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Tiny tools: Controlling individual water droplets as biochemical reactors
"Droplet-array sandwiching" is a liquid-handling technique in which tiny droplet pairs laid out on opposite surfaces are mixed by bringing the surfaces together. However, this approach is limited to batch operations involving all droplets. Recently, scientists from Ritsumeikan University, Japan, found a way to electrically control the height of individual droplets, allowing them to select which droplet pairs should merge. Their method could replace manual tools such as pipettes and speed up drug screening.
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For many students, double-dose algebra leads to college attainment
In the United States, low-income and minority students are completing college at low rates compared to higher-income and majority peers -- a detriment to reducing economic inequality. Double-dose algebra could be a solution, according to a new study.
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Energycane produces more biodiesel than soybean at a lower cost
Bioenergy from crops is a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. New crops such as energycane can produce several times more fuel per acre than soybeans. Yet, challenges remain in processing the crops to extract fuel efficiently. Four new studies from the University of Illinois explore chemical-free pretreatment methods, development of high-throughput phenotyping methods, and commercial-scale techno-economic feasibility of producing fuel from energycane in various scenarios.
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Discovery shows how tuning the immune system may enhance vaccines and ease disease
A metabolic control pathway that regulates T follicular helper cells offers targets for drugs to stimulate the adaptive immune response.
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New study shows mathematical models helped reduce the spread of COVID-19
Colorado researchers have published new findings in Emerging Infectious Diseases that take a first look at the use of SARS-CoV-2 mathematical modeling to inform early statewide policies enacted to reduce the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic in Colorado. Among other findings, the authors estimate that 97 percent of potential hospitalizations across the state in the early months of the pandemic were avoided as a result of social distancing and other transmission-reducing activities such as mask wearing and social isolation of symptomatic individuals.
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Nursing organizations state their positions on systemic racism: JANAC authors analyze themes
The murders of George Floyd and other Black Americans have prompted a national outcry against structural racism and police brutality. How are leading nursing organizations and schools of nursing defining their positions on racism? That's the topic of a special article in the July/August issue of The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (JANAC). The official journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, JANAC is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
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Research paves the way to early diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy
Diabetics exert less force to hold an object than people with other diseases that affect the nervous system. Grip force is a key behavioral biomarker to detect incipient diabetic neuropathy.
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New AI tech for early detection of prostate cancer
Researchers have developed a diagnostic tool that can spot prostate cancer before patients have any symptoms, using artificial intelligence to analyse CT scans in just seconds.
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Arctic seabirds are less heat tolerant, more vulnerable to climate change
The Arctic is warming at approximately twice the global rate. A new study led by researchers from McGill University finds that cold-adapted Arctic species, like the thick-billed murre, are especially vulnerable to heat stress caused by climate change.
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Young South Asian heart attack patients more likely to be obese, use tobacco
A new study examining why young South Asian heart attack patients have more adverse outcomes found this patient population was often obese, used tobacco products, and had a family history of heart disease or risk factors that could have been prevented, monitored for or treated before heart attacks happen. The study will be presented at the ACC Asia 2021 Together with SCS 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting Virtual being held July 9-11, 2021.
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Mapping dengue hot spots pinpoints risk for Zika and chikungunya
Data from nine cities in Mexico confirms that identifying dengue fever "hot spots" can provide a predictive map for future outbreaks of Zika and chikungunya. All three of these viral diseases are spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
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Public diplomacy by a visiting national leader sways public opinion in host country
When a head of state or government official travels to another country to meet with his/her counterpart, the high-level visit often entails a range of public diplomacy activities as hosting a joint press conference, or attending a sports event, which aim to increase public support in the host country. A new study finds that public diplomacy accompanying a high-level visit by a national leader increases public approval in the host country.
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Dancing with music can halt most debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's disease
A new study shows patients with mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease (PD) can slow the progress of the disease by participating in dance training with music for one-and-a-quarter hours per week. Over the course of three years, this activity was found to reduce daily motor issues such as those related to balance and speech, which often lead to social isolation.
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Molecular imaging improves staging and treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas
For patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC), molecular imaging can improve staging and clinical management of the disease, according to research published in the June issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. In a retrospective study of PDAC patients, the addition of PET/CT imaging with 68Ga-FAPI led to restaging of disease in more than half of the patients, most notably in those with local recurrence.
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New computational technique, software identifies cell types within a tumor and its microenvironment
The discovery of novel groups or categories within diseases, organisms and biological processes and their organization into hierarchical relationships are important and recurrent pursuits in biology and medicine, which may help elucidate group-specific vulnerabilities and ultimately novel therapeutic interventions.
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Change in respiratory care strategies for preterm infants improves health outcomes
A decade's worth of data shows that neonatologists are shifting the type of respiratory support they utilize for preterm infants, a move that could lead to improved health outcomes.
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Next generation cytogenetics is on its way
Dutch-French research shows that Optical Genome Mapping (OGM) detects abnormalities in chromosomes and DNA very quickly, effectively and accurately. Sometimes even better than all existing techniques together, as they describe in two proof-of-concept studies published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. This new technique could radically change the existing workflow within cytogenetic laboratories.
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Researchers detail the most ancient bat fossil ever discovered in Asia
A team based at the University of Kansas and China performed fieldwork in the Junggar Basin to discover two fossil teeth belonging to two separate specimens of bat, dubbed Altaynycteris aurora. It's the oldest fossil of bat found in Asia.
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Cancer screenings rebounded in 2020 after COVID but racial disparities remain
Testing returned to pre-pandemic levels in late 2020 except with colonoscopies for colorectal cancer screening, which continued to lag. Rates of mammography for breast cancer screening were lower among Black and Hispanic patients during the pandemic. Long term effects of "missed" diagnoses on cancer outcomes not yet clear.
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New clues to why there's so little antimatter in the universe
An MIT study shows radioactive molecules are sensitive to subtle nuclear phenomena. The molecules might help physicists probe violation of the most fundamental symmetries of nature, including why the universe contains relatively little antimatter.
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