PULLMAN, Wash. - Alterations in the epigenetic programming of hatchery-raised steelhead trout could account for their reduced fertility, abnormal health and lower survival rates compared to wild fish, according to a new Washington State University study. The study, published May 18 in Environmental Epigenetics, establishes a link between feeding practices that promote faster growth, as well as other environmental factors in fish hatcheries, and epigenetic changes found in the sperm and red blood cells of of steelhead trout. The research was done at a national fish hatchery on the Methow River in Winthrop, Washington and at another hatchery ...

An international research team headed by Michal Hocek of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague) and Charles University and Ciara K. O'Sullivan of Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) in Spain have developed a novel method for labeling DNA, which in the future can be used for sequencing DNA by means of electrochemical detection. The researchers presented their results in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. A DNA molecule comprises four basic building blocks, nucleotides. The genetic information carried within the molecule is determined by the order of the nucleotides. Knowledge of the order of these building blocks, which is known ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A new coronavirus test can get accurate results from a saliva sample in less than 30 minutes, researchers report in the journal Nature Communications. Many of the components of the hand-held device used in this technology can be 3D-printed, and the test can detect as little as one viral particle per 1-microliter drop of fluid. "We developed a rapid, highly sensitive and accurate assay, and a portable, battery-powered device for COVID-19 testing that can be used anywhere at any time," said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Huimin Zhao, who led the research. Though it is still in the ...

A new study published in Nature Communications provides an important new basis for comparing the effectiveness of different tuberculosis treatments. Tuberculosis, a disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is typically the leading infectious cause of death globally, killing 1.2 million people each year. The availability of a new way to evaluate treatments can save lives. In the study, faculty at the University of Colorado School of Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus partnered with the University of California ...

Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder have tapped into a poltergeist-like property of electrons to design devices that can capture excess heat from their environment--and turn it into usable electricity. The researchers have described their new "optical rectennas" in a paper published today in the journal Nature Communications. These devices, which are too small to see with the naked eye, are roughly 100 times more efficient than similar tools used for energy harvesting. And they achieve that feat through a mysterious process called "resonant ...

Ants are renowned in the insect world for their complex social structure and behaviors. Workers and foragers support the queen, faithfully carrying out their social roles for the overall health of the colony. This complex "superorganism" ---as scientists have dubbed it --- has become a prime model to explore the genetic and behavioral roots of social organisms. Remarkably, there are also rare instances of ants not playing well with others and shrugging off their societal duties to become free-loading parasites amongst their free-living relatives. Now, in a new study published in Nature ...

Information flows in a well-defined direction in the brain: Chemical and electrical signals are passed from one neuron to the other across the synapse, from the pre-synaptic to the post-synaptic neuron. Now, Peter Jonas and his group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) show that information also travels in the opposite direction at a key synapse in the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for learning and memory. At the so-called mossy fiber synapse, the post-synaptic CA3 neuron influences how the pre-synaptic neuron, the so-called mossy fiber neuron, fires. "We have shown, for the first time, that a retrograde information flow ...

BOSTON - In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States experienced higher rates of heart disease and cerebrovascular disease deaths, relative to the corresponding months the previous year. While a large body of evidence has shown that Black and Hispanic communities have borne a disproportionately high burden of disease and death from COVID-19, little is known about whether the rise in cardiovascular deaths during the pandemic has been disproportionately concentrated among racial and ethnic minority populations. A new study led by clinician-researchers at the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) characterized heart disease ...

Pollinators in the tropics are less likely to thrive in intensive croplands, finds a new study led by UCL researchers suggesting bees and butterflies are at risk of major losses. Across the globe, lower levels of land use intensity are good for pollinators, finds the new Nature Communications paper which shows the importance of sustainable land management in cities and agricultural regions. As insect pollinators were found to be more than 70% less abundant in areas with intensive cropland, compared to wild sites, the researchers say that more sustainable agricultural ...

