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    Under pressure: Extreme Atmosphere Stripping may Limit Exoplanets’ Habitability

    July 3, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Under pressure -- Extreme atmosphere stripping may limit exoplanets' habitability

    Artist’s impression of HD189733b, showing the planet’s atmosphere being stripped by the radiation from its parent star. Credit: Ron Miller

    New models of massive stellar eruptions hint at an extra layer of complexity when considering whether an exoplanet may be habitable or not. Models developed for our own Sun have now been applied to cool stars favoured by exoplanet hunters, in research presented by Dr Christina Kay, of the NASA Goddard Flight Center, on Monday 3rd July at the National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull.

    Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are huge explosions of plasma and magnetic field that routinely erupt from the Sun and other stars...

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    New Faint Dwarf galaxy discovered

    July 3, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A cutout of the map of M81’s stellar halo in resolved RGB stars (Smercina et al. 2017, in preparation). The colors correspond to the metallicity bins defined on the CMD in the top left figure. The known galaxies in the field are labeled. d1005+68 is located at the bottom left of the map, indicated by a black arrow. It appears as a significant overdensity of blue (metal-poor) RGB stars, very near to the dwarf spheroidal, BK5N. Credit: Smercina et al., 2017.

    A cutout of the map of M81’s stellar halo in resolved RGB stars (Smercina et al. 2017, in preparation). The colors correspond to the metallicity bins defined on the CMD in the top left figure. The known galaxies in the field are labeled. d1005+68 is located at the bottom left of the map, indicated by a black arrow. It appears as a significant overdensity of blue (metal-poor) RGB stars, very near to the dwarf spheroidal, BK5N. Credit: Smercina et al., 2017.

    Astronomers have detected a new faint dwarf spheroidal galaxy using Japan’s Subaru Telescope located in Hawaii. The newly found dwarf, designated d1005+68, belongs to a nearby galaxy group known as the M81 Group. Dwarf galaxies are small galaxies composed of about 100 million up to several billion stars...

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    Patients with Multiple Sclerosis may benefit from OTC therapy

    July 2, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Demyelination by MS. The CD68 colored tissue shows several macrophages in the area of the lesion. Original scale 1:100. Credit: Marvin 101/Wikipedia

    Demyelination by MS. The CD68 colored tissue shows several macrophages in the area of the lesion. Original scale 1:100. Credit: Marvin 101/Wikipedia

    Over-the-Counter antioxidant lipoic acid holds promise in improving patients’ lives after an OHSU pilot study. Treatment options currently are limited for people suffering from secondary progressive MS. The randomized double-blind study involved 51 participants who completed the 2-year trial. 27 people were given a 1,200-milogram daily dose of lipoic acid, with the remaining 24 participants given a placebo. Researchers are using the findings from the pilot trial to design the expanded multi-site clinical trial to begin later this year in Portland and other sites that have yet to be finalized.

    “These are high doses,” said Rebecca Spain, M.D...

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    Popular Class of Drugs Reverse potentially Harmful Genetic Changes from Heart Disease

    July 2, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Atenolol reverses heart failure symptoms in TAC mice. (a) Experimental design overview. MEF2-LacZ mice (6–8 weeks old) underwent transverse aortic constriction (TAC) or Sham surgeries, followed by Solvent or Atenolol (50 mg/kg/day) treatment (n = 9). (b) Functional analysis of TAC or Sham mouse hearts after four weeks of Atenolol or Solvent treatment. End systolic diameter (ESD), end diastolic diameter (EDD), ejection fraction (EF), fractional shortening (FS), end systolic volume (ESV), end diastolic volume (EDV), left ventricular mass (LV), and left ventricular posterior wall depth (PWDd) were assessed by ultrasound echocardiography. (n = 9), Data are presented as mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05 **P < 0.01 ***P < 0.001 vs Sham + Sol. (c) WGA stain depicting cardiac hypertrophy. Images are representative of an average of n ≥ 10 images per heart, 4 animals per group. Scale bar: 25 µm. Graph below shows cardiomyocyte size (CM cell size), quantified based on an average of ≥10 cell measurements per mouse (n = 4). (d) Masson’s Trichrome stain depicting fibrosis. Images are representative of n = 10 images per heart, 5 animals per group. Cardiomyocytes appear red, nuclei appear black and collagen appears blue. Scale bar: 100 µm. Graph shows quantified cardiomyocyte fibrosis based on a three representative images per mouse (n = 5). Data are presented as mean ± SEM. **P < 0.01 vs Sham + Sol. #P < 0.05 vs TAC + Sol.

    Atenolol reverses heart failure symptoms in TAC mice. (a) Experimental design overview. MEF2-LacZ mice (6–8 weeks old) underwent transverse aortic constriction (TAC) or Sham surgeries, followed by Solvent or Atenolol (50 mg/kg/day) treatment (n = 9). (b) Functional analysis of TAC or Sham mouse hearts after four weeks of Atenolol or Solvent treatment. End systolic diameter (ESD), end diastolic diameter (EDD), ejection fraction (EF), fractional shortening (FS), end systolic volume (ESV), end diastolic volume (EDV), left ventricular mass (LV), and left ventricular posterior wall depth (PWDd) were assessed by ultrasound echocardiography. (n = 9), Data are presented as mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05 **P < 0.01 ***P < 0.001 vs Sham + Sol. (c) WGA stain depicting cardiac hypertrophy...

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