The chemical compound glyphosate, the world's most widely used herbicide, can weaken the immune systems of insects, suggests a study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Round Up™, a popular U.S. brand of weed killer products. The researchers investigated the effects of glyphosate on two evolutionarily distant insects, Galleria mellonella, the greater wax moth, and Anopheles gambiae, a mosquito that is an important transmitter of malaria to humans in Africa. They found that ...

People who work nontraditional work hours, such as 11 p.m.-7 p.m., or the "graveyard" shift, are more likely than people with traditional daytime work schedules to develop a chronic medical condition -- shift work sleep disorder -- that disrupts their sleep. According to researchers at the University of Missouri, people who develop this condition are also three times more likely to be involved in a vehicle accident. "This discovery has many major implications, including the need to identify engineering counter-measures to help prevent these crashes from happening," said Praveen Edara, department chair and professor of civil and environmental ...

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, a trio of science communication researchers proposes to treat the Covid-19 misinformation "infodemic" with the same methods used to halt epidemics. "We believe the intertwining spreads of the virus and of misinformation and disinformation require an approach to counteracting deceptions and misconceptions that parallels epidemiologic models by focusing on three elements: real-time surveillance, accurate diagnosis, and rapid response," the authors write in a Perspective article. "The word 'communicable' comes from the Latin communicare, ...

New research led by the University of Kent has found that people fail to recognise the role of factory farming in causing infectious diseases. The study published by Appetite demonstrates that people blame wild animal trade or lack of government preparation for epidemic outbreaks as opposed to animal agriculture and global meat consumption. Scientists forewarned about the imminence of global pandemics such as Covid-19, but humankind failed to circumvent its arrival. They had been warning for decades about the risks of intensive farming practices for public health. The scale of production and overcrowded conditions on factory farms make it easy for viruses to migrate and spread. Furthermore, ...

HOUSTON - Cytokine-activated natural killer (NK) cells derived from donated umbilical cord blood, combined with an investigational bispecific antibody targeting CD16a and CD30 known as AFM13, displayed potent anti-tumor activity against CD30+ lymphoma cells, according to a new preclinical study from researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The findings were published today in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. These results led to the launch of a Phase I clinical trial to evaluate the combination of cord blood-derived NK cells (cbNK cells) with AFM13 as an experimental cell-based immunotherapy in patients with CD30+ lymphoma. "Developing novel NK cell therapies has been a priority for my ...

WASHINGTON -- In a new study, researchers have shown that 3D printing can be used to make highly precise and complex miniature lenses with sizes of just a few microns. The microlenses can be used to correct color distortion during imaging, enabling small and lightweight cameras that can be designed for a variety of applications. "The ability to 3D print complex micro-optics means that they can be fabricated directly onto many different surfaces such as the CCD or CMOS chips used in digital cameras," said Michael Schmid, a member of the research team from University of Stuttgart in Germany. "The micro-optics can ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Free from human disturbance for a century, an inland island in Central America has nevertheless lost more than 25% of its native bird species since its creation as part of the Panama Canal's construction, and scientists say the losses continue. The Barro Colorado Island extirpations show how forest fragmentation can reduce biodiversity when patches of remnant habitat lack connectivity, according to a study by researchers at Oregon State University. Even when large remnants of forest are protected, some species still fail to survive because of subtle ...

DALLAS - May 12, 2021 - Scientists with UT Southwestern's Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute have identified the molecular mechanism that can cause weight gain for those using a common antipsychotic medication. The findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggest new ways to counteract the weight gain, including a drug recently approved to treat genetic obesity, according to the study, which involved collaborations with scientists at UT Dallas and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. "If this effect can be shown in clinical trials, it could give us a way to effectively treat ...

Astronomers commonly refer to massive stars as the chemical factories of the Universe. They generally end their lives in spectacular supernovae, events that forge many of the elements on the periodic table. How elemental nuclei mix within these enormous stars has a major impact on our understanding of their evolution prior to their explosion. It also represents the largest uncertainty for scientists studying their structure and evolution. A team of astronomers led by May Gade Pedersen, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Barbara's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, have now measured the internal mixing within an ensemble of these stars using observations ...

