The pandemic has made clear the threat that some viruses pose to people. But viruses can also infect life-sustaining bacteria and a Johns Hopkins University-led team has developed a test to determine if bacteria are sick, similar to the one used to test humans for COVID-19. "If there was a COVID-like pandemic occurring in important bacterial populations it would be difficult to tell, because before this study, we lacked the affordable and accurate tools necessary to study viral infections in uncultured bacterial populations," said study corresponding author Sarah ...

Bladder cancer is more aggressive and more advanced in South Texas residents ­than in many parts of the country, a study by the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson, indicates. The disease is also deadlier in Latinos and women, regardless of where they live nationwide, according to the research. The team from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), which includes the Mays Cancer Center, compared bladder cancer cases in the Texas Cancer Registry with cases in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program. SEER, which collects data on cancer cases from various locations and sources across the U.S., does not include Texas statistics. Cases covered the years ...

A Skoltech researcher has developed a theoretical model of wave formation in straits and channels that accounts for nonlinear effects in the presence of a coastline. This research can improve wave prediction, making maritime travel safer and protecting coastline infrastructure. The paper was published in the journal Ocean Dynamics. Predicting surface weather at sea has always been a challenging task with very high stakes; for instance, over 4,000 people died due to rough seas during Operation Overlord at Normandy in June 1944, an allied incursion where poor forecasting altered the course of the operation quite significantly. Current wave forecasting models used, for example, by NOAA in the US, are imperfect, but they have many tunable parameters to ensure a reasonably good prediction. However, ...

Low blood levels of immune cells called lymphocytes, in combination with higher levels of inflammation on PET/CT scans, are indicators of active sarcoidosis -- an inflammatory disease that attacks multiple organs, particularly the lungs and lymph nodes -- which disproportionately affects African Americans. The discovery by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago could help guide disease treatment. Their findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine. The researchers were looking for biomarkers -- both in the blood and in PET/CT scan findings -- ...

Large carnivores are generally sensitive to ecosystem changes because their specialized diet and position at the top of the trophic pyramid is associated with small population sizes. This in turn leads to lower genetic diversity in top predators compared to animals lower down the food chain. Genetic diversity is very important for a species' ability to survive and adapt to future changes. Extraordinary genetic diversity in an extraordinary cat In this study, the researchers sequenced the complete genome of 53 African leopards and compared them to the Amur leopards and other big cat species. To their surprise, the researchers found that the genetic diversity of African leopards is extremely high: Almost four times ...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of man-made chemical compounds and a current, emerging concern to environmental health. PFAS substances have unique characteristics-resistance to heat, water, oil and stains-that make them useful in a variety of industrial applications and popular in consumer goods. Many PFAS are stable and long-lasting in the environment, acquiring the name "forever chemicals." Industrial use of some of these compounds has been halted; however, many derivatives are still in commerce and more are under development. PFAS are now found in many compartments of the environment. In ...

On January 14, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted notice to the Federal Register that it would issue practice guidelines that exempt physicians from the requirement to apply for a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) in up to 30 patients at one time. This exemption has been placed on hold by the Biden administration and may require legislative change to implement. An exemption to the X-waiver has the potential to help reverse the morbidity and mortality associated with the opioid overdose epidemic, although without accompanying changes and attention it will not be enough. The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid overdose epidemic fueled by high-potency synthetic ...

Dr. Felix-Martin Werner, working at the Euro Academy Pößneck in Germany and Prof. Rafael Coveñas, working at the Institute of Neurosciences of Castilla and León, Salamanca in Spain, have been working on neurological and psychiatric disease for over ten years. In their most recent review, published in Current Pharmaceutical Design (Bentham Science Publishers) Werner and Coveñas cover information about the risk genes in schizophrenia and explain the importance of examining their single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP's). In schizophrenia, 260 risk genes ...

A computer network closely modelled on part of the human brain is enabling new insights into the way our brains process moving images - and explains some perplexing optical illusions. By using decades' worth of data from human motion perception studies, researchers have trained an artificial neural network to estimate the speed and direction of image sequences. The new system, called MotionNet, is designed to closely match the motion-processing structures inside a human brain. This has allowed the researchers to explore features of human visual processing that cannot be directly measured in the brain. Their study, published in the Journal of Vision, uses the artificial system ...

