A clinical study led by Linköping University and financed by pharmaceuticals company Diamyd Medical has investigated whether immunotherapy against type 1 diabetes can preserve the body's own production of insulin. The results suggest that injection of a protein, GAD, into lymph nodes can be effective in a subgroup of individuals. The results have been published in Diabetes Care. In type 1 diabetes, the body's immune system attacks the cells that produce insulin. When the insulin-producing cells have disappeared, the body can no longer regulate blood sugar level, and a person with type 1 diabetes must take exogenous ...

Regular, standardized assessments of evacuation shelters can help keep people healthy following natural disasters, according to research published by Tohoku University scientists and colleagues in the journal Heliyon. The study found that a clean tap water supply and hygienic toilets were especially important for protecting evacuees from the spread of infectious diseases. "A clean water supply and maintaining hygiene are important for reducing environmental health risks among victims of natural disasters," says Tadashi Ishii, who specializes in disaster medicine at Tohoku University. "But scientists have not yet established a strong evidence base that describes the relationship between damage in resource supplies and infrastructure ...

HOUSTON - (May 24, 2021) - U.S. and Austrian physicists searching for evidence of quantum criticality in topological materials have found one of the most pristine examples yet observed. In an open access paper published online in Science Advances, researchers from Rice University, Johns Hopkins University, the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) present the first experimental evidence to suggest that quantum criticality -- a disordered state in which electrons waver between competing states of order -- may give rise to topological phases, "protected" quantum states that are of growing interest ...

A diverse microbial community has adapted to an extremely salty environment deep in the Red Sea. The microbes, many unknown to science, occupy a one-meter-thick area overlying the Suakin Deep, an expansive 80-meter-deep brine lake, 2,771 meters below the central Red Sea. The chemical properties of this thin "brine-seawater interface," along with the composition of microbial communities, change surprisingly rapidly across a sharp gradient. "Our study sheds light on how microorganisms in the Suakin Deep's brine-seawater interface make an oasis of life in the desert of the deep Red Sea," says microbial ...

Osaka, Japan - Scientists from the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, and NTN Next Generation Research Alliance Laboratories at Osaka University developed a machine learning method that combines convolutional neural networks and Bayesian hierarchical modeling to precisely predict the remaining useful life of rolling bearings. This work may lead to new industrial monitoring methods that help manage maintenance schedules and maximize efficiency and safety under defect progression. A rolling bearing consists of two rings separated by rolling elements (balls or rollers). Because of the ease of rolling, the rings can rotate relative to each other with very little friction. Rolling bearings are essential to almost all automated machinery with rotating elements. The bearings ...

Scientists used to perform experiments by stirring biological and chemical agents into test tubes. Nowadays, they automate research by using microfluidic chips the size of postage stamps. In these tiny devices, millions of microscopic particles are captured in droplets of water, each droplet serving as the "test tube" for a single experiment. The chip funnels these many droplets, one at a time, through a tiny channel where a laser probes each passing droplet to record thousands of experimental results each second. These chips are used for such things as testing new antibiotics, screening drug compounds, sequencing the DNA and RNA of single cells, and otherwise speeding up the pace of scientific ...

Three dozen dwarf galaxies far from each other had a simultaneous "baby boom" of new stars, an unexpected discovery that challenges current theories on how galaxies grow and may enhance our understanding of the universe. Galaxies more than 1 million light-years apart should have completely independent lives in terms of when they give birth to new stars. But galaxies separated by up to 13 million light-years slowed down and then simultaneously accelerated their birth rate of stars, according to a Rutgers-led study published in the Astrophysical Journal. "It appears that these galaxies are responding to a large-scale ...

Ever since the existence of molecules was proven and molecular reactions were predicted, humans have wanted to visually observe how such events proceed. Such observations of single-molecule reactions are highly important for the fundamental understanding of chemical sciences, which would aid in the development of novel catalysts, materials, or drugs, and help us decipher the complex biochemical processes. However, this was not possible for the longest time in modern chemistry, and so far the information of dynamical processes on the nanometer scale was obtained only from indirect methods because molecules ...