We are truly never alone, not even within our own bodies. Human beings play host to trillions of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms that make up the human microbiome. In recent years, the mix of these resident bacteria, and the presence of specific bacterial species, has been linked to conditions ranging from obesity to multiple sclerosis. Now, going a step farther, researchers at Harvard Medical School and Joslin Diabetes Center have gone beyond microbial species. Analyzing the genetic makeup of bacteria in the human gut, the team has successfully linked groups of bacterial genes, or "genetic signatures," to multiple diseases. The work brings scientists closer to developing ...

Optimistic predictions expect reliable autonomous vehicles to be commercially available by 2030, at a time when mobility is undergoing a profound shift away from traditional modes of transportation and towards door-to-door services. Previous analysis suggested that public transport will lose market share to autonomous vehicles, but the environmental impact of changing transport use has hardly been considered. New research shows that the convenience of autonomous vehicles would likely come at an environmental cost. A recent paper by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison addresses the use-phase implications of autonomous vehicles using a stated preference ...

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) offers an effective, less invasive therapeutic alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement in patients with symptomatic, severe aortic stenosis. Although TAVI is demonstrated to be superior to medical therapy or surgery in patients who are at prohibitive or high risk for aortic valve surgery, less is known about TAVI in patients who are at low risk for complications or death from surgery. At EuroPCR 2021, Dr J Forrest will present the complete 2-year follow-up from the Evolut low risk trial. The Evolut Low Risk trial is a randomized noninferiority trial in which TAVI with a self-expanding supraannular bioprosthesis ...

Previous clinical trials suggested that ultra-thin strut biodegradable polymer sirolimus-eluting stent (BP-SES) may be associated with lower target lesion failure (TLF) when compared to durable polymer everolimus-eluting stents (DP-EES). However, the possible underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Therefore, the all-comers CASTLE study was designed to assess the role of imaging-guided percutaneous cardiac intervention (PCI) in the clinical outcomes difference between BP-SES vs DP-EES. BP-SES has ultra-thin struts (60μm) and a biodegradable polymer that may provide potential advantages such as reduced vessel inflammation and thrombogenicity. ...

The European Bifurcation Club Left Main (EBC MAIN) trial addressed the issue of provisional single stent versus upfront double stenting in 467 patients with true bifurcation distal left main disease. So far, only one other randomized trial, DKCRUSH-V (n=482), has addressed the same research question, showing better outcomes with an upfront two-stent strategy, more specifically the double-kissing crush (DK CRUSH) technique. In terms of methodology, two aspects need to be considered for the correct interpretation of the EBC MAIN trial results. First, both LAD and CX ostia were affected by significant disease on angiography ...

Results of the interim analyses performed after 12 months in the first 111 patients enrolled in phase II Cool AMI trial evaluating safety and effectiveness of systemic therapeutic hypothermia as an adjunctive therapy in anterior STEMI undergoing PCI as compared to PCI only. Analyses showed significant differences among treatment groups, including longer randomization-to-balloon time and total ischemic time in treatment arm, justifying premature trial discontinuation. Therapeutic mild systemic hypothermia, when achieved before reperfusion of the infarct related vessel, has shown to limit infarct size in experimental animal models. Despite ...

The ISCHEMIA trial found no significant difference between an invasive vs. a conservative strategy in patients with chronic coronary syndromes and moderate to severe ischemia at a mean of 3.2 years. However, the cumulative difference in the estimates of cardiac death between the invasive and conservative strategies tended to increase numerically over time (e.g., 0.3% in favor of the invasive strategy at 2 years and 1.3% at 5 years). Because the ISCHEMIA trial was not powered for cardiac mortality and did not focus on long-term follow-up, the rationale for a meta-analysis emerged. At EuroPCR 2021, Navarese and colleagues present the results of a new meta-analysis of revascularization plus medical therapy versus medical therapy alone. A total of 19,806 patients with chronic coronary syndromes ...

Imagine an entire twenty storey concrete building which can store energy like a giant battery. Thanks to unique research from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, such a vision could someday be a reality. Researchers from the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering recently published an article outlining a new concept for rechargeable batteries - made of cement. The ever-growing need for sustainable building materials poses great challenges for researchers. Doctor Emma Zhang, formerly of Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, joined Professor Luping Tang's research group several years ago to search for the building materials of the future. Together they have now succeeded in developing a world-first ...

