Osaka, Japan - Investigators from the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research at Osaka University, together with Hiroshima Institute of Technology, have announced the discovery of a new protein that allows an organism to conduct an initial and essential step in converting amino acid residues on a crosslinked polypeptide into an enzyme cofactor. This research may lead to a better understanding of the biochemistry underlying catalysis in cells. Every living cell is constantly pulsing with an array of biochemical reactions. The rates of these reactions are controlled by special proteins called enzymes, which catalyze specific processes that would otherwise take much longer. A number of enzymes require specialized molecules called "cofactors," which can help shuttle electrons ...

As indicated by other studies, different parts of the brain are responsible for different types of decisions. A research team led by Luca Franziska Kaiser and Prof. Dr. Gerhard Jocham from the HHU working group 'Biological Psychology of Decision Making', and Dr. Theo Gruendler together with colleagues in Magdeburg analysed the balance of the messenger substances GABA and glutamate in two forms of decision-making. The background to the research was to find out how different concentrations of these substances influence the person making the decision. On the one hand, the researchers looked at 'reward-based decisions', which involve maximising reward by selecting the better of two ...

It is now possible to capture images of planets that could potentially sustain life around nearby stars, thanks to advances reported by an international team of astronomers in the journal Nature Communications. Using a newly developed system for mid-infrared exoplanet imaging, in combination with a very long observation time, the study's authors say they can now use ground-based telescopes to directly capture images of planets about three times the size of Earth within the habitable zones of nearby stars. Efforts to directly image exoplanets - planets outside our solar system - have been hamstrung by technological limitations, resulting in a bias toward the detection of easier-to-see planets that are much larger than Jupiter and are located around very young stars and far outside the ...

A study published in Nature Communications today (Wednesday 10 February) presents a compelling new evidence about what a key protein called alpha-synuclein actually does in neurons in the brain. Dr Giuliana Fusco, Research Fellow at St John's College, University of Cambridge, and lead author of the paper, said: "This study could unlock more information about this debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that can leave people unable to walk and talk. If we want to cure Parkinson's, first we need to understand the function of alpha-synuclein, a protein present in everyone's brains. ...

While deforestation levels have decreased significantly since the turn of the 21st century, the United Nations (UN) estimates that 10 million hectares of trees have been felled in each of the last five years. Aside from their vital role in absorbing CO2 from the air, forests play an integral part in maintaining the delicate ecosystems that cover our planet. Efforts are now underway across the world to rectify the mistakes of the past, with the UN Strategic Plan for Forests setting out the objective for an increase in global forest coverage by 3% by 2030. With time being of the essence, one of the most popular methods of reforestation in humid, tropical regions ...

Commuters now have yet another reason to avoid packing themselves into subway stations. New York City's transit system exposes riders to more inhaled pollutants than any other metropolitan subway system in the Northeastern United States, a new study finds. Yet even its "cleaner" neighbors struggle with enough toxins to give health-conscious travelers pause. Led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine researchers, the study measured air quality samples in 71 stations at morning and evening rush hours in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. ...

A treatment, known as KEDRAB (Rabies Immune Globulin [Human]), currently used in the prevention of rabies has been demonstrated to be safe and effective for patients age 17 and under. Results published today in Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics report the first and only pediatric trial of any human rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG) currently available in the US. Findings have been submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration for review. In the United States, someone is treated for possible exposure to rabies every 10 minutes. Globally, the World ...

A new paper in Oxford Open Immunology, published by Oxford University Press, examines prior findings in the field of neuroimmunology that suggest potential treatment strategies for patients suffering long-term symptoms from COVID-19. Though COVID-19 was initially believed to be a short-term illness, lasting between one and three weeks, it's clear that a substantial number of patients will experience symptoms beyond that, with some patients suffering from health problems for more 12 weeks. In fact, for patients who were initially hospitalized, more than 80% reported at least one symptom that persisted beyond the first month. The symptoms of long-COVID can vary widely, ...