Over many decades now, traditional drug discovery methods have steadily improved at keeping diseases at bay and cancer in remission. And for the most part, it's worked well. But it hasn't worked perfectly. A lab on UNLV's campus has been a hub of activity in recent years, playing a significant role in a new realm of drug discovery -- one that could potentially provide a solution for patients who have run out of options. "It's starting to get to the point where we've kind of taken traditional drug discovery as far as we can, and we really need something new," said UNLV biochemist Gary Kleiger. Traditional drug discovery involves what is called the small molecule approach. To attack a protein that's causing disease in a cancer cell, for instance, ...

With COVID-19 making it vital for people to keep their distance from one another, the city of Toronto undertook the largest one-year expansion of its cycling network in 2020, adding about 25 kilometres of temporary bikeways. Yet, the benefits of helping people get around on two wheels go far beyond facilitating physical distancing, according to a recent study by three University of Toronto researchers that was published in the journal Transport Findings. University of Toronto Engineering PhD candidate Bo Lin, as well as professors Shoshanna Saxe and Timothy Chan used ...

Ithaca, NY--Famous for their uncanny ability to imitate other birds and even mechanical devices, researchers find that Australia's Superb Lyrebird also uses that skill in a totally unexpected way. Lyrebirds imitate the panicked alarm calls of a mixed-species flock of birds while males are courting and even while mating with a female. These findings are published in the journal Current Biology. "The male Superb Lyrebird creates a remarkable acoustic illusion," says Anastasia Dalziell, currently a Cornell Lab of Ornithology Associate and recent Cornell Lab Rose Postdoctoral Fellow, now at the ...

URBANA, Ill. - Food waste is a major problem in the U.S., and young adults are among the worst culprits. Many of them attend college or university and live on campus, making dining halls a prime target for waste reduction efforts. And a simple intervention can make a big difference, a University of Illinois study shows. Shifting from round to oval plates with a smaller surface area can significantly reduce food waste in dining halls, says Brenna Ellison, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE) and co-author on the study. "Americans waste about 31% of the food that is available at the retail and consumer levels," Ellison says. "All-you-can-eat ...

West Virginia University scientists used MRI scans to show what happens when ultrasound waves target a specific area of Alzheimer's patient's brains. They concluded that this treatment may induce an immunological healing response, a potential breakthrough for a disease that accounts for up to 80% of all dementia cases. Rashi Mehta, a researcher with the WVU School of Medicine and Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, led the study that appears in the journal Radiology. "Focused ultrasound is an innovative technique and new way of approaching brain diseases, including Alzheimer's disease," said Mehta, an associate professor ...

New research in mice published today in the journal Scientific Reports strengthens the growing scientific consensus regarding the role of the gut microbiome in neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease. The study, led by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University, found a correlation between the composition of the gut microbiome and the behavioral and cognitive performance of mice carrying genes associated with Alzheimer's. The mice carried the human amyloid precursor protein gene with dominant Alzheimer's mutations generated by scientists in Japan. The study further suggests a relationship between microbes in the digestive tract ...

A widespread field search for a rare Australian native bee not recorded for almost a century has found it's been there all along - but is probably under increasing pressure to survive. Only six individual were ever found, with the last published record of this Australian endemic bee species, Pharohylaeus lactiferus (Colletidae: Hylaeinae), from 1923 in Queensland. "This is concerning because it is the only Australian species in the Pharohylaeus genus and nothing was known of its biology," Flinders University researcher James Dorey says in a new scientific paper in the journal Journal of Hymenoptera Research. The ...

Immunologists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have mapped the previously unknown biological machinery by which the immune system generates T cells that kill bacteria, viruses and tumor cells. The findings have multiple implications for how the adaptive immune system responds to infections to generate such memory T cells. The experiments revealed mechanisms that inhibit development of the long-lived memory T cells that continually renew to protect the body over time. Blocking these inhibitory mechanisms with pharmacological or genetic approaches could boost protective immunity against infection and cancers. The researchers also discovered a subtype of memory T cells that they named terminal effector prime cells. Mapping the pathway that controls these cells raises the possibility ...

