the ...

While the plates carry water to the Earth's interior, phase transitions of dry olivine, the main mineral in the plates, are thought to be responsible for deep-focus earthquakes and plate deformation. This study resolves the contradiction of the presence of dry olivine even in wet plates. Takayuki Ishii, a researcher at the Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), China and the Bavarian Institute of Geosciences, University of Bayreuth, Germany, and Eiji Otani, a professor emeritus at Tohoku University, used high-pressure and high-temperature experiments to determine the water content of olivine under ...

Tiny charged electrons and protons which can damage satellites and alter the ozone have revealed some of their mysteries to University of Otago scientists. In a study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, the group looked at charged particles interacting with a type of radio wave called 'EMIC' - a wave generated in Earth's radiation belts (invisible rings of charged particles orbiting the Earth). Lead author Dr Aaron Hendry, of the Department of Physics, says it is important to understand how these waves affect the belts - which are filled with expensive and important satellites - and Earth's climate. "Much like the Earth's atmosphere, the Earth's magnetosphere - the region around the Earth where our magnetic field is stronger ...

A new study from the University of Kent, Toulouse Business School, ESSCA School of Management (Paris) and ESADE Business School (Spain) has revealed the three primary risks and benefits perceived by consumers towards autonomous vehicles (self-driving cars). The increased development of autonomous vehicles worldwide inspired the researchers to uncover how consumers feel towards the growing market, particularly in areas that dissuade them from purchasing, to understand the challenges of marketing the product. The following perceptions, gained through qualitative interviews and ...

There is growing evidence that house design can decrease the force of malaria infection. The world's most deadly assassin is Africa's malaria mosquito: Anopheles gambiae. In 2019, the World Health Organisation estimated that malaria killed 386,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly children. Whilst we think of the home as a sanctuary, in Africa, around 80% of the malaria bites occur indoors at night. Preventing mosquitoes from getting indoors is a simple way of protecting people from this often lethal disease. As most mosquitoes fly low to the ground, a team of researchers led by Durham University wondered whether ...

Fishery and aquaculture have given rise to an enormous uniformity in the diversity of bivalves along the more than 18,000 kilometer long Chinese coast, biologist He-Bo Peng and colleagues report in this month's issue of Diversity and Distributions. Climate zones Peng and colleagues sampled bivalves at 21 sites along the Chinese coast from the city of Dongliaodao in the tropical south, to the mudflats of Yalu Jiang, more than 2000 km further north and ice-covered for several months in winter. "At 19 out of these 21 sites, commercially exploited species dominated", Peng saw. "In the naturally occurring species, we still recognized the natural gradient with highest diversity in the tropics and lowest diversity in ...

The Manchester Arena terrorist bomb attack in 2017 exposed flaws in the response of emergency services that could be addressed with a new three-phase approach, research by the University of Bath School of Management shows. Current government guidelines outline a two-phase structure of 'response and recovery', which researchers discovered hampered effective communication between agencies, created over-reliance on centralised Police decision-making, and inhibited other services' ability to take initiative earlier in an emergency. "To better prepare responders for emergencies we recommend a three?phase structure of 'response/resolve/recovery' is introduced in place of the current guidelines ...

Skeletal muscle is the largest organ in the body that accounts for 30 to 40% of body weight and is responsible for multiple functions such as energy metabolism and heat production. However, skeletal muscle mass is reduced in some diabetics, and that muscle loss correlates with mortality. It has been reported that the differentiation of myoblasts, which are the muscle precursor cells, is reduced in diabetic patients, and this is thought to be one of the underlying causes of muscle loss. Assistant Professor Tomohide Takaya of Shinshu University recently reported that oligo DNA derived from the genome ...

The evolutionary history of fluvial geomorphology is the consequences of combined effects of tectonic, climate, lithology and base level. Previous researches had emphasized tectonic impacts on the fluvial system at the tectonically active region, while lithology and base level get little attention. In addition, the resistance of lithology may cause knickpoint and control the evolutionary history of landscape in relatively stable areas, and difference in local base-level is sufficient to induce drainage reorganization. Nevertheless, it is still unclear how far the lithology and base level affect the evolution of fluvial landforms in tectonically active areas. In this study, researchers chose the area in the NE Tibet Plateau (Laohu and Hasi mountains) (Figure ...

New research could enable better healthcare for patients with benign tumours of the adrenal glands. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have identified the levels of cortisol produced by the tumours which are associated with higher mortality rates. Up to half of benign adrenal tumours produce excessive amounts of the hormone cortisol. Until now, researchers did not know at which levels the cortisol could be harmful or even fatal for the patient. In a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers at Lund University and Skåne University Hospital followed up all patients diagnosed with benign adrenal tumours who came into contact with Skåne University Hospital or Helsingborg Hospital between ...

Metasurface holograms (meta-holograms) are ultra-thin artificial surfaces designed to shape incident light and project it to extremely wide angles. Meta-holograms have opened up numerous possibilities such as light multiplexing, information processing, 3D display, high-density data storage, and optical encoding. Despite of these remarkable advances, the road to practical applications of meta-holograms is hindered by artifacts that originate from strong interactions between the building blocks of the meta-holographic surface and inevitable fabrication defects, ultimately causing distortion and degradation to the holographic image. The small dimensions of the meta-hologram, together with the random nature of fabrication defects, make the artifacts problem ...

