The "miracle of life" is most obvious at the very beginning: When the fertilized egg cell divides by means of furrows into blastomeres, envelops itself in an amniotic sac, and unfolds to form germ layers. When the blastomeres begin to differentiate into different cells - and when they eventually develop into a complete organism. "We wanted to find out whether the later differences between the various cells are already partly hard-wired into the fertilized egg cell," says Dr. Jan Philipp Junker, who heads the Quantitative Developmental Biology Lab at the ...

Researchers from Skoltech and Ludwig Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Germany have studied the fundamental properties of halide perovskite nanocrystals, a promising class of optoelectronic materials. Using a combination of theory and experiment, they were able to show and explain an intricate connection between composition, light-induced lattice dynamics, and stability of the materials. The paper was published in the journal Nature Communications. Perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) are semiconductor nanocrystals that, thanks to their unique properties, have found a number of applications in optoelectronics, for instance, in lasers and LEDs. PNCs have a much higher photoluminescence quantum ...

Accelerated cognitive decline in patients with and without existing dementia is one of the most disturbing outcomes of hospitalizations for older adults, affecting at least 2.6 million Americans every year. But the condition, known as delirium, is believed to be preventable in up to 40 percent of hospital-acquired cases, and researchers at UC San Franciso wanted to see if simple tweaks, like avoiding nighttime interruptions to promote sleep, nixing certain prescription drugs, and promoting exercise and social engagement, could decrease its incidence. In a June 8, 2021, study in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, the researchers followed approximately 22,700 inpatients aged 50 and ...

MELVILLE, N.Y., June 8, 2021 -- As face coverings have become more and more ubiquitous during the coronavirus pandemic, their effects on nearly every aspect of life have been called into question. For one, a better understanding of the impacts of face masks and shields on acoustic transmission in classrooms could help optimize educational settings. During the 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, which will be held virtually June 8-10, Laura and Rich Ruhala, from Kennesaw State University, will talk about how various types of face coverings may affect ...

MELVILLE, N.Y., June 8, 2021 -- In a disaster, time is of the essence when searching for potential victims who may be difficult to find. Unmanned aerial vehicles make the perfect platform for state-of-the-art technology allowing emergency crews to find those in need and provide situational awareness over a large area. During the 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, which will be held virtually June 8-10, Macarena Varela, from Fraunhofer FKIE, will describe how a system using an array of microphones and advanced processing techniques could be a lifesaver for disaster victims. The session, "Bearing Estimation of Screams Using a Volumetric Microphone Array Mounted on a UAV," will take place Tuesday, June 8, at 10:35 a.m. Eastern U.S. During ...

Variants of viruses, such as that causing COVID-19, can now be quickly studied in the laboratory, even before they emerge in nature and become a major public health challenge. The University of Queensland, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Monash University, and Queensland Health have developed a technology to manipulate viruses synthetically allowing rapid analysis and mapping of new potential virus variants. UQ's lead researcher Professor Alexander Khromykh said the technology was ideal for use during a global pandemic such as COVID-19. "This technique should give us the ability to answer questions about whether potential virus variants are susceptible to a particular drug or vaccine, even before they emerge ...

Blue whales may be the biggest animals in the world, but they're also some of the hardest to find. Not only are they rare (it's estimated that less than 0.15 per cent of blue whales in the Southern Hemisphere survived whaling), they're also reclusive by nature and can cover vast areas of ocean. But now, a team of scientists led by UNSW Sydney are confident they've discovered a new population of pygmy blue whales, the smallest subspecies of blue whales, in the Indian Ocean. And it was the whales' powerful singing - recorded by underwater bomb detectors - that gave them away. "We've found a whole new group of pygmy blue whales right in the middle of the Indian Ocean," says UNSW Professor Tracey Rogers, marine ecologist and senior author of the study. "We ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (06/08/2021) -- New research from the University of Minnesota Medical School and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic reveals a possible new approach to preventing death and severe disease in elderly people infected with SARS-CoV-2. The researchers demonstrated in a preclinical study that senolytic drugs significantly reduced mortality upon infection from a beta-coronavirus closely related to SARS-CoV-2 in older mice. The study published in Science was co-led by Laura Niedernhofer, MD, PhD and Paul Robbins, PhD, both professors in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics and co-directors of the Institute on the Biology of Aging and Metabolism at the ...

