Scientists have shown where bird species would exist in the absence of human activity under research that could provide a new approach to setting conservation priorities. A study by Durham University, UK, in collaboration with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), investigated how human activities such as agriculture, deforestation, and the drainage of wetlands have shaped where bird species are found in Great Britain today. Researchers used data on the geographical distributions of bird species alongside simulation models to predict where bird species would exist today if the effects of human activities on the landscape were removed. In this scenario there were winners ...

Public health researchers, led by UNSW Sydney, have estimated the number of cancer cases requiring surgery globally each year, predicting the number will rise from 9.1 million to 13.8 million from 2018 to 2040 - an increase of 52 per cent or 4.7 million cases. Their research shows the greatest relative increase will occur in 34 low-income countries, where the number of cases requiring surgery is expected to more than double by 2040 (314,355 cases to 650,164, or 107 per cent). The modelling study, published in The Lancet Oncology on Friday, analysed global demand for cancer surgery and estimated surgical and anaesthesia ...

Research team at Seoul National University (Prof. Tae-Woo Lee) and University of Pennsylvania (Prof. Andrew M. Rappe) developed perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 23.4%. The research results were published in Nature Photonics, which is the world-renowned international academic journal, on January 4th (Title: Comprehensive defect suppression in perovskite nanocrystals for high-efficiency light-emitting diodes). Metal halide perovskites have very narrow spectral emission, excellent color purity, low material cost, and wide and easy color-tunability. ...

The Nagoya University Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (WPI-ITbM) research team of Designated Associate Professor Tsuyoshi Hirota, Postdoctoral Fellow Simon Miller, Professor Kenichiro Itami and graduate student Tsuyoshi Oshima (Research Fellowship for Young Scientists, JSPS), in collaboration with the group of Professor Ben Feringa and Postdoctoral Fellow Dušan Kolarski of Groningen University in the Netherlands, have achieved a world first: fully reversible manipulation of the period of the circadian clock using light, by exchanging part of a compound with a light-activated switch. Waking in the ...

Greater sports participation among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children is linked with better academic performance, according to new research from the University of South Australia. Conducted in partnership with the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney, the world-first study found that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who played organised sports every year over four years, had numeracy skills which were advanced by seven months, compared to children who did less sport. The study used data from four successive waves of Australia's Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children, following 303 students (with a baseline age of five to six years old) to assess cumulative sports participation against ...

A world-first discovery by researchers at Monash University and The University of Queensland could lead to faster and more effective treatments for chronic health complications, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, with 'fluorescent' in vivo biosensors. The research team, led by Dr Simon Corrie from Monash University's Department of Chemical Engineering and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology, took an antibody that binds EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) proteins and engineered it to monitor the concentration of EGFR proteins in serum solutions over time. Co-authors of the paper, published in ACS Sensors, are Dr Christian Fercher, Dr Martina ...

They are among the largest predators ever to walk the Earth, but experts have discovered that some baby tyrannosaurs were only the size of a Border Collie dog when they took their first steps. The first-known fossils of tyrannosaur embryos have shed light on the early development of the colossal animals, which could grow to 40 feet in length and weigh eight tonnes. A team of palaeontologists, led by a University of Edinburgh researcher, made the discovery by examining the fossilised remains of a tiny jaw bone and claw unearthed in Canada and the US. Producing 3D scans of the delicate fragments revealed that they belonged to baby tyrannosaurs ...

Scientists from UNSW Sydney have developed a ceramic-based ink that may allow surgeons in the future to 3D-print bone parts complete with living cells that could be used to repair damaged bone tissue. Using a 3D-printer that deploys a special ink made up of calcium phosphate, the scientists developed a new technique, known as ceramic omnidirectional bioprinting in cell-suspensions (COBICS), enabling them to print bone-like structures that harden in a matter of minutes when placed in water. While the idea of 3D-printing bone-mimicking structures is not new, this is the first time such material can be created at room temperature - complete with living cells ...

The carbon footprint of plastic production for initial use is greater than the global warming impact of the entire process used for medical device reprocessing Use of reprocessed devices is environmentally superior to use of original products in 13 of 16 categories evaluatedReprocessing found to advance "circular economy," a key strategy for reaching the UN Sustainability GoalsLCA offers evidence showing that in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and honor the Paris Climate Agreement, EU Member States must opt-in to EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR)'s reprocessing/remanufacturing provisions [Berlin / Washington, ...

