HOUSTON - (March 18, 2021) - If you're looking for one technique to maximize photon output from plasmons, stop. It takes two to wrangle. Rice University physicists came across a phenomenon that boosts the light from a nanoscale device more than 1,000 times greater than they anticipated. When looking at light coming from a plasmonic junction, a microscopic gap between two gold nanowires, there are conditions in which applying optical or electrical energy individually prompted only a modest amount of light emission. Applying both together, however, caused a burst of light that far exceeded ...

When it comes to recreational crabbing--one of the most iconic pastimes along Maryland's shores--the current estimate of 8% of "total male commercial harvest" runs just a little too low. Biologists, with local community support, found stronger evidence for the underestimate in the END ...

As one of the founding members of the International Rye Genome Sequencing Group (IRGSG), the University of Maryland (UMD) co-published the first full reference genome sequence for rye in Nature Genetics. UMD and international collaborators saw the need for a reference genome of this robust small grain to allow for the tracking of its useful genes and fulfill its potential for crop improvement across all major varieties of small grains, including wheat, barley, triticale (a cross between wheat and rye that is gaining popularity), and rye. Following the model of international collaboration used ...

Wheat stripe rust is one of the most important wheat diseases and is caused by the plant-pathogenic fungi Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst). Though Pst is known to be highly host-specific, it is interestingly able to infect two unrelated host plants, wheat and barberry, at different spore stages. Pst infects wheat through its urediniospores and infects barberry with its basidiospores. "This complex life cycle poses interesting questions on the co-evolution between the pathogen and the hosts, as well the different mechanisms of pathogenesis underlying the infection of ...

The Journal of Anthropological Research has just published a new article on the development of linguistic documentation among heritage language speakers: "Articulating Lingual Life Histories and Language Ideological Assemblages: Indigenous Activists within the North Fork Mono and Village of Tewa Communities." Specifically, it focuses on the biographical information of individual speakers, and the significance they place on the language in question. Author Paul V. Kroskrity focused his research on two specific communities - the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians in California and the Village of Tewa, First Mesa, Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona ...

In a study aimed at investigating the mechanism responsible for exacerbating rheumatoid arthritis in smokers, researchers at the Center for Research on Inflammatory Diseases (CRID), linked to the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, discovered a novel path in the inflammatory process associated with the bone damage caused by rheumatoid arthritis. The discovery opens up opportunities for new therapeutic interventions to mitigate the effects of the disease, for which there is no specific treatment at this time. An article on the study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ...

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. for both men and women. While risk for this disease can be influenced by environmental and lifestyle factors like smoking, studies estimate that 18% of lung cancer cases are due to inherited genetic variants. New research led by Baylor College of Medicine investigates how genetic variants contribute to increased risk of lung cancer. The researchers performed whole exome sequencing on germline (inherited) DNA from eight large-scale datasets, including 1,045 patients with a family history of lung cancer or early-onset cancer. Those groups are more likely to harbor genetic risk variants. The analysis ...

Researchers at the University of Ottawa have debunked the decade-old myth of metals being useless in photonics - the science and technology of light - with their findings, recently published in Nature Communications, expected to lead to many applications in the field of nanophotonics. "We broke the record for the resonance quality factor (Q-factor) of a periodic array of metal nanoparticles by one order of magnitude compared to previous reports," said senior author Dr. Ksenia Dolgaleva, Canada Research Chair in Integrated Photonics (Tier 2) and ...

Medical cannabis is a subject of much debate. There is still a lot we do not know about cannabis, but researchers from the Department of Neuroscience at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences have made a new discovery that may prove vital to future research into and treatment with medical cannabis. Cannabinoids are compounds found in cannabis and in the central nervous system. Using a mouse model, the researchers have demonstrated that a specific synthetic cannabinoid (cannabinoid WIN55,212-2) reduces essential tremor by activating the support cells of the spinal cord and brain, known as astrocytes. Previous research into medical cannabis has focussed on the ...

