(1135,'Gravitational wave mirror experiments can evolve into quantum entities','gravitational-wave-mirror-experiments-can-evolve-into-quantum-entities','2022-03-16 10:49:02.027324','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Quantum physical experiments exploring the motion of macroscopic or heavy bodies under gravitational forces require protection from any environmental noise and highly efficient sensing.</p><p>An ideal system is a highly reflecting mirror whose motion is sensed by monochromatic light, which is photoelectrically detected with high quantum efficiency. A quantum optomechanical experiment is achieved if the quantum uncertainties of light and mirror motion influence each other, ultimately leading to the observation of entanglement between optical and motional degrees of freedom.</p><p>In <em>AVS Quantum Science</em>, co-published by AIP Publishing and AVS, researchers from Hamburg University in Germany review research on gravitational wave detectors as a historical example of quantum technologies and examine the fundamental research on the connection between quantum physics and gravity. Gravitational wave astronomy requires unprecedented sensitivities for measuring the tiny space-time oscillations at audio-band frequencies and below.</p><p>The team examined recent gravitational wave experiments, showing it is possible to shield large objects, such as a 40-kilogram quartz glass mirror reflecting 200 kilowatts of laser light, from strong influences from the thermal and seismic environment to allow them to evolve as one quantum object.</p><p>\"The mirror perceives only the light, and the light only the mirror. The environment is basically not there for the two of them,\" said author Roman Schnabel. \"Their joint evolution is described by the Schrödinger equation.\"</p><p>This decoupling from the environment, which is central to all quantum technologies, including the quantum computer, enables measurement sensitivities that would otherwise be impossible.</p><p>The researchers review intersects with Nobel laureate Roger Penrose\'s work on exploring the quantum behavior of massive objects. Penrose sought to better understand the connection between quantum physics and gravity, which remains an open question.</p><p>Penrose thought of an experiment in which light would be coupled to a mechanical device via radiation pressure. In their review, the researchers show while these very fundamental questions in physics remain unresolved, the highly shielded coupling of massive devices that reflect laser light is beginning to improve sensor technology.</p><p>Going forward, researchers will likely explore further decoupling gravitational wave detectors from influences of the environment.</p><p>More broadly speaking, the decoupling of quantum devices from any thermal energy exchange with the environment is key. It is required for quantum measurement devices as well as quantum computers.</p>','2022-03-15 19:01:35.014945','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Institute of Physics','Scientists review research on gravitational wave detectors as a historical example of quantum technologies and examine the fundamental research on the connection between quantum physics and gravity. The team examined recent gravitational wave experiments, showing it is possible to shield large objects from strong influences from the thermal and seismic environment to allow them to evolve as one quantum object. This decoupling from the environment enables measurement sensitivities that would otherwise be impossible.',1,56,'<li>Roman Schnabel, Mikhail Korobko. <strong>Macroscopic quantum mechanics in gravitational-wave observatories and beyond</strong>. <em>AVS Quantum Science</em>, 2022; 4 (1): 014701 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/5.0077548\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1116/5.0077548</a>\r\n</li>'),(1136,'Making green energy greener: Researchers propose method for wind turbine blades\' recycling','making-green-energy-greener-researchers-propose-method-for-wind-turbine-blades-recycling','2022-03-16 06:35:39.052224','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A group of researchers from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) and the Lithuanian Energy Institute proposed a method for wind turbine blades\' recycling. Using pyrolysis, they broke the composite materials into their constituent parts -- i.e., phenol and fibre. According to scientists, the extracted materials can be reused, and the process is virtually waste-free.</p><p>Wind turbine blades made from glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminate composites can serve for up to 25 years. After that they end up in landfills -- GFRP is recognised as hard-to-break-down. This has become a real challenge for the renewable energy industry.</p><p>It is estimated that wind turbine blades account for 10 per cent of Europe\'s fibre-reinforced composite material waste. Researchers claim that by 2050, wind turbine blade waste will increase to around two million tonnes globally. With many countries banning composite materials from their landfills, recycling the used wind turbine blades becomes a challenge that researchers around the world are trying to solve.</p><p>\"The aim of cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to close to zero by 2050 has been voiced several years ago. Since then, more and more countries have been committing to the net-zero goal by investing in renewable energy resources, including wind energy. However, the recycling of the wind turbine blades, which are as long as a football field, very sturdy and include plastic, is the main problem. Without a feasible solution to it, we cannot say that wind energy is fully sustainable and environmentally friendly,\" says Dr Samy Yousef, a researcher at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Design.</p><p>Aiming to tackle this challenge, the research group headed by Dr Yousef have made several experiments involving decomposing GFRP into its constituent parts.</p><p><strong>Waste-free conversion</strong></p><p>Due to its strength, shaping simplicity and low manufacturing costs GFRP composites are used for a multitude of purposes -- for car manufacturing, maritime vessels, oil and gas production, construction, sporting goods and more. Aircraft, wind energy and electronics are among the industries which use the GFRP most, with the global demand increasing annually by 6 per cent.</p><p>\"GFRP composites used for many industries including wind turbine blades manufacturing are either thermoset or thermoplastic. In either case, they roughly consist only of two components -- fibre and resin (in some cases with different micro or nanoparticle additions). As for the fibre, it usually is carbon fibre or fibreglass (the latter is cheaper)\" explains Dr Yousef.</p><p>During the experiments, the research group were applying pyrolysis (in presence of zeolite catalysts and without) to different batches of composites -- fibreglass thermoset and fibreglass thermoplastic -- measuring the extraction of phenol (the primary component in the production of phenolic resins and the manufacture of nylon and other synthetic fibres) in each case. After that, they were analysing the basic raw materials from each batch. The researchers also assessed the effect that the additive nanoparticles (such as carbon black) can have on the yield of useful components.</p><p>Although the yield of the components extracted during pyrolysis differs depending on the temperatures applied, the proximate measurement revealed that in all the cases the numerous volatile compounds (up to 66 per cent) and fibre residue (around 30 per cent) were extracted. The added fibre nanoparticles (Carbon nanotubes and graphene) increased the yield of phenol.</p><p>\"The volatile components are basically phenol, which can be used for further production of resin, and the fibre residue can have numerous applications after purifying it chemically -- for fiber-reinforced concrete, polymer composites, fiber flooring. Our method is virtually waste-free with some small emissions, which is standard in this kind of conversion operation,\" says Yousef.</p><p><strong>Needs a real wind turbine blade to continue research</strong></p><p>The experiments were conducted using the samples prepared at a laboratory which had compositions similar those used for making wind turbine blades, and not the wind turbine blades themselves. Therefore, Dr Yousef notes, there is a need to assess the effect of the paint coating, that the real turbine blades are covered with, to the results. However, he believes that it will not be significant.</p><p>\"We would of course be happy to receive a worn-out wind turbine blade, which is no longer usable, and to conduct our experiments with the samples obtained from the real object,\" says Yousef.</p><p>At the moment, the research group is creating a model, which would allow to scale and calculate the wider economic and environmental impact of the results.</p><p>This study is one of the several conducted by the same research group, which focus on the practical implementations of the principles of the circular economy. Last year, their experiment of lint microfibre conversion into energy received broad international attention.</p><p>\"We are developing research in numerous topics related to climate change, extracting of clean energy (H2 and CH4) using membranes technology, and transition to the circular economy as these topics are closely related to the future of our planet,\" says Dr Yousef.</p>','2022-03-15 19:04:41.650679','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Kaunas University of Technology','Wind turbine blades made from glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminate composites can serve for up to 25 years. After that, they end up in landfills which has become a real challenge for the renewable energy industry. Researchers have proposed a method for wind turbine blades\' recycling. Using pyrolysis, they broke the composite materials into their constituent parts. According to scientists, the extracted materials can be reused, and the process is virtually waste-free.',1,210,'<li>Samy Yousef, Ieva Kiminaitė, Justas Eimontas, Nerijus Striūgas, Mohammed Ali Abdelnaby. <strong>Catalytic pyrolysis kinetic behaviour of glass fibre-reinforced epoxy resin composites over ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst</strong>. <em>Fuel</em>, 2022; 315: 123235 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2022.123235\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.fuel.2022.123235</a>\r\n</li>'),(1137,'Scientists find brain network that makes mice mingle','scientists-find-brain-network-that-makes-mice-mingle','2022-03-16 06:33:47.527267','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The difference between a social butterfly and a lone wolf is actually at least eight differences, according to new findings by a team of Duke brain researchers.</p><p>By simultaneously spying on the electrical activity of several brain regions, the researchers found they could identify how social or solitary an individual mouse is. Then, by tweaking nodes within this social brain network, they showed they could prompt mice to be even more gregarious.</p><p>The research may lead to better diagnostic tools to understand how the brain changes in people with impaired social communication, such as those with autism spectrum disorder.</p><p>The new study appears in online <em>Neuron</em> on March 15.</p><p>Neuroscientists often conduct research by studying one tiny brain region at a time. They might select their favorite brain area based on past clues about its involvement in a given behavior, like social behavior, and study that area in isolation.</p><p>But looking only at one small brain region at a time is a big problem, said Dr. Kafui Dzirasa, the Howard Hughes Medical Investigator and K. Ranga Rama Krishnan Associate Professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke. Much like the brain, a car is not just one thing but rather the product of assembled parts working together that varies across builds, he said.</p><p>\"A car is not a steering wheel. A car is not tires. A car is not an engine. A car is not the speedometer. A car is not the headlights. You have to put them all together to get the car,\" Dzirasa said. \"When you put them all together, that\'s when you can figure out how fast an individual car is moving. Certainly, the tires could be the same, but a Lamborghini does not move the same way a Honda Accord does.\"</p><p>To figure out what drives mice to socialize, Dzirasa\'s team first delicately implanted a recording device to capture the simultaneous electrical activity of eight brain regions that coordinate different aspects of social behavior, such as the prefrontal cortex and the dopamine-issuing ventral tegmental area.</p><p>Next, mice could choose to interact with another mouse or a small stack of black Legos while the researchers listened to their brain waves. Surprisingly, no single brain region\'s electrical activity could predict how social a mouse was during the task. Even as a trained engineer, Dzirasa needed help putting together all of the complex brain wave data.</p><p>\"We [neuroscientists] don\'t know how to build the car. We just see wheels and tires. We don\'t know how the system goes together,\" said Dzirasa.</p><p>To help assemble a clearer picture of the data, Dzirasa connected with his long-time collaborator David Carlson, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and biostatistics and bioinformatics, as well as a member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. Carlson is an expert in the field of machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) whereby computers get better at understanding complex data the more they\'re given. Carlson helped to develop a new AI system to make sense of the brain wave data.</p><p>\"What we\'re trying to do is make this AI system that can learn and describe what\'s going on in the brain and we\'re trying to treat this AI as a collaborator in the scientific process,\" Carlson said.</p><p>Importantly, the new AI tool could analyze all of the electrical activity from every brain region, tens of thousands of brain cells, and chart a new \"social brain network\" map. Now researchers could predict which animals preferred the company of their peers just by looking at the combined activity of their social brain network.</p><p>Armed with a new map and crystal ball for social tendencies, Dzirasa\'s team tested whether activating this social brain network would make mice even more social. To gain precise control over these brain regions, the researchers used a light-based technique called optogenetics to enable them to instantly flick on specific brain regions at will. Lighting up prefrontal cortex brain cells provoked already outgoing mice to cozy up even more to another mouse, suggesting this social brain network both senses and directs social behavior.</p><p>As a final test, Dzirasa asked whether this social brain network model could detect impaired social behavior in a mouse model of autism. When Dzirasa\'s team knocked out ANK2 in mice, a gene implicated in people with autism, their behavior confounded the machine learning tool. It could no longer predict how social a given mouse was based on its brain waves, suggesting the new machine learning tool is good at detecting aberrant electrical activity.</p><p>Dzirasa and Carlson are eager to explore how well these findings in mice hold up in people. Currently, Carlson\'s team is collaborating with researchers at the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development to evaluate whether this new machine learning tool can detect brain changes in typical and neurodiverse children.</p><p>Dzirasa hopes to develop better diagnostic tools and treatments for other social disorders. He likens this goal to cardiology: an EKG can measure anyone\'s heart rate when they\'re active and compare it to their baseline heart rate at rest, which varies widely across people. But there\'s no equivalent tool for tracking and treating brain disorders in a similar way. Nor is there a pacemaker to dial in the \"right\" amount of gregariousness, another future goal of Dzirasa\'s lab.</p><p>However, Dzirasa is keen to highlight that variation is normal, so this study and future work is important for understanding how things go awry outside someone\'s typical range of sociability.</p><p>\"Some people are more social than others. It doesn\'t mean that people who are less social have a psychiatric illness, it means there are individual differences,\" Dzirasa said. \"If you want to link this ultimately to think about how humans are affected in psychiatric illness, you need to understand the individual.\"</p><p>Support for the research came from the WM Keck Foundation, and the US National Institutes of Health (R01MH120158, R21MH104316, R01ES025549, 1R01EB026937, 1R01MH125430).</p>','2022-03-15 19:04:52.064446','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Duke University','The difference between a social butterfly and a lone wolf is actually at least eight differences, according to new findings by a team of brain researchers. By simultaneously spying on the electrical activity of several brain regions, researchers can both identify how social or solitary an individual mouse is, and, by zapping nodes within this social brain network, can prompt mice to be even more gregarious.',1,149,'<li>Stephen D. Mague, Austin Talbot, Cameron Blount, Kathryn K. Walder-Christensen, Lara J. Duffney, Elise Adamson, Alexandra L. Bey, Nkemdilim Ndubuizu, Gwenaëlle E. Thomas, Dalton N. Hughes, Yael Grossman, Rainbo Hultman, Saurabh Sinha, Alexandra M. Fink, Neil M. Gallagher, Rachel L. Fisher, Yong-Hui Jiang, David E. Carlson, Kafui Dzirasa. <strong>Brain-wide electrical dynamics encode individual appetitive social behavior</strong>. <em>Neuron</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.02.016\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.neuron.2022.02.016</a>\r\n</li>'),(1138,'When it comes to sleep, it’s quality over quantity','when-it-comes-to-sleep-its-quality-over-quantity','2022-03-16 06:28:23.527994','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Some people are gifted with genes that pack the benefits of slumber into an efficient time window, keeping them peppy on only four or six hours of sleep a night, according to researchers at UC San Francisco. In addition, the scientists said, these \"elite sleepers\" show psychological resilience and resistance to neurodegenerative conditions that may point the way to fending off neurological disease.</p><p>\"There\'s a dogma in the field that everyone needs eight hours of sleep, but our work to date confirms that the amount of sleep people need differs based on genetics,\" said neurologist Louis Ptacek, MD, one of the senior authors on the study, which appears in<em> iScience</em> on March 15, 2022 \"Think of it as analogous to height; there\'s no perfect amount of height, each person is different. We\'ve shown that the case is similar for sleep.\"</p><p>For over a decade, Ptacek and co-senior author, Ying-Hui Fu, PhD, both members of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, have been studying people with Familial Natural Short Sleep (FNSS), the ability to function fully on -- and have a preference for -- four to six hours of sleep a night. They\'ve shown that it runs in families and, thus far have identified five genes across the genome that play a role in enabling this efficient sleep. There are still many more FNSS genes to find, the researchers said.</p><p>This study tested Fu\'s hypothesis that elite sleep can be a shield against neurodegenerative disease. Her ideas contrast somewhat with current thinking that, for many people, lack of sleep can accelerate neurodegeneration. The difference, Fu said, is that with FNSS, the brain accomplishes its sleep tasks in a shorter time. In other words, less time spent efficiently sleeping may not equate to a lack of sleep.</p><p>The team chose to look at mouse models of Alzheimer\'s disease because that condition is so prevalent, said Fu. They bred mice that had both short-sleep gene and genes that predisposed them to Alzheimer\'s and found that their brains developed much less of the hallmark aggregates associated with dementia. To confirm their findings, they repeated the experiment using mice with a different short-sleep gene and another dementia gene and saw similar results.</p><p>Fu and Ptacek believe that similar investigations of other brain conditions would show the efficient-sleep genes conferring comparable protections. improving peoples\' sleep could delay progression of disease across a whole spectrum of conditions, they said.</p><p>\"Sleep problems are common in all diseases of the brain,\" she said. \"This makes sense because sleep is a complex activity. Many parts of your brain have to work together for you to fall asleep and to wake up. When these parts of the brain are damaged, it makes it harder to sleep or get quality sleep.\"</p><p>Understanding the biological underpinnings of sleep regulation could identify drugs that will help ward off problems with sleep disorders. In addition, improving sleep in healthy people may sustain wellbeing and improve the quality of time we each have, the researchers said. But pursuing the many genes involved is a long game that they liken to putting together a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle.</p><p>\"Every mutation we find is another piece,\" said Ptacek. \"Right now we\'re working on the edges and the corners, to get to that place where it\'s easier to put the pieces together and where the picture really starts to emerge.\"</p><p>Despite the long road ahead, there\'s already promise in some of the few genes they\'ve identified. At least one of them can be targeted with existing drugs that might be repurposed. Their hope is that within the next decade, they\'ll have helped facilitate new treatments that allow people with brain disorders to get a better night\'s rest.</p><p>\"This work opens the door to a new understanding of how to delay and possibly prevent a lot of diseases,\" said Fu. \"Our goal really is to help everyone live healthier and longer through getting optimum sleep.\"</p><p>Additional authors on the study include Qing Dong, Nicholas W Gentry, Thomas McMahon, Maya Yamazaki, Lorena Benitez-Rivera, and Tammy Wang, all of UCSF and Li Gan of Weill Cornell Medicine.</p><p>This work was supported by NIH grants NS117929, NS072360 and NS104782 and the William Bowes Neurogenetics Fund.</p>','2022-03-15 19:04:59.694809','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - San Francisco','Some people are gifted with genes that pack the benefits of slumber into an efficient time window, keeping them peppy on only four or six hours of sleep a night. In addition, the scientists said, these \'elite sleepers\' show psychological resilience and resistance to neurodegenerative conditions that may point the way to fending off neurological disease.',1,201,'<li>Qing Dong, Nicholas W. Gentry, Thomas McMahon, Maya Yamazaki, Lorena Benitez-Rivera, Tammy Wang, Li Gan, Louis Ptáček, Ying-Hui Fu. <strong>Familial natural short sleep mutations reduce Alzheimer pathology in mice</strong>. <em>iScience</em>, 2022; 103964 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.103964\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.isci.2022.103964</a>\r\n</li>'),(1139,'Reduced inhibition of hippocampal neurons impairs long-term memory recall in Rett syndrome','reduced-inhibition-of-hippocampal-neurons-impairs-long-term-memory-recall-in-rett-syndrome','2022-03-16 06:26:43.123825','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">An exciting study by researchers in the laboratory of Dr. Huda Zoghbi, distinguished service professor at Baylor College of Medicine and director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children\'s Hospital, has discovered that diminished memory recall in Rett syndrome mice can be restored by activating specific inhibitory cells in the hippocampus. The findings are published in the current edition of <em>Neuron</em>.</p><p>Rett syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by loss of acquired cognitive, motor, language and social skills after the first year of life as well as profound learning and memory impairments. In particular, contextual memories, those that encode an event and the circumstances in which the event was experienced, are diminished in mouse models of Rett syndrome. Previous research has suggested that diminished contextual memories result from disruptions in the finely tuned balance between excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs that constantly bombard hippocampal neurons.</p><p>Zoghbi\'s team hypothesized that disruptions in this balance may alter the size and composition of ensembles of hippocampal neurons needed to encode a contextual memory. Using a miniature microscope, they directly monitored these ensembles as mice recalled a fearful experience. They found that Rett mice have larger and more correlated ensembles of neurons than wild-type mice, suggesting that hippocampal pyramidal neurons are not receiving enough inhibition in Rett mice. \"An optimal balance between excitatory and inhibitory input is critical for the proper formation and retrieval of contextual memories,\" said Lingjie He, postdoctoral associate in the Zoghbi lab and first author.</p><p>The next big question that the team addressed was, Which neuron is <strong>not</strong> providing the inhibition?</p><p>To hunt for this neuron, the team recorded neuronal activity from identified cell types in brain slices. They found a significant reduction in connectivity between pyramidal cells and a subset of somatostatin-expressing (SOM) inhibitory neurons, the OLM cells. They found that these cells, which are normally recruited by hippocampal pyramidal neurons in healthy mice during memory recall, were poorly engaged in Rett mice.</p><p>This led the team to wonder if activating these inhibitory neurons during memory recall would help Rett mice remember better. To address this, they selectively enhanced the activity of somatostatin cells in the hippocampus using a chemical-genetic approach that allows for the activation of a specific cell type. Incredibly, activating somatostatin expressing cells in Rett mice restored contextual memory recall.</p><p>\"This is the first study to demonstrate that upregulating the activity of SOM neurons can improve memory recall and retrieval capacity in Rett mice,\" said Zoghbi, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. \"It opens exciting areas of research to explore therapeutic possibilities that could improve contextual memory recall in individuals affected by Rett syndrome. These findings have a much broader implication and are also applicable to other neurological disorders in which the development and function of inhibitory circuits are altered.\"</p><p>Other authors involved in the study are Matthew Caudill, Junzhan Jing, Wei Wang, Yaling Sun, Jianrong Tang and Xiaolong Jiang. The authors are affiliated with one or more of the following institutions: Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Baylor College of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The study was funded by Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institutes of Health, Baylor College of Medicine, the Charif Souki Fund and the Yasmine Gibellini fund.</p>','2022-03-15 19:05:05.610847','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Baylor College of Medicine','Researchers have discovered that diminished memory recall in Rett syndrome mice can be restored by activating specific inhibitory cells in the hippocampus.',1,14,'<li>Lingjie He, Matthew S. Caudill, Junzhan Jing, Wei Wang, Yaling Sun, Jianrong Tang, Xiaolong Jiang, Huda Y. Zoghbi. <strong>A weakened recurrent circuit in the hippocampus of Rett syndrome mice disrupts long-term memory representations</strong>. <em>Neuron</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.02.014\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.neuron.2022.02.014</a>\r\n</li>'),(1140,'Record-breaking, ultrafast devices step to protecting the grid from EMPs','record-breaking-ultrafast-devices-step-to-protecting-the-grid-from-emps','2022-03-16 06:25:24.819282','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists from Sandia National Laboratories have announced a tiny, electronic device that can shunt excess electricity within a few billionths of a second while operating at a record-breaking 6,400 volts -- a significant step towards protecting the nation\'s electric grid from an electromagnetic pulse.</p><p>The team published the fabrication and testing results of their device on March 10 in the scientific journal<em> IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.</em> The team\'s ultimate goal is to provide protection from voltage surges, which could lead to months-long power interruptions, with a device that operates at up to 20,000 volts. For comparison, a household electric dryer uses 240 volts of electricity.</p><p>An electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, can be caused by natural phenomena, such as solar flares, or human activity, such as a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere. An EMP causes huge voltages in a few billionths of a second, potentially affecting and damaging electronic devices over large swaths of the country.</p><p>EMPs are unlikely, said Bob Kaplar, manager of a semiconductor device research group at Sandia, but if one were to occur and damage the huge transformers that form the backbone of our electric grid, it could take months to replace them and re-establish power to the affected portion of the nation.</p><p>\"The reason why these devices are relevant to protecting the grid from an EMP is not just that they can get to high voltage -- other devices can get to high voltage -- but that they can respond in a couple billionths of a second,\" Kaplar said. \"While the device is protecting the grid from an EMP, it\'s at a very high voltage and thousands of amps are going through it, which is a huge amount of power. A material can only handle so much power for a certain amount of time, but we think the material in our diode has some advantages over other materials.\"</p><p><strong>A regulator valve for the grid</strong></p><p>The new Sandia device is a diode that can shunt a record-breaking 6,400 volts of electricity within a few billionths of a second -- a significant advancement toward being able to protect the nation\'s electric grid from an EMP. The team, including Sandia electrical engineer Luke Yates, the first author on the paper, is working towards fabricating a diode able to operate at around 20,000 volts, since most grid distribution electronics operate at around 13,000 volts.</p><p>Diodes are electronic components found in nearly every electronic device and serve as one-way regulator valves, said Mary Crawford a Sandia Senior Scientist leading diode design and fabrication for the project. Diodes allow electricity to flow in one direction through the device, but not the other. They can be used to convert AC power into DC power, and in this project, divert damaging high voltage away from sensitive grid transformers.</p><p>Kaplar agreed that the diode operates somewhat like a regulator valve in plumbing. He said, \"In a regulator valve, even if you open that valve all the way, you can\'t flow an infinite amount of water through the valve. Similarly, there\'s a limit to how much current you can flow through our diode. If the valve on the pipe is closed, if the pressure reaches a certain point, it\'ll burst. Analogously, the diode cannot block an infinite voltage. However, our EMP device uses the point at which the diode can no longer block the high voltage, holds the voltage to that \'pressure,\' shunting the excess current through itself, to the ground and away from the grid equipment in a controlled, non-destructive fashion.\"</p><p>The voltage surges caused by EMPs are a hundred times faster than those caused by lightning, so experts don\'t know if the devices designed to protect the grid against lightning strikes would be effective against an EMP, said Jack Flicker, a Sandia electric grid resiliency expert on the team.</p><p>\"The electric grid has a number of different protections,\" Flicker added. \"They range in timeframe from very fast to very slow, and they\'re overlaid on the electric grid to ensure that an event cannot cause a catastrophic outage of the electric grid. The fastest protection that we typically have on the grid reacts against pulses at one millionth of a second, to protect against lightning. For EMPs, we\'re talking ten billionths of a second, a hundred times faster.\"</p><p>The new Sandia device can react that quickly.</p><p><strong>Growing perfect layers</strong></p><p>Part of what makes the diode special is that it is made from gallium nitride, the same basic material used in LEDs, Kaplar said. Gallium nitride is a semiconductor, like silicon. But because of its chemical properties, it can hold off much higher voltage before it breaks down than silicon, Crawford said. The material itself also responds very quickly and therefore is a good candidate to achieve the fast response needed to protect the grid from an EMP.</p><p>Crawford and materials scientists Brendan Gunning and Andrew Allerman made the devices by \"growing\" gallium nitride semiconductor layers using a process called chemical vapor deposition, she said. First, they heat a commercially available gallium nitride wafer to around 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit and then add vapors that include gallium and nitrogen atoms. These chemicals form layers of crystalline gallium nitride on the surface of the wafer.</p><p>By tweaking the ingredients and the \"baking\" process, the team could produce layers with different electrical properties. By building up these layers in a specific order, combined with processing steps, such as etching and adding electrical contacts, the team produced devices with the needed behavior.</p><p>\"A major challenge of achieving these very high voltage diodes is the need to have very thick gallium nitride layers,\" Crawford said. \"The drift regions of these devices have thicknesses of about 50 microns, or 1/6<sup>th</sup> of a sheet of notebook paper. This may not sound like a lot, but the growth process we use can have growth rates of only one or two microns per hour. A second major challenge is maintaining very low densities of crystalline defects, specifically impurities or missing atoms in the semiconductor material, throughout the growth time in order to generate devices that work at these very high voltages.\"</p><p>For the team to reach their ultimate goal of a device that operates at 20,000 volts, they will need to grow the thick layer even thicker with even fewer defects, Crawford said. There are several other technical challenges to constructing a device that can operate at such high voltages and currents, she added, including designs to manage the very high internal electric fields within the devices.</p><p><strong>Testing ultrafast diodes</strong></p><p>Once Crawford\'s team fabricated the devices, Flicker and his team tested how the devices responded to fast voltage spikes, similar to what would occur during an EMP. His challenge has been modifying a tool to measure the very fast response time of the devices.</p><p>\"Developing the tools that can accurately measure the very fast responses is very difficult,\" Flicker said. \"If we\'re talking one or two billionths of a second, they need to be able to measure even faster than that, which is a challenge.\"</p><p>Flicker and his team used very specialized equipment to apply a high voltage pulse, and measure the electric pulse that is reflected back from the diode to tell when the device turns on, very accurately and in less than a billionth of a second.</p><p><strong>Useful for smart transformers, solar panel converters and more</strong></p><p>Diode devices like the Sandia gallium nitride diode can be used for other purposes, beyond protecting the grid from EMPs, Kaplar said. These include smart transformers for the grid, electronic devices to convert electricity from roof-top solar panels into power that can be used by household appliances, and even electric car charging infrastructure.</p><p>Commonly, solar panel converters and electric car charging infrastructure can handle 1,200 or 1,700 volts, he added. But operating at higher voltage allows for higher efficiencies and lower electricity losses. Another portion of the project is to develop diodes for these types of devices that operate at high, but not record-breaking voltage but are easier to manufacture, Kaplar said. The Naval Research Laboratory is leading this part of the project.</p><p>Some smart transformers and electronic devices can now operate at up to 3,300 volts, Flicker said, but efficiencies would be even greater if they could operate at 10,000 or 15,000 volts with one semiconductor device.</p><p>\"We have this primary goal of protection of the electrical grid, but these devices have other uses beyond that,\" Flicker said. \"It\'s interesting to have our application area, but know that these devices can be used in power electronics, power converters, everything that\'s at very high voltages.\"</p><p>This research is funded by ARPA-E and the larger project is conducted in partnership with the Naval Research Laboratory, Stanford University, National Institute of Standards and Technology, EDYNX and Sonrisa Research.</p>','2022-03-15 19:05:07.484536','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'DOE/Sandia National Laboratories','Scientists have announced a tiny, electronic device that can shunt excess electricity within a few billionths of a second while operating at a record-breaking 6,400 volts -- a significant step towards protecting the nation\'s electric grid from an electromagnetic pulse.',1,125,'<li>Luke Yates, Brendan P. Gunning, Mary H. Crawford, Jeffrey Steinfeldt, Michael L. Smith, Vincent M. Abate, Jeramy R. Dickerson, Andrew M. Armstrong, Andrew Binder, Andrew A. Allerman, Robert J. Kaplar. <strong>Demonstration of &gt;6.0-kV Breakdown Voltage in Large Area Vertical GaN p-n Diodes With Step-Etched Junction Termination Extensions</strong>. <em>IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices</em>, 2022; 1 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TED.2022.3154665\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1109/TED.2022.3154665</a>\r\n</li>'),(1141,'Vaccine protects against \'tough cookie\' parasite found in the Americas','vaccine-protects-against-tough-cookie-parasite-found-in-the-americas','2022-03-16 06:21:51.337870','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The parasites that cause a disfiguring skin disease affecting about 12 million people globally may have met their match in vaccines developed using CRISPR gene-editing technology, new research suggests.</p><p>Phase 1 human trials are set to start later this year with a vaccine designed to prevent infection by <em>Leishmania major</em>, the parasite species that causes cutaneous leishmaniasis in tropical and subtropical regions of the Eastern Hemisphere.</p><p>The same research team, co-led by Abhay Satoskar, professor of pathology in The Ohio State University College of Medicine, has used CRISPR technology to develop a vaccine targeting <em>Leishmania mexicana</em>, the species of the parasite that is found in South, Central and North America.</p><p>In mice, the vaccine -- created with a mutated live parasite -- posed no threat of causing skin lesions and provided long-term infection prevention.</p><p>This \"New World\" species causes a more chronic infection that, unlike skin lesions generated by <em>L. major</em> infection, will not self-heal. Researchers expect the <em>L. major</em> mutant parasite vaccine to be effective against the <em>L. mexicana</em> species, but have developed the second vaccine as a backup -- and to find out whether their technique could tame the more virulent organism.</p><p>\"The main thing we wanted to see was if this approach, removing a specific gene, could break this tough cookie, which has always been a problem. It\'s not an easy parasite,\" said Satoskar, also a professor of microbiology at Ohio State. \"Based on our experimental data, we should be able to use the <em>L. major</em> vaccine in the New World. But if it doesn\'t work, we have a plan b.\"</p><p>The study is published in the journal <em>NPJ Vaccines</em>.</p><p>In both vaccines, the team applied gene-editing technology to the century-old Middle Eastern practice of leishmanization -- deliberately introducing the live parasite to the skin to create a small infection that, once healed, leads to life-long immunity against further disease.</p><p>\"One question we had was, is leishmanization even possible with <em>L. mexicana</em>, which normally doesn\'t self-resolve? We\'re talking about two leishmania species and they cause the same disease, but the clinical outcome and response to treatments differ,\" Satoskar said. \"And even CRISPR might not have worked, because this species has different molecules, proteases and enzymes.\"</p><p>Using the precision technology to edit the genome of <em>L. mexicana</em>, researchers deleted centrin, the gene that codes for a protein that supports cell division, and inactivated an antibiotic resistance marker gene that is introduced into the parasite as part of the process of knocking out centrin.</p><p>Under normal conditions, these parasites cause infection by hijacking immune cells, and use host cells to replicate indefinitely. Experiments in immune cell cultures showed that the mutant parasite could enter cells and make limited copies of itself, but not enough to cause symptoms.</p><p>The study showed in mice that the vaccine is safe, causing no skin lesions in animals that are susceptible to the disease. In further experiments, researchers vaccinated mice and exposed them six weeks later to the <em>L. mexicana</em> parasite with a needle challenge to the ear -- a technique used to mimic a sand fly bite. In humans and animals, leishmania is transmitted through the bite of infected sand flies.</p><p>Unlike the unvaccinated control group, vaccinated mice remained clear of skin lesions and the number of parasites at the infection site was held at bay -- and the protection was sustained over 10 weeks.</p><p>The immune response produced by vaccination with the New World species differs substantially from the type of response generated by the previous vaccine, the researchers found. With <em>L. major</em> vaccination, pro-inflammatory proteins are increased to provide protection. The <em>L. mexicana</em> vaccine had little effect on pro-inflammatory proteins, but suppressed anti-inflammatory proteins instead.</p><p>\"The parasites are different, and the mechanism by which they confer protection is totally different,\" Satoskar said. \"It\'s a balance. They both work.\"</p><p>Researchers are pursuing vaccines to provide an affordable way to prevent a disease that can lead to disfigurement, disability, social stigma and poverty. The team estimates that a vaccine would likely cost less than $5, compared to the $100 to $200 cost for treatment in the hardest-hit countries -- treatment that requires weeks of daily drug injections with unpleasant side effects, leading to poor patient compliance that allows parasites to develop resistance to the drugs.</p><p>Visceral leishmaniasis affects organs and is fatal if left untreated. While the <em>L. major</em> vaccine may also prevent this more severe form of the disease, the team has used the CRISPR technique to work on a vaccine with the <em>Leishmania donovani</em> parasite that causes visceral leishmaniasis.</p><p>This work was funded by the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund and the National Institutes of Health.</p><p>The study was co-led by Greg Matlashewski of McGill University and Hira Nakhasi of the FDA Division of Emerging and Transfusion Transmitted Diseases. Additional Ohio State co-authors include Greta Volpedo, Thalia Pacheco-Fernandez, Erin Holcomb, Blake Cox, Rebecca Fultz, Chelsea Mishan, Chaitenya Verma, Ryan Huston, Abigail Wharton and Steve Oghumu.</p>','2022-03-15 19:05:11.115402','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ohio State University','The parasites that cause a disfiguring skin disease affecting about 12 million people globally may have met their match in vaccines developed using CRISPR gene-editing technology, new research suggests.',1,74,'<li>Greta Volpedo, Thalia Pacheco-Fernandez, Erin A. Holcomb, Wen-Wei Zhang, Patrick Lypaczewski, Blake Cox, Rebecca Fultz, Chelsea Mishan, Chaitenya Verma, Ryan H. Huston, Abigail R. Wharton, Ranadhir Dey, Subir Karmakar, Steve Oghumu, Shinjiro Hamano, Sreenivas Gannavaram, Hira L. Nakhasi, Greg Matlashewski, Abhay R. Satoskar. <strong>Centrin-deficient Leishmania mexicana confers protection against New World cutaneous leishmaniasis</strong>. <em>npj Vaccines</em>, 2022; 7 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41541-022-00449-1\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41541-022-00449-1</a>\r\n</li>'),(1142,'Permeability of the blood-brain barrier in mice','permeability-of-the-blood-brain-barrier-in-mice','2022-03-16 06:20:18.548846','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The blood-brain barrier plays an essential role in protecting the central nervous system from harmful bacteria, toxins, and other blood-borne pathogens.</p><p>Composed of a tight row of endothelial cells, the barrier is semipermeable and highly selective. It allows small molecules and nutrients to pass from the blood into the central nervous system, while blocking substances that might cause infection, inflammation, and otherwise disrupt the system\'s delicate balance.</p><p>However, what exactly controls the permeability of the blood-brain barrier is a question that has long bedeviled scientists -- and one that Chenghua Gu, professor of neurobiology in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has been studying for almost a decade.</p><p>Previously, Gu and her team at HMS established that a cellular trafficking system called transcytosis plays a key role in controlling blood-brain barrier permeability by determining how easily molecules can be transported across it. Now, new research in mice has revealed more details about how this process is regulated.</p><p>In this new research, published March 15 in <em>Neuron</em>, the scientists describe a mechanism by which cells in the surrounding environment, or microenvironment, signal to cells that make up the blood-brain barrier. They found that this intercellular communication inhibits transcytosis to keep the barrier less permeable and ensure that molecules cannot easily pass through.</p><p>\"Our work opens the door to better understand how and why the microenvironment is important for maintaining the blood-brain barrier,\" Gu said, which could inform the development of better laboratory models to study the blood-brain barrier.</p><p>Not only that, but the mechanism offers a potential avenue for manipulating the barrier to make it more or less permeable, the authors of the study said. If the findings are replicated in further animal studies and then in humans, they could point to new ways of treating diseases or delivering medicines into the brain.</p><p><strong>Microenvironment matters</strong></p><p>Contrary to what its name might suggest, the blood-brain barrier is not simply a wall that physically blocks harmful molecules from crossing into the central nervous system. Rather, it acts more like a self-regulating filtration system, and its permeability changes based on the properties of the endothelial cells it\'s made of.</p><p>In 2014 Gu and her team identified a gene called <em>Mfsd2a</em>, which suppresses transcytosis, the process by which molecules cross the blood-brain barrier in bubbles called vesicles that are formed in endothelial cells. This suppression maintains the integrity of the barrier by ensuring that molecules aren\'t transported across endothelial cells. Building on this work, in 2017 Gu\'s teamrevealed that transcytosis may, indeed, be the main mechanism that controls the permeability of the blood-brain barrier.</p><p>However, Gu and colleagues suspected there was more to the story. They began to wonder how the permeability of the blood-brain barrier is affected by the surrounding microenvironment, which is composed of cells that are physically close to the blood vessels in the central nervous system. More specifically, they became interested in adjacent neural cells called pericytes that wrap around these blood vessels.</p><p>\"We started off asking what are the cells in the microenvironment that could be conferring these barrier properties to endothelial cells. And a lot of history and other work prompted us to look at pericytes,\" explained lead author Swathi Ayloo, who conducted the research as a postdoctoral fellow at HMS and is now a senior scientist at Sanofi.</p><p>The researchers began by sifting through RNA databases for genes highly expressed in pericytes of the retina and the brain. They identified a gene in pericytes that makes a protein called vitronectin, found in the microenvironment of the central nervous system. Then, they turned to the retina to test the importance of vitronectin in maintaining the blood-brain barrier. The retina is an ideal model system, Ayloo explained, because in the first few days after a mouse is born, the blood-retinal barrier is still permeable on the outer edge of the retina, but impermeable in the middle, setting up an easy comparison.</p><p>As it turns out, vitronectin was present in the microenvironment near the endothelial cells in the impermeable part of the barrier, but was missing at the outer edge of the barrier where the endothelial cells were permeable. Furthermore, when the team knocked out the gene that produces vitronectin, the barrier became leaky.</p><p>\"That set the stage for us to say, OK, we know that vitronectin is important for barrier permeability, but why is it functioning like this, what is the mechanism,\" Ayloo said.</p><p>Through a series of genetic experiments in mice, the researchers established that vitronectin binds to a receptor called integrin ?5 in endothelial cells to form a signaling pathway. This signaling pathway inhibits transcytosis by telling endothelial cells in the blood-brain barrier to maintain the tension of their membranes, which prevents the formation of vesicles that can transport molecules across the barrier.</p><p>\"When we zoom out, it totally makes sense, because this mechanism is basically controlling the biophysical properties of the membrane, and that determines how easy or how difficult it is to form those vesicles,\" Gu said.</p><p>\"The big punch line is that there is this very active ligand-receptor signaling between pericytes and endothelial cells, and you need that active interaction for the maintenance of the barrier,\" Ayloo added.</p><p><strong>Completing the picture</strong></p><p>Gu describes the microenvironment, also known as the extracellular matrix, as \"a really mysterious thing\" that is present around all tissues yet is exceedingly difficult to study. For her, the paper not only reveals a specific mechanism in the microenvironment that controls permeability of the blood-brain barrier, but opens the door for more research on cellular signaling in the extracellular matrix.</p><p>Moreover, the extracellular matrix is known to break down in neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis.</p><p>\"That\'s one of the hallmark features of neurodegenerative diseases, so I think we need to do more extracellular matrix research,\" Ayloo said. She added that there are many protein-to-protein interactions between the microenvironment and the blood-brain barrier that need to be better understood, especially within the context of disease.</p><p>Understanding the microenvironment could also lead to better laboratory models to study the blood-brain barrier. Right now, Gu explained, these models typically include only endothelial cells, and don\'t incorporate the microenvironment.</p><p>\"You cannot just put endothelial cells together in an in vitro model and claim that this is the blood-brain barrier,\" Gu said. \"Billions of dollars are being spent on inaccurate models.\"</p><p>Once researchers identify the full collection of proteins in the microenvironment that influence the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, she added, \"we can re-create those factors in a model to more accurately mimic the barrier.\"</p><p>If the findings are affirmed in further experiments and, eventually, in humans, the specific interaction between vitronectin and integrin ?5 may offer a new molecular target for manipulating the permeability of the blood-brain barrier.</p><p>Gu estimates that around 90 percent of retinal diseases are related to barrier leakage, necessitating treatments that make the barrier less permeable -- something that also appears to be true for certain neurodegenerative diseases. On the flip side, in some conditions, the barrier needs to become temporarily more permeable so that medicines can be delivered into the brain.</p><p>\"By identifying this basic molecular mechanism, now maybe we can find agonists that target this mechanism to tighten the barrier, and inhibitors that target this mechanism to open it,\" Gu said.</p><p>Perhaps most importantly, the work highlights the fundamental role of the microenvironment in controlling the permeability of the blood-brain barrier and brings researchers another step closer to a complete understanding of how the blood-brain barrier works.</p><p>The study was funded by a Mahoney Postdoctoral Fellowship, Fidelity Biosciences Research Initiative, an Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, the NIH (DP1NS092473 Pioneer Award; R01 HL153261; RF1 DA048786), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.</p><p>Additional authors on the study include Christopher Gallego Lazo of HMS and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Shenghuan Sun, formerly of HMS and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and Wei Zhang and Bianxiao Cui of Stanford University.</p>','2022-03-15 19:05:20.914137','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Harvard Medical School','The blood-brain barrier plays an essential role in protecting the central nervous system from harmful bacteria, toxins, and other blood-borne pathogens.',1,124,'<li>Swathi Ayloo, Christopher Gallego Lazo, Shenghuan Sun, Wei Zhang, Bianxiao Cui, Chenghua Gu. <strong>Pericyte-to-endothelial cell signaling via vitronectin-integrin regulates blood-CNS barrier</strong>. <em>Neuron</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.02.017\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.neuron.2022.02.017</a>\r\n</li>'),(1143,'Living near green areas reduces the risk of suffering a stroke by 16 percent, study finds','living-near-green-areas-reduces-the-risk-of-suffering-a-stroke-by-16-percent-study-finds','2022-03-16 06:17:05.499441','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The risk of suffering an ischaemic stroke, the most common type of cerebrovascular event, is 16% less in people who have green spaces less than 300 metres from their homes. This has been revealed in a joint study by the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Hospital del Mar, the Catalan Health Quality and Assessment Agency (AQuAS) from the Catalan Government\'s Department of Health and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre promoted by the \"la Caixa\" Foundation. It is the most important work in this field to date in Europe, analysing data on the entire population of Catalonia between 2016 and 2017. It has been published in the journal <em>Environment International</em>.</p><p>The study took into account information on exposure to three atmospheric pollutants linked to vehicle traffic in more than three and a half million people selected from among the 7.5 million residents of Catalonia, over the age of eighteen who had not suffered a stroke prior to the start of the study. Specifically, it analysed the impact of the levels of particulate matter under 2.5 microns (PM<sub>2.5</sub>), nitrogen dioxide (NO<sub>2</sub>) and soot particles at the place of residence of each of the people studied. The number and density of green spaces within a 300-metre radius of their homes was also studied. The data was obtained via geographic referencing and by designing models of exposure to the two determinants, using population data obtained by reusing health information generated in Catalonia and anonymised by the Data Analytics Programme for Research and Innovation in Health (Programa d\'Analítica de Dades per a la Recerca i la Innovació en Salut; PADRIS) and managed by the Catalan Agency for Health Quality and Assessment (Agència de Qualitat i Avaluació Sanitàries de Catalunya; AQuAS).</p><p><strong>More pollution, a higher risk of stroke</strong></p><p>The results indicate a direct relationship between increased levels of NO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere and the risk of ischaemic stroke. For every increase of 10 micrograms (µg) per cubic metre, this risk increases by 4%. The same happens when PM<sub>2.5</sub> levels increase by 5 µg/m<sup>3</sup>. In the case of soot particles, the risk increases by 5% for every 1 µg/m<sup>3</sup> increase in the atmosphere. These figures are the same for the entire population, irrespective of other socio-economic factors, age or smoking habits.</p><p>\"It should be borne in mind that, unlike other air pollutants, which have various sources, NO<sub>2 </sub>is mainly caused by road traffic. Therefore, if we really want to reduce the multiple risks that this pollutant poses to people\'s health, we need to implement bold measures to reduce car use\", says Cathryn Tonne, a researcher at ISGlobal.</p><p>\"The study demonstrates the importance of environmental determinants in stroke risk. Given that it is predicted that the incidence, mortality and disability attributed to the disease will increase in the coming years, it is important to understand all the risk factors involved\", explains Dr. Carla Avellaneda, a researcher in the Neurovascular Research Group at IMIM-Hospital del Mar and one of the main authors of the study. Previous studies by the same group had already provided evidence on the relationship between factors such as soot or noise levels and the risk of suffering a stroke and its severity. All these factors act as stroke triggers.</p><p>In contrast, having an abundance of green spaces within the same radius from the home directly reduces the risk of suffering a stroke. Specifically, up to 16%. In this sense, \"People who are surrounded by greater levels of greenery at their place of residence are protected against the onset of stroke\", says Dr. Avellaneda. Exposure to green spaces is generally considered to have beneficial effects through a variety of mechanisms, such as stress reduction, increased physical activity and social contact, and even exposure to an enriched microbiome.</p><p><strong>Rethinking established air pollutant limits</strong></p><p>In view of this data, the researchers point out that it is necessary to reflect on the current levels of atmospheric pollution that are considered safe. At the moment, the thresholds set by the European Union are 40 µg/m<sup>3</sup> for NO<sub>2</sub>, which the World Health Organisation reduces to 10 µg/m<sup>3</sup>, and 25 µg/m<sup>3</sup> for PM<sub>2.5</sub>, which the WHO limits to 5 µg/m<sup>3</sup>. Currently, no levels have been set for soot particles. In fact, the levels recorded during the period analysed were lower, on average, than those set by the European authorities (17 µg/m<sup>3</sup> for PM<sub>2.5</sub>, 35 µg/m<sup>3 </sup>for NO<sub>2</sub> and 2.28 µg/m<sup>3</sup> in the case of soot).</p><p>\"Despite compliance with the levels set by the European Union, we are faced with the paradox that there is still a health risk, such as the one we identified in this study, where there is a direct relationship between exposure to pollutants in our environment and the risk of suffering a stroke\", explains Dr. Rosa Maria Vivanco, lead author of the study and researcher at AQuAS and IMIM-Hospital del Mar. \"The danger is still present and many more measures need to be taken\", considering the increase in the urban population and its ageing, she adds.</p><p>In this sense, Dr. Jaume Roquer, head of the Neurology Service at Hospital del Mar and coordinator of the Neurovascular Research Group at IMIM-Hospital del Mar, points out that \"This study demonstrates the real impact that environmental aspects have on the health of the Catalan population. In view of the effects of atmospheric pollution, the lack of green spaces, noise, and so forth, more efforts and populational strategies are needed to reduce its impact. Its harmful effects are permanently and globally damaging. We must strive to achieve more sustainable towns and cities where living does not mean an increased risk of disease.\"</p>','2022-03-15 19:05:23.302276','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute)','The risk of suffering an ischaemic stroke, the most common type of cerebrovascular event, is 16 percent less in people who have green spaces less than 300 meters from their homes. The study took into account information on exposure to three atmospheric pollutants linked to vehicle traffic in more than three and a half million people selected from among the 7.5 million residents of Catalonia, over the age of eighteen who had not suffered a stroke prior to the start of the study.',1,209,'<li>C. Avellaneda-Gómez, R.M. Vivanco-Hidalgo, S. Olmos, U. Lazcano, A. Valentin, C. Milà, A. Ambrós, J. Roquer, C. Tonne. <strong>Air pollution and surrounding greenness in relation to ischemic stroke: A population-based cohort study</strong>. <em>Environment International</em>, 2022; 161: 107147 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107147\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.envint.2022.107147</a>\r\n</li>'),(1145,'Cell fusion ‘awakens’ regenerative potential of human retina','cell-fusion-awakens-regenerative-potential-of-human-retina','2022-03-16 06:14:21.468397','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Fusing human retinal cells with adult stem cells could be a potential therapeutic strategy to treat retinal damage and visual impairment, according to the findings of a new study published in the journal <em>eBioMedicine</em><em>. </em>The hybrid cells act by awakening the regenerative potential of human retinal tissue, previously only thought to be the preserve of cold-blood vertebrates.</p><p>Cell fusion events -- the combination of two different cells into one single entity -- are known to be a possible mechanism contributing to tissue regeneration. Though rare in humans, the phenomenon has been consistently detected in the liver, brain, and gastrointestinal tract.</p><p>A team led by ICREA Research Professor Pia Cosma at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona and funded by Fundació \"la Caixa\" has now found that cell fusion events also take place in the human retina.</p><p>The researchers tested whether cell fusion events could differentiate into cells that turn into neurons, which would show potential for tissue regeneration. The team fused Müller glia, cells that play a secondary but important role in maintaining the structure and function of the retina, with adult stem cells derived from human adipose tissue or bone marrow.</p><p>\"We were able to carry out cell fusion <em>in </em>vitro,creating hybrid cells. Importantly, the process was more efficient in the presence of a chemical signal transmitted from the retina in response to damage, resulting in rates of hybridisation increasing twofold. This gave us an important clue for the role of cell fusion in the retina,\" says Sergi Bonilla, postdoctoral researcher at the CRG at the time of publication and first author of the study.</p><p>The hybrid cells were injected into a growing retinal organoid, a model that closely resembles the function of the human retina. The researchers found that the hybrid cells successfully engrafted into the tissue and differentiated into cells that closely resemble ganglion cells, a type of neuron essential for vision.</p><p>\"Our findings are important because they show that the Müller Glia in the human retina have the potential to regenerate neurons,\" says Pia Cosma. \"Salamanders and fish can repair damage caused to the retina thanks to their Müller glia, which differentiate into neurons that rescue or replace damaged neurons. Mammalian Müller glia have lost this regenerative capacity, which means retinal damage or degradation can lead to visual impairment for life. Our findings bring us one step closer to recovering this ability.