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Researchers discover enzyme prototype for formation of ecologically and pharmaceutically important tropone compounds.

Japanese astronomers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) technique to remove noise in astronomical data due to random variations in galaxy shapes. After extensive training and testing on large mock data created by supercomputer simulations, they then applied this new tool to actual data from Japan's Subaru Telescope and found that the mass distribution derived from using this method is consistent with the currently accepted models of the Universe.

Kyushu University researchers found that the main gene that causes Rett syndrome, MeCP2, controls the differentiation pattern of neural stem cells through the microRNA miR-199a. Dysfunction in MeCP2 or miR-199a cause neural stem cells to produce more astrocytes than neurons. Furthermore, the researchers found that miR-199a mediates the production of Smad1, a downstream transcription factor of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling.

In an Australian world-first, researchers have successfully repurposed two existing medications to reduce the severity of sleep apnoea in people by at least 30 per cent. Affecting millions around the world, sleep apnoea is a condition where the upper airway from the back of the nose to the throat closes repetitively during sleep, restricting oxygen intake and causing people to wake as often as 100 times or more per hour.

Guadalupe fur seals (Arctocephalus townsendi) have established a large resting colony in the Gulf of California--bringing the total number of sites where this endangered species now occurs to just four. This new haul-out was discovered on El Farallón de San Ignacio Island, along the mainland coast of Mexico, according to researchers from Mexico and the University of British Columbia.

Downstream of hydroelectric dams and Alberta's oil sands, one of the world's largest freshwater deltas is drying out. New Stanford University research suggests long-term drying is making it harder for muskrats to recover from massive die-offs. It's a sign of threats to come for many other species.

New research pinpoints how young children quickly learn language, opening new paths to leverage for machine learning

Doctors and patients are being advised to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use following new data suggesting that these medicines may increase the risk of cancer of the large intestine (colon), especially in people under 50 years.

Obese patients with colorectal cancer receive lower cumulative doses of adjuvant chemotherapy, relative to their body surface area (BSA), than non-obese patients, show results from a large meta-analysis reported at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2021.

Several cancers grow through immunosuppression, making immunotherapy a promising approach to treating cancers. But several approaches against one highly sought-after target molecule for such treatment have failed in late stage clinical trials. To find out why, scientists will need to study what happens to the target molecule over time once the treatment is administered. Now, in a game-changer for this field, a team from Japan has discovered a new PET-imaging-based method to achieve this tracking.

Executive functions allow humans to manage daily activities, which use working memory, and decision-making. However, how these functions are mapped in a primate brain like that of humans, had evaded researchers for a long time. A group of researchers in Japan have now devised a novel chemogenetic method to dissect the neural pathways involved in high-order executive functions. Their findings are published in a new article in Science Advances.

CPAP also plays a vital role in suppressing tumorigenesis in OSCC by facilitating EGFR homeostasis

Bacteria found in cow stomachs can be used to digest polyesters used in textiles, packaging, and compostable bags, according to a new study by the open access publisher Frontiers. Plastic is notoriously hard to break down, but microbial communities living inside the digestive system of animals are a promising but understudied source of novel enzymes that could do the trick. The new findings present a sustainable option for reducing plastic waste and litter, co-opting the great metabolic diversity of microbes.

A surprising study by UNSW on the behaviour of unrelated lizards in very different parts of the world has demonstrated how evolution can lead to different species learning the same skills. The study in Ecology Letters documents how the Anolis lizard species in the Caribbean, and the Draco lizard species in Southeast Asia, have solved the challenge of communicating with one another to defend territories and attract mates.

Researchers from University of Tsukuba and University of Florida have found that pigments controlling the color of tomatoes also play a role in determining their flavor. By analyzing the pigment profiles of 157 different tomato varieties, the team showed that fruit with high chlorophyll levels had a higher sugar content, and that the carotenoid, prolycopene, is associated with an abundance of aroma compounds. Understanding how growing conditions influence pigment profiles could improve the flavor of tomatoes.

Indiana University School of Medicine researchers are developing a new, noninvasive brain stimulation technique to treat neurological disorders, including pain, traumatic brain injury (TBI), epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and more.

Minority-ethnic medical students must have more role-models in senior leadership positions if they are to engage with academia. This is one of the conclusions drawn by a group of medical students writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine about the drivers and barriers to engaging with academia.

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and University of Dundee have screened thousands of drug and chemical molecules and identified a range of potential antivirals that could be developed into new treatments for COVID-19 or in preparation for future coronavirus outbreaks.

While autistic individuals are less likely to use substances, those who do so are more likely to self-medicate for their mental health symptoms, according to new research from the University of Cambridge and published today in The Lancet Psychiatry.

In an article appearing in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team of scientists from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and UCLA School of Engineering report real-world results on SwabSeq, a high-throughput testing platform that uses sequencing to test thousands of samples at a time to detect COVID-19. They were able to perform more than 80,000 tests in less than two months, with the test showing extremely high sensitivity and specificity.