The tiny beetle Triamyxa coprolithica is the first-ever insect to be described from fossil faeces. The animal the researchers have to thank for the excellent preservation was probably the dinosaur ancestor Silesaurus opolensis, which 230 million years ago ingested the small beetle in large numbers. In a recently published study in Current Biology, vertebrate palaeontologists from Uppsala University and entomologists from National Sun Yat-sen University (Taiwan), Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (Germany), and Universidad de Guadalajara (Mexico) used synchrotron microtomography to 3D-reconstruct the beetles while they were still trapped within the fossilised faecal matter. The coprolite contained abundant beetle body parts, most belonging to ...

Harpy eagles (Harpia harpyja) - which are among the world's largest eagle species - struggle to feed offspring in heavily deforested areas of the Amazon, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. Everton Miranda and colleagues found that harpy eagles rely on specific prey that lives in canopy forests, including sloths and monkeys. Eaglets starved in areas of high deforestation where canopy-based food was limited. The authors observed prey species, how frequently prey was delivered, and estimated the weight of prey in 16 harpy eagle nests in Amazonian forests in Mato ...

ROCKVILLE, MD, USA - June 30, 2021 - Researchers from Sanaria® Inc. and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are making progress in the development of highly protective malaria vaccines. In an article published today in Nature, Sanaria's PfSPZ-CVac (CQ) vaccine is reported as being safe and protecting 100% of six subjects against a variant malaria parasite three months after their last dose in the company's Phase 1 safety and efficacy trial. This is the first time complete protection against a variant malaria parasite has ever been achieved that long after vaccine administration. The ...

Many neurodevelopmental disorders share similar symptoms, such as learning disabilities or attention deficits. A new study from MIT has uncovered a common neural mechanism for a type of cognitive impairment seen in some people with autism and schizophrenia, even though the genetic variations that produce the impairments are different for each condition. In a study of mice, the researchers found that certain genes that are mutated or missing in some people with those disorders cause similar dysfunctions in a neural circuit in the thalamus. If scientists could develop drugs that target this circuit, they could be used to treat people who have different disorders with common behavioral ...

In 1934, physicist Eugene Wigner made a theoretical prediction based on quantum mechanics that for 87 years went unseen. The theory suggested how a metal that normally conducts electricity could turn into a nonconducting insulator when the density of electrons is reduced. Wigner theorized that when electrons in metals are brought to ultracold temperatures, these electrons would be frozen in their tracks and form a rigid, non-electricity conducting structure -- a crystal -- instead of zipping around at thousands of kilometers per second and creating an electric current. Since he discovered it, the ...

Researchers have found that eating disorder behaviors, such as binge-eating, alter the brain's reward response process and food intake control circuitry, which can reinforce these behaviors. Understanding how eating disorder behaviors and neurobiology interact can shed light on why these disorders often become chronic and could aid in the future development of treatments. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, was supported by the National Institutes of Health. "This work is significant because it links biological and behavioral factors that interact to adversely impact eating behaviors," said Janani Prabhakar, ...

Neuroscientists at UCL have, for the first time, identified abnormalities in the way memories are 'replayed' in the brains of people with schizophrenia; researchers say the pathbreaking study provides an entirely new basis for explaining many of the condition's core symptoms. Schizophrenia is a serious and debilitating mental disorder characterised by episodes of psychosis. Symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganised thinking. It affects around 20 million people globally, though the exact cause is unknown. In the study, published in the journal Cell, researchers used state-of-the-art ...

A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital examines the associations between wealth mobility and long-term cardiovascular health. The multidisciplinary study borrowed methodology from the field of economics to analyze longitudinal changes in wealth. The team's results indicate that negative wealth mobility is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events, while positive wealth changes are associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular events. Their results are published in END ...