\"</p><p>The authors caution that much work remains to be done before the development of any potential treatments. One of the next steps is understanding why hybrid cells -- with four complete sets of chromosomes -- don\'t result in chromosomal instability and cancer development. The authors of the study believe the retina may have a mechanism regulating chromosome segregation similar to the liver, which contains tetraploid cells that act as a genetic reservoir, undergoing mitosis in response to stress and injury.</p><p>The study was led by the Centre for Genomic Regulation in collaboration with the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Barraquer Ophthalmology Center. The work is mainly funded by the CaixaResearch Health Research Call from Fundació \"la Caixa\" awarded to Pia Cosma (CRG), Nuria Montserrat (IBEC) and Justin Christopher D\'Antin (Barrraquer). It is also funded by the European Union\'s FET-Open EcaBox project, Velux Stiftung, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Catalan Agency for Management of University and Research (AGAUR).</p>','2022-03-15 19:49:18.482813','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Center for Genomic Regulation','Fusing human retinal cells with adult stem cells could be a potential therapeutic strategy to treat retinal damage and visual impairment, according to the findings of a new study. The hybrid cells were injected into a growing retinal organoid, a model that closely resembles the function of the human retina. The researchers found that the hybrid cells successfully engrafted into the tissue and differentiated into cells that closely resemble ganglion cells, a type of neuron essential for vision. The hybrid cells act by awakening the regenerative potential of human retinal tissue, previously only thought to be the preserve of cold-blood vertebrates.',1,29,'<li>Sergi Àngel Bonilla-Pons, Shoma Nakagawa, Elena Garreta Bahima, Álvaro Fernández-Blanco, Martina Pesaresi, Justin Christopher D\'Antin, Ruben Sebastian-Perez, Daniela Greco, Eduardo Domínguez-Sala, Raúl Gómez-Riera, Rafael Ignacio Barraquer Compte, Mara Dierssen, Nuria Montserrat Pulido, Maria Pia Cosma. <strong>Müller glia fused with adult stem cells undergo neural differentiation in human retinal models</strong>. <em>eBioMedicine</em>, 2022; 77: 103914 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103914\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103914</a>\r\n</li>'),(1146,'Scientists show large impact of controlling humidity on greenhouse gas emissions','scientists-show-large-impact-of-controlling-humidity-on-greenhouse-gas-emissions','2022-03-16 06:13:12.606516','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Greenhouse gas emissions from air conditioners are expected to climb as economic growth drives efforts to control both temperature and humidity, according to an analysis by scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Xerox PARC.</p><p>The research, which explores the environmental impact of controlling humidity, appears in the journal <em>Joule</em> as \"Humidity\'s impact on greenhouse gas emissions from air conditioning.\" While the energy used to power air conditioners has clear implications on greenhouse gas emissions, the impact from removing moisture from the air has escaped in-depth study until now. The researchers showed that controlling humidity is responsible for roughly half of the energy-related emissions, with the other half due to controlling temperature.</p><p>\"It\'s a challenging problem that people haven\'t solved since air conditioners became commonplaces more than a half-century ago,\" said Jason Woods, an NREL senior research engineer and co-author of the new study. His co-authors from NREL are Nelson James, Eric Kozubal, and Eric Bonnema. The collaborators from Xerox PARC, an R&amp;D company working on ways to remove humidity more efficiently from the air, are Kristin Brief, Liz Voeller, and Jessy Rivest.</p><p>The researchers pointed out the increasing need to cool the air is both a cause and an effect of climate change.</p><p>Even a small amount of moisture in the air can cause people to feel uncomfortable and even damage buildings in the form of mold and mildew. Furthermore, controlling indoor humidity through commercially available air conditioning technologies impacts the environment in three ways: 1) They consume a considerable amount of electricity, 2) they use and leak CFC-based refrigerants with global warming potential that is 2,000 times as potent as carbon dioxide, and 3) the manufacturing and delivery of these systems also release greenhouse gases.</p><p>The researchers calculated air conditioning is responsible for the equivalent of 1,950 million tons of carbon dioxide released annually, or 3.94% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Of that figure, 531 million tons comes from energy expended to control the temperature and 599 million tons from removing humidity. The balance of the 1,950 million tons of the carbon dioxide come from leakage of global-warming-causing refrigerants and from emissions during the manufacturing and transport of the air conditioning equipment. Managing humidity with air conditioners contributes more to climate change than controlling temperature does. The problem is expected to worsen as consumers in more countries -- particularly in India, China, and Indonesia -- rapidly install many more air conditioners.</p><p>\"It\'s a good and a bad thing,\" Woods said. \"It\'s good that more people can benefit from improved comfort, but it also means a lot more energy is used, and carbon emissions are increased.\"</p><p>To calculate the emissions to manage both temperature and humidity, the researchers divided the globe into a fine grid measuring 1 degree of latitude by 1 degree of longitude. Within each grid cell, the following characteristics were considered: population, gross domestic product, estimated air conditioner ownership per capita, carbon intensity of the grid, and hourly weather. They ran nearly 27,000 simulations across the globe for representative commercial and residential buildings.</p><p>Climate change is affecting ambient temperatures and humidity around the globe, making it warmer and more humid. As part of the study, the researchers considered the impact of the changing climate on air conditioner energy use by 2050. For example, the study projects air conditioner energy use to increase by 14% in the hottest climate studied (Chennai, India) and by 41% in the mildest (Milan, Italy) by 2050. The increase in global humidity is projected to have a larger impact on emissions than the increase in global temperatures.</p><p>\"We\'ve already made the existing, century-old technology nearly as efficient as possible,\" Woods said. \"To get a transformational change in efficiency, we need to look at different approaches without the limitations of the existing one.\"</p><p>Existing vapor compression technology is optimized to cool our buildings using a \"vapor compression cycle.\" This cycle uses harmful refrigerants to cool air down low enough to wring out its moisture, often over-cooling the air and wasting energy. Improving the vapor compression cycle is reaching practical and theoretical limits, thus pointing to a need to leap-frog to an entirely new way to cool and dehumidify buildings. New technologies that split this cooling and humidity control problem into two processes show potential to improve efficiency by 40% or more. Once such technology space is the use of liquid desiccant-based cooling cycles such as the many liquid desiccant air conditioning technologies that NREL is currently developing with many partners, such as Emerson and Blue Frontier.</p><p>The researchers point out that the use of liquid desiccants fundamentally changes the way humidity is controlled and has theoretical efficiency limit that is 10 times higher than the vapor compression cycle alone. A hypothetical technology -- at only half this new limit -- would reduce cooling-energy emissions by 42% in 2050, with the equivalent of avoiding 2,460 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.</p><p>The Department of Energy\'s Building Technologies Office funded the research published in <em>Joule</em>.</p>','2022-03-15 19:49:28.174828','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'DOE/National Renewable Energy Laboratory','Greenhouse gas emissions from air conditioners are expected to climb as economic growth drives efforts to control both temperature and humidity, according to a new analysis.',1,207,'<li>Jason Woods, Nelson James, Eric Kozubal, Eric Bonnema, Kristin Brief, Liz Voeller, Jessy Rivest. <strong>Humidity’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions from air conditioning</strong>. <em>Joule</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2022.02.013\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.joule.2022.02.013</a>\r\n</li>'),(1147,'Assessing the impact of automation on long-haul trucking','assessing-the-impact-of-automation-on-long-haul-trucking','2022-03-16 06:10:58.663320','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">As automated truck technology continues to be developed in the United States, there are still many questions about how the technology will be deployed and what its potential impacts will be on the long-haul trucking market.</p><p>A new study by researchers at the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University assessed how and where automation might replace operator hours in long-haul trucking.</p><p>They found that up to 94% of operator hours may be impacted if automated trucking technology improves to operate in all weather conditions across the continental United States. Currently, automated trucking is being tested mainly in the Sun Belt.</p><p>\"Our results suggest that the impacts of automation may not happen all at once. If automation is restricted to Sun Belt states (including Florida, Texas and Arizona) -- because the technology may not initially work well in rough weather -- about 10% of the operator hours will be affected,\" said study co-author Parth Vaishnav, assistant professor of sustainable systems at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability.</p><p>Using transportation data from the 2017 Commodity Flow Survey, which is produced by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Commerce, the study authors gathered information on trucking shipments and the operator hours used to fulfill those shipments.</p><p>In addition, they explored different automated trucking deployment scenarios, including deployment in southern, sunny states; deployment in spring and summer months (April 1 to Sept. 30); deployment for journeys more than 500 miles; and deployment across the United States.</p><p>\"Our study is the first to combine a geospatial analysis based on shipment data with an explicit consideration of the specific capabilities of automation and how those might evolve over time,\" said co-author Aniruddh Mohan, a doctoral candidate in engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon.</p><p>The study was published online March 15 in the journal <em>Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.</em></p><p>Long-haul trucking is generally defined as transport that covers more than 150 miles. Several companies are currently working on developing automation for long-haul trucking that is designed to work as a \"transfer hub\" model.</p><p>It would involve an automated truck completing the highway leg of the route and human drivers undertaking the more complex suburban-urban segments at both the starting and end points of the journey. Truck ports near highways would be used to switch out the trailer from the prime mover and enable this switch at both ends.</p><p>Labor accounts for about two-fifths of the cost of trucking, so deploying automated technology will be seen as an attractive option for trucking companies to save money, said Vaishnav. However, there are concerns about the potential job losses for workers.</p><p>\"Because trucking is viewed as one of the few jobs that give folks with a high school education the chance to make a decent living, there is a concern that automation will eliminate these jobs,\" he said. \"Some people worry that all or most of the million or more trucking jobs might be lost.</p><p>\"In terms of numbers, our analysis showed that automation could eliminate a few hundred thousand jobs (as opposed to a million or more), but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that for most people these are fleeting, poorly paid and unpleasant jobs. We think that it is possible that the number of operator hours lost at truck stops, because automated trucks will have no drivers who need to be served at truck stops, could be compensated by new employment opportunities at transfer hub ports.\"</p><p>The researchers also analyzed if automated trucking could lead to an increase in short-haul driving jobs, which involve transporting shipments within a 150-mile radius, and determined that the operator hours of work lost to the automation of long-haul trucking would not be made up both in terms of quantity and quality by short-haul driving work. Short-haul jobs typically pay less than long-haul jobs, the study noted, creating the potential for a reduced livelihood for workers.</p><p>\"We found that an increase in short-haul operation is unlikely to compensate for the loss in long-haul operator-hours, despite public claims to this effect by the developers of the technology,\" Vaishnav said. \"As a result of these conflicting claims, as well as the uncertainty over the technology itself and its limitations, there is little clarity on how automated trucking will be deployed and its economic and political ramifications, such as the impact on the long-haul trucking labor market. We hope to help resolve these controversies.\"</p><p>As part of their study, the researchers conducted interviews with trucking industry stakeholders, including tractor-trailer operators, to determine the feasibility of automated trucking deployment.</p><p>\"A key finding was just how economically attractive this technology would be and the fact that everyone, including truckers, agreed that the interstate part of the job could be automated,\" Vaishnav said. \"Ultimately, societal and political choices can determine the mode of deployment of automated trucking capabilities, as well as the winners and losers of any shift to automation of long-haul trucking.\"</p><p>The research was supported by Carnegie Mellon University\'s Department of Engineering and Public Policy and the Block Center for Technology and Society.</p>','2022-03-15 19:49:30.562119','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Michigan','As automated truck technology continues to be developed in the United States, there are still many questions about how the technology will be deployed and what its potential impacts will be on the long-haul trucking market.',1,205,'<li>Aniruddh Mohan, Parth Vaishnav. <strong>Impact of automation on long haul trucking operator-hours in the United States</strong>. <em>Humanities and Social Sciences Communications</em>, 2022; 9 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01103-w\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1057/s41599-022-01103-w</a>\r\n</li>'),(1148,'Immune cells linked to neurological disease prognosis and survival','immune-cells-linked-to-neurological-disease-prognosis-and-survival','2022-03-16 06:09:30.475293','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Immune cells could help predict the prognosis of patients with the rare neurological disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), says a study published today in eLife.</p><p>The findings suggest that measuring changes in immune cell populations may help physicians monitor the status of patients with ALS. They also hint at a protective role that some immune cells might play in the disease, while others speed up disease progression. These new insights could help scientists find novel ways to treat ALS.</p><p>There are currently no effective treatments or cures for ALS, and the exact cause of the disease remains unclear. \"Some studies implicate the immune system in ALS, but few have tracked immune cell populations in patients over time,\" explains first author Can Cui, a PhD graduate at the Unit of Integrative Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. \"We set out to track immune changes in patients with ALS and determine if they could predict the patients\' prognosis.\"</p><p>Cui and colleagues recruited 288 ALS patients living in Stockholm to participate in the study. They collected blood samples from the patients at the start of the study and at regular intervals afterward. They then tracked the relationship between immune cells in the samples and the participants\' disease progression for up to five years.</p><p>They found that the number of immune cells called leukocytes, neutrophils and monocytes increased in the participants during this period. As this happened, it became more difficult for the patients to complete basic physical tasks such as swallowing, holding utensils, or walking up and down stairs. However, there was no link between the levels of these cells in the body and a patient\'s risk of death.</p><p>In a subsample of 92 patients -- the \'FlowC cohort\', in which 88% of participants were also included in the main cohort of 288 -- the team measured 23 subpopulations of lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) in the patients\' blood. They found that those with higher counts of natural killer cells and higher proportions of Th2-differentiated CD4+ T cells were likely to have better survival. However, higher proportions of CD8+ T cells and CD4+ EMRA T cells were associated with worse survival.</p><p>\"Immune cells appear to play a dual role in ALS,\" Cui explains. \"Higher numbers of neutrophils and monocytes reflect worsening motor function in patients, while higher T-cell levels may be associated more clearly with survival.\"</p><p>\"These discoveries have important implications for understanding ALS and may contribute to the development of treatments that target specific immune cells,\" adds co-author Caroline Ingre, Head of the ALS Center at Karolinska University Hospital, Solna, Sweden.</p><p>The authors add that there are a number of limitations to their study. For example, their analysis of cell types and proportions in the participants should be interpreted with caution, as not all patients were able to contribute repeated cell measurements due to high mortality rates in ALS.</p><p>Despite the limitations, the research paves the way for learning more about how ALS progresses and finding potential new ways for monitoring patients. \"Our results also suggest the need for further studies on whether targeting specific immune cells could help improve patient outcomes,\" Ingre concludes.</p>','2022-03-15 19:49:36.468228','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'eLife','Immune cells could help predict the prognosis of patients with the rare neurological disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), says a new study.',1,91,'<li>Can Cui, Caroline Ingre, Li Yin, Xia Li, John Andersson, Christina Seitz, Nicolas Ruffin, Yudi Pawitan, Fredrik Piehl, Fang Fang. <strong>Correlation between leukocyte phenotypes and prognosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022; 11 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.74065\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.74065</a>\r\n</li>'),(1149,'Dispersal strategies drive marine microbial diversity','dispersal-strategies-drive-marine-microbial-diversity','2022-03-16 06:08:11.441735','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Trade-offs between the benefit of colonising new particles and the risk of being wiped out by predators allow diverse populations of marine microbes to exist together, shows a study published today in eLife.</p><p>The findings help explain how a vast array of diverse bacteria and microbes coexist on floating particle rafts in oceans.</p><p>Microbial foraging in patchy environments, where resources are fragmented into particles, plays a key role in natural environments. In oceans and freshwater systems, bacteria and microbes can interact with particle surfaces in different ways: some only colonise them for short periods, while others form long-lived, stable colonies.</p><p>Scientists have long puzzled over the greater-than-expected diversity of microscopic creatures in oceans, a phenomenon called the \'plankton paradox\'. While researchers have begun to understand the factors that support so many different types of plankton, many questions remain about the more plentiful ocean microbes that live on floating particles.</p><p>\"We wanted to study the role that dispersal strategies play in the successful coexistence of different microbes living on the same set of particles,\" says co-first author Ali Ebrahimi, who completed the study while he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory for Environmental Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, US.</p><p>Ebrahimi and the team used mathematical modelling and computer simulations to test how different dispersal strategies may help marine microbes exist together in this way. They found that differently navigating the trade-offs between growth and survival can allow microbes to thrive together.</p><p>Their model showed that organisms which stay put on a single particle for longer have more opportunities to multiply. However, they face a higher risk of being wiped out by a virus or other predator capable of engulfing whole particles. On the other hand, microbes that more frequently hop between particles have less opportunity to multiply, but also have a lower risk of facing a mass mortality event. The success of one strategy over another may depend on differing environmental conditions.</p><p>\"When the particle supply is high, microbes that hop rapidly between them will have a greater chance of survival,\" explains co-first author Akshit Goyal, Physics of Living Systems Fellow at the MIT Department of Physics. \"But when particles are harder to come by, the bacteria that stay put will have an advantage.\"</p><p>Additionally, the team found that coexistence can remain stable in the face of changing environmental conditions, such as algal blooms of particles, favouring growth, and changing numbers of predators, favouring mortality. Together, these differing factors significantly increase the likelihood that populations with diverse dispersal strategies can live together.</p><p>\"Our work focused on the link between dispersal and mortality in the ocean, but there\'s plenty more going on in these environments,\" Goyal concludes. \"Future research could provide important new insights on how environmental changes might impact these minuscule communities and, in turn, their wider marine ecosystem.\"</p><p>Co-first authors Ebrahimi and Goyal worked on this study alongside senior author Otto Cordero, Associate Professor at the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.</p>','2022-03-15 19:49:41.045958','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'eLife','Trade-offs between the benefit of colonizing new particles and the risk of being wiped out by predators allow diverse populations of marine microbes to exist together, shows a new study.',1,204,'<li>Ali Ebrahimi, Akshit Goyal, Otto X Cordero. <strong>Particle foraging strategies promote microbial diversity in marine environments</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022; 11 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.73948\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.73948</a>\r\n</li>'),(1157,'Elevated inflammation persists in immune cells months after mild COVID-19','elevated-inflammation-persists-in-immune-cells-months-after-mild-covid-19','2022-03-16 06:06:55.829146','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">There is a lack of understanding as to why some people suffer from long-lasting symptoms after COVID-19 infection. A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, the Helmholtz Center Munich (HMGU) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), both in Germany, now demonstrates that a certain type of immune cell called macrophages show altered inflammatory and metabolic expression several months after mild COVID-19. The findings are published in the journal <em>Mucosal Immunology.</em></p><p>\"We can show that the macrophages from people with mild COVID-19 exhibit an altered inflammatory and metabolic expression for three to five months post-infection,\" says Craig Wheelock, docent at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, and one of the study\'s authors. \"Even though the majority of these people did not have any persistent symptoms, their immune system was more sensitive than that of their healthy counterparts.\"</p><p>Long-term symptoms are relatively common after severe COVID-19 infection but may also affect some individuals with previous mild disease. More research is needed to understand the long-term immune aberrations in patients who have recovered from the acute phase of the infection.</p><p>To examine this aspect, the researchers in the current study analysed blood samples from 68 people with previous mild COVID-19 infection and a control group of 36 people who had not had COVID-19.</p><p>The researchers isolated the macrophages in the laboratory and stimulated them with spike protein, steroids and lipopolysaccharides (LPS), a molecule that triggers the immune system. The cells were then RNA sequenced to measure active genes. The researchers also measured the presence of eicosanoid signaling molecules, which are a fundamental feature of inflammation.</p><p>\"It is not surprising to find a large number of eicosanoid molecules in people with COVID-19 as the disease causes inflammation, but it was surprising that they were still being produced in high quantities several months after the infection,\" Craig Wheelock says.</p><p>The study also showed a higher concentration of leukotrienes, which are a type of pro-inflammatory molecules known for causing asthma.</p><p>\"It\'s very striking that the concentration of leukotrienes remains elevated in macrophages in people who have had mild COVID-19,\" says the study\'s corresponding author Julia Esser-von Bieren, research group leader at the Helmholtz Center Munich and the Technical University of Munich. \"Leukotrienes are key mediators of asthma, but they\'re also involved in the antiviral host defence against influenza. A sustained increase after SARS-CoV-2 infection could cause a greater sensitivity to respiratory inflammation, but could also improve antiviral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 or other viruses.\"</p><p>The blood samples were collected on two occasions, at three to five months after SARS-CoV-2 infection and after 12 months. At three to five months, around 16 percent reported persistent mild symptoms while the rest were symptom-free. At 12 months, none reported persistent symptoms and there was no longer any difference in inflammatory markers between those with previous COVID-19 infection and the healthy control group.</p><p>The researchers note that the post-COVID diagnosis was not specifically examined in the study and as such more research is needed to determine if these results can be directly linked to what is also known as long COVID.</p><p>\"We would like to do a corresponding study in which we involve both people with severe COVID-19 and people without COVID-19 but who have another kind of respiratory disease, such as influenza,\" Esser-von Bieren says. \"We\'ll then examine if what inflicts COVID-19 patients also inflicts those with, say, seasonal influenza.\"</p><p>The study was financed by the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Helmholtz Association.</p><p>One of the authors has received funding from Allergopharma, PLS Design and Zeller AG.</p>','2022-03-15 21:13:21.050458','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Karolinska Institutet','There is a lack of understanding as to why some people suffer from long-lasting symptoms after COVID-19 infection. A new study now demonstrates that a certain type of immune cell called macrophages show altered inflammatory and metabolic expression several months after mild COVID-19.',1,91,'<li>Sina Bohnacker, Franziska Hartung, Fiona Henkel, Alessandro Quaranta, Johan Kolmert, Alina Priller, Minhaz Ud-Dean, Johanna Giglberger, Luisa M. Kugler, Lisa Pechtold, Sarah Yazici, Antonie Lechner, Johanna Erber, Ulrike Protzer, Paul Lingor, Percy Knolle, Adam M. Chaker, Carsten B. Schmidt-Weber, Craig E. Wheelock, Julia Esser-von Bieren. <strong>Mild COVID-19 imprints a long-term inflammatory eicosanoid- and chemokine memory in monocyte-derived macrophages</strong>. <em>Mucosal Immunology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41385-021-00482-8\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41385-021-00482-8</a>\r\n</li>'),(1159,'Do sharks get their ZZZs? New evidence shows it’s not all about the hunt','do-sharks-get-their-zzzs-new-evidence-shows-its-not-all-about-the-hunt','2022-03-16 06:05:58.104523','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The first physiological evidence that sharks take a break from tracking prey to catch a few winks has been uncovered by a Simon Fraser University researcher who specializes in sleep among aquatic creatures, from sharks to crocodiles.</p><p>Comparative sleep physiologist Mike Kelly, a postdoctoral research fellow in SFU\'s Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Lab and Translational Neuroscience Lab, studied the metabolic signatures of sleep and behavioural sleep indicators among New Zealand\'s draughtsboard sharks.</p><p>His research found that they produced a lower metabolic rate and recumbent body posture when inactive for longer than five minutes, supporting the idea that they were conserving energy by sleeping.</p><p>The findings are published this week in <em>Biology Letters</em>.</p><p>Kelly and researchers observed the sharks over 24-hour periods and tracked their metabolic rates and behavior during swimming, resting and suspected sleep periods.</p><p>\"The sharks showed a dramatic decrease in their metabolic rate and an obvious postural change following five minutes of inactivity, which demonstrated a distinct separation between periods of quiet wakefulness and sleep,\" says Kelly.</p><p>While it is known that many animals sleep, including bony fish species, Kelly says the research provides the first physiological evidence of sleep among elasmobranchs, a fish group that includes sharks, rays and skates.</p><p>Kelly earlier studied sleep behavior among crocodiles for his Honors thesis at Australia\'s La Trobe University. The research -- that found that these creatures likely sleep with one eye open -- was later published in the <em>Journal of Experimental Biology</em>.</p><p>In addition to sleep research with sharks, which began as his PhD thesis at the University of Western Australia, Kelly has become well-versed in the circadian rhythms and sleep behavior of many other fish species and has extended his work to include related behaviors in octopuses.</p><p>\"I find the best way to overcome my sheer terror of these creatures of the deep is to get up close and personal with them,\" Kelly says. \"Besides, better to be around them when they\'re sleeping than when they\'re ready to feed!\"</p><p>Kelly continues to learn more about shark behavior through examining the first wireless recordings of brain activity in both anesthetized and freely behaving sharks.</p><p>At SFU he is also investigating how traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects sleep in mouse models of Alzheimer\'s disease and how predation pressure has shaped the evolution of sleep with a focus on wild rat populations.</p><p>Video: <a href=\"https://youtu.be/m6zHAyYYf7g\">https://youtu.be/m6zHAyYYf7g</a></p>','2022-03-15 21:52:48.280670','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Simon Fraser University','The first physiological evidence that sharks take a break from tracking prey to catch a few winks has been uncovered by a researcher who specializes in sleep among aquatic creatures, from sharks to crocodiles. The comparative sleep physiologist studied the metabolic signatures of sleep and behavioral sleep indicators among New Zealand\'s draughtsboard sharks. His research found that they produced a lower metabolic rate and recumbent body posture when inactive for longer than five minutes, supporting the idea that they were conserving energy by sleeping.',1,116,'<li>Michael L. Kelly, Selwyn P. Collins, John A. Lesku, Jan M. Hemmi, Shaun P. Collin, Craig A. Radford. <strong>Energy conservation characterizes sleep in sharks</strong>. <em>Biology Letters</em>, 2022; 18 (3) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0259\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1098/rsbl.2021.0259</a>\r\n</li>'),(1160,'Study shows link between socioeconomic deprivation and premature cardiovascular mortality','study-shows-link-between-socioeconomic-deprivation-and-premature-cardiovascular-mortality','2022-03-16 06:04:43.975566','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">People living in socially-deprived areas of the United Statesare more likely to die prematurely from cardiovascular (CV) complications according to new research published recently in <em>Mayo Clinic Proceedings</em>.The study, completed by researchers at University Hospitals (UH) Harrington Heart &amp; Vascular Institute, found social deprivation can explain a significant proportion of the geographic variation in premature cardiovascular mortality in the U.S.</p><p>Socioeconomic deprivation is defined by a number of social and economic factors including education, income, employment and neighborhood environment. A large gap exists in explaining premature CV deaths across the U.S. which cannot be totally attributed to traditional risk factors such as high cholesterol. Recent evidence suggests socioeconomic deprivation is a risk factor for this type of mortality.</p><p>\"Socioeconomic status plays a big role in access to preventive care, risk factor control, and incidence of disease,\" said Sadeer Al-Kindi, MD, cardiologist and co-director of the Center for Integrated and Novel Approaches in Vascular-Metabolic Disease (CINEMA) with UH Harrington Heart &amp; Vascular Institute and the study\'s senior author. \"UH is committed to improving the health of all people by advancing science and human health. A large part of that is discovering the root cause of disease. With this study, we wanted to determine whether premature cardiovascular mortality is associated with socioeconomic deprivation and how premature cardiovascular mortality changed over time by social deprivation.\"</p><p>In \"Socioeconomic Deprivation and Premature Cardiovascular Mortality in the United States\" researchers completed a cross-sectional analysis of United States county-level death certificate data from 1999 to 2018 using files maintained by the U.S. National Center for Health and Statistics. They looked at people from the ages of 25 to 64 who died from cardiovascular conditions. They used linear regression analysis to document two integrated metrics of socioeconomic deprivation: Social Deprivation Index (SDI) and county Area Deprivation Index (ADI).</p><p>Results from this research showed that counties with high social deprivation had the highest rates of premature cardiovascular deaths. Additionally, from 1999 to 2018 premature cardiovascular mortality decreased to a lesser extent in socially deprived counties compared with affluent counties. In fact, indicators of social deprivation directly explained a significant proportion of the geographic differences in premature CV mortality in the U.S.</p><p>\"Health and structural inequities in poor communities have been ignored for too long. We now know that where you live, inequities and other components embedded in the environment are powerful determinants of mortality, often from chronic non-communicable disease. Most importantly, shedding light on this pervasive issue compels us to act upon the information,\" said Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine and Chief Academic and Scientific Officer of UH Harrington Heart &amp; Vascular Institute and co-author of the study, as well as the Herman K. Hellerstein, MD, Chair in Cardiovascular Research.</p><p>UH is taking action in a multitude of ways, including through its work in the community thanks to the ACHIEVE GreatER initiative. A \"transformative\" $18.2 million federal grant from the National Institutes of Health\'s P50 program will facilitate medical and cardiovascular care provided directly to people living in Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, one of the nation\'s largest and oldest subsidized housing programs. Additional efforts by the study team are focused on understanding the integrated social and environmental underpinnings of premature cardiovascular disease in Northeast Ohio and nationally.</p><p>\"Regardless of where they live or how much money they make, all people should have the opportunity to receive the necessary medical resources and support to have a healthier life,\" said Dr. Mehdi Shishehbor, DO, MPH, PhD, President of UH Harrington Heart &amp; Vascular Institute, and the Angela and James Hambrick Chair in Innovation.</p><p>Prior studies have explored the relationship between race and premature CV mortality or individual socioeconomic factors (income, high school education) and CV mortality.</p><p>\"To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate a longitudinal association between multiple integrated metrics of socioeconomic deprivation and premature cardiovascular mortality adjusted for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, while also showing potentially worsening disparities,\" said Dr. Al-Kindi.</p>','2022-03-15 21:52:52.100362','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center','A new study found people living in socially-deprived areas of the United States are more likely to die prematurely from cardiovascular complications.',1,150,'<li>Graham H. Bevan, Khurram Nasir, Sanjay Rajagopalan, Sadeer Al-Kindi. <strong>Socioeconomic Deprivation and Premature Cardiovascular Mortality in the United States</strong>. <em>Mayo Clinic Proceedings</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2022.01.018\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.mayocp.2022.01.018</a>\r\n</li>'),(1161,'Combing the cosmos: New color catalog aids hunt for life on frozen worlds','combing-the-cosmos-new-color-catalog-aids-hunt-for-life-on-frozen-worlds','2022-03-16 06:03:38.948989','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Aided by microbes found in the subarctic conditions of Canada\'s Hudson Bay, an international team of scientists has created the first color catalog of icy planet surface signatures to uncover the existence of life in the cosmos.</p><p>As ground-based and space telescopes get larger and can probe the atmosphere of rocky exoplanets, astronomers need a color-coded guide to compare them and their moons to vibrant, tinted biological microbes on Earth, which may dominate frozen worlds that circle different stars.</p><p>But researchers need to know what microbes that live in frigid places on Earth look like before they can spot them elsewhere.</p><p>The study, \"Color Catalogue of Life in Ice: Surface Biosignatures on Icy Worlds,\" published in the journal <em>Astrobiology</em>, provides this toolkit. Researchers from Cornell University, Portugal\'s Instituto Superior de Agronomia and Técnico and Canada\'s Université Laval in Quebec were involved in the study.</p><p>\"On Earth, vibrant, biological colors in the Arctic represent signatures of life in small, frozen niches,\" said lead author Lígia F. Coelho, an astrobiologist and doctoral student at Técnico. She grew and measured this frigid, colorful biota at the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell (CSI).</p><p>Coelho collected 80 microorganisms from ice and water at Kuujjuarapik, Quebec, working across the frozen Hudson Bay, obtaining ice cores and drilling holes in the ice to take water samples. She acquired samples at the mouth of the Great Whale River in February 2019.</p><p>\"When searching for life in the cosmos, microbes in these frozen plains of the Arctic give us crucial insight of what to look for on cold new worlds,\" said Lisa Kaltenegger, a senior author on the paper, professor of astronomy at Cornell and director of the Carl Sagan Institute. Kaltenegger explained that this icy microbial life is well-adapted to the harsh radiation bombardment of space -- which can be the norm on distant exoplanets under a red sun.</p><p>\"We are assembling the tools to search for life in the universe, so as not to miss it, taking all of Earth\'s vibrant biosphere into account -- even those in the breathtaking chilled places of our Pale Blue Dot,\" Kaltenegger said.</p>','2022-03-15 21:52:55.075439','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Cornell University','Aided by microbes found in the subarctic conditions of Canada\'s Hudson Bay, an international team of scientists has created the first color catalog of icy planet surface signatures to uncover the existence of life in the cosmos.',1,111,'<li>Lígia F. Coelho, Jack Madden, Lisa Kaltenegger, Stephen Zinder, William Philpot, M. Glória Esquível, João Canário, Rodrigo Costa, Warwick F. Vincent, Zita Martins. <strong>Color Catalogue of Life in Ice: Surface Biosignatures on Icy Worlds</strong>. <em>Astrobiology</em>, 2021; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2021.0008\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1089/ast.2021.0008</a>\r\n</li>'),(1162,'Senolytic drugs boost key protective protein','senolytic-drugs-boost-key-protective-protein','2022-03-16 06:02:30.243385','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Mayo Clinic researchers say senolytic drugs can boost a key protein in the body that protects older people against aspects of aging and a range of diseases. Their findings, which are published in<em> eBioMedicine</em> demonstrate this in mice and human studies.</p><p>Senolytics developed at Mayo Clinic and given once clear the bloodstream of senescent or \"zombie\" cells. These cells contribute to multiple diseases and negative aspects of aging. This study shows that the removal of senescent cells significantly boosts the production of a protective protein called a-klotho.</p><p>\"We show that there is an avenue for an orally active, small-molecule approach to increase this beneficial protein and also to amplify the action of senolytic drugs,\" says James Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic internist and senior author of the study.</p><p>The researchers first showed that senescent cells decrease levels of a-klotho in three types of human cells: umbilical vein endothelial cells, kidney cells and brain cells. They also demonstrated that using the senolyitics desatinib plus quercitin in three types of mice that a-klotho was increased. And then after administering desatinib plus quercitin in clinical trial participants with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, that a-klotho also increased.</p><p>\"We also are first to link the potential impact of fat-resident senescent cells on brain a-klotho,\" says Yi Zhu, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic physiologist and biomedical engineer, and first author of the study. \"This may open another avenue to investigate the impact of peripheral senescent cells on brain aging.\"</p><p>The protein a-klotho is important to maintaining good health, as it tends to decrease with age, and especially decreases in multiple diseases, including Alzheimer\'s, diabetes and kidney disease. Animal studies have shown that decreasing a-klotho in mice shortens life span and increasing a-klotho in mice by inserting a gene that causes its production increases life span by 30%.</p><p>Discovering ways to increase a-klotho in humans has been a major research goal, but that has been difficult because of its size and instability. Introducing it directly is problematic, as it would have to be administered into a vein instead of by mouth.</p><p>This study shows that senolytics, which can be administered orally, increase a-klotho in humans with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a senescence-associated disease that leads to frailty, serious breathing difficulties and death.</p><p>The study was supported by the National Institute of Health, the Translational Geroscience Network, Robert and Arlene Kogod, the Connor Group, Robert J. and Theresa W. Ryan, and the Noaber Foundation.</p><p>The other authors are Yi Zhu, Ph.D.; Larissa Prata, Ph.D.; Erin Wissler Gerdes; Jair Machado Espindola Netto, Ph.D.; Tamar Pirtskhalava, Ph.D.; Nino Giorgadze; Utkarsh Tripathi; Christina Inman; Kurt Johnson; Ailing Xue; Allyson Palmer, M.D., Ph.D.; Tingjun Chen, M.D., Ph.D.; Kalli Schaefer; Jun Chen, Ph.D.; Sundeep Khosla, M.D.; Diana Jurk, Ph.D.; Marissa Schafer, Ph.D.; and Tamar Tchkonia, Ph.D. -- all of Mayo Clinic -- and Jamie Justice, Ph.D., and Stephen Kritchevsky, Ph.D., Wake Forest School of Medicine, and Anoop Nambiar, M.D., and Nicolas Musi, M.D., University of Texas.</p>','2022-03-15 21:52:58.103095','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Mayo Clinic','Researchers say senolytic drugs can boost a key protein in the body that protects older people against aspects of aging and a range of diseases. Their findings demonstrate this in mice and human studies.',1,155,'<li>Yi Zhu, Larissa G.P. Langhi Prata, Erin O. Wissler Gerdes, Jair Machado Espindola Netto, Tamar Pirtskhalava, Nino Giorgadze, Utkarsh Tripathi, Christina L. Inman, Kurt O. Johnson, Ailing Xue, Allyson K. Palmer, Tingjun Chen, Kalli Schaefer, Jamie N. Justice, Anoop M. Nambiar, Nicolas Musi, Stephen B. Kritchevsky, Jun Chen, Sundeep Khosla, Diana Jurk, Marissa J. Schafer, Tamar Tchkonia, James L. Kirkland. <strong>Orally-active, clinically-translatable senolytics restore α-Klotho in mice and humans</strong>. <em>eBioMedicine</em>, 2022; 103912 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103912\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103912</a>\r\n</li>'),(1163,'Materials scientists finding solutions to biggest hurdle for solar cell technology','materials-scientists-finding-solutions-to-biggest-hurdle-for-solar-cell-technology','2022-03-16 06:01:17.038954','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Materials scientists at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and colleagues from five other universities around the world have discovered the major reason why perovskite solar cells -- which show great promise for improved energy-conversion efficiency -- degrade in sunlight, causing their performance to suffer over time. The team successfully demonstrated a simple manufacturing adjustment to fix the cause of the degradation, clearing the biggest hurdle toward the widespread adoption of the thin-film solar cell technology.</p><p>A research paper detailing the findings was published today in<em> Nature </em>as an early access paper. The research is led by Yang Yang, a UCLA Samueli professor of materials science and engineering and holder of the Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas, Jr., Endowed Chair. The co-first authors are Shaun Tan and Tianyi Huang, both recent UCLA Samueli Ph.D. graduates whom Yang advised.</p><p>Perovskites are a group of materials that have the same atomic arrangement or crystal structure as the mineral calcium titanium oxide. A subgroup of perovskites, metal halide perovskites, are of great research interest because of their promising application for energy-efficient, thin-film solar cells.</p><p>Perovskite-based solar cells could be manufactured at much lower costs than their silicon-based counterparts, making solar energy technologies more accessible if the commonly known degradation under long exposure to illumination can be properly addressed.</p><p>\"Perovskite-based solar cells tend to deteriorate in sunlight much faster than their silicon counterparts, so their effectiveness in converting sunlight to electricity drops over the long term,\" said Yang, who is also a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. \"However, our research shows why this happens and provides a simple fix. This represents a major breakthrough in bringing perovskite technology to commercialization and widespread adoption.\"</p><p>A common surface treatment used to remove solar cell defects involves depositing a layer of organic ions that makes the surface too negatively charged. The UCLA-led team found that while the treatment is intended to improve energy-conversion efficiency during the fabrication process of perovskite solar cells, it also unintentionally creates a more electron-rich surface -- a potential trap for energy-carrying electrons.</p><p>This condition destabilizes the orderly arrangement of atoms, and over time, the perovskite solar cells become increasingly less efficient, ultimately making them unattractive for commercialization.</p><p>Armed with this new discovery, the researchers found a way to address the cells\' long-term degradation by pairing the positively charged ions with negatively charged ones for surface treatments. The switch enables the surface to be more electron-neutral and stable, while preserving the integrity of the defect-prevention surface treatments.</p><p>The team tested the endurance of their solar cells in a lab under accelerated aging conditions and 24/7 illumination designed to mimic sunlight. The cells managed to retain 87% of their original sunlight-to-electricity conversion performance for more than 2,000 hours. For comparison, solar cells manufactured without the fix dropped to 65% of their original performance after testing over the same time and conditions.</p><p>\"Our perovskite solar cells are among the most stable in efficiency reported to date,\" Tan said. \"At the same time, we\'ve also laid new foundational knowledge, on which the community can further develop and refine our versatile technique to design even more stable perovskite solar cells.\"</p><p>The other corresponding authors on the paper are Rui Wang, an assistant professor of engineering at Westlake University in Hangzhou, China; and Jin-Wook Lee, an assistant professor of engineering at Sungkyunkwan University in Suwon, South Korea. Both Wang and Lee are previous UCLA postdoctoral researchers advised by Yang.</p><p>Researchers from UC Irvine; Marmara University, Turkey; and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, also contributed to the paper.</p><p>The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy\'s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.</p>','2022-03-15 21:53:03.804553','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Los Angeles','Materials scientists have discovered the major reason why perovskite solar cells -- which show great promise for improved energy-conversion efficiency -- degrade in sunlight, causing their performance to suffer over time. The team successfully demonstrated a simple manufacturing adjustment to fix the cause of the degradation, clearing the biggest hurdle toward the widespread adoption of the thin-film solar cell technology.',1,138,'<li>Shaun Tan, Tianyi Huang, Ilhan Yavuz, Rui Wang, Tae Woong Yoon, Mingjie Xu, Qiyu Xing, Keonwoo Park, Do-Kyoung Lee, Chung-Hao Chen, Ran Zheng, Taegeun Yoon, Yepin Zhao, Hao-Cheng Wang, Dong Meng, Jingjing Xue, Young Jae Song, Xiaoqing Pan, Nam-Gyu Park, Jin-Wook Lee, Yang Yang. <strong>Stability-limiting heterointerfaces of perovskite photovoltaics</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04604-5\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04604-5</a>\r\n</li>'),(1164,'Fruit fly study uncovers functional significance of gene mutations associated with autism','fruit-fly-study-uncovers-functional-significance-of-gene-mutations-associated-with-autism','2022-03-16 06:00:29.007214','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">About 1 in 44 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by the age of 8, according to the 2018 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance. How a child\'s DNA contributes to the development of ASD has been more of a mystery. Recently, clinicians and scientists have looked more closely at new, or de novo, DNA changes, meaning they only are present in affected individuals but not in the parents. Researchers have seen that these changes could be responsible for about 30% of ASD. However, which de novo variants play a role in causing ASD remains unknown.</p><p>Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children\'s Hospital have taken a new approach to looking at de novo ASD genetic variants. In this multi-institutional study published in the journal <em>Cell Reports</em>, they applied sophisticated genetic strategies in laboratory fruit flies to determine the functional consequences of de novo variants identified in the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC), which includes approximately 2,600 families affected by autism spectrum disorder. Surprisingly, their work also allowed them to uncover a new form of rare disease due to a gene called GLRA2.</p><p>\"ASDs include complex neurodevelopmental conditions with impairments in social interaction, communication and restricted interests or repetitive behaviors. In the current study, we initiated our work based on information from a cohort of ASD patients in the SSC whose genomes and those of their families had been sequenced,\" said co-corresponding author Dr. Shinya Yamamoto, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics and of neuroscience at Baylor and investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children\'s. \"Our first goal was to identify gene variants associated with ASD that had a detrimental effect.\"</p><p>The team worked with the fruit fly lab model to determine the biological consequences of the ASD-associated variants. They selected 79 ASD variants in 74 genes identified in the SSC and studied the effect of each ASD-linked gene variant compared to the commonly found gene sequence (reference) as a control, from three different perspectives.</p><p>Co-first author, Dr. Paul Marcogliese, postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Hugo Bellen\'s lab, coordinated the effort on knocking out the corresponding fly gene, and examining their biological functions and expression patterns within the nervous system. They then replaced the fly gene with the human gene variant identified in patients, or the reference sequence, and determined how it affected biological functions in the flies.</p><p>Working with fruit flies carrying either the reference human gene or the variant forms, co-first author Dr. Jonathan Andrews, postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Michael Wangler\'s lab at Baylor, was the point person investigating how these gene variants affected fly behavior. As ASD patients exhibit patterns of repetitive behavior as well as changes in social interaction, he evaluated the effect of the patient variants on an array of social and non-social fly behaviors, such as courtship and grooming. \"It\'s interesting to see that manipulation of many of these genes also can cause behavioral changes in the flies,\" Andrews said. \"We found a number of human genes with ASD variants that altered behavior when expressed in flies, providing functional evidence that these have functional consequences.\"</p><p>The third approach involved overexpressing the genes of interest in different tissue types in fruit flies. Co-first authors Samantha Deal and Michael Harnish, two graduate students in Baylor\'s Graduate Programs in Developmental Biology and Genetics and Genomics, respectively, working in Dr. Yamamoto\'s lab, headed these studies. \"While some gene variants may lead to conditions because they produce defective proteins, others may lead to disease because they cause overabundance or aberrant function of a particular protein, which can disrupt biological processes. We investigated whether overexpressing gene variants found in individuals with ASD might explain the detrimental effect for some of these genes,\" Deal said.</p><p>Altogether, the team generated more than 300 fly strains in which they conducted functional studies of human gene variants associated with ASD. Their screen elucidated 30 ASD-linked variants with functional differences compared to the reference gene, which was about 40% of the genes for which they were able to perform a comparative functional assay.</p><p>\"Some of the variants we studied had functional consequences that were moderately or clearly predicted to be disruptive, but other variants were a surprise. Even the state-of-the-art computational programs couldn\'t predict they would have detrimental effects,\" said Yamamoto. \"This highlights the value of using multiple, complementary approaches to evaluate the functional consequences of genetic variants associated with ASD or other conditions in a living animal. Our fruit fly approach is a valuable tool to investigate the biological relevance of gene variants associated with disease.\"</p><p>In addition, the wealth of data generated by the researchers revealed gene variants not previously connected with other neurodevelopmental diseases and uncovered new aspects of the complexity of genetic diseases.</p><p>\"GLRA2 was one gene we specifically focused on to follow up,\" Dr. Ronit Marom, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor and lead clinician of this work said. \"We identified 13 patients, five males and eight females, carrying rare variants of this X-linked gene that had not been established as a neurological disease gene before. Furthermore, males and females carried variants with different types of functional consequences and the spectrum of neurological characteristics among these 13 patients was different between the two groups. For instance, many of the boys carried loss of function variants and had ASD, while the girls did not. They mainly presented with developmental delay as the main characteristic of their condition, and carried gain of function variants.\"</p><p>\"The picture that emerges is that ASD may not be one disorder involving many genes. It may actually be hundreds of genetic disorders, like those caused by certain GLRA2 variants,\" said Wangler, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor and co-corresponding author of the work. \"We think that this information is important to physicians seeing patients with ASD.\"</p><p>For a complete list of the contributors to this work, their affiliations and the financial support for this project, see the publication.</p>','2022-03-15 21:53:08.259815','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Baylor College of Medicine','Researchers applied sophisticated genetic strategies in laboratory fruit flies to determine the functional consequences of de novo variants identified in the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC), which includes approximately 2,600 families affected by autism spectrum disorder. Surprisingly, their work also allowed them to uncover a new form of rare disease due to a gene called GLRA2.',1,123,'<li>Paul C. Marcogliese, Samantha L. Deal, Jonathan Andrews, J. Michael Harnish, V. Hemanjani Bhavana, Hillary K. Graves, Sharayu Jangam, Xi Luo, Ning Liu, Danqing Bei, Yu-Hsin Chao, Brooke Hull, Pei-Tseng Lee, Hongling Pan, Pradnya Bhadane, Mei-Chu Huang, Colleen M. Longley, Hsiao-Tuan Chao, Hyung-lok Chung, Nele A. Haelterman, Oguz Kanca, Sathiya N. Manivannan, Linda Z. Rossetti, Ryan J. German, Amanda Gerard, Eva Maria Christina Schwaibold, Sarah Fehr, Renzo Guerrini, Annalisa Vetro, Eleina England, Chaya N. Murali, Tahsin Stefan Barakat, Marieke F. van Dooren, Martina Wilke, Marjon van Slegtenhorst, Gaetan Lesca, Isabelle Sabatier, Nicolas Chatron, Catherine A. Brownstein, Jill A. Madden, Pankaj B. Agrawal, Boris Keren, Thomas Courtin, Laurence Perrin, Melanie Brugger, Timo Roser, Steffen Leiz, Frederic Tran Mau-Them, Julian Delanne, Elena Sukarova-Angelovska, Slavica Trajkova, Erik Rosenhahn, Vincent Strehlow, Konrad Platzer, Roberto Keller, Lisa Pavinato, Alfredo Brusco, Jill A. Rosenfeld, Ronit Marom, Michael F. Wangler, Shinya Yamamoto. <strong>Drosophila functional screening of de novo variants in autism uncovers damaging variants and facilitates discovery of rare neurodevelopmental diseases</strong>. <em>Cell Reports</em>, 2022; 38 (11): 110517 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110517\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110517</a>\r\n</li>'),(1165,'Molecular networks could explain racial disparity in triple negative breast cancer deaths','molecular-networks-could-explain-racial-disparity-in-triple-negative-breast-cancer-deaths','2022-03-16 05:59:35.877635','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Different activity in two molecular networks could help explain why triple negative breast cancers tend to be more aggressive in African American (AA) women compared with white American (WA) women, a new study led by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers suggests.</p><p>The findings, published online Dec. 20 in <em>eLife</em>, may explain the marked racial disparity in mortality for this subset of breast cancer and offer new strategies for treating this deadly disease.</p><p>\"The incidence of breast cancer in African American women is lower than in white American women, but mortality is higher. Our work shows the molecular mechanisms that cause cancer cells to grow and spread faster in African American women,\" says study leader Dipali Sharma, Ph.D., professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and John Fetting Fund for Breast Cancer Prevention researcher.</p><p>Better diagnosis and treatment have decreased breast cancer mortality in the past few decades, cutting death rates by about 40%, but AA women are still 42% more likely to die from this disease than WA women. Although AA women have a lower incidence of breast cancer than WA women overall, the disparity in mortality can be partially explained by a higher incidence among AA women of triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive breast cancer subset characterized by a lack of estrogen, progesterone and HER2 receptors. However, even among triple negative breast cancers, those in AA women tend to be even more aggressive than those in WA women, significantly decreasing AA survival rates.</p><p>To better understand this phenomenon, Sharma and her colleagues compared the behavior of triple negative breast cancer cell lines isolated from AA and WA women. When grown in petri dishes, the cells from AA women multiplied at a faster pace, were more invasive to surrounding tissue, were more likely to migrate, and had more \"stem-like\" cells capable of creating new tumors compared with the cells from WA women. When placed into mice, the cells from AA women created larger tumors faster and metastasized quicker compared with the cells from WA women.</p><p>\"The triple negative breast cancer cells from African American women were more aggressive from the get-go,\" says Sumit Siddharth, first author on the paper and postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins Medicine.</p><p>Searching for the molecular mechanisms behind these differences, the researchers assessed gene activity in each of the cell lines and in tumor samples from AA and WA women. They found that two genes, known as GLI1 and Notch1, were more active in cells isolated from AA women compared with those isolated from WA women. Both genes produce proteins known as transcription factors, explains Sheetal Parida, a study co-author and postdoctoral fellow, and are responsible for regulating large networks of other genes that can broadly affect cell function.</p><p>To determine whether GLI1 and Notch1 could serve as effective targets for triple negative breast cancers, the researchers dosed the cell lines from WA and AA women with an inhibitor for each of these two genes along with a common chemotherapy agent used to treat these cancers. Although each agent was largely ineffective on its own, combining all three drugs significantly inhibited growth, invasion and migration in the AA cell lines. Treating mice with tumors grown from these cell lines had similar positive effects, reducing tumor size and metastasis.</p><p>Sharma says that she and her team plan to continue to test GLI1 and Notch1 inhibitors in mouse models of triple negative breast cancers to find the best combination with chemotherapies and eventually investigate this strategy in clinical trials of patients with this disease subtype.