(1527,'Researchers map the movement of white dwarfs of the Milky Way','researchers-map-the-movement-of-white-dwarfs-of-the-milky-way','2022-03-23 17:47:34.311710',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">White dwarfs were once normal stars similar to the Sun but then collapsed after exhausting all their fuel. These interstellar remnants have historically been difficult to study. However, a recent study from Lund University in Sweden reveals new information about the movement patterns of these puzzling stars.</p><p>White dwarfs have a radius of about 1 percent of the Sun\'s. They have about the same mass, which means they have an astonishing density of about 1 tonne per cubic centimeter. After billions of years, white dwarfs will cool down to a point where they stop emitting visible light, and turn into so-called black dwarfs.</p><p>The first white dwarf that was discovered was 40 Eridani A. It is a bright celestial body 16.2 light-years from Earth, surrounded by a binary system consisting of the white dwarf 40 Eridani B and the red dwarf 40 Eridani C. Ever since it was discovered in 1783, astronomers have tried to learn more about white dwarfs in order to gain a deeper understanding of the evolutionary history of our home galaxy.</p><p>In a study published in <em>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</em>, a research team can present new findings about how the collapsed stars move.</p><p>\"Thanks to observations from the Gaia space telescope, we have for the first time managed to reveal the three-dimensional velocity distribution for the largest catalogue of white dwarfs to date. This gives us a detailedpicture of their velocity structurewith unparalleled detail,\" says Daniel Mikkola, doctoral student in astronomy at Lund University.</p><p>Thanks to Gaia, researchers have measured positions and velocities for about 1.5 billion stars. But only recently have they been able to completely focus on the white dwarfs in the Solar neighbourhood.</p><p>\"We have managed to map the white dwarfs\' velocities and movement patterns. Gaia revealed that there are two parallel sequences of white dwarfs when looking at their temperature and brightness. If we study these separately, we can see that they move in different ways, probably as a consequence of them having different masses and lifetimes,\" says Daniel Mikkola.</p><p>The results can be used to develop new simulations and models to continue to map the history and development of the Milky Way. Through an increased knowledge of the white dwarfs, the researchers hope to be able to straighten out a number of question marks surrounding the birth of the Milky Way.</p><p>\"This study is important because we learned more about the closest regions in our galaxy. The results are also interesting because our own star, the Sun, will one day turn into a white dwarf just like 97 percent of all stars in the Milky Way,\" concludes Daniel Mikkola.</p>','2022-03-23 17:47:34.311710','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Lund University','White dwarfs were once normal stars similar to the Sun but then collapsed after exhausting all their fuel. These interstellar remnants have historically been difficult to study. However, a recent study reveals new information about the movement patterns of these puzzling stars.\n',1,192,'<li>Daniel Mikkola, Paul J. McMillan, David Hobbs, John Wimarsson. <strong>The velocity distribution of white dwarfs in Gaia EDR3</strong>. <em>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</em>, 2022 [<a href=\"https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.07672\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">abstract</a>]</li>'),(1528,'Modern animal life could have origins in delta','modern-animal-life-could-have-origins-in-delta','2022-03-23 17:47:41.539420',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The ancestors of many animal species alive today may have lived in a delta in what is now China, new research suggests.</p><p>The Cambrian Explosion, more than 500 million years ago, saw the rapid spread of bilaterian species -- symmetrical along a central line, like most of today\'s animals (including humans).</p><p>The 518-million-year-old Chengjiang Biota -- in Yunnan, south-west China -- is one of the oldest groups of animal fossils currently known to science, and a key record of the Cambrian Explosion.</p><p>Fossils of more than 250 species have been found there, including various worms, arthropods (ancestors of living shrimps, insects, spiders, scorpions) and even the earliest vertebrates (ancestors of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals).</p><p>The new study finds for the first time that this environment was a shallow-marine, nutrient-rich delta affected by storm-floods.</p><p>The area is now on land in the mountainous Yunnan Province, but the team studied rock core samples that show evidence of marine currents in the past environment.</p><p>\"The Cambrian Explosion is now universally accepted as a genuine rapid evolutionary event, but the causal factors for this event have been long debated, with hypotheses on environmental, genetic, or ecological triggers,\" said senior author Dr Xiaoya Ma, a palaeobiologist at the University of Exeter and Yunnan University.</p><p>\"The discovery of a deltaic environment shed new light on understanding the possible causal factors for the flourishing of these Cambrian bilaterian animal-dominated marine communities and their exceptional soft-tissue preservation.</p><p>\"The unstable environmental stressors might also contribute to the adaptive radiation of these early animals.\"</p><p>Co-lead author Farid Saleh, a sedimentologist and taphonomist at Yunnan University, said: \"We can see from the association of numerous sedimentary flows that the environment hosting the Chengjiang Biota was complex and certainly shallower than what has been previously suggested in the literature for similar animal communities.\"</p><p>Changshi Qi, the other co-lead author and a geochemist at the Yunnan University, added: \"Our research shows that the Chengjiang Biota mainly lived in a well-oxygenated shallow-water deltaic environment.</p><p>\"Storm floods transported these organisms down to the adjacent deep oxygen-deficient settings, leading to the exceptional preservation we see today.\"</p><p>Co-author Luis Buatois, a paleontologist and sedimentologist at the University of Saskatchewan, said: \"The Chengjiang Biota, as is the case of similar faunas described elsewhere, is preserved in fine-grained deposits.</p><p>\"Our understanding of how these muddy sediments were deposited has changed dramatically during the last 15 years.</p><p>\"Application of this recently acquired knowledge to the study of fossiliferous deposits of exceptional preservation will change dramatically our understanding of how and where these sediments accumulated.\"</p><p>The results of this study are important because they show that most early animals tolerated stressful conditions, such as salinity (salt) fluctuations, and high amounts of sediment deposition.</p><p>This contrasts with earlier research suggesting that similar animals colonised deeper-water, more stable marine environments.</p><p>\"It is hard to believe that these animals were able to cope with such a stressful environmental setting,\" said M. Gabriela Mángano, a palaeontologist at the University of Saskatchewan, who has studied other well-known sites of exceptional preservation in Canada, Morocco, and Greenland.</p><p>Maximiliano Paz, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan who specializes in fine-grained systems, added: \"Access to sediment cores allowed us to see details in the rock which are commonly difficult to appreciate in the weathered outcrops of the Chengjiang area.\"</p><p>This work is an international collaboration between Yunnan University, University of Exeter, the University of Saskatchewan, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Lausanne, and the University of Leicester.</p><p>The research was funded by the Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation, the Natural Science Foundation of China, the State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and by the George J. McLeod Enhancement Chair in Geology.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-23 17:47:41.539420','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Exeter','The ancestors of many animal species alive today may have lived in a delta in what is now China, new research suggests.\n',1,53,'<li>Farid Saleh, Changshi Qi, Luis A. Buatois, M. Gabriela Mángano, Maximiliano Paz, Romain Vaucher, Quanfeng Zheng, Xian-Guang Hou, Sarah E. Gabbott, Xiaoya Ma. <strong>The Chengjiang Biota inhabited a deltaic environment</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29246-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29246-z</a>\n</li>'),(1529,'Wide-ranging problems in children born before 24 weeks gestation','wide-ranging-problems-in-children-born-before-24-weeks-gestation','2022-03-23 17:47:45.006560',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In a study of children born after a pregnancy of less than 24 weeks, nearly all (96 percent) proved to have any of the diagnoses studied. According to the study, lead from the University of Gothenburg, neuropsychiatric and somatic diagnoses are prevalent as these extremely preterm infants grow into adulthood.</p><p>The findings are now published in the scientific journal <em>Acta Paediatrica</em>. The study was based on data in national registers and hospital journals on almost every child born in Sweden in 2007-2018, before the 24th week of gestation, who survived after birth up to what would have been full term (40 weeks).</p><p>Altogether, the study comprises 399 children. At follow-up, they were aged 2 to 13 years.</p><p><strong>More than half need habilitation</strong></p><p>Among these children born before 24 weeks of pregnancy,</p><p><strong>Major support needs</strong></p><p>The study shows the marked need for special support for the most immature children, born extremely preterm, and highlights the need for long-term habilitation.</p><p>\"This is about the tiniest babies born, who wouldn\'t have survived without modern neonatal care,\" says Professor Ann Hellström of Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, the last author of the publication.</p><p>\"Being born extremely preterm has long-term repercussions. Awareness needs to increase for society at large to provide sufficient resources during adolescence and later in life, manage morbidity, structure follow-up programs, and support for disabilities.\"</p><p><strong>More survivors</strong></p><p>Over the past 20 years, the survival rate among extremely premature babies has risen sharply, especially in those born in gestational weeks 22 and 23 . Thus, health care today can save the lives of children born more than four months too early. Enhanced survival has resulted in more knowledge of brain development among these children, and how their cognition, motor skills, hearing, and vision are affected.</p><p>This study is the first to provide a comprehensive picture of the prevalence of various diagnoses in the most immature of extremely preterm infants, and the expected substantial impact on the children\'s lives, in a single nationwide set of research data.</p><p>\"Doctors and other health professionals need to be aware of the many health and developmental problems that affect these children. Health care services also need resources to identify their long-term treatment and support needs at an early stage,\" Hellström points out.</p><p>The study was conducted in a national collaboration among researchers focusing on newborns (neonatology) and medical conditions relating to the eye (ophthalmology). The corresponding author is Professor Ann Hellström of Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, while the first author is neonatologist Eva Morsing of Lund University.</p>','2022-03-23 17:47:45.006560','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Gothenburg','In a study of children born after a pregnancy of less than 24 weeks, nearly all (96 percent) proved to have any of the diagnoses studied. According to the study neuropsychiatric and somatic diagnoses are prevalent as these extremely preterm infants grow into adulthood.\n',1,106,'<li>Eva Morsing, Pia Lundgren, Anna‐Lena Hård, Alexander Rakow, Lena Hellström‐Westas, Lena Jacobson, Mats Johnson, Staffan Nilsson, Lois E.H. Smith, Karin Sävman, Ann Hellström. <strong>Neurodevelopmental disorders and somatic diagnoses in a national cohort of children born before 24 weeks of gestation</strong>. <em>Acta Paediatrica</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/apa.16316\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/apa.16316</a>\n</li>'),(1530,'Predatory bacteria','predatory-bacteria','2022-03-23 17:47:48.133116',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Most people think of microorganisms as a cause of disease rather than as its victims. But in fact, they too can become victims of bacteria that make them sick and even devour them. Such a predatory bacterium has now been described by researcher Jens Harder and his team from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany.</p><p><strong>The assailant: Undercover for a long time</strong></p><p>For more than twenty years, the predatory bacteria have been living largely unnoticed in Jens Harder\'s laboratory at the Max Planck Institute in Bremen in a so-called enrichment culture that uses limonene for methane production. They originally came from the digestion tower of the sewage treatment plant in Osterholz-Scharmbeck, close to Bremen. \"We have named the new microbe <em>Velamenicoccus archaeovorus</em>,\" says Harder. \"It is an ultramicrobacterium -a particularly tiny member of the microbial world, only 200 to 300 nanometres in size and thus invisible under a normal microscope.\" By comparison, a human is almost two billion nanometres tall. A few secrets of these tiny bacteria have now been revealed.</p><p><strong>The victim: Important for biogas production</strong></p><p>The second main character of this story, the victim, is also found in sewage treatment plants: <em>Methanosaeta</em>, one of the most common microbes in the world, plays a crucial role therein. This archaeon is mainly responsible for biogas production in sewage treatment plants. Individual cells of <em>Methanosaeta</em> live together in a protective tube, a filament. Using special dyes and a special microscope, Harder and his team were now able to prove that single cells in the <em>Methanosaeta</em>-filaments were sick or dead. They were limp and contained neither ribosomal nucleic acids nor genetic material -- typical components of living microbial cells. The cells had presumably fallen victim to the ultramicrobacteria: \"Most probably, the cause of disease is attached bacteria, and these attached bacteria are <em>Velamenicoccus archaeovorus</em>,\" Harder explains.</p><p><strong>The weapon? A giant protein</strong></p><p>\"<em>Velamenicoccus archaeovorus</em> is not an unknown,\" Harder continues. \"We have found parts of its genetic material in deep sediments and other oxygen-free habitats. But what it does there was not known.\" Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology have been able to decode the genome of this ultramicrobacterium and identify its proteins, thereby unlocking some of the tiny predator\'s secrets. One particularly remarkable gene is a strikingly large one. \"While proteins on average consist of 333 amino acids, this gene encodes a protein with 39678 amino acids,\" Harder explains. Thereby, it would be one of the largest known proteins. It is integrated into the cell wall and its surface contains enzyme domains that enable it to dissolve cells. Thus, this could well be the deadly secret of <em>Velamenicoccus</em>.</p><p><strong>Ecologically significant in deep sediments?</strong></p><p>Realising that we are dealing with such a \"dangerous\" bacterium permits a new look at an ecological question: Sediments are full of microorganisms, decreasing in number with increasing depth. The deeper you go, the fewer cells you will find. Until now, it was assumed that this was the result of the ongoing die-off of cells. Now another possibility arises: Microorganisms use other microorganisms as a food source, and because this is not particularly efficient, the organic material is being increasingly lost as methane and carbon dioxide. \"Ultramicrobacteria can thus play a decisive role in the conversion and recycling of biomass in sediments and cause an overall reduction in biomass with depth,\" Harder concludes.</p><p>Fittingly: <em>Velamenicoccus archaeovorus</em>, the archaea-eating microbe, belongs to the <em>candidate phylum</em> Omnitrophica, meaning the \"all-eaters.\" The finding that they live as predators now shows for the first time that this appellation is really accurate.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-23 17:47:48.133116','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology','Tiny predatory bacteria attack microorganisms. These ultramicrobacteria are widely distributed, for example, in sewage treatment plants and in the seafloor.\n',1,213,'<li>Jana Kizina, Sebastian F. A. Jordan, Gerrit Alexander Martens, Almud Lonsing, Christina Probian, Androniki Kolovou, Rachel Santarella-Mellwig, Erhard Rhiel, Sten Littmann, Stephanie Markert, Kurt Stüber, Michael Richter, Thomas Schweder, Jens Harder. <strong>Methanosaeta            and “            Candidatus            Velamenicoccus archaeovorus”</strong>. <em>Applied and Environmental Microbiology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/aem.02407-21\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1128/aem.02407-21</a>\n</li>'),(1531,'Firefighters’ risk of irregular heartbeat linked to number of on-the-job fire exposures','firefighters’-risk-of-irregular-heartbeat-linked-to-number-of-on-the-job-fire-exposures','2022-03-23 17:47:52.569240',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Among firefighters, the risk of having an irregular heart rhythm, known as atrial fibrillation (AFib), increases with the number of fires they respond to, according to new research published today in the <em>Journal of the American Heart Association</em>, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.</p><p>Compared with people in other occupations, firefighters are known to have a disproportionately high risk of heart disease, and almost half of fatalities in on-duty firefighters result from sudden cardiac death -- when the heart suddenly stops beating and pumping blood to vital organs. An increased risk of an irregular heart rhythm or arrhythmias from the ventricles, the bottom chambers of the heart, has been documented in firefighters, however, prior to this study, little was known about AFib, which is an arrhythmia involving the top chambers of the heart. According to the American Heart Association, AFib is the most common type of irregular heartbeat with at least 2.7 million people living with it in the United States. People with AFib have an increased risk of blood clots, heart failure, stroke and other heart complications.</p><p>\"A few years ago, I treated a local firefighter for atrial fibrillation, and he felt dramatically better with the treatment, so he referred other firefighters to me for care, all with AFib. I decided to methodically examine AFib in the firefighter population, as it may shed light into the cause of atrial fibrillation in non-firefighters as well,\" said Paari Dominic, M.D., senior author of the study, the director of clinical cardiac electrophysiology and associate professor of medicine and molecular and cellular physiology at LSU Health Shreveport in Louisiana.</p><p>Participants were recruited through five professional firefighter organizations. The study was conducted from 2018-19 among active firefighters throughout the U.S. They completed a survey about their occupational exposure (number of fires fought per year) and about their history of heart disease. Of the 10,860 firefighters who completed the survey (93.5% male, and 95.5% were age 60 or younger), 2.9% of the men and 0.9% of the women reported a diagnosis of AFib.</p><p>\"Among adults in the general population younger than age 60, there is a 0.1-1.0% prevalence of having AFib. However, among our study population, 2.5% of firefighters ages 60 or younger had AFib,\" Dominic said. \"Of the few respondents who were 61 or older, 8.2% reported a diagnosis of AFib.\"</p><p>When occupational exposure was factored in, the researchers found a direct and significant relationship between the number of fires fought and the risk of developing AFib. The analysis found:</p><p>After adjusting for multiple risk factors for AFib, such as high blood pressure and smoking, researchers found a 14% increased risk of atrial fibrillation for every additional 5 fires fought annually.</p><p>\"Clinicians who care for firefighters need to be aware of the increased cardiovascular risk, especially the increased risk of AFib, among this unique group of individuals. The conditions that elevate their risk further, such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, lung disease and sleep apnea, should be treated aggressively. In addition, any symptoms of AFib, such as palpitations, trouble breathing, dizziness and fatigue, should be investigated promptly,\" Dominic said.</p><p>According to the researchers, multiple mechanisms may be involved in the association between firefighting and AFib. \"First, and foremost, are the inhalation and absorption through the skin of harmful compounds and substances produced by the combustion of materials during a fire, including particulate matter, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and benzene. Exposure to these substances, especially particulate matter in air pollution, even for a short time has been previously linked to an increased risk of AFib. In addition, firefighters are exposed to high physical and psychological stress together with long work hours, all of which can increase their adrenaline levels and cause an imbalance in the mechanisms that maintain heart rate. Finally, heat stress (exposure to high temperatures) can cause an increase in core body temperature and severe dehydration, both of which increase the demand for a higher heart rate, and may subsequently trigger AFib,\" Dominic said.</p><p>\"Studying firefighters, who personally make sacrifices for the safety of us all, is essential to prevent disease and death in this population that makes a big impact on the well-being of our communities,\" Dominic said.</p><p>The study is limited by basing the presence of atrial fibrillation and all other medical conditions on the firefighters\' survey responses. However, the researchers were able to corroborate the self-reported responses by linking them to well-established associations between atrial fibrillation and the presence of risk factors such as high blood pressure and sleep apnea, suggesting that the self-reports were accurate.</p><p>The researchers are currently analyzing the survey data to investigate the association between the annual number of fires fought and the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Atherosclerosis is a buildup of fatty deposits in the arteries that can thicken blood vessel walls and reduce blood flow to the heart muscle, brain, kidneys or extremities.</p><p>Based on the results of this study, researchers suggest future studies systematically screen firefighters for AFib to detect asymptomatic or new cases to evaluate the relationship between fire exposure and stroke risk in firefighters with AFib to allow a better understanding about which of the components of occupational exposure to fires plays a key role in causing fibrillation. They should also examine the reluctance of firefighters with AFib to use blood thinners. Blood thinners are a standard treatment for AFib; however, the medication carries an added risk of bleeding and firefighters are concerned about their increased risk of bleeding injuries due to low-visibility firefighting situations.</p><p>Co-authors are Catherine Vanchiere, M.D.; Rithika Thirumal, M.D.; Aditya Hendrani, M.D.; Parinita Dherange, M.D.; Angela Bennett, B.S.; Runhua Shi, M.D., Ph.D.; Rakesh Gopinathannair, M.D.; Brian Olshansky, M.D.; and Denise L. Smith, Ph.D.</p><p>The research was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a division of the National Institutes of Health.</p>','2022-03-23 17:47:52.569240','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Heart Association','The more fires they respond to, the higher the risk of atrial fibrillation or AFib -- a common irregular heart rhythm -- among firefighters, according to a survey of more than 10,000 active U.S. firefighters. After adjusting for atrial fibrillation risk factors, such as high blood pressure and smoking, researchers found a 14% increased risk of atrial fibrillation for every additional five fires fought annually.\n',1,150,'<li>Catherine Vanchiere, Rithika Thirumal, Aditya Hendrani, Parinita Dherange, Angela Bennett, Runhua Shi, Rakesh Gopinathannair, Brian Olshansky, Denise L. Smith, Paari Dominic. <strong>Association Between Atrial Fibrillation and Occupational Exposure in Firefighters Based on Self‐Reported Survey Data</strong>. <em>Journal of the American Heart Association</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.121.022543\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1161/JAHA.121.022543</a>\n</li>'),(1532,'New pumpkin shaped nucleus radiates protons with record setting rate','new-pumpkin-shaped-nucleus-radiates-protons-with-record-setting-rate','2022-03-23 17:47:55.770721',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new atomic nucleus 149-Lutetium, consisting of 71 protons and 78 neutrons, has been synthesized in an experiment performed in the Accelerator Laboratory of University of Jyväskylä, Finland.</p><p>The new isotope was found among the products of fusion of <sup>58</sup>Ni beam particles and <sup>96</sup>Ru target atoms, and it was identified in the detector setup of the MARA separator. <sup>149</sup>Lu was found to decay into <sup>148</sup>Yb via spontaneous proton emission, which is a rare nuclear decay mode. Decay properties of <sup>149</sup>Lu were measured to be exceptional; It has the highest decay energy and the shortest directly measured half-life of any ground-state proton emitter known to date.</p><p>Observation of the swift decay was made possible by modern digital signal handling that allows \"traces\" to be recorded, see attached figure for a few examples. Additionally, it was found via comparison to theoretical calculations that it is the most oblate deformed (\"pumpkin shaped\") proton emitter.</p><p>This is the first instance when the models of proton emission are tested against such a strong oblate deformation. These observations will help to develop the theory of proton emission as well as the atomic mass models for the most exotic isotopes, both models are needed to understand the origin of the elements. The results of this study have been published as the Editors\' Suggestion in <em>Physical Review Letters.</em></p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-23 17:47:55.770721','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Jyväskylä - Jyväskylän yliopisto','A new atomic nucleus 149-Lutetium, consisting of 71 protons and 78 neutrons, has been synthesized.\n',1,68,'<li>K. Auranen, A. D. Briscoe, L. S. Ferreira, T. Grahn, P. T. Greenlees, A. Herzáň, A. Illana, D. T. Joss, H. Joukainen, R. Julin, H. Jutila, M. Leino, J. Louko, M. Luoma, E. Maglione, J. Ojala, R. D. Page, J. Pakarinen, P. Rahkila, J. Romero, P. Ruotsalainen, M. Sandzelius, J. Sarén, A. Tolosa-Delgado, J. Uusitalo, G. Zimba. <strong>Nanosecond-Scale Proton Emission from Strongly Oblate-Deformed Lu149</strong>. <em>Physical Review Letters</em>, 2022; 128 (11) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.112501\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.112501</a>\n</li>'),(1533,'Globins - on the hunt to protect your liver','globins---on-the-hunt-to-protect-your-liver','2022-03-23 17:47:58.335754',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Anti-fibrotic therapy remains an unmet medical need in human chronic liver diseases. A research team led by Professor Norifumi Kawada, Osaka City University (OCU), reported the anti-fibrotic function of globin family members in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), the main cell type involved in liver fibrosis. In mice with advanced liver fibrosis, myoglobin (MB), (neuroglobin) NGB and (cytoglobin) CYGB injection can suppress liver inflammation and fibrosis.</p><p>The functions of globin family members have been extensively studied, focusing primarily on the specific tissues in which these proteins are expressed: hemoglobin (HB) in erythrocytes, MB in muscle cells, NGB in nervous tissues, and CYGB in pericytes and fibroblasts. Beyond the well-established oxygen-binding respiratory functions of heme-containing proteins, all globins are also known to be involved in the regulation of harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS), protecting cells from oxidative stress.</p><p>\"Liver fibrosis occurs after repetitive and long-lasting injury or inflammation in the liver. These injuries are accompanied with the accumulation of ROS that activate HSCs, followed by collagen production,\" explains Dr. Kawada.</p><p>Along with Dr. Le Thi Thanh Thuy, PhD fellow Vu Ngoc Hieu, and colleagues, Dr. Kawada observed that when they culture human HSCs under globin treatments, MB, NGB, and CYGB enter the cellular organelles, hunt the intracellular harmful ROSs, and reduce the direct signal regulating the production of collagen. \"Results showed the antioxidant capacity of the globins to be greater than the well-documented glutathione and even vitamin C,\" continues Dr. Kawada.</p><p>This is great news for three members of the globin family, but what happened to HB? \"We noticed that hemoglobin did not enter the cell,\" explains Dr. Thuy, \"we speculate this is due to size as HB is 4 times the size of its monomer siblings.\"</p><p>In the next set of experiments, Dr. Kawada and his group generated a mouse model of advanced liver fibrosis using chemical agents and applied MB, NGB, and CYGB by intravenous injection. Interestingly, the therapeutic protein dramatically suppressed liver inflammation and fibrosis without any side effects. PhD fellow Hieu points out, \"in addition to the liver, we focused on possible side effects with the neighboring kidney. Creatinine levels remained normal throughout the treatment.\"</p><p>With this discovery, that was published in the journal <em>Redox Biology,</em> the research team hopes to establish a foothold to a potential therapy for liver fibrosis in the near future.</p><p><strong>Glossary</strong></p><p>1. Liver fibrosis</p><p>Liver fibrosis is a wound-healing response to chronic liver injury and often results in cirrhosis, liver failure, portal hypertension, and hepatocellular carcinoma.</p><p>2. Hepatic stellate cells</p><p>Hepatic stellate cells reside in the space of Disse, between hepatocytes and the sinusoidal endothelial cells, in the liver. Hepatic stellate cells are the major collagen-producing cells, and activation of hepatic stellate cells is a key issue in liver fibrosis.</p><p>3. Reactive oxygen species</p><p>Reactive oxygen species (ROS) include several chemically reactive molecules derived from oxygen. State of excessive quantity of ROS call oxidative stress, which may result in significant damage to cell structures.</p><p>4. COL1A1 promoter</p><p>The COL1A1 promoter region is a segment of DNA located upstream of a gene coding for COL1A1. This region controls the initiation of transcription from DNA to mRNA, which is ultimately translated into COL1A1 protein.</p><p>5. Cell-free system</p><p>Cell-free system is referred to as platforms that enable testing biological systems in an environment without cells.</p><p>6. Glutathione</p><p>Glutathione is well-known antioxidant which is capable of preventing damage to important cellular components caused by reactive oxygen species such as free radicals, peroxides, lipid peroxides, and heavy metals</p><p>7. Human globins</p><p>The globins are a superfamily of heme-containing globular proteins, involved in binding and/or transporting oxygen. Prominent members include Hemoglobin, Myoglobin, Neuroglobin, Cytoglobin.</p>','2022-03-23 17:47:58.335754','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Osaka City University','Researchers have discovered in mice an additional use of globins as an intravenous drug that can delay liver fibrosis progression.\n',1,146,'<li>Vu Ngoc Hieu, Le Thi Thanh Thuy, Hoang Hai, Ninh Quoc Dat, Dinh Viet Hoang, Ngo Vinh Hanh, Dong Minh Phuong, Truong Huu Hoang, Hitomi Sawai, Yoshitsugu Shiro, Misako Sato-Matsubara, Daisuke Oikawa, Fuminori Tokunaga, Katsutoshi Yoshizato, Norifumi Kawada. <strong>Capacity of extracellular globins to reduce liver fibrosis via scavenging reactive oxygen species and promoting MMP-1 secretion</strong>. <em>Redox Biology</em>, 2022; 52: 102286 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.redox.2022.102286\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.redox.2022.102286</a>\n</li>'),(1534,'Humans have given wild animals their diseases nearly 100 times, researchers find','humans-have-given-wild-animals-their-diseases-nearly-100-times,-researchers-find','2022-03-23 17:48:00.131404',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">An international research team led by scientists at Georgetown University has found that humans might give viruses back to animals more often than previously understood.</p><p>In a study published March 22 in <em>Ecology Letters</em>, the authors describe nearly one hundred different cases where diseases have undergone \"spillback\" from humans back into wild animals, much like how SARS-CoV-2 has been able to spread in mink farms, zoo lions and tigers, and wild white-tailed deer.</p><p>\"There has understandably been an enormous amount of interest in human-to-wild animal pathogen transmission in light of the pandemic,\" says Gregory Albery, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at Georgetown University and the study\'s senior author. \"To help guide conversations and policy surrounding spillback of our pathogens in the future, we went digging through the literature to see how the process has manifested in the past.\"</p><p>In their new study, Albery and colleagues found that almost half of the incidents identified occurred in captive settings like zoos, where veterinarians keep a close eye on animals\' health and are more likely to notice when a virus makes the jump. Additionally, more than half of cases they found were human-to-primate transmission, an unsurprising result both because pathogens find it easier to jump between closely-related hosts, and because wild populations of endangered great apes are so carefully monitored.</p><p>\"This supports the idea that we\'re more likely to detect pathogens in the places we spend a lot of time and effort looking, with a disproportionate number of studies focusing on charismatic animals at zoos or in close proximity to humans\" says Anna Fagre, DVM, Ph.D., MPH, a virologist and wildlife veterinarian at Colorado State University who was lead author on the study, and has also published research on the risks of SARS-CoV-2 spillback using laboratory experiments with the North American deer mouse (<em>Peromyscus maniculatus</em>). \"It brings into question which cross-species transmission events we may be missing, and what this might mean not only for public health, but for the health and conservation of the species being infected.\"</p><p>Disease spillback has recently attracted substantial attention due to the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in wild white-tailed deer in the United States and Canada. Some data suggest that deer have given the virus back to humans in at least one case, and many scientists have expressed broader concerns that new animal reservoirs might give the virus extra chances to evolve new variants.</p><p>In their new study, Albery and colleagues find a sliver of good news: scientists can use artificial intelligence to anticipate which species might be at risk of contracting the virus. When the researchers compared species that have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 to predictions made by other researchers earlier in the pandemic, they found that scientists were able to guess correctly more often than not.</p><p>\"It\'s quite satisfying to see that sequencing animal genomes and understanding their immune systems has paid off,\" says Colin Carlson, Ph.D., an assistant research professor in the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center and an author on the study. \"The pandemic gave scientists a chance to test out some predictive tools, and it turns out we\'re more prepared than we thought.\"</p><p>The new study is part of a National Science Foundation-funded project called the Viral Emergence Research Initiative, or Verena. The Verena team uses data science and machine learning to study \"the science of the host-virus network\" -- a new field that aims to predict which viruses can infect humans, which animals host them and where, when and why they might emerge. Those insights could be critical if scientists want to understand how and why humans share their diseases with animals.</p><p>Spillover may be predictable, the authors conclude, but the biggest problem is how little we know about wildlife disease. \"We\'re watching SARS-CoV-2 more closely than any other virus on earth, so when spillback happens, we can catch it. It\'s still much harder to credibly assess risk in other cases where we\'re not able to operate with as much information,\" says Carlson. As a result, it\'s hard to measure how severe a risk spillback poses for human health or wildlife conservation, particularly for pathogens other than SARS-CoV-2.</p><p>\"Long-term monitoring helps us establish baselines for wildlife health and disease prevalence, laying important groundwork for future studies,\" says Fagre. \"If we\'re watching closely, we can spot these cross-species transmission events much faster, and act accordingly.\"</p><p>Additional study authors also included Lily E. Cohen, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Evan A. Eskew, Pacific Lutheran University; Max Farrell, University of Toronto; Emma Glennon, University of Cambridge; Maxwell B. Joseph, University of Colorado Boulder; Hannah K. Frank, Tulane University; and Sadie J. Ryan, University of Florida and University of KwaZulu-Natal.</p><p>The authors are a part of the Verena consortium, co-founded by Carlson and Albery. The authors report having no personal financial interests related to the study. Support for Verena is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (BII 2021909).</p>','2022-03-23 17:48:00.131404','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Georgetown University Medical Center','Scientists have found that humans might give viruses back to animals more often than previously understood.\n',1,88,'<li>Anna C. Fagre, Lily E. Cohen, Evan A. Eskew, Max Farrell, Emma Glennon, Maxwell B. Joseph, Hannah K. Frank, Sadie J. Ryan, Colin J Carlson, Gregory F. Albery. <strong>Assessing the risk of human‐to‐wildlife pathogen transmission for conservation and public health</strong>. <em>Ecology Letters</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.14003\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/ele.14003</a>\n</li>'),(1535,'Neighborhoods feeling the heat as medium density housing robs suburbs of street and garden trees','neighborhoods-feeling-the-heat-as-medium-density-housing-robs-suburbs-of-street-and-garden-trees','2022-03-23 17:48:03.442062',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers are calling for new national planning policies to mandate the inclusion of trees in any future housing developments and architectural designs. New housing subdivisions, smaller yards and a dependence on air conditioning have resulted in a 30 per cent decline in Australian residential trees in the past decade, leading to hotter neighbourhoods and increased energy costs.</p><p>The dramatic loss of suburban trees has led to UniSA environmental researchers calling for new national planning policies to mandate the inclusion of trees in any development or housing design.</p><p>Qualified architect and UniSA PhD candidate Mina Rouhollahi says a recent study of 90 Australian residential suburbs shows tree-inclusive gardens and yards provide up to a 30-metre buffer around each land unit during summer heatwaves.</p><p>\"Deciduous trees, in particular, provide summer shade, while their bare branches allow heat to penetrate into the house in winter,\" Rouhollahi says.</p><p>\"Local government focuses on public parks and urban forests but it\'s the residential trees that make a significant difference to home energy costs. Also, private land tree planting provides a better environment for children, improving urban aesthetics and increasing home values.\"</p><p>Rouhollahi and her UniSA colleagues, including supervisor Professor John Boland, have designed an optimal tree strategy for different housing configurations, nominating specific tree types, tree volumes, and correct placement to achieve maximum benefits.</p><p>Their strategy is outlined in a new paper published in <em>Energy and Buildings</em>.</p><p>It incorporates all seasons and microclimates, allowing planners, developers and designers to adopt the tree options that suit specific environments.</p><p>Their research recommends five optimal tree arrangements depending on deep soil availability and space.</p><p>\"We need a more cohesive urban planning approach to compensate for residential tree loss in recent decades and regulate heat as well as curb energy costs,\" Prof Boland says.</p><p>The researchers\' proposal aligns with the latest IPCC report, recommending increased space between houses to allow for more trees, as well as utilising reflective building materials. The report says taking these steps could significantly decrease urban heat, reduce the reliance on electricity, and thereby cut blackout risks.</p><p>A major challenge, however, is to change Australians\' attitudes, increasing the focus on home energy efficiency through appropriate tree planting, double glazing and better house design, moving away from air conditioning reliance.</p><p>\"Australians have the power to influence the design process, requesting tree allocation when building or buying their home, in the same way they insisted on a double garage in the 1990s. The focus has shifted to boosting our wellbeing and the role that trees play in this,\" Rouhollahi says.</p><p>\"Redesigning our homes with trees in mind will better serve residents, cities, and the environment. Trees have numerous benefits: they shield us from the sun, provide wind protection, reduce stormwater runoff, passive cooling and natural ventilation. The net result is a more energy efficient home, lower energy costs, reduced air conditioning, CO<sub>2</sub> emissions and less polluted air.\"</p><p>Current residential development policies rely on public and communal open spaces to compensate for the lack of trees in private yards. Yet, this does not provide energy savings, the researchers say.</p><p>The researchers hope their recommendations, outlining different optimal tree options, will be adopted by local councils and embedded in their planning policies.</p>','2022-03-23 17:48:03.442062','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of South Australia','Researchers are calling for new national planning policies to mandate the inclusion of trees in any future housing developments and architectural designs.\n',1,42,'<li>Mina Rouhollahi, David Whaley, Josh Byrne, John Boland. <strong>Potential residential tree arrangement to optimise dwelling energy efficiency</strong>. <em>Energy and Buildings</em>, 2022; 261: 111962 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.111962\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.111962</a>\n</li>'),(1536,'IVF children shown to have a better quality of life as adults in new study','ivf-children-shown-to-have-a-better-quality-of-life-as-adults-in-new-study','2022-03-23 17:48:14.476093',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Being conceived via assisted reproductive technology (ART), such as IVF, may provide some advantages in quality of life in adulthood, according to the results of a new study.</p><p>The results of the study, published in <em>Human Fertility, </em>offer reassuring news for people who have been conceived with ART -- and those who need to use the technology to conceive.</p><p>\"Our findings suggest that being ART-conceived can provide some advantages on quality of life in adulthood, independent of other psychosocial factors,\" said lead author Karin Hammarberg of Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. \"Together with previous evidence that adults conceived by ART have similar physical health to those who were naturally conceived, this is reassuring for people who were conceived with ART -- and those who need ART to conceive.\"</p><p>In the more than four decades since the first birth following <em>in vitro</em> fertilisation (IVF) in 1978, more than 8 million children have been born as a result of ART. In that time, many studies have evaluated the physical health, development and psychosocial well-being of ART-conceived children compared with those naturally conceived (NC). But currently, there is less known about the health and quality of life of adults who were conceived by ART.</p><p>This study involved 193 young adults who were conceived through ART and 86 through NC in the state of Victoria, Australia. These participants completed questionnaires, which included a standardised quality of life measure (World Health Organisation Quality of Life -- Brief Assessment (WHOQoL-BREF)), when aged 18-28 years (T1) and again when aged 22-35 years (T2). The WHOQoL-BREF assesses four domains of quality of life: 1) physical 2) psychosocial 3) social relationships and 4) environment.</p><p>The researchers looked at the associations between factors present at T1 (mode of conception, the mother\'s age when the participant was born, sexual orientation, family financial situation in secondary school, perceptions of own weight, number of close friends, frequency of vigorous exercise and quality of relationships with parents) and the scores on the four domains of WHOQoL-BREF at T2.</p><p>After making statistical adjustments to account for other psychosocial factors present in young adulthood, the results showed that being ART-conceived was strongly linked with higher scores (better quality of life) on both the social relationships and environment WHOQoL-BREF domains at T2. In addition, having less psychological distress, a more positive relationship with parents, a better financial situation, and perceptions of being about the right weight at T1 were associated with higher scores on one or more WHOQoL-BREF domains at T2.</p><p>\"Children conceived via ART are nowadays a substantial part of the population -- and it\'s important to continue to evaluate the long-term effects of ART on their physical health and well-being as they progress through adolescence into adulthood,\" said Hammarberg. \"When accounting for other factors present in young adulthood, being ART-conceived appears to confer some advantages in quality of life. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we also found that, independently of how the person was conceived, having a better relationship with parents, less psychological distress, and a better family financial situation in young adulthood contributed to a better adult quality of life.\"</p><p>This is the first study to explore the contributions of being conceived with ART and psychosocial factors present in young adulthood to the quality of life of adults. While the findings are reassuring, they should be be interpreted with caution because many of those who took part in the first study did not take part in the follow-up study.</p>','2022-03-23 17:48:14.476093','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Taylor & Francis Group','Being conceived via assisted reproductive technology (ART), such as IVF, may provide some advantages in quality of life in adulthood, according to the results of a new study.\n',1,13,'<li>Karin Hammarberg, Jane Halliday, Joanne Kennedy, David P. Burgner, David J. Amor, Lex W. Doyle, Markus Juonala, Sarath Ranganathan, Liam Welsh, Michael Cheung, Robert McLachlan, John McBain, Sharon Lewis. <strong>Does being conceived by assisted reproductive technology influence adult quality of life?</strong> <em>Human Fertility</em>, 2022; 1 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14647273.2022.2042860\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1080/14647273.2022.2042860</a>\n</li>'),(1537,'Using marinated eggs to demonstrate diffusion','using-marinated-eggs-to-demonstrate-diffusion','2022-03-23 19:20:04.769335',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Marinated, or pickled, eggs are enjoyed by cultures around the world. There are Pennsylvania Dutch red-beet pickled eggs, German-style ones with a heavy dose of mustard, and Asian recipes that use rice vinegar and soy sauce, to name a few.</p><p>The basis of any recipe is marinating hard boiled eggs in vinegar or brine, which cures the eggs by sufficiently saturating the egg whites via diffusion. In <em>American Journal of Physics</em>, published on behalf of the American Association of Physics Teachers by AIP Publishing, researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were inspired to demonstrate how diffusion works in an easy and quantifiable way.</p><p>\"We wanted to develop an experiment for high school and college STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) students to show them how diffusion works in a simple visual manner and to ensure the experiment was easy to do at home so kids can learn diffusion on their own,\" co-author Carson Emeigh said.</p><p>Driven by thermal energy, diffusion occurs when atoms, molecules, or other particles spread throughout a fluid (air or liquid) over time from the highest concentration point to the lowest. Diffusion is widely studied for myriad applications, from aircraft engines to drug development.</p><p>In their experiment, the researchers compared penetration levels of red food dye in the whites of peeled hard-boiled eggs at three different temperatures: refrigerator temperature (40 F), room temperature (70 F), and in a cool convection oven (140 F).</p><p>Each egg was taken out of the solution at a predetermined time (one hour, three hours, five hours, eight hours, or 24 hours), sliced in half with an egg slicer, and imaged. A digital camera on a tripod was placed above the light box.</p><p>The study demonstrated that at each increasing time interval, the dye diffused deeper into the egg white, with diffusion occurring more rapidly at higher temperatures.</p><p>The experiment can be simplified for home or classroom by using a pot or slow cooker instead of a convection oven, and eggs can be prepared in advance, so students can make all the measurements at the same time. Manual measurements of the penetration distance can replace the imaging method. Soy sauce or marinade of students\' choice could be used instead of food dye solution, allowing students to \"taste\" the differences in diffusion.</p>','2022-03-23 19:20:04.769335','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Institute of Physics','Researchers were inspired by marinated eggs to demonstrate how diffusion works in an easy and quantifiable way. The basis of the recipe is marinating hard boiled eggs in vinegar or brine, which cures the eggs by sufficiently saturating the egg whites via diffusion. In their experiment, the researchers compared penetration levels of red food dye in the whites of peeled hard-boiled eggs at three different temperatures: refrigerator temperature, room temperature, and in a cool convection oven.\n',1,59,'<li>Carson Emeigh, Hyeonggeun (Luke) Bak, Dilziba Kizghin, Haipeng Zhang, Sangjin Ryu. <strong>Marinated eggs: An engaging quantitative demonstration of diffusion</strong>. <em>American Journal of Physics</em>, 2022; 90 (4): 317 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/5.0062178\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1119/5.0062178</a>\n</li>'),(1538,'Antibiotic-resistant Salmonella strains not seen in migrating wild birds','antibiotic-resistant-salmonella-strains-not-seen-in-migrating-wild-birds','2022-03-23 19:20:08.125945',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Although many wild birds carry Salmonella, the strains of the bacteria they convey usually do not harbor antimicrobial-resistance genes, according to Penn State researchers, who led a team conducting a new, nationwide study.</p><p>That\'s good news, according to team leader Ed Dudley, professor of food science, Penn State.</p><p>\"While we\'ve known for a while that wild birds can carry Salmonella, the strains they carry appear to be of lesser concern to human health,\" he said. \"The assumption was that these Salmonella -- like the bacteria we can isolate from domesticated farm animals -- would carry large numbers of antimicrobial-resistance genes. We found the opposite to be true.\"</p><p>Wild birds are known to be common reservoirs of Salmonella enterica, a pathogen that sickens millions of people every year, Dudley explained, and scientists have worried that wild birds carrying antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella enterica pose a risk to public health because they can spread the resistant bacteria across large areas in a short time. This research indicates that wild birds do not serve as important reservoirs of resistant Salmonella enterica strains.</p><p>To reach their conclusion, researchers whole-genome sequenced 375 Salmonella enterica strains from wild birds collected in 41 U.S. states from 1978-2019 to examine bacterial resistance to antibiotics and heavy metals. The study -- which was spearheaded by Yezhi Fu, a postdoctoral researcher in Dudley\'s research group in the College of Agricultural Sciences -- answers important questions about the role migrating birds play in transmitting diseases to humans.</p><p>The researchers reported in Environmental Microbiology that they found Typhimurium was the dominant Salmonella enterica strain, accounting for 68% of the bird isolates. However, less than 2% of those isolates were identified as multi-antimicrobial resistant or resistant to heavy metals. Interestingly, all the multi-resistant Salmonella enterica were isolated from water birds or raptors; none of them was isolated from songbirds.</p><p>The isolates tested in the study came from the National Wildlife Health Center, which is part of a U.S. Geological Survey lab. The federal connection resulted from Dudley\'s research group being part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration\'s Genome Tracker program since 2016. That initiative\'s overarching goal, he noted, is to learn how to use the increasingly powerful ability to sequence bacterial genomes to learn more about food borne pathogens such as Salmonella.</p><p>\"We worked with the National Wildlife Health Center because it has this genetically amazing collection of Salmonella isolates collected over more than 40 years from sick migratory birds,\" he said. \"It is an opportunistic collection for us, and somebody just needed to analyze it. It yielded information we couldn\'t have gotten anywhere else.\"</p><p>Dudley\'s research group continued to analyze that federal collection of wild bird Salmonella isolates, making several other discoveries.</p><p>They reported in <em>Applied and Environmental Microbiology</em> that certain strains of Salmonella were associated with specific hosts. For example, after sequencing 131 Salmonella Typhimurium isolates from wild birds collected in 30 U.S. states, they found that songbirds and waterbirds were likely to host the same strains, while gulls and terns carried distinct, different lineages of the bacteria. The study indicates that Salmonella Typhimurium may have undergone evolution within wild birds in the United States.</p><p>\"We also showed that lineages formed by wild bird isolates differed from most isolates originating from domestic animal sources,\" Dudley said. \"And by using a machine learning classifier, we were able to attribute Typhimurium genomes to various groups of wild birds. That\'s important because identifying host-adapted genomic datasets can improve source prediction and facilitate future disease outbreak investigation.\"</p><p>A third paper added an international aspect to the research, Dudley said. In <em>Microbial Genomics</em>, the researchers reported that they found evidence of common ancestry and evolution of the Salmonella enterica strain Typhimurium in songbirds in the U.K. and U.S., presumably resulting from centuries of bird migration.</p><p>The researchers analyzed publicly available datasets from the U.K., Australia and New Zealand and found that Salmonella strains have been transmitted across the globe. The wild, migrating bird research provides insights into modern-day disease investigations, Dudley suggests.</p><p>\"To find what antibiotics a particular Salmonella strain is resistant to, we don\'t have to run the traditional lab-based tests anymore -- where you grow it on some type of media, expose it to antibiotics, and it either grows or it doesn\'t,\" he said. \"Now, we can sequence the entire genome, and by identifying certain gene markers, we can predict -- with almost perfect precision -- what antibiotics the organism will be resistant to.\"</p><p>Also contributing to the research were: Erin Nawrocki, postdoctoral scholar, Department of Food Science, Penn State; Nkuchia M\'ikanatha, Pennsylvania Department of Health; Jeffrey Lorch, David Blehert and Brenda Berlowski-Zier, U.S. Geological Survey-National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, Wisconsin; Chris Whitehouse, Center for Veterinary Medicine, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Laurel, Maryland; Shaoting Li and Xiangyu Deng, Center for Food Safety, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Georgia, Griffin, Georgia; Jared Smith and Nikki Shariat, Department of Population Health, Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.</p><p>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture supported the study.</p>','2022-03-23 19:20:08.125945','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Penn State','Although many wild birds carry Salmonella, the strains of the bacteria they convey usually do not harbor antimicrobial-resistance genes, according to researchers.\n',1,43,'<li>Yezhi Fu, Jared C. Smith, Nikki W. Shariat, Nkuchia M. M’ikanatha, Edward G. Dudley. <strong>Evidence for common ancestry and microevolution of passerine-adapted Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in the UK and USA</strong>. <em>Microbial Genomics</em>, 2022; 8 (2) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000775\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1099/mgen.0.000775</a>\n</li>'),(1539,'Going door-to-door to save Egypt’s pumpkins and address global food insecurity','going-door-to-door-to-save-egypt’s-pumpkins-and-address-global-food-insecurity','2022-03-23 19:20:09.555151',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">How does one help save an iconic, nutritious Egyptian crop that will help meet the food security challenges resulting from climate change? An international team of researchers, led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, discovered that the best way to start is to drive throughout central and northeastern Egypt, knock on the doors of small farmers, and ask for a handful of their pumpkin seeds.</p><p>The results of that labor, announced recently in <em>Molecular Biology Reports</em>, show that the team has successfully traced the biochemical and molecular variations of nine different pumpkin varieties grown in several climatic zones of central and northeastern Egypt. The research is a crucial first step in identifying which varieties of pumpkins are ideal for conservation and varietal improvement to meet the challenges in achieving food security in a changing world.</p><p>In the United States, we typically think of pumpkins only in the fall, when they appear in pies, cookies and lattes. But in much of the world, pumpkins are a dietary staple and are consumed year-round. Pumpkins are an especially nutritious source of fat, protein, vitamins A, C and E and various disease-fighting compounds that help prevent everything from cancer to reproductive malfunctions. But, as Emad Mady, a graduate student in environmental conservation at UMass Amherst and the paper\'s lead author, notes, not all pumpkins are the same.</p><p>\"I first noticed this in Egypt,\" Mady says. Small Egyptian farmers have been growing the pumpkins for generations, patiently breeding them to thrive in the local conditions, which can vary widely across the country. However, large agricultural corporations have begun introducing pumpkin seeds to Egypt that are not native to the local conditions, threatening the survival of the traditional varieties. Moreover, because these newer commercial seeds have not been bred to the local conditions, they can actually exacerbate the problems of food insecurity</p><p>\"Our goal,\" says Mady, \"is to determine which pumpkin cultivars are best suited for the local environments, and then use these cultivars as the basis for furthering pumpkin production in Egyptian agriculture.\"</p><p>To do so, Mady traveled across the country, visiting with small farmers, walking through their fields and collecting seeds. He then collaborated with colleagues in Egypt at Al-Azhar University and the Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute who ran a series of chemical and molecular tests on the seeds before they could degrade. These tests helped identify the nutritional value of specific local varieties, including their fat, moisture, protein, fiber, mineral and carbohydrate content, as well as the genetic markers that function as a unique fingerprint for each specific variety.</p><p>Once Mady\'s Egyptian colleagues completed their chemical and molecular work, he and his team at UMass Amherst and Springfield Technical Community College in the U.S. analyzed and categorize the findings. What they discovered is that there is significant variation in the nutritional value of the samples Mady collected, and that these varieties can be accurately identified using genetic analyses. Altogether, this collaboration of small farmers and international researchers has shown that local Egyptian pumpkins can be used to help develop future varieties that are highly nutritious and well adapted to Egypt\'s specific environment.</p><p>\"One of the biggest problems in meeting the world\'s food security challenges,\" says Timothy Randhir, professor of environmental conservation at UMass Amherst and one of the study\'s co-authors, \"is an international collaboration that can integrate local knowledge and resources to bring about positive change. This research is a model of how the small farming community and the scientific community can work together to address these pressing needs.\"</p>','2022-03-23 19:20:09.555151','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Massachusetts Amherst','How does one help save an iconic, nutritious Egyptian crop that will help meet the food security challenges resulting from climate change? An international team of researchers discovered that the best way to start is to drive throughout central and northeastern Egypt, knock on the doors of small farmers, and ask for a handful of their pumpkin seeds.\n',1,70,'<li>Emad Mady, Shafik D. Ibrahim, Reena Randhir, Ahmed F. Abd El-Hakim, Timothy O. Randhir. <strong>Genetic variation among pumpkin landraces based on seed qualities and molecular markers</strong>. <em>Molecular Biology Reports</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11033-022-07233-3\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1007/s11033-022-07233-3</a>\n</li>'),(1540,'Don’t underestimate undulating graphene','don’t-underestimate-undulating-graphene','2022-03-23 19:20:13.698129',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Lay some graphene down on a wavy surface, and you\'ll get a guide to one possible future of two-dimensional electronics.</p><p>Rice University scientists put forth the idea that growing atom-thick graphene on a gently textured surface creates peaks and valleys in the sheets that turn them into \"pseudo-electromagnetic\" devices.</p><p>The channels create their own minute but detectable magnetic fields. According to a study by materials theorist Boris Yakobson, alumnus Henry Yu and research scientist Alex Kutana at Rice\'s George R. Brown School of Engineering, these could facilitate nanoscale optical devices like converging lenses or collimators.