Large-scale production of vegetables and fruit in Spain with intensive plastic consumption in its greenhouse industry is believed to have leaked microplastic contaminants since the 1970s into the surrounding Mediterranean seagrass beds. This is shown in a new study where researchers have succeeded in tracing plastic pollution since the 1930s and 1940s by analyzing seagrass sediments. About half of Sweden's cucumbers and a fifth of the tomatoes in Sweden are currently imported from Spain according to the Swedish Board of Agriculture. A special area in Spain where large-scale vegetable cultivation ...

Overview: A research team at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology developed a nanosecond pulse laser-assisted photoporation method using titanium-oxide nanotubes (TNTs) for highly efficient and low-cost intracellular delivery. The proof of concept for the possibility of intracellular delivery after irradiation with nanosecond pulse laser on TNTs was validated. TNTs were formed on titanium sheets using the electrochemical anodization technique at different voltages and times. HeLa - human cervical cancer cells were cultured in the nanotubes and submerged in a solution of biomolecules. After cells were exposed to nanosecond pulse laser, we successfully delivered ...

There isn't much in Kamchatka, a remote peninsula in northeastern Russia just across the Bering Sea from Alaska, besides an impressive population of brown bears and the most explosive volcano in the world. Kamchatka's Shiveluch volcano has had more than 40 violent eruptions over the last 10,000 years. The last gigantic blast occurred in 1964, creating a new crater and covering an area of nearly 100 square kilometers with pyroclastic flows. But Shiveluch is actually currently erupting, as it has been for over 20 years. So why would anyone risk venturing too close? Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, including Michael Krawczynski, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences and graduate student ...

Abusive bosses may retain their positions by taking superficial steps to repair their social images following outbursts, without acting meaningfully to change their behaviors, according to research led by a University of Wyoming business management expert. Shawn McClean, an assistant professor in UW's College of Business, joined colleagues from the University of Iowa, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Texas A&M University in conducting the research, which appears in the journal Personnel Psychology. Their study also was featured in Harvard Business Review, a preeminent business magazine. "Our study shows that supervisors are often driven by simply repairing their social image rather than ...

Male breast cancer patients were found to have a high prevalence of cardiovascular conditions, in a small study of this rare patient population presented at the American College of Cardiology's Advancing the Cardiovascular Care of the Oncology Patient Virtual course. "Due to the rarity of male breast cancer, there is no cardiovascular data from larger clinical trials or population studies. The lack of large data makes it even more important to individualize cardiovascular assessment and management based on each patient's unique oncologic, therapeutic and pre-existing cardiovascular risk profile to support them through cancer treatment into survivorship," said Michael Ibrahim, fourth year ...

PHILADELPHIA, PA - January 25, 2021 - Opertech Bio, Inc., today announced the publication of a seminal research article describing the application of its pioneering TāStation® technology to the pharmacological characterization of human taste discrimination. The findings are published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, JPET. The paper, entitled "Rapid throughput concentration-response analysis of human taste discrimination," is the first to quantitatively define the concentration-response function for human taste discrimination, a crucial step in understanding ...

In a study of local rivers, experts at the University of Nottingham in the UK have discovered more invertebrates - animals without a backbone, such as insects and snails - living on litter than on rocks. In urban rivers where there are no better alternatives, litter provided the largest, most stable and complex habitat available for invertebrates to live on. The findings could have important implications for the management of urban rivers, including how river clean-up events are conducted. The research team, in the School of Geography, studied three local rivers; the River Leen, Black Brook, and Saffron Brook, in ...

DISCOVERY BRIEF: The first new skull of a rare species of the dinosaur Parasaurolophus (recognized by the large hollow tube that grows on its head) discovered in 97 years. Exquisite preservation of the new skull gives paleontologists their first opportunity to definitively identify how such a bizarre structure grew on this dinosaur. For the first time, this study found characteristics to link tube-crested dinosaur species found in southern North America (New Mexico, Utah), distinct from the only northern species (Alberta). The locality, in northwestern New Mexico, is dated to about 75 million years ago, a time when North America was divided by a shallow sea and teemed with duckbilled dinosaurs, horned dinosaurs and early tyrannosaurs. Fossils from ...