</p><p>\"Eventually,\" she says, \"we may be able to close the survival gap between African American and white American women with triple negative breast cancers.\"</p><p>In addition to Sharma, Siddharth and Parida, other researchers who contributed to this study were Nethaji Muniraj, Arumugam Nagalingam, David Lim, and Chenguang Wang from Johns Hopkins; Shawn Hercules and Juliet Daniel from MacMaster University, Hamilton, Canada; and Balazs Gyorffy from MTA TTK Momentum Cancer Biomarker Research Group, Budapest, Hungary.</p><p>This research was funded by the National Cancer Institute (R01CA204555).</p>','2022-03-15 21:53:09.929342','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Johns Hopkins Medicine','Different activity in two molecular networks could help explain why triple negative breast cancers tend to be more aggressive in African American (AA) women compared with white American (WA) women, a new study suggests.',1,35,'<li>Sumit Siddharth, Sheetal Parida, Nethaji Muniraj, Shawn Hercules, David Lim, Arumugam Nagalingam, Chenguang Wang, Balazs Gyorffy, Juliet M Daniel, Dipali Sharma. <strong>Concomitant activation of GLI1 and Notch1 contributes to racial disparity of human triple negative breast cancer progression</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2021; 10 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.70729\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.70729</a>\r\n</li>'),(1166,'Ancient El Niños reveal limits to future climate projections','ancient-el-ninos-reveal-limits-to-future-climate-projections','2022-03-16 05:58:46.987628','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The climate pattern El Niño varies over time to such a degree that scientists will have difficulty detecting signs that it is getting stronger with global warming.</p><p>That\'s the conclusion of a study led by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin that analyzed 9,000 years of Earth\'s history. The scientists drew on climate data contained within ancient corals and used one of the world\'s most powerful supercomputers to conduct their research.</p><p>The study of the past, which was recently published in <em>Science Advances</em>, was motivated by the need to get a clearer picture of how climate change may affect El Niño in the future.</p><p>El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation, a climate phenomenon that sets the stage every few years for weather patterns worldwide. Strong El Niño events, such as the ones in 1997 and 2015 that brought wildfires to the rainforests of Borneo in Asia and caused widespread bleaching to the world\'s coral reefs, happened about once a decade.</p><p>Computer models, however, are unclear about whether El Niño events will become weaker or stronger as the world warms due to climate change.</p><p>\"Much of the world\'s temperature and rainfall are influenced by what happens in the tropical Pacific Ocean where El Niño starts,\" said the study\'s lead author, Allison Lawman, who began the research as a Ph.D. project at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder. \"The difference in rainfall between greater or fewer strong El Niño events is going to be a critical question for infrastructure and resource planners.\"</p><p>Lawman and her collaborators used the Lonestar5 supercomputer at UT\'s Texas Advanced Computing Center to run a series of climate simulations of a period in Earth\'s history before human influences, when the main source of climate change came from a tilt in the planet\'s orbit. The simulations were verified using a coral emulator Lawman had previously developed to compare them with climate records from ancient corals.</p><p>They found that although the occurrence of strong El Niño events intensified over time, the change was small compared with El Niño\'s highly variable nature.</p><p>\"It\'s like trying to listen to soft music next to a jackhammer,\" said study co-author Jud Partin, a research scientist at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.</p><p>To achieve this, Partin, Lawman and the study\'s other authors call for further investigations into even earlier times in Earth\'s history, such as the last ice age, to see how El Niño responded to more intense changes in climate forces.</p><p>\"Scientists need to keep pushing the limits of models and look at geological intervals deeper in time that could offer clues on how sensitive El Niño is to changes in climate,\" said co-author Pedro DiNezio, an associate professor at University of Colorado Boulder. \"Because if there\'s another big El Niño, it\'s going to be very hard to attribute it to a warming climate or to El Niño\'s own internal variations.\"</p><p>The research, including much of Lawman\'s doctoral degree, was funded by the National Science Foundation. Project partners included Rice University and The University of Arizona.</p>','2022-03-15 21:53:16.290925','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Texas at Austin','The climate pattern El Niño varies to such a degree that scientists will have a hard time detecting signs that it is getting stronger with global warming. That\'s the conclusion of a study that analyzed 9,000 years of Earth\'s history. The scientists drew on climate data contained within ancient corals and used one of the world\'s most powerful supercomputers to conduct their research.',1,164,'<li>Allison E. Lawman, Pedro N. Di Nezio, Judson W. Partin, Sylvia G. Dee, Kaustubh Thirumalai, Terrence M. Quinn. <strong>Unraveling forced responses of extreme El Niño variability over the Holocene</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (9) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm4313\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abm4313</a>\r\n</li>'),(1168,'How Indigenous burning shaped the Klamath\'s forests for a millennia','how-indigenous-burning-shaped-the-klamaths-forests-for-a-millennia','2022-03-16 05:57:52.105623','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Decades of logging and fire suppression have left California\'s forests prone to drought, infestation and catastrophic wildfire. Climate change is only exacerbating these impacts. But for thousands of years before, during and after European colonization, Indigenous tribes have lived within and among these forests, intentionally lighting fires to manage landscapes and ecosystem mosaics, enhance habitat, produce food and basketry materials, clear trails, reduce pests and support ceremonial practices.</p><p>A new study published this week in the journal <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em> combines scientific data with Indigenous oral histories and ecological knowledge to show how the cultural burning practices of the Native people of the Klamath Mountains -- the Karuk and the Yurok tribes -- helped shape the region\'s forests for at least a millennia prior to European colonization.</p><p>The study found that forest biomass in the region used to be approximately half of what it is now, and that cultural burning by the tribes played a significant role in maintaining the forest structure and biodiversity, even during periods of climate variability. For example, while there were probably fewer lightning-sparked fires during the cool, wet time period known as the Little Ice Age, data from the study suggests that burning in the region actually increased during that time, and that forest biomass remained relatively low.</p><p>\"Using multiple lines of evidence, we were able to detect an influence on forest conditions by Native people and show that their stewardship kept these forests at a stable, lower level of biomass for at least a millennia,\" said study lead author Clarke Knight, who completed the research as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. \"The idea that we need to just let nature take its course really underestimates the management need, because these woods were actively managed for at least a thousand years and probably longer.\"</p><p>A recent study in the Sierra Nevada found that the density of trees in that region has also increased dramatically over the past century by a factor of six- to sevenfold, contributing to more severe wildfire. Understanding both the stable, historical state of California\'s forests, as well as the role of human stewardship in maintaining them, will be key to California\'s success in reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire, while effectively managing its forests for climate change mitigation.</p><p>\"California is expecting its forests to do a fair bit of carbon storage to help meet its greenhouse gas emissions goals,\" said study senior author John Battles, a professor of forest ecology at UC Berkeley. \"But more and more, we are finding that the resilient forests that were here in the past looked nothing like what we have now, and to get a fire-safe forest, we might have to sacrifice a lot of carbon storage. It\'s a well-known trade-off, but these findings bring it into stark relief.\"</p><p><strong>Managing California\'s fire-adapted landscapes</strong></p><p>For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples have used intentional burning and other forms of resource stewardship to help care for California\'s fire-adapted landscapes, and these practices are integral to many tribal cultures. Cultural burning is often guided by a detailed knowledge of the environmental conditions that are most favorable to burning and the effects of the fire.</p><p>\"Fire has historically been the primary tool for people to live in this place,\" said Bill Tripp, director of natural resources and environmental policy for the Karuk tribe, in a video produced by the tribe. \"Not only is it rooted into practices that were traditionally employed at different times of the year, it was deeply rooted, and remains deeply rooted, in the ceremonial practices of the Karuk people.\"</p><p>Research has shown that fire suppression policies in the Klamath Mountains have led to the forest becoming dense and overgrown and have shifted the composition of the forest from fire-resistant hardwoods like oak and more fire-sensitive softwoods like Douglas fir. The inability to burn has also impeded the rights and cultural expression of the Karuk and Yurok people and depleted the supply of traditional foods and other resources on their ancestral lands.</p><p>However, while many now agree that frequent fire was once a fixture of many of California\'s forests, there remains some debate over the relative effects of Indigenous burning practices versus climate-driven factors, such as lightning, in shaping pre-colonial forests.</p><p>To better understand the historical role of cultural burning in the Klamath Mountains, Knight assembled a team of collaborators with expertise in both paleoecology and the cultural history of the Karuk and Yurok tribes, including some current tribal members. The team also worked with the tribes to obtain permission to collect samples from their land and conduct research using their oral histories and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). For the Karuk tribe, this meant following the principles of the Practicing Pikyav Policy, which is a guide and protocol for collaborative research between university scientists and the tribe.</p><p>\"It really seemed necessary to talk to the people who live on the land to figure out what the story of this place was, because there\'s so much more beyond an empirical data set about the history of a landscape,\" said Knight, who is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey. \"Thankfully, they are open to that and were able to share their history and Traditional Ecological Knowledge with us.\"</p><p>The study focused on the watersheds encompassing Fish Lake and Lake Ogaromtoc in the Western Klamath Mountains. To estimate how the forest biomass near the lakes has changed over the past 3,000 years, members of the research team collected sediment cores from the two lakes and then painstakingly counted the number of tree pollen grains at each sedimentary level of the core samples. With the help of carbon dating and careful modeling, this data could be used to estimate forest biomass at different times in the past.</p><p>Likewise, charcoal counts in the sediment cores revealed how often fires had once burned near the lakes. Clues about the timing of historical fires were also obtained by examining nearby trees for fire scars and comparing the years of burning from tree rings.</p><p>Study co-author Frank Lake, a research ecologist for the U.S. Forest Service and a Karuk descendant growing up among the Karuk and Yurok tribes, helped integrate this data with tribal histories and traditional knowledge. In many cases, this ethnographic information helped explain both geographic and temporal patterns in the paleoecological and fire history records.</p><p>For example, fire scars found near the lakes suggested that fires occurred more often near Fish Lake than Lake Ogaromtoc, which is consistent with accounts that the areas around the lakes were used for different tribal purposes. In addition, patterns in fire frequency and forest biomass during the cool, wet Little Ice Age also indicate a significant human influence on the forest.</p><p><strong>\"</strong>If you\'re trying to detect a signal of increased fire due to human stewardship, having a cooler, wetter climate is a perfect time to do so because it will really stand out in the record,\" Knight said. \"And that\'s exactly what we found: More charcoal accumulation, more charcoal production, so, therefore, more fires and decreases in biomass that correspond with that fire.\"</p><p>While it may not be possible to restore California\'s forests to how they were 150 years ago, the findings highlight the critical importance of active forest management in the West, especially as climate change brings warmer and drier weather. To help restore fire resilience and reinstate cultural burning practices in the Klamath Mountains, the Karuk tribe has partnered with the U.S. Forest Service and other organizations to form the Western Klamath Restoration Project, which is dedicated to using forest management techniques rooted in Traditional Ecological Knowledge.</p><p>\"In the fire-prone West, not managing our forests is not an option,\" said study co-author Matthew Potts, the S.J. Hall Chair in Forest Economics at UC Berkeley. \"You have to decide how to actively manage a landscape that\'s at risk for fire, especially when you have lots of people living in those landscapes. The challenge remains in keeping up the momentum and effort towards managing these important resources.\"</p><p>Additional co-authors of the paper include Lysanna Anderson, Marie Champagne and David Wahl of the U.S. Geological Survey; M. Jane Bunting of the University of Hull; Rosie M. Clayburn, the Yurok tribe\'s cultural resources manager; Frank K. Lake, Jeffrey N. Crawford and Eric E. Knapp of the U.S. Forest Service; Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson and James Wanket of California State University, Sacramento; Scott A. Mensing of University of Nevada, Reno; and Alex Watts-Tobin of the Karuk tribe\'s Department of Natural Resources.</p><p>This research was supported by funding from the U.S. Forest Service and the National Science Foundation (grants #0926732, #0964261), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (#09ERI003), the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (18-CCI-FH-0007-SHU), the U.S. Geological Survey Land Use Research and Development program; U.S. Forestry Service McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Program (project 1020791) and the California Agricultural Research Station (CA-B-ECO-0144-MS).</p>','2022-03-15 21:53:37.733479','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Berkeley','A new study combines scientific data with Indigenous oral histories and ecological knowledge to show how the cultural burning practices of the Native people of the Klamath Mountains -- the Karuk and the Yurok tribes -- helped shape the region\'s forests for at least a millennia prior to European colonization.',1,98,'<li>Clarke A. Knight, Lysanna Anderson, M. Jane Bunting, Marie Champagne, Rosie M. Clayburn, Jeffrey N. Crawford, Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson, Eric E. Knapp, Frank K. Lake, Scott A. Mensing, David Wahl, James Wanket, Alex Watts-Tobin, Matthew D. Potts, John J. Battles. <strong>Land management explains major trends in forest structure and composition over the last millennium in California’s Klamath Mountains</strong>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 2022; 119 (12) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2116264119\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1073/pnas.2116264119</a>\r\n</li>');
INSERT INTO `news_news` VALUES (1169,'Snowbound: Big trees boost water in forests by protecting snowpack','snowbound-big-trees-boost-water-in-forests-by-protecting-snowpack','2022-03-16 05:56:33.880354','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Big trees play an outsized role in old-growth forests -- from offering fire resistance to producing strong genetic offspring, big trees give forests multiple ecological advantages. New research gives managers yet another reason to honor the behemoths -- big trees protect melting snowpacks in water-stressed environments. The research from Michaela Teich, Kendall Becker and Jim Lutz from the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University and colleague Mark Raleigh from Oregon State University, details the ecological puzzle for how big trees interact with forest snow.</p><p>A good supply of water allows trees to endure hot summer temperatures, survive wildfire and fight off attacks from invasions of bark beetles. But during the hot summers in the West, precipitation tends to be scant. A good, thick snowpack is water-in-the-bank as far as forests are concerned; the longer the winter snowpack endures into spring and summer months, the longer water is released into the soil and available to thirsty trees. That melting snow is also part of the runoff that fills the West\'s reservoirs and benefits communities. The goal of the research was to find ways for managers to help this essential source of water linger for longer into spring and summer months.</p><p>A hindrance for building a snowpack in a forest is, ironically, the trees themselves. Tree branches catch snow before it hits the ground and offers it back up to the atmosphere through evaporation or sublimation. The ground directly beneath big trees, cut off from the sky by branches, tends to build only a shallow snowpack, while forest floors further away enjoy deeper accumulations. Add to that equation longwave radiation -- any tree with a good, solid heft to its trunks emits an invisible energy that humans can\'t see (as light) or feel (as heat). But the constant subtle bombardment inflicted on the adjacent snowpack adds just enough energy to pull snow back from the threshold of frozen, and to limit how long it can endure into the warm season.</p><p>But big trees aren\'t all bad news for snowpacks. The same, wide branches that prevent snow from reaching the ground directly under a tree also provide a cooling stretch of shade that blocks direct sunlight from melting snow across a fairly wide radius surrounding a tree. And the savings are significant; they can outweigh both the detriment of canopy cover and longwave energy.</p><p>With the balance between these factors in mind, the researchers performed calculations to determine what a forest looked like that maximized the benefits of shade, and minimized the negative factors of canopy and longwave energy. What they found was a doughnut …. at least a doughnut-shaped zone surrounding big trees where snowpack could best endure, away from the longwave energy produced by the trunk and still within the reach of the cooling shade. The best forests for long-lasting snowpack had trees that were spaced in such a way that these doughnut-shaped zones bumped up against each other, but did not overlap.</p><p>\"Snow is a key resource for fresh water supply and ecosystem function. Our study highlights that conserving big trees -- the very trees that often survive forest fires -- in forest ecosystems where fire is part of the ecological cycle can help facilitate both,\" said Teich.</p><p>But spaced-out trees need to be both healthy and big for the equation to work, say the researchers. Healthy, because thick tree canopies cast the most shade. And big, because those trees are tall and cast shade further -- plus being more likely to resist wildfires occurring in the West.</p><p>\"This work, in a large Smithsonian-affiliated research site, lays out the fundamental issues involved in retaining snow on the ground\" says Lutz. \"What we need now is more investigation into the specific tree species, sizes, and densities that optimize snow retention in the different forest types of the American West.\"</p>','2022-03-15 21:53:45.308034','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources, Utah State University','Trees have a complex relationship with snow and energy as the season warms up, but new research shows that big trees can protect melting snowpacks in water-stressed environments.',1,42,'<li>Michaela Teich, Kendall M. L. Becker, Mark S. Raleigh, James A. Lutz. <strong>Large‐diameter trees affect snow duration in post‐fire old‐growth forests</strong>. <em>Ecohydrology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eco.2414\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/eco.2414</a>\r\n</li>'),(1170,'\'Healthspan\' increasing even for people with common chronic conditions','healthspan-increasing-even-for-people-with-common-chronic-conditions','2022-03-16 05:55:40.379611','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The number of healthy years a person lives is, on average, increasing even for people with common chronic conditions, according to a new study publishing March 15<sup>th</sup> in <em>PLOS Medicine </em>by Holly Bennett of Newcastle University, UK, and colleagues.</p><p>There have been advances in healthcare over recent decades that mean many people with chronic health conditions are living longer. In the new study, researchers wanted to determine whether this extension to life involves an increase in years with or without disability. The team analyzed data from two large population-based studies of people aged 65 or over in England. The studies, the Cognitive Function and Aging Studies (CFAS I and II) involved baseline interviews with 7,635 people in 1991-1993 and with 7,762 people in 2008-2011, with two years of follow-up in each case.</p><p>For both healthy people and those with health conditions, the average years of disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) increased from 1991 to 2011. Overall, men gained 4.6 years in life expectancy (95% CI: 3.7 -- 5.5 years, p&lt;0.001)) and 3.7 years in DFLE (95% CI: 2.7 -- 4.8, p&lt;0.001)). Men with conditions including arthritis, coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes gained more years in DFLE than years with disability. The greatest improvements in DFLE in men were seen for those with respiratory difficulties and those living post-stroke.</p><p>Between 1991 and 2011, women experienced an increase in life expectancy at age 65 years of 2.1 years (95% CI: 1.1- 3.0 years, p&lt;0.001), and an increase in DFLE of 2.0 years (95% CI: 1.0 -- 2.9 years, p&lt;0.001). Similar to men, most improvement in life expectancy for women with long-term conditions was in disability-free years. However, women with cognitive impairment experienced an increase in life expectancy with disability (1.6 years, 95% CI: 0.1 -- 3.1, p=0.04) without any improvement in DFLE. Men with cognitive impairment experienced only a small increase in DFLE (1.4 years, 95% CI: -0.7 -- 3.4, p=0.18) with an increase in life expectancy with disability that was comparable in magnitude (1.4 years, 95%CI: 0.2-2.5, p=0.02). Therefore, at age 65, the percentage of remaining years of life which were spent disability-free decreased for men with cognitive impairment (difference CFAS II -- CFAS I: -3.6%, 95% confidence interval (CI): -8.2 -- 1.0, p=0.12) and women with cognitive impairment (difference CFAS II -- CFAS I: -3.9%, 95% CI: -7.6 -- 0.0, p=0.04).</p><p>\"While these findings are mostly positive, we found an increase in the percentage of remaining years spent with disability for men and women with cognitive impairment. Given cognitive impairment was also the only long-term condition where prevalence decreased this is a cause for concern and requires further investigation,\" the authors say.</p>','2022-03-15 21:55:04.135187','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'PLOS','The number of healthy years a person lives is, on average, increasing even for people with common chronic conditions, according to a new study.',1,16,'<li>Holly Q. Bennett, Andrew Kingston, Ilianna Lourida, Louise Robinson, Lynne Corner, Carol Brayne, Fiona E. Matthews, Carol Jagger. <strong>A comparison over 2 decades of disability-free life expectancy at age 65 years for those with long-term conditions in England: Analysis of the 2 longitudinal Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies</strong>. <em>PLOS Medicine</em>, 2022; 19 (3): e1003936 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003936\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1371/journal.pmed.1003936</a>\r\n</li>'),(1172,'Higher dose antibiotic shown safe in TB patients likely more effective in treating deadliest form of TB','higher-dose-antibiotic-shown-safe-in-tb-patients-likely-more-effective-in-treating-deadliest-form-of-tb','2022-03-16 05:54:37.341329','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A Johns Hopkins Children\'s Center-led study in animals suggests that high doses of a widely used antibiotic called rifampin may safely treat and reduce the duration of treatment for the deadliest form of tuberculosis that affects the brain, potentially improving survival rates for patients and decreasing the likelihood of lasting adverse effects of the disease. Additional studies in a small number of people also shed light on how rifampin moves through the body, including into the brain, and how rifampin levels could change during treatments, showing how the research could potentially translate to humans.</p><p>According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 10 million people worldwide developed disease by the bacterium that causes TB in 2020. It\'s also one of the leading infectious disease killers. Previous studies have shown the deadliest form of TB, TB meningitis, affects more than 100,000 people each year, damaging brain tissue and even proving fatal, especially among young children and those with HIV and AIDS due to a weakened immune system. Treatment generally requires lengthy courses of antibiotics and monitoring to assure compliance with therapy.</p><p>In a study published March 15 in <em>The Journal of Clinical Investigation</em>, Johns Hopkins Medicine investigators showed that higher doses of rifampin can treat TB meningitis more effectively by killing bacteria faster while not increasing brain inflammation.</p><p>\"Based on what is seen clinically and in previous research, most peope with TB meningitis will die and, even if treated, may suffer lasting brain damage, since it is difficult to recognize the disease in early, more treatable stages,\" according to study first author, Camilo Ruiz-Bedoya, M.D., pediatric infectious diseases fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.</p><p>Treatments for TB meningitis are long and can take up to 12 months. Shorter regimens can lead to better compliance, lower costs, and better outcomes for patients, adds senior author Sanjay Jain, M.D., professor of pediatrics, and of radiology and radiological sciences at the school of medicine and a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins Children\'s Center.</p><p>The standard therapy for TB meningitis is a combination of antibiotics, including rifampin, a 50-year-old drug that has been a mainstay in the global fight against TB and other bacterial diseases. However, the currently recommended dose of rifampin (10-15 mg/kg/day) given orally does not lead to sufficient rifampin levels in the brain to target and kill the bacteria. This is because of the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain and prevents the entry of infections, toxins, and drugs, including antibiotics. This limits the drug\'s effectiveness and can also lead to the development of antibiotic-resistant strains. Previous clinical studies revealed conflicting results on whether higher doses of rifampin were a more effective treatment for TB meningitis.</p><p>The team conducted studies in mice and rabbits with TB meningitis to evaluate a high-dose (35 mg/kg/day) rifampin-containing oral regimen. \"Some animals were given the high-dose regimen, and others were given the standard regimen. We also used advanced positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) imaging to identify sites of brain infection as well as track the drug penetration and distribution,\" says study co-first author Filipa Mota, Ph.D., former pediatric infectious diseases fellow at the school of medicine.</p><p>The researchers found in both animal models of TB meningitis that the high-dose rifampin regimen killed TB bacteria found in brain tissue at a rate of 10 times higher as early as two weeks after the start of treatment. Giving a much higher dose of rifampin also achieved much higher rifampin levels in the brains and cerebrospinal fluid (or CSF) than the standard dose while not increasing brain inflammation. But rifampin levels dropped after two weeks of starting treatment.</p><p>\"The way rifampin kills the bacterium is the more a patient gets, the faster the bug dies,\" says study co-first author Elizabeth Tucker, M.D., assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the school of medicine and pediatric anesthesiology and critical care specialist at the Children\'s Center. \"So giving rifampin in the first two weeks of treatment is important to kill the bugs fast, but it is also important to prevent further inflammation and subsequent brain damage.\"</p><p>The researchers also conducted imaging studies in 12 patients with TB, including one with TB meningitis, who were enrolled from January 2017 to February 2019 at Johns Hopkins Health System hospitals. Using PET imaging, the team looked at how rifampin moves through the body, including the brain, and how those levels change during treatments in 12 patients with pulmonary TB or TB meningitis.</p><p>In a retrospective analysis, the team reviewed medical records of four patients at the same hospitals treated between July 2011 to July 2021 with confirmed TB meningitis who underwent MRIs during their TB treatment. The goal was to see how the patients\' blood-brain barrier was affected by TB and treatment. They found that the changes in the patients\' blood-brain barrier changes were compartmentalized and changed over time, suggesting that rifampin levels varied in different brain areas and also significantly decreased with treatment over time.</p><p>\"One interesting finding was that rifampin levels and markers of inflammation in the CSF, which acts as a cushion between the brain and the skull, were substantially different from those within the brain. This is important as the CSF analysis is commonly utilized in many trials to study what is happening in the brain, but we now know that studying CSF may not represent the full picture,\" Jain says.</p><p>Based on their findings, the team believes their animal models of TB meningitis could be used to evaluate and prioritize promising treatments before their evaluation in clinical trials and could also be combined with imaging approaches to provide detailed information on how drugs penetrate into the brain and through the body.</p><p>The investigators noted the limitations of their study. For example, the team performed their research at different time points early in the treatment regimen, at up to six weeks. \"While antibiotic treatment for TB meningitis is typically for 12 months, most deaths and neurological damage in TB meningitis occur early in the course of treatment, which highlights the need for early interventions for TB meningitis,\" Jain says.</p><p>If further research validates their findings, the research team believes the high-dose regimen could prevent deaths from TB meningitis.</p><p>Along with Jain, Ruiz-Bedoya, Mota and Tucker, the members of the research team from Johns Hopkins Medicine include Farina J. Mahmud, Maria I. Reyes-Mantilla, Clara Erice, Melissa Bahr, Kelly Flavahan, Patricia de Jesus, John Kim, Catherine A. Foss, Alvaro A. Ordonez and Carlos A. Pardo. Other study authors were Charles A. Peloquin from the University of Florida College of Pharmacy and Dima A. Hammoud, Center for Infectious Disease Imaging, Radiology and Imaging Sciences, National Institutes of Health.</p><p>The study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (R01-AI145435-A1, R01-AI153349, Director\'s Transformative Research Award R01-EB020539 and R01-HL131829 to Jain and K08-AI139371-A1 to Tucker).</p>','2022-03-15 22:19:06.159115','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Johns Hopkins Medicine','A new study in animals suggests that high doses of a widely used antibiotic called rifampin may safely treat and reduce the duration of treatment for the deadliest form of tuberculosis that affects the brain, potentially improving survival rates for patients and decreasing the likelihood of lasting adverse effects of the disease.',1,124,'<li>Camilo A. Ruiz-Bedoya, Filipa Mota, Elizabeth W. Tucker, Farina J. Mahmud, Maria I. Reyes-Mantilla, Clara Erice, Melissa Bahr, Kelly Flavahan, Patricia de Jesus, John Kim, Catherine A. Foss, Charles A. Peloquin, Dima A. Hammoud, Alvaro A. Ordonez, Carlos A. Pardo, Sanjay K. Jain. <strong>High-dose rifampin improves bactericidal activity without increased intracerebral inflammation in animal models of tuberculous meningitis</strong>. <em>Journal of Clinical Investigation</em>, 2022; 132 (6) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1172/JCI155851\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1172/JCI155851</a>\r\n</li>'),(1175,'Look! Up in the sky! Is it a planet? Nope, just a star','look-up-in-the-sky-is-it-a-planet-nope-just-a-star','2022-03-16 05:53:24.703348','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The first worlds beyond our solar system were discovered three decades ago. Since then, close to 5,000 exoplanets have been confirmed in our galaxy. Astronomers have detected another 5,000 planetary candidates -- objects that might be planets but have yet to be confirmed. Now, the list of planets has shrunk by at least three.</p><p>In a study appearing in the <em>Astronomical Journal</em>, MIT astronomers report that three, and potentially four, planets that were originally discovered by NASA\'s Kepler Space Telescope are in fact misclassified. Instead, these suspected planets are likely small stars.</p><p>The team used updated measurements of planet-hosting stars to double-check the size of the planets, and identified three that are simply too big to be planets. With new and better estimates of stellar properties, the researchers found that the three objects, which are known as Kepler-854b, Kepler-840b, and Kepler-699b, are now estimated to be between two and four times the size of Jupiter.</p><p>\"Most exoplanets are Jupiter-sized or much smaller. Twice [the size of] Jupiter is already suspicious. Larger than that cannot be a planet, which is what we found,\" says the study\'s first author Prajwal Niraula, a graduate student in MIT\'s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.</p><p>A fourth planet, Kepler-747b, is about 1.8 times Jupiter\'s size, which is comparable to the very largest confirmed planets. But Kepler-747b is relatively far from its star, and the amount of light it receives is too small to sustain a planet of its size. Kepler-747b\'s planetary status, the team concludes, is suspect but not entirely implausible.</p><p>\"Overall, this study makes the current list of planets more complete,\" says study author Avi Shporer, a research scientist at MIT\'s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. \"People rely on this list to study the population of planets as a whole. If you use a sample with a few interlopers, your results may be inaccurate. So, it\'s important that the list of planets is not contaminated.\"</p><p>The study\'s co-authors also include Ian Wong, NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and MIT Assistant Professor Julien de Wit.</p><p><strong>Stellar updates</strong></p><p>Rooting out planetary imposters was not the team\'s initial goal. Niraula originally intended to look for systems with signs of tidal distortion.</p><p>\"If you have two objects close to each other, the gravitational pull of one will cause the other to be egg-shaped, or ellipsoidal, which gives you an idea of how massive the companion is,\" Niraula explains. \"So you could determine whether it\'s a star-star or star-planet system, just based on that tidal pull.\"</p><p>When combing through the Kepler catalog, he came upon a signal from Kepler-854b that appeared too large to be true.</p><p>\"Suddenly we had a system where we saw this ellipsoidal signal which was huge, and pretty immediately we knew this could not be from a planet,\" Shporer says. \"Then we thought, something doesn\'t add up.\"</p><p>The team then took a second look at both the star and the planetary candidate. As with all Kepler-detected planets, Kepler-854b was spotted through a transit detection -- a periodic dip in starlight that signals a possible planet passing in front of its star. The depth of that dip represents the ratio between the size of the planet and that of its star. Astronomers can calculate the planet\'s size based on what they know of the star\'s size. But as Kepler-854b was discovered in 2016, its size was based on stellar estimates that were less precise than they are today.</p><p>Currently, the most accurate measurements of stars comes from the European Space Agency\'s Gaia mission, a space-based observatory that is designed to precisely measure and map the properties and paths of stars in the Milky Way. In 2016, Gaia\'s measurements of Kepler-854 were not yet available. Given the stellar information that was available, the object seemed to be a plausible-sized planet. But Niraula found that with Gaia\'s improved estimates, Kepler-854b turned out to be much larger, at three times the size of Jupiter.</p><p>\"There\'s no way the universe can make a planet of that size,\" Shporer says. \"It just doesn\'t exist.\"</p><p><strong>Tiny corrections</strong></p><p>The team confirmed that Kepler-854b was a planetary \"false positive\" -- not a planet at all, but instead, a small star orbiting a larger host star. Then they wondered: Could there be more?</p><p>Niraula searched through the Kepler catalog\'s more than 2,000 planets, this time for significant updates to the size of stars provided by Gaia. He ultimately discovered three stars whose sizes significantly changed based on Gaia\'s improved measurements. From these estimates, the team recalculated the size of the planets orbiting each star, and found them to be about two to four times Jupiter\'s size.</p><p>\"That was a very big flag,\" Niraula says. \"We now have three objects that are now not planets, and the fourth is likely not a planet.\"</p><p>Going forward, the team anticipates that there won\'t be many more such corrections to existing exoplanet catalogs.</p><p>\"This is a tiny correction,\" Shporer says. \"It comes from the better understanding of stars, which is only improving all the time. So, the chances of a star\'s radius being so incorrect are much smaller. These misclassifications are not going to happen many times more.\"</p><p>This research was supported in part by NASA.</p>','2022-03-15 22:36:13.164857','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts Institute of Technology','Among thousands of known exoplanets,astronomers have flagged three that are actually stars.',1,99,'<li>Prajwal Niraula, Avi Shporer, Ian Wong, Julien de Wit. <strong>Revisiting Kepler Transiting Systems: Unvetting Planets and Constraining Relationships among Harmonics in Phase Curves</strong>. <em>The Astronomical Journal</em>, 2022; 163 (4): 172 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ac4f64\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3847/1538-3881/ac4f64</a>\r\n</li>'),(1177,'New toolkit aids discovery of mineral deposits crucial to \'green economy\' transition','new-toolkit-aids-discovery-of-mineral-deposits-crucial-to-green-economy-transition','2022-03-16 05:52:06.626194','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists have developed a new toolkit for the discovery of mineral deposits crucial to our transition to a \'green economy\'.</p><p>A study led by Lawrence Carter from the University of Exeter\'s Camborne School of Mines, has given fascinating new insights into how to discover porphyry-type copper deposits.</p><p>Porphyry-type deposits provide most of the world\'s copper and molybdenum, as well as large amounts of gold and other metals, which are of increasing demand for green technologies such as electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels, and for power transmission. They are the principle target of many mining companies who employ a wide range of invasive and expensive exploration techniques to find them.</p><p>Porphyry-type deposits originally form several kilometres below the Earth\'s surface above large magma chambers. Not only are they rare but most large near-surface examples have already been found. To meet future demand for copper, new methods are needed to discover deeper and possibly smaller deposits -- using techniques that meet increasingly strict environmental regulations.</p><p>The researchers show that certain textures preserved in rock may be indicative of the types of physical processes that form these deposits, and may give an early indication of their location.</p><p>Previous understanding of such textures was disjointed because they are often small, poorly exposed or are simply not recognised when encountered.</p><p>The new study was carried out in the Yerington district of Nevada where tilting of the upper crust has provided a globally unique cross-section through four porphyry-type deposits and their host rocks. Because of this, previous studies in the district have underpinned much of the current understanding of how porphyry-type deposits form.</p><p>Lawrence Carter, a final year PhD student and Research Associate at Camborne School of Mines, based at the University of Exeter\'s Penryn Campus said: \'We provide a textural framework for exploration geologists to assess the likely 3D architecture of porphyry-type deposits before employing more invasive and expensive techniques.\'</p><p>Professor Ben Williamson, co-author of the study and Associate Professor in Applied Mineralogy at Camborne School of Mines added: \'this innovative applied study, led by one of the UK\'s leading young geo-scientists, will provide much needed field criteria for the discovery of economically important and green-technology-crucial porphyry-type deposits.\'</p><p>The research was supported by NERC GW4+ DTP, the Society of Economic Geologists Foundation and the NERC highlight topic \'FAMOS\'.</p>','2022-03-15 22:36:17.551916','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Exeter','Scientists have developed a new toolkit for the discovery of mineral deposits crucial to our transition to a \'green economy\'.',1,87,'<li>Lawrence C. Carter, Ben J. Williamson. <strong>Textural indicators of mineralisation potential in porphyry magmatic systems – A framework from the archetypal Yerington district, Nevada</strong>. <em>Ore Geology Reviews</em>, 2022; 143: 104783 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2022.104783\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.oregeorev.2022.104783</a>\r\n</li>'),(1178,'The immune system is very complicated, but now, it\'s on a chip','the-immune-system-is-very-complicated-but-now-its-on-a-chip','2022-03-16 05:50:54.189701','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">To quote veteran science writer Ed Yong\'s simple yet extremely accurate words in <em>The Atlantic</em>, \"The immune system is very complicated.\" As the COVID-19 pandemic had made abundantly clear, science still doesn\'t fully understand the sophisticated defense mechanisms that protect us from microbe invaders. Why do some people show no symptoms when infected with SARS-CoV-2 while others suffer from severe fevers and body aches? Why do some succumb to cytokine storms of the body\'s own making? We still lack exact answers to these questions.</p><p>Today\'s scientists, however, now have a new tool to help them tease out the immune system\'s mysteries, thanks to a group of researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. They cultured human B and T cells inside a microfluidic Organ Chip device and coaxed them to spontaneously form functional lymphoid follicles -- structures that reside in lymph nodes and other parts of the human body which mediate immune responses. They consist of different chambers that harbor \"naïve\" B cells and T cells, which together initiate the cascade of events that leads to a full immune response when they are exposed to a specific antigen.</p><p>In addition to allowing researchers to probe the normal function of the immune system, these lymphoid follicle (LF) Chips can also be used to predict immune responses to various vaccines and help select the best performers, offering significant improvement over existing preclinical models like cells in a dish and non-human primates. The achievement is reported today in <em>Advanced Science</em>.</p><p>\"Animals have been the gold-standard research models for developing and testing new vaccines, but their immune systems differ significantly from our own and do not accurately predict how humans will respond to them. Our LF Chip offers a way to model the complex choreography of <em>human</em> immune responses to infection and vaccination, and could significantly speed up the pace and quality of vaccine creation in the future,\" said first author Girija Goyal, Ph.D., a Senior Staff Scientist at the Wyss Institute.</p><p><strong>An accidental discovery</strong></p><p>Like many great scientific discoveries, the LF Chip project is the result of serendipity in the lab. Goyal and other Wyss Institute scientists wanted to investigate how B and T cells circulating in the blood would change their behavior once they entered a tissue, so they obtained those cells from human blood samples and cultured them inside a microfluidic Organ Chip device to replicate the physical conditions they would experience when they encountered an organ.</p><p>When the cells were placed inside one of the two channels within the device, nothing remarkable happened -- but when the researchers started the flow of culture medium through the other channel to feed the cells, they were surprised to see that the B and T cells started to spontaneously self-organize into 3D structures within the Organ Chip that appeared similar to \"germinal centers\" -- structures within LFs where complex immune reactions take place. \"It was so unexpected that we completely pivoted from the original experiment and focused on trying to figure out what they were,\" said Goyal.</p><p>When the researchers started probing the mysterious structures that had formed inside the Organ Chip under flow conditions, they found that the cells were secreting a chemical called CXCL13. CXCL13 is a hallmark of LF formation, both within lymph nodes and in other parts of the body in response to chronic inflammation, such as in cancer and autoimmune conditions.</p><p>The team also found that B cells within the LFs that self-assembled on-chip also expressed an enzyme called activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), which is critical for activating B cells against specific antigens and is not present in B cells that are circulating in the blood.</p><p>Neither CXCL13 nor AID were present in cells that were cultured in a standard 2D dish, suggesting that the scientists had indeed successfully created functional LFs from circulating blood cells.</p><p>In LFs in the human body, activated B cells mature and differentiate into multiple types of progeny cells including plasma cells, which secrete large amounts of antibodies against a specific pathogen. The team detected the presence of plasma cells in the LF Chips after they applied several stimuli used in the laboratory to activate B cells, such as the combination of the cytokine IL-4 and an anti-CD40 antibody, or dead bacteria. Remarkably, the plasma cells were concentrated in clusters within the LFs, as they would be <em>in vivo.</em></p><p>\"These findings were especially exciting because they confirmed that we had a functional model that could be used to unravel some of the complexities of the human immune system, including its responses to multiple types of pathogens,\" said Pranav Prabhala, a Technician at the Wyss Institute and second author of the paper.</p><p><strong>Predicting vaccine efficacy on-a-chip</strong></p><p>Now that the scientists had a functional LF model that could initiate an immune response, they explored whether their LF Chip could be used to replicate and study the human immune system\'s response to vaccines.</p><p>In the human body, vaccination induces special cells called dendritic cells to take up the injected pathogen and migrate to lymph nodes, where they present fragments of them on their surface. There, these antigen-presenting cells activate the B cells with the assistance of local T cells in the LF, causing the B cells to differentiate into plasma cells that produce antibodies against the pathogen. To replicate this process, the researchers added dendritic cells to LF Chips along with B and T cells from four separate human donors. They then inoculated the chips with a vaccine against the H5N1 strain of influenza along with an adjuvant called SWE that is known to boost immune responses to the vaccine.</p><p>LF Chips that received the vaccine and the adjuvant produced significantly more plasma cells and anti-influenza antibodies than B and T cells grown in 2D cultures or LF Chips that received the vaccine but not the adjuvant.</p><p>The team then repeated the experiment with cells from eight different donors, this time using the commercially available Fluzone<sup>? </sup>influenza vaccine, which protects against three different strains of the virus in humans. Once again, plasma cells and anti-influenza antibodies were present in significant numbers in the treated LF Chips. They also measured the levels of four cytokines in the vaccinated LF Chips that are known to be secreted by activated immune cells, and found that the levels of three of them (IFN-?, IL-10, and IL-2) were similar to those found in the serum of humans who had been vaccinated with Fluzone<sup>?</sup>.</p><p>The Wyss researchers are now using their LF Chips to test various vaccines and adjuvants in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies and the Gates Foundation.</p><p>\"The flurry of vaccine development efforts sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic were impressive for their speed, but the increased demand suddenly made traditional animal models scarce resources. The LF Chip offers a cheaper, faster, and more predictive model for studying human immune responses to both infections and vaccines, and we hope it will streamline and improve vaccine development against many diseases in the future,\" said corresponding author Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., who is the Founding Director of the Wyss Institute as well as the <em>Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology</em> at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Boston Children\'s Hospital, and Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.</p><p>Additional authors of the paper include Yunhao Zhai, Min Sun Kim, Aditya Patil, Danielle Curran, Jaclyn Long, Abidemi Junaid, and Tom Ferrante from the Wyss Institute; Bruce Bausk, Tal Gilboa, Limor Cohen, and David Walt from the Wyss Institute, Brigham and Women\'s Hospital, and HMS; and former Wyss Institute members Gautam Mahajan, Liangxia Xie, Roey Lazarovits, Adam Mansour, Sanjay Sharma, Oren Levy, and Rachelle Prantil-Baun.</p><p>This research was supported by DARPA under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-12-2-0036, the National Institutes of Health under grant UG3HL141797, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BARDA under contract 75A50121C00075, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.</p>','2022-03-15 22:36:20.428866','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard','Scientists have a new tool to help them tease out the immune system\'s mysteries. Researchers cultured human B and T cells inside a microfluidic Organ Chip and coaxed them to form functional lymphoid follicles (LFs) -- structures that reside in lymph nodes and other parts of the human body and mediate immune responses. The LF Chip replicated human immune responses to both pathogens and a commercial influenza vaccine in vitro, offering significant improvement over existing preclinical models like cells in a dish and non-human primates.',1,91,'<li>Girija Goyal, Pranav Prabhala, Gautam Mahajan, Bruce Bausk, Tal Gilboa, Liangxia Xie, Yunhao Zhai, Roey Lazarovits, Adam Mansour, Min Sun Kim, Aditya Patil, Danielle Curran, Jaclyn M. Long, Sanjay Sharma, Abidemi Junaid, Limor Cohen, Thomas C. Ferrante, Oren Levy, Rachelle Prantil‐Baun, David R. Walt, Donald E. Ingber. <strong>Ectopic Lymphoid Follicle Formation and Human Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Responses Recapitulated in an Organ‐on‐a‐Chip</strong>. <em>Advanced Science</em>, 2022; 2103241 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202103241\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/advs.202103241</a>\r\n</li>'),(1182,'Optimizer tool designs, evaluates, maximizes solar-powered cooling systems','optimizer-tool-designs-evaluates-maximizes-solar-powered-cooling-systems','2022-03-16 05:49:42.078117','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Solar-powered adsorption cooling systems (SACS) have gained traction as a renewable energy technology that could provide clean power for air conditioning and refrigeration while significantly reducing the load on the electric grid. But these systems lack energy efficiency.</p><p>In the <em>Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy</em>, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Anna University in India developed an optimizer tool to design, evaluate, and maximize the performance of different types of SACS under various operating scenarios. The tool was created using Visual Basic programming language that is easy to learn and enables rapid application development.</p><p>\"Our user-friendly optimizer is a multifunctional tool capable of designing and analyzing a complete solar powered adsorption refrigeration system,\" co-author Edwin Mohan said. \"Our tool is capable of assessing different combinations of operational parameters to determine the settings that maximize system performance.\"</p><p>SACS, which work by turning solar energy into heat, consists of a sorption bed, condenser, liquid storage tank, expansion valve, and evaporator. At night, water or another refrigerant is vaporized through the evaporator.</p><p>During daylight hours, heat obtained from the sun causes the vapor to travel through the condenser, where it is reliquefied to release latent heat. The liquid eventually returns to the evaporator to repeat the process.</p><p>One of the most important elements of SACS is the pairing of materials used in the adsorption process in which atoms or molecules of a substance (the adsorbate) adhere to the surface of a porous material (the adsorbent), like activated carbon and zeolite, to maximize the surface-to-volume ratio.</p><p>In their study, the researchers used their computational tool to test two adsorbent/adsorbate pairs: activated-carbon and methanol, and zeolite and water. The experiments were carried out over four days in a prototype SACS with a cooling capacity of 0.25 kilowatts. They found the activated-carbon-methanol combination achieved a higher coefficient of performance, but the zeolite-water adsorption system could operate at higher temperatures.</p><p>The optimizer tool predicted the proper material mass concentration ratios. The method calculated the cooling load, predicted maximal performance, and conducted the overall performance analysis of the cooling system.</p><p>Although the study focused on residential home cooling systems, the researchers said their optimizer tool could be extended to higher capacity systems.</p>','2022-03-15 22:52:54.570189','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Institute of Physics','Researchers have developed an optimizer tool to design, evaluate, and maximize the performance of different types of solar-powered adsorption under various operating scenarios. The tool was created using Visual Basic programming language that is easy to learn and enables rapid application development and predicted the proper material mass concentration ratios. The method calculated the cooling load, predicted maximal performance, and conducted the overall performance analysis of the cooling system.',1,138,'<li>N. Saravanan, M. Edwin. <strong>Optimization and experimental analysis of a solar powered adsorption refrigeration system using selective adsorbent/adsorbate pairs</strong>. <em>Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy</em>, 2022; 14 (2): 023702 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0076645\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1063/5.0076645</a>\r\n</li>'),(1183,'Treating cancer with light-sensitive nanoscale biomaterials','treating-cancer-with-light-sensitive-nanoscale-biomaterials','2022-03-16 05:48:49.305589','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Treating cancer and other diseases with laser light is not currently considered routine in the clinical setting, but new approaches using nanoparticles show some promise in improving existing techniques.</p><p>One technique, known as photothermal therapy (PTT), converts laser light into heat that can target and kill tumor cells. Another technique, photodynamic therapy (PDT), uses laser light to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as hydroxyl radicals, singlet oxygen, superoxide radicals, and hydrogen peroxide, which can wreak devastation on tumor cells.</p><p>In<em> Applied Physics Reviews</em>, by AIP Publishing, a multinational team of researchers reviews the current status of the field of nanoparticle-enhanced PDT and PTT and focuses on combining the two techniques to achieve the highest level of treatment efficiency.</p><p>By combining PTT or PDT with nanomaterials, investigators have been able to apply these types of phototherapies while also delivering drugs to sites in the body that are otherwise inaccessible. It is also possible to combine PTT and PDT into a single treatment, creating an even more powerful treatment method.</p><p>The surface of the nanoparticle can be modified to attach a photosensitive molecule to the surface. This allows the absorption of light at a particular wavelength. In the PTT method, this light is converted to heat. In PDT, the light creates ROS. For PDT to be successful, sufficient ambient oxygen must be present to produce enough ROS to kill tumor cells.</p><p>\"In cancer therapies using this strategy, the penetration depth of laser light into the tissues is critical in determining the therapeutic efficiency,\" said author Masoud Mozafari, from the Iran University of Medical Sciences.</p><p>Factors that control the penetration depth include the shape of the beam, wavelength of the light, intensity of the laser, and the radius of the beam.</p><p>A powerful approach is to combine PDT with traditional medical treatments, such as chemotherapy, to create photodynamic antibacterial chemotherapy.</p><p>The nanoparticles can be used to deliver chemotherapeutic agents or antibiotics to the tumor site. When light is applied, generating ROS molecules in the tumor and killing both tumor cells and bacteria, the antibiotics can be released to prevent infection in the treated area.</p><p>Other modifications to the nanoparticle surface could allow it to cross the blood-brain barrier so that brain tumors can be treated.</p><p>One set of studies reviewed in this work involved gold nanorods that had a glycoprotein from the rabies virus attached to their surface. Since this virus naturally infects the brain, the gold nanorods were able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and target the brain tumor. Applying light from a laser then allowed the nanorods to generate localized heat, killing the tumor cells.</p><p>These techniques can also be used to treat other medical issues, such as atherosclerosis, scar removal, abscesses, nonhealing ulcers, or dental infections.</p>','2022-03-15 22:52:57.444054','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Institute of Physics','Treating cancer and other diseases with laser light is not currently considered routine, but new approaches using nanoparticles show some promise in improving existing techniques. Researchers review the status of the field and by combining photothermal therapy or photodynamic therapy with nanomaterials, they have been able to apply these types of phototherapies while also delivering drugs to sites in the body that are otherwise inaccessible. It is also possible to combine PTT and PDT into a single treatment, creating an even more powerful treatment method.',1,124,'<li>Behzad Nasseri, Effat Alizadeh, Farhad Bani, Soodabeh Davaran, Abolfazl Akbarzadeh, Navid Rabiee, Ali Bahadori, Mojtaba Ziaei, Mojtaba Bagherzadeh, Mohammad Reza Saeb, Masoud Mozafari, Michael R. Hamblin. <strong>Nanomaterials for photothermal and photodynamic cancer therapy</strong>. <em>Applied Physics Reviews</em>, 2022; 9 (1): 011317 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0047672\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1063/5.0047672</a>\r\n</li>'),(1199,'From museum to laptop: Visual leaf library a new tool for identifying plants','from-museum-to-laptop-visual-leaf-library-a-new-tool-for-identifying-plants','2022-03-16 05:47:58.531159','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Fossil plants reveal the evolution of green life on Earth, but the most abundant samples that are found -- fossil leaves -- are also the most challenging to identify. A large, open-access visual leaf library developed by a Penn State-led team provides a new resource to help scientists recognize and classify these leaves.</p><p>\"The complexity of leaves is off the charts, and the terminology we have to describe them is only the tiniest beginning of what is needed,\" said Peter Wilf, professor of geosciences at Penn State. \"Researchers need much more accessible visual references to study what the differences are among the many plant groups, so we can put more of that into words. There are a lot of plant families that look superficially similar, and this collection provides an opportunity to see new patterns.\"</p><p>Studying fossil and modern leaves traditionally requires research visits to museum collections, which requires funding, planning and time for travel to several locations. More museums are putting leaf collections online, but often these images are low resolution, are hard to access in quantity, have uninformative filenames, or the leaves are photographed with other plant parts and labels that make rapid comparisons challenging, the scientists said.</p><p>The scientists combined images of modern and fossil leaves from several prominent collections, including several not previously online in any format, and spent thousands of hours formatting the data to create a single, merged, open-access dataset with standardized, easily searchable filenames and high-resolution images. They reported in <em>PhytoKeys</em> that the dataset is available from the Figshare Plus repository.</p><p>The dataset contains 30,252 images, including 26,176 images of cleared and x-rayed leaves and 4,076 fossil leaves. Cleared leaves are specimens that have been chemically bleached, stained and mounted on slides to reveal vein patterns. Each image represents a vouchered museum specimen.