Low plasma levels of protein TGFB1 and polymorphisms in gene TGFB1 act as biomarkers for the prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma, according to a study led by the University Complutense of Madrid (UCM). In particular, these variants are 12% more frequent in patients with metastatic tumors, "which indicates their importance in the clinical progression of this disease", stated José Manuel Martín Villa, Professor of Immunology and researcher at the Department of Immunology, Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology of the UCM. In addition to identifying patients with poorer progression and high mortality, these markers also identify individuals at ...

SAN ANTONIO -- March 18, 2021 -- Working with a team led by French astronomers, Southwest Research Institute scientists helped identify incredibly powerful winds in Jupiter's middle atmosphere for the first time. The team measured molecules exhumed by the 1994 impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 to trace winds in excess of 900 miles per hour near Jupiter's poles. Jupiter's distinctive red and white bands of swirling clouds allow scientists to track winds in the planet's lower atmosphere, and the SwRI team members have particular expertise in the vivid Jovian aurora, associated with strong winds in the gas giant's upper atmosphere. Until now, wind patterns in the cloudless stratosphere, between the two atmospheric layers, have eluded observation. "The team of ...

Mitochondria are important cellular power plants whose diminished activity has been previously demonstrated to be associated with obesity by a group of researchers at the University of Helsinki. Now, in a new international study coordinated by the University of Helsinki, the researchers have determined that the method of weight loss affects the metabolic pathways of mitochondria in fat tissue, also known as adipose tissue. The study was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. The researchers combined two datasets on calorie restriction diets and two datasets on weight loss surgery, or bariatric surgery, from Europe, monitoring dieters' weight loss as well as metabolism. A biopsy was taken from the study subjects' adipose tissue both at ...

Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT) is a rare brain tumor that predominantly occurs in young children. Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital used data from two clinical trials to study the molecular groups of ATRT and correlate them with clinical outcomes. A paper detailing the findings was published today in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "If you look at the biology of ATRT, we have learned in the last few years that this is not a single disease but instead there are at least three biologically different groups of the same disease," said first and corresponding author Santhosh Upadhyaya, M.D., St. Jude Department of Oncology. "But what are the outcomes for these different ...

Ticket inspection on public transport can prompt law-abiding people to behave dishonestly once they have gotten off the bus, according to a study published in The Economic Journal. The study was written by three experimental economists: Fabio Galeotti and Marie Claire Villeval of The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in the Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Etienne (GATE), and Valeria Maggian from Ca' Foscari University of Venice. In order to study the "side effects" of ticket inspection, researchers designed and carried out a complex large-scale study on public transport and in the streets of Lyon, France. During typical weekdays and avoiding rush hours, ...

- It is as if China is two completely different countries, if we look at how they appear in two such different cases as Africa and the Arctic, says Christer Henrik Pursiainen. He is a professor at the Department of Technology and Security at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. According to Pursiainen, it is not just the temperature difference that separates Africa from the Arctic. It also provides a good opportunity to take a closer look at how China adapts to two completely different situations and how they use widely differing methods to gain influence. Together with professors Rasmus ...

Though our galaxy is an immense city of at least 200 billion stars, the details of how they formed remain largely cloaked in mystery. Scientists know that stars form from the collapse of huge hydrogen clouds that are squeezed under gravity to the point where nuclear fusion ignites. But only about 30 percent of the cloud's initial mass winds up as a newborn star. Where does the rest of the hydrogen go during such a terribly inefficient process? It has been assumed that a newly forming star blows off a lot of hot gas through lightsaber-shaped outflowing jets and hurricane-like winds launched from the encircling disk by powerful magnetic fields. These fireworks should squelch further growth ...

NEW YORK, NY (March 18, 2021)--Therapies that soothe inflammation could be an effective way to prevent heart disease in people with a common age-related blood condition, according to a new study from researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. The researchers identified how the blood condition, called clonal hematopoiesis, worsens atherosclerosis, and their findings suggest that an anti-inflammatory drug previously tested in a wider population of people with cardiovascular disease may have potential if used only in those with clonal hematopoiesis. "The main message from our research is that anti-inflammatory therapies for atherosclerotic heart disease may be particularly effective in patients with clonal hematopoiesis," says Alan Tall, ...

