The Internet has revolutionized our lives - whether in terms of working, finding information or entertainment, connecting with others, or shopping. The online world has made many things easier and opened up previously unimaginable opportunities. At the same time, it presents both individuals and societies with major challenges: The underlying technologies do not necessarily serve users' best interests. "We're interested in questions such as: How can we create online environments that respect human autonomy and promote truth? And what can people themselves do to avoid being ...

An international team of scientists has determined how harmless E. coli gut bacteria in chickens can easily pick up the genes required to evolve to cause a life-threatening infection. Their study, published in Nature Communications, warns that such infections not only affect the poultry industry but could also potentially cross over to infect humans. E. coli is a common bacterium that lives in the intestines of most animals, including humans. It is usually harmless when it stays in the gut, however it can become very dangerous if it invades the bloodstream, causing ...

"We are surrounded by a huge number of systems - biological, technical, economic, which we can influence, which we can control. The task is to do it optimally, for example, reaching the desired point with a minimum of effort, resources, and time, - explains Prof. Yurii Averboukh. - From a mathematical point of view, the task is narrowed down to the theory of optimal control. A classic example of this theory is moon landing: fuel consumption optimization enables to increase cargo volumes transported to the moon". A special section of optimal control theory is the theory of differential games. It studies the control ...

Sophia Antipolis, 12 February 2021: An active lifestyle is linked with a lower chance of dying immediately from a heart attack, according to a study published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 Heart disease is the leading cause of death globally and prevention is a major public health priority. The beneficial impact of physical activity in stopping heart disease and sudden death on a population level is well documented. This study focused on the effect of an active versus sedentary lifestyle on the immediate course of a heart attack - an area with ...

A study has now been presented that boosts the evidence for using AI solutions in skin cancer diagnostics. With an algorithm they devised themselves, scientists at the University of Gothenburg show the capacity of technology to perform at the same level as dermatologists in assessing the severity of skin melanoma. The study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and its results are the work of a research group at the Department of Dermatology and Venereology at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. The study was conducted at Sahlgrenska University ...

Novel genetic associations could pave the way for early interventions and personalized treatment of an incurable condition. Scientists from the University of Bergen (Norway) and Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) have discovered the genes involved in autoimmune Addison's disease, a condition where the body's immune systems destroys the adrenal cortex leading to a life-threatening hormonal deficiency of cortisol and aldosterone. Groundbreaking study The rarity of Addison's disease has until now made scanning of the whole genome for clues to the disease's genetic origins difficult, as this method normally requires many thousands of study participants. However, by combining the world's two largest ...

Tumor cells are able to avoid the attack of the immune system through several mechanisms. For instance, these can secrete factors that turn macrophages -cells in the immune system- into dual action agents that contribute to the tumor progress and will protect it from immune body defences: these become, thus, the tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). An article published in the journal Cancer Research describes a new molecular mechanism that counteracts the immunosupressive action of these macrophaes to boost tumor growth, and brings knowledge of potential interest for the design of future therapeutical options against cancer. The preclinical study is led by the tenure-track 2 lecturer Annabel Valledor, from the Faculty ...

Most tumors consist of a heterogenous mix of cells. Genetic mutations found only in some of these cells are known to aid with the spread and progression of cancer. However, oncologists often find that when tumors metastasize to distant organs, they retain this heterogenous nature--a phenomenon termed "polyclonal metastasis". The mechanism by which non-metastatic cells accompany the metastatic cells is ambiguous. Now, Masanobu Oshima and his research team have used mouse models to explain how non-metastatic cells begin their long commute. The team has previously developed various cancerous mutants of mice and analyzed ...

New research shows that hurricane maximum wind speeds in the subtropical Atlantic around Bermuda have more than doubled on average over the last 60 years due to rising ocean temperatures in the region. Hurricanes intensify by extracting energy from the warm ocean surface via air-sea heat fluxes, so a warmer ocean can lead to more intense hurricanes. Improving predictions of wind speeds from hurricanes will help determine the right level of response in advance of the storm and potentially limit the resulting damage in Bermuda. Between 1955 and ...