</p><p>\"What we have done here is to make this massive educational resource available to everyone by vetting and standardizing all these images from different legacy sources,\" Wilf said. \"It took 15 years for us all to do that and convert all the filenames, but now you can have the whole package on your desktop with a single browser click. Every filename has the key information embedded, in the same order for rapid alpha-sorting: family, genus, species, and specimen number. The filenames can be rapidly searched in seconds for the item you are interested in and the images viewed using standard tools, such as the Windows search bar. All images are original resolution; nothing is downsampled.\"</p><p>The dataset is a potential resource not just to train students but also machine learning programs. Feeding vetted training data to learning algorithms allows them to better identify leaves and find important visual patterns that humans may have overlooked or been unable to see.</p><p>\"For scientists studying botanical subjects, particularly fields such as paleobotany, these tools can most reliably be used to facilitate and multiply the impact of human expertise,\" said Jacob Rose, a doctoral student at Brown University, who worked closely with Wilf to create the dataset. His adviser, Thomas Serre, professor in computer science at Brown, also contributed. \"Using these models as a starting point for an expert to either accept, reject or scrutinize further could soon prove to be a profound example of using technology to expand the value that is possible for a single scientist to produce as well as what is possible for us as a society to learn about the natural world, both in scale and precision.\"</p><p>Machine learning may be especially important for paleobotanists, who most often find isolated fossil leaves without seeds, fruit or flowers that could help identify plants. Further compounding the challenge, many of the individual fossils represent plants that are extinct.</p><p>The new dataset is a promising option for training machine learning because it contains examples of modern and fossil leaves vetted at least to the family level, a higher taxonomic classification that is the standard first target for fossil-leaf identification. The Fagaceae family, for example, includes beeches, chestnuts and oaks.</p><p>The dataset includes images from the Jack A. Wolfe and Leo J. Hickey contributions to the National Cleared Leaf Collection and the Scott Wing X-Ray collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of National History, Washington, D.C., and the Daniel I. Axelrod Cleared Leaf Collection at the University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley. Also included are fossil images from various sites in North and South America. The largest contribution is from the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado.</p><p>\"This database makes the information in these collections available to people around the world in a form that is easier to search than the original and more amenable to digital analyses,\" said Scott Wing, research geologist and curator of paleobotany at the Smithsonian. \"We think the database will encourage new research and also open the museum collections to people.\"</p><p>Also contributing were Xiaoyu Zou, undergraduate student, Penn State; Herbert Meyer, paleontologist, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument; Rohit Saha, former graduate student, Brown University; Rubén Cúneo, director, Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio, Argentina; Michael Donovan, paleobotany collections manager, Cleveland Museum of National History; Diane Erwin, senior museum scientist, University of California, Berkeley; M. Alejandra Gandolfo, associate professor, Cornell University; Erika González-Akre, project manager, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute; Fabiany Herrera, assistant curator of paleobotany, Field Museum of National History; Shusheng Hu, paleobotany collections manager, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History; Ari Iglesias, researcher, National University of Comahue, Argentina; and Talia Karim, collections manager of invertebrate paleontology, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History.</p><p>The National Science Foundation and the National Park Service provided funding for this work.</p>','2022-03-16 00:03:08.371402','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Penn State','Fossil plants reveal the evolution of green life on Earth, but the most abundant samples that are found -- fossil leaves -- are also the most challenging to identify. A large, open-access visual leaf library provides a new resource to help scientists recognize and classify these leaves.',1,34,'<li>Peter Wilf, Scott L. Wing, Herbert W. Meyer, Jacob A. Rose, Rohit Saha, Thomas Serre, N.Rubén Cúneo, Michael P. Donovan, Diane M. Erwin, Maria A. Gandolfo, Erika Gonzalez-Akre, Fabiany Herrera, Shusheng Hu, Ari Iglesias, Kirk R. Johnson, Talia S. Karim, Xiaoyu Zou. <strong>﻿An image dataset of cleared, x-rayed, and fossil leaves vetted to plant family for human and machine learning</strong>. <em>PhytoKeys</em>, 2021; 187: 93 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/PhytoKeys.187.72350\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3897/PhytoKeys.187.72350</a>\r\n</li>'),(1200,'Pathogen and drug work together to fight fungal lung infection','pathogen-and-drug-work-together-to-fight-fungal-lung-infection','2022-03-16 05:46:51.498422','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Pathogens don\'t always work against drug treatments. Sometimes, they can strengthen them, according to a new University of Maine study.</p><p>Diseases caused by a combination of bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites -- also known as polymicrobial infections -- are challenging to treat because scientists don\'t fully understand how pathogens interact during infection and how these interactions impact the drugs used to treat them.</p><p>In a study published in the journal<em> Infection and Immunity,</em> researchers in the Molecular &amp; Biomedical Sciences Department looked at two pathogens that often occur at similar sites, particularly in cystic fibrosis and mechanically ventilated patients: <em>Candida albicans</em> and <em>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</em>.</p><p><em>Candida</em> is the fourth most common hospital-acquired pathogen, and is particularly difficult to treat. It is targeted by a number of antifungal agents, but some only slow it rather than kill it outright. Meanwhile, <em>P. aeruginosa</em> infects 90% of all adult cystic fibrosis patients. Combined, <em>C. albicans</em> and <em>P. aeruginosa</em> cause more serious disease in cystic fibrosis and ventilated patients.</p><p>The researchers investigated the effectiveness of an antifungal drug, fluconazole, in the test tube and during infection of the zebrafish with both pathogens. Fluconazole is known to slow fungal growth, but <em>Candida</em> can become tolerant to the drug and not only survive, but also develop tolerance that leads to failed therapy and, potentially, death.</p><p>What the study found was promising. The results showed that <em>P. aeruginosa</em> works with fluconazole to eliminate drug tolerance and clear the <em>C. albicans</em> infection in the culture and the zebrafish.</p><p>\"Polymicrobial infections are challenging to treat not only because of the lack of understanding of how invading microorganisms interact but also because we don\'t know how these interactions affect treatment efficacy. Our work demonstrates that polymicrobial interactions can indeed affect treatment efficacy and, most importantly, it highlights the importance of nutrient availability in the environment -- such as iron in our study -- and how it modulates treatment efficacy,\" says Siham Hattab, lead author of the study who conducted the research as part of her Ph.D. in the Department of Molecular and Biomolecular Sciences.</p><p>What\'s more, the bacteria also enhance the drug\'s ability against a second pathogenic <em>Candida</em> species that tends to be more resistant to the drug.</p><p>The increased effectiveness of the drug suggests to the researchers that there is still much more to learn about how current drugs work when targeting these dangerous and complex polymicrobial infections. \"We are really excited to have revealed that sometimes drugs against fungal infection can work even better in a more \'real-world\' situation than in the test tube. There is still a lot to learn about how pathogens interact during infection, and it will be interesting to see how the bacteria manage to work with the drugs to target <em>Candida</em>,\" says Robert Wheeler, associate professor of microbiology and senior author of the study.</p>','2022-03-16 00:03:10.556647','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Maine','Pathogens don\'t always work against drug treatments. Sometimes, they can strengthen them, according to new research. Researchers have now looked at two pathogens that often occur at similar sites, particularly in cystic fibrosis and mechanically ventilated patients: Candida albicans and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The researchers investigated the effectiveness of an antifungal drug, fluconazole, with both pathogens. The results showed that P. aeruginosa works with fluconazole to eliminate drug tolerance and clear the C. albicans infection. The bacteria also enhance the drug\'s ability against a second pathogenic Candida species that tends to be more resistant to the drug.',1,203,'<li>Siham Hattab, Anna-Maria Dagher, Robert T. Wheeler. <strong>Pseudomonas Synergizes with Fluconazole against            Candida            during Treatment of Polymicrobial Infection</strong>. <em>Infection and Immunity</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/iai.00626-21\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1128/iai.00626-21</a>\r\n</li>'),(1201,'Brain differences in children with binge eating disorder','brain-differences-in-children-with-binge-eating-disorder','2022-03-16 05:45:43.928671','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Brain scans of children ages 9-10 with a type of eating disorder that causes uncontrollable overeating showed differences in gray matter density compared to their unaffected peers, according to a USC-led study.</p><p>Binge eating disorder, which affects about 3-5% of the U.S. population, is characterized by frequent episodes of eating large amounts of food and a sense of having no control over the behavior. The study\'s findings suggest that abnormal development in the brain\'s centers for reward and inhibition may play a role.</p><p>The recently published study is available online in the journal <em>Psychiatry Research.</em></p><p>\"In children with binge eating disorder, we see abnormality in brain development in brain regions specifically linked to reward and impulsivity, or the ability to inhibit reward,\" said lead author Stuart Murray, Della Martin Associate Professor of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, where he serves as director of the Eating Disorders Program.</p><p>\"These kids have a very, very heightened reward sensitivity, especially toward calorically dense, high-sugar foods. The findings underscore the fact that this is not a lack of discipline for these kids.\"</p><p><strong>Pandemic saw increase in eating disorders among young people</strong></p><p>Experts say eating disorders in young people soared during the pandemic, along with steep increases in hospitalizations. Social isolation, stress, disruption of routine and a social media-fueled quest for perfection all exacerbated disorders such as anorexia, muscle dysmorphia and binge eating.</p><p>Binge eating disorder puts people at risk for obesity, metabolic syndrome, abnormal cardiac function and suicidal thoughts. Treatment goals include reducing the frequency of binge eating episodes by removing \"trigger\" foods, as well as addressing underlying anxiety or depression. Treatment with medication and talk therapy is effective about only half the time, Murray said.</p><p>For this study, Murray and his colleagues analyzed brain scans and other data from 71 children with diagnosed binge eating disorder and 74 children without binge eating disorder, who are part of a large longitudinal study called the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study. That study includes data of 11,875 children ages 9-10 who were enrolled in 2016-2018 and recruited from 21 sites around the U.S.</p><p>In the children with binge eating disorder, they saw elevations in gray matter density in areas that are typically \"pruned\" during healthy brain development. Synaptic pruning, a development phase that occurs between ages 2 and 10, eliminates synapses that are no longer used, making the brain more efficient. Disturbed synaptic pruning is linked to a number of psychiatric disorders.</p><p>\"This study suggests to me that binge eating disorder is wired in the brain, even from a very, very early age,\" Murray said. \"The question that we don\'t know, which is something that we will address in time, is whether successful treatment of binge eating disorder in kids helps correct brain development. The prognosis of almost all psychiatric diseases is better if you can treat them in childhood.\"</p><p><strong>About the study</strong></p><p>In addition to Murray, other authors were Christina Duval, Ane Balkchyan and Steven Siegel of the Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine; Ryan Cabeen, Arthur Toga and Kay Jann of the USC Mary and Mark Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute at the Keck School of Medicine; and Jason Nagata of University of California, San Francisco.</p><p>USC\'s Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences includes about 200 faculty members who provide services to patients at Children\'s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, Keck Hospital of USC, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and USC Student Health.</p><p>The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, including the National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH115184)</p>','2022-03-16 00:03:13.224746','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Keck School of Medicine of USC','Brain scans of children ages 9-10 with a type of eating disorder that causes uncontrollable overeating showed differences in gray matter density compared to their unaffected peers, according to a new study. The study\'s findings suggest that abnormal development in the brain\'s centers for reward and inhibition may play a role. In the children with binge eating disorder, researchers saw elevations in gray matter density in areas that are typically \'pruned\' during healthy brain development. Disturbed synaptic pruning is linked to a number of psychiatric disorders.',1,202,'<li>Stuart B. Murray, Christina J. Duval, Ane A. Balkchyan, Ryan P. Cabeen, Jason M. Nagata, Arthur W. Toga, Steven J. Siegel, Kay Jann. <strong>Regional gray matter abnormalities in pre-adolescent binge eating disorder: A voxel-based morphometry study</strong>. <em>Psychiatry Research</em>, 2022; 310: 114473 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114473\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114473</a>\r\n</li>'),(1203,'A new brain-computer interface with a flexible backing','a-new-brain-computer-interface-with-a-flexible-backing','2022-03-16 05:44:44.121394','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Engineering researchers have invented an advanced brain-computer interface with a flexible and moldable backing and penetrating microneedles. Adding a flexible backing to this kind of brain-computer interface allows the device to more evenly conform to the brain\'s complex curved surface and to more uniformly distribute the microneedles that pierce the cortex. The microneedles, which are 10 times thinner than the human hair, protrude from the flexible backing, penetrate the surface of the brain tissue without piercing surface venules, and record signals from nearby nerve cells evenly across a wide area of the cortex.</p><p>This novel brain-computer interface has thus far been tested in rodents. The details were published online on February 25 in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. This work is led by a team in the lab of electrical engineering professor Shadi Dayeh at the University of California San Diego, together with researchers at Boston University led by biomedical engineering professor Anna Devor.</p><p>This new brain-computer interface is on par with and outperforms the \"Utah Array,\" which is the existing gold standard for brain-computer interfaces with penetrating microneedles. The Utah Array has been demonstrated to help stroke victims and people with spinal cord injury. People with implanted Utah Arrays are able to use their thoughts to control robotic limbs and other devices in order to restore some everyday activities such as moving objects.</p><p>The backing of the new brain-computer interface is flexible, conformable, and reconfigurable, while the Utah Array has a hard and inflexible backing. The flexibility and conformability of the backing of the novel microneedle-array favors closer contact between the brain and the electrodes, which allows for better and more uniform recording of the brain-activity signals. Working with rodents as model species, the researchers have demonstrated stable broadband recordings producing robust signals for the duration of the implant which lasted 196 days.</p><p>In addition, the way the soft-backed brain-computer interfaces are manufactured allows for larger sensing surfaces, which means that a significantly larger area of the brain surface can be monitored simultaneously. In the<em> Advanced Functional Materials</em> paper, the researchers demonstrate that a penetrating microneedle array with 1,024 microneedles successfully recorded signals triggered by precise stimuli from the brains of rats. This represents ten times more microneedles and ten times the area of brain coverage, compared to current technologies.</p><p><strong>Thinner and transparent backings</strong></p><p>These soft-backed brain-computer interfaces are thinner and lighter than the traditional, glass backings of these kinds of brain-computer interfaces. The researchers note in their Advanced Functional Materials paper that light, flexible backings may reduce irritation of the brain tissue that contacts the arrays of sensors.</p><p>The flexible backings are also transparent. In the new paper, the researchers demonstrate that this transparency can be leveraged to perform fundamental neuroscience research involving animal models that would not be possible otherwise. The team, for example, demonstrated simultaneous electrical recording from arrays of penetrating micro-needles as well as optogenetic photostimulation.</p><p><strong>Two-sided lithographic manufacturing</strong></p><p>The flexibility, larger microneedle array footprints, reconfigurability and transparency of the backings of the new brain sensors are all thanks to the double-sided lithography approach the researchers used.</p><p>Conceptually, starting from a rigid silicon wafer, the team\'s manufacturing process allows them to build microscopic circuits and devices on both sides of the rigid silicon wafer. On one side, a flexible, transparent film is added on top of the silicon wafer. Within this film, a bilayer of titanium and gold traces is embedded so that the traces line up with where the needles will be manufactured on the other side of the silicon wafer.</p><p>Working from the other side, after the flexible film has been added, all the silicon is etched away, except for free-standing, thin, pointed columns of silicon. These pointed columns of silicon are, in fact, the microneedles, and their bases align with the titanium-gold traces within the flexible layer that remains after the silicon has been etched away. These titanium-gold traces are patterned via standard and scalable microfabrication techniques, allowing scalable production with minimal manual labor. The manufacturing process offers the possibility of flexible array design and scalability to tens of thousands of microneedles.</p><p><strong>Toward closed-loop systems</strong></p><p>Looking to the future, penetrating microneedle arrays with large spatial coverage will be needed to improve brain-machine interfaces to the point that they can be used in \"closed-loop systems\" that can help individuals with severely limited mobility. For example, this kind of closed-loop system might offer a person using a robotic hand real-time tactical feedback on the objects the robotic hand is grasping.</p><p>Tactile sensors on the robotic hand would sense the hardness, texture, and weight of an object. This information recorded by the sensors would be translated into electrical stimulation patterns which travel through wires outside the body to the brain-computer interface with penetrating microneedles. These electrical signals would provide information directly to the person\'s brain about the hardness, texture, and weight of the object. In turn, the person would adjust their grasp strength based on sensed information directly from the robotic arm.</p><p>This is just one example of the kind of closed-loop system that could be possible once penetrating microneedle arrays can be made larger to conform to the brain and coordinate activity across the \"command\" and \"feedback\" centers of the brain.</p><p>Previously, the Dayeh laboratory invented and demonstrated the kinds of tactile sensors that would be needed for this kind of application, as highlighted in this video.</p><p><strong>Pathway to commercialization</strong></p><p>The advanced dual-side lithographic microfabrication processes described in this paper are patented (US 10856764). Dayeh co-founded Precision Neurotek Inc. to translate technologies innovated in his laboratory to advance state of the art in clinical practice and to advance the fields of neuroscience and neurophysiology.</p>','2022-03-16 00:25:29.246464','uploads/news/download_32.jfif',1,'University of California - San Diego','Engineering researchers have invented an advanced brain-computer interface with a flexible and moldable backing and penetrating microneedles. Adding a flexible backing to this kind of brain-computer interface allows the device to more evenly conform to the brain\'s complex curved surface and to more uniformly distribute the microneedles that pierce the cortex. The microneedles, which are 10 times thinner than the human hair, protrude from the flexible backing, penetrate the surface of the brain tissue without piercing surface venules, and record signals from nearby nerve cells evenly across a wide area of the cortex. This novel brain-computer interface has thus far been tested in rodents.',1,162,'<li>Sang Heon Lee, Martin Thunemann, Keundong Lee, Daniel R. Cleary, Karen J. Tonsfeldt, Hongseok Oh, Farid Azzazy, Youngbin Tchoe, Andrew M. Bourhis, Lorraine Hossain, Yun Goo Ro, Atsunori Tanaka, Kıvılcım Kılıç, Anna Devor, Shadi A. Dayeh. <strong>Scalable Thousand Channel Penetrating Microneedle Arrays on Flex for Multimodal and Large Area Coverage BrainMachine Interfaces</strong>. <em>Advanced Functional Materials</em>, 2022; 2112045 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202112045\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/adfm.202112045</a>\r\n</li>'),(1231,'Mechanism linking type 2 diabetes to Alzheimer’s disease','mechanism-linking-type-2-diabetes-to-alzheimer’s-disease','2022-03-16 11:25:12.388327',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Osaka City University suggests a possible mechanism linking diabetes to Alzheimer\'s disease in new discovery that amyloid-β in the blood comes from periphery organs like the pancreas and liver, not only the brain, and aids in blood glucose clearance by inhibiting insulin secretion.</p><p>A research group has revealed that amyloid-β (Aβ) detected in blood is secreted from peripheral tissues (pancreas, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, liver, etc.) that are sensitive to glucose and insulin. Also, that Aβ secreted from peripheral tissues acts as a regulator on pancreatic β-cells to suppress insulin secretion. The results of this study indicate that blood Aβ levels fluctuate significantly with diet, and special care should be taken when using blood samples as a diagnostic marker for Alzheimer\'s disease, such as taking blood samples during fasting.</p><p>Researchers have identified amyloid beta (Aβ) detected in blood to originate from peripheral tissues, and that the peptide acts on pancreaticβ-cells to suppress insulin secretion, thereby regulating blood glucose levels. The study, which urges us to be careful when using blood Aβ levels as a diagnostic marker for Alzheimer\'s disease (AD), was published in The <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)</em>, the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences.</p><p>\"This work was finally published after about 11 years,\" says Professor Takami Tomiyama of the Department of Translational Neuroscience, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine. \"It is not only an academic discovery, but also has implications in how we diagnose AD.\"</p><p>Based on what is known, this study sought to explore some unknowns. First, as AD is caused by the accumulation of Aβ in the brain, it is thought that Aβ levels in the blood reflect the pathology in the brain and are currently used as a diagnostic marker. However, Aβ is generated from the amyloid precursor protein (APP) through the function of two enzymes, β- and γ-secretases, and this mechanism is expressed in many of the body\'s peripheral tissues, not only in the brain, causing the origin of blood Aβ to remain unknown. Second, epidemiological studies have shown type 2 diabetes to be a strong risk factor for the development of AD, yet the mechanism linking these two diseases has eluded researchers as well.</p><p>\"In our previous studies on mice injected with glucose,\" Professor Tomiyama explains, \"we showed a transient increase in glucose and insulin to peak at 15 minutes, but blood Aβ levels to peak some 30-120 minutes later.\" In addition, previous studies have shown the oral administration of glucose to increase blood Aβ levels in patients with AD. These findings led the professor and his research team to explore the hypothesis that blood Aβ is secreted from peripheral tissues (pancreas, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, liver, etc.) and it may contribute to the metabolism of glucose and insulin.</p><p>First, they examined the effects of glucose and insulin on blood Aβ levels of mice fasted for 16 hours. Collected blood samples from the tail vein at 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 120, and 180 min intervals after the injection showed a transient increase in glucose, insulin, and Aβ, confirming previous studies.</p><p>Next, they explored the effect of Aβ on blood insulin levels by administering Aβ and glucose to fasted mice that cannot produce Aβ, called APP knock out mice. Measuring insulin in blood samples over time found that Aβ suppressed the glucose-stimulated rise in insulin.</p><p>Given that blood Aβ levels changed immediately upon introduction of glucose and insulin, the team focused on the mice pancreas, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, liver, and kidneys to determine the origin of blood Aβ. They added glucose and insulin to isolated live peripheral tissues and measured the secreted Aβ. Results showed that Aβ was secreted from the pancreas upon glucose stimulation and from adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, and liver upon insulin stimulation. The kidneys, which is not involved in glucose or insulin metabolism, did not secrete Aβ upon either stimulus. They also found that when glucose and Aβ were added to pancreas tissue, levels of secreted insulin were suppressed.</p><p>Now that the origin of blood Aβ had been clarified, the team wanted to localize Aβ in the periphery tissues studied. \"This would elucidate the cells involved with Aβ,\" adds Professor Tomiyama. \"In addition to providing further validation to our findings, this would give us a more detailed picture from which we could draw conclusions to possible mechanisms connecting type 2 diabetes and AD.\"</p><p>Using immunohistochemistry to exploit the fact that antibodies bind to certain proteins, the team started with the pancreas tissue, detecting Aβonly in insulin (β cells). The team also found the β cells of mice with glucose injections to have less immunoreactions to Aβand insulin, suggesting during periods of fast, Aβ and insulin are stored in β cells and then released into circulation when stimulated with glucose. Similarly, tissue sections of each insulin-targeted organ were prepared and immunostained for Aβ and the bioactive substances specific to each tissue, called organokines. Aβ was found with the organokines of all the organ tissues tested, with less immunoreactions when stimulated with insulin.</p><p>\"Our findings suggest that Aβ and organokines are stored during periods of fast and released into circulation when stimulated with insulin,\" adds Prof. Tomiyama. \"A comprehensive understanding of the organokine action of peripheral Aβ is something we hope to develop in future work.\"</p><p>In addition to an explanation for the origin of Aβ in the blood, the research findings suggest a mechanism by which type 2 diabetes is a strong risk factor for the development of AD. In diabetes, Aβ levels in the blood are constantly elevated due to high levels of glucose and insulin. This inhibits Aβ to leave the brain to the periphery (transport through the blood-brain barrier and by body fluid flow through the brain parenchyma called the glymphatic system), causing Aβ to accumulate in the brain and develop into AD.</p><p>\"Other more practical suggestions can be gleaned from this study,\" concludes Prof. Tomiyama, \"our data suggest that as blood Aβ levels fluctuate significantly with diet, special care should be taken when diagnosing AD with blood Aβ.\"</p>','2022-03-16 11:25:12.388327','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Osaka City University','A research group has revealed that amyloid-beta detected in blood is secreted from peripheral tissues (pancreas, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, liver, etc.) that are sensitive to glucose and insulin.\n',1,27,'<li>Keiko Shigemori, Sachiko Nomura, Tomohiro Umeda, Shuko Takeda, Takami Tomiyama. <strong>Peripheral Aβ acts as a negative modulator of insulin secretion</strong>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 2022; 119 (12) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2117723119\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1073/pnas.2117723119</a>\n</li>'),(1269,'Intensity control of projectors in parallel: A doorway to an augmented reality future','intensity-control-of-projectors-in-parallel:-a-doorway-to-an-augmented-reality-future','2022-03-16 16:52:17.697032',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A challenge to adopting augmented reality (AR) in wider applications is working with dynamic objects, owing to a delay between their movement and the projection of light onto their new position. But, Tokyo Tech scientists may have a workaround. They have developed a method that uses multiple projectors while reducing delay time. Their method could open the door to a future driven by AR, helping us live increasingly technology-centered lives.</p><p>Technological advancements continue to redesign the way we interact with digital media, the world around us, and each other. Augmented reality (AR), which uses technology to alter the perception of objects in the real world, is unlocking unprecedented landscapes in entertainment, advertising, education, and across many other industries. The use of multiple projectors plays an important role in expanding the usage of AR, alongside a technique called projection mapping. However, an obstacle to the widespread adoption of AR is the application of this method to moving, or \"dynamic,\" targets without the loss of immersion in the AR space.</p><p>This technique, known as dynamic projection mapping, relies on a blend of cameras and projectors that visually detect target surfaces and project onto them, respectively. A critical aspect is the need for high speed in information transfer and low \"latency,\" or delay between detection and projection. Any latency leads to a misalignment of the projector, which effects our perception, and reduces the effectiveness of the AR space.</p><p>Other issues like changes in shadowing and target overlap are solved easily by using multiple projectors. However, the addition of new projectors correspondingly drives up the latency. This is a result of the need to calculate the intensity at every pixel simultaneously for every frame of a moving scene. Simply put, more projectors lead to longer and more complex calculations. The latency is a massive hurdle towards AR taking a true foothold in broader applications across society.</p><p>Thankfully, a team of scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), led by Associate Professor Yoshihiro Watanabe, might just have the necessary solution. They have developed a novel method to calculate the intensity of each pixel on a target in parallel, reducing the need for a single large optimization calculation. Their method relies on the principle that if pixels are small enough, they can be evaluated independently. While based on an approximation, their results, published in <em>IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics</em>, suggest that they could achieve the same quality of images as conventional, more computationally expensive methods, while drastically increasing the mapping speed and thereby reducing the latency.</p><p>\"Another advantage of our proposed method is, as there is no longer need for a single global calculation, it allows the use of multiple rendering computers connected through a network, each only controlling a single projector,\" explains Dr. Watanabe. \"Such a network system is easily customizable to incorporate more projectors, without major sacrifices to the latency.\"</p><p>This new method can allow large spaces with many projectors for efficient dynamic projection mapping, taking us a step closer to broader AR applications, as Dr. Watanabe describes: \"The presented high-speed multi-projection is expected to be a major part of important base technologies that will advance spatial AR to derive more practical uses in our daily life.\"</p><p>Video: <a href=\"https://youtu.be/ltwSmsYnlK8\">https://youtu.be/ltwSmsYnlK8</a></p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-16 16:52:17.697032','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Tokyo Institute of Technology','A challenge to adopting augmented reality (AR) in wider applications is working with dynamic objects, owing to a delay between their movement and the projection of light onto their new position. But, scientists may have a workaround. They have developed a method that uses multiple projectors while reducing delay time. Their method could open the door to a future driven by AR, helping us live increasingly technology-centered lives.\n',1,27,'<li>Takashi Nomoto, Wanlong Li, Hao-Lun Peng, Yoshihiro Watanabe. <strong>Dynamic Multi-projection Mapping Based on Parallel Intensity Control</strong>. <em>IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics</em>, 2022; 1 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2022.3150488\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1109/TVCG.2022.3150488</a>\n</li>'),(1270,'Mechanism underlying Alzheimer-like damage in the brain of patients with Down Syndrome elucidated','mechanism-underlying-alzheimer-like-damage-in-the-brain-of-patients-with-down-syndrome-elucidated','2022-03-16 16:52:19.462595',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Life expectancy for individuals with Down syndrome has grown in recent decades, thanks in large part to progress in patient care and treatment. But with survival into the fifth and sixth decades of life now possible, increasing numbers of these individuals are affected by conditions linked to aging, among them impairments in thinking that are associated with the accumulation in the brain of atypical proteins better known for their involvement in Alzheimer\'s disease.</p><p>Precisely why Alzheimer-like changes -- marked by the build-up of harmful amyloid and tau proteins -- occur in the brain in Down syndrome has been unclear. But now, in new research, scientists at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University show that reduced efficiency of a key protein transport system is partly to blame. In analyses of human brain tissue collected post-mortem, the researchers found that the so-called retromer complex system, which plays a critical role in clearing damaged and degraded proteins from neurons in the brain, operates at only about 50 percent of its usual efficiency in Down syndrome patients. The reduction was linked specifically to the accumulation of pathogenic tau protein.</p><p>\"The decline in protein transport via the retromer system is a lot like a traffic jam, with the transporter stalling out and causing a major back-up in the clearance of pathologic tau proteins, leaving them to accumulate over time,\" explained Domenico Praticò, MD, Scott Richards North Star Foundation Chair for Alzheimer\'s Research, Professor in the Department of Neural Sciences, Director of the Alzheimer\'s Center at Temple, and senior investigator on the new study.</p><p>\"We also found that a major factor underlying tau accumulation is diminished activity of the cathepsin-D enzyme, which resides within the retromer complex,\" Dr. Praticò added. Cathepsin-D normally acts like a pair of scissors, cutting up tau to facilitate its digestion and removal.</p><p>The study, published online in the journal <em>Annals of Neurology</em>, is the first to connect reductions in retromer system efficiency and cathepsin-D activity to the accumulation of pathogenic tau in Down syndrome. The findings are significant because they suggest that Alzheimer-like changes are not strictly modulated by the extra copy of human chromosome 21 that is characteristic of Down syndrome. Even though the extra chromosome provides an additional copy of a gene known as amyloid precursor protein (APP), which increases the risk of amyloid plaque formation, not all Down syndrome patients develop dementia, implicating the involvement of factors beyond genetics.</p><p>Dr. Praticò and colleagues first measured the extent of tau pathology in brain tissue from patients with Down syndrome and then assessed the relationship between the retromer core protein levels and the amount of pathologic tau protein in young and aged individuals with Down syndrome. They further compared the activity of cathepsin-D with the amount of tau pathology in the same individuals.</p><p>The team\'s analyses uncovered an inverse relationship between the emergence of tau pathology in Down syndrome and the levels of retromer proteins and activity of cathepsin-D. Moreover, the team\'s observations suggest that reduced levels of retromer proteins in young Down syndrome subjects sets the stage for the development of tau pathology later in life.</p><p>\"Overall, our data identify the retromer complex as a key regulator of pathogenic tau in Down syndrome, with evidence for the development of tau pathology at a relatively young age,\" Dr. Praticò said.</p><p>The results also identify the retromer system as a promising new target for the treatment of Alzheimer\'s disease pathology in Down syndrome patients. Drugs that target the retromer system, such as small chaperones, have already been developed. In future work, Dr. Praticò and colleagues plan to explore these potential treatments in animal models that reproduce most of the aspects of Down syndrome observed in humans.</p><p>\"Using these existing therapeutics, we want to see if it is possible to reverse amyloid plaque and pathological tau accumulation in animal models,\" Dr. Praticò added. \"If we are successful, we will have created an exciting opportunity to explore treatments in human patients with Down syndrome.\"</p><p>Other investigators who contributed to the new study include Mary Elizabeth Curtis and Tiffany Smith, Alzheimer\'s Center at Temple, Lewis Katz School of Medicine; and Daohai Yu, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lewis Katz School of Medicine.</p><p>The study was funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (AG055707 and AG056689).</p>','2022-03-16 16:52:19.462595','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Temple University Health System','Precisely why Alzheimer-like changes -- marked by the build-up of harmful amyloid and tau proteins -- occur in the brain in Down syndrome has been unclear. But now, in new research, scientists show that reduced efficiency of a key protein transport system is partly to blame.\n',1,27,'<li>Mary Elizabeth Curtis, Tiffany Smith, Daohai Yu, Domenico Pratic&amp;#2013265922;. <strong>Association of Retromer Deficiency and Tau Pathology in Down Syndrome</strong>. <em>Annals of Neurology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ana.26321\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/ana.26321</a>\n</li>'),(1271,'Excess sugar consumption costs Canada’s health-care system $5 billion each year, study finds','excess-sugar-consumption-costs-canada’s-health-care-system-$5-billion-each-year,-study-finds','2022-03-16 16:52:22.225264',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Imagine if the real cost to society of the food you buy at the grocery store was built right into each product\'s price. Everything with added sugar would cost a whole lot more, according to University of Alberta researchers in a new study in <em>The Canadian Journal of Public Health</em>.</p><p>They peg the economic burden of excessive sugar consumption in Canada at $5 billion a year, thanks to the direct and indirect costs related to 16 chronic diseases. The researchers call on governments to use taxation, subsidies, education and other measures to encourage healthier eating habits, saying it is \"an area of urgent need for action\" in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.</p><p>\"This pandemic has brought us more unhealthy lifestyles -- on the nutrition side, on the physical activity side and on screen time for kids. If we do not act now, we should expect more chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes in the years ahead,\" said principal investigator Paul Veugelers, professor in the U of A\'s School of Public Health.</p><p>\"Health care costs for chronic diseases are ballooning,\" Veugelers said. \"We not only need to make our health-care system more efficient, we should also act on the demand side by investing in primary prevention to ensure we have fewer patients with chronic diseases. Addressing sugar consumption is one strategy to achieve that.\"</p><p>Both Canada\'s Food Guide and the World Health Organization recommend we consume less than 10 per cent of our daily energy intake as \"free sugar\" from foods made with added sugar and naturally sweet juices, honey and syrup. For additional health benefits, less than five per cent is recommended.</p><p>Using data reported in the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey on nutrition, the researchers found that two out of three Canadians eat more sugar than recommended. They then established risk estimates for 16 diet-related chronic conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, kidney disease and low back pain. They calculated avoidable direct health-care costs such as doctors, hospitals and drugs, along with indirect costs like productivity losses due to illness and disability.</p><p>They concluded that if Canadians had followed the 10 per cent recommendation in 2019, an estimated $2.5 billion could have been saved, and $5 billion in costs could have been avoided by following the stricter five per cent recommendation.</p><p>Treatment and management of chronic diseases accounts for 67 per cent of all health-care costs in Canada, they reported, with an annual price tag of up to $190 billion.</p><p>The researchers estimated that limiting free sugar consumption to less than 10 per cent of energy intake could reduce the prevalence of diabetes by 27 per cent, and that benefit could reach 44.8 per cent if Canadians limited their sugar consumption to less than five per cent.</p><p>\"Diabetes is just a very expensive condition to manage and to treat. It can occur at an early age, and you can live with it for a long, long time. Kidney issues, dialysis, amputation, those are just a few gruesome examples of where that disease trajectory can go,\" said Veugelers. \"Patients require lots of health-care interactions that drive the costs of chronic diseases.\"</p><p>Forty countries and cities around the world have already introduced a special tax on sugar-sweetened beverages such as pop as a disincentive to consumption, building on lessons from tobacco control measures. Newfoundland and Labrador recently introduced Canada\'s first such tax and similar policies have been suggested elsewhere, but in this study the researchers push for a broader approach, because they found that only 17 per cent of the costs related to sugar consumption could be traced back to sugary drinks.</p><p>Instead, they advocate for higher taxes on all sugar-added products, and to put the tax revenues towards subsidies for healthful foods, education programs, limits on advertising to children, and better product labeling.</p>','2022-03-16 16:52:22.225264','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Alberta','Researchers peg the economic burden of excessive sugar consumption in Canada at $5 billion a year, thanks to the direct and indirect costs related to 16 chronic diseases. The researchers call on governments to use taxation, subsidies, education and other measures to encourage healthier eating habits, saying it is \'an area of urgent need for action\' in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.\n',1,27,'<li>Siyuan Liu, Lalani L. Munasinghe, Katerina Maximova, Jennifer P. Taylor, Arto Ohinmaa, Paul J. Veugelers. <strong>The economic burden of excessive sugar consumption in Canada: should the scope of preventive action be broadened?</strong> <em>Canadian Journal of Public Health</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.17269/s41997-022-00615-x\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.17269/s41997-022-00615-x</a>\n</li>'),(1273,'Birds of prey populations across Europe suppressed by lead poisoning from gun ammunition','birds-of-prey-populations-across-europe-suppressed-by-lead-poisoning-from-gun-ammunition','2022-03-16 16:52:25.153122',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Poisoning caused by preying on or scavenging animals shot by hunters using lead ammunition has left the populations of many raptors -- or birds of prey -- far smaller than they should be, according to the first study to calculate these impacts across Europe.</p><p>When birds like eagles and Red Kites scavenge carcasses or eat injured animals with fragments of toxic lead from gun ammunition embedded in their bodies they can become poisoned, suffering slow and painful deaths. Smaller doses have been shown to alter behaviour and physiology.</p><p>Now, scientists from the University of Cambridge have used data on lead levels in the livers of over 3,000 raptors found dead in more than a dozen countries to calculate the extent to which poisoning by lead ammunition has affected Europe\'s raptor populations.</p><p>Researchers estimate that, for ten raptor species, poisoning from lead ammunition alone has resulted in an absence of around 55,000 adult birds from European skies.</p><p>Worst affected are species like eagles that are naturally long-lived, rear few young per year and breed later in life. However, even populations of species familiar to bird-watchers across countries like the UK, such as the Common Buzzard and Red Kite, would be significantly bigger were it not for lead ammunition.</p><p>For example, the study suggests that Europe\'s White-tailed Eagle population is 14% smaller than it would have been without more than a century of exposure to lethal levels of lead in some of its food.</p><p>This is closely followed by the Golden Eagle and Griffon Vulture with populations 13% and 12% smaller than they would otherwise have been. Northern Goshawk numbers are 6% smaller, and both Red Kite and Western Marsh Harrier populations are 3% smaller.</p><p>Common Buzzard populations are 1.5% smaller, but this equates to almost 22,000 fewer adults of this widespread species, say the researchers.</p><p>They estimate that the overall European population of ten raptor species is at least 6% smaller than it should be, solely as a result of poisoning from lead ammunition.</p><p>Cambridge researchers worked with the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) and the findings are published today in the journal <em>Science of the Total Environment</em>.</p><p>The scientists say that a range of alternatives to lead shotgun cartridges and rifle bullets are widely available to hunters and work well. However, efforts by UK hunters\' organisations to instigate voluntary bans on lead shot in hunting have had almost no effect.</p><p>Research by the same Cambridge authors published just last month shows over 99% of pheasants killed in the UK are still shot with lead, despite hunting groups urging members to switch to non-toxic gunshot in 2020, with the aim of phasing out lead use by 2025.</p><p>\"The continued blanket use of lead ammunition means that hunting as a pastime simply cannot be considered sustainable unless things change,\" said lead author Prof Rhys Green, a conservation scientist at the University of Cambridge and RSPB.</p><p>\"Unfortunately, efforts to encourage voluntary shifts away from lead shot have been completely ineffective so far,\" he said.</p><p>\"The kinds of reductions in raptor populations suggested by our study would be considered worthy of strong action, including legislation, if caused by habitat destruction or deliberate poisoning.\"</p><p>Currently, only two European nations -- Denmark and the Netherlands -- have banned lead shot. Denmark plans to follow this up with a ban on lead rifle bullets. Both the European Union and the UK are considering legal bans on all lead ammunition due to effects on wildlife and the health of human consumers of game meat, but many hunting groups oppose this, according to researchers.</p><p>Some raptors are poisoned when they scavenge from dead animals killed with lead ammunition. This can be a whole carcass lost or abandoned by hunters, or -- for example -- the guts of a hunted deer, discarded to reduce carrying weight.</p><p>As well as vultures, which rely on scavenging, many other raptors also scavenge when the opportunity arises, including eagles, buzzards and kites. Many dead pheasants at UK roadsides carry lead shot and fragments in their bodies and are scavenged by buzzards and kites.</p><p>Other species, such as falcons and goshawks, are exposed through preying upon live animals with lead embedded in their bodies from being shot and injured but not killed. X-ray studies of wild ducks in the UK have shown that about a quarter of live birds have shot in their bodies. Injured ducks or pigeons are less likely to be able to evade predatory birds.</p><p>\"It\'s taken decades for researchers from across Europe to amass sufficient data to enable us to calculate the impacts of lead poisoning on raptor populations,\" said study co-author Prof Debbie Pain from the University of Cambridge.</p><p>\"We can now see just how substantial population impacts can be for some of our most charismatic and vulnerable species -- species that are protected by EU Regulation and the UK Wildlife &amp; Countryside Act.\"</p><p>\"The avoidable suffering and death of numerous individual raptors from lead poisoning should be sufficient to require the use of non-toxic alternatives. These population-level impacts make this both doubly important and urgent.\"</p><p>For the latest study, researchers used population modelling to calculate how big Europe\'s raptor populations would have been were it not for the destructive impact of a single \"additional mortality factor\": lead poisoning from ammunition.</p><p>They took data gathered since the 1970s from the livers of thousands of dead raptors in 13 nations and tracked the relationship with \"hunter density\": average numbers of hunters per square kilometre in each country, using data from the European Federation for Hunting and Conservation.</p><p>Unsurprisingly perhaps, places with a higher density of hunters had more poisoned raptors. Scientists used this relationship to predict rates of poisoning in countries without data from bird livers, but where \"hunter density\" is known. Their results indicate that a country with no hunters using lead ammunition would have virtually no lead-poisoned raptors.</p><p>Scientists say their estimates are conservative, not least as data on poisoned raptors is limited and hugely difficult to gather. For many European raptor species, including some of the rarest ones, there were insufficient data to estimate how great the risk is.</p>','2022-03-16 16:52:25.153122','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Cambridge','Poisoning caused by preying on or scavenging animals shot by hunters using lead ammunition has left the populations of many raptors – or birds of prey – far smaller than they should be, according to the first study to calculate these impacts across Europe.   \n',1,27,'<li>R.E. Green, D.J. Pain, O. Krone. <strong>The impact of lead poisoning from ammunition sources on raptor populations in Europe</strong>. <em>Science of The Total Environment</em>, 2022; 154017 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154017\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154017</a>\n</li>'),(1275,'Antelope, a Gulf region cultural icon, gets another chance at survival','antelope,-a-gulf-region-cultural-icon,-gets-another-chance-at-survival','2022-03-16 16:52:28.923039',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In a world-first, the DNA of a vulnerable species, the iconic Arabian Oryx, has been decoded. An international team led by the University of Sydney undertook this project to ensure the survival of the species, by using the genetic data to inform breeding programs.</p><p>The Arabian oryx, a kind of antelope, became extinct in the wild in 1972 due to hunting and poaching. However, it continued to exist in captivity through breeding programs at the Phoenix Zoo and by private collectors in Saudi Arabia (indeed, it was the first animal to be rescued from extinction in the wild). It was historically -- and remains -- a cultural and national icon in the Gulf region.</p><p>A decade later, the species was \'rewilded\' and today, wild populations totalling 1,200 animals exist in around the world, mainly on the Arabian Peninsula. There are 6,000-7,000 animals in captivity, 600 of which are in the Al-Wusta Wildlife Reserve, in Oman.</p><p>According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the Arabian oryx continues to face a high risk of extinction in the wild. Yet, until now, no breeding strategies that account for the genetic diversity have been devised.</p><p>Associate Professor Jaime Gongora, his former PhD student Qais Al Rawahi, and his colleagues decided to address this by analysing the population\'s DNA and proposing breeding strategies based on the results. Their study on this has been published in <em>Royal Society Open Science</em>.</p><p>\"There is more to the preservation of the Arabian oryx than conservation,\" Associate Professor Gongora said. \"Historically and now, it has strong cultural significance in the Arabian Peninsula due to its unique physical features and strength, enabling it to live in harsh desert environments. It has even become a national icon in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. That\'s why we are working so hard to ensure it survives -- for the oryx itself and to keep this cultural connection alive.\"</p><p>\"This work in such an iconic species could serve as a benchmark for the long-term sustainability of other conservation programs. This includes those taking place at the Al-Wusta Wildlife Reserve involving the Sand Gazelle, the Mountain Gazelle and the Nubian Ibex.\"</p><p><strong>The Arabian oryx</strong></p><p>Arabian oryx are unique animals distinguished by the length of their horns, which can grow up to one metre. They can travel 75km a day, searching for food, and are known for their \'sixth sense\': they can sense the location of incoming rain and move towards it to drink, as well as consume plants that thrive in moister conditions, like acacias. With a lifespan of between 15 and 20 years, they are a key food source for other species on the Arabian Peninsula including striped hyenas, Arabian wolves, and lynxes.</p><p><strong>Diversifying the herds</strong></p><p>The researchers gathered and tested genetic samples from 138 Arabian oryxes at the Al-Wusta Wildlife Reserve, as well as 36 historical samples from the Phoenix Zoo -- the offspring of a herd established there in the 1970s. They studied the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA and biparentally inherited single nucleotide polymorphisms -- genetic variations used to identify species.</p><p>To their relief, the Arabian oryx\'s gene pool was moderately diverse, meaning that herds can respond to changing environments and maintain good health. In fact, at 58 percent of the total diversity, the current-day sample was more genetically diverse than the historical ones. \"This means that conservation strategies based on random mating could be reasonably successful,\" said the lead author of the study, Associate Professor Gongora.</p><p>Yet there was room for improvement: they discovered three ancestral groups, but their genetics were not evenly distributed across the current-day herds in the wildlife reserve. Based on this, they suggest a targeted breeding strategy whereby females can breed with males from the other genetic lineages. \"To ensure the survival of the species, it\'s not just about population size -- it\'s about genetic diversity,\" Associate Professor Gongora said.</p><p><strong>Biobanking a cultural icon</strong></p><p>Together with his colleagues, Associate Professor Gongora is working with the Al-Wusta Wildlife Reserve to implement this strategy -- to kick off once COVID-19 travel restrictions lift.</p><p>The researchers also recommend that the Arabian oryx genetic samples be stored in a biobank for future genetic analyses. In addition, biobanking of eggs and sperm samples could also be considered as a long-term insurance policy against extinction.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-16 16:52:28.923039','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Sydney','The DNA of a vulnerable species, the iconic Arabian Oryx, has been decoded. An international team undertook this project to help ensure the survival of the species, by using the genetic data to inform breeding programs.\n',1,27,'<li>Qais Al Rawahi, Jose Luis Mijangos, Mehar S. Khatkar, Mohammed A. Al Abri, Mansoor H. AlJahdhami, Jennifer Kaden, Helen Senn, Katherine Brittain, Jaime Gongora. <strong>Rescued back from extinction in the wild: past, present and future of the genetics of the Arabian oryx in Oman</strong>. <em>Royal Society Open Science</em>, 2022; 9 (3) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.210558\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1098/rsos.210558</a>\n</li>'),(1276,'How grasshopper mouths resemble those of mammals','how-grasshopper-mouths-resemble-those-of-mammals','2022-03-16 16:52:53.450469',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">New research led by palaeobiologists at the University of Leicester has identified startling similarities between the mouths of grasshoppers and mammal teeth.</p><p>The team of researchers used sophisticated three-dimensional imaging techniques to precisely map the shape of grasshopper\'s mandibles, and present their findings in <em>Methods in Ecology and Evolution</em>, published today (Wednesday).</p><p>There are around 11,000 known species of grasshopper. It likely comes as a surprise that not all grasshoppers eat grass. In fact, they play a range of important roles in grasslands and other ecosystems -- some are even carnivorous.</p><p>But analysis of the ecological importance of grasshoppers is not straightforward, and finding out what they eat requires detailed study of the contents of their guts or painstaking and time-consuming observations of how they feed in the wild. There is, however, a better way.</p><p>Like animals with teeth, the mouthparts of grasshoppers, known as mandibles, differ according to what they eat: some are molar-like and grind tough foods like grass, while others have sharper cutting edges. Until now this approach has lacked precision, able to assign grasshoppers only to broad feeding categories.</p><p>But the Leicester research -- with input from the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol -- provides a new way to investigate the diets of the many species scientists have little information about, either because of their rarity or because they are extinct.</p><p>Leicester PhD researcher Chris Stockey is corresponding author for the study. He said:</p><p>\"Knowing what animals eat is fundamental to understanding ecosystems, but working this out can be difficult and time consuming, especially if the animals you study are rare, small, or move quickly.</p><p>\"One of the advantages of our method is the powerful comparisons that it provides.</p><p>\"Surprisingly, comparing the mandible landscapes of grasshoppers with mammal\'s teeth allows grasshopper diet to be predicted with 82% accuracy -- pretty amazing when you consider that the mouthparts of mammals and grasshoppers have evolved independently for 400 million years, and were not present in their common ancestor.\"</p><p>Mark Purnell, Professor of Palaeobiology and Director of the Centre for Palaeobiology at the University of Leicester, said:</p><p>\"We measured the shapes of grasshopper\'s mouthparts and analysed them like the topography of a landscape, and found clear differences linked to diet.</p><p>\"Mandibles from carnivorous grasshoppers that eat soft flesh have steeper slopes and sharper cliff edges, while those that eat tough plant material, such as grass, have mandibles with complex undulating \'landscapes\'.\"</p><p>The research was based on museum specimens, part of the huge collections kept behind the scenes for scientists to study -- rooms full of millions of samples underneath the viewing galleries. Even the most studied of collections, such as Charles Darwin\'s, yield new species each year.</p><p>Without having seen these organisms alive the only way to learn about their lifestyles and diets previously has been to painstakingly dissect them. Not only is dissection a slow process, but it can damage the specimens and limit their usefulness for further study.</p><p>The application of this new non-destructive method to museum collections provides an alternative way to learn about the ecologies of rare animals whilst preserving them for future study.</p><p>Dr Ben Price, Senior Curator at the Natural History Museum, who was not involved in the research, added:</p><p>\"This study is a great example of combining modern analytical methods with historical samples from museum collections to help understand the biodiversity of our planet. As technology advances additional uses of museum collections become possible and this non-destructive approach could reveal the diet information for thousands of species, decades after the specimens were collected.\"</p>','2022-03-16 16:52:53.450469','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Leicester','Palaeobiologists have identified startling similarities between the mouths of grasshoppers and mammal teeth.\n',1,27,'<li>Christopher Stockey, Neil F. Adams, Thomas H. P. Harvey, Philip C. J. Donoghue, Mark A. Purnell. <strong>Dietary inference from dental topographic analysis of feeding tools in diverse animals</strong>. <em>Methods in Ecology and Evolution</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13832\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/2041-210X.13832</a>\n</li>'),(1277,'Bacterial enzyme makes new type of biodegradable polymer','bacterial-enzyme-makes-new-type-of-biodegradable-polymer','2022-03-16 16:52:56.165726',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Strings of sugars called polysaccharides are the most abundant biopolymers on Earth. Because of their versatile and environmentally friendly properties, these molecules could eventually replace some plastics. Now, researchers reporting in <em>ACS Central Science</em> have identified a previously unknown bacterial enzyme that can make a new type of polysaccharide, which is similar to the biopolymer chitin. The new molecule is biodegradable and could be useful for drug delivery, tissue engineering and other biomedical applications.