LOS ANGELES (March 18, 2021) -- COVID-19 disproportionately affects men compared with women, raising the possibility that a hormone like progesterone may improve clinical outcomes for certain hospitalized men with the disease. New research from Cedars-Sinai published online in the journal Chest supports this hypothesis. The pilot clinical trial, involving 40 men, is believed to be the first published study to use progesterone to treat male COVID-19 patients whose lung functions have been compromised by the coronavirus. While the findings are promising, larger clinical trials are needed to establish the potential of this experimental therapy, the investigators said. The study was prompted ...

In response to the recent freeze-inspired power outages in Texas, some politicians blamed the historic blackouts on wind turbines. The dubious, and largely dismissed, claims nevertheless spotlighted an intriguing fact: Texas, the land made famous by oil derricks and wildcatters, now gets a significant portion of its electricity from clean, renewable sources, most notably wind, but also from water and solar - a troika of sustainability known collectively as WWS. "Texas gets about 20 percent of its electricity from wind alone," says Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute ...

Technological advances have made it possible for researchers to track the movements of large ocean-dwelling animals in three dimensions with remarkable precision in both time and space. Researchers reporting in the journal iScience on March 18 have now used this biologging technology to find that, for reasons the researchers don't yet understand, green sea turtles, sharks, penguins, and marine mammals all do something rather unusual: swimming in circles. "We've found that a wide variety of marine megafauna showed similar circling behavior, in which animals circled consecutively at a relatively ...

What The Article Says: An oncologist reflects on how advising patients with cancer about travel during a pandemic requires a nuanced consideration of benefit and risk, especially when considering lost opportunities when prognosis is limited. Authors: Christopher E. Jensen, M.D., of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, 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/jamaoncol.2021.0125) 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 ...

What The Study Did: Researchers examined whether state medical and recreational cannabis laws were associated with changes in rates of self-harm and assault injuries. Authors: Keith Humphreys, Ph.D., of Stanford University in Stanford, California, 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/jamanetworkopen.2021.1955) Editor's Note: 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, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media advisory: The full study and ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC - Males and females, generally speaking, experience and respond to pain differently, but scientists have yet to understand all the brain circuits involved in these differences. Now, new research from the UNC School of Medicine lab of Thomas Kash, PhD, shows how neurons use dopamine to regulate pain differently in male and female mice. The discovery, published in the journal Neuron, could help the scientific community devise better pain management strategies, particularly for women, who are disproportionally affected by pain throughout their lifespans. "We focused on this neural pathway because our previous work and that of others ...

Low plasma levels of protein TGFB1 and polymorphisms in gene TGFB1 act as biomarkers for the prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma, according to a study led by the University Complutense of Madrid (UCM). In particular, these variants are 12% more frequent in patients with metastatic tumors, "which indicates their importance in the clinical progression of this disease", stated José Manuel Martín Villa, Professor of Immunology and researcher at the Department of Immunology, Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology of the UCM. In addition to identifying patients with poorer progression and high mortality, these markers also identify individuals at ...

SAN ANTONIO -- March 18, 2021 -- Working with a team led by French astronomers, Southwest Research Institute scientists helped identify incredibly powerful winds in Jupiter's middle atmosphere for the first time. The team measured molecules exhumed by the 1994 impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 to trace winds in excess of 900 miles per hour near Jupiter's poles. Jupiter's distinctive red and white bands of swirling clouds allow scientists to track winds in the planet's lower atmosphere, and the SwRI team members have particular expertise in the vivid Jovian aurora, associated with strong winds in the gas giant's upper atmosphere. Until now, wind patterns in the cloudless stratosphere, between the two atmospheric layers, have eluded observation. "The team of ...