Researchers have developed a tool to help governments and other organizations with limited budgets spend money on building repairs more wisely. The new tool uses artificial intelligence (AI) and text mining techniques to analyze written inspection reports and determine which work is most urgently needed. "Those assessments are now largely subjective, the opinions of people based on experience and training," said Kareem Mostafa, an engineering PhD student at the University of Waterloo who led the project. "We're using actual data on buildings to make spending decisions more objective." Researchers looked at inspection reports on the roofs of 400 schools managed by the Toronto District School Board. A computer ...

MUSC Hollings Cancer Center lung cancer researcher Gerard Silvestri, M.D., found that a lack of insurance leads to worse cancer survival than for those with Medicare, in a paper published in the May issue of Health Affairs. This work, a joint effort between Silvestri and researchers at the American Cancer Society, highlights the current dire barrier in medical care: Many people cannot take advantage of the newer potentially lifesaving treatments due to the high costs. Silvestri said the research began last year, inspired by the hotly debated topic of expanding Medicare ...

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) under the Ministry of Science and ICT developed a roll-based damage-free transfer technique that allows two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials to be transferred into wafer scale without damage. The proposed technique has a variety of applications from transparent displays and semiconductors to displays for self-driving cars, and is expected to accelerate the commercialization of 2D nanomaterial-based high-performance devices. Dr. Kwang-Seop Kim, principal researcher of the Department of Nano-Mechanics at KIMM, succeeded in developing a technique of transferring 2D nanomaterials, as thin as 1/50,000 of a strand of hair, to a substrate of at least 4 inches (approx. 10 cm) without damage. The roll-based transfer is a process in ...

On the evening of May 6, 1937, the largest aircraft ever built by mankind, a towering example of technological prowess, slipped through the stormy skies of New Jersey and prepared to land. The airship Hindenburg was nearing the end of a three-day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean from Frankfurt, Germany. It was a spectacle and a news event. Onlookers and news crews gathered to watch the 800-foot-long behemoth touch down. And then, in one horrifying half minute, it was all over. Flames erupted from the airship's skin, fed by the flammable hydrogen gas that ...

One of the especially dangerous health risks of being extremely overweight occurs when an obese person begins to accumulate fat in their liver. This condition--non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)--is the world's most common chronic liver disease and is the primary underlying cause for liver transplants in children and adults. Without such transplants, which are available to only a small percentage of patients, NAFLD over time can be fatal. In fact, (excluding alcohol-related liver damage) more than 30,000 people a year die from NAFLD. For years, the primary way to treat NAFLD has ...

Early preterm births may be dramatically decreased with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplements, with a dose of 1000 mg more effective for pregnant women with low DHA levels than the 200 mg found in some prenatal supplements, according to a study led by researchers from the University of Kansas and the University of Cincinnati and published today in EClinicalMedicine, a clinical journal of The Lancet. Early preterm birth, defined as birth before 34 weeks gestation, is a serious public health issue because these births result in the highest risk of infant mortality and child disability. "This study tells us that pregnant women should be taking DHA," said Susan E. Carlson, Ph.D., professor of nutrition in the Department ...

PITTSBURGH, May 17, 2021 - Monoclonal antibodies, a COVID-19 treatment given early after coronavirus infection, cut the risk of hospitalization and death by 60% in those most likely to suffer complications of the disease, according to an analysis of UPMC patients who received the medication compared to similar patients who did not. UPMC and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine physician-scientists published the findings today in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, a journal of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The study involved bamlanivimab, a monoclonal antibody that is now offered only in combination ...

Cultural diversity -- indicated by linguistic diversity -- and biodiversity are linked, and their connection may be another way to preserve both natural environments and Indigenous populations in Africa and perhaps worldwide, according to an international team of researchers. "The punchline is, that if you are interested in conserving biological diversity, excluding the Indigenous people who likely helped create that diversity in the first place may be a really bad idea," said Larry Gorenflo, professor of landscape architecture, geography and African studies, Penn State. "Humans are part of ecosystems and I hope this study will usher in a more committed effort to engage Indigenous people in conserving localities containing key biodiversity." Gorenflo, ...