</p><p>Polysaccharides play many roles in organisms, and because they are biocompatible and biodegradable, these molecules are promising carrier materials for a broad range of therapeutics. The identity of individual sugar molecules in the chain, and the way they are linked together, make them function in different ways. Enzymes known as glycoside phosphorylases can cut certain polysaccharides apart or make new ones, depending on the reaction conditions. For example, one such enzyme makes chitin, the major component of arthropod exoskeletons and fungal cell walls. Stephen Withers and colleagues wondered if there might be previously unknown, naturally occurring enzymes that could make new types of polysaccharides.</p><p>Using genomic data and activity-based screening, the researchers identified a glycoside phosphorylase enzyme from bacteria called <em>Acholeplasma laidlawii</em>, a common contaminant of laboratory cell cultures. The team expressed and purified the enzyme, discovering that it could synthesize a new type of polysaccharide, which they named acholetin. The new biopolymer is similar in composition to chitin and to a biofilm-forming polysaccharide, but its sugar molecules are linked together in way that differs from these known biopolymers. The team determined the crystal structure of the glycoside phosphorylase, which they suspect could be involved in maintenance of <em>A. laidlawii</em>\'s cellular membrane. As such, researchers might be able to target the enzyme to prevent cell culture contamination with the bacteria, in addition to using the enzyme to make the new biopolymer. Acholetin has wide-ranging potential as a new type of biocompatible, biodegradable material, the researchers say.</p><p>The authors acknowledge funding and support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health.</p>','2022-03-16 16:52:56.165726','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Chemical Society','Strings of sugars called polysaccharides are the most abundant biopolymers on Earth. Because of their versatile and environmentally friendly properties, these molecules could eventually replace some plastics. Now, researchers have identified a previously unknown bacterial enzyme that can make a new type of polysaccharide, which is similar to the biopolymer chitin. The new molecule is biodegradable and could be useful for drug delivery, tissue engineering and other biomedical applications.\n',1,27,'<li>Spencer S. Macdonald, Jose H. Pereira, Feng Liu, Gregor Tegl, Andy DeGiovanni, Jacob F. Wardman, Samuel Deutsch, Yasuo Yoshikuni, Paul D. Adams, Stephen G. Withers. <strong>A Synthetic Gene Library Yields a Previously Unknown Glycoside Phosphorylase That Degrades and Assembles Poly-β-1,3-GlcNAc, Completing the Suite of β-Linked GlcNAc Polysaccharides</strong>. <em>ACS Central Science</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.1c01570\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acscentsci.1c01570</a>\n</li>'),(1279,'World’s vulnerable are being polluted in their own homes as they cook','world’s-vulnerable-are-being-polluted-in-their-own-homes-as-they-cook','2022-03-16 17:39:21.311500',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Three-quarters of kitchens in low-income homes across 12 major global cities are heavily polluted by cooking emissions, according to research from the University of Surrey and its global partners.</p><p>The first-of-its-kind study found that poor ventilation and fuel choices were the most significant contributors to poor air quality in people\'s kitchens, but the size of the kitchen and the way food was cooked also mattered. Frying food led to particularly high levels of indoor pollution.</p><p>Professor Prashant Kumar, Founding Director of the University of Surrey\'s Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), who led the research published in <em>Environment International</em>, said:</p><p>\"There\'s a notable wealth divide when it comes to indoor air quality and also a gender divide, as women are typically disproportionately impacted by pollution caused by cooking, especially in the developing world. This problem must be addressed to improve health and equality.\"</p><p>The highest average levels of pollution were found in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where kitchens were typically small and people cooked for prolonged periods, often frying food. The cleanest air was found in Medellín, Colombia, due to more space in their kitchens and the use of cleaner cooking fuels.</p><p>The way different cuisines are typically cooked also made a difference to air quality in kitchens. The study found that occupants in Dhaka, Nanjing, Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi spent more than 40 per cent of their cooking time frying, the cooking activity which emits most polluting particles. However, in Cairo, Sulaymaniyah and Akure, roughly two-thirds of cooking time was spent boiling or stewing, which results in fewer particles emitted.</p><p>Cooking on charcoal caused the highest levels of kitchen pollution -- more than three times the levels when using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). However, the levels of pollution caused by cooking on natural gas were just thirty per cent lower than that of charcoal.</p><p>A combination of natural ventilation and mechanical (for example, extractor fans) in Chennai, Cairo and Sulaymaniyah helped halve kitchen pollution, compared with the use of natural ventilation alone in Addis Ababa, Dar-es-Salam and Nairobi.</p><p>Professor Kumar said: \"Improving airflow, using cleaner fuels, filtering efficiency of cooking hoods, and frying less are all ways to reduce the pollution people breathe from cooking. Around the world, kitchens are often where people congregate, but these findings suggest that cooks should discourage family and friends from being around when they\'re cooking.\"</p><p>The World Health Organisation estimates that approximately four million people die prematurely from illnesses attributed to indoor air pollution caused by polluting stoves operating on solid fuels and kerosene. Exposure to high levels of particulate matter, including that from cooking, has been linked to health conditions including heart disease, pneumonia, stroke, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.</p><p>Next, the research team will further analyse their findings and will develop guidance for reducing exposure to kitchen pollution.</p>','2022-03-16 17:39:21.311500','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Surrey','Three-quarters of kitchens in low-income homes across 12 major global cities are heavily polluted by cooking emissions, according to new research.\n',1,27,'<li>Prashant Kumar, Sarkawt Hama, Rana Alaa Abbass, Thiago Nogueira, Veronika S. Brand, Huai-Wen Wu, Francis Olawale Abulude, Adedeji A. Adelodun, Partibha Anand, Maria de Fatima Andrade, William Apondo, Araya Asfaw, Kosar Hama Aziz, Shi-Jie Cao, Ahmed El-Gendy, Gopika Indu, Anderson Gwanyebit Kehbila, Matthias Ketzel, Mukesh Khare, Sri Harsha Kota, Tesfaye Mamo, Steve Manyozo, Jenny Martinez, Aonghus McNabola, Lidia Morawska, Fryad Mustafa, Adamson S. Muula, Samiha Nahian, Adelaide Cassia Nardocci, William Nelson, Aiwerasia V. Ngowi, George Njoroge, Yris Olaya, Khalid Omer, Philip Osano, Md Riad Sarkar Pavel, Abdus Salam, Erik Luan Costa Santos, Cynthia Sitati, S.M. Shiva Nagendra. <strong>In-kitchen aerosol exposure in twelve cities across the globe</strong>. <em>Environment International</em>, 2022; 162: 107155 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107155\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.envint.2022.107155</a>\n</li>'),(1280,'Type 1 diabetes can be predicted with epigenetic changes','type-1-diabetes-can-be-predicted-with-epigenetic-changes','2022-03-16 17:48:07.399776','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Children who develop type 1 diabetes show epigenetic changes in the cells of their immune system already before the antibodies of the disease are detected in their blood. The findings of two new studies offer new opportunities to identify the children with the genetic risk for developing diabetes very early on.</p><p>Epigenetic changes can affect how our genes work. Environmental factors, such as viral infections, can cause epigenetic changes.</p><p>The findings in the epigenetic makeup linked to diabetes were discovered in two new studies led by researchers from Turku Bioscience at the University of Turku, Finland.</p><p>\"We uncovered previously unknown, early-onset epigenetic changes. They offer us new opportunities to further develop ways to identify children who have a risk of developing type 1 diabetes even before they get sick,\" says Professor Riitta Lahesmaa, Director of Turku Bioscience and a group leader in the InFLAMES research flagship initiative.</p><p>Earlier studies have shown that certain antibodies detected in children\'s blood samples indicate an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes in the near future. So that medical professionals could intervene in the disease even sooner, earlier disease indicators than the antibodies are needed to detect the risk. This involves searching for biomarkers indicating type 1 diabetes, and epigenetic changes could be such a biomarker.</p><p>\"Our observations on epigenetics are extremely important as our goal is to develop methods and tools to prevent the onset of type 1 diabetes in children who are at risk of developing the disease,\" says Professor Laura Elo. Elo is the Director of the Medical Bioinformatics Centre at Turku Bioscience and a group leader in the InFLAMES research flagship.</p><p><strong>Finnish children have an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes</strong></p><p>In Finland, children\'s risk of developing type 1 diabetes is the highest in the world. In addition to the genetic susceptibility, environmental factors have a great significance for developing the disease. The environmental factors include, for example, excessive level of hygiene, biodiversity loss, and environmental toxins.</p><p>The newly published studies are based on long-term interdisciplinary research collaboration with international partners. The project has included doctors who are in charge of the patients and also conduct clinical research, researchers in molecular medicine and immunology, and experts in computational science. In the studies, researchers analysed longitudinal samples with deep sequencing covering the entire genome as well as with computational methods and artificial intelligence.</p><p>\"Our research was enabled by close collaboration with Professor Mikael Knip from the University of Helsinki, who coordinates a study funded by the EU. He is also one of the key scientists in the national Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention (DIPP) project which was a partner in the other study,\" highlights Professor Lahesmaa.</p><p>The studies were funded by the Academy of Finland, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (USA), European Union, Business Finland, Novo Nordisk, and InFLAMES Flagship.</p>','2022-03-16 17:39:29.913295','uploads/news/download_33.jfif',1,'University of Turku','Children who develop type 1 diabetes show epigenetic changes in the cells of their immune system before the antibodies of the disease are detected in their blood. The findings of two new studies offer new opportunities to identify the children with the genetic risk for developing diabetes very early on.',1,46,'<li>Tomi Suomi, Ubaid Ullah Kalim, Omid Rasool, Asta Laiho, Henna Kallionpää, Mari Vähä-Mäkilä, Mirja Nurmio, Juha Mykkänen, Taina Härkönen, Heikki Hyöty, Jorma Ilonen, Riitta Veijola, Jorma Toppari, Mikael Knip, Laura L. Elo, Riitta Lahesmaa. <strong>Type 1 Diabetes in Children With Genetic Risk May Be Predicted Very Early With a Blood miRNA</strong>. <em>Diabetes Care</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/dc21-2120\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.2337/dc21-2120</a>\r\n</li>'),(1291,'How inland and coastal waterways influence climate','how-inland-and-coastal-waterways-influence-climate','2022-03-16 19:20:58.927636',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">\"Streams to the river, river to the sea.\" If only it were that simple.</p><p>Most global carbon-budgeting efforts assume a linear flow of water from the land to the sea, which ignores the complex interplay between streams, rivers, lakes, groundwater, estuaries, mangroves and more. A study co-led by climate scientist <strong>Laure Resplandy</strong>, an assistant professor of geosciences and the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) at Princeton University, details how carbon is stored and transported through the intricacy of inland and coastal waterways. Published in the current issue of the journal <em>Nature</em>, the work has significant implications for enforcing the carbon calculations that are part of international climate accords.</p><p>Terrestrial and marine ecosystems have a powerful influence on climate by regulating the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>). These ecosystems, however, are often viewed as disconnected from each other, which ignores the transfer of carbon from land to the open ocean through a complex network of water bodies -- the continuum of streams, rivers, estuaries and other bodies carrying water from land to the sea.</p><p>In a detailed analysis, the team of researchers from Belgium, the United States and France discovered that this land-to-ocean aquatic continuum (LOAC) carries a substantial amount of carbon of anthropogenic (e.g., fossil-fuel) origin. Thus, the carbon removed from the atmosphere by terrestrial ecosystems is not all stored locally, as is commonly assumed, which has implications for global agreements that require countries to report their carbon inventories. The researchers also found that the land-to-ocean carbon transfer of natural origin was larger than previously thought, with far-reaching implications for the assessment of the anthropogenic CO<sub>2</sub> uptake by the ocean and the land.</p><p>\"The complexity of the LOAC, which includes rivers, groundwater, lakes, reservoirs, estuaries, tidal marshes, mangroves, seagrasses, and waters above continental shelves, has made it challenging to assess its influence on the global carbon cycle,\" said Pierre Regnier, a professor at the University of Brussels who co-led the study with Resplandy.</p><p>Because of that complexity, important global carbon-budgeting efforts, such as those of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Global Carbon Project, typically assume a direct \"pipeline\" transfer of carbon from river mouths to the open ocean. Another common assumption is that all the transported carbon is natural, neglecting the impacts of human perturbations on this aquatic continuum, such as damming and the decimation of coastal vegetation.</p><p>In this study, the researchers synthesized more than 100 individual studies of the various components of the continuum. From this synthesis, LOAC carbon budgets were developed for two time periods: the pre-industrial period and the present day. Their results confirm the well-known pre-industrial carbon \"loop\" in which carbon is taken up from the atmosphere by terrestrial ecosystems, transferred by rivers to the ocean, and then outgassed back to the atmosphere.</p><p>\"We find the amount of carbon carried by this natural land-to-ocean loop, 0.65 billion tons per year, is roughly 50% greater than previously thought,\" Resplandy said.</p><p>Furthermore, this loop is comprised of two smaller loops, one that transfers carbon from terrestrial ecosystems to inland waters and another from coastal vegetation (so-called \"blue carbon ecosystems\") to the open ocean.</p><p>\"A larger pre-industrial land-to-ocean carbon transport implies that the ocean uptake of anthropogenic CO<sub>2</sub> previously inferred from observations was underestimated,\" Resplandy said.</p><p>\"The flip side is that the land uptake of anthropogenic CO<sub>2</sub> was overestimated,\" added Regnier.</p><p>The study demonstrates that anthropogenic carbon carried by rivers is either outgassed back to the atmosphere or eventually stored in aquatic sediments and the open ocean.</p><p>Philippe Ciais, a research director at the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l\'Environnement and a co-author of the study explained: \"This new view of the anthropogenic CO<sub>2</sub> budget may have a silver lining because sediments and the ocean offer arguably more stable repositories than terrestrial biomass and soil carbon, which are vulnerable to droughts, fires and land-use change.\"</p><p>The researchers also have shown that humans have decreased the uptake of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> from blue-carbon ecosystems by up to 50%. \"If left unprotected from sea-level rise, pollution and coastal development, blue-carbon uptake of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> will further decline and contribute to additional climate warming,\" said Raymond Najjar, a professor from the Pennsylvania State University who also co-authored the study.</p>','2022-03-16 19:20:58.927636','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Princeton  University','Most global carbon-budgeting efforts assume a linear flow of water from the land to the sea, which ignores the complex interplay between streams, rivers, lakes, groundwater, estuaries, mangroves and more. Climate scientists now detail how carbon is stored and transported through the intricacy of inland and coastal waterways. The work has significant implications for enforcing the carbon calculations that are part of international climate accords.\n',1,163,'<li>Regnier, P., Resplandy, L., Najjar, R.G. et al. <strong>The land-to-ocean loops of the global carbon cycle</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04339-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-021-04339-9</a>\n</li>'),(1292,'Stem cell-derived retinal patch is shown to survive two years post-implantation','stem-cell-derived-retinal-patch-is-shown-to-survive-two-years-post-implantation','2022-03-16 19:24:48.953868',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A retinal stem cell patch developed through a collaboration of researchers at UC Santa Barbara, University of Southern California and California Institute of Technology continues to make progress in its bid to secure approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The latest milestone? Results finding that after two years, not only can the implant survive, but also it does not elicit clinically detectable inflammation or signs of immune rejection, even without long-term immunosuppression.</p><p>\"What really makes us excited is that there is some strong evidence to show that the cells are still there two years after implantation and they\'re still functional,\" said Mohamed Faynus, a graduate student researcher in the lab of stem cell biologist Dennis O. Clegg, and a co-author on a paper published in the journal <em>Stem Cell Reports.</em> \"This is pretty important, because if the goal is to treat blindness, we want to make sure that the retinal pigment epithelium cells that we put in there are still doing the job they\'re supposed to.\"</p><p>A treatment in development since 2013, the California Project to Cure Blindness -- Retinal Pigment Epithelium 1 (CPCB-RPE1) patch consists of a monolayer of human stem cell-derived RPE cells cultured on an ultrathin membrane of biologically inert parylene. The goal for this patch is to replace deteriorating cells in the retinas of those who have age-related macular degeneration, one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide for people over 50. The condition affects the macula -- the part of the retina responsible for central vision. People with AMD experience distortions and loss of vision when looking straight ahead.</p><p>The researchers have made strides with the patch since its inception, guiding it through clinical trials for use with the dry form of AMD. If the implant works, the new cells should take up the functions of the old ones, and slow down or prevent further deterioration. In the best-case scenario, they could restore some lost vision.</p><p>The first sets of trials concentrated on establishing the safety of the patch and collecting any data on its effectiveness. The group, in a one-year follow-up published last year in the journal Translational Vision Science &amp; Technology, concluded the outpatient procedure they were developing to implant the patch could be performed routinely and that the patch was well-tolerated in individuals with advanced dry AMD. Early results were promising: Of the 15 patients in the initial cohort, four demonstrated improved vision in the treated eye, while five experienced a stabilization of their vision. Visual acuity continued to decline in the remaining six, and the researchers are working to understand why.</p><p>Having implanted the patches in live volunteers, however, the researchers no longer had a direct means for assessing the patches\' function and any changes in the longer term.</p><p>\"It\'s a lot more difficult and complicated to do that a clinical trial setting,\" Faynus said. \"But we can figure things out by proxy if something is working. So for example, if a patient\'s vision was getting worse and is now getting better, that\'s worth noting.\"</p><p>But the team had other questions that couldn\'t necessarily be answered by proxy. Had the cells maintained their identity and thus, their function? Was the patch still in place and were the donor cells surviving? Were there any signs of immune rejection, a common and serious concern for any patient receiving an implant? If they could answer these questions, they would not only be able to take next steps with the patch, they would gain significant knowledge in general for the field of regenerative medicine.</p><p>Thanks to the generosity of one patient in the trials, the group would get their chance to find out. Named \"Subject 125,\" she passed away at the age of 84 from pneumonia two years after receiving the implant, leaving her eyes -- and a rare opportunity for the team to check the progress of their patch.</p><p>\"We are very grateful to the brave patients who volunteered in our clinical trial,\" said Clegg, who holds the Wilcox Family Chair in Biomedicine. \"Without them, we could not advance the science into what could be an effective therapy for millions of people.\"</p><p><strong>A Key Test</strong></p><p>To address their questions, the team had to first identify the cells in the general area of the patch.</p><p>\"Now that we had these sections of tissue, how do we demonstrate that the cells on the membrane were RPE cells?\" Faynus said. \"That was one of our key questions.\" Beyond that, they had to identify whether the cells were from the donor or the recipient, and whether they were functional.</p><p>Through a careful process of staining and immunoreactivity testing, the team determined that the cells were in fact RPE donor cells, confirming that the cells on the patch hadn\'t migrated and that the cells were oriented in the optimal, polarized position -- a sign that they had maintained a healthy, functional form, according to Faynus.</p><p>\"The whole point of us implanting the cells was for them to perform the many functions that RPE cells do,\" Faynus said. One of those functions in particular is the breakdown of debris and the recycling of vital cellular material.</p><p>\"Every day you open your eyes, and light gets inside the eye, which triggers a whole cascade of events,\" Faynus explained. \"One of these being the shedding of photoreceptor outer segments.\" Without the constant recycling of this material conducted by the RPE cells, he continued, it is thought that proteins and lipids accumulate, forming deposits called drusen, a hallmark of AMD.</p><p>In addition, the team found that after two years, the presence of the patch hadn\'t triggered other conditions associated with implantation, such as the aggressive formation of new blood vessels or scar tissue that could cause a detachment of the retina. Importantly, they also found no clinical sign of the inflammation that can indicate an immune response to the foreign cells even after the patient was taken off immunosuppressants two months post-implantation.</p><p>\"This is the first study of its kind and it indicates that the implanted RPE cells can survive and function, even in what could be a toxic environment of a diseased eye,\" Clegg said.</p><p>Having passed the initial phase of trials, the team is now gearing up to begin Phase 2, which more specifically assesses the effectiveness of the patch. They have also made improvements to the shelf life of the patch, a technological advance they document in the journal Nature. In it, they describe a cryopreservation process that simplifies storage and transport of the cultured cells.</p><p>\"Cryopreservation of the therapy significantly extends the product\'s shelf-life and allows us to ship the implant on demand all over the world, thus making it more accessible to patients across the globe,\" said Britney Pennington, a research scientist in the Clegg Lab, and lead author of the Nature paper.</p><p>Looking to the future, the Clegg Lab and colleagues are exploring combining multiple cell types on the patch.</p><p>\"AMD progresses through several stages,\" Faynus explained. When the RPE cells degenerate, he continued, the photoreceptors and varying other retinal cells that are supported by the RPE quickly follow suit. \"To treat patients at varying stages of the disease, we need to consider the remaining cell types. If we can create composite implants that support many of the impacted cells, we can hopefully rescue a patient\'s vision despite the severity of the disease.\"</p>','2022-03-16 19:24:48.953868','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Santa Barbara','A retinal stem cell patch continues to make progress in its bid to secure approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The latest milestone? Results finding that after two years, not only can the implant survive, but also it does not elicit clinically detectable inflammation or signs of immune rejection, even without long-term immunosuppression.\n',1,29,'<li>Amir H. Kashani, Jane S. Lebkowski, David R. Hinton, Danhong Zhu, Mohamed A. Faynus, Sanford Chen, Firas M. Rahhal, Robert L. Avery, Hani Salehi-Had, Clement Chan, Neal Palejwala, April Ingram, Wei Dang, Chih-Min Lin, Debbie Mitra, Juan Carlos Martinez-Camarillo, Jeff Bailey, Cassidy Arnold, Britney O. Pennington, Narsing Rao, Lincoln V. Johnson, Dennis O. Clegg, Mark S. Humayun. <strong>Survival of an HLA-mismatched, bioengineered RPE implant in dry age-related macular degeneration</strong>. <em>Stem Cell Reports</em>, 2022; 17 (3): 448 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2022.01.001\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.stemcr.2022.01.001</a>\n</li>'),(1293,'Scientists discover how to 3D print testicular cells','scientists-discover-how-to-3d-print-testicular-cells','2022-03-16 19:29:42.428764','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In a pair of world firsts, UBC scientists have 3D printed human testicular cells and identified promising early signs of sperm-producing capabilities.</p><p>The researchers, led by UBC urology assistant professor Dr. Ryan Flannigan, hope the technique will one day offer a solution for people living with presently untreatable forms of male infertility.</p><p>\"Infertility affects 15 per cent of couples and male factors are a contributing cause in at least half those cases,\" said Dr. Flannigan, whose lab is based at the Vancouver Prostate Centre at Vancouver General Hospital.</p><p>\"We\'re 3D printing these cells into a very specific structure that mimics human anatomy, which we think is our best shot at stimulating sperm production. If successful, this could open the door to new fertility treatments for couples who currently have no other options.\"</p><p>Within human testicles, sperm is produced by tiny tubes known as seminiferous tubules. In the most severe form of male infertility, known as non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA), no sperm is found in ejaculate due to diminished sperm production within these structures.</p><p>While in some cases doctors can help NOA patients by performing surgery to find extremely rare sperm, Dr. Flannigan says this procedure is only successful about half the time.</p><p>\"Unfortunately, for the other half of these individuals, they don\'t have any options because we can\'t find sperm for them.\"</p><p>Those are the patients Dr. Flannigan\'s team is hoping to help.</p><p>For the recent study, the researchers performed a biopsy to collect stem cells from the testicles of a patient living with NOA. The cells were then grown and 3D printed onto a petri dish into a hollow tubular structure that resembles the sperm-producing seminiferous tubules.</p><p>Twelve days after printing, the team found that the cells had survived. Not only that, they had matured into several of the specialized cells involved in sperm production and were showing a significant improvement in spermatogonial stem cell maintenance -- both early signs of sperm producing capabilities. The results of the study were recently published in <em>Fertility and Sterility Science</em>.</p><p>\"It\'s a huge milestone, seeing these cells survive and begin to differentiate. There\'s a long road ahead, but this makes our team very hopeful,\" said Dr. Flannigan.</p><p>The team is now working to \"coach\" the printed cells into producing sperm. To do this, they\'ll expose the cells to different nutrients and growth factors and fine-tune the structural arrangement to facilitate cell-to-cell interaction.</p><p>If they can get the cells to produce sperm, those sperm could potentially be used to fertilize an egg by in vitro fertilization, providing a new fertility treatment option for couples.</p><p>Dr. Flannigan\'s research program has also been shedding new light on the genetic and molecular mechanisms that contribute to NOA. They\'ve been using various single cell sequencing techniques to understand the gene expression and characteristics of each individual cell, then applying computational modelling of this data to better understand the root causes of the condition and to identify new treatment options. The work has been highly collaborative, involving UBC researchers across computer science, mathematics and engineering, as well as international collaborations.</p><p>\"Increasingly, we\'re learning that there are likely many different causes of infertility and that each case is very patient specific,\" said Dr. Flannigan. \"With that in mind, we\'re taking a personalized, precision medicine approach -- we take cells from a patient, try to understand what abnormalities are unique to them, and then 3D print and support the cells in ways that overcome those original deficiencies.\"</p>','2022-03-16 19:24:51.052527','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of British Columbia','Scientists have 3D printed human testicular cells and identified promising early signs of sperm-producing capabilities. The researchers hope the technique will one day offer a solution for people living with presently untreatable forms of male infertility.',1,214,'<li>Meghan Robinson, Erin Bedford, Luke Witherspoon, Stephanie M. Willerth, Ryan Flannigan. <strong>Using Clinically Derived Human Tissue to 3D Bioprint Personalized Testicular Tubules For in-Vitro Culturing. First Report</strong>. <em>F&amp;S Science</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.xfss.2022.02.004\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.xfss.2022.02.004</a>\r\n</li>'),(1294,'Ancient ice reveals scores of gigantic volcanic eruptions','ancient-ice-reveals-scores-of-gigantic-volcanic-eruptions','2022-03-16 19:25:00.682932',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Ice cores drilled in Antarctica and Greenland have revealed gigantic volcanic eruptions during the last ice age. Sixty-nine of these were larger than any eruption in modern history. According to the University of Copenhagen physicists behind the research, these eruptions can teach us about our planet\'s sensitivity to climate change.</p><p>For many people, the mention of a volcanic eruption conjures up doomsday scenarios that include deafening explosions, dark ash billowing into the stratosphere and gloopy lava burying everything in its path as panicked humans run for their lives. While such an eruption could theoretically happen tomorrow, we have had to make do with disaster films and books when it comes to truly massive volcanic eruptions in the modern era.</p><p>\"We haven\'t experienced any of history\'s largest volcanic eruptions. We can see that now. Eyjafjellajökull, which paralysed European air traffic in 2010, pales in comparison to the eruptions we identified further back in time. Many of these were larger than any eruption over the last 2,500 years,\" says Associate Professor Anders Svensson of the University of Copenhagen\'s Niels Bohr Institute.</p><p>By comparing ice cores drilled in Antarctica and Greenland, he and his fellow researchers managed to estimate the quantity and intensity of volcanic eruptions over the last 60,000 years. Estimates of volcanic eruptions more than 2,500 years ago have been associated with great uncertainty and a lack of precision, until now.</p><p><strong>Sixty-nine eruptions larger than Mount Tambora</strong></p><p>Eighty-five of the volcanic eruptions identified by the researchers were large global eruptions. Sixty-nine of these are estimated to be larger than the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia -- the largest volcanic eruption in recorded human history. So much sulfuric acid was ejected into the stratosphere by the Tambora eruption that it blocked sunlight and caused global cooling in the years that followed. The eruption also caused tsunamis, drought, famine and at least 80,000 deaths.</p><p>\"To reconstruct ancient volcanic eruptions, ice cores offer a few advantages over other methods. Whenever a really large eruption occurs, sulfuric acid is ejected into the upper atmosphere, which is then distributed globally -- including onto Greenland and Antarctica. We can estimate the size of an eruption by looking at the amount of sulfuric acid that has fallen,\" explains Anders Svensson.</p><p>In a previous study, the researchers managed to synchronize ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland -- i.e., to date the respective core layers on the same time scale. By doing so, they were able to compare sulphur residues in ice and deduce when sulfuric acid spread to both poles after globally significant eruptions.</p><p><strong>When will it happen again?</strong></p><p>\"The new 60,000-year timeline of volcanic eruptions supplies us with better statistics than ever before. Now we can see that many more of these great eruptions occurred during the prehistoric Ice Age than in modern times. Because large eruptions are relatively rare, a long timeline is needed to know when they occur. That is what we now have,\" says Anders Svensson.</p><p>One may be left wondering when the next of these massive eruptions will occur. But Svensson isn\'t ready to make any concrete predictions:</p><p>\"Three eruptions of the largest known category occurred during the entire period we studied, so-called VEI-8 eruptions (see fact box). So, we can expect more at some point, but we just don\'t know if that will be in a hundred or a few thousand years. Tambora sized eruptions appears to erupt once or twice every thousand years, so the wait for that may be shorter.\"</p><p><strong>How was climate affected?</strong></p><p>When powerful enough, volcanic eruptions can affect global climate, where there is typically a 5-10- year period of cooling. As such, there is great interest in mapping the major eruptions of the past -- as they can help us look into the future.</p><p>\"Ice cores contain information about temperatures before and after the eruptions, which allows us to calculate the effect on climate. As large eruptions tell us a lot about how sensitive our planet is to changes in the climate system, they can be useful for climate predictions,\" explains Anders Svensson.</p><p>Determining Earth\'s climate sensitivity is an Achilles heel of current climate models. Svensson concludes:</p><p>\"The current IPCC models do not have a firm grasp of climate sensitivity -- i.e., what the effect of a doubling of CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere will be. Vulcanism can supply us with answers as to how much temperature changes when Earths atmospheric radiation budget changes, whether due to CO<sub>2</sub> or a blanket of sulphur particles. So, when we have estimated the effects of large volcanic eruptions on climate, we will be able to use the result to improve climate models.\"</p>','2022-03-16 19:25:00.682932','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science','Ice cores drilled in Antarctica and Greenland have revealed gigantic volcanic eruptions during the last ice age. Sixty-nine of these were larger than any eruption in modern history. According to the physicists behind the research, these eruptions can teach us about our planet\'s sensitivity to climate change.\n',1,143,'<li>Jiamei Lin, Anders Svensson, Christine S. Hvidberg, Johannes Lohmann, Steffen Kristiansen, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Jørgen Peder Steffensen, Sune Olander Rasmussen, Eliza Cook, Helle Astrid Kjær, Bo M. Vinther, Hubertus Fischer, Thomas Stocker, Michael Sigl, Matthias Bigler, Mirko Severi, Rita Traversi, Robert Mulvaney. <strong>Magnitude, frequency and climate forcing of global volcanism during the last glacial period as seen in Greenland and Antarctic ice cores (60–9 ka)</strong>. <em>Climate of the Past</em>, 2022; 18 (3): 485 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-485-2022\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.5194/cp-18-485-2022</a>\n</li>'),(1295,'Wax-coated sand keeps soil wet longer, improves crop yields in arid regions','wax-coated-sand-keeps-soil-wet-longer,-improves-crop-yields-in-arid-regions','2022-03-16 19:25:06.651831',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Dry, hot regions are difficult places to grow plants because the soil dries out quickly. As a result, farmers in arid and semi-arid regions irrigate their fields with buried networks of irrigation tubing and cover the ground with plastic sheets. But plastic sheets are expensive and create waste. Now, researchers reporting in <em>ACS Agricultural Science &amp; Technology</em> have developed a simple, biodegradable ground cover -- wax-coated sand -- which keeps soil wet and increases crop yields.</p><p>To irrigate crops, farmers usually get water from nearby waterways or underground aquifers. These supplies can be rapidly depleted when growing plants in arid regions, where the soil is comprised mostly of sand and can\'t hold onto water well. One way to improve irrigated water\'s efficiency is to make sure it stays in the soil long enough so that plants\' roots can take it up. Previous studies have shown that ground cover barriers, such as plastic sheets and engineered nanomaterials, can slow evaporation and enhance plant growth and crop yields. However, both could leach unwanted compounds into the soil with unknown long-term impacts. Some plants and animals naturally produce waxy substances that trap and pool water from fog or condensation so that they can access these moisture sources. Taking inspiration from nature, Himanshu Mishra and colleagues wanted to see if they could coat sand with wax, creating an environmentally benign ground cover to control soil evaporation.</p><p>The researchers chose purified paraffin wax, a biodegradable substance available in large quantities, for their experiments. They dissolved the wax in hexane and poured silica sand into the mixture. As the solvent evaporated, a 20-nm-thick coating of wax was left behind on the grains. When the team applied the wax-coated sand in a thin layer on an open field in Saudi Arabia, it decreased the loss of soil moisture up to 50-80%. Field trials revealed that tomato, barley and wheat plants mulched with the new material produced substantially more fruit and grain than those grown in uncovered soil. In addition, the microbial community around the plants\' roots and in the soil wasn\'t negatively impacted by the waxy mulch, which could have acted as a food source for some of the microbes. This simple nature-inspired technology could make water use more efficient in arid regions, the researchers say.</p>','2022-03-16 19:25:06.651831','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Chemical Society','Dry, hot regions are difficult places to grow plants because the soil dries out quickly. As a result, farmers in arid and semi-arid regions irrigate their fields with buried networks of irrigation tubing and cover the ground with plastic sheets. But plastic sheets are expensive and create waste. Now, researchers have developed a simple, biodegradable ground cover -- wax-coated sand -- which keeps soil wet and increases crop yields.\n',1,111,'<li>Adair Gallo, Kennedy Odokonyero, Magdi A. A. Mousa, Joel Reihmer, Samir Al-Mashharawi, Ramona Marasco, Edelberto Manalastas, Mitchell J. L. Morton, Daniele Daffonchio, Matthew F. McCabe, Mark Tester, Himanshu Mishra. <strong>Nature-Inspired Superhydrophobic Sand Mulches Increase Agricultural Productivity and Water-Use Efficiency in Arid Regions</strong>. <em>ACS Agricultural Science &amp; Technology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsagscitech.1c00148\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acsagscitech.1c00148</a>\n</li>'),(1296,'Getting bacteria and yeast to talk to each other, thanks to a \'nanotranslator\'','getting-bacteria-and-yeast-to-talk-to-each-other-thanks-to-a-nanotranslator','2022-03-16 19:29:11.001554','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Cells communicate with one another in the language of chemistry, but those from different kingdoms, such as bacteria and yeast, speak dialects virtually unintelligible to the other. By learning how microbes \"talk,\" researchers hope to one day manipulate their behavior to protect against disease, for example. Efforts like this are in their infancy, but in a new study in ACS\' <em>Nano Letters</em>, researchers describe the first system that enables two unrelated organisms to communicate.</p><p>In nature, many cells send and receive chemical signals. This strategy allows bacteria to regulate their behavior, fungi to mate and human cells to notify each other of threats. This type of chemical communication has inspired researchers to devise their own means to join these conversations so they can give cells instructions. While some studies have examined micro- or nano-scale particles that communicate with one type of cell, the use of particles to enable communication between two different types of cells has not been explored. Antoni Llopis-Lorente, Martínez-Máñez and colleagues wanted to create a nano-scale translating device so they could send a chemical signal between members of two different kingdoms of life -- something that rarely happens in the natural world.</p><p>The team built the nanotranslator from silica nanoparticles loaded with two molecules: one that reacts with glucose, and another molecule called phleomycin. The signalling system they constructed had two steps, which they tested independently then put together. First, the researchers initiated a signal by exposing <em>E. coli</em> to lactose. The bacteria converted the lactose into glucose, which reacted with the nano-translator. Next, this device released phleomycin, another messenger compound. The yeast <em>Saccharomyces cerevisiae </em>detected the phleomycin and responded by fluorescing, something they had been genetically engineered to do. The researchers envision many possible applications for similar nanotranslator-based communication systems. For example, these devices could be used to tell cells to turn off certain processes and to switch on others, or to alter the activity of human immune cells to treat disease, the researchers say.</p><p>The authors acknowledge funding from the Spanish Government and the Generalitat Valenciana.</p>','2022-03-16 19:25:08.419477','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Chemical Society','Cells communicate with one another in the language of chemistry, but those from different kingdoms, such as bacteria and yeast, speak dialects virtually unintelligible to the other. By learning how microbes \'talk,\' researchers hope to one day manipulate their behavior to protect against disease, for example. Efforts like this are in their infancy, but researchers now describe the first system that enables two unrelated organisms to communicate.',1,213,'<li>Beatriz de Luis, Ángela Morellá-Aucejo, Antoni Llopis-Lorente, Javier Martínez-Latorre, Félix Sancenón, Carmelo López, José Ramón Murguía, Ramón Martínez-Máñez. <strong>Nanoprogrammed Cross-Kingdom Communication Between Living Microorganisms</strong>. <em>Nano Letters</em>, 2022; 22 (5): 1836 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c02435\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c02435</a>\r\n</li>'),(1297,'Climate change considerably threatens Europe\'s beech forests','climate-change-considerably-threatens-europes-beech-forests','2022-03-16 19:28:13.178591','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Beech forests in Europe are severely threatened by climate change, particularly in southern European countries, but also in central Europe. Models project severe beech growth declines over the next 70 years -- ranging from 20 percent to perhaps more than 50 percent depending on the climate change scenario and the region in question. \"We expect high productivity declines due to increased drought severity, especially at the southern limits of the beech\'s distribution range,\" said Dr. Edurne Martinez del Castillo from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). She warns that this will seriously affect both the environment and forestry and urgently recommends that measures be taken to adapt the forests. Furthermore, beech forests are crucial stores of carbon dioxide. The models are based on tree ring analyses from all over Europe using well-established climate scenarios. The study was funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and has now been published in <em>Communications Biology</em>.</p><p><strong>Tree rings from 324 sites in Europe examined</strong></p><p>Beech is one of the most important trees in the forests of Europe. Beech forests are both economically important and ecologically highly valuable. Almost 100 beech forest regions in 18 European countries are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. However, climate change could place severe pressure on stocks in the future, both in geographical and ecological terms. Evidence of this has already been published in regional studies, but to date no comprehensive analysis has been conducted.</p><p>Edurne Martinez del Castillo, a member of Professor Jan Esper\'s Climatology Group at Mainz University, has now investigated this development for the species <em>Fagus sylvatica</em>, together with cooperation partners from 32 scientific institutions. They performed over 780,000 tree ring measurements on 5,800 trees at 324 sites across Europe, from the north of Scotland to mainland Greece. This data allowed them to analyze the growth rates of the trees over the past six decades, enabling them to forecast likely trends in the future.</p><p><strong>Tree growth has declined in virtually all regions</strong></p><p>The results reveal marked geographical differences between the two study periods of 1955 to 1985 and 1986 to 2016. For example, the model tree growth rate over the past six decades was two to three times higher in low-lying areas of northwestern and central Europe -- such as coastal regions in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the British Isles -- than towards the southern distribution limits. Comparing the two 31-year periods revealed a remarkable decline in tree growth in almost all distribution regions. The models reveal that the strongest contrast is between northern Europe with Sweden and Norway, where growth has risen by 20 percent, and southern Europe, where growth has declined by as much as 20 percent.</p><p><strong>Researchers expect drastic losses in southern Europe during the 21<sup>st</sup> century</strong></p><p>Based on two widely accepted climate research scenarios from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), Edurne Martinez del Castillo has projected the developments likely to occur over the next 70 years through to 2090. \"Even assuming a relatively optimistic climate change scenario, we will see sharp growth reductions of up to 30 percent in southern Europe between 2020 and 2050 compared to the 1986 to 2016 period,\" said the climate researcher. The optimistic climate model assumes a temperature increase of one degree Celsius by 2090, while the pessimistic scenario predicts a warming of five degrees Celsius. The latter would have dramatic consequences. Beech productivity would decline sharply in much of Europe, by as much as 20 to 30 percent in most central European forests. \"In southern Europe, losses could even exceed 50 percent,\" said Martinez del Castillo, noting that increased aridity would affect the pattern. In contrast, in the north and in mountainous regions, the growth trend would be positive. Overall, however, the gains will not be as severe as the losses, neither geographically nor in terms of absolute numbers.</p><p>In light of these forecasts, the authors of the study led by Edurne Martinez del Castillo and Jan Esper believe that forest adaptation measures are urgently required to mitigate serious environmental and economic consequences. All the more so because beech forests act as carbon dioxide sinks, and the reduction in tree growth is expected to lead to further forest dieback, reducing this effect.</p>','2022-03-16 19:25:10.325298','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz','Beech forests in Europe are severely threatened by climate change, particularly in southern European countries, but also in central Europe. Models project severe beech growth declines over the next 70 years -- ranging from 20 percent to perhaps more than 50 percent depending on the climate change scenario and the region in question.',1,212,'<li>Edurne Martinez del Castillo, Christian S. Zang, Allan Buras, Andrew Hacket-Pain, Jan Esper, Roberto Serrano-Notivoli, Claudia Hartl, Robert Weigel, Stefan Klesse, Victor Resco de Dios, Tobias Scharnweber, Isabel Dorado-Liñán, Marieke van der Maaten-Theunissen, Ernst van der Maaten, Alistair Jump, Sjepan Mikac, Bat-Enerel Banzragch, Wolfgang Beck, Liam Cavin, Hugues Claessens, Vojtěch Čada, Katarina Čufar, Choimaa Dulamsuren, Jozica Gričar, Eustaquio Gil-Pelegrín, Pavel Janda, Marko Kazimirovic, Juergen Kreyling, Nicolas Latte, Christoph Leuschner, Luis Alberto Longares, Annette Menzel, Maks Merela, Renzo Motta, Lena Muffler, Paola Nola, Any Mary Petritan, Ion Catalin Petritan, Peter Prislan, Álvaro Rubio-Cuadrado, Miloš Rydval, Branko Stajić, Miroslav Svoboda, Elvin Toromani, Volodymyr Trotsiuk, Martin Wilmking, Tzvetan Zlatanov, Martin de Luis. <strong>Climate-change-driven growth decline of European beech forests</strong>. <em>Communications Biology</em>, 2022; 5 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03107-3\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s42003-022-03107-3</a>\r\n</li>'),(1298,'Longer, more intense allergy seasons could result from climate change','longer,-more-intense-allergy-seasons-could-result-from-climate-change','2022-03-16 19:25:19.104303',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Allergy seasons are likely to become longer and grow more intense as a result of increasing temperatures caused by humanmade climate change, according to new research from the University of Michigan.</p><p>By the end of this century, pollen emissions could begin 40 days earlier in the spring than we saw between 1995 and 2014. Allergy sufferers could see that season last an additional 19 days before high pollen counts may subside.</p><p>In addition, thanks to rising temperatures and increasing CO<sub>2</sub> levels, the annual amount of pollen emitted each year could increase up to 200%.</p><p>\"Pollen-induced respiratory allergies are getting worse with climate change,\" said Yingxiao Zhang, a U-M graduate student research assistant in climate and space sciences and engineering and first author of the paper in <em>Nature Communications</em>. \"Our findings can be a starting point for further investigations into the consequence of climate change on pollen and corresponding health effects.\"</p><p>U-M researchers developed a predictive model that examines 15 of the most common pollen types and how their production will be impacted by projected changes in temperatures and precipitation. They combined climate data along with socioeconomic scenarios, correlating their modeling with the data from 1995 through 2014. They then used their model to predict pollen emissions for the last two decades of the 21st century.</p><p>Allergies symptoms run the gamut from the mildly irritating, such as watery eyes, sneezing or rashes, to more serious conditions, such as difficulty breathing or anaphylaxis. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, 30% of adults and 40% of children suffer from allergies in the U.S.</p><p>The grasses, weeds and trees that produce pollen are affected by climate change. Increased temperatures cause them to activate earlier than their historical norms. Hotter temperatures can also increase the amount of pollen produced.</p><p>Allison Steiner, U-M professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, said the modeling developed by her team could eventually allow for allergy season predictions targeted to different geographical regions.</p><p>\"We\'re hoping to include our pollen emissions model within a national air quality forecasting system to provide improved and climate-sensitive forecasts to the public,\" she said.</p><p>The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.</p>','2022-03-16 19:25:19.104303','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Michigan','Allergy seasons are likely to become longer and grow more intense as a result of increasing temperatures caused by humanmade climate change, according to new research.\n',1,144,'<li>Yingxiao Zhang, Allison L. Steiner. <strong>Projected climate-driven changes in pollen emission season length and magnitude over the continental United States</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28764-0\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-28764-0</a>\n</li>'),(1299,'New flow battery stores power in simple organic compound','new-flow-battery-stores-power-in-simple-organic-compound','2022-03-16 19:25:21.716778',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The intermittent supply of green electricity requires large-scale storage to keep our power grids stable. Since normal batteries do not scale very well, the idea of using flow batteries, which store electricity in a fluid is attractive. However, these batteries contain rare metals and are expensive. Scientists at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, have designed a flow battery electrolyte that may solve both problems. Their results were published in the <em>Journal of the American Chemical Society</em> on 8 March.</p><p>Flow batteries are not very different from the everyday batteries that we use. The big difference is that the energy is stored in two separate fluids with dissolved chemicals for charge storage. Electricity is stored (and later released) by pumping these fluids through an electrochemical cell that contains a membrane through which ions can be exchanged. The energy content of such a battery is scalable by simply using larger storage tanks for the fluids.</p><p><strong>Expensive</strong></p><p>China recently installed flow batteries to reduce the variability in green electricity production. \'Large-scale storage capacity is needed when intermittent sources, such as solar and wind energy, become more prominent in the electricity mix, because the grid might get destabilized,\' says Edwin Otten, Associate Professor of Molecular Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Groningen. \'The type of battery that the Chinese use was designed in the1980s and is based on a solution containing vanadium.\'</p><p>This metal is only mined in a few places on Earth. \'This means that the supply cannot always be guaranteed and it is rather expensive,\' Otten explains. Furthermore, it requires a special membrane to separate the two fluids, which also adds to the costs. That is why Otten\'s research group, together with colleagues from the University of Eindhoven (the Netherlands) and the Technical University of Denmark, set out to design a new kind of flow battery material.</p><p><strong>Blatter radical</strong></p><p>\'We wanted a symmetrical battery where both tanks contain the same fluid,\' says Otten. \'Also, we wanted it to be based on an organic molecule rather than on a metal\'. Both sides of the flow battery generally hold fluids with a different composition. Symmetrical batteries have been designed by linking the molecules that are used on both sides together and filling both tanks with the resulting hybrid molecule. \'The drawback of this approach is that only one part of the molecule is used on either side. And, during use, reactive radicals appear that degrade over time. This makes stability a problem.\'</p><p>Otten and his team used a different approach. They looked for a single molecule that is stable and that can accept or donate electrons and could, therefore, be used on both sides of the battery. The most promising compound was a Blatter radical, a bipolar organic compound that can either accept or donate an electron in a redox reaction. \'The molecule that we selected was also intrinsically stable,\' says Otten.</p><p>They tested the compound in a small electrochemical cell. It worked well and remained stable over 275 charge/discharge cycles. \'We need to bring this up to thousands of cycles; however, our experiments are a proof of concept. It is possible to make a symmetrical flow battery that has good stability.\' The organic Blatter radical is relatively easy to make and although it is currently not produced in industry, scale-up should be possible.</p><p><strong>Imbalance</strong></p><p>\'Another advantage of our symmetrical design is that it is not a big problem if some of our compound crosses the membrane during use,\' explains Otten. \'This could result in a slightly higher volume in one of the tanks but any imbalance is easily restored by simply reversing the polarity.\' During their tests, they have shown that this indeed works as predicted. Other experimental designs of symmetrical batteries were not stable enough to get the number of cycles needed to prove this.</p><p>The next step is to create a water-soluble version of the Blatter radicals. Most flow cells are designed for water-based fluids, since water is cheap and not flammable. \'PhD students in my group are already working on this.\' A further step is to increase the stability and solubility of the Blatter radical and test it on a larger scale. Otten: \'The crucial test is to see whether our compounds will be stable enough for commercial applications.\'</p>','2022-03-16 19:25:21.716778','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Groningen','The intermittent supply of green electricity requires large-scale storage to keep our power grids stable. Since normal batteries do not scale very well, the idea of using flow batteries, which store electricity in a fluid is attractive. Scientists have designed a flow battery electrolyte that is cheaper and is based on an organic compound, rather than a metal.\n',1,72,'<li>Jelte S. Steen, Jules L. Nuismer, Vytautas Eiva, Albert E. T. Wiglema, Nicolas Daub, Johan Hjelm, Edwin Otten. <strong>Blatter Radicals as Bipolar Materials for Symmetrical Redox-Flow Batteries</strong>. <em>Journal of the American Chemical Society</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c13543\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/jacs.1c13543</a>\n</li>'),(1300,'\'Self-driving\' lab speeds up research, synthesis of energy materials','\'self-driving\'-lab-speeds-up-research,-synthesis-of-energy-materials','2022-03-16 19:25:24.301950',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University at Buffalo have developed and demonstrated a \'self-driving lab\' that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and fluidic systems to advance our understanding of metal halide perovskite (MHP) nanocrystals. This self-driving lab can also be used to investigate a broad array of other semiconductor and metallic nanomaterials.</p><p>\"We\'ve created a self-driving laboratory that can be used to advance both fundamental nanoscience and applied engineering,\" says Milad Abolhasani, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of chemical and bimolecular engineering at NC State.</p><p>For their proof-of-concept demonstrations, the researchers focused on all-inorganic metal halide perovskite (MHP) nanocrystals, cesium lead halide (CsPbX<sub>3</sub>, X=Cl, Br). MHP nanocrystals are an emerging class of semiconductor materials that, because of their solution-processability and unique size- and composition-tunable properties, are thought to have potential for use in printed photonic devices and energy technologies. For example, MHP nanocrystals are very efficient optically active materials and are under consideration for use in next-generation LEDs. And because they can be made using solution processing, they have the potential to be made in a cost-effective way.</p><p>Solution-processed materials are materials that are made using liquid chemical precursors, including high-value materials such as quantum dots, metal/metal oxide nanoparticles and metal organic frameworks.</p><p>However, MHP nanocrystals are not in industrial use yet.</p><p>\"In part, that\'s because we\'re still developing a better understanding of how to synthesize these nanocrystals in order to engineer all of the properties associated with MHPs,\" Abolhasani says. \"And, in part, because synthesizing them requires a degree of precision that has prevented large-scale manufacturing from being cost-effective. Our work here addresses both of those issues.\"</p><p>The new technology expands on the concept of Artificial Chemist 2.0, which Abolhasani\'s lab unveiled in 2020. Artificial Chemist 2.0 is completely autonomous, and uses AI and automated robotic systems to perform multi-step chemical synthesis and analysis. In practice, that system focused on tuning the bandgap of MHP quantum dots, allowing users to go from requesting a custom quantum dot to completing the relevant R&amp;D and beginning manufacturing in less than an hour.</p><p>\"Our new self-driving lab technology can autonomously dope MHP nanocrystals, adding manganese atoms into the crystalline lattice of the nanocrystals on demand,\" Abolhasani says.</p><p>Doping the material with varying levels of manganese changes the optical and electronic properties of the nanocrystals and introduces magnetic properties to the material. For example, doping the MHP nanocrystals with manganese can change the wavelength of light emitted from the material.</p><p>\"This capability gives us even greater control over the properties of the MHP nanocrystals,\" Abolhasani says. \"In essence, the universe of potential colors that can be produced by MHP nanocrystals is now larger. And it\'s not just color. It offers a much greater range of electronic and magnetic properties.\"</p><p>The new self-driving lab technology also offers a much faster and more efficient means of understanding how to engineer MHP nanocrystals in order to obtain the desired combination of properties.