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Soft skin patch could provide early warning for strokes, heart attacks

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
UC San Diego engineers developed a soft, stretchy ultrasound patch that can be worn on the skin to monitor blood flow through vessels deep inside the body. Such a device can make it easier to detect cardiovascular problems, like blockages in the arteries that could lead to strokes or heart attacks.
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The anatomy of a planet

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
Researchers at ETH Zurich working together with an international team have been able to use seismic data to look inside Mars for the first time. They measured the crust, mantle and core and narrowed down their composition. The three resulting articles are being published together as a cover story in the journal Science.
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Alpha variant spread via 'super-seeding' event in UK: Oxford research

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
The rapid spread of the Alpha variant of COVID-19 in the UK resulted from biological changes in the virus and was enhanced by large numbers of infected people 'exporting' the variant around the country, in what the researchers call a 'super-seeding' event.
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Stanford researchers develop tool to drastically speed up the study of enzymes

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
A new tool that enables thousands of tiny experiments to run simultaneously on a single polymer chip will let scientists study enzymes faster and more comprehensively than ever before.
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InSight mission: Mars unveiled

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
Using information obtained from around a dozen earthquakes detected on Mars by the Very Broad Band SEIS seismometer, developed in France, the international team of NASA's InSight mission has unveiled the internal structure of Mars. The three papers published on July 23, provide, for the first time, an estimate of the size of the planet's core, the thickness of its crust and the structure of its mantle, based on the analysis of seismic waves reflected and modified by interfaces in its interior.
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Eyes wide shut: How newborn mammals dream the world they're entering

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
As a newborn mammal opens its eyes for the first time, it can already make visual sense of the world around it. But how does this happen before they have experienced sight?
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Global approach is needed on battery regulation

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
New European Union regulations on batteries could offer a huge boost to the global decarbonisation mission - but only if it leverages its political and economic weight to ensure a fairer global marketplace.
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Mars: Scientists determine crustal thickness

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
Using recordings of marsquakes, seismologists have gained a precise picture of the structure and thickness of the red planet's crust / findings from NASA's InSight mission published in 'Science'
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Spontaneous retinal waves simulate optical flow before neonatal mice can see

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
Like dreaming of walking through a world they've not yet experienced, the retinas of neonatal mice practice for what mature eyes must later process by generating spontaneous patterns of activity that mimic the perception of directional movement through space, according to a new study.
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A case for intranasal COVID-19 vaccinations

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
Of the nearly 100 SARS-CoV-2 vaccines currently undergoing clinical trials, only seven are delivered intranasally - despite this vaccine type's long success in providing protection from influenza.
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Trash-bin foragers: Innovation and spread of complex culture in suburban parrots

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
In the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, sulphur-crested cockatoos routinely loot lidded household waste bins to scavenge for food. In a new study, researchers document the emergence and geographic spread of innovative bin-opening behaviors in urban parrot populations, revealing the presence of a complex social learning culture in these birds.
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NASA InSight Lander's seismic observations reveal the interior of mars

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
The first direct seismic observations from NASA's InSight lander, presented in three studies in this issue, provide clues to the composition of Mars.
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Global warming may limit spread of dengue fever, new research finds

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
Infection with dengue virus makes mosquitoes more sensitive to warmer temperatures, according to new research led by Penn State researchers. The team also found that infection with the bacterium Wolbachia, which has recently been used to control viral infections in mosquitoes, also increases the thermal sensitivity of the insects. The findings suggest that global warming could limit the spread of dengue fever but could also limit the effectiveness of Wolbachia as a biological control agent.
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Study on chromosomal rearrangements in yeast reveals potential avenue for cancer therapy

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
Researchers from Osaka University have found that the attachment of a ubiquitin molecule to a protein called PCNA at the lysine 107 position causes gross chromosomal rearrangements. This lysine is located where two PCNA molecules interact, and the ubiquitin attachment to it may change the ring structure they form. The ubiquitin attachment occurs through the action of Rad8 (a ubiquitin ligase) and Mms2-Ubc4 (a ubiquitin conjugating enzyme). This implies that inhibiting the human equivalent of this ubiquitination could prevent cancer.
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InSight mission: Mars unveils its inner structures

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
From a dozen earthquakes detected on Mars by the SEIS seismometer, developed in France, the InSight team reveals the internal structure of Mars. The three studies published in Science and involving many co-authors from French institutions, reveal, by analyzing the seismic waves, an estimate of the size of the core, the thickness of the crust and the structure of the mantle.
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Clever cockatoos learn through social interaction

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
World-first research proves 'cockies' learn unique bin-opening behavior by copying others
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Neurotransmitter levels predict math ability

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
The neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate have complementary roles -- GABA inhibits neurons, while glutamate makes them more active. Published 22nd July in PLOS Biology, researchers led by Roi Cohen Kadosh and George Zacharopoulos from the University of Oxford show that levels of these two neurotransmitters in the intraparietal sulcus of the brain can predict mathematics ability. The study also found that the relationships between the two neurotransmitters and arithmetic fluency switched as children developed into adults.
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Less-sensitive COVID-19 tests may still achieve optimal results if enough people tested

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
A computational analysis of COVID-19 tests suggests that, in order to minimize the number of infections in a population, the amount of testing matters more than the sensitivity of the tests that are used. Philip Cherian and Gautam Menon of Ashoka University in Sonipat, India, and Sandeep Krishna of the National Centre for Biological Sciences TIFR, Bangalore, India, present their findings in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology.
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Less-sensitive COVID-19 tests may still achieve optimal results if enough people tested

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
A computational analysis of COVID-19 tests suggests that, in order to minimize the number of infections in a population, the amount of testing matters more than the sensitivity of the tests that are used. Philip Cherian and Gautam Menon of Ashoka University in Sonipat, India, and Sandeep Krishna of the National Centre for Biological Sciences TIFR, Bangalore, India, present their findings in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology.
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New study provides clues to decades-old mystery about cell movement

Eurekalert - Jul 22 2021 - 00:07
A new study, led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities engineering researchers, shows that the stiffness of protein fibers in tissues, like collagen, are a key component in controlling the movement of cells. The groundbreaking discovery provides the first proof of a theory from the early 1980s and could have a major impact on fields that study cell movement from regenerative medicine to cancer research.
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