Science News Report
Stay Informed with Research Discoveries and Highlights
Science Briefs
2024 – [week 18]
232 News Items
| REF # | Title | HEADLINE | SYNOPSIS | SOURCE | JOURNAL | PRESS REL | PUBMED | CONTENT | KEYS | # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2418-T026 | Scientists Harness The Wind As A Tool To Move Objects | Scientists Use Wind to Manipulate Objects, Revolutionizing Robotics | Aalto University researchers have developed a technique to move objects using a jet of wind, offering the potential to manipulate objects at a distance. This innovative approach could be integrated into robots to enhance their capabilities with ethereal fingers for various applications. | Aalto University | Advanced Intelligent Systems | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers have developed a technique to move objects around with a jet of wind. The new approach makes it possible to manipulate objects at a distance and could be integrated into robots to give machines ethereal fingers. -- 'Airflow or wind is everywhere in our living environment, moving around objects like pollen, pathogens, droplets, seeds and leaves. Wind has also been actively used in industry and in our everyday lives -- for example, in leaf blowers to clean leaves. But so far, we can't control the direction the leaves move -- we can only blow them together into a pile,' says Professor Quan Zhou from Aalto University, who led the study. -- The first step in manipulating objects with wind is understanding how objects move in the airflow. To that end, a research team at Aalto University recorded thousands of sample movements in an artificially generated airflow and used these to build templates of how objects move on a surface in a jet of air. -- The team's analysis showed that even though the airflow is generally chaotic, it's still regular enough to move objects in a controlled way in different directions -- even back towards the nozzle blowing out the air. -- 'We designed an algorithm that controls the direction of the air nozzle with two motors. The jet of air is blown onto the surface from several meters away and to the side of the object, so the generated airflow field moves the object in the desired direction. The control algorithm repeatedly adjusts the direction of the air nozzle so that the airflow moves the objects along the desired trajectory,' explains Zhou. -- 'Our observations allowed us to use airflow to move objects along different paths, like circles or even complex letter-like paths. Our method is versatile in terms of the object's shape and material -- we can control the movement of objects of almost any shape,' he continues. -- The technology still needs to be refined, but the researchers are optimistic about the untapped potential of their nature-inspired approach. It could be used to collect items that are scattered on a surface, such as pushing debris and waste to collection points. It could also be useful in complex processing tasks where physical contact is impossible, such as handling electrical circuits. -- 'We believe that this technique could get even better with a deeper understanding of the characteristics of the airflow field, which is what we're working on next,' says Zhou. | T01 | 1 |
| 2418-078 | Regulating Cholesterol Levels Might Be The Key To Improving Cancer Treatment | Cholesterol Regulation Key To Cancer Treatment Improvement | Researchers from Aarhus University have identified a mechanism to improve immunotherapies by regulating cholesterol levels, potentially enhancing cancer treatment strategies. By manipulating cholesterol levels, researchers aim to make current treatments more effective and activate the body's own defense mechanisms against cancer. This new discovery offers a promising avenue for improving cancer therapy and other related illnesses. | Aarhus University | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | A team of researchers from Aarhus University has made a remarkable discovery that could improve cancer treatment and the treatment of a number of other illnesses. -- The key lies in regulating cholesterol levels, which can help make existing treatments more effective. -- "We've identified a new mechanism that can regulate a crucial immune pathway in the fight against cancer, and this gives us a deeper understanding of how we can activate the body's own defence against the disease," explains Professor Martin Roelsgaard Jakobsen from the Department of Biomedicine and one of the last three authors of the study. -- Special focus on an essential protein -- The researchers have focused on the so-called STING protein, an important element of the immune system's defence against cancer cells. -- By manipulating cholesterol levels, the researchers were able to improve the function of the STING protein, thereby opening up new ways of bolstering the body's natural defences against cancer. -- Effective cancer treatment depends on the strength of the patient's immune system and how well it can be boosted to kill cancer cells. -- According to Martin Roelsgaard Jakobsen, cancer treatment requires a combination of treatment strategies that trigger local immune activation in the tumour, attract cytotoxic T cells, and stimulate broader activation of immune cells. -- And this is where the new mechanism presents new opportunities. -- "The STING protein has already shown promise in cancer treatment, but we haven't yet discovered how to activate it in a clinical context. Our research provides a new approach to boosting the activity of the STING protein, giving us another way of harnessing the body's natural defences against cancer," he explains. | H01 R01 | 2 |
| 2418-E008 | The Longer Spilled Oil Lingers In Freshwater, The More Persistent Compounds It Produces | Persistent Compounds Form As Freshwater Oil Spills Linger Longer | Oil spills, both large and small, have long-lasting environmental consequences. A study published in ACS' Energy & Fuels highlights the chemical changes that occur in freshwater oil spills, emphasizing the need for further research in this area to mitigate environmental damage. | American Chemical Society | Energy & Fuels | Press Rel | PubMed | Oil is an important natural resource for many industries, but it can lead to serious environmental damage when accidentally spilled. While large oil spills are highly publicized, every year there are many smaller-scale spills into lakes, rivers and oceans. And, according to research published in ACS' Energy & Fuels, the longer that oil remains in freshwater, the more chemical changes it undergoes, creating products that can persist in the environment. -- Approximately 600,000 gallons of oil were accidentally spilled into the environment in 2023, according to the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, a group that monitors oil spills. This figure represents ocean spills as well as freshwater spills in rivers and lakes. Over time, this oil weathers and undergoes a variety of chemical transformations, which could make compounds that are more soluble in water and stick around longer. Weathering in salt water is reasonably well understood, but what happens to oil in freshwater is still being investigated. So, Dena McMartin and colleagues investigated the chemical changes that could happen to that oil as it sits in rivers and lakes. -- The team simulated a freshwater oil spill in the laboratory by combining water and river sediment collected directly from the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta, Canada, in a tank and then adding conventional crude oil obtained from a pipeline operator in Alberta. The test was carried out at around 75 degrees Fahrenheit for 56 days. Water samples were taken at multiple time points from the simulated spill and subjected to Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) and ion trap mass spectrometry, which provided detailed information into the chemical makeup of these complicated mixtures. -- Researchers concluded that as the oil weathered, more and more oxygen atoms were incorporated into some compounds, causing them to become more persistent in water. As a result, higher concentrations of the oxygen-loaded chemicals could build up, potentially increasing the impact on aquatic organisms. This increase in oxygen atoms was observed for sulfur oxide compounds, along with some other classes of compounds present in the crude oil mixture. McMartin and team members say these results emphasize the importance of rapid responses to oil spills and could help set benchmarks for longer-term remediation efforts. -- The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation, the Engineering Council of Canada and the Oceans Protection Plan of the Government of Canada. | C01 | 3 |
| 2418-T046 | This Highly Reflective Black Paint Makes Objects More Visible To Autonomous Cars | Reflective Black Paint for Autonomous Cars | Researchers have developed a highly reflective black paint that can improve the detection of dark-colored objects by lidar sensors in self-driving cars, making autonomous driving safer. Lidar systems emit near-infrared light pulses to detect objects, but they struggle to identify dark-colored objects. The application of reflective black paint can enhance the visibility of such objects, potentially preventing accidents and improving the overall safety of self-driving technology. | American Chemical Society | ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces | Press Rel | PubMed | Driving at night might be a scary challenge for a new driver, but with hours of practice it soon becomes second nature. For self-driving cars, however, practice may not be enough because the lidar sensors that often act as these vehicles' "eyes" have difficulty detecting dark-colored objects. Research published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces describes a highly reflective black paint that could help these cars see dark objects and make autonomous driving safer. -- Lidar, short for light detection and ranging, is a system used in a variety of applications, including geologic mapping and self-driving vehicles. -- The system works like echolocation, but instead of emitting sound waves, lidar emits tiny pulses of near-infrared light. -- The light pulses bounce off objects and back to the sensor, allowing the system to map the 3D environment it's in. But lidar falls short when objects absorb more of that near-infrared light than they reflect, which can occur on black-painted surfaces. -- Lidar can't detect these dark objects on its own, so one common solution is to have the system rely on other sensors or software to fill in the information gaps. -- However, this solution could still lead to accidents in some situations. -- Rather than reinventing the lidar sensors, though, Chang-Min Yoon and colleagues wanted to make dark objects easier to detect with existing technology by developing a specially formulated, highly reflective black paint. -- To produce the new paint, the team first formed a thin layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) on small fragments of glass. -- Then the glass was etched away with hydrofluoric acid, leaving behind a hollow layer of white, highly reflective TiO2. This was reduced with sodium borohydride to produce a black material that maintained its reflective qualities. -- By mixing this material with varnish, it could be applied as a paint. | Z01 | 4 |
| 2418-015 | Good Heart Health In Middle Age May Preserve Brain Function Among Black Women As They Age | Good Heart Health In Middle Age May Preserve Brain Function Among Black Women As They Age | New research highlights the connection between heart health and cognitive decline in middle-aged Black women, emphasizing the importance of cardiovascular health in preventing Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Maintaining a healthy heart in early adulthood can have long-term benefits for brain function and independent living. | American Heart Association | Journal of the American Heart Association | Press Rel | PubMed | Better heart health was linked to less decline in mental processing speed and cognition among middle-aged Black women, although not among middle-aged white women, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association. -- "Take care of your heart, and it will benefit your brain," said study lead author Imke Janssen, Ph.D., a professor of family and preventive medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. "Better cardiovascular health in women in their 40s is important to prevent later-life Alzheimer's disease, dementia and to maintain independent living." -- Previous research has linked heart health to a lower risk of cognitive decline. This decline may begin years before the onset of dementia, Janssen explained. Questions that need to be answered include understanding when the cognitive benefits of heart health begin, whether they occur among people of different races and whether they affect different types of brain function including reasoning. -- In this study, researchers compared key heart health metrics, known as the American Heart Associations' Life's Essential 8, among middle-aged Black and white women to cognitive testing conducted on the women every one to two years over a 20-year period. -- Life's Essential 8TM includes objectively measured weight, blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol, as well as self-reported health behaviors such as eating healthy foods, being physically active, not smoking and getting enough sleep. -- The cognitive tests assessed processing speed and working memory. Processing speed is the pace at which the brain has accurate recognition of visual and verbal information and is necessary for daily activities such as driving. In this study, cognitive processing speed was assessed as quickly and accurately recognizing sets of numbers, objects, pictures or patterns. Working memory is the ability to remember and use small pieces of information for daily tasks, including remembering names and doing math. -- The study found differences in cognitive decline by race only in processing speed, not in working memory. Specifically: -- Black women with lower heart health, based on the Life's Essential 8 metrics, had a 10% decrease in processing speed over 20 years. Their scores were worse for all eight risk factors for heart disease, especially blood pressure and smoking. -- In contrast, Black women with good heart health showed little decline in mental processing during the 20-year study. -- Among white women with poorer heart health, processing speed did not decline. | H01 H02 R01 R02 | 5 |
| 2418-097 | Brief Anger May Impair Blood Vessel Function | Anger Impairs Blood Vessel Function, Increases Risk Of Diseases | New research shows that episodes of anger can negatively impact blood vessel relaxation, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Understanding the impact of negative emotions on vascular function is crucial for cardiovascular health. | American Heart Association | Journal of the American Heart Association | Press Rel | PubMed | A brief episode of anger triggered by remembering past experiences may negatively impact the blood vessels' ability to relax, which is essential for proper blood flow, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association. -- Previous research has found that impairment of blood vessels' ability to relax may increase the risk of developing atherosclerosis, which may, in turn, increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. -- "Impaired vascular function is linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke," said lead study author Daichi Shimbo, M.D., a professor of medicine at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. "Observational studies have linked feelings of negative emotions with having a heart attack or other cardiovascular disease events. The most common negative emotion studied is anger, and there are fewer studies on anxiety and sadness, which have also been linked to heart attack risk." -- In this study, the researchers investigated whether negative emotions -- anger, sadness and anxiety -- may have an adverse impact on blood vessel function compared to a neutral emotion. The 280 adults in the study were randomly assigned to one of four emotional tasks for 8 minutes: recalling a personal memory that made them angry; recalling a personal memory of anxiety; reading a series of depressing sentences that evoked sadness; or repeatedly counting to 100 to induce an emotionally neutral state. This protocol, "Putative mechanisms Underlying Myocardial infarction onset and Emotions (PUME)," was described by the researchers in a previous paper. -- Researchers assessed the cells lining each study participant's blood vessels before the tasks and at several points after, looking for evidence of impaired blood vessel dilation, increased cell injury and/or reduced cell repair capacity. The measurements taken before the emotional tasks were repeated after tasks were completed. -- Measurements were taken for each participant at baseline (0 minutes) and at four different timepoints after experiencing the assigned emotional task: 3 minutes, 40 minutes, 70 minutes and 100 minutes. The analysis found: -- Tasks that recalled past events causing anger led to an impairment in blood vessel dilation, from zero to 40 minutes after the task. The impairment was no longer present after the 40-minute mark. -- There were no statistically significant changes to participants' blood vessel linings at any time points after experiencing the anxiety and sadness emotional tasks. -- "We saw that evoking an angered state led to blood vessel dysfunction, though we don't yet understand what may cause these changes," Shimbo said. "Investigation into the underlying links between anger and blood vessel dysfunction may help identify effective intervention targets for people at increased risk of cardiovascular events." -- According to an American Heart Association 2021 scientific statement, Psychological Health, Well-Being, and the Mind-Heart-Body Connection, mental well-being can positively or negatively impact a person's health and risk factors for heart disease and stroke. | H02 R01 | 6 |
| 2418-T054 | Machine Listening: Making Speech Recognition Systems More Inclusive | Inclusive Speech Recognition for AAE Speakers | Researchers have investigated how individuals who speak African American English adapt their speech when interacting with voice technology, shedding light on the challenges faced by diverse speaker groups. Understanding how different communities engage with voice assistants can improve the design and functionality of these devices. By addressing the linguistic diversity of users, researchers aim to enhance the accessibility and usability of voice technology for all individuals. | American Institute of Physics | JASA Express Letters | Press Rel | PubMed | Interactions with voice technology, such as Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google Assistant, can make life easier by increasing efficiency and productivity. However, errors in generating and understanding speech during interactions are common. When using these devices, speakers often style-shift their speech from their normal patterns into a louder and slower register, called technology-directed speech. -- Research on technology-directed speech typically focuses on mainstream varieties of U.S. English without considering speaker groups that are more consistently misunderstood by technology. -- In JASA Express Letters, published on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing, researchers from Google Research, the University of California, Davis, and Stanford University wanted to address this gap. -- One group commonly misunderstood by voice technology are individuals who speak African American English, or AAE. -- Since the rate of automatic speech recognition errors can be higher for AAE speakers, downstream effects of linguistic discrimination in technology may result. -- "Across all automatic speech recognition systems, four out of every ten words spoken by Black men were being transcribed incorrectly," said co-author Zion Mengesha. -- "This affects fairness for African American English speakers in every institution using voice technology, including health care and employment." -- "We saw an opportunity to better understand this problem by talking to Black users and understanding their emotional, behavioral, and linguistic responses when engaging with voice technology," said co-author Courtney Heldreth. -- The team designed an experiment to test how AAE speakers adapt their speech when imagining talking to a voice assistant, compared to talking to a friend, family member, or stranger. -- The study tested familiar human, unfamiliar human, and voice assistant-directed speech conditions by comparing speech rate and pitch variation. | H01 T01 | 7 |
| 2418-E051 | Calcium Can Protect Potato Plants From Bacterial Wilt | Calcium Boosts Potato Plant Resistance To Bacterial Wilt | Scientists have discovered that calcium plays a significant role in enhancing the resistance of potato plants to bacterial wilt, a disease that causes substantial global losses in potato production. This finding opens up new possibilities for integrated disease management strategies, including the potential to use calcium soil amendments to control bacterial wilt. Understanding the role of calcium in plant resistance could lead to more effective methods for protecting crops from devastating diseases. | American Society for Microbiology | Applied and Environmental Microbiology | Press Rel | PubMed | Scientists have discovered that calcium plays a significant role in enhancing the resistance of potato plants to bacterial wilt. This disease causes worldwide losses of potatoes costing $19 billion per year. The findings open up new avenues for integrated disease management strategies, including the potential for calcium amendments to soil as a part of a comprehensive approach to controlling bacterial wilt in potatoes. The study is published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. -- Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC) is a phytopathogenic bacterial group that causes bacterial wilt in several crops. -- "Our research team has been dedicated to studying the Ralstonia solancearum-potato pathosystem for years, with a primary focus on developing potato varieties with resistance to bacterial wilt," said corresponding study author María Inés Siri, Ph.D., from the Department of Biosciences, University of the Republic, in Montevideo, Uruguay. -- Pathosystems like this one are subsystems of ecosystems that specifically are defined by parasitism, where the parasite is any species that spends a significant part of its lifespan inhabiting and getting nutrients from a host. -- Siri said that until now, the relationship between the potato plant ionome (mineral and trace elements composition) and resistance levels to RSSC has not been addressed. -- In the new study, the researchers initiated their investigation using potato plant genotypes with contrasting levels of resistance to bacterial wilt. -- This approach allowed the researchers to examine how different levels of natural resistance within the plants could be linked to their mineral compositions. -- The researchers assessed the mineral content in various parts of the potato plants, such as the xylem sap, roots, stems and leaves, focusing on the relationship between these minerals, particularly calcium, and the plants' resistance to bacterial wilt. -- Following this mineral assessment, the scientists explored the impact of calcium on several aspects related to the virulence of the pathogen, including its growth rate, ability to form biofilms and motility. -- Furthermore, they evaluated calcium's effect on enhancing plant resistance through controlled inoculation trials, providing a comprehensive view of how calcium supplementation could potentially bolster the potato plant's defense mechanisms against bacterial wilt. | N02 | 8 |
| 2418-T028 | When Does A Conductor Not Conduct? | Atomically-Thin Material Enables Controlled On-Off Phases for Electronic Devices | An Australian-led study has discovered an atomically-thin material with unusual insulating behaviour that can be switched on and off. This material, featuring strong electron interactions, shows potential for application in low-energy electronic technologies as an efficient switch for on-off binary operations. | ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | An Australian-led study has found unusual insulating behaviour in a new atomically-thin material -- and the ability to switch it on and off. -- Materials that feature strong interactions between electrons can display unusual properties such as the ability to act as insulators even when they are expected to conduct electricity. These insulators, known as Mott insulators, occur when electrons become frozen because of strong repulsion they feel from other electrons nearby, preventing them from carrying a current. -- Led by FLEET at Monash University, a new study (published in Nature Communications) has demonstrated a Mott insulating phase within an atomically-thin metal-organic framework (MOF), and the ability to controllably switch this material from an insulator to a conductor. This material's ability to act as an efficient 'switch' makes it a promising candidate for application in new electronic devices such as transistors. -- Electron interactions written in the stars -- The atomically thin (or '2D') material at the heart of the study is a type of MOF, a class of materials composed from organic molecules and metal atoms. -- "Thanks to the versatility of supramolecular chemistry approaches -- in particular applied on surfaces as substrates -- we have an almost infinite number of combinations to construct materials from the bottom-up, with atomic scale precision," explains corresponding author A/Prof Schiffrin. "In these approaches, organic molecules are used as building blocks, By carefully choosing the right ingredients, we can tune the properties of MOFs." -- The important tailor-made property of the MOF in this study is its star-shaped geometry, known as a kagome structure. This geometry enhances the influence of electron-electron interactions, directly leading to the realisation of a Mott insulator. -- The on-off switch: electron population -- The authors constructed the star-shaped kagome MOF from a combination of copper atoms and 9,10-dicyanoanthracene (DCA) molecules. They grew the material upon another atomically thin insulating material, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), on an atomically flat copper surface, Cu(111). -- "We measured the structural and electronic properties of the MOF at the atomic scale using scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy," explains lead author Dr. Benjamin Lowe, who recently completed his PhD with FLEET. "This allowed us to measure an unexpected energy gap -- the hallmark of an insulator." | R01 T01 T02 | 9 |
| 2418-T027 | Gemini South Reveals Origin Of Unexpected Differences In Giant Binary Stars | Chemical Variations in Stellar Clouds Explain Binary Stars' Differences | Using the Gemini South telescope, astronomers have confirmed that differences in binary stars' composition can originate from chemical variations in the cloud of stellar material from which they formed. This discovery explains why stars from the same molecular cloud can have different compositions and possess unique planetary systems. | Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) | Astronomy & Astrophysics | Press Rel | PubMed | Using the Gemini South telescope a team of astronomers have confirmed for the first time that differences in binary stars' composition can originate from chemical variations in the cloud of stellar material from which they formed. The results help explain why stars born from the same molecular cloud can possess different chemical composition and host different planetary systems, as well as pose challenges to current stellar and planet formation models. -- It is estimated that up to 85% of stars exist in binary star systems, some even in systems with three or more stars. -- These stellar pairs are born together out of the same molecular cloud from a shared abundance of chemical building blocks, so astronomers would expect to find that they have nearly identical compositions and planetary systems. -- However, for many binaries that isn't the case. While some proposed explanations attribute these dissimilarities to events occurring after the stars evolved, a team of astronomers have confirmed for the first time that they can actually originate from before the stars even began to form. -- Led by Carlos Saffe of the Institute of Astronomical, Earth and Space Sciences (ICATE-CONICET) in Argentina, the team used the Gemini South telescope in Chile, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab. -- With the new, precise Gemini High Resolution Optical SpecTrograph (GHOST) the team studied the different wavelengths of light, or spectra, given off by a pair of giant stars, which revealed significant differences in their chemical make-up. "GHOST's extremely high-quality spectra offered unprecedented resolution," said Saffe, "allowing us to measure the stars' stellar parameters and chemical abundances with the highest possible precision." These measurements revealed that one star had higher abundances of heavy elements than the other. -- To disentangle the origin of this discrepancy, the team used a unique approach. -- Previous studies have proposed three possible explanations for observed chemical differences between binary stars. -- Two of them involve processes that would occur well into the stars' evolution: atomic diffusion, or the settling of chemical elements into gradient layers depending on each star's temperature and surface gravity; and the engulfment of a small, rocky planet, which would introduce chemical variations in a star's composition. -- The third possible explanation looks back at the beginning of the stars' formation, suggesting that the differences originate from primordial, or pre-existing, areas of nonuniformity within the molecular cloud. | C01 T02 | 10 |
| 2418-045 | Study Finds School Entry Requirements Linked To Increased HPV Vaccination Rates | Study Links School Entry Requirements to Increased HPV Vaccination Rates | School entry requirements have been linked to an increase in HPV vaccinations, highlighting the importance of policy interventions in promoting public health measures like vaccinations to prevent infections and improve overall health outcomes. | Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist | Pediatrics | Press Rel | PubMed | A new study from researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine shows that school entry requirements are linked to an increase in human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations. -- The findings appear online in Pediatrics. -- HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection, which can cause health problems such as genital warts and certain cancers. To prevent infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that 11- to 12-year-olds receive two doses of the HPV vaccine, given 6 to 12 months apart. However, CDC data from 2022 shows that only 50% of 13-year-olds were up to date on HPV vaccinations. -- School-entry requirements, where parents/guardians are required to vaccinate their children against HPV or receive an exemption before beginning a particular grade, are currently only found in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington, D.C. -- "There are a variety of state and federal policies designed to address low HPV vaccination rates among adolescents, but there has been little research to determine which policies are most effective," said Brigid Grabert, Ph.D., J.D., assistant professor of implementation science at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and senior author of the study. -- In collaboration with researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, Grabert and team systematically reviewed studies from 2009-2022 assessing the association between policies and HPV vaccination coverage among U.S. adolescents. The team identified 36 eligible studies and summarized findings based on policy type such as school-entry requirements, federally funded policies and educational requirements, which require schools or other organizations to distribute information about the benefits of HPV vaccination. -- "We found consistent evidence that school-entry requirements work in places that require parents who don't vaccinate to submit an exemption," Grabert said. "We also found that school-entry requirements for other vaccines resulted in positive spillover effects for HPV vaccinations." -- Grabert said that federally funded policies related to the Vaccines for Children program and Medicaid were also consistently associated with an increase in HPV vaccinations. However, few studies noted an association between educational requirements and HPV vaccination coverage. -- "Policymakers should be aware that HPV-related cancers and disease can be reduced," Grabert said. "But not all policies are effective. Policymakers should carefully consider the best strategy to increase the administration of HPV vaccines." | H01 R01 N02 | 11 |
| 2418-071 | Uncovering The Secret Of Long-Lived Stem Cells | Enzyme Key to Long-Lived Stem Cells Identified | Researchers have identified the key role of the enzyme cyclophilin A in hematopoietic stem cells, contributing to their regenerative potential and protection against aging effects. The discovery sheds light on the long lifespan and regenerative capacity of HSCs, crucial for maintaining blood cell production and overall health throughout an organism's life. | Baylor College of Medicine | Nature Cell Biology | Press Rel | PubMed | Nothing lives forever, but compared to other cells in the body, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are remarkably long-lived. HSCs are blood-forming cells -- they give rise to rapidly dividing progenitor cells, which in turn generate hundreds of billions of cells to fulfill the daily demand of oxygen-delivering red blood cells, disease-fighting white blood cells and clot-forming platelets. -- HSCs typically remain dormant within the bone marrow, yet they possess the ability to activate and replenish blood cells continuously, maintaining a relatively youthful profile throughout the life of an organism. -- What is the secret of long-lived HSCs that wards off the effects of aging? -- A team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine revealed in Nature Cell Biology that the enzyme cyclophilin A, which is produced in large amounts in HSCs, is key for these cells to retain their regenerative potential and avert the effects of aging. -- Long live the stem cells! -- "A driving force of cellular aging is the accumulation of proteins that have reached the end of their useful life," said corresponding author Dr. André Catic, assistant professor and CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research in the Huffington Center on Aging at Baylor. -- "With age, proteins tend to misfold, aggregate and accumulate inside the cell, which leads to toxic stress that can disrupt cell function." -- Cells that frequently engage in cell division, like progenitor cells, can dispose of protein aggregates through dilution. -- On the other hand, long-lived HSCs, which do not divide often, face the problem of the accumulation of misfolded proteins and subsequent toxic stress. -- Nevertheless, HSCs remain impervious to aging. How do they do it? | H01 H02 R01 | 12 |
| 2418-T019 | New Study Reveals How AI Can Enhance Flexibility, Efficiency For Customer Service Centers | AI in Customer Service: Enhancing Efficiency and Flexibility | While AI can be a valuable tool in customer service organizations, relying on it exclusively may not align with business objectives. Organizations must practice ambidexterity to balance conflicting priorities and consider the role of AI systems in improving operational efficiency. | Binghamton University | International Journal of Information Management | Press Rel | PubMed | Whenever you call a customer service contact center, the team on the other end of the line typically has three goals: to reduce their response time, solve your problem and do it within the shortest service time possible. -- However, resolving your problem might entail a significant time investment, potentially clashing with an overarching business objective to keep service duration to a minimum. These conflicting priorities can be commonplace for customer service contact centers, which often rely on the latest technology to meet customers' needs. -- To pursue those conflicting demands, these organizations practice what's referred to as ambidexterity, and there are three different modes to achieve it: structural separation, behavioral integration and sequential alternation. So, what role might artificial intelligence (AI) systems play in improving how these organizations move from one ambidexterity mode to another to accomplish their tasks? -- New research involving the School of Management at Binghamton University, State University of New York explored that question. Using data from different contact center sites, researchers examined the impact of AI systems on a customer service organization's ability to shift across ambidexterity modes. -- The key takeaway: it's a delicate balancing act; AI is a valuable asset, so long as it's used properly, though these organizations shouldn't rely on it exclusively to guide their strategies. -- Associate Professor Sumantra Sarkar, who helped conduct the research, said the study's goal was to understand better how organizations today might use AI to guide their transition from one ambidexterity mode to another because certain structures or approaches might be more beneficial from one month to the next. -- "Customer service organizations often balance exploiting the latest technology to boost efficiency and, therefore, save money," Sarkar said. "This dichotomy is what ambidexterity is all about, exploring new technology to gain new insights and exploiting it to gain efficiency." -- As part of the three-year study, researchers examined the practices of five contact center sites: two global banks, one national bank in a developing country, a telecommunication Fortune 500 company in South Asia and a global infrastructure vendor in telecommunications hardware. -- While many customer service organizations have spent recent years investing in AI, assuming that not doing so could lead to customer dissatisfaction, the researchers found these organizations haven't used AI to its full potential. They have primarily used it for self-service applications. -- Some of the AI-assisted tasks researchers tracked at those sites included: | H01 T01 | 13 |
| 2418-089 | Malaria May Shorten Leukocyte Telomeres Among Sub-Saharan Africans | Malaria Shortens Telomeres In Sub-Saharan African Population | A study published in The American Journal of Human Genetics reveals the significant variation in leukocyte telomere length among sub-Saharan African populations, with implications for malaria susceptibility and genetic factors. This research underscores the impact of environmental influences, such as malaria, on telomere length and highlights the need for further investigation into genetic and environmental contributions. | Cell Press | The American Journal of Human Genetics | Press Rel | PubMed | The length of telomeres in white blood cells, known as leukocytes, varies significantly among sub-Saharan African populations, researchers report May 2nd in The American Journal of Human Genetics. Moreover, leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is negatively associated with malaria endemicity and only partly explained by genetic factors. -- "We highlight the contributions of genetic and environmental factors influencing LTL, and we have uncovered a potential role of malaria in shortening LTL across sub-Saharan Africa," says Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania, a co-senior author on the study. -- "This association between malaria and LTL appears larger than any other known exposure or behavior that has been investigated in large-scale studies." -- Telomeres are regions of repetitive DNA sequences that protect the ends of chromosomes from becoming frayed or tangled. -- LTL shows vast person-to-person variation, with individuals of African ancestry generally having longer LTL than non-Africans. -- It shortens with age and is a predictor of a range of aging-related diseases and mortality. -- LTL is a highly heritable human trait, and LTL variation at birth largely determines LTL variation throughout the life course. -- "However, the majority of large-scale studies examining LTL variation among humans have focused primarily on populations of European ancestry," Tishkoff says. -- "This under-representation of diverse populations hampers our ability to understand the genetic and environmental drivers of LTL variation and their effects on telomere-related disease risk." -- In particular, little is known about the genetic, environmental, and evolutionary forces that have shaped the vast LTL variation across sub-Saharan African populations. | H01 C01 | 14 |
| 2418-090 | Companies May Buy Consumer Genetic Information Despite Its Modest Predictive Power | Genetic Data Valuable For Corporations, But Raises Ethical Concerns | Genetics play a crucial role in behavior and health outcomes, with implications for risk assessment and business interests, according to a new perspective published in The American Journal of Human Genetics. This article raises ethical considerations around genetic data collection and emphasizes the importance of policy safeguards to address privacy concerns. | Cell Press | The American Journal of Human Genetics | Press Rel | PubMed | Genetics can be associated with one's behavior and health -- from the willingness to take risks, and how long one stays in school, to chances of developing Alzheimer's disease and breast cancer. Although our fate is surely not written in our genes, corporations may still find genetic data valuable for risk assessment and business profits, according to a perspective published on May 2 in The American Journal of Human Genetics. The researchers stress the need for policy safeguards to address ethics and policy concerns regarding collecting genetic data. -- At-home DNA tests have provided millions with insights into their family history and health risk by simply spitting in a tube. -- Genetic risk screening of embryos at in vitro fertilization clinics is now available. -- These tests rely on polygenic scores -- a tally of variations in human genes that influence a certain trait. -- However, while powerful at predicting traits in large populations, these scores are rather weak at an individual level. -- "And for that reason, people have said, 'we don't need to worry about companies wanting to use this information at the individual level because it's not very informative,'" says economist and co-corresponding author Nicholas Papageorge of Johns Hopkins University. -- "Well, that's not exactly true. Firms operate under a lot of uncertainty and any little bit of information that they have about you is worthwhile." -- Using an economic model, the researchers found that companies might be willing to pay for a consumer's polygenic score even if it's only marginally accurate as a predictor, because the information may raise profit and is relatively cheap. -- For example, knowing a person's polygenic score, such as risk of cognitive decline or risky behaviors, an insurance firm may tailor their offerings to individuals, decline insurance, or raise premiums. -- "And it might be counterintuitive, but there might be welfare-enhancing uses of such data," says co-corresponding author, legal scholar, and bioethicist Michelle Meyer of Geisinger College of Health Sciences. | H01 H02 R01 R02 T02 | 15 |
| 2418-E034 | Mobile Device Location Data Is Already Used By Private Companies, So Why Not For Studying Human-Wildlife Interactions | Human-Wildlife Interactions: Studying Mobility Data for Policy Decisions | Mobility data collected from cell phones can provide valuable insight into human-wildlife interactions, guiding policy decisions on sustainability-related issues. By making mobility data more accessible for research, scientists can better understand the impact of human activities on wildlife habitats and ecosystems, ultimately promoting more sustainable practices and conservation efforts. | Cell Press | Cell Reports Sustainability | Press Rel | PubMed | When did you last go anywhere without your cell phone? From maps and weather apps to social media platforms, we give consent for our phones to trace our footsteps and behavior. These curated mobility data are often used for personalized advertisements. In a commentary, published April 26 in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability, scientists argue mobility data can offer so much more -- it is key to understanding human-wildlife interactions for guiding policy decisions on sustainability-related issues and should be free and accessible for research. -- As the COVID-19 pandemic confined humans indoors and hushed bustling cities, reports of wildlife wandering the streets flooded the internet. To ecologists and sustainability researchers, this was a unique opportunity to understand human-wildlife interactions, afforded by the most tragic of circumstances. Scientists, including some of the authors of the commentary, quickly joined hands to form the COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative. -- "Our global consortium has been investigating wildlife responses to sudden reductions in human mobility during pandemic lockdowns, using tracking data from animal-attached devices," says senior author Christian Rutz, of University of St Andrews, UK, who is the chair of the COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative. "Such analyses of human-wildlife interactions would benefit tremendously from improved access to human-mobility data." -- "What we very quickly realized is that we had a wealth of data on what animals were doing, but gaining access to data on what humans were doing was a major challenge," says first author Ruth Oliver of the University of California, Santa Barbara. "Generally, human-mobility data are held by private companies and sold for corporate interests. There are financial and logistical barriers for researchers to access the data to understand sustainability challenges." -- To address this issue, the authors propose that governments and international organizations work together with companies on finding ways to make human-mobility data freely available for research. Drawing on lessons learned from the precedent of government-facilitated access to satellite remote sensing data for public good, the researchers believe human-mobility data hold similar potential, if access barriers were addressed. -- Unlike human-mobility data for commercial purposes, which comprise detailed time-stamped movement trajectories of individual users, potentially posing privacy concerns when shared, what the researchers call for is much simpler. The researchers envision aggregated datasets, stripped of personal identifiers, counting the number of devices in an area over a defined time period. About three out of every four people aged 10 or older -- roughly 5.9 billion individuals globally -- own a cellular phone. This wealth of data can help address how the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems are connected. For example, analyses could help pinpoint hotspots where wildlife and humans interact frequently, informing zoonotic disease prevention and invasive species management. -- "Because the aggregated datasets we're advocating for are very different from what's needed for commercial applications, making them accessible to researchers wouldn't harm the market for more detailed data," says Oliver. -- In fact, Oliver and her colleagues say that making human-mobility data available to researchers can also benefit private companies. Sharing aggregated data may generate further demand for bespoke, detailed data products and grow the global user base. With movements towards corporate digital responsibility, sharing data for conservation and sustainability research can also be a way to mitigate impact and contribute to societal good. -- "Our vision is to have this movement be a community-driven, collaborative effort. We want to understand the companies' concerns and collaborate on finding win-win solutions. Because privacy policies around human mobility-data vary around the world, government bodies' facilitation will be crucial," says Oliver. "More broadly, we feel it's crucial to empower individuals to think about how they want their data used." | H01 R01 C01 N01 T01 | 16 |
| 2418-E077 | Why You Can Taste More Ethanol In A Cold Pint Of Beer Or Warm Glass Of Baijiu | Ethanol Taste Varies With Drink Temperature | Alcoholic beverages may taste different at varying temperatures due to the molecular clustering of water and ethanol. Researchers have uncovered the science behind why drinks like baijiu or sake taste distinct when warmed. This new understanding of molecular structures could revolutionize the way we enjoy and experience alcoholic beverages. | Cell Press | Matter | Press Rel | PubMed | We all have our own preferred drinking temperatures for different alcoholic beverages, with people commonly enjoying beer or white wine chilled, red wine near room temperature, or baijiu (Chinese whisky) or sake warmed. Now, in a paper publishing in the journal Matter on May 1, researchers report that alcoholic beverages may taste more or less "ethanol-like" at different temperatures, and this may be explained by how water and ethanol form either chain-like or pyramid-shaped clusters at the molecular level. -- "Two years ago, first author Xiaotao Yang and I were drinking beer together. He had just finished his doctorate degree thesis and asked me, 'what should we do next?'" says lead author and materials scientist Lei Jiang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "At the time, I was a scientific committee member of one of the biggest Chinese alcoholic beverage companies, and I had the idea to ask the question 'why does Chinese baijiu have a very particular concentration of alcohol, either 38%-42%, 52%-53%, or 68%-75%?'" -- "Then we decided, let's try something, so I put a drop of beer on my hand to see the contact angle," says Jiang. -- Soon after, Jiang, Yang, and the rest of their team set off to the lab to measure the contact angle of a series of solutions with increasing concentrations of alcohol in water. Contact angle is a common measurement of a liquid's surface tension, and it also tells you how the molecules within the droplet are interacting with each other and with the surface below. -- For example, water has a low contact angle on a surface like glass, and so a drop of it will appear "bead-like," where a drop of high alcohol concentration spirits will have a higher contact angle and will instead flatten and spread out. -- They were surprised to find that the contact angle did not increase linearly with increasing alcohol concentration, but instead the plot showed an irregular series of plateaus as it increased. Additional experiments indicated that this was happening due to the formation of different clusters of ethanol and water in solution. -- At low ethanol concentrations, the ethanol forms more pyramid-shaped structures around water molecules; however, when the concentration of ethanol is increased, the ethanol begins to arrange end to end as if in a chain. -- Interestingly, the researchers also found that the plateaus that they observed disappeared or appeared when the solutions were cooled or heated, and that some of these trends could explain differences in how alcohol taste is perceived. -- For example, 38%-42% and 52%-53% ethanol solutions -- like the ethanol concentrations in baijiu -- have distinct cluster structures at around room temperature, but this difference disappears at higher temperatures, like 40°C. This could explain why both professional and amateur tasters can distinguish these concentrations of baijiu at room temperature but not at high temperature. At higher temperatures, both concentrations have more chain-like structures and therefore a more "ethanol-like" taste. -- "Although there is only 1% difference, the taste of baijiu at 51% and 52% is noticeably different; the taste of baijiu at 51% is similar to that of lower alcohol content, such as 38%-42%. So, in order to achieve the same taste at a lower alcohol content, the distribution of baijiu products ranges most within the 38%-42% and 52%-53% categories," says Jiang. | Z01 | 17 |
| 2418-036 | A Shortcut For Drug Discovery | Large-Scale Study Reveals Thousands of Protein-Ligand Interactions for Drug Development | Researchers at CeMM and Pfizer have discovered thousands of ligand-protein interactions that could be crucial for drug development. By leveraging machine learning and AI, they have opened up new possibilities for understanding how small molecules interact with human proteins, paving the way for innovative therapies. | CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences | Science | Press Rel | PubMed | For most human proteins, there are no small molecules known to bind them chemically (so called "ligands"). Ligands frequently represent important starting points for drug development but this knowledge gap critically hampers the development of novel medicines. Researchers at CeMM, in a collaboration with Pfizer, have now leveraged and scaled a method to measure the binding activity of hundreds of small molecules against thousands of human proteins. This large-scale study revealed tens of thousands of ligand-protein interactions that can now be explored for the development of chemical tools and therapeutics. Moreover, powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence, it allows unbiased predictions of how small molecules interact with all proteins present in living human cells. These groundbreaking results have been published in the journal Science, and all generated data and models are freely available for the scientific community. -- The majority of all drugs are small molecules that influence the activity of proteins. -- These small molecules -- if well understood -- are also invaluable tools to characterize the behavior of proteins and to do basic biological research. -- Given these essential roles, it is surprising that for more than 80 percent of all proteins, no small-molecule binders have been identified so far. -- This hinders the development of novel drugs and therapeutic strategies, but likewise prevents novel biological insights into health and disease. -- To close this gap, researchers at CeMM in collaboration with Pfizer have expanded and scaled an experimental platform that enables them to measure how hundreds of small molecules with various chemical structures interact with all expressed proteins in living cells. -- This yielded a rich catalog of tens of thousands of ligand-protein interactions than can now be further optimized to represent starting points for further therapeutic development. -- In their study, the team led by CeMM PI Georg Winter has exemplified this by developing small-molecule binders of cellular transporters, components of the cellular degradation machinery and to understudied proteins involved in cellular signal transduction. -- Moreover, taking advantage of the large dataset, machine learning and artificial intelligence models were developed that can predict how additional small molecules interact with proteins expressed in living human cells. -- "We were amazed to see how artificial intelligence and machine learning can elevate our understanding of small-molecule behavior in human cells. We hope that our catalog of small molecule-protein interactions and the associated artificial intelligence models can now provide a shortcut in drug discovery approaches," says Georg Winter. To maximize the potential impact and usefulness for the scientific community, all data and models are made freely available through a web application. "This was an outstanding partnership between industry and academia. We are delighted to present the results which were obtained through three years of close collaboration and teamwork between the groups. It's been a great project," says Dr Patrick Verhoest, Vice President and Head of Medicine Design at Pfizer. | H01 T01 T02 | 18 |
| 2418-039 | Ready And Vigilant: Immune Cells On Standby | Immune Cells Remain Alert Due to Constant Stimulation from Healthy Tissue | Scientists in Vienna have discovered that immune cells are constantly stimulated by healthy tissue, keeping them active and prepared to respond to pathogens. This insight could lead to new medications that selectively enhance immune responses and improve overall health. | CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences | Nature Immunology | Press Rel | PubMed | When pathogens invade the body, the immune system must react immediately to prevent or contain an infection. But how do our defence cells stay ready when no attacker is in sight? Scientists from Vienna have found a surprising explanation: They are constantly stimulated by healthy tissue. This keeps them active and ready to respond to pathogens. Based on this insight, future medications could be devised to selectively enhance our immune system's attention. The study has been published in the journal Nature Immunology. -- Communication is crucial in immune defence. When a virus infects a cell, the cell releases signalling molecules. This alerts immune cells, and our immune system is rapidly activated. Immune cells process such signals through the JAK-STAT signalling pathway -- named after Janus, the two-faced Roman god of beginnings and endings. This pathway links signal detection on the cell surface to the core regulatory machinery of immune cells, activating a set of genes and putting the immune cells into attack mode. -- Even when there is no immediate threat, our immune cells must remain vigilant. At the same time, they should not cause damage through unnecessary activity, as it is the case with autoimmune diseases. How our defence cells maintain this balance is poorly understood. A team of research groups from Vienna (www.jak-stat.at) has now put forward an explanation in the journal Nature Immunology: "The same JAK-STAT signalling pathway that activates immune cells during an infection also keeps them on standby when no pathogens are in sight," explains Christoph Bock, Principal Investigator at CeMM and Professor at the Medical University of Vienna. When encountering a pathogen, the immune cells thus only need to increase the signalling intensity, which is much faster than turning on a completely new signalling pathway. -- To reach this conclusion, the team examined twelve mutant mouse models, each with a genetically altered component of the JAK-STAT signalling pathway. These mice were raised free of diseases and compared with genetically unaltered mice. It was observed that the mutant mice lacked some of the characteristic gene activity and epigenetic regulation of the standby state. Something similar happened when defence cells were removed from their tissue environment and kept in cell culture: They lost their characteristic standby state and even parts of their identity as immune cells. -- The team analysed the gene expression and epigenetics of immune cells and tissue samples collected by seven research teams from Vienna. "Our analyses were only possible due to the establishment of uniform laboratory standards and robust statistical methods," explains bioinformatician Nikolaus Fortelny (first author and now Professor at the University of Salzburg). "We showed that JAK-STAT signalling has different functions when immune cells are on standby than during the active response to pathogens," explains Matthias Farlik (also a first author and now group leader at the Medical University of Vienna). -- "JAK-STAT signalling is a central mechanism of our body for communicating immune signals," summarizes Thomas Decker (Professor at the Max Perutz Labs and the University of Vienna) the relevance of the study. "Our study provides insights into the role of the immune system: not only does it react to attacks, but it also maintains vigilance without causing unnecessary damage," adds Mathias Müller (Professor at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna). Genes of the JAK-STAT signalling pathway are sometimes pathologically altered in individuals with immune diseases and cancer. Therefore, this research also provides possible approaches for future therapies. | R01 | 19 |
| 2418-050 | How Electric Vehicle Drivers Can Escape Range Anxiety | Refueling Mindset Shift Could Alleviate Range Anxiety for Electric Vehicle Drivers | Researchers suggest that a change in refueling mindset, rather than battery size or performance, could address range anxiety and speed of charging concerns for electric vehicle drivers, highlighting the importance of shifting perspectives for a seamless EV experience. | Chalmers University of Technology | Energy | Press Rel | PubMed | Two of the biggest challenges faced by new and potential electric vehicle (EV) drivers are range anxiety and speed of charging, but these shouldn't have to be challenges at all. That is according to a study by Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and the University of Delaware, USA. Researchers discovered that a change in refuelling mindset, rather than improving the size or performance of the battery, could be the answer to these concerns. -- The transition from filling up at a petrol station to recharging your electric vehicle in the most convenient location for you, requires a whole new way of thinking about refuelling a car. -- However, new EV drivers often remain in their old mindset and get stuck constantly checking the gauge and planning for the next charge point. -- This can lead drivers to feel anxious. But what if they are thinking about it all wrong? -- Researchers have now identified three different types of behaviour around refuelling a car, which are described in the recently published paper, "Mental models guide electric vehicle charging." They are: -- 1. The monitor fuel gauge model -- the driver refuels when the fuel is running out -- 2. The planning a trip model -- the driver plans when and where they will stop to refuel their vehicle along a journey -- 3. The event-triggered model -- e.g. the driver automatically plugs in as soon as arriving home or work The first model represents how most people refuel a petrol or diesel car, and the third model is the best for optimum electric vehicle usage. -- "Experienced electric vehicle users have chosen an event or location to trigger their plug-in; for example, they will automatically plug in when they come home or get to work, so it becomes part of their morning or evening routine, which makes it less of a chore to think about charging. There is a lot of emphasis on the time it takes to charge an EV, but if you do it overnight, it is just the time it takes to plug it in. So really, it is just the long trips that you need to plan for," says Professor Frances Sprei, of Chalmers University of Technology, who led the study, along with Willett Kempton from the University of Delaware. -- The right infrastructure in the right places | H02 C01 | 20 |
| 2418-T044 | Toxic Chemicals Can Be Detected With New Ai Method | AI Detects Toxic Chemicals Based on Structure | Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg have developed an AI method to identify toxic chemicals based on molecular structure, aiding in better control and understanding of chemicals in society while reducing animal tests. The extensive use of chemicals in various products poses risks to humans and ecosystems, making it crucial to identify toxic substances efficiently. PFAS, a group of concerning substances, has been found in high concentrations in groundwater and drinking water, highlighting the importance of developing effective methods to assess chemical safety without relying solely on animal testing. | Chalmers University of Technology | Science Advances | Press Rel | PubMed | Swedish researchers at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg have developed an AI method that improves the identification of toxic chemicals -- based solely on knowledge of the molecular structure. The method can contribute to better control and understanding of the ever-growing number of chemicals used in society, and can also help reduce the amount of animal tests. -- The use of chemicals in society is extensive, and they occur in everything from household products to industrial processes. Many chemicals reach our waterways and ecosystems, where they may cause negative effects on humans and other organisms. One example is PFAS, a group of problematic substances which has recently been found in concerning concentrations in both groundwater and drinking water. It has been used, for example, in firefighting foam and in many consumer products. -- Negative effects for humans and the environment arise despite extensive chemical regulations, that often require time-consuming animal testing to demonstrate when chemicals can be considered as safe. In the EU alone, more than two million animals are used annually to comply with various regulations. At the same time, new chemicals are developed at a rapid pace, and it is a major challenge to determine which of these that need to be restricted due to their toxicity to humans or the environment. -- Valuable help in the development of chemicals -- The new method developed by the Swedish researchers utilises artificial intelligence for rapid and cost-effective assessment of chemical toxicity. It can therefore be used to identify toxic substances at an early phase and help reduce the need for animal testing. -- "Our method is able to predict whether a substance is toxic or not based on its chemical structure. It has been developed and refined by analysing large datasets from laboratory tests performed in the past. The method has thereby been trained to make accurate assessments for previously untested chemicals," says Mikael Gustavsson, researcher at the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Chalmers University of Technology, and at the Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg. -- "There are currently more than 100,000 chemicals on the market, but only a small part of these have a well-described toxicity towards humans or the environment. To assess the toxicity of all these chemicals using conventional methods, including animal testing, is not practically possible. Here, we see that our method can offer a new alternative," says Erik Kristiansson, professor at the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Chalmers and at the University of Gothenburg. -- The researchers believe that the method can be very useful within environmental research, as well as for authorities and companies that use or develop new chemicals. They have therefore made it open and publicly available. -- Broader and more accurate than today's computational tools -- Computational tools for finding toxic chemicals already exist, but so far, they have had too narrow applicability domains or too low accuracy to replace laboratory tests to any greater extent. In the researchers' study, they compared their method with three other, commonly used, computational tools, and found that the new method has both a higher accuracy and that it is more generally applicable. | H01 N01 T01 | 21 |
| 2418-E054 | Novel Genetic Plant Regeneration Approach Without The Application Of Phytohormones | Novel Genetic Plant Regeneration System Developed | Conventional plant regeneration via cell culture typically involves the use of plant growth regulators, which can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. However, researchers have created a new system that genetically controls plant cell differentiation without the need for hormones, potentially simplifying the development of genetically modified plants. This breakthrough has the potential to revolutionize plant breeding practices, offering a simpler and more cost-effective approach to creating genetically modified plants. | Chiba University | Frontiers in Plant Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Conventional plant regeneration approaches by cell culture require the external application of plant growth regulators, including hormones. However, optimizing culture conditions can be laborious. Now, researchers have developed a novel plant regeneration system that omits the need for hormone application by genetically regulating the expression of genes that control plant cell differentiation. Their work holds significant potential in the development of genetically modified plants in a simpler and cost-effective manner. -- For ages now, plants have been the primary source of nutrition for animals and humankind. Additionally, plants are used for the extraction of various medicinal and therapeutic compounds. However, their indiscriminate use, along with the rising demand for food, underscores the need for novel plant breeding practices. Advances in plant biotechnology can address the problems associated with food scarcity in the future by enabling the production of genetically modified (GM) plants with higher productivity and resilience to the changing climate. -- Naturally, plants can regenerate an entire new plant from a single 'totipotent' cell (a cell that can give rise to multiple cell types) through dedifferentiation and redifferentiation into cells with various structures and functions. Artificial regulation of such totipotent cells through plant tissue culture is widely used for plant conservation, breeding, generation of GM species, and scientific research purposes. Conventionally, tissue culture for plant regeneration requires the application of plant growth regulators (PGRs), such as auxins and cytokinins, to control cell differentiation. However, optimum hormone conditions can vary significantly with plant species, culture conditions, and tissue type. Therefore, establishing optimum PGR conditions can be time-consuming and laborious. -- To overcome this challenge, Associate Professor Tomoko Igawa, along with Associate Professor Mai F. Minamikawa from Chiba University, Professor Hitoshi Sakakibara from the Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, and Expert Technician Mikiko Kojima from RIKEN CSRS, have developed a versatile method of plant regeneration by modulating the expression of 'developmental regulator' (DR) genes which control plant cell differentiation. Giving further insights into their research work published on 3 April 2024 in Volume 15 of Frontiers in Plant Science, Dr. Igawa says, "Instead of using external PGRs, our system uses the DR genes, which are involved in development and morphogenesis, to control cellular differentiation. The system utilizes transcription factor genes and resembles induced pluripotent cell generation in mammals." -- The researchers ectopically expressed two DR genes, namely -- BABY BOOM (BBM) and WUSCHEL (WUS) from Arabidopsis thaliana (used as the model plant), and examined their effects on the differentiation of tobacco, lettuce, and petunia tissue cultures. BBM encodes a transcription factor that regulates embryonic development, while WUS encodes a transcription factor that maintains stem cell identity in the shoot apical meristem region. -- Their experiments revealed that the expression of Arabidopsis BBM or WUS alone was insufficient to induce cell differentiation in tobacco leaf tissue. Conversely, co-expression of functionally enhanced BBM and functionally modified WUS induced an accelerated and autonomous differentiation phenotype. The transgenic leaf cells differentiated into calli (a disorganized mass of cells), greenish organ-like structures, and adventitious shoots in the absence of PGR application. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis (a technique used to quantify gene transcripts) revealed that the expression of Arabidopsis BBM and WUS was associated with the formation of transgenic calli and shoots. -- Given the key role of phytohormones in cell division and differentiation, the researchers went on to quantify the levels of six phytohormones, namely -- auxins, cytokinins, abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellins (GAs), jasmonic acid (JA), salicylic acid (SA), and their metabolites in the transgenic plant cultures. Their findings revealed that the levels of active auxins, cytokinins, ABA, and inactive GAs increased as cells differentiated to form organs, highlighting their role in plant cell differentiation and organogenesis. -- Furthermore, the researchers used transcriptome by RNA sequencing (a technique used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of gene expression) to assess the gene expression patterns in the transgenic cells showing active differentiation. Their results suggested that genes related to cell proliferation and auxins were enriched among the differentially upregulated genes. Further validation using qPCR revealed that four genes were upregulated or downregulated in the transgenic cells, including those regulating plant cell differentiation, metabolism, organogenesis, and auxin response. -- Overall, these findings shed light on the novel and versatile approach to plant regeneration without the need for externally applying PGR. Moreover, the system used in this study has the potential to advance our understanding of the fundamental processes of plant cell differentiation and improve the biotechnological breeding of useful plant species. -- Highlighting the applications of their work, Dr. Igawa remarks, "The reported system can improve plant breeding by providing a tool to induce cellular differentiation of GM plant cells without PGR application. Therefore, in societies where GM plants are accepted as products, it would accelerate plant breeding and reduce associated production costs." | H01 C01 N01 N02 T01 | 22 |
| 2418-061 | Researchers Identify Causal Genetic Variant Linked To Common Childhood Obesity | Genetic Variant Linked to Childhood Obesity Identified | Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia identified a genetic variant strongly associated with childhood obesity, shedding light on its neurobiological underpinnings in the hypothalamus. This discovery could lead to future therapeutic interventions targeting the identified gene as a potential treatment for childhood obesity. | Children's Hospital of Philadelphia | Cell Genomics | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have identified a causal genetic variant strongly associated with childhood obesity. The study provides new insight into the importance of the hypothalamus of the brain and its role in common childhood obesity and the target gene may serve as a druggable target for future therapeutic interventions. The findings were published today in the journal Cell Genomics. -- Both environmental and genetic factors play critical roles in the increasing incidence of childhood obesity. -- While the exact role of genetics in childhood obesity is still not fully understood, prior studies show that neuronal pathways in the hypothalamus control food intake and are key regulators for the disease. -- Prior international genome-wide association studies (GWAS) led by CHOP investigators found specific genetic markers, or loci, linked with obesity. -- Most of these studies revealed loci associated with childhood and adult obesity in equal measure, and most of these loci have been in non-coding regions of the genome, which means they do not code for specific proteins, making their mechanisms much more difficult to study. -- This latest research focused on chr12q13, a locus harboring the nearby gene FAIM2 that generated a strikingly stronger signal with childhood obesity when compared to adult obesity. -- "By focusing specifically on this locus, we were able to pinpoint a causal variant associated with one of the strongest genetic signals we have implicated in childhood obesity," said first study author Sheridan H. Littleton, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate who conducted this work as a member of the Center for Spatial and Functional Genomics team at CHOP. -- "With more research, there's potential to learn how the target of this variant's action may be a target for new therapies specifically designed to treat childhood obesity." -- In addition to childhood obesity, the locus in question has been found to be connected to a variety of related health issues, including elevated type 2 diabetes susceptibility, increased body fat percentage in children and adults, and earlier age of menstruation. -- Using a variety of techniques, the researchers narrowed their focus on rs7132908, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), or variant, at the locus. | H01 R01 | 23 |
| 2418-E062 | Childcare Pick-Up: A 1-Hour Window To Build Healthier Eating Habits | After-Care Snacks Influence Children's Eating Habits | A recent study on children's after-care food and drink habits revealed that these accounted for a significant portion of added sugar intake and sweet and salty snacks. The study, conducted by experts at Cincinnati Children's, highlights the nutritional implications of after-care snacks and the need for greater awareness among parents. The findings underscore the importance of promoting healthier snack options for children in childcare settings to improve overall dietary habits. | Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center | Children's Health Care | Press Rel | PubMed | Millions of working parents know the routine: bustle the kids off to childcare in the morning, work all day, then fight the daily traffic jams to get the kids back home. Something to drink, maybe a snack to munch, can help ease the commute. -- Understandably, few parents take the time to think about the nutrients or calories involved, but experts at Cincinnati Children's decided to take a closer look. -- Their eyebrow-raising findings were published April 27, 2024, in the journal Children's Health Care. -- The researchers took a fresh look at older data contained in daily food journals kept by more than 300 families of children who attended 30 childcare centers that participated in the Preschool Eating and Activity Study (2009-2011). They found that the hour after parents and caregivers picked up their children stood out as a high-calorie, relatively less healthy part of the child's overall diet. -- Overall, these children, ages 3 to 5, consumed more than 1,471 calories across the entire day -- an amount on the high end of recommended daily limits. -- Of that amount, 290 calories, on average, were consumed in the hour after leaving day care. -- That's about 20% of the day's entire calorie intake. -- Adding concern: after-care food and drink accounted for about 22% of the day's added sugar and about one-third of the sweet and salty snack foods the children ate. -- "Every parent knows how busy that time of day can feel. Parents can feel stressed, the kids may be cranky, hungry, or tired. There's nothing wrong with treats once in a while," says senior author Kristen Copeland, MD, Division of General and Community Pediatrics. -- "But that car ride home also can be an opportunity to instill healthier habits instead of less healthy ones." | H01 H02 | 24 |
| 2418-082 | Scent Sells -- But The Right Picture Titillates Both Eyes And Nose, Research Finds | Appeal Sells: Research Shows A Picture Can Boost Produce Sales | New research confirms that scented products with relevant images on the packaging, like flowers or fruit, are more appealing to consumers and score better in product evaluations. Manufacturers can use images that evoke a stronger sense of smell to promote scented products in a cost-effective way, expanding beyond traditional products like perfumes and candles. | City University London | International Journal of Research in Marketing | Press Rel | PubMed | Scented products with relevant images on their packaging and branding, such as flowers or fruit, are more attractive to potential customers and score better in produce evaluations, new research confirms. -- And such images, the researchers conclude, are particularly effective if manufacturers and marketers choose pictures that are more likely to stimulate a stronger sense of the imagined smell -- for example, cut rather than whole lemons. This, they say, suggests that as well as seducing our eyes, the images are stimulating our sense of smell. -- The study, published online in the International Journal of Research in Marketing, could provide manufacturers and marketers with a cost-effective way of promoting the ever expanding range of scented products. As well as the obvious, such as perfumes, candles and air fresheners, products such as bottled water and greeting cards are now sometimes infused with scent. -- The whiff of failure -- Despite rising recognition of the power of scent, the paper says, much product branding does not include an image evoking an appealing smell. Alternatively, other marketers and their clients even choose images that actually reduce consumer appeal. Examples include objects whose unpleasant odours the product is designed to disguise, such as old trainers or ash trays. The new study confirms the negative impact of such images. -- It also revealed that only 27% of the 957 scented laundry detergents and all-purpose cleaners on sale in America included in the study carried a picture of the object whose scent was recreated in the product. -- The researchers then measured the customer ratings for the 532 products where consumers had provided feedback using 1-5 stars on the retailers' website. Products branded with a relevant image of the source of the scent scored significantly better, with an average rating of 4.66 out of 5 stars, compared to 4.46 stars for products without a picture of scent on the package. -- In an online study, 200 participants were asked to choose between two fruit-scented handwash products with and without pictures of the relevant fruit on packaging/advertising. As expected, the presence of an image was more important in determining consumer choice than whether the handwash was scented with clementines or pears. -- A rose by any other name… -- Similarly, when considering products described as having a floral scent, images of yellow roses scored better with participants than sunflowers, almost certainly because the latter does not have a strong smell. | H01 T02 | 25 |
| 2418-058 | Cell Contractions Drive The Initial Shaping Of Human Embryos | Cell Contractions Drive Human Embryo Shaping | Scientists at the Genetics and Developmental Biology Unit at the Institut Curie discovered that human embryo compaction, a vital step in early embryo development, is driven by the contraction of cells rather than cell adhesion. This finding challenges previous assumptions and could improve assisted reproductive technology outcomes. | CNRS | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | In humans, embryonic cell compaction is a crucial step in the normal development of an embryo. Four days after fertilisation, cells move closer together to give the embryo its initial shape. Defective compaction prevents the formation of the structure that ensures the embryo can implant in the uterus. In assisted reproductive technology (ART), this stage is carefully monitored before an embryo is implanted. -- An interdisciplinary research team1 led by scientists at the Genetics and Developmental Biology Unit at the Institut Curie (CNRS/Inserm/Institut Curie) studying the mechanisms at play in this still little-known phenomenon has made a surprising discovery: human embryo compaction is driven by the contraction of embryonic cells. -- Compaction problems are therefore due to faulty contractility in these cells, and not a lack of adhesion between them, as was previously assumed. -- This mechanism had already been identified in flies, zebrafish and mice, but is a first in humans. -- By improving our understanding of the early stages of human embryonic development, the research team hopes to contribute to the refinement of ART as nearly one third of inseminations are unsuccessful today.2 -- The results were obtained by mapping cell surface tensions in human embryonic cells. -- The scientists also tested the effects of inhibiting contractility and cell adhesion and analysed the mechanical signature of embryonic cells with defective contractility. -- Notes : 1 -- Scientists from the following entities also took part in the study: the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en biologie (CNRS/Collège de France/Inserm), the Reproductive Biology Department -- CECOS (AP-HP) and the Institut Cochin (CNRS/Inserm/Université Paris Cité). -- 2 -- Source: Agence de la biomédecine | N01 N02 | 26 |
| 2418-054 | Scientists Identify New Brain Circuit In Mice That Controls Body's Inflammatory Reactions | New Brain Circuit in Mice Controls Inflammatory Reactions | Scientists from Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute discovered that the brain can regulate the immune system to manage inflammation levels. This new understanding opens up possibilities for developing treatments for a range of disorders where the immune system is dysregulated, thanks to advanced technologies in brain research. | Columbia University | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | The brain can direct the immune system to an unexpected degree, capable of detecting, ramping up and tamping down inflammation, shows a new study in mice from researchers at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute. -- "The brain is the center of our thoughts, emotions, memories and feelings," said Hao Jin, PhD, a co-first author of the study published online today in Nature. "Thanks to great advances in circuit tracking and single-cell technology, we now know the brain does far more than that. It is monitoring the function of every system in the body." -- Future research could identify drugs that can target this newfound brain circuit to help treat a vast range of disorders and diseases in which the immune system goes haywire. -- "This new discovery could provide an exciting therapeutic venue to control inflammation and immunity," said Charles S. Zuker, PhD, the study's senior author, a principal investigator at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. -- Recent work from the Zuker lab and other groups is revealing the importance of the body-brain axis, a vital pathway that conveys data between the organs and the brain. -- For example, Dr. Zuker and his colleagues discovered that sugar and fat entering the gut use the body-brain axis to drive the craving and strong appetite for sugary and fatty foods. -- "We found all these ways in which the body is informing the brain about the body's current state," said co-first author Mengtong Li, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Zuker lab. -- "We wanted to understand how much farther the brain's knowledge and control of the body's biology went." -- The scientists looked for connections the brain might have with inflammation and innate immunity, the defense system shared by all animals and the most ancient component of the immune system. -- Whereas the adaptive immune system remembers previous encounters with intruders to help it resist them if they invade again, the innate immune system attacks anything with common traits of germs. | H01 R01 R02 N01 | 27 |
| 2418-063 | Clogged Arteries Worsened By Cells That Behave Like Cancer Cells | Clogged Arteries Worsened by Cancer-Like Cells | Columbia University researchers have discovered that cells inside clogged arteries share similarities with cancer cells, potentially opening the door to using anticancer drugs as a new treatment for atherosclerosis and heart attacks. The study found that smooth muscle cells migrate into atherosclerotic plaques, activate cancer genes, and proliferate within the plaques, driving the disease progression. | Columbia University Irving Medical Center | Circulation | Press Rel | PubMed | -Columbia University researchers have found cells inside clogged arteries share similarities with cancer and aggravate atherosclerosis, raising the possibility that anticancer drugs could be used to treat atherosclerosis and prevent heart attacks. -- Their study found that smooth muscle cells that normally line the inside of our arteries migrate into atherosclerotic plaques, change their cell identity, activate cancer genes, and proliferate inside the plaques. -- "Our study shows that these transformed muscle cells are driving atherosclerosis, opening the door to new ways to treat the disease, potentially with existing cancer drugs," says Muredach Reilly, MD, the Florence and Herbert Irving Endowed Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of Columbia's Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. -- The study, published April 30 in Circulation, was led by Reilly and Huize Pan, now an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who conducted the research when he was an associate research scientist at Columbia. -- DNA damage, hyperproliferation -- Atherosclerosis is the major cause of heart attacks and stroke around the world and occurs when fat deposits build up inside the arteries. Atherosclerosis can be reduced with a healthy diet or drugs called statins that slow or reverse the buildup of deposits. -- Previous studies had found that smooth muscle cells metamorphose into different types of cells inside these atherosclerotic plaques and multiply to make up most cells within the plaques. -- Yet until now, few studies had examined the cancer-like properties of the cells and if these changes contributed to atherosclerosis. To learn more, Reilly and Pan closely tracked the development of transformed smooth muscle cells in mice with atherosclerosis and sampled plaques of people with atherosclerosis. -- They found striking parallels between changes in the smooth muscle cells and tumor cells, including hyperproliferation, resistance to cell death, and invasiveness. -- DNA damage, another hallmark of cancer, accumulated in the mouse and human smooth muscle cells and appears to accelerate atherosclerosis, the researchers found. The researchers could further accelerate atherosclerosis in mice by introducing a genetic mutation that increased DNA damage within the smooth muscle cells. Vascular tissue from healthy mice and people had no signs of smooth muscle cells with the DNA damage found in atherosclerotic plaques. | H01 R01 C01 | 28 |
