If you're poor and terminally ill in southern Mexico, there's far less chance you'll get the painkillers you need for palliative care than your cousins in more prosperous regions, particularly those pharmacy-rich areas along Mexico-U.S. border, say UCLA researchers and colleagues who studied opioid dispensing levels across the country. What's more, the researchers' paper in the journal The Lancet Public Health suggests it's likely that some of the opioids intended for Mexican citizens are ending up in American pockets. Despite a Mexican government initiative launched in 2015 to improve access to prescription opioids among palliative care patients, the country has seen only a marginal increase in dispensing levels, and inequities in dispensing ...

A novel computer algorithm, or set of rules, that accurately predicts the orbits of planets in the solar system could be adapted to better predict and control the behavior of the plasma that fuels fusion facilities designed to harvest on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars. The algorithm, devised by a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), applies machine learning, the form of artificial intelligence (AI) that learns from experience, to develop the predictions. "Usually in physics, you make observations, create a theory based on those observations, and then use that theory to predict new observations," said PPPL physicist Hong Qin, author of a paper detailing ...

Monash University researchers have uncovered the barrier to β-cell (beta cell) regeneration that could pave the way for improved treatments for diabetes and diseases that involve organ and tissue damage. The human body doesn't repair itself very well, with our liver the only organ that can regenerate efficiently. We have limited capacity to regenerate new cells or tissue after birth as the genes involved in development are switched off. This process happens through DNA methylation, a biological process where chemicals (methyl groups) are written on DNA and modify the way the gene functions. ...

A team of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) used a quantum computer to successfully simulate an aspect of particle collisions that is typically neglected in high-energy physics experiments, such as those that occur at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The quantum algorithm they developed accounts for the complexity of parton showers, which are complicated bursts of particles produced in the collisions that involve particle production and decay processes. Classical algorithms typically used to model parton showers, such ...

An international research team led by Professor Kari Rissanen of the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland) and Professor Antonio Frontera of the University of Balearic Islands (Spain) has demonstrated that positively charged iodine (termed iodonium) is able to favorably interact with a silver cation (Ag+), overcoming the strong electrostatic repulsion. The research was published online in Chem -journal 8th of February 2021. It is well known and intuitive that iodide (I-) has a strong affinity for Ag+. For instance, AgI is one of the most insoluble inorganic salts ...

When we listen to speech sounds, the information that enters our left and right ear is not exactly the same. This may be because acoustic information reaches one ear before the other, or because the sound is perceived as louder by one of the ears. Information about speech sounds also reaches different parts of our brain, and the two hemispheres are specialised in processing different types of acoustic information. But how does the brain integrate auditory information from different areas? To investigate this question, lead researcher Basil Preisig from the University of Zurich collaborated with an international team of scientists. In an earlier study, the team discovered that the brain integrates information about speech sounds by 'balancing' the rhythm of gamma waves across ...

Most countries introduced school closures during the spring of 2020 despite substantial uncertainty regarding the effectiveness in containing SARS-CoV-2. In Sweden, upper-secondary schools moved online while lower-secondary schools remained open. A comparison of parents with children in the final year of lower-secondary and first year of upper-secondary school shows that keeping the former open had limited consequences for the overall transmission of the virus. However, the infection rate doubled among lower-secondary teachers relative to upper-secondary ones. The infection rate among partners of lower-secondary teacher was 30 percent higher than among their upper-secondary counterparts. On March 18, 2020, Swedish ...

T lymphocytes, or T cells, are an important component of our immune system. They can recognize foreign proteins, so-called antigens, as peptide fragments - for instance, those derived from viruses or cancer cells. In principle, they could, but usually do not, attack our own ('self') proteins. "That is why it is important for the organism to tightly control the activities of T cells," says Dr. Reinhard Obst, head of a research group at the Institute for Immunology at LMU's Biomedical Center that studies the activation of T cells. The project contributed to the Collaborative Research Center 1054 that explores the plasticity of cell fate decisions in the immune system. When ...

