Eurekalert


The premier online source for science news since 1996. A service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Updated: 3 years 8 months ago
Research suggests BMI may not be best obesity indicator to assess risk for lung cancer
- New research published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO) suggests the method used to calculate how obesity is measured may affect whether it is considered a risk factor for lung cancer. The JTO is an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.
Categories: Content
Replicating patients' tumors to test different treatments
In order to offer a personalised treatment that best suits the case being treated, scientists led by UNIGE had already developed a spheroidal reproduction of tumours that integrates the tumour cells, but also their microenvironment. Today, the Geneva team has succeeded in integrating two types of immune cells that come directly from the patient into the spheroidal structure, making it possible to test the various possible treatments and select the most effective.
Categories: Content
MicroRNAs may contribute to atherogenesis in a cell-type-dependent manner
Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland have uncovered potential mechanisms by which microRNAs (miRNA) drive atherogenesis in a cell-type-specific manner. Published in the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology journal, the study provides novel insight into the miRNA profiles of the main cell types involved in atherosclerosis.
Categories: Content
How platelets help resolve lung inflammation
Scientists working with Professor Jan Rossaint and Professor Alexander Zarbock, two anesthesiologists and intensive care specialists at the University of Münster, have found how platelets interacting with white blood cells contribute to the resolution of bacterial lung inflammation in mice. The results may help in the search for therapies to specifically regulate inflammation.
Categories: Content
Global research team develops fine-scale risk maps to tackle malaria in Haiti
Researchers from Telethon Kids Institute in Perth and Tulane University in New Orleans have developed sophisticated data modelling that could help eradicate malaria in Haiti.
Categories: Content
Better endurance and reliable data retention: A new STT-MRAM Quad technology
Professor Tetsuo Endoh's Group at Tohoku University's Center for Innovative Integrated Electronics has announced a new magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) quad-technology that provides better endurance and reliable data retention -- over 10 years -- beyond the 1X nm generation.
Categories: Content
New study explores link between economic shock and physical inactivity
A new study published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine finds critical links between job loss and physical inactivity in young adults during the U.S. Great Recession of 2008-09 that can be crucial to understanding the role of adverse economic shocks on physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Categories: Content
Antibiotics no help for mysterious lung-scarring disease, large trial finds
The findings dash hopes that antimicrobials would benefit patients with life-threatening idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The trial, however, will still benefit the battle against the deadly lung disease, the researchers say.
Categories: Content
Future Pandemic? Consider Radically Altering Animal Agriculture Practices
Almost three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases are spread between animals and people. COVID-19 is the latest and most impactful zoonotic event of the modern era. Researchers offer three plausible solutions to mitigate zoonotic risk associated with intensive animal agriculture. They explore incentivizing plant-based and cell-based animal source food alternatives through government subsidies, disincentivizing intensive animal source food production through the adoption of a "zoonotic tax," and eliminating intensive animal source food production through a total ban.
Categories: Content
Target protein identified for improving heart attack treatment
A new study led by researchers at Washington State University has identified a protein that could be the key to improving treatment outcomes after a heart attack. Published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, it suggests that protein kinase A (PKA) plays a role in heart muscle cell necrosis, a major type of cell death that commonly occurs after reperfusion therapy, the treatment used to unblock arteries and restore blood flow after a heart attack.
Categories: Content
People who eat a healthy diet including whole fruits may be less likely to develop diabetes
A new study finds people who consume two servings of fruit per day have 36% lower odds of developing type 2 diabetes than those who consume less than half a serving. The research was published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Categories: Content
Researchers learn how swimming ducks balance water pressure in their feathers while diving
A Virginia Tech team has discovered the method ducks use to suspend water in their feathers while diving, allowing them to shake it out when surfacing. The discovery opens the door for applications in marine technology.
Categories: Content
Healthy diet before, during pregnancy linked to lower complications, NIH study suggests
A healthy diet around the time of conception through the second trimester may reduce the risk of several common pregnancy complications, suggests a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Expectant women in the study who scored high on any of three measures of healthy eating had lower risks for gestational diabetes, pregnancy-related blood pressure disorders and preterm birth.
Categories: Content
Mapping intermittent methane emissions across the Permian Basin
The Permian Basin, located in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico, is the largest oil- and gas-producing region in the U.S. The oilfield operations emit methane, but quantifying the greenhouse gas is difficult because of the large area and the fact that many sources are intermittent emitters. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology Letters have conducted an extensive airborne campaign with imaging spectrometers and identified large methane sources across this area.
Categories: Content
World's smallest, best acoustic amplifier emerges from 50-year-old hypothesis
Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have built the world's smallest and best acoustic amplifier. And they did it using a concept that was all but abandoned for almost 50 years.
Categories: Content
Young T. rexes had a powerful bite, capable of exerting one-sixth the force of an adult
Scientists have experimentally measured the bite force of adult T. rexes but not of younger tyrannosaurs. Fossils with juvenile bite marks, discovered by Joseph Peterson, have now allowed him and Jack Tseng to experimentally test how hard juveniles could chomp. Though their bite force is one-sixth that of an adult, it is still stronger than that of living hyenas. The measurement is higher than previous estimates, suggesting a different ecological niche for these youngsters.
Categories: Content
Atmospheric metal layers appear with surprising regularity
Twice a day, at dusk and just before dawn, a faint layer of sodium and other metals begins sinking down through the atmosphere, about 90 miles high above the city of Boulder, Colorado. The movement was captured by one of the world's most sensitive "lidar" instruments and the regularly appearing layers promise to help researchers understand better how earth's atmosphere interacts with space, even potentially how those interactions help support life.
Categories: Content
Synthetic SPECIES developed for use as a confinable gene drive
Scientists have developed a gene drive with a built-in genetic barrier that is designed to keep the drive under control. The researchers engineered synthetic fly species that, upon release in sufficient numbers, act as gene drives that can spread locally and be reversed if desired.
Categories: Content
Fossil secret may shed light on the diversity of Earth's first animals
A large group of iconic fossils widely believed to shed light on the origins of many of Earth's animals and the communities they lived in may be hiding a secret.Scientists, led by two from the University of Portsmouth, UK, are the first to model how exceptionally well preserved fossils that record the largest and most intense burst of evolution ever seen could have been moved by mudflows.
Categories: Content
'Prescription' to sit less, move more advised for mildly high blood pressure & cholesterol
Physical activity is the optimal first treatment choice for adults with mild to moderately elevated blood pressure and blood cholesterol who otherwise have low heart disease risk. About 21% of adults in the US with mild to moderately raised blood pressure and 28-37% of those with mild to moderate elevated cholesterol levels may be best served by a prescription for lifestyle-only treatment, which includes increasing physical activity.
Categories: Content