</p><p>\"Let\'s say you want to get an in-depth understanding of how manganese-doping and bandgap tuning will affect a specific class of MHP nanocrystals, such as CsPbX<sub>3</sub>,\" Abolhasani says. \"There are approximately 160 <em>billion </em>possible experiments that you could run, if you wanted to control for every possible variable in each experiment. Using conventional techniques, it would still generally take hundreds or thousands of experiments to learn how those two processes -- manganese-doping and bandgap tuning -- would affect the properties of the cesium lead halide nanocrystals.\"</p><p>But the new system does all of this autonomously. Specifically, its AI algorithm selects and runs its own experiments. The results from each completed experiment inform which experiment it will run next -- and it keeps going until it understands which mechanisms control the MHP\'s various properties.</p><p>\"We found, in a practical demonstration, that the system was able to get a thorough understanding of how these processes alter the properties of cesium lead halide nanocrystals in only 60 experiments,\" Abolhasani says. \"In other words, we can get the information we need to engineer a material in hours instead of months.\"</p><p>While the work demonstrated in the paper focuses on MHP nanocrystals, the autonomous system could also be used to characterize other nanomaterials that are made using solution processes, including a wide variety of metallic and semiconductor nanomaterials.</p><p>\"We\'re excited about how this technology will broaden our understanding of how to control the properties of these materials, but it\'s worth noting that this system can also be used for continuous manufacturing,\" Abolhasani says. \"So you can use the system to identify the best possible process for creating your desired nanocrystals, and then set the system to start producing material nonstop -- and with incredible specificity.</p><p>\"We\'ve created a powerful technology. And we\'re now looking for partners to help us apply this technology to specific challenges in the industrial sector.\"</p><p>The paper, \"Autonomous Nanocrystal Doping by Self-Driving Fluidic Micro-Processors,\" is published open access in the journal <em>Advanced Intelligent Systems</em>. The paper was co-authored by Fazel Bateni, a Ph.D. student at NC State; Robert Epps and Jeffery Bennett, postdoctoral researchers at NC State; Kameel Antami, a former Ph.D. student at NC State; Rokas Dargis, an undergraduate at NC State; and Kristofer Reyes, an assistant professor at the University at Buffalo.</p><p>The work was done with support from the National Science Foundation, under grant number 1940959, and from the UNC Research Opportunities Initiative.</p><p>Video of the new technology: <a href=\"https://youtu.be/2BflpW6R4HI\">https://youtu.be/2BflpW6R4HI</a></p>','2022-03-16 19:25:24.301950','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'North Carolina State University','Researchers have developed and demonstrated a \'self-driving lab\' that uses artificial intelligence and fluidic systems to advance our understanding of metal halide perovskite nanocrystals. This self-driving lab can also be used to investigate a broad array of other semiconductor and metallic nanomaterials.\n',1,25,'<li>Fazel Bateni, Robert W. Epps, Kameel Antami, Rokas Dargis, Jeffery A. Bennett, Kristofer G. Reyes, Milad Abolhasani. <strong>Autonomous Nanocrystal Doping by Self‐Driving Fluidic Micro‐Processors</strong>. <em>Advanced Intelligent Systems</em>, 2022; 2200017 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202200017\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/aisy.202200017</a>\n</li>'),(1301,'How gut microbes work to tame intestinal inflammation','how-gut-microbes-work-to-tame-intestinal-inflammation','2022-03-16 19:43:13.356935',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Bile acids made by the liver have long been known for their critical role in helping to absorb the food we ingest.</p><p>But, according to a series of new studies from Harvard Medical School, these fat- and vitamin-dissolving substances are also important players in gut immunity and inflammation because they regulate the activity of key immune cells linked to a range of inflammatory bowel conditions, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn\'s disease.</p><p>An initial report in 2020 mapped out the effects of bile acids on mouse gut immunity, but left some key questions unanswered: First, just <em>how</em> do bile acids get gut immune cells to perform their immune-regulatory work? Second, which bacteria and bacterial enzymes produce these bile acids? Third, do these bile acids play a role in human intestinal inflammation?</p><p>Now, two studies led by the same team of investigators -- one published March 16 in <em>Nature</em> and one published in<em> Cell Host &amp; Microbe </em>in 2021 -- answer these questions and add further clarity to the initial observations. The research, conducted at the intersection of chemical biology, microbiology, and immunology, was co-led by Sloan Devlin, assistant professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, and Jun Huh, associate professor of immunology at HMS.</p><p>The studies identify three bile acid metabolites and corresponding bacterial genes that produce molecules that affect the activity of inflammation-regulating immune cells. The work also demonstrates that the presence and activity of these bacteria and the immune molecules they produce are notably reduced in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).</p><p>\"We carry trillions of bacteria in and on our bodies, and a growing body of research indicates that gut bacteria can affect host immune responses,\" Huh said. \"Our findings provide a novel mechanistic insight into how these bacteria work to mediate immune regulation in the gut.\"</p><p>The findings, based on experiments in mice and human stool samples, reveal the identity of three critical microbial players in this cascade and the bacterial genes that regulate bile acid modification. Furthermore, they show that intestinal samples from patients with conditions such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn\'s disease have markedly lower levels of both the anti-inflammatory molecules and the bacterial genes responsible for their production.</p><p>The findings bring scientists a step closer to developing small-molecule treatments and live bacterial therapeutics that regulate intestinal inflammation.</p><p>\"All three molecules and the bacterial genes that we discovered that produce these molecules are reduced in patients with IBD,\" Devlin said. \"Restoring the presence of either the compounds or the bacteria that make them offers a possible therapeutic avenue to treat a range of inflammatory diseases marked by these deficiencies and affecting millions of people worldwide.\"</p>','2022-03-16 19:43:13.356935','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Harvard Medical School','Bile acids, well known for their role in dissolving fats and vitamins, are also important players in gut immunity and inflammation because they regulate the activity of key immune cells linked to a range of inflammatory bowel conditions, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn\'s disease, according to new research.\n',1,91,'<li>Paik, D., Yao, L., Zhang, Y. et al. <strong>Human gut bacteria produce ΤΗ17-modulating bile acid metabolites</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04480-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04480-z</a>\n</li>'),(1302,'Discovery of an immune escape mechanism promoting Listeria infection of the central nervous system','discovery-of-an-immune-escape-mechanism-promoting-listeria-infection-of-the-central-nervous-system','2022-03-16 19:43:27.671842',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Some \"hypervirulent\" strains of <em>Listeria monocytogenes</em> have a greater capacity to infect the central nervous system. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Inserm and the Paris Public Hospital Network (AP-HP) have discovered a mechanism that enables cells infected with <em>Listeria monocytogenes</em> to escape immune responses. This mechanism provides infected cells circulating in the blood with a higher probability of adhering to and infecting cells of cerebral vessels, thereby enabling bacteria to cross the blood-brain barrier and infect the brain. The study will be published in <em>Nature</em> on March 16, 2022.</p><p>The central nervous system is separated from the bloodstream by a physiological barrier known as the blood-brain barrier, which is very tight. But some pathogens manage to cross it and are therefore able to infect the central nervous system, using mechanisms that are not yet well understood.</p><p><em>Listeria monocytogenes</em> is the bacterium responsible for human listeriosis, a severe foodborne illness that can lead to a central nervous system infection known as neurolisteriosis. This central nervous system infection is particularly serious, proving fatal in 30% of cases.</p><p>Scientists from the Biology of Infection Unit at the Institut Pasteur (Université Paris Cité, Inserm) and the <em>Listeria</em> National Reference Center and WHO Collaborating Center led by Marc Lecuit (Université Paris Cité and Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital (AP-HP)) recently discovered the mechanism by which <em>Listeria monocytogenes</em> infects the central nervous system. They developed a clinically relevant experimental model that reproduces the different stages of human listeriosis, and involves virulent strains of <em>Listeria</em> isolated from patients with neurolisteriosis.</p><p>The scientists first observed that inflammatory monocytes, a type of white blood cell, are infected by the bacteria. These infected monocytes circulate in the bloodstream and adhere to the cerebral vessels\' cells, allowing <em>Listeria</em> to infect the brain tissue.</p><p>The research team then demonstrated that InIB, a <em>Listeria monocytogenes </em>surface protein, enables the bacteria to evade the immune system and survive in the protective niche provided by the infected monocytes. The interaction between InlB and its cellular receptor c-Met blocks the cell death mediated by cytotoxic T lymphocytes, which specifically target<em> Listeria</em>-infected cells. InIB therefore enables infected cells to survive cytotoxic T lymphocytes.</p><p>This mechanism extends the life span of infected cells, raising the number of infected monocytes in the blood and facilitating bacterial spread to host tissues, including the brain. It also favors the persistence of <em>Listeria</em> in the gut tissue, its fecal excretion and transmission back to the environment.</p><p>\"We discovered a specific, unexpected mechanism by which a pathogen increases the life span of the cells it infects by specifically blocking an immune system function that is crucial for controlling infection,\" explains Marc Lecuit (Université Paris Cité and Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital (AP-HP)), head of the Biology of Infection Unit at the Institut Pasteur (Université Paris Cité, Inserm).</p><p>It is possible that other intracellular pathogens such as <em>Toxoplasma gondii</em> and <em>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</em> use similar mechanisms to infect the brain. Identifying and understanding the immune escape mechanisms of infected cells could give rise to new therapeutic strategies to prevent infection and also pave the way for new immunosuppressive approaches for organ transplantation.</p><p>This research was funded by the Institut Pasteur, Inserm and the European Research Council (ERC) and also received funding from the Le Roch-Les Mousquetaires Foundation.</p>','2022-03-16 19:43:27.671842','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Institut Pasteur','Some \'hypervirulent\' strains of Listeria monocytogenes have a greater capacity to infect the central nervous system. Scientists have discovered a mechanism that enables cells infected with Listeria monocytogenes to escape immune responses. This mechanism provides infected cells circulating in the blood with a higher probability of adhering to and infecting cells of cerebral vessels, thereby enabling bacteria to cross the blood-brain barrier and infect the brain.\n',1,91,'<li>Claire Maudet, Marouane Kheloufi, Sylvain Levallois, Julien Gaillard, Lei Huang, Charlotte Gaultier, Yu-Huan Tsai, Olivier Disson, Marc Lecuit. <strong>Bacterial inhibition of Fas-mediated killing promotes neuroinvasion and persistence</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04505-7\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04505-7</a>\n</li>'),(1303,'For accuracy, brain studies of complex behavior require thousands of people','for-accuracy,-brain-studies-of-complex-behavior-require-thousands-of-people','2022-03-16 19:43:30.386958',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">As brain scans have become more detailed and informative in recent decades, neuroimaging has seemed to promise a way for doctors and scientists to \"see\" what\'s going wrong inside the brains of people with mental illnesses or neurological conditions. Such imaging has revealed correlations between brain anatomy or function and illness, suggesting potential new ways to diagnose and treat psychiatric, psychological and neurological conditions. But the promise has yet to turn into reality, and a new study explains why: The results of most studies are unreliable because they involved too few participants.</p><p>Scientists rely on brainwide association studies to measure brain structure and function -- using MRI brain scans -- and link them to complex characteristics such as personality, behavior, cognition, neurological conditions, and mental illness. But a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Minnesota, published March 16 in <em>Nature, </em>shows that most published brainwide association studies are performed with too few participants to yield reliable findings.</p><p>Using publicly available data sets -- involving a total of nearly 50,000 participants -- the researchers analyzed a range of sample sizes and found that brainwide association studies need thousands of individuals to achieve higher reproducibility. Typical brainwide association studies enroll just a couple dozen people.</p><p>Such so-called underpowered studies are susceptible to uncovering strong but spurious associations by chance while missing real but weaker associations. Routinely underpowered brainwide association studies result in a glut of astonishingly strong yet irreproducible findings that slow progress toward understanding how the brain works, the researchers said.</p><p>\"Our findings reflect a systemic, structural problem with studies that are designed to find correlations between two complex things, such as the brain and behavior,\" said senior author Nico Dosenbach, MD, PhD, an associate professor of neurology at Washington University. \"It\'s not a problem with any individual researcher or study. It\'s not even unique to neuroimaging. The field of genomics discovered a similar problem about a decade ago with genomic data and took steps to address it. The NIH (National Institutes of Health) began funding larger data-collection efforts and mandating that data must be shared publicly, which reduces bias and as a result, genome science has gotten much better. Sometimes you just have to change the research paradigm. Genomics has shown us the way.\"</p><p>First author Scott Marek, PhD, an instructor in psychiatry at Washington University, and co-first author Brenden Tervo-Clemmens, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, realized something was wrong with how brainwide association studies typically are conducted when they could not replicate the results of their own study.</p><p>\"We were interested in finding out how cognitive ability is represented in the brain,\" Marek said. \"We ran our analysis on a sample of 1,000 kids and found a significant correlation and were like, \'Great!\' But then we thought, \'Can we reproduce this in another thousand kids?\' And it turned out we couldn\'t. It just blew me away because a sample of a thousand should have been plenty big enough. We were scratching our heads, wondering what was going on.\"</p><p>To identify problems with brain-wide association studies, the research team -- including Dosenbach, Marek, Tervo-Clemmens, co-senior author Damien A. Fair, PhD, director of the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain at the University of Minnesota, and others -- began by accessing the three largest neuroimaging datasets: the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (11,874 participants), the Human Connectome Project (1,200 participants) and the UK Biobank (35,375 participants). Then, they analyzed the datasets for correlations between brain features and a range of demographic, cognitive, mental health and behavioral measures, using subsets of various sizes. Using separate subsets, they attempted to replicate any identified correlations. In total, they ran billions of analyses, supported by the powerful computing resources of Fair\'s Masonic Institute of the Developing Brain.</p><p>The researchers found that brain-behavior correlations identified using a sample size of 25 -- the median sample size in published papers -- usually failed to replicate in a separate sample. As the sample size grew into the thousands, correlations became more likely to be reproduced.</p><p>Further, the estimated strength of the correlation, a measure known as the effect size, tended to be largest for the smallest samples. Effect sizes are scaled from 0 to 1, with 0 being no correlation and 1 being perfect correlation. An effect size of 0.2 is considered quite strong. As sample sizes increased and correlations became more reproducible, the effect sizes decreased. The median reproducible effect size was .01. Yet published papers on brain-wide association studies routinely report effect sizes of 0.2 or more.</p><p>In retrospect, it should have been obvious that the reported effect sizes were too high, Marek said.</p><p>\"You can find effect sizes of 0.8 in the literature, but nothing in nature has an effect size of 0.8,\" Marek said. \"The correlation between height and weight is 0.4. The correlation between altitude and daily temperature is 0.3. Those are strong, obvious, easily measured correlations, and they\'re nowhere near 0.8. So why did we ever think that the correlation between two very complex things, like brain function and depression, would be 0.8? That doesn\'t pass the sniff test.\"</p><p>Neuroimaging studies are expensive and time-consuming. An hour on an MRI machine can cost $1,000. No individual investigator has the time or money to scan thousands of participants for each study. But if all of the data from multiple small studies were pooled and analyzed together, including statistically insignificant results and minuscule effect sizes, the result probably would approximate the correct answer, Dosenbach said.</p><p>\"The future of the field is now bright and rests in open science, data sharing and resource sharing across institutions in order to make large datasets available to any scientist who wants to use them,\" Fair said. \"This very paper is an amazing example of that.\"</p><p>Dosenbach, also an associate professor of biomedical engineering, of occupational therapy, of pediatrics and of radiology, added: \"There\'s a lot of promise to this kind of work in terms of finding solutions for mental illnesses and just understanding how the mind works. The great news is that we\'ve identified a main reason why brain imaging has yet to deliver on its promise to revolutionize mental health care. The work represents a major turning point for linking brain activity and behavior, by clearly defining not just the prior roadblocks, but also the promising new paths forward.\"</p>','2022-03-16 19:43:30.386958','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Washington University School of Medicine','Scientists rely on brain-wide association studies to measure brain structure and function -- using brain scans -- and link them to mental illness and other complex behaviors. But a new study shows that most published brain-wide association studies are performed with too few participants to yield reliable findings.\n',1,124,'<li>Scott Marek, Brenden Tervo-Clemmens, Finnegan J. Calabro, David F. Montez, Benjamin P. Kay, Alexander S. Hatoum, Meghan Rose Donohue, William Foran, Ryland L. Miller, Timothy J. Hendrickson, Stephen M. Malone, Sridhar Kandala, Eric Feczko, Oscar Miranda-Dominguez, Alice M. Graham, Eric A. Earl, Anders J. Perrone, Michaela Cordova, Olivia Doyle, Lucille A. Moore, Gregory M. Conan, Johnny Uriarte, Kathy Snider, Benjamin J. Lynch, James C. Wilgenbusch, Thomas Pengo, Angela Tam, Jianzhong Chen, Dillan J. Newbold, Annie Zheng, Nicole A. Seider, Andrew N. Van, Athanasia Metoki, Roselyne J. Chauvin, Timothy O. Laumann, Deanna J. Greene, Steven E. Petersen, Hugh Garavan, Wesley K. Thompson, Thomas E. Nichols, B. T. Thomas Yeo, Deanna M. Barch, Beatriz Luna, Damien A. Fair, Nico U. F. Dosenbach. <strong>Reproducible brain-wide association studies require thousands of individuals</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04492-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04492-9</a>\n</li>'),(1304,'How the brain encodes social rank and \'winning mindset\'','how-the-brain-encodes-social-rank-and-\'winning-mindset\'','2022-03-16 19:43:32.511553',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">If you\'re reaching for the last piece of pizza at a party and see another hand going for it at the same time, your next move probably depends both on how you feel and whom the hand belongs to. Your little sister -- you might go ahead and grab the pizza. Your boss -- you\'re probably more likely to step back and give up the slice. But if you\'re hungry and feeling particularly confident, you might go for it.</p><p>Now, Salk researchers have made inroads into understanding how the mammalian brain encodes social rank and uses this information to shape behaviors -- such as whether to fight for that last pizza slice. In mice engaged in a competition, the team discovered, patterns of brain activity differ depending on the social rank of the opposing animal. Moreover, the scientists could use brain readouts to accurately predict which animal would win a food reward -- the victor was not always the more socially dominant animal, but the one more engaged in a \"winning mindset.\" The findings were published in <em>Nature</em> on March 16, 2022.</p><p>\"Most social species organize themselves into hierarchies that guide each individual\'s behavior,\" says senior author Kay Tye, professor in Salk\'s Systems Neurobiology Laboratory and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. \"Understanding how the brain mediates this may help us understand the interplay between social rank, isolation, and psychiatric diseases, such as depression, anxiety, or even substance abuse.\"</p><p>Researchers already knew that an area of the brain called the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was responsible for representing social rank in mammals; alterations to a mouse\'s mPFC change an animal\'s dominance behavior. But it was unknown how the mPFC represented this information and which neurons (if any) were involved in altering dominance behavior.</p><p>In the new study, Tye and her team let groups of four mice share a cage, allowing a social hierarchy to naturally develop -- some animals became more dominant and others more subordinate. Then, the researchers selected pairs of cohabitating mice to compete for food rewards in a \"round robin\" tournament style structure.</p><p>To capture the brain activity of the animals, as well as slight, difficult to measure differences in their behavior as they competed, the researchers spearheaded several new technologies. They used new wireless devices to record brain activity in free-roaming animals and developed a multi-animal artificial intelligence tracking tool to follow the movements of the mice over time, even when two animals looked identical. Finally, they turned to new modeling approaches to analyze the data.</p><p>As soon as the mice were paired up, the scientists discovered, the activity of neurons in their mPFC could predict -- with 90 percent certainty -- the rank of their opponent.</p><p>\"We expected that the animals might only signal rank when they heard a beep to start the competition,\" says co-first author Nancy Padilla-Coreano, an assistant professor at the University of Florida, who carried out the work while she was a postdoctoral fellow at Salk. \"But it turns out that animals are walking around with this representation of social rank in their brain all the time.\"</p><p>When the researchers next asked whether the activity of the mPFC neurons was associated with behavior, they found something surprising. The brain activity patterns were linked with slight changes in behavior, such as how fast a mouse moved, and they also could predict -- a full 30 seconds before the competition started -- which mouse would win the food reward.</p><p>While the more dominant mouse was usually predicted to win, sometimes the model accurately predicted that the subordinate animal would win. The model, the team says, was capturing competitive success, or what some people might call a \"winning mindset.\"</p><p>Just as you might sometimes be in a more competitive mood and be more likely to snatch that pizza slice before your boss, a subordinate mouse might be in a more \"winning mindset\" than a more dominant animal and end up winning.</p><p>The areas of the mPFC associated with social rank and competitive success are adjacent to one another, the researchers discovered, and highly connected. Signals on social rank, they say, impact the state of the brain involved in competitive success. In other words, a subordinate animal\'s confidence and \"winning mindset\" may partially diminish when faced with the alpha mouse.</p><p>\"This is the first time we\'ve been able to capture these internal states that connect social rank to behavior,\" says Kanha Batra, a graduate student in the Tye lab and co-first author of the paper. \"At any timepoint, we could predict an animal\'s next move from brain activity using these internal states.\"</p><p>The researchers also showed that changes in brain activity occurred when the animals were in competition versus when they were collecting rewards alone. However, social rank of the animals\' living group could still be decoded from the brain activity even when animals were alone.</p><p>\"This is all further evidence to suggest that we are in different brain states when we are with others compared to when we\'re alone,\" says Tye, holder of the Wylie Vale Chair. \"Regardless of who you\'re with, if you\'re aware of other people around you, your brain is using different neurons.\"</p><p>Next, the scientists will examine how and when the animals\' representations of social rank first develop in the brain, as well as how other types of behaviors are affected.</p><p>Other authors included Makenzie Patarino, Sebastien B. Hausmann, Reesha Patel, Srishti Mishra, Deryn O. LeDuke, Jasmin Revanna, Hao Li, Matilde Borio, Rachelle Pamintuan, Aneesh Bal, Laurel R. Keyes, Avraham Libster, Romy Wichmann, Fergil Mills, Felix H. Taschbach and Gillian A. Matthews of Salk; Zexin Chen, Hao-Shu Fang and Cewu Lu of Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Rachel R. Rock, Ruihan Zhang, Javier C. Weddington and Ila R. Fiete of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Yu Eva Zhang of University of California San Diego; and James P. Curley of University of Texas at Austin.</p><p>The work was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institutes of Health (R01-MH115920, Pioneer Award DP1-AT009925 and K99 MH124435-01), JPB Foundation, Dolby Family Fund, the Kavli Foundation, the Simons Center for the Social Brain, Ford Foundation, L\'Oreal For Women In Science, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, AI Institute, SJTU, Shanghai Qi Zhi Institute, and Meta Technology Group.</p>','2022-03-16 19:43:32.511553','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Salk Institute','Researchers have made inroads into understanding how the mammalian brain encodes social rank and uses this information to shape behaviors. In mice engaged in a competition, the team discovered, patterns of brain activity differ depending on the social rank of the opposing animal. Moreover, the scientists could use brain readouts to accurately predict which animal would win a food reward -- the victor was not always the more socially dominant animal, but the one more engaged in a \'winning mindset.\'\n',1,149,'<li>Nancy Padilla-Coreano, Kanha Batra, Makenzie Patarino, Zexin Chen, Rachel R. Rock, Ruihan Zhang, Sébastien B. Hausmann, Javier C. Weddington, Reesha Patel, Yu E. Zhang, Hao-Shu Fang, Srishti Mishra, Deryn O. LeDuke, Jasmin Revanna, Hao Li, Matilde Borio, Rachelle Pamintuan, Aneesh Bal, Laurel R. Keyes, Avraham Libster, Romy Wichmann, Fergil Mills, Felix H. Taschbach, Gillian A. Matthews, James P. Curley, Ila R. Fiete, Cewu Lu, Kay M. Tye. <strong>Cortical ensembles orchestrate social competition through hypothalamic outputs</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04507-5\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04507-5</a>\n</li>'),(1305,'New acoustic fabric converts audible sounds into electrical signals','new-acoustic-fabric-converts-audible-sounds-into-electrical-signals','2022-03-16 19:48:10.519265','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Having trouble hearing? Just turn up your shirt. That\'s the idea behind a new \"acoustic fabric\" developed by engineers at MIT and collaborators at Rhode Island School of Design.</p><p>The team has designed a fabric that works like a microphone, converting sound first into mechanical vibrations, then into electrical signals, similarly to how our ears hear.</p><p>All fabrics vibrate in response to audible sounds, though these vibrations are on the scale of nanometers -- far too small to ordinarily be sensed. To capture these imperceptible signals, the researchers created a flexible fiber that, when woven into a fabric, bends with the fabric like seaweed on the ocean\'s surface.</p><p>The fiber is designed from a \"piezoelectric\" material that produces an electrical signal when bent or mechanically deformed, providing a means for the fabric to convert sound vibrations into electrical signals.</p><p>The fabric can capture sounds ranging in decibel from a quiet library to heavy road traffic, and determine the precise direction of sudden sounds like handclaps. When woven into a shirt\'s lining, the fabric can detect a wearer\'s subtle heartbeat features. The fibers can also be made to generate sound, such as a recording of spoken words, that another fabric can detect.</p><p>A study detailing the team\'s design appears in <em>Nature</em>. Lead author Wei Yan, who helped develop the fiber as an MIT postdoc, sees many uses for fabrics that hear.</p><p>\"Wearing an acoustic garment, you might talk through it to answer phone calls and communicate with others,\" says Yan, who is now an assistant professor at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. \"In addition, this fabric can imperceptibly interface with the human skin, enabling wearers to monitor their heart and respiratory condition in a comfortable, continuous, real-time, and long-term manner.\"</p><p>Yan\'s co-authors include Grace Noel, Gabriel Loke, Tural Khudiyev, Juliette Marion, Juliana Cherston, Atharva Sahasrabudhe, Joao Wilbert, Irmandy Wicaksono, and professors John Joannopoulos and Yoel Fink at MIT, along with collaborators from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Lei Zhu from Case Western Reserve University, Chu Ma from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Reed Hoyt of the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine.</p><p><strong>Sound layering</strong></p><p>Fabrics are traditionally used to dampen or reduce sound; examples include soundproofing in concert halls and carpeting in our living spaces. But Fink and his team have worked for years to refashion fabric\'s conventional roles. They focus on extending properties in materials to make fabrics more functional. In looking for ways to make sound-sensing fabrics, the team took inspiration from the human ear.</p><p>Audible sound travels through air as slight pressure waves. When these waves reach our ear, an exquisitely sensitive and complex three-dimensional organ, the tympanic membrane, or eardrum, uses a circular layer of fibers to translate the pressure waves into mechanical vibrations. These vibrations travel through small bones into the inner ear, where the cochlea converts the waves into electrical signals that are sensed and processed by the brain.</p><p>Inspired by the human auditory system, the team sought to create a fabric \"ear\" that would be soft, durable, comfortable, and able to detect sound. Their research led to two important discoveries: Such a fabric would have to incorporate stiff, or \"high-modulus,\" fibers to effectively convert sound waves into vibrations. And, the team would have to design a fiber that could bend with the fabric and produce an electrical output in the process.</p><p>With these guidelines in mind, the team developed a layered block of materials called a preform, made from a piezoelectric layer as well as ingredients to enhance the material\'s vibrations in response to sound waves. The resulting preform, about the size of a thick marker, was then heated and pulled like taffy into thin, 40-meter-long fibers.</p><p><strong>Lightweight listening</strong></p><p>The researchers tested the fiber\'s sensitivity to sound by attaching it to a suspended sheet of mylar. They used a laser to measure the vibration of the sheet -- and by extension, the fiber -- in response to sound played through a nearby speaker. The sound varied in decibel between a quiet library and heavy road traffic. In response, the fiber vibrated and generated an electric current proportional to the sound played.</p><p>\"This shows that the performance of the fiber on the membrane is comparable to a handheld microphone,\" Noel says.</p><p>Next, the team wove the fiber with conventional yarns to produce panels of drapable, machine-washable fabric.</p><p>\"It feels almost like a lightweight jacket -- lighter than denim, but heavier than a dress shirt,\" says co-author Elizabeth Meiklejohn, an RISD graduate student who wove the fabric using a standard loom.</p><p>She sewed one panel to the back of a shirt, and the team tested the fabric\'s sensitivity to directional sound by clapping their hands while standing at various angles to the shirt.</p><p>\"The fabric was able to detect the angle of the sound to within 1 degree at a distance of 3 meters away,\" Noel notes.</p><p>The researchers envision that a directional sound-sensing fabric could help those with hearing loss to tune in to a speaker amid noisy surroundings.</p><p>The team also stitched a single fiber to a shirt\'s inner lining, just over the chest region, and found it accurately detected the heartbeat of a healthy volunteer, along with subtle variations in the heart\'s S1 and S2, or \"lub-dub\" features. In addition to monitoring one\'s own heartbeat, Fink sees possibilities for incorporating the acoustic fabric into maternity wear to help monitor a baby\'s fetal heartbeat.</p><p>Finally, the researchers reversed the fiber\'s function to serve not as a sound-detector but as a speaker. They recorded a string of spoken words and fed the recording to the fiber in the form of an applied voltage. The fiber converted the electrical signals to audible vibrations, which a second fiber was able to detect.</p><p>In addition to wearable hearing aids, clothes that communicate, and garments that track vital signs, the team sees applications beyond clothing.</p><p>\"It can be integrated with spacecraft skin to listen to (accumulating) space dust, or embedded into buildings to detect cracks or strains,\" Yan proposes. \"It can even be woven into a smart net to monitor fish in the ocean. The fiber is opening widespread opportunities.\"</p><p>\"The learnings of this research offers quite literally a new way for fabrics to listen to our body and to the surrounding environment,\" Fink says. \"The dedication of our students, postdocs and staff to advancing research which has always marveled me is especially relevant to this work, which was carried out during the pandemic.\"</p><p>This research was supported in part by the US Army Research Office through the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, National Science Foundation, Sea Grant NOAA.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-16 19:43:35.430877','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts Institute of Technology','Researchers have developed a new acoustic fabric converts audible sounds into electrical signals. They designed a fabric that works like a microphone, converting sound first into mechanical vibrations, then into electrical signals, similarly to how our ears hear.',1,215,'<li>Wei Yan, Grace Noel, Gabriel Loke, Elizabeth Meiklejohn, Tural Khudiyev, Juliette Marion, Guanchun Rui, Jinuan Lin, Juliana Cherston, Atharva Sahasrabudhe, Joao Wilbert, Irmandy Wicaksono, Reed W. Hoyt, Anais Missakian, Lei Zhu, Chu Ma, John Joannopoulos, Yoel Fink. <strong>Single fibre enables acoustic fabrics via nanometre-scale vibrations</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04476-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04476-9</a>\r\n</li>'),(1306,'Programming the immune system to supercharge cancer cell therapies','programming-the-immune-system-to-supercharge-cancer-cell-therapies','2022-03-16 21:01:55.924534',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The first FDA-approved gene therapies are living drugs: immune cells taken from cancer patients engineered to target tumor cells. However, for many patients, these advanced therapies do not result in a long-lasting remission. Now, scientists at the New York Genome Center and New York University have developed a genetic screening platform to identify genes that can enhance immune cells to make them more persistent and increase their ability to eradicate tumor cells.</p><p>In the journal <em>Nature</em>, the researchers describe the discovery of synthetic gene programs that profoundly rewire a specific kind of immune cell called T cells, making them more effective at finding and fighting cancer cells. The research team, led by Neville Sanjana, PhD, Core Faculty Member at the New York Genome Center, Assistant Professor of Biology at New York University, and Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Physiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, profiled the impact of nearly 12,000 different genes in multiple T cell subsets from human donors. The goal of this large-scale genetic screen was to identify precisely those genes that enable T cells to proliferate and to understand how those genes impact other aspects of immune cell function relevant to fighting cancer.</p><p>Previous efforts to engineer T cells have focused on the targeting of specific tumor types by careful selection of cancer or tissue-specific proteins (antigens). Since first developed more than 30 years ago, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy has proven highly effective in targeting blood cancer cells, resulting in multiple FDA-approved CAR-T therapies. CAR-T cells have antigen receptors on their surface that recognize specific proteins present on cancer cells to target and destroy them. Some patients are cancer free even a decade after their CAR-T cell therapy, as the T cells introduced years earlier are still doing their job. But one of the major challenges facing biomedical science is to understand why a large majority of cancer patients who receive CAR-T cells fail to achieve lasting remission.</p><p>Dr. Sanjana, senior author of the study, explained, \"To date, genetic engineering of T cells has been focused on finding new antigens or new CARs. We took a radically different approach: Instead of changing the antibody, we thought why not try adding genes that transform T cells into more aggressive cancer fighters? These modifier genes worked very well in blood cancers, and we believe they will likely work for multiple antigens and in solid tumors.\"</p><p>By combining modifier genes identified in the screen with existing CARs, the researchers were able to engineer T cells that were more effective at eliminating tumor cells. One particular modifier gene, lymphotoxin beta receptor (LTBR), acts like a molecular fountain of youth: with LTBR, T cells multiply, have a greater proportion of younger, more stem cell-like cells and resist becoming exhausted over time. Adding LTBR also caused T cells to secrete more cytokines, which are vital for the anti-tumor activity of T cells. Cytokines play an essential role in enabling T cells to better communicate with other immune cells in the body and launch coordinated attacks on the cancer. Interestingly, LTBR is not normally expressed in T cells, which highlights the power of the genome-scale screen to find genes that activate completely new cellular programs.</p><p>\"Our goal was to take existing immunotherapies and make them better. We were astonished that LTBR so significantly potentiates CAR therapies. It is an important step forward towards the development of next-generation CAR-T cell therapy,\" said the study\'s first author Mateusz Legut, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Sanjana Lab. The research team found that adding LTBR rewires the genome of T cell, triggering expression of many other genes that potentiate T cell function. The team was able to quickly understand the effects of LTBR and similar modifier genes by combining gene overexpression screens with single-cell genomics. The new method that they developed -- OverCITE-seq -- allowed the researchers to test the impact of different modifier genes on the cellular states of T cells, which includes the expression of every gene, the proteins decorating the cell surface, and the unique T cell receptors expressed by each cell (clonotype). OverCITE-seq gave the researchers a detailed picture of how each modifier gene boosts T cell activity and did so for all of the top-ranked genes in one single-cell experiment. For LTBR, this yielded an early clue that a large number of genes were changing, leading the researchers to further identify a well-studied modulator of gene expression called NF-kB driving many of these changes. This LTBR-driven profound reprogramming was also seen in so-called unconventional T cells such as ?? T cells, which are present at a lower abundance than conventional T cells but can target a more diverse set of tumors.</p><p>\"The most exciting aspect is the demonstration that LTBR and other highly ranked genes improved the antigen-specific responses of chimeric antigen receptor T cells and ?? T cells. If validated in vitro and in clinical testing, this may have profound implication for future CAR-T cell therapies in both lymphoid malignancies and other cancers.\" said study co-author Catherine Diefenbach, MD, an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the Grossman NYU School of Medicine and the Director of the Clinical Lymphoma Program at NYU\'s Perlmutter Cancer Center. The team also combined several top-ranked genetic modifiers with CARs similar to two existing FDA-approved therapies for blood cancers: tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) and axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta). Virtually all modifiers tested boosted CAR-T responses, including LTBR. Since T cells from cancer patients tend to be in poor condition compared to T cells from healthy donors, the researchers wanted to also test LTBR\'s ability to rejuvenate cancer patient T cells. They added LTBR together with a CAR to dysfunctional T cells from patients diagnosed with diffuse large B cell lymphoma, a blood cancer, and found a similar boost in T cell function, suggesting that the technology could work as an optimized therapy in the clinic.</p><p>Andrew Sewell, PhD, an expert in T cells and immunotherapy from Cardiff University\'s School of Medicine who was not involved in the study noted, \"Gain-of-function screening in T cells has great potential to uncover how to make immunotherapies more successful -- especially in solid cancers where current CAR T cell therapies do not work well.\" The research team also showed that T cells enhanced with modifier genes were better able to eradicate not only leukemia but also pancreatic cancer cells. Those results are encouraging not only to develop a larger panel of enhanced CAR-T therapies for blood cancers, but for the key role they could play in targeting solid tumors, a field in which establishing efficient CAR-T immunotherapy has been more challenging.</p><p>In addition to Drs. Legut, Diefenbach and Sanjana, the research team included co-authors from the Sanjana lab, the NYGC Technology Innovation Lab, and the lab of Teresa Davoli, PhD, at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. The Sanjana Lab has been focused on developing new gene editing and functional genomic technologies to reduce the high failure of current immunotherapies and build next-generation therapeutics. Since the newly-characterized modifier genes like LTBR can work hand in hand with already approved CAR-T therapies, this research has clear potential to move from bench to bedside and improve outcomes for cancer patients around the world.</p><p>Video: <a href=\"https://vimeo.com/687951684\">https://vimeo.com/687951684</a></p>','2022-03-16 21:01:55.924534','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'New York Genome Center','Scientists have developed a genetic screening platform to identify genes that can enhance immune cells to make them more persistent and increase their ability to eradicate tumor cells.\n',1,124,'<li>Mateusz Legut, Zoran Gajic, Maria Guarino, Zharko Daniloski, Jahan A. Rahman, Xinhe Xue, Congyi Lu, Lu Lu, Eleni P. Mimitou, Stephanie Hao, Teresa Davoli, Catherine Diefenbach, Peter Smibert, Neville E. Sanjana. <strong>A genome-scale screen for synthetic drivers of T cell proliferation</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04494-7\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04494-7</a>\n</li>'),(1307,'Stackable \'holobricks\' can make giant 3D images','stackable-\'holobricks\'-can-make-giant-3d-images','2022-03-16 21:11:24.543796',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers have developed a new method to display highly realistic holographic images using \'holobricks\' that can be stacked together to generate large-scale holograms.</p><p>The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Disney Research, developed a holobrick proof-of-concept, which can tile holograms together to form a large seamless 3D image. This is the first time this technology has been demonstrated and opens the door for scalable holographic 3D displays. The results are reported in the journal <em>Light: Science &amp; Applications</em>.</p><p>As technology develops, people want high-quality visual experiences, from 2D high resolution TV to 3D holographic augmented or virtual reality, and large true 3D displays. These displays need to support a significant amount of data flow: for a 2D full HD display, the information data rate is about three gigabits per second (Gb/s), but a 3D display of the same resolution would require a rate of three terabits per second, which is not yet available.</p><p>Holographic displays can reconstruct high quality images for a real 3D visual perception. They are considered the ultimate display technology to connect the real and virtual worlds for immersive experiences.</p><p>\"Delivering an adequate 3D experience using the current technology is a huge challenge,\" said Professor Daping Chu from Cambridge\'s Department of Engineering, who led the research. \"Over the past ten years, we\'ve been working with our industrial partners to develop holographic displays which allow the simultaneous realisation of large size and large field-of-view, which needs to be matched with a hologram with a large optical information content.\"</p><p>However, the information content of current holograms information is much greater than the display capabilities of current light engines, known as spatial light modulators, due to their limited space bandwidth product.</p><p>For 2D displays, it\'s standard practice to tile small size displays together to form one large display. The approach being explored here is similar, but for 3D displays, which has not been done before. \"Joining pieces of 3D images together is not trivial, because the final image must be seen as seamless from all angles and all depths,\" said Chu, who is also Director of the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE). \"Directly tiling 3D images in real space is just not possible.\"</p><p>To address this challenge, the researchers developed the holobrick unit, based on coarse integrated holographic displays for angularly tiled 3D images, a concept developed at CAPE with Disney Research about seven years ago.</p><p>Each of the holobricks uses a high-information bandwidth spatial light modulator for information delivery in conjunction with coarse integrated optics, to form the angularly tiled 3D holograms with large viewing areas and fields of view.</p><p>Careful optical design makes sure the holographic fringe pattern fills the entire face of the holobrick, so that multiple holobricks can be seamlessly stacked to form a scalable spatially tiled holographic image 3D display, capable of both wide field-of-view angle and large size.</p><p>The proof-of-concept developed by the researchers is made of two seamlessly tiled holobricks. Each full-colour brick is 1024×768 pixels, with a 40° field of view and 24 frames per second, to display tiled holograms for full 3D images.</p><p>\"There are still many challenges ahead to make ultra-large 3D displays with wide viewing angles, such as a holographic 3D wall,\" said Chu. \"We hope that this work can provide a promising way to tackle this issue based on the currently limited display capability of spatial light modulators.\"</p>','2022-03-16 21:11:24.543796','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Cambridge','Researchers have developed a new method to display highly realistic holographic images using \'holobricks\' that can be stacked together to generate large-scale holograms.\n',1,97,'<li>Jin Li, Quinn Smithwick, Daping Chu. <strong>Holobricks: modular coarse integral holographic displays</strong>. <em>Light: Science &amp; Applications</em>, 2022; 11 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41377-022-00742-7\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41377-022-00742-7</a>\n</li>'),(1308,'U.S. fires four times larger, three times more frequent since 2000','u.s.-fires-four-times-larger,-three-times-more-frequent-since-2000','2022-03-16 22:32:23.203718',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Fires have gotten larger, more frequent and more widespread across the United States since 2000, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder-led paper. Recent wildfires have stoked concern that climate change is causing more extreme events, and the work published today in <em>Science Advances</em> shows that large fires have not only become more common, they are also spreading into new areas, impacting land that previously did not burn.</p><p>\"Projected changes in climate, fuel and ignitions suggest that we\'ll see more and larger fires in the future. Our analyses show that those changes are already happening,\" said Virginia Iglesias, a research scientist with CU Boulder\'s Earth Lab and lead author of the paper.</p><p>To evaluate how the size, frequency and extent of fires have changed in the United States, Iglesias and her colleagues analyzed data from over 28,000 fires that occurred between 1984 and 2018 from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) dataset, which combines satellite imagery with the best available state and federal fire history records.</p><p>The team found that there were more fires across all regions in the contiguous United States in 2005-2018 compared to the previous two decades. In the West and East, fire frequency doubled, and in the Great Plains, fire frequency quadrupled. As a result, the amount of land burned each year increased from a median of 1,552 to 5,502 square miles (4,019 to 14,249 km<sup>2</sup>) in the West and from 465 to 1,295 square miles (1,204 to 3,354 km<sup>2</sup>) in the Great Plains.</p><p>The researchers also took a closer look at the most extreme fire events in each region. They found that in the West and Great Plains, the largest wildfires grew bigger and ignited more often in the 2000s. Throughout the record, large fires were more likely to occur around the same time as other large fires.</p><p>\"More and larger co-occurring fires are already altering vegetation composition and structure, snowpack, and water supply to our communities,\" Iglesias explained. \"This trend is challenging fire-suppression efforts and threatening the lives, health, and homes of millions of Americans.\"</p><p>Finally, the team discovered that the size of fire-prone areas increased in all regions of the contiguous United States in the 2000s, meaning that not only is the distance between individual fires is getting smaller than it was in the previous decades but also that fires are spreading into areas that did not burn in the past.</p><p>These results confirm a palpable change in fire dynamics that has been suspected by the media, public and fire-fighting officials. Unfortunately, the results also align with other troubling risk trends, such as the fact that development of natural hazard zones is also increasing wildfire risk. \"These convergent trends, more large fires plus intensifying development, mean that the worst fire disasters are still to come,\" said William Travis, co-author and Earth Lab deputy director.</p><p>The study authors suggest that to adapt and build resilience to wildfire impacts, planners and stakeholders must account for how fire is changing and how it is impacting vulnerable ecosystems and communities.</p>','2022-03-16 22:32:23.203718','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Colorado at Boulder','Fires have gotten larger, more frequent and more widespread across the United States since 2000, according to a new article. The research shows that large fires have not only become more common, they are also spreading into new areas, impacting land that previously did not burn.\n',1,27,'<li>Virginia Iglesias, Jennifer K. Balch, William R. Travis. <strong>U.S. fires became larger, more frequent, and more widespread in the 2000s</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (11) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc0020\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abc0020</a>\n</li>'),(1309,'Largest ever psychedelics study maps changes of conscious awareness to neurotransmitter systems','largest-ever-psychedelics-study-maps-changes-of-conscious-awareness-to-neurotransmitter-systems','2022-03-16 22:32:36.997366',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Psychedelics are now a rapidly growing area of neuroscience and clinical research, one that may produce much-needed new therapies for disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. Yet there is still a lot to know about how these drug agents alter states of consciousness.</p><p>In the world\'s largest study on psychedelics and the brain, a team of researchers from The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) and Department of Biomedical Engineering of McGill University, the Broad Institute at Harvard/MIT, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, and Mila -- Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute have shown how drug-induced changes in subjective awareness are anatomically rooted in specific neurotransmitter receptor systems.</p><p>The researchers gathered 6,850 testimonials from people who took a range of 27 different psychedelic drugs. In a first-of-its-kind approach, they designed a machine learning strategy to extract commonly used words from the testimonials and link them with the neurotransmitter receptors that likely induced them. The interdisciplinary team could then associate the subjective experiences with brain regions where the receptor combinations are most commonly found -- these turned out to be the lowest and some of the deepest layers of the brain\'s information processing layers.</p><p>Using thousands of gene transcription probes, the team created a 3D map of the brain receptors and the subjective experiences linked to them, across the whole brain. While psychedelic experience is known to vary widely from person to person, the large testimonial dataset allowed the team to characterize coherent states of conscious experiences with receptors and brain regions across individuals. This supports the theory that new hallucinogenic drug compounds can be designed to reliably create desired mental states.</p><p>For example, a promising effect of some psychedelics for psychiatric intervention is ego-dissolution -- the feeling of being detached with the self. The study found that this feeling was most associated with the receptor serotonin 5-HT2A. However, other serotonin receptors (5-HT2C, 5-HT1A, 5-HT2B), adrenergic receptors Alpha-2A and Beta-2, as well as the D2 receptor were also linked with the feeling of ego-dissolution. A drug targeting these receptors may be able to reliably create this feeling in patients whom clinicians believe might benefit from it.</p><p>\"Hallucinogenic drugs may very well turn out to be the next big thing to improve clinical care of major mental health conditions,\" says Professor Danilo Bzdok, the study\'s lead author \"Our study provides a first step, a proof of principle that we may be able to build machine learning systems in the future that can accurately predict which neurotransmitter receptor combinations need to be stimulated to induce a specific state of conscious experience in a given person.\"</p><p>This study, published in the journal <em>Science Advances</em> on March 16, 2022, was funded with the help of the Brain Canada Foundation, through the Canada Brain Research Fund, as well as by NIH grant R01AG068563A and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Danilo Bzdok was also supported by the Healthy Brains Healthy Lives initiative (Canada First Research Excellence fund), and by the CIFAR Artificial Intelligence Chairs program (Canada Institute for Advanced Research), as well as Google.</p>','2022-03-16 22:32:36.997366','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'McGill University','In the world\'s largest study on psychedelics and the brain, a team of researchers have shown how drug-induced changes in subjective awareness are anatomically rooted in specific neurotransmitter receptor systems.\n',1,142,'<li>Galen Ballentine, Samuel Freesun Friedman, Danilo Bzdok. <strong>Trips and neurotransmitters: Discovering principled patterns across 6850 hallucinogenic experiences</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (11) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl6989\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abl6989</a>\n</li>'),(1310,'BirdBot is energy-efficient thanks to nature as a model','birdbot-is-energy-efficient-thanks-to-nature-as-a-model','2022-03-16 22:32:44.872913',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">If a Tyrannosaurus Rex living 66 million years ago featured a similar leg structure as an ostrich running in the savanna today, then we can assume bird legs stood the test of time -- a good example of evolutionary selection.</p><p>Graceful, elegant, powerful -- flightless birds like the ostrich are a mechanical wonder. Ostriches, some of which weigh over 100kg, run through the savanna at up to 55km/h. The ostriches outstanding locomotor performance is thought to be enabled by the animal\'s leg structure. Unlike humans, birds fold their feet back when pulling their legs up towards their bodies. Why do the animals do this? Why is this foot movement pattern energy-efficient for walking and running? And can the bird\'s leg structure with all its bones, muscles, and tendons be transferred to walking robots?</p><p>Alexander Badri-Spröwitz has spent more than five years on these questions. At the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS), he leads the Dynamic Locomotion Group. His team works at the interface between biology and robotics in the field of biomechanics and neurocontrol. The dynamic locomotion of animals and robots is the group\'s main focus.</p><p>Together with his doctoral student Alborz Aghamaleki Sarvestani, Badri-Spröwitz has constructed a robot leg that, like its natural model, is energy-efficient: BirdBot needs fewer motors than other machines and could, theoretically, scale to large size. On March 16th, Badri-Spröwitz, Aghamaleki Sarvestani, the roboticist Metin Sitti, a director at MPI-IS, and biology professor Monica A. Daley of the University of California, Irvine, published their research in the  journal <em>Science Robotics.</em></p><p><strong>Compliant spring-tendon network made of muscles and tendons</strong></p><p>When walking, humans pull their feet up and bend their knees, but feet and toes point forward almost unchanged. It is known that Birds are different -- in the swing phase, they fold their feet backward. But what is the function of this motion? Badri-Spröwitz and his team attribute this movement to a mechanical coupling. \"It\'s not the nervous system, it\'s not electrical impulses, it\'s not muscle activity,\" Badri-Spröwitz explains. \"We hypothesized a new function of the foot-leg coupling through a network of muscles and tendons that extends across multiple joints.\" These multi-joint muscle-tendon coordinate foot folding in the swing phase. In our robot, we have implemented the coupled mechanics in the leg and foot, which enables energy-efficient and robust robot walking. Our results demonstrating this mechanism in a robot lead us to believe that similar efficiency benefits also hold true for birds,\" he explains.</p><p>The coupling of the leg and foot joints and the forces and movements involved could be the reason why a large animal like an ostrich can not only run fast but also stand without tiring, the researchers speculate. A person weighing over 100kg can also stand well and for a long time, but only with the knees \'locked\' in an extended position. If the person were to squat slightly, it becomes strenuous after a few minutes. The bird, however, does not seem to mind its bent leg structure; many birds even stand upright while sleeping. A robotic bird\'s leg should be able to do the same: no motor power should be needed to keep the structure standing upright.</p><p><strong>Robot walks on treadmill</strong></p><p>To test their hypothesis, the researchers built a robotic leg modeled after the leg of a flightless bird. They constructed their artificial bird leg so that its foot features no motor, but instead a joint equipped with a spring and cable mechanism. The foot is mechanically coupled to the rest of the leg\'s joints through cables and pulleys. Each leg contains only two motors -- the hip joints motor, which swings the leg back and forth, and a small motor that flexes the knee joint to pull the leg up. After assembly, the researchers walked BirdBot on a treadmill to observe the robot\'s foot folding and unfolding. \"The foot and leg joints don\'t need actuation in the stance phase,\" says Aghamaleki Sarvestani. \"Springs power these joints, and the multi-joint spring-tendon mechanism coordinates joint movements. When the leg is pulled into swing phase, the foot disengages the leg\'s spring -- or the muscle-tendon spring, as we believe it happens in animals,\" Badri-Spröwitz adds. </p><p><strong>Zero effort when standing, and when flexing the leg and knee</strong></p><p>When standing, the leg expends zero energy. \"Previously, our robots had to work against the spring or with a motor either when standing or when pulling the leg up, to prevent the leg from colliding with the ground during leg swing. This energy input is not necessary in BirdBot\'s legs,\" says Badri-Spröwitz and Aghamaleki Sarvestani adds: \"Overall, the new robot requires a mere quarter of the energy of its predecessor.\"</p><p>The treadmill is now switched back on, the robot starts running, and with each leg swing, the foot disengages the leg\'s spring. To disengage, the large foot movement slacks the cable and the remaining leg joints swing loosely. This transition of states, between standing and leg swing, is provided in most robots by a motor at the joint. And a sensor sends a signal to a controller, which turns the robot\'s motors on and off. \"Previously, motors were switched depending on whether the leg was in the swing or stance phase. Now the foot takes over this function in the walking machine, mechanically switching between stance and swing. We only need one motor at the hip joint and one motor to bend the knee in the swing phase. We leave leg spring engagement and disengagement to the bird-inspired mechanics. This is robust, fast, and energy-efficient,\" says Badri-Spröwitz.