Culture
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - UNC School of Medicine scientists created a powerful new "directed evolution" technique for the rapid development of scientific tools and new treatments for many diseases.
Galaxy clusters are some of the most massive structures in the cosmos, but despite being millions of lightyears across, they can still be hard to spot. Researchers at Lancaster University have turned to artificial intelligence for assistance, developing "Deep-CEE" (Deep Learning for Galaxy Cluster Extraction and Evaluation), a novel deep learning technique to speed up the process of finding them.
Unique analysis of US county-level data finds a strong association between incarceration and drug-mortality, and economic hardship and drug-mortality, independent of opioid prescription rates
County-level incarceration may provide a further, plausible explanation to the underlying geographic variations in US drug-mortality, with the highest incarceration rates linked with a more than 50% increase in drug-mortality compared to counties with lowest incarceration
Heavy traffic is commonplace on Earth but now congestion is becoming an increasing problem in space. With over 22,000 artificial satellites in orbit it is essential to keep track of their positions in order to avoid unexpected collisions. Amateur astronomers from the Basingstoke Astronomical Society have been helping the Ministry of Defence explore what is possible using high-end consumer equipment to track objects in space.
New funding, greater expertise and wider awareness in the system - and beyond - are needed to embed work outcomes into social prescribing practice.
A new report from The Work Foundation, Embedding Work and Related Outcomes into Social Prescribing: Overcoming Challenges and Maximising Opportunities, says social prescribing can be an effective means of integrating people into work. However, government and wider stakeholders must address a range of cultural and practical barriers to realise this potential.
Although we know that exercise improves anxiety and mood problems in younger people with cancer, few studies have looked at the effects of exercise on older adults with cancer. Since most new cancer cases occur in adults aged 60 or older, a team of researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center and other institutions designed a study to learn more.
Their study appeared in the June issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS).
An anchor, an ibex and an Egyptian cat: all images that a research team from Brown University, led by Jacob Rosenstein, encoded and decoded from mixtures of small molecules called metabolites. They demonstrate the potential of this small-molecule information storage system in a new paper published July 3 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.
Mathematical analysis of online perfume data shows how the unique scent combinations found in different perfumes contribute to product popularity and consumer ratings. Vaiva Vasiliauskaite and Tim Evans of Imperial College London, U.K., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on July 3, 2019.
If a tree falls, and no one's there to hear it, does it feel pain and loneliness? No, experts argue in an opinion article publishing on July 3rd in the journal Trends in Plant Science. They draw this conclusion from the research of Todd Feinberg and Jon Mallatt, which explores the evolution of consciousness through comparative studies of simple and complex animal brains.
As obesity increases in aging Western populations, frailty--which is exacerbated by obesity--is becoming a greater health concern and a major healthcare cost. Now, researchers report July 3 in the journal Cell Metabolism that combining aerobic exercise and resistance training helps elderly obese individuals preserve muscle mass and reverse frailty as they work to lose weight. Based on a small clinical trial, the study showed that patients who completed these exercises had increased muscle protein synthesis and preserved muscle quality compared to control groups.
WASHINGTON, DC (3 July, 2019)--In a peer-reviewed report released today, researchers identified more than 100 million hectares of lost lowland tropical rain forests--restoration hotspots--spread out across Central and South America, Africa and Southeast Asia that present the most compelling opportunities for restoration to overcome rising global temperatures, water pollution and shortages, and the extinction of plant and animal life.
New York, NY--July 3, 2019--The emerging field of synthetic biology--designing new biological components and systems--is revolutionizing medicine. Through the genetic programming of living cells, researchers are creating engineered systems that intelligently sense and respond to diverse environments, leading to more specific and effective solutions in comparison to current molecular-based therapeutics.
Common dairy cows share the same core group of genetically inherited gut microbes, which influence factors such as how much methane the animals release during digestion and how efficiently they produce milk, according to a new study. By identifying these microbes, the research may help enable scientists to manipulate the rumen (a cow's first stomach, where microbes break down ingested food), facilitating a transition towards more eco-friendly and productive agriculture.
Bottom Line: Cancer has significant impact on the U.S. economy, in part, because of lost productivity from premature deaths. This analysis estimated lost earnings for individuals ages 16 to 84 who died from cancer in 2015 by using data on cancer deaths, life expectancy and annual earnings. There were an estimated $94.4 billion in lost earnings due to cancer deaths in 2015, with large variation across the states. The study has several limitations including that lost productivity was likely underestimated in this study.
Pancreatic cancer is especially challenging to treat - only eight percent of patients are still alive five years after diagnosis. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are of limited benefit, and even immunotherapy - which revolutionized treatment for other kinds of cancer by activating the body's immune system to attack cancer cells - has been largely ineffective because pancreatic tumors have ways to dampen the immune assault.