The absence of monsoon rains at the source of the Nile was the cause of migrations and the demise of entire settlements in the late Roman province of Egypt. This demographic development has been compared with environmental data for the first time by professor of ancient history, Sabine Huebner of the University of Basel - leading to a discovery of climate change and its consequences. The oasis-like Faiyum region, roughly 130 km south-west of Cairo, was the breadbasket of the Roman Empire. Yet at the end of the third century CE, numerous formerly thriving settlements there declined and were ultimately abandoned by their inhabitants. Previous excavations and contemporary papyri have shown that problems with field irrigation were the cause. Attempts by ...

Researchers perform experiments that can add or subtract a single quantum of sound--with surprising results when applied to noisy sound fields. Quantum mechanics tells us that physical objects can have both wave and particle properties. For instance, a single particle--or quantum--of light is known as a photon, and, in a similar fashion, a single quantum of sound is known as a phonon, which can be thought of as the smallest unit of sound energy. A team of researchers spanning Imperial College London, University of Oxford, the Niels Bohr Institute, University ...

G3BP proteins inhibit the metabolic driver MTOR - a signaling protein that plays a central role in tumor diseases and developmental disorders of the brain. This is reported in this week´s issue of the renowned journal Cell. The study was led by scientists from the University of Innsbruck and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in collaboration with the Medical University of Innsbruck and a Europe-wide research network. The signaling protein MTOR (Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin) is a sensor for nutrients such as amino acids and sugars. When sufficient nutrients are available, MTOR boosts metabolism and ensures that sufficient energy and building blocks are available for the growth ...

It is clear that COVID-19 has drastically changed our world, but how can we use the lessons learnt to build a more resilient and sustainable future? The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the International Science Council (ISC) have drawn on the combined strengths and expertise of the two organizations to help find a way forward. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted almost every aspect of our lives over the past year, is a warning: We need to step back from business-as-usual onto new transformative pathways to reach the Sustainable Development Goals and the commitments of the Paris Agreement. Systems science is ideally positioned to address global impacts ...

For those who are diagnosed and have begun treatment for HIV, it is standard practice to regularly monitor viral load in the blood to assess response to treatment. A study of people living with HIV in Ethiopia shows that poverty and labour mobility are linked to high viral load despite treatment, indicating treatment failure. The researchers behind the study recommend that socioeconomic conditions should be taken into account to a greater extent in low-income countries to ensure that HIV treatment can achieve the best possible results. Treatment using antiretroviral therapy (ART) is the same across the globe. For people living with HIV in low-income countries, however, ...

Study conducted by researchers from the GIGA CRC In vivo Imaging laboratory at ULiège demonstrates, for the first time in humans, how the first deposits of tau proteins in the brainstem are associated with neurophysiological processes specific to the early stages of Alzheimer's disease development. During the pre-clinical stages of Alzheimer's disease, i.e. when subtle changes are taking place in the brain but no cognitive symptoms can be observed, the cortex presents a state of transient hyperexcitability. To date, several studies conducted in animals have shown that tau and beta-amyloid proteins - central to the development of Alzheimer's disease - were associated with increased cortical excitability and dysfunction ...

Olive trees are some of the most important woody crops in the world and Verticillium wilt, caused by the Verticillium dahliae fungus, is the most concerning disease for farmers in the olive sector. In Spain, the leader in olive oil and table olive production, the increase in Verticillium wilt is primarily due to taking over infested soils formerly used for cotton (one of the main hosts for this pathogen) and the spread of a defoliating variant of the pathogen, which is more ferocious and ends up killing the olive tree. This is why agronomy research efforts are focused on the search for the most resistant crops and the implementation of practices that reduce disease rates. In this vein, UCOLIVO Group researcher Juan Moral at the María de Maeztu Excellence Unit, Agronomy Department, ...

ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban use their English-language magazines to encourage women to support jihad in different ways, according to new research. Experts hope highlighting these varying recruitment strategies will be of use for those trying to stop radicalisation and terrorism. The Taliban-produced magazines encourage women to carry out a traditional role in the home and support men rather than to be violent and commit jihad themselves. Tahrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and ISIS encourage women to be violent - to pick up arms and fight. The magazines encourage women to leave their husbands if they don't support jihad, even without permission. Researchers from the University of Exeter analysed ...