Healthcare and aerospace experts at King's College London, The Alan Turing Institute, the University of Cambridge, and the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at UT Austin in Texas have said advances in digital twin technology make it a powerful tool for facilitating predictive and precision medicine and enhancing decision-making for aerospace systems. Their opinion piece was published today in Nature Computational Science. When applied to healthcare, the digital twin, a virtual version of real-life objects that can be used to predict how that object will perform, could predict how a patient's disease will develop and how patients are likely to respond to different therapies. It is also of huge benefit in aerospace, where, for example, the technology ...

Climate change impacts felt in the Amazon rainforest prior to the arrival of European settlers after 1492 may have meant populations of indigenous people were already in decline before the 'Great Dying', new research has suggested. Scientists studying fossil pollen and charcoal data from across the Amazon say it appears to show that human management of the rainforest may have peaked around 1200 AD, before some sites were abandoned, allowing reforestation of these areas. The new research, involving University of Reading scientists and published in the journal Science, challenges the prior assumption that the largest population decrease in the Americas - known as the Great Dying - did not start until after European settlers carried new diseases to ...

Thermoelectric (TE) conversion offers a carbon-free power generation from geothermal, waste, body or solar heat, and shows promise to be the next-generation energy conversion technology. At the core of such TE conversion, there lies an all solid-state thermoelectric device which enables energy conversion without the emission of noise, vibrations, or pollutants. To this, a POSTECH research team proposed a way to design the next-generation thermoelectric device that exhibits remarkably simple manufacturing process and structure compared to the conventional ones, while displaying ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Two species of sand-stabilizing beachgrasses introduced to the Pacific Northwest starting in the early 1900s are hybridizing, raising new questions about impacts to the coastal ecosystems the non-native plants have been engineering for more than a century. Researchers in the Oregon State University College of Science identified the hybrid in a paper published in Ecosphere. In addition to their ecological implications, the findings are important in the context of coastal vulnerability to the effects of climate change, including increasing ...

Ibaraki, Japan - Ascending thoracic aortic aneurisms (aTAAs) occur when the walls of the aorta, the largest blood vessel in the body, weaken and begin to bulge. This can result in rupture or dissection (a tear in the aortic wall), leading to life-threatening bleeding and death. Sometimes these complications can occur before any symptoms of the aneurysm appear. However, an international team led by Hiromi Yanagisawa at the University of Tsukuba and Katja Schenke-Layland at Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen have used Raman microspectroscopy (an analysis technique that uses Raman scattering to probe ...

"If you build it, they will come," so says the idiom but it's the storytellers, knowledge-makers and an "agentic" or open-minded population who help create great entrepreneurial cities. A new research study, conducted by QUT, RMIT and the University of Indiana, analysed data from 362 American cities with a focus on human agency, entrepreneurial spirit, and economic growth. The study, based on geographic psychological profiles of millions of people based in the US, found people and an empowered city life matter in shaping urban vitality. The research points to San Francisco and Austin as the zip codes that drive the highest-impact ...

Feeling anxious can direct our attention and memory toward supernatural beings such as gods, a University of Otago study has found. Lead author Dr Thomas Swan, of the Department of Psychology, says the research may help explain how religious beliefs are formed. For the study, published in the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 972 participants completed an online recall test to determine if a bias to recall supernatural agents was stronger in anxious people, rather than non-anxious people. Those who felt anxious were more likely ...

Scientists are investigating whether rising global temperatures may lead to more stillbirths, saying further study is needed on the subject as climates change. Researchers from The University of Queensland's School of Earth and Environmental Science and the Mater Research Institute reviewed 12 studies, finding extreme ambient temperature exposures throughout pregnancy appeared to increase risk of stillbirth, particularly late in pregnancy. UQ PhD candidate Jessica Sexton said while this was very early research, it did show a possible link between stillbirth and high and low ambient temperature exposures during pregnancy. "Overall, risk of stillbirth appears ...

DALLAS, Sunday, May 23, 2021 - Late last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) alerted health care professionals that they are monitoring the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) and the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) for cases of young adults developing the rare heart-related complication myocarditis, after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna. The COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Technical Work Group (VaST) of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is reviewing several dozen cases of myocarditis that ...

