PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Sensitivity of the Delta variant to sera from convalescent and vaccinated individuals

2021-07-09
The Delta variant was detected for the first time in India in October 2020 and has since spread throughout the world. It is now dominant in many countries and regions (India, the UK, Portugal, Russia, etc.) and is predicted to be the most prevalent variant in Europe within weeks or months. Epidemiological studies have shown that the Delta variant is more transmissible than other variants. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur (CNRS joint unit), in collaboration with Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou (part of the Paris Public Hospital Network or AP-HP), Orléans Regional Hospital and Strasbourg University Hospital, studied the sensitivity of the Delta variant ...

Dying cells protect their neighbors to maintain tissue integrity

Dying cells protect their neighbors to maintain tissue integrity
2021-07-09
To enable tissue renewal, human tissues constantly eliminate millions of cells, without jeopardizing tissue integrity, form and connectivity. The mechanisms involved in maintaining this integrity remain unknown. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS today revealed a new process which allows eliminated cells to temporarily protect their neighbors from cell death, thereby maintaining tissue integrity. This protective mechanism is vital, and if disrupted can lead to a temporary loss of connectivity. The scientists observed that when the mechanism is deactivated, the simultaneous elimination of ...

Huge volcanic eruption disrupted climate but not human evolution

Huge volcanic eruption disrupted climate but not human evolution
2021-07-09
New Brunswick, N.J. (July 9, 2021) -- A massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia about 74,000 years ago likely caused severe climate disruption in many areas of the globe, but early human populations were sheltered from the worst effects, according to a Rutgers-led study. The findings appear in the journal PNAS. The eruption of the Toba volcano was the largest volcanic eruption in the past two million years, but its impacts on climate and human evolution have been unclear. Resolving this debate is important for understanding environmental changes during a key interval in human evolution. "We were able to use a large number of climate model simulations to resolve what seemed like a paradox," said lead author Benjamin Black, an assistant professor in the Department ...

New 3D printable phase-changing composites can regulate temperatures inside buildings

New 3D printable phase-changing composites can regulate temperatures inside buildings
2021-07-09
Changing climate patterns have left millions of people vulnerable to weather extremes. As temperature fluctuations become more commonplace around the world, conventional power-guzzling cooling and heating systems need a more innovative, energy-efficient alternative, and in turn, lessen the burden on already struggling power grids. In a new study, researchers at Texas A&M University have created novel 3D printable phase-change material (PCM) composites that can regulate ambient temperatures inside buildings using a simpler and cost-effective manufacturing process. Furthermore, these composites can be added to building materials, like paint, or 3D printed as decorative home accents to seamlessly integrate into different indoor environments. "The ability to integrate phase-change materials ...

Combining gamification, cash incentive increases veterans' exercise

2021-07-09
We know that turning goals into a game can increase people's physical activity. We also know that financial incentives can be effective, especially when they're framed in a way where people lose money if they don't reach their goals. But a new Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania study adds to evidence that combining the two can result in significant gains. Researchers affiliated with Penn Medicine's Center for Health Care Innovation showed that a group of veterans who were overweight or obese and receiving care from a Philadelphia hospital were able to increase their daily step counts by more than 1,200, on average, when their personalized goals were paired with a game in which they received support from a buddy, all while they stood ...

Disparities in vaccine acceptance among adults in China

2021-07-09
What The Study Did: This survey study examined disparities in COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and approaches to improve vaccination rates among adults in China. Authors: Jingjing Ma, Ph.D., of Peking University in Beijing, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.1466) Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media advisory: The full study is linked ...

Changes in care delivery during COVID-19

2021-07-09
What The Study Did: Researchers characterized clinical content of ambulatory care among office-based compared with telemedicine visits in the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authors: G. Caleb Alexander, M.D., M.S., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.1529) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media advisory: The full study is ...

Researchers examine burden of electronic health record on primary care clinicians

2021-07-09
Primary care clinicians face a heavy administrative burden, spending significantly more time using the electronic health record (EHR) than their counterparts in other specialties. With studies demonstrating high rates of burnout among primary care clinicians, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and collaborators set out to examine how different types of primary care clinicians interface with the EHR. They found that general internal medicine and family medicine clinicians spent an average of two hours actively using the EHR each day, while general pediatric clinicians actively ...

UCPH researchers prove powerhouse malfunction as the major cause of Parkinson's Disease

2021-07-09
12,000 people in Denmark and 7 to 10 million people worldwide suffer from Parkinson's Disease (PD). It is the second most common neurogenerative disorder of aging and the most common movement disorder, but the cause of the disease is largely unknown. In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen show that the most common form of the disease, encompassing 90 to 95 percent of all Parkinson's Disease cases known as sporadic PD, is caused by a blockage of a pathway that regulates the nerve cell's powerhouse, the mitochondria. 'Just like when people eat, cells take what they need and get rid of the rest waste products. But if ...

