Earth
In the first study to comprehensively track how different types of brain cells respond to the mutation that causes Huntington's disease (HD), MIT neuroscientists found that a significant cause of death for an especially afflicted kind of neuron may be an immune response to genetic material errantly released by mitochondria, the cellular components that provide cells with energy.
NEW YORK, July 17, 2020 -- In a breakthrough for physics and engineering, researchers from the Photonics Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center at The Graduate Center, CUNY (CUNY ASRC) and from Georgia Tech have presented the first demonstration of topological order based on time modulations. This advancement allows the researchers to propagate sound waves along the boundaries of topological metamaterials without the risk of waves traveling backwards or being thwarted by material defects.
A detailed study of a SARS-Cov-2 protein, Nsp1, with a central role in weakening the host anti-viral immune response shows that it effectively shuts down production ofproteins in the host. Although SARS-Cov-2 features additional inhibitors of host innate immune defenses, targeting the interaction of this protein, Nsp1, with the host may be an important therapeutic strategy, the authors say. A major virulence factor of SARS-CoVs, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the current COVID-19 pandemic, is the protein Nsp1.
Two-dimensional (2D) organic-inorganic halide perovskites are emerging materials for photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications due to their unique physical properties and a high degree of tunability. Despite impressive advances, challenges remain, including unsatisfactory performance and a vague understanding of their structure-property relationships. Addressing these challenges requires more suitable material systems and advanced in situ characterization methods.
In low precipitation periods - where and how is the limited available water distributed and what possibilities are there for improving retention in the soil and the landscape? Doerthe Tetzlaff and her team from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) have discovered that vegetation has a major influence on this. The researchers are investigating the storage, distribution and quality of water in the landscape.
Project lead Ayrat Dimiev has been working on this topic since 2012, when he was a part of Professor James Tour's group at Rice University. First results saw light in 2014. That paper, which has amassed 490 citations at this moment, dealt with the mechanism of turning graphite into graphene oxide (GO). Dr. Dimiev later transferred to the private sector and resumed his inquiries in 2017, after returning to Kazan Federal University and opening the Advanced Carbon Nanomaterials Lab. The experimental part of this new publication was conducted by Dr. Ksenia Shukhina and Dr. Artur Khannanov.
Covid-19 and the associated global economic, health and societal distortions have shed light on the alarming threat of infectious diseases emerging at an increasing rate. Around 60 percent of emergent infectious diseases are zoonotic, originating in animals; among the most prominent are Sars, Mers, Ebola, HIV and Covid-19. More than two-thirds of those originate in wild species. Many voices have called for higher restrictions or even a blanket ban on the wildlife trade. This demand is also fuelled by the devastating effects of unsustainable hunting that threatens hundreds of species.
Antarctica is considered one of the Earth's largest, most pristine remaining wildernesses. Yet since its formal discovery 200 years ago, the continent has seen accelerating and potentially impactful human activity.
How widespread this activity is across the continent has never been quantified. We know Antarctica has no cities, agriculture or industry. But we have never had a good idea of where humans have been, how much of the continent remains untouched or largely unimpacted, and to what extent these largely unimpacted areas serve to protect biodiversity.
Beijing, 10 July 2020: the journal Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) has just published a new issue, Volume 4 Issue 4.
This issue brings together important research papers from leading cardiologists in US, China, and Africa, including very important new research on identification of Novel TTN Mutations and discovery of digenic mutation.
Papers in the issue are as follows:
RESEARCH PAPERS
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State University researchers have made a key advance in understanding how timing impacts the way microorganisms colonize plants, a step that could provide farmers an important tool to boost agricultural production.
The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, will help scientists better understand the plant microbiome, which consists of hundreds of thousands of microorganisms that live in and on plants and contribute to their health and productivity.
DURHAM, N.C. -- If there were a stagehand of the sea, wearing black to disappear into the darkness backstage, it might be the dragonfish. Or the common fangtooth.
These fish live in the ocean's inky depths where there is nowhere to take cover. Even beyond the reach of sunlight, they can still be caught in the glow of bioluminescent organisms that illuminate the water to hunt. So they evade detection with a trick of their own: stealth wear.
New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]) reveals that too much or too little sleep in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) is linked to sharply increased death rates, with the effect much larger than that found in the non-diabetic population.
(Washington, DC) 16 July 2020--Following reports that Brazil's current deforestation rate--1 million hectares--is the highest in a decade, a peer-reviewed study published in Science today finds that 18-22%, and possibly more, of Brazil's annual exports to the European Union are potentially contaminated with illegal deforestation, while identifying for the first time the specific producers of soy in Brazil responsible for "poisoning the barrel." Unveiling these "bad apples" among soy and beef producers, but also revealing that a vast majority--some 80% of the country's farmers--abid
Researchers affiliated with The University of Texas at Austin have developed a strategy that more accurately predicts seasonal rainfall over the Asian monsoon region and could provide tangible improvements to water resource management on the Indian subcontinent, impacting more than one fifth of the world's population.
Scientists discovered a compound in the leaves of a common shrub, the American beautyberry, that boosts an antibiotic's activity against antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria. Laboratory experiments showed that the plant compound works in combination with oxacillin to knock down the resistance to the drug of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
The American Chemical Society's Infectious Diseases published the finding, led by scientists at Emory University and the University of Notre Dame.