| 2418-E002 | Shoulder Surgeons Should Rethink A Common Practice, Study Suggests | Shoulder Surgeons Should Rethink A Common Practice, Study Suggests | New research from Columbia University challenges the common practice of removing the bursa during rotator cuff surgery, suggesting that this small tissue plays a crucial role in the healing process. Understanding the importance of the bursa could improve the outcomes of shoulder surgeries and enhance recovery for patients. | Columbia University Irving Medical Center | Science Translational Medicine | Press Rel | PubMed | A common practice of shoulder surgeons may be impairing the success of rotator cuff surgery, a new study from orthopedic scientists and biomedical engineers at Columbia University suggests. -- During the surgery, surgeons often remove a tissue called the bursa while repairing torn tendons in the shoulder joint, but the study suggests that the small tissue plays a role in helping the shoulder heal. -- "It is common to remove the bursa during shoulder surgery, even for the simple purpose of visualizing the rotator cuff," says Stavros Thomopoulos, PhD, the study's senior author and the Robert E. Carroll and Jane Chace Carroll Laboratories Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. -- "But we really don't know the role of the bursa in rotator cuff disease, so we don't know the full implications of removing it," Thomopoulos says. -- "Our findings in an animal model indicate that surgeons should not remove the bursa without carefully considering the consequences." -- The challenge of rotator cuff surgery -- If you haven't yet injured your shoulder, it may just be a matter of time. -- Most damage to tendons in the rotator cuff comes from wear and tear that accumulates over years of repetitive motions. -- Among people over 65, about half have experienced a rotator cuff tear, which can make simple daily tasks like combing one's hair difficult and painful. -- More than 500,000 rotator cuff surgeries are performed each year in the United States to repair these injuries, restore range of motion, and alleviate pain, but they frequently fail -- ranging from one in five surgeries in young patients to as high as 94% in elderly patients with large tears. | N01 | 29 |
| 2418-084 | 'Baby Asteroid' Just A Toddler In Space Years | Space Baby: Researchers Estimate Age Of 'Baby Asteroid' | Cornell University-led research has estimated the age of an asteroid to be just 2-3 million years old, using innovative statistical calculations. This discovery, based on the dynamics of the asteroid Dinkinesh and its moonlet Selam, provides insights into the asteroid's formation and complements NASA's findings based on surface craters. | Cornell University | Astronomy & Astrophysics | Press Rel | PubMed | An asteroid discovered last November is in fact a solar system toddler -- just 2-3 million years old, a Cornell University-led research team estimates using novel statistical calculations. -- The team derived the age of Selam, a "moonlet" circling the small asteroid Dinkinesh in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, based only on dynamics, or how the pair moves in space. -- Their calculation agrees with one by NASA's Lucy mission based on an analysis of surface craters, the more traditional method for dating asteroids. -- The new method complements that work and has some advantages: It doesn't require an expensive spacecraft to capture close-up images; could be more accurate in cases where asteroid surfaces have undergone recent changes; and can be applied to the secondary bodies in dozens of other known binary systems, which account for 15% of near-Earth asteroids, the researchers said. -- "Finding the ages of asteroids is important to understanding them, and this one is remarkably young when compared to the age of the solar system, meaning it formed somewhat recently," said Colby Merrill, a doctoral student in the field of aerospace engineering. -- "Obtaining the age of this one body can help us to understand the population as a whole." -- Merrill is the first author of "Age of (152830) Dinkinesh-Selam Constrained by Secular Tidal-BYORP Theory," published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. -- Merrill, a dynamics expert who was part of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, was watching closely when the Lucy spacecraft flew by Dinkinesh on Nov. -- 1, 2023, and unexpectedly found Selam. The latter turned out to be "an extraordinarily unique and complex body," Merrill said -- a so-called "contact binary" consisting of two lobes that are essentially rubble piles stuck together, and the first of its kind seen orbiting another asteroid. -- Binary asteroids are dynamically complex and fascinating objects that are engaged in a sort of tug of war, the researchers said. | C01 T02 | 30 |
| 2418-E043 | Long Snouts Protect Foxes When Diving Headfirst In Snow | Long Snouts Protect Foxes When Diving Headfirst into Snow During Winter | A Cornell University study found that foxes plunge headfirst into the snow to hunt mice at high speeds, but their sharp noses reduce impact force, preventing injuries. This biomechanical research offers insights into animal adaptations and could inform human activities in snowy environments. | Cornell University | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | Press Rel | PubMed | When hunting for mice in winter, red and arctic fox are known to plunge headfirst at speeds of 2-4 meters per second, but their sharp noses reduce the impact force in snow and protect them from injury, according to a new Cornell University study. -- The fundamental research sheds light on the biomechanics of the unique hunting behavior (known as mousing), advances our understanding of animal adaptations and offers insights into snow injuries people experience during snowboarding or skiing. -- The study published April 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. -- While there have been many studies of water birds and animals such as porpoises and dolphins diving from air into water, interactions between animals and the air-snow interface have not been well-researched. Snow has fluid-like properties when light and fluffy, and solid-like properties when compacted, such as when people make snowballs. -- "The fox's sharp snout doesn't significantly compress the snow, it penetrates it without much resistance," said Sunghwan Jung, the paper's corresponding author and professor of biological and environmental engineering. Jisoo Yuk, a doctoral student in Jung's lab, is the paper's first author. -- In the study, the authors scanned skulls of red and arctic foxes (from the Canidae family) and lynx and puma skulls (from the Felidae family) at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. They 3D-printed the skulls and attached each to a sensor that measured impact force. The skulls were then dropped into both snow and water, and the researchers entered data into computer models to compare impacts of both. -- Jung and colleagues found that the foxes' sharp snouts penetrated the snow with little resistance, minimizing potential tissue damage during a headfirst dive. "Without much compression, in spite of the high-speed impact, the snow behaves like water," Jung said. But the flat Felidae snouts compressed the snow upon impact, creating a large and potentially damaging resistance. -- When mousing in snow, the fox's long snout also allows it to reach its prey earlier, as mice are very sensitive to movements in their environment and can quickly escape. Other behavioral studies have shown that prior to pouncing, foxes shake their heads to listen to the rustling sounds of mice or other animals beneath the snow's surface, thereby gauging the depth of the sound source. -- "This is a very dangerous process, but we haven't had reports of foxes getting injured," Jung said. -- The study was funded by the National Science Foundation. | H01 R01 N01 | 31 |
| 2418-E068 | Robots Invited To Help Make Wind Turbine Blades | Robotic Assistance Improves Wind Turbine Blade Manufacturing Process | Researchers have successfully used robotic assistance in manufacturing wind turbine blades, improving product consistency and eliminating difficult working conditions. This advancement in automation technology could revolutionize the wind energy industry. | DOE/National Renewable Energy Laboratory | Wind Energy | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have successfully leveraged robotic assistance in the manufacture of wind turbine blades, allowing for the elimination of difficult working conditions for humans and the potential to improve the consistency of the product. -- Although robots have been used by the wind energy industry to paint and polish blades, automation has not been widely adopted. -- Research at the laboratory demonstrates the ability of a robot to trim, grind, and sand blades. -- Those necessary steps occur after the two sides of the blade are made using a mold and then bonded together. -- "I would consider it a success," said Hunter Huth, a robotics engineer at NREL and lead author of a newly published paper detailing the work. -- "Not everything operated as well as we wanted it to, but we learned all the lessons we think we need to make it meet or exceed our expectations." -- The paper, "Toolpath Generation for Automated Wind Turbine Blade Finishing Operations," appears in the journal Wind Energy. The coauthors, all from NREL, are Casey Nichols, Scott Lambert, Petr Sindler, Derek Berry, David Barnes, Ryan Beach, and David Snowberg. -- The post-molding operations to manufacture wind turbine blades require workers to perch on scaffolding and wear protective suits including respiratory gear. -- Automation, the researchers noted, will boost employee safety and well-being and help manufacturers retain skilled labor. -- "This work is critical to enable significant U.S.-based blade manufacturing for the domestic wind turbine market," said Daniel Laird, director of the National Wind Technology Center at NREL. | T01 | 32 |
| 2418-E066 | New Eco-Friendly Lubricant Additives Protect Turbine Equipment, Waterways | Eco-Friendly Lubricant Additives Protect Water Turbine Equipment | Scientists have developed lubricant additives to protect water turbine equipment and the environment. These environmentally friendly additives improve performance while minimizing environmental impact, addressing the issue of lubricant oil pollution. | DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory | ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering | Press Rel | PubMed | Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed lubricant additives that protect both water turbine equipment and the surrounding environment. -- Each year, roughly 2.47 billion gallons of lubricating oil are consumed in the United States alone for engines and industrial machinery, according to DOE, with about half eventually finding its way into the environment. -- While environmentally acceptable lubricants are available, they are not optimized with additives that can greatly improve performance while posing minimal environmental impact if accidentally released. -- To create nontoxic, biodegradable and high-performing lubricant additives for water power turbines, researchers turned to ionic liquids, or ILs: organic liquid salts that mix well with oil, reduce friction between bearings and gears, and are stable in a range of temperatures. -- A team of materials and environmental scientists at ORNL worked together to design, synthesize and test top-candidate ILs of ammonium phosphate and phosphonium phosphate that provide a good mix of properties. -- When added to base oils, the ILs demonstrated 50% less friction and a tenfold decrease in equipment wear compared to a commercially available gear oil, while meeting federal standards for environmental toxicity and biodegradability, as described in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering -- The project builds on more than 20 years of IL research at ORNL, including the development of lubricant additives designed to reduce engine wear and boost fuel economy in vehicles. -- "Our previous work showed us that you could dramatically increase the performance of lubricants with the addition of just 1% or even a half-percent of ILs," said ORNL's Jun Qu, who leads the project and the Surface Engineering and Tribology group at ORNL. -- This time around, scientists sought to create a nontoxic additive for use in turbines installed in aquatic environments, generating electricity using waves, tides, ocean and river currents. -- Although ILs are generally considered less toxic than conventional lubricant ingredients, their impact on the environment has not been closely studied. | Z01 | 33 |
| 2418-085 | When Working Out, Males Are Programmed To Burn More Fat, While Females Recycle It--At Least In Rats | Exercise Benefits Both Genders, But Differently In Burning Fat | A groundbreaking study from the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium reveals that vigorous exercise burns fat more effectively in males than females. This research, published in Nature Metabolism, explores the molecular actions behind exercise benefits, shedding light on the mechanisms that create positive health outcomes for all individuals. | DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | Nature Metabolism | Press Rel | PubMed | Vigorous exercise burns fat more in males than in females -- an unexpected finding from the largest study to date to explore how exercise affects the body. -- "Everyone knows that exercise is good for you, but no one knows exactly why," said Joshua Adkins, a scientist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and a corresponding author of a study published online May 1 in Nature Metabolism. "We don't know what's happening in the body that creates such great benefits." -- The results come from the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC), a years-long study investigating the molecular actions that translate vigorous movement into a glut of health benefits. The collaboration stretches across more than two dozen sites around the country, involving more than 100 scientists. -- The group published its core paper in the journal Nature on May 1, finding that the effects of exercise are extensive, affecting more than 35,000 molecules. No tissue studied goes unchanged. -- The study subjects were rats, which share much of their basic physiology with people. This group of scientists is now studying more than 1,500 people, using the findings from rats as a starting point to investigate what happens in humans. -- Overall, the MoTrPAC team looked at 18 tissue types as well as blood. They found molecular signals in both males and females that demonstrated extensive benefits of exercise: enhanced liver function, stronger heart muscle, enriched immunity, and reduced inflammation in the lungs and gut. Throughout the body, cellular organelles known as mitochondria -- the energy producers in cells -- become healthier after exercise. -- The most remarkable difference between the sexes was in the fat tissue, the subject of the Nature Metabolism paper. -- "We found that fat tissue between males and females is very different even in sedentary animals," said Christopher Newgard, a corresponding author and director of the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute. "But then I was truly gobsmacked with how amazingly different the sex-dependent responses to exercise are. Males burn fat for energy while females preserve their fat mass. This is brought about by many differences in molecular responses lurking beneath the surface in fat from male compared to female rats. The dichotomy is truly striking." -- In addition to Adkins and Newgard, corresponding authors of the Nature Metabolism paper are Sue Bodine of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and Simon Schenk of the University of California San Diego. The paper has three "first authors" from PNNL: Gina Many, James Sanford and Tyler Sagendorf. -- Findings from rats on the run | H01 R01 N01 T02 | 34 |
| 2418-E050 | Roadmap To Close The Carbon Cycle | Roadmap To Achieve Net-Zero Carbon Emissions | Led by chemist Wendy Shaw, a multi-institutional effort has created a roadmap for reducing emissions in challenging-to-electrify sectors of the economy, focusing on managing carbon in non-electrifiable areas. By developing non-carbon fuels and finding alternative sources of carbon, researchers hope to reduce emissions and keep carbon in circulation for multiple uses. This comprehensive approach aims to advance the goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions. | DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | Nature Reviews Chemistry | Press Rel | PubMed | A major approach to achieving net-zero carbon emissions relies on converting various parts of the economy, such as personal vehicles and heating, to run via electricity generated from renewable sources. But carbon cannot be removed from all parts of society. Plastics, ubiquitous in the modern world, cannot be decarbonized because they are made of carbon-based molecules. -- Led by chemist Wendy Shaw of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a multi-institutional effort has produced a new roadmap to reducing emissions in hard-to-electrify segments of the economy. -- The multifaceted approach includes developing non-carbon fuels, finding non-fossil sources of carbon, and keeping carbon in play once it enters the cycle, ideally resulting in multiple uses of each carbon atom. -- Single-use carbon can no longer be widespread, the roadmap authors assert. -- The carbon must be kept in play through a circular economy where each carbon atom is used numerous times. -- The carbon can be reused within the same industrial sector or act as a feedstock for a new industrial sector. -- For instance, developing polymer upcycling processes and efficiently reusing carbon-based materials will be central to a net-zero carbon emissions future. -- "We need novel and creative solutions to realize our decarbonization goals," said PNNL Director Steven Ashby. -- "And collaboration is key to accelerating the use-inspired scientific research in catalysis and separations science that will underpin these solutions. I eagerly await these results and their deployment in aviation, heavy duty trucking, and marine transportation." -- The ideas emerged from a workshop on "Closing the Carbon Cycle," jointly hosted by PNNL, Ames National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. | H01 C01 | 35 |
| 2418-T012 | Laser Imaging Could Offer Early Detection For At-Risk Artwork | Art Conservation: Laser Imaging Detects Pigment Breakdown Early | Researchers have developed a laser imaging technique to detect the breakdown of a historic yellow pigment favored by Impressionist artists, allowing for early conservation measures to be taken. By identifying signs of pigment degradation before they are visible to the naked eye, art conservators can preserve the original color and vibrancy of paintings for future generations. | Duke University | Journal of Physics: Photonics | Press Rel | PubMed | Look closely at Impressionist paintings in museums compared with photos of them taken 50 years ago, and you might notice something odd: some are losing their bright yellow hues. -- Take the dramatic sunset in Edward Munch's famous painting "The Scream." Portions of the sky that were once a vivid orangish yellow have faded to off-white. -- Likewise, some of the sunny yellow that Henri Matisse brushed between the reclining nudes in his painting "The Joy of Life" is now more of a drab beige. -- Several other paintings from this period are facing similar issues. -- The bright yellow paint these artists used was made from the chemical compound cadmium sulfide. -- The pigment was beloved by many European artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. -- Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso all brushed their canvasses with it. -- "So many painters really loved this pigment," said Yue Zhou, who earned her Ph.D. in the lab of Duke chemistry professor Warren Warren. -- But as the decades passed, many artists and art conservators realized they had a problem: Their cadmium yellow brushstrokes didn't look as vibrant as they once did. -- The passage of time exposes artwork to light, moisture, dust and other elements of nature that can make pigments vulnerable to fading and discoloration. | H01 T01 | 36 |
| 2418-031 | Blood Test Finds Knee Osteoarthritis Up To Eight Years Before It Appears On X-Rays | Early Prediction of Knee Osteoarthritis Possible with Blood Test | Duke Health researchers have developed a blood test that can predict knee osteoarthritis at least eight years before it appears on x-rays. The study, published in Science Advances, validates the accuracy of the test in identifying biomarkers associated with osteoarthritis development and progression. | Duke University Medical Center | Science Advances | Press Rel | PubMed | A blood test successfully predicted knee osteoarthritis at least eight years before tell-tale signs of the disease appeared on x-rays, Duke Health researchers report. -- In a study appearing April 26 in the journal Science Advances, the researchers validated the accuracy of the blood test that identifies key biomarkers of osteoarthritis. They showed that it predicted development of the disease, as well as its progression, which was demonstrated in their earlier work. -- The research advances the utility of a blood test that would be superior to current diagnostic tools that often don't identify the disease until it has caused structural damage to the joint. -- "Currently, you've got to have an abnormal x-ray to show clear evidence of knee osteoarthritis, and by the time it shows up on x-ray, your disease has been progressing for some time," said senior author Virginia Byers Kraus, M.D., Ph.D., a professor in the departments of Medicine, Pathology, and Orthopedic Surgeryat Duke University School of Medicine. "What our blood test demonstrates is that it's possible to detect this disease much earlier than our current diagnostics permit." -- Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis, afflicting an estimated 35 million adults in the U.S. and causing significant economic and societal impacts. While there are currently no cures, the success of potential new therapies could hinge on identifying the disease early and slowing its progression before it becomes debilitating. -- Kraus and colleagues have focused on developing molecular biomarkers that can be used for both clinical diagnostic purposes and as a research tool to aid in the development of effective drugs. In previous studies, the blood biomarker test demonstrated 74% accuracy in predicting knee OA progression and 85% accuracy in diagnosing knee OA. -- The current study further honed the test's predictive capabilities. Using a large United Kingdom database, the researchers analyzed serum of 200 white women, half diagnosed with OA and the other half without the disease, matched by body mass index and age. -- They found that a small number of biomarkers in the blood test successfully distinguished the women with knee OA from those without it, catching molecular signals of OA eight years before many of the women were diagnosed with the disease by x-ray. -- "This is important because it provides more evidence that there are abnormalities in the joint that can be detected by blood biomarkers well before x-rays can detect OA," Kraus said. "Early-stage osteoarthritis could provide a 'window of opportunity' in which to arrest the disease process and restore joint health." -- In addition to Kraus, study authors include Shuming Sun, Alexander Reed, Erik J. Soderblom, M Arthur Moseley, Kaile Zhou, Vaibhav Jain, Nigel Arden, and Yi-Ju Li. | H01 | 37 |
| 2418-012 | Mini-Colons Revolutionize Colorectal Cancer Research | Mini-Colons Revolutionize Colorectal Cancer Research | In a significant advancement for cancer research, lab-grown mini-colons have been developed to accurately mimic colorectal tumor development, providing a sophisticated model for studying and testing cancer treatments. This breakthrough offers a more realistic and comprehensive approach to understanding tumor development than traditional animal models or cell cultures. Published in the journal Biomolecules, the study highlights the importance of advanced models like organoids in unraveling the complexities of cancer initiation, progression, and treatment response, paving the way for more effective therapeutic strategies in the fight against cancer. | Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | As our battle against cancer rages on, the quest for more sophisticated and realistic models to study tumor development has never been more critical. Until now, research has relied on animal models and simplified cell culture methods, which are valuable but cannot fully capture the complex interplay of factors involved in tumor development. -- Even newer, more advanced models for studying cancer, such as organoids -- tiny, lab-grown versions of organs -- do not faithfully replicate the cell behaviors and tissue architectures seen in actual tumors. -- This gap has significantly hindered our understanding of the intricate processes underlying cancer initiation, progression, and response to treatment, and calls for more sophisticated models to accurately mimic the disease's complexity. -- In a significant leap forward for cancer modeling, scientists have combined microfabrication and tissue engineering techniques to develop miniature colon tissues that can simulate the complex process of tumorigenesis outside the body with high fidelity, giving rise to tumors that closely resemble those found in vivo. -- The breakthrough, now published in Nature, was made by Luis Francisco Lorenzo Martín, Tania Hübscher and other members of the group of Matthias Lütolf at EPFL, with input from the group of Freddy Radtke (EPFL) and colleagues at Roche's Institute of Human Biology. -- The mini-colons are topobiologically complex, meaning that they not only replicate the physical structure of colon tissue, including its distinctive crypt-and-lumen architecture, but they also mimic the cellular diversity present in the actual colon tissue during healthy and diseased states. -- Optogenetics: Turning cancer "on" -- Another important feature of the mini-colons is that they can be induced to develop tumors "at will" and in targeted areas -- a massive advantage for cancer research. -- The researchers were able to turn inducible oncogenic genes on using "optogenetics." This cutting-edge technique uses light to control biological processes such as gene expression. -- By integrating a blue-light-responsive system into the mini-colons, the researchers made them undergo controlled oncogenic mutations, which can reveal tumor evolution with unprecedented details. | R01 N01 | 38 |
| 2418-E025 | Trotting Robots Reveal Emergence Of Animal Gait Transitions | Robot Learns to Avoid Falls by Switching Between Gaits | The EPFL BioRobotics Laboratory has trained a four-legged robot to avoid falls by switching between different gaits using deep reinforcement learning. This research offers new insights into animal locomotion and could have implications for future robotic designs and animal behavior studies. | Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | With the help of a form of machine learning called deep reinforcement learning (DRL), the EPFL robot notably learned to transition from trotting to pronking -- a leaping, arch-backed gait used by animals like springbok and gazelles -- to navigate a challenging terrain with gaps ranging from 14-30cm. The study, led by the BioRobotics Laboratory in EPFL's School of Engineering, offers new insights into why and how such gait transitions occur in animals. -- "Previous research has introduced energy efficiency and musculoskeletal injury avoidance as the two main explanations for gait transitions. More recently, biologists have argued that stability on flat terrain could be more important. But animal and robotic experiments have shown that these hypotheses are not always valid, especially on uneven ground," says PhD student Milad Shafiee, first author on a paper published in Nature Communications. -- Shafiee and co-authors Guillaume Bellegarda and BioRobotics Lab head Auke Ijspeert were therefore interested in a new hypothesis for why gait transitions occur: viability, or fall avoidance. To test this hypothesis, they used DRL to train a quadruped robot to cross various terrains. On flat terrain, they found that different gaits showed different levels of robustness against random pushes, and that the robot switched from a walk to a trot to maintain viability, just as quadruped animals do when they accelerate. And when confronted with successive gaps in the experimental surface, the robot spontaneously switched from trotting to pronking to avoid falls. Moreover, viability was the only factor that was improved by such gait transitions. -- "We showed that on flat terrain and challenging discrete terrain, viability leads to the emergence of gait transitions, but that energy efficiency is not necessarily improved," Shafiee explains. "It seems that energy efficiency, which was previously thought to be a driver of such transitions, may be more of a consequence. When an animal is navigating challenging terrain, it's likely that its first priority is not falling, followed by energy efficiency." -- A bio-inspired learning architecture -- To model locomotion control in their robot, the researchers considered the three interacting elements that drive animal movement: the brain, the spinal cord, and sensory feedback from the body. They used DRL to train a neural network to imitate the spinal cord's transmission of brain signals to the body as the robot crossed an experimental terrain. Then, the team assigned different weights to three possible learning goals: energy efficiency, force reduction, and viability. A series of computer simulations revealed that of these three goals, viability was the only one that prompted the robot to automatically -- without instruction from the scientists -- change its gait. -- The team emphasizes that these observations represent the first learning-based locomotion framework in which gait transitions emerge spontaneously during the learning process, as well as the most dynamic crossing of such large consecutive gaps for a quadrupedal robot. -- "Our bio-inspired learning architecture demonstrated state-of-the-art quadruped robot agility on the challenging terrain," Shafiee says. -- The researchers aim to expand on their work with additional experiments that place different types of robots in a wider variety of challenging environments. In addition to further elucidating animal locomotion, they hope that ultimately, their work will enable the more widespread use of robots for biological research, reducing reliance on animal models and the associated ethics concerns. | R02 N01 T01 | 39 |
| 2418-T036 | Scientists Capture X-Rays From Upward Positive Lightning | X-Rays Captured from Upward Positive Lightning Flashes | Researchers at EPFL have captured X-rays produced at the beginning of upward positive lightning flashes for the first time. This discovery sheds light on the formation of lightning and could help reduce the risks associated with this dangerous natural phenomenon. The study was conducted in collaboration with other research institutions. | Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | Scientific Reports | Press Rel | PubMed | Globally, lightning is responsible for over 4,000 fatalities and billions of dollars in damage every year; Switzerland itself weathers up to 150,000 strikes annually. Understanding exactly how lightning forms is key for reducing risk, but because lightning phenomena occur on sub-millisecond timescales, direct measurements are extremely difficult to obtain. -- Now, researchers from the Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab, led by Farhad Rachidi, in EPFL's School of Engineering have for the first time directly measured an elusive phenomenon that explains a lot about the birth of a lightning bolt: X-ray radiation. -- In a collaborative study with the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland and Uppsala University in Sweden, they recorded lightning strikes at the Säntis tower in northeastern Switzerland, identifying X-rays associated with the beginning of upward positive flashes. -- These flashes start with negatively charged tendrils (leaders) that ascend stepwise from a high-altitude object, before connecting with a thundercloud, transferring positive charge to the ground. -- "At sea level, upward flashes are rare, but could become the dominant type at high altitudes. They also have the potential to be more damaging, because in an upward flash, lightning remains in contact with a structure for longer than it does during a downward flash, giving it more time to transfer electrical charge," explains Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab PhD candidate Toma Oregel-Chaumont. -- Although X-ray emissions have previously been observed from other types of lightning, this is the first time they have been captured from upward positive flashes. -- Oregel-Chaumont, the first author on a recent Nature Scientific Reports paper describing the observations, says that they offer valuable insights into how lightning -- and upward lightning in particular -- forms. -- "The actual mechanism by which lightning initiates and propagates is still a mystery. The observation of upward lightning from tall structures like the Säntis tower makes it possible to correlate X-ray measurements with other simultaneously measured quantities, like high-speed video observations and electric currents." -- A unique observation opportunity -- It's perhaps not surprising that the novel observations were made in Switzerland, as the Säntis tower offers unique and ideal measurement conditions. | H01 C01 T02 | 40 |
| 2418-076 | An Omega-6 Fatty Acid May Reduce The Risk For Bipolar Disorder | Omega-6 Fatty Acid Reduces Bipolar Disorder Risk | A study published in Biological Psychiatry found that a genetic propensity to higher levels of lipids containing arachidonic acid is linked to a lower risk for bipolar disorder. This discovery opens the door for potential lifestyle or dietary interventions to help reduce the risk of developing this debilitating mood disorder. Understanding the genetic factors that contribute to bipolar disorder could lead to more personalized treatment approaches in the future. | Elsevier | Biological Psychiatry | Press Rel | PubMed | A genetic propensity to higher circulating levels of lipids containing arachidonic acid, an omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid found in eggs, poultry, and seafood, has been found to be linked with a lower risk for bipolar disorder, according to a new study in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier. This new evidence paves the way for potential lifestyle or dietary interventions. -- Bipolar disorder is a debilitating mood disorder characterized by recurring episodes of mania and depression. -- Although its etiology is still unclear, previous studies have shown that bipolar disease is highly heritable. -- The findings of this study indicate a link between bipolar disorder and altered metabolite levels, supporting the notion that circulating metabolites play an important etiological role in bipolar disease and other psychiatric disorders. -- Lead investigator David Stacey, PhD, Australian Centre for Precision Health, University of South Australia; UniSA Clinical and Health Sciences; and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, Australia, explains, "Accumulating evidence indicates a role for metabolites in bipolar disorder and other psychiatric disorders. By identifying metabolites that play causal roles in bipolar disorder, we hoped to be able to highlight potential lifestyle or dietary interventions." -- By applying Mendelian randomization, a powerful causal inference method, the researchers identified 33 out of 913 metabolites studied present in the blood that were associated with bipolar disorder, most of them lipids. -- Researchers also found that a bipolar disorder risk gene cluster (FADS1/2/3), which encodes enzymes associated with lipid metabolism, mediated the association between bipolar disorder and the levels of arachidonic acid and other metabolites. -- Commenting on the findings, John Krystal, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, says, "Arachidonic acid is typically a widely present omega-6 fatty acid in the body and brain that contributes to the health of cell membranes. This study provides a fascinating step forward in the effort to develop blood biomarkers of bipolar disorder risk, particularly in those patients with bipolar disorder and risk gene variations in the FADS1/2/3 gene cluster." -- Dr. Stacey notes, "Intriguingly, we observed a pattern whereby a genetic propensity to higher levels of lipids containing an arachidonic acid fatty acid side chain was associated with a lower risk of bipolar disorder, while the inverse was true of lipids containing a linoleic acid side chain. Since arachidonic acid is synthesized from linoleic acid in the liver, this suggests arachidonic acid synthesizing pathways are important for bipolar disorder." -- Given its presence in human milk, arachidonic acid is considered essential for infant brain development and is added to infant formula in many countries. | H01 R01 R02 | 41 |
| 2418-093 | Identifying Risks Of Human Flea Infestations In Plague-Endemic Areas Of Madagascar | Researchers Recommend Solutions To Flea Infestations In Plague Areas | Researchers in Madagascar are exploring ways to reduce flea populations in homes endemic to bubonic plague, caused by fleas spreading the bacterium Yersinia pestis. While rat fleas are the main culprits, human fleas may also play a role in plague outbreaks. | Emory University | PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases | Press Rel | PubMed | Madagascar is one of the last places where outbreaks of human bubonic plague still happen regularly. -- Fleas carrying the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis can spread the disease through their bites. -- And while a species commonly known as "the rat flea" has been fingered as the main culprit in plague outbreaks, a species known as "the human flea" may play a secondary role. -- As an investigator during plague outbreaks in rural Madagascar, medical entomologist Adelaide Miarinjara knew that many households were teeming with these human fleas. -- Miarinjara grew up in the island nation off the east coast of Africa and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University, collaborating with the Pasteur Institute in Madagascar. -- "We have observed huge variability in the number of fleas in different households in the same village," she says. -- "We might collect three or five fleas in one house and hundreds of them in another house." -- Miarinjara led a study to solve the mystery of this variability. -- PLoS Neglected Diseases published her team's findings: The abundance of human fleas is primarily associated with households that have a traditional dirt floor covered by a plant-fiber mat, as opposed to households with cement or board floors. -- A secondary risk factor was keeping animals in the house at night. | N01 N02 | 42 |
| 2418-E049 | Microneedles And Suction Cup For Blood Diagnostics, Modeled On Leeches | Microneedles and Suction Cup Make Blood Testing Easier | A new blood sampling device developed by researchers at ETH Zurich uses microneedles and a suction cup instead of a typical needle, providing a less invasive and more reliable method for obtaining blood samples. This innovative approach could benefit individuals with a fear of needles and improve diagnostic measurements by obtaining more blood than traditional finger pricks. Additionally, the device is cost-effective and suitable for use in developing countries where resources may be limited. | ETH Zurich | Advanced Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Many people are afraid of needles, and having a doctor take a blood sample from their arm makes them uncomfortable. There is an alternative: a prick to the fingertip or earlobe. But for many laboratory tests, the drop of blood that can be obtained from these places is not enough. Above all, however, tests done with them are often inaccurate: laboratory values fluctuate from measurement to measurement. -- Researchers at ETH Zurich have now developed a new device for taking blood samples. -- It works according to the leech principle and is less invasive than taking blood from the arm with a needle. -- It is also easy to handle and can be used by people without medical training. -- Although the new device cannot collect as much blood as a needle, it can collect significantly more than a finger prick. -- This makes diagnostic measurements more reliable. -- Low risk of injury -- The ETH researchers came up with the idea for the new device while previously developing something else: a suction cup that transports medication into the blood via the mucous membrane lining the inside of the mouth. -- "For this earlier project, we had already studied leeches, which attach to their host with a sucker. We realised that we could develop a similar system to collect blood," says David Klein, a doctoral student in the group led by Jean-Christophe Leroux, Professor of Drug Formulation and Delivery at ETH Zurich. -- After leeches have attached themselves, they penetrate the host's skin with their teeth. | H01 R01 T01 | 43 |
| 2418-060 | Father's Gut Microbes Affect The Next Generation | Father's Gut Microbes Impact Next Generation | Researchers at EMBL Rome and EMBL Heidelberg found that changing the gut microbiota in male mice through antibiotics led to low birth weight and increased mortality in their offspring. This study sheds light on the impact of gut microbiota on reproductive health and offspring fitness, with implications for assisted reproduction. | European Molecular Biology Laboratory | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | The gut microbiota is the microbial community that occupies the gastrointestinal tract. It is responsible for producing enzymes, metabolites, and other molecules crucial for host metabolism and in response to the environment. -- Consequently, a balanced gut microbiota is important for mammalian health in many ways, such as helping to regulate the immune and endocrine systems. This in turn, impacts the physiology of tissues throughout the body. However, little was known about the impact of the gut microbiota on host reproduction, and whether an altered microbiota in a father could influence the fitness of his offspring. -- The Hackett group at EMBL Rome, in collaboration with the Bork and the Zimmermann groups at EMBL Heidelberg, set out to answer this question, with their results now published in the journal Nature. The scientists showed that disrupting the gut microbiota in male mice increases the probability that their offspring are born with low weight, and are more likely to die prematurely. -- What is passed on to the next generation -- To study the effects of the gut microbiota on male reproduction and their offspring, the researchers altered the composition of gut microbes in male mice by treating them with common antibiotics that do not enter the bloodstream. This induces a condition called dysbiosis, whereby the microbial ecosystem in the gut becomes unbalanced. -- The scientists then analysed changes in the composition of important testicular metabolites. They found that in male mice dysbiosis affects the physiology of the testes, as well as metabolite composition and hormonal signalling. At least part of this effect was mediated by changes in the levels of the key hormone leptin in blood and testes of males with induced dysbiosis. These observations suggest that in mammals, a 'gut-germline axis' exists as an important connection between the gut, its microbiota, and the germline. -- To understand the relevance of this 'gut-germline' axis to traits inherited by offspring, the scientists mated either untreated or dysbiotic males with untreated females. Mouse pups sired by dysbiotic fathers showed significantly lower birth weights and an increased rate of postnatal mortality. Different combinations of antibiotics as well as treatments with dysbiosis-inducing-laxatives (which also disrupt microbiota) affected offspring similarly. -- Importantly, this effect is reversible. Once antibiotics are withdrawn, paternal microbiota recover. When mice with recovered microbiota were mated with untreated females, their offspring were born with normal birthweight and developed normally as well. -- "We have observed that intergenerational effects disappear once a normal microbiota is restored. That means that any alteration to the gut microbiota able to cause intergenerational effects could be prevented in prospective fathers" said Peer Bork, EMBL Heidelberg Director, who participated in the study. "The next step will be to understand in detail how different environmental factors such as medicinal drugs including antibiotics can affect the paternal germline and, therefore, embryonic development." Ayele Denboba, first author of the publication and former postdoc in the Hackett Group, now Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Immunology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany added "The study originated to understand environmental impacts on fathers by considering the gut microbiota as a nexus of host-environment interactions, thus creating a sufficient-cause model to assess intergenerational health risks in complex ecological systems." -- Paternal impact on pregnancy disease risk | H01 R01 R02 N01 | 44 |
| 2418-E028 | Details Of Hurricane Ian's Aftermath Captured With New Remote Sensing Method | Hurricane Ian's Impact on Estero Island Captured Through Remote Sensing | A study using aerial imagery and LiDAR has identified the areas most impacted by Hurricane Ian on Estero Island in Southwest Florida. By estimating structural damage and beach changes, researchers have highlighted the importance of advanced technology in assessing and responding to natural disasters for effective emergency planning and recovery efforts. | Florida Atlantic University | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering | Press Rel | PubMed | Category 4 Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida's Lee County on Sept. 28, 2022, battering the region with wind speeds of 155 miles per hour and storm surge up to 13 feet -- the highest storm surge documented in Southwest Florida in the past 150 years. -- In the aftermath of a disaster, rapidly assessing damage is critical for rescue, recovery and emergency planning. -- Damage assessments are typically conducted through field reconnaissance deployments, which can be labor-intensive, costly and risky. -- Moreover, field-based emergency response assessments can be hindered by delays and other setbacks due to the severity of the damage and the inability to access the hardest hit areas. -- Using remote sensing technology, Florida Atlantic University researchers have developed a novel technique that provides rapid, high-resolution assessments of detailed damage after a hurricane. -- Using aerial imagery data and LiDAR, they identified the hardest-hit areas of Southwest Florida's Estero Island and estimated the extent of structural damage. -- Researchers also compared pre- and post-storm structural or morphological changes to the beach. -- The study is the first to apply an advanced multi-faceted approach that links damage assessment to post-storm change in the structure of barrier islands. -- Results of the study, published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, identified a total of 2,427 structures on Estero Island that were impacted by Hurricane Ian, with 170 structures suffering extensive damage. -- A single store was the only structure in the study area classified as "not affected." | Z01 | 45 |
| 2418-046 | The Aspirin Conundrum: Navigating Negative Results, Age, Aging Dynamics And Equity | Navigating the Aspirin Conundrum in Breast Cancer Treatment Research | A study on aspirin's role in breast cancer treatment reveals important issues related to health equity and aging, emphasizing the need for comprehensive understanding and consideration of various factors in designing clinical trials for effective cancer interventions. | Georgetown University Medical Center | JAMA | Press Rel | PubMed | A new study examining the role of aspirin in breast cancer treatment reveals critical issues related to health equity and aging that have broad implications for cancer and other disease intervention trials, say researchers from Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. They outline their concerns in an editorial accompanying the study's findings published April 29 in the JAMA ("The Aspirin Conundrum: Navigating Negative Results, Age, Aging Dynamics and Equity"). -- The study, called the Alliance trial, was launched after researchers noted that breast cancer survivors taking aspirin as part of another clinical trial for cardiovascular disease lived longer. -- To confirm the observation, a phase 3 clinical trial randomly assigned volunteers with nonmetastatic, high-risk breast cancer to receive either 300mg of aspirin or placebo daily. The outcome was a disappointment. The study was suspended at the first interim safety analysis because the results indicated futility -- aspirin did not decrease the risk of cancer recurrence or improve survival. -- In their editorial examining the trial, the Georgetown researchers, Jeanne Mandelblatt, MD, MPH; Candace Mainor, MD; and Barry Hudson, PhD, raise several important questions about the outcome. -- For example, the authors point out that despite efforts to include various groups in the study, certain subgroups, like racial minorities and those with high exposure to systemic racism, may not have been adequately represented. -- "Some individuals from these groups may experience chronic life stressors that affect inflammation, accelerate biological aging and contribute to disparities in cancer risk, recurrence and mortality," they write, noting that these individuals could potentially benefit from aspirin, an anti-inflammatory drug. -- Researchers say another issue with this and other trials is how chronological age and biological age might affect implications for a trial's design and its results. -- The results in the Alliance trial "raises the question of whether aspirin's lack of benefit could be partly explained by variations in biological age, including heterogeneity in immune and platelet function, inflammatory responses and host-tumor microenvironment interactions," they write. "Thus, careful consideration of the intersectionality of aging, cancer and disparities will be critical in designing future oncology and other disease trials to advance health equity." -- Finally, the researchers say clinicians may find it challenging to integrate new findings into routine practice because the results suggest a lack of intervention efficacy along with the many unanswered questions. -- Despite the fairly definitive negative result for use of aspirin to improve invasive disease-free survival among breast cancer survivors, the researchers say, ." ..oncology and primary care providers may still consider discussing with each other and their patients the potential benefits and harms of aspirin used for other reasons." | H01 H02 R01 | 46 |
| 2418-E039 | Low-Intensity Grazing Is Locally Better For Biodiversity But Challenging For Land Users, A New Study Shows | Low-Intensity Grazing Benefits Biodiversity but Poses Challenges for Land Users | A team of researchers investigated the motivation, incentives, and challenges of low-intensity grazing in Europe. While low-intensity grazing can benefit biodiversity, there are challenges that have led to a decline in land users practicing this method. Subsidies are important, but not the sole motivation. | German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig | Land Use Policy | Press Rel | PubMed | The grazing of both domestic and wild animals is shaping landscapes across Europe. It can also contribute to multiple ecosystem services, such as providing habitat for biodiversity. Grazing systems with lower densities of animals and with minimal and only targeted applications of deworming and other medicinal treatments offer benefits for local biodiversity protection and various ecosystem services. However, this type of land management also poses a range of challenges, leading to a constant decline in the number of land users engaged in low-intensity grazing. A team of researchers led by iDiv, UL, and UFZ set out to investigate these challenges and potential interventions in eight European case studies. Between 2019 and 2021, they conducted 74 face-to-face interviews with farmers, landowners, livestock owners, and managers of a rewilding area with semi-wild herbivores, like wild ponies or semi-wild cattle. -- Land users rely on subsidies, but money is not everything -- The researchers focused on the motivation and challenges driving decision-making among all land users engaged in low-intensity grazing practices. -- This was despite economic considerations becoming increasingly important as land users' revenue-generating activities are no longer sufficient to cover the rising cost of equipment, rent, and taxes. -- "Money is not everything. Many of the land users we interviewed practice this type of grazing management because they think it is good, not out of economic motivation," says first author Dr Julia Rouet-Leduc. -- Rouet-Leduc led the project as a former doctoral researcher at iDiv and UL and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. -- Caring for nature and, in some cases, also the desire to maintain traditional agricultural practices were important aspects of the land users' motivation. -- For example, a land user working with wild ponies in Galicia (Spain) shared: "The main reason for the maintenance of this system is that people … love the ponies; they 'have a fever', and this tradition runs very deeply in their hearts." -- The researchers found that many land users struggle with rules and regulations that are incompatible with low-intensity grazing management. -- For example, rules to mark or tag livestock -- an extremely challenging task when animals are allowed to graze freely in large areas -- were perceived as limiting. | R01 N01 | 47 |
| 2418-E055 | Revised Dating Of The Liujiang Skeleton Renews Understanding Of Human Occupation Of China | Revised Dating Of Liujiang Skeleton Alters Human History | New research on the Liujiang human fossils has provided updated age estimates and provenance information, shedding light on the presence of Homo sapiens in the region. By utilizing advanced dating techniques, the study revealed ages ranging from 33,000 to 23,000 years ago, challenging previous reports of much older ages for the skeleton. The findings highlight the significance of the Tongtianyan cave in the Liujiang District as a key archaeological site for understanding the emergence of Homo sapiens in Eastern Asia. | Griffith University | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | The emergence of Homo sapiens in Eastern Asia has long been a subject of intense research interest, with the scarcity of well-preserved and dated human fossils posing significant challenges. -- Tongtianyan cave, located in the Liujiang District of Liuzhou City, Southern China, has been a focal point of this research, housing one of the most significant fossil finds of Homo sapiens. However, the age of the fossils found within has been a matter of debate -- until now. -- In a new international study in Nature Communications, with contributions by Griffith University, researchers have provided new age estimates and revised provenance information for the Liujiang human fossils, shedding light on the presence of Homo sapiens in the region. -- Using advanced dating techniques including U-series dating on human fossils, and radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating on fossil-bearing sediments, the study revealed new ages ranging from approximately 33,000 to 23,000 years ago. -- Previously, studies had reported ages of up to 227,000 years of age for the skeleton. -- "These revised age estimates align with dates from other human fossils in northern China, suggesting a geographically widespread presence of H. sapiens across Eastern Asia after 40,000 years ago," said Professor Michael Petraglia, study co-author and Director of Griffith's Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution. -- Dr Junyi Ge, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and lead author of the study, said: "This finding holds significant implications for understanding human dispersals and adaptations in the region. It challenges previous interpretations and provides insights into the occupation history of China." -- The Liujiang skeletal remains, discovered in 1958, have long been considered among the most significant human fossils from Eastern Asia. -- With their excellent preservation, the cranial, dental, and postcranial remains have been the subjects of extensive biological and morphological comparisons across Eurasia. -- Dr Qingfeng Shao, of the Nanjing Normal University added: "The findings of this study overturn earlier age estimates and palaeoanthropological interpretations, emphasising the need for robust dating methods and proper provenance documentation in the study of human evolution." | H01 C01 | 48 |
| 2418-E009 | Warming Arctic Reduces Dust Levels In Parts Of The Planet | Arctic Warming Reduces Dust Levels Across Various Regions | Decreasing dust levels across regions in India and the Middle East are linked to Arctic amplification. This phenomenon influences wind patterns and storm tracks, impacting dust sources in West and South Asia. Local efforts to reduce emissions need to consider the implications for dust levels. | Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | Press Rel | PubMed | Dust can have a huge impact on local air quality, food security, energy supply and public health. Previous studies have found that dust levels are decreasing across India, particularly northern India, the Persian Gulf Coast and much of the Middle East, but the reason has remained unclear. SEAS researchers found that the decrease in dust can be attributed to the Arctic warming much faster than the rest of the planet, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. This process destabilizes the jet stream and changes storm tracks and wind patterns over the major sources of dust in West and South Asia. -- Ironically, the best-case scenario for emissions -- carbon neutrality -- could have the worst impact for dust because if humans reduce emissions enough to slow or stop Arctic amplification, then the jet stream and wind patterns would likely return to pre-warming states, which would lead to an increase in dust. The researchers find that as the global community works to reduce greenhouse emissions, local governments should simultaneously be working to address dust reduction. -- Climate change is a global phenomenon, but its impacts are felt at a very local level. -- Take, for example, dust. Dust can have a huge impact on local air quality, food security, energy supply and public health. Yet, little is known about how global climate change is impacting dust levels. -- Previous studies have found that dust levels are actually decreasing across India, particularly northern India, the Persian Gulf Coast and much of the Middle East, but the reason has remained unclear. Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are working to understand how global climate change is impacting dust levels in the region. -- In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers led by Michael B. McElroy, the Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies at SEAS, found that the decrease in dust can be attributed to the Arctic warming much faster than the rest of the planet, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. This process destabilizes the jet stream and changes storm tracks and wind patterns over the major sources of dust in West and South Asia -- namely the Arabian Peninsula and the Thar Desert between India and Pakistan. -- "Local land management, rapid urbanization and industrialization certainly contribute to dust levels West and South Asia but the novel insight from our study is the increasingly dominant influence of circulation change on the broader global climate context," said McElroy. "Changes in atmospheric circulation patterns, driven by global climate dynamics shifts, have emerged as the principal driver behind the observed recent dust reductions in West and South Asia." -- What does that mean for the future of dust in the region? It all depends on how we curb emissions. Ironically, the best-case scenario for emissions -- carbon neutrality -- could have the worst impact for dust. If humans can reduce emissions enough to slow or stop Arctic amplification, then the jet stream and wind patterns would likely return to pre-warming states, which would lead to an increase in dust. -- Of course, that doesn't mean we shouldn't pursue carbon neutrality, said McElroy. But as the global community works to reduce greenhouse emissions, local governments should simultaneously be working to address dust reduction. -- "At the local level, we need to be thinking about stronger anti-desertification actions such as reforestation and irrigation management and how to better monitor urban-level dust concentrations, in concert with broad climate mitigation strategies," said McElroy. | H01 C01 N02 T02 | 49 |
| 2418-E073 | Epa Underestimates Methane Emissions From Landfills, Urban Areas | EPA Underestimates Urban Methane Emissions | A new study reveals that the EPA is underestimating methane emissions from landfills, urban areas, and states. By combining satellite observations with atmospheric models, researchers found significant discrepancies in EPA estimates. This could have implications for environmental policies and the fight against climate change. | Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics | Press Rel | PubMed | The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is underestimating methane emissions from landfills, urban areas and U.S. states, according to a new study led by researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). -- The researchers combined 2019 satellite observations with an atmospheric transport model to generate a high-resolution map of methane emissions, which was then compared to EPA estimates from the same year. -- The researchers found: -- Methane emissions from landfills are 51% higher compared to EPA estimates -- Methane emissions from 95 urban areas are 39% higher than EPA estimates -- Methane emissions from the 10 states with the highest methane emissions are 27% higher than EPA estimates -- "Methane is the second largest contributor to climate change behind carbon dioxide so it's really important that we quantify methane emissions at the highest possible resolution to pinpoint what sources it is coming from," said Hannah Nesser, a former PhD student at SEAS and first author of the paper. -- Nesser is currently a NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellow in the Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. -- The research, published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, was a collaboration between scientists at Harvard and an interdisciplinary team of researchers from across the U.S. and around the world, including universities in China and the Netherlands. -- The EPA estimates that landfills are the third-largest source of human-caused methane emissions in the U.S., but the EPA uses a bottom-up accounting method that often doesn't match observations of atmospheric methane. | C01 | 50 |
| 2418-T045 | Unveiling A Polarized World -- In A Single Shot | Polarized World Unveiled in Single Shot | The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has created a compact, single-shot polarization imaging system that unlocks the potential of polarization imaging for various applications, such as biomedical imaging and smartphone technology. While color is a well-understood property of light, polarization remains underutilized in imaging. By developing a system that provides a complete picture of polarization using thin metasurfaces, researchers are paving the way for advancements in imaging technology that can benefit a wide range of industries and applications. | Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences | Nature Photonics | Press Rel | PubMed | Think of all the information we get based on how an object interacts with wavelengths of light -- a.k.a. color. Color can tell us if food is safe to eat or if a piece of metal is hot. Color is an important diagnostic tool in medicine, helping practitioners diagnose diseased tissue, inflammation, or problems in blood flow. -- Companies have invested heavily to improve color in digital imaging, but wavelength is just one property of light. Polarization -- how the electric field oscillates as light propagates -- is also rich with information, but polarization imaging remains mostly confined to table-top laboratory settings, relying on traditional optics such as waveplates and polarizers on bulky rotational mounts. -- Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a compact, single-shot polarization imaging system that can provide a complete picture of polarization. By using just two thin metasurfaces, the imaging system could unlock the vast potential of polarization imaging for a range of existing and new applications, including biomedical imaging, augmented and virtual reality systems and smart phones. -- The research is published in Nature Photonics. -- "This system, which is free of any moving parts or bulk polarization optics, will empower applications in real-time medical imaging, material characterization, machine vision, target detection, and other important areas," said Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at SEAS and senior author of the paper. -- In previous research, Capasso and his team developed a first-of-its-kind compact polarization camera to capture so-called Stokes images, images of the polarization signature reflecting off an object -- without controlling the incident illumination. -- "Just as the shade or even the color of an object can appear different depending on the color of the incident illumination, the polarization signature of an object depends on the polarization profile of the illumination," said Aun Zaidi, a recent PhD graduate from Capasso's group and first author of the paper. "In contrast to conventional polarization imaging, 'active' polarization imaging, known as Mueller matrix imaging, can capture the most complete polarization response of an object by controlling the incident polarization." -- Currently, Mueller matrix imaging requires a complex optical set-up with multiple rotating plates and polarizers that sequentially capture a series of images which are combined to realize a matrix representation of the image. -- The simplified system developed by Capasso and his team uses two extremely thin metasurfaces -- one to illuminate an object and the other to capture and analyze the light on the other side. -- The first metasurface generates what's known as polarized structured light, in which the polarization is designed to vary spatially in a unique pattern. When this polarized light reflects off or transmits through the object being illuminated, the polarization profile of the beam changes. That change is captured and analyzed by the second metasurface to construct the final image -- in a single shot. | H01 T01 | 51 |
| 2418-E019 | Recovering Phosphorus From Sewage Sludge Ash | Phosphorus Recovery From Sewage Sludge Ash Offers Sustainable Solution | Researchers at Hokkaido University have developed a method to recover phosphorus from sewage sludge ash, addressing the issue of diminishing phosphorus ore supplies. This innovative approach could provide valuable phosphorus resources from a previously overlooked source, offering a sustainable solution to a critical global challenge. | Hokkaido University | Resources, Conservation and Recycling | Press Rel | PubMed | Chemical and heat treatment of sewage sludge can recover phosphorus in a process that could help address the problem of diminishing supplies of phosphorus ores. -- Valuable supplies of phosphorus could be recovered from sewage sludge ash, which remains after the sludge has been burned for electric power generation. -- The method has been developed by chemical engineers Yuuki Mochizuki and Naoto Tsubouchi at Hokkaido University's Center for Advanced Research of Energy and Materials. -- Their work is published in the journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling. -- Phosphorus-containing compounds are widely manufactured for applications including fertilizers, medicines and many everyday consumer products. -- At present, supplies of phosphorus are mainly extracted from phosphorus ores. -- In recent years, however, the depletion and rising price of high-grade phosphorus ores have become a problem, putting pressure on industries that rely on these supplies. -- "Exploiting new phosphorus resources to replace the fast-depleting reserves, and establishing methods to recover phosphorus from waste streams, is becoming increasingly important," says Tsubouchi. -- Sewage sludge, available in plentiful amounts, is currently burned in large quantities for power generation and also to reduce its volume. -- The remaining ash is relatively rich in phosphorus, leading to increasing efforts to find efficient ways to recover the phosphorus. | Z01 | 52 |
| 2418-T013 | Probing The Effects Of Interplanetary Space On Asteroid Ryugu | Asteroid Ryugu: Surface Changes Linked to Micrometeoroids | Samples from the asteroid Ryugu reveal evidence of surface changes likely caused by micrometeoroid bombardment, providing insights into the magnetic and physical environment of interplanetary space. The study, conducted by a team of researchers in Japan, used electron holography to analyze the samples and uncover details about the structure and properties of the asteroid's surface. | Hokkaido University | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | Samples reveal evidence of changes experienced by the surface of asteroid Ryugu, some probably due to micrometeoroid bombardment. -- Analyzing samples retrieved from the asteroid Ryugu by the Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft has revealed new insights into the magnetic and physical bombardment environment of interplanetary space. The results of the study, carried out by Professor Yuki Kimura at Hokkaido University and co-workers at 13 other institutions in Japan, are published in the journal Nature Communications. -- The investigations used electron waves penetrating the samples to reveal details of their structure and magnetic and electric properties, a technique called electron holography. -- Hayabusa2 reached asteroid Ryugu on 27 June 2018, collected samples during two delicate touchdowns, and then returned the jettisoned samples to Earth in December 2020. The spacecraft is now continuing its journey through space, with plans for it to observe two other asteroids in 2029 and 2031. -- One advantage of collecting samples directly from an asteroid is that it allows researchers to examine long-term effects of its exposure to the environment of space. The 'solar wind' of high energy particles from the sun and bombardment by micrometeoroids cause changes known as space-weathering. It is impossible to study these changes precisely using most of the meteorite samples that land naturally on Earth, partly due to their origin from the internal parts of an asteroid, and also due to the effects of their fiery descent through the atmosphere. -- "The signatures of space weathering we have detected directly will give us a better understanding of some of the phenomena occurring in the Solar System," says Kimura. He explains that the strength of the magnetic field in the early solar system decreased as planets formed, and measuring the remnant magnetization on asteroids can reveal information about the magnetic field in the very early stages of the solar system. -- Kimura adds, "In future work, our results could also help to reveal the relative ages of surfaces on airless bodies and assist in the accurate interpretation of remote sensing data obtained from these bodies." -- One particularly interesting finding was that small mineral grains called framboids, composed of magnetite, a form of iron oxide, had completely lost their normal magnetic properties. The researchers suggest this was due to collision with high velocity micrometeoroids between 2 and 20 micrometers in diameter. The framboids were surrounded by thousands of metallic iron nanoparticles. Future studies of these nanoparticles will hopefully reveal insights into the magnetic field that the asteroid has experienced over long periods of time. -- "Although our study is primarily for fundamental scientific interest and understanding, it could also help estimate the degree of degradation likely to be caused by space dust impacting robotic or manned spacecraft at high velocity," Kimura concludes. | H01 C01 T01 T02 | 53 |
| 2418-E003 | Voluntary Corporate Emissions Targets Not Enough To Create Real Climate Action | Voluntary Corporate Emissions Targets Not Enough To Create Real Climate Action | A perspective paper argues that companies' emissions reduction targets alone may not accurately reflect their climate ambition, potentially favoring established firms over innovative ones. The authors propose updating regulations to encourage a more comprehensive approach to corporate climate action, emphasizing the need for diverse strategies in addressing environmental challenges. | Imperial College London | Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Companies' emissions reduction targets should not be the sole measure of corporate climate ambition, according to a new perspective paper. -- Relying on emissions can favour more established companies and hinder innovation, say the authors, who suggest updating regulations to improve corporate climate action. -- The paper, published today in Science, is by an international team led by Utrecht University, which includes Imperial College London researchers. -- Lead author of the study Dr Yann Robiou Du Pont, from the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University, said: "Assessing the climate ambition of companies based only on their emissions reductions may not be meaningful for emerging companies working on green innovation." -- Companies can set individual climate goals, typically commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their activities -- not unlike national governments. To indicate how ambitious these voluntary commitments are, businesses can get them validated as 'Paris-aligned' under the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a collaboration that started in 2015. -- This validation means SBTi considers their targets to be aligned to the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global temperature increase to well below 2°C above preindustrial levels and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. -- The new paper says this approach may inadvertently favour larger existing companies, stifling innovation and skewing the playing field against emerging competitors. This is because Paris-aligned targets for larger, established companies often assume that they can simply keep their current market share of emissions, leaving no capacity for emissions from the activities of emerging companies. -- For example, a new solar panel manufacturer that needs to grow its emissions ten years from now while it scales up a new, highly efficient method of building those panels, may be squeezed out of the market because, in this model, their operation would mean overshooting the Paris-aligned climate goal. -- Dr Robiou Du Pont said: "These voluntary corporate targets may have been useful to achieve some progress on emissions reduction in the largest companies. But our paper shows that this approach is not sufficient to guide the corporate sector and cannot be the sole basis for regulations assessing if businesses are Paris-compliant." -- To level the playing field, the authors say corporate climate targets could be based on other factors than reductions in emissions, such as emissions intensity per unit of economic or physical output. These types of targets however are harder to align to Paris Agreement targets, as they don't cap absolute emissions. | C01 T02 | 54 |
| 2418-091 | Cancer Patients Gain Important Benefits From Genome-Matched Treatments | Genome-Matched Treatments Offer Significant Benefits For Cancer Patients | The Maine Cancer Genomics Initiative has demonstrated the potential benefits of genome-matched treatments for cancer patients, with data showing improved survival outcomes for those who received targeted therapies. This research underscores the importance of expanding access to personalized cancer care and highlights the impact of genomic information on treatment outcomes. | Jackson Laboratory | npj Precision Oncology | Press Rel | PubMed | In 2016, The Jackson Laboratory (JAX), a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and at the forefront of cancer research, launched the Maine Cancer Genomics Initiative (MCGI) to bring the latest progress in cancer care to rural Maine patients. Now, after successfully expanding access to genome tumor testing and targeted cancer treatments throughout Maine, the MCGI team provides compelling evidence that genome-matched treatments can provide significant patient benefit. -- The MCGI report, published recently in npj Precision Oncology, presents data showing that only 17% of patients received genome-matched treatment through MCGI, signaling a large gap between testing and delivery of treatment based on genomic information. -- However, those who did receive genome-matched treatment were 31% less likely to die within one year compared to those who did not receive matched treatment. -- While this is an observational study, the findings clearly point to the potential for a significant one-year survival benefit from genomic tumor testing and matched treatments. -- In this observational study, there were many reasons why cancer patients didn't receive genome-matched treatments after the program sequenced the tumor's DNA. -- A certain percentage of patients did not have an actionable tumor variant detected, so they received standard of care. -- "For the rest, it was a matter of care delivery," said Jens Rueter, M.D., chief medical officer of JAX and medical director of MCGI. -- "Patients may have had an actionable tumor variant but only through participation in a clinical trial that isn't available in rural Maine, or a patient's community hospital may not have been able to deliver a treatment that's already on the market." -- Spearheaded by Rueter, who is also associate director for translational education at JAX Cancer Center and Edison Liu, M.D., former JAX President and CEO., the impetus for launching MCGI in 2016 was the lack of local access to recently developed genomic testing and targeted therapy strategies for cancer patients in Maine. -- In addition, most patients lacked the time and means to travel to Boston or New York for care. | H01 R01 | 55 |
| 2418-004 | RNA Modification Is Responsible For The Disruption Of Mitochondrial Protein Synthesis In Alzheimer's Disease | RNA Modification Is Responsible For The Disruption Of Mitochondrial Protein Synthesis In Alzheimer's Disease | Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz have discovered a mechanism behind mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer's patients, shedding light on the reduced energy supply to the brain in these individuals. Their findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, reveal a previously unreported RNA modification contributing to mitochondrial dysfunction, offering new insights into the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease. Collaborating with various research groups, the team's work underscores the critical role of mitochondria in brain function and the development of neurodegenerative disorders. | Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz | Molecular Psychiatry | Press Rel | PubMed | A team of researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has identified a mechanism that causes mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer's patients resulting in a reduction of the supply of energy to the brain. "This effect is attributable to an RNA modification which has not previously been reported," said Professor Kristina Friedland of the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences at JGU. She supervised the related study in collaboration with her colleague Professor Mark Helm. Their results contribute to the better understanding of the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease. Also involved in the research were groups at the Mainz University Medical Center, the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), Université de Lorraine, and the Medical University of Vienna. The corresponding paper has been published in Molecular Psychiatry. -- The 'powerhouse of the cell' affected by functional disorder -- Mitochondria, often referred to as the powerhouse of the cell, are organelles inside cells that are in charge of the provision of energy throughout the body and particularly in the brain. -- For 95 percent of its energy, the brain is reliant on the metabolism of glucose in the mitochondria. -- It has long been known that impairment of glucose metabolism occurs in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. -- This impairment is due to dysfunctioning of the mitochondria induced by the aging process and the build-up of amyloid-beta. -- A source of energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is formed in the inner mitochondrial membrane by means of a sequence of reactions known as the respiratory chain. -- Involved in this process are more than one thousand proteins that are transported from the cellular nuclei to the mitochondria. -- "But there are also proteins that are synthesized by the mitochondria themselves. One of these is ND5, a subunit of complex I of the respiratory chain," explained Professor Kristina Friedland. -- A substance called NADH gives electrons to complex I, which transfers these to ubiquinone, resulting in ubiquinol. | H01 R01 R02 | 56 |
| 2418-024 | Experimental Type 1 Diabetes Drug Shelters Pancreas Cells From Immune System Attack | Experimental Drug Shields Pancreas from Type 1 Diabetes Onset | An experimental monoclonal antibody drug, mAb43, shows promise in preventing and reversing clinical type 1 diabetes in mice. This drug targets insulin-making beta cells directly, offering a potential new treatment for type 1 diabetes, a condition with no cure and significant impacts on millions of Americans. | Johns Hopkins Medicine | Diabetes | Press Rel | PubMed | Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say that an experimental monoclonal antibody drug called mAb43 appears to prevent and reverse the onset of clinical type 1 diabetes in mice, and in some cases, to lengthen the animals' lifespan. -- The drug is unique, according to the researchers, because it targets insulin-making beta cells in the pancreas directly and is designed to shield those cells from attacks by the body's own immune system cells. The drug's specificity for such cells may enable long-term use in humans with few side effects, say the researchers. Monoclonal antibodies are made by cloning, or making identical replicas of, an animal (including human) cell line. -- The findings, reported online recently and in the May issue of Diabetes, raise the possibility of a new drug for type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition that affects about 2 million American children and adults and has no cure or means of prevention. Unlike type 2 diabetes, in which the pancreas makes too little insulin, in type 1 diabetes, the pancreas makes no insulin because the immune system attacks the pancreatic cells that make it. -- The lack of insulin interferes with the body's ability to regulate blood sugar levels. -- "People with type 1 diabetes face lifelong injections of insulin and many complications, including stroke and eyesight problems if the condition is not managed properly," says Dax Fu, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and leader of the research team. -- Fu says mAb43 binds to a small protein on the surface of beta cells, which dwell in clusters called islets. The drug was designed to provide a kind of shield or cloak to hide beta cells from immune system cells that attack them as "invaders." The researchers used a mouse version of the monoclonal antibody, and will need to develop a humanized version for studies in people. -- For the current study, the researchers gave 64 non-obese mice bred to develop type 1 diabetes a weekly dose of mAb43 via intravenous injection when they were 10 weeks old. After 35 weeks, all mice were non-diabetic. One of the mice developed diabetes for a period of time, but it recovered at 35 weeks, and that mouse had early signs of diabetes before the antibody was administered. -- In five of the same type of diabetes-prone mice, the researchers held off giving weekly mAb43 doses until they were 14 weeks old, and then continued dosages and monitoring for up to 75 weeks. One of the five in the group developed diabetes, but no adverse events were found, say the researchers. -- In the experiments in which mAb43 was given early on, the mice lived for the duration of the monitoring period of 75 weeks, compared with the control group of mice that did not receive the drug and lived about 18-40 weeks. -- Next, the researchers, including postdoctoral fellows Devi Kasinathan and Zheng Guo, looked more closely at the mice that received mAb43 and used a biological marker called Ki67 to see if beta cells were multiplying in the pancreas. They said, after treatment with the antibody, immune cells retreated from beta cells, reducing the amount of inflammation in the area. In addition, beta cells slowly began reproducing. | H01 R01 N01 T02 | 57 |
| 2418-081 | Scientists Track 'Doubling' In Origin Of Cancer Cells | Cancer's Origin Tracked: Scientists Find Pathway To Cell Duplication | Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists have discovered a molecular pathway that leads cells to duplicate their genome too many times, a key characteristic of cancer cells, opening the door to potential cancer therapies. This research, published in Science, sheds light on cell cycle regulation and offers hope for interrupting cancer growth. | Johns Hopkins Medicine | Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Working with human breast and lung cells, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists say they have charted a molecular pathway that can lure cells down a hazardous path of duplicating their genome too many times, a hallmark of cancer cells. -- The findings, published May 3 in Science, reveal what goes wrong when a group of molecules and enzymes trigger and regulate what's known as the "cell cycle," the repetitive process of making new cells out of the cells' genetic material. -- The findings could be used to develop therapies that interrupt snags in the cell cycle, and have the potential to stop the growth of cancers, the researchers suggest. -- To replicate, cells follow an orderly routine that begins with making a copy of their entire genome, followed by separating the genome copies, and finally, dividing the replicated DNA evenly into two "daughter" cells. -- Human cells have 23 pairs of each chromosome -- half from the mother and half from the father, including the sex chromosomes X and Y -- or 46 total, but cancer cells are known to go through an intermediate state that has double that number -- 92 chromosomes. How this happens was a mystery. -- "An enduring question among scientists in the cancer field is: How do cancer cell genomes get so bad?" says Sergi Regot, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular biology and genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Our study challenges the fundamental knowledge of the cell cycle and makes us reevaluate our ideas about how the cycle is regulated." -- Regot says cells that are stressed after copying the genome can enter a dormant, or senescent stage, and mistakenly run the risk of copying their genome again. -- Generally and eventually, these dormant cells are swept away by the immune system after they are "recognized" as faulty. However, there are times, especially as humans age, when the immune system can't clear the cells. Left alone to meander in the body, the abnormal cells can replicate their genome again, shuffle the chromosomes at the next division, and a growing cancer begins. -- In an effort to pin down details of the molecular pathway that goes awry in the cell cycle, Regot and graduate research assistant Connor McKenney, who led the Johns Hopkins team, focused on human cells that line breast ducts and lung tissue. The reason: These cells generally divide at a more rapid pace than other cells in the body, increasing the opportunities to visualize the cell cycle. -- Regot's lab specializes in imaging individual cells, making it especially suited to spot the very small percentage of cells that don't enter the dormant stage and continue replicating their genome. | H01 H02 R01 T01 | 58 |
