Culture
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich researchers have shown that a specific class of immune cells in the blood induced by vaccination is an earlier indicator of vaccine efficacy than conventional tests for neutralizing antibodies.
Early humans lived in South African river valleys with deep, fertile soils filled with grasslands, floodplains, woodlands, and wetlands that abounded with hippos, zebras, antelopes, and many other animals, some extinct for millennia.
In contrast to ice age environments elsewhere on Earth, it was a lush environment with a mild climate that disappeared under rising sea levels around 11,500 years ago.
Scientists from the CNRS and the ENS-PSL in France (1) and Monash University in Australia have shown that the brain suppresses information from the outside world, such as the sound of a conversation, during the sleep phase linked to dreaming. This ability could be one of the protective mechanisms of dreams. The study, carried out in collaboration with the Centre du Sommeil et de la Vigilance, Hôtel-Dieu, AP-HP - Université de Paris, is published in Current Biology on 14 May 2020.
The study now published in Nature Cell Biology reveals more information on the capacity of plants, identified as 'epigenetic memory,' which allows recording important information to, for example, remember prolonged cold in the winter to ensure they flower at the right time during the spring.
As soon as they produce seeds, this information is "erased" from memory so they don't bloom too early the following winter.
CHICAGO (May 15, 2020): When researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, used a combination of two specific blood-clotting tests, they found critically ill patients infected with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) who were at high risk for developing renal failure, venous blood clots, and other complications associated with blood clots, such as stroke.
Leesburg, VA, May 15, 2020--In an open-access article published ahead-of-print by the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), a team of Chinese radiologists discussed modifications to the CT examination process and strict disinfection of examination rooms, while outlining personal protection measures for radiographers during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.
Salt Lake County, Utah’s air pollution varies over the year, and at times it is the worst in the United States. The geography traps winter inversions and summertime smog throughout the Salt Lake Valley, but underserved neighborhoods—and their schools—experience the highest concentrations. Previous research has shown pollution disparities using annual averages of PM 2.5 levels, the tiny breathable particles that can damage lungs just hours after exposure.
The anti-inflammatory drug hydroxychloroquine does not significantly reduce admission to intensive care or death in patients hospitalised with pneumonia due to covid-19, finds a study from France published by The BMJ today.
A randomised clinical trial from China also published today shows that hospitalised patients with mild to moderate persistent covid-19 who received hydroxychloroquine did not clear the virus more quickly than those receiving standard care. Adverse events were higher in those who received hydroxychloroquine.
Official covid-19 death counts are likely to be a "substantial underestimation" of the actual number of deaths from the disease, at least for some Italian regions, concludes a study published by The BMJ today.
The findings, from an Italian city severely affected by the covid-19 pandemic, show that more residents died in March 2020 than in the entire previous year or in any single year since 2012, but that only about half of the deaths occurring during the recent outbreak were reported as confirmed covid-19 deaths.
Disadvantaged and marginalised people face worsening health inequalities as a result of the difficult choices made by NHS hospitals in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Public health doctors, writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, say that the restriction of non-urgent clinical services, such as gynaecology, sexual health and paediatrics, and the precipitous decline in emergency department attendances, will affect marginalised groups, disproportionately.
ITHACA, N.Y. - A new Cornell University study on bees, plants and landscapes in upstate New York sheds light on how bee pathogens spread, offering possible clues for what farmers could do to improve bee health.
Scientists at the Stem Cell Research program at Boston Children's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School have devised a mouse model that lets researchers track every cell in the body, from the embryonic stage until adulthood. Using a "barcoding" technique and CRISPR gene editing technology, the model can identify different cell types as they emerge and what genes each is turning on.
HOUSTON - (May 14, 2020) - A sandwich of molybdenum, sulfur and selenium turns out to be deliciously useful for detecting biomolecules.
Tests at Rice University's Brown School of Engineering of a two-dimensional Janus compound showed it could be an effective and universal platform for improving the detection of biomolecules via surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).
Below please find a summary and link(s) of new coronavirus-related content published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The summary below is not intended to substitute for the full article as a source of information. A collection of coronavirus-related content is free to the public at http://go.annals.org/coronavirus.
1. Key Considerations for Effective Serious Illness Communication Over Video or Telephone During the COVID-19 Pandemic
In a small pool nestled between two waterfalls in Hidalgo, Mexico, lives a population of hybrid fish - the result of many generations of interbreeding between highland and sheepshead swordtails. The lab of Molly Schumer, assistant professor of biology at Stanford University, has been collecting these fish for years to study the evolution of hybrids.