Culture
RNA interference is a gene regulatory mechanism in which the expression of specific genes is downregulated by endogenous microRNAs or by small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). Although siRNAs have broad potential for gene-silencing therapy, their instability is one of the difficulties to develop siRNA-based agents. To improve their stability, most of the developed siRNA-based drugs are chemically modified in their nucleotides or phosphodiester linkages.
Scientists from the University of Surrey have revealed the significant improvements they are making in perovskite-based solar cells.
Perovskite solar cells have shown significant potential in reaching the efficiency limit of the widely used solar cells currently on the market by absorbing light in a broader range of wavelengths. Industry has also been paying close attention to the development of perovskite-based cells thanks to their low-cost and simple fabrication, and their efficient combination with other types of solar cells to produce tandems.
In a series of recommendations to fix the struggling Covid-19 test, trace and isolate system in England, health researchers from University College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine say that pooled testing for Covid-19 could significantly increase testing capacity in a relatively short space of time and help with the identification of asymptomatic cases in key workers.
Until mid-March 2020, the WHO, the EU as well as German authorities were convinced that the spread of the virus could not be curbed by border closures. "This belief was fatally mistaken", argues Ruud Koopmans. "Travel restrictions should be given much greater weight", he urges. "This holds true for containing upcoming waves of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as similar pandemics in the future."
New research published in Anaesthesia (a journal of the Association of Anaesthetists) reveals the much higher risk of mortality faced by COVID-19 patients in intensive care who have chronic kidney disease (CKD) or, those who develop new (acute) kidney injury (AKI) as a result of developing COVID-19.
Leesburg, VA, October 16, 2020--According to an article in ARRS' American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), secondary interpretations of body MRI at tertiary care centers identify a high rate of discrepancies--with primary errors being interpretive in origin--suggesting that subspecialty interpretations should be encouraged, and institutions should provide adequate resources for these interpretations to occur.
A soil scientist from RUDN University discovered the effect of fertilization on the ability of the soil to retain carbon. To understand this mechanism, he and his team studied the movement of organic carbon in the soil of rice paddies. The results of the study can help increase the fertility of the paddies while at the same time reducing the volume of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. An article about the study was published in the Soil Biology and Biochemistry journal.
Researchers at uOttawa have created a new method to measure the temporal evolution of electric fields with optical frequencies. The new approach, which works in ambient air, facilitates the direct measurement of the field waveform and could lead to breakthroughs in high-speed electronics.
To learn more, we talked to Aleksey Korobenko, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physics at the University of Ottawa, and lead author of "Femtosecond streaking in ambient air", an article recently published in the journal Optica.
Please tell us about this research project.
Regeneration of functional new neurons to repair injured human brain is a long-term unsolved problem up till today. The lack of neuroregeneration is one of the major reasons why so many brain disorders such as stroke and Alzheimer's disease do not have a cure yet. A research team led by Prof. Gong Chen at Jinan University (Guangzhou, China) published a work on October 9th in Neural Regeneration Research, providing unambiguous data that brain internal astrocytes are directly converted into neurons through lineage tracing studies.
Red dwarfs are the coolest kind of star. As such, they potentially allow liquid water to exist on planets that are quite close to them. In the search for habitable worlds beyond the borders of our solar system, this is a big advantage: the distance between an exoplanet and its star is a crucial factor for its detection. The closer the two are, the higher the chance that astronomers can detect the planet from Earth.
DURHAM, N.C. -- We know that the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 crisis lived harmlessly in bats and other wildlife before it jumped the species barrier and spilled over to humans.
Now, researchers at Duke University have identified a number of "silent" mutations in the roughly 30,000 letters of the virus's genetic code that helped it thrive once it made the leap -- and possibly helped set the stage for the global pandemic. The subtle changes involved how the virus folded its RNA molecules within human cells.
INFORMS Journal Information Systems Research New Study Key Takeaways:
Increasing telemedicine availability in the emergency room (ER) significantly reduces the average patients' hospital stay.
Using telemedicine if there is a demand surge or supply shortage rapidly decreases ER hospital stays.
Using telemedicine to reduce a patient's length of stay is a result of the reduction of wait times.
Astudy published in the journal Psychological Science found that young adults--contrary to how they are sometimes portrayed in the media--tend to make highly rational decisions when it comes to selecting potential romantic partners.
This is not to say that young adults make risk-free choices, but they appear to consider both the risks and benefits of their sexual behavior in a highly consistent and thoughtful manner.
In a novel research study conducted by a team from the Neuroregeneration Institute at McLean Hospital, investigators believe they have found key brain cell type changes involving lipids, inflammation, and the development of Parkinson's disease (PD). Their findings appear in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
The mental effects of pandemics on people can arise not only from the burden of preventive measures, the fear of contracting and cure but also coping with the exponential deaths. It was predicted in 2018 that the next major outbreak and its containment challenges might not be due to a lack of preventive technologies but to emotional contagion, which could erode trust in government, causing serious economic and social disruption.