| 2418-030 | Test Reveals Mice Think Like Babies | Mice Experiment Reveals Baby-Like Strategic Thinking | Neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins University have uncovered insights into the strategic capabilities of mice through simple experiments. By studying learning behaviors in rodents, researchers have gained a better understanding of their cognitive abilities and decision-making processes. | Johns Hopkins University | Current Biology | Press Rel | PubMed | Are mice clever enough to be strategic? -- Kishore Kuchibhotla, a Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist who studies learning in humans and animals, and who has long worked with mice, wondered why rodents often performed poorly in tests when they knew how to perform well. -- With a simple experiment, and by acting as "a little bit of a mouse psychologist," he and his team figured it out. -- "It appears that a big part of this gap between knowledge and performance is that the animal is engaging in a form of exploration -- what the animal is doing is very clever," he said. -- "It's hard to say animals are making hypotheses, but our view is that animals, like humans, can make hypotheses and they can test them and may use higher cognitive processes to do it." -- The work, which deepens our understanding of animal cognition, and could lead to identifying the neural basis for strategizing, published in Current Biology. -- Kuchibhotla's lab previously found that animals know a lot more about tasks than they demonstrate in tests. -- The team had two theories about what could be behind this gap. -- Either the mice were making mistakes because they were stressed, or they were doing something more purposeful: exploring and testing their knowledge. -- To figure it out Kuchibhotla and Ziyi Zhu, a graduate student studying neuroscience, came up with a new experiment. | H01 H02 N01 | 59 |
| 2418-074 | New And Improved Way To Grow The Cells That Give Rise To The Kidney's Filtration System | Improved Method to Grow Cells for Kidney's Filtration System | USC scientists have made significant progress in cultivating nephron progenitor cells (NPCs), crucial for kidney development and disease modeling. By improving the chemical cocktail for growing NPCs in the lab, the team enabled sustained growth of both mouse and human NPCs in a simple 2-dimensional format, providing new avenues for understanding and treating kidney diseases and cancer. | Keck School of Medicine of USC | Cell Stem Cell | Press Rel | PubMed | In a new study published in Cell Stem Cell, USC scientists report significant progress in cultivating nephron progenitor cells (NPCs), the cells destined to form the kidney's filtration system, the nephrons. NPCs hold immense promise for understanding kidney development, modeling diseases, and discovering new treatments. -- "By enhancing our capability to grow NPCs from human stem cells, we create a new avenue for understanding and combating congenital kidney diseases and cancer," said corresponding and lead author Zhongwei Li, an assistant professor of medicine, and stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. -- In the study, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, Li Lab postdocs Biao Huang and Zipeng Zeng and their collaborators improved the chemical cocktail for generating and growing NPCs in the laboratory. -- This improved cocktail enables the sustained growth of both mouse and human NPCs in a simple 2-dimensional format. This marks a major improvement over the previous 3-dimensional system, which was not only more cumbersome, but also limited the ability to perform genome editing on the cells. -- The cocktail also enables the expansion of induced NPCs (iNPCs) from human pluripotent stem cells. These iNPCs closely resemble native human NPCs. With this approach, iNPCs can be generated from any individual starting with a simple blood or skin biopsy. This approach will facilitate the creation of patient-specific kidney disease models and enhance efforts to identify nephron targeted drugs. -- Moreover, the cocktail is powerful enough to reprogram a differentiated type of kidney cell known as a podocyte into an NPC-like state. -- Demonstrating the practical applications of their breakthrough, the scientists performed genome editing on the NPCs to screen for genes related to kidney development and disease. This screening identified previously implicated genes, as well as novel candidates. -- In a further demonstration, the scientists introduced the genetic mutations responsible for polycystic kidney disease (PKD) into the NPCs. These NPCs developed into mini-kidney structures, known as organoids, exhibiting cysts -- the hallmark symptom of PKD. The team then used the organoids to screen for drug-like compounds that inhibited cyst formation. -- "This breakthrough has potential for advancing kidney research in many critical ways -- from accelerating drug discovery to unraveling the genetic underpinnings of kidney development, disease, and cancer," said Li. "Importantly, it also provides supplies of NPCs as critical building blocks to build synthetic kidneys for kidney replacement therapy." -- Eighty percent of this work was supported by federal funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (grant numbers DK054364, and T32HD060549) and the NIH Common Fund's High-Risk High-Reward Research program (grant number DP2DK135739). Additional support came from University Kidney Research Organization (UKRO) foundation funding, a Keck School of Medicine of USC Dean's Pilot Award, a USC Stem Cell Challenge Grant, a USC Provost's Undergrad Research Fellowship, a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative seed network grant (CZIF2019-002430), and a CIRM Bridges Award. | H01 R01 T02 | 60 |
| 2418-077 | Clumps Of This Molecule Inhibit Strep's DNA-Cleaving Enzymes | Clumping Molecules Combat Strep's Enzymes | A new discovery from Kobe University offers a novel approach to inhibiting DNA-cleaving enzymes by aggregating a non-toxic molecule. This breakthrough may provide a much-needed method for controlling the growth of Streptococcus bacteria, which can cause serious conditions like toxic shock syndrome. By targeting the enzymes responsible for bacterial growth, this research could lead to new treatments to combat bacterial infections effectively. | Kobe University | JACS Au | Press Rel | PubMed | An entirely new approach to inhibiting DNA-cleaving enzymes works through the aggregation of an otherwise non-toxic molecule. This Kobe University discovery may lead to a much-needed method for curbing Streptococcus growth. -- Enzymes are the body's tools to make almost all reactions happen. -- But the same is true for bacteria like Streptococcus, which causes toxic shock syndrome, a rapidly progressing and deadly condition. -- When the body's white blood cells try to capture the bacteria by casting nets made out of their own DNA, Streptococcus uses a DNA-cleaving enzyme to cut through the net. -- Blocking this enzyme has been a hot target for the development of drugs for the fight against the disease, but nothing has been found that is specific to the DNA-cleaving enzyme and that doesn't harm the body in other ways. -- Kobe University biochemical engineer MARUYAMA Tatsuo thinks he and his team may have found an approach. -- While doing research on a drug called "Mn007," they noticed that it had the ability to inhibit a bovine DNA-cleaving enzyme that is functionally very similar to the one used by Streptococcus. Maruyama explains: "It was a coincidence, but we discovered that only aggregates ("clumps") of Mn007 inhibit the enzyme. This is a completely new mechanism for inhibition and so we decided to investigate if this might be a promising candidate for the treatment of streptococcal infections." -- Their results, published in the journal JACS Au, are promising and curious. -- They first confirmed that it is really only aggregates that inhibit the enzyme, that the action is specific to this particular DNA-cleaving enzyme, and that it is not mediated by interaction with the DNA or other substances. -- Next, the Kobe University team made sure that Mn007 could also inhibit the bacterial enzyme. | H01 | 61 |
| 2418-T010 | Opening Up The Potential Of Thin-Film Electronics For Flexible Chip Design | Flexibility in Chip Design: Potential of Thin-Film Electronics | KU Leuven and imec researchers propose applying a 'foundry' model to flexible, thin-film electronics to drive innovation in the field. By mass-producing TFTs through this model, chip designers can explore new applications beyond smartphone displays, potentially revolutionizing the flexible electronics industry. | KU Leuven | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | The mass production of conventional silicon chips relies on a successful business model with large 'semiconductor fabrication plants' or 'foundries'. New research by KU Leuven and imec shows that this 'foundry' model can also be applied to the field of flexible, thin-film electronics. Adopting this approach would give innovation in the field a huge boost. -- Silicon semiconductors have become the 'oil' of the computer age, which was also demonstrated recently by the chip shortage crisis. However, one of the disadvantages of conventional silicon chips is that they're not mechanically flexible. On the other hand you have the field of flexible electronics, which is driven by an alternative semiconductor technology: the thin-film transistor, or TFT. The applications in which TFTs can be used are legion: from wearable healthcare patches and neuroprobes over digital microfluidics and robotic interfaces to bendable displays and Internet of Things (IoT) electronics. -- TFT technology has well evolved, but unlike with conventional semiconductor technology the potential to use it in various applications has barely been exploited. In fact, TFTs are currently mainly mass-produced with the purpose of integrating them in displays of smartphones, laptops and smart TVs -- where they are used to control pixels individually. This limits the freedom of chip designers who dream of using TFTs in flexible microchips and to come up with innovative, TFT-based applications. "This field can benefit hugely from a foundry business model similar to that of the conventional chip industry," says Kris Myny, professor at the KU Leuven's Emerging technologies, Systems and Security unit in Diepenbeek, and also a guest professor at imec. -- Foundry business model -- At the heart of the worldwide microchip market is the so-called foundry model. In this business model, large 'semiconductor fabrication plants' or 'foundries' (like TSMC from Taiwan) focus on the mass production of chips on silicon wafers. These are then used by the foundries' clients -- the companies that design and order the chips -- to integrate them in specific applications. Thanks to this business model, the latter companies have access to complex semiconductor manufacturing to design the chips they need. -- Myny's group has now shown that such a business model is also viable in the field of thin-film electronics. They designed a specific TFT-based microprocessor and let it be produced in two foundries, after which they tested it in their lab, with success. The same chip was produced in two versions, based on two separate TFT technologies (using different substrates) that are both mainstream. Their research paper is published in Nature. -- Multi-project approach -- The microprocessor Myny and his colleagues built is the iconic MOS 6502. Today this chip is a 'museum piece', but in the 70s it was the driver of the first Apple, Commodore and Nintendo computers. The group developed the 6502 chip on a wafer (using amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide) and on a plate (using low-temperature polycrystalline silicon). In both cases the chips were manufactured on the substrate together with other chips, or 'projects'. This 'multi-project' approach enables foundries to produce different chips on-demand from designers on single substrates. -- The chip Myny's group made is less than 30 micrometer thick, less than a human hair. That makes it ideal for, for example, medical applications like wearable patches. Such ultra-thin wearables can be used to make electrocardiograms or electromyograms, to study the condition of respectively the heart and muscles. They would feel just like a sticker, while patches with a silicon-based chip always feel knobbly. -- Although the performance of the 6502 microprocessor is not comparable with modern ones, this research demonstrates that also flexible chips can be designed and produced in a multi-project approach, analogue to the way this happens in the conventional chip industry. Myny concludes: "We will not compete with silicon-based chips, we want to stimulate and accelerate innovation based on flexible, thin-film electronics." | R01 N02 | 62 |
| 2418-065 | Discovery Of An Atypical Heat Shock Factor, HSF5, Involved In Meiotic Mechanisms: Implications For Male Infertility | Atypical Heat Shock Factor Implicated in Male Infertility | Kumamoto University researchers have identified a novel Heat Shock Factor (HSF5) that plays a crucial role in sperm formation and meiosis. Unlike other Heat Shock Factors, HSF5 specifically regulates gene expression during male germ production under non-stress conditions, providing insights into spermatogenic failure and male infertility causes. The discovery sheds light on the gene regulatory programs involved in male germ cell development. | Kumamoto University | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | Kumamoto University researchers have identified a novel Heat Shock Factor (HSF), designated as HSF5, which plays a crucial role in the completion of meiosis and the activation of genes essential for sperm formation. This discovery provides valuable insights into underlying causes of spermatogenic failure, the major contributor to male infertility. Furthermore, unlike other typical Heat Shock Factors, which primarily regulate gene expression in response to stress, such as heat shock, HSF5 plays a specific role in male germ production during meiosis under non-stress conditions. -- In eukaryotic cell division, genomic information is equally distributed to daughter cells during mitosis, whereas it is halved during a specialized type of cell division called meiosis?which is necessary for germ cell production. -- In male germ cell, sperm formation follows the completion of meiosis, with multiple gene regulatory programs. -- However, the mechanisms governing meiotic progression and the specific transcription factors involved remain poorly understood, posing significant challenges in reproductive medicine, particularly concerning male infertility. -- To address these gaps, Professor Kei-ichiro Ishiguro, Assistant Professor Ryuki Shimada, and their research team aim to clarify the mechanisms regulating male meiosis that lead to sperm production, focusing on the identification and characterizing related transcription factors. -- In the previous study, the team identified a meiosis switch gene MEIOSIN, which activates the expression of hundreds of genes involved in sperm formation (Ishiguro et al., Dev Cell 2020). Among these genes, Heat Shock Factor emerged as a focus of interest testes due to the testes' sensitivity to heat stress, given their external positioning, which maintains a temperature 3-4 degrees Celsius lower than the body's internal temperature of 37 degrees Celsius. -- Although the main roles of Heat Shock Factors such as HSF1, HSF2, HSF3, and HSF4 have been well identified, the function of HSF5 remains unclear. -- "Whether HSF5 shares similar functions with other Heat Shock Factors, or exhibits entirely different functions poses an intriguing question, and addressing this question was the original intension our study." explains Professor Ishiguro. -- Surprisingly, different from other HSFs responding to stress, the study showed that HSF5 plays an essential role in the meiotic prophase progression in male germ cells under non-stress conditions. -- HSF5 is required for progression beyond the pachytene stage during spermatogenesis, guiding the meiotic program towards completion and activating genes associated with sperm formation. | H02 | 63 |
| 2418-E013 | Diversity And Productivity Go Branch-In-Branch | Diverse Trees Show Higher Productivity And Adaptability To Climate Change | Forests with higher trait diversity show greater resilience to climate change, leading to enhanced productivity levels. Researchers emphasize the importance of conserving tree functional trait diversity to mitigate the impacts of climate warming. | Kyoto University | Science Advances | Press Rel | PubMed | Climate change can be characterized as the Grim Reaper or some other harbinger of dire times for humanity and natural environment, including forests. Previous studies reporting a decline in forest productivity due to climate warming and long-term drought may suggest that trees' survival hangs in the balance. -- Now, a study by an international group, including Kyoto University, found that forests with higher trait diversity not only adapt better to climate change but may also thrive. -- The study, conducted by researchers from Lakehead University, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, and Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, unveiled how tree functional trait diversity -- a key aspect of biodiversity -- plays a pivotal role in mitigating climate warming. -- "In the face of environmental stress, these diverse trees have been shown to maintain higher productivity levels, in contrast to monoculture forests," says team leader Han YH Chen of Lakehead University. -- Han Chen's team's results highlight the complex linkages between biodiversity, ecosystem function, and climate change in dryland forests. -- The team utilized 57 years of inventory data -- spanning from 1958 to 2015 -- of dryland biomes in Canada, finding that climate warming does not adversely affect forests with resource-gaining characteristics. -- The study factors out vegetation recovery from natural disturbances, spatial variation in the local climate, and soil drainage. -- "Our robust statistical approach to the large-scale data may lead to future opportunities for further exploring the long-term dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity," says first author Hiroshima University's Masumi Hisano, previously of KyotoU's Graduate School of Informatics. -- This nature-based solutions approach is increasingly gaining traction in climate policies to reduce ecosystem vulnerabilities. -- The debate continues regarding whether biodiversity enhances ecosystem resistance against short-term droughts. | H02 C01 N02 | 64 |
| 2418-T039 | Built-In Bionic Computing | Pneumatic Artificial Muscles as a Computational Resource | Kyoto University has collaborated with the University of Tokyo and Bridgestone Corporation to develop a method for controlling pneumatic artificial muscles. This innovation opens up new possibilities for soft robotics in disaster areas, where flexibility and collaboration with humans are crucial. The study addresses the challenge of controlling soft dynamics for practical applications. | Kyoto University | Advanced Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Creating robots to safely aid disaster victims is one challenge; executing flexible robot control that takes advantage of the material's softness is another. The use of pliable soft materials to collaborate with humans and work in disaster areas has drawn much recent attention. However, controlling soft dynamics for practical applications has remained a significant challenge. -- In collaboration with the University of Tokyo and Bridgestone Corporation, Kyoto University has now developed a method to control pneumatic artificial muscles, which are soft robotic actuators. -- Rich dynamics of these drive components can be exploited as a computational resource. -- "We've demonstrated the actuator's capability to autonomously generate diverse dynamics, including rhythmic patterns and chaos," explains Nozomi Akashi of KyotoU's Graduate School of Informatics. -- Traditionally, patterns were generated by externally attaching oscillators to robots, enabling locomotion and repetitive motions. -- However, these oscillators should be removed from the robot to retain their softness. -- Akashi's team addresses this difficult issue to bring out the soft robots' potential. -- "In addition, the pattern-changing bifurcation structures can be embedded into the robotic actuator itself," says Kohei Nakajima of the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Information Science and Technology. -- The findings suggest that robots can generate qualitatively different patterns outside the learning data, paving the way for the development of robots capable of more adaptable and flexible movements. -- "This could streamline the hardware and software development process, making it more efficient and effective," concludes Akashi. | T01 | 65 |
| 2418-064 | Life Expectancy In Two Disadvantaged Areas Higher Than Expected | Unexpected Life Expectancy in Disadvantaged Areas | The better than expected life expectancy in two disadvantaged areas in England is linked to population changes, according to local residents and professionals. The study, funded by the NIHR School for Public Health Research, revealed that people in the most disadvantaged areas usually die nine years earlier than those in the least disadvantaged areas, raising concerns about health disparities in the north of England compared to national averages. | Lancaster University | Health & Place | Press Rel | PubMed | Better than expected life expectancy in two disadvantaged areas in England is probably due to population change according to local residents and professionals. -- In the UK, people from the most disadvantaged areas can expect to die nine years earlier compared with people from the least disadvantaged areas while people in the north of England have lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and worse health and wellbeing compared with national averages. -- The study, funded by the NIHR School for Public Health Research, was a collaboration between Lancaster University, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Liverpool and Northumbria University. -- Researchers examined trends in life expectancy (LE) following the introduction of austerity policies in 2010, when gains in LE generally stalled. -- They selected two case studies -- a rural local authority area in the Northwest and an urban local authority area in the South-East of England. Both are in the bottom third of the most disadvantaged areas, with life expectancy below the average of 79.6 for men and 83.2 for women in England. -- Changes in LE at birth and at 65 years, between 2010-12 and 2015-17, were identified based on data supplied by Public Health England and the Office for National Statistics. -- Both the NW and SE Areas showed greater gains than expected given levels of social and economic disadvantage. Male LE increased by between 1 and 2 years at birth and 0.6 to 1.4 at 65 while female LE rose by between 0.6-1.6 at birth and 0.4 to 1 year at age 65. -- Participants interviewed for the study from both areas described population changes as factors. Local action, such as working in partnership and targeting services in areas of need may have contributed to mitigating the worst effects of austerity. -- In the NW Area, some thought young families moving into the area were taking advantage of lower house prices and rental costs compared with more expensive areas near the urban centre. -- One local authority officer said: "I'd heard about the in-migration of people, from probably from [large city]. And the rental costs for housing in [the town] have gone up according to Rightmove. I think it was in the very recent past, so I do wonder when we look at this question as to whether there might have been an influx of middle-class folks who are escaping the city." | H01 R01 | 66 |
| 2418-044 | Microarray Patches Safe And Effective For Vaccinating Children, Trial Suggests | Trial Suggests Microarray Patches Safe and Effective for Child Vaccinations | A study on vaccine administration through microarray patches shows promising results, indicating that this method is safe and effective, potentially revolutionizing vaccine delivery for measles and rubella, especially in children. | London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine | The Lancet | Press Rel | PubMed | The phase 1/2 randomized trial compared results from the measles and rubella vaccine delivered by a microarray patch, a small sticking plaster-like device with an array of microscopic projections that painlessly penetrate the skin and deliver the vaccine, or by conventional injection with a needle and syringe. -- The trial, which involved 45 adults (18-40 years old), 120 toddlers (15-18 months old) and 120 infants (9-10 months old) in The Gambia, found giving the measles and rubella vaccine by a microarray patch induced an immune response that was as strong as the response when the vaccine was given by conventional injection. -- Over 90% of infants were protected from measles and all infants were protected from rubella following a single dose of the vaccine given by the microarray patch. The measles and rubella vaccine used in the study has been given to many millions of children globally by conventional injection and is known to provide reliable protection. -- The trial found no safety concerns with delivering the measles and rubella vaccine using a microarray patch. -- The trial was led by researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and supported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The patch was developed and manufactured by Micron Biomedical Inc, who sponsored and supported all aspects of the trial. Funding came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Results are published in The Lancet. -- The researchers hope microarray patches could help to achieve the very high levels of population immunity required to control childhood diseases such as measles and rubella, with WHO recommending at least 95% two-dose measles vaccine coverage and rubella requiring 80% population immunity. Microarray patches have been determined to be the highest priority innovation for overcoming barriers to immunization in low-resource settings. -- In low-resource settings microarray patches have several advantages over conventional vaccination technologies. They promise to be easier to transport and to eliminate, or vastly reduce, the need for cold storage (refrigeration) of vaccines, both major barriers to reaching remote areas across sub-Saharan Africa. Microarray patches also do not need to be administered by a medical professional and it is expected that volunteers would be able to give the vaccines after only brief training. Unlike conventional needles and syringes, the microarray patches do not risk 'needlestick' injuries which can transmit infections such as hepatitis and HIV. -- In countries, such as the UK, which have well-resourced childhood vaccination programmes, but which have also experienced rapid increases in measles cases recently due to low immunization coverage, microarray patches could offer greater convenience and a pain-free alternative to conventional injections. The hope is that offering vaccinations in a patch could encourage more parents, particularly those in disadvantaged areas, to get their child vaccinated. -- Professor Ed Clarke, a paediatrician who leads the Vaccines and Immunity Theme at MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM and co-author, said: "Although it's early days, these are extremely promising results which have generated a lot of excitement. They demonstrate for the first time that vaccines can be safely and effectively given to babies and young children using microarray patch technology. Measles vaccines are the highest priority for delivery using this approach but the delivery of other vaccines using microarray patches is also now realistic. Watch this space." -- Dr Ikechukwu Adigweme, from the Vaccines and Immunity Theme at MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM and co-author, said: "The positive results from this study are quite gratifying to us as a team. We hope this is an important step in the march towards greater vaccine equity among disadvantaged populations." | H01 R01 T01 T02 | 67 |
| 2418-011 | AI In Medicine: The Causality Frontier | AI In Medicine: The Causality Frontier | Artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize medical therapies by not only making predictions but also handling causal relationships, offering safer and more individualized treatments. An international research team is exploring the application of AI in healthcare to enhance imaging techniques, calculate health risks, and personalize therapies. As AI technologies continue to advance, the integration of causal reasoning into predictive models could lead to significant improvements in patient outcomes and the efficiency of medical interventions. | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Nature Medicine | Press Rel | PubMed | Machines can learn not only to make predictions, but also to handle causal relationships. An international research team shows how this could make therapies safer, more efficient, and more individualized. -- Artificial intelligence is making progress in the medical arena. -- When it comes to imaging techniques and the calculation of health risks, there is a plethora of AI methods in development and testing phases. -- Wherever it is a matter of recognizing patterns in large data volumes, it is expected that machines will bring great benefit to humanity. -- Following the classical model, the AI compares information against learned examples, draws conclusions, and makes extrapolations. -- Now an international team led by Professor Stefan Feuerriegel, Head of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Management at LMU, is exploring the potential of a comparatively new branch of AI for diagnostics and therapy. -- Can causal machine learning (ML) estimate treatment outcomes -- and do so better than the ML methods generally used to date? -- Yes, says a landmark study by the group, which has been published in the journal Nature Medicine: causal ML can improve the effectiveness and safety of treatments. -- In particular, the new machine learning variant offers "an abundance of opportunities for personalizing treatment strategies and thus individually improving the health of patients," write the researchers, who hail from Munich, Cambridge (United Kingdom), and Boston (United States) and include Stefan Bauer and Niki Kilbertus, professors of computer science at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and group leaders at Helmholtz AI. -- As regards machine assistance in therapy decisions, the authors anticipate a decisive leap forward in quality. | H01 T01 | 68 |
| 2418-087 | Activation Of Innate Immunity: Important Piece Of The Puzzle Identified | Key Piece Found: Enzyme Interplay In Innate Immunity Identified | LMU researchers have unraveled the complex interactions of enzymes around the innate immune receptor toll-like receptor 7, shedding light on its vital role in defending against viruses. Understanding this immune response mechanism could lead to new strategies for enhancing our natural defenses and developing targeted antiviral therapies. | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Immunity | Press Rel | PubMed | LMU researchers have deciphered the complex interplay of various enzymes around the innate immune receptor toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7), which plays an important role in defending our bodies against viruses. -- Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7), located in the dendritic cells of our immune system, plays a crucial role in our natural defense against viruses. -- TLR7 recognizes single-stranded viral and other foreign RNA and activates the release of inflammatory mediators. -- Dysfunctions of this receptor also play a key role in autoimmune diseases, making it all the more important to understand, and ideally modulate, the exact activation mechanism of TLR7. -- Researchers led by Professor Veit Hornung and Marleen Bérouti from the Gene Center Munich and the Department of Biochemistry at LMU have now managed to gain deeper insights into the complex activation mechanism. -- It was known from earlier studies that complex RNA molecules have to be cut up first so that the receptor is able to recognize them. -- Using a wide range of technologies from cell biology to cryogenic electron microscopy, the LMU researchers have revealed how single-stranded foreign RNA is processed to be detected by TLR7. -- Their work has been published in the journal Immunity. -- Numerous enzymes are involved in the recognition of foreign RNA -- In the course of evolution, the immune system has specialized in recognizing pathogens from their genetic material. | R01 | 69 |
| 2418-055 | Biomarkers In Blood To Predict Liver Cancer | Blood Biomarkers Predict Risk of Liver Cancer | A study led by Mass General Brigham and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found that proteins detectable in the blood could help predict the risk of liver cancer years before typical diagnosis. Early detection of liver cancer is crucial for successful treatment and improved outcomes, especially as the mortality rate for this cancer is high. | Mass General Brigham | JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute | Press Rel | PubMed | Early detection has the potential to transform treatment and outcomes in cancer care, especially for cancers like liver cancer, which is typically diagnosed at a late stage with limited options for cure. A new study led by investigators from Mass General Brigham and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center suggests that proteins detectable in the blood could improve predictions about risk of liver cancer years before typical diagnosis. Results are published in JNCI. -- "Liver cancer rates are rapidly increasing, and liver cancer has a high mortality rate, but if we can diagnose it early, therapeutic interventions can be potentially curative," said lead author Xinyuan (Cindy) Zhang, PhD, of the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. -- "We need to have a way to detect this form of cancer early enough to intervene with surgery or liver transplantation to treat the disease before it becomes metastatic." -- Liver cancer, or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), ranks as the third leading cause of cancer worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally, with its incidence rate nearly tripled since 1980s in the US. Detection of liver cancers often occurs at advanced stages, where life expectancy typically spans less than 12 months. -- Certain high-risk populations, such as individuals with cirrhosis and hepatitis, stand to significantly benefit from early detection tests. -- Currently, there is a notable deficiency in accurate, sensitive, and specific tools for the early detection of liver cancer. -- Many existing methods are relatively expensive, invasive, or limited in accessibility, primarily confined to major hospitals. -- The research team included investigators from Mass General Brigham's founding members, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Yale University. -- The team utilized proteomics (profiling of proteins) to develop a prediction model aimed at diagnosing or screening for liver cancer at an earlier stage. -- They used the SomaScan Assay Kit, a high-throughput proteomics platform that measures protein levels in biological samples, available through the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Center. | H01 R01 N02 | 70 |
| 2418-073 | Potential Drivers Of Chronic Allergic Inflammation | Potential Drivers of Chronic Allergic Inflammation Uncovered | A research team including members from Mass General Brigham identified a subset of Th2 cells called Th2-MPP cells that may serve as precursors to crucial Th2 cell populations responsible for allergic disease symptoms. By conducting gene expression analyses, the team pinpointed these cells, laying the groundwork for potential therapeutic interventions targeting Th2 cells and offering relief to patients with allergic diseases. | Mass General Brigham | Nature Immunology | Press Rel | PubMed | Currently, most therapies for allergic diseases require lifelong treatment. Allergic reactions, characterized by ongoing (type 2) inflammation in response to chronic antigen exposure, underlie many chronic diseases in humans, including asthma, atopic dermatitis, ulcerative colitis and more. T helper 2 (Th2) cells play an important role in the body's immune response, particularly in allergic reactions. Despite their central role, the sustained activity of Th2 cells during allergic reactions, even in the face of constant antigen exposure, has long puzzled researchers. -- A research team that included authors from Mass General Brigham, including members Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Mass Eye and Ear, embarked on a quest to understand the diversity and cellular mechanisms of human Th2 cells. -- By conducting gene expression analyses of inflamed tissues, they pinpointed a subset of Th2 cells called Th2-MPP cells. -- Their findings suggested that these cells might serve as precursors to several crucial Th2 cell populations responsible for disease symptoms. -- These discoveries lay the groundwork for therapeutic interventions targeting these cells, potentially offering relief to patients living with allergic diseases. -- Results are published in Nature Immunology. -- The research team created a single cell transcriptomic atlas, a comprehensive database of genes that are turned "on" and "off" in individual cells in the body, using inflamed tissues from patients with nine different chronic allergic diseases. -- They used this atlas to identify Th2-multipotent progenitor (Th2-MPP) cells, which chronically expressed two transcription factors, TCF7 and LEF1. -- These transcription factors allowed Th2-MPP cells to exhibit characteristics similar to stem cells in cancer and chronic infection, acting as progenitor cells that can give rise to other kinds of cells. -- The team also performed detailed studies on Th2 cells from nasal tissue in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis. | R01 C01 | 71 |
| 2418-094 | Brain Imaging Study Reveals Connections Critical To Human Consciousness | Brain Imaging Reveals Critical Connections For Human Consciousness | A study using high-resolution brain scans has identified a 'default ascending arousal network' that sustains wakefulness in the human brain. This network integrates arousal and awareness in human consciousness, offering new insights into brain connectivity and function. | Massachusetts General Hospital | Science Translational Medicine | Press Rel | PubMed | Human consciousness requires arousal (i.e., wakefulness) and awareness. Brain imaging studies over the last decade have produced connectivity maps of the cortical networks that sustain awareness, but maps of the subcortical networks that sustain wakefulness are lacking, due to the small size and anatomic complexity of subcortical structures such as the brainstem. In a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study that integrated high-resolution structural and functional connectivity data, researchers mapped a subcortical brain network that is believed to integrate arousal and awareness in human consciousness. -- In a paper titled, "Multimodal MRI reveals brainstem connections that sustain wakefulness in human consciousness," published today in Science Translational Medicine, a group of researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, and Boston Children's Hospital, created a connectivity map of a brain network that they propose is critical to human consciousness. -- The study involved high-resolution scans that enabled the researchers to visualize brain connections at submillimeter spatial resolution. -- This technical advance allowed them to identify previously unseen pathways connecting the brainstem, thalamus, hypothalamus, basal forebrain, and cerebral cortex. -- Together, these pathways form a "default ascending arousal network" that sustains wakefulness in the resting, conscious human brain. -- The concept of a "default" network is based on the idea that specific networks within the brain are most functionally active when the brain is in a resting state of consciousness. -- In contrast, other networks are more active when the brain is performing goal-directed tasks. -- To investigate the functional properties of this default brain network, the researchers analyzed 7 Tesla resting-state functional MRI data from the Human Connectome Project. -- These analyses revealed functional connections between the subcortical default ascending arousal network and the cortical default mode network that contributes to self-awareness in the resting, conscious brain. -- The complementary structural and functional connectivity maps provide a neuroanatomic basis for integrating arousal and awareness in human consciousness. | H01 R02 T01 | 72 |
| 2418-T005 | Scientists Tune The Entanglement Structure In An Array Of Qubits | Technique Developed To Generate Entangled States In Quantum Processor Batches | A new technique for creating entangled states in quantum processors could revolutionize the study of quantum properties and enhance the development of larger quantum processors. By understanding entanglement better, scientists may unlock new insights into how information is processed in quantum systems, paving the way for more efficient technologies. | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | Entanglement is a form of correlation between quantum objects, such as particles at the atomic scale. This uniquely quantum phenomenon cannot be explained by the laws of classical physics, yet it is one of the properties that explains the macroscopic behavior of quantum systems. -- Because entanglement is central to the way quantum systems work, understanding it better could give scientists a deeper sense of how information is stored and processed efficiently in such systems. -- Qubits, or quantum bits, are the building blocks of a quantum computer. However, it is extremely difficult to make specific entangled states in many-qubit systems, let alone investigate them. There are also a variety of entangled states, and telling them apart can be challenging. -- Now, MIT researchers have demonstrated a technique to efficiently generate entanglement among an array of superconducting qubits that exhibit a specific type of behavior. -- Over the past years, the researchers at the Engineering Quantum Systems (EQuS) group have developed techniques using microwave technology to precisely control a quantum processor composed of superconducting circuits. In addition to these control techniques, the methods introduced in this work enable the processor to efficiently generate highly entangled states and shift those states from one type of entanglement to another -- including between types that are more likely to support quantum speed-up and those that are not. -- "Here, we are demonstrating that we can utilize the emerging quantum processors as a tool to further our understanding of physics. While everything we did in this experiment was on a scale which can still be simulated on a classical computer, we have a good roadmap for scaling this technology and methodology beyond the reach of classical computing," says Amir H. Karamlou '18, MEng '18, PhD '23, the lead author of the paper. -- The senior author is William D. Oliver, the Henry Ellis Warren professor of electrical engineering and computer science and of physics, director of the Center for Quantum Engineering, leader of the EQuS group, and associate director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics. Karamlou and Oliver are joined by Research Scientist Jeff Grover, postdoc Ilan Rosen, and others in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and of Physics at MIT, at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and at Wellesley College and the University of Maryland. The research appears in Nature. -- Assessing entanglement -- In a large quantum system comprising many interconnected qubits, one can think about entanglement as the amount of quantum information shared between a given subsystem of qubits and the rest of the larger system. -- The entanglement within a quantum system can be categorized as area-law or volume-law, based on how this shared information scales with the geometry of subsystems. In volume-law entanglement, the amount of entanglement between a subsystem of qubits and the rest of the system grows proportionally with the total size of the subsystem. | R01 T01 | 73 |
| 2418-T008 | Pattern Formation In The Nano-Cosmos | Nano-Cosmos: Patterns Forming at the Nanoscopic Scale | Scientists at the Max Planck Institute have developed a new model to control nanoscopic structures through elastic phase separation. This breakthrough allows for the prediction and control of nanoscopic patterns, potentially revolutionizing the creation of structural color in biological systems and nano-engineering. | Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization | Physical Review X | Press Rel | PubMed | A new model developed by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) extends the theory of elastic phase separation towards nanoscopic structures. Such patterns are frequent in biological systems and also used in nano-engineering to create structural color. With their new insights, the scientists can predict the length scale of nanoscopic patterns and thus control them during production. -- Well-defined structural patterns are found all over the place in biological systems. A well-known example is the coloration of bird feathers and butterfly wings, which relies on the regular arrangement of nanoscopic structures, known as structural color. Such patterns often form by phase separation. Different components separate from each other, similarly to how oil separates from water. However, it remains unclear how nature creates well-defined patterns leading to such colors. Generally, manufacturing synthetic materials on this submicron length scale is a common challenge. -- One way to control structures made by phase separation relies on elasticity: deformations of materials are well-described by elasticity theory on macroscopic scales, for example to explain how a piece of rubber deforms under the effect of force. However, on a nanoscopic scale, materials are not homogeneous anymore and the macroscopic description of the material is insufficient. Instead, the actual arrangement of molecules matters. Moreover, deforming any material requires energy, which thus impedes large deformations. Individual droplets formed by phase separation can thus not grow indefinitely. Depending on their arrangement, a regular pattern can emerge. -- Scientists around David Zwicker, head of the Max Planck Research Group "Theory of Biological Fluids" at MPI-DS, now developed a model to address this aspect. They proposed a theory based on nonlocal elasticity to predict pattern formation by phase separation. "With our new model, we can now take into account the relevant additional aspect to describe the system," Zwicker says. "Modelling all molecular components in atomic detail would exceed the computational power. Instead, we extended the existing theory towards smaller structures comparable to the mesh size," he explains. -- The new theory predicts how material properties affect the formed pattern. It can thus help engineers to create specific nanoscopic structures, following physical principles of self-organization that nature exploits. | Z01 | 74 |
| 2418-T003 | Diamond Dust Shines Bright In Magnetic Resonance Imaging | Diamond Dust Shows Potential As Novel MRI Contrast Agent In Unexpected Discovery | A surprising discovery at the Max Planck Institute revealed the potential of nanometer-sized diamond particles as bright contrast agents in MRI scans, outshining traditional methods. This unexpected finding may open doors for using diamond dust not only in drug delivery but also as a revolutionary contrast agent for medical imaging. | Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems | Mater. | Press Rel | PubMed | An unexpected discovery surprised a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart: nanometer-sized diamond particles, which were intended for a completely different purpose, shone brightly in a magnetic resonance imaging experiment -- much brighter than the actual contrast agent, the heavy metal gadolinium. Could diamond dust -- in addition to its use in drug delivery to treat tumor cells -- one day become a novel contrast agent used for MRI? The research team now published their discovery in Advanced Materials. -- Some of the world's greatest discoveries happened by accident. -- While the discovery of diamond dust's potential as a future MRI contrast agent may never be considered a turning point in science history, its signal-enhancing properties are nevertheless an unexpected finding which may open-up new possibilities: Diamond dust glows brightly even after days of being injected. -- Does that mean it could perhaps one day become an alternative to the widely used contrast agent gadolinium? -- This heavy metal is used in clinics to detect tumors, inflammation, or vascular abnormalities for more than 30 years. -- It enhances the brightness of the image of affected areas. However, when injected into a patient's bloodstream, gadolinium travels not only to tumor tissue but also to surrounding healthy tissue. -- It is retained in the brain and kidneys, persisting months to years after the last administration. -- The long-term effects on the patient are not yet known. Gadolinium also causes a number of other side effects. -- The search for an alternative has been underway for years. -- Could diamond dust, a carbon-based material, become a well-tolerable alternative because of an unexpected discovery made in a laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart? | H01 R01 R02 C01 T01 | 75 |
| 2418-T030 | Speeding Up Spectroscopic Analysis | Researchers Develop Method to Accelerate Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopic Analysis | Researchers have developed a technique to speed up spectroscopic analysis in ultrafast laser spectroscopy, enabling the study of dynamics over extremely short time scales in scientific and industrial applications. This innovative approach reduces the considerable measuring time typically required for this technique, improving efficiency and accuracy in spectroscopic analysis. | Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light | Ultrafast Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Ultrafast laser spectroscopy allows the ascertainment of dynamics over extremely short time scales, making it a very useful tool in many scientific and industrial applications. A major disadvantage is the considerable measuring time this technique usually requires, which often leads to lengthy acquisition times spanning minutes to hours. Researchers have developed a technique to speed up spectroscopic analysis. The results of the project led by Hanieh Fattahi, Research group leader at the Max-Planck-Institute of the Science of Light, in collaboration with industrial partners from Germany and France, were recently published in the Journal of Ultrafast Science. -- Ultrashort pulses play a significant role in spectroscopic applications. -- Their broad spectral bandwidth enables simultaneous characterization of the sample at various frequencies, eliminating the need for repeated measurements or laser tuning. -- Moreover, their extreme temporal confinement allows for temporal isolation of the sample's response from the main excitation pulse. -- This response, which carries comprehensive spectroscopic information lasts from tens of femtoseconds to nano-seconds (10−15 to 10−9 seconds) and is commonly probed by a shorter pulse at various time delays. -- When merged with other techniques, such as multi-dimensional coherent spectroscopy or hyperspectral imaging, ultrafast spectroscopy facilitates the identification of unknown constituents. -- However, the ambition of real-time measurements faces obstacles, primarily due to the extensive data recording required across the high bandwidth spectrum for each pixel, introducing considerable delays in data capture, extending processing time, and increasing data volume. -- Researchers have developed a technique to speed up spectroscopic analysis. -- Kilian Scheffter, a doctoral student working with Hanieh Fattahi, head of the "Femtosecond Fieldoscopy" group at MPL explains: "The response of molecules to ultra-short excitation pulses is typically sparse in many samples, which implies that the response occurs only at specific frequencies known as molecular fingerprints. By strategically randomizing the measurement points in time, an established approach called compressed sensing can efficiently reconstruct the signal by using fewer data points than the limit dictated by the Nyquist criterion. However, the main challenge has been to change the temporal overlap of the probe pulses and the femtosecond excitation pulses randomly. Collaborating with our partners in Germany and France, we've successfully employed acoustic waves to modulate this temporal overlap randomly. This innovation expands the application of compressed sensing to real-time spectroscopic measurement." -- "Accelerating time domain spectroscopy offers several advantages, for example in simplifying the label-free imaging of fragile specimens, real-time environmental monitoring and open-air diagnostics of toxic and hazardous gases, and molecular fieldoscopy" says Dr. Hanieh Fattahi. | H01 T01 | 76 |
| 2418-016 | Neurons Spoil Your Appetite | Neurons Spoil Your Appetite | Scientists at the Max Planck Institute have identified a brain circuit in mice that inhibits food intake during nausea, shedding light on the complex regulation of eating behavior. Understanding how the brain responds to nausea can provide insights into appetite control mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets for eating disorders. | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft | Cell Reports | Press Rel | PubMed | Satiety, nausea or anxiety can all lead to a loss of appetite. Delaying eating can be a healthy move by the body to prevent further damage and to gain time for regenerating. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence now identified the circuit in the brain that prevents mice from eating when they feel nauseous. The decisive role is played by special nerve cells in the amygdala -- a brain region involved when emotions run high. The cells are activated during nausea and elicit appetite-suppressing signals. The findings highlight the complex regulation of eating behavior, as the loss of appetite during nausea is controlled by different circuits than during satiety. -- An upcoming exam, a boat trip on the high seas or the next germ at the day-care center all have one thing in common: they can really upset our stomach. -- Stress, motion sickness or certain infections can make us feel sick. -- It seems logical that we don't eat in these circumstances and wait for the situation to improve. -- As a result, nausea and decreased appetite usually go hand in hand. -- Or have you ever felt sick and really wanted to eat at the same time? -- What seems logical is a healthy defense mechanism of our body -- but it has to be activated first. -- Clearly, the brain plays a central role in this: it is the control center for the body's energy balance and regulates eating behavior. -- So how does the brain prevent us from eating when we feel sick? -- Researchers in Rüdiger Klein's department have gained new insights into this topic in mice. | H01 H02 R02 | 77 |
| 2418-E015 | Zebra Finch Chicks Don't Babble For No Reason | Zebra Finch Chicks' First Vocalizations Essential To Learning Adult Songs | Zebra finch chicks memorize adult songs through their initial vocalizations, highlighting the role of early babbling in language acquisition. Research from the Max Planck Institute underscores the importance of early vocalizations in songbird development. | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | Press Rel | PubMed | When babies learn to talk or birds learn to sing, the same principle applies: listen and then imitate. This is how the first babble becomes the first word or vocalization. Male zebra finch chicks initially memorize the song of an adult bird. Later, they refine their own vocalization until they resemble the learned song. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence have now shown that the first vocalizations of zebra finches play a role even before they practice to sing on their own. The initial babbling is necessary to memorize songs in the first place. This is in line with findings in human infants, where the babbling of babies also plays a crucial role in language acquisition. -- A male zebra finch chick hatches from its egg. Around 3-4 weeks later, it begins to make its first croaking sounds -- these do not have much in common with its later song. -- But by the time it is three months old, the zebra finch has finished practicing its vocalizations: The song is now fully developed. -- And this is exactly what it will be singing for the rest of his life, to find a mate or to defend its territory. -- Learning to sing in zebra finches is similar to learning to speak in humans: Chicks or babies imitate what they hear -- for zebra finches it is usually the father`s song. -- The chicks go through two learning phases. Around 25 days after hatching, they begin to memorize the song of their tutor and store it as a template (sensory phase). The sensorimotor phase, which runs in parallel, begins a little later: In this phase, the chicks refine their own calls until they resemble the memorized template song. -- Babbling triggers memorizing songs -- It was previously assumed that the initial babblings initiate the sensorimotor phase, the time at which the chicks begin to imitate the memorized song. -- The mechanisms that trigger the previous, sensory phase of song learning remained unclear. -- Albertine Leitão and Manfred Gahr from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence have now shown that the babbling already initiates the first, sensory phase -- thereby challenging the previous concept of song learning in zebra finches. | N01 | 78 |
| 2418-040 | Is It Time To Retire The Best-Before Date? | Ready to Ditch Expiry Dates and Trust Food Packaging Technology Instead? | The inventors of a suite of tests that detect contaminated food packages aim to bring producers and regulators together to implement their technology, saving billions of dollars globally annually and reducing food waste and illness simultaneously. | McMaster University | Nature Reviews Bioengineering | Press Rel | PubMed | The inventors of a suite of tests that enable food packages to signal if their contents are contaminated are working to bring producers and regulators together to get their inventions into commercial products, with the goal of preventing illness and reducing food waste. -- Though the tests would cost just a few cents per package, food producers are reluctant to add costs that consumers will ultimately have to bear, say the McMaster researchers behind an article published today in the journal Nature Reviews Bioengineering. -- A system based on smart packaging, the researchers say, would save producers from reputational and practical costs associated with outbreaks, dramatically reduce food waste and reduce health-care and lost-time costs associated with outbreaks. In all, the paper says, society would save hundreds of billions of dollars globally each year, more than justifying the cost of adding the technology to food packaging. -- "On the one hand, people want to have safe food to eat. On the other, they don't want to pay more for their food, because prices are high already and seem only to be climbing higher," says the paper's corresponding author Tohid Didar, a biomedical engineer and entrepreneur. "We are eager to make people aware of the challenges that exist, and start a conversation between researchers, policy makers, corporations and consumers work together to come up with solutions for such challenges." -- The researchers write that public agencies recognize the value of the new technology, and though they'd like to put it into play, they also know that introducing it would require sweeping changes to food regulations and packaging practices -- changes that may face resistance. -- It's a challenge the researchers recognize, but with so much potential benefit at stake, they say everyone will ultimately win once the technology comes into broad use. -- The current practice of marking fresh foods with a "best before" or "consume by" date is arbitrary and far too conservative, the researchers say, often causing perfectly safe food to be wasted, which imposes huge costs that producers and consumers are already paying for, whether directly or indirectly. -- Canada wastes $40 billion worth of food every year -- more per capita than the US or UK, Didar says. -- Discarding food unnecessarily also has significant social, economic and environmental costs, given concerns over scarcity and access to food, and the ecological impacts of throwing away unused food and packaging. -- Since 2018, the group of McMaster engineers and biochemists behind the paper has invented and proven the viability of several packaging-based methods for detecting or halting spoilage, including: | H01 T02 | 79 |
| 2418-051 | Scientists Identify New Treatment Target For Leading Cause Of Blindness | New Treatment Target Identified for Leading Cause of Blindness | Scientists from the Medical College of Georgia have found a gene that may explain why some people with neovascular age-related macular degeneration do not benefit from standard therapy. This condition, characterized by abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye, is a leading cause of blindness. Anti-VEGF therapy is the primary treatment. | Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University | Science Translational Medicine | Press Rel | PubMed | Medical College of Georgia scientists report that a gene previously implicated in the development of atherosclerotic lesions in coronary arteries could be key to understanding why many people don't benefit from the most used therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness. -- AMD is a condition characterized by abnormal blood vessel growth in the back of the eye. It is highly prevalent in the elderly and people with diabetes, obesity, and many other chronic metabolic diseases. Excessive vascular growth damages the macula, the part of the eye that translates light into image signals. -- Anti-VEGF therapy, which blocks vascular endothelial growth factor and keeps excessive blood vessel growth at bay, is usually the first line of defense. -- But that treatment only works well for around a third of patients suffering from this form of AMD, says Dr. Yuqing Huo, MD, PhD, the Director of the Vascular Inflammation Program at MCG's Vascular Biology Center. "The reason is that the excess vasculature is often accompanied by the growth of fibroblast cells," he says. -- Collagen and many other proteins produced by these fibroblast cells accumulate outside of the vascular cells and eventually lead to fibrosis or scarring in the eye. This keeps the excess vasculature from being suppressed by anti-VEGF treatments. "We show, for the first time in this study, that many fibroblast cells are actually produced by these excessive endothelial cells. We must find a way to prevent this from happening," Huo says. -- He and his team believe the answer lies in targeting the adenosine receptor 2A (Adora2a) -- a G-protein-coupled adenosine receptor found in high levels in the brain, immune cells, and blood vessels. Adora2a has been reported to be crucial in modulating inflammation, myocardial oxygen consumption, and coronary blood flow. Adenosine, a metabolite produced by cells under conditions of stress, injuries, and lack of oxygen, can activate Adora2a to protect our body from injury. -- But in excess, adenosine can lead to excessive blood vessel growth. In their current research, Huo and his colleagues found a high-level or persistent adenosine-activated Adora2a signal could transform endothelial cells, the luminal cells of the vasculature, into activated fibroblast cells and, eventually, cause fibrosis. Huo and his colleagues hypothesize that blocking this receptor can prevent that from happening. -- Using genetically engineered mice that develop fibrosis in the backs of their eyes, researchers delivered an Adora2a agonist (KW6002), which binds to the receptor and blocks its function. "We also studied mice that had Adora2a removed from only the vascular endothelial cells," says Qiuhua Yang, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow with Huo and the first author on this study. "All of these mice demonstrated decreased fibrosis in the eye." These novel findings were reported and recently selected as the cover image for Science Translational Medicine. -- "We have previously demonstrated that blocking Adora2a can reduce excessive blood vessel growth, which happens in the early stages of AMD," says Yongfeng Cai, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Huo's lab and a member of the research team. They now have an eye toward generating an antibody that could recognize Adora2A. -- "The antibody could be delivered via an injection to the back of the eyes, an approach often used in eye clinics, to block the activation of adenosine to Adora2A," Huo says. "An antibody could really block both excessive blood vessel growth, the early stage of AMD, and fibrosis, the late stage of AMD. Our findings indicate that blocking Adora2a can certainly target multiple stages of this disease, which might be much more efficient than current treatments." | H01 H02 R01 R02 | 80 |
| 2418-017 | A Vaccine To Fight Antibiotic Resistance | A Vaccine To Fight Antibiotic Resistance | A new vaccine candidate developed by researchers at Michigan State University offers hope in combating antimicrobial resistance, a growing global health threat. By addressing the overuse of antimicrobials, this innovative approach aims to tackle drug-resistant infections and preserve the effectiveness of existing treatments. | Michigan State University | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | Driven by the overuse of antimicrobials, pathogens are quickly building up resistances to once-successful treatments. It's estimated that antimicrobial-resistant infections killed more than 1 million people worldwide in 2019, according to the World Health Organization. -- "There are worries that at the rate things are going, in perhaps 20 or 30 years, few of our drugs will be effective at all," said Xuefei Huang, a Michigan State University Research Foundation Professor in the departments of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering. -- "This would bring us back to the pre-antibiotic age." -- Now, in a new Nature Communications study, Huang and his collaborators have reported a breakthrough that will help tackle this global threat head-on. Specifically, the team has created a promising vaccine candidate for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. -- Bacterial vaccines, along with antibiotics, are a crucial tool in the fight against deadly microbes. -- In the latest paper, Huang announced several discoveries that will help the development of a carbohydrate-based vaccine for infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus and its "superbug" relative methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. -- Staph aureus, or staph, and MRSA are among the most prevalent causes of bacterial infections. -- Using an innovative delivery platform created by the Huang group at MSU, the team's preclinical vaccine formulation offered high levels of immunity from lethal levels of staph and MRSA in animal trials. -- With this work, Huang and his team have expanded the frontiers of vaccine science, equipping fellow researchers with new knowledge to improve and refine future bacterial vaccines. -- Carbohydrate hurdles | H01 R01 N01 | 81 |
| 2418-E026 | Research On RNA Editing Illuminates Possible Lifesaving Treatments For Genetic Diseases | Research Explores CRISPR's Potential for Editing RNA | Researchers at Montana State University have shown how CRISPR technology can be used to edit RNA in human cells, offering new possibilities for treating genetic diseases. This breakthrough, published in the journal Science, represents a significant advancement in programmable genetic engineering. | Montana State University | Science | Press Rel | PubMed | A team at Montana State University published research that shows how RNA, the close chemical cousin to DNA, can be edited using CRISPRs. The work reveals a new process in human cells that has potential for treating a wide variety of genetic diseases. -- Postdoctoral researchers Artem Nemudryi and Anna Nemudraia conducted the research alongside Blake Wiedenheft, professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology in MSU's College of Agriculture. -- The paper, titled "Repair of CRISPR-guided RNA breaks enables site-specific RNA excision in human cells," was published online in the journal Science and constitutes the latest advance in the team's ongoing exploration of CRISPR applications for programmable genetic engineering. -- CRISPR, which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, is a type of immune system that bacteria use to recognize and fight off viruses. -- Wiedenheft, one of the nation's leading CRISPR researchers, said that the system has been used for years to cut and edit DNA, but that applying similar technology to RNA is unprecedented. -- DNA editing uses a CRISPR-associated protein called Cas9, while editing RNA requires the use of a different CRISPR system, called type-III. -- "In our previous work, we used type-III CRISPRs to edit viral RNA in a test tube," said Nemudryi. -- "But we wondered, can we program manipulation of RNA in a living human cell?" -- To explore that question, the team programmed type-III CRISPR proteins to cut RNA containing a mutation that causes cystic fibrosis, restoring cell function. -- "We were confident that we could use these CRISPR systems to cut RNA in a programmable manner, but we were all surprised when we sequenced the RNA and realized that the cell had stitched the RNA back together in a way that removed the mutation," said Wiedenheft. | R01 C01 T02 | 82 |
| 2418-E023 | Scientists Replace Fishmeal In Aquaculture With Microbial Protein Derived From Soybean Processing Wastewater | Scientists Replace Fishmeal In Aquaculture Diets With Microbial Protein From Soybeans | Scientists from Nanyang Technological University and Temasek Polytechnic have introduced a sustainable alternative to fishmeal in aquaculture diets. By replacing half of the fishmeal protein with 'single cell protein' from soybean processing wastewater, this innovative approach could reduce overfishing and promote more environmentally friendly fish farming practices. | Nanyang Technological University | Scientific Reports | Press Rel | PubMed | Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and Temasek Polytechnic have successfully replaced half of the fishmeal protein in the diets of farmed Asian seabass with a 'single cell protein' cultivated from microbes in soybean processing wastewater, paving the way for more sustainable fish farming practices. -- The use of a cultivated protein is new to aquaculture production, say the scientists from the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) leading NTU's efforts in the study, and Temasek Polytechnic's Aquaculture Innovation Centre (AIC). -- Farmed aquaculture species rely heavily on feed made from wild-caught fish, known as fishmeal, which is not sustainable and contributes to overfishing of the seas. -- Single cell protein, a sustainable alternative, can be cultivated from food processing wastewater. In particular, the wastewater from soybean processing contains organisms with probiotic potential that are essential for healthy fish growth. -- Wastewaters from the food-processing industry are free of pathogens and other contaminants, make them suitable for growing microbes. Normally after processing the wastewater is discharged and flows into a wastewater reclamation plant. Its nutrients are not recovered, resulting in a lost opportunity to maximise resource use. -- Co-lead author of the study, Dr Ezequiel Santillan, senior research fellow at SCELSE, said, "Our study represents a significant step forward in sustainable aquaculture practices. By harnessing microbial communities from soybean processing wastewater, we have demonstrated the feasibility of producing single cell protein as a viable alternative protein replacement in fish feed, reducing the reliance on fishmeal and contributing to the sustainability of the aquaculture industry." -- The joint research team said that their waste-to-resource approach tackles food security and waste reduction, supporting the development of a circular economy with zero waste as outlined in the United Nations Paris Agreement. -- The study, published in the peer-reviewed science journal Scientific Reports, aligns with the University's research pillar of NTU 2025, a five-year strategic plan that aims to leverage innovative research to mitigate human impact on the environment. -- The study is also aligned with AIC's focus on enhancing food security and resilience. With the aquaculture industry aiming to meet 30 per cent of Singapore's total nutritional needs by 2030, AIC has been actively championing intensive aquaculture production with innovation and technology. -- Replacing half of the usual fish feed for Asian seabass | H01 N01 N02 | 83 |
| 2418-E029 | Scientists Develop Strong Yet Reusable Adhesive From Smart Materials | Strong, Reusable Adhesive Developed for Gripping and Holding Heavy Weights | Scientists at NTU Singapore have created a smart, reusable adhesive that is over ten times stronger than a gecko's feet adhesion, opening up possibilities for the development of reusable superglue and grippers. This breakthrough uses shape-memory polymers to enhance adhesion, allowing for effortless scaling of walls and clinging onto ceilings for various applications. The team's findings were detailed in the scientific journal National Science Review. | Nanyang Technological University | National Science Review | Press Rel | PubMed | Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a smart, reusable adhesive more than ten times stronger than a gecko's feet adhesion, pointing the way for development of reusable superglue and grippers capable of holding heavy weights across rough and smooth surfaces. -- The NTU research team, led by Professor K Jimmy Hsia, found a way to maximise the adhesion of the smart adhesives by using shape-memory polymers, which can stick and detach easily when needed simply by heating them. -- Writing last month in the scientific journal National Science Review, the team details their breakthrough in adhesion by designing the shape-memory polymer material in the shape of hair-like fibrils. -- This smart adhesive can support extremely heavy weights, opening new possibilities for robotic grippers that allow humans to scale walls effortlessly, or climbing robots that can cling onto ceilings for survey or repair applications. -- Professor Hsia, President's Chair in Mechanical Engineering, NTU School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, said: "This research is based on a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of adhesion forces on rough surfaces. It can help us develop very strong, yet easily detachable, adhesives adaptable to rough surfaces. The technology will be very useful in adhesive grippers and climbing robots and might one day let humans climb walls like a real-life Spider-Man." -- It's rubber, it's glue; it remembers its shape and clings on to you -- Shape-memory polymers are materials that can hold 'memories' of their previous form and return to their original shape after they have been deformed by applying external stimuli such as heat, light or electrical current. -- These properties make them ideal to be used as switchable adhesives that can adapt to various surfaces. -- In their testing, the researchers used a shape-memory polymer named E44 epoxy, a stiff and glass-like plastic at room temperature. -- Upon heating, the material turns into a soft rubber-like state that can conform and lock onto microscopic nooks and crevices. | H02 T01 T02 | 84 |
| 2418-T053 | Webb Captures Top Of Iconic Horsehead Nebula In Unprecedented Detail | Webb Captures Horsehead Nebula in Detail | NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured unprecedented infrared images of the Horsehead Nebula, showcasing the region's complexity with remarkable spatial resolution. The new images offer a fresh perspective on this iconic nebula, highlighting its intricate features in the constellation Orion. By exploring cosmic objects with advanced imaging technology, researchers continue to unveil the mysteries of the universe. | NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center | Submitted to arXiv | Press Rel | PubMed | NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of a zoomed-in portion of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show the top of the "horse's mane" or edge of this iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing the region's complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution. -- Webb's new images show part of the sky in the constellation Orion (The Hunter), in the western side of a dense region known as the Orion B molecular cloud. -- Rising from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33, which resides roughly 1,300 light-years away. -- The nebula formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud of material, and glows because it is illuminated by a nearby hot star. -- The gas clouds surrounding the Horsehead have already dissipated, but the jutting pillar is made of thick clumps of material and therefore is harder to erode. -- Astronomers estimate that the Horsehead has about five million years left before it too disintegrates. -- Webb's new view focuses on the illuminated edge of the top of the nebula's distinctive dust and gas structure. -- The Horsehead Nebula is a well-known photodissociation region, or PDR. -- In such a region, ultraviolet (UV) light from young, massive stars creates a mostly neutral, warm area of gas and dust between the fully ionized gas surrounding the massive stars and the clouds in which they are born. -- This UV radiation strongly influences the chemistry of these regions and acts as a significant source of heat. | H01 T01 T02 | 85 |
| 2418-035 | High-Precision Blood Glucose Level Prediction Achieved By Few-Molecule Reservoir Computing | Few-Molecule Reservoir Computing Improves Blood Glucose Prediction Accuracy | A research team from NIMS and Tokyo University of Science has developed an AI device that predicts blood glucose levels in diabetic patients with remarkable accuracy. By harnessing molecular vibrations in organic molecules, this device outperforms existing AI technology and offers new possibilities for medical diagnostics. | National Institute for Materials Science, Japan | Science Advances | Press Rel | PubMed | A collaborative research team from NIMS and Tokyo University of Science has successfully developed a cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) device that executes brain-like information processing through few-molecule reservoir computing. This innovation utilizes the molecular vibrations of a select number of organic molecules. By applying this device for the blood glucose level prediction in patients with diabetes, it has significantly outperformed existing AI devices in terms of prediction accuracy. -- With the expansion of machine learning applications in various industries, there's an escalating demand for AI devices that are not only highly computational but also feature low-power consumption and miniaturization. -- Research has shifted towards physical reservoir computing, leveraging physical phenomena presented by materials and devices for neural information processing. -- One challenge that remains is the relatively large size of the existing materials and devices. -- Our research has pioneered the world's first implementation of physical reservoir computing that operates on the principle of surface-enhanced Raman scattering, harnessing the molecular vibrations of merely a few organic molecules. -- The information is inputted through ion-gating, which modulates the adsorption of hydrogen ions onto organic molecules (p-mercaptobenzoic acid, pMBA) by applying voltage. -- The changes in molecular vibrations of the pMBA molecules, which vary with hydrogen ion adsorption, serve the function of memory and nonlinear waveform transformation for calculation. -- This process, using a sparse assembly of pMBA molecules, has learned approximately 20 hours of a diabetic patient's blood glucose level changes and managed to predict subsequent fluctuations over the next 5 minutes with an error reduction of about 50% compared to the highest accuracy achieved by similar devices to date. -- The outcome of this study indicates that a minimal quantity of organic molecules can effectively perform computations comparable to a computer. This technological breakthrough of conducting sophisticated information processing with minimal materials and in tiny spaces presents substantial practical benefits. It paves the way for the creation of low-power AI terminal devices that can be integrated with a variety of sensors, opening avenues for broad industrial use. | H01 H02 R01 R02 T01 T02 | 86 |
| 2418-T015 | Tomography-Based Digital Twins Of Nd-Fe-B Magnets | Nd-Fe-B Magnets: Tomography-Based Digital Twins for Sustainable Development | By simulating the magnetization reversal of Nd-Fe-B magnets, researchers are paving the way for sustainable permanent magnets with enhanced performance. The study highlights the microstructural features affecting coercivity and offers insights into optimizing industrial magnet quality. | National Institute for Materials Science, Japan | npj Computational Materials | Press Rel | PubMed | NIMS has succeeded in simulating the magnetization reversal of Nd-Fe-B magnets using large-scale finite element models constructed based on tomographic data obtained by electron microscopy. Such simulations have shed light on microstructural features that hinder the coercivity, which quantifies a magnet's resistance to demagnetization in opposing magnetic fields. New tomography-based models are expected to guide toward the development of sustainable permanent magnets with ultimate performance. -- Green power generation, electric transportation, and other high-tech industries rely heavily on high-performance permanent magnets, among which the Nd-Fe-B magnets are the strongest and most in demand. -- The coercivity of industrial Nd-Fe-B magnets is far below its physical limit up to now. -- To resolve this issue, micromagnetic simulations on realistic models of the magnets can be employed. -- A new approach to reconstruct the real microstructure of ultrafine-grained Nd-Fe-B magnets in large-scale models is proposed in this research. -- Specifically, the tomographic data from a series of 2D images obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in combination with consistent focused ion beam (FIB) polishing can be converted into a high-quality 3D finite element model. -- This tomography-based approach is universal and can be applied to other polycrystalline materials addressing a wide range of materials science problems. -- Micromagnetic simulations on the tomography-based models reproduced the coercivity of ultrafine-grained Nd-Fe-B magnets and explained its mechanism. -- The microstructural features relevant to the coercivity and nucleation of magnetization reversal were revealed. -- Thus, the developed model can be considered as a digital twin of Nd-Fe-B magnets -- a virtual representation of an object designed to reflect its physics accurately. | Z01 | 87 |
| 2418-T048 | The Big Quantum Chill: Scientists Modify Common Lab Refrigerator To Cool Faster With Less Energy | Quantum Chill: Faster Cooling With Less Energy | Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a prototype refrigerator that significantly reduces the time and energy required to cool materials to near absolute zero, benefiting the quantum industry. Ultracold refrigeration is essential for various applications, from quantum computing to space observation. By enhancing the efficiency of refrigeration systems, researchers are paving the way for advancements in quantum technology and energy conservation. | National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | By modifying a refrigerator commonly used in both research and industry, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have drastically reduced the time and energy required to cool materials to within a few degrees above absolute zero. The scientists say that their prototype device, which they are now working to commercialize with an industrial partner, could annually save an estimated 27 million watts of power, $30 million in global electricity consumption and enough cooling water to fill 5,000 Olympic swimming pools. -- From stabilizing qubits (the basic unit of information in a quantum computer) to maintaining the superconducting properties of materials and keeping NASA's James Webb Space Telescope cool enough to observe the heavens, ultracold refrigeration is essential to the operation of many devices and sensors. -- For decades, the pulse tube refrigerator (PTR) has been the workhorse device for achieving temperatures as cold as the vacuum of outer space. -- These refrigerators cyclically compress (heat) and expand (cool) high pressure helium gas to achieve the "Big Chill," broadly analogous to the way a household refrigerator uses the transformation of freon from liquid to vapor to remove heat. -- For more than 40 years, the PTR has proven its reliability, but it is also power-hungry, consuming more electricity than any other component of an ultralow temperature experiment. -- When NIST researcher Ryan Snodgrass and his colleagues took a closer look at the refrigerator, they found that manufacturers had built the device to be energy efficient only at its final operating temperature of 4 kelvin (K), or 4 degrees above absolute zero. -- The team found that these refrigerators are extremely inefficient at higher temperatures -- a big issue because the cooldown process begins at room temperature. -- During a series of experiments, Snodgrass, along with NIST scientists Joel Ullom, Vincent Kotsubo and Scott Backhaus, discovered that at room temperature, the helium gas was under such high pressure that some of it was shunted through a relief valve instead of being used for cooling. -- By changing the mechanical connections between the compressor and the refrigerator, the team ensured that none of the helium would be wasted, greatly improving the efficiency of the refrigerator. -- In particular, the researchers continually adjusted a series of valves that control the amount of helium gas flowing from the compressor to the refrigerator. | N02 T01 T02 | 88 |
| 2418-080 | Scientists Find Cancer-Like Features In Atherosclerosis, Spurring Opportunity For New Treatment Approaches | Cancer-Like Atherosclerosis Features Open Treatment Opportunities | Research supported by the NIH has found that smooth muscle cells in arteries of individuals with atherosclerosis can develop cancer-like traits, worsening the disease. By discovering these mechanisms, researchers hope to use anti-cancer drugs to counteract plaque buildup in arteries, a leading cause of cardiovascular disease. This discovery could lead to new therapeutic strategies for preventing and treating atherosclerosis effectively. | NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute | Circulation | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers have discovered that the smooth muscle cells that line the arteries of people with atherosclerosis can change into new cell types and develop traits similar to cancer that worsen the disease. Atherosclerosis is characterized by a narrowing of arterial walls and can increase risk of coronary artery disease, stroke, peripheral artery disease, or kidney disorders. The findings, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), could pave the way for the use of anti-cancer drugs to counteract the tumor-like mechanisms driving the buildup of plaque in the arteries, the major cause of cardiovascular disease. -- "This discovery opens up a whole new dimension for our understanding about therapeutic strategies for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis," said Ahmed Hasan, M.D., Ph.D., program director in the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of NIH. -- "Previous research has suggested that atherosclerosis and cancer may share some similarities, but this association has not been fully described until now." -- Using a combination of molecular techniques in mouse models and tissue samples taken from patients with atherosclerosis, the researchers of the new study characterized the molecular mechanisms that drive the smooth muscle cells to transition into cancer-like cell types. -- The researchers found increased rates of DNA damage and genomic instability -- two hallmarks of cancer -- in the converted smooth muscle cells of atherosclerotic plaque when compared to healthy tissue. -- Genomic instability is the increased tendency for DNA mutations and other genetic changes to occur during cell division. -- Probing further, they also found that cancer-associated genes became more active as the smooth muscle cells were being reprogrammed into the cells that made up the plaque. -- Using a mouse model expressing a known cancer mutation accelerated the reprogramming and worsened atherosclerosis. -- Finally, treating atherosclerotic mice with the anti-cancer drug niraparib, which targets DNA damage, showed potential for preventing and treating atherosclerosis. -- "In fact, we saw that niraparib actually shrinks the atherosclerotic plaques in mice," said Huize Pan, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, and first author of the study. | H01 R01 | 89 |