Scientists have identified that the evolutionary development of human and primate brains may have been similar for communication and memory. Although speech and language are unique to humans, experts have found that the brain's pathway is similarly wired in monkeys which could signify an evolutionary process dating back at least 25 million years. In a study, published in the journal Neuron, teams led by Newcastle University and the University of Iowa, compared auditory cortex information from humans and primates and found strong links. Professor Chris Petkov, from Newcastle University's Faculty of Medical Sciences, UK, said: "Our language abilities help us to crystallise memories and make them vivid, such as 'the singer sounded ...

Certain anchor proteins inhibit a key metabolic driver that plays an important role in cancer and developmental brain disorders. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the University of Innsbruck, together with a Europe-wide research network, discovered this molecular mechanism, which could open up new opportunities for personalized therapies for cancer and neuronal diseases. They published their results in the journal Cell. The signaling protein MTOR (Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin) is a sensor for nutrients such as amino acids and sugars. When sufficient nutrients are available, MTOR boosts metabolism and ensures that sufficient energy and cellular building blocks are available. Since MTOR is a central switch for metabolism, ...

All the cells in the human body share the same genes. But how our genes are expressed determines whether a cell becomes a brain cell or a liver cell. In addition, changes in gene expression often play a significant role in development of diseases. One mechanism that contributes to the changes in gene expression is the interaction between the proteins called histones and enzymes known as HDACs. These enzymes help the cell divide and develop, which is the reason why they serve as targets for anti-cancer medicine: When you inhibit the enzymes, the cancer cells will stop dividing and growing further. Despite being targets for clinically approved medicines, researchers do not know all the details of how they ...

Special immune cells found in the brain, microglia, play a key role in the processes that make you feel uneasy and depressed in correlation with inflammation. This is the conclusion of a study using mice carried out by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden. The results have been published in the scientific journal Immunity, and suggest that microglial cells contribute to the negative mood experienced during several neurological diseases, and maybe also depression. David Engblom's research group at Linköping University has spent many years looking at why inflammation in the body, such as a common cold or influenza, causes us to feel poorly ...

Artificial intelligence and automation are changing the world, one industry at a time! Whatever humans can do, machines are learning to also do effectively, with lower costs and fewer errors. The maritime shipping industry is no different. Ships are now increasingly automated (called maritime autonomous surface ships or MASSs), reducing the need for human input. While this bodes well for labor and fuel costs, the question naturally raised is, what happens to the jobs of seafarers, the chief workforce of the shipping industry, once MASSs take over. To find out, researchers from Korea used complex mathematical models and simulations ...

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Design of Army aerial vehicles and weapon systems relies on the ability to predict aerodynamic behavior, often aided by advanced computer simulations of the flow of air over the body. High-fidelity simulations assist engineers in maximizing how much load a rotorcraft can lift or how far a missile can fly, but these simulations aren't cheap. The simulations that designers currently use require extensive data processing on supercomputers and capture only a portion of vortex collision events - which can cause significant performance degradation, from loss of lift on a rotor to complete loss of control of a munition. A new turbulence model could change that. The Army Research Office, an ...

Teenagers with happy childhood memories are likely to drink less, take fewer drugs and enjoy learning, according to research published in the peer-reviewed journal END ...

New Orleans, LA - An analysis by Nicholas Gilpin, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Associate Director of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center of Excellence at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, and Michael Taffe, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, summarizes long-standing racial inequities in federal funding for biosciences research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Their report describes prior failures to correct these racial inequities and offers strategies that may be effective in eliminating these disparities. Their paper, published online in the open-access ...

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a widespread condition in the Western World. Around 30% of the population have lipid droplets stored in their liver which diminish its function in the long term. Main causes for NAFLD are our high-caloric diet in combination with a sedentary lifestyle. Hitherto, researchers have not fully understood the cause of this disease and despite the high number of affected individuals, there is no approved therapy. In order to improve our understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying the etiology of NAFLD, Dr. Nina Graffmann, Prof. James Adjaye and the team of the Institute for Stem Cell research and Regenerative Medicine from the University Hospital Duesseldorf differentiated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from healthy ...