(Boston)--What if you could improve your heart health and brain function by changing your diet? Boston University School of Medicine researchers have found that by eating more plant-based food such as berries and green leafy vegetables while limiting consumption of foods high in saturated fat and animal products, you can slow down heart failure (HF) and ultimately lower your risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Heart failure (HF) affects over 6.5 million adults in the U.S. In addition to its detrimental effects on several organ systems, presence of HF is associated with higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Similarly, changes in cardiac structure ...

When building a nest, previous experience raising chicks will influence the choices birds make, according to a new study by University of Alberta scientists. The results show that birds that have successfully raised families stick with tried-and-true methods when building their nests, whereas less successful birds will try something new. "We found that when presented with a choice between a familiar material, coconut fibre, and a never-before-encountered material, white string, zebra finches who had successfully raised chicks preferred to stick with the same material they had previously used. Birds who failed to raise chicks built nests with equal amounts of familiar and novel material," explained ...

America's stark racial disparities in health care have been exposed by COVID-19, but a new study from Michigan State University suggests that Black individuals are more likely than conservative White people to adhere to public health standards due to disparities. The study, published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, used data from MSU's State of the State Survey that was captured during the initial COVID-19 outbreak from a representative group of 800 adults in Michigan. "Our findings suggest that although COVID impacts all Michiganders, ...

Fiber-optic cables run underneath nearly all city grids across the United States and provide internet and cable TV to millions, but what if those systems could also provide valuable information related to hazardous events such as earthquakes and flooding? A team of researchers at Penn State have found they can do just that. The scientists are using fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) technology to turn existing telecommunication infrastructure that is already installed underground into a valuable resource for monitoring ground vibrations. "We discovered the fibers could pick up a wide variety of signal vibrations, from thunderstorms to human walking steps to music concerts," said Tieyuan Zhu, assistant professor of geophysics at Penn State and principal investigator on ...

American Geophysical Union U.S. Geological Survey Joint ReleaseWASHINGTON--Southern California can now expect to see post-wildfire landslides occurring almost every year, with major events expected roughly every ten years, a new study finds. The results show Californians are now facing a double whammy of increased wildfire and landslide risk caused by climate change-induced shifts in the state's wet and dry seasons, according to researchers who mapped landslide vulnerability in the southern half of the state. "This is our attempt to get people thinking about where these hazards are going to be before there's even a fire," said Jason Kean, a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver and lead author ...

HOUSTON - (Feb. 25, 2021) - A new theory by Rice University scientists could boost the growing field of spintronics, devices that depend on the state of an electron as much as the brute electrical force required to push it. Materials theorist Boris Yakobson and graduate student Sunny Gupta at Rice's Brown School of Engineering describe the mechanism behind Rashba splitting, an effect seen in crystal compounds that can influence their electrons' "up" or "down" spin states, analogous to "on" or "off" in common transistors. "Spin" is a misnomer, since quantum physics constrains electrons ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Graphene is incredibly strong, lightweight, conductive ... the list of its superlative properties goes on. It is not, however, magnetic -- a shortcoming that has stunted its usefulness in spintronics, an emerging field that scientists say could eventually rewrite the rules of electronics, leading to more powerful semiconductors, computers and other devices. Now, an international research team led by the University at Buffalo is reporting an advancement that could help overcome this obstacle. In a study published today in the journal Physical Review Letters, researchers describe how they paired a magnet with graphene, and induced what they describe as "artificial magnetic texture" in the nonmagnetic wonder material. "Independent of each ...

As climate change increases the occurrence of catastrophic natural disasters around the world, international organizations are looking for ways to reduce the risk of such disasters. One approach under exploration is the humanitarian community's forecast-based early action (FbA), which seeks to enable pre-emptive actions based on forecasts of extreme events. With FbA, disaster response shifts toward anticipating disasters to ameliorate their destructive effects. However, the development of data-based triggers and metrics for action rely on timely and accurate information. A group of researchers publishing in SPIE's END ...