Leesburg, VA, May 13, 2021--According to an open-access Editor's Choice article in ARRS' American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), CT features may help identify which patients with stage IA non-small cell lung cancer are optimal candidates for sublobar resection, rather than more extensive surgery. This retrospective study included 904 patients (453 men, 451 women; mean age, 62 years) who underwent lobectomy (n=574) or sublobar resection (n=330) for stage IA non-small cell lung cancer. Two thoracic radiologists independently evaluated findings on preoperative chest CT, later resolving any discrepancies. Recurrences were identified via medical record review. "In patients with stage IA non-small cell lung cancer, pathologic ...

Boston - Pregnant women with symptomatic COVID-19 have a higher risk of intensive care unit admissions, mechanical ventilation and death compared to non-pregnant reproductive age women. Increases in preterm birth and still birth have also been observed in pregnancies complicated by the viral infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that people who are pregnant may choose to be vaccinated at their own discretion with their healthcare provider. However, pregnant and lactating women were not included in Phase 3 vaccine efficacy trials; thus, data on vaccine safety and immunogenicity in this population is limited. In a new study from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), ...

Despite having been driven nearly to extinction, the California condor has a high degree of genetic diversity that bodes well for its long-term survival, according to a new analysis by University of California researchers. Nearly 40 years ago, the state's wild condor population was down to a perilous 22. That led to inbreeding that could have jeopardized the population's health and narrowed the bird's genetic diversity, which can reduce its ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. In comparing the complete genomes of two California condors with those of an Andean condor and a turkey vulture, UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley scientists did find genetic evidence of inbreeding over the past few centuries, but, overall, a ...

TORONTO, ON - A team of evolutionary biologists from the University of Toronto has shown that Anolis lizards, or anoles, are able to breathe underwater with the aid of a bubble clinging to their snouts. Anoles are a diverse group of lizards found throughout the tropical Americas. Some anoles are stream specialists, and these semi-aquatic species frequently dive underwater to avoid predators, where they can remain submerged for as long as 18 minutes. "We found that semi-aquatic anoles exhale air into a bubble that clings to their skin," says Chris Boccia, a recent Master of Science graduate from the Faculty of Arts & Science's Department of Ecology ...

Traffic noise leads to inaccuracies and delays in the development of song learning in young birds. They also suffer from a suppressed immune system, which is an indicator of chronic stress. A new study by researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and colleagues shows that young zebra finches, just like children, are particularly vulnerable to the effects of noise because of its potential to interfere with learning at a critical developmental stage. Traffic noise is a pervasive pollutant that adversely affects the health and well-being ...

New Orleans, LA - Research conducted by an international team of scientists discovered a mechanism that leads to Herceptin resistance, representing a significant clinical obstacle to successfully treating HER2-positive breast cancer. They also identified a new approach to potentially overcome it. The work is published online in Nature Communications, available here. "This work attempts to understand why some HER2-positive breast cancer patients do not benefit from treatment with Herceptin, which is a generally effective HER2-targeted therapy," explains Bolin Liu, MD, Professor of Genetics at LSU Health New Orleans' School of Medicine and Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center. The researchers found increased signaling by IGF2/IRS1 (genes involved in ...

MAROANTSETRA, Madagascar (May 13, 2021) - A new study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) looks at the prevalence of human consumption of lemur and fossa (Madagascar's largest predator) in villages within and around Makira Natural Park, northeastern Madagascar, providing up-to-date estimates of the percentage of households who eat meat from these protected species. Authors from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) describe their findings in the journal Conservation Science and Practice. In Madagascar, the consumption of endangered and protected species, in particular lemurs, ...

Two recent papers from Hungarian researchers highlight the so far underrated relevance of pet dog biobanking in molecular research and introduce their initiative to make pioneering steps in this field. The Hungarian Canine Brain and Tissue Bank (CBTB) was established by the research team of the Senior Family Dog Project in 2017, following the examples of human tissue banks. In a recent paper, the team reports findings, which would not have been possible without the CBTB, and may augment further progress in dog aging and biomarker research. Even though dogs have a much shorter average lifespan than humans, the aging path of the two species has remarkable similarities. Hence our best friends have attracted the attention ...