| 2418-038 | Gene-Based Therapy Restores Cellular Development And Function In Brain Cells From People With Timothy Syndrome | Gene-Based Therapy Shows Promise for Rare Genetic Disorder | A potential new therapy for Timothy syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, has shown promising results in restoring normal cellular function in organoids. This breakthrough, supported by the NIH, could pave the way for novel treatments for a range of genetic conditions and mental disorders. | NIH/National Institute of Mental Health | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | In a proof-of-concept study, researchers demonstrated the effectiveness of a potential new therapy for Timothy syndrome, an often life-threatening and rare genetic disorder that affects a wide range of bodily systems, leading to severe cardiac, neurological, and psychiatric symptoms as well as physical differences such as webbed fingers and toes. The treatment restored typical cellular function in 3D structures created from cells of people with Timothy syndrome, known as organoids, which can mimic the function of cells in the body. These results could serve as the foundation for new treatment approaches for the disorder. The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), appears in the journal Nature. -- "Not only do these findings offer a potential road map to treat Timothy syndrome, but research into this condition also offers broader insights into other rare genetic conditions and mental disorders," said Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health, part of NIH. -- Sergiu Pasca, M.D., and colleagues at Stanford University, Stanford, California, collected cells from three people with Timothy syndrome and three people without Timothy syndrome and examined a specific region of a gene known as CACNA1C that harbors a mutation that causes Timothy syndrome. -- They tested whether they could use small pieces of genetic material that bind to gene products and promote the production of a protein not carrying the mutation, known as antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), to restore cellular deficits underlying the syndrome. -- In the lab, researchers applied the ASOs to human brain tissue structures grown from human cells, known as organoids, and tissue structures formed through the integration of multiple cell types, known as assembloids. -- They also analyzed organoids transplanted into the brains of rats. -- All of the methods were created using cells from people with Timothy syndrome. -- Applying the ASOs restored normal functioning in the cells, and the therapy's effects were dose-dependent and lasted at least 90 days. -- "Our study showed that we can correct cellular deficits associated with Timothy syndrome," said Dr. Pasca. -- "We are now actively working towards translating these findings into the clinic, bringing hope that one day we may have an effective treatment for this devastating neurodevelopmental disorder. | H01 R02 N02 | 90 |
| 2418-T009 | Researchers Show It's Possible To Teach Old Magnetic Cilia New Tricks | Teaching Magnetic Cilia New Tricks for Improved Functionality | Researchers have demonstrated a new technique to reprogram magnetic cilia, enabling flexible control over their movements. By changing the magnetic properties of these artificial hairs, scientists can customize their motion as needed, opening up new possibilities for soft robotics, object transportation, and liquid mixing. | North Carolina State University | Advanced Materials Technologies | Press Rel | PubMed | Magnetic cilia -- artificial hairs whose movement is powered by embedded magnetic particles -- have been around for a while, and are of interest for applications in soft robotics, transporting objects and mixing liquids. However, existing magnetic cilia move in a fixed way. Researchers have now demonstrated a technique for creating magnetic cilia that can be "reprogrammed," changing their magnetic properties at room temperature to change the motion of the cilia as needed. -- Most magnetic cilia make use of 'soft' magnets, which do not generate a magnetic field but become magnetic in the presence of a magnetic field. -- Only a few previous magnetic cilia have made use of 'hard' magnets, which are capable of producing their own magnetic field. -- One of the advantages of using hard magnets is that they can be programmed, meaning that you can give the magnetic field generated by the material a specific polarization. -- Controlling the magnetic polarization -- or magnetization -- allows you to essentially dictate precisely how the cilia will flex when an external magnetic field is applied. -- "What's novel about this work, is that we have demonstrated a technique that allows us to not only program magnetic cilia, but also controllably reprogram them," says Joe Tracy, corresponding author of a paper on the work and professor of materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University. -- "We can change the direction of the material's magnetization at room temperature, which in turn allows us to completely change how the cilia flex. It's like getting a swimmer to change their stroke." -- For this work, the researchers created magnetic cilia consisting of a polymer embedded with magnetic microparticles. -- Specifically, the microparticles are neodymium magnets -- powerful magnets made of neodymium, iron and boron. -- To make the cilia, the researchers introduce the magnetic microparticles into a polymer dissolved in a liquid. | T01 | 91 |
| 2418-075 | Loneliness Grows As We Age | Loneliness Pattern Across Lifespan Discovered | A new study found that loneliness in adulthood follows a U-shaped pattern, being higher in younger and older adulthood and lowest during middle adulthood. The study identified several risk factors, such as social isolation and physical impairment, that contribute to heightened loneliness throughout life. The consistency of the uptick in loneliness in older adults was particularly striking, highlighting the need to understand and address this issue to mitigate its impact on health. | Northwestern University | Psychological Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Loneliness in adulthood follows a U-shaped pattern: it's higher in younger and older adulthood, and lowest during middle adulthood, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study that examined nine longitudinal studies from around the world. -- The study also identified several risk factors for heightened loneliness across the whole lifespan, including social isolation, sex, education and physical impairment. -- "What was striking was how consistent the uptick in loneliness is in older adulthood," said corresponding author Eileen Graham, associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "There's a wealth of evidence that loneliness is related to poorer health, so we wanted to better understand who is lonely and why people are becoming lonelier as they age out of midlife so we can hopefully start finding ways to mitigate it." -- Lacking connection can increase the risk for premature death to levels comparable to smoking daily, according to the office of the U.S. Surgeon General, who one year ago called for action to address America's loneliness epidemic. Graham said her findings underscore the need for targeted interventions to reduce social disparities throughout adulthood to hopefully reduce levels of loneliness, especially among older adults. -- Perhaps one day general practitioners could assess levels of loneliness during regular wellness visits to help identify those who might be most at risk, Graham said. -- The study will be published April 30 in the journal Psychological Science. -- Factors associated with higher persistent loneliness -- The study found individuals with higher persistent loneliness were disproportionately women, more isolated, less educated, had lower income, had more functional limitations, were divorced or widowed, were smokers, or had poorer cognitive, physical or mental health. -- 'How does loneliness change across the lifespan?' -- The study replicated this U-shaped pattern across nine datasets from studies conducted in the U.K., Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, Israel and more. Only one of the datasets was from the U.S., which Graham said points to how widespread the loneliness epidemic is globally. | H01 T02 | 92 |
| 2418-E069 | Sugar-Based Catalyst Upcycles Carbon Dioxide | Sugar-Based Catalyst Converts CO2 Into Useful Chemicals | A new catalyst made from an inexpensive metal and table sugar can convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, a valuable building block for producing chemicals. This innovative catalyst offers a potential solution to convert greenhouse gases into useful products, addressing climate change concerns. | Northwestern University | Science | Press Rel | PubMed | A new catalyst made from an inexpensive, abundant metal and common table sugar has the power to destroy carbon dioxide (CO2) gas. -- In a new Northwestern University study, the catalyst successfully converted CO2 into carbon monoxide (CO), an important building block to produce a variety of useful chemicals. When the reaction occurs in the presence of hydrogen, for example, CO2 and hydrogen transform into synthesis gas (or syngas), a highly valuable precursor to producing fuels that can potentially replace gasoline. -- With recent advances in carbon capture technologies, post-combustion carbon capture is becoming a plausible option to help tackle the global climate change crisis. But how to handle the captured carbon remains an open-ended question. The new catalyst potentially could provide one solution for disposing the potent greenhouse gas by converting it into a more valuable product. -- The study will be published in the May 3 issue of the journal Science. -- "Even if we stopped emitting CO2 now, our atmosphere would still have a surplus of CO2 as a result of industrial activities from the past centuries," said Northwestern's Milad Khoshooei, who co-led the study. "There is no single solution to this problem. We need to reduce CO2 emissions and find new ways to decrease the CO2 concentration that is already in the atmosphere. We should take advantage of all possible solutions." -- "We're not the first research group to convert CO2 into another product," said Northwestern's Omar K. Farha, the study's senior author. "However, for the process to be truly practical, it necessitates a catalyst that fulfills several crucial criteria: affordability, stability, ease of production and scalability. Balancing these four elements is key. Fortunately, our material excels in meeting these requirements." -- An expert in carbon capture technologies, Farha is the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. After starting this work as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Calgary in Canada, Khoshooei now is a postdoctoral fellow in Farha's laboratory. -- Solutions from the pantry -- The secret behind the new catalyst is molybdenum carbide, an extremely hard ceramic material. Unlike many other catalysts that require expensive metals, such as platinum or palladium, molybdenum is an inexpensive, non-precious, Earth-abundant metal. -- To transform molybdenum into molybdenum carbide, the scientists needed a source of carbon. They discovered a cheap option in an unexpected place: the pantry. Surprisingly, sugar -- the white, granulated kind found in nearly every household -- served as an inexpensive, convenient source of carbon atoms. | C01 T01 T02 | 93 |
| 2418-T042 | Random Robots Are More Reliable | Random Movement Improves Robot Performance | A new AI algorithm encourages robots to explore their environments more randomly, leading to faster and more efficient learning. This method improves the reliability and practicality of robots for various applications. By using higher-quality data, robots can learn complex skills and perform tasks successfully on the first attempt. | Northwestern University | Nature Machine Intelligence | Press Rel | PubMed | Northwestern University engineers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm designed specifically for smart robotics. By helping robots rapidly and reliably learn complex skills, the new method could significantly improve the practicality -- and safety -- of robots for a range of applications, including self-driving cars, delivery drones, household assistants and automation. -- Called Maximum Diffusion Reinforcement Learning (MaxDiff RL), the algorithm's success lies in its ability to encourage robots to explore their environments as randomly as possible in order to gain a diverse set of experiences. This "designed randomness" improves the quality of data that robots collect regarding their own surroundings. And, by using higher-quality data, simulated robots demonstrated faster and more efficient learning, improving their overall reliability and performance. -- When tested against other AI platforms, simulated robots using Northwestern's new algorithm consistently outperformed state-of-the-art models. The new algorithm works so well, in fact, that robots learned new tasks and then successfully performed them within a single attempt -- getting it right the first time. This starkly contrasts current AI models, which enable slower learning through trial and error. -- The research will be published on Thursday (May 2) in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence. -- "Other AI frameworks can be somewhat unreliable," said Northwestern's Thomas Berrueta, who led the study. "Sometimes they will totally nail a task, but, other times, they will fail completely. With our framework, as long as the robot is capable of solving the task at all, every time you turn on your robot you can expect it to do exactly what it's been asked to do. This makes it easier to interpret robot successes and failures, which is crucial in a world increasingly dependent on AI." -- Berrueta is a Presidential Fellow at Northwestern and a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering. Robotics expert Todd Murphey, a professor of mechanical engineering at McCormick and Berrueta's adviser, is the paper's senior author. Berrueta and Murphey co-authored the paper with Allison Pinosky, also a Ph.D. candidate in Murphey's lab. -- The disembodied disconnect -- To train machine-learning algorithms, researchers and developers use large quantities of big data, which humans carefully filter and curate. AI learns from this training data, using trial and error until it reaches optimal results. While this process works well for disembodied systems, like ChatGPT and Google Gemini (formerly Bard), it does not work for embodied AI systems like robots. Robots, instead, collect data by themselves -- without the luxury of human curators. -- "Traditional algorithms are not compatible with robotics in two distinct ways," Murphey said. "First, disembodied systems can take advantage of a world where physical laws do not apply. Second, individual failures have no consequences. For computer science applications, the only thing that matters is that it succeeds most of the time. In robotics, one failure could be catastrophic." -- To solve this disconnect, Berrueta, Murphey and Pinosky aimed to develop a novel algorithm that ensures robots will collect high-quality data on-the-go. At its core, MaxDiff RL commands robots to move more randomly in order to collect thorough, diverse data about their environments. By learning through self-curated random experiences, robots acquire necessary skills to accomplish useful tasks. | R01 T01 T02 | 94 |
| 2418-E059 | Big Data Reveals True Climate Impact Of Worldwide Air Travel | Big Data Reveals True Impact Of Air Travel Emissions | A comprehensive study on greenhouse gas emissions from air travel has revealed significant discrepancies between reported and actual emissions, with global aviation emissions surpassing previous estimates by 50%. By examining nearly 40 million flights in 2019, researchers were able to calculate per-country emissions for 197 nations, shedding light on the environmental impact of aviation. This study underscores the importance of accurate reporting and monitoring of aviation-related emissions to address climate change effectively. | Norwegian University of Science and Technology | Environmental Research Letters | Press Rel | PubMed | For the first time ever, researchers have harnessed the power of big data to calculate the per-country greenhouse gas emissions from aviation for 197 countries covered by an international treaty on climate change. -- When countries signed the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty, high-income countries were required to report their aviation-related emissions. -- But 151 middle and lower income countries, including China and India, were not required to report these emissions, although they could do so voluntarily. -- This matters because the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change relies on country reports of emissions during negotiations on country-specific emissions cuts. -- "Our work fills the reporting gaps, so that this can inform policy and hopefully improve future negotiations," says Jan Klenner, a PhD candidate at NTNU's Industrial Ecology Programme and the first author of the new article, which was recently published in Environmental Research Letters. -- The new data show that countries such as China, for example, which did not report its 2019 aviation-related emissions, was second only to the United States when it came to total aviation-related emissions. -- "Now we have a much clearer picture of aviation emissions per country, including previously unreported emissions, which tells you something about how we can go about reducing them," said Helene Muri, a research professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Industrial Ecology Programme. -- Muri was one of Klenner's supervisors and a co-author of the paper. -- Big surprises -- or not -- As might be expected, the United States is at the top of the list of emitters when it comes to the total sum of aviation emissions for both international and domestic flights. | C01 | 95 |
| 2418-013 | A University Lecture, With A Dash Of Jumping Jacks | A University Lecture, With A Dash Of Jumping Jacks | A professor at The Ohio State University implemented exercise breaks during lectures, which students found beneficial for attention, motivation, engagement, and course enjoyment. This innovative solution addresses a long-standing issue in college classrooms, providing a potential way to enhance the learning experience. | Ohio State University | Frontiers in Sports and Active Living | Press Rel | PubMed | A university professor has found a way to help students -- and himself -- power through long lecture classes: exercise breaks. -- In a new study, a professor at The Ohio State University showed that five-minute exercise sessions during lectures were feasible and that students reported positive impacts on their attention and motivation, engagement with their peers and course enjoyment. -- The results may not be particularly surprising, but they do suggest a solution for a long-standing issue in college classrooms, said Scott Hayes, author of the study and associate professor of psychology at Ohio State. -- "Nobody can stay on task for 80 minutes straight without their mind wandering and their attention waxing and waning," Hayes said. -- "If you give students a break and get their bodies moving for just a few minutes, it can help them get their minds back to the lecture and probably be more productive. I know it helps me, as well." -- The study was published recently in the journal Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. -- Hayes said he was inspired to do this research by a similar laboratory-based study of how students responded to exercise breaks during a single video lecture. -- That study found positive results, but Hayes wondered if it could work in the real world of in-person university lectures, over the course of a full semester. -- He tested it in four of his own classes. One to two student-led exercise sessions (five minutes each) were implemented in each lecture during upper-level psychology courses with 20 to 93 students. The classes were 80 minutes long. -- At the beginning of the course, Hayes broke the class into small groups, and each group was responsible for developing a five-minute exercise session. Hayes reviewed the exercise sessions beforehand to make sure they were workable and safe. | H01 | 96 |
| 2418-E032 | Study Details A Common Bacterial Defense Against Viral Infection | Bacterial Defense: Gabija Proteins Protect Against Viral Infection | Researchers from The Ohio State University have identified one of the most common anti-phage systems in bacteria, known as Gabija proteins, used by up to 18% of all bacteria species on Earth. This molecular assembly plays a crucial role in protecting bacteria from viruses, highlighting the importance of understanding these systems for potential applications in biotechnology and medicine. | Ohio State University | Nature Structural & Molecular Biology | Press Rel | PubMed | One of the many secrets to bacteria's success is their ability to defend themselves from viruses, called phages, that infect bacteria and use their cellular machinery to make copies of themselves. -- Technological advances have enabled recent identification of the proteins involved in these systems, but scientists are still digging deeper into what those proteins do. -- In a new study, a team from The Ohio State University has reported on the molecular assembly of one of the most common anti-phage systems -- from the family of proteins called Gabija -- that is estimated to be used by at least 8.5%, and up to 18%, of all bacteria species on Earth. -- Researchers found that one protein appears to have the power to fend off a phage, but when it binds to a partner protein, the resulting complex is highly adept at snipping the genome of an invading phage to render it unable to replicate. -- "We think the two proteins need to form the complex to play a role in phage prevention, but we also believe one protein alone does have some anti-phage function," said Zhangfei Shen, co-lead author of the study and a postdoctoral scholar in biological chemistry and pharmacology at Ohio State's College of Medicine. -- "The full role of the second protein needs to be further studied." -- The findings add to scientific understanding of microorganisms' evolutionary strategies and could one day be translated into biomedical applications, researchers say. -- Shen and co-lead author Xiaoyuan Yang, a PhD student, work in the lab of senior author Tianmin Fu, assistant professor of biological chemistry and pharmacology at Ohio State. -- The study was published April 16 in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. -- The two proteins that make up this defense system are called Gabija A and Gabija B, or GajA and GajB for short. | R01 C01 | 97 |
| 2418-E061 | Protecting Endangered Monkeys From Poachers, Habitat Loss | Protecting Red Colobus Monkeys Key To Tropical Forest Conservation | The conservation of red colobus monkeys across Africa, including the Tai Project field station region, has been identified as a critical conservation priority due to threats from hunting and climate change. The Tai Forest Monkey Project, operating in the Ivory Coast, serves as a key research center for studying endangered primate species and contributes to biodiversity conservation efforts. The incident of poaching at the research station underscores the importance of field stations in protecting wildlife and habitats from illegal activities. | Ohio State University | Conservation Letters | Press Rel | PubMed | The Tai Forest Monkey Project has operated a research field station in west Africa's Ivory Coast for 30 years, but on the one day since its opening that the site was unstaffed because of conflict in nearby Liberia, poachers took advantage -- and killed 18 endangered monkeys. -- The anecdote is a telling example, scientists say, of how thousands of field stations studying primates in forests around the world not only generate knowledge about these threatened species, but also contribute to biodiversity conservation by deterring poaching, deforestation and illegal extraction of natural resources. -- The 17 species of red colobus monkey living across Africa, including in the Tai Project field station region, have been singled out by scientists in an April 30 Conservation Letters article as a priority conservation target. Protection of these monkeys, they assert, can be expected to produce benefits throughout tropical African forests where hunting and climate change have led to dramatic wildlife and habitat loss. -- W. Scott McGraw, professor and chair of anthropology at The Ohio State University and co-director of the Tai Monkey Project operating out of the field station in Ivory Coast, is a co-author of the article -- as well as of a companion Conservation Letters article published in March. The two papers call for scientific communities, governments and funding agencies to support red colobus conservation efforts and step up financial backing of research field stations. -- "One of the primates at our field station is a red colobus species that is endangered," McGraw said. "If we were to stop our work and pull out of the forest, I would not be surprised to see the numbers of all animals just crash. By simply being at the field station, we are protecting what we're studying in addition to generating knowledge. Every one of those species of red colobus in Africa is in danger. And the places where they're protected the most are those that have research field stations." -- The authors, from almost 20 institutions in the United States, Europe and Africa, focused on priority action areas that include national and international designation of red colobus as priority conservation species; ecological surveys to determine populations in need of protection; greater investment in protected area creation and management; and engaging with people who live in close proximity to red colobus monkeys. -- The monkeys' threatened status has already led to one likely extinction: McGraw was among a team of primatologists who documented the disappearance of a species called Miss Waldron's red colobus in the late 1990s -- the first primate to have gone extinct in 500 years. -- "People would say, well, there are lots of other primates -- who cares if we lose one? But we argued that this could be the beginning of a wave of extinction that could make its way across all of Africa," McGraw said. "This was the tip of the iceberg suggesting we were on the edge of catastrophe. What's next? Then the leopards go, then the hippos go. -- "As sad as documenting the disappearance of a primate is, we hoped it would be the canary in the coal mine, if you will, and people would pay attention -- for example, to what field stations do." -- Broadening understanding of field stations' cost-effective protection of biodiversity resources was the point of the earlier article co-authored by McGraw and 172 other scientists. The paper outlined quantitative estimates of field station-related conservation of wildlife species and forests based on a survey of the leaders of 157 field stations in 56 countries. | H01 C01 N01 N02 T01 | 98 |
| 2418-014 | Unveiling The Mysteries Of Cell Division In Embryos With Timelapse Photography | Unveiling The Mysteries Of Cell Division In Embryos With Timelapse Photography | Researchers at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have made significant progress in understanding embryonic mitosis by utilizing advanced imaging techniques and CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Their discovery sheds light on the elusive process of cell division in embryonic cells, opening new avenues for scientific exploration and knowledge. | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | The beginning of life is shrouded in mystery. While the intricate dynamics of mitosis is well-studied in the so-called somatic cells -- the cells that have a specialized function, like skin and muscle cells -- they remain elusive in the first cells of our bodies, the embryonic cells. Embryonic mitosis is notoriously difficult to study in vertebrates, as live functional analyses and -imaging of experimental embryos are technically limited, which makes it hard to track cells during embryogenesis. -- However, researchers from the Cell Division Dynamics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have recently published a paper in Nature Communications, together with Professors Toshiya Nishimura from Hokkaido University (previously at Nagoya University), Minoru Tanaka from Nagoya University, Satoshi Ansai from Tohoku University (currently at Kyoto University), and Masato T. Kanemaki from the National Institute of Genetics. The study takes the first major steps towards answering questions about embryonic mitosis, thanks to a combination of novel imaging techniques, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology, a modern protein-knockdown system, and medaka, or Japanese rice fish (Oryzias latipes). The timelapses that they have produced help answer fundamental questions about the intricate process of equally dividing chromosomes during embryonic mitosis, and simultaneously chart the next frontier of scientific exploration. As Professor Tomomi Kiyomitsu, senior author of the study, describes the timelapses: "they are beautiful, both on their own and because they lay a new foundation for elucidating embryonic mitosis." -- Watch Professor Kiyomitsu explain the beautiful timelapses here: https://youtu.be/HeEp1pmgWgk -- Central to the mystery of embryonic mitosis is the crucial step when the chromosomes, which contain all the genetic information of the cell, are aligned and segregated equally into daughter cells. A key player in this process is the mitotic spindle, which is made of microtubules -- long protein fibers used for intra-cellular structure and transport -- that radiates from opposite poles of the spindle and attaches to the chromosomes in the middle. The spindle captures duplicated chromosomes properly and segregates them equally into the daughter cells during division. There are many factors determining spindle formation, and one of these is the protein Ran-GTP, which plays an essential role in cell division of female reproductive cells, which lack centrosomes -- cell organelles responsible for assembling microtubules -- but not in small somatic cells, which do have centrosomes. However, it has long been unclear whether Ran-GTP is required for spindle assembly in vertebrate early embryos, which contain centrosomes but have unique features, like a larger cell size. -- In contrast to mammalian early embryos, embryonic cells in fish are transparent and develop synchronously in a uniform, single-cell layer sheet, which makes them significantly easier to track. The medaka turned out to be particularly well-suited for the researchers, as these fish tolerate a wide range of temperatures, produce eggs daily, and have a relatively small genome. Being temperature-tolerant means that the medaka embryonic cells could survive at room temperature, making them particularly suited for long, live timelapse photography. -- The fact that medaka produce eggs frequently and have a relatively small genome size makes them good candidates for CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing. With this technology, the researchers have created genetically modified, or transgenic, medaka whose embryonic cells literally highlight the dynamics of certain proteins involved in mitosis. -- In studying the timelapses of the developing mitotic spindle in live, transgenic medaka embryos, the researchers discovered that large early embryos assemble unique spindles different from somatic spindles. In addition, Ran-GTP plays a decisive role in spindle formation in early embryonic divisions, but the importance diminishes in later stage embryos. This is possibly because the spindle structure is remodeled as cells get smaller during development, though the exact reason is a subject for future research. -- The researchers also discovered that the early embryonic cells do not have a dedicated spindle assembly checkpoint, which characterizes most somatic cells, and which serves to ensure that the chromosomes are properly aligned before segregation. As Professor Kiyomitsu surmises, "the checkpoint is not active, and yet the chromosome segregations are still very accurate. This could be explained by the fact that embryonic cells need to divide very quickly, but it is something that we want to study further." -- While genetically modifying the medaka fish and studying the early embryos have led to new key insights into embryonic mitosis, this is just the beginning for Professor Kiyomitsu and the team. In addition to questions related to the diminishing role of Ran-GTP in later stages and the missing spindle assembly checkpoint, he points to the satisfying symmetry of cell divisions in the timelapses: "The spindle formation is characterized by a high degree of symmetry, as the cells appear to be dividing in the sizes and defined directions, and the spindle is consistently in the center of the cells. How can the spindle orient itself so regularly across the cells, and how is it able to find the center every time?" -- Moving beyond the timelapses, the team also hopes to further solidify this new foundation with additional medaka gene-lines to serve as models for research in embryonic cells, and at the same time optimize the genome editing process. Eventually, the team wants to test for generalizability of their findings by studying embryonic mitosis in other organisms, and at a later stage, they want to explore the evolution of spindle assembly and embryonic divisions, which would also contribute to a better understanding of human embryogenesis and to developing diagnosis and treatment of human infertility. | H01 N01 T01 | 99 |
| 2418-T040 | Airborne Single-Photon Lidar System Achieves High-Resolution 3D Imaging | High-Resolution 3D Imaging with Single-Photon Airborne Lidar System | Researchers have created a compact and lightweight single-photon airborne lidar system capable of capturing high-resolution 3D images using a low-power laser. This technological advancement makes single-photon lidar practical for various air and space applications, including environmental monitoring, terrain mapping, and object identification. The system utilizes single-photon detection techniques for accurate 3D mapping. | Optica | Optica | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers have developed a compact and lightweight single-photon airborne lidar system that can acquire high-resolution 3D images with a low-power laser. This advance could make single-photon lidar practical for air and space applications such as environmental monitoring, 3D terrain mapping and object identification. -- Single-photon lidar uses single-photon detection techniques to measure the time it takes laser pulses to travel to objects and back. -- It is particularly useful for airborne applications because it enables highly accurate 3D mapping of terrain and objects even in challenging environments such as dense vegetation or urban areas. -- "Using single-photon lidar technology on resource-limited drones or satellites requires shrinking the entire system and reducing its energy consumption," said research team member Feihu Xu from University of Science and Technology of China. -- "We were able to incorporate recent technology developments into a system that, in comparison to other state-of-the-art airborne lidar systems, employs the lowest laser power and the smallest optical aperture while still maintaining good performance in terms of detection range and imaging resolution." -- In Optica, Optica Publishing Group's journal for high-impact research, the researchers show that the system has the capability to achieve an imaging resolution that surpasses the diffraction limit of light when used with sub-pixel scanning and a new 3D deconvolution algorithm. -- They also demonstrate the system's ability to capture high-resolution 3D images during daytime over large areas aboard a small plane. -- "Ultimately, our work has the potential to enhance our understanding of the world around us and contribute to a more sustainable and informed future for all," said Xu. "For example, our system could be deployed on drones or small satellites to monitor changes in forest landscapes, such as deforestation or other impacts on forest health. It could also be used after earthquakes to generate 3D terrain maps that could help assess the extent of damage and guide rescue teams, potentially saving lives." -- Shrinking single-photon lidar -- The new airborne single-photon lidar system works by sending light pulses from a laser toward the ground. | H01 C01 N02 T01 T02 | 100 |
| 2418-E071 | Artificial Intelligence Enhances Monitoring Of Threatened Marbled Murrelet | AI Boosts Monitoring of Elusive Marbled Murrelet | Artificial intelligence analysis of data from acoustic recording devices is revolutionizing the monitoring of hard-to-study species like the marbled murrelet. This seabird's unique behavior of nesting inland makes studying it challenging. Researchers are using technology to better understand and protect these iconic birds in the Pacific Northwest. | Oregon State University | Ecological Indicators | Press Rel | PubMed | Artificial intelligence analysis of data gathered by acoustic recording devices is a promising new tool for monitoring the marbled murrelet and other secretive, hard-to-study species, research by Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service has shown. -- The threatened marbled murrelet is an iconic Pacific Northwest seabird that's closely related to puffins and murres, but unlike those birds, murrelets raise their young as far as 60 miles inland in mature and old-growth forests. -- "There are very few species like it," said co-author Matt Betts of the OSU College of Forestry. "And there's no other bird that feeds in the ocean and travels such long distances to inland nest sites. This behavior is super unusual and it makes studying this bird really challenging." -- A research team led by Adam Duarte of the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station used data from acoustic recorders, originally placed to assist in monitoring northern spotted owl populations, at thousands of locations in federally managed forests in the Oregon Coast Range and Washington's Olympic Peninsula. -- Researchers developed a machine learning algorithm known as a convolutional neural network to mine the recordings for murrelet calls. -- Findings, published in Ecological Indicators, were tested against known murrelet population data and determined to be correct at a rate exceeding 90%, meaning the recorders and AI are able to provide an accurate look at how much murrelets are calling in a given area. -- "Next, we're testing whether murrelet sounds can actually predict reproduction and occupancy in the species, but that is still a few steps off," Betts said. -- The dove-sized marbled murrelet spends most of its time in coastal waters eating krill, other invertebrates and forage fish such as herring, anchovies, smelt and capelin. Murrelets can only produce one offspring per year, if the nest is successful, and their young require forage fish for proper growth and development. -- The birds typically lay their single egg high in a tree on a horizontal limb at least 4 inches in diameter. Steller's jays, crows and ravens are the main predators of murrelet nests. -- Along the West Coast, marbled murrelets are found regularly from Santa Cruz, California, to the Aleutian Islands. The species is listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in Washington, Oregon and California. | N01 N02 T01 | 101 |
| 2418-E052 | New Japanese Lily Species Identified, 1st Addition To Sukashiyuri Group In 110 Years | New Lily Species Discovered After 110 Years | A research team led by Dr. Seita Watanabe at Osaka Metropolitan University has identified a new species of Japanese lily known as sukashiyuri for the first time since 1914, revising the conventional classification of these lilies. These ornamental lilies, which typically have orange flowers, have been exported from Japan for over two centuries. This discovery sheds new light on the diversity and classification of Japanese lilies, offering insights into their evolutionary history and ornamental value. | Osaka Metropolitan University | TAXON | Press Rel | PubMed | A new species of the Japanese lily known as sukashiyuri has been identified for the first time since 1914 by a research team led by Dr. Seita Watanabe, a specially appointed assistant professor at the Botanical Gardens and the Graduate School of Science at Osaka Metropolitan University. -- Dr. Watanabe questioned the classification used up to now for sukashiyuri group, which usually has orange flowers. -- These lilies have high ornamental value, having been exported from Japan for more than two centuries. -- There have been only four taxonomic groups, but Dr. Watanabe and his team sought evidence to prove that there were more. -- Traveling across Japan to observe the lilies, record images, gather specimens, and obtain DNA from plant materials, the research team members conducted a detailed analysis of the form and structure of the plants and their DNA. -- The results of their extensive work revises the conventional classification into eight taxons, including what they have named Lilium pacificum, the first new species of Japanese lily in 110 years. -- Lilium pacificum grows on coastal areas facing the Pacific Ocean on Honshu from Ibaraki Prefecture south to Shizuoka Prefecture and the Izu Islands. -- "It has an interesting characteristic: the tips of its leaves are curved into a claw-like shape," Dr. Watanabe enthused. -- "Based on the new understanding of these eight taxonomic groups, we found that seven are endemic to Japan, each adapted to its environment, whether coastal or mountainous, and evolving unique traits." -- Dr. Watanabe added: "Our research shows that these plants have differentiated through complex processes, and we hope that our work will provide clues for speciation studies. In the past, individual differences may have been overlooked because of the apparent simplicity of the plants. Through this research, I was reminded of the importance of morphological observation." | N02 | 102 |
| 2418-007 | Identifying A New Liver Defender: The Role Of Resident Macrophages | Identifying A New Liver Defender: The Role Of Resident Macrophages | Researchers at Osaka University have identified liver resident macrophages' critical role in defending against gut bacteria entering the liver through the portal vein under compromised intestinal barrier conditions. Known as 'sentinel macrophages,' these cells are activated by isoallo-lithocholic acid, offering a potential target for preventing liver chronic inflammatory diseases. By enhancing the function of these macrophages, researchers aim to mitigate inflammation and improve treatment outcomes for conditions like metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, underscoring the importance of understanding the liver-gut axis in health and disease. | Osaka University | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | Osaka University researchers discovered liver resident macrophages' pivotal role in defending against gut bacteria and related substances entering via the portal vein, particularly under compromised intestinal barrier conditions. Identified as "sentinel macrophages," they are activated by isoallo-lithocholic acid. This finding holds promise for developing preventive and therapeutic strategies for liver chronic inflammatory diseases, such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), by enhancing the function of these macrophages to mitigate inflammation and improve treatment efficacy. -- The liver and intestines are directly connected via the portal vein, a blood vessel that transports nutrients absorbed in the intestines directly to the liver. -- The intestines harbor numerous gut bacteria, and sometimes these bacteria and their related substances can enter the liver through the portal vein. -- This is especially problematic when the intestinal barrier is compromised, as seen in conditions like ulcerative colitis or leaky gut syndrome, allowing many gut bacteria and related substances to reach the liver. -- Under normal circumstances, the liver's immune system is able to defend against the invading gut bacteria and related substances and prevent inflammation, but the exact mechanism behind this was unclear. -- Using innovative technologies like in vivo imaging of the liver and analysis of single-cell gene expression while preserving tissue locational information, a research group led by Yu Miyamoto and Masaru Ishii at the Graduate School of Medicine of Osaka University has revealed that certain resident macrophages near the entrance of the liver protect it against intestinal bacteria and related substances. -- Their findings are illustrated in Figure 1. Dr. Miyamoto, a lead author of the study, explained, "Our technology showed that these 'sentinel macrophages' play a crucial role in protecting the liver from inflammation caused by intestinal bacteria and related substances." Additionally, the study found that isoallo-lithocholic acid (isoallo-LCA), a secondary bile acid produced by some gut bacteria, trigger the activation of these sentinel macrophages. -- With the rise in conditions like leaky gut due to modern lifestyles (stress, high-fat diets, and lack of exercise), there is increasing concern about inflammation affecting various organs, including the liver. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), often accompanied by the leaky gut, has been particularly concerning due to its ever increasing incidence and challenging treatment. This research shed light on how liver sentinel macrophages defend against gut commensal invaders, offering hope that enhancing their functions could lead to the development of new preventive and therapeutic strategies for liver chronic inflammatory diseases, including MASH. | H01 H02 R01 T01 | 103 |
| 2418-021 | One In Eight Grown-Ups Love Extreme Tartness | Sour Lovers: One in Eight Adults Enjoy Intensely Tart Foods | A recent study by Penn State researchers revealed that roughly one in eight adults enjoy intensely sour sensations, known as 'sour likers.' This subset of people finds pleasure in exceptionally sour foods, a phenomenon not previously studied in adults. The findings shed light on unique taste preferences. | Penn State | Food Quality and Preference | Press Rel | PubMed | For most people, biting into a lemon would leave them puckered up and desperate to lose that sour flavor, but a new study by Penn State researchers revealed that roughly one in eight adults like intensely sour sensations. The cross-cultural study, recently published in the journal Food Quality and Preference, demonstrated there is a subset of "sour likers" who enjoy exceptionally sour foods. -- "This is the first time it's been convincingly shown that there is a segment of adults who likes strongly sour things," said John Hayes, professor of food science, director of the Sensory Evaluation Center at Penn State and author on the study. -- Previous studies have shown that some children, roughly one in three, enjoy intensely sour things, Hayes explained, but this had not been tested directly in adults. -- His recent study, conducted in partnership with researchers in Italy, was the first to show that for a sizeable amount of people, the enjoyment of sourness lasts well into adulthood. -- "Think about candies like Warheads and Sour Patch Kids," Hayes said. -- "The market tells us that there must be some people who enjoy them into adulthood, but now we have an estimate of how many." -- The international research team set out to test the widespread belief that adults are generally averse to sourness, which they predicted would result in a drop in liking as sourness increases. -- They tested the liking patterns of sourness in two different countries across two different groups of individuals belonging to different food cultures -- Italy and the United States. -- The team measured the responses of 143 American adults to various levels of citric acid in water. -- They also measured the responses of 350 Italian adults to pear juice spiked with various amounts of citric acid. | H01 | 104 |
| 2418-E006 | Estimating Emissions Potential Of Decommissioned Gas Wells From Shale Samples | Estimate Methane Emissions From Decommissioned Shale Gas Wells With New Tool | Natural gas extraction from shale formations offers a lower-carbon alternative, but concerns over methane emissions persist. Researchers at Penn State have developed a tool to estimate post-active well emissions, shedding light on the environmental impact of this process. | Penn State | Science of The Total Environment | Press Rel | PubMed | Extracting natural gas from shale formations can provide an abundant, lower-carbon footprint fossil fuel, but also creates concerns over increased methane emissions. A team led by Penn State researchers has developed a new tool that can estimate the emission potential of shale wells after they are no longer active. -- The findings, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, revealed that methane begins diffusing from the shale formation after a well is decommissioned and that this represents a notable source of methane emissions -- comparable to the most significant emissions during drilling and operation of the well. -- "Natural gas is an important energy resource that has helped the U.S. lower its carbon dioxide emissions, but we also understand methane can be a potential hazard," said Shimin Liu, professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State and a co-author of the study. "What this work does is give us a proactive way to understand what's going on in the subsurface." -- Shale formations have low permeability, meaning gas does not move through the rock easily. Operators drill down thousands of feet -- more than a mile -- to reach shale and then drill thousands of feet more horizontally through the formation. They pump a mixture of liquid and sand at high pressure into the shale to open tiny fractures and allow gas to escape from the rock. -- But this may only recover a fraction -- about 20% or less -- of the total natural gas resource. The rest remains trapped within small pores, and the lack of inter-connected pore system means that the gas does not flow easily through the shale. -- By analyzing shale samples, the scientists were able to create a mathematical model to predict the flux -- or movement -- of methane that remains in the formation based on the pore structure. Called a unified gas transport model, the tool integrates the how the all the gasses in the shale move and the structure of the shale to predict methane's flux behavior. The team validated their model against experiments with Marcellus shale conducted on specialized equipment in Liu's laboratory at Penn State. -- "What industry can take away is they have drilling cutting or samples of the shale available, they can calculate the methane emissions flux based on their sample information," said Yun Yang, lead author of the study who conducted the research while completing her doctoral degree at Penn State and as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. "They can use it as guidance to see how much potential there is for methane leakage after a well is abandoned." -- Methane emissions have a stronger global warming potential than carbon dioxide, and mitigating emission is a priority for the United States its international partners through efforts like the Global Methane Initiative, the scientists said. -- This could be especially important in areas like Pennsylvania, where more than 20,000 shale gas wells have been drilled since the start of the Marcellus shale gas boom in 2005. -- "One major problem is that methane leakage has higher global warming potential compared to carbon dioxide," said Haoming Ma, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin and co-author. Ma conducted the work while a research associate at the University of Calgary. "The U.S. and other countries have committed to reducing global methane emissions by about 30% by 2030, highlighting the urgency of mitigation." | C01 T02 | 105 |
| 2418-E048 | Unveiling The Lionfish Invasion In The Mediterranean Sea | Lionfish Invasion Spreads Rapidly Across Mediterranean Sea | Researchers from Wageningen University and Research have published a study on the lionfish invasion in the Mediterranean Sea, revealing the rapid spread of the species and its potential ecological impacts. The lionfish species Pterois miles has extended its territory in the Mediterranean, including colder waters previously thought to be unsuitable. | Pensoft Publishers | NeoBiota | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers from Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands, have published a comprehensive study on the invasion of lionfish in the Mediterranean Sea, highlighting a rapid spread and the potential ecological impacts. -- Published in the open-access journal NeoBiota, the research shows the lionfish species Pterois miles has significantly expanded its territory in the Mediterranean since the invasion began around ten years ago. The invasive species has established presence in the eastern Mediterranean, with observations now extending to colder waters previously thought to be unsuitable for the species. -- Originating from the Indo-Pacific region, the lionfish species Pterois miles and Pterois volitans are regarded as the most successful invasive fishes in marine ecosystems, with the capacity to drastically affect local fish communities and biodiversity in invaded areas. -- Lionfish are generalist predators and impact ecosystems by preying extensively on local fishes, including endemics of high conservation value. As they are unaccustomed to lionfish, native prey species usually do not flee from this new predator. -- "After years studying these predators, I find it amazing how they can easily adjust to so many different environments and be successful in areas that are so different from the ones where they evolve," says lead author Davide Bottacini. -- "It is always impressive to see how such a flamboyant and-to us-conspicuous predator can approach its prey without being noticed," he continues. -- As the largest enclosed sea on earth, the Mediterranean is a unique ecosystem. It is a highly biodiverse basin home to more than 11,000 animal species, some of which are found nowhere else in the world. Genetic studies revealed that lionfish found in the Mediterranean originate from the Red Sea and likely entered through the Suez Canal. -- Through a detailed review of existing scientific data, the researchers identified gaps in our understanding of the lionfish's interactions with Mediterranean ecosystems and have proposed future research directions to address these challenges. Such information provides insights vital for biodiversity conservation and will have practical implications for policy makers aiming to devise sound and efficient mitigation plans. -- The study also highlights the crucial role of citizen science initiatives in tracking and reporting sightings of lionfish, providing valuable data that supports ongoing research efforts. Such community involvement is essential for enhancing understanding of the invasion dynamics and devising effective control measures. | H01 C01 N01 | 106 |
| 2418-053 | Time-Restricted Eating And High-Intensity Exercise Might Work Together To Improve Health | Time-Restricted Eating and Exercise May Work Together to Improve Health | Researchers from the University of Sfax, Tunisia, found that combining time-restricted eating with high-intensity functional training can improve body composition and cardiometabolic parameters more than either method alone. This study, focusing on women with obesity, showed promising results for sustainable weight loss and metabolic health improvements. | PLOS | PLOS ONE | Press Rel | PubMed | Combining time-restricted eating with high-intensity functional training may improve body composition and cardiometabolic parameters more than either alone, according to a study published May 1, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Ranya Ameur and Rami Maaloul from the University of Sfax, Tunisia, and colleagues. -- Changes in diet and exercise are well-known ways to lose weight and improve cardiometabolic health. However, finding the right combination of lifestyle changes to produce sustainable results can be challenging. Prior studies indicate that time-restricted eating (which limits when, but not what, individuals eat) and high-intensity functional training (which combines intense aerobic and resistance exercise) may be beneficial and easier for individuals to commit to long term. -- In a new study, researchers investigated the impact of time-restricted eating and high-intensity functional training on body composition and markers of cardiometabolic health such as cholesterol, blood glucose, and lipid levels. 64 women with obesity were assigned to one of three groups: time-restricted eating (diet only), high-intensity functional training (exercise only), or time-restricted eating plus high-intensity functional training (diet + exercise). Participants following the time-restricted eating regimen ate only between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm. Those in the functional training groups worked out three days per week with an instructor. -- After 12 weeks, all three groups had significant weight loss and decreases in waist and hip circumference. Likewise, all groups showed favorable changes in lipid and glucose levels. -- Some differences were seen between groups. For example, fat-free mass (a combination of lean mass and skeletal muscle mass) and blood pressure improved in the diet + exercise and exercise groups but did not change in the diet-only group. -- Participants in the diet + exercise group generally experienced more profound changes in body composition and cardiometabolic parameters than either diet or exercise alone. -- The researchers noted that this is a relatively small study, and it is difficult to tease out the contributions of specific exercise routines or of time-restricted eating and calorie reduction since both groups reduced their calorie intake. However, they note that combining time-restricted eating with high-intensity functional training might show promise in improving body composition and cardiometabolic health. -- The authors add: "Combining time-restricted eating with High Intensity Functional Training is a promising strategy to improve body composition and cardiometabolic health." | H01 | 107 |
| 2418-E047 | Barley Plants Fine-Tune Their Root Microbial Communities Through Sugary Secretions | Barley Roots Shape Soil Microbes Using Secret Sugary Mix | A study led by Jacob Malone of the John Innes Center found that different types of barley release custom mixes of sugars and compounds to recruit specific soil microbes around their roots. Understanding this plant-microbe interaction could have implications for agriculture and plant health. | PLOS | PLOS Biology | Press Rel | PubMed | Different types of barley recruit distinct communities of soil microbes to grow around their roots by releasing a custom mix of sugars and other compounds, according to a new study led by Jacob Malone of the John Innes Center, UK, publishing April 25 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. -- Beneficial soil microbes that live on or around plant roots can provide nutrition, help the plant withstand stress and protect it from pathogenic microbes. -- In return, the plant secretes a portion of the sugars it makes through photosynthesis, along with amino acids and other metabolites, into the surrounding environment. -- The composition of soil microbes that a plant attracts can vary widely, depending on what kinds of compounds the plant provides. -- In the new study, researchers took a closer look at the relationship between a plant's genetics and its root microbes. -- They analyzed the microbiomes from two types of barley plants -- a modern type named Tipple, and a traditional one, named Chevallier. -- The two barley types each had an overlapping core group of microbes associated with their roots, but with some distinct differences in the overall communities. -- One common group of root microbes -- the Pseudomonas genus -- was especially abundant around Tipple roots. -- The researchers discovered that this is because Tipple plants secrete large amounts of sugars called hexoses (such as glucose or fructose), which Pseudomonas especially like to eat. -- They also observed differences in gene activity between the two barley types that helped explain the variation in their root communities. | H02 N02 | 108 |
| 2418-T038 | Professor Resolves Two Decades Of Oxide Semiconductor Challenges | Professor Resolves Challenges in Oxide Semiconductor Development | Professor Yong-Young Noh and his team have successfully developed a high-performance amorphous P-type oxide semiconductor using tellurium-selenium composite oxide. This breakthrough, published in Nature, has significant implications for the electronics industry and offers a new material for producing stable thin-film transistors. | Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH) | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | Professor Yong-Young Noh from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), along with Dr. Ao Liu and Dr. Huihui Zhu, postdoctoral researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH and now professors at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Dr. Yong-Sung Kim from Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, and Dr. Min Gyu Kim from the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, collaborated on the development of a tellurium-selenium composite oxide semiconductor material. Their efforts led to the successful creation of a high-performance and highly stable p-type thin-film transistor (TFT). This research has been published online in Nature. -- Semiconductors are used in almost every electronic device that people use such as cell phones, PCs, and automobiles. -- They can be classified into two main categories: crystalline and amorphous semiconductors. -- Crystalline semiconductors possess a well-ordered atomic or molecular structure while amorphous semiconductors lack such regularity. -- Consequently, amorphous semiconductors offer simpler fabrication methods and reduced costs compared to their crystalline counterparts. -- However, they typically exhibit inferior electrical performance. -- Research progress on p-type amorphous semiconductors has been notably sluggish. -- Despite the widespread adoption of n-type amorphous oxide semiconductors, particularly those based on indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) in OLED displays and memory devices, the advancement of p-type oxide materials has been impeded by numerous inherent defects. -- This setback has hindered the development of n-p-type complementary bipolar semiconductors (CMOS), which serve as the cornerstone of electronic devices and integrated circuits. -- Achieving high-performance amorphous p-type oxide semiconductor devices has long been regarded as a near-impossible challenge, with academia facing two decades of unsuccessful attempts. | H02 T01 | 109 |
| 2418-E018 | Securing Competitiveness Of Energy-Intensive Industries Through Relocation: The Pulling Power Of Renewables | Green Steel And Chemicals Costs Saved Through Energy-Intensive Industry Relocation | The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research discovered that countries with limited renewable energy resources could save up to 40% on costs for green steel and chemicals by importing from countries with cheaper renewable energy. This 'renewables pull' strategy could incentivize businesses to invest in low-emission production facilities, enhancing industrial competitiveness. | Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) | Nature Energy | Press Rel | PubMed | Countries with limited potential for renewables could save up to 20 percent of costs for green steel and up to 40 percent for green chemicals from green hydrogen if they relocated their energy-intensive production and would import from countries where renewable energy is cheaper, finds a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). This 'renewables pull' would create strong incentives for businesses to invest in low-emission production facilities in these renewable-rich countries. Renewable-scarce countries could put all focus on down-stream production and refinement as the smart way to secure industrial competitiveness. -- "Our new study shows that renewable-scarce countries like parts of the EU, Japan and South Korea could save between 18 to 38 percent in production costs," explains Philipp Verpoort, scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and lead author of the study published in Nature Energy. "They could do so by relocating their production of industrial basic materials like green steel and chemicals based on green hydrogen to countries where renewable energy is cheap." The use of renewable electricity and green hydrogen is a key solution to cut greenhouse-gas emissions when producing steel and chemicals. -- However, not all industrialized countries would be able to produce these in sufficient quantities and at competitive prices in the long term due to their geographical conditions. -- "If these countries focus on producing green hydrogen domestically or importing it, this will be costly for both industry and society. It could even become a dead-end as it results in a lack of long-term competitiveness on global markets. Importing industrial intermediate goods such as iron sponge, ammonia, or methanol and focusing on down-stream production and refinement could be a cheaper and more robust strategy for securing competitiveness," explains Verpoort. -- Importing hydrogen via ship could hinder long-term competitiveness of hydrogen-based value chains -- To arrive at these results, the scientists looked at the green value chains of three primary basic materials: steel, urea and ethylene. -- They argue that an electricity-price difference of 4ct/kWh between some existing renewable-scarce industrial production sites (e.g. Germany, Japan or South Korea) and favourable locations elsewhere on the globe (e.g. Australia, Chile, South Africa) can be expected in 2040. -- The researchers then assessed the cost effectiveness of competing decarbonisation strategies by comparing different trade options -- import of industrial products, import of intermediate products, import of hydrogen, and no imports (i.e. full domestic production). Their research demonstrates that cost savings in case of relocation could be huge and that importing hydrogen does not seem to be a cost-effective strategy -- especially when imports occur via ship. -- The study also discusses other factors that will influence the investment decisions of companies, such as benefits of short and integrated value chains, reliability of supply chains, quality requirements, and public subsidies for low-emission production. -- However, according to the authors, those alone are unlikely to prevent a partial 'green relocation' of production, given the magnitude of cost savings derived in the study. | C01 | 110 |
| 2418-T049 | Science Has An Ai Problem: This Group Says They Can Fix It | Responsible Machine Learning Use in Science | An interdisciplinary team of researchers has released guidelines for the responsible use of machine learning in science to prevent crises resulting from flawed scientific practices. Machine learning has the potential to revolutionize various fields, but its improper application can lead to widespread errors. By establishing standards and reporting guidelines for machine learning-based science, researchers aim to enhance the reliability and credibility of scientific findings across different disciplines. | Princeton University, Engineering School | Science Advances | Press Rel | PubMed | AI holds the potential to help doctors find early markers of disease and policymakers to avoid decisions that lead to war. But a growing body of evidence has revealed deep flaws in how machine learning is used in science, a problem that has swept through dozens of fields and implicated thousands of erroneous papers. -- Now an interdisciplinary team of 19 researchers, led by Princeton University computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, has published guidelines for the responsible use of machine learning in science. -- "When we graduate from traditional statistical methods to machine learning methods, there are a vastly greater number of ways to shoot oneself in the foot," said Narayanan, director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy and a professor of computer science. "If we don't have an intervention to improve our scientific standards and reporting standards when it comes to machine learning-based science, we risk not just one discipline but many different scientific disciplines rediscovering these crises one after another." -- The authors say their work is an effort to stamp out this smoldering crisis of credibility that threatens to engulf nearly every corner of the research enterprise. A paper detailing their guidelines appeared May 1 in the journal Science Advances. -- Because machine learning has been adopted across virtually every scientific discipline, with no universal standards safeguarding the integrity of those methods, Narayanan said the current crisis, which he calls the reproducibility crisis, could become far more serious than the replication crisis that emerged in social psychology more than a decade ago. -- The good news is that a simple set of best practices can help resolve this newer crisis before it gets out of hand, according to the authors, who come from computer science, mathematics, social science and health research. -- "This is a systematic problem with systematic solutions," said Kapoor, a graduate student who works with Narayanan and who organized the effort to produce the new consensus-based checklist. -- The checklist focuses on ensuring the integrity of research that uses machine learning. Science depends on the ability to independently reproduce results and validate claims. Otherwise, new work cannot be reliably built atop old work, and the entire enterprise collapses. While other researchers have developed checklists that apply to discipline-specific problems, notably in medicine, the new guidelines start with the underlying methods and apply them to any quantitative discipline. -- One of the main takeaways is transparency. The checklist calls on researchers to provide detailed descriptions of each machine learning model, including the code, the data used to train and test the model, the hardware specifications used to produce the results, the experimental design, the project's goals and any limitations of the study's findings. The standards are flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of nuance, including private datasets and complex hardware configurations, according to the authors. -- While the increased rigor of these new standards might slow the publication of any given study, the authors believe wide adoption of these standards would increase the overall rate of discovery and innovation, potentially by a lot. | H01 T01 T02 | 111 |
| 2418-E024 | New Technology Makes 3D Microscopes Easier To Use, Less Expensive To Manufacture | New Technology Makes 3D Microscopes More Efficient and Affordable | Engineers at Purdue University are developing innovative technologies to make 3D microscopes faster and more affordable. By addressing the limitations of traditional microscopes, these advancements could revolutionize applications in the life sciences and semiconductor manufacturing. | Purdue University | Optics and Lasers in Engineering | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers in Purdue University's College of Engineering are developing patented and patent-pending innovations that make 3D microscopes faster to operate and less expensive to manufacture. -- Traditional, large depth-of-field 3D microscopes are used across academia and industry, with applications ranging from the life sciences to quality control processes used in semiconductor manufacturing. Song Zhang, professor in Purdue's School of Mechanical Engineering, said they are too slow to capture 3D images and too expensive to build due to the requirement of a high-precision translation stage. -- "Such drawbacks in a microscope slow the measurement process, making it difficult to use for applications that require high speeds, such as in situ quality control," Zhang said. -- Research about the Purdue 3D microscope and its innovations has been published in the peer-reviewed Optics Letters and the August 2023 and March 2024 issues of the peer-reviewed Optics and Lasers in Engineering. The National Science Foundation awarded a grant to conduct the research. -- The Purdue innovation -- Zhang said the Purdue 3D microscope automatically completes three steps: focusing in on an object, determining the optimal capture process and creating a high-quality 3D image for the end user. -- "In contrast, a traditional microscope requires users to carefully follow instructions provided by the manufacturer to perform a high-quality capture," Zhang said. -- Zhang and his colleagues use an electronically tunable lens, or ETL, that changes the focal plane of the imaging system without moving parts. He said using the lens makes the 3D microscope easier to use and less expensive to build. -- "Our suite of patents covers methods on how to calibrate the ETL, how to create all-in-focus 3D images quickly and how to speed up the data acquisition process by leveraging the ETL hardware information," Zhang said. "The end result is the same as a traditional microscope: 3D surface images of a scene. Ours is different because of its high speed and relatively low cost." -- The next developmental steps | H01 T01 | 112 |
| 2418-042 | Researchers Identify Over 2,000 Genetic Signals Linked To Blood Pressure In Study Of Over One Million People | Groundbreaking Study Uncovers 2,000 Genetic Signals for Blood Pressure Control | Researchers have identified over 100 new genomic regions influencing blood pressure, providing a more detailed understanding of genetic factors impacting this complex trait, which could lead to more accurate risk prediction and management strategies for hypertension. | Queen Mary University of London | Nature Genetics | Press Rel | PubMed | Queen Mary-led study reveals the most detailed picture yet of genetic contributors to blood pressure. The findings lead to improved polygenic risk scores, which will better predict blood pressure and risk for hypertension. -- Researchers led by Queen Mary University of London and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) have discovered over a hundred new regions of the human genome, also known as genomic loci, that appear to influence a person's blood pressure. -- In total, over 2,000 independent genetic signals for blood pressure are now reported, demonstrating that blood pressure is a highly complex trait influenced by thousands of different genetic variants. -- The study, published in Nature Genetics, is one of the largest such genomic studies of blood pressure to date, including data from over 1 million individuals and laying the groundwork for researchers to better understand how blood pressure is regulated. -- To understand the genetics of blood pressure, the researchers combined four large datasets from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of blood pressure and hypertension. -- After analysing the data, they found over 2,000 genomic loci linked to blood pressure, including 113 new regions. -- The analyses also implicated hundreds of previously unreported genes that affect blood pressure. -- Such insights could point to potential new drug targets, and help to advance precision medicine in the early detection and prevention of hypertension (high blood pressure). -- From these analyses, the researchers were able to calculate polygenic risk scores, which combine the effects of all genetic variants together to predict blood pressure and risk for hypertension. -- For example, these risk scores show that individuals with highest genetic risk have mean systolic blood pressure levels which are ~17 mmHg higher than those with lowest genetic risk, and a 7-fold increased risk of hypertension. | N02 | 113 |
| 2418-T055 | Innovation Promises To Prevent Power Pole-Top Fires | Innovation to Prevent Power Pole-Top Fires | Engineers in Australia have developed a novel method to enhance the fire resistance of power-pole insulators, mitigating the risk of pole-top fires and reducing power outages. Pole-top fires pose significant challenges to power providers and communities, making it crucial to improve the safety and reliability of electrical infrastructure. By implementing innovative technologies to prevent fires and electrical sparking, engineers aim to enhance the resilience of power systems and ensure uninterrupted energy supply. | RMIT University | Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials | Press Rel | PubMed | Engineers in Australia have found a new way to make power-pole insulators resistant to fire and electrical sparking, promising to prevent dangerous pole-top fires and reduce blackouts. -- Pole-top fires pose significant challenges to power providers and communities worldwide. -- In March, pole-top fires cut power from 40,000 homes and businesses in Perth. -- The 2020 Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements found that power outages experienced by 280,000 customers from various energy providers during Black Summer fires were mainly triggered by events involving insulators and poles. -- RMIT University Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Tariq Nazir said these fires can occur when consecutive hot, dry and windy days are followed by damp and misty conditions. -- "Dust and pollution builds up on power-line insulators, which enables electricity to spark and heat metal fixtures that can cause wooden power poles to catch fire," he said. -- In collaboration with researchers at the University of New South Wales, Nazir has improved the performance and safety of insulation materials for power poles at the lab scale. -- Their results and analysis are published in the high-impact international journal Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials. -- "Power utilities wash insulators on overhead power lines as a vital maintenance procedure to prevent problems like contamination and electrical sparking, which can cause pole-top fires and power outages," said Nazir from RMIT's School of Engineering. -- "Our proposed silicone rubber composite material offers a potential solution that could save power companies time, maintenance resources and ultimately money from prevent damage to their assets." | Z01 | 114 |
| 2418-E033 | Researchers Introduce New Way To Study, Help Prevent Landslides | Preventing Landslides: New Research Helps Predict and Evaluate Risks | A global team of researchers has introduced a new paradigm for studying landslide shapes and failure types to improve predictions and risk evaluations. By focusing on the shape and characteristics of landslides, researchers aim to enhance our understanding of these natural disasters and develop more effective strategies for assessing and mitigating landslide risks. | Rochester Institute of Technology | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | Landslides are one of the most destructive natural disasters on the planet, causing billions of dollars of damage and devastating loss of life every year. By introducing a new paradigm for studying landslide shapes and failure types, a global team of researchers has provided help for those who work to predict landslides and risk evaluations. -- Rochester Institute of Technology Ph.D. student Kamal Rana (imaging science) was a lead author on a paper recently published in Nature Communications announcing the research, along with co-author Nishant Malik, assistant professor in RIT's School of Mathematics and Statistics. -- Kushanav Bhuyan, from the University of Padova and Machine Intelligence and Slope Stability Laboratory, was also a lead co-author. -- Current predictive models rely on databases that do not generally include information on the type of failure of mapped landslides. -- By using the aerial view and elevation data of landslide sites combined with machine learning, the researchers were able to achieve 80-94 percent accuracy in identifying landslide movements in diverse locations around the world. -- Specifically, the study introduces a method of examining slides, flows, and fails, finding distinct patterns. -- Researchers studied landslides around the world, like the 2008 disaster in Beichuan, China, to develop a new paradigm to understand their movements and failure types. -- "Our algorithm is not predicting landslides," explained Malik. -- "But the people who are in the business of predicting landslides need to know more information about them, like what caused them and what mechanisms they were." -- Various locations were studied, including Italy, the United States, Denmark, Turkey, and China. | H01 T01 T02 | 115 |
| 2418-E005 | Herring Arrives Earlier In The Wadden Sea Due To Climate Change | Herring Arrives Earlier In The Wadden Sea Due To Climate Change | The changing climate is causing young herring to arrive in the Wadden Sea earlier in the spring, as revealed in a new study by NIOZ ecologists. The study highlights the importance of consistent and long-term data collection to track these changes accurately. | Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research | Global Change Biology | Press Rel | PubMed | Due to the changing climate, young herring arrive in the Wadden Sea earlier and earlier in spring. That is shown in a new publication by NIOZ ecologists Mark Rademaker, Myron Peck and Anieke van Leeuwen, in this month's journal Global Change Biology. "The fact that we were able to demonstrate this, was only due to very consistently, for more than 60 years, and continuously sampling the fish every spring and every fall with exactly the same fyke every time," Rademaker says. "Recognizing this kind of change requires extreme precision and endurance!" -- NIOZ fyke -- Since 1960, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, has been measuring the number and species of fish that swim in the Marsdiep, between Den Helder and Texel, day in and day out using a standard fyke, in spring and fall. -- These measurements show that the peak of the number of young herring swimming into the Wadden Sea since 1982 comes at least two weeks earlier now. -- "Such a calculation is difficult with a species of fish that swims in large schools," Rademaker says. -- "One day there may be only ten herring, while the next there are suddenly ten thousand fish swimming by. So, if you were to accidentally take a measurement just one day or the other, you would get a completely different picture." -- Extremely consistent measurement -- According to Rademaker, the solution to that problem lies in extremely consistent measurement, almost to the square meter. -- "Only by carrying out measurements in the same place over and over again, and almost continuously, year after year, can you reliably reveal changes in the long term." -- Unique set of data | C01 N01 | 116 |
| 2418-E072 | Archaea Can Be Picky Parasites | Archaea: Selective Parasites of Hosts | Parasitic microbes called DPANN archaea are not only feeding off their hosts but also changing their metabolism. Researchers have discovered how these archaea manipulate their hosts, driving them to adapt to their unique dietary needs. This study sheds light on the complex relationship between parasites and their hosts. | Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | A parasite that not only feeds of its host, but also makes the host change its own metabolism and thus biology. NIOZ microbiologists Su Ding and Joshua Hamm, Nicole Bale, Jaap Damsté and Anja Spang have shown this for the very first time in a specific group of parasitic microbes, so-called DPANN archea. Their study, published in Nature Communications, shows that these archaea are very 'picky eaters', which might drive their hosts to change the menu. -- Archaea are a distinct group of microbes, similar to bacteria*. The team of NIOZ microbiologists studies the so-called DPANN-archaea, that have particularly tiny cells and relatively little genetic material. -- The DPANN archaea are about half of all known archaea and are dependent on other microbes for their livelihood: they attach to their host and take lipids from them as building material for their membrane, their own outer layer. -- Picky eaters -- So far, it was thought that these parasitic archaea just eat any kind of lipids from their host to construct their membrane. -- But for the first time, Ding and Hamm were able to show that the parasitic archaeon Candidatus Nanohaloarchaeum antarcticus does not contain all the lipids that his host Halorubrum lacusprofundi contains, but only a selection of them. -- "In other words: Ca. N. antarcticus is a picky eater," Hamm concludes. -- Host responds to parasite -- By analyzing the lipids in the host with or without their parasites, Ding and Hamm were also able to show that the host responds to the presence of their parasites. -- The hosts change their membrane, not only which types of lipids and the amounts of each type that are used, but also modifying the lipids to change how they behave. | H01 | 117 |
| 2418-E037 | Activity In A Room Stirs Up Nanoparticles Left Over From Consumer Sprays | Room Activity Stirs Up Nanoparticles from Common Household Products | In a recent Rutgers study, nanoparticles in common household products were found to contribute to indoor air pollution, especially for children playing on the floor. The particles can be stirred up and inhaled when walking through a space where the products were sprayed. | Rutgers University | Science of The Total Environment | Press Rel | PubMed | Common household products containing nanoparticles -- grains of engineered material so miniscule they are invisible to the eye -- could be contributing to a new form of indoor air pollution, according to a Rutgers study. -- In a study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, a team of Rutgers researchers found people walking through a space, where a consumer product containing nanoparticles was recently sprayed, stirred residual specks off carpet fibers and floor surfaces, projecting them some three to five feet in the air. A child playing on the floor nearby would be more greatly affected than the adult, experiments showed. -- "If an adult is walking in a room, and steps on some of these deposited particles, we found that the particles will be re-suspended in the air and rise as high as that person's breathing zone," said Gediminas Mainelis, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, who led the study. "A child playing on the floor inhales even more because the concentrations of particles are greater closer to the ground." -- While it's still too early to gauge the long-term effects of these particles on people's health, Mainelis said the results are important to contemplate. "At this point, it's more about increasing awareness so that people know just what they are using," he said. -- A nanoparticle is a fleck of material ranging in size approximately between 1 and 100 nanometers. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. The human eye only can see particles larger than ~50,000 nanometers. A sheet of office paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. -- Nanoparticles are in a wide range of popular household products such as cleaners, disinfectants, sunscreen, hairsprays, and cosmetic mists and powders. -- Nanomaterials, often made from silver, copper or zinc, have become widely used in industry because of the unusual properties they exhibit when manipulated on a microscopic level. -- Scientists have found particles altered at the "nanoscale" can differ in important ways from the properties exhibited by the material in bulk. Some nanoparticles are stronger or have different magnetic properties compared with other forms or sizes of the same material. They can conduct heat or electricity more efficiently. They've been found to become more chemically reactive, reflect light better or change color. -- Since nanoparticles differ substantially from the properties of the same material in aggregated form, researchers worry that nanoparticles may differ in terms of being more strongly toxic, with consequences for human health. -- "There is very limited knowledge of the potential for exposure to nanoparticles from consumer products and resulting health effects," said Mainelis, who has been studying these substances since 2012. | H01 T02 | 118 |
