Policymakers around the world tend to reference new and highly cited COVID-19 research papers in their policy documents regarding the pandemic, Yian Yin and colleagues conclude after analyzing publications of both types from the first half of 2020. "Overall, this result shows that the coronavirus research used by policymakers aligns with what scientists heavily engage themselves," they write in a Policy Forum. Although government agencies produced more COVID-19 documents compared to think tanks and intergovernmental organizations such as the World Health Organization, Yin et al. found that governmental agencies are the least likely to cite science. Organizations like WHO are the most likely institutions to cite science, they write, suggesting that these organizations can act ...

Social contact can transfer the feeling of pain or fear in several animal species, including humans, but the exact neural mechanisms for this transmission are still being studied. Now, Monique Smith and colleagues demonstrate that the social transmission of pain and pain relief in mice is mediated by neural projections from the brain's anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to the nucleus accumbens. The transfer of fear, however, is mediated by the ACC's projections into a different area of the brain called the basolateral amygdala. The findings help untangle the distinct neural circuits involved ...

Richard Tyser and colleagues have mapped the origins of the embryonic mouse heart at single-cell resolution, helping to define the cell types that make up the heart in the earliest days of development. Their techniques allowed them to identify for a first time a pool of progenitor cells that contributes to the formation of heart muscle cells as well as the early epicardium, the outermost layer of the heart. This layer provides cells and other proteins that guide the development and repair of heart tissue, so a better understanding of its origins could better inform regenerative heart therapies as well as improve ...

New treatments to cut the global death rate from dengue, Zika and West Nile viruses could result from research led by The University of Queensland. Associate Professor Daniel Watterson from UQ's School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences said the team identified an antibody that improved survival rates in laboratory trials and reduced the presence of virus in the blood. "We made a discovery in 2015 in the wake of the Zika outbreak that identified a new target for flavivirus treatments, a viral protein called NS1," Dr Watterson said. "Now we've shown for the first time that a single NS1 antibody can be protective against multiple flaviviruses including dengue, Zika and West Nile. "No other antibody reported has shown such a broad range of protection. "The improved ...

One essential component of each eukaryotic cell is the cytoskeleton. Microtubules, tiny tubes consisting of a protein called tubulin, are part of this skeleton of cells. Cilia and flagella, which are antenna-like structures that protrude from most of the cells in our body, contain many microtubules. An example of flagell is the sperm tail, which is essential for male fertility and thus for sexual reproduction. The flagellum has to beat in a very precise and coordinated manner to allow progressive swimming of the sperm. Failure to do so can lead to male infertility. Researchers at the Institut Curie in Paris, the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology ...

Boulder, Colo., USA: The Yellowstone hotspot is well known for generating supereruptions in the geologic past that are far more explosive than historic examples. The origin and sustained longevity of the hotspot is less understood but is focused on two competing models, where the ascent of hot mantle is derived from either a deep-seated mantle plume or a shallow mantle source. In their study published this month in GSA Today, Vic Camp and Ray Wells use an integrated database that supports the idea of a deep mantle-plume origin for the Yellowstone hotspot with a robust history of magmatism that extends to at least 56 million years ago, far older than previously thought. In this scenario, hotspot ...

Large perennial grasses like miscanthus are a primary target for use as bioenergy crops because of their sustainability advantages, but they take several years to establish and aren't ideal for crop rotation. Maize and other annual crops are easier to manage with traditional farming but are tougher on the environment. Energy sorghum, a hefty annual plant with the ecological benefits of a perennial, may combine the best of both crops. A study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) found that energy sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) behaves more like miscanthus in the way it efficiently captures light and uses water to produce abundant biomass. ...

Tapping into an ancient evolutionary survival mechanism, cancer cells enter into a sluggish, slow-dividing state to survive the harsh environment created by chemotherapy or other targeted agents. In research published January 7, 2020 in Cell, Princess Margaret Scientist Dr. Catherine O'Brien and team discovered that when under threat, all cancer cells - rather than just a subset - have the ability to transition into this protective state, where the cells "rest" until the threat, or chemotherapy, is removed. It is the first study to identify that cancer cells hijack an evolutionary conserved program to survive chemotherapy. Furthermore, the researchers show that novel therapeutic strategies aimed at specifically targeting ...

