Settembre 2017
Sabato, 30 Settembre 2017 16:45

New study changes our view on flying insects

 Manduca sexta (Photo: Anders Hedenström)

For the first time, researchers are able to prove that there is an optimal speed for certain insects when they fly. At this speed, they are the most efficient and consume the least amount of energy. Corresponding phenomena have previously been demonstrated in birds, but never among insects. Previous studies of bumblebees have shown that they consume as much energy in forward flight as when they hover, i.e. remain still in the air. New findings from Lund University in Sweden show that this does not apply to all insects. Biologist Kajsa Warfvinge, together with her colleagues at Lund University, has studied the large moths known as tobacco hawkmoths or Manduca sexta. The results show that these moths, like birds, consume different amounts of energy depending on their flight speed. Flying really slowly or really fast requires the most effort. The discovery may help other researchers who study how insects migrate from one environment to another.

Pubblicato in Scienceonline

 

 

Modern neuroscience has long been smitten by the idea of identifying how the brain and its complex array of nerve cells bring about social behaviour.

There are several levels of social behaviour but perhaps the most primitive are those that make parents act to ensure the well-being of their off spring. Indeed maternal instincts (sorry Dads) are recognised as among the most potent of behavioural drives. Now, researchers at the University of Southampton together with colleagues at the National Infection Service, Porton Down and KU Leuven in Belgium, have recognised that the simple worm - C.elegans (approximately 1mm in length) - may actually harbour an ancient form of parental behaviour designed to benefit their offspring. Professor Vincent O’Connor, who jointly led the work with Lindy Holden-Dye and Mathew Wand, described how the colleagues reached their conclusions about the ‘caring’ behaviour exhibited by the worms. “The worms lead a simple life in which they feed off the bacteria that exist in the fermenting environments they live in,” explains Professor O’Connor. “They perpetuate generations using a life cycle in which adult worms self-fertilize and lay their off spring into the bacteria. This immediately sets up a conundrum, as the parent will be competing for the same food source as their off spring.

Pubblicato in Scienceonline
Mercoledì, 27 Settembre 2017 09:49

Prevenire il tumore con l’aiuto di una App

Si chiama “A third less” e fornisce indicazioni sull’alimentazione da seguire e sull’attività fisica da svolgere attraverso contenuti multimediali. È stata realizzata da un team coordinato dall’Istituto di Neuroscienze del Cnr, con il supporto dell’Università di Padova e dell’Istituto Oncologico Veneto e sponsorizzato da Takeda

 

Avere a disposizione sul proprio cellulare indicazioni utili a prevenire il tumore. È possibile grazie a “A third less”, la App multipiattaforma (Ios, Android, Windows Phone) attiva e scaricabile gratuitamente. A realizzarla il Consorzio di ricerca Luigi Amaducci, tramite un team coordinato dall’Istituto di neuroscienze del Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche (In-Cnr) e composto anche da Università di Padova (Dipartimento di Neuroscienze; Unità operativa di riabilitazione ortopedica), Istituto Oncologico Veneto e azienda Openview, con la sponsorizzazione di Takeda.

“L’applicazione offre un aiuto nella riduzione del rischio di ammalarsi, fornendo indicazioni sull’alimentazione da seguire, sull’attività fisica da praticare e aiutando a mantenere il peso forma. Ogni utente ha un suo avatar che deve trasformare in un ‘supereroe’ della salute, inserendo nella App informazioni circa i cibi che assume e lo sport che pratica”, spiega Stefania Maggi dell’In-Cnr, coordinatrice del board del progetto insieme a Gaetano Crepaldi e a Marianna Noale. Secondo l’analisi condotta dal World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research circa un terzo delle più comuni forme di tumore potrebbe essere evitato attraverso uno stile di vita sano, con vantaggi anche per la prevenzione di altre malattie, prime tra tutte quelle cardiovascolari. Da qui, il nome dell’app ‘A third less’. “Le scelte nutrizionali possono influenzare la formazione del cancro a diversi livelli, ad esempio interferendo nella proliferazione, differenziazione e morte delle cellule, nell’espressione degli oncogeni e degli oncosoppressori. Anche una regolare attività fisica sembra associata a un ridotto rischio di tumori del colon e della mammella e a una diminuzione del rischio per prostata, polmone e utero”, prosegue Maggi.