Using a combination of telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO's VLT), astronomers have revealed a system consisting of six exoplanets, five of which are locked in a rare rhythm around their central star. The researchers believe the system could provide important clues about how planets, including those in the Solar System, form and evolve. The first time the team observed TOI-178, a star some 200 light-years away in the constellation of Sculptor, they thought they had spotted two planets going around it in the same orbit. However, a closer look revealed something entirely ...

CHICAGO (January 25, 2021; 9 am CST): A new study finds that older cancer patients are less likely to have optimal results following their cancer operation if they live in an area highly affected by social challenges, especially if they are racial-ethnic minorities. The study was selected for the 2020 Southern Surgical Association Program and published as an "article in press" on the Journal of the American College of Surgeons website in advance of print. Study investigators from The Ohio State University (OSU) used a novel risk stratification tool called the social vulnerability index (SVI), a composite measure of 15 social and economic factors. ...

The key factor in preventing non-communicable diseases is lifestyle management at the individual level with a focus on such innovations, which can help increase the awareness of risk factors management in society, claim an international team of researchers, among them - scientists from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania in a recent study. According to them, the management of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases requires many strategies from several perspectives and on different levels. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, are medical conditions that are ...

What happened to the promised applications of graphene and related materials? Thanks to initiatives like the European Union's Graphene Flagship and heavy investments by leading industries, graphene manufacturing is mature enough to produce prototypes and some real-life niche applications. Now, researchers at Graphene Flagship partner The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) in Karlsruhe, Germany, have published two papers that roadmap the expected future mass introduction of graphene and related materials in the market. Back in 2004, graphene was made by peeling off atomically thin layers from a graphite block. Now, thanks to the advances pioneered by the Graphene Flagship, among ...

A team from the Computer Vision Center (CVC) and the University of Barcelona has published the results of a study that evaluates the accuracy and bias in gender and skin colour of automatic face recognition algorithms tested with real world data. Although the top solutions exceed the 99.9% of accuracy, researchers have detected some groups that show higher false positive or false negative rates. Face recognition has been routinely used by both private and governmental organizations worldwide. Automatic face recognition can be used for legitimate and beneficial purposes (e.g. to improve security) but at the same time its power and ubiquity increases a potential negative ...

Small-scale optical devices capable of using photons for high-speed information processing can be fabricated with unprecedented ease and precision using an additive manufacturing process developed at KAUST. Fiber optics are conventionally produced by drawing thin filaments out of molten silica glass down to microscale dimensions. By infusing these fibers with long narrow hollow channels, a new class of optical devices termed "photonic crystal fibers" were introduced. The periodic arrangement of air holes in these photonic crystal fibers act like near-perfect mirrors, allowing trapping and long propagation of light in their central core. "Photonic crystal fibers allow you to confine light in very tight spaces, increasing the optical ...

Skeletal muscle is the largest tissue in the human body and is responsible not only for locomotion but for energy metabolism and heat production. Age-related muscle atrophy reduces motor function and contributes to the need for nursing care. In addition, muscle atrophy associated with various chronic diseases is known to be a risk factor for life expectancy. Myoblasts, the progenitor cells of muscle, play an important role in maintaining muscle homeostasis. However, it has been reported that the differentiation ability of myoblasts decreases with age and disease, and this is thought to be one of the causes of muscle atrophy. In order to prevent or treat muscle atrophy, a research team led by Assistant Professor Tomohide Takaya of Shinshu University, Faculty of Agriculture studied ...

Laser beams can be used to precisely measure an object's position or velocity. Normally, however, a clear, unobstructed view of this object is required - and this prerequisite is not always satisfied. In biomedicine, for example, structures are examined, which are embedded in an irregular, complicated environment. There, the laser beam is deflected, scattered and refracted, often making it impossible to obtain useful data from the measurement. However, Utrecht University (Netherlands) and TU Wien (Vienna, Austria) have now been able to show that meaningful results can be obtained even in such complicated environments. Indeed, there is a way to specifically modify ...