</p><p>Monica Daley observed in several of her earlier biology studies that the bird\'s leg structure not only saves energy during walking and standing but is also adapted by nature so that the animal hardly stumbles and injures itself. In experiments with guineafowls running over hidden potholes, she quantified the birds\' remarkable locomotion robustness. A morphological intelligence is built into the system that allows the animal to act quickly -- without having to think about it. Daley had shown that the animals control their legs during locomotion not only with the help of the nervous system. If an obstacle unexpectedly lies in the way, it is not always the animal\'s sense of touch or sight that comes into play.</p><p>\"The structure with its multi-jointed muscle-tendons and its unique foot movement can explain why even heavy, large birds run so quickly, robustly, and energy-efficient. If I assume that everything in the bird is based on sensing and action, and the animal steps onto an unexpected obstacle, the animal might not be able to react quickly enough. Perception and sensing, even the transmission of the stimuli, and the reaction cost time,\" Daley says.</p><p>Yet Daley\'s work on running birds over 20 years demonstrates that birds respond more rapidly than the nervous system allows, indicating mechanical contributions to control. Now that the team developed BirdBot, which is a physical model that directly demonstrates how these mechanisms work, it all makes more sense: the leg switches mechanically if there is a bump in the ground. The switch happens immediately and without time delay. Like birds, the robot features high locomotion robustness.</p><p>Whether it\'s on the scale of a Tyrannosaurus Rex or a small quail, or a small or large robotic leg. Theoretically, meter-high legs can now be implemented to carry robots with the weight of several tons, that walk around with little power input.</p><p>The knowledge gained through BirdBot developed at the Dynamic Locomotion Group and the University of California, Irvine, leads to new insights about animals, which are adapted by evolution. Robots allow testing and sometimes confirming hypotheses from Biology, and advancing both fields.</p><p>BirdBot video: <a href=\"https://youtu.be/wwH40rYJt9g\">https://youtu.be/wwH40rYJt9g</a></p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-16 22:32:44.872913','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems','A team of scientists has constructed a robot leg that, like its natural model, is very energy efficient. BirdBot benefits from a foot-leg coupling through a network of muscles and tendons that extends across multiple joints. In this way, BirdBot needs fewer motors than previous legged robots and could, theoretically, scale to large size.\n',1,43,'<li>Alexander Badri-Spröwitz, Alborz Aghamaleki Sarvestani, Metin Sitti, Monica A. Daley. <strong>BirdBot achieves energy-efficient gait with minimal control using avian-inspired leg clutching</strong>. <em>Science Robotics</em>, 2022; 7 (64) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.abg4055\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/scirobotics.abg4055</a>\n</li>'),(1311,'Toxin-producing yeast strains in gut fuel IBD','toxin-producing-yeast-strains-in-gut-fuel-ibd','2022-03-16 22:33:04.138847',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Individual <em>Candida albicans</em> yeast strains in the human gut are as different from each other as the humans that carry them, and some <em>C. albicans</em> strains may damage the gut of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to a new study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The findings suggest a possible way to tailor treatments to individual patients in the future.</p><p>The researchers, who report their findings March 16 in <em>Nature,</em> used an array of techniques to study strains, or genetic variants, of <em>Candida</em> from the colons of people with or without ulcerative colitis, a chronic, relapsing and remitting inflammatory disorder of the colon and rectum and one of the main forms of IBD. They found that certain strains, which they call \"high-damaging,\" produce a potent toxin called candidalysin that damages immune cells.</p><p>\"Such strains retained their \"high-damaging\" properties when they were removed from the patient\'s gut and triggered pro-inflammatory immunity when colonized in mice, replicating certain disease hallmarks,\" said senior author Dr. Iliyan Iliev, an associate professor of immunology in medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and a scientist in the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine.</p><p>IBD affects approximately 3.1 million people in the United States and can greatly impair patients\' quality of life. Such patients rely on a handful of available therapies, but treatments may not always be effective. The new study has suggested one reason steroids, a commonly used treatment, may not work; treating mice with the drug to suppress intestinal inflammation failed in the presence of \"high-damaging\" <em>C. albicans</em> strains.</p><p>\"Our findings suggest that <em>C. albicans</em> strains do not cause spontaneous intestinal inflammation in a host with intact immunity,\" Dr. Iliev said. \"But they do expand in the intestines when inflammation is present and can be a factor that influences response to therapy in our models and perhaps in patients.\"</p><p>Most studies of the human microbiome in healthy individuals and those with IBD have focused on bacteria and viruses, but recent research by Dr. Iliev and others has illuminated the contributions of fungi to the effects of microbes on humans and mice. They have found that intestinal fungi play an important role in regulating immunity at surfaces exposed to the outside, such as the intestines and lungs, due to their potent immune-stimulating characteristics. While the collective community of fungi in the body, known as the mycobiota, has been linked to several diseases, including IBD, researchers previously had not understood the mechanisms by which the mycobiota contribute to inflammation in the gut.</p><p>In the new study, the investigators initially found that <em>Candida</em> strains, while highly diverse in the intestines of both patients with and without colitis, were on average more abundant in the patients with IBD. But that did not explain disease outcomes in individual patients. So, the investigators set out to identify the characteristics of these strains that cause damage and how they relate to individual patients.</p><p>The researchers observed that in the patients with ulcerative colitis, severe disease was associated with the presence of \"high-damaging\" <em>Candida</em> strains, which turned out to have a key factor in common: all produce the candidalysin toxin. The scientists showed that the toxin damages immune cells called macrophages, prompting a storm of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1β.</p><p>To underscore this strain-specific effect, the researchers grew macrophages in the presence of <em>Candida</em> strains and found that the ability of the strains to induce IL-1β corresponded closely to the severity of colitis in the patients.</p><p>\"Our finding shows that a cell-damaging toxin candidalysin released by \"high damaging\" <em>C. albicans</em> strains during the yeast-hyphae morphogenesis triggers pathogenic immunological responses in the gut,\" said the first author Dr. Xin Li, who was a Charles H. Revson Postdoctoral Fellow in the Iliev laboratory at the time of the study.</p><p>Experiments in mice delineated that candidalysin-producing \"high-damaging\" strains induced the expansion of a population of T cells called Th17 cells and other immune cells associated with inflammation, such as neutrophils.</p><p>\"Neutrophils contribute to tissue damage and their accumulation is a hallmark of active IBD,\" said Dr. Ellen Scherl, the Jill Roberts Professor of Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine and a gastroenterologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. \"The indication that these processes might in part be driven by a fungal toxin released by yeast strains in specific patients could potentially inform personalized treatment approaches.\"</p><p>Consistent with this finding, blocking IL-1β signaling had a dramatic effect in reducing colitis signs in mice that harbored these highly pro-inflammatory strains. The researchers noted that other recent studies have linked IBD to IL-1β in a general way, prompting ongoing investigations of drugs targeting related pathways as potential IBD therapies.</p><p>\"We do not know whether specific strains are acquired by specific patients during the course of disease or whether they have been always there and become a problem during episodes of active disease\" Dr. Iliev said. \"Nevertheless, our findings highlight a mechanism by which commensal fungal strains can turn against their host and overdrive inflammation.\"</p><p>The team is following up with studies of the mechanisms that drive the persistence of candidalysin-producing strains in the inflamed colon of specific IBD patients, as well as ways to choose patients for therapy targeting the mycobiome.</p>','2022-03-16 22:33:04.138847','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Weill Cornell Medicine','Individual Candida albicans yeast strains in the human gut are as different from each other as the humans that carry them, and some C. albicans strains may damage the gut of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to a new study. The findings suggest a possible way to tailor treatments to individual patients in the future.\n',1,121,'<li>Xin V. Li, Irina Leonardi, Gregory G. Putzel, Alexa Semon, William D. Fiers, Takato Kusakabe, Woan-Yu Lin, Iris H. Gao, Itai Doron, Alejandra Gutierrez-Guerrero, Meghan B. DeCelie, Guilhermina M. Carriche, Marissa Mesko, Chen Yang, Julian R. Naglik, Bernhard Hube, Ellen J. Scherl, Iliyan D. Iliev. <strong>Immune regulation by fungal strain diversity in inflammatory bowel disease</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04502-w\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04502-w</a>\n</li>'),(1312,'Toward a quantum computer that calculates molecular energy','toward-a-quantum-computer-that-calculates-molecular-energy','2022-03-16 23:31:24.713097',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Quantum computers are getting bigger, but there are still few practical ways to take advantage of their extra computing power. To get over this hurdle, researchers are designing algorithms to ease the transition from classical to quantum computers. In a new study in <em>Nature,</em> researchers unveil an algorithm that reduces the statistical errors, or noise, produced by quantum bits, or qubits, in crunching chemistry equations.</p><p>Developed by Columbia chemistry professor David Reichman and postdoc Joonho Lee with researchers at Google Quantum AI, the algorithm uses up to 16 qubits on Sycamore, Google\'s 53-qubit computer, to calculate ground state energy, the lowest energy state of a molecule. \"These are the largest quantum chemistry calculations that have ever been done on a real quantum device,\" Reichman said.</p><p>The ability to accurately calculate ground state energy, will enable chemists to develop new materials, said Lee, who is also a visiting researcher at Google Quantum AI. The algorithm could be used to design materials to speed up nitrogen fixation for farming and hydrolysis for making clean energy, among other sustainability goals, he said.</p><p>The algorithm uses a quantum Monte Carlo, a system of methods for calculating probabilities when there are a large number of random, unknown variables at play, like in a game of roulette. Here, the researchers used their algorithm to determine the ground state energy of three molecules: heliocide (H4), using eight qubits for the calculation; molecular nitrogen (N2), using 12 qubits; and solid diamond, using 16 qubits.</p><p>Ground state energy is influenced by variables such as the number of electrons in a molecule, the direction in which they spin, and the paths they take as they orbit a nucleus. This electronic energy is encoded in the Schrodinger equation. Solving the equation on a classical computer becomes exponentially harder as molecules get bigger, although methods for estimating the solution have made the process easier. How quantum computers might circumvent the exponential scaling problem has been an open question in the field.</p><p>In principle, quantum computers should be able to handle exponentially larger and more complex calculations, like those needed to solve the Schrodinger equation, because the qubits that make them up take advantage of quantum states. Unlike binary digits, or bits, made up of ones and zeros, qubits can exist in two states simultaneously. Qubits, however, are fragile and error-prone: the more qubits used, the less accurate the final answer. Lee\'s algorithm harnesses the combined power of classical and quantum computers to solve chemistry equations more efficiently while minimizing the quantum computer\'s mistakes.</p><p>\"It\'s the best of both worlds,\" Lee said. \"We leveraged tools that we already had as well as tools that are considered state-of-the-art in quantum information science to refine quantum computational chemistry.\"</p><p>A classical computer can handle most of Lee\'s quantum Monte Carlo simulation. Sycamore jumps in for the last, most computationally complex step: the calculation of the overlap between a trial wave function -- a guess at the mathematical description of the ground state energy that can be implemented by the quantum computer -- and a sample wave function, which is part of the Monte Carlo\'s statistical process. This overlap provides a set of constraints, known as the boundary condition, to the Monte Carlo sampling, which ensures the statistical efficiency of the calculation.</p><p>The prior record for solving ground state energy used 12 qubits and a method called the variational quantum eigensolver, or VQE. But VQE ignored the effects of interacting electrons, an important variable in calculating ground state energy that Lee\'s quantum Monte Carlo algorithm now includes. Adding virtual correlation techniques from classic computers could help chemists tackle even larger molecules, Lee said.</p><p>The hybrid classical-quantum calculations in this new work were found to be as accurate as some of the best classical methods. This suggests that problems could be solved more accurately and/or quickly <em>with</em> a quantum computer than without -- a key milestone for quantum computing. Lee and his colleagues will continue to tweak their algorithm to make it more efficient, while engineers work to build better quantum hardware.</p><p>\"The feasibility of solving larger and more challenging chemical problems will only increase with time,\" Lee said. \"This gives us hope that quantum technologies that are being developed will be practically useful.\"</p>','2022-03-16 23:31:24.713097','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Columbia University','Researchers have developed an algorithm that uses the most quantum bits to date to calculate ground state energy, the lowest-energy state in a quantum mechanical system. The discovery could make it easier to design new materials.\n',1,148,'<li>William J. Huggins, Bryan A. O’Gorman, Nicholas C. Rubin, David R. Reichman, Ryan Babbush, Joonho Lee. <strong>Unbiasing fermionic quantum Monte Carlo with a quantum computer</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04351-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-021-04351-z</a>\n</li>'),(1313,'Pivotal technique harnesses cutting-edge AI capabilities to model and map the natural environment','pivotal-technique-harnesses-cutting-edge-ai-capabilities-to-model-and-map-the-natural-environment','2022-03-17 00:49:37.473800',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists have developed a pioneering new technique that harnesses the cutting-edge capabilities of AI to model and map the natural environment in intricate detail.</p><p>A team of experts, including Charlie Kirkwood from the University of Exeter, has created a sophisticated new approach to modelling the Earth\'s natural features in greater detail and accuracy.</p><p>The new technique can recognise intricate features and aspects of the terrain far beyond the capabilities of more traditional methods and use these to generate enhanced-quality environmental maps.</p><p>Crucially, the new system could also pave the way to unlocking new discoveries of the relationships within the natural environment, that may help tackle some of the greater climate and environment issues of the 21<sup>st</sup> century.</p><p>The study is published in leading journal <em>Mathematical Geosciences</em>, as part of a special issue on geostatistics and machine learning.</p><p>Modelling and mapping the environment is a lengthy, time consuming and expensive process. Cost limits the number of observations that can be obtained, which means that creating comprehensive spatially-continuous maps depends upon filling in the gaps between these observations.</p><p>Scientists can use a range of information sources to help fill in these observation gaps, such as terrain elevation data and satellite imagery. However, conventional modelling methods rely on users to manually engineer predictive features from these datasets -- for example generating slope angles and curvatures from terrain elevation data in the hope that these can help explain the spatial distribution of the variable being mapped.</p><p>However, scientists believe there are likely to be many more nuanced relationships at play within the natural environment that models based on traditional manual feature-engineering approaches may simply miss.</p><p>The pioneering new AI approach, developed in the study, poses environmental information extraction as an optimisation problem. Doing so allows it to automatically recognise and make use of relationships which may otherwise go unnoticed and unutilised by humans using more traditional modelling methods.</p><p>In addition to improving map quality, this also unlocks the potential for the discovery of new relationships in the natural environment by AI, while simultaneously eliminating huge amounts of trial-and-error experimentation in the modelling process.</p><p>Charlie Kirkwood, a postgraduate student at the University of Exeter said:<strong> \"</strong>To be useful for decision making, we need our models to provide answers that are as specific as possible while also being trustworthy -- and that means creating accurate measures of the uncertainty associated with our estimates, which in this case are predictions at unmeasured locations.\"</p><p>\"Our AI approach is set within a Bayesian statistical framework which allows us to quantify these uncertainties and provide a range of uncertainty measures, including credible intervals, exceedance probabilities and other more bespoke products that will feed directly into decision making processes. Crucially, all this is provided whilst harnessing any available information more effectively than traditional approaches allow -- which you can see coming through in the detail of the map\"</p><p>The new approach was demonstrated using stream sediment calcium concentration observations from the British Geological Survey\'s Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) project.</p><p>The distribution of calcium in the environment, which has standalone importance for its impact on soil fertility, is controlled primarily by geology -- with different rock types containing different proportions of calcium -- but also by hydrological processes at the surface.</p><p>Calcium therefore provides a challenging use case for the AI approach, which must learn to recognise and utilise features relating to both bedrock geology (e.g. differing terrain textures, breaks of slope)<em> and</em> surface hydrology (e.g. drainage, river channels).</p><p>The method, the scientists say, has produced a spectacularly detailed and accurate map which, despite depicting just one element -- calcium, reveals the geology of Britain in arguably a new level of detail thanks to the information-extracting power of the new AI approach. The team believe that by combining the research skills, expertise and data resources of its partners -- the University of Exeter, Met Office, and British Geological Survey -- this work presents a new dawn for environmental mapping practices in the age of AI.</p><p>Professor Gavin Shaddick, from the University of Exeter added \"This is a fantastic example of Environmental Intelligence, the use of AI to help solve challenges in environmental science. This work is an exemplar in integrating technical knowledge of AI and machine learning with expertise in geosciences to produce new methodology that directly addresses crucial questions in mapping environmental information. The resulting methodological advances could be used to produce detailed maps of a wide variety of environmental hazards and have the potential to provide a rich source of information for both scientists and decision makers.\"</p><p>Garry Baker, Interim Chief Digital Officer, British Geological Survey added: \"This paper is an excellent demonstration of how environmental information such as the BGS geochemical database can be re-assessed via new approaches (AI spatial interpolation). It exemplifies the benefits of ongoing environmental research and how this can draw upon the extensive datasets available to everyone through the National Geoscience Data Centre and wider NERC, and UKRI data repositories.\"</p><p>Dr Kirstine Dale, the Met Office\'s Principal Fellow for Data Science and Co-Director for Joint Centre for Excellence in Environmental Intelligence commented on the value of this work: \"This is an important example of how data science has the potential to transform our understanding of the natural world. Critically, it highlights what can be achieved by working across disciplines, in this case bringing together mathematicians, weather specialists and computer scientists enriches our knowledge of the natural world in a way that no single discipline can.\"</p>','2022-03-17 00:49:37.473800','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Exeter','Scientists have developed a pioneering new technique that harnesses the cutting-edge capabilities of AI to model and map the natural environment in intricate detail.\n',1,27,'<li>Charlie Kirkwood, Theo Economou, Nicolas Pugeault, Henry Odbert. <strong>Bayesian Deep Learning for Spatial Interpolation in the Presence of Auxiliary Information</strong>. <em>Mathematical Geosciences</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11004-021-09988-0\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1007/s11004-021-09988-0</a>\n</li>'),(1314,'Burst of rapid cell motion in 3D tumor model','burst-of-rapid-cell-motion-in-3d-tumor-model','2022-03-17 00:49:48.579996',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Biological processes such as wound healing and cancer cell invasion rely on the collective and coordinated motion of living cells. A little understood aspect that influences these processes is the pressure differences within and between different parts of the body. Researchers from Göttingen University and Münster University designed model tumour systems using cervical cancer cells in collagen matrices to investigate whether pressure differences can push cancer cells into their surroundings. Upon embedding the model tumours into a soft matrix, an increased pressure led to a sudden burst of rapid and coordinated cellular motion that sprayed outwards from the tumour. Their results were published in <em>Advanced Science</em>.</p><p>The researchers designed their model system using clumps of cervical cancer cells in simple 3D tissues that they could control, enabling them to systematically study the behaviour of the cells in different pressures and environments. Usually, individual cells exert forces on their environment in order to move, and collective motion is coordinated by cell-to-cell forces because they stick and clump together. However, this new model allowed the researchers to measure other mechanisms that encourage cellular movement such as pressure differences between different regions within the body.</p><p>Using imaging techniques that allowed the scientists to follow the tumour deformation even at the level of a single cell, the researchers discovered that increased pressure in a soft matrix drove coordinated cellular motion independent of cell-to-cell stickiness by triggering cell swelling. Eight hours after the 3D clumps of cervical cancer cells were embedded in soft collagen matrices, they burst out in a sudden rapid stream of cancer cells. This fluid-like pushing mechanism exhibits high cell velocities and a sudden super-spreading motion like water spraying from a hose when you press your thumb over the top. In fact, the rapid burst seemed to kill about 80% of the cells but surprisingly the remaining cells succeeded in embedding in the same environment over the following four days, and multiplied. \"This signified that after the initial burst, the remaining live cells could still divide substantially and migrate. Importantly, when this happens in a person\'s body, this can prove to be extremely dangerous, often beating current cancer treatments,\" explains Professor Timo Betz, Biophysics Institute, University of Göttingen.</p><p>Tumour models embedded in a stiffer collagen did not behave in the same way. In fact, even after seven days, there was a complete absence of bursts, showing that the pressure difference in the tissue was the important part of the effect. The only way that researchers could trigger the \"cell burst\" in stiffer collagen was by introducing weak spots in specific regions.</p><p>In this newly observed phenomenon, cell swelling in groups increased the intrinsic pressure that pushed the cancer cells out into less resistant regions of the matrix. \"Such pressure-driven effects may provide primary tumours in the body an exceptional advantage: it enables them to breach the first membrane barrier and gives them the opportunity to spread to other parts of the body, or metastasize,\" says Betz. He adds: \"This provides new evidence that pressure-driven effects should be considered to help us better understand the mechanical forces involved in cell and tissue movement as well as cancer cell invasion. Understanding this cellular mass movement is fundamental for describing and treating cancer and similar illnesses.\"</p>','2022-03-17 00:49:48.579996','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Göttingen','Biological processes such as wound healing and cancer cell invasion rely on the collective and coordinated motion of living cells. A little understood aspect that influences these processes is the pressure differences within and between different parts of the body. Researchers designed model tumor systems using cervical cancer cells in collagen matrices to investigate whether pressure differences can push cancer cells into their surroundings. Upon embedding the model tumors into a soft matrix, an increased pressure led to a sudden burst of rapid and coordinated cellular motion that sprayed outwards from the tumor.\n',1,41,'<li>Swetha Raghuraman, Ann‐Sophie Schubert, Stephan Bröker, Alejandro Jurado, Annika Müller, Matthias Brandt, Bart E. Vos, Arne D. Hofemeier, Fatemeh Abbasi, Martin Stehling, Raphael Wittkowski, Johanna Ivaska, Timo Betz. <strong>Pressure Drives Rapid Burst‐Like Coordinated Cellular Motion from 3D Cancer Aggregates</strong>. <em>Advanced Science</em>, 2022; 9 (6): 2104808 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202104808\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/advs.202104808</a>\n</li>'),(1315,'Cheaper, more efficient ways to capture carbon','cheaper,-more-efficient-ways-to-capture-carbon','2022-03-17 00:50:01.416638',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">University of Colorado Boulder researchers have developed a new tool that could lead to more efficient and cheaper technologies for capturing heat-trapping gases from the atmosphere and converting them into beneficial substances, like fuel or building materials. Such carbon capture technology may be needed at scale in order to limit global warning this century to 2.7 degrees F (1.5 Celsius) above pre-industrial temperatures and fend off catastrophic impacts of global climate change.</p><p>The scientists describe their technique in a paper published this month in the journal <em>iSCIENCE</em>.</p><p>The method predicts how strong the bond will be between carbon dioxide and the molecule that traps it, known as a binder. This electrochemical diagnosis can be easily applied to any molecule that is chemically inclined to bind with carbon dioxide, allowing researchers to identify suitable molecular candidates with which to capture carbon dioxide from everyday air.</p><p>\"The Holy Grail, if you will, is to try to inch toward being able to use binders that can grab carbon dioxide from the air [around us], not just concentrated sources,\" said Oana Luca, co-author of the new study and assistant professor of chemistry. \"Determining the strength of binders allows us to figure out whether the binding will be strong or weak, and identify candidates for future study for direct carbon capture from dilute sources.\"</p><p>The goal of carbon capture and storage technology is to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it safely for hundreds or thousands of years. But while it has been in use in the U.S. since the 1970s, it currently captures and stores a mere 0.1% of global carbon emissions annually. To help meet carbon emissions goals laid out by the IPCC, carbon capture and storage would have to rapidly increase in scale by 2050.</p><p>Current industrial facilities around the world rely on capturing carbon dioxide from a concentrated source, such as emissions from power plants. While these methods can bind a lot of carbon dioxide quickly and efficiently using large amounts of certain chemical binders, they are also extraordinarily energy intensive.</p><p>This method also is quite expensive at scale to take carbon dioxide and turn it into something else useful, such as carbonates, an ingredient in cement, or formaldehyde or methanol, which can be used as a fuel, according to Luca, fellow-elect of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI).</p><p>Using electrochemical methods instead, such as those detailed in the new CU Boulder-led study, would free carbon capture facilities from being tied to concentrated sources, allowing them to exist almost anywhere.</p><p>Being able to easily estimate the strength of chemical bonds also enables researchers to screen for which binders will be best suited -- and offer a cheaper alternative to traditional methods -- for capturing and converting carbon into materials or fuel according to Haley Petersen, co-lead author on the study and graduate student in chemistry.</p><p><strong>Creating chemical bonds </strong></p><p>The science of chemistry is based on a few basic facts: One, that molecules are made of atoms, and two, that they are orbited by electrons. When atoms bond with other atoms, they form molecules. And when atoms share electrons with other atoms, they form what is called a covalent bond.</p><p>Using electricity, the researchers can activate these bonds by using an electrode to deliver an electron to a molecule. When they do that to an imidazolium molecule, like they did in this study, a hydrogen atom is removed, creating a gap in a carbon atom for another molecule to want to bond with it -- such as carbon dioxide.</p><p>However, carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) is the kind of molecule that doesn\'t typically like to create new bonds.</p><p>\"It\'s generally unreactive, and in order to react with it, you also have to bend it,\" said Luca. \"So we\'re in a chemical space that hasn\'t really been probed before, for CO<sub>2</sub> capture.\"</p><p>The method the researchers examines how good a whole family of carbenes (a specific type of molecule, containing a neutral carbon atom), that they can electrochemically generate, are at binding CO<sub>2</sub>.</p><p>\"Just by looking at very simple molecules -- molecules that we can make, molecules that we can modify -- we can obtain a map of the energetics for electrochemical carbon capture. It is a small leap for now, but possibly a big leap down the line,\" said Luca.</p><p><em>This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE 2040434. </em></p>','2022-03-17 00:50:01.416638','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Colorado at Boulder','Researchers have developed a new tool that could lead to more efficient and cheaper technologies for capturing heat-trapping gases from the atmosphere and converting them into beneficial substances, like fuel or building materials.\n',1,131,'<li>Haley A. Petersen, Abdulaziz W. Alherz, Taylor A. Stinson, Chloe G. Huntzinger, Charles B. Musgrave, Oana R. Luca. <strong>Predictive energetic tuning of C-Nucleophiles for the electrochemical capture of carbon dioxide</strong>. <em>iScience</em>, 2022; 25 (4): 103997 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.103997\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.isci.2022.103997</a>\n</li>'),(1316,'Catalyst for a greener future','catalyst-for-a-greener-future','2022-03-17 00:50:03.195710',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Catalysts are workhorses that help reactions occur. Put to work, they transform starting materials, such as fossil fuels, biomass or even waste, into products and fuels with minimal energy.</p><p>Researchers in the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI) at the University of Delaware have found a way to improve the ability of catalysts made from metal-metal oxides to convert non-edible plants, such as wood, grass and corn stover -- the leaves, stalks and cobs leftover in the fields after harvest -- into renewable fuels, chemicals and plastics.</p><p>Metal-metal oxide catalysts are central to reactions for upgrading petrochemicals, fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals and biomass.</p><p>The research team\'s strategy capitalized on the dynamic nature of platinum-tungsten oxide catalysts to convert these starting materials into products up to 10 times faster than traditional methods. It\'s the type of innovative catalytic technology that could help usher in a more sustainable and greener future, where processes require less catalyst to operate, leading to less waste and less overall energy use.</p><p>The CCEI researchers reported their findings in <em>Nature Catalysis</em> on Feb. 21.</p><p><strong>Boosting catalyst activity</strong></p><p>The surface of a catalyst contains multiple active sites at which chemical reactions occur. These active sites are sensitive and dynamic, changing in response to their environment in highly complex and often difficult-to-predict ways. As a result, little is known about how processes on these active sites operate or how the sites interact with their surroundings. Traditional approaches for increasing understanding, such as studying catalysts under static conditions in a chemical reactor, don\'t work.</p><p>So CCEI researchers combined modeling, advanced synthetic techniques, in-situ spectroscopies and probe reactions to get a better look at how platinum and tri-tungsten oxide catalyst materials come together, what structure they take and what happens on the catalyst\'s surface. In particular, the research team was interested in how the active sites on a catalyst (where the chemical reactions occur) evolve over time and when exposed to specific changes.</p><p>\"By identifying the telltale signs of their dynamics, we were able to establish, for the first time, a robust model to predict their behavior in various working environments,\" said Jiayi Fu, the paper\'s lead author, who recently earned his UD doctoral degree in chemical engineering and now works at Bristol Myers Squibb.</p><p>Fu explained that catalyst surfaces -- like plants -- flourish when given the proper balance of sunshine and sustenance. The research team successfully demonstrated a novel \"irrigation\" strategy which uses hydrogen pulsing to significantly increase the population of active sites on these catalysts, allowing reactions to occur 10 times faster.</p><p>\"We\'re not actually watering the catalysts, that\'s just a metaphor. But, by pulsing hydrogen gas on and off, we create these active sites that mimic water, through a process known as hydroxylation,\" said Dion Vlachos, the Unidel Dan Rich Chair in Energy, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and director of CCEI. \"These active sites then do the chemistry. So, like light and water feeds the plants, here we feed hydrogen to \'water\' the catalyst and make it produce -- or grow -- new chemicals.\"</p><p>The work illustrates a successful example of how simulations can predict catalytic behavior and enable the rational design of more efficient catalytic processes, said Vlachos, who also directs the Delaware Energy Institute. The findings also provide a viable way to study, understand and control this important class of catalysts.</p><p>\"Catalysts are known to evolve and respond to their environment, but they do this quickly, in ways that have been hard to observe in real time,\" he said. \"This work sets a platform for how to dissect their working behavior and, importantly, how to engineer them for unprecedented performance enhancement.\"</p><p>The UD-led project team at CCEI included researchers from the University of Delaware, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, Tianjin University, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.</p><p>Founded in 2009, the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation is one of two Energy Frontier Research Centers funded at UD by the U.S. Department of Energy. The center is comprised of researchers from multiple universities and the Brookhaven National Laboratory.</p>','2022-03-17 00:50:03.195710','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Delaware','Researchers have found a way to improve the ability of catalysts made from metal-metal oxides to convert non-edible plants, such as wood, grass and corn stover into renewable fuels, chemicals and plastics. Metal oxide catalysts are central to reactions for upgrading petrochemicals, fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals and biomass.\n',1,87,'<li>Jiayi Fu, Shizhong Liu, Weiqing Zheng, Renjing Huang, Cong Wang, Ajibola Lawal, Konstantinos Alexopoulos, Sibao Liu, Yunzhu Wang, Kewei Yu, J. Anibal Boscoboinik, Yuefeng Liu, Xi Liu, Anatoly I. Frenkel, Omar A. Abdelrahman, Raymond J. Gorte, Stavros Caratzoulas, Dionisios G. Vlachos. <strong>Modulating the dynamics of Brønsted acid sites on PtWOx inverse catalyst</strong>. <em>Nature Catalysis</em>, 2022; 5 (2): 144 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41929-022-00745-y\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41929-022-00745-y</a>\n</li>'),(1317,'Discovery uncovers a new leaf for Redwoods','discovery-uncovers-a-new-leaf-for-redwoods','2022-03-17 00:50:06.301336',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Redwoods are among the most well-studied trees on the planet, and yet their mysteries continue to surprise and delight scientists and nature lovers.</p><p>Scientists from the University of California, Davis, discovered that redwood trees have two types of leaves, and those leaves have completely different jobs, according to a study in the <em>American Journal of Botany</em>. Together, these functionally distinct leaves allow the world\'s tallest trees to thrive in both wet and dry parts of their range in California, without sacrificing water or food.</p><p><strong>Division of labor</strong></p><p>The peripheral leaf spends its working hours making the tree\'s food -- converting sunlight into sugar through photosynthesis. Its colleague, the axial leaf, does almost nothing to help with photosynthesis. Instead its specialty is to absorb water. In fact, the study found that a large redwood can absorb up to 14 gallons of water in just the first hour its leaves are wet.</p><p>How does that compare to other trees? Scientists don\'t know. This is the first study estimating whole-crown water absorption in a large, mature tree. Because large redwoods have over 100 million leaves, this absorption record may prove hard to beat.</p><p>In wet forests, photosynthesis can be inhibited by films of water covering leaf stomata when they get wet. For redwoods, the different leaf types allow the trees to get wet and still be able to photosynthesize. The peripheral leaves have a waxy coating that slows water absorption but may help them continue photosynthesis throughout the wet season.</p><p>\"I\'d be surprised if there weren\'t a lot of conifers doing this,\" said lead author Alana Chin, a Ph.D. student in ecology with the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences at the time of the study. \"Having leaves that aren\'t for photosynthesis is in itself surprising. If you\'re a tree, you don\'t want to have a leaf that\'s not photosynthesizing unless there\'s a very good reason for it.\"</p><p><strong>Trading spaces</strong></p><p>The study also found that leaves can shift their \"office space\" along the tree depending on whether the environment is wet or dry.</p><p>In the wet, rainy north coast, the water-absorbing leaf type is found on the tree\'s lower branches, leaving the upper, sunnier levels to the photosynthesizing leaf type. That dynamic flips for redwoods in their southern range: The water-collectors live among the tree\'s higher levels to take more advantage of fog and rain, which occur less often in the drier environment.</p><p>To arrive at their findings, the authors collected shoot clusters from six redwood trees at five forest locations stretching from wet Del Norte County to the dry Santa Cruz Mountains and exposed them to experimental fog. They estimated the water absorption potential for seven additional trees -- including the tallest living tree -- and took samples at varying heights.</p><p>They then compared the anatomy and measured photosynthesis of the peripheral and axial leaves to understand their function. They also developed a physics-based causal model that allowed them to determine the leaf traits that regulate absorption rates.</p><p>Amid all the findings, Chin is most excited to have found an easy and effective way to indicate redwood trees\' ability to access fog. Researchers can monitor how and if redwoods are adapting to climate conditions and a future, drier world by simply looking at the visible waxes covering the two types of leaves -- something that could be captured on a cell phone camera and shared by other scientists or even members of the public.</p><p><strong>Superlative species</strong></p><p>Redwoods are renowned for their resilience in the face of many natural threats and inspire numerous superlatives: They are among the planet\'s biggest, tallest, oldest trees. They have tannin-rich heartwood, fire-resistant bark and pest-resistant leaves. This new finding is another example of their ability to respond to environmental conditions, like drought and water stress.</p><p>\"The cool thing here is their ability to thrive under all these circumstances and adjust themselves to these different environments,\" said Chin, who grew up near the redwoods in Mendocino County. \"That things like this can be happening right under our nose in one of the best-studied species out there -- none of us assumed this would be the story.\"</p><p>Study co-authors include Paula Guzman-Delgado, Jessica Orozco, Zane Moore and senior author Maciej Zwieniecki of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, as well as Stephen Sillett, Lucy Kerhoulas and Marty Reed of Cal Poly Humboldt, and Russell Kramer of Dipper and Spruce LLC in Washington.</p><p>The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and a Katherine Esau Fellowship from UC Davis.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-17 00:50:06.301336','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Davis','Redwood trees have two types of leaves, one to make food and the other to absorb water, found a new study. It\'s the first study to estimate whole-crown water absorption in a large, mature tree. The findings can help scientists monitor redwoods\' adaptability amid a changing climate and deepens our understanding of the resilience of these massive trees.\n',1,42,'<li>Alana RO Chin, Paula Guzmán‐Delgado, Stephen C Sillett, Jessica Orozco, Russell D Kramer, Lucy P Kerhoulas, Zane J Moore, Marty Reed, Maciej A Zwieniecki. <strong>Shoot dimorphism enables            Sequoia            sempervirens            to separate requirements for foliar water uptake and photosynthesis</strong>. <em>American Journal of Botany</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1841\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/ajb2.1841</a>\n</li>'),(1318,'Surprise findings suggest mosquito odor sensors are sensitive to molecular regulation to avoid insect repellents','surprise-findings-suggest-mosquito-odor-sensors-are-sensitive-to-molecular-regulation-to-avoid-insect-repellents','2022-03-17 00:50:11.434699',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In what they call surprise findings, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists report that -- unlike fruit flies -- mosquitoes\' odor sensing nerve cells shut down when those cells are forced to produce odor-related proteins, or receptors, on the surface of the cell. This \"expression\" process apparently makes the bugs able to ignore common insect repellents.</p><p>In contrast, when odor sensors in fruit flies are forced to express odor receptors, it prompts flight from some smelly situations.</p><p>The findings, published Mar. 8 in <em>Cell Reports</em>, reveal the variation in insect olfactory systems, say the researchers, and add to the growing body of research aimed at improving methods to repel mosquitoes from human skin.</p><p>Mosquito bites not only create irritating swelling and itching, but, worldwide, they play a role in spreading rampant and often lethal diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, as well as Zika virus infections.</p><p>\"When experiments don\'t go as predicted, there\'s often something new to be discovered,\" says Christopher Potter, Ph.D., associate professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, describing the new study. It turns out, he says, that, \"Mosquitoes are so much trickier than we thought.\"</p><p>Potter and former postdoctoral fellow Sarah Maguire, Ph.D., designed their research project suspecting they\'d find that mosquitoes have the same reaction as fruit flies when their new odor sensors are forced to be expressed.</p><p>Other research showed that when odor receptors in fly olfactory neurons are abnormally expressed, a new signal, based on the expressed odor receptor, is delivered to the brain, and the bugs move away from an offending odor.</p><p>The researchers then tested this same scenario on female <em>Anopheles</em> mosquitoes, whose bite transmits parasites that cause malaria in humans. The idea was that if researchers could push mosquito odor neurons into a similar expression state, triggered by odorants already on the skin, the mosquitoes would avoid the scent and fly off.</p><p>In the mosquito experiments, the researchers used mosquitoes genetically modified to overexpress an odor receptor called AgOR2, which responds to animal odorants found on humans.</p><p>By measuring the neuron activity generated by mosquitoes\' odor receptors, the scientists found that the mosquitoes with overexpressed AgOR2 receptors had very little response to common animal scents, benzaldehyde and indole, as well as chemical odorants in general.</p><p>\"AgOR2 overexpression threw a wrench in the whole system by inactivating olfactory receptors in these mosquitoes,\" says Potter.</p><p>Next, working with Johns Hopkins scientist Loyal Goff, Ph.D., the researchers did additional experiments to determine the level of messenger RNA output in olfactory neurons forced to express the AgOR2 gene, an indicator of the health of olfactory neurons.</p><p>They determined this by using a technique called RNA sequencing which measures the amount of RNA, an intermediary between DNA and its protein output, in neurons found in the antennae of normal and the genetically modified mosquitoes.</p><p>They found that mosquitoes genetically modified to overexpress AgOR2 had up to 95% less expression in their natural olfactory receptors as compared with unmodified mosquitoes.</p><p>Finally, in the current study, the researchers tested how mosquitoes modified to overexpress AgOR2 responded to odorants in common insect repellents, such as lemongrass. They found that the genetically modified mosquitoes were able to ignore insect repellents.</p><p>The researchers suspect that the odor receptor shutdown may be a kind of failsafe in mosquitoes, ensuring that only one type of odorant receptor is expressed at a single time.</p><p>Since Anopheles mosquito olfactory systems continue to develop into adulthood, about eight days after hatching, the researchers speculate that the insects\' olfactory neurons might be susceptible to which olfactory receptors to express, based on their surrounding environment. This type of flexibility in a mosquito\'s olfactory neurons may allow the mosquito to adapt to its odor environment. The researchers are conducting experiments to test this theory.</p><p>Potter hopes that the current findings may advance the search for methods that can trick the mosquito olfactory system into no longer preferring the smell of humans.</p><p>The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIAID R01Al137078), the Department of Defense, a Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute and Bloomberg Philanthropies.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-17 00:50:11.434699','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Johns Hopkins Medicine','In what they call surprise findings, scientists report that -- unlike fruit flies -- mosquitoes\' odor sensing nerve cells shut down when those cells are forced to produce odor-related proteins, or receptors, on the surface of the cell. This \'expression\' process apparently makes the bugs able to ignore common insect repellents.\n',1,27,'<li>Sarah E. Maguire, Ali Afify, Loyal A. Goff, Christopher J. Potter. <strong>Odorant-receptor-mediated regulation of chemosensory gene expression in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae</strong>. <em>Cell Reports</em>, 2022; 38 (10): 110494 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110494\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110494</a>\n</li>'),(1319,'Researchers find direct links between deforestation and reduced dietary quality','researchers-find-direct-links-between-deforestation-and-reduced-dietary-quality','2022-03-17 01:07:54.099144',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Current policies for guaranteeing food security emphasize the importance of farmland, but forests play critical roles as well. Forested areas can help communities that rely on wild foods to diversify their diets and meet their nutritional needs, according to researchers who found direct links between deforestation and reduced fruit and vegetable consumption in rural Tanzania.</p><p>\"In recent years, a growing body of literature has shown strong positive connections between forests and food security in low- and middle-income countries,\" said Charlotte Hall, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and lead author of the paper. \"Our study is the first of its kind to find a causal relationship between deforestation and a reduction in people\'s dietary quality.\"</p><p>The researchers studied the food consumption of 1,256 households in rural Tanzania over a five-year period. The data, provided by the World Bank, was georeferenced and randomly displaced by up to 3.11 miles for confidentiality purposes, giving the researchers an approximate measurement of the households\' proximity to forested areas. The team used satellite imagery and geospatial datasets to measure forest cover over the study period.</p><p>Powell has spent her career working alongside and adjacent to people who think about how agricultural systems can support diet quality and food security. She noted that previous studies have tried to generate numbers in terms of the impact of crop diversity or an agricultural intervention on diet.</p><p>\"The magnitude of impact that we see from agriculture on diet is less than what we see in this study,\" said Powell. \"So, this research really should push people to think beyond the field when trying to help rural communities improve food security in places where wild foods are important.\"</p><p>The majority of policies aimed at improving food security in low- to middle-income countries tend to promote increased agricultural production, particularly the production of staple crops, which often comes at the expense of forests, said Hall. The results of the current study point toward an alternative approach to improving food security in these countries.</p><p>\"While increased agricultural production will undoubtedly be important for meeting the food needs of a growing population, policy makers should give more consideration to the role of forests,\" Hall said. \"This is particularly important given that micronutrient deficiencies affect far more people than undernourishment, and our study has shown that deforestation directly reduces people\'s ability to source fruits and vegetables that are rich in important nutrients such as vitamin A. Ultimately, we recommend the preservation of forests, which may offer win-wins in terms of meeting both nutrition and environmental goals.\"</p><p>Laura Vang Rasmussen and Rasmus Skov Olesen, University of Copenhagen; Cecilie Dyngeland, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences; and Suhyun Jung, West Virginia University, also contributed to the study. The European Research Council funded this research.</p><p>Wild food is central to the diet of rural people in Tanzania, and the country has seen significant environmental change and deforestation in the last two decades, said Bronwen Powell, assistant professor of geography, African studies and anthropology at Penn State and study co-author. Powell has conducted nutritional research in Tanzania for more than a decade, and her doctoral work helped to lay the groundwork for the current study.</p><p>\"The results of the study are startling,\" Powell said. \"We have this very clear signal in the data about fruit and vegetable consumption. Also, we have a strong understanding that fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with health outcomes. Low consumption of these foods is one of the leading causes of mortality globally. It\'s right up there with risk factors like alcohol consumption and unsafe sex. If we can link deforestation to fruit and vegetable consumption, it\'s very concerning.\"</p><p>The team saw the largest decline in the daily intake of leafy green vegetables, mangoes and other fruit -- produce most often foraged from the forest or grown on trees. These foods are high in vitamin A, an essential micronutrient.</p><p>\"We focused on three key micronutrients in our study -- iron, zinc and vitamin A -- because these are the most commonly deficient nutrients in low- and middle-income countries,\" said Hall. \"We did not find a link between forest loss and iron or zinc, but we did find a strong link between forest loss and vitamin A.\"</p><p>The researchers found that household vitamin A adequacy decreased over the study period as a result of deforestation. Vitamin A deficiency has severe health outcomes and can lead to blindness, weakened immune function and respiratory tract infections, Powell said.</p><p>Wild food is central to the diet of rural people in Tanzania, and the country has seen significant environmental change and deforestation in the last two decades, said Bronwen Powell, assistant professor of geography, African studies and anthropology at Penn State and study co-author. Powell has conducted nutritional research in Tanzania for more than a decade, and her doctoral work helped to lay the groundwork for the current study.</p><p>\"The results of the study are startling,\" Powell said. \"We have this very clear signal in the data about fruit and vegetable consumption. Also, we have a strong understanding that fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with health outcomes. Low consumption of these foods is one of the leading causes of mortality globally. It\'s right up there with risk factors like alcohol consumption and unsafe sex. If we can link deforestation to fruit and vegetable consumption, it\'s very concerning.\"</p><p>The team saw the largest decline in the daily intake of leafy green vegetables, mangoes and other fruit -- produce most often foraged from the forest or grown on trees. These foods are high in vitamin A, an essential micronutrient.</p><p>\"We focused on three key micronutrients in our study -- iron, zinc and vitamin A -- because these are the most commonly deficient nutrients in low- and middle-income countries,\" said Hall. \"We did not find a link between forest loss and iron or zinc, but we did find a strong link between forest loss and vitamin A.\"</p><p>The researchers found that household vitamin A adequacy decreased over the study period as a result of deforestation. Vitamin A deficiency has severe health outcomes and can lead to blindness, weakened immune function and respiratory tract infections, Powell said.</p><p>The scientists found that as forest cover decreased, so did reported fruit and vegetable consumption. Forest cover shrank by an average of approximately 423 acres over the five-year period. Fruit and vegetable consumption decreased by 14 grams, or half an ounce, per person per day, representing an 11% reduction in the amount eaten daily.</p>','2022-03-17 01:07:54.099144','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Penn State','Current policies for guaranteeing food security emphasize the importance of farmland, but forests play critical roles as well. Forested areas can help communities that rely on wild foods to diversify their diets and meet their nutritional needs, according to researchers who found direct links between deforestation and reduced fruit and vegetable consumption in rural Tanzania.\n',1,27,'<li>Charlotte M. Hall, Laura Vang Rasmussen, Bronwen Powell, Cecilie Dyngeland, Suhyun Jung, Rasmus Skov Olesen. <strong>Deforestation reduces fruit and vegetable consumption in rural Tanzania</strong>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 2022; 119 (10) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2112063119\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1073/pnas.2112063119</a>\n</li>'),(1320,'Even with statins, high triglycerides may increase risk of second stroke','even-with-statins,-high-triglycerides-may-increase-risk-of-second-stroke','2022-03-17 01:08:02.485281',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Stroke can have many causes. An atherothrombotic stroke is caused by a clot that forms from plaques that build up within blood vessels in the brain. A new study suggests that people who have this type of stroke who also have higher levels of triglycerides, a type of fat, in their blood may have a higher risk of having another stroke or other cardiovascular problems one year later, compared to people who had a stroke but have lower triglyceride levels. The research is published in the March 16, 2022, online issue of <em>Neurology<sup>®</sup></em>, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found an association even when people were taking statin drugs meant to lower triglycerides and protect against heart attack and stroke.</p><p>Elevated triglyceride levels are thought to contribute to hardening of the arteries and increased risk of heart attack, heart disease and stroke.</p><p>\"Our study suggests that for people who had atherothrombotic stroke, having elevated levels of triglycerides in their blood is a risk factor for having another stroke or other cardiovascular problems in the future, and we found that to be true even if the person is on statin therapy,\" said study author Takao Hoshino, MD, of the Tokyo Women\'s Medical University in Japan. \"The good news is that statin medications are just one therapy for high triglycerides -- diet and exercise can also be effective ways to reduce the levels in your blood at little or no cost.\"</p><p>The study looked at 870 people who had a stroke or transient ischemic attack. Their average age was 70. Of those, 217, or 25%, had elevated triglyceride levels, defined as fasting triglycerides levels 150 milligrams per deciliter or higher.</p><p>Researchers followed up with the participants one year later to find out if there was an association between high triglyceride levels and having another stroke, acute coronary syndrome, which is any condition caused by a sudden reduction of blood flow to the heart, or death due to vascular causes.</p><p>After adjusting for factors like cholesterol level and statin use, researchers found that people who had high triglyceride levels had a 21% greater risk of death, stroke or heart condition one year, compared to 10% greater risk for those with lower levels.</p><p>When researchers looked specifically at people who had another stroke after an atherothrombotic stroke, they found that 14 out of 114 people with normal triglyceride levels, or 12%, had one during the study, compared to 33 out of 217 people, or 16%, of those with elevated levels.</p><p>For acute coronary syndrome, one out of 114 people, or 0.9%, with normal triglyceride levels developed the heart condition one year after an atherothrombotic stroke, compared to five out of 60, or 8%, of those with elevated levels.</p><p>Hoshino notes the study did not find an association between higher triglyceride levels and future cardiovascular problems in people who had a different type of stroke called cardioembolic stroke.</p><p>\"More research is needed, but for people who have had an atherothrombotic stroke, triglyceride levels may emerge as a key target for preventing future strokes and other cardiovascular problems,\" Hoshino said. \"Statin therapy is still an effective treatment for people with high triglyceride levels, but our study highlights how important it is to look at all the tools a person can use to lower their triglycerides, including diet modifications, exercise and taking omega-3 fatty acids.\"</p><p>The study does not prove that lowering high triglyceride levels will prevent people with atherothrombotic strokes from having cardiovascular problems later; it only shows an association.</p><p>A limitation of the study is that researchers considered only the participants\' fasting levels of triglycerides.</p>','2022-03-17 01:08:02.485281','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Academy of Neurology','Stroke can have many causes. An atherothrombotic stroke is caused by a clot that forms from plaques that build up within blood vessels in the brain. A new study suggests that people who have this type of stroke who also have higher levels of triglycerides, a type of fat, in their blood may have a higher risk of having another stroke or other cardiovascular problems one year later, compared to people who had a stroke but have lower triglyceride levels. The study found an association even when people were taking statin drugs meant to lower triglycerides and protect against heart attack and stroke.