A Russian-German research team has created a quantum sensor that grants access to measurement and manipulation of individual two-level defects in qubits. The study by NUST MISIS, Russian Quantum Center and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, published in npj Quantum Information, may pave the way for quantum computing. In quantum computing the information is encoded in qubits. Qubits (or quantum bits), the quantum mechanical analogue of a classical bit, are coherent two-level systems. A leading qubit modality today superconducting qubits based on the Josephson junction. That is the kind of qubit IBM and Google used in their quantum processors. However, scientists are still searching for the perfect qubit -- the one that can be precisely measured and controlled, ...

Researchers are developing new autonomous technologies that can help people check that isolated elderly family members are okay. We are living in a world where elderly parents are increasingly distant from their relatives, as many relocate for work opportunities. There are now more than 4 million people aged 65 and older who are living alone in the UK. The series of national lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic has made it even harder for people to check that those elderly loved ones are safe and well. Families want peace of mind that their elderly relatives are living well, and are maintaining a relatively active lifestyle. Although we can call them to check ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A team led by researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has developed a diagnostic test that can identify virulent forms of the swine bacterial pathogen Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus -- often referred to as "Strep zoo" -- which can cause severe illness and death in pigs, other animals and rarely people. Outbreaks of S. zooepidemicus causing high mortality in swine first were reported in Asia in 1977, and until recently, the pathogen was not thought to be a major concern in North America. However, high-mortality Strep zoo outbreaks occurred in swine herds in Canada, Tennessee, Ohio and Pennsylvania in 2019. Different versions of the pathogen also can cause a range of disease symptoms ...

BOSTON - Patients who regurgitate regularly but without any known cause may have a condition called rumination. Unfortunately, rumination is often confused with other gastrointestinal conditions, which means many patients may not be getting prompt treatment. But a new study by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Neurogastroenterology and Motility clearly describes this syndrome, how to distinguish it from other conditions, and how to treat it. Rumination syndrome is a behavioral problem, in which patients effortlessly and repeatedly regurgitate food into their mouths while eating and sitting upright. It is a learned behavior that is classified as a disorder ...

Announcing a new article publication for BIO Integration journal. In this review article the authors Yingxue Deng, Rui Huang, Songyin Huang and Menghua Xiong from South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, P. R. China and Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, P. R. China discuss how nanoparticles enable efficient delivery of antimicrobial peptides for the treatment of deep infections. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are rarely directly used to treat deep infections due to their systemic toxicity and low bioavailability. The authors summarize recent progress that researchers employed nanoparticles based delivery systems to deliver AMPs for the treatment of deep infections. Nanoparticles-based delivery systems offer a strategy ...

(Boston)-- Uncontrolled diabetes increases maternal and fetal risks during pregnancy. As a result, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends that family planning should be discussed and effective contraception should be available to the more than three percent of (more than one million) reproductive-age women in the United States with diabetes. Yet a new study has found that women with diabetes are less likely to use contraception after their diabetes diagnosis. "Efforts are needed to ensure that women with diabetes receive the counseling and clinical services needed to carefully plan their pregnancies," said corresponding author Mara Murray Horwitz, MD, assistant ...

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced medical students out of classrooms and clinical rotations this time last year, the state of Georgia's only public medical school had to quickly rethink its traditional curriculum. Faculty and staff at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University were able to quickly adapt and provide an online platform for learning about the pandemic and initiating student-led service projects to aid frontline workers and help educate the public, MCG faculty and students write in a review article in the journal Medical Science Educator. The University System of Georgia suspended in-classroom learning ...

Prior infection with COVID-19 protects most people against reinfection, with 0.65% of patients returning a positive PCR test twice during Denmark's first and second waves, compared with 3.27% of people who tested positive after initially being negative. People over the age of 65 are at greater risk of catching COVID-19 again, with only 47% protection against repeat infection compared with 80% for younger people. Protection against reinfection remained stable for more than six months. The findings underline that measures to protect the elderly - including social distancing and vaccinations are essential even if people have already been diagnosed with COVID-19. The analysis focused on the original COVID-19 strain and made no assessment ...

