Eurekalert

The culprit behind a large number of cancerous tumors is known to be a certain protein. Now for the first time, research shows that the same protein is the cause of several rare brain syndromes.

Prof. Wenhui Kuang and colleagues revealed that "cropland redistribution" from high-quality to marginal lands is a hidden driver of food insecurity and environmental crisis. Cropland redistribution to marginal lands resulted in the overall decline of cropland qualities in China during 1990-2015, contributing to a 4.5% reduction in grain production. Cropland redistribution to NE and NW China since 2000 has resulted in serious environmental costs and aggravated the local ecological vulnerability.

Pioneering research, led by a team from Trinity College Dublin and the Marine Research Institute of the Spanish Research Council (IIM-CSIC) in Vigo (Galicia, Spain), suggests 'subterranean estuaries' may be critical in managing sustainable fishing and aquaculture -- two growing industries of global importance.

New research published in the open access journal Frontiers investigating the biological mysteries of sleepwalking found the levels of 'fight or flight' response in those who wander at night is surprisingly lower than those who sleep soundly. Researchers in Canada analyzed the autonomic nervous system of sleepwalkers and found an elevated 'rest and digest' response during deep sleep, which could pave the way towards a greater understanding of the biological processes of sleepwalking.

In a new study published in Circulation research, Chen-Yu Zhang and Xiaohong Jiang's group from Nanjing University and Dongjin Wang's group from Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital reported a critical role of PGC1α in maintaining the contractile phenotype of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and highlighted the therapeutic potential of PGC1α for atherosclerosis.

Researchers from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have quantified the total river runoff of 13 major rivers at the Third Pole.

A cluster of comet fragments believed to have hit Earth nearly 13,000 years ago may have shaped the origins of human civilization, research suggests.

What holds true for meadows would seem to apply to arable land, too: mixed cultures are more fruitful than monocultures. This was the outcome of an ETH Zurich research project led by Christian Schöb.

Xiangshan Bay is a highly eutrophic bay and aquaculture base in the East China Sea. Scientists from Zhejiang University recently revealed the signatures of the dissolved organic carbon (DOM) pool in Xiangshan Bay by using optical and molecular approaches. The results showed that the DOM pool was consisted by molecules with high lability. Now they have suggested that costal bays in China have been affected by anthropogenic effects.

Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University jointly with colleagues from Spanish universities have offered a simple method how to enhance the responsivity of terahertz radiation detectors by 3.5 folds using a small Teflon cube. The 1 mm cube must be put on the surface of the detector without changing the inner design of the detector.

A study published on May 21 in Child Development shows that the early production of beat gestures with the hands (i.e., gestures normally associated with emphasis that do not represent the semantic content of speech) by infants between 14 and 58 months of age in natural interactions with their carers predicts that in their later development, nearing the age of five, these children obtain better results insofar as their oral narrative skills.

Migrating storms and local weather systems known as cyclones and anticyclones were thought to contribute to behaviors and properties of our global weather system. However, the means to probe cyclones and anticyclones were limited. For the first time, researchers demonstrated a new three-dimensional analytical methodology that can quantify the way individual cyclones and anticyclones impact broader weather systems. This study aids longer-term circulation and climate studies, including how storm characteristics may change in the future.

Many people don't realize that the trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi residing within the gastrointestinal tract--collectively called the gut microbiome-- are connected to overall health, and specifically to cancer.

Discovering and engineering nanobodies with properties suitable for treating human diseases ranging from cancer to COVID-19 is a time-consuming, laborious process.

Led by François Fuks and Jana Jeschke, the Laboratory of Cancer Epigenetics at ULB and the ULBCancer Research Center (U-CRC) have discovered that one of the mRNA letters, m6A, plays a key role inthe deadly process of cancer metastasis. Published in the Nature Cancer journal, their discovery will helpto limit cancer spread and ultimately improve the survival of cancer patients.

In the US, COVID-19 reduced overall life expectancy by over 1.3 years, with the effects on Black and Latino populations 2 to 3 times those for the white population.

What The Study Did: The incidence of Bell palsy among patients with COVID-19 was compared with individuals vaccinated against the disease.

What The Study Did: Patients with COVID-19-related loss of smell were evaluated for one year after the diagnosis.

What The Study Did: Researchers estimated the change in life expectancy associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States by race/ethnicity.

What The Study Did: Researchers found no association between recent vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine and risk of facial nerve palsy.