</p><p>Their study appears in the American Chemical Society\'s <em>Nano Letters</em>.</p><p>They also promise a way to achieve a Hall effect -- a voltage difference across the strongly conducting graphene -- that could facilitate valleytronics applications that manipulate how electrons are trapped in \"valleys\" in an electronic band structure.</p><p>Valleytronics are related to spintronics, in which a device\'s memory bits are defined by an electron\'s quantum spin state. But in valleytronics, electrons have degrees of freedom in the multiple momentum states (or valleys) they occupy. These can also be read as bits.</p><p>This is all possible because graphene, while it may be one of the strongest known structures, is pliable enough as it adheres to a surface during chemical vapor deposition.</p><p>\"Substrate sculpting imparts deformation, which in turn alters the material electronic structure and changes its optical response or electric conductivity,\" said Yu, now a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. \"For sharper substrate features beyond the pliability of the material, one can engineer defect placements in the materials, which creates even more drastic changes in material properties.\"</p><p>Yakobson compared the process to depositing a sheet of graphene on an egg crate. The bumps in the crate deform the graphene, stressing it in a way that creates an electromagnetic field even without electrical or magnetic input.</p><p>\"The endless designs of substrate shapes allow for countless optical devices that can be created, making possible 2D electron optics,\" Yakobson said. \"This technology is a precise and efficient way of transmitting material carriers in 2D electronic devices, compared to traditional methods.\"</p><p>Yakobson is the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering and a professor of chemistry.</p><p>The Office of Naval Research (N00014-18-1-2182) and the Army Research Office (W911NF-16-1-0255) supported the research.<em><br/></em></p>','2022-03-23 19:20:13.698129','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Rice University','A theory suggests putting graphene on an undulating surface stresses it enough to create a minute electromagnetic field. The phenomenon could be useful for creating 2D electron optics or valleytronics devices.\n',1,61,'<li>Henry Yu, Alex Kutana, Boris I. Yakobson. <strong>Electron Optics and Valley Hall Effect of Undulated Graphene</strong>. <em>Nano Letters</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c00103\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c00103</a>\n</li>'),(1541,'New method of pancreatic islet cryopreservation marks breakthrough for diabetes cure','new-method-of-pancreatic-islet-cryopreservation-marks-breakthrough-for-diabetes-cure','2022-03-23 19:20:18.495150',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Engineering and medical researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and Mayo Clinic have developed a new process for successfully storing specialized pancreatic islet cells at very low temperatures and rewarming them, enabling the potential for on-demand islet transplantation. The breakthrough discovery in cryopreservation is a major step forward in a cure for diabetes.</p><p>According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for nearly 90,000 deaths each year. While diabetes management has improved greatly over the 100 years since the discovery of insulin, even the most modern methods remain a treatment for the condition rather than a cure.</p><p>Pancreatic islet cell transplantation -- a process where doctors take groups of cells from a healthy pancreas and transfer them to a recipient, which then begin to make and release insulin on their own -- is one method being explored to cure diabetes. One of the main limitations of this approach is that transplants from a single donor are often insufficient to achieve insulin independence in the recipient. Frequently, two, three, or more donor islet infusions are required, which adds risks associated with repeated surgical interventions and multiple rounds of strong immunosuppression induction.</p><p>One strategy for overcoming the donor supply problem is to pool islets from multiple donors, achieving high islet dosage with a single infusion. This process is limited by the inability to safely store islets for long periods of time. Previous research has shown storage to be limited to 48 to 72 hours before transplantation.</p><p>In new research published in <em>Nature Medicine</em>, University of Minnesota researchers have developed a new method of islet cryopreservation that solves the storage problem by enabling quality-controlled, long-term preservation of the islet cells that can be pooled and used for transplant.</p><p>The study was led by John Bischof, PhD, a mechanical engineering Distinguished McKnight University Professor and director of the University\'s Institute for Engineering in Medicine, and Erik Finger, MD, PhD, associate professor of surgery in the University of Minnesota Medical School, M Health Fairview. Both Bischof and Finger are a part of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio) and co-direct the Center for Organ Preservation at the University of Minnesota.</p><p>The study found:</p><p>\"Our work provides the first islet cryopreservation protocol that simultaneously achieves high viability and function in a clinically scalable protocol,\" Bischof said. \"This method could revolutionize the supply chain for islet isolation, allocation, and storage before transplant. Through pooling cryopreserved islets prior to transplant from multiple pancreases, the method will not only cure more patients, but also make better use of the precious gift of donor pancreases.\"</p><p>The researchers also pointed out that this method has the ability to be scaled up to reach large numbers of people worldwide who suffer from this progressively debilitating disease.</p><p>\"This exciting development by our multidisciplinary research team brings engineering approaches to solve an important medical challenge -- the cure of diabetes,\" said Finger. \"Despite decades of research, islet transplantation has remained \'just around the corner;\' ever with great promise, but never quite within reach. Our technique for cryopreserving islets for transplantation could be a significant step towards finally achieving that lofty goal.\"</p><p>In addition to Bischof and Finger, the research team included from the University of Minnesota co-first author postdoctoral fellows Li Zhan (mechanical engineering) and Joseph Sushil Rao (surgery). Also part of the study team were Nikhil Sethia (chemical engineering and materials science), Zonghu Han (mechanical engineering), Diane Tobolt (surgery), Michael Etheridge (mechanical engineering), and Cari S. Dutcher (mechanical engineering; chemical engineering and materials science). Mayo Clinic researchers who were part of the team included Michael Q. Slama and Quinn P. Peterson.</p><p>This work was supported by grants from Regenerative Medicine Minnesota, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Additional funding was provided by the University of Minnesota\'s Schulze Diabetes Institute, the Division of Transplantation at the Department of Surgery, Kuhrmeyer Chair in Mechanical Engineering, and the Bakken Chair in the Institute for Engineering in Medicine. The researchers also acknowledge the J.W Kieckhefer Foundation, the Stephen and Barbara Slaggie Family, and the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation for supporting this work. The University of Minnesota\'s Characterization Facility was used in this research.</p><p>Video: <a href=\"https://youtu.be/VoLyLgT9Tuc\">https://youtu.be/VoLyLgT9Tuc</a></p>','2022-03-23 19:20:18.495150','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Minnesota','Engineering and medical researchers have developed a new process for successfully storing specialized pancreatic islet cells at very low temperatures and rewarming them, enabling the potential for on-demand islet transplantation. The breakthrough discovery in cryopreservation is a major step forward in a cure for diabetes.\n',1,46,'<li>Li Zhan, Joseph Sushil Rao, Nikhil Sethia, Michael Q. Slama, Zonghu Han, Diane Tobolt, Michael Etheridge, Quinn P. Peterson, Cari S. Dutcher, John C. Bischof, Erik B. Finger. <strong>Pancreatic islet cryopreservation by vitrification achieves high viability, function, recovery and clinical scalability for transplantation</strong>. <em>Nature Medicine</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01718-1\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41591-022-01718-1</a>\n</li>'),(1542,'Chemical found in leafy greens shown to slow growth of COVID-19 and common cold viruses','chemical-found-in-leafy-greens-shown-to-slow-growth-of-covid-19-and-common-cold-viruses','2022-03-23 20:25:56.636376',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at Johns Hopkins Children\'s Center report evidence from lab experiments that a chemical derived from a compound found abundantly in broccoli and other cruciferous plants may offer a potentially new and potent weapon against the viruses that cause COVID-19 and the common cold. COVID-19 has already killed more than 6 million people worldwide, and studies have shown that common colds cost an estimated economic loss of $25 billion in the U.S. alone each year.</p><p>In a study described March 18 in the <em>Nature</em> journal <em>Communications Biology</em>, the scientists showed that sulforaphane, a plant-derived chemical, known as a phytochemical, already found to have anti-cancer effects, can inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and another human coronavirus in cells and mice.</p><p>While the results are promising, the researchers caution the public against rushing to buy sulforaphane supplements available online and in stores, noting that studies of sulforaphane in humans are necessary before the chemical is proven effective, and emphasizing the lack of regulation covering such supplements.</p><p>Sulforaphane\'s natural precursor is particularly abundant in broccoli, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts. First identified as a \"chemopreventive\" compound by a team of Johns Hopkins scientists decades ago, natural sulforaphane is derived from common food sources, such as broccoli seeds, sprouts and mature plants, as well as infusions of sprouts or seeds for drinking. Previous studies, including those at Johns Hopkins Medicine, have shown sulforaphane to have cancer and infection-prevention properties by way of interfering with certain cellular processes.</p><p>\"When the COVID-19 pandemic started, our multidisciplinary research teams switched our investigations of other viruses and bacteria to focus on a potential treatment for what was then a challenging new virus for us,\" says Children\'s Center microbiologist Lori Jones-Brando, Ph.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the senior author of the paper. \"I was screening multiple compounds for anti-coronavirus activity and decided to try sulforaphane since it has shown modest activity against other microbial agents that we study.\" The researchers used purified, synthetic sulforaphane purchased from commercial chemical suppliers in their experiments.</p><p>In one experiment, the research team first exposed cells to sulforaphane for one to two hours before infecting the cells with SARS-CoV-2 and the common cold coronavirus, HCoV-OC43. They found that low micromolar (µM) concentrations of sulforaphane (2.4-31 µM) reduced the replication by 50% of six strains of SARS-CoV-2, including the delta and omicron variants, as well as that of the HCoV-OC43 coronavirus. The investigators also observed similar results with cells that had been previously infected with the viruses, in which the protective effects of sulforaphane were seen even with an already established virus infection.</p><p>The group also examined the effects of sulforaphane when combined with remdesivir, an antiviral medication used to shorten the recovery of hospitalized adults with COVID-19 infections. In their findings, remdesivir inhibited 50% of the replication of HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 at 22 µM and 4 µM, respectively. Further, the research team reports that sulforaphane and remdesivir interacted synergistically at several combination ratios to reduce by 50% the viral burden in cells infected with HCoV-OC43 or SARS-CoV-2. In this context, synergism means that lower doses of both sulforaphane (for example, 1.6-3.2 µM) and remdesivir (for example, 0.5-3.2 µM), when combined, are more effective against the viruses than either applied alone.</p><p>\"Historically, we have learned that the combination of multiple compounds in a treatment regimen is an ideal strategy to treat viral infections,\" says Alvaro Ordonez, M.D., the first author of the paper and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. \"The fact that sulforaphane and remdesivir work better combined than alone is very encouraging.\"</p><p>The researchers then conducted studies in a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection. They found that giving 30 milligrams of sulforaphane per kilogram of body weight to mice before infecting them with the virus significantly decreased the loss of body weight that\'s typically associated with virus infection (7.5% decrease). Further, the pretreatment resulted in a statistically significant decrease in both the viral load, or amount of virus, in the lungs (17% decrease) and upper respiratory tract (9% decrease) as well as the amount of lung injury (29% decrease) compared with infected mice that were not given sulforaphane. The compound also decreased inflammation in the lungs, protecting the cells from a hyperactive immune response that seems to be one of the driving factors that has caused many people to die from COVID-19.</p><p>\"What we found is that sulforaphane is antiviral against HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses while also helping control the immune response,\" Ordonez says. \"This multifunctional activity makes it an interesting compound to use against these viral infections, as well as those caused by other human coronaviruses.\"</p><p>The team plans to conduct studies in humans to evaluate if sulforaphane can be effective in preventing or treating these infections.</p><p>\"Despite the introduction of vaccines and other medications that can have side effects, effective antiviral agents are still necessary to prevent and treat COVID-19, particularly considering the potential effects of new coronavirus variants arising in the population,\" Jones-Brando says. \"Sulforaphane could be a promising treatment that is less expensive, safe and readily available commercially.\"</p><p>Along with Jones-Brando and Ordonez, other Johns Hopkins Medicine authors of the paper include C. Korin Bullen, Andres F. Villabona-Rueda, Elizabeth A. Thompson, Mitchell L. Turner, Vanessa F. Merino, Yu Yan, John Kim, Stephanie L. Davis, Oliver Komm, Jonathan D. Powell, Franco R. D\'Alessio, Robert H. Yolken and Sanjay K. Jain.</p><p>The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Mercatus Center, the Center for Infection and Inflammation Imaging Research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Stanley Medical Research Institute.</p><p>Jones-Brando, Ordonez, Yolken and Jain are co-inventors on a pending patent application (USPA 22 719 #63/142,598), \"Methods for inhibiting coronaviruses using sulforaphane\" filed by The Johns Hopkins University. All other authors have no competing interests.</p>','2022-03-23 20:25:56.636376','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Johns Hopkins Medicine','A study in mice and lab-grown cells finds sulforaphane could help prevent and treat illnesses caused by certain coronaviruses, including COVID-19.\n',1,52,'<li>Alvaro A. Ordonez, C. Korin Bullen, Andres F. Villabona-Rueda, Elizabeth A. Thompson, Mitchell L. Turner, Vanessa F. Merino, Yu Yan, John Kim, Stephanie L. Davis, Oliver Komm, Jonathan D. Powell, Franco R. D’Alessio, Robert H. Yolken, Sanjay K. Jain, Lorraine Jones-Brando. <strong>Sulforaphane exhibits antiviral activity against pandemic SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal HCoV-OC43 coronaviruses in vitro and in mice</strong>. <em>Communications Biology</em>, 2022; 5 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03189-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s42003-022-03189-z</a>\n</li>'),(1543,'Atossa – The protein queen commanding cell invasion','atossa-–-the-protein-queen-commanding-cell-invasion','2022-03-23 20:25:58.371649',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">For life to survive, it needs to respond to challenges, particularly by adapting the activity of its immune system. As we have seen with Covid, outside infectious agents are constantly trying to gain a foothold within the body. But how can immune cells move into new tissues to find and destroy such infections? By investigating this crucial process, Professor Daria Siekhaus and Dr. Shamsi Emtenani from her group at ISTA ended up answering an even bigger question: What governs the energy needed for cell invasion?</p><p>They discovered a two-fold program that boosts energy production inside immune cells, thereby supplying the power needed for their invasion into tissues. This novel pathway is governed by a previously unstudied protein which they named Atossa after a Persian queen. While the experiments were done in the fruit fly, the researchers\' results show that similar proteins in mammals exhibit the same function. \"There is a plethora of potential for how this work can lead to new perspectives of human physiology, because boosting energy production is essential in so many cells throughout the human body,\" says lead author Emtenani. Their collaborative work with the University of Albany, University of Toronto, the CeMM Research Center and the Vienna BioCenter is now published in the journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).</p><p><strong>Atossa, ruling to boost energy</strong></p><p>For cells, pushing surroundings out of the way and moving into tissues is energetically costly. The immune system ramps up energy by using mitochondria, the cell\'s internal powerhouse. Mitochondria turn various constituents like sugar into ATP, the cellular currency of energy. The researchers have now found that one protein, Atossa, orchestrates a cascade that regulates and improves the capacity of mitochondria to produce energy.</p><p>\"Atossa acts as both an accelerator pedal and a gear shift,\" explains Siekhaus. \"First, the protein activates two metabolic enzymes that help send more fuel into the mitochondrial factory, and second, it shifts the mitochondria into a higher gear.\" This gear shift is caused by Atossa\'s increasing the levels of the protein Porthos, an RNA helicase named after one of the three musketeers known for their faithfulness in serving their queen. Then, Porthos aids the assembly of the machinery that enables protein production through translation, including many that raise mitochondrial activity and thus energy production.</p><p><strong>Pioneering fly work relevant for human health</strong></p><p>By live imaging of fruit fly embryos, the researchers were able to detect a clear reduction in cell migration in the absence of Atossa. Also, Atossa\'s function is only needed in pioneer cells. Much like an expedition through a thicket, the first cells do the hard work of clearing a path with the machete and thus need more energy. With the support of collaborator Dr. Thomas Köcher from the Vienna BioCenter, the ISTA scientists compared the energy levels with and without the Atossa gene and confirmed that Atossa indeed enhances them.</p><p>A master regulator like Atossa is, however, not only present in fruit flies. The responsible protein code in flies is 44 percent identical to comparable ones in humans. Indeed, the researchers demonstrated that the mammalian genes can substitute for the function of the fruit fly protein. \"We are very intrigued by the possibilities this opens up. Atossa could be of key importance for upregulating energy production. In immune cells, this is relevant for example in antibody production and the specification of white blood cells. Atossa-like proteins are also found in brain cells. Here, defects have been shown to underlie neurodegenerative diseases,\" says Siekhaus, pointing to future research avenues.</p><p><strong>The legacy of an Iranian woman</strong></p><p>\"Fly work is the premiere place to nail down complicated genetic mechanisms and identify new things. It takes enormous courage and great cleverness to analyze something completely unexplored. To me, Shamsi\'s work, proving every step of the cascade, is an example of the best science you can do in this field,\" Siekhaus lauds the Iranian, who has joined her laboratory in 2015. Shamsi Emtenani adds: \"I looked at this specific gene out of curiosity. The exciting thing is: If you are the first one that discovers a gene\'s function in the fruit fly field, you get the chance to name its protein.\"</p><p>Formerly indexed as CG9005, Emtenani named the protein Atossa. Since the pioneer cells move in a line, one by one, almost like a stream of water, she chose the name of a Persian queen from the Achaemenid Empire. \"Atossa literally means \'trickling\' and it connects to my background. It seemed fitting as well for a queen who commands three proteins -- one of them a musketeer -- responsible for making cells invade new territories.\"</p><p>Video of cell invasion: <a href=\"https://youtu.be/cYZXN2kbL2w\">https://youtu.be/cYZXN2kbL2w</a></p><p>Video explaining function of the protein Atossa: <a href=\"https://youtu.be/6AOtWFvpdnk\">https://youtu.be/6AOtWFvpdnk</a></p>','2022-03-23 20:25:58.371649','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Institute of Science and Technology Austria','Immune cells are our body\'s police force, but how can they reach the crime scene fast? Researchers have now discovered a new protein that boosts energy production inside immune cells and thus increases their power to invade. Apart from improving immune responses, the results could revolutionize our understanding of energy regulation in cells throughout the human body.\n',1,91,'<li>Shamsi Emtenani, Elliot T Martin, Attila Gyoergy, Julia Bicher, Jakob‐Wendelin Genger, Thomas Köcher, Maria Akhmanova, Mariana Guarda, Marko Roblek, Andreas Bergthaler, Thomas R Hurd, Prashanth Rangan, Daria E Siekhaus. <strong>Macrophage mitochondrial bioenergetics and tissue invasion are boosted by an Atossa‐Porthos axis in Drosophila</strong>. <em>The EMBO Journal</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.15252/embj.2021109049\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.15252/embj.2021109049</a>\n</li>'),(1544,'Dense bones allowed Spinosaurus to hunt underwater','dense-bones-allowed-spinosaurus-to-hunt-underwater','2022-03-23 20:26:07.468215',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\"><em>Spinosaurus</em> is the largest predatory dinosaur known -- over two metres longer than the longest <em>Tyrannosaurus rex </em>- but the way it hunted has been a subject of debate for decades.</p><p>In a new paper, published today in <em>Nature,</em> a group of palaeontologists have taken a different approach to decipher the lifestyle of long-extinct creatures: examining the density of their bones.</p><p>By analysing the density of spinosaurid bones and comparing them to other animals like penguins, hippos, and alligators, the team found that <em>Spinosaurus</em> and its close relative <em>Baryonyx</em> from the Cretaceous of the UK both had dense bones that would have allowed them to submerge themselves underwater to hunt.</p><p>Scientists already knew that spinosaurids had certain affinities with water -- their elongate jaws and cone-shaped teeth are similar to those of fish-eating predators, and the ribcage of <em>Baryonyx</em>, from Surrey, even contained half-digested fish scales.</p><p>In the last decade University of Portsmouth palaeontologist and National Geographic Explorer Dr Nizar Ibrahim unearthed different parts of a <em>Spinosaurus </em>skeleton in North Africa\'s Sahara Desert. The skeleton Dr Ibrahim and his team described had retracted nostrils, short hind legs, paddle-like feet, and a fin-like tail: all signs that firmly pointed to an aquatic lifestyle.</p><p>Dr Ibrahim said: \"We battled sandstorms, flooding, snakes, scorpions and more to excavate the most enigmatic dinosaur in the world and now we have multiple lines of evidence all pointing in the same direction -- the skeleton really has \"water-loving dinosaur\" written all over it!\"</p><p>Based on its highly specialised anatomy, Dr Ibrahim and his team previously suggested that <em>Spinosaurus </em>could swim and actively pursue prey in the water, but others claimed that it was not much of a swimmer and instead waded in the water like a giant heron.</p><p>Researchers have continued to debate whether <em>Spinosaurus</em> spent much of its time submerged, pursuing prey in the water, or if it just stood in the shallows and dipped its jaws in to snap up prey.</p><p>\"In part this is probably because we were challenging decade-old dogma -- so even if you have a very strong case, you kind of expect a certain degree of pushback,\" Dr Ibrahim said.</p><p>This continuing debate led lead author Dr Matteo Fabbri, based at Chicago\'s Field Museum, senior author Dr Ibrahim and an international team of researchers to try to find another way to infer the lifestyle and ecology of long-extinct creatures like <em>Spinosaurus</em>.</p><p>Dr Fabbri said: \"The idea for our study was, okay, clearly we can interpret the fossil data in different ways. But what about the general physical laws? There are certain laws that are applicable to any organism on this planet. One of these laws regards density and the capability of submerging into water.\"</p><p>Across the animal kingdom, bone density can tell us whether an animal is able to sink beneath the surface and swim.</p><p>\"Previous studies have shown that mammals adapted to water have dense, compact bone in their postcranial (behind the skull) skeletons,\" said Fabbri, an expert on the internal structure of bone. Dense bone helps with buoyancy control and allows the animal to submerge itself.</p><p>The team assembled a very large dataset of femur and rib bone cross-sections from 250 species of extinct and living animals, including both land-dwellers and water-dwellers, and covering animals ranging in weight from a few grams to several tonnes including seals, whales, elephants, mice, and even hummingbirds.</p><p>They also collected data on extinct marine reptiles like mosasaurs and plesiosaurs. The researchers compared bone cross sections of these animals to cross-sections of bone from <em>Spinosaurus</em> and its relatives <em>Baryonyx</em> and <em>Suchomimus</em>.</p><p>Dr Ibrahim said: \"The scope of our study kept expanding because we kept thinking of more and more groups of vertebrates to include.\"</p><p>The scientists found a clear link between bone density and aquatic foraging behavior: animals that submerge themselves underwater to find food have bones that are almost completely solid throughout, whereas cross-sections of land-dwellers\' bones look more like doughnuts, with hollow centres.</p><p>When the researchers applied spinosaurid dinosaur bones to this paradigm, they found that <em>Spinosaurus</em> and <em>Baryonyx</em> both had the type of dense bone associated with full submersion.</p><p>Meanwhile, the closely related African <em>Suchomimus</em> had hollower bones. It still lived by water and ate fish, as evidenced by its crocodile-like snout and conical teeth, but based on its bone density, it wasn\'t actually swimming much. \"That was a bit of a surprise\" according to Ibrahim, \"because <em>Baryonyx</em> and <em>Suchomimus</em> look rather similar.\" But the team soon realised that it was not out of the ordinary and similar patterns can be seen in other groups.</p><p>Other dinosaurs, like the giant long-necked sauropods also had some dense bones in their limbs, but this simply reflects the huge amount of stress on those limb bones.</p><p>Dr Ibrahim said: \"Some of these animals would have weighed as much as several elephants so adding extra load-bearing capacity to the bones makes a lot of sense!.\"</p><p>Dr Jingmai O\'Connor, a curator at the Field Museum and co-author of this study, says that collaborative studies like this one that draw from hundreds of specimens, are \"the future of palaeontology. They\'re very time-consuming to do, but they let scientists shed light onto big patterns.\"</p><p>Dr Ibrahim is already thinking about the next questions. \"I think that, with this additional line of evidence, speculative notions that envisage <em>Spinosaurus</em> as some sort of giant wader lack evidential support and can be safely excluded. The bones don\'t lie, and now we know than even the internal architecture of the bones is entirely consistent with our interpretation of this animal as a giant predator hunting fish in vast rivers, using its paddle-like tail for propulsion. It will be interesting to reconstruct in a lot more detail how these river monsters moved around -- something we are already working on.\"</p>','2022-03-23 20:26:07.468215','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Portsmouth','Spinosaurus is the largest predatory dinosaur known -- over two metres longer than the longest Tyrannosaurus rex -- but the way it hunted has been a subject of debate for decades. In a new paper, palaeontologists have taken a different approach to decipher the lifestyle of long-extinct creatures: examining the density of their bones.\n',1,116,'<li>Matteo Fabbri, Guillermo Navalón, Roger B. J. Benson, Diego Pol, Jingmai O’Connor, Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar, Gregory M. Erickson, Mark A. Norell, Andrew Orkney, Matthew C. Lamanna, Samir Zouhri, Justine Becker, Amanda Emke, Cristiano Dal Sasso, Gabriele Bindellini, Simone Maganuco, Marco Auditore, Nizar Ibrahim. <strong>Subaqueous foraging among carnivorous dinosaurs</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04528-0\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04528-0</a>\n</li>'),(1545,'New study of Yellowstone National Park shines new light on once hidden details of the famous American landmark','new-study-of-yellowstone-national-park-shines-new-light-on-once-hidden-details-of-the-famous-american-landmark','2022-03-23 20:26:12.227290',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The geysers and fumaroles of Yellowstone National Park are among the most iconic and popular geological features on our planet. Each year, millions of visitors travel to the park to marvel at the towering eruptions of Old Faithful, the bubbling mud cauldrons of Artists Paint Pots, the crystal-clear water and iridescent colors of Grand Prismatic Spring, and the stacked travertine terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs.</p><p>Those who have visited the park may have asked themselves, \"Where does all the hot water come from?\" A study published this week in <em>Nature</em>, co-authored by Virginia Tech\'s W. Steven Holbrook and colleagues from the U.S. Geological Survey and Aarhus University in Denmark, provides stunning subsurface images that begin to answer that question.</p><p>The research team used geophysical data collected from a helicopter to create images of Yellowstone\'s subsurface \"plumbing\" system. The method detects features with unusual electrical and magnetic properties indicative of hydrothermal alteration.</p><p>\"The combination of high electrical conductivity and low magnetization is like a fingerprint of hydrothermal activity that shows up very clearly in the data,\" said Holbrook, a professor of geophysics and head of the Department of Geosciences in Virginia Tech\'s College of Science. \"The method is essentially a hydrothermal pathway detector.\"</p><p>Images from the study show that the park\'s geology profoundly shapes its hot springs. Hot hydrothermal fluids ascend nearly vertically, from depths of more than 1 km (or .62 miles), to arrive at the park\'s major hydrothermal fields. Along the way, they mix with shallower groundwater flowing within and beneath the park\'s volcanic lava flows, which also are visible in the images. Faults and fractures guide the ascent of hydrothermal waters, while lava flow boundaries control the shallow groundwater aquifers.</p><p>The project fills in a longstanding knowledge gap about the underpinnings of Yellowstone\'s charismatic hydrothermal features. Much is known about the park\'s surface hydrothermal features, including the chemistry and temperature of mud pots and springs, the eruption interval of geysers, and the unique thermophilic bacteria that live in and around those features.</p><p>Likewise, scientists have a growing body of knowledge about the deeper heat sources and tectonic activity by tracking earthquakes that occur there. But little is known about how the surface hydrothermal features are connected to each other and to the deeper sources of heat and fluids.</p><p>\"Our knowledge of Yellowstone has long had a subsurface gap,\" Holbook said. \"It\'s like a \'mystery sandwich\' -- we know a lot about the surface features from direct observation and a fair amount about the magmatic and tectonic system several kilometers down from geophysical work, but we don\'t really know what\'s in the middle. This project has enabled us to fill in those gaps for the first time.\"</p><p>To collect the data, the team used a unique instrument called \"SkyTEM\" that consists of a large loop of wire towed beneath a helicopter. As the helicopter flies, the loop sends downward repeated electromagnetic signals that provoke a response from electrically conductive bodies in the subsurface.</p><p>That response is recorded and later analyzed to produce detailed cross-sections along the flight lines. The technique is highly effective in environments like Yellowstone: hydrothermal fluids alter the rocks they pass through, turning rock into clay minerals -- for example, the surface mud pots -- that have heightened electrical conductivity but suppressed magnetization.</p><p>Because the helicopter is able to travel at speeds of 40 to 50 mph while towing the SkyTEM instrument, scientists involved in the study were able to cover large swaths of the sprawling, 3,500-square-mile national park, Holbrook said.</p><p>\"One of the unique aspects of this dataset is its extensive coverage of this huge system,\" Holbrook added. \"We were able not just to look deep beneath the hydrothermal features, but also to see how adjacent features might be connected in the subsurface across great distances. That\'s never been possible before.\"</p><p>One of the mysteries addressed by the new work is whether different hydrothermal areas in the park show contrasting deep fluid sources and pathways. The team found a remarkable similarity in the deep structure beneath areas such as Norris Geyser Basin and Lower Geyser Basin, suggesting that contrasts in the chemistry and temperatures of those areas are not caused by deep processes. Instead, variable degrees of mixing with shallow groundwater likely create the wide variety of hot spring characteristics in the park.</p><p>Overall, the project generated more than 2,500 miles of helicopter lines, an enormous amount of data, according to Holbrook. Upon the study\'s publication last month, the research team released the data so that others can undertake additional research.</p><p>\"The data set is so big that we\'ve only scratched the surface with this first paper,\" Holbrook added. \"I look forward to continuing to work on this data and to seeing what others come up with, too. It\'s going to be a data set that keeps on giving.\"</p><p>Before coming to Virginia Tech in 2017, Holbrook was part of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming. He also co-directed the Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics. He said, \"I\'ve made several field trips to collect ground-based geophysical data in Yellowstone. The airborne data covers a lot more ground much more quickly than we could by hiking gear into the backcountry, though.\"</p><p>Carol Finn of the U.S. Geological Survey and lead author on the study said, \"While the airborne data were still being collected, we saw the first images over Old Faithful and knew instantly that our experiment had worked -- that we could, for the first time, image the fluid pathways that had long been speculated.\"</p><p>She added, \"Our work has sparked considerable interest across a range of disciplines, including biologists looking to link areas of groundwater and gas mixing to regions of extreme microbiological diversity, geologists wanting to estimate volumes of lava flows, and hydrologists interested in modeling flow paths of groundwater and thermal fluid. With the paper as a guide and the release of the data and models, we will enable research in these diverse scientific communities.\"</p><p>One mystery that Holbrook is interested in pursuing further is evidence for distant connections between isolated surface hydrothermal areas. The SkyTEM data show evidence for subsurface linkages between hydrothermal systems that are up to 6 miles apart.</p><p>\"That might have implications for the co-evolution of thermophilic bacteria and Archaea,\" Holbrook said. \"The notion that airborne geophysical data could illuminate something about the life of microscopic organisms living around hot springs is a fascinating idea.\"</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-23 20:26:12.227290','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Virginia Tech','Those who have visited the park may have asked themselves, \'Where does all the hot water come from?\' A study now provides stunning subsurface images that begin to answer that question.\n',1,104,'<li>Carol A. Finn, Paul A. Bedrosian, W. Steven Holbrook, Esben Auken, Benjamin R. Bloss, Jade Crosbie. <strong>Geophysical imaging of the Yellowstone hydrothermal plumbing system</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; 603 (7902): 643 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04379-1\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-021-04379-1</a>\n</li>'),(1546,'Quantum sensors: Measuring even more precisely','quantum-sensors:-measuring-even-more-precisely','2022-03-23 20:26:15.326919',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Atomic clocks are the best sensors humankind has ever built. Today, they can be found in national standards institutes or satellites of navigation systems. Scientists all over the world are working to further optimize the precision of these clocks. Now, a research group led by Peter Zoller, a theorist from Innsbruck, Austria, has developed a new concept that can be used to operate sensors with even greater precision irrespective of which technical platform is used to make the sensor. \"We answer the question of how precise a sensor can be with existing control capabilities, and give a recipe for how this can be achieved,\" explain Denis Vasilyev and Raphael Kaubrügger from Peter Zoller\'s group at the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Innsbruck.</p><p>For this purpose, the physicists use a method from quantum information processing: variational quantum algorithms describe a circuit of quantum gates that depends on free parameters. Through optimization routines, the sensor autonomously finds the best settings for an optimal result. \"We applied this technique to a problem from metrology -- the science of measurement,\" Vasilyev and Kaubrügger explain. \"This is exciting because historically advances in atomic physics were motivated by metrology, and in turn quantum information processing emerged from that. So, we\'ve come full circle here,\" Peter Zoller enthuses. With the new approach, scientists can optimize quantum sensors to the point where they achieve the best possible precision technically permissible.</p><p><strong>Better measurements with little extra effort</strong></p><p>For some time, it has been understood that atomic clocks could run even more accurately by exploiting quantum mechanical entanglement. However, there has been a lack of methods to realize robust entanglement for such applications. The Innsbruck physicists are now using tailor-made entanglement that is precisely tuned to real-world requirements. With their method, they generate exactly the combination consisting of quantum state and measurements that is optimal for each individual quantum sensor. This allows the precision of the sensor to be brought close to the optimum possible according to the laws of nature, with only a slight increase in overhead. \"In the development of quantum computers, we have learned to create tailored entangled states,\" says Christian Marciniak from the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck. \"We are now using this knowledge to build better sensors.\"</p><p><strong>Demonstrating quantum advantage with sensors</strong></p><p>This theoretical concept was now implemented in practice for the first time at the University of Innsbruck, as the research group led by Thomas Monz and Rainer Blatt now reported in Nature. The physicists performed frequency measurements based on variational quantum calculations on their ion trap quantum computer. Because the interactions used in linear ion traps are still relatively easy to simulate on classical computers, the theory colleagues were able to check the necessary parameters on a supercomputer at the University of Innsbruck. Although the experimental setup is by no means perfect, the results agree surprisingly well with the theoretically predicted values. Since such simulations are not feasible for all sensors, the scientists demonstrated a second approach: They used methods to automatically optimize the parameters without prior knowledge. \"Similar to machine learning, the programmable quantum computer finds its optimal mode autonomously as a high-precision sensor,\" says experimental physicist Thomas Feldker, describing the underlying mechanism.</p><p>\"Our concept makes it possible to demonstrate the advantage of quantum technologies over classical computers on a problem of practical relevance,\" emphasizes Peter Zoller. \"We have demonstrated a crucial component of quantum-enhanced atomic clocks with our variational Ramsey interferometry. Running this in a dedicated atomic clock is the next step. What has so far only been shown for calculations of questionable practical relevance could now be demonstrated with a programmable quantum sensor in the near future -- quantum advantage.\"</p><p>The research was financially supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the Research Promotion Agency FFG, the European Union within the framework of the Quantum Flagship and the Federation of Austrian Industries Tyrol, among others.</p>','2022-03-23 20:26:15.326919','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Innsbruck','Two teams of physicists have designed the first programmable quantum sensor, and tested it in the laboratory. To do so they applied techniques from quantum information processing to a measurement problem. The innovative method promises quantum sensors whose precision reaches close to the limit set by the laws of nature.\n',1,68,'<li>Christian D. Marciniak, Thomas Feldker, Ivan Pogorelov, Raphael Kaubruegger, Denis V. Vasilyev, Rick van Bijnen, Philipp Schindler, Peter Zoller, Rainer Blatt, Thomas Monz. <strong>Optimal metrology with programmable quantum sensors</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; 603 (7902): 604 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04435-4\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04435-4</a>\n</li>'),(1547,'Study finds complex relationships between bacteria and markers of lower airway infection and inflammation in cystic fibrosis','study-finds-complex-relationships-between-bacteria-and-markers-of-lower-airway-infection-and-inflammation-in-cystic-fibrosis','2022-03-23 20:26:18.469453',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The lower airways of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) have unique biochemical features that correlate with the complex communities of lung bacteria typical of this disease, according to a multicenter study led by researchers from Ann &amp; Robert H. Lurie Children\'s Hospital of Chicago. These findings offer insights into the underlying biological mechanisms driving infection and inflammation in the CF lungs, and may help develop novel targeted therapies and more precise diagnostics to improve the care of children with CF. Results were published in the journal <em>Frontiers of Cellular and Infection Microbiology</em>.</p><p>Chronic airway infection and inflammation resulting in progressive, obstructive lung disease is the leading cause of illness and death in people with CF. To better understand the biological mechanisms of infection and inflammation, in a study conducted Lurie Children\'s in collaboration with researchers at Children\'s Hospital Colorado and the University of Minnesota, several metabolites were measured in 90 bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples acquired from bronchoscopy. These lower airway samples were collected from children with and without CF. Researchers also used genetic sequencing to characterize the bacterial communities present in these samples, which were then correlated to the metabolites in the lungs.</p><p>\"Our study was the first to both examine these metabolites in lower airway samples and identify networks of relationships between metabolites and lower airway bacterial communities,\" said lead author Jack O\'Connor from Lurie Children\'s. \"We discovered metabolite biomarkers that could be related to biochemical processes associated with increased inflammation and bacterial burden in the CF lung. These features that are unique to CF lung biology could eventually aid the development of new treatments and diagnostics.\"</p><p>Two metabolomic characteristics -- increased amino acids and decreased acylcarnitines -- were found to be unique to CF and potentially could serve as biomarkers of the inflammation and infection. Additionally, a metabolite of interest, L-methionine-S-oxide, was positively corrected with the abundance of <em>Staphylococcus</em>, a traditional CF pathogen, and negatively correlated with the abundance of anaerobic bacteria of interest in the development of chronic CF lung disease. The study provides some interesting clues about what may be happening biologically in the CF airway.</p><p>\"Our findings are in the very early stages of research and are not yet ready for clinical applications,\" said senior author Theresa Laguna, MD, MSCS, Division Head of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine at Lurie Children\'s and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. \"Our results lay important groundwork for future studies that ultimately will advance clinical care for children with CF.\"</p><p>Research at Ann &amp; Robert H. Lurie Children\'s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through the Stanley Manne Children\'s Research Institute. The Manne Research Institute is focused on improving child health, transforming pediatric medicine and ensuring healthier futures through the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Lurie Children\'s is ranked as one of the nation\'s top children\'s hospitals by <em>U.S. News &amp; World Report. </em>It is the pediatric training ground for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.</p>','2022-03-23 20:26:18.469453','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children\'s Hospital of Chicago','The lower airways of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) have unique biochemical features that correlate with the complex communities of lung bacteria typical of this disease, according to a multicenter study. These findings offer insights into the underlying biological mechanisms driving infection and inflammation in the CF lungs, and may help develop novel targeted therapies and more precise diagnostics to improve the care of children with CF.\n',1,86,'<li>John B. O’Connor, Madison Mottlowitz, Monica E. Kruk, Alan Mickelson, Brandie D. Wagner, Jonathan Kirk Harris, Christine H. Wendt, Theresa A. Laguna. <strong>Network Analysis to Identify Multi-Omic Correlations in the Lower Airways of Children With Cystic Fibrosis</strong>. <em>Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology</em>, 2022; 12 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2022.805170\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3389/fcimb.2022.805170</a>\n</li>'),(1548,'Origins of diabetes may be different in men and women','origins-of-diabetes-may-be-different-in-men-and-women','2022-03-23 20:26:21.345245',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Over the past four decades, global cases of Type 2 diabetes mellitus have skyrocketed. According to the World Health Organization, the number of people estimated to have the disease jumped from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014, with the fastest growth observed in low- and middle-income countries.</p><p>Although the disease is common, there is still much research left to be done to fully understand it. For instance, while diabetes is linked to obesity, researchers still do not know the exact reasons why obesity causes diabetes.</p><p>In a new paper published in the journal <em>Obesity Reviews</em>, Concordia researchers Kerri Delaney and Sylvia Santosa look at how fat tissue from different parts of the body may lead to diabetes onset in men and women. They reviewed almost 200 hundred scientific papers looking for a deeper understanding of how fat operates at the surface and tissue level, and the mechanisms by which that tissue contributes to diabetes onset.</p><p>\"There are many different theories about how diabetes develops, and the one that we explore posits that different regions of fat tissue contributes to disease risk differently,\" says Kerri Delaney, a PhD candidate at Concordia\'s PERFORM Centre and the paper\'s lead author. \"So the big question is, how do the different depots uniquely contribute to its development, and is this contribution different in men and women?\"</p><p><strong>From surface to cell level</strong></p><p>Men and women store fat in different places. Diabetes, like many other diseases, is closely associated with abdominal fat. Women tend to store that fat just under the skin. This is known as subcutaneous fat. In men, abdominal fat is stored around the organs. This is visceral fat.</p><p>Fat appears to exhibit different features in men and women. They grow differently, are dispersed differently and interact with the inflammatory and immune system differently. For example, in men fat tissue expands because the fat cells grow in size; in women, fat cells multiply and increase in number. This changes with the loss of the protective hormone estrogen that disappears with menopause and may explain why men are more susceptible to diabetes earlier in life than women.</p><p>Working from the hypothesis that diabetes risk is driven by expansions of visceral fat in men and of subcutaneous fat in women, the researchers then looked through the papers to see what was happening in the cell-level microenvironments.</p><p>Though more research is needed, there were overall differences observed in the immune cell, hormone, and cell signalling level in men and women that seem to support different origins in diabetes between the sexes.</p><p>Delaney and Santosa hope that by identifying how diabetes risks are different in men and women, clinical approaches to treatment of the disease can be better defined between the sexes.</p><p>\"Currently, the treatment of diabetes is similar for men and women,\" says Santosa, an associate professor in the department of Health, Kinesiology and Applied Physiology. \"If we understood the differences between them better, we could consider these mechanisms in recommending treatments to men and women based on how diabetes medications work.\"</p>','2022-03-23 20:26:21.345245','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Concordia University','Researchers look at how fat tissue from different parts of the body may lead to diabetes onset in men and women. They reviewed almost 200 hundred scientific papers looking for a deeper understanding of how fat operates at the surface and tissue level, and the mechanisms by which that tissue contributes to diabetes onset.\n',1,46,'<li>Kerri Z. Delaney, Sylvia Santosa. <strong>Sex differences in regional adipose tissue depots pose different threats for the development of Type 2 diabetes in males and females</strong>. <em>Obesity Reviews</em>, 2022; 23 (3) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/obr.13393\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/obr.13393</a>\n</li>'),(1549,'Single-photon source paves the way for practical quantum encryption','single-photon-source-paves-the-way-for-practical-quantum-encryption','2022-03-23 20:26:24.281171',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers have developed a new high-purity single-photon source that can operate at room temperature. The source is an important step toward practical applications of quantum technology, such as highly secure communication based on quantum key distribution (QKD).</p><p>\"We developed an on-demand way to generate photons with high purity in a scalable and portable system that operates at room temperature,\" said Helen Zeng, a member of the research team from the University of Technology Sydney in Australia. \"Our single-photon source could advance the development of practical QKD systems and can be integrated into a variety of real-world quantum photonic applications.\"</p><p>In the Optica Publishing Group journal <em>Optics Letters</em>, Zeng and colleagues from Australia\'s University of New South Wales and Macquarie University describe their new single-photon source and show that it can produce over ten million single photons per second at room temperature. They also incorporated the single-photon source into a fully portable device that can perform QKD.</p><p>The new single-photon source uniquely combines a 2D material called hexagonal boron nitride with an optical component known as a hemispherical solid immersion lens, which increases the source\'s efficiency by a factor of six.</p><p><strong>Single photons at room temperature</strong></p><p>QKD offers impenetrable encryption for data communication by using the quantum properties of light to generate secure random keys for encrypting and decrypting data. QKD systems require robust and bright sources that emit light as a string of single photons. However, most of today\'s single-photon sources don\'t perform well unless operated at cryogenic temperatures hundreds of degrees below zero, which limits their practicality.</p><p>Although hexagonal boron nitride has previously been used to create a single-photon source that operates at room temperature, until now researchers had not been able to achieve the efficiency needed for real-world application. \"Most approaches used to improve hexagonal boron nitride single-photon sources rely on precisely positioning the emitter or using nano-fabrication,\" said Zeng. \"This makes the devices complex, difficult to scale and not easy to mass produce.\"</p><p>Zeng and colleagues set out to create a better solution by using a solid immersion lens to focus the photons coming from the single-photon emitter, allowing more photons to be detected. These lenses are commercially available and easy to fabricate.</p><p>The researchers combined their new single-photon source with a custom-built portable confocal microscope that can measure the single photons at room temperature, creating a system that can perform QKD. The single-photon source and confocal microscope are housed inside a robust package that measures just 500 x 500 millimeters and weighs around 10 kilograms. The package is also engineered to deal with vibration and stray light.</p><p>\"Our streamlined device is easier to use and much smaller than traditional optical table setups, which often take up entire labs,\" said Zeng. \"This allows the system to be used with a range of quantum computing schemes. It could also be adapted to work with existing telecommunications infrastructure.\"</p><p><strong>Demonstrating quantum cryptography</strong></p><p>Tests of the new single-photon source showed that it could achieve a single-photon collection rate of 10<sup>7</sup> Hz while maintaining excellent purity -- meaning each pulse had a low probability of containing more than one photon. It also showed exceptional stability over many hours of continuous operation. The researchers also demonstrated the system\'s ability to perform QKD under realistic conditions, showing that secured QKD with 20 MHz repetition rates would be feasible over several kilometers.</p><p>Now that the researchers have established proof that their portable device can perform complex quantum cryptography, they plan to perform further testing of its robustness, stability, and efficiency during encryption. They also plan to use the new source to perform QKD in real-world conditions, rather than inside the lab. \"We are now ready to transform these scientific advances in quantum 2D materials into technology ready products,\" said Igor Aharonovich, who led the project.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-23 20:26:24.281171','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Optica','Researchers describe new high-purity single-photon source that can operate at room temperature. The source is an important step toward practical applications of quantum technology, such as highly secure communication based on quantum key distribution (QKD).\n',1,68,'<li>Helen Zhi Jie Zeng, Minh Anh Phan Ngyuen, Xiaoyu Ai, Adam Bennet, Alexander S. Solnstev, Arne Laucht, Ali Al-Juboori, Milos Toth, Richard P. Mildren, Robert Malaney, Igor Aharonovich. <strong>Integrated room temperature single-photon source for quantum key distribution</strong>. <em>Optics Letters</em>, 2022; 47 (7): 1673 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.454450\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1364/OL.454450</a>\n</li>'),(1550,'Fermi Arcs in an Antiferromagnet detected at BESSY II','fermi-arcs-in-an-antiferromagnet-detected-at-bessy-ii','2022-03-23 20:26:26.490882',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Reseachers have analysed samples of NdBi crystals which  display interesting magnetic properties. In their experiments including  measurements at BESSY II they could find evidence for so called Fermi  arcs in the antiferromagnetic state of the sample at low temperatures.  This observation is not yet explained by existing theoretical ideas and  opens up exciting possibilities to make use of these kind of materials  for innovative information technologies based on the electron spin  rather than the charge.</p><p>Neodymium-Bismuth crystals belong to the wide range of materials with interesting magnetic properties. The Fermi surface which is measured in the experiments contains information on the transport properties of charge carriers in the crystal. While usually the Fermi surface consists of closed contours, disconnected sections known as Fermi arcs are very rare and can be signatures of unusual electronic states.</p><p><strong>Unusual magnetic splittings</strong></p><p>In a study, published now in Nature, the team presents experimental evidence for such Fermi arcs. They observed an unusual magnetic splitting in the antiferromagnetic state of the samples below a temperature of 24 Kelvin (the Néel-temperature). This splitting creates bands of opposing curvature, which changes with temperature together with the antiferromagnetic order.</p><p>These findings are very important because they are fundamentally different from previously theoretically considered and experimentally reported cases of magnetic splittings. In the case of well-known Zeeman and Rashba splittings, the curvature of the bands is always preserved. Since both splittings are important for spintronics, these new findings could lead to novel applications, especially as the focus of spintronics research is currently moving from traditional ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic materials.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-23 20:26:26.490882','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie','Researchers have analyzed samples of NdBi crystals which display interesting magnetic properties. In their experiments including measurements at BESSY II they could find evidence for so called Fermi arcs in the antiferromagnetic state of the sample at low temperatures. This observation is not yet explained by existing theoretical ideas and opens up exciting possibilities to make use of these kind of materials for innovative information technologies based on the electron spin rather than the charge.\n',1,61,'<li>Benjamin Schrunk, Yevhen Kushnirenko, Brinda Kuthanazhi, Junyeong Ahn, Lin-Lin Wang, Evan O’Leary, Kyungchan Lee, Andrew Eaton, Alexander Fedorov, Rui Lou, Vladimir Voroshnin, Oliver J. Clark, Jamie Sánchez-Barriga, Sergey L. Bud’ko, Robert-Jan Slager, Paul C. Canfield, Adam Kaminski. <strong>Emergence of Fermi arcs due to magnetic splitting in an antiferromagnet</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; 603 (7902): 610 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04412-x\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04412-x</a>\n</li>'),(1551,'FDA approved new immunotherapy regimen for patients with melanoma','fda-approved-new-immunotherapy-regimen-for-patients-with-melanoma','2022-03-23 20:38:13.204118',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a novel therapy for patients with metastatic or inoperable melanoma, an aggressive type of skin cancer. The treatment, developed based on original research conducted at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, is comprised of two immunotherapy agents, relatlimab (anti-LAG-3) and nivolumab (anti-PD-1), which delayed time to cancer progression significantly more than nivolumab alone in a global, multi-center clinical trial. Results from the study, called RELATIVITY-047, were published in <em>The New England Journal of Medicine</em> on Jan. 6, 2022. Evan J. Lipson, M.D., an associate professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, is a co-author of the study and presented initial findings at the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting.</p><p>\"The FDA\'s approval of this novel combination therapy is an exciting development for all of us in the melanoma community,\" says Dr. Lipson. \"Our collaborative research with scientists and physicians worldwide has demonstrated that targeting LAG-3 effectively activates the immune system against cancer and has established the LAG-3 pathway as the third immune checkpoint pathway in history, after CTLA-4 and PD-1, for which blockade has a clinical benefit.\"</p><p>Checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy works by blocking specific proteins on the surfaces of cells that help cancer evade the body\'s immune system. Blocking these checkpoints helps the immune system fight and eliminate cancer.</p><p>In the RELATIVITY-047 trial, 714 patients with advanced, previously untreated melanoma were randomized to receive either relatlimab plus nivolumab, or nivolumab alone. Median progression-free survival -- the length of time that cancer does not worsen -- was 10.2 months among patients who received the combination treatment, significantly longer than the 4.6 months seen among those who received nivolumab alone. At one year, progression-free survival was 48% for patients receiving combination therapy and 37% for those receiving nivolumab alone.</p><p>Nivolumab acts on a protein called PD-1 and is FDA-approved for treating melanoma and several other cancer types. Relatlimab blocks signaling of an inhibitory protein called LAG-3 displayed on immune system T cells, reinvigorating their anti-tumor activity.</p><p>The anti-tumor effects of LAG-3 blockade were originally co-discovered by scientists at the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute. Preclinical studies of the combination therapy in mice started at Johns Hopkins in 2010, with a grant from the Melanoma Research Alliance to Johns Hopkins investigators Suzanne L. Topalian, M.D., professor of surgery and oncology at Johns Hopkins, and Drew M. Pardoll, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and co-director of the Cancer Immunology Program at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.