Earth
Other than a spicy night snack, the crayfish has been endowed with greater significance. Prof. ZHU Xifeng's team from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) made it possible to use crayfish shell as the biological template for high-performance supercapacitors. This work was published in Carbon.
When a person has an infection, the body activates immune responses to fight it. IFNγ is an inflammatory molecule produced by the immune system that helps fight infections. However, long-term exposure to IFNγ has undesirable consequences - it irreversibly exhausts blood stem cells, the progenitors of all blood cells, including immune cells, by triggering their proliferation and excessive terminal differentiation. Lacking immune cells, patients eventually are unable to fight infections.
A research team from the University of Helsinki has discovered a tree hyrax in the Taita Hills, Kenya, which may belong to a species previously unknown to science.
The discovery, which was part of a study of the vocalisations of nocturnal animals in the Taita Hills, was published in mid-December in the scientific journal Discovery.
Protein synthesis is a finely tuned process in the cell by macromolecules known as ribosomes. Which regulators are responsible for controlling protein synthesis in the brain, and how do they exert their control on the ribosome? To address this question, a team of researchers from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin studied the structure of the brain's ribosomal complexes in great detail. The team was able to identify a new factor which is also involved in controlling brain development. Details of this research have been published in Molecular Cell*.
Ann Arbor, December 22, 2020 - There has been continual progress in expanding immunization programs over time, but even before the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of millions of children worldwide were not receiving basic doses of vaccines. New research finds that there continue to be significant disparities in childhood vaccination, and poorer children from under-represented and minority groups in most countries are more likely to be less fully vaccinated with all the recommended immunizations.
The more chaotic things get, the harder it is for people with clinical anxiety and/or depression to make sound decisions and to learn from their mistakes. On a positive note, overly anxious and depressed people's judgment can improve if they focus on what they get right, instead of what they get wrong, suggests a new UC Berkeley study.
The findings, published today, Dec. 22, in the journal eLife, are particularly salient in the face of a COVID-19 surge that demands tactical and agile thinking to avoid illness and even death.
Perhaps that sauteed snapper you enjoyed last evening at your neighborhood restaurant was not snapper at all. Perhaps it was Pacific Ocean perch, cloaked in a wine sauce to disguise its true identity. The same goes for that grouper you paid a handsome price for at your local fishmonger's and cooked up at home. Instead, you may have been feasting on a plateful of whitefin weakfish and been none the wiser.
In a new study, University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Health researchers report that the rate of firearm use by female nurses who die by suicide increased between 2014 to 2017. Published December 21, 2020 in the journal Nursing Forum, the study examined more than 2,000 nurse suicides that occurred in the United States from 2003 to 2017 and found a distinct shift from using pharmacological poisoning to firearms, beginning in 2014.
The cells in our body are in motion. Some migrate from A to B to heal wounds or fight pathogens. They do so with the help of small "feet" at the leading edge of migrating cells, so-called lamellipodia. These thin extensions are pushed forward and bind to the surface while the rest of the cell is pulled along. Inside these feet is a dense network of interwoven protein threads, called actin filaments, which form the cell's cytoskeleton.
Scientists at Trinity College Dublin today announced a significant advance in our understanding of an early onset form of dementia that may also progress our understanding of conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.
CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, has identified coastal 'bright spots' to repair marine ecosystems globally, paving the way to boost biodiversity, local economies and human wellbeing.
Doctor Megan Saunders, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Senior Research Scientist, said successful coastal restoration efforts could be achieved over large areas, deliver positive impacts for decades, expand restored areas by up to 10-times in size, and generate jobs.
Hydrogen is a sustainable source of clean energy that avoids toxic emissions and can add value to multiple sectors in the economy including transportation, power generation, metals manufacturing, among others. Technologies for storing and transporting hydrogen bridge the gap between sustainable energy production and fuel use, and therefore are an essential component of a viable hydrogen economy. But traditional means of storage and transportation are expensive and susceptible to contamination.
Highly complicated processes constantly take place in our body to keep pathogens in check: The T-cells of our immune system are busy searching for antigens - suspicious molecules that fit exactly into certain receptors of the T-cells like a key into a lock. This activates the T-cell and the defense mechanisms of the immune system are set in motion.
A paper on research conducted by Meirielen Caetano de Sousa, postdoctoral fellow at the University of São Paulo's Physics Institute (IF-USP) in Brazil, is highlighted as Editor's Pick in the September issue of Physics of Plasmas, published by the American Institute of Physics with the cooperation of The American Physical Society.
TAMPA, Fla. - Cutaneous T cell lymphomas (CTCLs) are a group of non-Hodgkin lymphomas that develop from T cells and mainly impact the skin with painful lesions. The two main subtypes of CTCL are mycosis fungoides and Sézary syndrome. CTCLs are extremely rare, with approximately six cases per 1 million people each year. It is unclear how CTCL develops, and unfortunately there are limited treatment options and no cure.