Tohoku University scientists have shown that neuronal and glial circuits form a loosely coupled super-network within the brain. Activation of the metabotropic glutamate receptors in neurons was shown to be largely influenced by the state of the glial cells. Therefore, artificial control of the glial state could potentially be used to enhance the memory function of the brain. The findings were detailed in the Journal of Physiology. Although the glial cells occupy more than half of the brain, they were thought to act as glue--merely filling the gap between neurons. However, recent findings show that the concentration of intracellular ions in glia, ...

A new theoretical study has proposed a novel mechanism for the creation of supermassive black holes from dark matter. The international team find that rather than the conventional formation scenarios involving 'normal' matter, supermassive black holes could instead form directly from dark matter in high density regions in the centres of galaxies. The result has key implications for cosmology in the early Universe, and is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Exactly how supermassive black holes initially formed is one of the biggest problems in the study of galaxy evolution ...

A German-Polish research team has succeeded in creating a micrometer-sized space-time crystal consisting of magnons at room temperature. With the help of the scanning transmission X-ray microscope Maxymus at Bessy II at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, they were able to film the recurring periodic magnetization structure in a crystal. Published in the Physical Review Letters, the research project was a collaboration between scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, the Adam Mickiewicz University and the Polish Academy of Sciences in Pozna? in Poland. Order in space and a periodicity in time A crystal is a solid whose atoms or molecules are regularly arranged in a particular structure. If one looks at the arrangement with a microscope, one discovers ...

Today's quantum computers contain up to several dozen memory and processing units, the so-called qubits. Severin Daiss, Stefan Langenfeld, and colleagues from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching have successfully interconnected two such qubits located in different labs to a distributed quantum computer by linking the qubits with a 60-meter-long optical fiber. Over such a distance they realized a quantum-logic gate - the basic building block of a quantum computer. It makes the system the worldwide first prototype of a distributed quantum computer. The limitations of previous qubit architectures Quantum ...

A new study, published today in Nature Digital Medicine, found that 'natural language processing' (NLP) of information routinely recorded by doctors - as part of patients' electronic health records - reveal vital trends that could help clinical teams forecast and plan for surges in patients. The researchers from King's College London, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (KCH), and Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT), used NLP algorithms to translate the electronic notes made by doctors into a standardised, structured set of medical terms that could be analysed by a computer. Tracking trends in patients In the ...

Social distancing - from mobility restrictions to complete lockdowns -- can take many weeks, possibly even months, a potentially devastating outcome for social and economic stability. One of the challenges is that the sick cannot be selectively isolated, since many of the spreaders remain pre-symptomatic for a period ranging from several days to as much as two weeks - invisible spreaders who continue to be socially active. Hence, it seems that without a population-wide lockdown isolating the carriers cannot be achieved effectively. To bypass this challenge, researchers from Israel's Bar-Ilan University, led by Prof. Baruch Barzel, devised a strategy based on alternating lockdowns: first splitting the population into two groups, then ...

LOGAN, UTAH -- One solution to agriculture's many challenges -- climate change-induced drought, less arable land, and decreased water quality, to name a few -- is to develop smarter fertilizers. Such fertilizers would aim not only to nourish the plant but also to maximize soil bacteria's positive effects on the plant. Tapping into a plant's microbiome may be the extra layer of defense crops need to thrive. In their study published on Dec. 4 in Nature: Scientific Reports, researchers at Utah State University analyzed the effects of two abiotic stressors on Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 (PcO6), a health-promoting bacterium native ...

URBANA, Ill. ¬- In today's global economy, production of goods depends on inputs from many trade partners around the world. Companies and governments need a deeper understanding of the global value chain to reduce costs, maintain a profitable production system, and anticipate ripple effects of disruptions in the supply chain. Applied economists from the University of Illinois have developed a new model for in-depth analysis of global supply chain linkages across countries and industries, providing a rich tool that delivers valuable insights for businesses and policy makers around the world. "We live in a time when production processes are very much fragmented. In order to end up with one type of ...

