Feed aggregator
US clinics slower to provide opioid treatment than Canadian clinics
As opioid overdose deaths rose during the COVID-19 pandemic, people seeking treatment for opioid addiction had to wait nearly twice as long to begin methadone treatment in the United States than in Canada, a new Yale study has shown.
Categories: Content
New measure of tropical forest vulnerability to help avoid 'tipping point'
Humid tropical forests, vital in global efforts to limit rising temperatures, are under threat as a result of changes in land use and climate. Now, researchers reporting in the journal One Earth on July 23 have developed a new way to keep tabs on the vulnerability of these forests on a global scale using satellite data called the tropical forest vulnerability index (TFVI).
Categories: Content
Meeting global climate targets will lead to 8 million more energy jobs worldwide by 2050
Researchers created a global dataset of job footprints in 50 countries and used a model to investigate how trying to meet the Paris Agreement global climate target of staying well below 2°C would affect energy sector jobs. They found that action to reach said target would increase net jobs by about 8 million by 2050, primarily due to gains in the solar and wind industries. The analysis appears July 23 in the journal One Earth.
Categories: Content
What's riskier for young soccer players, practice or game time?
For young soccer players, participating in repetitive technical training activities involving heading during practice may result in more total head impacts but playing in scrimmages or actual soccer games may result in greater magnitude head impacts. That's according to a small, preliminary study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's Sports Concussion Conference, July 30-31, 2021.
Categories: Content
The impact of climate change on Kenya's Tana river basin
Many species within Kenya's Tana River Basin will be unable to survive if global temperatures continue to rise as they are on track to do - according to new research from the University of East Anglia. A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE outlines how remaining within the goals of the Paris Agreement would save many species. The research also identifies places that could be restored to better protect biodiversity and contribute towards global ecosystem restoration targets.
Categories: Content
New 'atlas' charts how antibodies attack spike protein variants
Now, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and collaborators have created an "atlas" that charts how 152 different antibodies attack a major piece of the SARS-CoV-2 machinary, the spike protein, as it has evolved since 2020. Their study, published in Cell, highlights antibodies that are able to neutralize the newer strains, while identifying regions of the spike protein that have become more resistant to attack.
Categories: Content
Reverse optogenetic tool developed
A new optogenetic tool, a protein that can be controlled by light, has been characterized by researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. They used an opsin - a protein that occurs in the brain and eyes - from zebrafish and introduced it into the brain of mice. Unlike other optogenetic tools, this opsin is not switched on but rather switched off by light. Experiments also showed that the tool could be suitable for investigating changes in the brain that are responsible for the development of epilepsy.
Categories: Content
Bio-based coating for wood outperforms traditional synthetic options
Researchers at Aalto University have used lignin, a natural polymer abundant in wood and other plant sources, to create a safe, low-cost and high-performing coating for use in construction. As there is a global urge to meet the rising sustainability standards, this new coating has great potential to protect wood, whose use in construction is continually increasing. The new coating is non-toxic, hydrofobic, it retains wood's breathability and natural roughness while being resistant to colour changes and abrasion.
Categories: Content
Phase two CD19-antibody-drug conjugate trial demonstrates promise for aggressive lymphoma
MUSC Hollings Cancer Center was one of 28 clinical sites around the world that participated in the LOTIS-2 trial to test the efficacy of Loncastuximab tesirine, a promising new treatment for aggressive B-cell lymphoma. The results of the single-arm, phase 2 trial were published online in May 2021 in Lancet Oncology.
Categories: Content
Novel imaging agent identifies biomarker for iron-targeted cancer therapies
A new radiotracer that detects iron in cancer cells has proven effective, opening the door for the advancement of iron-targeted therapies for cancer patients. The radiotracer, 18F-TRX, can be used to measure iron concentration in tumors, which can help predict whether a not the cancer will respond to treatment. This research was published in the July issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
Categories: Content
China's carbon-monitoring satellite reports global carbon net of six gigatons
About six gigatons -- roughly 12 times the mass of all living humans -- of carbon appears to be emitted over land every year, according to data from the Chinese Global Carbon Dioxide Monitoring Scientific Experimental Satellite (TanSat).
Categories: Content
Research 'final nail in the coffin' of Paranthropus as hard object feeders
New research from the University of Otago debunks a long-held belief about our ancestors' eating habits.
Categories: Content
Researchers uncover fatal flaw in green pigmented concrete
Researchers from Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University have found that an impurity present in many industrial pigmentations drastically reduces the strength and longevity of green architectural concrete.
Categories: Content
How the brain paints the beauty of a landscape
Researchers investigate how our brains proceed from merely seeing a landscape to feeling its aesthetic impact
Categories: Content
New insights into immune responses to malaria
Advanced technologies have been used to solve a long-standing mystery about why some people develop serious illness when they are infected with the malaria parasite, while others carry the infection asymptomatically.
Categories: Content
Mount Sinai researchers develop novel therapy that could be effective in many cancers
Mount Sinai researchers have developed a therapeutic agent that shows high effectiveness in vitro at disrupting a biological pathway that helps cancer survive, according to a paper published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, in July.
Categories: Content
Bacteria navigate on surfaces using a 'sense of touch'
EPFL researchers have characterized a mechanism that allows bacteria to direct their movement in response to the mechanical properties of the surfaces the microbes move on -- a finding that could help fight certain pathogens.
Categories: Content
Blushing plants reveal when fungi are growing in their roots
Scientists have created plants whose cells and tissues 'blush' with beetroot pigments when they are colonised by fungi that help them take up nutrients from the soil. This is the first time this vital, 400 million year old process has been visualised in real time in full root systems of living plants. Understanding the dynamics of plant colonisation by fungi could help to make food production more sustainable in the future.
Categories: Content
Research identifies potential role of 'junk DNA' sequence in aging, cancer
Researchers at Washington State University have recently identified a DNA region known as VNTR2-1 that appears to drive the activity of the telomerase gene, which has been shown to prevent aging in certain types of cells. Knowing how the telomerase gene is regulated and activated and why it is only active in certain cell types could someday be the key to understanding how humans age and how to stop the spread of cancer.
Categories: Content
Device cracks milk protein
After gaining world attention by 'unboiling' egg protein, Flinders University scientists have now used an Australian-made novel thin film microfluidic device to manipulate Beta-lactoglobulin (β-lactoglobulin), the major whey protein in cow's, sheep's and other mammals.In the latest application, published in Molecules, College of Science and Engineering experts have combined the capabilities of the VFD with a new form of biosensor called TPE-MI, which is an aggregation-induced emission luminogen (AIEgen).
Categories: Content