Hydrogen for energy use can be extracted in an environmentally friendly way from water and sunlight, using photocatalytic composite polymer nanoparticles developed by researchers at Uppsala University. In laboratory tests, these "polymer dots" showed promising performance and stability alike. The study has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. How we are to meet future demand for sustainable energy is a much-debated question. One feasible way to go is hydrogen, which can be produced from renewable resources: water and solar energy. But the process ...

Cisplatin is one of the most effective chemotherapy agents, used in just under half of pediatric cancer cases. Permanent hearing loss is a common side effect of this medication, but until now, studies have been too small and too varied to accurately characterize this risk. Today in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, investigators at Children's Hospital Los Angeles published results of the largest study of cisplatin-induced hearing loss to date. The study establishes the first benchmarks for the prevalence of hearing loss, and reveals that the risk of hearing loss is affected not only by how much drug is given, but by how that drug is delivered--dosing schedules, complementary treatments, and more. These findings will allow oncologists to deliver more information ...

If you're poor and terminally ill in southern Mexico, there's far less chance you'll get the painkillers you need for palliative care than your cousins in more prosperous regions, particularly those pharmacy-rich areas along Mexico-U.S. border, say UCLA researchers and colleagues who studied opioid dispensing levels across the country. What's more, the researchers' paper in the journal The Lancet Public Health suggests it's likely that some of the opioids intended for Mexican citizens are ending up in American pockets. Despite a Mexican government initiative launched in 2015 to improve access to prescription opioids among palliative care patients, the country has seen only a marginal increase in dispensing levels, and inequities in dispensing ...

A novel computer algorithm, or set of rules, that accurately predicts the orbits of planets in the solar system could be adapted to better predict and control the behavior of the plasma that fuels fusion facilities designed to harvest on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars. The algorithm, devised by a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), applies machine learning, the form of artificial intelligence (AI) that learns from experience, to develop the predictions. "Usually in physics, you make observations, create a theory based on those observations, and then use that theory to predict new observations," said PPPL physicist Hong Qin, author of a paper detailing ...

Monash University researchers have uncovered the barrier to β-cell (beta cell) regeneration that could pave the way for improved treatments for diabetes and diseases that involve organ and tissue damage. The human body doesn't repair itself very well, with our liver the only organ that can regenerate efficiently. We have limited capacity to regenerate new cells or tissue after birth as the genes involved in development are switched off. This process happens through DNA methylation, a biological process where chemicals (methyl groups) are written on DNA and modify the way the gene functions. ...

A team of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) used a quantum computer to successfully simulate an aspect of particle collisions that is typically neglected in high-energy physics experiments, such as those that occur at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The quantum algorithm they developed accounts for the complexity of parton showers, which are complicated bursts of particles produced in the collisions that involve particle production and decay processes. Classical algorithms typically used to model parton showers, such ...

An international research team led by Professor Kari Rissanen of the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland) and Professor Antonio Frontera of the University of Balearic Islands (Spain) has demonstrated that positively charged iodine (termed iodonium) is able to favorably interact with a silver cation (Ag+), overcoming the strong electrostatic repulsion. The research was published online in Chem -journal 8th of February 2021. It is well known and intuitive that iodide (I-) has a strong affinity for Ag+. For instance, AgI is one of the most insoluble inorganic salts ...

When we listen to speech sounds, the information that enters our left and right ear is not exactly the same. This may be because acoustic information reaches one ear before the other, or because the sound is perceived as louder by one of the ears. Information about speech sounds also reaches different parts of our brain, and the two hemispheres are specialised in processing different types of acoustic information. But how does the brain integrate auditory information from different areas? To investigate this question, lead researcher Basil Preisig from the University of Zurich collaborated with an international team of scientists. In an earlier study, the team discovered that the brain integrates information about speech sounds by 'balancing' the rhythm of gamma waves across ...