</p><p>The RELATIVITY-047 trial was sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Dr. Lipson is a paid consultant and advisory board member. Dr. Pardoll receives research grant support. Dr. Topalian is a paid consultant and receives research grant support. Dr. Pardoll is an inventor on a patent on the blockade of LAG-3 for the treatment of cancer. Under a license agreement between BMS and the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Pardoll, and the University are entitled to royalty distributions related to the technology cited in the study and discussed in this publication. These arrangements have been reviewed and approved by the Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies.</p>','2022-03-23 20:38:13.204118','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Johns Hopkins Medicine','The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a novel therapy for patients with metastatic or inoperable melanoma, an aggressive type of skin cancer.\n',1,90,'<li>Hussein A. Tawbi, Dirk Schadendorf, Evan J. Lipson, Paolo A. Ascierto, Luis Matamala, Erika Castillo Gutiérrez, Piotr Rutkowski, Helen J. Gogas, Christopher D. Lao, Juliana Janoski De Menezes, Stéphane Dalle, Ana Arance, Jean-Jacques Grob, Shivani Srivastava, Mena Abaskharoun, Melissa Hamilton, Sarah Keidel, Katy L. Simonsen, Anne Marie Sobiesk, Bin Li, F. Stephen Hodi, Georgina V. Long. <strong>Relatlimab and Nivolumab versus Nivolumab in Untreated Advanced Melanoma</strong>. <em>New England Journal of Medicine</em>, 2022; 386 (1): 24 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2109970\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1056/NEJMoa2109970</a>\n</li>'),(1553,'Targeted demand response reduces price volatility of electric grid','targeted-demand-response-reduces-price-volatility-of-electric-grid','2022-03-23 22:40:46.569881',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Demand response, a measure taken to reduce the energy load in response to supply constraints, within the Texas electric grid has been a topic of recent conversation after the wake of Winter Storm Uri just one year ago. Demand response can enhance the reliability of the grid through renewable energy penetration and also significantly reduce price volatility, or fluctuation, in the wholesale electricity market.</p><p>To reduce the energy load across the entirety of the state\'s grid, traditional demand response studies focus on reducing the energy load in high population centers such as Houston and Dallas. However, Le Xie, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&amp;M University, and his team found that focusing on a few strategic locations across the state outside of those high-population areas is much more cost-effective and can have a greater impact on the price volatility of the grid. A machine learning algorithm is utilized to strategically select these demand response locations based on a synthetic Texas grid model.</p><p>This research was published in the February issue of the journal <em>iScience</em>.</p><p>\"Suppose today\'s electricity demand results in high prices and yesterday\'s electricity demand resulted in low prices,\" said postdoctoral researcher Ki-Yeob Lee, who designed the algorithm used in the paper. \"Can we move today\'s electricity demand closer to yesterday\'s electricity demand so that this change can result in low prices? If this is not successful, can we move today\'s electricity demand closer to the day before yesterday\'s electricity demand? Based on this simple idea, our machine-learning algorithm searches for the day where electricity results in low prices and the amount of demand response is minimal.\"</p><p>Although previous studies have demonstrated the benefits of demand response in mitigating price volatility, there is limited work considering the choice of locations for maximal impact.</p><p>\"We\'re taking a technology-agnostic approach,\" Xie said. \"We\'re showing the current market design and the consequences of this design. By pointing these things out, we can hopefully reduce the price volatility of the grid, which we believe would be best for society.\"</p><p>In addition to Xie and Lee, contributors to the research include Xinbo Geng, Sivaranjani Seetharaman and Srinivas Shakkottai from the electrical and computer engineering department at Texas A&amp;M; Bainan Xia from Breakthrough Energy; and Hao Ming from Southeast University in China, who received his doctorate from Texas A&amp;M.</p>','2022-03-23 22:40:46.569881','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Texas A&M University','Demand response, a measure taken to reduce the energy load in response to supply constraints, within the Texas electric grid has been a topic of recent conversation after the wake of Winter Storm Uri just one year ago. Demand response can enhance the reliability of the grid through renewable energy penetration and also significantly reduce price volatility, or fluctuation, in the wholesale electricity market.\n',1,125,'<li>Kiyeob Lee, Xinbo Geng, S. Sivaranjani, Bainan Xia, Hao Ming, Srinivas Shakkottai, Le Xie. <strong>Targeted demand response for mitigating price volatility and enhancing grid reliability in synthetic Texas electricity markets</strong>. <em>iScience</em>, 2022; 25 (2): 103723 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103723\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.isci.2021.103723</a>\n</li>'),(1554,'Neuroscientists identify mechanism for long term memory storage','neuroscientists-identify-mechanism-for-long-term-memory-storage','2022-03-23 22:51:43.329391',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A University of Iowa neuroscience research team has identified a fundamental biochemical mechanism underlying memory storage and has linked this mechanism to cognitive deficits in mouse models of Alzheimer\'s Disease and Related Dementias.</p><p>While working to understand how memories are formed and stored in the brain, the team identified a novel protein folding mechanism in the endoplasmic reticulum that is essential for long term memory storage. They further demonstrated that this mechanism is impaired in a tau-based mouse model of Alzheimer\'s disease and that restoring this protein folding mechanism reverses memory impairment in this mouse model for the study of dementia. The findings are published in the March 23 issue of the journal<em> Science Advances. </em></p><p>The team was led by Snehajyoti Chatterjee, PhD, a research associate in the lab of Ted Abel, PhD, Director of the Iowa Neuroscience Institute and chair and DEO of the UI Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology. The Abel lab has previously shown that the Nr4a family of transcription factors is essential for long term memory consolidation. This study identified chaperone proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum, which are regulated by Nr4a.</p><p>\"The role of protein folding machinery in long term memory has been overlooked for decades,\" Chatterjee says. \"We know that gene expression and protein synthesis are essential for long term memory consolidation and following learning a large number of proteins are synthesized. For proteins to be functionally active they need to be folded correctly. Our work demonstrates the conceptual idea that these chaperone proteins are the ones that actually fold the proteins to impact synaptic function and plasticity.\"</p><p>The team also used gene therapy to reactivate the chaperone protein in a mouse model and found that the memory deficit was reversed, confirming that the protein folding machinery acts as a molecular switch for memory.</p><p>\"Identifying this protein folding mechanism is a crucial step toward understanding how memories are stored and what goes wrong in diseases associated with memory impairment,\" Abel says. \"Even though we are not yet at a point of translating this to patient care, understanding this pathway is essential to one day being able to prevent and treat neurodegenerative disease.\"</p><p>In addition to Chatterjee and Abel, the research team included Jacob Michaelson, UI associate professor of psychiatry; postdoctoral scholar Mahesh Shivarama Shetty; graduate students Ethan Bahl, Utsav Mukherjee, Yann Vanrobaeys, and Emily N. Walsh; lab assistants Amy L. Yan and Joseph D. Lederman; and K. Peter Giese of Kings College, London.</p><p>The work was supported by NIH grant R01 MH087463, NIH grant K99 AG 068306, Nellie Ball Trust, The Gary &amp; LaDonna Wicklund Research Fund for Cognitive Memory Disorders, The University of Iowa Hawkeye Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, and the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust.</p>','2022-03-23 22:51:43.329391','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Iowa Health Care','While studying how memories are formed and stored in the brain, a team identified a novel protein folding mechanism that is essential for long term memory storage. The researchers further demonstrated that this mechanism is impaired in a tau-based mouse model of Alzheimer\'s disease and that restoring this protein folding mechanism reverses memory impairment in this mouse model for the study of dementia.\n',1,179,'<li>Snehajyoti Chatterjee, Ethan Bahl, Utsav Mukherjee, Emily N. Walsh, Mahesh Shivarama Shetty, Amy L. Yan, Yann Vanrobaeys, Joseph D. Lederman, K. Peter Giese, Jacob Michaelson, Ted Abel. <strong>Endoplasmic reticulum chaperone genes encode effectors of long-term memory</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (12) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm6063\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abm6063</a>\n</li>'),(1555,'Empathy softens teachers\' biases, reduces racial gap in student suspensions','empathy-softens-teachers\'-biases,-reduces-racial-gap-in-student-suspensions','2022-03-23 22:51:45.485844',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Interventions that seek to evoke empathy in teachers can sideline biases and narrow the racial gap in suspensions of middle school students, suggests new research from the University of California, Berkeley.</p><p>In one of the most rigorous efforts to date to combat race-based inequity in school suspensions, UC Berkeley social psychologist Jason Okonofua and fellow researchers recruited 66 middle school teachers who teach math to more than 5,500 7th and 8th grade students in one of the nation\'s largest school districts.</p><p>After the teachers completed two online empathy-evoking sessions over the course of a school year, their students -- especially those belonging to racial minorities -- were less likely to get suspended, and the racial gap in suspensions was reduced by 45%, according to findings to be published in the journal <em>Science Advances</em>.</p><p>Moreover, the positive effects of the intervention persisted through the following school year when students had new teachers who were not involved in the empathy intervention. That second school year also saw fewer suspensions of students of color, as well as other vulnerable groups such as students who qualify for special education services.</p><p>\"By virtue of having one class with a teacher who participated in the intervention, a student, especially a Black or Hispanic student, was less likely to get in trouble during any other teacher\'s class that entire school year and also the next school year,\" said Okonofua, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the study\'s lead author.</p><p>The large-scale empathy intervention sought to narrow the suspension gap between Black and Latinx/Hispanic middle school students and their white peers. Nationally, Black male middle and high school students are four times as likely to be suspended as white students.</p><p>The school district that partnered in the study is a diverse one and spans more than a dozen cities in the southeastern United States. It cannot be identified due to confidentiality protocols.</p><p>Okonofua credits a nonjudgmental approach for circumventing racial and other biases in school disciplinary outcomes.</p><p>\"Our intervention materials don\'t focus on bias, or racial disparities in outcomes. That approach can put teachers on the defensive and backfire,\" he said. \"Instead, we reminded teachers of why they entered the profession in the first place, which for almost everyone means helping children learn and grow, even when they struggle sometimes or act out.\"</p><p>The success of Okonofua\'s approach could play a key role in advancing former President Barack Obama\'s stalled federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which sought to curb disciplinary measures that pull students out of classrooms and to find innovative alternatives to suspensions and expulsions.</p><p>\"At a time when anti-bias training is not producing the improvements in outcomes we need to see, our empathy intervention was able to sideline teachers\' biases to reduce a racial disparity in suspensions in schools and do it in a sustainable way,\" said Okonofua, who studies the impact of stereotyping on school discipline and the relationship between education and justice systems.</p><p>Previously, Okonofua and fellow researchers conducted a smaller-scale empathy intervention in three school districts in California that yielded similar results.</p><p>Researchers focused on middle school because adolescence is a time in which young people are learning to navigate relationships with multiple teachers, and peer relationships are in flux.</p><p>\"Around this age, children become increasingly aware of racial stereotypes and sensitive to disrespectful treatment,\" Okonofua said. \"Meanwhile, teachers can feel overwhelmed by the daily need to keep classroom learning and behavior on track. Conflicts and disciplinary problems can spike and predict whether children will drop out of school.\"</p><p><strong>How they conducted the study</strong></p><p>Over the 2017-18 school year, during two online sessions that each lasted less than an hour, participating teachers read poignant testimonials from students from diverse backgrounds.</p><p>They also read testimonials from teachers who described how they made efforts to listen to and understand students when they misbehave, and sustain positive and trusting relationships with their students.</p><p>In addition to writing about their approaches to discipline, the teachers described their reasons for entering the profession, and what advice they would share with new teachers.</p><p>\"At the beginning of the year, I let (students) know that every day is a new day. … I won\'t give up on them. In my eyes, it is imperative to say what you mean in the most \'real\' way, and students will believe you. Be honest and consistent,\" one teacher wrote.</p><p>Another teacher\'s approach was to \"incorporate a slight sense of humor in my lessons … and make a story out of solving math problems. The students typically laugh and understand the material better when I include real-world examples.\"</p><p>For Okonofua, this open-minded approach to sidelining biases is promising for multiple professions where power differentials lead to conflict.</p><p>\"We\'re looking at applying this type of approach in prisons, for police officers on the beat, and also in health care and the relationships between health care providers and their patients,\" he said.</p><p>\"Ultimately, we hope to help everyone double down on their professional goals, and not let stereotypes shape our decision-making or how we treat others,\" he added.</p><p>In addition to Okonofua, researchers of the study are J. Parker Goyer and Gregory Walton at Stanford University, Constance Lindsay at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.</p>','2022-03-23 22:51:45.485844','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Berkeley','Interventions that seek to evoke empathy in teachers can sideline biases and narrow the racial gap in suspensions of middle school students, according to the results of a large-scale study to combat race-based inequity in school discipline.\n',1,27,'<li>Jason A. Okonofua, J. Parker Goyer, Constance A. Lindsay, Johnetta Haugabrook, Gregory M. Walton. <strong>A scalable empathic-mindset intervention reduces group disparities in school suspensions</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (12) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abj0691\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abj0691</a>\n</li>'),(1556,'Rewriting the history books: Why the Vikings left Greenland','rewriting-the-history-books:-why-the-vikings-left-greenland','2022-03-23 22:51:50.941634',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">One of the great mysteries of late medieval history is why did the Norse, who had established successful settlements in southern Greenland in 985, abandon them in the early 15<sup>th</sup> century? The consensus view has long been that colder temperatures, associated with the Little Ice Age, helped make the colonies unsustainable. However, new research, led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and published recently in <em>Science Advances</em>, upends that old theory. It wasn\'t dropping temperatures that helped drive the Norse from Greenland, but drought.</p><p>When the Norse settled in Greenland on what they called the Eastern Settlement in 985, they thrived by clearing the land of shrubs and planting grass as pasture for their livestock. The population of the Eastern Settlement peaked at around 2,000 inhabitants, but collapsed fairly quickly about 400 years later. For decades, anthropologists, historians and scientists have thought the Eastern Settlement\'s demise was due to the onset of the Little Ice Age, a period of exceptionally cold weather, particularly in the North Atlantic, that made agricultural life in Greenland untenable.</p><p>However, as Raymond Bradley, University Distinguished Professor of geosciences at UMass Amherst and one of the paper\'s co- author, points out, \"before this study, there was no data from the actual site of the Viking settlements. And that\'s a problem.\" Instead, the ice core data that previous studies had used to reconstruct historical temperatures in Greenland was taken from a location that was over 1,000 kilometers to the north and over 2,000 meters higher in elevation. \"We wanted to study how climate had varied close to the Norse farms themselves,\" says Bradley. And when they did, the results were surprising.</p><p>Bradley and his colleagues traveled to a lake called Lake 578, which is adjacent to a former Norse farm and close to one of the largest groups of farms in the Eastern Settlement. There, they spent three years gathering sediment samples from the lake, which represented a continuous record for the past 2,000 years. \"Nobody has actually studied this location before,\" says Boyang Zhao, the study\'s lead author who conducted this research for his Ph.D. in geosciences at UMass Amherst and is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University.</p><p>They then analyzed that 2,000 year sample for two different markers: the first, a lipid, known as BrGDGT, can be used to reconstruct temperature. \"If you have a complete enough record, you can directly link the changing structures of the lipids to changing temperature,\" says Isla Castañeda, professor of geosciences at UMass Amherst and one of the paper\'s co-authors. A second marker, derived from the waxy coating on plant leaves, can be used to determine the rates at which the grasses and other livestock-sustaining plants lost water due to evaporation. It is therefore an indicator of how dry conditions were.</p><p>\"What we discovered,\" says Zhao, \"is that, while the temperature barely changed over the course of the Norse settlement of southern Greenland, it became steadily drier over time.\"</p><p>Norse farmers had to overwinter their livestock on stored fodder, and even in a good year the animals were often so weak that they had to be carried to the fields once the snow finally melted in the spring. Under conditions like that, the consequences of drought would have been severe. An extended drought, on top of other economic and social pressures, may have tipped the balance just enough to make the Eastern Settlement unsustainable.</p><p>Scientists at Smith College and the University at Buffalo also contributed to the research, which was supported by the National Science Foundation, UMass Amherst, the Geological Society of America, and the Swiss National Science Foundation, changes our understanding of early European history, and highlights the importance of continuing to explore how environmental factors influence human society.</p>','2022-03-23 22:51:50.941634','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Massachusetts Amherst','One of the great mysteries of late medieval history is why did the Norse, who had established successful settlements in southern Greenland in 985, abandon them in the early 15th century? The consensus view has long been that colder temperatures, associated with the Little Ice Age, helped make the colonies unsustainable. However, new research upends that old theory. It wasn\'t dropping temperatures that helped drive the Norse from Greenland, but drought.\n',1,70,'<li>Boyang Zhao, Isla S. Castañeda, Jeffrey M. Salacup, Elizabeth K. Thomas, William C. Daniels, Tobias Schneider, Gregory A. de Wet, Raymond S. Bradley. <strong>Prolonged drying trend coincident with the demise of Norse settlement in southern Greenland</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (12) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm4346\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abm4346</a>\n</li>'),(1557,'New potentially painkilling compound found in deep-water cone snails','new-potentially-painkilling-compound-found-in-deep-water-cone-snails','2022-03-23 22:51:53.813893',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists already know that the venom of cone snails, which prowl the ocean floor for a fish dinner, contains compounds that can be adapted as pharmaceuticals to treat chronic pain, diabetes and other human maladies. But the cone snails\' venom has more secrets yet to be revealed. In a new study published in <em>Science Advances</em>, researchers report that a group of cone snails produces a venom compound similar to the hormone somatostatin.</p><p>While they continue to learn more about this venom compound and its possible pharmaceutical applications, the results show the wide variety of drug leads that venomous animals produce, designed and refined over millions of years.</p><p>\"We have to broaden the scope of what we expect that these venomous animals make, assuming that they could really be making anything,\" says Helena Safavi-Hemami, an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Utah and associate professor at the University of Copenhagen. \"We should look very broadly and keep an open eye for completely new compounds.\"</p><p>\"Cone snail venom is like a natural library of compounds,\" adds Iris Bea Ramiro of the University of Copenhagen. \"It is just a matter of finding what is in that library.\"</p><p>Find the full study here. This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, a Villum Young Investigator Grant, the Department of Science and Technology -- Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, USAID and the Benning Society.</p><p><strong>Beginning in Bohol</strong></p><p>The story begins in the Philippines, on the island of Bohol where Ramiro grew up. Although she and most Boholanos didn\'t encounter cone snails often except for finding shells on the beach, fishermen knew how to find and catch the venomous snails, which are often sold to shell collectors and are sometimes eaten. One fisherman told Ramiro that his parents warned him to avoid eating a bean-like organ in the snail.</p><p>\"The bean-like structure is actually a bulb that is connected to the gland where venom is produced,\" Ramiro says.</p><p>Some cone snails are fish hunters. Some of those use a \"taser-and-tether\" hunting strategy, shooting a barbed hook into a fish and delivering a jolt of venom that chemically electrocutes and paralyzes the fish. Others use a net hunting strategy, releasing a cloud of venom into the water with compounds that leave the fish sensory-deprived and disoriented.</p><p>Of the estimated eight groups of fish hunting cone snails, though, only half have been extensively studied. Among the least-studied lineages are the <em>Asprella</em> cone snails. They\'re not shallow-water snails, like some others. They like deeper waters, at depths of 200-800 feet (60-250 m), and have been less accessible to scientists.</p><p>As a graduate student at the University of the Philippines, Ramiro began studying <em>Conus rolani</em>, a species of <em>Asprella</em> snail. \"No one in our lab was working on it at that time,\" she says. \"I was just looking to identify any small peptide (chain of amino acids) from the venom of <em>C. rolani</em> that had unusual or interesting activity in mice.\"</p><p>She found one. A small peptide from the venom caused mice to act sluggishly or unresponsive. But it was slow-acting, hardly the expected effect since other cone snails produced venoms that acted almost immediately. It had a few similarities to the hormone somatostatin (more on that later) but not enough to say conclusively that the venom peptide and the human hormone were functionally related.</p><p>While exploring how and why the venom worked, Ramiro made a visit to the University of Utah, a hub of cone snail research.</p><p><strong>Cone snails at the U</strong></p><p>Far from the glittering waters of the Pacific, U researchers have been studying cone snails and their venom since 1970, when Baldomero \"Toto\" Olivera arrived in Salt Lake City, bringing the cone snail research he\'d begun in his native Philippines.</p><p>Decades of study have provided an abundance of information about how venom compounds interact with the bodies of prey fish, including how the venoms interact with receptors in the body and overwhelm natural biochemical processes. Olivera and his colleagues investigated whether those effects could be employed as pharmaceuticals in humans. One effort yielded a pain medication, Prialt. Another, in which Safavi played a leading role at the U as an assistant professor, investigated how insulin analogs produced by cone snails might be adapted as a fast-acting insulin for people with diabetes.</p><p>\"Somehow cone snails take some of their hormones and turn them into weapons,\" Safavi says. So she and other researchers helped Ramiro compare the peptide she\'d found, now called Consomatin Ro1, to known human proteins.</p><p>Frank Whitby, a research associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry, used X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of Consomatin Ro1. \"This was an important contribution because it showed that Consomatin Ro1 does not resemble somatostatin but rather resembles a drug analog of somatostatin called octreotide,\" says Christopher Hill, distinguished professor of biochemistry.</p><p>Meanwhile the research team also worked with local fishermen off Cebu, an island near Bohol, to bring <em>Asprella </em>specimens to the lab to observe their behavior and learn more about their biochemistry.</p><p>It took a year, Ramiro says, to confirm that the peptide that she\'d originally isolated from the <em>C. rolani</em>snail activates two of the five human receptors for somatostatin \"with unique selectivity,\" she says.</p><p>\"Then,\" Safavi says, \"we really wanted to understand what it\'s doing and how it could be better than somatostatin.\"</p><p><strong>Snails and snakes </strong></p><p>Somatostatin is a hormone that, in humans and many other vertebrates, is generally an inhibitor -- kind of a wet blanket. It\'s the main inhibitor of growth hormone, and can be used to treat the excessive growth disorder acromegaly. It also inhibits hormones in the pancreas and signals of pain and inflammation.</p><p>\"So it\'s this hormone that has many, many different functions in the human body,\" Safavi says, \"But it\'s always blocking something. And because of that, it had been an interesting hormone for drug development for some time.\"</p><p>How can a hormone like somatostatin work as a weaponized venom, especially when it acts slowly? The best way to understand that, the researchers say, is to look to another predator with a slow-acting venom: the rattlesnake.</p><p>Rattlesnakes, vipers and cobras have developed a hunting strategy to protect themselves against dangerous prey that could possibly fight back. The snakes strike, injecting their venom, and then retreat. They then wait and follow their prey until the venom takes its full effect and the prey is dead or nearly dead and safe to approach and eat.</p><p>Observations of cone snails in tanks showed similarities to the rattlesnakes\' strike-and-release hunting strategy. After injecting venom, the snails would wait, sometimes up to three hours, before delivering a second injection and waiting again.</p><p>\"And only when the prey is really incapacitated and unable to swim, they come and eat it,\" Safavi says. \"If you don\'t catch the prey immediately, you have the advantage of just waiting until the prey can no longer move. That\'s particularly important if the prey can fight back.\"</p><p>How does a venom component that mimics somatostatin help with that strategy? It\'s still unclear. The study showed that Consomatin Ro1 can block pain in mice with efficiency similar to morphine, and it may be used to block pain so that prey doesn\'t know it\'s been struck, Safavi says. Different species of fish hunters may use these toxins for different purposes.</p><p><strong>Tiny drug designers</strong></p><p>As a somatostatin analog, Safavi says, Consomatin Ro1 is structured \"as if it was designed by drug makers.\" The molecule is short, stable and efficient in the receptors it targets.</p><p>That\'s likely a reflection of the process of evolution. Cone snails likely began using their own somatostatin in venom and then, through generations of trial and error, refined the compound for maximum effectiveness. That\'s an advantage for us, since the biology of fish and humans is similar enough that a compound that\'s highly effective in fish will likely be effective in humans.</p><p>It\'s yet to be seen whether Consomatin Ro1 is more effective than somatostatin analog drugs already on the market that treat growth disorders or tumors.</p><p>\"The advantage with the cone snails, though, is that there are so many species,\" Safavi says. \"And we know that many of these species make somatostatin, so the chances of finding the best analog might be pretty high.\"</p><p><strong>Future directions</strong></p><p>Next, the research team wants to investigate the origin of Consomatin Ro1 in snails, as well as better understand the potential of the compound as an anti-inflammatory or pain reliever. They\'ll also look to see if modifications to the compound could make it even more useful.</p><p>The results show how venomous animals can turn a hormone into a weapon and suggest that the range of biochemical tools in venom might be broader than previously thought.</p><p>\"There\'s evidence that viruses also turn hormones into weapons,\" Safavi says. \"We can spend a lot of time trying to design good hormone drugs, or we could try to look at nature more often. And I think if we did the latter, we might be more successful or we might be faster in our drug development efforts.\" Safavi will continue this work when she returns to the U as an associate professor of biochemistry in summer 2022.</p><p>\"This gives insight to the development of next-generation therapeutics,\" says Hill. \"More generally, this is a great example of how evolution in the natural world has already developed drug-like natural products that have great potential to improve human health.\"</p><p>\"Discovering new peptides from the cone snails is fun and exciting but it could be a long and difficult journey,\" Ramiro says, adding that the integration of various disciplines including biology, biochemistry and pharmacology have made this study successful. \"There is still so much we can find, discover and learn from the cone snails and their venom.\"</p>','2022-03-23 22:51:53.813893','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Utah','In a new study, researchers report that a group of cone snails produces a venom compound similar to the protein somatostatin. While they continue to learn more about this venom compound and its possible pharmaceutical applications, the results show the wide variety of drug leads that venomous animals produce, which they\'ve designed and refined over millions of years.\n',1,203,'<li>Iris Bea L. Ramiro, Walden E. Bjørn-Yoshimoto, Julita S. Imperial, Joanna Gajewiak, Paula Flórez Salcedo, Maren Watkins, Dylan Taylor, William Resager, Beatrix Ueberheide, Hans Bräuner-Osborne, Frank G. Whitby, Christopher P. Hill, Laurent F. Martin, Amol Patwardhan, Gisela P. Concepcion, Baldomero M. Olivera, Helena Safavi-Hemami. <strong>Somatostatin venom analogs evolved by fish-hunting cone snails: From prey capture behavior to identifying drug leads</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (12) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abk1410\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abk1410</a>\n</li>'),(1558,'Revamped design could take powerful biological computers from the test tube to the cell','revamped-design-could-take-powerful-biological-computers-from-the-test-tube-to-the-cell','2022-03-23 22:51:56.564390',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Tiny biological computers made of DNA could revolutionize the way we diagnose and treat a slew of diseases, once the technology is fully fleshed out. However, a major stumbling block for these DNA-based devices, which can operate in both cells and liquid solutions, has been how short-lived they are. Just one use and the computers are spent.</p><p>Now, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may have developed long-lived biological computers that could potentially persist inside cells. In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, the authors forgo the traditional DNA-based approach, opting instead to use the nucleic acid RNA to build computers. The results demonstrate that the RNA circuits are as dependable and versatile as their DNA-based counterparts. What\'s more, living cells may be able to create these RNA circuits continuously, something that is not readily possible with DNA circuits, further positioning RNA as a promising candidate for powerful, long-lasting biological computers.</p><p>Much like the computer or smart device you are likely reading this on, biological computers can be programmed to carry out different kinds of tasks.</p><p>\"The difference is, instead of coding with ones and zeroes, you write strings of A, T, C and G, which are the four chemical bases that make up DNA,\" said Samuel Schaffter, NIST postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study.</p><p>By assembling a specific sequence of bases into a strand of nucleic acid, researchers can dictate what it binds to. A strand could be engineered to attach to specific bits of DNA, RNA or some proteins associated with a disease, then trigger chemical reactions with other strands in the same circuit to process chemical information and eventually produce some sort of useful output.</p><p>That output might be a detectable signal that could aid medical diagnostics, or it could be a therapeutic drug to treat a disease.</p><p>However, DNA is not the sturdiest material and can quickly come apart in certain conditions. Cells can be hostile environments, since they often contain proteins that chop up nucleic acids. And even if DNA sequences stick around long enough to detect their target, the chemical bonds they form render them useless afterward.</p><p>\"They can\'t do things like continuously monitor patterns in gene expression. They are one use, which means they just give you a snapshot,\" Schaffter said.</p><p>Being a nucleic acid as well, RNA shares many of DNA\'s woes when it comes to being a biological computer building block. It is susceptible to rapid degradation, and after a strand chemically binds to a target molecule, that strand is finished. But unlike DNA, RNA could be a renewable resource in the right conditions. To leverage that advantage, Schaffter and his colleagues first needed to show that RNA circuits, which cells would theoretically be able to produce, could function just as well as the DNA-based kind.</p><p>RNA\'s edge over DNA stems from a natural cellular process called transcription, wherein proteins produce RNA on a continuous basis using a cell\'s DNA as a template. If the DNA in a cell\'s genome coded for the circuit components in a biological computer, then the cell would produce the computer components continually.</p><p>In the biological computing process, single strands of nucleic acids in a circuit can easily end up bound to other strands in the same circuit, an undesired effect that prevents circuit components from binding to their intended targets. The design of these circuits often means that different components will be natural fits for each other.</p><p>To prevent undesired binding, DNA sequences that are part of computers known as strand displacement circuits are usually synthesized (in machines rather than cells) separately and in a double-stranded form. With every chemical base on each strand bound to a base on the other, this double strand acts as a locked gate that would only unlock if the target sequence came along and took the place of one of the strands.</p><p>Schaffter and Elizabeth Strychalski, leader of NIST\'s Cellular Engineering Group and co-author of the study, sought to mimic this \"locked gate\" function in their RNA circuit, keeping in mind that, ultimately, cells would have to produce these locked gates themselves. To set cells up for success, the researchers wrote the sequences so that one half of the strands could bind flush with the other half. Binding this way, RNA sequences would fold on themselves like a hotdog bun, ensuring they are in a locked state.</p><p>But to work properly, the gates would need to be two chemically bound but distinct strands, more like a hamburger bun or sandwich than a hotdog bun. The team obtained the double-stranded design in their gates by coding in a stretch of RNA called a ribozyme near the folding point of the gates. This particular ribozyme -- taken from the genome of a hepatitis virus -- would sever itself after the RNA strand it was embedded in folded, creating two separate strands.</p><p>The authors tested whether their circuits could perform basic logical operations, like only unlocking their gates under specific scenarios, such as if one of two specific RNA sequences was present or only if both were at the same time. They also built and examined circuits made of several gates that performed different logical operations in series. Only when these circuits encountered the right combination of sequences, their gates would unlock one by one like dominoes.</p><p>The experiments involved exposing different circuits to pieces of RNA -- some of which, the circuits were designed to attach to -- and measuring the output of the circuits. In this case, the output at the end of each circuit was a fluorescent reporter molecule that would light up once the final gate was unlocked.</p><p>The researchers also tracked the rate at which the gates unlocked as the circuits processed inputs and compared their measurements to the predictions of computer models.</p><p>\"For me, these needed to work in a test tube as predictively as DNA computing. The nice thing with DNA circuits is most of the time, you can just write out a sequence on a piece of paper, and it\'ll work the way you want,\" Schaffter said. \"The key thing here is that we did find the RNA circuits were very predictable and programmable, much more so than I thought they would be, actually.\"</p><p>The similarities in performance between DNA and RNA circuits could indicate that it may be beneficial to switch to the latter, since RNA can be transcribed to replenish a circuit\'s components. And many existing DNA circuits that researchers have already developed to accomplish various tasks could theoretically be swapped out for RNA versions and behave the same way. To be sure, though, the authors of the study need to push the technology further.</p><p>In this study, the authors demonstrated that transcribable circuits work, but they have not produced them using the real cellular machinery of transcription yet. Instead, machines synthesized the nucleic acids through a process similar to that used to produce DNA for research. Taking the next step would require inserting DNA into the genome of an organism, where it would serve as a blueprint for RNA circuit components.</p><p>\"We\'re interested in putting these in bacteria next. We want to know: Can we package circuit designs into genetic material using our strategy? Can we get the same sort of performance and behavior when the circuits are inside cells?\" Schaffter said. \"We have the potential to.\"</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-23 22:51:56.564390','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)','Researchers may have developed long-lived biological computers that could potentially persist inside cells. Researchers forgo the traditional DNA-based approach, opting instead to use the nucleic acid RNA to build computers. The results demonstrate that the RNA circuits are as dependable and versatile as their DNA-based counterparts. What\'s more, living cells may be able to create these RNA circuits continuously, something that is not readily possible with DNA circuits.\n',1,135,'<li>Samuel W. Schaffter, Elizabeth A. Strychalski. <strong>Cotranscriptionally encoded RNA strand displacement circuits</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (12) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl4354\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abl4354</a>\n</li>'),(1559,'Novel therapeutic strategy shows promise against pancreatic cancer','novel-therapeutic-strategy-shows-promise-against-pancreatic-cancer','2022-03-23 22:51:58.954760',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to cure or even treat. Now, a new strategy devised by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine has succeeded in making pancreatic tumors visible to the immune systems of mice and vulnerable to immune attack, reducing cancer metastases by 87%. The paper describing the findings published online today in <em>Science Translational Medicine</em>.</p><p>\"Today\'s checkpoint inhibitor drugs work well against some types of cancer but only rarely help people with pancreatic cancer,\" said Claudia Gravekamp, Ph.D., corresponding author of the paper and associate professor of microbiology &amp; immunology at Einstein and a member of the National Cancer Institute-designated Albert Einstein Cancer Center. \"The problem is that pancreatic tumors aren\'t sufficiently \'foreign\' to attract the immune system\'s attention and can usually suppress whatever immune responses do occur. Essentially, our new therapy makes immunologically \'cold\' tumors hot enough for the immune system to attack and destroy them.\"</p><p><strong>Leveraging the Tetanus Vaccine</strong></p><p>Dr. Gravekamp\'s treatment strategy capitalizes on the fact that virtually all people are vaccinated in childhood against tetanus, a serious disease caused by a toxic protein that <em>Clostridium</em> bacteria secrete. Thanks to their tetanus-specific memory T cells, which circulate in the bloodstream for life, vaccinated people will mount a strong immune response if they\'re later exposed to the highly foreign tetanus toxin. Dr. Gravekamp and her colleagues effectively aroused a potent and specific immune response against pancreatic cancer cells by infecting them with bacteria that deliver tetanus toxin into the cells.</p><p>Using the same tetanus vaccine given to people, the investigators vaccinated mouse models of pancreatic cancer (i.e., mice bearing human pancreatic tumors). They then fused the gene that codes for tetanus toxin into non-disease-causing <em>Listeria monocytogenes</em> bacteria, which are highly adept at infecting cells and spreading through tissues. Finally, to infect and \"tetanize\" the tumors, they injected the bacteria with their tetanus-gene cargoes into the previously vaccinated, tumor-bearing mice.</p><p><strong>Exploiting Cancer\'s Immune Suppression</strong></p><p>\"The <em>Listeria</em> bacteria are quite weak and are readily killed off by the immune systems of people and animals -- everywhere, that is, except in tumor areas,\" said Dr. Gravekamp. \"Our treatment strategy actually takes advantage of the fact that pancreatic tumors are so good at suppressing the immune system to protect themselves. This means that only those <em>Listeria</em> bacteria in the tumor region survive long enough to infect pancreatic tumor cells and that healthy cells don\'t become infected.\"</p><p>Once the <em>Listeria</em> bacteria infected the tumor cells, their tetanus-toxin genes expressed the tetanus-toxin protein inside the tumor cells -- triggering a strong immune response. The tetanus toxin activated pre-existing tetanus-specific memory T cells, causing CD4 T cells to attack and kill the infected tumor cells. The T cell responses were enhanced by adding low doses of gemcitabine (a chemotherapy drug that reduces immune suppression). The treatment shrank the size of the pancreatic tumors in the mice by an average of 80% and also significantly reduced the number of metastases by 87%, while the treated animals lived 40% longer than untreated (control) animals.</p><p>\"The findings indicate that this treatment approach could be a useful immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer as well as other types of cancer, such as ovarian cancer, that remain difficult to treat,\" said Dr. Gravekamp.</p><p>Dr. Gravekamp is an associate professor of microbiology &amp; immunology at Einstein. Einstein has licensed the underlying technology to Loki Therapeutics., which plans to commercialize the technology further to benefit patients. Dr. Gravekamp is the co-founder of Loki Therapeutics and its principal scientist.</p>','2022-03-23 22:51:58.954760','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Albert Einstein College of Medicine','Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to cure or even treat. Now, a new strategy has succeeded in making pancreatic tumors visible to the immune systems of mice and vulnerable to immune attack, reducing cancer metastases by 87%.\n',1,23,'<li>Benson Chellakkan Selvanesan, Dinesh Chandra, Wilber Quispe-Tintaya, Arthee Jahangir, Ankur Patel, Kiran Meena, Rodrigo Alberto Alves Da Silva, Madeline Friedman, Lisa Gabor, Olivia Khouri, Steven K. Libutti, Ziqiang Yuan, Jenny Li, Sarah Siddiqui, Amanda Beck, Lydia Tesfa, Wade Koba, Jennifer Chuy, John C. McAuliffe, Rojin Jafari, David Entenberg, Yarong Wang, John Condeelis, Vera DesMarais, Vinod Balachandran, Xusheng Zhang, Ken Lin, Claudia Gravekamp. <strong>Listeria            delivers tetanus toxoid protein to pancreatic tumors and induces cancer cell death in mice</strong>. <em>Science Translational Medicine</em>, 2022; 14 (637) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abc1600\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/scitranslmed.abc1600</a>\n</li>'),(1560,'In-vitro fertilization clinics offering money-back guarantees achieve better outcomes with less aggressive treatments','in-vitro-fertilization-clinics-offering-money-back-guarantees-achieve-better-outcomes-with-less-aggressive-treatments','2022-03-23 22:52:07.246968',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics that offer money-back guarantees (MBGs) for their services achieve a higher live-birth success rate with less aggressive treatments than clinics that do not provide money-back guarantees.</p><p>In research recently published in the <em>Journal of Marketing Research</em>, Shan Yu, an assistant professor in the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, explored the question: Are MBG programs by IVF clinics marketing gimmicks that take advantage of consumers or a way for clinics to signal high-quality service?</p><p>Using a unique data set compiled from four distinct sources to undertake a systematic, clinic-level empirical analysis, Dr. Yu found that, on average, even when they transfer fewer embryos and do not sort patients according to their fertility, clinics using the marketing tool of MBGs achieve higher success rate and do not impose higher multiple birth risks. These results indicate that clinics that offer MBGs provide higher quality of service than clinics that do not offer MBGs.</p><p>According to Dr. Yu, consumers and policy-makers can use the presence of this marketing practice as a signal of high-quality care in the increasingly important field of IVF and other health-care and expert-service markets.</p><p>\"In medicine, marketing practices are often perceived as a necessary evil,\" Dr. Yu said. \"Our study suggests that market-based promotional devices like money-back guarantees can serve as a necessary good for consumers.\"</p><p>In a typical MBG plan, patients pay a set fee for a certain number of treatment cycles. If the patient does not deliver a live baby by the end of the treatment cycles, the patient receives a refund. If the patient delivers an infant at any point in the treatment plan, the clinic retains the payment in full.</p><p>With this type of expert-service market, the doctor holds far more knowledge than the patient, a factor known as information asymmetry. Because of this imbalance of knowledge, many critics argue that the pressure to return full payment motivates clinics to use MBG programs to entice less-informed patients and boost their success rate by using more aggressive treatment protocols or by sorting more fertile patients to their clinics. Both behaviors will decrease consumer welfare in the long term.</p><p>In the study, Dr. Yu accounted for these factors and found the critics\' fears to be unfounded. The data showed that clinics offering MBGs achieved enhanced quality of care by securing better outcomes despite taking lower risks and without sorting for the most fertile patients.</p><p>\"This suggests that MBG programs may not necessarily be marketing ploys employed to entice less informed and more vulnerable patients,\" Dr. Yu said. \"Through experience, clinics may have developed a repository of skills and expertise that make them confident in offering MBG programs without undertaking adverse actions.\"</p><p>The research further showed that clinics are more likely to offer MBGs in states without a mandate for insurance companies to cover IVF treatment costs, suggesting that MBGs also serve as a market-driven insurance device, in particular for lower-fertility patients.</p><p>\"The results of this study are consistent with signaling theory predictions that money-back guarantees can serve as signals of unobservable clinic quality despite the incentives for clinics to engage in opportunistic behaviors,\" Dr. Yu said. \"These findings offer policy guidance and improve patient welfare in a complex expert-service market fraught with information asymmetry.\"</p>','2022-03-23 22:52:07.246968','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute','In-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics that offer money-back guarantees (MBGs) for their services achieve a higher live-birth success rate with less aggressive treatments than clinics that do not provide money-back guarantees.\n',1,197,'<li>Shan Yu, Mrinal Ghosh, Madhu Viswanathan. <strong>Money-Back Guarantees and Service Quality: The Marketing of In Vitro Fertilization Services</strong>. <em>Journal of Marketing Research</em>, 2022; 002224372110607 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00222437211060733\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1177/00222437211060733</a>\n</li>'),(1561,'Researchers discover intake of FDA-approved drug modulates disease progression in Alzheimer’s disease model','researchers-discover-intake-of-fda-approved-drug-modulates-disease-progression-in-alzheimer’s-disease-model','2022-03-23 22:52:16.317035',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Indiana University School of Medicine researchers found that niacin limits Alzheimer\'s disease progression when used in models in the lab, a discovery that could potentially pave the way toward therapeutic approaches to the disease.</p><p>The study, recently published in <em>Science Translational Medicine</em>, investigates how niacin modulates microglia response to amyloid plaques in an Alzheimer\'s disease animal model.</p><p>Gary Landreth, PhD, Martin Professor of Alzheimer\'s Research, and Miguel Moutinho, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, led the study.</p><p>\"This study identifies a potential novel therapeutic target for Alzheimer\'s disease, which can be modulated by FDA-approved drugs,\" Moutinho said. \"The translational potential of this strategy to clinical use is high.\"</p><p>Niacin, which sustains metabolism throughout the body, is mainly obtained through a typical diet; it also can be taken in supplements and cholesterol-lowering drugs. The brain, however, Moutinho found, uses niacin in a different manner.</p><p>In the brain, niacin interacts with a highly-selective receptor, HCAR2, present in immune cells physically associated with amyloid plaques. When niacin -- used in this project as the FDA-approved Niaspan drug -- activates the receptor, it stimulates beneficial actions from these immune cells, Landreth said.</p><p>\"After the Alzheimer\'s disease animal models received niacin, they ended up with fewer plaques and they have improved cognition,\" Landreth said, \"and we directly showed that these actions were due to the HCAR2 receptor.\"</p><p>Past epidemiology studies of niacin and Alzheimer\'s disease showed that people who had higher levels of niacin in their diet had diminished risk of the disease, Landreth said. Niacin is also currently being used in clinical trials in Parkinson\'s disease and glioblastoma.</p><p>To further their research into niacin and the brain, Landreth and Moutinho are collaborating with Jared Brosch, MD, associate professor of clinical neurology, who is applying for a clinical pilot trial to study the affects of niacin and the human brain.</p>','2022-03-23 22:52:16.317035','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Indiana University School of Medicine','Researchers found that niacin limits Alzheimer\'s disease progression when used in models in the lab, a discovery that could potentially pave the way toward therapeutic approaches to the disease.\n',1,179,'<li>Miguel Moutinho, Shweta S. Puntambekar, Andy P. Tsai, Israel Coronel, Peter B. Lin, Brad T. Casali, Pablo Martinez, Adrian L. Oblak, Cristian A. Lasagna-Reeves, Bruce T. Lamb, Gary E. Landreth. <strong>The niacin receptor HCAR2 modulates microglial response and limits disease progression in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease</strong>. <em>Science Translational Medicine</em>, 2022; 14 (637) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abl7634\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/scitranslmed.abl7634</a>\n</li>'),(1562,'Do older adults using statins have lower risk of developing Parkinsonism later?','do-older-adults-using-statins-have-lower-risk-of-developing-parkinsonism-later?','2022-03-23 23:41:53.915960',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Parkinsonism is a term for a group of neurological conditions that cause movement problems including tremors, slowed movement and stiffness, with Parkinson\'s disease being one of the better knowns causes. A new study suggests that older people taking statin drugs have a lower chance of developing parkinsonism later compared to people who were not taking statins. The research is published in the March 23, 2022, online issue of <em>Neurology<sup>®</sup></em>, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Statins are drugs used to lower cholesterol in the blood and protect against atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque in the arteries that can lead to hardening of the arteries, heart attack and stroke.</p><p>\"Our results suggest people using statins may have a lower risk of parkinsonism and that may be partly caused by the protective effect statins may have on arteries in the brain,\" said study author Shahram Oveisgharan, MD, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. \"Our results are exciting, because movement problems in older adults that come under the umbrella of parkinsonism are common, often debilitating and generally untreatable.\"</p><p>The study looked 2,841 people with an average age of 76 who did not have parkinsonism at the start of the study. Of those, 936 people, or 33%, were taking statins.</p><p>Researchers followed up with participants annually for an average of six years to check the statins they were taking and to test for signs of parkinsonism.</p><p>People were considered to have parkinsonism if they met the requirement for mild impairment for two or more of the following symptoms: tremor, stiffness, parkinsonian gait, which is marked by small shuffling steps and a general slowness of movement, and bradykinesia, a hallmark of parkinsonism which is difficulty moving the body quickly on command.</p><p>By the end of the study, 1,432 people, or 50%, developed signs of parkinsonism. Out of 936 people taking statins, 418 people, or 45%, developed parkinsonism six years later, compared to 1,014 out of 1,905 people, or 53%, of those who had not been taking statins.</p><p>After controlling for age, sex and vascular risks like smoking and diabetes that could affect risk of parkinsonism, researchers found that people who had been taking statins, on average, had 16% lower risk of developing parkinsonism six years later compared to those who had not been taking statins. About 79% of people on statin therapy were taking moderate or high intensity statins. Researchers found that people taking higher intensity statins had a 7% lower risk of developing parkinsonism compared to those on low intensity statins.</p><p>Researchers also examined the brains of 1,044 people who died during the study. They found those who had been using statins had, on average, 37% lower odds of having atherosclerosis compared to those who had not been using statins.</p><p>\"More research is needed, but statins could be a therapeutic option in the future to help reduce the effects of parkinsonism in the general population of older adults, not just people with high cholesterol or who are at risk for stroke,\" Oveisgharan said. \"At a minimum, our study suggests brain scans or vascular testing may be beneficial for older adults who show signs of parkinsonism but don\'t have classic signs of Parkinson\'s disease or do not respond to Parkinson\'s disease medications.\"</p><p>A limitation of the study is that parkinsonism evaluations were not performed by movement disorder specialists, so cases of Parkinson\'s disease may have been misclassified.</p><p>The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.</p>','2022-03-23 23:41:53.915960','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Academy of Neurology','Parkinsonism is a term for a group of neurological conditions that cause movement problems including tremors, slowed movement and stiffness, with Parkinson\'s disease being one of the better knowns causes. A new study suggests that older people taking statin drugs have a lower chance of developing parkinsonism later compared to people who were not taking statins.\n',1,27,'<li>Shahram Oveisgharan, Lei Yu, Lisa L. Barnes, Sonal Agrawal, Julie A. Schneider, David a Bennett, Aron S. Buchman. <strong>Association of Statins With Cerebral Atherosclerosis and Incident Parkinsonism in Older Adults</strong>. <em>Neurology</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000200182\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1212/WNL.0000000000200182</a>\n</li>'),(1563,'Study examines disparities in air pollution affecting American Indian communities','study-examines-disparities-in-air-pollution-affecting-american-indian-communities','2022-03-23 23:41:57.576986',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health highlights disparities in fine particulate matter (PM<sub>2.5</sub>) trends between American Indian (AI) and non-AI populated counties of the U.S. PM<sub>2.5</sub> is one of several air pollutants regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with the current annual standard set at 12?g/m<sup>3</sup>. Downward trends in PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentrations were steeper among the non-AI populated compared to AI-populated counties. Although AI-populated counties had lower PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentrations than non- AI populated counties in 2000, by 2018, their levels were higher. With most U.S. air pollution research conducted in urban settings, this is the first study to detail the extent of particulate air pollution levels and its potential health consequences among rural AI communities. The findings are published in the <em>American Journal of Public Health</em>.</p><p>\"Our results underscore the need to strengthen air pollutionregulations and prevention implementation in tribal territories and areas where AI populations live,\" said Maggie Li, PhD candidate in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School, and first author.\"Until now, insight into PM<sub>2.5</sub> exposure burdens in AI communities has been limited, in turn contributing to the lack of air pollution epidemiological studies which include this population in the contiguous U.S.\"</p><p>The researchers compared ambient PM<sub>2.5</sub> average concentrations and trends in AI-populated vs. non-AI-populated counties in the contiguous U.S. from 2000 to 2018. They conducted their analysis at the county level, the most relevant unit to inform regulatory action. Population data and household income were obtained from the U.S. 2010 Census.</p><p>Average concentrations were 1.46 ?g/m<sup>3</sup> lower for modeled PM<sub>2.5</sub> in AI-populated counties vs. non-AI-populated counties in 2000; however, towards the end of the study period, PM<sub>2.5 </sub>concentrations in AI-populated counties became significantly higher compared to non-AI-populated counties. By 2018, concentrations were on average 0.66µg/m<sup>3</sup>higher in AI-populated counties than non-AI-populated counties. \"Although we observed that average PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentrations were higher in non-AI-populated counties at baseline and across most of the study period, the gap between AI- and non-AI-populated counties decreased over time; after approximately 2015, average PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentrations were higher in AI-populated counties,\" observed Li.</p><p>Short- and long-term exposure to particulate matter <em>?</em> 2.5 µm (PM<sub>2.5</sub>) increases the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory disease, among other health outcomes. In the U.S., socioeconomically disadvantaged communities are often exposed to higher PM<sub>2.5</sub> exposure levels. They bear a disproportionate burden of disease, even at levels well below air quality standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.</p><p>\"Our findings build upon existing studies showing that socioeconomically disadvantaged communities experience disproportionate burdens of environmental hazards, such as ambient air pollution. Native Americans may be particularly susceptible to the adverse health effects of PM<sub>2.5</sub> and air pollution, but research quantifying air pollution exposures and impacts on health among this population is lacking,\" said Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, ScD, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman School, and senior author. \"These communities already face a large disease burden attributable to environmental pollution due, for instance, to extensive mining and water contamination on Tribal Lands.\"</p><p>Cardiovascular disease, one of the outcomes associated with exposure to PM<sub>2.5</sub>, and the leading cause of death in AI populations, occurs at significantly higher rates than in white populations. \"There is a critical need for future investigations of health impacts associated with air pollution exposure in AI populations, as well as of interventions to ensure the observed inequalities can be eliminated,\" noted Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman School, and a senior co-author.</p><p>Co-authors are Markus Hilpert, Jenni A. Shearston, and Jeff Goldsmith, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; Jada Brooks, the University of North Carolina School of Nursing at Chapel Hill; Steven Chillrud, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University; Tauqeer Ali, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; Jason Umans, Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences; Lyle Best and Joseph Yracheta, Missouri Breaks Industries Research, Inc.; Aaron van Donkelaar and Randall Martin, Department of Energy, Environmental &amp; Chemical Engineering, Washington University at St. Louis.