The human genome contains roughly three million letters. On average, the genome sequences of any two people differ from each other by about one in every 1,000 letters. Yet different variants occur, from substituted letters to entire missing sections of DNA. Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and the Regensburg Center for Interventional Immunology (RCI) have teamed up with Icelandic researchers to develop software that reliably and quickly identifies large deletions in ten-thousands of genomes simultaneously. The researchers have now published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. The human genome contains roughly three million letters ...

Japanese researchers have developed a simulation method to theoretically estimate the performance of heterogeneous catalyst by combining first-principles calculation (1) and kinetic calculation techniques. Up to now, simulation studies mainly focused on a single or limited number of reaction pathways, and it was difficult to estimate the efficiency of a catalytic reaction without experimental information. Atsushi Ishikawa, Senior Researcher, Center for Green Research on Energy and Environmental Materials, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), performed computation of reaction kinetic information from first-principles calculations based on quantum mechanics, and developed methods and programs to carry out kinetic simulations ...

The speed at which we produce facial expressions plays an important role in our ability to recognise emotions in others, according to new research at the University of Birmingham. A team in the University's School of Psychology carried out research which showed that people tend to produce happy and angry expressions more rapidly, while sad expressions are produced more slowly. The team found that our ability to form judgements about people's facial expressions has close links with the speeds at which those expressions are produced and is also closely related to the ways in which we would produce those expressions ourselves. The study is published in Emotion. "Being able to recognise and interpret ...

Much like the Jedis in Star Wars use 'the force' to control objects from a distance, scientists can use light or 'optical force' to move very small particles. The inventors of this ground-breaking laser technology, known as 'optical tweezers', were awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics. Optical tweezers are used in biology, medicine and materials science to assemble and manipulate nanoparticles such as gold atoms. However, the technology relies on a difference in the refractive properties of the trapped particle and the surrounding environment. Now scientists have discovered a new technique that allows them to manipulate particles that have the same refractive ...

The vegan diet is on trend. How this type of diet affects health is the subject of scientific studies. In a new study from the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the bone health of 36 vegans as well as 36 people following a mixed-food diet was determined with an ultrasound measurement of the heel bone. The result: on average, people following a vegan diet had lower ultrasound values compared to the other group. This indicates poorer bone health. In the study, the scientists also determined biomarkers in blood and urine. This aims ...

Managing invasive species--not eliminating them altogether--is a better use of time and conservation resources in many cases, according to a study led by a University of Alberta biologist. Every year, hundreds of introduced species cause billions of dollars in damage to ecosystems, agriculture and infrastructure in North America alone. The research, led by Stephanie Green, makes a case for working smarter, not harder, to temper the impact of destructive and widespread invasive species using a strategy called functional eradication. "Rather than trying to completely eliminate invasive species that have spread over large areas, which is very ...

Typically, light emitted from standard lasers has a controllable degree of freedom (DoF) which may be polarisation or beam shape. By suitably manipulating a laser with the introduction of specialised optical components, an output with 2 DoFs, such as vector vortex beams with controllable polarisation and orbital angular momentum (OAM). The term 'vector' describes a structured change in the polarisation across the beam and 'vortex' describes the twisting of the phase in the beam (OAM), much like a twisting tornado. Transcending 2 DoFs from a laser was not possible. By exploiting ray-wave duality in a frequency-degenerate laser, ...

Being older, overweight and having low haemoglobin levels (fewer red blood cells) could increase a patient's risk of developing debilitating nerve damage following chemotherapy, a research team led by UNSW Sydney has revealed. The researchers aimed to identify pre-treatment clinical and blood-based risk factors in patients who developed chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) - nerve damage in peripheral body parts, like hands or feet, as a result of chemotherapy. The study, published in JAMA Network Open recently, examined patients - mostly women - who received paclitaxel or oxaliplatin chemotherapy treatment, which are common treatments for breast, colorectal and gynaecological ...

