Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Neutrophils, one of the immune system warriors that were thought to be all the same, turn out to be diverse. Unfortunately, these cells are also active in autoimmune diseases. New research has found that a certain subpopulation of these white blood cells can predict disease relapse at an early stage, which may enable improved personalized treatment.

In a study published in Nature Communications, a multi-institutional research team investigated which cell types dominate the blood of patients at the early stage of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis, which is caused by inflammation in the blood vessels and can disrupt organ function.

“Figuring out the mechanism of this disease, which is poorly understood, will help us understand autoimmune dysregulation in neutrophils. This could aid in the development of new drugs tailored for each patient,” says the lead author of the study. “Because we want to understand the dynamics of neutrophil behavior at the cell level in the early stages of the disease, for this study we recruited new patients that had not yet been treated.”

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Is the nearest galaxy to ours being torn apart? Research suggests so. A team led by Satoya Nakano and Kengo Tachihara at Nagoya University in Japan has revealed new insights into the motion of massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a small galaxy neighboring the Milky Way. Their findings suggest that the gravitational pull of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the SMC’s larger companion, may be tearing the smaller one apart. This discovery reveals a new pattern in the motion of these stars that could transform our understanding of galaxy evolution and interactions. The results were published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

“When we first got this result, we suspected that there might be an error in our method of analysis,” Tachihara said. “However, upon closer examination, the results are indisputable, and we were surprised.”

The SMC remains one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way. This proximity allowed the research team to identify and track approximately 7,000 massive stars within the galaxy. These stars, which are over eight times the mass of our Sun, typically survive for only a few million years before exploding as supernovae. Their presence indicates regions rich in hydrogen gas, a crucial component of star formation.

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Urea, with the formula CO(NH2)2, is a chemical compound that is widely used in a range of sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture and various industries. Conventionally, this compound is produced via a two-step process that entails the synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen (N₂) and its subsequent reaction with carbon dioxide (CO₂).

This reaction occurs at and under , leading to the formation of a compound called ammonium carbamate. This compound is then decomposed at lower pressures, which ultimately produces and water.

Traditional processes for producing urea are very energy intensive, meaning that to produce desired amounts of urea they consume a lot of electrical power. Over the past few years, some engineers have thus been trying to devise more energy-efficient strategies to synthesize urea.

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IN A NUTSHELL 🌍 The Three Gorges Dam in China is the largest hydroelectric dam globally, symbolizing China’s engineering prowess. 🔍 NASA suggests that the dam’s massive water displacement might influence Earth’s rotation, affecting the planet’s natural balance. 💧 The dam’s reservoir, when full, could lengthen the day by 0.06 microseconds and alter Earth’s shape.

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What if there were a fabric that, like Superman, could take a bullet and self-heal? Such a super-dynamic, action-powered polymer might actually help protect real-life flyers in space.

Material scientists at Texas A&M University have developed just such a polymer with a unique self-healing property never before seen at any scale. When struck by a projectile, this material stretches so much that when the projectile manages to pass through, it takes only a small amount of the polymer with it. As a result, the hole left behind is much smaller than the projectile itself.

However, for now, this effect has only been observed under and at the nanoscale.

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Macrophage adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) limits the development of experimental colitis. AMPK activation inhibits NADPH oxidase (NOX) 2 expression, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion in macrophages during inflammation, while increased NOX2 expression is reported in experimental models of colitis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Although there are reductions in AMPK activity in IBD, it remains unclear whether targeted inhibition of NOX2 in the presence of defective AMPK can reduce the severity of colitis. Here, we investigate whether the inhibition of NOX2 ameliorates colitis in mice independent of AMPK activation. Our study identified that VAS2870 (a pan-Nox inhibitor) alleviated dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis in macrophage-specific AMPKβ1-deficient (AMPKβ1LysM) mice.

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