Yams are a staple food in West Africa, which produces over 90% of the world's yams each year. Yams play a key role in the food security, economic income, and traditional culture for the region. While they are commonly assumed to be the same as sweet potatoes in the U.S., yams are a completely different plant. The yam tubers are much starchier and drier compared to sweet potatoes. Yams are native to Africa and Asia, and most Americans have never had a true yam. Even though yam is a staple crop for West Africa, there has been limited research to improve the genetic diversity or productivity. Researcher Shinsuke Yamanaka focuses on improving crop breeding resources for ...

Tungsten hexanitride with armchairlike hexazine N6 ring has been synthesized by a group of scientists led by Dr. Jin Liu and his former postdoc Nilesh Salke at HPSTAR (Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research). WN6 is a promising high-energy-density and superhard material. Their findings are published in the recent issue of Physical Review Letters. Diatomic nitrogen is the most abundant molecule in Earth's atmosphere accounting for almost 78% volume. The strong triple bond in nitrogen makes it very stable and unreactive at near ambient conditions. However, in the intense-pressure and high-temperature conditions, nitrogen will behave entirely differently, it can form double- or even single-bonded structure or react with other elements ...

As abundant and widespread bees, it is common to see both bumble bees and honey bees foraging on the same flower species during the summer, whether in Britain or many other countries. Yet researchers at the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI) at the University of Sussex, have found that different bees dominate particular flower species and revealed why. By studying 22 flower species in southern England and analysing the behaviour of more than 1000 bees, they found that 'energy efficiency' is a key factor when it comes to mediating competition. Bee bodyweight and the rate at which a bee visits flowers determine how energy efficient they are. Bodyweight determines the energy used while flying and walking between flowers, with a bee ...

Space cooling already accounts for 14% of residential electricity demand in Brazil, and it is expected to increase further because of climate change. Very few studies investigate the relationship between climate change, cooling needs, and electricity demand. In a new study in Energy and Buildings, a team of researchers from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and CMCC@Ca'Foscari - a joint program of Ca'Foscari University of Venice and CMCC Foundation - investigate how climate and income during the period 1970-2010 shaped cooling services in Brazil. This historical relationship allows projecting the resulting energy demand for cooling services across three warming scenarios: +1.5°C, +2°C, +4°C. The study shows ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Emerging robotics technology may soon help construction companies and contractors create buildings in less time at higher quality and at lower costs. Purdue University innovators developed and are testing a novel construction robotic system that uses an innovative mechanical design with advances in computer vision sensing technology to work in a construction setting. The technology was developed with support from the National Science Foundation. "Our work helps to address workforce shortages in the construction industry by automating key construction operations," said Jiansong Zhang, an assistant professor of construction ...

The findings add to current knowledge of how insects fly and keep stable in the air. They could also help to inspire new designs in small aerial vehicles like drones, which can be useful for search-and-rescue attempts and building inspection. Our colourful sunny-day companions can glide, fly backwards, and travel up to 54 km/h when hunting prey or escaping predators - but like any flying creature, they can be thrown off balance and even find themselves upside down. Many land-based animals like cats, and aerial animals like hoverflies, rotate themselves around a head-to-tail ...

During a study with captive vampire bats at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama, a young vampire bat pup was adopted by an unrelated female after its mother died. Although this observation was not the first report of adoption in vampire bats, it is uniquely contextualized by more than 100 days of surveillance-camera footage. This footage captured by STRI research associate Gerry Carter's lab at Ohio State University reveals intimate details about the changing social relationships between the mother, the pup and the adoptive mother throughout their time in captivity. "The adoption took place after a very sad but ultimately serendipitous occurrence," ...

Adopting policies that are consistent with achieving the Paris Agreement and prioritise health, could save 6.4 million lives due to better diet, 1.6 million lives due to cleaner air, and 2.1 million lives due to increased exercise, per year, across nine countries. New research from The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change published in a special issue of The Lancet Planetary Health journal highlights the benefits to health if countries adopt climate plans - Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - that are consistent with the Paris Agreement aim of limiting warming to "well below 2°C". [1,2] The countries considered in the study represent ...

The notion of social distancing rose to public prominence approximately a year ago, when health officials began recommending it as a way to slow the spread of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus. Despite the novelty of the concept among many contemporary human audiences, social distancing has considerable precedent among animals. Writing in BioScience, Mark Butler of Florida International University and Donald C. Behringer of the University of Florida outline the role of social distancing in nature and compare it with its human counterpart. They describe numerous animals in which distancing has evolved, including guppies, chimpanzees, birds, ants, and mice, among many others. ...

