The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and its research collaborators have successfully demonstrated the four-dimensional (4D) printing of shape memory polymers in submicron dimensions which are comparable to the wavelength of visible light. This novel development has allowed researchers to now explore new applications in the field of nanophotonics. 4D printing enables 3D printed structures to change its configurations over time and is used in a wide variety of fields such as soft robotics, flexible electronics, and medical devices. Different materials such as hydrogels, liquid crystal elastomers and magnetic nanoparticles embedded resists ...

Scientists at Hokkaido University and Chiba University have developed simultaneous triploid and hexaploid varieties of Haemanthus albiflos by the application of endosperm culture, thus extending the use of this technique. In plants, the number of chromosome sets in cells (ploidy) affects a large number of desirable characteristics. In general, the greater the number of chromosome sets, the more like the plant is to have larger flowers, larger fruits, be more disease resistant, and so on. Hence, particularly in agriculture and horticulture, the development of polyploid plants continues to receive much attention. Scientists from Hokkaido University and Chiba University have successfully developed triploid (3 chromosome sets) ...

It's mid-January 2021, and the first gray whales from the eastern North Pacific population have started to arrive in the breeding lagoons in Baja California, Mexico. Since the start of their southbound migration from their high latitude feeding grounds, several sightings of emaciated gray whales have already been reported along their migration route. This has raised concern among scientists that the unusual mortality event (UME, an unexpected phenomenon during which a significant number of a marine mammal population dies), that started in January 2019, and which so far has resulted in 378 confirmed ...

Kanazawa, Japan - Liver injury is a rare side effect of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which are frequently used for daily pain control. This toxicity has been regarded as a "black box" and is mainly managed by an empirical approach, but there is not a clear understanding of the mechanism. Now, researchers from Japan have found that a bit of attention to the types and frequencies of NSAIDs could help people avoid liver injury. In a study published recently in Biochemical Pharmacology, researchers from Kanazawa University have revealed that specific NSAIDs, including ibuprofen, are metabolized by one of the acyl-CoA synthetases, ACSL1, in a manner that can have toxic effects. NSAIDs containing a specific chemical group, carboxylic acid, can form "conjugates" with ...

In a new study published in Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing University, School of Life Sciences, and Antonio Vidal-Puig's group at University of Cambridge report that pancreatic β cells secrete miR-29 family members (miR-29s) via exosomes in response to high levels of free fatty acids (FFAs). Theses β cell-derived exosomal miR-29s regulate glucose homeostasis through their manipulations on glucose output in liver. Previously, Chen-Yu Zhang's group identified extracellular miRNA as a new form of cell-to-cell communication. They are among the first that reported the selective secretion of miRNAs under different physiological or pathological states; also, the uptake and function of secreted miRNAs in recipient cells. In the past decade, intensive ...

A new algorithm may reduce the need for expensive, time-consuming whole-genome sequencing computations to understand how a microbiome functions. A team led by JING Gongchao of the Qingdao Institute of BioEnergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and SU Xiaoquan of Qingdao University, published their approach, called Meta-Apo, on Jan. 6 in BMC Genomics. Researchers routinely sequence samples of microbial communities found on human skin, in human guts, and in the environment to understand what genes they contain with the ultimate goal of understanding ...

Degradable, bio-based polymers offer options for chemical recycling, and they can be a tool to store and release useful molecules. Scientists have developed a class of sugar-based polymers that are degradable through acid hydrolysis. The researchers also integrated "cargo" molecules in the polymer, which are designed to split off after polymer degradation. Degradable, cargo-bearing polymers are important for medical and sensor applications, says the study published in the journal Angewandte Chemie. Most plastics resist natural degradation processes. Consequently, increasing contamination of the environment with plastics has led to a call for degradable plastics. Such materials can be subjected to chemical recycling processes, in which chemical reactions break up polymer bonds. ...

