PNAS nexus

The distribution of traditional wild food sources in the Republic of Sakha could change significantly, affecting the diets and incomes of Indigenous rural communities who depend on them.

Researchers at Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, have discovered how a protein called lamin A helps repair the protective barrier around a cell's DNA. The findings reveal lamin A's unique role and its potential for treating Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome, a rare disorder that causes premature aging.

The international team, led by Distinguished Chair Professor Chuan-Chou Shen of the Department, of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, uncovered Nan Madol's history by analyzing the ages of the site's coral rubbles. The research found that subsidence-related sea level rise and climate change posed serious threated to the construction and maintenance of Nan Madol, ultimately leading to the collapse of the chiefdom and abandonment of the site.

Scientists develop new approach to analyze 3D structure of lab-made photosynthetic antenna

Sometimes less is more. Researchers at Tohoku University accurately modeled dynamic fish schooling by incorporating the tendency of fish to focus on a single visual target instead of the whole school.

Researchers from Osaka University developed a bio-logger for seabirds that enables long-term observation of rare behaviors. The bio-logger employs low-power depth sensors and accelerometers to identify rare behavior using a light-weight outlier detection model and records the behavior in a 5-min video. Observations using the bio-loggers on Streaked Shearwaters revealed novel aspects of head-shaking and foraging strategies. This approach will enable a wider range of animal behaviors in various environments to be observed.

Tohoku University scientists in Japan have made a scaffold that supports the growth of new bone in large jaw defects in mice. Their findings, published in the journal PNAS Nexus, bring scientists one step closer to addressing the issues currently facing the treatment of large jaw bone defects, especially in the elderly.