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POSTECH research team discovers new zeolite catalysts for catalytic cracking applications.

At the end of life, people may have to rely on others for help with showering, dressing and going to the toilet. This loss of privacy and independence can be confronting and difficult. Now Australian occupational therapy (OT) researchers have interviewed 18 people receiving palliative care about how they feel about losing independence with self-care, specifically their intimate hygiene, as function declines with disease progression.

An international team of scientists has used high-powered X-rays at the European Synchrotron, the ESRF, to show how an extinct South African 200-million-year-old dinosaur, Heterodontosaurus tucki, breathed. The study is published in elife on 6 July 2021.

Dinosaurs were generally huge, but a new study of the unusual alvarezsaurs show that they reduced in size about 100 million years ago when they became specialised ant-eaters.

In defining periods of development, the brain re-organizes connections between its neurons more freely than in its adult form. Researchers around Sandra Siegert at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria have now discovered two methods to reopen such plasticity: repeated ketamine anesthesia and non-invasive 60 hertz light flickering. The journal Cell Reports now published their findings, which have the potential to become a therapeutic tool applicable to humans.

* This is a peer-reviewed observational study conducted using Drosophila fruit flies.* The study has uncovered a signalling pathway that causes neural cells to enter divisions after damage. * It is important because the signalling kinases are also seen activated in human Alzheimer's brain neurons post mortem. * The next step is to identify whether the pathway happens in the same way in human neurons, and whether it can be stopped.

Melbourne researchers have identified a way to improve the immune response in the face of severe viral infections. It is widely known that severe viral infections and cancer cause impairments to the immune system, including to T cells, a process called immune 'exhaustion'. Overcoming immune exhaustion is a major goal for the development of new therapies for cancer or severe viral infections.

What The Study Did: The amount Medicare pays for common generic prescriptions in Part D was compared with prices available to patients without insurance at Costco.

What The Study Did: This national analysis examined the association between the travel distance to the nearest abortion care facility and abortion rate and the effect of reduced travel distance.

What The Study Did: This study in the Lombardy region of Italy examined the association of different health care professional categories and operational units, including in-hospital wards and outpatient facilities, with the seroprevalence of positive IgG antibody tests for SARS-CoV-2 and the likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

What The Study Did: COVID-19 vaccine-associated messenger RNA (mRNA) wasn't detected in 13 human milk samples collected after vaccination from seven breastfeeding mothers.

What The Study Did: Rates at which patients with type 2 diabetes received diabetes-related health services prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic are compared in this study.

Newborn mice lacking YAP1 gene are born without bile ducts. Curiously, they don't die in utero and remain physically active, if small and yellow-tinted.

Research in mice reveals how a subset of highly specialized immune cells modulate brain wiring by precision-targeting inhibitory synapses.The work deepens understanding of the versatile repertoire of microglia, the brain's immune cells and resident garbage collectors.The results set the stage for the development of therapies for neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions marked by defects in synaptic function.

A research team led by Leonor Saude, group leader at Instituto de Medicina Molecular have shown that the administration of drugs that target specific cellular components of a scar upon a spinal cord injury, improves functional recovery. The results now published in the scientific journal Cell Reports set the basis for a new promising therapeutic strategy not only for spinal cord injuries, but potentially for other organs that lack regenerative competence.

Emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids, volatile organic compounds include a variety of chemicals, and many are associated with adverse health effects so detecting VOCs simply, quickly, and reliably is valuable for several practical applications. In Review of Scientific Instruments, researchers describe a device designed to analyze air samples containing various VOCs. The device inhales a sample, enabling the sensors within its aluminum gas chamber to analyze and respond in real situations.

A team led by researchers from Barcelona has discovered that two proteins, which are involved in the control of stem cells' division in plant roots, need each other for these cells to function properly. The study combines experimental work with plants and mathematical modelling.The mechanism provides knowledge that could be useful, for agriculture and for the design of efficient strategies in medicine and cosmetics that slow down cellular aging.

Researchers have developed a new strategy to characterise polymeric transition metal species in acidic solution that has proved promising as an effective method for understanding the polymerisation nature of transition metal (even Ni, Co, REEs), resulting in an efficient method for high-purity metal recovery applications.

Although the history of bitumen dates back to the third millennium BC, only little is known about its surface structure. Researchers from TU Wien are now shedding light on the nature of the bitumen surface using physicochemical analyses.

Changes in the colour and intensity of light pollution over the past few decades result in complex and unpredictable effects on animal vision, new research shows.