Metagenomics - the study of genetic material from an environmental sample - is growing as species evolve or are discovered across the globe. To correlate the newly developed microbiomes with existing data sets, a team of researchers based in China has developed the Microbiome Search Engine 2 (MSE 2). It was published on Jan. 19 in mSystems, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. "Here, we introduce MSE 2, a microbiome database platform for searching query microbiomes in the global metagenome data space based on taxonomic or functional similarity of the whole microbiome," ...

Research from the University of Kent has demonstrated a decline in 'son preference' by women of childbearing age in Bangladesh. However, the study also shows that fertility decisions are still influenced according to son preference. The paper, 'Is son preference disappearing from Bangladesh?', surveyed a nationally representative sample of Bangladeshi women of childbearing age, born between 1975 and 1994, to assess how son preference is evolving. The term 'son preference' refers to any situation where parents value sons over daughters and make resulting choices accordingly, which can have a strong economic and demographic impact. The study finds that among women of childbearing age in ...

Leesburg, VA, January 22, 2021--According to ARRS' American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) and multiple CT findings can identify patients with high-risk nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)--advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis, that is--though the presence of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) remains elusive on CT. "Subjective assessment of multiple morphologic and separately quantified parameters by trained readers and a simple quantitative three-parameter model combining two CT features, liver surface nodularity (LSN) and liver segmental volume ratio (LSVR), and a clinical score (FIB-4) showed good association with presence of advanced fibrosis," wrote first author Meghan G. Lubner from the department of radiology at the University of Wisconsin School ...

The Sun's extremely hot outer layer, the corona, has a very different chemical composition from the cooler inner layers, but the reason for this has puzzled scientists for decades. One explanation is that, in the middle layer (the chromosphere), magnetic waves exert a force that separates the Sun's plasma into different components, so that only the ion particles are transported into the corona, while leaving neutral particles behind (thus leading to a build-up of elements such as iron, silicon and magnesium in the outer atmosphere). Now, in a new study published ...

Patients of Asian and black backgrounds suffered disproportionate rates of premature death from COVID-19, according to a study of 1,737 patients by Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust. The study, published in BMJ Open, is one of the most comprehensive studies exploring COVID-19 outcomes in black, Asian and minority ethnic populations so far reported, from one of the largest and most diverse UK hospital COVID-19 cohorts, representing a majority ethnically diverse population (only 35.2 per cent of patients identified as White ethnicity). The work resulted from a new interdisciplinary collaboration between intensive care physicians and HIV physicians. The researchers looked at data from all patients ...

TAMPA, Fla. (January 22, 2021)- The pressing concern posed by rising sea levels has created a critical need for scientists to precisely predict how quickly the oceans will rise in coming centuries. To gain insight into future ice sheet stability and sea-level rise, new research from an international team led by University of South Florida geoscientists is drawing on evidence from past interglacial periods when Earth's climate was warmer than today. Using deposits in the caves of the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, known as phreatic overgrowths ...

Less than two days of water quality sampling at local beaches may be all that's needed to reduce illnesses among millions of beachgoers every year due to contaminated water, according to new Stanford research. The study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, presents a modeling framework that dependably predicts water quality at beaches after only a day or two of frequent water sampling. The approach, tested in California, could be used to keep tabs on otherwise unmonitored coastal areas, which is key to protecting the well-being of beachgoers and thriving ocean economies ...

Collective research to date regarding nutrients found in the leaves of contemporary cycad species has been inconsistent as far as data collection and narrow in scope, according to a University of Guam-led literature review published on Nov. 19 in Horticulturae journal. Understanding nutrient accumulation within cycads is essential to effective horticultural management, and more importantly, conservation of this plant group, which is highly prized within the horticulture trade and also threatened worldwide. "Cycads comprise the most threatened group of plants worldwide, ...

Even at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, people around the world became more fearful of what could happen to them or their family. A new Flinders University study of 1040 online participants from five western countries published in PLOS ONE explores people's response to the stresses of the escalating pandemic, finding more than 13% of the sample had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related symptoms consistent with levels necessary to qualify for a clinical diagnosis. With ongoing economic and social fallout, and death toll of more than 2 million, the team of psychology researchers warn more needs to be done to cope with ...