In a colourful solution to a dangerous problem, Australian scientists are adapting a component from cutting-edge solar cells to design a rapid, light-based detection system for deadly toxins. While use of chemical warfare agents like sulfur mustard - better known as mustard gas - is banned internationally, we do rely on other strictly-controlled chemicals for agriculture, industry and throughout our daily lives, including fumigants like methyl iodide, which is used to control insects and fungi. The wrong amounts or incorrect use of these fumigants can be harmful to people and degrade the ozone layer. Because it's invisible and doesn't smell, it's hard to tell whether there are dangerous amounts of methyl iodide present, and until ...

An international team of researchers has identified the CNNM4 protein as a key regulator of magnesium in the liver and potential therapeutic target for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, according to a study published in the Journal of Hepatology. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, a form of fatty liver disease characterized by inflammation and liver fibrosis, is associated with obesity and has a worldwide prevalence of 1.7 billion people. Unhealthy nutritional habits and dietary imbalances are recognized as causes of many diseases. Magnesium is widely available in both plant and animal foods; most vegetables, legumes, peas, beans, and nuts are rich in magnesium, as are some ...

An exquisitely detailed global ocean model simulation from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has given scientists rare insight into where baby sea turtles may go in their "lost years" after they scramble off the sandy beaches where they are born and swim into the open ocean. This look at a critically important period in the life cycle of endangered loggerhead turtles could help inform more comprehensive conservation efforts that encompass regions of the open ocean where young turtles grow, and not just the nesting beaches. It also pinpoints regions of the ocean that are important to study to better understand how to protect sea turtles. ...

DALLAS, March 4, 2021 -- The rate of cardiovascular risk factors among Hispanic/Latino people living in the U.S. is very high, and while they are often aware of their health conditions, less than half of the Hispanic/Latino adults with history of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) had healthy blood pressure and cholesterol, and about half had healthy blood sugar levels, according to new research published today in Stroke, a journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association. According to the American Heart Association, from 2015 to 2018, 52.3% of Hispanic men and 42.7% of Hispanic women aged 20 years and older had cardiovascular disease (CVD). "It's a wake-up call for ...

Bottom Line: Cancer survivors had a greater risk of reduced ambulatory function, which was associated with an increased risk of death. Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research Author: Elizabeth Salerno, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who conducted the research at the National Cancer Institute Background: The diagnosis and treatment of cancer has been shown to be associated with poor functional health for common cancer types, such as those of the breast and prostate, but less is known about the association for other cancers, explained Salerno. "Given that cancer survivors are living longer than ever, ...

A new study led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has identified an association between slow walking pace and an increased risk of death among cancer survivors. While the study does not establish that slow walking is a cause of death, the association persisted across at least nine tumor types. Investigators now call for more research into these relationships and whether targeted interventions such as physical activity programs could help cancer survivors improve their ability to walk and increase survival after cancer diagnosis and treatment. The study, a collaboration between Washington University, the NCI of the ...

The loss of seagrass in the waters around the UK is much higher than previously estimated. A new study published in Frontiers in Plant Science concludes that, with high certainty, at least 44% of the UK's seagrasses have been lost since 1936, of which 39% has been since the 1980s. This study is one of the first of its kind to bring together seagrass data from diverse sources and give a systematic estimate of the current and historic extent of seagrass, as well as seagrass loss in the UK. The study was a collaboration between researchers at University College London, Kings College London, and Swansea University. Seagrasses as climate change superheroes Nature-based solutions are essential to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis, and seagrasses are highly ...

(Boston)--Children in Zambia under age 5 die at a rate that is between nearly six to more than 10 times higher than those in the U.S; it is estimated at 40-75 per 1000, compared to 6.98 per 1000. Identifying why these children are dying is the mission of Rotem Lapidot, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM). "Significantly, over 80 percent of all community infant deaths involved some form of delay. While it is impossible to know what would have occurred in the absence of such delays, the majority of infant deaths in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, are from causes for which effective treatments currently exist," explained Lapidot, the corresponding author on the study ...

The far-reaching mobility restrictions at the beginning of the Corona pandemic in March 2020 created a unique situation for atmospheric sciences: "During the 2020 lockdown, we were able to directly investigate the actual effects of drastic traffic restrictions on the distribution of air pollutants and on the emission of climate gases," says Innsbruck atmospheric scientist Thomas Karl. With his team, he has now published a detailed analysis of air quality during the first lockdown in the city of Innsbruck, Austria, in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. "We find significantly greater decreases of air pollutants than of carbon dioxide, for example," the researcher says, summarizing the results. In the past year, some studies showed contradicting ...

