For the first time ever, a team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, have described in detail a dinosaur's cloacal or vent - the all-purpose opening used for defecation, urination and breeding. Although most mammals may have different openings for these functions, most vertebrate animals possess a cloaca. Although we know now much about dinosaurs and their appearance as feathered, scaly and horned creatures and even which colours they sported, we have not known anything about how the vent appears. Dr Jakob Vinther from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, along with colleagues Robert Nicholls, a palaeoartist, and Dr Diane Kelly, ...

With a small snout, a short and curled tail, and a big, round stomach, mini pigs are the epitome of cute--and sometimes, they snore. Now, researchers think these snoring pigs can be used to study obstructive sleep apnea. A study appearing January 19 in the journal Heliyon found that obese Yucatan mini pigs do have naturally occurring sleep apnea and that MRI scans taken while they're in sedated sleep can be used to gain new insights into what happens in the airways during sleep apnea episodes via computational flow dynamic (CFD) analysis. "These are very fat pigs," says first author Zi-Jun Liu, a research professor and principal investigator in the Department of Orthodontics ...

WASHINGTON, January 19, 2021 -- Biomedical engineers developed a technique to observe wound healing in real time, discovering a central role for cells known as fibroblasts. The work, reported in APL Bioengineering, by AIP Publishing, is the first demonstration of a wound closure model within human vascularized tissue in a petri dish. Prior investigations of wound healing have used animal models, but healing in humans does not occur the same way. One difference is that wounds in mice and rats, for example, can heal without granulation tissue, a type of tissue critical to the healing of human wounds. Granulation tissue forms after blood coagulates, and the wound scabs over. Coagulation creates a fibrin network that serves as a temporary matrix. Granulation tissue then takes over, ...

WASHINGTON, January 19, 2021 -- The quest for ever-smaller electronic components led an international group of researchers to explore using molecular building blocks to create them. DNA is able to self-assemble into arbitrary structures, but the challenge with using these structures for nanoelectronic circuits is the DNA strands must be converted into highly conductive wires. Inspired by previous works using the DNA molecule as a template for superconducting nanowires, the group took advantage of a recent bioengineering advance known as DNA origami to fold DNA into arbitrary shapes. In AIP ...

Youths with mood disorders who use and abuse cannabis (marijuana) have a higher risk for self-harm, death by all causes and death by unintentional overdose and homicide, according to research led by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Study findings are published in the JAMA Pediatrics. "Marijuana use and addiction is common among youth and young adults with mood disorders, but the association of this behavior with self-harm, suicide and overall mortality risk is poorly understood in this already vulnerable population. These findings ...

If you ever saw a honeybee hopping elegantly from flower to flower or avoiding you as you passed by, you may have wondered how such a tiny insect has such perfect navigation skills. These flying insects' skills are partially explained by the concept of optical flow: they perceive the speed with which objects move through their field of view. Robotics researchers have tried to mimic these strategies on flying robots, but with limited success. A team of TU Delft and the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences researchers therefore present an optical flow-based learning process that allows robots to estimate distances through the visual appearance (shape, color, texture) of the objects ...

The older we grow, the weaker our muscles get, riddling old age with frailty and physical disability. But this doesn't only affect the individual, it also creates a significant burden on public healthcare. And yet, research efforts into the biological processes and biomarkers that define muscle aging have not yet defined the underlying causes. Now, a team of scientists from lab of Johan Auwerx at EPFL's School of Life Sciences looked at the issue through a different angle: the similarities between muscle aging and degenerative muscle diseases. They have discovered protein aggregates that deposit in skeletal muscles during natural aging, and that blocking this can prevent the detrimental features of muscle ...

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- Jan. 19, 2021 -- The results of a study led by Northern Arizona University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, suggest the immune systems of people infected with COVID-19 may rely on antibodies created during infections from earlier coronaviruses to help fight the disease. COVID-19 isn't humanity's first encounter with a coronavirus, so named because of the corona, or crown-like, protein spikes on their surface. Before SARS-CoV-2 -- the virus that causes COVID-19 -- humans have navigated at least 6 other types of coronaviruses. The study sought to understand how coronaviruses (CoVs) ignite the human immune system and conduct a deeper dive on the inner workings of the antibody response. The ...