AURORA, Colo. (Jan. 22, 2021) - Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have discovered a direct association between placental function in pregnant women and future metabolic disorders in children and adults, a finding that could lead to earlier intervention and diagnosis of disease. "We've known for some time that many major diseases in adults like diabetes and cardiovascular disease are at least partly caused by problems during fetal life," said the study's senior author Thomas Jansson, MD, PhD, professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology ...

Our state of consciousness changes significantly during stages of deep sleep, just as it does in a coma or under general anesthesia. Scientists have long believed - but couldn't be certain - that brain activity declines when we sleep. Most research on sleep is conducted using electroencephalography (EEG), a method that entails measuring brain activity through electrodes placed along a patient's scalp. However, Anjali Tarun, a doctoral assistant at EPFL's Medical Image Processing Laboratory within the School of Engineering, decided to investigate brain activity during sleep using magnetic resonance ...

In a promising result for the success of vaccines against COVID-19, rhesus macaque monkeys infected with the human coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 developed protective immune responses that might be reproduced with a vaccine. The work was carried out at the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis and is published Jan. 22 in the journal Nature Communications. "These results suggest that vaccines inducing durable protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 do so by stimulating robust germinal center responses - a question that can be effectively answered ...

Scientists from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and The University of Western Australia (UWA) have set a world record for the most stable transmission of a laser signal through the atmosphere. In a study published today in the journal Nature Communications, Australian researchers teamed up with researchers from the French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) and the French metrology lab Systèmes de Référence Temps-Espace (SYRTE) at Paris Observatory. The team set the world record for the most stable laser transmission by combining the Aussies' 'phase stabilisation' technology with advanced self-guiding optical ...

New research has found that growing up in a bilingual home can provide unexpected cognitive benefits later in life. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, demonstrates for the first time that adults who acquired their second language as a young child (early bilinguals) are quicker at shifting attention and quicker at detecting visual changes compared to adults who learnt their second language later in life (late bilinguals). Led by Dr Dean D'Souza of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), the research saw 127 adults take part in two separate ...

There is a saying that you can't teach old dogs new tricks. When it comes to canine behavioral problems, age is only one factor that can predict how well a pet may respond to clinical intervention. In a paper published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science, researchers provide the first evidence on the importance of not just a dog's age, sex and size on treatment success, but the owner's personality and the kind of bond that human and animal share. The study analyzed the physiological and psychological characteristics of 131 dog-owner pairs who attended a veterinary behavioral service over a six-month period. The statistical results were based on a behavioral assessment questionnaire that was given at the beginning, middle and end of the ...

A new collaborative study led by researchers at the National Institute for Environmental Studies, the University of Tokyo, and Michigan State University exposes the role of dams for mitigating flood risk under climate change. Flood is amongst the costliest natural disasters. Globally, flood risk is projected to increase in the future, driven by climate change and population growth. The role of dams in flood mitigation, previously unaccounted for, was found to decrease by approximately 15% the number of people globally exposed to historical once-in-100-year ...

Questions about why such affluent western societies are facing a reversal in life expectancy are sounding loud alarm bells for Professor Fran Baum, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor and Director of the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity. Professor Baum is lead author of a study that offers a new perspective on why women live longer than men - noting with concern that while women live longer, many of the recognised social determinants of health are worse for women than men. The study serves an important reminder of why policy makers need to receive more carefully nuanced research that drills into specific gender data that can best inform public health policy initiatives. "We need gendered analysis to shape ...

During a pandemic, decisions have to be made under time pressure and amid scientific uncertainty, with potential disagreements among experts and models. With COVID-19, especially during the first wave, there was uncertainty about the virus transmissibility, the disease severity, the future evolution of the pandemic and the effectiveness of the proposed policy interventions, such as wearing face masks or closing schools. Together with a group of epidemiologists and economists, including the Nobel Prize winner Lars Peter Hansen, Bocconi professors Massimo Marinacci, AXA-Bocconi Chair in Risk, and Valentina Bosetti investigated how modern decision theory can help policymakers ...