A new tool developed by the University of Cordoba, in collaboration with the Nuclear Medicine Unit at the Hospital Reina Sofía, could allow healthcare personnel to diagnose different degrees of Parkinson's, a disease that, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data, affects 7 million people worldwide. To date, according to AYRNA group researcher Javier Barbero, "most diagnoses only determine whether or not the patient suffers from this disease." The research team has developed a system that makes it possible to specify the phase it is in, distinguishing between four different ones, based on severity. Specifically, this new methodology ...

New molecules, developed by researchers at Linköping University, have promising properties as possible drugs against epilepsy. A study published in the journal Epilepsia shows that several of the molecules have antiseizure effects. In people with epilepsy, the nerve cells in the brain become overactive, causing epileptic seizures. "More than 60 million people in the world have epilepsy. A third of them still experience seizures despite taking medication, so there is a pressing need for new types of drugs", says Nina Ottosson, principal research engineer in the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping ...

A new robot - named WomBot - that can be used to explore and study wombat burrows is presented in a study published in the journal SN Applied Sciences. Wombats reside and sleep in burrows and occupy a different burrow every four to ten days. Parasitic mites that cause sarcoptic mange, a serious disease affecting wombats, are thought to be transmitted when wombats occupy each other's burrows but it has not been clear whether conditions within burrows promote this transmission. Researchers from La Trobe University and the University of Tasmania, Australia developed WomBot in order ...

For the first time, a unique study conducted at Lund University in Sweden has tracked the meteorite flux to Earth over the past 500 million years. Contrary to current theories, researchers have determined that major collisions in the asteroid belt have not generally affected the number of impacts with Earth to any great extent. Researchers have been studying geological series since the 19th century in order to reconstruct how flora, fauna and the climate have changed over millions of years. Until now, however, almost nothing has been known about ancient meteorite flux - which makes sense since impact is rare, and the battered celestial bodies quickly break down as they encounter Earth's oxygen. A new study published in PNAS shows how researchers in Lund ...

New insight on the link between a gene called SORBS2 and congenital heart disease has been published today in eLife, with findings that may help explain the cause of the disease in some patients. Some people with congenital heart disease are missing part of the long arm of chromosome 4, otherwise known as chromosome 4q. Chromosomes are thread-like structures made up of DNA. When part of the chromosome is missing, it means that some of the genes located on that section are also lost. Previous studies have linked heart defects related to chromosome 4q deletion syndrome ...

Converting Central American tropical forests into agricultural land is changing the colour and composition of natural material washing into nearby rivers, making it less likely to decompose before it reaches the ocean, a new Southampton-led study has shown. The flow of dissolved organic material, such as soil, from land to the oceans plays an important role in the global carbon and nutrient cycles. Changing how land is used can alter the type and amount of material being transported, with widespread implications for ecosystems. In this latest study, an international research team set out to learn more about the effects of deforestation on the coastal environment by studying material that flowed into rivers from various settings in a Central American rainforest, tracking its progress into ...

applying a thin sheath around the defective vein eliminated the varicose vein problem in over 95 per cent of cases. The research team published their findings in the Journal of International Medical Research on 6 April 2021. When the blood pools in the leg Varicose veins are more than just a cosmetic problem: the unsightly bulges might result in serious health problems such as leg ulcers, thromboses or even pulmonary embolisms. The cause of varicose vein disease is usually a weakness in the connective tissue, which causes the vein wall to give way and thus the vein diameter to grow. This process is accelerated by pregnancy or frequent standing and sitting. The increase in vein diameter impairs the function of the vein valves. The valve leaflets are pulled apart and a leak ...

Weakened electrical signals in the brain may be an early warning sign of age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, suggests a study published today in eLife. The findings hint at new ways to identify early on patients who may have an age-related brain disease. They also provide new insights on the changes that occur in the brain as these diseases develop. "As tools for detecting Alzheimer's disease early are limited, there is a need to develop a reliable, non-invasive test that would enable early diagnosis," says first author Murty Dinavahi, who was a PhD Research Scholar at the Centre for Neuroscience, Indian ...

