Eurekalert

Artemisone is a promising substance in the fight against malaria. However, the active ingredient has yet to be used due its instability and because it is not easily absorbed by the body. A team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has now pushed this a bit further. They have developed a very simple method for preparing the active ingredient that makes it easier to administer and store.

Nearly 12,000 people in Sweden received sickness benefit from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency for COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic. The median duration of sick leave in this group was 35 days, but for many it was considerably more long-drawn-out, according to a University of Gothenburg study.

A team of scientists has shown that the healing of skin blisters is driven by hair follicle stem cells, which delay their own development in the process.

A recent research by biologists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) sought to understand the impact of uneven distribution of eyespots on butterflies. The team, led by Professor Antónia Monteiro from the NUS Department of Biological Sciences, found that the location of these eyespots is key to their protective function.

Osaka University researchers invented a more efficient device for doubling the frequency of incoming light by combining period reflectors inside a microcavity containing gallium nitride. This work may help in the construction of a deep UV light source with bactericidal effect that is both safe and practical.

Researchers have successfully developed a novel cancer treatment approach that utilizes Cerenkov radiation energy to target and destroy cancer cells more effectively. The approach uses light from decaying radiopharmaceuticals, known as Cerenkov luminescence, as an energy source to activate semiconducting polymer nanoparticles that kill cancer cells. This research was presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging's 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting.

Diego Mastroeni of the NDRC teamed up Forest White and Douglas Lauffenburger, to explore how protein and signaling pathways change in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Their work creates a new model of disease progression, taking advantage of the heterogeneity that is inherent to human studies.

New WSU research shows many consumers are willing to pay a premium for ready-to-eat meals with a 'clean label' showing few ingredients. They are also more willing to fork out their hard-earned cash when they know their processed foods are made with a new technology that helps limit the number of additives and preservatives commonly found in most ready-to-eat meals.

A new non-contact laser imaging system developed by engineering researchers at the University of Waterloo, is designed to detect telltale signs of major blinding diseases in retinal blood and tissue that typically go unseen until it is too late.

A new USC study not only sheds light on how the APOE4 gene may cause some of the pathologies associated with Alzheimer's disease, but also suggests a new treatment target that might help people who carry the APOE4 gene in early and late stages of the disease. USC researchers found that APOE4 is associated with the activation of an inflammatory protein that causes a breakdown in the blood-brain barrier which protects the brain.

A plant-based diet appears to afford significant protection to rats bred to become hypertensive on a high-salt diet, scientists report. When the rats become pregnant, the whole grain diet also protects the mothers and their offspring from deadly preeclampsia.

Inspired by kirigami, the Japanese art of folding and cutting paper, MIT engineers have designed a new type of stent that could be used to deliver drugs to the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract, or other tubular organs in the body.

To improve drug delivery for diseases that affect tubular organs, like eosinophilic esophagitis and inflammatory bowel disease, a multidisciplinary team from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) designed a stretchable stent based on the principles of kirigami that is capable of supporting rapid deposition of drug depots.

What The Study Did: Differences by sex and race/ethnicity in suicidal thoughts and nonfatal suicide attempts among U.S. adolescents over the last three decades were assessed in this survey study.

What The Study Did: Researchers examined the association between the amount of ultra-processed food consumed by children and their weight in early adulthood.

What The Study Did: The results suggest assisted living residents experienced increased mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic consistent with increases observed among nursing home residents.

An international research team has described a new species of Oculudentavis, providing further evidence that the animal first identified as a hummingbird-sized dinosaur was actually a lizard.

Optical solitons can form bound states known as "soliton molecules" that exhibit intriguing matter-light analogies. Reminiscent of chemical reactions, synthesis and dissociation of soliton molecules have attracted wide interest. Scientists has recently created a unique optomechanical lattice using a PCF-based optoacoustically mode-locked laser, to host highly-controlled, massively-parallel synthesis/dissociation of soliton-molecules. This result unfolded a novel panorama of stochastic multi-soliton dynamics and provided unprecedented statistical insight, which may promote all-optical information processing and ultrafast laser techniques.

Male infertility affects around 8-12% of men globally, with over 20 million cases known. Now, researchers at Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, China, led by Na Li and Ling Sun, may be able to offer infertile men a glimpse of hope, after discovering a new protein that controls male fertility in mice. These findings, published in the journal Development, pinpoint a new potential target to treat the underlying causes of male infertility in humans.

Researchers at the University of São Paulo discover that the fungus Fusarium verticillioides uses volatile compounds to manipulate insects and plants, promoting its own dissemination.