| 2418-E044 | Hornets Found To Be Primary Pollinators Of Two Angelica Species | Hornets Revealed as Primary Pollinators of Two Angelica Species | Researcher Ko Mochizuki discovered that two Angelica species are primarily pollinated by hornets, challenging the belief that these plants are generalists. This discovery has implications for future ecological studies and conservation efforts, highlighting the complexity of plant-pollinator relationships. | School of Science, The University of Tokyo | Ecology | Press Rel | PubMed | Researcher Ko Mochizuki of the University of Tokyo discovered that two species in the genus Angelica are pollinated primarily by hornets. This overturns the conventional belief that Angelica species are "generalists," meaning that there is not one primary pollinator but a variety of species. As hornets are rarely primary pollinators, the discovery also impacts future ecological research and conservation efforts. The findings were published in the journal Ecology. -- White, small, open, secretes nectar and produces pollen: these are the kinds of flowers that many types of insects can reach and are attracted to. Most of the plants in the carrot family, Apiaceae, fit this description perfectly. As such, the species in this family are considered to be generalists. In extreme cases, over 100 different insect species visit their flowers. Not so with Angelica decursiva and Angelica hakonensis, two species in the genus Angelica in the family. -- "I observed a fierce visitation by hornets for the first time in 2015 in Nagano Prefecture," Mochizuki recalls, "and then again in 2018 in the Nikko Botanical Garden where they were feeding on the nectar of the inflorescences of A. decursiva and A. hakonensis. Since it was a dogma that species in the family Apiaceae are generalists, this observation motivated me to investigate if the two Angelica species were pollinated predominantly by hornets." -- Confirming the hunch was a stepwise process. First, Mochizuki returned to the Nikko Botanical Garden to quantify the numbers and types of "visitors" to the flowers. Then, he captured some visitors to check the amount of pollen stuck to their bodies to verify whether it would be enough for pollination. Finally, he conducted an experiment in which he covered some flowers with a mesh that blocked the hornets and some flowers with a mesh that blocked all insects, with a third group of flowers remaining uncovered as the control group. All three of these methods showed that hornets were the most numerous species that visited the flowers. -- "Nevertheless, excluding hornets resulted in seed production higher than expected. I think excluding the hornets allowed other visitors to gather on the flowers. Especially considering that I had previously observed hornets hunting and killing other insect visitors when they encountered each other on the inflorescence," Mochizuki explains. -- Science advances by incremental steps. Discovering that hornets are the primary pollinator of certain species is one such incremental step, but the consequences are wide-ranging. -- "Hornets are generally considered pests in their native range and problematic invasive species in some areas such as North America. Nevertheless, this study underscores the importance of hornets as pollinators, opening new avenues for research and conservation," says Mochizuki. | N02 | 119 |
| 2418-T014 | From Disorder To Order: Flocking Birds And 'Spinning' Particles | Flocking Particles: Induced Ferromagnetism Opens Doors to New Technologies | Researchers have found that increasing particle motility induces ferromagnetism, leading to potential technological advancements in magnetic memory and quantum computing. The study bridges the gap between active matter and quantum systems, shedding light on the ordered state of atoms. | School of Science, The University of Tokyo | Physical Review Research | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers Kazuaki Takasan and Kyogo Kawaguchi of the University of Tokyo with Kyosuke Adachi of RIKEN, Japan's largest comprehensive research institution, have demonstrated that ferromagnetism, an ordered state of atoms, can be induced by increasing particle motility and that repulsive forces between atoms are sufficient to maintain it. The discovery not only extends the concept of active matter to quantum systems but also contributes to the development of novel technologies that rely on the magnetic properties of particles, such as magnetic memory and quantum computing. The findings were published in the journal Physical Review Research. -- Flocking birds, swarming bacteria, cellular flows. These are all examples of active matter, a state in which individual agents, such as birds, bacteria, or cells, self-organize. The agents change from a disordered to an ordered state in what is called a "phase transition." As a result, they move together in an organized fashion without an external controller. -- "Previous studies have shown that the concept of active matter can apply to a wide range of scales, from nanometers (biomolecules) to meters (animals)," says Takasan, the first author. "However, it has not been known whether the physics of active matter can be applied usefully in the quantum regime. We wanted to fill in that gap." -- To fill the gap, the researchers needed to demonstrate a possible mechanism that could induce and maintain an ordered state in a quantum system. It was a collaborative work between physics and biophysics. The researchers took inspiration from the phenomena of flocking birds because, due to the activity of each agent, the ordered state is more easily achieved than in other types of active matter. They created a theoretical model in which atoms were essentially mimicking the behavior of birds. In this model, when they increased the motility of the atoms, the repulsive forces between atoms rearranged them into an ordered state called ferromagnetism. In the ferromagnetic state, spins, the angular momentum of subatomic particles and nuclei, align in one direction, just like how flocking birds face the same direction while flying. -- "It was surprising at first to find that the ordering can appear without elaborate interactions between the agents in the quantum model," Takasan reflects on the finding. "It was different from what was expected based on biophysical models." -- The researcher took a multi-faceted approach to ensure their finding was not a fluke. Thankfully, the results of computer simulations, mean-field theory, a statistical theory of particles, and mathematical proofs based on linear algebra were all consistent. This strengthened the reliability of their finding, the first step in a new line of research. -- "The extension of active matter to the quantum world has only recently begun, and many aspects are still open," says Takasan. "We would like to further develop the theory of quantum active matter and reveal its universal properties." | H02 N01 T01 | 120 |
| 2418-002 | Using Stem Cell-Derived Heart Muscle Cells To Advance Heart Regenerative Therapy | Using Stem Cell-Derived Heart Muscle Cells To Advance Heart Regenerative Therapy | Regenerative heart therapies face the challenge of arrhythmias post-transplant, but a novel approach involving 'cardiac spheroids' made from human stem cells has shown promise in primate models. The injection of these spheroids directly into damaged ventricles resulted in positive outcomes, offering a potential strategy to improve heart function and address the rising cases of myocardial infarctions. The study underscores the urgent need for innovative therapies to combat cardiovascular diseases, which continue to be a leading cause of death globally. | Shinshu University | Circulation | Press Rel | PubMed | Regenerative heart therapies involve transplanting cardiac muscle cells into damaged areas of the heart to recover lost function. However, the risk of arrhythmias following this procedure is reportedly high. In a recent study, researchers from Japan tested a novel approach that involves injecting 'cardiac spheroids,' cultured from human stem cells, directly into damaged ventricles. The highly positive outcomes observed in primate models highlight the potential of this strategy. -- Cardiovascular diseases are still among the top causes of death worldwide, and especially prevalent in developed countries. -- Myocardial infarctions, commonly known as "heart attacks," are on the rise, resulting in a significant number of deaths each year. -- Heart attacks typically kill millions of cardiac muscle cells, leaving the heart in a weakened state. -- Since mammals cannot regenerate cardiac muscle cells on their own, heart transplants are currently the only clinically viable option for patients suffering (or likely to suffer) heart failure. -- Given that full heart transplants are expensive and donors difficult to come by, it is no surprise that alternative therapies are highly sought after by the medical community. -- One promising strategy that has been steadily gaining traction is using human induced pluripotent stem cells (HiPSCs) for regenerative heart therapy. -- Simply put, HiPSCs are cells derived from mature cells that can be effectively 'reprogrammed' into a completely different cell type, such as cardiac muscle cells (cardiomyocytes). By transplanting or injecting cardiomyocytes derived from HiPSCs into damaged areas of the heart, it is possible to recover some lost functionality. -- Unfortunately, studies have reported that this approach can increase the risk of arrythmias, posing a major hurdle to clinical trials. -- In a recent study, a Japanese research team from Shinshu University and Keio University School of Medicine, tested a new strategy for regenerative heart therapy that involves injecting 'cardiac spheroids' derived from HiPSCs into monkeys with myocardial infarction. | H01 R01 N01 N02 | 121 |
| 2418-T006 | Why Can't Robots Outrun Animals? | Animals Outrun Robots Due To Lack Of Mobility Advancements In Robotics | Despite decades of research and investment, robots still struggle to match the endurance, agility, and robustness of animals. A recent study comparing running robots to animals found that biological components perform surprisingly better than fabricated parts, highlighting the challenge in replicating nature's integration and control. | Simon Fraser University | Science Robotics | Press Rel | PubMed | Robotics engineers have worked for decades and invested many millions of research dollars in attempts to create a robot that can walk or run as well as an animal. And yet, it remains the case that many animals are capable of feats that would be impossible for robots that exist today. -- "A wildebeest can migrate for thousands of kilometres over rough terrain, a mountain goat can climb up a literal cliff, finding footholds that don't even seem to be there, and cockroaches can lose a leg and not slow down," says Dr. Max Donelan, Professor in Simon Fraser University's Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology. "We have no robots capable of anything like this endurance, agility and robustness." -- To understand why, and quantify how, robots lag behind animals, an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers from leading research universities completed a detailed study of various aspects of running robots, comparing them with their equivalents in animals, for a paper published in Science Robotics. The paper finds that, by the metrics engineers use, biological components performed surprisingly poorly compared to fabricated parts. Where animals excel, though, is in their integration and control of those components. -- Alongside Donelan, the team comprised Drs. Sam Burden, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Washington; Tom Libby, Senior Research Engineer, SRI International; Kaushik Jayaram, Assistant Professor in the Paul M Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder; and Simon Sponberg, Dunn Family Associate Professor of Physics and Biological Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. -- The researchers each studied one of five different "subsystems" that combine to create a running robot -- Power, Frame, Actuation, Sensing, and Control -- and compared them with their biological equivalents. Previously, it was commonly accepted that animals' outperformance of robots must be due to the superiority of biological components. -- "The way things turned out is that, with only minor exceptions, the engineering subsystems outperform the biological equivalents -- and sometimes radically outperformed them," says Libby. "But also what's very, very clear is that, if you compare animals to robots at the whole system level, in terms of movement, animals are amazing. And robots have yet to catch up." -- More optimistically for the field of robotics, the researchers noted that, if you compare the relatively short time that robotics has had to develop its technology with the countless generations of animals that have evolved over many millions of years, the progress has actually been remarkably quick. -- "It will move faster, because evolution is undirected," says Burden. "Whereas we can very much correct how we design robots and learn something in one robot and download it into every other robot, biology doesn't have that option. So there are ways that we can move much more quickly when we engineer robots than we can through evolution -- but evolution has a massive head start." -- More than simply an engineering challenge, effective running robots offer countless potential uses. Whether solving 'last mile' delivery challenges in a world designed for humans that is often difficult to navigate for wheeled robots, carrying out searches in dangerous environments or handling hazardous materials, there are many potential applications for the technology. -- The researchers hope that this study will help direct future development in robot technology, with an emphasis not on building a better piece of hardware, but in understanding how to better integrate and control existing hardware. Donelan concludes, "As engineering learns integration principles from biology, running robots will become as efficient, agile, and robust as their biological counterparts." | R01 N01 T01 T02 | 122 |
| 2418-T007 | Advancing The Safety Of AI-Driven Machinery Requires Closer Collaboration With Humans | Collaborating with Humans for Safer AI-Driven Machinery | Ongoing research at Tampere University aims to address critical safety gaps in highly automated off-road machinery controlled by AI. By developing adaptable safety systems, researchers seek to ensure public safety while advancing technological capabilities in this rapidly growing industry, aligning with evolving legislation. | Tampere University | Safety Science | Press Rel | PubMed | An ongoing research project at Tampere University aims to create adaptable safety systems for highly automated off-road mobile machinery to meet industry needs. Research has revealed critical gaps in compliance with legislation related to public safety when using mobile working machines controlled by artificial intelligence. -- As the adoption of highly automated off-road machinery increases, so does the need for robust safety measures. Conventional safety processes often fail to consider the health and safety risks posed by systems controlled by artificial intelligence (AI). -- Marea de Koning, a doctoral researcher specialising in automation at Tampere University, conducts research with the aim of ensuring public safety without compromising technological advancements by developing a safety framework specifically tailored for autonomous mobile machines operating in collaboration with humans. This framework intents to enable original equipment manufacturers (OEM), safety & system engineers, and industry stakeholders to create safety systems that comply with evolving legislation. -- Balance between humans and autonomous machines -- Anticipating all the possible ways a hazard can emerge and ensuring that the AI can safely manage hazardous scenarios is practically impossible. We need to adjust our approach to safety to focus more on finding ways to successfully manage unforeseen events. -- We need robust risk management systems, often incorporating a human-in-the-loop safety option. Here a human supervisor is expected to intervene when necessary. But in autonomous machinery, relying on human intervention is impractical. According to de Koning, there can be measurable degradations in human performance when automation is used due to, for example, boredom, confusion, cognitive capacities, loss of situational awareness, and automation bias. These factors significantly impact safety, and a machine must become capable of safely managing its own behaviour. -- "Myapproach considers hazards with AI-driven decision-making, risk assessment, and adaptability to unforeseen scenarios. I think it is important to actively engage with industry partners to ensure real-world applicability. By collaborating with manufacturers, it is possible to bridge the gap between theoretical frameworks and practical implementation," she says. -- The framework intents to support OEMs in designing and developing compliant safety systems and ensure that their products adhere to evolving regulations. -- Integrating framework to existing machinery -- Marea de Koning started her research in November 2020 and will finish it by November 2024. The project is funded partly by the Doctoral School of Industry Innovations and partly by a Finnish system supplier. | H01 T01 | 123 |
| 2418-T021 | Time Zones And Tiredness Strongly Influence NBA Results, Study Of 25,000 Matches Shows | NBA Results Influenced by Time Zones and Player Fatigue Levels | A study published in Chronobiology International shows that the body clock significantly affects the performance of NBA players, with home teams from the Western Time Zone Area performing better against EDT teams. Elite basketball coaches should consider the physical and mental effects of time zone travel when planning games. | Taylor & Francis Group | Chronobiology International | Press Rel | PubMed | The body clock has a significant impact on the performance of NBA players, according to study published in the peer-reviewed journal Chronobiology International. -- The authors say their findings, from more than 25,000 matches, show elite basketball coaches and teams should consider the physical and mental effects of time zone travel when planning games and preparing for games. -- A first of its kind, the research is based on the achievements at home and away of NBA (National Basketball Association) league players across 21 consecutive seasons. -- Considered the most competitive in the world, NBA athletes frequently travel to matches across the five US time zones used by NBA teams. -- The findings show that there is a near 10% better win ratio difference for home teams from the western time zone area (PDT) when playing against a team from the eastern EDT time zone, compared to when an EDT team hosts a PDT team. -- When PDT teams play at home against EDT teams the winning percentage is 63.5%. -- When EDT teams host a PDT team, the winning percentage drops to 55.0%. -- In addition, the findings also show that teams win more home games when players' sleep-wake cycles -- linked to their circadian rhythm (CR) -- are 'ahead' of the local time. -- This is after they have returned west from competing in a city further east where the local time is earlier. -- For example, if the LA Lakers play an away match at Miami (EDT) and then return to Los Angeles (PDT) to play a home game without much CR adaptation time (CR is ahead of the local time), the Lakers play the next home game with a CR advantage against whomever their opponents are. | H01 H02 T01 | 124 |
| 2418-022 | Enzymes Open New Path To Universal Donor Blood | Enzymes Uncover Path to Universal Donor Blood Breakthrough | Researchers at DTU and Lund University have discovered enzymes that can remove specific sugars in red blood cells, a breakthrough in developing universal donor blood. This discovery could potentially lead to the production of universal blood from group B donors, offering hope for improved transfusion safety and more effective treatments. | Technical University of Denmark | Nature Microbiology | Press Rel | PubMed | The quest to develop universal donor blood has taken a decisive step forward. Researchers at DTU and Lund University have discovered enzymes that, when mixed with red blood cells, are able to remove specific sugars that make up the A and B antigens in the human ABO blood groups. The results have been published in the scientific journal Nature Microbiology. -- "For the first time, the new enzyme cocktails not only remove the well-described A and B antigens, but also extended variants previously not recognized as problematic for transfusion safety. We are close to being able to produce universal blood from group B donors, while there is still work to be done to convert the more complex group A blood. Our focus is now to investigate in detail if there are additional obstacles and how we can improve our enzymes to reach the ultimate goal of universal blood production," says Professor Maher Abou Hachem, who is the study leader at DTU and one of the senior scientists behind the discovery. -- He states that the discovery is the result of combining the expertise of DTU researchers in enzymes from the human gut microbiota and Lund University researchers in carbohydrate-based blood groups and transfusion medicine. -- High demand for donor blood -- Human red blood cells carry specific complex sugars structures (antigens) that define the four ABO blood groups A, B, AB and O. These antigens control compatibility between donors and recipients for safe blood transfusion and organ transplantation. -- Donor blood is screened for disease markers and the main blood groups. -- It can then be stored refrigerated for up to 42 days. -- The need for donor blood is high due to the elderly making up a larger proportion of the population and more patients undergoing blood-intensive medical procedures. -- Successfully converting A or B blood types into ABO universal donor blood can markedly reduce the logistics and costs currently associated with storing four different blood types. -- In addition, the development of universal donor blood will lead to an increased supply of donor blood by reducing the waste of blood approaching its expiry date. | R01 N02 | 125 |
| 2418-088 | Gene Signatures From Tissue-Resident T Cells As A Predictive Tool For Melanoma Patients | T Cells Could Predict Melanoma Prognosis And Guide Treatment | Research from the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation highlights the positive impact of tissue-resident memory T cells on melanoma patient survival outcomes, providing valuable insights for personalized cancer treatments. This study could pave the way for more effective immunotherapies by elucidating the role of TRM cells in the tumor immune microenvironment. | Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation | iScience | Press Rel | PubMed | An extensive analytical study conducted at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) has revealed an association between favorable survival outcomes for melanoma patients and the presence of higher populations of tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM). Data obtained from this study could be used not only for a TRM-based machine learning model with predictive powers for melanoma prognosis but could also elucidate the role TRM cells can play in the tumor immune microenvironment. This could guide the development of more effective and personalized anti-tumor immunotherapeutic treatment regimens for cancer patients. -- The tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) refers to the complex and dynamic interplay between tumor cells, various immune cells, and other cellular and non-cellular components within and surrounding the tumor. -- TRM cells are a unique type of immune cells that reside in peripheral tissues and many kinds of cancer types. -- Because of the presence and functional properties of TRM cells within the TIME in harnessing their potential for cancer immunotherapy, there has been much interest in studying TRM cells and how they influence patient survival. -- Key to this understanding is to establish whether the presence and abundance of TRM cells in cancer patients correlate with better patient prognosis. -- Previous studies conducted with melanoma patients have produced conflicting results. -- There has also been little effort to conduct a comprehensive study to evaluate the TRM abundance and correlate immunomics data with patient survival outcomes. -- The TIBI team sought to solve this problem by turning to data from single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), a powerful technology that allows one to obtain a complete genetic profile of large numbers of individual cells. -- Instead of using a limited number of a cell's identifying marker genes, utilizing the scRNA-seq technology provides a more comprehensive, accurate, and nuanced way of characterizing a cell's type and function. -- From this profile, gene signatures can be generated- uniquely characteristic patterns of a specific immune cell type that can possibly be correlated with the presence of disease. | H01 H02 R01 | 126 |
| 2418-005 | Vitamin D Alters Mouse Gut Bacteria To Give Better Cancer Immunity | Vitamin D Alters Mouse Gut Bacteria To Give Better Cancer Immunity | Vitamin D has been found to promote the growth of gut bacteria in mice, enhancing their immunity to cancer and improving responses to immunotherapy treatment. A study by researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, the National Cancer Institute, and Aalborg University has demonstrated the beneficial effects of vitamin D on immune resistance and cancer treatment outcomes. Published in Science, the study highlights the potential of dietary interventions to modulate immune responses and enhance cancer therapy efficacy. | The Francis Crick Institute | Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Aalborg University in Denmark, have found that vitamin D encourages the growth of a type of gut bacteria in mice which improves immunity to cancer. -- Reported today in Science, the researchers found that mice given a diet rich in vitamin D had better immune resistance to experimentally transplanted cancers and improved responses to immunotherapy treatment. -- This effect was also seen when gene editing was used to remove a protein that binds to vitamin D in the blood and keeps it away from tissues. -- Surprisingly, the team found that vitamin D acts on epithelial cells in the intestine, which in turn increase the amount of a bacteria called Bacteroides fragilis. This microbe gave mice better immunity to cancer as the transplanted tumours didn't grow as much, but the researchers are not yet sure how. -- To test if the bacteria alone could give better cancer immunity, mice on a normal diet were given Bacteroides fragilis. These mice were also better able to resist tumour growth but not when the mice were placed on a vitamin D-deficient diet. -- Previous studies have proposed a link between vitamin D deficiency and cancer risk in humans, although the evidence hasn't been conclusive. -- To investigate this, the researchers analysed a dataset from 1.5 million people in Denmark1, which highlighted a link between lower vitamin D levels and a higher risk of cancer. -- A separate analysis of a cancer patient population also suggested that people with higher vitamin D levels2 were more likely to respond well to immune-based cancer treatments. -- Although Bacteroides fragilis is also found in the microbiome in humans, more research is needed to understand whether vitamin D helps provide some immune resistance to cancer through the same mechanism. -- Caetano Reis e Sousa, head of the Immunobiology Laboratory at the Crick, and senior author, said: "What we've shown here came as a surprise -- vitamin D can regulate the gut microbiome to favour a type of bacteria which gives mice better immunity to cancer. | H01 R01 N02 | 127 |
| 2418-E010 | Key To Efficient And Stable Organic Solar Cells | Key Breakthrough Achieved In Organic Solar Cell Development | Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have made a breakthrough in organic photovoltaics, offering sustainable solar energy solutions for everyday use. Their findings in Nature Communications pave the way for more efficient and stable solar technologies. | The University of Hong Kong | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | A team of researchers led by Professor Philip C.Y. Chow from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has made a significant breakthrough in the field of organic photovoltaics. -- Their research, titled "The role of interfacial donor-acceptor percolation in efficient and stable all-polymer solar cells," paves the way for more sustainable and viable solar energy solutions for daily applications. -- The discovery was published as a featured article in the scientific journal Nature Communications. -- Organic photovoltaics (OPV), which employs cost-effective, printable, and environmentally friendly polymer semiconductors, holds tremendous potential for generating sustainable and renewable energy. -- However, due to the soft nature of polymers, achieving OPV devices with both high efficiency and long operation stability has been a long-standing research challenge. -- The research team's work has shed light on how to overcome this challenge. -- The team focused their research on a new type of electron-accepting molecule called Y6, which, when polymerised, has shown great promise in enabling efficient and stable OPV devices. -- By investigating the ultrafast charge dynamics using femtosecond laser pulses, the researchers first discovered that controlling the degree of aggregation of the polymerised Y6 acceptors (Y6-PAs) plays a crucial role in promoting electricity generation. -- The research team further revealed that Y6-PAs exhibit higher miscibility with the donor polymer compared to small molecular acceptors of the same type. -- This miscibility allows for the formation of a nanoscale percolation network at the heterojunction interface, preventing the aggregation of Y6-PAs. | C01 T01 | 128 |
| 2418-T018 | Discovering Exceptional Oxide Ion Conductivity At Lower Temperatures | Exceptional Conductivity: Bismuth-Containing Oxyhalides Operate at Lower Temperatures | Researchers have solved the challenge of oxide ion conductors operating at temperatures below 500 degrees Celsius, offering high conductivity and stability in Sillén oxyhalides. These innovative materials have the potential to enhance the performance of solid oxide fuel cells and other electrochemical applications. | Tokyo Institute of Technology | Journal of the American Chemical Society | Press Rel | PubMed | Oxide ion conductors used in solid-state fuel cells often fail to reach full potential when operating at temperatures below 500 oC, but researchers from Tokyo Tech have recently found a solution to this problem. They demonstrated high conductivity and stability in bismuth-containing Sillén oxyhalides with triple fluorite-like layers (e.g. 10 mS/cm at 431 oC; 204 times higher conductivity than that of conventional conductors at 310 oC). -- Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are known for their high efficiency and improved safety compared to other types of fuel cells. One of the key factors in SOFC performance is the solid electrolyte: the oxide ion conductor. Its excellent electrochemical properties make it an ideal electrolyte not only for SOFC applications but also for solid oxide electrolyzer cells (SOECs), sensors and oxygen separation membranes. -- Despite the significant advantages of oxide ion conductors, commonly used oxide ion conductors such as yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) require extremely high operating temperatures of 1000−700 oC. Over long periods, such high temperatures can be detrimental to SOFC performance. To prevent degradation, expensive heat-resistant alloys are used, which automatically increases the production cost of SOFCs. In addition, there is a lack of stable oxide ion conductors that exhibit a conductivity of 10−2 S cm−1 below 500 oC. -- To bridge the existing gap in the stable oxide ion electrolytes with lower operating temperatures, a team of researchers from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), led by Professor Masatomo Yashima, recently turned their attention to Sillén oxyhalides. In the latest Journal of the American Chemical Society study, they synthesized a series of bismuth (Bi)-containing Sillén oxyhalides and investigated their electrical and structural properties. "We chose materials containing Bi species because they are known to exhibit high oxide ion conductivity. Additionally, the parent materials Sillén oxyhalides possess triple fluorite-like layers with interstitial oxygen sites, which can lead to interstitialcy oxide ion diffusion," says Yashima when asked about their choice of materials. -- In this study, the researchers synthesized Sillén oxychlorides with the molecular formula Bi2−xTexLuO4+x/2Cl (x = 0, 0.1, and 0.2). The team's experiments on Bi1.9Te0.1LuO4.05Cl showed high bulk conductivity of 10 mS/cm (= 0.01 Ω−1 cm−1), which is a standard for practical use in fuel cells, at a much lower temperature of 431 oC than 644 oC of the conventional material YSZ (Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia). Bi1.9Te0.1LuO4.05Cl also exhibits high bulk conductivity of 1.5 × 10−3 S cm−1 at a low temperature of 310 °C, which is more than 200 times higher than that of YSZ. This behavior was attributed to the low activation energy. Further analysis using neutron diffraction experiments, DFT calculations, and molecular dynamics simulations revealed that the low activation energy and high conductivity emerge due to the presence of interstitialcy oxide ion diffusion in the triple fluorite-like layer of Sillén oxychlorides. -- Apart from excellent oxide ion conductivity, Bi1.9Te0.1LuO4.05Cl also exhibited high electrical conductivity independent of the oxygen partial pressure at 431 °C, which indicated the presence of an electrolyte domain. It also maintained high chemical stability under CO2 flow at 400 °C and ambient air at 600 and 400 °C. -- The results of this study demonstrated that triple fluorite-like layers of Sillén oxyhalides can be used to develop high ionic conductors at temperatures below 500 °C, solving a long-standing problem with oxide ion conductors. The high ionic and electrical conductivity and chemical stability of Bi1.9Te0.1LuO4.05Cl may open new avenues for the development of superior oxide ion conductors with a triple fluorite-like layer. -- "Solid oxide fuel cells are being widely accepted as the new-age energy source, but the cost is high due to their high operating temperature. Through this research, we have developed new oxide ion conductors, which could significantly lower the operating temperature and reduce their cost," concludes Yashima. | Z01 | 129 |
| 2418-T032 | Lead-Vacancy Centers In Diamond As Building Blocks For Large-Scale Quantum Networks | Lead-Vacancy Centers In Diamond Advance Quantum Networking | A lead-vacancy (PbV) center in diamond has been identified as a promising quantum emitter for large-scale quantum networks due to its unique optical properties and stability at higher temperatures. By utilizing color centers in diamond, researchers aim to build stable quantum systems for transferring quantum information across long distances. This innovative approach offers new opportunities for quantum communication and computation, with the potential to revolutionize future technologies. | Tokyo Institute of Technology | Physical Review Letters | Press Rel | PubMed | Much like how electric circuits use components to control electronic signals, quantum networks rely on special components and nodes to transfer quantum information between different points, forming the foundation for building quantum systems. In the case of quantum networks, color centers in diamond, which are defects intentionally added to a diamond crystal, are crucial for generating and maintaining stable quantum states over long distances. -- When stimulated by external light, these color centers in diamond emit photons carrying information about their internal electronic states, especially the spin states. The interaction between the emitted photons and the spin states of the color centers enables quantum information to be transferred between different nodes in quantum networks. -- A well-known example of color centers in diamond is the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center, where a nitrogen atom is added adjacent to missing carbon atoms in the diamond lattice. However, the photons emitted from NV color centers do not have well-defined frequencies and are affected by interactions with the surrounding environment, making it challenging to maintain a stable quantum system. -- To address this, an international group of researchers, including Associate Professor Takayuki Iwasaki from Tokyo Institute of Technology, has developed a single negatively charged lead-vacancy (PbV) center in diamond, where a lead atom is inserted between neighboring vacancies in a diamond crystal. In the study published in the journal Physical Review Letters on February 15, 2024, the researchers reveal that the PbV center emits photons of specific frequencies that are not influenced by the crystal's vibrational energy. These characteristics make the photons dependable carriers of quantum information for large-scale quantum networks. -- For stable and coherent quantum states, the emitted photon must be transform-limited, which means that it should have the minimum possible spread in its frequency. Additionally, it should have emission into zero-phonon-line (ZPL), meaning that the energy associated with the emission of photons is only used to change the electronic configuration of the quantum system, and not exchanged with the vibrational lattice modes (phonons) in the crystal lattice. -- To fabricate the PbV center, the researchers introduced lead ions beneath the diamond surface through ion implantation. An annealing process was then carried out to repair any damage caused by the lead ion implantation. The resulting PbV center exhibits a spin 1/2 system, with four distinct energy states with the ground and the excited state split into two energy levels. On photoexciting the PbV center, electron transitions between the energy levels produced four distinct ZPLs, classified by the researchers as A, B, C, and D based on the decreasing energy of the associated transitions. Among these, the C transition was found to have a transform-limited linewidth of 36 MHz. -- "We investigated the optical properties of single PbV centers under resonant excitation and demonstrated that the C-transition, one of the ZPLs, reaches the nearly transform-limit at 6.2 K without prominent phonon-induced relaxation and spectral diffusion," says Dr. Iwasaki. -- The PbV center stands out by being able to maintain its linewidth at approximately 1.2 times the transform-limit at temperatures as high as 16 K. This is important to achieve around 80% visibility in two-photon interference. In contrast, color centers like SiV, GeV, and SnV need to be cooled to much lower temperatures (4 K to 6 K) for similar conditions. By generating well-defined photons at relatively high temperatures compared to other color centers, the PbV center can function as an efficient quantum light-matter interface, which enables quantum information to be carried long distances by photons via optical fibers. -- "These results can pave the way for the PbV center to become a building block to construct large-scale quantum networks," concludes Dr. Iwasaki. | C01 N02 T01 | 130 |
| 2418-047 | 'Seeing The Invisible': New Tech Enables Deep Tissue Imaging During Surgery | New Tech Enables Deep Tissue Imaging During Surgery with Supercontinuum Lighting | Researchers have developed a cutting-edge system for visible-to-OTN HSI, which has implications for advanced medical imaging, providing physicians with an innovative tool to enhance diagnostic capabilities and improve patient outcomes. | Tokyo University of Science | Optics Express | Press Rel | PubMed | Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a state-of-the-art technique that captures and processes information across a given electromagnetic spectrum. Unlike traditional imaging techniques that capture light intensity at specific wavelengths, HSI collects a full spectrum at each pixel in an image. This rich spectral data enables the distinction between different materials and substances based on their unique spectral signatures. Near-infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI) has attracted significant attention in the food and industrial fields as a non-destructive technique for analyzing the composition of objects. A notable aspect of NIR-HSI is over-thousand-nanometer (OTN) spectroscopy, which can be used for the identification of organic substances, their concentration estimation, and 2D map creation. Additionally, NIR-HSI can be used to acquire information deep into the body, making it useful for the visualization of lesions hidden in normal tissues. -- Various types of HSI devices have been developed to suit different imaging targets and situations, such as for imaging under a microscope or portable imaging and imaging in confined spaces. -- However, for OTN wavelengths, ordinary visible cameras lose sensitivity and only a few commercially available lenses exist that can correct chromatic aberration. -- Moreover, it is necessary to construct cameras, optical systems, and illumination systems for portable NRI-HSI devices, but no device that can acquire NIR-HSI with a rigid scope, crucial for portability, has been reported yet. -- Now, in a new study, a team of researchers, led by Professor Hiroshi Takemura from Tokyo University of Science (TUS) and including Toshihiro Takamatsu, Ryodai Fukushima, Kounosuke Sato, Masakazu Umezawa, and Kohei Soga, all from TUS, Hideo Yokota from RIKEN, and Abian Hernandez Guedes and Gustavo M. Calico, both from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has recently developed the world's first rigid endoscope system capable of HSI from visible to OTN wavelengths. -- Their findings were published in Volume 32, Issue 9 of Optics Express on April 17, 2024. -- At the core of this innovative system lies a supercontinuum (SC) light source and an acoustic-opto tunable filter (AOTF) that can emit specific wavelengths. -- Prof. Takemura explains, "An SC light source can output intense coherent white light, whereas an AOTF can extract light containing a specific wavelength. This combination offers easy light transmission to the light guide and the ability to electrically switch between a broad range of wavelengths within a millisecond." -- The team verified the optical performance and classification ability of the system, demonstrating its capability to perform HSI in the range of 490-1600 nm, enabling visible as well as NIR-HSI. -- Additionally, the results highlighted several advantages, such as the low light power of extracted wavelengths, enabling non-destructive imaging, and downsizing capability. | H01 T01 T02 | 131 |
| 2418-E064 | New Discovery Of A Mechanism That Controls Cell Division | Mechanism Controlling Cell Division Discovered In Mediator Complex | Researchers have discovered how the Mediator protein complex moves along genes in DNA, influencing cell division. This finding could have implications for understanding diseases caused by errors in cell division, such as tumour diseases. | Umea University | Nucleic Acids Research | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers at Umeå University, Sweden, have discovered that how a special protein complex called the Mediator moves along genes in DNA may have an impact on how cells divide. The discovery may be important for future research into the treatment of certain diseases. -- "We have gained in-depth knowledge of how cell division is controlled, which is important for understanding the causes of various diseases that are due to errors in cell division, such as various tumour diseases," says Stefan Björklund, professor at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Umeå University and lead author of the study. -- In each cell there is a machinery called the ribosome. It uses DNA as a template to produce proteins, which are necessary for virtually all processes in the cell. -- First, however, the cells must make a copy of the instructions in the form of mRNA through a process called transcription. -- The research team at Umeå University has discovered how the Mediator, a protein complex in the cell nucleus, can bind to DNA and interact with another protein complex, Lsm1-7, to regulate the production of proteins that make up the ribosomes. -- The study shows that when cells grow too densely, cell division slows down. -- When this happens, the mediator moves to the end of the genes where it interacts with Lsm1-7. This has the dual effect of both slowing down the reading of the genes and interfering with the maturation of mRNA. -- This, in turn, leads to a reduced production of ribosomal proteins and thus a slower cell division. -- A possible direction of future research may be to study whether it is possible to control the position of the mediator, in order to inhibit rapid cell division, for example in tumours. -- "We are still early in the research in the field, so more studies are needed before we can say that this is a viable path, but it is an exciting opportunity," says Stefan Björklund. | Z01 | 132 |
| 2418-E065 | Novel Chemical Tool For Understanding Membrane Remodeling In The Cell | Tantalosin Inhibits Protein Interaction, Provides Insight Into Membrane Remodeling | A study on a molecule called Tantalosin reveals how it inhibits protein interactions involved in membrane remodelling in human cells. These findings deepen our understanding of membrane dynamics and could lead to the development of new drugs. | Umea University | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | Press Rel | PubMed | In a study published in PNAS, Umeå researchers describe a natural product-like molecule, Tantalosin, that inhibits interaction between two proteins in complexes that reshape membranes inside the cell. The findings lead to a deeper understanding of how membrane remodelling works in human cells and future development of new drugs. -- "Our study is a good case to use small molecules as valuable chemical tools for understanding complex biological mechanisms. I am happy to coordinate a fantastic collaboration with colleagues in Umeå, Stockholm and Germany," says Yaowen Wu, professor at the Department of Chemistry at Umeå University. -- Membranes of cells are made of lipids and proteins, and they serve barrier functions for cells and intracellular organelles. Membranes of cells are highly dynamic mosaic-fluid structures that undergo constant reshaping. The endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) is tasked with remodelling membranes inside the cell. The ESCRT machinery assembles at the site in the cell where membranes need deformation and then forms helical protein polymers that can contract and pinch off cell membranes. -- Previously, Professor Yaowen Wu and his group, in collaboration with Professor Herbert Waldmann's laboratory at Max Planck Institute Dortmund in Germany, identified a chemical molecule, Tantalosin, that induces a phenotype like autophagy -- a self-eating process in the cell. Tantalosin is a synthetic molecule inspired by alkaloids from the medical plant Cinchona. They observed a very interesting phenomenon in the cell treated with Tantalosin and investigated further the molecular mechanism how Tantalosin works in the cell. -- In collaboration with the chemical proteomics core facility at SciLifeLab in Karolinska Institute the team scrutinized potential cellular targets of Tantalosin. -- "To our surprise, we found that none of the autophagy-related proteins were on the list of potential targets. However, IST1 protein in ESCRT complexes was identified and validated as the cellular target of Tantalosin. We were excited to work on deciphering this unexpected connection between ESCRT complexes and autophagy," says first author Anastasia Knyazeva, who just recently completed her doctoral degree at the Department of Chemistry at Umeå University. -- The researchers characterized the mechanism using a range of biochemical and cell biological methods. When they studied protein-protein interaction in solution, they found that Tantalosin completely stops the interaction between IST1 and its binding partner CHMP1B. -- "We then took a closer look at these two proteins using a transmission electron microscope in collaboration with Kasturika Shankar, a PhD student from Lars-Anders Carlson's lab at Umeå University. Intriguingly, Tantalosin disrupts the formation of ordered IST1-CHMP1B filaments," explains Shuang Li, the paper's co-first author and postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Chemistry at Umeå University. -- Furthermore, the researchers looked inside the cell and found that Tantalosin rapidly disrupts the recycling of cell-surface receptors back to the cell surface. This property could be potentially beneficial for treating certain types of cancers that are driven by cell-surface receptors. -- In this study, the researchers found that LC3 protein, which is usually a hallmark of autophagy, is linked to the endosomal membranes during Tantalosin treatment. Interestingly, the canonical autophagic degradation was not observed. Instead, they found that the process follows a noncanonical autophagy pathway. | H01 R01 N02 T01 | 133 |
| 2418-T029 | Physicists Show That Light Can Generate Electricity Even In Translucent Materials | Physicists Prove That Light Generates Electricity in Transparent Materials | Scientists from Leipzig University and Nanyang Technological University have discovered that some materials can generate electrical currents when exposed to specific frequencies of light, contrary to previous assumptions. This breakthrough opens new possibilities for opto-electronic and photovoltaic devices, paving the way for innovative applications like light amplifiers and solar cells. | Universität Leipzig | Physical Review Letters | Press Rel | PubMed | Some materials are transparent to light of a certain frequency. When such light is shone on them, electrical currents can still be generated, contrary to previous assumptions. Scientists from Leipzig University and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have managed to prove this. "This opens new paradigms for constructing opto-electronic and photovoltaic devices, such as light amplifiers, sensors and solar cells," says Inti Sodemann Villadiego, Professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Leipzig University. The scientists have published their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters. -- "It is possible to drive electric currents by light even when the material has a vanishingly small absorption of such light. This is an important new insight," adds his colleague Li-kun Shi. -- Inti Sodemann Villadiego and his colleagues investigated what are known as "Floquet Fermi liquid" states. -- A Fermi liquid is a special state of many quantum mechanical particles with properties that can be very different from those of ordinary classical liquids such as water at ambient temperature. -- Fermi liquids can arise in a wide variety of situations, from common materials such as the electrical fluid of electrons in metals like gold or silver, to more exotic situations such as the fluid of Helium-3 atoms at low temperatures. -- They can display "spectacular properties," such as becoming superconductors of electricity at low temperatures. -- The "Floquet Fermi liquid" is a variant of this state realised when the particles of the fluid are periodically shaken, such as what happens to electrons in metals when they are illuminated by ideally periodic light. -- "In our publication, we explain several properties of these fluid states," says Professor Sodemann Villadiego. "To study them, we had to develop detailed theoretical models of complex states of electrons shaken by light, which is far from easy." | H01 C01 T01 | 134 |
| 2418-010 | Simplified Diagnosis Of Rare Eye Diseases | Simplified Diagnosis Of Rare Eye Diseases | Fundus autofluorescence (FAF) imaging has emerged as a valuable tool for diagnosing and monitoring posterior uveitis and panuveitis, rare inflammatory eye diseases associated with poor outcomes. A review by researchers from the University Hospital Bonn and the University of Bonn highlights the role of FAF in enhancing the diagnosis of these challenging conditions. Published in Biomolecules, the study underscores the importance of advanced imaging techniques in improving patient outcomes and guiding treatment strategies for uveitis, emphasizing the need for personalized and precise approaches to managing complex eye diseases. | Universitatsklinikum Bonn | Biomolecules | Press Rel | PubMed | Uveitis is a rare inflammatory eye disease. Posterior and panuveitis in particular are associated with a poor prognosis and a protracted course of the disease. Diagnosis and monitoring can be challenging for healthcare professionals. Fundus autofluorescence (FAF) is a fast and non-invasive imaging technique that supports this. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn and the University of Bonn, together with experts from Berlin, Münster and Mannheim, have drafted a review on how FAF can facilitate the diagnosis and monitoring of posterior uveitis and panuveitis. The results have now been published in the journal Biomolecules. -- Uveitis is a rare inflammatory disease of the choroid of the eye, which lies between the retina and the sclera. -- "Depending on the inflamed anatomical structure, this disease can be divided into the subtypes anterior, intermediate, posterior and panuveitis. The exact diagnosis of posterior uveitis and panuveitis can be challenging, as there are many different and sometimes extremely rare subtypes," explains Dr. Maximilian Wintergerst from the Eye Clinic at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), who also conducts research at the University of Bonn. -- In the review, the researchers from Bonn, Berlin, Münster, and Mannheim now show how imaging using fundus autofluorescence (FAF) supports the diagnosis and monitoring of some posterior uveitis forms. -- FAF provides indications of active inflammation -- Fundus autofluorescence is a non-invasive method for imaging the fundus of the eye. -- "Using light of a precisely defined wavelength, so-called fluorophores in the tissue of the eye are stimulated to glow. The distribution of these fluorophores, the intensity of the light signal, and certain resulting light patterns can provide information about the underlying form of uveitis," explains Wintergerst. -- In unclear cases, this can help to make the correct diagnosis. -- "In addition, the autofluorescence signal can also provide us with information on the current state of inflammation in certain forms of uveitis. For example, brightly illuminated areas in the retina are sometimes associated with active inflammation, while darker areas can indicate inactive inflammation," adds Dr. Matthias Mauschitz, Head of the Uveitis Clinic at the UKB. -- The wavelength used influences the result | H01 T01 | 135 |
| 2418-023 | Possible Alternative To Antibiotics Produced By Bacteria | Bacteria's New Antibiotic Offers Alternative to Traditional Methods | Researchers have identified a new lantibiotic, epilancin A37, produced by staphylococci to target their competitors on the skin. This discovery, published in the ISME Journal, highlights the potential of lantibiotics as a new group of substances in the fight against antibiotic resistance. | Universitatsklinikum Bonn | The ISME Journal | Press Rel | PubMed | Many bacteria produce substances to gain an advantage over competitors in their highly competitive natural environment. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) have discovered a new so-called lantibiotic, namely epilancin A37. It is produced by staphylococci that colonize the skin and acts specifically against their main competitors there, the corynebacteria. This specificity is presumably mediated by a very special mechanism of action, which the researchers were able to decipher in detail. Their results have now been published in the ISME Journal. -- Due to increasing antibiotic resistance in pathogens causing infections, the development of new antibacterial substances is important. -- Hopes are pinned on a new group of substances produced by gram-positive bacteria, the lantibiotics. -- These are antimicrobial peptides that often have a very narrow spectrum of activity. -- "Such compounds are highly interesting from a medical point of view, as they could specifically attack individual groups of organisms without affecting the entire bacterial flora, as is the case with broad-spectrum antibiotics, for example," says corresponding author Dr. Fabian Grein, until recently head of the DZIF research group "Bacterial Interference" at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Microbiology at the UKB and member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) "Life & Health" at the University of Bonn. -- Essential competitive advantage over corynebacteria -- The UKB research team led by Fabian Grein and Tanja Schneider, together with the team led by Ulrich Kubitscheck, Professor of Biophysical Chemistry at the University of Bonn, have now discovered a new lantibiotic, namely epilancin A37. -- It is produced by staphylococci, which are typical colonizers of the skin and mucous membranes. -- Little is known about these antimicrobial peptides. "We were able to show that epilancins are widespread in staphylococci, which underlines their ecological importance," says first author Jan-Samuel Puls, a doctoral student from the University of Bonn at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Microbiology at the UKB. -- This is because staphylococci and corynebacteria are important genera of the human microbiota -- i.e. the totality of all microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses -- in the nose and skin, which are closely linked to health and disease. | R01 | 136 |
| 2418-079 | A New Anticoagulant With No Risk Of Bleeding | Bleed-Free Anticoagulant Could Revolutionize Surgery | A team from the University of Geneva and the University of Sydney has developed a new anticoagulant with reversible activity and a fast-acting 'antidote', revolutionizing the use of anticoagulants in various applications. The unique mechanism of activation and deactivation of this anticoagulant could also have applications in immunotherapy, offering new possibilities for managing heart disease, stroke, and other conditions that require anticoagulant therapy. | Université de Genève | Nature Biotechnology | Press Rel | PubMed | Anticoagulant treatments are crucial for managing many conditions, such as heart disease, stroke and venous thrombosis. Current options, however, carry an inherent risk of serious bleeding due to trauma or unforeseen events. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University of Sydney has developed a new anticoagulant, designed to have an on-demand reversible activity, with a fast-acting ''antidote''. This approach could revolutionise the use of anticoagulants in surgery or other applications. The mechanism of activation and deactivation of the active principle could also be used in immunotherapy. These results are published in Nature Biotechnology. -- Anticoagulant therapies are essential for managing many conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, and venous thrombosis. -- However, current treatment options, such as heparin and warfarin, have major drawbacks, including the need for regular monitoring of blood coagulation and the risk of serious bleeding in the event of overdose or trauma. -- Around 15% of emergency hospital visits for adverse drug effect are attributable to complication with anticoagulant treatments (an estimated 235 000 case/year in the US), emphasizing the importance of developing new, safer, and more effective therapeutic options. -- The group led by Nicolas Winssinger, professor in the Department of organic chemistry at the UNIGE Faculty of Science, in collaboration with Richard Payne, professor at the University of Sydney, has recently developed a new anticoagulant active ingredient with an ''antidote'' to reverse its effect rapidly and specifically. -- This new active ingredient, presented in Nature Biotechnology, consists of two molecules targeting distinct sites of thrombin, a protein whose action is central for blood coagulation. -- After binding to thrombin, these two molecules combine to inhibit its activity, thereby reducing its coagulant effect. -- The antidote intervenes by dissociating these two molecules, thus neutralising the action of the active ingredient. -- ''This breakthrough goes beyond the development of a new anticoagulant and its associated antidote. -- The supramolecular approach proposed is remarkably flexible and can be easily adapted to other therapeutic targets. | H01 R01 | 137 |
| 2418-E063 | Cranberry Extracts Could Boost Microbiota And Counter Cardiometabolic Diseases | Cranberry Extracts Combat Chronic Diseases | Cranberry extracts have been shown to improve intestinal microbiota and offer protective effects against chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Researchers from Université Laval and the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods reported rapid beneficial effects of cranberry extracts on gut health after just four days of use. This study highlights the potential health benefits of cranberries and their impact on metabolic health through microbiota modulation. | Université Laval | npj Biofilms and Microbiomes | Press Rel | PubMed | Cranberry extracts appear to improve intestinal microbiota and help prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The study of Université Laval and the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods (INAF) reported beneficial effects after only four days of use. -- Cranberries and berries are associated with multiple health benefits, mainly attributed to their high content of polyphenols, in the form of tannins. They also contain high concentrations of oligosaccharides, small fibres that are thought to contribute to their bioactivity. -- The research team, led by Yves Desjardins, professor at the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, showed that the polyphenols and oligosaccharides present in a cranberry extract boost the genus Bifidobacterium, associated with a reduced risk of diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases. "Normally, these bacteria are stimulated by dietary fibre consumption. We observed the same effect with cranberry extract with a dose almost 20 times lower," points out Jacob Lessard-Lord, a postdoctoral fellow at INAF. -- Cranberry extracts also stimulate the Akkermansia muciniphila bacterium, which plays an important role in the intestinal mucosa, helping to reduce inflammation and strengthen the intestinal barrier. -- This is of particular interest when it comes to countering the harmful effects of a Western diet. "This diet alters the microbiota, causes inflammation of the mucosa, and compromises the integrity of the intestinal barrier, which plays a crucial role in protecting the body from bacteria present in the gut. Alteration of the intestinal barrier allows the passage of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) derived from the intestinal microbiota, known as metabolic endotoxemia, and is a crucial factor in the onset and progression of inflammation and metabolic diseases," explains Yves Desjardins. -- "The constant inflammation that results from the presence of LPS in the body can lead to several chronic diseases, including diabetes, and cardiovascular disease," he explains. -- When included into a balanced diet, cranberry extracts could modify the inflammatory pathway and improve the prognosis of a chronic disease. By stimulating Akkermansia muciniphila bacterium and Bifidobacterium, the microbiota regenerates and recreates an anti-inflammatory environment. This results in strengthening the connections between the cells of the intestinal barrier, thereby fortifying it. -- In the study, approximately forty participants recruited at INAF were instructed to consume a cranberry supplement in capsule form twice daily, morning and evening, which is equivalent to ingesting 60 grams of fresh cranberries. At the beginning of the experiment and after four days, samples of plasma, urine, and stool were collected from participants. The human study was initiated following promising results in the SHIME in vitro system, which reproduces regions of the intestine. -- The research team is now interested in exploring the long-term effects of the extracts. "It's promising to see a beneficial effect after just four days," expresses Jacob Lessard-Lord with enthusiasm. -- Although cranberries had a beneficial effect on all participants, the results highlighted variability in their responses. Future research will identify which microbiota signatures respond best to the extracts. | H01 R01 | 138 |
| 2418-T001 | New Algorithm Cuts Through 'Noisy' Data To Better Predict Tipping Points | New Algorithm Predicts Tipping Points By Identifying Key Data Points | A new algorithm developed by researchers can identify predictive data points indicating an approaching tipping point in various systems. By recognizing key fluctuations in data, scientists can potentially anticipate critical thresholds and take proactive measures to prevent undesirable outcomes or irreversible changes. | University at Buffalo | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | Whether you're trying to predict a climate catastrophe or mental health crisis, mathematics tells us to look for fluctuations. -- Changes in data, from wildlife population to anxiety levels, can be an early warning signal that a system is reaching a critical threshold, known as a tipping point, in which those changes may accelerate or even become irreversible. -- But which data points matter most? And which are simply just noise? -- A new algorithm developed by University at Buffalo researchers can identify the most predictive data points that a tipping point is near. Detailed in Nature Communications, this theoretical framework uses the power of stochastic differential equations to observe the fluctuation of data points, or nodes, and then determine which should be used to calculate an early warning signal. -- Simulations confirmed this method was more accurate at predicting theoretical tipping points than randomly selecting nodes. -- "Every node is somewhat noisy -- in other words, it changes over time -- but some may change earlier and more drastically than others when a tipping point is near. Selecting the right set of nodes may improve the quality of the early warning signal, as well as help us avoid wasting resources observing uninformative nodes," says the study's lead author, Naoki Masuda, PhD, professor and director of graduate studies in the UB Department of Mathematics, within the College of Arts and Sciences. -- The study was co-authored by Neil Maclaren, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Mathematics, and Kazuyuki Aihara, executive director of the International Research Center for Neurointelligence at the University of Tokyo. -- The work was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Japan Science and Technology Agency. -- Warning signals connected via networks -- The algorithm is unique in that it fully incorporates network science into the process. While early warning signals have been applied to ecology and psychology for the last two decades, little research has focused on how those signals are connected within a network, Masuda says. | H02 C01 N01 | 139 |
| 2418-067 | Women Are 40% More Likely To Experience Depression During The Perimenopause | Depression Likelihood during Perimenopause | A study led by UCL researchers found that women are 40% more likely to experience depression during the perimenopause phase compared to those not experiencing menopausal symptoms. The research, involving 9,141 women from various countries, highlighted the increased risk of depression during the perimenopause stage due to hormonal fluctuations, impacting mood and overall mental health. | University College London | Journal of Affective Disorders | Press Rel | PubMed | Women are 40% more likely to experience depression in the perimenopause than those who aren't experiencing any menopausal symptoms, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. -- The research, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, provided a meta-analysis of seven studies involving 9,141 women from across the world (including Australia, USA, China, Netherlands and Switzerland), to understand whether different stages of the menopause were associated with different risk of depression. -- The perimenopause usually occurs around three to five years before the onset of menopause. During this stage women's oestrogen and progesterone levels begin to fluctuate, causing them to experience mood changes, irregular menstrual cycles and other menopausal symptoms, including increased feelings of depression. -- This stage of the menopause continues until one year after a woman's last period and can often last for between four and eight years in total. -- The researchers found that perimenopausal women had a significantly higher risk (around 40%) of experiencing depressive symptoms and being diagnosed with depression compared to premenopausal women. -- There was no significant increase in depression risk for post-menopausal women compared to those who were premenopausal. -- Symptoms were measured using standardised, internationally recognised self-report instruments, including the Patient Health Questionnaire PHQ-9 (which considers factors such as a lack of interest in doing things, issues with sleep, and feelings of low mood). -- Senior author Dr Roopal Desai (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences) said: "This study shows that women in the perimenopausal stage are significantly more likely to experience depression than either before or after this stage. -- "Our findings emphasise the importance of acknowledging that women in this life-stage are more vulnerable to experiencing depression. It also underlines the need to provide support and screening for women to help address their mental health needs effectively." -- The new study comes shortly after the researchers' previous publication*, which found that therapy -- such as mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy -- could be an effective form of treatment for non-physical symptoms of the menopause. | H01 H02 T01 | 140 |
| 2418-095 | Sleep Resets Brain Connections -- But Only For First Few Hours | Sleep Resets Brain Connections Within First Half Of Night | UCL scientists have discovered that during the first half of sleep, the brain weakens new connections between neurons forged while awake. This supports the Synaptic Homeostasis Hypothesis, suggesting that sleep serves as a reset for the brain. | University College London | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | During sleep, the brain weakens the new connections between neurons that had been forged while awake -- but only during the first half of a night's sleep, according to a new study in fish by UCL scientists. -- The researchers say their findings, published in Nature, provide insight into the role of sleep, but still leave an open question around what function the latter half of a night's sleep serves. -- The researchers say the study supports the Synaptic Homeostasis Hypothesis, a key theory on the purpose of sleep which proposes that sleeping acts as a reset for the brain. -- Lead author Professor Jason Rihel (UCL Cell & Developmental Biology) said: "When we are awake, the connections between brain cells get stronger and more complex. If this activity were to continue unabated, it would be energetically unsustainable. Too many active connections between brain cells could prevent new connections from being made the following day. -- "While the function of sleep remains mysterious, it may be serving as an 'off-line' period when those connections can be weakened across the brain, in preparation for us to learn new things the following day." -- For the study, the scientists used optically translucent zebrafish, with genes enabling synapses (structures that communicate between brain cells) to be easily imaged. -- The research team monitored the fish over several sleep-wake cycles. -- The researchers found that brain cells gain more connections during waking hours, and then lose them during sleep. -- They found that this was dependent on how much sleep pressure (need for sleep) the animal had built up before being allowed to rest; if the scientists deprived the fish from sleeping for a few extra hours, the connections continued to increase until the animal was able to sleep. -- Professor Rihel added: "If the patterns we observed hold true in humans, our findings suggest that this remodelling of synapses might be less effective during a mid-day nap, when sleep pressure is still low, rather than at night, when we really need the sleep." | H02 R02 N01 | 141 |
| 2418-E021 | Genetic Hope In Fight Against Devastating Wheat Disease | Fundamental Discovery May Help Reduce Economic Harm Of Fusarium Head Blight | The University of Adelaide researchers made a groundbreaking discovery regarding the TaHRC gene's role in wheat's resistance to Fusarium head blight. Understanding how this gene operates in wheat cells could lead to more effective strategies for reducing the economic impact of this fungal disease, especially under changing climate conditions. | University of Adelaide | Cell Host & Microbe | Press Rel | PubMed | Fungal disease Fusarium head blight (FHB) is on the rise due to increasingly humid conditions induced by climate change during the wheat growing season, but a fundamental discovery by University of Adelaide researchers could help reduce its economic harm. -- While some types of wheat are resistant to FHB thanks to the action of the TaHRC gene at the Fhb1 locus, how this gene functions in wheat cells was unknown until now. -- Collaborating with Nanjing Agriculture University, the University of Adelaide research team has shown TaHRC works in the nucleus of wheat cells, and it can either increase or decrease a plant's susceptibility to FHB. -- "There are two variants of TaHRC that have opposing effects on the condensation of a specific protein complex within the nucleus," says Dr Xiujuan Yang, from the University's School of Agriculture, Food and Wine. -- "When condensed, the complex leads to susceptibility to FHB, whereas when diffused, it provides resistance against FHB. -- "We are the first to reveal the function of protein complex condensation in response to a major crop fungal disease, providing insight into the mode of action of protein complexes in cereal defence responses." -- FHB has caused significant harm to Australia's wheat industry in recent years, with crops in the 2022 season suffering up to 100 per cent yield losses. -- The disease has been on the rise globally since the 1970s, but climate change has increased its prevalence. -- "Australia's reputation for producing high-quality wheat has been built on fortuitous climate conditions during flowering and grain fill, typically coinciding with the dry season, which helps avoid many fungus-caused diseases that thrive in humid weather," says Dr Yang. -- "However, in the background of climate change, a wet spring in 2022 led to Fusarium head blight becoming widespread across eastern Australia." | H01 C01 N02 | 142 |
| 2418-083 | Low Intensity Light To Fight The Effects Of Chronic Stress | Low Light Therapy Fights Cognitive Impact Of Chronic Stress | A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders reveals the effectiveness of photobiomodulation on the brain-gut axis in alleviating cognitive alterations caused by chronic stress. This non-invasive technique could offer new possibilities for treating neurological diseases, with the potential for future therapies based on these promising results. | University of Barcelona | Journal of Affective Disorders | Press Rel | PubMed | Some neurological disorders can be improved through photobiomodulation, a non-invasive technique based on the application of low-intensity light to stimulate altered functions in specific regions of the body. Now, a study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders reveals how photobiomodulation applied to the brain-gut axis is effective in recovering some cognitive alterations and sequelae caused by chronic stress. The study opens up new perspectives for applying the technique in future therapies for the treatment of neurological diseases in patients. -- The article, based on the study of laboratory animal models, is led by Professor Albert Giralt, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Institute of Neurosciences (UBneuro) of the University of Barcelona. Teams from the UB's Centre for the Production and Validation of Advanced Therapies (CREATIO) and the University of Girona, as well as from the University of Montpellier and the company REGEnLIFE (France) are also participating. -- Low-intensity light for activating the gut-brain axis -- In clinical practice, photobiomodulation applies light from lasers or other low-intensity sources to stimulate the activity of an organ with an altered physiology. Now, the new study applies, for the first time in the field of depression, the use of combined photobiomodulation to stimulate different organs, specifically the brain and the gut. -- "This is one of the most innovative scientific contributions of the study: to co-stimulate in a coordinated way the brain and the gut at the same time, i.e. the gut-brain axis. Today, the area of research into the gut-brain axis is generating great scientific interest and is a very promising field for the possible treatment of diseases of the nervous system," says Professor Albert Giralt, member of the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) and the Network Centre for Biomedical Research on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED). -- "The new therapeutic approach focuses on this now rediscovered scenario of intervention and manipulation of the gut-brain axis to address neurological and psychiatric disorders," says Giralt. "Photobiomodulation is a non-invasive technology that is very well tolerated by patients and lacks the side effects of pharmacological treatments. In addition, this advance could also be useful in the treatment of pathologies without clear or incomplete medical coverage, such as the treatment-resistant subtype of depression," adds the expert. -- The devices for the application of photobiomodulation, developed by the company REGEnLIFE, have been adapted from previous studies related to Alzheimer's patients. They combine multiple stimulation sources (laser, LED, etc.) associated with a magnetic ring to stabilise the emission of light in a pulsed -- and not continuous -- manner to avoid overheating the tissues, and are adapted for clinical application in patients. -- Psychiatric disorders: beyond the brain -- Another scientific objective of the study is to prove that psychiatric disorders are not only centred in the brain, "but that other tissues and organs also play a decisive role in their pathophysiology. If new therapies take all these factors into account, it is very likely that we will be able to obtain very satisfactory results in the future," says the researcher. -- But do both photobiomodulation and photobiomodulation act on the cervical-intestinal axis? To date, there have only been descriptive studies of the modifications induced by photobiomodulation. Now, the study delves into the molecular mechanisms and reveals how photobiomodulation is able to reverse the cognitive effects of chronic stress by restoring the sirta1 pathway, "related to senescence and neuronal death, the modulation of negative pyramiding and normalisation of diversity in the intestinal microbiota," notes researcher Anna Sancho-Balcells (UB-UBneuro-CIBERNED), first author of the article. | H01 H02 R01 R02 N01 T01 | 143 |
| 2418-E004 | Curiosity Promotes Biodiversity | Curiosity Promotes Biodiversity | Genetic factors influence the varying degrees of curiosity observed in cichlid fishes, impacting their ability to adapt to new habitats and survive in diverse environments. Exploratory behavior plays a key role in evolution, shaping the behavior and habitat preferences of these unique fish species in Lake Tanganyika. | University of Basel | Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Exploratory behavior is one of the fundamental personality traits of animals -- and these traits influence their probability of survival, among other things. For example, curious individuals can inhabit different areas in their habitats compared to more cautious conspecifics. At the same time, however, they expose themselves to a greater risk of being discovered and eaten. -- Exploratory behavior as a factor in evolution -- The cichlids of Africa's Lake Tanganyika exhibit extraordinary diversity in terms of shape, diet, habitat and coloration. -- This allows them to inhabit various ecological niches and therefore to engage in less competition with one another. -- Researchers have long suspected that also curiosity acts as a driver in the formation of new species and therefore biodiversity. -- Now, a research team led by Professor Walter Salzburger from the University of Basel has used the example of the extremely diverse cichlid fishes of Lake Tanganyika to investigate the role of behavioral differences in adaptation to different ecological niches. -- For a total of nine months, first author Dr. Carolin Sommer-Trembo recorded the "exploratory behavior" of 57 different cichlid species at the Southern shore of Lake Tanganyika in Zambia. -- To this end, the zoologist made video recordings of how the approximately 700 cichlids caught in the lake behaved in a new environment in form of large experimental ponds. -- She then released the animals back into the wild. -- Back in Basel, Sommer-Trembo used these videos to determine which areas of the experimental pond each fish explored within a 15-minute period. | H01 N01 | 144 |
| 2418-E070 | New Approach In The Synthesis Of Complex Natural Substances | Terpenes: Natural Substances With Potential In Medicine And Synthesis | Natural substances like terpenes have unique characteristics and are being used in cancer, malaria, and epilepsy treatments. Chemists are developing new methods to synthesize these substances, found in plants, insects, and sea sponges. This could lead to the creation of innovative medications based on natural compounds. | University of Basel | Journal of the American Chemical Society | Press Rel | PubMed | They are found as fragrances in cosmetics or as flavorings in food, and form the basis of new medications: Terpenes are natural substances that occur in plants, insects and sea sponges. They are difficult to produce synthetically. However, chemists at the University of Basel are now introducing a new method of synthesis. -- Many natural substances possess interesting characteristics, and can form the basis of new active compounds in medicine. -- Terpenes, for example, are a group of substances, some of which are already used in therapies against cancer, malaria or epilepsy. -- There is an important prerequisite for their development into drugs, however: these terpenes should be produced synthetically from simple starting materials. -- This allows their exact molecular structure to be controlled, and targeted changes to be made to improve their properties. -- New approach for total synthesis -- Professor Olivier Baudoin and his doctoral student Oleksandr Vyhivskyi have now developed a new approach to the total synthesis of these substances and have used it to artificially produce two diterpenes -- a subclass of terpenes: randainin D and barekoxide. -- Their report appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. -- Randainin D, originally extracted from plants, inhibits production of an enzyme that plays a role in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. -- It might therefore be considered as a potential candidate for the development of new therapeutic agents. | H01 R01 N02 T01 T02 | 145 |
| 2418-E014 | Laser Technology Offers Breakthrough In Detecting Illegal Ivory | Laser Technology Detects Illegal Ivory Trade With Breakthrough Accuracy | A laser-based approach distinguishes between illegal elephant ivory and legal mammoth tusk ivory, aiding in combating the illegal ivory trade. Developed by scientists at the Universities of Bristol and Lancaster, this method offers a tool for customs to enforce regulations and protect endangered species. | University of Bristol | PLOS ONE | Press Rel | PubMed | A new way of quickly distinguishing between illegal elephant ivory and legal mammoth tusk ivory could prove critical to fighting the illegal ivory trade. A laser-based approach developed by scientists at the Universities of Bristol and Lancaster, could be used by customs worldwide to aid in the enforcement of illegal ivory from being traded under the guise of legal ivory. Results from the study are published in PLOS ONE today [24 April]. -- Despite the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ban on ivory, poaching associated with its illegal trade has not prevented the suffering of elephants and is estimated to cause an eight per cent loss in the world's elephant population every year. -- The 2016 African Elephant Database survey estimated a total of 410,000 elephants remaining in Africa, a decrease of approximately 90,000 elephants from the previous 2013 report. -- While trading/procuring elephant ivory is illegal, it is not illegal to sell ivory from extinct species, such as preserved mammoth tusk ivory. -- This legal source of ivory is now part of an increasing and lucrative 'mammoth hunter' industry. -- It also poses a time-consuming and enforcement problem for customs teams, as ivory from these two different types of tusk are broadly similar making it difficult to distinguish from one another, especially once specimens have become worked or carved. -- In this new study, scientists from Bristol's School of Anatomy and Lancaster Medical School sought to establish whether Raman spectroscopy, which is already used in the study of bone and mineral chemistry, could be modified to accurately detect differences in the chemistry of mammoth and elephant ivory. -- The non-destructive technology, which involves shining a high-energy light at an ivory specimen, can detect small biochemical differences in the tusks from elephants and mammoths. -- Researchers scanned samples of mammoth and elephant tusks from London's Natural History Museum using the laser based method, Raman spectroscopy. -- Results from the experiment found the technology provided accurate, quick and non-destructive species identification. | N01 | 146 |
| 2418-E011 | Deer Are Expanding North, And That's Not Good For Caribou | Deer Expansion North Puts Pressure On Caribou Populations | In Western Canada's boreal forest, deer populations are increasing due to changing climate and habitat alterations. Research from UBC Okanagan highlights the need to understand how wildlife adapts to environmental changes for effective conservation efforts. | University of British Columbia Okanagan campus | Press Rel | PubMed | As the climate changes, animals are doing what they can to adapt. -- Researchers from UBC Okanagan -- which includes partners from Biodiversity Pathways' Wildlife Science Centre, the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, the University of Alberta, and Environment and Climate Change Canada -- wanted to evaluate why deer densities in the boreal forest are rapidly increasing. -- Over the past century, white-tailed deer have greatly expanded their range in North America, explains Melanie Dickie, a doctoral student with UBC Okanagan's Wildlife Restoration Ecology Lab. -- In the boreal forest of Western Canada, researchers have considered that both changing climate and increased habitat alteration have enabled deer to push farther north. Climate change can create milder winters, while habitat alteration from forestry and energy exploration creates new food sources for deer. -- As they conclude their study, researchers caution that what is good for the deer isn't necessarily suitable for other species, such as the threatened woodland caribou. -- Dickie, as well as fellow UBCO and Biodiversity Pathways researchers Drs. Adam Ford, Michael Noonon, Robin Steenweg and Rob Serrouya, have monitored the white-tailed deer's movement into the western boreal forest for more than five years. -- As global temperatures climb, the researchers note that deer expansion is uprooting existing predator-prey dynamics. -- "The expansion of white-tailed deer into the boreal forest has been linked to caribou declines," explains Dickie. "Deer are ecosystem disruptors in the northern boreal forests. Areas with more deer typically have more wolves, and these wolves are predators of caribou -- a species under threat. Deer can handle high predation rates, but caribou cannot." -- Understanding white-tailed deer populations continues to be one piece of the caribou recovery puzzle. -- "The trick is that human land use and climate are often intertwined. As we move northward, the climate becomes harsher and human land use decreases, making it difficult to isolate these two factors," says Dr. Serrouya. "The debate over the relative effect of climate or habitat change isn't unique to deer in the boreal, either; it's one of the most pressing issues facing applied ecologists globally." | H01 C01 N01 N02 | 147 | |