</p><p>Support for the study was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, grants T32 ES007322, P30 ES09089, R01 ES030616, and P42ES010349.</p>','2022-03-23 23:41:57.576986','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Columbia University\'s Mailman School of Public Health','New research highlights disparities in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) trends between American Indian (AI) and non-AI populated U.S. counties. PM2.5 is one of several air pollutants regulated by the U.S. EPA. Downward trends in PM2.5 concentrations were steeper among the non-AI populated compared to AI-populated counties. With most U.S. air pollution research conducted in urban settings, this is the first study to detail the extent of particulate air pollution levels and its potential health consequences among rural AI communities.\n',1,153,'<li>Maggie Li, Markus Hilpert, Jeff Goldsmith, Jada L. Brooks, Jenni A. Shearston, Steven N. Chillrud, Tauqeer Ali, Jason G. Umans, Lyle G. Best, Joseph Yracheta, Aaron van Donkelaar, Randall V. Martin, Ana Navas-Acien, Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou. <strong>Air Pollution in American Indian Versus Non–American Indian Communities, 2000–2018</strong>. <em>American Journal of Public Health</em>, 2022; 112 (4): 615 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306650\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.2105/AJPH.2021.306650</a>\n</li>'),(1564,'Older wildfire smoke plumes can affect climate','older-wildfire-smoke-plumes-can-affect-climate','2022-03-23 23:41:59.856217',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Aerosols carried in wildfire smoke plumes that are hundreds of hours old can still affect climate, according to a study out of the University of California, Davis.</p><p>The research, published in the journal<em> Environmental Science and Technology</em>, suggests that wildfire emissions even 10 days old can affect the properties of aerosols -- suspended liquid or particles that are key to cloud formation.</p><p>Research in aerosols and particulate matter pollution related to wildfires has most often focused on the early hours of smoke plumes, not several days later after smoke has traveled to other areas.</p><p><strong>Enhancing modeling</strong></p><p>This research helps fill in a knowledge gap and can inform future predictions about the climate and atmospheric effects of wildfire over the lifetime of aerosols, particularly in rural or pristine areas with relatively clean air, said Qi Zhang, an environmental toxicology professor and lead author of the study.</p><p>\"These parameters are really useful for atmospheric and chemical models,\" she said. \"It\'s a really important component to solving the effects on climate. To capture those characteristics is super critical.\"</p><p>Zhang, Ph.D. student Ryan Farley and others spent time in 2019 at the Mount Bachelor Observatory atop a volcanic mountain in Oregon. That year was relatively calm in terms of wildfire, but smoke plumes and aerosols were still observed. Some were at least 10 days old and came from as close as Northern California and as far as Siberia, Russia.</p><p>The properties and chemical composition of aerosols can do a number of things: scatter or absorb solar radiation affecting temperature, seed clouds to produce rain or snow, or change the reflectivity of clouds -- all of which affect climate.</p><p><strong>Aerosol properties change with age</strong></p><p>Scientists found that particulate matter concentrations were low, but oxidized organic aerosols from burning biomass -- such as trees, grasses and shrubs -- were detected throughout the samples.</p><p>The aerosols, which have a life cycle of about two weeks, were larger in aged samples compared to those found shortly after a fire starts.</p><p>\"The properties of the smoke determine the effects on the climate,\" Zhang said. \"The really aged aerosols can behave very differently than the fresh ones. You want to capture these aerosols over the lifetime to properly account for the effects.\"</p><p><strong>Aerosols in the background</strong></p><p>Older aerosols produced by wildfires can be present but not obvious and still affect climate.</p><p>\"It\'s not something you just notice but it\'s in the background,\" she said.</p><p>Knowing that information becomes ever more important as \"biomass burning has become more and more frequent,\" Zhang said.</p><p>Shan Zhou and Sonya Collier from UC Davis also participated in the research as did scientists from University of Montana and University of Washington.</p><p>The National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy\'s Atmospheric System Research Program, the California Agricultural Experiment Station and UC Davis funded the research.</p>','2022-03-23 23:41:59.856217','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Davis','Aerosols carried in wildfire smoke plumes that are hundreds of hours old can still affect climate, according to a new study.\n',1,27,'<li>Ryan Farley, Noah Bernays, Daniel A. Jaffe, Damien Ketcherside, Lu Hu, Shan Zhou, Sonya Collier, Qi Zhang. <strong>Persistent Influence of Wildfire Emissions in the Western United States and Characteristics of Aged Biomass Burning Organic Aerosols under Clean Air Conditions</strong>. <em>Environmental Science &amp; Technology</em>, 2022; 56 (6): 3645 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c07301\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acs.est.1c07301</a>\n</li>'),(1565,'Self-monitoring blood oxygen at home can help COVID patients spot early warning signs, study finds','self-monitoring-blood-oxygen-at-home-can-help-covid-patients-spot-early-warning-signs,-study-finds','2022-03-23 23:53:50.934113',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Measuring blood oxygen levels at home is a safe way for people with COVID-19 to spot signs that their health could be deteriorating, and they may need emergency and hospital care, new research led by Imperial College London has found.</p><p>Pulse oximeters are widely available, low-cost devices that shine light through a person\'s finger to assess their blood oxygen saturation. Evidence has shown that a fall in blood oxygen levels is a critical indicator that a COVID-19 patient\'s health is deteriorating and they may need closer monitoring and urgent treatment.</p><p>Led by Imperial\'s Institute of Global Health Innovation, the study carried out the first extensive evidence review of pulse oximetry and its potential in home monitoring for people with COVID-19.</p><p>The research, published in<em> Lancet Digital Health,</em> examined 13 studies involving almost 3,000 participants across five countries*, most of which were carried out during the first pandemic wave.</p><p>The scientists found that with medical guidance, home pulse oximetry can act as a safety net, reducing unnecessary emergency and hospital admissions for patients who can safely stay at home, while spotting early signs of deterioration and escalating care in those who need it. This would help to save stretched resources, and reduce further potential spread of the virus from contact in health settings.</p><p>However, the researchers note a lack of research on darker skinned patients, for whom oximetry may be less accurate than in white people.</p><p>Based on their findings, the researchers put forward a set of key recommendations that can help standardise the use of oximetry in home COVID-19 monitoring.</p><p>Importantly, the study recommends the use of a defined cutoff point in blood oxygen levels (92%), which will enable healthcare professionals to determine when a patient needs to go to hospital for treatment, or whether they can rule out the need for further care at the time.</p><p>Dr Ahmed Alboksmaty, Research Associate from the Institute of Global Health Innovation, said: \"Throughout the pandemic, concern among the public has shifted from \'Have I got COVID?\' to \'If I got COVID, do I need to go to hospital?\'. Our study shows that people with COVID-19 can safely keep an eye on their blood oxygen levels at home using pulse oximetry. If their oxygen levels drop below a certain point, then this indicates that they need to seek professional medical care.</p><p>\"Pulse oximetry is easy to self-use, affordable in cost, widely available, and as we have shown, a useful way to identify health deterioration in COVID-19 patients.\"</p><p>Some smartphones and mobile apps also have the capability to measure blood oxygen levels, which the researchers identify as a potentially widely accessible monitoring tool. However, while some studies have reported similar accuracy to traditional pulse oximeters, the researchers concluded that there isn\'t enough evidence yet to recommend their use for clinical monitoring.</p><p>The study also identified further gaps in the current evidence, notably insufficient data to determine whether pulse oximetry can improve the health outlook for patients.</p><p>Dr Ana Luisa Neves, Advanced Research Fellow from the Institute of Global Health Innovation, said: \"Our research has demonstrated how the use of pulse oximetry in remote patient monitoring could help ease the strains on health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it\'s vital to ensure that the current lack of research in racially and ethnically diverse populations is addressed. It\'s therefore critical to provide support to ensure this technology reduces, rather than entrenches, existing health inequalities.\"</p><p>The research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research as part of the COVID Oximetry at Home programme.</p>','2022-03-23 23:53:50.934113','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Imperial College London','Measuring blood oxygen levels at home is a safe way for people with COVID-19 to spot signs that their health could be deteriorating, and they may need emergency and hospital care, new research has found.\n',1,27,'<li>Ahmed Alboksmaty, Thomas Beaney, Sarah Elkin, Jonathan M Clarke, Ara Darzi, Paul Aylin, Ana-Luísa Neves. <strong>Effectiveness and safety of pulse oximetry in remote patient monitoring of patients with COVID-19: a systematic review</strong>. <em>The Lancet Digital Health</em>, 2022; 4 (4): e279 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00276-4\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00276-4</a>\n</li>'),(1566,'Improving prognosis in chronic kidney disease','improving-prognosis-in-chronic-kidney-disease','2022-03-24 11:11:41.475012',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Just as a water filtration system acts to filter contaminants from the water you drink, your kidneys act to filter waste and excess fluid from your blood. In chronic kidney disease (CKD), kidney function is impaired over time, and the resultant build-up of excess fluid and waste has harmful repercussions on overall body function. Researchers in Japan conducted a study of real-world data from patients with CKD to evaluate the impact of a commonly prescribed medication on disease outcome.</p><p>In a study published in <em>Hypertension</em>, researchers from Osaka University have demonstrated an association between the use of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs), a class of medicines that acts by suppressing the action of the steroid hormone aldosterone, and an improved renal prognosis in individuals with CKD.</p><p>As CKD progresses, the initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT), which includes dialysis and kidney transplantation, may be necessary for life support in kidney failure. MRAs, which include spironolactone, eplerenone, and potassium canrenoate, are commonly used to reduce swelling, blood pressure, and urine protein levels in people with CKD. However, the association between MRA treatment and the initiation of RRT has not been fully explored in a real-world population, which spurred the research team from Osaka University to undertake a large-scale retrospective study of MRA use in people with CKD.</p><p>\"We conducted a retrospective analysis of clinical data from over 3100 individuals with CKD,\" says lead author Tatsufumi Oka. \"We evaluated MRA treatment in various populations of people with CKD, including those with diabetes, heart disease, and severely impaired renal function.\"</p><p>The research team employed a marginal structural model to analyze the association between MRA use and the initiation of RRT across multiple patient subgroups.</p><p>\"Our analysis showed that MRA use was associated with a 28% lower rate of RRT initiation and a 24% lower rate of the combined outcomes of RRT initiation and death,\" says senior author Jun-Ya Kaimori.</p><p>The research team observed a reduced risk for RRT initiation across various subgroups of people with CKD, including those with and without diabetes and those with severely impaired renal function. These findings highlight the association of MRA use and improved renal outcomes in a real-world population of CKD patients with varying health backgrounds. Overall, this study supports the use of MRAs in treatment plans for various groups of people with CKD who are not undergoing dialysis.</p>','2022-03-24 11:11:41.475012','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Osaka University','Researchers have conducted a retrospective study of over 3100 people with chronic kidney disease to evaluate the association between mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) use and renal outcomes. The analysis revealed an association between MRA use and a reduced risk for the initiation of renal replacement therapy across multiple subgroups of patients with chronic kidney disease. These findings reinforce the use of MRAs in treatment plans for various groups of people with chronic kidney disease who are not undergoing dialysis.\n',1,27,'<li>Tatsufumi Oka, Yusuke Sakaguchi, Koki Hattori, Yuta Asahina, Sachio Kajimoto, Yohei Doi, Jun-Ya Kaimori, Yoshitaka Isaka. <strong>Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonist Use and Hard Renal Outcomes in Real-World Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease</strong>. <em>Hypertension</em>, 2022; 79 (3): 679 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.121.18360\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.121.18360</a>\n</li>'),(1567,'Maternal socialization, not biology, shapes child brain activity','maternal-socialization,-not-biology,-shapes-child-brain-activity','2022-03-24 11:47:21.650722',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Children of mothers with clinical depression are at three times greater risk to develop depression themselves than are their low-risk peers. Researchers are working to understand the neural underpinnings of the risk, and some studies have shown altered brain processing of reward in at-risk children as young as 6. An outstanding question remains as to whether children with a maternal history of depression have a biological predisposition to blunted neural reward responding or whether it depends more on social factors. Now, new work finds those dampened responses depended on maternal feedback, suggesting the latter.</p><p>The study appears in <em>Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging</em>, published by Elsevier.</p><p>Researchers have long observed changes in brain activity associated with depression in adults, particularly in a brain area called the ventral striatum (VS), which is associated with motivation, pleasure, and goal-directed behaviors. Similarly, several studies have shown striatal responses to rewarding experiences are blunted in adolescent children of depressed parents, which predicts later development of depression. However, more recent work shows that these brain changes can emerge long before the teenage years, when the risk for depression typically increases.</p><p>For the current study, lead author Judith Morgan, PhD, at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, recruited 49 children aged 6 to 8 without a history of psychiatric illness. Half the kids\' mothers had a history of clinical depression, and half had no psychiatric history. To measure reward-related brain activity, children played a video game in which they guessed which of two doors contained a hidden token while they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).</p><p>Depression may disrupt parents\' capacity for emotional socialization, a process by which kids learn from their parents\' reactions to their emotional responses. Positive socialization responses include acknowledgment, imitation, and elaboration, whereas negative or emotionally dampening parental responses may be dismissive, invalidating, or punitive.</p><p>Mothers participating in the study completed an extensive questionnaire designed to measure parental emotional socialization by presenting a dozen situational vignettes of children\'s displays of positive emotions and collecting parents\' reactions to them. Strikingly, children with a maternal history of depression were more likely to have reduced reward-related brain activity in the VS, but only if their mothers reported less enthusiastic and more dampening responses to their children\'s positive emotions, the researchers found.</p><p>\"In our study, mothers\' own history of depression by itself was not related to altered brain responses to reward in early school-age children,\" said Dr. Morgan. \"Instead, this history had an influence on children\'s brain responses only in combination with mothers\' parenting behavior, such as the ability to acknowledge, imitate, or elaborate on their child\'s positive emotions.\"</p><p>\"This is hopeful news as interventions geared at coaching parents to encourage positive emotions in their children may have a powerful impact on child reward-related development, especially for families of children who may be at greater risk because of a family history of depression,\" Dr. Morgan added.</p><p>Cameron Carter, MD, Editor of <em>Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging</em>, said,</p><p>\"This important work provides a great example of how clinical neuroscience can reveal neural mechanisms underlying depression and discover new links that may explain why one person has depression and another does not. These links take us beyond clinical observation and therapy alone to open new avenues (such as parenting interventions) for prevention that can promote resilience and wellness.\"</p>','2022-03-24 11:47:21.650722','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Elsevier','Children of mothers with clinical depression are at three times greater risk to develop depression themselves than are their low-risk peers. Researchers are working to understand the neural underpinnings of the risk, and some studies have shown altered brain processing of reward in at-risk children as young as 6. An outstanding question remains as to whether children with a maternal history of depression have a biological predisposition to blunted neural reward responding or whether it depends more on social factors. Now, new work finds those dampened responses depended on maternal feedback, suggesting the latter.\n',1,105,'<li>Judith K. Morgan, Kristen L. Eckstrand, Jennifer S. Silk, Thomas M. Olino, Cecile D. Ladouceur, Erika E. Forbes. <strong>Maternal Response to Positive Affect Moderates the Impact of Familial Risk for Depression on Ventral Striatal Response to Winning Reward in 6- to 8-Year-Old Children</strong>. <em>Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.12.014\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.12.014</a>\n</li>'),(1568,'Scholars call for Paris Accord-style global agreement to combat emergence of \'superbugs\'','scholars-call-for-paris-accord-style-global-agreement-to-combat-emergence-of-\'superbugs\'','2022-03-24 17:41:51.698726',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In December 2021, as the world prepared to enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, 194 member countries at the World Health Organization unanimously agreed to pursue a global agreement governing future worldwide responses to infectious diseases. The goal is to prevent the next pandemic, or at a minimum, to effectively contain it with minimal cost to human lives and national economies.</p><p>COVID-19, like the 1918 influenza and 2009 H1N1 pandemics, was caused by a new virus. But public health experts, including those at York University, have long been concerned by the emergence of so-called \"superbugs,\" existing bacterial, viral, or fungal pathogens that have evolved to evade the antibiotics, antivirals and antifungals developed to kill them.</p><p>The scope and severity of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the urgent need for a co-ordinated global response are the subjects of a new paper, co-authored by 25 scholars -- from York and Oxford, among several others -- and published today in the <em>American Journal of Public Health. </em>Titled \"Governing Global Antimicrobial Resistance: 6 Key Lessons From the Paris Climate Agreement,\" the paper emerged out of a collaboration between York and Oxford University, including consensus workshops held in May 2019 at the Oxford Martin School in the U.K. The authors argue that the six lessons from the Paris Accord should form the basis of any multi-country agreement or action plan on AMR.</p><p>A recent paper published in <em>The Lancet</em> provides new evidence that the global scale of superbugs that emerge is already much higher than previously estimated, killing an estimated 1.27 million people each year.</p><p>\"Every single use of an antimicrobial treatment -- every time an antimicrobial is prescribed by a doctor or administered <em>en masse</em> to livestock -- increases the chance that microbes will develop permanent, irreversible resistance to the medicines that we use to stop their spread,\" says the study\'s lead author, Isaac Weldon, a CIHR-funded PhD candidate in political science at York\'s Faculty of Liberal Arts &amp; Professional Studies.</p><p>\"As we say in the paper, every single antibiotic treatment or antimicrobial consumed has potentially global implications. Resistant microbial pathogens that spread throughout the world would essentially cause untreatable pandemic diseases. And that would require non-pharmaceutical inventions like lockdowns, masking, contact tracing and isolation to contain them -- everything we just went through for the past two years.\"</p><p>Here are the six elements of the Paris Climate Agreement that Weldon and his co-authors argue should be applied to the global governance of AMR<em>:</em></p><p>\"Binding rules imposed on all countries are necessary because any single country\'s effort to control AMR is doomed to fail without the co-ordinated effort of the world,\" Weldon says. \"Even if Canada were to impose the perfect AMR regime, all it would take to undermine it is one passenger arriving on one airline flight with a resistant pathogen from another country without such a regime.</p><p>\"So, in the absence of universal standards and accountability, a single country like Canada would be imposing a cost on itself by going it alone on AMR. It would make its economy less competitive; it would make things harder for doctors, farmers, and corporations that have come to rely on antimicrobials with little guarantee of success. It\'s almost a non-starter -- why would Canada impose these costs and constrain itself against other countries who aren\'t taking the initiative to address AMR? But with a coordinated global effort, the opportunity to create healthier societies, save countless lives, and preserve the effectiveness of antimicrobials for future generations makes the equation a no-brainer. Global cooperation here is the key.\"</p><p>The AMR study emerged from consensus workshops convened by the Global Strategy Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab based at York and Ottawa U, and the world\'s only WHO-affiliated Collaborating Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance.</p><p>\"This publication showcases the exciting work happening at York on the global health policy measures needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this case, through an active research partnership with the University of Oxford,\" says the Global Strategy Lab\'s director, Steven J. Hoffman, a professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science at York\'s Faculty of Health and Osgoode Hall Law School and the Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance &amp; Legal Epidemiology.</p><p>\"A lot of times, research is about identifying problems, but this study was about solutions. What specific steps must countries take collectively to ensure more equitable access to antimicrobials, conservation of current effective antimicrobials, and innovation in the development of new antimicrobial treatments? The fact that the paper is short, running to only five pages, testifies to the remarkable degree of consensus that the scholars worked hard to achieve during the workshops at Oxford.</p><p>\"It also shows what that our doctorial students, like Isaac, the lead author, are capable of, the difference they can make. Sometimes we\'re too focused on professors, and we forget about the important research contributions of PhD students.\"</p><p>The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust, Oxford Martin School, and the Social Sciences &amp; Humanities Research Council of Canada.</p><p><strong>More about the Global Strategy Lab</strong>:</p><p>The Global Strategy Lab is a bi-campus interdisciplinary research lab that brings cutting-edge science and scholarship to bear on how global institutions, instruments and initiatives are designed to better address the most pressing global challenges. Directed by Dr. Steven J. Hoffman and based at York University and the University of Ottawa, the Lab advises the world\'s governments and public health organizations on how to design laws, policies and institutions that address transnational health threats and make the world a healthier place for everyone.</p>','2022-03-24 17:41:51.698726','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'York University','Public health experts have long been concerned by the emergence of so-called \'superbugs\' -- existing bacterial, viral, or fungal pathogens that have evolved to evade the antibiotics, antivirals and antifungals developed to kill them. The scope and severity of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the urgent need for a co-ordinated global response are the subjects of a new paper, co-authored by 25 scholars.\n',1,153,'<li>Isaac Weldon, Susan Rogers Van Katwyk, Gian Luca Burci, Dr Giur, Thana C. de Campos, Mark Eccleston-Turner, Helen R. Fryer, Alberto Giubilini, Thomas Hale, Mark Harrison, Stephanie Johnson, Claas Kirchhelle, Kelley Lee, Kathleen Liddell, Marc Mendelson, Gorik Ooms, James Orbinski, Laura J. V. Piddock, John-Arne Røttingen, Julian Savulescu, Andrew C. Singer, A. M. Viens, Clare Wenham, Mary E. Wiktorowicz, Shehla Zaidi, Steven J. Hoffman. <strong>Governing Global Antimicrobial Resistance: 6 Key Lessons From the Paris Climate Agreement</strong>. <em>American Journal of Public Health</em>, 2022; 112: 553_557 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306695\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.2105/AJPH.2021.306695</a>\n</li>'),(1569,'Speaking from the heart: Could your voice reveal your heart health?','speaking-from-the-heart:-could-your-voice-reveal-your-heart-health?','2022-03-24 18:19:17.478368',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">An artificial intelligence (AI)-based computer algorithm accurately predicted a person\'s likelihood of suffering heart problems related to clogged arteries based on voice recordings alone, in a study presented at the American College of Cardiology\'s 71<sup>st</sup> Annual Scientific Session.</p><p>Researchers found that people with a high voice biomarker score were 2.6 times more likely to suffer major problems associated with coronary artery disease (CAD), a buildup of plaque in the heart\'s arteries, and three times more likely to show evidence of plaque buildup in medical tests compared with those who had a low score. While the technology is not yet ready for use in the clinic, the demonstration suggests voice analysis could be a powerful screening tool in identifying patients who may benefit from closer monitoring for CAD-related events. Researchers said this approach could be particularly useful in remote health care delivery and telehealth.</p><p>\"Telemedicine is non-invasive, cost-effective and efficient and has become increasingly important during the pandemic,\" said Jaskanwal Deep Singh Sara, MD, a cardiology fellow at Mayo Clinic and the study\'s lead author. \"We\'re not suggesting that voice analysis technology would replace doctors or replace existing methods of health care delivery, but we think there\'s a huge opportunity for voice technology to act as an adjunct to existing strategies. Providing a voice sample is very intuitive and even enjoyable for patients, and it could become a scalable means for us to enhance patient management.</p><p>The study represents the first time voice analysis has been used to predict CAD outcomes in patients who were tracked prospectively after an initial screening. Previous studies retrospectively examined voice markers associated with CAD and heart failure. Other research groups have explored the use of similar technology for a range of disorders, including Parkinson\'s disease, Alzheimer\'s disease and COVID-19.</p><p>For the new study, researchers recruited 108 patients who were referred for a coronary angiogram, an X-ray imaging procedure used to assess the condition of the heart\'s arteries. Participants were asked to record three 30-second voice samples using the Vocalis Health smartphone application. For the first sample, participants read from a prepared text. For the second sample, they were asked to speak freely about a positive experience, and for the third, they spoke freely about a negative experience.</p><p>The Vocalis Health algorithm then analyzed participants\' voice samples. The AI-based system had been trained to analyze more than 80 features of voice recordings, such as frequency, amplitude, pitch and cadence, based on a training set of over 10,000 voice samples collected in Israel. In previous studies, researchers identified six features that were highly correlated with CAD. For the new study, researchers combined these features into a single score, expressed as a number between -1 and 1 for each individual. One-third of patients were categorized as having a high score and two-thirds had a low score.</p><p>\"We can\'t hear these particular features ourselves,\" Sara said. \"This technology is using machine learning to quantify something that isn\'t easily quantifiable for us using our human brains and our human ears.\"</p><p>Study participants were tracked for two years. Of those with a high voice biomarker score, 58.3% visited the hospital for chest pain or suffered acute coronary syndrome (a type of major heart problem that includes heart attacks), the study\'s composite primary endpoint, compared with 30.6% of those with a low voice biomarker score. Participants with a high voice biomarker score were also more likely to have a positive stress test or be diagnosed with CAD during a subsequent angiogram (the composite secondary endpoint).</p><p>Scientists have not concluded why certain voice features seem to be indicative of CAD, but Sara said the autonomic nervous system may play a role. This part of the nervous system regulates bodily functions that are not under conscious control, which includes both the voice box and many aspects of the cardiovascular system, such as heart rate and blood pressure. Therefore, it is possible that the voice could provide clues about how the autonomic nervous system is functioning, and by extension, provide insights into cardiovascular health, Sara said.</p><p>The study was conducted with English speakers in the Midwestern U.S. using software trained on voice samples collected in Israel. Sara said more tests are needed to determine whether the approach is generalizable and scalable across languages, countries, cultures and health care settings. He added that it will also be important to address security and privacy issues before incorporating such technology into telemedicine or on-site health assessments.</p><p>\"It\'s definitely an exciting field, but there\'s still a lot of work to be done,\" Sara said. \"We have to know the limitations of the data we have, and we need to conduct more studies in more diverse populations, larger trials and more prospective studies like this one.\"</p>','2022-03-24 18:19:17.478368','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American College of Cardiology','An artificial intelligence (AI)-based computer algorithm accurately predicted a person\'s likelihood of suffering heart problems related to clogged arteries based on voice recordings alone.\n',1,150,'<li>Jaskanwal Deep Singh Sara et al. <strong>Non-Invasive Voice Biomarker is Associated with Incident Coronary Artery Disease Events at Follow- Up</strong>. <em>Mayo Clinic Proceedings</em>, 2022 [<a href=\"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3826210\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">abstract</a>]</li>'),(1570,'IgA antibodies seem to protect unvaccinated against COVID-19, study finds','iga-antibodies-seem-to-protect-unvaccinated-against-covid-19,-study-finds','2022-03-24 18:19:54.546607',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Despite daily contact with Covid-19 patients early in the pandemic, some health professionals avoided falling ill. As a University of Gothenburg study shows, the explanation appears to be an antidote in the immune system: IgA antibodies to COVID-19.</p><p>To understand how the immune system builds up its defenses against COVID-19, a group of researchers at the University\'s Sahlgrenska Academy monitored 156 employees at five primary care health centers, belonging to the Nötkärnan group in the Gothenburg area, for six months.</p><p>Recruited during April and May 2020, none of them had been vaccinated against COVID-19, and most of them met infected patients daily.</p><p>The reason why some of the staff did not contract the disease seems to have been that IgA (immunoglobulin A) was present in their respiratory tract. These antibodies, found naturally in the secretions of mucous membranes in the airways and gastrointestinal tract, can protect the body by binding to viruses and other invading organisms.</p><p><strong>One in ten protected</strong></p><p>The results of the study, published in the <em>European Journal of Immunology</em>, show that a third of the care workers developed antibodies to COVID-19. These subjects fell into two distinct groups based on antibody patterns and COVID-19 incidence.</p><p>One group, who had IgA antibodies only, never succumbed to COVID-19. Participants in the other group had both IgG antibodies and T cells, and contracted the disease. The acquired immune system also includes IgG antibodies and T cells, which serve to recognize viruses, for example, and protect us against them.</p><p>Those responsible for the study were, first, Christine Wennerås, Professor of Clinical Bacteriology at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, and senior physician at Sahlgrenska University Hospital; and, second, Kristina Eriksson, Professor of Viral Immunology at Sahlgrenska Academy.</p><p>\"We all have IgA. It\'s found on the mucous membranes, and COVID-19 is an infection that spreads via those membranes. We thought it was important to investigate what happened when completely healthy people encountered the coronavirus, before vaccines became available,\" Wennerås says.</p><p>\"Of the participants in our study, none whom contracted Covid-19 required hospitalization. A lot of other research has concerned the most seriously ill patients, who have been hospitalized and in neediof ntensive care.\"</p><p><strong>Focus on health factors</strong></p><p>The present study focused on identifying health factors that appeared to afford protection against COVID-19. Numerous factors were found by means of extensive questionnaire surveys, blood tests and more. As soon as a participant had nasal congestion, a cough, red eyes, changes in the sense of taste, or anything else that could be an infection, they had to answer questions and undergo a PCR test.</p><p>What the subjects who neither tested positive nor fell ill had in common, then, were IgA antibodies, which bind to the coronavirus. Being female and having a respiratory allergy were other factors affording protection against becoming infected. However, the study provides no support for the idea that people without antibodies against COVID-19 have protective T cells.</p><p>\"A lot of the Covid-related research has been about IgG antibodies and T cells. The interesting thing is that when we now examine other people\'s articles and tables, we find evidence for the conclusion we\'ve arrived at about IgA ourselves. But it\'s not something those studies have highlighted,\" Wennerås says.</p>','2022-03-24 18:19:54.546607','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Gothenburg','Despite daily contact with COVID-19 patients early in the pandemic, some health professionals avoided falling ill. As a new study shows, the explanation appears to be an antidote in the immune system: IgA antibodies to COVID-19.\n',1,152,'<li>Viktoria Hennings, Karolina Thörn, Sofie Albinsson, Christine Lingblom, Kerstin Andersson, Christer Andersson, Katarina Järbur, Rille Pullerits, Manja Idorn, Søren R. Paludan, Kristina Eriksson, Christine Wennerås. <strong>The presence of serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgA appears to protect primary health care workers from COVID-19</strong>. <em>European Journal of Immunology</em>, Feb. 7, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eji.202149655\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/eji.202149655</a>\n</li>'),(1571,'Male dolphins whistle to maintain key social relationships','male-dolphins-whistle-to-maintain-key-social-relationships','2022-03-24 20:00:18.168373',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Allied male bottlenose dolphins maintain weaker yet vital social relationships with whistle exchanges, researchers at the University of Bristol have found.</p><p>While male dolphins are known to use physical contact such as gentle petting to connect with strongly bonded allies, new findings published in <em>Current Biology</em> today, show they rely on less time-demanding vocal exchanges to remain connected with weaker allies.</p><p>The scientists, with colleagues from an international suite of universities, used nine years of acoustic and behavioural data from a dolphin population in Shark Bay, Western Australia, to assess how male dolphins reinforced and maintained their valuable alliances.</p><p>Lead author Emma Chereskin, from Bristol\'s School of Biological Sciences, said: \"Many animals, including humans, use tactile contact, touch, to strengthen and reaffirm important relationships. But as the number of close social relationships increases, so too do the demands on the time and space available for relationship maintenance through physical contact. Male bottlenose dolphins form strategic, multi-level alliances, and we wanted to know how they maintained multiple alliance relationships in large groups.\"</p><p>By following groups of affiliated males, and documenting their physical and acoustic behaviour, the research team was able identify the different ways that these males bonded with each other.</p><p>Senior author Dr Stephanie King, also from Bristol, said: \"We found that within the core dolphin alliances, strongly bonded allies engaged in more affiliative contact behaviour, such as petting and rubbing, while weakly bonded allies engaged in more whistle exchanges. This illustrates that these weaker but still key social relationships can be maintained with vocal exchanges.\"</p><p>In the <em>social bonding hypothesis</em>, Robin Dunbar posited that vocalisations and language evolved as a form of \'vocal grooming\' to replace physical grooming, as increasingly large group sizes placed impossible demands on the time available for physical contact behaviours. However, tests of this hypothesis in non-human primates suggest that vocal exchanges occur between more strongly bonded individuals that engage in higher grooming rates, and thus do not provide evidence for replacement of physical bonding.</p><p>\"Our findings provide new evidence that vocal exchanges can serve a bonding function\" Chereskin said, \"but more importantly, and in line with the <em>social bonding hypothesis</em>, that vocal exchanges can function as a replacement of physical bonding, allowing allied male dolphins to \'bond-at-a-distance\'. This evidence in support of the <em>social bonding hypothesis </em>outside of the primate lineage raises exciting new questions on the origins and evolution of language across taxa.\"</p><p>The study was funded by The Branco Weiss Fellowship -- Society in Science and the National Geographic Society.</p>','2022-03-24 20:00:18.168373','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Bristol','Allied male bottlenose dolphins maintain weaker yet vital social relationships with whistle exchanges, researchers have found.\n',1,73,'<li>Emma Chereskin et al. <strong>Allied male dolphins use vocal exchanges to “bond at a distance”</strong>. <em>Current Biology</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.019\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.019</a>\n</li>'),(1572,'How campus design and architecture influence interaction among researchers','how-campus-design-and-architecture-influence-interaction-among-researchers','2022-03-24 20:00:22.104129',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The MIT campus is built to connect people. Some structures, like the Stata Center, the Sloan building, or the Media Lab building, offer large lobbies, flexible labs, and common spaces to enhance collaboration. MIT\'s Infinite Corridor -- which is one-sixth of a mile long -- mixes thousands of people together daily. Aerial walkways connect campus research buildings.</p><p>Do all these design elements truly help people to work together? A study led by MIT scholars reveals new details about collaboration on the Institute\'s campus. Overall the study, which looks at email traffic between faculty, researchers, and staff on campus, confirms that physical proximity does matter for workplace collaboration, but it adds new wrinkles about how this happens.</p><p>People are more likely to communicate via email after running into each other at a campus eatery, for instance, than in a crowded corridor. The study also found that email exchanges occur more often among researchers whose workspaces are connected through indoor halls rather than outdoor paths. And greater physical proximity may not replace email communication among people who don\'t know each other well -- they are more likely to email each other even when working in close proximity.</p><p>\"Studying how spatial relationships may influence social ties has been of interest to scholars of the built environment and sociologists alike for a long time,\" says Andres Sevtsuk, an associate professor in MIT\'s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), and co-author of a new paper detailing the study\'s results. While past work often used survey data to account for interactions, here the campus email information added hard data to the research.</p><p>\"We were interested in taking this idea of spatial relatedness further and examining its more nuanced aspects that have not been well-covered in prior research,\" Sevtsuk notes.</p><p>Those findings apply to not only MIT but other organizations as well.</p><p>\"These ideas could be explored analogously in other work environments beyond MIT, such as companies, organizations, or even public sector institutions,\" says Bahij Chaucey, a researcher at the MIT City Form Lab and a co-author of the paper.</p><p>The paper, \"Spatial structure of workplace and communication between colleagues: A study of E-mail exchange and spatial relatedness on the MIT campus,\" was published in advance online form in March, by the journal <em>Social Networks</em>.</p><p>The authors are Chancey; Rounaq Basu, a doctoral candidate in DUSP; Martina Mazzarello, a postdoc at the MIT Senseable City Lab; and Sevtsuk, the Charles and Ann Spaulding Career Development Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning in DUSP and head of the MIT City Form Lab.</p><p><strong>The Allen Curve and onward</strong></p><p>A large body of scholarship has examined workplace interactions -- often influenced by the late Thomas Allen, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management whose interest in the subject was spurred in part by a stint working at Boeing. Allen\'s research in the 1970s and 1980s found that greater proximity has a strong relationship with greater collaboration among engineers, a phenomenon represented by the \"Allen Curve.\"</p><p>To conduct this study, the researchers used anonymized email data collected by MIT\'s Information Systems and Technology group in February 2020, a month before the Covid-19 pandemic altered campus routines. The data track how many bilateral email exchanges occurred between research units on campus, such as departments or labs; the scholars examined the number of individuals in a unit to estimate the typical amount of person-to-person exchange.</p><p>The team then examined the spatial relationships between research units, to see how the built environment might interact with email patterns. Overall, the study spanned 33 different departments, labs, and research groups, and 1,455 office occupants.</p><p>The scholars also modeled the likely walking routes to the office or lab of MIT workers, based on MIT\'s 2018 Commute to Work survey, while also estimating the total foot traffic or crowdedness of each corridor and eating venue on campus. Sevtsuk\'s research has included extensive modeling of pedestrian routes in city settings using such methods.</p><p><strong>More food for thought</strong></p><p>Many specific, granular findings emerged from the study -- especially the idea that proximity matters along with the specifics of the built environment. For starters, other things being equal, workers in research units located near the same dining facilities are more likely to email and interact.</p><p>\"Cafeterias are spaces where verbal and visual communication is an important part of eating culture, especially in a research environment like MIT,\" says Basu.</p><p>Not having to venture outside also influences behavior -- at least, it did during the wintery Massachusetts weather during the study period. For research units that are basically an equal distance apart, those linked by interior corridors tended to communicate more than those separated by outdoor space, even when that communication was in the form of email.</p><p>\"We clearly saw that if people\'s offices are linked via the indoor Infinite Corridor system, they are more likely to engage in email exchange than if the logical connections between their offices require outdoor paths,\" Basu says.</p><p>As an added wrinkle, however, really busy corridors seem to generate brief greetings more than exchanges that lead to follow-up communication. \"We found that if the corridor where person A may be walking past person B\'s office on the way to work tends to be more crowded, then it reduces the likelihood of A and B engaging in email exchange,\" Sevtsuk says.</p><p>However, this does not seem to be the case with very crowded cafeterias, which if anything seem to encourage more subsequent contact. \"A more crowded cafeteria could provide more opportunities to engage in group conversations, where new social ties can emerge between people who are introduced by mutual connections,\" Sevtsuk observes.</p><p>Not least, the effects of physical proximity are themselves related to preexisting relationships. For people already familiar with each other, the research suggests, proximity leads to more face-to-face interactions; for those previously unfamiliar with each other, meeting people due to proximity tends to lead to a greater proportion of emails being exchanged, at first.</p><p><strong>Many pathways ahead</strong></p><p>The researchers believe their methodology could suggest ways to place new faculty or staff in useful spots where they would be able to interact easily with others.</p><p>\"It is possible to use our findings to identify where such locations are within each department and school,\" Sevtsuk says.</p><p>Campus planners could also continue to build on ideas evident in the Stata Center and Sloan building, which have large ground-floor cafeterias and \"strategically position social lounges or dining facilities at locations where access from surrounding offices, and the likelihood of passing [by] is highest,\" Sevtsuk adds.</p><p>In universities and tech-firm campuses, Sevtsuk suggests, when new building projects are being considered, it makes sense to \"strategically evaluate their locations and circulation systems vis-a-vis spatial connectivity to surrounding departments with which they have the most potential for joint research.\"</p><p>Certainly, MIT, other universities, and large companies cannot always quickly reconfigure themselves. But over time, good planning and design can enhance interdisciplinary work, collaboration, and generate serendipitous meetings between people. Or, as the authors state in the paper, \"Planning environments to encourage greater interaction across different groups may offer a pathway to bridge siloed social networks and encourage information exchange between otherwise unlikely parties.\"</p>','2022-03-24 20:00:22.104129','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts Institute of Technology','A new study examines the relationship between physical proximity, social networking, and collaboration on a university campus.\n',1,49,'<li>Andres Sevtsuk, Bahij Chancey, Rounaq Basu, Martina Mazzarello. <strong>Spatial structure of workplace and communication between colleagues: A study of E-mail exchange and spatial relatedness on the MIT campus</strong>. <em>Social Networks</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2022.03.001\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.socnet.2022.03.001</a>\n</li>'),(1573,'Health risk due to micro- and nanoplastics in food','health-risk-due-to-micro--and-nanoplastics-in-food','2022-03-24 20:37:53.046663',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Five grams of plastic particles on average enter the human gastrointestinal tract per person per week. This is roughly equivalent to the weight of a credit card. Whether ingested micro- and nanoplastics pose a health risk is being investigated in numerous studies but is largely unknown to date. A research team from MedUni Vienna has now summarised the current state of scientific knowledge. The review article has just been published in the journal<em> Exposure &amp; Health</em>.</p><p>Medical research on the topic centres on the digestive system where micro- and nanoplastic particles (MNPs) can be found in tissue. Experimental studies indicate that ingested MNPs passing through the gastrointestinal tract lead to changes in the composition of the gut microbiome. The research team led by Elisabeth Gruber (Division of Visceral Surgery of MedUni Vienna\'s Department for General Surgery) and Lukas Kenner (Department of Pathology MedUni Vienna, Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital, Department of Laboratory Animal Pathology of VetMedUni) report that such changes are associated with the development of metabolic diseases such as diabetes, obesity or chronic liver disease.</p><p>In addition to the effects on the gut microbiome, scientists also described specific molecular mechanisms that facilitate the uptake of MNPs into gut tissue. Using specific analyses, it was shown that MNPs in the gastrointestinal tract could increasingly be taken up into tissue under certain physicochemical conditions and activate mechanisms involved in local inflammatory and immune responses. Nanoplastics in particular are associated with biochemical processes that are crucially involved in carcinogenesis.</p><p><strong>Plastic particles also in drinking water</strong></p><p>Nanoplastics are defined as being less than 0.001 millimetre in size, while microplastics, at 0.001 to 5 millimetres, are to some extent still visible to the naked eye. MNPs enter the food chain from packaging waste, among other sources. The plastic particles are not only trafficked into the body via food such as marine life or sea salt in particular, drinking also plays a part. According to a study, anyone who drinks the recommended 1.5 to two litres of water a day from plastic bottles ingests around 90,000 plastic particles per year in this way alone. However, those who choose tap water can, depending on their geographical location, reduce the amount ingested to 40,000 plastic particles. Researchers also demonstrated widespread contamination of mineral water with xenohormones leached from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles. Xenohormones are known to exhibit oestrogenic activity which can act carcinogenic in the body.</p><p>The potential adverse health effects of plastic particles could be particularly impactful for people with a chronic disease burden, says Lukas Kenner. \"A healthy gut is more likely to ward off the health risk. But local changes in the gastrointestinal tract, such as those present in chronic disease or even negative stress, could make them susceptible to the harmful effects of MNPs.\"</p>','2022-03-24 20:37:53.046663','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Medical University of Vienna','Five grams of plastic particles on average enter the human gastrointestinal tract per person per week. This is roughly equivalent to the weight of a credit card. Whether ingested micro- and nanoplastics pose a health risk is being investigated in numerous studies but is largely unknown to date. A research team has now summarized the current state of scientific knowledge.\n',1,108,'<li>Gruber, E.S., Stadlbauer, V., Pichler, V. et al. <strong>To Waste or Not to Waste: Questioning Potential Health Risks of Micro- and Nanoplastics with a Focus on Their Ingestion and Potential Carcinogenicity</strong>. <em>Expo Health</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12403-022-00470-8\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1007/s12403-022-00470-8</a>\n</li>'),(1574,'Warming oceans are getting louder','warming-oceans-are-getting-louder','2022-03-24 20:38:19.664976',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Climate change will significantly alter how sound travels underwater, potentially affecting natural soundscapes as well as accentuating human-generated noise, according to a new global study that identified future ocean \"acoustic hotspots.\" These changes to ocean soundscapes could impact essential activities of marine life.</p><p>In warmer water, sound waves propagate faster and last longer before dying away.</p><p>\"We calculated the effects of temperature, depth and salinity based on public data to model the soundscape of the future,\" said Alice Affatati, an bioacoustics researcher at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador in St. John\'s, Canada, and lead author of the new study, published today in <em>Earth\'s Future</em><strong>,</strong> AGU\'s journal for interdisciplinary research on the past, present and future of our planet and its inhabitants. It is the first global-scale estimate of ocean sound speed linked to future climate.</p><p>Two hotspots, in the Greenland Sea and a patch of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean east of Newfoundland, can expect the most change at 50 and 500 meter depths, the new study projected. The average speed of sound is likely to increase by more than 1.5%, or approximately 25 meters per second (55 miles per hour) in these waters from the surface to depths of 500 meters (1,640 feet), by the end of the century, given continued high greenhouse gas emissions (RCP8.5).</p><p>\"The major impact is expected in the Arctic, where we know already there is amplification of the effects of climate change now. Not all the Arctic, but one specific part where all factors play together to give a signal that, according to the model predictions, overcomes the uncertainty of the model itself,\" said author Stefano Salon, a researcher at the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics in Trieste, Italy.</p><p>The ocean soundscape is a cacophony of vibrations produced by living organisms, natural phenomena like waves and cracking ice, and ship traffic and resource extraction. Sound speed at 50 meters depth ranges from 1,450 meters per second in the polar regions to 1,520 meters per second in equatorial waters (3,243 to 3,400 miles per hour, respectively).</p><p>Many marine animals use sound to communicate with each other and navigate their underwater world. Changing the sound speed can impact their ability to feed, fight, find mates, avoid predators and migrate, the authors said.</p><p><strong>Changing soundscapes</strong></p><p>In addition to the notable hotpots around Greenland and in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, the new study found a 1% sound speed increase, more than 15 meters per second, at 50 m in the Barents Sea, northwestern Pacific, and in the Southern Ocean (between 0 and 70E), and at 500 m in the Arctic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and southern Caribbean Sea.</p><p>Temperature, pressure with increasing depth and salinity all affect how fast and how far sound travels in water. In the new study, the researchers focused on hotspots where the climate signal stood out clearly from the model uncertainty and was larger than seasonal variability.</p><p>The new study also modeled common vocalizations, under the projected future conditions, of the North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species inhabiting both north Atlantic acoustic hotspots. The whales\' typical \"upcall\" at 50 Hertz is likely to propagate farther in a warmer future ocean, the researchers found.</p><p>\"We chose to talk about one megafauna species, but many trophic levels in the ocean are affected by the soundscape or use sound,\" Affatati said. \"All these hotspots are locations of great biodiversity.\"</p><p>Future work will combine the global soundscape with other maps of anthropogenic impacts in the oceans to pinpoint areas of combined stressors, or direct needed observational research.</p><p>\"With complicated problems like climate change, to combine different approaches is the way to go,\" said author Chiara Scaini, an environmental engineer at the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics.</p>','2022-03-24 20:38:19.664976','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Geophysical Union','Climate change is speeding sound transmission in the oceans and the way it varies over the globe with physical properties of the oceans. Two \'acoustic hotspots\' of future sound speed increases are predicted east of Greenland and in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, East of Newfoundland. In these locations, the average speed of sound is likely to increase by more than 1.5% if \'business-as-usual\' high rates of greenhouse gas emissions continue through 2100.\n',1,27,'<li>Alice Affatati, Chiara Scaini, Stefano Salon. <strong>Ocean Sound Propagation in a Changing Climate: Global Sound Speed Changes and Identification of Acoustic Hotspots</strong>. <em>Earth\'s Future</em>, 22 March 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002099\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1029/2021EF002099</a>\n</li>'),(1575,'Remote Indian Ocean reefs bounce back quickly after bleaching','remote-indian-ocean-reefs-bounce-back-quickly-after-bleaching','2022-03-24 22:07:05.374862',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Coral reefs in remote or protected areas can recover quickly after mass coral bleaching events, new research shows.</p><p>University of Exeter researchers are investigating \"reef carbonate budgets\" -- the net production or erosion of reef structure over time.</p><p>To study the impacts of climate change on reef functions, they examined 12 reefs in the remote Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean before and after the global coral bleaching event in 2015/16.</p><p>In 2018, the formerly thriving reefs were \"shrinking,\" with coral cover and carbonate production down by more than 70% and erosion processes exceeding new coral growth.</p><p>When the researchers returned in 2021, all reefs were on a trajectory of recovery, although the speed varied from place to place.</p><p>Where key coral species returned quickly and the underlying physical reef structure had stayed intact, reefs showed a rapid transition back to positive growth only six years after the bleaching event.</p><p>Bleaching is caused by warmer water temperatures, which can trigger corals to expel their symbiotic algae and turn white. Corals can survive this, but an extreme heat wave causes large-scale mortality.</p><p>The speed of subsequent recovery is an important indicator of a reef\'s health and resilience.</p><p>\"Such high rates of coral recruitment and the rapid restoration of reef functions are a very nice surprise and imply that this location is showing some resilience, thus far, to ongoing ocean warming,\" said lead author Dr Ines Lange, a postdoctoral research fellow in a multi-institutional project funded by the Bertarelli Program in Marine Science.</p><p>\"A full recovery of reefs across the Chagos Archipelago over the next few years is likely if the region is spared from reoccurring marine heating events.\"</p><p>Dr Lange added: \"The study shows that in remote and protected areas without local impacts such as fishing or pollution from land, coral reefs and the important functions they provide are able to recover relatively quickly, even after large-scale disturbances.</p><p>\"Proximity to healthy coral populations and the maintenance of a complex reef structure seems to boost recovery speed, which may help to manage reefs under the threat of increasing frequency of bleaching events predicted for the near future.\"</p><p>Co-author Professor Chris Perry, from the University of Exeter, developed the census-based <em>ReefBudget method</em> to quantify reef carbonate budgets.</p><p>These carbonate budgets are important indicators of a reef\'s ability to provide habitat to marine life, protect shorelines from wave energy and help reef islands to keep up with future sea level rise.</p><p>Over the last years, Prof Perry and Dr Lange optimised the method for the central Indian Ocean by quantifying and integrating local rates of coral growth and parrotfish erosion.</p>','2022-03-24 22:07:05.374862','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Exeter','Coral reefs in remote or protected areas can recover quickly after mass coral bleaching events, new research shows.\n',1,82,'<li>Ines Lange, Chris Perry and Marleen Stuhr. <strong>Recovery trends of reef carbonate budgets at remote coral atolls six years post-bleaching</strong>. <em>Limnology and Oceanography</em>, 2022 [<a href=\"10.1002/lno.12066\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">abstract</a>]</li>'),(1576,'Intense light protects against lung damage, research finds','intense-light-protects-against-lung-damage,-research-finds','2022-03-24 22:07:30.332717',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Intense light activates proteins shown to protect against lung damage in mice, a discovery that could have major therapeutic implications for treating diseases like acute lung injury in humans, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.</p><p>\"Acute lung injury has a mortality rate of 40%,\" said the study\'s lead author Tobias Eckle, M.D., professor of anesthesiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. \"No specific therapy exists, and novel treatment options are needed.\"</p><p>The study was published this week in the <em>American Journal of Physiology -- Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.</em></p><p>Eckle\'s team, which previously demonstrated that light can protect against cardiovascular disease, housed mice under intense rather than ambient light for seven days. This prompted a strong increase in the trough and peak levels of the pulmonary circadian rhythm protein -- Period 2 or PER2.</p><p>If the protein was deleted in a specific lung cell known as the alveolar type 2 cell, acute lung injury was fatal. If the protein was not deleted, 85% of the mice survived. Alveolar type 2 cells have long been recognized as playing an important role during acute lung injury but have never been linked to the light regulated protein PER2.