LA JOLLA, CA--A family of proteins that sense mechanical force--and enable our sense of touch and many other important bodily functions--also are essential for proper root growth in some plants, according to a study led by scientists at Scripps Research and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The discovery, published in the END ...

According to data from a cohort of adult and pediatric patients with antibody deficiencies, patients that often fail to make protective immune responses to infections and vaccinations showed robust T-cell activity and humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins. The new study, led by researchers at Children's National Hospital, is the first to demonstrate a robust T-cell response against SARS-CoV-2 in immunocompromised patients. "If T-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 are indeed protective, then it could suggest that adoptive T-cell immunotherapy might benefit more profoundly immunocompromised patients," said Michael Keller, M.D., director of the Translational Research Laboratory in the ...

Scientists at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and their colleagues from the University of Graz & the Kanzelhöhe Observatory (Austria) and the ESA European Space Operations Centre developed a method and software called RESONANCE to predict the solar radio flux activity for 1-24 months ahead. RESONANCE will serve to improve the specification of satellite orbits, re-entry services, modeling of space debris evolution, and collision avoidance maneuvers. The research results were published in the high-profile Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. Since the launch of Sputnik, the Earth's first artificial satellite, in ...

The work was sponsored by Russian Science Foundation; the project, headed by Professor Anatolii Mokshin, is titled "Theoretical, simulating and experimental research of physico-mechanical traits of amorphous-producing systems with heterogeneous local visco-elastic properties". "We performed calculations for porous nitinol," shares first co-author, Associate Professor Bulat Galimzyanov. "It's widely used in various industries thanks to its unique physico-mechanical properties, such as low volume weight, high corrosion resistance, high biocompatibility and shape memory. Obtaining nitinol as amorphous foam is very labor-intensive, it requires high temperatures and extremely high melt cooling rate (over 1,000,000 K per second). Obviously, traditional experiments ...

A large-scale randomised trial of annual screening for ovarian cancer, led by UCL researchers, did not succeed in reducing deaths from the disease, despite one of the screening methods tested detecting cancers earlier. Results from the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) have been published in a report in the medical journal The Lancet. In the UK, 4,000 women die from ovarian cancer each year. It is not usually diagnosed until it is at a late stage and hard to treat. UKCTOCS was designed to test the hypothesis that a reliable screening ...

BOSTON - B cells are the immune cells responsible for creating antibodies, and most B cells, known as B2 cells, produce antibodies in response to a pathogen or a vaccine, providing defense and immunity against infections. But a small subset of long-lived B cells, known as B1 cells, are quite different from their short-lived cousins, the B2 cells. Instead of producing antibodies in response to invaders, they spontaneously make antibodies that perform vital housekeeping functions, such as removing waste like oxidized LDL cholesterol from the blood. Like all the cells in the body, B1 and B2 cells have the same DNA, and therefore the same starting set of instructions. It is through epigenetic modifications, which ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Since the 1950s, political scientists have theorized that political polarization -- increased numbers of "political partisans" who view the world with an ideological bias -- is associated with an inability to tolerate uncertainty and a need to hold predictable beliefs about the world. But little is known about the biological mechanisms through which such biased perceptions arise. To investigate that question, scientists at Brown University measured and compared the brain activity of committed partisans (both liberals and conservatives) as ...

If you're a fan of spy movies, you've probably come across scenes where the intelligence agents try to identify or detect a perpetrator using some sophisticated image enhancement technology on surveillance camera images. While the idea behind surveillance cameras and object detection is the same in real life, unlike in movies, there is often a trade-off between the camera's field-of-view and its resolution. Surveillance cameras are typically required to have a wide field-of-view to make the detection of a threat more likely. Due to this, omnidirectional ...

The first frost of autumn may be grim for gardeners but the latest evidence reveals it is a profound event in the life of plants. The discovery may affect how we grow crops in a fluctuating climate and help us better understand molecular mechanisms in animals and humans. Much of our understanding of how plants register temperature at a molecular level has been gained from the study of vernalization - the exposure to an extended period of cold as a preparation for flowering in spring. Experiments using the model plant Arabidopsis have shown how this prolonged period of cold lifts the brake on flowering, a gene called FLC. This biochemical brake also involves another molecule COOLAIR which is antisense to FLC. This means it lies on the ...

Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) have identified gaps in patient knowledge about pain management and opioid use before total hip replacement, including misconceptions about how much pain relief to expect from opioids after surgery, how to use multiple modes of pain relief (multimodal analgesia) safely and effectively, and proper opioid storage and disposal. These findings were presented at the 2021 Spring American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) Annual Meeting.1 "Patients who are not taught about opioids and pain management may have difficulty with pain control and worse functional outcomes after total ...

Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) have identified risk factors for persistent opioid use after surgery in pediatric patients.1 Study findings were presented at the 2021 Spring American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) Annual Meeting. Previous research indicates that prescription patterns for opioids after surgery in children and adolescents may be associated with long-term use and abuse.2 "Pediatric patients have developing brains that are uniquely vulnerable to addiction, and we need to learn to treat their pain safely without putting them at additional ...

In a study carried out in mice at the University of Chicago, researchers found that lasofoxifene outperformed fulvestrant, the current gold-standard drug, in reducing or preventing primary tumor growth. It also was more effective at preventing metastasis in the lung, liver, bone and brain, the four most common areas for this cancer to spread. Additionally, while fulvestrant and similar drugs often cause unwanted, menopausal-like side effects, lasofoxifene prevents some of these symptoms. The research was published on May 13 in END ...

How people consume news and take actions based on what they read, hear or see, is different than how human brains process other types of information on a daily basis, according to researchers at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. While the current state of the newspaper industry is in flux, these journalism experts discovered people still love reading newspapers, and they believe a newspaper's physical layout and structure could help curators of digital news platforms enhance their users' experiences. "Many people still love print newspapers, and to an extent, we also see that they like the digital replicas of print newspapers as much as they do the physical version," said Damon Kiesow, a professor of journalism professions and co-author on the study. "But we believe there ...

In a paper published in the May 13th, 2021 issue of PLOS Genetics, a Z-RNA nanoswitch that regulates interferon immune responses is described. The switch, less than 5 nanometer in length, is based on sequences, called flipons, that change outcomes by altering their three dimensional conformation. The Z-RNA nanoswitch flips from the shorter right-handed A-RNA helix ("on") to the longer left-handed Z-RNA helix ("off"). The flip ends immune responses against self RNAs, but not against viruses. Surprisingly, the Z-RNA nanoswitch sequence is encoded by "junk DNA". The Z-RNA nanoswitch is used by some cancers to silence anti-tumor immune responses. In other cases, a malfunction of the Z-RNA nanoswitch causes inflammatory disease. In the ...

A new strategy for capturing the 3D shape of the human face draws on data from sibling pairs and leads to identification of novel links between facial shape traits and specific locations within the human genome. Hanne Hoskens of the Department of Human Genetics at Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Genetics. The ability to capture the 3D shape of the human face--and how it varies between individuals with different genetics--can inform a variety of applications, including understanding human evolution, planning for surgery, and forensic sciences. ...

Mutations in two genetic regions in dogs explain over one third of the risk of developing an aggressive form of hematological cancer, according to a study led by Jacquelyn Evans and Elaine Ostrander at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Maryland, USA and colleagues. The study, which combined multiple sequencing techniques to investigate histiocytic sarcoma in retriever dogs, publishes May 13 in the open-access journal PLOS Genetics. Histiocytic sarcoma is an aggressive cancer of immune cells, and although extremely rare in humans, it affects around one-in-five flat-coated retrievers. Genome-wide association surveys of 177 affected and 132 unaffected flat-coated ...