The Late Triassic Tianqiaoling flora is well-known in China, and its discovery has changed our understanding of Chinese Late Triassic phytogeographical divisions. More broadly, this flora has great significance for the study of phytogeography in East Asia during this time. However, the previous dating of this flora was only evidenced by plant fossils and stratigraphic correlation, and the accurate dating has still not been achieved. Recently, the team of Dr. Yuhui FENG of Shenyang Normal University collected isotope dating samples from the bottom of the Tianqiaoling Formation, which is conformally contacted the Tianqiaoling flora-bearing beds (Figure 1). The ...

Difficulty sleeping, sleep apnea and narcolepsy are among a range of sleep disorders that thousands of Danes suffer from. Furthermore, it is estimated that sleep apnea is undiagnosed in as many as 200,000 Danes. In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Department of Computer Science have collaborated with the Danish Center for Sleep Medicine at the danish hospital Rigshospitalet to develop an artificial intelligence algorithm that can improve diagnoses, treatments, and our overall understanding of sleep disorders. "The algorithm is extraordinarily precise. We completed various tests in which its performance rivaled that of the best doctors ...

When sailing along on the seas and you suddenly spot a porpoise's fin in the distance, chances are that you have only encountered a single animal. Porpoises are most often seen alone, but new research now suggests that they also roam in groups - and even enter into a sophisticated collaboration when hunting. The way they collaborate surprises us, because the common perception among biologists is that porpoises roam and hunt alone, says Associate Professor Magnus Wahlberg, who is an expert in marine mammals and heads the Marine Biological Research Centre at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). Drone footage has revealed group hunting among porpoises coming together to hunt schools of fish. The research team has recorded almost 44 hours of drone footage from the waters around ...

Men who suffer sensory loss, particularly hearing loss, are more likely to be physically inactive and obese than women, according to a new study published in the European Journal of Public Health. Researchers analysed data from more than 23,000 Spanish adults, and examined associations with physical inactivity and obesity in people with vision and hearing loss, and explored differences between men and women. Results suggest inactive people with hearing loss were 1.78 times more likely to be obese compared to those who did not have any hearing loss. In people who had difficulty seeing, the odds ratio is slightly smaller, with a likelihood ...

Systematic literature review provides evidence base for new therapeutic avenues in vasculitis Researchers have reviewed all clinical trials of targeted drugs used in the treatment of vasculitis. With this, they propose a completely mechanistic categorisation of these diseases, which may in time provide better treatment. Diseases which cause inflammation of the blood vessels are presently categorised according to the size of the blood vessels involved. But it would make more sense - and ultimately end with better treatment - if the diseases were categorised based on the causes of the inflammation. This is shown by a systematic literature review of clinical trials in vasculitis, which researchers from Aarhus ...

Astrophysicists from the University of Bath have developed a new method for pinpointing the whereabouts of extremely rare extragalactic objects. They hope their technique for finding 'changing-look quasars' will take scientists one step closer to unravelling one of greatest mysteries of the universe - how supermassive black holes grow. Quasars are believed to be responsible for regulating the growth of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. A quasar is a region of spectacular luminosity at the centre of a galaxy, powered by a supermassive black hole - the largest type of black hole, with a mass that exceeds that of our sun by millions or billions. There is a supermassive black hole ...

When it comes to climate change, policymakers may fail to see the trees for the forest. Turns out that the trees may be the answer after all, according to a study published by authors from more than seven countries on June 3rd in Nature Climate Change. "Climate change and biodiversity loss are two major environmental challenges," said paper author Akira S. Mori, professor at Yokohama National University. "But the vast majority of attention has been paid to one unidirectional relationship -- climate change as a cause and biodiversity loss as a consequence." Mori and his co-authors argue that climate change and species ...

Tuesday, 8 June 2021: A study by RCSI indicates that exercise is probably the most effective short-term treatment for depression in people with coronary heart disease, when compared to antidepressants and psychotherapy or more complex care. The study, led by researchers at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, is published in the June edition of Psychosomatic Medicine. This is the first systematic review to compare treatments for depression in those with coronary disease and the findings provides valuable clinical information to help doctors determine the best treatment plan for patients. The researchers reviewed treatment trials which investigated antidepressants, psychotherapy, ...

Around the globe, software-intensive organisations shift from plan-based development processes to Agile ones, intending to focus more on team interaction, better products, customers' needs, and readiness to change. But how do these organisations succeed with large-scale Agile software transformations - and how do the success factors relate? This has been discussed in the scientific community for several years. Now, Associate Professor Daniel Russo from Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University presents a long-term study, which sheds even more light on the ...