Clinicians and scientists have long observed that cells in overstressed hearts have high levels of the simple sugar O-GlcNAc modifying thousands of proteins within cells. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have found evidence in mouse experiments that these excess sugars could well be a cause, not merely a consequence or marker of heart failure. Their research found that elevated levels of O-GlcNAc made mice more prone to heart failure, but lowering levels of O-GlcNAc restored the animals' risk of death and heart function to normal. Together, the investigators say, the new findings, described online in the April ...

In a study conducted by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), cumulative opioid use was reduced by 30% in a patient group that received duloxetine after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) compared with patients who received placebo. Patients who received duloxetine also reported higher pain management satisfaction and less pain interference with mood, walking, normal sleep, and work activities. These findings were presented at the 2021 Spring American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) Annual Meeting.1 Studies have demonstrated that many patients report joint pain two weeks after ...

Millions of people suffer from psoriasis, a chronic, autoimmune disorder that causes scaly patches on the skin and often precedes psoriatic arthritis. While no cure exists, treatments range from topical creams to injected medications that block inflammation. To improve treatment options, scientists need to better understand the dysregulation of the immune system that leads to these lesions. Using advanced computational genomic analysis of immune cells from mouse models, a researcher at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago and her collaborators ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. - When Ram Raghavan heard from a former colleague at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that a 7-year-old girl had died from Rocky Mountain spotted fever as the result of a tick bite, he thought of his own daughter, also 7 years old at the time, and the potentially fatal danger posed to vulnerable populations by tick-borne diseases. Now a professor at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine and School of Health Professions, Raghavan is an epidemiologist studying how ticks, mosquitos and other arthropods spread disease that impact people, pets and livestock over time in various geographical regions. In a recent study, the most comprehensive of its kind in the Midwest region of the United States, Raghavan and former graduate ...

Anti-NMDA receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis was first reported to develop in female young adults with ovarian teratoma. However, another study with a larger cohort reported that more than one-third of all patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis were aged under 18 years, suggesting that this encephalitis might be more common in children than originally expected. A clinical diagnostic approach to autoimmune encephalitis was proposed in 2016, and included diagnostic criteria for probable and definite anti-NMDAR encephalitis. For a diagnosis of probable anti-NMDAR encephalitis, the criteria require rapid onset ( END ...

Tokyo, Japan - Materials in a glassy state are everywhere in our lives and have contributed to humanity for many years. Today, they play a critical role in various technologies, including optical fibers. Although we believe that glass is highly stable, it sometimes crystallizes, resulting in loss of transparency and isotropy, essential characteristics of glass, which has been a significant problem in industrial applications. The reason why crystallization occurs in a solid-state with almost no molecular movement has been a great mystery. Its understanding may help to prevent or optimize crystal growth at deep supercooling. In a study recently published in Nature Materials, researchers ...

A dengue virus vaccine candidate has passed an important milestone, with promising results in animal model testing providing hope to the 390 million people infected every year. The University of Queensland-developed vaccine candidate, applied to the skin via the high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP), has produced a protective immune response in dengue-infected mice. UQ PhD candidate Jovin Choo said the result could lead to a readily administered vaccine that could help halt the devastation of dengue fever globally. "Dengue is the most significant mosquito-borne viral disease in the world's ...

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., May 12, 2021--A new theorem from the field of quantum machine learning has poked a major hole in the accepted understanding about information scrambling. "Our theorem implies that we are not going to be able to use quantum machine learning to learn typical random or chaotic processes, such as black holes. In this sense, it places a fundamental limit on the learnability of unknown processes," said Zoe Holmes, a post-doc at Los Alamos National Laboratory and coauthor of the paper describing the work published today in Physical Review Letters. "Thankfully, because most physically interesting processes are sufficiently simple or structured so that they do not resemble ...