Pubblicato in Medicina

 

 

Researchers evaluate the effects on the medical students who took part in the study

CANCER is on the rise and the need to be empathetic when giving a patient their diagnosis and throughout treatment is imperative.  Now, a collaborative study, with a Huddersfield professor, has enabled future doctors to experience some of the challenges patients living with skin cancer can face to develop a greater empathy for their patients. Professor Nigel King is an Associate Dean of Research within the School of Human and Health Sciences and together with experts from Queen’s University Belfast and University College Dublin, a study has been published in the British Journal of Dermatology that explores how temporary skin tattoos might influence a medical student’s personal understanding of a malignant melanoma diagnosis. Melanoma or skin cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the UK claiming over 2,500 lives every year.  Over 15,000 patients will be diagnosed with melanoma cancer every year, a diagnosis that can be daunting for a patients and their loved ones.

Pubblicato in Scienceonline
Mercoledì, 27 Settembre 2017 08:36

The 3D selfie has arrived

 

 

Computer scientists at the University of Nottingham and Kingston University have solved a complex problem that has, until now, defeated experts in vision and graphics research. They have developed technology capable of producing 3D facial reconstruction from a single 2D image - the 3D selfie. Their new web app allows people to upload a single colour image and receive, in a few seconds, a 3D model showing the shape of their face. People are queuing up to try it and so far, more than 400,000 users have had a go. You can do it yourself by taking a selfie and uploading it to their website. The research – ‘Large Pose 3D Face Reconstruction from a Single Image via Direct Volumetric CNN Regression’ – was led by PhD student Aaron Jackson  and carried out with fellow PhD student Adrian Bulat both based in the Computer Vision Laboratory in the School of Computer Science. Both students are supervised by Georgios (Yorgos) Tzimiropoulos, Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science. The work was done in collaboration with  Dr Vasileios Argyriou from the School of Computer Science and Mathematics at Kingston University.  

Pubblicato in Scienceonline

 

 

Lo studio mostra come l'eventuale rilevazione degli echi gravitazionali possa fornire nuovi indizi sulla teoria della gravità di Einstein

Nello studio appena pubblicato sulla rivista “Nature Astronomy” i ricercatori Paolo Pani del dipartimento di Fisica della Sapienza e Vitor Cardoso dell'Instituto Superior Técnico di Lisbona discutono di come, alla luce di nuovi modelli teorici, l'astronomia gravitazionale possa fornire informazioni sulla natura dei cosiddetti “oggetti compatti”, termine col quale in astrofisica vengono indicate grandi masse concentrate in dimensioni molto ridotte, come i buchi neri. Le onde gravitazionali contengono informazioni sulla natura degli oggetti compatti, proprio come le onde sonore prodotte da uno strumento musicale dipendono dalle proprietà di quest'ultimo: forma, dimensione, materiale. La loro rilevazione, meno di due anni fa, ha rappresentato una importantissima conferma della teoria di Einstein e ha aperto la strada a un nuovo capitolo della fisica. Secondo la teoria della relatività generale di Einstein, una stella massiccia alla fine del suo ciclo di vita collassa sotto il suo stesso peso e forma un "buco nero", un oggetto che distorce lo spazio-tempo in maniera così drastica che nemmeno la luce è in grado di uscire dal suo "orizzonte degli eventi", cioè la regione oltre la quale non è più possibile osservare un fenomeno. Nuovi modelli teorici suggeriscono che l’eventuale presenza di “echi gravitazionali”, se rilevati dagli interferometri LIGO e Virgo, potrebbe indicare che i buchi neri non sono come fino a oggi ipotizzato: vari modelli di gravità quantistica prevedono che l'orizzonte degli eventi non si formi e che il collasso gravitazionale termini con la formazione di un oggetto esotico compatto e non un vero e proprio buco nero. 