A 23 year study being presented at the 23rd European Congress of Endocrinology (e-ECE 2021), on Monday 24 May 2021 at 14:40 CET (http://www.ece2021.org), has found that women who experience gestational diabetes (GDM) when they are pregnant, are more prone to developing type-1 and type-2 diabetes later in life. The long-term study suggests that autoantibody testing should be considered for women who experience GDM in order to have a better understanding of their prognosis. Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Globally, the number of people with diabetes rose from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in ...

Press release - Abstract 743: Effects of a very low-calorie ketogenic diet on androgen levels in overweight/obese men: a single-arm uncontrolled study New research reveals that a low-calorie ketogenic diet can help testosterone levels in overweight men, reducing overall levels of obesity A very low-calorie ketogenic diet can help testosterone and sex hormone (SHBG) levels in overweight men, according to a study being presented at the 23rd?European Congress of Endocrinology (e-ECE 2021), on Monday 24 May 2021 at 14:06 CET (http://www.ece2021.org). The study found that after following a recommended low-calorie ketogenic diet for four weeks, body weight, fat mass and body mass index (BMI) significantly decreased and a substantial increase of total ...

In everyday life, phase transitions usually have to do with temperature changes - for example, when an ice cube gets warmer and melts. But there are also different kinds of phase transitions, depending on other parameters such as magnetic field. In order to understand the quantum properties of materials, phase transitions are particularly interesting when they occur directly at the absolute zero point of temperature. These transitions are called "quantum phase transitions" or a "quantum critical points". Such a quantum critical point has now been discovered by an Austrian-American research team in a novel material, and in an unusually pristine form. The properties of this material are now being further investigated. It is suspected ...

A membrane made from threads of a polymer commonly used in vascular sutures can be loaded with therapeutic drugs and implanted in the body, where mechanical forces activate the polymer's electric potential and slowly release the drugs. The novel system, developed by a group led by bioengineers at UC Riverside and published in ACS Applied Bio Materials, overcomes the biggest limitations of conventional drug administration and some controlled release methods, and could improve treatment of cancer and other chronic diseases. The drawbacks of conventional drug administration include repeated administration, nonspecific biodistribution ...

For the first time, researchers have observed plasma jets interacting with magnetic fields in a massive galaxy cluster 600 million light years away, thanks to the help of radio telescopes and supercomputer simulations. The findings, published in the journal Nature, can help clarify how such galaxy clusters evolve. Galaxy clusters can contain up to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. Abell 3376 is a huge cluster forming as a result of a violent collision between two sub-clusters of galaxies. Very little is known about the magnetic fields that exist within this and similar galaxy clusters. "It is generally difficult to directly examine the structure of intracluster magnetic fields," says Nagoya University astrophysicist ...

DALLAS, May 24, 2021 -- Having a stroke or a transient ischemic attack (TIA), sometimes called a "mini-stroke," increases the risk for a stroke in the future. Identifying the cause of the stroke or TIA can lead to specific prevention strategies to reduce the risk of additional strokes, according to an updated guideline from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. The guideline is published today in Stroke, a journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association. Ischemic strokes account for 87% of strokes in the United States. An ischemic stroke occurs when blood flow in a vessel leading to the brain is blocked, by either clots or plaques. ...

CRISPR technology allows researchers to edit genomes by altering DNA sequences and by thus modifying gene function. Its many potential applications include correcting genetic defects, treating and preventing the spread of diseases and improving crops. Genome editing tools, such as the CRISPR-Cas9 technology, can be engineered to make extremely well-defined alterations to the intended target on a chromosome where a particular gene or functional element is located. However, one potential complication is that CRISPR editing may lead to other, unintended, genomic changes. These are known as off-target activity. ...

While many might consider a walk in the woods to be a quiet, peaceful escape from their noisy urban life, we often don't consider just how incredibly noisy some natural environments can be. Although we use soothing natural sounds in our daily lives - to relax or for meditation - the thunder of a mountain river or the crash of pounding surf have likely been changing how animals communicate and where they live for eons. A new experimental study published in the journal Nature Communications finds that birds and bats often avoid habitat swamped with loud whitewater river noise. Dr. Dylan Gomes, a recent PhD graduate of Boise State University ...