The cover for issue 2 of Oncotarget features Figure 4, "Combination therapy TA99/ICB reduced the lung tumor burden in the B16 model of metastases," published in "Improved therapeutic efficacy of unmodified anti-tumor antibodies by immune checkpoint blockade and kinase targeted therapy in mouse models of melanoma" by Pérez-Lorenzo, et al. which reported that here, the authors showed that removing immune suppression and enhancing stimulatory signals increased the anti-tumor activity of unmodified TA99 antibodies with a significant reduction of ...

The cover for issue 1 of Oncotarget features Figure 2, "Results in clinical trials," published in "Drug resistant cells with very large proliferative potential grow exponentially in metastatic prostate cancer" by Blagoev, et al. which reported that most metastatic cancers develop drug resistance during treatment and continue to grow, driven by a subpopulation of cancer cells unresponsive to the therapy being administered. There is evidence that metastases are formed by phenotypically plastic cancer cells with stem-cell-like properties. Currently, the population structure and growth dynamics ...

The cover for issue 52 of Oncotarget features Figure 1, "Volcano plots of DNA methylation in tumor tissues compared with nontumor tissue," published in "Reduction of T-Box 15 gene expression in tumor tissue is a prognostic biomarker for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma" by Morine, et al. which reported that the authors conducted a genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation of the tumor and non-tumor tissue of 15 patients with Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and revealed TBX15 was the most hypermethylated gene of the tumor. Another validation set, which comprised 58 HCC with radical resection, was analyzed to investigate the relationships between tumor phenotype and TBX15 mRNA expression. TBX15 mRNA levels in tumor tissues were significantly lower compared ...

Aging-US Issue 1 Volume 13 features "PAM (PIK3/AKT/mTOR) signaling in glia: potential contributions to brain tumors in aging" which reported that despite a growing proportion of aged individuals at risk for developing cancer in the brain, the prognosis for these conditions remains abnormally poor due to limited knowledge of underlying mechanisms and minimal treatment options. While cancer metabolism in other organs is commonly associated with upregulated glycolysis and hyperactivation of PIK3/AKT/mTOR pathways, the unique bioenergetic demands of the central nervous system ...

Aging-US published "Neuroprotective effects and mechanisms of action of nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) in a photoreceptor degenerative model of retinal detachment" which reported that here, the authors investigated nicotinamide mononucleotide, a precursor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, in a retinal detachment induced photoreceptor degeneration. NMN administration after RD resulted in a significant reduction of TUNEL photoreceptors, CD11b macrophages, and GFAP labeled glial activation; a normalization of protein carbonyl content, and a preservation of the outer nuclear layer thickness. NMN administration significantly increased NAD levels, SIRT1 protein expression, and heme oxygenase-1 expression. Delayed NMN administration still exerted protective effects after RD. This ...

A nuclear war could trigger an unprecedented El Niño-like warming episode in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, slashing algal populations by 40 percent and likely lowering the fish catch, according to a Rutgers-led study. The research, published in the journal END ...

DALLAS, Jan. 25, 2021 -- Psychological health can positively or negatively impact a person's health and risk factors for heart disease and stroke, according to "Psychological Health, Well-Being, and the Mind-Heart-Body Connection," a new American Heart Association Scientific Statement, published today in the Association's flagship journal Circulation. The statement evaluates the relationship between psychological health and heart health, summarizing ways to help improve psychological health for people with and at risk for heart disease. "A person's mind, heart and body are all interconnected and interdependent in what can be termed 'the mind-heart-body-connection,'" said Glenn N. Levine, M.D., FAHA, master clinician and professor of medicine at ...

DALLAS, Jan. 25, 2021 -- The continued global burden of stroke and how it disproportionately affects women are highlighted in new science published online today in the February issue of Stroke, a journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association. Stroke editors selected nine manuscripts focused on stroke disparities in women in this collaboration with Go Red for Women®, the Association's global movement to end heart disease and stroke in women. "Stroke continues to be a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, with women being more adversely affected by the global burden of stroke," said Stroke Editor-In-Chief Ralph L. Sacco, M.D., M.S., FAHA, ...