| 2418-E041 | The Double-Fanged Adolescence Of Saber-Toothed Cats | Double-Fanged Adolescence: How Saber-Toothed Cats Protected Their Canines | Paleontologist Jack Tseng's research suggests that saber-toothed cats protected their saber-like canines by retaining baby teeth for up to 30 months, providing extra stability. This new insight challenges previous beliefs and sheds light on the hunting techniques of these ancient predators. | University of California - Berkeley | The Anatomical Record | Press Rel | PubMed | The fearsome, saber-like teeth of Smilodon fatalis -- California's state fossil -- are familiar to anyone who has ever visited Los Angeles' La Brea Tar Pits, a sticky trap from which more than 2,000 saber-toothed cat skulls have been excavated over more than a century. -- Though few of the recovered skulls had sabers attached, a handful exhibited a peculiar feature: the tooth socket for the saber was occupied by two teeth, with the permanent tooth slotted into a groove in the baby tooth. -- Paleontologist Jack Tseng, associate professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, doesn't think the double fangs were a fluke. -- Nine years ago, he joined a few colleagues in speculating that the baby tooth helped to stabilize the permanent tooth against sideways breakage as it erupted. The researchers interpreted growth data for the saber-toothed cat to imply that the two teeth existed side by side for up to 30 months during the animal's adolescence, after which the baby tooth fell out. -- In a new paper accepted for publication in the journal The Anatomical Record, Tseng provides the first evidence that the saber tooth alone would have been increasingly vulnerable to lateral breakage during eruption, but that a baby or milk tooth alongside it would have made it much more stable. The evidence consists of computer modeling of saber-tooth strength and stiffness against sideways bending, and actual testing and breaking of plastic models of saber teeth. -- "This new study is a confirmation -- a physical and simulation test -- of an idea some collaborators and I published a couple of years ago: that the timing of the eruption of the sabers has been tweaked to allow a double-fang stage," said Tseng, who is a curator in the UC Museum of Paleontology. "Imagine a timeline where you have the milk canine coming out, and when they finish erupting, the permanent canine comes out and overtakes the milk canine, eventually pushing it out. What if this milk tooth, for the 30 or so months that it was inside the mouth right next to this permanent tooth, was a mechanical buttress?" -- He speculates that the unusual presence of the baby canine -- one of the deciduous teeth all mammals grow and lose by adulthood -- long after the permanent saber tooth erupted protected the saber while the maturing cats learned how to hunt without damaging them. Eventually, the baby tooth would fall out and the adult would lose the saber support, presumably having learned how to be careful with its saber. Paleontologists still do not know how saber-toothed animals like Smilodon hunted prey without breaking their unwieldy sabers. -- "The double-fang stage is probably worth a rethinking now that I've shown there's this potential insurance policy, this larger range of protection," he said. "It allows the equivalent of our teenagers to experiment, to take risks, essentially to learn how to be a full-grown, fully fledged predator. I think that this refines, though it doesn't solve, thinking about the growth of saber tooth use and hunting through a mechanical lens." -- The study also has implications for how saber-toothed cats and other saber-toothed animals hunted as adults, presumably using their predatory skills and strong muscles to compensate for vulnerable canines. -- Beam theory | H01 N01 | 148 |
| 2418-009 | Genetic Variations May Predispose People To Parkinson's Disease Following Long-Term Pesticide Exposure, Study Finds | Genetic Variations May Predispose People To Parkinson's Disease Following Long-Term Pesticide Exposure, Study Finds | A new study from UCLA Health has identified genetic variants that may explain the increased risk of Parkinson's disease associated with long-term pesticide exposure. By investigating the interaction between genetic factors and environmental toxins, researchers aim to elucidate the mechanisms underlying pesticide-induced Parkinson's disease susceptibility. This research sheds light on the complex interplay between genes and the environment in disease development, offering new insights into preventative strategies for individuals at risk of developing Parkinson's due to pesticide exposure. | University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences | npj Parkinson's Disease | Press Rel | PubMed | A new UCLA Health study found certain genetic variants could help explain how long-term pesticide exposure could increase the risk of Parkinson's disease. -- While decades of research have linked pesticide exposure and Parkinson's disease risk, researchers have sought to explain why some individuals with high exposure develop the disease while others do not. -- One longstanding hypothesis has been that susceptibility to the disease is a combination of both environmental and genetic factors. -- The new study, published in the journal NPJ Parkinson's Disease, used genetic data from nearly 800 Central Valley (California) residents with Parkinson's disease, many of whom had long-term exposure to 10 pesticides used on cotton crops for at least a decade prior to developing the disease, with some patients having been exposed as far back as 1974. -- They examined their genetic makeup for rare variants in genes associated with the function of lysosomes, cellular compartments that break down waste and debris, thought to be associated with the development of Parkinson's disease, and looked for enrichment of variants in patients with high exposure to pesticide use compared to a representative sample of the general population. -- Researchers found that variants in these genes were enriched in patients with more severe Parkinson's disease who also had higher exposure to pesticides. -- These genetic variants also appeared to be deleterious to protein function suggesting that disruption of lysosomal activity may be underling the development of Parkinson's disease combined with pesticide exposure. -- Dr. Brent Fogel, the study's corresponding author and professor of Neurology and Human Genetics, said while the specific interactions between pesticides and the expression of these genetic variants requires further study, the results suggest that in someone with such variants, long-term exposure to the cotton pesticides could lead to the buildup of toxic compounds, due to alterations of the cells' ability to break down damaged proteins and organelles -- a process known as autophagy -- and thus lead to Parkinson's disease. -- Previous studies have shown that altered autophagy can result in a buildup of a protein called alpha synuclein, which is abundant in the brain and neurons. -- As the protein builds up, it forms clumps known as "Lewy" bodies that are a pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease. | R02 N02 | 149 |
| 2418-066 | A Blood Test For Stroke Risk? Biomarker For Risk Of Future Cerebrovascular Disease | Blood Test May Predict Stroke Risk | A new UCLA Health study suggests that a simple blood test can determine an individual's risk for stroke or cognitive decline by measuring inflammatory molecules concentrations. This could help predict susceptibility to cerebral small vessel disease, a common cause of stroke and cognitive decline, especially among the elderly. | University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences | Stroke | Press Rel | PubMed | A simple blood test could allow doctors to determine whether a person may be at higher risk for stroke or cognitive decline during their lifetime, according to a new UCLA Health study. -- The study, published in the journal Stroke, found that measuring concentrations of a network of inflammatory molecules in the blood could allow doctors to calculate a risk score for susceptibility for cerebral small vessel disease -- a common cause of stroke and a contributor to cognitive decline found especially among the elderly. -- Currently, the only way to determine a person's risk for cerebral vascular diseases has been to use a combination of imaging such as an MRI scan, family history, demographic variables and other risk factor evaluations, said study lead author Dr. Jason Hinman of the UCLA Comprehensive Stroke and Center and the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer's Research and Care at UCLA. In clinical practice, neurologists may only find a patient is at risk after they have had a stroke or a cerebral event that warns of one, Hinman said. -- The new study found that by measuring the concentrations of this network of inflammatory molecules in the blood of patients who have not had a cerebrovascular event, medical providers may be able to quantitatively assess a person's risk for cerebral small vessel disease and future stroke. -- "The same way one uses cholesterol tests to evaluate one's future risk for heart attack, we don't have such a thing to estimate future risk for stroke," Hinman said. "I believe we can do that by something as simple as a blood test which in theory can enable broader access to the best level of care and not lock it behind advanced imaging studies and specialist evaluations." -- The study focused on a biologically-connected network of inflammatory molecules known as the interleukin-18, or IL-18, network, which includes proteins and signaling molecules used to fight various infections. -- Past studies have linked individual molecules in the IL-18 network to cerebral small vessel disease and stroke risk. However, the concentration of these individual molecules can fluctuate in response to other ailments such as the flu or autoimmune disorders, making them unreliable predictors of stroke risk at an individual level, Hinman said. -- In 2020, University of California researchers including Hinman found that six molecules in the IL-18 network were associated with the presence of vascular brain injuries during MRI scans. -- Building off these findings, Hinman sought to determine in this latest publication whether IL-18 network could be used to assess a person's susceptibility to stroke risk or cognitive decline. -- To test this, the researchers used health data from a generations-long study known as the Framingham Heart Study. This study has tracked the medical history of thousands of residents in the city of Framingham, Massachusetts, throughout their lives since launching in 1948. Blood samples taken from participants had been tested for five of the six molecules later identified as being in the IL-18 network. | H01 R01 R02 T01 | 150 |
| 2418-092 | Research Breakthrough On Birth Defect Affecting Brain Size | Breakthrough Discovery Links Molecular Mechanism To Microencephaly | A study published in Neuron reveals the molecular cellular mechanism underlying microencephaly, a condition characterized by abnormally small head size in infants. By unraveling the role of nonsense-mediated RNA decay in brain development, this research offers new insights into neurological disorders and potential therapeutic targets for conditions like autism and intellectual disability. | University of California - Riverside | Neuron | Press Rel | PubMed | Nonsense-mediated RNA decay, or NMD, is an evolutionarily conserved molecular mechanism in which potentially defective messenger RNAs, or mRNAs (genetic material that instructs the body on how to make proteins), are degraded. Disruption of the NMD pathway can lead to neurological disorders, immune diseases, cancers, and other pathologies. Mutations in human NMD regulators are seen in neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and intellectual disability. -- Why NMD mutations are enriched in neurodevelopmental disorders remains a mystery. -- Sika Zheng, a professor of biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine and the founding director of the Center for RNA Biology and Medicine at the University of California, Riverside, has now led a study, published in the journal Neuron, that reveals the molecular cellular mechanism underlying NMD regulation of brain size and its dysregulation in causing microcephaly -- a condition in which a baby's head is much smaller than expected. -- The team's finding suggests that maintaining the neuronal NMD function is essential for early brain development to prevent microcephaly. -- According to Zheng, modulating NMD targets can be a potential treatment for microcephaly and other related neurodevelopmental diseases. -- The study explains the functional roles of NMD in brain development and the underlying mechanistic action. -- It also demonstrates for the first time the link between mRNA decay regulation and brain size control. -- Additionally, it reveals the intricate connection between NMD and the most famous tumor suppressor gene, p53, suggesting possible new connections between NMD and cancer. -- The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. The title of the research paper is "Epistatic Interactions between NMD and TRP53 Control Progenitor Cell Maintenance and Brain Size." Zheng was joined in the study by Liang Chen of the University of Southern California, Chun-Wei Chen of the City of Hope, Gene Yeo of UC San Diego, and members of their labs. | R01 R02 C01 | 151 |
| 2418-E001 | How Geography Acts As A Structural Determinant Of Health | How Geography Acts As A Structural Determinant Of Health | A study by the University of California, Riverside reveals how unincorporated communities in the US-Mexico borderlands face significant health disparities due to limited access to healthcare services. The findings underscore the impact of geographic location on health outcomes, particularly for marginalized populations in underserved areas like the eastern Coachella Valley. | University of California - Riverside | Social Science & Medicine | Press Rel | PubMed | In unincorporated communities in the United States-Mexico borderlands, historically and socially marginalized populations become invisible to the healthcare system, showing that geography acts as a structural determinant of health for low-income populations. So concludes a study by a University of California, Riverside, team that focused its attention on the borderland in Southern California, specifically, eastern Coachella Valley. -- From September to December 2020, the team, led by Ann Cheney, an associate professor of social medicine, population, and public health in the School of Medicine, conducted interviews in collaboration with María Pozar, a community investigator and CEO of Conchita Servicios de la Comunidad, with 36 Latinx and Indigenous Mexican caregivers of children with asthma or respiratory distress. The researchers found communities in the "colonias" (unincorporated areas in the borderlands) lack basic critical infrastructure including healthcare access. -- The U.S.-Mexico borderland is home to nearly 2.7 million Hispanic or Latinx individuals. The immigrant population in the colonias has limited English proficiency, health literacy levels, and income, and lower levels of formal education. Many are undocumented. -- "Our work shows the importance of geography in health and how geography acts as a structural determinant of health," Cheney said. "For example, foreign-born caregivers who speak Spanish or Purépecha prefer to take their children across the U.S.-Mexico border for respiratory health care because physicians there provide them with a diagnosis and treatment plan that they perceive improves their children's health." -- The study, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, found the caregivers perceive U.S.-based physicians as not providing them with sufficient information since most physicians do not speak their language and do not adequately listen to or are dismissive of their concerns about their children's respiratory health. The caregivers perceive Mexican-based physicians as providing them with a diagnosis and treatment plan, whereas U.S.-based physicians often prescribe medications and provide no concrete diagnosis. -- "Further, only those with legal documentation status can cross the border, which contributes to disparities in children's respiratory health," Cheney said. "Thus, caregivers without legal status in the U.S. must access healthcare services in the U.S. for their children and receive, what these caregivers perceive, as suboptimal care." -- Cheney added she was surprised to learn that caregivers who did not have legal documentation status in the U.S. asked trusted family and friends to take their children across the border to receive healthcare services for childhood asthma and related conditions. -- "Geography, meaning living in unincorporated communities, harms health," she said. "Geography and the politics of place determines who can and cannot cross borders." -- Study participants discussed the distance they needed to travel to pediatric specialty care for the care and management of their children's respiratory health problems. Some commented on the lack of interaction and communication with physicians during medical visits. Some participants commented on the lack of physicians' knowledge about the connections between their children's exposure to environmental hazards and poor respiratory health and allergic symptoms. -- The research took place in four unincorporated rural communities -- Mecca, Oasis, Thermal, and North Shore -- in eastern Coachella Valley, along the northern section of the Salton Sea. People living in the colonias here are subject to the health effects of environmental hazards. Many are farmworkers living and working in the nearby agricultural fields. Most of the workforce lives in mobile parks and below the federal poverty line. | H01 H02 C01 | 152 |
| 2418-E027 | Study Reveals Cancer Vulnerabilities In Popular Dog Breeds | Study Shows Medium-Sized Dogs Have Higher Cancer Risk | A study from UC Riverside has found that medium-sized dogs are at a higher risk of developing cancer compared to the largest and smallest breeds. This research supports a multistage model of cancer development and could help identify at-risk dogs for early intervention. | University of California - Riverside | Royal Society Open Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Medium-sized dogs have a higher risk of developing cancer than the very largest or smallest breeds, according to a UC Riverside study. -- The study, publishedin the Royal Society Open Science, set out to test a model of how cancer begins. -- This model, called the multistage model, predicts that size is a risk factor for cancer. -- As it turns out, it is, but only when considering size variation within a single species. -- It is common for cells to acquire errors or mutations as they divide and form copies of themselves. -- Bigger animals, and those that live longer, have more cells and a longer lifespan during which those cells divide. -- According to the multistage model, that means they have more opportunities to acquire mutations that eventually become cancer. -- "The question that arises is why, then, don't we get more cancer than a mouse? We don't. There is no increase in cancer risk as animals increase in size from species to species," said UC Riverside evolutionary biologist and study author Leonard Nunney. -- However, this isn't true for animals of the same species. "Studies on humans show that tall people get more cancer than short people. It's about a 10% increase over the baseline risk for every 10 centimeters in height," Nunney said. -- For more insight into these risk factors, Nunney required a species with a bigger difference between the smallest and biggest individuals. | R01 N01 | 153 |
| 2418-T047 | Webb Telescope Probably Didn't Find Life On An Exoplanet -- Yet | Webb Telescope Investigates Signs of Life | A study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters challenges recent reports of the James Webb Space Telescope detecting signs of life on a distant planet, but also suggests a method to verify the presence of life-produced gas. While the discovery of biosignature gas on planet K2-18b raised hopes for finding extraterrestrial life, further research is needed to confirm these findings and explore the possibilities of life beyond Earth. | University of California - Riverside | The Astrophysical Journal Letters | Press Rel | PubMed | Recent reports of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope finding signs of life on a distant planet understandably sparked excitement. A new study challenges this finding, but also outlines how the telescope might verify the presence of the life-produced gas. -- The UC Riverside study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, may be a disappointment to extraterrestrial enthusiasts but does not rule out the near-future possibility of discovery. -- In 2023 there were tantalizing reports of a biosignature gas in the atmosphere of planet K2-18b, which seemed to have several conditions that would make life possible. -- Many exoplanets, meaning planets orbiting other stars, are not easily comparable to Earth. -- Their temperatures, atmospheres, and climates make it hard to imagine Earth-type life on them. -- However, K2-18b is a bit different. "This planet gets almost the same amount of solar radiation as Earth. And if atmosphere is removed as a factor, K2-18b has a temperature close to Earth's, which is also an ideal situation in which to find life," said UCR project scientist and paper author Shang-Min Tsai. -- K2-18b's atmosphere is mainly hydrogen, unlike our nitrogen-based atmosphere. -- But there was speculation that K2-18b has water oceans, like Earth. -- That makes K2-18b a potentially "Hycean" world, which means a combination of a hydrogen atmosphere and water oceans. -- Last year, a Cambridge team revealed methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of K2-18b using JWST -- other elements that could point to signs of life. | C01 T02 | 154 |
| 2418-026 | AI Algorithms Can Determine How Well Newborns Nurse, Study Shows | AI Tools Evaluate Newborns' Nursing Skills for Breastfeeding Success | A recent study from the University of California San Diego introduces a modified pacifier and AI algorithms to assess newborns' nursing mechanics. This innovative approach measures suckling strength and patterns, providing objective data to enhance standard assessments and potentially prevent surgical interventions. | University of California - San Diego | IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine | Press Rel | PubMed | A modified pacifier and AI algorithms to analyze the data it produces could determine if newborns are learning the proper mechanics of nursing, a recent study shows. -- Specifically, the researchers from the University of California San Diego measured if babies are generating enough suckling strength to breastfeed and whether they are suckling in a regular pattern based on eight independent parameters. -- The results, published in the April 18 online edition of IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine, give researchers objective data that shows standard assessments can be improved and could potentially prevent surgical interventions. -- Currently, to determine if an infant is feeding properly, clinicians rely on two measures. One is objective: is the baby gaining enough weight? The other is more subjective: clinicians put a finger in the baby's mouth and evaluate how well the baby is sucking on that finger. -- "The method we developed with our clinical partners replaces this subjective assessment with objective data," said James Friend, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Surgery at UC San Diego and one of the paper's senior authors. -- The testing method has two components. One is a device made up of a simple pacifier, connected to a 36-inch-long tube connected in turn to a vacuum sensor and a chip that collects the data from the sensor. The device can connect to any laptop. -- "We wanted to keep the technology as simple as possible with off-the-shelf, cost-effective components to facilitate adoption in the clinic," said Friend, who is a faculty member at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. -- The second component is software that both displays the data and uses machine learning algorithms to identify abnormalities and outliers. The software records data as an infant sucks on the pacifier and compares that data with information from other infants. Two different machine learning algorithms analyze the data and flag abnormal patterns if they are present. -- Prior studies have shown that non-nutritive suckling on a pacifier produces data that can be used to evaluate breastfeeding. -- "It's reassuring for me to rely on scientific data to back up my assessments," said co-senior author of the study, Erin Walsh, a speech-language pathologist and lactation consultant at UC San Diego Health. "We hope our findings help support parents struggling to breastfeed and improve long-term health outcomes." | T01 T02 | 155 |
| 2418-034 | Scientists Discover A New Signaling Pathway And Design A Novel Drug For Liver Fibrosis | Novel Signaling Pathway Discovered for Liver Fibrosis Treatment | Scientists at the University of California San Diego have identified a signaling pathway in liver cells that leads to fibrosis, a condition linked to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. Understanding this pathway could lead to new treatments for liver diseases like cirrhosis and liver cancer. | University of California - San Diego | Cell Metabolism | Press Rel | PubMed | A healthy liver filters all the blood in your body, breaks down toxins and digests fats. It produces collagen to repair damaged cells when the liver is injured. However, a liver can produce too much collagen when an excess accumulation of fat causes chronic inflammation, a condition called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). In an advanced state, MASH can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver-related death. -- The cells that produce collagen in livers are called hepatic stellate cells (HSC). In a new paper published in Cell Metabolism, scientists from the University of California San Diego investigated how these cells are activated. They found a three-component signaling pathway in the nucleus that functions according to a sort of police-controlling-the-police model. -- In healthy livers, the first molecule in the pathway inhibits a second molecule, which inhibits the molecule that stimulates collagen-producing genes. MASH scales down the first molecule, so that inhibition is lifted on the second and third molecules, leading to stimulation of collagen production. -- After discovering the signaling pathway, the scientists designed a short piece of RNA to prove the pathway behaved the way they thought it did. This RNA, called an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO), was so effective that it not only proved the viability of the pathway but also prevented liver fibrosis -- too much collagen in the liver -- without causing any side effects. The scientists are currently discussing licensing the ASO as a therapeutic with various pharmaceutical and biotech companies. -- "All the molecules in the pathway were known, but no one knew if or how they interacted. We put the pathway together, showing each step in this intracellular signaling module. That was the science of the research. The clinical message is this ASO, which can actually block liver fibrosis," said Jerrold Olefsky, a professor of medicine and assistant vice chancellor for integrative research at UC San Diego Health Sciences, and senior author on the paper. -- The scientists carried out their investigations in organoids -- tiny little livers in a dish made from three types of liver cells fed a MASH cocktail of fatty acids, fructose and sugars. They found that in normal livers, the first component of the pathway, a nuclear seven-transmembrane protein called TM7SF3, inhibits a splicing factor called hnRNPU. hnRNPU refrains from splicing out an inhibitory exon in the messenger RNA (mRNA) of TEAD1, a transcription factor that controls the genes that produce collagen. The inhibitory exon, exon 5, keeps TEAD1 from turning on the collagen-producing genes. -- In the MASH-fed organoids, TM7SF3 is reduced and does not inhibit the splicing factor. The active splicing factor splices out the inhibitory exon in the transcription factor, which turns on the genes that produce collagen. This is called alternative splicing. -- Furthering their investigations, they designed an ASO to keep hnRNPU from splicing out exon 5. "It had the sequence that would put it just upstream of exon 5 where hnRPU binds. The ASO prevented the splicing factor from binding to the TEAD mRNA, so it couldn't ultimately splice it out. We got pretty much only inactive TEAD when we treated MASH mice with the ASO," said Olefsky. With TEAD inactivated, collagen wasn't produced. Neither was fibrosis. -- "These findings show the key role of alternative splicing in shaping progression of fibrotic liver disease," said Roi Isaac, Ph.D., assistant project scientist, Medicine, and first author on the paper. -- When ASOs are administered intravenously, they enter every cell in the body, not just the target cells. Serendipitously, the scientists found that within the liver, this hnRNPU mechanism only operated in stellate cells. That made their ASO both highly effective and highly specific -- the epitome of good drug design. | R01 | 156 |
| 2418-E056 | Scientists Show Ancient Village Adapted To Drought, Rising Seas | Ancient Village's Adaptation To Climate Change Revealed | A recent study on ancient human settlements in the Eastern Mediterranean has revealed evidence of human resilience to climate change around 6,200 BCE. Contrary to previous beliefs that the 8.2ka event led to widespread abandonment of coastal settlements, new research suggests that at least one village in the southern Levant not only remained occupied but thrived during this period. This study challenges existing narratives and provides valuable insights into human adaptation strategies in the face of environmental challenges. | University of California - San Diego | Antiquity | Press Rel | PubMed | Around 6,200 BCE, the climate changed. Global temperatures dropped, sea levels rose and the southern Levant, including modern-day Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, southern Syria and the Sinai desert, entered a period of drought. -- Previously, archaeologists believed that this abrupt shift in global climate, called the 8.2ka event, may have led to the widespread abandonment of coastal settlements in the southern Levant. -- In a recent study published with the journal Antiquity, researchers at UC San Diego, the University of Haifa and Bar-Ilan University share new evidence suggesting at least one village formerly thought abandoned not only remained occupied, but thrived throughout this period. -- "This [study] helped fill a gap in our understanding of the early settlement of the Eastern Mediterranean coastline," said Thomas Levy, a co-author on the paper, co-director of the Center for Cyber-Archaeology and Sustainability (CCAS) at the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute (QI), inaugural holder of the Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands in the Department of Anthropology, and a distinguished professor in the university's Graduate Division. -- "It deals with human resilience." -- Signs of Life -- The village of Habonim North was discovered off Israel's Carmel Coast in the mid-2010s and later surveyed by a team led by the University of Haifa's Ehud Arkin Shalev. -- Prior to its excavation and analysis, there was scant evidence for human habitation along the southern Levantine coast during the 8.2ka event. -- The dig, which took place during the COVID-19 lockdown and involved a weeks-long, 24/7 coordinated effort between partners at UC San Diego and the University of Haifa, was the first formal excavation of the submerged site. -- Led by Assaf Yasur-Landau, head of the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa, and Roey Nickelsberg, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Haifa, the international team excavated the site using a combination of sediment dredging and sampling, as well as photogrammetry and 3D modeling. | H01 R01 C01 T01 | 157 |
| 2418-E075 | Key Functions Of Therapeutically Promising Jumbo Viruses | Jumbo Viruses: A Tool Against Bacterial Infections | Jumbo phages are potential tools against bacterial infections, but their complexity presents challenges for scientists. Antibiotic resistance has become a global health crisis due to the evolution of bacteria. Understanding these unique viruses could lead to innovative solutions for combating deadly infections. | University of California - San Diego | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | Press Rel | PubMed | Antibiotic medicines became a popular treatment for bacterial infections in the early 20th century and emerged as a transformational tool in human health. Through the middle of the century novel antibiotics were regularly developed in the medication's golden age. -- But then bacteria evolved. They found new ways to evade antibiotic treatments, rendering many useless. -- As new antibiotic sources dried up, bacterial infections escalated into today's global health crisis of antibiotic resistance. -- Scientists now look to an unusual ally, viruses, to help counter this rising threat. -- Recently, researchers have focused on viruses known as bacteriophages as a new tool to treat and disarm antibiotic-resistant bacteria. -- Special attention has been placed on "jumbo" phages -- viruses recently discovered to feature extremely large genomes -- that could be tapped as special delivery agents that can not only kill bacteria but could be engineered to deliver antibiotics directly to the source of infection. -- But in order to deliver novel therapeutics through phage, scientists must first understand the extraordinary biological makeup and mechanisms inside these mysterious viruses. -- University of California San Diego School of Biological Sciences researchers and their colleagues at UC Berkeley's Innovative Genomics Institute and the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok have taken a substantial step forward in deciphering several key functions within jumbo phages. -- "These jumbo phages have large genomes that in theory could be manipulated to carry payloads that more effectively kill bacteria," said Joe Pogliano, a UC San Diego professor in the School of Biological Sciences and senior author of the new paper, which was published April 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The problem is that their genome is enclosed so it's not easy to access. But now we've discovered some of its key elements." -- As described in the paper, research led by School of Biological Sciences graduate student Chase Morgan focused on jumbo Chimalliviridae phages that were found to replicate inside bacteria by forming a compartment that resembles the nucleus inside the cells of humans and other living organisms. | R01 | 158 |
| 2418-T024 | Biodegradable 'Living Plastic' Houses Bacterial Spores That Help It Break Down | Biodegradable 'Living Plastic' Breaks Down with Help of Bacterial Spores | A team led by the University of California San Diego has developed a biodegradable form of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) filled with bacterial spores that break down in compost. This innovative bioplastic could help reduce the environmental impact of the plastic industry. | University of California - San Diego | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | A new type of bioplastic could help reduce the plastic industry's environmental footprint. Researchers led by the University of California San Diego have developed a biodegradable form of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), a soft yet durable commercial plastic used in footwear, floor mats, cushions and memory foam. It is filled with bacterial spores that, when exposed to nutrients present in compost, germinate and break down the material at the end of its life cycle. -- The work is detailed in a paper published on April 30 in Nature Communications. -- The biodegradable TPU was made with bacterial spores from a strain of Bacillus subtilis that has the ability to break down plastic polymer materials. -- "It's an inherent property of these bacteria," said study co-senior author Jon Pokorski, a nanoengineering professor at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and co-lead of the university's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). "We took a few strains and evaluated their ability to use TPUs as a sole carbon source, then picked the one that grew the best." -- The researchers used bacterial spores, a dormant form of bacteria, due to their resistance to harsh environmental conditions. -- Unlike fungal spores, which serve a reproductive role, bacterial spores have a protective protein shield that enables bacteria to survive while in a vegetative state. -- To make the biodegradable plastic, the researchers fed Bacillus subtilis spores and TPU pellets into a plastic extruder. -- The ingredients were mixed and melted at 135 degrees Celsius, then extruded as thin strips of plastic. -- To assess the material's biodegradability, the strips were placed in both microbially active and sterile compost environments. -- The compost setups were maintained at 37 degrees Celsius with a relative humidity ranging from 44 to 55%. Water and other nutrients in the compost triggered germination of the spores within the plastic strips, which reached 90% degradation within five months. | H02 C01 | 159 |
| 2418-072 | Researchers Reveal A New Approach For Treating Degenerative Diseases | New Approach for Treating Degenerative Diseases Revealed | UC Santa Barbara researchers have uncovered a connection between an ion transport protein and the cell's garbage disposal system, offering a potential target for treating degenerative diseases caused by misfolded proteins, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The findings, published in Developmental Cell, could lead to new treatments for these currently incurable disorders. | University of California - Santa Barbara | Developmental Cell | Press Rel | PubMed | Proteins are the workhorses of life. Organisms use them as building blocks, receptors, processors, couriers and catalysts. A protein's structure is critical to its function. Malformed proteins not only fail to carry out their tasks, they can accumulate and eventually gum up the inner workings of cells. As a result, misfolded proteins cause a variety of degenerative diseases, from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to the blinding disease retinitis pigmentosa. These disorders are currently incurable. -- A paper out of UC Santa Barbara reveals a new connection between a particular ion transport protein and the cell's garbage disposal, which grinds up misfolded proteins to stave off their toxic accumulation. The results, published in Developmental Cell, identify a target for treating these debilitating conditions. -- "By studying basic cell biology in fruit fly ovaries, we stumbled upon a way to prevent neurodegeneration, and we think this has potential applications in the treatment of some human diseases," said senior author Denise Montell, Duggan Professor and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. -- For 35 years, Montell's lab has studied the movement of cells in fruit fly ovaries. It might seem esoteric, she is the first to admit, but it provides a fantastic model for cell mobility. "And cell movement underlies embryonic development, drives wound healing and contributes to tumor metastasis," she explained. "So it's a really fundamental cell behavior that we care to understand deeply." -- The setting and characters -- The star of this paper is a gene called ZIP7, which encodes a protein of the same name. In previous work, Montell's team came across a mutation in this gene that impaired cell mobility, piquing their interest. -- The ZIP7 protein ferries zinc ions within a cell. These ions are exceedingly rare within the cytoplasm but abundant in proteins where they often form part of the architecture and catalyze chemical reactions. "ZIP7 is conserved in evolution from plants to yeast to flies to humans," Montell said. "So it's doing something really fundamental, because it's been around for a really long time." -- ZIP7 is also the only zinc transporter found in the endoplasmic reticulum, a membranous structure where a cell makes proteins destined for the outer membrane of the cell or for secretion out of the cell. About a third of our proteins are made here. -- If ZIP7 is our protagonist, then misfolded proteins and their disposal are the theme of the study. For proteins, function follows form. It's not enough to have the right ingredients, a protein must fold correctly to function properly. Misfolded proteins are responsible for a host of diseases and disorders. -- But proteins will sometimes misfold even in a healthy cell. Fortunately, cells have a quality control system to deal with this eventuality. If the error is small, the cell can try folding it again. Otherwise, it will tag the misfolded molecule with a small protein called ubiquitin and send it out of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) for recycling. | R02 N02 T01 T02 | 160 |
| 2418-E012 | Managing Meandering Waterways In A Changing World | Managing Meandering Waterways Amid Changing Landscapes | Meandering rivers play a vital role in shaping landscapes but also pose challenges in understanding their migration rates. A study from UC Santa Barbara reveals the complex interplay between sediment load and vegetation in driving channel movement, offering insights for managing these dynamic waterways. | University of California - Santa Barbara | Earth and Planetary Science Letters | Press Rel | PubMed | Just as water moves through a river, rivers themselves move across the landscape. They carve valleys and canyons, create floodplains and deltas, and transport sediment from the uplands to the ocean. -- A new paper out of UC Santa Barbara presents an account of what drives the migration rates of meandering rivers. The two authors compiled a global dataset of these waterways, analyzing how vegetation and sediment load effect channel movement. "We find a global-scale trend between the amount of sediment that rivers carry and how quickly they're migrating, across all variables," said lead author Evan Greenberg, a doctoral student in the Department of Geography. -- Their results, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, contrast with previous work that emphasized the stabilizing effect of vegetation. In this paper, the researchers highlight how the activity of meandering rivers emerges from the interplay between sediment deposition and bank stabilization by vegetation. Some of the world's most important waterways are meandering rivers, so properly understanding their behavior is crucial to managing these natural phenomena in a changing world. -- Two forces, called bar push and bank pull, act on a river bend. Bar push is caused when deposition on the inside of a bend forms a sandbar, which pushes the curve outward. At the same time, erosion on the opposite bank pulls the bend even farther outward. Sediment load has a stronger effect on the former, while the stabilizing presence of vegetation has more influence on the latter. -- Scientists have proposed various hypotheses as to which factor exerts a stronger influence on meander migration. "This is a pretty contentious topic and keeps going back and forth," said senior author Vamsi Ganti, Greenberg's advisor and an associate professor in the geography department. -- To investigate these dynamics, Greenberg and Ganti collated existing measurements of river migration rates and added data from approximately 60 additional rivers. Altogether, they compiled data on 139 meandering rivers across the globe, spanning different regions, climates, sizes and vegetation regimes. The researchers modeled each river channel as a series of line segments using satellite imagery. They could then track how these segments shifted over time to measure the river's migration. -- The leading paradigm was that vegetation slows down this migration by stabilizing the outer bank against erosion. This contrasted with experimental evidence suggesting that sediment load could be an influential factor. Bank pull is stronger in unvegetated rivers, but as Greenberg and Ganti discovered, these tend to have higher sediment supply as well, making it difficult to distinguish the relative contributions of the two processes. -- But Greenberg and Ganti's analysis revealed a clear trend: Migration was faster for rivers that carried a lot of sediment relative to their size. The model also showed vegetation slowing down river migration, as suggested by previous studies. However, the effect was much more modest, with unvegetated rivers migrating four times faster than similar-sized counterparts, rather than the 10-fold increase reported by some of their colleagues. This suggests that bar push has a stronger influence on meandering rivers than bank pull. -- That said, river behavior flows from the confluence of the two processes. "You can't have one dominate the other in a meandering river," Ganti said. "If you don't have enough sediment supply, bank pull will outpace bar push, and you'll end up with a braided river. And so it's really the balance between the bar push and the bank pull that creates these stable meandering rivers." -- Dams provide a ready-made case study for investigating the contributions of these two mechanisms, since the structures trap sediment but scarcely affect vegetation. When the authors looked at the movement of three North American rivers above and below notable dams, they found that migration rates slowed downstream, where the river was starved of sediment. They could now be certain that sediment load was driving bend migration. | H01 C01 T02 | 161 |
| 2418-E020 | Anthropologist Documents How Women And Shepherds Historically Reduced Wildfire Risk In Central Italy | Anthropologist Explores Historical Land Management Practices To Reduce Wildfire Risk | University of California, Santa Cruz Professor Andrew Mathews highlights how traditional land management practices can enhance resilience in the face of increased fire risk in the Mediterranean. By recognizing historical practices and the importance of specific groups, communities can better prepare for and prevent devastating wildfires in the future. | University of California - Santa Cruz | Ambio | Press Rel | PubMed | Fire management lessons from the past could help to improve resilience as the Mediterranean faces increased fire risk from climate change. University of California, Santa Cruz Anthropology Professor Andrew Mathews shows how traditional land management practices once greatly reduced fuel for wildfires, and how these practices were forgotten, in part due to historical politics of classism and sexism. -- In the last several decades, large forest fires have increasingly threatened communities across the Mediterranean. Climate change is expected to make these fires larger, hotter, and more dangerous in the future. But fire management lessons from the past could help to improve the resilience of local landscapes. -- The latest research paper from environmental anthropologist and University of California, Santa Cruz Professor Andrew Mathews explores these issues in the Monte Pisano region of Central Italy. In particular, Mathews found that peasant women, who historically collected leaf litter in the forests, and shepherds, who grazed their flocks and conducted occasional managed burns, were critical in maintaining fire-resistant landscapes. Yet the social status of these groups meant the importance of their work went unrecognized. -- In Monte Pisano and much of the broader Mediterranean, forests and other plant communities have been shaped by thousands of years of intensive human management of the land. But migration to cities since the 1960s has left rural lands increasingly abandoned. And without people to maintain them, local forests have become overgrown with highly flammable brush. -- At the same time, many traditional rural land management practices that may have once reduced fire risk in the region have been systematically ignored and even criminalized over the years, to the point where they have been all but forgotten. -- Luckily, though, there are a few people who still remember. Mathews and his research team sought out elderly people who were born between 1928 and 1956 in the Monte Pisano region and conducted oral history interviews to learn about traditional land management practices. In particular, the researchers asked about activities like collecting leaf litter, livestock grazing, and managed burning, which historical records suggested may have once been common. -- "The people we interviewed were actually kind of excited to tell us these stories," Mathews said. "Most people don't really ask them detailed questions about their daily lives from when they were younger, so they enjoyed retelling the stories, and they were such brilliant, thoughtful, interesting people. They were a lot of fun to talk to." -- Research participants described how forests were once full of human activity. Leaves were raked for use as stable bedding and fertilizer for olive groves. Logs and brush were collected for firewood and kindling. People gathered herbs, berries, and mushrooms in the forest, and sheep ate the grasses. Every scrap of wood or vegetation had a use, so the forest floor was almost bare in some places, and forests had an open, park-like appearance. -- Meanwhile, in nearby pastures and olive groves, the buildup of grasses, brush, and brambles was kept under control through a combination of livestock grazing, manual brush cutting, and occasional managed burning. And whenever a wildfire sprang up in the forest, someone was always nearby to quickly extinguish it. -- These historical accounts of the landscape were "an extraordinary difference" from what Matthews observed during forest transect walks in Monte Pisano in 2014. He and a botanist assistant recorded dense scrub and thick leaf litter, plus abundant fallen branches and brush that could easily act as "ladder fuels," enabling flames to spread from the forest floor to the treetops. | C01 N02 | 162 |
| 2418-020 | Robotic Nerve 'Cuffs' Could Help Treat A Range Of Neurological Conditions | Robotic Nerve 'Cuffs' Could Help Treat A Range Of Neurological Conditions | Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed flexible devices that can wrap around individual nerve fibers without causing damage, offering new possibilities for diagnosing and treating neurological disorders. These robotic nerve 'cuffs' represent a promising advancement in interfacing with peripheral nerves, with potential applications in managing chronic pain and controlling prosthetic limbs. | University of Cambridge | Nature Materials | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers have developed tiny, flexible devices that can wrap around individual nerve fibres without damaging them. -- The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, combined flexible electronics and soft robotics techniques to develop the devices, which could be used for the diagnosis and treatment of a range of disorders, including epilepsy and chronic pain, or the control of prosthetic limbs. -- Current tools for interfacing with the peripheral nerves -- the 43 pairs of motor and sensory nerves that connect the brain and the spinal cord -- are outdated, bulky and carry a high risk of nerve injury. However, the robotic nerve 'cuffs' developed by the Cambridge team are sensitive enough to grasp or wrap around delicate nerve fibres without causing any damage. -- Tests of the nerve cuffs in rats showed that the devices only require tiny voltages to change shape in a controlled way, forming a self-closing loop around nerves without the need for surgical sutures or glues. -- The researchers say the combination of soft electrical actuators with neurotechnology could be an answer to minimally invasive monitoring and treatment for a range of neurological conditions. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials. -- Electric nerve implants can be used to either stimulate or block signals in target nerves. For example, they might help relieve pain by blocking pain signals, or they could be used to restore movement in paralysed limbs by sending electrical signals to the nerves. Nerve monitoring is also standard surgical procedure when operating in areas of the body containing a high concentration of nerve fibres, such as anywhere near the spinal cord. -- These implants allow direct access to nerve fibres, but they come with certain risks. "Nerve implants come with a high risk of nerve injury," said Professor George Malliaras from Cambridge's Department of Engineering, who led the research. "Nerves are small and highly delicate, so anytime you put something large, like an electrode, in contact with them, it represents a danger to the nerves." -- "Nerve cuffs that wrap around nerves are the least invasive implants currently available, but despite this they are still too bulky, stiff and difficult to implant, requiring significant handling and potential trauma to the nerve," said co-author Dr Damiano Barone from Cambridge's Department of Clinical Neurosciences. -- The researchers designed a new type of nerve cuff made from conducting polymers, normally used in soft robotics. The ultra-thin cuffs are engineered in two separate layers. Applying tiny amounts of electricity -- just a few hundred millivolts -- causes the devices to swell or shrink. -- The cuffs are small enough that they could be rolled up into a needle and injected near the target nerve. When activated electrically, the cuffs will change their shape to wrap around the nerve, allowing nerve activity to be monitored or altered. | H01 R02 N02 T01 | 163 |
| 2418-052 | Therapy To Kill Hypervirulent Bacteria Developed | Therapy Developed to Kill Hypervirulent Bacteria | The University of Central Florida College of Medicine has discovered an antimicrobial peptide from cows that can penetrate the protective slime of the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae. This bacterium, harmless in the intestines, can cause serious infections in other parts of the body, especially in high-risk individuals. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria like K. pneumoniae are a significant global health threat. | University of Central Florida | Cell Reports Physical Science | Press Rel | PubMed | University of Central Florida College of Medicine researcher Renee Fleeman is on a mission to kill drug-resistant bacteria, and her latest study has identified a therapy that can penetrate the slime that such infections use to protect themselves from antibiotics. -- In a study published recently in Cell Reports Physical Science, Fleeman showed that an antimicrobial peptide from cows has potential for treating incurable infections from the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae. The bacteria, commonly found in the intestines, is usually harmless. It becomes a health hazard when it enters other parts of the body and can cause pneumonia, urinary tract and wound infections. Those at highest risk include seniors and patients with other health problems such as diabetes, cancer, kidney failure and liver disease. However, younger adults and people without additional health problems can acquire urinary tract and wound infections from the bacteria that cannot be treated by antibiotics available today. -- The CDC reports that antibiotic resistant bacteria are a growing global health threat. A 2019 study found that nearly 5 million people died worldwide that year from drug-resistant infections. A large portion of those deaths are attributable to K. pneumoniae because it has a 50% death rate without antibiotic therapy. -- These bacteria are more resistant to drugs when they live in a biofilm -- microorganisms that stick together and are embedded in a protective slime. Recent studies have shown that 60-80% of infections are associated with bacteria biofilms, which increase their drug resistance. -- "It's Iike a coat that bacteria put around itself," Fleeman says. -- Her research is examining ways to remove the protective coat and expose the bacteria so it can be killed by the body's immune system or antibiotics that currently cannot pass through the biofilm. Through that research, Fleeman discovered how the peptides made by cows can quickly kill K. pneumoniae. -- She determined that the peptides interact with sugar connections that keep the slime intact. She likened the process to cutting into a chain-linked fence. Once multiple chains are cut, the integrity of the slime structure is damaged, and the peptide can enter and destroy the bacteria that are no longer protected. -- "Our research has shown polyproline peptide can penetrate and begin to break the slime barrier down in as little as an hour after treatment," says Fleeman. -- The peptide has another advantage -- once it breaks through the protective slime barrier, tests showed it killed the bacteria better than antibiotics used as a last resort to treat incurable infections. Peptides kill the bacteria by punching holes in their cell membrane, causing death quickly compared to other antibiotics that inhibit growth from inside the cell. -- The peptide could also be used as a topical treatment for a wide range of uses, especially for the military, to treat open wounds in the field. "Bacteria divide every 30 minutes, so you have to act fast," Fleeman says. | H01 R01 | 164 |
| 2418-T002 | Getting Dynamic Information From Static Snapshots | TopicVelo Enhances Study Of Cellular Development And Immune Response Over Time | Researchers at the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Chemistry Department have introduced TopicVelo, a novel method for studying cellular development over time using scRNA-seq snapshots. This innovative approach could revolutionize our understanding of embryonic development, cell differentiation, cancer progression, and immune responses. | University of Chicago | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | Press Rel | PubMed | Imagine predicting the exact finishing order of the Kentucky Derby from a still photograph taken 10 seconds into the race. -- That challenge pales in comparison to what researchers face when using single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) to study how embryos develop, cells differentiate, cancers form, and the immune system reacts. -- In a paper published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Chemistry Department have created TopicVelo, a powerful new method of using the static snapshots from scRNA-seq to study how cells and genes change over time. -- The team took an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach, incorporating concepts from classical machine learning, computational biology, and chemistry. -- "In terms of unsupervised machine learning, we use a very simple, well-established idea. And in terms of the transcriptional model we use, it's also a very simple, old idea. But when you put them together, they do something more powerful than you might expect," said PME Assistant Professor of Molecular Engineering and Medicine Samantha Riesenfeld, who wrote the paper with Chemistry Department Prof. Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathan and their joint student, UChicago Chemistry PhD candidate Cheng Frank Gao. -- The trouble with pseudotime -- Researchers use scRNA-seq to get measurements that are powerful and detailed, but by nature are static. -- "We developed TopicVelo to infer cell-state transitions from scRNA-seq data," Riesenfeld said. "It's hard to do that from this kind of data because scRNA-seq is destructive. When you measure the cell this way, you destroy the cell." -- This leaves researchers a snapshot of the moment the cell was measured/destroyed. While scRNA-seq gives the best available transcriptome-wide snapshot, the information many researchers need, however, is how the cells transition over time. They need to know how a cell becomes cancerous or how a particular gene program behaves during an immune response. -- To help figure out dynamic processes from a static snapshot, researchers traditionally use what's called "pseudotime." It's impossible to watch an individual cell or gene's expression change and grow in a still image, but that image also captured other cells and genes of the same type that might be a little further on in the same process. If the scientists connect the dots correctly, they can gain powerful insights into how the process looks over time. | R01 | 165 |
| 2418-E074 | Feathers, Cognition And Global Consumerism In Colonial Amazonia | Feathers Influence Art In Amazonia | Craft cultures in Amazonia have thrived by creating stunning art pieces using feathers from the region's diverse bird population. The article explores how colonial encounters influenced artisanal featherwork in South America. By studying these cultural interactions, researchers gain insight into the impact of early globalization on art and creativity. | University of Chicago Press Journals | Current Anthropology | Press Rel | PubMed | Amazonia is the home of the largest variety of birds in the world. In such a unique environment, craft cultures have flourished by translating the beauty and creativity of environmental materials like feathers into stunning pieces of art. "The Material Creativity of Affective Artifacts in the Dutch Colonial World," a new article in Current Anthropology by Stefan Hanß of the University of Manchester, examines artisanal featherwork within the context of early modern colonialism and globalization. These structures, Hanß writes, both engendered and endangered material creativity and knowledge. -- In the article, Hanß examines how new ways of handling, trading, and thinking with feathers emerged in colonial Dutch Brazil. -- "Dutch colonial encounters with South American enviromateriality," Hanß notes, "stirred European appreciation of and engagement with the creative and transformative power of natural environments." As a result, art like featherwork became a valuable commodity. -- The resulting global exploitation of Amazonian birds, feathers, and indigenous knowledge transformed Amazonian life and impacted South American biodiversity. -- To fully capture the cognitive achievements of 17th-century featherworkers, Hanß combines in-depth archival research with affect theory and imaging analysis conducted by the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester. -- This new methodology is exemplified by the research done on the Messel Standing Feather Fan of the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, an object whose history reflects the global scale of the trade in materials, the transmission of artisanal knowledge, and the blurred boundaries of consumer cultures in the seventeenth-century Dutch Empire. -- Ultimately, the article "highlights the immeasurable global, creative potential of South American biodiversity and cultural diversity, adding insights into the consequences of its growing extinction today." | H01 N01 T01 | 166 |
| 2418-E035 | Ancient Maya Blessed Their Ballcourts | Ancient Maya: Ceremonial Plants Found Beneath Ballcourt | Environmental DNA analysis has revealed a collection of plants used in ceremonial rituals by the ancient Maya in Mexico, shedding light on the cultural significance of these plants. These plants, with religious and medicinal properties, were found beneath a ballcourt, indicating the importance of plants in ceremonial practices in ancient Maya society. | University of Cincinnati | PLOS ONE | Press Rel | PubMed | For sports fans, places like Fenway Park, Wembley Stadium or Wimbledon's Centre Court are practically hallowed ground. -- Archaeologists at the University of Cincinnati found evidence of similar reverence at ballcourts built by the ancient Maya in Mexico. -- Using environmental DNA analysis, researchers were able to identify a collection of plants used in ceremonial rituals in the ancient Maya city of Yaxnohcah. -- The plants, known for their religious associations and medicinal properties, were discovered beneath a plaza floor upon which a ballcourt was built. -- Researchers said the ancient Maya likely made a ceremonial offering during the ballcourt's construction. -- "When they erected a new building, they asked the goodwill of the gods to protect the people inhabiting it," UC Professor David Lentz said. -- "Some people call it an ensouling ritual, to get a blessing from and appease the gods." -- The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE. -- The research was carried out through Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History in collaboration with researchers from the University of Calgary, the Autonomous University of Campeche and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. -- Researchers from 2016 to 2022 worked at Yaxnohcah in Campeche about 9 miles north of the border of Guatemala, where they excavated a small area of a ballcourt. | N02 | 167 |
| 2418-E046 | New Offshore Wind Turbines Can Take Away Energy From Existing Ones | Offshore Wind Turbines Compete for Energy Production Along the East Coast | Offshore wind farms along the East Coast could face a 30% reduction in power output due to interactions between turbines, according to new research. While this could impact electricity demand, the farms still have the potential to meet a significant portion of New England's energy needs. | University of Colorado at Boulder | Wind Energy Science | Press Rel | PubMed | As summer approaches, electricity demand surges in the U.S., as homes and businesses crank up the air conditioning. To meet the rising need, many East Coast cities are banking on offshore wind projects the country is building in the Atlantic Ocean. -- For electric grid operators, knowing how much wind power these offshore turbines can harvest is critical, but making accurate predictions can be difficult. A team of scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder and their collaborators are working to tackle the challenge. -- In a new paper published March 14 in the journal Wind Energy Science, a team led by Dave Rosencrans, a doctoral student, and Julie K. Lundquist, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences, estimate that offshore wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean region, where the U.S. plans to build large wind farms, could take away wind from other turbines nearby, potentially reducing the farms' power output by more than 30%. -- Accounting for this so-called "wake effect," the team estimated that the proposed wind farms could still supply approximately 60% of the electricity demand of the New England grid, which covers Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. -- "The U.S. is planning to build thousands of offshore wind turbines, so we need to predict when those wakes will be expensive and when they have little effect," said Lundquist, who is also a fellow at CU Boulder's Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute. -- Understanding the wake effect -- When wind passes through turbines, the ones at the front, or upstream, extract some energy from the wind. As a result, the wind slows down and becomes more turbulent behind the turbines. This means the turbines downstream get slower wind, sometimes resulting in lower power generation. -- The wake effect is particularly prominent offshore, because there are no houses or trees that stir up the air, which helps dissipate the wakes, said Rosencrans, the paper's first author. -- Using computer simulations and observational data of the atmosphere, the team calculated that the wake effect reduces total power generation by 34% to 38% at a proposed wind farm off the East Coast. Most of the reduction comes from wakes formed between turbines within a single farm. -- But under certain weather conditions, wakes could reach turbines as far as 55 kilometers downwind and affect other wind farms. For example, during hot summer days, the airflow over the cool sea surface tends to be relatively stable, causing wakes to persist for longer periods and propagate over longer distances. | C01 N02 | 168 |
| 2418-086 | New Sensor Detects Errors In Mri Scans | MRI Sensor Using Laser Light And Gas Detects Scan Errors | A new prototype sensor developed at the University of Copenhagen and Hvidovre Hospital uses laser light and gas to detect errors in MRI scans, offering a novel approach to improving the accuracy and efficiency of this essential medical tool. This innovative sensor could transform MRI technology, making scans more affordable and faster for patients. | University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science | PRX Quantum | Press Rel | PubMed | Hvidovre Hospital has the world's first prototype of a sensor capable of detecting errors in MRI scans using laser light and gas. The new sensor, developed by a young researcher at the University of Copenhagen and Hvidovre Hospital, can thereby do what is impossible for current electrical sensors -- and hopefully pave the way for MRI scans that are better, cheaper and faster. -- MRI scanners are used by doctors and healthcare professionals every day to get a unique look into the human body. In particular, they are used to study the brain, vital organs and other soft tissues by way of 3D images of exceptional quality compared to other types of medical imaging. -- While this makes the advanced tool invaluable and nearly indispensable for healthcare professionals, there is still room for improvement. -- The strong magnetic fields inside MRI scanners have fluctuations that create errors and disturbances in scans. Consequently, these expensive machines (hundreds of Euros per hour) must be calibrated regularly to reduce errors. -- There are also special scanning methods, which unfortunately cannot be done in practice today. Among them, so-called spiral sequences that could reduce scanning time, e.g., when diagnosing blood clots, sclerosis and tumors. Spiral sequences would also be an attractive tool in MRI research, where, among other things, they could provide researchers and health professionals with new knowledge about brain diseases. But due to the highly unstable magnetic field, performing these types of scans is not currently an option. -- In theory, the problem can be solved with a sensor that reads and maps changes in the magnetic field. Thereafter, it is relatively simple to correct the errors in images with a computer. In practice, this has been difficult with the current technology, as otherwise suitable sensors interfere with the magnetic field because they are electric and connected to metal cables. -- A new invention hopes to make this problem a thing of the past. To combat the problem, a researcher from the Niels Bohr Institute and The Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance (DRCMR) has developed a sensor that uses laser light in fiber cables and a small glass container filled with gas. The prototype is ready and works. -- "First we demonstrated that it was theoretically possible, and now we have proven that it can be done in practice. In fact, we now have a prototype that can basically make the measurements needed without disturbing the MRI scanner. It needs to be developed more and fine-tuned, but has the potential to make MRI scans cheaper, better and faster -- although not necessarily all three at once," laughs Hans Stærkind, a postdoc at the Niels Bohr Institute and DRCMR at Hvidovre Hospital. Stærkind is the main architect behind the sensor and device that comes with it. -- "An MRI scanner can already produce incredible images if one takes their time. But with the help of my sensor, it is imaginable to use the same amount of time to produce even better imagery -- or spend less time and still get the same quality as today. A third scenario could be to build a cheaper scanner that, despite a few errors, could still deliver decent image quality with the help of my sensor," says the researcher. -- How the prototype works | H01 R01 R02 T01 | 169 |
| 2418-E030 | Fixin' To Be Flexitarian: Scrap Fish And Invasive Species Can Liven Up Vegetables | Flexitarian Delight: Seafood's Umami Makes Veggies Exciting | A flexitarian diet, incorporating umami-rich seafood into vegetable dishes, offers a healthy and realistic solution to promote green eating habits. By adding more umami to vegetable dishes, the taste can be enhanced, making it easier for people to consume recommended amounts of fruits and veggies while also supporting a more plant-based diet. Professor Ole G. Mouritsen highlights the importance of satisfying our sense of taste to drive sustainable eating habits. | University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science | International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Most of us have a tough time eating enough veggies. According to the World Economic Forum only one in 10 people in the EU are getting the five portions of fruit and vegetables a day that are recommended both for the sake of health and climate. Which is natural, according to Ole G. Mouritsen, professor emeritus of gastrophysics and culinary food innovation at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Food Science. According to Mouritsen, vegetables just don't taste all that good on their own: -- "Most people don't change the way they eat just for the sake of the climate. To really get things going, I think that every meal needs to be prepared to satisfy our sense of taste. And, when many people have a hard time eating enough vegetables, it's because vegetables lack the sweetness and umami that we've been evolutionarily encoded to crave." -- So, if we are to realize a green transition of our eating habits with diets that are far more plant-based, it might be a good idea to liven up vegetable dishes with more umami -- the basic, brothy taste typically associated with meat. Here, Professor Mouritsen believes that the sea is a low-hanging fruit. Not only does the sea abound with protein, vitamins, minerals and healthy fats, but also in much-coveted umami. -- "We overlook the most readily available, and in many cases, most sustainable food sources with umami taste in them -- namely fish, seaweed, shellfish, molluscs and other seafoods. If the right species are chosen, we can use them as climate- and environmentally-friendly protein sources that are also effective umami flavourants for vegetables," says Ole G. Mouritsen. -- Using math to quantify umami -- In a new scientific research article, Mouritsen uses a mathematical equation to help calculate the power of umami in a wide range of seafoods and demonstrate their great taste potential. -- "Umami can be plugged into a formula because we know exactly how the taste receptors in our taste buds pick up on umami at the molecular level. There is a synergistic effect when two substances, glutamate and nucleotides, are present in a food at the same time. Glutamate imparts the basic umami taste, which is then enhanced many times over by nucleotides. This synergy is reflected in the equation," says Mouritsen, whose background is in theoretical physics. -- The equation looks like this: EUC = u + u × ΣN γ(N)v(N) -- EUC stands for Equivalent Umami Concentration, which is the umami concentration in a food expressed in mg/100 g. -- The list of seafoods with large concentrations of umami is long. It includes everything from fish like cod and mackerel, to shellfish and molluscs like shrimp and octopus, to the roe of alaska pollock and blue mussel, to various types of seaweed and on to processed seafood products like anchovy paste and fish sauce. | H01 C01 N01 N02 T02 | 170 |
| 2418-008 | Physical Activity In Nature Helps Prevent Several Diseases, Including Depression And Type 2 Diabetes | Physical Activity In Nature Helps Prevent Several Diseases, Including Depression And Type 2 Diabetes | Physical activity in natural environments has been found to prevent thousands of non-communicable disease cases annually in England, saving significant healthcare costs. A study from the University of Exeter highlights the impact of physical inactivity on global mortality rates, emphasizing the role of lifestyle interventions in preventing chronic diseases. With the rising burden of non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, promoting physical activity in natural settings could offer substantial health and economic benefits, aligning with the WHO's efforts to reduce the global disease burden. | University of Exeter | Environment International | Press Rel | PubMed | Physical activity in natural environments prevent almost 13,000 cases of non-communicable diseases a year in England and save treatment costs of more than £100m, new research from the University of Exeter has found. -- According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the most common non-communicable diseases -- including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and chronic lung disease -- cause 74 percent of global mortality. Non communicable diseases, also known as chronic diseases, are not passed from person to person and deaths attributed to these diseases are increasing in most countries. -- Physical inactivity is associated with a range of non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, type-2 diabetes, cancers, and mental health outcomes. In their Global Status Report on Physical Activity 2022, the WHO estimated 500 million new cases will occur globally between 2020 and 2030 should physical activity remain at today's levels, incurring more than £21b a year in treatment costs. -- Natural environments support recreational physical activity, with this new study focusing particularly on places such as beaches and coast, countryside, and open spaces in towns and cities like parks. Using data including a representative cross-sectional survey of the English population, researchers at the University of Exeter have estimated how many cases of six non-communicable diseases -- major depressive disorder, type 2 diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, ischaemic stroke, colon cancer, and breast cancer -- are prevented through nature-based recreational physical activity. -- Speaking about the findings, published in Environment International, Dr James Grellier from the University of Exeter Medical School said: "We believe this is the first time an assessment like this has been conducted on a national scale and we've almost certainly underestimated the true value of nature-based physical activity in terms of disease prevention. Although we have focused on six of the most common non-communicable diseases, there are several less common diseases that can be prevented by physical activity, including other types of cancer and mental ill health. It's important to note that our estimates represent annual costs. Since chronic diseases can affect people for many years, the overall value of physical activity at preventing each case is certainly much higher." -- Increasing population levels of physical activity is an increasingly important strategic goal for public health institutions globally. The WHO recommends that adults aged 18 to 64?should do at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity (or at least 75 to 150?minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity) per week to maintain good health. However, globally 27.5 percent of adults do not meet these recommendations. -- In 2019, 22-million adults in England aged 16 years or older visited natural environments at least once a week. At reported volumes of nature-based physical activity, Exeter researchers estimate this prevented 12,763 cases of non-communicable diseases, creating annual healthcare savings of £108.7m. -- Population-representative data from the Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment survey were used to estimate the weekly volume of nature-based recreational physical activity by adults in England in 2019. Researchers used epidemiological dose-response data to calculate incident cases of six non-communicable diseases prevented through nature-based physical activity, and estimated associated savings using published costs of healthcare, informal care, and productivity losses. It's estimated the healthcare cost of physical inactivity in England in 2019 is approximately £1b. -- Dr James Grellier from the University of Exeter Medical School said: "For people without the access, desire, or confidence to take part in organised sports or fitness activities, nature-based physical activity is a far more widely available and informal option. We believe that our study should motivate decision-makers seeking to increase physical activity in the local population to invest in natural spaces, such as parks, to make it easier for people to be physically active." | H01 R01 T02 | 171 |
| 2418-001 | Florida Dolphin Found With Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu | Florida Dolphin Found With Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu | The first-ever discovery of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a North American dolphin has been detailed in a report published in Communications Biology, highlighting the involvement of multiple agencies in identifying the virus in a cetacean for the first time in the region. The University of Florida researchers, along with other collaborators, traced the virus in a Florida bottlenose dolphin back to the initial rescue efforts in Dixie County, Florida. The subsequent analysis confirmed the presence of HPAI in samples from the dolphin's brain and lungs, ruling out other potential agents in the disease. This groundbreaking finding expands the list of mammals affected by this virus and sheds light on its impact on marine life. | University of Florida | Communications Biology | Press Rel | PubMed | The case of a Florida bottlenose dolphin found with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, or HPAIV -- a discovery made by University of Florida researchers in collaboration with multiple other agencies and one of the first reports of a constantly growing list of mammals affected by this virus -- has been published in Communications Biology. -- The report documents the discovery, the first finding of HPAIV in a cetacean in North America, from the initial response by UF's Marine Animal Rescue team to a report of a distressed dolphin in Dixie County, Florida, to the subsequent identification of the virus from brain and tissue samples obtained in a postmortem examination. -- Analyses initially performed at UF's zoological medicine diagnostic laboratory ruled out the presence of other potential agents at play in the dolphin's disease, with the Bronson Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Kissimmee, Florida, verifying the presence of HPAI virus in both the lung and brain. -- Those results were confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, which characterized the virus subtype and pathotype. The virus was confirmed to be HPAI A (H5N1) virus of HA clade 2.3.4.4b. Subsequent tissue analysis was performed at the Biosafety Level 3 enhanced laboratory at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. -- Allison Murawski, D.V.M., a former intern with UF's aquatic animal medicine program, was first author on the study and developed a case report on the dolphin as part of her research project. She traveled to Memphis and worked closely with Richard Webby, Ph.D., who directs the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds at St. Jude's and served as corresponding author on the paper -- Webby's laboratory investigates avian influenza cases in many species and was key in determining where the virus may have originated, what unique RNA characteristics or mutations were present that could suggest its ability to infect other mammals, and how the virus could be tracked from this source. -- The researchers sequenced the genomes from local birds and looked at viruses isolated from Northeast seal populations. -- "We still don't know where the dolphin got the virus and more research needs to be done," Webby said. -- "This investigation was an important step in understanding this virus and is a great example where happenstance joins with curiosity, having to answer the 'why' and then seeing how the multiple groups and expertise took this to a fantastic representation of collaborative excellence," said Mike Walsh, D.V.M., an associate professor of aquatic animal health, who served as Murawski's faculty mentor. | H01 H02 R01 R02 N01 T01 | 172 |
| 2418-059 | New Mrna Cancer Vaccine Triggers Fierce Immune Response To Fight Malignant Brain Tumor | mRNA Cancer Vaccine Fights Malignant Brain Tumor | A groundbreaking mRNA cancer vaccine developed at the University of Florida showed promising results in targeting glioblastoma, a deadly brain tumor, in human clinical trials. The vaccine reprograms the immune system to fight treatment-resistant cancers, offering a potential new approach to cancer therapy. | University of Florida | Cell | Press Rel | PubMed | In a first-ever human clinical trial of four adult patients, an mRNA cancer vaccine developed at the University of Florida quickly reprogrammed the immune system to attack glioblastoma, the most aggressive and lethal brain tumor. -- The results mirror those in 10 pet dog patients suffering from naturally occurring brain tumors whose owners approved of their participation, as they had no other treatment options, as well as results from preclinical mouse models. The breakthrough now will be tested in a Phase 1 pediatric clinical trial for brain cancer. -- Reported May 1 in the journal Cell, the discovery represents a potential new way to recruit the immune system to fight notoriously treatment-resistant cancers using an iteration of mRNA technology and lipid nanoparticles, similar to COVID-19 vaccines, but with two key differences: use of a patient's own tumor cells to create a personalized vaccine, and a newly engineered complex delivery mechanism within the vaccine. -- "Instead of us injecting single particles, we're injecting clusters of particles that are wrapping around each other like onions, like a bag full of onions," said senior author Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., a UF Health pediatric oncologist who pioneered the new vaccine, which like other immunotherapies attempts to "educate" the immune system that a tumor is foreign. "And the reason we've done that in the context of cancer is these clusters alert the immune system in a much more profound way than single particles would." -- Among the most impressive findings was how quickly the new method, delivered intravenously, spurred a vigorous immune-system response to reject the tumor, said Sayour, principal investigator of the RNA Engineering Laboratory within UF's Preston A. Wells Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy and a UF Health Cancer Center and McKnight Brain Institute investigator who led the multi-institution research team. -- "In less than 48 hours, we could see these tumors shifting from what we refer to as 'cold' -- immune cold, very few immune cells, very silenced immune response -- to 'hot,' very active immune response," he said. "That was very surprising given how quick this happened, and what that told us is we were able to activate the early part of the immune system very rapidly against these cancers, and that's critical to unlock the later effects of the immune response." -- Glioblastoma is among the most devastating diagnoses, with median survival around 15 months. Current standard of care involves surgery, radiation and some combination of chemotherapy. -- The new publication is the culmination of promising translational results over seven years of studies, starting in preclinical mouse models and then in a clinical trial of 10 pet dogs that had spontaneously developed terminal brain cancer and had no other treatment options. That trial was conducted with owners' consent in collaboration with the UF College of Veterinary Medicine. Dogs offer a naturally occurring model for malignant glioma because they are the only other species that develops spontaneous brain tumors with some frequency, said Sheila Carrera-Justiz, D.V.M., a veterinary neurologist at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine who is partnering with Sayour on the clinical trials. Gliomas in dogs are universally terminal, she said. -- After treating pet dogs that had spontaneously developed brain cancer with personalized mRNA vaccines, Sayour's team advanced the research to a small Food and Drug Administration-approved clinical trial designed to ensure safety and test feasibility before expanding to a larger trial. -- In a cohort of four patients, genetic material called RNA was extracted from each patient's own surgically removed tumor, and then messenger RNA, or mRNA -- the blueprint of what is inside every cell, including tumor cells -- was amplified and wrapped in the newly designed high-tech packaging of biocompatible lipid nanoparticles, to make tumor cells "look" like a dangerous virus when reinjected into the bloodstream and prompt an immune-system response. The vaccine was personalized to each patient with a goal of getting the most out of their unique immune system. | H01 R01 R02 T02 | 173 |