If you've ever been in an operating room where tools are used to simultaneously cut and cauterize human flesh, you know what surgical smoke is. The heat generated by these surgical tools produces vapors made up of aerosolized chemicals and substances that can be hazardous to health. Two new papers led by researchers in the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing suggest that policies and laws mandating the evacuation of surgical smoke from operating rooms are the best way to reduce the negative health impacts on perioperative staff as well as surgical patients. Surgical smoke poses a health risk to everyone in the operating room. The smoke can sometimes be thick enough to obscure vision, especially during longer operations where cauterizing tools are heavily used. Perioperative ...

HANOVER, N.H. - January 7, 2021 - The number of "extreme streamflow" events observed in river systems have increased significantly across the United States and Canada over the last century, according to a study from Dartmouth College. In regions where water runoff from snowmelt is a main contributor to river streamflow, the study found a rise in extreme events, such as flooding. In drought-prone regions in the western and southeastern U.S., the study found that the frequency of extreme low-flow events has also become more common, particularly during summer and fall. The research, published in Science Advances, analyzed records dating ...

In a large-scale study of electronic health records, Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have determined the prevalence of functional seizures and characterized comorbidities associated with them. Functional seizures are sudden attacks or spasms that look like epileptic seizures but do not have the aberrant brain electrical patterns of epilepsy. The research team, headed by Lea Davis, PhD, associate professor of Medicine and an investigator in the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, confirmed associations between functional seizures and psychiatric disorders including posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety ...

FINDINGS A study led by researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found that magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, frequently underestimates the size of prostate tumors, potentially leading to undertreatment. The study authors found that such underestimation occurs most often when the MRI-measured tumor size is small and the PI-RADS score, which is used to classify lesions in prostate MRI analysis, is low. For prostate tumor treatments to be successful, both the MRI size measurement and PI-RADS score must be accurate because they allow physicians to determine precisely ...

A University of Arizona-led research team has found bands and stripes on the brown dwarf closest to Earth, hinting at the processes churning the brown dwarf's atmosphere from within. Brown dwarfs are mysterious celestial objects that are not quite stars and not quite planets. They are about the size of Jupiter but typically dozens of times more massive. Still, they are less massive than the smallest stars, so their cores do not have enough pressure to fuse atoms the way stars do. They are hot when they form and gradually cool, glowing faintly and dimming slowly throughout their lives, making them hard to find. No telescope can clearly ...

People taking immunosuppressive drugs to prevent organ transplant rejection or to treat inflammatory or autoimmune diseases do not fare worse than others on average when they are hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Estimates suggest that there are approximately 10 million immunocompromised people in the U.S. alone. Suppression of the immune system has been considered a potentially major risk factor for severe and fatal COVID-19 because it could allow the SARS-CoV-2 ...

PHILADELPHIA -- (Jan. 7, 2021) -- Scientists at The Wistar Institute characterized an inhibitor that targets acetate metabolism in cancer cells. Cancer cells use acetate metabolism to support tumor growth in conditions of low nutrient and oxygen availability. This molecule caused tumor growth inhibition and regression in preclinical studies, demonstrating the promise of this approach as a novel therapeutic strategy for solid tumors. Study results were published today in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Highly proliferating cancer cells within a tumor ...

Scientists who publish in Cell Press research journals (e.g., Cell, Joule, Current Biology, etc.) will now have the option to include a short statement that highlights elements of the study design and/or author characteristics that are relevant to inclusion and diversity. The statement is generated based on information provided on a dedicated inclusion and diversity form that study authors complete as part of the acceptance process. This pilot initiative will also allow Cell Press to better collect, analyze, and share back data about research teams' general inclusion and diversity efforts. "In an ideal world, science would cover and be ...

In the early decades of televised news, Americans turned to the stern faces of newsmen like Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, and Dan Rather as trusted sources for news of the important events in America and around the world, delivered with gravitas and measured voices. The rise of comedy-news programs, helmed by the likes of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, and Samantha Bee, raised concerns over the blending of entertainment and news. But could the merging of humor and news actually help inform the public? In fact, new research suggests that humor may help ...