Scientists use many different tests to investigate what happens in the brain in people experiencing stress. It is unclear to what extent the various methods with which subjects are placed under stress are comparable to each other. In a meta-analysis, a biopsychology team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum compared 31 previous studies that had investigated stress using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The team worked out which regions of the brain are activated as standard during stress and which stress tests trigger similar activation patterns. They describe the results in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, published online on 5 February 2021. To conduct the work, ...

The move from the ancient system of £sd coinage to 100p to £1 was controversial, considered by some to be a sign of the UK's receding importance on the world stage and even as the beginning of the tumultuous relationship with Europe that ultimately led to Brexit. But as a result of extensive analysis of a quiet backwater of recent history, Andy argues that the move towards decimalisation had little to do with Europe and in fact was a traditional British compromise. "It was an event that I remember from my youth, but I found that ...

Biomarkers play a central role in the diagnosis of disease and assessment of its course. Among the markers now in use are genes, proteins, hormones, lipids and other classes of molecules. Biomarkers can be found in the blood, in cerebrospinal fluid, urine and various types of tissues, but most of them have one thing in common: They occur in extremely low concentrations, and are therefore technically challenging to detect and quantify. Many detection procedures use molecular probes, such as antibodies or short nucleic-acid sequences, which are designed to bind to specific biomarkers. When a probe recognizes and binds to its target, chemical or physical reactions give rise to fluorescence signals. Such methods work well, provided they are sensitive enough to recognize ...

Knowledge on how cells communicate is an important key to understanding many biological systems and diseases. A research team led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg has now used a unique combination of methods to map the mechanism behind cellular communication. Their findings can potentially improve understanding of the underlying mechanism behind type 2 diabetes. We know that human communication is important, but communication between the cells in our bodies is just as vital. The processes where cells synchronize and coordinate their behaviour is required for an organism to function and for human organs to be able to perform their functions. "How do cells go from monologues ...

Scientists at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC have identified a new zebrafish model that could help advance glioblastoma multiforme research. Glioblastoma is an aggressive form of primary brain tumor - fewer than one in 20 patients survive five years after diagnosis. The research team previously discovered that human-derived brain cancer cells in mice use the brain's blood vessels like highways to spread away from the original mass. In the new study, published in ACS Pharmacology and Translational Science, they show clear cross-over between mammals and fish and describe similar observations in zebrafish. "Our hope is that this new work in zebrafish will help researchers ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - On the outskirts of some small Indigenous communities in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, a few volunteer guards keep watch along roads blocked by makeshift barricades of chains, stones and wood. The invader they are trying to stop is COVID-19. For many of Mexico's Indigenous people, poor and ignored by state and federal governments, the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is one that rests primarily with themselves, said Jeffrey Cohen, a professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University. That means they must take steps like limiting access to their villages. "Most of these communities only have ...

peer review/experimental study/animals/cells Researchers from Uppsala University show in a new study that inhibition of the protein EZH2 can reduce the growth of cancer cells in the blood cancer multiple myeloma. The reduction is caused by changes in the cancer cells' metabolism. These changes can be used as markers to discriminate whether a patient would respond to treatment by EZH2 inhibition. The study has been published in the journal Cell Death & Disease. Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer where immune cells grow in an uncontrolled way in the bone marrow. The disease is very difficult to treat and is still considered incurable, and thus it is urgent to identify new therapeutic targets in the cancer cells. The research group behind ...

TROY, N.Y. -- An antioxidant found in green tea may increase levels of p53, a natural anti-cancer protein, known as the "guardian of the genome" for its ability to repair DNA damage or destroy cancerous cells. Published today in Nature Communications, a study of the direct interaction between p53 and the green tea compound, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), points to a new target for cancer drug discovery. "Both p53 and EGCG molecules are extremely interesting. Mutations in p53 are found in over 50% of human cancer, while EGCG is the major anti-oxidant in green tea, a popular beverage worldwide," said END ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Humans aren't the only mammals that form long-term bonds with a single, special mate -- some bats, wolves, beavers, foxes and other animals do, too. But new research suggests the brain circuitry that makes love last in some species may not be the same in others. The study, appearing Feb. 12 in the journal Scientific Reports, compares monogamous and promiscuous species within a closely related group of lemurs, distant primate cousins of humans from the island Madagascar. Red-bellied lemurs and mongoose lemurs are among the few species in the lemur family tree in which male-female partners stick together year after year, working together to raise their young and defend their territory. Once bonded, pairs spend much of their waking hours grooming ...

