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Production of second-generation (2G) ethanol from sugarcane requires enzymatic hydrolysis, in which enzymes from microorganisms act together to break down and convert the carbohydrates in sugarcane straw and bagasse into sugars capable of undergoing fermentation. Understanding the genetic mechanisms that regulate the control and production of hydrolytic enzymes by microorganisms is considered fundamental to improving the technology used in this process. Important knowledge of the different [...]

Discovered accidentally over a century ago, the phenomenon of superconductivity continues to inspire a technological revolution. In 1911, while studying the behavior of solid mercury supercooled to 4 K (-269 °C), Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853-1926) observed for the first time that certain materials conducted electricity with neither resistance nor losses at temperatures in the vicinity of absolute zero. Interest revived in the 1980s when superconductivity was experimentally [...]

In an article published April 10th in the journal Cell Reports , researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) describe a biomarker panel that could tell physicians which patients diagnosed with glioma, a type of brain cancer, will tend to progress to a more aggressive form of the disease in the event of relapse. According to principal investigator Houtan Noushmehr, a professor at USP's Ribeirão Preto Medical School (FMRP-USP), between 80% and 90% of patients diagnosed with brain cancer [...]

Researchers working on the Ribeirão Preto campus of the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have discovered that a bacterium found in the microbiota associated with leafcutter ant species Atta sexdens rubropilosa produces the so-called "trail pheromones", i.e, the aromatic chemical compounds used by the ants to lay a trail to their nest. An article on their findings has been published in the journal Scientific Reports. In the case of Atta sexdens rubropilosa, substances belonging to [...]

The theory that cancer progression involves the acquisition by tumor cells of features similar to those of stem cells has gained strength in the scientific community. According to this theory, tumor cells tend to "forget" the tissue from which they originated as the disease progresses, acquiring an undifferentiated phenotype associated with heightened aggressiveness and treatment resistance. In a study whose findings were published in the journal Cell on Thursday, May 5, researchers at the [...]

An international research consortium used neuroimaging techniques to analyze the brains of more than 3,800 volunteers in different countries. The largest study of its kind ever conducted set out to investigate anatomical similarities and differences in the brains of individuals with different types of epilepsy and to seek markers that could help with prognosis and treatment. Epilepsy's seizure frequency and severity, as well as the patient's response to drug therapy, vary with the part of the [...]

Results of a study carried out in Brazil showed a strong association between vitamin D deficiency and metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal women. The Metabolic syndrome (MetS), described as a cluster of conditions that heighten the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes, is estimated to affect approximately 50% of the female population above the age of 50 in the United States. Researchers at São Paulo State University's Botucatu Medical School (FMB-UNESP) detected MetS in 57.8% of the [...]

Deforestation of the Amazon is about to reach a threshold beyond which the region's tropical rainforest may undergo irreversible changes that transform the landscape into degraded savanna with sparse shrubby plant cover and low biodiversity. This warning derives from an editorial published in the journal Science Advances. The article was co-authored by Thomas Lovejoy, a professor at George Mason University in the United States, and Carlos Nobre, chair of Brazil's National Institute of [...]

Birds do it and so do doughnut-shaped fusion facilities called "tokamaks." But tokamak chirping-- a rapidly changing frequency wave that can be far above what the human ear can detect -- is hardly welcome to researchers who seek to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth. Such chirping signals a loss of heat that can slow fusion reactions, a loss that has long puzzled scientists. Compounding the puzzle is that some tokamaks chirp more frequently than others. For example, chirps [...]