| 2418-E036 | Could Fishponds Help With Hawaii's Food Sustainability? | Fishpond Revitalization: Boosting Hawaii's Food Sustainability? | Indigenous aquaculture systems in Hawaii, known as loko i'a or fishponds, have the potential to increase locally available seafood by enhancing fish populations both inside and outside the pond. By revitalizing loko i'a, researchers aim to boost the sustainability of aquaculture production in Hawaii and provide a valuable source of locally harvested seafood. | University of Hawaii at Manoa | Ecosphere | Press Rel | PubMed | Indigenous aquaculture systems in Hawaii, known as loko i'a or fishponds, can increase the amount of fish and fisheries harvested both inside and outside of the pond. This is the focus of a study published by a team of researchers at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB). Today, aquaculture supplies less than 1% of Hawai'i's 70 million pounds of locally available seafood, but revitalization of loko i'a has the potential to significantly increase locally available seafood. -- According to historical accounts, loko i'a can create surplus fish inside the pond, but their role as a nursery ground seeding surrounding fish populations has received less attention. -- "We have demonstrated the ability of Indigenous aquaculture systems to produce a surplus of fish as well as supplement fisheries in the surrounding estuary," said lead author and marine biology PhD candidate Anne Innes-Gold. "We have heard people voice the idea that historically, loko i'a provided nursery grounds that may have supplemented fish populations in the estuary. Our study is the first that we are aware of to demonstrate this idea in academic literature." -- Hawaii's unique aquaculture system -- The Indigenous aquaculture systems found in Hawaii boast a design found nowhere else in the world, and are among the most productive and diverse of their kind. Loko i'a historically yielded nearly 2 million pounds of fish annually, and hoa'ina (land tenants) and kia'i (caretakers) initially managed them with a "take what you need" mentality to ensure the resource persisted. Most loko i'a were destroyed in the 20th century, and by 1994 only six of 500 historical loko i'a were still operating. -- "As aquaculture continues to provide a growing proportion of our seafood globally, revival of Indigenous aquaculture systems will be beneficial to sustainably maintain and increase our seafood supply," said Innes-Gold. -- Restoration success story -- One success story of loko i'a restoration is the He'eia Fishpond, located in Windward O'ahu and stewarded by Native Hawaiian nonprofit, Paepae o He'eia. Their mission is to link Indigenous knowledge with contemporary management to promote cultural sustainability and restore and maintain a loko i'a for the local community. The benefits of restoring loko i'a and related systems can help boost local food production, and provide community members with a space to nourish their bodies and minds, connect with 'ina, practice reciprocity and promote cultural education. -- This work was funded by Hawaii Sea Grant, the He'eia National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the National Marine Fisheries Service-Sea Grant Fellowship in Population and Ecosystem Dynamics. With their foundational work complete, Innes-Gold and her team plan to simulate potential climate change impacts in a loko i'a system. | H01 C01 N01 T02 | 174 |
| 2418-048 | Blood Samples Enhance B-Cell Lymphoma Diagnostics And Prognosis | B-Cell Lymphoma Diagnostics Enhanced by Blood Sample Protein Profiles | A study on circulatory protein levels in aggressive B-cell lymphoma patients shows promise in enhancing diagnostic accuracy and personalized care, offering new insights into the role of proteins in predicting disease severity and treatment response. | University of Helsinki | Med | Press Rel | PubMed | B-cell lymphoma is the most common cancer of the lymphatic system. In roughly 30% of patients with aggressive B-cell lymphoma, the disease relapses. At the moment, risk profiling for the disease derives from clinical estimates, such as a risk classification based on the patient's age and general condition as well as disease stage. However, these methods are not sufficiently accurate: patients with the highest risk may go undetected, and biological differences between lymphomas remain unexplored. Moreover, poor tissue samples can compromise exact diagnoses. -- In a recently completed joint Nordic study, researchers at the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital investigated how blood samples from lymphoma patients could be utilised to improve the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. From blood samples of 109 patients with aggressive B-cell lymphoma, the researchers analysed the levels of 1,400 proteins, or protein profiles. -- The samples were collected before, at the mid-point, and at the end of the treatments. Subsequently, the researchers compared the samples with clinical data on the patients, the characteristics of the tumour tissue, and circulating tumour DNA originating in lymphoma. -- In the blood samples, the researchers identified an inflammatory protein profile associated with poor survival, inflamed tumour tissue, and tumour burden. In addition, the researchers found that different subtypes of B-cell lymphoma can be classified based on the protein profiles obtained from blood samples. -- The fact that protein data enables the monitoring of patients' response to treatment in the first place was an important observation. -- "We found that the protein profiles of blood samples can help direct care to the patients who will most benefit from it. This technique would significantly boost personalised care, as it takes into account both the characteristics of tumour tissue and the patient's response to the disease," says Professor Sirpa Leppä from the University of Helsinki and HUS Helsinki University Hospital. -- Disease recurrence observable in blood samples -- According to Doctoral Researcher Maare Arffman from the University of Helsinki, protein profiles could be used to increase the accuracy of diagnoses in cases where a tissue specimen alone is not enough. -- In addition, protein profiles can help patients in further care and follow-up observation. For example, a blood test could be used to determine whether proteins typical of the disease have reached their normal level at the end of treatment. Further measures could be planned according to patient needs. -- "In practice, this could mean that it would be possible to monitor any potential relapses with the help of blood samples instead of imaging," Arffman says. | H01 R01 T01 | 175 |
| 2418-E007 | Scientists Released Long-Term Data Of Ground Solar-Induced Fluorescence To Improve Understanding Of Canopy-Level Photosynthesis | Long-Term Data Reveals Insights Into Canopy-Level Photosynthesis Through Ground SIF | Ground-based instruments measuring solar-induced fluorescence provide valuable insights into plant health and photosynthesis. By studying far-red SIF and vegetation indices, researchers can monitor plant activity at scale, paving the way for more efficient agricultural practices. | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment | Scientific Data | Press Rel | PubMed | In recent years, the scientific community has increasingly turned its attention to sustainable agriculture, aiming to maximize crop yield while minimizing environmental impact. A crucial aspect of this research involves understanding the fundamental processes of plant photosynthesis and how they can be monitored at scale. One promising method for assessing photosynthetic activity is through the measurement of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, a byproduct of photosynthesis that can be detected from ground-based sensors as well as from satellites in space. -- The study led by Genghong Wu, a PhD student advised by Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC) director Kaiyu Guan, and others utilized ground-based instruments to measure far-red SIF and various vegetation indices (VIs) that reflect plant health and activity. It compiled 15 site-years of SIF and VIs data from various crops (corn, soybean, and miscanthus) over a span of six years (2016-2021) within the U.S. Corn Belt (Illinois and Nebraska). -- "Eddy covariance towers are currently the gold standard for measuring canopy photosynthesis ," Wu explained. "However, they are expensive and are distributed over limited sites across the globe. Satellite SIF can provide us spatially continuous data. However, fully utilizing satellite SIF for photosynthesis monitoring requires a mechanistic understanding of the relationship between the two." -- This comprehensive dataset provided in this study can be used to gain insights into the mechanistic relationship between far-red SIF and canopy-level photosynthesis. This relationship is critical for interpreting SIF readings accurately, whether they come from ground-based observations or satellite imagery. Importantly, the study provides a robust dataset that can serve as a benchmark for validating satellite SIF products, which are increasingly used to monitor global agricultural systems and carbon cycling. Moreover, the dataset can be used to improve models for predicting crop yield and assessing plant health on a large scale, contributing to more informed agricultural practices and policies. -- Through the paper published on Feb. 22 in Scientific Data, ASC scientists described how they built the network and a description of the data set. The article includes details about instrumentation, data processing, and potential applications. -- "We are one of the first groups worldwide to develop such a network for long-term SIF measurements, dated back to 2016," commented by Guan. "It was a huge team effort with multiple PhD students and postdocs for the past 7 years, thanks to funding from multiple funding agencies, including NASA, DOE, and NSF." -- "One of our goals was to provide researchers a broader application of this data set," Wu noted. -- "Thus, this paper provides a detailed description of how we collected, processed and indirectly validated the datasets and what are the potential applications of the data." -- Wu also points out that while many researchers collect SIF and photosynthesis data, there isn't a standard method for doing so. -- "People have collected and processed the SIF data in different ways," Wu said. "There are several systems with different instrumentation designs. We needed a detailed record of our systems and set-up to hopefully be helpful for setting the standard for collecting and processing this data in the future. " | C01 N02 T02 | 176 |
| 2418-T023 | Researchers Develop An AI Model To Reduce Uncertainty In Evapotranspiration Prediction | Artificial Intelligence Model Improves Evapotranspiration Predictions | Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a computer model, DyLEMa, using artificial intelligence for evapotranspiration (ET) prediction based on remote sensing estimates. This model aims to predict missing spatial and temporal ET data and generate continuous ET data accounting for land use dynamics and atmospheric air movement. | University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences | Computers and Electronics in Agriculture | Press Rel | PubMed | When scientists look at the Earth's available water for ecosystem services, they don't just look at precipitation. They must also account for water moving from the ground to the atmosphere, a process known as evapotranspiration (ET). ET includes evaporation from soil and open water pools such as lakes, rivers, and ponds, as well as transpiration from plant leaves. The difference between precipitation and ET indicates the water balance available for societal needs, including agricultural and industrial production. However, measuring ET is challenging. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign presents a computer model that uses artificial intelligence (AI) for ET prediction based on remote sensing estimates. -- "Ground-based ET estimates capture the local fluxes of water transferred to the atmosphere but are limited in scale. In contrast, satellite data provide ET information on a global scale. Still, they are often incomplete due to clouds or sensor malfunction, and the satellite cycle over an area may require several days. We conducted this research to predict missing data and to generate daily continuous ET data that accounts for the dynamics of land use and atmospheric air movement," said lead author Jeongho Han, a doctoral student in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE), part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and The Grainger College of Engineering at Illinois. -- The researchers created the "Dynamic Land Cover Evapotranspiration Model Algorithm" (DyLEMa) based on decision-tree machine learning models. This algorithm is intended to predict missing spatial and temporal ET data using trained seasonal machine learning models. DyLEMa was evaluated to the scale of Illinois on a daily 30 x 30-meter grid for 20 years using data from NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. -- "DyLEMa is much more detailed and complex than other models. It distinguishes between different land uses, including forest, urban, and agriculture, and different crops, such as corn and soybean. The model includes precipitation, temperature, humidity, solar radiation, vegetation stage, and soil properties. This allows us to capture the surface dynamics accurately and predict ET based on multiple variables. This is especially important for agricultural landscapes where crops change rapidly," said co-author Jorge Guzman, research assistant professor in ABE. -- The researchers tested the model's accuracy by comparing its results with existing data. For validation over time, they used ground measurements from 2009 to 2016 at four sites in Illinois. Also, to test spatial accuracy, they created artificial scenarios where they inserted a synthetic cloud in a cloud-free image, then applied their algorithm and compared the results with the original data. Overall, DyLEMa reduced ET prediction uncertainty in cumulated ET estimates from an average of +30% (overpredicted) to around -7% (underpredicted) compared to existing measurements, indicating much greater accuracy. -- The study is part of a larger project on soil erosion funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Maria Chu, an associate professor in ABE, is the principal investigator on that project and co-author of the new paper. -- "ET controls the soil moisture content and vice versa, which impacts surface processes such as runoff and erosion. Our next step is to integrate our data in a distributed hydrological model for better estimation of soil erosion," Chu said. -- "One of the challenges with land management practices is that people may not see the benefit of implementing changes right away. But with this model, we can show that what you are doing now will have a long-term impact, for instance, 10 or 20 years from now and at locations far from your farm. This is the power of using data and computing capacity for engaging communities and informing policy measures," Chu added. -- The researchers worked with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the Illinois Campus Cluster Program (ICCP) to process data and train models. They plan to make their data, including output for 20 years in Illinois, available for other researchers. | H01 C01 N01 N02 T01 | 177 |
| 2418-T020 | Child Pedestrians, Self-Driving Vehicles: What's The Safest Scenario For Crossing The Road? | Child Pedestrian Safety: Self-Driving Vehicles and Crossing Roads. | As self-driving vehicles become more common, ensuring pedestrian safety, especially for children, poses a unique challenge. Researchers recommend signaling systems for self-driving cars to communicate their intent to yield at intersections, emphasizing the importance of clear cues for pedestrians. | University of Iowa | Accident Analysis & Prevention | Press Rel | PubMed | Crossing a busy street safely typically is a result of a social exchange. Pedestrians look for cues -- a wave, a head nod, a winking flash of the headlights, and, of course, a full vehicle stop -- to know it's safe to cross. -- But those clues could be absent or different with self-driving vehicles. -- How will children and adults know when it's safe to cross the road? -- In a new study, University of Iowa researchers investigated how pre-teenage children determined when it was safe to cross a residential street with oncoming self-driving cars. -- The researchers found children made the safest choices when self-driving cars indicated via a green light on top of the vehicle that it was safe to cross when the vehicle arrived at the intersection, then stopped. -- When self-driving cars turned on the green light farther away from the crossing point -- and even when they slowed down -- children engaged in riskier intersection crossings, the researchers learned. -- "Children exhibited much safer behavior when the light turned green later," says Jodie Plumert, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and the study's senior author. -- "They seemed to treat it like a walk light and waited for that light to come on before starting to cross. Our recommendation, then, for autonomous vehicle design is that their signals should turn on when the car comes to a stop, but not before." -- The difference in the timing of the green light signal from the self-driving car is important: Children are inclined to use the light as the vehicle's clearance to go ahead and cross, trusting that it will stop as it gets closer to the intersection. -- But as Plumert and co-author Elizabeth O'Neal point out, that could invite peril. | H01 R02 T01 T02 | 178 |
| 2418-025 | Intervention Based On Science Of Reading, Math Boosts Comprehension, Word Problem-Solving Skills | Science-Based Intervention Enhances Math Skills and Comprehension | A research-based intervention for math difficulty in English learners has proven successful in improving comprehension, visualization, and problem-solving skills. The integration of cognitive concepts from reading and math has shown significant improvements in math performance among students, emphasizing the importance of an integrated approach. | University of Kansas | Learning Disabilities Research & Practice | Press Rel | PubMed | New research from the University of Kansas has found an intervention based on the science of reading and math effectively helped English learners boost their comprehension, visualize and synthesize information, and make connections that significantly improved their math performance. -- The intervention, performed for 30 minutes twice a week for 10 weeks with 66 third-grade English language learners who displayed math learning difficulties, improved students' performance when compared to students who received general instruction. That indicates emphasizing cognitive concepts involved in the science of reading and math are key to helping students improve, according to researchers. -- "Word problem-solving is influenced by both the science of reading and the science of math. Key components include number sense, decoding, language comprehension and working memory. Utilizing direct and explicit teaching methods enhances understanding and enables students to effectively connect these skills to solve math problems. This integrated approach ensures that students are equipped with necessary tools to navigate both the linguistic and numerical demands of word problems," said Michael Orosco, professor of educational psychology at KU and lead author of the study. -- The intervention incorporates comprehension strategy instruction in both reading and math, focusing and decoding, phonological awareness, vocabulary development, inferential thinking, contextualized learning and numeracy. -- "It is proving to be one of the most effective evidence-based practices available for this growing population," Orosco said. -- The study, co-written with Deborah Reed of the University of Tennessee, was published in the journal Learning Disabilities Research and Practice. -- For the research, trained tutors developed the intervention, developed by Orosco and colleagues based on cognitive and culturally responsive research conducted over a span of 20 years. One example of an intervention session tested in the study included a script in which a tutor examined a word problem that explained a person made a quesadilla for his friend Mario, giving him one-fourth of it, then needed to students to determine how much remained. -- The tutor first asked students if they remembered a class session in which they made quesadillas, what shape they were and demonstrated concepts by drawing a circle on the board, dividing it into four equal pieces, having students repeat terms like numerator and denominator, and explaining that when a question asks how much is left, subtraction is required. The students also collaborated with peers to practice using important vocabulary in sentences. The approach both helps students learn and understand mathematical concepts while being culturally responsive. -- "Word problems are complex because they require translating words into mathematical equations, and this involves integrating the science of reading and math through language concepts and differentiated instruction," Orosco said. "We have not extensively tested these approaches with this group of children. However, we are establishing an evidence-based framework that aids them in developing background knowledge and connecting it to their cultural contexts." -- Orosco, director of KU's Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Neuroscience, emphasized the critical role of language in word problems, highlighting the importance of using culturally familiar terms. For instance, substituting "pastry" for "quesadilla" could significantly affect comprehension for students from diverse backgrounds. Failure to grasp the initial scenario can impede subsequent problem-solving efforts. | H01 H02 | 179 |
| 2418-E060 | Researchers Parse Oddity Of Distantly Related Bats In Solomon Islands That Appear Identical | Genetic Diversity Among Solomon Island Bats Unveiled | Research on leaf-nosed bats in the Solomon Islands has uncovered surprising genetic diversity among closely related species on different islands. By studying body size variations, researchers identified unique genetic distinctions among seemingly indistinguishable bat species, highlighting the complexity of biodiversity in island ecosystems. This study, published in the journal Evolution, provides valuable insights into the evolutionary relationships and genetic diversity of bat populations in the Solomon Islands. | University of Kansas | Evolution | Press Rel | PubMed | A study of body size in leaf-nosed bats of the Solomon Islands has revealed surprising genetic diversity among nearly indistinguishable species on different islands. -- The research team behind the study from the University of Melbourne, Australia, included several evolutionary biologists from the University of Kansas -- who collected specimens in the field, conducted genetic analysis and co-wrote the research appearing in the journal Evolution. -- "This is genus of bats called Hipposideros with multiple species all over Southeast Asia in the Pacific," said co-author Rob Moyle, senior curator of ornithology with the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, whose lab conducted much of the investigation. -- "In the Solomon Islands, where we've been doing a lot of fieldwork, on each island there can be four or five different species, and they parse out in terms of body size. There's a small, medium, large -- or if there's more than three species, there's a small, medium, large and extra large. On one island there's five, so there's an extra small." -- According to Moyle, who also serves as professor of evolutionary biology at KU, previous generations of researchers reviewed the bats' morphology, or physical traits, and concluded they're one species. -- "You go from one island to the next, and the medium-sized species is identical to the other islands," he said. -- "Biologists have always looked at those and said, 'OK, it's obvious. There's a small, medium and large size species distributed across multiple islands.'" -- However, Moyle and his collaborators had more modern analysis at their disposal. -- In sequencing the DNA of bats they collected from the field (along with specimens from museum collections), the team found the large and extra large bat species weren't actually closely related. -- "That means that somehow these populations arrived at this identical body size and appearance not by being closely related -- but we usually think identical-looking things are that way because they're really closely related," Moyle said. | Z01 | 180 |
| 2418-E042 | Fading Lights: Multiple Threats To North America's Firefly Populations | Study Identifies Threats to Firefly Populations Across North America | A comprehensive study conducted across North America has revealed that firefly populations are sensitive to environmental factors. By analyzing citizen science data and using machine learning models, researchers identified key factors affecting firefly abundance, highlighting the need for conservation efforts. | University of Kentucky | Science of The Total Environment | Press Rel | PubMed | A landmark study conducted by the University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment; Bucknell University; Penn State University; and the USDA has shed light onto the precarious situation facing firefly populations across North America. The study's results identified multiple factors impacting their numbers, offering a deep dive into how shifting environmental and human factors influence these iconic insects. -- The study, published in Science of the Total Environment, "Illuminating Patterns of Firefly Abundance Using Citizen Science Data and Machine Learning Models," identified the factors likely responsible for troubling declines in firefly populations across North America. -- To study these population changes, the research used a mix of field surveys from citizen scientists and advanced machine learning techniques to analyze over 24,000 surveys from the Firefly Watch citizen science initiative. -- Key Findings -- This research marks the first comprehensive attempt to apply a data-driven approach to understanding firefly population dynamics on a continental scale. -- Key findings from this new study indicate that fireflies, part of the beetle order, are sensitive to various environmental factors, from short-term weather conditions to longer climatic trends, including the number of growing-degree days related to temperature accumulations. -- "Subtle changes in climate patterns, especially related to temperature, are significantly impacting firefly breeding cycles and habitat quality," said Darin McNeil, study principal investigator and assistant professor of wildlife ecology and management. -- Christina Grozinger, publius vergilius maro professor of entomology at Penn State University, said while scientists previously knew that urbanization, agricultural intensification and climate change can affect biodiversity, less was known about how these complex factors interact and what people can do in their own backyards, towns and cities to support biodiversity. -- "In this study, we integrated large scale data sets on species abundance, land use, soil type, weather and climate using machine learning models to precisely model and predict firefly abundance patterns at the local scale across the eastern U.S.," Grozinger said. -- "We were very fortunate to have a multi-year citizen science data set that spanned more than 24,000 observations." | H01 C01 N01 | 181 |
| 2418-T011 | Condensed Matter Physics: Novel One-Dimensional Superconductor | Novel One-Dimensional Superconductor Breakthrough in Physics | Scientists at The University of Manchester have achieved robust superconductivity in high magnetic fields using a newly created 1D system. This breakthrough offers a promising pathway to achieving superconductivity in the quantum Hall regime, a significant advancement in the field of condensed matter physics. | University of Manchester | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | In a significant development in the field of superconductivity, researchers at The University of Manchester have successfully achieved robust superconductivity in high magnetic fields using a newly created one-dimensional (1D) system. This breakthrough offers a promising pathway to achieving superconductivity in the quantum Hall regime, a longstanding challenge in condensed matter physics. -- Superconductivity, the ability of certain materials to conduct electricity with zero resistance, holds profound potential for advancements of quantum technologies. -- However, achieving superconductivity in the quantum Hall regime, characterised by quantised electrical conductance, has proven to be a mighty challenge. -- The research, published this week (25 April 2024) in Nature, details extensive work of the Manchester team led by Professor Andre Geim, Dr Julien Barrier and Dr Na Xin to achieve superconductivity in the quantum Hall regime. -- Their initial efforts followed the conventional route where counterpropagating edge states were brought into close proximity of each other. -- However, this approach proved to be limited. -- "Our initial experiments were primarily motivated by the strong persistent interest in proximity superconductivity induced along quantum Hall edge states," explains Dr Barrier, the paper's lead author. -- "This possibility has led to numerous theoretical predictions regarding the emergence of new particles known as non-abelian anyons." -- The team then explored a new strategy inspired by their earlier work demonstrating that boundaries between domains in graphene could be highly conductive. -- By placing such domain walls between two superconductors, they achieved the desired ultimate proximity between counterpropagating edge states while minimising effects of disorder. | T01 | 182 |
| 2418-T033 | Energy Trades Could Help Resolve Nile Conflict | Energy Trades as a Solution to Nile Conflict Dispute | A new transformative approach could help resolve long-standing disputes over the Nile river's water resources. By shedding light on potential cooperation opportunities, scientists hope to alleviate tensions and create mutual benefits for the 11 countries the Nile flows through. | University of Manchester | Nature Water | Press Rel | PubMed | Scientists have shed light on a new, transformative approach that could help resolve a dispute over the Nile river's water resources. -- The Nile is one of the longest rivers globally and spreads over 11 countries in East Africa, supplying water, energy production, environmental quality and cultural wealth. -- However, the use of Nile resources has been a long-standing source of tension, often overshadowing opportunities for cooperation and mutual benefit. -- But as the demand for energy, water, and food in Africa is steadily increasing, the study, led by The University of Manchester in collaboration with regional organisations, offers a glimmer of hope at a resolution. -- The research, published in the journal Nature Water, moves away from traditional water-centric agreements, and presents a detailed simulation of the combined energy-water system to reveal how different scenarios of international energy trades could help alleviate the Nile water conflict. -- First author Dr Mikiyas Etichia from The University of Manchester, said: "Traditionally, water disputes in transboundary river basins like the Nile have been approached through a water-centric viewpoint. However, sharing benefits of water resources, such as hydro-generated electricity, crops and fisheries can result in a win-win situation." -- Co-author Dr Mohammed Basheer, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, added: "In the Nile Basin, energy-river basin benefit-sharing projects have been implemented in the past at a small scale, but detailed tools like the one presented in the paper can help create actionable large-scale proposals." -- At the heart of the dispute lies the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) -- a large dam on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia constructed to improve Ethiopia's electricity access and to export electricity to neighbouring countries. -- The project sparked tensions between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt over water rights and access. -- The simulator, designed by the scientists using open-source technology, covers 13 East African countries, including those within the Nile Basin, to model potential energy trade agreements between Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt. | H01 R01 C01 N01 N02 | 183 |
| 2418-T050 | Physicists Build New Device That Is Foundation For Quantum Computing | Device for Tuning Nonreciprocity in Qubits | Scientists have adapted a microwave circulator for use in quantum computers, allowing precise tuning of nonreciprocity between qubits and microwave-resonant cavities. This breakthrough provides a valuable tool for quantum information processing by simplifying theories and enabling future research in quantum computing. The ability to control nonreciprocity in quantum systems opens up new possibilities for advancing quantum technologies and applications. | University of Massachusetts Amherst | Science Advances | Press Rel | PubMed | Scientists led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst have adapted a device called a microwave circulator for use in quantum computers, allowing them for the first time to precisely tune the exact degree of nonreciprocity between a qubit, the fundamental unit of quantum computing, and a microwave-resonant cavity. The ability to precisely tune the degree of nonreciprocity is an important tool to have in quantum information processing. In doing so, the team, including collaborators from the University of Chicago, derived a general and widely applicable theory that simplifies and expands upon older understandings of nonreciprocity so that future work on similar topics can take advantage of the team's model, even when using different components and platforms. The research was published recently in Science Advances. -- Quantum computing differs fundamentally from the bit-based computing we all do every day. -- A bit is a piece of information typically expressed as a 0 or a 1. Bits are the basis for all the software, websites and emails that make up our electronic world. -- By contrast, quantum computing relies on "quantum bits," or "qubits," which are like regular bits except that they are represented by the "quantum superposition" of two states of a quantum object. -- Matter in a quantum state behaves very differently, which means that qubits aren't relegated to being only 0s or 1s -- they can be both at the same time in a way that sounds like magic, but which is well defined by the laws of quantum mechanics. -- This property of quantum superposition leads to the increased power capabilities of quantum computers. -- Furthermore, a property called "nonreciprocity" can create additional avenues for quantum computing to leverage the potential of the quantum world. -- "Imagine a conversation between two people," says Sean van Geldern, graduate student in physics at UMass Amherst and one of the paper's authors. -- "Total reciprocity is when each of the people in that conversation is sharing an equal amount of information. Nonreciprocity is when one person is sharing a little bit less than the other." -- "This is desirable in quantum computing," says senior author Chen Wang, assistant professor of physics at UMass Amherst, "because there are many computing scenarios where you want to give plenty of access to data without giving anyone the power to alter or degrade that data." | H01 T01 | 184 |
| 2418-T022 | Missing Link In Species Conservation: Pharmacists, Chemists Could Turn Tide On Plant, Animal Extinction | Chemists, Pharmacists Crucial in Saving Endangered Plant and Animal Species | Timothy Cernak, an assistant professor at the U-M College of Pharmacy, emphasizes the importance of chemists and pharmacists in species conservation efforts as the world faces staggering rates of animal and plant species loss. Modern bioscience breakthroughs in treating diseases in humans can be applied to conserve wildlife populations. | University of Michigan | Journal of Medicinal Chemistry | Press Rel | PubMed | As the world faces the loss of a staggering number of species of animals and plants to endangerment and extinction, one University of Michigan scientist has an urgent message: Chemists and pharmacists should be key players in species conservation efforts. -- "Medicinal chemistry expertise is desperately needed on the frontlines of extinction," said Timothy Cernak, assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at the U-M College of Pharmacy. -- "Animals are dying at staggering rates, but they don't have to. Modern bioscience has achieved enormous breakthroughs in treating disease in humans, and the same medications, and the science behind them, can be applied in the wild." -- Local and global efforts to reduce environmental damage are underway, but they are too slow to save the many ailing populations in the wild, he said. -- "We are in the middle of a mass extinction. We are chasing mass die-offs around the world. Lowland gorillas, Argentinian penguins, the akikiki bird in Hawaii, loggerhead turtles in Florida. The list goes on, and many precious plants are also hanging by a thread," he said. -- "So it's critical to bring the power of modern pharmaceuticals and the dosing expertise of medicinal chemistry into conservation efforts." -- Cernak and a team of young scientists, including a local high school student, make the case for establishing and nurturing the emerging field of conservation medicine in a research article published this week in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. -- "It's hard-core science. It's bringing the lens of medicinal chemistry and modern pharmaceuticals into the conversation to save other species," Cernak said. -- "Drivers of the current mass extinction include habitat loss, global warming and overharvesting, but one specific root cause -- wildlife disease -- seems ripe for intervention. Medicinal chemistry is that intervention." -- Cernak, in one of many roles and research projects, receives samples of dead and ailing species from around the world. | C01 N01 N02 T02 | 185 |
| 2418-018 | Automated Machine Learning Robot Unlocks New Potential For Genetics Research | Automated Machine Learning Robot Unlocks New Potential For Genetics Research | The University of Minnesota researchers have created a robot that uses machine learning to automate the intricate process of microinjections in genetic research. This technology enables precise manipulation of genetic material in multicellular organisms, facilitating large-scale experiments and advancing genetic studies. | University of Minnesota | GENETICS | Press Rel | PubMed | University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers have constructed a robot that uses machine learning to fully automate a complicated microinjection process used in genetic research. -- In their experiments, the researchers were able to use this automated robot to manipulate the genetics of multicellular organisms, including fruit fly and zebrafish embryos. -- The technology will save labs time and money while enabling them to more easily conduct new, large-scale genetic experiments that were not possible previously using manual techniques -- The research is featured on the cover of the April 2024 issue of GENETICS, a peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journal. -- The work was co-led by two University of Minnesota mechanical engineering graduate students Andrew Alegria and Amey Joshi. -- The team is also working to commercialize this technology to make it widely available through the University of Minnesota start-up company, Objective Biotechnology. -- Microinjection is a method for introducing cells, genetic material, or other agents directly into embryos, cells, or tissues using a very fine pipette. -- The researchers have trained the robot to detect embryos that are one-hundredth the size of a grain of rice. -- After detection, the machine can calculate a path and automate the process of the injections. -- "This new process is more robust and reproducible than manual injections," said Suhasa Kodandaramaiah, a University of Minnesota mechanical engineering associate professor and senior author of the study. | N01 T02 | 186 |
| 2418-T037 | Researchers Advance Detection Of Gravitational Waves To Study Collisions Of Neutron Stars And Black Holes | Improved Detection of Gravitational Waves in Neutron Star Collisions | A new study co-led by researchers at the University of Minnesota aims to improve the detection of gravitational waves, providing valuable insights into neutron stars and black holes. The research, published in PNAS, will enable faster alerts to astronomers and astrophysicists, enhancing our understanding of heavy element production in the universe. | University of Minnesota | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering co-led a new study by an international team that will improve the detection of gravitational waves -- ripples in space and time. -- The research aims to send alerts to astronomers and astrophysicists within 30 seconds after the detection, helping to improve the understanding of neutron stars and black holes and how heavy elements, including gold and uranium, are produced. -- The findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). -- Gravitational waves interact with spacetime by compressing it in one direction while stretching it in the perpendicular direction. -- That is why current state-of-the-art gravitational wave detectors are L-shaped and measure the relative lengths of the laser using interferometry, a measurement method which looks at the interference patterns produced by the combination of two light sources. -- Detecting gravitational waves requires measuring the length of the laser to precise measurements: equivalent to measuring the distance to the nearest star, around four light years away, down to the width of a human hair. -- This research is part of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration, a network of gravitational wave interferometers across the world. -- In the latest simulation campaign, data was used from previous observation periods and simulated gravitational wave signals were added to show the performance of the software and equipment upgrades. -- The software can detect the shape of signals, track how the signal behaves, and estimate what masses are included in the event, like neutron stars or black holes. -- Neutron stars are the smallest, most dense stars known to exist and are formed when massive stars explode in supernovas. | N02 T02 | 187 |
| 2418-T035 | Surprising Evolutionary Pattern In Yeast Study | Surprising Evolutionary Findings in Yeast Analysis Data | Assistant Professor Abigail Leavitt LaBella co-led a groundbreaking study on yeast evolution using artificial intelligence analysis. The findings challenge accepted frameworks and provide rich data for future research in evolutionary biology and bioinformatics. The study was published in the prestigious journal Science, highlighting its significance. | University of North Carolina at Charlotte | Science | Press Rel | PubMed | University of North Carolina at Charlotte Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics Abigail Leavitt LaBella has co-led an ambitious research study -- published in the widely influential journal Science -- that reports intriguing findings made through innovative artificial intelligence analysis about yeasts, the small fungi that are key contributors to biotechnology, food production and human health. The findings challenge accepted frameworks within which yeast evolution is studied and provide access to an incredibly rich yeast analysis dataset that could have major implications for future evolutionary biology and bioinformatics research. -- LaBella, who joined UNC Charlotte's Department of Bioinformatics in the College of Computing and Informatics as an assistant professor and researcher at the North Carolina Research Campus in 2022, conducted the study with co-lead author Dana A. Opulente of Villanova University. -- They collaborated with fellow researchers from Vanderbilt University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, along with colleagues from research institutions across the globe. -- This is the flagship study of the Y1000+ Project, a massive inter-institutional yeast genome sequencing and phenotyping endeavor that LaBella joined as a postdoctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University. -- "Yeasts are single-celled fungi that play critical roles in our everyday lives. They make bread and beer, are used in the production of medicine, can cause infection, and as close relatives to animals have helped us learn about how cancer works," said LaBella. -- "We wanted to know how these small fungi have evolved to have such an incredible range of functions and features. With the characterization of over one thousand yeasts, we found that yeasts do not fit the adage 'jack of all trades, master of none.'" -- This study contributes to basic understanding of how the microbes change over time while generating more than 900 new genome sequences for yeasts -- many of which could be leveraged in biofungal fields such as agricultural pest control, drug development and biofuels production. -- LaBella and her co-authors -- through an artificial intelligence-assisted, machine-learning analysis of the Y1000+ Project's dataset comprising 1,154 strains of the ancient, single-cell yeast Saccaromycotina -- attempted to answer an important question. -- That is: Why do some yeasts eat (or metabolize) only a few types of carbon for energy while others can eat more than a dozen? -- The total number of carbon sources used by a yeast for energy is known in ecological terms as its carbon niche-breadth. | H01 R01 C01 N01 T01 | 188 |
| 2418-032 | Component Of Keto Diet Plus Immunotherapy May Reduce Prostate Cancer | Keto Component Shows Promise in Prostate Cancer Treatment | University of Notre Dame researchers have found that adding a pre-ketone supplement to cancer therapy effectively treats prostate cancer in a laboratory setting. This innovative approach, published in Cancer Research, shows promise in overcoming resistance to immunotherapy in prostate cancer treatments. | University of Notre Dame | Cancer Research | Press Rel | PubMed | Adding a pre-ketone supplement -- a component of a high-fat, low-carb ketogenic diet -- to a type of cancer therapy in a laboratory setting was highly effective for treating prostate cancer, researchers from the University of Notre Dame found. -- Recently published online in the journal Cancer Research, the study from Xin Lu, the John M. and Mary Jo Boler Collegiate Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and collaborators tackled a problem oncologists have battled: Prostate cancer is resistant to a type of immunotherapy called immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. ICB therapy blocks certain proteins from binding with other proteins and paves the way for our body's fighter cells, T cells, to kill the cancer. -- "Prostate cancer is the most common cancer for American men, and immunotherapy has been really influential in some other cancers, like melanoma or lung cancer, but it hasn't been working almost at all for prostate cancer," said Lu, who is affiliated with the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases. Adding a dietary supplement might overcome this resistance, the lead author in the study, Sean Murphy, suggested. -- Murphy, a '24 alumnus who was a doctoral student in Lu's lab, had been following a keto diet himself. Knowing that cancer cells feed off of sugar, he decided that depriving mouse models of carbohydrates -- a key component of the keto diet -- might prevent cancer growth. -- He divided the models into different groups: immunotherapy alone, ketogenic diet alone, a pre-ketone supplement alone, the ketogenic diet with the immunotherapy, the supplement with the immunotherapy, and the control. While the immunotherapy alone had almost no effect on the tumors (just like what happens to most patients with prostate cancer), both the ketogenic diet with the immunotherapy and the pre-ketone supplement with the immunotherapy reduced the cancer and extended the lives of the mouse models. -- The supplement with the immunotherapy worked best. -- "It turned out this combination worked really well," Lu said. "It made the tumor become very sensitive to the immunotherapy, with 23 percent of the mice cured -- they were tumor-free; in the rest, the tumors were shrinking really dramatically." -- The evidence points to the possibility that a supplement providing ketones, which are what is produced in the body when people eat a keto diet, might prevent the prostate cancer cells from being resistant to immunotherapy. This may lead to future clinical studies that examine how ketogenic diets or keto supplements could enhance cancer therapy. -- While keto diets allow for minimal carbohydrates, the success of this study is not about the lack of carbohydrates, Murphy and Lu stressed. It is about the presence of the ketone body, a substance produced by the liver and used as an energy source when glucose is not available. The ketones disrupt the cycle of the cancer cells, allowing the T cells to do their job to destroy them. -- The discovery was also exciting on a molecular level, Lu said. Any type of dietary study can suffer from the potential issue of causation: Are the results from the diet or other changes made because of the diet? But Lu and his collaborators confirmed their results using single-cell RNA sequencing, which examines the gene expression of single cells within the tumor. | H01 H02 R01 | 189 |
| 2418-029 | Breast Cancer Rates Rising Among Canadian Women In Their 20s, 30s And 40s | Rising Breast Cancer Rates Impact Canadian Women Under 50 | A study led by Dr. Jean Seely reveals rising rates of breast cancer in women under 50 in Canada, particularly in younger age groups. The findings underscore the importance of early detection and screening for breast cancer in women in their twenties and thirties. | University of Ottawa | Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal | Press Rel | PubMed | Rates of breast cancer in women under the age of 50 are rising in Canada according to a study which showed an increase in breast cancer diagnoses among females in their Twenties, Thirties, and Forties. -- Led by Dr. Jean Seely, this study published in the Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal reviewed breast cancer cases over 35 years to shed light on trends in breast cancer detection in Canada. -- "Breast cancer in younger women tends to be diagnosed at later stages and is often more aggressive," said Dr. Seely, Head of Breast Imaging at The Ottawa Hospital and Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Ottawa. "It's alarming to see rising rates among women in their Twenties and Thirties because they are not regularly screened for breast cancer." -- Risk increases with age -- Using data from the National Cancer Incidence Reporting System (1984-1991) and the Canadian Cancer Registry (1992-2019) at Statistics Canada, the research team, which included Larry Ellison from Statistics Canada and Dr. Anna Wilkinson, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, looked at all women aged 20 to 54 who were diagnosed with breast cancer. -- Their findings included: -- For women in their Twenties, there were 3.9 cases per 100,000 people between 1984 and 1988, compared to 5.7 cases per 100,000 between 2015 and 2019 for a 45.5% increase. -- For women in their Thirties, there were 37.7 cases per 100,000 people between 1984 and 1988, compared to 42.4 cases per 100,000 between 2015 and 2019 for a 12.5% increase. -- For women in their Forties, there were 127.8 cases per 100,000 people between 1984 and 1988, compared to 139.4 cases per 100,000 between 2015 and 2019 for a 9.1% increase. -- The study's results show the importance of targeting younger women in breast cancer awareness campaigns and screening programs. Most public health efforts focus on women over 50, but these findings suggest that younger women are increasingly at risk and may benefit from earlier and more frequent screenings. | H01 R01 T01 | 190 |
| 2418-096 | Nutrient Research Reveals Pathway For Treating Brain Disorders | Nutrient Pathway Discovered For Treating Brain Disorders | Researchers have identified a protein transporter called FLVCR2 that transports choline into the brain, essential for brain development. This discovery could aid in the development of drugs for neurological disorders like Alzheimer's and stroke. | University of Queensland | Nature | Press Rel | PubMed | A University of Queensland researcher has found molecular doorways that could be used to help deliver drugs into the brain to treat neurological disorders. -- Dr Rosemary Cater from UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience led a team which discovered that an essential nutrient called choline is transported into the brain by a protein called FLVCR2. -- "Choline is a vitamin-like nutrient that is essential for many important functions in the body, particularly for brain development," Dr Cater said. -- "We need to consume 400-500 mg of choline per day to support cell regeneration, gene expression regulation, and for sending signals between neurons." -- Dr Cater said that until now, little was known about how dietary choline travels past the layer of specialised cells that separates the blood from the brain. -- "This blood-brain barrier prevents molecules in the blood that are toxic to the brain from entering," she said. -- "The brain still needs to absorb nutrients from the blood, so the barrier contains specialised cellular machines -- called transporters -- that allow specific nutrients such as glucose, omega-3 fatty acids and choline to enter. -- "While this barrier is an important line of defence, it presents a challenge for designing drugs to treat neurological disorders." -- Dr Cater was able to show that choline sits in a cavity of FLVCR2 as it travels across the blood-brain barrier and is kept in place by a cage of protein residues. -- "We used high-powered cryo-electron microscopes to see exactly how choline binds to FLVCR2," she said. | H01 R01 R02 | 191 |
| 2418-070 | Breakthrough In Complex Pain Management | Breakthrough in Complex Pain Syndrome Management | Groundbreaking research led by NeuRA's Centre for Pain IMPACT suggests that early detection and effective treatment can lead to significant recovery in patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) within 18 months. The study, in partnership with the University of South Australia, offers hope to millions worldwide by demonstrating the potential for up to 80% of patients to recover within the first 18 months of diagnosis. | University of South Australia | The Lancet Neurology | Press Rel | PubMed | Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic and debilitating pain disorder, typically considered lifelong with limited treatment options. Now, groundbreaking research finds that early detection and effective treatment can lead to significant recovery within 18 months, offering hope to millions of people worldwide. -- Led by NeuRA's Centre for Pain IMPACT and conducted in partnership with the University of South Australia, the findings could deliver life-changing outcomes for people with CRPS, with up to 80% of patients recovering within the first 18 months of being diagnosed with the disorder. -- CRPS is a multi-system disorder triggered by trauma such as surgery or fracture. -- It manifests with severe pain localised to a single limb, but often persists beyond typical recovery periods. -- Sufferers can experience issues with sweating, temperature regulation, and mobility. -- Women are disproportionately affected, with up to four times as many diagnosed with the condition as men. -- The new study reviewed the latest advances in CRPS epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment. -- It found that the best approach to treatment includes education about CRPS, medicines to control pain, physical rehabilitation, and psychological support, if needed. -- Lead researcher, NeuRA's Michael Ferraro says this is a paradigm shift for understanding CRPS. -- "Complex regional pain syndrome is a rare pain disorder. It's characterised by intense pain and changes in muscle, sensation, skin, bone, and nerves, and often severely limits a person's ability to work or engage in social activities," Ferraro says. | R01 | 192 |
| 2418-E031 | Cardio-Fitness Cuts Death And Disease By Nearly 20% | Cardio Fitness: A 20% Reduction in Death Risk Revealed | New research from the University of South Australia shows that increasing cardio fitness levels can reduce the risk of death by nearly 20%. Regular exercise, such as running, cycling, or swimming, can significantly lower the risk of death from any cause by 11-17%. The study, published in BJSM, underscores the importance of cardiorespiratory fitness in reducing the risk of heart disease and overall mortality. | University of South Australia | British Journal of Sports Medicine | Press Rel | PubMed | Running, cycling, or swimming -- if you regularly exercise, you're well on track for a long and healthy life, as groundbreaking new research from the University of South Australia finds that an increased cardio fitness level will reduce your risk of death from any cause by 11-17%. -- Published in BJSM, the study found that for every 1-MET increase in cardiorespiratory fitness -- the amount of energy used for quiet sitting -- a person can reduce their risk of death by 11-17%, and specifically, their risk of heart disease by 18%. -- Comprising 26 systematic reviews with meta-analysis representing more than 20.9 million observations from 199 unique cohort studies, it is the first study to collate all the scientific evidence that looked at the prospective link between cardiorespiratory fitness and health outcomes among adults. -- Senior author, UniSA's Professor Grant Tomkinson, says that cardiorespiratory fitness is probably the most important type of fitness for good health. -- "Cardiorespiratory fitness (or CRF) is your ability to perform physical activity for a long period of time like running, cycling, and swimming," Prof Tomkinson says. -- "In this study we found prolonged cardiorespiratory fitness is strongly and consistently associated with all types of premature death and incident disease -- spanning heart failure, depression, diabetes, dementia and even cancer. -- "We summarised the evidence linking CRF to numerous health outcomes and found that those with low levels of CRF are far more likely to die early or develop chronic conditions like heart disease later in life. -- "Specifically, we found that every 1-MET increase in CRF, which is the amount of energy used when sitting quietly, reduced the risk of early death from any cause and heart failure by 11-17% and 18%, respectively. -- "For most people, a 1-MET increase in CRF can be achieved through a regular aerobic exercise program. -- "The message is quite simple: if you do a lot of "huff and puff" exercise, then your risk of dying early or developing diseases in the future is reduced. If you avoid exercise your health may suffer." | H01 R01 R02 | 193 |
| 2418-E076 | Mystery Behind Huge Opening In Antarctic Sea Ice Solved | Antarctic Sea Ice Opening Mystery Solved | Researchers have uncovered the mystery behind a massive opening in the sea ice around Antarctica. By studying the formation of a polynya, scientists have identified key processes that allow these rare phenomena to persist. This discovery sheds light on the complex dynamics of Antarctic sea ice and its impact on the environment. | University of Southampton | Science Advances | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers have discovered the missing piece of the puzzle behind a rare opening in the sea ice around Antarctica, which was nearly twice the size of Wales and occurred during the winters of 2016 and 2017. -- A study reveals a key process that had eluded scientists as to how the opening, called a polynya, was able to form and persist for several weeks. -- The team of researchers from the University of Southampton, the University of Gothenburg and the University of California San Diego studied the Maud Rise polynya -- named after the submerged mountain-like feature in the Weddell Sea, over which it grows. -- They found the polynya was brought on by complex interactions between the wind, ocean currents, and the unique geography of the ocean floor, transporting heat and salt towards the surface. -- In Antarctica, the surface of the ocean freezes over in the winter, with sea ice covering an area about twice the size of the continental United States. -- In coastal areas, openings in the sea ice occur every year. Here, strong coastal winds blow off the continent and push the ice away, exposing the seawater below. -- It is much rarer for these polynyas to form in sea ice over the open ocean, hundreds of kilometres away from the coast where the seas are thousands of meters deep. -- Aditya Narayanan, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, who led the research, said: "The Maud Rise polynya was discovered in the 1970s when remote sensing satellites that can see sea ice over the Southern Ocean were first launched. It persisted through consecutive winters from 1974 to 1976 and oceanographers back then assumed it would be an annual occurrence. But since the 1970s, it has occurred only sporadically and for brief intervals. -- "2017 was the first time that we've had such a large and long-lived polynya in the Weddell Sea since the 1970s." -- During 2016 and 2017, the large circular ocean current around the Weddell Sea became stronger. | Z01 | 194 |
| 2418-049 | People With Rare Longevity Mutation May Also Be Protected From Cardiovascular Disease | Rare Longevity Mutation May Shield Against Cardiovascular Disease Risk | Individuals with growth hormone receptor deficiency may have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, shedding light on potential health advantages associated with this rare condition and the implications for longevity and diseases associated with aging. | University of Southern California | Med | Press Rel | PubMed | A new study highlights possible cardiovascular health advantages in individuals with a rare condition known as growth hormone receptor deficiency (GHRD), also called Laron syndrome. -- GHRD, which is characterized by the body's impaired ability to use its own growth hormone and results in stunted growth, has been linked in mice to a record 40% longevity extension and lower risks for various age-related diseases. However, the risk of cardiovascular disease in individuals with GHRD has remained unclear until now, leading to the speculation that in people, this mouse longevity mutation may actually increase cardiovascular disease. -- The study, appearing in Med on April 26, 2024, is the latest product of an international collaboration spanning nearly 20 years between Valter Longo, professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, and endocrinologist Jaime Guevara-Aguirre of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. -- Over the past two decades, Longo, Guevara-Aguirre and colleagues have examined the health and aging of people with the gene mutation that causes GHRD. This rare mutation -- found in just 400 to 500 people worldwide -- was identified in a group of Ecuadorians whose ancestors had fled Spain during the Inquisition more than three centuries ago. The mutation leaves them with ineffective growth hormone receptors and results in a type of dwarfism. -- The team's previous research has indicated that while GHRD/Laron syndrome reduces growth, it also appears to reduce the risk of several age-related diseases. Although the Ecuadorians with GHRD have a higher rate of obesity, they have a very low risk of cancer and Type 2 diabetes. They also appear to have healthier brains and better performance on tests of cognition and memory. -- For the current study, the research team examined cardiovascular function, damage, and risk factors in GHRD subjects and their relatives. Researchers conducted two phases of measurements in Los Angeles and Ecuador, involving a total of 51 individuals, with 24 diagnosed with GHRD and 27 relatives without GHRD serving as controls. -- Key findings from the study included: -- GHRD subjects displayed lower blood sugar, insulin resistance, and blood pressure compared to the control group. -- They also had smaller heart dimensions and similar pulse wave velocity -- a measure of stiffness in the arteries -- but had lower carotid artery thickness compared to control subjects. -- Despite elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad cholesterol," levels, GHRD subjects showed a trend for lower carotid artery atherosclerotic plaques compared to controls (7% vs 36%). | H01 H02 R01 R02 | 195 |
| 2418-028 | Breakthrough In Brown Fat Research: Researchers Have Found Brown Fat's 'Off-Switch' | Protein Discovery May Lead to Obesity-Fighting Strategies | Researchers have discovered a protein that turns off brown fat activity, limiting its effectiveness in combating obesity. By identifying this 'off switch,' researchers hope to develop strategies for safely activating brown fat to address weight-related health issues. | University of Southern Denmark | Nature Metabolism | Press Rel | PubMed | Brown fat, also known as brown adipose tissue (BAT), is a type of fat in our bodies that's different from the white fat around our belly and thighs that we are more familiar with. Brown fat has a special job -- it helps to burn calories from the foods that we eat into heat, which can be helpful, especially when we're exposed to cold temperatures like during winter swimming or cryotherapy. For a long time, scientists thought that only small animals like mice and newborns had brown fat. But new research shows that a certain number of adults maintain their brown fat throughout life. Because brown fat is so good at burning calories, scientists are trying to find ways to activate it safely using drugs that boost its heat-producing abilities. -- A new study from the research groups of Prof. Jan-Wilhelm Kornfeld from the University of Southern Denmark/the Novo Nordisk Center for Adipocyte Signaling (Adiposign) and Dagmar Wachten from the University Hospital Bonn and the University of Bonn (Germany) has found that brown fat has a previously unknown built-in mechanism that switches it off shortly after being activated. This limits its effectiveness as treatment against obesity. According to first author of the study, Hande Topel, who is a Senior Postdoc at the University of Southern Denmark and the Novo Nordisk Center for Adipocyte Signaling (Adiposign), the team has now discovered a protein responsible for this switching-off process. It is called 'AC3-AT'. -- Blocking the "off switch" opens up a new strategy -- "Looking ahead, we think that finding ways to block AC3-AT could be a promising strategy for safely activating brown fat and tackling obesity and related health problems," Hande Topel says. The research team found the switch-off protein using advanced technology predicting unknown proteins. Hande Topel explains: "When we investigated mice that genetically didn't have AC3-AT, we found that they were protected from becoming obese, partly because their bodies were simply better at burning off calories and were able to increase their metabolic rates through activating brown fat." -- Two groups of mice were fed a high-fat diet for 15 weeks, which rendered them obese. The group that had their AC3-AT protein removed, gained less weight than the control group and were metabolically healthier. "The mice that have no AC3-AT protein, also accumulated less fat in their body and increased their lean mass when compared to the control mice," says co-author, Ronja Kardinal, who is a PhD student at the University of Bonn in the lab of Dagmar Wachten at UKB, continuing: "As AC3-AT is found not only in mice but also in humans and other species, there are direct therapeutic implications for humans." -- Hope for strategies that support weight loss -- Although the prevalence of brown fat decreases as humans age, and despite grown-ups not having as much brown fat as newborns, it can still be activated, for instance by cold exposure. When it gets activated, it enhances the rate of metabolism of these individuals, which again may help to stabilize weight loss in conditions where calorie intake is (too) high. -- Intriguingly, this study not only identified AC3-AT, which is a shorter, previously unknown form of the AC3protein. The researchers also identified other unknown protein/gene versions, that respond to cold exposure, similar to AC3-AT. -- "However, further research is needed to elucidate the therapeutic impact of these alternative gene products and their regulatory mechanisms during BAT activation," says co-corresponding author Prof. Dagmar Wachten, Co-Director of the Institute of Innate Immunity at the UKB and member of the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 and the Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRA) "Modelling" and "Life & Health" at the University of Bonn. -- "Understanding these kinds of molecular mechanisms not only sheds light on the regulation of brown fat but also holds promise for unraveling similar mechanisms in other cellular pathways. This knowledge can be instrumental in advancing our understanding of various diseases and in the development of novel treatments," says co-corresponding author Prof. Jan-Wilhelm Kornfeld, University of Southern Denmark. | H01 N01 | 196 |
| 2418-T004 | 'Like A Nanoscopic Moon Lander': Scientists Unlock Secret Of How Pyramidal Molecules Move Across Surfaces | Scientists Unlock Secret Of Molecule Movement Across Graphite Surfaces | Scientists at the University of Surrey and Graz University of Technology have observed molecular movement on a graphite surface with unprecedented detail, likening the molecule's motion to that of a Moon lander. These insights into molecular dynamics could have profound implications for future nanotechnologies and the design of nano-scale devices. | University of Surrey | Communications Chemistry | Press Rel | PubMed | Scientists have watched a molecule move across a graphite surface in unprecedented detail. It turns out this particular molecule moves like a Moon lander -- and the insights hold potential for future nanotechnologies. -- Researchers have achieved a ground-breaking understanding of molecular movement thanks to this study from the University of Surrey and the Graz University of Technology, Switzerland. -- Studying how molecules move is crucial for understanding chemical reactions and making nano-scale devices. -- Dr Marco Sacchi, Associate Professor in Physical and Computational Chemistry at the University of Surrey, said: -- "Our work has only scratched the surface of the complexities behind the self-assembly of non-planar molecules on graphite. It's a step towards unravelling the subtleties of surface chemistry and its applications in nanotechnology." -- To unlock these secrets, scientists studied molecules of triphenylphosphine (PPh3). These three-pointed, propeller-like structures have a range of uses, from delivering drugs into cells to lithium batteries. -- Using a unique combination of neutron spectroscopy and advanced computer simulations, the scientists observed how they behaved on a graphite surface. -- The team was surprised to see PPh3's remarkable motion -- jumping and rotating like a spacecraft touching down on the lunar surface. -- This allowed them to move using surprisingly little energy. -- Dr Anton Tamtögl, experimental physicist at Graz University of Technology, said: | H01 R01 T01 T02 | 197 |
| 2418-098 | Tsetse Fly Protein Provides Anticoagulant With Its Own On-Off Switch | Surpamolecules Developed With On-Demand Anticoagulant Reversibility | A breakthrough design has led to a novel anticoagulant with on-demand reversibility, potentially reducing the risk of serious bleeding during surgery. This innovative drug-discovery approach has applications in surgery, immunotherapy, and other fields. | University of Sydney | Nature Biotechnology | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers at the University of Sydney and University of Geneva have developed a new anticoagulant, whose anticlotting action can be rapidly stopped 'on demand'. The result could lead to new surgical and post-operative drugs that minimise the risk of serious bleeding. -- The research team applied a completely new method to discover the molecule. The anticoagulant combines a short protein molecule (a peptide) from a tsetse fly -- a blood-feeding insect -- with a second, synthesised peptide. The bonds holding the two peptides together can be broken on demand, providing the anticoagulant ingredient with its own on-off switch. -- This new drug-discovery approach is a potential game-changer in surgery and for suppressing blood clots. It could also be applied in other fields such as immunotherapy. -- The results are published today in Nature Biotechnology. -- In addition to surgical applications, anticoagulant therapies are essential for managing a wide range of conditions, such as heart disease, stroke and venous thrombosis. However, current treatment options, such as heparin and warfarin, have major drawbacks, including the need for regular monitoring of blood coagulation and the risk of serious bleeding in the event of overdose. -- About 15 percent of emergency hospital admissions due to adverse drug reactions are attributable to complications from anticoagulant treatments, emphasising the importance of developing new, safer and more effective therapeutic options. -- Professor Rich Payne from the School of Chemistry is an NHMRC Investigator Leadership Fellow and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science (CIPPS) and is a coauthor of the research. -- He said: "What's exciting here is that we have applied a completely novel approach to drug discovery. The anticoagulant we have developed uses what we call supramolecular chemistry. This allows the two active molecules needed to suppress coagulation to self-assemble. -- "The architecture also means we can apply an antidote that can quickly disassemble the joined molecules, triggering a rapid cessation of the active combination and the anticoagulant effect. -- "This has never been done before in drug discovery." | H01 R01 | 198 |
| 2418-E058 | Methane Emissions From Landfill Could Be Turned Into Sustainable Jet Fuel In Plasma Chemistry Leap | Sustainable Jet Fuel From Landfill Methane Possible | Researchers have developed a groundbreaking chemical process using plasma to transform methane gas from landfills into sustainable jet fuel, potentially revolutionizing the aviation industry towards a low-carbon future. By converting methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into a usable fuel source, this innovative approach addresses both environmental concerns and the need for sustainable energy solutions. The study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, represents a significant step towards reducing carbon emissions in the aviation sector. | University of Sydney | Journal of the American Chemical Society | Press Rel | PubMed | In a world first, University of Sydney researchers have developed a chemical process using plasma that could create sustainable jet fuel from methane gas emitted from landfills, potentially creating a low-carbon aviation industry. -- Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2). According to the International Energy Agency, the concentration of methane in the atmosphere is currently around two-and-a-half times greater than pre-industrial levels and is increasing steadily, with waste emissions and the burning of fossil fuels accounting for a significant proportion. -- The research was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. -- Australia recently joined the international methane mitigation agreement with the United States, the European Union, Japan and the Republic of Korea. -- Lead author, Professor PJ Cullen from the University of Sydney's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Net Zero Initiative said: "Globally, landfills are a major emitter of greenhouse gases, mainly a mixture of CO2 and methane. We have developed a process that would take these gases and convert them into fuels, targeting sectors that are difficult to electrify, like aviation." -- "Modern landfill facilities already capture, upgrade and combust their gas emissions for electricity generation, however, our process creates a much more environmentally impactful and commercially valuable product," he said. -- Global landfill emissions are estimated at 10-20 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year, a value comparable to the emissions of the global energy sector. -- Aviation currently accounts for approximately three percent of the world's emissions. -- Creating a "closed loop" fuel based on existing emissions would eliminate the need for traditional and sustainable jet fuels, which add further emissions into the atmosphere. -- How plasma makes the process work | C01 | 199 |
| 2418-E078 | How Evolving Landscapes Impacted First Peoples' Early Migration Patterns Into Australia | Landscapes' Impact on Early Human Migration | A dynamic model of the landscape sheds light on the migration patterns of Australia and New Guinea's First Peoples. By factoring in climate-driven landscape changes, researchers gain a more accurate picture of early human habitation in Sahul. This research offers new insights into the history of human migration and settlement in the region. | University of Sydney | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | New research led by the University of Sydney offers fresh understanding of the migration patterns of Australia and New Guinea's First Peoples, and where they lived in the 40,000 years following humanity's arrival on the then combined continent. -- Using a dynamic model charting the changing landscape, researchers have provided a more realistic description of the of the areas inhabited by the first humans to traverse Sahul: the landmass combining what is now Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea. -- Led by Associate Professor Tristan Salles from the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, the research model factors-in evolution of the landscape, driven by climate, during the time of human dispersal. -- This is a novel approach; previous studies of migration patterns have relied heavily on archaeological findings. -- "One aspect overlooked when evaluating how people spread across the continent is the evolution of the Earth's surface which took place as people migrated," Associate Professor Salles said. -- "Yet landscapes and landform are deeply engraved in Aboriginal culture." -- Humans first set foot on Sahul around 75,000 years ago. The research team used an established landscape evolution model detailing climatic evolution from 75,000 to 35,000 years ago. -- The model offers a fresh perspective on terrains and environments inhabited by the first hunter-gatherer communities as they traversed Sahul. -- Researchers ran thousands of simulations to describe possible migration routes originating from two entry points into Sahul: a northern route through Western Papua and a southern route from the Timor Sea shelf. -- Their results were consistent with previous findings, predicting a high likelihood of human occupation at already iconic archaeological sites such as: Ngarrabullgan Cave (in North Queensland), the Puritjarra rock shelter (Central Australia), and the Riwi Cave and Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter in the Kimberley (Western Australia). | H01 C01 | 200 |
| 2418-041 | Student Links Worm Behavior To Brain Disease | Student's Schizophrenia Research Connects Worm Behavior to Brain Disease | An undergraduate student's research on schizophrenia turns into a peer-reviewed publication, showcasing her academic prowess and dedication to scientific inquiry from an early stage in her academic journey. | University of Texas at Arlington | microPublication Biology | Press Rel | PubMed | As an undergraduate student in The University of Texas at Arlington's Honors College, Hannah Selvarathinam knew she wanted to conduct research. Near the end of her first year at UTA, the Keller native reached out to the lab of biology Assistant Professor Piya Ghose. -- "Hannah has been a very impressive scholar from Day 1," Ghose said. -- "She had the foresight to reach out for research opportunities very early on." -- Ghose brought Selvarathinam in to work on one of the lab's core projects related to the genetics of cell death, modeled in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. -- Selvarathinam's work eventually led to her honors thesis, focused on brain health and behavior. -- The result is a new peer-reviewed publication detailing the genes affecting worm behavior that also are relevant to neurological disease in humans. -- "Through combing the literature and discussing her findings with me, she was able to make connections between the genes she was already studying as part of her cell biology project with her undergraduate psychology major and interests in human health," Ghose said. -- "Hannah drove this project and regularly communicated with me for guidance and to share her exciting results. She took on the brave task of adapting and optimizing a published behavioral protocol for her project, which is exceptional for such a young trainee." -- For her study, Selvarathinam leveraged the fact that worms have similarities in their genes to humans and predictable behaviors that are easy to study. -- She proceeded to optimize an experi-mental protocol that aimed to link the mental illness schizophrenia to neurodegenerative disease using worm behavior. | R02 | 201 |
| 2418-E040 | A Virus Could Help Save Billions Of Gallons Of Wastewater Produced By Fracking | Virus Could Aid in Treating Billions of Gallons of Wastewater from Fracking | A study revealed that the Permian Basin fracking industry generates an estimated 168 billion gallons of wastewater annually, which is difficult to treat due to its chemical complexity. Researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso have discovered a promising method using bacteriophages to treat this wastewater. | University of Texas at El Paso | Water | Press Rel | PubMed | An estimated 168 billion gallons of wastewater -- or produced water -- is generated annually by the Permian Basin fracking industry, according to a 2022 report by the Texas Produced Water Consortium. The major waste stream has proved both difficult and costly to treat because of the chemical complexity of the water. -- In a new study published in the journal Water, researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso have identified a novel means of treating the wastewater generated by oil and gas production: bacteriophages. -- Ramón Antonio Sánchez, a doctoral candidate within UTEP's chemistry program, is the first author on the publication, detailing how bacteriophages, viruses that are often highly specific and lethal to a single species of bacteria, can be used as a rapid and cost-effective method to treat produced water on an industrial scale. -- Sánchez said if the work is successful, it would give the oil and gas industry a means of treating, reusing and recycling produced water, rather than the current industry practice of disposing the majority of produced water by injecting it into the ground post oil exploration. -- The research focuses on two of the most prominent bacteria found within produced water across the oil and gas industry -- Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus megaterium. -- P. aeruginosa has the ability to corrode stainless steel and presents a challenge for the longevity of pipelines and other metal-based infrastructure, while B. megaterium, can decompose hydrocarbons -- the basis for oil. -- Sánchez, along with one of his collaborators, Zacariah Hildenbrand, Ph.D., a UTEP alum, were inspired to use bacteriophages based on their applications in the medical industry, where they are used to combat infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria. -- "Since the bacteria are living organisms, over time they developed a resistance, in the form of a less penetrable membrane, to traditional disinfectants," Sánchez explained. -- "But the bacteriophages, which are viruses themselves, attach to specific receptors on the surface of the host cell and evolve alongside the bacteria they are trying to infect, meaning that any resistance acquired by the bacteria triggers the modification of bacteriophages to keep the infection going." -- The team's experiments with bacteriophages have been effective, achieving the inactivation of both P. aeruginosa and B. megaterium in laboratory settings. | R01 C01 | 202 |
| 2418-019 | Illusion Helps Demystify The Way Vision Works | Illusion Helps Demystify The Way Vision Works | A groundbreaking study demonstrates how a visual illusion, neon color spreading, works on mice, providing insights into the brain mechanisms underlying brightness perception. By combining electrophysiology and optogenetics, researchers have uncovered new perspectives on neuronal activity and visual processing in the brain. | University of Tokyo | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | For the first time, research shows that a certain kind of visual illusion, neon color spreading, works on mice. The study is also the first to combine the use of two investigative techniques called electrophysiology and optogenetics to study this illusion. Results from experiments on mice settle a long-standing debate in neuroscience about which levels of neurons within the brain are responsible for the perception of brightness. -- We're all familiar with optical illusions; some are novelties, while some are all around us. Even as you look at the screen in front you, you are being fooled into thinking that you're seeing the color white. -- What you're really seeing is lots of red, green and blue elements packed so tightly together it gives the impression of being white. -- Another example is a fast rotating wheel or propeller, which can briefly look like it's reversing direction while it's accelerating to full speed. -- In any case, it might be surprising to know that optical illusions are not just fun to look at but can also be a useful tool to learn more about eyes, nerves, minds and brains. -- Associate Professor Masataka Watanabe from the Department of Systems Innovation at the University of Tokyo is on a mission to understand more about the nature of consciousness. -- It's a vast subject area so naturally there are many ways to explore it, and amongst other things, he uses optical illusions. -- His most recent research looked at whether a certain kind of illusion that works on humans would also work on mice. -- And it turns out, it does. But why is this significant? -- "Knowing this kind of illusion, called a neon-color-spreading illusion, works on mice as well as humans, is useful for neuroscientists like myself, as it means that mice can serve as useful test subjects for cases where humans cannot," said Watanabe. | R02 | 203 |
| 2418-043 | Researchers Target Neurogenesis In New Approach To Treat Parkinson's Disease | Innovative Approach Targets Neurogenesis to Treat Parkinson's Disease | Researchers have made progress in generating dopamine-producing neurons crucial for Parkinson's disease treatment, offering hope for developing new therapies to address this challenging condition with limited treatment options currently available. | University of Toronto | Development | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers at the University of Toronto have found a way to better control the preclinical generation of key neurons depleted in Parkinson's disease, pointing toward a new approach for a disease with no cure and few effective treatments. -- The researchers used an antibody to selectively activate a receptor in a molecular signaling pathway to develop dopaminergic neurons. These neurons produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter critical to brain health. -- Researchers around the world have been working to coax stem cells to differentiate into dopaminergic neurons, to replace those lost in patients living with Parkinson's disease. But efforts have been hindered in part by an inability to target specific receptors and areas of the brain. -- "We used synthetic antibodies that we had previously developed to target the Wnt signaling pathway," said Stephane Angers, principal investigator on the study and director of the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology. -- "We can selectively activate this pathway to direct stem cells in the midbrain to develop into neurons by targeting specific receptors in the pathway," said Angers, who is also a professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and holds the Charles H. Best Chair of Medical Research at U of T. "This activation method has not been explored before." -- The study was recently published in the journal Development. -- Parkinson's disease is the second-most common neurological disorder after Alzheimer's, affecting over 100,000 Canadians. It particularly impacts older men, progressively impairing movement and causing pain as well as sleep and mental health issues. -- Most previous research efforts to activate the Wnt signaling pathway have relied on a GSK3 enzyme inhibitor. This method involves multiple signaling pathways for stem cell proliferation and differentiation, which can lead to unintended effects on the newly produced neurons and activation of off-target cells. -- "We developed an efficient method for stimulating stem cell differentiation to produce neural cells in the midbrain," said Andy Yang, first author on the study and a PhD student at the Donnelly Centre. "Moreover, cells activated via the FZD5 receptor closely resemble dopaminergic neurons of natural origin." -- Another promising finding of the study was that implanting the artificially-produced neurons in a rodent model with Parkinson's disease led to improvement of the rodent's locomotive impairment. | H01 H02 R02 T01 | 204 |