</p><p>The study also showed that intense light therapy reduced lung inflammation or improved the function of the alveolar barrier -- the blood-air barrier -- in lung infections. Researchers saw the same reaction when using the flavonoid, nobiletin, found in orange peel, which also enhances the amplitude of PER2.</p><p>At the same time, the researchers found that intense light stimulated production of the BPIFB1 protein, known to be anti-bacterial and secreted within the mucus membranes of the large airways. They believe this also likely plays a role in protecting the lungs.</p><p>Discovering that intense light can protect against lung damage, Eckle said, is important due to the lack of therapies currently available to treat the condition.</p><p>\"If you develop lung injury there is essentially no good therapy left,\" he said. \"Our study has shown that intense light elicited lung-protective mechanisms could lead to new therapies even after the onsetof acute lung injury in the future.\"</p>','2022-03-24 22:07:30.332717','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus','Intense light activates proteins shown to protect against lung damage in mice, a discovery that could have major therapeutic implications for treating diseases like acute lung injury in humans, according to a new study.\n',1,41,'<li>Yoshimasa Oyama, Sydney R Shuff, Nana Burns, Christine U Vohwinkel, Tobias Eckle. <strong>Intense light elicited alveolar type 2 specific circadian PER2 protects from bacterial lung injury via BPIFB1</strong>. <em>American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology</em>, March 10, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/ajplung.00301.2021\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1152/ajplung.00301.2021</a>\n</li>'),(1577,'Can a poisonous sea snail replace morphine?','can-a-poisonous-sea-snail-replace-morphine?','2022-03-24 22:07:39.122973',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Bea Ramiro began to study the sea snail species <em>Conus rolani </em>more or less by chance. Together with two fishermen she was collecting material in the waters off the Philippine island of Cebu in 2018.</p><p>At the time, researchers knew that poison from the sea snail species <em>Conus magus </em>could be used as a painkiller. It can replace morphine and opioids, and some patients experience fewer side effects. Therefore, Bea Ramiro hoped she could find a new sea snail species whose poison had a similar or possibly even better effect.</p><p>In order to study sea snails, Bea Ramiro had to collect a lot of snails of the same species. And once the fishermen had reeled in the net and the snails had been divided into groups according to species, she only had enough snails of the species <em>Conus rolani </em>to do a proper study.</p><p>Today, Bea Ramiro is glad that this large, white and brown snail six to seven centimetres long was the only species left.</p><p>Because a new study from the University of Copenhagen to which she has contributed shows that poison from <em>Conus rolani </em>can function as a painkiller. The researchers have learned that a particular substance from the poison can block out pain in mice for an even longer time than morphine.</p><p>\"We have discovered a so-called toxin that blocks out pain in a completely different way than well-known drugs like morphine, and hopefully this will enable us to avoid some of the most damaging effects of morphine on humans,\" explains Associate Professor Helena Safavi, who has headed the study.</p><p>Bea Ramiro doing fieldwork in the Philippines. Photo: Private photo.</p><p>Today, medicine based on the sea snail <em>Conus magus </em>is already available in the market for treatment of e.g. back injuries and cancer. But it is both expensive and difficult to work with because it has to be injected into the central nervous system via e.g. a spinal implant.</p><p>So even though we already have a drug based on a sea snail which for some people involves fewer side effects than morphine and opioids, it is not ideal due to the price and the circumstances.</p><p>Therefore, the researchers behind the new study hope the discovery of the effect of poison from <em>Conus rolani </em>can help them develop a more efficient painkiller.</p><p>\"We need a better alternative for people who are in great pain -- an alternative that is less addictive than e.g. morphine and opioids. In Denmark, opioids do not represent a huge problem, but in other parts of the world it is quite extensive,\" says Helena Safavi from the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.</p><p><strong>A clever hunter</strong></p><p><em>Conus rolani</em> lives at a depth of 210 metres in the waters off Cebu in the Philippines. The species is merely one of more than 800 sea snail species, most of which use poison when they hunt for food. But <em>Conus rolani</em> is one of the cleverer hunters, Helena Safavi explains.</p><p>Because once the snail has harpooned its victim with poison, it waits, patiently. Not until up to three hours later, when the poison has begun to work and the victim is apathetic, does the snail catch it with its toothless mouth.</p><p>This may seem like an ineffective hunting strategy compared to other sea snails which cling to their victim immediately and whose poison works much faster.</p><p>\"But we believe it does this to protect itself. It waits until the fish is so weak that it cannot struggle, whereas other sea snails with more fast-working poison risk getting hurt by clinging to their victim,\" says Helena Safavi.</p><p>A similar hunting strategy is found among e.g. rattlesnakes and adders. But this is the first time researchers have seen a sea snail use it.</p><p><strong>X-ray of sea snail poison</strong></p><p>Helena Safavi has studied <em>Conus rolani </em>for more than three years now.</p><p>\"Far too long,\" she says laughing and explains that it has not been easy.</p><p>Once the researchers had collected the sea snails in the Philippines and observed their unique hunting strategy in an aquarium, they obtained the poison and separated the various components to learn which had interesting effects on mice.</p><p>The researchers characterised and produced synthetic \'twins\' for the more than 100 toxins found in the sea snail\'s poison. Subsequently, they X-rayed the one toxin that showed potential.</p><p>\"We could see that the structure of the toxin from the sea snail\'s poison resembled a somatostatin, which is a hormone found in the human body regulating the sensation of pain. This suggested that the toxin might have a similar regulating effect,\" says Helena Safavi.</p><p>And testing the toxin on mice revealed to the researchers that it was just as efficient a painkiller as morphine, though with a more long-lasting effect.</p><p>\"I was surprised that the toxin was so effective and that it lasted longer than morphine. This reveals its great future potential,\" says Helena Safavi.</p><p><strong>Nature offers us a shortcut</strong></p><p>Not only sea snails inspire researchers to develop new drugs, says Helena Safavi.</p><p>\"There is a pretty common drug called Capoten in the market used as a treatment for high blood pressure, and it is based on snake poison,\" she explains.</p><p>\"We can learn a lot from nature. And it makes good sense, because nature has had millions of years to refine e.g. sedative poisons, whereas we have only been at it for a couple of hundred years. So nature offers us a shortcut.\"</p><p>According to Helena Safavi, this also applies to technology. For example, researchers are studying the fingers of the gecko, which enable the small lizard to climb up walls and ceilings. The researchers thereby hope to be able to develop a strong material that easily attaches to things and can be removed again. In addition, polar bears serve as inspiration for researchers eager to develop better insulation for our buildings.</p><p>\"There is so much potential in nature, and if are able to decode it, we can make the world a better place,\" says Helena Safavi.</p>','2022-03-24 22:07:39.122973','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Copenhagen - The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences','A sea snail living in the Pacific Ocean off the Philippines may be able to help scientists develop an alternative to addictive painkillers like morphine, a new study concludes.\n',1,27,'<li>Iris Bea L. Ramiro et al. <strong>Somatostatin venom analogs evolved by fish-hunting cone snails: From prey capture behavior to identifying drug leads</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abk1410\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abk1410</a>\n</li>'),(1578,'Limiting energy in neurons exacerbates epilepsy','limiting-energy-in-neurons-exacerbates-epilepsy','2022-03-24 22:07:43.060125',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Epilepsy, one of the most common neurological disorders, is characterized by the spontaneous repetition of seizures caused by the hyperactivity of a group of neurons in the brain. Could we therefore reduce neuronal hyperactivity, and treat epilepsy, by reducing the amount of energy supplied to neurons and necessary for their proper functioning? This was tested by a team led by scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the EPFL. The researchers discovered that, in mice, the seizures were actually exacerbated. They observed that a reduction in the amount of energy led to an increase in the level of calcium in neurons, making them hyperexcitable. These dysfunctions could be corrected when mice were fed a ketogenic diet, which is rich in lipids and has been used since antiquity. This work is published in the journal <em>eLife</em>.</p><p>Our brain, which represents only 2% of our body weight, consumes more than 20% of the sugar we ingest. This considerable need for sugar provides the energy necessary for the function of the billions of neurons responsible for the emission and propagation of nervous messages, via electrical signals. This conversion of sugar, and more precisely of glucose, into energy is carried out by the mitochondria, small intracellular organelles considered as the \"energy factories\" of the cell.</p><p><strong>The key role of the cell\'s \"energy factories\"</strong></p><p>The laboratory of Jean-Claude Martinou, professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the Faculty of Science, is interested in how mitochondria work. His group had already discovered the universal carrier that allows pyruvate, a product of glucose catabolism, to enter into mitochondria. He is now investigating the role of the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) in neuronal activity and whether a defect in the transport of pyruvate in mitochondria could be linked to certain neurological diseases, notably epilepsy.</p><p>Epileptic seizures are the manifestation of cerebral hyperactivity resulting from hyperexcitation of neurons, often in the cerebral cortex. \"It seemed interesting to us to test whether suppression of the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier, and thus the decrease in the amount of energy supplied by the mitochondria, could reduce neuronal hyperexcitability occurring during epileptic seizures,\" explains Jean-Claude Martinou, last author of the study.</p><p><strong>Mice lacking the MPC are prone to epileptic seizures</strong></p><p>The biologists administered a pro-epileptic drug, capable of inducing epileptic seizures, to normal mice and to mice whose cortical neurons lacked the MPC. In normal mice, injection of a low dose of the drug did not induce seizures. On the other hand, and contrary to the initial hypothesis, in mice lacking the MPC, very severe, even fatal, seizures occurred as soon as low doses of the pro-epileptic drug were administered.</p><p>Upon further analysis of what was happening in these neurons, the biologists found that the neurons without MPC had abnormally high levels of calcium, a crucial element for the proper transmission of nerve messages. \"Pyruvate imported into mitochondria not only plays the role of a fuel for the cell, but it also allows mitochondria to sequester calcium. It turns out that it is this second function that is involved in the triggering of epileptic seizures. Since it is no longer trapped by the mitochondria, the calcium remains free in neurons and its concentration increases, which makes the neurons hyperexcitable,\" explains Carmen Sandi, professor at EPFL and coauthor of the study.</p><p><strong>The secrets of the ketogenic diet</strong></p><p>Since ancient times, patients suffering from epilepsy have found that a ketogenic diet, rich in fats and low in carbohydrates, allows them to avoid seizures. Ketone bodies, produced during a ketogenic diet or fasting, are produced by the breakdown of lipids in the liver. They are imported into the brain for which they represent an essential energy source, especially during a fast. They can enter mitochondria without the need of carriers and are used to provide energy.</p><p>\"We found that MPC-deficient mice fed on a ketogenic diet or treated with ketone bodies had much less severe seizures. With this diet, the functions of mitochondria and neurons are restored, and the calcium level is normal,\" said Marine Laporte, researcher in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and co-first author of the study. This work, financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Foundation, helps to explain the epileptic seizures frequently observed in patients with mitochondrial pathologies as well as to consider a treatment based on ketone bodies, less drastic than ketogenic diets.</p>','2022-03-24 22:07:43.060125','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Université de Genève','Epilepsy, one of the most common neurological disorders, is characterized by the spontaneous repetition of seizures caused by the hyperactivity of a group of neurons in the brain. Could we therefore reduce neuronal hyperactivity, and treat epilepsy, by reducing the amount of energy supplied to neurons and necessary for their proper functioning? Researchers discovered that, in mice, the seizures were actually exacerbated.\n',1,27,'<li>Andres De La Rossa, Marine H Laporte, Simone Astori, Thomas Marissal, Sylvie Montessuit, Preethi Sheshadri, Eva Ramos-Fernández, Pablo Mendez, Abbas Khani, Charles Quairiaux, Eric B Taylor, Jared Rutter, José Manuel Nunes, Alan Carleton, Michael R Duchen, Carmen Sandi, Jean-Claude Martinou. <strong>Paradoxical neuronal hyperexcitability in a mouse model of mitochondrial pyruvate import deficiency</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.72595\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.72595</a>\n</li>'),(1579,'Eliminating the bottlenecks for use of lithium-sulfur batteries','eliminating-the-bottlenecks-for-use-of-lithium-sulfur-batteries','2022-03-24 22:07:46.269850',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Energy storage in lithium-sulfur batteries is potentially higher than in lithium-ion batteries but they are hampered by a short life. Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have now identified the main bottlenecks in performance.</p><p>Lithium-sulfur batteries are high on the wish-list for future batteries as they are made from cheaper and more environmentally friendly materials than lithium-ion batteries. They also have higher energy storage capacity and work well at much lower temperatures. However, they suffer from short lifetimes and energy loss. An article just published in the journal Chem by a research group from Uppsala University has now identified the processes that are limiting the performance of the sulfur electrodes that in turn reduces the current that can be delivered. Various different materials are formed during the discharge/charge cycles and these cause various problems. Often a localized shortage of lithium causes a bottleneck.</p><p>\"Learning about problems allows us to develop new strategies and materials to improve battery performance. Identifying the real bottlenecks is needed to take the next steps. This is big research challenge in a system as complex as lithium-sulfur,\" says Daniel Brandell, Professor of Materials Chemistry at Uppsala University who works at the Ångström Advanced Battery Centre.</p><p>The study combined various radiation scattering techniques: X-ray analyses were made in Uppsala, Sweden and neutron results came from a large research facility, the Institut Laue Langevin, in Grenoble, France.</p><p>\"The study demonstrates the importance of using these infrastructures to tackle problems in materials science,\" says Professor Adrian Rennie. \"These instruments are expensive but are necessary to understand such complex systems as these batteries. Many different reactions happen at the same time and materials are formed and can disappear quickly during operation.\"</p><p>The study was carried-out as part of a co-operation with Scania CV AB.</p><p>\"Electric power is needed for the heavy truck business and not just personal vehicles. They must keep up with developments of a range of different batteries that may soon become highly relevant,\" says Daniel Brandell.</p>','2022-03-24 22:07:46.269850','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Uppsala University','Energy storage in lithium-sulfur batteries is potentially higher than in lithium-ion batteries but they are hampered by a short life. Researchers have now identified the main bottlenecks in performance.\n',1,72,'<li>Yu-Chuan Chien, \n    Matthew J. Lacey, \n    Nina-Juliane Steinke, \n    Daniel Brandell, \n    Adrian R. Rennie. <strong>Correlations between precipitation reactions and electrochemical performance of lithium-sulfur batteries probed by operando scattering techniques</strong>. <em>Chem</em>, March 22, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2022.03.001\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.chempr.2022.03.001</a>\n</li>'),(1580,'Artificial intelligence to bring museum specimens to the masses','artificial-intelligence-to-bring-museum-specimens-to-the-masses','2022-03-24 22:07:48.049217',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists are using cutting-edge artificial intelligence to help extract complex information from large collections of museum specimens.</p><p>A team from Cardiff University is using state-of-the-art techniques to automatically segment and capture information from museum specimens and perform important data quality improvement without the need of human input.</p><p>They have been working with museums from across Europe, including the Natural History Museum, London, to refine and validate their new methods and contribute to the mammoth task of digitising hundreds of millions of specimens.</p><p>With more than 3 billion biological and geological specimens curated in natural history museums around the world, the digitization of museum specimens, in which physical information from a particular specimen is transformed into a digital format, has become an increasingly important task for museums as they adapt to an increasingly digital world.</p><p>A treasure trove of digital information is invaluable for scientists trying to model the past, present and future of organisms and our planet, and could be key to tackling some of the biggest societal challenges our world faces today, from conserving biodiversity and tackling climate change to finding new ways to cope with emerging diseases like COVID-19.</p><p>The digitization process also helps to reduce the amount of manual handling of specimens, many of which are very delicate and prone to damage. Having suitable data and images available online can reduce the risk to the physical collection and protect specimens for future generations.</p><p>In a new paper published today in the journal <em>Machine Vision and Applications</em>, the team from Cardiff University has taken a step towards making this process cheaper and quicker.</p><p>\"This new approach could transform our digitization workflows,\" said Laurence Livermore, Deputy Digital Programme Manager at the Natural History Museum, London.</p><p>The team has created and tested a new method called image segmentation, that can easily and automatically locate and bound different visual regions on images as diverse as microscope slides or herbarium sheets with a high degree of accuracy.</p><p>Automatic segmentation can be used to focus the capturing of information from specific regions of a slide or sheet, such as one or more of the labels stuck on to the slide. It can also help to perform important quality control on the images to ensure that digital copies of specimens are as accurate as they can be.</p><p>\"In the past, our digitization has been limited by the rate at which we can manually check, extract, and interpret data from our images. This new approach would allow us to scale up some of the slowest parts of our digitzation workflows and make crucial data more readily available to climate change and biodiversity researchers,\" continued Livermore.</p><p>The method has been trained and then tested on thousands of images of microscope slides and herbarium sheets from different natural history collections, demonstrating the adaptability and flexibility of the system.</p><p>Included in the images is key information about the microscope slide or herbarium sheet, such as the specimen itself, labels, barcodes, colour charts, and institution names.</p><p>Typically, once an image has been captured it then needs to be checked for quality control purposes and the information from the labels recorded -- a process that is currently done manually, which can take up a lot of time and resource.</p><p>Lead author of the new study Professor Paul Rosin, from Cardiff University\'s School of Computer Science and Informatics, said: \"Previous attempts at image segmentation of microscope slides and herbarium sheets have been limited to images from just a single collection.</p><p>\"Our work has drawn on the multiple partners in our large European project to create a dataset containing examples from multiple institutions and shows how well our artificial intelligence methods can be trained to process images from a wide range of collections.</p><p>\"We\'re confident that this method could help improve the workflows of staff working with natural history collections to drastically speed up the process of digitization in return for very little cost and resource.\"</p><p>Microscope slides were provided by Natural History Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Naturalis Biodiversity Center, whilst herbarium sheets were provided by National Museum Wales, Muséum National d\'Histoire Naturelle, Museum für Naturkunde, Finnish Museum of Natural History, Meise Botanic Garden, Natural History Museum, and Naturalis Biodiversity Center.</p>','2022-03-24 22:07:48.049217','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Cardiff University','Scientists are using cutting-edge artificial intelligence to help extract complex information from large collections of museum specimens.\n',1,27,'<li>Abraham Nieva de la Hidalga, Paul L. Rosin, Xianfang Sun, Laurence Livermore, James Durrant, James Turner, Mathias Dillen, Alicia Musson, Sarah Phillips, Quentin Groom &amp; Alex Hardisty. <strong>Cross-validation of a semantic segmentation network for natural history collection specimens</strong>. <em>Machine Vision and Applications</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00138-022-01276-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1007/s00138-022-01276-z</a>\n</li>'),(1581,'Breaking down plastic into its constituent parts','breaking-down-plastic-into-its-constituent-parts','2022-03-24 22:07:51.251115',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The chemical industry has a long tradition of producing polymers. This involves turning small molecular building blocks into long chains of molecules that bond together. Polymers are the basis of all kinds of everyday plastics, such as PET and polyurethane.</p><p>However, while the formation of polymers is well established and well researched, scientists have given little attention to how polymer chains are broken down (a process called depolymerisation) to recover their individual building blocks -- monomers. One reason for this is that breaking down polymers is a complex process. Whether a polymer can be broken back down at all into its constituent parts depends on which of the different polymer manufacturing processes were used. Another reason is that the depolymerisation processes used to date require a lot of energy, which has made them economically unviable. Added to this is the fact that recycled polymers are usually only used in the manufacture of low-value products.</p><p><strong>Breaking down polymers is the goal</strong></p><p>Athina Anastasaki, Professor of Polymeric Materials at ETH Zurich, wants to change this. She has set herself the goal of producing polymers that can be easily broken down into their building blocks so that they can be fully recycled.</p><p>The materials scientist has been able to take a first important step in this direction: A study by her group has just been published in the <em>Journal of the American Chemical Society</em>. In it, Anastasaki and her colleagues show that they can break down certain polymers into their basic building blocks -- monomers -- and recycle them for use in materials for further applications.</p><p>The polymers broken down are polymethacrylates (e.g. Plexi Glass) that were produced using a specific polymerisation technique called reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer polymerisation -- otherwise known as RAFT. This relatively new method, which is now also attracting the interest of industry, produces polymer chains of uniform length.</p><p><strong>First success</strong></p><p>The researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in recovering up to 92 percent of the building blocks of polymethacrylates without adding a catalyst that would enable or accelerate the reaction. \"Our method could conceivably be developed even further to involve the use of a catalyst. This could increase the amount recovered even more,\" says Anastasaki.</p><p>The chemical group present at the end of a polymer chain is crucial for the polymer\'s breakdown. By heating the polymer solvent mixture to 120°C, the researchers created what are referred to as \"radicals\" at the end of a polymethacrylate chain, which triggered the depolymerisation. Researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra were able to confirm the results mathematically.</p><p><strong>Producing the same or a different product</strong></p><p>According to Anastasaki, the building blocks recovered in this way can be used to produce the same polymer or a completely different product -- an insoluble hydrogel that can also be broken down into its monomers. The newly created products are of similar quality to the original ones. This is in contrast to previous products made from recycled polymers.</p><p>But there is a catch: \"Products made with RAFT polymerisation are more expensive than conventional polymers,\" says Anastasaki. To address this drawback, she and her group are already working on expanding the method for large-scale applications, which will make it more competitive and the resulting products cheaper. The researchers also aim to increase the amount retrieved and recover all the building blocks of a polymer.</p><p>The materials scientist is also researching whether other polymers can be depolymerised. She is particularly interested in polystyrene, a widespread, low-cost plastic that is used in many areas of everyday life (Styrofoam).</p><p><strong>Method will not resolve the plastics problem in the short term</strong></p><p>Even if this new method raises hopes of solving humankind\'s plastic waste problem, Anastasaki dismisses the idea for the time being. There is no quick fix to the problem. She goes on to say. \"It will take a lot of time and research before the process is established in the chemical industry.\" Nor will it get rid of plastic waste: today\'s polymers cannot be broken down in this way. Some new, suitable polymers have to come into circulation before their building blocks can be recovered. But the method has one advantage: no new chemical plants are needed for its introduction and use.</p><p>\"We are only at the beginning of our research into depolymerisation. There are over 30,000 studies on developing new polymerisation strategies, with only a handful of them addressing the subject of monomer recovery,\" says Anastasaki.</p>','2022-03-24 22:07:51.251115','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'ETH Zurich','A team of ETH researchers led by Athina Anastasaki have succeeded in breaking down plastic into its molecular building blocks and in recovering over 90 percent of them. A first step towards genuine plastic recycling.\n',1,27,'<li>Hyun Suk Wang, Nghia P. Truong, Zhipeng Pei, Michelle L. Coote, and Athina Anastasaki. <strong>Reversing RAFT Polymerization: Near-Quantitative Monomer Generation Via a Catalyst-Free Depolymerization Approach</strong>. <em>Journal of the American Chemical Society</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c00963\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/jacs.2c00963</a>\n</li>'),(1582,'Understanding complex faults: Rupture propagation during the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake','understanding-complex-faults:-rupture-propagation-during-the-2010-el-mayor-cucapah-earthquake','2022-03-24 22:07:56.336149',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">On 4 April 2010, the <em>Mw</em> 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake shook northeastern Baja California, Mexico, along the Pacific-North American plate margin, an area known for its complex fault systems with diverse geometries that are often poorly understood. But now, researchers from Japan have shed new light on irregular rupture propagation in the 2010 earthquake while reducing potential modeling errors.</p><p>In nature, it is rare for the faults that cause earthquakes to be completely planar, and they are typically subject to some complexities. These complexities, or geometric discontinuities, affect the distribution of stress along faults, and they result in diverse rupture behaviors during earthquakes. Such complexities understandably present challenges for robust geophysical interpretations.</p><p>\"Understanding earthquake rupture processes and their relationship to fault geometries is critical in the study of earthquake source physics,\" says Professor Yuji Yagi, lead author of the study. \"However, conventional modeling approaches rely on modelers making some assumptions about fault geometry that may introduce errors, making robust interpretation challenging.\"</p><p>The conventional modeling approach, known as finite-fault inversion, estimates the spatiotemporal evolution of an earthquake to reconstruct its slip history. To provide a more accurate interpretation of the rupture pattern during the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake, the researchers used teleseismic <em>P </em>(or \"primary\") waveform data from the earthquake, which contain information on true fault orientations. This information can be directly extracted, thereby mitigating potential modeling errors caused by uncertainties on fault geometry and assumptions made during modeling.</p><p>\"By using a potency density tensor approach to invert the teleseismic <em>P </em>waveforms from the El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake, we were able to estimate the rupture process and fault geometry simultaneously and identify an irregular rupture sequence,\" explains Professor Yagi. \"The earthquake ruptured multiple faults with various faulting mechanisms, and geometric discontinuities in the fault geometry caused irregular rupture behavior.\"</p><p>Sensitivity and reproducibility tests conducted by the researchers yielded consistent results, including determinations of the timing and propagation directions of different ruptures. Even small changes in the data did not affect the results of the <em>P</em> waveform inversion, further indicating the reliability of the modeling approach.</p><p>Given the irregular rupture propagation of the El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake, and earthquakes with similarly complex slip histories worldwide, suppressing potential modeling errors is crucial for identifying complex rupture behavior that would be difficult to determine using traditional methods. Investigating complex fault geometries using robust modeling techniques that don\'t rely on assumptions is thus critical to our understanding of earthquake source physics.</p>','2022-03-24 22:07:56.336149','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Tsukuba','Researchers have identified irregular rupture propagation during the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake in Mexico by incorporating teleseismic P waveform inversion with traditional modeling, allowing resolution of the rupture process and its relation to the complex fault system while mitigating modeling errors. Reducing errors made because of inaccurate assumptions about fault geometry is critical for robust interpretation of complex slip histories.\n',1,33,'<li>Shinji Yamashita, Yuji Yagi, Ryo Okuwaki. <strong>Irregular rupture propagation and geometric fault complexities during the 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake</strong>. <em>Scientific Reports</em>, 2022; 12 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08671-6\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41598-022-08671-6</a>\n</li>'),(1583,'Student researchers improve coral restoration efforts','student-researchers-improve-coral-restoration-efforts','2022-03-24 22:08:11.321779',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A study published recently in <em>Coral Reefs </em>and led by University of Hawai\'i (UH) at Mānoa student researchers revealed that exposing rice coral larvae to warmer temperatures did not improve survival once the coral developed into juveniles and were exposed to heat stress.</p><p>Climate change-induced ocean warming has reshaped reef ecosystems as coral bleaching events continue to lead to mass coral die-offs globally. Coral restoration efforts in Hawai\'i are vast and include selectively breeding more resilient coral, active management of vulnerable areas and outplanting coral reared in a lab.</p><p>Shayle Matsuda and Ariana Huffmyer, marine biology graduate students in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), were on a mission to optimize efforts to restore corals. While at the Inclusive Science Communication Symposium, Matsuda met Gyasi Alexander, undergraduate student at the University of Rhode Island, and invited him to participate in a summer internship at the Hawai\'i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) in SOEST.</p><p><strong>Making the most of restoration efforts</strong></p><p>The team\'s approach was to start with gametes collected during mass spawning events and rear them to the larval stage, with the long term goal of planting more coral on the reef.</p><p>\"Although this process can provide more genetic diversity to the reef than fragmentation practices alone, it takes considerable time, effort and capital, and the downstream survival of the corals may be impacted by ocean warming events,\" said Matsuda who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Shedd Aquarium. \"With this study, we wanted to test whether exposing larvae to different temperatures would both increase larval survival and settlement, and importantly, if exposure to elevated temperatures as larvae would lead to increased thermal tolerance, that is, higher survival, at the juvenile stage.\"</p><p>\"However, we do not have a good understanding of the degree, time, and profile of stress required to produce positive carry over effects and, if the effects are produced, how long they last,\" added Huffmyer, now at the University of Rhode Island.</p><p>In their experiments, the researchers, including HIMB coral ecologist Josh Hancock, found that elevating temperature to simulate future ocean warming did not improve larval survival and did not improve survival after larvae settled on the seafloor. Instead, their results suggest that rearing rice coral at ambient temperatures maximizes early life stage survival.</p><p>\"As climate change intensifies, it is critical that we focus our restoration and conservation strategies that will have the greatest positive impact,\" said Huffmyer. \"Since we found that thermal conditioning did not provide positive benefits for thermal tolerance in recruits in this species, we suggest that our time and resources are best spent pursuing other avenues of thermal conditioning and further testing thermal conditioning scenarios that may produce positive impacts.\"</p><p><strong>Impact of hands-on research experience</strong></p><p>\"Prior to this experience, I hadn\'t really known what it felt like to think like a scientist,\" said Alexander. \"The idea of research was definitely intimidating. Ariana and Shayle helped me immensely by encouraging me to share the observations and questions that I had, even when I was afraid to use my voice. That comfortability helped me to realize that thinking like a scientist, feeling like a scientist is really just pursuing the curiosity you feel behind what you see and take in, especially when you don\'t have all the answers right away.\"</p><p>After completing his summer internship at HIMB, Alexander has a clearer direction for his own graduate school pursuits.</p><p>\"My current goal is to develop a skillset in big data,\" said Alexander. \"I reflected on my work on HIMB and realized how much more effective I could have been if I had a more robust set of data analysis skills. So among my next moves, I plan to learn a few programming languages like R and Python to aid my work in the future and</p>','2022-03-24 22:08:11.321779','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Hawaii at Manoa','A recent study revealed that exposing rice coral larvae to warmer temperatures did not improve survival once the coral developed into juveniles and were exposed to heat stress.\n',1,82,'<li>Gyasi Alexander, Joshua R. Hancock, Ariana S. Huffmyer, Shayle B. Matsuda. <strong>Larval thermal conditioning does not improve post-settlement thermal tolerance in the dominant reef-building coral, Montipora capitata</strong>. <em>Coral Reefs</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00338-022-02234-x\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1007/s00338-022-02234-x</a>\n</li>'),(1584,'Road traffic in European cities exposes 60 million people to noise levels harmful to health','road-traffic-in-european-cities-exposes-60-million-people-to-noise-levels-harmful-to-health','2022-03-24 22:08:19.233831',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the \"la Caixa\" Foundation, assessed the levels of noise generated by road traffic and examined its impact on health in 749 European cities. The findings, published in <em>Environment International</em>, show that nearly 60 million adults are subjected to unhealthy levels of vehicle-generated noise. Compliance with the World Health Organisation (WHO) noise-level guidelines could prevent 3,600 deaths annually from ischaemic heart disease alone.</p><p>Road traffic is the main source of environmental noise. Previous research has linked environmental noise to a range of adverse health effects: sleep disturbance, annoyance, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, adverse birth outcomes, cognitive impairment, poor mental health and well-being, and premature mortality. Long-term exposure to road traffic noise can cause a sustained stress reaction, which results in the release of stress hormones and increases in heart rate, blood pressure and vasoconstriction, eventually leading to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, depression and anxiety disorders.</p><p>For this study, data on European cities were retrieved from the Urban Audit 2018 dataset. Road traffic noise exposure was estimated using noise maps produced by countries and cities under the current European legislative framework (Environmental Noise Directive) or available from local sources (e.g. city governments and research institutions). For cases in which city-level data were not available, country-specific predictive models were developed and applied to estimate exposure to road traffic noise. Data on different causes of mortality for the year 2015 were retrieved from the Eurostat database.</p><p>The results showed that more than 48% of the 123 million adults (aged 20 years or older) included in the study were exposed to noise levels exceeding the WHO-recommended threshold. Specifically, the WHO recommendation states that the average noise level recorded over a 24-hour period should not exceed 53 decibels (53 dB Lden). The percentage of the population exposed to higher-than-recommended noise levels in Europe\'s capital cities ranges from 29.8% in Berlin to 86.5% in Vienna, including 43.8% in Madrid and 60.5% in Rome.</p><p><strong>Preventable Deaths and Annoyance </strong></p><p>Building on previous research that established associations between noise and mortality caused by ischaemic heart disease, the researchers estimated that compliance with WHO guidelines would prevent more than 3,600 deaths each year from ischaemic heart disease alone.</p><p>The study also found that more than 11 million adults were highly annoyed by road traffic noise. Annoyance was defined as the repeated disturbance of everyday activities, such as communicating, reading, working and sleeping. In this sense, annoyance goes beyond mere inconvenience, as it can increase stress and eventually give rise to various health problems.</p><p>\"Our results provide, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of European cities and a clearer understanding of why transport-generated noise is the second major environmental cause of adverse health outcomes in western Europe, after airborne particulate matter,\" explained ISGlobal researcher Sasha Khomenko, lead author of the study. \"Even so, we are convinced that the true health impact of traffic noise is much greater, as the lack of city-level data limits the health effects we can assess, thus leading to an underestimation of the impact. Moreover, the available data have only allowed us to analyse the population exposed to more than 55 dB Lden, whereas the WHO-recommended threshold is 53 dB Lden, and we suspect that adverse effects could occur even with exposure to lower noise levels.\"</p><p>The team encountered methodological difficulties due to the heterogeneity and quality of the available data. The quality of each noise map was assessed, with most maps falling into the low or moderate quality categories; less than 17% of the maps were considered to be of good quality.</p><p>\"The European directive on environmental noise made strategic noise mapping mandatory, but it did not set out a specific methodology or guidelines, so the results have been mixed,\" commented Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, head of the Air Pollution and Urban Environment programme at ISGlobal and senior author of the study. \"The EU member states have had a common methodology since January 2019, so we can expect to see much more comprehensive and accurate health impact assessments of traffic noise in the coming years.\"</p><p><strong>Consult Data for All 749 Cities </strong></p><p>This study forms part of the European Urban Burden of Disease Project, which so far has produced rankings of mortality associated with air pollution and green space, respectively, in European cities. However, due to differences in methodologies and sources of traffic noise data, the results obtained for the various cities analysed are not considered to be comparable. As a result, a road-noise ranking was not produced, although all data have been posted on the project website, where values for all 749 cities can be consulted.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-24 22:08:19.233831','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)','A study assessed the levels of noise generated by road traffic and examined its impact on health in 749 European cities. The findings show that nearly 60 million adults are subjected to unhealthy levels of vehicle-generated noise. Compliance with the World Health Organization (WHO) noise-level guidelines could prevent 3,600 deaths annually from ischemic heart disease alone.\n',1,148,'<li>Sasha Khomenko, Marta Cirach, Jose Barrera-Gómez, Evelise Pereira-Barboza, Tamara Iungman, Natalie Mueller, Maria Foraster, Cathryn Tonne, Meelan Thondoo, Calvin Jephcote, John Gulliver, James Woodcock, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen. <strong>Impact of road traffic noise on annoyance and preventable mortality in European cities: A health impact assessment</strong>. <em>Environment International</em>, 2022; 162: 107160 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107160\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.envint.2022.107160</a>\n</li>'),(1585,'Indian forest loss \'worse than feared\' due to climate change','indian-forest-loss-\'worse-than-feared\'-due-to-climate-change','2022-03-24 22:08:24.136980',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Forest loss in India could become an even bigger problem than anticipated in the coming years, with new research revealing climate change has caused significant recent losses.</p><p>The first ever national-scale study of the relationship between forest loss and rainfall and temperature trends in India, led by the University of Reading, revealed they may have contributed to large declines since the turn of the century, exacerbating already worrying deforestation largely driven by agricultural expansion in the country.</p><p>The new research is in contrast to official reports that show relatively small decreases in forest coverage in recent years. It warns the rapid changes to the climate observed in some regions will necessitate targeted preservation action and funding to reduce the risk to biodiversity in India.</p><p>Alice Haughan, a PhD researcher at the University of Reading and lead author of the study, said: \"India has seen dramatic forest loss in recent decades, with land use changes to accommodate crops, livestock and a growing population cited as causes. While the contribution of land use change to forest loss has been studied extensively, little attention has been given to the role of climate change in recent decreases.</p><p>\"The rapid changes to the climate we identified suggests India\'s forest loss in the coming decades could be far worse than feared, as deforestation is only one part of the problem. The high levels of reduction seen are also concerning for biodiversity, as India relies on connected forests for wildlife preservation.\"</p><p>The new study, published in <em>Global Change Biology</em>, looked at forest loss between 2001 and 2018 -- a period where little data exists.</p><p>The authors calculated the velocity of changes to India\'s climate for the first time, a relatively new technique used to quantify climate change and reveal the rate at which it is impacting a country.</p><p>It also analysed variability in climate change impacts across different regions and seasons, revealing that the impact of climate change on forest loss varied greatly between different locations and seasons.</p><p>Far greater forest losses were seen where and when the climate was changing most rapidly. Decreases in rainfall were seen to have the strongest effect on increasing forest loss, with temperature decreases in some regions also having a negative impact.</p><p>Haughan said: \"Our study of Indian tropical and subtropical regions shows that rainfall rather than temperature comes into play as the biggest factor in forest loss, in contrast to trends found in many temperate studies.\"</p><p>The authors argue that, because research has until now largely focused on annual changes to India\'s climate, this has masked more dramatic changes to temperature and rainfall within seasons, such as the monsoon seasons.</p><p>India is in the top 10 countries in the world for forest coverage, with tropical and subtropical forests covering more than a fifth of the country.</p><p>India is also one of the most biodiverse countries, containing 8% of the world\'s biodiversity and four recognised biodiversity hotspots. An estimated 47,000 plant species and 89,000 animal species can be found in the country, with more than 10% of each thought to be on the list of threatened species. Around 5,500 plant species are thought to be endemic to India.</p>','2022-03-24 22:08:24.136980','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Reading','A national-scale study of the relationship between forest loss and rainfall and temperature trends in India reveals climate change may have contributed to huge declines during last two decades, countering official reports that suggest small losses, and adding to existing concerns over deforestation.\n',1,34,'<li>Alice E. Haughan, Nathalie Pettorelli, Simon G. Potts, Deepa Senapathi. <strong>Determining the role of climate change in India’s past forest loss</strong>. <em>Global Change Biology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16161\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/gcb.16161</a>\n</li>'),(1586,'Clock gene mutation found to contribute to the development of autism','clock-gene-mutation-found-to-contribute-to-the-development-of-autism','2022-03-24 22:08:44.200454',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Published in <em>Molecular Psychiatry</em><em>, </em>a team of scientists from the University of Minnesota Medical School, University of Texas Health San Antonio, and the Biomedical Research Institute (BRI) of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH) in Greece found that the disruption of a circadian clock gene may be involved in the development of autism spectrum disorder.</p><p>Autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, refers to a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a wide range of behavioral conditions including challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ASD affects one in 44 children in the U.S.</p><p>About 50-80% of children with ASD have sleep problems, compared to less than 30% in the general population. The causes of sleep problems in ASD are not entirely clear, but a malfunctioning body clock could be the culprit.</p><p>\"It has long been recognized that the function of the body clock is frequently disrupted in autism patients and these patients often exhibit various sleep problems,\" said Ruifeng Cao, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of neuroscience at the U of M Medical School, Duluth Campus and co-author of the study. \"But, it is not known whether clock gene disruption can directly cause autism.\"</p><p>The study found that the disruption of an essential clock gene in preclinical models can lead to autistic-like phenotypes. Specifically, the global or cerebellar deletion of the Bmal1 gene can cause severe impairments in sociability, social communication and excessive repetitive behaviors.</p><p>The models also illustrated damages to their cerebellum -- or cerebellar ataxia. The research team further studied the pathological changes in the cerebellum and found a number of cellular and molecular changes that indicate neurodevelopmental deficits.</p><p>\"Clock gene disruption could be a mechanism underlying several forms of autism and potentially other neurodevelopmental conditions, and this finding paves the way for further exciting research,\" said Christos Gkogkas, PhD, a lab principal investigator in neurobiology at BRI of FORTH.</p><p>The research team plans to continue to study other clock genes that are found mutated in ASD. More importantly, they recommend development of novel therapeutic strategies based on their findings.</p><p>The study is supported by grants from the National Institute of Health and the Winston and Maxine Wallin Neuroscience Discovery Fund.</p><p>The research team consists of Drs. Harry Orr, Alfonso Araque, Paulo Kofuji, and Jonathan Gewirtz (now at Arizona State University) from the U of M Medical School; Dr. Victor Jin from UT Health San Antonio; and Dr. Christos Gkogkas from BRI-FORTH in Greece.</p>','2022-03-24 22:08:44.200454','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Minnesota Medical School','Researchers found that the disruption of a circadian clock gene may be involved in the development of autism spectrum disorder.\n',1,9,'<li>Dong Liu, Carmen Nanclares, Konstanze Simbriger, Kun Fang, Ethan Lorsung, Nam Le, Inês Silva Amorim, Kleanthi Chalkiadaki, Salil Saurav Pathak, Jin Li, Jonathan C. Gewirtz, Victor X. Jin, Paulo Kofuji, Alfonso Araque, Harry T. Orr, Christos G. Gkogkas, Ruifeng Cao. <strong>Autistic-like behavior and cerebellar dysfunction in Bmal1 mutant mice ameliorated by mTORC1 inhibition</strong>. <em>Molecular Psychiatry</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41380-022-01499-6\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41380-022-01499-6</a>\n</li>'),(1587,'Mechanism that underlies local dopamine release in the brain','mechanism-that-underlies-local-dopamine-release-in-the-brain','2022-03-24 22:12:42.374615',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">When we initiate an action in our everyday lives—chasing after a runaway napkin or getting out of the car—the brain releases a chemical messenger called dopamine that helps regulate the brain area that controls this action.</p><p>Dopamine signaling is a highly complex process, and one that scientists are eager to understand—especially given its role in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease.</p><p>Now, a team at Harvard Medical School has identified a new mechanism that underlies dopamine release in the brain. The research, conducted in mice and published March 24 in <em>Science</em><em>, </em>shows that another chemical messenger called acetylcholine can trigger the firing of dopamine neurons by binding to a part of these neurons not previously known to initiate firing.</p><p>The findings reveal more about how the acetylcholine and dopamine systems in the brain interact, and challenge the existing dogma that signals are initiated at one end of neurons and flow to the other end, where they prompt the release of chemical messengers. More specifically, the research suggests that the axon of a neuron, which has traditionally been considered an output structure, can also initiate signaling.</p><p>If confirmed in further animal studies and then in humans, the discovery could inform new strategies for treating diseases such as Parkinson’s, in which dopamine signaling is disrupted.</p><p>“Defining the interactions of dopamine and acetylcholine is fundamental to understanding how the actions we perform in our daily lives are generated and modulated,” said senior author Pascal Kaeser, professor of neurobiology in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School.</p><p><strong>Sending Signals</strong></p><p>Neurons are specialized nerve cells that send and receive signals throughout the body. The signal transmission starts with a neuron receiving a chemical signal in its branched tentacles called dendrites at one end. Next, the nearby cell body—the cell’s command center—integrates the signal to induce firing, sending an electrical impulse, or action potential, along a long, thin projection called an axon to the far end of the cell. There, the action potential prompts the release of neurotransmitters, chemical messengers that flow to nearby neurons, carrying the message from one cell to the next. Dopamine and acetylcholine are among the most important neurotransmitters in the body. They are involved in the regulation of vital functions including voluntary and involuntary movement, pain processing, pleasure, mood, smooth muscle contraction, and blood vessel dilation, among many others. </p><p>Kaeser and his team study the striatum, a centralized cluster of neurons in the brain that integrates input from other brain areas to regulate everyday actions. The researchers are interested in how dopamine neurons, which sit in another region of the brain, the midbrain, but have axons that project into the striatum, communicate with the striatum to modulate its function.</p><p>The classic model of this process, Kaeser explained, is that dopamine neurons receive chemical signals in their dendrites in the midbrain, and their cell bodies send action potentials down their axons into the striatum, triggering dopamine release that modulates everyday actions. However, previous research established that this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, acetylcholine initiates dopamine release directly in the striatum, seemingly skipping several steps of the signaling process.</p><p>“We were fascinated by this because it\'s a really strong mechanism, but how it actually works—how acetylcholine triggers the release of dopamine, this very important modulator that regulates commands in the striatum, was unknown,” Kaeser said.</p><p><strong>Looking Local</strong></p><p>To investigate this phenomenon in mice, Kaeser and his team used a microscope to analyze brain tissue in which the striatum had been separated from the other regions. They saw sparks of dopamine in the tissue, even though the dendrites and cell bodies of dopamine neurons in the midbrain were cut off from their axons in the striatum.</p><p>“This was really striking because it happens without cell bodies, so the neurons don\'t have their command center, and it happens without stimulation; it just happens on its own,” Kaeser said. “This is spontaneous local triggering of dopamine release.”</p><p>The team then established that there are fewer dopamine signals than acetylcholine signals in the striatum, but each dopamine signal is more powerful and spreads over a larger area of the brain—indicating that there is a propagating signal when acetylcholine triggers local dopamine release.</p><p>In another set of experiments, the researchers explored the machinery involved. Previous studies revealed that axons on dopamine neurons have few sites for dopamine release, which are used when the cell body initiates an action potential. Kaeser and his team showed that those same sites are responsible for local dopamine release prompted by acetylcholine.</p><p>Next, the researchers conducted experiments where they either activated acetylcholine neurons or puffed a drug that acts like acetylcholine directly onto the dopamine axons. When they did this, the acetylcholine induced action potentials in dopamine neurons that propagated the signal and prompted dopamine release. Acetylcholine initiated these action potentials by binding to acetylcholine receptors on the axons of dopamine neurons.</p><p>“This is really the heart of the mechanism: It tells you that providing acetylcholine is sufficient to trigger an action potential out of the axon, so you don’t need the dendrites of the neuron,” Kaeser said.</p><p>In a final set of experiments, the team investigated dopamine and acetylcholine signals in the brain as mice moved around in the environment. The researchers found that both signals correlated with the direction in which the mouse’s head moved, and the onset of acetylcholine signals occurred just before that of the dopamine signals. When the researchers interfered with acetylcholine receptors on dopamine neurons to disrupt signaling, dopamine levels in the mouse striatum dropped.</p><p>“This provides evidence that this mechanism plays in vivo as well, although more research is needed to understand how it affects striatal function and mouse behavior,” Kaeser said.</p><p><strong>The Big Picture</strong></p><p>Although this localized mechanism is only one of three types of dopamine neuron firing in the brain, Kaeser considers it an important one—not least of all because it challenges conventional thinking on how neurons send and receive signals.</p><p>“I think the most important insight that comes from this work is that a local signaling system can initiate an action potential in the axon, which is an output structure,” Kaeser said. “This goes at a very old, core principle of how neurons work.”</p><p>It’s possible, Kaeser added, that the same mechanism may be used by other axons throughout the brain, especially those with acetylcholine receptors. “We have no direct evidence for that yet, but I do think that we may have to rethink how neurons integrate signals based on this work.”</p><p>“Now that we have clear evidence that this is happening, we can ask further questions about whether this type of signaling actually happens more commonly than we thought. We may be seeing just the tip of the iceberg,” added lead author Changliang Liu, a research fellow in neurobiology at HMS. Liu wants to understand why this localized mechanism of dopamine release is needed, and what advantages it offers over dopamine release initiated by the cell body.</p><p>Kaeser is also interested in exploring whether it’s possible to completely reverse the directionality of dopamine neurons by sending a signal back up the axon to the cell body and dendrites. If such a reversal can occur, it would further upend the classic view of how neurons function.</p><p>Although the study was done in mice, Kaeser noted that the components of the mechanism are conserved across species and are present in humans, suggesting that the mechanism may be present as well. </p><p>If the mechanism is confirmed in humans, the findings could eventually inform the development of new treatments for neurodegenerative disorders that affect movement, such as Parkinson’s disease. In Parkinson’s disease, dopamine neurons start to break down and dopamine levels drop, causing difficulty with walking, balance, and coordination, among other symptoms. Researchers may be able to figure out, for example, how to use acetylcholine neurons as a source of dopamine in the striatum, a strategy that could be used to restore falling dopamine levels.</p><p>“If we can define how the dopamine and acetylcholine systems interact, we will definitely better understand what happens when you take out dopamine neurons,” Kaeser said—a step that “is really important for understanding and treating Parkinson’s disease.”</p><p>Additional authors include Xintong Cai, a visiting graduate student in neurobiology at HMS; Andreas Ritzau-Jost and Stefan Hallermann of Leipzig University; Paul Kramer and Zayd Khaliq of the National Institutes of Health; and Yulong Li of Peking University.</p><p>The study was funded by the NIH (R01NS103484; R01NS083898; NINDS Intramural 330 Research Program Grant NS003135), the European Research Council, the German Research Foundation, the HMS Dean’s Initiative Award for Innovation, a Harvard/MIT Joint Research Grant, a Gordon family fellowship, and a PhD Mobility National Grants fellowship from Xi’an Jiaotong University/China Scholarship Council.</p>','2022-03-24 22:12:42.374615','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Harvard Medical School','When we initiate an action in our everyday lives—chasing after a runaway napkin or getting out of the car—the brain releases a chemical messenger called dopamine that helps regulate the brain area that controls this action.\n',1,14,'<li>Changliang Liu, Xintong Cai, Andreas Ritzau-Jost, Paul F. Kramer, Yulong Li, Zayd M. Khaliq, Stefan Hallermann and Pascal S. Kaeser. <strong>An action potential initiation mechanism in distal axons for the control of dopamine release</strong>. <em>Science</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abn0532\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/science.abn0532</a>\n</li>'),(1588,'Physicists create extremely compressible \'gas of light\'','physicists-create-extremely-compressible-\'gas-of-light\'','2022-03-24 22:12:45.794281',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at the University of Bonn have created a gas of light particles that can be extremely compressed. Their results confirm the predictions of central theories of quantum physics. The findings could also point the way to new types of sensors that can measure minute forces. The study is published in the journal Science.</p><p>If you plug the outlet of an air pump with your finger, you can still push its piston down. The reason: Gases are fairly easy to compress -- unlike liquids, for example. If the pump contained water instead of air, it would be essentially impossible to move the piston, even with the greatest effort.</p><p>Gases usually consist of atoms or molecules that swirl more or less quickly through space. It is quite similar with light: Its smallest building blocks are photons, which in some respect behave like particles. And these photons can also be treated as a gas, however, one that behaves somewhat unusually: You can compress it under certain conditions with almost no effort. At least that is what theory predicts.