Most countries introduced school closures during the spring of 2020 despite substantial uncertainty regarding the effectiveness in containing SARS-CoV-2. In Sweden, upper-secondary schools moved online while lower-secondary schools remained open. A comparison of parents with children in the final year of lower-secondary and first year of upper-secondary school shows that keeping the former open had limited consequences for the overall transmission of the virus. However, the infection rate doubled among lower-secondary teachers relative to upper-secondary ones. The infection rate among partners of lower-secondary teacher was 30 percent higher than among their upper-secondary counterparts. On March 18, 2020, Swedish ...

T lymphocytes, or T cells, are an important component of our immune system. They can recognize foreign proteins, so-called antigens, as peptide fragments - for instance, those derived from viruses or cancer cells. In principle, they could, but usually do not, attack our own ('self') proteins. "That is why it is important for the organism to tightly control the activities of T cells," says Dr. Reinhard Obst, head of a research group at the Institute for Immunology at LMU's Biomedical Center that studies the activation of T cells. The project contributed to the Collaborative Research Center 1054 that explores the plasticity of cell fate decisions in the immune system. When ...

Scientists use many different tests to investigate what happens in the brain in people experiencing stress. It is unclear to what extent the various methods with which subjects are placed under stress are comparable to each other. In a meta-analysis, a biopsychology team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum compared 31 previous studies that had investigated stress using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The team worked out which regions of the brain are activated as standard during stress and which stress tests trigger similar activation patterns. They describe the results in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, published online on 5 February 2021. To conduct the work, ...

The move from the ancient system of £sd coinage to 100p to £1 was controversial, considered by some to be a sign of the UK's receding importance on the world stage and even as the beginning of the tumultuous relationship with Europe that ultimately led to Brexit. But as a result of extensive analysis of a quiet backwater of recent history, Andy argues that the move towards decimalisation had little to do with Europe and in fact was a traditional British compromise. "It was an event that I remember from my youth, but I found that ...

Biomarkers play a central role in the diagnosis of disease and assessment of its course. Among the markers now in use are genes, proteins, hormones, lipids and other classes of molecules. Biomarkers can be found in the blood, in cerebrospinal fluid, urine and various types of tissues, but most of them have one thing in common: They occur in extremely low concentrations, and are therefore technically challenging to detect and quantify. Many detection procedures use molecular probes, such as antibodies or short nucleic-acid sequences, which are designed to bind to specific biomarkers. When a probe recognizes and binds to its target, chemical or physical reactions give rise to fluorescence signals. Such methods work well, provided they are sensitive enough to recognize ...

Knowledge on how cells communicate is an important key to understanding many biological systems and diseases. A research team led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg has now used a unique combination of methods to map the mechanism behind cellular communication. Their findings can potentially improve understanding of the underlying mechanism behind type 2 diabetes. We know that human communication is important, but communication between the cells in our bodies is just as vital. The processes where cells synchronize and coordinate their behaviour is required for an organism to function and for human organs to be able to perform their functions. "How do cells go from monologues ...

Scientists at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC have identified a new zebrafish model that could help advance glioblastoma multiforme research. Glioblastoma is an aggressive form of primary brain tumor - fewer than one in 20 patients survive five years after diagnosis. The research team previously discovered that human-derived brain cancer cells in mice use the brain's blood vessels like highways to spread away from the original mass. In the new study, published in ACS Pharmacology and Translational Science, they show clear cross-over between mammals and fish and describe similar observations in zebrafish. "Our hope is that this new work in zebrafish will help researchers ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - On the outskirts of some small Indigenous communities in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, a few volunteer guards keep watch along roads blocked by makeshift barricades of chains, stones and wood. The invader they are trying to stop is COVID-19. For many of Mexico's Indigenous people, poor and ignored by state and federal governments, the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is one that rests primarily with themselves, said Jeffrey Cohen, a professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University. That means they must take steps like limiting access to their villages. "Most of these communities only have ...