Tiny photonic devices could be used to find new exoplanets, monitor our health, and make the internet more energy efficient. Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, now present a game changing microcomb that could bring advanced applications closer to reality. A microcomb is a photonic device capable of generating a myriad of optical frequencies - colours - on a tiny cavity known as microresonator. These colours are uniformly distributed so the microcomb behaves like a 'ruler made of light'. The device can be used to measure or generate frequencies with extreme precision. In a recent article in the journal ...

Using data collected in a NASA Langley Mach 6 wind tunnel, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign replicated the hypersonic flow conditions of a compression ramp flow by means of Direct Numerical Simulation. The simulation yielded an abundance of additional data, which can be used to better understand the phenomena that occur surrounding vehicles traveling at hypersonic speeds. "Data from experiments are somewhat limited--for example taken from pressure probes at a few locations on a test object. When we run a numerical simulation, we acquire information - such as pressure, temperature, ...

A rapid microbiological point-of-care test to diagnose respiratory infections has proved popular with GPs and could reduce antibiotic prescribing in primary care, according to a National Institute for Health Research funded study by researchers at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol. There are high rates of antibiotic prescribing in primary care and the UK government has called for the introduction of rapid diagnostics to curb overuse. The RAPID-TEST study, published in the journal Family Practice today [4 March] evaluated ...

Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute and UCL have identified the trigger of a key cellular change in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a type of motor neurone disease. The findings could help develop new treatments for many neurological diseases with the same change, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. When the nervous system is injured, diseased or infected, star-shaped cells, called astrocytes, undergo 'reactive' changes in their behaviour. Whilst some of these reactive astrocytes become protective, others become harmful and damage surrounding motor neurons. Reactive astrocytes are observed in various neurodegenerative diseases including ALS, but there is a lack of understanding about what causes astrocytes to ...

The Wellcome Trust, one of the world's top funders of health research, stands to gain financially from the covid-19 pandemic, raising questions about transparency and accountability, reports The BMJ today. Independent journalist Tim Schwab shows how the charity plays a leading role in a WHO programme to support new covid-19 therapeutics, while holding investments in companies producing these same treatments. It follows news reports that another charity, the Gates Foundation, is also positioned to potentially benefit financially from its leading role in the pandemic response. Financial disclosures from late 2020 show that Wellcome has a £275m stake in Novartis, which manufactures dexamethasone, and a £252m ...

More than three quarters (78%) of hospitals surveyed between June and August 2020 reported that their paediatric cancer care had been affected by the pandemic. Almost half (43%) made fewer new cancer diagnoses than expected, while around one third (34%) noted a rise in the number of patients abandoning treatment. Nearly one in ten (7%) closed their paediatric cancer units completely at some stage during the pandemic. Hospitals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) were disproportionately affected, with unavailability of chemotherapy, treatment abandonment, and disrupted radiotherapy among issues more frequently reported. The COVID-19 pandemic has had major impacts on childhood cancer care worldwide, ...

Daily infusions of albumin provide no significant health benefit to patients hospitalised with advanced liver disease, over and above 'standard care', finds a large-scale multicentre trial led by UCL researchers. Albumin is a protein made in the liver that prevents fluid leaking from the bloodstream to other body tissues and carries various substances throughout the body, such as hormones or enzymes. In people with liver disease, low albumin levels are associated with an increased risk of death among hospitalised patients who have cirrhosis, and laboratory studies have shown albumin to have an anti-inflammatory effect. Therefore, albumin infusions are considered the best fluid for patients with cirrhosis and are an integral part of clinical care. Explaining the ATTIRE* trial, Principal ...

BOSTON - As the speed and scale of vaccinations against the SARS-CoV-2 virus ramps up globally, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) are calling for greater awareness and communication around a delayed injection-site reaction that can occur in some patients who have received the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine. In a letter to the editor published online in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the authors note Phase 3 clinical data from the Moderna vaccine trial did show delayed skin hypersensitivity in a small number of the more than 30,000 trial participants. However, the authors say the large, red, sometimes raised, itchy or painful skin reactions were never fully characterized ...