Mitochondria are important cellular power plants whose diminished activity has been previously demonstrated to be associated with obesity by a group of researchers at the University of Helsinki. Now, in a new international study coordinated by the University of Helsinki, the researchers have determined that the method of weight loss affects the metabolic pathways of mitochondria in fat tissue, also known as adipose tissue. The study was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. The researchers combined two datasets on calorie restriction diets and two datasets on weight loss surgery, or bariatric surgery, from Europe, monitoring dieters' weight loss as well as metabolism. A biopsy was taken from the study subjects' adipose tissue both at ...

Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT) is a rare brain tumor that predominantly occurs in young children. Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital used data from two clinical trials to study the molecular groups of ATRT and correlate them with clinical outcomes. A paper detailing the findings was published today in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "If you look at the biology of ATRT, we have learned in the last few years that this is not a single disease but instead there are at least three biologically different groups of the same disease," said first and corresponding author Santhosh Upadhyaya, M.D., St. Jude Department of Oncology. "But what are the outcomes for these different ...

Ticket inspection on public transport can prompt law-abiding people to behave dishonestly once they have gotten off the bus, according to a study published in The Economic Journal. The study was written by three experimental economists: Fabio Galeotti and Marie Claire Villeval of The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in the Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Etienne (GATE), and Valeria Maggian from Ca' Foscari University of Venice. In order to study the "side effects" of ticket inspection, researchers designed and carried out a complex large-scale study on public transport and in the streets of Lyon, France. During typical weekdays and avoiding rush hours, ...

- It is as if China is two completely different countries, if we look at how they appear in two such different cases as Africa and the Arctic, says Christer Henrik Pursiainen. He is a professor at the Department of Technology and Security at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. According to Pursiainen, it is not just the temperature difference that separates Africa from the Arctic. It also provides a good opportunity to take a closer look at how China adapts to two completely different situations and how they use widely differing methods to gain influence. Together with professors Rasmus ...

Though our galaxy is an immense city of at least 200 billion stars, the details of how they formed remain largely cloaked in mystery. Scientists know that stars form from the collapse of huge hydrogen clouds that are squeezed under gravity to the point where nuclear fusion ignites. But only about 30 percent of the cloud's initial mass winds up as a newborn star. Where does the rest of the hydrogen go during such a terribly inefficient process? It has been assumed that a newly forming star blows off a lot of hot gas through lightsaber-shaped outflowing jets and hurricane-like winds launched from the encircling disk by powerful magnetic fields. These fireworks should squelch further growth ...

NEW YORK, NY (March 18, 2021)--Therapies that soothe inflammation could be an effective way to prevent heart disease in people with a common age-related blood condition, according to a new study from researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. The researchers identified how the blood condition, called clonal hematopoiesis, worsens atherosclerosis, and their findings suggest that an anti-inflammatory drug previously tested in a wider population of people with cardiovascular disease may have potential if used only in those with clonal hematopoiesis. "The main message from our research is that anti-inflammatory therapies for atherosclerotic heart disease may be particularly effective in patients with clonal hematopoiesis," says Alan Tall, ...

A Russian-German research team has created a quantum sensor that grants access to measurement and manipulation of individual two-level defects in qubits. The study by NUST MISIS, Russian Quantum Center and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, published in npj Quantum Information, may pave the way for quantum computing. In quantum computing the information is encoded in qubits. Qubits (or quantum bits), the quantum mechanical analogue of a classical bit, are coherent two-level systems. A leading qubit modality today superconducting qubits based on the Josephson junction. That is the kind of qubit IBM and Google used in their quantum processors. However, scientists are still searching for the perfect qubit -- the one that can be precisely measured and controlled, ...

Researchers are developing new autonomous technologies that can help people check that isolated elderly family members are okay. We are living in a world where elderly parents are increasingly distant from their relatives, as many relocate for work opportunities. There are now more than 4 million people aged 65 and older who are living alone in the UK. The series of national lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic has made it even harder for people to check that those elderly loved ones are safe and well. Families want peace of mind that their elderly relatives are living well, and are maintaining a relatively active lifestyle. Although we can call them to check ...