Daryl Shane De Mesa

Pupil size shows reliability of decisions

The precision with which people make decisions can be predicted by measuring pupil size before they are presented with any information about the decision, according to a new study published in PLOS Computational Biology this week.

World breakthrough: A new molecule allows for an increase in stem cell transplants

Investigators from the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) at the Université de Montréal have just published, in the prestigious magazine Science, the announcement of the discovery of a new molecule, the first of its kind, which allows for the multiplication of stem cells in a unit of cord blood. Umbilical cord stem cells are used for transplants aimed at curing a number of blood-related diseases, including leukemia, myeloma and lymphoma. For many patients this therapy comprises a treatment of last resort.

Don’t Believe In Climate Change? NOAA Says 2014 Brought Hottest Summer To Date

While talk of the United Nation’s Climate Change Summit, being held this Tuesday Sept. 23 in New York City, is spreading across social media, the skeptics appear in large numbers. Though Southern Californians may have changed their minds with the recent heat waves in the 100’s, many individuals are on the fence regarding conflicting reports of the greenhouse gas effect and climate change due to fossil fuel emissions. Looking to the unusual heat and searching for evidence of a changing global climate, researchers and politicians have turned to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for answers.

While Antarctica’s Seas Cool Down, The Arctic Ice Dwindles

In a chilling third year of unprecedented polar conditions, Antarctica’s sea ice levels are expected to reach new records this month as cold airs and unabating winds have frozen ocean water into more than 7.6 million square miles of Antarctic sea ice this southern winter, according to a new report from the Antarctic National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). But while sea ice levels rise in the south, the northern summer has proven a warm one, with record-breaking sea ice loss in the Arctic at the other end of the spectrum.

UN Climate Summit 2014—What You Need to Know About the Events

As more than 120 world leaders and thousands of environmentalists descend on the Big Apple next week, New York will become the epicenter for the discussion on climate change, which will be spearheaded by the United Nations (UN). In collaboration with several environmental groups, international leaders and celebrities from the world over, the United Nations will be hosts to several events that will surround the annual ministerial meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. Here’s what you need to know!

A better way to track emerging cell therapies using MRIs

Cellular therapeutics – using intact cells to treat and cure disease – is a hugely promising new approach in medicine but it is hindered by the inability of doctors and scientists to effectively track the movements, destination and persistence of these cells in patients without resorting to invasive procedures, like tissue sampling.

Neurons express 'gloss' using three perceptual parameters

Japanese researchers showed monkeys a number of images representing various glosses and then they measured the responses of 39 neurons by using microelectrodes. They found that a specific population of neurons changed the intensities of the responses linearly according to either the contrast-of-highlight, sharpness-of-highlight, or brightness of the object. This shows that these 3 perceptual parameters are used as parameters when the brain recognizes a variety of glosses. They also found that different parameters are represented by different populations of neurons. This was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (September 4, 2014 issue).

A refined approach to proteins at low resolution

Membrane proteins and large protein complexes are notoriously difficult to study with X-ray crystallography, not least because they are often very difficult, if not impossible, to crystallize, but also because their very nature means they are highly flexible. The result is that when a structure can be obtained it is often of low resolution, ambiguous and reveals a mosaic-like spread of protein domains that sometimes create more puzzles than they solve. [Schröder, Levitt & Brunger. (2014), Acta Cryst. D70, 2241-2255; doi: 10.1107/S1399004714016496 ]
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