\n',1,150,'<li>Takao Hoshino, Kentaro Ishizuka, Sono Toi, Takafumi Mizuno, Ayako Nishimura, Sho Wako, Shuntaro Takahashi, Kazuo Kitagawa. <strong>Prognostic Role of Hypertriglyceridemia in Patients With Stroke of Atherothrombotic Origin</strong>. <em>Neurology</em>, 2022; 10.1212/WNL.0000000000200112 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000200112\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1212/WNL.0000000000200112</a>\n</li>'),(1321,'Trial testing cocoa flavanol supplement shows promise for reducing cardiovascular risk','trial-testing-cocoa-flavanol-supplement-shows-promise-for-reducing-cardiovascular-risk','2022-03-17 01:08:04.154094',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The first large-scale trial to test the long-term effects of a cocoa flavanol supplement to prevent cardiovascular disease offers promising signals that cocoa flavanols could have protective cardiovascular effects. In papers published in <em>The</em> <em>American Journal of Clinical Nutrition</em>, a team led by Howard Sesso, ScD, MPH, and JoAnn Manson, MD, DrPH, both of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women\'s Hospital, unpacks the main outcomes of the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a randomized, placebo-controlled trial that tested a cocoa flavanol supplement and a multivitamin in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer. While neither supplement significantly reduced the primary outcome of total cardiovascular events, people randomized to receive the cocoa flavanol supplement had a 27 percent lower rate of cardiovascular death, a pre-specified secondary endpoint.</p><p>\"When we look at the totality of evidence for both the primary and secondary cardiovascular endpoints in COSMOS, we see promising signals that a cocoa flavanol supplement may reduce important cardiovascular events, including death from cardiovascular disease,\" said Sesso. \"These findings merit further investigation to better understand the effects of cocoa flavanols on cardiovascular health.\"</p><p>\"Previous studies have suggested health benefits of flavanols -- compounds in several plant-based foods including cocoa, tea, grapes, and berries,\" said Manson. \"COSMOS was not a chocolate trial -- rather, it\'s a rigorous trial of a cocoa extract supplement that contains levels of cocoa flavanols that a person could never realistically consume from chocolate without adding excessive calories, fat, and sugar to their diet.\"</p><p>Smaller, short-term trials have found cardiovascular benefits for cocoa flavanols on blood pressure and blood vessel dilation. COSMOS offered the first opportunity to study if a cocoa flavanol supplement might also lead to longer-term reductions in clinical cardiovascular events. Investigators also looked for reductions in risk of cancer. In addition, the trial was designed to test a common multivitamin in the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular disease.</p><p>The primary cardiovascular outcome for the cocoa flavanol intervention was a composite of total cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, stroke, coronary revascularization, cardiovascular death, carotid artery disease, peripheral artery surgery, and unstable angina. More than 21,000 participants were randomized to take daily capsules that contained 500 mg cocoa flavanols (donated by Mars Edge), a multivitamin tablet (donated by GSK Consumer Healthcare), neither or both.</p><p>The study found that cocoa flavanols reduced total cardiovascular events by 10 percent, but this was not statistically significant. However, several secondary analyses provided broader support for a potential benefit of cocoa flavanols on cardiovascular events. First, those receiving the cocoa flavanol supplement had a significant 27 percent reduction in death from cardiovascular disease. Second, when the study team took adherence to study pills into account (by looking at those taking their study pills regularly), the team saw a stronger, 15 percent reduction in total cardiovascular events and a 39 percent reduction in death from cardiovascular disease. Third, a composite endpoint of major cardiovascular events (heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths), although not a trial focus, was also significantly reduced. The authors note in their report that their promising results on cocoa flavanols and cardiovascular events warrant cautious interpretation and underscore the need for additional research.</p><p>A daily multivitamin had no significant effect on total or individual cardiovascular events. There were no safety concerns for either cocoa flavanols or a multivitamin.</p><p>COSMOS concluded after about 3.6 years, which was likely too short to detect whether the supplements could have affected cancer risk. Although a daily multivitamin improved levels of several nutritional biomarkers, it had no significant effect on total invasive cancer, the primary outcome for the multivitamin analyses. Cocoa flavanols also had no significant effect on total invasive cancer. The authors note that continuing to follow COSMOS participants may help to clarify any longer-term effects on cancer and death. The investigators and collaborators are also leveraging COSMOS to study cognitive decline, falls, eye disease, and other aging-related outcomes that may be influenced by the supplements.</p><p>\"Although our study suggests intriguing signals for cardiovascular protection with cocoa flavanols, any health benefits due to taking these supplements will need confirmation in a future trial,\" said Manson. Adds Sesso: \"Our message for consumers is to eat a healthy, balanced diet, rich in natural food sources of flavanols, and to stay tuned as we further evaluate other important health outcomes in COSMOS.\"</p><p>Sesso and Manson reported receiving investigator-initiated grants from Mars Edge, a segment of Mars Incorporated dedicated to nutrition research and products, for infrastructure support and donation of COSMOS study pills and packaging, and Pfizer Consumer Healthcare (now part of GSK Consumer Healthcare) for donation of COSMOS study pills and packaging during the conduct of the study. Dr. Sesso additionally reported receiving investigator-initiated grants from Pure Encapsulations and Pfizer Inc., and honoraria and/or travel for lectures from the Council for Responsible Nutrition, BASF, NIH, and American Society of Nutrition during the conduct of the study.</p><p><strong>Funding: </strong>The Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS) is supported by an investigator-initiated grant from Mars Edge, a segment of Mars dedicated to nutrition research and products, which included infrastructure support and the donation of cocoa extract-containing study pills and packaging. Pfizer Consumer Healthcare (now part of GSK Consumer Healthcare) provided support through the partial provision of study pills (Centrum Silver) and packaging. COSMOS is also supported in part by grants AG050657, AG071611, EY025623, and HL157665 from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. The Women\'s Health Initiative (WHI) program is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through contracts 75N92021D00001, 75N92021D00002, 75N92021D00003, 75N92021D00004, 75N92021D00005. Neither company had a role in the trial design or conduct, data collection (other than blinded assays supported by Mars Edge and completed independently), data analysis, or manuscript preparation or review.</p>','2022-03-17 01:08:04.154094','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Brigham and Women\'s Hospital','The first large-scale trial to test the long-term effects of a cocoa flavanol supplement to prevent cardiovascular disease offers promising signals that cocoa flavanols could have protective cardiovascular effects.\n',1,150,'<li>Howard D Sesso et al. <strong>Effect of cocoa flavanol supplementation for prevention of cardiovascular disease events: The COSMOS randomized clinical trial</strong>. <em>The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqac055\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/ajcn/nqac055</a>\n</li>'),(1322,'Novel theory of entropy may solve materials design issues','novel-theory-of-entropy-may-solve-materials-design-issues','2022-03-17 01:08:07.801887',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A challenge in materials design is that in both natural and humanmade materials, volume sometimes decreases, or increases, with increasing temperature. While there are mechanical explanations for this phenomenon for some specific materials, a general understanding of why this sometimes happens remains lacking.</p><p>However, a team of Penn State researchers has come up with a theory to explain and then predict it: Zentropy.</p><p>Zentropy is a play on entropy, a concept central to the second law of thermodynamics that expresses the measure of the disorder of a system that occurs over a period of time when there is no energy applied to keep order in the system. Think of a playroom in a preschool; if no energy is put into keeping it tidy, it quickly becomes disordered with toys all over the floor, a state of high entropy. If energy is put in via cleaning up and organizing the room once the children leave, then the room returns to a state of order and low entropy.</p><p>Zentropy theory notes that the thermodynamic relationship of thermal expansion, when the volume increases due to higher temperature, is equal to the negative derivative of entropy with respect to pressure, i.e., the entropy of most material systems decreases with an increase in pressure. This enables Zentropy theory to be able to predict the change of volume as a function of temperature at a multiscale level, meaning the different scales within a system. Every state of matter has its own entropy, and different parts of a system have their own entropy.</p><p>\"When we talk about the configuration entropy (different ways particles rearrange within a system) that entropy is only part of the entropy of the system,\" said Zi-Kui Liu, Dorothy Pate Enright Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and primary investigator in the study. \"So, you have to add the entropy of individual components of that system into the equation, and then you consider the different scales, the universe, the Earth, the people, the materials, these are different scales within different systems.\"</p><p>The authors of the study, published in the <em>Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion,</em> believe that Zentropy may be able to predict anomalies of other physical properties of phases beyond volume. This is because responses of a system to external stimuli are driven by entropy.</p><p>Macroscopic functionalities of materials stem from assemblies of microscopic states (microstates) at all scales at and below the scale of the macroscopic state of investigation. These functionalities are challenging to predict because only one or a few microstates can be considered in a typical computational approach such as the predictive \"from the beginning\" calculations, which help determine the fundamental properties of materials.</p><p>\"This challenge becomes acute in materials with multiple phase transitions, which are processes that convert matter from one state to another, such as vaporization of a liquid,\" Liu said. \"This is often where the most transformative functionalities exist, such as superconductivity and giant electromechanical response.\"</p><p>Zentropy theory \"stacks\" these different scales into an entropy theory that encompasses the different elements of an entire system, presenting a nested formula for the entropy of complex multiscale systems, according to Liu.</p><p>\"You have these different scales and you can stack them up with Zentropy theory,\" Liu said. \"For example, atoms as a vibrational property, that\'s low scale, then you have electronic interaction, that even lower scale. So now how do you stack them together to cover the entire system? So that is what the Zentropy equation is about, stacking them together. It creates a partition function that is the sum of all the entropy scales.\"</p><p>This approach has been something Liu\'s lab has worked on for more than 10 years and five different published studies.</p><p>\"The idea actually became very simple after we studied it and understood it,\" Liu said.</p><p>Zentropy has potential to change the way materials are designed, especially those that are part of systems that are exposed to higher temperatures. These temperatures, given thermal expansion, could cause issues if the materials expand.</p><p>\"This has the potential to enable the fundamental understanding and design of materials with emergent properties, such as new superconductors and new ferroelectric materials that could potentially lead to new classes of electronics,\" Liu said. \"Also, other applications such as designing better structural materials that withstand higher temperatures are also possible.\"</p><p>While there are benefits for society in general, researchers could apply Zentropy to multiple fields. This is because of how entropy is present in all systems.</p><p>\"The Zentropy theory has the potential to be applied to larger systems because entropy drives changes in all systems whether they are black holes, planets, societies or forests,\" Liu said.</p><p>Along with Liu, other authors of the study include Yi Wang, research professor in materials science and engineering, and Shun-Li Zhang, research professor in materials science and engineering. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.</p>','2022-03-17 01:08:07.801887','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Penn State','A challenge in materials design is that in both natural and humanmade materials, volume sometimes decreases, or increases, with increasing temperature. While there are mechanical explanations for this phenomenon for some specific materials, a general understanding of why this sometimes happens remains lacking.\n',1,27,'<li>Zi-Kui Liu, Yi Wang, Shun-Li Shang. <strong>Zentropy Theory for Positive and Negative Thermal Expansion</strong>. <em>Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11669-022-00942-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1007/s11669-022-00942-z</a>\n</li>'),(1323,'Do ‘behavioral psychedelics’ help patients make lasting, positive change?','do-‘behavioral-psychedelics’-help-patients-make-lasting,-positive-change?','2022-03-17 01:08:09.768488',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Despite their reputation as illicit drugs, psychedelics may find new, legitimate roles in treatment for anxiety, depression, stress disorders, addiction, and other mental and behavioral health problems. But ensuring they do requires developing rigorous, standardized methods to study and apply the results, according to a new report.</p><p>In a perspective published in <em>Frontiers in Psychiatry</em><em>,</em> researchers from UCLA Health and Harvard Medical School coin the term \"behavioral psychedelics\" -- \"the study of psychedelics to foster intentional changes in habits and behaviors to improve health and resilience.\"</p><p>\"Changing human behavior may sound simple but is exceedingly difficult, especially for behaviors that arise from years of thinking and acting in relatively rigid, routinized ways,\" write the authors, George Slavich, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UCLA and research scientist at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, and Edmund Neuhaus, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Harvard. \"One emerging strategy for accomplishing behavior change involves using psychedelic compounds to make the mind more malleable and open.\"</p><p>According to the authors, \"psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy\" may provide many health benefits and even cost savings, but the current therapeutic approach is poorly targeted.</p><p>\"Looking forward, we believe that further refinement is needed to operationalize and test [the] components to establish a best-practice standard of care for treating psychiatric, addiction, somatic, and behavioral health problems,\" they said.</p><p>The authors say their behavioral psychedelics concept is intended to develop \"targeted approaches for therapeutic change that help people achieve enduring functional improvements in self-care, social connection, and family, school, and community responsibilities to help them live the life they desire.\"</p><p>\"Psychedelic compounds have the potential to turbocharge the process of transforming the mind, and the race to realize their benefits is in full swing. To maximize these benefits, we believe this work should include behavior as a treatment target with measurable treatment metrics to establish best practices and guidelines,\" Slavich and Neuhaus write.</p>','2022-03-17 01:08:09.768488','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences','Psychedelics may find new, legitimate roles in treatment for anxiety, depression, stress disorders, addiction, and other mental and behavioral health problems. But ensuring they do requires developing rigorous, standardized methods to study and apply the results, according to a new report.\n',1,39,'<li>Edmund C. Neuhaus, George M. Slavich. <strong>Behavioral Psychedelics: Integrating Mind and Behavior to Improve Health and Resilience</strong>. <em>Frontiers in Psychiatry</em>, 2022; 13 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.821208\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3389/fpsyt.2022.821208</a>\n</li>'),(1324,'Losartan is not effective in reducing COVID-19 lung injuries, researchers find','losartan-is-not-effective-in-reducing-covid-19-lung-injuries,-researchers-find','2022-03-17 02:18:53.467992',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A study published in <em>JAMA Network Open</em><em>,</em> from the University of Minnesota, found that a common blood pressure medication -- losartan -- is not effective in reducing lung injury in patients with COVID-19.</p><p>This drug was investigated based on early reports suggesting benefit in preclinical models of the 2003 SARS virus, a close family member to the current SARS-CoV-2 virus. This study was conducted across 12 U.S. academic research institutions.</p><p>The U of M Medical School and School of Public Health research team sought to determine if a common blood pressure medication might decrease lung injury in patients admitted to the hospital with COVID-19. Their results found that losartan treatment did not reduce lung injury in patients admitted with COVID-19, and had no effect on mortality.</p><p>The researchers also found that critically-ill patients treated with losartan needed additional, temporary blood pressure support -- though this did not lead to worse outcomes overall.</p><p>\"Even though this particular drug was not effective for the treatment of COVID-19, repurposing inexpensive and relatively safe medications remains an important approach to contain healthcare costs,\" said Michael Puskarich, MD, an associate professor in emergency medicine at the U of M Medical School and co-author of this study.</p><p>\"Finding effective treatments for COVID-19 that can be widely used across both the developed and developing world remains an important ongoing area of investigation,\" Puskarich said, who is also an emergency physician at Hennepin Healthcare.</p><p>This study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The researchers note that more studies of protein and cellular signaling from ALPS-COVID trial participants are ongoing.</p><p>\"We hope that future study findings of these proteins may show insights into why the body responds the way it does to COVID-19,\" said Christopher Tignanelli, MD, MS, FACS, FAMIA, an assistant professor in surgery at the U of M Medical School and co-author on this study. \"Critically, this will help us understand why some people develop severe disease following COVID-19 infection and others are asymptomatic.\"</p>','2022-03-17 02:18:53.467992','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Minnesota Medical School','Research found that a common blood pressure medication -- losartan -- is not effective in reducing lung injury in patients with COVID-19.\n',1,27,'<li>Michael A. Puskarich, Nicholas E. Ingraham, Lisa H. Merck, Brian E. Driver, David A. Wacker, Lauren Page Black, Alan E. Jones, Courtney V. Fletcher, Andrew M. South, Thomas A. Murray, Christopher Lewandowski, Joseph Farhat, Justin L. Benoit, Michelle H. Biros, Kartik Cherabuddi, Jeffrey G. Chipman, Timothy W. Schacker, Faheem W. Guirgis, Helen T. Voelker, Joseph S. Koopmeiners, Christopher J. Tignanelli, Andrew C Nelson, Alex Hall, David Wright, Ronald A Reilkoff, Tyler Bold, Kenneth Beckman, Ryan Langlois, Matthew T Aliota, James Galbriath, Margaret Beyer, Chas Salmen, Dana Byrne, Brian Roberts. <strong>Efficacy of Losartan in Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19–Induced Lung Injury</strong>. <em>JAMA Network Open</em>, 2022; 5 (3): e222735 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.2735\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.2735</a>\n</li>'),(1325,'A potential new target for cancer immunotherapies','a-potential-new-target-for-cancer-immunotherapies','2022-03-17 02:20:26.176317',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Tumors can use an enzyme called ART1 to thwart antitumor immune cells, making the enzyme a promising new target for immunity-boosting cancer treatments, according to a study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.</p><p>In the study, published Mar 16 in <em>Science Translational Medicine</em>, the researchers found strong evidence that ART1, when expressed on tumor cells, can modify a receptor on tumor-fighting immune cells in a way that triggers the death of these immune cells. In animal models of cancer, blocking ART1 increased the presence of the tumor-fighting immune cells within tumors and slowed or stopped tumor growth.</p><p>\"These findings should allow us to add to our medicinal toolkit for enhancing the antitumor immune response, to benefit cancer patients,\" said study co-corresponding author Dr. Timothy McGraw, professor of biochemistry and of biochemistry in cardiothoracic surgery and a member of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.</p><p>\"Our main focus in this study was lung cancer, but there is evidence that this immune-evasion mechanism is at work also in other kinds of cancer,\" said co-corresponding author Dr. Sandra Demaria, professor of radiation oncology and of pathology and laboratory medicine and a member of the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.</p><p>\"This is an excellent example of how translational science should work. We first found ART1 expressed in the tumors of patients with lung cancer. In the lab, we discovered that ART1 helps to block the anti-tumor immune response, specifically by inducing death of anti-tumor T cells. We then developed a therapeutic antibody that blocks the function of ART1, allows the immune system to fight the cancer and ultimately prolongs survival in tumor models,\" said senior author Dr. Brendon Stiles, formerly of Weill Cornell Medicine and now chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery and Surgical Oncology and associate director of surgical services at Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center and professor of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. \"Hopefully, we can very soon take that antibody back to treat our patients with cancer.\"</p><p>The mammalian immune system has various safety mechanisms to prevent immune activity from becoming excessive and damaging tissues. Scientists in recent decades have come to appreciate that tumors frequently co-opt these safety mechanisms -- also called immune checkpoints -- to defeat natural antitumor immune responses.</p><p>That appreciation has led, in turn, to the development of \"immune checkpoint inhibitor\" treatments that block these safety mechanisms to enhance antitumor immunity. These treatments are now part of standard care in several types of cancer and help account for some astounding cures. However, a large proportion of individual cancers do not respond to such therapies, which hints that these cancers may make use of other, so-far-unrevealed immune checkpoint systems.</p><p>ART1 appears to be part of one such immune-checkpoint exploitation system. The researchers found that expression levels of its gene were significantly higher in the most common type of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), compared to non-cancerous lung cells. Similarly, in mice, ART1-overexpressing NSCLC tumors grew rapidly, while blocking ART1 reduced tumor growth. However, this effect on tumors appeared only in mice with intact immune systems, implying that blocking ART1 works by unleashing antitumor immunity.</p><p>Further experiments in mice with NSCLC and melanoma tumors confirmed that reducing ART1 led to a greater presence within tumors of CD8 T cells, the immune system\'s most powerful weapon against cancers.</p><p>The experiments also provided strong evidence that ART1 interacts with a receptor called P2RX7R on CD8 T cells and activates signaling that causes the deaths of the CD8 T cells. The P2RX7R receptor therefore seems to be an important molecular switch that cancers use to shut down anticancer immunity.</p><p>The researchers then blocked ART1 using a humanized therapeutic antibody they had developed -- in a collaboration with the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute, a partnership including Weill Cornell Medicine, The Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center -- and demonstrated that it slowed tumor growth and prolonged survival in mice. Dr. Stiles is now further developing the anti-ART1 antibody as a potential immune-enhancing cancer treatment.</p>','2022-03-17 02:20:26.176317','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Weill Cornell Medicine','Tumors can use an enzyme called ART1 to thwart antitumor immune cells, making the enzyme a promising new target for immunity-boosting cancer treatments, according to a new study.\n',1,91,'<li>Erik Wennerberg, Sumit Mukherjee, Sheila Spada, Clarey Hung, Christopher J. Agrusa, Chuang Chen, Amanda Valeta-Magara, Nils-Petter Rudqvist, Samantha J. Van Nest, Mohamed K. Kamel, Abu Nasar, Navneet Narula, Vivek Mittal, Geoffrey J. Markowitz, Xi Kathy Zhou, Prasad S. Adusumilli, Alain C. Borczuk, Thomas E. White, Abdul G. Khan, Paul J. Balderes, Ivo C. Lorenz, Nasser Altorki, Sandra Demaria, Timothy E. McGraw, Brendon M. Stiles. <strong>Expression of the mono-ADP-ribosyltransferase ART1 by tumor cells mediates immune resistance in non–small cell lung cancer</strong>. <em>Science Translational Medicine</em>, 2022; 14 (636) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abe8195\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/scitranslmed.abe8195</a>\n</li>'),(1326,'What regulates the \'glue\' needed for nerve repair?','what-regulates-the-\'glue\'-needed-for-nerve-repair?','2022-03-17 02:20:31.888525',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at The University of Queensland have identified a molecule essential for regulating the repair of injured nerves, which could help people recover from nerve damage.</p><p>The finding was made using the nematode worm <em>C. elegans </em>which has long been studied by researchers for its ability to self-repair nerve cells.</p><p>Professor Massimo Hilliard and his team at UQ\'s Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) have identified that the enzyme ADM-4 is an essential protein regulating the molecular glue, or fusogen, needed for nerve repair.</p><p>\"We have shown that animals lacking ADM-4 cannot repair their nerves by fusion,\" Professor Hilliard said.</p><p>\"ADM-4 must function within the injured neuron to stabilise the fusogen EFF-1 and allow the membranes of the separated nerves to merge.</p><p>\"An exciting part of this discovery is that ADM-4 is similar to a mammalian gene, opening up the possibility that one day we may harness this process in humans.\"</p><p>Study first author, Dr Xue Yan Ho, said the nematode provided a great platform for these studies.</p><p>\"Our goal is to uncover the molecules and understand their role in nerve repair in <em>C. elegans,\" </em>Dr Ho said.</p><p>\"If we can understand how to control this process, we can apply this knowledge to other animal models.</p><p>\"The hope is that one day, we can induce the same mechanical process in people who have had a nerve injury.</p><p>\"We are still a long way from this goal, but the discovery of ADM-4\'s role is an important step forward.\"</p><p>Nerve cells communicate using long, cable-like structures called axons.</p><p>As they are long and thin, they are very susceptible to breaking, which stops nerve cells from communicating and leads to issues like paralysis.</p><p>A few years ago, Professor Hilliard and his team discovered that <em>C. elegans</em> could spontaneously re-join two separated axon fragments, a process called axonal fusion.</p><p>QBI\'s Associate Professor Victor Anggono helped the team define the molecular mechanisms of this process.</p><p>\"Using neurosurgery to stitch together damaged nerves has limited success,\" A/Professor Anggono said.</p><p>\"A different approach using gene technology to directly provide the molecular glue, or activate the fusogen regulator ADM-4, or using pharmacology to activate these components, may facilitate complete regeneration.\"</p>','2022-03-17 02:20:31.888525','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Queensland','Researchers have identified a molecule essential for regulating the repair of injured nerves, which could help people recover from nerve damage.\n',1,27,'<li>Xue Yan Ho, Sean Coakley, Rumelo Amor, Victor Anggono, Massimo A. Hilliard. <strong>The metalloprotease ADM-4/ADAM17 promotes axonal repair</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (11) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm2882\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abm2882</a>\n</li>'),(1327,'A possible new COVID-19 vaccine could be accessible for more of the world','a-possible-new-covid-19-vaccine-could-be-accessible-for-more-of-the-world','2022-03-17 02:20:33.464783',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">While many people in wealthier countries have been vaccinated against Covid-19, there is still a need for vaccination in much of the world. A new vaccine developed at MIT and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center may aid in those efforts, offering an inexpensive, easy-to-store, and effective alternative to RNA vaccines.</p><p>In a new paper, the researchers report that the vaccine, which comprises fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein arrayed on a virus-like particle, elicited a strong immune response and protected animals against viral challenge.</p><p>The vaccine was designed so that it can be produced by yeast, using fermentation facilities that already exist around the world. The Serum Institute of India, the world\'s largest manufacturer of vaccines, is now producing large quantities of the vaccine and plans to run a clinical trial in Africa.</p><p>\"There\'s still a very large population that does not have access to Covid vaccines. Protein-based subunit vaccines are a low-cost, well-established technology that can provide a consistent supply and is accepted in many parts of the world,\" says J. Christopher Love, the Raymond A. and Helen E. St. Laurent Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard.</p><p>Love and Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and a professor at Harvard Medical School, are the senior authors of the paper, which appears today in <em>Science Advances</em>. The paper\'s lead authors are MIT graduate students Neil Dalvie and Sergio Rodriguez-Aponte, and Lisa Tostanoski, a postdoc at BIDMC.</p><p><strong>Optimizing manufacturability</strong></p><p>Love\'s lab, working closely with Barouch\'s lab at BIDMC, began working on a Covid-19 vaccine in early 2020. Their goal was to produce a vaccine that would be not only effective but also easy to manufacture. To that end, they focused on protein subunit vaccines, a type of vaccine that consists of small pieces of viral proteins. Several existing vaccines, including one for hepatitis B, have been made using this approach.</p><p>\"In places in the world where cost remains a challenge, subunit vaccines can address that. They could also address some of the hesitancy around vaccines based on newer technologies,\" Love says.</p><p>Another advantage of protein subunit vaccines is that they can often be stored under refrigeration and do not require the ultracold storage temperatures that RNA vaccines do.</p><p>For their subunit vaccine, the researchers decided to use a small piece of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, the receptor-binding domain (RBD). Early in the pandemic, studies in animals suggested that this protein fragment alone would not produce a strong immune response, so to make it more immunogenic, the team decided to display many copies of the protein on a virus-like particle. They chose the hepatitis B surface antigen as their scaffold, and showed that when coated with SARS-CoV-2 RBD fragments this particle generated a much stronger response than the RBD protein on its own.</p><p>The researchers also wanted to ensure that their vaccine could be manufactured easily and efficiently. Many protein subunit vaccines are manufactured using mammalian cells, which can be more difficult to work with. The MIT team designed the RBD protein so that it could be produced by the yeast <em>Pichia pastoris</em>, which is relatively easy to grow in an industrial bioreactor.</p><p>Each of the two vaccine components -- the RBD protein fragment and the hepatitis B particle -- can be produced separately in yeast. To each component, the researchers added a specialized peptide tag that binds with a tag found on the other component, allowing RBD fragments to be attached to the virus particles after each is produced.</p><p><em>Pichia pastoris</em> is already used to produce vaccines in bioreactors around the world. Once the researchers had their engineered yeast cells ready, they sent them to the Serum Institute, which ramped up production rapidly.</p><p>\"One of the key things that separates our vaccine from other vaccines is that the facilities to manufacture vaccines in these yeast organisms already exist in parts of the world where the vaccines are still most needed today,\" Dalvie says.</p><p><strong>A modular process</strong></p><p>Once the researchers had their vaccine candidate ready, they tested it in a small trial in nonhuman primates. For those studies, they combined the vaccine with adjuvants that are already used in other vaccines: either aluminum hydroxide (alum) or a combination of alum and another adjuvant called CpG.</p><p>In those studies, the researchers showed that the vaccine generated antibody levels similar to those produced by some of the approved Covid-19 vaccines, including the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. They also found that when the animals were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, viral loads in vaccinated animals were much lower than those seen in unvaccinated animals.</p><p>For that vaccine, the researchers used an RBD fragment that was based on the sequence of the original SARS-CoV-2 strain that emerged in late 2019. That vaccine has been tested in a phase 1 clinical trial in Australia. Since then, the researchers have incorporated two mutations (similar to ones identified in the natural Delta and Lambda variants) that the team previously found to improve production and immunogenicity compared to the ancestral sequence, for the planned phase 1/2 clinical trials.</p><p>The approach of attaching an immunogen RBD to a virus-like particle offers a \"plug and display\"-like system that could be used to create similar vaccines, the researchers say.</p><p>\"We could make mutations that were seen in some of the new variants, add them to the RBD but keep the whole framework the same, and make new vaccine candidates,\" Rodriguez-Aponte says. \"That shows the modularity of the process and how efficiently you can edit and make new candidates.\"</p><p>If the clinical trials show that the vaccine provides a safe and effective alternative to existing RNA vaccines, the researchers hope that it could not only prove useful for vaccinating people in countries that currently have limited access to vaccines, but also enable the creation of boosters that would offer protection against a wider variety of SARS-CoV-2 strains or other coronaviruses.</p><p>\"In principle, this modularity does allow for consideration of adapting to new variants or providing a more pan-coronavirus protective booster,\" Love says.</p><p>Researchers from the Serum Institute and SpyBiotech also contributed to the paper. The research was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Koch Institute Support (core) Grant from the National Cancer Institute.</p>','2022-03-17 02:20:33.464783','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts Institute of Technology','A new protein subunit vaccine may offer an inexpensive, easy-to-store, and effective alternative to RNA vaccines for COVID-19.\n',1,74,'<li>Neil C. Dalvie, Lisa H. Tostanoski, Sergio A. Rodriguez-Aponte, Kawaljit Kaur, Sakshi Bajoria, Ozan S. Kumru, Amanda J. Martinot, Abishek Chandrashekar, Katherine McMahan, Noe B. Mercado, Jingyou Yu, Aiquan Chang, Victoria M. Giffin, Felix Nampanya, Shivani Patel, Lesley Bowman, Christopher A. Naranjo, Dongsoo Yun, Zach Flinchbaugh, Laurent Pessaint, Renita Brown, Jason Velasco, Elyse Teow, Anthony Cook, Hanne Andersen, Mark G. Lewis, Danielle L. Camp, Judith Maxwell Silverman, Gaurav S. Nagar, Harish D. Rao, Rakesh R. Lothe, Rahul Chandrasekharan, Meghraj P. Rajurkar, Umesh S. Shaligram, Harry Kleanthous, Sangeeta B. Joshi, David B. Volkin, Sumi Biswas, J. Christopher Love, Dan H. Barouch. <strong>SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain displayed on HBsAg virus–like particles elicits protective immunity in macaques</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (11) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl6015\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abl6015</a>\n</li>'),(1328,'3D matrix ultrasound accurately identifies cardiovascular injury in healthy individuals','3d-matrix-ultrasound-accurately-identifies-cardiovascular-injury-in-healthy-individuals','2022-03-17 02:20:46.931622',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new imaging technique for real 3D vascular ultrasound could become a key tool in strategies aimed at preventing cardiovascular disease in apparently healthy persons, complementing traditional risk parameters such as cholesterol and high blood pressure. The new results, published in <em>JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging</em>, show that real 3D vascular ultrasound is reliable, accurate, and faster than previous methods for the assessment of plaque volume in the carotid and femoral arteries.</p><p>The burden, or quantity, of atherosclerosis in the carotid and femoral arteries is a well-established marker of cardiovascular risk and is highlighted as a key parameter in international clinical practice guidelines and expert consensus documents. There is therefore a recognized need for better and easy-to-use methods for measuring plaque burden that can be used as population screening tools.</p><p>The new imaging method was first validated and implemented in a study of almost 200 healthy participants with an intermediate cardiovascular risk from the Athero Brain: Head-to-Heart study, led by Dr. Valentín Fuster, Director General of the <em>Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares</em> (CNIC). The method has now been incorporated into the PESA-CNIC-SANTANDER study, also led by Dr. Fuster, where it is being used to assess more than 4000 healthy individuals over a 9-year follow-up.</p><p>The PESA-CNIC-SANTANDER study, which started in 2010 and was recently extended until 2030, is one of the most important cardiovascular prevention studies in the world.</p><p>The CNIC researchers partnered with Philips Ultrasound and Philips Research Paris-Medisys to develop a new probe and software for real 3D ultrasound to facilitate exploration of the carotid and femoral arteries and speed up quantification of atherosclerotic plaque volume. As Dr. Fuster explained, \"it is clear that traditional clinical evaluations based on measurements of cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose, and lifestyle habits cannot, on their own, accurately determine accumulated damage in the cardiovascular system, and without this crucial information we cannot take appropriate decisions to prevent acute events such as myocardial infarction or stroke.\"</p><p>The key to personalized prevention and treatment strategies, added Dr. Fuster, \"is the ability to detect and quantify an individual\'s accumulated cardiovascular damage, or atherosclerotic burden, using noninvasive imaging techniques.\"</p><p>The newly validated 3D vascular probe incorporates 3D matrix technology, which underpins the most advanced 3D ultrasound techniques. CNIC Clinical Research Director Dr. Borja Ibáñez explained that the new technology allows simultaneous analysis by 2D and 3D ultrasound, includes all functionalities (color doppler, power-doppler, and contrast ultrasound), and is easily incorporated into daily clinical practice by technical and medical teams already experienced in ultrasound, emphasizing that \"the integrated analysis software incorporates real 3D data processing.\"</p><p>In addition to demonstrating the accuracy of 3D matrix ultrasound, the study demonstrates that the new technique takes just half the time needed by previous methods to obtain all the information required for the definition of carotid and femoral plaque burden, essential information for correct patient management.</p><p>For patients, the outstanding feature of the new method is that the software generates a virtual 3D image of their own arteries, allowing them to see the accumulated damage. \"When patients see the state of their arteries, this impresses upon them the need to change their lifestyle, in graphic manner not achieved by reading a list of analytical data,\" said first author Dr. Beatriz López Melgar, a cardiologist at <em>Hospital Universitario La Princesa</em> and head of the 3D Cardioprevention Program at <em>Hospital HM Montepríncipe </em>in Madrid.</p><p>And for medical professionals, continued Dr. López Melgar, \"the ability to view plaques in 3D allows us to assess them more precisely and in their enterity, something not possible with conventional 2D methods. 3D ultrasound also provides invaluable information about plaque morphology.\"</p><p>\"Likewise, this technological advance will soon allow us to analyze plaque composition and to use this information to assess the burden of \'adverse plaques\' (plaques with a high lipid content that may be at increased risk of rupture and triggering events, such as stroke). Adverse plaque burden is a very promising marker that until now could only be assessed using highly advanced techniques that involve radiation, such as CAT and PET. Now, with 3D matrixtechnology, measuring adverse plaque burden is a realistic goal of cardiovascular ultrasound studies.\"</p><p>For this reason, added Dr. López Melgar, \"we believe that the development of ultrasound methods will contribute to the expansion of personalized medicine and the use of diagnostic imaging techniques, and will also help to ensure that improvements in patient care produce benefits for a larger sector of the population.\"</p><p>López Melgar concluded that, with the development of this technology, \"we now have a tool that can be used on-the-fly in an initial consultation, speeding up decision making -- an important consideration in cardiovascular prevention, where time is of the essence.\"</p><p>Collaborators on this project included scientists from the Spanish cardiovascular research network (CIBERCV), and financial support was provided by the <em>Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competividad </em>(MEIC) and the European Regional Development Fund.</p>','2022-03-17 02:20:46.931622','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (F.S.P.)','A study shows that 3D ultrasound incorporating new matrix technology is reliable, accurate, and faster than previous methods for the assessment of plaque volume in the carotid and femoral arteries.\n',1,71,'<li>Beatriz López-Melgar, Virgina Mass, Paula Nogales, Javier Sánchez-González, Robert Entrekin, Antoine Collet-Billon, Xavier Rossello, Leticia Fernández-Friera, Antonio Fernández-Ortiz, Javier Sanz, Jacob F. Bentzon, Héctor Bueno, Borja Ibáñez, Valentín Fuster. <strong>New 3-Dimensional Volumetric Ultrasound Method for Accurate Quantification of Atherosclerotic Plaque Volume</strong>. <em>JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.01.005\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.01.005</a>\n</li>'),(1329,'Effects of ancient carbon releases suggest possible scenarios for future climate','effects-of-ancient-carbon-releases-suggest-possible-scenarios-for-future-climate','2022-03-17 02:20:49.733598',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A massive release of greenhouse gases, likely triggered by volcanic activity, caused a period of extreme global warming known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) about 56 million years ago. A new study now confirms that the PETM was preceded by a smaller episode of warming and ocean acidification caused by a shorter burst of carbon emissions.</p><p>The new findings, published March 16 in <em>Science Advances</em>, indicate that the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere during this precursor event was about the same as the current cumulative carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities. As a result, the short-lived precursor event represents what might happen if current emissions can be shut down quickly, while the much more extreme global warming of the PETM shows the consequences of continuing to release carbon into the atmosphere at the current rate.</p><p>\"It was a short-lived burp of carbon equivalent to what we\'ve already released from anthropogenic emissions,\" said coauthor James Zachos, professor of Earth and planetary sciences and Ida Benson Lynn Chair of Ocean Health at UC Santa Cruz. \"If we turned off emissions today, that carbon would eventually get mixed into the deep sea and its signal would disappear, because the deep-sea reservoir is so huge.\"</p><p>This process would take hundreds of years -- a long time by human standards, but short compared to the tens of thousands of years it took for Earth\'s climate system to recover from the more extreme PETM.</p><p>The new findings are based on an analysis of marine sediments that were deposited in shallow waters along the U.S. Atlantic coast and are now part of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. At the time of the PETM, sea levels were higher, and much of Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey were under water. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has drilled sediment cores from this region which the researchers used for the study.</p><p>The PETM is marked in marine sediments by a major shift in carbon isotope composition and other evidence of dramatic changes in ocean chemistry as a result of the ocean absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The marine sediments contain the microscopic shells of tiny sea creatures called foraminifera that lived in the surface waters of the ocean. The chemical composition of these shells records the environmental conditions in which they formed and reveals evidence of warmer surface water temperatures and ocean acidification.</p><p>First author Tali Babila began the study as a postdoctoral fellow working with Zachos at UC Santa Cruz and is now at the University of Southampton, U.K. Novel analytical methods developed at Southampton enabled the researchers to analyze the boron isotope composition of individual foraminifera to reconstruct a detailed record of ocean acidification. This was part of a suite of geochemical analyses they used to reconstruct environmental changes during the precursor event and the main PETM.</p><p>\"Previously, thousands of foraminifera fossil shells were needed for boron isotope measurement. Now we are able to analyze a single shell that\'s only the size of a grain of sand,\" Babila said.</p><p>Evidence of a precursor warming event had been identified previously in sediments from the continental section at Big Horn Basin in Wyoming and a few other sites. Whether it was a global signal remained unclear, however, as it was absent from deep-sea sediment cores. Zachos said this makes sense because sedimentation rates in the deep ocean are slow, and the signal from a short-lived event would be lost due to mixing of sediments by bottom-dwelling marine life.</p><p>\"The best hope for seeing the signal would be in shallow marine basins where sedimentation rates are higher,\" he said. \"The problem there is that deposition is episodic and erosion is more likely. So there\'s not a high likelihood of capturing it.\"</p><p>The USGS and others have drilled numerous sediment cores (or sections) along the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The researchers found that the PETM is present in all of those sections, and several also capture the precursor event. Two sections from Maryland (at South Dover Bridge and Cambridge-Dover Airport) are the focus of the new study.</p><p>\"Here we have the full signal, and a couple of other locations capture part of it. We believe it\'s the same event they found in the Bighorn Basin,\" Zachos said.</p><p>Based on their analyses, the team concluded that the precursor signal in the Maryland sections represents a global event that probably lasted for a few centuries, or possibly several millennia at most.</p><p>The two carbon pulses -- the short-lived precursor and the much larger and more prolonged carbon emissions that drove the PETM -- led to profoundly different mechanisms and time scales for the recovery of the Earth\'s carbon cycle and climate system. The carbon absorbed by the surface waters during the precursor event got mixed into the deep ocean within a thousand years or so. The carbon emissions during the PETM, however, exceeded the buffering capacity of the ocean, and removal of the excess carbon depended on much slower processes such as the weathering of silicate rocks over tens of thousands of years.</p><p>Zachos noted that there are important differences between Earth\'s climate system today and during the Paleocene -- notably the presence of polar ice sheets today, which increase the sensitivity of the climate to greenhouse warming.</p><p>In addition to Babila and Zachos, the coauthors of the paper include Gavin Foster and Christopher Standish at University of Southampton; Donald Penman at Utah State University; Monika Doubrawa, Robert Speijer, and Peter Stassen at KU Leuven, Belgium; Timothy Bralower at Pennsylvania State University; and Marci Robinson and Jean Self-Trail at the USGS. This work was funded in part by the National Science Foundation.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-17 02:20:49.733598','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Santa Cruz','A massive release of greenhouse gases, likely triggered by volcanic activity, caused a period of extreme global warming known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) about 56 million years ago. A new study now confirms that the PETM was preceded by a smaller episode of warming and ocean acidification caused by a shorter burst of carbon emissions. The short-lived precursor event represents what might happen if current emissions can be shut down quickly, while the much more extreme global warming of the PETM shows the consequences of continuing to release carbon into the atmosphere at the current rate.\n',1,163,'<li>Tali L. Babila, Donald E. Penman, Christopher D. Standish, Monika Doubrawa, Timothy J. Bralower, Marci M. Robinson, Jean M. Self-Trail, Robert P. Speijer, Peter Stassen, Gavin L. Foster, James C. Zachos. <strong>Surface ocean warming and acidification driven by rapid carbon release precedes Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (11) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abg1025\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abg1025</a>\n</li>'),(1330,'ACC issues clinical guidance on cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19','acc-issues-clinical-guidance-on-cardiovascular-consequences-of-covid-19','2022-03-17 02:20:52.504164',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The American College of Cardiology has issued an expert consensus decision pathway for the evaluation and management of adults with key cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19. The document discusses myocarditis and other types of myocardial involvement, patient-centered approaches for long COVID and guidance on resumption of exercise following COVID-19. The clinical guidance was published today in the <em>Journal of the American College of Cardiology</em>.</p><p>\"The best means to diagnose and treat myocarditis and long COVID following SARS-CoV-2 infection continues to evolve,\" said Ty Gluckman, MD, MHA, co-chair of the expert consensus decision pathway. \"This document attempts to provide key recommendations for how to evaluate and manage adults with these conditions, including guidance for safe return to play for both competitive and non-competitive athletes.\"</p><p><strong>Myocarditis</strong></p><p>Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, is a condition defined by the presence of cardiac symptoms (chest pain, shortness of breath, palpitations), an elevated cardiac troponin (biomarker of cardiac injury), and abnormal electrocardiographic (ECG), cardiac imaging (echocardiogram, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging) and/or cardiac biopsy findings.</p><p>Although rare, myocarditis with COVID-19 is more commonly seen in men. Because myocarditis is associated with a higher risk of cardiac complications, a proactive management plan should be in place to care for these individuals. For patients with mild or moderate forms of myocarditis, hospitalization is recommended to closely monitor for worsening symptoms, while undergoing follow-up testing and treatment. Patients with severe myocarditis should ideally be hospitalized at centers with expertise in advanced heart failure, mechanical circulatory support and other advanced therapies.</p><p>Myocarditis following COVID-19 mRNA vaccination is also rare. As of May 22, 2021, the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System noted rates of 40.6 cases per million after the second vaccine dose among male individuals aged 12-29 years and 2.4 cases per million among male individuals aged &gt;30 years. Corresponding rates in female individuals were 4.2 and 1 cases per million, respectively. Although most cases of myocarditis following COVID-19 mRNA vaccination are mild, it should be diagnosed and treated similarly to myocarditis following COVID-19 infection. Currently approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are highly effective, and the benefit-to-risk ratio is very favorable across all demographic groups evaluated thus far.</p><p><strong>Long COVID</strong></p><p>Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), commonly referred to as long COVID, is a condition reported by up to 10-30% of infected individuals. It is defined by a constellation of new, returning or persistent health problems experienced by individuals four or more weeks after COVID-19 infection. While individuals with this condition may experience wide-ranging symptoms, tachycardia, exercise intolerance, chest pain and shortness of breath represent some of the symptoms that draw increased attention to the cardiovascular system.</p><p>The writing committee has proposed two terms to better understand potential etiologies for those with cardiovascular symptoms:</p><p>In general, patients with long COVID and cardiovascular symptoms should undergo evaluation with laboratory tests, ECG, echocardiogram, ambulatory rhythm monitor and/or additional pulmonary testing based on the clinical presentation. Cardiology consultation is recommended for abnormal test results, with additional evaluation based on the suspected clinical condition (e.g., myocarditis).</p><p>Because multiple factors likely underlie PASC-CVS, evaluation and management may be best driven by the predominant cardiovascular symptom(s). For those with tachycardia and exercise intolerance, increased bedrest and/or a decline in physical activity may trigger cardiovascular deconditioning with progressive worsening of symptoms.</p><p>\"There appears to be a \'downward spiral\' for long COVID patients. Fatigue and decreased exercise capacity lead to diminished activity and bedrest, in turn leading to worsening symptoms and decreased quality of life,\" said Nicole Bhave, MD, co-chair of the expert consensus decision pathway. \"The writing committee recommends a basic cardiopulmonary evaluation performed upfront to determine if further specialty care and formalized medical therapy is needed for these patients.\"</p><p>For PASC-CVS patients with tachycardia and exercise intolerance, upright exercise (walking or jogging) should be replaced with recumbent or semi-recumbent exercise (rowing, swimming or cycling) to avoid worsening fatigue. Exercise intensity and duration should be low initially, with gradual increases in exercise duration over time. Transition back to upright exercise can be done as one\'s symptoms improve. Additional interventions (increased salt and fluid intake, elevation of the head during sleep, support stockings) and pharmacological treatments (beta-blockers) should be considered on a case-by-case basis.</p><p><strong>Return to Play</strong></p><p>Observation of cardiac injury among some patients hospitalized with COVID-19, coupled with uncertainty around cardiovascular sequelae after mild illness, fueled early apprehension regarding the safety of competitive sports for athletes recovering from COVID-19 infection. Subsequent data from large registries have demonstrated an overall low prevalence of clinical myocarditis, without a rise in the rate of adverse cardiac events. Based on this, updated guidance is provided with a practical, evidence-based framework to guide resumption of athletics and intense exercise training.</p><p>For athletes recovering from COVID-19 with ongoing cardiopulmonary symptoms (chest pain, shortness of breath, palpitations, lightheadedness) or those requiring hospitalization with increased suspicion for cardiac involvement, further evaluation with triad testing -- an ECG, measurement of cardiac troponin and an echocardiogram -- should be performed. For those with abnormal test results, further evaluation with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cardiac MRI) should be considered. Individuals diagnosed with clinical myocarditis should abstain from exercise for three to six months.</p><p>Cardiac testing is not recommended for asymptomatic individuals following COVID-19 infection. Individuals should abstain from training for three days to ensure that symptoms do not develop. For those with mild or moderate non-cardiopulmonary symptoms (fever, lethargy, muscle aches), training may resume after symptom resolution. For those with remote infection (? three months) without ongoing cardiopulmonary symptoms, a gradual increase in exercise is recommended without the need for cardiac testing.</p><p>Based on the low prevalence of myocarditis observed in competitive athletes with COVID-19, the authors note that these recommendations can be reasonably applied to high-school athletes (aged ?14 years) along with adult recreational exercise enthusiasts. Future study is needed, however, to better understand how long cardiac abnormalities persist following COVID-19 infection and the role of exercise training in long COVID.</p><p>The <em>2022 ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathway on Cardiovascular Sequelae of COVID-19: Myocarditis, Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection (PASC) and Return to Play</em> will be discussed in a session at the American College of Cardiology\'s 71<sup>st</sup> Annual Scientific Session on April 3 at 4:30 p.m. ET.</p>','2022-03-17 02:20:52.504164','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American College of Cardiology','The American College of Cardiology has issued an expert consensus decision pathway for the evaluation and management of adults with key cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19. The document discusses myocarditis and other types of myocardial involvement, patient-centered approaches for long COVID and guidance on resumption of exercise following COVID-19.\n',1,150,'<li>Ty J. Gluckman, Nicole M. Bhave, Larry A. Allen, Eugene H. Chung, Erica S. Spatz, Enrico Ammirati, Aaron L. Baggish, Biykem Bozkurt, William K. Cornwell, Kimberly G. Harmon, Jonathan H. Kim, Anuradha Lala, Benjamin D. Levine, Matthew W. Martinez, Oyere Onuma, Dermot Phelan, Valentina O. Puntmann, Saurabh Rajpal, Pam R. Taub, Amanda K. Verma. <strong>2022 ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathway on Cardiovascular Sequelae of COVID-19 in Adults: Myocarditis and Other Myocardial Involvement, Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection, and Return to Play</strong>. <em>Journal of the American College of Cardiology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.02.003\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.jacc.2022.02.003</a>\n</li>'),(1331,'Study finds association between cigarette tax and reduced infant deaths','study-finds-association-between-cigarette-tax-and-reduced-infant-deaths','2022-03-17 02:21:00.714361',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Raising taxes on tobacco is associated with a reduction in neonatal and infant mortality, according to an analysis of 159 countries published this week in the open-access journal <em>PLOS Global Public Health</em> by Anthony Laverty of Imperial College London, UK, and colleagues.</p><p>Exposure of pregnant women and babies to smoking and second-hand smoke is known to increase the risks of neonatal and infant mortality. Raising taxation on tobacco has been shown to be the most effective measure of reducing tobacco use and associated health risks, especially among low-income populations. A tobacco tax rate of 75% or greater is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).</p><p>In the new study, the researchers used data spanning 2008 through 2018 from 159 countries on neonatal and infant mortality, tobacco taxation, and other related variables including gross domestic product, fertility rate, education and access to drinking water.</p><p>On average across all countries studied, the neonatal mortality rate was 14.4 and the infant mortality rate was 24.9 per 1,000 live births. Worldwide between 2008-2018, the average neonatal and infant mortality rates were 14.4 and 24.9 deaths per 1,000 live births, respectively. These rates were higher in LMICs than HICs -- with 33 children aged under one, including 19 newborns, in every 1,000 dying each year in LMICs, compared to 4 newborns and 6 under-ones in every 1,000 in HICs. The average total tax on cigarettes relative to retail price was 49.1%, with only 11.2% of low- and middle-income countries and 42.1% of high-income countries achieving the recommended 75% taxation. The team found that a ten percentage-point increase in total cigarette tax was associated with a 2.6% decrease in neonatal mortality (95% CI 1.9- 3.2) and a 1.9% decrease in infant mortality (95% CI 1.3- 2.6). Based on the findings, an estimated 231,220 (95% CI 152,658- 307,655) infant deaths, including 181,970 (95% CI: 135,679 to 226,377) neonatal deaths, might have been averted in 2018 if all countries had at least a 75% cigarette tax rate.</p><p>The study was not able to control for all potential confounders, but the authors suggest that the health impacts of taxation are likely mediated through decreases in prenatal and postnatal second-hand smoke exposure and decreased smoking during pregnancy.</p><p>The authors add: \"We know that tobacco smoking continues to kill more than 8 million people per year, and that increasing taxes on tobacco is an effective way to bring this number down. This study highlights that if everywhere taxed tobacco at the levels recommended by the WHO, we would substantially reduce neonatal and infant deaths.\"</p>','2022-03-17 02:21:00.714361','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'PLOS','Raising taxes on tobacco is associated with a reduction in neonatal and infant mortality, according to an analysis of 159 countries.\n',1,27,'<li>Márta K. Radó, Anthony A. Laverty, Thomas Hone, Kiara Chang, Mohammed Jawad, Christopher Millett, Jasper V. Been, Filippos T. Filippidis. <strong>Cigarette taxation and neonatal and infant mortality: A longitudinal analysis of 159 countries</strong>. <em>PLOS Global Public Health</em>, 2022; 2 (3): e0000042 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000042\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1371/journal.pgph.0000042</a>\n</li>'),