</p><p><strong>Photons in the mirror box</strong></p><p>Researchers from the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) at the University of Bonn have now demonstrated this very effect in experiments for the first time. \"To do this, we stored light particles in a tiny box made of mirrors,\" explains Dr. Julian Schmitt of the IAP, who is a principal investigator in the group of Prof. Dr. Martin Weitz. \"The more photons we put in there, the denser the photon gas became.\"</p><p>The rule is usually: The denser a gas, the harder it is to compress. This is also the case with the plugged air pump -- at first the piston can be pushed down very easily, but at some point it can hardly be moved any further, even when applying a lot of force. The Bonn experiments were initially similar: The more photons they put into the mirror box, the more difficult it became to compress the gas.</p><p>However, the behavior changed abruptly at a certain point: As soon as the photon gas exceeded a specific density, it could suddenly be compressed with almost no resistance. \"This effect results from the rules of quantum mechanics,\" explains Schmitt, who is also an associate member of the Cluster of Excellence \"Matter and Light for Quantum Computing\" and project leader in the Transregio Collaborative Research Center 185. The reason: The light particles exhibit a \"fuzziness\" -- in simple terms, their location is somewhat blurred. As they come very close to each other at high densities, the photons begin to overlap. Physicists then also speak of a \"quantum degeneracy\" of the gas. And it becomes much easier to compress such a quantum degenerate gas.</p><p><strong>Self-organized photons</strong></p><p>If the overlap is strong enough, the light particles fuse to form a kind of super-photon, a Bose-Einstein condensate. In very simplified terms, this process can be compared to the freezing of water: In a liquid state, the water molecules are disordered; then, at the freezing point, the first ice crystals form, which eventually merge into an extended, highly ordered ice layer. \"Islands of order\" are also formed just before the formation of the Bose-Einstein condensate, and they become larger and larger with the further addition of photons.</p><p>The condensate is formed only when these islands have grown so much that the order extends over the entire mirror box containing the photons. This can be compared to a lake on which independent ice floes have finally joined together to form a uniform surface. Naturally, this requires a much larger number of light particles in an extended box as compared to a small one. \"We were able to demonstrate this relation in our experiments,\" Schmitt points out.</p><p>To create a gas with variable particle number and well-defined temperature, the researchers use a \"heat bath\": \"We insert molecules into the mirror box that can absorb the photons,\" Schmitt explains. \"Subsequently, they emit new photons that on average possess the temperature of the molecules -- in our case, just under 300 Kelvin, which is about room temperature.\"</p><p>The researchers also had to overcome another obstacle: Photon gases are usually not uniformly dense -- there are far more particles in some places than in others. This is due to the shape of the trap which they are usually contained in. \"We took a different approach in our experiments,\" says Erik Busley, first author of the publication. \"We capture the photons in a flat-bottom mirror box that we created using a microstructuring method. This enabled us to create a homogeneous quantum gas of photons for the first time.\"</p><p>In the future, the quantum-enhanced compressibility of the gas will enable research into novel sensors that could measure tiny forces. Besides technological prospects, the results are also of great interest for fundamental research.</p><p>Funding:</p><p>The study was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the collaborative research center TRR 185 \"OSCAR -- Open System Control of Atomic and Photonic Matter\" and the cluster of excellence \"Matter and Light for Quantum Computing (ML4Q),\" and by the European Union within the framework of the quantum flagship project \"PhoQuS -- Photons for Quantum Simulation.\"</p><p>Video: <a href=\"https://youtu.be/lyrd5srcyEo\">https://youtu.be/lyrd5srcyEo</a></p>','2022-03-24 22:12:45.794281','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Bonn','Researchers have created a gas of light particles that can be extremely compressed. Their results confirm the predictions of central theories of quantum physics. The findings could also point the way to new types of sensors that can measure minute forces.\n',1,97,'<li>Erik Busley, Leon Espert Miranda, Andreas Redmann, Christian Kurtscheid, Kirankumar Karkihalli Umesh, Frank Vewinger, Martin Weitz and Julian Schmitt. <strong>Compressibility and the Equation of State of an Optical Quantum Gas in a Box</strong>. <em>Science</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abm2543\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/science.abm2543</a>\n</li>'),(1589,'Do octopuses, squid and crabs have emotions?','do-octopuses,-squid-and-crabs-have-emotions?','2022-03-24 22:12:50.381989',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Octopuses can solve complex puzzles and show a preference for different individuals, but whether they, and other animals and invertebrates, have emotions is being hotly debated and could shake up humans\' moral decision-making, says a York University expert in animal minds.</p><p>Most countries don\'t recognize invertebrates, such as octopuses, crabs, lobsters and crayfish, as sentient beings that can feel pain, but the United Kingdom is considering amendments to its animal welfare legislation that would recognize this.</p><p>\"A London School of Economics (LSE) report commissioned by the U.K. government found there is strong enough evidence to conclude that decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs are sentient,\" says York University Professor and philosopher Kristin Andrews, the York Research Chair in Animal Minds, who is working with the LSE team.</p><p>Andrews co-wrote an article published today in the journal <em>Science</em>, \"The question of animal emotions,\" with Professor Frans de Waal, director of the Living Links Center at Emory University, which discusses the ethical and policy issues around animals being considered sentient.</p><p>Andrews points out it has long been thought in Western culture that other animals don\'t feel pain or have emotions. \"It\'s been a real struggle even to get fish and mammals recognized under welfare law as sentient. So, it\'s pretty cutting-edge what seems to be happening in the U.K. with invertebrates.\"</p><p>Pre-verbal human babies were considered not to feel pain up until at least the 1980s. It is still thought by many that animals, including invertebrates, don\'t feel pain and only have unconscious reactions to negative stimuli. However, research on mammals, fish, octopuses, and to a lesser extent crabs, has shown they avoid pain and dangerous locations, and there are signs of empathy in some animals, such as cows -- they become distressed when they see their calf is in pain.</p><p>Recognizing the sentience of invertebrates opens a moral and ethical dilemma. Humans can say what they feel, but animals don\'t have the same tools for describing their emotions. \"However, the research so far strongly suggests their existence,\" says Andrews, is working on a research project called Animals and Moral Practice.</p><p>\"When we\'re going about our normal lives, we try not to do harm to other beings. So, it\'s really about retraining the way we see the world. How exactly to treat other animals remains an open research question,\" says Andrews. \"We don\'t have sufficient science right now to know exactly what the proper treatment of certain species should be. To determine that, we need greater co-operation between scientists and ethicists.\"</p><p>There may be a point when humans can no longer assume that crayfish, shrimp, and other invertebrates don\'t feel pain and other emotions.</p><p>\"If they can no longer be considered immune to felt pain, invertebrate experiences will need to become part of our species\' moral landscape,\" she says. \"But pain is just one morally relevant emotion. Invertebrates such as octopuses may experience other emotions such as curiosity in exploration, affection for individuals, or excitement in anticipation of a future reward.\"</p><p>It may be time to look at our world differently.</p>','2022-03-24 22:12:50.381989','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'York University','Octopuses can solve complex puzzles and show a preference for different individuals, but whether they, and other animals and invertebrates, have emotions is being hotly debated and could shake up humans\' moral decision-making, says an expert in animal minds. Most countries don\'t recognize invertebrates, such as octopuses, crabs, lobsters and crayfish, as sentient beings that can feel pain, but the United Kingdom is considering amendments to its animal welfare legislation that would recognize this.\n',1,27,'<li>Frans B. M. de Waal and Kristin Andrews. <strong>The question of animal emotions</strong>. <em>Science</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abo2378\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/science.abo2378</a>\n</li>'),(1590,'Tuberculosis infection protects mice from developing COVID-19','tuberculosis-infection-protects-mice-from-developing-covid-19','2022-03-24 22:12:53.070744',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In mice, the immune response mounted against tuberculosis prevents them from developing COVID-19, according to a new study by Richard Robinson at The Ohio State University, U.S. and colleagues publishing March 24<sup>th</sup> in the open-access journal <em>PLOS Pathogens</em>.</p><p>Currently, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, <em>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</em>, and the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, are the leading causes of death from infectious disease worldwide. Tuberculosis is widespread, and scientists have questioned whether the immune response triggered by this serious respiratory infection might protect people from developing COVID-19. To find out more, researchers worked with two different strains of mice and infected them with <em>M. tuberculosis</em>. Then they exposed the mice to the COVID-19 virus and monitored them for signs of infection. They discovered that mice with tuberculosis showed no signs of COVID-19, likely because the pre-existing immune response to tuberculosis prevented the virus from proliferating in the lungs.</p><p>Altogether, the findings demonstrate that tuberculosis infection makes the lungs inhospitable to the COVID-19 virus in mice. If the same is true for humans, then this discovery may be one reason why there have been few reports of individuals with both tuberculosis and COVID-19 in the absence of other complications. The findings may also explain why countries tend to have high rates of infection of COVID-19 or tuberculosis, but not both. The researchers propose that future research should focus on the interaction between COVID-19 and tuberculosis infections in humans.</p><p>\"TB and COVID are pandemics that affect every part of the world,\" Robinson adds. \"Our study reflects the work of a diverse and talented group of OSU scientists to better understand how these two diseases influence one another, a surprising observation being that mice with TB are resistant to COVID in a lab setting.\"</p>','2022-03-24 22:12:53.070744','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'PLOS','In mice, the immune response mounted against tuberculosis prevents them from developing COVID-19, according to a new study.\n',1,27,'<li>Oscar Rosas Mejia, Erin S. Gloag, Jianying Li, Marisa Ruane-Foster, Tiffany A. Claeys, Daniela Farkas, Shu-Hua Wang, Laszlo Farkas, Gang Xin, Richard T. Robinson. <strong>Mice infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis are resistant to acute disease caused by secondary infection with SARS-CoV-2</strong>. <em>PLOS Pathogens</em>, 2022; 18 (3): e1010093 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1010093\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1371/journal.ppat.1010093</a>\n</li>'),(1591,'Can supermarkets coax people into buying healthier food?','can-supermarkets-coax-people-into-buying-healthier-food?','2022-03-24 22:12:58.413980',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Restricting supermarket placement of less healthy items and increasing the availability of healthier alternatives in these stores may be promising interventions to encourage healthier purchasing behaviors. Those are the conclusions of two new studies publishing March 24 in <em>PLOS </em>Medicine by Carmen Piernas and colleagues of University of Oxford, UK.</p><p>Dietary targets for saturated fat, dietary fiber, sugar, and salt intake are currently not being met in the UK. Poor diets are an important risk factor for chronic diseases, and many socioeconomic inequalities remain when it comes to diet. Evidence from systematic reviews has suggested that grocery store interventions may be effective at changing diet, but evidence in real supermarkets has been lacking.</p><p>In the first new study, the researchers evaluated six interventions involving the availability, placement, promotions, and signage of healthier products within three major chains of UK grocery stores. They found that increasing the availability of healthier options within a category was associated with significant changes in purchasing. For instance, stocking low-fat chips next to regular chips decreased the sales of regular chips (-23% in intervention stores vs. -4% in control stores, p=0.001). Stocking more lower calorie biscuits increased sales by 18% and decreased purchases of regular, higher calorie biscuits by 4%.</p><p>In the second study, Piernas and colleagues evaluated a grocery store intervention to remove seasonal chocolates and candy from prominent locations within a major UK supermarket in the 7 weeks leading up to Easter. In 34 intervention stores, free-standing promotional displays of seasonal chocolate confectionery products were removed, although the candies were available elsewhere in the store. The researchers found an attenuation in the usual seasonal increase in confectionery sales; units of confectionery sales increased by 18% in the control stores during the pre-Easter period but only 5% in the intervention stores (p&lt;0.001). The absolute difference in confectionery sales between control and intervention stores was approximately 21 kilograms per store per week, which translated in fewer total calories in customers baskets.</p><p>Together, the papers offer new evidence on how legislation can help shape consumers\' diets with the goal of improving health. \"This research has important implications for the development of policies by retailers or governments to bring dietary intakes closer to recommendations for good health,\" the authors write. \"Strategies aiming at informing customers about healthier options are unlikely to work in isolation.\"</p><p>Regarding the first study, Piernas adds, \"The Government in England has announced new legislation to restrict promotions of foods high in sugars, salt and saturated fat (HFSS) in prominent locations. This project established a partnership with a large UK food retailer to evaluate an intervention to remove seasonal chocolate confectionery from prominent areas of the store, specifically end-of-aisles and entrance areas, over 7 weeks before the Easter period. These results from a \'real world\' intervention provide promising evidence that the proposed legislation in England to restrict promotions of less healthy items in prominent locations may help reduce over-consumption.\"</p><p>Regarding the second study, Piernas adds, \"In this multi-retailer partnership, we conducted an independent evaluation of six in-store interventions within three major UK food retailers aimed at improving food purchasing behaviours. We reported that some choice architecture interventions implemented within stores, such as availability and promotions, were associated with short-term changes in food purchasing behaviours. However, the effect of promotions on consumer behaviour may diminish with time and are less likely to be sustainable for retailers over longer time periods.\"</p>','2022-03-24 22:12:58.413980','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'PLOS','Restricting supermarket placement of less healthy items and increasing the availability of healthier alternatives in these stores may be promising interventions to encourage healthier purchasing behaviors, according to two new studies.\n',1,27,'<li>Carmen Piernas, Georgina Harmer, Susan A. Jebb. <strong>Removing seasonal confectionery from prominent store locations and purchasing behaviour within a major UK supermarket: Evaluation of a nonrandomised controlled intervention study</strong>. <em>PLOS Medicine</em>, 2022; 19 (3): e1003951 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003951\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1371/journal.pmed.1003951</a>\n</li>'),(1592,'Study suggests association between consuming artificial sweeteners and increased cancer risk','study-suggests-association-between-consuming-artificial-sweeteners-and-increased-cancer-risk','2022-03-24 22:13:00.055327',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Artificial sweeteners reduce added sugar content and corresponding calories while maintaining sweetness. A study publishing March 24 in <em>PLOS Medicine</em> by Charlotte Debras and Mathilde Touvier at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and Sorbonne Paris Nord University, France and colleagues suggests that some artificial sweeteners are associated with increased cancer risk.</p><p>Many food products and beverages containing artificial sweeteners are consumed by millions of people daily. However, the safety of these additives has been a subject of debate. To evaluate the potential carcinogenicity of artificial sweeteners, researchers analyzed data from 102,865 French adults participating in the NutriNet-Santé study. The NutriNet-Santé study is an ongoing web-based cohort initiated in 2009 by the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (EREN). Participants enroll voluntarily and self-report medical history, sociodemographic, diet, lifestyle, and health data. Researchers gathered data concerning artificial sweetener intake from 24-hour dietary records. After collecting cancer diagnosis information during follow-up, the researchers conducted statistical analyses to investigate the associations between artificial sweetener intakes and cancer risk. They also adjusted for a range of variables including age, sex, education, physical activity, smoking, body mass index, height, weight-gain during follow-up, diabetes, family history of cancer, as well as baseline intakes of energy, alcohol, sodium, saturated fatty acids, fiber, sugar, whole-grain foods, and dairy products.</p><p>The researchers found that enrollees consuming larger quantities of artificial sweeteners, particularly aspartame and acesulfame-K, had higher risk of overall cancer compared to non-consumers (hazard ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval 1.03 to 1.25). Higher risks were observed for breast cancer and obesity-related cancers.</p><p>The study had several important limitations; dietary intakes are self-reported. Selection bias may also have been a factor, as participants were more likely to be women, to have higher educational levels, and to exhibit health-conscious behaviors. The observational nature of the study also means that residual confounding is possible and reverse causality cannot be ruled out. Additional research will be required to confirm the findings and clarify the underlying mechanisms.</p><p>According to the authors, \"Our findings do not support the use of artificial sweeteners as safe alternatives for sugar in foods or beverages and provide important and novel information to address the controversies about their potential adverse health effects. While these results need to be replicated in other large-scale cohorts and underlying mechanisms clarified by experimental studies, they provide important and novel insights for the ongoing re-evaluation of food additive sweeteners by the European Food Safety Authority and other health agencies globally.\"</p><p>Debras adds, \"Results from the NutriNet-Santé cohort (n=102,865) suggest that artificial sweeteners found in many food and beverage brands worldwide may be associated with increased cancer risk, in line with several experimental in vivo / in vitro studies. These findings provide novel information for the re-evaluation of these food additives by health agencies.\"</p>','2022-03-24 22:13:00.055327','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'PLOS','Artificial sweeteners reduce added sugar content and corresponding calories while maintaining sweetness. A new study suggests that some artificial sweeteners are associated with increased cancer risk.\n',1,27,'<li>Charlotte Debras, Eloi Chazelas, Bernard Srour, Nathalie Druesne-Pecollo, Younes Esseddik, Fabien Szabo de Edelenyi, Cédric Agaësse, Alexandre De Sa, Rebecca Lutchia, Stéphane Gigandet, Inge Huybrechts, Chantal Julia, Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot, Benjamin Allès, Valentina A. Andreeva, Pilar Galan, Serge Hercberg, Mélanie Deschasaux-Tanguy, Mathilde Touvier. <strong>Artificial sweeteners and cancer risk: Results from the NutriNet-Santé population-based cohort study</strong>. <em>PLOS Medicine</em>, March 24, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003950\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1371/journal.pmed.1003950</a>\n</li>'),(1593,'On Jupiter\'s moon Europa, \'chaos terrains\' could be shuttling oxygen to ocean','on-jupiter\'s-moon-europa,-\'chaos-terrains\'-could-be-shuttling-oxygen-to-ocean','2022-03-24 22:13:08.210489',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Salt water within the icy shell of Jupiter\'s moon Europa could be transporting oxygen into an ice-covered ocean of liquid water where it could potentially help sustain alien life, according to a team of researchers led by The University of Texas at Austin.</p><p>This theory has been proposed by others, but the researchers put it to the test by building the world\'s first physics-based computer simulation of the process, with oxygen hitching a ride on salt water under the moon\'s \"chaos terrains,\" landscapes made up of cracks, ridges and ice blocks that cover a quarter of the icy world.</p><p>The results show that not only is the transport possible, but that the amount of oxygen brought into Europa\'s ocean could be on a par with the quantity of oxygen in Earth\'s oceans today.</p><p>\"Our research puts this process into the realm of the possible,\" said lead researcher Marc Hesse, a professor at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences Department of Geological Sciences. \"It provides a solution to what is considered one of the outstanding problems of the habitability of the Europa subsurface ocean.\"</p><p>The study was recently published in the journal <em>Geophysical Research Letters</em>.</p><p>Europa is a top spot to look for alien life because scientists have detected signs of oxygen and water, along with chemicals that could serve as nutrients. However, the moon\'s ice shell -- which is estimated to be about 15 miles thick -- serves as a barrier between water and oxygen, which is generated by sunlight and charged particles from Jupiter striking the icy surface.</p><p>If life as we know it exists in the ocean, there needs to be a way for oxygen to get to it. According to Hesse, the most plausible scenario based on the available evidence is for the oxygen to be carried by salt water, or brine.</p><p>Scientists think that chaos terrains form above regions where Europa\'s ice shell partially melts to form brine, which can mix with oxygen from the surface. The computer model created by the researchers showed what happens to the brine after the formation of the chaos terrain.</p><p>The model showed the brine draining in a distinct manner, taking the form of a \"porosity wave\" that causes pores in the ice to momentarily widen -- allowing the brine to pass through before sealing back up. Hesse compares the process to the classic cartoon gag of a bulge of water making its way down a garden hose.</p><p>This mode of transport appears to be an effective way to bring oxygen through the ice, with 86% of the oxygen taken up at the surface riding the wave all the way to the ocean. But the available data allows for a wide range of oxygen levels delivered to Europa\'s ocean over its history -- with estimates ranging by a factor of 10,000.</p><p>According to co-author Steven Vance, a research scientist at NASA\'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the supervisor of its Planetary Interiors and Geophysics Group, the highest estimate would make the oxygen levels in Europa\'s ocean similar to those in Earth\'s oceans -- which raises hope about the potential for that oxygen to support life in the hidden sea.</p><p>\"It\'s enticing to think of some kind of aerobic organisms living just under the ice,\" he said.</p><p>Vance said that NASA\'s upcoming 2024 Europa Clipper mission may help improve estimates for oxygen and other ingredients for life on the icy moon.</p><p>Kevin Hand, a scientist focused on Europa research at NASA JPL who was not part of the study, said that the study presents a compelling explanation for oxygen transport on Europa.</p><p>\"We know that Europa has useful compounds like oxygen on its surface, but do those make it down into the ocean below, where life can use them?\" he said. \"In the work by Hesse and his collaborators, the answer seems to be yes.\"</p><p>The research was funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation and the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund.</p><p>In addition to the Jackson School, Hesse is also a researcher at the UT Center for Planetary Systems Habitability and the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-24 22:13:08.210489','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Texas at Austin','Researchers have built the world\'s first physics-based computer simulation of oxygen transport on Europa, finding that it\'s possible for oxygen to drain through the moon\'s icy shell and into its ocean of liquid water -- where it could potentially help sustain alien life -- by hitching a ride on salt water under the moon\'s \'chaos terrains.\' The results show that not only is the transport possible, but that the amount of oxygen brought into Europa\'s ocean could be on a par with the quantity of oxygen in Earth\'s oceans today.\n',1,27,'<li>Marc A. Hesse, Jacob S. Jordan, Steven D. Vance, Apurva V. Oza. <strong>Downward Oxidant Transport Through Europa\'s Ice Shell by Density-Driven Brine Percolation</strong>. <em>Geophysical Research Letters</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2021GL095416\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1029/2021GL095416</a>\n</li>'),(1594,'Distant regions of the human brain are wired together by surprisingly few connections','distant-regions-of-the-human-brain-are-wired-together-by-surprisingly-few-connections','2022-03-24 23:16:37.776186',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Understanding how the brain functions, particularly how information is processed during different activities, is difficult without knowing how many axons are in the brain and how many connect different functional regions. An approach by Burke Rosen and Eric Halgren at the University of California, San Diego, U.S. published March 24 in the open-access journal<em> PLOS Biology</em>, shows that despite the functional importance of connections between far-reaching regions of the brain, the actual number of these connections is low.</p><p>In the new study, researchers combined diffusion MRI data from the Human Connectome Project with histological cross-sections of the corpus callosum, the major tract that connects the left and right sides of the brain. The Human Connectome maps the strength of all connections in the brain but does not provide the actual number of axons, while the histological cross-sections allow estimates for how many axons are packed into a given volume. Combining the connection strengths with the axon densities yielded estimates for the number of axons in the cerebral cortex.</p><p>The analysis indicated that there are almost 2.5 billion long-range axons traversing the cerebral cortex. However, despite this large number, they found that the numbers connecting different functional brain regions were quite low. For example, among the estimated 130 million axons in the arcuate fasciculus tract, only about 1 to 2 million (less than 2%) directly connected Broca\'s and Wernicke\'s areas, a connection which is necessary for normal language ability. The model predicts that other long connections, like those from the hippocampus to the frontal cortex that are needed for memory retrieval, are actually made in multiple steps. The findings will thus improve models of cognition, especially processes that rely on connections between distal regions of the brain.</p><p>\"A major unsolved problem is how the human cortex integrates information processing by its 16 billion neurons across its surface to unify awareness,\" Rosen adds. \"Our finding that cortical areas are sparsely connected implies that this integration is accomplished either via linkage of the dense local connections or by rare, extraordinarily privileged long-range axons.\"</p>','2022-03-24 23:16:37.776186','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'PLOS','Understanding how the brain functions, particularly how information is processed during different activities, is difficult without knowing how many axons are in the brain and how many connect different functional regions. A new study shows that despite the functional importance of connections between far-reaching regions of the brain, the actual number of these connections is low.\n',1,3,'<li>Burke Q. Rosen, Eric Halgren. <strong>An estimation of the absolute number of axons indicates that human cortical areas are sparsely connected</strong>. <em>PLOS Biology</em>, 2022; 20 (3): e3001575 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001575\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1371/journal.pbio.3001575</a>\n</li>'),(1595,'No increase in pregnancy complications after COVID-19 vaccination, study finds','no-increase-in-pregnancy-complications-after-covid-19-vaccination,-study-finds','2022-03-24 23:48:04.621437',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Vaccination against COVID-19 during pregnancy is not associated with a higher risk of pregnancy complications, according to a large-scale registry study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health published in the journal <em>JAMA</em>.</p><p>The study, which comprised almost 160,000 pregnancies, found no increase in the risk of preterm birth, growth retardation, low Apgar scores at birth or the need for neonatal care after vaccination against COVID-19 during pregnancy.</p><p>\"The results are reassuring and can hopefully make pregnant individuals more willing to get vaccinated,\" says co-first author Anne Örtqvist Rosin, researcher at the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (Solna).</p><p>Earlier studies have shown that pregnant women belong to a risk group for serious COVID-19 requiring intensive care with a higher risk of death than non-pregnant women of a fertile age. Pregnant women with severe COVID-19 are also more likely to have preterm births. Since January 2021, efficacious COVID-19 vaccines have been available in Sweden and Norway, and in May 2021 Sweden recommended all pregnant individuals to have a COVID-19 jab, followed in August by Norway.</p><p>\"We\'re still seeing that vaccination rates are lower than in the rest of the population, so it\'s likely that there\'s some concern about how the vaccines affect the pregnant individual and the fetus,\" explains Dr Örtqvist Rosin. \"When the vaccines were produced, pregnant women were not included in the large clinical studies, and until now there have been no population-based data about any risk there might be to them.\"</p><p>The researchers linked Sweden\'s Pregnancy Register and Norway\'s Medical Birth Register to each country\'s vaccination register to obtain data on if and when pregnant individuals were vaccinated and with which vaccine. The study included a total of 157,521 individuals who gave birth between January 2021 and January 2022, of whom almost one fifth (18 per cent) had been vaccinated. It was found that vaccinated individuals were at no higher risk than unvaccinated of developing one of the studied complications.</p><p>The majority of the pregnant individuals included in the study were vaccinated after week 12 in accordance with current recommendations. 95 per cent received an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna). This should be taken into consideration when interpreting the results, which were similar for the different mRNA vaccines irrespective of whether one or two doses were given. Vaccination during the third trimester and vaccination with the Moderna vaccine was associated with a slightly lower risk of neonatal care.</p><p>One potential advantage of vaccination during pregnancy is that the antibodies thus formed pass through the placenta, providing the newborn baby with a certain degree of protection against COVID-19.</p><p>\"We\'re now planning to study how long this protection lasts, and if SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination during pregnancy has any other lasting effects on the child\'s health,\" says joint last author Professor Olof Stephansson at the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (Solna).</p><p>The study was a collaboration between researchers at Sweden\'s Karolinska Institutet and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. It was supported by grants from the Research Council of Norway, NordForsk and the European Research Council (ERC). Co-author and KI researcher Rickard Ljung has received a fee from Pfizer beyond the scope of this study and is an employee of the Swedish Medical Products Agency. No other potential conflicts of interest have been reported.</p>','2022-03-24 23:48:04.621437','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Karolinska Institutet','Vaccination against COVID-19 during pregnancy is not associated with a higher risk of pregnancy complications, according to a large-scale registry study.\n',1,74,'<li>Maria C. Magnus, Anne K. Örtqvist, Elisabeth Dahlqwist, Rickard Ljung, Fredrik Skår, Laura Oakley, Ferenc Macsali, Björn Pasternak, Håkon K. Gjessing, Siri E. Håberg, Olof Stephansson. <strong>Association of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination During Pregnancy With Pregnancy Outcomes</strong>. <em>JAMA</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.3271\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jama.2022.3271</a>\n</li>'),(1596,'Popular male dolphins produce more offspring','popular-male-dolphins-produce-more-offspring','2022-03-24 23:48:07.309394',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The reproductive success of male dolphins is not determined by strength or age, but via social bonds with other males. The better integrated males are in their social network, the more offspring they produce, a new study by an international team of researchers led by the University of Zurich has shown using long-term behavioral and genetic data.</p><p>Male dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia live in complex social groups in which they form long-lasting bonds to cooperate with other males. To do this, they join in large, stable alliances. Within these alliances, males form smaller, less stable groups of two to three to mate with females, steal them from other alliances or defend against attacks.</p><p><strong>Cooperating for the purpose of reproduction</strong></p><p>\"This kind of male cooperation for the purpose of reproduction is highly unusual in the animal kingdom. It\'s only been observed in a much less complex form in some other primates,\" says Livia Gerber, a former PhD student at the Department of Anthropology of the University of Zurich. Together with an international team led by UZH professor Michael Krützen, she wanted to find out whether the dolphins\' complex social life affects the reproductive success of males, or whether, as in most other species, stronger or more experienced males are more likely to sire offspring. The researchers analyzed 30 years of behavioral data from 85 male dolphins and used genetic data to conduct paternity analyses for more than 400 dolphins.</p><p><strong>Social bonds more important than strength and age</strong></p><p>The study showed that well-integrated \"popular\" males with strong social bonds to many alliance partners produce the most offspring. Partner stability within the smaller, variable groups of two to three males and the age difference to alliance members, in contrast, played no role in the animals\' reproductive success.</p><p>Previous research had suggested that social bonds improve the animals\' chances of survival, increase their longevity and lead to better immune responses and health. While all these effects might contribute to a male dolphin\'s lifetime reproductive success, the positive effect of social bond strength on cooperation was probably the key factor, according to first author Gerber: \"Well-integrated males might be in a better position to harness the benefits of cooperation and access crucial resources such as food or mates. They may also be more resilient to partner loss compared to those with few, but closer partners.\"</p><p><strong>Long-lasting friendships improve fitness</strong></p><p>Cooperation among social partners is very common in mammals, but its influence on paternity success has not yet been studied in depth. However, understanding the factors that determine reproductive success and thus individual fitness is at the core of evolutionary biology. \"Our study is the first to show that social bonds among male dolphins positively impact their reproductive success and are, therefore, directly linked to fitness,\" says senior author Michael Krützen. \"This had previously only been observed in male chimpanzees and some other primates. Our study expands upon previous findings on land mammals and provides compelling evidence that such highly complex, multi-level social systems also developed independently in the ocean.\"</p>','2022-03-24 23:48:07.309394','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Zurich','The reproductive success of male dolphins is not determined by strength or age, but via social bonds with other males. The better integrated males are in their social network, the more offspring they produce, a new study has shown using long-term behavioral and genetic data.\n',1,64,'<li>Livia Gerber et al. <strong>Social integration influences fitness in allied male dolphins</strong>. <em>Current Biology</em>, 24 March 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.03.027\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.cub.2022.03.027</a>\n</li>'),(1597,'Fans of ASMR videos are more sensitive to their surroundings, study finds','fans-of-asmr-videos-are-more-sensitive-to-their-surroundings,-study-finds','2022-03-24 23:48:33.818493',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Fans of ASMR videos are more likely to be sensitive to their surroundings and feelings, University of Essex research has revealed.</p><p>ASMR, which stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, has swept the internet with millions watching viral clips of whispered voices, delicate hand movements or tapping.</p><p>Mysteriously only some people feel this relaxing tingling sensation that spreads down the spine.</p><p>Dr Giulia Poerio, from the Department of Psychology, has discovered those who feel it are hypersensitive to the world around them.</p><p>The research published in The Journal of Research in Personality uncovered that they are more bothered by noise and movement and are easily overstimulated.</p><p>They are also more attuned to their bodily sensations such as noticing physical changes when experiencing emotions.</p><p>Dr Poerio said: \"It really is a double-edged sword.</p><p>\"Highly sensitive people may be able to experience intensely pleasurable feelings like ASMR but this high sensitivity also has downsides.</p><p>\"For example, the noise of a pen clicking or someone chewing gum could set off a negative reaction, which others would simply ignore.\"</p><p>More than 500 participants were recruited for the study and assessed for ASMR experience and measured for sensory sensitivity.</p><p>Dr Poerio now hopes to build on the findings with a view to explain how and why intensely positive emotions are experienced -which may lead to new therapeutic techniques.</p><p>\"We know much less about positive emotions compared to negative ones, especially when considering complex emotional experiences like ASMR,\" added Dr Poerio</p><p>\"I\'m interested in trying to understand these under-researched emotions so that we might find ways of enhancing them in people\'s everyday lives.\"</p>','2022-03-24 23:48:33.818493','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Essex','Fans of ASMR videos are more sensitive to their surroundings and feelings, a new study has revealed. ASMR, which stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, has swept the internet with millions watching viral clips of whispered voices, delicate hand movements or tapping.\n',1,133,'<li>Giulia L. Poerio, Safiyya Mank, Thomas J. Hostler. <strong>The awesome as well as the awful: Heightened sensory sensitivity predicts the presence and intensity of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR)</strong>. <em>Journal of Research in Personality</em>, 2022; 97: 104183 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2021.104183\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.jrp.2021.104183</a>\n</li>'),(1598,'In animal study, implant churns out CAR-T cells to combat cancer','in-animal-study,-implant-churns-out-car-t-cells-to-combat-cancer','2022-03-24 23:49:06.828947',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed an implantable biotechnology that produces and releases CAR-T cells for attacking cancerous tumors. In a proof-of-concept study involving lymphoma in mice, the researchers found that treatment with the implants was faster and more effective than conventional CAR-T cell cancer treatment.</p><p>T cells are part of the immune system, tasked with identifying and destroying cells in the body that have become infected with an invading pathogen. CAR-T cells are T cells that have been engineered to identify cancer cells and destroy them. CAR-T cells are already in clinical use for treating lymphomas, and there are many clinical trials under way focused on using CAR-T cell treatments against other forms of cancer.</p><p>\"A major drawback to CAR-T cell treatment is that it is tremendously expensive -- hundreds of thousands of dollars per dose,\" says Yevgeny Brudno, corresponding author of the study and assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering department at NC State and UNC.</p><p>\"Due to its cost, many people are shut out from this treatment. One reason for the high cost is that the manufacturing process is complex, time-consuming and has to be tailored to each cancer patient individually,\" Brudno says. \"We wanted to address challenges in CAR-T treatment related to both manufacturing time and cost.\"</p><p>\"Reducing the manufacturing time is even more critical for patients with rapidly progressing disease,\" says Pritha Agarwalla, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the joint biomedical engineering department.</p><p>To tackle this challenge, the researchers created a biotechnology called Multifunctional Alginate Scaffolds for T cell Engineering and Release (MASTER). The work was done in partnership with Gianpietro Dotti, professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and co-leader of the Immunology Program at the Lineberger Cancer Center at UNC; and Frances Ligler, a professor of biomedical engineering at Texas A&amp;M University.</p><p>To understand how MASTER works, you have to understand how CAR-T cells are produced. Clinicians first isolate T cells from patients and transport them to a clean manufacturing facility. At this facility, researchers \"activate\" T cells with antibodies over several days, preparing them for reprogramming. Once T cells are activated, researchers use viruses to introduce the CAR gene, reprogramming the T cells into CAR-T cells that target cancer cells. Researchers then add factors to stimulate the CAR-T cells to proliferate, expanding their number. Finally, after these manipulations are complete -- a process that can take weeks -- the cells are brought back to the hospital and infused into the patient\'s bloodstream.</p><p>\"Our MASTER technology takes the cumbersome and time-consuming activation, reprogramming and expansion steps and performs them inside the patient,\" Agarwalla says. \"This transforms the multi-week process into a single-day procedure.\"</p><p>MASTER is a biocompatible, sponge-like material with the look and feel of a mini marshmallow. To begin treatment, researchers isolate T cells from the patient and mix these naïve (or non-activated) T cells with the engineered virus. Researchers pour this mixture on top of the MASTER, which absorbs it. MASTER is decorated with the antibodies that activate the T cells, so the cell activation process begins almost immediately. Meanwhile, MASTER is surgically implanted into the patient- in these studies, a mouse.</p><p>After implantation, the cellular activation process continues. As the T cells become activated, they begin responding to the modified viruses, which reprogram them into CAR-T cells.</p><p>\"The large pores and sponge-like nature of the MASTER material brings the virus and cells close together, which facilitates cellular genetic reprogramming,\" says Agarwalla.</p><p>The MASTER material is also impregnated with factors called interleukins that foster cell proliferation. After implantation, these interleukins begin to leach out, promoting rapid proliferation of the CAR-T cells.</p><p>\"Engineering the material so that it is dry and absorbs this combination of T cells and virus is critically important,\" Brudno says. \"If you try to do this by applying T cells and virus to a wet MASTER, it just doesn\'t work.\"</p><p>In these studies, the researchers worked with mice that had lymphoma. One group was treated with CAR-T cells that were created and delivered using MASTER. A second group was treated with CAR-T cells that were created conventionally and delivered intravenously. These two groups were compared to control group receiving non-engineered T cells.</p><p>\"Our technology performed very well,\" Brudno says. \"It would take at least two weeks to create CAR-T cells from naïve T cells for clinical use. We were able to introduce the MASTER into a mouse within hours of isolating naïve T cells.\"</p><p>In addition, since cells are implanted within hours of isolation, the minimal manipulation creates healthier cells that exhibit fewer markers associated with poor anti-cancer performance in CAR-T cells. Specifically, the MASTER technique results in cells that are less differentiated, which translates to better sustainability in the body and more anti-cancer potency. In addition, the cells display fewer markers of T-cell exhaustion, which is defined by poor T cell function.</p><p>\"The end result is that the mice that received CAR-T cell treatment via MASTER were far better at fighting off tumors than mice that received conventional CAR-T cell treatment,\" Agarwalla says.</p><p>The improvement in anti-cancer efficacy was especially pronounced over the long term, when mice were faced with a recurrence of lymphoma.</p><p>\"The MASTER technology was very promising in liquid tumors, such as lymphomas, but we are especially eager to see how MASTER performs against solid tumors -- including pancreatic cancer and brain tumors,\" Brudno says.</p><p>\"We\'re working with an industry partner to commercialize the technology, but there\'s still a lot of work to be done before it becomes clinically available. Further work to establish the safety and robustness of this technology in animal models will be necessary before we can begin exploring clinical trials involving human patients.\"</p><p>While it\'s impossible to estimate what the cost of MASTER treatment might be if it is eventually approved for clinical use, Brudno says he\'s optimistic that it would be substantially less expensive than existing CAR-T treatment options.</p><p>\"We\'re also exploring opportunities with other industry partners for taking the fundamental concepts of MASTER and applying them for use in regenerative medicine and in treating autoimmune disease,\" Brudno says.</p><p>\"I feel like we\'re just scratching the surface of what\'s possible here,\" Agarwalla says.</p><p>The work was done with support from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, under flash grant 2019-FLG-3812; from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; and from the National Institutes of Health under grants UL1TR002489, R01CA193140, R21-CA229938-01A1, T32CA196589 and R25NS094093.</p>','2022-03-24 23:49:06.828947','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'North Carolina State University','Researchers have developed an implantable biotechnology that produces and releases CAR-T cells for attacking cancerous tumors. In a proof-of-concept study involving lymphoma in mice, the researchers found that treatment with the implants was faster and more effective than conventional CAR-T cell cancer treatment.\n',1,152,'<li>Agarwalla, P., Ogunnaike, E.A., Ahn, S. et al. <strong>Bioinstructive Implantable Scaffolds for Rapid In Vivo Manufacture and Release of CAR-T Cells</strong>. <em>Nature Biotechnology</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41587-022-01245-x\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41587-022-01245-x</a>\n</li>'),(1599,'Resourceful viral protein combats monkey and human defenses differently','resourceful-viral-protein-combats-monkey-and-human-defenses-differently','2022-03-24 23:49:09.720370',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In the epic battle between hosts and viruses, viruses are constantly evolving to be more infectious. Now, researchers from Japan have found that human genes also evolve to help protect our bodies from invasion by life-threatening viruses.</p><p>In a study published in December in <em>Journal of Virology</em>, researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have revealed that a monkey variant of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can counteract a human protein that defends against viral infection in a different way than it counteracts the same protein in monkeys.</p><p>Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) is closely related to HIV, and both viruses tend to use similar strategies to escape their hosts\' defenses, which also tend to be very similar. One of these defenses is a protein called tetherin (also known as BST-2 or CD317). If a cell is invaded by the virus, tetherin prevents the virus from leaving the cell and infecting other nearby cells. To counter this measure, HIV and SIV make a protein called viral protein U (Vpu) that attaches to tetherin and blocks its effects.</p><p>\"Because viruses adapt to their hosts, HIV Vpu is most effective against human tetherin, while SIV Vpu is most effective against monkey tetherin,\" explains Dr. Takeshi Yoshida, senior author of the study. \"But in at least one unusual case, a strain of SIV that typically infects the greater spot-nosed monkey can also overcome human defenses, which suggests that SIV potentially infects humans.\"</p><p>To explore how SIV Vpu affects human tetherin, the researchers mutated different parts of the protein and looked at how well it blocked tetherin\'s normal activities and effects.</p><p>\"The results were unexpected,\" says Dr. Weitong Yao, lead author. \"We discovered that the parts of SIV Vpu that are needed to counteract monkey tetherin are not the same as the parts needed to counteract human tetherin.\"</p><p>The researchers pinpointed seven specific amino acids (the basic building blocks of proteins) that are needed for SIV to block human tetherin. Importantly, these seven amino acids were not essential for the virus to block monkey tetherin.</p><p>\"What this tells us is that SIV Vpu may use a totally distinct mechanisms to counteract the effects of monkey and human tetherin,\" says Yoshida.</p><p>Given the different approaches that this viral protein uses to neutralize monkey and human tetherin, it seems likely that the gene encoding human tetherin faced different pressures over the course of evolution than the gene encoding monkey tetherin. The results from this study could help us better understand the evolution of host genes as a result of host-pathogen interactions.</p>','2022-03-24 23:49:09.720370','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Tokyo Medical and Dental University','Researchers have found that different parts of viral protein U expressed by simian immunodeficiency virus are required to bind to and block tetherin, an antiviral protein, in monkey cells versus in human cells. This suggests that the virus uses two different mechanistic strategies to evade this host defense and sheds new light on host-pathogen coevolution.\n',1,88,'<li>Weitong Yao, Klaus Strebel, Shoji Yamaoka, Takeshi Yoshida. <strong>Simian Immunodeficiency Virus SIVgsn-99CM71 Vpu Employs Different Amino Acids To Antagonize Human and Greater Spot-Nosed Monkey BST-2</strong>. <em>Journal of Virology</em>, 2022; 96 (4) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JVI.01527-21\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1128/JVI.01527-21</a>\n</li>'),(1600,'Researchers develop new antibody test to diagnose MS','researchers-develop-new-antibody-test-to-diagnose-ms','2022-03-24 23:49:12.220363',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Mayo Clinic researchers have validated a new antibody test to diagnose multiple sclerosis (MS), a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord. Nearly 1 million people in the U.S. are affected by MS, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.</p><p>An antibody typically consists of two immunoglobulin heavy chains and two light chains. There are two types of light chains: kappa and lambda. The validated test measures kappa immunoglobulin free light chains in cerebrospinal fluid. The authors conclude the test is a valid alternative to a commonly used test to detect oligoclonal bands in cerebrospinal fluid, according to findings published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Oligoclonal bands are proteins that indicate inflammation of the central nervous system.</p><p>\"Among the advantages of kappa measurement is that it\'s a much easier test to run in the laboratory,\" says Ruba Saadeh, a research fellow in neuroimmunology in Mayo Clinic\'s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, and the study\'s first author. \"Our findings represent a cost savings as well as an automated alternative to the arsenal of tests used to diagnose multiple sclerosis.\"</p><p>MS is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, and can lead to deterioration and permanent damage of the nerves. While its cause is unknown, the disease triggers the immune system to attack the protective coating on nerve fibers. This disrupts signals between the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms vary widely. These symptoms depend on the amount of nerve damage and which nerves are affected. Symptoms can be temporary or long-lasting.</p><p>While no cure for MS has been found, treatments can speed recovery from attacks and manage symptoms.</p><p>The diagnostic test that detects oligoclonal bands in cerebrospinal fluid requires about four hours of analytical processing. This test is labor-intensive and involves subjective visual interpretation. The Mayo study validates a diagnostic value of 0.1 milligrams per deciliter to measure kappa free light chains. The study\'s results are comparable to diagnostic values from tests measuring oligoclonal bands.</p><p>The study analyzed serum samples from a retrospective cohort of 702 Mayo patients to determine a diagnostic value for measurement of kappa free light chains. Samples from a prospective cohort of 657 Mayo patients were used to validate that value. Of the more than 1,300 patients, 12% were diagnosed with MS.</p><p>\"Kappa free light chain measurement in cerebrospinal fluid is relatively new, and various published studies have attempted to decide what is the best medical decision point for optimal performance of the test,\" says Maria Alice Willrich, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic pathologist and the study\'s senior author. \"Based on our study data, we identified the optimal performance of the test for a large U.S.-based population.\"</p><p>The study estimates a significant cost savings for the new test. Better yet, results are available in about 20 minutes.</p><p>\"The laboratory technologist training can be standardized because of the automation involved in this process, and the subjective visual interpretation of bands and personnel involvement is substantially reduced,\" Dr. Willrich says.</p><p>The study was funded in part by Mayo Clinic\'s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and was supported by a grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. The authors report no competing interests.</p>','2022-03-24 23:49:12.220363','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Mayo Clinic','Researchers have validated a new antibody test to diagnose multiple sclerosis (MS), a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord.\n',1,27,'<li>Ruba S. Saadeh, Sandra C. Bryant, Andrew McKeon, Brian Weinshenker, David L. Murray, Sean J. Pittock, Maria Alice V. Willrich. <strong>CSF Kappa Free Light Chains: Cutoff Validation for Diagnosing Multiple Sclerosis</strong>. <em>Mayo Clinic Proceedings</em>, 2021; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.09.014\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.09.014</a>\n</li>'),(1601,'Blow flies can be used detect use of chemical weapons, other pollutants','blow-flies-can-be-used-detect-use-of-chemical-weapons,-other-pollutants','2022-03-25 00:25:36.222728',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at the School of Science at IUPUI have found that blow flies can be used as chemical sensors, with a particular focus on the detection of chemical warfare agents.</p><p>Despite widespread bans, chemical weapons have been deployed in recent conflicts such as the Syrian civil war, and some experts fear they may be used in the war in Ukraine. An IUPUI study shows that blow flies could be used as a safer alternative for investigating the use of these weapons -- as well as other chemicals in the environment -- keeping humans out of potentially dangerous situations.</p><p>The work appears in the journal <em>Environmental Science and Technology</em>. The research was funded through a grant from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.</p><p>\"Blow flies are ubiquitous, and they are very adept at sampling the environment around us,\" said Christine Picard, an associate professor of biology and director of the Forensic and Investigative Sciences Program in the School of Science at IUPUI. \"They will fly through the environment, taste it, and that information will be stored in their guts. Through a series of experiments, we were able to look at how different environmental factors would impact their detection of chemical weapon simulants.\"</p><p>\"We used a mass spectrometer to determine what chemicals were in the blow flies\' guts,\" Manicke said. \"We were able to detect the chemical warfare agent simulants, and also some of the things chemical agents get broken down into once they\'re in the environment. If a fly were to come across a water source, with a chemical agent hydrolyzed in the water, we would find that in the fly.\"</p><p>While chemical warfare agents do not persist for long in the environment, the researchers found they\'re preserved well enough in the fly\'s guts for chemical analysis. They also were able to detect the chemical warfare agent simulants up to 14 days after a fly\'s initial exposure -- illustrating a safer alternative for the collection of samples, without risking human lives.</p><p>\"If an area is too dangerous, too remote or in an access-restricted area -- or if one just wanted to collect samples covertly -- then one just needs to put out some bait and the flies will come to the bait,\" Manicke said. \"We can scan through big areas by drawing the flies into a trap and analyzing what is in their guts.\"</p><p>This research also has important applications for environmental scientists who want to understand how pollutants, such as pesticides, move through the environment.</p><p>\"Due to the collaboration between Dr. Manicke and Dr. Picard, we were able to work on a project with the potential to make a direct impact,\" said Sarah Dowling, a Ph.D. student who co-authored the study. \"It is fulfilling to know that the work we did throughout this project could improve the safety of warfighters and others who deal with chemicals in the environment.\"</p><p>The team of students who conducted the experiments using a chemical weapon simulant were led by Nick Manicke, an associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology and of forensic and investigative sciences at IUPUI. A chemical weapon simulant shares features of actual chemical warfare agents -- but is not poisonous to people -- as well as pesticides, which are chemically similar to chemical warfare agents in the terms of their molecules\' behavior.</p><p>Next, the researchers plan to apply what they learned from this study toward a new two-year project funded by the Army Research Office on Environmental Chemistry. This work will focus on the detection of molecules from \"insensitive munitions,\" which are a new type of explosive compounds that are less likely to detonate by accident. Because of this, however, they tend to deposit more in the environment.</p><p>Using blow flies from areas that are remote or dangerous, Manicke and Picard will look for traces of insensitive munition compounds in the flies, indicating environmental contamination.</p><p>Additional contributors to the study include IUPUI Ph.D. students Christine Skaggs and Khadija Moctar and Charity Owings, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, who was a Ph.D. student at IUPUI at the time of the study.</p>','2022-03-25 00:25:36.222728','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Indiana University','A study suggests blow flies could be used to detect the use of chemical weapons -- as well as other dangerous substances -- in areas too dangerous or remote for human investigators.\n',1,34,'<li>Sarah N. Dowling, Christine L. Skaggs, Charity G. Owings, Khadija Moctar, Christine J. Picard, Nicholas E. Manicke. <strong>Insects as Chemical Sensors: Detection of Chemical Warfare Agent Simulants and Hydrolysis Products in the Blow Fly Using LC-MS/MS</strong>. <em>Environmental Science &amp; Technology</em>, 2022; 56 (6): 3535 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c07381\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acs.est.1c07381</a>\n</li>'),(1602,'Tuberculosis induces premature cellular aging','tuberculosis-induces-premature-cellular-aging','2022-03-25 00:26:15.504553',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially serious infectious disease caused by a type of bacterium called <em>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</em>. The bacteria usually affect the lungs, but also can invade other organs.</p><p>In 2018, tuberculosis bacteria infected 1.7 billion people <strong>- </strong>roughly 23% of the world\'s population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2020, the CDC reported 7,174 TB cases and 13 million people living with a latent tuberculosis infection (the germs are in the body but do not cause sickness) in the United States.</p><p>Even after successful therapy for tuberculosis, survivors of the disease have an increased risk of recurrent infection and death. A new study published recently by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine found that the cells of humans and animals who have recovered from tuberculosis had prematurely aged up to 12 to 14 years.