A new whole genome sequence for the Yap hadal snailfish provides insights into how the unusual fish survives in some of the deepest parts of the ocean. Xinhua Chen of the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and Qiong Shi of the BGI Academy of Marine Sciences published their analysis of the new genome May 13th in the journal PLOS Genetics. Animals living in deep-sea environments face many challenges, including high pressures, low temperatures, little food and almost no light. Fish are the only animals with a backbone that live in the hadal zone--defined as depths below 6,000 meters--and hadal snailfishes live in at least five separate marine trenches. Chen, Shi and their colleagues constructed a high-quality whole genome sequence from the Yap ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) learning machines can be trained to solve problems and puzzles on their own instead of using rules that we made for them. But often, researchers do not know what rules the machines make for themselves. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Peter Koo developed a new method that quizzes a machine-learning program to figure out what rules it learned on its own and if they are the right ones. Computer scientists "train" an AI machine to make predictions by presenting it with a set of data. The machine extracts a series of rules and operations--a model--based on information it encountered during its training. Koo says: "If you learn general ...

QUT air-quality expert Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska is leading an international call for a "paradigm shift" in combating airborne pathogens such as COVID-19, demanding universal recognition that infections can be prevented by improving indoor ventilation systems. Professor Morawska led a group of almost 40 researchers from 14 countries in a call published in Science for a shift in standards in ventilation requirements equal in scale to the transformation in the 1800s when cities started organising clean water supplies and centralised sewage systems. The international group of air quality researchers called on the World ...

For decades, governments worldwide have invested great deals of legislation and resources in food safety, sanitation and drinking water quality for public health purposes. However, the same cannot be said for the air quality of indoor public spaces, wherein the spread of airborne pathogens - whether those that cause the common cold or COVID-19 - is generally considered to be an "inescapable part of daily life." In a Policy Forum, Lidia Morawska and colleagues argue for a profound shift in how policymakers and building engineers view and approach indoor air quality and health, to reduce the spread of respiratory infection. According to Morawska et al., similarly to how food and waterborne disease ...

A subpopulation of neurons in the brain's zona incerta, or "zone of uncertainty," drives investigatory and novelty-seeking behavior in mice, according to a new study. The findings reveal a previously unknown brain circuit underlying innate curiosity; its discovery may one day have implications as a therapeutic target in animals or people who exhibit novelty-seeking behaviors, authors of a related Perspective say. Although curiosity - the motivational drive to investigate the unknown - is widely considered to be as intrinsic as hunger and thirst, and an ...

Challenging the assumption that watershed streamflow always recovers from drought, a new study done seven years after the "Millennium Drought," the worst drought ever recorded in southeastern Australia, reports that more than a third of the region's affected watersheds had not yet recovered. Of these watersheds that were still dry seven years later, most showed no evidence of recovering soon, despite the rains' return. The new study's findings suggest that hydrological droughts can persist indefinitely after meteorological droughts, highlighting an amplification of climate change impacts that could present additional challenges to the sustainable use of already-threatened water ...

More investigation is needed to determine the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, say Jesse Bloom, Alina Chan, Ralph Baric, David Relman and colleagues in this Letter. "Theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable," they say. "Knowing how COVID-19 emerged is critical for informing global strategies to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks." The authors highlight a joint China-World Health Organization (WHO) report into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, some results of which were released in November 2020. "WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus commented that the report's consideration of evidence supporting a laboratory ...

Humans in the 21st century spend most of their time indoors, but the air we breathe inside buildings is not regulated to the same degree as the food we eat and the water we drink. A group of 39 researchers from 14 countries, including two from the University of Colorado Boulder, say that needs to change to reduce disease transmission and prevent the next pandemic. In a Perspectives piece published in Science May 14, they call for a "paradigm shift" in combating airborne pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, demanding universal recognition that respiratory infections can be prevented by improving indoor ventilation systems. "Air can contain viruses just as water and surfaces do," said co-author Shelly Miller, professor of mechanical and ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A plant cell wall's unique ability to expand without weakening or breaking--a quality required for plant growth--is due to the movement of its cellulose skeleton, according to new research that models the cell wall. The new model, created by Penn State researchers, reveals that chains of cellulose bundle together within the cell wall, providing strength, and slide against each other when the cell is stretched, providing extensibility. The new study, which appears online May 14 in the journal Science, presents a new concept of the plant cell wall, gives insights into plant cell growth, and could provide inspiration for the design of polymeric materials with new properties. "For a long time, the prevailing ...