Anti-tumor agent from the intestine

2021-07-09
It is believed to be involved in the development of chronic inflammatory intestinal diseases, to trigger diabetes, to be responsible for obesity, even neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's could have their causes here - not to mention depressions and autistic disorders. We are talking about the microbiome - the vast collection of bacteria in the human gut. It is estimated that each person carries around 100 trillion bacterial cells in their digestive tract, belonging to several thousand species. The microbiome has been the focus of research for 20 years - ever since a new technique made it possible to analyse these bacteria quickly and precisely: high-throughput sequencing. Since then, there has been an increasing body of findings that ...

The incidence of COVID-19 in a Brazilian regional soccer league is one of the highest

The incidence of COVID-19 in a Brazilian regional soccer league is one of the highest
2021-07-09
By Karina Toledo | Agência FAPESP* – A study conducted at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil shows that the incidence of infections by the novel coronavirus among professional soccer players in São Paulo state during the 2020 season was 11.7%, the same as among health workers in the front line of the response to the pandemic. To arrive at this number, the researchers retrospectively analyzed almost 30,000 RT-PCR tests performed on swabs from 4,269 athletes during eight tournaments of the São Paulo State Soccer Federation (FPF), the league responsible for organizing official championships in the state – six for men (the São Paulo Cup, Under-23s, U-20s, and the three divisions of the São Paulo Championship) and two for women (the ...

Major revamp of SNAP could eliminate food insecurity in the US

Major revamp of SNAP could eliminate food insecurity in the US
2021-07-09
URBANA, Ill. - Food insecurity is a major problem in the U.S., and it worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides some relief, but millions of Americans still lack adequate access to healthy food. A new study from the University of Illinois proposes a potential solution. "Restructuring SNAP as a Universal Basic Income (UBI) program or modified UBI is a straightforward way to eliminate food insecurity in United States. It's expensive but it is not difficult," says Craig Gundersen, distinguished professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at U of I. Gundersen authored the study, published ...

Turn off the blue light!

Turn off the blue light!
2021-07-09
Tsukuba, Japan - Extended exposure to light during nighttime can have negative consequences for human health. But now, researchers from Japan have identified a new type of light with reduced consequences for physiological changes during sleep. In a study published in June 2021 in Scientific Reports, researchers from University of Tsukuba compared the effects of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which have been widely adopted for their energy-saving properties, with organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) on physical processes that occur during sleep. Polychromatic white LEDs emit a large amount ...

Seeing with radio waves

Seeing with radio waves
2021-07-09
Tsukuba, Japan - Scientists from the Division of Physics at the University of Tsukuba used the quantum effect called "spin-locking" to significantly enhance the resolution when performing radio-frequency imaging of nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond. This work may lead to faster and more accurate material analysis, as well as a path towards practical quantum computers. Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers have long been studied for their potential use in quantum computers. A NV center is a type of defect in the lattice of a diamond, in which two adjacent carbon atoms have been replaced with a nitrogen atom and a void. This leaves an unpaired electron, which can be detected using radio-frequency waves, because its probability of emitting a photon ...

RIXS demonstrates magnetic behaviour in nickelate superconductors

RIXS demonstrates magnetic behaviour in nickelate superconductors
2021-07-09
The discovery of the first high-temperature superconductor in 1986 brought with it the hope that superconductivity would one day revolutionise power transmission, electronic devices and other technologies. Materials that show superconductivity (zero electrical resistance) generally do so at an extremely low temperature. For their use to become widespread and world-changing, we need to develop a material that is superconducting close to room temperature. Research showed that the first high-temperature superconductor - a copper oxide compound - was part of a ...

Hitting the right note

Hitting the right note
2021-07-09
Anyone who likes to sing in the shower probably knows that they sometimes sing out of tune. But what about professional singers? How well do they evaluate their own abilities? And what role does this self-assessment play in becoming a better musician? A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, New York University, and the University of Hamburg has now investigated these questions scientifically in a study of professional singers. The study participants, all female sopranos, were each recorded singing "Happy Birthday" in a studio. They were then asked to listen to all of the recordings and rate the pitch accuracy of both their ...

Virtual learning may help NICU nurses recognize baby pain

2021-07-09
Babies younger than four weeks old, called neonates, were once thought not to perceive pain due to not-yet-fully-developed sensory systems, but modern research says otherwise, according to researchers from Hiroshima University in Japan. Not only do babies experience pain, but the various levels can be standardized to help nurses recognize and respond to the babies' cues -- if the nurses have the opportunity to learn the scoring tools and skills needed to react appropriately. With tight schedules and limited in-person courses available, the researchers theorized, virtual e-learning may be able to provide a path forward for nurses to independently pursue training in this area. To test this hypothesis, researchers conducted a pilot study ...