</p><p>\"It\'s possible that this premature cellular aging is one reason why survivors of tuberculosis have a high risk of mortality,\" said Dr. Andrew DiNardo, assistant professor of infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine and senior author of the paper.</p><p>To measure the aging of the cells, researchers looked at the epigenetic clock of the cells. Epigenetics looks at how the DNA inside every cell is coiled. As we age, how the DNA is coiled changes, and severe infection is changing it in such a way to increase premature aging.</p><p>In this study, the researchers studied multiple cohorts and multiple tissue types, and discovered that tuberculosis induced perturbations in epigenetic regulation, specifically in the regulation mediated by DNA methylation. These changes correlated with oxidative stress-induced senescence and was associated with premature cellular aging. These processes were conserved across both guinea pigs and humans.</p><p>DiNardo, who also is with Texas Children\'s Hospital, says that this is an important area to look into after any severe infection, including sepsis or even SARS-CoV-2. The severity of the infection also could play a role in the aging of the cells.</p><p>\"A multi-omic epigenetic clock assay could become part of the standard of care for infectious diseases and further inform increased risk for comorbidities after chronic conditions or environmental exposure,\" said Dr. Cristian Coarfa, associate professor of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor and co-corresponding author of the paper. Coarfa also is with the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor.</p><p>A multi-omic approach would integrate epigenomics and other \'omics,\' such as proteomics (proteins produced), metabolomics (metabolites present) and microbiomics (microorganisms) data.</p><p>\"Now that we know the mechanism, there are some ways that we can target it to slow down and decrease the premature epigenetic aging that is happening in these cells,\" Coarfa said.</p><p>Their report appears in the journal <em>Aging</em>.</p><p>Others who took part in the study include Carly A. Bobak, Abhimanyu, Harini Natarajan, Tanmay Gandhi, Sandra L. Grimm, Tomoki Nishiguchi, Kent Koster, Santiago Carrero Longlax, Qiniso Dlamini, Jacquiline Kahari, Godwin Mtetwa, Jeffrey D. Cirillo, James O\'Malley and Jane E. Hill. The authors are affiliated with one or more of the following institutions: Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, Texas Children\'s Hospital, the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor, Texas A&amp;M University Health, Baylor-Swaziland Children\'s Foundation and University of British Columbia.</p><p>This work was supported by NIAID K23 AI141681-02, partially by the Cancer Prevention Institute of Texas (CPRIT) RP170005, RP210227, and RP200504, NIH P30 shared resource grant CA125123, and NIEHS grants 1P30ES030285 and 1P42ES027725. Further support was provided by the Texas A&amp;M University System and National Institutes of Health grants AI104960 and AI149383, NHLBI R01, HL146228-01, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Hill18A0-CI, the National Science and Engineering Research Council, Canada, AWD-01777,3 and the National Health, the Medical Research Council, Australia GNT1182929, Burroughs Wellcome Fund institutional program grant to Dartmouth College (Grant#1014106).</p>','2022-03-25 00:26:15.504553','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Baylor College of Medicine','Researchers found that the cells of humans and animals who have recovered from tuberculosis had prematurely aged up to 12 to 14 years. It\'s possible that this premature cellular aging is one reason why survivors of tuberculosis have a high risk of mortality.\n',1,27,'<li>Carly A. Bobak,  Abhimanyu, Harini Natarajan, Tanmay Gandhi, Sandra L. Grimm, Tomoki Nishiguchi, Kent Koster, Santiago Carrero Longlax, Qiniso Dlamini, Jacquiline Kahari, Godwin Mtetwa, Jeffrey D. Cirillo, James O’Malley, Jane E. Hill, Cristian Coarfa, Andrew R. DiNardo. <strong>Increased DNA methylation, cellular senescence and premature epigenetic aging in guinea pigs and humans with tuberculosis</strong>. <em>Aging</em>, 2022; 14 (5): 2174 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.18632/aging.203936\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.18632/aging.203936</a>\n</li>'),(1603,'Physicists \'shine\' light on inner details and breakup of simple nucleus','physicists-\'shine\'-light-on-inner-details-and-breakup-of-simple-nucleus','2022-03-25 02:00:35.977424',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists have found a new way to \"see\" inside the simplest atomic nuclei to better understand the \"glue\" that holds the building blocks of matter together. The results, just published in <em>Physical Review Letters,</em> come from collisions of photons (particles of light) with deuterons, the simplest atomic nuclei (made of just one proton bound to one neutron).</p><p>The collisions took place at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE\'s Brookhaven National Laboratory. Scientists from around the world analyze data from RHIC\'s subatomic smashups to gain insight into the particles and forces that build up the visible matter of our world.</p><p>In these particular collisions, the photons acted somewhat like an x-ray beam to provide the first glimpse of how particles called gluons are arranged within the deuteron.</p><p>\"The gluon is very mysterious,\" said Brookhaven Lab physicist Zhoudunming Tu, who led this project for RHIC\'s STAR Collaboration. Gluons, as \"carriers\" of the strong force,* are the glue that binds quarks, the inner building blocks of protons and neutrons. They also hold protons and neutrons together to form atomic nuclei. \"We want to study the gluon distribution because it\'s one of the keys that binds the quarks together. This measurement of gluon distribution in a deuteron has never been done before.\"</p><p>In addition, because the photon-deuteron collisions sometimes break the deuterons apart, the collisions can help scientists understand this process.</p><p>\"Measuring the breakup of the deuteron tells us a lot about the basic mechanisms that hold these particles together in nuclei in general,\" said Tu.</p><p>Understanding gluons and their role in nuclear matter will be a central focus of research at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), a future nuclear physics research facility in the planning stages at Brookhaven Lab. At EIC, physicists will use photons generated by electrons to probe gluon distributions inside protons and nuclei, as well as the force that holds nuclei together. But Tu, who has been developing plans for research at the EIC, realized he might get some clues by looking at existing data from RHIC\'s 2016 experiments on deuterons.</p><p>\"The motivation for studying the deuteron is because it is simple, but it still has everything a complex nucleus has,\" Tu explained. \"We want to study the simplest case of a nucleus to understand these dynamics -- including how they change as you move from a simple proton to the more complex nuclei we\'ll study at the EIC.\"</p><p>So, he started sifting through data collected by STAR from hundreds of millions of collisions in 2016.</p><p>\"The data were there. Nobody had looked into the deuteron\'s gluon distribution until I started when I was a Goldhaber Fellow in 2018. I had just joined Brookhaven, and I found this connection to the EIC.\"</p><p>Shining the light</p><p>RHIC can accelerate a wide range of ions -- atomic nuclei stripped of their electrons. It can even send beams of two different kinds of particles speeding in opposite directions through the twin rings of its 2.4-mile circular racetrack at nearly the speed of light. But it can\'t accelerate photons directly.</p><p>But thanks to physics, recently covered here, fast-moving particles with a lot of positive charge emit their own light. So, in 2016, when RHIC was colliding deuterons with highly charged gold ions, those speeding gold ions were surrounded by clouds of photons. By identifying \"ultra-peripheral collisions\" -- where the deuteron just glances by a gold ion\'s cloud of photons -- Tu realized he could study photons interacting with deuterons to get a glimpse inside.</p><p>The telltale sign of those interactions is the production of a particle called J/psi, triggered by the photon interacting with gluons inside the deuteron.</p><p>\"I found 350 J/psi. There are only 350 events out of the hundreds of millions of collisions recorded by the STAR experiment. It is actually a very rare event,\" Tu said.</p><p>Though the J/psi quickly decays, the STAR detector can track the decay products to measure how much momentum was transferred from the interaction. Measuring the distribution of momentum transfer across all the collisions allows scientists to infer the gluon distribution.</p><p>\"There is a one-to-one connection between the momentum transfer (the \'kick\' given to the J/psi) and where the gluon is located in the deuteron,\" Tu explained. \"On average, gluons inside the very core of the deuteron give a very large momentum kick. Gluons on the periphery give a smaller kick. So, looking at the overall momentum distribution can be used to map out the gluon distribution in the deuteron.\"</p><p>\"The findings from our study have filled a gap in our understanding of gluon dynamics between a free proton and a heavy nucleus,\" said Shuai Yang, a STAR collaborator from South China Normal University. Yang has been a leading physicist in the use of light emitted by fast-moving ions to study the properties of nuclear matter in ultra-peripheral nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and at Europe\'s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). \"This work builds a bridge connecting particle physics and nuclear physics,\" he said.</p><p>Another leading contributor, William Schmidke of Brookhaven Lab, said, \"In fact we have been studying this process for many years. But this is the first result that tells us the gluon dynamics for both individual nucleons (the collective term for protons and neutrons) and the nucleus in the same system.\"</p><p>Studying deuteron breakup</p><p>In addition to generating a J/psi particle, each photon-gluon interaction also gives a momentum kick that deflects the deuteron -- or breaks that simple nucleus apart into a proton and neutron. Studying the breakup process gives insight into the gluon-generated force that holds nuclei together.</p><p>In the case of a breakup, the positively charged proton curves away in the magnetic field of the RHIC accelerator. But the neutral neutron keeps moving straight ahead. To capture these \"spectator neutrons,\" STAR has a detector positioned 18 meters away from its center right along the beamline at one end.</p><p>\"This process is very simple,\" Tu noted. \"Only one J/psi gets produced in the center of STAR. The only other particles that can be created are from this deuteron breakup. So, any time you get a neutron, you know this is coming from the deuteron breakup. The STAR detector can unambiguously measure this process at high energy.\"</p><p>Measuring how the breakup process is associated with a J/psi particle produced via gluon interaction can help scientists understand the role of gluons in the interaction between protons and neutrons. That knowledge could be different from what scientists understand about those interactions at low energy.</p><p>\"At high energy, the photon \'sees\' almost nothing but gluons inside the deuteron,\" Tu said. \"After the gluons \'kick\' the J/psi particle, how this \'kick\' leads to a breakup is very likely related to the gluon dynamics between the proton and neutron. The advantage of this measurement is that we can experimentally identify the gluon-dominated channel and the nuclear breakup at the same time.\"</p><p>In addition, Tu notes that measuring neutrons produced via nuclear breakup -- generally known as \"spectator tagging\" -- is a broad and useful technique and will definitely be used at the future EIC.</p><p>But at the EIC, \"the instrumentation will be much better and will have more coverage,\" he explained. \"We\'ll be able to further improve the precision of gluon spatial distribution measurements from light nuclei to heavy nuclei. And EIC detector systems will capture almost everything about the nucleus breakup, so we can study in even more detail how nucleons interact with each other.\"</p><p>Additional key contributors who collaborated to perform the complicated data analyses for this study include Brookhaven Lab physicists Jaroslav Adam, Zilong Chang, and Thomas Ullrich.</p><p>*The strong force is the strongest of the four fundamental forces in nature (strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravitational force). And unlike any of the other forces, the interaction strength becomes larger with increasing distance. The binding force between two quarks at a distance beyond 10<sup>-15 </sup>meters (any farther than a millionth of a billionth of a meter) is more than 10 tons!</p>','2022-03-25 02:00:35.977424','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory','Scientists have found a new way to \'see\' inside the simplest atomic nuclei to better understand the \'glue\' that holds the building blocks of matter together. The results come from collisions of photons (particles of light) with deuterons, the simplest atomic nuclei (made of just one proton bound to one neutron). The photons act somewhat like an x-ray beam to provide the first glimpse of how particles called gluons are arranged within the deuteron.\n',1,94,'<li>M. S. Abdallah et al. <strong>Probing the Gluonic Structure of the Deuteron with J/ψ Photoproduction in d Au Ultraperipheral Collisions</strong>. <em>Physical Review Letters</em>, 2022; 128 (12) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.122303\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.122303</a>\n</li>'),(1604,'Light derails electrons through graphene','light-derails-electrons-through-graphene','2022-03-25 02:00:38.566473',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers have experimentally caused electrons to bend in bilayer graphene with the use of light. The way electrons flow in materials determine its electronic properties. For example, when a voltage is sustained across a conducting material, electrons start flowing, generating an electrical current. These electrons are often thought to flow in straight paths, moving along the electric field, much like a ball rolling down a hill. Yet these are not the only trajectories electrons can take: when a magnetic field is applied, the electrons no longer travel in straight paths along the electric field, but in fact, they bend. The bent electronic flows lead to transverse signals called \"Hall\" responses.</p><p>Now, is it possible to bend electrons without applying a magnetic field? In a study recently published in <em>Science</em>, an international team of researchers report that circular polarized light can induce bent electronic flows in bilayer graphene. The study has been carried out by a team including ICFO scientists Jianbo Yin (currently researcher from the Beijing Graphene Institute, China), David Barcons, Iacopo Torre, led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Frank Koppens, in collaboration with Cheng Tan and James Hone from Columbia University, Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi from NIMS Japan and Prof. Justin Song from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.</p><p>Jianbo Yin, first author of the study, remembers how it all started. \"This collaborative study began in 2016 with a conversation between Justin Song and Frank Koppens at a scientific conference.\" As Justin Song explains, \"Electrons are not just particles, but can have a quantum wave-like nature.\" In quantum materials, such as bilayer graphene, the wave pattern of electrons can exhibit a complex winding often referred to as quantum geometry. \"Frank and I talked about the possibility of harnessing quantum geometry in bilayer graphene to bend the flow of electrons with light instead of using magnetic fields.\"</p><p>With this in mind, Jianbo Yin, a researcher in Frank Koppens\' team, decided to take on the challenge of experimentally realizing this unusual phenomenon. \"Our device was very complicated to build. It took building many devices and flying to Columbia University to work with Cheng Tan and James Hone to improve the device quality.\"</p><p><strong>Quantum geometry and Valley selectivity</strong></p><p>In bilayer graphene, there are two pockets of electron valleys (K and K\'): when a perpendicular electric field is applied, the quantum geometrical properties of electrons in these two valleys can cause them to bend in opposite directions. As a result, their Hall effects are cancelled out.</p><p>In their study, the team of scientists found that by applying circular polarized infrared light onto the bilayer graphene device, they were able to selectively excite one specific valley population of electrons in the material, which generated a photovoltage perpendicular to the usual electron flow. As Koppens highlights,\" we now engineered the device and setup in such a way that current only flows with light illumination. With this, we were able to avoid the background noise that hampers measurements and achieve a sensitivity in the detection several orders of magnitude better than any other 2D material.\" This development is significant because conventional photodetectors often require large voltage biases that can lead to \"dark currents\" that flow even when there is no light.</p><p>Yin remarks that \"we can control the bending of the electrons with the out-of-plane electric field we apply. We can change the bending angle of these electrons, which can be quantified by the Hall conductivity. By controlling the voltage \'knob\', the Berry curvature [one characteristic of quantum geometry], can be tuned, which can lead to a giant Hall conductivity.\"</p><p>The results of the study open a new realm of many detection and imaging applications, as Koppens finally concludes. \"Such discovery could have major implications in applications for infrared and terahertz sensing since bilayer graphene can be transformed from semimetal to semiconductor with a very small bandgap, so it can detect photons of very small energies. It may be also useful, for example, for imaging in space, medical imaging, e.g. for tissue skin cancer, or even for security applications such as the quality inspection of materials.\"</p><p>The possibilities are manifold and the next steps of research focused on new 2D materials, such as the moiré material twisted bilayer graphene, may find new ways of controlling electron flows and unconventional opto-electronic properties.</p>','2022-03-25 02:00:38.566473','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences','Researchers have experimentally caused electrons to bend in bilayer graphene with the use of light. The way electrons flow in materials determine its electronic properties. For example, when a voltage is sustained across a conducting material, electrons start flowing, generating an electrical current. These electrons are often thought to flow in straight paths, moving along the electric field, much like a ball rolling down a hill. Yet these are not the only trajectories electrons can take: when a magnetic field is applied, the electrons no longer travel in straight paths along the electric field, but in fact, they bend. The bent electronic flows lead to transverse signals called \'Hall\' responses.\n',1,61,'<li>Jianbo Yin, Cheng Tan, David Barcons-Ruiz, Iacopo Torre, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Justin C. W. Song, James Hone, Frank H. L. Koppens. <strong>Tunable and giant valley selective Hall effect in gapped bilayer graphene</strong>. <em>Science</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abl4266\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/science.abl4266</a>\n</li>'),(1605,'Enhancing the electromechanical behavior of a flexible polymer','enhancing-the-electromechanical-behavior-of-a-flexible-polymer','2022-03-25 02:00:55.911417',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Piezoelectric materials convert mechanical stress into electricity, or vice versa, and can be useful in sensors, actuators and many other applications. But implementing piezoelectrics in polymers -- materials composed of molecular chains and commonly used in plastics, drugs and more -- can be difficult, according to Qiming Zhang, distinguished professor of electrical engineering.</p><p>Zhang and a Penn State-led team of interdisciplinary researchers developed a polymer with robust piezoelectric effectiveness, resulting in 60% more efficient electricity generation than previous iterations. They published their results today (Mar. 25) in <em>Science</em>.</p><p>\"Historically, the electromechanics coupling of polymers has been very low,\" Zhang said. \"We set out to improve this because the relative softness of polymers makes them excellent candidates for soft sensors and actuators in a variety of areas, including biosensing, sonar, artificial muscles and more.\"</p><p>To create the material, the researchers deliberately implemented chemical impurities into the polymer. This process, known as doping, allows researchers to tune the properties of a material to generate desirable effects -- provided they integrate the correct number of impurities. Adding too little of a dopant could prevent the desired effect from initiating, while adding too much could introduce unwanted traits that hamper the material\'s function.</p><p>The doping distorts the spacing between positive and negative charges within the polymer\'s structural components. The distortion segregates the opposite charges, allowing the components to accumulate an external electric charge more efficiently. This accumulation enhances electricity transfer in the polymer when it is deformed, Zhang said.</p><p>To enhance the doping effect and ensure alignment of the molecular chains, the researchers stretched the polymer. This alignment, according to Zhang, promotes more of an electromechanical response than from a polymer with randomly aligned chains.</p><p>\"The efficiency of the polymer\'s electricity generation was vastly increased,\" Zhang said. \"With this process, we achieved a 70% efficiency -- a vast improvement from 10% efficiency before.\"</p><p>This robust electromechanic performance, which is more common in stiff ceramic materials, could enable a variety of applications for the flexible polymer. Because the polymer exhibits resistance to sound waves similar to that of water and human tissues, it could be applied for use in medical imaging, underwater hydrophones or pressure sensors. Polymers also tend to be more lightweight and configurable than ceramics, so this polymer could provide opportunities to explore improvements in imaging, robotics and more, Zhang said.</p><p>Other contributors to this work include Xin Chen, with the Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Hancheng Qin, Bing Zhang, Wenchang Lu and J. Bernholc with North Carolina State University; Xiaoshi Qian with Shanhai Jiao Tong University in China; Wenyi Zhu with the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Bo Li and Shihai Zhang with PolyK Technologies in State College; Ruipeng Li with Brookhaven National Laboratory; Lei Zhu with Case Western Reserve University; and Fabrice Domingues Dos Santos with Arkema in France. Qiming Zhang is also affiliated with the Materials Research Institute at Penn State.</p><p>The U.S. Office of Naval Research supported this work.</p>','2022-03-25 02:00:55.911417','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Penn State','Piezoelectric materials convert mechanical stress into electricity, or vice versa, and can be useful in sensors, actuators and many other applications. But implementing piezoelectrics in polymers -- materials composed of molecular chains and commonly used in plastics, drugs and more -- can be difficult.\n',1,25,'<li>Xin Chen, Hancheng Qin, Xiaoshi Qian, Wenyi Zhu, Bo Li, Bing Zhang, Wenchang Lu, Ruipeng Li, Shihai Zhang, Lei Zhu, Fabrice Domingues Dos Santos, J. Bernholc, Q. M. Zhang. <strong>Relaxor ferroelectric polymer exhibits ultrahigh electromechanical coupling at low electric field</strong>. <em>Science</em>, 2022; 375 (6587): 1418 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abn0936\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/science.abn0936</a>\n</li>'),(1606,'Cheap, eco-friendly catalyst opens new possibilities for organic molecules built from pyruvate','cheap,-eco-friendly-catalyst-opens-new-possibilities-for-organic-molecules-built-from-pyruvate','2022-03-25 02:01:13.071070',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Chemists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have developed an organic catalyst that can drive reactions using pyruvate -- a key biomolecule in many metabolic pathways -- that are difficult and complicated to achieve using conventional industrial techniques.</p><p>The research, recently published in <em>Organic Letters</em>, is an important step towards simplifying the production process and increasing the range of molecules that can be built from pyruvate, like amino acids or glycolic acids, which are used in drug discovery efforts and medications.</p><p>\"Catalysts, substances which control and accelerate chemical reactions without being included into the final products, are crucial tools for chemists,\" said Santanu Mondal, a PhD candidate in Chemistry and Chemical Bioengineering Unit at OIST and first author of the study. \"And organic catalysts, in particular, are set to revolutionize the industry and make chemistry more sustainable.\"</p><p>Currently, metal catalysts are used in industry, which are often expensive to obtain and produce hazardous waste. Metal catalysts also react easily with air and water, making them difficult to store and handle. But organic catalysts are formed from common elements, like carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, so they are much cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly.</p><p>\"On top of these advantages, our newly developed organic catalyst system also promotes reactions using pyruvate that aren\'t easily achievable using metal catalysts,\" added Santanu.</p><p>In all chemical reactions, he went on to explain, molecules can react by either giving away electrons, or receiving them. Pyruvate is much better at receiving electrons when it reacts and is typically used this way in industry, to produce organic alcohols and solvents. But within our bodies, protein catalysts called enzymes can drive reactions in which pyruvate donates electrons to produce molecules like fatty acids and amino acids.</p><p>By taking inspiration from these enzymes, the researchers designed a catalyst system made of two small organic molecules, an acid and an amine, that forces pyruvate to act as an electron donor.</p><p>In the reaction, the amine binds to pyruvate, making an intermediate molecule. The acid then covers up part of the intermediate molecule, while leaving another part, which can donate electrons, free to react and form a new product.</p><p>Importantly, the catalyst system is highly selective about which form of the product it will make. Like our hands, many biomolecules are asymmetric and can exist in two forms that are mirror-images of each other. These molecules look similar, but often have differing properties.</p><p>\"Organic catalysts can be designed in a way that at the end of the reaction, only one of these mirror-image forms is made,\" said Santanu. \"This is particularly beneficial in the pharmaceutical industry, where one of the forms may be an effective treatment, but the other form may be toxic.\"</p><p>For the pyruvate reactions, the researchers were able to selectively choose which of the two mirror-image forms of the final product to make, by changing which mirror-image form of the amine was used to catalyze the reaction.</p><p>Currently, the organic catalyst system only works when reacting pyruvate with a specific class of organic molecule, called cyclic imines. But ultimately, the research team dream of creating a next-generation catalyst for pyruvate that is universal, meaning that it can speed up reactions between pyruvate and a broad range of organic molecules.</p><p>\"With a universal catalyst, chemists would be able to easily make an array of various products from pyruvate, in both mirror-image forms,\" said Santanu. \"This would have many meaningful impacts on society, such as speeding up the development of new drugs.\"</p>','2022-03-25 02:01:13.071070','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University','Chemists have developed an organic catalyst that can drive reactions using pyruvate -- a key biomolecule in many metabolic pathways -- that are difficult and complicated to achieve using conventional industrial techniques. The research is an important step towards simplifying the production process and increasing the range of molecules that can be built from pyruvate, like amino acids or glycolic acids, which are used in drug discovery efforts and medications.\n',1,131,'<li>Santanu Mondal, Ravindra D. Aher, Venkati Bethi, Yu-Ju Lin, Tohru Taniguchi, Kenji Monde, Fujie Tanaka. <strong>Control of Reactions of Pyruvates by Catalysts: Direct Enantioselective Mannich Reactions of Pyruvates Catalyzed by Amine-based Catalyst Systems</strong>. <em>Organic Letters</em>, 2022; 24 (9): 1853 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.orglett.2c00436\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acs.orglett.2c00436</a>\n</li>'),(1607,'New Fermi arcs could provide a new path for electronics','new-fermi-arcs-could-provide-a-new-path-for-electronics','2022-03-25 02:21:41.791849',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Newly discovered Fermi arcs that can be controlled through magnetism could be the future of electronics based on electron spins. These new Fermi arcs were discovered by a team of researchers from Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University, as well as collaborators from the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. During their investigation of the rare-earth monopnictide NdBi (neodymium-bismuth), the research team discovered a new type of Fermi arc that appeared at low temperatures when the material became antiferromagnetic, i.e., neighboring spins point in opposite directions.</p><p>Fermi surfaces in metals are a boundary between energy states that are occupied and unoccupied by electrons. Fermi surfaces are normally closed contours forming shapes such as spheres, ovoids, etc. Electrons at the Fermi surface control many properties of materials such as electrical and thermal conductivity, optical properties, etc. In extremely rare occasions, the Fermi surface contains disconnected segments that are known as Fermi arcs and often are associated with exotic states like superconductivity.</p><p>Adam Kaminski, leader of the research team, explained that newly discovered Fermi arcs are the result of electron band splitting, which results from the magnetic order of Nd atoms that make up 50% of the sample. However, the electron splitting that the team observed in NdBi was not typical band splitting behavior.</p><p>There are two established types of band splitting, Zeeman and Rashba. In both cases the bands retain their original shape after splitting. The band splitting that the research team observed resulted in two bands of different shapes. As the temperature of the sample decreased, the separation between these bands increased and the band shapes changed, indicating a change in fermion mass.</p><p>\"This splitting is very, very unusual, because not only is the separation between those bands increasing, but they also change the curvature,\" Kaminski said. \"This is very different from anything else that people have observed to date.\"</p><p>The previously known cases of Fermi arcs in Weyl semimetals persist because they are caused by the crystal structure of the material which is difficult to control. However, the Fermi arcs that the team discovered in NdBi are induced by magnetic ordering of the Nd atoms in the sample. This order can be readily changed by applying a magnetic field, and possibly by changing the Nd ion for another rare earth ion such as Cerium, Praseodymium, or Samarium (Ce, Pr, or Sm). Since Ames Lab is a world leader in rare earth research, such changes in composition can be easily explored.</p><p>\"This new type of Fermi arcs appears whenever the sample becomes antiferromagnetic. So when the sample develops magnetic order, these arcs just appear seemingly out of nowhere,\" said Kaminski.</p><p>According to Kaminski, another important characteristic of these new Fermi arcs is that they have what is called spin texture. In normal metals, each electronic state is occupied by two electrons, one with a spin up, one with a spin down, so there is no net spin. The newly discovered Fermi arcs have single orientation of spin at each of their points. Since they exist only in a magnetically ordered state, the arcs can be switched on and off very quickly by applying a magnetic pulse, for example from an ultrafast laser.</p><p>\"Having such a spin decoration or spin texture is important because one of the quests in electronics is to move away from the charge-based electronics. Everything that you use now is based on moving electrons in wires and that causes dissipation,\" Kaminski said.</p><p>The ability to control the spin of electrons relates to a new branch of information technology called spintronics, which is based on electron spin rather than on moving charges along wires.</p><p>\"Instead of moving a charge, we either flip the orientation of the spin or cause the propagation of the spin along the wire,\" Kaminski explained. \"These spin changes technically should not dissipate energy, so it doesn\'t cost a lot of energy to store information as spin or to move information as spin.\"</p><p>Kaminski emphasized the importance of this finding to the field, but he said there is still a lot of work to be done before these findings can be used in new technology.</p><p>Crystal growth and characterization were supported by Center for the Advancement of Topological Semimetals (CATS), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. DOE, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.</p>','2022-03-25 02:21:41.791849','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'DOE/Ames Laboratory','Newly discovered Fermi arcs that can be controlled through magnetism could be the future of electronics based on electron spins. During a recent investigation of the rare-earth monopnictide NdBi (neodymium-bismuth), researchers discovered a new type of Fermi arc that appeared at low temperatures when the material became antiferromagnetic, i.e., neighboring spins point in opposite directions.\n',1,61,'<li>Benjamin Schrunk, Yevhen Kushnirenko, Brinda Kuthanazhi, Junyeong Ahn, Lin-Lin Wang, Evan O’Leary, Kyungchan Lee, Andrew Eaton, Alexander Fedorov, Rui Lou, Vladimir Voroshnin, Oliver J. Clark, Jamie Sánchez-Barriga, Sergey L. Bud’ko, Robert-Jan Slager, Paul C. Canfield, Adam Kaminski. <strong>Emergence of Fermi arcs due to magnetic splitting in an antiferromagnet</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; 603 (7902): 610 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04412-x\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04412-x</a>\n</li>'),(1608,'Carbon-coated nickel enables fuel cell free of precious metals','carbon-coated-nickel-enables-fuel-cell-free-of-precious-metals','2022-03-25 06:08:46.705865',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A nitrogen doped carbon-coated nickel anode can catalyze an essential reaction in hydrogen fuel cells at a fraction of the cost of the precious metals currently used, Cornell University researchers have found.</p><p>The new discovery could accelerate the widespread use of hydrogen fuel cells, which hold great promise as efficient, clean energy sources for vehicles and other applications.</p><p>It\'s one of a string of discoveries for the Héctor D. Abruña lab in their ongoing search for active, inexpensive, durable catalysts for use in alkaline fuel cells.</p><p>\"This finding makes progress toward using efficient, clean hydrogen fuel cells in place of fossil fuels,\" said Abruña, professor in the department of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University.</p><p>The results published March 21 in \"A Completely Precious-Metal-Free Alkaline Fuel Cell With Enhanced Performance Using a Carbon-Coated Nickel Anode,\" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.</p><p>Expensive precious metals, such as platinum, are currently required in hydrogen fuel cells to efficiently catalyze the reactions they employ to produce electricity. Although alkaline polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (APEMFCs) enable the use nonprecious metal electrocatalysts, they lack the necessary performance and durability to replace precious metal-based systems.</p><p>A fuel cell produces electricity through the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and an oxygen reduction reaction (OOR). Platinum, in particular, is a model catalyst for both reactions because it catalyzes them efficiently, and is durable in the acidic environment of a PEM fuel cell, Abruña said.</p><p>But what about other materials?</p><p>Recent experiments with nonprecious-metal HOR electrocatalysts needed to overcome two major challenges, the researchers wrote: low intrinsic activity from too strong a hydrogen binding energy, and poor durability due to rapid passivation from metal oxide formation.</p><p>To overcome these challenges, the researchers designed a nickel-based electrocatalyst with a 2 nanometer shell made of nitrogen-doped carbon.</p><p>Their hydrogen fuel cell has an anode (where hydrogen is oxidized) catalyst consisting of a solid nickel core surrounded by the carbon shell. When paired with a cobalt-manganese cathode (where oxygen is reduced), the resulting completely precious-metal-free hydrogen fuel cell outputs more than 200 milliwatts per square centimeter.</p><p>The presence of nickel oxide species on the surface of the nickel electrode slows the hydrogen oxidation reaction dramatically, Abruña said. The nitrogen-doped carbon coating serves as a protection layer and enhances the HOR kinetics, making the reaction quicker and much more efficient.</p><p>In addition, the presence of the graphene coating on the nickel electrode prevents the formation of nickel oxides -- resulting in electrodes with dramatically enhanced lifetimes. These electrodes are also much more tolerant to carbon monoxide, which rapidly poisons platinum.</p><p>\"The use of this novel anode would dramatically lower prices enabling the application of alkaline fuel cells in a wide variety of areas,\" Abruña said.</p><p>In February, Abruña and colleagues found that a cobalt nitride catalyst is nearly as efficient as platinum in catalyzing the oxygen reduction reaction.</p><p>Funding for this research was provided by the Center for Alkaline-Based Energy Solutions, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, and the Zhuang research group at Wuhan University, China, supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.</p>','2022-03-25 06:08:46.705865','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Cornell University','A nitrogen doped carbon-coated nickel anode can catalyze an essential reaction in hydrogen fuel cells at a fraction of the cost of the precious metals currently used, researchers have found.\n',1,27,'<li>Yunfei Gao, Yao Yang, Roberto Schimmenti, Ellen Murray, Hanqing Peng, Yingming Wang, Chuangxin Ge, Wenyong Jiang, Gongwei Wang, Francis J. DiSalvo, David A. Muller, Manos Mavrikakis, Li Xiao, Héctor D. Abruña, Lin Zhuang. <strong>A completely precious metal–free alkaline fuel cell with enhanced performance using a carbon-coated nickel anode</strong>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 2022; 119 (13) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119883119\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1073/pnas.2119883119</a>\n</li>'),(1609,'Decoding a material’s ‘memory’','decoding-a-material’s-‘memory’','2022-03-25 12:20:35.135731',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">New research from the University of Pennsylvania published in <em>Nature Physics</em> details the relationship between a disordered material\'s individual particle arrangement and how it reacts to external stressors. The study also found that these materials have \"memory\" that can be used to predict how and when they will flow. The study was led by Larry Galloway, a Ph.D. student in the lab of Paulo Arratia, and Xiaoguang Ma, a former postdoc in the lab of Arjun Yodh, in collaboration with the labs of Douglas Jerolmack and Celia Reina.</p><p>A disordered material is randomly arranged at the particle-scale, e.g. atoms or grains, instead of being systematically distributed -- think of a pile of sand instead of a neatly stacked brick wall. Researchers in the Arratia lab are studying this class of materials as part of Penn\'s Materials Research Science &amp; Engineering Center, where one of the program\'s focuses is on understanding the organization and proliferation of particle-scale rearrangements in disordered, amorphous materials.</p><p>The key question in this study was whether one could observe the structure of a disordered material and have some indication as to how stable it is or when it might begin to break apart. This is known as the yield point, or when the material \"flows\" and begins to move in response to external forces. \"For example, if you look at the grains of a sand castle and how they are arranged, can I tell you whether the wind can blow it over or if it has to be hit hard to fall over?\" says Arratia. \"We want to know, just by looking at the way the particles are arranged, if we can say anything about the way they\'re going to flow or if they are going to flow at all.\"</p><p>While it has been known that individual particle distribution influences yield point, or flow, in disordered materials, it has been challenging to study this phenomenon since the field lacks ways to \"quantify\" disorder in such materials. To address this challenge, the researchers collaborated with colleagues from across campus to combine expertise across the fields of experimentation, theory, and simulations.</p><p>For the experiments, the researchers track individual particles on top of a liquid-air interface akin to what coffee grounds floating on top of water look like, the researchers say. Then, they use a magnetic needle that moves back and forth to apply a shearing force. With this system, the researchers are able to systematically apply forces to 50,000 particles, track their detailed movement, and use complex image analysis to see if, for example, two neighboring particles remain next to one another after a shearing force is applied.</p><p>One of the challenges of this study was finding a metric that could help characterize disorder; to do this, the researchers turned to a concept known as excess entropy. While this idea has been used before to study simple liquids, its application in these larger granular systems -- where temperature does not influence particle motion -- was conceptually very new, says Galloway. \"We\'re taking thermodynamics and applying some of its concepts to something that people generally don\'t think thermodynamics applies to,\" he says.</p><p>To help connect their experimental results to theories of excess entropy, the Arratia lab worked with colleagues from the Reina group, who have theoretical expertise in non-equilibrium thermodynamics, as well as colleagues from the Yodh lab, who have experimented with excess entropy concepts to elucidate equilibrium and non-equilibrium systems. In addition, Jerolmack\'s group shared their expertise in studying particle flow to help connect the complex experimental results with simulations.</p><p>One of the most significant findings from this study is that disordered materials can \"remember\" the forces that were applied to them and that this memory can be measured by looking at individual particle distributions. \"If you zoom in and look at where all the different particles are, you can read out what memories are stored in there,\" Galloway says.</p><p>The researchers also found that disordered materials lose this memory when a threshold of stress is surpassed, which occurs at the same time the material reaches its yield point and starts to flow. \"If you apply a little bit of stress, the material will remember, and it will go back to the original state,\" says Arratia. \"But if you start shearing with more force, it starts losing its memory. That is exactly where we find that the material gives and begins to flow, and that critical stress is related to the loss of memory.\"</p><p>While the concept of memory in disordered materials had been known for some time, the strong correlation seen in their results between particle distribution, flow, and memory surprised the researchers. Moving forward, they are planning to build on this work by studying other particle sizes and types, research that could help address how universal this concept is and how their results relate to thermodynamics and excess entropy more broadly.</p><p>Arratia adds that with such a wide range of systems that act like disordered materials, from eroding hillsides at risk of causing mudslides to living organisms such as biofilms, the possible implications for fields beyond thermodynamics are numerous. \"I hope that this work will become something that we can apply to different, disparate systems from skin, mudslides, biofilms, and many things that are disordered and also flow,\" Arratia says.</p><p><em>This research was supported by Penn MRSEC (NSF-DMR-1720530), NSF-DMR-1120901 and CMMI-2047506, and U.S. Army Research Office Grant W911-NF-16-1-0290. </em></p>','2022-03-25 12:20:35.135731','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Pennsylvania','New research details the relationship between particle structure and flow in disordered materials, insights that can be used to understand systems ranging from mudslides to biofilms.\n',1,201,'<li>K. L. Galloway, E. G. Teich, X. G. Ma, Ch. Kammer, I. R. Graham, N. C. Keim, C. Reina, D. J. Jerolmack, A. G. Yodh, P. E. Arratia. <strong>Relationships between structure, memory and flow in sheared disordered materials</strong>. <em>Nature Physics</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01536-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41567-022-01536-9</a>\n</li>'),(1610,'Immune to hacks: Inoculating deep neural networks to thwart attacks','immune-to-hacks:-inoculating-deep-neural-networks-to-thwart-attacks','2022-03-25 12:20:47.901146',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">If a sticker on a banana can make it show up as a toaster, how might strategic vandalism warp how an autonomous vehicle perceives a stop sign? Now, an immune-inspired defense system for neural networks can ward off such attacks, designed by engineers, biologists and mathematicians at the University of Michigan.</p><p>Deep neural networks are a subset of machine learning algorithms used for a wide variety of classification problems. These include image identification and machine vision (used by autonomous vehicles and other robots), natural language processing, language translation and fraud detection. However, it is possible for a nefarious person or group to adjust the input slightly and send the algorithm down the wrong train of thought, so to speak. To protect algorithms against such attacks, the Michigan team developed the Robust Adversarial Immune-inspired Learning System.</p><p>\"RAILS represents the very first approach to adversarial learning that is modeled after the adaptive immune system, which operates differently than the innate immune system,\" said Alfred Hero, the John H. Holland Distinguished University Professor, who co-led the work published in<em> IEEE Access.</em></p><p>While the innate immune system mounts a general attack on pathogens, the mammalian immune system can generate new cells designed to defend against specific pathogens. It turns out that deep neural networks, already inspired by the brain\'s system of information processing, can take advantage of this biological process, too.</p><p>\"The immune system is built for surprises,\" said Indika Rajapakse, associate professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics and co-leader of the study. \"It has an amazing design and will always find a solution.\"</p><p>RAILS works by mimicking the natural defenses of the immune system to identify and ultimately take care of suspicious inputs to the neural network. To begin developing it, the biological team studied how the adaptive immune systems of mice responded to an antigen. The experiment used the tissues of genetically modified mice that express fluorescent markers on their B cells.</p><p>The team created a model of the immune system by culturing cells from the spleen together with those of bone marrow, representing a headquarters and garrison of the immune system. This system enabled the biological team to track the development of B cells, which starts as a trial-and-error approach to designing a receptor that binds to the antigen. Once the B-cells converge on a solution, they produce both plasma B cells for capturing any antigens present and memory B cells in preparation for the next attack.</p><p>Stephen Lindsly, a doctoral student in bioinformatics at the time, performed data analysis on the information generated in Rajapakse\'s lab and acted as a translator between the biologists and engineers. Hero\'s team then modeled that biological process on computers, blending biological mechanisms into the code. They tested the RAILS defenses with adversarial inputs. Then they compared the learning curve of the B cells learning to attack antigens with the algorithm learning to exclude those bad inputs.</p><p>\"We weren\'t sure that we had really captured the biological process until we compared the learning curves of RAILS to those extracted from the experiments,\" Hero said. \"They were exactly the same.\"</p><p>Not only was it an effective biomimic, RAILS outperformed two of the most common machine learning processes used to combat adversarial attacks: Robust Deep k-Nearest Neighbor and convolutional neural networks.</p><p>\"One very promising part of this work is that our general framework can defend against different types of attacks,\" said Ren Wang, a research fellow in electrical and computer engineering, who was primarily responsible for the development and implementation of the software.</p><p>The researchers used image identification as the test case, evaluating RAILS against eight types of adversarial attacks in several datasets. It showed improvement in all cases, including protection against the most damaging type of adversarial attack -- known as a Projected Gradient Descent attack. In addition, RAILS improved the overall accuracy. For instance, it helped correctly identify an image of a chicken and an ostrich, widely perceived as a cat and a horse, as two birds.</p><p>\"This is an amazing example of using mathematics to understand this beautiful dynamical system,\" Rajapakse said. \"We may be able to take what we learned from RAILS and help reprogram the immune system to work more quickly.\"</p><p>Future efforts from Hero\'s team will focus on reducing the response time from milliseconds to microseconds.</p><p>Hero is also the R. Jamison and Betty Williams Professor of Engineering and a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, biomedical engineering and statistics. Rajapakse is also an associate professor of mathematics and of biomedical engineering. Lindsly is now at MathWorks.</p><p>The project was funded by the Department of Defense, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Army Research Office.</p>','2022-03-25 12:20:47.901146','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Michigan','If a sticker on a banana can make it show up as a toaster, how might strategic vandalism warp how an autonomous vehicle perceives a stop sign? Now, an immune-inspired defense system for neural networks can ward off such attacks, designed by engineers, biologists and mathematicians.\n',1,27,'<li>Ren Wang, Tianqi Chen, Stephen M. Lindsly, Cooper M. Stansbury, Alnawaz Rehemtulla, Indika Rajapakse, Alfred O. Hero. <strong>RAILS: A Robust Adversarial Immune-Inspired Learning System</strong>. <em>IEEE Access</em>, 2022; 10: 22061 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3153036\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3153036</a>\n</li>'),(1611,'Photonic technology enables real-time calculation of radio signal correlation','photonic-technology-enables-real-time-calculation-of-radio-signal-correlation','2022-03-25 12:20:49.992987',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers have developed a new analog photonic correlator that can be used to locate an object transmitting a radio signal. Because the new correlator is faster than other methods and works with a wide range of radio frequency signals, it could be useful for locating cell phones, signal jammers or a variety of tracking tags.</p><p>\"The photonic architecture we developed uses no moving parts and enables real-time signal processing,\" said Hugues Guillet de Chatellus from Université Grenoble Alpes-CNRS in France. \"Real-time processing helps ensure there isn\'t any downtime, which is critical for defense applications, for example.\"</p><p>In <em>Optica</em>, Optica Publishing Group\'s journal for high-impact research, Guillet de Chatellus and colleagues describe the new photonic correlator and demonstrate its ability to identify the location of a radio frequency transmitter. The device is considerably simpler than today\'s analog or digital correlators and uses off-the-shelf telecommunications components.</p><p>\"Many of today\'s radio signals have large bandwidths because they carry a great deal of information,\" said Guillet de Chatellus. \"Our photonic approach offers a simple method for correlating signals with bandwidths of up to a few GHz, a larger bandwidth than is available from commercial approaches based on purely digital techniques.\"</p><p><strong>Using light to calculate correlation </strong></p><p>The new photonic correlator can be used to compute what is known as a cross-correlation function for two signals emitted from one source and detected by two antennas. This measures the similarity of the signals as a function of the displacement of one signal relative to the other and provides information about their relative delay, which can be used to calculate the location of the signal\'s source.</p><p>\"The photonic architecture we developed enables real-time calculation of the cross-correlation function of two input signals for about 200 values of relative delay simultaneously,\" said Guillet de Chatellus. \"This is much higher than any photonic technique has been able to accomplish so far.\"</p><p>The correlator works like a photonic processor by using fiber optic components to turn two radio-frequency signals into optical signals. Once the cross-correlation function is calculated, a detection and processing chain enables it to be converted into a digital format.</p><p>The most critical component of the new system is a frequency shifting loop, which can generate and manipulate a large number of time-shifted replicas for an input signal. This simple photonic component has enabled many recent innovations in microwave photonics.</p><p>\"We\'ve been developing frequency shifting loops for some time, and a deep understanding of their architecture led us to apply them to this new application,\" said Guillet de Chatellus. \"This work shows that photonics can offer efficient alternatives to solutions that are based on digital electronics.\"</p><p><strong>Precision location</strong></p><p>After testing their new device using high-power simple signals, the researchers tested it with more complex signals and then moved to signals propagating through free space and received by a pair of antennas. The researchers were able to demonstrate localization of a radiofrequency transmitter with a precision close to 10 picoseconds for a 100-millisecond integration time. This means that the system could locate an emitter with a precision of about 3 millimeters.</p><p>The new analog photonic correlator can also be used in astronomy to cross-correlate signals coming from several telescopes to create high-resolution images. In the coming months, the researchers plan to work on a demonstration experiment in which signals emitted from the sun at around 10 GHz will be collected by two remote antennas and cross-correlated using the new photonic device to create an image of the sun at radio-wavelength.</p><p>If these experiments are successful, this device could initiate infrared applications in astronomy facilities, such as the Very Large Telescope Interferometer in Chile, using heterodyne interferometry. Heterodyne interferometry has been used for radio-interferometry but was previously limited to narrow correlation bandwidths.</p><p>The researchers are also performing experiments to find out if the new photonic correlator can be used to correlate three signals, which would enable 3D localization of transmitters by triangulation. They also plan further work to miniaturize and fully integrate the correlator.</p>','2022-03-25 12:20:49.992987','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Optica','Researchers have developed a new analog photonic correlator that can be used to locate an object transmitting a radio signal. They demonstrated its ability to identify the location of a radio frequency transmitter, working faster than other methods. The device is considerably simpler than today\'s analog or digital correlators and uses off-the-shelf telecommunications components to process a wide range of radio frequency signals in cell phones, signal jammers, and more.\n',1,134,'<li>Hughes Guillet de Chatellus, Guillaume Bourdarot, Jean-Philippe Berger. <strong>Multi-delay photonic correlator for wideband RF signal processing</strong>. <em>Optica</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.442906\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1364/OPTICA.442906</a>\n</li>'),(1612,'Membraneless organelles: From liquid to solid to drive development','membraneless-organelles:-from-liquid-to-solid-to-drive-development','2022-03-25 12:20:52.887833',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The term \'phase transition\' might initially conjure up images of ice melting or water vapour condensing on a cold glass. In biology, phase transition plays a role in processes such as lipid bilayer formation or the spontaneous de-mixing of protein droplets. In a recent paper published in <em>Cell</em>, the Ephrussi and Mahamid groups at EMBL Heidelberg have now shown how phase transitions in protein-RNA droplets can influence their biological function.</p><p>In order to regulate the many cellular functions within an organism, biochemical processes within individual cells must be precisely regulated in time and space. While organelles like the nucleus or the endoplasmic reticulum are enclosed by membranes and thereby physically separate certain reactions and processes from others, the cellular space also contains a different class of organelles without membranes, called condensates. Like their membrane-bound counterparts, condensates control specific functions within a cell.</p><p>In their latest study, the EMBL scientists focused on one specific mRNA, oskar, and its role in embryo development in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly). In the developing fruit fly egg, oskar mRNA must localise to a specific position within the cell to lay the foundation for the development of the future embryo. oskar mRNA is found in ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules that contain proteins bound to the RNA. These are an example of membraneless condensates. What the EMBL researchers were now able to show is that these granules have solid-like properties in the developing fruit fly egg.</p><p>\"Condensates are typically thought of as liquids. But we found that a solid state of oskar RNP granules is crucial for localisation and function of oskar mRNA,\" explained Mainak Bose, postdoc in the Ephrussi and Mahamid groups, and first author of the study. \"When we genetically engineered the granules in Drosophila oocytes to be liquid-like, it resulted in a multitude of defects in the developing embryos.\"</p><p>These findings demonstrate the importance of the physical properties of condensates for their physiological functions, something that was until now believed to be governed by their biochemical properties alone. \"Our work highlights how interactions and properties at the molecular level govern the biophysical properties and functions of condensates on the cellular and even organismal scale,\" concluded Bose.</p>','2022-03-25 12:20:52.887833','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'European Molecular Biology Laboratory','Researchers show that transition from liquid to solid is important for the function of membraneless organelles.\n',1,51,'<li>Mainak Bose, Marko Lampe, Julia Mahamid, Anne Ephrussi. <strong>Liquid-to-solid phase transition of oskar ribonucleoprotein granules is essential for their function in Drosophila embryonic development</strong>. <em>Cell</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.02.022\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.cell.2022.02.022</a>\n</li>'),(1613,'A simple diagnostic tool for gastrointestinal disorders','a-simple-diagnostic-tool-for-gastrointestinal-disorders','2022-03-25 13:53:34.363944',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">As food moves through the digestive tract, contracting muscles along the tract keep things flowing smoothly. Loss of this motility can lead to acid reflux, failure of food to move out of the stomach, or constipation.</p><p>Dysmotility disorders are usually diagnosed with a catheter containing pressure transducers, which can sense contractions of the GI tract. MIT researchers have now designed a new device that could offer a cheaper and easier-to-manufacture alternative to existing diagnostics for GI dysmotility, inspired by the design of an ancient Incan technology, the quipu -- a set of knotted cords used to communicate information.</p><p>In animal tests, the MIT researchers and their collaborators at Brigham and Women\'s Hospital showed that their simple device, a silicone tube filled with liquid metal and knotted many times, produces measurements similar to those generated by the state-of-the-art diagnostic technique, known as high-resolution manometry.</p><p>\"This is a really simple, inexpensive setup, yet we\'re able to make a measurement that typically would require devices that cost thousands of dollars and require an instrument that is much more complicated,\" says Giovanni Traverso, who is the Karl van Tassel Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women\'s Hospital, and the senior author of the study.</p><p>MIT research scientists Kewang Nan and Sahab Babaee are the lead authors of the study, which appears today in <em>Nature Biomedical Engineering</em>.</p><p><strong>Diagnosing dysmotility</strong></p><p>Contractions of the gastrointestinal tract are critical for moving food all the way through the tract, and interruptions of these contractions at any point can cause health problems. The gold-standard manometry diagnostic can be used to measure whether the muscles of the GI tract are working properly to generate those waves.</p><p>\"High-resolution manometry can measure the pressure and speed with which the contractile waves are traveling, but those systems are fairly expensive, in the tens of thousands of dollars range, and they require maintenance and sterilization between patients,\" Traverso says.</p><p>Traverso (who grew up in Peru) and Nan thought that the Incan technology of quipu could guide the design of a simpler diagnostic. Quipu devices, which consist of colored cords knotted in different ways, were used by the Inca and other ancient civilizations of the Andes to record information and send messages, before writing was developed.</p><p>\"Our goal was to make a device comparable to the existing, commercially available, catheter-based pressure transducers, but at the same time, bring down the cost and make it easier to produce and deploy,\" Nan says.</p><p>The researchers began with a simple catheter made of silicone, which they filled with gallium-indium eutectic, a liquid metal that is nontoxic in small quantities, and sealed it at both ends. In an unknotted state, this tube can respond to changes in pressure but is not sensitive enough to detect changes in pressure in the gastrointestinal tract.