Researchers looked at neurons within the basal ganglia, a part of the brain that, when damaged, can severely impact a person's motor ability, making seemingly simple reaching-and-grasping tasks near impossible They focused on a large group of neurons, which has two distinct types - D1 direct striatal output neurons and D2 indirect output neurons These neurons are implicated in the development of Parkinson's and Huntington's - neurodegenerative diseases that result in the progressive degeneration or death of nerve cells In this research, mice were trained to reach for and grasp a chocolate pellet, and optical methods were used to either excite or inhibit their D1 or D2 neurons The researchers ...

Biology - Volcanic microbes Oak Ridge National Laboratory contributed to an international study that found almost 300 novel types of microbes living near a deep sea volcano. These microbes, which could be used in biotechnology, reveal new insights about their extreme underwater environment. Two distinct communities of heat-loving and many acid-loving microbes live near Brother's Volcano, located about 200 miles northeast of New Zealand and 6,000 feet underwater. Known as extremophiles, these microbes thrive in water heated by magma and hydrothermal vents. Though they live close to one another, the microbial communities reflect differences in water chemistry and temperature from geological ...

Half of all young people treated for severe obesity have neuropsychiatric problems, according to a new study by researchers from Lund University and Gothenburg, Sweden, among others. Two thirds of the teens suffered from some type of mental health problem, as reported by themselves or their parents. Both obesity and mental illness have increased among young people during the 2000s. Researchers have long observed a connection between obesity and ADHD/depression/eating disorders, but it has seldom been studied. The present study involved 48 teenagers (73% girls), ...

People on a low-fat, plant-based diet ate fewer daily calories but had higher insulin and blood glucose levels, compared to when they ate a low-carbohydrate, animal-based diet, according to a small but highly controlled study at the National Institutes of Health. Led by researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the study compared the effects of the two diets on calorie intake, hormone levels, body weight, and more. The findings, published in Nature Medicine, broaden understanding of how restricting dietary carbohydrates or fats may impact health. "High-fat foods have been thought to result in excess calorie intake because they have many calories per bite. Alternatively, high-carb ...

Scientists from the Joint Institute for High Temperatures Russian Academy of Sciences (JIHT RAS) and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have experimentally confirmed the presence of an intermediate phase between the crystalline and liquid states in a monolayer dusty plasma system. The theoretical prediction of the intermediate - hexatic - phase was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016: the prize was awarded to Michael Kosterlitz, David Thouless and Duncan Haldane with the formulation "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter." In a scientific article in the journal Scientific Reports, the JIHT RAS scientists published their observations ...

A Tokyo Tech research team led by Specially Appointed Professor Takuya Oda of the Institute of Innovative Research and Professor Keisuke Tanaka of the School of Computing, in collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, has developed a new technology an original blockchain[1] technology that can optimize peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading[2]. The technology is expected to contribute to more effective use of surplus electricity from renewable energy by creating trading environments that flexibly respond to shared trading needs, particularly to ...

DANVILLE, Pa. - An analysis of data collected from patients treated for ischemic stroke at Geisinger shows no disparity in outcomes based solely on sex. Various studies have suggested that women are disproportionately affected by stroke and may have poorer stroke outcomes. Women have a longer life expectancy than men and, therefore, likely have an increased lifetime risk of stroke. Women tend to be older than men at the time of stroke and have a higher pre-stroke degree of disability or dependence in their daily activities, which may contribute to worse outcomes. Rural populations may also have a higher risk of stroke based on a greater incidence of conditions ...

People with anxiety and depression are more likely to report an increase in drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic than those without mental health issues, according to a new study by researchers at NYU School of Global Public Health published in the journal Preventive Medicine. While drinking grew the most among younger people, older adults with anxiety and depression saw a sharper increase in their risk for harmful alcohol use. "This increase in drinking, particularly among people with anxiety and depression, is consistent with concerns that the pandemic may be triggering an epidemic of problematic ...

