Posts

PhD candidate Chris MacColl from The University of Queensland’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences led the research project that made the discovery and was shocked by the hawk’s dwindling numbers. “Over four decades the red goshawk has lost a third of its historical range, which is the area that it’s previously been known to occupy,” Mr. MacColl said. “It’s barely hanging on in another 30 percent of regions it has previously been known to inhabit....

The presence of special immune system defense molecules, called autoimmune antibodies, has been strongly tied to how poorly people fare when hospitalized with COVID-19, a new study shows. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study detected the autoimmune antibodies in the blood of more than a third of men and women on admission to hospital and confirmed to have the disease. Among the new study findings is that a subset of these autoimmune antibodies that bind to DNA or to a particular type of fat molecule, a lipid called phosphatidylserine, were more often twice as abundant at the start of coronavirus infection in those whose conditions worsened quickly than in those whose health did not decline....

Bumblebees learn to solve a puzzle by watching more experienced bees, and this behavioral preference then spreads through the colony, according to a study published on March 7th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Alice Dorothy Bridges and colleagues at Queen Mary University of London, UK. Social animals like primates are skilled at learning by watching others, and previous work has shown that individual bees can learn tasks in this way, but it remained unclear whether these new behaviors would then spread through the colony....

“Patients normally receive imaging, such as MRI or CT scans, to diagnose and track the progression of brain tumors, but it can be difficult for physicians to tell from those scans if the patient is getting better or worse because they don’t provide detail at the cellular or molecular level,” said Vladimir Khristov, graduate and medical student, Penn State. “That is why we need a supplemental diagnostic test to help physicians determine if the tumors are responding to therapy and regressing, or if they are getting worse and need additional treatment....

Multiple NASA telescopes recently observed a massive black hole tearing apart an unlucky star that wandered too close. Located about 250 million light-years from Earth in the center of another galaxy, it was the fifth-closest example of a black hole destroying a star ever observed. Once the star had been thoroughly ruptured by the black hole’s gravity, astronomers saw a dramatic rise in high-energy X-ray light around the black hole....

The Penn State College of Medicine researchers suggest that astrocytes (large star-shaped cells in the brain that regulate many different functions of neurons in the brain) regulate short-term calorie intake. These cells control the signaling pathway between the brain and the gut. Continuously eating a high-fat/calorie diet seems to disrupt this signaling pathway. Understanding the brain’s role and the complex mechanisms that lead to overeating, a behavior that can lead to weight gain and obesity, could help develop therapies to treat it....

At 11:00 am ET today (November 2, 2021), the results will be released for research that analyzed the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for preventing COVID-19. The study will be published in JAMA Network Open, a monthly open access medical journal published by the American Medical Association. What The Study Did: The findings of this study, which included 8,889 patients who received a single dose of the Ad26....

They published their results on February 8, 2021, in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. “The supercapacitor is a very powerful, energy-dense device with a fast-charging rate, in contrast to the typical battery — but can we make it more powerful, faster and with a really high retention cycle?” asked Jia Zhu, corresponding author and doctoral student conducting research in the laboratory of Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Professor in Penn State’s Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics....

This view looks toward the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Enceladus, which is dimly illuminated in the image above by sunlight reflected off Saturn. North on Enceladus is up and rotated 14 degrees to the left. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on December 26, 2016. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 104,000 miles (168,000 kilometers) from Enceladus. Image scale is 3,303 feet (1 kilometer) per pixel....

This celebration provides special opportunities to observe celestial bodies, learn about lunar science and exploration, and honor cultural and personal connections to the Moon. How to participate: Host an event in your community; participate in an event; or observe with your family, friends, or on your own. Events can be in-person, virtual, or hybrid.Register your participation to add yourself to the map of lunar observers worldwide.Connect with lunar enthusiasts around the world and share your Moon viewing experience on social media, tagging #ObserveTheMoon....

A black hole is an extremely dense object from which no light can escape. Anything that comes within a black hole’s “event horizon,” its point of no return, will be consumed, never to re-emerge, because of the black hole’s unimaginably strong gravity. By its very nature, a black hole cannot be seen, but the hot disk of material that encircles it shines bright. Against a bright backdrop, such as this disk, a black hole appears to cast a shadow....

Intensivists caution against the use of premature novel therapies in lieu of traditional critical care principles in patients with COVID-19 in a recent correspondence letter in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology. In “A Call for Rational Intensive Care in the Era of COVID-19”, Benjamin Singer, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and co-authors write that “the intensive care unit is already optimized for the care of COVID-19 patients and that departures from standard of care require evidence…” The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented, resulting in a surge of critically ill patients that have tested the resources of medical centers around the country....

In a new article published in the journal One Earth, scientists from the University of Helsinki in Finland and Flinders University in Australia have reviewed more than 1,000 studies on recreational hunting — the first such attempt to summarize the scientific literature examining the biodiversity and social effects of recreational hunting globally. Co-lead author University of Helsinki Associate Professor Enrico Di Minin says while it might seem counterintuitive, there is evidence to suggest some recreational hunting can deliver environmental and social benefits....

When entrances to caves and mines — essential roosting places for bats — are blocked to prevent people from going inside, the gates often include a pipe to allow bats to access their roosts. However, many of the pipes have been constructed with corrugated rings for added strength. Through field observations, biologist Patricia E. Brown discovered that some bat species will abandon roosts with entrances constructed with these corrugated rings....

COVID-19 may have spread faster in US because first symptom was cough. Study by USC researchers finds that order of symptoms in first wave of COVID-19 varied among virus strains. The strain of COVID-19 virus that was circulating in the United States and Europe during the first wave of the pandemic may have been particularly infectious because the most common first symptom was likely a cough, according to a study led by researchers from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Science....

Researchers from the University of Padua and Imperial College London tested more than 85 percent of the 3,000 residents of Vo’, Italy, in February/March 2020 for infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and tested them again in May and November 2020 for antibodies against the virus. The team found that 98.8 percent of people infected in February/March showed detectable levels of antibodies in November, and there was no difference between people who had suffered symptoms of COVID-19 and those that had been symptom-free....

Blood clots are thought to occur in as many as a third of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. In many cases, these clots can be deadly, such as pulmonary embolisms—blood clots that travel to the lungs. In fact, in nearly one-third of patients with COVID-19, these clots led to death. An abnormal immune response is thought to be the primary driver of severe COVID-19. One protein, called soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor, or suPAR, circulates in the blood and originates from immune cells....

Study draws attention to potential physical and mental side effects of vaccination in people with diverse gender identities. Many people who do not usually menstruate reported experiencing breakthrough bleeding or other period symptoms after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, according to new findings from an online survey by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis. The study is the first to examine vaccine-associated breakthrough bleeding in people who take testosterone or other hormones that suppress menstruation....

“The vast majority of T cell responses are still effective against Omicron,” says LJI Professor and study co-leader Alessandro Sette, Dr. Biol.Sci. “These cells won’t stop you from getting infected, but in many cases they are likely to keep you from getting very ill,” adds LJI Professor Shane Crotty, Ph.D. “And this is true in all the type of vaccines we studied—and up to six months after vaccination,” says LJI Instructor Alba Grifoni, Ph....

Pakistan is one of three countries where the transmission of the virus has never been interrupted. At the beginning of this year, seven additional health workers were killed and the vaccination program was just relaunched on this past Tuesday. There are signs that this campaign, which depends on the efforts of volunteers and low-paid health workers who work in solo or small teams, is faltering as the health workers are staying home....