Feed aggregator

From genes to memes: Algorithm may help scientists demystify complex networks

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
A team of researchers has developed a new algorithm that can serve as a more effective way to analyze models of biological systems, which in turn allows a new path to understanding the decision-making circuits that make up these systems. The researchers add that the algorithm will help scientists study how relatively simple actions lead to complex behaviors, such as cancer growth and voting patterns.
Categories: Content

Immune system May Need 'Continuing Education' to Protect Pregnancy

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
Researchers at UC San Francisco are zeroing in on how the immune system may play a role in miscarriage, which affects about a quarter of pregnancies.
Categories: Content

Researchers surprised to find bacterial parasites behind rise of 'super bugs'

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
Contrary to popular belief, early bacterial evolution is not driven by random-point mutations.
Categories: Content

Enabling the 'imagination' of artificial intelligence

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
Despite advances in deep neural networks, computers still struggle with the very human skill of "imagination." Now, a USC research team has developed an AI that uses human-like capabilities to imagine a never-before-seen object with different attributes.
Categories: Content

SUV39H2: A direct genetic link to autism spectrum disorders

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
New research from the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) in Japan has identified a direct link between the SUV39h2 gene and the development of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A human variant of the SUV39H2 gene led researchers to examine its absence in mice. Published in Molecular Psychiatry, the study found that when absent, adult mice exhibited cognitive inflexibility similar to what occurs in autism, and embryonic mice showed misregulated expression of genes related to brain development.
Categories: Content

COVID-19 vaccination: Examining negative dominance on social media

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
Vaccine negativity and reluctance is not a recent phenomenon but, to date, little research has been done to explore the dominance of negative vaccine-related information.
Categories: Content

Study examines the role of deep-sea microbial predators at hydrothermal vents

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
The hydrothermal vent fluids from the Gorda Ridge spreading center in the northeast Pacific Ocean create a biological hub of activity in the deep sea. There, in the dark ocean, a unique food web thrives not on photosynthesis but rather on chemical energy from the venting fluids. Among the creatures having a field day feasting at the Gorda Ridge vents is a diverse assortment of microbial eukaryotes, or protists, that graze on chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea.
Categories: Content

From birth control to mammograms, many women missed out on preventive care for all of 2020

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
The COVID-19 pandemic knocked many women off schedule for important health appointments, a new study finds, and many didn't get back on schedule even after clinics reopened. The effect may have been greatest in areas where such care is already likely falling behind. The study looks at screenings for breast cancer, cervical cancer and sexually transmitted infections (STI), as well as two types of birth control care.
Categories: Content

Artificial sweeteners enable delivery of carbon monoxide to treat organ injury

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
An oral prodrug developed by a team of scientists led by Binghe Wang, Regents' Professor of Chemistry at Georgia State University, delivers carbon monoxide to protect against acute kidney injury, according to a new paper published in Chemical Science.
Categories: Content

Common COVID-19 antibiotic no more effective than placebo

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
A UC San Francisco study has found that the antibiotic azithromycin was no more effective than a placebo in preventing symptoms of COVID-19 among non-hospitalized patients, and may increase their chance of hospitalization, despite widespread prescription of the antibiotic for the disease.
Categories: Content

How a butterfly tree becomes a web

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
Scientists reveal a key role for interspecific gene flow in the continent-wide adaptive radiation of the Heliconius butterflies.
Categories: Content

University of Maryland engineers 3D printed a soft robotic hand that can play Nintendo

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
A team of researchers from the University of Maryland has 3D printed a soft robotic hand that is agile enough to play Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. - and win!
Categories: Content

Study shows that electronic air cleaning technology can generate unintended pollutants

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
Sally Ng evaluates the effect of a hydroxyl radical generator in an office setting and has found that the benefits to indoor air quality of one type of purifying system can be offset by the generation of other pollutants that are harmful to health.
Categories: Content

On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog -- or a fake Russian Twitter account

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
This study investigates how successful Russian Internet Research Agency Twitter accounts built followings that were central to their disinformation campaigns around the 2016 presidential election. Many legacy media outlets played an unwitting role, according to the findings.
Categories: Content

NIH-funded study finds gene therapy may restore missing enzyme in rare disease

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
A new study published in Nature Communications suggests that gene therapy delivered into the brain may be safe and effective in treating aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency. AADC deficiency is a rare neurological disorder that develops in infancy and leads to near absent levels of certain brain chemicals, serotonin and dopamine, that are critical for movement, behavior, and sleep.
Categories: Content

New Sinai Health research finds common denominator linking all cancers

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
All cancers fall into just two categories, according to new research from scientists at Sinai Health, in findings that could provide a new strategy for treating the most aggressive and untreatable forms of the disease.In new research out this month in Cancer Cell, scientists at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI) divide all cancers into two groups, based on the presence or absence of a protein called the Yes-associated protein, or YAP.
Categories: Content

Study identifies monoclonal antibodies that may neutralize many norovirus variants

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, have taken a big step toward developing targeted treatments and vaccines against a family of viruses that attacks the gastrointestinal tract.
Categories: Content

Organic electronics possibly soon to enter the GHz-regime

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
Physicists of the Technische Universität Dresden introduce the first implementation of a complementary vertical organic transistor technology, which is able to operate at low voltage, with adjustable inverter properties, and a fall and rise time demonstrated in inverter and ring-oscillator circuits of less than 10 nanoseconds, respectively. With this new technology they are just a stone's throw away from the commercialization of efficient, flexible and printable electronics of the future. Their groundbreaking findings are published in the renowned journal "Nature Electronics".
Categories: Content

Bats are kings of small talk in the air

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
Echoes from bats are so simple that a sound file of their calls can be compressed 90% without losing much information, according to a study published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.
Categories: Content

First 3D simulation of rat's complete whisker system acts as a tactile 'camera'

Eurekalert - Jul 16 2021 - 00:07
Northwestern University engineers have developed the first full, three-dimensional (3D), dynamic simulation of a rat's complete whisker system, offering rare, realistic insight into how rats obtain tactile information.
Categories: Content