</p><p>When they introduced knots at intervals along the tube, however, the researchers found that the catheter became much more sensitive to changes in pressure and could detect pressures up to about 200 millimeters of mercury, which is around the highest pressure seen in the human digestive tract.</p><p>That increased sensitivity is due to the fact that the knots elongate the cross-section of the tube, making it easier to compress, as the researchers showed using numerical models. Also, when the tube is knotted, three or four sections of the tube are stacked atop one another, which further enhances its sensitivity to pressure changes.</p><p>The researchers also showed that pressure sensitivity can vary based on the type of knot and how tightly they are tied. For use in the digestive tract, the researchers used knots spaced about 1 centimeter apart, to match the spacing of the pressure transducers in a manometer, but they could be placed closer together for other applications, the researchers say.</p><p>In tests in animal models, the researchers used the quipu-inspired sensor to measure pressure in the esophagus as food was swallowed. They also measured a reflex known as the rectoanal inhibitory reflex (RAIR). For both tests, the new devices generated pressure measurements similar to those of the gold-standard manometry technique.</p><p><strong>Simpler alternative</strong></p><p>The researchers also showed that the devices can withstand high temperatures and can be treated in an autoclave, a common medical instrument used to sterilize objects with heat and pressure. This gives them an advantage over existing manometry catheters, which can\'t go in an autoclave and have to be chemically disinfected. Additionally, the devices are so inexpensive to make that they could be discarded after each use if autoclaves aren\'t available.</p><p>\"They\'re super quick to build and super cheap,\" Nan says. \"Another motivation for making GI manometers cheap and disposable is to promote decentralized diagnosis. Here, being cheap facilitates accessibility by bringing down cost, and being disposable further helps public acceptance by eliminating cost of maintenance and reducing complication during use.\"</p><p>The quipu-inspired sensors could be useful in places where there is no access to current manometry technology, but also in more industrialized areas as a less-expensive, easier-to-use alternative to manometry.</p><p>\"I think this kind of diagnostic could be broadly applied both in developing and developed world settings,\" Traverso says. \"The next step is identifying potential partners to help us manufacture these, and then testing them in patients.\"</p><p>Other authors of the paper include Walter Chan, director of the Center for Gastrointestinal Motility at Brigham and Women\'s Hospital; Johannes Kuosmanen, an MIT technical associate; Vivian Feig, a postdoc at MIT and Brigham and Women\'s; Yiyue Luo, an MIT graduate student; Shriya Srinivasan, a postdoc at MIT and Brigham and Women\'s; Christina Patterson, an MIT undergraduate; and Ahmad Mujtaba Jebran, a technical associate at MIT and Brigham and Women\'s.</p><p>The research was funded by the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering.</p>','2022-03-25 13:53:34.363944','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts Institute of Technology','Researchers have designed a new device that could offer a cheaper and easier-to-manufacture alternative to existing diagnostics for GI dysmotility, inspired by the ancient Incan technology of quipu, which involves using knotted cords to communicate information.\n',1,127,'<li>Kewang Nan, Sahab Babaee, Walter W. Chan, Johannes L. P. Kuosmanen, Vivian R. Feig, Yiyue Luo, Shriya S. Srinivasan, Christina M. Patterson, Ahmad Mujtaba Jebran, Giovanni Traverso. <strong>Low-cost gastrointestinal manometry via silicone–liquid-metal pressure transducers resembling a quipu</strong>. <em>Nature Biomedical Engineering</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41551-022-00859-5\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41551-022-00859-5</a>\n</li>'),(1614,'Study connects shorter course of antibiotics to fewer antibiotic resistance genes','study-connects-shorter-course-of-antibiotics-to-fewer-antibiotic-resistance-genes','2022-03-25 14:00:15.425441',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem worldwide that threatens the efficacy of available treatments and can lead to extended hospital stays and increased mortality. Researchers have long sought ways to address the problem. Given that antibiotic use fuels resistance, reducing antibiotic use offers an appealing strategy for curbing resistance.</p><p>\"It makes sense intuitively,\" said epidemiologist Melinda Pettigrew, Ph.D, at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Conn., but limited data exist on how treatment duration affects resistance genes. The ultimate goal, she said, is to find an optimal dosage that reduces the use of antibiotics without compromising the health of patients.</p><p>But it can be done, suggests a study published this week in <em>mBio</em>, an open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Pettigrew and her colleagues studied data from a randomized controlled trial of children who had been diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and treated with beta-lactam antibiotics. The children were participants in a multi-institutional, NIH-funded study called SCOUT-CAP (NCT02891915), which found that a 5-day course of beta-lactam antibiotics was as effective as the standard 10-day course in treating CAP. Pettigrew led the microbiome substudy of the SCOUT-CAP trial.</p><p>For their substudy, Pettigrew and her colleagues wanted to track how the 2 treatment durations influenced antibiotic resistance genes and respiratory microbiota. They conducted shotgun metagenomic sequencing on DNA from throat swabs and stool samples collected from the children at 2 points -- first, a few days after diagnosis with CAP, and then at the conclusion of the trial, a few weeks later.</p><p>Sequencing revealed fewer resistance genes in children who had received the 5-day treatment regimen compared to those who received the 10-day regimen. Some of those genes were associated with resistance to beta-lactam, which the researchers expected. Surprisingly, the longer antibiotic course also led to a significant increase in resistance genes associated with multiple other antibiotics. \"You can have increases in resistance to drugs other than the one you\'re treating with,\" she said. \"There are all these off-target effects.\" The researchers also found that treatment duration changed the population of commensal bacteria in different ways.</p><p>\"So antibiotics don\'t just impact the pathogens that we\'re trying to treat,\" Pettigrew said. \"They can affect the microbiota as a whole.\"</p><p>The SCOUT-CAP trial -- including this substudy -- followed patients for 30 days. In future studies, Pettigrew said she\'d like to study the clinical implications of antibiotic treatment over a longer term. \"We know that antibiotics disrupt the microbiome and increase susceptibility to other pathogens,\" she said, \"but don\'t have a measure of that risk.\" The study also didn\'t measure how long the effects persist. \"We don\'t know if the resistome [the collection of resistance genes in bacteria] and the microbiome will eventually return to normal.\"</p><p>These kinds of studies could help researchers harness the microbiome to identify patients most at risk of antibiotic resistance. \"If future investigations support these findings, these techniques could someday aid the FDA in determining drug safety profiles and establishing optimal treatment durations.</p><p>\"The microbiome is so important for health, and disruption can lead to other downstream effects, including antibiotic resistance,\" Pettigrew said.</p><p>The research reported here was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UM1AI104681. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.</p>','2022-03-25 14:00:15.425441','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Society for Microbiology','A study explains how to to find an optimal dosage that reduces the use of antibiotics without compromising the health of patients.\n',1,46,'<li>M. M. Pettigrew, J. Kwon, J. F. Gent, Y. Kong, M. Wade, D. J. Williams, C. B. Creech, S. Evans, Q. Pan, E. B. Walter, J. M. Martin, J. S. Gerber, J. G. Newland, M. E. Hofto, M. A. Staat, V. G. Fowler, H. F. Chambers, W. C. Huskins. <strong>Comparison of the Respiratory Resistomes and Microbiota in Children Receiving Short versus Standard Course Treatment for Community-Acquired Pneumonia</strong>. <em>mBio</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mbio.00195-22\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1128/mbio.00195-22</a>\n</li>'),(1615,'One in four women experience domestic violence before age 50, analysis finds','one-in-four-women-experience-domestic-violence-before-age-50,-analysis-finds','2022-03-25 16:13:07.341401',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Over one in four women (or 27 per cent) experience intimate partner violence before the age of 50, according to a worldwide analysis led by researchers from McGill University and the World Health Organization. The largest of its kind, the analysis covers 366 studies involving more than 2 million women in 161 countries.</p><p>\"Intimate partner violence against women -- which includes physical and sexual violence by husbands, boyfriends, and other partners -- is highly prevalent globally,\" says McGill University Professor Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, a Canada Research Chair in Population Health Modeling.</p><p>According to the finding published in <em>The Lancet</em>, one in seven women (or 13 per cent) experienced intimate partner violence within the last year of the study period between 2000 and 2018. The analysis also found high levels of violence against young women, estimating that 24 per cent of those between the ages of 15 to 19 experienced domestic violence in their lifetime.</p><p>While the numbers are alarming the true scale of violence is likely even higher, the researchers say, noting that the studies were based on self-reported experiences. Given the stigmatized nature of the issue, women can be hesitant to report their experiences, they explain.</p><p><strong>High-income countries reported lower rates of domestic violence</strong></p><p>The researchers found regional variations, with high-income countries having lower prevalence of both lifetime and past year violence. The lifetime prevalence among women aged 15 to 49 was highest in Africa, South Asia, and parts of South America. The regions with the lowest estimated lifetime domestic violence against women were Central Asia and Central Europe.</p><p>The proportion of women who experienced intimate partner violence in the last year was around 5 per cent for North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. In regions of Africa, this number was as high as 15 per cent to 30 per cent.</p><p><strong>Canada among countries with lowest rates of domestic violence</strong></p><p>\"While Canada is among the top 30 countries with the lowest rates of intimate partner violence, it\'s still a problem that affects 1 in 25 women,\" notes Professor Maheu-Giroux. \"Some provinces in Canada are looking at different ways to address domestic violence. In Quebec, for example, the government approved a pilot project in 2021 to create a special court for victims of domestic and sexual violence,\" he adds.</p><p><strong>Calls to strengthen response in pandemic rebuilding efforts</strong></p><p>\"Overall, our research shows that governments are not on track to meet global targets to eliminate violence against women and girls. An important takeaway is that even in some high-income countries the prevalence of intimate partner violence is relatively high, which calls for investment in prevention at local and global levels,\" says Maheu-Giroux.</p><p>\"In Québec alone, we witnessed a wave of 17 intimate partner feminicides in 2021 -- the most extreme consequence of intimate partner violence and the highest number in more than a decade,\" he says.</p><p>Globally, the problem is likely to have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers explain. There\'s an urgent need to strengthen the public health response to intimate partner violence, and ensure it\'s addressed in post-COVID-19 rebuilding efforts, they conclude.</p>','2022-03-25 16:13:07.341401','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'McGill University','Over one in four women (or 27 per cent) experience intimate partner violence before the age of 50, according to a worldwide analysis. The largest of its kind, the analysis covers 366 studies involving more than 2 million women in 161 countries.\n',1,27,'<li>Lynnmarie Sardinha, Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, Heidi Stöckl, Sarah Rachel Meyer, Claudia García-Moreno. <strong>Global, regional, and national prevalence estimates of physical or sexual, or both, intimate partner violence against women in 2018</strong>. <em>The Lancet</em>, 2022; 399 (10327): 803 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02664-7\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02664-7</a>\n</li>'),(1616,'\'Hot\' spin quantum bits in silicon transistors','\'hot\'-spin-quantum-bits-in-silicon-transistors','2022-03-25 17:13:19.657120',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Quantum bits (qubits) are the smallest units of information in a quantum computer. Currently, one of the biggest challenges in developing this kind of powerful computer is scalability. A research group at the University of Basel, working with the IBM Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon, has made a breakthrough in this area.</p><p>Quantum computers promise unprecedented computing power, but to date prototypes have been based on just a handful of computing units. Exploiting the potential of this new generation of computers requires combining large quantities of qubits.</p><p>It is a scalability problem which once affected classic computers, as well; in that case it was solved with transistors integrated into silicon chips. The research team led by Dr. Andreas Kuhlmann and Professor Dominik Zumbühl from the University of Basel has now come up with silicon-based qubits that are very similar in design to classic silicon transistors. The researchers published their findings in the journal <em>Nature Electronics</em>.</p><p><strong>Building on classic silicon technology</strong></p><p>In classic computers, the solution to the scalability problem lay in silicon chips, which today include billions of \"fin field-effect transistors\" (FinFETs). These FinFETs are small enough for quantum applications; at very low temperatures near absolute zero (0 kelvin or -273.15 degrees Celsius), a single electron with a negative charge or a \"hole\" with a positive charge can act as a spin qubit. Spin qubits store quantum information in the two states spin-up (intrinsic angular momentum up) and spin-down (intrinsic angular momentum down).</p><p>The qubits developed by Kuhlmann\'s team are based on FinFET architecture and use holes as spin qubits. In contrast with electron spin, hole spin in silicon nanostructures can be directly manipulated with fast electrical signals.</p><p><strong>Potential for higher operating temperatures</strong></p><p>Another major obstacle to scalability is temperature; previous qubit systems typically had to operate at an extremely low range of about 0.1 kelvin. Controlling each qubit requires additional measuring lines to connect the control electronics at room temperature to the qubits in the cryostat -- a cooling unit which generates extremely low temperatures. The number of these measuring lines is limited because each line produces heat. This inevitably creates a bottleneck in the wiring, which in turn sets a limit to scaling.</p><p>Circumventing this \"wiring bottleneck\" is one of the main goals of Kuhlmann\'s research group, and requires measurement and control electronics to be built directly into the cooling unit. \"However, integrating these electronics requires qubit operation at temperatures above 1 kelvin, with the cooling power of the cryostats increasing sharply to compensate for the heat dissipation of the control electronics,\" explains Dr. Leon Camenzind of the Department of Physics at the University of Basel. Doctoral student Simon Geyer, who shares lead authorship of the study with Camenzind, adds, \"We have overcome the 4 kelvin-mark with our qubits, reaching the boiling point of liquid helium. Here we can achieve much greater cooling power, which allows for integration of state-of-the-art cryogenic control technology.\"</p><p><strong>Close to industry standards</strong></p><p>Working with proven technology such as FinFET architecture to build a quantum computer offers the potential for scaling up to very large numbers of qubits. \"Our approach of building on existing silicon technology puts us close to industry practice,\" says Kuhlmann. The samples were created at the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center at the IBM Research Zurich laboratory in Rüschlikon, a partner of the NCCR SPIN, which is based at the University of Basel and counts the research team as a member.</p>','2022-03-25 17:13:19.657120','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'https://www.unibas.ch/en.html','Quantum bits (qubits) are the smallest units of information in a quantum computer. Currently, one of the biggest challenges in developing this kind of powerful computer is scalability. A research group has now made a breakthrough in this area.\n',1,61,'<li>Leon C. Camenzind, Simon Geyer, Andreas Fuhrer, Richard J. Warburton, Dominik M. Zumbühl, Andreas V. Kuhlmann. <strong>A hole spin qubit in a fin field-effect transistor above 4 kelvin</strong>. <em>Nature Electronics</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00722-0\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41928-022-00722-0</a>\n</li>'),(1617,'Scientists develop coated probiotics that could be effectively delivered into the human gut','scientists-develop-coated-probiotics-that-could-be-effectively-delivered-into-the-human-gut','2022-03-25 17:13:21.499881',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed probiotics with a unique edible coating that ensures the beneficial bacteria successfully reach the intestine once they are ingested.</p><p>Probiotics are defined by the World Health Organisation as live microorganisms, which when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host[1]. They have been shown to help prevent infections of the urinary and digestive tracts, and to maintain a healthy gut flora, which is linked to reducing the risk of obesity and promoting overall well-being[2].</p><p>However, several modes of delivering probiotics, including supplements and dairy products, have not been effective in ensuring they survive conditions in the human stomach to be delivered in quantities that would be sufficient to benefit one\'s health. Many studies show that the bulk of probiotics delivered in commercial supplements and yogurts die off within the first 30 minutes of exposure to the acidic environment of the stomach[3].</p><p>In the NTU-study, the probiotics, gut-friendly <em>Lacticaseibacillus </em>bacteria<em>, </em>are spray-coated with alginate, a carbohydrate derived from brown algae, protecting them from the harsh acidic conditions in the stomach.</p><p>Through experiments simulating a journey along the human digestive tract, only the probiotics with the NTU-developed coating survived. The bacteria are released only when they reach the small intestine, as the coating breaks down by reacting with phosphate ions, which are present in higher amounts in the small intestine.</p><p>Development of the alginate coating technology reflects NTU\'s commitment to the needs and challenges of healthy living and ageing, which is one of four humanity\'s grand challenges that the University seeks to address through its NTU 2025 strategic plan.</p><p>Associate Professor Joachim Loo of NTU\'s School of Materials Science &amp; Engineering, who led the study, said: \"In recent years, scientific studies have shown that the health of an individual is much more dependent on the help of \'good bugs\' in our gut than we previously thought.\"</p><p>\"However, probiotics are delicate microorganisms and cannot survive the harsh environment of our stomach. To increase the efficacy of probiotics as a dietary supplement, we sought to \"parcel-wrap\" and deliver them to specific sites of the intestine where they function best. This moisture-stable packaging, through materials engineering, makes for a more effective probiotic delivery and extends the shelf-life of the supplements.\"</p><p>Ms Tan Li Ling, a PhD student at NTU\'s School of Materials Science &amp; Engineering, who was first author of the study, said: \"We selected alginate as the coating material as it is safe for human consumption, of natural origin, and relatively low-cost. Alginate also exhibits acid-buffering properties, which can protect the probiotics against the harsh conditions caused by gastric acid.\"</p><p>The results of the study were published in the peer-reviewed academic publication<em>Carbohydrate Polymers </em>in February. A patent application for the probiotics coating technology has also been filed through NTU\'s enterprise and innovation company, <strong>NTUitive</strong>.</p><p><strong>Expanding the use case of probiotics</strong></p><p>The NTU probiotics coating technology is customisable and can be used to create powder-like coated probiotics, which are about 10μm (0.0004 inch) in diameter.</p><p>The method uses protective sugars alongside alginate, so that the bacteria are not killed during the manufacturing process. In addition, the use of calcium ions allows the coating from degrading in liquids, or in a moist environment, giving it a longer shelf-life.</p><p>The method also utilises the technique of spray-drying to produce the coated probiotics. Spray-drying is a cost-effective and high-throughput method of production, which is already commonly used by the food and pharmaceutical industries. It would allow the NTU-developed coated probiotics to be produced affordably and in large quantities.</p><p>To make the coated probiotics, the scientists cultivated <em>Lacticaseibacillus </em>bacteria, before washing them in a salt solution. After which, the bacteria were packed together in a concentration that reflected the United Nations recommended dosage of probiotics[4]. Finally, the probiotics were spray-dried and coated in alginate. The whole process takes about an hour.</p><p>If refrigerated, the coated probiotic bacteria could survive for over eight weeks. The NTU-developed also did not degrade at all, and was able to protect probiotics against gastric acid, during an eight-week testing period.</p><p>In comparison, probiotic drinks have a shelf life of up to seven weeks when refrigerated, but the probiotics they contain start to die off after being left at room temperature after a few hours[5], say the scientists.</p><p>Besides potentially serving as a more effective way to deliver probiotics, the NTU scientists say they are exploring using their innovation to enrich food and drinks, such as beer and other canned beverages, with probiotics.</p><p><strong>Assoc Prof Loo </strong>added: \"With a paradigm shift towards disease prevention rather than treatment, probiotics may therefore hold the key in shaping one\'s health, keeping one in the pink of health. By further adapting the coating technology, it will be possible to apply it to a range of other probiotics, and for other purposes too, including commercial applications in the agri-food and medical industries.\"</p><p><strong>Ms Tan</strong> added: \"This technology is highly versatile as the coated probiotics can be incorporated into many different product types, including dietary supplements and pills, food and beverages, and even animal feeds.\"</p><p>The NTU-developed technology has received interest from companies in the F&amp;B industry to adopt and further develop it.</p><p>The scientists will be working on testing their innovation on other types of probiotics, which would enable it to be applied to the agrifoodtech industry, as it could be used to enrich the diets of reared animals, such as fish and chicken, with probiotics, to find alternatives to antibiotics in agri-farming.</p><p>Notes</p><p>[1] Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization Expert Consultation (2001).</p><p>[2] Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School. Health benefits of taking probiotics (2020).</p><p>[3] FEMS Microbes, Volume 1, Issue 1. Expired probiotics: what is really in your cabinet? (2020).</p><p>[4] Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization. Joint FAO/WHO working group report on drafting guidelines for the evaluation of probiotics in food. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, 2002.</p><p>[5] Digestion. Dying in yoghurt: the number of living bacteria in probiotic yoghurt decreases under exposure to room temperature, 2014.</p>','2022-03-25 17:13:21.499881','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Nanyang Technological University','Scientists have developed probiotics with a unique edible coating that ensures the beneficial bacteria successfully reach the intestine once they are ingested.\n',1,121,'<li>Li Ling Tan, Manish Mahotra, Si Ye Chan, Say Chye Joachim Loo. <strong>In situ alginate crosslinking during spray-drying of lactobacilli probiotics promotes gastrointestinal-targeted delivery</strong>. <em>Carbohydrate Polymers</em>, 2022; 286: 119279 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2022.119279\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.carbpol.2022.119279</a>\n</li>'),(1618,'Novel method to identify and treat aggressive early-stage lung cancers','novel-method-to-identify-and-treat-aggressive-early-stage-lung-cancers','2022-03-25 17:16:41.333628',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Mount Sinai researchers have developed a novel method to identify aggressive early-stage lung cancers and target drugs known as aurora kinase inhibitors to tumors that are especially likely to respond to them. The findings, published in <em>Nature Communications</em> on March 24, could lead to great advances in treatment for lung adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.</p><p>The Mount Sinai team used a genomics network model to measure tumor invasiveness -- distinguishing aggressive tumors from so-called \"indolent\" ones, which often cannot be told apart via chest CT scan -- and identify those that will respond to aurora kinase inhibitors, molecules that can inhibit gene signature regulators.</p><p>\"The approaches to diagnosing and treating early-stage lung adenocarcinoma are evolving and are based upon advances in understanding the biology and clinical activities of these tumors,\" said senior author Charles Powell, MD, MBA, Janice and Coleman Rabin Professor of Medicine and Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. \"Our work using novel network approaches, in collaboration with Sema4, to identify signatures of invasiveness and to identify drugs that can intercept progression of these cancers should contribute to advancing the understanding and outcomes for this cancer.\"</p><p>The research team used a genetically engineered mouse model to define the role of aurora kinases in early progression of the disease. They performed molecular profiling of early-stage lung cancer samples with RNA sequencing and identified signature genes associated with invasiveness of tumors. Researchers from Sema4 used novel genomic networking approaches to identify key network regulators and therapeutic drugs to demonstrate that targeting the signaling pathway reduces lung cancer spread and improves survival. They identified and tested aurora kinase inhibitors, including AMG900, as an effective treatment to intercept lung cancer progression in the models.</p><p>The researchers encourage further validation and clinical testing in human tumors. Future studies should examine opportunities to similarly intervene in signaling by immune cells or other cells in the surrounding tumor stroma, researchers said, since cancer progression relies on the interaction between tumor cells and surrounding cells.</p><p>Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine-NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Sema4, a patient-centered health intelligence company, contributed to this study. This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01CA163772, R01HL130826, and R01CA240342), the New York State Stem Cell Science Program (C34052GG), the American Thoracic Society Foundation-Unrestricted Grant (ATS-2017-24), the American Lung Association of the Northeast Lung Cancer Discovery Award (LCD-504985), and the Department of Defense (W81XWH-19-1-0613).</p>','2022-03-25 17:16:41.333628','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine','Researchers have developed a novel method to identify aggressive early-stage lung cancers and target drugs known as aurora kinase inhibitors to tumors that are especially likely to respond to them. The findings could lead to great advances in treatment for lung adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.\n',1,41,'<li>Seungyeul Yoo, Abhilasha Sinha, Dawei Yang, Nasser K. Altorki, Radhika Tandon, Wenhui Wang, Deebly Chavez, Eunjee Lee, Ayushi S. Patel, Takashi Sato, Ranran Kong, Bisen Ding, Eric E. Schadt, Hideo Watanabe, Pierre P. Massion, Alain C. Borczuk, Jun Zhu, Charles A. Powell. <strong>Integrative network analysis of early-stage lung adenocarcinoma identifies aurora kinase inhibition as interceptor of invasion and progression</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29230-7\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29230-7</a>\n</li>'),(1619,'Innovative AI technology aids personalized care for diabetes patients needing complex drug treatment','innovative-ai-technology-aids-personalized-care-for-diabetes-patients-needing-complex-drug-treatment','2022-03-25 19:59:31.507995',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Hitachi, Ltd., University of Utah Health, and Regenstrief Institute, Inc. today announced the development of an AI method to improve care for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who need complex treatment. One in 10 adults worldwide have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, but a smaller number require multiple medications to control blood glucose levels and avoid serious complications, such as loss of vision and kidney disease.</p><p>For this smaller group of patients, physicians may have limited clinical decision-making experience or evidence-based guidance for choosing drug combinations. The solution is to expand the number of patients to support development of general principles to guide decision-making. Combining patient data from multiple healthcare institutions, however, requires deep expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and wide-ranging experience in developing machine learning models using sensitive and complex healthcare data.</p><p>Hitachi, U of U Health, and Regenstrief researchers partnered to develop and test a new AI method that analyzed electronic health record data across Utah and Indiana and learned generalizable treatment patterns of type 2 diabetes patients with similar characteristics. Those patterns can now be used to help determine an optimal drug regimen for a specific patient.</p><p>Some of the results of this study are published in the peer-reviewed medical journal, <em>Journal of Biomedical Informatics</em>, in the article, \"Predicting pharmacotherapeutic outcomes for type 2 diabetes: An evaluation of three approaches to leveraging electronic health record data from multiple sources.\"</p><p>Hitachi had been working with U of U Health for several years on development of a pharmacotherapy selection system for diabetes treatment. However, the system was not always able to accurately predict more complex and less prevalent treatment patterns because it did not have enough data. In addition, it was not easy to use data from multiple facilities, as it was necessary to account for differences in patient disease states and therapeutic drugs prescribed among facilities and regions. To address these challenges, the project partnered with Regenstrief to enrich the data it was working with.</p><p>The new AI method initially groups patients with similar disease states and then analyzes their treatment patterns and clinical outcomes. It then matches the patient of interest to the disease state groups and predicts the range of potential outcomes for the patient depending on various treatment options. The researchers evaluated how well the method worked in predicting successful outcomes given drug regimens administered to patient with diabetes in Utah and Indiana. The algorithm was able to support medication selection for more than 83 percent of patients, even when two or more medications were used together.</p><p>In the future, the research team expects to help patients with diabetes who require complex treatment in checking the efficacy of various drug combinations and then, with their doctors, deciding on a treatment plan that is right for them. This will lead not only to better management of diabetes but increased patient engagement, compliance, and quality of life.</p><p>The three parties will continue to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of the new AI method and contribute to future patient care through further research in healthcare informatics.</p><p>Hitachi will accelerate efforts, including the practical application of this technology through collaboration between its healthcare and IT business divisions and R&amp;D group. GlobalLogic Inc., a Hitachi Group Company and leader in Digital Engineering, is promoting healthcare-related projects in the U.S., will also deepen the collaboration in this field. Through these efforts, the entire Hitachi group will contribute to the health and safety of people.</p>','2022-03-25 19:59:31.507995','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Regenstrief Institute','Medical researchers have developed and tested an AI method to improve care for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who need complex treatment. The new AI method analyzed electronic health record data across Utah and Indiana and learned generalizable treatment patterns of type 2 diabetes patients with similar characteristics. Those patterns can now be used to help determine an optimal drug regimen for a specific patient.\n',1,46,'<li>Shinji Tarumi, Wataru Takeuchi, Rong Qi, Xia Ning, Laura Ruppert, Hideyuki Ban, Daniel H. Robertson, Titus K. Schleyer, Kensaku Kawamoto. <strong>Predicting pharmacotherapeutic outcomes for type 2 diabetes: An evaluation of three approaches to leveraging electronic health record data from multiple sources</strong>. <em>Journal of Biomedical Informatics</em>, 2022; 104001 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104001\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104001</a>\n</li>'),(1620,'Vagus nerve stimulation lowers costs of care for children with uncontrolled epilepsy','vagus-nerve-stimulation-lowers-costs-of-care-for-children-with-uncontrolled-epilepsy','2022-03-25 20:01:51.943560',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), sometimes referred to as a \"pacemaker for the brain,\" involves a stimulator device that is implanted under the skin in the chest, with a wire that is wound around the vagus nerve in the neck. It helps prevent seizures by sending regular, mild electrical pulses to the brain. Typically, the patient is not aware the device is operating.</p><p>A new study from Ann &amp; Robert H. Lurie Children\'s Hospital of Chicago published in the journal <em>Epilepsia</em>examined a population of pediatric patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. For these patients, the study found that the patients who received VNS, when used with anti-seizure medications (ASM), had lower hospital costs compared to the use of ASM alone. The study found that the patients treated with ASM plus VNS had savings of over $3,000 of epilepsy-related annual costs per year, compared to treatment with ASM only. These findings mirror the team\'s previous report of children with drug-resistant epilepsy having significantly decreased inpatient healthcare utilization following VNS plus ASM compared to those treated with ASM alone. The study on healthcare utilization was published in <em>Epilepsy &amp; Behavior</em>.</p><p>\"We take a health services research perspective on the patients\' journey with a challenging disease process of drug-resistant epilepsy that has not been met with a cure. For patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, reducing seizure burden and addressing quality of life are important goals. We quantify aspects of outcomes of surgical therapies and medical therapies, and we assess the impact on health care costs and utilization. To the patients, families, health care systems, health care advocates, and policymakers, these are important results,\" said senior author Sandi Lam, MD, MBA, Division Head of Neurosurgery at Lurie Children\'s and Professor of Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. \"While we show lower costs to the health care system following VNS surgery, from a practical standpoint it means fewer hospital admissions because of seizures. Patients spend their days at home instead of in the hospital.\"</p><p>The study is unique in multiple ways. There has been no previous research focusing on children with drug-resistant epilepsy and comparing the outcomes of those who had VNS and ASMs and those who only received ASMs. The study also provides a breakdown of costs by site of care (inpatient, outpatient, and Emergency Department). The study researchers found that emergency department costs decreased more for children treated with VNS and ASM, compared to ASM alone. While average annual total costs were higher in the ASM-only cohort, the researchers also observed that outpatient care costs for VNS with ASM were higher than ASM alone. The study authors note that it is not surprising that children required more outpatient care shortly after VNS implantation, since device adjustment for each patient is necessary in this time period. Outpatient costs for children with VNS decreased dramatically in the second year. Future studies warrant additional focus on costs and patterns of care in longer term follow-up.</p><p>Research with national data do not substitute for clinical research. Each patient with epilepsy presents a unique case requiring tailored clinical care that should be managed at a comprehensive Level 4 NAEC pediatric epilepsy center like Lurie Children\'s. Large studies with health services research can inform future research as well as gaps and opportunities in health care delivery. The study shows that surgical options should be a part of the epilepsy treatment armamentarium. While future studies will look at cranial epilepsy surgery outcomes, this study was limited to VNS and did not include epilepsy surgery on the brain, which is an important way of epilepsy treatment.</p><p>The study included children (0-17 years of age) who were diagnosed with refractory epilepsy, with 1113 patients treated with ASM plus VNS and 3471 patients treated with ASM only. Data were sourced from the Children\'s Hospital Association\'s Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database, which contains inpatient, emergency department, ambulatory, and observation encounter level data from more than 44 children\'s hospitals in the United States. Patients in the study were followed one year prior and two years after meeting pre-determined criteria for refractory epilepsy.</p><p>Research at Ann &amp; Robert H. Lurie Children\'s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through the Stanley Manne Children\'s Research Institute. The Manne Research Institute is focused on improving child health, transforming pediatric medicine and ensuring healthier futures through the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Lurie Children\'s is ranked as one of the nation\'s top children\'s hospitals by <em>U.S. News &amp; World Report. </em>It is the pediatric training ground for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.</p>','2022-03-25 20:01:51.943560','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children\'s Hospital of Chicago','A new study has examined a population of pediatric patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. For these patients, the study found that the patients who received vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), when used with anti-seizure medications (ASM), had lower hospital costs compared to the use of ASM alone. The study found that the patients treated with ASM plus VNS had savings of over $3,000 of epilepsy-related annual costs per year, compared to treatment with ASM only.\n',1,27,'<li>Lu Zhang, Matt Hall, Sandi K. Lam. <strong>Hospital costs associated with vagus nerve stimulation and medical treatment in pediatric patients with refractory epilepsy</strong>. <em>Epilepsia</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/epi.17208\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/epi.17208</a>\n</li>'),(1621,'Like father like child: male parents lead young birds on first migration','like-father-like-child:-male-parents-lead-young-birds-on-first-migration','2022-03-25 20:02:01.458963',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">GPS tracking of Caspian terns showed that male parents carry the main responsibility for leading young during their first migration from the Baltic Sea to Africa.</p><p>Bird migration has fascinated human minds for millennia. How do these creatures learn to find their way to distant wintering locations? In a new study published in <em>Nature Communications</em>, a team of researchers from Finland, Sweden and the UK tracked entire bird families with GPS devices to find out.</p><p>\"We wanted to get a better idea of how the migratory skills of birds are passed from one generation to another in a species where individuals normally migrate together,\" says lead author Patrik Byholm of the University of Helsinki.</p><p>While it is well known that many birds migrate in groups, only limited information has previously been available on how individuals migrating together actually interact while travelling. Using the Caspian tern -- a fish-eating waterbird that normally migrates in small groups -- as a study system, the researchers found that adult males carry the main responsibility for teaching young the secrets of migration. Guiding behaviour is normally the responsibility of the biological father, although in one case a foster male adopted the role.</p><p>\"This is very fascinating behaviour, which we really did not expect to find when setting up our study,\" Byholm says.</p><p><strong>Learning the right routes is critical for survival </strong></p><p>Careful analysis concerning the movements of the migrating birds showed that young individuals always remained close to an adult bird, and young birds that lost contact with their parent died. This indicates that, in Caspian terns at least, it is of utmost importance for the young to migrate together with an experienced adult to survive their first migration.</p><p>The question remains unclear why the males, instead of the females, are mainly engaged in leading their young on their first migration southwards. Importantly, the study also shows that during their first solo migration back to their breeding grounds, young terns used the same migratory routes they took with their father on their first journey south.</p><p>\"This indicates that in Caspian terns, migration knowledge is inherited through culture from one generation to another. This has consequences on the decisions individuals make years after they first migrated with their father,\" comments co-author Susanne Åkesson, from Lund University, Sweden.</p><p>These findings are also important for understanding whether Caspian terns and other migratory birds can persist in the face of global climate change and widespread habitat loss. Their future depends on how effectively the knowledge of successful migratory routes and stopover sites is transmitted from one generation to the next.</p>','2022-03-25 20:02:01.458963','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Helsinki','GPS tracking of Caspian terns showed that male parents carry the main responsibility for leading young during their first migration from the Baltic Sea to Africa.\n',1,43,'<li>Patrik Byholm, Martin Beal, Natalie Isaksson, Ulrik Lötberg, Susanne Åkesson. <strong>Paternal transmission of migration knowledge in a long-distance bird migrant</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29300-w\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29300-w</a>\n</li>'),(1622,'Breakthrough application of moisture-trapping film to reduce heat stress in personal protective suits','breakthrough-application-of-moisture-trapping-film-to-reduce-heat-stress-in-personal-protective-suits','2022-03-25 20:02:04.255771',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a novel super-hygroscopic material that enhances sweat evaporation within a personal protective suit, to create a cooling effect for better thermal comfort for users such as healthcare workers and other frontline officers. This invention was validated through laboratory tests conducted in collaboration with researchers from HTX (Home Team Science &amp; Technology Agency) in Singapore.</p><p>The new desiccant film, which is biocompatible and non-toxic, has fast absorption rate, high absorption capacity and excellent mechanical properties. This means that the material is very robust and durable for practical applications such as for protective suits worn by healthcare workers. It is also affordable, light-weight, easy to fabricate and reusable.</p><p>\"Under room temperature of about 35deg C, a healthcare worker who dons a protective suit for one hour typically experiences a heat index of about 64 deg C. This causes discomfort and prolong thermal strain can result in heat stroke and even death. Our novel composite moisture-trapping film achieves a cooling effect within the protective suit via evaporative cooling -- by increasing sweat evaporation from the skin,\" explained research team leader Assistant Professor Tan Swee Ching, who is from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering under the NUS College of Design and Engineering.</p><p>Attaching a piece of novel composite film in a protective suit -- for example at the back of the suit -- could bring down the heat index by about 40%, remarkably lowering the likelihood of heat stroke.</p><p>This invention was published in the scientific journal <em>Small</em> on 20 February 2022.</p><p>This research breakthrough demonstrates the positive outcome of leveraging the complementary strengths of NUS and HTX to create tangible benefits for the Home Team and the wider community. By combining the NUS team\'s scientific knowledge of advanced hydrogel materials and HTX\'s deep understanding of the Home Team\'s needs and engineering capabilities, the joint research team was able to customise and optimise the novel moisture-trapping material for practical applications to enhance the performance and productivity of frontline officers.</p><p><strong>Cooling down by increasing sweat evaporation</strong></p><p>Medical protective suits have excellent anti-bacterial and water-proof properties. However, this high level of protection stops the venting of water vapour produced by evaporated sweat and impedes heat loss from the body. This is why users such as healthcare workers who need to don protective suits for long hours, especially in tropical environments, often report of occupational heat strain.</p><p>Thermal management solutions such as air-cooling garments with electrical fans or ingestion of ice slurry are impractical due to limitations such as bulkiness, heavy weight, and limited effectiveness. While advanced textiles and coatings are promising solutions, they are difficult to fabricate and production costs are high.</p><p>The NUS team came up with a practical strategy to overcome the current challenges by leveraging the principle of evaporative cooling. Their solution involves using a super-hygroscopic composite film to control the humidity level in the micro-environment in the protective suit. When the moisture-trapping composite film absorbs water vapour within the protective suit, the humidity level drops. This in turn speeds up sweat evaporation from the skin. As a result, more heat is dissipated from the human body through sweating, providing thermal comfort for users such as healthcare workers.</p><p>To examine the effectiveness of their solution, the NUS team conducted tests in collaboration with researchers from HTX, using a 20-zone \'Newton\' manikin within a climatic chamber. This is an important experimental milestone in assessing the feasibility of applying the composite film to the scale of full body clothing.</p><p>With the composite film, relative humidity (RH) under moderate sweating condition dropped by about 40% -- from 91% to 48.2% after one hour of sweating and to 53.2% after two hours of sweating. The team also found that within the first hour of sweating, the heat index or \'felt air temperature\' dropped significantly from 64.6 deg C to 40 deg C at air temperature of 35 deg C. At this level, while users still feel hot, the likelihood of getting heat stroke, heat cramps and heat exhaustion is remarkably reduced.</p><p>\"These experiments show that our moisture-trapping film effectively reduces the RH inside the protective suit, hence bringing the heat index down significantly and improving the thermal comfort for users,\" Asst Prof Tan explained.</p><p>In another laboratory experiment, the research team also showed that body temperature (or skin temperature) could be significantly reduced by 1.5 deg C through evaporative cooling. This further proves that the composite film can potentially help users -- such as healthcare workers, soldiers or firefighters -- relieve thermal stress, especially during strenuous activities.</p><p>Regeneration of the NUS team\'s composite film is also more energy efficient, as it requires a lower temperature to release the trapped moisture. At 50 deg C, the composite film releases 80% of its water contents after 10 minutes and this reaches 95% after 40 minutes. Most hygroscopic materials regenerate at a temperature of more than 100 deg C, over a duration of more than an hour.</p><p>\"From the findings of various studies in this project, we are hopeful that the moisture-trapping film can be embedded to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and/or Personal Protective Clothing (PPC) of the Home Team officers, to enhance thermal comfort and improve performance of the frontline officers,\" said Ying Meng Fai, Director, Human Factors &amp; Simulation Centre of Expertise, at HTX.</p><p><strong>Refinements and commercialisation</strong></p><p>Encouraged by the results of their latest study, the NUS team is now working to improve their hygroscopic material so that it can absorb more and faster. The team is also planning to apply their cooling strategy to other types of protective apparel such as those for firefighters.</p><p>In addition, Asst Prof Tan and his team are looking for opportunities to commercialise this technology.</p>','2022-03-25 20:02:04.255771','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'National University of Singapore','Researchers have developed a novel super-hygroscopic material that enhances sweat evaporation within a personal protective suit, to create a cooling effect for better thermal comfort for users such as healthcare workers and other frontline officers. With this innovation, users will feel 40% cooler and their risk of getting heat stroke is lowered significantly.\n',1,27,'<li>Jiachen Yang, Xueping Zhang, J. Justin Koh, Rensheng Deng, Saravana Kumarasamy, Yuan Xing Xu, Hao Qu, Songlin Zhang, Yaoxin Zhang, Swee Ching Tan. <strong>Reversible Hydration Composite Films for Evaporative Perspiration Control and Heat Stress Management</strong>. <em>Small</em>, 2022; 2107636 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smll.202107636\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/smll.202107636</a>\n</li>'),(1623,'Study finds neurons that encode the outcomes of actions','study-finds-neurons-that-encode-the-outcomes-of-actions','2022-03-25 20:02:06.396341',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">When we make complex decisions, we have to take many factors into account. Some choices have a high payoff but carry potential risks; others are lower risk but may have a lower reward associated with them.</p><p>A new study from MIT sheds light on the part of the brain that helps us make these types of decisions. The research team found a group of neurons in the brain\'s striatum that encodes information about the potential outcomes of different decisions. These cells become particularly active when a behavior leads a different outcome than what was expected, which the researchers believe helps the brain adapt to changing circumstances.</p><p>\"A lot of this brain activity deals with surprising outcomes, because if an outcome is expected, there\'s really nothing to be learned. What we see is that there\'s a strong encoding of both unexpected rewards and unexpected negative outcomes,\" says Bernard Bloem, a former MIT postdoc and one of the lead authors of the new study.</p><p>Impairments in this kind of decision-making are a hallmark of many neuropsychiatric disorders, especially anxiety and depression. The new findings suggest that slight disturbances in the activity of these striatal neurons could swing the brain into making impulsive decisions or becoming paralyzed with indecision, the researchers say.</p><p>Rafiq Huda, a former MIT postdoc, is also a lead author of the paper, which appears in <em>Nature Communications</em>. Ann Graybiel, an MIT Institute Professor and member of MIT\'s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, is the senior author of the study.</p><p><strong>Learning from experience</strong></p><p>The striatum, located deep within the brain, is known to play a key role in making decisions that require evaluating outcomes of a particular action. In this study, the researchers wanted to learn more about the neural basis of how the brain makes cost-benefit decisions, in which a behavior can have a mixture of positive and negative outcomes.</p><p>To study this kind of decision-making, the researchers trained mice to spin a wheel to the left or the right. With each turn, they would receive a combination of reward (sugary water) and negative outcome (a small puff of air). As the mice performed the task, they learned to maximize the delivery of rewards and to minimize the delivery of air puffs. However, over hundreds of trials, the researchers frequently changed the probabilities of getting the reward or the puff of air, so the mice would need to adjust their behavior.</p><p>As the mice learned to make these adjustments, the researchers recorded the activity of neurons in the striatum. They had expected to find neuronal activity that reflects which actions are good and need to be repeated, or bad and that need to be avoided. While some neurons did this, the researchers also found, to their surprise, that many neurons encoded details about the relationship between the actions and both types of outcomes.</p><p>The researchers found that these neurons responded more strongly when a behavior resulted in an unexpected outcome, that is, when turning the wheel in one direction produced the opposite outcome as it had in previous trials. These \"error signals\" for reward and penalty seem to help the brain figure out that it\'s time to change tactics.</p><p>Most of the neurons that encode these error signals are found in the striosomes -- clusters of neurons located in the striatum. Previous work has shown that striosomes send information to many other parts of the brain, including dopamine-producing regions and regions involved in planning movement.</p><p>\"The striosomes seem to mostly keep track of what the actual outcomes are,\" Bloem says. \"The decision whether to do an action or not, which essentially requires integrating multiple outcomes, probably happens somewhere downstream in the brain.\"</p><p><strong>Making judgments</strong></p><p>The findings could be relevant not only to mice learning a task, but also to many decisions that people have to make every day as they weigh the risks and benefits of each choice. Eating a big bowl of ice cream after dinner leads to immediate gratification, but it might contribute to weight gain or poor health. Deciding to have carrots instead will make you feel healthier, but you\'ll miss out on the enjoyment of the sweet treat.</p><p>\"From a value perspective, these can be considered equally good,\" Bloem says. \"What we find is that the striatum also knows why these are good, and it knows what are the benefits and the cost of each. In a way, the activity there reflects much more about the potential outcome than just how likely you are to choose it.\"</p><p>This type of complex decision-making is often impaired in people with a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Drug abuse can also lead to impaired judgment and impulsivity.</p><p>\"You can imagine that if things are set up this way, it wouldn\'t be all that difficult to get mixed up about what is good and what is bad, because there are some neurons that fire when an outcome is good and they also fire when the outcome is bad,\" Graybiel says. \"Our ability to make our movements or our thoughts in what we call a normal way depends on those distinctions, and if they get blurred, it\'s real trouble.\"</p><p>The new findings suggest that behavioral therapy targeting the stage at which information about potential outcomes is encoded in the brain may help people who suffer from those disorders, the researchers say.</p><p>The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Mental Health, the Saks Kavanaugh Foundation, the William N. and Bernice E. Bumpus Foundation, the Simons Foundation, the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation, the National Eye Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke, the National Science Foundation, the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, and JSPS KAKENHI.</p>','2022-03-25 20:02:06.396341','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts Institute of Technology','A group of neurons in the brain\'s striatum encodes information about the potential outcomes of different decisions. These cells become particularly active when a behavior leads a different outcome than what was expected, which the researchers believe helps the brain adapt to changing circumstances.\n',1,27,'<li>Bernard Bloem, Rafiq Huda, Ken-ichi Amemori, Alex S. Abate, Gayathri Krishna, Anna L. Wilson, Cody W. Carter, Mriganka Sur, Ann M. Graybiel. <strong>Multiplexed action-outcome representation by striatal striosome-matrix compartments detected with a mouse cost-benefit foraging task</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28983-5\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-28983-5</a>\n</li>'),(1624,'Large study challenges the theory that light alcohol consumption benefits heart health','large-study-challenges-the-theory-that-light-alcohol-consumption-benefits-heart-health','2022-03-25 20:02:09.193231',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Observational research has suggested that light alcohol consumption may provide heart-related health benefits, but in a large study published in <em>JAMA Network Open</em>, alcohol intake at all levels was linked with higher risks of cardiovascular disease. The findings, which are published by a team led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, suggest that the supposed benefits of alcohol consumption may actually be attributed to other lifestyle factors that are common among light to moderate drinkers.</p><p>The study included 371,463 adults -- with an average age of 57 years and an average alcohol consumption of 9.2 drinks per week -- who were participants in the UK Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database and research resource containing in-depth genetic and health information. Consistent with earlier studies, investigators found that light to moderate drinkers had the lowest heart disease risk, followed by people who abstained from drinking. People who drank heavily had the highest risk. However, the team also found that light to moderate drinkers tended to have healthier lifestyles than abstainers -- such as more physical activity and vegetable intake, and less smoking. Taking just a few lifestyle factors into account significantly lowered any benefit associated with alcohol consumption.</p><p>The study also applied the latest techniques in a method called Mendelian randomization, which uses genetic variants to determine whether an observed link between an exposure and an outcome is consistent with a causal effect -- in this case, whether light alcohol consumption <em>causes</em> a person to be protected against cardiovascular disease. \"Newer and more advanced techniques in \'non-linear Mendelian randomization\' now permit the use of human genetic data to evaluate the direction and magnitude of disease risk associated with different levels of an exposure,\" says senior author Krishna G. Aragam, MD, MS, a cardiologist at MGH and an associate scientist at the Broad Institute. \"We therefore leveraged these new techniques and expansive genetic and phenotypic data from biobank populations to better understand the association between habitual alcohol intake and cardiovascular disease.\"</p><p>When the scientists conducted such genetic analyses of samples taken from participants, they found that individuals with genetic variants that predicted higher alcohol consumption were indeed more likely to consume greater amounts of alcohol, and more likely to have hypertension and coronary artery disease. The analyses also revealed substantial differences in cardiovascular risk across the spectrum of alcohol consumption among both men and women, with minimal increases in risk when going from zero to seven drinks per week, much higher risk increases when progressing from seven to 14 drinks per week, and especially high risk when consuming 21 or more drinks per week. Notably, the findings suggest a rise in cardiovascular risk even at levels deemed \"low risk\" by national guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (i.e. below two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women).</p><p>The discovery that the relationship between alcohol intake and cardiovascular risk is not a linear one but rather an exponential one was supported by an additional analysis of data on 30,716 participants in the Mass General Brigham Biobank. Therefore, while cutting back on consumption can benefit even people who drink one alcoholic beverage per day, the health gains of cutting back may be more substantial -- and, perhaps, more clinically meaningful -- in those who consume more.</p><p>\"The findings affirm that alcohol intake should not be recommended to improve cardiovascular health; rather, that reducing alcohol intake will likely reduce cardiovascular risk in all individuals, albeit to different extents based on one\'s current level of consumption,\" says Aragam.</p><p>The study\'s lead author was Kiran J. Biddinger, and additional authors included Connor A. Emdin, MD, DPhil, Mary E. Haas, PhD, Minxian Wang, PhD, George Hindy, MD, Patrick T. Ellinor, MD, PhD, Sekar Kathiresan, MD, and Amit V. Khera, MD, MSc.</p><p>Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.</p>','2022-03-25 20:02:09.193231','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts General Hospital','In an observational analysis of UK Biobank participants, light to moderate drinkers had the lowest heart disease risk, followed by people who abstained from drinking; however, light to moderate drinkers tended to have healthier lifestyles than abstainers, which likely accounted for their better heart health. Genetic evidence in this same population suggested that all levels of alcohol intake are associated with increased cardiovascular risk. Notably, the risk of cardiovascular disease linked to light alcohol consumption was modest but rose exponentially with higher intake, even at intake levels currently endorsed as \'low risk.\'\n',1,150,'<li>Kiran J. Biddinger, Connor A. Emdin, Mary E. Haas, Minxian Wang, George Hindy, Patrick T. Ellinor, Sekar Kathiresan, Amit V. Khera, Krishna G. Aragam. <strong>Association of Habitual Alcohol Intake With Risk of Cardiovascular Disease</strong>. <em>JAMA Network Open</em>, 2022; 5 (3): e223849 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.3849\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.3849</a>\n</li>'),