Pubblicato in Astrofisica

 

 

Certain marine species will fare much worse than others as they become more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, a new UBC study has found. After analyzing the biological characteristics of 1,074 marine fish and shellfish, the study identified 294 species that are most at-risk due to climate change by 2050. Species most at-risk include the Eastern Australian salmon, yellowbar angelfish, toli shad, sohal surgeonfish and spotted grouper. “We hope that this study will highlight the marine species that are most in need of management and conservation actions under climate change,” said William Cheung, associate professor in the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and director of science for the Nippon Foundation – UBC Nereus Program.

Pubblicato in Scienceonline

 

 

Novel five-year study highlights importance of behaviors such as coffee drinking and not smoking on health and survival of HIV-infected patients, report investigators in the Journal of Hepatology. Patients infected by both human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are at specific risk of end-stage liver disease and greater risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. In addition, HIV infection accelerates the progression of chronic hepatitis C to fibrosis and development of cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease. In these HIV-HCV co-infected patients, drinking at least three cups of coffee each day halved the risk of all-cause mortality according to a new study published in the Journal of Hepatology. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between coffee consumption and the risk of all-cause mortality in HIV-HCV co-infected patients. “This is a very exciting time for HCV research as a cure that can eradicate the virus is now available for all patients,” explained lead investigator Dominique Salmon-Céron, MD, PhD, of the Service des Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales, Hôpital Cochin, and Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France. “However, even when cured of HCV, patients co-infected with HIV have a higher risk of death with respect to the general population, due to an accelerated aging process that may result from cancer, complications related to diabetes and to liver disease, and from cardiovascular events.”

Pubblicato in Scienceonline

 

 

A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that plastic particles in water may end up inside fish brains. The plastic can cause brain damage, which is the likely cause of behavioural disorders observed in the fish. Calculations have shown that 10 per cent of all plastic produced around the world ultimately ends up in the oceans. As a result, a large majority of global marine debris is in fact plastic waste. Human production of plastics is a well-known environmental concern, but few studies have studied the effects of tiny plastic particles, known as nanoplastic particles. “Our study is the first to show that nanosized plastic particles can accumulate in fish brains”, says Tommy Cedervall, a chemistry researcher at Lund University. The Lund University researchers studied how nanoplastics may be transported through different organisms in the aquatic ecosystem, i.e. via algae and animal plankton to larger fish. Tiny plastic particles in the water are eaten by animal plankton, which in turn are eaten by fish.

Pubblicato in Scienceonline

 

For the first time in the world, the new radiofrequency ablation technique has been successfully used in severe cases

 

Chronic throat irritation, a permanent globus sensation, a sore or dry sensation in the throat are common symptoms, which are often trivialised and wrongly attributed to gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. However, these are also the characteristic symptoms of patients suffering from displaced gastric mucosa in the oesophagus (ectopic mucosa). The recent study conducted by researchers from MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital has now brought a break-through in the treatment of patients with this condition. For the first time in the world, the new radiofrequency ablation technique has been successfully used in severe cases.

The symptoms are caused by a section of misplaced gastric mucosa, which is found in the oesophagus rather than as normal in the stomach during gastroscopy in nearly 10 – 15% of people and this results in chronic damage to the larynx due to the production of acid and mucous. Up until now there has been no safe and effective option for treating pronounced forms of this condition. The first application of radiofrequency ablation brings about a significant improvement in the condition. The study has now been published in the leading journal "Digestive Endoscopy".

Pubblicato in Scienceonline
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