Researchers have developed a method to estimate the value of oyster and clam aquaculture to nitrogen reduction in a coastal community. Nitrogen is a nutrient that comes from many different sources, including agriculture, fertilizers, septic systems, and treated wastewater. In excess it fuels algal growth, which can affect water quality and human health. As a result, a growing number of communities are required to follow regulations to reduce the amount of nitrogen they release. Shellfish are an option that can be a valuable part of a community's nutrient management plan. In a study in Environmental Science ...

A UNSW Sydney-led medical research team has called for a new vaccine, improved strategies and enhanced monitoring to combat serious complications from childhood pneumonia. The researchers examined the impact of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (13vPCV) on childhood pneumonia and empyema - complicated pneumonia - after its introduction to the Australian National Immunisation Program about a decade ago. The new study, published in Thorax recently, found that while 13vPCV resulted in a 21 per cent decrease in childhood pneumonia hospitalisations, there was a contemporaneous 25 per cent increase in admissions for empyema. This incidence data for childhood empyema hospitalisations is similar to that reported ...

For many, 2020 was notorious for the COVID-19 pandemic, but for climate scientists, the year is also infamous for tying with 2016 as the hottest since records began. 'Nine of the warmest years on record have occurred since 2010', says JEB Editor-in-Chief, Craig Franklin. With the ice caps and glaciers melting, devastating bushfires scorching arid regions, and hurricanes and typhoons battering coastal communities, the impact on local ecosystems has been catastrophic. 'Physiologists can play a critical role in the conversation around climate change', says ...

As part of the Journal of Experimental Biology's Special Issue dedicated to climate change, Anthony Pagano (San Diego Zoo Global, USA) and Terrie Williams (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA), discuss the impact of environmental change on two iconic polar species; the polar bear and narwhal. Their review article is published in Journal of Experimental Biology at https://jeb.biologists.org/content/224/Suppl_1. Mammals in the Polar Regions face an uncertain future as unprecedented warming drives catastrophic sea ice loss, driving polar bears onto land, after losing access to sea ice and ...

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder marked by joint pain, swelling and damage. Although medications, such as steroids, anti-inflammatory drugs and immunosuppressants, can help slow joint destruction and relieve pain, they have side effects and aren't completely successful. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Nano Letters have developed magnesium-based micromotors propelled by hydrogen bubbles, which improved rheumatoid arthritis symptoms when injected into the joints of rats. Scientists have linked rheumatoid arthritis development to the excess production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS can oxidize and degrade cartilage and bone, as well as activate the expression of inflammatory cytokines. A new type of therapy, hydrogen gas, can neutralize ROS ...

To come into being, galaxies need a steady diet of cold gases to undergo gravitational collapse. The larger the galaxy, the more cold gas it needs to coalesce and to grow. Massive galaxies found in the early universe needed a lot of cold gas--a store totaling as much as 100 billion times the mass of our sun. But where did these early, super-sized galaxies get that much cold gas when they were hemmed in by hotter surroundings? In a new study, astronomers led by the University of Iowa report direct, observational evidence of streams of cold gas they believe provisioned these early, massive galaxies. They detected cold gas pipelines that knifed through the hot atmosphere in the dark matter halo of an early massive galaxy, supplying the materials ...

New research by the University of Oslo provides evidence that the "protocells" that formed around 3.8 billion years ago, before bacteria and single-celled organisms, could have had specialized bubble-like compartments that formed spontaneously, encapsulated small molecules, and formed "daughter" protocells. ROCKVILLE, MD - Scientists have long speculated about the features that our long-ago single-celled ancestors might have had, and the order in which those features came about. Bubble-like compartments are a hallmark of the superkingdom to which we, and many other species including yeast, belong. But the cells in today's superkingdom have a host of specialized molecules that help make and shape these bubbles inside our ...

ATLANTA - FEBRUARY 24, 2021 - New study reports that early in the 2020 pandemic in the United States, one-third of cancer survivors worried about treatment and cancer care disruptions. Using a mixed methods approach, investigators utilized survivors' own words to more deeply describe their experiences and worries about the pandemic's impact on their overall health. The article, appearing in the Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, finds the impact of the pandemic on cancer survivors and the broader health care system is widespread and exacerbated serious gaps in the health care system. For this study, investigators led by Corinne Leach, MPH, MS, PhD, from the American ...