Genetic rewiring could have driven an evolutionary explosion in the shapes, sizes and adaptations of cichlid fish, in East Africa's answer to Darwin's Galapagos finches. Published in BMC Genome Biology, an Earlham Institute (EI) study, with collaborators at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, shows that 'genetic rewiring' at non-coding regions - rather than mutations to protein-coding regions of genes - may play an important role in how cichlid fish are able to rapidly adapt to fill a staggeringly wide range of environmental niches in the East African Rift lakes. The results ...

ATLANTA - JANUARY 19, 2021 - A new study finds that alcohol consumption accounts for a considerable portion of cancer incidence and mortality in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The article, which appears in Cancer Epidemiology, states that the proportion of cancer cases attributable to alcohol consumption ranged from a high of 6.7% in Delaware to a low of 2.9% in Utah. Similarly, Delaware had the highest proportion of alcohol-related cancer deaths (4.5%) and Utah had the lowest (1.9%). This study conducted by Farhad Islami, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the American Cancer Society is the first to estimate contemporary proportions and counts of alcohol-attributable ...

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by erythematous (red) patches and plaques. In some patients, psoriasis may be associated with comorbidities such as arthritis, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hyperlipidemia, or depression. Psoriasis lesions can occur on the scalp and face, in addition to all other areas of the body, causing considerable physical discomfort and psychosocial trauma from the stigma surrounding appearance defects. More than 90% of patients with psoriasis have what is called psoriasis vulgaris, which is characterized ...

Researchers in the UK and the United States have succeeded in 'fine tuning' a new thermoplastic biomaterial to enable both the rate at which it degrades in the body and its mechanical properties to be controlled independently. The material, a type of polyester, has been designed for use in soft tissue repair or flexible bioelectronics by a team at the University of Birmingham in the UK and Duke University in the US. Materials that successfully replicate the necessary elasticity and strength of biological tissues but which also biodegrade over an appropriate timescale are extremely ...

DANVILLE, Pa. - A team of Geisinger researchers has identified a common genetic variant as a risk factor for stroke, especially in patients older than 65. Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) causes about a quarter of ischemic strokes worldwide and is the most common cause of vascular dementia. SVD can manifest as lesions on the brain, which typically appear on brain scan images. SVD is commonly associated with aging and hypertension, but a minority of cases are caused by cysteine altering variants in the NOTCH3 gene. Approximately 1 in 300 people have this type of gene variant. A rare hereditary condition known as cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy, or CADASIL, which is caused by this gene variant, has been associated with ...

Fear of losing your job, worrying about you or a loved one getting sick, and online meetups with family and friends you have not seen for months. The COVID-19 lockdown has completely changed everyday life for most people around the world. Physical distancing is the new normal and an extremely important tool in the fight against the pandemic. However, the effects of the lockdown on mental health are alarming - especially for young people under 30 and people with preexisting mental health issues. This is the conclusion of a new study from the University ...

Consumers of purchased foods have no way of ascertaining the quality and safety of the food that existing distribution systems deliver to their plates. Unfortunately, inappropriate refrigeration can sometimes lead to food spoilage, which is often difficult to detect. Such is the case for mackerel fish, which readily develop harmful levels of a substance called histamine when left at room temperature for too long. Histamine is neurotoxic and can trigger severe allergic reactions, including rashes, vomiting, and diarrhea. Because spoiled fish can sometimes look and smell completely normal, it is important to accurately quantify ...

Scientists are searching for lithium technology alternatives in the face of the surging demand for lithium-ion batteries and limited lithium reserves. Russian researchers from Skoltech, D. Mendeleev University, and the Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics of RAS have synthesized and tested new polymer-based cathode materials for lithium dual-ion batteries. The tests showed that the new cathodes withstand up to 25,000 operating cycles and charge in a matter of seconds, thus outperforming lithium-ion batteries. The cathodes can also be used to produce less expensive potassium ...

Having a choice of foods may accelerate aging and shorten the lifespan of fruit flies, according to a study published today in the open-access eLife journal. While early experiments have shown that calorie restriction can extend lifespan, the current study adds to the growing body of evidence that suggests other diet characteristics besides calories may also influence aging and lead to earlier death. "It has been recognised for nearly a century that diet modulates aging," says first author Yang Lyu, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, US. "For our study, we wanted to see if having a choice of foods affects metabolism and lifespan in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster." Lyu ...