The capture of the first living Coelacanth, a mighty ocean predator, off the coast of South Africa caused quite a stir in 1938, 65 million years after its supposed extinction. It became known as a "living fossil" owing to its anatomy looking almost identical to the fossil record. But while the Coelacanth's body may have changed little, its genome tells another story. Toronto scientists have now revealed that the African Coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae, gained 62 new genes through encounters with other species 10 million years ago. Their findings are reported in the journal Molecular Biology ...

Headlines like "Black Friday Shoppers Trampled in New York" and popular television shows such as "Extreme Couponing" remind us how crazy consumers can get about retail sales promotions. This enthusiasm for getting bargains has been termed "deal proneness." Past research has indicated that, to some degree, people become deal prone through being taught by their parents. But a new paper, "Born to Shop? A Genetic Component of Deal Proneness," published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, provides evidence that our genes also play a role in causing bargain-hunting enthusiasm. To demonstrate this genetic factor, authors Robert Schindler, Vishal Lala, and Jeanette Taylor ...

Washington, DC-- New research led by Carnegie's Yingwei Fei provides a framework for understanding the interiors of super-Earths--rocky exoplanets between 1.5 and 2 times the size of our home planet--which is a prerequisite to assess their potential for habitability. Planets of this size are among the most abundant in exoplanetary systems. The paper is published in Nature Communications. "Although observations of an exoplanet's atmospheric composition will be the first way to search for signatures of life beyond Earth, many aspects of a planet's surface habitability are influenced by what's happening beneath the planet's surface, and that's where ...

Nutritionists have been touting the health benefits of seafood for years. Dietary guidelines recommend that the average adult get at least two servings of seafood per week. But the push to increase our consumption of seafood can put a strain on the seafood industry and create more waste. "Many fisheries are fully or overexploited," said Lekelia "Kiki" Jenkins, an associate professor at Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation in Society in the College of Global Futures. "We are pushing our fisheries to the brink that they can sustain. Meanwhile, consumers are wasting nearly half of the fish they buy. We need to understand our waste behaviors and put a mechanism into place so that we use what we catch." Jenkins is researching ways to improve sustainability in ...

Announcing a new article publication for BIO Integration journal. In this review article the authors Yue Li, Zhiyi Chen and Shuping Ge from First Affiliated Hospital of University of South China, Hengyang, China and Tower Health and Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA summarize current state of the art applications of microbubble-cell interactions and sonoporation effects to cellular functions. Ultrasound combined with microbubble-mediated sonoporation has been applied to enhance drug or gene intracellular delivery. Sonoporation leads to the formation of openings in the cell membrane, triggered by ultrasound-mediated oscillations and destruction of microbubbles. Multiple mechanisms are involved in the occurrence ...

Announcing a new article publication for BIO Integration journal. In this review article the authors Xiuling Li, Shunung Liang, Chee Hwee Tan, Shuwen Cao, Xiaoding Xu, Phei Er Saw and Wei Tao from Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China and Center for Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA discuss the potential benefits of four plants endogenous to China and the enhancement of their therapeutic efficacy by nanotechnology intervention. Plant derived natural products have been used for the treatment of various human diseases long before the intervention of modern medicine. The basis of modern medicine is still inspired by traditional medicine and therapies. However, ...

LA JOLLA, CA--As new COVID-19 variants begin to throw vaccine efficacy in question, two leading scientists are calling for health agencies to invest in the development of vaccines that would be broadly effective against many different variants and strains of potential pandemic viruses. In a END ...

Researchers at the University of Campinas's Chemistry Institute (IQ-UNICAMP) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, have developed a template-free technique to fabricate cilia of different sizes that mimic biological functions and have multiple applications, from directing fluids in microchannels to loading material into a cell, for example. The highly flexible cilia are based on polymer-coated iron oxide nanoparticles, and their motion can be controlled by a magnet. In nature, cilia are microscopic hairlike structures found in large numbers on the surface of certain cells, causing currents ...