If you have ever gotten up on a winter morning and thrown yourself into the arduous task of scraping frost from a windshield, a Virginia Tech lab is engaging science [IS1] that could make your life much easier. In research funded by the National Science Foundation, Associate Professor END ...

DALLAS, Feb. 24, 2021 -- Postmenopausal women who ate high levels of plant protein had lower risks of premature death, cardiovascular disease and dementia-related death compared with women who ate less plant proteins, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association. Previous research has shown an association between diets high in red meat and cardiovascular disease risk, yet the data is sparse and inconclusive about specific types of proteins, the study authors ...

In the largest genome-wide association study of glaucoma comparing the genes of 34,179 people with the disease to 349,321 control subjects, an international consortium of researchers identified 44 new gene loci and confirmed 83 previously reported loci linked to glaucoma. Loci are considered "genetic street addresses," denoting a specific location on a gene. The study's authors hope the identification of these genes will lead to new treatment targets for this incurable eye disease that is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. "These new findings come out of the highest-powered genome-wide association study of glaucoma to date, and show the power of team science and using big data to answer questions when research groups around the world join forces," said co-senior study author ...

Peer review/Experimental study/Cells Researchers at Uppsala University have created the first 3D map of the hearing nerve showing where the various sound frequencies are captured. Using what is known as synchrotron X-ray imaging, they were able to trace the fine nerve threads and the vibrating auditory organ, the cochlea, and find out exactly how the frequencies of incoming sound are distributed. The study is published in Scientific Reports. "This can make treatment with cochlea implants for the hearing-impaired more effective," says Helge Rask-Andersen, Professor of Experimental Otology at Uppsala ...

Genome variation data on more than 7,000 malaria parasites from 28 endemic countries is released today (24 February) in Wellcome Open Research. It has been produced by MalariaGEN, a data-sharing network of groups around the world who are working together to build high-quality data resources for malaria research and disease control. This open data release represents the world's largest resource of genomic data on malaria parasite evolution and drug resistance. It provides benchmark data on parasite genome variation that is needed in the search for new drugs and vaccines, and in the development of surveillance tools for malaria control and elimination. Malaria is a major global ...

In the journal Nature Communications, scientists of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) report new findings on the mechanisms of "Niemann-Pick type C disease" (NPC). This rare brain disorder mainly manifests in childhood and includes severe neurological and psychiatric symptoms. Researchers led by Dr. Sabina Tahirovic have now found evidence that already at an early stage, NPC is associated with neuroinflammation and that this condition is triggered by impaired intracellular lipid transport. In addition, they identified pathological features in the blood of affected individuals that in the future could assist to better monitor the course of the disease and response to therapy. NPC is a hereditary metabolic disorder ...

New research has found one in five people in the south London live with multimorbidity. The study, published today in the Lancet Regional Health by researchers from King's College London and the NIHR Guy's and St Thomas' Biomedical Research Centre and supported by Impact on Urban Health, examined the prevalence of multimorbidity - two or more long-term diseases at once - and identified key relationships between diseases. Researchers analysed electronic health records from participants aged 18 and over between April 2005 and May 2020 in one London borough. The borough has a deprived, ...

PHILADELPHIA - A machine learning-based tool was able to predict the risk of malignancy among patients presenting with multiple pulmonary nodules and outperformed human experts, previously validated mathematical models, and a previously established artificial intelligence tool, according to results published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Tools currently available can predict malignancy in patients with single nodules; predictive tools for patients presenting with multiple nodules are limited. "With the adoption of widespread use of thoracic computed tomography (CT) for lung cancer screening, the detection of multiple pulmonary nodules has become increasingly ...

SILVER SPRING, Md.--A systematic review of multiple randomized controlled studies among adults with overweight or obesity showed that greater engagement in self-monitoring using digital health tools was associated with significant weight loss, according to a paper published online in Obesity, The Obesity Society's flagship journal. This is the first comprehensive systematic review to examine the relationship between digital self-monitoring and weight loss. "Digital health tools have flourished in the past decade," said Michele L. Patel, PhD, post-doctoral ...