| 2418-T043 | Significant New Discovery In Teleportation Research -- Noise Can Improve The Quality Of Quantum Teleportation | Noise Enhances Quantum Teleportation Quality | Researchers have overcome noise and disruptions to achieve almost perfect quantum teleportation. This breakthrough could have significant implications for quantum communication and computing. By developing strategies to mitigate noise, scientists are advancing the field of quantum technology and unlocking new possibilities for secure data transfer. | University of Turku | Science Advances | Press Rel | PubMed | In teleportation, the state of a quantum particle, or qubit, is transferred from one location to another without sending the particle itself. This transfer requires quantum resources, such as entanglement between an additional pair of qubits. In an ideal case, the transfer and teleportation of the qubit state can be done perfectly. However, real-world systems are vulnerable to noise and disturbances -- and this reduces and limits the quality of the teleportation. -- Researchers from the University of Turku, Finland, and the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, have now proposed a theoretical idea and made corresponding experiments to overcome this problem. -- In other words, the new approach enables reaching high-quality teleportation despite the presence of noise. -- "The work is based on an idea of distributing entanglement -- prior to running the teleportation protocol -- beyond the used qubits, i.e., exploiting the hybrid entanglement between different physical degrees of freedom," says Professor Jyrki Piilo from the University of Turku. -- Conventionally, the polarisation of photons has been used for the entanglement of qubits in teleportation, while the current approach exploits the hybrid entanglement between the photons' polarisation and frequency. -- "This allows for a significant change in how the noise influences the protocol, and as a matter of fact our discovery reverses the role of the noise from being harmful to being beneficial to teleportation," Piilo describes. -- With conventional qubit entanglement in the presence of noise, the teleportation protocol does not work. -- In a case where there is initially hybrid entanglement and no noise, the teleportation does not work either. -- "However, when we have hybrid entanglement and add noise, the teleportation and quantum state transfer occur in almost perfect manner," says Dr Olli Siltanen whose doctoral dissertation presented the theoretical part of the current research. -- In general, the discovery enables almost ideal teleportation despite the presence of certain type of noise when using photons for teleportation. | T01 | 205 |
| 2418-027 | After 25 Years, Researchers Uncover Genetic Cause Of Rare Neurological Disease | Genetic Clue Found for Rare Neurological Disease After 25 Years | A multinational research team has identified the genetic difference responsible for spinocerebellar ataxia 4, offering answers to families and potential treatments for this devastating disease. The study's findings, published in Nature Genetics, mark a significant breakthrough after 25 years of uncertainty. | University of Utah Health | Nature Genetics | Press Rel | PubMed | Spinocerebellar ataxia 4 is a devastating progressive movement disease that can begin as early as the late teens. Now, a multinational research team led by University of Utah researchers has conclusively identified the genetic difference that causes the disease, bringing answers to families and opening the door to future treatments. -- Some families call it a trial of faith. Others just call it a curse. The progressive neurological disease known as spinocerebellar ataxia 4 (SCA4) is a rare condition, but its effects on patients and their families can be severe. For most people, the first sign is difficulty walking and balancing, which gets worse as time progresses. The symptoms usually start in a person's forties or fifties but can begin as early as the late teens. There is no known cure. And, until now, there was no known cause. -- Now, after 25 years of uncertainty, a multinational study led by Stefan Pulst, M.D., Dr. med., professor and chair of neurology, and K. Pattie Figueroa, a project manager in neurology, both in the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at University of Utah, has conclusively identified the genetic difference that causes SCA4, bringing answers to families and opening the door to future treatments. Their results are published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Genetics. -- Solving a genetic enigma -- SCA4's pattern of inheritance had long made it clear that the disease was genetic, and previous research had located the gene responsible to a specific region of one chromosome. But that region proved extraordinarily difficult for researchers to analyze: full of repeated segments that look like parts of other chromosomes, and with an unusual chemical makeup that makes most genetic tests fail. -- To pinpoint the change that causes SCA4, Figueroa and Pulst, along with the rest of the research team, used a recently developed advanced sequencing technology. By comparing DNA from affected and unaffected people from several Utah families, they found that in SCA4 patients, a section in a gene called ZFHX3 is much longer than it should be, containing an extra-long string of repetitive DNA. -- Isolated human cells that have the extra-long version of ZFHX3 show signs of being sick -- they don't seem able to recycle proteins as well as they should, and some of them contain clumps of stuck-together protein. -- "This mutation is a toxic expanded repeat and we think that it actually jams up how a cell deals with unfolded or misfolded proteins," says Pulst, the last author on the study. Healthy cells need to constantly break down non-functional proteins. Using cells from SCA4 patients, the group showed that the SCA4-causing mutation gums up the works of cells' protein-recycling machinery in a way that could poison nerve cells. -- Hope for the future -- Intriguingly, something similar seems to be happening in another form of ataxia, SCA2, which also interferes with protein recycling. The researchers are currently testing a potential therapy for SCA2 in clinical trials, and the similarities between the two conditions raise the possibility that the treatment might benefit patients with SCA4 as well. | H01 T02 | 206 |
| 2418-E045 | How Can Forests Be Reforested In A Climate-Friendly Way? | Reforesting Europe's Trees: Which Species are Fit for the Future? | Scientists from the University of Vienna and TUM have identified tree species that are suitable for reforestation in Europe. With climate change impacting forests, the study emphasizes the importance of mixed forests to maintain ecosystem resilience. The findings were published in Nature Ecology and Evolution. | University of Vienna | Nature Ecology & Evolution | Press Rel | PubMed | Europe's forests have already been severely affected by climate change. Thousands of hectares of trees have already died due to drought and bark beetles. Scientists from the University of Vienna and the Technical University of Munich TUM have now investigated which trees can be used for reforestation. Their findings: only a few tree species are fit for the future, such as English oak in the UK. However, mixed forests are important for the survival of forests, otherwise the forest ecosystem as a whole could be weakened. The results of the study were recently published in the renowned journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. -- Although European forests are naturally home to a mix of trees, the number of tree species is lower than in climatically comparable areas of North America or East Asia. In the future, even fewer species will be available to the forestry industry, as scientists led by Johannes Wessely and Stefan Dullinger from the University of Vienna have shown in their new study. Depending on the region, between a third and a half of the tree species found there today will no longer be able to cope with future conditions. "This is an enormous decline," says lead author Johannes Wessely, "especially when you consider that only some of the species are of interest for forestry." -- The scientists examined the 69 more common of the just over 100 European tree species with regard to the 21st century in Europe. On average, only nine of these 69 species per location are fit for the future in Europe, compared to four in the UK. "Trees that are planted now for reforestation must survive under both current and future conditions. This is difficult because they have to withstand the cold and frost of the next few years as well as a much warmer climate at the end of the 21st century. There is only a very small overlap," says Wessely. In the UK, these climate-fit species include, for example, the English oak. Which tree species will suit which region of Europe in the future varies greatly overall. -- Forest ecosystem at risk due to restriction of species -- However, even with the selected set of future-proof trees, a major problem remains: the average of nine species is not enough for a species-rich mixed forest. "Mixed forests consisting of many tree species are an important measure to make forests more robust against disturbances such as bark beetles. In some places in Europe, however, we could run out of tree species to establish such colorful mixed forests," explains last author Rupert Seidl from the Technical University of Munich TUM. -- Not all trees offer important properties -- Trees store carbon, provide a habitat or food source for animals or can be processed into timber -- these are all important properties of forests. But not all trees fulfill these functions equally; only an average of three of the nine climate-fit tree species can do this. -- "Our work clearly shows how severely the vitality of forests is affected by climate change. We cannot rely solely on a new mix of tree species; rapid measures to mitigate climate change are essential for the sustainable protection of our forests," says Wessely. -- More information on current research at the University of Vienna can be found in the University of Vienna's science magazine Rudolphina in the section Nature, Climate and the Cosmos. | H01 C01 N01 N02 | 207 |
| 2418-E079 | Unlocking The Genetic Mysteries Behind Plant Adaptation: New Insights Into The Evolution Of A Water-Saving Trait In The Pineapple Family (Bromeliaceae) | Genetic Mysteries Behind Plant Adaptation Unlocked | Researchers have made a breakthrough in understanding the genetic drivers behind photosynthesis mechanisms in air plants. This discovery highlights the role of genetic evolution in plant adaptation and ecological diversity. By studying these processes, scientists gain insight into how plants like Tillandsia have evolved unique survival traits. | University of Vienna | The Plant Cell | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers at the University of Vienna, along with collaborators from France, Germany, Switzerland and the USA, have achieved a major breakthrough in understanding how genetic drivers influence the evolution of a specific photosynthesis mechanism in Tillandsia (air plants). This sheds light on the complex actions that cause plant adaptation and ecological diversity. The results of their study are now published in Plant Cell. -- Some plant species have evolved a water-saving trait called Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM). CAM plants like most Tillandsia species -- the most species-rich genus in the pineapple family (Bromeliaceae) -- optimise their water use efficiency: While other plants normally open their stomata (tiny pores in their leaves) during the day to absorb carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, CAM plants do this at night and stash CO2 away for later use, helping them survive with less water. -- This trait evolved independently several times across the plant kingdom. -- However, the evolution of the complex genetic basis of CAM has remained elusive, making it a focus of research in evolutionary biology. -- Gene Regulation is Key -- In this study, the research team focused on a Tillandsia species pair exhibiting divergent forms of photosynthetis- CAM vs. C3 -- meaning that the C3-species lacks the specialized adaptation to arid conditions. -- By using advanced techniques to study the plants' genetics and biochemistry -- e.g. analyses of gene arrangements, molecular and gene family evolution, temporal differential gene expression and metabolites -- they discovered that changes in gene regulation are mainly responsible for genomic mechanisms driving CAM evolution in Tillandsia. -- Clara Groot Crego, Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research at University of Vienna and lead author of the study, explains: "Our findings reveal that while large-scale changes have influenced Tillandsia's genomes like other plants, the adjustment of how photosynthesis works mainly happens through how genes are regulated -- not by changing the sequences that code for proteins." Key insights from the study, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the University of Vienna, include the identification of CAM-related gene families undergoing accelerated expansion in CAM species. -- This highlights the critical role of gene family evolution in generating novel variation that drives CAM evolution. -- Into New Niches by Repeated Evolution | C01 N02 | 208 |
| 2418-E017 | New Research Shows 'Profound' Link Between Dietary Choices And Brain Health | Dietary Choices Linked To Brain Health In Profound New Research | A recent study published in Nature found a strong connection between dietary choices and brain health, showing that a healthy diet can improve cognitive function and overall wellbeing. The research, conducted by the University of Warwick, analyzed the food preferences of over 181,000 participants, revealing important insights into nutrition and brain health. | University of Warwick | Nature Mental Health | Press Rel | PubMed | New research has highlighted the profound link between dietary choices and brain health. -- Published in Nature, the research showed that a healthy, balanced diet was linked to superior brain health, cognitive function and mental wellbeing. The study, involving researchers at the University of Warwick, sheds light on how our food preferences not only influence physical health but also significantly impact brain health. -- The dietary choices of a large sample of 181,990 participants from the UK Biobank were analysed against and a range of physical evaluations, including cognitive function, blood metabolic biomarkers, brain imaging, and genetics -- unveiling new insights into the relationship between nutrition and overall wellbeing. -- The food preferences of each participant were collected via an online questionnaire, which the team catagorised into 10 groups (such as alcohol, fruits and meats). A type of AI called machine learning helped the researchers analyse the large dataset. -- A balanced diet was associated with better mental health, superior cognitive functions and even higher amounts of grey matter in the brain -- linked to intelligence -- compared with those with a less varied diet. -- The study also highlighted the need for gradual dietary modifications, particularly for individuals accustomed to highly palatable but nutritionally deficient foods. By slowly reducing sugar and fat intake over time, individuals may find themselves naturally gravitating towards healthier food choices. -- Genetic factors may also contribute to the association between diet and brain health, the scientists believe, showing how a combination of genetic predispositions and lifestyle choices shape wellbeing. -- Lead Author Professor Jianfeng Feng, University of Warwick, emphasised the importance of establishing healthy food preferences early in life. He said: "Developing a healthy balanced diet from an early age is crucial for healthy growth. To foster the development of a healthy balanced diet, both families and schools should offer a diverse range of nutritious meals and cultivate an environment that supports their physical and mental health." -- Addressing the broader implications of the research, Prof Feng emphasized the role of public policy in promoting accessible and affordable healthy eating options. "Since dietary choices can be influenced by socioeconomic status, it's crucial to ensure that this does not hinder individuals from adopting a healthy balanced dietary profile," he stated. "Implementing affordable nutritious food policies is essential for governments to empower the general public to make informed and healthier dietary choices, thereby promoting overall public health." -- Co-Auhtor Wei Cheng, Fudan University, added: "Our findings underscore the associations between dietary patterns and brain health, urging for concerted efforts in promoting nutritional awareness and fostering healthier eating habits across diverse populations." | H01 R02 T01 | 209 |
| 2418-062 | Virtual Reality Environment For Teens May Offer An Accessible, Affordable Way To Reduce Stress | Virtual Reality Environment Reduces Teen Stress | University of Washington researchers developed a virtual reality environment, RESeT, to help reduce stress and improve mental health in teens. In a study, teens who used the snowy virtual world reported lower stress levels, highlighting the potential of virtual reality technology in supporting adolescent mental health during challenging times. | University of Washington | JMIR XR Spatial Comput | Press Rel | PubMed | Social media. The climate crisis. Political polarization. The tumult of a pandemic and online learning. Teens today are dealing with unprecedented stressors, and over the past decade their mental health has been in sustained decline. Levels of anxiety and depression rose after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Compounding the problem is a shortage of mental health providers -- for every 100,000 children in the U.S., there are only 14 child and adolescent psychiatrists. -- In response to this crisis, University of Washington researchers studied whether virtual reality might help reduce stress for teens and boost mental health. Working with adolescents, the team designed a snowy virtual world with six activities -- such as stacking rocks and painting -- based on practices shown to improve mental health. -- In a 3-week study of 44 Seattle teens, researchers found that teens used the technology an average of twice a week without being prompted and reported lower stress levels and improved mood while using it, though their levels of anxiety and depression didn't decline overall. -- The researchers published their findings April 22 in the journal JMIR XR and Spatial Computing. The system is not publicly available. -- "We know what works to help support teens, but a lot of these techniques are inaccessible because they're locked into counseling, which can be expensive, or the counselors just aren't available," said lead author Elin Björling, a UW senior research scientist in the human centered design and engineering department. "So we tried to take some of these evidence-based practices, but put them in a much more engaging environment, like VR, so the teens might want to do them on their own." -- The world of Relaxation Environment for Stress in Teens, or RESeT, came from conversations the researchers had with groups of teens over two years at Seattle Public Library sites. From these discussions, the team built RESeT as an open winter world with a forest that users could explore by swinging their arms (a behavior known to boost mood) to move their avatar. A signpost with six arrows on it sent users to different activities, each based on methods shown to improve mental health, such as dialectical behavior therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction. -- In one exercise, "Riverboat," users put negative words in paper boats and send them down a river. Another, "Rabbit Hole," has players stand by a stump; the longer they're still, the more rabbits appear. -- "In the co-design process, we learned some teens were really afraid of squirrels, which I wouldn't have thought of," Björling said. "So we removed all the squirrels. I still have a Post-It in my office that says 'delete squirrels.' But all ages and genders loved rabbits, so we designed Rabbit Hole, where the reward for being calm and paying attention is a lot of rabbits surrounding you." -- To test the potential effects of RESeT on teens' mental health, the team enrolled 44 teens between ages 14 and 18 in the study. Each teen was given a Meta Quest 2 headset and asked to use RESeT three to five times a week. Because the researchers were trying to see if teens would use RESeT regularly on their own, they did not give prompts or incentives to use the headsets after the start of the study. Teens were asked to complete surveys gauging their stress and mood before and after each session. -- On average, the teens used RESeT twice a week for 11.5 minutes at a time. Overall, they reported feeling significantly less stressed while using RESeT, and also reported smaller improvements in mood. They said they liked using the headset in general. However, the study found no significant effects on anxiety and depression. | H01 H02 R01 N02 T02 | 210 |
| 2418-T017 | New Circuit Boards Can Be Repeatedly Recycled | Vitrimer PCBs: Sustainable Circuit Boards Can Be Repeatedly Recycled | Scientists have developed vPCBs, a recyclable alternative to traditional printed circuit boards, reducing electronic waste and environmental impact. These boards, made from a type of vitrimer, can be easily recycled, offering a sustainable solution for the electronics industry. | University of Washington | Nature Sustainability | Press Rel | PubMed | A recent United Nations report found that the world generated 137 billion pounds of electronic waste in 2022, an 82% increase from 2010. Yet less than a quarter of 2022's e-waste was recycled. While many things impede a sustainable afterlife for electronics, one is that we don't have systems at scale to recycle the printed circuit boards (PCBs) found in nearly all electronic devices. -- PCBs -- which house and interconnect chips, transistors and other components -- typically consist of layers of thin glass fiber sheets coated in hard plastic and laminated together with copper. -- That plastic can't easily be separated from the glass, so PCBs often pile up in landfills, where their chemicals can seep into the environment. -- Or they're burned to extract their electronics' valuable metals like gold and copper. -- This burning, often undertaken in developing nations, is wasteful and can be toxic -- especially for those doing the work without proper protections. -- A team led by researchers at the University of Washington developed a new PCB that performs on par with traditional materials and can be recycled repeatedly with negligible material loss. -- Researchers used a solvent that transforms a type of vitrimer -- a cutting-edge class of sustainable polymers -- to a jelly-like substance without damaging it, allowing the solid components to be plucked out for reuse or recycling. -- The vitrimer jelly can then be repeatedly used to make new, high-quality PCBs, unlike conventional plastics that degrade significantly with each recycling. -- With these "vPCBs" (vitrimer printed circuit boards), researchers recovered 98% of the vitrimer and 100% of the glass fiber, as well as 91% of the solvent used for recycling. -- The researchers published their findings April 26 in Nature Sustainability. | H01 T01 | 211 |
| 2418-T031 | Scientists Solve Chemical Mystery At The Interface Of Biology And Technology | Researchers Solve Biological Technology Interface Mystery | Scientists have discovered the underlying reason for the activation lag in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), paving the way for customized OECTs for various applications. With insights into the mechanisms behind activation delays in OECTs, researchers are advancing the development of OECTs for biosensing, computation, and other innovative technologies. This breakthrough holds promise for bridging the gap between biological and technological systems for enhanced functionality and efficiency. | University of Washington | Nature Materials | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers who want to bridge the divide between biology and technology spend a lot of time thinking about translating between the two different "languages" of those realms. -- "Our digital technology operates through a series of electronic on-off switches that control the flow of current and voltage," said Rajiv Giridharagopal, a research scientist at the University of Washington. "But our bodies operate on chemistry. In our brains, neurons propagate signals electrochemically, by moving ions -- charged atoms or molecules -- not electrons." -- Implantable devices from pacemakers to glucose monitors rely on components that can speak both languages and bridge that gap. Among those components are OECTs -- or organic electrochemical transistors -- which allow current to flow in devices like implantable biosensors. But scientists long knew about a quirk of OECTs that no one could explain: When an OECT is switched on, there is a lag before current reaches the desired operational level. When switched off, there is no lag. Current drops almost immediately. -- A UW-led study has solved this lagging mystery, and in the process paved the way to custom-tailored OECTs for a growing list of applications in biosensing, brain-inspired computation and beyond. -- "How fast you can switch a transistor is important for almost any application," said project leader David Ginger, a UW professor of chemistry, chief scientist at the UW Clean Energy Institute and faculty member in the UW Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute. "Scientists have recognized the unusual switching behavior of OECTs, but we never knew its cause -- until now." -- In a paper published April 17 in Nature Materials, Ginger's team at the UW -- along with Professor Christine Luscombe at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan and Professor Chang-Zhi Li at Zhejiang University in China -- report that OECTs turn on via a two-step process, which causes the lag. But they appear to turn off through a simpler one-step process. -- In principle, OECTs operate like transistors in electronics: When switched on, they allow the flow of electrical current. When switched off, they block it. But OECTs operate by coupling the flow of ions with the flow of electrons, which makes them interesting routes for interfacing with chemistry and biology. -- The new study illuminates the two steps OECTs go through when switched on. First, a wavefront of ions races across the transistor. Then, more charge-bearing particles invade the transistor's flexible structure, causing it to swell slightly and bringing current up to operational levels. In contrast, the team discovered that deactivation is a one-step process: Levels of charged chemicals simply drop uniformly across the transistor, quickly interrupting the flow of current. -- Knowing the lag's cause should help scientists design new generations of OECTs for a wider set of applications. -- "There's always been this drive in technology development to make components faster, more reliable and more efficient," Ginger said. "Yet, the 'rules' for how OECTs behave haven't been well understood. A driving force in this work is to learn them and apply them to future research and development efforts." | R02 N01 N02 T01 | 212 |
| 2418-T052 | A 'Cosmic Glitch' In Gravity | 'Cosmic Glitch' Discovered in Gravity | A group of researchers has identified a potential 'cosmic glitch' in the universe's gravity, challenging the traditional understanding of how gravity operates on a cosmic scale. The discovery sheds new light on the behavior of gravity and its impact on our understanding of the universe. By uncovering anomalies in gravitational models, researchers aim to enhance our knowledge of the fundamental forces shaping the cosmos. | University of Waterloo | Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics | Press Rel | PubMed | A group of researchers at the University of Waterloo and the University of British Columbia have discovered a potential "cosmic glitch" in the universe's gravity, explaining its strange behaviour on a cosmic scale. -- For the last 100 years, physicists have relied upon Albert Einstein's theory of "general relativity" to explain how gravity works throughout the universe. General relativity, proven accurate by countless tests and observations, suggests that gravity impacts not simply three physical dimensions but also a fourth dimension: time. -- "This model of gravity has been essential for everything from theorizing the Big Bang to photographing black holes," said Robin Wen, the lead author on the project and a recent Waterloo Mathematical Physics graduate. -- "But when we try to understand gravity on a cosmic scale, at the scale of galaxy clusters and beyond, we encounter apparent inconsistencies with the predictions of general relativity. It's almost as if gravity itself stops perfectly matching Einstein's theory. We are calling this inconsistency a 'cosmic glitch': gravity becomes around one per cent weaker when dealing with distances in the billions of light years. " -- For more than twenty years, physicists and astronomers have been trying to create a mathematical model that explains the apparent inconsistencies of the theory of general relativity. Many of those efforts have taken place at Waterloo, which has a long history of cutting-edge gravitational research resulting from ongoing interdisciplinary collaboration between applied mathematicians and astrophysicists. -- "Almost a century ago, astronomers discovered that our universe is expanding," said Niayesh Afshordi, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Waterloo and researcher at the Perimeter Institute. -- "The farther away galaxies are, the faster they are moving, to the point that they seem to be moving at nearly the speed of light, the maximum allowed by Einstein's theory. Our finding suggests that, on those very scales, Einstein's theory may also be insufficient." -- The research team's new model of a "cosmic glitch" modifies and extends Einstein's mathematical formulas in a way that resolves the inconsistency of some of the cosmological measurements without affecting existing successful uses of general relativity. -- "Think of it as being like a footnote to Einstein's theory," Wen said. "Once you reach a cosmic scale, terms and conditions apply." -- "This new model might just be the first clue in a cosmic puzzle we are starting to solve across space and time," Afshordi said. | H01 T02 | 213 |
| 2418-006 | Nanomaterial That Mimics Proteins Could Be Basis For New Neurodegenerative Disease Treatments | Nanomaterial That Mimics Proteins Could Be Basis For New Neurodegenerative Disease Treatments | A nanomaterial that mimics protein behavior has shown promise as a therapeutic tool for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. Developed through a collaboration between scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and nanomaterial engineers at Northwestern University, this innovative material alters the interaction between key proteins in brain cells, suggesting a powerful therapeutic effect. Published in Advanced Materials, the study provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying Alzheimer's and related disorders, emphasizing the potential of nanotechnology in treating these challenging conditions. | University of Wisconsin-Madison | Advanced Materials | Press Rel | PubMed | A newly developed nanomaterial that mimics the behavior of proteins could be an effective tool for treating Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. The nanomaterial alters the interaction between two key proteins in brain cells -- with a potentially powerful therapeutic effect. -- The innovative findings, recently published in the journal Advanced Materials, were made possible thanks to a collaboration between University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists and nanomaterial engineers at Northwestern University. -- The work centers around altering the interaction between two proteins that are believed to be involved in setting the stage for diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. -- The first protein is called Nrf2, a specific type of protein called a transcription factor that turns genes on and off within cells. -- One of Nrf2's important functions is its antioxidant effect. -- While different neurodegenerative diseases result from separate disease processes, a commonality among them is the toxic effect of oxidative stress on neurons and other nerve cells. -- Nrf2 combats this toxic stress in brain cells, helping to stave off disease. -- Jeffrey Johnson, a professor in the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy, has been studying Nrf2 as a promising target for treating neurodegenerative diseases for decades alongside his wife Delinda Johnson, a senior scientist at the pharmacy school. -- In 2022, the Johnsons and another group of collaborators found that increasing Nrf2 activity in a specific cell type in the brain, the astrocyte, helped protect neurons in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, leading to significantly less memory loss. -- While this previous research suggested that increasing Nrf2's activity could form the basis of an Alzheimer's treatment, scientists have found it challenging to effectively target the protein within the brain. | H02 R02 T01 | 214 |
| 2418-069 | An Electrifying Discovery May Help Doctors Deliver More Effective Gene Therapies | Electrifying Discovery May Enhance Gene Therapies | Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a stimulating method using short electric pulses to enhance gene therapy delivery into liver cells. The technique significantly increased the uptake of gene therapy material by liver cells, showing potential for improving the delivery of costly medical treatments. | University of Wisconsin-Madison | PLOS ONE | Press Rel | PubMed | In an effort to improve delivery of costly medical treatments, a team of researchers in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has developed a stimulating method that could make the human body more receptive to certain gene therapies. -- The researchers exposed liver cells to short electric pulses -- and those gentle zaps caused the liver cells to take in more than 40 times the amount of gene therapy material compared to cells that were not exposed to pulsed electric fields. -- The method could help reduce the dosage needed for these treatments, making them much safer and more affordable. -- The research appears April 30 in the journal PLOS ONE. -- Gene therapy is a promising medical technology: By replacing, altering or introducing new genetic material into a patient's cells, doctors may be able to cure or compensate for genetic diseases, including cystic fibrosis, sickle-cell disease, hemophilia and diabetes. -- One of the bottlenecks in gene therapy, however, is getting the right dose of genetic material into the target cells. -- The UW-Madison research suggests that applying a moderate electric field, which left no lasting damage to the cells that received it, could help in creating more effective therapies. -- The project began almost a decade ago with Hans Sollinger, a transplant surgeon at UW-Madison. -- He had developed a gene therapy treatment for Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that attacks the pancreas, the organ that produces insulin. -- Sollinger's treatment strategy delivered the genetic code for insulin production into liver cells using an adreno-associated virus that assists in transporting the therapeutic genes across the cells' membrane. | H01 R01 N02 | 215 |
| 2418-E022 | These Jacks-Of-All-Trades Are Masters, Too: Yeast Study Helps Answer Age-Old Biology Question | Yeast Study Reveals Jack-Of-All-Trades Capabilities With No Trade-Offs | A comprehensive study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Vanderbilt University reveals that internal factors are the primary drivers of carbon yeast consumption, challenging traditional assumptions about metabolic versatility. These findings shed light on the evolution of yeasts and offer valuable insights into their adaptability and specialization over millions of years. | University of Wisconsin-Madison | Science | Press Rel | PubMed | The results suggest that internal -- not external -- factors are the primary drivers of variation in the types of carbon yeasts can eat, and the researchers found no evidence that metabolic versatility, or the ability to eat different foods, comes with any trade-offs. In other words, some yeasts are jacks-of-all-trades and masters of each. -- In a landmark study based on one of the most comprehensive genomic datasets ever assembled, a team led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Vanderbilt University offer a possible answer to one of the oldest questions about evolution: why some species are generalists and others specialists. -- Under the guidance of UW-Madison professor of genetics Chris Todd Hittinger and Antonis Rokas, a professor of biology at Vanderbilt, researchers mapped the genetic blueprints, appetites, and environments of more than 1,000 species of yeasts, building a family tree that illuminates how these single-celled fungi evolved over the past 400 million years. -- The results, published April 26 in the journal Science, suggest that internal -- not external -- factors are the primary drivers of variation in the types of carbon yeasts can eat, and the researchers found no evidence that metabolic versatility, or the ability to eat different foods, comes with any trade-offs. -- In other words, some yeasts are jacks-of-all-trades and masters of each. -- "That really, really surprised us," Hittinger says, "Specialists should be better at the carbon sources for which they are specialized. And generalists, if they're eating everything, they should not be as good. And instead, that's not what we see." -- The paper is a product of an ongoing decade-long project to build a comprehensive database mapping the relationship between genomes and traits of yeasts, a group of species as genetically diverse as all animals. -- The genomic dataset is the most comprehensive ever compiled for such an ancient and diverse group. -- Hittinger, an investigator with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center who studies yeast metabolism, says in addition to furthering our understanding of biodiversity, the database can help researchers identify or create yeasts that are better at converting plant sugars into biofuels and other alternatives to fossil fuels. -- Many branches, varied appetites | H01 C01 N01 N02 | 216 |
| 2418-T051 | Researchers Unlock Potential Of 2d Magnetic Devices For Future Computing | Control of Magnetic States in 2D Magnets | Researchers at the University of Wyoming have developed a method to control tiny magnetic states in ultrathin van der Waals magnets, offering potential advancements in memory devices and computing capabilities. By manipulating magnetic states within 2D magnets, researchers aim to improve data storage and computational efficiency. This innovation could lead to the development of more powerful computers and memory devices with enhanced performance. | University of Wyoming | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | Imagine a future where computers can learn and make decisions in ways that mimic human thinking, but at a speed and efficiency that are orders of magnitude greater than the current capability of computers. -- A research team at the University of Wyoming created an innovative method to control tiny magnetic states within ultrathin, two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals magnets -- a process akin to how flipping a light switch controls a bulb. -- "Our discovery could lead to advanced memory devices that store more data and consume less power or enable the development of entirely new types of computers that can quickly solve problems that are currently intractable," says Jifa Tian, an assistant professor in the UW Department of Physics and Astronomy and interim director of UW's Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering. -- Tian was corresponding author of a paper, titled "Tunneling current-controlled spin states in few-layer van der Waals magnets," that was published today (May 1) in Nature Communications, an open access, multidisciplinary journal dedicated to publishing high-quality research in all areas of the biological, health, physical, chemical, Earth, social, mathematical, applied and engineering sciences. -- Van der Waals materials are made up of strongly bonded 2D layers that are bound in the third dimension through weaker van der Waals forces. For example, graphite is a van der Waals material that isbroadly used in industry in electrodes, lubricants, fibers, heat exchangers and batteries. The nature of the van der Waals forces between layers allows researchers to use Scotch tape to peel the layers into atomic thickness. -- The team developed a device known as a magnetic tunnel junction, which uses chromium triiodide -- a 2D insulating magnet only a few atoms thick -- sandwiched between two layers of graphene. By sending a tiny electric current -- called a tunneling current -- through this sandwich, the direction of the magnet's orientation of the magnetic domains (around 100 nanometers in size) can be dictated within the individual chromium triiodide layers, Tian says. -- Specifically, "this tunneling current not only can control the switching direction between two stable spin states, but also induces and manipulates switching between metastable spin states, called stochastic switching," says ZhuangEn Fu, a graduate student in Tian's research lab and now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland. -- "This breakthrough is not just intriguing; it's highly practical. It consumes three orders of magnitude smaller energy than traditional methods, akin to swapping an old lightbulb for an LED, marking it a potential game-changer for future technology," Tian says. "Our research could lead to the development of novel computing devices that are faster, smaller and more energy-efficient and powerful than ever before. Our research marks a significant advancement in magnetism at the 2D limit and sets the stage for new, powerful computing platforms, such as probabilistic computers." -- Traditional computers use bits to store information as 0's and 1's. This binary code is the foundation of all classic computing processes. Quantum computers use quantum bits that can represent both "0" and "1" at the same time, increasing processing power exponentially. -- "In our work, we've developed what you might think of as a probabilistic bit, which can switch between '0' and '1' (two spin states) based on the tunneling current controlled probabilities," Tian says. "These bits are based on the unique properties of ultrathin 2D magnets and can be linked together in a way that is similar to neurons in the brain to form a new kind of computer, known as a probabilistic computer. | H02 R02 C01 T01 T02 | 217 |
| 2418-E057 | Climate Change And Mercury Pollution Stressed Plants For Millions Of Years | Mercury Pollution Linked To Climate Change And Plant Stress | The connection between flood basalt volcanism and the end-Triassic mass extinction is a widely accepted theory, but the exact mechanisms leading to ecosystem collapse remain elusive. A recent study has highlighted the role of mercury pollution following volcanic activity in stressing plant populations long after the eruptions ceased. By analyzing sediments from Northern Germany, researchers uncovered evidence of widespread mercury pollution affecting fern populations, offering new insights into the environmental impact of volcanic events on vegetation. | Utrecht University | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | The link between massive flood basalt volcanism and the end-Triassic (201 million years ago) mass-extinction is commonly accepted. However, exactly how volcanism led to the collapse of ecosystems and the extinction of entire families of organisms is difficult to establish. Extreme climate change from the release of carbon dioxide, degradation of the ozone layer due to the injection of damaging chemicals, and the emissions of toxic pollutants, are all seen as contributing factors. One toxic element stands out: mercury. As one of the most toxic elements on Earth, Hg is a metal that is emitted from volcanoes in gaseous form, and thus has the capacity to spread worldwide. A new study in Nature Communications adds new compelling evidence for the combined effects of global warming and widespread mercury pollution that continued to stress plants long after volcanic activity had ceased. -- An international team of Dutch, Chinese, Danish, British, and Czech scientists studied sediments from Northern-Germany in a drill-core (Schandelah-1) that spans the uppermost Triassic to lower Jurassic for microfossils and geochemical signals. -- A study of pollen and spore abundances revealed a profusion of fern spores showing a range of malformations, from abnormalities in wall structure to evidence for botched meiotic divisions, leading to unseparated, dwarfed, and fused fern spores. -- "Seeing the sheer amount and different types of malformed fern spores in sediment samples from a coastal lagoon, dating back 201 million years ago is truly astonishing. It means there must have been very many ferns being stressed," explains Remco Bos, a PhD candidate at Utrecht University and lead author of the study. -- "It is also not something we see regularly during other periods that also contain many fern fossils, making it a true signal connected to the end-Triassic mass-extinction event." -- Deforestation and ferns -- The results from Bos and co-authors confirm earlier work by co-authors Sofie Lindström (University of Copenhagen), Hamed Sanei (Aarhus University), and Bas van de Schootbrugge (Utrecht University), who previously produced similar data obtained from cores from Denmark and from nearby outcrops in Sweden. -- According to Sofie Lindström: "Ferns replaced trees across the extinction interval in response to dramatic environmental changes likely driven by heat stress, strongly increased monsoonal rainfall, and increased forest fire activity. Palynological results show that a pioneering fern vegetation spread across vast swaths of coastal lowlands in Northwestern Europe from Sweden and Denmark to Germany, France, Luxemburg, and Austria in response to widespread deforestation." Ferns are hardy plants, often colonizing disturbed environments, including newly formed volcanic islands or landscapes devastated by volcanism or wildfires. -- "What is extraordinary here is that the ferns that produced all these malformed spores in all these different sites, did not go extinct. While other plants went extinct, ferns were apparently robust enough to continue, which could also be related to their different mercury tolerance." -- Climate variability | H01 H02 C01 N02 | 218 |
| 2418-003 | Advance In The Treatment Of Acute Heart Failure Identified | Advance In The Treatment Of Acute Heart Failure Identified | A multicenter study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center has identified dapagliflozin, a drug initially approved for Type 2 diabetes, as a potential treatment for acute heart failure. This breakthrough offers new hope for patients with serious health conditions that increase the risk of heart failure, showing promising results in reducing hospitalization and mortality rates. The findings, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, highlight the significance of repurposing existing medications to address critical health issues like acute heart failure. | Vanderbilt University Medical Center | Journal of the American College of Cardiology | Press Rel | PubMed | A multicenter study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy in Nashville has identified a potential new treatment for acute heart failure, a leading cause of hospitalization and death. -- The drug, dapagliflozin, was initially approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, but it since has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization for heart failure and death in patients with serious health problems that include heart and chronic kidney disease and heightened cardiovascular risk. -- Reporting this month in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the researchers found that dapagliflozin also benefits patients after admission to the hospital for acute heart failure. -- The drug improves diuresis, the elimination of excess fluid from the lungs, thereby relieving congestion, and it can reduce hospital stays. -- "We demonstrated safety and efficacy of initiating dapagliflozin within the first day of hospitalization for acute heart failure," said the paper's first author, Zachary Cox, PharmD, professor of Pharmacy Practice at Lipscomb University. -- This "will have international impact on the treatment of acute heart failure." -- Each year 800,000 patients with acute heart failure are admitted to U.S. hospitals from emergency rooms. -- These patients are at high risk for prolonged hospital stays and death. -- The annual cost of treating acute heart failure in the United States is estimated to exceed $34 billion. -- Diuretics are administered to most patients with acute heart failure to improve symptoms and lung congestion caused by fluid buildup. | R01 | 219 |
| 2418-037 | New Tool Helps Identify Babies At High-Risk For RSV | New Tool Helps Identify Infants at High Risk for RSV Illness | Vanderbilt University Medical Center has developed a tool to identify infants at highest risk for severe RSV illness, allowing pediatricians to prioritize preventive medication. This tool, based on factors like birth month and weight, could help save lives during RSV season and improve patient outcomes. | Vanderbilt University Medical Center | Open Forum Infectious Diseases | Press Rel | PubMed | A new tool to identify infants most at risk for severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) illness could aid pediatricians in prioritizing children under 1 to receive a preventive medication before RSV season (October-April), according to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) research published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases and to be presented at the American Thoracic Society 2024 International Conference. -- Study authors considered factors including birth month, birth weight and whether an infant has siblings to determine who is most at risk of severe RSV illness and could benefit from the medication nirsevimab, commonly used as a preventive in newborns. -- "We developed a tool to identify babies at highest risk for a severe infection due to RSV," said the study's presenter Ferdinand Cacho, MD,pediatric pulmonology fellow in the Center for Asthma Research at VUMC. -- "RSV is a common respiratory infection that can cause fever, cough, runny nose, and difficulty breathing. In some babies, the infection can be so severe they need to be admitted to the hospital and be in the intensive care unit," he said. -- The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention recommends early immunization with nirsevimab for all infants, but a shortage in October 2023 made it necessary to prioritize for high-risk infants who weren't eligible for immunization with a different agent known as palivizumab. -- Nirsevimab is long-acting drug and only requires one dose while palivizumab is short-acting, requires monthly injections during RSV season, and is restricted to use in a subset of high-risk infants. -- Both medications are monoclonal antibodies used to prevent RSV lower respiratory tract infection in newborns and young children. -- "Timely identification of infants at highest risk of RSV-related morbidity is key to prevention," said lead author Brittney Snyder, PhD, research assistant professor in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at VUMC. -- "Our personalized risk prediction tool may have applications in allocating expensive and/or limited immunoprophylaxis (immunization with nirsevimab or palivizumab) to achieve the greatest benefit and in promoting RSV prevention among families with high-risk infants," she said. -- Snyder and colleagues researched de-identified patient records of nearly 430,000 children insured by the Tennessee Medicaid Program, including infants who did not receive RSV immunoprophylaxis in the first year of life. | H01 R01 | 220 |
| 2418-E016 | Nanofibers Rid Water Of Hazardous Dyes | Nanofibers Utilize Waste Cellulose To Filter Hazardous Dyes From Water | Waste cellulose is repurposed to create efficient filters for removing harmful dyes from water, addressing a major environmental concern. By utilizing used cellulose to coat nano-fabrics, researchers at TU Wien offer a sustainable solution to water pollution caused by industrial dyes. | Vienna University of Technology | Small Science | Press Rel | PubMed | Dyes, such as those used in the textile industry, are a major environmental problem. At TU Wien, efficient filters have now been developed -- based on cellulose waste. Using waste to purify water may sound counterintuitive. But at TU Wien, this is exactly what has now been achieved: a special nanostructure has been developed to filter a widespread class of harmful dyes from water. A crucial component is a material that is considered waste: used cellulose, for example in the form of cleaning cloths or paper cups. The cellulose is utilized to coat a fine nano-fabric to create an efficient filter for polluted water. -- Colored poison in the water -- Organic dyes represent the largest group of synthetic dyes, including so-called azo compounds. They are widely used in the textile industry, even in countries where little attention is paid to environmental protection, and the dyes often end up in unfiltered wastewater. "This is dangerous because such dyes degrade very slowly, they can remain in the water for a long time and pose great danger to humans and nature," says Prof. Günther Rupprechter from the Institute of Materials Chemistry at TU Wien. -- There are various materials that can bind such dyes. But that alone is not enough. "If you simply let the polluted water flow over a filter film that can bind dyes, the cleaning effect is low," explains Günther Rupprechter. "It's much better to create a nanofabric out of lots of tiny fibers and let the water seep through." The water then comes into contact with a much larger surface area, and thus many more organic dye molecules can be bound. -- Cellulose waste as a nano-filter -- "We are working with semi-crystalline nanocellulose, which can be produced from waste material," says Qaisar Maqbool, first author of the study and postdoc in Rupprechter's research group. "Metal-containing substances are often used for similar purposes. Our material, on the other hand, is completely harmless to the environment, and we can also produce it by upcycling waste paper." -- This nano-cellulose is "spun" together with the plastic polyacrylonitrile into nanostructures. However, this requires a lot of technical skill. The team from the TU Wien was successful with a so-called electrospinning process. In this process, the material is sprayed in liquid form, the droplets are electrically charged and sent through an electric field. -- "This ensures that the liquid forms extremely fine threads with a diameter of 180 to 200 nanometers during curing," says Günther Rupprechter. These threads form a fine tissue with a high surface area -- a so-called "nanoweb." A network of threads can be placed on one square centimeter, with a total surface area of more than 10 cm2 . -- Successful tests -- The tests with these cellulose-coated nanostructures were very successful: In three cycles, water contaminated with violet dye was purified, and 95% of the dye was removed. "The dyes remain stored in the nanoweb. You can then either dispose of the entire web or regenerate it, dissolve the stored dyes and reuse the filter fabric," explains Günther Rupprechter. | H01 | 221 |
| 2418-068 | One-Two Punch Treatment Delivers Blood Cancer Knockout | New Treatment Shows Promise for Blood Cancer | WEHI researchers have identified a promising combination of two cancer drugs that could potentially treat acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The discovery, published in Cancer Cell, shows that the combination effectively eradicated AML cancer cells in lab tests, paving the way for future clinical trials and offering hope to AML patients. | Walter and Eliza Hall Institute | Cancer Cell | Press Rel | PubMed | A novel combination of two cancer drugs has shown great potential as a future treatment for patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), one of the most common types of blood cancers. -- A new study by WEHI researchers has revealed the combination of two existing drugs eradicated AML cancer cells in lab-based tests. -- The discovery, published in Cancer Cell, could soon lead to clinical trials, providing hope for the 1100 Australians diagnosed with AML annually. -- At a glance -- WEHI researchers have for the first time tested a dual drug combination against AML, which proved highly effective in killing cancer cells in lab-based tests. -- The researchers treated cancer cells with a combination of venetoclax, a current standard-of-care drug for AML, and a STING agonist, an emerging class of immunotherapy drugs. -- This drug combination was notably successful against the more aggressive and difficult to treat forms of AML. This discovery may also change the way STING agonist drugs are used to treat other cancers. -- Stimulating the 'cell death enforcer' -- The WEHI research team paired venetoclax, a current standard-of-care anti-cancer drug for AML, with a STING agonist, an emerging class of immunotherapy drugs. Venetoclax was based on a landmark research discovery at WEHI. -- Study co-first author Dr Sarah Diepstraten said the team examined a range of different blood cancers, including cancer samples from patients with AML and treated them in the lab with the drug combination, leading to striking results. | H01 R01 | 222 |
| 2418-E053 | Improved AI Process Could Better Predict Water Supplies | Enhanced AI Predicts Water Supplies More Accurately | A new computer model developed by Washington State University researchers uses artificial intelligence to measure snow and water availability more accurately across vast distances in the Western U.S. This innovative approach could improve water availability predictions for farmers and other stakeholders in regions where snow amounts are not being directly measured. By outperforming other models, this new technology has the potential to revolutionize water resource management in the | Washington State University | Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence | Press Rel | PubMed | A new computer model uses a better artificial intelligence process to measure snow and water availability more accurately across vast distances in the West, information that could someday be used to better predict water availability for farmers and others. -- Publishing in the Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the interdisciplinary group of Washington State University researchers predict water availability from areas in the West where snow amounts aren't being physically measured. -- Comparing their results to measurements from more than 300 snow measuring stations in the Western U.S., they showed that their model outperformed other models that use the AI process known as machine learning. -- Previous models focused on time-related measures, taking data at different time points from only a few locations. -- The improved model uses both time and space into account, resulting in more accurate predictions. -- The information is critically important for water planners throughout the West because "every drop of water" is appropriated for irrigation, hydropower, drinking water, and environmental needs, said Krishu Thapa, a Washington State University computer science graduate student who led the study. -- Water management agencies throughout the West every spring make decisions on how to use water based on how much snow is in the mountains. -- "This is a problem that's deeply related to our own way of life continuing in this region in the Western U.S.," said co-author Kirti Rajagopalan, professor in WSU's Department of Biological Systems Engineering. -- "Snow is definitely key in an area where more than half of the streamflow comes from snow melt. Understanding the dynamics of how that's formed and how that changes, and how it varies spatially is really important for all decisions." -- There are 822 snow measurement stations throughout the Western U.S. that provide daily information on the potential water availability at each site, a measurement called the snow-water equivalent (SWE). The stations also provide information on snow depth, temperature, precipitation and relative humidity. | H01 T01 T02 | 223 |
| 2418-T025 | Discovery Of Mechanism Plants Use To Change Seed Oil Could Impact Industrial, Food Oils | New Plant Mechanism Boosts Production of Industrial and Food Oils | Washington State University researchers have genetically engineered a test plant to efficiently produce valuable oils not naturally found in the plant. This discovery could lead to improved production of oils used in various industries, enhancing food production and other key applications. | Washington State University | Nature Communications | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers have discovered a new mechanism of oil biosynthesis and found a way to genetically engineer a type of test plant to more efficiently produce different kinds of seed oil that it otherwise wouldn't make. -- While the engineering is proof-of-concept, this discovery could lead to improved production of valuable oils used in food and by a range of industries. -- The study, led by Washington State University researchers, was published in the journal Nature Communications. -- "Scientists have been working on producing novel seed oil compositions for decades, but most of the time you only get small amounts of the desired oil," said Phil Bates, a WSU professor and lead author on the study. -- Bates and his co-authors found that Physaria fendleri, a plant related to canola, can naturally change the fatty acid composition in its seed oil after it is already made, something nobody knew any plant could do. They discovered the genetic mechanism Physaria uses to makes those changes, then genetically engineered a related plant called Arabidopsis to make the same fatty acid changes. -- The modified Arabidopsis overcame metabolic bottlenecks and produced significant amounts of an oil similar to castor oil that it doesn't naturally produce. -- Plant oils are used in food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, industrial, chemical and biofuel industries. -- Plant oils' value stems from its fatty acid composition. Around 90% of oil is valuable for industrial uses in crops like castor beans, Bates said. -- But if the desirable oil-making genes are transferred into another plant, only small amounts of the oil produced is usable by industry. -- The newly discovered mechanism of oil biosynthesis shows a way to bump that production back up. | H01 N02 | 224 |
| 2418-E038 | Astronomers Share Climate-Friendly Meeting Solutions | Astronomers Share Climate-Friendly Meeting Solutions to Reduce Carbon Emissions | Research indicates that the carbon emissions from air travel to academic conferences are a significant factor in researchers' total emissions. The average emissions per participant for astronomy conferences in 2019 was estimated to be about 1 ton, highlighting the need for reduction strategies. | Washington University in St. Louis | PNAS Nexus | Press Rel | PubMed | Carbon emissions associated with air travel to professional conferences make up a sizable fraction of the emissions produced by researchers in academia. Andrea Gokus, a McDonnell Center postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is advocating for a reduction of these emissions. -- In a paper published in PNAS Nexus, Gokus and collaborators estimated the CO2-equivalent emissions for conference travel to all 362 open meetings in the field of astronomy in 2019. -- The total is an estimated 42,500 tons, or about 1 ton per participant per meeting. But it doesn't have to be that way. -- "Networking and discussing new scientific developments at meetings is important for advancing the field, but adjustments can be made to reduce their hefty carbon cost," Gokus said. -- Via virtual meetings, the CO2-equivalent emissions due to travel can almost completely be eliminated. But such virtual offerings are often not regarded as efficient networking opportunities. Meeting organizers should consider preferentially locating conferences as close as possible to the majority of as many participants as possible, Gokus said, avoiding scenarios in which most are flying intercontinentally. -- "My co-authors and I are all members of the grass-roots organization Astronomers for Planet Earth, or A4E," said Gokus, who first became interested in sustainable astronomy during the annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society in 2020, which took place virtually due to the pandemic. "There are several other papers covering the emissions from particular meetings, including some recurring ones. But our paper is the first systematic study of all open meetings in an entire field." -- In addition to pure virtual meetings, Gokus and her co-authors propose hybrid formats and meetings held at a small number of physical hubs, which can then be virtually linked. -- This approach has the potential to reduce long-haul (i.e., intercontinental) travel in particular, which contributes the majority of emissions. If intercontinental travel is unavoidable, the study authors suggest maximizing the time spent at the travel destination: by visiting the institutes of collaborators in the country, for example, and by choosing train or bus connections during such visits. -- These choices not only make astronomy meetings greener, but they also can make astronomy more inclusive as a discipline, Gokus said. The researchers' findings and suggestions could be applied to other academic disciplines as well. -- Traveling to meetings is often more challenging for those from less-wealthy institutes; those farther from North American and European hubs; people who have to manage complex visa bureaucracies; researchers with disabilities; and those with caretaking responsibilities, she explained. | C01 N02 T02 | 225 |
| 2418-T016 | Barcodes Expand Range Of High-Resolution Sensor | High-Resolution Sensors: Barcodes Expand Optical Sensor Range | The use of whispering-gallery-mode resonators in optical sensors revolutionizes high-resolution sensing in various fields, from biomedical diagnostics to environmental monitoring. These resonators, inspired by architectural acoustics, provide a versatile platform for detecting chemical signatures and molecules. | Washington University in St. Louis | IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement | Press Rel | PubMed | The same geometric quirk that lets visitors murmur messages around the circular dome of the whispering gallery at St. Paul's Cathedral in London or across St. Louis Union Station's whispering arch also enables the construction of high-resolution optical sensors. Whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonators have been used for decades to detect chemical signatures, DNA strands and even single molecules. -- In the same way that the architecture of a whispering gallery bends and focuses sound waves, WGM microresonators confine and concentrate light in a tiny circular path. -- This enables WGM resonators to detect and quantify physical and biochemical characteristics, making them ideal for high-resolution sensing applications in fields such as biomedical diagnostics and environmental monitoring. -- However, the broad use of WGM resonators has been limited by their narrow dynamic range as well as their limited resolution and accuracy. -- In a recent study, Lan Yang, the Edwin H. & Florence G. Skinner Professor, and Jie Liao, a postdoctoral research associate, both in the Preston M. Green Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, demonstrate a transformative approach to overcome these limitations: optical WGM barcodes for multimode sensing. -- Liao and Yang's innovative technique allows simultaneous monitoring of multiple resonant modes within a single WGM resonator, considering distinctive responses from each mode, vastly expanding the range of measurements achievable. -- WGM sensing uses a specific wavelelength of light that can circulate around the perimeter of the microresonator millions of times. -- When the sensor encounters a molecule, the resonant frequency of the circulating light shifts. -- Researchers can then measure that shift to detect and identify the presence of specific molecules. -- "Multimode sensing allows us to pick up multiple resonance changes in wavelength, rather than just one," Liao explained. | T02 | 226 |
| 2418-T034 | Imaging Technique Shows New Details Of Peptide Structures | Peptide Structures Illuminated Through Advanced Imaging Technique | Engineers at Washington University have developed a new imaging technique to differentiate synthetic peptides from toxic types found in Alzheimer's disease. By shedding light on the differences in peptide stacking, scientists can better understand the toxicity and function of these peptides, potentially leading to new treatments and biomaterial applications. | Washington University in St. Louis | ACS Nano | Press Rel | PubMed | A new imaging technique developed by engineers at Washington University in St. Louis can give scientists a much closer look at fibril assemblies, stacks of peptides like amyloid beta, most notably associated with Alzheimer's disease. -- These cross-β fibril assemblies are also useful building blocks within designer biomaterials for medical applications, but their resemblance to their amyloid beta cousins, whose tangles are a symptom of neurodegenerative disease, is concerning. Researchers want to learn how different sequences of these peptides are linked to their varying toxicity and function, for both naturally occurring peptides and their synthetic engineered cousins. -- Now, scientists can get a close enough look at fibril assemblies to see there are notable differences in how synthetic peptides stack compared with amyloid beta. These results stem from a fruitful collaboration between lead author Matthew Lew, associate professor in the Preston M. Green Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering, and Jai Rudra, associate professor of biomedical engineering, in WashU's McKelvey School of Engineering. -- "We engineer microscopes to enable better nanoscale measurements so that the science can move forward," Lew said. -- In a paper published in ACS Nano, Lew and colleagues outline how they used the Nile red chemical probe to light up cross-β fibrils. Their technique called single-molecule orientation-localization microscopy (SMOLM) uses the flashes of light from Nile red to visualize the fiber structures formed by synthetic peptides and by amyloid beta. -- The bottom line: these assemblies are much more complicated and heterogenous than anticipated. But that's good news, because it means there's more than one way to safely stack your proteins. With better measurements and images of fibril assemblies, bioengineers can better understand the rules that dictate how protein grammar affects toxicity and biological function, leading to more effective and less toxic therapeutics. -- First, scientists need to see the difference between them, something very challenging because of the tiny scale of these assemblies. -- "The helical twist of these fibers is impossible to discern using an optical microscope, or even some super-resolution microscopes, because these things are just too small," Lew said. -- With high-dimensional imaging technology developed in Lew's lab the past couple years, they are able to see the differences. -- A typical fluorescence microscope uses florescent molecules as light bulbs to highlight certain aspects of a biological target. In the case of this work, they used one of those probes, Nile red, as a sensor for what was around it. As Nile red randomly explores its environment and collides with the fibrils, it emits flashes of light that they can measure to determine where the fluorescent probe is and its orientation. From that data, they can piece together the full picture of engineered fibrils that stack very differently from the natural ones like amyloid beta. | H01 R02 N02 T01 | 227 |
| 2418-033 | Pregnancy Cytokine Levels Impact Fetal Brain Development And Offspring Behavior | Pregnancy Cytokines Influence Offspring Brain Development and Behavior | Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have found that maternal cytokines in pregnancy can reduce the risk of psychiatric disorders in offspring. XCL1, a pregnancy hormone, plays a key role in placenta development and male offspring behavior. This discovery could shed light on the link between maternal infection and psychiatric disorders in children. | Weill Cornell Medicine | Brain, Behavior, and Immunity | Press Rel | PubMed | Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have discovered in a preclinical model that cytokines, proteins that control immune response, circulating in maternal blood during pregnancy may mitigate an offspring's risk for psychiatric conditions. The findings are surprising because circulating maternal cytokines are at such low levels that they were not implicated in fetal brain development and offspring behavior before. -- The study published online in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity on Feb. 29, reported that cytokine XCL1 produced by maternal immune cells can function as a pregnancy hormone and is required for the proper development of placenta and male offspring fear behavior. These results support epidemiological studies which have long suggested a link between human maternal infection and inflammation during pregnancy and offspring developing psychiatric disorders later life. -- "Using mouse models, we found that circulating XCL1 normally remained at the same low pre-pregnancy level throughout gestation except for a short rise and fall in the middle period," said corresponding author Dr. Miklos Toth, professor of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine. "This temporary rise is essential for the proper development of the placenta and offspring emotional behavior." First author Dr. Rosa Chen was a graduate student in the Toth lab during the study, which was a collaboration with Dr. Heidi Stuhlmann, acting chair of Biochemistry and also of Cell and Developmental Biology and the Harvey Klein Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Cell and Developmental Biology at Weill Cornell Medicine. -- When this spike in XCL1 in maternal blood was blocked genetically or neutralized by anti-XCL1 antibodies, the researchers found increased production of factors associated with tissue damage in the fetal placenta which led to increased innate anxiety and stress reactions in male mouse offspring. The researchers also found a neuronal abnormality in the developing brains of these offspring, specifically in the ventral hippocampus, a region that has been linked to anxiety and anxious behavior. -- The immune and neuronal abnormalities observed when the cytokine spike was blocked were normalized by adulthood, suggesting that the adult anxious behavior of the offspring could be related to the early life proinflammatory state caused by the absence of elevated XCL1. -- Dr. Toth will explore other chemokines that may regulate placenta development and impact offspring emotional behavior. The team plans to collaborate with researchers who have access to blood samples from pregnant women to see if the profile of XCL1, a protein also found in humans, corresponds to the observations in mouse models. | H01 H02 R02 | 228 |
| 2418-T041 | More Economical And Sustainable Rechargeable Batteries | Economical and Sustainable Rechargeable Batteries with Ultralow-Concentration Electrolyte | A research team has introduced an ultralow-concentration electrolyte based on the lithium salt LiDFOB as a more cost-effective and sustainable alternative to traditional lithium salts. This electrolyte has shown high performance in batteries and could streamline both production and recycling processes. The study, published in Angewandte Chemie, suggests a promising future for more affordable and environmentally friendly lithium-ion batteries. | Wiley | Angewandte Chemie International Edition | Press Rel | PubMed | Lithium salts make batteries powerful but expensive. An ultralow-concentration electrolyte based on the lithium salt LiDFOB may be a more economical and more sustainable alternative. Cells using these electrolytes and conventional electrodes have been demonstrated to have high performance, as reported by a research team to the journal Angewandte Chemie. In addition, the electrolyte could facilitate both production and recycling of the batteries. -- Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) provide power to smartphones and tablets, drive electric vehicles, and store electricity at power plants. -- The main components of most LIBs are lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) cathodes, graphite anodes, and liquid electrolytes that deliver mobile ions for the decoupled cathode and anode reactions. -- These electrolytes determine the properties of the interphase layer that forms on the electrodes and thus affect features such as battery cycling performance. -- However, commercial electrolytes are still mostly based on a system formulated over 30 years ago: 1.0 to 1.2 mol/L lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6) in carboxylic acid esters ("carbonate solvent"). Over the last ten years, high-concentration electrolytes (> 3 mol/L) have been developed, increasing battery performance by favoring the formation of robust inorganic-dominated interphase layers. -- However, these electrolytes have high viscosity, poor wetting ability, and inferior conductivity. -- The large amounts of lithium salts required also make them very expensive, often a critical parameter for feasibility. -- To reduce costs, research has also begun into ultralow-concentration electrolytes (< 0.3 mol/L). The drawback for these has been that the battery cell decomposes more solvent than the few salt anions, which leads to an organic-dominated and less stable interphase layer. -- A team led by Jinliang Yuan, Lan Xia, and Xianyong Wu at Ningbo University (China) and the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus (USA) has now developed an ultralow-concentration electrolyte that may be suitable for practical application in lithium-ion batteries: LiDFOB/EC-DMC. -- LiDFOB (lithium difluoro(oxalato)borate) is a common additive and significantly cheaper than LiPF6. EC-DMC (ethyl carbonate/dimethyl carbonate) is a commercial carbonate solvent. | R01 C01 N02 T01 | 229 |
| 2418-E067 | Human Activity Is Causing Toxic Thallium To Enter The Baltic Sea, According To New Study | Human Activity Leads To Toxic Thallium Entering Baltic Sea | Human activities have contributed to toxic thallium entering the Baltic Sea, posing a potential threat due to its high toxicity. Understanding the impact of human-induced thallium accumulation in the Baltic is crucial for addressing environmental concerns. | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | Environmental Science & Technology | Press Rel | PubMed | Human activities account for a substantial amount -- anywhere from 20% to more than 60% -- of toxic thallium that has entered the Baltic Sea over the past 80 years, according to new research by scientists affiliated with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and other institutions. -- Currently, the amount of thallium (element symbol TI), which is considered the most toxic metal for mammals, remains low in Baltic seawater. -- However, the research suggests that the amount of thallium could increase due to further anthropogenic, or human induced, activities, or due to natural or human re-oxygenation of the Baltic that could make the sea less sulfide rich. -- Much of the thallium in the Baltic Sea, the largest human-induced hypoxic area on Earth, accumulates in the sediment thanks to abundant sulfide minerals. -- "Anthropogenic activities release considerable amounts of toxic thallium annually. This study evidences an increase in the amount of thallium delivered by anthropogenic sources to the Baltic Sea since approximately 1947," according to the journal article, "Anthropogenic forcing of the Baltic Sea thallium cycle," published in Environmental Science & Technology. -- "Humans are releasing a lot of thallium into the Baltic Sea, and people should be made aware of that. If this continues -- or if we further change the chemistry of the Baltic Sea in the future or if it naturally changes -- then more thallium could accumulate. That would be of concern because of its toxicity," said Chadlin Ostrander lead author of the article, which he conducted as a postdoctoral investigator in WHOI's Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry. -- Currently, he is an assistant professor in the Department of Geology & Geophysics at the University of Utah. -- For the study, the researchers set out to better understand how thallium and its two stable isotopes 203Tl and 205Tl are cycled in the Baltic Sea. -- To discern modern thallium cycling, concentration and isotope ratio data were collected from seawater and shallow sediment core samples. -- To reconstruct thallium cycling further back in time, the researchers supplemented their short core samples with a longer sediment core that had been collected earlier near one of the deepest parts of the sea. | R01 C01 N01 | 230 |
| 2418-057 | Understanding Youth Nicotine Use To Prevent Initiation And Escalation | Factors Contributing to Youth Nicotine Use | Yale researchers identified factors that contribute to adolescents using multiple nicotine products, which can lead to higher nicotine dependence and mortality compared to using one product alone. Understanding these factors can help prevent the escalation of nicotine product use among youth, with implications for public health efforts. | Yale University | Preventive Medicine | Press Rel | PubMed | Using multiple nicotine products can be associated with higher levels of nicotine dependence among youth and increased mortality in adults, compared with the use of one product alone. Yale researchers have now uncovered factors that contribute to adolescents using multiple nicotine products. -- These findings, they say, will help inform efforts to prevent escalation from single to multiple product use. -- Their findings were reported April 24 in the journal Preventative Medicine. -- While public health campaigns have spread awareness on the harms of smoking and, more recently, vaping, an increasingly diverse landscape of nicotine products, widespread adoption of e-cigarettes, and a growing use of multiple products among young people may require updated strategies, says Patricia Simon, an assistant professor adjunct of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) and lead author of the study. -- "Using nicotine products has numerous health impacts and multiple product use can have additional negative consequences, including increased nicotine dependence, reduced intent to quit, and increased mortality," said Simon. "One challenge now is to find ways to prevent young people from progressing from single to multiple product use, but we need to know what contributes to that progression in order to develop effective interventions." -- For the study, Simon and her colleagues used data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, a long-term evaluation of tobacco use in the United States that began in 2013 and is administered and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The researchers analyzed data from over 10,000 individuals who joined the PATH study when they were between the ages 12 and 17. The participants completed the PATH Study assessments in 2013 and 2014 (Wave 1 of the PATH Study) and again in 2017 and 2018 (Wave 4). -- Among the study group during Wave 4, nearly 11% reported having used multiple nicotine products, over 13% reported using one product, and just over 76% said they had not used any nicotine products during the previous 30 days, the researchers found. Cigarettes were the product most reportedly used followed by e-cigarettes, cigars, hookah, and smokeless tobacco. -- "We also found several personal, familial, and environmental factors that contributed to nicotine product use and multiple product use," said Ralitza Gueorguieva, a senior research scientist in the Department of Biostatistics at Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) and coauthor of the study. -- Those who reported using nicotine products in Wave 4 of the study reported more problems with sleep, anxiety, or feelings of hopelessness, were less likely to have talked with parents or guardians about not using tobacco products, and more likely to have seen advertisements for tobacco products in Wave 1, compared with those not reporting nicotine use. -- The researchers then compared individuals who used multiple products with those who reported using just one in Wave 4, finding they were more likely to be male, in the older 15- to 17-year-old age group, and to have reported ever using a nicotine product at the start of the study (Wave 1). When asked to rate how much harm they thought came from using various nicotine products, those who used multiple products assigned less harmful ratings than those who used just one product. | H01 H02 T02 | 231 |
| 2418-056 | Social-Media Break Has Huge Impact On Young Women's Body Image, Study Finds | Social Media Break Boosts Body Image, Study Finds | A study from York University's Faculty of Health revealed that taking a break from social media for just one week can significantly boost self-esteem and body image in young women, particularly those who are vulnerable to thin-ideal internalization. This finding adds to the growing evidence of the negative impact of social media on mental health. | York University | Body Image | Press Rel | PubMed | There's a large and growing body of evidence pointing to potentially negative impacts of social media on mental health, from its addictive nature to disruptions in sleep patterns to effects on body image. Now, a new study coming out of York University's Faculty of Health found young women who took a social media break for as little as one week had a significant boost in self-esteem and body image -- particularly those most vulnerable to thin-ideal internalization. -- "The statistician inside me was excited -- we don't often see effect sizes this large in my area of psychology research because human behaviour is complicated and there's lots of variability," says Psychology Professor Jennifer Mills, co-author of the paper. -- "We hope this study can be used to help protect young people and influence social media companies to give users more agency in how they interact with these platforms." -- The paper, out this week in the journal Body Image, is thought to be the first to look specifically at social-media breaks and body image. -- Mills, whose lab has been on the forefront of this kind of research, collaborated on the paper with graduate researcher Lindsay Samson and undergraduate Olivia Smith, both students at York. -- They expected that there might be recruitment challenges, but it turns out there was enthusiasm for taking a social media pause among the 66 first-year female undergraduates who participated. -- Half were instructed to continue their social media as per usual, while the other half were given instructions to refrain from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok and other social media use for one week. -- They conducted baseline surveys before the experiment, and tested the participants again after the week was over. -- "There's natural variability in how people feel about their bodies and about themselves in general, so we took that into account statistically, and even after that there were still significant differences between the groups after one week," says Mills, who is also the director of clinical training for the graduate psychology program. -- The differences in the social media landscape are remarkable compared to when Mills started researching eating disorders and the effects of media, like magazines aimed at women. | H02 T02 | 232 |