GEOLOGY There has long been controversy about whether the world's highest region, Tibet, has grown taller during the recent geological past. New results from the University of Copenhagen indicate that the 'Roof of the World' appears to have risen by up to 600 meters and the answer was found in underwater lava. The knowledge sheds new light on Earth's evolution. Tibet is referred to as the Roof of the World for good reason. With an average altitude of 4,500 meters above sea level and the world's two highest peaks, Mount Everest and K2, the vast Himalayan mountain range towers higher than anywhere else on Earth. But the Tibetan plateau's height has been ...

The goal of Kaare Hartvig Jensen, Associate Professor at DTU Physics, was to reduce the need for harvesting, transporting, and processing crops for the production of biofuels, pharmaceuticals, and other products. The new method of extracting the necessary substances, which are called plant metabolites, also eliminates the need for chemical and mechanical processes. Plant metabolites consist of a wide range of extremely important chemicals. Many, such as the malaria drug artemisinin, have remarkable therapeutic properties, while others, like natural rubber or biofuel from tree sap, have mechanical properties. Harvesting cell by cell Because most plant metabolites are isolated in individual cells, the method ...

When do bees sting and how do they organise their collective defence behaviour against predators? An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Universities of Constance and Innsbruck has provided new insights into these questions. Their study, published in BMC Biology, combined behavioural experiments with an innovative theoretical modelling approach based on "Projective Simulation". It shows that individual bees decide whether to sting - or not - based on the presence and concentration of an alarm pheromone. The scientists suggest that each bee has a likelihood of stinging that is not constant, but shows at least two internal thresholds for the concentration of the pheromone: one to start stinging and one to stop stinging. The computational modelling also revealed how several environmental ...

A long-standing theory assumes that terrestrial plants could only have developed by entering into a symbiosis with fungi, whereby the two organisms exchange resources in a mutually beneficial way. A new study by an international group of scientists has now confirmed this theory. By studying a liverwort species (a bryophyte related to mosses), the scientists succeeded in demonstrating that a lipid transfer takes place between the plant and the fungus similar to that already known to exist in plants with stems and roots - so called vascular plants. The study was led by French researchers from the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and the Université de Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, in collaboration with the ...

Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have found strong evidence that warm ice - that is, ice very close in temperature to zero degrees Celsius - may fracture differently than the kinds of ice typically studied in laboratories or nature. A new study published in The Cryosphere takes a closer look at the phenomenon, studied at the world's largest indoor ice tank on Aalto's campus. Understanding how ice breaks is crucial for ensuring safe harbours and bridges in cool climates, as well as transportation through historically ice-heavy regions. As global warming brings changes to once-predictable seasonal conditions, the rules underpinning infrastructure ...

A paper published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine presents the results from a study which examined the use of an infrared thermal imaging camera as a novel non-invasive point-of-care tool for lymphatic filariasis lower-limb lymphoedema. Thermal imaging has been used for several decades in a wide range of medical disciplines, but this is the first time it has been used for filariasis or any skin neglected tropical disease (NTD). LSTM's Dr Louise Kelly-Hope led the research. She said: "Infrared thermal imaging presents an innovative and objective method for quantifying clinical change in filarial lymphoedema status by using naturally emitting infrared radiation to capture skin surface temperatures. This ...

A recent study finds that the vast majority of Black adolescents have experienced racism, that they experience anticipatory stress about experiencing racism again, and that their racial identity can influence that stress in a variety of ways. "We know that racism is stressful," says Elan Hope, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of psychology at North Carolina State University. "Part of that stress is anticipatory - waiting for the next racist thing to happen. But not everyone experiences this stress the same way. We wanted to know how racial identity may influence ...

Non-parents expand the range of their facial expressions in caring for infants among primates, a team of anthropologists has found. The study shows the ability, among non-relatives, to both decipher facial expressions and to be attuned to others' emotional states, revealing the evolutionary nature of communication. The research, which appears in the journal Evolution, focused on the relationship between alloparenting, or infant care by non-parents, and the adoption of detailed facial expressions across more than 30 species of primates. "Our results confirm previous work indicating ...

FinBIF, which is coordinated and developed by the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus of the University of Helsinki: digitises natural history specimens and produces digital DNA barcodes collects born-digital observation records of professionals and amateurs alike integrates data collated from different sources distributes the data mass as open data offers data management services, such as platforms for recording and publishing monitoring data and for reporting observations, to researchers, the environmental administration and the public Typically, different types of species data and the different stages of the data life cycle, that is, digitisation, collection, ...

Whether in desalination, water purification or CO2 separation, membranes play a central role in technology. The Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon has been working for several years on a new variant: it consists of special polymers that form pores of the same size on the nanometer scale. The materials to be separated, such as certain proteins, can literally slip through these pores. Because these separation layers are very thin and thus very fragile, they are bound to a spongey structure with much coarser pores, providing the structure with the necessary mechanical stability. "A special aspect is that these structures form in an act of self-organization," says Prof. Volker Abetz, director of the Hereon Institute of Membrane Research and professor of physical chemistry at the University ...

Current wireless networks such as Wi-Fi, LTE-Advanced, etc., work in the lower radio spectrum, below 6 GHz. Experts warn that soon this band will become congested due to mushrooming data traffic. It is calculated that by 2024, 17,722 million devices will be connected. To meet the growing, ubiquitous demand for wireless broadband connectivity, communication via the terahertz band (THz) (0.1 to 10 THz) is seen as a necessary choice for 6G networks and beyond, due to the large amount of available spectrum in these frequencies. A study published in the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications presents a new communication design that ...