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    Mantis Shrimp-inspired Camera enables Glimpse into Hidden World

    October 15, 2017, Categories  Physics, Biology/Biotechnology, Environment/Geology

    Mantis Shrimp-inspired Camera enables Glimpse into Hidden World

    Mantis Shrimp-inspired Camera enables Glimpse into Hidden World

    By mimicking the eye of the mantis shrimp, Illinois researchers have developed an ultra-sensitive camera capable of sensing both color and polarization. The bioinspired imager can potentially improve early cancer detection and help provide a new understanding of underwater phenomena. “The animal kingdom is full of creatures with much more sensitive and sophisticated eyes than our own,” said Viktor Gruev , a University of Illinois professor of electrical and computer engineering and co-author of the new study. “These animals perceive natural phenomena that are invisible to humans.

    “Polarization of light – that is, the direction of oscillation of light as it propagates in space – is one such example...

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    Solar research: NASA Sounding Rocket Instrument spots signatures of long-sought small Solar Flares

    October 15, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The NASA-funded FOXSI instrument captured new evidence of small solar flares, called nanoflares, during its December 2014 flight on a suborbital sounding rocket. Nanoflares could help explain why the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, is so much hotter than the surface. Here, FOXSI's observations of hard X-rays are shown in blue, superimposed over a soft X-ray image of the Sun from JAXA and NASA's Hinode solar-observing satellite. Credit: JAXA/NASA/Hinode/FOXSI

    The NASA-funded FOXSI instrument captured new evidence of small solar flares, called nanoflares, during its December 2014 flight on a suborbital sounding rocket. Nanoflares could help explain why the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, is so much hotter than the surface. Here, FOXSI’s observations of hard X-rays are shown in blue, superimposed over a soft X-ray image of the Sun from JAXA and NASA’s Hinode solar-observing satellite. Credit: JAXA/NASA/Hinode/FOXSI

    Like most solar sounding rockets, the second flight of the FOXSI instrument – short for Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager – lasted 15 minutes, with just 6 minutes of data collection...

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    Learning and Staying in Shape key to Longer Lifespan, study finds

    October 14, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Age-specific and sex-specific effects of the 4 GWS associations in LifeGen and the validated candidate loci. The four GWS and three suggestive replicated loci were analysed for age-specific and sex-specific effects on lifespan. a The variants at APOE and CHRNA3/5 exhibit sexually dimorphic effects on parental mortality, while all other variants exhibit more modest often non-significant sex-specific differences. b The effects of each gene on male and female lifespan were meta-analysed and studied in the cases that died aged between 40 and 75 or after 75. APOE exerts a much greater effect in the older age group, while most of the other genes exhibit the opposite effect. FOXO3 appears neutral, if not positive, in the earlier age group. c Effects on mortality were studied in both age groups for both sexes. APOE has the strongest effect on females aged 75+, CHRNA3/5 acts on males aged 40−75 and all other genes display more ambiguous trends

    Age-specific and sex-specific effects of the 4 GWS associations in LifeGen and the validated candidate loci. The four GWS and three suggestive replicated loci were analysed for age-specific and sex-specific effects on lifespan. a The variants at APOE and CHRNA3/5 exhibit sexually dimorphic effects on parental mortality, while all other variants exhibit more modest often non-significant sex-specific differences. b The effects of each gene on male and female lifespan were meta-analysed and studied in the cases that died aged between 40 and 75 or after 75. APOE exerts a much greater effect in the older age group, while most of the other genes exhibit the opposite effect. FOXO3 appears neutral, if not positive, in the earlier age group...

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    KLF-mediated lifespan extension is dependent on autophagy. Klf-3 transcript levels in wild-type animals subjected to 2 days of chronic dietary restriction (sDR, OP50 diluted to 108 cfu/ml) (a) or inhibition of TOR signaling by RNAi against let-363 (b) starting from day 1 of adulthood. All lines were raised and maintained at 20 °C. *P-value < 0.05 by Student’s T-test, N = 3 biological replicates. c qPCR analysis of a panel of autophagy-related genes in day 1 klf-3 o/e and loss of function of both klf-3 and klf-1 animals compared to wild type. Double loss of function of klf-3 and klf-1 was performed as described previously utilizing the klf-3(ok175) mutant and simultaneous RNAi feeding targeting klf-1. All lines were raised and maintained at 20 °C. *P-value < 0.05 by Student’s T-test, N = 3 biological replicates (d, representative picture). e Autophagy in klf-3 o/e animals as determined by numbers of GFP::LGG-1 punctae in seam cells (red arrow denotes GFP-positive puncta) with knockdown of bec-1 in both wild-type and klf-3 o/e animals. *P-value < 0.05, # P-value ≤ 0.1 after one-way analysis of variance followed by the Tukey’s post hoc test. N = 10–20 animals counted. (f, wild-type representative image, g, klf-3 o/e representative image) Electron microscopy images of klf-3 o/e and wild-type animals in animals aged 9 days. Arrowheads indicate sizeable (≥500 nm) autolysosomes as recognized by single-membrane limited vacuolar structures with visible mixed cytoplasmic contents. Full images reproduced in Supplementary Fig. 11, with additional images. h Lifespan analysis of wild-type and klf-3 o/e animals fed RNAi bacteria targeting bec-1 from day 1 of adulthood. All lines were raised and maintained at 20 °C. P-value < 0.05 by Mantel–Cox log-rank tests. See also Supplementary Table 6 for details of lifespan analyses and replicate experiments. All error bars represent standard error of the mean (SEM)

    KLF-mediated lifespan extension is dependent on autophagy. Klf-3 transcript levels in wild-type animals subjected to 2 days of chronic dietary restriction (sDR, OP50 diluted to 108 cfu/ml) (a) or inhibition of TOR signaling by RNAi against let-363 (b) starting from day 1 of adulthood. All lines were raised and maintained at 20 °C. *P-value < 0.05 by Student’s T-test, N = 3 biological replicates. c qPCR analysis of a panel of autophagy-related genes in day 1 klf-3 o/e and loss of function of both klf-3 and klf-1 animals compared to wild type. Double loss of function of klf-3 and klf-1 was performed as described previously utilizing the klf-3(ok175) mutant and simultaneous RNAi feeding targeting klf-1. All lines were raised and maintained at 20 °C. *P-value < 0...

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