A study led by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health researchers examines attitudes toward long-acting injectable (LAI) HIV therapies, among women with a history of injection--including medical purposes and substance use. The findings appear in the journal AIDS Patient Care and STDs. Currently, most HIV therapies for treatment and prevention (pre-exposure prophylaxis, PrEP) necessitate daily pills, which pose barriers to adherence. Recently, however, LAI for HIV has emerged as an alternative with the potential to boost adherence, although little research has been done on how people with a history of injection feel about these new forms of injectable HIV therapy. There 258,000 women in the United States living with HIV. The study involved interviews with 89 women across ...

HOUSTON - (Jan. 7, 2021) - Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine researchers have found a way to mimic conditions in intestines, giving them a mechanical model for the real-time growth of bacterial infections. In a new study, they demonstrate a lab tool that simplifies simulations of the human intestine, making it more practical to find treatments for diseases like infectious diarrhea. The team led by bioengineer Jane Grande-Allen of Rice's Brown School of Engineering developed transparent millifluidic perfusion cassettes (mPCs) that are easy to fabricate and operate and compatible with common microscopic and biochemical analysis. The cassettes allow even non-bioengineers to perform the kind of studies ...

Jülich, Germany, 7 January 2021. The Kondo effect influences the electrical resistance of metals at low temperatures and generates complex electronic and magnetic orders. Novel concepts for data storage and processing, such as using quantum dots, are based on this. In 1998, researchers from the United States published spectroscopic studies on the Kondo effect using scanning tunnelling microscopy, which are considered ground-breaking and have triggered countless others of a similar kind. Many of these studies may have to be re-examined now that Jülich researchers have shown that the Kondo effect cannot be proven beyond doubt ...

As the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out, it is still unclear whether enough Americans are willing to be vaccinated to allow the nation to return to normalcy. Many believe a key part of the equation lies in how effective vaccine communication teams are at convincing the public to get vaccinated. And the key to effective communication tactics in promoting the vaccines may lie in demonstrated behavioral economics and consumer behavior theory, experts say. "The country has made an incredible investment in fast-tracking SARS-CoV-2 vaccines from conception to market, which would make it even more tragic if we fail to curtail the virus simply because Americans ...

Philadelphia, January 7, 2021 - A new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, explores real-time personal and employee safety experiences and perspectives of school nutrition professionals ranging from frontline staff to state leadership across the United States during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. A survey with both closed- and open-ended items was developed to explore the experiences of school nutrition staff, managers, directors, and state agency personnel. Descriptive statistics from the responses of 47 states ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen hardware developers clamouring to make 'open source' technology to support our frontline services. Their intentions have been honourable - an invitation to teams across the world to collaborate in developing essential equipment such as ventilators, thereby making the process of producing critical instruments more effective, both in time and cost. In practice, however, most developers of hardware have shown little 'openness' in their sharing of designs, a fact lamented by a group of physicists from the University of Bath in the UK, in a paper published this week in The Design Journal. According to the group, the pandemic has ...

Whenever an organism develops and forms organs, a tumour creates metastases or the immune system becomes active in inflammation, cells migrate within the body. As they do, they interact with surrounding tissues which influence their function. The migrating cells react to biochemical signals, as well as to biophysical properties of their environment, for example whether a tissue is soft or stiff. Gaining detailed knowledge about such processes provides scientists with a basis for understanding medical conditions and developing treatment approaches. A team of biologists and mathematicians at the Universities of Münster and Erlangen-Nürnberg has now developed a new method for analysing cell migration ...

Engineering researchers have developed a new technique for eliminating particularly tough blood clots, using engineered nanodroplets and an ultrasound "drill" to break up the clots from the inside out. The technique has not yet gone through clinical testing. In vitro testing has shown promising results. Specifically, the new approach is designed to treat retracted blood clots, which form over extended periods of time and are especially dense. These clots are particularly difficult to treat because they are less porous than other clots, making it hard for drugs ...