Every year around 20 Australian children die from the incurable brain tumour, Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). The average age of diagnosis for DIPG is just seven years. There are no effective treatments, and almost all children die from the disease, usually within one year of diagnosis. A paper published today 12 Feb 2021 in the prestigious journal, Nature Communications, reveals a potential revolutionary drug combination that - in animal studies and in world first 3D models of the tumour - is "spectacularly effective in eradicating the cancer cells," according to lead researcher and paediatric oncologist Associate Professor David Ziegler, from the Children's Cancer Institute and Sydney Children's Hospital. In ...

Children treated for cancer with approaches such as chemotherapy can develop therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (a second type of cancer) with a dismal prognosis. Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have characterized the genomic abnormalities of 84 such myeloid neoplasms, with potential implications for early interventions to stop the disease. A paper detailing the work was published today in Nature Communications. The somatic (cancer) and germline (inherited) genomic alterations that drive therapy-related myeloid neoplasms in children have not been comprehensively ...

(Friday, February 12, 2021 - Toronto) -- Inhibiting a key enzyme that controls a large network of proteins important in cell division and growth paves the way for a new class of drugs that could stop glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer, from growing. Researchers at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and University of Toronto, showed that chemically inhibiting the enzyme PRMT5 can suppress the growth of glioblastoma cells. The inhibition of PRMT5 led to cell senescence, similar to what happens to cells during aging when cells lose the ability to divide and grow. Cellular senescence can also be a powerful tumour suppression mechanism, stopping ...

Space: the final frontier. What's stopping us from exploring it? Well, lots of things, but one of the major issues is space radiation, and the effects it can have on astronaut health during long voyages. A new review in the open-access journal END ...

Research over the last 20 years has shown that atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory condition of the arterial blood vessel wall. Soluble mediators such as cytokines and chemokines are pivotal players in this disease, promoting vascular inflammation. However, the development of anti-inflammatory therapeutics directed against such mediators that could prevent atherosclerosis has proven difficult, despite promising clinical studies in the recent past. Previous anti-inflammatory therapeutic strategies to prevent atherosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes, rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases have mainly been based ...

Remote sensing technology has become a vital tool for scientists over the past several decades for monitoring changes in land use, ice cover, and vegetation across the globe. Satellite imagery, however, is typically available at only coarse resolutions, allowing only for the analysis of broad trends over large areas. Remote-controlled drones are an increasingly affordable alternative for researchers working at finer scales in ecology and agriculture, but the laser-based technology used to estimate plant productivity and biomass, such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR), remain prohibitively expensive. In research presented in a recently published issue of Applications in Plant Sciences, researchers ...

New research has shown that results of blood tests routinely performed by GPs everywhere contain a hidden fingerprint that can identify people silently developing potentially fatal liver cirrhosis. The researchers have developed an algorithm to detect this fingerprint that could be freely installed on any clinical computer, making this a low-cost way for GPs to carry out large scale screening using patient data they already hold. Liver cirrhosis is the second leading disease causing premature death in working-age people (after heart disease). It develops silently ...

Peer-reviewed / Observational study / People For the study, published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, researchers analysed data from the UK Biobank of 500,000 people aged 58 years on average, and found that people with higher than normal blood sugar levels were 42% more likely to experience cognitive decline over an average of four years, and were 54% more likely to develop vascular dementia over an average of eight years (although absolute rates of both cognitive decline and dementia were low). The associations remained true after other influential factors had been taken into account - including age, deprivation, smoking, BMI and whether or not participants had cardiovascular disease. People with ...