Discovery of a mechanism for efficient autophagosome formation

Discovery of a mechanism for efficient autophagosome formation
2021-07-09
Drs. Nobuo Noda (Director) and Tatsuro Maruyama (Researcher) et al. at the Institute of Microbial Chemistry (BIKAKEN, Tokyo, Japan) discovered that lipidated Atg8(1), the most famous factor that mediates autophagy, has membrane perturbation activity and elucidated that this activity is responsible for efficient autophagosome formation. Autophagosome formation is an essential step in determining the target of degradation in autophagy, which is one of the mechanisms of intracellular protein degradation. It is known that lipidated Atg8 plays a primary role in autophagy processes; however, the molecular function of lipidated Atg8 on the autophagy-related ...

Immune cells assemble - boosting the effects of chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer

2021-07-09
A new study from Queen Mary University of London has demonstrated that immune cells can be stimulated to assemble into special structures within pancreatic cancer such that, at least in a pre-clinical model, researchers can demonstrate an improvement in the efficacy of chemotherapy. The body's immune system is a critical defence against illness such as infections, as has been highlighted by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The same immune system can also help us fight cancer. However, pancreatic cancer is different; a key feature of this cancer type is that the pancreatic cancer cells are surrounded by a dense, impenetrable barrier known as the stroma, which often blocks the access of immune cells to ...

NIST uses method to understand the molecular underpinnings of a disease affecting corals

NIST uses method to understand the molecular underpinnings of a disease affecting corals
2021-07-09
Coral reefs are a favorite spot for scuba divers and are among the world's most diverse ecosystems. For example, the Hawaiian coral reefs, known as the "rainforests of the sea," host over 7,000 species of marine animals, fishes, birds and plants. But coral reefs are facing serious threats, including a number of diseases that have been linked to human activity. To understand the connection between human activity and a type of tumorlike disease called growth anomalies (GAs), researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have collaborated with the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) and the National ...

ACR/Vasculitis Foundation release three new guidelines for treatment of vasculitis

2021-07-09
ATLANTA--The American College of Rheumatology (ACR), in partnership with the Vasculitis Foundation (VF), released three new guidelines for the treatment and management of systemic vasculitis. Vasculitis is a group of about 20 rare diseases that have inflammation of blood vessels in common, which can restrict blood flow and damage vital organs. The three guidelines cover six forms of vasculitis, and a fourth guideline on Kawasaki disease will be released in the coming weeks. "Many rheumatologists may have limited experience caring for patients with these diseases," ...

How robots and brain-computer interfaces could transform stroke patients' recovery

How robots and brain-computer interfaces could transform stroke patients recovery
2021-07-09
Strokes, which occur when the blood supply to part of our brain is interrupted or reduced, are the leading cause of death and disability in the adult population. Among the patients who survive, 75% will experience difficulties carrying out daily activities independently and need long-term functional exercises and rehabilitation. But the outcomes using traditional rehabilitation equipment are poor. In addition, the motivation of patients to train is often low. The Department of Neurology in Tongji Hospital, which is affiliated to Tongji Medical College at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, is recognised in China for the quality of its scientific research and clinical strength. Similarly, Zhejiang BrainCo, Ltd., incubated by the Harvard Innovation Lab, is a market ...

How sweet it is: Study finds songbirds CAN taste sugar

2021-07-09
Contrary to conventional thought, songbirds can taste sugar--even though songbirds are the descendants of meat-eating dinosaurs and are missing a key protein that allows humans and many other animals to taste sweetness. An international team investigated how many bird species can taste sweet and how far back that ability evolved. Their work was published today in the journal Science. The researchers offered two species of songbirds a choice between sugar water and plain water--nectar-taking honeyeaters, as well as canaries, a grain-eating bird not known for consuming sweet foods. They also examined taste receptor responses sampled from a variety of other species. Regardless of whether their main ...

Harvard-led physicists take big step in race to quantum computing

Harvard-led physicists take big step in race to quantum computing
2021-07-09
A team of physicists from the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms and other universities has developed a special type of quantum computer known as a programmable quantum simulator capable of operating with 256 quantum bits, or "qubits." The system marks a major step toward building large-scale quantum machines that could be used to shed light on a host of complex quantum processes and eventually help bring about real-world breakthroughs in material science, communication technologies, finance, and many other fields, overcoming research hurdles that are beyond the capabilities of even the fastest supercomputers today. Qubits are the fundamental building blocks on which quantum computers ...

Evolution in real time

2021-07-09
How does unicellular life transition to multicellular life? The research team of Professor Lutz Becks at the Limnological Institute of the University of Konstanz has taken a major step forward in explaining this very complex process. They were able to demonstrate - in collaboration with a colleague from the Alfred Wegner Institute (AWI) - that the unicellular green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, over only 500 generations, develops mutations that provide the first step towards multicellular life. This experimentally confirmed a theory on the origin of multicellular life, which says that the evolution of cell groups and the subsequent steps towards multicellularity can only take place when cell groups are both better at reproduction and more likely to survive than single cells. ...
Previous
Site 1836 from 8518
Next
[1] ... [1828] [1829] [1830] [1831] [1832] [1833] [1834] [1835] 1836 [1837] [1838] [1839] [1840] [1841] [1842] [1843] [1844] ... [8518]

Press-News.org - Free Press Release Distribution service.