Deep learning approaches have transformed how scientists predict activity and function of DNA sequences in the genome. An new AI tool called Corgi (Context-aware Regulatory Genomics Inference), developed by Martin Vingron's bioinformatics groupat the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (Berlin, Germany) allows researchers to predict how the genome behaves across different cell types. The findings could help...
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Researchers have developed a new type of optical fiber by freezing a glass capillary filled with liquid. It guides light and sound waves simultaneously and enables highly efficient coupling between them. The high coupling strength lowers the energy consumption of photonic neuromorphic computing schemes and quantum signal processing applications by several orders of magnitude.
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A team from the Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse” at Friedrich Schiller University Jena has described a new bacterial genus and named it after Prof. Axel Brakhage, the scientific director of the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI). The four newly classified species of the genus Brakhagea originate from aquatic habitats in northern Germany. Modern genomic...
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Player protection measures in online gambling are still insufficient. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by the University of Bremen and the Institute for Interdisciplinary Addiction and Drug Research (ISD). The authors provide recommendations for policymakers.
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A team from the University of Bonn and the Research Center Borstel, Leibniz Lung Center (FZB) has discovered a previously unknown mechanism of action for a synthetic peptide that mitigates excessive inflammatory responses in allergic asthma. This mechanism specifically inhibits a key inflammatory switch in the immune system and opens up new avenues for treating chronic inflammatory diseases. The findings have now...
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The planned reform of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy could have far more serious consequences for Saxony and other eastern German agricultural regions than assumed. A study by researchers from Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) and the University of Rostock warns that the proposed cuts affecting large farms could weaken not only individual enterprises, but...
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Bee research: Publication in PNAS What determines which tasks bees perform in their colony? Biologists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the universities in Cologne and Frankfurt/Main have investigated the role neural activity plays in this process. In the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they explain that, by manipulating a specific gene, they can...
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Men are more likely than women to use outside job opportunities to secure higher pay in their current jobs. This is the finding of a study that the Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin) has published as a Research Insight. “Among workers in the same workplace and occupation, men earn on average 8 percent more than women, even in Sweden,” says RFBerlin researcher Dogan Gülümser. Gender differences in wage bargaining...
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Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have developed two new processes: Using hydrodynamic cavitation and cold atmospheric plasma combined with gas dispersion, they are looking to break down per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), industrial chemicals that are extremely resistant to chemical degradation. To support this effort, experts from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research...
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New ARL position paper highlights research gaps and practical challenges Around 30 percent of Germany’s population lives in small towns. Yet housing debates and research continue to focus predominantly on large cities and metropolitan areas. The new ARL position paper “Housing in Small Towns: Current Challenges in Research and Practice” addresses this and calls for a more differentiated understanding of small-town...
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So-called deepfakes, that is, images and videos generated with the help of artificial intelligence, are becoming increasingly difficult to detect. An international research team from the University of Tokyo and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, Germany, has now developed a method that identifies manipulated videos more reliably than previous approaches—not by searching for visual artifacts,...
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A German-Dutch study has gained new insights into a mechanism used by bacteria to defend themselves against antibiotics / Published in ‘PNAS’
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