When it comes to adapting to new situations, goats are a step ahead. Compared to sheep, they can more quickly adapt to changing environmental conditions. These are the findings of a new study by researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) which were published in Royal Society Open Science. The study investigated how well the animals were able to navigate around obstacles to reach food. Sheep and goats have many things in common: They are closely related genetically, roughly the same size, have similar social structures, and have both been domesticated by humans over approximately the same amount of time. They do, however, differ greatly when it comes to their foraging strategies. "While sheep ...

As their name suggests, by-the-wind sailor jellyfish know how to catch a breeze. Using a stiff, translucent sail propped an inch above the surface of the ocean, these teacup-sized organisms skim along the water dangling a fringe of delicate purple tentacles just below the surface to capture zooplankton and larval fish as they travel. At the mercy of the wind, these jellies can wash ashore and strand -- sometimes numbering in the trillions -- on beaches around the world, including up and down the U.S. West Coast. And while these mass stranding events are hard to miss, very little actually is known about how or why they happen. Now, thanks to 20 years of observations from thousands of citizen scientists, ...

When it comes to the use of driverless vehicles, an individual's support for their adoption hinges on how safe they are, rather than their economic impact or privacy concerns stemming from the data they might collect, a Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) study of 1,006 Singaporeans has found.   The NTU Singapore study led by the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information exposed its participants to positive and negative blog posts about driverless vehicles and their safety, their impact on jobs and the economy, ...

The collaborative work is published online in the journal Communications Biology on March 8th, 2021. The power of photosynthesis Photosynthesis represents the only biological process, which converts the energy of sunlight into chemically stored energy. On molecular level, the photosynthetic key enzymes called photosystems are responsible for this conversion process. Photosystem I (PSI), one of the two photosystems, is a large membrane protein complex that can be present in different forms - as monomers, dimers, trimers or even tetramers. New isolation technique helps revealing ...

An international team of scholars studied how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Europeans' stress levels and their trust in their national governments and the healthcare systems. They found that respondents were most stressed by the state of the national economy, and only after that, by the risk of catching COVID-19 and possibly being hospitalized. The results of the study were published in Royal Society Open Science. The authors of the study represent over 50 universities. Among them is Dmitrii Dubrov, Junior Research Fellow at the HSE Center for Sociocultural Research, who developed and organized the global survey, COVIDiSTRESS. The researchers studied the psychological ...

An international study led by the University Complutense of Madrid (UCM) proposed new computational image processing methods that improve the analysis and three-dimensional reconstruction of biological macromolecules. Currently, determining the composition (i.e., the sequence of amino acids) of macromolecules such as proteins is relatively simple; however, determining the shape in which they are ordered in a three-dimensional structure is not. The new methodology, published in Nature Communications, improves the visualization of the 3D reconstructions obtained through cryogenic electron microscopy, as well as their quality. "This study helps us broaden our understanding of proteins ...

Every year 600-900 million tons of carbon flow through rivers to the ocean either as particles or in dissolved form. Researchers have known for a long time that this does not represent the total amount of carbon that gets transported from the land to the ocean. But the remaining contributors mostly from coastal ecosystems, such as carbon-rich mangrove forests, and from groundwater discharge into the ocean have been notoriously difficult to measure. A new study published in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles and spearheaded by Dr. Eun Young Kwon, project leader at the IBS Center for Climate Physics South Korea provides new estimates of this elusive component of the global carbon cycle. The study makes use of the existence of two stable carbon isotopes, 12C and 13C, with the latter ...

Statisticians have calculated the probability of ships of different Polar Ship Categories becoming beset in ice along the Northern Sea Route. Their data will help assess the risks of maritime traffic in the Arctic. The results of the new study, published recently in the Cold Regions Science and Technology journal, will support safer maritime transport planning and the prevention of oil spills. The results will also benefit authorities that regulate maritime traffic by providing a foundation for statutes and legislation. A comprehensive approach to computing helps shipping companies plan transport routes. Tankers more common on the Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route is attracting more tankers and cargo ships travelling from Russia and ...

Powerful and squat stegosaurs are now one of the most recognisable dinosaurs: they are easily identified by the spines on the tail and the bony plates on the back - osteoderms. The representatives of this group lived about 165-125 million years ago, during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods. They were five to seven metres long and had a disproportionately small head. Their teeth were therefore quite small - about a centimetre in height and about the same in width. Palaeontologists from St Petersburg University worked together with colleagues from: the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences; the ...