WHAT: Two U.S. Phase 1 clinical trials of a novel candidate malaria vaccine have found that the regimen conferred unprecedentedly high levels of durable protection when volunteers were later exposed to disease-causing malaria parasites. The vaccine combines live parasites with either of two widely used antimalarial drugs--an approach termed chemoprophylaxis vaccination. A Phase 2 clinical trial of the vaccine is now underway in Mali, a malaria-endemic country. If the approach proves successful there, chemoprophylaxis vaccination, or CVac, potentially could help reverse the stalled decline of global malaria. Currently, there is no vaccine in widespread use ...

What The Study Did: This crossover trial found that perceived breathing resistance at peak exercise is uniquely and significantly elevated when exercise stress testing (EST) is performed while wearing a mask. Performing EST with a mask yielded lower peak exercise oxygen uptake and heart rates as compared with no mask. However, each experimental condition resulted in peak exercise values that generally remained within normal limits, and no EST required termination due to clinically indicated safety concerns. Thus, although it is possible that wearing a mask exerted a physical limitation on exercise capacity, the clinical relevance of such a possibility is not supported by these data. Authors: Matthew Kampert, D.O., M.S., ...

What The Study Did: Researchers in this randomized clinical trial found that a large proportion of patients who canceled visits and procedures early in the COVID-19 pandemic didn't reschedule once reopening occurred. A single message targeted directly to these patients didn't affect the return to in-person visits within a month but it resulted in a small increase in re-engagement through telemedicine and rescheduling of future visits. Authors: Anne R. Cappola, M.D., Sc.M., of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, ...

What The Study Did: National survey data were used to estimate how common psoriasis is among adults in the United States and how this has changed since 2003. Authors: April W. Armstrong, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2021.2007) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, ...

What The Study Did: Researchers investigated the association between a midlife change in wealth and the risk of cardiovascular event after age 65. Authors: Muthiah Vaduganathan, M.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women's Hospital Heart & Vascular Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2021.2056) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest disclosures. Please see the articles for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflicts of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media ...

What The Study Did: This survey study investigated the association between general surgery resident grit, which was defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals, and burnout and thoughts of attrition and suicide. Authors: Karl Y. Bilimoria, M.D., M.S., of Northwestern University in Chicago, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2021.2378) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media ...

Boston - Data has historically shown that the majority of patients insured through Medicaid, as well as the uninsured, seek inpatient hospital care and services at safety-net hospitals. The Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid to increase access to public insurance options for low-income individuals and families, as well as improve access to specialty medical care services. Results of a new study led by researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC) show, however, that this expansion did not lead patients receiving care at safety-net hospitals to transfer their care to non-safety-net hospitals. Published in JAMA Network Open, the national data review showed that discharges from safety-net ...

Maunakea and Haleakala, Hawai'i - Astronomers have discovered the smallest and most massive white dwarf ever seen. The smoldering cinder, which formed when two less massive white dwarfs merged, is heavy, "packing a mass greater than that of our Sun into a body about the size of our Moon," says Ilaria Caiazzo, the Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Theoretical Astrophysics at Caltech and lead author of the new study appearing in the July 1 issue of the journal Nature. "It may seem counterintuitive, but smaller white dwarfs happen to be more massive. This is due to the fact that white dwarfs lack the nuclear burning that keep up normal stars against their own self gravity, and their size is ...

Tokyo, Japan - Believe it or not, steel has something in common with bacterial appendages: they can both undergo a special type of physical transformation that remains puzzling. Now, researchers from Japan and China have used direct microscopic observations to provide more clarity to how this transformation occurs. In a study recently published in Nature Communications, researchers from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science and Fudan University Department of Physics have revealed previously unknown physical details that underpin crystalline solid-to-solid phase transitions in soft materials, ...

Japanese and Zambian scientists have shown that environmental lead poisoning in children affects not only their own health and wellbeing, but the vitality and mental health of their mothers, as well. Lead poisoning is a common pediatric problem caused by the environment, and is easily preventable. Due to their smaller size and mass, infants and children are at a higher risk of negative effects compared to adults. Chronic lead poisoning leads to fatigue, sleeping problems, headaches, stupor, and anemia. The population of Kabwe, Zambia, is exposed ...

One of the many challenges for grape growers posed by climate change is the accelerated rate at which grapes ripen in warmer climates, which can result in poor colour and aroma development. In a new study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers from the University of Adelaide found it is possible to increase the flavour potential of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes by slowing down the ripening process with strategies including crop load manipulation and irrigation management. Lead author, Pietro Previtali from the University of Adelaide's School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, said: "Advanced maturation due to warmer temperatures is a key issue for grape growers in most wine regions worldwide and especially in warm ...

Politicians use emotional resources in their speeches in parliament depending on the type of debate and use emotive rhetoric strategically and selectively, mainly to attract voters. This is one of the main conclusions of a study published in the journal American Political Science Review (APSR) involving Toni Rodon, a professor with the UPF Department of Political and Social Sciences and member of the Research Group on Institutions and Political Actors, together with Moritz Osnabrügge (Durham University, as first author) and Sara B. Hobolt (London School of Economics and Political Science). "Our research provides evidence that incentives to attract voters differ systematically depending on the type of debate" In recent years, much research has been done ...

Domestic burning of wood and dung fuels in Neolithic homes would have exceeded modern internationally-agreed standards for indoor air quality, exposing inhabitants to unsafe levels of particulates. Working with environmental engineers, archaeologists at Newcastle University, UK, used modern air quality monitoring methods to assess the impact of domestic fuel burning inside buildings at Çatalhöyük, in Turkey, one of the world's earliest settlements. A typical house at Çatalhöyük, a UNESCO World Heritage site, had a domed oven set against the south wall, located beneath an opening in the roof. In the 1990s, a replica of one of these houses ...

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are highly reactive chemicals which contain oxygen radicals. Hypochlorous acid, peroxides, superoxide, singlet oxygen, alpha-oxygen and hydroxyl radicals are the major examples of ROS, which are familiar to persons from many walks of life as they are used in many domestic and industrial processes. ROS are naturally produced during a variety of biochemical reactions within the cell organelles such as the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria and peroxisomes. ROS are also formed as a byproduct of the normal metabolism of oxygen. The production of ROS can be induced by various factors such as heavy metals, tobacco, smoke, drugs, xenobiotics, pollutants and radiation. From various experimental studies, it is reported that ROS acts as either tumor suppressing or tumor ...

Malaria still kills millions. Researchers are excited by a new intervention: giving people a drug which kills mosquitoes that bite them. Incredibly, this is a reality, as the drug ivermectin, widely used for the control of parasite infections such as lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis, appears to do this. With some mosquitoes now resistant to the insecticides used in treated bed nets, this is a potentially important new control measure. LSTM's Dr Rebecca Thomas and Dr Joseph Okebe, together with Dr de Souza from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR(link is external)), University of Ghana, first examined the experimental evidence that giving the drug to people kills the mosquitoes that bite them. All included studies showed large effects of ivermectin on ...

Predicting the potential effects of coral loss on fish communities globally is a fundamental task, especially considering that reef fishes provide protein to millions of people. A new study led by the University of Helsinki predicts how fish diversity will respond to declines in coral diversity and shows that future coral loss might cause a more than 40% reduction in reef fish diversity globally. Corals increasingly bleach and often die when the water warms. What happens to fish if there are no alternative reefs to swim to? The few fish species that feed on corals will inevitably starve, but the rest might find alternative rocky habitat to persist. As yet, it has been hard to ...

By the beginning of April 2021, the number of people infected during the COVID-19 pandemic had risen to more than 130 million people of whom more than 2.8 million died. The SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19 is transmitted particularly by droplets or aerosols emitted when an infected person speaks, sneezes or coughs. This is how the viruses and other pathogens spread through the environment and transmit infectious diseases when they are inhaled by someone else. The capacity of these particles to remain suspended in the air and to spread in the environment depends largely on the size and nature of the air flow generated by the expiration of air. As with other airborne infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, common flu ...